[72b] Neal, i. 353, 354.
[72c] Brook says, on that day he was suspended and deprived by Bishop Scambler, adding, “This is attested by Richard Skinner the Bishop’s Register.”—Lives of the Puritans, iii. 509. But there is some inaccuracy in this account. His suspension was the act of Whitgift himself, and had taken place some months earlier. Dr. Scambler was not elected Bishop of Norwich till December 15th, 1584, when Dr. Freke was translated to the see of Worcester; so that the latter was more likely to have been the immediate instrument of Mr. Fleming’s deprivation.—Blomefield’s History of Norfolk, iii. 558, 559. His successor was first instituted November 2nd, 1583, and again September 5th, 1584.—Lib. Inst. xx. 97, 111. This was Mr. John After. A person of the same name is mentioned by Strype in his Life of Grindal, (p. 59,) as a native of Calais, who was ordained by that prelate, July 25th, 1560, at the age of fifty.
The living of Beccles, at the period of Mr. Fleming’s deprivation, was vested in Lady Anne Gresham, the widow of Sir Thomas Gresham, Knt., founder of the Royal Exchange. Previously to her marriage she was the widow of William Rede, merchant, of London and Beccles.—Lib. Inst. ubi supra. Account of the Corporation, pp. 11, 15.
In the volume of Blomefield above referred to, (pp. 272, et seq. and 552,) will be found some account of Bishop Hopton, and of his Chancellor Dunning, (or Downing,) mentioned in the preceding chapter.
[74a] The register of Beccles parish records in the interval from 1586 to 1592, the baptisms of several children of “Mr. William Fleming, preacher” (and “minister”) “of the gospel, and Anne his wife.”
[74b] In a more recent transcript of the register here quoted, Mr. Fleming is merely styled “preacher of God’s woorde.”
[75] “Which word minister became usual in these times for distinction from the idolatrous priests of the Romish church.”—Strype’s life of Parker, i. 127. Anno 1559.
[77a] Price’s Hist. Prot. Nonconf. i. 146–149.
[77b] Rom. xiv. 21; 1 Cor. x. 23, 32; 2 Cor. iv. 1, 2; xiii. 8.
[79a] Ezek. xxxvi. 26; John iii. 7; 2 Cor. v. 17; James i. 18; 1 Pet. i. 23.