Note 682 — Chapter XI · (continued 2)

Baxter, pp. 74, 86; Kennet, p. 311. See a letter of Sheldon, written at this time, to the bishops of his province, urging them to persecute the nonconformists. Harris's Life of Charles II., p. 106. Proofs also are given by this author of the manner in which some, such as Lamplugh and Ward, responded to their primate's wishes.

Sheldon found a panegyrist quite worthy of him in his chaplain Parker, afterwards Bishop of Oxford. This notable person has left a Latin history of his own time, wherein he largely commemorates the archbishop's zeal in molesting the dissenters, and praises him for defeating the scheme of comprehension. P. 25. I observe, that the late excellent editor of Burnet has endeavoured to slide in a word for the primate (note on vol. i. p. 243), on the authority of that history by Bishop Parker, and of Sheldon's Life in the Biographia Britannica. It is lamentable to rest on such proofs. I should certainly not have expected that, in Magdalen College, of all places, the name of Parker would have been held in honour; and as to the Biographia, laudatory as it is of primates in general (save Tillotson, whom it depreciates), I find, on reference, that its praise of Sheldon's virtues is grounded on the authority of his epitaph in Croydon church.