york00orns

402 YORK.
Declaration of Indulgence, and required it to be
publicly read in all the churches. When the order
was received at York, a meeting of the clergy was held
to deliberate upon the course to be pursued. The
Dean declined to give an opinion. Dr. Comber then
invited a number of the clergy to meet at his house
for further consultation, the result of which was that
all present refused to read it, and agreed to send a
paper to every parish containing their reasons for
coming to that conclusion. The issue was that the
royal command was obeyed by very few indeed in the
diocese of York.
The Roman Catholics, naturally enough, availed
themselves of the liberty given by the king's Declaration.
The number of ^•icars apostolic appears to
have been enlarged. The northern district was
assigned to James Smith (Bishop of Callipolis in
partibtis), who made his entry into York about this
time with considerable ceremony. He was met by a
number of the priesthood, who sang a Te Deiim, and
conducted him processionaliter to a chapel where the
rites of the Old Religion were solemnized. The bishop
was vested in full pontificals, and carried a large silver
pastoral staff, given by Catherine of Braganza.i The
Protestant zeal of Lord Danby was strangely moved
by the sight, and he rushed impulsively forward and
'
Her arms, in a widow's lozenge, surmounted by a crown,
are engraved on one side of the staff, and those of Smith on the
other. Dr. Smith's nomination as a bishop is said to have been
due to the Queen-dowager's influence, and she made him a
present of 200 guineas on the day of his consecration. See
Dodd's "Church Hist.," p. 468.