LIFE

OF

ARCHBISHOP SANCROFT.

CHAPTER XI.

His Retirement to Fresingfield-Familiar Letters-Forgery of his Name to a pretended Plot-Formal Abdication of his Archiepiscopal Powers-Consecration of Nonjuring BishopsLiterary Employment—Last Illness-Death-Epitaph.

IN attending Archbishop Sancroft in his change from the Palace at Lambeth to his private house at Fresingfield, we arrive at that period of his life, in which the view presented of his habits and character is by far the most interesting and pleasing. We have already traced him in his progress from the more private walks of life to the highest station in the church, rising by the natural buoyancy of high merit and upright principles. We have seen him uniformly following the path of conscience and of duty, obeying the dictates of a firm and honest

mind, neither swayed on any occasion by the temptations of interest, nor awed by the frowns of power, and always steadily persevering in that course which he knew to be right. We now behold him impelled by the dictates of the same honest and upright mind to divest himself of rank, wealth, and power, from regard to his sworn allegiance to the very prince which he had resolutely opposed when his sense of duty commanded him; and voluntarily retiring into the privacy of a humble station. It has ever been deemed a clear proof of true greatness of mind, to bear a change from lofty to humbler fortunes with equal temper and contented resignation; and perhaps it might be difficult to find a stronger instance than that now before us, in which this greatness of mind is pourtrayed in its brightest colours, and with its most attractive characters.

Respecting the fundamental principle on which Archbishop Sancroft acted on this occasion, and the rule by which he formed his conscience, it is well known that the opinions of the vast majority of the nation were formed in opposition to the line which he took, and that this decision has been confirmed by the almost unanimous consent of succeeding times. It was held at the time, and may be justified on the soundest principles, that, the king having,

by a series of illegal measures of government, broken the compact between himself and the people, and having abdicated the throne, the high authorities of the state, acting in the name of the whole nation, had a right to transfer the sovereignty to another; and that, when this was done, and the oath of allegiance to the former sovereign declared by the power which imposed it to be no longer binding, the subject was in conscience absolved from adhering to it. But, allowing that he formed his conscience by a mistaken rule, it admits of no doubt, that, when he had so formed it, he was bound, as a sincere and honest man, faithfully to adhere to it, and steadily to act upon it. He did so act, not with hesitation and reluctance, but with a prompt and vigorous and steadfast decision; not looking back with weak and fond regret to the high station from which he had fallen, but glorying in the part which he had taken; clinging to his humble fortune with a relish of more true satisfaction than he appears ever to have derived from his elevated condition; and, above all, raising his desires from earth to heaven, and looking forward with firm but humble hope to a sure recompense in another world, for those sacrifices which he made to conscience and to duty in the present.

It fortunately happens, that a few of his let

ters,* written during the period of his retirement, have been preserved, which convey to us the knowledge of his temper, feelings, and habits, at the time; and that we also possess an account of his last sickness and death,† which, though coming, no doubt, from a partial hand, still bears every mark of faithfulness; and affords some very interesting particulars respecting his behaviour, at the very close of his life.

He arrived at Fresingfield from London, as has been stated, on the 5th of August, 1691. Two days afterwards, Mr. Wharton, his chaplain, waited on him, and found him, as he expresses it, pleasant and very well. It appears, that, in contemplation of his retiring to his native spot, the Archbishop had been employed from the early part of this year, in building a residence for himself, at the end of the garden belonging to the old residence of the family, This new house was as yet in an unfinished state, and was not fit for his reception till the following summer.

Of the following letters, addressed to his friend, Sir H. North, the first, as appears from

*See Familiar Letters to Sir H. North.

+ See a Letter out of Suffolk to a friend in London, giving some account of the last sickness and death of Archbishop Sancroft. London, 1694. Supposed to be written by an eminent nonjuror, Mr. Thomas Wagstaffe.