Page:Eight Friends of the Great - WP Courtney.djvu/29



Rh the clerical disputants were Maddox afterwards bishop of Worcester and Arthur Ashley Sykes, who wrote under the disguise of "a gentleman of the Temple."

Two less reputable controversialists afterwards enlisted themselves in the struggle. One of them was Arnall the hack-writer in Walpole's pay. The second was Richard Savage, a man inspired by hatred to "the claims of ecclesiastical power," and by friendship for Rundle's friend, "Jamie Thomson." He produced a poem with the innocent title of "the progress of a divine," tracing the career of a profligate priest to the highest preferments in the church and amiably insinuating that such a man was sure to be under the patronage of bishop Gibson. This was too much for the clergy and Savage was brought before the court of King's bench on a charge of obscenity. The defence consisted of the usual plea that the poem had been written for the promotion of decency in public life, and lord Hardwicke, after lauding the purity and excellence of the writings of the accused dismissed the information.

Mawson, who died bishop of Ely refused the see of Gloucester because he thought that Rundle had been improperly set aside. Martin Benson, who had married the sister of Seeker was with difficulty induced to accept it. The see of Derry opportunely became vacant and Seeker wrote that it might be filled in such a manner as to vacate a good deanery in England for Rundle, a preferment which would be thoroughly in accordance with his wishes. The deanery of Durham was suggested as fitting for him. But this scheme fell through and Rundle was sent to what he more than once calls his "splendid banishment" in Ireland, being consecrated as bishop on 3 August 1735.

The wits of England were enthusiastic in his praise. Pope in his letters to Swift declared that he "never saw a man so seldom whom I liked so much" and protested in his poems