inflammatory, he was, by the House of Commons, at the instigation of Godolphin, impeached, and tried before the Lords in 1710.  He was found guilty of a misdemeanour, and was suspended from preaching for three years.  The trial made a great stir at the time, and served but to increase the popularity of a man who, had he been let alone, would, probably, never have been heard of.  He died in 1724, holding the living of St. Andrew, Holborn, to which he was presented after the expiration of his sentence. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 41:  See Sir Thomas More’s “Apology,” 1533, p. 241.]

I suppose his lordship thinks, there is some original impediment in the study of divinity, or secret incapacity in a gown and cassock without lawn, which disqualifies all inferior clergymen from debating upon subjects of doctrine or discipline in the church.  It is a famous saying of his, that “he looks upon every layman to be an honest man, until he is by experience convinced to the contrary; and on every clergyman as a knave, till he finds him to be an honest man.”  What opinion then must we have of a Lower House of Convocation:[42] where I am confident he will hardly find three persons that ever convinced him of their honesty, or will ever be at the pains to do it?  Nay, I am afraid they would think such a conviction might be no very advantageous bargain, to gain the character of an honest man with his Lordship, and lose it with the rest of the world.

[Footnote 42:  It must not be forgotten, that, during the reign of Queen Anne, the body of the clergy were high-church men; but the bishops, who had chiefly been promoted since the Revolution, were Whiggish in politics, and moderate in their sentiments of church government.  Hence the Upper and Lower Houses of Convocation rarely agreed in sentiment on affairs of church or state. [T.  S.]]

In the famous Concordate that was made between Francis I. of France and Pope Leo X., the Bishop tells us, that “the king and pope came to a bargain, by which they divided the liberties of the Gallican Church between them, and indeed quite enslaved it."[43] He intends, in the third part of his History which he is going to publish, “to open this whole matter to the world.”  In the mean time, he mentions some ill consequences to the Gallican Church from that Concordate, which are worthy to be observed; “The church of France became a slave, and this change in their constitution put an end not only to national, but even to provincial synods in that kingdom.  The assemblies of the clergy there, meet now only to give subsidies,” &c. and he says, “our nation may see by that proceeding, what it is to deliver up the essential liberties of a free constitution to a court.” [44]

[Footnote 43:  Page 53.]

[Footnote 44:  Page 53.]