Page images
PDF
EPUB

to the archbishopric. Therefore it was that, when the newly-appointed dean thanked William for appointing him to a place in which he hoped to be settled for life, William informed him of the higher preferment he destined for him, and insisted on his acceptance of it as absolutely necessary to his service. The choice of Tillotson to succeed Sancroft was very generally approved, and no doubt reconciled the minds of many even of Sancroft's friends to the expulsion of that prelate. Tillotson felt a genuine reluctance to accept the high promotion thus forced on him. For many reasons he was unwilling to be placed in the position for which the king had designated him. He was no longer the man he had been. He felt the approaches of old age, and an apoplectic fit which he had suffered had not only warned him that the close of his career was approaching, but had also to some extent impaired his faculties. His kindly and benevolent disposition was revolted at the idea of his taking any part in the expulsion from Lambeth of the good old man who was still in possession of the palace, and whose disinterested services to the Church he fully appreciated.

Amiable, virtuous, and highly accomplished Tillotson undoubtedly was. And these were qualities which were well adapted to adorn the archiepiscopal throne in ordinary times. But they were not the qualities which would enable their possessor to take the lead in effecting the alterations which William expected and which Tillotson earnestly desired. It is not by polished sentences and well-balanced periods that men are fired

R

and great changes brought about. Tillotson was always listened to with pleasure, but he did not possess the faculty of kindling in his hearers the enthusiasm which produces energetic action. Men did not go to sleep over his sermons, but they were not deeply stirred by them. And superior as he was to both of his predecessors in almost every respect, he did not exercise anything like the influence over the destinies of the Church that they had exerted. Nevertheless, after long resistance, Tillotson yielded. He called several times on his predecessor at Lambeth to see him, and to explain orally the reasons which had induced him to accept the archbishopric. Sancroft, who was naturally embittered against him, and whose health probably was not equal to the excitement of an interview with Tillotson, declined, not over courteously, to see him.

While the new archbishop was receiving the congratulations and good wishes that were showered on him on the occasion of his elevation to the primacy, he was vehemently abused by the Nonjurors and by many of the clergy who secretly sympathized with them. But instead of showing any vindictive feeling towards his assailants, he interceded for them, and used his influence to protect them from the punishment which some of his friends and admirers wished to have inflicted on them. In this respect he showed himself a model of good sense and right feeling.

"I had notice," he wrote to his friend, Lady Russell, "first from the Attorney-General and Mr. Solicitor, and, then from my lord-that several persons, upon account

of publishing and dispensing several libels against me were secured in order to prosecution. Upon which I went to wait upon them severally, and earnestly desired of them that nobody might be punished on my account; that this was not the first time I had experienced this kind of malice, which, how unpleasant soever to me, I thought the wisest way to neglect and the best to forgive it."

Tillotson survived his appointment to the primacy a little more than three years. In 1694, while attending service at the Chapel Royal of Whitehall, he was suddenly seized with a fit, similar to that which, as already mentioned, he had experienced a little before the time of his appointment to the primacy. It is alleged that, if proper remedies had been promptly administered, his life would in all probability have been saved. But he was unwilling to interrupt the service; and when it was concluded, and the physicians were at length summoned to his assistance, they found that he was beyond the reach of their remedies.

It was a matter of great difficulty to supply the place thus rendered vacant. There were many divines of greater learning than Tillotson; there were more vigorous writers; there were administrators who could carry out the work of the province and the diocese with greater energy and ability; but there was none who enjoyed so high a reputation, none who was equally beloved and respected, none who was so much esteemed by High Churchmen, by Low Churchmen, and by Latitudinarians, none who so completely commanded

the confidence, both of Protestants at home and Protestants abroad, or could so readily rally them round him, and no one whose judgment and wisdom were so thoroughly trusted by the rude soldier and diplomatist who at that time ruled the destinies of this country. Had he been called to occupy the chair of St. Augustine at a time when his physical and mental faculties were in their full bloom and vigour, he might have succeeded in effecting important changes, though whether for the better or the worse must remain somewhat problematical.

As it was, he left behind him a high reputation as an elegant writer and an impressive preacher. His eloquence never rose to the height of the flights of Barrow, of Jeremy Taylor, or perhaps even of South; but was at least free from many serious defects that marred to some extent the excellence of their discourses. But as an ecclesiastical statesman, as one who for good or for evil impressed on the Church of which he was the first minister something of his own character and beliefs, and guided her into new paths, he cannot take rank with Anselm, Becket, Cranmer, Parker, Laud, Sheldon, or Sancroft.

As a general rule, William did not intervene in the religious controversies of this country; on the contrary, he looked on them with a disregard bordering on contempt. Besides, his imperfect acquaintance with our language disqualified him for the task of deciding between the relative merits of our preachers. He therefore wisely left the appointment to bishoprics and other Church dignities in the hands of his wife, who was the

turn

only English native he could fully trust, and who in her was guided by those of the clergy whom she thought fit to consult. But on the occasion of the appointment to so important a post as that of the archbishopric of Canterbury, he determined to keep in his own hands a choice which he knew to be of great political as well as ecclesiastical importance; and he thought much more of the former than of the latter. Mary very warmly advocated the claims of Stillingfleet to fill the vacant primacy; and if the choice had rested on purely professional grounds, a better selection could not have been made. He was a man of considerable mark, and had acquired a great reputation as a controversialist, on account of the skilful manner in which he had dealt with the arguments of both Protestant and Roman Catholic antagonists. But William considered that an eager controversialist was not the man to fill the see of Canterbury. He therefore selected for that place Dr. Tenison, Bishop of London, who, before he was raised to the Episcopal Bench, had been a popular London preacher and an active parish priest. As vicar of St. Andrews, Cambridge, he had earned deserved credit by remaining at his post and continuing in the faithful and diligent discharge of his ministerial duties during the prevalence of the plague in that town. His opinions seem to have almost exactly coincided with those of Tillotson and of the king. William had seen very little of him when he appointed him to the primacy. But he was a good judge of men, and found in Tenison what he chiefly looked for, one

« PreviousContinue »