History of religion in England from the opening of the Long Parliament to the end of the eighteenth century

Front matter

i.L

Covncll ^luivcvsitn Xibvinn

THE GIFT OF

Chapter I

Popish Plot, I,— Titus Dates, 2.— Coleman, 4.— Mystery of Godfrey's Death, 5.— Bill for excluding Roman Catholics from Parliament, 10. — Fall of Danby, 11. — New Parliament, 13. — Duke of York and the Bishops, 14. — Dangerfield's Plot, 20. — Exclusion Bill, in Reference to the Duke of York, 22.

Chapter II

Stillingfleet, Howe, and Tillotson, 25. — Another Attempt at Comprehension, 27. — Toleration Bill, 28. — Whig and Tory, 31. — Earl of Shaftesbury, 32. — King's Declaration, 35. — Duke of Buckingham, 38. — Temple's Utopian Scheme, 39. — Great Heat raised against the Clergy, 41. — New Plot, and Stephen CoUedge, 43. — Fall of Shaftesbury, 47. — Fresh Persecution of Nonconformists, 48. — Nathaniel Vincent, 50. — Annesley and Bates, 53.

Chapter III

Duke of Monmouth, 57. — Pamphleteers, 59. — Charles playing the Despot, 60. — Rye House Plot, and Lord William Russell, 62. — Book-burning at Oxford, 65. — Death of Dr, Owen, 66. — Persecutions Increase, 67. — French Protestant Exiles, 72, — Jeffreys, Tj — William Jenkyn, 79. — Death of Charles II., 80.

Chapter IV

James II., 83. — New King's Conduct, 85, — ^Alterations in the Ministry, 86.— Trial of Richard Baxter, 89.— Monmouth's Rebellion, 90. — Alicia Lisle, and Elizabeth Gaunt, 92. — Persecution of Quakers and others, 95.— Wonderful Escapes, 98. — Popish Party at Court, 99. — James' Policy, 100. — Baptists' Address to the King, loi. — Declaration of Indulgence, 102. — Judges' Decision as to Royal Dispensing Power, 104. — Sherlock rebuked and deprived of his Pension for preaching against Popery, 106. — New Commission,. 107. — Royal Roman Catholic Chapels, 108. — King's Hopes encouraged by some of the Clergy, no. — Spread of Popery, iii. — Sancroft's Attempts at Church Reform, 114. — James' Designs as to Protestant Nonconformists, 115. — How his Declaration was received, 117. — Yarmouth Congregational Church Book, 122. — WiUiam Penn, 123. — Wilham Kiffin, 124.

Chapter V

The Papal Nuncio at Windsor, 127. — Promotion of Romanists in the Universities, 130. — Scene with the Fellows of Magdalen, 133. — Commission to reduce the Refractory College, 135. — • Declaration of Indulgence renewed, 137. — Meeting of the Clergy in London, 138. — The Seven Bishops, 139. — Interview with the King, 144. — Prosecution of the Seven, 147. — Their Trial, 151. — Their Popularity, 154.

Chapter IX

State of Theology from 1640 to 1688, 249. Anglican Doctrinal Opinions, 254. — Thomdike, 254. — Bull, 265. — Heylyn, 273. — Taylor, 275. — Cosin, 282. — Morley, 286. — Bramhall, 287. — Sanderson and Hammond, 288. — Pearson, 291. — Barrow, 294. — Anglican Opinions respecting Popery and Unepiscopal Churches, 298. — Anglican Sermon Writers, 303. — Anglican Critics, 306.

Chapter X

Liberal Orthodox School — ^ChiUingworth, 309. — Smith, 311. — Hales andFarindon, 313. — The Cambridge School, 315. — Fowler, 317. — Wilkins, 319. — Cudworth, 320.— Stillingfleet, 321. — Critics of the Liberal and Cambridge Schools — Lightfoot and Patrick, 323. — Science in Connection with Theology, 324. — Application of the Term Latitudinarian, 328.— Milton, 332.— Biddle, 334-— Scargill,.336.

CHAPTER XL

Theological Treatise by Members of the Society of Friends — WiUiam Penn, 337.— Robert Barclay, 344.— Works by Different Mystical Writers— Saltmarsh, 346. — Sterry, 348.— Jeremy White, 350. — Sir Henry Vane, 351.

Chapter XII

Puritan Writers on Evidence — Gale, 353. — Howe, 354. — Owen, 356. — Baxter, 357. — Puritan Systems of Divinity. Calvinistic— Thomas Goodwin and John Owen, 363. — Arminian Systems — viii CONTENTS.

John Goodwin, 372.— Home, 375.— Intermediate Opinions- Baxter, 378. — Howe, 385.— General Estimate of their Theological Views, 389. — Puritan Views of Sacraments and the Ministry, 393. — Puritan Controversy with Roman Catholics, 398. — With the High Church Party, 399. — Puritan Practical Theology, 402. — Puritan Expositors, 406.

Chapter XIII

Poetry and Hymnology — Richard Crashaw, 413. — Henry More, 414. — Quarks, 415. — New Version of Psalms by Rouse, Barton, and others, 417.' — George Wither, 420. — Jeremy Taylor and Herrick, 421. — Baxter, 422. — Mason, 423. — ^Anonymous Verses, 425. — Keach, 426.

Chapter XIV

Illustrations of Personal Religion — Izaak Walton, 429. — John Evelyn and Margaret Godolphin, 432. — Hale, 437. — More, 439. — Browne, 442. — Countess of Warwick, 444. — Rochester, Ley, Crew, Cavendish, 445. — AUeine, 447. — Stockton, 449. — Jacomb, 451.

Chapter I

Perhaps, in the history of the civilized world, there never occurred a period when the passions of men were more deeply moved, than in the autumn of the year 1678, when England was startled from one end to another by an extraordinary story. The Jesuits had formed a project for the conversion of Great Britain to the Roman Catholic faith ; and ;^io,000 had been procured to assist in carrying out their plans. With this project was blended a conspiracy to assassinate the King, who was to be poisoned by the Queen's physician ; failing which, he was to be shot with bullets ; and, if that did not succeed, he was to be stabbed with a large knife. With a feeble attempt at wit it was said, if he would not become R.C., a Roman Catholic, he should be no longer C.R., Charles Rex. Twenty thousand Catholics in London were to rise within twenty-four hours, and cut the throats of the Protestant inhabitants, eight thousand were to take uparms in Scotland, and, of course, in Ireland the professors of the ancient religion, possessed of enormous influence, meant to have it all their own way. The Crown was to be offered to the Duke of York, upon

^f VOL. IV. B certain conditions ; and if James refused, then, it was elegantly said, "to pot he must go also." Amongst other means certain Jesuits were instructed to " carry themselves like Nonconformist ministers, and to preach to the disaffected Scots, the necessity of taking up the .sword for the defence of liberty of conscience." Seditious preachers and catechists were to be sent out, and directed when and what to preach in private and public conventicles, and field meetings. The Society in London intended to knock on the head Dr. Stillingfleet and Matthew Pool, for writing against them ; and Croft, Bishop of Hereford, was doomed to death as an apostate. A second conflagration in the City of London formed an element in this scheme of wholesale destruction ; and, in anticipation of the success of the design, the Pope had prepared a list of the priests to succeed the Bishops and other dignitaries, who were to be so speedily swept away. The author of this intelligence was the notorious Titus Gates, who professed to have picked it up at St. Omer's, at Valladolid, at Burgos, and at a tavern in the Strand, where, owing to his pretended conversion and zeal in the Catholic service, the Jesuits had entrusted him with their deepest ■ secrets.

The first communication of the story staggered everybody. The King did not know what to make of it. Danby, though inclined to use anything he could for party purposes, hardly credited this amazing revelation. Yet, incredible as it may appear, no means seem to have been used at the outset to sift the matter to the bottom.* Therefore the tale came to be looked

"■ Burnet, Rapin, Hume, and Lingard, give numerous particulars, but the account I have presented is dra\vn from " A True Narrative of the Horrid Plot and Conspiracy of the Popish Party at as credible, and, when Gates, on Michaelmas Eve, came before the Council, and began his unprecedented story, he found ready listeners. The items which he specified, with names and dates minutely mentioned, certainly wore a plausible appearance ; and, presently, two circumstances occurred, which, at the time, obtained for his reports all but universal credence. First, was the sudden death of a magistrate. Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, to whom Gates had made some of his statements before divulging the whole to the Council. This magistrate was found dead in a ditch near Primrose Hill, with a sword plunged in his body, and marks of strangulation on his neck. A cry instantly rose, and ran through London, that Sir Edmondbury, famed for his Protestant zeal, had been murdered by the Papists on account of his receiving Gates' deposition. The plot, it was argued, must be real, or such a deed would not have been committed by Roman Catholics. What could the object of the murder be, but to take revenge on the exposers of the conspiracy ? The next circumstance which aided the prevalent belief is found in the discovery of certain letters, in the handwriting of one

against the Life of His Majesty, the Government, and the Protestant Religion," by Titus Oates himself, published 1679.

In the Dedication there is a sentiment expressed worthy of a better man. " It is a false suggestion," says Oates, " which such tempters vise, that a King that rules by will is more great and glorious than a King that rules bylaw: — the quality of the retinue best proves the state of the lord ; the one being but a king of slaves, while the other, like God, is a king of kings and hearts."

I have before me a narrative of " the horrid Popish plot," by Capt. W. Bedloe, 1679 ; another by Miles Prance, 1679 ; and a collection of letters relating to it published by order of the House of Commons, i68r. Oates' narrative, which, though dated the 27th of September, 1678, was not published until the following April, contains a digested statement, in eighty-one items, of alt the particulars which he had alleged.

Coleman, addressed to Pere la Chaise — the famous Jesuit, who has given his name to the Cemetery at Paris — in which letters, unmistakable allusions occur to designs for overthrowing Protestantism in this countiy ; and Coleman's plans were at once identified with the plot related by Titus Gates.*

Believed by Parliament, not only by the Country party, but by the Court party as well, believed also by Ministers of State, and by dignitaries of the Church, the plot came to be regarded by most people as an unquestionable fact. The higher circles would not tolerate any doubt of Gates' veracity ; even Burnet, with all his Protestantism, inasmuch as he hesitated to accept Gates' evidence, raised against himself "a great clamour," and the Earl of Shaftesbury, who threw himself with all his energy and eloquence into the prosecution, declared "that all those who undermined the credit of the witnesses were to be looked on as public enemies." f In the lower circles a conviction of the truthfulness of the accuser, and the guilt of the accused, prevailed to a large extent ; and the narrative related to the Council and the House of Commons, circulated amongst eager and credulous groups, in thousands of chimney corners during those autumn evenings. The King and the Duke of York seemed not to believe what other people admitted. Yet the former felt obliged to act as if he did. Perhaps nothing we have ever seen could be a parallel to what our fathers experienced at that time. Even the heavens were imagined to sympathize in the abounding alarm : a fog, after Godfrey's death, gave to the day on which

* The letters are published in the collection just named. Some are in Rapin, III. 171.

t Burnet's " History of his Own Time," I. 434.

it occurred the name of "Black Sunday," and a respectable Nonconformist speaks of it growing so dark, all on a sudden, about eleven in the forenoon, that ministers could not read their notes in their pulpits without the help of candles. Not a house, he informs us, could be found unfurnished with arms, nor did anybody go to bed without apprehensions of something tragical which might happen before the next morning.* People gave the martyred magistrate, for so they considered Godfrey, a public funeral, after having for two days publicly exhibited the wounded remains in his own house. An immense crowd followed him to the grave, the corpse being preceded by seventy-two clergymen in their robes, and, on its arrival at the church of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, the Incumbent, Dr. Lloyd, afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph, delivered a sermon in honour of the slain confessor. A Protestant festival had long been kept on the 17th of November, Queen Elizabeth's birthday, and this year an dSigj o^ the Pope with the Devil whispering in his ear, and models of Godfrey's dead body, and of Romish Bishops and priests in mitres and copes, were carried through the streets, to inflame the prevalent indignation against the Church of Rome. Daniel Defoe was then a mere boy, looking with wonder upon what passed before him ; and, in after years, he told how old City blunderbusses were burnished anew, how hats and feathers, and shoulder belts, and other military gear, came into fashion again, how train-bands appeared rampant, and soldiers disturbed meeting-houses, and murdered Nonconformists, under pretence that they would not submit to authority-t Justice, or injustice, showed itself

* " Life of Calamy," I. 83.

t Defoe quoted in Knight's "Hist, of England," IV. 335.

swift in apprehending Roman Catholics. Two thousand suspected persons are said to have been imprisoned, the houses of Roman CathoHcs were searched for arms, and it is computed that as many as 30,000 recusants were driven to a distance of ten miles from Whitehall. Within little more than two months of the first whisper of the conspiracy, Stayley, a banker, accused of sharing in it, died on the gallows at Tyburn, and Coleman perished on the scaffold about a week afterwards.* Three more victims followed the next month, all of them to the last declaring their innocence. Oates at the same time went about dressed in gown and cassock, wearing a large hat with a silk band and rose, and attended by guards to secure him from Popish violence. Lodgings at Whitehall were assigned for his use ; he received a pension of ^^ 1,200 per annum, and was welcomed at the houses of the I'ich and great.t A large number of pamphlets containing accounts of the plot issued from the press, whilst pulpits rung with impassioned declamation against Popery and rebellion. Amongst papers belonging to the Secretary of State at that period ai'e memoranda of strange rumours, one that the progress in rebuilding St. Paul's Cathedral was suspended, from fear lest it should become a Popish Church, There is also a note, that the Prince of Orange should be written to, or that some communication should be made to him, through the Ambassador at his Court, or through Sir W. Temple, to prevent the publication in Holland of a remon-

" Stayley was executed November 26th, Coleman December 3rd.

t In the " Moneys for Secret Services," published by the Camden Society, are numerous entries of sums paid to Oates and others. Curious references to Oates' character as an impostor may be found in Reresby's " Memoirs," 239, and North's "Lives," I. 325.

strance, and of a hellish libel, " destructive to the Royal authority, and the fundamental laws of the nation." The same Collection includes a letter to the Bishop of London from a zealous Protestant, proposing an attack on the City of Rome, " on that side where the Vatican Palace stands, and bringing away the library." *

Reviewing the whole of this strange history, I may remark, that Titus Oates was an utterly worthless character, and that his statements are not entitled to the smallest belief He had been an Anabaptist under Cromwell, had become an orthodox clergyman at the Restoration, had professed himself a Catholic on the Continent, had been admitted to Jesuit colleges, and had then abjured Popery on his return to England. All this while he conducted himself in so abominable a manner as repeatedly to incur expulsion from the positions in which he was placed. His tale was as absurd and incredible as his conduct was infamous ; yet, notwithstanding this circumstance, it is by no means surprising that at the time, the story with its most improbable details should be believed, for Englishmen were filled with alarm at the Romanism of the Royal family, at the manifest signs of revived activity in this island by the Jesuits, at the obvious alliance between spiritual and political despotism, and at the then suspected, and to us, well-known intrigues which were being carried on to overthrow Protestantism in this country. An excitement of many years' accumulation now existed, and rumours and lies of all

* "State Papers, Dom., Charles II.," 1678, November ist, December (without further date), and December 28th. The historical student will find a bundle of papers bearing on the subject under date 1678, and further papers on the same subject under 1679, January to June.

sorts were as sparks scattered over heaps of gunpowder. As we criticise the evidence of the plot, it will not stand for a single second. Yet, however we may at first smile or sneer at the matter, on second thoughts, we shall see that people only did what, probably, we should have done under the influence of strong Protestant convictions, sharpened by terrible memories, and goaded by equally terrible apprehensions. It would be monstrous for us now to behave as did our ancestors, but we must judge of their character in that emergency by the standard of their own age, and according to the conditions of their own circumstances.

Godfrey's death is one of those mysteries permitted by Providence to baffle investigation, and to remain inscrutable secrets to the end of time, stimulating a belief in the revelations and judgments of eternity. Whichever hypothesis be adopted, that of murder or that of suicide, grave exceptions to it may be taken. The supposition of his having destroyed himself may be shown to be ridiculous ; also no sufficient motive for a Papist to murder him can be assigned — the argument, that the drops of melted wax found on the clothes of the dead man must have been dropped by Papists, because they are so notorious for using wax candles, is ridiculous enough ; — yet, as in the case of the plot, so in the case of the death brought into connection with it, we do not wonder at the prevalent idea. All the circumstances and antecedents of the time, the whole spirit of the age, together with the tendencies of human nature, the readiness of men under a pressing excitement to rush to conclusions, to interpret suspicious incidents as demonstrations of guilt, must be taken into account as we reflect upon the common opinion formed at that period. Believing Oates' tale, and knowing both the Protestant zeal of Godfrey, and the consequences to the Catholics of the explosion of the plot, zealots of the day consistently attributed the crime of murder to the same persons to whom they attributed the crime of treason.*

After all, there was a plot, not indeed to murder the King, but to restore Popery. Coleman's letters render this a fact beyond all question, when we find him declaring, " We have here a mighty work upon our hands, no less than the conversion of three kingdoms, and by that perhaps the subduing of a pestilent heresy, which has domineered over great part of this northern world a long time. There never was such hopes of success since the death of Queen Mary, as now in our days." t The designs and intrigues brought to light in this correspondence harmonize with the purpose and -Spirit of the treaty between Charles and Louis ; and, therefore, we cannot wonder at the reluctance of Charles and his brother to enter upon an inquiry into the business, since however false might be the charge of a contemplated murder, they knew too much, not to be aware that awkward facts respecting French, Papal, and Jesuit schemes could be brought into broad daylight, by searching to the bottom of this business. And it is not unlikely that Oates might have heard at St. ■Omer's, and at other places, things uttered by some

* Lord Keeper North " was of opinion that the fiction of the Popish Plot did not arise from the accident of Tongue's and Oates' informations, but from a preconcerted design." The reasons are given in a MS. of North's, printed in Dalrymple's " Memoirs," II., app. 320. That the plot was invented by Shaftesbury there seems no sufficient ground for believing. See Campbell's " Lives of Lord Chancellors," IV. 197.

t Rapin, III. 172.

disciples of Ignatius Loyola, indicating dark designs upon English religion and upon English liberty, which he exaggerated immensely, and dressed up in the most frightful colours for purposes of his own.

Leaving this plot with its mysteries, falsehoods, and alarms, and turning once more to the proceedings of Parliament, we find that the sixteenth session opened on the 2ist of October, just at the crisis when the storm raised by Gates had reached its height. The King's speech touched lightly on the subject. Lord Chancellor Finch noticed it with guarded phraseology, but the House of Commons at once resolved upon an address for removing Popish recusants from the Metropolis, and having appointed a Committee to inquire into Godfrey's murder, they also agreed with the Lords to request His Majesty to proclaim a national fast. In 1673 an Act had been passed excluding Roman Catholics from all places of profit and trust ; now a Bill was introduced to exclude them from Parliament and from the Councils of the Sovereign.* By help of the existing panic, the Bill made its way with ease ; and what is remarkable, in this measure the obligation to receive the sacrament is not mentioned — an omission doubtless intended for the benefit of Dissenters, whose sympathy and assistance were just then valued by persons who had been accustomed before to treat them with violence, but a strong declaration to the effect that Romish worship is idolatrous was imposed, together with the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy. When this Bill reached the House of

* " Commons' Journals," Oct. 28tli. " The Oath of Supremacy was already taken by the Commons, though not by the Lords ; and it is a great mistake to imagine that Catholics were legally capable of sitting in the Lower House before the Act of 1679,"' (1678). (Hallam's " Const. Hist," II. 121.)

1678.] THE CHURCH OF THE RESTORATION. ii

Lords, Gunning, Bishop of Ely, objected to the description and treatment of Romish worship as idolatrous ;, yet his arguments on this point being met by Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln, Gunning, although he said he could not himself adopt the new declaration, after it became law, followed the example of his brethren.* The Lords looked with little favour upon a Bill which, by disqualifying Papists from sitting in Parliament, would deprive some of their own order of hereditary rights ; notwithstanding, goaded by the Commons, and encouraged by the King, they at last without opposition passed the measure, providing in it an exception on behalf of the Duke of York. This exception displeased the Commons, who, above all things, desired to remove a Roman Catholic prince from the government of the country ; and, therefore, when the Bill returned to them with its amendments, it had to meet the most strenuous opposition from the Country party. High words were followed not only, as in the Long Parliament, by storms of outcries and by menaces of violence, but by actual blows ; and after a singularly angry debate, the proviso passed only by a majority of two, and the Royal assent was given to the whole Bill with very great reluctance.f

The fall of the Earl of Danby is to be attributed to an artful contrivance by the French Court, which, from revenge against him for his real enmity, accomplished his ruin, by pretending that he was a real friend. By means of Montague, who laid before the House of Commons despatches, written to him by the Minister, most unwillingly, but at the King's command — Louis XIV. established against Danby, charges of

* Burnet's "Hist, of his Own Time," I. 436.

t "Journals," Nov. 21st and 30th ; Lingard, XII. 151, 152.

intrigues witli France for obtaining money, quite sufficient to extinguish for ever all the credit which he had ever had with his own countrymen. His plea of unwillingness to enter into his master's policy with regard to France, although true, proved inadequate to save him from impeachment by the Commons, who acted upon the constitutional principle, that the King's Ministers are responsible for what they perform in the King's name. Danby, though made a victim of revenge, and in truth, suffering " not on account of his delinquency, but on account of his merits," had put himself in such a false position, that Parliament could do no otherwise than demand his removal from office. How far the extreme step of impeachment can be justified is another question ; and, at all events, the charge of his being Popishly affected is truly absurd. The accusation of his concealing the Popish plot, of suppressing the evidence, and of discountenancing the witnesses, could not be made even plausible, for though he had been sceptical at first respecting Oates' story, as any sensible man might well be, he had afterwards fully committed himself to proceedings against the Papists ; yet perhaps there is some truth in an amusing passage, written by one who cherished strong prejudices against him: — " The Earl of Danby thought he could serve himself of this plot of Oates, and accordingly endeavoured at it ; but it is plain that he had no command of the engine, and instead of his sharing the popularity of nursing it, he found himself so intrigued that it was like a wolf by the ears : he could neither hold it nor let it go, and for certain it bit him at last, just as when a barbarous mastiff attacks a man, he cries 'poor cur,' and is pulled down at last."* The

* North's " Lives," I. 340.

resolution of the Commons on the 19th of December, 1678, to impeach the Lord Treasurer, was followed by a prorogation on the 30th, and a dissolution on the 24th of January, 1679; this Parliament having then sat for the long space of eighteen years.

The King immediately summoned a new Parliament to meet at the end of forty days ; and again, as in 1 66 1, a general election took place under circumstances of immense excitement. Protestants believed the case of the Reformation to be in imminent danger from the Popish tendencies of the King, from the avowed Romanism of the Duke of York, from the intrigues of France, and from the want of principle in public men. Therefore, multitudes rushed to the poll with the idea, that only by voting for unmistakable and zealous Protestants, could they save England from being dragged back to the condition in which she was found before the Reformation. Thousands of horsemen rode into cities and county towns to record their names in favour of the Established -Church. People had to sleep in market-places, to lie like sheep around market crosses.* Candidates were chaired at midnight with the bray of trumpets and the blaze of torches ; but with all this Protestant enthusiasm, elections could not be carried without bribery, treating, and corruption. Horses were demanded in proportion to the number of electors ; there occurred an enormous consumption of beer, bread, and cakes at Norwich ; and as for the Knight of the Shire of Surrey, " they ate and drank him out near to £2,000, by a most abominable custom." f Popular

•* Sir Thomas Browne's "Works," I. 241. This relates to a second election for Norwich in the month of May, the first having been set aside. It illustrates both the excitement and the custom of the times. The general election took place in February.

t Evelyn's " Diary," II. 136.

candidates pledged to oppose the Court against Popery succeeded almost everywhere.

Scarcely had the shouts which hailed these returns ■died away, when a remarkable interview took place between certain dignitaries of the Church and the Popish heir to the throne. As the Duke of York's religious opinions had increasingly attracted the attention and excited the alarm of the nation at large, the rulers of the Church shared in the anxiety, and were very desirous, if possible, to see him reclaimed from the Roman communion. The origin of a project, with the view of accomplishing this purpose, is ascribed to the new Archbishop of Canterbury. Upon the death •of Sheldon, William Sancroft, at the time Prolocutor to the Lower House of Convocation, was elevated to the primacy, for reasons differently stated by different persons. Probably, in this case, the reason is to be found in his unambitious spirit and in his amiable disposition, as suggested by Dryden : —

" Zadoc the priest, whom, shunning power and place, His lowly mind advanced to David's grace."

If it was supposed that he would become the pliant tool of the Monarch, events at the Revolution contradicted the idea, and the circumstances now to be described show that the Archbishop, after his exaltation, determined to act as a zealous Protestant. He, with his aged brother, Morley, of Winchester, and not without the consent of the King, obtained an audience from His Royal Highness, and delivered to him an address on the subject of reconversion. Sancroft spoke of the Church of England as most afflicted, a lily amongst thorns, bearing on her body the marks of the Lord Jesus, the scars of old, and the impressions of new wounds. But the greatest amongst the multitude of her sorrows was, the speaker said, that the Duke should forsake her fellowship, after the education which he had received, and after the solemn charge which his dying father gave his elder brother, touching the duty of everlasting fidelity to the Estabhshed Church. The Duke was described by the Primate as the bright morning and evening star, which arose and set with the sun, but he had withdrawn his light : and now the two Bishops, who had undertaken to plead with him in the cause of Protestantism, assured His Royal Highness of their intercessionson //) his behalf, and asked whether, with his noble and generous heart, he would throwback these prayers .'' They inquired, if those to whom he had surrendered himself, had not renounced reason and common sense, and really taught him to put out his own eyes, that they might lead him whither they would .'' His case did not seem hopeful to his Protestant advisers, yet they declared that they had too good an opinion of his understanding, to believe that he would sell himself at so cheap a rate. Nothing of such moment as religion was to be huddled up in a dark and implicit manner. It was his duty to "prove all things, and hold fast that which is good." The prelates offered their assistance, referred to plain texts and obvious facts "in a hundred books," and then concluded their address with this syllogism : " That Church which teacheth and practiseth the doctrines destructive o^ salvation is to be relinquished. But the Church of Rome teacheth and practiseth doctrines destructive of salvation. Therefore the Church of Rome is to be relinquished."* This speech, in which compliments and reproofs oddly struggle with each other, and which