Page:Dean Aldrich A Commemoration Speech.djvu/13

 Liturgy of the Church of England as he, by reason of his being Dean, by the laws and statutes of this our realm, or by any statute, constitution or custom of the University of Oxford, or of the College called Christ Church, is or shall be obliged to perform, make or subscribe; and we do hereby pardon, remit, exonerate and discharge the said John Massey from all pains, penalties, censures or disabilities by him incurred or to be incurred.'

It can hardly have been a merry installation for our poor Subdean under a title such as this; and we have some inkling of his private feelings at the time, for within a year he wrote his 'Reply to two Discourses on the Adoration of our Lord in the Eucharist,' Discourses written by Woodhead under the arch-enemy Walker's direction, and printed at the Press which another royal Dispensation had allowed 'our trusty and wellbeloved Obadiah Walker' to erect in his house for the printing of Popish books. One wonders whether Canon Aldrich felt overjoyed with loyalty when he stood under the Great Gate in 1687 to meet and escort the king to his lodgings at the Deanery; or when he went in the royal train to Massey's Popish Chapel in the old Refectory of Canterbury Hall, to hear a sermon preached before all the great doctors and proctors, by one William Hall, a secular priest, son of a cook in Ivy Lane, St. Paul's Churchyard; or when he heard of the Magdalen Fellows summoned before the king at the Deanery, and roundly threatened in rough language, that if they did not elect Parker as President before the morning, it would be the worse for them.

However, he had not to bear it long. That very year