Nicholas Stratford--possessed of learning, a firm supporter of the Church of England, and, judging of him by his primary visitation charge, an earnest preacher and a faithful pastor, bent on the salvation of souls--succeeded Cartwright in the Bishopric of Chester, in 1689; and in the same year, John Hough, the Champion of Magdalen, rose to the episcopal chair of Oxford.[378] An Archiepiscopal mitre rewarded, at the suggestion of Tillotson in 1691, the staunch Protestantism of Dr. Sharpe, the Dean of Norwich; and, if we are to believe all the encomiums on his virtues, inscribed upon his monument in York Cathedral, scarcely ever before did such a paragon of excellence exist.[379] Notices of him by Thoresby--to whose conversion from Dissent to Episcopacy, Sharpe had largely contributed--so far confirm the praise in his epitaph, as to show that he was diligent, courteous, devout, and kind, and most zealous in endeavouring to win Nonconformists over to the Church. He is described as the best of the Bishops who had honoured Leeds with their presence, “a most excellent preacher, universally beloved.”[380] Samuel Wesley, who was under great obligations to him, ranked him as a preacher above Stillingfleet, and even above Tillotson, calling him “a more popular pulpit orator than either;”[381] but a set-off against these partial commendations will appear, when we reach the history of Religious Societies and of Dissenting Academies, and observe the course which his Grace pursued in relation to them. [Sidenote: BISHOPS.] Lloyd, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry until 1699, when, on the death of Stillingfleet, the King translated him to Worcester, is described by Whiston, who received ordination at his hands, as engaging in “a most uncommon, but vastly improving examination and instruction, in the Cathedral, beforehand.”[382] Lloyd’s prophetical studies, vindicated by Whiston, exposed him to a good deal of raillery and satire; Shippen, in his _Faction Displayed_, saying of him-- “Then old Mysterio shook his silver hairs, Loaded with learning, prophecy, and years.” As with other students in the same school, his studies proved labour lost, for Dr. Johnson relates, that “his writings supplied the kitchen of his successor with fuel for many years;” but his character defied detraction, and whilst revered for his virtues, that reverence was increased by his “learning and longevity.”[383] [Sidenote: 1688–1702.]