an aged
priest of the Church of England, and was well known in the University of
Oxford as a man of learning. He had in the late reign been suspected of
leaning towards Popery, but had outwardly conformed to the established
religion, and had at length been chosen Master of University College.
Soon after the accession of James, Walker determined to throw off the
disguise which he had hitherto worn. He absented himself from the
public worship of the Church of England, and, with some fellows and
undergraduates whom he had perverted, heard mass daily in his own
apartments. One of the first acts performed by the new Solicitor General
was to draw up an instrument which authorised Walker and his proselytes
to hold their benefices, notwithstanding their apostasy. Builders were
immediately employed to turn two sets of rooms into an oratory. In a
few weeks the Roman Catholic rites were publicly performed in University
College. A Jesuit was quartered there as chaplain. A press was
established there under royal license for the printing of Roman Catholic
tracts. During two years and a half, Walker continued to make war on
Protestantism with all the rancour of a renegade: but when fortune
turned he showed that he wanted the courage of a martyr. He was brought
to the bar of the House of Commons to answer for his conduct, and was
base enough to protest that he had never changed his religion, that he
had never cordially approved of the doctrines of the Church of Rome,
and that he had never tried to bring any other person within the pale
of that Church. It was hardly worth while to violate the most sacred
obligations of law and of plighted faith, for the purpose of making such
converts as these. [89]

In a short time the King went a step further. Sclater and Walker had
only been permitted to keep, after they became Papists, the preferment
which had been bestowed on them while they passed for Protestants. To
confer a high office in the Established Church on an avowed enemy of
that Church was a far bolder violation of the laws and of the royal
word. But no course was too bold for James. The Deanery of Christchurch
became vacant. That office was, both in dignity and in emolument, one of
the highest in the University of Oxford. The Dean was charged with the
government of a greater number of youths of high connections and of
great hopes than could then be found in any other college. He was also
the head of a Cathedral. In both characters it w