In Canto IV., and beginning at p. 353., there is an account of a brawl in the parish church of Grantham, anno 1627, arising, as appears by a marginal note, out of circumstances connected with the "removal of the Communion table from the upper part of the quire to the altar place." A master alderman Wheatley, assisted by "an innkeeper fat as brawn," and "a bow-legged tailor that was there," appears to have taken an active part in the scuffle which ensued upon the vicar's persisting in his determination. The alderman and his mob seem to have been triumphant on this occasion, for we read, p. 356.:
"The alderman, by help of rabble,
Brought from the wall communion table;
Below the steps he plac'd it, where
It stood before, in midst of quire."
A pamphlet war followed; for there was immediately A Letter to the Vicar of Grantham about setting his Table altarwise. In answer to this came A Coal from the Altar; which was in its turn assailed by The Quench Coal out, and The Holy Table, Name and Thing (said to have been written by Williams, Bishop of Lincoln.) A Dr. Pocklington (who was he?) espoused the side of the Altar party, and published his Altare Christianum. During this literary contest the vicar appears to have died, and, some twelve months after his death, out comes The Dead Vicar's Plea.
The affair seems to have created what we should now call a great sensation in the "religious world:" for, says our author:
"Scarce was a pen but what has try'd,
And books flew out on every side,
Till ev'ry fop set up for wit,