york00orns

ARCHBISHOP DOLBEN. 399
matically put to them ; oftentimes the result of the
basest conduct on the part of informers, whose one
sole object was to secure money for themselves out
of the penalties that were levied on the unhappy
recusants.
Archbishop Dolben's tenure of the chair of York
did not extend over many years, but he showed himself
not unworthy of his high office during his somewhat
brief episcopate. The injunctions he gave to
the capitular body of York show a deep anxiety that
the great mother church of the diocese should be, as
he expresses it, " a seminary and nursery of Christian
virtue." There was evidently not a little laxity and
no little carelessness on the part of some of the
higher clergy of the Minster. The Archbishop complains
" that many of them when they are to preach
doe spend the time of prayers in the vestry or elsewhere,
not comeing into the quire till they are called
to the pulpit, to the offence of the congregation and
lessening the esteeme of the holy offices of the
church," and he earnestly enjoins reformation in that
particular. He likewise draws attention to the injunctions
of his predecessor. Archbishop Holgate, on
a yet higher subject, the weekly celebration of the
Holy Communion, in accordance with the rubric;
and he directs that from the first Sunday after the
following Easter, each Lord's day should witness such
celebration in future.
His exhortations were not wholly fruitless. There was
one at least among the dignitaries of the Minster who
had a deep regard for all that concerned the public
worship of the House of God. Dr. Comber was then