Most people maintained he had changed for the sake of loaves and fishes; and, as Mrs. Sherlock had made herself very notorious, and was said to have had immense influence over her husband, she caught a terrible pelting from a literary mob, who assailed her as Xanthippe, Delilah, and Eve, all in one. Sherlock had to pay the penalty, which men, whose new opinions jump in the same direction as their pecuniary interests, must ever pay; but human motives, whether good or evil, lie so far beneath the surface, that the reading of them by even honest historians may widely differ from the reading of them by the only Omniscient One. Contemporaries were too much involved in party strife to take an unbiassed view of Sherlock's conduct; and writers since have scarcely been able to free themselves from prejudices handed down by the pamphlets of that day. The grave feature of the case affecting the reputation of the Master and Dean, is to be found, not in the new application of a principle which he had long held; but in the repudiation of his old principles, just at the moment when the Battle of the Boyne had destroyed all prospect of James' restoration-the chance upon which, as Sherlock's enemies believed, he had ventured hopes of high preferment, during the time of casting in his lot with the poor Nonjurors.1 The Battle of the Boyne having established the Revolution, and with it the throne of William, the people who had hailed him as their Deliverer became more than ever impatient towards all who remained disaffected towards his Government. Lloyd, the nonjuring Bishop of Norwich, a friend, There is in the British Museum (Cole MSS., xxx. 168) a curious letter by Sherlock on taking rash vows. addressed to some one who had sworn to God he would not follow the trade in which he had been brought up. adviser, and correspondent of Sancroft, not being one of the illustrious Seven, had never shared in that halo of confessorship which for awhile had played around their sacred heads; but he had long been, and was still more than ever, regarded as an obstinate, violent, and intriguing Churchman, bent upon overthrowing the new Sovereign, and bringing back to Whitehall the exiled King. His politics, not his religion, made him unpopular; and his letters to his archiepiscopal friend, written in the summer of 1690, betray the fact, that whatever might be the dislike of the London populace to nonjuring Bishops in general, a feeling of hatred prevailed against him in particular, and threatened his security in one of the most unaristocratic districts of the Metropolis. "I was yesterday," he wrote on the 5th of August, "forced to a sudden flight, being alarmed by the rabble, who began to appear at their Reformation work in Old Street. I had a message from a good friend last Saturday, which assured me that the rabble would be up in a short time. And on Friday, my housekeeper (being among some of her relations in Cripplegate) brought me word, that the fanatics talked bitterly against the Bishops, and would shortly call them to an account. "About 9 of the clock yesterday, Mr. Edwards, of Eye, and another gentleman, called upon me, and told me they saw about 150 of the mob very busy in pulling down of houses in Old Street. Within a few minutes the hawker which sells pamphlets brought the same tidings, and, in regard the dangerous crew were so near, I sent forthwith one of my men to see how the affair went abroad, and another to fetch me a hackney coach, into which I got with my wife and child, and straightway took sanctuary in the Temple. From thence I sent for further information, and found that the crew in Old Street was dispersed; partly by Justice Parry coming among them and taking their names and threatening them with informations; and chiefly by a company of the train-bands, who in that nick of time passed that way to muster in the fields. "About four in the afternoon I returned to my house and found all quiet in the way. If the rabble had continued I would not have failed to send notice to your Grace; and, on the other hand, I resolved not to send a confused uncertain alarm. God be praised, this scarecrow is over, and I hope God will still deliver us from the bloody fangs of cruel saints and scoundrels."1 Six months later the popular fury against men of Lloyd's order was being fanned afresh, and again he told his sorrows to his old friend: "Your Grace will see by the enclosed papers how the mob are encouraged to bring some under their discipline: their wrath is cruel, and their malice as keen as razors, but God defend the innocent from their rage. "There is also published a most devilish Atheistical satire against the Clergy in general, but more especially against poor Nonjurors. I think no age hath seen the like of it, it's called a Satire against the Priests."2 Nonjurors lived on both sides the Irish Channel. Soon after the battle which decided the fate of James, though it did not crush the hopes and schemes of his supporters, William had his attention called to the refusal of the Bishop of Ossory to pray for him in public worship. "His Majesty's command," said the Secretary of State to the delinquent," is, that your Lordship be suspended till further order. I know not the terms, being here in a camp, that are used in things of this nature; but I acquaint your Lordship of His Majesty's present resentment, and can say no more till I hear from your Lordship herein." Nonjurors on this side of the Channel, however, gave much more trouble than they did on the other. A scheme for the restoration of James came to light at the end of 1690. The leader of the conspiracy was Richard Graham, Viscount Preston, Secretary of State in the preceding reign, whose patent of nobility had been drawn up at St. Germains, and who retained his seals of office in spite of the Revolution. Secret conferences were held amongst the English Jacobites, and as the result, Lord Preston, with a Mr. Ashton and another companion, were despatched with treasonable papers to the ex-King; but ere they had passed Tilbury Fort, in a smack which was to convey them to the shores of France, they were seized and brought back to London. Preston and Ashton were tried, convicted, and condemned at the Old Bailey. Ashton was executed; Preston was pardoned. As they lay under sentence of death, the sympathies of the Nonjurors eagerly gathered round them, and the following letter from two well-known members of the party, to Sancroft-who still lingered in his Archiepiscopal Palace on the banks of the Thamesshows how earnestly they sought to enlist his offices: "We who waited on your Grace on Sunday last, in the evening, being sensible that we were defective in the delivery of our message, occasioned, in great measure, out of profound respect to your Grace, have, upon a fuller recollection of the importance of that affair, presumed to lay our thoughts more plainly before your 1 Mant's Hist. of the Church of Ireland, ii. Preface. Grace, humbly conceiving, with all due submission to your Grace's judgment, that if your Grace shall think it proper to give your personal assistance to the gentlemen under sentence of death, it would not only be a very great comfort and satisfaction to the dying gentlemen, but likewise a considerable support and encouragement to all surviving honest men. 'My Lord, the concern is very extraordinary, otherwise we had not presumed to give your Grace this trouble, and therefore, we humbly beg your Grace would please to excuse this freedom.1 "JEREMY COLLIER, Turner, Bishop of Ely, was charged with complicity in Preston's treasonable business, and two suspicious letters were produced, said to be in the Prelate's handwriting; but I cannot find evidence of their authorship, or any proof in their contents justifying a charge of treason. As Turner immediately hid himself, and then absconded, it looks, notwithstanding, as if he felt a pang of conscious guilt; but concealment in his case seems to have been a difficult matter, for he had such a remarkable nose, that Sancroft, with a play of humour,-which occasionally illumined his misfortunes,-spoke of his friend as resembling Paul's ship of Alexandria, which carried a well-known sign upon its prow, or beak. Hence, though London was a great wood, it would be hard for one with such a face, however disguised by a patriarchal beard, or by a huge peruke, to escape detection. It is not a 1 January 20, 1691. Tanner MSS., xxvii. 236. 2 Ken's Life, 381. D'Oyley says that Turner was suspected "probably with great reason," i. 461. And the author of |