Hurrying on to Norwich, the Bishop stayed but a single day, leaving
his official at the palace. He himself had to present himself before
the King to give account of his mission; on the 19th he was in
London; on the 4th of July he was back again in his diocese. During
the twenty days that had passed since he had left Gillingham, exactly
_one hundred_ clergymen had been admitted to vacant cures, all
of them crossing the horrible cemetery where the callous gravediggers
were at work night and day, the sultry air charged with suffocating
stench, poisoning the breath of heaven. Yet there the Bishop's vicar-
general had to stay, eat, drink, and sleep--if he could--and there he
did stay till the Bishop came back and relieved him of the dreadful
work.
Meanwhile the gentry too had been dying. It is clear that in the
upper ranks the men died more frequently than the women, explain it
how you will. During June and July no fewer than fifteen patrons of
livings were widows, while in thirteen other benefices the patronage
was in the hands of the executors or trustees of gentlemen who had
died. During the month of July in scarcely a village within five
miles of Norwich had the parson escaped the mortality, yet in Norwich
the intrepid Bishop remained in the very thick of it all, as if he
would defy the angel of death, or at least show an example of the
loftiest courage.
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