Dear Cephas:

For our readers, the Syriac name Cephas is a transliteration of the Aramaic "kepha", meaning "rock". The Greek translation, in masculine gender, for these names is "Petros" (Peter).

The phrase to "Lordly Bishops" referrs to Anglican Bishops who were also Lords.  There were controversies concerning these Bishops back then. This controversy remained even up to the late 20th-Century.

Since William Lang was not a bishop as far as I know, the term applied to him as belonging to the Tribe of Lordly Bishops I would guess means that Lang was ordained by one of the Lordly Bishops and/or he was loyal to the Lordly Bishops. This would not have been in his favor.

At least according to the Fovrtie Articles William Lang was rather notorious, though I do not know the circumstances of his prosecution. It could have all been a lie to indict him if he was aligned with the Lordy Bishops.

As for the List of Papists, it does not appear, from anything I can find, that he converted to Catholicism or was a Catholic sympathizer. At the time it was illegal to be Catholic in England. Those times were called the "the penal times" because of the severe laws against Catholics. Amazingly, it was not until 1830 that the laws against Catholics in England were repealed.

I have not found the version of the List of Papists with Lang's name on it, but I believe it was rather popular in those days to accuse a person of being Catholic, even if untrue, to facilitate prosecution. It was similar to denouncing a person one does not like as a witch even though it is not true. If Lang was on a List of Papists that may have been the reason why.

You may be interested in the book, Devonshire characters and strange events by Sabine Baring-Gould if you do not already know about it.

I hope this was helpful to you. It is about all I can gather right now about William Lang.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary