this lack of condemnation as implied consent. Unlike his uncle, John Leyburn regarded the Old Chapter as validly erected, and confirmed by the Holy See, and became its Secretary. Leyburn was one of the divines recommended to the authorities at Rome in 1657 as successor to Richard Smith, Titular Bishop of Chalcedon, as Vicar Apostolic of England. He was appointed President of the English College at Douai, that post being surrendered to him by his uncle George Leyburn, in May 1670. He resigned the presidency in 1676, and went to Rome, when he became secretary and auditor to Cardinal Philip Howard. In a particular congregation for English affairs held in the Quirinal Palace on 6 August 1685, the Propaganda, on the relation of the Cardinal, elected Leyburn vicar-apostolic of all England, and the Pope gave his approbation the same day. He was consecrated at Rome on 9 September, with the title of bishop of Adrumetum, in partibus. In the following month he arrived in London, and James II lodged him in St. James's Palace, and allowed him a pension of £1,000 a year. With him came Ferdinando d'Adda, as papal nuncio. He made a pastoral visitation of the kingdom, administering confirmation to many people, for there had been no catholic bishop resident in England since 1629. During his residence at court he was on terms of intimacy with Thomas Cartwright, bishop of Chester. Leyburn tried to moderate James II's zeal for the Catholic cause, and he told the king that the fellows and students of Magdalen College, Oxford had been wronged, and that restitution ought to be made to them on religious as well as political grounds. In 1688, England was divided into four apostolic vicariates, the London, the Midland, the Northern, and the Western districts; Leyburne was named Vicar Apostolic of the London District, the senior position. He became the first vicar-apostolic of the London district, created by letters apostolic of 30 January 1688. When the Glorious Revolution broke out, Leyburn and Bonaventure Giffard were seized at Faversham on their way to Dover, and were under arrest when the king was brought there. Both prelates were committed to prison, Leyburn being sent to the Tower of London. On 9 July 1690 he and Giffard were liberated on bail by the court of queen's bench, on condition that they transported themselves beyond sea before the last day of the following