Nor was there anything
in Bacon's political position to make him specially obnoxious above all
others of the King's Council. He maintained the highest doctrines of
prerogative; but they were current doctrines, both at the Council board
and on the bench; and they were not discredited nor extinguished by his
fall. To be on good terms with James and Buckingham meant a degree of
subservience which shocks us now; but it did not shock people then, and
he did not differ from his fellows in regarding it as part of his duty
as a public servant of the Crown. No doubt he had enemies--some with old
grudges like Southampton, who had been condemned with Essex; some like
Suffolk, smarting under recent reprimands and the biting edge of Bacon's
tongue; some like Coke, hating him from constitutional antipathies and
the strong antagonism of professional doctrines, for a long course of
rivalry and for mortifying defeats. But there is no appearance of
preconcerted efforts among them to bring about his overthrow. He did not
at the time seem to be identified with anything dangerous or odious.
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