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CHAP. say, that this was certainly one great object with the queen and her councillors.

XIX.

Edmund
Grindal.

1583.

Grindal's

conduct

towards

certain colleges at

Oxfordsus

Popery.

In 1568, Grindal was provoked to some harsh pro1575-6 ceedings in the university of Oxford. The queen, by a statute of her prerogative, appointed as president of Corpus an ultra- Protestant named Cole. The fellows of the college, maintaining their privileges, refused to admit. him, and elected a man of the name of Harrison. Harrison pected of had, at one time, communicated with Rome, and his election, therefore, brought the college under suspicion of being popishly affected. Similar charges were laid against New College, and its distinguished nursery St. Mary's Winton College, near Winchester, where some of the greatest divines and statesmen have received their education. The Bishop of Winchester, himself puritanically inclined, instituted a visitation of these colleges, and made Cole president, although to give him possession he had to break through the gates of the house, which the fellows had closed against him. The bishop, exasperated, appealed to the Ecclesiastical Commission; and his letter of complaint was transmitted by the archbishop to the Bishop of London. To the disgrace of Bishop Grindal, that prelate wrote at the bottom of the letter the following words: “My Lords, I like this letter very well, and think as the writer, if by some extraordinary ready [means] that house and school be not purged, those godly foundations shall be but a nursery of adders' brood to poison the Church of Christ."* Even supposing the charges to be true, he who was lenient. towards the one extreme, ought not, as a just ruler, to have been violent, if not unjust, against the opposite

extreme.

At this very time, Grindal was using his influence * Strype's Grindal, p. 197.

CHAP.

XIX.

Edmund
Grindal.

1583.

Grindal

Puritans.

His intole

rant con

duct to

Inns of

with the government to obtain the liberation of certain Puritans who had been thrown into prison for holding conventicles. In doing this he was acting a praiseworthy part; for these poor men differed only from Grindal in 1575-6— being more consistent. They acted upon the principle which he admitted. He, under the advice of foreign fees Protestants, tolerated for a while what he thought to be certain wrong, under the notion that in process of time he would become sufficiently strong to remove what he thought to be errors of the Church: but here again we find his liberality to be one-sided. The inns of court were suspected of being more inclined to the practice of Popery than to the theories of Puritanism, and we find Grindal, wards the who would be so tolerant to Puritans, urging Secretary Court. Cecil to command the benchers that in calling men to the bar they should reject the adversaries of "true religion." Who was to decide what "true religion" at that time was? The character was denied to the Church of England by both Puritans and Papists; and in urging his way, Grindal could not fail to receive wounds from either side. As the Puritans had assembled at Plummer's Hall, so those who desired the restoration of certain Popish rites which the Church of England had rejected, had a gathering at Bath. They complained of the leniency shown to the Puritans, and Bishop Grindal himself is said to have felt deeply their ingratitude.

CHAP.
XX.

Edmund

Grindal.

1583.

Parker makes

interest to

have

Grindal appointed

CHAPTER XX.

GRINDAL ARCHBISHOP OF YORK.

Parker makes interest to have Grindal appointed to the see of York.— Lord Henry Howard is a candidate for the office.-Letter from the Dean of York to Cecil.-His estimate of Grindal's character.-Congé d'élire from the queen.-Grindal's election, and confirmation.-He recovers certain possessions to the see. Is feasted by Archbishop Parker. His account of the state of the Church in the North.-His visitation in 1571.-His injunctions to the clergy and laity of his diocese. Visitation of York Cathedral.-The queen designs to visit York. Earthquake in the North.-Grindal's popularity. His friendship with Spencer.-His share in the Bishops' Bible.

GRINDAL was heartily tired of his position as Bishop of London; and Archbishop Parker felt that he should have more regard for his friend if he were removed to a 1575-6 greater distance. He made interest with the queen through Cecil, to have Grindal removed to the see of York, which had been vacant ever since June, 1568, by the death of Archbishop Young. There were many candidates for the office, and among them appeared the Lord Henry Howard, brother to the Duke of Norfolk—a fact worthy to be noticed, since some modern historians are found to speak with contempt of the ecclesiastical preferments of this age. Certainly neither prelate nor primate had that magnificence of power which had prevailed during the preceding centuries; but still the personage who ranked third in the House of Lords was not a man to be looked down upon in that age or in this. When the see was first vacant, Dr. Matthew Hutton, Dean of York

to the see of York.

CHAP.
XX.

Grindal.

1575-6

1583.

The Dean

of York's

opinion of

Grindal.

informed Cecil that the province stood in need of an able pastor, showing what qualifications he that was to be sent among them ought to have-viz. that he should Edmund be a teacher, because the country was ignorant; a virtuous and godly man, because the country was given to sift such a man's life; a stout and courageous man in God's cause, because the country otherwise would abuse him; and yet a sober and discreet man, lest too much rigorousness should harden the hearts of some that by fair means might be mollified; such a bishop, in short, as was both learned himself and also loved learning, that that rude and blind country might be furnished with learned preachers. Such a man, he said, was the Bishop of London known to be; and therefore it was his wish that Grindal should be translated to York.*

The dean was not wrong in the estimate he formed of Grindal's character. Grindal was firm in the maintenance of his principles when once his principles were decidedly formed, although in the formation of them he was deliberate and slow. He was a conscientious man, and so afraid of doing wrong, that he often omitted to do what was right. Archbishop Parker said "that he liked well the removal of Grindal, for he reckoned him not resolute and severe enough for the government of London, since many of the ministers and people thereof, notwithstanding all his pains, still leaned to their former prejudices against all measures of reform." It is evident, however, that some time went by before the queen's mind could be finally settled upon the matter. By the original in- Grindal's strument in vellum of the Dean and Chapter of York, the April congé d'élire addressed to them to choose a pastor for their church, bore date at Windsor on the 1st April, 1570. They, in their letters to the queen (April 11th), declare

* Strype's Epistle dedicatory to the Life of Archbishop Grindal.

election,

April

1570.

Grindal.

1583.

His confirmation at Canterbury, May 22.

CHAP. their election of Grindal to be the archbishop of the XX. province. Although, as has been said, the vacancy had Edmund taken place in 1568, the royal assent was not given until 1575-6 the 16th May, 1570. Grindal was confirmed in the cathedral church of Canterbury the 22nd May, under circumstances described in the life of Archbishop Parker.* On the 6th June following the temporalities of the see were restored. Grindal succeeded in recovering to his see a house in Battersea, in Surrey, formerly appertaining to the Archbishop of York. Four score acres of land were attached to the building, and the whole establishment was useful for the archbishops when they came to Parliament or Convocation, or when they were required to give attendance at the royal court.

Parker

The Puritan notion of turning the Lord's Day from a feast to a fast, and calling it the Sabbath, was not at that time customary. When Archbishop Grindal, the Primate Grindal at of England, waited upon the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Primate of all England, the latter entertained him on Trinity with a splendid feast on Trinity Sunday. The two

entertains

Canter

bury,

Sunday.

State of Yorkshire at this time.

archbishops and the three other bishops attendant at the time received the Holy Communion, a spiritual feast, in the morning. In the evening the shops were shut, business was laid aside, and creature comforts were added to the morning celebration. The body was feasted, the mind was instructed by the sermon, and the spirit was raised through the rites of the Church to participate in the joys of Heaven. In Yorkshire the new archbishop found some few of the gentry disposed towards completing the Reformation, but not so the commonalty. We have a description from the pen of the archbishop himself, who describes the state of the Church in the north when he undertook to preside over it. "I am in* Vol. iv. (New Series), p. 444.

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