There are many petitions for prebends, one from a clergyman who appears to have been a wit, for he begs the reversion of the next stall in Worcester Cathedral; only excepting that connected with the Margaret Professorship of Divinity--saying, that "though not likely to receive benefit thereby on account of his age, yet having long waited, as the cripple at the pool of Bethesda, it will comfort him to think that he dies cousin-german to some preferment." Another pleads, with some humour, that having sacrificed liberty to duty, he must now forfeit it in another way, even for debt, unless aided by His Majesty's generosity.[124] To most of these forms of application there are annexed certificates from various persons, particularly Dr. Sheldon, who seems to have taken a great deal of trouble to promote the interests of his clerical brethren. The hopes and fears which at other times agitate two or three candidates are, at a general election, multiplied by hundreds all over the kingdom; so at the Restoration,--what commonly is a flutter amongst a few aspirants after ecclesiastical promotion, was then the experience of multitudes at the same moment; and perhaps there never were before or since, within the same compass of time, so many clergymen on the tip-toe of expectation, doomed of course, in many cases, to utter disappointment. CHAPTER V. [Sidenote: MEETINGS OF PRESBYTERIANS.] Soon after the King's return the Earl of Manchester employed his influence, as Lord Chamberlain, in the appointment of ten or twelve Presbyterian chaplains at Court; of these only four--Reynolds, Calamy, Spurstow, and Baxter--ever had the honour of ministering before His Majesty.[125] Baxter states that there was no profit connected with the distinction; and that not "a man of them all ever received, or expected a penny for the salary of their places." But if the office brought no pay to himself, he was anxious it should bring profit to the Church; and, therefore, he employed the influence, which his chaplaincy gave him, to promote such measures as he thought conducive to the advancement of religion. He suggested to the Earl, and to Lord Broghill, a conference, for what he called "agreement," or "coalition;"[126] and as Calamy, Reynolds, and Ash, concurred in his views, he procured an arrangement in the month of June for himself, and his brethren in office, to meet their Royal master, with Clarendon, the Earl of St. Albans, and other noble persons, at the house of the Lord Chamberlain. [Sidenote: 1660.]