astonished by learning from a newsletter which he found on the
table of a coffeehouse that he had been nominated to the See of
Peterborough.57 Beveridge was selected to succeed Ken; he
consented; and the appointment was actually announced in the
London Gazette. But Beveridge, though an honest, was not a
strongminded man. Some Jacobites expostulated with him; some
reviled him; his heart failed him; and he retracted. While the
nonjurors were rejoicing in this victory, he changed his mind
again; but too late. He had by his irresolution forfeited the
favour of William, and never obtained a mitre till Anne was on
the throne.58 The bishopric of Bath and Wells was bestowed on
Richard Kidder, a man of considerable attainments and blameless
character, but suspected of a leaning towards Presbyterianism.
About the same time Sharp, the highest churchman that had been
zealous for the Comprehension, and the lowest churchman that felt
a scruple about succeeding a deprived prelate, accepted the
Archbishopric of York, vacant by the death of Lamplugh.59

In consequence of the elevation of Tillotson to the See of
Canterbury, the Deanery of Saint Paul's became vacant. As soon as
the name of the new Dean was known, a clamour broke forth such as
perhaps no ecclesiastical appointment has ever produced, a
clamour made up of yells of hatred, of hisses of contempt, and of
shouts of triumphant and half insulting welcome; for the new Dean
was William Sherlock.

The story of his conversion deserves to be fully told; for it
throws great light on the character of the parties which then
divided the Church and the State. Sherlock was, in influence and
reputation, though not in rank, the foremost man among the