Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

same tender regard the claims of Rome to the
foundation, exposed the falsehood of her
pretensions, and the tyrannical and immoral
tendency of her doctrines, in such a way that
Popery came to be better understood by the people
of England than it had ever been before. The
leaders in this controversial war were Tillotson,
Stillingfleet, Tennison, and Patrick. "They
examined all the points of Popery," says Burner,
"with a solidity of judgment, a clearness of
arguing, a depth of learning, and a vivacity of
writing far beyond anything that had before that
time appeared in our language."[11] Against these
powerful and accomplished writers was pitted,
perhaps the shallowest race of Popish
controversialists that ever put on harness to do
battle for their Church. They could do little besides
translating a few meager French works into bad
English. On their own soil these works had done
some service to Rome, backed as they were by
Louis XIV and his dragoons; but in England, where
they enjoyed no such aids, and where they were
exposed to the combined and well-directed assaults
of a powerful Protestant phalanx, they were
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