ABSTRACT
Before Grindal’s defence of preaching and prophesying brought the differences into sharp focus, Elizabeth seems to have ordered the exercises to be put down whenever she was reminded of their existence. As early as 1574, before the death of Parker, the exercises in the diocese of Norwich came under suspicion when it was learned that four preachers suspended in the recent ‘inquisition’ were still using them as a platform. The final crisis began in the summer of 1576 when, after fresh complaints from the judges of assize and some bishops, the queen was in particular ‘most grievously informed’ touching the conduct of both preachers and gentlemen at Southam in Warwickshire. The schismatic tendencies of the Southam exercise are clear. Grindal, like others before him, might have side-stepped the issue, taking advantage of the limitations of Tudor government and the protestant sympathies of so many of its local agents.
