But the more strenuous Nonjurors were opposed to any such compromise. They argued for a separation from the Church established. It has been said, that Sancroft was at first against a separation, and that his reluctance to encourage it continued for some time. This feeling, however, if it ever existed, appears to have been relinquished after his retirement to Fresingfield: for he was accustomed to speak of the Nonjurors as the true Church of England, and of the National Establishment as an apostate and rebellious Church.[1] Thus in February 1691-2, Sancroft delegated the exercise of his archiepiscopal powers, by a formal instrument, to Lloyd, the deprived Bishop of Norwich:—a step which shews that he did not labour to prevent the schism, though perhaps he came reluctantly into the scheme. The following is an extract from this document.
"William, by Divine Providence, an humble minister of the Metropolitan Church of Canterbury, to the Right Reverend Father in Christ, and most dearly beloved brother in our Lord, William, by the same providence, still Bishop of Norwich, Greeting: Health and brotherly love in the Lord. Whereas, I very lately by a lay force being driven out of the house of Lambeth, and not able to find in the neighbouring city any place where I could safely or conveniently abide, have therefore retired afar off, seeking where in my old age I could rest my weary head: and whereas there were even then remaining many affairs, and there do also daily arise many more, and those too of the greatest moment, as being the affairs of God and the Church, the which can no where so commodiously and expeditiously be transacted as in
- ↑ D'Oyley, ii. 39.
