Chap. VI. The HISTORY òf the PURITANS. 243 .förmity, complained tó his metropolitan of the lax government of his Queen predeceffor, andof the numhers of non- conformifts, whom he could not Ehzabeth, reduce to the eftablifhed orders ofthe church. Upon this Sandys, the new rJ archbifhop of York, refolved to vifit his whole province, and to begin with Durham, where dean Whittingham was theprincipal man under the bifhop ; he was a divine of great learning, and of long ftanding in the church, but not ordained according to the form of the Englifh fevice Strype'sAus. book. The accufation againft him, was branched out into thirty-five at.- P. 48r. tides, and forty-nine interrogatories, the chief whereof was his Geneva ordination. The dean, inftead of anfwering the charge, flood by the rights of the church of Durham, and denied the archbifhop's power of vifitation, upon which his grace was pleafed to excommunicate him; but Whittingham appealed to the queen, who direEted a commiffion to the archbifhop, to the lord prefident of the council in the north, and to the dean of York, to hear and determine the validity of his ordination, and to enquire into the other mifdemeanors contained in the articles. The prefident of the north was á favourer of the puritans, and Dr. Hutton, dean of York, was of Whittingham's principles, and boldly averred, That the dean was ordained in a betterfort than even the archbifhop himfelf; fo that the commiffion came to nothing. But Sandys vexed at the difap- pointment, and at the calling in queftion his right of vifitation, obtained another commiffion direéted to himfelf, the bifhop of Durham, the lord prefident, the chancellor of the diocefe, and forne others whom he could depend upon, to vifit the church of Durham. The chief defign was to. The vatiditJ deprive Whittingham as a layman ; when the dean appeared before the °Îhis °rdina- commifoners, he produced a certificate under the hands of eight per- es°° drfpured. fops, for the manner of his ordination in thefe words ; " It pleated God, Strype'smnn. " by the fuffrages ofthe whole congregation, at Geneva, orderly to choofe P. 523 <' Mr. W. Whittingham, unto the office of preaching the word of God .r and miniftring the facraments; and he was admitted minifter; and fo " publifhed, with fuch other ceremonies as here are tiled and accuftomed." It was objeéted, that here was no mention of a bop or fuperintendent, nor of any external folemnities, nor fo much as of impftion of hands; the dean replied, There was mention in general of the ceremoniesof that church, and that he was able to prove his vocation to be the fame that all the minifiers of Geneva had ; upon which the lord prefident rote up and faid, that he could not in confcience agree to deprive him for that caufe only, for (fays he) it will be ill taken by all the godly and learned both at home and abroad, that we fhould allow of the popith maffing priefts in our miniftry, and difallow of minifters made in a reformed church ; whereupon the commiffion was adjourned fine die, Thefe pro- ceedings of the archbifhop againft the dean were invidious, and loft him I i a his
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