4. .!111 6 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. to be used as troughs for horses and,swine, and their covers to pave his own house. He defaced all the brazen pictures and imagery work, and used the stones to build a washing- house for himself. The two holy water stones of fine marble, very artificially engraven, with hollow bosses very curi- ously wrought, he took away, and employed them to steep beef and salt fish in. He caused the image of St. Cuthbert, and other ancient monuments, to be defaced. And the truth is, he could not endure any thing that appertained to a monastic How far Mr. Whittinghamwas concerned in these works of impiety, it is not in our power to ascer- tain ; and how far he is censurable for these things, is left with the reader to determine. With an evident design to reproach his memory, Dr. Bancroft says, that Mr. Whittingham, with the rest of his Geneva accomplices, urged all states to take arms, and reform religion themselves by force, lather than suffer such idolatry and superstition to remain in the land.e And a late writer, with the same ill design, observes, " that when he returned from exile, he imported with him, much of the leaven of Geneva."1: He was, however, a truly pious man, opposed to all superstition, an excellent preacher, and an ornament to reli- gion and learning. He died while the cause of his depri- vation, for not being ordained according to the rites of the English church, was depending, June 10, 1579, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. Wood informs us, though without the smallest evidence, that he unwillingly submitted to the stroke of death.§ His remains were interred in the cathedral at Durham. This learned divinewrote prefaces to the works of several learned men : as, Mr. Goddinan's book, entitled " How superior powers ought to be obeyed," &c. He published the translations of several learned works, and he turned part- of the Psalms of David into metre. These are still used in the church of England. Those which he did, have W. W. prefixed to them, among which is Psalm cxix. ; as may be seen in the Common Prayer Book.il Wood's Athena Oxon.'vol. t. p. 154. 4 Bancroft's Dangerous Positions, p. 62. Edit. 1640. Churton's Life of Nowell, p. 114. § Athena, p. 155. II The other persons concerned in turning the Psalms into metre, were Messrs. Thomas Sternhold, John Hopkins, and Thomas Norton, all eminent in their day, and zealous in promoting the reformation of the church. The parts which they performed have the initials of their names prefixed to them, as may be seen in the CommonPrayer Book.-Wood's ,Ithenx, vol. i. p. 62, 63, 153.
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