Tho' this Church, for its Spire, may compare, in a manner, with any in England, yet in its Tombs and Monuments it is exceeded by many.
No Kings have honour’d the same with their Ashes, and but few with their Presence. And it is not without some Wonder, that Norwich having been for a long Time so considerable a Place, so few Kings have visited it: Of which Number, among so many Monarchs since the Conquest, we find but Four, viz. King Henry III. Edward I. Queen Elizabeth, and our Gracious Sovereign now reigning; King Charles II. of which I had particular Reason to take Notice.[321]
The Castle was taken by the Forces of King William the Conqueror; but we find not, that he was here. King Henry VII. by the Way of Cambridge, made a Pilgrimage unto Walsingham; but Records tell us not, that he was at Norwich. King James I. came sometimes to Thetford for his Hunting Recreation, but never vouchsafed to advance twenty Miles farther.
Not long after the writing of these Papers, Dean Herbert Astley died, a civil, generous, and public-minded Person, who had travell’d in France, Italy, and Turkey, and was interr’d near the Monument of Sir James Hobart: Unto whom succeeded my honoured Friend Dr. John Sharpe, a Prebend of this Church, and Rector of St. Giles’s in the Fields, London; a Person of singular Worth, and deserv’d Estimation, the Honour and Love of all Men; in the first Year of whose Deanery, 1681, the Prebends were these:
|
Mr. Joseph Loveland, Dr. Hezekiah Burton, Dr. William Hawkins, | } | { |
Dr. William Smith, Mr. Nathaniel Hodges, Mr. Humphrey Prideaux. |
(But Dr. Burton dying in that Year, Mr. Richard Kidder succeeded,) worthy Persons, learned Men, and very good Preachers.
ADDENDA
I have by me the Picture of Chancellor Spencer, drawn when he was Ninety Years old, as the Inscription doth declare, which was sent unto me from Colney.
Tho' Bishop Nix sat long in the See of Norwich, yet is not there much deliver’d of him: Fox in his Martyrology hath said something of him in the Story of Thomas Bilney, who was burnt in Lollard’s Pit without Bishopgate, in his Time.
Bishop Spencer lived in the Reign of Richard ii. and Henry iv. sat in the See of Norwich 37 Years: Of a Soldier made a Bishop, and sometimes exercising the Life of a Soldier in his Episcopacy; for he led an Army into Flanders on the Behalf of Pope Urban VI. in Opposition to Clement the Anti-Pope; and also over-came the Rebellious Forces of Litster the Dyer, in Norfolk, by North-Walsham, in the Reign of King Richard ii.