Barksdale—Gunning.
Mr. Barksdale, an Episcopalian, held the living of Sudeley Manor, in Gloucestershire—the burial place of Catherine Parr. His employment of the Liturgy, and his method of proceeding with reference to the Lord's Supper, appear in a tract of the period, which, because it affords an example of the public discussions then common, deserves the reader's notice. Mr. Helme, who seems to have been a Fifth Monarchy Baptist, held the neighbouring vicarage of Winchcomb, and between these neighbours a controversy arose. Lists for the combatants were prepared in Winchcomb church, and a large congregation assembled within the battlemented walls of that edifice to witness the ecclesiastical tournament. The Episcopalian begged the Baptist to allow him "to stand in his pue," that he "might be seen and heard the better, and be free from the crowd;" a request not granted, as the Baptist wanted "the pue for himself." He entered at the appointed time, attended "by a justice of the peace" and three other friends. His opponent had "a pue in opposito," which he had "caused to be erected." The incumbent of Winchcomb had gathered a church out of the parish, and the point mooted by his neighbour of Sudeley was, "Whether it be lawful to minister and receive the Holy Sacrament in congregations called mixed?" Barksdale maintained the affirmative; but, in the progress of debate, admitted the propriety of doing—without sanction of the rubric—what resembled the Presbyterian practice of "fencing the table." The congregation of his hearers, he confessed, was mixed, not so the company of his communicants. His practice was, after certain preparations, to repeat aloud, when the sacrament was to be administered, "all that are not prepared depart, you that are prepared stay." After some had departed, the rest he looked upon as prepared. The question of Episcopacy also came under discussion. Mr. Barksdale maintained, very fairly, that "the ministers of the Church of England and the good people adhering to them ought to hold their assemblies without disturbance"—and that "the new men should allow to others equal liberty with themselves, remembering that Englishmen were living under a free Commonwealth." From the tract it seems that some people threatened to proceed against Mr. Barksdale for using the Common Prayer, and for other offences.[300]
Peter Gunning, afterwards Bishop of Ely, read the Liturgy in the Chapel at Exeter House, and "asserted the cause of the Church of England with great pains and courage, when the Parliament was most predominant."[301] He was allowed "a contention for the truth" (1658) in two public disputations with Henry Denn, on infant baptism, before thousands of people, in the church of St. Clement Danes—and, with the assistance of Dr. Pearson, he had a conference with two Romanists, reported by them in a pamphlet entitled, "Schism Unmasked." Wood remarks that there was no considerable sect with which Gunning did not dispute; yet he met with no interference, beyond the Protector's rebuke, and an occasional disturbance whilst he was conducting liturgical worship.[302]
William Parsons, Rector of Birchanger, suffered under the Presbyterians, and was kept in jail nineteen weeks for his loyalty to Charles I., but afterwards he returned to his living, and usually read the Common Prayer during the Protectorate.[303] Notwithstanding his Episcopalianism, he was created Doctor of Laws at Oxford under Owen's Vice-Chancellorship.
II. The second-class of Episcopalians in the Establishment were those who held office without using the formularies of their Church.
Farindon.
Pearson was lecturer at St. Clement's, Eastcheap, and it was there that he delivered the discourses which formed the substance of his noble Text Book on the Creed. Farindon, less known, but worthy of being coupled with his famous contemporary, affords another instance of the same kind. Ejected from his Vicarage and from his divinity readership after the commencement of the civil wars, he, in the year 1647, became the Minister of St. Mary Magdalene, Milk Street. A second time he had to quit his preferment, and soon afterwards, he was a second time restored. The dates are uncertain, but Farindon is supposed by his biographer to have remained in his pastorate "from 1654 to 1658, the year of his death."[304] During his forced retirement, a clerical friend twice occupied his pulpit, and made an eloquent appeal to the congregation on his behalf, telling them that such persons had been seen in that church "as were able to create a temple wheresoever they went—men, each of whom, single and alone, made up a full congregation, nay a synod;" so that some persons had not unfitly named that place "the scholars' church."[305] Hammond and Sanderson were the Divines referred to, and the passage indicates the high estimation in which Farindon's preaching was held—and justly so. A collection at the doors for the ejected minister followed each of these discourses, and the whole of what was contributed amounted to more than four hundred pounds—a sum then double in value what it would be at the present time. Upon his second restoration, he delivered a sermon, which was admirable for its ability, eloquence, and temper. He chose for his text, "Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are; ye have not injured me at all."[306]
The following account from a contemporary autobiography is interesting in connexion with Farindon:—I had usually frequented St. Gregory's, Dr. Mossam's, Dr. Wild's, Dr. Gunning's, or some other congregations where the orthodox clergy preached and administered the sacraments; but the soldiers often disturbing those congregations, it was not so convenient for my father to appear there. Coming into Milk Street church one Sunday, I found very few in it, but Mr. Robinson helped me to a seat, and there I heard Mr. Farindon, that excellent scholar and preacher. It was his first day. Mr. Case had been there for some years, and the parishioners were now divided about a successor; some would have an Independent, others a Presbyterian, and there were several meetings and competitions, but no agreement, nor like to be; whereupon Mr. Robinson desired he might put one into the pulpit until they could agree; and said they should choose whether they should pay him or not. And so he got the pulpit and put Mr. Farindon into it, which he kept two or three years. I went home and told my father I had found a church where he might safely go, where was room enough, and where he might hear a most excellent orthodox preacher. My grandmother, Mrs. Moundeford, then dwelt in that parish; so the next Sunday my father and myself went thither, and Mr. Farindon preached again; my father's coach standing in the street near the church, gave occasion to some to look in, and in a short time the congregation so increased that it was very difficult to get a place.[307]
Farindon was an intimate friend of the memorable John Hales; and Aubrey, amidst his charming gossipings, enables us to picture the latter spending much of his time at Lady Salter's, at Eton, he having been a fellow of the College there. "He lodged, after his sequestration, at the next house, the Christopher Inn, where I saw him, a pretty little man, sanguine, of a cheerful countenance, very gentle and courteous. I was received by him with much humanity. He was in a kind of violet-coloured cloth gown, with buttons and loops, (he wore not a black gown), and was reading Thomas à Kempis; it was within a year before he deceased. He loved canary, but moderately, to refresh his spirits. He had a bountiful mind."[308]