Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 52.djvu/35

Sheldon was 'great resort of persons to him' (, Annals), and he was ordered to be removed to Wallingford Castle with Dr. Henry Hammond [q. v.], but the governor refused to receive them. He was set free at the end of 1648, on condition that he did not come within five miles of Oxford or the Isle of Wight, where the king then was (, Sufferings of the Clergy;, Register of the Visitors of the University of Oxford, Camd. Soc.; , Annals).

He retired to Sneltson in Derbyshire, and remained there or stayed with friends in Staffordshire and Nottinghamshire till the Restoration. He was constant in subscribing and in collecting for the poor clergy and for Charles II in exile. He corresponded with Jeremy Taylor, whom he largely supported, and with Hyde, to whom he severely criticised the conduct of the exiled court (Clarendon State Papers, iii. 736). On the death of Palmer, whom the visitors had made warden of All Souls' in his stead, on 4 March 1659, he was quietly reinstated. Already he had been mentioned for one of the vacant bishoprics, when it had been proposed to consecrate secretly in 1655, (July 1655, ib. iii. 60, letter of Dr. Duncombe to Hyde).

At the Restoration he met Charles at Canterbury, was made dean of the Chapel Royal, and was from the first high in favour. 'You are the only person about his Majesty that I have confidence in,' wrote the aged Brian Duppa, bishop of Salisbury, to him on 11 Aug. 1660, 'and I persuade myself that as none hath his ear more, so none is likely to prevail on his heart more, and there was never more need of it' (Tanner MSS. in Bodl. Libr. vol. xl. f. 17). On 9 Oct. 1660 he was elected bishop of London in the place of Juxon. He was confirmed on 23 Oct. and consecrated on 28 Oct. in Henry VII's chapel. He was also made master of the Savoy and sworn of the privy council. The Savoy conference was held at his lodging in the Savoy, and was opened by him with a direction that 'nothing should be done till all the puritan objections had been formulated and considered.' During the conference he appeared rarely and did not dispute, but was understood 'to have a principal hand in disposing' (see, Abridgment of R. Baxter's Life, and ). He is said to have been strongly in favour of the enforcement of the uniformity laws (, History of his Own Time, p. 28), and his papers contain many letters from statesmen, justices, and bishops on this point (Sheldon Papers, especially the letters from English, Scots, and Irish bishops; 'Dolben Papers,' especially letters from Clarendon, in Dolben Hist. MSS. 1626-1721, pp. 104-13, 116, 119, 120-7). A commission was issued to him to consecrate the new Scots bishops, 'so that it be not prejudicial to the privileges of the church of Scotland' (Cal, State Papers, Dom. 30 Nov. 1661); and he practically exercised the powers of the archbishopric, owing to Juxon's age and infirmities. On the primate's death he was elected his successor (congé d'élire, 6 June 1663. election 11 Aug., confirmation '31 Aug., restoration of temporalities 9 Sept.;, Lives of Bishops since the Reformation, p. 182, corrected by Cal. State Papers, Dom.)

From this date his political activity increased. The state papers contain many references to his appointment as arbiter in difficult cases of petitions presented through him, and to investigations entrusted to his hands by the king, especially in connection with the navy. One of his first acts was to arrange with Clarendon that the clergy should no longer tax themselves in convocation (Cal. State Papers; Sheldon MSS.) He was elected chancellor of the university of Oxford in 1667 on the resignation of Clarendon on 20 Dec, but was never installed, and resigned on 31 July 1669 (, Life and Times, ed. Clark, ii. 124, 166). He built at Oxford, entirely at his own expense, the theatre (known as 'The Sheldonian') for the performance of the 'Act, or Encaenia.' It was opened on 9 July 1669. The total cost was 12,339l. 4s. 4d. (details in Bodl. MS. 898 and, Life and Times, ed. Clark^, and 2,000l. was spent also on 'buying lands whose revenue might support the fabrick' (ib, iii. 72). Wren, who was the architect, told Evelyn that the cost was 25,000l. (, Journal, i.419). Sheldon had long taken particular care of the antiquities of the university. During the Commonwealth he saved the university copy of the Laudian statutes ('Authenticus Liber Statutorum') and presented it to Clarendon when he was chancellor, who restored it. He paid particular attention to Anthony à Wood (Life, ii. 167), and gave him 'great encouragement to proceed in his studies' (ib. p. 243). His relations with the university throughout appear to have been liberal and judicious both as visitor and as chancellor (see, Memorials of Merton College; , Worthies of All Souls). In spite of his severity against dissenters and his share in the passing of the Corporation Act, he seems to have at times promoted, and frequently protected, nonconforming divines (see , Life in the English Church, 1660-1714, p. 347). Though he was long one of the most prominent of the king's advisers, he