Page:History of the Nonjurors.djvu/391

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History of the Nonjurors.
373

quence of his refusal to take the Oath of Allegiance. He was one of the subscribers to the Bishop's dying declaration. On quitting his living he retired to his fellowship in St. John's College, Cambridge, the Oath not being required, unless the Bishop of Ely, the visitor of his College, should deem it necessary to exact a compliance. By a statute of the College moreover the Bishop was not at liberty to visit, unless called upon to do so by a majority of the fellows: so that many individuals retained their fellowships after they had been removed from parishes. At length he complied, and took the Oath to Queen Anne. About the same time he was chosen Master of his College. On the accession of George I. an act was passed, enjoining all persons, who held a post of the value of five pounds per annum, to take the Oaths of Allegiance and Abjuration: so that Dr. Jenkin was under the painful necessity of ejecting some of the fellows. This was to him a most distressing step: for having experienced the same scruples himself, he keenly felt for those who could not take the Oaths. Baker probably and others would have complied, if the Oath of Abjuration had not been imposed. Besides the "Defence of the Profession" of Bishop Lake, he wrote several other works. The Reasonableness of the Christian Religion is well known to those, who are conversant in such studies. He died in the year 1727.[1]

Henry Gandy, who, after Spinkes, was perhaps one of the ablest of the opponents of the Usages, died in the year 1733. It is singular, that Granger and Noble should have represented him as a Roman Catholic. The preceding pages prove him to have been one of the best divines of the period.[2]


  1. Nichols, iv. 241—248.
  2. Noble, iii. 173.