Gibson William. James II and the Trial of the Seven Bishops

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James II and the Trial of the Seven Bishops

Also by William Gibson

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James II and the Trial

of the Seven Bishops

William Gibson

Professor of Ecclesiastical History,

Oxford Brookes University

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First published 2009 by

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ISBN-13: 978–0–230–20400–3 hardback

ISBN-10: 0–230–20400–7 hardback

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gibson, William, 1959–

James II and the trial of the seven bishops / William Gibson.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978–0–230–20400–3 ISBN-10: 0–230–20400–7

1. Great Britain – Politics and government – 1660–1688. 2. James II,

King of England, 1633–1701. 3. Church of England – Bishops – History –

17th century. 4. Trials (Seditious libel) – England. 5. Great Britain –

History – Revolution of 1688. 6. Great Britain – History – James II,

1685–1688. I. Title.

DA452.G53 2009

941.06⬘7—dc22 2008037194

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09

Printed and bound in Great Britain by

CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne

For John Walsh and John Morgan-Guy

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vii

Preface ix

Introduction: The Seven Bishops and

the Glorious Revolution 1

Echoes of the trial 1

Macaulay’s heroes and villains 3

James and revisionism 6

James’s rehabilitation 10

The new Whig Revolution 12

Tory views atomised 14

Continuity and change 16

The seven bishops 17

1 The Bishops: Unlikely Revolutionaries 20

Family and background 20

Education and training 21

Early preferment 24

Consecrations 29

Preoccupations 34

Sceptical loyalism 44

2 The King’s Policies 1685–7 47

Early days and Monmouth’s rebellion 47

Compton and the Ecclesiastical Commission 53

The attack on the universities 62

The first declaration 64

The attack on the landed alliance 68

3 The Confrontation 73

The gathering storm 73

The second declaration 78

Canvassing opposition 83

Petitioning the King 85

The leak of the petition 90

The propaganda war 92

Contents

viii Contents

4 The Tower 97

Silent pulpits 97

The legal case 98

The empty country pulpits 100

The second confrontation 105

To the tower 109

5 The Trial 114

The bishops arraigned 114

The bishops released 117

The ‘bed-pan baby’ 121

The trial in the King’s Bench 123

The acquittal 132

6 The Reaction 139

The stiffened resolve 139

The pursuit of the clergy 144

The wooing of dissent 150

The Anglican revolution in the state 152

Preparations for the invasion 159

7 The Revolution 162

The invasion 162

James at bay 167

The Guildhall meeting 172

The convention 175

Sancroft’s departure 180

Schism and expulsions 183

Conclusion 194

Notes 204

Bibliography 231

Index 243

When the Palace of Westminster was built by Sir Charles Barry, following

the fire of 1834, an important place in the Commons North Corridor

was found for a fresco of the Acquittal of the Seven Bishops by E. M. Ward.

In it, Archbishop Sancroft, leaning heavily on a walking stick, leads

the seven bishops from Westminster Hall, giving their blessings to the

assembled people who kneel before them. The image was regarded as a

moment in British history which deserved a place in Parliament, along-

side other great occasions in history, such as King Alfred raising the

Saxons against the Danes; King John granting Magna Carta; Speaker

Lenthall asserting the Commons’ privileges against Charles I; Henry VII

chartering Cabot; the Commons petitioning Queen Elizabeth I; and the

embarkation of the pilgrim fathers. It was one of those pivotal moments

in British history and its depiction was intended to remind peers and

MPs that leaders might be brought to heel by the rule of law.

The Glorious Revolution in 1688 has undergone something of a

revival of late; six recent studies have analysed the Revolution from

one perspective or another.

While the explicit Whig accounts of the

Glorious Revolution as the start of Britain’s inexorable rise to progress

and liberty are long gone, a distinct whiff of Whiggery remains in

some accounts. Nevertheless what few of these books do is to place reli-

gion, and particularly the role of the petition, imprisonment, trial and

acquittal of the seven bishops in their true perspective as central to the

events of 1688. In this, at least, the Whig historians saw the Glorious

Revolution aright. G. M. Trevelyan commented that the trial of the

bishops was

the greatest historical drama that ever took place before an authorised

English law court ... it showed as nothing else would have done that

the most revered and the most loyal subjects in the land would be

broken if they refused to become active parties to the King’s illegal

designs. If the bishops suffered, who could hope to escape the royal

vengeance?

Seen from any angle, what happened in England in 1688–9 is that men

and women chose Protestantism over monarchy – perhaps the last

occasion on which the commitment of people to the Church exceeded

Preface