Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 23.djvu/271



win them to obedience by admitting his sympathy with their scruples and urging them to follow his example of conformity. He interfered to save them from legal penalties.

It would seem that Archbishop Parker was annoyed at the inefficient support which he received from Grindal, who himself was weary of his position. Parker therefore recommended him for the vacant see of York, saying that he 'was not resolute and severe enough for the government of London.' Grindal, as a north-countryman, was likely to be acceptable at York, and he was elected to that see on 11 April 1570. He went thither to undertake the more congenial task of rooting out Romish superstitions, as he wrote to Cecil in August (Remains, p. 325). He carefully visited his new diocese, issued a commission for pulling down rood-lofts, and in May 1571 began a metropolitan visitation of his province, for which he issued injunctions of his own, refusing to follow the articles which had been drawn up for the southern province (ib. pp. 123-55). They mostly aim at reducing the standard of ritual already existing, and at abolishing old customs. In fact, his work at York was to enforce uniformity against the Romish party, and this Grindal did with goodwill and considerable tact.

It would have been well for Grindal if he had remained at York; but after Parker's death in August 1575 Cecil urged upon the queen the choice of Grindal as his successor at Canterbury. It was a time when Elizabeth's policy required a leaning towards puritanism, a leaning which Cecil himself genuinely possessed. So Grindal was elected archbishop of Canterbury on 10 Jan. 1575, and presided over convocation in the following March. Doubtless Cecil hoped that a more conciliatory attitude towards the puritans than that of Parker might lead to a religious settlement, and he urged Grindal to make the exercise of the metropolitical power more popular than it had been under his predecessor. The archbishop's courts had been left unreformed, and after the abolition of the papal jurisdiction very imperfect arrangements had been made for the discharge of many duties which had hitherto been undertaken by the Roman court. The court of faculties for the issue of dispensations was especially grievous, and Grindal undertook its reform. He began a visitation of his province and issued articles and injunctions accordingly (ib. pp. 157-89). He was not, however, permitted to achieve much as archbishop. Scarcely had he been appointed before Elizabeth's foreign relations changed and she began to draw nearer to the catholic powers on the continent. Grindal was too sincere a man to change with her, and she found that in choosing a weak man she had not secured a yielding one. The courtiers were similarly disappointed when they found that Grindal's conscience prevented him from granting all their petitions. The current rumour that Leicester set Elizabeth against Grindal because he would not grant a dispensation for bigamy to Leicester's Italian physician, Julio, was an exaggerated way of expressing what was doubtless true in the main (, Grindal, pp. 225-6). From a number of causes it happened that no sooner was Grindal in his place than the queen and her favourite wished to get rid of him. The subject that provoked the rupture was the continuance of 'prophesyings,' or clerical meetings for the exposition and discussion of scripture. These meetings were chiefly attended by the puritan party among the clergy, who were the more zealous. For this reason Parker had looked upon them with some suspicion, and Elizabeth, who disliked all zeal, objected to them on political grounds. To Grindal it seemed natural that the clergy should meet to discuss the scriptures; but with a view of appeasing objections he issued orders that such meetings should be licensed by the bishop and presided over by the archdeacon or his deputy; that only approved persons be permitted to speak, and that all political or personal references be rigidly excluded. This did not satisfy Elizabeth, who thought that all speech was dangerous, and that these 'prophesyings' would train up a body of preachers who might utter dubious sermons instead of steadily reading a homily. She ordered Grindal not only to suppress 'prophesyings,' but to discourage preaching. This was more than Grindal could endure, and in a dignified letter to the queen, dated 20 Dec. 1576, he reminded her of the relations between the spiritual and temporal power, asserted in moderate terms the rights of bishops, and deprecated the queen's intervention (Remains, p. 376). Elizabeth answered on 7 May 1577 by issuing letters to all the bishops ordering them to put down 'prophesyings' within their dioceses (, Grindal, Appendix, No. x.) In June Grindal was suspended from his functions for six months, for non-compliance with the queen's orders, an unheard-of interference with an archbishop. But though there was much personal sympathy for Grindal, neither he nor any of his friends were likely to disturb the peace of England. His vicar-general discharged his judicial duties for him, and he bowed before the 