234 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. it ; but he was not in the least anxious for court preferment.. During the severities inflicted upon the nonconformists, in the former part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, when good men were obliged to conform, or be deprived of their livings and ministry, it is said that Mr. Whittingliam at first refused, but afterwards subscribed.t And in the year 1571, by the instigation of Archbishop Parker, he was cited before Grindal, archbishop of York ; but the particular cause of his citation, or what prosecution he underwent, at least at that time, does not appear.t While Grindal lived, who, towards the close of life, connived at the nonconformists, Mr. Wbittingham and his brethren in the province of York, were not much inter- rupted; but Dr. Sandys was no sooner made archbishop, than he was brought into troubles, fromwhich the stroke of death alone could deliver him. In the year 1577, the new archbishop resolved to visit the whole of his province, and to begin with Durham, where Dean Whittingham had obtained a distinguished reputation, but had been ordained only according to the reformed church at Geneva, and not according to the English service book. The accusations brought against him contained thirty-five articles, and forty- nine interrogatories; but the principal charge was his Geneva ordination. Mr. Whittingham refused to answer the charge, but stood by the rites of the church of Durham, and denied the archbishop's power of visitation in that church, upon which his grace was pleased to excommuni- cate him. Mr. Whittingham then appealed to the queen, who directed a commission to the archbishop, Henry Earl of Huntington, lord president of the north, and Dr. Hutton, ;lean of York, to hear and determine the validity of his ordination, and to inquire into the other misdemeanours contained in the articles. The president was a zealous favourer of the puritans, and Dr. Hutton was of Whiffing- ham's principles, and boldly declared, " That Mr. Whit- tingham was ordained in a better sort than even the arch- bishop himself." The commission, therefore, came to nothing,§ Sandys being sorely vexed at this disappointment, aswell as Whittingham's calling in question his right of visitation, obtained another commission directed to himself, the Bishop Wood's Athena Cfrcob. vol. i. p. 153. Strype's Grindal, p. 98. $ Ibid. p. I70.-Strype's Parker, p. 926. Strype's Annals, vol. ii. p. 481, 519-121,
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=