ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, we give thee thanks for the purity and strength with which thou didst endow thy servant Thomas Ken, and we pray that by thy grace we may have a like power to hallow and conform our souls and bodies, to the purpose of thy most holy will, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Thomas Ken trained at Winchester and New College, Oxford, and was ordained a priest in 1662. He was chaplain to Princess Mary, and later to the British fleet. He assumed the office of Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1685. Ken was imprisoned in for refusing to sign James II’s Declaration of Indulgence; he was tried and acquitted.
He published a Manual of Prayers for the use of the scholars of Winchester College and wrote much poetry, many of which were published posthumously in 1721.
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