Sir Christopher Wren: His Family and His Times: With Original Letters and a Discourse on Architecture Hitherto Unpublished. 1585-1723.Phillimore, Lucy
History
Sir Christopher Wren: His Family and His Times: With Original Letters and a Discourse on Architecture Hitherto Unpublished. 1585-1723.
Phillimore, Lucy
Great Britain -- History -- Stuarts, 1603-1714 -- Biography; Wren family; Wren, Christopher, Sir, 1632-1723
discovering his notorious Pranks &c., printed in the year when Wren
ceased to domineer,' has in the title-page a print of Bishop Wren
sitting at a table; out of his mouth proceed two labels: on one,
'Canonical Prayers;' on the other, 'No Afternoon Sermon.' On one side
stand several clergy, over whose heads is written 'Altar-cringing
Priests.' On the other, two men in lay habits, above whom is this
inscription, 'Churchwardens for Articles.' It serves to show what were
considered as really the Bishop's crimes, and that he had a fair
proportion of faithful clergy.[36] The Archbishop of York had served the
Commons' turn in procuring the King's assent to Lord Strafford's
death-warrant, and had enjoyed for a short time a remarkable though
transient popularity both on that account and as Laud's bitter opponent.
The Commons were, however, soon weary of him, and gladly availed
themselves of the pretext afforded by the protest to throw him aside. A
pamphlet was published, which had a great success, entitled the 'Decoy
Duck,' in allusion to the fens of his former diocese of Lincoln, in
which he was represented as only released from the Tower in order to
decoy the other bishops there. It was thought prudent that the bishops
should make no attempt either to see each other, or Archbishop Laud, who
had preceded them to that dreary lodging, so that only loving messages
passed between the prisoners. So many bishops being in custody, and five
sees vacant, the Commons took their opportunity, and brought in a Bill
depriving the Bishops of their seats in Parliament, and of the power of
sitting as judges or privy councillors. It was feebly opposed by the
Churchmen, who had been alienated by the prelates' desertion of Lord
Strafford, and was finally carried. The remark made a little later by
Lord Falkland on Sir E. Deering's 'Bill for the Extirpation of
Episcopacy,' when the Churchmen, weary of their attendance, left the
House at dinner-time, and did not return--'Those who hated the bishops,
hated them worse than the devil, and those who loved them did not love
them so well as their dinner,'--appears to have been applicable to this
occasion also. Not very long after the first-named Bill had passed, some
of the bishops were set at liberty, but Bishop Wren was not released
until May 6, 1642.
[IMPRISONMENT.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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