regarded by lawyers as an outrageous violation of the law, and by
Churchmen as a direct attack upon the Church. Perhaps the contest
might have lasted longer, but for an event which wounded the
pride and inflamed the rage of the King. He had, as supreme
ordinary, put forth directions, charging the clergy of the
establishment to abstain from touching in their discourses on
controverted points of doctrine. Thus, while sermons in defence
of the Roman Catholic religion were preached on every Sunday and
holiday within the precincts of the royal palaces, the Church of
the state, the Church of the great majority of the nation, was
forbidden to explain and vindicate her own principles. The spirit
of the whole clerical order rose against this injustice. William
Sherlock, a divine of distinguished abilities, who had written
with sharpness against Whigs and Dissenters, and had been
rewarded by the government with the Mastership of the Temple and
with a pension, was one of the first who incurred the royal
displeasure. His pension was stopped, and he was severely reprimanded.95 John
Sharp, Dean of Norwich and Rector of St. Giles's in the Fields,
soon gave still greater offence. He was a man of learning and
fervent piety, a preacher of great fame, and an exemplary parish
priest. In politics he was, like most of his brethren, a Tory,
and had just been appointed one of the royal chaplains. He
received an anonymous letter which purported to come from one of
his parishioners who had been staggered by the arguments of Roman
Catholic theologians, and who was anxious to be satisfied that
the Church of England was a branch of the true Church of Christ.
No divine, not utterly lost to all sense of religious duty and of
professional honour, could refuse to answer such a call. On the
following Sunday Sharp delivered an animated discourse against
the high pretensions of the see of Rome. Some of his expressions