422

CHAP.

X.

168 S.

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

It was near nine in the evening before the House rose.The following day was the thirtieth of January, the anni-versary of the death of Charles the First. The great bodyof the Anglican clergy had, during many years, thought it asacred duty to inculcate on that day the doctrines of non-resistance and passive obedience. Their old sermons werenow of little use; and many divines were even in doubtwhether they could venture to read the whole Liturgy. TheLower House had declared that the throne was vacant. TheUpper had not yet expressed any opinion. It was thereforenot easy to decide whether the prayers for the sovereign oughtto be used. Every officiating minister took his own course.In most of the churches of the capital the petitions for Jameswere omitted: but at Saint Margaret’s, Sharp, Dean of Nor-wich, who had been requested to preach before the Com-mons, not only read to their faces the whole service as itstood in the book, but, before his sermon, implored, in hisown words, a blessing on the King, and, towards the closeof his discourse, declaimed against the Jesuitical doctrinethat princes might lawfully be deposed by their subjects.The Speaker, that very afternoon, complained to the Houseof this affront. “You pass a vote one day,” he said; “andon the next day it is contradicted from the pulpit in your ownhearing.” Sharp was strenuously defended by the Tories,and had friends even among the Whigs: for it was not for-gotten that he had incurred serious danger in the evil timesby the courage with which, in defiance of the royal injunc-tion, he had preached against Popery. Sir ChristopherMusgrave very ingeniously remarked that the House had notordered the resolution which declared the throne vacant to bepublished. Sharp, therefore, was not only not bound to knowanything of that resolution, but could not have taken noticeof it without a breach of privilege for which he might havebeen called to the bar and reprimanded on his knees. Themajority felt that it was not wise at that conjuncture to quarrelwith the clergy; and the subject was suffered to drop. *

Grey's Debates; Evelyn’s Diary; Life of Archbishop Sharp, by