The 1st of August, 1689, was the day fixed by Parliament, before the close of which all beneficed clergymen, and all persons holding academical offices must, on pain of suspension, swear allegiance to William and Mary. Above twenty-nine-thirtieths submitted to the law, but, in general, the compliance was tardy, sad, and sullen. Many, no doubt, deliberately sacrificed principle to interest, but they had not fortitude to resign the parsonage, the garden, and the glebe, and to go forth without knowing where to find a meal, or a roof for themselves and their little ones. Many swore with doubts and misgivings; still the thing was done, and ten thousand clergymen solemnly called Heaven to attest their promise that they would be loyal to King William. The clergymen and members of the university, who refused to take the oath, were about four hundred in number, including the primate and six of his suffragans.
Among these dissentients, there were some who were men of scholarship and mark, but perhaps it is scarce too much to say, that there was hardly one who was qualified to discuss any large question of morals or politics without either extreme feebleness or extreme flightiness of mind. The following are the most distinguished among them:—
William Sherlock, rector of St George’s, Botolph Lane, prebendary of St Paul’s, and Master of the Temple; all of which preferments were taken from him until some years afterwards, when he took the oath and was reinstated. Dr Sherlock was a good man, but held extreme opinions. He was the author of several publications, but is chiefly indebted for celebrity to his “Practical Discourse Concerning Death,” a work which went through thirty editions in a short space of time, has been printed in all sizes and forms, and has been applauded by the most able critics.
George Hickes, born at Newsham, in Yorkshire, and educated at Northallerton, a fellow and a tutor of Lincoln College, Oxford, Dean of Worcester, with the prospect of becoming Bishop of Bristol. He was the author of three volumes of sermons, and of a multitude of tracts in defence of himself and of the other nonjurors. Macaulay says, “Of all the Englishmen of his time George Hickes was the most versed in the old Teutonic languages, and his knowledge of the early Christian literature also was extensive.”
Jeremy Collier, lecturer at Gray’s Inn, a man of intrepid courage, indefatigable industry, and unsullied integrity; the author of three volumes of essays on moral subjects; of a translation of Moreri’s “Historical Dictionary,” in four volumes folio; of an “Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain,” &c. Macaulay writes:—“Jeremy Collier was a good man, of eminent abilities, and a great master of sarcasm and of rhetoric. To his eloquence and courage is to be chiefly ascribed the purification of our lighter literature from that foul taint which had been contracted during the Anti-puritan reaction. His reading, too, though undigested, was of immense extent: but his mind was narrow, his reasoning singularly futile and inconclusive, and his brain almost turned by priestly pride.”
Henry Dodwell, Camden Professor of History in the Oxford University, a man of great learning, of extensive reading, and of unwearied application, of undissembled piety, and unimpeached integrity; a man of great benevolence, and who religiously abstained from almost all kinds of food three days every week; and yet a man of paradoxical notions, narrow religious sentiments, and who, as a writer, enlisted in the cause of infidelity, and attacked revelation in the disguise of a friend. The brilliant historian above quoted says:—“Dodwell had perused innumerable volumes in various languages, and acquired more learning than his slender faculties were able to bear. The small intellectual spark which he possessed was put out by the fuel. Some of his books seem to have been written in a madhouse; and, though filled with proofs of his immense reading, degrade him to the level of Ludowich Muggleton. He published a treatise in which he maintained that a marriage between a member of the Church of England and a Dissenter was a nullity, and that the couple were in the sight of Heaven guilty of adultery. He defended the use of instrumental music in public worship, on the ground that the notes of the organ had a power to counteract the influence of devils on the spinal marrow of human beings. He further maintained that our souls are naturally mortal, and that the gift of immortality is conveyed in the sacrament of baptism; but, in order to the efficacy of the sacrament, it is absolutely necessary that the water be poured, and the words be pronounced by a priest who has been ordained by a bishop.”
John Kettlewell, born at Northallerton, fellow and tutor of Lincoln College, Oxford, domestic chaplain of the Countess of Bedford, and rector of Coleshill in Warwickshire; a celebrated preacher, a laborious writer; learned without being proud, and wise without being cunning; devout without affectation, religious without morosity, and courteous without flattery. His works, which were numerous, were published in two volumes folio.
Charles Leslie, chancellor of the cathedral church of the diocese of Connor, one of the ablest champions the Non-jurors had; a man of extensive learning and great merit, and the well-known author of “A Short and Easy Method with the Deists.”
To the above, of course, must be added the primate and the six bishops. Dr Birch, in drawing Sancroft’s character, says:—“He was slow, timorous, and narrow-spirited; but at the same time a good, honest, and well-meaning man. He was laborious in his studies, and had written, perhaps, more with his own hand than any person of his time. But the three sermons which he published give us a very low idea of his taste and judgment, and are more suitable to a disciple of Bishop Andrews than a contemporary of Dr Tillotson.” Turner, Bishop of Ely, was a man of higher position than of intellect. Lake, Bishop of Chichester, is also unknown to fame. Ken, Bishop of Bath, in some respects was a man of mark; his works, all of a theological and practical turn, were published in four volumes octavo. He was a man of great integrity and courage; and, though deprived of his bishopric, to the day of his death signed himself “late Bishop of Bath and Wells.” He died in 1710, having been in the habit for many years of travelling with his shroud in his portmanteau, and which he always put on when attacked by illness. White of Peterborough is scarce worth mentioning. Thomas of Worcester died during the first year of William and Mary’s reign; and of Frampton of Gloucester we know nothing which is worth relating.
These, then, were the principal men among the Non-jurors; and these, with four hundred clergymen, forfeited their ecclesiastical benefices, and formed a sort of non-juring church, avowedly Jacobite in its political predilections and principles, and, which for many years, waged a fierce controversy with the Establishment on the theological aspects of the question which divided them. The non-juring system had a few lay-adherents, but it extended beyond the clergy only to a very limited extent. The new sect was a sect of preachers without hearers. A few had independent means. Some lived by literature; one or two practised physic. Thomas Wagstaffe, for example, who had been chancellor of Lichfield, had many patients, and made himself conspicuous among them by always visiting them in full canonicals. But these were exceptions. Most of the Non-jurors found themselves thrown on the world with nothing to eat and nothing to do. They naturally degenerated into beggars and loungers, and many of them became domesticated as chaplains, tutors, and spiritual directors in the houses of opulent Jacobites.[[80]] The schism of the Non-jurors, however, led to great changes among the occupants of Church offices; and, before the end of the third year of King William’s reign, he had issued no fewer than eighteen conges for the election of new bishops. During this brief period, sixteen new prelates, all indebted for their promotion to the existing government, and recommended by their attachment to the principles of the Revolution, were introduced into the House of Lords; and of the whole twenty-six sees then existing, only ten were left in the possession of persons who had been bishops in the reign of James.[[81]]