published an _Inquiry into the Measures of Submission to the Supreme
Authority_ in defence of the revolution. He was consecrated to the see of
Salisbury on the 31st of March 1689 by a commission of bishops to whom
Archbishop Sancroft had delegated his authority, declining personally to
perform the office. In his pastoral letter to his clergy urging them to
take the oath of allegiance, Burnet grounded the claim of William and Mary
on the right of conquest, a view which gave such offence that the pamphlet
was burnt by the common hangman three years later. As bishop he proved an
excellent administrator, and gave the closest attention to his pastoral
duties. He discouraged plurality of livings, and consequent non-residence,
established a school of divinity as Salisbury, and spent much time himself
in preparing candidates for confirmation, and in the examination of those
who wished to enter the priesthood. Four discourses delivered to the clergy
of his diocese were printed in 1694. During Queen Mary's lifetime
ecclesiastical patronage passed through her hands, but after her death
William III. appointed an ecclesiastical commission on which Burnet was a
prominent member, for the disposal of vacant benefices. In 1696 and 1697 he
presented memorials to the king suggesting that the first-fruits and tenths
raised by the clergy should be devoted to the augmentation of the poorer
livings, and though his suggestions were not immediately accepted, they
were carried into effect under Queen Anne by the provision known as Queen
Anne's Bounty. His second wife died of smallpox in 1698, and in 1700 Burnet
married again, his third wife being Elizabeth (1661-1709), widow of Robert
Berkeley and daughter of Sir Richard Blake, a rich and charitable woman,
known by her _Method of Devotion_, posthumously published in 1710. In 1699
he was appointed tutor to the royal duke of Gloucester, son of the Princess
Anne, an appointment which he accepted somewhat against his will. His
influence at court had declined after the death of Queen Mary; William
resented his often officious advice, placed little confidence in his
discretion, and soon after his accession is even said to have described him
as _ein rechter Tartuffe_. Burnet made a weighty speech against the bill
(1702-1703) directed against the practice of occasional conformity, and was
a consistent exponent of Broad Church principles. He devoted five years'
labour to his _Exposition of the Thirty-nine Ar