< April, 1691, he fays, " yesterday Dr. B. was with me, and gave me a long account of his averfeness from accepting the See of B. & W. because the Bp. is his old friend, &c and then afkt my advice. I having first told him, if I should give it, you will not follow it,' /yet did give it plain words, and backt it with reasons, that I think might be sufficient. But I believe they'll have noe effect upon him: for all was but a copie of his countenance. You shall have all that paffed on Friday, or when we meet next.' "'* As late as the 30th of May, Sancroft expreffes his "wonder that the feverity goes not on to our poor Brother of B. and W. I am afraid he cannot long escape it." And again, " 'tis a wonder nothing is done against our good Brother of B. and W. But I am afraid that at last tarditatem fupplicii atrocitate ei compenfabunt. For they are very ftoicks: nefciunt misereri, vel parcere." At length the Bishopric was offered to Dr. Richard Kidder, Dean of Peterborough, a learned Hebrew scholar, and a man of blameless life. He also entertained fcruples, and for fome time declined to fucceed a deprived Bishop. He did not agree with Beveridge in thinking it unlawful; but he "knew very well he should be able to do lefs good, if he came into a Bishopric void by deprivation." He has left us a full record of his difficulties. "I received," he says, “a letter from Dr. Tillotson, to announce that the Queen had nominated me to Bath and Wells. I was, upon the reading of it, in fuch trouble and consternation, as I have seldom been in during my whole * Dr. Williams's Collection of Original Letters. + Ibid. life. I faw the ftrait I was in. If I took this Bishopric, I well knew I must meet with great trouble and envy. If I refufed, I knew the confequence of that also, especially Dr. Beveridge having so lately done it. After fome days I return'd my answer, and 'twas to this effect; that unless her Majefty would excufe me, and think of fome other perfon, I would accept the bishopric. And this I did, not perhaps as wifely as I should. I cannot say I did it against my confcience; but of this I am fure, that fince I have confidered things better I fhould not have done it, were it to do again. I did not confult my ease. I have often repented of my accepting it, and looked on it as a great infelicity."* Ken foon received intelligence of the appointment. "Dr. Kidder is now faid to be my fucceffor, or rather fupplanter. He is a perfon of whom I have no knowledge. God of his infinite goodness multiply his bleffings on yourself, and on my good friends with you, and enable us to do and fuffer his most holy will." He was then on his way to his nephew, Izaak Walton, Junior, at Poulfhot, who had taken the oaths: "to his house I am now, God willing, going for fome time, partly for my health, partly to avoid that cloud under which I lye (and chiefly from my brethren, God forgive them for it) as having done all that is proper for me to doe to affert my character, the doing of which has created me many enemies, as I expected it would." This is in allufion to the cenfures of his over zealous brethren, the other deprived Bishops, because he had continued to exercise his functions.* On the other hand, amidst the rumours that were afloat, some were led to say that he had failed in properly afferting his paftoral rights at the time of his deprival. Burnet charges this against them all, and Sancroft in particular: "he never took upon him to act with his archiepifcopal authority. He never food upon his right, nor complained of wrong in any public act or protestation."† And again " he never by any public and exprefs act declared himself; and all the rest followed his example, and continue to this day filent." This is incorrect, as applied to Ken: we have his own denial of the charge, addressed to the Rev. Mr. Harbin. <c ALL GLORY BE TO GOD." "Good Mr. Harbin, "You tell me that Mr. Pitts cenfures the deprived Bishops for not afferting their rights in a public manner at their deprivation. If he puts me among the number, he does me wrong; for I, at the time, in my cathedral, which was the proper place, from my Paftoral Chair, publicly afferted my canonical right, profeffing that I esteemed myself the Canonical Bishop of the Diocefe, and that I would be ready, on all occafions, to perform my paftoral duties. "I professed that not being able to make this decla "Kennus interim exauctoratus munus epifcopale aliquandiù exercere aufus eft, conciones palàm habendo, et pueros in Ecclefiis confirmando." Landfdown MSS. Brit. Mufæ. 987. + The Bishop of Sarum's Vindication, p. 97. ration to the whole diocese, I made it virtually to all by making it in the Market Square. What others of my brethren did I know not; but I acted as uniformly as I could. God keep us in his holy fear. "Your affectionate friend and brother, "T. B. AND W.*" Thus it was he took leave of his people: the fame crowds, who but fix fhort years before had welcomed him to the Paftoral Chair, now affembled with heavy hearts, and tearful eyes, to hear him from the fame place of authority affert his canonical rights, confecrated, as they had been, by a zealous and devoted exercise of them,-to receive his farewell bleffing, and his promise of never-ceafing prayers on their behalf. How endeared to his flock muft fuch a man have been, living constantly amongst them! how unspeakably valuable his endeavours," according to his poor abilities, to teach them the knowledge and the love of God." By his example and counfels he had been a folace to the afflicted, and the support of humble fouls, overwhelmed with the burthen of conscious fin; to all a ghoftly father, benefactor, and friend; God's almoner, and the difpenfer of His grace. There may be fomething poetical, but not therefore lefs true, in the picture which Mr. Bowles has drawn of the Bishop's departure from his palace. "We can eafily conceive with what prayers of the poor, and how beloved and regretted, Ken bad farewell to the * Round's Profe Works of Ken, p. 44. + Dedication of the Practice of Divine Love. Diocese and flock fo dear to him, to the Palace at Wells, the retired gardens, and the filent waters that furrounded them; to the towers, and to the devotional harmonies of his Cathedral. Surely it would be no stretch of imagination to conceive, 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 bleffings, to bid him farewell. Mild, complacent, yet dignified, on retiring with a peaceful confcience from opulence and station to dependence and poverty, as the morning fhone on the turreted Chapel, we naturally imagine he may have shed only one tear when looking back on those interesting scenes. Perhaps his eye might have rested on the pale faces of fome of the poor old men and women who had partaken their Sunday dinner fo often, and heard his discourse, in the old hall: then, and not before, we may conceive, "Some natural tears he dropp'd, but wiped them foon, ""* Dr. Kidder was confecrated on the 30th of Auguft, 1691, and in September following went down to Wells, and was installed in person. Meanwhile Ken had withdrawn, being fatisfied to have made his public protest from the Pastoral Chair in his Cathedral, and at the Market Square. Having dedicated his all to charity, he had made no provifion for himself: he had literally fulfilled the command of his heavenly Lord, * Bowles's Life of Ken, vol. ii. p. 174. |