Even this did not tame the impostors mercurial temperament.
To this period also belongs a set of " philosophers," with regard to whom it is impossible to say whether they are dupes or impostors - the " decepti deceptores " of whom Augustine speaks.
In his Almanac for 1707 a Protestant alarmist and plot vaticinator styled John Partridge warned customers against rivals and impostors.
In consequence of the credence which the story obtained, Archbishop Bancroft was commissioned by the privy council to discover and punish the impostors.
Yet leaderless seditions and the plots of obvious impostors sufficed to make his throne tremble, and a ruler less resolute, less wary, and less unscrupulous might have been overthrown.