was supposed to have had a hand; this, however, Blackburne denied, indeed the work was too lenient to the Church of England, and did not go far enough to please him; but the book had important consequences, for amongst other apologists'it was eagerly defended by Blackburne, who published the same year "An Apology for the Free and Candid Disquisitions relating to the Church of England"." In 1750 Bishop Butler was translated from Bristol to Durham, and soon afterwards delivered his famous Charge to the Clergy of his new diocese (to which attention has been already called), in which he recommended the importance of external religion, such as the repair and adornment of their churches, more frequent services, and private and family prayer. It is strange that such a moderate Charge should have excited the anger even of the Latitudinarian Clergy. Blackburne, even at Cambridge, is said to have eagerly drunk in the opinions of Locke and Hoadly, and although at the time he was ordained Socinian doctrines led many to leave the Church, and he sympathised with the seceders, he had not the

Blackburne thought it "too milky."-National Biog., Art. "Blackburne."

It was for this work, in which he went much further than Jones, that he was, in 1750, appointed by Archbishop Hutton Archdeacon of Cleveland, and a few months later Prebendary of Bilton in York Cathedral.

honesty to follow their example. In order to obtain his Archdeaconry he was called upon to sign the XXXIX. Articles, and his scruples were removed through reading Dr. Clarke's "Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity, and some arguments in MS. by Dr. Edmund Law." The year after he became an Archdeacon, he took advantage of his position to attack, although anonymously, Bishop Butler's Charge in a tract entitled a "Serious Enquiry into the use and importance of External Religion." Bishop Butler had said in his Charge that "in Roman Catholic countries people cannot pass a day without having religion recalled to their thoughts by some or other memorial of it; by some ceremony or religious form occurring in their way, besides their frequent holidays, the short prayers they are daily called to, and the occasional devotions enjoined by confessors." This the Archdeacon stated would give occasion of triumph to Papists, and cause grief to Protestants, and the consequence must be a belief that the Romish religion is better than the religion of those who do not observe these occurrences.

In a sermon preached on Christmas-day, 1753, Blackburne declared his objections to the Book of Common Prayer, to the observance of that day and the other Festivals of the Church, and stated that many other things in the doctrine and discipline of the Church were grievous to him. It would be thought that if he held such objections, an honest

man would have resigned his Archdeaconry and Living; but not so Blackburne; he had, he said, "a wife and family;" his doubts went on increasing; instigated by Dr. Law, he organised a systematic movement against Clerical subscription, and in 1766 published anonymously his "Confessional b." In this work he advocated the maxim of Chillingworth, "The Bible, and the Bible only, the Religion of Protestants;" and propounded the principle that “all imposed subscriptions to Articles of Faith and Religious Doctrines, conceived in non-scriptural terms, and enforced by human authority, are utterly unwarrantable." The indignation of the Clergy, particularly of Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury, was extreme. Dr. Keene, Bishop of Chester, recommended that if the work were not Blackburne's, he should disclaim it; but Law, soon to be raised to the Episcopate, and Blackburne's staunch friend, wrote strongly in its favour. A controversy ensued, in which between seventy and eighty pamphlets were published, and which lasted from 1766 to 1772o. In the latter year it was renewed with increased vigour, and carried into Parliament in consequence

b "Or, a full and free enquiry into the right, utility, and success of establishing Confessions of Faith and Doctrine in Protestant Churches."

In the "Gentleman's Magazine" for 1780 will be found a list of the writers in the controversy.

of what is known as "The Feathers Tavern Petition."

Amongst the favourers of Socinianism were Theophilus Lindsey, who had married the daughter of Blackburne's wife by a former husband; Dr. Disney, who had married his eldest daughter; Jebb, who was a Tutor at Cambridge; Chambers, the father-in-law of Edmund Law; and, as has been stated above, Law himself, and to a certain extent Bishop Lowth. In 1771, a society called the Feathers Tavern Association was formed; in that year a meeting was held at the Feathers Tavern, when a Petition to Parliament was drawn up by Blackburne, praying to be relieved from the burden of subscription, and to be restored to their undoubted rights as Protestants, of interpreting Scripture for themselves without being bound by any human explanation thereof. Lindsey travelled two thousand miles over the country, with the view of getting subscribers to it, but the result was that he could obtain only some two hundred signatures from Latitudinarian and Socinian Clergy,

The University of Oxford was strongly opposed to, whilst Cambridge favoured, the Petition. Dr. Watson, Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, afterwards Bishop of Llandaff, wrote in favour of it (Anecdotes of the Life of Bishop Watson, i. 70); Paley concurred in it, but refused to sign on the ground that he "could not afford to keep a conscience."

• The whole number of the Clergy was computed at 20,000. -Adolphus's History of England, i. 506.

and about forty from students of civil law and physic'. How a man can make a better doctor by signing the XXXIX. Articles it is difficult to understand; but it is equally difficult to see what hardship there can be in a Clergyman being bound to be faithful to the Church, the endowments of which he receives. The Methodists, we are told, were to a man opposed to the scheme. The Countess of Huntingdon showed an uncompromising hostility to it, and went about canvassing the Methodists, from the highest to the lowest, against it; she enlisted on her side the sympathies of Burke, and a measure in those days which advocated a measure of reform stood a bad chance when opposed by Burke; the King pronounced against tampering with the Articles on the ground that "all wise nations have stuck scrupulously to their ancient customs."

The motion to present the Petition was made in the House of Commons on February 6, 1772, by Sir William Meredith. He complained of the hardship of people being "obliged to" subscribe Articles which they could not believe, as calculated to produce

f Lindsey complained of being deceived in the matter. He is said to have lived to see four Clergymen who had encouraged him, and afterwards turned back, raised to the Episcopate ; Porteus, afterwards Bishop of Chester and London, was one of them, and him he stigmatized as Bishop Proteus.

* Belsham's Memoirs of Lindsey.

b Trevelyan's Life of C. J. Fox, p. 438.