most ever I knew! The Meeting Place very convenient for many to heare with an easy voice. Many godly ministers in the country about ; and the place publique and of great resort and concernment. Sir, you know that the maine part of the comfort of a minister's life lyeth in the Piety, Stability, and Encouraging Obedience of his People. Tallents had scruples about the position of Fisher, who wrote to the parish through Richard Pigot, the headmaster of Shrewsbury School, "not his willingness alone, but his earnest desire to have Mr. Tallents settle with them." This decided the matter and Tallents decided to accept. His formal nomination to the post of curate and lecturer was dated 4 January 1653. The committee of plundered ministers added £50 to his income of £150 from the church. This was derived from the impropriate rectory of Oswestry, formerly held by lord Craven, whose property had been sequestrated for delinquency. As a minister, Tallents could be nonconformist even under the Commonwealth of England. In 1653 the Nominated Assembly decreed that all marriages should be solemnised before a Justice of the Peace. Tallents was opposed to this and decided to continue hearing the promises and pronouncing the couple married, reducing the JP to silence beside him until the time came to validate the ceremony. This was also the year he himself married for the first time: to Anne Lomax (born 1632), who was a niece of Samuel Hildersam, the minister at West Felton, member of the Westminster Assembly and son of Arthur Hildersam. They were married at West Felton on 9 June. Tallents acted on a larger scale than his own church. An ordinance of 22 August 1654 set up county commissions for ejecting "scandalous, ignorant, and insufficient or negligent ministers and schoolmasters." For Shropshire 21 commissioners were appointed, with 20 "Ministers Assistant." Tallents was one of those appointed. There is no extant record of their proceedings but about six ministers are known to have been dealt with. Some were clearly unpopular with their people, for example, William Gower, a Scot who had been installed at Moreton Corbet after it was taken during the Civil War. The parish register asserts that he was a usurper installed by "Traytors and Rebells" but omits to mention that he was ejected by the Commonwealth too. The preaching ministry involved controversy over basic principles of Christian belief. In 1652