Church history in Devizes was to say the least colourful. Burning at
the stake was the dire penalty for holding beliefs contrary to the
Church establishment. William Prior of Devizes was burnt in Salisbury
for professing Lollardy,
a sect that attacked the Church for its
worldliness and corruption. John Bent, a tailor, of Erchfont, was burnt
to death in Devizes Market Place in 1523 for denying
transubstantiation.
Religious controversy dogged Devizes history from
earliest times. John Maundrell of Rowde was burnt at Salisbury for
Protestantism in 1557, the year that also saw the last Catholic
incumbent in the Devizes living.
During the seventeenth century civil war, the Rev John Shepherd, a
Presbyterian minister to the rectorship, was dragged from the pulpit of
St John's Church by one, Captain Pretty, aided by 'divers soldiers
armed in a most irreverent manner' to 'the abominable disturbance of
the whole congregation'. In 1661 many townspeople were committed to
prison for attending Quakers' meetings.
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