Johnson was conspicuous, declared that Jacobitism itself was
respectable when compared with the vile doctrine which had been
discovered in the Convocation Book. That passive obedience was
due to Kings was doubtless an absurd and pernicious notion. Yet
it was impossible not to respect the consistency and fortitude of
men who thought themselves bound to bear true allegiance, at all
hazards, to an unfortunate, a deposed, an exiled oppressor. But
the theory which Sherlock had learned from Overall was unmixed
baseness and wickedness. A cause was to be abandoned, not because
it was unjust, but because it was unprosperous. Whether James had
been a tyrant or had been the father of his people was quite
immaterial. If he had won the battle of the Boyne we should have
been bound as Christians to be his slaves. He had lost it; and
we were bound as Christians to be his foes. Other Whigs
congratulated the proselyte on having come, by whatever road, to
a right practical conclusion, but could not refrain from sneering
at the history which he gave of his conversion. He was, they
said, a man of eminent learning and abilities. He had studied the
question of allegiance long and deeply. He had written much about
it. Several months had been allowed him for reading, prayer and
reflection before he incurred suspension, several months more
before he incurred deprivation. He had formed an opinion for
which he had declared himself ready to suffer martyrdom; he had
taught that opinion to others; and he had then changed that
opinion solely because he had discovered that it had been, not
refuted, but dogmatically pronounced erroneous by the two
Convocations more than eighty years before. Surely, this was to
renounce all liberty of private judgment, and to ascribe to the
Synods of Canterbury and York an infallibility which the Church
of England had declared that even Oecumenical Councils could not