.'
Of the godly ministers, one of the most famous was Samuel Ward, who was
buried in St. Mary-le-Tower Church. In 1666 he preached a sermon at St.
Paul's Cross. But he meddled with politics. For instance, in 1621 he
published a caricature picture, entitled 'Spayne and Rome Defeated.' It
is thus described: The Pope and his Council are represented in the centre
of the piece, and beneath, on one side the Armada, and on the other the
Gunpowder Treason. Gondomar, the Spanish Ambassador, complained of it as
insulting to his master. Ward was placed in custody. Being
Puritanically inclined, he was, in addition, prosecuted in the Consistory
Court of Norwich by Bishop Harsnet for Nonconformity. Ten years later,
when 600 persons were contemplating a removal from Ipswich to New
England--as a place where they could worship God without fear of priest
or king--the blame was cast by Laud on Ward. Rushworth informs us that
the charges laid against him were that he preached against the common
bowing at the name of Jesus and against the King's 'Book of Sports,' and
further said that the Church of England was ready to ring changes in
England, and that the Gospel stood on tiptoe as ready to be gone; and for
this he was removed from his lectureship and sent to gaol. John Ward,
his brother, Rector of St. Clement's, was a member of the Assembly of
Divines, and was called to preach two sermons before the House of
Commons, for which he received the thanks of the House. At that time we
find a reference to Ipswich as a place which 'the Lord hath long made
famous and happy as a valley of Gospel vision.' Such places, alas! seem
to have been commoner formerly than they are now.

One of the Congregational churches of Ipswich, at any rate, has very
interesting historical associations. 'Salem Chapel,' writes the Rev.
John Browne, in his 'History of Congregationalism in Suffolk and
Norfolk,' 'stands in St. George's Lane, opposite the place where St.
George's Chapel formerly stood, where Bilney was apprehended when
preaching in favour of the Reformation, and where he so enraged the monks
that they twice plucked him out of the pulpit.' The last time I was at
Ipswich I saw bricklayers at work at the old Presbyterian church in St.
Nicholas Street, which it would be a pity to see modernized, being such a
fine illustration of the old-fashioned Dissenting Meeting-house, before
it became the fashion to have a taste and to build Gothic chapels in
wh