The Society for the Reformation of Manners, inaugurated by a small number of gentlemen in 1692, was probably the most influential and best known of these organizations. It was organized primarily for the purpose of informing on evildoers, and that there might be no criticism concerning their sincerity, the fines were paid over to charity. In addition to carrying on this work of informing, the society established quarterly lectures on moral subjects, secured the preaching of sermons on its objects, and in 1699 it claimed to have secured thousands of convictions.[61] The church was brought into the movement by Archbishop Tenison’s circular to the clergy encouraging them to cooperate with the laity in the movement. This movement went farther than the prosecution of overt acts against morality, for in 1701-2 the players at Lincoln’s Inn Fields were prosecuted for uttering impious, lewd, and immoral expressions.[62] 4. COLLIER. Collier’s attack on the stage, published in 1698, was no doubt a potent influence in crystallizing public opinion in regard to the drama, but it does not stand alone; it is merely a sign of a movement which the stage had begun to notice and profit by several years previously. During the year 1698 not less than sixteen books and pamphlets were published in the controversy. Collier’s book had great influence in furthering the work of reformation; but, low as was the tone of the drama at the time, one must confess that in some particulars Collier is radical and far-fetched in his arguments and conclusions. Cibber, though he had two years previously written a play with a distinct reformatory and moral purpose, did not much relish Collier’s attack or agree with it. In the prologue to _Xerxes_ he intimates that Collier might prove a good index for those who desired to read immoral literature: “Thus ev’n sage Collier too might be accus’d, If what h’as writ, thro’ ignorance, abus’d: Girls may read him, not for the truth, he says, But to be pointed to the bawdy plays.” In _The Careless Husband_ we find Lord Morelove saying: “Plays now, indeed, one need not be so much afraid of; for since the late short-sighted view of them, vice may go on and prosper; the stage dares hardly show a vicious person speaking like himself, for fear of being call’d prophane for exposing him.” To this Lady Easy replies that, “’Tis hard, indeed, when people won’t distinguish between what’s meant for contempt, and what for example.” Perhaps Cibber’s most interesting contribution to the controversy is contained in his dedication of _Love Makes a Man_, published in the first edition, but omitted in the collected edition of his plays: