'I did not like that Clergy should meddle with matters of state': in praise of the wisdom of Anglican laity condemning political sermons
The Bishop of Chichester preached before the King, and made a great flattering sermon, which I did not like that Clergy should meddle with matters of state. So Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary on 8th July 1660. The comment stands as representative of the wisdom of Anglican laity over centuries regarding a particular type of 'political sermon'. While a loyal servant of the King and committed to the re-established Church of England, Pepys was no clericalist. A clergyman who "discoursed much" from the pulpit against marital relations during Lent was, in the words of Pepys, "the most comical man that ever I heard in my life" (7th March 1662). A "ridiculous, affected sermon ... made me angry, and some gentlemen that sat next to me" (14th June 1668). A sermon "full of words against the Nonconformists", preached at Whitsuntide, was not "proper for the day at all" (15th June 1663). Pepys here reflected wider sentiment amongst Anglica...