day, before dinner, he went to his bureau and took out a paper. It was a copy of the testimonial sent to King James (as he called him), signed by his Lordship (Winchelsea) and two others (I think) in his behalf. He afterwards shewed me the commission for his consecration. Upon this I begged his blessing, which he gave me with the fervent zeal and devotion of a primitive Bishop. I asked him if I was so happy as to belong to his diocese? His answer was (I thought) very remarkable: Dear friend, (said he) we leave the sees open, that the gentlemen who now unjustly possess them, upon the restoration, may, if they please, return to their duty, and be continued. We content ourselves with full episcopal power as suffragans."[1]
Blackburn, as has been seen, stood out from the
- ↑ Nichols, i. 252, 253. Blackbourne was buried in Islington Churchyard, and Nichols mentions, "when a schoolboy, I have often gazed with astonishment at the following epitaph, the meaning of which I was then unable to comprehend:
Hic situm est quod mortale fuit
Viri vere reverendi
Johannis Blackbourne A. M.
Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ Presbyteri,
Pontificorum æque ac Novatorum Mallei,
Docti, clari, strenui, prompti:
Qui (uti verbo Dicam) cætera enim quis nescit?
Cum eo non dignus erat,
Usque adeo degener, mundus,
Ad Beatorum Sedes
Translatus est, 17 die Novembris
a.d. mdccxli. ætat. suæ lviii.On the foot stone:
Christo qui vivit, morte perire nequit.
Resurgam.J. B.
Nunc, amice Lector, quisquis sis,
Ex hinc disce, qui es, et quid eris."
