Chap. L The HISTORY of the PURITANS. L. V. LJe, Lord High Admiral, D;. Bonner, Bp. London. Dr. Holbeach, Bp. Lincoln, Dr. Goodrick, Bp. Ely, Dr. Latimer, Bp. Worcefler, Dr. Ridley, eleát of Rocheer. The majority of the bi(hops and inferior clergy were on the fideofpopery, but the government being in the hands of the reformers, they began imme- diately to relax the rigors of the late reign. The perfecution upon the fix articles was ftopt ; the prifon doors were fet open ; and feveral who had been forced to quit the kingdom for their religion, returned home; as Miles Coverdale, afterwards bifhop of Exeter, John Hooper, afterwards bi- fhopof Gloucefter, JohnRogers, the proto-martyr, and many others, who were preferr'd to confiderable benefices in the church. The reforming di- vines being deliver'd from their too awful fubjeEtion to the late king, be- gan to lay open the abufes of popery. Dr. Ridley and others preached vehemently againd images in churches, and inflamed the people, fo that in many places they outrun the law, and pulled them down without autho- rity. Some preached against the lawfulnefs of foul maffes and obits; though the late king, by his lad will and teftament, had left a large fum of mo- ney to have them continued at Wind fir where he was buried, and for a fre- quent diftribution of alms for the repofe of his foul, and its deliverance out of purgatory ; but this charity was loon afterwards converted to other uses. Thepopifh clergy were alarmed at thefe meafures, and inûfted ftrongly, that till the king their fupreme head was of age, religion fhould continue in the date in which king Henry left it. But the reformers alledgd, that the king's authority was the fame while he was a minor, as when he was of age; and that having heard the late king declare his refolution to turn the mafs into a communion, if he had lived a little longer, they thought it their duty to proceed. . After the folemnity of the king'! coronation, the regents appointed a roy- Royal V/iità, al vifitation, and commanded the clergy to preach no where except in their lion. parifh churches without licence, till the vifitation was ended. The king- dom was divided into fix circuits ; two gentlemen, acivilian, a divine, and a regifier being appointed for each. The divines were by their preaching,, to inftruet the people in their do&rines-of the reformation, and to bring them off from their old fupersiitions. The vifitation began in the month of .Au- ; fix of the graved divines, and molt popular preachers, attended it; their names were Dr. Ridley, Dr. Madew, Mr. Briggs, Cottiaford, Jofiph, and Farrar. A hook of homilies or fermons," upon the principal points of MS, p. 88r. the chriftian faith, drawn up chiefly by, aocl hifhop Cranmer, was printed, and ordered to be left with every parifh pried, to fupply the defeót ofpreach- ing, 31 King Edward VI. 1547.
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