§17. Henry Compton’s "Episcopalia". XII. Divines of the Church of England 1660–1700. Vol. 8. The Age of Dryden. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume VIII. The Age of Dryden.

XII. Divines of the Church of England 1660–1700.

§ 17. Henry Compton’s Episcopalia.

Among the mass of literature called forth by the controversies of the time may, perhaps, be noted the little known Episcopalia, or Letters of … Henry [Compton] Lord Bishop of London to the Clergy of his Diocess, 1686. These show that “conferences” with the London clergy were no modern invention; and they are written in the plain straightforward style, without affectation or obscurity, which was becoming the property of all educated men. On another side were a number of Roman Catholic, and especially Jesuit, writings, ranging from the ephemeral treatises of Obadiah Walker to the vigorous polemic of Andrew Pulton. Pulton’s opponent was Thomas Tenison, Sheldon’s successor at Canterbury, of whose manner of writing Swift said that he was “hot and heavy like a tailor’s goose.” But in none of these, their imitators and their followers, is there anything which arouses interest.