and that he had never tried to bring any other person within the
pale of that Church. It was hardly worth while to violate the
most sacred obligations of law and of plighted faith, for the
purpose of making such converts as these.89

In a short time the King went a step further. Sclater and Walker
had only been permitted to keep, after they became Papists, the
preferment which had been bestowed on them while they passed for
Protestants. To confer a high office in the Established Church on
an avowed enemy of that Church was a far bolder violation of the
laws and of the royal word. But no course was too bold for James.
The Deanery of Christchurch became vacant. That office was, both
in dignity and in emolument, one of the highest in the University
of Oxford. The Dean was charged with the government of a greater
number of youths of high connections and of great hopes than
could then be found in any other college. He was also the head of
a Cathedral. In both characters it was necessary that he should
be a member of the Church of England. Nevertheless John Massey,
who was notoriously a member of the Church of Rome, and who had
not one single recommendation, except that he was a member of the
Church of Rome, was appointed by virtue of the dispensing power;
and soon within the walls of Christchurch an altar was decked, at
which mass was daily celebrated.90 To the Nuncio the King said
that what had been done at Oxford should very soon be done at
Cambridge.91

Yet even this was a small evil compared with that which
Protestants had good ground to apprehend. It seemed but too
probable that the whole government of the Anglican Church would
shortly pass into the hands of her deadly enemies. Three