Lloyd fent this letter to Sancroft, who says, "I return you with thanks the pleasant Epiftle of our dear Brother, who in truth is as very an owv as ever old Socrates was, and a better philofopher, and infinitely a better man. If he that is to go to York had the perufall of it, it might convince him that we are not all peevish and morofe, and ill natur'd; but that fome of us enjoy as great calm and ferenity as they in their ill-gotten grandeur."*

Many years after his deprival (in February, 1699) writing to Bishop Lloyd, Frampton mentions having sustained a loss of 350l. formerly lent to a faithless friend who would not now repay him. "But God's will be done on me and mine; this loffe fhall never break my heart, or fleep, or that peace of mind which I enjoy, and hope ftill to enjoy through His mercy. The fame mercy keep you, my dear Brother, from such disasters, and give you comfort in all things. But what comfort can you or I take in any earthly thing, when the name and honour and dignity of our deare Saviour is foe vilified by lewd wretches and apoftates in London as I hear it is by two letters thence. The weather is wondrous cold, and if the said rascals, or abettors, want a fire in Smithfield, let 'em send for me to make them one; by God's grace I would in death itselfe owne, and glorifie, what they deride. Farewell, my dearest. Pray for

"Yours unfeignedly and for ever,

ROBERT FRAMPTON GLOUCESTER." t

* Dr. Williams's MS. Collection.

† Ibid.

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Ken and Frampton, suffering in the same cause, kept their friendly intercourse. Ken describes to Lloyd a vifit he paid to him at Avening in 1703. He calls him "our good brother of Gloucester, who was not a little joyed to fee me. He is very cheerful, and being past eighty does not only daily expect, but, like St. Paul, longs for his diffolution. He has many infirmities of old age, but his eyes are very good, and he uses no spectacles. With all the tenderness imaginable he remembers your Lordship."* About the fame time Frampton gives the following account of himself, in answer to the friendly enquiries of Lloyd.

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My good Lord and dearest Brother: "BEHOLD here, in pure obedience to your LP's will, a letter from me, fuch an one as it is, and may well be supposed to be, when I am not only fuperannuated, having passed my fourscorth yeare, and mightily burthened with such infirmityes as foe great an age may be fuppofed to be.

"But be these things as they will, or rather as my good Maker pleaseth, it is not in the power of tyme, or outward accidents, to alter ye inward difpofition of my foule, God be blessed for it, and by his grace it never shall be. Noe, I love Him above all things with my whole heart and foule-next to Him all good men and women in ye world, because they beare his image. Efpecially my noble friends, such as your good La and ye two most Honourable persons whom you mention. I hate noe one person in the world, not those that have

*Profe Works of Ken by Round, p. 60.

done me most wrong. Am as content as any man alive can be, want nothing that is neceffary, though my fuperfluityes are passed away. Alfo am willing to leave this world, foe foon as my blessed Maker pleaseth. Only forry that I cannot lay down my life by way of martyrdome for His fake. Pray you for me that my exit hence, and my being for ever after, may be happy

to me.

"This I pray for you, for them, and for all others. Farewell. Yours most unfeignedly

"May 12, 1703.

ROBERT FRAMPTON, once B. G. "I daily afke God's pardon for wt hath bin amiffe in my life, and would do it day by day, if I were to live a thousand years more."

Such was Bishop Frampton. Unwavering stedfastnefs of Faith was his ftrength: fimple minded, and careful for his flock, he never placed them in any difficulty, but kept them true to the Church, though they were under the rule of an intruder. In this he followed the example of many eminent primitive Bishops, who made every personal facrifice to prevent the disturbance of unity. His cheerful and benevolent difpofition, blending with a Chriftian boldness, was fo kindred to the temper of Ken, we cannot wonder they fhould have fuch an efteem for each other, as their letters exprefs. The circumftances of Ken's earlier life had brought his natural gifts and powers into more prominent view, and placed him in a wider range of usefulness. But Frampton was in heart and act an equally devoted confeffor to the facred caufe of his Heavenly Mafter.

CHAPTER XXXII.

Ken furvives all the other deprived Bishops. Controverfy among the Nonjurors. Ken recommends all to conform to the Church. Hickes and others refufe.

Y the death of Lloyd, Bishop of Norwich, on the 1st of January, 1710, Ken was left the only deprived Bishop. Having long fince acquiefced in Hooper's succession, and so often expressed a desire that the schism should be healed, no one could doubt he would ufe his influence to bring back the nonjurors to the Church. Hitherto the whole party, or as Dodwell calls them, "our little flock," had agreed in afferting the fpiritual rights of the deprived, and many had abstained from holding communion with their rival Bishops, or the clergy who adhered to them. But now, if Ken fhould abfolutely forego his epifcopal rights, there could be no ground for continuing the feparation. This was the opinion of Dodwell, Nelfon, Brokesby, and others, because as there were no longer any difpoffeffed Bishops, they who had been appointed to their fees, though originally fchifmatical, were now valid: they had been nulli, because fecundi; but this nullity having ceased, it was the duty of all to acknowledge their authority. "There will now," fays Dodwell," be no feconds, but only fingle persons, in actual poffeffion of the epifcopal jurifdictions, whereof no

more than one at once can be lawfully poffeffed. Here, therefore, there can be no fchifm, where there is no altar against altar." *

On the other hand, Hickes, Wagstaffe, Collier, and Brett, held that the new Bishops, having once violated the principles of the Church, in accepting the fees of the deprived, were unworthy of truft: they had been guilty of schism, and so rendered themselves incapable. In the sense of the primitive Church any overt act of schism needs no judicial fentence of deprivation: from that time forward they ceafed to be true Bishops. Having been deftroyers of the unity of the Spirit, they thereby loft all their rights. In order to the recovering of their forfeited unity, they must make an acknowledgment of error, and be restored by confent of the Church. Therefore until they made fatisfaction, and publicly renounced the doctrines by which they had maintained the fchifm, and obtained reconciliation, they were not to be accounted as in communion. In fhort they were to confefs themselves to have been intruders, and the deceased Bishops to have been the only rightful poffeffors of the fees, and wrongfully deprived for maintaining true Catholic doctrine. If they would not do this, all who would keep clear of fchifm and herefy ought to refuse to communicate with them.†

In the course of this new controversy, which like moft others led to fome sharp reproaches on both fides, and personal reflections, it came to be generally known that Hickes and Wagstaffe had been appointed by

*Dodwell's "Cafe in View," p. 28.

+ The Constitution of the Catholic Church, and the nature and confequences of Schifm, confidered. 1716, 8vo.