He as well as Bishop Burnet and several other prelates, had been treated with great virulence in Sacheverel's sermon, and the-lord treasurer was scurrilously abused under the name of Volpone.

The doctor being impeached at the bar of the upper house, petitioned that he might be admitted to bail; but this indulgence was refused, and the commons seemed bent upon prosecuting him with such severity as gave disgust to men of moderate principles.

Meanwhile the tories were not idle.

They boldly affirmed that the whigs had formed a design to pull down the church, and that this prosecution was intended to try their strength before they could proceed openly to the execution of their project.
These assertions were supported, and even credited by great part of the clergy, who did not fail to alarm and inflame their hearers; while emissaries were employed to raise a ferment among the populace, already prepared with discontent, arising from a scarcity which prevailed in almost every country of Europe.

The ministers magnified the dangers to which the church was exposed, from dissenters, whigs, and lukewarm prelates.