york00orns

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Life
tillotson's scheme for comprehension. 407
Sancroft's deprivation was followed by the appointment
of Tillotson to the primacy. The latter was a
Yorkshirenian by birth, and his early training in a
Puritan home predisposed him to sympathise more
cordially with the Nonconformist party than with
churchmen like Sancroft or Ken, Hickes or Kettlewell.
He took a prominent part when the Bill of Comprehension
was proposed, and the Houses of Convocation
were summoned to deliberate upon it, as also when
the question of a review of the Book of Commonprayer
and the Canons was mooted, with a view of
making such concessions to the Dissenters as might
result in their union with the Church. Some of the
alterations proposed were not undesirable, yet we may
well be thankful that the majestic cadences of the
prayers and collects escaped "being made anew" by
Patrick, Burnet, and Stillingfleet, and receiving the
finishing touches of Tillotson, ' who polished over
whatever was left rough in the compositions with his
smooth language and flowingness of his easy eloquence."
1 But every obstacle was interposed by a
large majority of the Lower House. In the face of
this opposition, comprehension was hopeless, and the
whole scheme fell to the ground. The Northern Convocation
appears to have had no hand in the matter.
Archbishop Lamplugh died in 1691, and was
succeeded by Dr. John Sharp, then Dean of Canterbury.
Like his friend Tillotson, he was a native of
Yorkshire. Other bishoprics had been previously
offered him. But in each case the vacancy was caused
p. 680).
of Tillotson (in "Wordsworth's Eccles. Biog.," iv.'