They were Lords Lieutenants, Deputy Lieutenants, judges, justices of the Peace, Commissioners of the Customs, Envoys to foreign courts, Colonels of regiments, Governors of fortresses.

The share which in a few months they had obtained of the temporal patronage of the crown was much more than ten times as great as they would have had under an impartial system.

Yet this was not the worst.

They were made rulers of the Church of England.

Men who had assured the King that they held his faith sate in the High Commission, and exercised supreme jurisdiction in spiritual things over all the prelates and priests of the established religion.