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MATTHEW W R E N, D. D.

" send you may be a true Prophet concerning your Master’s Inclinations in" these Particulars, which we are glad to hear from you ; I am sure I shall" be a true Prophet ; I shall be in my Grave, and so lhall you, my Lord of“ Durham, but my Lord of St. David’s, and you, Doctor, will live to see“ that Day that your Master will be put to it, upon his Head and his Crown,

" without he will forsake the Support of the Church.”

Of this Prediction made by that holy Father, I have now no Witness butmine own Conscience, and the eternal God, who knows I lie not; no Body elsebeing present when this was spoken, but these three Lords.

H remarkable Record among the Papers, and Evidences of BishopWren, preparatory to his Defence, upon his Impeachment bythe House of Commons. ' '

INDORSEMENT.

Arcb-bifhop Laud ’j Certificate to the King [Charles I.] touching Nor-wich Diocese, and the King’s Notes upon the fame, 1636.-Extract.

e registro principal! scdis archiepiscopalis CantuarienflS.

F OR this Diocess, my Lord [of Norwich~\ hath given me a very care-[Or.Matthewful and punctual Account, very large, and in all Particulars very con-^ re "’ Bl ~liderable; and I shall return it to your Majesty as briefly as I can reduce it.

And Firs, he hath for this Summer, but by your Majesty’s Leave, lived(from both his episcopal Houses) in Ipswich, partly because he was inform’d,that, that Side of his Diocese did most need his Presence, and he found it so;and partly, because the Chapel at his House in Norwich was possessed by theFrench Congregation ; but Warning hath been given them to provide elsewhereby Baser next.

His Lordship found a general Defect of catechising quite through theDiocese, but hath settled it ; and in Norwich, where there are thirty-fourChurches, there was no Sermon on the Sunday Morning, save only in four,but all put off to the Afternoon, and so no catechising. But now he hath or-der d, that there shall be a Sermon every Morning, and catechising in theAfternoon in every Church.

For Lectures, they abounded in Suffolk, and many set up by private Gentle-men, even without so much as the Knowledge of the Ordinary, and withoutany due Observation of the Canons, or Discipline of the Church. Diverseof these, his Lordship hath carefully regulated according to Order, especiallyin St. Edmund’s-Bury, and with their very good Content; and suspended noLecturer of whom he might obtain Conformity. And at Ipswich, it wasnot unknown unto them, that now Mr. JVard stands censur’d in the highCommission, and obeys not, yet the Bishop was ready to have allow’d themanother, if they would have sought him, but they resolve to have Mr.

Ward, or none, and that (as is conceiv’d) in despite of the Censure os theCourt.

At Tar mouth, where there was great Division heretofore for many Years,their Lecturer being censur’d in the high Commission about two Years since,

'vent into New-England, since which Time, there hath been no Lecture,and very much Peace in the Town, and all ecclesiastical Orders well observ’d.

But in Norwich, one Mr. Bridge, rather than he would conform, hath left Let him gt,

h* S Lectures, and two Cures, and is gone into Holland. The Lecturers

the Country generally observe no Church Orders at all; and yet the Bisliop tn >m ‘

hath