[109] See Journals, February 9, 1625-6, and March 10, 1627-8.
[110] It is so regarded by Neal and those who follow him.—History of Puritans, ii. 362.
[111] History of England, ii. 653.
[112] Journals, November 20. A collection was made after the communion, amounting to £78. 16. 2.—Nalson's Collections, 1. 700.
[113] Memorials of English Affairs, Whitelocke, 38. Journal of Commons, Nov. 25, 1640, and pamphlets of the period.
[114] The minister complained of was John Squire, of whom Walker gives an account in his Sufferings of the Clergy, Part i. 68.—These illustrations are gathered from Diurnals and other Tracts in the Library of the Brit. Museum.
[115] Speech of Mr. Rouse in Rushworth, iv. 211. See also Speeches of Sir Ed. Dering and Sir John Wray.
[116] These particulars, and many more, are found in A Certificate from Northamptonshire, 1641. Brit. Mus. The "great scarcity of preaching ministers" was early noticed, and a sub-committee appointed to consider it.—See Journals, 19th December, 1640. Extracts from the Register of the Archbishop of Canterbury, shew that the number of benefices in England was 8,803, whereof 3,277 were impropriations, and that the number of livings under £10 was 4,543; under £40, 8,659; and that only the remainder, being 144, were of the value of £40 and upwards.—Cal. Dom. 1634-5, p. 381.
[117] Lathbury's Hist. of Con., 246.
[118] Nalson, i. 545.