Page:History of the Nonjurors.djvu/110

92 persons, Blackhead and Young, in order to implicate Archbishop Sancroft, Sprat, Bishop of Rochester, and others, in a correspondence with some persons in France. A document was dropped, by one of the parties, in the palace at Bromley: and when the information was laid against the Bishop of Rochester, this Paper was discovered in the spot where it had been placed by one of the conspirators, who had applied to his Lordship with a forged letter, pretended to have been written by a clergyman. To the Paper were appended the names of the Archbishop, the Bishop, and others: and the imitations were so good that it was difficult to distinguish between them and the genuine autographs of the individuals. In this document, the French were invited to invade the country: and it is evident, that it was the intention of the framers to implicate the nonjuring Bishops. However, the whole was soon unravelled by the examination and confession of one of the criminals. The Bishop of Rochester published a full account of the whole matter.

The Bishops and Clergy being deprived, the question necessarily arose, what was to be done? Were they to continue in communion with the Church of England as private persons: or were they to exercise their office, as they might be able, and separate altogether from the Church? They were by no means agreed on these very important points. "As the swearers so also the non-swearers were divided among