originator of this proposal condemned the separation, though he would have prevented it by not imposing the Oath. The blame he places, where it must be placed, upon the State: "Whatever fault was committed here by their being dismissed from Episcopal jurisdictions in their several dioceses, that lay all at the door of the civil government. The Clergy in general mourned for it: several, purely out of conscience, out of true and real conscience, refused to accept of those dignities, which they knew those excellent men were unjustly deprived of, and yet continued quietly in the exercise of their own functions, and in their less envied stations." This is strong testimony from a complying clergyman: and it will appear the stronger from the fact that he condemned the separation in no doubtful terms. He adds on this point: "Supposing those put in their places to have been schismatical usurpers: why should all those reverend Prelates, who submitted to the then government upon such reasons as were satisfactory to themselves, be branded as schismaticks? Must I commence a schismatick only because I differ from some of my brethren in points purely political: though I conform entirely to all the orders of the same Church, worship God by the same liturgy, and acknowledge and assert the same Church government, and that only to be of divine right?"[1]
A petition was also presented from the diocese of Bath and Wells. The petitioners stated, that they should have been happy if the objectors could have taken the Oaths; that, however, they had formerly exposed themselves for the common safety; and that
- ↑ Melbourne's Legacy, 8vo. Vol. ii. 341, 342, 345.
