LIBRARY OF THE PKI VniTOX, M. J. DONATION lH - *■ SAM U K' 1 . A < i N E W , , "«> p ni>j. i ii k. 1. 1 'it i a; ha. Letter Q 2. - . No. D J / — BX 5173 .P3 1851 « Palin, William, 1803-1882. The history of the Church of England from the Revolutior Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/historyofchurchoOOpali THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE LAST ACTS OF CONVOCATION, A.D. 1G88— 1717. BY THE REV. WILLIAM PALIN, M.A. (trin. coll. camu.) rector of stifford, essex. " A people who can understand and act upon the counsels which God has given it in the past events of its history, is safe in the most dangerous crises of its fate." — Guizot, on the English Revolution, p. 125. XrOtttian : FRANCIS & JOHN RIVINGTON, st. Paul's church yard, and Waterloo place. 1851. LONDON : GILBERT & RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, ST. John's square. CONTENTS. CHAPTEE I. p Introduction New aspect of the Established Church since the Revolution. — Previous intolerance. — Star Chamber. — Penal statutes ac- counted for. — Should be unlimited to be effective. — Short- ened the Reformation, but lessened its force. — This shown by the Church's weakness, at the Revolution, in England, Scotland, and Ireland. — Toleration brings new difficulties. — Dissenters view it as establishment. — Bishop Burnet on their perversion of it CHAPTEE n. Fresh precautions against popery. — The Coronation Oath. — Lord Campbell on the Coronation Oath. — Mr. Macaulay's censure of the precautions. — William III. and the Tolera- tion Act. — Archbishop Sancroft's attempted Comprehension. — A Comprehension again attempted. — Dissenters object to it. — The House of Commons wish it to be referred to Con- vocation. — King appoints a commission to prepare a plan for Convocation. — Commissioners make their report. — Argu- ments for and against a Comprehension CHAPTEE III. Convocation meets. — Prolocutor chosen. — King's message to Convocation respecting the Comprehension. — Debates upon the answer. — An answer agreed upon. — Censure of heretical A 2 LV CONTENTS. PAGE books proposed. — Power of Convocation to censure. — Con- vocation prorogued. — Bishop Burnet on the prorogation. — Causes of failure 45 CHAPTER IV. Nonjuring bishops and clergy under suspension. — The oath modified in vain to conciliate them. — Unaltered in Scotland. — Sancroft deputes his authority for Burnet's consecration. — This commission discussed. — Their active disaffection not feared. — Deprivation a severe penalty.— Power of depriva- tion considered. — Mr. Macaulay's testimony. — Burnet mis- represents them. — Difficulties of their case. — Petition in their favour by conformists. — They prepare for deprivation. — Bishop Ken. — Influence of nonjurors.— Proceedings in Whitechapel church. — Schismatical succession and final ex- tinction. — Protest (>4 CHAPTER V. Archbishop Sancroft succeeded by Tillotson. — Beveridge re- fuses Bath and Wells. — Fifteen new bishops. — Their general character. — Boyle Lecture founded. — Conspiracy against Bishop Sprat. — Administration of justice. — General profli- gacy. — Disorders in the Church. — Courtier bishops. — Puri- tan bishops. — Erastianism. — Spiritual Ministry. — Sunday trading. — Origin of blood-money. — Archbishop Tillotson dies. — Succeeded by Tenison. — Remarkable taxes. — Arch- bishop Sancroft dies. — Queen Mary dies 98 CHAPTER VI. Kettlewell. — Lord Campbell on the Bishops in Fenwick's case. — Absolution of Perkins and Friend at Tyburn. — Pre- sent practice of absolving the condemned. — Irregular mar- riages. — New Version of Psalms. — Liberty of the press. — Firmin. — Spread of Arianism. — Controversy. — Romish schism. — Ultra-protestant schism 146 CONTENTS. V CHAPTEE VII. PAGE Origin of Church Societies. — First proceedings of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. — Dr. Bray. — Society for Propagating the Gospel. — Robert Boyle. — Charity schools. — The Spectator on charity schools. — National Society. — Parochial libraries. — Associates of Dr. Bray. — Renewed efforts of papists. — Bill against them. — Depraved tastes of the people. — Tiger-baiting. — Duelling. — Dean Comber. — Bishop Stillingfleet. — Lord Campbell on di- vorces. — Destitution of Bishop Turner. — Duke of Glouces- ter. — Political, moral, and social state. — Ultra-protestant extravagance. — Quakers' quarrels. — Protestant succes- sion. — Demands for Convocation 165 CHAPTEE VIII. Convocation meets. — Embarrassments from its frequent sus- pension. — Dean Hooper chosen prolocutor. — Archbishop's power to adjourn lower house resisted. — This power dis- cussed. — Burnet's coarseness of invective against lower house. — Toland's case. — He is screened by the bishops and favoured by the government. — Lower house censures Bur- net's Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles. — Upper house assumes power to recommend Burnet's books, but professes itself legally incompetent to censure them. — It censures Davenant's book. — Political corruption. — Bribery at elections. — James II. dies. — Romish intolerance . . .195 CHAPTEE IX. William III. dies 210 CHAPTEE X. Convocation sits. — Representation of grievances by lower house. — Archbishop's answer. — Burnet on archdeacons. — Bishops abdicate their functions. — This one cause of want vi CONTENTS. of confidence in upper house. — Other causes noticed. — Burnet's account of their luxurious mode of life. Their neglect of their dioceses. — Convocation prorogued. — Queen Anne dissolves Spiritual Ministry. — Convocation sits with new Parliament. — Lower house submits the question of its intermediate sessions to the queen. — Burnet misstates the case submitted. — Convocation dissolved. — Origin of High Church and Low Church. — King's evil 226 CHAPTER XI. Further Presbyterian intolerance. — Bishop Ken's corre- spondence respecting his successor.— Bishop Hooper. — Immorality of the stage. — Queen Anne's BouDty. — Previous efforts of Barrow, Sancroft, and Compton, on behalf of poor clergy. — Burnet omits these, but records his own. — Mr. Macaulay on then- poverty. — Duchess of Marlborough. — Locke 248 CHAPTER XII. Burnet's intemperate attack on the Universities, and parochial clergy. — Generally unpaternal bearing of the upper house. — Intermediate sessions of lower house again questioned. — Letter to upper house. — Lower house consults Irish lower house on the questions at issue. — Burnet on this corre- spondence. — His remarks on Irish Convocation compared with Archbishop of Dublin's. — Convocation prorogued. — Burnet on the prorogation. — Sees filled 265 CHAPTER XIII. Union with Scotland. — The Church still persecuted in that country. — The Act of Union makes Presbytery of divine right, and unalterable for ever. — Difficulties in this acknow- ledgment. — How the bishops met the difficulties. — What forbidden to the Church by the union. Debates on the union. — Society of Antiquaries. — Bishop Patrick. — Bishop Beveridge. — Bishop Frampton 282 CONTENTS. vii CHAPTEE XIV. PAGE Lingering relics of popery in Calvinism and credulity. — For- tune-tellers. — Last trial for witchcraft. — Chief Justice Holt and the Prophets. — Account of the Prophets. — Bishop Bull. — Prince Consort. — Naturalization Act. — Convoca- tion. — Trial of Dr. Sacheverell. — His sentence considered. — His triumphal progress. — Queen Anne's fifty new Churches. — Religious and political state 296 CHAPTEE XV. Bishop Burnet at court. — St. Paul's finished. — Sir Christo- pher Wren's churches. — Convocation meets. — Change of ministry leads to disrespectful treatment of Whig majo- rity of bishops. — Such unscrupulous ministries a chief embarrassment of Convocation. — Queen's message. — Joint report upon rural deans. — Whiston's case. — Opinion of the twelve judges on the power of Convocation to censure. — Remarks on it. — Bill against occasional conformity, to retain places. — Growth of Schism Bill. — Debates on it. — Gambling spirit. — Bishop Ken 316 CHAPTEE XVI. Bill to abate the persecution of the Church in Scotland. — What this persecution had been. — Restoration of patronages. — Lay offices still held by ecclesiastics. — An Act to better the condition of licensed curates. — Pluralities retrogressive. — Little sympathy of bishops. — Sons of the Clergy. — Lay baptism submitted to Convocation. — Irregular marriages. — Convocation prorogued. — Meets again. — Rural deans. — Cordiality of the two houses : Archbishop and Burnet ab- sent. — Archbishop Sharp. — Bishop Sprat. — Bishop Comp- ton. — Lord Campbell on the licentiousness of the press. — Levity of the age. — Lower house censures Dr. Sam. Clark. — Bishop Fowler. — Queen Anne dies 346 viii CONTENTS. CHAPTEE XVII. PAGE Declarations of George I. — Presbyterian intolerance renewed. — Congratulations of the London clergy. — King's profes- sions and practice. — Bishop Burnet. — Archbishop Tenison. — Carstares. — Robert Nelson. — Dr. Hickes. — Reverence to- wards parents : Dr. Lancaster. — Convocation recovering its usefulness. — Again agitated by Bishop Hoadly's sermon. — Hoadly's life. — Abstract of his sermon. — It leads to the Bangorian controversy. — The sermon censured by lower house. — Last acts of Convocation no reason for its refusal . 370 APPENDIX. List of nonjurors. — Their sufferings. — Bishop Ken before the Privy Council. — Persecution of the Church in Scotland. — Lord Campbell on Church of England toleration, and Kirk of Scotland intolerance 407 ERRATUM. P. 66,1. 6, for 1718 read 1708. INTRODUCTION. Bishop Short is far from being the only one who has " discovered, after being admitted into orders, that the knowledge of English ecclesiastical history which he possessed was very deficient ;" and felt " distressed," upon making the further humiliating discovery, " that his knowledge of the sects among the philosophers of Athens is greater than that of the great events which affect the Church of England 1 ." The Bishop applied himself to supply this defect, undeterred by the recent attempt of Mr. Carwithen, which he deemed insufficient. He says, " Mr. Car- withen has given a very faithful description of the country through which he passes, but he has not sufficiently pointed out the more striking features to which the attention of the traveller must be directed, if he wishes to obtain an idea of the whole terri- tory 2 ." The present writer does not feel himself called upon to give any opinion of either. They are both, in common with Southey, entitled to the credit, and it is not small, of having been the first among modern 1 Pref. Hist. Eng. Ch. 2 Ibid. X INTRODUCTION'. writers to undertake this branch of ecclesiastical learning, and to draw attention to its very great im- portance. And, had either of these three guides car- ried us through the whole route, the present writer would possibly have remained silent. But they all three professed to lead the traveller some stages only of his journey, that is, to the Eevolution, leaving him to continue his course as he may at the moment when a new and untried class of difficulties, requiring as much as ever, if not more than ever, friendly explana- tion and direction, are presenting themselves to his view. A history of the Church of England from the Eevo- lution to the present time has been, therefore, hitherto a desideratum. The present writer's intention is to embrace this whole period eventually, should the pre- sent volume, embracing the first twenty-nine years, be received with sufficient favour to encourage the attempt. It is published separately (but entirely independent, and complete in itself) in order to test this ; and also, because the circumstances of the pre- sent day seem to render it necessary, that Churchmen should be at once more familiar with the interesting and important, and hitherto methodically untouched, period to which it refers. The unpublished portion, from 1717 to the present time, is in a state of for- wardness. In executing this task the author has endeavoured, from the best authorities at his command, chosen, where possible, with the view of showing both sides of the question, rather to produce a book that should be read by the mass, than a learned treatise intelligible only to the few. The learned may continue to finger profitably over the three first centuries ; but, in such INTRODUCTION. XI times as these, we want the multitude to know more of the three last — the multitude busy, and influential for good or evil, at parliamentary elections, county meetings, and parish vestries ; and the Church will bear knowing, needs but to be known. Let the Epi- scopate be judged fairly — the fault is not all there. Great generals may do much with bad troops, but great generals are not always to be had ; and the most tractable and loyal troops need some small amount of practical instruction and training. Had the mass known more of the history and distinctive features and claims of their Church earlier, it may be that the last twenty years would not have seen Ireland suffering from the decimation of her Episcopate, and England alike suffering from the refusal to augment it in the ratio of her population ; concessions to Popery would have ended with the amplest toleration and admissibility to civil oflices, under real limitations and securities, instead of running to seed in a paltering and coaxing indulgence, endowment, and practical preference ; the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts might have been deemed a sufficient largess to the ultra-protestantism of dissent, without helping to propagate it by Committee of Council grants, on dis- senters' own terms, to their schools ; and the whole legislation for the Church would not have been re- posed solely in a legislature and Privy Council no longer necessarily at all, and in practice only partially, consisting of members of her communion. The author's conception of a history of the Church, not merely to be read, but to be complete, is not merely a history of her polity, her Convocations, her bishops, her controversies, her teachings; but of all sii INTKODTJCTIOX. these and something more, the results of them all, as shown in the temper and behaviour, the habits and manners, the current of actual popular life among her members ; and the current is shown by straws, if we will look for them, when larger objects may be want- ing to show its course. The writer deems it a mistake, in every sense, to dress Church history always in black. Churchmen wear red and blue coats, and ruffles, and frieze and fustian too ; and every history of the Church, to have any reality in it, must be their history, as well as the history of bishops, and presbyters, and synods. It was well said by Sherlock, " The Clergy are indeed the governors of the Church, as they have received authority from Christ, the supreme Lord and Bishop of the Church ; but they are no more the Church, than the king is his kingdom, or the shepherd his flock ; the bishops and pastors of the Church, considered as such, represent the head, and not the body 3 ." And to the same eifect Bishop Blomfield observes : " The Church is not the Clergy alone : the ploughman at his daily toil, the workman who plies the shuttle, the mechanic in his useful occupation, the tradesman in his shop, the merchant in his counting-house, the scholar in his study, the lawyer in the courts of justice, the senator in the hall of legislation, the monarch on his throne — these all constitute the Church, the whole congregation of faithful men, in which the pure word of God is preached and the sacraments are duly admi- nistered." Then, if all these be, as they certainly are, the Church, it follows that their history is an indis- pensable portion of the history of the Church — that is 3 Disc. Nat. Un. p. 32. IJfTEODUCTION. Xlll to say, their general virtues or vices, their general faithfulness or unfaithfulness to their spiritual mother, so far as they can be discovered floating on the stream of the general history of the nation, or moulding the habits and pursuits, the superstitions and amusements, of private life, in each successive age. Though, there- fore, it is far from being denied that the most solemn attention is due to such subjects as Convocation, par- liamentary legislation for the Church, successive royal, or rather ministerial, interpretations of the Supremacy ; and though a large portion of this volume, therefore, will be found filled with the minutest detads and docu- ments, furnishing instruction and warning upon such subjects, especially the first ; still it will be found to have been attempted, in addition to all this, to explain the general temper and tendency of the age — " the very age and body of the time, its form and pressure ;" the general habits and leanings of the people, their love and loyalty to the Church of their baptism, shown by what they were doing and suffering for her. With these convictions, the writer will be found to have bor- rowed from Lord Campbell an account of the final sup- pression of trials for witchcraft by Chief Justice Holt, as well as Burnet's account of Wdliarn appointing "fifteen of the learnedest, wisest, and best bishops;" Bowles's graphic sketch of the private life of Bishop Ken, and of the Sunday scene in his hall at Wells, as well as his refusing the oaths, and (incidentally) Hawkins's account of his ministering to the dying Charles, his bold apology for the faith before James, his committal to the Tower, and Evelyn's description of his eloquent preaching at St. Martin's and the Chapel Royal ; the deep and wide-spread personal xvi INTRODUCTION. statutes proving a failure, a visionary uniformity, a superficial oneness, was to be brought about next by a mutilation and virtual abandonment of tbe Prayer Book ; by a rapid, mechanical, sleight-of-hand process, under the vague and unecclesiastical name of a Com- prehension. Every thing in the reformed Church of England warns us against haste, be the object ever so excellent. It is a noble machine we desire to set in motion ; but, after a hundred and thirty-four years of disuse, we have to acquaint ourselves first with its management, and uses, and powers. When thought- ful men shall have well informed themselves of these (in order to which it may be needful to have the highest legal opinions of certain statutes of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, and of sundry Canons), then let them earnestly ask for their own, and persevere temperately, but firmly until they get it. Licence to deliberate obtained, it may then be worth while and time to consider, whether the machine, perfect in its principles, may not admit of improvement in its de- tails ; by giving to the parochial clergy, for instance, a somewhat larger representation, as compared with the capitular bodies, or even by admitting the lay ele- ment under reasonable limitations and restrictions. The first session might be most profitably employed in such preliminaries only. Ignorance of the usages, forms, and joint and separate prerogatives and powers, of the two Houses of Convocation, at starting, would embarrass both, and defeat the best-intentioned move- ment when so far successful. The latter days of former synodal action, after occasional interruptions only of comparatively few years at each time, are a warning to us in this respect, to do nothing hastily ; for, even then, much of their time and temper was INTRODUCTION. XVII unprofitable exercised upon such discussions. Men are not elected to Convocation, any more than to the Commons' House of Parliament, for life ; in the latter, though not subject, since the Stuarts, to such inter- ruptions, it is notorious that there are very few in- deed familiar with parliamentary usages and powers, it is said but one, in by far the largest political sec- tion at this moment. The state of ignorance and uncertainty of such matters, therefore, in former Con- vocations, may be supposed ; and the consequent time and pains necessary to disentangle them from such records as have reached us, before Convocation can act with that efficiency and dignity for which we desire its restoration. AH these precautions taken, and such others as may be suggested by a sound prudence, the writer will joyfully had such restoration of this scriptural and primitive function of the Church, and the Church may then be of good cheer, and lift up her head, and not before. From the nature and exigencies of the case, he might add, necessary and inseparable function : not merely the meeting of all other religious bodies, but all the analogies of social and commercial life point to such a necessity. Of social life, for when a family is in difficulties, what more obvious than for all the members to meet and consult ? And the Church is a famdy, the family of Christ her Ruler and Head, and always in difficulties, it is a condition of her being as a mifitant Church. Of commercial life, for what more obvious than for directors or partners to meet, under embarrassments, and deliberate upon the best means of extrication ? The Bank, as well as the Church of England, is in union with the State, financially " the establishment," and, unlike the Church, is dependent a XV1U INTEODUCTION. on the State for its charter of incorporation. But what then ? The Bank directors, as they are not forbidden to have a voice in the appointment of their own chief officers, so neither are they forbidden, by reason of such union and establishment and dependence, to meet and confer in their Parlour. They meet and confer the oftener and more anxiously from a sense of their national responsibility ; all is not left to the indi- vidual faithfulness and discretion of a chairman and vice-chairman, or of cashiers and clerks. And meeting to consult upon her own affairs, is exampled to the Church by Apostles as one of her chartered rights. Then why should it be any longer refused ? Roman- ists, Presbyterians, and every conceivable and incon- ceivable denomination of Dissenters, meet without let or hindrance : why is the Church made an exception ? Because she is the Establishment ? Then, extend the principal to the Bank. Because she holds the truth, must she be silent ? To suppose this, were an ill compliment, and therefore cannot be thought intended in these days by ministers of State, to the countless heresies and schisms more favoured by the State in regard of synodal action. Is it refused from an ob- jection to centralization ? It would be a far healthier application than numberless schemes of centralization in the highest favour among politicians : they do not object to centralization, when the parochial system is to be dislocated, and the Church crippled by its appli- cation. Then why, we again ask, should it be any longer refused ? If we seek an answer in what may be thought the causes of the suspension of Convocation in 1717, what do we find? Bishop Hoadly's case was simply an expression of the sceptical spirit of the age ; the very INTRODUCTION. XIX inconvenient controversy upou the first principles of ecclesiastical and civil obedience, at a time when there were great distractions associated with both from temporary causes, was not forced upon the Church and the government by Convocation, — the State forced it upon itself by its rapid preferment of such a man, — the lower house of Convocation could not do less than censure. To suppose the same thing to occur again, is to suppose a Hoadly, a George I., and a Wake, to concur in raising an agitation ; and, when pretenders and nonjurors have passed away, to suppose the age alike unable to bear such a handling and turning over of first principles of obedience, which is im- possible. But Bishop Hoadly's case was only the culminating point, the last hair that broke the camel's back. It may be asked, what had gone before ? Were there not dissensions between the two houses ? It has been already stated that there were, and why there were. And there were dissensions in Parliament too. The two houses had violent recriminations in Somers's case, and afterwards in the Aylesbury case, and again in the reign of George I., though that has not led to the closing of St. Stephen's for above a century. As to the dissensions of Convocation, there were no diffi- culties which might and would not have been got over, had the bishops been in a position to exercise a little more of paternal forbearance and kindness. But their position was in every respect most difficult. They were most of them converted Puritans, and, as such, not having the hearty confidence of the King, and even less of the Clergy. The nonjurors were under the ban of the government, and generally earnest Churchmen : men not remarkable for strength either a 2 INTRODUCTION. of mind or of principle, and thinking it of paramount importance to maintain friendly relations with the Crown, were under a constant temptation to be as little like such political recusants as might be in any way, and to eschew principles, however good, rather than hold them in common with nonjurors. So that loyalty to the Crown, according to their concep- tions of loyalty, was made inconsistent with loyalty to the Church ; and the complications arising from their education and training were aggravated by the complications of the period. The Clergy would, of course, be confirmed in their distrust, seeing such persevering attempts to place their secular loyalty in the strongest possible relief to an obnoxious section of the Church, by what they deemed a servile prostration to a latitudinarian government, — bishops ready to write and vindicate the " Eights of Christian Princes in their Synods," but leaving the Church's rights to right themselves ; and such distrust would not only offend the upper house, but obstruct and weaken both. Ano- ther difficidty was this : the doctrine of passive obe- dience, long the treasured dogma of divines of that day, had placed an impassable gulf between kings and subjects, leaving no rights except to rulers : it was an easy step to transfer that doctrine, substantially, though in some cases unconsciously, to spiritual governors 4 ; diverted from its old channel by a rebel- 4 Since writing the above, the author has observed that Miss Strickland ascribes the same transition to the temporal peers also of that period : " Among the remarkable signs of these times (William and Mary), was the extreme jealousy of the peers for their personal dignity ; there was a disposition shown for assuming to themselves the sacred character, of which they had just divested their sovereigns." — Lives of the Queens of Eng. vol. ix. p. 167- INTRODUCTION. xxi lion and a revolution, it was wearing for itself a new one for a while, refusing to the presbyterate their own subordinate rights and prerogatives, indeed a con- science, and necessarily met with obstructions as be- fore. It must be borne in mind further, that the bishops, amidst all these difficulties, were deprived, by the unfortunate difficulty of the oaths, of the brotherly counsel which, to men generally bred as aliens to the Church, and participant in the frenzy of Puritanism, was so essentially needful to steady and guide them ; — the counsel of such men as Saner oft, and Ken, and Lloyd. And lastly, all these difficulties were yet further aggravated by the presence and pre- eminence in the upper house of one " by profession a prelate, a dissenter in sentiment 5 ," — one who from the Brill to Exeter, and from Exeter to St. James's, had been fellow-chaplain to William III. with Balfour, the parricide, the murderer of Archbishop Sharp, — the evil genius of the Episcopate of that day, the most unscrupulous of partisans, and the least paternal of bishops, — one who, however praised by his country- man, Mr. Macaulay, was not only of presbyterian pa- rentage and education, but disqualified to the last, in common with his royal patron, for sympathizing and mingling in the warm impulses and generous aspirations of the free-hearted and noble Church of England. It is impossible there could have been ought but confusion and sorrow, and eventual discomfiture to all, when a Christian bishop could so abuse and betray his posi- tion, as to make a Charge the vehicle of personal vin- dictiveness, branding the English Clergy as " enemies to the queen, the bishops, and the nation ;" and upon 5 Noble, vol. i. p. 83. XXll INTRODUCTION. solemn appeal by the lower house to the bishops in Synod, to interpose their authority and protection, an archbishop could be found to justify it. All these apparent causes, then, of the suspension of Convocation in 1717, were of a personal or tempo- rary nature only ; and, therefore, asking as we have asked, why, up to this year 1851, it has not been restored ? the answer is not to be found in them. If it be asked, further, why such refusal of nearly a century and a half has been, until very lately, so silently submitted to, the answer involves various considerations which we cannot now enter into. But one reason is, the general ignorance of the real state of the case. And one great reason of this ignorance is, that Burnet, unhappily for himself and for the Church, was an historian as well as a bishop ; and his most untrustworthy history is the spring from which nearly all subsequent writers have, some heedlessly, some of design, drawn their opinions and statements of the latter days of Convocation. The writer has thought it the more needful to address himself, in this work, to the general misrepresentations, and yet more general insinuations of Bishop Burnet, as his work continues to this day to be stamped with every mark of unabated popularity. The most widely-read histo- rian of our times, Macaulay, said lately, that " No good private library is without his ' Own Times,' " and speaks of him elsewhere as " an emphatically honest man." And Professor Corrie, in the preface to his recent edition of Burnet's Reformation, describes him as " in the main a trustworthy historian." This will at once account for the popidar misconceptions to this day of the real state of the case, and for the care taken, in this work, rigidly to examine and collate his INTRODUCTION. XX111 statements, where introduced at all, though they have been shunned as much as might he, from the wearying sameness of their slander, and the dull monotony of their untruth. Miss Strickland, whose vigorous mind and untiring research have tracked Burnet, in some degree, in going over the same ground, has arrived at a very different conclusion from Professor Corrie's, as to Burnet's "trustworthiness;" so did a contemporary historian, Salmon 5 ; so did Lord Dartmouth ; and so did many more of Burnet's own standing. And Mr. Macaulay's testamur has imposed upon the present writer the disagreeable necessity of going sufficiently into his statements regarding the Church of that day, to enable the reader to judge for himself of their general faithfulness. If, in doing so, the writer has nothing extenuated, and even this he would fain do, he can truly say he has set down nought in malice, and appeal to every candid mind which has gone over the same ground that he says truly. Oversights there may be ; but that truth is his only object, will be plain from the facilities which he studiously gives to test it, by giving always his authority. It is then not the facts, but the prevailing igno- rance of the facts, which must account for the present abeyance of synodal deliberation ; there is nothing to deter from it now, nothing now to frighten even the timid, when the same circumstances no longer exist. Political party-spirit still exists, indeed, and that, as wielded by the servants of the Crown, has something to do with the peaceable enjoyment of the Church's own : but, the political partisanship of even our days 0 See Salmon's " Impartial Examination of Bp. Burnet's History of his Own Times."— C. Rivington, Bible and Crown, St. Paul's Church-yard, 1724. xxiv INTRODUCTION. is mere eau sucre, compared with the "fire-water" going under that name in the days of William and Mary, and still more perhaps of Anne, which out- went the bitterness of Conciliation Hall, leading the Ministry of the day, if Whig, to favour the Whig majority of Bishops, by insulting and worrying the lower house by every petty art and stratagem, — if Tory, to favour the Tory majority of the lower house, by insulting the Whig Archbishop, in Synod, as president of the upper house. Let means be devised to multiply tenfold, if need be, the difficulties which already exist, and have already more than once been found insuperable, in preventing any further visionary attempt at a Com- prehensive Liturgy. The Prayer Book is far too free from all taint of party spirit, in either direction, to be any obstacle to union, when union shall be really and honestly desired ; far too precious an heir-loom of early days, too noble a monument of the con- vocational wisdom of a by-gone and fresher age, to warrant any rude handling of it by modern and less able hands, under any such quixotic and exploded plea as a Comprehension : we must hope and strive for unity by less questionable methods. Let the communicant laity, if need be, and if they will take upon them the solemn responsibdity before God and his Church, be associated with the Clergy, either by consulting with them synodically upon defined classes of subjects, or by voting jointly with them for Proc- tors, in such a ratio as that the lay element shall not unduly preponderate. Let proper provision be made for representing the Irish Branch of the United Church. Here is ample business for the first session. Let good men and true, the Church representative INTRODUCTION. XXV as at present constituted, draw near ivith faith towards the Chapter House of St. Paul's, or the more vener- able shadow of the Abbey of Westminster, to consider these things, in the full assurance that deliberations upon the Church's needs aud duties, begun daily in prayer for a blessing, will have it. It is true, we have a Prayer Book, and canons, and bishops, but that is no argument against Convocation ; any more than our having a queen, and executive, and statutes, is an argument against Parliaments. Mr. Cripps, who treats of Convocation more as an ill- informed controversialist than jurist, speaks of "all the proper offices of a Convocation" as "at an end 7 ," and as having been so since 1665. This does not much surprise one in a self-constituted instructor of the Clergy, who talks of "Bishop Hooker 8 ," and says, that the services of the Church derive their autho- rity from the sovereign head of the State. One woidd think that common sense, as well as Astrsea, had left the earth. Mr. Cripps must be strangely ill-informed in the important matters debated in Convocation during the twenty -nine years following the Revolution, to assert pubbcly and ex cathedra, as the Clergy's ad- viser and teacher, that " all the proper offices of Con- vocation were at an end" twenty- three years before that event. Our relations and intercourse with the Colonial Churches ; our need of a combined front against the growing pretensions of Borne ; the fester- ing masses of untaught ignorance in our great towns ; the hardship of the Clergy being compelled to use the Burial Office in certain cases, when every body is admitted to have a conscience but themselves, a hard- 7 Pract. Treat, p. 29. 8 Ibid. p. 3. xxvi IXTEODUCTIOX. ship which scandalized the laity of former times 9 ; the adaptation of canons ; the providing of some occa- sional services by authority : — these, and countless other subjects of like interest and importance, and in which all earnest and good men may agree, however much they may suppose themselves, for want of such intercourse, to differ upon others, do seem to call for grave and brotherly counsel ; and it is impossible to devise a more orderly, lawful, and effectual method. Before such subjects were half exhausted, men might find, by brotherly intercourse and mutual explanations, that the differences which had been keeping them liitherto asunder were differences rather of imagination and names, than of doctrines and facts. In private life, a short interview will sometimes remove the mutual misunderstandings and suspicions of years : why despair of softening down those of Churchmen, as such, by mutual explanations, and by mutual con- cessions too (" quantum per legem Ohristi lieet "), by means of a frank, and orderly, and scriptural fellow- ship, such as that recognized by the Church Catholic, and therefore by our Church as a pure branch of the same, as supplied, and supplied only, though diocesan action be infinitely better than none at all, by a Provincial Synod ? Canon Wordsworth, whose opinions on all subjects are entitled to respectful consideration, suggests that " the repeal of civil penalties by the civil power would serve the purpose of ecclesiastical legislation in certain ecclesiastical causes ; e. g. the repeal of the penalty for the non-use of the burial service in excep- tional cases would be as effectual as an ecclesiastical 9 See " Vox Populi," in the State Tracts, vol. i. p. 678. INTRODUCTION. XXV11 canon on that subject, or rather more so, for the canon would have no effect against the statute or common- law. Again, the repeal of the temporal penalties for excommunication would probably conduce to a restora- tion of discipline 1 ." True; but how is such repeal to be obtained ? Individual petition and remonstrance have been tried ad nauseam, and in vain. Canon Wordsworth, in suggesting this class of cases, appears to the writer to have put forward a strong argument in favour of a discreet and well-considered return to synodal action ; for synodal pressure alone can procure legislative attention to them. Nor let this be thought a party question, to be taken up merely by such as are vaguely and unsatis- factorily called High-Churchmen. Tillotson and Te- nison were not what would be called such ; and, if ever Convocation was seen under an ungainly aspect, it was under their presidency. Yet, though an in- firmity of purpose may have induced them both, at times, to advise a prorogation, in order, for the moment, to get rid of a pressure, they both viewed it as an indispensable and indefeasible function of the Church. Tillotson, with a full knowledge of the storm that might be expected, remonstrated with the king for attempting to carry a Comprehension without the intervention of the Church representative. Tenison, after leaving 500Z. to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel for general purposes, cancelled it by a codicil drawn up but a few months before his death, by which he left 1000Z. instead, in trust, to go towards the maintenance of two bishops, whenever they should be appointed, one for the Continent, and the other for Occasional Serm. No. xiii. p. 150. XXV Ul INTEODTJCTION. the isles of North America ; expressly stating, as his reason for the change, that without hishops they would be without Synods, and therefore without discipline 2 . Synodal deliberation is a party question in no sense, a Church question in the broadest sense ; a question bearing upon the Church's weal, and awaiting, as far as it can be collected, the Church's voice. 2 See Neve's Lives of Tillotson and Tenison. Stifford Rectory, June 5, 1851. HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. CHAPTER I. a.d. 1688, 1689. Archbishop of Canterbury. Sovereigns of England. William Sancroft. James II. Interregnum. William III. and Mary II. The Revolution of 1688 opens an entirely new era in the history of the English Church. Mr. Hallam speaks of it as " an era of religious, far greater than of civil liberty 1 ." A great experiment was then made, alter- ing at once in principle, and ultimately in practice, the relations of the State towards the Church ; throw- ing the Church more upon her own resources ; and yet, as it soon appeared, more than ever crippling those resources. This experiment is not yet worked out. A hundred and sixty years, though far surpass- ing the whole span of most sects, is little and insigni- ficant in the history of a Church. Until the Revolution (excepting the terrible interval of the Rebellion, when intolerance changed hands, and 1 Const. Hist. vol. ii. p. 520. B 2 INTOLERANCE. [CHAP. I. was the more hateful, coupled as it was with a wild and frenzied assertion of freedom of conscience 2 ), the re- formed Church had wrung a hollow and worthless con- formity from the whole people, by the State help of severe penal statutes, consigning the nonconformist bodies of such men as John Bunyan 3 to the county jail or parish stocks ; and by the yet more insufferable tyranny of successive royal commissions, able to do any thing (and all the better without statutes) by a sort of ecclesiastical common law. "We find the mat- ters following described authentically as " Causes pro- perly belonging to the cognizance of the Star Chamber, viz. unlawful assemblies, routs, riots, forgeries, libel- ling, and other like misdemeanours, not especially provided for by the statutes'," — an et caetera ordinance, embracing every conceivable thing which an ingeniously intolerant spirit could torture into an offence against religion. We learn from Calamy, that State patronage of the Church in those days sometimes took a form that would be really ludicrous, were less serious matters involved in it : " Mr. Baxter being disturbed at his meeting-house, in Oxenden-street, by the King's drums, which Mr. Secretary Coventry caused to be beaten under the windows, made an offer of letting it to the parish of St. Martin's for a tabernacle at the rate of 40/. a year 5 ." The persecution had fallen far short of the means 2 Jan. 27, 1628, Pym, in the House of Commons, laid down this law: " It belongs to Parliament to establish true religion, and to punish false." Rushworth's Histor. Coll. Part i. p. 647. 3 Bunyan died in this year (1688) : another year, and Bedford jail would have had no more terrors for him. 4 Star Chamber Cases (1641), p. 1. 5 Own Life, chap. vi. 16S8, 1689.] INTOLERANCE. 8 adopted by papists against nonconformists in Spain and South America, and in this country also, under the first Mary ; still, it was persecution, as indefensible in principle, and differing chiefly in that it was less effective in practice. The dissenters of the seventeenth century, bred and exasperated under it, must be judged tenderly ; and any present short-comings or distrac- tions of the Church must be referred to their real origin, which may be less in bishops, priests, and people of the present day than of the past. A whole century of mistakes, in spirituals, takes much more than a century to repair : there is comfort as well as humiliation in the view. These proceedings of the courts, both ordinary and extraordinary, and the very extraordinary proceedings of " the king's drums," beginning vigorously with the last of the Tudors, and ending haltingly with the last of the Stuarts, must be viewed as a diluted relic of popish intolerance and persecution ; which coidd scarcely be expected to die out at once, any more than popish indulgences and pardons, which, as " anodynes for wounded consciences," as something soothing to man's corrupt nature, and as supplying a royal road to heaven, lingered welcomely still in Calvinistic anti- nomianism and predestination. Or, these extrava- gances of the secular arm, in alleged defence of the Church, — extravagances which, if Laud was so far carried away by the spirit and difficulties of the time as to lend himself to them, we have the satisfaction of seeing, as men grew wiser under affliction, discoun- tenanced by Sancroft, — may be viewed as grounded on an optimist theory that the Church and State were one body, under different aspects, which was Hooker's 0 c Eccles. Pol. b. viii. B 2 1 INTOLEEANCE. [CHAP. I> view ; and that nonconformity, therefore, was an offence, not only against religion, but against the social compact and public order. This was the view taken of penal statutes by Thorndike, a contemporary of Laud. He defends every penal intervention of the State, on behalf of "true Christianity," short of natural or civil death : " Seeing that all religion, ex- cepting true Christianity, is a most powerful means of destroying the peace of civil societies, though perhaps it profess no such thing expressly, it follows by con- sequence that all powers that are trusted with the preservation of the public peace, are enabled to forbid that which is not true Christianity, by all penalties under the two that have been named 7 ." This virulence, in whatever considerations it may have had its origin, whether ecclesiastical or civil, or both ; whether to be viewed as religious persecution, or as an optimist social theory of mixed Church-and- state government, or both, had been directed alike against popish and protestant nonconformists. But, when it is considered that a portion of the people had never been converted from popery at all ; and that those converted from it became members of a Churcli not pretending, like Rome, to make her own pale, ri- gidly and solely, the pale of salvation, and were, upon the ordinary principles of human nature (as seen more recently in the turbulence and disaffection following slave emancipation in the West Indies), under the strongest temptation to use their liberty for a cloak of licentiousness ; it will not seem strange, that the attempt to pare and squeeze a whole great and in- telligent nation into conformity, by a Procrustean process like this, was found, at the end of a century 7 Right of the Church in a Christian State, chap. v. 1GS8, 1689.] LIMITS OF INTOLERANCE. 5 of insufferable confusion, and misery, and strife, an utter failure s . Such intolerance, if right, should have been earned further ; if wrong, not employed at all. The children of this world presiding on the seven hills were, and are, wiser in their generation. Bishop Burnet places the right opinion upon wrong grounds, low considera- tions of State expediency only : but who expects more of him ? " Persecution," he says, " if it were lawful at all, ought to be extreme, and go, as it does in the Church of Rome, to extirpation ; for the hard treatment of those who are still suffered to live in a society is the creating of so many malcontents, who at one time or other may make those who treat them ill feel their revenge, ." The murder of a king and an archbishop had, indeed, supplied a melancholy illus- tration of this, as a matter of fact, showing the inex- pediency and danger of religious persecution : the truth, however, of the toleration principle must be sought higher than in Bishop Burnet. He represents William, and no doubt very truly, as contending for the toleration principle, by a yet more ludicrous mix- ture of Christian philosophy and State-craft : " He (William) was so true to principle herein, that he restrained the heat of some, who were proposing severe tests against papists. He made them appre- hend the advantage that would give to the French, to alienate all the papists of Europe from us, who might from thence hope to set up a new [Roman] Catholic league, and make the war a quarrel of religion, ivhich 8 The admission of nonconformists to civil offices of power arid trust, a distinct question from that of the free toleration of their religious opinions and worship, will be found mooted by the Occa- sional Conformity Bill of 1711. 6 GENEBAL EFFECTS UPON [CHAP. I. micjlit have very lad effects"*." Such are exactly the facetious arguments which one would expect William to urge against religious persecution : but, one would not expect a Christian bishop to mislead, by calling this the being " true to the principle" of toleration, by which, apart from what follows, and from what they might know of him, most men would understand that he dared not to call down fire from heaven, not knowing what manner of spirit he was of; that he dared not to resort to persecution of any kind, in aid of a religion of love ; and that the many texts and deductions of holy Scripture, so instructing and di- recting, were felt by him not to be outweighed by centuries of a contrary practice. The Church-and-state despotism estabUshed by Elizabeth, and lingering on long afterwards in feebler hands, may be allowed the merit, such as it is, of shortening the period necessary for a great national reformation. It is hard to conjecture what period this would have occupied, without some such miti- gated persecution. But it must not be supposed that we are enjoying any undue advantage from this source. Quite the contrary. We are paying the penalty of such unscrupulous haste to this hour, in a sympathy with heresy, in an exasperation of schism, and in a revolt against discipline, which it answers the purpose of the enemies of the Church to ascribe to a present unfaithfulness of bishops and priests, or to inherent defects in the Anglican system; but which may be with much more truth ascribed to the haste to make good the steps which had been taken in advance of other communions, to a common forgetful- ness that the ultimate strength of a Church is in 3 History of his Own Times, vol. iii. p. 16, 3rd ed. 1766. 1GSS, 1689.] THE ENGLISH CHURCH. 7 men's hearts, and to the consequent attempt to take them by assault. Nor may the ill-defined rights and prerogatives of the reformed Church, as apart from the State, he less referable to the impetuous haste of the earlier stages of the Reformation under Henry. " He that hasteth with his feet," says the wise man, " sinneth." At all events, persecution, however convenient to the last of the Tudors, had been less so to the Stuarts ; and having long since been found embarrassing to the government, without really benefiting the Church, the Revolution was thought a fitting opportunity to relax it. It is instructive to find the last Stuart at issue with the last Tudor on this subject of tolera- tion. The battle had been fought out long since by the people, and resolved itself at last into one be- tween their rulers. The attempt, besides being illegal, was subtle and sinister in James II' s hands; else, ecclesiastically and morally, and in itself, his Declara- tion of Indulgence was wiser and better than the deplorable penal statute, 35th of Elizabeth, ch. i. 1 1 By tliis law, any person above the age of sixteen years, who should obstinately refuse to repair to some place of public worship, according to the use of the Church of England, for the space of one month, without lawful cause, or should " by printing, writing, or express words," endeavour to persuade any of the Queen's sub- jects to deny or resist her power and authority in ecclesiastical causes ; or should dissuade them from coming to church ; or should be present at any unlawful conventicle, under colour or pretext of the exercise of religion ; the person thus offending, if lawfully convicted, was subject to imprisonment, until he conformed him- self to the laws, and made an humble acknowledgment of his past offence, and gave a promise of future obedience. And in case the offender obstinately refused to submit, and to sign the acknow- ledgment within three months after conviction, he was obliged to abjure the realm. The 35th Eliz. c. ii. was enacted against popish recusants, entailing like penalties, and, in addition, confining them S EFFECTS TJPOH' THE SCOTTISH CHUBCH [CHAP. I. That, up to the period of the Revolution, at least, the Reformed Church had not been benefited by sucli spurious help as the State had been giving, but was really weakened by such violent and exhausting re- medies, and losing her hold upon men's minds, is clear in the case of the Church of Scotland ; for the same crisis, the Revolution, was taken advantage of to restore Presbyterianism in that country, and to proscribe and persecute the Church, latterly esta- blished there, but from this time forbidden even pri- vate ministrations under the severest penalties. It is not unusual, indeed, to represent this great and afflicting change as caused by the Scottish bishops, we believe without exception, refusing the oaths, and therefore absenting themselves from the Scottish Con- vention of States, and so leaving the field open to the Presbyterian party, who made the most of their opportunity. Thus we find Bishop Sprat telling the Earl of Dorset, "As the refusal of the English bishops to stand by the doctrine of passive obedience saved Episcopacy [the Establishment] in England, so the adherence of the Scotch bishops to that doc- trine destroyed it in Scotland." All this proves simply that, in the bishop's opinion, the Church, as an Establishment, hung by a very slender thread in both countries. Eor, it is impossible to suppose, in reference to either country, a whole nation's tradi- tions so easily and instantly changed, by a mistake even of bishops, and by an Act of Parliament, unless the nation were prepared for it, and acquiescing in it. William might be expected to be a willing party to within five miles of their dwelling. But it is fair to distinguish between the two cases : a provision was to be made against popery, not merely as a religion, but as a system, perpetually interfering with and distracting the civil power. 1GSS, 16S9.] TO THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION. 9 the change, in either country (except so far as he might think the Church a safer political agent — a consideration which ever and anon forced itself on his thoughts, and made him proceed haltingly against her) ; but even he must find things ready to his hand for effecting it, in the cause above assigned, viz. in the real weakness of the Church, while it depended for conformity and obedience upon the secular arm. Charles had not found it so easy to supplant Presby- terianism by a royal ordinance, nor would it be easy now : Why ? Because Presbyterianism had, and has, that hold upon the popular mind, which the Church had not. Had it been otherwise, had there been, in Scotland, even as much loyalty to the Church, sur- viving civil pains and penalties, as in England, the same remedy would have been employed, the depriva- tion of nonjuring bishops and priests, and the sub- stitution of others, not of Presbyterianism. Still less, without supposing the Scottish national feeling ahe- nated from the Church, can we suppose such persecu- tion of her as now followed, the mention of which may well make us the more thankful that the same crisis was seized, in England, to proceed in the oppo- site direction of toleration. Thus, " The oath of assurance was tendered to the episcopal clergy, who, rather than take it, resigned their livings, and chose for a while to forbear the exercise of their ministry, as well in private as public. Some time afterwards, how- ever, when they found the oath was not taken by the clergy of the Establishment, they ventured to per- form divine service in their own houses every Lord's day ; leaving the doors open, that whoever was in- clined might join with them and their families in that holy service. This conduct was considered an heinous offence ; and a list of the principal offenders was ac- 10 EFFECTS UPON THE SCOTTISH CHUECH. [CHAP. I. cordiugly transmitted to the Privy Council, who passed sentence upon two of them, the Archdeacon of St. Andrews, and Dr. Michelson of Errol, banish- ing both from their respective dwellings 2 ." Such a recalcitrant spirit on the part of the people is attested by the following decree of the Convention of States, passed 22nd July, 1689, and quoted by the same writer, p. 356. " Our Sovereign Lord and Lady, with advice and consent of the Estates then assembled, abolished prelacy, and all superiority of any office in the Church above Presbyters ; and with the said advice and consent, would settle by law that Church government, which was most agreeable to the feelings of the people." This was an almost literal transcript of William's words : " The instructions given to his (William's) high-commissioner, Duke Hamilton, at his first going down are positive and plain, ' Tou are,' says he, in the fourth Instruction, ' to pass an Act, establishing that Church government, which is most agreeable to the inclination of the people, rescinding the Act of the Parliament in 1669, and all other Acts inconsistent therewith V " Another authority speaks of Episcopacy as " long disagreeable to the nation *." Mr. Macaulay speaks of Presbyterians in 1687 as "constituting the great body of the Scottish people." What their condition had been before, under penal laws, may be gathered from what it was after a par- tial toleration had been granted them in this same year 1687 by King James ; for, even after this ame- lioration, " the Presbyterians were interdicted from worshipping any where except in private dwellings ; - Russell's Hist. Ch. in Scot. vol. ii. p. 379. For a further ac- count of Presbyterian persecution, see Appendix of this volume. 3 Somers's Tracts, vol. x. p. 3G7. * Univ. Hist. vol. xl. p. 266. 1688, 1G89-] TO THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION. 11 they were not to presume to build ineetiug-liouses ; they were not to use even a barn, or an outhouse, for religious exercises ; and it was distinctly notified to them, that if they dared to meet in the open air, the law, which denounced death against both preachers and hearers, would be enforced without mercy 5 ." Laing, who tells us that Scotland was about equally divided at that period, the nobles and gentry being on the side of the Church, and the middle and lower classes on the side of Presbyteriauism, supplies the following companiou-picture to the above, showing the terrible retribution which naturally and imme- diately followed. It seems that the persecutions began as soon as William landed ; but " on Christ- mas-day the episcopal clergy were dragged from their pulpits or altars ; they were conducted through their parishes in mock procession, stripped of their gowns, and expelled by force, or were permitted peaceably to depart, on a solemn promise never to return. Two hundred clergymen of the episcopal persuasion were thus expelled"." The biographer of Kettlewell puts down the Presbyterians at a third or a fourth of the population. Dr. Russell inclines to the opinion that the Presbyterians were a minority, and accounts for their success by their energy : but this does not affect our position ; for, admitting it to be so, the result only shows that, among Churchmen, there was not energy, in other words, there was not reality and earnestness, as there would have been, if the Church had gained a hold upon their sympa- thies and affections. If the Presbyterians really were a minority, the result rather strengthens the position i Macaulay's History of England, vol. ii. p. 206. 0 Macaulay's History of Scotland, vol. iv. p. l'J4. 12 EFFECTS UPON THE IRISH CHUBCH. [CHAP. I. here taken than otherwise ; for, error is only more active than truth, when the heart is more in it ; truth lacked not zeal and energy in primitive times. Neither can the feeble and tottering state of the Church of Ireland up to this time, under the same system of penal laws, (as far as the Government dared to enforce them against so overwhelming a majority of Papists and Presbyterians,) be said to supply an exceptional argument in its favour. Mr. Macaulay, indeed, represents the papists as practically free from molestation in the exercise of their religion, and suffer- ing only from the conflict of immiscible races — Saxon and Celt — the one more disposed to command than the other to obey. But the penal statutes were hang- ing over them ; and " freedom of conscience was more by connivance than by law 7 ." And as regards the Presbyterians, Bishop Mant represents these as com- plaining that they were not permitted to serve Cod in their own way ; and thinking that " all men who lived peaceably ought to have liberty of conscience, and per- mission to assemble as they would for public worship," and adds, " this was granted at the Revolution*." The Irish Church, therefore, under substantially the same coercive State system as the English, led to lean on an external and dangerous stay, may be fairly brought forward as a further instance of penal enact- ments failing to secure to a Church any hold upon the hearts and energies even of her own members, as well as arousing the resentment of those without. Queen Mary speaks of it thus in a letter addressed to her husband while campaigning there against her father : " Every body agrees 'tis the worst Church in Chris- 7 King's State of the Protestants of Ireland, ch. iii. vol. i. 8 Hist. Ch. of Ireland, vol. iii. ch. iii. sec. iv. ] 6SS, 1C89.] TOLERATION BECOMES NECESSARY. 13 tendom." This hardly describes a Church which could boast of a Bedell, an TJsher, and a Jeremy Taylor, but bad it was in spite of them ; and these individual excellences serve but to place in stronger relief the evils resulting from a system of persecution for the Church, as much opposed to holy Scripture as early persecution of the Church. It is, however, but fair to refer much of the then sad state of the Church of Ireland to the fewness of the clergy and their destitute state. We find Archbishop King telling Archbishop Wake, in 171G, " We have but about six hundred clergy in Ireland, and perhaps of these hardly two hundred have 100Z. per annum 9 ." On the whole, then, though those ranking among the best and wisest of the age, sought a relaxation of State protection upon principle, we are justified in viewing its concession as evidence, in reference alike to England, Scotland, and Ireland, of a weakness to enforce much longer a system so manifestly opposed to Scriptural teaching and primitive practice. The great majority voted for toleration, either from latitu- dinarian principles, or from fears of a recurrence of popular violence ; and eacb of these exhibits the Church as labouring under the weakness of a false position, to execute her mission as a national esta- blishment. Such weakness is, indeed, referable to many causes, which cannot here be gone into ; the chief cause of all, however, would seem to be the attempt to force men's consciences by royal ordinances, acts of parliament, and arbitrary and irresponsible commissions — an attempt which may be fairly viewed as no slight palliation, though not as an excuse, of the miserable schisms of the seventeenth century. 9 Ellis's Letters, 2nd Ser. vol. iv. 14 TOLERATION* BRIXGS >~EW DIFFICULTIES [CHAP. I. But. however healthful, and in its degree heneficial, the more tolerant spirit which came in with the Bevo- lution, some may douht whether the Church was any great gainer by the change. A system as ominous in other ways took its place, a part of it being (as soon appeared) the suppression of the Church's corporate and authoritative voice in Convocation. The strength she acquired by being no longer a party to the civil coercion of men's consciences, was to be immediately neutralized, as some thought, by her having no longer the power collectively to address them. By a severe and instant retribution, the hard measure which, under a mistaken view of duty, she had permitted towards others, recoiled upon herself. Xor was this all ; the Church of England was still to be the national Church, in the qualified sense of enjoying, if not always the personal preference, at all events the personal adoption of the Crown, as one only of many communions enjoy- ing henceforth its countenance and protection. This she woidd have gladly borne ; but, whatever she might mean by toleration of error, the State was found to mean by it an obhgation to be silent for the truth. The State was henceforth to have no conscience ; kings, and prime ministers, and legislators, if they continued secretly to hold, were to be afraid to confess before men, under the pressure of the vague and shadowy nightmare of a perverted religious liberty. From this time the problem to be solved, and which there was little precedent to help the solving of, was this : — how long a Church, whether stronger or weaker, under the altered circumstances, as a Church, could survive as an Establishment or State Church as one only of many communions recognized and helped by the State ; stripped of the internal coercive 1688, 168!).] TO THE CHURCH. L5 powers of her unreformed faith, and of the external coercive power of a star chamber and penal statutes ; still forbidden by the penalties of preraunire to elect or even to assist in electing her chief officers, though all other communions may do so ; her chief officers when elected restrained from enforcing discipline even of the clergy, by the terrors of civil actions ; finally, forbidden to utter her voice in synod, even to determine the sense of her own formularies, which privy councillors not of her communion are supposed to do better; thoughall else maymeetwithout letor hindrance, and so acquire a dominancy over the Churcb so dis- proportioned to their respective numbers; and thus, though, as an establishment, depending for her ex- istence on the maintaining of a majority, disqualified for maintaining such majority by widening her stakes, and adapting her counsels to the ever-vary- ing exigencies of the time. They who the most heartily accord the amplest toleration to others, are found mourning the most deeply the obstructions placed in the way of the Church's own efficiency and development, — obstructions in such vital points, say they, as to render the problem, to this day in the course of solution, the more grave, and its issue, humanly speaking, the more doubtful. They shrink from the thought of dissolving the union between the Church and the State, but they would sanctify and prosper it by making it, as they conceive, more just and equal. They represent the Church as not de- siring a divorce, as entertaining no jealousy of new claimants on the State's indulgence, but at the same time as repudiating polygamy ; as seeing a wide distinction between tolerance and civil protection freely extended to the persons and worship of dis- L6 DISSENTERS VIEW TOLERATION [CHAP. I. centers, and a fostering favour, if not virtual preference, accorded to their errors. They contend that the union of Church and State should be one of mutual love, and faithfulness, and duty. They are willing that the Church should, as one of many, strive for the mastery, without the extrinsic and dangerous help of penal statutes ; but not that men should place a drag upon her chariot- wheel, and then complain, and make it a ground of hostility, if not of secession, that she drives so heavily. Place over her what task-masters you will, say they, to see that she make her tale of bricks ; be as exacting as you will of the duty she dis- avows not to God and man, but refuse her not straw. Nor, it soon appeared, were these to be all the new difficulties. Toleration was scarcely granted when it was per- verted by the ignorant multitude into an excuse and justification of schism : — what the law said they might do, must be right. Dr. Sacheverell deplored this in his sermon at St. Paul's, and it was made the second article of his impeachment by the House of Commons 10 . He speaks of " these schismatical per- sons who take permission for power, and advance toleration immediately into an establishment. And such schismatical and factious persons, he humbly apprehends, are not the persons entitled to the benefit of the Act of Exemption, which was designed only to give some ease to scrupulous consciences in the exercise of their religion '." Calamy furnishes the following illustration : " When King William returned from abroad, he passed through the city of London in great 10 See "The Tryal of Dr. Henry Sacheverell, begun in Westmin- ster Hall, Feb. 27, 17$," P- 15. 1 Ibid. p. 17- 16S8, 1G8!>.] AS ESTABLISHMENT. 17 pomp. Sir Humphrey Edwin, Lord Mayor this year, carried the sword before him in a gown of crimson velvet. " This gentleman not only worshipped God publicly with the dissenters, according to his usual custom, but carried the regalia (sic) with him, which very much disgusted many of the Church of England. Many were the exclamations and complaints made upon this occasion. Among others, Dr. Nicholls tells the world that ' to the great reproach of the laws, and of the city mayoralty, he carried the sword with him to a nasty conventicle, that was kept in one of the city halls 2 ;' which horrid crime one of his own party de- fended, by giving this arrogant reason for it, that by the Act of Parliament by which they have their liberty, their religion is as much established as ours." Calamv himself says, " the allowance of the law is of necessity a sufficient establishment V And they who reject Dr. Sacheverell, may accept the testimony of ano- ther contemporary, Bishop Burnet ; for even he, with better fortune than Sacheverell, administers this rebuke : " Dissenters ought to consider well, what they can do for peace, without sinning against God. The toleration does not at all justify 2 " The halls of the different companies appear at the above period to have been used for almost every public purpose, but more especially for the outpourings of grace and over-righteousness, and to reverberate in thrice dissonant thunder the voices of the elect, who saved themselves, and dealt eternal misery to all around them. I believe that not more than one hall is used for such purpose now." Malcolm's Manners and Customs of London in the Eighteenth Century, vol. ii. p. 136'. s Calamy's Own Life, chap. v. Lord Mansfield could see no difference between toleration and establishment of dissenters. See Dr. Furneaux' Letter to Blackstone. C IS BURNET ON THE TOLERATION. [CHAP I. their separation ; it only takes away the force of penal laws against them : therefore, as lying in com- mon discourse is still a sin, though no statute punishes it ; and ingratitude is a base thing, though there is no law against it ; so, separating from a national body and from the pubbc worship, is certainly an ill thing, unless some sin be committed there, in which we think our- selves involved, by joining with that body, and in that worship ; so that the toleration is only a freedom from punishment, and does not alter the nature of the thing V How a mistake, so fatal and so early begun, has continued to develop itself ever since, from the time of the Revolution, and so added to the many cares and difficulties of the Church alleged above, will be one of the objects of this history to explain 5 . Meanwhile we return to the order of events. 1 History of his Own Times, vol. iv. p. 413. 5 Bishop Mant represents the Irish dissenters as rendered simply more restless and expectant by concession, in reference to con- tinued civil disabilities : " formerly they professed not to repine at the employments of Churchmen ; but thought that all men, who lived peaceably, ought to have liberty of conscience. This was allowed at the Revolution ; and for a while they acquiesced in the reservation of the sacramental test, with which they now manifested their dissatisfaction, and aimed at removing it." Hist. Ch. of Ire- land, vol. ii. ch. ii. sect. iv. CHAPTER II. a.d. 1689. Archbishop of Canterbury. King and Queen of England. William Sancroft. | William III. and Mary II. The experiment was first made in favour of those, of its effects upon whom we have heen treating by anticipation, namely, Protestant nonconformists. A like relaxation has been since made in favour of papists, but at a much later period of our history, which we shall notice in its place. Indulgence to papists was not to be expected at once ; when men might be excused for viewing popery as a political and alien organization, ever dangerous to civil Hberty and national independence ; when the nation had not yet had time to forget past persecution under Mary, and still less the recent popish machina- tions of James ', which had reduced England to all but 1 Mr. Macaulay justly, and with that power of language in whicli he so eminently excels, states the reasonable and inevitable sus- picions reawakened in men's minds by this mad bigot's infatuated policy, to restore popery: "If ever a Roman Catholic could be expected to keep faith with heretics, James might have been ex- pected to keep faith with the Anglican clergy. To them he owed his crown. But for their strenuous opposition to the Exclusion Bill he would have been a banished man. He had repeatedly and em- phatically acknowledged his obligations to them, and had vowed c 2 20 FBESH PRECAUTIONS [CHAP. II. a fief of France, and rendered a change of dynasty ne- cessary to maintain her institutions. It excites no surprise, therefore, to find that, as yet, men could not distinguish between Romish doctrine and the Romish system, and therefore tolerated neither. One of the very first acts of the new reign (1 William and Mary, c. 9) was passed to abridge Romish influence s . It to maintain them in all their legal rights. If he could not be bound by ties like these, it must be evident that where his super- stition was concerned, no tie of gratitude, or of honour could bind him. To trust him would thenceforth be impossible: and, if his people could not trust him, what member of his Church could they trust ? He was not supposed to be constitutionally or habitually treacherous. ... To his policy the English Roman Catholics owed three years of lawless and insolent triumph, and a hundred and forty years of subjection and degradation." Hist, of Eng. vol. ii. p. 10. 2 Mr. Macaulay is of opinion that these arguments held for penal enactments against popery before the Revolution, but not after it. He alike denies the necessity of old or new statutes against papists, when once the monarchy had been limited by the Bill of Rights, the succession limited to the Protestant line by the same Bill, and the House of Commons raised to the high position in which this Bill, virtually, if not expressly, placed it. His words are " they ceased to have any weight when the crown had been settled on a race of Protestant sovereigns, and when the power of the House of Commons in the State had become so decidedly pre- ponderant that no sovereign, whatever might have been his opinions or his inclinations, could have imitated the example of James. The nation, however, after its terrors, its struggles, its narrow escape, was in a suspicious and vindictive mood. Means of de- fence, therefore, which necessity had once justified, and which necessity alone could justify, were obstinately used long after the necessity had ceased to exist, and were not abandoned till vulgar prejudice had maintained a contest of many years against reason." Hist, of Eng. vol. ii. p. 242. These polished periods notwith- standing, and apart from all excitement or indignation, which may have guided legislation in the times referred to. and with- out questioning the indefeasible right of Roman Catholics, as 1089.] AGAINST POPEIIY. 2] recites that " Whereas the great number of papists resorting to the cities of London and AVestminsler are, and for a long time have been, found dangerous to the peace and safety of the kingdom," all persons in London and Westminster and within ten miles should make the declaration mentioned in 30 Car. II. stat. 2, c. 1. In the same session, as a further safeguard against popery, rendered necessary by the treacherous evasions of the two preceding reigns, an Act (1 William and Mary, c. 6, sess. 1) was passed "for establishing the Coronation Oath." This is still in force ; and, writing in 1851, we think that the government policy of the last thirty years may render it expedient to place it on record, and draw the atten- tion of Churchmen to it. The preamble runs thus : of all others, and in this country as in all others, to worship God in their own way ; sober thinkers may adhere to their con- viction that, so far as amidst all the varieties of Christian pro- fession, popery is an exceptional case in reference to temporal pretensions, it must be treated exceptionally as such, by every State which desires order and peace for its people, and respect and stability for its institutions. The writer would deprecate a return to penal enactments, as much as Mr. Macaulay, but he cannot share in his apparent sense of unassailable safety, merely because we have an Act of Settlement, and a preponderant House of Com- mons. The Act of Settlement may be changed : other Acts of no small moment have been changed, under the pretence of a vague and unmeaning liberalism, or to conciliate those whom conciliation does but encourage in aggression. And as to the House of Com- mons, it is less clear to the writer, how they can be depended on so implicitly as, of themselves, a sufficient guardian of the national faith, who are no longer necessarily of that faith, even to the mise- rable extent of a sacramental test. Not penal statutes against Romish worship, but reasonable restrictions and defences against Romanism as a system, may yet be necessary, if we would be able to say, as Mr. Macaulay says, that " no sovereign could imitate the example of James." 22 THE COEONATTON OATH. [CHAP. II. " Whereas by the law and ancient usage of this realm, the kings and queens thereof have taken a solemn oath upon the evangelists at their respective corona- tions, to maintain the statutory laws of the said realm and all the people and inhabitants thereof in their civil and spiritual rights and properties ; but foras- much as the oath itself on such occasions administered, hath heretofore been framed in doubtful words and expressions with respect to ancient laws and constitu- tions at this time unknown. To the end, therefore, that one uniform oath be taken by the kings and queens of this realm, and to them respectively ad- ministered at the times of their and every their coro- nation, may it please your majesties, &c." " The Archbishop or Bishop shall say, ' Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the laws of God, and the true profession of the Gospel, and the Pro- testant reformed religion estabbshed by law ? And will you preserve unto the bishops and clergy of this realm, and to the churches committed to their charge, all such rights and privileges as by law do or shall appertain unto them, or any of them ? ' " King or Queen. — ' All this I promise to do.' " Then the King or Queen, laying his or her hand upon the Gospels, shall say, " ' The things which I before promised, Iurill per- form and keep, so help me God.'''' Such were the securities taken of kings for good faith in an age freely and fairly accused of latitudi- narianism. Some, however, may think that the above will bear comparison with much of the legislation for the Church in later times, notwithstanding. How the new sovereign could reconcile much of his conduct towards the Church with such an oath — his constant 1680.] THE CORONATION OATH. interruptions, for instance, of her synodal action — is a question which he has long since gone to answer at a yet higher tribunal than his own. It must not be supposed that the new coronation oath was submitted to without opposition. " When the terms of the coronation oath came to be discussed," says Lord Campbell, " Lord Somers supported an amendment, the adoption of which would have saved much unnecessary pain to royal consciences, and would have deprived bigotry of an unfair weapon. Instead of the words, ' Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the true profession of the Gospel, and the Protestant reformed religion established by law ?' — Mr. Hampden moved to insert the words, ' the true profession of the Gospel, and the Protestant reformed religion, as it may be established according to the laws for the tvme being' " Some contended that the words to be added were an improvement, as obviating all doubt about the power of the legislature ; and Lord Campbell, Her Majesty's Chief Justice, thinks so too. The amendment was negatived by a majority of 188 to 149. Lord Campbell says afterwards, that " this would have silenced those weak persons who raise an argument upon it, that the coronation oath was violated by giving the royal assent to such laws as ' The Catholic Relief Bill,' or ' The Bill for repealing the Test Act,' or 'The Bill for granting an additional Endowment to Maynooth 3 .' " It may seem presump- tuous in one holding a much lower commission under Her Majesty, to dispute his lordship's construction of an Act of Parliament. But it does appear to the writer, that these words (proposed, by the way, to be substituted, and not, as his lordship says, " added ") 3 Lives of the Lord Chancellors, vol. ii. in Somers. 24 LORD CAMPBELL 0> r THE OATH. [CHAP. II. would not have achieved the object professedly in view ; that is, the easing of royal consciences ; for neither of these laws was the law of the land, until the royal assent had been given ; and, therefore, assuming the laws which Lord Campbell mentions to be really inconsistent with the coronation oath as it now stands, but upon which the writer gives no opinion in this place, a royal conscience troubled by the doubt whether assent shall be given would be exactly in the same difficulty, if Lord Campbell's formula had been substi- tuted. The only solution seems to be, that Lord Campbell ignores royalty, and assumes bdls presented for the royal assent to be already laws, without such assent, instead of mere projects or suggestions of laws. Would not Lord Campbell's object be better attained by substituting such words as these : — " The Protes- tant religion established in auy manner and degree which your faithful Commons shall determine ?" This would really "relieve the royal conscience," would effectually " obviate all doubt about the power of the legislature," and have the further advantage of being intelligible. A hint of this sort from such a qiiarter about the coronation oath is significant : are we to infer from it that Lord Campbell's political friends are proposing to improve it, as they have improved many other of our old institutions and observances ? The general tone of Lord Campbell's writings points strongly to such a consummation. Amidst all these precautions of a public nature, and notwithstanding the convulsions of the whole fabric of society, resulting from the popery of the late reign, it is satisfactory to find that the persons of papists were secure from molestation. It was no more than poetical justice to remove the author of " Britannia Eediviva " 16s9.] FURTHER PRECAUTIONS. 25 (Dryden, a recent pervert from Puritanism to Ro- manism, for James's favour and a hundred a year) from the Laureateship. The public precautions, however stigmatized by Mr. Macaulay as " vindictiveness," were simply defen- sive, and dictated by a sound policy, in order to prevent the necessity of another revolution. Nor were these confined to the measures above noticed. On December 10, 1690, it was ' : ordered that no papists do presume to come into Westminster Hall, the Court of Requests, or the lobby of the House of Lords, during the sitting of Parliament ; and this order to be posted up on Westminster Hall gate, and in the lobby of the House of Lords ; and that the serjeant-at-arms attending this House do take into custody all such persons as shall offend against the said order 4 ." Considering the nation's recent escape from popish thraldom, and the popish machinations still threaten- ing its peace, the following proclamation, issued in the following year, may seem excused by a political neces- sity of their own creation : — "Maria E. " Whereas, notwithstanding the several acts of par- liament, whereby the resorting of papists to the cities of London and Westminster, and places thereunto adjacent, are declared to be dangerous to the peace and safety of this kingdom, and the ways and methods provided and enacted as well for discovering as remov- ing them ; and notwithstanding the manifestation of their Majesties' princely disposition to extend their protection and royal grace to all and every of their 4 Orders collected out of the Journals (1 75f!), p. 9. 26 FURTHER PRECAUTIONS [CHAP. BE. subjects that will live quietly and peaceably under their government, divers popish recusants, being ill- affected, to their Majesties' government, and of rest- less spirits, have lately resorted to the said cities and places in great numbers, and thereby having opportu- nity to meet, have thereby taken great boldness to consult and prosecute divers mischievous and treason- able designs and practices, contrary to the duty of their allegiance ; their Majesties have therefore thought fit (by the advice of their Privy Council) to issue out this their royal proclamation, and do hereby strictly command and charge all popish recusants, and persons reputed so to be, (except merchants, strangers, and such other persons as in the said acts are excepted,) on or before the seven and twentieth day of June to depart out of the said cities, and from all places within the distance of ten miles from the same. And their Majesties do hereby further require and command, that if any of the said popish recusants, or so reputed, shall presume to remain within either of the said cities, or ten miles adjacent, or repair or return to the same, they be proceeded against, as persons conspiring against the peace and welfare of our government. Aud their Majesties do hereby straitly charge and command the lord mayor of London, and all and every the jus- tices of the peace, constables, and other their Majesties' officers and ministers of justice within the said city and either of them, and within ten miles of the same, that they do make strict search and enquiry for, and with all vigour proceed against all and every person or persons who shall be found within the said cities of London and "Westminster, and within ten miles of the same, contrary to the effect of any of the said statutes and the purport of this their Majesties' proclamation. 1689.] CENSURED BY ME. MACATJLAT. 27 And their Majesties do further strictly charge and command, that immediately after the said seven and twentieth day of June, the constables, churchwardens, and other officers within the said cities and places, do go from house to house in their several parishes, ham- lets, constableries, and divisions respectively, and then take an account of the names and surnames of all such persons as are popish recusants, or reputed so to he, as well householders as lodgers or servants, and to carry a list of their names to the two next justices of the peace, who are hereby required and enjoined to send for and proceed against them (excepting always mer- chant foreigners, settled householders, and other per- sons in the said acts excepted) as aforesaid ; and they the said justices are likewise required, when they shall have received such list or lists, to certify the same, together with their proceedings thereupon, to their Majesties' most honourable Privy Councd. Given at our court at Whitehall the seventeenth day of June, M.D.CXC, in the second year of our reign 5 ." Such were the public precautions taken defensively against persons owning, be it remembered, a foreign allegiance. If Mr. Macaulay can see " vindictiveness " in such measures, he can see none, at all events, in the way in which they were followed up. Such continued treasonable combinations would justify severer mea- sures ; but even these appear to have been intended rather in terrorem than otherwise, unless we suppose a strange supineness on the part of the authorities in executing them. For this proclamation was supple- mentary to an Act already noticed ; and this procla- mation of June was followed, as we have seen, by an 5 Wilkins, Concilia, vol. iv. p. 623. 28 WILLIAM III. [CHAP. II. order of the House of Lords in December, and by a like proclamation in 1692. From this time more severe measures were adopted towards the papists in Ireland, of whom Mr. Hallam says, " To have exterminated the [Roman] Catholics by the sword, or expelled them, like the Morescoes of Spain, would have been little more repugnant to justice and humanity, and incomparably more politic 6 ." Mr. Hallam's statements always deserve respectful consideration ; but this may be thought somewhat to overstate their case. Without pretending to justify every measure adopted towards Ireland at that time, it is but fair to remember, that Irish papists were almost to a man rebels against the government in possession ; and it is necessary to distinguish between measures directed against them as such, and those directed against them as papists. Returning from this parenthetical statement of the effects of the Revolution upon popery, in this country and in Ireland, we find that, amidst all these and like new positions taken against it, one of AVilliam's first acts was to procure a relaxation, as already said, in favour of Protestant dissenters, as the descendants and offshoots of the Puritans were now generally called. His own promise 7 before coming to the crown had pledged him to this : his resentment against the Church, so far as represented by the nonjuring bishops and 6 Constit. Hist. vol. iL p. 5G2. 7 " As to the dissenters, if his Majesty (James II.) desires their concurrence in repealing the penal laws, their Highnesses were ready to give it, provided these laws remain still in force by which Roman Catholics are shut out of both Houses of Parliament, and out of public employments, ecclesiastical, civil, and military." Welwood's Memoirs, p. 244. Lond. 1702. 16S9.] AND TOLERATION. 29 clergy, who challenged his right ; and his own Presbyte- rian training and associations ; the more readily inclined him to it. He who could " utter an ominous growl when he saw an altar decked after the Anglican fashion in his wife's private chapel, and Hooker's Eccle- siastical Polity in her hand 8 ," was little likely to prove tight-laced, personally, in reference to English dissenters. Besides which there was the Christian justice of the case, which was not without its repre- sentatives ; as well as the political expediency of the represented by William, and such men as Burnet and Tillotson. This last, a political expe- diency resulting from a weakness to enforce civil penalties against religious error much longer, has been already alluded to (p. 13), and may be inferred from the amount of nonconformity still surviving the Church's wreck in the rebellion, in spite of all penal enactments. Accurate statistics are not to be had ; but, that nonconformists were still sufficiently nume- rous, aided by that zeal and activity which ever dis- tinguish error, to command more indulgence than they had hitherto received, may be inferred incident- ally, from the efforts made, not wholly without suc- cess, to conciliate them, and array them with papists against the Church, by James H. *; and, by the B,e- 8 See Macaulay's Hist, of Eng. vol. ii. p. 182. 5 See Evelyn, passim, and Kettlewell's Life. The biographer and executor of Ken (Sergeant Hawkins) speaks of " the popish and fanatical factions," as " united at Court " in James's reign : and Penn, according to Macaulay, described their enthusiasm in favour of the persecuted bishops as only a feint, in order that their opposition to popery might be bought off: "Penn, who, though he had himself sacrificed wealth and honours to his con- scientious scruples, seems to have imagined that nobody but himself had a conscience, imputed the discontent of the Puritans to envy 30 TOLERATION ACT. [CHAP. II. volution, they had again been made sensible of their importance, in the opposite direction, as, in future, an ally of Church and State, on emergencies, against popery. In each case they formed much the same sort of " measuring majority " between two great rival powers, which Irish members have formed in our own time ; were equally sensible of their value to a ministry ; and as determined to exact it. Hence the influence which they will be found to exercise over legislation, over and above that of their actual number and intrinsic importance, from the Revolution to the present time. Under the pressure of these various circumstances — from mere motives of policy in some, and deep convic- tions of duty in others — a relaxation in favour of dissenters was embodied in the Act 1 Will, and Mary, c. 18, sess. 1, commonly known as the Toleration Act. It recites that, " Forasmuch as some ease to scrupulous consciences in the exercise of religion may and dissatisfied ambition. They had not had their share of the benefits promised by the Declaration of Indulgence ; none of them had been admitted to any high and honourable post ; and there- fore it was not strange that they were jealous of the Roman Catholics. Accordingly within a week after the great verdict had been pronounced in Westminster Hall, Silas Titus, a noted Presby- terian, a vehement exclusionist, and a manager of Stafford's im- peachment, was invited to occupy a seat in the Privy Council." Hist, of Eng. vol. ii. p. 421 . Scott remarks : " The dissenters had at one time (if the expression may be permitted) coquetted with James II., and shown some disposition to accommodate themselves to his plans of arbitrary power, in order to gratify their vengeance, by enjoying the degradation if not the fall of the Church of Eng- land. And although they recovered from this delusion, yet they must be considered as rather falling in with, and aiding the general current of opinion, than as leading and directing it against the ab- dicated monarch." Swift's Works, vol. iii. 1689.] TOLERATION ACT. 31 be an effectual means to unite their Majesties' Pro- testant subjects in interests and affections," the Act of Uniformity, 1 Eliz. c. 2, sess. 14, " whereby all persons, having no lawful or reasonable excuse to be absent, are required to resort to their parish church or chapel, or some such chapel, where the Common Prayer shall be used, upon pain of punishment by the cen- sures of the Church, and also upon pain," &c. ; and other statutes therein recited, " shall be construed not to extend to any person or persons dissenting from the Church of England . . . nor shall any of the said persons be prosecuted in any Ecclesiastical Court for or by reason of their nonconformity to the Church of England," s. 4. By s. 5, they are deprived of the benefits of this Act, if meeting with closed doors. By s. 7, " Churchwardens and others scrupling to take the oaths may serve by deputy, by him to be provided, that shall comply with the laws in this behalf." By s. 16, " All the laws made and provided for the frequenting of Divine service on the Lord's-day, commonly called Sunday, shall be still in force, and executed against all persons that offend against the said laws, except such persons come to some congregation or assembly of religious worship allowed or permitted by this Act." The subsequent repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts in 1S28 (13 Car. II. c. 1, and 25 Car. II. c. 2), rendering it no longer necessary to receive the Sacra- ment of the Lord's Supper as a test or qualification for certain civd offices and employments, and various other concessory statutes, have carried this indulgence to its utmost verge ; but of these we shall treat in their proper place. The only exceptions from the Toleration were Papists and Unitarians. Enough has been said to show, that Daniel Defoe was thirteen years too late 32 DIFFICULTIES OF A COMPREHENSION. [CHAF. II. with his " Short "Way with the Dissenters ;" to stand in the pillory in 1702 for a political tirade against the persecution of nonconformists was a supererogatory martyrdom, which one would not expect from the natural sagacity of him who could conceive the prac- tical wisdom of a Robinson Crusoe. Nor was this all. It was thought good not only to tolerate dissenters, hut to attempt to reconcUe and comprehend them. The attempt had heen made long before at the Savoy Conference, and failed, as it was likely to do when there was nothing sinful required as terms of Communion by the National Church. What would command the lasting adhesion of men so prone to singularity, so eccentric in their hostility, as to choose Christmas-day for a fast-day ? Comprehension was the expression of a natural and praiseworthy yearning in men's minds for catholicity and unity ; the only difficulty was and is the method and means, the terms and conditions, and the probabilities of en- durance when it is done. It seems to have been over- looked, that men's hearts must be brought more or less into unison, before any lasting unison may be hoped for in outward fellowship and forms. Even penal statutes had failed to produce a permanent comprehension ; still less was it to be expected from a hollow bargain, partaking more of a civil than of a religious contract, made at will and dissolvable at will and containing within itself all the elements of disso- lution. It was another instance of men being over- hasty in carrying out a good and religious impulse ; it was a convulsive start of religion, not its natural and healthy action. Even if such a ritual had been ex- torted from the Church as would appease and compre- hend dissenters for the moment, it is impossible to KiS!).] DIFFICULTIES OF A COMPREHENSION. 33 suppose men permanently reconciled by it who could so ignore their obligation to abide in " the apostolic doctrine, aud the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers," that the colour of a vestment, or the making of a sign in holy baptism, or any thing else not sinful, but simply and unaccountably distasteful, was deemed a justification of schism. And so the Church commissioners, at the Savoy, had decided. Undeterred, however, by this fadure, Sancroft, who had himself taken a part in the revision of the Liturgy which followed, was actually engaged upon some such scheme, in concert with his brethren, at the moment they were resisting the reading of James's proclamation for liberty of conscience in their churches. The Protestant dissenters showed at that time a peculiarly mild dispo- sition towards the Established Church, towards the end of James's reign, however they may have been cajoled by him and his Jesuit advisers to conspire with them against her at an earlier period. They relented now that they saw the pressing danger of popery, preparing to make its spring upon them equally with the Church ; and such as were not mere political dissenters, — traders in schism, — felt unfeigned admira- tion and gratitude for the firm and dignified stand which the members of the Church had made, so much to their honour, both by their unanswerable writings and by their public measures, against the designs of the Romanists. In consequence of this temper, now displayed generally, though from various motives, by the Protestant dissenters, Archbishop Sancroft was induced to set on foot a scheme of comprehension, in which his purpose seems to have been to make such alterations in the Liturgy, and in the discipline of the Church, in points not deemed of essential and primary D 34 ARCHBISHOP SANCROFT [CHAP. II. importance, as might prove the means, througli corresponding concessions on the part of the more moderate dissenters, of admitting them within its pale. It were to be wished, as a matter of curious information, if not indeed for practical guidance, when the tendencies of the time (1851) seem towards a re- newal of such attempts, that we possessed more know- ledge than has reached us of the details of any plan for this purpose which such a man as Sancroft would propose, and of the extent to which he proceeded in it. Our principal information concerning it is derived from the speech of Dr. "Wake, delivered by him some years after, when Bishop of Lincoln, at the trial of Dr. Sacheverell : " The time was towards the end of the late unhappy reign, when we were in the height of our labours in defending the Church of England against the assaults of popery, and thought of nothing else. At this time, that wise prelate (Abp. Sancroft), foreseeing such a revolution as that which soon after occurred, began to consider how utterly unprepared they had been at the Restoration of King Charles II. to settle many things to the advantage of the Church ; and what a happy opportunity had been lost, for want of such care, for its more perfect establishment. The scheme was laid out, and the several parts were com- mitted, not only with the approbation, but by the direction, of that great prelate, to such of our divines as were thought most worthy to be entrusted with it. His Grace took one part himself ; another was com- mitted to a pious and reverend person (Dr. Patrick), then a dean, and afterwards a bishop of our Church. The reviewing of the dady service of our Liturgy and the Communion-book was referred to a select com- mittee of excellent persons, two of whom are at this ICS!).] DESIGNS A COMPREHENSION. 35 time upon our bench (the Archbishop of York 1 and the Bishop of Ely 2 ), and, I am sure, will bear witness to this relation. The design was, in short, this : To improve, and, if possible, amend our discipline ; to review and enlarge our Liturgy by correcting some things, by adding others, and if it should be thought advisable by authority, when this matter should be legally considered, first in Convocation, then in Parlia- ment, by omitting some few ceremonies which are found to be indifferent in their nature, also indifferent in their usage, so as not to make them of necessity binding on those who had conscientious scruples re- specting them, till they should be able to overcome either their weaknesses or their prejudices respecting them, and be willing to comply. How far this good design was not only known to, but approved by, the other fathers of our Church, that famous petition for which seven of them were committed to the Tower, and which so much contributed to our deliverance, may suffice to show. ' The willingness,' they there declared, of ' coming to such & temper as should be thought fit, with the dissenters, when that matter should be considered and settled in Parliament and Convocation,' manifestly referred to what was then known to several, if not all, of the subscribers, to have been at that very time under deliberation \" Such is the only account which we possess of the scheme of comprehension projected by Archbishop Sancroft. That it originated on his part from the purest and best of motives, and that his sole object was to give stability to the Church and to extend the 1 Dr. J. Sharp. 2 Dr. J. Moore. 3 See " Tryal of Dr. Henry Sacheverell," and D'Oyly's Life of Sancroft, pp. 196-200. D 2 36 DISSENTERS OBJECT TO [CHAP II. influence of sound religion, can admit of no question. At the same time, even if there had been no change of government immediately afterwards to put a stop to it, it is very doubtful if the scheme could ever have been realized ; or, if realized, whether it would not have been made a ground for asking more, dis- couraging Churchmen, without permanently satisfying dissenters. When the attempt was renewed for the third time, in 1689, Archbishop Sancroft was under suspension as a nonjuror ; and, as might be expected from the fact of Bishop Burnet being now virtually primate, from his influence at court, the object was now not so much to give stability to the Church, as to coax and, for the moment, silence her enemies. The very first step was ominous, being, not like Sancroft's, the digesting of a plan by the heads of the Church, to be submitted afterwards to Convocation, but an attempt, which has been so generally followed since then, to transfer all to Parliament, and ignore Convocation. A Compre- hension Bill passed the House of Lords, embodying much such modifications of the Liturgy as had beeu vainly contended for by Baxter' 1 at the Savoy. It again failed, however, though from different reasons. Burnet quotes a characteristic one : " If or was this Bill supported by those who seemed most favourable to the dissenters ; and they set it up for a maxim, that it was fit to keep up a strong faction in Church and State ; and they thought it was not agreeable to that to suffer so great a body as the Presbyterians to be made more easy, or more inclinable to unite to the 4 Baxter lived just long enough to see his hopes of a compre- hension once more disappointed : he died in 1691. 1689.] A COMPREHENSION. 37 Church. They also thought that the toleration would be best maintained when great numbers should need it, and be concerned to preserve it ; so this good design being zealously opposed, and but faintly sup- ported, it fell to the ground 5 ." Another objection was started by the House of Commons, for which the bishop could scarcely have been prepared. They who know the ecclesiastical cast of Burnet's mind will be little surprised to find him, a bishop, warmly supporting the plan in the House of Lords, without deeming any further opinion and decision of the Church upon it necessary, while the laity, as represented by the House of Commons, " instead of proceeding with the Bill, made an address to the king for summoning a Convocation of the clergy to attend, according to custom, on the session of Parliament. . . . They were much offended with the Bill of Comprehension, as containing matters relating to the Church in which the representative body of the clergy had not been so much as advised with 8 ." This was a heavy blow to 5 History of his Own Times, vol. iii. p. 15. 6 Ibid. It is such constitutional and churchmanly conduct as this, in the House of Commons, that Lord Campbell would hold up to censure, by speaking of them as ill-educated and semi-barbarous " fox-hunting squires." As, for like reasons, Burnet and Macaulay speak of the country clergy of those days. It was, however, this freshness of national character, this cling- ing to old traditions, arising from their remoteness from court refinements and newly-imported foreign frivolities, — it was this rudeness and bluntness, if these writers will have it so, — that went far towards upholding the institutions, and saving the country, at this critical moment. Lord Campbell helps us to account for the conduct of both Houses in the early part of William's reign : "The truth is, that at this time, incredible as it may appear to some, the Whigs had a decided majority in the 38 THE KIXG'S COMMISSION" [CHAP. ft. Burnet's hopes ; and he said, " Convocation would he the utter nun of the comprehension scheme," and so it proved. However, there was no escape from it ; accordingly a commission was summoned hy the king to digest a scheme of comprehension, &c, to be submitted to Convocation. The instructions were as follows : — " Whereas the particular forms of divine worship, and the rites and ceremonies appointed to be used therein, are things in their own nature indifferent and alterable, and so acknowledged; it is but reasonable, that upon weighty and important considerations, according to the various exigencies of times and occasions, such changes and alterations should be made therein, as those that are in place and authority shoidd from time to time deem either necessary or expedient. " And whereas the book of Canons is fit to be reviewed and made more suitable to the state of the Church ; and whereas there are defects and abuses in the ecclesiastical courts and jurisdictions, and parti- cularly there is not sufficient provision made for the removing of scandalous ministers, and for the reform- ing of manners either in ministers or people ; and whereas it is most fit that there should be a strict method prescribed for the examination of such per- House of Lords, although they were always outvoted in the House of Commons. From the creation of some new peers — from judi- cious appointments to the Episcopal bench — and from the highest ranks in England being much better educated than the fox-hunting squires who represented the counties and many of the smaller boroughs, the upper house in the reign of William was, and for a good many years continued, far in advance of the lower in liberty and intelligence." Lives of Chan. vol. iv. p. lfil. 1689.] FOR A COMPREHENSION. 39 sons as desire to be admitted into holy orders, both as to their learning and manners. " We, therefore, out of our pious and princely care for the good order and edification and unity of the Church of England, committed to our charge and care, and for the reconciling, as much as is possible, all dif- ferences among our good subjects, and to take away all occasions for the like for the future, have thought fit to authorize and empower you, &c, and any nine of you, whereof three to be bishops, to meet from time to time, as often as shall be needful, and to prepare such alterations of the Liturgy and Canons, and such proposals for the reformation of ecclesiastical courts, and to consider of such other matters as in your judgments may most conduce to the ends above-men- tioned 7 ." The commission, which met in the Jerusalem Cham- ber, on October the 10th, was composed of ten bishops, including Burnet ; and twenty divines, including Til- lotson and Tenison 8 . Burnet says they were chosen 7 Wilkins, Concilia, torn. iv. in loc. 8 Lamplugh, Archbishop of York. Compton, Bishop of London. Mew, Bishop of Winchester. W. Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph. Sprat, Bishop of Rochester. Smith, Bishop of Carlisle. Trelawxy, Bishop of Exeter. Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury. Humphrey, Bishop of Bangor. Stratford, Bishop of Chester. Scott. Grove. Dean Tii.lotson (afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury). Sharp (afterwards Archbishop of York). Kidder (afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells). 40 THE COMMISSIONERS MAKE [CHAP. II. impartially, but that many of the " very rigid " divines soon ceased to attend 9 . The rest sat closely to it for several weeks. " They had before them all the excep- tions that either the Puritans before the war [rebel- lion], or the nonconformists since the Restoration, had made to any part of the Church Service. They had also many propositions and advices that had been offered at several times by many of our bishops and divines upon those heads. Matters were well consi- dered and freely and calmly debated, and all was digested into an entire correction of every thing that seemed liable to any just objection 1 ." The reader will infer the animus of the acting part of the commis- sion, on finding that the cross in baptism was decided to be one of the things "Uable to just objection," and therefore was to be " entirely corrected," by being used or omitted at the choice of parents ; as was the Atha- Aldrich. Jane. butterly. Tenisox (afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury). Fowler. Williams. Mygott. Hall. Beaumont. Beveridge (afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph). Alston. 9 At the first meeting of the commission, and alleging its ille- gality as their reason, Sprat, Bishop of Rochester, Mew of Win- chester, and Doctors Jane and Aldrich, retired. Few besides Burnet would have called Sprat a "rigid divine." Other com- missioners never attended at all, " declaring themselves dissatisfied with every thing of that nature, and against all alterations whatso- ever." 1 Burnet's Hist. Own Times, vol. hi. p. 41. 1689.] T1IEIR HE PORT. nasian Creed 2 , at the discretion of each minister. Other alterations were, the suhstitution of canonical for apocryphal lessons. Tillotson (Nieholls says 3 , Patrick, Burnet, and Stillingfleet assisting him) was to prepare new Collects, " more agreeahle to the Epistles and Gospels, for the whole course of the year, and with a force and beauty of expression capable of affect- ing and raising the mind in the strongest manner." Tenison was to revise generally the language of the Prayer Book ; a new translation of the Psalms ; and " nonconformist ministers going over to the Church were to be ordained hypothetically, as infants are bap- tized." The other alterations proposed by the com- mission, or rather the acting part of the commission, were, that the chanting of divine service in cathedral churches shoidd be laid aside, that the whole might be rendered intelligible to the common people. That the Apocryphal lessons, and those in the Old Testament which are too natural, be thrown out, and others appointed instead by a new calendar, from which all the legendary saints' days, and others not directly referred to in the service book, be removed. 2 This would, of course, be one of the first things surrendered by men forming " intimate friendships," as we shall see, with the leader and paymaster of the English Arians, Mr. Firmin. And yet, as Comber said at the time, " if any one scruples the positive denying of salvation to those who do not believe the articles there- in contained, they should recollect, that those who hold any of the fundamental heresies therein condemned, are also condemned in the sacred Scripture, 1 John ii. 24, 25, and the doctrines are called ' damnable heresies.' 2 Pet. ii. 1." An authoritative scriptural exposition of this creed, however, showing its consistency, not- withstanding the damnatory clauses, with the general beneficence and tenderness of the divine revelation, would have been a reason- able concession to men entertaining honest scruples. 3 Apparatus ad Defensionem Eccles. Ang. 12 THE COMMISSIONERS MAKE [CHAP. U. That if any refuse to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper kneeling, it might be administered to them in their pews. That a Rubric be made, declaring the intentions of the Lent fasts to consist in extraordinary acts of devo- tion, not in distinctions of meats ; and another to state the meaning of " Rogation Sundays," and "Em- ber Weeks ;" that those ordained within the quatuor tempora should exercise strict devotion ; and that the Rubric which enjoins ministers to read or hear " common prayer, publicly or privately every day," be changed to an exhortation to the people to frequent these prayers. That the absolution, in morning and evening prayers, might be read by a deacon, the word priest in the Rubric being changed to minister ; and these words "and remission" be put out, as not very intelligible. That the Gloria Patri should not be repeated at the end of every Psalm, but of all appointed for morning and evening prayer ; and that these words in the " Te Deum," " thine honourable true and only Son," should be thus turned, " thine only begotten Son," honourable being only a civil term, and no where used in sacris. The "Benedicite" be changed into the 12Sth Psalm, and other Psalms bkewise appointed for the " Benedictus" and "Nunc dimittis." The versicles after the Lord's prayer were to be said kneeling, to avoid the trouble and inconveniences of changing the posi- tion so often in the worship. And after those words " Give peace in our time, O Lord," an answer was to follow, promissory of somewhat on the people's part of keeping God's law, or the like ; the old response being grounded on the predestinating doctrine taken in too strict an acceptance. 1889.] THEIR ItEPOKT. 13 All high titles or appellations of the king or queen, &c. such as "most illustrious," "most religious," " mighty," &c. were to be left out of the prayers, and only the word sovereign retained for king and queen. These words in the prayer for the king, " Grant that he may vanquish and overcome all his enemies," as of too large an extent, if the king engage in an unjust war, were to be turned thus, " prosper all his righteous undertakings against thy enemies," or after some sucli maimer. Sponsors were to be omitted in baptism, if parents so desired. " Healthful" was to be discarded as an obsolete word. If any minister refused the surplice, the bishop or the people desired it, and the living would bear it, he was to provide a substitute who would officiate in it. The prayer which begins " O God, whose nature and property," was to be thrown out, as full of strange and impertinent expressions, and, besides, not in the original, but foisted in since by another hand ; which might well compel Bishop Short to say, " It is difficult to understand what is here meant." He adds, " the prayer was introduced 1560, from the Liturgy of the Salisbury Hours, and is cer- tainly one of the most beautiful and Christian prayers in the Liturgy. He who has never felt the propriety and force of it, must either he a very good or a very had man :" — a piece of antithesis about as " difficult to un- derstand" as the criticism of the commissioners which elicits it. Against these or any alterations it was argued that the altering of the customs and constitution of our Church, to gratify a peevish and obstinate party, was likely to have no other effect on them, than to make them more insolent ; as if the Church, by offering 14 ARGUMENT FOE AND AGAINST IT. [CHAP. II. these alterations, seemed to confess that she had hitherto been in the wrong. They thought this attempt would divide us among ourselves, and make the people lose their esteem for the Liturgy, if it ap- peared that it wanted correction. On the other side it was argued, that great alterations had been made in such thiugs, in all ages of the Church. Even the Church of Some was still making some alterations in her rituals. And changes had been made among our- selves often, since the Reformation, in King Edward, Queen Elizabeth, King James, and King Charles the Second's reigns. These were always made upon some great turn, critical times being the most proper for designs of that kind. The toleration now granted seemed to render it more necessary than formerly, to make the terms of communion with the Church as large as might be, that so we might draw over to us the greater number, from those who might leave us the more safely ; and therefore we were to use the more care in order to gain them. CHAPTER III. a.d. 1689. Archbishop of Canterbury, King and Queen of England. William Sancroft. William III. and Mary II. Such were the arguments for and against the recom- mendations of the commission. Dean Tdlotson is re- presented as not having waited for arguments or re- commendations, but to have already attempted a pre- mature comprehension, by administering the holy com- munion, in the chapel of Clement's Inn, to persons sitting iu their pews \ And now, the report being made to the king, Convocation was summoned ; and its proceedings, together with the circumstances pre- ceding it, are thus described by a contemporary, the biographer of Tillotson 2 , a writer adopting generally his and Burnet's views : " Great canvassings were every where in the election of members of the Con- vocation, a thing not known in former times, so that it was soon very visible, that the temper of men was not cool or calm enough to encourage the further prosecution of such a design [comprehension]." " Those who were friends to it designed Dr. Tillotson, 1 See " Some Discourses on Dr. Burnet and Dr. Tillotson, oc- casioned by the Funeral Sermon of the former upon the latter." 4to. 1095, Pref. and pp. 72, 73. 2 See also Wilkins, Concilia, torn. iv. in loc. PROLOCTTOE CHOSEN. [CHAP. III. now Dean of St. Paul's, for prolocutor of the lower house ; and the court was solicitous for the choice of him, from a persuasion that his singular moderation and prudence in that chair would be able to influence that house to concur in promoting those ends, for which the Convocation was called. He was accord- ingly proposed by Dr. Sharpe, his successor in the Deanery of Canterbury, upon the meeting of the Con- vocation, on Thursday, November 21st, 1689 ; but it was carried by a majority of two to one for Dr. Jane. . . . The new prolocutor, being presented, on the 25th of November, to the Bishop of London, presi- dent of the Convocation, whose chaplain he had been, for his lordship's approbation, made, according to custom, a speech in Latin, in which he extolled the excellency of the Church of England, as estabHshed by law, above all Christian communities, intimating that it wanted no amendment, and concluding with the application of this sentence by way of triumph, ' Xolumus leges Anglise mutari.' The bishop, in his answer in the same language, told the clergy that ' they ought to endeavour a temper in those things that are not essential in religion, thereby to open a door of salvation to a multitude of straying Christians : that it must needs be their duty to show the same indulgence and charity to the dissenters under King William which some of the bishops and clergy had promised to them in their addresses to King James.' "At the next meeting the bishop acquainted the Convocation, that having communicated the royal commission, by which they were empowered to act, to an eminent civilian, he had found it defective, in not having the great seal ; for which reason he should ICS!).] COXTOCATION MEETS. 17 prorogue them till that was procured. And on the 4th of December that commission, dated November 30, was brought, while both houses were together in Henry VII. 's chapel 3 , by the Earl of Nottingham, 3 The following particulars of the ceremonial and proceedings of Convocation are not generally known, and will, it is thought, be generally interesting in the present day. " The place where the Convocation of the clergy in the province of Canterbury hath usually been held is St. Paul's Church in London, from whence they have been of late [in consequence of the fire] by the archbishop prorogued to St. Peter's in West- minster, in the chapel of Henry VII., or in the Jerusalem Chamber, where there is an upper and lower house [in the Deanery, on the north side of the Dean's-yard, Westminster, where Convocation met, and received petitions, this year 1851.] " The higher house of Convocation in the province of Canter- bury consists of twenty-two bishops, whereof the archbishop is president, sitting in a chair at the upper end of a great table, and the bishops on each side of the same table, all at the opening of Convocation in their scarlet robes and hoods, the archbishop's hood furred with ermine, the bishops' with minever. "The lower house consists of all the deans, archdeacons, one proctor for every chapter, and two proctors for all the clergy of each diocese, in all one hundred and forty-four persons ; being twenty-two deans, twenty-four prebendaries, fifty-four archdeacons, and forty-four clerks representing the diocesan clergy. " The first day, both houses being assembled, the archbishop presiding at the head of the clergy of his province, and the lower being required by the most reverend, choose them a prolocutor or speaker ; which done, they present him to the upper house, by one or two of the members, whereof one makes a speech in Latin, and then the elected person makes another speech in Latin. Lastly, the archbishop answers it in the same language, and with the con- sent of the bishops approves the person. " In the upper house things are first ordinarily proposed, and then communicated to the lower house. " The major vote in each house prevails. " On days when the House of Lords does not meet, they usually assemble about nine o'clock ; and first the junior bishop says 48 king's message to convocation, [cuap. III. with a message from the king, representing that his majesty had summoned this Convocation, not only prayers in Latin, beginning with the Litany, and then for the king, &c. And in the lower house the prolocutor says prayers. " In Convocation are debated all the matters concerning re- ligion and the Church. " The clergy in Convocation may, with the royal assent, make canons touching matters of religion, to bind not only themselves, but all the laity (as they have asserted, without consent or ratifi- cation of the lords and the commons in Parliament), within the limits set down in the statute 25 Hen. VIII. " The clergy of England had anciently their representatives in the lower house of Parliament, as appears by that ancient record so prized by Lord Coke. " All the members of both houses of Convocation have the same privileges for themselves and their servants as the members of Parliament have, and that by statute. " The Archbishop of York at the same time holds at York a Convocation of all his province in like manner ; and by constant correspondence both debate and conclude of the same matters as are debated and concluded by the provincial synod of Canterbury. But the northern province is by no means bound down by what the southern province does ; nor are they obliged to debate upon no other matters than those the southern province has already determined. " All suffragan bishops and deans, archdeacons, prebendaries, rectors, and vicars have privileges, some by themselves, others by proxy or by representation, to sit and vote in the lower house of Convocation." Chamberlayn's Alagnae Britannise Notitia, p. 94. " It [Convocation] consists, since the Reformation (that is, since the extinction of abbacies and priorships), of the suffragan bishops, forming the upper house ; of the deans, archdeacons, a proctor or proxy for each chapter, and two from each diocese elected by the parochial clergy, who together constitute the lower house. But in the province of York two proctors are elected for each archdeaconry : otherwise the number would be so small as scarcely to deserve the name of a provincial synod. The parochial clergy have consequently as great an interest there as the cathedral clergy. But in the province of Canterbury the lower house of 1689,] THE BISHOPS PROPOSE AN ANSWER. 10 because it was usual upon holding a parliament, but out of a pious zeal to do every tbing that might tend to the best establishment of the Church of England, which is so eminent a part of the Reformation, and is certainly the best suited to the constitution of this government, and therefore most signally deserved, and should always have, both his favour and protection ; and that he doubted not but that they would assist him in promoting the welfare of it, so that no preju- dices which some men might have laboured to possess them with, should disappoint his good intentions, or deprive the Church of any benefit from their con- sultations. That he therefore expected, that the things that should be proposed should be calmly and impartially considered by them ; and he assured them that he would offer nothing to them but what should be for the honour, peace, and advantage loth of the Protestant religion in general, and 'particularly of the. Church of England. " The bishops agreed upon an address to his ma- jesty to thank him ' for the grace and goodness ex- pressed in this message, and the zeal shown in it for the Protestant religion in general, and the Church of Convocation consists of twenty-two deans, twenty-four proctors of the chapters, fifty-three archdeacons ; that is, ninety-nine of the cathedral clergy ; while there are hut forty-four proctors of the parochial clergy. Only parsons, vicars, and perpetual curates, are capable of giving their votes in choosing proctors for the paro- chial clergy." Cripps' Prac. Treat, p. 25. The Bishop of Exeter, for the coming diocesan synod, orders each deanery to elect two proctors, who, " with the deans rural, the dean and the great chapter, his chaplains, and officials of arch- deacons, will meet him in the chapter-room, proceed thence to the cathedral to morning prayer, and, after receiving the Holy Etic/ia- rist, return," &c. E 50 TIIE LOWER IIOVSE OBJECTS [ciIAP. III. England in particular, and of the trust and confidence reposed in the Convocation by the commission ; w hich marks of his majesty's grace and favour they looked upon as the continuance of the great deliverance which Almighty God had wrought for them by his means, by making him the blessed instrument of preserving them from falling under the cruelty of popish tyranny. For which as they had often thanked Almighty God, so they could not forget that high obligation and duty which they owed to. his majesty ; and in these new assurances of favour and protection to the Church they begged leave to renew the assurance of their constant fidelity and obedience to his majesty, whom they prayed God to continue long and happily to reign over them.' " The lower house of Convocation, who were deter- mined to enter into no debates with relation to altera- tions, would not consent to this address ; but, first pleaded for the privilege of presenting a separate one of their own drawing up ; and then, waving their pre- tension, applied themselves to making amendments in the draughts sent them by the bishops in which his majesty's ' zeal for the Protestant religion in gene- ral, and for the Church of England in particular,' was acknowledged, the lower house thinking, that this im- ported their owning some common union with the foreign Protestants. The reason which they assigned for refusing their concurrence with the bishops in their favour, was, that ' they were desirous to confine their address to his majesty's most gracious message, and to those things only therein which concerned the Church of England.' This occasioned a confer- ence between the two houses, which was chiefly managed through the Bishop of Salisbury [BurnetJ, 1639] TO TIIE TERMS OF THE ANSWEB. 51 and the prolocutor ; and these reasons were reported, why the bishops insisted on the express mention of the Protestant religion : — £ 1. Because it is the known denomination of the common doctrine of the western part of Christendom, in opposition to the errors and corruptions of the Church of Rome. — 2. Because the leaving out this may have ill consequences, and be liable to strange constructions both at home and abroad, among Protestants as well as Papists.— 3. Because it agrees with the general reason offered by the clergy for their amendments, since this was ex- pressly mentioned in the king's message ; and in this, the Church of England being so much concerned, their lordships thought it ought to stand still in the address.' The lower house, after debating these rea- sons, refused to consent to them, but agreed to thank his majesty ' for his pious zeal and care for the honour, peace, advantage, and establishment of the Church of England;' 1 and then to add ' whereby we doubt not the interest of all the Protestant Churches, which is dear to us, will, under the influence of your majesty's government, be the better secured.' The upper house, desiring them to give their reason, why, instead of ' the Protestant religion,' they inserted ' Protestant Churches,' it was delivered in these words : ' We, being the representatives of a formed established Church, do not think fit to mention the word religion, any further than it is the religion of some formed established Church.' Their lordships returned the amendment with this alteration, ' We doubt not the interest of the Protestant religion in this, and all other Protestant Churches,' &c. The lower house, still jealous that it would be a E 2 52 AN ANSWEE AGBEED UPON. [CHAP. III. diminution of the Church of England, to join it with foreign Protestant Churches, would have ' this and ' omitted ; and at last an address was agreed, with great difficulty, and presented to the king in the Banqueting-house, Whitehall, on Thursday, December 12 ; wherein they returned their most humble acknowledgments for his majesty's message, and the pious zeal and care, which he was pleased to express therein, for the honour, peace, advantage, and establishment of the Church of England ; where- by, they doubted not, the interest of the Protestant religion in all other Protestant Churches, which was dear to them, would be the better secured under the influence of his majesty's government and protection. And they craved leave to assure him, that in pursu- ance of that trust and confidence, which he reposed in them, they would consider whatsoever shoidd be offered to them from his majesty, without prejudice, and with all calmness and impartiality ; and that they would constantly pay the fidelity and allegiance which they had all sworn to him and the queen, whom they prayed God to continue long and happily to reign over them. The khig well understood why this address omitted the thanks which the bishops had re- commended, for his royal commission and the zeal which he had shown for the Protestant religion ; and why there was no expression of tenderness to the dis- senters, and but a cool regard to the Protestant Churches. However, his majesty returned the gra- cious answer, that he ' took this address very kindly from the Convocation ; and that they might depend upon it, that he would do all he had promised, and all he could do, for the service of the Church of 1689.] A CENSURE OF BOOKS PROPOSED. 53 England ; and gave them this new assurance, that he would improve all occasions and opportunities for its service.' " The majority of the lower house had a reserved kindness for the nonjuring bishops and clergy ; and therefore one of the members made a zealous speech in behalf of the bishops under suspension, that ' something might be done to qualify them to sit in Convocation, yet so as that the Convocation might not incur any danger thereby.' But this matter being of too delicate a nature, was left to further consideration, while they laboured to find out some other business to divert them from that for which they were called together. And, therefore, on the 11th December, the prolocutor attended the president and bishops, and in the name of the lower house represented to their lordships ' that there were several books of very dangerous consequence to the Christian religion and the Church of England ; particularly Notes upon Athanasius' Creed, and two letters relating to the present Convo- cation, newly come abroad ;' and desired their lord- ships' advice ' in what way, and how far safely, without incurring the penalty of the statute of 25 Hen. VIII., the Convocation might proceed in the preventing the publishing the like scandalous books for the future, and inflicting the censures of the Church, according to the canons provided in that behalf, upon the authors of them.' Upon which the prolocutor, on the 13th of that month, acquainted the house that the president had declared his sense of the ' ill consequences of those books that were sent up from that house to their lordships ; and that, upon inquiry, he could not receive any satisfaction how far the Convocation might pro- ceed in that affair, but that he would, as far as lay in 51 THE POWER OF CONVOCATION [CHAP. DEE. him, take further order about it.' The same day, the bishops having proposed to appoint a committee of both houses to sit during the recess, the lower house, after some debate, resolved in the negative ; after which the Convocation was prorogued again, and at last dissolved with the Parliament.' For, as there was, at that time, but a small number of bishops in the upper house, and they had not their metropolitan with them 4 , nor strength and authority to set things forwards, they advised the king to suffer the session to be discontinued 5 ." With reference to the very important subject of the power of Convocation to censure heretical books, — a power hitherto claimed and exercised by the House of Commons and the Star Chamber, neither of which can be considered a much more competent tribunal, and which power we have seen above to be claimed by the lower house, — it appears from what took place after- wards respecting Toland in 1701, that, in consequence of this claim on the present occasion, the bishops obtained legal advice as to the power of Convocation in such matters, and that "the learned in both the laws were of opinion they could not proceed ju- dicially 6 ." Bishop Burnet says, " They were answered that every bishop might proceed in his own court 4 " . . . auctoritate brevis regii decano et capitulo ecclesise Can- tuar. custodibus spiritualitatis archiepiscopatus et dioeces. Cant, (durante suspensione reverendissimi domini Wflhelmi, Cantuar. ar- chiepiscopi, ab omni arcbiepiscopali administratione et jurisdic- tionis ecclesiastics exercitio, virtute statuti hujus regni, sive actus parliamenti, cui titulus est : " An act for abrogating the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance, and appointing other Oaths) eorumve commissariis," &c. See Wilkins, Concilia. 5 Birch's Tillotson, pp. 188-192. c Des Maizeaux, Life of Toland, vol. i. p. 50. 1CS9.] TO CEXSURE HERETICAL BOOKS. 55 against the authors or spreaders of ill books within his diocese ; but they did not know of any power the Convocatioh had to do it ; it did not so much as appear that .they could summon any to come before them : and when a book was published with the author's name to it, the condemning it without hearing the author upon it seemed contrary to the common laws of justice ; it did not seem to be a court at all, and since no appeal lay from it, it certainly could not be a court in the first instance 7 ." Under a similar pressure, in a subsequent Convocation, the bishops again consulted the most eminent lawyers on the question. " Some were afraid and others unwilling to answer it. But Sir Edward Northey, afterwards made attorney-general, thought the condemning books was a thing of great consequence, since the doctrine of the Church might be altered, by condemning explana- tions of one sort, and allowing those of another ; and since the Convocation had no licence from the king, he thought that by meddling in that matter they should incur the pains in the statute. So all further debate of this matter was let fall by the bishops 8 ." It is obvious that these interpretations of the law would leave the Church in a defenceless state in a most important part of her economy, untd the bishops' courts be restored to their efficiency. The introduction of printing has given infinite facility for the dissemina- tion of religious error ; and, if a national synod might not do what general synods have ever done, as one of the principal means of repressing it, such machinery as the Church is stdl admitted to have for this purpose must be set in motion. But, in point of fact, these 7 Burnet, Hist. Own Times. 8 Ibid. 56 BISHOP BUEXET [CHAP. III. legal opinions were afterwards overruled, in 1711, when Winston's books were brought before Convoca- tion. The upper house submitted their difficulty to Queen Anne, who took the opinion of the twelve judges. Eight of them, with the attorney and solicitor- general, were of opinion that " as the law now stands, a jurisdiction in matters of heresy and condemnation of heretics is proper to be exercised in Convocation 1 ." The attorney-general signing this opinion was the same Sir E. J. Xorthey whom Burnet describes above as giving a very opposite opinion. Burnet's account of it seems intended to leave the impression that it was opposite ; but it is so loosely worded as to leave some doubt what that lawyer's opinion really was when previously consulted. Burnet remarks characteristically upon the pro- rogation, " Thus, seeing they were in no disposition to enter upon business, they were kept from doing mis- chief by prorogations for a course of ten years. This was in reality a favour to them ; for, ever since the year 1662, the Convocation had indeed continued to sit, but to do no business ; so that they were kept at no small charge in town to do nothing, but only to meet, and read a Latin Litany. It was, therefore, an ease to be freed from such an attendance to no purpose. The ill reception that the clergy gave to the king's message raised a great and just outcry against them ; since all the promises made in King James's time were now entirely forgot 2 ." It is by no means clear that these " promises were forgot." The promises were made to an attempt at 1 Cardwell's Synodalia, vol. ii. p. 760. 2 Hist. Own Times, vol. iii. p. 45. 1689.] ON THE PEOliOGATTON. 51 comprehension devised and headed hy Sancroft, not to the present one, headed by Burnet. His sarcasms, however, aimed at all who kept fast hold of first prin- ciples — exhibiting in the Church nothing more than the stern English spirit of liberty and order, of which the Bill of Eights 3 just passed was a type in the State — are consistent in one whose notions of ecclesiastical polity were of about the same " composite order" as his tomb \ and who had just advocated a change of the Liturgy by Act of Parliament alone, without consulting the Church at all. But most men will consider such sneers and insults, flung at the whole representative body of his Church, utterly unworthy of a Christian bishop ; they may think the presence of such men as Burnet in the upper house goes a great way towards accounting for the unhappy divisions between the two houses, which the opponents of Convocation do not attempt to account for, except by the supposition simply of a quarrelsome spirit, which is not urged as an argument against the synodal action of any other 3 A Bill declaring the rights and liberties of England ; exclud- ing papists, or such as should marry papists, from the succession. 4 " In St. James's church, Clerkenwell, is a fair marble monu- ment, erected to the memory of Bishop Burnet. The pediment, which is circular, is supported by pilasters of the composite order, on the extremity of which are urns, and in the centre are the arms of the see of Salisbury, and Burnet impaled in a shield, &c." Append. Hist. Own Times. Cunningham says, in his Hand-book of London, " At the east end (St. James's church, Clerkenwell, rebuilt 1788) is a pile of coffins from the old church, and in this pile are the remains of the celebrated Bishop Burnet, who died in St. John's-stpiare in this parish, March 17, 1714-15 (having previously lived in Soho-scpjare). His gravestone was cut by Mr. Stanton, a stone-cutter, next door to St. Andrew's church, in Holborn." Sic trans. 58 BISHOP EUENET [CHAP. III. religious community whatever ; which divisions, how- ever, were dealt with at the time in the same summary way, instead of going deeper into the causes, and so were made ultimately the pretext for silencing Convo- cation altogether. They will view the attempt he mentions of the Stuarts to govern the Church with- out Convocation during the last twenty-six years, i. e. from the moment the State ceased to want Convocation for its own purposes — to tax itself in an independent subsidy ; the clergy, from that time, coming into a common parochial assessment with their flocks ; — not only as despotic, hut equally "ruinous to the best inte- rests of the nation, with their mad attempt to govern without parliaments. The last attempt had lashed England into a rebellion. The clergy had now been deprived of the same constitutional right for the last twenty-six years : if the bishop had to complain of any impatience at the end of that time as the consequence, any disagreement between those who smarted under the evil, and the episcopal bench, who might be thought parties to its infliction, he had done as well, perhaps, to express his regret that their patience and duty should have been arbitrarily tried in the same way for ten years more. That there were misunderstandings and dissensions between the two houses in this and subsequent sessions is a great fact, which this volume will but too incon- testably prove. That, when once that great monument of synodal wisdom, the Prayer Book, was completed, the sessions were constantly interrupted, as in the instance before us ; and, when they sat for business, the chief or only business was the grauting of a subsidy ; this also may be proved, directly from Wilkins, and indirectly from the defectiveness of the Church's 1689.] ON THE PROKOUATION'. 59 work, as we shall presently see, after more than a century of reformation. "VVe shall see schools for the poor, the learning of the clergy, and missions to the colonies — all the proper work of Convocation (to say nothing of more churches and pastors for the increased population) — all in a state of ruinous neglect, and left to a single individual to organize, through the agency of an irresponsible voluntary society. It seems uncandid uot to view all this abeyance of synodal action as the chief cause of synodal distractions. These are not denied : when they did meet, there was, in the two houses, plain ignorance of joint jurisdiction and of separate prero- gative, and mutual jealousies and suspicions. But, if Parliament had scarcely met for a century, except to vote supplies, and that not often, woidd not the same things have appeared there ? and would it not be uncandid to account for them only by the supposition of an inherent quarrelsomeness, which should forbid Parliament ever being summoned again, except as an empty form ? And yet this is what Burnet, a Chris- tian bishop, surrendering himself to his own bad temper, under party pique, has unscrupulously said of Convocation. But this is not all ; the bishop's spleen at this refusal of a comprehensive Liturgy 5 , shaped and per- 5 The American Prayer Book was altered in 1790 in some degree upon the comprehensive model rejected by our Convocation of 1 C89. Its chief distinctive features are the shortening of the ser- vices by omitting all repetitions. The Athanasian Creed and the Commination are wholly omitted. The occasional prayers are newly arranged, and several new ones, as well as corresponding thanksgivings, introduced. In Baptism parents may be admitted as sponsors, and the sign of the cross omitted by their desire. The GO BURNET ON TIIE PROROGATION. [CHAP. III. fected by his acknowledged political shrewdness, hur- ries him even into profaneness, for he sees " a very happy direction of the Providence of God in this matter." " quoties vis fallere plebem, Finge ileum." The reason he assigns for this opinion is, " the Jacobite clergy, who were then under suspension, were design- ing to make a schism in the Church whenever they should be turned out, and their places should be filled by others. They saw that it would not be easy to make a separation upon a private and personal account, and therefore wished to be furnished with more spe- cious pretences. If, therefore, any alterations had been made in the Eubric and other parts of the Com- mon Prayer, they would have pretended that they still stuck to the ancient Church of England, in opposition to those who were altering it and setting up new models 6 ." This was too much even for one of Burnet's own party, who says, as he well might, " It is strange that one, who thought a reformation in the Eubric, canons, and ecclesiastical courts was much wanted, should believe the particular intervention of Heaven to prevent it, on account of the ill use that might be made of it by a few nonjuring clergy 7 ." Bishop Rubric about baptized children being undoubtedly saved is struck out. Matrimony may be solemnized in a private house. In the Burial Service, all expressions are omitted, which seem to apply to the state of the person buried. There are added a form of prayer for the visitation of prisoners, a prayer of thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth, a form of family prayer, a form for conse- crating churches (nearly the same as that now adopted in our branch of the Church), and an office of institution. 6 Hist. Own Times, vol. iii. p. 192. 7 Tindal's Contin. of Rap. vol. i. p. 25. 1689.] CAUSES OF FAILURE. 01 Short, however, joins Burnet in thinking it was " pro- vidential 8 ." So ended the last attempt at a comprehensive Liturgy. It was copiously discussed on both sides. The reader wishing to know more of the argument, will find a list of the publications in Birch's Life of Tillotson, pp. 193 — 196. On the whole, viewing this Convocation from a distance, free from the heat of the time displayed in these publications, we cannot wonder that the attempt failed. Some will doubt whether a comprehension be, under any circumstances, practi- cable ; and whether common prudence was shown in this particular attempt to obtain it. If there was no ulterior and unavowed object in requiring Convocation to commit itself to such an expression as " the Pro- testant religion," most men will think its time and temper were unprofitably expended upon the forced discussion of so indefinite a formula, when a more exact and definite one could have been so easily sub- stituted. It is not at all surprising, that the lower house, predisposed against a comprehension altogether, under present circumstances, should have been spe- cially indisposed to go into the one now proposed, by being required in limine to commit themselves to words, in themselves unobjectionable, but certain to be interpreted by each religious body in its own sepa- rate sense, and therefore highly inconvenient. " Hundreds of Calvinistic preachers proclaimed that the same power which had set apart Samson from the womb to be the scourge of the Philistines, and which had called Gideon from the threshing-floor to smite the Midianites, had raised up William of Orange to " See History of English Church. 62 CAUSES OF FAILURE. [C1IAP. III. be the champion of all free nations and of all free Churches ; nor tvas tliis motion without influence on his own mind 9 ." On the whole, it is not surprising that he, bred a Presbyterian, and so utterly un-English, ever yearning for the land of his birth, ever refreshing his recollections of fatherland, and enlivening his splendid banishment " by building, planting, and dig- ging, to create a scene around him which might re- mind him of the formal piles of brick, of the long canals, and of the symmetrical flower-beds amidst which his early life had been passed should be sus- pected, when forcing such a formula as " the Pro- testant religion " upon the English clergy, of a design to reduce the Church of England to the Dutch stand- ard of Calvinistic doctrine and polity. Burnet's con- stant visits to Whitehall would not reassure them. Neither would the clergy be reassured by the Presby- terian influences by which they well knew William to be surrounded and guided at this time. Evelyn, writing this same year (April 26), says, "this (penalty on nonjurors) is thought to have been driven on by the Preshyterians, our new governors 2 ." Moreover, the relaxed discipline administered by the bishops 3 would pain earnest men, and go some way towards accounting for the distrust of them, when 9 Macaulay, Hist, of Eng. vol. ii. p. 185. 1 Macaulay, vol. ii. p. 183. 2 Diary. ' Take the following scene at Wotton church as an instance : " Easter-day, Mr. Duncomb, parson of this parish, preached, which he hardly conies to above once a year, though but seven or eight miles off (Ashted) ; a florid discourse, read out of his notes. The Holy Sacrament followed, which he administered with very little reverence, leaving out many prayers and exhortations ; nor was there any oblation." Evelyn. On Sept. 12, 1G97, we find him visit- ing his parish " after an absence of two years." See Evelyn. lGi9.] CAUSES OF FAILURE. G3 insisting needlessly on so inexact a formula as " the Protestant religion." Independently of any irritation that might he expected from an arbitrary suspension of their synodal rights for twenty-six years, there was enough, in spite of honied phrases of royal good-will, to make them fear that toleration was but the be- ginning of an end towards Protestant dissenters, as emancipation has proved in our own days towards papists ; and to make them view the bishops rather as courtiers, than as spiritual fathers, whom they might follow with safety to their consciences and to the Church. CHAPTER IV a.d. 1689 (Dec), 1690. Archbishop of Canterbury. King and Queen of England. William Sancroft. | William III. and Mary II. The nonjurors having been more than once in- cidentally mentioned in the preceding chapter, it will now be necessary to give some account of them. In order to give a clear and connected view of their history, we may be found noticing proceedings and events not embraced within the period above indicated ; which limit is adopted, as carrying us forward to the deprivation of the primate and his suffragans. It will still be necessary, however, to refer to them, from time to time, in subsequent chapters also. Those of the bishops and clergy so called were now under suspension for six months, reckoned from August 1, 16S9, preparatory to expulsion on February 1, 1690, in the event of their still refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the government in possession. The bishops and clergy of Scotland were in the same em- barrassment, though the Presbyterian ministers of that country, in which, as we have seen, the Kirk was sub- stituted for the Church, as the national establishment, were excused The Scottish bishops and clergy 1 See Russell's Hist. Ch. in Scotland, vol. ii. p. 377- 1GS9, 1690.] NOTUTJKING BISHOPS. 65 were, indeed, in a greater difficulty than the English ; for, in England, where the probabilities of refusal were seen, and it was indispensable that they shoidd if possible be removed, the oath had been softened into the form following : " I, A. B., do sincerely promise and swear to bear true allegiance to their majesties King William and Queen Mary," thus resolving it into a claim de facto. The Scottish parbament, on the other hand, had made no alteration in the oath, which still gave to the new dynasty, therefore, a claim de jure. At the head of the English cleric nonjurors were Sancroft and Ken, and other prelates, who, with Lord William Russell's melancholy end before them — an end still fresh, and so calculated to alarm less stable minds — had hazarded their Hves and fortunes, in order to keep the infatuated James within constitu- tional kinits, but failed to see that he had forfeited their sworn allegiance in all that might be lawful and right. Their names were Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury ; Turner, Bishop of Ely ; Lake, of Chiches- ter ; Ken, of Bath and Wells ; White, of Peter- borough ; Thomas, of Worcester ; Lloyd, of Norwich ; and Erampton, of Gloucester. Of these eight, five had been sent to the Tower by James for their coura- geous faithfulness to the Church and public liberty, viz. Sancroft, Turner, Lake, Ken, and White. Some of them were not backward in welcoming Wilham, — as regent only, however, and not to the exclusion of the rightful heir. It is remarkable how soon the number of those prelates who refused the oath was diminished by death, accelerated by the anxieties of their position. Three of them, Thomas, White, and Lake, died in the course of this year (1689) ; the two first before they r 66 THE KING TRTES TO [CHAP. IV. incurred suspension ; and the last before he incurred the heavier penalty of deprivation, which was now, in the course, of this same winter, about to follow. Three lived some way into the succeeding century. Bishop Lloyd died in Jaiuiary, 1709-10, Bishop Ken in 1711, and Bishop Frampton in 1718. The two re- mainder died earlier ; Archbishop Sancroft in 1693, and Bishop Turner in 1700. The absence of the eight suspended bishops from Convocation in December, accounts for the statement in page 54, that " as there was at that time but a small number of bishops in the upper house, and they had not their metro- politan with them, nor strength and authority to set things forward, they advised the king to suffer the session to be discontinued." King William was much too sagacious not to see the precariousness of his position, and much too good a politician not to see the importance of having his claim allowed by the bishops. He, therefore, showed every disposition to conciliate Archbishop Sancroft. The day after he was proclaimed king, he appointed his list of privy councillors ; and, notwithstanding the archbishop's backwardness in paying his respects to him, he nominated him in the list. The archbishop, it need not be mentioned, never took his seat at the councd-table. Hopes were entertained for some time that he would, on further consideration, concur with the great body of the nation in taking the new oath of allegiance, which may have been the more difficult in his case, from the fact of his having with his own hands placed the crown on James's head 2 . In consequence of these 3 This duty had hitherto devolved on the primate ; but in con- sequence of Sancroft's known sentiments, an Act was passed autho- 1689, 1690.] CONCILIATE THEM. <;7 hopes, lie was allowed to remain at Lambeth, a short time after the time had arrived for his deprivation ; and they were strengthened, perhaps, by his consent- ing so far to exercise the functions of his office, as to commission other bishops to act in his name. He was called upon to do this at an early period of the new reign, for the purpose of consecrating Dr. Burnet to the bishopric of Salisbury. The commission bore date March 15, 1689, and empowered any three of the bishops of his province, in conjunction with the Bishop of London, to exercise, during pleasure, the archiepisco- pal authority. It was drawn up, however, in very cautious terms, so as not to imply the least direct acknowledgment of William as king. Both Burnet and Birch try to make out of this commission a charge of inconsistency and " meanness" against the arch- bishop 3 ; and Dr. D'Oyly says, "It maybe readily allowed that, strictly speaking, he cannot be absolved from the charge, since one who acts by means of others, must be considered as acting for himself 4 ." But this excellent writer seems to have forgotten, that Sancroft and the early nonjurors, in general, saw no intrinsic sin in taking the oaths, but in their own case only, and with their convictions of duty. And, there- fore, he did not view himself as a party to what was wrong in others, in appointing a commission to receive their oath of allegiance. Both his chaplains took the oaths, but he retained them gratefully after his depri- rizing the king to call upon the primate or the Bishop of London (Compton), the latter of whom crowned William and Mary on the 11th of April, 1689. 3 See Burnet's Own Times, vol. iii. p. 11, and Birch's Life of Tillotson, p. 330. 4 D'Oyly's Life of Sancroft, p. 262. F 2 68 SENTENCE OF DEPRIVATION. [CHAP. IT. vation, with unabated affection. "When Queen Anne offered to restore Ken to his diocese of Bath and Wells (for up to that time he considered it his, and so far as might be, discharged its functions, the people not consenting to accept them from his dis- senting-bred successor, Kidder), we find him declining the offer, and that of the primacy too, in prospect, on condition that a conforming divine whom he could trust, Dr. Hooper, should have it. Nelson refused the oaths, but did not think less of Tillotson for taking them. That the king had no fear of the loyalty of the nonjuring clergy, and of their attempting to influ- ence others to adopt their own views, is clear from his offering in Parliament, to excuse them the oath altogether, on condition that dissenters might be ex- cused the sacramental test. However, this was over- ruled by the legislature, which passed an act on the 24th of April (1689), requiring all persons holding civil or military offices to take the oath by the ensu- ing 1st of August, on pain of immediate forfeiture ; whereas the bishops and clergy were to take the oath by that day, on pain of suspension only for six months, and deprivation at the end of that time, viz. Feb. 1st. Evelyn represents them as narrowly escaping a second committal to the Tower for treason, in refusing the oath, when William had exhausted all his efforts to strengthen his title, by getting from them this formal avowal and pledge of allegiance : — " March 29, 1689. The Archbishop of Canterbury and four other bishops, refusing to come to Parlia- ment, it was deliberated whether they should incur premunire ; but it was thought fit to let this fall, and be connived at, for fear of the people, to whom 1GS9, 1690.] THE SENTENCE SEVERE. 69 these prelates were very dear, for the opposition they had given to popery 5 ." Deprivation was bad enough ; inasmuch as it is not usual for clergymen to make oath of allegiance in a new reign, but only at institution ; and, inas- much as, as has been shown, William feared no active disaffection on their part, it is not clear why the usual course was departed from in this instance. It was and is thought an uncalled-for severity towards the individuals ; — a needless loss and violence inflicted upon the Church at a time when she could ill spare such men. It was argued at the time in their favour, by certain members of both houses who had compas- sion on them as truly conscientious men : " That the statute had already had its effect in good part ; that penal laws touching religion have sometimes been made by our parliaments, more in terrorem than otherwise ; and that if in any case there was, there never could be a better plea than this; that some mitigation or explanation of the act might be contrived both with honour and security to the government ; that if these could be continued in their bishoprics and benefices, and a dispensation al- lowed them for some time longer, to try their beha- viour in them, before they were wholly removed ; or if a certain portion out of the same might be allotted to them for their subsistence, supposing the former method not so advisable, this would be so far from endangering the government, that it might be a means to strengthen it, and both to win over some persons to it who were not to be shaken by the severer methods, and to render the others less serviceable to Diary. 70 THE SENTENCE TXCALLED FOB, [CHAP. IT. that cause 'which they had espoused ; and lastly, that if the rigour of the statute should be exercised upon them, without the least mitigation, this would natu- rally tend to render them desperate, and consequently more offensive to the government, since the necessity and pinching circumstances of some of the inferior of the clergy would certainly make them have recourse to their pens to get money, by justifying their non-con- currence with their (swearing) brethren 6 ." But the government was so exasperated against them, and especially for this very use of their pens, when all means failed wholly to stop them, as not to hearken to any thing that could be proposed in their favour, thinking it the safest way to crush them at once, and that it could do so. The testimony they bore to the legitimacy of the infant Prince of Wales, was as in- convenient to the government in possession as their pens, and it was determined to get rid of them. Such severity was felt the more, mingled as it was with the wide scope and verge given to every body else. " They are very pressing," said a contempo- rary, " for a Bill of Comprehension and Indulgence, yet are about to impose the new oaths of allegiance with the utmost rigour 7 ." Something, too, might be expected from the gra- titude of one so unexpectedly raised to the greatest throne in Europe by their means. For, as Mr. Trevor asks, " "Who are the real authors of the Bevolution ? Who first dared to place themselves in the breach ? Who were foremost in protesting against the uncon- 6 Kettlewell's Life, p. 2/8. 7 Letter to a Member of the Committee of Grievances, contain- ing reflections on the present administration of affairs by Dutch counsels, in Somers's Tracts, vol. x. p. 320. 16S!), 1690.] MIGHT HAVE BEEN ATOIDED. 71 stitutional proceedings of their king? The answer is obvious : — The clergy of the Established Church ; they who chose to obey Grod rather than man, and who, following the mandates of an heavenly King, feared not what an earthly one could do against them. To the heroic firmness, to the unshaken energy of the clergy of England, posterity is indebted for all the advantages insured to them by the Revolution of 1688 To add to an event which consigned so many eminent Churchmen from station and dignity, to retirement and obscurity, the epithet of glorious, is scarcely apposite ; to call to mind the fate of such honoured men, and true champions of the cross, is matter of regret scarcely to be obliterated by the tri- umphant issue of the general cause 8 ." Still, whatever the severity ; however tyrannical, and however unwise the government might be, in imposing the oath ; it being imposed, those who most honour the personal character, the distinguished ability, and the moral courage of many of the early nonjuring bishops and clergy, find themselves bound to admit that, under all the circumstances of the case, they, on the other band, carried their scruples too far in re- fusing it. The oath imposed in Cromwell's time was, "I do promise to be true and faithful to the com- monwealth of England, as it is now established, with- out king or lords." Bishop Sanderson advised a friend to take this oath 9 : the case of the nonjurors may be thought much the easier of the two. They admit also in general, if not that the State had power to deprive, that the bishops at least had admitted it, 8 Trevor's Life of William III. p. 386. a State Papers, vol. i. p. 316. 72 NONJTTEOBS TO BE JUDGED TENDERLY. [CHAP. IV. by admitting its power to appoint, though not to create. And it was the nomination only to a particu- lar see that the State pretended to revoke, not the episcopal character. As a matter of fact, we know that they did continue to exercise their office, so far as might be : Ken for instance, in his diocese of Bath and Wells — his diocese, as he emphatically called it, until he voluntarily surrendered it into hands which he could trust — continued to perform episcopal functions. Many learned arguments were produced at the time in their behalf, both as regards the power of the State to deprive, and the principle of non-resistance. If we assert that they had admitted both, and that they were resisting the only solution of an overwhelming political embarrassment ; sound in their enforcement of obedience to the civil power, but unsound in re- fusing to recognize the nation's case now, as well as their own in the previous year, as an exceptional case ; we still feel that great tenderness should be used in judging men, who, without getting popularity in re- turn, beyond what they had already won by their gal- lant resistance of an alien faith and arbitrary power, were content to sacrifice wealth, and station, and friendships to the sanctity of an oath, even though they should have mistaken its construction 1 . Any con- clusion drawn from such eminent learning, and such mature and chastened judgments, as those of a Sancroft, 1 " The error (passive obedience) was very dangerous, and had nearly proved the destruction of the whole constitu- tion : but it was one which had come down to them with high recommendation. ... It was the tenet of the Homilies, the Canons, the most distinguished divines and casuists ; it had the apparent sanction of the legislature in a statute of the present reign." Hallam, Const. Hist. vol. ii. p. 333. 1689, 1G90.] WHY NOT MORE NONJURORS. 73 and Ken, and Kettlewell, men bringing pious hearts as well as strong intellects to bear upon these questions, may well make us pause ere we dare to gainsay ; but so it is, they who can give them their sympathies in all else, fail to do so in these. Strange to say, Mr. Macaulay, though he complains of the "trouble" which Convocation gave to the government dining the first thirty years after the Re- volution, seems dissatisfied that there were not more nonjurors, to give more "trouble." He says, "if in the Revolution itself there was little that can be called glorious, there was still less in the events that fol- lowed. In a Church which had as one man (?) de- clared the doctrine of resistance unchristian, only four hundred persons 2 refused to take the oath of alle- giance to a government founded on resistance. In the preceding generation, both the Episcopal and the Pres- byterian clergy, rather than concede points of con- science not more important, had resigned their livings by thousands 3 ." Admitting there was a mistake, why refuse a locus poenitentice ? Does Mr. Macaulay know no statesmen who need one ? But, why not suppose conforming bishops and clergy still to have maintained the general principle, and to have viewed the violently exceptional conduct of James as con- stituting an exceptional case ? But we pass this, merely quoting Mr. Macaulay in order to add him to the catena of honourable testimonies to the memory of the early nonjurors. 2 There were four hundred clergy. Mr. Macaulay must be aware that there were many laymen besides who refused the oaths. According to Mr. Macaulay, therefore, the laity are no part of the Church. 3 Crit. and Hist. Essays, vol. i. p. 202. 74 NONJURORS MISREPRESENTED. [CHAP. IT. The testimonies, at the time, were too often on the other side ; not in the way of fair argument or remon- strance, but of heartless jokes aud low party abuse. Cibber, for instance, could find materials for a comedy in the nonjurors. And one, of whom better things might be hoped, as a Christian bishop, with his usual coarse uncharitableness, more in the spirit of a Jeff- ries, than of a father and chief shepherd of Christ's flock, could so far forget the respect due to his own office, as to assert of these men, who had all to lose and nothing to gain by the sacrifice they were making to a sense of duty, that there was " something more than conscience at bottom 4 ." They who know the scrupulous pains taken by Sancroft and Kettlewell 5 to acquaint themselves with the whole argument for as well as against the oath (the getting over the old oath de jure, as well as the new one de facto), and can honour genuine and guile- less piety, in such impersonations as Nelson and Ken, will lament that in such a crisis of the Church, when her battlements were left undefended, not by deser- tion, but by expulsion, her virtual government was in the hands of an unscrupulous partisan, capable of such railing accusations against all that was great and good ; nor will they lament much less to see so popu- lar an historian as Mr. Macaulay, give point and pun- gency to such unmanly calumnies, by endorsing the utterer of them as " a man of such generosity and good nature, that his heart always wanned towards the unhappy 6 ." 4 See Burnet's Letter to Ken, in Bishop Ken's Prose Works, by Rev. J. T. Round, p. 18. 5 Kettlewell's Life, p. 196, and D'Oyly's Sancroft, pp. 247—252. 6 Hist. Eng. vol. ii. p. 598. 16S9, 1690.] DIFFICULTIES OF THEIR CASE. 75 Nor was the oath the only difficulty to he got over ; they felt embarrassed by their prayers. " There was a Form or Order of Thanksgiving and Prayer, which, upon occasion of the queen's being with child, was used in London, and ten miles round, on Sunday the fifteenth of January, mdclxxxviii., and through- out England on Sunday the twenty-ninth of the same, on behalf of the king and queen, and royal family ; wherein the whole Church of England, by the ministry of all parsons, vicars, and curates, in their respective parish-churches and chapels, solemnly put up their supplications to Almighty God, for the safe delivery of the queen. In the versicles after the Creed, the priest said, ' O Lord, save thy servant, the queen.' To which the people answered, ' And make her a joyful mother of children.' In the first Collect, instead of that for the day, the Church prayed, after having blessed the good providence of God. for vouch- safing the nation fresh hopes of a royal issue by the queen, ' That He would perfect what He had begun, and command his holy angels to watch over her con- tinually, and defend her from all dangers and evil accidents ; that so what she had conceived might happily be brought forth, to the joy of our Sovereign Lord the King, the further establishment of his crown, the happiness and welfare of his whole king- dom, and the glory of God's great name.' In the prayer at the end of the Litany, the Church humbly supplicated for the king, ' That God would bless him, and cause him to see his children's children ; for the queen, that she might be as a fruitful vine, for the increase and multiplication of the royal family ; also, that the king's seed might endure for ever, and his throne be as the sun before God.' And in the prayers 76 DIFFICULTIES OF THEIR CASE. [CHAP. IT. after that for the Church militant 7 , the Church of England acknowledged, with thankful hearts, the great mercy God had bestowed upon the king and his royal consort, and the whole realm, in the apparent hopes of further issue ; and also with great apparent earnestness supplicated that the watchful providence of God might overshadow her, that so their hopes might not be cut oft', nor their expectations disappointed ; and that God would preserve her health, support her spirit, and grant her an easy and happy deliverance 8 ." And so, in the General Thanksgiving in July, for the happy deliverance of the queen, and the birth of the young prince, which cannot be further described in this place, beyond this, that " the Church did solemnly invocate and supplicate Almighty God for the king, the people answering, and saying, ' Let his seed be mighty upon earth!'" Such prayers might well be viewed by the nonjurors as a further complication of their difficulty ; and every candid mind will sympatliize, though it may not agree, in their conclusions from such premises. Such unwarrantable imputations as Burnet's com- manded as little sympathy then as now. Their case excited much commiseration among the wise and good. Tliey could regret that such men as Sancroft and Ken, — so respected for their public and private virtues, so endeared to all who had English hearts, by their firm- ness and sufferings in the late reign, in a cause which was peculiarly their own, — should now be in danger of being deprived of their hardly-won fame, and of that station which they had filled with so much honour to themselves and advantage to public liberty. And, 7 The Prayer for the Church militant appears, from this, to have been generally said in those days. 8 Kettlewell's Life, pp. 292—294. 1689, 1690.] PETITION OF CONFIRMING CLEEGT. 77 besides the general character of these prelates, the very scruples which they now felt — scruples so consistent with their former opposition to the Bill of Exclusion, and which we have seen a courtly bishop so misrepre- senting and insulting — presented to their minds a strong additional claim to respect, though many of them were most opposed to the line of conduct which they adopted. It had been an ominous token of national character could it have been otherwise ; for, so solemn and so sacred are the obligations of an oath, that even errors committed on the side of a scrupulous adherence to it are felt to deserve honour and respect, especially in such a case as that of the distinguished men of whom we are speaking, who braved the worst worldly consequences that could befal them, including possible attainder. It is difficult to say whether a petition presented at this time to King "William by a body of the English clergy does more honour to them, or to the illustrious men on whose behalf they interceded — " their eccle- siastical governors, by whose godly wisdom and direc- tion, and by whose rekgious conduct and exemplary constancy, they have, through the power of Grod, been lately preserved in perilous times ; and for whose suf- ferings and imminent dangers under which they then lay, they (the petitioners) were then, together with the whole kingdom, deeply afflicted." They go on to say: " As we should have thought ourselves very happy if the same reverend persons could have satisfied them- selves to have taken the oaths of allegiance and fealty required by the late Act of Parliament, so we cannot but retain so much of tenderness aud dutiful affection 7s NONJURORS NOT ALONE, [CHAP. IV. for them, as passionately to entreat that the Church may not suffer so great a loss as to be deprived of them, nor they be wholly excluded from the comforts of that great deliverance which we owe to your majesty, to which they, by a generous and seasonable exposure of themselves for the common safety, did eminently contribute ; And that your most humble petitioners are more especially emboldened to address your majesty in their behalf, from the full experience we have of the peaceableness of their disposition, for which we are ready to stand engaged; and particularly from this consideration, that, although they have not taken the oath themselves, yet neither we, your petitioners, nor any depending on them, have, as we are morally assured, ever by them been discouraged from taking the oaths. " May it, therefore, please your most excellent majesty graciously to propound some such expedient as shall seem most proper to your majesty's high wisdom, that these reverend persons may not stand deprived of their revenues and dignity, and may be restored to the administration of their several func- tions, as may consist with the safety and honour of your majesty's government. "And your petitioners will ever," &c. And as there was honesty, so neither was there singularity or eccentricity in the part they acted. For, besides the sympathy of generous opponents, as shown in the above noble petition, the sentiments of the nonjurors were adopted by many who stopped short of carrying them, with their self-denial, to the same practical conclusions ; the question of a regency (which would have satisfied the nonjurors, but not 1689, 1690.] EXCEPT IN SUFFEHING. 70 William) having been lost, in a full House of Lords, by a majority of two only, which, had Sancroft been present, would have been reduced to one. This Con- vention Parliament met on the 22nd of January, 1688-9. "Amongst the bishops and clergy in gene- ral," says Mr. Macaulay, "a strong feeling prevailed against every thing that could bear the semblance of a deposing power, which was among the most fla- grant usurpations of popery. Accordingly, only two bishops, those of London (Compton) and Bristol (Trelawney), voted in favour of filling up the throne as vacant ; the Archbishop of Tork and eight of the bishops voted for a regency. After various debates and conferences between the two houses, they at last came happfiy to the joint resolution, the only one which afforded a reasonable prospect of settling the government on a permanent foundation, and of giving real security to the public liberties, that the throne being then actually vacant, the Prince and Princess of Orange should be declared king and queen 9 ." From which it appears that, among their episcopal brethren also, they showed no singularity, except in their self-sacrifice. And now the sacrifice was about to be offered, all entreaty having failed. They entreated not for them- selves. But, as the fatal 1st of February drew nigh, the busy note was heard of preparation for the sad, and, in a worldly sense, ruinous coming event. Thus, the following — " Letter from several of the clergy of the Archdeaconry of Sudbury in the diocese of Norwich, lying under 0 Hist. Eng. vol. ii. p. 401. 80 THEY PEE PAKE FOB DEPRIVATION. [CHAP. IV. suspension, to their diocesan, William Lord Bishop of Norwich. " May it please your Lordship, " We, your lordship's curates, neighbours to Dr. Bisby, lying under suspension, and (which is worse) very hard censures from most we converse withal, and finding the time of our deprivation to be near at hand ; do take the boldness by him to crave your lordship's blessing, and withal earnestly to crave your lordship's paternal direction. For though we can think of nothing but losing all, yet we are pas- sionately desirous to be instructed how we shall leave our respective cures, whether voluntarily, or stay till particular intruders thrust us out by pretext of law : as also which way to behave ourselves, to preserve (if possible) the old Church of England. We believe your lordship thinks us peaceable ; and we are bold to say you shall find us dutiful in any thing you command or enjoin, as you think shall serve for the interest of the Church. Tour Lordship's obedient sons and servants, Stephen Newman, Eector of Hawkedon. Thomas Eoss, Eector of Eeed. John Owen, Eector of Tuddenham. Samuel Eichaedson, Curate of Little Bradley. John Gtpps, Eector of Brockley. Edwaed Peetty, Eector of Little Corn- hard. Abeaham Saltee, Eector of Edwardston. William Philips, Presbyter. 1GS9, 1690;] NONJURORS. SI " The Bishop of Norwich's answer to the same. " To his worthy brethren, Mr. Stephen Newman, <5fc, in the Archdeaconry of Sudbury. " Jan. 6. 16f & " "Worthy Brethren, " I have received your letter from Dr. Bisby ; and as I am sorry for your hard circumstances in regard of your suspension, and the harsh censures of your uncharitable neighbours, who thereby would add sor- row to your affliction ; so I hope you will find in- ward comfort from the stedfastness of your faith, and the righteousness of those principles which guide you to value the honour of Grod, the credit of your most holy religion, and the infinite concernments of your immortal souls, above all the transient accom- modations of this world. I should be right glad, if I knew how I might be any way serviceable unto you. I have acquainted Dr. Bisby with our cir- cumstances here, as far as I understand them, and desired him freely to impart the same unto you. " It is the opinion of eminent lawyers, that the decree of deprivation doth not enure, till a judicial sentence passeth further upon us : and, therefore (if this opinion be good law), we may keep our legal possessions, till we be further sentenced and thrust out. " There have been some mitigating proposals made to us, by those who assure us that they are our ' Dates having frequently occurred in this form, in this part of our history, it may be as well to explain to our younger readers, that, until 1752, the year began, in this country, on the 25th March, elsewhere on the 1st of January : 1C|§ expresses both reckonings. a S2 NONJURORS. [cuap. rv. good friends : what the issue will he, you shall know, as soon as we can arrive at any resolution. The doctor will tell you what the proposals are, and I have pro- mised the doctor to acquaint hhn weekly with the occurrences here. " In the mean time, I heartily commend you to God's special care and protection ; and desire the benefit of your prayers for him that is with all sin- cerity, "Tour affectionate brother and servant, W. Norwich 2 ." Feb. 1st, 1690. — This being the day appointed by statute for the ecclesiastical nonjurors to bear their solemn testimony to the principle of hereditary right — a principle, the zealous maintenance of which, in general, had contributed not a little to the peace of England, which they thought might be still maintained by putting such reasonable limits to passive obedience as they had themselves done under James, and which, therefore, they thought needlessly outraged by the exclusion of the infant prince, who at least was guilt- less 3 — four bishops, and about four hundred clergy, 2 Kettlewell's Life, Appendix. 3 This easy solution (easy, if the Dutch prince's ambition would have admitted it) of the great political problem of the day, was met, in many minds, by a doubt of his legitimacy — Arch- bishop Wake (Vind. of Ch. and Realm of Eng. p. 19) held this doubt, and so did many more. Birch (Life of Tillotson, p. 162) represents even Sancroft as doubting it. " Mr., afterwards Sir Isaac, Newton happened to be at Lambeth Palace, when intelli- gence was brought that the Commons had declared the throne vacant. The archbishop appeared concerned at it, and said, he wished they had gone on a more regular method, and examined into the birth of the young child : he added, that there was reason 1GS9, icon.] NONJURORS. 88 were on this day deprived aud ejected. Sancroft was allowed to remain at Lambeth until August 1691, as a successor could not yet be found. " Something more than conscience at bottom" was hard measure to mete out to one described as " the common father of the sons and daughters of affliction," whom even Macaulay describes as " the excellent Ken," and forming the principal figure in the following pic- ture — one of the many saddening pictures presented by this disastrously memorable day : " The latest day having been fixed when these first to believe he was not the same as the first, which might be easily known, for he had a mole in his neck." He and the other bishops, who would have been the most trustworthy witnesses, were in the Tower at the time, and the Jesuits about James (witness such of their letters as have come to light) proved themselves capable of any deception that would further their cause ; still, the arch- bishop speaks of him afterwards, without qualification or doubt, as the Prince of Wales, and so did the nonjurors in general. There is internal evidence of fabrication in Birch's story above quoted. Mr. Hallam thinks there were no grounds for doubt, and such is the general opinion of the present day. Still, the child's legitimacy was only a part of the great practical question. As Mr. Macaulay says, " Whether the Prince of Wales was suppositi- tious was hardly worth discussing. There were far stronger rea- sons for excluding him from the throne. A child, brought to the royal couch in a warming-pan, might possibly have been a good king of England. But there could be no such hope for a child educated by a father who was the most stupid and obstinate of tyrants, in a foreign country, the seat of despotism and super- stition ; in a country where the last traces of liberty had disap- peared ; where the States General had ceased ; where parliaments had long registered without one remonstrance the most oppressive edicts of the sovereign ; where adulation was the main business of the press, the pulpit, and the stage ; and where one chief subject of adulation was the barbarous persecution of the Reformed Church." Hist. Engl. vol. ii. p. 620. G 2 84 NONJURORS. [CHAP. IV. and most honoured parents of the whole race of Jacohites were to be deprived of their bishoprics, we can easily conceive with what prayers of the poor, and how beloved and regretted, Ken bade farewell to the diocese and the flock so dear to him, to the palace at Wells, to the retired gardens, and the silent groves that surround them, to the towers and the devotional harmonies of his cathedral. " Surely it would be no stretch of imagination to con- ceive, that on the drawbridge, as he passed, on leaving the abode of independence and peace, a crowd of old and young would be assembled, with clasped hands and blessings, to bid him farewell. Mild, complacent, yet dignified, on retiring with a peaceful conscience from opulence and station to dependence and poverty, as the morning shone on the turreted chapel, we naturally imagine he might have shed one only tear when look- ing back on these interesting scenes. Perhaps his eye might have rested on the pale faces of some of the poor old men and women who had partaken their Sunday dinner so often in the ancient hall 4 . He might have remarked, at the same time, some child holding out its little hymn book ; then, and not before, we may conceive ' Some natural tears he dropp'd, but wiped them soon. The world was all before him, where to seek His place of rest, and Providence his guide.' He retired to the hospitable home of his most bene- volent friend, the possessor of Long-leat ; his friend 4 " When he was at home on Sundays, he would have twelve poor men and women to dine with him in his hall ; always en- deavouring, while he helped their bodies, to comfort their spirits by some cheerful discourse, generally mist with some useful in- struction. And when they had dined, the remainder was divided among them, to carry home to their families." Hawkins's Life. 1689, 1090.] NONJURORS. 85 from Oxford days, bearing with him an uncorrupted heart, the mournful lute of his Zion, to console the hours of sickness and comparative solitude, the small Greek Testament ; his shroud, ready to be put on when his days were numbered 5 ; the slender income of twenty pounds a quarter, the residue of all he had upon earth ; his favourite but ' sorry' horse for occa- sional journeys, without so much as a servant ; and, besides his pocket Greek Testament, all his other books 6 ." Such is the graceful tribute paid by one, himself not unskilled in the divine art, to the writer of those sweet Morning and Evening Hymns which enrich our Prayer Book 7 . 5 " It can be no wonder he should so little fear death, who had for so many years travelled with his shroud in his portmanteau, as what, he often said, might be wanted as soon as any other of his habiliments ; and which was by himself put on, giving notice of it the day before his death at Long-leat, by way of prevention, that his body might not be stripped." Hawkins, p. 24. 6 " Life of Thomas Ken, deprived Bishop of Bath and Wells, &c. &c, by the Rev. W. L. Bowles, Canon Residentiary of Salis- bury" (1831), p. 174. 7 In an abridged form, the originals containing respectively fourteen and twelve stanzas. They were composed " for the use of the scholars of Winchester College," at which Ken was himself educated, becoming afterwards a Fellow and Master, and retaining for it through life a warm affection. See Ken's Prose Works, by Round, p. 435. Bowles represents him singing his Evening Hymn, in the episcopal palace of Winchester, surrounded by the bishop (Morley) and his kinsman " old Isaak Walton " to the same air as now : " We would rather imagine the interesting family assembled piously at night, Ken singing his Evening Hymn, adapted to old Tallis's, — probably that very air to which it is now sung, — and so welcoming ' peaceful evening in.' " This he always did, to his lute ; as also his Morning Hymn, at 86 NONJURORS. [CHA^. IV. " Not long after this King James, in his banishment, ordered a list of the nonjuring clergymen to be sent over to him, the bearer of which was Dr. George Hickes. No perfect list could yet be obtained ; there being sufficient reasons why many who declined taking the new oath of allegiance should not be very willing to have their names exposed ; whence it is probable that the notice of several such absconders may be en- tirely lost, as also that the account of some others is inaccurate. There were several lists which were made by private persons ; but the danger which might ensue from any of these then falling into the hands of the government was such, as it was impossible for them whom it did concern to be too cautious in an affair of this nature. Hence, of some the names may be written not always exactly as they are, but as they sounded to the ear ; of others, the Christian names are wanting ; and again, of some others we have only the surnames of the persons and the name of the diocese wherein they resided, but not of the place where they officiated. The list which Dr. Hickes presented was yet the most perfect which could at that time be procured s ." The same writer, in 1718, gives a list of English clergy, and other scholars, who had refused the oath, in all probability with such additions as he had been able to make to Hickes's list in the interval. That list we shall give in the Appendix, with some further ad- ditions from another obtained by Bowles from inde- pendent sources. Bowles was not aware of any list whatever hour he rose, which was often not much after midnight, as, up to his last illness, he never allowed himself more than one sleep, though always a cheerful evening companion, when from this cause his eyes might be heavy. 8 Kettlewell's Life, p. 338. 1689, 1690.] NONJURORS. 87 having been given in Kettlewell's Life. The colla- tion, therefore, may be considered as nearly complete and accurate as, at this distance of time, can be ob- tained. It will be seen, as from the number, so from the general position, learning, and character of the non- jurors, as indicated in this document, that, had they, spreading as they did over the whole kingdom, thought it consistent with their duty to sow the seeds of dis- affection, in the way maliciously imputed to them, as we shall presently see, instead of carrying out their solemn determination to yield peaceably to others the same liberty to follow their conscience as they claimed for themselves, they had assuredly sufficient influence to make themselves felt. There is no doubt that the earlier nonjurors, at least, were, as a body, most peaceable and inoffensive men, tempering their zeal with knowledge ; and acting up to Kettlewell's words, that " a Christian's demeanour under sufferings was as necessary as a good cause to make them acceptable to God." But, in so large a body, there would of course be excep- tions ; and the intemperance and uncharitableness of some few of them afterwards, may be gathered from the suspension, in 1710, of Dr. Welton, rector of Whitechapel. This divine placed an altar-picture in his church, representing the Last Supper. For Judas, he had intended to have a likeness of Bishop Burnet, but, fearing an action at law, he fixed upon a less powerful opponent, White Kennet 9 , who had given great offence to the Tories and nonjurors, by his attack ,J Afterwards Bishop of Peterborough, and editor of the " Com- plete History," often found quoted in this work, — " the impartial Kennet," as he has been not very impartially called. 88 KONJUROKS. [CHAP. IV. on Dr. Sacheverell's sermon, " Perils among false brethren." Crowds flocking to the church to see Kennet's likeness in this irreverent position, the Bishop of London was obliged at length to interfere l . As time rolled on, and persecution increased, they became more and more a political party, many of them actively favouring the designs of the Jacobites ; but so late as the year 1715, we find very few implicated in the rebellion of that year. The first generation of nonjurors was confessedly better than the second ; but neither is the second to be indiscriminately con- demned. The stedfastness of their principles may be inferred from their so remarkably resisting the seduc- tions of popery, when under the strongest political temptation to make common cause with James in this respect, under the pinching of poverty and even of hunger, and under the resentment of a real wrong, followed up, as we shall see, by such petty persecu- tions and annoyances as might have shaken a less ex- cellent body of men than even the second generation of nonjurors seem to have been on the whole. But, however guiltless the early nonjurors might be of political plotting against one whom they viewed as an usurper, they originated a deplorable schism in the Church (a schism by none more de- plored than by its unwilling originators 2 ), which did not die out until nearly the end of the 18th century. The schism, it need not be said, arose from no objection to the doctrine or discipline of the Church, but simply from the introduction of the names of "William and Mary into the prayers. When 1 Nicholls' Lit. Anec. vol. i. 397- 2 See Ken's Correspondence, in Prose Works, passim. 1689, 1600.] NONJUBOES. 89 Sancroft was asked whether it was lawful, under these circumstances, for a nonjuror to take part in such service, with a reservation of that particular part, he said, " Certainly not, or they would need absolution at the end as well as the beginning." And Tillotson, when consulted, answered to the same effect, though less strongly. Accordingly, Sancroft was no sooner deprived, than we find him writing to the deprived Bishop of Norwich (from his "hired house" at Fresing- field, February 9, 1691-92, described as a poor pro- tection against the then hard frost of " Freezingfield," styling himself in it " a humble minister of the Me- tropolitan Church of Canterbury," we presume in bitter irony under what seemed to him an unjust and tyrannical deprivation), commissioning the bishop to execute his archiepiscopal duties in his name, and doubtless with a view, though unexpressed, to the maintenance of the schismatical succession 3 , as what appeared to them a hard necessity of their case. It is certain that, after Sancroft' s death, Bishop Lloyd, assisted by the other nonjuring bishops, did consecrate two divines, viz. Dr. George Hickes (de- prived Dean of Worcester), and Mr. T. Wagstaffe (deprived Chancellor of Lichfield, and Bector of St. Margaret Pattens, London), the former as suf- fragan of Thetford, the latter as suffragan of Ipswich. The succession of bishops and presbyters among nonjurors was continued during the greater part of last century ; Dr. Hickes seems to have been the lead- ing person among them ; and during his lifetime all those who joined in setting up a rival communion re- 3 See the original Latin instrument in " Collection of Letters concerning the Separation of the Church of England into two Com- munions." 90 NONJURORS. [CHAP. IT. maiiied compact. Afterwards they became much divided. The number of uonjuring bishops seems to have varied at different times. In 1716 there were five, including Jeremy Collier. Among those after- wards consecrated were Dr. Deacon, Dr. Thomas Brett, Mr. Thomas Brett, Mr. Smith of Durham, Dr. Bawlinson, and Dr. Gordon. The last of these died in London, November, 1779, and is thought to have been the last nonjuring bishop. He left behind him two or three presbyters. The nonjuring bishops were always particularly strict in their con- secrations, which were performed by at least three bishops, the acts of consecration being always signed, sealed, and properly attested, and carefully preserved. Dr. Deacon separated from the other nonjurors, and himself alone consecrated one or more bishops ; but these consecrations were never allowed by the main body. The succeeding bishops of the nonjurors were not consecrated with any particular titles, as were the first bishops, by those of suffragans of Thetford and Ipswich. It is supposed that at the end of the last century, there was not a single nonjuring congrega- tion or minister remaining \ Bishop Short, with some inexactness, observes upon the nonjuring schism, " the same thing is actually taking place at this time in Scotland. The legal Church government there is Presbyterian, yet is there a regular succession of Protestant bishops who fill certain cures without any authoritative power derived from the State, and constitute one of the purest forms (?) of Episcopacy in the world 5 ." By no means "the same thing;" the nonjuring bishops found all 4 See D'Oyly, p. 297. 5 Hist. Eng. Ch. to Revolution, s. 804. 16S9, 1690.] NONJUItOES. 9] England already occupied and administered by an episcopate; the Scottish bishops find Scotland occu- pied by a communion not only without bishops, but anathematizing bishops 6 , and, therefore, to say the least, a very imperfect Church ; the nonjuring bishops were, therefore, schismatical, and the Scottish bishops are not schismatical ; it cannot, therefore, be " the same thing." Moreover, the Episcopal form of Church government has been as " legal" in Scotland, since 1792, as the Presbyterian. Thus happily ended this memorable attempt to es- tablish a free Church in this kingdom ; — an attempt, if mistakenly, not undutifully begun, however continued ; and the more to be deplored, as it deprived the Church of the learning and piety of some of her greatest and worthiest sons, at a period when, as we shall see, a moral night was fast closing upon her, and it might be said of her, as of the Church of Sardis, " I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead 7 ." If, on calmly reviewing the argument — more calmly than they could be expected to do at the moment, seeing the civil government, as they did, fostering latitudinarianism and stifling the Church's voice in England, and standing by and saying, " Con- tent," while the Church was not only proscribed but persecuted in Scotland — we pronounce them to have 6 " March 9th, 1G90. Sir George Mackenzie told us the sad con- dition of Scotland, the inveterate hatred which the Presbyterians show to the Stuarts, and the exceeding tyranny of those bigots who acknowledge no superior on earth, in civil or divine matters, main- taining that the people only have the right of government ; their implacable hatred to the Episcopal Order, and Church of England." Evelyn. 7 Rev. iii. 1. 92 NO'JUEOES. [CHAP. IV. had insufficient grounds for such schism, it is not without a full conviction that much is also to be said on their behalf, leaving no imputation upon their sin- cerity, and less than their unscrupulous opponents have admitted upon their wisdom. It is, in others, no mark of the wisdom which is from above, to exult in- sultingly over even a mistake associated with the learning and piety of such honoured names as San- croft, Ken, Kettlewell, and the author of the " Pasts and Festivals." These excellent men were not wholly lost to the Church ; their release in general from pastoral duties giving them leisure for the production of learned and valuable works, a full account of which will be found in Mr. Lathbury's interesting history. The Eebellion had given like leisure to a foregone generation of the same class of men, and both employed it in a like honourable way. Mr. Lathbury gives also an interest- ing account of their correspondence with the Greek Church. The schism would probably have ended as early as 1701, King James being now dead, and Ken seeing no reason to continue a schism which he so passionately deplored, by new consecrations. But, unhappily, in that year, the Act of Abjuration was passed — a po- litical blunder, as well as individual hardship, compel- ling all clergymen, fellows of colleges, and school- masters, to acknowledge the king de jure as well as de facto. A long list of non-abjurers will be found in the Appendix to Kettlewell's Life. Ken complains to his friend Harbin how deeply this distressed him ; and certainly the peaceable conduct of the nonjurors up to this time, under every provocation, had afforded no excuse for it. By this unwise and exasperating 1689, 1690.] NONJURORS. 9:! measure (supported strongly, of course, by Burnet), the breach, about to close, was widened. If irritation and alienation, and, ultimately, partial disaffection, resulted from this petty persecution of men's con- scientious opinions, and the second generation of non- jurors was unlike the first, we cannot view the respon- sibdity as all on their side. The mischief was further aggravated by the passing of an Act in 1722 for rais- ing 100,000Z. on the estates of papists and nonjurors only ; thus adding insult to the spoiling of their goods, by associating them with the alien political religionists of Eome ; though the earnest Churchmen from whom their body sprang, and whom they still looked back upon with veneration, had, at all cost, opposed the popery of James ; whde their calumniators, the dissenters, had, on the whole, encouraged it, in order to compass the discomfiture, if not the downfal, of the Church. This last most ill-advised and disastrous act, the work of an emphatically Protestant government, was passed, to the credit of the country, by a majority of 188 only to 172, in the House of Commons. In the year 1690 the great struggle of the abdicated king for the recovery of his crown took place, which ended in his discomfiture by the battle of the Boyne ; and various schemes and acts were devised by the Jacobite party in England for assisting his cause. In all these matters the Jesuits pulled the strings 8 , not 8 Evelyn relates a more striking instance of their subtlety : " March 9th, 1690. I dined at the Bishop of St. Asaph's, Al- moner to the new Queen, with the famous lawyer, Sir George Mackenzie (late Lord Advocate of Scotland). He related to us that the first presbyter-dissents from our discipline were intro- duced by the Jesuits' Order, about the 20th of Queen Elizabeth, a famous Jesuit among them feigning himself a Protestant, and who was the first who began to pray extempore, and brought in that 9i IsONJUIlOBS. [chap. IV. despairing even now to restore the kingdom to popery, if not by restoring James, by compromising the best and holiest fathers of the Church, — the flower of the Church of England, the true followers of the Reforma- tion. If distrust and discredit could be thrown upon such men, it would be a great step ; and the following scheme, devised with such a view, was worthy of them. A day of solemn humiliation being appointed by the government (the Trench fleet having lately effected a landing at Teignmouth), and a form of public prayer prepared for the occasion, a form of prayer was also put forth anonymously in favour of King James, 10,000 copies of it being distributed through the country. The next step of this mean conspiracy was to circulate dark hints and suspicions of Sancroft and the nonjuring bishops being the authors of this trea- sonable matter, their style having been carefully imitated with this view. But there was not the slightest proof; and it is in the highest degree impro- bable that, however their sympathies may have been on the side of what they thought constitutional justice, they could be capable of so improper and irreverent a proceeding. For some time, the archbishop and his brethren deemed it best to treat these calumnies with the contempt they deserved; but, at last, finding their characters traduced in the grossest manner, and finding that, in a time of public confusion, even their persons which they since called, and are still so fond of, praying by the Spirit. This Jesuit remained many years before he was discovered, and afterwards died in Scotland, where he was buried at ... . having yet on his monument ' Rosa inter Spinas.' " — Diary. It is notorious that many of the English Puritans were discovered to be disguised Jesuits. 16S<>, 1690.] KONJL'EORS. 93 were in danger from the passions of the multitude, inflamed by these falsehoods ; above all, seeing that their sacred function was compromised, along with themselves ; they thought that it no longer became them to remain silent. Accordingly they drew up and published a formal protestation of their innocence. It was entitled, " A Vindication of the Archbishop, and several other Bishops, from the Imputations and Calumnies cast upon them by the Author of the ' Modest Enquiry,' " and was expressed as follows : " Whereas, in a late pamphlet, entitled, ' A Modest Enquiry into the Causes of the present Disasters,' &c, we, whose names are hereunto subscribed, are among others represented as the authors and abettors of England's miseries ; and, under the abusive names of Lambeth Holy Club, the Holy Jacobite Club, and the (Economic Council of the old Party, are charged with a third plot, and with the composing of a new Liturgy, and using it in our cabals ; and whereas the clergv, such of them as are styled malcontents, are said (together with others) to have presented a memo- rial to the King of France, to persuade him to invade England ; and are also affirmed to have kept a constant correspondence with M. de Croissy in order there- unto ; — " We do here, as in the presence of God, solemnly protest and declare, " I. That these accusations cast upon us are all of them malicious calumnies and diabolical inventions ; that we are innocent of them all ; and we defy the libeller, whoever he be, to produce, if he can, any proof of our guiltiness therein. "II. That we know not who was the author of the new Liturgy, as the libel calls it ; that we had no hand 96 NONJURORS. [chap. it. in it, either in the club, cabal, or otherwise ; nor was it composed or published by our order, consent, or pri- vity ; nor hath it been used at any time by us, or any of us. " III. That neither we, nor any of us, ever held any correspondence, directly or indirectly, with M. de Croissy, or with any minister or agent of France ; and, if any such memorial as the libel mentions was ever really presented to the French king, we never knew any thing of it, or any thing relating thereto. And we do utterly renounce both that, and all other invi- tations suggested to be made by us, in order to any invasion of this kingdom by the French. " TV. That we utterly deny and disavow all plots charged upon us in our meetings at Lambeth ; the in- tent thereof beiug to advise how, in our present diffi- culties, we might best keep consciences void of offence both towards God and towards men. " V. Tbat we are so far from being the authors or abettors of England's miseries (whatever the spirit of lying and calumny may vent against us), that we do, and shall to our dying hour, heartily and incessantly pray for the peace, prosperity, and glory of England ; and shall always, by God's grace, make it our daily practice to study to be quiet, to bear our cross pa- tiently, and to seek the good of our native country. "Who the author of this libel is we know not ; but whoever he is we desire, as our Lord hath taught us, to return him good for evil. He barbarously en- deavours to raise in the whole Engbsh nation such a spirit as may end in " De Witting" us (a bloody word, but too well understood) . But we recommend him to the Divine mercy, humbly beseeching God to forgive him. 1689, 1690.] NONJUEORS. 97 " "We have all of us, not long since, either actually, or in full preparation of mind, hazarded all we had in the world in opposing popery and arhitrary power in Eng- land ; and we shall, by God's grace, with greater zeal again sacrifice all we have, and our very lives too, if God shall be pleased to call us thereto, to prevent popery, and the arbitrary power of France, from coming upon us, and prevailing over us ; the persecu- tion of our Protestant brethren there being still fresh in our memories. " It is our great unhappiness that we have not op- portunity to publish full and particular answers to those many libels which are spread industriously against us ; but we hope that our country will never be moved to hate us without a cause, but will be so just and charitable to us as to bebeve this solemn pro- testation of our innocence. (Signed) " W. Cast. " "W. Noewich. " Fe. Ely. " Tho. Bath and "Wells. " Tho. Peteibtjbgh. " Printed in the year 1690. " "We are well assured of the concurrence of our absent brother, the Bishop of Gloucester, as soon as the copy can be transmitted to him 8 ." 8 Kettlewell's Life, pp. 25ft— 2C3. H CHAPTER V. a.d. 1690—1694. Archbishop of Canterbury. King and Queen of England. William Sancroft (deprived). | William III. and Mary II. This noble and touching protest was one of the last acts of the nonjuring bishops before the fatal 1st of February, 1690. Deprivation was looming before them. The reader is now to suppose the decree gone forth, and those pious and illustrious fathers of the Church, and their presbyters, cast forth pennyless upon the world, and entering upon that long course of suffering which, with the view of not breaking more than need be the thread of our history, we reserve for a supplementary chapter. Archbishop Sancroft was an exception. He con- tinued to maintain the hospitalities of Lambeth Palace until August of this year (1690) . Sentence of depri- vation had passed upon him in common with the rest, but was not yet enforced. At that time he dismissed many of his attendants, and contracted his scale of expenditure. The full emoluments of his see appear to have been continued to him up to Michaelmas of this year. One of his friends, Mr. Evelyn, states in his Diary, that he paid him a visit on May 7th, 1691, and that he found the house indeed disfurnished, and the books packing up ; but on asking his Grace when BANCROFT LEAVES LAMBETH. 99 he removed, he answered, that he had not yet received any summons. This arrived on the 20th, and gave him ten days only to remove. Whether this delay arose from a hope to the last of retaining him, or from a practical difficulty in finding a successor, may admit of doubt. But thus much is certain, that the king had from the first fixed on one, Dr. Tillotson, Dean of Canterbury, who did express great reluctance. So early as April 19, 1689, he writes to a friend that the king had intimated to him his intention of appointing him to the archbishopric, and expresses great perplexity of mind in consequence of this intimation. In spite of the king's earnest per- suasion, who said he knew not what he should do without him, he did not accept it untd October, 1690. Even now he asked for delay, and nothing was done until the king's return from the war in Flanders, in 1691, when the conge d'elire passed on May 1st of that year, and he was confirmed May 28th, while Archbishop Sancroft was still occupier of Lambeth Palace, which he did not vacate until June 23rd, when he took boat at Lambeth, and retired to a private house in Palsgrave Court, in the Temple, on his way to his native vdlage, Fressingfield, in Suffolk, whither he had already once retired for a like cause — his regard to the sanctity of an oath, or " engagement," as his Puritan persecutors called it, for which he was deprived of his fellowship at Emmanuel. And thus did the Church of England present, at length, the singular spectacle of her chief bishop irregularly baptized, and her temporal head not baptized, it is said, at all. A like reluctance was shown by Dr. Beveridge, who was then Archdeacon of Colchester and Canon of Canterbury, and had been nominated to succeed n2 100 TILLOTSON SUCCEEDS SANCEOET. [CHAP. V. Bishop Ken in the see of Bath and Wells, on April 23rd of this year. He had required three weeks to consider the offer, which he ultimately declined, causing thereby much displeasure at court. Beve- ridge's reluctance arose from a very opposite source to Tillotson's. It is well known that the latter hesi- tated from a fear of leaving his wife, as an arch- bishop's widow, in poverty. And certainly, though it is as undesirable that worthy parish priests shoidd be driven into such a position, it was one which he, as an expectant archbishop, should avoid if possible. And it was avoided ; for, when "William heard of the difficulty, he undertook that Mrs. Tillotson should be provided for, and he kept his word. Dr. Beve- ridge's reluctance, however, was from doubting the validity of Ken's deprivation by a lay power, about which we find him considting the deprived primate (Sancroft) while in possession of Lambeth. The following appointments had already been made, in 1690 ; Dr. Patrick had been advanced to Ely ; Dr. More to Norwich; Dr. Cumberland to Peter- borough ; Dr. Powler to Gloucester ; Ironside to Hereford; Grove to Chichester; Hall to Bristol; Dr. Hough, the president of Magdalen, had been made bishop the year before (1689). The see of York falling vacant, Dr. Sharp was appointed to it, about the same time as Tillotson to Canterbury. " So that (as Burnet says in his usual strain of panegyric of every thing that "William did, or did not do) in two years' time, the king had named fifteen bishops ; and they were generally looked on as the learnedest, the wisest, and best men that were in the Church '." All, 1 Burnet's Hist. Own Times, vol. iii. p. 104. 1690 — 1694.] THE OTHER KEW BISHOPS. 101 however, did not look so fondly and hopefully on these fifteen new bishops. A contemporary remarked upon them, " Some steps have been made, and large ones too, towards a Scotch reformation, by suspend- ing and ejecting the chief and most zealous of our bishops, and others of the higher clergy, and by ad- vancing upon all vacancies of sees and dignities eccle- siastical, men of notoriously Presbyterian, or which is worse, of Erastian principles. These are the minis- terial ways of undermining Episcopacy ; and when, to the seven notorious ones that are already, shall be added more, upon the approaching deprivation, they will make a majority, and then we may expect the new model of a Church to be perfected V ' 1692. This year the Boyle Lecture was founded. Evelyn says: "Feb. 13, 1692. Mr. Boyle having made me one of his trustees for his charitable be- quests, I went to a meeting of the Bishop of Lincoln, &c, to settle that clause in the will which related to charitable uses, and especially the appointing and electing a minister to preach one sermon the first Sunday in the month, during the four summer months, expressly against Atheists, Deists, Libertines, Jews, &c, without descending to any other controversy whatever, for which 50Z. per annum is to be paid cpiarterly to the preacher ; and, at the end of three years, to proceed to a new election of some other able divine, or to continue the same, as the trustees should judge convenient. We made choice of one Mr. Bent- ley, [afterwards the celebrated scholar and critic, librarian to the king, and master of Trinity College, Cambridge, chaplain to Dr. Stillingfleet, Bishop of - Somers's Tracts, vol. x. p. 3Cf!. 102 CONSPIKACY AGAINST [CIIAP. T. Worcester.] The first sermon was appointed for the first Sunday in March, at St. Martin's ; the second Sunday in April at Bow Church, and so alter- nately." Dr. Johnson, in his Life of Bishop Sprat, records the following conspiracy concocted in this year against that prelate, Archbishop Sancroft, and others. It will bear comparison with the calumnious charge against the nonjuring bishops already noticed (p. 95), and will help to throw some light on the bitterness of party spirit, and the profligacy of that age, which we shall notice presently : " He (Bishop Sprat) com- plied, however, with the new Establishment, and was left unmolested ; but, in 1692, a strange attack was made upon him by one Robert Young and Stephen Blackhead, both men convicted of infamous crimes, and both, when the scheme was laid, prisoners in Newgate. These men drew up an association, in which they whose names were subscribed, declared their resolution to restore King James, to seize the Princess of Orange, dead or alive, and to be ready with thirty thousand men, to meet King James when he should land. To this they put the names of Sancroft, Sprat, Marlborough, Salisbury, and others. The copy of Dr. Sprat's name was obtained by a fictitious request, to which an answer in his own hand was desired. His hand was copied so well, that he confessed it might have deceived himself. Black- head, who had carried the letter, being sent again with a plausible message, was very curious to see the house, and particularly importunate to be let into the study ; where, as is supposed, he designed to leave the association. This, however, was denied him ; and he dropped it in a flower-pot in the parlour. 1690—1604.] BISHOP SPEAT. 103 " Young now laid an information before the Privy Council ; and, May 7, 1692, the bishop was arrested, and kept at a messenger's under strict charge eleven days. His house was searched, and directions were given, that the flower-pots should be inspected. The messengers, however, missed the room in which the paper was left. Blackhead went, therefore, a third time ; and, finding his paper where he had left it, brought it away. The bishop having been enlarged, was, on June the 10th and 12th, examined again be- fore the Privy Council, and confronted with his ac- cusers. Young persisted, with the most obdurate impudence, against the strongest evidence ; but the resolution of Blackhead by degrees gave way. There remained, at last, no doubt of the bishop's innocence, who, with great prudence and diligence, traced the progress, and detected the characters of the two in- formers, and published an account of his own exami- nation and deliverance ; which made such an impres- sion upon him, that he commemorated it through life as a day of yearly thanksgiving. "With what hopes, or what interest, the villains had contrived an accusation, which they must know themselves utterly unable to prove, was never disco- vered." As the entertaining of such a charge for eleven days shows the deplorable facility with which the ministry of that day could oppose a political oppo- nent ; so does the Bishop of Bochester's joy at his deliverance show that, though there was a Holt upon the bench, innocence was by no means thought in those days any great protection in a court of justice. If a conforming bishop was thus exposed to "Whig violence, we may easily imagine the tyranny ever 104 GENEEAL PROFLIGACY [CHAP. T. ready to brand the nonjurors. The ■whole matter places in strong relief, the party violence, and social profligacy of the age s . If the fifteen new bishops, therefore, were such burning and shining lights as Burnet describes them, they were set up at a most seasonable period ; for, according to his own account, and as might be gathered from the facilities for oppression and vio- lence shown in the above account of the Bishop of Rochester, a fearful moral darkness was at this time looming over the English people 4 . Mr. Macaulay 3 Young's sentence was as follows : " Pay a thousand pounds' fine ; stand in the pillory, in the Palace-yard, Westminster, for the space of two hours, from ten to twelve, on Tuesday, the 11th instant ; and on Thursday following at the Maypole in the Strand, for the same time ; and on Saturday following at the Old Ex- change, from twelve to two of the clock ; and at all the several places to have a paper in his hand signifying his offence ; and com- mitted to the marshal in execution : there to remain in close and safe custody till he pay his fine." Lond. Gaz. Feb. 16, 1692. 4 Some think King William's Laureate and New Versionist, Nahum Tate, no great poet : certainly he was no great prophet, as this inauguration of Tillotson, and the other of the fifteen, testifies : " O'erjoy'd her consecrated sons appear — (Those sons that hold their mother's honour dear) To see the Past'ral Chair by one supply'd, For whom the voice of angels would decide. In his promotion, Vice her doicnfall read ; She raved to find the mitre on that head ; Her venom swell'd to see of piety So charming an example placed on high, Whose influence her fears presaged would make The age reform, and her dark empire shake. Preferment sought him (worthless spir'ts intrude, But modest merit must by kings be woo'd) : He, slow consenting, to the Temple's sway Aspired not, but did Caesar's will obey. [While 1690—1694.] OF THE AGE. 105 says, " The reign of William was, as Mr. Hallam hap- pily expresses it, the Nadir of the nation's prosperity. It was also the Nadir of the national character. It was the time when the rank harvest of vices sown during thirty [?] years of licentiousness and confusion was gathered in 5 ." So far, perhaps, more will agree with him than in what follows: " it was also the seed- time of great virtues." Burnet was so solemnly moved by it, that he heads his account, " A great Corruption over England," and precedes it by a description of some natural phenomena which he seems to have viewed as having something to do with it : " In the beginning of September, there was an earthquake felt in most places in England ; and was at the same time felt in many parts of France, Germany, and the Netherlands. No harm was done by it, but it con- tinued for three or four minutes. I can write nothing of it from my own observation, for it was not sensi- ble at the place where I happened to be at the time ; nor can it be determined, whether that had any re- lation to those terrible earthquakes that happened some months after this, in Sicily and Malta ; upon which I cannot enlarge, having seen no other ac- counts of them, than what was in public Gazettes, which represented them as the dreadfulest by much of any that are in history. It was estimated that While Caesar did, who only could, prescribe, He in meer duty rules the sacred tribe. His moderation, charity divine, Led to this choice our gen'rous Constantine, Whose genius, while the crosier there be placed, His own hereditary virtues graced," &c. " Poem on the late Promotions, by N. Tate, Servant to their Majesties, 1694," p. 2. 3 Crit. and Hist. Essays, vol. i. p. 204. 10G GENERAL PROFLIGACY [CHAP. V. about one hundred thousand perished by them in Sicily. It is scarce to be imagined, that the earth- quake, which about the same time destroyed the best part of the chief town of Jamaica, could have any connexion with these in Europe. These were very extraordinary things, which made those who studied Apocalyptical matters imagine that the end of the world drew near. It had been happy for us, if such dismal accidents had struck us with a deeper sense of the judgments of God. " We are indeed brought more to an outward face of virtue and sobriety, and the great examples that the king [?] and queen set the nation, had made some considerable alterations, as to publick practices ; but we became deeply corrupted in principle ; a disbelief of revealed religion, and a profane mocking at the Christian faith, and the mysteries of it, became avowed and scandalous 6 . The queen, in the king's 6 Evelyn, writing seven years afterwards, gives an equally lugu- brious picture: "Nov. 24, 1699. Such horrible robberies and murders were committed as had not been known in this nation ; atheism, profaneness, blasphemy, amongst all sorts, portended some judgment, if not amended : on which a society was set on foot, who obliged themselves to endeavour the reforming of it, in London, and other places, and began to punish offenders and put the laws in more strict execution. . . . March 24th, 1700. Divers persons of quality entered into the Society for Reformation of Manners ; and some lectures were set up, particularly in the city of London. The most eminent of the clergy preached at Bow Church, after reading a declaration set forth by the king to suppress the growing wickedness : this began already to take some effect as to common swearing, and oaths in the mouths of the people of all ranks."- — Diary. What that worse state of things bequeathed by a century of religious strife could be before 1692, when Burnet could say, " we were, indeed, brought more to an outward face of virtue and sobriety," it is painful to conjecture. Evelyn, writing 1690—1694.] OF THE AGE. 107 absence, gave orders to execute the laws against drunkenness, swearing, and the profanation of the Lord's-day ; and sent directions over England, to all magistrates to do their duty in executing them ; to which the king joined his authority, upon his return to England. Yet the reformation of manners, which some zealous men studied to promote, went on but slowly ; many of the inferior magistrates were not only very remiss, but very faulty themselves : they did all they could to discourage those who endea- voured to have vice suppressed and punished; and it must be confessed, upon the whole matter, the nation was falling under such a general corruption, both as to morals and principles ; and that was so much spread among all sorts of people, that it gave us great apprehensions of heavy judgments from hea- ven. ####*# " Complaints were made of some military men, who did not pay their quarters, pretending their own pay was in arrears. But it appearing that they had been paid ; and the matter being further enquired into, it was found that the superior officers had cheated the in 1690, had left some clue to it : " Feb. 19th, 1690. The im- pudence of both sexes was now become so great and universal, persons of all ranks keeping their courtesans publicly, that the king [as king, not as the husband of Mary] had lately directed a letter to the bishops, to order their clergy to preach against that sin, swearing, &c, and to put the ecclesiastical laws in execution, without any indulgence." — Diary. We find the little Duke of Gloucester (son of the Princess Anne) learning to swear and use profane language from the running footmen and pages, and mimic juvenile guard, and others about him ; and that every body (ex- cept his mother) thought it an excellent qualification for an heir- apparent in those days. 108 GENEKAL PEOFLIGACT [CHAP. T. subalterns, which excused their not paying their quar- ters. Upon this the enquiry was carried further ; and such discoveries were made, that some officers were broke upon it 7 , while others prevented complaints by satisfying those whom they had oppressed. It was found out that the Secretary of the Treasury had taken two hundred guineas for procuring the arrears due to a regiment, whereupon he was sent to the Tower, and turned out of his place . . . The house being in this scent, carried the matter further. In the former session of Parliament, an Act had been passed creating a fund for the repayment of the debt owing to the orphans, by the Chamberlain of London ; and the chamberlain had made Trevor, Speaker of the House of Commons, a present of two thousand guineas for services he had rendered in this matter. This was ob- jected to Trevor as a corruption and a breach of trust, and he was expelled the house. . . . One discovery made way for another : it was found that in the books of the East India Company, there were entries made of great sums given for secret service done the company, that amounted to 170,000?. ; and it was generally believed that the greatest part had gone among the members of the House of Commons V It will be necessary to remember, though the writer disavows for himself all party politics, that this is the account of an intensely Whiggish historian, and that, by Lord Campbell's showing, in another part of this 7 "January 24th, 1692. Lord Marlborough, lieutenant-gene- ral of the king's army in England, gentleman of the bed-chamber, &c. dismissed from all his charges, military and other, for his ex- cessive taking of bribes, covetousness and extortion on all occasions from his inferior officers." Evelyn. * Burnet's Hist. Own Times, vol. iii. pp. 139—199. 1690 — 1694.] AND ITS APPARENT CAUSES. 109 volume, the House of Commons at this time had a Tory majority, and moreover had ordered the first pastoral letter of this same desponding historian to be burnt by the common hangman, for asserting King William's right to the crown by conquest 9 . At the same time, after all fair and needful deductions, it may be readily granted that there was but too much Ucentiousness in the House of Commons l , as elsewhere. They who re- member how Hogarth — born about this time to convey to the eye of posterity the significant warnings of an emphatically vicious coming century — soon afterwards pictured Parliamentary Elections, will be little sur- prised to find that such as could offer bribes were ca- pable of receiving them. Such warnings are significant, pointing as they do to the antecedents of the century now closing. They who remember the wide-spread political as well as individual and social corruption which so remarkably distinguished the reign of Louis Philippe in France, after religious controversy and cant (beginning with Louis XIV.), religious persecution, and rebellion, are not so surprised at the parallel startbng mass of political and social corruption into which, without going the length of De Witt's ana- themas of English statesmen, it must be admitted the like religious controversies and cant, the like religious persecution and rebellion of the seventeenth century, had now, at its close, festered in England. The steps were the same in both countries, and the results, in an open or practical infidelity, were the same. And so 3 " With relation to King James's rights, he [William] was vested with them hy the successes of the just war .... if he was forced to it, then here was a conquest." Past. Lett. p. 21. 1 "January 16, 1690. There was fierce and great carousing about being elected in the new parliament." Evelyn. 110 DISORDERLY STATE [CHAP. V. they will of necessity ever be, by the ordinary laws of canse and effect ; and therefore it is, that thoughtful men of the present day are not without grave appre- hension, lest the perpetual and deadening controversy of ecclesiastical and religious questions in the lower class of newspapers and magazines, which take dog- matic teaching freely to themselves, in proportion as they deny it to the Church, should prove the beginning of another desolating cycle of like events. The excellent biographer of Kettlewell confirms all that could be said of the Ucense of those times, both in regard of clergy and laity. " The public prayers of the Church, which had been so much frequented while King James sat upon the throne, and while there was an apprehension of his design to introduce popery, began now to be very much neglected every where. It was openly complained, that there were few who came to them, even of those that were under no preju- dices against them, on occasion of the State prayers, and the alteration of names. The communion, which was ministered every Lord's-day in several of the parish churches in and about London and Westminster, as also upon the festivals of the Church, was now much unfrequented in comparison of what it had been ; and in cathedral churches throughout England it was yet worse ; so that the alms then collected at the commu- nion did only little more than defray the charge of the bread and wine. It was observed, that several of the dignitaries of the Church, and they some of the most zealous for bringing about the Revolution, as in behalf of the Ckweh which ivas in danger, neglected now their residence (how short soever that was) enjoined by the statutes ; and that many of the inferior clergy were likewise notoriously guilty of non-residence. It was 1690 — 1094.] OF TIIE CHURCH. Ill complained, moreover, that they were faulty in their morals, that they gave not due attendance to their offices, and that some of the dignified clergy had cures more than one a-piece, which were inconsistent with that duty they did owe to the Mother-Church, and against the ecclesiastical canons. Nay, it was even publicly represented by the most hearty friends of what was then commonly called the constitution, that others belonging to the Church [clergy], were often seen in ale-houses and taverns, and to be in great disorder through their intemperance ; that not a few of them were newsmongers and busy bodies ; that those Presbyters whom the bishops ought to consult with, were generally absent from the church ; and the archdeacons, which are to be their eyes, were in the ends of the earth ; that some of them did not so much as five in the diocese, and were so far from visiting parochially, that they did it not at all in person ; that they had, indeed, their deputies who did little more than dine, call over names, and take their money ; that some in the country had two cures, and resided on neither ; that others left their own cures, and either became curates to others, or else spent their time in hunting after other preferments 2 in the city ; and this too though they were well provided for, and under no manner of temptation by poverty ; that the catechizing of children and servants was now very much disused, aud even by those who vaunted not a little of their 2 " Expectation of preferment ! more preferment ! the grand thing commonly aimed at both by clergy and laity ; and generally the utter ruin both of virtue and religion among them both. Poison ! sweet poison ! first poured upon the Church by Constan- tine the Great, and greedily swallowed both by papists and pro- testants ever since." Whiston's Memoirs, vol. i. p. lo'i. 112 LOSS OF DISCIPLINE. [CHAP. V. zeal for the Church ; that there was not that care which there ought to be in instructing the youth, and preparing them for the Holy Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood ; and that, lastly, the preparation of children for Confirmation, was extremely neglected, the bare saying some words by rote being as much as generally was done, and sometimes more. These and a great many other vices and defiudts of the clergy, were complained of publicly in the pamphlets of those times, and that not by enemies but friends to them, and such as studied chiefly a reformation of the abuses complained of, and which they had promised them- selves from the piety of their new king, to whom they were most strongly attached 3 ." Such is the testimony borne by an honest and intelligent writer to Burnet's "fifteen learnedest, wisest, and best bishops" of the Revolution. Touch- ing the conforming bishops in general, we find another contemporary lamenting that they did little or nothing to stop the fearful outburst of popular vice : " It is an ill sign of the great impiety and wickedness in the state of parliament itself, if they (the bishops) durst not, or, out of Laodicean coldness and insensibility in themselves, if they would not ; for certain it is, that in their station in the house, &c. It causes one to sus- pect, considering how little hath been done, that 3 Kettlewell's Life, pp. 213 — 216. The general indiscipline of bishops and clergy was the derision, at the time, of dissenters. Stillingfleet taunted them with want of discipline. Calamy re- torts that, admitting it to be so, as it was, among dissenters ; it was not a fair charge coming from a Church " which rested satis- fied in a yearly lamentation of the want of ' primitive discipline,' without doing any thing to restore and revive it." Calamy's own Life, ch. v. 1(390 — 169 k] LOSS OF DISCIPLINE. 113 Constantine's poison hath some lethargic or narcotic virtue in it to benumb the nerves, and stupify the spirits and life of zeal and devotion in such as taste but a little too deep of it 4 ." The present writer disavows for himself the expression, " Constantine's poison," as applied to the union, as such, of Church and State; it becomes poison, however, when mixed 4 Reflections on the Occurrences from Nov. 1688 to Nov. 1689, in State Tracts, vol. iii. p. 743. With regard to the clerical irre- gularities going on at that time, under the eyes of the bishops, they had already come, or were to be supposed to have come, under the eye of King William, and, by virtue of his royal supre- macy, he had claimed the right to give directions to the bishops upon them in a royal letter to the bishops of both provinces in 1689. The king claimed to be bishop of bishops, thus consti- tuting a divided responsibility, which is never wise, and seldom suc- cessful. The letter itself (which will be found in Wilkins, torn, iv. p. 622) was sufficiently artificial and hollow, as might be ex- pected. For example, after directing the bishops how to ordain, " as they shall answer it to him ;" and what they are themselves to do and not to do, and what they are to order their clergy to preach and not to preach, in order to stop " that overflowing of vice, which is too notorious," his majesty ends his Pastoral thus : " And whereas there is as yet no sufficient provision made by any statute-law for the punishing of adultery and fornication, you shall therefore recmire all churchwardens in your dioceses to pre- sent impartially all those that are guilty of any such crimes in their several parishes ; and upon such presentments we require you to proceed without delay, and upon sufficient proof to inflict those censures, which are appointed by our ecclesiastical laws against such offenders. In doing whereof according to your duty, you shall not want our effectual assistance and protection." The hollowness alluded to will be painfully apparent, when we state that the writer of this Pastoral from Whitehall, was, at the moment of writing it, or signing it, notoriously living in adultery with Elizabeth Villiers. His order for the barbarous massacre of men, women, and children at Glencoe, is excused by apologists on the ground that he was indolent, delaying the signing of papers until they accumulated, and then did so without examining or in- I COURTIER BISHOPS. [CHAP. V. with certain ingredients on the part of individual rulers, or individual bishops and clergy ; and hoiv deep some of the bishops of that day drank of it may be inferred from the following " Letter of the Reverend Jonathan Trelawney, to Lawrence Hyde, Earl of Rochester :" — " My Lord, " Give me leave to throw myself at your lordship's feet, humbly imploring your patronage, if not for the bishopric of Peterborough, at least for Chichester, if the Bishop of Exeter cannot be prevailed on to accept that now vacant see. Let me beseech your lordship to fix him there, and advance your creature to Exeter, where I can serve the king (James II.) and yourself." [He did " serve " him most facetiously, for we have already seen that he was the only bishop who voted with Compton in the Convention Parliament that James's throne was vacant.] " My estate must break to pieces if I find no better provision than the income of Bristol, not greater than 300Z. If Peterborough and Chichester shall both be refused me, I shall not deny Bristol. But I hope the king will have some tender compassion on his slave, " July 10, 1685." " J. Trelawney." Of course James could not more effectually serve the cause of popery than by raising such " creatures" quiring into their contents. Some such apology must be extended to this letter. " The king's injunctions to the archbishops " in 1694, is a yet more curious document. It is much too long and minute, in teach- ing the bishops and clergy their office, to be inserted here : the curious reader will find it in Wilkins, torn. iv. p. 624. 1690 — 1691.] PURITAN BISHOPS. 115 to high dignity in the Church of England ; and there- fore the application was granted. Nor does it seem less likely that William III. now contemplated, as insensibly, and not less effectually, to bring down the Church to his own Presbyterian level, by appointing men bred generally as dissenters, and still dissenters at heart, to bishoprics, at the Revolution. Certain it is, that, upon reference to the "Biographia Britannica," though the dissenting editor, Kippis, makes the best of it, we do find all our inferences in this respect from their conduct confirmed ; in other words, we do find that nearly all the appointments to bishoprics in this reign were from that class of men, the aspiring young preachers of the Commonwealth, the clever young puritans of the Rebellion, as the leading nonjurors had been the able young divines of the royal cause. And it will be needful to bear this in mind, as helping to account for the utter want of confidence reposed by the clergy in the upper house of Convocation from the time of the Revolution, seeing such men almost uni- formly placed over their heads, when, in spite of a general decadence, there were yet learned and earnest men enough left in the Church, who would have commanded their hearty obedience, and done honour to their station. Principiis obsta was their motto, and it was a good and wise one, if individuals here and there did not always use it wisely. It is notorious that William viewed his bishops with supreme indif- ference when he had made them, and set the ex- ample of placing little trust in the sincerity of their conversion. 1693. — The flagrant Erastianism of the age we are reviewing will be further understood from the following i 2 116 EBASTIANISM. [chap. v. extract from a weekly periodical, " The Athenian Gazette 5 ,'' published December 12th of this year. It is in the form of questions addressed to the editor or " author ' ' of the paper, as he is there called : — " Question 1. Whether the church wardens and the rest, who in divers churches in London, since the Revolution, have placed and set up the king's arms above the commandments of God, in the place of most holy Christian worship, have any law or canon to authorize, justify, or excuse them for so doing ? " Question 2. Whether it is probable they had any authority from the bishop, since in St. Peter's, Corn- hill, St. Martin's, and other churches, where are and then were persons as observant of ceremonial and episcopal order as any, the king's arms have been since this time placed elsewhere than in this part of the church ? " Question 3. Whether to set them up in that place of our most solemn Christian worship, over the com- mandments of Crod, like the cherubims in the most holy place of the temple, over the ark of God, be not a matter of greater indecency than the setting up of the founder's arms in the theatre at Oxford over the king's 5 The full title of this curious periodical, the harbinger of the Spectator, &c. which soon followed, a transition sheet between the bald one-leafed newspaper of that age and the polished Essay, is " The Athenian Gazette, or Casuistical Mercury, resolving all the most nice and curious questions proposed by the ingenious of either sex. Printed for John Danton at the Raven in the Poultry." The origin of periodical essays on men and manners, taking the place of what was in a moral and literary view much more excep- tionable, forms the chief literary distinction of Queen Anne's reign. The Tatler was begun by Steele in 1709 ; and this was followed, more satisfactorily, by the Spectator and Guardian. 1690 1694.] SPIRITUAL MINISTRY. 117 arms, which were ordered afterwards to be taken down for the indecency of it, and placed elsewhere ? " Question 4. Whether it was not an act of great presumption in them who did it to do it of their own head, without any law, canon, or authority of the bishop, and to be looked upon as an act of profane flattery of princes, in such as of late set up loyalty above all religion, and, inverting the apostolical com- mand, preferring the honour of the king before the fear of God ? " Question 5. Whether the admitting or conniving at such acts of flattery hath not been very mischievous to princes, and therefore by all wise and religious princes to be rejected with indignation, and such wicked flatterers to be discountenanced and suppressed as the pests of the state?" 1694. — This year Archbishop Tillotson died, and was succeeded by Dr. Tenison, translated from Lin- coln, who, for 501. and the king's favour, had preached a panegyrical sermon on Nell Gwynne. The now- suffering Ken had braved that prince's displeasure by refusing to admit her within his prebendal house at Winchester, though her imperial paramour asked it ; saying, it would be a shame for a clergyman to allow such a person under his roof, especially a king's chaplain °. The queen, who, if she showed at times that she had had to submit to have Burnet for her chaplain, showed at others that she had first had Hooper and Ken, made great efforts to procure the c Charles's appointment of Ken to a bishopric immediately after- wards, with especial care that it should be known to be his own personal act, is a bright and redeeming trait in his character. It is hard to say to which of the two this transaction does most honour. 118 SPIEITUAL MINISTRY. [CHAP. V. primacy for Stillingfleet ; but " as the "WTiigs did generally apprehend that both his notions and his temper were too high," she failed to bring over the king to her views. We have Mr. Tate's authority for asserting that the Whigs made the best possible choice : " From high, whose grateful throngs about him press Of souls by him directed up to bliss, His spir't looks down, and sees the Past'ral Chair Supply'd, and made his mild successor's care. (For how their minds' resemblance form'd compleat, Like the twin cherubs of the mercy seat) Our altars made so kind a guardian's charge, As even in Paradise his joys enlarge, Pleased that Eusebia [Ch. of Eng.] does once more rejoyce, Once more applaud her pious monarch's choice 7 ." In explanation of " the influence of the "Whigs" in this matter, it may be proper to observe that both Charles II. and William III., two singularly bad Churchmen, set a singularly good example, in one par- ticular, in the disposal of ecclesiastical preferments. It may have been that the one finding himself perpetually and deeply immersed in pleasures, the other in wars, and both sensitively alive to the importance of episco- pal and other great Chiu'ch preferments in those rickety times, in a political point of view, they adopted the plan in order to insure safe men with less personal trouble. However this be, their plan was good in itself. And it was this : they appointed a sort of spiritual ministry, a commission, under the royal warrant, to advise the king in the distribution of ec- clesiastical preferments, with an express stipulation 7 " Elegy on Archbishop Tillotson, by N. Tate, bis Majesty's Servant," p. 11. 1690 — 1694.] SPIKITUAL MINISTRY. 119 that no minister of State should interfere ; instead of leaving all to a prime minister, who may not be a Churchman, whom the Church, at all events, does not recognize as holder of the supremacy, and so allowing a mere politician's nomination to degrade the fiction of a conge d'elire into a merely political election, not very much above the dignity of the hustings. The fact, however, of "the Whigs" prevailing against the queen and Stillingfleet, shows that the plan, however good in itself, was imperfectly carried out. William had made the very easy mistake of naming political partisans only in the commission, — partisans of one side only, — the Whigs, to whom chiefly he was indebted for his crown, who still enjoyed his confidence, so far as his cold nature could repose confidence in any, and who might reason- ably think themselves solely entitled to this little per- quisite of partisanship. This commission seems to have been superseded in 1697, and the latter by another commission in 1700, which was open to the same political objection. The last was to this effect, that, upon any preferment becoming vacant, they were to meet and " consider one or more persons proper to be recommended to succeed to any benefice, of above the value of 201. in the king's books." When he was beyond seas, they were to " give in the king's name all preferments, except bishoprics, deaneries, and archdea- conries," and certain prebends, &c. therein specified, and " no principal Secretary of State was to move" the king touching any such preferments. This last com- mission was addressed to Archbishop Tenison, the Archbishop of York, the Bishops of Salisbury, Wor- cester, Ely, and Norwich. The commissions through- out were of a Whiggish hue and texture. Very naturally therefore, in 1701, just before William's 120 queen's care i> t filling bishoprics, [chap. v. death, the Tories, then in power, pressed the king, according to Burnet, and without a view to its re- construction, " to dissolve the commission that re- commended to ecclesiastical preferments 8 ." This he declined to do, but Anne did it, soon after her accession ; and so expired a system which, honestly and judiciously worked, would reconcile most men to the exercise of the royal supremacy in such matters, as not less lawful, and more convenient, than the election of a bishop by the diocese : made a mere political junta, the commission had all the practical evils of the present system. How far the commission was concerned in the re- commendation we are about to notice to an Irish bishopric, does not appear : the transaction reflects the greatest credit, at all events, upon the queen. It seems, " Lord Sidney was so far engaged in the in- terest of a great family of Ireland, that he was too easily wrought on, to recommend a branch of it to a va- cant see. The representation was made with an undue character of the person ; so the queen granted it. But when she understood that he lay under a very bad character, she wrote a letter, in her own hand, to Lord Sidney, letting him know what she had heard, and ordered him to call for six Irish bishops, whom she named to him, and to require them to certify to her their opinion of that person. They all agreed that he laboured under an ill fame ; and, till that was cleared, they did not think it proper to promote him ; so that matter was let fall 9 ." The queen was not alike happy in all her endeavours, when her consort went to the wars, and left her alone 1 Hist. Own Times, vol. iii. p. 395. '■> Ibid. p. 164. 1690 — 1694.] HER PROHIBITION OF SUNDAY BAKING. 121 as Eegeut. A part of the general demoralization was, as might be expected, a general profanation of the Lord's-day. To remedy this, she asked her councd to help her in framing rules for its better observance. All hackney-carriages and horses were forbidden to work on that day, and the drivers to ply for customers. The good that might be expected, however, from such a regulation, was neutralized by the absurdity of other acts. She had constables stationed at the corners of the streets, who were strictly charged to capture all puddings and pies on their progress to bakers' ovens on Sundays ; and such ridiculous scenes took place in consequence of the owners fighting, as stoutly as William in Flanders, for the more substantial guerdon of their Sunday dinners, that the laws were suspended amid universal laughter \ This preposterous puritani- cal attempt, so inconsistent with her own practice, as a constant playgoer, to hear the profane wit of Con- greve — we of this day happily think it profane, not so then, — and as holding a cabinet council every Sunday evening at six at Kensington or Hampton Court — the theatres were not open then, — can only be viewed, like her insidting conduct towards her father, as a thing done perfunctorily and perforce, to please her husband on his return, it being no small part of the business of her fife to wring a kind look or a kind word from him. He would approve of it, because it woidd please the more pharisaical part of the dissenters, his system, in his precarious position, being to be all things to all men, that he might gain the smiles and suffrages of some : — to all men, that is, except non- juring earnest Churchmen, though even he paid the 1 Strickland, and Somors's Tracts. 122 OEIGIN OF BLOOD-MOJTET. [CHAP. V. unwilling homage to their principles of acknowledging that he could trust them to be quiet, by excusing them the oaths, as we have seen, on condition of dissenters being excused the sacramental test. Then, why should he do any thing to please those quiet already ? Her regency was alike unhappy in a proclamation which she issued a little before this period (September 13, 1692), offering " 40?. per head for the apprehension and conviction of any burglar or highwayman." It was indeed time to do something, for life and property were at this time lamentably unsafe, for we are in the days of " Jack Shepherd," and approaching those of Jonathan Wild; but this was doing it ill. This well-meant regulation proved most injurious to public morals. The evils of such a system are thus com- mented on by a practical writer of the present day : " To set a price on the head of a criminal, or otherwise, on a great scale, to reward the information of accom- plices, is the strongest proof of a weak or unwise government. Such an edict confounds the idea of virtue and morality, at all times too wavering in the mind of man. It encourages treachery ; and, to pre- vent one crime, gives birth to a thousand. Such are the expedients of weak and ignorant nations, whose laws are Uke temporary repairs to a tottering fabric 2 ." The system, under the ungainly name of blood-money, lingered on in this country until 1816, and the per- juries, and treacheries, and legal murders, perpetrated in the interval, and all dating from this disastrous proclamation, it is fearful to contemplate. It was on the 23rd of March of this year (1694), that Archbishop Tillotson died. His father, Mr. 2 Australasian, by Capt. Maconochie, p. 73. 1690 — 1694.] AECIIBISIIOP TILLOTSOX. 123 Kobert Tillotson, was a considerable clothier at Sowerby, near Halifax, Yorkshire. He was born at Sowerby, October, 1630. His father was deeply imbued with the Calvinism which threw a blighting influence over the reign of James I., and paved the way for the frenzied religionism of the next reign, which ended in the prostration of Church and State. He was ad- mitted pensioner of Clare Hall, Cambridge, April 23rd, 1647, at the age of 17, and fellow in 1651 ; a time when his fellowship would have been worth little to him, had he not been a Puritan himself. His tutor, Clarkson, was deprived of the perpetual curacy of Mortlake, Surrey, as a nonconformist, in 1662. Tillot- son retained a great regard for him through life, as for other Puritans of his college ; and his early impres- sions derived from such sources, taken in connexion with his parentage and home-education, will explain much of his subsequent career. Being appointed tutor to a son of Mr. Prideaux, attorney-general to Cromwell, he left Cambridge for London, and was there at the time of Cromwell's death, in 1658. About a week afterwards he was present at a very remarkable scene at Whitehall, which is transcribed here from Dr. Birch, as an in- structive picture of the religionism of the day : — " Happening to be there on a fast-day of the house- hold, he (Tillotson) went out of curiosity into the presence-chamber, where the solemnity was kept, and saw there, on the one side of the table, the new Pro- tector placed with the rest of his family, and on the other side preachers, among whom were Dr. John Owen, Dean of Christ Church in Oxford ; Dr. Thos. Goodwin, President of Magdalen College ; Mr. Jos. Caryl, author of the voluminous commentary on Job, 121 AECHBISnOP TILLOTSOlSr. [CHAP. V. and Eector of St. Magnus, in London ; and Mr. Pet. Sterry." The bold sallies of enthusiasm which Tillot- son heard upon this occasion were sufficient to dis- gust him, though himself a Puritan : it did not pre- vent his continuing a Puritan, until the Church was again in the ascendant at the Restoration. " God was in a manner reproached with the deceased Pro- tector's services, and challenged for taking him away so soon. Dr. Goodwin, who had pretended to assure them in a prayer, a very few minutes before he ex- pired, that he was not to die, had now the confidence to say to God, ' Thou hast deceived us, and we were deceived.' And Mr. Sterry, praying for Richard, used these indecent words, next to blasphemy, ' Make him the brightness of his father's glory, and the express image of his person.' " After forfeiting his Clare fel- lowship as a nonconformist, in 1660, in 1661 he at- tended the commissioners on the part of the Presby- terians, at the Savoy Conference, for the review of the Liturgy, as an auditor only. But though the altera- tions which he wished were not carried in that con- ference, he immediately submitted to the Act of Uni- formity, which came into operation onSt. Bartholomew's day, 1662. His first printed sermon was that preached at the "Morning Exercise" at Cripplegate church. Ordained by the Bishop of Galway, the first office in the Church in which we find him employed was as curate to Dr. Hacket, then Vicar of Cheshunt, Hert- fordshire, and afterwards Bishop of Down and Connor. In 1663 he was presented to the rectory of Ketton, Suffolk, in the place of an ejected nonconformist, which he resigned upon being chosen Preacher of Lincoln's Inn, and in consequence of his patron, Sir Thos. Barnadiston, and the whole of the parishioners, 1690 — 1694.] ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON. 125 complaining that " Jesus Christ had not been preached among them since Mr. Tiliotson had been settled in the parish." To this circumstance, well attested, he seems to allude in his sermon " against evil speaking," preached thirty years afterwards : — " I foresee what will be said, because I have so often heard it said in a like case, that ' there is not one word of Jesus Christ in all this.' No more is there in the text (Titus iii. 2), and yet I hope that Jesus Christ is truly preached, whenever his will, and laws, and the duties enjoined by the Christian religion are inculcated upon us." In 166| he was married at the church of St. Lawrence Jewry, where he was Tuesday Lecturer, to a niece of Oliver Cromwell 3 . He was soon made Canon and Eesidentiary of St. Paul's, and Dean of Canterbury, and afterwards Dean of St. Paul's, spending most of his time at his country-house at Edmonton ; and was rewarded for his services to "William by the appoint- ment of clerk of the closet. These services were rendered to William on his first introduction, which was a very remarkable one. William was taking his young bride, the Princess Mary, to Holland. The ship waiting at Margate for a wind, William took his bride over to Canterbury, and represented to the mayor and corporation that he was without money, and asked a loan — an ominous beginning of his con- nexion with the English nation, of whom he asked enough afterwards to gratify his military tastes. Their worships were men of such happy simplicity that they would not believe his account of himself, and dismissed 3 " The register records the marriage of Tiliotson, Feb. 23, 1664, and his burial in 1694. Bishop Burnet preached his funeral sermon in this church." Cunningham's Hand-Book, p. 281. 126 ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON. [CHAP. V. him as an impostor. The dean, Tillotson, living in Canterbury, and hearing of the refusal, took all the guineas and plate he coidd collect to the inn, and humbly prayed his highness to accept them, and his humble request was granted. A large instalment of the dowry being already in the hands of William's banker, it is not easy to guess why he did not draw. ]S"eve (Life of Tillotson, p. 230,) says, the Prince and Princess of Orange had been hurried out of town, that the corporation of London might not invite them to a feast, the marriage being obnoxious both to the king and the duke. " This was the true secret ground on which the Bishop of London was yet set aside, and Dean Tillotson advanced over his head." If it was done to sound the popular feeling with regard to him- self, it was a ludicrous failure. But it is not within the scope of this history to speculate upon such mat- ters. Suffice it to say, that it was to Deau Tillotson a long step towards the primacy. To this, after showing a laudable zeal, in common with Bishop Ken and others, from whom he differed in most other things, to relieve the sufferings of the French Protestant refugees, driven hither by recent Eomish persecution 4 in their own country, we have recorded his advancement in 1691. He and Burnet had ministered to Lord "Wil- liam Bussed, in the Tower ; and they had both stre- nuously urged that high-spirited nobleman to save his life by professing unlimited passive obedience ; but he (Tillotson) saw no inconsistency in supplanting San- croft, a prelate in every way his superior, and suffering for that same doctrine of passive obedience ; though he held it under such limitations only as his own re- 4 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685. 1690 — 1694-3 ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON. 127 sistance of James had indicated. Lord John Russell's words are : — " They (Burnet and Tillotson) used all their influence to persuade him to retract his well- known sentiments on the right and duty of a subject 5 ." Such were Tfllotson's sentiments at the Tower and in Lincoln's Inn Fields, in 1683 : we have seen what they were, after eight years, at Kensington Palace and Lambeth. It is not a very surprising change in one who had already changed from republicanism to mo- narchy, and from Puritanism to the Church. He held his primacy, however, but three years, dying in his 65th year. He was buried in the church of St. Law- rence Jewry, in which he had been married. He gave largely in alms. He lived in stormy times, when greater men might have failed : a singular instability of purpose, to be expected from such an education, in its whole course, from the nursery at Sowerby to the common-room at Clare Hall, was little likely to save him from failure. If his sympathies were still with dissenters, it was rather a misfortune of his position ; if he laboured under a vague and mistaken charge of Socinianism, charitable allowance must be made for the mistake of his accusers, seeing as they did such scoffers as Mr. Firmin high in his confidence and esteem, en- trusted to find a substitute whenever the throng of carriage-company had not the happiness of hearing the great popular preacher himself at St. Lawrence Jewry, and a constant visitor and guest both at Canterbury Deanery and Lambeth Palace. When Queen Mary asked Hooper, on her appointing him to the deanery of Canterbury, why Tillotson was thought a Socinian, 5 Lord J. Russell's Life of Lord William Russell, p. 212, and Calamy, chap. i. 128 REMARKABLE TAXES. [CHAP. V. he attributed the report to " the great intimacy be- tween him and Mr. Firmin, who was often at his table at Lambeth." It must not be supposed that there were wanting those, and those many, to mourn his loss. Our familiar friend, Nahum Tate, the Laureate and New Versionist, has represented the whole Church as deploring the stroke : — " Pity me, Heav'n, for your all-searching eye Can only to my grief's deep centre pry. Behold me, once of mothers the most bless'd, Of mourning mothers now the most distress'd, Compell'd my Temple's glory to resign, My sun extinguished, who with rays divine Blazed out, and taught my younger stars to shine. My pow'rful Pan, my mighty Pastor's dead, Whose pious care my flocks and shepherds fed 6 ." The following statement of a remarkable source of revenue in this year (1694) will show that all the hor- rors of exchequer budgets were not reserved for the nineteenth century : — A tax of 4s. on every person buried, and over and above this, for the burial of a duke or duchess 501. more, and so descending gradually, very gradually, through all degrees. Every child chris- tened, 2s., and over and above for a duke's chdd, S0l.,&c. For every marriage, 2s. 6c?. ; for a duke's, 501., &c. For every bachelor above twenty-five, and widow, Is. a year ; and for a bachelor-duke 12 1. 10s., &c. The tax was bad enough, and the means taken for its gathering still worse, showing a state of discipline with which, it may comfort some to learn, our own times will bear comparison. Even the equable Evelyn was 6 " Elegy on Archbishop Tillotson, by N. Tate, Servant to his Majesty." 1690 — 1691.] buenet's miseepeesentation. 129 disturbed: — " July 14, 1695. No sermon at church ; but, after prayers, the names of all the parishioners were read, in order to gathering the tax of 4s. for mar- riages, burials, &c. A very imprudent tax, especially this reading the names, so that most went out of the church." Mr. Macaulay's amiable exemplar, Burnet, — the " man of such generosity and good nature that his heart always warmed towards the unhappy," but whom Miss Strickland describes, perhaps more truly, as " so systematic in error, that he and truth are seldom on the same side 7 ," and whose pen she brands as "the only pen in the world that could write against so apostolic a man as Sancroft 8 ," — thus complacently and tenderly contrasts the fallen fortunes cowering beneath the humble roof of the "hired cottage" at Fressing- field, with the full-blown luxuriousness of his own episcopal life, to which he so penitently deplores having devoted his revenue of Sarum 9 , and with the courtly appointments of his then London residence " in the great square of Soho :" — " Sancroft had died a year before (Tillotson) in the same despicable manner in which he had lived for some years." This distinguished Father of the Church, whom less scrupulous opponents than Burnet have admired and honoured equally with his friends, was born at the above place, in Suffolk, Jan. 13, lCjy. He was at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, while Tillotson was at Clare Hall ; but not being a Puritan, as Tillotson then was, was ejected from his fellowship by the rebels, while Tillotson enjoyed his without mo- 7 Lives of the Queens of Scotland, p. 267. 8 Lives of the Queens of England, vol. xi. u Conclusion to Hist. Own Times, vol. iv. p. 421. K 130 ARCHBISHOP SAXCBOFT. [CHAP. V. testation. How one whom Burnet hated began his ministerial life will be judged by more candid minds from the following pious and almost prophetic letter, addressed by him to his father upon his ordination : — " I have lately offered up to God the first-fruits of that calling whicli I intend, having common-placed twice in the chapel ; and if, through your prayers and God's blessing upon my endeavours, I may become an in- strument in any measure fitted to bear his name before his people, it shall be my joy and the crown of my re- joicing in the Lord. I am persuaded that for this end I was sent into the world ; and therefore, if God lends me life and abdities, I shall be willing to spend and to be spent upon the work." During his banishment from Cambridge he wrote a Latin treatise, which con- tributed not a little to the downfall of Puritanism, by opening men's eyes to the practical working and logical consequences of Calvinism. It is called " Fur Pra>- destinatus." A dialogue is feigned between the pre- destined thief condemned to immediate execution, and a Calvinistic preacher who came to move him to re- pentance for his crimes. The thief, although by his own confession he had lived in the practice of the greatest enormities, is full of self-satisfaction ; main- tains that he could not possibly have acted any other part than he has done ; since, as he contends, all men, being either elect or reprobate, are predestinated to happiness or misery ; that the best actions, as they are reputed, partake of so much weakness as to differ in no essential degree from the worst ; " that sinners fulfil the will of God as much as those who comply most with his outward commands ; and that God, as working irresistibly in all men, is the cause of the worst sins Yvhich they commit." He says, that " he had already 1690 — 1694.] ARCHBISHOP SANCROFT. 131 reflected concerning himself in this manner, that either he must be elect or reprobate ; if the former, the Holy Spirit could operate as irresistibly as certainly to effect his conversion ; if the latter, all his care and en- deavours for effecting his salvation would rather do harm than good. But now he (the thief) felt satisfied of being one of the elect, who, though they might fall into grievous sins, could not fail of salvation." It is needless to say, that such exposure 1 as this was calcu- lated to thin the ranks of the Puritans as much as whole files of pikemen and musketeers ; and that he incurred, therefore, their bitter hatred, and the hatred of all whom interest or a morbid liberalism incHned more or less to sympathize with them ; and this may be the key to much that Burnet and the like have so mabgnantly said of him. During the interregnum he generously distributed a large portion of a small pro- perty recently bequeathed to him, among such other good and learned exiles as were yet poorer than him- self. At the Restoration he was much too remarkable a man to be overlooked. There were giants in those days, mighty men, men of renown. Whether the Church's troubles had produced such men, or were only to be compensated by them, certain it is, that about this time such an array of learned and pious men shed a glory over this Church and nation as any Church might boast, and no Church, within the same time, could ever, perhaps, display. Amongst these assuredly was Sancroft, whose coming greatness, as we have seen, seemed from the first to have cast its 1 Mr. Macaulay, in his off-hand way, speaks of it as " a carica- ture of Calvinism." One born on the north of the Tweed ought to know. 132 ARCHBISHOP SAXCROFT. [CHAP. V. shadow before. Successively master of his college, Dean of York, Dean of Canterbury, Dean of St. Paul's (in which last capacity he made the arrangements with Wren for rebuilding that cathedral, lately destroyed by the great fire of London 2 ), Charles at length ap- pointed him to succeed Shelden in the primacy, up to which time he held the honourable appointment of Prolocutor of the lower house of Convocation. Be- fore this he had assisted at the Savoy Conference, and took a part in the correction of the calendar ; as Dean of St. Paul's he had also bent his mind to the very im- portant subject of breaking up overgrown parishes into more manageable districts : thus, he erected the hamlet of St. Paul's, Shadwell, previously a hamlet of Stepney, into an independent and separately-endowed rectory ; the act was obtained in 1670. After his unsought elevation to the primacy, though, in common with all those who rose above the fen-level of Puritanism, his good was evil spoken of, and he was calumniated as a papist, he showed his fearless integrity and indepen- dence by earnest endeavours, with Ken, to reclaim the heir-apparent from popery. The noble and successful labours of Sancroft and - See his correspondence with Wren on this subject in D'Oyly's Life. While the present deanery-house was being rebuilt, after the fire, Dean Sancroft lived in Maiden-lane, Covent Garden. Mr. Cunningham, in noticing this fact, couples with it anunauthen- ticated and most improbable slander, which falls lightly upon the memory of such a man, but heavily on the reputation of Mr. Cunningham's book (Handbook of London, 1850). " He ex- pended 1000/. on building the deanery of St. Paul's ; the rest of that expense was defrayed out of the money brought in by the Coal Act, for rebuilding the church and edifices of St. Paul's, which Act he gained by his unwearied industry and solicitation." Neve's Life, p. 220. 1690 — 1694.] ARCHBISHOP SANCROFT. 133 his brethren, during the reign of this infatuated prince> are a comforting evidence of the vitality of our Church, and of her power of resistance under oppression. " The Church of England," says the biographer of Kettle- well, " was never known to be in a more flourishing condition than at this time ; all things duly weighed, it became much more powerful by the opposition made against it, and grew by the favours granted to its adversaries : the number of converts made in the reign of this king to his religion was most inconsiderable, and their service to him still more inconsiderable, if it could be said to be any at all. On the other side, for every one that was lost to the established religion, it was thought there were ten at least added to it another way ; for certainly great numbers of dissenters were brought into the communion of the Church by the learned writings of the orthodox clergy at that time ; yea, they who had before conceived a prejudice against them, as making too near approaches to popery, now, on the contrary, when they saw them such champions for the Protestant cause, convinced hereby of the mistake, could not but as much commend them as heretofore they had condemned them ; and no wonder if some also thought themselves bound in conscience to return to the Church which they had separated from, the very foundation of their separating from it appearing to be now taken away. Tet there were but few in comparison of the rest 3 ." The archbishop paid about 2601. towards the ex- penses of the trial in which those glorious labours ended. The following may be usefully recorded here, as showing the incomes, in that day, of his and other bishoprics. 3 Kettlewell's Life, p. 142. 134 ARCHBISHOP BANCROFT. [CHAP. V. " The expenses of the trials of the prelates were paid by assessments, according to the valuation of their episcopates. The Archbishop of Canterbury paid at 62. 10s. 5d. for £ s. d. £4000 per annum 260 16 8 The Bishop of St. Asaph 700 45 12 11 Ely 2000 130 8 4 Chichester 770 50 3 8i Bath and Wells 900 58 8 6* Peterborough 630 41 2 \\ Bristol 350 22 16 5£ £609 8 9 The counsel were, Sir Francis Pemberton, Sir P. Pollexfen, Sir George Treby, Sir Creswell Leving, Mr. Somers, Mr. Bedford, Mr. Pinch, and Sir Eobert Sawyer. The two last refused their fees of twenty guineas each. The whole of the lawyers' fees was 240Z. 16s. Gd. 4 " All beyond this — his triumphant progress from the Tower to Lambeth, as the idol of an emancipated people ; his humble withdrawal from Lambeth to his hired cottage at Pressingfield 5 , as the self-immolated 4 Noble's Continuation of Granger, vol. ii. p. 81. s " Of the manner of his leaving the palace, upon the me- morable Midsummer Eve, an intimate friend of Mr. Kettlewell's thus writes : ' Last Tuesday the good archbishop, at eight o'clock, went privately away from Lambeth in a boat [landing at the Temple, where he lodged a few days] ; judgment having been entered against him that day in the Court of Exchequer. He was advised not to stay for the sheriff, because the news of it would have brought both friends and enemies to the house ; and if any tumults or disorders had arisen, they would have made him the author and abettor of them, and under that pretence have sent him 1G90 — 1694.] ARCHBISHOP SANCUOFT. 135 victim of a solemn, even though we should admit mistaken sense of the sacred obligations of an oath — has already entered into this history. When we bear in mind that, at a time when a bishop could not travel through his diocese without six good Flanders' horses, and then but slowly, and expensive court attendance was more compulsory than now ; and how one, out of an income of 4000/., having given so largely to the exiled French Protestants, would be expected and but too glad to give, when the fire had thrown thousands of families into sudden destitution ; and how one, who had given 1100/. towards the rebuilding of St. Paul's, besides a yearly subscription of 100/. as long as he remained Archbishop of Canterbury °, would be certain to give to pubbc objects, when nearly all the churches and the charitable and other public institutions of London were prostrate ; and how much he had expended in aug- menting the vicarage of Fressingfield, and other small livings ; — we can readily imagine that such a man might well die poor ; and if Burnet meant no more than this when he spoke of the " despicable manner in which he died," he might be right as to the fact, however " despicable " the language in which he clothed it. He took nothing away with him from Lambeth but his staff" and his books (bequeathed to Emmanuel library), and a conscience void of offence. All he had to fall back upon was his little patrimonial estate of 50/. per annum at Fressingfield, where his to prison.' Retiring soon after into the country with much satis- faction, how inoffensively and peaceably he spent the remainder of his days is known to all, and disputed by none." Kettlewell'9 Life, p. 408. 0 Dugdale's History of St. Paul's. 136 ARCnBISHOP SANCROFT. [CHAP. V. family had dwelt respectably for three centuries. " On this," as Miss Strickland says, "he subsisted for the remainder of his days, leading a holy and contented life, beloved by his contemporaries, but almost adored by the simple country-folk of Suffolk for his personal merits." This charge of " despicable " poverty is one of Burnet's self-contradictions. Elsewhere this " trust- worthy" historian, according to Professor Corrie, this " emphatically honest man," according to Mr. Macau- lay, praises Tillotson for dying poor, " in a post out of which Sancroft had raised a great estate^ Of his two contradictory accounts, Sancroft's poverty is the true one ; but why poverty should be " despicable " in the one, and laudable in the other, the reader will by this time be able to guess. If by " dying despicably " Burnet meant that this venerable prelate's death was not peaceful and Christian, his partisanship degraded him, a Christian bishop, to the utterance of a malignant and withering falsehood, as they who were present at the death- scene testify : " We saw at this period," says one of them, " his ardent charity both extended and limited, according to the Apostle's direction, 'to all, but especially to them of the household of faith.' His suffering brethren were the principal objects of his charity and prayers, but not exclusive of others ; for upon the frequent returns of exercises of his devotion, he suited his prayers to the general needs of men, and recommended all his brethren to the Divine mercy ; in short, if he had any enemies, they were included in his prayers ; in particular, a short time before his last hour, after solemnly praying for a blessing on his family, relations, and friends, he earnestly implored 1690 — 1694.] ARCHBISHOP SANCROFT. 137 forgiveness for his enemies, as he desired it of God himself. .... Whenever a sharp pain or dejection of spirits, such as was incidental to the sickness under which he laboured, approached him, he was ever ready to meet it by uttering some Divine sentence, or some holy prayer. That which came nearest to a complaint was only a description of his wasting condition in these pious words : ' Thy hand is heavy upon me day and night : my moisture is like the drought in sum- mer.' But even this was joined with a feeling of firm reliance on the providence of God ; ' for,' said he, ' I am low, but must be brought lower yet, even to the dust of death ; but though He kill me, yet will I trust in Him.' .... His memory and intellects continued perfect to the last moment. His bodily faculties remained so too in a singular degree. A very short time before he breathed his last he called for a Common Prayer Book, and, though one was brought to him in the smallest print, he himself turned to the commendatory prayer, and ordered it to be read. That being performed, he composed himself more solemnly for his departure. He put his hands and arms down to both his sides, and desired his head to be placed lower ; thus, in a manner, laying himself out to receive the stroke of death. In this posture, with the utmost cheerfulness and resignation of spirit, he breathed his last, a little after midnight, on the morning of Friday, November 24, 1693 7 ." We will 7 See D'Oyly's Life. Another biographer relates of him, that when one of his chaplains visited him on his death-bed " he gave him his blessing affectionately, and, after some other talk, his grace thus said to him, ' You and I have gone different ways in these late affairs ; but I trust heaven's gates are wide enough to receive us both : what I have done I have done in the integrity of my heart.' " Neve's Life. 138 ARCHBISHOP SAXCROFT. [CHAP. T. conclude our account of this illustrious Christian bishop in the words of one who fought for the Church by his side, and had good means of knowing the real character of his fellow-soldier and fellow-servant : " He (Sancroft) was a prelate whose great abilities, learning, wisdom, age, and sincerity abundantly quali- fied him to fill the high and important station he held, a long time, in the Church of England ; and which he contentedly resigned, rather than to violate his con- science, or swerve from those principles he had always maintained. As for his conduct in the discharge of his episcopal office, he earnestly endeavoured to pre- serve the Church of England in its rights and esta- blishments, and to secure the purity of her doctrines, worship, and discipline, so far as his power and authority extended. He was a very wise, but withal a very sincere man, and incapable of any political arts to curry favour with princes. Lastly, he wanted not tenderness towards the dissenters ; but he had not that latitude of principle to break down what he conscientiously believed to be the mounds and fences of the Church, in order to let in the straggling sheep ; which he thought might as well be entered at the right door 8 ." He founded and endowed a school at Eres- singfield, and his epitaph is still pointed to with pride in the humble village churchyard, and is as follows : Lector, Wilhelmi nuper archipraesulis (Qui natus in Vicinia), Quod morti cecidit, prope hunc murum jacet, Atqui resurget. In interim Semper paratus esto, nam hora quam non putas I. M. S. Dominus venturus est. Obiit 24 Novembris, anno / natus Domini 1693 \^Etatis suae 77- 8 Hist, of King William, vol. iv. p. 385. 1690— 1694.] QUEEN MARY II. 139 We have seen Queen Mary vainly entreating her somewhat impracticable consort to appoint the learned Stillingfleet as Tillotson's successor in the primacy, Tenison being preferred for the reason above stated, and because, by Burnet's account, " he had a firmer health, with a more active temper, and was universally well-liked for having served the cure of St. Martin's, in the worst times, with so much courage and dis- cretion ; so that, at this time, he had many friends and no enemies 9 ." This was about the last request that her imperious husband could refuse : she died in the same year as Tillotson (1694) ; and the new archbishop — "universally well-liked," yet not by her, she remembering, it may be, his notions upon the subject of royal mistresses — was appointed in time to minister, by the king's orders, at her closing scene. In her, according to her opportunities and know- ledge, the Church lost a nursing mother. It was her misfortune to be placed in intimate relation with the two extremes of popery and ultra-protestantism ; — a father who deemed himself, by Divine appointment, a propagandist for all Europe of the one ; a husband flattered into a belief of much the same sort of mis- sion in regard of the other; each soliciting her in turn, and neither of them very scrupulous in directing the influence of their several positions to compel. Her needless disrespect to her father, shown in her levity on running over the newly-deserted state apart- ments at St. James's, and in other ways, is not to be defended, but she acted under coercion : in this, and in other passages of her life, her faults were B Hist. Own Times, vol. iii. 140 QCEE>" MARY II. [CHAP. V. rather those of others, whereas, her virtues were her own. And, after all, he who had been wantonly unfaithful to his spiritual mother, who had borne and nursed him, could ill complain, however bitter the retribution, of the unfaithfulness of a daughter, even though it had been real. And, even as regards William himself, he needed less sophistry to justify his conduct, than his royal father-in-law had used habitu- ally for the last three years, in concert with his Jesuit counsellors, rendering a revolution necessary. She was a gentle and virtuous wife ; and, in a licentious age, her example of domestic virtue, and of conjugal faith towards a faithless, as well as an austere husband, was no slight help and gain to the Church : if she fell short of a full conception of her distinctive doctrines, the wonder is rather that she knew and followed it so well. Mr. Macaulay describes her when, at the age of sixteen, she married a roue of twenty-eight, as "naturally intelligent, but ignorant and simple." Dr., afterwards Dean Hooper, her first chaplain and tutor at the " Hoo," after her marriage, and no mean judge, often said that, " had it pleased God to suffer her to survive her husband, in- stead of dying before him, she woidd have eclipsed the glory of Elizabeth, and shown her capacity as equal to that of her greatest predecessors. He would never allow any comparison to be made between hers and her husband's abilities '." The terms on which they were, until it was hinted to William that he could be king as well as she queen, may be guessed from her gentle reproof on that occasion, that as she should gladly " obey," she 1 Hooper's MS. 1690 — 169k] QUEEN MAET II. hoped that he would also fulfil his part of the mar- riage contract by " loving " her 2 . She had little of his love up to this time. Every difficulty was thrown in the way of her most rea- sonable wishes. Either from parsimony, or in order indirectly to check and thwart her participation in the Church services, to which she was deeply at- tached by custom and conviction — as he tried after- wards indirectly to swamp the Church herself, by appointing Presbyterian bishops — she was forbidden a room in the great palace of Hoo for a chapel. She was not allowed to dine with her husband, as his Dutch guests were not thought eligible company for her : which, from the scenes enacted afterwards in the Banqueting-Hall, at Hampton Court, one can very well imagine. She had, therefore, her own dining-room and sitting-room. Hooper describes her dining-room as very small, and it was only by sur- rendering this she could get a chapel of any sort, and from that time she had to dine in a still smaller and meaner room than before. Hooper tells us that when he had fitted it up by her commands as a chapel, the prince came to see it, and "as there was a step or two at the communion-table, and 2 A poet laureate was, perhaps, the least likely to be free from servility, in a servile age : under the inspiration either of ignorance or of salary, he grossly misrepresented the real terms on which the royal pair lived. Thus to show the inconsolableness of Wil- liam's affection, on losing her : " Yet, O Alcides of our age, maintain Thy last and greatest task, to live and reign ! Tins conquest must distinguish your bright name, And write you foremost in the book of fame." Mausoleum, by N. Tate, Servant to his Majesty, 1695. 142 QUEEN MART IT. [CHAP. V. another for the chair where the princess was to sit, he kicked at them with his foot, asking what they were for ; which, being told in a proper manner, he answered with a hum ! He never came to it, except on Sunday evenings 3 ." Another authority tells us that when he saw it, and his wife with Eusebius and Hooker's Polity in her hand, " he uttered an omi- nous growl." A further petty persecution of his unhappy young wife was his refusal to pay her chaplain. Hooper (happily for himself, able to do without it, being Rector of Lambeth) was with her a year and a half, without receiving a halfpenny, untd he had packed his goods, and was in the act of leaving the house, to return to England, when William sent him 701. in a bag by an attendant. The worthy doctor's English spirit could ill brook what he was compelled to view as an insult. He took out a crown and gave it to the servant, desiring him to take the rest back to his royal master, for he knew not what to do with it then. She brought him a large dowry, but was not allowed wherewithal to pay her chaplain herself. She afterwards made what compensation she could, by appointing Hooper Dean of Canterbury, while she was left regent, much to the king's displeasure, and, among other things, adopted the following de- licate method of showing her personal kindness in connexion with a benefaction to his church. In the MS. account of Hooper, we find, " Some time after this, the queen sent for Dr. Hooper, and carried him into her drawing-room, and showed him some pieces of silver stuff and purple flowered velvets, which her majesty told him, if he approved of, she a Hooper's MS. 1690 — 1604.] QUEEN MAET II. 143 intended to give to the cathedral at Canterbury, as she had observed the furniture to be dirty when she was there ; that, as there was not enough of the figured velvet, she had sent into Holland to match it, but could not. Her majesty sent down a page of her back stairs, who understood these things, to see it done. The altar was furnished with a pane of the figured velvet, and a pane of gold stuff', flow- ered with silver, and the archbishop's throne with plain velvet. The figure for both was a rufted one, of gold, silver, and purple, which alone cost 500Z." Little hospitable as formerly the king had himself been, his majesty was not above taxing the wor- thy dean's hospitality almost beyond endurance. In those days of slow travelling, Canterbury deanery was found a convenient hospice on his way to take ship at Margate for the Flanders' war. On these occasions, most inconveniently frequent, the worthy dean abdi- cated his deanery-house to accommodate William and his Dutch staff, and the best bed the dean had was spoiled by constant alterations and removals : but his MS. tells us that his majesty did not buy him a new one. His majesty was not prevented by ancient re- collections from making the utmost use of him as well as his. For instance, the MS. represents the doctor as coming back to his family, after being sent for by his majesty late at night : he said, archly, he had been honoured with his majesty's commands — to have a red cow at his gate by five the next morning, in time for his majesty's breakfast. But, though his majesty could trust his worthy host to get a red cow, he would not trust him to be tutor to the Duke of Gloucester, as his mother, the Princess Anne, earnestly entreated. The king sternly refused, and named Burnet, whom 114 QUEEN MATtY IT. [CITAP. T. the mother disliked. This would have helped to repay the heavy mulcts of hospitality. Hooper's testimony to her moral and religious character, during his chaplainship, under the most trying circumstances, is most unequivocal and valuable : " He never saw her do, nor heard her say, any thing that he could have wished she had not." This was saying much of a young bride of sixteen, in such bauds, that he says further, from personal observation, " he often found her in tears after she came into Eng- land — in Holland it was daily so." It is saying much of one so foully wronged by her natural protector, that Hooper's successor, Ken, left the house in honest in- dignation, when pastoral remonstrance against such conduct only entailed insult on himself. Such patient endurance in one capable of relishing Eusebius and Hooker, and who had, therefore, sensi- bility of character, is no slight proof of the reality of her religion, amidst whose consolations, but in all the agonies of her fearful disease (small-pox), she went most peacefully to her rest on the 28th of December, 1694, in the thirty-third year of her age. The queen was attended by Dr. BadchfFe, the founder of the library and infirmary named after him, at Oxford, and the most eminent physician of the day, but having the misfortune to be a Tory. This was quite enough to drive Burnet to say, that the queen had died from wrong treatment (the physician's, not the husband's). However, a man capable, as Burnet had just proved himself, of accusing an apostolic man, like Hooper, to the queen, of having been present at a cock-fight at Bath, and could talk of Sancroft " dying despicably," would say any thing against an opponent. "We are not in the least surprised, therefore, at his 1690 — 1C!)4.] QUEEN MARY II. 145 extracting this malignant slander from some circum- stances attending the queen's death 4 . Evelyn was present at her funeral, which he thus describes : — " March 5, 1695. I went to see the queen's funeral, the expense of which was 50,000/., against her desire. Never was so universal a mourn- ing ; all the parliament men had cloaks given them, and four hundred poor women ; all the streets hung, and the middle of the street boarded and covered with black cloth. There were all the nobility, mayor, alder- men, judges, &c." Either from indifference, or a low exchequer, her husband's funeral was somewhat dif- ferent from that of the English queen. She was buried in Henry VII. 's Chapel, "Westminster, and in the same vault repose now the remains of Charles II., Queen Mary II., William III., Prince George of Den- mark, and Queen Anne. 4 King William does not seem to have shared in Burnet's sus- picions respecting his queen, for he continued to consult him until 1699, when the Doctor, a singularly plain-spoken man, gave him inexpiable offence by telling him, on being consulted about his swollen legs, on his return from a campaign, that " he would not have two such legs for his Majesty's three kingdoms." He was glad to be released from further attendance, but was again em- ployed by Queen Anne. However, being often disturbed after dinner, and having to drive his four horses from Carshalton to St. James's at that ungenial hour, to attend her Majesty, whose ailments he attributed to her own indiscretion only, and therefore requiring her own treatment more than his,' he determined at length not to go, in order once more to rid himself of royal patients ; and in this he once more succeeded, much to his own satisfaction, saying " he hated the Whig sovereigns so unfeignedly, that he should certainly have the credit of poisoning them ; there - fore he would none of their custom, not he." CHAPTER VI. a.d. 1695—1698. Archbishop of Canterbury. King of England. Thomas Tenison. William III. A pious and learned divine, John Kettlewell, went to his rest in this year. He was born at Brompton, near North- Allerton, Yorkshire, from the free-school of which latter town he was sent to St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, and in 1675 obtained a fellowship in Lincoln College. He entered early into orders, and was very young when he wrote his celebrated book, entitled, " Measures of Christian Obedience," although not published until 1681. His biographer says of this " complete summary of Christian ethics," that there were two things remarkable in it ; " first, at what a slender age, and secondly, in what a short time, it was written. For he was not much above six-and- twenty when he entered upon so great an undertaking, which did show the ripeness of his judgment ; and it was begun and finished betwixt Christmas and Easter, which did argue also the quickness of his invention. All the time he spent afterwards about it, was only in consulting texts and quotations." Being installed as domestic chaplain in the family of the Countess of Bedford, he had frequent opportunities of discussing with that excellent nobleman, Lord KETTLEWELL. 147 William Eussell, the doctrine of non-resistance : Lord Russell's melancholy end is sufficient proof that Ket- tlewell had failed to convince. The difference of sen- timents upon this point did not prevent Lord Eussell from having a very sincere respect for his genuine piety and meekness, which he failed not to express, even in his last minutes, by sending a message to him from the scaffold, in token of his kind remembrance of him. We next find him in the vicarage of Coleshill, War- wickshire, to which he was presented by Lord Digby. Here " he set himself in good earnest immediately to consider of the best and properest methods, for acquit- ting this charge committed to him, according as became a good and faithful steward of the manifold gift of God. He preached twice every Sunday, and once on all occa- sional days that are enjoined, as particularly Good Friday, the 30th of January, and the 29th of May ; he began to catechize in Lent, and continued so to do for several Sundays afterwards ; it was in the afternoon on Sunday that he performed this exercise, asking several questions to try the understanding of the Cate- chumen, as also (and chiefly) to prove a Christian's heart and practice ; and when afterwards he went up into the pulpit, he would generally choose a text that should lead him in again to the same matter ; the which method he found to be both very grateful and edifying to his auditory. He had indeed an excellent talent at the catechistical method ; and he was not wanting to improve the same, both in himself and in others to whom the cure of souls was entrusted. Which he did by his recommendation, advice, and direction. This, as we may easily believe, gave birth to his ' Practical Believer ;' it consisting of ' Catechetic i 2 148 KETTLEWELL. [CHAP. VI. Lectures upon tlie Creed, or Familiar Instructions for a Christian Catechumen, upon all the several articles of the Christian faith as reducible to Practice? Thus instant was he in sowing the seed of the divine Word, and in feeding both the sheep and the lambs of Christ's flock, according to their several growths respectively. Neither was he less diligent and conscientious in ob- serving the other institutions of his blessed Master, and particularly the last, which began immediately before his own oblation of himself once offered, and for ever to be commemorated until his coming again. He always administered the Holy Communion on Christmas-day, Good Eriday, Easter-day, the Sun- day after, and Whit-Sunday ; and several times of the year besides. But because the greatest part of his parishioners had been very negligent in the per- formance of that duty, he took a great deal of pains to make them sensible of their fault, both from the pulpit, and in conversation, and had success in convincing several. He administered also the Sacrament of Baptism strictly according to the Bubric ; and always would baptize children at church, except he was very well assured that it would not be safe to do so. He was a religious observer of all the festivals of the Church, which had been much neglected in his parish before his time, as indeed they were almost every where throughout the kingdom. He observed like- wise the days of fasting and humiliation, both those appointed by the Church, and those which were en- joined by the civil authority. Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent, he abstained from flesh, and drank small beer, according to the canon. He failed not to bid all public holydays, and had prayers both upon them, and their eves, as also upon Saturdays in the 1605 — 1698.] KETTLEWELL. 149 afternoon. He often made up differences among his parishioners, who made frequent application to him upon that account. He had great plainness, in re- proving those whom he knew to deserve it ; he never met the young or old upon any occasion, without re- minding them of their duty ; he visited the sick and assisted them, both corporally and spiritually ; and besides preaching, catechising, visiting, and all other duties of bis place, he dispersed books of rebgion and devotion into all poor families, which were in a short time supplied with Bibles and Whole Duties of Man, with other pieces adapted to their necessities and capacities '." Such was Kettlewell, as Vicar of Coleshill. The above is not introduced here, merely in order to do honour to a good man, or as an interesting and instruc- tive picture of pastoral duty, but as showing that there were able and pious men in country cures, however one may regret that they were not all so, in the reigns of Charles II. and James II. ; when, according to Burnet and Macaulay, they were utterly unworthy of notice, but one remove above bull-herds and plough- boys, and all the orthodoxy and learning the Church of England had was concentrated in London and the great towns. It may be, that the salt would have lost its savour, but for those country clergy. In 1683, the University of Oxford put forth an inflated decree, in maintenance of the most ultra notions of non-resistance, which, after the Eevolution, was ordered by the Commons to be burnt by the common hangman, but which was potent enough in Oxford, at the time, being hung up in the hall, re- 1 Kettlewell'a Life, pp. C4— CO'. 150 KETTLEWELL. [CHAP. VI. fectory, or library of every college, and threatening expulsion to every member speaking or teaching con- trary to the same. Though Kettlewell had his own opinions upon that subject, and claimed full freedom for himself to hold them, and was ready to suffer for them, yet he thought it an unlawful interference with the freedom of others to attempt to force opinions upon them by this decree ; and one of the fellows of his college, Mr. Parkinson, a friend of his, coming under the expelling clause, he resigned his own fellowship in November, 1683, after keeping it for above eight years with honour to himself and the house. Having now made an end of his affairs in Oxford, he hastened back to his cure, to set matters in the best order he could, having no apprehension but that he was fixed there for life, for he had no ambition to rise higher. And so he went on, in all honour and usefulness, for three years more, until, in common with four hundred brother Presbyters, more or less like himself, and almost exclusively country clergy, be it observed, he was cruelly deprived for refusing to take the oaths, — cruelly, not only in regard of himself, but of his people. From this time he lived in London, employing his leisure in the production of learned works, but not dependent on them for support, living upon the small inheritance left him by his father, who left him a yet better inheritance in the example of an earnest but sober piety, and a singular straightforwardness and honesty of character. His charitable endeavours on behalf of those suffering brethren, less provided for than himself, will be found in the supplementary chapter on "The Sufferings of the Nonjurors." In 1695 — 1698.] SIR J. FE!NWICK. 151 his will lie alludes touchingly, but uncomplainingly, to his severance from his beloved flock, speaking of his wife as " a most justly dear, and entirely loving and faithful wife, who had been a most willing and cheerful sharer of his trials and sufferings, and a most assiduous, ddigent, and pleased attendant and helper, under his weakness and infirmities." He died, in London, of consumption, in his forty- second year, and his funeral rites were solemnized by Bishop Ken, one of kindred mind, out of most par- ticular respect to his pious memory, " who read the burial office, and the whole evening service, in his episcopal habits." His remains He in the church of All-Hallows, Barking, near the Tower, in the same grave where Archbishop Laud was interred, until his body was conveyed to St. John's College, Oxford : his grave is near the altar-rails, near which is a marble monument erected by his widow. 1696. This year Sir John Fenwick was added to the long black catalogue of trials and executions for treason in this reign. Lord Campbell remarks upon it ; "Fenwick's infamous attainder shows that, after the principles of justice have been for ages neglected in any country, they cannot suddenly be restored com- pletely to efficiency, the moral perceptions of the most humane and enlightened continuing for a time to be blunted V In the same volume he describes attainder as " a proceeding invented by Henry VIII. to perpe- trate murder, and which had brought so much reproach upon the Stuarts and the republican party." This is not the place to enter into detafls of this notable case : 2 Lives of the Chancellors, vol. iv. p. 128. 152 TROUBLED STATE OF SOCIETY. [CHAP. TI. it is only alluded to, from the connexion of the bishops with it. His Lordship tells us that they voted nine to six for this unfortunate gentleman's con vie tion (after being two years in the Tower awaiting trial), " though it was a cause sanguineous." But, the bishops, we have Lord Campbell's authority for saying, had been "judiciously chosen" in this reign; and we have the same authority for believing that the House of Lords, who adopted this "infamous" mode of trial, " an invention to perpetrate murder," were " much better educated than the fox-hunting squires who re- presented the cities and boroughs, and for a good many years much in advance of the lower house in liberty and intelligence 3 ." The "infamous" bill of attainder passed this free and intelligent house by a majority of seven. A contemporary writer gives the names of forty- seven State-prisoners at this time in Newgate, thirty- seven in the Gate-House, eleven in the Fleet, and of five just executed, and ends his narrative thus : " be- sides this list which I have inserted here, there are a great number of gentlemen and others, in the custody of messengers, and there is hardly a jail in England, but what has more or less in them 4 ." William, firmly persuaded of his mission as cham- pion, not of England, but of all Protestant Europe, against the ambition and persecution of Popish Erance 5 , 3 Lives of Chan. vol. iv. p. 161. 4 " A true Relation of the Horrid Conspiracy against the Life of the King, in a Letter to a Friend, 1696." 5 " At this time nothing was more common than to compare the deliverance of these kingdoms from popery by the glorious King William to the marvellous deliverance of the children of Israel by the hand of Moses, the servant of God, from the Egyptian bondage." Kettlewell's Life, p. 206. 1095 — 1698.] SIR J. FRIEND AND SIR W. PERKINS. 153 had found means of diverting his grief at the loss of his queen by pushing his endless European war. He believed himself to bear about a charmed life, given him for such high purposes. Certainly he had escaped many imminent dangers of flood, and field, and plot. But in this year an event occurred which brought new danger, and which must be mentioned here from cer- tain ecclesiastical proceedings resulting from it. It was a plot to assassinate the king, at Turnham Green, on his way from Kensington Palace to Bichmond Park, " or else while hunting at Bichmond Park on Sunday, the fifteenth of February 6 ," while the exile James (" upon signal of fire to be given from Dover Cliff to Calais,") was preparing to sad from Dunkirk with a great fleet and army furnished to him by France, to invade, while this kingdom was in con- fusion from William's death. But the plot was dis- covered, and the conspirators were seized. Amongst them were Sir John Friend and Sir William Per- kins, who were tried and executed. Burnet tells the story thus : " A very unusual instance of the boldness of the Jacobites appeared on this occasion — these two had not changed their religion, but still called themselves Protestants— so three of the non- juring clergymen waited on them to Tyburn, two of them had been oft with Friend, and one with Perkins ; and all the three, at the place of execution, joined to give them public absolution, with the imposition of hands, in the view of all the people ; a strain of im- pudence that was as new as it was wicked ; since these persons died, owning the ill designs they had been engaged in, and expressing no sort of repentance for c Impartial account of the Detestable Conspiracy, 1G9C. 154 SIR J. FRIEND AND SIR W. PERKINS [CHAP. TI. them. So these clergymen, in this solemn absolution, made an open declaration of then allowing and justify- ing these persons, in all they had been concerned in. Two of them were taken for this, and censured in the King's Bench, the third made his escape 7 ." These clergymen might he right or wrong, but to talk of their " impudence," is about as strange in a Christian bishop, as for the Court of King's Bench to usurp the functions of their respective ordinaries by inflicting ecclesiastical censures. The two powers seem to have changed places. Though even in the King's Bench of those days we should not expect to hear about these clergymen's " impudence," unless Jeffries were pre- siding. The names of the three nonjuring clergymen were Cook, Lecturer of Islington, and Suatt, Preben- dary of Chichester and Vicar of Cuckfield, and the well-known Jeremy Collier. Snatt and Cook were admitted to bail. Collier, upon refusing to give bail, was outlawed. He published a " Defence of the Ab- solution," pleading that when a man has declared sorrow for his faults, absolution is not to be denied ; and that all people who are condemned, are not neces- sarily damned, or why visited by divines, exhorted to repentance, and have time given them for it ? And as to the imposition of hands, it was an innocent and ancient ceremony ; and as to the publicity, this would have beeu avoided, if the authorities would have ad- mitted him to the prison. From this it would appear that Perkins and Friend had expressed some " sort of repentance for their crimes." But it led to considerable controversy, and it will not be found easy — the writer has not found it so — to reconcile the very conflicting 7 Hist. Own Times, vol. iii. p. 239. 1695 — 169S.] ABSOLVED AND EXECUTED. 155 statements, some representing that the absolvers were ignorant of the condemned having had any thing to do with the assassination part of the plot ; others, that they had been informed only of their confession and penitence ; and others, of course enemies, that they knew it all, but saw no harm in the conspiracy to displace the present king, at whatever cost. The reader who wishes to know more, will find it in Col- lier's "Defence" and " Vindication," and in a con- temporary pamphlet of twenty-eight pages of " Ani- madversions" on these two productions of Collier, and lastly (in Wilkins) " A Declaration of the sense of the Archbishops and Bishops, now in and about London, upon the occasion of their attendance in Par- liament, concerning the irregular and scandalous pro- ceedings of certain clergymen at the execution of Sir John Friend and Sir William Perkins." It was time for the Bishops to interfere when the King's Bench had put on lawn sleeves. The following ac- count of the circumstances attending the execution, as described by a contemporary, may help to throw a light on Collier's conduct. " In the Press-yard they shook hands, and said, we shall shortly be in a glorified state. They were conveyed in a sledge to Tyburn. Sir William confessed that he was to have a share in the assassination, that he had undertaken to raise a troop of horse, and that he had seen a commission from King James to levy war. Sir John owned he had heard of the assassination, but abhorred it. They thought King James wronged, and it was their duty to help him ; they looked upon what they did as meri- torious, and felt assured of great happiness in the world to come. They prayed a considerable time with the above three ministers, who, just before the cart 136 PBESEKT PRACTICE ES" Sl'CH CASES. [CHAP. TI. drove away, laid their three hands upon the heads of the prisoners, and absolved them. After which they were hanged and quartered 8 , as in cases of high treason V The author confesses himself unable to reconcile the very conflicting account given of this absolution by the authorities here indicated, and others. Admitting them, however, to have absolved without confession, it would be no more than has been con- stantly done since without notice ; though this would be no justification. The author inquired of the chap- lain of the county jail at Springfield (Eev. G. B. Hamilton) what has been the practice with regard to administering the Holy Communion (involving absolu- tion) to the condemned, without confession of the particular sin ; who answers that, " in former times, a very lax method was adopted, and the sacrament administered in all cases." His predecessor, Mr. Hutchinson, joins him in opinion that " a chaplain has no rule to guide him other than the Church Rubrics ; the second Eubric in the administration of the Lord's Supper ; and that in the Visitation of the Sick, immediately preceding the Absolution. These, and his own discretion in their application, can be his only guides." It may have been the ambiguities of this case in 1696 which suggested the necessity of " pre- paring a form for the Adsitation of prisoners, and particularly condemned persons," which was recom- mended to the Convocation of 1713 (see in loco). s Evelyn says that he saw their quarters fixed upon Temple Bar, " a dismal sight which many pitied." This barbarism, as also another which he mentions, " JG9-1, many executed for clipping coin," affords a contrast with the more humane spirit of the present age, for which we may be thankful. * Impartial Account, &c. 1695 — 1698.] IRREGULAR MARRIAGES. 157 The bishops undertook to prepare it ; but, like many other practical measures, it was not brought to ma- turity, from constant interruptions. It is one of the many things still standing over for synodal deli- beration. 1(596. An act was passed this year for enforcing the laws which restrain marriages either without licence or banns, and for better registering births, marriages, and burials. According to Cripps, it failed of its object : " During the usurpation marriages were solemnized before justices of the peace — an innovation probably introduced for the purpose of degrading the clergy ; but it was afterwards considered necessary to pass an act of Parliament to confirm the validity of such marriages. But, although the clergymen might have been punishable, it does not appear that it was, previous to the first Marriage Act, 26 Geo. II. c. 33, absolutely necessary to the validity of a marriage that it should take place in facie ecclesi& ; for many marriages solemnized in the Fleet prison or its liber- ties, or in May-Fair, were, before that time, considered valid, though irregular marriages '." In 1712 we find the same irregularities still prevailing to such an extent as to induce the lower house of Convocation in I that year to make more effectual provision for the suppression of such marriages " in prisons, taverns, or public-houses." Their proposals appear, however, to have been unheeded, to the great scandal of the Church. This year, the new version of the Psalms was adopted — not by the Church, for Convocation was not allowed to utter its voice ; but by " the court at 1 Practical Treatise, &c. p. 634. >"EW YEBSIOX OF PSALMS. [chap. yi. Kensington " — only, therefore. " for such congrega- tions as shall think fit to receive it." "Why it is bound up with the Prayer Book, any more than "Watts' or Wesley's hymns, is not very clear. It has no more authority. The writer would guard himself from being supposed to give any opinion for or against the poetical or doctrinal merits of the " Version ;" he simply draws attention to the fact, that the Church has not been consulted about it. It was doubtless worthy of a generation wont to sit down to sing to the praise and glory of God 2 , the Dutch Defender of the Faith him- self with his hat on. In 169S the Bishop of London (Compton) wrote a paragraph in praise of it, and recom- mending it to his diocese ; as an apology or substitute for a vote of Convocation, this also, and alike without the authority of the Church, is inserted in the Prayer Book, being commonly prefixed to the " Version." His reco mme ndation, when it did come, savours of court influence ; he says, " His majesty having allowed and permitted the use of a 2s ew Version, &c, I cannot do less than wish a good success to this royal indulgence." The authors were both Irishmen, and dramatic versi- fiers. Brady was Vicar of Bichmond, and Bector of Clapham, Surrey ; Tate was a friend of the supple Dry den 3 ; and followed him in the situation of poet- laureate. - Athenian Gazette, Jan. 12, 1694. 3 Johnson represents Dryden as originally an anabaptist ; and therefore, as a convert to popery, he is to be added to the long list of the gains of popery from the ranks of dissent. It is comforting to find that, both during the rebellion, when exiled English divines were thrown so much among papists, under the strong temptation of the most abject poverty ; and during the reign of Charles II., and James DL, when court favour and distinction would have 1695 — 1698.] LIBERTY OF THE PRESS. 159 1697. In this year the Commons gave leave to bring in a hill to prevent the writing, printing, or publishing of any news, without a licence. It was thrown out, however, on the second reading, upon the ground, that, though they saw the evils resulting from the abuse of the press, they knew not where to fix the power (or limits ?) of restraint 4 . The nonjurors, however, were not deemed by the government worthy to share in the liberty, which many of their body had sacrificed all to maintain against James. Newspaper writers might say what they pleased; they had said much, provoking the introduction of this act ; but nonjurors might not state the reasons of their refusing the oaths. Hickes gives an account of five printing presses, and pamphlets, seized in the years 1692, 1693, 1695. 1698. Bishop Burnet, after noticing his appointment as tutor to the Duke of Gloucester, son of the Princess Anne, proceeds to give an account of some things more immediately belonging to his "profession.'" He tells us, " This year Thomas Firmin, a famous citizen of London, died. He was in great esteem for promot- ing many charitable designs ; for looking after the poor of the city, and setting them to work ; for raising great sums for schools and hospitals, and, indeed, for charities of all sorts, public and private : he had such credit with the richest citizens, that he had the com- mand of great wealth as oft as there was occasion for it ; and he laid out his time chiefly in advancing all such designs. These things gained him great reputa- rewarded the unfaithful, it was far otherwise with the earnest and able men, contending for the distinctive principles of the Church of England. 4 Complete Hist. vol. ii. p. 932. 160 [CHAP. VI. tion ; he was called a Socinian, but was really an Arian, which he very freely owned before the Revolu- tion ; but he gave no public vent to it, as he did after- wards. He studied to promote his opinions, after the Revolution, with much heat ; many books were printed against the Trinity, which he dispersed over the nation, distributing them freely to all who would accept them : profane wits were much delighted with this ; it became a common topic of discourse to treat all mysteries in religion as the contrivances of priests to bring the world into a blind submission to them ; priestcraft grew to be another word in fashion ; and the enemies of religion vented all their impieties, under the cover of these words ; but while these pretended much zeal for the government, those who were at work to undermine it made great use of all this ; they raised a great outcry against Socinianism, and gave it out, that it was like to overrun all ; for Arch- bishop Tillotson, and some of the bishops, had lived in great friendship with Mr. Firmin 5 , whose charitable temper they thought it became them to encourage 6 . Many undertook to write in this controversy ; some of these were not fitted for handling such a nice subject . . taking a new method of explaining the Trinity" (as 5 " August 23, 1 089. Came to visit me Mr. Firmin." Evelyn. His editor adds, " he was an Unitarian, but lived in intimacy rvith many of the most eminent clergy." He was a rich tradesman in Leadenhall-street. 6 Calamy says of him : " December 20th of this year (1697) died Mr. Thomas Firmin so noted for his acts of charity, by which he did much good. But it was feared by many that the oppor- tunity this gave him of spreading the Socinian notions of which he was a zealous admirer, at the same time, did so much hurt that it might be justly doubted, which of the two was greater." Own Life, ch. v. 1695 — 1608.] SPHEAD OF HIS HERESY. 161 acquiescingly expresses it), instead of simply asserting and maintaining it as an article of the faith once for all delivered to the saints, already settled, simply to be believed, not as any thing contrary to reason, but as a mvstery utterly and infinitely above it, and therefore incapable of being " explained." Where were the fifteen bishops whom "William had appointed in the two first years of his reign, and whom Burnet describes (inadvertently including himself) as " the learnedest, the toisest, and the best men that were in the Church ?" (see p. 100.) One might have expected to see such an array of men, high in authority, in addition to these personal qualities, give a more catholic direction to the controversy than this. Instead of taking their places, however, at the head of the Church to repel this onslaught of a deadly heresy, we have found them, by Burnet's own showing, forming " great friend- ships " with its promoters and leaders. Burnet's statement of the results of their taking this low ground of a coaxing expediency offers little encourage- ment to others to pursue the same course ; inasmuch as, under it, the infidelity which was the natural result of all the religious dissensions of that century re- mained, at its close, unchecked and unshamed, rather aggravated than abated, preparing the way for the next natural step, a century of moral torpor and of spiritual death 7 . The fact of archbishops and bishops forming " great friendships " with such men as Mr. Fir- min, under the plea of getting money from them for a Church which they disavowed and scorned, will also go some way towards accounting for the lamentable want of 7 This heresy was now taking a congregational form, its place of worship, or rather of meeting, being denounced soon afterwards by the lower house of Convocation. M 162 COXTEOTEBST. [CHAP. VI. confidence in the heads of the Church shown by the lower house in Convocation, and for the discovery of sudden difficulties by the upper house in the way of Convocation censures of heretical books, such as, " Notes upon Athanasius's Creed," probably from the bureau of this same Mr. Firmin, " the great friend of Archbishop Tillotson and some of the bishops ;" we have no means at hand of ascertaining whether Bishop Burnet himself was one of them ; but Mr. Macaulay says, " He was by no means inclined to be severe on infidels and heretics, if their lives were pure 8 ." Controversy upon this subject became, however, so violent and personal in its terms, as well as irreverent and demoralizing in its substance, that the bishops did at length interpose ; not, indeed, by addressing the king, to assemble Convocation, for the purpose of deliberating how best this plague might be stayed ; but by moving him to issue a royal injunction, in the Elizabethan style, summarily forbidding any more of it. The injunction was issued, and, happily, not disobeyed ; and so, for a time, the plague was stayed. But it was not to be expected that so obvious a remedy for this state of things as the Church's own tribunal in Convocation should be set aside, to make way for secular intervention in spiritual tilings in the shape of a royal injunction, without exciting disquiet in ardent minds. And so it proved; for strong reclamations upon the Church's indefeasible rights in reference to synodal action appeared at this time, indicating but too truly the storm of unabated alienation between the bishops and clergy, which might be expected to burst upon the Church when Convocation should at Hist. Eng. vol. ii. p. 175, 4th Ed. 1695 — 1698.] EOMIsn SCHISM. 163 length have licence to act. To add to the difficulties of the time, the schism between the Church in posses- sion and the nonjurors, under the wantonly harsh treatment of the latter, which went on yearly increas- ing, seems yearly to have become wider. We find the following indication of this unhappy state of things in Evelyn :— " May 30, 1698. Dr. Thomas White, the deprived Bishop of Peterborough, died in London, and was buried at St. Gregory's, by St. Paul's, June 4th. His hearse was accompanied by two nonjuring bishops, Turner and Lloyd, with forty other nonjuring clergy- men, who would not stay the office of burial, because the- Dean of St. Paul's had appointed a conforming clergyman to read the office." If, however, the Church of England was at this time in affliction and disquiet, she was only fulfilling the necessary conditions of every branch of a Church militant ; and if she, freed from the fetters of popery, and shrinking from the extravagances of ultra- Protes- tantism, had her agitations and dissensions, incident to the purest Church, it was not to be expected that all would ever go smoothly in Churches or sects labouring under the superadded evils of their respective errors. The testimony of the age we are considering is to be added to that of all other ages, in proof that the boasted unity and accord of Rome is but the adoption in common of a few symbols and axioms, amounting to little more, and indicating a general oneness of senti- ments little more, than the sign of the Ereemasons. A fierce controversy was at this time going on between Bossuet and Fenelon, the latter adopting the views of the Mystics, putting the perfection of a spiritual life in the loving of God purely for Himself, without any regard to ourselves, even to our own salvation ; and in M 2 164 ULTRA-PROTESTANT SCHISM. our being brought to such a state of indifference as to have no will nor desire of our own, but to be so per- fectly united to the will of God as to rejoice in the hope of heaven, only because it is the will of God to bring us thither, without any regard to our own happiness. And, while this subtle essence of religion was being distilled, and was intoxicating the French enthusiasts, dissension was equally rife among the Lutherans of Germany, where a rebound of English Puritanism had given rise, first at Hamburgh, to a sect under the corresponding name of Pietists. CHAPTER VII. a.d. 1699—1701. Archbishop of Canterbury. King of England. Thomas Tenison. William III. The general infidelity and immorality into which more than a century of religious strife and excitement was now fast settling down, aroused at length some earnest-minded men to the consideration of some practical remedy. The Convocation being much too subject to interruptions, both from within and from without, to undertake many things which the Church had to do, and could no longer delay ; an expedient was adopted, to supply the place temporarily, by the substitution of a voluntary, and but indirectly au- thorized society. In these views originated in this year (1699), the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge \ Its first meeting was held in London, on the 8th of March, when five persons were present, viz., Prancis Lord Guilford, Sir Humphrey Mack- worth, Bart., Serjeant Hook, Colonel Maynard Col- chester, and the Eev. Dr. Thomas Bray, the last being the most eminent, as well as the most active in this labour of love. His means were small, but he cheer- 1 See " Jubilee Tract, Great Success from Small Beginnings, 18*9, by the Rev. T. Boyles Murray." 166 ORIGIN AND PROCEEDINGS OF [CIIAP. VII. fully devoted himself and his worldly substance to the spreading of the blessings of Christian truth. At a time when the Church at large, not excepting the bishops, failed, by aught involving self-denial, to re- cognize her mission to go forth teaching and bap- tizing, Dr. Bray, at his own expense, crossed the Atlantic, under a commission from his diocesan, Dr. Compton, Bishop of London, to settle the affairs of the Church in Maryland, and generally to advance religion, and set in order the things that were wanting in our American colonies ; where, unhappily, though we had had possession so long that one of them (Virginia) was called after the name of Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen, the Church may be said to have been still unknown. To accomplish this mission, this dis- interested and apostolic man was actually compelled to sell his effects, and raise money on credit 2 . He sailed in December, 1699, and reached Maryland in March : — the voyage to America in those times was not thought tediously long, if it exceeded eleven days and certain fractional parts. One of the main original objects of this Society was to relieve the spiritual destitution of our plantations, as the colonies were then called. It continued to advance the objects which Dr. Bray had so much at heart ; but, finding 2 Dr. Bray was born at Marton, Shropshire, in 1G56; went from the grammar-school at Oswestry to Hart-Hall, Oxford. Lord Digby (the discreet and conscientious patron of Kettlewell) pre- sented him to the Rectory of Shelton : his catechetical lectures here attracted the notice of Compton, Bishop of London, who appointed him his commissary to Maryland. After a life of unceasing activity, beneficence, and self-denial, this apostolical presbyter died, — after seeing Hoadly and Hoadlyans, in long succession, raised to be masters in Israel, — as Rector of a London parish, in 1730. 1699—1701.] CHUBCH SOCIETIES. 167 the work grow upon its hands, it determined, two years afterwards, to throw off an offset, in a separate institution, which received a royal charter from Wil- liam, in 1701, and was incorporated under the name of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. The first publication of the latter Society was a ser- mon preached by Dr. Willis, Dean of Lincoln, at Bow Church, on Feb. 20, 1701. The first account of the Society was printed on a folio sheet, and circulated in 1704. For sixteen years the anniversary sermon only was printed, but in 1711 a short abstract of the most material proceedings and occurrences in the Society was appended to Bishop Fleetwood's sermon. From this time, its proceedings have been regularly published ; and the services of this admirable institution are so fully before the world, its praise so much in all the Churches, that it is only necessary here to state these few facts in connexion with its origin. If the results have not been so wide and so decisive as might be wished, it is not for want of a heartiness of purpose on the part of the Society, but must be referred to the arrear of work which a whole century of delay threw upon its hands, and to the infatuated policy of the State, as in refusing Convocation at home, so in refusing, until lately, bishops to the colonies. Valuable efforts had been made by a few individuals before this time. Robert Boyle had the four Gospels translated into the Malay language, which were printed at Oxford, in 1677 ; and at his death left 5400Z. — a large sum in those days — for the propagation of the Gospel among infidel and unenlightened nations. The excellent Queen Mary also had been the main pro- moter of the college in Virginia, unhappily destroyed by fire and never afterwards restored ; and she gave a 168 ORIGIN AND PROCEEDINGS OF [CHAP. VII. bounty of 2001. a year to the Bev. James Blair, sent out as an ecclesiastical commissary for the support of mis- sionaries 3 . By Bishop Compton's advice, the first church was built by Charles II. in 1679. More than such de- sultory and unavailing attempts on the part of indivi- duals was not to be expected, until the evil and the scan- dal had arisen to a height which could no longer be con- cealed or borne, seeing that the Church had seldom been allowed to deliberate during the last century, and still more seldom enjoyed peace. When it is considered that the earth, as far as it was then known, if divided into twenty parts, gave nine pagan, six Mahometan, and but five Christian ; and that, some century and a half after the Church of England had rightly claimed to be her own mistress under Christ, the reformed faith, as held by her, failed to cover one of these five parts, notwithstanding the great resources and oppor- tunities of this kingdom, even then, it will not be doubted that further endurance of such a state of things was felt to be impossible. But, whatever the short-comings of the Beforined Church of England in this respect, no conclusions are to be drawn against her from the apparently greater exertions and success of Bomish communions : she will bear comparison with any, according to her means, but she has not had the same means at command as Borne. Archdeacon Grant says truly, " Boman Catholic missions always received the greatest support from the government of the countries from which they issued, such as Portugal, Spain, and France, and have been largely indebted for their success to this circumstance ; while it is equally indisputable that Protestant governments, as such, 3 Humphreys's Account of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, p. 11. 1699 — 1701.] CHUECH SOCIETIES. 169 have generally neglected to assist, nay, have, in some cases, discountenanced, the efforts of missionaries 4 ." We find the following entry in Evelyn : " May 3, 1703. Being elected a member of the Society lately incorporated for the Propagation of the Gosj^el in Foreign Parts, I subscribed 10?. per annum towards the carrying on. We agreed that every missioner, besides the 201. to set him forth, should have 501. per annum out of the stock of the corporation, till his settlement was worth to him 100Z. per annum. We sent a young divine to New York." Either from youthful inexperience, or other causes, Stackhouse complains that very inferior men presented them- selves as candidates. He regrets that rich pluralists, who so abounded in his days, did not go themselves sometimes, as a better way of showing their zeal for the cause, than by asking poor curates for subscriptions 5 . Certainly, the stipend which Evelyn mentions coidd not tempt talent, where higher motives were wanting. But the stipend was ample, as compared with the Society's means, its whole income in 1715 being less than 1600Z. The following table of the first five years' income and expenditure will show that, in the hard worldly age in which we now find ourselves, the Church's mission to go out into all lands had obtained little hold of her people's minds, and its furtherance confined to a very few earnest men. Income. Expenditure. To Midsummer 1702 £1,537 £ 452 1703 952 588 1704 1140 864 1705 1507 1343 1706 1205 2519 4 Grant's Missions, p. 184. 5 See " Miseries and Hardships of the Inferior Clergy in and about the City of London, 1722." 170 ORIGIN AND PROCEEDINGS OE [CHAP. TCI. From 1710 to 1750 the receipts averaged 2150Z. only. The first royal letter for a general collection produced, in 1710, 3060Z. ; another, in 1713, 3887Z. ; another, in 1717, 3727Z. In the Daily Courant of Sept. 11, of this year (1717), we find an advertisement for masons and others, required by the Society, to budd a college in Barbados. If the "missioners" were not all such as might be desired, it was either from this crippled state of their means, or from the Hmited extent to which the mis- sionary spirit had spread amongst the clergy them- selves, giving the Society little choice. Certainly it was from no want of the most scrupulous faithfulness on the part of the committee of the Society, as is tes- tified by the minute of theirs, in which they desired that all persons recommending any should testify their knowledge of them in the following particulars, viz. : " 1st, age ; 2nd, condition of life, whether single or married ; 3rd, temper ; 4th, prudence ; 5th, learning ; 6th, sober piety and conversation ; 7th, zeal for the Christian religion, and diligence in holy calling ; 8th, affection to present government ; 9th, conformity to doctrine and discipline of the Church of England. " And the said Society do earnestly request and be- seech all persons concerned, that they recommend no person out of favour, but with a sincere regard to the honour of Almighty God and our blessed Saviour, as they tender the interest of the Christian rehgion and the good of men's souls 6 ." If the labourers were few, the harvest was ready. Keith, formerly a Quaker, as will be described in this volume, but idtimately a convert to the Church, and one of the Society's best as well as earnest mission- 6 Hawkins's Historical Notices, p. 45. 1699 — 1701.] CHUECH SOCIETIES. 171 aries (he went out to America in 1702), thus describes it, in a letter to the secretary : — " There is a mighty cry and desire, almost in all places where we have tra- velled, to have ministers of the Church of England sent to them in these northern parts of America, so that it may he said that the harvest is great but the la- bourers are few. ... If they come not timely, the whole country will be overrun with Presbyterians, Anabaptists, and Quakers." They came not timely, and we know the result. The obvious course of send- ing a bishop at once to organize the Church (as pa- pists invariably do, and that is another secret of their general missionary success), was at one time not thought of by the Church, at another resisted by the prime minister, so that the elements of religious dis- cord which Keith speaks of were left in full possession of that interesting country, and America of the nine- teenth century stands a miserable commentary on England of the eighteenth. A commissary visiting on occasion as a stranger was an indifferent substitute for a bishop, heading his presbyters, and sharing in their dangers and in their triumphs — in fact, it was a mere Presbyterian expedient ; — at the same time, the per- sonal labours of that true servant of God, Dr. Bray, seem to have been abundantly blessed, so far as they went. In an account published shortly after his visit to Maryland, in 1699, we read, " Sixteen clergymen have a competent maintenance, their glebes settled, and libraries fixed ; and many thousand practical and devotional books have been dispersed among the people, with good effect, by the assiduous and pious care of the Reverend Doctor Bray." Eeturning to the parent Society, we find it steadily pursuing its other original objects. One of these was 172 ORIGIN AND PROCEEDINGS OF [CHAP. Til. the foundation of charity-schools ; and here again, though Edward YI. had set a noble example before the century of strife began, the Christian zeal of Dr. Bray brought to light as great neglect of the Church at home as in the colonies. At the first meeting, a reso- lution was passed, to consider how to further and pro- mote the erecting of catechetical schools in each parish, in and about London. On this occasion Lord Guil- ford undertook to speak to the Archbishop of Canter- bury, Dr. Tenison, recommending a clause to be in- serted in the bill for employing the poor 7 , to have the children taught to read, and instructed in the Church Catechism. It appears, by a minute of the 12th of March, that the archbishop was well pleased at being 7 The poor-law of Elizabeth, so administered as to release the poor from dependence on their own industry, had already proved, as, so administered, it must prove, a failure. The lamentable state of the poor in this reign, which had long occupied the thoughts of the ever-zealous and beneficent Ken, will be found described in a pamphlet published at this rime by Sir Josiah Child, and containing a scheme for bettering their condition, by procuring them relief and employments, under officers to be called " The Fathers of the Poor." (See Somers's Tracts, vol. si. p. 606'.) King and Davenant estimate the paupers and beggars in 1696, at the incredible number of 1,330,000 out of a population of 5,500,000, much larger than the proportion which even now receives relief. This in 1846 was 1,332,089, out of a population of about 17,000,000. This is assuming, that statistics may be depended on, in both cases. There is no doubt that poor's rate was in former times the heaviest burthen upon our ancestors' shoulders ; and that, in Scotland, without poor-law, the poor have been as well off at a fraction of our expense. In Charles II. 's reign it was 700,000/., little less than half the revenue of the crown. It went on increasing rapidly, amounting in a short time to near 900,000/., one-sixth of what it is now .See Macaulay, Hist. Eng. vol. i. p. 420, and De Foe's " Giving Alms no Charity," and Encyclop. Britan. Article, Poor-Laws. 1699 — 1701.] CHURCH SOCIETIES. 173 spoken to on this subject, and promised to use his in- fluence to promote it. On the 12th, Colonel Maynard undertook to endeavour to find out three persons who should begin an attempt to set up schools in three parishes. These humble endeavours were blessed with such success, that by May, 1704, there were fifty-four schools 8 in and about London alone ; the number of children being 2131. In that year was the first assemblage of the metropohtan charity schools, at St. Andrew's church, Holborn, which now takes place an- nually at St. Paul's, under the auspices of another branch, the Society of the Patrons of Charity Schools, but still in part at the original society's expense. In the Spectator of February 6th, 1712, we find an in- teresting account of the progress of the work, from which it seems that the progress was as slow as in missions, and that if there was fruit beginning to ap- pear, it was rather, as in the other case, from the very discreet management of the fund than from its amount. " In all seasons," says the writer, " there will be some instances of persons who have souls too large to be taken with popular prejudices, and while the rest of mankind are contending for superiority in power and wealth, have their thoughts bent upon the necessities of those below them. The charity schools which have been erected of late years are the greatest instances of public spirit the age has produced. But indeed, when 8 See a list of these in " Magnse Britanniae Notitia, by John Chamberlayne, Esq. F.R.S. 1707," p. 672. The author of this very useful work was the first Secretary of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. In the same work (pp. 073 — G83) will be found a list of all the other charity schools then (1707) erecting throughout England, with ample details of each, what taught, to how many of each sex, and how supported. 174 THE SPECTATOR OK [CHAP. VII. we consider how long this sort of beneficence has been on foot, it is rather from the good management of these institutions than from the number or the value of the benefactions to them, that they make so great a figure. One would think it impossible, that in the space of fourteen years there should not have been five thousand pounds bestowed in gifts in this way, nor sixteen hundred children, incluchng males and females, put out to methods of industry. It is not allowed me to speak of luxury and folly with the severe spirit they deserve ; I shall only therefore say, that I shall very readily compound with any lady in a hooped petti- coat, if she gives the price of one half-yard of the silk towards clothing, feeding, and instructing an innocent, helpless creature of her own sex in one of these schools. The consciousness of such an action will give her fea- tures a nobler life on this illustrious day (Queeu Anne's birth-day, Feb. 6,) than all the jewels that can hang in her hair, or can be clustered in her bosom. It would be uncourtly to speak in harsher words to the fair, but to men one may take a little more freedom. It is monstrous how a man can live with so Little reflection as to fancy he is not in a condition very unjust and disproportioned to the rest of mankind, while he en- joys wealth, and exerts no benevolence or bounty to others. As for this particular occasion of these schools, there cannot be any offer more worthy a generous mind. Would you do a handsome thing without return, do it for an infant that is not sensible of the obligation. Would you do it for public good ; do it for one who will be an honest artificer. Would you do it for the sake of Heaven ; give it to one who shall be instructed in the worship of Him for whose sake you give it. It is, methiuks, a most laudable institution this, if it were 1C99 — 1701. CHAEITT SCHOOLS OF 1712. 175 of no other expectation than that of producing a race of good and useful servants, who will have more than a liberal — a religious education. What would not a man do, in common prudence, to lay out in purchase of one about him, who would add to all his orders he gave him, the weight of the commandments, to enforce an obedience to them ? — for one who would consider his master as his father, his friend, and benefactor, upon easy terms, and in expectation of no other return but moderate wages and gentle usage ? It is the common vice of children to run too much among the servants : from such as are educated in these places, they would see nothing but lowliness in the servant, which would not be disingenuous in the child. All the ill offices and defamatory whispers which take their birth from domestics, would be prevented, if this charity could be made universal ; and a good man might have a know- ledge of the whole life of the persons he designs to take into his house for his own service, or that of his famdy or children, long before they were admitted. This would create endearing dependencies ; and the obligation would have a paternal air in the master, who would be relieved from much care and anxiety by the gratitude and diligence of an humble friend at- tending him as his servant." Such were the small beginnings — throughout the impending dark ages of the Reformed Church they continued small, in spite of this eloquent appeal, and many other such — of charity schools. These were the first seeds of that plentiful harvest, amount- ing in this year (1851) to about 22,000 schools, and about a million and a half of children educated in them, under the auspices of another great offset of 176 PAEOCRTAL LIB BABIES. [CHAP. VII. the parent stock, viz., the National Society, the origi- nal founders of which were all members of the original Society, and held their first meeting in that Society's house in Bartlett's-buildiugs, Holborn, in 1811. It will be seen, however, that modern schools are far overshooting the original scope and intention of the charity school system as developed by Dr. Bray and his excellent fellow-labourers ; and it is with the view of showing this difference, more than for its in- trinsic beauty and usefulness, however great, that the writer has transferred so long a paragraph from the Spectator. A third subject which, amidst a whole century's din of reUgious strife, and amidst the constant inter- ruptions of united deliberation, the English Church had been unable to address herself to, and which Dr. Bray therefore meditated in connexion with this Society, was taking steps to insure a learned clergy. "With this view he laid the plan of setting up lending Hbraries in destitute districts abroad ; and founded and arranged depositories of books for poor clergy- men, and students for holy orders, in England and "Wales, some of which survive to this day, and might with advantage be extended. He wrote a valuable bibliographical treatise, to assist in the formation of such clerical hbraries ; from which it will appear that he set his standard of sacerdotal learning higher, by a great deal, than modern professors of divinity and pastoral theology. (See his Bibliotheca Parochialis.) An Act passed afterwards, in the seventh year of Queen Anne, " for the better preservation of parochial hbraries in that part of Great Britain called England," in furtherance of this excellent scheme of Dr. Bray. 1699 — 1701.] BENEAVED EFFORTS OF PAPISTS. 177 The writer has had no success in discovering where these libraries are, excepting Newark, Bishop Stort- ford, Castleton, and Nether Dean. Another surviving offset of the original Society is known by the name of " The Associates of Dr. Bray," having for its object the establishment of libraries and negro schools. Its revenue is small. Whilst this noble httle band was thus laudably employed in arousing the Church to a sense of her long-neglected duty in respect of her children in the colonies, the training of the rising generation at home, and the securing of a learned parochial clergy, fresh elements of mischief and dissension were being introduced to mar, or rather to try and prove, their good work. Upon the peace of Byswick, a great swarm of popish priests came over to England, not only those whom the Bevolution had frightened away, but many more, who spread themselves over England, and behaved with such insolence, as to give colour to rumours then afloat, that the favouring of them had been a secret article of tho treaty ; that the king favoured popery, if, indeed, he was not a papist him- self. If the king had this affection for papists, he pro- ceeded to show it in a singular way, as prime ministers have sometimes shown theirs for the Church. In consequence of the increasing numbers of papists, thought dangerous to the peace of the kingdom, a bill was brought in, and received the royal assent, obliging all young persons educated in that religion, or suspect- ed to be of it, who should succeed to any estate before they were of the age of eighteen, to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and the test, as soon as they came to that age ; and till they did it, the estate was 178 BILL AGAINST PAPISTS. [CHAP. VII. to devolve to the next kin, that was a Protestant; but was to return back to them, upon their taking the oaths. All popish priests were banished by the bill, and were adjudged to perpetual imprisonment, if they should again return to England ; and a reward of one hundred pounds was offered to every one who should discover a popish priest so as to convict him. Burnet voted for the bill, and writes in the most comfortable strain about it, as the long-sought and at last dis- covered infallible remedy for this national disease : in a given number of years popery was to disappear from this kingdom. He says, " I was for this bill, notwith- standing my principles for toleration, and against all persecution for conscience sake : I had always thought that if a government found any sect in religion, in- compatible with its quiet and safety, it might, and some- times ought, to send away all of that sect, with as little hardship as possible. It is certain that as all papists must, at all times, be ill subjects to a Protestant prince, so this is much more to be apprehended, when there is a pretended popish heir in the case. This Act hurt no man, it only incapacitated his next heir, to succeed to that estate, if he continued a papist ; so the danger of this, in case the Act should be well looked to, would put those of that religion, who are men of conscience, on the selling of these estates ; and in the course of a few years, might deliver us from having any papists left among us." Unhappily for the bishop's day-dream of coming peace, " the Act was found to want several necessary clauses to enforce its due execution ; and the test relating to doctrine and worship only, did not seem a proper ground for so great severity, so this Act was not followed nor exe- cuted in any sort." Still, he will not allow himself to 1699 — 1701.] BRUTAL TASTES. 179 doubt that he has hit the right nail, so he adds, "here is a scheme laid, though not fully digested, which on some great provocation given by those of that religion, may dispose a Parliament to put such new clauses in a new Act, as may make this effectual 9 ." The brutal tastes of this period may be gathered from the following : " March 5, 1699. The old East India Company lost their business against the new Company, by ten votes in Parliament, so many of their friends being absent, going to see a tiger baited by dogs 10 ." The barbarous substitute for "trial by battle," which we call duelling, was never more rampant. " The horrid custom of duelling never was at a greater height than at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The newspapers from 1700 to 1719 seem to have preserved the progression faithfully ; every gaming- table, despicable brothel, coffee-houses, theatre, and even festive meetings, produced its duellist ; and the universal fashion of wearing swords allowed no time for passion to subside, or reason to reflect ; a walk into the street or an adjoining room, enabled the parties to wound each other in an instant ; revenge 9 Hist. Own Times, vol. iii. p. 317- "This indeed seemed a hard law, but not only the usage of the French king to his Protestant subjects, but the indiscreet insolence of the papists here, going in triumphant public processions with their bishops with banners and trumpets in divers places (it is said) in the northern counties, has brought it on their party." — Evelyn. Mr. Hallam, however, speaks of it as " the disgraceful Act of 1 700," and speaks of Burnet as offering " shameful arguments in favour of the bill that would justify any tyranny. ... A bill was proposed in 1705 to make it effective, and lost by 1 1*> to 43, which shows that men were ashamed of what they had done." Const. Hist. vol. ii. p. 529. 10 Evelyn. if 2 180 DEAN COMBER [CHAP. VII. and pain maddened them, and death frequently ensued to both. Drs. Mead and Woodward fought like a pair of butchers in June 1714, at the very gates of Gresham College l ," A duel is mentioned as fought by two officers on horseback, in which the only innocent par- ties to the duel were killed. In this year (1699) died the learned Dean Comber. He was born at Westerhain, in Kent, March 19, 1644. His father was so persecuted for his loyalty as to be compelled to take refuge in Flanders, leaving him entirely under the care of his mother, who sent him to the school of his native place, whence he was removed to Sidney-Sussex College, Cambridge, of which he became scholar in 1662. The public mind being much agitated then about set forms of prayer, and extempore prayer, he endeavoured to recommend the former, by publishing his Companion to the Temple. In 1677 he was installed Prebendary of York, and published his Eight of Tythes. In 1681 he published a work entitled Eeligion and Loyalty, intended to convince the Duke of York, that no person in succession to the throne of England ought to embrace popery : it is needless to say, his advice had no more effect than that of Sancroft and Ken, already noticed. In 1683 he became precentor of York, and boldly denounced those imprudent and arbitrary measures, which at length aroused a national spirit that drove the infatuated James from his throne. At the Ee volution he vin- dicated the legality of the new government, and doubt- less as honestly as Sancroft and his brethren denied it : however, the extent of government favour in return was his presentation to the deanery of Dur- 1 Malcolm's Manners and Customs of London in the Eighteenth Century, p. 147. 1699 1701.] BISHOP STILLINGFLEET. 181 ham. His other learned works need not be parti- cularized. On March 27, of this same year, died the eminently learned Dr. Stillingfleet, Bishop of "Worcester. The following particulars of his career are gleaned from a life of this prelate, published anonymously in 1710, and not improbably from the pen of his learned chaplain, Dr. Bentley, afterwards master of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was descended from the family of the Stillingfleets of Stillingfleet, about four miles from York, where his great-grandfather, John Stillingfleet, Esq., brother to Cuthbert Stillingfleet, Abbot of York, had a fair estate. He was born April 17, 1635, at Cranbourn, in Dor- setshire, being the seventh son of Samuel Stillingfleet, Gent., and Susanna his wife, the daughter of Edward Norris, of Petworth, in Sussex, who was his godfather as well as grandfather, and from whom he received the name of Edward. At Cranbourn, besides the education and instructions he had from his parents in his tender years, as soon as his age fitted him for it, he was entrusted to the care of Mr. Thomas Garden, schoolmaster there, a man of eminence and character in his very important vocation. In due time, he was removed to Eingwood, in Hampshire, and hence he was elected to St. John's College, Cambridge, in the stirring year of 1648. Eellowships were constantly being vacated, at this period, by Cromwellian deprivation, and he distin- guished himself so greatly in his undergraduateship, that he was elected fellow of his college immediately on taking his degree, and was admitted as such March 31, 1653. After severe study for about a year, he withdrew 182 BISHOP STILLINGFLEET. [CHAP. VII. for a while from the University to live at Wroxhall, in Warwickshire, with Sir Roger Eurgoin, Bart., a person of great piety, prudence, and learning, to whom he had been recommended by Dr. Paman, one of the fellows of that college, and afterwards master of the faculties at Lambeth, under the very eminent Arch- bishop Sancroft. He then removed to Nottingham- shire, as tutor to Mr. Robert Pierrepoint. While there, in addition to his educational duties, he began his Irenicum, hoping by it, as he said, to bring over to a compliance with the Church of England (then like to be re-established) those who asserted that Christ had appointed a Presbyterian government to be always continued in the Church, and that prelacy, therefore, was to be detested as an unlawful usurpation. He did not publish it until two years afterwards, viz., 1659, when appointed to the rectory of Sutton, by his former patron, Sir Eoger Burgoin, after ordination by Dr. Brownrigg, the ejected Bishop of Exeter. He reprinted his work in 1662, together with an appendix concerning the power of excommunication in a Christian Church, showing that the Church is a distinct power from the State, in opposition to the prevalent opposite theory upon which State penalties in matters of reli- gion had been generally justified ; that she has divers rights and privileges of her own, which are derived only from Christ her Head, and particularly that she has the power of censuring offenders, resulting from her constitution, as a Christian society ; and that these rights of the Church do not escheat to the com- monwealth, upon their being united in a Christian state. When bishop, he carried out these views by increasing the efficiency of his diocesan court, and seeing the censures of the Church carried out against 1C99 — 1701.] BISHOP STILLTNGFLEET. 183 notorious evil-livers, as in the parish of Old Swinford, in his diocese of Worcester. In the same year, 1662, whde at Sutton, he published his Origines Sacrse. His fame for profound learning acquired by these and other works, procured him the appointment of preacher at the Rolls' Chapel, and afterwards the rectory of St. Andrew's, Holborn. He remained here from 1664 until 1689, during which time he was also lecturer of the Temple, and often preaching likewise at Serjeants' Inn. He became chaplain to Charles II., Canon Residentiary of St. Paul's (1670), afterwards Canon of Canterbury, succeeding Dr. Sancroft (raised to the primacy) as Dean of Canterbury. After inexhaustible learned labours, which cannot in this place be particularized, chiefly against popery, but also against the misrepre- sentations of the Church by Baxter and other Pro- testant nonconformists, and against the overwhelming infidelity of the age, resulting from a century's ma- chinations and discord of both, he was preferred by William to the bishopric of Worcester in the year before mentioned (1689), having previously taken a part in the commission appointed by the new king in that year for the revision of the Liturgy '. Consider- ing the energy and general simplicity of his character, the wonder is rather, perhaps, that he should have been raised to the episcopal bench at all, than that Mary's intercession should fail to procure for him the primacy, in opposition to Tenison, in 1694 3 . After great and protracted suffering from gout in the stomach, brought on by excessive literary application, he died at his house in Park-street, Westminster, on the 27th of March, 1699 ; and in him the diocese lost a faithful 2 See j). 41. 3 See p. 118. 184 DIVORCES. [CHAP. VII. overseer, the poor a friend, the Church an able apolo- gist in evil times. He was buried among his prede- cessors, behind the choir of his cathedral \ His valu- able library was bought by the Archbishop of Armagh, and now forms the public library of St. Sepulchre's, close to St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. The MSS. are in the Bodleian. " Both in King Charles's reign, and again in King James's," says his biographer, " he had been, by the joint suffrage of the lower house of Convocation, for a long time together, chosen their prolocutor — a promo- tion they all looked on as justly due to his singular abilities for the discharge of it, by reason of his pro- found and extensive learning, his depth of judgment, his skilfulness in managing debates, his quickness of reply, upon whatever occasion, his great prudence, his gravity of deportment, his candour and ingenuity, or whatever might qualify him for that eminent station. And he could not have failed to answer their expecta- tions, and adorn the chair wherein they had placed him, in an unwonted manner, had it not been for want of business to be transacted among them, and so of an opportunity to exert itself." Lord Campbell has the following : " Feb. 1699. As the granting of divorces in the House of Lords is rather a judicial than a legislative act, I may properly here mention that, while Somers presided on the wool- sack, the practice was established of a parliamentary dissolution of marriage by reason of the adultery of the wife. The first case of this sort that came before him was that of the infamous Countess of Maccles- field, the mother of Savage ; and, by the chancellor's 4 See Life of Bishop Stillingfleet, 1710, p. 7G. 1699 — 1701.] BISHOP TTTBNEB. 185 advice, the adultery being clearly established, the bill passed, although there had not been a divorce a mensd et thoro in the ecclesiastical court. This was followed by the Duke of Norfolk's case. She had twice defeated an application by the duke to Parliament for a di- vorce ; but, on fresh evidence of her guilt being added, together with the verdict of the jury in the duke's action against her paramour, Lord Somers decided that the relief prayed for should be granted, and the bill passed 5 ." 1700. — On November the 22nd of this year, Dr. Francis Turner, deprived Bishop of Ely, died in very straitened circumstances ; so that now three only of the deprived prelates, Lloyd, Ken, and Erampton, survived. Mr. Lathbury gives the following letter from Bishop Nicholson to the Earl of Thanet : — " My Lord, " The deprived Bishop of Ely is, to my knowledge, in very needy circumstances, having a large family, and no support out of the common bank of charity ; but, if your lordship thinks fit to have Mrs. Coulton's sum thrown into the public stock, your commands shall be punctually obeyed." Such was the forlorn condition of one of the seven bishops, who, under Providence, had saved their country from popery and civil slavery, by their faithful and gallant resistance to the infatuated James. And 5 Lives of the Chan. vol. iv. p. 117- His lordship adds in a note : " It is much to be regretted that he did not establish a judicial tribunal with power to dissolve marriage, on proof of the wife's adultery ; and that he did not rescue the English nation from reproach for the action of ' crim. con.' whereby an English husband seeks pecuniary benefit from his own dishonour." The propriety of the latter suggestion few will be found to dispute. 186 BISHOP TURNER. [CHAP. TXT. yet the government, coming in professedly on the same principles, and having no other pretence or claim upon the people's allegiance than the vindication of the same principles, attempted to make it constructive treason to give such men bread 6 . Their detractors knew not what it was to suffer, least of all for con- science sake, as these excellent men were doing, to their utter ruin, in a worldly point of view. He was the son of the Dean of Canterbury, and educated at New College, Oxford, where he proceeded D.D., and obtained a fellowship. After holding some lower preferments, he became Bishop of Rochester in 1683, and a few months afterwards he was translated to Ely 7 . He had lived in retirement since his depriva- tion, and was buried in the chancel of the church of Thorfield, Herts, of which place he had formerly been rector. One word only was inscribed on the stone by which his mortal remains were covered — Erpergiscar. He was one of three brothers, all eminent for high personal character. His brother William bequeathed 2O,000Z. to the " Society for the "Widows and Orphans of the Established Clergy." The money was laid out in the purchase of an estate at Stow-Nine- Churches, near Daventry. Never did any poor recipient of his brother's bounty need it more than this deprived prelate 6 See Appendix. 7 " Prior, then a student at St. John's, the bishop's old college, addressed a copy of Latin verses, with a short epistle in the same language, to his lordship, on his translation to Ely ; which is found among his posthumous works. It is a custom in the universities for the several colleges to address a congratulatory letter, under the common seal, to any of their members that are promoted to a high dignity ; and the practice formerly was for the younger mem- bers of the society also to write honorary verses on such occasions." Noble, vol. ii. p. 15. The bishop was master of St. John's (Camb.). 1699 — 1701.] DUKE OF GLOUCESTER. 187 himself: it may be presumed that he was dead, to account for the bishop being left in such destitution. The mother of this numerous family of excellent divines was Margaret, daughter of Sir Francis Winde- bank, Secretary of State to Charles I. The king's health was now rapidly failing ; and this year, at the age of eleven, the heir-presumptive, the Duke of Gloucester, died : a promising youth, and the only surviving child of the Princess Anne, out of seventeen. He was delicate from his birth, and unable to walk at four years, having water on the brain. The brutality of the school discipline of that age, imper- sonated in Busby until 1695, found an apologist from that time in the Danish prince consort, who caned this unhappy child backwards and forwards across the room to make him walk. He did walk, and he did die. The heir-presumptive dead, and all papists excluded from the succession by statute, the eyes of all the Protestant part of the nation were turned to the Electoress of Brunswick, daughter to the Queen of Bohemia, and now the next Protestant heir. The hopes of the Jacobites were proportionably raised. Even the sanguineness of Burnet gives way under this. Now that he has no more of King "William's victories over the French to chronicle, and has leisure to look about him, he is panic-stricken, not more by the recollection of having lost the two, Queen Mary and the Duke of Gloucester, on whom the hopes of the nation had reposed, than by the sight of the general temper and habits of the people. " Thus," he says, " God was giving us great alarms, as well as many mercies : He bears long with us, but we are becoming very corrupt in all respects ; so that the state of things among us gives us a melancholy pros- 188 POLITICAL STATE OF THE XATION. [CHAP. VII. pect. The nation was falling under a general discon- tent, and a disliking of the king's person and govern- ment ; and the king, on his part, seemed to grow weary of us and of our affairs ; and partly by the fret, from the opposition he had of late met with, partly from his ill health, he was falling as it were into a lethargy of mind. We were, upon the matter, be- come already more than half a commonwealth ; since the government was plainly in the hands of the House of Commons, who must sit once a year ; and as long as they thought fit, while the king had only the civil list for life, so that the whole administration of the government was under their inspection. The Act for triennial Parliaments kept up a standing fac- tion in every town and county of England. But though we were falling insensibly into a democracy, we had not learned the virtues that are necessary to that sort of government : luxury, and vanity, and ambition daily increased : and our animosities were at a great height, and caused us dismal apprehensions. Few of us seemed to have a right notion of the love of their country, and of a zeal for the good of the pubhc : the House of Commons, how much soever its power was advanced, yet was much sunk in its credit ; very little of gravity, or order, or common decency appeared among them : the balance lay chiefly in the House of Lords, who had no natural strength to resist the Commons 8 ." All this might be very true, but Burnet could never forget or forgive his own hardship, in having his pastoral letter burnt by the common hangman, by order of a hateful Tory majority of this same House of Commons. ■ Own Times, vol. iii. p. 342. 1699 — 1701.] MOBAL AND SOCIAL STATE. 189 Avarice and love of excitement were remarkable characteristics of this period. Neither would excite much suprise, avarice beiug twin-sister of luxury, and a passion for the excitement of luxury was the natural result of a whole century of moral excitement. From one or the other, or both, almost every transaction of trade was effected at this time by lottery. In the " Athenian Gazette " of March 24, 1694, we observe no less than four consecutive advertisements of sale by lottery, viz. 4>000l. worth of plate, a collection of paintings, Bast Indian goods, and fine lace and point. This was carried at last to such a pitch, that the government was obliged to interfere ; accordingly, in the 10th and 11th of William III. an Act was passed imposing a penalty of 5001. on any person making a lottery, and 20Z. on any person drawing or throwing at one. This was paternal and proper as far as it went ; but gambling was still carried on in bear-bait- ing, tiger-baitiug, badger-baiting, cock-fighting, dog- fighting, duck-hunting, horse-racing, and incessant card-playing. The South Sea scheme, that monster bubble blown and burst soon afterwards, may be men- tioned as another evidence of the gambling spirit of the age : Lord Cowper likens it to the Trojan horse, " contrived for treachery, ushered in by fraud, re- ceived with pomp, but big with ruin and destruction." And, if quackery be a gambbng of health, there was enough of this evidence also : it was an age of quackery from the palace to the cottage. Even modern quacks might learn something from the ad- vertisements scattered up and down the newspapers of that day. Choice models of every conceivable and inconceivable kind of quack medicine advertisements will be found there, from " the inestimable angelical 190 TTLTBA-PEOTESTATfT EXTRAVAGANCE. [CHAP. VII. cough drops," downwards. The gambling principle was under the potent sway of gold-stick and silver- stick gentlemen in waiting about the royal person, until Queen Anne passed an order in council per- emptorily forbidding the traffic in court offices. Certainly, the wickedness of man was great in the earth : still, how much of the Whig bishop's gloom, upon viewing the state of the nation, may be fairly ascribed to the fact that Lord Somers had just now been summardy dismissed, and a Tory ministry substituted, the reader will judge for himself. Mean- while, it is satisfactory to see the bishop able to find one gleam of promise, in the effects of the toleration, which the Whigs and himself had a hand in ; for he goes on to say, " The toleration of all the sects among us, had made us live more quietly together of late, than could be expected, when severe laws were rigorously executed against dissenters." The bishop accounts for this, however, in a way not very complimentary to them. He says " the dis- senters behaved themselves more quietly in relation to the Church," — not because they had not (at pre- sent) any pretext for quarrelling with the Church, she having but just now so heartdy promoted their rebgious liberty, but — "they having disputes and quarrels among themselves." Thus, "the Inde- pendents were raising the old Antinomian tenets, as if men, by believing in Christ, were so united to him, that his righteousness became theirs, without any other condition, besides that of their faith : so that, though they acknowledged obedience to his laws to be necessary, they did not call it a condition, but a con- sequence of their justification. In this they were opposed by most of the Presbyterians, who seemed to 1699 1701.] ULTRA-PROTESTANT EXTRAVAGANCE. 191 be sensible that this struck at the root of all religion, as it weakened the obligation to a holy life. This year had produced a new extravagance in that matter. One Asgd, a member of Parliament, had published a book, grounded on their notions, on which he had grafted a new and wild inference of his own, that since true believers recovered in Christ all that they had lost in Adam, and our natural death was the effect of Adam's sin, he inferred that believers were rendered immortal by Christ, and not liable to death; and that those who believed, with a true and firm faith, would not die. This was a strain beyond all that ever went before it 9 , and since we see that all men die, the natural consequence that resulted from all this was, that there neither are nor ever were any true be- lievers. The Presbyterians had been also engaged in 9 Six years only before there had been " a strain " little less ex- travagant " April 24th [query 1st ?] 1C94. A great rising of people in Buckinghamshire, on the declaration of a famous preacher, till now reputed a sober and religious man, that our Lord Christ, appearing to him on the 10th of this month, told him he was now come down, and would appear publicly at Pentecost, and gather all the saints, Jews and Gentiles, and lead them to Jerusalem, and begin the millennium, and destroying and judging the wicked, deliver the government of the world to the saints. Great multi- tudes followed this preacher ; divers of the most zealous brought their goods and considerable sums of money, and began to live in imitation of the primitive saints, minding no private concerns, con- tinually dancing and singing Hallelujah night and day." — Evelyn. His editor adds, "John Mason, presented to the Rectory of Water- Stratford, in 1(>74. Granger calls him a man of unaffected piety, and says that he was esteemed to possess learning and abilities above the common level, till he became bewildered in the mysteries of Calvinism. Great numbers of his deluded followers left their homes, and filled all the houses and barns in the neighbourhood of Water- Stratford ; and, when they were prevented from assembling in their chosen field, they met in the house." 192 Quakers' quarbels. [chap. TO, disputes with the Anabaptists. They complained they saw too great a giddiness in their people," what they had to do with whom is not stated. Calamy admits these disputes : " 1693, the Church of England was miserably divided, and the contest (Antinomianism) went on and rose yet higher. ... In 1695 the heats among dissenters grew perfectly scandalous l ." We find the Quakers also in strong convulsions. Burnet says of them, in this year, " they have had a great breach made among them, by one George Keith, a Scotchman, with whom I had my first [query, and last r] education at Aberdeen. He had been thirty- six years among them. He was esteemed the most learned man that had ever been in that sect. He was well versed both in the Oriental tongues, and in mathematics. After he had been above thirty years in high esteem among them, he was sent to Pennsyl- vania (a colony set up by Penn, where they are very numerous), to have the chief direction of the education of their youth. In these parts, he said, he first dis- covered that, which had been always either denied to him, or so disguised that he did not suspect it. But, being far out of reach, and in a place where they were masters, they spoke out their mind plainer ; and it appeared to him that they were deists, and that they turned the whole doctrine of the Christian religion into allegories : chiefly those which relate to the death and resurrection of Christ, and the reconcilia- tion of sinners to God by the cross. He being a true Christian set himself with great zeal against this, upon which they grew weary of him, and sent him back to England. At his return he set himself to 1 Own Life, chap. iv. 1699 — 1701.] PROTESTANT SUCCESSION. 193 read many of their books, and then he discovered the mystery, which had been formerly so hid from him, that he had not observed it. Upon this he opened a new meeting, and by a printed summons he called the whole party, to come and see the proof that he had to offer, to convince them of their errors. Few Quakers came to his meetings, but great multitudes of other people nocked about him. He brought the Quakers' books with him, and read such passages out of them, as convinced his hearers that he had not charged them falsely. He continued these meetings, being still in outward appearance a Quaker, for some years ; till having prevailed, as far as he saw any pro- bability of success, he laid aside their exterior, and was reconcded to the Church, and is now in holy orders among us, and likely to do good service, in undeceiving and reclaiming some of those misted en- thusiasts 2." 1701. — This year, in consequence of the death of the heir presumptive, the Duke of Gloucester, the Act was passed nominating the Electress of Brunswick to succeed to the crown, as the nearest Protestant heir, in the event of William and Anne dying without issue ; and certain securities were embodied by the Tory ministry in this bill, Umiting the monarchy yet further than was already done by the Bill of Bights 3 passed immediately after the Bevolution. In the mean time, the chronic irritation and com- plaint of the parochial clergy, on account of the suspen- sion of their alleged synodal rights, had again appeared. 2 Hist. Own Times, vol. iii. p. 344. • 1 By this latter bill, which has been described as a second Magna Charta, all papists are for ever excluded from the tlirone of England, and all such as shall marry papists. O 194 DEMANDS FOR CONVOCATION. " Some books were writ to justify it, with great acri- mony of style, and a strain of insolence, peculiar to one Atterbury''' (sic Burnet), — who " went on still in- venting new falsehoods, in so barefaced a manner, that he seemed to have outdone the Jesuits them- selves." (Sic Burnet, iii. 346.) However this may be, whether Atterbury or Kennet was right, the new Tory ministry had made it a condition of their accepting office, that Convocation should have leave of the king to sit ; and this winter it sat accordingly ; but the account of its proceedings must be deferred to another chapter. CHAPTER VIII. A.D. 1701. Archbishop of Canterbury. King of England. Thomas Tenison. William III. The Convocation now met for the dispatch of busi- ness, after successive prorogations, to Burnet's avowed satisfaction, for the last ten years. Such long in- terruptions of synodal action, inflicted constantly by the crown since 1GG5, in order to stop inconve- nient discussions, and hide wounds which needed more to be healed, and partly from an unfounded jealousy of the ecclesiastical power now that the lie- formation had swept away all pretension to temporal rule, will be found from this time producing their natural results. A generation of clergy had grown up, who found the Church, in consequence, so behind in her work, that she had already, despairing of free corporate action, transferred much of it to in- dividual aud irresponsible associations, while they themselves were ignorant of the forms of synodal action, except such of them as had leisure and oppor- tunity for research. As a body, they were ignorant of the nature and extent both of the concurrent and separate jurisdictions and prerogatives of the two houses ; so that, when they did meet, a great part of their time was unprofitably expended upon the discus- o 2 196 PEOCEEDINGS OF [CHAP. Till. sion of such points. Such discussions were the more unprofitable, and the more complicated, from an under-current of suspicion, on the part of the lower house, of the Erastian tendencies of the majority of the bishops, who were believed, rightly or wrongly, to have been acquiescent, if not instrumental, in thus stifling the Church's voice \ Other causes of this alienation appear in the course of this narrative, without gratuitously and uncharitably supposing, as is usually done, a quarrelsome spirit on either side to have been the only or principal cause. With these few preliminary remarks, we proceed at once to the consideration of tbis synod of 1701. In their first session, the lower house chose Dr. Hooper, Dean of Canterbury, as their prolocutor, who was presented to the upper house, for their approval, by their former prolocutor, Dr. Jane, who had already given so much offence in the Convocation of 1689. Their placing the latter, therefore, in this distinguished position, showed sufficiently what might be expected to follow, and that they deemed there was nothing to regret or retract. 1 " This was demanded as a right, and they complained of their being so often prorogued, as a violation of their Constitution, for which all the bishops, but more particularly the Archbishop of Canterbury, was cried out on. They said that he and the other bishops looked so much on their own interests, that they forgot the interests of the Church, or rather betrayed them." — Burnet's Own Times, vol. iii. p. 390. To the same effect, Burnet's ever-faithful Echo, Dr. Cardwell : " The lower clergy complained that at a period when the vigilance of the Church was most especially required, and its whole government seemed in danger of being overthrown, it was debarred, by the treachery or cowardice of its own members, from the exercise of its most ordinary functions." Synodalia, vol. ii. p. 702. 1701.] CONVOCATION. 197 The first stumbling-block arising from the long abeyance of synodal action was, according to Burnet, a doubt as to the competency of the lower house to adjourn itself independently of the upper house. His statement of the matter is as follows : " The constant method of adjournments had been this ; the arch- bishop signed a schedule for that purpose, by which the upper house was immediately adjourned, and that being sent down to the prolocutor, did also adjourn the lower house. The clergy perceiving that by this means the archbishop could adjourn them at pleasure, and either hinder or break off all debates, resolved to begin at disputing this point; and they brought a paper to the upper house, in which they asserted their right of adjourning themselves, and cited some precedents for it. To this the bishops drew a very copious answer, in whicb all their precedents were examined and answered, and the matter was so clearly stated, and so fully proved, that we hoped we had put an end to the dispute. The lower bouse sat for some time about a reply to this ; but instead of going on with that, they desired a free conference, and began to affect, in all their proceedings, to follow the methods of the House of Commons. The bishops resolved not to comply with this, which was wholly new. They had upon some occasions called up the lower house to a conference, in order to the explaining some things to them ; but the clergy had never taken upon them, to desire a conference with the bishops before ; so they resolved not to admit of it, and told them they ex- pected an answer to the paper they had sent them. The lower house resolved not to comply with this, but on the contrary to take no more notice of the arch- bishop's adjournments. They did indeed observe the 19S PHOCEXDiyGS OF [CHAP. VIII. rule of adjourning themselves to the day which the archbishop had appointed in his schedule, but they did it as their ovm act, and they adjourned themselves to intermediate days 2 ." If the same haughty tone was adopted on the occa- sion by Bishop Burnet, and others of his order, as is found in the above narration of the proceedings, the parochial clergy of that day must be supposed either something more or less than men, to feel that filial reverence and affection towards then spiritual fathers which is indispensable to the practical maintenance of the relations existing between them in theory, and to the peace and efficiency of the Church. And if we go from the tone of the history to its facts, as stated by Burnet himself, we find him admitting that the lower house did "cite precedents" for the course they wished to adopt, though he had just said " the constant method of adjournments" had been otherwise. And even though there had been no precedents, it is far from clear that the conciliatory course of making one would have been attended with any inconvenience. Clergy- men are supposed mdividually to consult their several diocesans, and in practice sometimes do so, without any loss of dignity on the part of the latter. And it is easy to imagine cases in which it would be highly convenient and useful, as a readier means of mutual explanation than by correspondence, to extend the same principle to both bodies assembled collectively in Convocation. And Bishop Bumet represents the bishops generally as entertaining his own disrespect and unkindness towards the lower house, adopting his own unscrupulous partisanship, and most unwarrant- ' Own Times, vol. iii. p. 391. 1701.] CONVOCATION. 199 ably imputing the worst motives to every thing which the lower house did or did not do. Tims, in this same Convocation, when the lower house proposed to cen- sure an heretical book by Toland, whom Burnet him- self describes as " a man of a bold and petulant wit, who passed for a Socinian, but was believed to be a man of no religion" (p. 392), he says, " The bishops saw that their design in this was only to gain some credit to themselves by this show of zeal for the great articles of religion ; so they took advice of men learned in the law, how far the Act of Submission in the twenty- fifth of Henry VIII. did restrain them in this case V We learn from Calamy, that on March 3rd of this year (1701), the Earl of Macclesfield took over the Act limiting the succession to the Princess Sophia, and took Toland ivith him in a public capacity, upon which Calamy observes, " it was the opinion of many that the thus countenancing one of his character had better been waived V What confidence could the lower house have in a king employing such servants, or in bishops avowedly identified with such a king ? To say nothing of the great interests of religion and morality, it was an insult to the lower house, which had just made the following report of Toland : — " Upon perusal of the book and schedule hereunto annexed, laid before this committee by the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, on Tuesday, the 11th day of this instant March, this com- mittee came to the following resolutions, nemine con- tradicente, hereupon, viz. : — " Eesolved first, That in the judgment of this com- mittee, the said book is a book of pernicious prin- ciples, of dangerous consequence to the Christian re- Own Times, vol. iii. p. 393. 4 Own Life. 200 PROCEEDINGS OF [CHAP. VIII. ligion, written on a design, as we conceive, and tending to subvert the fundamental articles of the Christian faith. " Eesolved secondly, That in the judgment of this committee, the positions extracted out of the said book, and therewith hereunto annexed, are, together with divers others of the like nature therein contained, per- nicious, daugerous, and scandalous positions, and de- structive of the Christian faith. " Resolved thirdly, That to prevent the growth of these aud the bike pernicious principles, it is the opi- nion of this committee, that some speedy course ought to be taken for suppressing this and all other books of the hke mischievous nature and tendency. " Eesolved fourthly, That in order thereunto, it is also the opinion of this committee, that a humble re- presentation of the premises be forthwith laid by this house before the lords the bishops of the upper house, praying their lordships' concurrence with these resolu- tions, together with their advice and directions what effectual course may be taken to suppress these, and all other pernicious books, already written against the truth of the Christian rehgion, and to prevent the pub- lication of the like for the future 5 ." Such was the report, so temperate and respectful, the presentation of which, according to Burnet, made him and the episcopal majority believe that " it was only to gain some credit to themselves by a show of zeal for the great articles of religion," and " so they took advice of men learned in the law," to see how they could mortify the lower house, and rejected its prayer upon the strength of a very vague legal opinion, 5 Wilkins, torn. iv. p. C30. 1701.] CONVOCATION. 201 what little meaning there was in which was declared to be bad law when the same point was submitted to the twelve judges by Queen Anne. The screening of such a man as Toland, merely in order to punish op- ponents, those opponents their own presbyters, can only be equalled by George I. wishing to make the Arian leaders, Winston and Dr. Clark, bishops, in order to mortify the lower house of Convocation for having censured their heresies and Bishop Hoadly 8 . In page 395, we find Burnet saying yet more ex- pressly, " In these proceedings the bishops were unani- mous, except the Bishops of London, Rochester, and Exeter." And he then proceeds to dispose of their opposition in his own summary, unscrupulous, and characteristic way. " The Bishop of London had been twice disappointed of his hopes of being advanced to the see of Canterbury, so for several years he was en- gaged with the Tory party, and opposed the court in every thing, but with little force or authority. The Bishop of Rochester had been deeply engaged in the former reigns, and he stuck firm to the party to which, by reason of the liberties of his life, he brought no sort of honour. These bishops gave no great reputation to the proceedings of the lower house to which they ad- hered." This passage is important by showing that, by Burnet's admission, the episcopal majority and the Presbyterian court were one, which has been already mentioned as one of the causes of that lamentable want of confidence in the upper house, which was at the bottom of much of the unhappy dissension which followed. 6 See Winston's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 168. 202 PROCEEDINGS OF [CHAP. TIIT. The lower house, thus unpaternally repulsed, pro- ceeded to exercise their alleged right to adjourn them- selves to intermediate days, aud had adjourned to meet in Henry TIL's Chapel, thus assuming to themselves the right of determining both the time and place of their future meetings. The right seemed attended with no more inconvenience than the adjournments of the House of Commons independently of the House of Lords, but the bishops appointed a committee to ex- amine their books, with the view of ascerta inin g what had been done in these intermediate sittings, which Burnet asserts had often been done, but was now re- fused. This refusal they (the bishops) viewed as an invasion of the episcopal authority, and " resolved to receive nothing from them till that irregularity was set right." Burnet says, that they were thereupon so incensed against him (a plain admission that he unhappily took that leading part in Church affairs which has been at- tributed to him in a former part of this work, as help- ing to account for their want of confidence in the upper house generally), that they proposed a censure of his Exposition of the Articles, " which, in imitation of the general impeachments by the House of Com- mons, they put in three general propositions 7 ." We find them thus stated in "Wilkin s : — " Whereas a book hath been lately published, en- titled, ' An Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, by Gilbert, Lord Bishop of Sarum,' which the author declares to have passed the perusal of both the archbishops, and several bishops, and other learned divines, and suggests their approbation of it ; » Own Times, vol. iii. p. 394. 1701.] CONVOCATION. 203 and whereas we think it our duty, as much as in us lies, to secure the doctrines contained in these articles from any attempts that may he made against them, we most humbly oner to your grace and your lordships the sense of this house, which is as follows : — " 1. That the said hook tends to introduce such a latitude and diversity of opinions, as the Articles were framed to avoid. " 2. That there are many passages in the exposition of several Articles, which appear to us to be contrary to the true meaning of them, and to other received doctrines of our Church. " 3. That there are some things in the said book, which seem to us to be of dangerous consequence to the Church of England, as by law established, and to derogate from the honour of its reformation. " All which particulars we humbly lay before your lordships, praying your opinion herein." The opinion of the lower house might be right or wrong, but few will question their competency to express it, or the respectful and dutiful manner of its expression. At all events, the extra-official opinions of a bishop, as an author, though received with all respect, seem to stand or fall, in the present day, more by their truth than by their authority. On the occasion in question, however, the bishops appear to have viewed it as an invasion of their prerogative; and accordingly, waiving for the present their decision to hold no fur- ther intercourse with the lower house untd permission should have been given to examine their papers, pre- pared the following answer : "1. It is our opinion that the lower house of Con- vocation has no maimer of power judicially to censure any book. 204 PROCEEDINGS OE [CHAP. VTII. " 2. That the lower house of Convocation ought not to have entered upon the examination of a book of any bishop of this Church, without first acquainting the president and bishops with it. "3. That the lower house of Convocation's cen- suring the book of the Bishop of Sarum in general terms, without mentioning the particular passages on which the censure is grounded, is defamatory and scandalous. "4. That the Bishop of Sarum, by his excellent History of the Beforination, approved by both Houses of Parliament, and other writings, hath done great service to the Church of England, and justly deserves the thanks of this house. "5. That though private persons may expound the Articles of the Church, yet it cannot be proper for the Convocation at this time to approve, and much less to condemn, such private expositions." It is not very clear how, if Convocation had not the power to approve a private exposition of the Articles, according to the oth paragraph, it could have the power of approving a private history of the Beforma- tion, which the upper house is here seen exercising in the 4th. However, it was so ruled by that house. The specific passages proposed by the other house for censure were of course not delivered, the upper house having denied their authority to consider them, and the Convocation was prorogued, by royal writ, to the 7th of August, then to the 18th of September, and so on till both Convocation and Parliament were dissolved in the month of Xovember. As to the third paragraph, it is worthy of no- tice that when afterwards, in 1710, Dr. Sacheverell was impeached, the House of Commons did not spe- 1701.] CONVOCATION. 205 cify in their articles the precise words of his sermons upon which the charges were laid. We do not find the bishops, on that occasion, using the same argu- ment, and urging the same objections on behalf of a presbyter, which they here use and urge on behalf of one of their own order, and one of their own domi- nant majority. We find the Earl of Nottingham, in 1710, putting iu this plea, not indeed by charging the omission upon the House of Commons as " defamatory and scandalous ;" but by moving that the point be referred to her majesty's judges. The latter did cer- tainly decide that the setting forth of the precise words upon which the arraignment is based is " re- quired by the laws of England, and constant practice in all prosecutions." But there was this difference between the cases of Burnet and Sacheverell ; Sache- verell was actually put on his trial without knowing the words ; the lower house of Convocation merely asked counsel of the bishops, whether, with the book before them, certain charges might not be made in reference thereto, and whether lie oxujlit not to be put on his trial. The Commons' arraignment was formal and final, that of the lower house simply prelusive and suggestive. The Commons did not give the passages, even at the trial, upon the ground that the judges had decided according to the usages of West- minster Hall, and not on the usages of Parliament ; but, even then, when the presbyter was on his actual trial, a trial endangering his life, and a trial pro- nounced by the judges unconstitutional, we do not find Bishop Burnet and the rest of the majority, now pronouncing the course pursued by the lower house " defamatory and scandalous," as against the Bishop of Sarum, complaining of it in such terms or in any 206 COXTOCATIOy. [chap. viit. terms in the House of Peers, as against Dr. Sache- verell. A still stronger inconsistency in the upper house, which it would not be easy to understand, were not the book in question directed against themselves and the court, is their haTing already, on the 22nd of March, taken upon themselves to censure Dr. Davenant's " Essay on the Balance of Power," pub- lished in that year. The censure, which they ordered to be affixed to the doors of Westminster Abbey, was as follows : " Whereas this day a book entitled ' Essays upon, 1st, the Balance of Power ; 2nd, The right of making War, Peace, and Alliances ; 3rd, Universal Monarchy, &c.,' was brought into the Jerusalem Chamber, where his grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the rest of the suffragan bishops of his province were assembled in Convocation ; in the fortieth page of which book are these words : ' Are not a great many of us able to point out several persons, whom nothing has recom- mended to places of the highest trust, and often to rich benefices and dignities, but the open enmity which they have, almost from the cradle, professed to the divinity of Christ ?' " It is desired by the said archbishop and bishops, that the author himself, whoever he be, or any one of the great many to whom he refers, would point out the particular persons, whom he or they know to be liable to the charge, that they may be proceeded against in a judicial way, which will be esteemed a great service to the Church ; otherwise the above-mentioned passage must be looked upon as a public scandal." The difficulty, however, of proceeding judicially against such persons, when discovered, would not 1701.] POLITICAL COERUPTION. 207 appear inconsiderable, after their summary dismissal of the complaint against Burnet's Exposition of the Articles ; nor would it seem lessened by the following answer to the lower house, written within a fortnight of the above challenge being posted on the doors of Westminster Abbey : " Upon our consulting with counsel learned in the law concerning heretical, im- pious, immoral books, and particularly concerning a book of Toland's sent up to us from the lower house, we do not find how, without a licence from the king, which we have not yet received, we can have sufficient authority to censure judicially any such books ; but on the contrary we are advised, that by so doing both houses of Convocation may incur the penalties of the statute of 25 Henry VIII. 8 " The following from Bishop Burnet will throw some further light on the state of the Church at the period we are describing. It shows that the political and personal corruption of members of the legislature, into which the fierceness of political and religious strife during the last century had settled down, remained unabashed and unchecked up to this year (1701) : "Beports were brought of elections, that had been scandalously purchased, by some who were concerned in the New East India Company. Instead of drinking and entertainments, by which elections were formerly managed, now a most scandalous practice was brought in of buying votes, with so little decency, that the electors were engaged by subscription to choose a blank person, before they were trusted with the name of their candidate. The Old East India Company had driven a course of corruption within doors with so 8 Wilkins, in loco. 208 JAMES II. [CHAP. VIII. little shame, that the New Company intended to follow their example, but with this difference, that, whereas the former had bought the persons who were elected, they resolved to buy elections V King James died on the 6th of September of this year. He had for the last ten years led a very inactive life in France, which his former services and his re- ligion induced him naturally to choose for his asylum, after, as Burnet expresses it, not so much losing as throwing away two crowns. His character has al- ready appeared in the course of this history. He died professing to forgive his rival on the English throne, but without professing repentance for having counte- nanced the conspiracy to assassinate him. On his death-bed he said nothing of the legitimacy of his son, on which some made severe remarks ; others charitably suggested that, having spoken so often of it before, he might not reflect upon the fitness of saying any thing concerning it in his last extremity. We may view this infatuated prince, papist though he was, as a great however involuntary an instrument, in God's hands, for consolidating the Reformation ; for we owe to him the learned apologies for the reformed Church which were elicited by his apostasy ; an illustrious proof of her vitality by repelling his assaults ; and the exclusion for ever of all papists, and such as shall marry papists, from the throne. Those who, in opposition to the nonjurors, considered his son dis- qualified for the throne, not as his son, and without reference to his legitimacy, but from the certainty that he would be educated in his father's religious princi- ples, had the satisfaction, such as it was, to find their 9 Own Times, vol. iii. p. 358. 1701.] EOMISH INTOLEEANCE. 209 predictions verified ; for James's dying words to that sou were, " Be firm in your religion." In this he set him a notable example to the last, as the following withering proofs of his bigotry, as well as of his ingratitude, bear witness : — " Lord Duufermling had sacrificed high position and plentiful fortune to follow James to St. Germains, where, because he would uot become a papist, he was treated with such hardship as broke his heart ; nor did his persecution end there. His misfortune lasted longer than his life ; for, notwithstanding his merits, sufferings, and the interest made by his friends, he could not obtain Christian burial ; and his corpse was hid in a chamber, till an opportunity was found of digging a hole in the fields, in the night, where they thrust him in. " Colonel Cannon, because he would not abandon what little religion he had, was reduced to half-a-crown a day, while papists who had served under him were placed over his head : he died too of grief and want, and having taken the sacrament at the hands of Dr. Granville, three days before his death, the priests, who were always buzzing about him, took the opportunity of his being speechless to thrust a wafer down his throat, and gave out that he was dead a papist, and by this means got him the favour of a burial, which his corpse had else been excluded from, as well as Lord Duriferniling's 10 ." The writer is most anxious not to overlook the obligations of Christian charity towards papists, as well as all others ; but the authority is given below ; if it admits of refutation, none would be more pleased than himself to see it. 10 Court of St. Germains in 1C96, p. 10. CHAPTER IX. a.d. 1702. Archbishop of Canterbury. King of England. Thomas Tenison. William III. " And now" (says Burnet) " I am arrived at the fatal period of this reign. The king seemed all this winter in a fair way of recovery. He had made the royal apartments at Hampton Court very noble ; and he was so much pleased with the place, that he went thither once a week, and rode often about the park. In the end of February the horse he rode on stumbled on a mole-hill 1 , and he, being then very feeble, fell oft", and broke his collar-bone. The bone was well set, and it was thought there was no danger, so he was brought to Kensington that night." In the beginning of March an unfavourable change ensued. " The king's strength and pulse were still sinking, as the difficulty of breathing increased ; so that no hope was left. The Archbishop of Canterbury and I went to him on 1 As an instance of the fearful heights to which party-spirit ran in those days, it may be stated that it was not uncommon for Jacobites, in their convivial meetings, to toast Sorrel (the horse), and the little Gentleman in Velvet (the mole). Sorrel having once belonged to Sir John Fenwick, whom they considered a martyr to their cause, they profanely represented his stumbling with William as a judgment of Heaven. WILLIAM III. 211 Saturday morning, and did not stir from him till he died. The archbishop prayed on Saturday some time with him ; but he was then so weak, that he coidd scarce speak, but gave him his hand, as a sign that he firmly believed the truth of the Christian religion, and said, he intended to receive the sacrament. His reason and all his senses were entire to the last minute. About five in the morning he desired the sacrament, and went through the office with great appearance of seriousness, but could not express himself. AVhen this was done, he called for the Earl of Albemarle, and gave him a charge to take care of his papers. He thanked Mr. Auverquerque for his long and faithful services. He took leave of the Duke of Ormond, and called for the Earl of Portland ; but, before he came, his voice quite faded, so he took him by the hand, and carried it to his heart with great tenderness. He was often looking up to heaven in many short ejaculations. Between seven and eight o'clock the rattle began, the Commendatory Prayer was said for him, and, as it ended, he died, in the fifty-second year of his age, having reigned thirteen years and a few days. He died with a full and clear presence of mind, and in a wonderful tranquillity. Those who knew it was his rule, all his life long, to hide the impressions that religion made on him as much as possible, did not wonder at his silence in his last minutes, but they lamented it much ; they knew what a handle it would give to censure and obloquy 2 ." Of his character the same writer observes, " He believed the truth of the Christian religion very firmly, and he expressed a horror at atheism and blasphemy ; and, though there 2 Own Times, vol. iii. pp. 417—420. p 2 212 WILLIAM III. [CHAP. IX. was much of both in his court, yet it was always denied to him, and kej)t out of his sight. He was most exemplarily decent and devout in the public exercises of the worship of God, only on week-days he came too seldom to them. He was an attentive hearer of sermons, and was constant in his private prayers, and in reading the Scriptures ; and when he spoke of religious matters, which he did not often, it was with a becoming gravity. He was much possessed with a belief of absolute decrees : he said to me, he adhered to these, because he did not see how the belief of Providence could be maintained upon any other sup- position. His indifference as to the forms of Church government, and his being zealous for toleration, together with his cold behaviour towards the clergy, gave them generally very ill impressions of him 3 ." There is a mis-statement here. If the Church did not give the toleration, who did ? It is hoped that enough has been said to show that the clergy had the same zeal for toleration as the king ; and, therefore, could entertain no dislike nor distrust of him upon that ground, whatever other grounds there might be. And other grounds certainly there were, even by the above showing of his favourite and panegyrist, Bishop Burnet. Their distrust may have been the more intense and the more marked, seeing him, as they did, carry out the popular notions of the royal supremacy to their utmost verge ; thus attaching a Tudor head to a Dutch Pres- byterian body. For example, we find him, Feb. 15, 1694, issuing his royal injunctions to Archbishop Tenison to conduct his ordinations in a particular way 4 ; and from time to time ordering the bishops 5 Own Times, vol. iii. p. 423. ' See Wilkins's Concilia, in loco. 1702.] WILLIAM III. 213 what particular vice they should command their clergy to preach against. Nor were these the only things in which, with singular and almost grotesque infelicity, as well as with singular injustice, he incorporated the Tudor system with the Dutch. After confiscating the whole property of the Scottish Church, as Henry had the monasteries, he, in further conformity to his imperious model, distributed it among his favourites — those who had helped him in carrying through the Revolution — as Henry had rewarded those who helped him in his opposition to the papal supremacy. The lowering Carstares is a well-known instance ; this Pres- byterian fanatic having had for his share the revenues of the diocese of Dumblane. The Scotch were not a little mortified, not at the confiscation, but, in some instances, at the disposition ; for, in fact, they were worse off than before, the clergy having spent the tithes among the people, whereas the new owners were often absentees, who took the uttermost farthing, and spent it on the wrong side of the Tweed 5 . After all, this was paying cheaply for riddance from prelacy. It is satisfactory to find, however, that he did not interpret this royal supremacy on the same extensive scale as Charles II. : we do not find him commanding the clergy to read a brief in their churches for the rebufiding of a playhouse, destroyed by fire c . It is readily admitted that his coldness towards the Church of his political adoption was the result rather of his own defective Presbyterian training — to say nothing of a mind, even by Burnet's admission 7 , im- 3 See Lockhart of Carnworth, vol. i. p. 3G7. 0 Noble's Contin. of Granger, vol. ii. p. 93. 7 " He had no great advantage from his education." Own Times, vol. iii. p. 421. 214 WILLIAM III. [CHAP. IX. perfectly stored altogether. Both from education and constitution, he may have been incapable of aught but coldness towards the Church. At all events, he failed to show aught else, nor was it to be expected that he should, appointing, as he did, those to her highest offices whose conversion from Presbyterianism he was not likely to think more disinterested and real than his own ; and whom, however he might make use of them, he had too much penetration not to see through and despise. A contemporary said of them, " It is but too justly chargeable upon the shameful cowardice and want of zeal in such Protestant ecclesiastics as belong to the courts of Protestant princes ; they are most of them so bewitched with their court favour, easy and luxurious way of living, and hopes of preferment, that they dare not tell princes their faults, nor remonstrate against the iniquities of their proceedings, in any respects V It was little likely that his views of the English Church would be elevated by contact with such representatives of her in high places. And if, on the one hand, such flatterers would cause coldness, an opposite class were as certain to inspire resentment towards the Church. A source of perpetual irritation and offence presented itself to a man of his principles and temperament, in the fact of so large and influential a portion of her clergy, and more especially of her bishops, and of these more especially the arch- bishop who was to place the long-coveted diadem upon his brows, in refusing the oaths, and thereby repu- diating and disowning his title. Hence it was, no less than from early bias, that he had such fondness for 5 State Tracts, published during the reign of William III. vol. iii. p. 63. 1702.] WILLIAM III. 215 dissenters, as such, if not politically, and for church- men most like dissenters ; — for both, because unlike to nonjurors ; just as the resentment of churchmen in Scotland, under the hard measure they were receiving with the sanction of the imperial government, arrayed their prejudices, if not their convictions, on the side of James. On the whole, if William was the instrument, under God, of saving this nation from popery, those of the clergy whom he especially disliked for their dog- matic teaching, and mulcted, because they could not conscientiously recognize his title, were alike the means of raising it from the dead level of latitudina- rianism. His fondness of the dull monotony and newness of Kensington, and the sedgy flat of his modern palace of Hampton, in preference to the bold heights and his- torical inspirations of his old castle at Windsor, was not only to be expected from his life-long familiarity with Dutch scenery, but an emblem of his mind also, in reference to the Church of England, boasting an antiquity almost coeval with Christianity, and to sects far out-aged by the furniture of his apartments. And his small mind clung to its low conceptions of the Church the more closely, from the simple fact of the nonjurors having high conceptions of it. He seems to have been a man of a generally restless and unhappy temper. He won, if such courtship can be called winning, a beautiful young bride, and soon tired of her 9 . He succeeded to a noble crown, and 9 Burnet mysteriously alludes to William's " one vice ;" the following letter from Dr. Covell, the princess's chaplain in 1C85, may throw some light on it : " The princess's heart is ready to break, and yet she every day counterfeits the greatest joy. We 216 WILLIAM III. [CHAP. IX. soon wearied of it, either because he was not allowed to boast of it as a conquest or from a constitutional inability to understand or reconcile himself to the English character, much less to acquire it. He gave all his confidence to the Whigs in the former part of his reign, only to leave them in the latter. His wars were so unceasing, and he was so entirely absorbed in them, though not generally successful in them, that a history of his life is a history of Europe, supposing history to be made up of such things, as it generally is. The soil of Flanders is spoken of as "literally saturated with British blood" during his reign ; and Gregory King, a contemporary of the Dutch king, informs us that, from 1688 to 1695, the popula- tion of England had decreased to the startling amount of fifty thousand. His singularly un-English cast of mind was shown to a ludicrous extent. It cannot be proved that he ever read an English book ; though, indeed, it may not be very much clearer that he ever read any book. His un-English ideas of a palace may be seen in the dare no more speak to her. None but pimps and bawds must expect any tolerable usage here." Corresp. of Lord Clarendon, vol. i. p. 165. 1 Burnet's first pastoral letter was burnt by the hands of the common hangman, before the Exchange, for hinting such a thing as conquest. His apologist facetiously remarks that the name may have had something to do with this resolution of the House of Commons (Burn-it). Whether Burnet's pastoral was put forth as a feeler, on behalf of his patron, does not appear. We shall find this same assertion of William getting the English crown by conquest (which he attempted to justify by quoting William's own declaration) made an article of impeachment against Dr. Sache- verell. See Tindal's Contin. of Rapin, vol. i. p. 150. 1702.] WILLIAM III. 217 one of his own building at Kensington. This (White- hall and St. James's beiug, even in those days, when Berkeley House was the last house in Piccadilly, too smoky for him) was his favourite residence, and the head-quarters of his Dutch generals and Dutch ser- vants ; and here, while he was away in the wars, his ever-obedient and devoted queen whded the dull hours of her lord's absence, by making the gardens as in- tensely Dutch as might be, to please him on his return. We will place ourselves in Mis3 Strickland's debt for a description : " Let the reader give a glance at the black groups of yews and hollies which rear their odd outlines over the private garden wall at Kensington Palace, near the chapel : those queer contorted trees were once the cherished ornaments of Queen Mary's private garden ; they were then and there clipped into the forms of Hons and unicorns, ducks and drakes, cocks and hens, dragons, tigers, and basilisks, by the ingenious sheers of her majesty's gardeners, Loudon and Wise. These worthies and their royal mistress once effected the formation of the statues of Adam and Eve, but the serpent long defeated the utmost efforts of their skill. There are some odd, black, dwarfish yew-trees among the now delightful gardens of Hampton Court, on which her majesty and her gardeners once exerted their peculiar taste 2 ." Nei- ther were his manners, in these palaces, less Dutch than his appointments. It was the custom of those days for noblemen to go into the room during the royal dinner: on such occasions, he was ever found surrounded by his favourite, Marshal Schomberg, and his Dutch officers, with whom he was wont to spend 2 Lives of the Queens of England, vol. ii. p. C2. WILLIAM in. [chap. ex. his night in carouse : he went on talking with them in Dutch, never by any chance vouchsafing one word or look to his English nobles. Sooth to say, he hated England and the English as such, though he graciously vouchsafed to use them. He was also un-English, as in other things, in his strong propensity to ardent spirits, the distilling of which from malt he treacherously, or mistakenly, recommended the House of Lords to en- courage, in a speech from the throne, as a means of raising a revenue for his wars. Queen Elizabeth had. more patriotically, forbidden their distillation, except in small quantities for medicinal purposes. Thus by precept, and by the practical example of himself and his Dutch followers, was the foundation laid of a demo- ralizing indulgence in ardent spirits, — " fire-water," — which has gone on increasing ever since, and proved a national curse. These un-English traits of character (in manifest allusion to which, his successor, Queen Anne, on her accession, assured both Houses of Par- liament, that " her heart was entirely English") are introduced in this place, it is thought consistently, as they help to show the absence of all sympathy on his part with the spirit of the English Church ; and. therefore, to account for appointments to her high offices, and for much else which befel her during his reign. He was un-English, and something more, in his man- ner of assisting at her services ; for even after the sharp edges of his Dutch irreverence had been worn off, and he vouchsafed to take off his hat during the prayers, he put it on again for the sermon s . His partisans 3 See Tindal, vol. i., and " The Dear Bargain, or a True Repre- sentation of the State of the English Nation under the Dutch," in Somers's Tracts, voL x. p. 349. 1702.] WILLIAM III. 219 pleaded in excuse that wearing the hat in " divine worship" was the custom among the Dutch dissenters, and amoug Jews ; hut English Churchmen were not sufficiently fond of either to he reconciled to what they deemed irreverence by such precedents. As fur- ther instances of his habitual irreverence, we may mention that, at Canterbury, the king sat in the archbishop's throne, the dean attending him as clerk of the closet ; " to whom he talked all prayer-time, for, as all the neighbouring gentry were at church, the king kept whispering the dean to tell him who such an one was in such a coat,and who in another 4 ." One other instance may suffice. It was the custom in those days for the preacher to make a bow to royalty, on going into the pulpit, " which the Princess Anne, who was remarkably civil, and yet never stooping too much from her high dignity, always used to return to the preacher, be he never so low in that order. The custom is still con- tinued on the preacher's side, but not on the king's, though it is from a bishop V Such are the real facts in reference to one whom we have just seen Burnet describing as " exemplarily decent and devout in the public exercises of the worship of God." It does not appear, however, that any one of the " fifteen learnedest, wisest, and best bishops," whom he ap- pointed in his first year of English sovereignty was so uncourtly as to remonstrate. Indeed, he did not give them much chance, for he kept them at the full distance which he supposed there was between a bishop and a king. Even Tindal, one of Burnet's own school, says of him, " he lived out of town at Kensington, and his chief confidants were Dutch. He took no notice 4 MS. account of Hooper. 5 Ibid. 220 WILLIAM III. [CHAP. IX. of the clergy, and seemed to have little concern in the matters of the Church, or of religion 6 ." The reader will not be surprised to hear further of one wearing his hat in church, that he chose it as the most fitting place of showing his wrath against those who had the misfortune to come under his displeasure. Thus, for iustance, he directed Dr. Birch, at St. James's, not to put the text on the Princess Anne's cushion on the following Sunday, a command which the chaplain was happily unable to connect with his oath either of civil or canonical obedience. However, all these irreve- rences must be viewed tenderly as misfortunes of his position ; as regards the Church, of his false position ; his education and training, and the scenes which he had been used to from his childhood hi Dutch chapels, leading most naturally to such results. Queen Mary, for instance, who had seen enough of Dutch worship to be a very good judge of such matters, writes to Dean Hooper in March 1693, after a visit to Canter- bury, that after attending the cathedral on the Sunday morning, in the afternoon " she went to a parish church, where she heard a very good sermon by Dr. Cook, but she thought herself in a Dutch church, for the people stood on the communion-table to look at Iter 1 ." One of the appointments in this reign was this same Hooper to the Deanery of Canterbury. "William was, as usual, absent at the wars, and Mary was left queen regent. Burnet says, that the king gave her, at such times, full liberty in ecclesiastical appointments. Wil- liam sent her three names from which she was to choose, instead of requiring the chapter, after a better 6 Tindal, vol. iii. p. 238. 7 Hooper's MS. 1702.] WILLIAM III. 221 precedent, to send him three names from which he might choose. Hooper had preceded Ken as Mary's chaplain in her Dutch court, and was a worthy and learned man, and she appointed him to the deanery, to the exclusion of all the three names sent, though warned by her attendants of her husband's wrath on his return, which unhappily she experienced, as her tears (not uncommon) testified. It was not often she dared to disobey, as some of her actions prove ; but it may not be unfairly inferred from this, that had Mary, left alone as she so often was, been under a less austere hus- band, the appointments of this reign would have been often better, and the teaching of such meu as Hooper would not have been so lost to the Church of Eng- land, in this crisis of her fortunes. The queen's unabated devotion to him, under habi- tual provocations of no small magnitude, is a remark- able feature of her character. His conduct to her in Holland had been so gross, as to compel her chaplains, successively, from Hooper to Covell, to interfere for her protection ; and the insults offered by him in con- sequence to Ken, compelled that excellent man to leave the house, and to declare that he would not return to it, as he did not, until sent for. All the little kind- liness there was in his nature was lavished on a mistress, Elizabeth Villiers. On his first arrival at St. James's, at the Eevolution, he compelled his wife, as she acknowledged, to play so unnatural a part by a forced levity, in going over the deserted apartments, as disgusted the wise and good, and served greatly to strengthen prejudices already existing against that change, which, in the minds of the wiser and better part of the people of this kingdom, was only to be justified by the supposition of a very painful necessity, 222 WILLIAM III. [CHAP. IX. — to all painful, to the well-constituted mind of a daughter especially so. Under the same torturing restraint, her conduct towards her father had con- tinued habitually, to the time of her death, so distress- ingly and wantonly unfilial and insulting, as to wring from her aged parent a father's curse, and a refusal of the outward emblem of mourning for her death ; astonish and offend honest men, ever so opposed to him politically ; and draw down upon the courtly Tenison the rebuke of the venerable Ken for pre- suming to grant absolution to her on her own death- bed, without moving her to repentance for conduct so sinful before God and man. The only thing that was ever known to touch her husband's heart was a post- humous reproach for all this ; a mysterious paper, which the queen directed the archbishop to give him when all should be over ; a paper which divorced him from his heartless mistress, and made him as decent in the externals of religion for some time afterwards, as we have seen Burnet above describe him to have always been. He was a thoroughly hard and selfish man, and not unsuccessfully painted by a contemporary, as follows : — " He hath, if any ever had, two faces under one hood ; and though he hath a double conscience, one for this, and another for the other side of the Tweed, yet he hath but one principle, that gain is great godliness ; and one interest, to become all things to all men, to gain all to himself. Surely, a dark lantern, under a crown or mitre, is as dangerous as under a parliament- house 8 ." Having already given a court bishop's version of the Somers's Tracts, vol. x. p. 3G9. 1702.] WILLIAM III. 223 circumstances attending his death — one not so en- grossed by the awful realities before him, as not to have his carriage at the palace-door of Kensington, ready, at the last ebb of the royal sufferer's life, to hurry him to the Cockpit at Whitehall, to be the first messenger of the event, and the first worshipper of the rising sun, a circumstance which was noticed, and not a little laughed at, by the new queen herself, as well as others, at the time — we shall now place ourselves under the same obligation as before for an account of the king's funeral. Those who desire further parti- culars may refer to Trevor's Life of William III. : — " All the Dutch colony at Kensington Palace were in a state of high discontent, almost amounting to mutiny. They were excessively displeased at every thing done in regard to the king's remains, in which Bishop Burnet concurred. He has vented his discontent at the ac- cession of Anne [who hated him, and had just thanked him little for making such haste to bring what he thought good news] by grumbling at William EEL'S funeral [William and Anne having been sworn foes] in his usual phrase, ' It was scarce decent.' There was a long consultation in the privy council, whether the funeral should be public or private : it was de- cided, at length, that it should be private. The burial took place on Sunday, April the 21st, at midnight. The procession began from Kensington, as if the royal corpse had actually been there ; the funeral train fol- lowed an open chariot with the wax effigy (still in Westminster Abbey) seated as if over the corpse and coffin, which were only introduced when the mourners arrived at Whitehall Palace. The pall was borne by six dukes. The body was deposited in Henry VIII. 's (? VII.) Chapel while the service was performed, 224 WILLIAM III. [CHAP. IX. and afterwards interred in the same vault with his late consort, Queen Mary II., near the coffin of their uncle, Charles II. s " Thus ended a reign, to he ranked among the most important in the annals of the English Church and nation, hut deriving its importance rather from the circumstances preceding it, and arising from it, than from any personal qualities of the ruler. To the Church, by the general misdirection of patronage, the refusal of her synodal rights, and in various other ways, it was a reign covertly and insidiously hostde through- out, though its hostility was overruled for good, in one memorable instance, by freeing the Church from the stain and the perd of depending on the secular arm for such support as it had hitherto given by penal enact- ments. Called to be defender of a faith to which he was an alien, supreme over a Church which he could only comprehend as a political establishment, he had a hard task to maintain a decent external bearing to- wards a betrothed whom he neither chose nor admired. Still, though his position individually was a false one, and all the usual inconsistencies and inconveniencies of a false position residted from it, we may well view his arrival in this kingdom, under all the circumstances, as a great and glorious event, designed by God's provi- dence to minister to the ultimate peace and welfare of this great Church and nation. The dissenters lost a friend, and they knew it, but were the less inconsolable, knowing as they did that they would still have a friend at court in the Lutheran prince consort, Prince George of Denmark. The estimation in which "William was held by the 9 Lives of the Queens of England, vol. xii. p. 42. 1702.] DISSENTERS BEGIN SYNODAL ACTION. 225 dissenters, may be learned from a contemporary dis- senting poet, Dr. Watts, who, in rehearsing his death, knew not how to distinguish, not he, between " Gabriel or William on the British, throne." In the same melancholy strain we find Calamy lament- ing, " the poor dissenters having lost their firm friend (William), were presently insulted '." However, their difficulty gave them new strength, for upon Anne's accession, " the three denominations," Presbyterians, Independents, and Antipajdobaptists, united in an ad- dress to the throne, which Calamy thought a very sagacious step, and so it was. This union of " the three denominations" has continued to the present time, imparting to " the dissenting interest" all the unity and energy flowing from synodal action, which they began immediately to exercise, and have con- tinued to exercise, throughout the hundred and thirty- four years during which it has been forbidden to the Church. Churchmen said at the time, that they wanted no more liberty than was freely yielded to dissenters. 1 Own Life, ch. v. Q CHAPTER X. a.d. 1702. Archbishop of Canterbury. Queen of England. Thomas Tenison. Anne. "With King "William expired the Convocation, which had met for the dispatch of business on February the 4th of this year, by adjournment from December 15th of the previous year. The lower house vainly attempted to establish that Convocation had the right of sitting as long as the Parliament, after the commencement of a new reign. During the adjournment the lower house had prepared the following representation of grievances : — " May it please your grace and your lordships, " Having received a message from your grace by our prolocutor, in the session, December the 15th, by which we were encouraged to hope, that against our next meeting with your lordships, on February the 4th, sufficient powers might be procured for the joint dis- patch of synodal business ; we then thought it our duty to employ several of our members in preparing on our parts, during this long recess of your lordships, such heads of matter as being debated and approved by us, might properly be offered to your lordships' grave and wise consideration. " Accordingly we have duly weighed in our house the CONVOCATION. 227 following articles, and do with all humility represent to your lordships : " That a general neglect of divers canons and con- stitutions now in force, doth (among other great in- conveniences thence arising) tend to introduce such customs and usages, as may in time be interpreted to amount to a prescription, and thereby the authority and force of the said Canons may be evaded, the clergy lose their undoubted rights, and be involved in fruitless contests and lawsuits with their parishioners 1 . " That matter of great offence hath been administered to pious Christians, and many evil consequences may arise, from the practice of such ministers who read not the common prayers distinctly, reverently, and entirely, as by the Eubric and the 14th Canon they are obliged to do, without either diminishing in regard of preach- ing or in any other respects, or adding any thing in the matter or form thereof 2 . " That there hath been a great neglect of bringing such infants as have been privately baptized into the Church, to the intent that the congregation may be certified thereof, and the child be tben received as one of the flock of true Christian people, as the Eubric 1 This representation had no effect upon the bishops, but its truth has been painfully shown since, as too many earnest clergy- men can testify to their cost. 2 Evelyn complains that the clergyman of his parish (Wotton, in Surrey), when administering the holy communion, left out a great part of that office. In such a state of things, it is refreshing to rind a solitary instance of lingering discipline in connexion with this holy office. The only one the writer has met with is furnished by Whiston ; who says, in his Memoirs, that Dr. Bradford, at Bow Church, refused communion to two persons living in adultery, one a lady by title, and the other Lord Mayor of London ; but he adds, " such instances of discipline were very rare." Q 2 22S BEPBESE>~TATIO>" OF LOWEE HOUSE [CHAP. X. directs ; aud that the unjustifiable use of the form of public baptism in private houses, hath lessened the reverence due to that holy office, and in some places hath given opportunity to persons to intrude into the administration of that holy sacrament, and occasioned those undue practices of mutilating the pubhc form, and baptizing without the sign of the cross, and god- fathers or godmothers. " That the remissness of churchwardens, in not making such provision for the administration of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, as the Eubric and Canons direct, hath, in sundry cases, given matter of offence to good Christians, and been the occasion of much indecency in the administration of that holy sacrament. " That the apostle's rule concerning decency and order in the public worship of God, and the directions of our Church in the ISth Canon, answerable to that rule, are in several churches of this province noto- riously violated by the irreverent and disorderly be- haviour of those persons who presume to cover their heads in the church in the time of divine service, or who do not, in kneeling, standing, and other respects demean themselves in such manner, as is by that Canon and the Book of Common Prayer prescribed ; or who, by walking or talking or otherwise, disturb the sendee or sermon, or without any unjust or necessary cause, depart out of the church during the time of service or sermon 3 . 3 The Spectator of April 27, 1711. in 3 whimsical paper, de- scribes thus the impressions of the " four Indian kings," who had just visited this country, in reference to St. Paul's, and public worship : "As soon as this rock [St. Paul's] was thus curiously scooped to their liking, a prodigious number of hands must have 1702.] OF CONVOCATION. 229 " That, notwithstanding the exemplary care of many bishops in the admission of persons into holy orders (for which we have great reason to hless God, and to be thankful to their lordships), yet to our grief, in some dioceses, the conditions in that regard pre- been employed in chipping the outside of it, which is now as smooth as the surface of a pebble ; and is in several places hewn out into pillars that stand like the trunks of so many trees bound about the top with garlands of leaves. It is probable that when this great work was begun, which must have been many hundred years ago, there was some religion amongst this people ; for they give it the name of a temple, and have a tradition that it was de- signed for men to pay their devotion in. And indeed there are several reasons which make us think that the natives of this country had formerly among them some sort of worship ; for they set apart every seventh day as sacred ; but upon my going into one of these holy houses on that day, I could not observe any circum- stance of devotion in their behaviour. There was indeed a man in black, who was mounted above the rest, and seemed to utter some- thing with a great deal of vehemence ; but as for those underneath him, instead of paying their worship to the deity of the place, they were most of them bowing and courtseying to one another, and a considerable number of them were fast asleep." — See Spectator passim. A writer in the London Journal also of Dec. 21, 1720, com- plains of a custom, now happily got rid of, of " the Stewards of the Sons of the Clergy having persons from the theatres to perform in their annual celebrations at St. Paul's ;" and adds, " there are other things truly blameable to be observed, when the Te Deum or Anthem hath been performing, yes, when the parson hath been preaching, persons eating, drinking wine, laughing, and talking, conduct much more becoming those who attend the performance at Drury Lane or the Haymarket, than the temple of the Lord." Mr. Malcolm also tells us, " The custom of walking and talking in the nave of St. Paul's Cathedral had become so very prevalent in 1725, that the Bishop of London found it necessary, at his visita- tion in that year, to declare his positive intention of enforcing the 18th Canon, and the Act 1 William and Mary by which transgressors forfeited 20/. for every offence." Malcolm's Manners and Customs of the Sixteenth Century, vol. ii. p. 158. 230 REPRESENTATION OF LOWER HOUSE [CHAP. X. scribed by the 33rd, 34th, and 35th Canons have not been observed. On the contrary, the little caution used by some in granting, and by others in allowing of letters testimonial ; the not insisting on true, cer- tain, and sufficient titles ; the want of a strict and dili- gent examination of such as offer themselves to be ordained ; and an unnecessary ordination of persons, without either university degrees or education, con- tinues to be just matter of complaint. " And it were further to be wished, that the ordina- tion of ministers might always be entered in the public registers of their respective dioceses, in so pai'ticular and authentic a manner, as to afford suffi- cient evidence, &c. " That frequent abuses have happened, to the great scandal of the Church and the jurisdiction thereof, by the neglect of the 103rd Cauon, which appoints, that before any licence for the celebration of matrimony be granted, it shall appear to the judge (by the oaths of two sufficient witnesses, one of them to be known to the judge himself, or to some other person of good reputation then present, and known likewise to the judge) that the express consents of the parents or parent (if one be dead), or guardians or guardian of the parties is thereunto had and obtained : as also by the irregular granting of licences of marriage, contrary to the true intent of the 102nd Canon, which provides that one condition of every security taken upon granting any licence be, that matrimony shall be celebrated in the parish church or chapel where one of the party dwelleth, and in no other place ; as likewise by the practice of ministers who (contrary to the express prohibition of the 62nd Canon) do under any pretence whatsoever join any persons in marriage at 1702.] OF CONVOCATION'. 231 any time, but only between the hours of eight or twelve in the morning, or in any place but in the parish church or chapel where one of them dwelleth ; and moreover by the evil custom of lodging blank bcences in improper hands. " And we cannot but express our hearty concern, that notwithstanding the wise provision made by the laws ecclesiastical and civil against clandestine mar- riages, there should still be found persons, being, or pretending to be, in holy orders, who frequently trans- gress the said laws, to the dishonour of the Church, and the ruin of many families *. 4 In Queen Anne's reign, marriages were not solemnized during Lent. See " Ladies' Diary, or Women's Almanack," which de- scribes when " Marriage comes in and out :" against this little relic of a former discipline, in the parish churches, however, there was a set-off of a most revolting nature, in what were called Fleet Marriages, which seem to be alluded to here by the lower house of Convocation. These marriages took their name from being cele- brated by apostate clergymen, or persons pretending to be such, in the Fleet Prison, or within its " rules," or at the May Fair. Thou- sands of such were celebrated or rather perpetrated, for a dram, and registered in cypher for an extra glass. The sign was that of the present Hand-in-Hand Assurance Office, except that one hand was drawn a little more delicate than the other. The touters called out to passers by, "Sir, will you please to walk in and be married?" A more lamentable instance of the laissez /aire system adopted by the bishops of that day (so "judiciously" chosen, according to Mr. Macaulay, and yet needing and receiving remonstrance, in so plain a matter of duty, from the country clergy whom that writer notices with such thorough contempt) can hardly be mentioned. Mr. Cripps says, that before the passing of " the first Marriage Act, 26 Geo. II. c. 33, it was not necessary that a marriage should be solemnized in facie ecclesim ; and con- sequently that, though the clergyman might be punished eccle- siastically, such marriages, however irregular, were not invalid." See Pract. Treat, p. 634. It appears from the advertisements of 232 REPRESENTATION OF LOWER HOXTSE [CHAP. X. " That persons excommunicated and not reforming themselves within three months, have not every six months ensuing been openly denounced both in the parish church and in the cathedral of the diocese where they remain, in such manner as is prescribed by the 65th Canon ; for want of which public and repeated denunciation, the good ends proposed in that Canon have been frustrated, and the sentence of excommuni- cation hath been rendered less awful and effectual than it ought to be. " That commutation of penance without the know- ledge of the bishop, and the frequency of such com- mutations, even for slight sums, and in improper cases, and the private disposal of the money thence arising, without notifying the same to the congregation, are practices of very evil consequence, as they tend greatly to discourage churchwardens from prosecuting of- that day, that even in cases where a licence was obtained, it did not restrict the parties to the parish church of one of them. One, headed " Marriage, Sion Chapel, Hampstead," states that " a clergyman was regularly employed to perform marriages at that chapel, a licence being brought ;" that the gardens belonging to the chapel and tavern were " very private and pleasant," and " persons of the best fashion have been lately married there ;" parties having the wedding dinner " in the house in the gardens " were married gratis, and those who had it elsewhere " were only charged five shillings, including all fees." In many places, as well as at the Fleet and the May Fair, parties had only to present themselves, and no questions were asked. Thus " Sunday, March 8th, a parson, who had been one of those of Magdalen College in King James's time, and had been for some time in Marylebone, was taken by a messenger, who, carrying his maid and a young man with him, on pretence that they came to be married, took the parson at the communion-table, just as he was going to read the marriage service." True Relation of the detestable Attempt to As- sassinate King William, 1C9G. 1702.] OF CONVOCATION. 233 fenders, as they are insufficient for removing the scandal given to the Church, and for reforming the persons so allowed to commute, and are plainly repug- nant to a constitution made in the year 1597, which forbids such abuses, under the penalty of three months' suspension, to be inflicted by the judge. " That the suffering of persons to instruct youth as tutors or schoolmasters, without such licence from the ordinary as is required by the Act of Uniformity, and the 77th Canon, hath given occasion and encourage- ment to several arrogant and disaffected persons to erect seminaries, wherein not only academical learning is pretended to be taught, to the prejudice of the two universities, but, as we are informed and persuaded, such principles are also instilled into youth as tend to perpetuate the schism we are now under, and to sub- vert the established constitution. " That the defective presentments of churchwardens and the connivance of those who by the 2Gth and 117th Canons, are empowered and required to punish such churchwardens as wilfully neglect their duty, have been one great cause of the present decay of Church discipline, and neglect of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction ; and that churchwardens have been greatly discouraged from doing their duty in this respect by the remissness of ecclesiastical judges and their officers, in not prose- cuting such matters and persons as have at any time been presented to them 5 . 5 Had this very reasonable and proper recommendation of the lower house been heeded, churchwardens in general would have enjoyed that high consideration, which is at present felt to be due but to a few. The anomaly and scourge of dissenting churchwardens, at least, would have been spared to the Church. The lower house might well complain : it was the parochial clergy only who felt the 234 REPRESENTATION OP LOWER HOESE [CHAP. X. " That the credit and influence of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction hath been much impaired by the corrupt pressure ; and it was a reasonable and charitable prayer that faith- ful churchwardens might labour under none. As to " the remiss- ness of ecclesiastical judges and their officers," the deputation of episcopal duties to such persons at all was represented by the laity of those days as a great inconvenience and evil. They com- plained bitterly that the power of excommunication and the general administration of the Church's discipline was trusted to lay hands, considering it " worse for lay chancellors, officials, commissaries, &c. to take away the keys of the church than its communion- plate ; godly discipline being a much rarer treasure than a golden chalice;" and they quote from Lord Bacon, " we see in all laws of the world, offices of confidence and skill cannot be put over, or exercised by deputy, except it be specially mentioned in the ori- ginal grant ; nor did any chancellor of England or any judge of any sort make a deputy. Surely, ab initio non it a fuit : but 'tis probable that bishops, when they gave themselves too much to the glory of the world, and became grandees in kingdoms, and great counsellors to princes, then did they deleague their proper jurisdic- tion, as things of too inferior a nature for their greatness ; and then, after the similitude and manner of kings and counts palatine, they would have their chancellors and judges." They also quote from Bishop Bedel, who had incurred great legal expenses and dis- favour, by insisting on the resumption of what he deemed his inde- feasible duties, nominally performed hitherto by a chancellor : " 'Tis one of the most essential parts of a bishop's duty, to govern his flock, and to inflict the spiritual censures on obstinate offenders. A bishop can no more delegate this power to a layman, than he can delegate a power to baptize or ordain, since excommunication and other censures are a suspending the rights of the baptized and ordained ; and therefore the withdrawing of these things can be- long only to him who had the power to give them ; and the dele- gating that power is a thing null in itself. It was ever looked on a necessary part of a bishop's duty, to examine and censure the scandals of the bishops and clergy, in ancient and modern times." — See Vox Populi, in State Tracts, vol. i. p. 684. It was certainly a strange change of places, the Bishop of Bristol, in this same reign, doing lay duty at home and abroad as Lord Privy Seal, and employ- ing a lay chancellor to do his own episcopal duty. 1702.] OV CONVOCATION. 235 practice of registers [registrars] in taking (contrary to the 135th Canon) other or greater fees than such as were certified to the most reverend the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the year 1597, and by him ratified and approved, &c. " That the suffering the seal of any jurisdiction to be kept by any other person but either the judge him- self, or his lawful substitute, exercising jurisdiction for him, hath occasioned many clandestine and corrupt practices, &c. " That many great inconveniences have ensued, and may hereafter arise, by the neglect of registers [re- gistrars] in not causing all testaments exhibited into their offices, to be registered within a convenient time, according to the direction given in the 134th Canon, &c. " That the exacting of excessive fees for collations and institutions, and particidarly the obliging the clergy at their institutions to pay great and unreasonable fees to the bishop's officers for sequestration and relaxa- tion, where there are several chapels of ease under one parish church, are a great and very oppressive burden upon the clergy. " That from the 137th Canon, concerning fees to be paid for showing letters of orders and other licences, occasion hath been taken unnecessarily to multiply in- struments, and to demand of the clergy at visitations fees for more instruments than they had or were bound to exhibit ; and contrary to the express words of that Canon, while fees for such instruments have been de- manded and paid more than once in the time of the said bishop. " That great trouble and charge hath been occa- sioned to several ministers through the default and misbehaviour of sub-collectors, and other officers em- 236 REPRESENTATION OF LOWER HOUSE [CHAP. X. ployed in the receiving of tenths, who have either de- manded and taken arbitrary and excessive fees in dis- charge of such tenths as have not been paid in time, or in prospect of some undue advantage have suffered tenths to lie long in arrear, to the prejudice of suc- ceeding ministers, who by this neglect stand often charged with the debts of their predecessors 6 . " That great encroachments have been made upon the rights and possessions of the Church by the general neglect of procuring and preserving true notes and terriers of glebe land, and other possessions belonging to churches, as is ordained by the 8 7th Canon. " That due care hath not been taken to observe that statute (29th Car. II. c. 8) which enacts, that every archbishop, bishop, dean and chapter, shall cause every lease or grant, wherein any augmentation for the use of any vicar or curate is made, to be entered in a book of parchment, to be kept by their registers [registrars], &c. " That in some late editions of the Holy Bible, and of the Liturgy of the Church of England, several gross errors have been committed. '•' This house had also intended to have offered to your lordships a representation (long since prepared by their committee, and which, had it not been for your 6 The bishops, it is humiliating to add, were themselves the collectors for the king, under 2f! Hen. VIII. c. 3, as they had formerly been for the pope. They were relieved of this duty by the Act 3 Geo. I. c. 10, " for the better collecting and levying the revenue of the tenths of the clergy," which appointed a collector who should give yearly notice of their being due in the London Gazette, and shall attend to receive them at such time as the governors (of Queen Anne's Bounty) shall appoint, between Christ- mas and the last day of April : defaulters to pay double. 1702.] OF CONVOCATION. 237 lordships' long recess, would have heen timely laid be- fore you) concerning the open immorality and pro- faneness of the stage, and of the insufferable liberty there taken to expose sacred things and persons ; which hath given just matter of scandal and grief to all serious Christians, and hath beeu one chief occasion of that corruption of manners and contempt of rebgion which at present prevail. But they find themselves happily prevented in this instance by the pious care of her majesty, in the late order given for repressing and restraining such great enormities for the future. They submit it, however, to your lordships' great wisdom and godly concern for religion, whether this house may not be permitted to join with your lordships in an ad- dress to her majesty, expressing our thanks for the seasonable interposition of her royal authority towards remedying these licentious practices, and our earnest desire and prayer that it may be effectual thoroughly to repress the same. " May it please your grace and your lordships : " These articles we humbly lay before your lord- ships, in hopes that some at least of the grievances therein represented may appear to your lordships (as all of them do to us) worthy of present deliberation and redress. " "We have chosen to offer them in general, without specifying on each head the particular facts on which they are based, as judging this method of application most decent, and most agreeable to ancient precedents 7 . 7 This seems intended as an indirect justification of their charge against Bishop Burnet's Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles, without specifying passages, a proceeding whicli the upper house had intern perately pronounced " defamatory and scandalous," in the Convocation of 1 70 1 . 238 ARCHDEACONS. [CHAP. X. We shall be ready, nevertheless, to bring in due form special proof of these general suggestions, whenever it shall be thought wanting, and whenever your lordships shall be pleased to demand it." The archbishop's answer to this very important do- cument, this ecclesiastical bill of rights, was sufficiently curt and crisp. " An order had been given in the upper house for the making out copies of this repre- sentation, both for the present and absent bishops, and he trusted that they would make the proper use of it at all times, and especially at their visitations." With regard to the heavy burdens which the clergy represented themselves as labouring under in the way of fees, Bishop Burnet himself goes a great way to corroborate the complaint, in his 'posthumous " Con- clusion," in stronger language than the lower house used, or than the present writer would adopt : " Arch- deacons' visitations were an invention of the latter ages, in which the bishops, neglecting their duty, cast a great part of their care upon them : now their visi- tations are only for form and for fees ; and they are a charge on the clergy ; so when this matter is well looked into, I hope archdeacons, with many other burdens that lay (sic) heavy on the clergy, shall be taken away. All the various instruments, upon which heavy fees must be raised, were the infamous con- trivances of the canonists, and can never be maintained, when well examined 8 ." 8 Own Times : " Conclusion," vol. iv. p. 421. Bishop Gibson thus describes the original office of the archdeacon : " As in their original institution they had no relation to the diocese, but only to the episcopal see ; so was it by several steps and degrees that they attained to the visitatorial power they now enjoy. At their first institution (which was about the latter end of the third 1702. J BISHOPS ABDICATE TTIEIR FUNCTIONS. 239 And certainly the document does exhibit the bishops of that day as "neglecting their duty," not only in conniving at spoliation and peculation in the matter of fees, and so countenancing oppressive exactions from poverty so intense as to elicit in the very next year the active sympathies of Queen Anne, but in every other of the matters represented. They had clearly abdicated their functions, and the parochial clergy had become, anomalously but virtually, the overseers of the Church, or occasion could not have been given for such a representation. What confidence there could be in the house of bishops under these circum- stances, to secure harmony in Convocations, might be easily foreseen. The bishops had placed the clergy in a false position, by leaving them to be overseers of the vineyard, instead of labourers in it. If inconveniences resulted ; if the office did not always sit easily and gracefully upon those for whom it was not made ; if jealousies ensued of their taking upon themselves to oversee and maintain the discipline of the Church, after apparently forcing them to do so, if it was to be overseen and maintained at all; there was no more than the common inconvenience of a false position. It is a device of the enemy, and a calumny, to sup- pose a quarrelsome spirit only as the cause of dis- sensions at that period between the two houses. The same authority says of the bishops, and very century) their proper business was to attend the bishop at the altar, to direct the deacons and other inferior officers in their several duties for the orderly performance of divine service, to attend the bishops at ordinations, and to assist him in the manage- ment of the revenues of the Church ; but without any thing that could be called jurisdiction, in the present sense of the word, either in the cathedral, or out of it." Codex, vol. ii. p. 909. 240 BISHOPS ABDICATE THEIE FUNCTIONS. [CHAP. X. truly, " Nothing will alienate the nation more from thein than their becoming tools to a court, and giving up the liberties of their country, and advancing ar- bitrary designs 9 ." Now the bishops of that day were under a peculiar temptation to become courtiers : the nonjuring bishops and clergy shunned the court, of course, and the conforming bishops and clergy would proportion ably cling to it, most naturally, to show their loyalty, and the absence of all sympathy with the nonjurors. But bishops could not be courtiers, without being exposed prima facie to a suspicion of Erastianism. And it is au historical fact that they were courtiers, and that they ivere Eras- tian. Here, then, was another source of that lament- able want of confidence in the bishops, constantly shown by the country clergy forming the staple of the lower house of Convocation. But, bishops could not, as courtiers, spend the greater part of the year in the purlieus of Whitehall and St. James's, and amidst that round of courtly frivolities and extravagances which Burnet posthumously laments as prevalent, and above all laments he had not strength himself to withstand, and be resident and active in their dioceses too. His words are remark- able: " I hope this is a burden to you (the bishops). It was indeed one of the greatest burdens of my life, to see so much time lost, to have so much idle talk, and to be living in a luxurious waste of that which might have been much better bestowed. I had not strength enough to break through that, which custom has imposed on those provided with plentiful bishop- rics : I pray God to help you to find a decent way 9 Own Times : " Conclusion," vol. iv. p. 424. 1702.] BISHOPS ABDICATE THEIR FUNCTIONS. 241 of laying this down 1 ." One may well lament that a man, capahle of such just views in his library, should have been thrown amid the heats and temptations of the Presence Chamber, the House of Bishops, and the House of Lords, which he was equally powerless to resist. But, however that might be, how could the ill-paid and over-worked country pastor be expected to have sympathy with and confidence in such an Episco- pate, thus deserting their posts, so as to act har- moniously with it long together ? Might it not be a pardonable anxiety for the Church, and not necessarily bad temper, if he (the country pastor) looked more narrowly into the claims set up by the upper house, not merely to pre-eminence, but to a despotism, when he saw that power not used for the Church, but in re- gistering court rescripts ? Men are ever apt to think their own troubles the greatest : but we, of this age, may take heart and be thankful that the Episcopate of this day is not under the same strong temptation, as was the case while there were nonjurors standing aloof, to prove their loyalty to the crown, by neglecting the duties which they owe to their dioceses and to the Church. If the clergy of that day were trodden under courtly feet as the worm, even the worm will turn. But it woidd be uncharitable and untrue to account for such dissensions in this way only, viz. by any re- sentment or indignation felt by the lower house. They who can disentangle themselves (as few writers have done 2 ) from the party-colouring of the Convoca- 1 Own Times : " Conclusion," vol. iv. p. 422. 2 Dr. Cardwell, in his Synodalia, is no exception. His work purports to be " The Proceedings of Convocations, with Notes historical and explanatory." But his commentary, in this part of it, too often displays a slavish deference to the bitter dogmatism of 242 CONVOCATION DISSOLVED. [CHAP. X. tional history of that period by Burnet, and Kennet, and Tindal, may be able to detect worthier motives and loftier inspirations in the great body of the lower house, upon whom, on the credit of these authorities, it has been the fashion to throw the whole obloquy, than those writers have awarded to them. Thus much of the important and remarkable docu- ment presented by the lower house. If it was practi- cally rejected 3 , it could be from no lack of reverence in its form and manner ; their very reverence for the episcopal office would but make them feel the more acutely the inadequacy and the short-comings forced upon then* daily notice in its realization. With its presentation the Convocation dispersed, both the king and the prolocutor being now dead, and " in the Act that empowered the Parbament to sit after the king's death, no provision was made to continue the Convoca- tion. The Earl of Eochester moved, in the House of Lords, that it might be considered, whether the Con- vocation was not a part of the Parliament, and whether Burnet in defence of his order, and does little more towards illus- trating the test, than too many other " commentaries." The Church is, however, under an obligation to him for assisting to bring the text into notice — such portions of it, that is, as his work embraces. 3 In the Convocation of 1705 we find the lower house thus alluding to it : " They have likewise taken into consideration the representation of grievances formerly offered to your lordships, together witli the speech of your grace relating thereto ; and are ?nuch concerned to find that that representation, though containing sundry proposals of great importance, as they conceive, towards reviving the discipline of the Church by a due execution of the Canons already in force, hath not yet had its desired effect." Burnet cannot allude to the presentation of the document, and its neglect, without exhibiting his usual blandness : " They continued their former ill practices, but little opposition was made to them, as very little regard was had to them." Own Times, vol. iv. p. 57- 1702.] SPIRITUAL MINISTRY DISSOLVED. 243 it was not continued, in consequence of the Act that continued the Parliament. But that was soon let fall ; for the judges were all of opinion that it was dissolved by the king's death V Upon the accession of Queen Anne, the commission for disposing of ecclesiastical preferments was at once dissolved. The Convocation sat again, with the new Parliament, in the autumn of this year. After presenting a joint address to the queen, which was graciously answered by an assurance of all favour and protection to the Church, and an exhortation to peace and unity among themselves, the lower house again memorialized the House of Bishops, that they might find an expedient for putting an end to those disputes that had stopped the proceedings of former Convocations. The bishops still denying the power of the lower house to adjourn itself independently, were asked to join in a petition to the queen to decide this dispute. Upon their refusal, the lower house petitioned separately, desiring her protection, and praying her to hear and determine the point at issue. It was thought a point of great practical importance, as, at present, the archbishop's ab- solute power of adjournment put it in his power to stop a debate of the lower house at any moment he pleased ; and this arbitrary power might be used — they affirmed had been used — against the interests of the Church. What power the queen could be supposed to have to correct the evil, if it was one, is less clear, even if she were willing. The reason assigned by the lower house for such a reference was at least a very fair one, viz. that they did not deem either house a good judge in 4 Own Times, vol. iii. p. 437- R 2 244 CO>TOCATIO>". [CHAP. X. its own cause. It will be seen 5 that the lower house at the same time consulted the lower house of Convo- cation in Ireland, as to the practice of the Convocation of that Church in regard of intermediate sessions. This some may think a wise step towards a solution of their very embarrassing difficulty, in the way of colla- teral testimony. She was supposed to receive their address favourably ; she said she would consider of it, and send them her answer. " The matter," says Burnet, " was now brought into the hands of the ministers. The Earl of Nottingham was of their side, but confessed that he understood not the controversy 6 . The judges and the queen's councd were ordered to examine how the matter stood in point of law, which was thus stated to them : The constant practice, as far as we had books or records, was, that the archbishop prorogued the Convocation by a schedule ; of this the form was so fixed, that it could not be altered but by Act of Parliament ; there was a clause in the schedule that continued all matters before the Convocation, in the state in which they then were, to the day to which he prorogued them ; this made it evident that there could be no intermediate session ; for a session of the lower house could, by passing a vote on any matter, alter the state in which it was 7 ." This is a common s See p. 272. " It appears, however, from Wilkins, that he adopted a very sen- sible and straightforward method of acquainting himself with it, by consulting the Irish bishops upon this and other matters in dispute, a s regarded the practice of the Irish Convocation, and found the English bishops wrong, or, at least, refusing concessions freely made to the clergy of Ireland. Bishop Burnet knew this when he wrote this sentence, but suppresses it. 7 Own Times, vol. iv. 1702.] CONVOCATION. 245 instance of Burnet's unscrupulous partisanship. He says the point at issue was " so stated " to the queen's council and judges. By whom ? A common reader would understand from this that a statement or case had heen agreed on mutually by both houses to submit to the law officers of the crown. But this is differ- ent ; for it requires no lawyer to see that, according to this statement, the bishops must be riyht. "Whereas, Burnet himself says, that the Earl of Nottingham, a sagacious man, used to difficult questions of state, and not an inattentive observer of those of the Church, " confessed that he understood not the controversy." And, moreover, the law officers could never decide the point ; or, if they could and did, it never came to light, and must have been in favour of the lower house ; for, had it been otherwise, it is difficult to suppose that the bishops had not too much influence with the court to prevent its suppression. And yet, in the face of all this, Burnet says, with perfect complacency, " It was kept a secret what opinion the lawyers came to in this matter ; it was not doubted but they (the lawyers) were against the claims of the lower house. The queen made no answer to the address ; and it teas believed that the reason of this was because the answer must, according to the opinion of the lawyers, have been contrary to what they expected 8 ." And in the Con- vocation of 1705 we find Archbishop Tenison rebuking the lower house for holding intermediate sessions, with all the severity that could have been assumed, had the judges and law officers pronounced such intermediate sessions illegal. It were well for the reputation of Bishop Burnet, and of subsequent writers trusting Own Times, vol. iii. p. 482. 246 king's evil. [chap. X. heedlessly to Burnet, if this were the only, or even an uncommon instance of his unscrupulous misrepresen- tation and perversion of historical facts. And so, after some other unimportant matters, which need not be introduced here, ended this Convo- cation, whose dissensions first gave rise, at this time, to the equally unsatisfactory party appellations of High Church and Low Church. Before ending this chapter, it may be as well to notice a well-known instance of popular superstition, still current in the reign of Queen Anne, as one of the last relics of popish credulity, but now happily ex- ploded. Though James was now (1702) dead, there was a Prince of Wales as "pretender" to the throne ; and Anne's right, therefore, would be canvassed, as William's had been. In order to assuage any dissatis- faction on this ground, this moment was chosen for the publication of the memoirs of her grandfather, the Earl of Clarendon, which were thought conducive to that end. But a much more remarkable expedient was resorted to with this view, which we shall describe in the words of Tindal : " To prove the queen's right more effectually, the queen's heirship was traced down from Edward the Confessor, and, as a visible proof of it, the queen was put upon curing [?] the 'king's evil,' according to the Divine gift [?] descended on all the hereditary kings from the Confessor. Care, therefore, was taken to insert it in the public newspapers, in one of which it was said, ' Yesterday the queen was gra- ciously pleased to touch for the king's evil some par- ticular persons in private ;' and, three weeks after- wards (December 19), ' Yesterday her majesty was graciously pleased to touch at St. James's, about twelve at noon, about twenty persons afilicted with the king's 1702.] king's evil. 247 evil.' Again, at Bath, October 6, 'A great number of persons coming to tbis place to be touclied by tbe queen's majesty for tbe evil, ber majesty commanded Dr. Tbomas Gardner, her chief physician, to examine them all particularly, which accordingly was done by him ; of whom but thirty appeared to have the evil, which he certified by tickets as usual ; and these thirty were all touched that day privately, by reason of her majesty not having a proper conveniency for the so- lemnity. To make the thing the more serious, an office was inserted in the Liturgy, to be used on this occa- sion 9 ." Wdkins, in his " Concilia," gives the form of prayer, with the accompanying ceremonies, as adopted by Charles I. ; also his ordinance, directing, very sensibly, that the " solemnity " should henceforth be at Easter and Michaelmas, instead of Easter and Whitsuntide, the latter being unpleasantly hot for such a duty *. It is well known that Dr. Johnson describes himself to have been touched by Queen Anne for the king's evil. "We suppose he was cured, if ever he had it. But Bishop Bull acknowledges that some were not cured 2 . While this singidar branch of the royal prerogative was being exercised, it seems to have been the custom for the royal chaplain to kneel near the person of majesty with white ribbons strung on his arm ; and on these mysterious white ribbons were strung mysterious little pieces of pure gold, which the queen, after stroking and touching the patients, bound on their arms, or about the neck. 9 Tindal, Contin. of Rapin, vol. i. p. 375. 1 " March 27, 1684. There was so great a concourse of people with their children to be touched for the ' evil,' that six or seven were crushed to death, by pressing at the chirurgeon's door for tickets." Evelyn. 2 Serm. " St. Paul's Thorn in the Flesh explained." CHAPTER XI. a.d. 1703, 1704. Archbishop of Canterbury. Queen of England. Thomas Tenison. Anne. The accession of Anne, though humbly petitioned, and personally willing, brought no hope to the suffering Church in Scotland. On the contrary, an Act was passed in the Scottish Parliament, and confirmed by the imperial government, embodying the spirit and inten- tion of the old and awful league and covenant. This Act not only confirmed the claim of rights upon which the crown had been offered to the late king, one of these rights being a claim to be freed from prelacy, and for what they called parity in the Church, but it ivas declared high-treason to endeavour any alteration in it. It had been often proposed to the late king to pass this into an act, but he would never consent to it. He said he had taken the crown on the terms in that claim, and that therefore he would never make a breach in any part of it ; but he would not bind his successors by making it a perpetual law '. A bill was offered on the 1st of June of this year (1703) to the Scottish Parliament, for the toleration of the Church in that country, which seemed a no very immodest or extravagant boon to ask of those whom the Church so 1 Own Times, vol. iv. p. 21. PRESBYTERIAN INTOLERANCE. 249 amply tolerated on this side of the Tweed. However, the General Assembly, true to its principles, professed to be alarmed, and panic-stricken, and scandalized, by such a project, and interposed a painful discourse and protestation, which brought about the somewhat dif- ferent enactment above described. These worthy mi- nisters and elders, uudegenerate sons of John Knox, thus concluded their very notable manifesto : — " That they were persuaded that to enact a toleration for those of the episcopal way, which God in his mercy avert ! would be to establish iniquity by law." In this year Kidder, Ken's successor in the diocese of Bath and Wells, was killed in his bed, with his wife, by the falling of a stack of chimneys, in the palace at Wells, on the night of the great storm, 26th and 27th November. Mr. Bowles gives an original letter of Ken's in reference to his successor: — "I, hearing that the Bishop of St. Asaph was offered Bath and Wells, and that on my account he refused it, wrote to give my assent to it. I did it in regard to the diocese, that they might not have a latitudinarian traditor imposed on them, who would betray the baptismal faith." The letter so written was as follows : — " I am informed that you have the offer of Bath and Wells, and that you refused it, which I take very kindly, because I know you did it on my account ; but since I am well assured that the diocese cannot be happy to that degree in any other hands than in your own, I desire you to accept of it. I told you long ago, at Bath, how willing I was to surrender my canonical claims to a worthy person, but to none more willingly than to yourself." The Bishop of St. Asaph, Dr. Hooper, accordingly accepted it, after holding St. Asaph a few months only. It is sufficient praise of him, that he and Ken had been to- 250 BISHOP HOOPER [CHAP. XI. gether under the paternal auspices of Morley, Bishop of Winchester, the latter presenting him to the living of Havant, which he exchanged for that of East Woodhay, both in Hampshire. In 1675, Archbishop Sheldon had given him the valuable rectory of Lam- beth. Having attended the Princess Mary to Holland, as her almoner, her only recorded instance of disobe- dience to her husband's wishes procured him, on her accession, the deanery of Canterbury, in 1691. He proved a worthy successor of Ken in the diocese of Bath and Wells, and presided over it twenty-four years. Mr. Bound gives the following interesting letter 2 to Bishop Hooper, referring to this appointment : — " All glory be to God 3 . " My good lord, " Tour lordship gave me a wonderful surprise when you informed me that the queen had been pleased to settle a very liberal pension on me. I beseech God to accumulate the blessings of both lives on her majesty for her royal bounty to me, so perfectly free and un- expected ; and I beseech God abundantly to reward my lord treasurer [Godolphin], who inclined her to be thus gracious to me, and to give him a plentiful mea- sure of wisdom from above. " My lord, let it not shock your native modesty, if I make this just acknowledgment, that though the sense I have of her majesty's favour in the pension is de- servedly great, yet the choosing you for my successor gave me much more satisfaction ; as my concern for the eternal welfare of the flock exceeded all regard for my 2 Ken's Prose Works, p. 7«. 3 Ken's constant inscription on his letters. 1703, 1701.] SUCCEEDS TO BATH AND AVELLS. 251 own temporal advantage, being as truly conscious of my own infirmities as I am assured of your excellent abilities, of which the diocese, even at your first ap- pearance, especially reaped the fruits. God of his in- finite goodness keep us in his reverential love, and make us wise for eternity. " My lord, " Tour lordship's most affectionate friend and brother, " Tho. Ken, late Bath and Wells. " June 7th, 1704." In a subsequent letter of Dec. 27, to Lloyd, deprived Bishop of Norwich, who at first, in common with many other nonjurors, appears to have disapproved his ces- sion in favour of Bishop Hooper, he says, " It is no small satisfaction to me that you approve of my choice in good earnest. I had such experience of one before [Kidder], who, instead of keeping the flock within the fold, encouraged them to stray, that I was afraid of a traditor, and in such a time as this, thought I could not do a greater kindness to the diocese than in pro- curing it one of the most valuable men in the Church, and one who is very able to defend the depositum, which seems to me to be in the utmost danger." And again, to the same, Feb. 21, 1705 : — " I am now at Sarum, where I am detained by a lame horse, but hope to be gone, God willing, to-morrow, and to be at Nash on Saturday or Monday, there to spend my Lent. You cannot imagine the universal satisfaction expressed for Dr. Hooper's coming to my see ; and I make no doubt but that he will rescue the diocese from the apostasy from ' the faith once delivered to the saints,' which at 252 IMMOEAXITY OF THE STAGE. [CHAP. XL present threatens us. and from the spirit of latitudi- narianism, which is a common-sewer of all heresies imaginable ; and I am not a little satisfied that I have made the best provision for mv flock which was pos- sible in our present circumstances '." 1704. — This year Queen Anne published an order for the regulation of playhouses, prohibiting them to act any that was contrary to religion and good man- ners, and that no woman should come into the play- house in a vizard-mask. The stage was at this period partaking, as was to be expected, of all the licentious- ness of the age. As an instance, we may remind the reader that mention was made, in an early portion of this work, of an awful earthquake in the year 1692, which destroyed the town of Port Eoyal. in Jamaica. Its horrors were brought so near home, that William, absent as usual in a campaign, had barely time to leave the house he was in, in Flanders, before it fell. The shock was sensibly felt in England. This was blas- phemously made the subject of a stage-play at South- wark fair. Queen Mary had, indeed, put this down : but undid all her exertions of this kind, by her con- stant attendance at other theatres, where the language of her favourite contemporary dramatist, Congreve. was as offensive to morals, and the exhibition scarcely more refined. The continued necessity, therefore, of royal interference as above, was to be expected. J eremy Collier gives a detailed account of stage immorality and profaneness. If a phenomenon, looked upon at the time as a solemn judgment and warning of Heaven, was made the subject of vulgar buffoonery, we are little surprised to find Collier describing the clergy as its 4 Ken's Prose Works, p. 81. 1703, 1704.] QUEEN ANNE'S BOUNTY. 253 favourite subjects : — " These poets, I observe, when they grow lazy, and are inclined to nonsense, com- monly get a clergyman to speak it. Thus they pass their- own dulness for humour, and gratify their ease and their malice at once 5 ." The religious strife of the last century woidd of course have that tendency. The stage came under the notice of Convocation in ] 701 and 1705. The licentiousness of the stage at that time will also be found discussed shortly afterwards in the Spectator of April 28, 1711. The writer says, " If men of wit, who think fit to write for the stage, instead of this pitiful way of giving delight, would turn their thoughts upon raising it from such good natural impulses as are in the audience, but are choked up by vice and luxury, they would not only please, but befriend us at the same time." From this, among other proofs, it seems that the queen's injunction failed in its object. On February the 6th of tins year (her birth-day) Mr. Secretary Hodges delivered to the House of Com- mons a message from her majesty, importing that " her majesty having taken into her serious consideration the mean and insufficient maintenance belonging to the clergy in divers parts of this kingdom, to give them some ease, had been pleased to remit the arrears of the tenths to the poor clergy : for an augmentation of their maintenance her majesty declared that she would make a grant of her whole revenue arising out of the first-fruits and tenths, as far as it should be- come free from incumbrances, to be applied to this purpose ; and if the House of Commons could find any 5 Short View of the Profaneness and Immorality of the English Stage, p. 72. 2o4> QUEEN ASTiE's BOUNTY. [CHAP. XI. proper method by which her majesty's good intentions to the poor clergy might be made more effectual, it would be a great advantage to the public, and accept- able to her majesty." Hereupon the Commons, in an humble address, " returned her majesty their most humble thanks for the increasing of the maintenance of the poor clergy out of her own revenue ; assuring her withal they would do their utmost to make her majesty's charitable intentions most effectual." Ac- cordingly, a bill was brought in for that purpose ; and, four days afterwards, the archbishop, bishops, and clergy of the province of Canterbury, in Convocation assembled, acknowledged the queen's bounty in an humble address to her majesty, who took this oppor- tunity again to assure them that she would always con- tinue to protect the Church of England. Moreover, the lower house of Convocation returned their solemn thanks to the Commons for " their readiness to assist and further her majesty's charitable intentions, and to espouse the interests of the clergy." And on the last day of that month, the clergy of the province of York also addressed her majesty upon the same subjects 6 . " This branch," says Bishop Burnet, " was an im- position begun by the popes in the time of the holy wars, and it was raised as a fund to support these ex- peditions. But when once taxes are raised by such an arbitrary power as the popes then assumed, and after there has been a submission, and the payments have been settled into a custom, they are always continued, even after the pretence upon which they were first raised subsists no more. So this became a standing branch of the papal revenue, till Henry VHI. seemed resolved to take it away. It was first abolished for a 6 Boyer's Life of Queen Anne, p. 119. 1703, 1704.] QUEEN ANNE'S BOUNTY. 255 year, probably to draw in the clergy to consent the more willingly to a change that delivered them from such heavy impositions. But in the succeeding session of Parliament this revenue was again settled as part of the income of the crown for ever. It is true, it was the more easily borne, because the rates were still at the old value, which in some places were not the tenth, and in most not above the fifth part of the true value. And the clergy had often been threatened with a new valuation, in which the rates should be rigorously set to their full amount 1 . " The tenths amounted to about 11,000Z. a year, and the first-fruits, which were more casual, rose one year with another 5000Z. ; so the whole amounted to between sixteen and seventeen thousand a year. This was not brought into the treasury, as the other branches of the revenue, but the bishops 8 , who had been the pope's collectors, were now the king's ; so persons hi favour obtained assignations on them, for life or for a term of years. This had never been applied to any good use, but was still obtained by favourites, for themselves and their friends ; and in King Charles the Second's time it went chiefly among his women and natural chddren. It seemed strange that, while the clergy had much credit at court, they had never repre- sented this as sacrilege, unless it was applied to some 7 This ingenious device of the royal, as a substitute for and im- provement upon the papal supremacy, would have been sufficiently amusing, had it not involved the darkest sacrilege. Burnet thinks the year's remission, while in transitu, was intended as a sop; but we may as reasonably suppose the real cause to have been a want of readiness, even in Henry VIII., to extemporize such plunder : a year's consideration would not seem too much even for him to mature such a scheme of spoliation as this. s See p. 235. 256 QUEE> T AJTCTE'S BOTJXTT. [CHAP. XI. religious purpose, and tbat during Archbishop Laud's favour with King Charles I., or at the restoration of King Charles EL, no endeavour had been made to ap- propriate this to better uses. Sacrilege was charged on other things, on very slight grounds, but this, which was more visible, was always forgot. " When I wrote the History of the Reformation, I considered this matter so particularly, that I saw here was a proper fund, for providing better subsistence to the poor clergy ; we have among us some hundreds of cures not amounting of a certainty to 201. a year ; and some thousands that have not fifty 9 . When the encouragement is so small, what can it be expected clergymen should be ? It is a crying scandal, that at the restoration of King Charles the Second, the bishops and other dignitaries, who raised much above a million in fines, yet did so little this way : I had possessed the late queen with this, so that she was fully resolved, if ever she had Uved to see peace and settle- ment, to have cleared this branch of the revenue of all the assignations that were upon it, and to have applied it to the augmentation of small benefices. This is plainly insinuated in the essay that I wrote on her memory some time after her death. I laid the matter 3 In 1738 there were found to be — 1071 livings not exceeding £10 per annum. 1417 » 20 1126 „ „ 30 1049 „ „ 40 884 „ „ 50 5547 (P.S. to Dr. Barton's Sermon before Sons of the Clergy, 1739.) After allowing for the altered value of money, the following tabular statement from the Blue Book (Report of Ecclesiastical 1703, 170+.] QUEEN ANNE's BOUNTY. 2-37 before the late king, when there was a prospect of peace, both as a proper expression of his thankfulness to Almighty God, and of his care of the Church. I hoped that this might have gained the hearts of the clergy. It might have at least put a stop to the groundless clainour raised against him, that he was an enemy to the clergy, which began then to have a very Commissioners, 1835) will show the restoration of the fund to the Church to have been attended with the happiest consequences : 297 livings under £50 1629 ,,100 1602 „ 150 1354 „ 200 1979 ,,300 6861 livings (out of 10,478) under £300, not deducting outgoings for curates, &c. &c. &c. If this shows there is much yet to do, it shows also how much has been done, which will be further evident from the following summary, taken from a copious History of the Bounty, drawn up by the present intelligent treasurer, Mr. Hodgson, and published by Messrs. Rivington : The governors, up to 31 st December, 1 844, have appropriated, out of the Royal Bounty Fund, to meet grants by benefactors and by lots ..... £1,900,900 Out of parliamentary grants . . 1 ,500,700 Total . . . £3,401,600 All archbishops and bishops (except the Bishop of Sodor and Man), and all deans of cathedral churches, and various government officers, are ex-officio members of the corporation. It is comforting to find, from Mr. Hodgson's History, that, since the time of Queen Anne, benefactors have not been wanting to follow in her steps. S 258 QUEEN ANNE'S BOUNTY. [chap. XI. ill effect on all his affairs. He entertained this so well, that he ordered me to speak to his ministers about it. They all approved of it : the Lord Somers and the Lord Halifax did it in a particular manner. But the Earl of Sunderland obtained an assignation upon two dioceses, for two thousand pounds a year for two lives ; so nothing was to be hoped for after that. I laid this matter very fully before the present queen, in the king's time, and had spoken often of it to the Lord G-odolphin." Burnet cannot resist the temptation of a thrust at Archbishop Laud, as a political and ecclesiastical op- ponent ; but the dissenting persecution, which was the recoil from that excellent prelate's unwise hyper-ri- tualism, left little leisure for practical reforms. Burnet can make this charitable allowance for his patroness, Mary : his own words, in the passage above quoted, are, " if ever slie had lived to see peace and settlement." It is sufficiently strange that any bishop should have been quiescent, and still more so, that they should have permitted, in general, excessive distraints upon their already impoverished clergy 10 . " This time was perhaps chosen," — it would be strange if Burnet could forego his favourite figure of a stroke of policy in every thing, — " to pacify the angry clergy, who were dissatisfied with the court, and began now to talk of the danger the Church was in, as much as they had done during the former reign. When the queen's message was brought to the House of Com- mons, some of the "Whigs, particularly Sir John Hol- land, and Sir Joseph Jekyll, moved that the clergy 10 See p. 235. 1703, 1704.] QUEEN ANNE'S BOUNTY. 259 might be entirely freed from that tax, since they bore as heavy a share of other taxes 1 ; and that another fund might be raised of the same value, out of which small benefices might be augmented. But this was violently opposed by Musgrave, and other Tories, who said the clergy ought still to be kept in dependence on the crown. " Upon the queen's message, a bill was brought in, enabling her to alienate this branch of the revenue, and to create a corporation by charter, to apply it to the use for which she now gave it. They added to this a repeal of the Statute of Mortmain, so far as that it might be free to all men, either by deed or by their last wills, to give what they thought fit towards the augmenting of benefices. It occasioned a great debate in the House of Lords. It was said that this law was made and kept up even during the times of popery ; and it seemed not reasonable to open a door to prac- tices upon dying men. It was answered that we had not the arts of affrighting men by the terrors of pur- gatory, or by fables of apparitions. Where these were practised, it was very reasonable to restrain priests from those acts by which they had so enriched their Church, that without some such effectual checks they would have swallowed up the whole wealth of the world, as they had indeed in England, during popery, made themselves masters of a full third part of the nation. The bishops were so zealous and unanimous for the bill, that it was carried and passed into a law. The queen was pleased to let it be known, that the 1 They were paying a heavier share of local taxation, at least, if assessments were then made as now, than any other class of the Queen's subjects whatever. Certainly they are doing so now, as the Annual Indemnity Bill testifies. s 2 260 QUEEN ANNE'S BOUNTY. [CHAP. XI. first motion of this matter came from me. Such a project would have been much magnified at another time : and those, 'who had promoted it, would have been looked on as the truest friends of the Church. But this did not seem to make any great impression at that time ; only it produced a set of addresses, from all the clergy of Eugland, full of thanks and just ac- knowledgments V It does not answer Burnet's purpose to record what Barrow, and Sancroft, and Compton had, not only wished, but done in this matter; how Sancroft had aug- mented the living of Sandon, Herts, of which he was patron, as Dean of St. Paul's, and Fressingfield, at his own personal cost, and Compton several others not specified ; an example nobly followed since ; and how Sancroft, when raised to the primacy, had carried out his long-cherished wishes in this direction much farther 3 ; and how likely it was that Queen Anne her- self was as much moved by their acts, as his own (Burnet's) words. Burnet says, " the queen was pleased to let it be known that the first motion of this matter came from him." Some curious reader may be able to find how and when the queen made this known. What more Burnet would have had the clergy do by way of acknowledgment, it is hard to guess. " A set of addresses from all the clergy of England, full of thanks and just acknowledgments," was likely to satisfy the queen. The secret is, he received no ad- dresses. But, that Tie should expect to be held up 2 Own Times, vol. iv. pp. 40 — 43. 3 He augmented the living of Maidstone, and many other places, when renewing the leases of impropriate rectories and tithes be- longing to his see. 1703, 1704.] QUEEN ANTE'S BOUNTY. 2G1 from this time as a model churchman, in all respects, because he had done well, albeit very cheaply, in one, is but another proof of that overweening vanity and self-sufficiency which were the distinguishing lines of his character, which made him at once the ready slave and unrelenting agent of party spirit. Still, though his essential littleness of mind will not allow him to speak even of so simple and intelligible a matter as this, a mere matter of equitable restitution, without insinuating that his opponents did not enough for him in return, and that his sovereign did it as an act of policy, rather than of beneficence and justice ; we are willing to view him as doing the Church good service by his advice on this subject, even though his example was wanting. Driven as we are to differ so often from Bishop Burnet, and to caution the reader against the representations of a tortuous and calculating policy, measuring principles by results, when we would fain draw reverent attention to him, a Christian bishop, as, in an evil generation, an expounder of high moralities and eternal truth, measuring results by prin- ciples ; and though we cannot allow ourselves to beheve that even his costless advice was by any means the chief, much less the sole, consideration operating on the queen's mind — the queen was not used to ask Burnet's advice at all, for she heartUy detested him, and there were so many obvious influences (we have named some) so much more likely to lead her to this gracious act — still, we would rather err on the side of charity, and view it as a bright spot in his character, and a pleasurable halting-place in going through his career. A reproach was taken away from the crown, and a hardship and injustice from the Church ; and his con- 262 CONDITION OF COUNTRY CLEEGT. [CHAP. XI. duct in this instance, viewed with whatever abatement of his own conceited account of it, and however inferior in self-denial to that of one whom he asserted to have "died despicably," may be allowed to go some small way towards justifying Mr. Macaulay's eulo- gium of his " ever-ready good nature to the unfortu- nate." The condition of the country clergy, on the whole, had been certainly most unfortunate. No great de- ductions need be made from Mr. Macaulay's tableau, its darkest shadows need little softening down, there was too much foundation for what he says of their poverty, though less for the unqualified barbarism in which he has gratuitously clothed it. Curacies in those times were commonly spoken of as from 201. to 30Z. a year (see "Vox Populi"), and many incumbents must have been as ill provided, if not pluralists, when there were "many hundreds of livings under 20Z." We find Stackhouse descanting, not unenviously, on the better case of the parish clerk ; and the broker's humorous account (Spectator of May 7, 1712,) of the tavern feastings of those well-paid functionaries, " with grave countenances, short wigs, black clothes, or dark camlet trimmed with black, and mourning gloves and hat-bands, keeping up a sort of moving club," feasting on capons and canary, shows that the temporalty of divine worship had an infinite advantage over the spiritualty. There is some reason for believing that, at this period of her reign, Queen Anne designed also to restore to the Church the right of nominating her own chief officers ; and certainly, though we find no fault with the exercise of the royal supremacy in this respect, "quantum per legem Christi licet," the Church might 1703, 1701.] 3IAELBOEOTTGH SUPEEMACT. 263 as well have had the right as the Duchess of Marl- borough, — a woman so grossly profane as to be capa- ble of insulting her royal mistress within the walls of St. Paul's, at a public thanksgiving for her husband's victory ; and of whom even Swift was constrained to say, "the lady is not without some degree of wit, which she shows by the usual mode of the times, in arguing against religion, and endeavouring to prove the doctrines of Christianity impossible 4 ." Such a character extorted from one so little rigid himself, that Archbishop Sharp, when consulted by Anne, said that " it woidd be as well if her majesty were to ascer- tain whether he were a Christian, before she made him a bishop" (why he was more fit to be a dean does not appear), does not indicate Sarah of Marlborough as the best distributor of Church patronage ; but such, for a time, she was, as also proroguer of Convocations, arbitress of the subjects on which they might delibe- rate, in a word, wielder of the supremacy, defender of the faith 5 . This disgraceful scene, more disgraceful than uncommon, in their singular intercourse, happened on August 19, 1708. This person's invectives began on Ludgate Hill, when she first perceived that the queen had come without her diamonds, which her vulgar sus- picions tortured into an intended insult of the duke. The poor queen's distress was seen by every body, and, 4 Swift's Four last Years of Queen Anne, in Works, by Scott, vol. v. p. 27. 5 The conduct of the queen, while under the Marlborough spell, in surrendering Church appointments to her inexorable and unprin- cipled favourite, led at the time to a jeu d' esprit more remarkable for its truth than elegance : " When Anna was the Church's daughter, She did whate'er her mother taught her ; But now she's mother to the Church, She leaves her daughter in &c. &c." 264 LOCKE. after she had taken her seat, she was told, it was heard, to " hold her tongue." The distinguished author of the " Letters concerning Toleration," John Locke, died at this time, on October the 20th, of this year (1704). He was born at Wring- ton, in Somersetshire, in 1632, and graduated at Christ Church, Oxford, while the University was under the Presbyterian discipline. Few individuals had more to do with the moulding of the Revolution than John Locke. CHAPTER XII. a.d. 1705. Archbishop of Canterbury. Queen of England. Thomas Tenison. Anne. Unsoftened by the consciousness of having taken a part in a good action, we next find Burnet, as the episcopal Busby, exercising his fende upon the backs of the obnoxious majority of the English clergy (it is an unwonted stretch of beneficence and candour on his j>art, to spare any, and only to be accounted for by his knowledge of a certain protest now going round the province, which will be noticed hereafter), and scolding them in the burly language that follows : " The queen, as she thanked them (the commons) for the supplies, so she again recommended ' union and moderation' to them. These words, which had car- ried hitherto so good a sound, that all sides pretended to them, were now become so odious to violent men, that even in sermons, chiefly at Oxford, they were arraigned as importing somewhat that was unkind to the Church, and that favoured the dissenters. " The Universities, Oxford especially, have been very unhappily successful in corrupting the principles of those who were sent to be bred among them. So that few of them escaped the taint of it, and the gene- rality of the clergy were not only ill-principled, but 266 bvbxet's bailing accusations, [chap. xii. ill-tempered. They exclaimed against all moderation (?) as endangering the Church, though it is visible that the Church is in no sort of danger, from either the number or the interest that the dissenters have among us, which by reason of the toleration is now so quieted, that nothing can keep up any heat in those matters, but the folly and the bad humour that the clergy are possessed with, and which they infuse into all those with whom they have credit '." Unhappily, these railing accusations against the parochial clergy are not confined to a work pub- lished posthumously ; but this time he — he who would be kind, according to Mr. Macaulay, to infidels and heretics, if their fives were pure, and whose " nature was kind, generous, grateful, and forgiving ; emphati- cally an honest man 2 " — took advantage of his official position to embody them in a charge. In this charge, delivered to the clergy of his diocese, and afterwards printed, he spoke of the clergy, because they had com- plained of his Exposition of the Articles, as " enemies to the bishops, to the queen, and to the nation." When the Convocation met, the lower house called upon the upper to " interpose their authority," and to obtain for them " some speedy and sufficient repara- tion ;" placing a paper to this effect on the table of the upper house on the 14th February, 1705. On the same day the archbishop informed them, that " it was very irregular to hold intermediate sessions, and ad- monished them to hold no more such sessions, as being a violation of the president's right, and contrary to the constant custom of Convocation." This, to say the 1 Own Times, vol. iv. p. 56. 2 Hist. Eng. vol. ii. p. 175, 4th ed. 1705.] INTERMEDIATE SESSIONS. 267 least of it, was premature, and may be taken as an instance of the overbearing spirit displayed in the upper house by others as well as Bishop Burnet. For the reader will bear in mind that this very point, the alleged illegality of the intermediate sessions of the lower house, had, at the request of the lower house, been submitted to the judges and law-officers of the crown by the queen, in 1702 3 ; and the judges and law-officers of the crown had not yet given hi their answer. Such intermediate sessions of the lower house might be highly inconvenient, by furnishing more matter for the consideration of the upper house than was compatible with such a life of courtly plea- sure and dissipation as we have seen admitted and so deeply lamented by Bishop Burnet : but to denounce them thus positively and angrily as " an invasion of the president's right," — thus assuming the right to have been determined by the canons, whereas the judges and law-officers of the crown had given no such determination, but were still considering it, — was pre- mature and irregular. And this, as an instance of the spirit displayed by the upper house at that time, is a further help towards disposing of the vulgar and groundless assertion, that the contentiousness of the clergy only was the cause of the long abeyance of sy- nodal action which soon afterwards ensued. Addressed in this way, we are not surprised to find the lower house answer, by saying that they respectfully declined to comply with the archbishop's injunction, if it were intended as a paternal admonition, but protesting against it as void and of no effect in law, if it were intended as a judicial act. 3 See p. 243. 2GS LETTER TO THE [CHAP. XII. Five days afterwards we find the lower house ad- dressing the following letter to the house of bishops : " To the most reverend the President, and the right reverend the Bishops, in Convocation assembled. " The lower house of Convocation think it becomes them to remind your lordships, of a motion formerly made by them concerning a bill ' for the more easy and speedy recovery of church-rates,' and to pray your lordships that till such a bill can be obtained, your lordships would use your best endeavours towards preventing those dilatory and expensive methods of proceeding in courts ecclesiastical, which have been so much complained of on that occasion. " They have likewise taken into consideration the representation of grievances 4 formerly offered to your lordships, together with the speech of your grace re- lating thereunto ; and are much concerned to find that that representation, though containing sundry pro- posals of great importance, as they conceive, towards reviving the discipline of the Church, by a due execu- tion of the canons already in force, hath not yet had its desired effect. " In the mean time they think it proper to observe to your lordships, that notwithstanding her majesty's pious care to repress and restrain the great enormities of the stage — for which the then lower house moved your lordships without success, that the humble thanks of the Convocation might be given to her majesty — yet they find still great reason to complain of the immorality and profaneness of the stage ; of which there is a fresh flagrant instance, in a profane 4 See p. 226. 1705.] house or bishops. 269 prologue lately spoken at the opening of the new theatre in the Haymarket, and since printed and published. " They do also look upon themselves, as in duty bound, to complain to your lordships of the daring in- sults upon the clergy, the universities, and the con- stitution itself, continually made by the licentious writers, particularly by the authors of the ' Eeview' and ' Observator,' and to pray your lordships' concur- rence in an humble representation to her majesty of this great grievance, and of the mischiefs which must result to our holy Church and religion, if such open assaults upon our order, upon the places of our edu- catiou, and upon our legal establishment, shall continue to be made with impunity. " As likewise to inform your lordships of the scandal given to all good Christians by an assembly of sectaries, under the name of Unitarians, publicly held in the city of London, the teacher whereof is notoriously known to have been convicted of denying the divinity of our blessed Saviour. " And moreover to acquaint your lordships with the late lewd and profane writings of Edmund Hickeringill, rector of St. Mary's, Colchester, which have brought so great scandal upon our Church and holy order. And they must at the same time declare their grateful sense of the pastoral vigilance and exemplary zeal of the right honourable and right reverend the present Lord Bishop of London, of which he hath given con- stant proofs in endeavouring to bring such offenders to condign punishment ; but hath met with insuperable difficulties therein ; the removal of which, by such methods as may be effectual, doth, in the opinion of 270 LETTER TO THE [CHAP. XII. this house, highly deserve the mature consideration of this provincial synod. " Nor can they omit taking notice of the present endeavours of several reformed churches to accom- modate themselves to our Liturgy and constitution, mentioned in the late form of an address sent down by your lordships. They are very desirous of knowing your lordships' opinion, in what manner it may be proper for this Convocation, with her majesty's leave and encouragement, to express their great satisfaction to find in them such good dispositions, and their readiness to maintain and cherish such a fraternal cor- respondence as may strengthen the interest of the reformed religion against the common enemy 5 . " They do further propose to your lordships' consi- deration, what fit methods may (with the same leave and encouragement) be taken by this synod, for in- viting and inducing the pastors of the French Pro- testant Churches among us to use their best endeavours with their people for an universal reception of our Liturgy ; which hath had the approbation of their most eminent divines, hath been long used by several of their congregations within this kingdom, and by her majesty's special influence hath been lately introduced 5 It is most deeply to be lamented, that the favourable oppor- tunity which then offered itself was not taken advantage of, to com- plete the reformation of the foreign Protestant Churches, or many of them. It was proposed to translate the English Liturgy, and return to apostolical succession by means of English ordinations. The King of Prussia was in favour of the plan. The Liturgy was translated ; but the other parts of this praiseworthy attempt were most unfortunately allowed to fail. More recent attempts at catholic unity in that direction have not atoned for the loss of this happy opening. 1705.] HOUSE OF BISHOPS. 271 into the French congregation held in the chapel near her royal palace. " They do, in the last place, earnestly desire your lordships, that some synodical notice may be taken of the dishonour done to the Church by a sermon preached by Mr. Benjamin Hoadly, at St. Lawrence Jewry, Sept. 29, hdccv., containing positions con- trary to the Church, expressed in the first and second parts of the homily against disobedience or wilful rebellion. " These several heads of information and complaint they are ready to make good by special proofs, when- ever your lordships shall be pleased to demand them V One of the books that received the public com- mendation of the lower house during the session, was Wall's History of Infant Baptism. The Observator was a collection of scurrilous and licentious papers by John Tutchin, who had been found guilty of high crimes and misdemeanours in the reign of James the Second, and narrowly escaped the punishment of treason in the time of Queen Anne. The Unitarian preacher denounced in this paper was Mr. Emlyn, the friend of Whiston and Dr. S. Clarke, who belonged properly to the party called High Arians, had already been convicted and punished in Dublin for his heretical opinions, and took henceforth an active part in the Trinitarian controversy. He was de- nounced again in the Convocation of 1711, but without any practical consequences. The book by Hickeringill, to which reference is more especially made, is entitled " Priestcraft, its Character and Consequences," and richly deserves the condemna- 6 Wilkins, torn. iv. in loc. 272 IEISH CONVOCATION CONSULTED. [CHAP. XII. tion it met with 7 . It appears from Wilkins, that the lower house had also, at its last sitting, of 1702, in addition to the case which it had submitted to the crown, consulted the lower house in Ireland, as to the practice of the Irish Convocation in regard of interme- diate sessions. In the Convocation of this year (1705) their answer was laid before the English lower house. The answer was sent probably at once (1702), as we shall find, unhappily, that what it says in the praise of the upper house is no longer applicable in this year (1705), a great change having come over its spirit: " The lower house do not upon such notice [of adjournment by the bishops] ever break up their session, till a motion is made by some member of the house for adjourning. " The prolocutor, before he puts the motion, reports to the house what time the bishops have adjourned to ; and then the lower house adjourns itself to that time, or to any time slwrt of that, by the authority and consent of the house ; which power of the lower house to ad- journ itself was owned and allowed by the arch- bishops and bishops then in Dublin, in the ansicer to some queries sent to them by the Earl of Nottingham [see p. 241], then principal secretary of State in Eng- land, before the calling of this Convocation. The lower house here doth very frequently hold intermediate sessions, which they look upon to be as regular, as those which are concurrent with the session of the bishops, and do in their books style them sessions, and number them among others without any dis- cussion 8 ." The concession of this reasonable and necessary 7 Cardwell. Concilia, torn. iv. p. 632. 1705.] IRISn CONVOCATION CONSULTED. 273 prerogative led to no disorder in the sister church, the claim was not viewed by the bishops as an indignity there, the affairs of the Chiu'ch were peaceably and profitably debated. The secret of the difference of re- sults will be found in the following extract, forming the conclusion of their answer to the English lower house : " We do in the last place declare our deepest and most grateful sense of the paternal tenderness of our archbishops and bishops for the loicer clergy, very ob- servable in their lordships' great zeal and readiness to concur with them on all occasions in the recovery and preservation of their rights, and in every other good work ; and are heartily thankful to Almighty Grod, that we do enjoy all these several rights and privileges ivithout the least struggle, contest, or difference with their graces and lordships ; and do bless him for the perfect unity and harmony between the two houses, which being so very conspicuous we do look upon to be a great security to this national Church, a great discouragement to her professed enemies, and a great vexation and disappointment to the more close and dangerous underminers of her apostolic and orthodox constitution 9 ." There was no Bishop Burnet there. It is a notable instance of his bad faith as an histo- rian that, in this part of his History, he does not notice the receipt of this (to him) unwelcome docu- ment 1 . The reader, unused to track him in his tor- 9 Concilia, torn. iv. p. C32. 1 The last paragraph in Burnet's History of his Own Times, begins, — " \pray God it may be read irith the same candour and sincerity with which I have written it." At the risk of appearing ungrateful, the reader may regret that such a prayer was offered for him, even by a Christian Bishop on the brink of the grave— indeed, may feel pained by it. T 274 btjkjtet's miseepbesentations. [chap. xti. tuous course, will find it hard to believe that, in 1709, Burnet can be speaking of the same document, in such overbearing and incorrect terms as the fol- lowing : " So catching a thing is this turbulent spirit, when once it prevails among clergymen, that the same ill temper began to ferment and spread itself among the clergy of Ireland : none of these disputes had ever been thought of in that church formerly, as they had no records nor minutes of former Convocations. The faction here in England found out proper instru- ments, to set the same humour on foot, during the Earl of Rochester's government, and, it was said, by his directions ; and it being once set a going, it went on by reason of the indolence of the succeeding governors. So the clergy were making the same bold claim there, that had raised such disputes among us ; and upon that the party here published these preten- sions of theirs, with their usual confidence, as founded on a clear possession and prescription ; and drew an argument from that, to justify and support their own pretensions, though those in Ireland never dreamed of them, till they had the pattern and encouragement from hence. This was received by the party with great triumph ; into such indirect practices do men's ill designs and animosities engage them. But though this whole matter was well detected and made appear, to their shame who had built so much upon it, yet parties are never out of countenance ; but ivhen one artifice fails, they will look out for another 2 ." "While our Bishop of Salisbury, Mr. Macaulay's " emphatically honest man," in his avowed dislike and 2 Own Times, vol. IT. p. 261. 170a.] PROCEEDINGS OE IRISH CONVOCATION. 275 distrust of all beneath his own order, was inditing these hard things of the Irish no less than of the Eng- lish clergy, it may prove a refreshing as well as in- structive contrast to see what, at this same time, an Irish prelate was saying of the Irish clergy. Bishop Mant, in his excellent History of the Irish Church, has given us the opportunity, and enabled us to test the truth of Burnet's accusations, by furnishing several letters written by the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. King, in this same year 1705, from which it further appears that, greatly from the same causes, the happy relations between the two houses, just described, were now assimdating to those between the two English houses. The archbishop's first letter is filled with lamentation, that the Irish house of bishops will not keep pace with the lower house in good works : " If the Convocation only mind the secular profit of the Church, or such things as the Parliament must do for them, the world will look on all this as priestcraft and carnal interest, and we shall get nothing. I per- ceive the lower house do their part pretty well ; and if the bishops fail of this, they wiU fall under the same censure that some bishops do here." In a letter, dated Aprd 17, 1705, we find the bishops were further retrograding from the creditable position they had first taken : " I understand from several letters that the lower house of Convocation have sent up several messages with ample matter for canons, that would tend greatly to the reformation and restoration of dis- cipline, but to the day of their adjournment they never had any answer from the bishops, nor could find that they had taken these or any other affairs for the good of the Church into their consideration. Though I am so unhappy as to be obliged to be absent, yet I cannot T 2 27G PROCEEDINGS OF IBISH CONVOCATION. [CHAP. XII. but be deeply and anxiously concerned for the honour of our order and the good of the clergy in general. I therefore take the liberty to inform your grace [Archbishop of Tuam] that, after the last session, there was a project of some of the lower house to print the proceedings ... I am morally certain an account will be printed, and by what I can guess, little to our advantage. I only desire your grace to con- sider how it will look to have it published to the world, as I doubt it will be, that the lower house applied themselves to the business of the Church, proposed so many things to her advantage, but that the bishops obstructed ah, and never vouchsafed to give even so much as the least answer to what was proposed, so much as to signify they had ecclesiastical affairs in their minds . . . surely our house may so far apply themselves to business, as to give an answer to what lies before them, and at least signify their approba- tion or dislike of what is proposed, and so show their concern and readiness to comply with what may be useful and advantageous to the Church." On June 26 of this year, he writes t o the Bishop of Clogher : " Some men are very dexterous in doing nothing ; I wish those of that stamp woidd keep out of places that require something to be done. Tou have had a session without one clause to the good of the church. If all had done their parts, I feel it might have been otherwise 3 ." If disquiet and dissatisfaction, like that in the English lower house, was the result of conduct so much like that, unhappily, of the English upper house — conduct as described, be it remembered, by an arch- bishop of the Irish Church — it is far less wonderful 3 Bishop Plant's Hist. Church of Ireland, vol. ii. ch. ii. s. 4. 170.3.] ENGLISH CONVOCATION PROEOGUED. 277 than that an English bishop should be found capable of so misrepresenting it ; and, in a suicidal defence of his order, a defence resting on facts contradicted by the Archbishop of Dublin, throwing all the blame upon the parochial clergy of Ireland, as he uniformly does on the clergy of England. The truth is, and it may help to account for the feeble state of the Irish Church, there had been few Convocations to record. Bishop Mant says, there had been no Convocation in Ireland untd 17 03 for fifty years, and it was not untd a late period of the Reformation it had assembled at all in Ireland, the first regular Convocation was in 1615. Under these circumstances, it is no wonder that the Irish Convocation, though it began well, soon fell into difficulties : an Irish Parliament, forbidden to meet for fifty years, might have experienced yet greater. The archbishop prorogued the Convocation on the 15th of March, after a speech in which he vindicated Bishop Burnet, replied to other complaints, and told the clergy that the bishops were " far from affecting arbitrary power, but that they could not give up their just authority over the clergy in Convocation ; and that they had forborne to exercise it in tenderness to such as were engaged in those new measures, and in hopes that time and consideration would bring them back to their duty and obedience." Convocation was finally prorogued on the 15th of March, 1706. Bishop Burnet gives the following placid account of the close and prorogation of this synod. " The Con- vocation sat at the same time ; it was chosen as the former had been, and the members, that were ill- affected, were still prevaded on to come up, and to continue in an expensive but useless attendance in town. The bishops drew up an address to the queen, 278 buk>t:t os the session of [chap. in. in which, as the two Houses of Parliament had done, they expressed a great indignation at the jealousies that had heen spread about the nation, of the danger of the Church. When this was communicated to the lower house, they refused to join in it, but would give no reason for their refusal. They drew up an address of their own, in which no notice was taken of these aspersions. The bishops, according to ancient prece- dents, required them either to agree to their address, or to offer their objections against it : they would do neither ; so the address was let fall ; and upon that a stop was put to all further communication between the two houses. The lower house upon this went on in their former practice of intermediate sessions, in which they began to enter upon business, to approve of some books, and to censure others ; and they re- solved to proceed upon the same grounds, that factious men among them had before set up, though the false- hood of their pretensions had been evidently [r] made to appear. The archbishop had prorogued them to the 1st of March. When that day came, the lower house was surprised with a protestation that was brought to the upper house by a great part of their body, who, being dissatisfied with the proceedings of the majority, and having long struggled against them, though in vain, at last drew up a protestation against them. They sent it up and down through the whole province 4 , that they might get as many hands to it as they could ; but the matter was managed with such caution, that though it was in many hands, yet it was not known to the other side, till they heard it was presented to the president of the upper house [irregu- 4 See p. 265. 1705.] THE PROTEST. 279 larly, without the prolocutor 5 ]. In it all the irregular motions of the lower house were reckoned up, insisting more particularly on that of holding intermediate ses- sions, against all which they protested, and prayed that their protestation might be entered in the books of the upper house, that so they might not be involved in the guilt of the rest. This was signed by above fifty, and the whole body was but an hundred and forty-five. Some were neutral [?] : so that hereby very near one- half [?] broke off from the rest, and left them, and sat no more with them. The lower house was deliberating how to vent their indignation against these, when a more sensible mortification followed. The archbishop sent for them, and when they came up, he read a letter to them that was wrote to him by the queen, in which she took notice that the differences between the two houses were still kept up. She was much concerned to see that they were rather increased than abated. She was the more surprised at this, because it had been her constant care, as it should always continue to be, to preserve the constitution of the Church, as it was by law established, and to discountenance all divi- sions and innovations whatever. She was resolved to maintain her supremacy, and the due subordination of presbyters to bishops, as fundamental parts of it [?] She expected that the archbishop and bishops would act conformable to this resolution, and in so doing, they should be sure of the continuance of her protec- 5 " This house never permits any thing to be entered [in its books] which reflects on the honour of the house. " We never heard of any protestation made in the upper house by members of the lower house." — Answer of lower house (Ire- land) to inquiries of English lower house. Wilkins' Concilia, torn. iv. p. 632. 280 PARTICULARS OP THE PROROGATION. [CHAP. XII. tion and favour, which should not be wanting to any of the clergy, as long as they were true to the consti- tution, and dutiful to her, and their ecclesiastical su- periors, and preserved such a temper as became those who were in holy orders. The archbishop, as he was required to read this to them, so he was directed to prorogue them, for such a time as shoidd appear con- venient to him. They were struck with this, for it had been carried so secretly, that it was a surprise to them all. When they saw that they were to be pro- rogued, they ran [if true, what better could be expected of naughty school-boys ? — they were systematically viewed and treated as no more] very indecently to the door, and with some difficulty ivere kept in the room, till the prorogation was intimated to them. They went next to their own house, where, though pro- rogued, they sat still in form, as if they had been a house, but they did not venture on passing any vote. So factious were they, and so implicitly led by those [i. e. by themselves] who had got an ascendant over them, that though they had formerly submitted the matters in debate to the queen, yet now, when she declared her pleasure, they would not acquiesce in it 6 ." How not acquiesce in it, and acquiesce in ichat ? Burnet himself makes no allusion whatever to the queen giving any solemn decision of her judges and law-officers on this occasion, such as might be reason- ably expected by the lower house, upon its alleged canonical right humbly submitted to her to hold inter- mediate sessions. Nor does Burnet himself venture to state directly that they did pretend to hold an in- termediate session after prorogation ; he only insinuates it, according to his custom ; and this, after himself 6 Own Times, vol. iv. pp. 143—146. 1705.] THEEE SEES FILLED. 281 expressly stating that " they did not venture on passing any vote." The filling of three vacant sees is the only other event requiring notice in connexion with this year. The learned Dr. Bull (made Archdeacon of LlandafF, for his writings, by Archbishop Sancroft, who had the option, and without any personal knowledge) was ap- pointed to the See of St. David's. The learned Dr. Beveridge was appointed to the diocese of St. Asaph, having formerly declined, from conscientious motives, the offer to succeed Bishop Ken in the diocese of Bath and Wells 7 . They were both already far advanced in age, and, as will be presently seen, did not long enjoy their dignities. They both imported into the episco- pate somewhat of the depth of scholarship and vigour of character which marked the stormy period of the Church's history through which they had lived, and nearly along with which they died. Such men were not found often afterwards. Beveridge received his appointment in the previous year. The third promo- tion was that of Dr. "Wake to the see of Lincoln, a much younger man, who lived to be Archbishop of Canterbury. According to Tindal 8 , Dr. J. Sharpe, Archbishop of York, was the queen's chief adviser in such matters. His grace had preached her corouation sermon. He appears to have advised well in reference to the above appointments of Bull and Beveridge ; and certainly not worse, in preserving the episcopal bench from the pollution of indecent buffoonery, by the eleva- tion of Dean Swift °. 7 See p. 99. s Vol. i. p. 340. 9 Swift insolently describes the archbishop as " the harmless tool of others' hate," and as afterwards " suing for pardon." Johnson's Lives. CHAPTER XIII. a.d. 1706—1708. Archbishop of Canterbury. Queen of England. Thomas Tenison. Anne. 1706-7. — "We have seen, that previous to the Revo- lution, the Established Church of Scotland was under episcopal government. The Church of Scotland then embraced fourteen bishops, including the two arch- bishops, about nine hundred clergy, and (held by the slender thread of penal statutes) a large part of the population of that country. AH the bishops, and by tar the greater number of the parochial clergy, either declining, from conscientious, however mistaken, mo- tives, like the nonjurors in England, to transfer their allegiance, so far as the oath was concerned, to King William ; or else declining, from alike conscientious motives, to conform to the Presbyterian establishment substituted for the Church, were now in poverty and retirement, having been driven from their preferments, in many instances with much violence, the stipends of the parochial clergy transferred to their Presbyterian successors, and the revenues of the bishops confiscated to the state, after the example of Henry VIII. A great change was now taking place hi the course of this year, by the legislative union of the two countries. It caused no change, however, in the rigorous treat- UNIOH WITH SCOTLAND. 283 ment adopted towards the Church in that country, though it presented a favourable opening for it ; an opening, that is, if not upon the ground of the rights of conscience, upon the ground of the advantages accruing to that country from the proposed union, to insist, at the least, upon their tolerating the Church in that kingdom, to the same extent that we were tole- rating Preshyterianism in England. The bishops of this Church, living in the midst of such social enjoy- ments as Burnet describes, would have gained to them- selves immortal honour by making a bold stand, to mitigate the sufferings of their brethren, the bishops and clergy of Scotland. Some among them had laud- ably distinguished themselves by their considerate benevolence to the Trench Protestant refugees, driven hither lately by the popish bigotry of France. Surely the bishops and clergy of Scotland had an equal claim on the sympathies of English churchmen. However, the Scotch had already declared it to be high-treason for ever, to attempt to disturb their Kirk establish- ment. It is no matter of surprise, therefore, to find the commissioners, appointed to negotiate the treaty of union, abstaining from all provision, or even men- tion, hi relation to religion. In the Acts of Parlia- ment passed both in England and Scotland, — in Scot- land consistently, however it might be here, — there was an express limitation that they should not treat of such matters. And what said the right reverend bishops to such a limitation as this, in their places in the House of Lords — those bishops who showed such uniform wisdom, discretion, penetration, and foresight in their own house of Convocation, that the whole re- sponsibility of inaction and disorder rested (Burnet says so) upon the lower house ? They said nothing. 284 UNION WITH SCOTLAND. [CHAP. XIII. But a notable occasion presented itself afterwards, which called them forth in defence of the Church. We will describe the occasion in the words of Bishop Bur- net. The opponents of the union in the Scottish Par- liament, before discussing the terms of union agreed on by the commissioners, " insisted most vehemently on the danger, that the constitution of their Church must be in, when all should be under the power of a British Parliament. This was pressed with fury by some, who were known to be the most violent enemies to Presbytery of any in that nation. But it was done on design to inflame that body of men by then- appre- hensions, and so to engage them to persist in their op- position. To allay that heat, after the general vote was carried for the union, before they entered on the consideration of the particular articles, an Act was pre- pared for securing the Presbyterian government, by which it was declared to be the only government of that Church, unalterable in all succeeding times, and the maintaining it was declared to be a fundamental and essential article and condition of the union ; and this Act was to be made a part of the Act for the union, which, in consequence of that, was to be ratified by another Act of Parliament in England. Thus those who were the greatest enemies to Presbytery of any in the nation, raised the clamour of the danger that form of government would be in, if the union went on, to such a height, that by these means this Act was carried, as far as any human law could go, for their security. Por by this they not only had all the secu- rity their own Parliament could give them, but they were to have the faith and authority of the Parliament of England, it being, in the stipulation, made an essen- tial article of the union. The carrying this matter so 1706 — 1708.] UNION WITH SCOTLAND. 285 far, was done in hopes that the Parliament of England could never be brought to pass it No unreasonable hope, that an Act of Union, having (to use Burnet's expression) such a " tack" as this appended to it, would be rejected by a British Parliament, consisting at that time exclusively of Churchmen, so far as the sacramental test could make them so. "What was the British Parliament to do ? What were the bishops to do ? It was confessedly a difficult position — difficult to such as made their calculations upon present re- sults, rather than upon principles. By rejecting the Act, so encumbered, they would take upon themselves the responsibility of exposing their country to a sup- posed political danger. By passing it they would be stultifying and undermining themselves, for they would be saying, in effect, that Presbytery was so exclusively right in Scotland, that it was not only at that moment the most proper for that country, but right and un- alterable for ever. Then, if so right in Scotland, why not in England ? An apology for the divine right of episcopacy, which they might admire and recommend in London, they must eschew as false and wrong upon going to Edinburgh ; for they had jojned the Scotch, indirectly, in asserting Presbytery to be of divine right there. Then what, in such a dilemma, did the bishops of the last days of Convocation do ? They met it bv a counter-blast, a hostile counter-proposition, as re- markable in its character as any to be found in the annals of a Church or a Parliament. But we prefer to state it, as throughout this history, whenever an exact statement of their view is needed, in the words of their own exponent and champion : — " The debates were 1 Own Times, vol. iv. p. 171. 2S6 r>"10>* WITH SCOTLAND. [CHAP. XIII. longer and more solemn in the House of Lords. The Archbishop of Canterbury moved that a bill might be brought in for securing the Church of England, by it, all acts, passed in favour of our Church, were declared to be in full force for ever; and this was made a fundamental article of the Union. Some ex- ceptions were taken to the words of the bill, as not so strong as the Act of Parliament passed in Scotland seemed to be, since the government of it was not de- clared to be unalterable. But they were judged more proper, since where a supreme legislature is once ac- knowledged, nothing can be unalterable V One would think the last consideration a sufficient reason for not bringing in the bill at all. And what object could it serve, except as a sort of petulant repartee, or a diplo- matic counter-demonstration to the Presbyterianism of the Scottish Parbament? It could not be that the Church of England was, indeed, in danger ; for the upper house had, so lately as the Convocation of 1705, taken grave offence at, and menaced the lower house, for declining to join in their address to the queen, assuring her that the Church was not in danger. And, if it had been in danger, was it to be saved by an Act of Parbament ? There is no doubt that Archbishop Tenison was a prelate of amiable disposition in private life, of unblemished personal character, and equal to less trying times. And the same may be said of many of his brethren at that time on the episcopal bench. But if, in their general treatment of the lower house, they seem to have been overwhelmed and paralyzed by the difficulties of their position, and by the peculiar temptations incident to bishops in those days, neither 2 Own Times, vol. iv. p. 174. 1706 — 1708.] UNION WITH SCOTLAND. 287 can we, judging from this instance, accord much higher praise to them, as legislators for the Church in their places in Parliament. The Act " for securing the Church of England," is 5 Anne, c. 5. It enacts, that " the Acts of Uniformity, 13 Eliz. c. 2, and 13 and 14 Car. EL c. 4, other than such clauses in the said Acts, or either of them, as have been repealed or altered by any subsequent Act or Acts of ParUament, and all and other singular Acts of Parliament now in force for the estabbshment and preservation of the Church of England, and the doc- trine, discipline, worship, and government thereof, shall remain and be in full force for ever." The queen's successors, at their coronation, are to " swear to maintain inviolably the said settlement of the Church of England ; and that this Act should be holdeu and adjudged to be a fundamental and essential part of every treaty of union between the two kingdoms, and should be mentioned in every Act for settling and determining any such treaty. . . . And also the said Act of the Parliament of Scotland, for establishing the Protestant rebgion and Presbyterian Church go- vernment, and every clause, matter, and thing in the said articles and statute contained, are hereby for ever ratified, approved, and confirmed." Now what, by Archbishop Tenison's own act or "tack," was thus "approved," was this, "that the true Protestant religion as previously professed within this kiugdom (of Scotland), with the worship, discipline, and government of this Church (Kirk), shall continue to the people of this land to all succeeding generations.'" It sets forth again and again that " the form and purity of worship" in the Presbyterian Kirk should " continue unalter- able," and that none should be admissible " to teach 288 CHIOH WITH SCOTLAND. [CHAP. XIII. in any college or school," who did not subscribe to the same, and swear neither directly nor indirectly to dis- turb it, and her majesty's successors at their corona- tion are to do the same. Accordingly, the temporal head of the Church of England would be breaking the articles of the Union by subscribing a guinea to a Church school on the other side of the Tweed ; or by going to a church in- stead of a Presbyterian place of worship, during a royal visit or progress in that country. We are not aware that the stability of the union has been endan- gered, indeed, in either of the ways above mentioned ; but it is far from clear that the relaxation of the penal laws against that Church in 1792 is not au infraction of the union, for that assuredly is an " indirect dis- turbance" of Presbyterianism, not dreamed of at the time the union took place. Further, admitting the union to be safe from any breach of the Presbyterian " tack ;" it would be a much more anxious inquiry, to a lover of the union, how far it has been vitiated and annulled by subsequent alterations of laws and institutions within our own Church, which it was the object of Archbishop Tenison's "tack," on behalf of the Church, to declare unalterable, " remaining and being in full force for ever, as a fundamental and essential article of the union." In spite of the archbishop's act "to secure the Church of England," such alterations were, at the time, thought more likely than ever. It was thought, and rightly, that legislation for the Church woidd not be improved by the admission of so many Presbyterians to assist in it ; as men have thought since, in reference to the admission of papists and every conceivable and inconceivable denomination of Protestant dissenters. 1706 — 170S.] DEBATES ON THE UNION. 289 " It was said, here was a real danger the Church [establishment] ran into, when so many votes of per- sons tied to Presbytery, were admitted to a share in the legislature. All the rigour, with which the Episcopal clergy had been treated in Scotland, was set forth to show with how implacable a temper they were set against the Church of England ; yet, in return to all that, it was now demanded, from the men of this Church, to enact, that the Scotch form should remain unalterable, and to admit those to vote among us, who were such declared enemies to our constitution. Here was aplausible subject for popular eloquence, and a great deal was brought out upon this occasion by Hooper, Beveridge, and some other bishops, and by the Earls of Rochester and Nottingham. But to all this it was answered [we venture to conjecture by Burnet himself, whose wont was to look for external and political causes only as exposing his Church to popery], that the chief dangers the Church was in, were from France and from popery : so that whatsoever secured us from these delivered us from our justest fears. Scotland lay on the weakest side of England, where it coidd not be defended but by an army : the collieries on the Tyne lay exposed for several miles," &c. "A softer management would lay these heats, and bring men to a better temper. The cantons of Switzerland, though very zealous hi their different religions, yet were united in one general body. The Diet of Germany was composed of men of three different religions ; so that several constitutions of Churches might be put under one legislature ; and if there was a danger of either side, it was much more likely that 513 would be too hard for forty-five, than forty-five would master 513 ; especially when the crown was on their side ; 290 DEBATES OX THE UXIOX. [CHAP. XIII. and there were twenty-six bishops in the Honse of Lords to outweigh the sixteen votes from Scotland. It was indeed said that all in England were not zeal- ous for the Church ; to which it was answered, that by the same reason [?] it might be concluded, that all those of Scotland were not zealous for their way, especially when the favour of the court lay in the English scale. The matter was argued, for the union, by the Bishops of Oxford and ^Norwich, and myself .... The preamble was a recital of the articles as they were passed in Scotland, together with all the Acts made in both Parliaments, for the security of their several Churches ; and in conclusion, there came an enacting clause ratifying all 3 ." One whom we have followed and watched in his career, and seen uniformly distinguished by strong common sense and sound judgment, Dr. Hooper, Ken's successor in Bath and "Wells, proposed in the House of Lords that the six- teen Scottish peers should be " debarred of their vote in any future debates relating to the Church, towards which they could no ways be supposed to be well affected." * The Bishop of St. Asaph (Beveridge) " could no better compare it than to the mixing together strong hquors, of a contrary nature, in one and the same vessel, which woidd go nigh to be burst asunder by the furious fermentation," and was " humbly of opinion that some provision might be made for debarring them of their vote in any Church matter that should come hereafter in agitation." A peer, opposing the bill, said, " If these reverend prelates do not beUeve the rehgion of the Church of England to be the purest and most agreeable to the Own Times, vol. iv. 1706 — 1708.] DEBATES OTT TIIE TJXION. 291 Scriptures, and her constitution and government the most conformable to the primitive Church ; if they that instructed me in my religion have taught me wrong, if they have changed their opinion, let them tell me so, let them undeceive me .... If my lords the bishops will weaken their own cause, will give up the two great points of Episcopal orders and confirma- tion ; if they approve and ratify the Act, for recognizing the Presbyterian Church government in Scotland as the true Protestant religion and purity of worship .... there could not be two true religions ; if that of Scotland be so, ours cannot be so." The Bishop of Oxford, in reply, " drew a line be- tween those who were without Episcopacy from neces- sity, and those who by choice, and admitted the Scottish Kirk was the latter ; but that he did not consent to their 'religion' by voting for this bill, any more than in a bill relating to Prance, and setting forth the French king as 'the most Christian king,' he should be acknowledging him to be so, or with Spain he should acknowledge ' the most holy Inquisition.' No more can be supposed to be consented to in these cases, than that the king who styles himself most Christian, and the Inquisition that calls itself most holy, shall have the benefit of the articles agreed upon in these treaties 4 ." Of course the bill passed, and the union took effect on the 1st of May, 1707. Whether Archbishop Tenison's counter-bill, declaring " all Acts passed in favour of our Church to be in full force for ever," has stood the test of time and change as unshakenly as the Scottish bill of Presbyterianism for ever, the reader will judge for himself. At all events, nothing can justify the principle of admitting 4 Pari. Hist. vol. vi. p. 572. u 2 292 DEBATES ON THE UNION". [CHAP. XIII. Scotch Presbyterians to rote for England in ecclesias- tical matters. It would be as objectionable, indeed, for English legislators to vote for Scottish Presbyterian matters. But there was a fundamental difference between the two cases, in spite of the analogy pre- tended above. The Scottish Kirk had secured its rights for ever, the legislature of both countries had decided that it should be treason to question them ; and one of its first and foremost rights was synodal action, — a right practically denied to the English Church. The Scottish Kirk, therefore, would legislate for itself in the maintenance of discipline ; and mem- bers of the English Church, in the legislature, even if disposed, would not have the opportunity of inter- ference, which Scottish Presbyterians have had ever since of interfering with the Church of England. The addition of dissenting members, since then, by the Repeal of the Test Act, and of papists by the " Eman- cipation Bill," has filled the measure of the Church's danger in that direction, as the Established Church, while all power of doing any thing for herself is still unaccountably withheld. Then was the time for Arch- bishop Tenison to procure an enactment, declaring that, as a condition of the Church's agreement to the union, free synodal action was an indefeasible right of the Church of England no less than of the Kirk of Scotland, instead of his futile general Act, claiming every thing for the Church, and therefore nothing. Mr. Maeaulay, overlooking the very comfortable posi- tion in which his Kirk was placed by the union, and as a writer scarcely to be expected to throw his sym- pathies into the difficulties and discouragements with which the Church had to struggle at the time he refers to, says, " Scotland has had a Presbyterian 1706 — 1708.] SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES. 293 establishment during the last century and a half. Tet her General Assembly has not, during that period, given half so much trouble to the government as the Convocation of the Church of England gave during the thirty years which followed the Revolution 5 ." As if Convocation had ever the chance of being peaceable ! had been as little intermitted, interfered with, irritated, and over-ridden ! And, after all, " giving trouble to the government," more or less, is no test of truth. Grallio was very angry with St. Paul for " giving trou- ble" to his " government ;" but it does not follow that Gallio was right and St. Paid wrong. It is satisfactory to be able to add, though scarcely necessary, that the Church, as such, had nothing to do with all this pseudo-ecclesiastical legislation in connexion with the Scottish union. Convocation, "The Church representative," according to the Canon, was not consulted in the matter : it was not permitted to deliberate at that time. 1707. — The wreck and ruin of architectural art attempted by the Puritans, and the destruction of so many specimens by the fire of London, were doubtless not without their influence in drawing the attention of thoughtful men to the necessity of preserving me- morials of such specimens as survived. Hence the orgamzation this year of the Society of Antiquaries, which, after holding desultory meetings for some time past at various taverns resorted to by the wits and literati of those days, but not euphonious enough to be named here, was finally located in the course of this year in its present apartments at Somerset House. In this year (1707) died the learned Dr. Patrick, 3 Crit. and Hist. Essay, vol. i. p. 131. 294 BISHOP PATRICK. [CHAP. XIII. Bishop of Ely. He was boru in 1626, at Gainsbo- rough, in Lincolnshire, where his father was a mercer. He became a fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge, while Sancroft and Tillotson were residing in that university. In 1654 he was ordained hy the pious and distinguished Hall, ejected Bishop of Norwich. In 1658 he became vicar of Battersea, it does not appear whether as a nonconformist, and in 1662 rector of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, where he endeared him- self to his parishioners by remaining with them during the plague (1665). In 1672 he was made Prebendary of Westminster, and in 1679 Dean of Peterborough. During the reign of the infatuated James, he was one of the ablest champions of the Church against popery ; and in 16S6 took his part in a conference with two Romish priests, in the presence of that king and his brother-in-law the Earl of Rochester, whom he wished to involve in his own apostasy. After the Revolution he was advanced to the see of Chichester, and in 1691 to that of Ely. Of his learned commentaries and paraphrases it is useless here to speak. Dying at the great age of eighty-one, it is probable that infirmities, as well as the more congenial pursuits of sacred learn- ing, prevented him from incurring the responsibility of the disastrous measures adopted latterly towards the clergy by the upper house of Convocation 6 . 1708. — The same may be said, doubtless, of the learned and pious Dr. Beveridge, Bishop of St. Asaph, who died in the following year, at the age of seventy- one, at his lodgings in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey, after holding his see three years only. He was born at Barrow, in Leicestershire, in 1638, and 6 See Biog. Brit. 1706—1708.] BISHOPS BETEEIDGE AND FEAMPTOJf. 295 was contemporaneous at Cambridge (St. John's) with Saneroft, Patrick, and so many others, who afterwards, up to this period, filled most of the higher offices of the Church. It is a noticeable fact, how few Oxford contributed to the episcopate at the Bevolution. Or- dained hi 1G61, he was presented to the vicarage of Ealing, Middlesex, by Sheldon, Bishop of London, which he resigned in 1672 for the rectory of St. Peter's, Cornhill. In 1G81 he was raised to the arch- deaconry of Colchester, with the prebend of St. Paul's attached to that dignity. Three years afterwards he obtained a stall at Canterbury. It has been stated already that, on the deprivation of Bishop Ken in 1691, the see of Bath and Wells was offered to him, which, after consulting witli Archbishop Saneroft, he declined from conscientious scruples. He was buried in St. Paul's 7 . May 25th, of this same year, died Dr. Frampton, deprived Bishop of Gloucester. He was buried at Standish in that county. 7 See Biog. Brit. CHAPTER XIV. a.d. 1709, 1710. Archbishop of Canterbury. Queen of England. Thomas Tenison. Anne. A distinguished judge, Chief Justice Holt, dying about this time, and his administration of the law being closely connected with the state of religion and the lingering superstitions of the age, it falls within the scope and object of this history, as a history of the Church of England, and not of the clergy of England only, to state such particulars of his career as may help to throw a light on such matters. If passive obedience, though exploded by the Revo- lution in reference to kings, still lingered in new oligarchic shapes and episcopal applications ; if in- dulgences still lingered, under an altered but as con- venient form, in Calvinistic antinomianism and predes- tination ; — it was scarcely to . be expected that the amulets and anodynes of popish superstition shoidd be left without some lingering type of popular credulity. We are little surprised, therefore, to find Queen Mary II. going personally to consult Mrs. Wise, a wizard, inhabiting some where near the now-classic ground of the British Museum, to consult her as to the future fortunes of the rival claimant of the throne of England, however we may be shocked to find that Mrs. Wise, TOETtTNE-TELLEBS AND WITCHES. 297 believing him to be the lawful claimant, wouldn't tell her. The Spectator of Oct. 9, 1711, speaks of fortune- tellers as " publishing their bills on every gate of the town." Mrs. Wise's vocation survives ; but another singular relic of old superstition was happily got rid of about this time, by the intelligence of Chief Justice Holt ; and it is satisfactory to find the popular mind prepared, at length, for such a change — that is, on the whole ; for even a bishop is described as then believing in witches. Lord Campbell thus describes it : " He (C. J. Holt) had the merit of effectually repealing the Acts against witchcraft, although they nominally con- tinued on the Statute-book to a succeeding reign. Eleven poor creatures were successively tried before him for this supposed crime, and the prosecutions were supported by the accustomed evidence of long fasting, vomiting pins and tenpenny nails, secret teats sucked by imps, devil's marks, and cures by the sign of the cross, or drawing blood from the sorceress — which had misled Sir Matthew Hale ; but, by Holt's good sense and tact, in every instance the imposture was detected to the satisfaction of the jury, and there was an acquittal. At last the chief justice effectually accom- plished his object, by directing that a prosecutor, who pretended that he had been bewitched, should himself be indicted as an impostor and a cheat. This fellow had sworn that a spell cast upon him had taken away from him the power of swallowing, and that he had fasted for ten weeks ; but the manner in which he had secretly received nourishment was clearly proved. He, nevertheless, made a stout defence ; and numerous witnesses deposed to his expectoration of pins, and his abhorrence of victuals, all which they ascribed to the 298 LAST TRIAL FOE WITCH CB AFT. [CHAP. AIT. malignant influence of the witch. The judge, having extracted from a pretended heliever in him the answer, that ' all the devils in hell could not have helped him to fast so long,' and having proved, by cross-examining another witness, that he had a large stock of pins hi his pocket, from which those supposed to be vomited were taken, summed up with great acuteness, and left it to the jury to say, not whether the defendant was bewitched, but whether he was non compos mentis, or was fully aware of the knavery he was committing, and knowingly wished to impose on mankind ? The jury found a verdict of guilty ; and the impostor standing in the pillory, to the satisfaction of the whole country, no female was ever after in danger of being hanged or burned in England for being old, wrinkled, and paralytic. " Holt's conduct on this occasion will appear the more meritorious, if we consider that he ran great risk of being denounced as an atheist ; and that, to avoid this peril, preceding judges, who were not believers in witchcraft, had pandered to the prejudices of the vulgar. Says Eoger North, ' If a judge is so clear and open as to declare against that impious vulgar opinion, that the devil himself has power to torment and kill innocent children ; or that he is pleased to divert him- self with the good people's cheese, butter, pigs, aud geese, and the like errors of the ignorant and foolish rabble, the countrymen cry, " This judge hath no religion, for he doth not believe in witches ;" and so, to show they have some, hang the poor wretches.' " Holt seems to have had a high reputation among his contemporaries for detecting false pretences of all sorts, and exposing those who put on an aspect of extraordinary sanctity To a band of fanatics, 1709, 1710.] HOLT AND TIIE PROPHETS. 299 called the ' Prophets,' Holt had a particular antipathy. One of these, named Lacy, being beaten in a trial before him, complained of injustice. Calamy, the famous Pres- byterian divine, relates that, he having repeated these complaints to Holt, ' My lord by this time was moved, and, setting his hands to his sides, cried out, " An honest cause did he call it ? I tell you, sir, and you have full liberty to tell him, or any one else you think fit, from me, that it was one of the foulest causes I ever had the hearing of, and that none but an arrant knave would have had the concern in it that Lacy had ; for it was a plain design, in concert with a notorious jilt, to have cheated the right heir of a good estate, upon his supplying her with money. If one that could do this may be allowed to set up for a prophet, the world is come to a fine pass." ' " Holt having, some time after, committed another of this brotherhood, called John Atkins, to take his trial for seditious language, the same Lacy called at the chief justice's house in Bedford-row and desired to see him. — Servant. 'My Lord is unwell to-day, and cannot see company.' — Lacy (in a very solemn tone). ' Acquaint your master that I must see him, for I bring a message to him from the Lord God.' The chief justice, having ordered Lacy in, and demanded his business, was thus addressed : ' I come to you a prophet from the Lord God, Who has sent me to thee, and woidd have thee to grant a nolle prosequi for John Atkins, his servant, whom thou hast sent to prison.' — Holt, C. J. ' Thou art a false prophet, and a lying knave. If the Lord God had sent thee, it would have ' Then called " Bedford-walk," where he died in 1709; having previously lived in Gray's-inn, of which his father was treasurer. 300 HOLT A>TD TIIE PROPHETS. [CHAP. XIV. been to the attorney-general ; for He knows that it belongeth not to the chief justice to grant a nolle prosequi ; but I, as chief justice, can grant a warrant to commit thee to keep him company V This was immediately clone ; and both prophets were convicted and punished 3 ." 2 Holt may have taken the idea from John Bunyan, Towards the close of his imprisonment, a Quaker called on him, probably hoping to make a convert of the author of " The Pilgrim." He thus addressed him : " Friend John, I am come to thee with a message from the Lord ; and after having searched for thee in half the prisons in England, I am glad that I have found thee at the last." " If the Lord had sent you," sarcastically murmured Bunyan, " you would not have taken so much pains to find me ; for the Lord knows that I have been a prisoner in Bedford jail for these twelve years past." 3 Lord Campbell's " Lives of the Chief Justices," vol. ii. pp. 170 — 173. Chief Justice Holt appears to have contributed much to a more honest and independent administration of justice from the period of the Revolution. Lord Campbell says, " During the two last preceding Stuart reigns, the administration of justice in cases in which the crown was concerned, had been becoming worse and worse, till at last it reached the utmost verge of infamy. The most powerful [?] justification of the Revolution will be found in the volumes of the State Trials : and I have heard the late Lord Tenterden, a very zealous though enlightened defender of inde- feasible hereditary right, declare that ' they almost persuaded him to become a Whig.' " (Ibid.) Lord Campbell, with no excessive bias probably in favour of Church discipline, is obliged to admit, " He (Holt) showed considerable boldness in deciding that, under the Statute of Elizabeth, subjecting to a penalty all who do not frequent their parish church on Sundays, a man is excused who frequents any other church. Holt (C. J.) — ' Parishes were in- stituted for the ease and benefit of the people, and not of the parson, that they might have a place certain to repair to when they thought convenient, and a parson from whom they had a right to receive instructions ; and if every parishioner were obliged to go to his parish church, then the gentlemen of Gray's-inn and Lincoln's- 1709, 1710.] ACCOUNT OF THE PROPHETS. 301 Calamy speaks of Lacy as " John Lacy, Esquire," and describes him as one of his patrons, visiting him constantly in Westminster. He gives the following particulars of the sect : " 1707. New prophets from France earnestly endeavoured to spread their notions here, where they were hut too well entertained. The common cry among us was, that this new prophetic dispensation was to be proclaimed in every nation upon earth, beginning in England, and to be manifest in the whole earth, within the short term of three years Two of them, on conviction of a private revelation of the Holy Ghost (sic), were exposed on a scaffold at Charing Cross, with a paper in their hats signifying their crime. A Sir Richard Bulkeley, who was very short and crooked, but a gentleman of learning, fully expected to be made straight in a marvellous way, though he happened to die ' before the miracle was performed upon him,' to his no small mortification and disappointment. . . . Lacy deserted his wife and family for a candle-snuffer at a theatre ; this he called ' quitting Hagar, and betaking himself to Sarah, by aid of the Spirit V " Calamy was much too inn must no longer repair to their respective chapels, but to their parish churches, otherwise they may be compelled to it by ecclesi- astical censures.'" (Ibid. vol. ii. p. 140.) The only other extra- vagance of this great judge to be compared with this, was his pro- nouncing trial by battle, as being — instead of a remnant of barbarism, and an indication of imperfect religious progress among the people — " a noble remedy, and a badge of the rights and privileges of an Englishman." (Ibid. p. 170.) Mr. Hendley's case, in 1718, which lias often been commented on as one of the grossest instances of the persecution of a clergyman in a nominal court of justice, and which will be noticed in its place, proves but too clearly that Holt, distinguished as he was, left the administration of the law in a most imperfect and unsatisfactory state. 4 Own Life, chap. vi. 302 BISHOP BTIX. [CHAP. XIV. respectable and conscientious a man not to lament these blasphemies and immoralities, and not to endea- vour to stop them : he could not be expected to see, that the excitement and inflated language, too common among the best-intentioned dissenters, are a natural prelude to such delusions ; and that it was impossible to calculate the effects of Calvinistic antinomianism upon weak minds. "Winston opposed them, among other grounds, be- cause " they permit sin, in Mr. Lacy's adultery with Elizabeth Grey," and because "wild agitations are rather signs of demoniacal possessions, than of a prophetic afflatus 5 ." But neither did TVTiiston see that he was himself knocking away the whole scaffold- ing of truth, and m aking the path straight for such impostors. In 1709 died the learned Dr. Bull, Bishop of St. David's. He was born at "Wells, in Somersetshire, in the year 1634, and went from Tiverton school to Ox- ford. At the age of ticenty-one, it is said, he was or- dained privately by Bishop Skinner, after which he became minister of St. George's, near Bristol. In 165 S, he received the bring of Suddington St. Mary, to which, at the Bestoration, was added that of Sud- dington St. Peter, both in Gloucestershire. In 1673, he was made Prebendary of Gloucester, and in 167S appeared his principal work, entitled, " Defensio Fidei Nicense." For this work Oxford rewarded him with the degree of D.D. : he also received another rectory, and was made Archdeacon of Llandaff 1 , as already stated, by Archbishop Sancroft. In reply to some queries of Bossuet as to the causes of the separation of the • ; Memoirs, vol. i. p. 138. 1709, 1710.] THE PRINCE CONSORT. 303 Church of England, he wrote his work " On the Cor- ruptions of the Church of Home." We have seen that he was advanced to the see of St. David's in the year 1705, which he held, therefore, but four years. Convocation having been forbidden to meet for business during that period, his respectable name is not to be connected with the proceedings of the upper house. And it is to be borne in mind that, with reference to the bishops in general, however constant a bishop might be in his attendance on Convocation, and how- ever active a part he might take in its proceedings, he is not to be held answerable of necessity for results, since these are to be viewed simply as the decision and expression of the majority. Prince George of Denmark, the queen's consort, had died the previous year, after a lingering illness, during which the queen appears to have watched him with great care and tenderness. He is described as free from vice, which is no light praise of one living in so profligate an age. Like King William and Bishop Burnet, he seems to have sympathized little with the Church of England, worshipping in his own Lutheran chapel, attached to the palace, and having special tole- ration secured to him in Acts refusing or limiting it to all else ; and the fact of the head of the Church being married to one, remaining to his death an alien from the Church, and deeply attached to him too, and her- self uneducated, and weak withal, may help to account for much. She had good impulses, and, as she said, " an English heart," or, with such a man as Prince George for a husband, and such a martinet as Sarah of Marlborough for a friend, the Church had fared worse. His value to the Church may be judged by the esti- mate formed of him by contemporary dissent. Calamy 304 SATUBALIZATION" ACT. [CHAP. XIV. says of him, " Prince George was neither rigorous nor active, but was singularly useful in keeping the queen steady ;" — an intelligible hint, coming from a dissenter. Another contemporary thus describes him : — " A great lover of the Church of England, the nearer it came to Lutheranism. This he often shows by his vote in the House of Peers, otherwise he does not much meddle with affairs out of his office. He is very fat, loves news, his bottle, and the queen 6 ." An Act for a general naturalization of all " Pro- testants" was passed this year, and is thus commented on by Burnet, in his characteristic way : — " An Act passed in this session that was much desired, and had been often attempted, but had been laid aside in so many former ParHaments, that there was scarcely any hopes left to encourage a new attempt. It was for naturalizing all foreign Protestants, upon their taking the oaths to the government, and their receiving the sacrament in any Protestant Church. Those who were against the Act soon perceived that they could have no strength if they should set themselves directly to op- pose it ; so they studied to limit strangers in the re- ceiving the sacrament to the way of the Church of England. This probably would not have hindered many, who were otherwise disposed to come among lis, for the much greater part of the French came into the way of our Church. But it was thought best to cast the door as wide open as possible for encouraging of strangers. And therefore since, upon their first coming over, some might choose the way to which they had been accustomed beyond sea, it seemed the more inviting method to admit of all who were in any Pro- 1 Macky's Secret Services. Harl. MSS. 1709, 1710.] CONVOCATION. 305 testant communion. This was carried in the House of Commons with a great majority; but all those who appeared for this larger and comprehensive way, were reproached for their coldness and indifference to the concerns of the Church ; and in that I had a large share, as I spoke copiously for it when it was brought up to the lords. The Bishop of Chester spoke as zealously against it, for he seemed resolved to dis- tinguish himself as a zealot for that which was called High Church. The bill passed with only little oppo- sition 7 ." Judging from Burnet's language here, the opposition was more likely to the bishop's own ad- juncts than to the bill itself, which simply did an act of justice to foreign Protestants, by placing them here on no lower ground than the Toleration Act had placed English dissenters. " The Convocation was recommenced this year, chosen and returned as the Parliament was. But it was too evident, that the same ill temper that had ap- peared in former Convocations did still prevad, though not with such a majority. When the day came on which it was to be opened, a writ was sent from the queen to the archbishop, ordering him to prorogue the Convocation for some months. And at the end of these there came another writ, ordering a further pro- rogation. So the Convocation was not opened during this session of Parliament : by this a present stop was put to the factious temper of those who studied to re- commend themselves by embroiling the Church 8 ." 1710. — This year has gained more of notoriety than of fame by the prosecution of Dr. Sacheverell by the House of Commons. This divine, who has taken his Own Times, vol. iv. p. 200. 8 Ibid. p. 261. X 306 TKIAL OF [CHAP. XIV. place in history more from the persecuting spirit dis- played towards him by his enemies, than by any un- usual personal claims, was the son of a clergyman at Marlborough. He became fellow of Magdalen Col- lege, Oxford, and was contemporary there with Addi- son, who. addressed to him his " Account of English Poets." "While at the uniyersity he distinguished himself as an able writer of Latin poetry. In 1705 he was appointed preacher of St. Saviour's, Southwark, and while there preached his two famous Sermons ; one, an assize Sermon, at Derby, on August the 14th, 1709 ; and the other at St. Paul's, on the 9th of No- vember following. In consequence of the impending prosecution, on account of these Sermons, forty thou- sand copies of them were printed, and dispersed over the nation. The ministry considering themselyes at- tacked, resolyed petulantly and unwisely on an im- peachment. Burnet says, that " Eyre, then solicitor- general, and others, thought the short way of burning the Sermon, and keeping him in prison during the session, was the better method ; but the more solemn way was unhappily chosen" — unhappdy, that is, in re- ference to the result, which is eyer Burnet's gauge, viz., Saeheverell's yirtual acquittal ; for we find Burnet vehemently supporting the prosecution in his place in the House of Lords. His object in these Sermons, however carried out, was such as none but an irritable and latitudinarian ministry would have deemed worthy of impeachment, viz. to resuscitate and estabUsh the doctrine of non- resistance, without expressly mentioning the Bevolution as an exceptional case, which was what scores of bishops and divines had done before him in words, and the nonjurors had reduced to practice ; to show that 1709, 1710.] DR. SACHEVERELL. 307 dissenters were attempting, as "false brethren" (his text), to raise and pervert their toleration, into a justification and establishment, which Burnet himself had represented them as doing (see p. 17) ; and to show that among Churchmen themselves, and those advanced to high stations in the Church, there were " false brethren," unfaithful to their own professed principles, a charge sufficiently proved by the whole history of Convocation, Church discipline, and Church appointments, during the last twenty years. He was charged with wresting various passages of Scripture to suit his purpose. Now such an assembly was a less recognized expounder of Scripture than Sacheverell himself, and certainly could claim no jurisdiction or control over him as an ecclesiastical superior. Besides, as Miss Strickland observes, with her general penetration, " why this proceeding was more criminal in him, than in the numerous sects of tolerated dissenters, who could not all be scripturally right, is an enigma. Surely no great regard for the liberty of any kind of conscience would be found in the persons who framed these very strange articles." After many delays in preparing the articles of im- peachment, and obtaining the answer to them ; and in preparing "Westminster Hall, which latter took some weeks; at last, on the 27th of February, the trial began. Sacheverell was lodged in the Temple, and came every day with great solemnity to the hall, great crowds surrounding his coach, and expressing their concern for him in the most tumultuous manner, striving to kiss his hand, and, in order to identify the "Whig party with the rebellion of the last century, and to mark their suspicion of them as still having re- publican tendencies, wearing oak-leaves in their hats x 2 308 TRIAL OF [chap. XIV. (artificial, we presume, for it was now winter), the emblem of restored monarchy. This uproar and ex- citement continued unabated during the whole time of the trial, three weeks. " The word," says his bitter religious and political opponent, Bishop Burnet, " upon which all shouted, was the Church and Sacheve- rell ; and such as joined not in the shout were in- sulted and knocked down. Before my own door, one, with a spade, cleft the skull of another, who would not shout as they did. They threatened to burn my house [St. John's-square] ; but the noise of the riot coming to court, orders were sent to the guards to go about, and disperse the multitudes, and secure the public peace. As the guard advanced, the people ran away, some few only were taken." It is much to be lamented that Bishop Burnet him- self and the government ministry of that day, by in- dulging in violent language, and resorting to violent measures, under the maddening influence of party spirit exceeding all common bounds, supplied any excuse for this mob-violence out of doors. The queen was secretly present at the trial every day, in a curtained closet near the throne ; and her chair, in going to and from Westminster Hall, was surrounded by the midtitude, looking in at the window, and shouting, "We hope your majesty is for Dr. Sacheverell ! " At the head of the rioters were found the queen's own badged and Uveried watermen, who were a much more numerous and im- portant class, when the river was the highway of royal and aristocratic state-barges, instead of penny steam- boats. With regard to the rest, it is well known that Burnet was hated by the poor, — generally a bad sign, whether in bishop or priest. 1709, 1710.] DB. SACIIEVERELL. 309 At length, the trial ended, " The lords went down to the hall, when, the question heing put upon the whole impeachment, guilty or not guilty, fifty-two voted him not gudty, and sixty-nine voted him guilty. The real debate was, what censure ought to pass upon him. And here a strange turn appeared : some seemed to apprehend the effects of a popidar fury, if the censure was severe ; to others it was said, that the queen desired it to he mild ; so it was proposed to suspend him from preaching for one year ; others were for six years ; but by a vote it was fixed to three years. It was next moved, that he should be incapa- ble of all preferment for these three years. Upon that the house was divided, fifty-nine were for the vote, and sixty were against it ; so that being laid aside, the Sermon was ordered to be burnt (these small flames new kindling old animosities, and setting the whole kingdom in combustion), in the presence of the Lord Mayor and the Sheriffs of London, and this was done ; only the Lord Mayor, being a member of the House of Commons, did not think he was bouiid to be present. The lords also voted, that the Decrees of the University of Oxford, passed in 1683, in which the absolute authority of princes, and the unalterableness of the hereditary right of succeeding to the crown, were asserted in a very high strain, should be burnt by the common hangman with Sacheverell's Sermon 9 . When this mild judgment was given, those who had supported him during the trial expressed an 9 The common hangman, as well as parish clerks and sextons, must have been infinitely better off than the curates of those days, according to Stackhouse. Judicial burnings were of weekly occur- rence, in addition to the duties imposed on him by constant im- peachments, a thoroughly demoralized state of society, and san- guinary statutes — they being ordered by the lower courts, as well as the House of Lords. Thus Lediard (Contin. of Rap. vol. iii. 310 suspension or saciievebell. [chap. xtt. inconceivable gladness, as if they had got a victory ; bonfires, illuminations, and other marks of joy ap- peared, not only in London, but over the whole king- dom V Dr. Sacheverell himself viewed it as a victory, for he immediately published a tract, " Dr. Sacheverell' s Prayers and Thanksgivings for his great Deliverance out of his Troubles," which had an enor- mous sale. Suspension from preaching, short of imprisonment, an ecclesiastical penalty by a civil sentence, appears a stretch, not indeed of the royal supremacy, but of House of Lords' supremacy, neither very common nor very intelligible ; — less intelligible than the depriva- tion of nonjuring bishops by the crown. A majority of the bishops voted nevertheless for it, and asked their lordships no questions. The division-list was as follows : — Guilty. Xot Guilty. St. Asaph. Chesteb. Nobwich. Bath and Wells. Lincoln. Bochesteb. OxFOBD. DUEHAM. Petebboeough. London. Elt. Toek. Sabuji. However this be, this petty persecution was the making of Sacheverell ; who, during his suspension from preaching, was presented to a "Welsh living near p. 309) tells us that " on the first of April, 1705, a pamphlet, called ' The Memorial of the Church of England,' was presented at the Old Baily, and ordered by the court to be burnt by the common hangman." 1 Own Times, vol. iv. p. 287. See also " Tryal of Dr. Henry Sacheverell. Published by authority," 1710. Also, Chalmers's Biog. Diet. 1709, 1710.] TEirUPHAL PROGRESS OF SACTIETEHELL. 311 Shrewsbury, and made a triumphal progress to take possession of it. He was entertained magnificently by the University and neighbourhood of Oxford for a month. At Banbury, the mayor, recorder, and cor- poration, in their robes, attended him to his inn, making him a present of wine, and in the evening there were bonfires, ringing of bells, and all public expressions of joy. At Wrexham, as he approached his living of Selattyn, he was met within a mde of the town, by most of the gentlemen of the county and others, to the number of two thousand. Invited to Shrewsbury, he was met at Manford Bridge, three miles from the town, by all the county gentlemen, and conducted to Shrewsbury by about five thousand horse. At Bridgnorth, when he came near the town, he was met by about four thousand horse, and near three thousand foot, most of them with white knots, edged with gold, and three leaves of gilt laurel in their hats ; the hedges, two miles from the town, being dressed with flowers, and lined with people, and the two steeples adorned with fifty pounds' worth of flags. Ludlow was the last stage of his triumph. Swift satirizes the idolatry paid to Sacheverell, in his " Memoirs of P. P., Clerk of this Parish," who says, " We are now arrived at that celebrated year in which the Church of England was tried in the person of Dr. Sacheverell." And he mentions "this White, a man of good repute, for that his uncle, by the mother's side, had formerly been servitor at Maudlin College, where the glorious Sacheverell was educated." And every one will naturally ask, what could all this frenzied ebullition of popular excitement mean ? About as much as many other popular movements mean. In spite of the cry, " Church and Sacheverell," it is impossible to view it all, if at all, as a homage to 312 QUEEN AOTTE'S FIFTY [chap. xit. the triumph of Church principles. Admitting him for the moment to have expounded them ever so well, it is clear that his aclmirers, on the whole, could little sympathize with them; for even this age, and yet more the succeeding age, gave little evidence of a hearty and intelligent reception of them. It is true, the large sum of 350,000Z. was heing spent in church-building, not only to repair the losses by the fire, but without the city walls. On the 10th of March of this year (1710) the Speaker of the Com- mons acquainted the house that the prolocutor of the lower house of Convocation had delivered him a scheme of the number of the churches, chapels, and meeting- houses in twenty-seven parishes, where additional churches were judged to be most wanted, together with a calculation of the number of souls within these several parishes. And the commons, in the overflow of their newly-awakened zeal, resolved that fifty new churches were necessary and should be built, in London and "Westminster, and the suburbs thereof, for the reception of all such as were of the communion of the Church of England, computing 4750 souls to each church ; and attended her majesty with an ad- dress, stating their opinion that the want of churches had contributed to the miseries, schism, and irreligion of the age ; and expressing their readiness, notwith- standing the expenses of the war (again war !), to make a grant for the same. And in the same session an Act was passed granting to her majesty certain duties upon all coals brought into the port of London, for this excellent purpose 2 . 2 See Salmon's Chron. Hist. vol. ii. p. 8. It elicited a ludicrous letter at the time, professing to come from " the dissenting in- terest," in which we find, — " and moreover, how did our hearts rejoice at the frequent declarations from the throne, and assurances 1709, 1710.] NEW CHURCHES. 313 Still, however good this work, as far as it went, and though it would be unwarrantable to suppose that many of its promoters were not influenced by the purest and most disinterested motives, especially the queen, it must be viewed, on the whole, as promoted to secure her favour, in the great crush and struggle now going on between the rival parties. However loud the shout " the Church and Sacheverell," when we call to mind that the Tory statesman, Harley, urging on this mad excitement against Sacheverell's Whig persecutors, in order to supplant them, was himself a rigid dissenter 3 ; that the Church still re- tained enough of the traditionary reverence of the from the Parliament, that the toleration should be inviolably main- tained ! Behold, now it is encroached upon ; that good Christian liberty will, in a manner, be taken from us ; and by this jesuitical artifice of building new churches, the design of it wholly defeated; for, alas ! to what purpose do they tolerate our meetings, if they tempt from us the greatest parts that compose them ? There must be some secret intention to do injury to God's elect, to take away the 'dominion of the good peaceable saints, and reduce us to our primi- tive inconsiderableness here on earth." Somers's Tracts, vol. xii. p. 329. If such was likely to be the unhappy result of church-building, it was not for want of vigorous attempts on their part to draw. Noble tells, for instance, the following story, showing the lengths to which dissenting preachers of that day were prepared to go for this laudable purpose. Seriously speaking, it is a melancholy instance of the familiar old Puritan way of treating divine things, which naturally ended, in Charles's time, in the contempt of them. " A Mr. Burgess, seeing but a small number of hearers, one day, suddenly called out, ' Fire ! Fire! Fire!' The affrighted audience exclaimed, ' Where ? Where ? Where ?' — ' In hell, to burn such wretches as regard not the glad tidings of the Gospel.' " Noble, vol. ii. p. 1G0. 3 Harley always had chaplains of different religious sects at his table, like Cromwell ; but, unlike Cromwell, had a clergyman too. Each may be viewed, in this respect, as a type of his own times : some may think Cromwell's practice the better of the two. 314 EELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL STATE. [CHAP. XIV. great mass of the people, to make her a very con- venient party-cry, under a thoroughly English queen, who was well known to be devoted to her ; that, at that time, party spirit, ran higher than, even in later times, we have, happily, witnessed, and was wont to make any bidding, to serve the turn of the moment, for power and place, the struggle being now for im- perial power lapsing rapidly from princes to ministers and legislators ; above all, when we consider how few other proofs were being given, in more sober moments, of the Church being uppermost in men's minds ; — we dare not appropriate to the Church all this jubilation and holiday, as any proof of a Church triumph, but chiefly as the expression of a Tory triumph, achieved by using the Church. So far as it is to be accounted for by bond fide Church feeling, it was the last flicker of an expiring taper, for darkness was at hand, — a convulsive throe, preceding a whole century of spiritual death 4 . * That we are right in supposing this vigour of church- building to have been assumed by many for a temporary political purpose^ only, is confirmed by the fact of the commission being allowed to die out, after carrying out its object very imperfectly. Maitland, writing in 1750, says, "however, hitherto, there are only ten of the said churches built upon new foundations." Hist, of Loudon, vol. i. p. 509. These ten are : £ s. d. Greenwich at a cost of 1 8,209 0 2 Deptford , 19,037 I 8 St. John's, Westminster . . „ 29,277 11 2 St. Mary „ 10,341 1 2 Spitalfields 19,418 3 0 St. Anne's, Limehouse ... „ 19,G79 12 10 St. George in the East 18,557 3 3 Bloomsbury 9,793 3 9 St. Mary, Woolnoth ... „ 8,005 7 2 St. Luke, Old-street Sites were purchased for seven others ; and agreed for, for four. — See Journals of House of Commons. 1709, 1710.] SACHEVERELL S DEATH. 315 Indeed, little of Church principle was at stake, to obtain a triumph. Had it been otherwise, Dr. Sach- everell's learning and position might not have in- dicated him as the champion. However, there is no doubt that he was a talented man. He was under the disadvantage of preaching extempore, and therefore the style of his sermons was at the mercy of reporters ; but Ms oion language, as it fell from his own lips, was doubtless very superior, probably eloquent — his defence in the House of Lords was so. As to private character, there can be no better evidence of its ex- cellence, than that such bitter enemies as he en- countered never thought of impeaching it. Noble, an opponent, admits that " Sachevereli's private life was amiable. . . . He was disgraced by the legislature, but tens of thousands bent as lowly before him, as the Thibetans to the Grand Lama." His reputation stood the test of three years, at all events, for the copyright of the first sermon he preached after his suspension, at St. Saviour's, sold for 100Z. ; and, when the Tories came into power, which was mainly brought about by the unpopularity which the Whigs earned by prosecuting him, he was desired to preach before the House of Commons, at St. Margaret's, and had their thanks for his sermon. Besides which, in the same month in which his sus- pension ceased, he was appointed by Queen Anne to the valuable rectory of St. Andrew's, Holborn, lately held by Stillingfleet. Here he ended his singular and not uninteresting career, in 1724. CHAPTER XV. A.D. 1710, 1711. Archbishop of Canterbury. Queen of England. Thomas Tenison. Anne. It is with plain uneasiness and discomfort that Burnet, at any time, breaks the thread of his history of the endless continental wars of this and the preceding reigns, to describe the affairs of the Church. With an essentially unecclesiastical mind, he may have felt himself more at home in the former class of subjects, and likely to be thought by military readers more to excel in them. Or he may have felt himself to be as strongly tied and bound to a party in the Church as to the luxurious and expensive episcopal mode of brag which he deplores as prevailing in his day ; and as unable in the one case as he avows himself in the other, to tear himself away, and so may have felt an unwil- lingness to trust himself to matters in which he was conscious his feelings and impulses were so deeply engaged ; and such a reserve would be honourable to him. Whether from an idiosyncratic distaste for ecclesias- tical subjects, or from a modest distrust of himself in them, certain it is that his portly History of his Own Times is essentially a military and political history : the Church does not occupy that space and considera- tion which one might expect from a bishop. However, BTJENET AT COURT. 317 at a very interesting moment, when he is talking with his usual animation on such favourite subjects — of scarps and counterscarps, battalions and squadrons ; and the Duke of Marlborough, and Prince Eugene, and Marshal Villars, are at the head of their respective armies, within a league from each other, ready to let slip the dogs of war, about Arras and Douay ; — at such a moment he does break away from his chosen theme, to tell of a certain conversation or audience which he had this year with Queen Anne, upon the subject of the Protestant succession. Apart from the religious view, the interview was otherwise, indeed, interesting to him, from the opportunity it gave him of putting in a word for his own political party, the Whigs. This latter the reader of the present day will care less about ; but the conversation was of sufficient importance, in the religious view, to appear in these pages. " During this winter, I was encouraged by the queen to speak more freely to her of her affairs than I had ever ventured to do formerly. I told her what reports were secretly spread of her, through the nation, as if she favoured the design of bringing the Pretender to succeed to the crown, upon a bargain that she should hold it during her life. I was sure these reports were spread about by persons who were in the confidence of those that were believed to know her mind. I was well assured that the Jacobites of Scotland had, upon her coming to the crown, sent up one Ogilby of Boyne, who was in great esteem among them, to propose the bargain to her ; he, when he went back, gave the party still assurances that she accepted it. This I had from some of the lords of Scotland, who were then in the secret with the professed Jacobites. The Earl of Cromarty made a speech in Parliament, as 318 BURNET AT COURT. [CIIAP. XV. was formerly mentioned, contradicting this, and allud- ing to the distinction of the Calvinists between the secret and the revealed will of God, he assured them the queen had no secret will contrary to that which she declared ; yet, at the same time, his brother gave the party assurances to the contrary. I told the queen all this, and said, if she was capable of making such a bargain for herself, by which her people were to be delivered up and sacrificed after her death, as it would darken all the glory of her reign, so it must set all her people to consider of the most proper ways of securing themselves, by bringing over the Protestant successors 1 ; in which, I told her plainly, I should concur, if she did not take effectual means to extin- guish these jealousies. I told her, her ministers [the Whig ministry appointed in 1708] had served her with that fidelity and such success that her making a change among them would amaze all the world. The glory of Queen Elizabeth's reign arose from the firm- ness of her counsels, and the continuance of her ministers, as the three last reigns, in which the ministry was often changed, had suffered extremely by it 2 . I also showed her, that, if she suffered 1 Sophia, Electress of Hanover, grand-daughter of James I., and, she dying, her son, Prince George, afterwards George I. ; to whom the succession of the English crown was limited hy statute 12 William and Mary, entituled, " An Act for further limiting of the Crown," &c. 2 The astute politician clearly wished the queen to understand, not that change of ministry was an evil, as change, but change from Whig to Tory. For, when the present Whig ministry was appointed, or remodelled — made more intensely Whiggish — in 1708, we find him congratulating the country on the change in these words : " The present ministry was now wholly such, that it gave an entire con- tent to all who wished well to our affairs : and the great successes 1710, 1711.] BURNET AT COURT. 319 the Pretender's party to prepare the nation for his succeeding her, she ought not to imagine, that, when they thought they had fixed that matter, they would stay for the natural end of her life ; but that they would find ways to shorten it. Nor did I think it would be doubted but that, in 1708, when the Pretender was upon the sea, they had laid some assas- sinates here, who, upon the news of his landing, would have tried to dispatch her. It was certain that their interest led them to it, as it was known that their principles allowed of it. This, with a great deal more to the same purpose, I laid before the queen : she heard me patiently 3 ; she was for the most part silent. Yet, by what she said, she seemed desirous to make me think she agreed to what I laid before her ; but I found afterwards it had no effect upon her 4 . Yet I had great quiet in my own mind, since I had, with a abroad, silenced those who were otherwise disposed to find fault, and to complain." — (Own Times, vol. iv. p. 248.) And certainly, the Whigs, as the chief promoters of the Revolution, had strong claims on the personal gratitude of those whom it alone had raised to the throne. 3 Lord Dartmouth says that " the queen heard them patiently, because she was the best-bred woman in her realm, and was much amused at the bishop's fear for himself ; as, in the course of his harangue, he had betrayed his apprehension that, in the event of the Pretender landing, he should himself be the very first person who would be hanged." — (Notes to Burnet's Hist. Own Times, vol. i. p. 263.) His lordship describes the queen to have had a thorough dislike for Burnet, and to have been most averse to his appointment as tutor to her late son, the Prince of Gloucester. (See also Hooper's MS.) 4 The ministry was dismissed before the year was out : its pro- secution of Dr. Sacheverell, odious to the great majority of the nation, had sealed its downfall. 320 ST. PACl's FINISHED, [chap. XT. honest freedom, made the hest use I could have of the access I had to her*." Mr. Hallam observes, " Whatever may have been the sentiments of Anne, her secret was never divulged ; nor is there, as I apprehend, however positively the contrary is sometimes asserted, any decisive evidence whence we may infer that she ever pretended her brother's restoration 6 ." Mr. Lathbury observes, "It is asserted that, had the Pretender renounced popery, Queen Anne woidd have promoted his interests ; and that efforts were urged to induce him to comply, though without effect, as he protested against such a course. He promised, however, to engage a Protestant chaplain, in the event of his coming to England, to officiate to his Protestant servants. The latter pro- mise, it is said, was broken, when he actually came into the country. Among the rumours of the day, one was, that he had positively renounced popery, and that his chaplain performed Divine service daily in his presence, according to the order of the Anglican Church 7 ." This year St. Paul's cathedral was finished under the auspices of Sir Christopher (formerly Dr.) Wren. Some time having been spent in repairs of the old fabric, which were found to be useless, the new cathe- dral was not begun until 1675, nine years after the fire, when the first stone was laid under the superin- tendence of Sancroft, then dean, who only lived to see the choir nearly finished. In 1696 an Act was passed imposing a tax on coals for its completion. In the ! Own Times, vol. iv. p. 290. 6 Const. Hist. vol. ii. p. 577- 7 Hist. Nonj. p. 240. 1710, 1711.] SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN'S CHURCHES. 321 previous year, it was visited by Evelyn, who thus describes what he saw : " Oct. 5, 1695. I went to St. Paul's to see the choir, now finished as to the stone-work, and the scaffolds struck both without and within, in this part. Some exceptions might perhaps be taken as to the placing the columns or pilasters, at the east tribunate. As to the rest, it is a piece of architecture without reproach. The pulling out the forms from under the stalls, like drawers, is ingenious." Evelyn was an amiable man, but his patience was sorely taxed in watching the slow progress of this cathedral. We find him saying, " There ought to be a public library at St. Paul's : the west end of that church, if ever finished, would be a convenient place." Besides St. Paul's, Wren, during the time he was Surveyor-general to the Crown, viz. from 1668 to 1710, had built the following churches. It is easily understood, that such undertakings in London had rendered it necessary to give up his Savilian professor- ship at Oxford. Allhallows, Bread-street. Lombard-street. St. Alban, Wood-street. St. Anne and Agnes. St. Andrew Wardrobe. Holborn. St. Antholin. St. George, Botolpb-lane. St. James, Garlick-hill. Westminster. St. Lawrence, Jewry. St. Michael, Basing-hall. Royal. Queenhithe. Wood-street. Crooked-lane. St. Michael, Cole Abbey. St. Peter, Cornhill. St. Swithin, Cannon -street. St. Mildred, Bread-street. Poultry. St. Sepulchre. St. Dunstan in the East. St. Bene't, Grass-church-street. Paul's Wharf. Fink. St. Bride. St. Bartholomew. Christ Church. St. Clement, East Cheap. Danes. St. Dionis, Backchurch. T 322 BISHOP LLOYD. [CHAP. XT. St. Edmund the King. St. Martin, Ludgate. St. Mary Magdalen. • Somerset* at Hill. St. Matthew, Bridge-street. St. Margaret, Lothbury. Pattens. St. Mary, Abchurch. Aldermanbury. le Bow. St. Stephen, Coleman-street. St. Magnus, London-bridge. St. Christopher. Westminster Abbey (repaired). "While St. Paul's is admitted on all bauds to be a master-piece of architectural science, tbe present age, by its return to Gothic, is passing sentence of con- demnation on his favourite style, the Itaban. This year, another distinguished nonjuror, Lloyd, deprived Bishop of Norwich, was released from po- verty and suffering by death. His straitened circum- stances may be gathered from Bishop Ken addressing bis letters to him, " at Mr. Harbius', a grocer, over against Somerset House." Archbishop Saucroft having deputed his archiepiscopal powers to this prelate (who exercised them with such singular discretion as to give no offence to the government), it was thought by Bobert Nelson, Dodwell, and many other nonjurors, that his death (which took place at Hammersmith) and the withdrawal of jurisdiction by the only surviving nonjuror bishop, Bishop Ken, left them free to return into communion with the established section of the Church, which accordingly they did, as they maintained, on cathobc principles ; these principles, however, were vehemently opposed by Hickes, and hence a division among the nonjurors from this period, which rendered the more their ulti- mate extinction a question of time only. 1711. — The Convocation of this year supphes a humiliating example of the way and extent to which Convocation was made, in those times, the tool and 1710, 1711.] CONVOCATION. 323 puppet of political parties in the State. Hitherto the dominancy of the Whigs at court had led to the con- cession of power to the Whig bishops, by prorogation and otherwise, whenever any inconvenient pressure was felt, to swamp the lower house, stopping its pro- ceedings the moment they became troublesome. In spite of Burnet's advice to the queen, to retain the Whigs in office, as she valued her peace, the queen had now appointed a Tory ministry, which imme- diately took steps, by very questionable means, and as a miserable retaliation, to inflict upon the Whig ma- jority of the House of Bishops the same mortification which, by the help of Whig ministers, they had hitherto inflicted so mercdessly upon the lower house. Smol- lett says, " The bishops were purposely slighted and overlooked, because they had lived in harmony with the late ministers." Bishop Burnet's account of the matter is as follows. After stating the matters which the queen had com- manded the Convocation to deliberate upon, he pro- ceeds : " In this whole matter, neither the archbishop nor any of the bishops were so much as consulted with ; and some things in the licence were new. The archbishop was not named the President of the Con- vocation, as was usual in former licences ; and in these the archbishop's presence and consent alone was made necessary, except in case of sickness, and then the archbishop had named some bishops to preside, as his commissaries. And in that case, the Convocation was limited to his commissaries, which still lodged the presidentship and the negative with the archbishop. This was according to the primitive pattern, to limit the clergy of a province to do [enact] nothing, without the consent of the metropolitan ; but it was a thing x 2 324. PROCEEDINGS OE [CHAP. XT. new and unheard of, to limit the Convocation to any of their own body, who had no deputation from the archbishop. So a report of this being made by a com- mittee that was appointed to search the records, it was laid before the queen, and she sent us a message to let us know, that she did not intend that those whom she had named to be of the quorum, should either preside or have a negative over our proceedings, though the contrary was plainly insinuated in the licence. The archbishop was so ill of the gout, that after our first meetings he could come no more to us ; so was the Bishop of London. Upon which, the Bishop of Bath and "Wells, seeing how invidiously he was distinguished from his brethren, on which he had not been consulted, pretended ill health ; and we were at a stand until a new licence was sent us, in which the Bishops of "Winchester, Bristol, and St. David's, were added to the quorum. The two last were newly consecrated, and had been in no [?] functions in the Church before. So the queen not only passed over all the bishops made in King William's reign, but a great many of those named by herself, and set the two last in a distinction above all their brethren. All this was directed by Atterbury, who had the confidence of the chief minister ; and because the other bishops had maintained a good correspondence with the former ministry, it was thought fit to put marks of the queen's distrust upon them, that it might appear with whom her royal trust and favour was lodged 8 ." A signal retribution upon the long-dominant "Whig majority of the upper house, wielding so mercilessly, as it had for years past, the ministerial weapon of pro- 8 Own Times, vol. iv. p. 323. 1710, 1711.] CONVOCATION. 325 rogation against the supposed Tory tendencies of the lower house. At the same time, though Bishop Bur- net and his brethren were now, in their turn, only eat- ing the same bread of affliction as they had recom- mended to, and forced upon, others, it is impossible to approve or justify any political spleen levelled against them in the discharge of a solemn religious function ; and every candid mind will see and acknowledge that Convocation, first in one house, and then in another, could not thus be made the football of political parti- sanship, and retain long its peace, or dignity, or use- fulness ; and that successive unscrupulous ministries, therefore, are to be added as one other of the real causes of the failure of Convocation. After explana- tions upon these points, and the appointment of Atter- bury as prolocutor by the lower house, committees were formed, and the houses proceeded to consider the questions referred to them by the queen in the follow- ing schedide : — " Anne E. " Most reverend father in God, our right tridy and right entirely beloved counsellor, we greet you well. Whereas by our royal licence to the present Convoca- tion of the province of Canterbury we have, among other things, empowered and authorized them to con- fer, treat, debate, consider, consult, and agree of and upon such points, matters, causes, and things, as we from time to time should deliver, or cause to be de- livered to you, in writing under our sign-manual or privy signet, to be debated, considered, consulted, and agreed upon ; we do accordingly hereby transmit unto you the heads of such matters as we think proper for the consideration of the said Convocation, which are as follow : 326 PROCEEDINGS OF [CHAP. XT. " The drawing up a representation of the present state of religion among us, with regard to the late ex- cessive growth of infidelity, heresy, and profaneness 9 . " The regulating the proceedings in excommunica- tions, and reforming the abuses of commutation money. " The preparing a form for the visitation of pri- soners, and particularly condemned persons. For admitting converts from the Church of Kome, and such as shall renounce their errors. For restoring those who have relapsed. " The establishing rural deans where they are not, and rendering them more useful where they are. " The making provision for procuring and trans- mitting more exact terriers, and account of glebes, tithes, and other possessions and profits belonging to benefices. " The regulating licences for matrimony according to the Canons, in order to the more effectual prevent- ing of clandestine marriages. " All which points, matters, and things, we do hereby direct to be debated, considered, consulted, and agreed upon by the said Convocation, pursuant to our licence aforesaid. And so we bid you heartily farewell. " Given at our court at St. James's, the 29th day of January, mdccx, in the ninth year of our reign. " By her majesty's command, " Daetmottthe." 9 " A committee being appointed to draw up a representation of the present state of the Church and religion, Atterbury undertook the task, and composed a remonstrance that contained the most keen and severe strictures upon the administration, as it had been exercised since the time of the Revolution. Another was penned by the bishops, in more moderate terms ; and several regulations were made, but in none of these could they agree." Smollett, in loc. 1710, 1711.] COTOCATIOX. 327 On the 2nd of March we find a report presented by a committee of the lower house, recommending an ap- plication " to his grace, and the lords the bishops, desiring his grace and their lordships that they would be pleased, in such manner as they shall judge most effectual, to recommend to the archdeacons and others having jurisdiction in their respective dioceses, to use the best of their skill and authority with the ministers and churchwardens of the respective parishes, that all charities given, or to be given, in perpetuity, be fairly entered in the register-books of each parisli to which such charities belong ; and also, that copies of the said entries be transmitted to the bishops of each diocese respectively, to be inserted in their lordships' registers ; and also, that a table of such charities be hung up in the respective churches, to the end that a grateful re- membrance of the several benefactors may be con- tinued to posterity, and others may be incited to follow their good examples. " It is the opinion of this committee, that the cha- ritable designs of divers pious persons of providing Ubraries proper for the use of the poorer clergy, doth well deserve the encouragement and assistance of this synod." On March 7th a report was agreed to by a com- mittee of both houses, " about excommunications and commutations of penance," recommending various amendments of discipline in these matters, which was followed by another joint report " about terriers, and account of glebes, tithes, and other profits belonging to benefices," recommending certain improvements, which, it is to be feared, have been very partially car- ried out. 328 PROCEEDINGS OF [CHAP. XT. A joint report about rural deans having been seut in, the upper house resolved, " 1. That the number and extent of rural deaneries may best continue according to the ancient division established by law and custom. " 2. That a canon or constitution shall be drawn up declaring the office and powers of a rural dean &c. " 3. That in every diocese the persons to be appointed to the office of rural deans shall be men of the elder and graver sort among the clergy, &c. " 4. That the clergy of every deanery, or the greater part of them, shall choose a person thus qualified, who shall be presented by the archdeacon or other ordinary to the bishop, for his approbation ; and, when approved, shall be appointed by the bishop, under his hand, to execute the said office for the term of three years, unless cause should appear to the bishop for altering the said term. " 5. That a paper of instructions from the bishop shall be given to every rural dean so appointed, &c. " 6. That it would be proper to consider whether any privileges or profits can be restored or conveyed to rural deans, to encourage them in the better execution of their office, &c. " 7. Nevertheless, in those dioceses of this province wherein rural deans have been hitherto constantly kept up with good effect, and in which the custom out of mind hath been to choose, appoint, or admit them in other manner, or for a longer or shorter term, than is before mentioned, it is hereby intended, that the 1 See detailed statement of these and other matters debated in this Convocation. Wilkins' Concilia, in loc. 1710, 1711.] COHTOCATIOiS'. 329 ancient custom of such dioceses, as to the manner of the appointment and admission, and the term of their continuance in office, he still observed, unless the respective bishops of such dioceses shall think fit, with the consent of the clergy, to alter the same." On April 10th, the lower house, having considered the joint report, and the resolutions sent down to them by the upper house upon that report, agreed to the first and third, but submitted alterations in the others, which led to a long and interesting discussion and correspondence between the two houses, seemingly interrupted, before any canons upon the subject were enacted, by proceedings in reference to Whiston's book, entitled, " An Historical Preface to Primitive Christianity revived." This learned but eccentric and heterodox divine was the son of the rector of Twycross, Leicestershire. He became fellow and tutor of Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1690. In 1693 he entered into holy orders, and became chaplain to Dr. Moore, Bishop of Norwich, who gave him the living of Lowestoffe, where he remained till 1700, when he was appointed deputy professor of mathematics at Cambridge by Sir Isaac JS'ewton, whom in three years he succeeded. Settled at Cambridge, Bishop Moore made him catechetical lecturer at St. Clement's. This last appointment he lost, from his persevering in heterodox sentiments ; and, in 1710, he was for the same reason formally expelled from the university. Timing to London, he gave lectures on astronomy, which were patronized by Addison, Steele, and others. Being refused commu- nion at his parish church, he opened his own house as a conventicle, using a liturgy of his own composing : eventually, after refusing a bishopric offered hi/ Geo. I., he became a Baptist. After pubb'shing his own Me- 330 PROCEEDINGS OF [CHAP. XV. moirs, and his well-known translation of Josepkus, ke died in London in 1752. Tke proceedings against kiin in tkis Convocation were opened on March the 19th, by the following schedule presented by the lower house : " To the most reverend the Lord Archbishop of Canter- bury, and the lords the Bishops, his suffragans. " The clergy of the lower house in synod assembled represent to your lordships that a book hath, during this session of Convocation, been published and dis- persed through several parts of this province, entitled, ' An Historical Preface to Primitive Christianity re- vived,' with an Appendix, containing an account of the author's prosecution and banishment from the Uni- versity of Cambridge, dedicated to the most reverend Thomas, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, president, and to the right reverend the bishops of the same province, his grace's suffragans, and to the reverend the clergy of the lower house in Convocation as- sembled. " This ' Historical Preface ' is humbly dedicated, and the papers therein referred to, with all due submission offered to their and the public's serious consideration by tke autkor. " Tkis book contains assertions, in our opinion, so directly opposite to tke fundamental articles of tke Ckristian religion, tk:ft, out of our duty to God, our zeal for preserving tke purity of tke Catkohc faitk, and our concern to prevent tke scandals tkat may arise from our silence, we tkink ourselves obliged to lay it before your lordskips, praying your opinion after wkat manner it may be proper to proceed in relation to tkat book." 1710, 1711.] CONVOCATION. 331 Three days afterwards it appears from the following letter of the archbishop, dated April 11, to have been taken into consideration by the bishops. " To the right reverend my brethren the Bishops of the province of Canterbury in Convocation assembled. " Eight Eeverend Brethren, " Whereas your lordships, on the 19th day of March last, came to some resolutions concerning a book lately published by Mr. Whiston, and in pursuance thereof did agree at the same time, that they should be laid before me for my opinion thereupon. I have already signified that I entirely agree with you in your reso- lution, that notice should be taken of the said book ; and after having consulted such books and persons as I thought proper on this occasion, I do now subjoin and offer my opinion concerning the further methods of proceeding therein, as follows : " To proceed regularly in the censure of Mr. AVhis- ton, two points are to be considered : " I. The censure of the book and doctrine. " II. The censure of the person." The archbishop proceeds to consider both in order. The first he would seem to represent as easy and safe, and yet he afterwards notes the legal opinion obtained even against that small amount of jurisdiction in the Convocation of 1689. In order to a censure of a person in a judicial way, he tells them there are three several ways : " I. The first method is by the court of Convocation, in which such a judicature hath been evidently exer- cised in many instances both before and since the Eeforination, and which seems to be the most desirable 332 PROCEEDINGS OF [CHAP. XT. in the present case." But lie points out difficulties. First, " Such a court being final or the last resort, from which no appeal is provided by the statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19, it may seem to be doubtful, how far a prosecution without appeal to the crown will be con- sistent with 1 Eliz. c. 1, § 17, whereby all jurisdiction, and particularly for reformation of errors, heresies, and schisms, is united and annexed to the imperial crown of this realm ; and also how far it will be consistent with the statute of appeals, 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19, which in the course of the appeals directed to be thenceforth made, doth not mention Convocation. " Secondly, It seems to be another difficulty, that there does not appear to have been any exercise of such a judicature for this last hundred years or there- abouts, in which time matters of such nature were usually considered and adjudged in the high commis- sion court, whde that remained ; and when that court was suppressed, it was enacted 17 Car. II. c. 2, that no court should be thenceforth erected with like power, jurisdiction, or authority, but that all commissions erecting any such court shall be void. " Vou will therefore think it fit to be duly consi- dered, how far the revival of this judicial authority in a convocation, empowered to proceed and act by her majesty's commission or licence, maybe construed an erecting a court with like power, &c, as the high com- mission had." ^ "it* -Sfe "X* *i£ " II. The second method of proceeding is for the archbishop to hold a court of audience, &c. " III. The bishop in whose diocese an inhabitant may of his own accord cite him into his court, &c. " Of the three forementioned methods the two last 1710, 1711.] CONVOCATION. 333 seem to be the most plain and clear in point of legality. But because the first is the most solemn, provided it may be pursued legally, and with safety to the arch- bishop, bishops, and clergy of the province, it seems to be necessary to lay the premises, or what else may be the result of your own debates and deliberations, before her majesty, with an humble request as from the upper house, that her majesty will be graciously pleased to lay the case before her reverend judges for their opinions thereupon." Eight of the twelve judges, with the attorney and solicitor-general, gave the following opinion, in favour of the powers of Convocation, to a limited extent. " To the Queen's most excellent Majesty, " May it please your Majesty, " In humble obedience to your majesty's commands signified to us by the right hon. the lord keeper of the great seal, in relation to the humble address of the archbishops and bishops of the province of Canter- bury in Convocation assembled hereunto annexed, we whose names are hereunto subscribed, have taken into consideration the doubts and questions therein stated. " And after conference with the rest of the judges, we are humbly of opinion, that of common right there lies an appeal from all ecclesiastical courts of England to your majesty, in virtue of your supremacy in eccle- siastical affairs, whether the same be given by express words of any Act of Parliament, or not ; and that no Act of Parliament has taken the same away ; and con- sequently that a prosecution in Convocation, not ex- cluding an appeal to your majesty, is not inconsistent 334 CONVOCATION. [CHAP. XT. with the statute of 1 Eliz. c. 1, but reserves the su- premacy entire. " As to the question proposed in the said address, how far the Convocation, as the law now stands, may proceed in examining, censuring, and condemning such tenets as are declared to be heresy by the laws of this realm, together with the authors and maintainers of them ? we understand it only to import these two things ; whether a jurisdiction to examine, censure, and condemn such tenets, and the authors and main- tainers thereof could ever be exercised iu Convocation ? and if it once could, whether it be taken away by any Act of Parliament ? " And we humbly lay before your majesty, that all our law-books that speak of this subject, mentioning a jurisdiction in matter of heresy, and condemnation of heretics, as proper to be exercised in Convocation, both before and since the Acts of Parliament mentioned in the address, and none of them, that we can find, making any doubt thereof; and we observing nothing in these, or any other Acts of Parliament, that we think has taken it away ; we are humbly of opinion that such jurisdiction, as the law now stands, may be exercised in the Convocation ; but this being a matter which, upon application for a prohibition on behalf of the per- sons who shall be prosecuted, may come in judgment before such of us as have the honour to serve your majesty in places of judicature, we desire to be under- stood to give our present thoughts, with a reserve of an entire freedom of altering our opinions, in case any records or proceedings, which we are now strangers to, shall be laid before us, or any new considerations, which have not occurred to us, be suggested by the 1710, 1711.] OCCASIONAL CONFORMITY BILL. 335 parties or their counsel to convince us of our mistakes. All which we most humbly submit to your majesty's great wisdom. " T. Parker. Thos. Burt. Thos. Trevor. Rob. Price. ¥m. Powell. E. Eyre. Littleton Powys. W. Xorthey. E. Tracy. Eob. Bayaiond. " May 4, mdccxi." Thus, the more favourable opinion only went to the extent of allowing jurisdiction, if the judges did not issue a prohibition ; and, if no prohibition issued, and Convocation proceeded to censures, the queen coidd reverse them, declaring what " the Church representa- tive" pronounced heresy to be no heresy. The four other judges pronounced against jurisdiction altogether. Bound and chained by such civil enactments and pre- rogatives, as interpreted by those who had the power to enforce their interpretations, we are not surprised to find little more done in the matter. Both houses cen- sured certain propositions in Winston's booh, not venturing, after this, to censures of the person ; but the queen, under those strange influences which seemed ever ready, if not in one shape in another, to make scorn and mockery of the inherent and indefeasible powers of the Church, did not ratify even these. Con- vocation was prorogued with the Parliament on the 12th of June, and we hear no more of Whiston. This year an Act passed against occasional confor- mity. It had already passed the commons in 1702, but was thrown out on that occasion by the lords. Hitherto dissenters had been eligible for public oflices, if they could reconcile it to their consciences to com- 336 GROWTH OF SCHISM BILL. [CHAP. XT. municate -with the Church at given seasons, and living at all other times in schism. The hill in question relieved them of this temptation to an occasional forced conformity for lucre's sake. Burnet thus describes it: — " All persons in places of profit and trust, and all the common-council men of corporations, who shoidd he at any meeting for divine worship (when there were above ten persons more than the family), in the which the Common Prayer was not used, or where the Queen and the Princess Sophia were not prayed for, should, upon conviction, forfeit their place of trust or profit, the witnesses making an oath within ten days, and the prosecution being within three months of the offence ; and such persons were to continue incapable of any employment till they should depose that for a whole year together they had been at no conventicle. The commons added a penalty of forty pounds on the offender, which was to be given to the informer 2 .'' It fell heavily upon the nonjurors as well as dissenters ; but though such a restriction might be politic or im- politic, most men will concede to the crown the right to impose its own qualifications for its own servants. It left the principle of religious toleration untouched. Buruet represents the dissenters complaining of the treachery of their Whig friends in lending themselves to such a measure, but it is not easy to see the rea- sonableness of such complaints. Xot so an Act passed shortly afterwards (12 Anne, c. 7) for preventing the growth of schism, which ex- tended and confirmed one of Charles EE., enforcing on all schoolmasters, and even on all teachers in private families, a declaration of conformity to the Established 1 Own Times, vol. iv. p. 343. 1710, 1711.] GROWTH! OF SCHISM BILL. 337 Church, to be made before the bishop, from whom a licence for exercising that profession was also to be obtained. A very proper regulation for Church school- masters ; but requiring it from all was an infraction upon the indefeasible rights of conscience, a retrograde step, a repeal so far of the Toleration Act. It was doing exactly what we have seen the Scotch Presby- terians doing at the uuion — a bad model. There could be no surer sign of a century's darkness impending over the Church. It was an outburst of the old Stuart spirit of intolerance and persecution, constitu- tional in Anne, but unpardonable in her advisers. Anne herself was utterly ignorant of the facts and warnings of history, and therefore at the mercy of each successive nattering junta about her. With good im- pulses, but slight convictions, and yet slighter know- ledge, it is no wonder that she oscillated between op- posite extremes, and had no definite objects or settled plan of action. Whatever might be the business, the Tories could not be altogether wrong, for the great mass of the people were with them ; nor the Whigs altogether wrong, for they took the oaths. Such was the dilemma, and a sufficiently embarrassing one to a singularly un- educated and incompetent mind. To ease it of such perplexities, she would write an extra note that day to her treacherous mistress, Sarah of Marlborough. She could tell her best what to do for the Church. It was urged in vain, at the time, that toleration, since the Restoration, had rather benefited the Church than otherwise, and that the effects of this measure would be to drive the dissenters abroad for education : it passed in the commons by a majority of 237 to 12(5. In the House of Lords, Lord Bolingbroke urged, that " instead of preventing schism, and enlarging the 338 DEBATES 0>" THE [CHAP. XV. pale of the Church, this bill tended to introduce igno- rance, and its inseparable attendants, superstition and irreligion." The bishops took no part in the debate. The Earl of Wharton thus alluded to it in his speech : — " Both in this bill, and in the speeches of those who declared for it, several laws were recited and alleged ; but there was a law that had not yet been mentioned. I expected (he added) that venerable bench (turning to the bishops) would have put us in mind of it ; but since they are pleased to be silent in this de- bate, I will myself tell them, that it is the law of the Gospel, ' to do unto others as we would be done unto.' " The Earl of Anglesea said, on the other side, " That the dissenters were equally dangerous to the Church and State ; that they were irreconcileable enemies to the Established Church, which they had unfortunately manifested in the late king, James II. 's reign, when, in order to obtain a toleration, they joined themselves with the papists ; and that they had rendered them- selves unworthy of the indulgence the Church of England granted them at the Eevolution, by endea- vouring to engross the education of youth ; for which purpose they had set up schools and academies in most cities and towns in the kingdom, to the great detriment of the universities and danger of the Esta- blished Church." Lord Halifax urged " that the very bringing in of this bill was injurious to the queen ; and he could not believe her majesty would ever give her royal assent to such a law, after the solemn declaration she had made from the throne, that she would inviolably main- tain the toleration, which this bill visibly struck at. That her majesty made it the glory of her reign to 1710,1711.] GROWTH OF SCHIS3I BILL. 339 follow the steps of Queen Elizabeth, who had not only entertained and protected the reformed Walloons, who took sanctuary in her dominions from the Spanish Inquisition, but had likewise allowed them the pubbc exercise of their religion, and caused a clause in their favour to be inserted in the Act of Uniformity. That, by that means, that wise and glorious queen had vastly increased the wealth of the realm, the Walloons having settled here the woollen manufactures, which are the best branch of the national trade. That the protection and encouragement the late King William and Queen Mary, and her present majesty, had given to the French refugees had proved no less advan- tageous to Great Britain. And, therefore, it would be a piece of barbarity to make an Act which should debar many foreign Protestants of the means of subsisting, either by keeping public schools, or teach- ing in private families ; especially considering their late hard usage ; the government not having, for above the three last years past, paid them any part of the 15,000/. per annum allowed by Parliament in the civil list, towards the maintenance of their ministers and poor." He concluded with taking notice of " the ill consequences of prosecuting the dissenters in Charles I.'s reign, which kindled a furious and un- natural civil war, and ended in the total overthrow of Church and State, and in the king's parricide." It passed the lords without a division (a mean exception being made in favour of tutors in their families) ; upon which the dissenters prayed to be heard by counsel. This led to a division, from which the lord keeper absented himself, and so outwitted those who, according to Tindal, had only promoted the z2 340 GAMBLING SPIEIT. [CHAP. XT. bill to entrap him by a vote, and themselves all the while disapproving the bill. The dilemma these poli- tical tricksters wished to place him in was this : that, if he voted for it, he would lose the dissenters and the Whigs entirely ; if he voted against it, he would lose the queen. Xothing can show more forcibly the miserable thraldom of party at that period ; and, when it is considered how much the Church was at the mercy of party, any dislocation of the synodal action, any ecclesiastical feuds and embarrassments of that day will raise little wonder 3 . It continued to disgrace the statute-book, though a dead letter, until finally repealed by 5 George I. The gambling spirit of the age reached its culminat- ing point, by the incorporation this year of the South Sea Company. On March 23rd of this year (1711) died Ken, deprived Bishop of Bath and Wells. He was the youngest son of Thomas Ken, of Furnival's-inn, and was born at Berkhampstead, in Hertfordshire, in July, 1637. At the age of thirteen he was sent to Winches- ter College, where he so distinguished himself by his abilities and good conduct, that at the age of twenty he was elected to New College, Oxford, where he graduated in arts and divinity. In 1666 he was elected Fellow of Winchester College, and became preacher at St. John's church in the Soak, near that city, and brought many Anabaptists to the Church, and baptized them himself. His biographer says of him at this period of his life, " that neither his study might be the aggressor on his hours of instruction, or what s See Tindal, vol. iv. r. 3C3. 1710, 1711.] BISHOP KEN". 341 he judged his duty, prevent his improvement, or both his closet addresses to his God, he strictly accustomed himself to but one sleep, which often obliged him to rise at one or two of the clock in the morning, and sometimes sooner, and grew so habitual, that it con- tinued with him almost to his last illness. And so lively and cheerful was his temper, that he would be very facetious and entertaining to his friends in the evening, even when it was perceived that with difficulty he kept his eyes open, and then seemed to go to rest with no other purpose than the refreshing and ena- bling him with more vigour and cheerfulness to sing his morning hymn, as he then used to do to his lute before he put on his clothes." Dr. Morley, Bishop of Winchester, made him his domestic chaplain, and presented him to the living of Woodhay, in Hamp- shire. About this time he published his " Manual of Prayers for the use of the Winchester Scholars." In 1G69 Bishop Morley, unasked, preferred him to a prebendal stall in his cathedral of Winton, in which post he was noticed by Charles II. In 1675 he visited Bome, and was often heard to say, on his return, that he had great reason to thank God for his travels, since, if it was possible, he returned more confirmed in the reformed faith of his own Church. After residing in Holland as chaplain to the Princess of Orange, Charles named him to the see of Bath and Wells in 1684. This was the more honourable to both, as, just before this, the king had asked him to lodge his mistress, " Nell Gwynne," in his prebendal house at Winchester, and he had indignantly replied, " No, not for his kingdom." He ministered at the death-bed of his royal benefactor, but the results are doubtful. As bishop, he went often in summer-time to 342 EISHOP KI>~. [CHAP. ST. some great parish, where he would preach twice 4 , confirm, and catechize : and, when he was at home on Sundays, he had twelve poor men or women with him in his hall ; always endeavouring, whilst he fed their bodies, to comfort and instruct their minds by cheer- ful and useful discourse. And when they had dined, 4 Of his eloquence as a preacher we hare many testimonies from Evelyn ; the following is one : — " March 20, 1G87- The Bishop of Bath and Wells (Dr. Ken) preached at St. Martin's to a crowd of people not to be expressed, nor the wonderful eloquence of this admirable preacher : the test was Matt. xxvi. 36 — 40, describing the bitterness of our blessed Saviour's agony, the ardour of his love, the infinite obligations we have to imitate his patience and resigna- tion, the means, by watching against temptations, and over our- selves, and fervent prayer, to attaine it, and the exceeding reward in the end. Upon all which he made most pathetical discourses. The communion followed, at which I was participant. I afterwards dined at Dr. Tenison's [the rector of St. Martin's, and afterwards Tillotson's successor at Canterbury] with the bishop, and that young, most learned, pious, and excellent preacher, Mr. Wake "at that time preacher of Gray's-inn, then rector of St. James's, Picca- dilly, and finally, in his turn, successor of Archbishop Tenison in the primacy.]" — Vol. i. p. G38. From this church [the former one, built by Henry VIII.] Evelyn conducts us to Whitehall. " 1st April. Ia the morning the first sermon was preached by Dr. Stillingfleet, Dean of St. Paul's. The holy communion followedi but was so interrupted by the rude breaking in of multitudes zealous to hear the second sermon, to be preached by the Bishop of Bath and Wells, that the latter part of that holy office could hardly be heard, or the sacred elements be distributed without great trouble. The princess [Anne, afterwards queen, to whom, when afterwards deprived, he owed his annuity] being come, he preached on Micah vii. 8 — 10, describing the calamity of the reformed church of Judah, under the Babylonian persecution, for her sins, and God's delivery of her on her repentance : that as Judah emerged, so should the new reformed church, wherever insulted and persecuted. He preached with his accustomed action, zeal, and energy, so that people flocked from all quarters to hear him." Vol. i. p. 647- 1710, 1711.] BISHOP KEX. 343 the fragments were gathered up and divided among them to cany home to their families. James II. tried in vain to reconcile him to his popish measures. Ken preached against the popish faction in the king's own chapel at Whitehall, and, his sermon being mis- represented to the king, he was sent for. " If jour majesty," said the fearless bishop, " had not neglected your own duty of being present, my enemies had missed this opportunity of accusing me." When the king claimed the fatal dispensing power, Ken openly opposed the reading of his proclamation of indulgence, annulling the laws against nonconformity, suppressed those which were sent to him to be read in his diocese, and petitioned the king not to pursue what was likely to prove so prejudicial both to Church and State ; which petition being called treasonable, he was committed to the Tower with the other six bishops. The same sternness of principle, whether well or ill founded in the second case, prevented him from swearing allegi- ance to William and Mary, and he was deprived, in common with the other nonjurors. He died at Long- leat, Wiltshire (where he had enjoyed the hospitality of Lord AVeymouth since his deprivation), in the chamber which he had long inhabited, and which is shown to this day, being first seized with his last fatal ilkiess at Lewson-house, near Sherborne. He was buried at Frome Selwood, it being the nearest parish within his own diocese to the place where he died, as by his own request, in the churchyard, under the east window of the chancel, at sunrise, without any pomp or ceremony, besides the Order for Burial in the Liturgy of the Church of England. His tomb, sur- rounded by iron rails, and uninscribed even with his initials, is to be seen there still. The following is an BISHOP KEX. [CHAP. XV. extract from his will : " As for my religion, I dye in the Holy Catholic and Apostolic faith professed by the whole Church before the disunion of the East and West ; more particularly in the communion of the Church of England as it stands distinguished from all papal and Puritan innovations, and as it adheres to the doctrine of the cross 5 ." They who consider Bishop Ken mistaken as a nonjuror, will venerate his memory as a Christian bishop. In a public and private station he was a pattern of Christian simplicity ; mild, yet firm 6 ; eminently pious, yet without the slightest tinge of affectation. Tranquil, and having reason to be thankful to the goodness of Providence, which ex- tended his fife so long, in the midst of the quiet enjoy- ments of literary leisure and books, and soothed by the comforting voice of unabated friendship, he seems, amidst them all, to have habitually invited and che- rished the thought of death, as something far better. He who could subscribe 4000?. in one sum to relieve the Erench refugees seeking an asylum here upon the 5 See " Short Account of the Life of Thomas Ken, some time Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells. By W. Hawkins, Esq., his executor." 6 " He was afterwards sent chaplain to Mary, Princess of Orange, into Holland ; in which post, by his undaunted zeal for honour and justice, in obliging one of the prince's favourites to marry a young lady of the princess's train, whom he had shamefully and wickedly betrayed, he so far exasperated that prince, as very warmly to threaten to turn him away. But disregarding his threats, he per- sisted resolutely in his duty." — Kettlewell's Life, p. 424. In the same pure and dauntless spirit, he prevailed upon the dying Charles to have the Duchess of Portsmouth removed from his chamber. " He represented, moreover, the injustice done to the queen so effectually, that the king was wrought upon by him to send for the queen, and ask her pardon before he died, and received her forgiveness." Ibid. p. 425. 1710, 1711.] BISHOP KEN. 345 Kevocatiou of the Edict of Nantes, which happened in his time (1685), was little likely to die rich, except in good works. Queen Elizabeth made provision for the deprived papist bishops. The two thousand nonconfor- mist ministers, ejected in 1662 from livings into which they had unlawfully intruded, fared far better 7 than the deprived bishops and clergy at the Revolution. Even the lawful clergy whom they had dispossessed were allowed by the Puritans, with special consent of Parliament in each case, to retain one-fifth of the benefice 8 . Queen Anne allowed Ken a pension towards the close of his life, which he distributed in alms to brethren yet poorer than himself, being forbidden by government threats, as we shall see, to promote public- collections. Before this, though somewhat better off than most of his brethren, we find him writing to Bishop Lloyd, that he could not afford a journey from Wiltshire to London ; and, even after this, asking his successor (Hooper) for two or three bottles of canary for a sick man. But all his hard measure was now drawing to a close ; he was hastening to where the weary are at rest, and, it is needless to say, that his end was peace. With calm collectedness he put on his shroud two days before his death, that it might not be necessary to meddle with his remains ; praying and leaving his parting blessing on those who had kindly nourished him so long, and then gently laying down his head, breathed one sigh, and was at rest. He died in his 73rd year. < Carwithen, vol. ii. p. 329. 8 Ibid. p. 329. CHAPTER XVI. a.d. 1712—1714. Archbishop of Canterbury. Queen of England. Thomas Tenison. Anne. A change of ministry, if it contributed in any measure to a more peaceful Convocation in the previous year, led this year to a mitigation of the sufferings of the church in Scotland. Most persons would be willing to believe that, the Revolution having happily led to the toleration of Presbyterians by Churchmen in Eng- land, and unhappily to the extremest persecution of Churchmen by Presbyterians in Scotland, the justice of the case forced itself at length upon the attention of the legislature ; and motives of common humanity would sufficiently account for its intervention between the oppressor and the oppressed. And this was doubtless the prevailing motive on the part of the government, though Burnet does not give them credit for it, they being Tories, contrary to his advice to the queen. Not so with others. His words are, " Those who were suspected to have very bad designs, applied themselves with great industry to drive on such bills, as they hoped woidd give the Presbyterians in Scotland such alarms, as might dispose them to remonstrate, that the union was broken." These persons, raising a great outcry for the repeal of the union, in conse- PERSECUTION OF THE SCOTTISH CHURCH. 347 qucnce of a malt-tax, of -which they disapproved, did support, certainly, this benevolent and just measure, from sinister motives ; and in their hands it became a mere political trick, showing the extravagant lengths to which party-spirit was earned in those days. This was shown equally in the sinister support given to another bill at the same time, for discontinuing the sittings of the courts of law during the Christmas holidays, which had not been observed by Presby- terians. On its third reading, according to Smollett, Sir David Dalrymple said, " Since the house is resolved to make no toleration on the body of this bill, I ac- quiesce ; and only desire it may be intituled, ' A bill for establishing Jacobitism and immorality? " The tardy and very qualified Toleration Bill for Scotland, at length passed the united Parliament ; and falling so lamentably short of the English Tole- ration Bill of the Revolution, is so confusedly described by Burnet, that we prefer to lay before the reader the account which we find of it in Dr. Russell's excellent History : " It has been already observed, that it is fortunate for the reputation of the Presbyterian Church of Scot- land, that she has never been invested with such power as would have enabled her to reduce to practice her speculative views, as to the duty of driving from the land all heresy and schism. King Wdliain fre- quently found it necessary to interpose in defence of the Episcopalians ; and Queen Anne at length saw the necessity of securing for them toleration by law ; a remedy which her government was led to adopt, from considering the several circumstances of the case now stated. They saw a clergyman thrown into prison, where he was confined many months, for no other 348 PEESECUTIOX OF THE [CHAP. XVI. crime than that of performing divine sen-ice to certain natives of England, according to the forms of their own Church ; and they learned that this act of un- reasonable severity was justified by a reference to the Articles of Union between the two kingdoms, which secured to the Kirk her own discipline and worship. The commission of the General Assembly, moved with indignation at the boldness of Greenshields, set forth an Act ' against innovations in the worship of God,' in which they reminded the public, ' that the form, purity, and uniformity of worship, as now established, is to continue to the people of this land without any alteration in all succeeding generations.' After al- luding to the supposed violation of this statute, by the introduction of the Liturgy into an English chapel, they legislate as follows : ' Therefore upon all these considerations, we, the said commission of the General Assembly, being moved with zeal for the glory of God, the purity and uniformity of his worship, and for se- curing the peace and quiet both of Church and State, do hereby discharge the practice of all such innovations in divine worship within this land.' And they com- mand ' presbyteries, in whose bounds these innovations are or may happen to be, to take notice of such inno- vators and innovations, and be carefid to prosecute the foresaid innovators, and take trial of these inno- vations, and censure and suppress the same, according to the authority committed to them ; and that they do apply to the civil magistrate in the terms of law, for rendering their censures and sentences effectual.' " This Act, which breathed all the spirit of the Vatican in the fifteenth century, impressed the British Parliament with the conviction that the law of the land, as expounded by the presbytery of Edinburgh and 1712—1714.] SCOTTISH CHURCH. 349 the commission of the Assembly, must lead to the most oppressive intolerance. It could not be denied, that the discipline and worship of the Established Church were secured against all innovations, either on the part of the government or of her own members ; but the inference openly drawn from such enactments was not to be admitted, namely, that no other form of divine sendee practised by hidividuals of a different communion was to be allowed in any succeeding gene- rations. This species of persecution, it must be re- membered, was directed entirely against religion, pro- perly so called. "When the privy council, in the days of Rothes and Lauderdale, tortured the unhappy Cove- nanters, they had some shadow of an apology in the suspicion entertained of them, that faith and worship were not the sole objects which canned the chief in- surgents into the field. But in the reign of Anne, treason and the Liturgy could have no possible con- nexion, especially in the hands of Englishmen ; and therefore, to prosecute and imprison a clergyman for performing the rites of his Church agreeably to the wonted manner, was undoubtedly to proclaim war against freedom of conscience. An attempt was made to justify the severities inflicted on this clergyman, on the ground that, as he was ordained by a deprived bishop, his orders were not valid. " It cannot therefore be surprising, that on the 3rd March, 1712, there was passed by the legislature of the United Kingdom, an Act to prevent the disturbing of those of the Episcopal communion in that part of Great Britain called Scotland, in the exercise of their religious worship, and in the use of the Liturgy of the Church of England ; and for repealing an Act passed in the Parliament of Scotland, intituled, ' an Act against 350 PARTIAL TOLEBATIOX GRAXTED [CHAP. XVI. irregular Baptisms and [Marriages ;' declaring it to be lawful for all Episcopalians to assemble for divine wor- ship in any place except in parish churches ; to be performed after their own manner, by pastors ordained by a Protestant bishop. " This Act forms a remarkable epoch in the history of Scottish Episcopacy, after the Revolution — a period so full of suffering and change. It, indeed, subjected such of the clergy as should not take the oaths re- quired by law, aud likewise pray for the queen by name, to severe penalties ; yet it protected even them and their congregations from being disturbed dming the performance of public worship, imposing a fine of one hundred pounds on all who should raise such disturbances, and repeating the penalty for every offence. This benevolent measure secured to the great body of Episcopabans a rebef from their fears, and even some ground of hope that the sovereign, of whose attachment to their principles they had no doubt, might devise some method for contributing to their necessities." How those hopes failed to be realized, though, at the beginning of her reign, they had touchingly re- minded her that " the petitioners had been violently and unjustly turned out of their charges at the Revolu- tion, and entreating her majesty to compassionate them and their numerous families, who were reduced to a starving condition for adhering to the true, primi- tive, and apostolic Church, of which her majesty was a member ;" how the little relief now given was with- drawn in 1746, and finally restored in 1792, will be noticed in their proper place. Meanwhile, we record the passing of an Act this year for the restoration of patronages. These had 1712 — 1714.] TO THE SCOTTISH CHURCH. 351 been taken away by an Act in King William's reign ; it was set up by the Presbyterians from their first beginning as a principle, that parishes had, from war- rants in Scripture, a right to choose their ministers ; so that they had always looked on the right of patron- age as an invasion made on that ; it was, therefore, urged that, since, by the Act of Union, Presbytery, with all its rights and privileges, was unalterably secured ; and since their Kirk Session was a branch of their constitution ; the taking from them the right of choosing their ministers was contrary to the Act ; yet the bill passed through both houses, a small opposition being only made in either. "By these steps," says Burnet, "the Presbyterians were alarmed, when they saw the success of every motion that was made on design to weaken and undermine their esta- blishment." It is not so clear, however, that either of these measures originated in any such design. The toleration was simple humanity and justice ; the dis- continuance of the law-sittings during the Christmas holidays was a reasonable concession and indulgence to the judges and advocates, who were, almost without exception, Churchmen ; and, at the most, a negative affront only to Presbyterians, in releasing them from attendance ; and the restoration of beneficial interest in Church patronage would be viewed as a mere matter of equity. How the enforcement of this last Act has, at a very recent period, caused one of the greatest convulsions and schisms known in the history of the Scottish Kirk, leading to the establishment of what is called the Pree Kirk, will be noticed in its place. The following passage from Burnet, relating to this year, will be read with interest, as exhibiting a linger- 352 LAY OFFICES HELD BY THE CLERGY. [CHAP. XYI. ing relic of episcopal statesmanship, now happily exploded :—" At Utrecht, on the 2nd of June, N.S. the plenipotentiaries of the States expostulated with the Bishop of Bristol, upon the orders sent to the Duke of Ormond," &c. The diocese of Bristol must have flourished greatly under such a hishop, whose leisure for the duties of lord privy seal was supposed to be promoted, it woidd seem, by his being appointed Bishop of London in the following year. Clergymen seem also to have been, in these days, J ustices of the Peace. Thus we find Dr. Comber saying, that, at the Revolution, he was restored to the magistracy for the county of Tork : this still surviving relic of former practice the present author cannot conveniently argue. The only other instance of temporal power at that time was the appointment of the archbishop as one of the nine commissioners of regency — " the nine kings," as they were called by the wits — to perform the functions of royalty after Mary's death, while the king was " literally saturating the soil of Flanders with English blood." The archbishop was chief commis- sioner ; and any four together were to receive the honours of royalty. We believe this addition to dio- cesan duties, not light in themselves, is still imposed on the Archbishop of Dublin during the lord- lieutenant's absence, on more peaceful errands, from his viceroyalty. Various Acts were passed in the time of William and Mary for regulating the amount and collection of tithes ; and an Act was passed this year for bettering the condition of curates. How bad this condition was before almost surpasses belief, and may be gathered from the fact that this Act made their stipends not less than 30/., nor more than 50/. ; and this, while, as 1712 — 1714.] POVERTY AXD IXDISCIPLIXE. 353 Burnet admits and laments, bishops were living amidst all the expensive frivolities and luxuries of a court-life ; and amongst the beneficed clergy, pluralities were held to an extent which even the present age is happily a stranger to. Such a gangrene as this will account for much in those times, and the times which followed. Pluralities could be held to any extent, and without reference to value, provided they were within thirty mdes ; and therefore, as might be expected, it was no uncommon thing for the incumbent to be ut- terly unknown to his people, or, at the utmost, to visit them perfunctorily once a year, or less. Instances have been mentioned in the course of this work. All this was retrogression. So early as Edward the First's reign, we find, " In his time, at a synod holden at Reading by the Archbishop of Canterbury, it was ordained, according to the constitutions of the general council, that no ecclesiastical person should have more than one benefice, to which belonged the care of souls '." Stackhouse 2 describes even this Act, intended to miti- gate these sufferings, as an utter failure ; the incum- bents, in too many cases, refusing to have their curates licensed, in order to compel them to their own terms, which were often the minimum, 20Z. The consequence was, Stackhouse says, as before noticed, the labouring curates were infinitely worse off than the parish clerks and sextons, who looked down upon them with con- tempt : and he thmks it hard that the clergy should be shut out from the better office. He rejoices that clerical costume is not rigidly enforced, as its inevitable meanness would disgrace the order as well as the 1 Baker's Chron. of the Kings of Eng. p. 101. 2 Miseries and Hardships of the Inferior Clergy in and about the City of London. 1702. p 69. A a 354 SONS Or TIIE CLEEGT. [CHAP. xn. wearer ; if it should ever be necessary for all to appear often in a cassock, he suggests that at such times a certain nether integument must be dispensed with ; the curate could certainly not afford to wear both at ouce. One naturally asks, where were the bishops, the appointed conservators of discipline, and the fathers and guardians of the priesthood ? The same writer gives an answer, which throws a lurid light upon the times we are considering : " The bishop or ordinary is usually encumbered icith too much serving elsewhere to be at leisure to interfere in our behalf." That a Church professing to hold nil sine episcopo, should thus have virtually disowned and rejected Episcopacy, and should still survive, is no slightly en- couraging mark and proof of her vitality. To have sup- posed at that time, that she had not retributive checks and sorrows before her, such as befel her afterwards — such as we inherit — would have been visionary and presumptuous. There were good men and true still within her pale ; the salt had not wholly lost its savour ; or, in this last year of Queen Anne, it woidd have been sufficiently sanguine to have predicted that her candlestick would not be removed. The city has been saved for the ten's sake. The great body of the clergy being in this destitute state, we are prepared to find the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy applying this year for new powers. The income of the corporation, however, for the widows and orphans, did not average a thousand pounds, for some years after this. A large part of the adult population having been irregularly baptized during the Commonwealth, and doubts being now widely expressed as to the validity of lay baptism, the subject was mooted this year in Convo- 1712—1714.] LAY BAPTISM. 355 cation, but there was neither time nor cordiality for the satisfactory adjustment of aquestion of so much difficulty and importance. A like fate attended some " Pro- posals of the lower house of Convocation about ma- trimonial licences," bearing the date of April 30 3 . After reciting that, notwithstanding the wholesome provisions already made against clandestine marriages, " yet through the corrupt practices of several disorderly persons, who are not sufficiently restrained by the censures of the Church, the holy office of matrimony is often performed after an undue and clandestine man- ner, from whence many and great inconveniences do arise," they propose a pecuniary penalty for those marrying without banns or licence, and for those mar- ried without the same ; and that " every parson, vicar, or curate, who shall marry any person in any prison, or within the rules and precincts thereof, or in any taverns, or other public houses, and also all persons who shall be married in such places, shall for such offence be prosecuted according to the ecclesiastical laws of this realm, and being duly convicted, shall upon cer- tificate of such conviction made by the ordinary to two justices of the peace of the town or county, where the person or persons so offending do inhabit, be by them committed to the common jaU of the said town or county, without bad or mainprize, for one whole year from the day of their commitment, and shall severally forfeit the sum of — ," &c. &c. It was prorogued on the 28th of July. 1713. — It was allowed to meet again this year, when the queen, through Lord Bolingbroke, " trans- mitted the heads of such matters as she thought proper for the consideration of the said Convocation : 3 Wilkins, torn. iv. p. G53. A a 2 35G ACTS OF CO>~VOCATIO> T . [CHAP. XVI. " The regulating the proceedings in excommunica- tions, and reforming the abuses of commutation money. " The preparing a form for the visitation of prisoners, and particularly condemned persons. For admitting converts from the Church of Rome, and such as shall renounce other errors. For restoring those who have lapsed. " The establishing rural deans, where they are not, and reuderiug them more useful, where they are. " The making provision for preserving and trans- mitting more exact terriers, and accounts of glebes, tithes, and other possessions and profits belonging to benefices. " The regulating licences for matrimony according to the Canons, in order to the more effectual prevent- ing of clandestine marriages." These matters were divided between the two houses, and on the 18th of July, the Bishop of London, as president, closed the session with the following address to the lower house, " In the name of the upper house, and by their direction, he thanks the lower house for their great pains and diligence in dispatching so many of the heads of the business recommended by her ma- jesty to the Convocation. Those which were already agreed upon by both houses could not be laid before her majesty and ingrossed so as to be subscribed by both houses at present, but would be laid before her as they were, for her inspection and approbation. Meanwhile their lordships hoped that at the next meeting of the synod the other heads recommended by her majesty would hkewise be so finished that Canons might be made thereupon, and the subscription of both houses given to all of them together." 1712 — 1714.] AIICIIBISHOP SHARP. 357 If the reader feel any surprise at this unwonted cordiality between the two houses, the winter can ofler no solution beyond the fact of a change of ministry, the absence of the archbishop, and the probable absence of Burnet : — his end was near, and infirmity might be expected. 1714. — Dr. Sharp, Archbishop of York, died this year, at Bath, in his seventieth year. He was born at Bradford in 1644, and studied at Christ College, Cambridge. In 1692 he was appointed Archdeacon of Berks, which was followed by a stall at Norwich, and the rectory of St. Bartholomew, London, which latter he exchanged soon afterwards for St. Giles-in-the- Fields. In 1GS1 he became Dean of Norwich, and soon afterwards preached a sermon against popery, at St. Giles's church, for which we have seen Bishop Compton desired in vain by king James to suspend him. In 1689 William made him Dean of Canterbury, and offered him one of the many bishoprics vacated by the deprivation of the nonjurors, which he at first refused ; but soon afterwards accepted York. Burnet remarks upon this : " And so those two sees were filled with the best preachers that had sat in them in our time ; only Sharp did not know the world so well, and was not so steady as Tillotson was." The reader may be able, by this time, to see that this disparagement, coming from Burnet, is really praise. He lies in York Minster. May 20, of this year, at Bromley, died Dr. Sprat, Bishop of Rochester. At Oxford he had distinguished himself by the opposites, mathematics, and Pindaric odes; and his whole life afterwards seems to have been made up of opposites. Noble tells the following story of him : " At the Eestoration, taking holy orders, 358 BISHOP SPRAT. [CHAP. XVI. he became chaplain to the witty and profligate Bucking- ham. At his first dinner with the duke, that great peer, observing a goose near him, remarked, that he wondered why it generally happened that geese were placed near the clergy. ' I cannot tell the reason,' said Sprat, ' but I shall never see a goose again, but I shall think of your grace.' This convinced Villiers that Sprat was the man he wanted ; and generally, until his writings had the chaplain's approba- tion he thought them imperfect." Under the merry monarch his preferment was very rapid : a stall at Westminster, the church of St. Margaret, a canonry of Windsor, the deanery of Westminster, and bishopric of Eochester. His escape from an infamous con- spiracy, showing how little personal safety existed in those times, and his pious yearly thanksgiving-day in commemoration of his escape, have been already related in this History. Dr. Compton, Bishop of London, died this year at Eulham, in his 81st year. He was youngest son of the second Earl of Northampton (slain in the battle of Hopton Heath), and was born in 1632. On the Restoration, he became cornet in a regiment of horse raised for the king's guard, but preferring orders, be- came Canon of Christ Church and Rector of Cottenham, near Cambridge. In 1674 he became Bishop of Ox- ford, and next year of London, and tutor of the Prin- cesses Mary and Anne, both of whom he confirmed and married. In 1686 King James commanded him to suspend Dr. Sharp (afterwards Archbishop of Tork) for preaching against popery. Not understanding this new application of the royal supremacy, he pre- ferred suspension, under which he lay until the eve of the Revolution, when, upon the landing of William, 1712 — 1711.] BISHOP COHPTON. 359 he took measures to secure the person of his former pupil, the Princess Anne. The account of his removal of her to Nottingham shows that the cornet of dra- goons was not wholly extinct in the Bishop of London : this will be found in the account of that princess. Notwithstanding this, and his former profession, he struck Evelyn as being a grave and dignified divine. He made this entry in his Diary : " May 17, 1673. Dr. Compton, brother to the Earl of Northampton, preached on 1 Cor. vii. 1G, showing the Church's power in ordering indifferent things ; this worthy per- son's talent is not preaching, but he is like to make a grave and serious good man." As Bishop of London, he followed laudably in the footsteps of Barrow and Sancroft, in endeavouring to better the condition of the smaller cures ; as a former tutor of the Queen Anne, as well as from his high position in the Church, his example in this respect was as likely as Burnet's advice to draw her attention to the sad condition of the poor clergy, and encourage her in her generous restoration of the first-fruits and tenths, known by the name of her Bounty. How far he may have influenced her in the noble work of promoting the building of no less than fifty new churches within his diocese, does not appear. He opposed the prosecution of Dr. Sa- cheverell, and for this and other reasons, as a political and ecclesiastical opponent, succeeded fortunately in winning the displeasure of Burnet, who speaks of him with great bitterness. Another political opponent extracted a subject for his scurrilous wit, from the dis- tressing circumstances connected with his end. The aged bishop, attempting to ascend the stairs of Fulham Palace without proper help, was precipitated to the 360 LOED CA3IPBELL 0>~ THE [CHAP. XTI. bottom, and was taken up senseless and in a dying state ; upon which Dean Swift heartlessly and inde- cently observed, "he was taken up as sensible as ever," an observation noticed here only in order to show the withering extent of party spirit in this reign. He was a botanist, and, during his suspension by James, had employed his leisure in the improvement of the grounds at Fulham, in the churchyard of which he was buried, according to his common saying, " the church for the Uving, the churchyard for the dead." To this licentiousness of party spirit Lord Campbell bears witness as follows : " Complaints are still made, and sometimes with justice, of the licentiousness of our periodical writers ; but modern libellers are mild, candid, and cautious, compared with the wits of the Augustan age of English literature, when engaged in pobtical controversy. Private character, which is now almost invariably respected, was then attacked with unfeeling exaggerations of what was true, and with mixed inventions of malignant falsehood 4 ." Some may think there is a tendency to the opposite extreme in the present age, by not observing enough the private characters of pubbc men. According to this, Sacheverell's alleged offence, in applying the term Tolpone to Lord Godolphin, had nothing so remarkable in it, as to account for the re- markable proceedings founded on it. It was suavity itself. This licentiousness of the press was not to be wondered at ; for, to go into no other reasons, and they are many, it was now revelling in the intoxica- tion of its newly-acquired freedom, which dates from Lives of Lord Chancellors, vol. iv. p. 211. I 1712 — 1714.] LICZXTTOrSXESS OF THE PRESS. 361 1693 : " and now" (as even Lord Campbell confesses), " we have only to be watchful that the press be not itself turned into an engine of tyranny V A halfpenny stamp (a check on its extension, if not on its licentiousness, and intended simply for revenue) was imposed on August 1, 1712, on every half-sheet, which, at first, diminished the sale even of the ' Specta- tor' by one-half. But, happily for the morality of the age, the depression was only temporary. " Have you seen," says Swift, "the stamp? Methinks the stamp- ing is worth a halfpenny. The ' Observator' is fallen ; the 'Medleys' are printed with the 'Flying Post;' the ' Examiner' is deadly sick ; the ' Spectator' keeps up and doubles its price." The licentiousness of the press was not the only evil symptom of that age, but simply an expression of its general licentiousness. The records of Convocation show the lamentable extent of open infidelity ; and even when the forms of religion were observed, it was done too often in such a way as to show that attention was given to them simply as forms. For instance, Miss Strickland, in her graphic and truthful biography of Queen Anne, tells us that " great ladies had in those days a bad custom of proceeding with the affairs of the toilet during prayers, which was severely satirized in the old plays of that era, where the fashionable belle is described preparing for her morning todet by saying her prayers in bed to save time, while one maid pulled on her stockings, and another read the play-bill." When Convocation met this year, the lower house submitted to the upper, for censure, a book lately published by Dr. Sam. Clark, entitled " Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity." Dr. Clark was up to this s Lives of Lord Chancellors, vol. iv. p. 123. 362 CONTOCATIOX. BISHOP FOWXEE. [CHAP. XXI. time queen's chaplain and rector of St. James's, West- minster, and had taken up almost as heretical notions of the Trinity as Whiston. The lower house say of his book, " It is with the utmost concern that we be- hold these daring and dangerous attempts to subvert our common faith, to corrupt the Christian worship, and to defeat the Church's main end in agreeing upon her Articles, namely, the avoiding the diversity of opinions, and the establishing the consent touching true religion." They subjoin a schedule of the passages alleged to be contrary to Scripture and to the teaching of the Church in her formularies. Upon which Dr. Clark sent in a " declaration," on the 2nd of July, explaining some things and recanting others, if contrary to the Church's teaching. The upper house thereupon passed a resolu- tion on the 5th : " We having received a paper sub- scribed by Dr. Clark, containing a declaration of his opinion concerning the eternity of the Son and Holy Spirit, together with an account of his conduct for the time past, and intentions for the time to come (which paper we have ordered to be entered in the acts of this house and to be communicated to the lower house), do think fit to proceed no further upon the extract laid before us by the lower house." In the same Convocation, a draught of Canons for. preventing clandestine marriages was submitted, a Form for admitting converts from the Church of Eome, and an Exhortation to be read in the church, when the person decreed to be excommunicated is present. It will be remembered that all these matters had been recommended by the queen to the consideration of Convocation, in 1713. These are all documents of much interest, and will be found in Wilkins. Dr. Fowler, Bishop of Gloucester, one of the many 1712 — 1714.] QUEEN ANNE. 363 rewarded by the Revolution for renouncing Puritanism, by being raised to bishoprics, died this year at Chelsea, and was buried at Hendon, in Middlesex. His conver- sion, however, was very limited, even by his own showing, being to the last as latitudinarian as divine could be, and therefore, as one of the majority in the bishops' house, helping us to understand the feeling of the lower house towards it. He was one of Burnet's " fifteen learnedest, wisest, and best bishops the Church ever had." According to Noble, "his greatest weakness was a ridiculous belief in, and fear of witches and fairies : whom he dreaded as much as the lady on the seven hills, and all the scarlet train. He said it was in vain to combat the reality of that which had been credited by the common people in all ages and countries ; and in most by the learned themselves." However great, some may doubt whether this was " his greatest weakness ;" and others may think it significant that the traditions of the Church should be the only traditions rejected by one of her bishops. On August 1st, of this year, died Queen Anne, daughter of James II. by Anne Hyde, daughter of the Earl of Clarendon. Not being in the immediate line of succession, her education was lamentably neglected, which made her the easier victim of a crafty intriguante, the notorious Duchess of Marlborough, of whom, with the characteristic enthusiasm of her race, she was de- votedly fond, until she smarted from a bad selection, and then lost all confidence in those around her when once she saw the delusion. She had, however, good impulses, and, as she expressed it, " an English heart ;" and, if less shackled by favourites, would doubtless have conferred greater benefits on her country. As it 361 qtt:ei:>~ a2tnt:. [chap, rn, was, the Church is indebted to her munificence for the restoration of the first-fruits and tenths, which have formed a valuable nucleus for other benefactions, and are to this day adding more and more to the comfort and efficiency of the parochial clergy. Mr. Macaulay's picture of the country clergy of the seventeenth cen- tury must be considered rather as intended for a pic- ture than for historical facts ; at the same time, it is certain that the country clergy of that period had not, in many cases, sufficient means to insure their effici- ency, or to uphold the decent dignity of their position, or to prevent endless pluralities ; or such men as Sancroft, Barrow, and Bray, would not have directed their benevolent and enlightened attention to the bettering of their condition. It was probably the con- sciousness of this which led the " good Queen Anne" to restore this part of the Church's heritage ; and to meet this large deduction from her personal revenue, she was frugal and moderate in her personal expenses, purchasing no jewels, and living within her revenue. The Church is also indebted to her for promoting church-budding to a large extent, during her reign — a noble work, allowed since unhappily to slumber, to the great loss and injury of the Church, untU the vigorous mind of the present Bishop of London was bent to it, after the lapse of more than a century. And thus, on the whole, the reign of Queen Anne forms a refreshing interval between Dutch Calvinism and German Lu- theranism. In a very gross and licentious age, her conjugal and domestic virtues are not to be passed over as unimportant to the character of the Church ; nor, indeed, her attention to the proprieties of fife, which exhibited a delicacy of perception very unusual 1712—1714.] QUELS' A>^>"E. 365 in women of her times, and most desirable and be- neficial in her station 6 . Her conduct towards her exiled father is only to be excused by reference to the stern necessities pecidiar to persons in her high public station. His son, James Francis Edward, was at the time of the queen's death about twenty-six years of age, with a character marked by no leading feature but an hereditary bigotry on the side of Romanism ; which did not, however, prevent him from having many powerful friends in the British court, and his con- tinual enterprises for the recovery of his crown from the established Protestant Line, assumed, in some mea- sure, the form of a religious war. By statute it now devolved upon George Lewis, Elector of Hanover, born May 28, 1660, and educated as a Lutheran. An incident in her early Life, in connexion with the Revolution, will be read with interest. The Princess Anne, by the advice of her attendant (afterwards her relentless oppressor, as Duchess of Marlborough), had notified to William her approval of his enterprise. All the king's officers were deserting him, including the princess's husband, the Prince George of Denmark, and James was expected back hourly at St. James's. The princess had especial reason to fear his displeasure, on her husband's account, and might be placed under restraint. To avoid so unpleasant a dilemma, a plan of escape was arranged by Compton, Bishop of London, who has been already described as formerly au officer c Nol'le gives the following instance : " It is usual for our silver money to have the royal hust with drapery, and the gold pieces without any. Queen Anne commanded that the drapery should appear upon both the gold and the silver coin. It did honour to her delicacy." Vol. ii. p. 403. 3G6 Qrzzx A>~>"E. [chap. xtt. in the guards, and was thus well fitted for such an en- terprise. The account of this we will borrow from Mr. Macaulay : — " That evening Anne retired to her cham- ber as usual. At dead of night she arose ; and, accom- panied by her friend Sarah and two other female atten- dants, stole down the back stairs, in a dressing-gown and slippers. The party gained the open street un- challenged. A hackney-coach was in waiting for them there. Two men guarded the humble vehicle. One of them was Compton, Bishop of London, the princess's old tutor ; the other was the accomplished Dorset, whom the extremity of public danger had roused from his luxurious repose. The coach drove instantly to Aldersgate-street, where the town-residence of the Bishops of London then stood, within the shadow of their cathedral. There the princess passed the night. On the following morning she set out for Epping Forest. In that wild tract Dorset possessed a vene- rable mansion, which has long since been destroyed. In his hospitable dwelling, the favourite resort, during many years, of wits and poets, the fugitives made a short stay. They could not safely attempt to reach "William's quarters, for the road thither lay through a country occupied by the royal forces. It was there- fore determined that Anne should take refuge with the northern insurgents. Compton wholly laid aside, for the time, his sacerdotal character. Danger and con- flict had rekindled in him all the military ardour he had felt twenty-eight years before, when he rode in the Life-guards. He preceded the princess's carriage in a buff coat and jack-boots, with the sword at his side and pistols in his holsters. Long before she reached Nottingham she was surrounded by a body- guard of gentlemen, who volunteered to escort her. 1712 — 1714.] QUEEN AJOTE. 367 They invited the bishop to act as their colonel, and he consented with an alacrity which gave great scandal to rigid churchmen." We shall now enter Oxford with the worthy bishop. " The Princess of Denmark en- tered Oxford on Saturday last ; Sir J. Lancer, with his regiment, meeting her royal highness some miles out of the town. The Earl of Northampton, with 500 horse, led the van. Her royal highness was preceded by the Bishop of London, at the head of a noble troop of gentlemen, his lordship riding in a purple cloak, martial habits, pistols before him, and his sword drawn, and the cornet had the inscription, in golden letters, on his standard, ' Nolumus leges Anglise mutari 7 .'" The following character was given of her by a con- temporary historian : — " Her regular and constant de- votion and attendance at divine service 8 , and discoun- tenancing vice and infidelity, are sufficient testimonies of her concern for religion; and, if the piety of prin- cesses is to be measured by the many religious founda- tions in their respective reigns, none ever excelled hers, who not only passed, but recommended an Act for building fifty new churches at once, in and about the cities of London and Westminster ; add to this, the encouragement that she gave to the erecting such numbers of charity-schools, and thereby rescuing the common people from atheism and ignorance ; her countenancing the universities, those fountains of learning, and her unparalleled liberality to her people in general in annually applying 100,000Z. of her own revenue, and her share of the prizes, to the service of 7 Ellis's Letters, 2nd Ser. vol. iv. 8 " She was so strict an observer of forms, that once, at Windsor, she reproved the minister for giving her the sacrament before the other clergy then present had received it." Coke, vol. iii. p. 401. 3G8 QUEEN ANNE. [CHAP. XYI. the war, and her generous bounty to the clergy in assigning the first-fruits and tenths for their support. If we reflect on these illustrious instances of her piety, regard for religion, and unbounded liberality, where shall we find a princess equal to her in history 9 ?" The following lines on the queen's death may be thought worthy of a place here : — " Though Europe's wealth and glory claim'd a part, Religion's cause reign'd mistress of her heart. She saw and grieved to see the mean estate Of those who round the hallow'd altar wait. She shed her bounty, piously profuse, And thought it more her own in sacred use. Thus on his furrow see the tiller stand, And fill with genial seed his lavish hand ; He trusts the kindness of the fruitful plain, And providently scatters all his grain. " What strikes my sight ? does proud Augusta rise New to behold, and awfully surprise ? Her lofty brow more num'rous turrets crown, And sacred dooms on palaces look down ; A noble pride of piety is shown, And temples cast a lustre on the throne. How would this work another's glory raise ! But Anna's greatness robs her of the praise •." She was buried at midnight *, according to the cus- tom of those times, in the same vault, in Henry VII.'s 9 Lediard, Contin. of Rapin, vol. iii. p. 411. 1 " On the late Queen's Death, and his Majesty's Accession to the Throne. By Geo. Young, Fellow of All Souls Coll., Oxford. In- scribed to Joseph Addison, Esq., Sec. to their Excellencies the Lords Justices, 1714." p. 4. 2 " March 5th. I saw her majesty's funeral procession, which was very pompous and stately, and attended by both houses of Par- liament." Calamy's Own Life, chap. iv. 1712 — 1714.] QUEEN ANNE. 369 Chapel, as had already received her uncle, Charles II., King William and Queen Mary, and her royal con- sort ; and never was princess more sincerely mourned, except by the Duchess of Marlborough, whose ingrati- tude and inalice pursued her into her tomb. Bb CHAPTER XVII. a.d. 1714—1717. Archbishop of Canterbury. King of England. Thomas Tenison. George I. But for the steps taken by William and Mary to secure a Protestant line, the succession, supposing the Pretender set aside for his alleged illegitimacy, would have gone to the house of Savoy, they deriving their successional right from the Princess Henrietta, daughter of King Charles I., whereas the house of Hanover were descended from Elizabeth, daughter of King James I. The new king, G-eorge I., was not a papist, but prima facie there was ground of apprehension not- withstanding. The Act of Settlement had not pro- vided that, in the event of any future Defender of the Faith not having been brought up in the faith, the Church, during such reign, should be permitted to defend herself, — in other words, during such reign, and within given limits, should be free. Of course, Burnet's " fifteen learnedest, wisest, and best bishops," would no more see than the Dutch sovereign, who ap- pointed them, the reasonableness or justice of such a limitation ; though the anomaly was not much less than if he had appointed an archbishop to preside over the Presbyterian Kirk of Scotland, and though no DECLARATIONS OF GEOKGE I. 371 small inconveniences were likely to follow. The new nursing father of the Church was not a member of the communion ; her new head was a member of a body which, unlike herself, had thought that to reform was to destroy ; the new tenant of the supremacy, which seems, in practice, to involve a control over every thing and every body in the Church, was opposed, upon principle, to the discipline of the Church ; the new distributor of her bishoprics had been taught from his infancy to repudiate Episcopacy, as a normal condition of the Church Catholic. However, on his accession, he said, without professing any change in his con- victions, " I will make it my constant care to preserve your religion, laws, and liberties inviolable:" and at the first privy council, after taking the oaths relating to the security of the Kirk of Scotland, he said (through an interpreter, that is, for whether he had " an English heart" or no — that we shall see — he had not, at all events, an English tongue), " Having, in my answers to the addresses of both houses of Parliament, fully expressed my resolution to defend the civil and religious rights of all my subjects, there remains very little for me to say upon this occasion. Yet, having been willing to omit no opportunity of giving all pos- sible assurances to a people who have already deserved so well of me, I take this occasion, also, to express to you my firm purpose, to do all that is in my power for the supporting and maintaining the Churches of Eng- land and Scotland, as they are severally by law esta- bhshed, which, I am of opinion, may be efficiently done without the least compromise ; and the toleration allowed by law to Protestant dissenters, so agreeable to Christian charity, and so necessary to the trade and riches of this great kingdom." e b 2 372 PRESBYTERIAN INTOLERANCE. [CIIAP. XVII. However, the ministers and elders of the commission of the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, did not deem it expedient to take such efficient support for granted, or thought the new king might require to be told the only terms upon which they would receive it, and accordingly, " hoped his majesty would restrain and discourage all practices and endeavours having a tendency either to the subversion or prejudice of the established government of the Kirk 1 ." Nor was this all : lest the very ample securities taken at the union for perpetuating the Kirk, making it treason even to propose " prelacy," should not be ample enough ; — and lest the very wide and compre- hensive address above quoted, should not be wide and comprehensive enough ; — it was thought expedient further to inform all whom it concerned, that they were able and willing as ever to resort to physical force, for the extirpation of the Church, if need be, as an idolatrous incumbrance. Accordingly, while George I. was being proclaimed at Glasgow, the Pres- byterian mob did homage to the toleration — a principle which we have seen his majesty, with sincere satisfac- tion, to have so much at heart — by breaking down the Episcopal chapel there, causing the clergjman to make a hasty retreat, — an account of which will be found in the " Post Boy" newspaper of that period. And it is a noticeable coincidence, that on the two occasions, first of a Dutch dissenter, and then of a German Lutheran, coming to the English throne, the smouldering fires of the league-and-covenant spirit did burst into a flame, placing the Church in Scotland in a not much more enviable position than that of the Walloons formerly, and more recently that of the 1 See London Gazette, Sept. 25, 1714. 1714 — 1717.] CONGRATULATIONS OF THE CLERGY. 373 Huguenots ; and that at the intervening accession of one whose boast it was that she had " an English heart," was by conviction, and not by state necessity, a communicant member of the reformed Church of England, the Church in Scotland, however oppressed and fettered, did not suffer in the way of personal vio- lence, but took courage to ask charitable treatment. The Kirk of Scotland must have been in no small degree reassured by finding that, not the Convocation, indeed, but an influential body of the English clergy, were too much disposed to fall into the new order of things, to form any alliance with their Scottish Epis- copal brethren, which could give the smallest ground of uneasiness for the safety of that establishment. On the 22nd of September of this year (1714), the bishops and clergy of the cities of London and Westminster, in their address of congratulation to George I. on his accession, entreated " his majesty's care of the Protes- tant interest abroad," thus making the amende for the trouble which the lower house of Convocation had given at the beginning of the Dutch sovereign's reign, by objecting to recognize so inexact a formula as " the Protestant religion 2 ." The Protestant dissenters of London and the neigh- bourhood inform his majesty that " their zeal for his succession has been owned to be very conspicuous by 2 It is but justice to add, that tins complaisance on the ]>art of the bishops and clergy was not monopolized by " the cities of London and Westminster," but extended to the marshes of Ches- hunt. Thus, — " Great prince ! Impatient hopes and duteous cares Await thy blest arrival, with our prayers. If bare ideas raise such gen'rous fire, What glowings must our monarch, seen, inspire ? So, if but distant views of Canaan's hill Did the Jews' lawgiver with raptures fill, 374 etxg's peofessioxs a>t> pbactice. [chap. xrrr. those noble patriots (the new Whig ministry) which now surround the throne." One of the first acts of the new king was to issue a proclamation : " for the greater encouragement of re- ligion and morality, we will, upon all occasions dis- tinguish persons of piety and virtue, by marks of our royal favour. And we do hereby strictly enjoin and prohibit all our loving subjects, of what de- gree or quality soever, either in public or private houses, or other places whatsoever, from playing on the Lord's Day, at dice, cards, or any other game whatsoever." This was ordered to be read in all the parish churches four times in each year ; and in pur- suance of it, the first " person of piety and virtue" taken under " royal favour" for the same, was Earl "Wharton, now made a privy councillor, privy seal, and a marquis ! It is admirably consistent with this monarch's honied assurances of adherence and favour to the Church, on his accession, and, in proof of his sin- cerity, his forthwith making Hoadly his chaplain, and Bishop of Bangor. Dr. White Kennett proved his qualifications for a rectory and a bishopric by speaking of the prince who did this, and much more like it which cannot be noticed here, in these words, " I am fixed in this opinion, that King George is one of the honestest men, and one of the wisest princes in the world." ("Ellis's What must his wonder and enjoyment raise, The boon denied : — his Maker had his praise. Thrice happy Britons ! who possess this land, View Moses ent'ring with his budding wand, Our land to settle and our hearts command. Unhappy Brunswick ! thy great loss we mourn. Though that to us in rapt'rous joys must turn." " Britannia Rediviva, by G. R. Chapman, Vicar of Cheshunt, and Preb. of Chichester, 1714." 1714—1717.] BISHOP BURNET. 375 Orig. Lett.) No wonder that one who could think so in 1717, was Bishop of Peterborough in 1718. 1715. — On March 17th of this year, in St. John's- sguare, Clerkenwell, died Bishop Burnet. He was born at Edinburgh, Sept. 18, 1643. After studying at Aberdeen, he became a probationer or expectant preacher, and was offered a parish at eighteen, which he declined. Thus far he appears to have been a Presbyterian. In 1664 (four years after the Bestora- tion) he was ordained by the Bishop of Edinburgh, and began his Episcopal career by an attack on the Episcopal order, which caused him to be cited before that order. He says, " Archbishop Sharp charged me with the presumption of offering to teach my superiors. I said, such things had not only been done, but justi- fied in all ages 3 ." This escapade brought him consi- derable notoriety, and no small political favour, and affords a notable contrast to his own notion of passive obedience to bishops, when he became one himself, and of the Presbyterate having no subordinate dignity or authority, no conscience, as illustrated in this vo- lume. In 1673 he became chaplain to Charles II., and became in high favour with his majesty and the Duke of York, which, however, he soon lost on a charge of political plotting. In 1675 he became Preacher at the Bolls, and Lecturer of St. Clement's, and a very popular preacher. It was at this time he published his History of the Reformation. He soon lost not only his court favour, but also his preachership and lectureship, and in 1687 went to the Hague, being invited, according to his own account, by the Prince and Princess of Orange. A charge of high-treason being preferred against him, both in England and Scotland, the States refused to give him up. About 3 Hist. Own Times, p. 210. 376 BISHOP BURNET. [CIIAP. XVII. this time he married a Dutch lady, who is described as having a surprising knowledge of Dutch divinity. He had a great share in the management of the Revo- lution of 1688 ; and, with characteristic sagacity, gave early notice of that project to the house of Hanover, intimating that the success of this enterprise "must naturally end hi the entail of the British crown upon that illustrious house 4 ." How he could so confidently predict, that both the Prince and Princess of Orange, and the Prince George of Denmark and Princess Anne, would die without issue, is not quite clear. He after- wards showed the same sagacity by being the first to carry what he thought good news (the death of his patron, William,) to this same Princess Anne. He came over in the fleet with William, and was imme- diately rewarded for his services by the see of Salisbury. A letter of that day thus describes his zeal in Devon- shire : " AVe are told from good hands from Exeter, that Dr. Burnet has taken possession of the cathe- dral, and both preached in it on Sunday last be- fore the Prince of Orange, and then openly read the prince's declaration, though the prince and he well approved the not reading the king's late declaration. He sent in the prince's name to all the clergy, com- manding them also to read it, and to read a form of prayer for the prince 's success, but they are said all to have unanimously refused and rejected the proposal 5 ." His further history has been sufficiently set forth in this book. " Si quaeris monumentum circumspice." In the Biog. Britan. vol. iii. 33, we find this anecdote of him. The editor, Kippis, was a dissenter, and can- not, therefore, be supposed to quote it in disparage- ment of Burnet. " My grandfather (says Mr. Hall) 4 Hist. Own Times, p. 757. 5 Ellis's Letters, 2nd Ser. vol. iv. 1714 — 1717.] AiicnBisnop texisox. 377 was much esteemed by the bishop, and frequently visited him at his palace at Salisbury. He paid his lordship a visit on purpose to congratulate him that he had just passed his climacterical year. A faithful servant who had lived with his lordship many years, and was in the room, turned and said, ' Permit me, my lord, to congratulate you on the same occasion, that you have gone through your grand hypocritical year.' The Tories often told the story to the derision of the good prelate." It seems that the servant was reading the newspaper to his master, which it was usual in those days for the servant to do while the company were at breakfast. The same authority gives the fol- lowing proof of the intensity of his mother's Presby- terianism. At Salton, Burnet was seized with a fever, and in his delirium fancied Archbishop Sharp was about to visit him, and expressed great anxiety about a fitting reception. " Upon this his mother desired him not to give himself any trouble on that account ; for that a place should be provided for the archbishop — in the hottest corner of hell." In this same year died Archbishop Tenison. He was born in 1G36, at Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, and educated at Norwich, and Corpus College, Cambridge. He was privately ordained in 1G59 by Bishop Duppa, ejected Bishop of Salisbury, at Richmond. At the Restoration he was appointed to St. Andrew's, Cam- bridge ; afterwards to St. Peter's, Mancroft, Norwich, and Holywell, Huntingdonshire. In 1080, Charles II. appointed him to the rectory of St. Martin's in the Fields, and he returned the favour by somewhat more of complaisance to his mistress than coidd be wrung from Ken. Evelyn heard him preach here, with great satisfaction ; and the writer records with equal satis- faction his attention to his sick parishioners at Cam- 37S MKUKHT. [chap. xttt. bridge, during the plague. At St. Martin's he spent large sums in charity, and founded a public hbrary, which still exists. As a strong Whig, of popular talents, he was marked at once for preferment at the Revolution, became Archdeacon of London in 16S9, Bishop of Lincoln, 1691, and Archbishop of Canter- bury in 1694. He was less equal perhaps, to his later duties than to his former ones. He was succeeded in the primacy by "Wake, Bishop of Lincoln, a divine of about the same calibre, but of less violent temper. " Cardinal Carstares." as he was generally called, died this year. " A bigoted Presbyterian, he en- joyed." it is said, " the revenues of the bishopric of Dumblane. and constantly attended King "William as his chaplain, in all his campaigns ; indeed, through all this reign he was regarded as a person of some con- sequence. The intended assassin of the Bye-house plot had his share in the infamous massacre at Glencoe, and wickedness only changed its object. Queen Anne gave him a gracious reception, as the head of a depu- tation, at the time of the union, on behalf of the Kirk, as principal of the college at Edinburgh, but would never employ him in her government. But, to keep him quiet, he was continued one of the royal chaplains, and received the episcopal revenues to defend Scotland from bishops 6 ." This same year died Robert Xelson, generally and justly distinguished by the epithet of " the pious." He was the son of a London merchant, engaged in the Levant trade, and was born in the metropolis in 1656. From St. Paul's school he proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge. He has been frequently spoken of in this work as a nonjuror, but he returned into com- munion with the Church in 1709. The excellent Ket- e Noble's Contin. of Granger, voL ii. p. 162. 1714 — 1717.] DE. niCKES. 379 tlewell, when deprived of his vicarage of Coleshill, having settled in London, formed an intimate friend- ship with Nelson, who at that time lived at Kensing- ton. It was by Kettlewell's suggestion he composed the work by which he is best known, " A Companion to the Festivals and Pasts." Nelson was a man of enlarged charity ; hence, however much he might differ from Tillotson on some points, he was always ready to assist him out of his fortune in any good undertaking, and they continued on friendly terms up to the time of Tillotson' s death in 1694, the primate dying in his arms. He survived him twenty-one years, dying at Kensington, January 15, 1715. The 15th of December of this year died also Dr. George Hickes, deprived Dean of Worcester, and suffragan Bishop of Thetford. He was born in 1642, at Newsham, Yorkshire, and went from North Allerton grammar-school to St. John's, Oxford, where he was admitted a servitor in 1659, becoming afterwards a fellow of Lincoln. After residing in that University some years as a college tutor, and travelling abroad with a pupil, he became Kector of St. Ebbe's, Oxford, in 1675. In 1679, Archbishop Sancroft presented him to the living of Allhallows Barking, London, when he resigned his fellowship. In 1681, Charles II. made him his chaplain, and in 1683 raised him to the deanery of Worcester. His zeal against popery deprived him of all chance of preferment under James II. Being deprived in 1689, as a nonjuror, he posted up in the cathedral of Worcester a protest against the appoint- ment of his successor, which led to his prosecution by the officers of the crown, to avoid the consequences of which he was obliged to remain some time in con- cealment. At length, in 1699, the Lord-Chancellor 380 DE. LANCASTER. [CHAP. XYII. Somers, out of regard to the talents and learning of Dr. Hiekes, procured an order of council to stop the proceedings against him. In the mean time he had been actively engaged in serious acts of disobedience to the established government, for he was the indi- vidual who was sent by the nonjuring clergy to St. Germains, in 1693, to concert measures with the exfled king for the appointment of bishops in the English Church from their party. He returned from this dan- gerous mission in the beginning of the following year, and was himself shortly afterwards consecrated Bishop of Thetford. He was very learned in Anglo-Saxon literature, and in the writings of the primitive fathers of the Church, whose testimony he adduced to show the exact conformity of the Church of England with the Catholic Church in the earliest ages of its ex- istence. 1716. — The death of Dr. Lancaster this year will be recorded in this place, chiefly with the view of display- ing a lingering relic of a yet more olden time than his own. He was of humble parentage, born at Bampton, in Westmoreland, and educated at Queen's College, Oxford, of which he ultimately became provost. He was one of Sacheverell's bail, which affords a clue to his political and ecclesiastical views. Nothing of his has been preserved, except his Latin speech on pre- senting Dr. Jane as prolocutor of the lower house of Convocation in 1689, in opposition to Dean Tillotson. " Let it ever be remembered," says Noble, " to the honour of Dr. Lancaster, that however strenuous for the Church triumphant [in allusion to his entertaining Sacheverell at Oxford, during the latter's triumphant progress], he was not less remarkable for his filial duty. Walking from St. Mary's, in Oxford, well at- 1714 — 171".] BISnOP HOADLY. 381 tended as vice-chancellor, he saw his venerable parent, a plain peasant, on his way to visit him ; he hastened to the old man, kneeled, and asked his blessing, thus proving that he merited his promotion in life." 1717. — We come now to the catastrophe of our story, the boundary line marked out for this volume, " the last acts of Convocation." Convocation had been permitted to meet in 1715, and had deliberated upon, but not concluded, several important matters submitted to it. In spite of the difficulties and obstructions arising from the political and ecclesiastical complications peculiar to that age, it seemed to be recovering its practical usefulness ; when royal and archiepiscopal favour lavished on one, notoriously unsound in the faith and discipline of the Church already, and now, in the full confidence of pro- tection, going to greater lengths than ever, once more kindled the flame, and Convocation was once more thrown back upon the discussion of first principles. The name of this favourite of "Whitehall and Lam- beth, and firebrand of the Church, was Hoadly. He was born at Westerham, in Kent, in 1676. He was the son of the Rev. S. Hoadly, who kept a private school, and was afterwards master of the grammar- school at Norwich. From his father, he went to Catherine Hall, Cambridge, where he was chosen fellow in 1696, and became a tutor. He took orders in 1700, and was appointed to the lectureship of St. Mildred's, in the Poultry, which, by his fierce and con- stant controversial preaching, he succeeded in preach- ing down to 301. a year, when he left it. He was then rector of St. Swithin's and St. Peter-le-Poor, in Broad- street. His sermon before the lord mayor, in 1705, which was censured by the lower house of Convocation, 382 LAST ACTS OF COTTVOCATION. [CHAP. XVII. has been already noticed in its place. By his fierce on- slaught on Bishop Atterhury, on the subject of passive obedience, he so won the favour of the House of Com- mons, that they recommended him to the queen for preferment, which he did not get. However, an aged lady (Mrs. Howlaud, grandmother of the Duke of Bedford) showed her matured judgment and discrimi- nation by giving him the rectory of Streatham, in Surrey ; and on the accession of George I. that prince, as an exegetical note to remove any doubt about the meaning of his declarations in favour of the Church, made him immediately his chaplain and Bishop of Bangor ; and, this being the time of a new Jacobite invasion (1715), the new archbishop, Wake, could not do less to prove his loyalty than making Hoadly a D.D. Why the royal mandate was not sent to Cambridge for that purpose, the writer can only guess. On March 31st of the present year (1717), he preached his noto- rious sermon before the king, at the Chapel Royal, " On the Nature of the Kingdom or Church of Christ," which was published by the king's command, and led to the famous Bangorian Controversy 7 , and other re- sults of such grave import to this day, that we deem it right to place before the reader a faithful abstract of it, in the preacher's own words. His text was John xviii. 36. " My kingdom is not of this w r orld." He begins by saying, " One of those great effects which length of time is sure to bring along w T ith it is 7 In this year we find White Kennett, then court chaplain, la- menting to his friend, Dr. Blackett : " The paper war about the Bishop of Bangor draws a dreadful deal of ink, black and bitter. I wish the first word had been spared, for I don't know when the last will be heard. ' Ellis's Letters, 2nd Ser. vol. iv. 1714 — 1717.] BAXGOEIAN CONTEOVEESY. 383 the alteration of meaning annexed to certain sounds." "When this " hath once invaded the most sacred and important subjects, it ought in duty to be resisted." " The only cure for this evil in cases of so great concern, is to have recourse to the originals of things ; to the law of reason, in those points which can be traced back thither ; and to the declarations of Jesus Christ and his immediate followers, in such matters as take their rise solely from those declarations. " For instance, ' Religion,' in St. James, was virtue and integrity, as to ourselves, and charity and benefi- cence towards others before God even the Father. (James i. 27.) By degrees it is come to signify, in most of the countries throughout the whole world, the pro- fession of every thing almost except virtue and charity ; and particularly a punctilious exactness in a regard to particular times, places, persons, and modes, diversified according to the various humours of men, recommended and practised under the avowed name of External Religion, two words which, in the sense fixed upon them by many Christians, God hath put asunder, and which therefore no man should join together. " Thus likewise the worship of God to be paid by Christians, was, in our Saviour's time, and in his own plain words, the worship of the Father in spirit and in truth. . . . But the nature of it is become quite another thing ; and in many Christian countries that which still retains the name of the worship of God, is indeed the neglect of the Father, and the worship of other beings besides, and more than the Father." So of prayer and the Son of God. " And the notion of the Church of Christ, which at first was only the number, small or great, of those who believed Him to be the true Messiah ; or of those who 3S4 LAST ACTS OP COTOCATIOX. [CHAP. XT1I. subjected themselves to Him as their King in the affairs of religion ; having since that time been so di- versified by the various alterations it hath undergone, that it is almost impossible to number up the many in- consistent meanings that have by daily additions been united together in it ; nothing, I think, can be more useful than to consider the same thing, under some other image which hath not been so much used, nor, consequently, so much defaced. And since the image of his Kingdom is that under which our Lord chose to represent it, we may be sure that if we sincerely ex- amine our notion of his Church by what He hath said of his Kingdom, that it is not of this world, we shall exclude out of it every thing that He would have excluded." "I. As the Church of Christ is the Kingdom of Christ, He Himself is King, and in this it is implied that He Himself is the sole lawgiver to his subjects, and Himself the sole judge of their behaviour in the affairs of conscience and eternal salvation; that He hath, in these points, left behind Him no visible human authority ; no vicegerents, who can be said properly to supply his place ; no interpretations upon which his subjects are absolutely to depend ; no judges over the consciences or religion of his people. " In human society, the interpretation of laws may of necessity be lodged in some cases in the hands of those who were not originally legislators .... But it is otherwise in religion, or the kingdom of Christ. He Himself never interposeth, since his first promulga- tion of his law, either to convey infallibly to such as pretend to handle it over again, or to assert the true interpretation of it, amidst the various and contradic- tory opinions of men about it. H He did thus inter- 1714 — 1717.] Bisnop of baxgoe's sermon. 385 pose, he himself would still be the legislator. But as he (lid not, if such an authority be once lodged with men, under the notion of interpreters, they thus be- come the legislators, and not Clirist, and they rule in their own kingdom and not in his." " If therefore the Church of Christ be the kingdom of Christ, it is essential to it that Christ Himself be the sole Lawgiver, and sole Judge of his subjects, in all points relating to the favour or displeasure of Almighty God. . . . This inquiry will bring us back to the first, which is the only true account of the Church of Christ, or the kingdom of Christ, in the mouth of a Christian ; that it is the number of men, whether small or great, whether dispersed or united, who truly and sincerely are subjects to Jesus Christ alone, as the Lawgiver and Judge, in matters relating to the favour of God, and their eternal salvation." " II. The next principal point is that, if that Church be the kingdom of Christ, and this kingdom not of this world, this must appear from the nature and the end of the laws of Christ, and of those rewards and punishments which are the sanctions of his laws. . . . The laws of this kingdom, therefore, as Christ left them, have nothing of this world in their view ; no tendency either to the exaltation of some in worldly pomp and dignity, or to their absolute dominion over the faith and religious conduct of others of his subjects, or to the erecting of any sort of temporal kingdom, under the covert and name of a spiritual one." " The sanctions of Christ's law are rewards and punishments. But of what sort ? Not the rewards of this world, not the offices or glories of this state ; not the pains of prisons, banishments, fires, or any lesser and more moderate penalties ; nay, not the c c 3S6 POSITION IS WHICH THE BISHOP [CHAP. XVII. much lesser negative discouragements that belong to human society. He was far from thinking that these could be the instruments of such a persuasion as he thought acceptable to God." " If these can be the true supports of a kingdom which is not of this world, then, sincerity and hypocrisy, religion and no religion, force and persuasion, a willing choice and a terrified heart, are become the same things. Truth and falsehood stand in need of the same methods to propagate them." "And therefore, when we see our Lord, in his methods, so far removed from those of many of his disciples .... the question will, or ought to be, whether He did not know the nature of his own king- dom or Church better than any since his time ? Whe- ther you can suppose He left any such matters to be decided against Himself and his own express profes- sions ; and whether if an angel from heaven shoidd give any account of his kingdom, contrary to what He Himself hath done, it can be of any weight or autho- rity with Christians ?" It woidd be strange if, in a long sermon, even from the pen of Hoadly, there were no truth. We admit some glimmering of truth, in regard of penal state- enactments in furtherance of religion ; and might be disposed to admit as much in his view of the kingdom of Christ, as against Romanism. But the sermon was preached against the reformed Church of England. Viewing it in this light, one wonders, not so much that a restlessness and wilfulness of spirit should leave a man to " believe his own he" — the victim of such palpable sophistries and fallacies as are crowded into this chapel-royal address ; but that a man, with his peculiar and not very modest views, professing a sub- 17H' — 1717.] PLACED HIMSELF BY THE SEEMOK. 387 limity of honesty which no ecclesiastics had had before him, should exclaim against the promotion of some to " worldly pomp and dignity," as inconsistent with the true idea of the kingdom not of this world, and yet permit himself to retain for one day such anti-Christian worldly distinctions as the revenues and peerage of Bangor (he would be spared the pain of tearing him- self from the diocese, for he never visited it) ; and, yet more, allow himself to be translated afterwards from Bangor to Hereford, from Hereford to Salisbury, and from Salisbury to die, in princely wealth, in the epis- copal palace of " golden Winchester," at Chelsea. How, with his fauxbourg crudities of liberty, equality, and fraternity, he could have allowed Bishop Compton to ordain him, when interpreters were interlopers and intruders ; or Archbishop Wake to make him a doctor, when every man was to be his own doctor ; — how he could even retain the " pomp and dignity" of Streatham rectory ; — nay, how he, who made conscience every thing (though Judas doubtless did the same), could reconcile it to his conscience, even so much as to remain for a day in communion with a Church which he pub- licly anathematized as in every sense unchristian and anti-Christian, he who was to be the first to illuminate the world and tell it what Christianity really was, — let those make out who can. Yet such was the man whom a king and an archbishop combined to honour — "the facetious Hoadly 0 :" his way of following his own teaching would have been facetious, if it had not been worse. It was to be expected, that the lower house would not yield " passive obedience" to such teaching as this. On May 3rd, therefore, of this same 9 Biog. Britan. c c 2 3S8 EEPEESENTATION OF [CECAP. XVII. year (but one short month after the sermon was preached, and much less than a month after it came before them in print ; a degree of haste which one may lament in so grave a matter, but which may have been forced upon them by a daily fear of prorogation), we find the lower house presenting the following " Representation about the Bishop of Bangor 's Sermon of the Kingdom of Christ. " To his Grace the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and to the lords the Bishojjs of the province of Canterbury m Convocation assembled. " Humbly showeth, " That with much grief of heart we have observed, what in all dutiful manner we now represent to your grace and your lordships, that the right reverend the Lord Bishop of Bangor hath given great and grievous offence by certain doctrines and positions by him lately published partly in a sermon, intituled, ' The nature of the Kingdom or Church of Christ,' and partly in a book, intituled, ' A Preservative against the Principles and Practices of the Nonjurors both in Church and State.' " The tendency of the doctrines and positions con- tained in the said sermon and book is conceived to be, " I. First, to subvert all government and discipline in the Church of Christ, and to reduce his kingdom to a state of anarchy and confusion. " II. Secondly, to impugn and impeach the regal supremacy in causes ecclesiastical, aud the authority 1714 — 1717.] loweb notrsE of convocation. 389 of the legislature to enforce obedience in matters of religion by civil sanctions. " The passages in the sermon and book aforesaid, ■which are conceived to carry the evil tendency ex- pressed under the first article, are principally these that follow : " I. [Sermon.] At page 11, octavo edition, his lord- ship affirms — ' As the Church of Christ is the kingdom of Christ, He Himself is King ; and in this it is implied, that He is Himself the sole Lawgiver to his subjects, and Himself the sole Judge of their behaviour in the affairs of conscience and eternal salvation. And in this sense therefore his kingdom is not of this world ; that He hath in those points left behind Him no visible, human authority ; no vicegerents, who can be said properly to supply his place ; no interpreters, upon -whom Ms subjects are absolutely to depend, no judges over the consciences or religion of his people.' This passage seems to deny all authority to the Church, and under pretence of exalting the kingdom of Christ, to leave it without any visible human authority to judge, cen- sure, or punish offenders in the affairs of conscience and eternal salvation. " Which will be confirmed by the passage next to be produced, pages 15, 16. " If therefore the Church of Christ be the kingdom of Christ, it is essential to it, that Christ Himself be the sole Lawgiver and sole Judge of his subjects in all points relating to the favour or displeasure of Almighty Grod, and that all his subjects, in wdiat station soever they may be, are equally subjects to Him ; and that no one of them, any more than another, hatli authority either to make new laws for Christ's subjects, or to impose a sense upon the old ones, which is the same 390 REPRESENTATION OF [CHAP. XVII. thing ; or to judge, censure, or punish the servants of another master in matters relating purely to conscience or salvation. If any person hath any other notion either through a long use of words with inconsistent meanings, or through a negligence of thought; let him hut ask himself, whether the Church of Christ be the kingdom of Christ, or not ? and if it he, whether this notion of it doth not absolutely exclude all other legislators and judges in matters relating to conscience or the favour of God ? or whether it can be his king- dom, if any mortal men have such a power of legisla- tion and judgment in it ?' " To the same sense he speaks, page 25 : ' No one of his subjects is lawgiver and judge over others of them in matters relating to salvation, but He alone.' " If the doctrine contained in these passages be ad- mitted, there neither is nor hath been since our Sa- viour's time any authority in the Christian Church in matters relating to conscience and salvation, not even in the Apostles themselves ; but all acts of govern- ment in such cases have been an invasion of Christ's authority, and an usurpation upon his kingdom. " To which effect his lordship further expresses himself, page 14 : ' "When they (i. e. any men on earth) make any of their own declarations or decisions to concern and affect the state of Christ's subjects with regard to the favour of God ; this is so far the taking Christ's kingdom out of his hands, and placing it in their own. Nor is this matter at all made better by their declaring themselves to be vicegerents, or law- makers, or judges under Christ, in order to carry on the ends of his kingdom.' " Which words are not restrained to such decisions, as are inconsistent with the doctrines of the Gospel ; 1714 — 1717.] LOWER HOUSE OE CONVOCATION. 391 as appears not only from the general manner, in which he hath expressed himself, hut from his direct words, page 15 : ' And whether they happen to agree with him, or to differ from him, as long as they are the law- givers and judges, without any interposition from Christ either to guide or correct their decisions, they are kings of this kingdom, and not Christ Jesus.' " Whether these passages exclude the sacred writers as well as others from making decisions, and inter- preting the laws of Christ, your lordships will judge by a passage, page 12 : ' Nay whoever hath an abso- lute authority to interpret any written or spoken laws, it is He, who is truly the Lawgiver to all intents and purposes, and not the person, who first wrote or spoke them.' When a distinction is made between the in- terpreters of the written and spoken law, the sacred writers only can be meant by the latter. Others have had the written law, they only of all interpreters heard it spoke by Christ ; and his lordship has left us only this choice, either to deny their authority to interpret the laws of Christ, or to charge them with setting up for themselves in opposition to their Master. " These doctrines naturally tend to breed in the minds of the people a disregard to those, who are appointed to rule over them. Whether his lordship had this view, the following passages will declare, page 25 : ' The Church of Christ is the number of persons, who are sincerely and willingly subjects to Him, as Law- giver and Judge, in all matters truly relating to con- science or eternal salvation. And the more close aud immediate this regard to Him is, the more certaiuly and the more evidently true it is, that they are of his kingdom.' And page 31 : ' If Christ be our King, let us show ourselves subjects to Him alone in the great affair 392 REPRESENTATION OF [CHAP. XVII. of conscience and eternal salvation ; and without fear of man's judgment live and act, as becomes those, who wait for the appearance of an all-knowing and impartial Judge, even that King whose kingdom is not of this world.' " To these doctrines his lordship's description of the Church doth well agree. He asserts, page 17 : ' That it is the number of men, whether small or great, whether dispersed or united, who truly and sincerely are subjects to Jesus Christ alone, as then- Lawgiver and Judge, in matters relating to the favour of God and their eternal salvation :' and page 24 : ' The grossest mistakes in judgment about the nature of Christ's kingdom or Church have arisen front hence, that men have argued from other visible societies, and other visible kingdoms of this world, to what ought to be visible and sensible in his kingdom :' and page 25 : ' We must not frame our ideas from the khigdoms of this world of what ought to be in a visible and sensible manner in his kingdom.' " Against such arguings from visible societies and earthly kingdoms, his lordship says, our Saviour hath positively warned us [page 25] ; — and yet the Scrip- ture representations of the Church do plainly ex- press its resemblance to other societies in many respects, and we presume his lordship could not be ignorant of the nineteenth article of our Church, intituled, ' Of the Church,' viz. ' The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure word of God is preached, and the sacraments be duly administered according to Christ's ordinance in all things, that of necessity are requisite to the same.' Though in disparagement of this article by himself solemnly and often acknowledged, 1714 — 1717.] LOWER HOUSE OF CONVOCATION. 393 he asserts, page 10 : ' That the notion of the Church hath been so diversified by the various alterations it hath undergone, that it is almost impossible so much as to number up the many inconsistent images, that have come by daily additions to be united together in it.' " We wish, that in his lordship's account no images necessary to form a just and true notion of the Church had been left out. He omits even to mention the preaching the word, or administering the sacraments ; one of which, in the words of the twenty-seventh article of our Church, is a ' sign of regeneration or new birth, whereby, as by an instrument, they, that receive baptism rightly, are grafted into the Church.' We could wish also, that his lordship, whilst he was writing on the subject of the power of the Church, had remembered his solemn profession made at his consecration, in which he promised ' by the help of God to correct and punish according to such authority, as he hath by God's word, and as should be committed to him by the ordinance of this realm, such, as be unquiet, disobedient, and criminous in his diocese.' " Tour grace and your lordships have seen the tendency of the doctrince in the sermon to throw all ecclesiastical authority out of the Church. We now proceed to show, that the doctrines before delivered in the ' Preservative,' etc., have the same tendency. " AVhere, not to trouble your lordships with the con- tempt thrown on the regular succession of the ministry, and of your own order in particular, for which his lord- ship has found no better words, than trifles, niceties, dreams, inventions of men, etc., we observe, that as in the Sermon all rulers and judges in the visible Church are laid aside, so in the book all Church communion is 394 EEPEESEXTATIOS OF [CHAP. XYTT. rendered unnecessary, in order to entitle men to the favour of God ; and every man is referred in these cases to his private judgment, as that -which will justify even the worst choice he can make. "Which strange opinion his lordship grounds on what he calls ' a demonstration in the strictest sense of the word' in a paragraph, pages 89, 90, which is indeed nothing but the common and known case of an erro- neous conscience, which was never till now allowed wholly to justify men in their errors, or in throwing off all the authority of lawful governors. For this is put- ting all communions on an equal foot, without regard to any intrinsic goodness, or whether they be right or wrong, and making every man, how illiterate and ig- norant soever, his own sole judge and director on earth in the affair of religion. " The use his lordship intends from this doctrine is expressed, page 90 : ' Every one may find it in his own conduct to be true, that his title to God's favour cannot depend upon his actual being, or continuing in any particular method, but upon his real sincerity in the conduct of bis conscience and of his own actions under it :' and in page 91 is laid down this general proposition : ' The favour of God follows sincerity, considered as such, and consequently equally follows every equal degree of sincerity.' " If sincerity as such [i. e. mere sincerity] exclusive of the truth or falsehood of the doctrine or opinion, be alone sufficient for salvation, or to entitle a man to the favour of God ; if no one method of religion be in itself preferable to another ; the conclusion must be, that all methods are alike in respect to salvation or the favour of God. " His lordship himself, in a point of the tenderest 1714 — 1717.] LOWER HOUSE OF CONVOCATION. 395 concern, has applied this principle to the whole re- formation, and in virtue of it has left no difference between the popish and our reformed Church, but what is founded in personal persuasion only, and not in the truth of the doctrines, or in the excellency of one communion above the other. The place we refer to is at page 85 : ' What is it that justified the Protestants — in setting up their own bishops ? Was it, that the popish doctrines and worship were actually corrupt ; or that the Protestants were persuaded in their own consciences, that they were so ? The latter without doubt ; as appears from this demonstration. Take away from them this persuasion ; they are so far from being justified, that they are condemned for their departure. Give them this persuasion again ; they are condemned, if they do not separate. Or in ano- ther manner : suppose a papist, not persuaded of that corruption, to separate ; he is, for the want of that persuasion alone, condemned : suppose a Protestant, or one thoroughly persuaded of that corruption, to separate ; and he is justified in so doing ; or not to separate, and he is condemned.' Prom this pre- tended demonstration his lordship infers : ' If this were duly and impartially considered, it would be im- possible for men to unchristian, unchurch, or declare out of God's favour, any of their fellow-creatures upon any lesser, or indeed any other consideration, than that of a wicked dishonesty and insincerity, of which in these cases God alone is judge.' " If it be true, that there is but one consideration, viz. that of wicked dishonesty and insincerity, which will justify unchristianing, unchurching, or declaring out of God's favour, and of that one consideration in 396 REPRESENTATION OF [CHAP. XTII. these cases God alone is judge ; there is evidently an end of all Church authority to obhge any to external communion, and of all power, that one man, in what station soever, can have over another in matters of religion : and this will show, what his lordship's true meaning is under the many colours and disguises he makes use of, when he speaks of excommunication ; and that he does not write more against the abuse, than the use of it. " Tour lordships will judge from hence, what view he has in pronouncing at page 101 : ' Human benedic- tions, human absolutions, human denunciations, human excommunications have nothing to do with the favour or anger of God :' and in treating them as human engines permitted to work for a time (like other evils) by Providence (page 101), as mere outcries of human terror (page 99), as the terrors of men, and vain words (page 98). "How his lordship can consistently with these opinions make good his solemn promise made at his consecration, ' to be ready with all faithful diligence to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God's word, and both privately and openly to call upon and encourage others to do the same ;' and how he can exercise the high office intrusted to him in the Church, or convey holy orders to others, are difficulties, which himself only can resolve, and we humbly hope your grace and your lordships will think it proper to call for the explica- tion. " In maintenance of the second article we offer your lordships the following particulars : " That whereas his majesty is, and by the statutes of 1714 — 1717.] LOWER HOUSE OE CONVOCATION. 397 this realm is declared to be, supreme head of the Church ; and it is by the statute 1 Elizabeth, cap. i. enacted, ' that such jurisdictions, privileges, superiori- ties, and pre-eminences spiritual and ecclesiastical, as by any spiritual and ecclesiastical power or authority hath heretofore been, or may lawfully be exercised or used for the visitation of the ecclesiastical state and persons, and for reformation, order, and correction of the same, and of all manner of errors, heresies, schisms, abuses, offences, contempts, and enormities, shall for ever by authority of this present Parliament be united and annexed to the imperial crown of this realm :' in consequence of which tbe kings and queens of this realm have frequently issued forth their proclamations, injunctions, and directions in matters of religion ; and particular his majesty, that now is, did issue his di- rections for preserving of unity in the Church, and the purity of the Christian faith concerning the holy Trinity, bearing date December 11, m.dcc.xiv. Georgii primo ; yet his lordship in contradiction to this affirms, page 14 [Sermon], ' If any men upon earth have a right to add to the sanctions of his (i. e. Christ's) laws, that is, to increase the number, or alter the nature of the rewards and punishments of his subjects in matters of conscience or salvation ; they are so far kings in his stead, and reign in their own kingdoms, and not in his :' and to the same purpose, page 18 : ' The sanctions of Christ's law are rewards and pu- nishments : but of what sort ? not the rewards of this world ; not the offices or glories of this state ; not the pains of prisons, banishments, fines, or any lesser or more moderate penalties ; nay, not the much lesser negative discouragements, that belong to human society. He was far from thinking, that these could 398 REPRESENTATION OP [CHAP. XVII. be the instruments of such a persuasion, as he thought acceptable to God.' " And whereas the Scripture, and our own Liturgy from thence, has taught us to pray for kings, and all that are put in authority under them, that they may minister justice to the punishment of wickedness and vice, and to the maintenance of true religion and virtue ; his lordship asserts, page 20 [Sermon] : ' As soon as ever you hear of any of the engines of this world, whether of the greater or the lesser sort, you must immediately think, that then, and so far, the kingdom of this world takes place. For if the very essence of God's worship be spirit and truth ; if re- ligion be virtue and charity under the belief of a supreme Governor and Judge ; if true real faith cannot be the effect of force ; and if there can be no reward, where there is no willing choice ; then in all, or any of these cases to apply force or flattery, worldly pleasure or pain, is to act contrary to the interests of true re- ligion, as it is plainly opposite to the maxims upon which Christ founded his kingdom ; who chose the motives, which are not of this world, to support a kingdom, which is not of this world.' " The two first cases here mentioned relate to what is essential in the worship of God and religion ; yet he declares, that to encourage religion by temporal re- wards, is to act contrary to the interest of true religion, as it is opposite to the maxims on which Christ founded his kingdom. This is to set the worship of God and the neglect of it, religion and irrebgion, on an equal foot in this world, as if, because they shall hereafter be distinguished by rewards and punish- ments by the great Judge, therefore the magistrate was excluded from interposing with rewards and 1714 — 1717.] LOWEE HOUSE OE CONVOCATION. 399 punishments to distinguish them here, and tied up from expressing any concern for his honour, by whom and under whom he beareth rule. " This his lordship further supports, page 22 : ' And therefore when you see our Lord in his methods so far removed from those of many of his disciples ; when you read nothing in his doctrine about his own king- dom, of taking in the concerns of this world, and mixing them with those of eternity ; no commands, that the frowns and discouragements of this present state should in any case attend upon conscience and religion ; no calling upon the secular arm, when- ever the magistrate should become Christian, to en- force his doctrines, or to back his spiritual authority ; but on the contrary, as plain a declaration, as a few words can make, that his kingdom is not of this world ; I say, when you see this from the whole tenor of the Gospel, so vastly opposite to many, who take his name into their mouths ; the question with you ought to be, whether He did not know the nature of his own king- dom or Church better, than any since his time ? whether you can suppose, He left any such matters to be decided against Hhnself, and his own express pro- fessions?' Where your lordships wdl observe, that all laws for the encouragement of religion, or dis- couragement of irreligion, are reckoned to be decisions against Christ. " The passages produced under this head, are as destructive of the legislative power, as of the regal supremacy ; but the Acts for Uniformity of public prayer, and the Articles for establishing of consent touching true religion, which in the last of the said Acts are enjoined to be subscribed by the several de- grees of persons ecclesiastical, being the main fence 400 EEPEXSi:>~TATIO>~ OF [CHAP. XVTI. and security of the Established Church of England, they seem to be singled out by his lordship to be rendered odious. The passage we refer to, is to be found pages 27 — 29 [Sermon] : ' There are some pro- fessed Christians who contend openly for such an authority, as indispensably obliges all around them to unity of profession, that is, to profess even what they do not, what they cannot, believe to be true. This sounds so grossly, that others, who think they act a glorious part in opposing such an enormity, are very willing for their own sakes to retain such an authority, as shall oblige men, whatever they themselves think, though not to profess what they do not believe, yet to forbear the profession and publication of what they do believe, let them believe it of never so great importance. Both these pretensions are founded upon the mistaken notion of the peace, as well as authority of the king- dom, that is, the Church of Christ. "Which of them is the most insupportable to an honest and a Christian mind, I am not able to say ; because they both equally found the authority of the Church of Christ upon the ruins of sincerity and common honesty, and mistake stupidity and sleep for peace ; because they would both equally have prevented all reformation, where it hath been, and will for ever prevent it, where it is not already ; and, in a word, because both equally divest Jesus Christ of his empire in his own kingdom, set the obedience of his subjects loose from Himself, and teach them to prostitute their consciences at the feet of others, who have no right in such a manner to trample upon them.' u If your lordships consider by what authority the Acts of Uniformity were enacted, by whom the Articles were made, and by whom ratified and confirmed, you 1714 — 1717.] LOWER HOUSE OF COTTVOCATION. 401 will discern, who they are that are said to ' divest Jesus Christ of his empire in his own kingdom,' and stand charged by his lordship in the indecent language of ' trampling' upon the consciences of others. " Tour lordships have now seen, under the first head, that the Church hath no governors, no censures, no authority over the conduct of men, in matters of con- science and religion ; you have seen, under the second head, that the temporal powers are excluded from any right to encourage true religion, or to discourage the contrary. " But to do justice to his lordship's scheme, and to set it before you in its full light, we must observe, that he further asserts, that Christ Himself (the only power not yet excluded) never doth interpose in the direction of his kingdom here. After observing, page 13 [Sermon], that temporal lawgivers do often inter- pose to interpret their own laws, he adds : ' But it is otherwise in religion, or the kingdom of Christ. He himself never interposeth, since his first promulgation of his law, either to convey infallibdity to such as pretend to handle it over again, or to assert the true interpretation of it amidst the various and contradic- tory opinions of men about it.' To the same purpose he speaks at page 15, in a passage before recited. " Since then there are in the Church no governors left ; in the State, none, who may intermeddle in the affairs of religion ; and since Jesus Christ Himself never doth interpose ; we leave it to your grace and your lordships to judge, whether the Church and king- dom of Christ be not reduced to a mere state of anarchy and confusion, in which every man is left to do what is right in his own eyes. " And we beg leave to close these observations in the d d 402 EEPEESENTATION OP [CHAP. XVII. words of the thirty-fourth Article of our Church : ' Whosoever through his private judgment willingly and purposely doth openly break (much more teach and encourage others to break) the traditions and ceremonies of the Church, which be not repugnant to the word of God, and be ordained and approved by common authority, ought to be rebuked openly (that others may fear to do the like) as one, that offendeth against the common order of the Church, and hurteth the authority of the magistrate, and woundeth the consciences of weak brethren.' " Having thus laid before your grace and your lord- ships the several passages, upon which this our humble representation is grounded, together with our obser- vations on them, we must profess ourselves to be equally surprised and concerned, that doctrines of so evil a tendency should be advanced by a bishop of this Established Church, and that too in a manner so very remarkable ; that the supremacy of the king should be openly impeached in a sermon delivered in the royal audience ; and that the constitution of the Church should be dangerously undermined in a book professedly written against the principles and prac- tices of some who had departed from it. " But so it hath happened : this right reverend bishop in his extreme opposition to certain unwarrant- able pretensions to extravagant degrees of Church power, seems to have been so far transported beyond his temper and his argument, as not only to condemn the abuse, but even to deny the use, and to destroy the being of those powers, without which the Church, as a society, cannot subsist, and by which our national constitution, next under Christ, is chiefly supported. Under these apprehensions we could not but hold our- 1714 — 1717.] LOWER HOUSE OF CONVOCATION. 403 selves obliged to represent our own sense, with that of our brethren of the clergy, to your lordships, and to submit the whole to your much weightier judgment, which we do as with the most unfeigned sorrow for the unhappy occasion, and all becoming deference to our superiors, so with the most sincere and disinterested zeal, and with no other view in the world, but to give a check to the propagation of these erroneous opinions, so destructive of all government and discipline in the Church, and so derogatory to the royal supremacy, and legislative authority, as, we presume, may have been sufficiently evinced. Of our honest and loyal inten- tions, we doubt not but your lordships in your known goodness will favourably apprize his majesty, if it shall be thought needful or expedient, in order to set this matter, together with our proceedings thereupon, in a true and proper light. " We are by no means insensible, that there are divers others offensive passages in the sermon and book above mentioned, which we for the present omit, as not falling so directly under the two heads proposed ; nor are we ignorant, that several offensive books have of late time been published by other writers, whose confidence doth loudly call for the animadversions of the synod ; to which also we shall be ready to contri- bute our endeavours. But we apprehended this to be a case very singular and extraordinary, such as deserved a separate consideration, that a bishop of this Church should in his writings make void and set at nought those very powers with which he himself is invested, and which by virtue of his office he is bound to ex- ercise ; in particular as often as he confers holy orders, institutes to any ecclesiastical benefice, or inflicts spiritual censures: nor were we less apprehensive, d d 2 404 LAST ACTS OF CONVOCATION [CHAP. XVII. that the eminence of his lordship's station and cha- racter, as it aggravates the scandal, would also help to spread the ill influence further and faster, under that colour of argument, with which he endeavours to cover these his pernicious tenets. " If your grace and your lordships, after having ma- turely weighed the premises, shall find just cause for the complaints which have given rise to this representation, we rest assured, that in your godly zeal and great wisdom you will not fail to enter upon some speedy and effectual method to vindicate the honour of Grod and religion, that hath been so deeply wounded, to assert the prerogative given to all godly princes in holy Scrip- ture, that hath been so manifestly invaded, and to re- settle those weak and wavering minds, which may have been ensnared or perplexed by any of the unsound doctrines taught and published by this right reverend bishop. Which your lordships' pious counsels and endeavours will be attended with the united prayers of us, our brethren, whom we represent, and of all good Christian people." It must be borne in mind that the king and the archbishop knew Hoadly's views when they made him a bishop and a doctor ; they were, therefore, committed to him : it was to be expected that they would come to the rescue, not less of themselves, than of him. Besides which, the rebellion of 1715 was but just over, the Pretender still lived : added to these complications, the rival nonjuring Church still existed, with its suc- cession of bishops, denying the claims of the established bishops and clergy, and refusing communion with them: and therefore such discussions upon the first principles of civil and ecclesiastical obedience were in- 1711 1717.] NO REASON FOE ITS REFUSAL. 405 convenient. It was no mitigation — rather otherwise — that such discussions were forced on by their own favourite ; it was enough that they were unseasonable and troublesome. So a royal road to truth and justice was resorted to, as it had often been before, as the readiest way for the moment of escaping from a di- lemma ; the Church's mouth was stopped, and Convo- cation prorogued to a more convenient season. A hundred and thirty-four years, however, have passed away ; and Pretenders and nonjurors have passed away ; and that more convenient season has not yet come. How is this ? is the question now await- ing an answer ; — reverently asked, but which must be answered. Unless we could conceive it possible that sovereigns and primates were as prepared as before to do honour, at all risks, to such courtiers as Hoadly, ignoring the Church, in her distinctive doctrines and rights which she holds in trust for the benefit of all, it is hard to imagine any reason now for delaying the restoration of synodal action, as a normal condition of the Church, indispensable to her efficiency and deve- lopment, and ultimately to her peace, and — though good men may differ as to the time for restoring it — only in the tcay of such as have other objects in view than Truth. APPENDIX. SUFFERINGS OF THE NONJURORS. LIST OF THE ENGLISH ECCLESIASTICAL NONJUEOES OF THE EEIGJJ' OF WILLIAM HI. Diocese of Canterbury. KENT. His Grace William Sancroft, Lord Archbishop of Canter- bury. Simon Lowth, D.D., Dean of Rochester, Vicar of Cosmas Blean. — Wingficld, Canterbury. S. Grascomb, Hector of Slour- mouth. — Bedford, Curate of Brook- land. J. Gostling, Vicar of Slurry. V. Schmid, Preacher to Wal- loon Congregation, Sand- wich. W. Sims, Vicar of Chislet. — Medcalf, Vicar of St. Paul's Cray. — Knight, Rector of Westbcre. — Jones, Vicar of Lydd. R. Johnson, Master of the King's School, Canterbury. II. Paman, Master nf the Facul- ties. Diocese of Norwich. NORFOLK. Dr. William Lloyd, Lord Bi- shop of Norwich. G. Nash, Minor Canon of Nor- wich, Rector of Melton. J. Shaw, Minor Canon of Nor- wich, Rector of Callhorpe. J. Pitts, Rector of St. Lawrence, Norivich. F. Roper, Rector of Northwold. — Wright, Vicar of Wimond- ham. R. Kidder, Rector of Faken- ham. T. Stone, Rector of Hemsted. R. Munsey, Rector of Bow- thorpe. T). lin t, Vicar of Hockham. B. Skelton, Rector of Cantley. T. Verdon, Rector of Great Snoring. R. Gibs, Rector of Gissing. H. Day, Rector of Hunstanton. R. Tisdale, Rector of Fellhorpe. G. Welcot, Rector of Bozley. 408 APPENDIX. — Fisher, D.D., Curate of Washbrook, Suffolk. Dr. N. Bisby, Rector of Long Melford. Dr. C. Trumbal, Rector of Hadley. E. Beeston, Rector of Sprough- ton and Melton. A. Bokenham, Rector of Hel- mingham. R. Webster, Rector of Glems- ford. J. Owen, Rector of Tannington. S. Edwards, Vicar of Eye and Rector of Troston. W. Gylford, Rector of Great Bradley. S. Newson, Rector of Hawke- don. E. Pretty, Rector of Little Cornard. A. Salters, Vicar of Edward- ston. — Gipps, Rector of Brockley. J. Rosse, Rector of Reed. T. Rogerson, Rector of Amp- ton. J. Smyth, Rector of Lound. — Richardson, Curate of Great Thurlow. W. Philips, Curate of Milden. W. Ledington, Curate of Dep- den. Diocese of Bath and Wells. Thomas Ken, D.D., Lord Bi- shop of Bath and Wells. S. Thomas, B.D., Prebendary of Wells, Vicar of Chard. W. Hart, Vicar of Taunton Dean and Prebendary of Bristol. G. Hellier, Vicar of Broom- field. R. Jones, Rector of Walcot. J. King, Rector of Marsion Biggot. Dr. M. Brian, Rector of Lyn- combe. C. Brown, Rector of Preston. — Talbot, Vicar of South- broom. J. Crossman, Vicar of Bayford. — Rotherham, of . W. Osborn, Chaplain to Lord Weymouth. — Street, Curate and School- master, at , near the Bath. Diocese of Ely. Fran. Turner, D.D., Lord Bi- shop of Ely. G. Harbin, Chaplain to the same. Dr. J. Fitzwilliam, Canon of Windsor, Rector of Cotton. — Dowson, Chanter of Ely. F. Roper, Prebendary of Ely. — Oldham, Rector of Stretham. T. Hall, Rector of Castle Camps. — Downing, Chanter. T. Dresser, Rector of Westley. ■ — Brooks, Rector of Coning- ton. J. Malabar, Curate of Cotten- ham. J. Patrick, Curate of Hadden- ham. University of Cambridge. Two Fellows of Trinity. One Scholar of same One Fellow of Queens'. Three Fellows of Peterhouse. One Fellow of Magdalen. One Fellow of Caius. Twenty-eight Fellows of St. John's. Two Fellows of Catherine Hall. Two Fellows of Pembroke Hall. One Fellow of Trinity College Hall. Diocese of Peterborough. NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. Thos. White, D.D., Lord Bishop of Peterborough. LIST OP THE Dr. Arnold, Rector of Dean. — Bagshaw, Rector of Sibber- stoft. M. Soam, Rector of Braunston. — Boteler, Rector of Litch- borovgh. E. Marston, Curate of Knop- ton. J. Cuffe, Rector of Wicken, in prison in Northampton. J. Wilson, Rector of St. Giles, in Northampton. H. Bedford, Rector of Welton. — Hughes, Minor Canon of Peterborough, Curate of Eye. S. Hawes, Rector of Braybrook, Chaplain to the Lord Griffin. J. Ives, Vicar of St. Giles, in Northampton. J. Richardson, Rector of Lvffen- ham, Rutlandshire. Diocese of Gloucester. GLOUCESTERSHIRE. Robert Frampton, D.D., Lord Bishop of Gloucester. W. Robinson, Vicar of Stone- house. Dr. Thos. Bayly, Rector of Slembridye. R. Sawyer, Vicar of Berkeley. J. Kirkham, Rector of Wick- ham. H. Gervaise, of . — Perkins, Curate of Diocese of Worcester. William Thomas, D.D., Lord Bishop of Worcester. Dr. G. Hickes, Dean of Wor- cester. Dr. R. Taylor, Rector of Severn- stoke. Dr. J. Crowder, Prebendary of Worcester. H. Pauling, Rector of St. Mar- tin's, in Worcester, and Up- ton-on- Severn. KO>MURORS. 409 J. Griffiths, Rector of St. Ni- cholas, in Worcester. T. Morris, Minor Canon, Vicar of Claines. S. Worthington, Curate of Offenham. R. Morris, Vicar of Littleton. T. Beynon, Curate of Vpton- on-Severn. T. Roberts, Rector of St. Swithin's, in Worcester. T. Wilson, Rector of Arrow. T. Keil, Rector of Binton. J. Murch, Vicar of Long Comp- ton. S. Sands, Rector of Willey. Diocese of Chichester. SUSSEX. John Lake, D.D., Lord Bishop of Chichester. R. Jenkins, Precentor of Chi- chester, Rector of Wickham. W. Snat, Prebendary of Sutton, Vicar of Cookfield. C. Smith, Vicar of Sampling, Rector of Comb. E. Wilson, Rector of Blatching- don. L. Roberts, Vicar of West Firle and Bedingham. R. Howell, Vicar of Seaford and Bishopstown. T. Brett, Rector of West Dean and Folkinyton. W. Carr, Rector of Livington. G. Dawkins, Vicar of Eccles- ham. T. Eades, Vicar of Chiltington. J. Moor, Vicar of Rustington. J. Pickering, Rector of Felp- ham and South Heighlon. Diocese of York. YORK. Dr. Sam. Crowbrow, Archdea- con of Nottingham, Preben- dary of York. 410 APPENDIX. R. Wilson, Rector of , in Holderness. — Hatton, Vicar of Bolton. — Lamb, Vicar of Childwall. M. Fothergill, Vicar of Skip- with. — Fletcher, Vicar of Mam- ham. C. Allen, Vicar of Hornby. — Holmes, Vicar of Clifton. J. Mantin, Vicar of Crake. — Brome, Vicar of Middleton Tyns. — York, Min. of , in York, and Vic. Chor. R. Wilson, Vicar of Howden. ■ — Brooksby, Rector of Rowley. T. Snagge, Rector of . — Brasil, Rector of Weltham. J. York, Rector of St. Peter's, in York. — Borlower, Curate of . — Cressey, Vicar of Sheriff Hutton. — Benlows, Curate of . G. Winstrop, Prebendary of York, Rector of Malton. J. Hollis, Vicar of Brotherton. — Simmis, Rector of Lanyton. T. Lightfoot, Rector of Kirby. — Holmes, Rector of Rastrick, Vic. Chor. of York. T. Ross, Rector of Hamanby. — Milner, Vicar of Leeds, Pre- bendary of Ripon. C. Doughty, Curate of Robin Hood's Bay. — Boss, Rector of Lcathley. J. Walker, Rector of Stokesley. — Kist, Vicar of . J. Hope, Chaplain to the Arch- bishop. — Nelson, Vicar of . R. Montgomery, Vicar of . Diocese of Winchester. Dr. Winford, Rector of . Dr. Brian, Curate of Newing- ton Butts. T. Bradley, Rector of Walton- on-the-Hill. — Flood, Vicar of Cast let on. — Flood, Curate of Rinywood. A. Mackintosh, Rector of Wood- manston, Chaplain of First Troop of Horse Guards. J. Holbrook, Rector of Tifsey. J. Oakly, Rector of Sutton. D. Lindsay, Curate of Croydon. W. Higden, Curate and Lec- turer of Carnberwell. W. Stanbury, Rector of Botley. C. Buchanan, Vicar of Farn- borouyh. H. John, Master of Wands- worth School. R. Jones, Rector of Sunning- well. T. Lee, Master of St. Saviour's School, Southwark. — Morsley, Rector of Gat- combe. — Kilback . Diocese of Durham. Dr. Greenville, Dean, Archdea- con, and Rector of Sedgefield. J. Cork, Vicar of St. Oswal's, in Durham. T. Davison, Vicar of Norton. L. Manburn, Rector of Crayke. T. Baker, Rector of Long New- ion. C. Maddim, Chester-le-Street. J. Hope, Curate of Easington. M. Johnson, Curate of Kelloe. — Kendal, Curate of Elwick. — Grey, Curate, , in New- castle. Diocese of Hereford. S. Benson, Archdeacon and Canon. T. Martyn, Rector of Home Lacy. J. Lloyd, Yarpool. J. Howell, Rector of New Rad- nor. LIST OP THE NONJURORS. 411 — 'WagstafT, Long Wenlock. T. Edwards, . J. Gwillim, Rector of Horwood (died in prison). W. Morse, Langnorthen. R. Holder, Curate of Stanford. J. Sundret, Vicar of Madly. Diocese of Carlisle. T. Bell, Vicar of Archam. T. Leigh, Vicar of Eden-hall. University of Oxford. Two Fellows of Magdalen. One Fellow of Queen's. One Fellow of All Souls. One Fellow of Lincoln. Two Fellows of Oriel. Five Fellows of Balliol. One Fellow of Brazennose. H. Dodwell, Professor of His- tory. Diocese of Lichfield. T. Wagstaff, Chancellor of Lichfield. — Cole, Vicar of Charlesworth. R. Lake, Rector of Avon Bas- sett. — Brown, Can. Res. of Lich- field, Archdeacon of Derby. C. Hammersly, Vicar of Brid- ford. J. Kettlewell, Vicar of Coles- hill. T. Jacomb, Schoolmaster at same. D. Bull, Rector of Shelton. J. Cayly, Curate of Barlaston. — Smith, Vicar of Little Pack- ington. R. Ensor, Rector of Hickham. E. Harmer, of Monford. — Edwards, Rector of Kenil- worth. II. Barden, Vicar of Brighton. Jon. Cope, Vicar of Betty. J. Barly, of Titnell. — Kent, Vicar of Tissington. — Oldham, Chaplain to Earl of Chesterfield. E. Farmer, Vicar of Mountford. Dr. Arsenet, Prebendary of Lichfield. Diocese of Salisbury. WILTS. Dr. J. Fitzwilliam, Canon of Windsor. Dr. W. Beach, Rector of Or- cheston. Dr. J. Smyth, Prebendary of Salisbury. — Mintyn, Prebendary of Sa- rum. Vicar of Compton. W. Sloper, Schoolmaster of Wantage. N. Spinks, Prebendary of Sa- rum. Curate of Stratford. — Davison, Rector of Aldivorth. R. Jones, Rector of Sunning- hill. J. Barefoot, Abingdon School. — Stamp, Rector of Lanyley. Diocese of Exeter. DEVON. T. Long, Prebendary of Exeter and Rector of Wimple. Dr. T. Crosthwaite, Prebendary of Exeter. E. Ellis, Rector of East Alling- ton. R. Manley, Rector of Powder- ham. J. Beaufort, Rector of Llanty- class. A. Seller, Vicar of St. Charles, in Plymouth. M. Nicholls, Curate of Eggcs- ford. C. Hutton, Rector of Uplyme. J. Polwheel, Rector of Newly n. L. Southcomb, Rector of Rose- ash. 412 APPENDIX. Diocese of London. MIDDLESEX. J. Crowder, Resident of St. Paul's and Rector of Frod- inffham. R. Pearson, Rector of St. Michael's, Crooked-lane. J. Audly, Vicar of St. Cathe- rine's Church. A. Ennis, Rector of St. Martin's Vintry and St. Michael's Royal. B. Anary, Rector of St. Dennis Backchurch. — King, Chaplain to Lord Weymouth. J. Leake, Lecturer of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, and St. Michael's, Queeuhithe. J. Wood, Curate of Christ Church. — Pigeon, Curate of St. An- drew's Undershaft. Dr. W. Sherlock, Master of the Temple. D. Lindsay, Curate of White- chapel. — Lamb, Vicar of Ealing. G. Knight, Curate of Kagworth. C. Cole, Rector of Bilsdon. Shadrach Cook, Lecturer of Is- lington. Jeremy Collyer, some time Lec- turer of Gray's-inn. — Bonwick, Master of Mer- chant Taylors' School. — Maxwell, Minister of Wap- ping Chapel. Tv T ath. Holdford, Chaplain to the Duchess of Bucks. R. Mills, Rector of Ridge. Sam. Dod, Rector of Chigwell (dead). Sam. Thorketch, Rector of Lit- tleton, near Chert y. — Woddroff, Vicar of Fel- stead. C. Banks, Vicar of Cheshunt. la the Diocese of Lincoln. LINCOLN. Dr. S. Hawes, Rector of Bray- brook. — Wolley, Rector of in the Marsh. — Dobren, Rector of Sans- thorp and Astvardly, in Lind- sey. — Anstead, Vicar of Scar by. — Dun, Rector of Wadding- ton. — Ingram, Meare. R. Carr, Rector of Hunting- don, Prebendary of Lin- coln. W. Erskine, Rector of Wran- gle. Chas. Poklington, Rector of Brington. John Lowthorp, Rector of Cos- ton. — Hall, Chaplain to the Countess of York. BUCKS. Jas. Dallian, Rector of Langley and Rosborrow. — Berkley, Rector of , in Beds. — Watson, Vicar of Mil- brook. Dan. Pollinger, Rector of Net- tleton. — Davenport, Rector of West- Raising, Lincolnshire. Nath. May, Chaplain to the Lord Ferrers, of Chartley. In the Diocese of Chester. Thos. West, Rector of Child- wall. — Boardman, Rector of Grep- nal. Thos. Mallory, Rector of Mob- berley. Jas. Peak, Vicar of Bowden. SUFFERINGS OF THE NONJEEOES. 413 Thos. Falkner, Vicar of Mid- dlewich. John Oakes, Vicar of Whish- gate. Only Vanogden, Vicar of Blad- worth. Ralph Lowndes, Rector of Ec- cleston. — Davies, Vicar of Frodsham. — Richardson, Rector of Pever. Phil. Egerton, Son of Sir Phil. Egerton, Bart. — Cumblaeh, Vicar of Lymra. Geo. Newton, Rector of Chee- dle, Vicar of Prestbury. Maurice, Rector of . H. Woods, Chaplain of W. Cholmondley . T. West, Rector of Childon. H. Guy, Kindal. H. Only, Rector of Little Bud- worth. R.Cumberland, Rector of Tabby. — Hulton, West Wilton. M. Wright, Curate of Warring- ton. T. Lightfoot, Vicar of Rooksby. Diocese of St. Asaph. Dr. Hugh Wynne, Chancellor of the Diocese. H. Price, Prebendary of St. Asaph. T. Jones, Curate of Eve- nechtydd. J. Lloyd, Vicar of Hangar, St. Asaph. Diocese of Bangor. Dr. R. Jones, Chancellor of Bangor. H. Morrice, Rector of Bangor Monachorum. Diocese of Bristol. — Flood, Vicar of Langhorn. Tim. Powell, Vicar of St. Clares. Thos. Powell, Curate of Cron- wear. J. Lewis, Curate of Bolston. S. Davis, Rector of Yarlarton. W. Prichard, Vicar of Ecclus, Urrough. We now proceed to give the promised account of the sufferings of these men ; beginning with the fol- lowing passage from the life of one of them, the learned and pious Kettlewell : — " Notwithstanding the great care which Mr. Kettlewell took to behave himself so inoffensively as not to give govern- ment any occasion to animadvert upon him in a public man- ner, there was one thing fell out in the latter end of his life which might have brought him into considerable trouble had he survived much longer. It was a model of a fund of charity for the needy suffering clergy, drawn up by him in the Janu- ary before he died, and presented to the bishops of his com- munion, whom he would have to be constituted the managers of the said fund, with such of their clergy as they should ap- point. For though there were not wanting, for some of the 414 APPENDIX. first years, many charitable benefactors who took pity upon the sufferings of the deprived clergy, yet there was hitherto no regular collection of their contributions, for want of a fund, and managers to see the same prudently and equally distributed. Whereby not a few were imposed upon in their charity, and several undeserving persons (who are always the most confident), by their going up and down, did much prejudice the truly deserving, whose modesty would not suffer them to solicit for themselves. Yea, there were also some false pretenders, persons of bad characters, and such as were not deprived on account of the oaths, but for other reasons, and whose only merit consisted in being secret spies and informers for the ministry, one of whom I knew, who had forged letters of orders to qualify himself ; these, by ap- pearing more zealous than others, made it their business to insinuate themselves, and to do all the mischief in their power to those whom they pretended to side with. This Mr. Ket- tlewell had observed and comp'ained of ; but could think of no better remedy than to bring the clergy into a more near dependence upon their bishops by this means ; by which the case and character of every one might more narrowly be looked into. He was also very sensible that some of his brethren spent too much of their time in places of concourse and news, by depending for their subsistence upon those they there got acquainted with ; as also, that others who had very resolutely stood their ground in the beginning, afterward, finding not only themselves, but their families also, on the point of starving, and having no prospect of any relief to them, chose to submit and qualify themselves, having this excuse for it, that they were necessitated to surrender when they had held out to the last extremity. Wherefore, upon repeated complaints brought to them from all quarters of the kingdom, that many of the deprived clergy, with their wives, and children, and families, were reduced to extreme want and misery, being left without any means to support themselves, the bishops under deprivation, thinking the proposal of Mr. Kettlewell very reasonable as well as charitable, concluded the model w hich he had laid now fit to be put into execution, SUFFERINGS OF THE NONJURORS. 415 and accordingly, in July following, their charitable recom- mendation for begging 1 the alms of such tender-hearted per- sons as might have an inclination to commiserate and relieve the afflicted servants of God, was by them sent forth. This paper having been signed by all the then surviving bishops, as by Lloyd of Norwich, Frampton of Gloucester, Turner of Ely, Ken of Bath and Wells, and White of Peterborough, deprived, presently made some stir, according to the different affections of the people to whom it was presented, it being addressed in general to all Christian people ; so that it was not long before the government took umbrage thereat, and found it necessary to put a stop to it. These deprived fathers had consulted the learned in the law thereupon, and this clause was inserted in their paper, ' as far as in law we may ;' but nevertheless, it was deemed by the ministry illegal, as coming out for a pretence of authority, and in the nature of a brief; and that it was moreover an usurpation of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Wherefore warrants were issued out against the subscribers and dispersers of this paper, that they might be prosecuted according to law for a misdemeanor. An occasion for which proceeding was given by a certain gentleman of universal good will, and of an unblemished character, who, being acquainted with Mr. Thomas Firmin, a person at that time very famous for collecting and dis- tributing the alms of well-disposed people, for the relief of many thousands of the poor and afflicted, recommended to him the case of the poor deprived clergy, and therewith gave him the said paper of the bishops, that he might make by it the proper application on their behalf. The which he ac- cepted, as not thinking there was any danger in it, began to act openly therein, as in a matter purely of charity, and the more so as appropriated to those who dissented from him both as to the Church and State ; but he was presently told by some of his great friends, that the paper was a libel, that his acting in virtue thereof was altogether illegal, and tend- ing to sedition ; that it was raising money for the support of the enemies of the government ; and that he could be no friend to the same, nor discharge himself but by acquainting 416 APPENDIX. a secretary of state with what he knew thereof, and deliver- ing up the paper which he had for his commission. Mr. Fir- min, at this not a little affrighted, and both willing to serve the government to his best, and unwilling to betray the gen- tleman who had intrusted him, communicated to him the bad success of the application made by him, and the consequences which were thence to be expected from the handle which would thereby be infallibly taken, according to all that he had heard from a certain great person then near the helm of affairs ; and to screen this gentleman, known to be Mr. Ket- tlewell's friend, from falling under the weight of the govern- ment, it was therefore contrived that a third person, and one who had nothing to lose, should take this upon himself. So accordingly one of the deprived clergy, a most peaceable man, and in every thing of an irreproachable character, being also one of Mr. Kettlewell's friends, and one of the managers in this very collection for his suffering brethren, was pitched upon by them, who readily offered himself to stand as in the gap, and so appear in a cause for which he could not be with- out a most tender compassion as being his own ; and this clergyman being hence taken up by a secretary of state's warrant, upon the concerted information of Mr. Firmin, and owning the paper, and himself to be concerned in promoting the interests thereof, he was for some months detained in custody, and afterwards discharged. Thus the matter being now brought before the privy council, the storm had like to have fallen heavy upon the heads and the principal managers of the fund proposed ; but that by the discreet answers given to the lords of the council, it was thought proper at last to drop this affair as easily as could be, after having put a stop to the method which was taken. Particularly Bishop Ken, upon his examination, made such an apology for the part he had in it, as was irresistible, his answers being those of a true Christian bishop. The first person, he said, who proposed it to him, was Mr. Kettlewell, that holy man who is now with God. And there was such an harmony betwixt the spirit of one and the other of these two excellent persons in relation to their pastoral and ministerial duties, as hardly SUFFERINGS OF THE NONJURORS. 417 there could be greater ; the good bishop, upon all proper occasions, expressing the solid esteem which he had for Mr. Kettlewell, and for his judicious and pious works." The following account of Ken's examination before the privy council, referred to above, and signed by himself, will, it is thought, be read with interest. The interest of this venerable man's examination will be enhanced, if we allow the reader to be conducted into the council-room by Miss Strickland : — " Mary had molested her old pastor and almouer — nay, it may be said, personal protector, in her Orange Court, with a privy-councU warrant, and dragged him to be ques- tioned before her council. Ken made his appearance in patched gaberdine : notwithstanding his pale face, and thin grey hairs, he was animated by moral courage of a high tone, and the queen and council heard what they did not Uke 1 :"— " All glory be to God. " After the favourable hearing which this day the lords of the most honourable privy council gave me, Mr. Bridgeman came out to me to tell me that their lordships expected a copy of my answers, which, as far as I can recollect, I hereby offer to their lordships ' The printed paper subscribed by the deprived bishops,' to beg the alms of charitable people, being showed me, I was asked, ' Did you subscribe this paper?' ' A. My lords, I thank God, I did, and it had a very happy effect ; for the will of my blessed Redeemer was fulfilled by it ; and what we were not able to do ourselves was done by others ; the hungry were fed, and the naked were clothed ; and to feed the hungry, and to clothe the naked, and to visit those who are sick or in prison, is that plea which all your lordships, as well as I, as far as you have had opportunities* must make for yourselves at the great day. And that which 1 Lives of the Queens of England, vol. xi. p. 332. £ e 418 APPENDIX. you must all plead at God's tribunal for your eternal absolu- tion shall not, I hope, be made my condemnation here.' " It was then said to this purpose ; No one here condemns charity, but the way you have taken to procure it : your paper is illegal. " A. My lords, I can plead to the evangelical part : I am no lawyer, but shall want lawyers to plead that ; and I have been very well assured it is legal. My lords, I sincerely give your lordships an account of the part I had in it. The first person who proposed it to me was Mr. Kettlewell, that holy man who is now with God ; and after some time it was brought to this form, and I subscribed it, and then went into the country to my retirement in an obscure village, where I live above the suspicion of giving any the least umbrage to the government. " My lords, I was not active in making collections in the country, where there are but lew such objects of charity ; but good people of their own accords sent me towards four- score pounds, of which about the half is still in my hands. " I beg your lordships to observe this clause in our paper ' as far as in law we may :' and to receive such charity, as, I presume, ' which in law I may ;' and distribute it is a thing also ' which in law I may.' " It was objected to (his purpose : This money has been abused and given to very ill and immoral men ; and par- ticularly to one who goes in a gown one day, and in a blue silk waistcoat another. " A. My lords, to give to an ill man may be a mistake, and no crime, unless what was given was given him to an ill pur- pose ; nay, to give to an ill man and knowingly is our duty, if that ill man wants necessaries of life ; for as long as God's patience and forbearance indulges that ill man life to lead him to repentance we ought to support that life God indulges him, hoping for the happy effect of it. " My lords, in King James's time there were about a thousand or more imprisoned in my diocese, who were en- gaged in the rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth, and many of them were such which I had reason to believe to be ill SUFFERINGS OF THE NONJURORS. 419 men, and void of all religion ; and yet, for all that, I thought it my duty to relieve them. It is well known to the diocese, that I visited them night and day, and, thank God, I supplied them with necessaries as far as I could, and encouraged others to do the same ; and yet King James never found the least fault with me. And if I am now charged with mis- applying what was given, I begofyourlordships.that St. Paul's apostolical ruie may be observed, ' against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses ;' for I am sure none can testify that against me. What I gave I gave in the country, and I gave to none but those who did both want and deserve it : the last that I gave was to two poor widows of deprived clergymen, one whereof was left with six, the other with seven small children. " It was said to this purpose. You are not charged yourself with giving to ill men, though it has been done by others ; but the paper comes out with a pretence of authority, and it is illegal, and in the nature of a brief, and if such practices are permitted private, we may supersede all the briefs granted by the king. " A. My lords, I beg your pardon if I cannot give a full answer to this ; I am no lawyer, and am not prepared to argue it in law. " It was farther objected to this purpose. By sending forth this paper, you have usurped ecclesiastical jurisdiction. " A. My lords, I never heard that begging was a part of ecclesiastical jurisdiction ; and in this paper we are only beggars, which privilege I hope may be allowed us. " I make no doubt, but your lordships may have had strange misinformations concerning this paper; but having sincerely told you what part I had in it, I humbly submit myself to your lordships' justice. " I presume your lordships will come to no immediate re- solution concerning me ; and having voluntarily surrendered myself, and the warrant having never been served on me till I had twice attended here, this being the third time, and my health being infirm, I beg this favour of your lordships, that I may return to my sister's house where I have hitherto E e 2 APPENDIX. lodged, which is a place the messenger knows well, and that I may be no otherwise confined till I have received your lordships' final resolution. " This favour your lordships were pleased very readily to grant me ; for which I return my humble acknowledgments, beseeching God to be gracious to your lordships. " Thomas Bath and Wells. (Deprived 2 .)" " It is sad to consider what reflections some have had, who, through fear of starving, or want of necessaries, have complied with the times. I tremble at the answer one gave to a justice of the peace, at Gloucester, to whom, reproving him for not taking the oath sooner, he replied, ' It was too soon then to damn himself to save his family 3 . ' " A gen- tleman, seeing another clergyman, who, he knew, had been a nonjuror, and therefore destitute, in a better gown and cassock than ordinarily, asked him if he had swallowed the oaths : " Yes," said he, " but I staid until I had nothing else to swallow." In the Post Boy newspaper of Xov. 9, 1717, we find, "Yesterday sevennight, Mr. Nixon, the nonjuring clergy- man, was a third time taken into the custody of a messenger, where he is close confined."' Two days afterwards we find in the Daily Courant : " London, Nov. 12. Sunday last about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, Colonel Eliis and three or four other gentlemen, with a detachment of foot-guards from the Tower, the high constable of Westminster, with several of the civil officers of St. Mary, Whitechapel, surrounded Welton's nonjuring con- venticle in Goodman's Fields. Soon after came three neigh- bouring justices of the peace, and letting the auditory, con- sisting of about three hundred persons, descend one by one, tendered the oaths required by law to each of them, which about a quarter part readily took, declaring their concern for their idle curiosity, which was the only inducement for coming there ; the rest that refused the oath gave in their • Hawkin's Life. 3 Somers's Tracts, vol. x. p. 368. PERSECUTION OF THE CHUBCH IN SCOTLAND. 421 names, occupations, and places of abode, which are to be returned nest sessions, by which they will become popish recusants convict." As a companion-picture to the sufferings of English nonjurors amidst the church toleration of England, we have now to exhibit the persecution of nonjuring clergy amidst the intolerance of Presbyterianism in Scotland. The shades of suffering will be found yet deeper and darker. We take our account from Dr. KusselPs History of the Chinch in Scotland : " Bishop Burnet was little inclined to listen to this re- commendation in favour of the Episcopalians in Scotland. Aware of the course in which events were most likely to flow, he was already indifferent to their interests, and per- haps, making ready his mind to write against those whom he had formerly praised. When Dr. Rose entreated him to use his influence with the prince, in order to put a stop to the persecutions already inflicted on the clergy in the disaffected counties, he coolly replied that ' he did not meddle in Scot- tish affairs !' " But the lower class of people in the western counties did not wait for the decision of the supreme authority in matters ecclesiastical. As soon as the prince's landing was ascer- tained, they formed themselves into armed bands, attacked the established ministers, drove them from their houses, plundered their property, and expelled them from their parishes, with violence and the most furious menaces. The necessity of opposing the invading army compelled James to withdraw his troops from Scotland, and to leave the Cove- nanters to the exercise of their discretion in avenging the injuries which they had suffered as nonconformists. Yield- ing themselves to the obligation imposed by the solemn league and covenant to extirpate Prelacy, and bring all malignants to condign punishment, they performed a crusade through a long portion of the country in the course of which they succeeded in banishing from their cures no fewer 422 APPENDIX. than two hundred clergymen. This extrusion was accom- plished with every circumstance of contumely and rudeness. They were wont to drag each unpopular divine to the church- yard, or to some public place in the village, and there ex- pose him to the people as a condemned malefactor ; com- manding him under pain of death not to preach again in that parish, but to remove instantly with his household to some other quarter. The scene was usually concluded by tear- ing his gown over his head, which they rent into a hundred pieces, and sometimes by burning the Prayer Book, if found either in his church or family. On Christmas day, 1688, a troop of ninety armed men, consisting chiefly of the Came- ronians, or Hillmen, as they were not unfrequently called, committed extensive ravages in the shire of Ayr. The first minister of the town, just named, received a written paper, commanding him and all his brethren to leave their ministry before the fifteenth of the ensuing January, under pain of death ; and because he did not regard this, there came to his house on the fifteenth, about eight o'clock at night, eleven aimed men of them, who commanded him under pain of death to preach no more in the church of Ayr, till the prince's further orders ; and at the same rate did they treat his colleague that same night '. " The following cases are selected from an account of the Grievances of the Presbytery of Dumbarton, attested by the heads of that body, and sent to the Prince of Orange. 'Upon the 25th of December last, a party of the dissenters, about nine o'clock at night, entered violently into the house of Mr. Walker Stirling, minister of Baldernack, threatened most barbarously his wife and servants (himself being from home), saying, they would cut off her popish nose, rip up, &c. ; but by a good providence they were hindered by the coming in of some friends.' ' They having assaulted Mr. W. Duncan, miuister of Kilpatrick Easter, several times before, did, on the 16th of January instant, come to his house about the number of thirty armed men, some whereof were 4 The Case of the present afflicted Clergy in Scotland, p. 2. Lon- don, 1090. PERSECUTION OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 423 his parishioners, and violently took from him the keys of the church, struck and abused himself, broke down and overthrew all his furniture, and did cast all out of doors, so that he and his family were forced to go elsewhere, and live upon the charity of friends.' ' On Sunday last, being the 20th in- stant, a little before the time the sermon should have begun, about thirty armed men came to the church of Boiall, threaten- ed the minister who was to preach barbarously, saying that he should lose his life if he should offer to preach there, or any other sent from the presbytery to supply his place ; and on the morrow thereafter, about fourscore armed men, some whereof were his parishioners, came to his house, abused his wife by reviling and beating her (the minister himself the night before, for fear of his life having gone out of the way), spoiled some of his furniture, and threatened to throw all out of doors, if he and his family would not go away from church and house within eight days.' '• The indignities inflicted upon Mr. Bell, minister of Kil- marnock, sheds some light upon the vindictive and intolerant spirit by which these fanatical insurgents were actuated. He was taken prisoner by two of that class, one of whom had presented a musket to his head. Being asked on what authority they appeared thus in arms, they replied, ' By the rule and law of the solemn league and covenant.' Mr. Bell observed, that they would do well to consider whether their proceedings were justified by the Word of God, and con- formable to the practice of Christ and his Apostles. He was answered, that ' the doom of all malignants is clearly set down in the Word of God ; and their appearing thus in arms was conformable to the practice of the ancient Church of Scotland.' They then marched him towards the town, upon approaching which they commanded him to take off his hat, which he obeyed ; yet, at the same breath, they threatened to throw him into the river! Having seized the keys of the church, they prohibited him, as curate of Kil- marnock, from discharging any ministerial duty, or deriving any emolument from his benefice. From this place they carried him back to his house, and there compelled him to 424 APPENDIX. deliver into their hands the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England. After this they led him as a prisoner, bareheaded, betwixt four files of musketeers, through a great part of the town into the market-place, where the whole party was drawn up into battalion, which appeared to be about the number of two hundred, well-armed with firelock muskets of a large size ; most of them had also a pair of pistols, but all of them one ! Having placed the minister on the top of the market-cross, and supplied themselves with fire, one of the leaders addressed the people, saying that 'they were come there to make the curate a spectacle of ignominy, and that they were obliged to do by virtue of the solemn league and covenant, in obedience to which they were to declare here their abhorrence of prelacy, and to make declaration of their firm intentions and designs to fulfil all the ends of that oath. After this, another of their com- manders, taking the Book of Common Prayer, reading the title, and extending his voice very high, told the people, that, in pursuance of the pre-mentioned league and covenant, they were now to burn publicly this Book of Common Prayer, which is so full of superstition and idolatry ; and then, throwing it into the fire, blowing the coals with a pair of bellows ; after that, catching it from amidst the flames, they fixed it on the spear of a pike, and thence lifting it up on high, far above the top of the cross— which elevation was attended with shouts and acclamations, ' Down with prelacy, idolatry, and superstition of the Churches of England and Scotland !' They next tore the clergyman's gown, one of the guard first cutting off the skirt of it with his sword, and, throwing it against their feet, telling them « it was the garment of the whore of Babylon.' One of them bid him promise never to preach nor exercise the office of a minister any more ; but he refused, saying, that such a promise lav not within the compass of his own will, and could not be extorted by force ; and that, though they should tear his body as they had done his gown, they should never be able to reach his conscience. " In many instances the terror and sufferings were greater PERSECUTION OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 425 than in that now described, especially when directed against helpless females, whose apartments were entered by armed men during the night, in search of the devoted clergy. It has been already stated, that about two hundred incumbents, with their families, were expelled in the course of the winter of 1688, and exposed to all the pains and privations which cold, hunger, and a fanatical multitude could inflict. No Wodrow, however, has yet arisen to record the sorrows and distress which were endured by the ejected ministers in Scotland, at the era of the Revolution. Poets and orators do not find the same scope for their powers in describing the ravages of a lawless mob, plundering manses, and driving out their inhabitants, as when they choose for their subject a field conventicle, assembled in a remote glen or desert mountain, and praying for courage to fight or strength to revenge. The warlike peasant, leaning on his gun while he listens to his favourite preacher, presents to the imagination a much more picturesque object than the wife and children of a profes- sional man wandering about, seeking shelter under the in- clemencies of a northern sky, and reduced to the necessity of begging food and a roof to cover them 5 . " These evils, it is true, were confined to the five associated counties where the Hillmen had concentrated their power, and where for a time they were permitted to gratify their prejudices and dislike without any restraint. Indeed, during several months after the arrival of King William, the govern- 5 " The afflicted ministers saw clearly there was nothing left for them but to suffer patiently the good will of God ; which they have done without the least public complaint, waiting with all Christian submission for a reparation of their wrongs from the justice of God, and to commiserate their condition, since they and their poor families are in very hard and pinching circumstances, having been turned out of their livings and properties, in the midst of a hard winter, and suffered not only the spoiling of their goods, but some the loss of their children, and many marks and bruises in their own bodies ; and now are in a state of desolation not knowing where to lay their heads, or to have bread for themselves and their families 1" Case, &c. p. 8. F f 426 APPENDIX. ment was entirely dissolved. The privy council, who had pledged themselves to the worst measures of James, pos- sessed not sufficient firmness to adopt measures for preserving the peace of the country, while those who were more friendly to the new order of things, without precisely understanding the views of the prince as to ecclesiastical affairs, connived at the outrages perpetrated in the West upon the established clergy. But in other parts of the kingdom, where the ma- jority of the people were decidedly Episcopal, the fury of the Covenanters was not felt, or immediately checked. At Edin- burgh, for instance, the College of Justice, including lawyers of all degrees, formed themselves into a regiment for the protection of the Church, and avowed their determination to check the progress of the Cameronians." Lord Campbell says, " he (Somers) had the satisfaction of successfully advising the king to agree to the establishment, in Scotland, of the Presbyterian religion (sic) — devotedly cherished by the vast majority of the inhabitants of that kingdom — whereby the most discontented, turbulent, and miserable nation in Europe soon became loyal, peaceable, and prosperous °." How he can attribute such magical changes for good to a "religion" discharging such hatred and per- secution at the Church in that country, is hard to under- stand. Alike strange is it, that he sees nothing wrong in the establishment of the " Presbyterian religion" upon such in- tolerant terms as Dr. Russell has above illustrated ; to Lord Campbell's fond gaze, at the very moment all these atrocities were being perpetrated, the Kirk is an unmixed blessing ; in his friendly view, the intolerance of the Kirk is better than the tolerance of the Church of England ; for in the very same page he had been saying, ungraciously and disparagingly, " the Toleration Act, if its conditions had been strictly en- forced, would have been found a most scant} 7 measure of re- ligious liberty ;" he observes in a note, " its benefits were confined to dissenters who professed a belief in almost all the doctrines of the Church of England ; but it was very liberally 6 Lives of the Chan. vol. iv. p. 99. PERSECUTION OE THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 427 interpreted, and by and by the most crying grievances of the dissenters were practically remedied by the Annual In- demnity Act." As stated in a former part of this work, the Toleration Act extended to all but Papists and Unitarians ; Lord Campbell may be right or wrong in pronouncing them improperly excepted ; but, at all events, he does not deny that Scotch Presbyterians, living here under the shadow of the English Church, enjoyed the fullest toleration, and that the Scotch Kirk refused it to Churchmen, whether Scottish or English, living under the shadow of the " Presbyterian religion." And yet this latter was right ! Intolerance to all was better there than tolerance here, because it excepted those owning a foreign obedience, and unbelievers only ! Truly, Lord Campbell's idea of religious reciprocity is worthy of the Vatican. England cannot do enough, but Scotland has found its " Presbyterian religion" a humanizing blessing, without doing any thing — it is Irish reciprocity. We can unfeignedly believe, that his lordship'sjudgment upon the two Churches is not to be taken as a specimen of Queen's Bench justice. THE END. Gilbert & Rivington, Printers, St. John's Square, London. £>/ the same Author, Price 3*. 6d. VILLAGE LECTURES OJi" THE LITANY, PREACHED AT STIFFORD. " Mr. Palin's work is worthy of extensive circulation, on account of its probable usefulness. ... It is to be hoped that Mr. Palin will be encouraged, by the sale of this work on the Litany, to publish, before long, his promised Lectures on other parts of the Liturgy." Brit. Mag. No. lxxv. p. 315. KstoryoUhe Church of England, Pnnceton Theological Sern.nary-Spee^Ubrary ^ 1012 00038 2525^