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cosin's visitation articles. 371
Archbishop Mathew dealt kindly with those of his
clergy who held Puritan views. He is said to have
encouraged those who were active promoters of the
exercises, as they were then called— a species of lectures
which, in the hands of judicious men, need
scarcely have excited the jealousy which they did.
Amongst the clergy who occupied prominent positions
in the diocese during his episcopate a name
occurs which cannot be passed over without notice.
It is the well-known name of John Cosin. He became
archdeacon of the East Riding in 1625, and his
Visitation Articles, issued in 1627, are worth noting
as illustrating the state of the clergy of that period.
" Lax habits of life must have been far from uncommon.
Many must have ministered without having
had episcopal ordination The particularity of
the query as to the daily saying of the service by the
clergy is noteworthy. . . . Other queries throw light
upon prevailing irregularities, as, for example, those
which note the slovenly habit, apparently not infrequent,
of omitting nearly the whole of the opening
exhortation, and the license, which seems to have
been not unusually taken by some, of exercising their
individual discretion as to what Psalms and Lessons
should be used. To these may be added the stringent
questions which are put as to the constant use of the
surplice. It is matter of special inquiry whether it is
used at the Holy Communion by the celebrant, and
by the minister assisting him, and likewise whether
it is worn at weddings and funerals." 1
' " Cosin Correspondence," Introd., pp. xviii. xix. See also
pp. 106, et scq. (Pub. Surtces Soc.)
2 B 2