Every one has frequently heard this reverend son of the church mentioned; probably his name may have outlived the recollection of his pious manoeuvres: he was in his principles a Sixtus the Fifth. The vicar of Bray, in Berkshire, was a Papist under the reign of Henry the Eighth, and a Protestant under Edward the Sixth; he was a Papist again under Mary, and once more became a Protestant in the reign of Elizabeth. When this scandal to the gown was reproached for his versatility of religious creeds, and taxed for being a turn-coat and an inconstant changeling, as Fuller expresses it, he replied, "Not so, neither! for if I changed my religion, I am sure I kept true to my principle; which is, to live and die the Vicar of Bray!"

This vivacious and reverend hero has given birth to a proverb peculiar to his county, "The Vicar of Bray will be Vicar of Bray still." Fuller tells us, in his facetious chronicle of his Worthies, that this vicar had seen some martyrs burnt two miles off at Windsor, and found this fire too hot for his tender temper. He was one of those who, though they cannot turn the wind, will turn their mills, and set them so, that wheresoever it bloweth, their grist shall certainly be ground.