It had in fact been already determined that he should be the next Archbishop of Canterbury.

When he went to kiss hands for his new deanery he warmly thanked the King.

"Your Majesty has now set me at ease for the remainder of my life." "No such thing, Doctor, I assure you," said William.

He then plainly intimated that, whenever Sancroft should cease to fill the highest ecclesiastical station, Tillotson would succeed to it.

Tillotson stood aghast; for his nature was quiet and unambitious: he was beginning to feel the infirmities of old age: he cared little for money: of worldly advantages those which he most valued were an honest fame and the general good will of mankind: those advantages he already possessed; and he could not but be aware that, if he became primate, he should incur the bitterest hatred of a powerful party, and should become a mark for obloquy, from which his gentle and sensitive nature shrank as from the rack or the wheel.