of Durham. He was vice-chancellor of the university of Oxford 1669–73, and in 1670 he became dean of Rochester. On 9 Feb. 1672 he was consecrated bishop of Bath and Wells (Kennett, Register, 1728, i. 752). He resigned the presidency of St. John's 3 Oct. 1673, at the expiration of his vice-chancellorship (St. John's College MSS.) In his diocese he was ‘greatly beloved by the loyal gentry, who were almost unanimous in all elections and public affairs during his residence among them’ (Hutchins, Hist. of Dorset, ii. 345). Early in November 1684 the king gave him the bishopric of Winchester (Cassan, Lives of the Bishops of Winchester, ii. 189). In the next year he was one of the first to offer an energetic resistance to Monmouth (Ranke, Hist. of England, iv. 257), and at Sedgmoor his own horses drew the royal cannon to the point whence he himself directed their fire with decisive effect. He received a wound in the battle, from which he suffered for the rest of his life (Life of Ken, by a Layman, pp. 282, 409). After the victory he interceded for the lives of the rebels.
In the famous contention between James II and Magdalen College he played an important part (cf. Bloxam, Magdalen College and James II, Oxford Historical Society). As visitor of the college he supported the fellows in their adherence to the statutes, telling them that he ‘admired their courage,’ and in spite of the king's known wishes he admitted Dr. Hough to the presidency, 16 April 1687, and stoutly defended his action in a letter to Sunderland. At the end of the long contest, 25 Oct. 1688, he restored the ejected fellows, making ‘a Latin speech every way becoming his function and character.’ ‘Never was visitor received with greater joy or with greater favour’ (Dr. T. Smith to Sir W. Howard, ib. p. 261). Mews was known to approve of the petition of the seven bishops, and was only prevented by illness from taking part in their meeting (Macaulay). Yet James, in the crisis of the revolution, sought his advice, and was strongly urged by him to call a parliament (Life of Ken, p. 476). When William landed, the king thought of taking refuge at Farnham Castle (Reresby, Memoirs, 4to edit. p. 178). Mews took the oaths to William and Mary, and served for a time on the royal commission on toleration, but withdrew when it was proposed to allow the holy eucharist to be administered to communicants sitting (Macaulay; Birch, Tillotson, i. 127). On Whit-Sunday 1691 he was, in the absence of Compton, bishop of London, chief consecrator of Tillotson as archbishop.
After the revolution he does not appear to have taken much part in politics. Among the protests of the lords to which his signature is attached are those against an alteration of the marriage laws, 19 Nov. 1689; against confirming the laws passed in the convention, 8 April 1690, and against the expunging of the said protest as an act unprecedented and unconstitutional; against the bill of attainder for Sir John Fenwick, 23 Dec. 1696, and against Montague's bill annulling the privileges of the old East India Company, 1 July 1698 (Protests of the Lords, ed. J. E. T. Rogers, i. 89, 97, 98, 128–30, 133–4). He died 9 Nov. 1706, aged 89, and was buried in Winchester Cathedral, where a monument commemorates his fidelity to king and church.
Mews was versatile and energetic. His correspondence shows a clear and acute intellect and considerable political sagacity. The extraordinary lavishness with which his services were rewarded at the Restoration bears witness alike to the value of his past work and the importance that was attached to his future support. His unwearied activity and the bonhomie of his manners rendered him a most useful agent of the government of Charles II. At the same time he never subordinated his principles to his partisanship. He was a loyal soldier and a good bishop. An ardent loyalist (one of his sermons before the king was quoted in the defence of Sacheverell), he was firm in resisting the unconstitutional action of James II, to whom he was bound by long ties of personal service. Without being himself learned he was the patron of learned men. Lowth received his first preferment at his hands. While Burnet speaks sneeringly of his obsequiousness and zeal, Wood praises his hospitality, generosity, justice, and frequent preaching. Hearne briefly describes him as ‘an old honest Cavalier.’
Mews published: 1. Some laudatory hexameters prefixed to ‘Phasaurus sive Libido Vindex,’ by T. Snelling, London, Andrew Pennycook, 1650. 2. ‘The Ex-ale-tation of Ale (in verse), written by a Learned Pen,’ London, 1671. ‘'Tis said the author was Dr. Peter Mews, bishop of Winchester’ (Hearne, ed. Doble, Oxford Hist. Soc., iii. 219). 3. His ‘Articles of Visitation,’ 1676 (L. Lichfield, Oxford) and 1679 (no printer's name).
There are portraits of him at Farnham Castle, St. John's and Magdalen colleges, Oxford, and in the National Portrait Gallery, London. The last was engraved by Loggan. He is represented in the robes of prelate of the Garter, and with a black patch covering a scar on the left cheek.
