TheCodeBreakers
England, too, had its black chamber. It began with the cryptanalytic
endeavors of John Wallis, the greatest English mathematician before
Newton. After his death, it descended through his grandson to reach, on
May 14, 1716, Edward Willes, a 22-year-old minister at Oriel College,
Oxford.
Willes embarked at once upon a career unique in the annals of
cryptology and the church. He not only managed to reconcile his
religious calling with an activity once condemned by churchly
authorities, but also went on to become the only man in history to use
cryptanalytic talents to procure ecclesiastical rewards. Within two years,
he had been named rector of Barton, Bedfordshire, for solving more than
300 pages of cipher that exposed Sweden's
attempt to foment an uprising in England. He virtually guaranteed his
future when he testified before the House of Lords in 1723. Here, Francis
Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, was being tried by his peers for
annaabi.ee 
