Page:The History of the Church & Manor of Wigan part 2.djvu/161

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The bishop seems to have given him a noble entertainment on his arrival at Chester; for there is an item in his accounts for that year of £100 for the entertainment of Lord Wentworth, the Earl of Castlehaven, and others, at Chester for four days. About this time began what the bishop calls his "great trouble." The zeal and activity he displayed in putting down licentiousness in his diocese without respect of persons, had naturally made him many enemies. Among these one James Martin, a clever and unprincipled clergyman who had ten years previously been deprived for gross misconduct and neglect of duty, was especially bitter against him. This man, in order to avenge himself, formed a conspiracy with John Lewes (another deprived minister), and Henry Reynolds (a Wigan solicitor who had been debarred from practising in court for forgery and other crimes), to defame the bishop's character, giving out that he was not so good a man as he was generally reputed to be. They circulated