74 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SANCROFT. 



The great features of Archbishop Bancroft's 

 character, as evinced in the general tenor of his 

 life, and in his conduct in the leading public 

 transactions in which he was engaged, have 

 been very variously drawn by friends and ad- 

 versaries; such is always unavoidably the case 

 with those who have acted a part in great ques- 

 tions which have much divided the opinions of 

 men, and in regard to which those who have 

 firmly adhered to one party, have necessarily 

 incurred the animadversions of the opposite. 

 Bishop Burnet, a man most strongly imbued 

 with the spirit of party, and not very sparing in 

 his animadversions on those whose sentiments 

 and course of conduct were at variance with his 

 own; writing at a time when the passions of 

 men were still heated on the questions that re- 

 garded the settlement of the government at the 

 Revolution; and, further, having an impression 

 on his mind, that he had personal grounds of 



public and private, many of tliem having marginal notes written 

 with his o^vn hand. Among Bishop Tanner's MSS. in the 

 Bodleian are a great number of volumes,, consisting of extracts 

 on different subjects made by his own hand^ collections of 

 MSS. with frequent marginal notes of his own^ letters ad- 

 dressed to him, several of his common-place books^ &c. In 

 the Lambeth libraiy also, a few of his MSS. are preserved, 

 having remained in the possession of Mr. Wharton, and been 

 purchased among his collection. 



