Something similar may be said of Fowler, an active opponent of James’ Declaration, promoted to the See of Gloucester in 1690, whose exposition of Latitudinarian theology has been described in the Church of the Restoration. His broad views of Christianity, and his opposition to Popery, recommended him to a Bishopric. He is spoken of as a very respectable, but not very eminent, Prelate; and what is curious in connection with his rationalism, he was credited with a faith in the existence of witches and fairies, “whom he dreaded as much as the lady upon the seven hills, and all the scarlet train.”[376]
Kidder, Bishop of Bath and Wells, had, before he wore a mitre, passed through circumstances which must have left a deep impress upon his character, and were calculated to impart moderation to his episcopal proceedings. He, in 1662, was deprived of his living for not subscribing to the Prayer-Book, before he could examine it. Approving of it after examination, he pursued a chequered career, struggling with poverty, but exhibiting generous dispositions; suffering during the plague year, but persevering in his spiritual duties; vexed by Nonconformists in his parish, yet administering the Lord’s Supper to those who refused to kneel. His autobiography, besides sketching these circumstances, relates what he did in the way of Visitations, Confirmations, and Ordinations, and how he was troubled by the conduct of some of his Clergy, by the behaviour of a physician who courted his daughter, and by a faction in his diocese who opposed his ordination of one who had been a Nonconformist.
BISHOPS.
Kidder paid half his income from the See of Bath and Wells into the hands of ex-Bishop Ken; and another circumstance is related respecting him, which places his integrity in a conspicuous light. A message was sent him by a minister of King William, telling him he MUST give his vote in Parliament in a certain way. “Must vote!” “Yes, must vote: consider whose bread you eat.” “I eat no man’s bread but poor Dr. Ken’s; and if he will take the oaths, he shall have it again. I did not think of going to the Parliament, but now I shall undoubtedly go, and vote contrary to your commands.”[377] The autobiography suggests the idea that Kidder was a well-meaning man, sometimes wanting in firmness and wisdom. His publications, which are numerous, include—besides his Boyle Lecture—Tracts against Popery, and Plain Treatises enforcing the practice of a religious life. The only sermon of his which I have read, one preached at Court on the duty of fasting, suggests no high opinion of his pulpit power.
1688–1702.
Amongst the Episcopal Divines of William’s reign, only one can be considered as a decided Puritan. This was John Hall, Master of Pembroke, Oxford, who retained that position after he became Bishop of Bristol in 1691,—a poor piece of preferment. He is far less noticeable as a Bishop than as a Theological Professor, in which capacity, however, he earned no enviable fame, even in the estimation of those who sympathized with him in his theological opinions; for Calamy says, that he brought all the theology of the Westminster Assembly out of the Church Catechism. He was a good man, laughed at by the wits, but esteemed for his godliness by pious people.
Nicholas Stratford—possessed of learning, a firm supporter of the Church of England, and, judging of him by his primary visitation charge, an earnest preacher and a faithful pastor, bent on the salvation of souls—succeeded Cartwright in the Bishopric of Chester, in 1689; and in the same year, John Hough, the Champion of Magdalen, rose to the episcopal chair of Oxford.[378]
An Archiepiscopal mitre rewarded, at the suggestion of Tillotson in 1691, the staunch Protestantism of Dr. Sharpe, the Dean of Norwich; and, if we are to believe all the encomiums on his virtues, inscribed upon his monument in York Cathedral, scarcely ever before did such a paragon of excellence exist.[379] Notices of him by Thoresby—to whose conversion from Dissent to Episcopacy, Sharpe had largely contributed—so far confirm the praise in his epitaph, as to show that he was diligent, courteous, devout, and kind, and most zealous in endeavouring to win Nonconformists over to the Church. He is described as the best of the Bishops who had honoured Leeds with their presence, “a most excellent preacher, universally beloved.”[380] Samuel Wesley, who was under great obligations to him, ranked him as a preacher above Stillingfleet, and even above Tillotson, calling him “a more popular pulpit orator than either;”[381] but a set-off against these partial commendations will appear, when we reach the history of Religious Societies and of Dissenting Academies, and observe the course which his Grace pursued in relation to them.
BISHOPS.
Lloyd, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry until 1699, when, on the death of Stillingfleet, the King translated him to Worcester, is described by Whiston, who received ordination at his hands, as engaging in “a most uncommon, but vastly improving examination and instruction, in the Cathedral, beforehand.”[382] Lloyd’s prophetical studies, vindicated by Whiston, exposed him to a good deal of raillery and satire; Shippen, in his Faction Displayed, saying of him—