removal of their Sovereign. Sancroft and the Bishops were determined to preserve the Church at all hazards: and in pursuing the course, which their consciences dictated, they hesitated not to go to the Tower. They suffered more in defence of Protestant principles, than those who have so severely reflected on their memory.
After King James had retired from Ireland, leaving King William in quiet possession of the crown, some of the Clergy, who hitherto had hesitated respecting their course, began to consider, whether they might not now submit and take the Oath. "Some there were who could not be brought to transfer their allegiance from him to another, by invocation of God's name: but who now, upon second thoughts, considering the desperate state of his affairs, were willing to be convinced, that both their interest and duty might be made to go together, and that a right of providential possession ought no longer to be disputed by them."[1] This was during the six months of suspension appointed by the Act. It is said, that offers were made to some, to induce compliance, though few only accepted them. "However," says the writer of Kettlewell's Life, "the forces of the Ecclesiastical Nonjurants were sensibly diminished: proportionable strength being added thereby to the Jurant Clergy, if strength consist in number." He adds, "Moreover it was expected by many, that some favour would have been shewn this Session to the ecclesiastics under suspension for declining the Oath, or at least to the more considerable of them: and some assurances are said to have been given to this effect by persons of no mean figure and
- ↑ Kettlewell's Life, 112.
