york00orns

ARCHBISHOP NEH.E. 373
Bethel, whose hearts are over seas,i and he wishes
that their hearts and bodies were confined together."-
The days were now gone by when the northern
province was governed by prelates who sympathised,
less or more, with the Puritan portion of the clerg)'.
Harsnett did not live long enough to do much as
regarded the diocese of York, in the way of purging
it of "the men of Dan and Bethel," for he died 25th
May, 1631.
But he was succeeded by one who carried out
Laud's policy with great determination and no little
intolerance. Neile, who had held five bishoprics in
succession, was translated from Winchester to York
soon after Archbishop Harsnett's death.
Puritanism had by this time gained a considerable
hold over certain classes in Yorkshire. Many Roman
Catholics, no doubt, still existed, but in places like
Leeds and Hull, and amongst such of the gentry as
had accepted the Reformation, the predominant form
which their religion assumed was undoubtedly of a
Puritan type.
They must have been greatly exercised by much
which they saw and heard during Neile's episcopate.
A few instances may be briefly recorded. A new
church had been built at Leeds by a Mr. John Harrison,
a native of that town. It was consecrated by
the Archbishop on the 21st September, 1634. The
sermon on the occasion was preached by Cosin,
'
This is an allusion to the voluntary exile into which many
of the Puritan ministers went, rather than submit to subscription
to the Three Articles.
' S. P. Dom. Charles I., cl. 28.