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CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA.

FRANCIS ATTERBURY.

(DECEMBER 1853.)

ther. Atterbury undertook to defend the great Saxon Reformer, and performed that task in a manner singularly characteristic. Whoever examines his reply to Walker will be struck by the contrast between the feebleness of those parts which are argumentative and defensive, and the vigour of those parts which are rhetorical and aggressive. The Papists were so much galled by the sarcasms and invectives of the young polemic that they raised a cry of treason, and accused him of having, by implication, called King James a Judas.

FRANCIS ATTERBURY, a man who holds a conspicuous place in the political, ecclesiastical, and literary history of England, was born in the year 1662, at Middleton in Buckinghamshire, a parish of which his father was rector. Francis was educated at Westminster School, and carried thence to ChristChurch a stock of learning which, though really scanty, he through life exhibited with such judicious ostentation that superficial observers believed his at- After the Revolution, Atterbury, tainments to be immense. At Oxford, though bred in the doctrines of nonhis parts, his taste, and his bold, con- resistance and passive obedience,readily temptuous, and imperious spirit, soon swore fealty to the new government. made him conspicuous. Here he pub- In no long time he took holy orders. lished, at twenty, his first work, a He occasionally preached in London translation of the noble poem of Absa- with an eloquence which raised his relom and Achitophel into Latin verse. putation, and soon had the honour of Neither the style nor the versification being appointed one of the royal chapof the young scholar was that of the lains. But he ordinarily resided at Augustan age. In English composition Oxford, where he took an active part he succeeded much better. In 1687 he in academical business, directed the distinguished himself among many able classical studies of the under-graduates men who wrote in defence of the Church of his college, and was the chief adof England, then persecuted by James viser and assistant of Dean Aldrich, II., and calumniated by apostates who a divine now chiefly remembered by had for lucre quitted her communion. his catches, but renowned among his Among these apostates none was more contemporaries as a scholar, a Tory, active or malignant than Obadiah Wal- and a high-churchman. It was the ker, who was master of University practice, not a very judicious practice, College, and who had set up there, of Aldrich to employ the most promisunder the royal patronage, a press for ing youths of his college in editing printing tracts against the established Greek and Latin books. Among the religion. In one of these tracts, writ- studious and well-disposed lads who ten apparently by Walker himself, many were, unfortunately for themselves, inaspersions were thrown on Martin Lu-duced to become teachers of philology

able compositions which, having long slept in obscurity, had become on a sudden objects of general interest.

when they should have been content | between the infancy and the dotage of to be learners, was Charles Boyle, son Greek literature. So superficial indeed of the Earl of Orrery, and nephew of was the learning of the rulers of this Robert Boyle, the great experimental celebrated society that they were philosopher. The task assigned to charmed by an essay which Sir WilCharles Boyle was to prepare a new liam Temple published in praise of the edition of one of the most worthless ancient writers. It now seems strange books in existence. It was a fashion, that even the eminent public services, among those Greeks and Romans who the deserved popularity, and the gracecultivated rhetoric as an art, to com- ful style of Temple should have saved pose epistles and harangues in the so silly a performance from universal names of eminent men. Some of these contempt. Of the books which he counterfeits are fabricated with such most vehemently eulogised his eulogies exquisite taste and skill that it is the proved that he knew nothing. In fact, highest achievement of criticism to dis- he could not read a line of the langutinguish them from originals. Others age in which they were written. Among are so feebly and rudely executed that many other foolish things, he said that they can hardly impose on an intelli- the letters of Phalaris were the oldest gent school-boy. The best specimen letters and also the best in the world. which has come down to us is perhaps Whatever Temple wrote attracted nothe oration for Marcellus, such an imi- tice. People who had never heard of tation of Tully's eloquence as Tully the Epistles of Phalaris began to inquire would himself have read with wonder about them. Aldrich, who knew very and delight. The worst specimen is little Greek, took the word of Temple perhaps a collection of letters purport- who knew none, and desired Boyle to ing to have been written by that Pha-prepare a new edition of these admirlaris who governed Agrigentum more than 500 years before the Christian era. The evidence, both internal and external, against the genuineness of The edition was prepared with the these letters is overwhelming. When, help of Atterbury, who was Boyle's in the fifteenth century, they emerged, tutor, and of some other members of in company with much that was far the college. It was an edition such as more valuable, from their obscurity, might be expected from people who they were pronounced spurious by would stoop to edite such a book. The Politian, the greatest scholar of Italy, notes were worthy of the text; the and by Erasmus, the greatest scholar Latin version worthy of the Greek orion our side of the Alps. In truth, it ginal. The volume would have been would be as easy to persuade an edu- forgotten in a month, had not a misuncated Englishman that one of Johnson's derstanding about a manuscript arisen Ramblers was the work of William Wal- between the young editor and the lace as to persuade a man like Erasmus greatest scholar that had appeared in that a pedantic exercise, composed in Europe since the revival of letters, the trim and artificial Attic of the Richard Bentley. The manuscript was time of Julian, was a despatch written in Bentley's keeping. Boyle wished by a crafty and ferocious Dorian, who it to be collated. A mischief-making roasted people alive many years before bookseller informed him that Bentley there existed a volume of prose in the had refused to lend it, which was false, Greek language. But, though Christ- and also that Bentley had spoken conChurch could boast of many good temptuously of the letters attributed Latinists, of many good English writers, to Phalaris, and of the critics who were and of a greater number of clever and taken in by such counterfeits, which fashionable men of the world than be- was perfectly true. Boyle, much prolonged to any other academic body, voked, paid, in his preface, a bitterly there was not then in the college a ironical compliment to Bentley's coursingle man capable of distinguishing tesy. Bentley revenged himself by a

short dissertation, in which he proved | piece, and gives a higher notion of his that the epistles were spurious, and powers than any of those works to which the new edition of them worthless: but he put his name. That he was alto

he treated Boyle personally with civi-gether in the wrong on the main queslity as a young gentleman of great tion, and on all the collateral questions hopes, whose love of learning was highly springing out of it, that his knowledge commendable, and who deserved to of the language, the literature, and have had better instructors. the history of Greece was not equal to Few things in literary history are what many freshmen now bring up more extraordinary than the storm every year to Cambridge and Oxford, which this little dissertation raised. and that some of his blunders seem Bentley had treated Boyle with for- rather to deserve a flogging than a rebearance; but he had treated Christ-futation, is true; and therefore it is Church with contempt; and the Christ- that his performance is, in the highest Church-men, wherever dispersed, were degree, interesting and valuable to a as much attached to their college as a judicious reader. It is good by reason Scotchman to his country, or a Jesuit of its exceeding badness. It is the to his order. Their influence was great. most extraordinary instance that exists They were dominant at Oxford, power- of the art of making much show with ful in the Inns of Court and in the little substance. There is no difficulty, College of Physicians, conspicuous in says the steward of Molière's miser, in Parliament and in the literary and giving a fine dinner with plenty of fashionable circles of London. Their money: the really great cook is he unanimous cry was, that the honour who can set out a banquet with no of the college must be vindicated, that money at all. That Bentley should the insolent Cambridge pedant must have written excellently on ancient be put down. Poor Boyle was un-chronology and geography, on the deequal to the task, and disinclined to it. velopment of the Greek language, and It was, therefore, assigned to his tutor the origin of the Greek drama, is not Atterbury. strange. But that Atterbury should, The answer to Bentley, which bears during some years, have been thought the name of Boyle, but which was, in to have treated these subjects much truth, no more the work of Boyle than better than Bentley is strange indeed. the letters to which the controversy It is true that the champion of Christrelated were the work of Phalaris, is Church had all the help which the most now read only by the curious, and will celebrated members of that society in all probability never be reprinted could give him. Smalridge contributed again. But it had its day of noisy some very good wit; Friend and others popularity. It was to be found, not some very bad archæology and philoonly in the studies of men of letters, logy. But the greater part of the vobut on the tables of the most brilliant lume was entirely Atterbury's: what drawing-rooms of Soho Square and was not his own was revised and reCovent Garden. Even the beaus and touched by him; and the whole bearscoquettes of that age, the Wildairs and the mark of his mind, a mind inexthe Lady Lurewells, the Mirabells and haustibly rich in all the resources of the Millaments, congratulated each controversy, and familiar with all the other on the way in which the gay artifices which make falsehood look like young gentleman, whose erudition sate truth, and ignorance like knowledge. so easily upon him, and who wrote with He had little gold; but he beat that so much pleasantry and good breeding little out to the very thinnest leaf, and about the Attic dialect and the anapas- spread it over so vast a surface that to tic measure, Sicilian talents and The- those who judged by a glance, and who riclean cups, had bantered the queer did not resort to balances and tests, prig of a doctor. Nor was the applause the glittering heap of worthless matter of the multitude undeserved. The which he produced seemed to be an book is, indeed, Atterbury's master- inestimable treasure of massy bullion.

Such arguments as he had he placed in the clearest light. Where he had no arguments, he resorted to personalities, sometimes serious, generally ludicrous, always clever and cutting. But, whether he was grave or merry, whether he reasoned or sneered, his style was always pure, polished, and easy.

the Lower House of Convocation. Atterbury thrust himself eagerly into the front rank of the high-churchmen. Those who take a comprehensive and impartial view of his whole career will not be disposed to give him credit for religious zeal. But it was his nature to be vehement and pugnacious in the cause of every fraternity of which he was a member. He had defended the genuineness of a spurious book simply because Christ-Church had put forth an edition of that book; he now stood up for the clergy against the civil

Party spirit then ran high; yet, though Bentley ranked among Whigs, and Christ-Church was a stronghold of Toryism, Whigs joined with Tories in applauding Atterbury's volume. Garth insulted Bentley, and extolled Boyle in lines which are now never quoted ex-power, simply because he was a clergycept to be laughed at. Swift, in his man, and for the priests against the "Battle of the Books," introduced with episcopal order, simply because he was much pleasantry Boyle, clad in armour, as yet only a priest. He asserted the the gift of all the gods, and directed by pretensions of the class to which he Apollo in the form of a human friend, belonged in several treatises written for whose name a blank is left which with much wit, ingenuity, audacity, may easily be filled up. The youth, so and acrimony. In this, as in his first accoutred, and so assisted, gains an controversy, he was opposed to antagoeasy victory over his uncourteous and nists whose knowledge of the subject in boastful antagonist. Bentley, mean- dispute was far superior to his; but in while, was supported by the conscious- this, as in his first controversy, he imness of an immeasurable superiority, posed on the multitude by bold asserand encouraged by the voices of the few tion, by sarcasm, by declamation, and, who were really competent to judge above all, by his peculiar knack of exthe combat. "No man," he said, hibiting a little erudition in such a justly and nobly, "was ever written manner as to make it look like a great down but by himself." He spent two deal. Having passed himself off on years in preparing a reply, which will the world as a greater master of clasnever cease to be read and prized while sical learning than Bentley, he now the literature of ancient Greece is stu-passed himself off as a greater master died in any part of the world. This reply proved, not only that the letters ascribed to Phalaris were spurious, but that Atterbury, with all his wit, his eloquence, his skill in controversial fence, was the most audacious pretender that ever wrote about what he did not understand. But to Atterbury this exposure was matter of indiffer

ence.

of ecclesiastical learning than Wake or Gibson. By the great body of the clergy he was regarded as the ablest and most intrepid tribune that had ever defended their rights against the oligarchy of prelates. The Lower House of Convocation voted him thanks for his services; the University of Oxford created him a doctor of divinity; and soon after the accession of Anne, while the Tories still had the chief weight in the government, he was promoted to the deanery of Carlisle.

He was now engaged in a dispute about matters far more important and exciting than the laws of Zaleucus and the laws of Charondas. The rage of religious factions was extreme. High Soon after he had obtained this prechurch and Low church divided the ferment, the Whig party rose to ascendnation. The great majority of the ency in the state. From that party he clergy were on the high-church side; could expect no favour. Six years the majority of King William's bishops elapsed before a change of fortune took were inclined to latitudinarianism. A place. At length, in the year 1710, dispute arose between the two parties the prosecution of Sacheverell produced touching the extent of the powers of a formidable explosion of high-church

fanaticism. At such a moment Atter- | probrious words were exchanged; and bury could not fail to be conspicuous. there was reason to fear that the great His inordinate zeal for the body to Tory college would be ruined by the which he belonged, his turbulent and tyranny of the great Tory doctor. He aspiring temper, his rare talents for was soon removed to the bishopric of agitation and for controversy, were Rochester, which was then always again signally displayed. He bore a united with the deanery of Westminchief part in framing that artful and ster. Still higher dignities seemed to eloquent speech which the accused be before him. For, though there were divine pronounced at the bar of the many able men on the episcopal bench, Lords, and which presents a singular there was none who equalled or apcontrast to the absurd and scurrilous proached him in parliamentary talents. sermon which had very unwisely been Had his party continued in power, it honoured with impeachment. During is not improbable that he would have the troubled and anxious months which been raised to the archbishopric of followed the trial, Atterbury was among Canterbury. The more splendid his the most active of those pamphleteers prospects, the more reason he had to who inflamed the nation against the dread the accession of a family which Whig ministry and the Whig parlia-was well known to be partial to the ment. When the ministry had been Whigs. There is every reason to bechanged and the parliament dissolved, lieve that he was one of those politirewards were showered upon him. The cians who hoped that they might be Lower House of Convocation elected able, during the life of Anne, to prepare him prolocutor. The Queen appointed matters in such a way that at her dehim Dean of Christ-Church on the cease there might be little difficulty in death of his old friend and patron setting aside the Act of Settlement and Aldrich. The college would have pre-placing the Pretender on the throne. ferred a gentler ruler. Nevertheless, Her sudden death confounded the prothe new head was received with every jects of these conspirators. Atterbury, mark of honour. A congratulatory oration in Latin was addressed to him in the magnificent vestibule of the hall; and he in reply professed the warmest attachment to the venerable house in which he had been educated, and paid many gracious compliments to those over whom he was to preside. But it was not in his nature to be a mild or an equitable governor. He had left the chapter of Carlisle distracted by quarrels. He found Christ-Church at peace; but in three months his despotic and contentious temper did at Christ-Church what it had done at Carlisle. He was succeeded in both his deaneries by the humane and accomplished Smalridge, who gently complained of the state in which both had been left. "Atterbury goes before, and sets everything on fire. I come after him with a bucket of water." It was said by Atterbury's enemies that he was made a bishop because he was so bad a dean. Under his administration Christ-Church was in confusion, scandalous altercations took place, op

who wanted no kind of courage, implored his confederates to proclaim James III., and offered to accompany the heralds in lawn sleeves. But he found even the bravest soldiers of his party irresolute, and exclaimed, not, it is said, without interjections which ill became the mouth of a father of the church, that the best of all causes and the most precious of all moments had been pusillanimously thrown away. He acquiesced in what he could not prevent, took the oaths to the House of Hanover, and at the coronation officiated with the outward show of zeal, and did his best to ingratiate himself with the royal family. But his servility was requited with cold contempt. No creature is so revengeful as a proud man who has humbled himself in vain. Atterbury became the most factious and pertinacious of all the opponents of the government. In the House of Lords his oratory, lucid, pointed, lively, and set off with every grace of pronunciation and of gesture, extorted the attention and admiration even of a hostile