Only towards the end of July did he yield, perhaps,
to the persuasion or entreaty of others, and moved away to the
southern part of his diocese, taking up his residence at Hoxne, in
Suffolk, where he stayed till October, when he once more returned to
his house at Thorpe by Norwich. The palace had become at last
absolutely uninhabitable.
To Hoxne accordingly the newly-appointed clergy came in troops, and
during the first seven weeks after the Bishop's arrival he admitted
no less than eighty-two parsons, a larger number than had been the
average of a whole year heretofore. Did they all betake themselves to
their several parishes and brave the peril and set themselves to the
grim work before them? They could not help themselves. Where the
benefice was a vicarage an oath to reside upon his cure was in every
case rigorously imposed upon the newly-appointed; and though the law
did not sanction this in the case of rectors, yet not a single
instance of a licence of non-residence occurs; the difficulty of
finding substitutes was becoming daily more and more insuperable, and
the penalty of deserting a parish without licence was a great deal
too serious to be disregarded. In the months of June, July, and
August things were at their worst, as might have been expected. In
July alone there were two hundred and nine institutions.
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