crown would have been left without the help of any advocate even of the
third rate.

Nothing had amazed or mortified the King more than the enthusiasm which
the Dissenters had shown in the cause of the Bishops. Penn, who, though
he had himself sacrificed wealth and honours to his conscientious
scruples, seems to have imagined that nobody but himself had a
conscience, imputed the discontent of the Puritans to envy and
dissatisfied ambition. They had not had their share of the benefits
promised by the Declaration of Indulgence: none of them had been
admitted to any high and honourable post; and therefore it was not
strange that they were jealous of the Roman Catholics. Accordingly,
within a week after the great verdict had been pronounced in Westminster
Hall, Silas Titus, a noted Presbyterian, a vehement Exclusionist, and a
manager of Stafford's impeachment, was invited to occupy a seat in the
Privy Council. He was one of the persons on whom the opposition had most
confidently reckoned. But the honour now offered to him, and the hope
of obtaining a large sum due to him from the crown, overcame his virtue,
and, to the great disgust of all classes of Protestants, he was sworn
in. [436]

The vindictive designs of the King against the Church were not
accomplished. Almost all the Archdeacons and diocesan Chancellors
refused to furnish the information which was required. The day on which
it had been intended that the whole body of the priesthood should be
summoned to answer for the crime of disobedience arrived. The High
Commission met. It appeared that scarcely one ecclesiastical officer had
sent up a return. At the same time a paper of grave import was delivered
to the board. It came from Sprat, Bishop of Rochester. During two years,
supported by the hope of an Archbishopric, he had been content to bear
the reproach of persecuting that Church which he was bound by every
obligation of conscience and honour to defend. But his hope had been
disappointed. He saw that, unless he abjured his religion, he had
no chance of sitting on the metropolitan throne of York. He was too
goodnatured to find any pleasure in tyranny, and too discerning not
to see the signs of the coming retribution. He therefore determined to
resign his odious functions; and he communicated his determination to
his colleagues in a letter written, like all his prose compositions,
with great propriety and dignity of style. It was impossible, he said,
that he co