year 1713, he deemed it necessary, for his own safety, to quit the country. Proceeding to the Continent, he resided in the Pretender's court, and was permitted, for a time, to perform divine service in a private chapel, according to the rites of the Anglican Church. In the year 1721 or 1722 he returned to Ireland, his native country. The Rehearsal, a periodical paper, was his production. He died on the 13th of April, 1722.
Laurence Howell's death occurred also during the reign of George I. His heavy sentence has already been mentioned. The degrading part of it, however, was remitted by his Majesty: but the prisoner died in Newgate in the year 1720. Whatever may have been his conduct with respect to the government, it appears, that his punishment was far heavier than the offence merited. His various works testify that he was a man of most extensive acquirements. His Synopsis Canonum is a most valuable production. Two volumes were published, the one in 1709, the other in 1710: and a third was actually in the press, when it was accidentally destroyed by fire. In 1715, however, the third volume was announced in the following manner: "The MS. copy of the third and last volume of Mr. Howell's Synopsis Can. Condi. Eccles. Græc. Lat. being burnt in White Fryars Jan. 1712, this is to give notice, that Mr. Howell hath once more finished the third volume."[1] The author was not discouraged by the loss of one copy of his manuscript, but immediately commenced the laborious task of rewriting the volume. One of his works, The History of the Pontificate, is directed against the pretensions of Rome, and may be appealed to in refutation of the silly charge of Popery against the Nonjurors. In the
- ↑ Nichols, i. 105, 106.
