John Holmes

John Holmes was brought up under Bishop Jewel, and was an excellent preacher, and a man of great piety. Bishop Woolton of Exeter having obtained a good opinion of him, presented him to the benefice of Keane in Devonshire. He no sooner entered upon his public charge, than he began to labour as a faithful steward of the manifold mysteries of God. Being deeply concerned for the welfare of his flock, he manifested a strong affection for their best interests. He embraced every opportunity of affording them the best instruction, particularly by his catechetical exercises, a practice to which they had been very little accustomed. He also faithfully reproved their gross vices and disorders; for which he was complained of to the

• Baker's MS. Collec. vol. Xt. p. 76. t See Art. Cartwrigbt.

t Mather's Hist, of New Eng. b. iii. p. 10.

bishop; who, though he had been minister of the same place, deprived him of the living. In the year 1590, Humphrey Specot, esq. presented Mr. Holmes to the rectory of Tetcote, in the same county; but the above prelate refused him institution, and put him to numerous troubles, pretending that Mr. Holmes was an inveterate schismatic, merely because he could not with a good conscience observe every punctilio of conformity.