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142 Dodwell was resident at Oxford, as Camdenian Lecturer, at the Revolution. At an early period, he endeavoured to prevent persons from taking the Oath of Allegiance to the new Sovereigns. As some individuals imagined, that the Oath only required them to live peaceably under the new government, without attempting to disturb the Revolution settlement, Dodwell came forward in "A Cautionary Discourse of Schism with a particular regard to the case of the Bishops who are suspended for refusing to take the new Oath." At that time he hoped to prevent the deprivation of the Bishops. With respect to the Oath, he argued that it pledged the parties, who took it, never to do any thing to promote the cause of the King de jure. This, he said, was the view of the loyalists in the time of Cromwell, who could not take the Oaths which were then adopted. His great anxiety, therefore, was that the Oath should not be imposed, foreseeing that a schism must inevitably arise, should such be the case. His main points in the "Cautionary Discourse" were these; that neither the state, nor their fellow Bishops could deprive them of their spiritual characters, and that they could not be deprived by a Synod, since the Bishops, who would be