It is very important that the members of the Church of England, and
others, should receive some correct information on the subject of
religious persecution, or persecution for conscience sake; for a very
great mistake on the subject very commonly prevails—namely, that the
Dissenters have always been the suffering party, and the Church the
offending party, in this matter. At a time, indeed, when the duty of
toleration was little understood, some of the rulers of the Church of
England, as well as of the government of the day, did exercise the most
unjustifiable severity against those who ventured to separate from
the established religion. But the instances of this have been so much
insisted on, and have been so frequently made the subject of popular
declamation, that many have been led to imagine that the Church of
England has, again and again, been chargeable with the guilt of cruelly
persecuting her opponents, while the opponents have been guiltless of
any such wrong against her. But the impression is a most erroneous
one; for it may be asserted, without the fear of contradiction, that
the sufferings which the clergy endured in the short space of three
years during the Commonwealth, at the hands of those who had separated
from her, were in severity and extent greater than the whole amount
of suffering which she may have been the instrument of inflicting on
separatists for the hundred years previous.[84]
In proof of this, Gauden,[85] in the Petitionary Remonstrance which he
delivered to Cromwell, in behalf of the suffering Clergy of England,
stated that the number of Ministers ejected from the benefices amounted
to 8000. And Gauden would not, in a public address, and to such a man
as Cromwell, have ventured to make a false or careless statement.
But a much closer investigation of the subject was afterwards made,
and the result of it was published by Walker, in his well known work,
entitled—“The Sufferings of the Clergy,” from which it may be seen
that, if we include in the catalogue the Cathedral Clergy, and the
Clergy belonging to the Universities, and chaplains,—as well as the
parochial ministers and their curates,—the sufferers far exceeded the
number above stated. By a resolution passed in the House of Commons,
during the Protectorate of Cromwell, all ministers were to be deprived
of their benefices who refused to sign the League and Covenant; and,
consequently, numbers who were too loyal to subscribe a document
so hostile to the interests of the King and the Church, were at
once reduced to poverty, and had to bear the severest hardships and
privations. They and their families were driven from their houses, not
knowing where to look for food and shelter; exposed also to the brutal
insolence of the military, who found as much pleasure in plundering
a peaceful parsonage, as in defiling the sanctity of the house of
God. And these outrages appear to have been sanctioned by those in
authority, rather than repressed. Besides this, numbers were thrown
into prisons—the ancient palaces of the Bishops being turned into
jails for the purpose; and when these and the common prisons in London
were crowded with inmates, “many” as Clarendon states, “both of the
laity and clergy, were committed to prison on board the Ships in the
river Thames, where they were kept under decks, and no friend suffered
to come to them, by which many lost their lives.” Nor is this to be
omitted, in giving account of their sufferings, that while they were
enduring these wrongs, for conscience sake—nay, suffering the loss of
all things, rather than abandon their principles—they were vilified
in Parliament, and by the public press, as being little better than
criminals; and men, whose reputation had never been blemished by a
single stain,—whose deep learning, and still deeper piety, would have
reflected honor on any church of which they had been members;—men who
were saints indeed, in the true and ancient sense of the word—were held
up to public scorn, as if they were not fit to live, and branded by the
name of “malignant and scandalous ministers.”
The recollection of these persecutions, inflicted on the loyal body
of the clergy, sharpened the feelings of the Government, after the
Restoration, against Dissenters; and those who then came into power
were too ready to make reprievals for the injuries and wrongs committed
during the Commonwealth. The consequence was, that many excellent
men, whose devotedness to God and whose zeal in the pastoral office
was unquestioned—men of whom, indeed, “the world was not worthy,” and
whose only offence was want of conformity to the Church, suffered
very severely; but their sufferings were trifling, both in extent or
severity, compared to the previous sufferings of the Clergy: so much,
indeed, does the one exceed the other, that Archbishop Bramhall, who
certainly was one not accustomed to utter words at random, says, “Let
Mr. Baxter sum up into one catalogue all the nonconformists throughout
the kingdom of England, even since the beginning of the Reformation,
who have been cast aside, or driven away. I dare abate him all the rest
of the kingdom, and only exhibit the Martyrologies of London, and the
two Universities, or a list of those who in the late intestine wars
have been haled away to prisons, or chased away into banishment, by
his own party, in these three places alone; or left to the merciless
world to beg their bread, for no other crime than loyalty, and because
they stood affected to the ancient rites and ceremonies of the Church
of England, and they shall _double_ them for number.”—_Grot: Relig. p.
116._
It is very desirable that such facts as these should be known; not
that the knowledge of them may serve to ferment and keep alive any
feelings of hostility, or unkindness, towards those who still maintain
the principles of nonconformity—such a purpose cannot be too strongly
repudiated; but, that we may have an answer to give to such as charge
the Church with intolerance and persecution, and may be able to shew,
that in this respect she has been far more “sinned against than
sinning.” These facts also prove to us, and on this account they are
worthy of record, that the principles of the Church of England were
considered by our forefathers as worth suffering for; and that rather
than surrender the Articles of her Creed, or abrogate her regimen, they
willingly endured the severest penalties; took joyfully the spoiling
of their goods, and counted not their life dear unto them. Happily,
the day of persecution for conscience sake is past,—the spirit of the
age does not tolerate any thing like violence;—would that our “unhappy
divisions” were at an end also;—that all who love our Lord Jesus Christ
in sincerity were not only of one heart, but of one mind also—were
“perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgement,”
“spoke the same things,” “walked by the same rule;” not only kept “the
unity of the Spirit,” but also unity of worship and of doctrine. This
is the fellowship which the Scripture teaches should subsist between
the members of Christ’s Church; and nothing short of this should be the
object of your hopes and prayers.
[84] Heglin’s History of the Presbyterians, p. 459.
[85] Carwithen’s History of the Church of England, Vol. 3, p. 512.
N. (_Page 183._) DR. PERCY.
The following particulars respecting Dr. Percy, have been very kindly
communicated to me by the Rev. H. E. Boyd, Rector of Dromara, in
the County of Down, who was for many years domestic Chaplain to the
Bishop:—“The Right Reverend Thomas Percy, D. D., Bishop of Dromore,
in Ireland, highly distinguished in the literary world, the son of
Arthur Lowe Percy, by his wife Jane Nott, was born at Bridgnorth,
and baptized the 29th of April, 1729; his grandfather, Arthur Percy,
having removed thither from the City of Worcester, where his family
had been settled for several generations. Arthur was grandson of
Thomas Percy, who was Mayor of Worcester, in 1662. The subject of this
note received the rudiments of his education at the Grammar School
of Bridgnorth, and graduated as A. M. from Christ’s Church College,
Oxford, in 1753: in November of that year, in the presentation of
his College, he was instituted to the Vicarage of Easton Manduit, in
Northamptonshire, which he retained until 1782. In 1756, he became
resident, and was presented to the Rectory of Willby, by the Earl of
Sussex, whose Mansion was close to the Parsonage. In 1759, he was
married to Ann Goderick, after an attachment of several years, to whom
he had addressed the pastoral ballad of “O Nancy, wilt thou go with
me;” which being transformed, by changing some words into the Scottish
dialect, “Nancy” into “Nannie,” “go” into “gang,” &c., has passed with
many persons as an original Scottish ballad, written by Burns, or Allan
Ramsay. During his residence at Bridgnorth, through the kindness of
Mr. Humphrey Pitt, of Prior’s Lee, he became possessed of the M. S.
folio of Ancient Poetry, which exercised a magnetic influence on his
literary taste, and led to the publication of the Reliques, in 1764.
Through the kindness of the Earl of Sussex, he was introduced to the
Duke and Duchess of Northumberland, who appointed him their domestic
Chaplain, and patronized him in his Antiquarian pursuits. In 1769, he
became Chaplain in Ordinary to King George III.; and having obtained
the degree of S. T. P., from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he was
collated to the Deanery of Carlisle, 1778; and in 1782, elevated to the
see of Dromore, where he died 30th September, 1811, in the 84th year
of his age, revered by all sects and classes in his Diocese, to whom
the exercise of every virtue—piety, charity, and hospitality—especially
to his Clergy, had endeared him, during an episcopate of nearly thirty
years. There, his memory is still vividly preserved: and recollections
of his kindness are traditionally handed down from father to son by the
inhabitants of Dromore. He survived his excellent and amiable partner,
Mrs. Percy, about five years; they are both interred in a vault in the
north aisle of Dromore Cathedral, which was added in 1804, and erected
chiefly at the Bishop’s expense. The “Key to the New Testament,” a
most useful manual to the Divinity Student, and a translation of the
“Song of Solomon,” with some occasional Sermons, form the chief of
the Bishop’s theological labours. An allusion to his discursions in
the other various paths of literature, in which he was engaged, would
extend this notice to an inconvenient length. And as it is intended to
give a more detailed account of this eminent man, in case the copious
supply of materials, known to be in existence, be contributed and
placed in the hands of the writer, the brevity of this sketch will be
the less to be regretted.”
O. (_Page 191._) PETITION PRESENTED TO LADY BARTUE.
The following is a copy of the Petition, presented to Lady Bartue, the
draft of which is preserved among the papers of the Corporation:—
“We are bold (hearing of your noble and charitable disposition to
distressed people) to impart unto you, that in these miserable times
our Town is left a sad spectacle and pitiful object of the woeful
effects of war; for besides the firing of more than 300 families, we
had also burnt, a fair Church, College, Almshouse, and Market House;
whereby we are exposed to great misery and distress. The Parliament,
upon our humble address for some relief, hath vouchsafed us a Brief,
and we are upon that work, hopeing, by God’s blessing thereunto, we
shall live to see some of our public losses againe repaired. Now our
motion is humbly, that your Ladyship, having an old ruinous Barn, at
Wenlock, which would serve for the bonds of a new Market House, hearing
that it is to be sold, do address ourselves hereby to your Ladyship,
desirous that you would be pleased to sell us the same; and send us a
price in consideration of our poor condition. We are not willing to
meddle with the slate covering, only the wood and timber; entreating
that you will be pleased to favour us in the summer. We conceive it
worth £40 or £50 and great charge we shall be at to take it down. We
humbly beseech, that we shall have your Ladyship’s pleasure therein;
that we may know what to trust unto in that behalf. And you will oblige
unto yours—those by whom this Petition represent—the whole body of the
Town, and are
Your humble Servants,
HENRY BURNE, }
RICHARD SYNGE, } _Bailiffs_.
Bridgnorth,
26th. Feby, 1647.”
“_To the Honourable the
LADY BARTUE_,
Present these.”
P. (_Page 193._) ALMS HOUSES.
The foundation of this Charity has already been referred to Appendix I,
and proofs given of its antiquity. An official report of it was drawn
up by the Rev. Wm. Corser, in 1792, and presented to the Corporation;
after a very careful investigation into its history. In this, he states
it as his opinion, that it was first established and supported by the
members of the Religious fraternity of the neighbouring College in St.
Leonard’s Church Yard; though the management of it, and the right of
appointment to it, was vested entirely in the Corporation. The objects
of the Charity were originally poor persons, of either sex,—“the Alms
Houses being open to poor Burgesses’ wives; but, for the last hundred
years, the Charity has been confined to poor women,” the widows, or
unmarried daughters of Burgesses, seven chosen from the parish of St.
Leonard’s, and five from the parish of St. Mary’s. The management of
the Charity is placed by a late Act of Parliament, in the hands of “the
Trustees of General Charity Trusts.”
Q. (_Page 193._) THE PROCLAMATION OF CHARLES II.
“Charles the Second, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland,
France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. To all, and singular,
Archbishops, Bishops, Archdeacons, Deans, and their Officials, Parsons,
Ministers, Lecturers, Vicars and Curates, and all other Spiritual
Persons: And also to all Justices of the Peace, Mayors, Sheriffs,
Bailiffs, Constables, Churchwardens, Collectors for the Poor, and
Headboroughs: And to all Officers of Cities, Boroughs, and Towns,
Corporate; and to all other our Officers, Ministers, and Subjects,
whatsoever they be, as well within Liberties as without, to whom these
Presents shall come, Greeting.
“Whereas, We are credibly given to understand, as well by the humble
Supplication and Petition of the Bailiffs and Burgesses of Our Town of
Bridgnorth, in Our County of Salop, as also by a Certificate under the
hands and seals of our Trusty and well-beloved Subjects, Sir William
Whitmore, Baronet, Sir Thomas Wolrich, Knight and Baronet, Sir Walter
Acton, Baronet, Sir John Weld, the younger, Knight, Sir Richard Otley,
Knight, Richard Scriven, Thomas Whitmore, Robert Sandford, Robert
Leighton, and Thomas Holland, Esqs.; Justices of the Peace, at the
general Sessions of the Peace held for the said County, at Salop, on
Tuesday next after the Feast of the Epiphany, now last past, that in
the year of our Lord One Thousand, Six Hundred, Forty and Six, at which
time, our said Town being kept as a Garrison for Our dear Father, the
same was surprized by the contrary party then in Arms, and the upper
town thereof being set on fire, all the houses and the greatest part of
the goods and wares therein, and their Market House, the Colledge, Alms
Houses, and great Collegiate Church, were burned down and consumed, and
that at the said Sessions, it appeared to our said Justices, by the
Oaths of Edward Whitehead and Michaell Millington, able and sufficient
persons; that the losses sustained by the same fire, do amount in the
whole unto the value of Threescore Thousand Pounds at the least; which
being to the utter destruction and laying waste of Our said town,
and the great impoverishment and undoing of the Inhabitants thereof,
unless they shall be relieved by the love and charity of such whose
hearts the Lord (who is the great disposer of hearts) shall warm and
stir up to commiserate them in this their most deplorable condition,
Our said Justices did humbly certifie the same to Our Princely and
Christian consideration, to the end that our gracious Letters Patents
for a collection of the charitable benevolence of our well-disposed
subjects of Our Kingdome of England, might be granted unto Our said
Bailiffs, Burgesses, and other Inhabitants of our said town, for and
towards their relief and the re-edifying of the said Collegiate Church
and Colledge. We therefore, and upon the Petition of the said Bailiffs,
Burgesses, and Inhabitants have thereunto condescended, not doubting
but that all compassionate and tender-hearted Christians rightly and
duely considering the Premisses and the miserable and mutable state
of man through these inevitable and deplorable accidents, (none
knowing how soon they may fall into the like calamity) will be ready
and willing to extend their liberal contributions towards this so
charitable and pious a work, the same tending not only to the relief,
support, and refreshment of Our said distressed subjects in their
great necessity, but to the advancement of the Honour and Worship
of Almighty God. Know ye therefore, that of Our especial grace and
Christian compassion have given and granted, and by these Our Letters
Patents under Our great Seal of England, We do give and grant unto
Our said poor distressed subjects, the Bailiffs, Burgesses, and other
Inhabitants of Bridgnorth aforesaid, and to their Deputy and Deputies,
the Bearer and Bearers hereof, authorized and deputed in that behalf,
as hereafter in these presents is appointed, full power license and
authority, to ask, gather, receive and take the alms and charitable
benevolence of all of Our loving subjects whatsoever; inhabiting
within our Kingdome of England, and all and every the Cities, Towns
corporate, priviledged places, Parishes, Hamblets, Villages, and in
all other places whatsoever, within our said Kingdome, for and towards
the re-edifying, rebuilding, and repairing of the said Collegiate
Church, College, and Alms Houses, in the first place; and after for
and towards the reimbursements and recovery of the losses and for
the future support of Our said poor distressed subjects, and for the
relief of them and their desolate families, which being a work of so
Christian and charitable concernment, will doubtless be readily and
fervently promoted and performed by all well-disposed people, who
upon their serious and due consideration of the said great Losses,
will, with a fellow-feeling of the miseries and distresses of their
fellow Christians extend their free and cheerful contributions more
then ordinary in this pious and blessed work, for in so doing they do
lend unto the Lord, and hence it is that wisdom itself hath said and
testified, That it is more blessed to give than to receive. Wherefore,
We will and command you, and every of you, that at such time and
times, as the said Bailiffs, Burgesses, and Inhabitants of Bridgnorth
aforesaid, their Deputy or Deputies, the Bearer or Bearers hereof,
(authorized and deputed as hereafter in these presents is appointed,)
shall come and repair to any of your Churches, Chappels, or other
places, to ask and receive the gratuities and charitable benevolence
or Our said loving Subjects, quietly to permit and suffer them so to
do, without any manner of your lets, or contradictions. And you, the
said Parsons, Ministers, Lecturers, Vicars and Curates, for the better
stirring up of a charitable devotion, deliberately to publish according
to the tenor of these Our Letters Patents, or brief hereof unto the
people, upon the Lord’s Day next after the same shall be tendered
unto you,—exhorting, perswading, and stirring them up to extend their
liberal contributions towards this so pious and charitable a work.
And you, the said Churchwardens of every Parish, and Collectors for
the poor, where such Collection is to be made, as aforesaid, together
with such other honest active men there, as shall be nominated by the
minister and your selves, are hereby willed and required to collect and
gather the Alms and charitable benevolence of Our said loving subjects:
not only Householders, but also Servants, Strangers, and others: And
if you shall find it more expedient for an effectual performance of
this pious work, you are to go from house to house in your respective
parishes, upon the Week dayes, to gather the Alms of Our said loving
subjects. And what shall be by you so gathered by vertue of these
presents, in the said parishes and places, to be by the Ministers and
yourselves, endorsed on the back side of these our Letters Patents,
or the true copies or briefs hereof, in words at length and not in
figures; which endorsement is to be subscribed with the hands of you
the said Ministers, Churchwardens, and such in each Parish or Place,
as shall assist you in such Collection, and also to be registered in
the Books of your respective Parishes: And the sum and sums of money
so gathered and endorsed you are to deliver to the bearer or bearers
of these Our Letters Patents, so deputed and authorized as hereafter
in these presents is appointed, whensoever you shall be by him or
them required so to do: whose receiving thereof, with his or their
Acquitance or Acquitances shall be sufficient discharge for so doing;
which said bearer or bearers of these Our Letters Patents, are hereby
willed and required forthwith to pay and deliver all the moneys by them
so to be collected and received as aforesaid, unto John Bennett, George
Weld, and the said Thomas Holland Esquires, and to John Rogerson,
Robert Richards, and Thomas Fingmore, of the said town of Bridgnorth,
gent., aforesaid, or any two of them, whom We do by these presents
nominate, constitute and appoint the Treasurers of all such moneys,
as shall be collected and gathered by virtue of these Our Letters
Patents, who are from time to time to pay and dispose of the same
moneys, in such manner and order as the said Sir Thomas Wolrich, Sir
William Whitmore, Sir Walter Acton, Sir John Weld the younger, Thomas
Whitmore and Thomas Holland, Esquires, and Michael Thomas, Rector of
Stockton, in the said County of Salop, or any three or more of them,
shall by writing under their hands and seals direct and appoint the
same. And lastly, for the more assurance of faithful and equal dealing
in the receipt accompt, and distribution of the moneys hereby to be
collected as aforesaid, and that the said Bailiffs, Burgesses, and
Inhabitants of Bridgnorth aforesaid, may not be defeated of any part
thereof, but enjoy the full benefit of this Our Royal favour extended
to them, and that a true and honest accompt may be given and rendered
to them, Our will and pleasure is, that no man shall be employed to
collect any of the said moneys but such only as shall be appointed and
authorized thereunto, by Deputation or Deputations under the hands
and seals of the said Treasurers or any two of them, and that such
person or persons as shall be so deputed, to make the said collections
within our City of London, and the liberties and suburbs thereof, shall
beside the said Deputation procure a Testimonial in this behalf from
the Lord Mayor of Our said City of London for the time being, under
his hand and seal, whom we do by these presents desire to grant the
same accordingly, that so no scruple or impediment, may be raised to
prevent or hinder a ready, speedy, and effectual performance, in Our
said City of London, and the Liberties and Suburbs thereof, of Our
Royal will and pleasure herein before declared; and for the better and
more speedy collecting of the said charitable benevolence, Our further
will and pleasure is, that the said respective Deputies (if they shall
see cause) shall respectively deliver Briefs unto the chief Constables,
of every Hundred or Division, in every of the said Counties, who are
hereby required to distribute the same to the respective Churchwardens
of every Parish or Precinct, within their respective Constabularies,
and when such collection shall be made as aforesaid, the said several
Churchwardens are required to return to each respective Chief Constable
the Briefs received by them, together with the moneys collected by
the same, to be endorsed thereupon and subscribed in manner as is
hereby before directed and appointed, and the said chief Constables
to give discharges for the receipt thereof accordingly, which said
chief Constables are to deliver and pay the said moneys so by them to
be received, together with the said Brief or Briefs so endorsed as
aforesaid, unto the bearer or bearers of these our Letters Patents,
so to be deputed as aforesaid, at the Assizes next after such their
receipt thereof whensoever holden within the several and respective
Counties, or whensoever they shall be required thereunto, by the person
or persons so deputed as aforesaid, and the said Treasurers or any
two of them are hereby willed and required, from time to time to pay
and distribute the Moneys so to be by them received as aforesaid, in
and about the uses aforesaid, and the promoting and carrying on the
same by and according to such directions and appointments as they
shall from time to time receive from the persons for that purpose
herein above-named, or any three or more of them: Any Law, Statute,
Act, Ordinance, or Provision heretofore made to the contrary hereof
in any wise notwithstanding. In witness whereof, we have caused these
Our Letters to be made Patents for the spase of one whole year next
after the date hereof to endure, and no longer. Witnesse Our Self at
Westminster, the first day of June, in the Thirteenth year of our
Raign.”
God save the King.
R. (_Page 199._) NON-JURING BISHOPS.
What makes the resistance of these Prelates to the unconstitutional
proceedings of James the more remarkable is, that they afterwards
submitted to deprivation, rather than renounce their allegiance to him.
When he was deposed, or as others would represent it, when he abdicated
the throne, they could not be persuaded by any inducements to abjure
his sovereignty, and to take the oath of allegiance to William. They
regarded James as still their lawful King, and judged that it would
be a violation of the law of God for them to renounce his authority:
and, therefore, neither the remembrance of the wrongs which he had
done them, nor the prospect of what they might be called to suffer
for maintaining their allegiance to him, could shake their fidelity.
They refused, notwithstanding the many overtures which were made to
them, to take the customary oaths to the new King, hence the name of
“Non-Jurors.” They were perhaps extreme in their views, and carried
their principles of non-resistance and passive obedience so far, as
to involve them in great practical difficulties, which has afforded
to their opponents matter for much contemptuous ridicule. But those
who express this scorn for the principles of the Non-Jurors, should
remember that they were the principles maintained by every protestant
community before the revolution—maintained as strenuously by Burnet[86]
and Tillotson, during the reign of the Stuarts, as by the seven
Bishops. Here lay the difference, that on the accession of William, the
former renounced these doctrines, and, in consequence, were advanced
to high places of honour and emolument: the latter still adhered to
them, though their adherence cost them the loss of all things. This too
happened at a time when, according to the testimony of Mr. Macaulay,
principle was a very rare quality indeed in public men of any party;
so that the sacrifice which the non-juring Bishops and Clergy made for
conscience sake stands out in striking contrast to the selfishness and
corruption which every where surrounded them. This contrast is so ably
drawn by a writer in the Christian Remembrancer, of April last, that I
think it well to submit it to the Reader.
“To this scene of falsehood and perfidy and unbridled selfishness,—to
the duplicity of the great men, and the corruption of the little men
in the state,—there was at this time one striking contrast. There was
one body of men in England, who, in spite of the low tone of public
honesty, did through evil report, through scorn and ridicule, through
the loss of their daily bread, stick to their principles. There was
one body of men possessed of reputation and competence, and some of
them of high station and wealth, who might have kept all—have been
caressed and flattered, at least feared or treated with respect—might
at least have kept their freeholds and their influence, their peerages
and palaces, or their quiet country parsonages, merely by saying a few
words against their convictions, and who would not. It was nothing very
fearful or profligate that they were called to do. It was then, and
is still, even among those who sympathise with them, a great question
whether they ought not to have done it. It was something for which,
had they wanted a pretext, they could have found not pretexts but good
reasons, in the example, and opinion, and authority of numbers of their
brethren—good, and conscientious, and pure-minded men. It was something
which Beveridge and Bishop Wilson could do with a clear conscience. But
their consciences would not allow them to do it; and they did it not.
Call them over-scrupulous, call them narrow-minded, say that they were
entangled and misled by a false theory of government, still the fact
remains; their duty seemed to them clear and plain, and their duty they
followed at all costs. They lost everything by it; they were cast out
of the Church, they were cast out of the State; too few to have any
influence, too unpopular to hope for converts, they found themselves
cut off from the body of their countrymen, cut off from all the chief
walks of life, homeless and living on alms, pitied by friends,
suspected by all in power, ridiculed by the world, plunged into the
miseries and perplexities of a new and difficult course of action, and
of a small isolated clique, with small comfort for the present, and
small hope for the future. Granting all that their critics or their
enemies said of them—and they have had keen critics and rancorous
enemies,—that they were fretful and cross-grained, that they were
peevish and could not reason—that they were censorious and ill-natured
to their opponents—that their theories were absurd, their heads hot,
their intestine quarrels about small points very petty—granting that
Sancroft was sour and self-opiniated, Turner a busy plotter, Collier
indiscreet and a proud priest, that Dodwell had odd notions on the
immortality of the soul, and that Hickes was as tiresome as Mr.
Macaulay himself about the Theban legion—still there is no denying
the fact, that while the great men of the day, who were having their
will, and riding on the high places of the earth, were, most of them,
men whom we should shun as we do sharpers and swindlers—the mocked and
ruined Non-jurors were honest men.” (_Christian Remembrancer_, _vol._
XXXI, _pp. 412-413_).
One of these has left a name in the Church which will be honoured, as
long as simplicity and godly sincerity are held in estimation among
men. The life of Bishop Ken, both before and after his deprivation,
was one so blameless and harmless—one of such uniform gentleness and
charity, as to win almost universal reverence and regard; and the
record of it has extorted the admiration of those who are most opposed
to his principles. He refused to take the new oath of allegiance.
After giving the subject every possible consideration, and calmly and
dispassionately deliberating on it, he felt that he could not with
a clear conscience swear fidelity to William and Mary as his liege
sovereigns, and he submitted patiently to the penalties which his
refusal brought upon him. He felt it his duty to enter a public protest
against the act of the government, which deprived him of his Bishopric;
but he retired from it without a murmur, attended, however, by the
tears and lamentations of his flock, who had known him long enough to
form an estimate of his character, and to calculate their loss in being
deprived of his overseership and counsel. Like others of his Brethren,
he would have been reduced to great poverty, had not his attached
friend and College companion, Lord Weymouth, received him into his
house, at Longleat. There he lived for upwards of thirty years after
his deprivation, and there he died. He suffered during his latter years
an amount of bodily anguish, which few men are called on to endure,
and this he sought to alleviate, and not in vain, by the exercise of
prayer and contemplation, and by indulging in strains of sacred poetry,
for which he had a natural aptitude. These he called anodynes, and
“alleviations of Paine,” and such they proved to him. His Biographer
states that “writing, saying, and singing hymns, were his chief solace:
they turned his mournings into penitential sighs.” His death was
like his life, one of perfect peace. His burial was in harmony with
his character, free from ostentation and parade. His special request
was that he might be buried in the Church Yard of the nearest parish
without any manner of pomp or ceremony, and that he might be carried to
the grave by six of the poorest men in the parish. He left in his last
Will this declaration of his stedfast attachment to the Church, which
coming from one of his stamp is of no small importance in these days of
disloyalty and division:—
“As for my Religion, I die in the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Faith,
professed by the whole Church, before the disunion of the East and
West: more particularly I die in the Communion of ye Church of England,
as it stands distinguished from all Papall and Puritan innovations, and
as it adheres to the doctrine of the Crosse.”
[86] “No doubt Ken had an eye to both these Prelates when he wrote thus
to Burnet, ‘many persons of our own coat for several years together
preached up Passive Obedience to a much greater height than ever I
did, and on a sudden without the least acknowledgement of their past
error, preach’d and acted quite the contrary.’”—_Life of Bishop Ken by
a Layman._
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