"The Church of England allows their very bishops to be twice--nay
thrice--nay even four times married without any impediment to
their episcopal functions, whereas the Greek Patriarch of
Constantinople would not admit the Emperor Leo, a layman, into the
church, because he had married a fourth wife."
Whiston, though a "fanciful man," as Burnet calls him, was well read in
Christian antiquity, and his opinion is therefore of some weight. Wall's
authority no one would willingly undervalue.
I cannot call to mind any English bishop who was four times married; yet
Whiston would hardly have asserted the fact if he had not had some
example in view. I should be obliged to any one who would inform me on
the subject.[1]
[Footnote 1: We have somewhere read of a Bishop Thomas giving his
fourth wife a ring, with this posy:--
"If I survive, I'll make it five."