7G LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SANCROFT. 



of the nonjuring party;* but, as they wrote on 

 the unpopular side, and many of them in small 

 or occasional works, their statements extended 

 very little beyond their own party, and had 

 small general influence on public opinion.f At 



* See particularly the Life of Kettlewell ; also that of Bishop 

 Bull, written by Mr. Nelson 5 and the letter from Suffolk by 

 Mr. Thomas Wagstaffe. Thomas Hearne also, the eminent 

 antiquary, a nonjuror, in the preface to his edition of Otter- 

 bourne, p, 45, passes an encomium on Archbishop Sancroft 

 which is worth transcribing. 



*' Sancroftus ille est, qui (id quod doctis pariter et indoctis 

 notissimum est) ob fidem in Patrem patriae illibatam palatiis, 

 honoribus, juribusque omnibus, officio archiepiscopali annexis, 

 vi laica pulsus et spoliatus, postea summa cum animi tranquilli- 

 tate vitam (quae profecto probatissima semper, tum in rebus 

 prosperis tum in adversis erat) ad mortem usque egit privatam, 

 omnibus, ne quidem ipsis etiam inimicis, insignite utcunque 

 improbis, exceptis, eum venerantibus ac honorantibus 3 utpote 

 qui a maleficiis abhorrens nihil usquam fecerit, quod non proba- 

 verit conscientia, quae in ipso sane adeo recta erat ut ea ne trans- 

 versum quidem unguem unquam discesserit. 



'* Id operae pretium est (et ad rem nostram maxime attinet) 

 monere, Sancroftum sic uti, in omnigena eruditione, (nam inte- 

 riories scrutabatur et reconditas literas) versatus est, ita et anti- 

 quitatum ac historiarum nostrarum fuisse peritissimum : quod 

 plane ipsius ingenio, diligentiae et judicio tribuendum est. 

 Hinc et notas (quae lectoribus non possunt non valde arridere) 

 subinde codicibus apposuit curiosas simul et eruditas." 



f As a proof of the little justice which was done to Arcli- 

 bishop Sancroft's memory for many years after the Revolution, 

 it may be mentioned, that, till the time of Archbishop Corn- 

 wallis, his portrait was not even placed among those of the 



