MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF FRANCIS ATTERBURY, D.D.. BISHOP OF ROCHESTER. WITH NOTICES OF HIS DISTINGUISHED CONTEMPORARIES. Compiled, chiefly from the Atterbury and Stuart Papers, BY Robert FOLKESTONE WILLIAMS, " AUTHOR OF LIVES OF THE ENGLISH CARDINALS," "THE COURT AND TIMES OF JAMES 1.," VOLUME THE FIRST. LONDON: WM. H. ALLEN AND CO., 13, WATERLOO PLACE, S.W 1869. [All rights reserved.] for 2101.37.5 54547.5 MAD 26 1305 LIBRARY Bright sund. -(I, II.) LONDON: PRINTED BY WOODFALL AND KINTER, XFORD LANE, STRAND, W.C. PREFACE. BEAUFORT and Wolsey of the Anglican Church, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, in their secular importance were followed by the Primates Laud and Williams of the Reformed Church of England. The impression the last two left upon the minds of the rising generation of Churchmen (the "young Levites") was not permitted to fade. Even during a period of great trial to the clergy, some of the ablest evidently kept before their eyes those remarkable exemplars of united Church and State influence just mentioned. Dr. Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, seems to have entertained notions of again exercising a similar amount of political sway; but his royal patron happened to be averse to ecclesiastical statesmen, and instead of playing the part of premier, he had to be content with that of historian. In a contemporary he met with a Protestant Churchman equally ambitious but better principled, while singularly accomplished, eloquent, and enterprising. As the favourite chaplain of Queen Anne, Francis Atterbury was enabled to surround himself with the master minds which distinguished the Renaissance of English literature under her auspices; as her favourite prelate he was equally the centre |