Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 08.djvu/74

 ). Butler declined to allow the dignity of the see to be diminished by the separation of the lord-lieutenancy, or to agree to a contract which he thought simoniacal. He was accordingly appointed to the bishopric unconditionally. The arrangement, however, as to Chapman and Secker was carried into effect. The lord-lieutenancy was not separated from the bishopric till the next vacancy. A plan for establishing bishops in the American colonies was suggested at this time by Butler (Annual Register, 1765, p. 108). It came to nothing, but was noticed in a later controversy between Secker and a Dr. Mayhew, of Boston, in 1763. A contemporary reference is made in R. Baron's ‘Cordial for Low Spirits’ (1751, preface to vol. iii.) [see ] Butler was translated to Durham in July 1750, succeeding E. Chandler. He delivered a charge in 1751 (printed in his works). In this, after speaking strongly of the ‘general decay of religion in the nation,’ and speaking of the evil effects of light conversation in promoting scepticism, he insists upon the importance of observing outward forms, of maintaining churches, and regular services, as well as impressing the people by proper personal admonitions. He speaks incidentally of the influence of outward form in strengthening the beliefs, superstitions, and religions of heathens, Mahommedans, and Catholics. This passage gave very needless offence, and in 1752 Archdeacon Blackburne published an anonymous pamphlet called ‘A Serious Enquiry into the Use and Importance of External Religion,’ &c., in which Butler was accused of a tendency to Romanism. This pamphlet was republished with Blackburne's name by R. Baron, in a collection called ‘The Pillars of Priestcraft and Orthodoxy shaken,’ and is included in Blackburne's works. It is only worth notice as partly accounting for the report afterwards spread, that Butler had died a catholic. Another circumstance which aroused the suspicions of his contemporaries was his erection in the chapel of his palace at Bristol of a slab of black marble over the altar, with an inlaid cross of white marble. It remained till the destruction of the palace in the Bristol riots of 1831.

The assertion that Butler died a catholic was made in 1767 in an anonymous pamphlet called ‘The Root of Protestant Errors Examined’ (attributed to Blackburne or Theophilus Lindsey). Secker replied in a letter to the ‘St. James's Chronicle’ (9 May), signed ‘Misopseudes,’ challenging the author to produce his authority. ‘Phileleutheros,’ the author, replied, giving no reasons beyond rumour, made probable, as he thought, by the circumstances of the Bristol cross and the Durham charge. Secker on 23 May said that he regretted the cross, but emphatically denied the truth of the rumour. Other letters appeared in the same paper, showing only that the writers were determined to believe, though without a tittle of evidence. Secker in a letter of 21 July replied, exposing sufficiently the utter groundlessness of the statement. Butler's ‘natural melancholy’ and his fondness for ‘lives of Romish saints and other books of mystic piety’ are noticed and apparently admitted by the archbishop. He says that Butler was ‘never a communicant in any dissenting assembly;’ that he attended the established worship from his early years, and became ‘a constant conformist’ from his entrance at Oxford. (A full account is given in the notes to Halifax's preface to Butler's Works, i. p. xxxiii.)

Butler does not appear to have taken any part in politics. He had been wafted to his see, says Horace Walpole, ‘in a cloud of metaphysics, and remained absorbed in it’ (George II, i. 148). He had, however, a house at Hampstead, which had once belonged to Sir Henry Vane. Butler had filled the windows with painted glass, including some figures of the apostles, presented to him by the pope, according to ‘local tradition.’ Miss Talbot describes it to Mrs. Carter as a ‘most enchanting, gay, pretty, elegant house’ (Letters of 29 Feb. and 9 April 1751). The house was sold upon his death (see Hampstead, p. 269). During his short tenure of the see of Durham, Butler showed great liberality, received the principal gentry three times a week, subscribed liberally to charities, and visited his clergy. The story was told that, in answer to some application for a subscription, he asked his steward how much money he had in the house. ‘Five hundred pounds,’ was the reply; upon which the bishop bestowed the whole upon the applicant, saying that it was a shame for a bishop to have so much.

Butler's health was failing, and his physicians sent him to Bristol and afterwards to Bath, where he died on 16 June 1752. He was buried in the cathedral at Bristol. Bishop Benson (Secker's brother-in-law) and Nathaniel Forster, Butler's chaplain, were in attendance. The last tells Secker that Butler was constantly talking of writing to his old friend, even when unable to express himself clearly. By his will he left 200l. to Forster, whom he appointed executor. The balance of his estate after various bequests, including 500l. to the Newcastle Infirmary and 500l. to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, was to be distributed among his nephews and nieces. The total amount left seems to