Religious and Cultural Life
The driving force behind Gloucester's commitment to the parliamentary cause
during the English Revolution was a vision, shared by a substantial number of the
aldermen, of the city as a godly, staunchly Calvinist stronghold. In 1643 the town
clerk John Dorney declared that Gloucester was 'a free city … free from Popery and
… free from tyranny … a famous city, famous … for constancy in the cause of
God and of the commonwealth'. (fn. 1) Eight years later he lauded it as 'a city saved by the
Lord, a maiden city'. (fn. 2) Shortly after the meeting of the Long Parliament Gloucester
petitioned for the new modelling of its many small parishes to provide livings for
learned preachers (fn. 3) and at the end of the siege it renewed its call. (fn. 4) In April 1648
parliament passed an Ordinance creating from ten of the eleven city parishes four
enlarged parishes each with a godly divine; some dean and chapter lands were
assigned to support the preachers. (fn. 5) Though the corporation probably exercised de
facto control over the cathedral precincts from the late 1640s, it obtained official
jurisdiction over them in 1657. (fn. 6)
In 1646 Dorney observed how 'instead of episcopacy (which seems to lie in the
dust) a Presbytery is expected … and a spiritual instead of a formal and pompous
service'. (fn. 7) Most of the ministers in the period were Presbyterians but there was no
formal classis: congregational Presbyterianism was the rule. After 1648 the corporation appointed new ministers on the initiative of parishes. (fn. 8) As well as the four city
preachers there were several parish lectureships, both civic and privately financed. (fn. 9)
Parochial reform made possible the demolition or conversion to other uses of several
churches, including those damaged by the siege. All Saints' church was incorporated
in a new Tolsey to replace the old building which had been hit during the
bombardment, (fn. 10) and St. Mary de Grace, St. Catherine, and St. Aldate were taken
down in the mid 1650s; St. Owen had been demolished at the start of the siege. (fn. 11)
During the 1630s the magistracy had clashed with Laud over the grammar schools.
After 1642 the masters of the College school as well as the Crypt school generally
supported the corporation's puritan stance. (fn. 12) In 1648 the city approved the establishment of an English school in Trinity church. (fn. 13) The same year Thomas Pury the
younger and other puritans re-established Bishop Goodman's library in the cathedral
chapter house. (fn. 14) In 1657 the corporation took charge and began to equip it as a public
library. In addition to books purchased by the chamber, donations of works came
from leading citizens. (fn. 15) Moral reform had been a preoccupation of the magistracy
since the start of the 17th century. During the Revolution controls were tightened.
Action was taken against those disturbing the sanctity of the sabbath and against
gamesters, players, and alehouse keepers. (fn. 16)
Though previously insignificant, separatism gained ground in the early 1640s,
encouraged by the influx of outsiders. (fn. 17) Two preachers from Herefordshire, Robert
Hart and a Mr. Vaughan, were among the first to gain a following for separatist views,
and the sectary Robert Bacon later came from Bristol and, according to Richard
Baxter, gained many adherents to his antinomian doctrines. In 1644 Bacon preached a
sermon on the public fast day which provoked an outcry from the Presbyterian clergy.
Bacon was examined by the governor, Massey, and urged to depart the city by the
mayor but refused. After a disputation in the cathedral with Massey's chaplain
Corbet, Bacon was expelled, (fn. 18) Hart and other clergy disassociating themselves from
the expulsion. By then anti-Trinitarian views had also reached Gloucester: the master
of the Crypt school, John Biddle, was accused before the magistrates of Socinianism,
and in 1645 he was imprisoned and removed from the school. (fn. 19) John Knowles, a lay
preacher who shared Biddle's views, was active in and around the city in 1646, and the
following year another Socinian, John Cooper, became master of the Crypt school. (fn. 20)
In 1647 John Dorney warned of the dangers of intolerance towards the sects and there
may have been more religious dissension two years later. (fn. 21) Only a little is known
about the separatists' activity in the 1650s and the impression is that their following
was small. (fn. 22) In 1654 a Quaker disrupted a city sermon and the movement won some
support. (fn. 23) Early in 1660 George Fox attended a meeting of Friends at Gloucester. (fn. 24)
Over all, however, what is striking is the success of the city fathers in stamping their
own broadly Presbyterian vision of a godly commonwealth on Gloucester during the
Interregnum.