524 LIVES OF, THE PURITANS. Richard Raymund, another puritan minister, experienced similar treatment, on account of his nonconformity." WILLIAM KENT was minister in the city of Norwich, and suspended for his nonconformity. It is observed, " that Bishop Wren's chancellor suspended him about ten o'clock in the forenoon, and absolved him before three in the after- noon of the same day, without receiving any fee for his admission." He died soon after his troubles. Messrs. Hudson, Brown, Mott, Ward, and many others, were among the great sufferers from Bishop Wren's intolerant pro- ceedings.+ M n. DAVENISH, minister of Bridgwater in Somersetshire, was suspended by lishop Pierce of Bath and Wells, about the year 1636, for preaching a lecture in his own church on a market day, though it had continued ever since the time of Queen Elizabeth; and he refused to absolve him till after he had faithfully promised to preach it no more. When his lordship absolved him upon this promise, he said, Go thy way; sin no more, lest a worse thing befallthee. This tyran- nical prelate put down all the lectures in his diocese as factious and nurseries of puritanism, and said, I THANK GOD, I HAVE NOT ONE LECTURE LEFT IN MY DIOCESE, hating the very name.i He enjoined Mr. Humphrey Blake, churchwarden of"Bridgwater, to do penance, because hehad not presented Mr. Davenish for expounding the church cate- chism on the Lord's day afternoon, and using a $hort prayer before he entered upon that exercise. " This," said his lord- ship, " was against his orders and commands."§ Mn. BARRET was rector of Barwick in Somersetshire, but, prosecuted by Bishop Pierce for refusing to observe his oppressive injunctions. This divine, and many others, in- structed their parishioners in the principles of religion by catechizing them on a Lord's day afternoon; for which they were sharply reproved by this prelate, and threatened to be severely punished if they persisted in the practice. His Wren's Parentalia, p. 94.-Rushworth's Collec. vol. iii. p. 353. 4 Ibid. p. 94, 95.-Rushworth's Collec. vol. iii. p. 353. Prynne's Cant. Doome, p. 377. % Impeachment of Bp. Pierce, p. 3, 4.-Prynne's Cant. Dooms, p. 378.
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