William Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph, took a leading part in the proceedings of the seven. He had been ordained by Bishop Brownrigg, in the time of the Commonwealth, and had been made Dean of Ripon at the Restoration. In 1676 he had obtained the vicarage of St. Martin’s, Westminster; and amidst the excitement of the Popish plots had distinguished himself by his Protestant zeal. He had preached Godfrey’s funeral sermon, and had been indefatigable in his endeavours to elicit evidence in support of the accusations by Titus Oates.[208] Decidedly a party man, although sincere and honest, he showed himself apt practically to adopt the principle, that the end sanctifies the means, and to betray feelings of a kind which, though sometimes attributed exclusively to Papists, are rather the bad qualities of human nature.[209] He combined, with his Protestant activities, a fondness for prophetical studies, dwelling much upon the predicted downfall of Babylon, and bringing to bear upon his Biblical and other researches a considerable amount of learning, not always under the control of a sober judgment. Promoted in the year 1680 to the see of St. Asaph, he endeavoured to reduce the Dissenters to conformity by means of argument and friendly influence; and where he failed to convince he won respect.[210] Such were the Bishops engaged in the Lambeth Conference, and it ended in the drawing up of a petition to the King, in which the petitioners professed that their objection to publish the Declaration did not arise from disloyalty to the King, nor from any want of due tenderness to Dissenters, in relation to whom they were willing to come to such a temper as should be thought fit, when the subject should be considered, and settled in Parliament and Convocation; but such a dispensing power as he now exercised had been by Parliament pronounced illegal.[211] [Sidenote: 1688.] [Sidenote: THE SEVEN BISHOPS.]