Page:History of the Nonjurors.djvu/116

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
98
History of the Nonjurors.

that then the deprived Archbishop and Bishops resolved to continue the same, and to write to the late King James about it: that in their discourses on this matter, the deprived Bishop of Ely acquainted the Archbishop and his brethren with the letters in St. John's College Library in Cambridge, which had passed upon the like occasion between Chancellor Hyde and Dr. Barwick; that thereupon they had recourse to those letters, and resolved to impart the secret to the then Earl of Clarendon, who had been his father's secretary in that correspondence; that from those letters, and the additional light which they received from that noble Lord, it appeared that, in that case, in regard of the difficulties of making elections, it was resolved to consecrate the new Bishops with Suffragan titles, according to the statute of King Henry VIII. That therefore the deprived Archbishop and Bishops resolved upon the same method in this case also, and to write to the late King James for his consent to it in the way directed by that statute; though (it seems) they judged it a matter of so great importance as to resolve to do it even without his consent rather than not at all: that upon their application, the late King James returned his answer, that he would readily concur with it, and required them to send some person over to him, with whom he might further confer about the matter, and along with him a list of the deprived Clergy: that Dr. George Hickes being made choice of for that purpose, set forward from London May 19th, 1693, and, after many difficulties, arrived at St. Germains in about six weeks time: that there the late King James acquainted him that, for the further satisfaction of his own conscience, he had consulted the Archbishop of Paris, and the Bishop of Meaux, and the