Background
As a vigorous supporter of the ecclesiastical authority, Bishop Atterbury soon found himself embroiled in difficulties with the state, and because of his sympathies with the Jacobites he took part in the movement which sought restoration of the Stuart dynasty. When the Hanoverian declaration of fidelity was promulgated in 1715, Atterbury was among those who declined to take the oath. This refusal, combined with his support of the Jacobite plot for the Stuarts, brought him into bad favor with the civil authorities, and in the year 1722 he was charged with treason and sent to the Tower of London. Parliament in a special bill deprived him of his offices and banished him for life from England. He went to France, where he died on Feb. 22, 1732, in Paris. Atterbury was among the best-known opponents of the Hanoverians in the ecclesiastical sphere. An account of his life and his politico-religious vicissitudes may be found in his Memoirs and Correspondence, published in London in 1869.
