Nelson, the pious author of the 'Fasts and Festivals of the Church of England,' and of the 'Practice of True Devotion,' had no objection to cards. "Sober persons," says he, in the last-mentioned work, "do not make a business of what they should only use as a diversion." The Rev. Augustus Toplady, so well known for his high Calvinistic principles, used to occasionally amuse himself with a game at cards; and in a letter dated "Broad Hembury, Nov. 19th, 1773," he thus expresses himself on the subject of recreations in which clergymen may innocently indulge.[336] "I do not think that honest Martin Luther committed sin by playing at Backgammon for an hour or two after dinner in order, by unbending his mind, to promote digestion. "I cannot blame the holy martyr Bishop Ridley for frequently playing at Tennis before he became a prelate, nor for playing at the more serious game of Chess twice a day after he was made a bishop. "As little do I find fault with another of our most exemplary martyrs, the learned and devout Mr. Archdeacon Philpot; who has left it on record as a brand on Pelagians of that age, that 'they looked on honeste pastyme as a sinne;' and had the impudence to call him an Antinomian and a loose moralist, because he now and then relaxed his bow with 'huntinge, shootynge, bowlynge, and such like.' "Nor can I set down pious Bishop Latimer for such an enemy to holiness of life on account of his saying that hunting is a good exercise for men of rank, and that shooting is as lawful an amusement for persons of inferior class. "I have not a whit the worse opinion of the eminent and profound Mr. Thomas Gataker for the treatise which he professedly wrote to prove the lawfulness of card-playing, under due restrictions and limitations. * * * * * "I cannot condemn the Vicar of Broad Hembury [Mr. Toplady himself] for relaxing himself now and then among a few select friends with a rubber of sixpenny Whist, a pool of penny Quadrille, or a few rounds of twopenny Pope Joan. To my certain knowledge, the said vicar has been cured of headache by one or other of those games, after spending eight, ten, or twelve, and sometimes sixteen hours in his study. Nor will he ask any man's leave for so unbending himself--because another person's conscience is no rule to his, any more than another person's stature or complexion."