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SEVENTH SERIES. VOLUME EIGHTH.
JULY-DECEMBER 1889.

LONDON:

PUBLISHED AT THE

OFFICE, 22, TOOK'S COURT, CHANCERY LANE, E.C.
BY JOHN C. FRANCIS.

18 9 8 4 8

LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 6, 1889.

CONTENTS. - N° 184.

BISHOP SCORY AND SWITHUN BUTTERFIELD.
John Scory, born at Acle, in Norfolk, and
Bishop successively of Rochester, Chichester, and
Hereford, is a person of whom the Earnest Pro-
testant cannot feel quite so proud as he would like
to feel. For "even Scory and Barlow, who from
the beginning had discovered a particular inclina-
tion to the reformed doctrin octrine, thought fit"-in
Bloody Mary's reign-" to conform for a while;
till, meeting with no preferment, they relapsed
and went abroad." So saith Dodd's 'Church
History of England,' pt. iii. bk. i. art. iii. Some
man, indeed, may say that Dodd was not Dodd at
all, and was a base and insidious Roman Catholic.
But Collier was not so, nor was Fuller. And Fuller,
in his 'Church History of Britain,' bk. ix., saith that
"John Scory, late Bishop of Chichester," was one
of the "Protestant Disputants" at the Westminster
Deputation in the first year of Elizabeth. "The
passages of this disputation," adds Reverend Fuller,
"(whereof more Noise than fruit, and wherein
more Passion than Reason, Cavils than Arguments)
are largely reported by Mr. Fox," whose in-
structive work is still to be found in the cabinets
of the curious. Collier also is very bold, and
speaketh on this wise:- "Scory, late Bishop of
Chichester, though removed upon Day's being
restored, went a full length in his compliance"

under Mary. "He made his appearance before
Bonner, renounced his matrimony"-more shame
to him-"submitted to penance, and had a formal
absolution July 14, 1554" ('Eccl. Hist.,' vol. ii.
bk. v.). Nevertheless, knowing the value of Dr.
Bonner's absolution, Scory wisely fled to other
climes, and went, if I am not mistaken, not only
to Emden, but to Zurich, the mother church of
which Protestant town is still open to all comers
on payment of twopence at the door. So much
for John Scory, in his original character of the
persecuted innocent. I have only mentioned him
in order to introduce my young friend Swithun

Butterfield, "of whom presently," as Sir Bernard

says.

In. 1577, when the spacious times of great Eliza

beth were in full swing, John Scory had been
Bishop of Hereford for many a good year. He
had seen his desire upon his enemies, who, how-
ever, I am happy to find, continued to exasperate
him though they could not burn him. But he had
many privileges, one of which was the possession
of a highly respectable steward or agent, Giles
Allen to wit, the "Supervisor omnium terrarum "
of the see. And Swithun Butterfield, dear as he
has become to me, was nothing more than Giles
Allen's deputy-a modest or even an humble
position. Yet was he a generosus and an armiger,
and gave for his impresa a griffin passant gardant
or, on a field gules; with a demi-griffin for crest,
and for motto the cheering words "ie vis en
espoir." Apparently he was not of the aristocratic
county of Hereford; for he was "Natus in
Vxbridge in Comitatu Midd. et ibm' Baptizatus
fuit iiij die Mensis Januarii Ao Dni 1547 et Regni
Regis Edwardi Sexti Secundo."

At the age of thirty, then, and in the year 1577

aforesaid, Swithun Butterfield set himself, or was

set by Giles Allen, to make a "supervisus" of the

bishop's lands and rental, which took him nearly

three years to do, and a year more to arrange and

index the result. And this "supervisus" is the

book whereby I came to know him. He has cast

his bread upon the waters with some effect; for

his work, the work literally of his own hands, is

still the standard and ultimate authority upon the

subject of which it treats. It is a noble square

folio, bound in old calf, and consisting of 249

leaves of parchment, each of them (except two)

fully written over on both sides by S. B. himself.

And the title of it, written in bold black letter,

and in manner of a colophon, upon the first page,

is this :-

"Liber supervisus maneriorum terrarum tenementorum

Ac omnium Reddituum & aliorum profic--orum annua-
tim pertinentium ad Episcopatum Hereforden': factus in
tempore Reverendi in Chr'o patris Johannis Scory Here-
forden: Epi' per Swithu'm | Butterfield deputatum Egidii
possessionum ad Episcopatum Hereforden
| Allen supervisoris terrarum tenementoru' et
pertinentium Annis Domini [ 1577 & 1578.

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