He gently complained of Burnet, who loved and admired him with a truly generous heartiness, and who had laboured to persuade both the King and Queen that there was in England only one man fit for the highest ecclesiastical dignity.

"The Bishop of Salisbury," said Tillotson, "is one of the best and worst friends that I know." Nothing that was not a secret to Burnet was likely to be long a secret to any body.

It soon began to be whispered about that the King had fixed on Tillotson to fill the place of Sancroft.

The news caused cruel mortification to Compton, who, not unnaturally, conceived that his own claims were unrivalled.

He had educated the Queen and her sister; and to the instruction which they had received from him might fairly be ascribed, at least in part, the firmness with which, in spite of the influence of their father, they had adhered to the established religion.
Compton was, moreover, the only prelate who, during the late reign, had raised his voice in Parliament against the dispensing power, the only prelate who had been suspended by the High Commission, the only prelate who had signed the invitation to the Prince of Orange, the only prelate who had actually taken arms against Popery and arbitrary power, the only prelate, save one, who had voted against a Regency.