xxxv. Also, I find in the Record Office, a letter from "John Bishop of

Durham" to Williamson, sending "the complaint received from Newcastle about the seditious meetings of the Congregation of Saints." The letter is dated November 23rd, 1668. The complaint refers to a public meeting on the 1st of November, in Barber Surgeon's Hall, of 500 of the Congregation of Saints, headed and led by Gilpin, notoriously known to be disaffected to the Government. It is stated, that he caused the 149th Psalm to be sung--and a treasonable construction is put upon the words. Three persons are named in connection with Gilpin--Durant, Leaver, and Pringle.--November 23.

[689] _Conformist's Plea_, 35. There is a letter in the Record Office (Sanderson to Williamson, 1667, Sept. 19), complaining of the laxity of the Bishop of Durham, in not convicting John Cock, a notorious Nonconformist--agent for Lady Vane, at Raby Castle, who was brought before him.

[690] _Basire_, 89.

[691] _Life_, by Plume.

[692] Salmon says "the expense was £20,000, of which the Chapter contributed £1,000. The rest was his own, or procured by him of other pious persons."--_Lives_, 296.

[693] _Life_, by Plume. See Coleridge on Hacket's Sermons--_Remains_, iii. 175.

[694] See notice of Wilkins, in Pope's _Life of Seth Ward_.

[695] Newcome, in his _Diary_, says--"November 22, 1672. I received the sad news of the death of the learned, worthy, pious, and peaceable Bishop of Chester, Dr. John Wilkins; he was my worthy friend." John Angier, the Nonconformist minister at Denton, speaks of his removal as a great loss.--_Heywood's Life of Angier_, 86. Martindale (_Autobiography_, 196) also refers to the Bishop's moderation, and adds--"But the Archbishop of York, by his visitation, took all power out of his hands for a year, soon after which this honest Bishop Wilkins died." I may be permitted to add that the good Bishop was a wit. In reference to his idea of the possibility of a passage to the moon, the Duchess of Newcastle said to him, "Doctor, where am I to find a place for waiting in the way up to that planet?" "Madam," replied he, "of all other people in the world, I never expected that question from you, who have built so many castles in the air, that you may be every night at one of your own."--_Stanley's Memorials of Westminster_, 234.

[696] Preached at the Guildhall Chapel, London, 1672, p. 46.

[697] _Own Time_, i. 187.

[698] _Wood_, _Athen. Ox._ iii. 969.

[699] _Wood's Athen. Ox._, iii. 1085.

[700] Norwich, April 13, 1670. Lambeth Library, Tenison MSS. 674.

[701] _Athen. Oxon._ iv. 309-317. There is a letter from Croft amongst the _State Papers_ (Dec. 30, 1678), relative to his Library, &c.

[702] _Hist._ 42.

[703] He lay in state in a room under the Regent House. Over the hearse was spread the coat of the King or Herald-at-arms, of crimson satin, richly embroidered with gold. At the head of the hearse was standing the Bishop's mitre, which was silver-gilt, the cap, or inpart whereof, was crimson satin or silk; the mitre was plain, saving some little flower wrought in the middle on each side thereof, and on the top of each a little cross of about an inch in length and breadth. On one side of the top of the hearse lay along the Bishop's crosier of silver, somewhat in likeness to a shepherd's crook of about an ell long, and in thickness round above two inches and a half.--_Ald. Newton's Diary_, quoted in _Annals of Cambridge_, by Cooper, iii. 522.

[704] _Conformist's Plea_, 85.

[705] He allowed a considerable annuity to Dr. Tuckney, whom in the Professorship of Divinity at Cambridge, and the Mastership of St. John's College, he succeeded after the Restoration.

[706] _Hist. of his Own Time_, i. 181. Temple, in his _Memoirs_, says, "My election in the University proceeded with the most general concurrence that could be there, and without any difficulties I could observe from that side (the Duke of Monmouth's) those which were raised coming from the Bishop of Ely, who owned the opposing me, from the chapter of religion, in my _Observations on the Netherlands_, which gave him an opinion that mine was for such a toleration of religion as is there described to be in Holland."--_Temple's Works_, i. 433.

[707] _Fuller's Worthies_, ii. 421.

[708] _Athenæ Oxonienses_, iii. 717.

[709] _Conformists' Plea_, 35.

[710] _Nelson's Life of Bishop Bull_, 206.

[711] _Life and Times_, ii. 363.

[712] _Athen. Oxon._, iii. 1195.

[713] _Ibid._, 940. Bliss says he was Canon of York.

[714] The letter is written by Dr. Lampleugh, January 12, 1675. _State Papers, Dom. Charles II._

[715] _Le Neve_, part ii. 238.

[716] The letter is dated, Ely House, October 9, 1643. _Le Neve's Lives of the Bishops_, pt. ii. 247.

[717] See anecdote of Sterne in _Baxter_, ii. 338, quoted in the account of the Savoy Conference in this History.

[718] _Hist. of his Own Time_, i. 590.

[719] This corresponds with the eulogium on his tombstone.

[720] _Grainger's Biography_, iii. 232.

[721] _Le Neve's Bishops_, pt. ii. 258.

[722] _Hist. of his Own Time_, i. 590. Dolben was Dean of Westminster at the time of Albemarle's funeral. Ward preached. "The Dean and prebendaries wore copes. Offerings were made at the altar."--_Stanley's Westminster_, 228.

The following notice occurs in _Thoresby's Diary_, i. 172:--"I rode with most of the gentry in the neighbourhood, to meet Archbishop Dolben, who was much honoured as a preaching bishop. May 1, 1684: he gave us an excellent sermon at the parish church; see his remarkable preliminary discourse concerning holydays, their institution, and abuse in the Romish Church, which makes many good people (his own expression) averse to them, even as celebrated in the Church of England, though without superstition. In the whole he showed great temper and moderation."

[723] In addition to the particular books which I have noticed, I may state that my chief authorities for these notices of the Bishops are _Wood_, _Le Neve_, and _Salmon_.

[724] I find amongst the State Papers the following, in a volume on Ecclesiastical affairs, containing _Congé d'élires_, &c.:--

"Dean and Chapter of Lichfield

"Whereas upon the vacancy of that see by the death of Dr. Hackett the late Bishop we did by our _Congé d'élire_ and our Great Seal of England grant you our license to proceed to an election of a fit person to succeed in the same, and at the same time did by our letter written recommend to you our trusty &c. Dr. Wood Dean of that our cathedral church to be by you chosen Bishop of the said see according to the laws of this our realm. We have now thought fit hereby to signify our pleasure to you that we do hereby will and require you to forbear to proceed to the election of the said Dr. Wood until our pleasure shall be further signified unto you--whereof you may not fail.

"June 11, 1671."

[725] _D'Oyley's Sancroft_, i. 194.

[726] Yet it is said in his epitaph, in St. George's Chapel, Windsor,--"Exule Carolo II., bonis multatus, reverso, a sacris, hujus Capellæ Canonicus, Decanus Sarisburiensis, postea Cicestrensis Episcopus, φιλόξενος φιλάγαθος," &c., &c.

There is a curious account in _Kennet's Hist._ of Brideoake's visit to Lenthall, the Speaker, when on his death-bed. He owed much to Lenthall's influence during the Commonwealth. A letter in the State Paper Office, 1678, Oct. 7, conveys intelligence of his death, and asks, in consequence, for Church promotion.

[727] This Lloyd is to be distinguished from him of the same name who was one of the Seven Bishops.

[728] In _Ichabod_; or, _Five Groans of the Church_, mention is made of 1,342 factious clergymen.

[729] _Dom. Chas. II._, 1677, Sept. 12.

[730] _Mystery and Iniquity of Nonconformity_, 1664. A curious tract entitled _The Ceremony-Monger, his Character, in Six Chapters_, describes "bowing to the altar, implicit faith, reading dons of the pulpit, reading the Psalms, &c., alternately, bowing at the name of Jesus, unlighted candles on the altar, organs, church music, and other popishlike and foppish ceremonials," all of which are unmercifully ridiculed. The author is E. Hickeringhill, Rector of the Rectory of All Saints, in Colchester. There is no date to the publication, but from abundant internal evidence, it must have been written after the Act of Uniformity. Hickeringhill is justly described by Chalmers as "a half crazy kind of writer." He was a pensioner of St. John's, Camb., in 1650; junior Bachelor of Gonville and Caius; Lieut. in the English army in Scotland, and Captain in Fleetwood's Regiment. He took orders in 1661 or 1662, being ordained by Bishop Sanderson; became Vicar of Boxted, Essex, in October, 1662, and about the same time, Rector of All Saints, Colchester. In reference to the Act of Uniformity, he says it is an unnatural, impossible, irrational, wicked, and vain attempt. "Go teach God," he says, "to make a new heaven, with uniformity of stars and skies,--teach Him to make men uniform," &c. Hickeringhill wrote _The Second Part of Naked Truth_, and _A Vindication_ of it. The copy of it which I have seen is in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge. The Bishop of London brought an action against him, in March, 1682, for slander. A report of the trial may be found in the same Library, _Political Tracts_, Y 24. Hickeringhill held his Rectory until his death in 1708.

[731] Quotation in _Vindication of the Clergy_, 82.

[732] _Chamberlayne_, part 1. 205, 207. The following entries indicate the poverty of clergymen:--

"1669. Given to a poor minister who preached here, at the church, April 25, 3s. Bestowed on him in ale, 4d.

"Feb. 13, 1669. Collected then, by the churchwardens, in the church, upon a testimonial, and at the request of the Lord Bishop of York, for one Mr. Wilmot, a poor minister, 8s. 4d.

"1670, April 10. Given then by the neighbours, to a poor mendicant minister, one Mr. John Rhodes, who then preached here, and after the sermon _stood in the middle aisle to receive the charity of the people_, the sum 12s. 3d.

"1670, July 3. Given then by the neighbours to a poor lame itinerary, one Mr. Walker, who preached here, and after the sermon stood in the middle aisle to receive the people's charity, which was 9s. 3d."--See _History of Morley Old Chapel_, by the Rev. J. Wonnacott.

[733] _Hunter's Life of Heywood_, 336.

[734] _Grounds and Occasions_, 19. It is from this paragraph, and other similar authorities, that Macaulay draws materials for his humorous one-sided satire on the clergy--_Hist. of Eng._ i. 340.

[735] _Grounds and Occasions_, 107. North complains of his father's chaplain being very illiterate.--_Lives_, iii. 312.

[736] _Evelyn's Diary_, 1684, February 23.

[737] _Vindication of the Clergy_ (1672), 122. The author of the _Grounds and Occasions_ followed up his work by "Some observations upon the answer."

[738] _Vindication_, 100, _et seq._ See _Answer to the Grounds and Occasions_ (1671), 14. Another book was published--_Hieragonisticon_, being an answer to the two books on the _Grounds and Occasions_ (1672). Five additional letters were published by the author of the _Grounds and Occasions_, &c. Through the kindness of my friend, Mr. John Rotton, the whole of this curious collection has been placed at my service.

[739] _Vindication_, 108.

[740] _Appendix to Second Report of Commission on Ritual_, 628.

[741] "An account of the life and conversation of the reverend and worthy Mr. Isaac Milles," quoted in _Ken's Life by a Layman_, 48-50.

[742] _Ichabod; or Five Groans of the Church_ (1663). Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, says he "met with three debauched clergymen in Hertfordshire, whom he shall deprive: the gentry are most kind wherever he goes. Thinks the principles he goes upon will be successful."--_State Papers_, July 18, 1668.

[743] _Life of Philip Henry_, 101. He made this remark at the close of the year 1662. In _Hunter's Life of Oliver Heywood_, p. 149, a wretched account is given of the six ministers who succeeded him.

[744] _History of his Own Time_, i. 186.

[745] _Diary_, 1668, February 16.

[746] _Burnet_, i. 258.

[747] _Appendix to Second Report of Commission on Ritual_, 628.

Transcriber's Note:

1. Printer's errors have been silently corrected.

2. Obvious spelling and punctuation errors have been silently corrected. Original spelling and hyphenated words have been retained where appropriate.

3. Superscripts shown as ^x.

4. Bold script shown as =xxx=.