The bishops denounced sentence of excommunication against all transgressors, and soon after Howel himself went to Rome attended by the archbishop of St David's, the bishops of Bangor and St Asaph and thirteen other personages.
He had been nominated bishop of St Asaph in 1536, translated to St David's in the same year, and to Bath and Wells in 1547.
The first volume was attacked in 1733 for unfairness and inaccuracy by Isaac Maddox, afterwards bishop of St Asaph and of Worcester, to whom Neal replied in a pamphlet, A Review of the principal facts objected to in the first volume of the History of the Puritans; and the remaining volumes by Zachary Grey (1688-1766), to whom the author made no reply.
He began a "History of his Native District of Northern Wiltshire," but, feeling that he was too old to finish it as he would wish, he made over his material, about 1695, to Thomas Tanner, afterwards bishop of St Asaph.
He was patronized by Robert, earl of Gloucester, and by two bishops of Lincoln; he obtained, about 1140, the archdeaconry of Llandaff "on account of his learning"; and in 1151 was promoted to the see of St Asaph.
