he charge of recusancy preferred against him.[4] When, however, the
fall of Clarendon was desired, Bristol was again welcomed at court. He took
his seat in the Lords on the 29th of July 1667. "The king," wrote Pepys in
November, "who not long ago did say of Bristoll that he was a man able in
three years to get himself a fortune in any kingdom in the world and lose
all again in three months, do now hug him and commend his parts everywhere
above all the world."[5] He pressed eagerly for Clarendon's commital, and
on the refusal of the Lords accused them of mutiny and rebellion, and
entered his dissent with "great fury."[6] In March 1668 he attended prayers
in the Lords. On the 15th of March 1673 though still ostensibly a Roman
Catholic, he spoke in favour of the Test Act, describing himself as "a
Catholic of the church of Rome, not a Catholic of the court of Rome," and
asserting the unfitness of Romanists for public office. His adventurous and
erratic career closed by death on the 20th of March 1677.

Bristol was one of the most striking and conspicuous figures of his time, a
man of brilliant abilities, a great orator, one who distinguished himself
without effort in any sphere of activity he chose to enter, but whose
natural gifts were marred by a restless ambition and instability of
character fatal to real greatness. Clarendon describes him as "the only man
I ever knew of such incomparable parts that was none the wiser for any
experience or misfortune that befell him," and records his extraordinary
facility in making friends and making enemies. Horace Walpole characterized
him in a series of his smartest antitheses as "a singular person whose life
was one contradiction." "He wrote against popery and embraced it; he was a
zealous opposer of the court and a sacrifice for it; was conscientiously
converted in the midst of his prosecution of Lord Strafford and was most
unconscientiously a persecutor of Lord Clarendon. With great parts, he
always hurt himself and his friends; with romantic bravery, he was always
an unsuccessful commander. He spoke for the Test Act, though a Roman
Catholic; and addicted himself to astrology on the birthday of true
philosophy." Besides his youthful correspondence with Sir K. Digby on the
subject of religion already mentioned, he was the author of an _Apologie_
(1643, Thomason Tracts, E. 34 (32)), justifying his support of the king's
cause; of _Elvira ... a comedy_ (1667), printed in R. Dodsley's _Se