The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 3

by Sir Thomas Browne

Or, of Bishop Anthony de Beck, a Person of an unquiet Spirit, very much hated, and poison’d by his Servants.

Or likewise, of Bishop Thomas Browne, who being Bishop of Rochester, was chosen Bishop of Norwich, while he was at the Council of Basil, in the reign of King Henry VI. was a strenuous Assertor of the Rights of the Church against the Citizens.

Or, of Bishop William Rugge, in whose last Year happen’d Kett’s Rebellion, in the Reign of Edward VI. I find his Name, Guil. Norwicensis, among the Bishops, who subscribed unto a Declaration against the Pope's Supremacy, in the Time of Henry VIII.

Or, of Bishop John Hopton, who was Bishop in the Time of Queen Mary, and died the same Year with her. He is often mentioned, together with his Chancellor Dunning, by John Fox in his Martyrology.

Or lastly, of Bishop William Redman, of Trinity College in Cambridge, who was Archdeacon of Canterbury. His Arms are upon a Board on the North-side of the Choir, near to the Pulpit.

Of the four Bishops in Queen Elizabeth’s Reign, Parkhurst, Freake, Scamler and Redman, Sir John Harrington, in his History of the Bishops in her Time, writeth thus; For the four Bishops in the Queen’s Days, they liv’d as Bishops should do, and were not Warriours like Bishop Spencer, their Predecessor.

Some Bishops were buried neither in the Body of the Church, nor in the Choir; but in our Ladies Chappel, at the East End of the Church, built by Bishop Walter de Suthfeild, (in the Reign of Henry III.) wherein he was buried, and Miracles said to be wrought at his Tomb, he being a Person of great Charity and Piety.

Wherein also was buried Bishop Simon de Wanton, vel Walton, and Bishop Alexander, who had been Prior of the Convent; and also, as some think, Bishop Roger Skerewyng, and probably other Bishops, and Persons of Quality, whose Tombs and Monuments we now in vain enquire after in the Church.

This was a handsom Chappel; and there was a fair Entrance into it out of the Church, of a considerable Height also, as may be seen by the out-side, where it adjoined unto the Wall of the Church. But being ruinous, it was, as I have heard, demolished in the Time of Dean Gardiner: But what became of the Tombs, Monuments, and Grave-stones, we have no Account: In this Chappel, the Bishop's Consistory, or Court, might be kept in old Time, for we find in Fox's Martyrology, that divers Persons accused of Heresy were examined by the Bishop, or his Chancellor, in St. Mary’s Chappel. This famous Bishop, Walter de Suthfeild, who built this Chappel, is also said to have built the Hospital not far off.

Again, divers Bishops sat in this See, who left not their Bones in this Church; for some died not here, but at distant Places; some were translated to other Bishopricks; and some, tho' they lived and died here, were not buried in this Church.