Oldham Historical Research Group

Scan and page transcript from:
Historical Sketches of Oldham by Edwin Butterworth
Pub. 1856

Historical Sketches of Oldham by Edwin Butterworth

at Cambridge, by royal mandate, in 1661, and subsequently, D.D. The king, however, did not bestow any further favours upon him till 1684, when he was promoted to the bishopric of Bristol. During the rebellion of Monmouth, in the reign of James the Second, the Bishop of Bristol was attending his duty in parliament, but the king knowing his influence, and perfectly relying on his fidelity, immediately directed him to return to that city. Though so much afflicted with the gout that he was carried into his coach, he cheerfully obeyed, and on his way narrowly escaped being intercepted by the rebels. His conduct on this occasion, in preserving Bristol from the general contagion of disloyalty, which infected the west of England in June, 1685, was so satisfactory to the king, that before his return, Bishop Lake found that he had been appointed Bishop of Chichester. The sunshine of royal favour was however quickly overcast, and the memorable "declaration for liberty of conscience" alienated at once all the conscientious members of the Church of England from the court. On this occasion Bishop Lake nobly placed himself by the side of his friend, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The illegal imprisonment, the trial, and acquittal of the seven bishops, are facts too well known to require any recital here. But he who could stoutly refuse obedience to his sovereign for conscience' sake, could not bring himself to concur in the deposition of that sovereign, which he considered an act of positive re- sistance, and accordingly, on the accession of William the Third, he, in conjunction with his inseparable friend, Archbishop Sancroft, positively refused to take the oaths of allegiance to the new monarch, and prepared for a deprivation. All these changes and apprehensions could not but be accompanied with great anxiety, which seems to have broken down the constitution of an infirm man of sixty-five. In the month of August, 1689, he was seized by a shivering fit, the forerunner of a malignant fever and convulsions, which seasonably removed

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