282 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. specified in the date. Several other letters from Dr. Thomas Sampson, Mr. Thomas Wilcocks, and other celebrated divines, addressed to Mr. Gilby, are now before me. Such of them as are particularly illustrative of the history of the times, will be found inserted in their proper places. The high respect in which Mr. Gilby was held, was no screen against the persecution of the tyrannizing ecclesias- tics. Therefore, in the year 1571, Archbishop Parker binding the clergy to s more exact conformity, by wearing the habits and observing the ceremonies, commanded Archbishop Grindal of York, to prosecute him for non- conformity. But Grindal, who, towards the close of life, was averse to all severe measures, signified to his brother of Canterbury, that as Mr. Gilby dwelt in Leicestershire, and out of his province, he could not proceed against him; and so referred his case to the commissioners in the south. Hence it is extremely probable that he was now summoned, with several other learned divines, before Parker and his colleagues at Lambeth ; but of this we have no certain in- formation.* It appears, however, pretty evident, that he was silenced from his public ministry, either at this, or at someother time.t Mr. Gilby, according to Fuller, stands first on the.list of learned writers, who received their education in Christ's college, Cambridge.t He was author of a work, entitled "A Viewe of Antichrist, his Lawes and Ceremonies in our English Church unreformed," 1570. The first part ofthis humorous piece is called " The Book of the, Generation of Antichrist the Pope, the revealed Child of Perdition and his Successors ;" and is so singular land curious, that, for the satisfaction of the inquisitive reader, the substance of it is here transcribed. The ecclesiastical genealogy is ex pressed as follows: The devil begat darkness. Darkness begat ignorance. Ignorance begat error and his brethren. Error begat free- will and self-love. Free-will begat merit. Merit begat forgetfulness of the grace of God. Forgetfulness of the grace of God, begat transgression. Transgression begat mistrust. Mistrust begat satisfaction. Satisfaction begat the sacrifice of the mass. Sacrifice of the mass begat popish priesthood. Popish priesthood begat superstition. Strype's Parker, p. 820.--Griudal, p. 170. -F Nichols's Defence, p. 21. Edit. 1740. t Fuller's Hist. of Cain. p. 92.
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