Page:Dean Aldrich A Commemoration Speech.djvu/16

 his surroundings at its height. In the Convocation of 1700, a fierce and deadly feud had arisen between the Upper and Lower Houses. Its roots lay deep. 'The two parties,' says Cardwell, 'into which the kingdom was divided, were placed in more direct hostility and furnished with more deadly weapons when they met upon ecclesiastical grounds and in a Convocation. The House of Bishops was under the influence of the Court: the Lower House had contracted much of the spirit of the Non-Jurors.' The struggle blazed out on the question of prorogation. This the Archbishop claimed as against the Prolocutor. Round this latter office, therefore, the storm raged and thundered; and into this office, just when the tempest was at its worst, Aldrich was deputed; deputed, too, on the mere authority of the sick Prolocutor, in a wild peal of defiance against the Archbishop and the hated Burnet.

The Dean of Christ Church advanced to say prayers, and by importunity was prevailed upon to take the chair at once. His very popularity disarmed the opposition, who could offer, says White Kennet, 'no disrespect to the person thus thrust into the chair, especially as Dr. Aldrich behaved himself with decency and silence.' Again, when his Grace summoned them, 'we could not oppose,' Kennet owns, 'the Dean of Christ Church going at the head of us, with cap and verger, as formal Prolocutor.' This summoning ended in tumultuous rebellion, Aldrich was elected Prolocutor next session, the whole of which was spent in the prosecution of the fight. It was during this session that the Lower House balanced its revolt against the Upper by a Declaration of its belief in the Divine right of Episcopacy, not the last time that the High