of the clergy he was regarded as the ablest and most intrepid
tribune that had ever defended their rights against the oligarchy
of prelates. The lower House of Convocation voted him thanks for
his services; the University of Oxford created him a doctor of
divinity; and soon after the accession of Anne, while the Tories
still had the chief weight in the government, he was promoted to
the deanery of Carlisle.

Soon after he had obtained this preferment, the Whig party rose
to ascendency in the state. From that party he could expect no
favour. Six years elapsed before a change of fortune took place.
At length, in the year 1710, the prosecution of Sacheverell
produced a formidable explosion of high-church fanaticism. At
such a moment Atterbury could not fail to be conspicuous. His
inordinate zeal for the body to which he belonged, his turbulent
and aspiring temper, his rare talents for agitation and for
controversy, were again signally displayed. He bore a chief part
in framing that artful and eloquent speech which the accused
divine pronounced at the bar of the Lords, and which presents a
singular contrast to the absurd and scurrilous sermon which had
very unwisely been honoured with impeachment. During the
troubled and anxious months which followed the trial, Atterbury
was among the most active of those pamphleteers who inflamed the
nation against the Whig ministry and the Whig parliament. When
the ministry had been changed and the parliament dissolved,
rewards were showered upon him. The Lower House of Convocation
elected him prolocutor. The Queen appointed him Dean of
Christchurch on the death of his old friend and patron Aldrich.
The college would have preferred a gentler ruler. Nevertheless,
the new head was received with every mark of honour. A