334 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. " friars preachers.". Thus did this grave and learned divine pleasantly reproach the ingratitude of the times. He continued without the least preferment till the year 1563, when Secretary Cecil procured him the above pre- bend ; which, with some difficulty, he kept to his death. This was all the preferment he ever obtained. In the year 1564, theBishop of London having preached the Emperor Ferdinand's funeral sermon, in the cathedral of St. Paul's, it was ordered to be printed, and to be trans- lated into Latin, " by the ready and elegant pen of John Fox."+ During the sameyear, Archbishop Parker attempted toforce the clergy into aconformity tothe established church ; for which purpose he summoned all the London ministers to appear at Lambeth, when they were examined upon the following question : " Will you promise conformity to the apparel by law established, and testify the same by thesub- scription of your hands?" Those who refusedwere imme- diately suspended, and after three months, deprived of their livings.t To prepare the way, Mr. Fox was summoned first, that the reputation of his great piety, might give the greater countenance to their proceedings. When they called him to subscribe, he took his Greek Testament out of his pocket, and said, To this I will subscribe. And when the commissioners required him to subscribe the canons, lie refused, saying, " I have nothing in the church but a pre- bend in Salisbury, and much good may it do you, if you take it from me."§ His ecclesiastical judges, however, had not sufficient courage to deprive so celebrated a divine, who held up the ashes of Smithfieldbefore their eyes. It ought here to be observed, that Mr. Strype is guilty of a twofold mistake, when he says, that, in 1566, Mr. Fox had no ecclesiastical living; and that though he was no approver ofthe habits, he was not summoned before the ecclesiastical commissioners.II Though Mr. Fox refused subscription and conformity to certain ecclesiastical ceremonies, he behaved with great moderation, and disapproved of the warmth of the more The remains of popish superstition were so prevalent in the church of England, especially among the ruling prelates in the time of Queen Eliza- beth, that formany years, the eatingoffiesh was prohibited,during the weeks of Lent ; yet, in certain cases, dispensations were granted. Accordingly, Mr. Fox being a man of a weak and sickly constitution, this favour was conferred upon him by Archbishop Parker! !-Strype's Parker, p.I12,178. + Churton's Life of Nowell, p. 106. t Strype's Grindal, p. 98. Fuller's Church Hist. b. ix. p. 76.-Heylin's Hist. of Refor, p. 337. Strype's Parker, p. 223.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=