Page:The History of the Church & Manor of Wigan part 1.djvu/175

Rh that if the said cause touching the tithes in controversy should not be compounded at or before the third return of this present term, that then the said defendants were dismissed unless the complainant shall show better matter than had been by him shewn; and as touching the riots, forasmuch as the said complainant hath not shewn any better or other matter, neither is the cause compounded, as both parties do confess, therefore it is ordered that the said defendants as touching the tithes in controversy be henceforth dismissed, and as touching the riots, the same to be heard when the plaintiff shall call the defendants by process of this court ad audiendum judicium."

Though Lord Derby took nothing by his lawsuit against Fleetwood it does not appear that the latter ever recovered his tithes. The chief portion of the tithes of Upholland and Dalton are still held by the Earl of Derby's assigns, and the same modus of £12 13s. 4d. is still paid, namely £8 8s. 10½d., from Upholland and £4 4s. 5½d. from Dalton, the portion that belongs to the rector besides this modus being, as I suppose, the small tithes of hay, &c.

Parson Fleetwood lived at a time when religious differences ran high, especially in Lancashire, where parties were more evenly divided than they were in other parts of England. He was himself a zealous reformer, and took an active part, as a justice of the peace, against the Popish recusants, as they were called.

The papal bull for the deposition of Elizabeth in 1570, declaring her an excommunicated heretic, and as such depriving her of her pretended title to the crown, had served to bring out England's loyalty towards her, while the horrors of the butcheries of Alva the Spanish general in the Netherlands, and the massacre on St. Bartholomew's day, revived the memories of the bloodshed of Mary's reign. These national sentiments greatly strengthened the hands of Elizabeth, and enabled her to enforce the act of