towards the middle of the sixteenth century, in the county of Rutland; studied divinity at Cambridge; and afterwards became a schoolmaster in Southwark. About the year 1580 he began to inveigh, with equal intemperance and ardour, against the doctrines and discipline of the Church of England; and, settling at Norwich, gained many proselytes, of whom the majority were Dutch and Flemings, being of the number of the refugees whom religious persecution had then recently driven from their own country. Ere long he was himself driven by persecution to seek a refuge at Middleburgh, in Holland, where he and his followers established themselves under the protection of the government. Returning to England, he continued to disseminate his opinions, till, being excommunicated for contempt of a summons to appear before the Bishop of Peterborough, he was induced to renounce the principles he had so zealously inculcated, and even to return to the communion of the Church, in which he obtained preferment, being appointed to a living in Northamptonshire. His first sentiments, however, survived his own desertion of them, and led to the founding of the sect called Independents, whose tenets were more moderate than those of the proper Brownists, as, indeed, they have continued to increase in liberality to the present day. Browne's death was worthy of the turbulent career exhibited by his life; he dying, in 1630, in his eighty-first year, in Northampton gaol, to which he had been committed for an assault. He exulted in the persecutions to which he had been subjected; boasting that he had been con fined, at various times, in thirty-two prisons, in some of which he could not see his hand at noon-day. George Gaskin, D.D. was Lecturer for forty-six years, resigning in 1822, on being preferred to a prebendary's stall at Ely. He was also Rector of StokeNewington, and of St. Bennet, Gracechurch, and, for a long period, Secretary to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. The Rev. J. E. Denham, A.B. succeeded Dr. Gaskin, but left the parish: and the afternoon lectureship, to which, for a century and a half, it had been the custom of the inhabitants to appoint, became merged in the performance of three services, under the arrangements made by the Bishop of Calcutta, then Vicar, who undertook to make adequate provision for the afternoon duty. We must not quit the ecclesiastical history of Islington without recording, that an establishment called the "Brotherhood of Jesus," appears to have been connected with its church prior to the Reformation. Mention of this fraternity, together with many curious particulars connected with the superstition of the times, occurs in the will of a parishioner, named Richard Cloudesley, which is still preserved in the London Registry. The following are extracts from the most important of its clauses which bear reference to this parish: "In the name of God, Amen. In the name of the Holy Trinity, Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost, Amen, the 13th day of the month of January, the year of our Lord, 1517, and the ninth year of the reign of King Henry VIIIth. I, Richard, otherwise called Richard Cloudysley, clere of mind, and in my good memory being, loved be Almighty God, make and ordain my testament or my last will, in this manner and form as followeth. First, I bequeath and recommend my soul unto Almighty God, my Creator and Saviour, and his most blessed moder Saint Mary the Virgin, and to all the Holy Company of Heaven. My body, after I am past this present and transitory life, to be buried within the church-yard of the parish Church of Islington, near unto the grave of my father and moder, on whose souls Jesu have mercy. Also I bequeath to the high altar of the same church, for tythes and oblations peradventure by me forgotten or withholden, in discharging of my conscience, 20s. Also I bequeath to the said church of Islington eight torches, price the piece six shillings, four of them, after my month's mind is holden and kept, to remain to the Brotherhood of Jesu within the said church, and the other four torches to burn at the sacryng of the high mass within the said church as long as they will last. " Item, I give and bequeath to the common box of the said parish 20s. Item, I give and bequeath to two poor men of the parish of Islington two gowns, with the name of Jesu upon them, every gown price 6s. 8d. Item, I give and bequeath to two poor men of the said parish of Islington two gowns, and the same gowns to have Maria upon them, in the honour of our blessed Lady, every gown price 6s. 8d. Item, I will that the said gowns be given to such honest poor persons as shall honestly wear them while they last, and not to sell them or put them to pledge. my soul, Item, I "Item, I give and bequeath to the repayring and amending of the causeway between my house that I now dwell in, and Islington Church, 40s. Item, I will that there be incontinently after my decease, as hastily as may be, a thousand masses sayd for and that every priest have for his labour 4d. will that there be dole for my soul the day of burying, to poor people 5 marks in pence. Item, I will that there be bestowed upon the amending the highway between Hyegate-hill and the stony bounds beyond Ring Crosse 201.; and if the said 207. will not make it sufficient, I will there be bestowed thereon other 201. "Item, I bequeath to the poor lazars of Hyegate, to pray for me by name in their bede-role, 6s. 8d. Also, I will that, every month after my decease, there be an obit kept for me in Islington Church, and each priest and clerk have for their paines to be taken, as they used to have afore this time. And I will that there be distributed at every obit, to poor people, to pray for my soul, 6s. 8d. "I will that all that now be seised to my use, and to the performance of my will, or hereafter shall be seised to the same, of and in a parcel of ground called the Stony-field, otherwise called the Fourteen Acres, shall suffer the rents and profits of the same from henceforth to be counted to this use ensuing; that is to say, I will that, yearly after my decease, the parishioners of the parish of Islington, or the more part of them, once in the year, at the parish church aforesaid, shall elect and choose six honest and discreet men of the said parish, such as they think most meet to have the order and distribution of the rent and profit aforesaid, which rent I will shall by the said six persons be bestowed in manner and form following; that is to say, I will, that there be yearly, for ever, a solemn obit to be kept for me within the said church of Islington, and that there be spent at the obit 20s. And also, that there be dealt to poor people of the said parish at every obit, to pray for my soul, my wife's soul, and all Christen souls, 6s. 8d. And further, I will that the said six persons shall yeerely pay, or do to be paid, to the wardens of the Brotherhood of Jesu, 17. 6s. 8d. towards maintaining of the masse of Jesu within the said churche; upon this condition, that the said wardens shall yeerely, for ever, cause a trental of masses to be said for my soul in the said churche; and further, I will that the aforesaid six persons shall have among them for their labour, to see the true performance of the same, yearly, at every obite 10s '." 1 All the provisions made by Cloudesley for the pardon of his sins, and the repose of his soul, would seem, however, if we may give credit to the testimony of an ancient writer, to have proved inoperative. The author alluded to, after speaking of earthquakes and similar phenomena of nature, proceeds thus:-" And as to the same heavings or tremblements de terre, it is sayd y' in a certain fielde, near unto y parish church of Islingtoun, in like manner did take place a wondrous commotion in various partes, y earthe swellinge, and turninge uppe every side towards ye the midst of ye sayde fielde, and, by tradycion of this, it is obserued yt one Richard De Clouseley lay buried in or neare yt place, and yt his bodie being restless, on y score of some sinne by him peradventure committed, did shewe or seeme to signifie yt religious obseruance should there take place, to quiet his departed spirit; whereupon certaine exorcisers, if we may so term y", did at dede of night, nothing lothe, using divers diuine exercises at torche light, set at rest y unrulie spirit of ye sayde Clouesley, and ye earthe |