This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
162
History of the Nonjurors.

appointed day arrived, the patrons were at liberty to present other Clerks for institution.

We have seen, that the Nonjurors, both Bishops and Clergy, suffered the loss of all things, rather than act against their consciences. Worldly substance, honours, station—all were given up by these truly devoted men. Their conduct, throughout their whole career, is a triumphant answer to the flippant charge of a popish leaning. Had such been the case they would have taken the Oath, in order that they might secretly promote their own designs. But they resorted to no unworthy arts. They were content to suffer in what they deemed a righteous cause. Their sufferings and self denial are little known to the public, because no chronicler has yet been found to gather up the scattered materials of this despised but interesting body. Calamy and others laud the patience of the ministers ejected in 1662; but their sufferings were in no case greater, while, in many instances, they were less, than those of the Nonjurors. There is, moreover, this striking difference between the two classes of sufferers. The ejected ministers did not suffer in silence: they raised their cry, and it was heard: they found numerous advocates; but the Nonjurors were left to themselves; they endured their trials in silence and with meekness; and few persons were found to afford them so much as their sympathy.

Some even of the Bishops, men who had lived in honour and affluence, were reduced to the greatest extremities; becoming dependent on the bounty of others; though previous to the Revolution they possessed an abundance. In some cases they were in a state of actual poverty: while in none did they possess more than a mere pittance. Ken lived chiefly