The Seven Bishops of the Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

 were those imprisoned and tried for seditious libel

Seditious libel

Seditious libel was a criminal offence under English common law. Sedition is the offence of speaking seditious words with seditious intent: if the statement is in writing or some other permanent form it is seditious libel...

 over their opposition to the second Declaration of Indulgence

Declaration of Indulgence

The Declaration of Indulgence was two proclamations made by James II of England and VII of Scotland in 1687. The Indulgence was first issued for Scotland on 12 February, and then for England on 4 April 1687...

 issued by James II

James II of England

James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...

 in 1688. They were found not guilty.

The Declaration granted broad religious freedom in England by suspending penal laws enforcing conformity to the Church of England and allowing persons to worship in their homes or chapels as they saw fit, and it ended the requirement of affirming religious oaths before gaining employment in government office.

The Declaration of Indulgence had originally been given out on April 4, 1687. The King republished it, with some new prefatory matter, on April 25, 1688. On May 4, the King and his Council ordered the Bishops that the Declaration should be read in all the (Anglican) churches - those of London on May 20, and outside London on the 27th and the two following Sundays. This was the only way, in those days, of making the document swiftly and generally known, which was James's straightforward object; the Anglican Clergy, however, felt it a challenge to themselves, for many of them were opposed to the toleration of Catholics and Nonconformists, as were very many of the population of England at that time.

Nine days passed with no objection; then, on May 13, at Lambeth Palace, Compton (the Bishop of London), Sancroft (Archbishop of Canterbury), Turner (Bishop of Ely), and White (Bishop of Peterborough), resolved to defy James's order. They summoned seven others; the four who actually came were Lake (Bishop of Chichester), Lloyd (St Asaph), Trelawny (Bristol), and Turner (Ely). It will be noticed that this (ignoring the three who did not come) makes a total of eight bishops, counting the Archbishop of Canterbury. Compton is not counted in the reckoning of the seven. These seven Bishops signed a Memorial requesting the King that they might be excused; they claimed that the King did not have the legal right to make exemptions from statutes (which was false).

On the night of the Friday, May 18 - not giving James much time - they presented the King with their petition, by way of an ultimatum. James was prepared to negotiate, and asked them to come back the next day, when he would be able to give a yes or a no answer. Before the hour appointed on that Saturday, the Memorial of the Bishops had been published in numerous copies and broadcast all over London.

The Council were not sure what to do, but summoned them to appear before them on Friday, June 8. The Bishops could have given their own recognizances for coming up for trial, and thereby avoided being imprisoned before their trial. Sancroft had urged this; even Compton agreed to it; but Sancroft broke his word. There was no legal course but to keep them in the Tower before their trial; within the Tower, however, they had complete freedom. But, in Hilaire Belloc

Hilaire Belloc

Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc was an Anglo-French writer and historian who became a naturalised British subject in 1902. He was one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. He was known as a writer, orator, poet, satirist, man of letters and political activist...

's deliberately ironic words, "Compton had had the satisfaction of seeing a vast popular gathering acclaiming these fathers in God on the way to the horrid dungeon of a Tyrant."

The trial took place at the Court of King's Bench

King's Bench

The Queen's Bench is the superior court in a number of jurisdictions within some of the Commonwealth realms...

 on June 29, continuing into the next day, with Sir Thomas Powys the Attorney General prosecuting and John Powell

John Powell (judge)

Sir John Powell was a Welsh judge, who was a judge of the Court of Common Pleas and of the Court of King's Bench. He presided over the trial of the Seven Bishops in 1688.-Life:...

 as the presiding judge, and they were found not guilty. There was great rejoicing; those opposed to Toleration had gained their victory.

The Seven Bishops were:

William Sancroft William Sancroft William Sancroft was the 79th Archbishop of Canterbury.- Life :Sancroft was born at Ufford Hall in Fressingfield, Suffolk, son of Francis Sandcroft and Margaret Sandcroft née Butcher...	Archbishop of Canterbury Archbishop of Canterbury The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
Thomas Ken Thomas Ken Thomas Ken was an English cleric who was considered the most eminent of the English non-juring bishops, and one of the fathers of modern English hymnology.-Early life:...	Bishop of Bath and Wells Bishop of Bath and Wells The Bishop of Bath and Wells heads the Church of England Diocese of Bath and Wells in the Province of Canterbury in England.The present diocese covers the vast majority of the county of Somerset and a small area of Dorset. The Episcopal seat is located in the Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew in...
John Lake John Lake (bishop) John Lake was a 17th century Bishop of Sodor and Man, Bishop of Bristol and Bishop of Chichester in the British Isles.-Life:He was born in Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire and educated at St John's College, Cambridge...	Bishop of Chichester Bishop of Chichester The Bishop of Chichester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the Counties of East and West Sussex. The see is in the City of Chichester where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity...
William Lloyd	Bishop of St Asaph Bishop of St Asaph The Bishop of St Asaph heads the Church in Wales diocese of St Asaph.The diocese covers the counties of Conwy and Flintshire, Wrexham county borough, the eastern part of Merioneth in Gwynedd and part of northern Powys. The Episcopal seat is located in the Cathedral Church of St Asaph in the town of...
Jonathan Trelawny	Bishop of Bristol Bishop of Bristol The Bishop of Bristol heads the Church of England Diocese of Bristol in the Province of Canterbury, in England.The present diocese covers parts of the counties of Somerset and Gloucestershire together with a small area of Wiltshire...
Francis Turner Francis Turner (bishop) Francis Turner D.D. was Bishop of Ely, one of the seven bishops who petitioned against the Declaration of Indulgence and one of the nine bishops who refused to take the oath of allegiance to William III.-Family and education:...	Bishop of Ely Bishop of Ely The Bishop of Ely is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Ely in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese roughly covers the county of Cambridgeshire , together with a section of north-west Norfolk and has its see in the City of Ely, Cambridgeshire, where the seat is located at the...
Thomas White Thomas White (bishop) -Life:He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge. Having been a vicar of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Newark-on-Trent since 1660, he was chosen bishop of Peterborough in 1685...	Bishop of Peterborough Bishop of Peterborough The Bishop of Peterborough is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Peterborough in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers the counties of Northamptonshire, Rutland and the Soke of Peterborough in Cambridgeshire...

Despite their petition and their trial, five of these bishops (all but Lloyd and Trelawny) remained loyal to James II after the Revolution of 1688

Glorious Revolution

The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, is the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau...

 and were among the nine bishops who became non-juror

Nonjuring schism

The nonjuring schism was a split in the Church of England in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, over whether William of Orange and his wife Mary could legally be recognised as King and Queen of England....

s, refusing to swear an oath of allegiance to William and Mary

William and Mary

The phrase William and Mary usually refers to the coregency over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, of King William III & II and Queen Mary II...

, and losing their bishoprics as a result.

External links

• Chapter VIII of Macaulay's
  Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay
  Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay PC was a British poet, historian and Whig politician. He wrote extensively as an essayist and reviewer, and on British history...
  
   History of England
  The History of England from the Accession of James the Second
  The History of England from the Accession of James the Second is the full title of the multi-volume work by Lord Macaulay more generally known as The History of England...
  
   - the last third of this chapter describes the circumstances surrounding the Petition and Trial of the Seven Bishops
• Petition of the Seven Bishops
• Documents by and about the Nonjurors from Project Canterbury
  Project Canterbury
  Project Canterbury is an online archive of material related to the history of Anglicanism. It was founded by Richard Mammana, Jr. in 1999, and is hosted by the non-profit Society of Archbishop Justus...
  
  
• William Gibson, James II and the Trial of the Seven Bishops, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)