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II. Bishop Wren and the Suppression of the Norwich Lecturers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Peter King
Peter King
Affiliation:
College of Commerce, Bristol
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Extract

One of the most serious problems facing Archbishop Laud was the rapid growth of the Lecturer Movement during the 1620s and 1630s. The increasing numbers of graduates available, and the increasing amount of money donated to support them meant that the weekly lectures had become one of the chief “religious … organizations of the opposition”, and were beginning to “undermine the hierarchical principle”. The gravity of the situation was marked by the increasingly stringent regulation of the lecturers. They had originally been allowed to preach with very little control, but from the Canons of 1604 onwards they were made the subject of several new regulations. These culminated in the Directions of March 16296 which, although issued by Archbishop Abbot, were based upon suggestions made by Laud to the king. Soon afterwards the lecturers in London Diocese were curtailed as a prelude to Laud's future work as archbishop. The Directions were reissued in January 1634, and a policy of deliberately reducing certain kinds of lecturer was initiated in several dioceses, pursued in the Metropolitical Visitation, and completed by Laud's supporters amongst the bishops.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , June 1968 , pp. 237 - 254
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1968

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References

1 In the eighty years from 1580 to 1660 £70,267 was donated to lecturers. Of this £46,253 was donated between 1601 and 1640. Jordan, W. K., Philanthropy in England (1959), pp. 300, 312–13 and 375.Google Scholar

2 Curtis, M. H., “Alienated Intellectuals of Early Stuart England”, Past and Present, XXIII (1962), 25 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar suggests that by the 1630s there was a surplus of 100 graduates a year who could become lecturers. S.P. Dom. 16/117, fos. 102–3, 22 September 1628 for Wren's view on the excessive number of graduates.

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33 Correspondence of John Cosin, ed. Ornsby, G., Surtees Society (1868), LII, 122–3Google Scholar gives fuller details than Cosin, , Works (Oxford, 1853), IIGoogle Scholar

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36 Ibid. Section IV, cap. 43.

37 Ibid. Section VII, cap. 7, Section I, cap. 3, and Section IV, cap. 34.

38 Ibid Section IV, cap. 49.

39 Ibid. Section IV, cap. 44.

40 Ibid. Section IV, cap. 45.

41 Ibid. Section IV, cap. 49.

42 Ibid. Section IV, cap. 47.

43 Ibid. Section VII, cap. 8.

44 Perry, G. G., History of the Church of England (1861), I,Google Scholar Appendix, there is a printed version of the Injunctions for which no source is given. The quotations from the Injunctions given above are from Lambeth MSS. 943:611.

45 Lambeth MSS. 943:611, article 19.

46 Ibid, article 21.

47 Ibid, article 20.

48 Ibid, article 18.

49 D. W. Boorman, Oxford B.Litt. 1959: The Administrative and Disciplinary problems of the Church on the eve of the Civil War in the light of the extant records of the Dioceses of Norwich and Ely under Bishop Wren.

50 Tanner MSS. 68, fo. 92, 2 May 1636. Notice that Wren felt that negligence made a man ‘unworthy’ of a lectureship. He conceded that there were good lecturers. He told Laud that one lecturer Dr Jones was ‘an eminent man’. Prynne, W., Canterburies Doome (1646), p. 375.Google Scholar

51 Tanner MSS. 68, fo. 2, 3 June 1636.

52 In at least two cases Wren is found allowing men to resume lecturing after Corbet had stopped them. Wren, C., Parentalia, op. cit. pp. 100 f.Google Scholar, answer to Article XVI of the Impeachment, and Rawl. MSS. C 368, 14 August 1636, 29 September 1636.

53 Laud, , Works, op. cit. v, 339 f.,Google ScholarTanner MSS, 68, fo. 173.Google Scholar

54 Prynne, W., Canterburies Doome, op. cit. p. 375;Google Scholar Montague said ‘much good may ensue and be procured if well and discreetly managed’ from the lecturers.

55 Trevor-Roper, H. R., Archbishop Laud, op. cit. p. 119,Google Scholar says that Laud himself ‘could not afford to be as rigid as he is sometimes represented to be in his treatment of lecturers’, e.g. S.P.Dom., 16/167 fo. 34 and S.P.Dom., 16/169 fo. 23 cited as examples.

56 Laud, , Works, op. cit. v, 339 f.Google Scholar It was to avoid such troubles as might ensue from completely itinerant and irregular lecturers that Wren insisted on their undertaking a cure, Trevor-Roper, H. R., Archbishop Laud, op. cit. p. 106,Google Scholar ‘when a lecturer was appointed by an independent authority, such as a corporation, he was not to begin his career of preaching till he had undertaken to accept a living’.

57 Prynne, W., Canterburies Doome, op. cit. p. 375.Google Scholar

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59 Ibid.

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66 Ibid, v, 339.

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71 Much useful information on Wren's activities is to be found in Rawl. MSS. C 368, fos. 2–18, where there are abstracts from his letters. All references to the letters which are dated in chronological order are given by date only. Rawl. MSS. C 368, 22 April 1636; 5 January 1636; and 24 March 1636.

72 Rawl. MSS. C 368, 28 February 1635; and 24 September 1636.

73 Ibid. August (undated) 1638; 21 March 1638; Tanner MSS. 68, fo. 61; and provisions in the Visitation Articles, i.e. Section IX, cap. 8 and 9.

74 Tanner MSS. 68, fo. 24, 2 March 1636, Corbet's extreme directions to the clergy of Norwich heavily scored by the bishop. Wren clearly disagreed with Corbet's extremism, i.e, Tanner MSS. 68, fo. 39, 31 March 1636, ‘I am sorry that you and I differ so much…I suffer so much by you…It was for your sake that I was induced to act…’. In individual cases Wren was lenient. Tanner MSS. 68, fos. 296 f., Thomas Scot said ‘in most things your lordship's sweet hand hath so mollified my mind…that I have observed sundry of your lordship's directions’. Cf. Rawl. MSS. C 368, 29 September 1636; and 24 March 1636.

75 Heylyn, P., op. cit. pp. 300–10.Google Scholar

76 Tanner MSS. 68, fo. 86, 8 May 1636. Dean Hassall wrote ‘Good Luck have those with thine honour, ride on … what furtherance your lordship's humble servant … can give to this great work shall never be wanting’. Cf. Tanner MSS. 68, fo. 309, 2 March 1637, letter of Fulke Robartes.

77 The Impeachment Articles exhibited against Matthew Wren, Bishop of Ely, xvi, printed in Nalson, J., An Impartial Collection… (1786), I, 398 f.Google Scholar Typical of the accusation that he suppressed preaching were Prynne, W., Newes from Ipswich, London 1641 (reprint), p. 5,Google Scholar E 177 (12), and Wren's Anatomy, anon. 1641, p. 8, E 166 (7), Thomason Collection, Brit. Mus.

78 Church Quarterly Review, CLXII (1961), 63 ff.Google Scholar

79 Tanner MSS. 145, fo. i, Wren's comments on the bill to abolish pluralities in 1641. He said that ‘the 20th part of single benefices are not worth £30 a year’. Since ‘the best wits will ever apply themselves to the best rewards’ Wren realized that there would be a definite loss of talent in the Church.

80 Laud, , Works, op. cit. v, 339 f.Google Scholar

81 Church Quarterly Review, CLXII (1961), 71.Google Scholar

82 Tanner MSS. 68, fo. 127, 7 July 1636. Anne d. of Sir John Glenham (a friend of Lord Holland) and Lady Dorchester complained; Tanner MSS. 68, fo. 248, 21 September 1637, Lord Holland (a friend of Pym) wrote to complain.

83 Bernard, R., The Faithful Shepherd (1605), p. 5:Google Scholar ‘because men of might and the noble hold it derogatory to their dignities’ they would not serve the Church. Wren resisted the idea that the nobles and gentry could do as they pleased; L'Estrange, H., The Reign…of Charles I, 2nd ed. 1656, p. 14;Google Scholar Wren hoped to see the day when the minister ‘shall be as good a man as any Jack Gentleman in England’. Rawl. MSS. C 368, February 1639, ‘Sir Miles Sandys nor any other lord shall not carry these things’.

4 Prynne, W., A Looking Glasse for all Lordly Prelates (1636), pp. 71–5Google Scholar gives an account of the case. Wren told Lord Brooke, ‘No Lord of England should affront him in his diocese in such a manner’. Tanner MSS. 70, fo. 103 (20 August 1636) gives Wren's account of the incident.

85 Hill, C., Society and Puritanism, op. cit. p. 92.Google Scholar

86 Past and Present, XXIII (1962), 25 f.Google Scholar pointed out that of the 70 lecturers in the Diocese of York in 1614 only 2 had no degree; Suffolk Archaeology, VI (1888), and XII (1901) gives the returns for the archdeacon's visitation in 1603. Of the 23 ministers who are listed with degrees, 12 were chaplains.Google Scholar

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89 Tanner MSS. 145, fo. 1.

90 Rawl. MSS. C 368, 7 February 1635.

91 Bishop Redman's Visitation, ed. Williams, J. F., Norfolk Record Society XVIII (1946), p. 17Google Scholar also notes that in the returns for 1603 there were 396 preachers out of c. 1081 clergy.

92 Add. MSS. (BM), 4705, fo. 22.Google Scholar

93 Tanner MSS. 145, fo. 1 estimated that out of 10,000 parsonages, 3,500 were impropriations, and 400 were double benefices.

94 Hill, C., Economic Problems of the Church, op. cit. pp. 132, 239.Google Scholar

95 Suffolk Archaeology, op. cit.

96 Nalson, , op. cit. pp. 398 f.,Google Scholar Sir Thomas Widdrington said ‘next for preaching. That he is most able in his kind is agreed by all.’

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140 Heylyn, P., Cyprianus Anglicus, op. cit. pp. 343–3;Google ScholarWren's Anatomy, anon. (1641), p. 8, E 166 (7);Google Scholar Thomason Tract, Brit. Mus. ‘to hinder all God's preaching…to forbid all lectures’.

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149 S.P.Dom., 16/337, fo. 36.

150 Rawl. MSS. C 368, 7 and 14 September 1637.

151 Ibid. 24 September 1636; Prynne, W., Canterburies Doome, op. cit. p. 375.Google Scholar

152 Laud, , Works, op. cit. v, 339, 350;Google ScholarRawl. MSS. C 368, 12 July 1636.

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155 Laud, , Works, op. cit. v, 339 f.;Google ScholarWren, C., Parentalia, op. cit. pp. 100 ff.Google Scholar

156 Laud, , Works, op. cit. v, 350;Google ScholarWren, C., Parentalia, op. cit. pp. 100 ff.Google Scholar

157 This supports H. R. Trevor-Roper's view of Laud's policy (Archbishop Laud, op. cit. 119).

158 A similar policy was pursued by other bishops like Goodman who ‘suppressed some lecturers and put in others’.

159 Barnes, T. G., ‘County Politics and a Puritan Cause Célèbre: Somerset Church Ales’, T.R.H.S. 5th ser. IX (1959), 122:Google Scholar ‘though there can be no denying the importance of the religious issue in advancing the breach within the Church, yet the destructive force of the local factionalism which dominated the controversy, if multiplied by all the counties of the kingdom, might have been as injurious to the peace as religious issues’.