62 INTRODUCTION. The above mock conference, as it is justly called, taught the puritans what to expect.' The threatened storm soon overtook them. The persecuting prelates having received new life, presently renewed their tyrannical proceedings. Mr. Richard Rogers, of Wethersfield in Essex, a divine of incomparable worth, and six other ministers, were convened before the archbishop, and, refusing the oath ex officio, were all suspended. They were cited to appear before him a second time,; but the archbishop died on the very day of their appearance. Whitgift, accordinc, to Fuller, was one of the worthiest men the church of England ever enjoyed.. Mr. Strype observes, that he was equal to both his prede- cessors, Parker and Grindal, in right godly and episcopal endowments; and that great wisdom, courage, and gentle- ness accompanied all his orders.+ He was, however, an unfeeling and a relentless persecutor, and extravagantly fond of outward splendour, usually travelling with a most magnificent retinue.t Dr. Richard Bancroft having acquitted himself so much to the king's satisfaction, in the conference at Hampton- court, was thought the fittest person to succeed Whitgift in the chair of Canterbury.§ He trod in the steps of his predecessor in all the iniquities of persecution. He entered upon the work whereWhitgift concluded, and immediately convened Mr. Rogers and his brethren before him. They endured continual molestations for a long time, having many expensive,journies to London. Mr. Rogers was cited also before the Bishop of London, who protested " by the help of Jesus, that he would not leave one nonconformable minister in all his diocese ;" but his death soon after put an end to his career. Mr. Baynes, the excellent lecturer at Cambridge, was silenced, and his lecture put down. Dr. Taylor was suspended from his ministry. Mr. !Elder- . Church Hist. b. x. p. 25. + Life of Parker, Pref. p. 5. t His train sometimes consisted of 1000 horse. The archbishop being once at Dover, attended by five hundred horse, one hundred of which were his own servants, many of them wearing chains of gold, a person of distinction then arriving from Rome, greatly wondered to see an English archbishop with so splendid a retinue. But seeing him the following sabbath in the cathedral of Canterbury,attended by the abovemagnificent train, with the dean, prebendaries, and preachers, in their surplices and scarlet hoods ; and hearing the music of organs, cornets' and sacbuts, he was seized with admiration, and said, That the people at Rome were led in blindness, being made to believe, that in England there was neither archbishop, nor bishop, nor cathedral, nor any ecclesiastical government; but that all were pulled down. But he protested, that unless it were in the pope's chapel, he never saw a more solemn sight, or heard a morn heavenly sound."-Paule's Life of Whitgift, p. 104-106. Granger's Biog. Hist. vol. i. p. 540.
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