Well, it looks like no-one knows. In fact the sermon was "In perils among false brethren" and it was preached by Dr Henry Sacheverell on Guy Fawkes' Night 1709. Sacheverell was a member of the "Church in Danger" group, which strongly opposed the principle of tolerance and the notion of extending rights to Catholics, dissenters, and other undesirables. Tolerance was the policy of the Whig government, then in power. In his sermon, which lasted 90 minutes, Dr Sacheverell, with scarlet face and bulging eyes, denounced the "hypocrites, deists, Socinians and atheists" who he believed were undermining the Church of England and who were in danger of handing it over to "Jews, Quakers, Mahometans, and anything". The doctor's rhetoric was so extreme that the government had little choice but to try him for treason. His trial was *the* event of 1710, since most people agreed with Sacheverell, seeing him as a good, plain-speaking, honest Englishman with the guts to stand up to preachy "tolerance". In the event, he was found guilty (sparking riots) but given a very light sentence - just a ban on preaching for three years. In the popular eye, non-tolerance was vindicated.
I think it's an interesting case because the issues remain alive today. For "atheists and Muslims" replace "asylum seekers and immigrants", and for "tolerance" substitute "political correctness", and you have the ill-informed rants of much of the popular right wing in England today. We laugh at the views of the good Dr Sacheverell now, but you can still read them every day in the opinion columns of "The Sun".
So a new question. Who was the only man in history to have two countries named after him?
