vacancy of the see by the deprivation of the A. B." It is assumed that Beveridge deemed it unlawful to accept Bath and Wells, which was not the case. However Stillingfleet urges the point: "If it be unlawful to succeed a deprived Bishop, then he is the Bishop of the Diocese still: and then the law that deprives him is no law, and consequently the King and Parliament that made that law, no King nor Parliament: and how can this be reconciled with the Oath of Allegiance, unless the Dr. can swear allegiance to him who is no King, and hath no authority to govern." He argues that on such a supposition the Church of England was schismatical, and Beveridge himself a schismatic. The tone of the Letter proves that Beveridge's refusal was a keen disappointment to the government. Stillingfleet, as one of the ablest controversialists of the period, was employed to counteract the evils, which were apprehended from the refusal of such a man as Beveridge.
Beveridge was not the only clergyman, who refused to succeed to a see vacant by deprivation. Sharp, who had acted a conspicuous part previous to the Revolution, and who afterwards became Archbishop of York, entertained the same scruples. He was mentioned by the King as a proper person to succeed to one of the vacancies. Norwich was pressed upon him; but he refused to accept of any; not from scruples of conscience respecting the Oath, but from affection to the deprived Bishops.[1]
Some time after the deprivation of the Bishops,
- ↑ Sharp's Life, i. 108—110. Birch's Tillotson, 276, 277. Scott, the author of the Christian Life, refused the bishopric of Chester with other posts because they were vacant by deprivation. Hickes's Discourses on some Late Sermons. Preface—" A curious re-
