rule, and who hated the very name of King—not in a set of restless innovators, who loved innovation for the excitement it produced, or for the spoil which it might yield to them—not in a rude soldiery, who were ambitious of enterprise, and longed to signalize themselves again by deeds of daring—but in the persons of seven aged Bishops of the Church, some of whom were not only oppressed by the burden of age, but weighed down by sickness and infirmity; and all of them, both from temper and principle, averse to anything that seemed like resistance to kingly authority. Yet it was these who stood forward at this time of danger, as the defenders of the nation’s liberties. Their names were well known to our townsmen at the time, for Bridgnorth, as well as other places, rang with unusual joy at the news of their acquittal; and it is well that their names should be known to our townspeople now, as the names of men who have laid the nation under a deep debt of gratitude. They were Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury; Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph; White, Bishop of Peterborough; Turner, Bishop of Ely; Lake, Bishop of Chichester; Trelawney, Bishop of Bristol; and Ken, the pious Bishop of Bath and Wells,[74] a saint indeed, formed on the primitive model, whose devout aspirations in his Morning and Evening Hymn have served to kindle the devotion of the members of the English Church for nearly two centuries. These seven Prelates met together at Lambeth in this critical juncture, and drew up a petition to James, in which they set forth in plain but respectful language the illegality of his Declaration, and humbly prayed him not to insist on their publishing it. In consequence of this they were committed to the Tower. The King, notwithstanding their dutiful remonstrance, was resolved on enforcing on the clergy throughout the kingdom the publication of this unlawful document, and sent his commands to that effect: but of the many thousands to whom this mandate was sent, not two hundred complied with it; and among those who had the courage to refuse, we are glad to find the names of the two Ministers of Bridgnorth, Mr. Cornes, and Mr. Bailey. [74] Appendix R.