Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Wells Part 14

After the Monmouth rebellion (p. 17) he, with the Bishop of Ely, was sent to tell the Duke of his fate; he remained with the wretched man all through the night before his execution, and accompanied him on the scaffold. He then returned to his see, used all his influence on behalf of the unhappy peasants, and by his personal intervention, saved a hundred prisoners from death. He strongly opposed the Romanising policy of James II., and preached several sermons which had a large share in the formation of public opinion. He was one of the seven bishops who were committed to the Tower for pet.i.tioning the king against the order to the clergy to read the second Declaration of Indulgence. The incidents of that wonderful trial are familiar to all Englishmen, and it is notable that one of the richest dissenters in the city begged to have the special honour of giving security for the high church bishop of Bath and Wells.

But when the revolution came, Ken was found among those who were called non-jurors, because they regarded their oath of allegiance to James as still binding. He was consequently, in 1690, deprived of his see. He made a public protest in the cathedral against his deprivation, and continued to sign himself _T. Bath and Wells_, but he had to live in retirement, and with an income of only 20 a year. He died in 1710, and was buried in Frome Church at sunrise, in allusion to his morning hymn ("Awake, my soul, and with the sun"), and to his habit of rising with the sun.

Ken was in every way a great saint, and, like all the saints, he was distinguished by his love for the poor, and his care for their education. Among his customs it is recorded that he used to have twelve poor men to dine with him on Sundays, and that he was wont to go afoot in London when the other bishops rode in their coaches. He wrote many books, among them his "Manual of Prayers for the Use of Winchester Scholars." "His elaborate works," says Macaulay, "have long been forgotten; but his morning and evening hymns are still repeated daily in thousands of dwellings."

RICHARD KIDDER (1691-1703) became bishop on the deprivation of Ken, Dr Beveridge having declined the offer of a see, the rightful ruler of which had been unjustly removed. Kidder did not, however, long enjoy his usurped position; for, on the night of November 26th, 1703, a great storm--the same that destroyed Winstanley in his lighthouse on the Eddystone--blew down a stack of chimneys in the palace, and thus killed both the bishop and his wife as they lay abed.

GEORGE HOOPER (1704-27), an old friend of Ken, was next offered the see, but he urged the reinstatement of the rightful pastor. Queen Anne offered to restore Ken to his bishopric, but he importuned Hooper to accept, and from that time ceased to sign himself by his diocesan t.i.tle. Hooper had preceded Ken, in 1677, as Princess Mary's spiritual adviser at the Hague, where he had won her back to the services of the church, and he had also been with Ken at Monmouth's execution. Almost as lovable and holy, he was more learned than his friend.

Hooper was succeeded by JOHN WYNNE (1727-43), EDWARD WILLES (1743-73), and CHARLES MOSS (1774-1802); all three were typical eighteenth-century prelates, rich and mostly non-resident.

RICHARD BEADON (1802-24), was translated from Gloucester.

GEORGE HENRY LAW (1824-45), a son of the Bishop of Carlisle, and brother of Lord Chief-Justice Ellenborough, was translated from Chester, and is said to have been an active prelate till his latter years. Hon. RICHARD BAGOT (1845-54) came to Wells as a place of retirement after the worries which he had gone through, as Bishop of Oxford, during the Tractarian movement.

ROBERT JOHN, LORD AUCKLAND, was translated from Sodor and Man in 1854.

At his death in 1869, he was succeeded by LORD ARTHUR CHARLES HERVEY, who died in 1894. The present bishop is DR G.W. KENNION, who was translated hither from the Australian diocese of Adelaide.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLAN OF WELLS CATHEDRAL.]