of no avail, as the deprived Bishops possessed no such power. This point was discussed by Dodwell in another work, which I shall presently notice.
Granting that the deprived Bishops had the power to appoint suffragans: it must be admitted, that they could not appoint them as their successors. A suffragan acted only by commission: and that commission was always dissolved by the death of the diocesan. "I may have leave to ask," says Marshall, "what authority a suffragan hath, independent on the commission, whereby he acts: and when the relation is dissolved between him and the person who so commissioned him?"[1]
It will be seen from the foregoing extracts, that Dodwell and his friends were not privy to the consecrations of Hickes and Wagstaffe: and further, that they did not admit, that the deprived Bishops could do more than appoint suffragans to act during their own lives. His views were fully stated in his "Case in View" and the "Further Prospect:" and therefore, after Lloyd's death and Ken's resignation, he communicated with the National Church. Being exceedingly anxious to put an end to the schism, he published "The Case in View now in Fact."[2]
This is a very important work in the controversy.
- ↑ Marshall's Defence, 173.
- ↑ The Case in View now in Fact; proving the Continuance of a Separate Communion, without Substitutes in any of the late invalidly-deprived Sees, since the Death of William, late Lord Bishop of Norwich, is Schismatical. With an Appendix, proving that our late invalidly-deprived Fathers had no right to substitute Successors, who might legitimate the Separation, after that the Schism had been concluded by the Decease of the last Survivor of those same Fathers. By the Author of The Case in View. 8vo. London 1711.
