CHAPTER IX. BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. Dr. Sprat-Queen Anne makes Atterbury a Bishop-His Visit to Pope's Villa-Dr. Wake-The Bishop of WinchesterDean Swift's Congratulations-Bishop Atterbury's Letters to Bishop Trelawney-Prior solicits Preferment for a FriendBishop Atterbury recommends a Clergyman-Queen Anne's Death-George I. prejudiced against the Bishop of Rochester-He and the Bishop of Bristol refuse to sign the Declaration of some of the Protestant Prelates in 1715-Dr. Wake Archbishop of Canterbury-Ballad on Drs. South and Sherlock-The Bangorean Controversy-Dean Swift to Bishop Atterbury-The Bishop to Sir Jonathan Trelawney -His Letter to Pope respecting Prior-Infant BaptismPeerage Bill-Dr. Lewis Atterbury's Correspondence with his Brother-The New Dormitory in Westminster School projected by the Bishop. THE career of Thomas Sprat was a remarkable one. Like several of his contemporaries, lay and clerical, his earliest declaration of opinion took the shape of a poem addressed while a student at Oxford to the Lord Protector,* in which the young versifier ventured to declare Thou sought'st not out of envy, hope, or hate, But to refine the Church and State. + "Poems upon the Death of his late Highnesse Oliver, Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland; written by Mr. Edw. Waller, Mr. John Dryden, and Mr. Sprat, of Oxford," 1658. VOL. I. 17 He did not enter into holy orders until after the Restoration, when, to prove how completely he had embraced the new order of things, he became chaplain to Charles II., as well as to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, whose poetical compositions he revised. He had taken the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and having been elected a fellow of the Royal Society, wrote a history of that learned body. Court patronage flowed in upon him. He was a prebendary in Westminster in 1668, five years later succeeding to the deanery. In 1683 he had also received a canonry at Windsor. He gained favour from the King and his brother by drawing up an account of what was styled "The Protestant Plot." James II. rewarded him with the bishopric of Rochester, 1685; then appointed him clerk of the closet, and a member of the Ecclesiastical Commission. His subserviency was notorious; nevertheless, after the flight of the King he wrote a letter to the Earl of Dorset, vindicating his proceedings while connected with the Commission, from which, when its tyranny became most mischievous, he withdrew. He had helped Dr. Thomas White, Bishop of Peterborough, and Dr. Nathaniel Crew, of Durham, in drawing up a public thanksgiving for the Queen's being pregnant, for which he was irreverently chronicled in a ballad. Two Toms and a Nat In council sat, To rig out a thanksgiving; And make a pray'r For a thing in the air, That's neither dead nor living. DR. WARTON'S CALUMNIES. 243 Dr. Sprat did not withdraw his assistance from the King till after the trial of his brother prelates had shown him the temper of the nation. There is nothing surprising in his now joining the stronger party, and assisting them in getting rid of his patron, nor in his being regarded with anything but favour by the new government. In the year 1692 he was taken into custody on suspicion of being concerned in a plot for restoring the abdicated monarch. It was an era of sham conspiracies, and this proved one of them. The Bishop of Rochester having undergone three searching examinations by the Privy Council, the villany of the transaction was revealed, and the prelate liberated; a narrow escape which he annually kept in remembrance as a day of thanksgiving. He professed a warm zeal for the Church of England, and supported Dr. Atterbury in the active demonstrations the latter made in its behalf, but took no prominent part in politics. He was much admired as a preacher, and his sermons frequently reprinted. He died May 20, 1713. Dr. Warton, who has earned special eminence among the slanderers of Atterbury, avers that "It was with difficulty Queen Anne was persuaded to make Atterbury a bishop, which she did at last on the repeated importunities of Lord Harcourt, who pressed the Queen to do so, because she had before disappointed him in not placing Sacheverell on the bench." There is not a word of truth in the statement. So far from the Queen requiring either pressure or persuasion, there existed the most perfect understanding between the Dean and his royal mistress, who had seized every available opportunity of showing the high sense Her Majesty entertained of her chaplain's services. His elevation to the episcopal bench was contemporary with his appointment as Dean of Westminster, and was a source of intense gratification to his numerous friends, literary, clerical, and political. The new Bishop of Rochester was more than once an honoured visitor at the Twickenham villa. To the mother of Pope he was even more welcome than he was to her son, and seems to have attracted several guests of about his.own age, who made the society there extremely agreeable to both. Respecting these the poet wrote: There are certain old people who take up all my time, and will hardly allow me to keep any other company. They were introduced here by a man of their own sort, who has made me perfectly rude to all my contemporaries, and will not so much as suffer me to look upon them. The person I complain of is the Bishop of Rochester.* Sir Jonathan Trelawney was applied to by the newmade bishop for the benefit of his episcopal experience. Dr. Atterbury appears to have been in such a hurry, that he forgot to alter his signature. It was his old friend who pointed this out. The request, contained in the first of the following notes, was promptly complied with. The Bishop of Rochester was introduced by the Bishop of Winchester on the following day. BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. 245 THE BISHOP OF ROCHESTER TO THE BISHOP OF WINCHESTER. Monday, July 6, 1713. My Lord, I just now received the enclosed,* and beg to know of your lordship in what habit I am to be introduced, and in what habit we are to go to St. Paul's afterwards, since the Queen does not go thither. I hope your lordship will do me the honour of introducing me, and add that to the many favours you have already conferred upon, my lord, your ever faithful, obliged, and most humble servant, FRA. ATTERBURY.† BISHOP ATTERBURY TO THE BISHOP OF WINCHESTER. My Lord, I write this only to thank your lordship for putting me in mind of my title, which else in my conscience I should scarce have thought on this day or two. Your lordship may depend upon it that the Queen does not go to St. Paul's to-morrow.‡ However, I will be ready with the scarlet robe at Mr. Battely's, in the cloisters, Westminster, at half an hour before nine tomorrow, and beg your lordship when you come to the bishops' room in the lobby to send for me to you. I would not have troubled your lordship with a second letter, but that I was willing to acknowledge my old obligations to your lordship under a new name, and upon this occasion first to subscribe myself, my lord, your ever faithful and most humble servant, FR. ROFFEN.§ * The usual summons to Parliament. Dr. Francis Atterbury had been consecrated in the Archiepiscopal Chapel at Lambeth, on the preceding day.-W. M. + Atterbury Papers. The following message was delivered to each House of Parliament, July 6, 1713 66 - That her Majesty, not having entirely recovered her strength since her last fit of the gout, and being apprehensive that the fatigue of going to St. Paul's Church may be too great, chuses rather to return her thanks to Almighty God for the blessings of peace in her Chapel at St. James's; but desires that this House will proceed to St. Paul's Church, with as much solemnity as if her Majesty was to be in person there." Both Houses of Parliament accordingly attended, and Bishop Hooper preached before them.-W. M. § Atterbury Papers. |