THOMAS KEN AND IZAAK WALTON 51 



of Orange as his lawful sovereign. He and Dr. 

 Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, and five other 

 bishops argued that a regency should have been 

 established, or else that Mary should be the sole 

 monarch. They had taken the oath of allegiance 

 to the " rightful " sovereign, and although that 

 sovereign had abdicated, they could not swear 

 that his successors were right and lawful. It was 

 at length agreed these words should be omitted, 

 and the oath to be taken was this 



" I do sincerely promise and swear that I 

 will be faithful, and bear true allegiance to 

 their Majesties King William and Queen 

 Mary. So help me God." 



They refused to take the oath and were therefore 

 suspended. Thus in April, 1691, Ken became 

 " the deprived " Bishop of Bath and Wells. 



Burnet, now Lord Bishop of Salisbury, never 

 much in sympathy with Ken, wrote him a long 

 letter on the subject of his retirement, in which he 

 said that he was " extremely concerned to see your 

 lordship so unhappily possessed with that which is 

 likely to prove so fatal to the Church, if we are de- 

 prived of one that has served it with so much honour 



