INTRODUCTION. XV11 under authority from the Bishop of Hereford, a monthly lecture, in the adjoining parish of Leintwardine, in the manner of " the pro- phecyings " which had given so great offence to Queen Elizabeth, occasioning her displeasure with Archbishop Grindall, and calling forth his noble letter to her majesty ; a after whichmodel many other a Grindau's Re- lectures were established in the neighbourhood. H e was also one ofSo np' 37fi k. the London feoffees for buying in impropriations,b and to maintain a constant preaching ministry where it was wanting ; a design which was much applauded by the religious party in England, but which soon giving offence to the High Church party, was interrupted by the Star Chamber, when the tithes which had been purchased were seized for the King's use. He received young men into his house, to prepare for the Universities and holy orders ; and in all these ways exercised a very great influence, not only in his own parish, but far and wide in that district, which is represented as having been in great religious darkness. A minister of this time, Mr. Gwalter Stephens, of Bishop's Castle, " who had lighted his candle at famous Mr. Pierson's,b of Brampton Bryan," used to say, that " MS. Rectors of Brampton " when he preached, in his younger days, for a great space, there was Bryan, Brit. never a preacher between him and the sea one way, and none near M°s' him the other, but one in Shrewsbury." Pierson objected not to the Liturgy or the gesture of kneeling in the receiving of the Lord's Supper, but scrupled the use of the surplice, and the cross in bap- tism ; yet is said to have been liberal enough, to allow the use of both to his own curate. A Mr. Brice, of Henley upon Thames, was nominated on Pierson's death, but his old parishioners express- ing their sense of the great loss they should sustain by his removal from them, he was allowed to relinquish it, and returned to his old charge, when Stanley Gower became rector, and a great blessing to the place, following the steps of Mr. Pierson. Gower was a man of piety and learning, and had been brought up CAMD. SOC. C
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