BISHOP WREN'S RESIGNATION. 51 (canon 5), publishing a book of articles, to which the churchwardens were sworn, containing 187 questions.' Upon this report a debate ensued, ending in a vote that it was the opinion of the House that Matthew Wren was unworthy and unfit to hold or exercise any office or dignity in the Church, and voting that a message be sent to the House of Lords to desire them to join the Commons in petitioning his Majesty to remove Bishop Wren from his person and service. Evelyn's expression, 'to such an exorbitancy had the times grown,' aptly describes the state of matters when, for details such as these of the government of a diocese, and for practices which, if they had been proved, were both legal and reasonable, an assembly of laymen presumed to pronounce a bishop unfit for his office in the Church. Whether the petition ever came before the King does not appear, but Wren thought it best to take the initiative; for he writes in his diary five days after the debate: 'I hardly obtained leave from the King to resign the deanery of the Chapels Royal.' PRISONMENT OF THE BISHOPS BISHOP WREN'S DEFENCE ་ For though outnumber'd, overthrown, And by the fate of war run down, Their duty never was defeated, Nor from their oaths and faith retreated; For loyalty is still the same, Whether it win or lose the game; True as the dial to the sun, Although it be not shined upon. Hudibras, pt. iii. canto 2. CHAPTER III. THE Concession Bishop Wren had thus made did not satisfy the Commons, and on July 20 they drew out the report into twenty articles of accusation, containing all the former charges and several additional ones, among which were the setting up of altar-rails, ordering the Holy Communion to be received kneeling, ordering the reading of the Book of Sports,' and preaching in a surplice; causing by prosecutions 3,000 of the King's poor subjects to go beyond the sea. For these offences they prayed that Bishop Wren might answer, and suffer such punishment as law and justice required. The articles were transmitted to the House of Lords at a conference, and were read by Sir T. Widdrington, Recorder of York,1 who prefaced them by a venomous speech against the Bishop of Ely, whom he compared to 'a wolf devouring the flock; an extinguisher of light; a Noah, who sent out doves from the ark, and refused to receive them back unless they returned as ravens, to feed upon the carrion of his new inventions, he himself standing with a flaming sword to keep such out of his diocese.' He accused the Bishop of raising fines for his own profit; called him a great robber, a malefactor, 'a compleat mirror of 1 Vide supra, p. 17. |