The duty of the Lynn Clergy must have been much greater then, especially during the time of Lent, than it is at present; for it may be supposed that these applications for licences were not few or unfrequent: and if they were obliged to do this work for nothing, it must have been still harder upon them. However that was, this practice seems to have continued till the civil wars broke out, or till the town was besieged and taken by the Earl of Manchester, when it was strongly garrisoned by the parliament, and made to undergo a civil as well as religious reformation. This appears to have been the greatest and most thorough reformation this town ever underwent, or experienced; at least, since the days of Henry VIII: for the long parliament, like his majesty, seldom did things by halves, but generally carried on with energy and effect whatever they took earnestly in hand. It may very safely be concluded that the religious observance of Lent was discontinued at Lynn from the time referred to till the _restoration_, when it seems to have been again revived, both here and throughout the kingdom, among all true churchmen. For it appears to have been one of those choice and invaluable blessings which Charles II, (that _most sacred_, and _most religious_ sovereign, as his bishops and clergy used to call him,) restored to us at his return from exile. Accordingly, we find, by the public prints and records of that period, that his majesty from the beginning of his reign, or first arrival, was attentive to this point. Among other plain indications of this is a striking passage in the _Mercurius Publicus_, of February 21, 1661, (a flaming weekly court paper of that time,) which is worded as follows.