Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T07:22:25.888Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sheldon and Anglican Recovery

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

R. A. Beddard
R. A. Beddard
Affiliation:
Oriel College, Oxford
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Reviews Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , December 1976 , pp. 1005 - 1017
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Sutch wrongly gives his date of birth as 19 July 1598 and his place of birth as Ashbourne, Derbyshire (p. 1). Sheldon's autograph note in his Bible states: ‘Gilbert Sheldon borne June 19, beinge Thursday in the morninge, and baptized June 22, 1598.’ Bodleian Library, Bib. Eng. 1648.d.3. His birthplace was Stanton in Staffordshire. See Bishop Hacket's verses – ‘O ter beatum Stantonis villae casaml’ – sent to Sheldon, 6 July 1664. Tanner MSS 47, fo. 183. All MS citations refer to the Bodleian collections, unless otherwise stated. Punctuation is according to sense, contractions have been extended and capitalization modernized.

2 Sutch misconstrues Wood's description of the father as ‘a menial servant’, i.e. household servant. Wood, A., Athenae Oxonienses, ed. Bliss, P. (3rd edn, 4 vols. London, 1813–1820), iv, 854.Google Scholar

3 Roger Morrice's notes, headed ‘Episcopus London., Cant., Dr Gilbert Sheldon’. Dr Williams's Library, Morrice MSS: ‘Chronological Account', sub 1677. Cited below as Morrice MSS. Cf. The Compleat Walton, ed. Keynes, G. (London, 1929), p. 466.Google Scholar

4 Roger Sheldon is given as a ‘gentleman’ in the memoir drawn up of the archbishop by Sir William Dugdale and Sir Joseph Sheldon. He ‘had speciall imployments and trusts’ under Shrewsbury. Tanner MSS 40, fo. 180. That the family was an ancient one, see Lysons, D., The Environs of London (4 vols. London, 1796), 1, 183.Google Scholar

5 Morrice MSS.

6 Contemporaries thought better of him. The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon (2 vols. Oxford, 1857), 1,45.Google ScholarBurnet's History of My Own Time, ed. Airy, O. (2 vols. Oxford, 1897), 1, 313.Google ScholarThe Compleat Walton, pp. 466, 474.

7 Though he published little, he satisfactorily performed the academic exercises for his higher degrees - B.D. (11 Nov. 1628) and D.D. (25 June 1634). In his doctoral disputations he was called on to oppose two propositions: ‘An papa sive directe sive indirecte iux habeat deponendi principes christianos’ and ‘An clerici sint ab obedientia magistratus civilis iure divino exempti’; and to affirm a third, ‘An juramentum fidelitatis quod a romano-catholicis in Anglia exigitur licite ab illis prestari possit‘. Oxford University Archives, Congregation Registers O 14, fos. 143, 268v; P 15, fos. 278, 299.

8 MS Eng. th. f. 14, fos. 42–57V: Sheldon's earliest known sermon is of historical, if of little literary, merit. It puts him firmly inside the tradition of the Elizabethan via media, and outside the Calvinist-orientated Anglo-puritan school. It is biblical in content, and conversant with the Early Fathers; it accepts reason as a support of faith (the text is Acts xxvi. 8), and stresses Christian good living - ‘as becomes those that are tantae spei candidati’. It ends on a thoroughly sacramental note. A study of Sheldon's attitudes to Hammond and Taylor would serve to illumine his own theology, and correct some of the misunderstandings that have arisen from statements by his chaplain, Parker, Samuel. History of His Own Time (Englished T. Newlin, London, 1727), pp. 42–5.Google Scholar

9 Sutch's date, 1622, is again a misreading of Wood, who states that Sheldon took orders ‘about the same time’ that he became a Fellow of All Souls. Athenae Oxonienses, iv, 854. He was deaconed by the bishop of Oxford at Dorchester, 23 May 1624. MS. Oxf. Dioc. Papers e. 12 (Subscription Book), pp. 49, 52. He was elected a Probationer in November 1621, and admitted Fellow, 14 Jan. 1622/3. All Souls College, Admission Book.

10 The novelty of his views on the papacy sufficiently disqualify him as a conservative, as Thomas Barlow, his contemporary, observed: ‘That the pope is Anti-Christ was the judgement of all learned protestants generally ever since the Reformation, both in forraine and our owne Church. The question held affirmative constantly in both the Universities all Queene Elizabeth and King James his time. Soe Jewell, Witaker, Rainolds, Hooker, etc., and… Arminius himselfe, as is evident in his writeings extant. Nor did I ever here it held negatively in Oxon., till about the yeare 1628 or 1630, when Arminianisme came in favor, and soe in fashon.’ Barlow's marginalium on p. 126 of his copy of Heylyn's life of Laud, Cyprianus Anglicus (London, 1667). NN. 118. Th. That Barlow had Sheldon in mind, see his letter to the earl of Anglesey, The Genuine Remains Of… Thomas Barlow (London, 1693), p. 192.Google Scholar

11 He preserved the Codex Authenticus of the Laudian Statutes of Oxford during the Interregnum. Oxford University Archives, W.P.y. 25c. 1. He recovered Laud's papers from Prynne's study, and entrusted the publication of the ‘Diary’ and ‘History’ to Sancroft. He also sought out better texts from Laud's executor, Dr Richard Baylie. They were eventually published by Sancroft's chaplain, Wharton, Henry. See the ‘Preface’ to The History Of The Troubles And Tryal Of… William Laud (London, 1695).Google Scholar Cf. St John's College, Oxford: MSS 258, 259. He similarly commissioned, but with prompter success, a more reliable edition of Laud's prayers, which came out under his imprimatur(Lambeth, 12Dec. 1666). A Summarie of Devotions (Oxford, 1667).Google Scholar

12 The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon, 1, 39–41.

13 That Sheldon was an important intermediary between Charles and his scattered spiritual advisers, see Tanner MSS 145, fos. 4, 6,8: Bishop Wren of Ely to Sheldon, 14 Aug. and 22 Sept. 1647. Cf. Sancroft MSS 78, pp. 16–21.

14 Morrice MSS.

15 Sheldon's friend and patron, Sir Robert Shirley, who died a prisoner in the Tower for his royalist intriguings, left no less than £1,000 for the relief of loyalists. Tanner MSS 130, fo. 24V. Again, Sutch falsely institutionalizes these largely ad hoc activities into a’Charitable Uses Fund’; just as later on he turns the customary hospitality of an archbishop into ‘the Sheldon Dinners’ (pp. 137–9).

16 Bosher, R. S., The Making of the Restoration Settlement (rev. edn, London, 1957).Google Scholar

17 See Sheldon's just complaint to Clarendon of his ‘ great unkindnes… in offering to expose me to certaine ruine by the Parliament, or the extreme hatred of that malicious party in whose jawes I must live, and never giving me the least notice of it.’ Clarendon MSS 77, fo. 319: 30 Aug. 1662.

18 Carte MSS 45, fo. 232: Lambeth House, 29 Oct. 1667. Sheldon was sufficient of a realist to realize that their old friendship was common knowledge – he and Ormonde ‘being supposed to have a kindnes for one that had none for us’. See ibid. fo. 228: 28 Sept. 1667.

19 See his earlier cutting remarks on Clarendon, ibid. fo. 222: Sheldon to Ormonde, 27 Aug. 1667: ‘He that is in most danger hath seemed to me of a long time to court his own ruine, and 'tis no wonder if he fall into it, since he that despiseth counsell must perish.’

20 For the exemplary contributions of William Sumner, the Canterbury antiquarian, and Dr John Barwick, successively dean of Durham and St Paul's, see my articles: ‘The Privileges of Christchurch, Canterbury: Archbishop Sheldon's Enquiries of 1671', Archaeologia Cantiana, LXXXVII (1972), pp. 87–8;Google Scholar and ‘Church and State in Old St Paul's’, The Guildhall Miscellany, iv (1972), 162–3, 164–73.Google Scholar

21 Hence the phrase ‘Ecclesiae Stator’ in the descriptive inscription on his tomb in Croydon parish church.

22 Charles II's alleged authorship of ‘Copies of Two Papers Written by the late King Charles II’ (London, 1686), which were published by James II's direction as propaganda for the Roman Catholic Church, do not stand up to scrutiny. See my note, ‘Charles II and Infallibility’, Notes and Queries, ccxiv (1969), pp. 102–3.Google Scholar

23 The letter, of which there are many textual variants, certainly belongs to the period of the farcical Spanish match, and it was widely attributed to Abbot by his friends and enemies; he, however, appears to have denied the authorship of so bold a message to the king. The episode stands in need of elucidation. Whatever the pros and cons of Abbot's authorship, it cannot have been Sheldon's. Sutch in any case seems to assign it to the new year of 1663, when Sheldon was still bishop of London. Moreover, after he succeeded to Canterbury, he usually signed himself: ‘Gilb: Cant’, not ‘G. Cant.’

24 He had opposed their admission to the episcopate: Wilkins, who was Cromwell's brother-in-law, he considered a complier and doctrinally unsound; Wood, who was the candidate of the king's mistress, the duchess of Cleveland, was lax and insubordinate; and Barlow, a protégé of Morley of Winchester, he thought a time-server and one who had got out of line in the 1660s in broaching a coalition with Dissent.

25 Sutch ignores the strength of lay support for the Anglican Establishment, particularly in the Cavalier Parliament. Instead he prefers to write of ‘Sheldon's carefully nurtured Anglican majority’ as‘ his primary achievement’ (p. 143), when it was there all along and only needed to be galvanized in an emergency. See Witcombe, D. T., Charles II and The Cavalier House of Commons 1663–1674 (Manchester, 1966).Google Scholar

26 He had then appealed to the Act of Uniformity, ‘the darling of… Parliament, and indeed of all the good people of England’, in his bid to thwart toleration by prerogative action. Bosher, The Making of the Restoration Settlement, pp. 261 ff.

27 MSS Add. C. 305, fo. 77: 12 Oct. 1667.

28 When quizzed over the uncertain state of Court opinion on ecclesiastical matters, Sheldon replied that ‘ His Majestie's sence is no otherwise knowne than by his publique laws, and by them, therefore, wee are only to bee guided in our dutyes’. British Library, Harleian MSS 7377, fo. 55V: Lambeth House, 21 Sept. 1674.

29 For much fuller discussion of legislative projects, even in Sheldon's correspondence, see the Bill for disabling clerics from holding preferment in England and Ireland, which was a huge collaborative undertaking, involving the Lord Lieutenant, the Primate and Chancellor of Ireland as well as Sheldon and his English allies. Carte MSS 45, fos. 169, 177, 179V, 183, 185.

30 MSS Add. C. 303, fos. 108, 116, 124: Clarendon to Sheldon, 5, 16 and 26 Sept. [1665]. Sutch, as usual, omits all folio references. The first of these letters does not mention any bill. His quotations are, as throughout most of the book, mistranscribed.

31 The two obvious exceptions whose papers outweigh Sheldon's are William Sancroft and William Wake.

32 See my article, ‘The Privileges of Christchurch, Canterbury: Archbishop Sheldon's Enquiries of 1671’, Archaeologia Cantiana, LXXXVII (1972), pp. 81–100.Google Scholar His search embraced the Churches of Worcester, Norwich, Chichester and Bristol, as well as Gloucester and Canterbury, see MSS Add. C. 305, fos. 307, 308, 299, 70–4, 41–2.

33 Wilkins, D., Concilia Magnae Britanniae (4 vols. London, 1737), iv, 578–99.Google Scholar

34 Cardwell, E., Documentary Annals of the Reformed Church of England (2 vols. Oxford, 1839), 11, 270–91.Google ScholarSykes, N., From Sheldon to Seeker (Cambridge, 1959), pp. 2 ff.Google Scholar

35 E.g. p. 151, where Sutch has Inigo Jones being commissioned to rebuild St Paul's in 1666, when he had died in 1652.

36 He does not work through Bishop Hacket's informative correspondence in Tanner MSS 44, 45 and 131; nor use the act books and fabric accounts of the Dean and Chapter, available in the Lichfield Joint Record Office.

37 For St Asaph a good start can be made with the letters in Tanner MSS 146, fos. 35,38,44, 46, 48 ff.

38 Tanner MSS 282, fos. 58–59; Tanner MSS 290, fo. 84; cf. MSS Add. C. 308, fos. 30–33V, 34: Sheldon's ‘Orders and Instructions… to all the bishops of his Province’, Lambeth House, 26 July 1665.

39 E.g. Tanner MSS 282, fo. 65: Sheldon's ‘Circular letter to cathedrals that the residentiaries should in their own persons perform Divine Service on Sundaies and Holidaies at least’, Lambeth House, 4 June 1670. For a draft, see ibid. fo. 67. Quoted in my article, ‘Cathedral Furnishings of the Restoration period’, Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine, LXVI (1971), 150 and n. 32.Google Scholar

40 This would appear to have been a complex and cumulative process, involving royal letters and primatial directives, in addition to local initiatives. A sequel to C. Hill's Economic Problems of the Church is badly needed.

41 A pioneering study of one Sheldonian has been completed by Miss E. A. O. Whiteman, ‘The Episcopate of Dr Seth Ward, bishop of Exeter (1662–7) and Salisbury (1667–88)’. Oxford MS D. Phil. d. 1046–7.

42 For two such studies, one administrative, the other political, see Whiteman, E. A. O., ‘The re-establishment of the Church of England, 1660–1663', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th series, v (1955), pp. 111–31;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and my ‘Church of Salisbury and the accession of James II’, Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine, LXVII (1972), pp. 132Google Scholar

43 MSS Add. C. 308, fos. 25V–26, 26V–28: articles of inquiry, ordered by the king (1665).

44 British Library, Harleian MSS 7377, fo. 16: draft circular to deans, calling for chapter accounts since the Restoration (1670).

45 There were two separate inquiries: the first in 1669 into the number of ‘conventicles, or unlawful assemblies’; and the second, in 1676 - the so-called ‘Compton Census’ - inquiring into the number of conformists, dissenters and popish recusants, which was a part of Lord Treasurer Danby's cavalier Anglican programme. See MSS Add. C. 308, fos. 14OV–143V; Tanner MSS 282, fo. 50: Sheldon to Jenkins, 8 June 1669; cf. British Library, Harleian MSS 7377, fos. 5–6V. Also see Tanner MSS 282, fo. 66: Sheldon to Compton, Lambeth House, 17 Jan. 1675/6. British Library, Harleian MSS 7377, fos. 61–63V.

46 For Burnet's malicious account, see Burnet's History Of My Own Time, I, 313.

47 Quoted by Burrows, M., Worthies of All Souls (London, 1874), p. 250.Google Scholar The statement echoes Laud's sentiments. MSS Add. C. 304b, fo. 20: Laud's will (13 Jan. 1643/4).

48 Tanner MSS. 282, f o. 50: Sheldon to W. Sancrof t, archdeacon of Canterbury, Lambeth House, 8 June 1669 (Sancroft's transcript).

49 Sheldon expounded to Ormonde his belief in ‘a resolute execution of the law’, so ‘that they who will not be governed as men, by reason and perswasion, should be governed as beasts, by power and force; all other courses will be ineffectuall, ever have been soe, ever will be’. Carte MSS 45, fo. 151: Whitehall, 15 Sept. 1663. The Sheldon-Ormonde correspondence has been prepared for publication.

50 Carte MSS 32, fo. 25: O'Neill to Ormonde, Whitehall, 13 Sept. [1662].

51 Tanner MSS 40, fo. 180: Sir Joseph Sheldon's memoir.