The time he laboured as spiritual shepherd to his
respective flocks was necessarily brief; for his grossly immoral
practices becoming notable, he was in every case ousted from his
charge. The odium attached to his name was moreover increased by
the fact, that his evidence in two cases of malicious prosecution
had been proved false; for which he had been tried as a perjurer.
Deprived of his chaplaincy for a revolting act of profligacy,
driven from congregations he had scandalized, homeless and
destitute, he in an evil hour betook himself to Dr. Ezrael Tonge,
to whom he had long been known, and besought compassion and
relief.
The Rev, Dr. Tonge, rector of St. Michael's, Wood Street, was a
confirmed fanatic and political alarmist. For some years
previous to this time, he had published quarterly treatises
dealing with such wicked designs of the Jesuits as his heated
brain devised. These he had printed and freely circulated, in
order, as he acknowledged, "to arouse and awaken his majesty and
the parliament" to a sense of danger. He had begun life as a
gardener, but left that honest occupation that he might cultivate
flowers of rhetoric for the benefit of Cromwell's soldiers. Like
Titus Oates, he had become suddenly converted to orthodox
principles on return of the king, and had, through interest,
obtained the rectorship of St. Michael's. Bishop Burnet
considered him "a very mean divine, (who) seemed credulous and
simple, and was full of projects and notions.
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