“Norwich was the capital of a large and fruitful province. It was the residence of a bishop and of a chapter. It was the seat of the manufacture of the realm. Some even distinguished by learning and science had recently dwelt there, and no place in the kingdom, except the capital and the universities, had more attractions to the curious. The library, the museum, the aviary, and the botanical gardens of Sir Thomas Browne were thought by the Fellows of the Royal Society well worthy of a long pilgrimage. Norwich had also a court in miniature. In the heart of the city stood an old palace of the Duke of Norfolk, said to be the largest town house in the kingdom out of London. In this mansion, to which were annexed a tennis court, a bowling green, and a wilderness extending along the banks of the Wensum, the noble family of Howard frequently resided. Drink was served to the guests in goblets of pure gold; the very tongs and shovels were of silver; pictures of Italian masters adorned the walls; the cabinets were filled with a fine collection of gems purchased by the Earl of Arundel, whose marbles are now among the ornaments of Oxford. Here, in the year 1671, Charles and his court were sumptuously entertained; here, too, all comers were annually welcomed from Christmas to Twelfthnight; ale flowed in oceans for the populace. Three coaches, one of which had been built at a cost of £500 to contain fourteen persons, were sent every afternoon round the city to bring ladies to the festivities, and the dances were always followed by a luxurious banquet. When the Duke of Norfolk came to Norwich he was greeted like a king returning to his capital; the bells of St. Peter’s Mancroft were rung, the guns of the castle were fired, and the mayor and aldermen waited on their illustrious citizen with complimentary addresses.”
Eminent Citizens of the Seventeenth Century.
Bishop Hall.
Dr. Hall, Bishop of Norwich, the first English Satirist, was a noted character in this century. He was born July 1st, 1574, in Bristow Park, within the parish of Ashby de la Zouch, in Leicestershire. He was educated by a private tutor till he was fifteen years of age, when he removed to Cambridge, and was admitted to Emmanuel College, of which he was a chosen scholar, and took the degree of Bachelor of Arts. His satires were published in 1597, 1598, and 1599, and added greatly to his reputation by their pungency and classical style. They equal the satires of Juvenal and Persius on similar themes, and in lashing the vices of the age.
Dr. Hall, in 1624, refused the bishopric of Gloucester, but in 1627 he accepted that of Exeter, holding with it in commendam the rectory of St. Breock in Cornwall. At this time he seems to have been suspected of a leaning to the Puritans, and it must be allowed that his religious views were more consonant with theirs than with the lax Arminianism of Laud. But at the same time, Dr. Hall was a zealous supporter of the church.
On November 15th, 1641, he was translated, by the little power left to the king, to be Bishop of Norwich, but having joined with the Archbishop of York and eleven other prelates, in a protest against the validity of such laws as should be made during their compulsory absence from parliament, he was ordered to be sent to the tower, with his brethren, on the 30th of January following. Shortly afterwards they were impeached by the Commons for high treason, and on their appearance in parliament were treated with the utmost rudeness and contempt. The Commons, however, did not think fit to prosecute the charge of high treason, having gained their purpose by driving them from the House of Lords, and Hall and his brethren were ordered to be dismissed; but upon another pretext they were again sent to the tower. In June following, Hall was finally released on giving bail for £5000! He returned to Norwich, and being received with rather more respect than he hoped for, in the then state of public opinion, he resumed his duties, frequently preaching to large congregations, and enjoying the forbearance of the predominant Puritan party till April, 1643, when the destruction of the church was contemplated. About this time, the ordinance for sequestrating notorious delinquents having passed, and our prelate being included by name, all his rents were stopped, his palace was entered, and all his property was seized. A friend, however, gave bond for the whole amount of the valuation, and the bishop was allowed to remain a short time in his palace. While he remained there, he was continually exposed to the insolence of the soldiery and mob, who demolished the windows and monuments of the cathedral. At length he was ordered to leave his palace, and would have been exposed to the utmost extremity, if a neighbour had not offered him the shelter of his humble roof. Some time afterwards, but by what interest we are not told, the sequestration was taken off a small estate which he rented at Heigham, to which he retired. The house in which he lived, now called the Dolphin Inn, is still standing, and should be carefully preserved as a memorial of a great and good man.
Bishop Hall, in his tract Hard Measure, has given a most touching account of the treatment he experienced. He says in his tract “The Shaking of the Olive Tree:”—
“It is no other than tragical to relate the carnage of that furious sacrilege whereof our eyes and ears were the sad witnesses, under the authority and presence of Linsey, Tofts the sheriff, and Greenwood. Lord, what work was here; what clattering of glasses, what beating down of walls, what tearing up of monuments, what pulling down of seates, what wresting out of irons and brass from the windows and graves, what defacing of armes, what demolishing of curious stone work which had not any representation in the world, but only of the cast of the founder, and skill of the mason; what toting and piping upon the destroyed organ pipes, and what a hideous triumph on the market day, before all the country, when, in a sacrilegious and profane procession, all the organ pipes, vestments, both copes and surplices, together with the leaden crosse which had been newly sawn down from over the green yard pulpit, and the service book and singing books that could be had, were carried to a fire in the public Market-place; a lewd wretch walking before the train in his cope trailing in the dirt, with a service book in his hand, imitating in an impious scorne the tune and usurping the words of the litany formerly used in the church. Neer the publick crosse all these monuments of idolatry must be sacrificed to the fire, not without much ostentation of a zealous joy in discharging ordinance to the cost of some who professed how much they longed to see that day.”
The good bishop’s sufferings did not damp his courage, for in 1644, we find him preaching in Norwich whenever he could obtain the use of a pulpit; and with yet more boldness, in the same year he sent A modest offer of some meet considerations in favour of Episcopacy addressed to the Assembly of Divines. During the rest of his life he appears to have remained at Heigham, unmolested, performing the duties of a faithful pastor, and exercising such hospitality and charity as his scanty means permitted. He died, September 8th, 1656, in the 82nd year of his age, and was buried in the church of St. Bartholomew, in Heigham. In his will, he says:—
“I leave my body to be buried without any funeral pomp, at the discretion of my executors, with the only monition that I do not hold God’s house a meet repository for the dead bodies of the greatest saints.”