which, had they not been checked, must have issued in the establishment of the Church of Rome. While they received the Declaration, it was rejected by almost all the Bishops and Clergy. It was read only in four churches in London. Some few of the Bishops forwarded it to their Clergy, who generally refused to read it. In the Diocese of Norwich, containing 1200 parishes, it was read only in three or four churches.[1] Croft, Bishop of Hereford, forwarded it to his Clergy, and then published a singular pamphlet, containing his reasons for the course which he had adopted.[2] He laments the necessity of acting in opposition to his metropolitan: and, at the same time, assures the King, that the non-complying Bishops were attached to his Majesty's person. The conduct of Crew, Bishop of Durham, was equally singular. He requested Baker to read the Declaration in his chapel at Aukland. Baker had already requested his own curate at Long Newton not to read it. "When all was over, the Bishop (as a penance I presume) ordered me to go to the Dean (as Archdeacon) to require him to make a return to Court of all such as had not read it, which I did, though I was one of the number."[3] The Bishop, however, joined in the vote, that King James had abdicated. He also took the oaths to William and Mary, and retained his bishopric until his death in
- ↑ D'Oyley's Sancroft, i. 257-270. Macpherson, i. 448-9. Somerville, 162, 165, 166. Kennet, iii. 482-6. Comber's Life, 259-64. Prideaux's Life, 40. Gutch's Collectanea, i. 328-41. Rapin, ii. 762. Stillingfleet's Mis. Discourses, 368-71.
- ↑ A Short Discourse concerning- the Reading His Majesty's Declaration in the Churches, set forth by the Right Reverend Father in God, Herbert, Lord Bp. of Hereford, 4to. 1688.
- ↑ Baker's Life, pp. 5-6.
