Three nonjuring Prelates died in the course of the spring and summer. Cartwright, the semi-Popish Bishop of Chester, after joining James at St. Germains, accompanied him to Ireland, where on the 15th of April he expired, having received on his death-bed the sacrament and the absolution of the Church of England, instead of conforming to Rome, as at the time he was reported to have done.[170] Thomas, Bishop of Worcester, died June the 25th, solemnly declaring on his death-bed that, if his heart did not deceive him, and the grace of God failed him not, he thought he could burn at a stake before he would take the new oath.[171] Lake, Bishop of Chichester, followed Thomas to the grave in the month of August, expressing satisfaction with the course which he had pursued, and declaring his conviction that the oaths were inconsistent with the doctrine of passive obedience, which he maintained to be a doctrine of the English Church.[172] These testimonies, hallowed by the solemnity of death, were heirlooms for the Nonjurors, who preserved them with care, and exhibited them with reverence, not without considerable effect in promoting their cause. [Sidenote: NONJURORS.] The Prelates who had not sworn, persistently continued to refuse the oaths; the Primate being reproached with his inconsistency for the part he had taken in the Revolution. He was insolently told by a Jacobite correspondent in Holland, “Your Grace has forfeited your neck already in signing that traitorous Declaration at Guildhall, wherein you cast off your allegiance to your lawful Sovereign, and applied yourself to the Prince of Orange.”[173] Free to discharge their functions up to the 1st of August, 1689, the Bishops were then suspended from the exercise of them. Still they enjoyed their benefices, and continued to reside in their palaces. The interim was filled up by the defence of their opinions. Sancroft, following the bent of his disposition, shut himself up at Lambeth, retaining impracticable views of a Regency, refusing to acknowledge William and Mary, combining good intentions with narrowness of mind, and saying to the last, with Pius the IX. at Rome, _Non possumus_. Lloyd, Bishop of Norwich, unfortunately sympathized with the Archbishop, and encouraged him in his policy. Ken--a far different man, firm in principle, of a tender conscience, yet open to conviction, careless about his interests, only anxious to do what was right--almost resolved to submit. But, after a night’s rest, he said to Dr. Hooper, who had pressed submission upon him, “I question not but that you, and several others, have taken the oaths with as good a conscience as myself shall refuse them; and sometimes you have almost persuaded me to comply by the arguments you have used; but I beg you to use them no further, for should I be persuaded to comply, and after see reason to repent, you would make me the most miserable man in the world.”[174] [Sidenote: 1689.]