"Bishop of Bath. God's will be done.-And fo said the Bishop of Peterborough. "The King. If I think fit to alter my mind, I will fend to you. God hath given me this difpenfing power, and I will maintain it. I tell you there are 7000 men, and of the Church of England too, that have not bowed the knee to Baal."* And fo they were difmiffed. The few fignificant words of Ken ought to have convinced James that nothing could shake the refolution of men, who told him to his face that the fear of God was a higher duty than honour to kings. But he " gave a worse interpretation to their refiftance, than that it was meerly fcruple of confcience: he thought that, finding the people difpofed to follow the cry they heard from the altar, and that they could whistle up the winds, they were refolved to raise a ftorm, though they seemingly pretended to lay it.”† This motive was imputed to them by the bigotry of his counsellors, and by falfe friends, who urged him on to extremities for the purpose of alienating from him the mind of the nation; "fycophants," as he calls them, "who covered his eyes from the light." He fays, "According to human prudence his Majefty had done better in not forcing fome wheels, when he found the whole machine ftop; but his too great attention to what he thought just and reasonable hinder'd him from reflecting on what (to D'Oyly's Life of Sancroft, edit. 1840, p. 161. Gutch's Collectanea Curiofa, vol. i. p. 340. + His own Memoirs. Clarke's Life of James II., vol. ii. p. 156. be sure) had been more safe, as the cafe then stood; but it was the King's misfortune to give too much ear to the pernicious advice of thofe who put him upon fuch dangerous counfels, with intent (as was fufpected) to widen the breach, and therefore encouraged his perfifting in those ways, which he might have feen would not go down with the multitude."* What added to his obftinacy was the perfuafion, that nothing had proved more injurious to his brother, and especially to his father Charles I., than their yielding temper; and, as the Petition had only been figned by feven of the Bishops, he did not imagine the others would refuse compliance. Printed copies of the Petition were circulated through the town the fame night; and the next morning the fact that the Bishops had waited upon the King was universally known. As ufual, many verfions of the story being given, great excitement prevailed in the town. There was a univerfal feeling of fympathy with the Prelates, whofe conduct was highly admired and applauded, even by the Diffenters. They appeared venerable in the eyes of all men as brave champions of the Church. On the following Sunday, when the Declaration was read in a very few May 20. of the Churches, the people with one accord rofe from their feats. In the Abbey nobody could hear it for the great murmur which arofe, and before it was finished there was no one left in the choir but a few prebendaries, the chorifters, and the Weftminster scholars. Within a few days, fix more of the Bishops expreffed to the Archbishop in writing their concur * His own Memoirs Clarke's Life of James II., vol. ii. p. 156. rence in the Petition,* of which copies were fent to them to fign. These were "Old Church of England Royalists," who nobly maintained the character given of them by South, in his famous univerfity fermon three years before.† The King now seemed in doubt what steps to take. His counsellors were divided, and, unhappily for himself, he yielded to the advice of the more violent May 27. among them. On the 27th the Bishops received notice to appear before the Council on the 8th of June, to answer for a misdemeanour in publishing a libel on the King. The intermediate time was bufily employed in consultations, among themselves and friends, at Lambeth, as to the course they ought to pursue. If few of the Clergy in and round London had Approbo. May 23, 1688. May 23. May 29, 1688. H. London [Compton] Cardwell's Documentary Annals, vol. ii. 366. Beaw, of Llandaff, and note. + 2 Cor. viii. 12, “Good intentions no excufe for bad actions.” On this period of our history, the venerable nonagenarian, Dr. Routh, acutely obferves, that "the Clergy who were most obnoxious for their compliance with the King's measures, were almost all, not of the old royalist, but at one period of their lives of the oppofite party. Such were Parker, Cartwright, Crewe, Sprat, Hall, and even Barlow. These temporizing prelates, true to their own intereft, were for active as well as paffive obedience to the powers that be." Burnet's Hift. of his Own Time. Routh's 2nd edit., p.161, note. read the Declaration in Church, it was not likely that many would do fo in the country, now that the univerfal fenfe of all claffes had time for expreffion. But the Bishops and others in London left nothing undone to keep the parochial Clergy ftedfaft to the fame course. Turner of Ely, always foremost and zealous, fent off to his friend Dr. Gower, Master of St. John's College, Cambridge, a large parcel of printed papers, being Reasons against reading the Declaration: and the next day he writes to him as to the measures to be taken for diftributing them in the north: "To the very Rev. my Hon. Friend, Dr. Gower, Mr. of May 26. St. Jo. Coll. &c. "Moft Dear Master, "Ely House, May 26, 1688. "You and I have fatigued it together pretty fufficiently heretofore, but these last three weeks have bin the most toilsome part of my life. I fay this to excufe my not writing to you, but God has bleft us with great fuccess, tho' still we lye under great displeasure; I must expect the effects of it fuddenly. God fit us for whatever he fhall fend: we shall never repent of May 18th enterprise; all our fecurity under God confifts in the multitude of the Clergy, equally obnoxious: therefore we fend expreffes into all parts of the Kingdome, with letters of advice and printed papers (of which I sent you a number yesterday by the carrier). The papers do ftate the case of confcience against reading the Declaration. We need a nimble trusty man, to carry a cloak bag of these to Darby, where he first is to open his Pack; thence on he must go to Pomfret, to Fran. Drake, with another parcell; to York with another to Dr. Comber; to Newcastle with another to Mr. Tully; laftly to the Bp. of Carlisle. We can think of no man fo proper as honeft expeditious John Poole Pray spare him, and let him be gone this night (this Saturday night) if it be poffible: furnish him with money which I'le repay you; and let him fit himself with a good Horfe, which if need be, he may leave at Pomfret, and there take a second: above all let him know nothing of the fecret, nor who employs him, nor name you. When I shall be down with you, or whether ever again, is very doubtfull: I long to know how our Dean will comport himself. Will he have it read in our Cathedral? I hope better. Pray write a few lines to Mr. Drake, as John Poole's credentials, that he may not be thought a trepan. We all (Bleffed be God) are in health, but my Mother and daughter have both been ill, and dangerously. Remember our holy Mother the Church in your prayers. "I am, Moft Dear Mafter, your most fincerely, "[FRAN. ELY.]* "I send you an enclosed true copy of the Petition, but keep it to yourself that I fent it." "In Pursuance of this Letter, John Poole was fent by Dr. Gower: from hence to Pomfret, &c. and fo to Carlisle, as he told me himself." The "honeft expeditious John Poole" arrived at York at the very moment when Dean Comber, and many of the neighbouring Clergy, were confulting together about reading the King's Declaration; "By a fingular providence," fays he, "a special messenger arrived at this moment from London, who brought 500 printed papers directed to me, which contained Reasons against reading the Declaration, one of which we read, and it satisfied all the company: fo we all refused to read it, and sent out the papers all over the diocese, and fo ordered it that few read it here."+ "Dr. Hickes writes, that in the Dioceses • Harl. MSS., 7033, p. 362. + Memoirs of Dean Comber, 8vo, 1799, p. 263. |