him specially offensive to her favourite party. His fulfilment of the duties of the episcopate rose much above the standard of the age, and overcame the prejudice with which he was at first regarded by his clergy. His conciliatory manners, unblemished life, and high reputation secured respect in a diocese where party animosities were unusually strong (Biograph. Brit.). His first charge, issued in 1710, which covers nineteen closely printed folio pages of small type, will still repay reading. It is in the form of a series of remarks on the ‘Articles of Enquiry’ issued to his diocese, and throws much light on the condition of the church at the time. It closes with an impassioned defence of his own party against the charge of disloyalty to the church. He gives some sensible advice to his clergy upon the use of Welsh (‘British,’ he calls it) in their sermons. This charge exhibits Fleetwood as one who aimed sensibly and sincerely at promoting the good of his diocese. He paved the greater part of the cathedral at his own cost, and laid out above 100l. in the decoration of the choir (Cole MSS. xvi. 35). On the fall of the whigs Fleetwood absented himself from court, and openly expressed his indignation at the peace of Utrecht. Being selected to preach before the House of Lords on the general fast day, 16 Jan. 1711–1712, he chose for his subject ‘the people that delight in war’ (Ps. lxviii. 30), and defended the necessity of the war, of which the advantages were to be thrown away. The tory ministry adjourned the house beyond the day fixed for the sermon, so that it was not delivered; but it was at once printed, and though his name was concealed the authorship was no secret. His courageous attack upon the Jacobite tendencies of the government was quickly punished. Fleetwood at this time published four sermons preached by him on the deaths of Queen Mary, the Duke of Gloucester, William III, and the accession of Anne to the throne, and in an outspoken preface assailed the principle of non-resistance, and eloquently repudiated the doctrine that Christianity was favourable to political slavery. The tory ministry at first proposed to impeach Fleetwood for the publication. Eventually the House of Commons resolved, by a vote of 119 to 54, that the preface was malicious and factious, and sentenced it to be burnt by the common hangman. It was at once issued as No. 384 (21 May) of the ‘Spectator,’ and thus, as Fleetwood says to Burnet in answer to a sympathetic letter, conveyed ‘above fourteen thousand copies into people's hands who would otherwise never have seen or heard of it.’ Swift attacked it bitterly in a couple of papers (Works, 1814, iv. 276–93). Fleetwood took little part in public affairs during the brief remainder of Anne's reign, and could ‘hardly endure to think of them,’ and was especially indignant at the Schism Act of 1714. Soon after the accession of George I several bishoprics became vacant. Of these Ely was the first filled up, and Fleetwood was chosen for it. He was elected on 19 Nov. 1714, three months after the king's accession. Though advanced in years he was still assiduous in discharging his duties, and as the cathedral of Ely was too spacious for his voice, his sermons were commonly delivered in the chapel of Ely House in London, usually every Sunday.
As bishop of Ely he delivered two charges to his clergy in 1716 and 1722. Both enforce the solemnity of the ministerial office, and warmly eulogise George I. The case between Bentley and his fellows had been heard out before Fleetwood's predecessor, Dr. Moore [q. v.], whose death had put a stop to a definitive sentence of deprivation against Bentley. Application was at once made to the new bishop to carry on the case. Fleetwood declared that if he visited the college at all he would hold a general visitation, and take cognisance of all delinquencies reported to him of the fellows as well as of the master. Such a prospect frightened several of Bentley's opponents, whose moral character was not of the highest, into a mutual compact of forbearance. When the quarrel again broke out Fleetwood adhered to his refusal (Monk, Life of Bentley, i. 367–70, ii. 88, 247). He died at Tottenham, near London, to which place he had removed for the amendment of his health, from Ely House, Holborn, where he had chiefly resided, on 4 Aug. 1723, aged 67, and was buried in the north choir aisle of Ely Cathedral, 10 Aug. A monument bears an epitaph, laudatory, but not beyond his deserts. He left a widow and one son, James, on whom his father had conferred the archdeaconry of Ely.
In both his dioceses Fleetwood secured the love and esteem of his clergy, in spite of opinions generally unpalatable to them. Few bishops have left a more unspotted reputation behind them. He endeavoured to dispense his patronage to the most deserving without regard to personal influence. He always refused to enter into personal controversy. When attacked he would say: ‘I write my own sense as well as I can. If it be right it will support itself; if it be not it is fit it should sink.’ He liberally assisted his clergy with money, books, and in the remission of their fees. As a preacher his style is dignified, but simple, with much calmness of ex-
