Bodleianæ, prefixed to a large volume intituled Catalogi Librorum MSS. in Angliâ et Hiberniá in unum collecti; and the Reliquia Spelmanianæ*, being the posthumous works of Sir Henry Spelman, relating to the laws and antiquities of England, with his lifet; dedicated also to his Mecenas—the great and good Dr. Thomas Tenison, (now Archbishop of Canterbury,) whose patronage and encouragement he very gratefully acknowledges in his dedication. It was probably about this time, or soon after, that he was taken into the Archbishop's family as a domestic chaplain. His next treatise was the Synodus Anglicana, or the Constitution and Proceedings of an English Convocation, shewn from the Acts and Registers thereof to be agreeable to the principles of an Established Church, with an Appendix of the Registers of the Upper House, and two entire Journals of the Lower House‡. In consequence of recent controversies this work has been much sought after. Its object was to explain the constitution of the Convocation, or the Ecclesiastical Synod; (aiming at the same time to vindicate the power and prerogative of the Archbishop as President, against the attacks of Tindal, Collins, and the Freethinkers of the age; a set of men who seemed to think that no one could be a friend to liberty who was not an enemy

* 2 Vol. fol. 1697, Oxon.

+Folio 1698, Oxon.

London 1712.

to the Established Church;) and to compose, if possible, the unseemly conflicts which then took place between the Upper and Lower House of Convocation-conflicts which in the end proved fatal to their very existence. Although this synod was practically suspended in 1717, yet we must not hastily take for granted that the learning conveyed to us by this work thereby became worthless. By no means let us suppose so; for it is, believe us, one of the main fountains of the sacred Nile we must explore, if we really wish for a just conception of the judicial and ministerial duties of the Archbishops, their courts, and the like; and not wholly a barren field for those who love to revel in the vexata quæstio of the union of Church and State; or that of the power of Parliament over matters termed purely spiritual, as marriage with a deceased wife's sister, and the like. Judging, too, from appearances on the political horizon, it may become ere long as useful as it was in the Author's day, to set at rest differences amongst the clergy themselves quite as unseemly, and, it is to be feared, quite as fatal in the end. It is a remarkable fact, and a proud boast for us, that two Westmorland-born men, viz. Dr. Gibson and Dr. Burn, in all matters Ecclesiastical, give laws to Westminster Hall; whence their opinions circulate as from the heart to the utmost extremities of the land-to the extremities of dominions upon which the sun never sets. It has been said that Gibson studied for the

bar, and intended to make the law his profession*; but we feel justified in disputing this, and in asserting, that neither of these men were trained up in the science or practice of the law. Their works are received on the bench, and at the bar, with a degree of reverence little short of those of the great oracle himself, Sir E. Coke. Such are the glorious results of studious ardor and unwearied industry in a free and enlightened nation! What a noble and soul-stirring spectacle, to behold two men rearing themselves by dint of personal prowess from a lowly condition of life, and sitting, though no longer present, in our ancient sanctuaries of Justice, administering her decrees, and with an authority of well-nigh infinite wisdom, speaking to the remotest lands and to ages yet unborn! Let us ask with the old moralist, "Who is the greater man, he that pronounces a sentence on the bench, or he that in his study reads us a lecture of justicet?" But to return: On the convocation question, in which he took so lively an interest, many anonymous pamphlets are attributed to him, and seemingly on good authority‡; in this anony

* See Memoirs of Dr. Codex, 1733.

+ Seneca.

A Letter to a friend in the Country, concerning the proceedings in Convocation in the years 1700, 1701-1703.

The Right of the Archbishop to continue or prorogue the whole of the Convocation, London 1701, 4to.

A Summary of the arguments in favor of the said rights.

mous warfare he seems to have had for the most part Mr. Foster, (afterwards Sir Michael Foster, the great crown lawyer,) as his chief antagonist; to whom it was an honor to be opposed on such a question, much more so to be opposed to him with anything like success.

We now come to his great work, the Codex; the title of this great work is "Codex Juris Ecclesiastici Anglicani, or the Statutes, Constitutions, Canons, Rubricks, and Articles of the Church of England, methodically digested under their proper heads; with a Commentary historical and judicial, and with an introductory discourse concerning the present state of the power, discipline, and laws of the Church of England; likewise with an Appendix of instruments, antient and modern, by Edmund

A Parallel between a Presbyterian Assembly and the New Model of an English Provincial Synod, London 1702, 4to.

Reflections upon a paper entitled "The Expedient Proposed," London 1702, 4to.

The Schedule of Prorogation Reviewed, London 1702, 4to. The Pretended Independence of the Lower House upon the Upper House a groundless notion, London 1703, 4to.

A short Statement of some present questions in Convocation, London 1704.

The Marks of a Defenceless Cause in the Proceedings and Writings of the Lower House of Convocation, London 1703.

An Account of the Proceedings in Convocation in a cause of Contumacy upon the Prolocutors going into the Country without the leave of the Archbishop, commenced April 10, 1707.

Then follow his visitation, parochial and general, Sermons de excommunicatione, and Tracts relating to the Government and Discipline of the Church of England 1717.

Gibson, D.D., Archdeacon of Surrey, Rector of Lambeth and Chaplain to his Grace the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, London, 1713." This cele-: brated work was formed and carried on under the eye of Archbishop Tenison; and the author had the benefit of the advice of some of the most eminent lawyers of the age. Indeed, as the learned concur in saying, if he had prepared nothing else he might be justly said to have spent the best of his days in the service of the church and clergy. His Biogra-. pher, Dr. Smallbrook, gives a decided preference to Gibson over Watson and all other writers on the same subject; and perhaps present opinion on the bench and at the bar confirms him in this choice; not to omit the approving tone of Sir William Blackstone. We cannot, however, help thinking that Watson's book (whether written by Watson or Page) is generally estimated far below its intrinsic worth it is the book of a highly disciplined mind, thoroughly soaked in law. As judges on the bench have said that it was written by Mr. Page, we must kiss the rod; but it certainly bears the strongest impress of a civilian's pen, as Dr. Watson, the Dean of Battel, originally was. Perhaps both were concerned in it; if so, like the joint productions of Rubens and Snyders, of Turner and Landseer, it becomes doubly valuable, as the joint production of two master-minds. Two editions of this work having appeared before the Codex, the author of the latter had great advantages. Although Lyndwood's was the book upon