But
the relations between vicar and lecturer continued strained, and the
former bethought him of his faithful clerk, Robert Langdon, as a helper
in the ministry. He applied to the bishop to raise him to the diaconate,
and this was done, Langdon being ordained deacon on 21 September, 1606,
by William Cotton, Bishop of Exeter. The record of this notable event,
the ordination of a parish clerk, thus appears in the ordination
register of the diocese:
"In festo Matthaei Apostoli Dominus Episcopus in ecclesia
parochiali de Silfertone xxi mo die Septembris 1606 ordines
sacros celebrando ordinavit, sequuntur Diaconi tunc et
ibidinem ordinati videlicet Robertus Langdon de Barnestapli."
[Footnote 95: _Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the
Advancement of Science, Literature, and Art_, 1904, xxxvi. pp. 390-414.]
Langdon remained parish clerk and deacon nineteen years, and the
register contained the record of his burial, "Robert Langdon deacon 5th
July 1625." He seems to have brought peace to the troubled mind of his
vicar, whose tombstone declares:
"Many are the troubles of the Righteous
But the Lord delivereth out of all."
Langdon used to keep the registers, and he began to record in them a
series of notes on passing events which add greatly to the interest of
such volumes.
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