102

HXSTOKY OF ENGLAND.

CIIAP.

XI.

1GBU.

of His Church at a most critical moment. The other partywondered that any importance could be attached to the non-sense of a nameless scribbler of the thirteenth century. Muchwas written about the deprivations of Chrysostom and Photius,of Nicolaus Mysticus and Cosmas Atticus. But the case ofAbiathar, whom Solomon put out of the sacerdotal office fortreason, was discussed with peculiar eagerness. No smallquantity of learning and ingenuity was expended in the attemptto prove that Abiathar, though he wore the ephod and answeredby Urim, was not really High Priest, that he ministered onlywhen his superior Zadoc was incapacitated by sickness or bysome ceremonial pollution, and that therefore the act of Solo-mon was not a precedent which would warrant King William indeposing a real Bishop.*

But such reasoning as this, though hacked by copiouscitations from the Misna and Maimonides, was not generallysatisfactory even to zealous churchmen. For it admitted ofone answer, short, hut perfectly intelligible to a plain manwho knew nothing about Greek fathers or Levitical genealogies.There might be some doubt whether King Solomon had ejecteda high priest; but there could be no doubt at all that QueenElizabeth had ejected the Bishops of more than half the sees inEngland. It was notorious that fourteen prelates had, withoutany proceeding in any spiritual court, been deprived by Act ofParliament for refusing to acknowledge her. supremacy. Hadthat deprivation been null? Had Bonner continued to be, tothe end of his life, the only true Bishop of London? Had hissuccessor been an usurper? Had Parker and Jewel beenschismatics? Had the Convocation of 1562, that Convocation

* See, among many other tracts, Dodwcll’s Cautionary Discourse, liiaVindication of the Deprived Bishops, his Defence of the Vindication, andhis Par®ncsis; and Bisby’s Unity of Priesthood, printed in 1692. See alsoHody’s tracts on the other side, the Baroccian MS., and Solomon andAbiathar, a Dialogue between Eucheres and Dyschercs.