How did one of the most distinguished bishops and indeed one of the most popular preachers of the Church of England continue to minister within the established church after his deprivation as a nonjuror? Many ministers had lost their parishes, lost their incomes, and lost their titles; some had just given up hope of ministry. Robert Frampton (1622–1708) was not one of those. He refused the oaths to William and Mary in 1689 and was subsequently deprived of his see of Gloucester, but he found a positive way forward.
The Glorious Revolution of 1688–89 was not so glorious for Frampton and many others. In fact it was a violation of their principles and faith. Almost immediately they were faced with a serious dilemma of conscience. They had already taken an oath of allegiance to James II and ‘to his heirs and lawful successors’ and were now pondering how they could take another oath to William and Mary of Orange. To swear the oath of allegiance was ‘to jure’. Those who initially refused to swear the oath were called nonjurors and were subsequently deprived. In 1691, nine bishops – Sancroft of Canterbury, Ken of Bath and Wells, Turner of Ely, Frampton of Gloucester, Lloyd of Norwich, White of Peterborough, Thomas of Worcester, Lake of Chichester, and Cartwright of Chester – and more than 400 clergy of the Church of England, not to mention a substantial number of scholars at Oxford and Cambridge, were deprived of their cures. Five of the nine nonjuring bishops were among the famous Seven Bishops who had achieved the status of national heroes for refusing to read the Declaration of Indulgence in 1688, for which they were imprisoned by James II. Frampton would have made the eighth bishop, but alas, Gloucester was a long way from London and he arrived late. Ironically, the same bishops’ acts of conscience in 1688–89, in refusing to take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary, now resulted in their banishment. Over one-third of the bishops’ bench was lost, including Frampton.
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