Note 652 — Chapter VII

Burnet (Own Time, vol. i. p. 448) tells us that, in 1667, the king, even at the council-board, expressed himself against the bishops, and said, that the clergy ‘thought of nothing but to get good benefices, and to keep a good table.’ See also, on his dislike to the bishops, vol. ii. p. 22; and Pepys' Diary, vol. iv. p. 2. In another place, vol. iv. p. 42, Pepys writes: ‘And I believe the hierarchy will in a little time be shaken, whether they will or no; the king being offended with them, and set upon it, as I hear.’ Evelyn, in a conversation with Pepys, noticed with regret such conduct of Charles, ‘that a bishop shall never be seen about him, as the king of France hath always.’ Pepys, vol. iii. p. 201. Evelyn, in his benevolent way, ascribes this to ‘the negligence of the clergy;’ but history teaches us that the clergy have never neglected kings, except when the king has first neglected them. Sir John Reresby gives a curious account of a conversation Charles II. held with him respecting ‘mitred heads,’ in which the feeling of the king is very apparent. Reresby's Travels and Memoirs, p. 238.