a bishopric when offered him, and whom, therefore, at any rate, his
adversaries must allow to have been sincere; Thomas Young, Matthew
Newcomen, and William Spurstow. To this reply was given the name of
Smectymnuus--a startling word, as Calamy calls it, made up of the initial
letters of these names. This work, which was published in 1641, gave,
says Dr. M'Crie, the first serious blow to Prelacy. It was composed in a
style superior to that of the Puritans in general, and was, by the
confession of the learned Bishop Wilkins, a capital work against
Episcopacy. Dr. Kippis says, 'This piece is certainly written with great
fierceness and asperity of language,' and quotes, as evidence, some
strong things said against the practice of the prelates. But Neal, who
has given a long account of the work, states that, if the rest of the
clergy had been of the same temper and spirit with Bishop Hall, the
controversy between him and the Smectymnian divines might have been
compromised.

Stowmarket, as I have said, had the honour of being placed under the
pastoral care of one of these Smectymnian divines. He came there in
March, 1628, on the presentation of Mr. John Howe, a gentleman then
residing in the town, and a man of wealth, whose ancestors had been great
cloth-manufacturers in that place and neighbourhood. Since the time of
Edward III. the cloth manufacture had been very active in Suffolk, and it
is little to the credit of its merchants that we find them, in 1522,
petitioning for the repeal of a royal law which inflicted a penalty
against those who sold cloth which, when wetted, shrunk up, on the plea
that, as such goods were made for a foreign market, the home-consumer was
not injured. Stowmarket, when I was a lad, had reached its climax in a
pecuniary sense. In the early part of the present century it was spoken
of as a rising town. Situated as it was in the centre of the county, it
was a convenient mart for barley, and great quantities of malt were made.
Its other manufactures were sacking, ropes, and twine. Its tanneries
were of a more recent date, as also its manufactory of gun-cotton,
connected with which at one time there was an explosion of a most fatal
and disastrous character. In 1763 it was connected with Ipswich by means
of a canal, which was a great source of prosperity to the town. Up to
the time of the great Reform Bill, it was the great place for county
meetings, and for the nomination of the county rep