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CHURCH AND STATE
Two Hundred Years Ago.

CHURCH AND STATE
Two Hundred Years Ago.

A HISTORY OF ECCLESIASTICAL
AFFAIRS IN ENGLAND
From 1660 to 1663.

BY
fOHN STOUGHTON.
SECOND THOUSAND.

LONDON :
JACKSON, WALFORD, AND HODDER.
t8,'ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD.
1862.

CLERICAL INTEGRITY.
"Nor shall the eternal roll of praise reject
Those unconforming, whom one rigorous day
Drives from their cures, a voluntary prey
To poverty and grief, and disrespect.
And some to want, as if by tempests wreck'd
On a wild coast j how destitute ! did they
Feel not that conscience never can betray,
That peace of mind is virtue's sure effect.
Their altars they forego, their homes they quit,
Fields which they love, and paths they daily trod,
And cast the future upon Providence j
As men the dictate of whose inward sense
Outweighs the world j whom self-deceiving wit
Lures not from what they deem the cause of God." Wordsworth.

CONTENTS.

PAGE
Introduction  ix
CHAPTER I.
State of Parties  i
CHAPTER II.
Ihe King's Return  31
CHAPTER III.
The Worcester House Declaration .... 89
CHAPTER IV.
Venner's Insurrection  120
CHAPTER V.
Savoy Conference  138
CHAPTER VI.
The House of Commons in \66 1  166
CHAPTER VII.
Convocation  204

viii Contents.
CHAPTER VIII.
PAGE
Plots  229
CHAPTER IX.
The Passing of the Bill  244
CHAPTER X.
The Interim  286
CHAPTER XI.
The Crisis  324
CHAPTER XII.
Conformists and Nonconformists  342
CHAPTER XIII.
Strivings after Toleration  381
CHAPTER XIV.
Persecution  402
APPENDIX.
Covenant of the Yarmouth Church .... 436
Form of Induction under the Commonwealth . 437
Savoy Conference  430
Act of Uniformity  445

INTRODUCTION.

HE two years which followed the
restoration of Charles II. were so
remarkably eventful as to eccle
siastical affairs, that they deserve
the most minute and careful study
from every intelligent Englishman. The rela
tions in which the two great religious parties of
our day stand to each other, took their rise in the
controversies of that period, and in the new legis
lative enactments which those controversies pro
duced. Both the Episcopal Conformist and the
Non-Episcopal Dissenter trace the history of their
principles to far earlier times, and both appeal to
the Sacred Scriptures as the ground of their respec
tive peculiarities ; but still their present ecclesiastical
relation to each other, as fellow-citizens and Chris
tians in the land of their fathers, must be regarded
as having its origin in the Act of Uniformity,

Introduction.

passed in 1662, and in the circumstances which led
to it.
It might have been expected that the history
of those years, and especially the origin and pro
gress of that measure, so fraught with momentous
consequences, would be carefully examined and
accurately described, — but such has not been the
case. It cannot escape the notice of those familiar
with our popular historians, even the most distin
guished, how brief and unsatisfactory are their re
ferences to the passing of the Act ; and the reader
of works on the history of the Puritans must have
observed how they all follow good Daniel Neal,
who, while trustworthy in general, is really inaccu
rate as well as superficial in his account of that great
Parliamentary proceeding. And what is more ex
traordinary still, not only do Clarendon and Burnet
give very loose and confused descriptions of the
proceedings connected with the Bill of Unifor
mity, but the first of these writers actually repre
sents it as originating in the House of Lords ;
whereas nothing can be more certain than that it
was first introduced in the House of Commons.
These considerations, amongst others, have led the
Author to attempt the following narrative, founded
upon the study of contemporary writers, in connec
tion with the examination of original documents of
various kinds.
Kennet, in his " Register and Chronicle," supplies

Introduction. xi

large materials for the history of the period, but
even his account of what took place in Parliament
requires to be tested by comparison with the Jour
nals of the two Houses, in which the successive
steps adopted by our legislators, in the restoration
of the Church of England, are accurately detailed ;
but, of course, with an official brevity and dryness
which must repel all but a painstaking annalist.
Fresh materials for the history of those times
have been brought to light in the State Paper de
partment of Her Majesty's Public Record Office;
and the simple calendars of documents belonging to
the short space covered by this book fill no less than
' two large royal octavo volumes of above 700 pages
each. They do not, indeed, add anything very
important to the substantial history of the Act, but
they throw very much light on the state of parties,
and bring out into distinct view the popular im
pression with regard to plots, and the court policy
of favouring such impression. That idea had much
to do with reconciling the country to the severities
practised on Nonconformists, though it is plain that
those severities commenced before there, could be
the slightest pretence for apprehending any danger
against the Government.
In addition to the use of State papers, the
Author has been allowed to have careful copies
taken of the Act as it is preserved in the Parlia
ment rolls, showing a distinction between those

xii Introduction.

portions which were contained in the original Bill,
and those which were added in the shape of
amendments; — as well as copies of all the schedules
and other papers connected with the subject, which
have been preserved in the Paper Office of the
House of Lords.
The carefully prepared Calendars by Mrs. Green
have been of invaluable service, and the Author
has moreover to thank that lady for many facilities
afforded him in his researches, and for pointing out
documents bearing on his subject, not included in
any index published at present. For assistance ren
dered in several ways by John Bruce, Esq., F.S.A.,
the Author begs also to make grateful acknow
ledgment. To that gentleman he owes the iden
tification of the authorship of a curious diary
repeatedly mentioned in the following pages, under
the title of the " Worcester MS. ;"* for the loan
of which he is indebted to Mrs. Green, who copied
it from the original, now in the Middleshill collection

* The diarist was no doubt Henry Townshend, Esq., of Elmley Lovet,
co. Worcester, who lies buried in the church of that parish The following
inscription is on his monument (Nash's " Worcestershire," vol. i. p. 378) : —
" Depositum Henrici Townshend, armigeri ; Ecclesia orthodoxse Anglicanae
strenui professoris j Regi, patriseque maxime fidelis, nee ulli nisi herastico
Romano invisus fuit ; Resurectionem, sine aliquo ficto purgatorio, Christianis,
ut mos est, exspectat. Obiit 9 die Maii anno Dom. 1685. j^Etatis suae 61.
Resurgam." Other information respecting him, with extracts from another similar diary
of things specially relating to Worcester, may be seen in Nash's " Worces
tershire."

Introduction. xiii

of Sir Thomas Phillipps. Thanks are also presented
to the trustees of Dr. Williams' Library for the use
of books and MSS., and to the officers of the Bri
tish Museum for special assistance afforded in the
examination of the large collection of tracts in the
King's Library.
The Author, in endeavouring to avoid the errors
of others, is very fearful he may have fallen into
some of his own, but he hopes that they will not
be found of any great importance.
Against one thing he has been scrupulously on
his guard from the commencement, and that is,
making out a case in favour of a particular party.
Because a man has his own ecclesiastical opinions,
why should he identify their soundness and autho
rity with the history of those who more or less
held like opinions in days gone by ? Why should
he endeavour, at all hazards, to prove that they
were right in everything they did, and their op
ponents were equally wrong — that only good is to
be found on one side, and only evil on the other ?
If we cannot judge with some tolerable measure of
impartiality the character of leaders on both sides a
stirring question, our testimony in favour of either
goes for very little.
The Author has endeavoured to keep himself
out of the atmosphere of party feeling, and to look
honestly at the men and the events connected
with the crisis of the Restoration. Churchmen

xiv Introduction.

conscientiously writing upon that period need not
say anything to exasperate the Dissenter ; nor need
the conscientious Dissenter say anything to exaspe
rate the Churchman. And if no offence be meant,
no offence should be taken. Reverence for the
sufferers of 1662 should not extinguish respect for
those of their opponents who were really consci
entious. Nor should condemnation of intolerance
then, be connected with excuses for intolerance
in earlier times. Whilst honouring the faithful
Nonconformist of the Restoration, we must also
honour the faithful Episcopalian of the Common
wealth. The cause makes the martyr, but we
should look below the surface. Loyalty to Christ,
according to the light received, and the judgment
formed, may equally underlie the heroism of men
who suffered on different sides. Strange as it may
appear, they are confessors in common; and their
motives, while leading to nearly opposite courses of
conduct, may be alike approved by the Lord of
conscience. Great principles were involved in the controver
sies of 1662, and moral lessons of the highest value
are to be deduced from the occurrences of that
period ; but this book is a History and nothing
more, and therefore the writer has taken care not
to assume the office of either polemic or homilist.
Intelligent readers will not be slow in making an

Introduction. xv

application of the story for themselves, and happy,
indeed, will the Author be, if History, as told in
these pages, should even in a few cases promote the
cause of truth and charity amongst Christian
Englishmen.

Chapter I.

State of parties.

HERE were three great ecclesiastical
parties in the State just before the
Restoration, and their respective pecu
liarities and relative position must be
comprehended, that the story which
this book relates may be understood.
The Independents — whose distinct existence-
and growing numbers may be traced from an
early part of Queen Elizabeth's reign — increased
under the Commonwealth, and exercised before
» its expiration a predominating influence. Main
taining the doctrines of the Westminster Con
fession, they were zealous for what are now called
evangelical sentiments. But their distinctive
characteristics consisted in a refusal to receive into
Church communion any but those who gave
proof of being religious persons — in the free ^
election of their own spiritual officers — and in the

State of Parties.

maintenance of the independency of each congre
gation, so formed and governed. Not that they
imposed severe tests of discipleship, or regarded
their ministers as mere republican officers, or
rendered their organizations mutually repellent.
They sought union, though they heeded not
uniformity. With their antipathies to a hierarchy
they cherished respect, and even reverence, for
those who bore the rule over them. And while
protesting against sy nodical jurisdiction and prelatic
authority, they established associations for fraternal
intercourse and common counsel, and proceeded
even to such a decision of ecclesiastical questions
as can be pronounced by the authority of superior
experience and practical wisdom.
The principles of the earliest Independents in
England clearly pointed in the direction of what,
"at the present day, is denominated Voluntaryism ;
and the Churches of this order, before the
Commonwealth, were, of course, voluntary com
munities in the fullest sense of the term, indepen
dent of all State support, and free from all State
control. Nevertheless Congregational ministers
exercised their sacred functions within Oliver
Cromwell's Broad Church ; and there is no re
pudiation of the Establishment principle in the
Savoy declaration, which may be taken as a symbol
of Independency at that time. The eminent Dr.
Owen, who was a leader of the denomination,

State of Parties.

maintained the lawfulness of receiving tithes, and
in the Church book of the Independent congre
gation at Yarmouth, there is an entry declaring
that the taking away of tithes until a full main
tenance could be equally secured and legally settled,
tended to the destruction of the ministry. In
dependent pastors were incumbents or ministers of
parish churches, free from all liturgical and ritual
restraint. They sometimes officiated as chaplains
of political bodies, and preached to the mayor and
aldermen as they sat arrayed in golden chains and
scarlet robes at Guildhall festivals. They directed,
too, the lengthened exercises of the House of
Commons in St. Margaret's Church at State fasts ;
and several discourses delivered on these occasions,
by such men as Owen and Bridge, are preserved
in their published works. Independents, in common
with many Presbyterians, and a few Baptists, and
some rather undefinable sects, were held together by
the Erastian hands of the Parliament and the Pro- i
tector. Cromwell's Triers examined the ministers,
and inducted them into their livings. The rights of
presentation were retained by patrons, and when an
Independent or Presbyterian was presented to a
rectory or vicarage, there was a formal induction by
document, signifying that the minister was " insti
tuted to the profits and perquisites, and all rights and
dues incident" to the living. The document was
given in the name of the Triers. It was signed by the
B 2

State of Parties.

Registrar and bore the seal of the Commonwealth.
The person thus settled in his preferment had, in
company with " two substantial citizens," to give a
bond to the Lord Protector for payment of first
fruits.* The Independents differed from the early Brown-
ists, with whom they have often been improperly
confounded, in the maintenance of a solemn order in
worship, and in the check they put upon what
might lead to irregularity and confusion in religious
teaching. It is a fact little known, that in some
cases at least, a strange if not foolish hesitation had
been felt respecting " the service of song in the
house of the Lord." Perhaps, however, it arose in
days of persecution from the fear of enemies. But
the following entry in the Congregational Church
book of Beccles for 1657, marked a wise change
with reference to divine service : — " It was agreed
by the Church, that they do put in practice the
ordinance of singing in public upon the fore
noon and afternoon on the Lord's days, and that it
be between prayer and sermon ; and also, it was
agreed, that the New England translation of the
Psalms be made use of by the Church, at their
times of breaking of bread : and it was agreed that
the next Lord's day seventh-night be the day to
enter upon the work of singing in public."

As these forms are little known they are given in Appendix I.

State of Parties.

It appears from the same interesting old record
book, that though the pastors of the Church, Mr.
Clark and Mr. Ottee, were both ejected, the former
being a rector, the latter it would seem a sort of
assistant, they did not hold Church meetings at the
Parish Church. A thanksgiving after the election
of a pastor was held at " brother Edmond Artis
his hous." At the monthly meeting kept at Mr.
Ottee's residence " the sacrament of baptism was
first administered," and at Mr. Clark's dwelling
the Lord's Supper was celebrated — facts which
indicate that while the pastors were parish preachers,
the Congregational Church was independent of the
parish, and did not celebrate those solemn rites
immediately connected with its ecclesiastical con
stitution and order in the parochial edifice. From
the records of another Church of the same kind at
Newport Pagnell, it is plain that marriage there was
not celebrated by the incumbent, who was pastor
of the Church, but by the neighbouring magistrates,
after the publication of banns on the three pre
ceding Sundays. In one case the marriage contract
was proclaimed three preceding Saturdays in the
midst of the market.*
While Independents thus held a peculiar and;

* These particulars are chiefly gleaned from the Yarmouth Church Book in
MS. ; " East Anglian Nonconformity," by S. Wilton Rix ; and a " Brief Nar
rative of the Independent Church at Newport Pagnell," by T. P. Bull.

State of Parties.

modified position in Cromwell's State Establishment,
one which allowed great liberty, they did not seek
to impose on others their own opinions and
practices. They were amongst the first advocates
of toleration. Toleration, indeed, in the views
which were held by most of them was not to be
unlimited, neither was it according to the doctrine
of John Locke ; yet were there some amongst the
Commonwealth Independents, who surpassed their
brethren, and even exceeded that great apostle of
ecclesiastical liberty, by declaring that God's com
mand discharges the magistrate from putting the
least discourtesy on any man, Turk, Jew, Papist,
or Socinian.*
What was the exact number of beneficed Inde
pendents in the times of the Commonwealth it is
impossible to ascertain, but we infer that they must
have been numerous, when we remember that
Independency, after the elevation of Cromwell to
the Protectorate, was favoured by the ruling
powers ; and that, as a religious party, the Inde
pendents were greatly on the increase before the
Restoration, or they would not, after that event,
have been regarded by their opponents with so
much alarm. It should be observed, however,

* This sentiment is ascribed by Baillie, the Presbyterian, to the writer of a
tract under the signature of M. S., supposed to be John Goodwin, an Armi ¦
nian Independent-See " ¦ Battle's Letters," No. 59, and " Hanbury's Memo
rials," vol. ii. p. 437.

State of Parties.

that the Independent ministers in the Establishment
were a minority compared with the Presbyterians.
In London they were a small minority. In
the address presented to Charles after Venner's
insurrection, to be noticed hereafter, there do not
appear more than eleven signatures of such as had
held parish preferments, when the Presbyterians
could number at least fifty incumbents.* It is
not unlikely that in the provinces, the proportion
of Independent rectors, vicars, and lecturers was
greater. But beyond acknowledged Independents
there were numerous clergymen who were virtually
so. Presbyterian was a term very loosely applied.
It included some who would have been content
with moderate episcopacy, and it included others
who were satisfied with moderate Congregationalism.
There being no diocesan rule, and Presbyterian
synods being fully established only in Middlesex
and Lancashire, many called by other religious
names must have been, in point of fact, simply
Congregational pastors.
It will lead to a false conclusion as to the posi
tion and number of Independents during the
Commonwealth, and at the time of the Restoration,
if we confine our attention to those within the

* What Sanderson says indicates the increasing appointments of Independents
to livings. " I cannot but think the Presbyterians ought to read their own
errors, by considering that by their own rules the Independents have punished
and supplanted them as they did the conformable clergy." — Walter's " Life of
Bishop Sanderson."

State of Parties.

Establishment. There were some we know, per
haps many, who had no parochial benefices, and were
entirely dependent upon their flocks for voluntary
support. Out of twenty-five ministers who signed
the address just mentioned, fourteen were unbene
ficed preachers ; and throughout the country there
were men of the same description.
East Anglia was amongst the foremost on the
side of the Reformation, a fact obscured by the
misapprehension of the nature of Kett's Rebellion,
which, though generally supposed to be a Roman
Catholic outbreak, was, in fact, a demonstration in
favour of Protestantism, being to the great reli
gious movement in England what the peasants'
war was to the like movement in Germany.* The
Lollard faith had deeply struck its roots in the
Eastern counties, and so prepared for the fruits of
the Reformation ; and that Reformation, in its
more Puritan aspects, prepared again, in its turn,
for the extensive and growing spirit of Noncon
formity, in the same part of our island at a later
period. Suffolk was the birthplace of Brownism ;
and Bury St. Edmunds had its Congregational
martyrs in the latter half of the sixteenth century.
Copping and Thacker were hanged there ; and there,
at the assizes in 1583, forty persons were perse-

* See interesting article on the part taken by Norfolk and Suffolk in the
Reformation, by Dr. Stanley, the " Arcrueological Memoirs," 1847. Norwich.

State of Parties.

cuted for frequenting conventicles and not using the
Prayer Book.* And as the Dutch congregations
at Norwich, the Dutch aspect of Yarmouth and
the Flemish settlement at Worsted, each with
enormous churches, show the early influence of the
Low Countries upon the east of England in a
religious as well as an industrial respect, so the
connection between the English Independent exiles
in Holland under King James, and the Noncon
formists of Norfolk and Suffolk — links of union
appearing in the persons of the great Inde
pendent teachers Robinson and Bridge, who each
resided one part of his life in England and another
in Holland — -shows an influence at a later period
coming from the same quarter, and in the same
direction, in favour of Puritanism and Inde
pendency. Under many influences, this amongst
others, Congregationalism increased very largely in
the Eastern counties during the Commonwealth.
We have particular accounts of the formation of
seventeen Independent Churches in Norfolk and
Suffolk between the years 1643 and 1653. The
places in which they were established during that
period are Yarmouth,t Norwich, Walpole, Bury
St. Edmunds, Wrentham, Woodbridge, Beccles,

* See "Letters from the Lord Chief Justice Wray," 1583, printed in
Historical Papers (First Series). " Congregational Martyrs."
f The agreement or covenant made at the settlement of this Church is
given in Appendix II.

io State of Parties.

Guestwick, Wymondham, Bradfield, Wattisfield,
Denton, North Walsham,Tunstead, Stalham, Edge
field, and Godwick. Eleven at least of these
Churches had ministers who were connected with
the State Establishment, as appears from the list of
the ejected given by Calamy and Palmer. We are
not sure about the rest.* The state of religion
at Wattisfield, under Congregational influence,
must have been most distinguished and happy,
if we are to receive the testimony given by
Mr. Samuel Baker, of Wattisfield Hall, who in a
MS. " Experience," 1667, declared his belief that
" religion had there flourished longer, the Gospel
had been more clearly and powerfully preached, and
more generally received ; the professors of it were
more sound in the truth, open and steadfast in the
profession of it in an hour of temptation, more
united among themselves, and more entirely pre
served from enemies without, than in any village of
the like capacity in England."
The first Presbyterian synod in England was
established at Wandsworth. Neal gives the names
of the associated ministers, stating that on the 20th
of November, 1572, eleven elders were chosen, and

* They are Wymondham, Bradfield, Wattisfield, Denton, North Walsham,
Edgefield, and Godwick. Mr. John Morny was ejected from Wymondham,
Mr. John Lawson from Denton, and Mr. N. Mitchell from North Walsham.
I do not know whether they were Presbyterians or Independents. I do not
find any names of ejected ministers in connection with the other parishes.

State of Parties. 1 1

their offices described in a register entitled " The
Orders of Wandsworth."* The Presbyterians of
the Commonwealth in religious opinion resembled
the Evangelical Independents, both adopting the
Westminster Confession as their doctrinal standard.
In their cast of spiritual feeling, and in the deepest
principles of their theology, Baxter, and Manton,
and Calamy agreed with Owen, and Goodwin, and
Howe. But ecclesiastically they formed two
parties. To the Westminster Confession most
Presbyterians joined the Westminster Directory.
With that simple form of worship, they combined
parochial discipline of the Scotch order, and, at the
same time, in the counties of Middlesex and Lan
cashire, placed the government of the Church in
presbyteries and synods, as on the other side of the
Tweed. In the ordination of their ministers, they were
very particular. The previous examination included
not only inquiries as to " a work of grace," but
exercises in Hebrew and Greek, logic, philosophy,
and systematic divinity, besides a Latin thesis ; in
fact, it was a literary ordeal which many who are
fond of laughing at these men as ignorant fanatics,
would be unable to pass through with credit to
themselves. Some of the Presbyterians were quite

* " History of the Puritans," vol. i. p. 301.

1 2 State of Parties.

as zealous for uniformity as the Episcopal bench
could be ; only instead of the surplice, there was
the Geneva cloak, and in the room of the Common
Prayer Book, the Solemn League and Covenant. In
numerous cases, the Presbyterian dislike to the
Independents and the other sectaries — as they
contemptuously termed them — was no less violent
than that of the prelatists in the days of Laud.
They looked with jealousy upon the Independents
as interlopers, and occasionally attributed their
aggressions to the envy of Satan. Sometimes a
ruling elder of some " gathered Church" of the
Congregational order, conducted the service at the
solicitation of " an unsettled hankering party,"
much to the annoyance of the Presbyterian rector.
Men, of whose piety there could not be the slightest
doubt, were so zealous for unity according to the
Presbyterian form, that they looked with jealousy
upon all attempts to widen the terms of ministerial
fellowship and co-operation, with a view to include
pastors of the " Congregational way." Even Epis
copal principles were preferred to theirs, as more
within reach of Presbyterian " accommodation."
Theological error was thought to come within
the magistrate's jurisdiction. A person at Man
chester who maintained that the soul within
him was God, and that heaven and hell were
in a man's own self, was prosecuted by a most
excellent Presbyterian minister in that town, and

State of Parties. 13

was sent to Chester for six months' imprison
ment.* An obscure writer calling himself " Daniel
Cawdry, preacher of the word at Great Billing,
Northamptonshire," published a pamphlet entitled,
" Independence a great Schism," in which he deals
with Congregational pastors much after the manner
of a Popish priest, whose church has been thinned
by a Protestant missionary. He even goes further
than the most rampant bigots in the present day,
pronouncing unrestricted freedom of worship " ac
cursed intolerable toleration. "f
Calamy and Burges in their discourses before
Parliament, also denounced toleration. Edwards
published the "Casting down of Satan; or, a Treatise

* These illustrations are drawn from Henry Newcome's " Autobiography,"
printed for the Chetham Society, vol. i. pp. 23, 36, 108. They show the
working of Presbyterianism when, as in Lancashire, it had full play. The
Presbyterians were sometimes compelled to tolerate what they esteemed
irregularities, of which there is a curious instance respecting burial. "June 7,
1659 : Newcome notices certain contests with some upon occasion of
burying the dead. Mr. Booker took a carrier of Salford into the
church and spake at the grave, and I had the hap to discourse with him
about it, but though I had the better of it, yet I wronged my cause by being
too hot with him. Major Byron had his brother to be buried, and because I
was with Mr. Heyricke when they came to ask leave for the pulpit, and he
only cautioned them from speaking at the grave, they in a pet buried the body
at Salford." " A layman," the editor observes, " it appears might use the
pulpit of the church, and the Presbyterian custom of not praying over the
dead at the grave was common." — The " Diary of the Rev. H. Newcome,"
p. xxi. This is a distinct volume from the " Autobiography." We shall have
occasion to refer to Newcome again.
f See Orme's "Life of Dr. Owen, p. 200.

T4 State of Parties.

against Toleration."* Dr. Owen, against whom
Cawdry levelled his weapons, replied with his usual
courtesy, that such was his happiness in the constant
intercourse he had with Presbyterians, both Scotch
and English, that till he saw this treatise, he did
not believe that there existed one godly person in
England of such a disposition. Such virulence
must not, then, be placed to the account of all
the Presbyterians. In some cases, notwithstanding
a rigid adherence to their own discipline, and a
strong desire for its general establishment, they
lived in love with brethren of other denominations.
According to parochial arrangements under the
Commonwealth, the Presbyterian and the Indepen
dent worshipped under the same roof. For example,
the church of St. Nicholas at Yarmouth, and the
cathedral of Exeter, were subdivided by a wall for
the use of two such congregations ; 'and the distinct
pastors, as local records in the case of the Yarmouth
ministers testify, maintained affectionate intercourse
with each other.
There were meetings for union during the Com
monwealth of a committee of divines, including
both Presbyterians and Independents. Owen, Good-

* It is anticipating what will be said hereafter, but it is well to observe
thus early, that the Presbyterians were far from being all alike, and the term
was loosely applied. Baxter notices this in his "Life and Times," and it is a
well-known fact, that he was opposed to the imposition of the Solemn League
and Covenant, and never thoroughly entered into Presbyterian arrangements.

State of Parties. 1 5

win, and Nye, met Jesse, Vines, and Man ton. Arch
bishop Usher was invited, but would not come for
several reasons. Baxter was sent for from Kidder
minster, and was lodged with the Lord Broghill ;
Usher being near, at the .Countess of Peterborough's
in St. Martin's-lane. There were long discussions
in this committee about " fundamentals ;" but when
Baxter joined them, he thought the Creed, the
Lord's Prayer, and the Decalogue would suffice.
" But that," he says, " would not be heard." On
this occasion Baxter became acquainted with Usher,
and treated with him about terms of union " between
Episcopalians and Presbyterians and other Noncon
formists." " In Worcestershire they had before
attempted and agreed upon an association, in which
Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Independents, and the
disengaged, consented to terms of love and concord
in the practising so much of discipline in the
parishes, as all the parties were agreed in (which
was drawn up) and forbearing each other in the rest.
Westmoreland, and Cumberland, and Essex, and
Hampshire, and Wiltshire, and Dorsetshire quickly
imitated them, and made the like association, and
it was going on, and likely to have been commonly
practised, till the return of the bishops after
brake it."*

* This is taken from a paper among the Baxter MSS. (Red Cross-
street), vol. ii. No. 28. Neal gives an account of this in connection with
the appointment of the Triers, "History of Puritans," vol. iv. p. 97.

1 6 State of Parties.

The Episcopalians for the most part disliked the
Calvinistic theology of the other denominations, but
they differed from them still more in their eccle
siastical polity, and their religious feeling. Equally
averse to Presbyterian synods and Congregational
independency, they generally held the government
of bishops to be of divine right; and, in opposition
to the forms of the Directory and the freedom of
extempore prayer, earnestly adhered to the Liturgy
of the Church of England. The tone of their
sentiments went deeper than any outward signs of
difference ; their reverence for antiquity, their ad
miration of the Nicene era, and their sympathy
with the devotional writings of the fathers, removed
them to such a distance from those, whose logical
Protestantism led them to denounce everything of
that kind as superstitious, that they could not
understand Nonconformists, and Nonconformists
could not understand them. Puritan fervour was
fanaticism to the Episcopalians. Episcopalian calm
ness was formality to the Puritans. The psalms
and .prayers they sung or said, perhaps sometimes
with nasal twang, were objects of contempt and
ridicule to those who reverently loved the grand
old cathedral worship ; while the latter were in
the eyes of the former, little if at all better than
popish mass mongers. The one class had a deep
respect for tradition and Church authority, and
avowed it ; the other class was no less explicit in

State of Parties. 1 7

making an appeal exclusively to reason and
Scripture. Even the asceticism of the two parties,
where it existed, presents obvious phases of dissimi
larity. The Lenten fasts under Charles had scarcely
anything in common with the Parliament fasts
under Cromwell. The occasional self-mortification
of the devout Cavalier was foreign to the habitually
rigid habits of the devout Roundhead. Few con-
versant with the literature of the times would
mistake the hymns of George Herbert for those of
Richard Baxter.
Circumstances tended still further to keep
Episcopalians aloof from Independents and Pres
byterians. The former had persecuted the latter
under James and Charles, and the days of Laud
could never be forgotten. The latter in the time
of their prosperity had taken revenge on their
adversaries ; and though the sufferings of the
Episcopal clergy during the Commonwealth have
been exaggerated, no one can fairly deny that
many of them were really confessors — and to all
such men we are prepared to do honour quite as
sincerely as to those who manifested their con
scientiousness on the other side. Jeremy Taylor's
rectory of Uppingham was sequestered on account
of his adhering to the Episcopal royal cause, and
he sought a retreat in the Principality. To use
his own poetical words, " in the great storm which
dashed the vessel of the Church to pieces," he was
c

State of Parties.

" cast on the coast of Wales, and in a little boat
thought to have enjoyed the rest and quietness
which in England he could not hope for." The
" ever memorable " John Hales was ejected from
his Windsor Canonry and his Eton Fellowship,
and died in poverty before the Restoration. Other
cases of a similar description may be found. But
it must also be stated, that one-fifth of the proceeds
of a living was by law provided for the ejected
whether actually obtained or no. All Episcopalians
were not driven out of the Establishment ; some
were permitted to remain without either renouncing
their loyalty, or swearing to the Covenant — as for
example, the witty Dr. Thomas Fuller, and Sander
son, afterwards Bishop of Lincoln. In Oxford, a con
gregation of Episcopalians was allowed by Owen,
Dean of Christ Church, to meet and worship.*

* Hallam candidly observes : " It is somewhat bold in Anglican writers to
complain as they now and then do, of the persecution they suffered at this
period, when we consider what had been the conduct of the bishops before,
and what it was afterwards. I do not know that any member of the Church
of England was imprisoned under the Commonwealth, except for some political
reason — certain it is the gaols were not filled with them." — " Constitutional
Hist." ii. p. 14. The case atManchester mentioned just now, shows that reli
gious persecution did exist, but it certainly did not to any great extent.
Dr. George Bates, an eminent royalist, and a great enemy of Cromwell's,
says, " that the Protector indulged the use of the Common Prayer in families
and in private conventicles ; and though the condition of the Church of
England was but melancholy, yet it cannot be denied but they had a great deal
more favour and indulgence than under the Parliament ; which would never
have been interrupted had they not insulted the Protector, and forfeited their
liberty, by their seditious practices and plottings against his person and govern-

State of Parties. 19

Persecution, however, whilst it alienated the Epis
copalians from their persecutors, at the same
moment made them more attached to their pro
scribed formularies ; and never did Churchmen love
the Prayer Book more, than when in the remote
chamber of a castle, or in the garret of some
sequestered manor house, the chaplain in low tone
read the litany, and the household with bated breath
repeated the responses. Nor should it be over
looked, that some wise lessons were learnt by
bishops in the season of persecution, to be forgotten,
alas ! when their ascendancy was regained. Jeremy
Taylor's "Liberty of Prophesying" was written |(
soon after the troubles of the English Church !
began. We admire the wisdom, and give credit to
the sincerity of that illustrious man ; but who can
help regretting that the principles he advocates
with so much eloquence were practically ignored
immediately after the Restoration ?
Such were the three principal religious parties,
but there are others to be noticed.
The Baptists had their private assemblies in the
reign of Elizabeth. Jewel found " a large and
inauspicious crop of Arians, Anabaptists, and other
ment."  Neal, iv. 102. There may be added here a scrap from the Rennet
Collection of MSS. in the British Museum,— 52. Speaking of Dr.
Matthew Nicholas, the writer says : " His successor was one Newham, who
constantly paid him the fifths (a thing very rare in those times), and therefore,
in return, Dr. Nicholas made him the same allowance after he was re-possessed
of the Rectory, on the restoration of his Majesty."
1: 2

20 State of Parties.

pests." In i-SJ^, there seems to have been a distinct
Baptist Church in the Isle of Ely,* so that the three
principal Nonconformist denominations must have
originated about the same time. There do not appear
to have been many Baptists in Cromwell's Esta
blishment. Amongst the most distinguished were
Henry Jessey, Rector of St. George's, Southwark,
John Tombes, B.D., Vicar of Leominster, and
Paul Hobson, Chaplain to Eton College. Baptists,
however, who were not incumbents, sometimes
preached in parish churches, of which the follow
ing example is taken from the " Life and Death of
Mr. John Bunyan :" — .
" Being to preach in a church in a country village
(before the restoration of King Charles) in Cam
bridgeshire, and the people being gathered together
in the churchyard, a Cambridge scholar, and none
of the soberest of 'em neither, inquired what the
meaning of that concourse of people was, it
being upon the week-day, and being told that
one Bunyan, a tinker, was to preach there, he
gave a boy twopence to hold his horse, saying,
' He was resolved to hear the tinker prate ;' and so
went into the church to hear him. But God met
with him there by his ministry, so that he came out
much changed, and would, by his goodwill, hear
none but the tinker for a long time after, he himself

Broadmead Records. Introduction by Underbill, p. liii.

State of Parties. 2 1

becoming a very eminent preacher in that county
afterwards. This story I know to be true, having
many a time discoursed with the man, and, therefore,
I could not but set it down as a singular instance of
the power of God that accompanied his ministry."
The Baptists scarcely differed from the Inde
pendents, except as to the immersion of adults. In
doctrinal opinion, church usage, and religious feel
ing, they were almost the same. But the simple
ground of distinction between them then, as in
after times, was unwisely magnified on both sides,
and served for occasion of angry dispute. Baptists
and Presbyterians were more widely sundered.
One day, in the parish church of Bewdley, from
nine in the morning to five in the afternoon, Mr.
Tombes, at that time minister of the place, met
Baxter in a polemical encounter, the result of
which in his favour satisfied not only the inhabitants
of Kidderminster, but Tombes' own townsmen —
except, it is naively said, " about twenty who
composed his church." It is only just to add, that
the Baptists furnished the clearest and most con
sistent advocates of toleration in those days, and
pushed their Congregational principles to the
furthest in the direction of Voluntaryism. Between
the Baptists and the Quakers the feud was ter
rible.* Scarcely less so was it between the latter
* John Bunyan had a public disputation with the redoubtable Quaker,
Edward Burroughs, at Bedford Market Cross.

22 State of Parties.

and the Independents and Presbyterians. Their
claim to inspiration, their testimony against sacra
ments, and their resistance to tithes, placed them in
antagonism to all other sects, especially those who
nestled under the wing of the Commonwealth
Establishment. But their violent expressions, and
their interruption of other people's worship, and the
fanatical and ludicrous exercises of some among
them — their ravings in the streets, their marching
about naked " in a prophetic manner as a sign to
the people ;" their appearing in a white sheet amidst
Presbyterians or Independents at a " steeple-house,"
to forewarn them that the surplice was coming
back ; and their carrying into such congregations
lighted lanterns, to indicate that the worshippers
needed illumination — practices so utterly opposed
to the quiet habits of their respectable and worthy
successors — did more than any doctrinal or eccle
siastical distinctions to alienate from them the sym
pathies of other Christians. Proofs of their own
wild enthusiasm, and illustrations of the bitter dis
like to them by other bodies, are most abundant ;
but there can be no doubt that they had laid hold
upon certain great spiritual truths long neglected,
such as the unworldliness of religion, the divinity
of conscience, and the mysterious union of Christ
with the soul of man : and they had among them
champions for liberty, in whose writings— those of
Edward Burroughs, for example— some gleams

State of Parties. 23

of true light may be seen darting out of huge
clouds of black smoke. The Fifth Monarchy men
have been confounded with Baptists and Quakers.
After the Restoration all were placed in the same
category. As to revolutionary opinions, this, in
reference to the last two sects, was unfair. Yet the
Fifth Monarchy men were not all revolutionists.
Some, such as Venner and his companions, were mad
fanatics, the enemies of social order, but others of
them were nothing more than mystical religionists —
and very zealous millenarians — expecting the per
sonal reign of Christ after the manner taught in the
writings of Joseph Mede and Henry More. To
complete this brief survey of parties, it is sufficient
to add that the Roman Catholics were mercilessly
proscribed as idolaters in their religious ceremonies,
and as rebels in their political practice.
In connection with this summary of religious
divisions at the period when our history opens, it
may be affirmed, on the testimony of Baxter, who
was no admirer of the Commonwealth Government,
that on the whole, it was favourable to the interests
of spiritual religion. That there was very much
of genuine piety, amidst, no doubt, a large amount
of hypocrisy and formalism, we have ample
evidence in the religious treatises, biographies,
and correspondence of the period. Under the
strife of sects, we can discern the existence of a
common love to the Divine Saviour. In discordant

24 State of Parties.

outward ways on earth, men were striving con
scientiously to serve Him ; and in the world of
pure light, the " all-reconciling world," their spirits,
we believe, have long since been fully harmonized.
Nor do we think that the piety of those days was
confined to a single class. We have no sympathy
with the bigoted Episcopalian on the one hand, or
with the narrow-minded admirers of the Puritans
on the other. In the so-called Church of England,
then in ruins, and amongst " the sects" too which
that Church so cruelly oppressed after the Restora
tion, were men and women whose eminent virtues
and sincere devotion ought not to be questioned ;
while from the writings of the divines of that day,
whether Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Independent,
Baptist, or Quaker, Christians may still derive the
richest spiritual instruction and improvement.
This is not the place to describe at length
Puritan manners, or fo defend them against
assailants. We frankly admit that there were
worthless people amongst them, and that the most
sincere might in some cases be very narrow-minded,
vulgar, and disagreeable ; but it is high time to
give up the wholesale ridicule of all Puritan society.
It is unfair to raise a laugh at their expense by pic
tures drawn from " Zeal for the Land Busy," in
Bartholomew Fair. That comedy was written in
1614 ; it is therefore plain that the ridiculously
long names were not peculiar to the Common-

State of Parties. 25

wealth ; and, indeed, the fact of people bearing
them then, showed that whatever of folly there
might be in giving such names, belonged to the
fathers, and not to the sons. The Puritans have
been ridiculed for their fondness of Scripture texts,
painting them as they did upon their doors, and
weaving them into their garments ; but in this respect
they were surely no worse than the people of the
Nicene Church, who placed Scripture symbols on
their houses, and embroidered the story of Christ on
their robes. Puritans disliked the playhouse, and
no wonder, when we read what Ben Jonson said
about it in his day ; and matters on the stage
became worse instead of better as time rolled on.*
It is idle to denounce them in the mass as unpoetical,
when they had that grand old poet in verse, John
Milton, and that scarcely less grand old poet in
prose, John Bunyan — to say nothing of Withers
and Marvel. It is an awkward fact for the critics
who are always jeering at the Puritans, that the
two most illustrious authors in our language next
to Shakespeare are of the number ; so that we are
not driven to say they only lived poetry, for they

* " The increase of which lust in liberty, together with the present trade of
the stage, in all their masculine interludes, what liberal soul doth not abhor ?
Where nothing but filth of the mire is uttered, and that with such impropriety
of phrase, such plenty of solecisms, such dearth of sense, so bold prolepses,
such recked metaphors, with indecency able to violate the ear of a Pagan,
and blasphemy to turn the blood of a Christian to- water."— See Ben Jonson's
Preface to "Volpone," and Kingsley's "Miscellanies," vol. ii. p. 77-

26 State of Parties.

could write it as well. And as to hatred of art — it
would be difficult to make out that charge against
Cromwell and some about him, who liked noble
buildings, and saved painted windows from destruc
tion, and took care of Windsor and Hampton Court,
and could appreciate a good picture and a good
organ. And we do not believe that while some
barbarous Goths knocked off the head of a cathedral
statue, there were not others who looked with
interest on pillars, arches, crockets, finials and
gurgoyles, though peradventure ashamed to confess
it. In point of dress, they have been abominably
maligned. There is evidence to show that some
of them dressed like the Cavaliers;* and those
who did not, really showed all the better taste ;
for if any will take the trouble to compare the
costumes of the period, it will be strange if they
do not prefer one of Oliver's gentlemen to one of
Charles's courtiers. The attire of the men has
been well defended by Mr. Kingsley, who reminds
us that they held it more rational to cut the hair to
a comfortable length, than to wear effeminate curls
down the back ; and that with the Spaniards, then

* " You shall find them," says Bastwick, speaking of the Independents,
" the only gallants in the world, with cuffs, and those great ones, at their very
heels, and with more silver and gold upon their clothes and at their heels (for
these upstarts must have silver spurs), than many great and honourable
personages have in their purses."— See Bastwick's " Utter Routing of the
Independent Army."

State of Parties. 27

the finest gentlemen in the world, they held that
sad colours, above all black, were fitter for stately
and earnest men than the rainbow hues displayed
in the costume of their opponents. Nor are we
disposed to give up the robing of the women as
unsightly, if we may take as a specimen the maiden
with gown and kerchief in Millais' picture of the
Proscribed Royalist. What the affected mode of
utterance in the pulpit might be, we cannot tell,
having never heard any of the old Puritan divines —
though we dare say some were as unnatural as
preachers often are now ; but we suppose Puritan
voices were not all alike, and if some were
harsh and nasal, others were clear and sharp as
any bell could be. Certainly we could turn to
Puritan portraits ugly enough — which may be the
fault of the painter and engraver, more than the
original — but we could as easily select dozens of
comely and noble faces, and that too with flowing
locks, ample bands, and rich cassock of graceful
fold. So connected then were politics and religion, that
we cannot understand the one without glancing at
the other ; and we shall be ill fitted to read what
follows unless we first understand the character of
both with their mutual relations. The leading |
Independents were republicans ; some, such as
Fleetwood and Haselrig, were so only to a qualified
extent, approving of a limited republic, under a

28 State of Parties.

protector with large administrative power. Between
persons of that description and the advocates of a
limited monarchy there is no very great difference.
Fleetwood had stood by Oliver and Richard, and
Haselrig wished to place Monk afterwards in
Cromwell's chair. Others, again, were pure repub
licans, panting after an ideal commonwealth, in
which democracy should have scope in harmony
with universal order — a dream never realized.
Desborough and Hutchinson were of this school.
Fifth Monarchy people, Quakers, and Baptists*
were, numbers of them, so far as they troubled
themselves about politics, of the republican way of
thinking. The Presbyterians differed from all
these almost as much in political as in ecclesiastical
views. While certain of this class might be mixed
republicans, many, perhaps the majority, were con
stitutional monarchists. They had disliked and
dethroned Charles Stuart; but they would have
preferred to see a legitimate sovereign, with guaran
tees for political freedom, wearing a crown, to
having one such as Cromwell wielding a sceptre.
Nor did they generally approve of the execution
of Charles I. Baxter, though he had been a
chaplain in the army, had no taste for repub
licanism, and no admiration for Cromwell, and was
sincerely prepared to welcome back the Stuart heir,

Colonel Hutchinson and his wife Lucy were Baptists.

State of Parties. 29

with some reasonable safeguards against the recur
rence of his father's despotism. The Episco
palians, however, claimed a monopoly of hearty
loyalism ; they did not distinguish between royalty
in the abstract and royalty such as they had seen it
in actual form. Whatever doubts some might have,
or had formerly felt, as to the wisdom of the
beheaded King's proceedings, they now almost all
regarded him as a martyr for Episcopacy ; so that,
as they read the Prayer Book in their devotion, the
crimson-stained shadow of the departed Prince rose
before them with a touching solemnity, and religious
reverence for his memory blended with allegiance
to his crown. Thorough legitimists, they esteemed
that crown the property of his eldest son. All
republicans, all Commonwealth men were rebels —
any who dared to uphold the rights of parliaments
against the rights of kings were little better.
Whereas the loyalty of some rested on their
religion, the religion of many more rested on their
loyalty. They cared very little about ecclesiastical
and spiritual questions at all. They only thought
that King Charles had died for the Church of
England, and that, as loyal men, they ought to love
it for King Charles' sake. The religion of many of
them was simply a sentiment of that descrip
tion. Sufferings in the cause — as is always the
case — endeared the cause to the sufferers. They
had lost their relations in battle ; they felt twinges

30 State of Parties.

in their old wounds when the weather changed ;
Naseby and Marston Moor were names full of
anguish. They had endured confiscation, im
prisonment, and bonds. One could tell how he
had carried packets to the Queen at the risk
of his life ; a second how he had lost his eyes
and his arms in the King's service ; a third how
he had been tossed and tumbled up and down,
was hated of all men, and tried eleven times for
his life, and how he was doomed to be hanged, and
brought to the foot of the ladder, and yet after all
escaped ; and a fourth, how he had lost 2000/., and,
with a sickly wife, had been turned out of doors,
and miserably burnt with matches, and carried in
scorn to Worcester, and kept under guard, but fled,
taking trees in the daytime, and travelling at night —
to be caught and sent to the gatehouse, where he was
.sentenced to be shot, but got out of prison during
sermon time, and lived threeweeks in an enemy's hay
mow, and went on crutches to Bristol, and so escaped.
The widows of soldiers, too, talked of being plun
dered, stripped, and whipped, of their banished
children, and their own poverty and hardships. In
all these stories, though there might be not a little
exaggeration, there was also not a little truth.*

* These particulars may be found in petitions to Charles II. after the
Restoration, preserved in the State Paper Office, and carefully calendared by
Mrs. Green. The papers are too numerous to be particularized here ; but they
can be ascertained by a reference to the Calendar, Domestic, Charles II., 1660.

Chapter II.

®f)t &ing'* &rturn.
:UCH were the leading parties in Eng
land when the winter of 1659 set in ;
and never was this country in a more
terrible political state than during the
dreary months that followed. While
political changes on the Continent, a few years
ago, were succeeding each other as rapidly as
the cloud shadows on a corn-field, we English
rejoiced in the stability of our constitution. Our
fathers, at the time we refer to now, had no such
ground for joy. Literally they had no constitution
at all, save in lawyers' books, and peoples' memories.
Cromwell, who, after all the calumnies heaped upon
him, is now seen by most to have been his
country's saviour after the anarchy of the civil wars,
had gone to his rest. The Protectorate had com
pletely broken down under his son Richard.
Army and Parliament came into conflict. There

32 The King's Return.
had been risings in the north. Sir George Booth,
with whom many of the Presbyterians sympathized,
had " five hundred lords and gentlemen of the
best in England pledged to his support." Troops
were scouring the country, and the shots fired
sometimes disturbed good people as they were
engaged at the Sacrament. Manchester was filled
with alarm. Houses were emptied of valuables,
and people hid their plate, and bravery, and all their
ornaments.* For ten days in October the country wai
without any definite government at all. Then came
a Committee of safety, and a second restoration
of the Rump. The Republicans were divided ;
some were for a select senate, and a Parliamentary
representation ; some for an assembly chosen by
the people, and a council of State chosen by that
assembly ; some for two councils of popular
election ; and some for a revival of the Lacedae
monian Ephori. Distracted in opinion, they were
also full of personal animosity, mutually jealous,
and misapprehending one another's motives, f It
was a strange time when in the Rota Club, at the
Turk's Head, in New Palace Yard, as Harrington
and his friends drank glasses of water, it had really
become a practical question, under what govern-
* Newcome's "Autobiography," vol. i. p. 117, printed for the Chetham
Society. t The divisions of the Republican party are strikingly illustrated in the
interesting Memoirs of her husband, by Lucy Hutchinson.

The King's Return. 33
ment are we to live next year ? and when a Con
gregational Church, assembling in Wallingford
House, probably under the influence of Fleetwood,
sought to know from the Congregational Church
at Yarmouth, " what they apprehended was need
ful for the Commonwealth." *
If any one will take the trouble to look over
the scores of volumes of pamphlets and broadsides
of that period, preserved in the British Museum,
or even glance down the list of publications
enumerated in " Kennet's Register," he will see what
a Babel of political and ecclesiastical opinions
London was just then. To confine ourselves to
different proposals for dealing with religion in
some new order of things which should deliver
people from existing confusion. " The Rota,
or Model of a Free State," contended for toleration
to a limited extent, with a national religion
exercised according to Parliamentary law, the legal
and ancient provision for a national ministry being
augmented so as to secure to each clergyman a
hundred pounds per annum. " Gallicantus seu
prsecursor Gallicinii Secundus" was for " the way
of old laid down by Christ," to bring it about and
settle it in the world, declaring there needed to be
an utter plucking up of all that was " in esteem and
desire, or had been for many hundred years."

* This appears from the Church Books which I have seen and examined.
D

34 The King's Return.
In short, the cry was for universal regenera
tion. All things must become new. Pres
byterians contended that the Solemn League and
Covenant was the only thing to heal the nation's
wounds, while Fifth Monarchy people could see
no hope but in the second coming of Christ. The
Quakers were attacked under the title of " Hell
broke loose," by Thomas Underhill, and the
Baptists as " the Dippers dipped," by Daniel
Featley. These expressions of opinion showed
indeed that the press was free, which was a great
good, but they also showed that the foundations of
government were altogether unsettled, and that
men's feelings towards one another were exas
perated — which was a great evil.
" No quiet," says Whitlocke confusedly of
what he saw, "was enjoyed by any party; all
were at work, and the King's party very active,
and every man was guided by his own fancy and in
terest ; those in employment were most obnoxious
to trouble. I • wished myself out of these daily
hazards, but knew not how to get free of them ;
the distractions were strangely high, and daily
increasing. A design of a rising in London, laid
by the King's party, but discovered and prevented,
and many of the conspirators taken : — letters
(Dec. 21 ) that several of the forces, which Fleet
wood sent to reduce Portsmouth, were gone into
the town, and joined with them some of Colonel

The King's Return.

Rich's men and others, also that the Isle of Wight
was come into the Parliament party : — letters from
Vice- Admiral Lawson and his officers to the City,
and others to the militia of London, declaring for
the restoring of the Parliament ; and from Hasle-
rigge, Walton, and Morley, from Portsmouth, to
the City, acquainting them with their success
there : — most of the soldiery about London de
claring their judgment to have the Parliament sit
again, in honour, freedom, and safety ; and now
those that formerly were most eager for Fleet
wood's party, becoming as violent against them,
and for the Parliament to sit again : — these pas
sages perplexed me as well as others, if not more."
There were other causes of disquiet that winter
not often remembered. Scarcity aggravates poli
tical confusion when it does not produce it. The
price of corn had fluctuated in a singular manner
during the Commonwealth. Like the tide, it had
gradually ebbed during the first half of the period,
and had as gradually flowed again during the
second half. In 1 649, when Charles was beheaded,
wheat was eighty shillings a quarter; in 1654 it
was down as low as twenty-six shillings. Good
harvests had come to bless the administration of
the Lord Protector. But after that year wheat gra
dually rose till, in 1659, it had reached the price of
sixty-six shillings per quarter. The dearness of
bread would be sure to be laid at the door of a
D 2

36 The King's Return.
Government in the last state of weakness and con
fusion.* Amidst all this, the Rump was restored on the
26th December, as the last resort of Fleetwood and
his colleagues. That fragment of a long departed
power could only serve to fill up a gap ; and it
poorly answered even that purpose. Never was
any form of government more unmercifully attacked
and ridiculed. The Committee of Safety, before
Christmas, had been lampooned in a parish-like
"account of receipts and disbursements," of which
the following is a characteristic item : — " For six
dozen of large fine holland handkerchiefs, with
great French buttons, for the Lord Fleetwood, to
wipe away the tears from his excellency's cheeks."
But now the Rump, after Christmas, was attacked
in a pamphlet with the title of " Coffin for the
Good Old Cause," in which the writer sums up his
charges by saying, Your army is unsettled ; your
house divided ; your friends discouraged ; your
trade decayed ; your treasure exhausted ; and your
enemies increased. The confusion in London for
several weeks became greater rather than less. The
picture of Hewson, the shoemaker Lord, was
gibbeted in Cheapside. In the Strand, Pepys saw
"the Foot face the Horse and beat them back,
and stand bawling and calling in the street for a

* See prices in Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations," B. I. l. ii.

['he King's Return. 37

free Parliament and money." The City appren
tices had anticipated them in the cry.
Something must be done. The Royalists had,
throughout the tumult and confusion, been any
thing but asleep ; indeed they had fomented the
confusion, and rejoiced in it, because the darker
the night the nearer the dawn. Booth's rising in
August had been repressed, but a strong under
current, of which that was a Geyser outgush, con
tinued to flow. There were secret conferences,
correspondings, and plots. Availing himself of
the freedom of the press, Evelyn spoke out boldly
in his " Apology for the Royal Party," and — de
nouncing the Rump as a coffin guarded by soldiers,
which was yet less empty than the heads of cer
tain politicians — he contended for the restoration of
Charles II. , maintaining that the King might be
trusted from the innate propensity of his own
nature to justice, and from his father's dying
injunctions, and that there were none, though their
crimes were crimson, whom he would not be ready
to pardon. About the same time was published,
"A Plea for Limited Monarchy," in which the
author dwells upon the decay of trade, and com
plains that the oil and honey promised by Oliver
was turned to gall and bitterness, and that Lambert's
free quarterings had licked up the little left in the
people's cruse. Such appeals were made to will
ing ears. The majority of the nation were weary of

38 The King's Return.

everlasting change. They had seen little practical
wisdom of late in their rulers. They had no faith
in ideal republics. Could there have been some
master-spirit equal to Cromwell, the Commonwealth
might perhaps have been re-established; but one was
not to be found. Nor can we forget that a love for
monarchy, so deeply ingrained in the English mind,
had been only painted over since 1648. The paint
was now rubbed off, and the grain of the old wood
was seen.
Public feeling in the spring of 1660 was strongly
in favour of the restoration of Charles, and, with
that view, declarations and addresses in behalf of a
free Parliament began to be sent up to London.
They are still visible in rude type, and on coarse
paper, among the tracts of the British Museum,
bearing the title of " A Happy Handful of Green
Hopes in the Blade, in order to a Harvest of the
several Shires humbly Petitioning or heartily De
claring for Peace." In the month of March the
poor Rump was finally dissolved, and a free Parlia
ment called. The popular manifestations of joy in
London were most exuberant. The garrulous Mr.
Pepys takes us along with him, and shows us what
he saw.
" In Cheapside there was a great many bonfires,
and Bow bells and all the bells in all the churches
as we went home were a-ringing. Hence we went
homewards, it being about ten at night. But the

The King's Return. 39

common joy that was everywhere to be seen ! The
number of bonfires, there being fourteen between
St. Dunstan's and Temple Bar, and at Strand
bridge I could at one time tell thirty fires. In
King-street seven or eight, and all along burning
and roasting, and drinking for rumps. There
being rumps tied upon sticks, and carried up and
down. The butchers at the May Pole in the
Strand rang a peal with their knives when they
were going to sacrifice their rump. On Ludgate-
hill there was one turning of the spit that had a
rump tied upon it, and another basting of it.
Indeed it was past imagination, both the greatness
and the sadness of it. At one end of the street
you would think there was a whole lane of fire, and
so hot that we were fain to keep on the further
side." The excitement in other parts of the country
was not less intense. " At Nottingham," Mrs.
Lucy Hutchinson tells us, " as almost in all the
rest of the island, the town began to grow mad."
Boys went about with drums and colours, and
offered affront to the old Republican soldiers.
One night about forty of the latter were wounded
with stones as they were seizing the drums, while
the impudent lads were assembling to burn the
rump. In the scuffle, the soldiers shot two Pres
byterians, one an Elder, a zealous Royalist, and
master of the magazine at Nottingham Castle.

40 The King's Return.
The poor fellow had been guilty of no violence,
but the Republican Colonel's wife assures us, that
at that time the Presbyterians provoked the other
party by being more immoderately bitter against
them than even the Cavaliers themselves, and that
they set on the boys. " Upon the killing of this
man, the Presbyterians were hugely enraged, and
prayed seditiously in their pulpits, and began
openly to desire the King, not for good will neither
to him, but for destruction to all the fanatics."*
While the rabble were raving with joy over the
final destruction of the Commonwealth, Milton
was grandly mourning over their madness in these
characteristic words : — " And what will they at
best say of us, and of the whole English name,
but scoffingly, as of that foolish builder mentioned
by our Saviour, who began to build a tower,
and was not able to finish it ? Where is this
goodly tower of a Commonwealth, which the
English boasted they would build to overshadow
kings, and be another Rome in the west? The
foundation indeed they laid gallantly ; but fell into
a worse confusion, not of tongues, but of factions,
than those at the tower of Babel ; and have left no
memorial of their work behind them remaining,
but in the common laughter of Europe ! What
must needs redound the more to our shame, if we

* "Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson," p. 363.

The King's Return. 41

but look on our neighbours, the United Provinces,
to us inferior in all outward advantages, who not
withstanding, in the midst of the greatest difficulties,
courageously, wisely, constantly went through with
the same work, and are settled in all happy enjoyments
of a potent and flourishing Republic to this day."*
The political importance of the Independents
had declined with Fleetwood and his brother officers.
The Presbyterian party had resumed the ascen
dancy. The secluded members of the Rump Par
liament had been restored to their places in February,
1660, just before the calling of the New Parliament,
when the Republican chiefs withdrew. Charac
teristic Presbyterian zeal was visible during the
last few days of the Rump, in the adoption of
the Westminster Confession on the 2nd of March,
and in the introduction the same day of a bill for
the approval of ministers before their admission
to a benefice. On the 5th, the League and Cove
nant was hung upon the wall of the House of Com
mons, and ordered to be read in every church once
a year; and on the 13th, Dr. Owen was removed
from the Deanery of Christ's Church, and Dr. Rey
nolds appointed in his room.
The Presbyterians stood foremost : they were
the principal instruments in the restoration of
the King. According to Baxter, and his infor-

Milton's " Ready and Easy Way," &c. Works, vol. i. p. 589.

42 The King's Return.
mation must have been pretty accurate, while
his honesty none now will think of impeach
ing, it was not General Monk that influenced the
Presbyterians, but the Presbyterians that influenced
General Monk. Baxter says, the Earl of Man
chester, Mr. Calamy, and others of that class
encouraged and persuaded him to bring back the
King. Sir Thomas Allen, then Lord Mayor, by
the permission of Dr. Jacomb, and some other
ministers and citizens, invited General Monk into
the City, "and drew him to agree and join with
them against the Rump, and this in truth was the
act that turned the scales, and brought in the King.
After this, the old excluded members of the Par
liament met with Monk. He called them to sit,
and that the King might come in both by him and
them, he agreed with them to sit but a few days,
and then dissolve themselves, and call another
Parliament."* Nor is this a mere Presbyterian boast. Burnet
acknowledges that the Presbyterians were the
restorers of monarchy, and even Clarendon tells his
story so as to imply the same thing.f The share

* " Life and Times," part i. p. ioS- He repeats the same thing in another
way, p. 214 ; and gives a very rhetorical passage on the same subject,
p. 215. To this we may add a passage from the "History of the Stuarts."
"Through the whole transaction there was scarcely one agent that was not
a Presbyterian (at least a pretended one) above the character of a letter-
carrier." t Burnet, vol. i. pp. S5, 98. Clarendon, cont. p. 996.

The King's Return. 43
which Monk took in that important transaction it
does not belong to our present task particularly
to describe, neither does it come within our province
to decide on the character of that remarkable man.
It is sufficient to remark, that his influence has
been greatly exaggerated, and that his motives will
not bear examination. He was first an Indepen
dent, and then a Presbyterian, in both cases avow
ing himself a Republican ; after which, through a
dexterous combination with existing parties, he
became a Royalist and an Episcopalian, and brought
back Charles Stuart to the throne. He was either
a mere selfish schemer, trimming his sails according
to the wind, and ready for a King or a Com
monwealth, as he found it safe and advantageous
to himself, or — an alternative which his admiring
biographers prefer — he was all the way through,
under the disguise of Republican sentiments,
promoting the interests of Royalism ; and therefore,
comparing his actions and words with his real
sentiments, he must be pronounced one of the
most consummate deceivers and hypocrites the
world ever saw.*
* See Lives of him by Gumble and by Price. Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper
was a confidant of Monk, and Mrs. Lucy Hutchinson tells us that he assured
her husband, even after Monk's designs became apparent, that there was no
intention besides a Commonwealth, and that if the violence of the people
should bring the King in he would perish body and soul rather than see a hair
of any man's head touched, or a penny of any man's estate forfeited through
the quarrel. Hutchinson held Cooper "for a more execrable traytor than
Monke himselfe." — " Memoirs," p. 360.

44 The King's Return.
Baxter throws some curious light upon the
schemes of the Episcopalian Royalists to influence
their Presbyterian brethren.* Sir Ralph Clare, of Kid
derminster, had, before the rising of Booth, spoken
to the good man on the subject, and he had replied by
expressing his fear of the intolerance of the prelatical
party, and of the danger to the interests of spiritual re
ligion in case of the return of the Stuarts. To this the
knight rejoined, that being thoroughly acquainted
with Dr. Hammond, who received letters from Dr.
Morley, then with the King, he could assure Bax
ter that the utmost moderation was intended, and
," any episcopacy, how low soever, would serve the
turn, and be accepted." Long letters from French
pastors were afterwards procured, testifying to the
Protestantism and piety of the Royal exile. " For
the quieting people's minds," Baxter says, in his
" Life and Times," " the Earl of Lauderdale, by
' means of Sir Robert Murray and the Countess of
Balcares, then in France, procured several letters to
be written from thence, full of high eulogiums of
the King, and assurances of his firmness in the Pro
testant religion, which he got translated and pub
lished. Among others, one was sent to me from
Monsieur Gaches, a famous pious preacher at Cha-
renton, wherein, after a high strain of compliments
to myself, he gave a pompous character of the King,

* See " Life and Times," p. 207, et sej.

The King's Return. 45

and assured me that during his exile he never for
bore the public profession of the Protestant reli
gion — no, not even in those places where it seemed
prejudicial to his affairs. That he was present at
divine worship in the French Churches at Rouen and
Rochelle — though not at Charenton, during his stay
at Paris — and earnestly pressed me to use my utmost
interest that the King might be restored by means of
the Presbyterians." Baxter's pages bear ample wit
ness to the fears of others* as well as himself, in
reference to the interests of religion, to quiet which
the humblest tone was adopted, and the most
earnest professions of moderation made. Though
the Presbyterians' interest was considerable, said the
writer of " The Valley of Baca," with insinuating
gentleness, yet the Episcopalians were not incon
siderable, and since their differences in respect of
ecclesiastical government were not irreconcilable,
union might be endeavoured. Persons, he said, who
were ordained by Presbyters, and were not the
occupants of benefices, whereof the incumbents
were alive, would not be turned out, but their
ordination was to be held valid and their tithes
secure. About the same time a Paper was cir
culated, in which the Episcopalians protested their
resolution to forgive, and to bury rancour, malice,

* It is curious that while Presbyterians suspected the King, some about the
King suspected the Presbyterians. See Letter by Kingston, in Harris' " Charles
II.," vol. i. p. 314.

4(5 The King's Return.

and animosity for ever ; having been taught by suf
ferings from the hand of God not to cherish violent
thoughts against their brother man.* Some of the
Presbyterians were pacified by these methods, and
expected that no subscription to the Prayer Book
would be required ; others hoped at least to be
tolerated, and that no revenge would be taken for
the past. Some again acted simply from a conviction
that it was their duty to restore the King ; while
others thought it ruinous, yet saw no help.f A
few perhaps, under the influence of letters from
Scotland, entertained the idea of restoring the King
on what were called " Covenant terms"- — that is to
say, on the terms of the Solemn League ; but only
people who lived in a world of their own, and
knew nothing of mankind, dreamt of such a thing. *
Political apprehension mingled with the religious,
and a Republican member of the House of Com
mons, in March, 1660- — as we learn from his speech
reported in an old volume of tracts — declared if
it were true, and that now the people began to see
aright, he heartily wished their eyes had been
sooner open, and for three nations' sake that they had
purchased conviction at a cheaper rate. Thev

* This " Declaration," which is worth reading, is printed in " Kennet's
Register," p. 121, with a long list of noble signatures.
+ All this Baxter describes with great simplicity in his " Life and Times "
p. 216.
X See Correspondence between Sharp and Douglas in " Kennet's Register,"
pp. 78, 80, 83, 110, 124.

The King's Return. 47

might in 1642 have been what they were content
to be in 1659 (O.S.), and their consciences have
had much less to answer for to God, and their
reputations to the world. They liked their old
masters, and would be satisfied to have their
ears bored at the door-post of their own house.
Nay, as if contending for shame, as well as servitude,
they were carrying their ears to be bored at another
door, even that of the House of Lords. Amidst
these voices grave and earnest, were others of light
jest or of bitter satire. Amongst these was the
famous jeu d'esprit of " News from Brussels in a
letter from a near attendant on his Majesty's person
to a person of honour here." Much of it is as coarse
as it can be, but we may quote the following words
put into the pretended Royalist epistle, " Hug them
you cannot hang, at least until you can. I hate to
show the teeth before we bite. He is an ass
that angles and hides not the hook." Some
have supposed that Charles was restored by the
unanimous vote of the nation, but this is by
no means true, though a sentiment of loyalty
to the House of Stuart predominated in the
England of 1660.
In the New or Convention Parliament, as it was
afterwards termed, and which met April 25th, the
Presbyterians were leaders. On the 30th, when
a public fast was held, Reynolds and Hardy preached
before the Lords, Gauden, Calamy, and Baxter

48 The King's Return.
 d. 
before thd?Commons. Gauden was the only Epis
copalian amongst them.*
On the 1st of May Mr. Annesley reported to the
Commons that there was a letter from the King un
opened, directed to " our trusty and well-beloved
General Monk, to be communicated to the President
and Council of State, and to the officers of the armies
under his command." He further informed them,
that Sir John Grenville, messenger from the King,
was at the door. Upon a resolution that he should
be called in, the Royal messenger appeared at the
bar, and after making obeisance said, amidst the
breathless silence of the assembly, " I am com
manded by the King my master, to deliver this
letter to you, and his desires that you will commu
nicate it to the House." The messenger withdrew
as soon as he had delivered the letter, and it was
then read aloud by the Speaker, together with the
declaration. f The members continued bare-headed*
during the reading. In this important document,
Charles assured the nation that he had never given
up the hope of recovering his rights, that he did

* A curious circumstance occurred in connection with the sermons, on
which there is a copious note amongst the Baxter MSS., Red Cross-street
Library. Gauden said in his sermon, the nation should begin with civil
affairs, and give the King his due. Baxter had stepped out of the church, and
did not hear this. Afterwards in his sermon he maintained the nation should
begin with religious affairs, and give first to God the things of God. Gauden
thought this was said against him, and put a preface to his discourse, in which
he defended himself. — See Kennet, p. 126.
t "Journals of the House of Commons," Tuesday, May 1, 1660.

The King's Return. 49
not more desire to enjoy what was his own, than
that his subjects by law might enjoy what was
theirs ; that he would grant a free pardon under
the Great Seal to all who should lay hold of his
grace and favour within forty days, save those only
who should be excepted by Act of Parliament ;
and that he desired all notes of discord and separa
tion should be utterly abolished.
Then follows the famous clause : — " And, be
cause the passion and uncharitableness of the times
have produced several opinions in religion, by which
men are engaged in parties and animosities against
each other, which, when they shall hereafter unite
in a freedom of conversation, will be composed or
better understood ; we do declare a liberty to
tender consciences, and that no man shall be dis
quieted or called in question, for differences of
opinion in matter of religion which do not disturb
*he peace of the kingdom, and that we shall be
ready to consent to such an Act of Parliament, as,
upon mature deliberation, shall be offered to us for
the full granting that indulgence."
It concluded with a promise of indemnity for all
grants and purchases made by officers and soldiers
who might be liable to actions at lav/, and of the
payment of arrears due to the army.
On the afternoon cf the same day there was a
conference between the Lords and Commons, when
it was reported that the Lords " do own and declare
E

So The Kings Return.
that according to the ancient and fundamental laws
of this kingdom, the Government is and ought to
be by Kings, Lords, and Commons." It was
immediately resolved, " That this House doth
agree with the Lords."
A Committee was then appointed to consider the
King's letter, in which Committee, according to
Clarendon, there were some who thought to 3 much
precipitation was being used, and that some treaty
ought to be made with Charles, and certain con
ditions of security proposed. Before the meeting
of Parliament, we learn from the same authority,
conferences had been held, in which it was deter
mined that Charles II. should be treated like
Henry III., and Articles should be presented to
him " according to the model of those of Killing-
worth." And now some of the Presbyterians were
for adopting such a course in order to preserve
the Covenant, and provide against the revival of
prelacy. Burnet tells us of a debate in which
Matthew Hale, afterwards Chief Justice, moved
that a Committee might be appointed to consider
the proposition made to the King at Newport.
The motion was seconded, but was opposed by
Monk, who told the House the nation was now
quiet, but he could not answer for peace if there
was any delay in bringing back the King.*

See Clarendon, " Hist.," p. 904, and " Burnet's Own Times," i. p.

The King's Return.

An answer to the royal letter was voted, ex
pressive of thanks, and a grant of 50,000/. made for
Charles' immediate use, of which he stood much in
need. The next day 600/. was voted to Sir John
Grenville, who brought so gracious a letter from
the King's Majesty, to buy him a jewel as a
testimony of respect and a badge of honour.
Thanks were presented to him next day (May 3),
when the Speaker said : — "I need not tell you with
what grateful and thankful hearts the Commons now
assembled in Parliament have received His Majesty's
gracious letter. Res ipsa loquitur. You yourself
have been ocularis et auricularis testis de rei veritate.
Our bells and our bonfires have already begun the
proclamation of His Majesty's goodness and of our
joys. We have told the people that our King, the
glory of England, is coming home again, and they
have resounded it back again into our ears that they
are ready, and that their hearts are open to receive
him. Both Parliament and people have cried aloud
to the King of Kings in their prayers. Long live
King Charles the Second !" The Speaker then
informed him of the vote for the purchase of the
jewel. Upon the election of the members, on Saturday,
May 5th, to attend His Majesty with the letter from
the House, those present were counted, and found
to be 408. Glasses were prepared for receiving the
names of the members to be sent on the embassage.
e 2

52 'Ihe King's Return.
The clerks went round with the glasses and received
from those " respectively sitting in their places a
paper of names, and so both the glasses were brought
and set upon the table." The report of the names
which had the majority was delivered on Monday,
May 7th. They were Sir George Booth, Lord Falk
land, Mr. Hollis, Sir John Holland, Sir Anthony
Ashley Cooper, Lord Bruce, Sir Horatio Townsend,
Lord Herbert, Lord Castleton, Lord Fairfax, Sir
Henry Chomley, and Lord Mandevill. At the
same time it was resolved that the King should
be proclaimed on the following day.
On the 8th a form of proclamation was agreed
upon by both Houses, and it was resolved, nemine
contradicente, that the King's Majesty be desired to
make his speedy return to his Parliament and to the
exercise of his Kingly office.
Afterwards, on the same day, the Lords and
Commons met in Westminster Hall, and walked
into the Palace Yard, where they all stood bare
whilst the heralds proclaimed the King. They
proceeded to Whitehall and did the same. At
Temple Bar they were received by the Lord
Mayor, Aldermen, and Companies, after which the
remainder of the day was spent in " those acclama
tions, festivals, bells, and bonfires, as are the natural
attendants upon such solemnities."* Two days

* " Kennet's Register," p. 140.

The King's Return. ^3
afterwards, sermons were preached before the House
of Lords by James Buck, before the House of
Commons by John Price, and before the Lord
Mayor and Corporation of London by Richard
Baxter. With his sermon, he says, " the moderate
were pleased, the fanatics offended, and the diocesan
party thought he did suppress their joy."*
Within a few days the King was proclaimed
throughout the country. In cities, where the
old Royalist party were in the ascendant, scarlet
gowns, and scaffolds covered with red cloth for the
reading of the proclamation, and volleys fired by
"musketeers," and cathedral singing men perform
ing solemn anthems, formed a conspicuous part of
the ceremony. But in places where Presbyterianism
prevailed it was otherwise. At Sherbourne, on the
10th, the proclamation was made " after solemn
prayers, praises, and a seasonable premonition in the
church."f At Manchester, on the 1 2th, the minister,
Henry Newcome, " went into the pulpit and
prayed about half an hour." j And at Northampton,

* The Sermon was entitled " Right Rejoicing," and is one of Baxter's
most spiritual and earnest discourses.
f " Public Intelligencer," No. 20.
J Henry Newcome's diary, published by the Chetham Society. He adds to
his account of the proclamation at Manchester, "the Lord showed them mercy
in that on Monday afterwards they had all their solemnity dashed at Roch
dale, by the accidental miscarriage of a musket, that at the volley killed the
drummer." We will add an extract from the Worcester MS. : —
"May 3rd, 16C0. — Mem. At Worcester city, upon hearing of the Par
liament's reception of the King and the King's declaration, at night such a

54 The King's Return.

" Mr. Ford, the minister, went with several others
to a great bonfire in the market-place, when, after
a suitable exhortation, he joined them in singing
the twenty-first Psalm."
It was not until the 1 2th that an incident occurred,
generally mentioned in connection with the opening
of the Parliament. On that day, according to the

number of bonfires throughout, with ringing of bells, that the city seemed all
in a flame most part of the night; every street having at least four or five,
some twelve bonfires, with high general rejoicings and acclamations."
"May 12th. — Mem. This day at the city of Worcester, were placed on
high four scaffolds, one at the Cross, two at the corn-market, three at the
Knole end, four at or near All-Hallows' well. The scaffold at the Cross was
encompassed with green, white, and purple colours ; the two first as his own
colours, being Prince, the third as King. Mr. Ashby, the mayor, a mercer,
and all aldermen in scarlet, the sheriff of the city, the twenty-four and forty-
eight in their liveries ; each trade and free-man marching with their colours.
First went loo trained city bandmen, after their captain, Alderman Vernon.
Then came the sheriffs, Thos. Coventry, Esq., the Lord Coventry's eldest son,
servants ; then the two army companies ; then the several livery companies
with their showmen or band ; then the city officers ; then the mace and
sword bearers ; then the mayor, with the high sheriff and some gentlemen ;
then all the 24 and 48 ; then part of a troop of horse of the army. The
mayor, mounting the scaffold with the gentlemen and aldermen, Mr. John
Ashby, reading softly by degrees the proclamation of Charles the Second, to be
King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland ; the mayor himself spoke it
aloud to all the people, which done, all with a shout said, ' God save the King.'
Then all guns went off, and swords drawn and flourishing over their heads,
drums beating and trumpets blowing, loud music playing before the mayor and
company, to every scaffold, which was done in the same manner throughout,
and all finished, the mayor and city gave wine and biscuits in the chamber
liberally. Bonfires made at night throughout the city, and the King's health
with wine was drunk freely. Never such a concourse of people seen upon so
short a notice, with high rejoicings and acclamations for the restoring of the
King. God guard him from his enemies as He ever hath done most miracu
lously, and send him a prosperous peaceable reign, and long healthful life, for
the happiness of his subjects, who is their delight."

The King's Return. 55
journals, some exception was taken to certain words
in the debate on the Bill for general pardon,
uttered by Mr. Lenthall, to this effect : " He that
first drew his sword against the King committed as
high an offence as he that cut off the King's head."
Standing up in his place, he explained himself, and
withdrew. There is no report of what he said in ex
planation, nor does the exact nature of his offence
appear from the Speaker's reprimand. " They
apprehended," said that important personage, ad
dressing the accused gentleman in the name of the
members, " there is much of poison in the words,
and that they were spoken out of design to set this
Flouse on fire, they tending to render them that
drew the sword to bring delinquents to condign
justice, and to vindicate their just liberties, into
balance with them that cut off the King's head, of
which act they express their abhorrence and detesta
tion." Mr. Hallam supposes that Lenthall intended
to extenuate the crime of the regicides ; and this is
no unfounded supposition, under all the circum
stances. Lord Macaulay, adopting the general
opinion, treats what was said as an outburst of
loyalty, meant to charge all who took part in the
Civil War with being guilty of treason.* Which-

* Neal (iv. p. 261) and others confound Lenthall with the Speaker of that
name. This is a great mistake, as Lenthall was not a member of the Conven
tion Parliament, but retired from an unpromising attempt at election for
the University of Oxford, and spent the rest of his days in retirement. Lord

56 The King's Return.

ever opinion be adopted of the tenor of Lenthali's
objectionable remarks, it is quite clear that the
House of Commons, after having determined on
the restoration of the Son, and while reprobating
the execution of the Father, were still constant in
maintaining the justice of the Civil War as a grand
vindication of the liberties of England.
Immediately upon the decision for the King's
return, the House made themselves busy with
arrangements for that event ; amidst graver matters,
it is curious to find that solemn assembly, with its
large infusion of the Presbyterian element, con
sidering a report from Mr. Annesley touching beds
of velvet, chairs of State, quilts of satin, Holland
sheets, damask tablecloths, and other articles down
to " tenter-hooks, hammers, and locks, and such
like necessaries for the wardrobe." Besides the up
holstery and linen department, the Honourable
House undertook the providing of a State coach,
the inside to be of crimson velvet, and of " richly
Macaulay, without mentioning his name, strangely refers to him as " a sturdy
cavalier." Mr. Hallam says he was son of the Speaker. The following
extract from the Wbrcester MS. is worth introducing here. " May 4th. —
Mr. William Prinn moved the House of Commons that Mr. Wm. Lentall,
the Speaker, might be hanged, and all others of the long-robe Parliament, who
went clearly against their own knowledge of the law. Lord Fairfax came to
General Monk to desire that the House would not be so violent against those
that fought for her rights and liberties. He answered, ' He might do well to
move the House therein, or else that he may try to fight the same over again.'
A rich golden tablet, set with diamonds, given and sent by the King with his
picture to Lady Monk."— " Worcester MS." From this it would appear
Lenthall was on his defence.

The King's Return.

laced and fringed liveries for two coachmen and
two postillions suitable," together with " other
coaches and horses, and pad-saddles," winding up
with a memorial of " flags for the fleet," — all of
which minutiae are entered on the Parliamentary
journals, and must have occupied the attention of
the assembled members.
Thus we have patiently picked out such notices
as are afforded of the manner in which our fore
fathers accomplished one of the most important
revolutions for the last three hundred years. Every
lover of peace will rejoice that it was a bloodless
change. All who admire the constitution cf Eng
land will admit that the restoration of a monarchy
was to be desired. To bring Charles II. home to
the throne of his fathers was needful to give
steadiness to the staggering empire there can be
no doubt. But the way in which the question
was decided suggests some grave and sad reflec
tions. After years of civil strife to bring within
bounds the prerogatives of the Crown — after the
desperate remedy adopted for the cure of Royal
aggression — after what had been done to resist and
overcome the intolerance and superstition of the
High Church party, for the nation to send for
a Stuart to come back, without any condition what- I
ever ; to open the way for the re-establishment of
the order of things in Church and State, without
any provision for preventing the recurrence of

58 The King's Return

probable inconveniences and mischief, certainly
showed that the leading men at that time in Eng
land had reaped little wisdom from their bitter
experience. As common sense might have taught,
such a proceeding, to say the least, was likely to
revive much of the misery under which people
were smarting, when eighteen years before they
unfurled the Commonwealth flag. As the history
of the next eight-and-twenty years showed, the
restoration of Charles without any conditions did
produce that very result. The old Stuart's love of
prerogative reappeared; and the old prelatic in
tolerance of Nonconformity became as rife as ever.
The revolution of 1688 had to supply the defects
of the revolution of 1660. But it is contended that,
however theoretically desirable some stipulations
might have been, it was practically unwise to insist
on them under existing circumstances, and that
delay in negotiation with the exiled Prince would,
probably, have involved the country in fresh con
fusions, or exposed it to the risk of a military des
potism. The dangers of a little delay have been
assumed, not proved. There could not be any
probability of losing the chance of seeing Charles
Stuart on his throne at Whitehall, had Parliament
determined before that confessedly desirable event
to bind him down to certain terms. He would
gladly have accepted the royalty of England with
those guarantees for civil and religious liberty which

The King's Return. 59
were freely accorded by William III. And as to
the army — from which chiefly alarm would arise —
it does not appear how the difficulty of keeping
Republican soldiers quiet for a month or so, spent
in laying foundations for the stability of the liberties
they had been fighting for, was greater than the
difficulty of keeping them quiet for the month
between the decision for the King's return and his
actual arrival. Possible evils, in the form of political
intrigues, the conflict of parties, the further unsettle-
ment of the country, and the postponement of the
Restoration to a distant period, may be imagined
as the result of delay ; but over against them, we
are justified in placing the enormous evil which
assuredly did come in consequence of precipitation.
That which really prevented any conditions from
being imposed on the returning Prince, was the
want of a few wise heads to suggest, and a few stout
hearts to enforce them. Who can believe that if
Pym or Hampden, or even Falkland, had been
members of the Convention Parliament, matters
would have been managed as they were ? We can
not but think that during the infinitely momentous
weeks which made up that month of May, they
would have little heeded the voting of jewels to
Royal messengers, and decisions about State beds
and State coaches, but would rather have thrown
themselves heart and soul into the work of building
up some safe and sure defences against the return

60 The King's Return.
of arbitrary government and ecclesiastical intoler
ance in the wake of the ship that brought royalty
from the Hague to Dover. But England was
sadly wanting in great statesmen just then. They
had been gathered to their fathers ; one wise good
man there was, who proposed that there should be
some pause for the arrangement of conditions.
But one selfish unprincipled individual put him
down. It is deplorable to think of a Parliament in
which Monk silenced Hale.
Almost as soon as the King's declaration arrived,
it was communicated to the fleet. A council was
summoned on board the admiral's ship. They sat
in " the coach," as the council chamber in a man-of-
war is called. Samuel Pepys read the letter and
declaration. Not one person said " No," though
the reader was confident " many in their hearts
were against it." Afterwards, on the quarter-deck,
the same official, no doubt very proud of his office,
declared the vote, and read the papers, when the
seamen shouted, " God bless King Charles," with
the greatest joy imaginable. Orders were imme
diately given for silk flags and scarlet waistcoats,
rich barges, trumpets, and fiddlers ; and, even on
Lord's Day, May 13th, tailors and painters were at
work on the quarter-deck, cutting out pieces of
yellow cloth in the fashion of a crown, and C. R.,
putting them on a fine sheet, and then hoisting that ex
temporized standard in place of the old States' arms.

The King's Return. 6 1

The King's return being decided, there was no
little bustle amongst the deputations destined for
Holland. Off started several of the Lords and
Commons with great haste on Friday, the nth
of May, and the next morning the rest departed
" in a costly brigantine." The Commissioners for
the City of London set forward on their journey in
coaches.* Vessels were immediately put in readi
ness to convey the London Commissioners to the
Royal presence, and certain Presbyterian ministers
were despatched in their company, to express to
their liege Lord the sentiment of the religious
portion of his now faithful Londoners. Dr.
Reynolds, Mr. Calamy, Mr. Manton, and Mr.
Case were of the number. Pepys tells us, that as
he was posting in a coach to Scheveling, the wind
being very high, he " saw two boats overset," and
the gallants forced to be pulled on shore by the
heels, while their trunks, portmanteaus, hats, and
feathers were swimming in the sea ; and the ministers
that came with the Commissioners, Mr. Case
amongst the rest, were sadly dripped.f
The King was at the Hague, and to that beautiful
Dutch town the reverend brethren proceeded with
out delay, and were graciously received by Charles.
They told him that according to the Covenant (they
did not forget to mention their beloved symbol),

* "Public Intelligencer," No. 20. f " Pepys' Diary," 15th May.

62 77/i? Kings Return.
they had urged on the people their duty to restore
the King. Then thanking God for his Majesty's
constancy to the Protestant religion, they declared
themselves no enemies to moderate Episcopacy, but
said they only desired that things held to be in
different by those who used them should not be
imposed on others by whom they were esteemed
unlawful. The first interview appears to have
passed off pleasantly enough. But another audience
was sought by the ministers for closer conversation
with the monarch.
The ministers of Edinburgh were at that time
very earnest for the perpetuation of their exclusive
.establishment, and saw no reasons for any indulgence
to Dissenters. They had frequent correspondence
with Sharp, their agent, now in Holland, who
afterwards gained a dark notoriety as Archbishop
Sharp, and perhaps was already playing the traitor,
and they urged him to remember the great incon
venience that would ensue upon the King's using
the Common Prayer on returning to his dominions,
and to employ all means to prevent his doing so.*
Whether or not this man, who then made his
brethren believe he was zealous in their cause,
did actually influence the City ministers (we
think it not unlikely that he did, perhaps to
thwart their purpose), certainly they adopted an

"Kennet's Register," p. 146.

The King's Return. 63
intolerant policy, and so failed to " cut off occasion
from those who desired occasion." Admitted again
to a Royal audience — it is said they desired several*
—they told his Majesty that the people were
disused to the Common Prayer, some had never
heard it at all, and it would be much wondered at,
if, as soon as he landed, he should introduce it in
his own chapel. They begged, at any rate, that he
would not use it entirely and formally, but have
only some parts of it read, with superadded extem
pore prayers by his chaplains. The King replied,
reasonably enough, and with some warmth, " that
whilst they sought liberty, he wished to enjoy the
same himself." He then professed his strong
attachment to the English Liturgy, with how much
sincerity we do not ask, and said, that though he
would not severely inquire about the use of it else
where, he would certainly have it in his own chapel.
¦* In " The Secret History of the Reigns of Charles II. and James IL,"
i6c,o— a sort of book not very trustworthy — we have the original of the story,
often repeated, respecting Mr. Case, "who, with the rest of the brethren
coming where the King lay, and desiring to be admitted into the King's
presence, were carried up into the chamber next or very near to the King's
closet, but told withal that the King was busy at his devotions, and that till
he had done they must be contented to stay. Being thus left alone, by
contrivance no doubt, and hearing a sound of groaning piety, such was the
curiosity of Mr. Case, that he would needs go and lay his ear to the closet
door. But heavens, how was the good old man ravished to hear the pious
ejaculations that fell from the King's lips : ' Lord, since Thou art pleased to
restore me to the throne of my ancestors, grant me a heart constant in the
exercise and protection of thy true Protestant religion. Never may I seek
the oppression of those who out of tenderness to their consciences, are not
free to conform to outward and indifferent ceremonies.' "

64 The King's Return.

They then besought him at least not to have the
surplice worn. But he was inexorable, and replied,
he would not be restrained himself when he gave
others so much liberty — a reply which would have
been to his honour had he afterwards practically
adhered to both parts of it. We apprehend that
whatever the good Presbyterian deputation might
have said and done, it would have made little
difference as to the final issue, but certainly they
committed themselves at the very commencement
of negotiations, and gave Charles and his court too
good ground in after days for meeting the charge
of Episcopal intolerance by an accusation of Pres
byterian bigotry.
On the following Sunday, Mr. Hardy, one of
the ministers who came over with the Commissioners
from London, preached before the King at the
Hague, when some circumstances occurred which
are rather amusing. The place appointed for the
service was the French Church, and- the English
worship was to begin as soon as the French should
end. Crowds came from the neighbouring towns
to see the monarch and his retinue, and to witness
so novel a service. Precautions were adopted to
prevent their admission so as to inconvenience the
illustrious personages for whom the service was
especially intended, and particular care was taken to
reserve for the court " a pew lined with black velvet,
and covered with a canopy of the same material."

The King's Return. 6$
But another contingency had not been provided
against, or thought of, and that was how to get
rid of those who were already in the building, after
their own service was over. Now the French con
gregation wished to wait, and witness the second
service, and there were certain Dutch folks of
distinction who occupied the velvet pew, and would
not retire. The French ministers urged the people
to withdraw — the reader from the desk, and the
preacher from the pulpit, — but the people were there,
and there they would remain. Those in possession
outwitted the guards, and they outwitted themselves
too, for, as the place was crammed, and no more
could get in, the. King had worship in a private
room, with as many of the Lords as it would hold.
Then Mr. Hardy preached from Isaiah v. 19, and
"made so learned and pathetic a discourse that there
was not any one there which was not touched and
edified therewith." After the Liturgy and sermon,
the King touched certain persons afflicted with " the
evil," according to a long and elaborate ceremonial,
of which the details may be seen by any one who
likes to consult " Kennet's Register and Chronicle."
Soon, the King was on his way to the land of his
fathers.* As he crossed the sea, it was a time for

* Amidst the excitement attending the King's return, there was a fear of
his being injured by witchcraft. The following extract from the Worcester
MS. curiously illustrates the wretched superstition , of those times. "1660:
May 14. — Four witches from Kidderminster brought to gaol in Worcester,
one the widow Robinson, and her two daughters and a man. The eldest
F

66 The King's Return.
anxious care and steady forethought. Never had
one of England's princes come to take possession of
his throne under such circumstances. A Civil War
was just over — the swelling of the storm had hardly
ceased. A party adverse to that which the King
regarded as his own was still in power. They were
expecting at his hand some favour for recent ser
vices, notwithstanding former offences. Presby
terians looked for comprehension in some wide
Establishment. Toleration was asked for by Inde
pendents, Baptists, Quakers, and more beside.
Roman Catholics, who had been friends to the
beheaded father and the exiled son, thought them
selves entitled to some consideration. The Episcopal
Church claimed the new Monarch as her own. Her
prelates and ministers were waiting to welcome him —
to open in the parish churches once more the beautiful
old Prayer Book, with its litanies and collects for
the King and Royal family. And they sought ex
clusive re-establishment. They would cast out all
Presbyterian intruders — they would tolerate no sec
taries. Here were perplexing circumstances to be
encountered — a difficult position to be filled, if ever
there was one. The Breda declaration had bound

daughter was said to say that if they had not been taken, the King should
never have come into England, and though he now doth come, yet he shall
not live long, but shall die as ill a death as they ; and that they would have
made corn like pepper. Many great charges against them, and little proved.
They were put to the ducking in the river, and they could not sink but
swim aloft."

The King's Return. 67
Charles to be considerate in dealing with religious
matters, to show respect for tender consciences. :
Comprehension, toleration were what he stood pledged
to promote. But how were the problems to be
solved ? He was a Constitutional King. He
was to rule through Parliaments. Should mad
bigotry arise and carry all before it in the Com
mons' House, as elsewhere, what was he to do ?
Should the ministry differ from him, how then ?
Such possibilities gazed at by a thoughtful man
might well have made him very anxious, if not
alarmed. We should sympathize with any con
scientious King under such circumstances. Charles
possessed certain intellectual and social qualities
which fitted him for the hard task his country set
him to perform, for he had plenty of common
sense, and was keen and clever, with a quick insight
into character, made still more keen by la'ge ,
acquaintance with humanity under very different
phases, and knew how to put unpleasant things in a
pleasant way, and could command considerable
powers of persuasion when he liked, and was
courteous, affable, and of winning manners. But
Charles was not thoughtful — not conscientious ; he
lacked the two things which alone could enable him
to turn his abilities and experience to good account
in this great crisis. The crown was to him a toy ;
the throne a chair of pleasure, at best, of pompous
state. The heedless, folly-loving prince takes
f 2

68 The King's Return.
himself quite out of the range of our sympathies,
and leaves us to condemn, without any compunction,
the breaking of his plighted faith and all the nar
rowness and intolerance incident on his return.
Monk started on his road to Dover May 22nd,
to be ready for the King.* Numbers of the
nobility and gentry wished to follow him, and, as a
prudent general, he arranged that they should
march orderly in companies, of differently coloured
uniform, under certain distinguished noblemen, who
were to be as captains of these loyal bands. They
had not fought any of Monk's battles ; but they
came in to swell Monk's triumph. And as the
General was standing at a window in the old city of
Canterbury, while they marched by gaily with green
scarfs and feathers, a friend said to him, " You had
none of these at Coldstream, General ; but grass
hoppers and butterflies never come abroad in
frosty weather, and, at the best, never abound in
Scotland." On Friday, the 25th, at one o'clock, Charles

* " 23rd. General Monk marched from London, with a gallant train of
attendants to meet the King. It is said that several fanatics intermingled
themselves with the troops, but were discovered, whereof three killed, and
some hurt, and three taken, who do confess the design was to pistol the
King. One (24th) to be put to the rack for discovery. It is said the King
escaped a plot of some Frenchmen at the Hague to pistol the King in his
coach, but discovered by one who was in presence once hearing them, and they
suspecting it, shot him as dead, but recovering to speak, discovered their inten
tions. From all such or any other, God ever preseive and pro'.ect his pious
Majesty." — Worcester MS.

The King's Return. 69

landed at Dover, and, with all his levity, his heart
must surely have been touched as the Castle guns
bid him welcome ; and another welcome met him
from the thousands on thousands who lined the
beach and looked down from the cliffs, waving their
hats, and giving the home-bound exile right hearty
cheers — such as only Englishmen ever could give.
The General, with his troops of nobles and gentry,
prostrated themselves before the Royal presence,
and some rushed forward to kiss the hem of his
garment, while he gracefully raised Monk from
his knees, and embraced the old soldier. A canopy
was ready to cover Charles as he walked from the
boat, and immediately the mayor and aldermen of
Dover came to make obeisance, while Mr. Reading,
their chaplain, presented the King with a large
gold-clasped Bible. A State coach was ready, in
which, next to his Majesty, sat the Duke of York,
and opposite, the Duke of Gloucester ; the General
and the Duke of Buckingham humbly seated them
selves in the boot. So they went two miles from
Dover, when they mounted on horseback, and thus
proceeded the rest of the way to Canterbury. There
speeches were made, and a gold tankard was pre
sented, and several persons were made knights,
and Monk was invested with the most noble Order
of the Garter. All went to the Cathedral on Sun
day ; and on Monday they proceeded to Rochester,
where a basin and ewer, silver-gilt, were loyally

The King's Return.

given, and graciously accepted. Between four and
five on Tuesday morning they started again, " the
militia force of Kent lining the way, and maidens
strewing herbs and flowers, and the several towns
hanging out white sheets." At Dartmouth, certain
regiments of cavalry presented an address. At
Blackheath, the old army stood drawn up to meet
the very Monarch against whom so many of them
had been fighting. At St. George's-in-the-Field,
the London Corporation waited in a tent to receive
their Sovereign ; the Lord Mayor presented his
sword, which was returned. Then the procession
slowly moved from Southwark, passed through the
Gates, and crossed along the pent-up alley of
London Bridge, and onwards through Cheapside,
Fleet-street, and the Strand, — the houses all the
way adorned with tapestry, and the train bands
lining the streets on one side, the livery companies,
in all their bravery, on the other. A troop of
3 co, in cloth of silver doublets, led the van.
Then came 1200 in velvet coats, with footmen
in purple, and another troop in buff and silver,
and rich green scarfs, followed these ; and then 150
in blue, with six trumpeters and seven footmen in
sea-green ; and a troop of 220, with footmen in grey,
and others, troop after troop, in like splendour.
The sheriffs' men in red cloaks, to the number cf
fourscore, with half-pikes— and hundreds of the
companies on horseback in black velvet with

The King's Return.

golden chains — followed in due order. Then, pre
ceded by kettle-drums and trumpets, came twelve
London ministers, their Genevan gowns and bands,
and Puritan hats, looking very " sad" amidst the
glaring colours. The Life Guards followed ; more
trumpeters appeared in satin doublets; and next
the City Marshal, with footmen in French green,
trimmed with white and crimson. The City Waits
were there, and then came the two sheriffs, and the
aldermen in scarlet, with footmen in red liveries,
and heralds and maces. The Lord Mayor carried
the sword of State bare, and close to him rode
Monk and the Duke of Buckingham before the
King, who was accompanied by his brothers, York
and Gloucester. The keen black eyes of Charles
gazing on the gathered thousands, who looked with
awe on that sallow countenance, surely gave forth
just then most gracious smiles. Troops with colours
brought up the rear ; and so they passed Whitehall,
under the very window, where eleven years before
had been enacted a far different spectacle.*
As soon as Charles II. was seated on the throne
of his fathers, addresses flowed in from all quarters,
welcoming him back. Many of these, no doubt,

* Rumours of a mutual accommodation between the King and the Presby
terians reached Worcestershire in this form — "The Presbyterians that went
to the King to move him for the settlement of Presbyters, received it with
such satisfaction that they craved his Majesty's pardon, and left him to settle
the Church and State as he pleased, his Majesty's chaplains and they giving
visits one to the other." — Worcester MS.

The Kings Return.

were just as sincere as were those presented to
Richard Cromwell, who had them packed in a box
as he was leaving Whitehall, remarking, that
" they were very precious, for they contained the
lives and liberties of the people of England."
But some were honest and truthful enough, and
from amongst a large bundle of these documents,
thrown aside at the time as useless, but now carefully
preserved and calendared in the State Paper Office,
we draw forth one of a characteristic description
from certain godly ministers in Exeter and Devon
shire :* —
" It hath pleased the all-wise God, for many years,
to make darkness His pavilion and His secret place ;
the Lord hath, with a strong mysteriousness, so
balanced affairs, that oftentimes His own people have
stood amazed and unresolved. Your Majesty, as
well as your kingdoms, have had great acquaintance
with God's variety of dispensation, and how that
the methods of His counsels have been past finding
out. Sometime you have seemed to be not far
from your Canaan, and then cast back. For a long
time the storm hath been so high, that it hath
driven you into the main sea again, and your
Majesty's subjects have all been tost from one wave
* "To his Most Excellent Majesty, Charles the Second, by the Grace of God,
King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c.
The most humble Address of several Ministers in the County of Devon and
City of Exeter, in the behalf of themselves and their Congregations. Most
dread Sovereign."

The Kings Return. 73

to another. But such, of late days, have been the
wonderful appearances of God towards both your
Royal self and the people, that (when we feared our
quarrels should be entailed and bound over to
posterity) we hope they all are miraculously taken
up in your Majesty's restoration to your Crown
and imperial dignity. It cannot be denied, but
that Providence was eminently exalted in the work
of your protection for many years ; but it seems to
avail to the efficacy of that grace, which hath pre
vented you from putting forth your hands unto
iniquity, and sinful compliances with the enemies of
the Protestant, and in disposing of the hearts of
your subjects to receive you with loyalty and affec
tion. It is the Lord that hath been active for you.
He hath given your Majesty more than you looked
for. A nation, yea, all your nations, are born to
you in one day. Their hearts are at your feet.
That which the Lord denied to your sword, He
hath given you without the expense of treasure or
blood. You sit not amongst your people with
your purple dyed in blood, or with the standard
lifted up, but God hath restored your Majesty to
your just rights, by such instruments, and in such
a way, that the excellency of the power might be
of Him. These doings of God" you have owned,
and we hope that you will still remember that sal
vation is of the Lord, and that it will be your prin
cipal study to endeavour to walk worthy of these

74 The King's Return.
mercies so accepted, and to render to the Lord,
according to the benefits you have received, seeing
the Lord hath given you more salvation than you
expected ; we beseech you not to give Him less
than He requires by way of gratitude, of which we
are the more confident, when we consider your Ma
jesty's gracious letters to both Houses of Parliament,
with the enclosed declaration, wherein we see your
zeal for the Protestant religion, with a pitiful heart
toward tender consciences, wherein we have assur
ance that the hail of your displeasure shall not fall
on any who have (upon the word of Moses)
betaken themselves to yourself as a sanctuary. And
now, most gracious Sovereign, what remains for us
to do ? We are not fit to advise you, but give us
leave to be your remembrancers before the Lord.
" May all your wills, ways, desires, opinions, reso
lutions, and endeavours be swallowed up in caring
for the trust committed to you by the Lord. Mav
our morning of hope rise to a clear day of joy. May
you be strengthened with all might, according to
God's glorious power. May God be your arm every
morning. May he steer all your affairs by His own
counsel, to His own glory, covering you still
under His own wing, and making you the most
accomplished and successful King that ever sat
on England's throne. May your Majesty's heart be
kept humble in the midst of all your royal dignities,
that you may not be lifted up by the great things

The King's Return.

/j

that God hath done for you and may by you.
May you never see the handwriting on the wall
that your kingdom is divided, but let this be your
motto, Not by power, not by might, but by the
Spirit. May you rejoice in this, that you have
better chariots and horsemen (in the many of your
subjects who are faithful, chosen, and true) than
other princes can boast of. And still, may your
tenderness be found that of a nursing father towards
the young and weak of the flock that cannot pace
it with their elder brethren, and yet are God's
anointed, nay, God's jewels, the apple of His eye,
His children, they for whom Christ died, and is
now an Intercessor. May these have the heart and
protection of the King ; and may you, like Mordecai
of old, seek the wealth of the people, and speak
peace to all the saints. These shall be some of the
daily devotions of — May it please your Majesty,
your most humble, constant, and faithful subjects."*
There is also " an address from the ministers of
London and Westminster," in which they refer to
his late declaration made to his loving subjects of
what degree or quality soever, containing a free and
general pardon to all that should within forty days
after the publication thereof take hold of the same.

(Signed) William Bartlett John Butler
Thomas Powel John Chishull
Lewis Stucley Theoph. Polwheill
Thomas Mall Thomas Welman.

76 The Kings Return.
" As also a free liberty to tender consciences, and
that no man shall be disquieted or called in question
for difference of opinion in .matters of religion
which do not disturb the peace of the kingdom."
The reference to the Breda declaration shows how
it sustained the hopes of the London ministers.
They did not, they said, wish for liberty longer
than they deserved it.
" And it is our desire," they add, " no longer to
sit under the shadow, and to taste the fruit of this
your Majesty's royal favour, than we approve our
selves followers of peace with all men, seeking the
peace of these kingdoms united under your Majesty's
Government, and abiding in our loyalty to your
royal person and submission to your laws."*
We add an extract from an address sent by the
ministers of Lancashire at a later period, as it shows
the cause of their delay, and their desire to wipe
out the stigma of disloyalty : —
" Although some of us cannot but be sensible of
those solemn obligations that we find our con-
* (Signed) Philip Nye Jo. Loder
Joseph Caryl Thomas Malony
Samuel Slater Tho. Walley
Richard Kentish William Greenehill
George Griffiths Matthew Barker
Matt. Mede Edward Pearce
John Hodges John Rowe
William Hook Robert Bragg
Thomas Brookes Jo. Baker
George Cokayn Seth Wood.
—State Papers. Domestic. Charles II. Vol. i. No. 36.

The Kings Return. 77
sciences charged with, and engaged inviolably by,
yet as being passionately desirous of peace, and
studious of healing the breaches of this poor shat
tered Church and State (wherein we humbly con
ceive your Majesty's great interest doth consist),
we do with great thankfulness acknowledge that
this, your royal act, hath proceeded from a spirit of
greatest princely prudence and moderation, and is a
very apt and excellent expedient for union and set
tlement. "Whereas, we, or some of us, have been inju
riously misrepresented to your Majesty, or some
eminent persons about you, and have also been
prejudiced and molested, as if we denied your
supremacy, or were disaffected to your Govern
ment (which hindered this our application to your
Majesty, although prepared, and which otherwise
had been much earlier, even with the first), we do,
in all humility, and with great earnestness, profess
before God and man, that we detest and abhor the
very thoughts of such unworthy principles, beha
viour, and expression, having always, according to
occasion, expressed and declared the contrary."*
As it is a principle of the old Constitution of
England that the Royal assent is essential to laws
made by Lords and Commons, the ordinances of

* (Signed) John Angier, Nathaniel Heywood, Henry Newcome, Nathaniel
Baxter, and many others. Peter Aspinwall signs himself " minister of Formby,
where now more people go openly to Mass than to our Church." — Vol. xxv. p. 29.

The Kings Return.

the Long Parliament, or any other orders for such
a comprehensive establishment as that of the Com
monwealth, were deemed null and void now that
the Constitution was assumed to be restored ir
its integrity by the King's return. The Episcopal
Church, it was contended, should at once come
into the possession of those rights which had been
taken away without warrant of Constitutional law.
Bishops should be restored, or elected to sees,
and take their places once more in the House of
Lords. The Liturgy ought to be the only form
allowed in the parish churches, and it was right that
the Universities should be brought to the state in
which they were before the introduction of irregu
larities by the Civil War. But while this legal
view of the case could not but have much force
with those who confined themselves to such a
view, the circumstances in which the nation found
itself were so peculiar, — certain existing usages had
prevailed so long, personal interests were so largely
involved in things as they were, public opinion was
so divided on ecclesiastical questions, there were so
many unepiscopal ministers labouring in different
parts of the country, and the party who be
friended them was still of such importance in the
State, — that things could not thus be shifted all
on a sudden, after the manner desired by the legal
upholders of the Episcopal Establishment. Even
they had to bend to the force of circumstances, and

The Kings Return. 79

allow matters to remain, to some extent, for a while,
in statu quo. There was a far deeper question —
with the history of which this book has chiefly to
do — i.e., whether there ought not to be some great
change made in English law with regard to eccle
siastical matters ; but at present we have only to
look at the state in which the Church of England
found itself immediately after the Restoration as a
Church claiming certain legal rights of which circum
stances prevented the immediate enforcement. At
once there was a compromise effected with regard
to livings. Those Episcopalian clergymen who
had been ejected by the Long Parliament, and still
survived, were on application restored to their rec
tories and vicarages ; but where no such claimants
existed, the incumbents, whether Presbyterians or
otherwise, were for the present allowed to retain
their benefices. Numerous petitions were pre
sented to the King by loyalist clergymen, in which
they recapitulated their sufferings with emphatic
minuteness ; one Paul Gosnold, of Fobbing, Essex,
stated how he had been fetched out of bed by
troopers, but had preached up Monarchy and Epis
copacy, and preached down rebellion and schism in
almost every sermon.* Other petitions were laid on
the table of the House of Lords from those who
, had suffered sequestration, praying to be reinstated.

* State Papers. Domestic. Charles IL, 1660. Vol. xii. 83

80 The King's Return.
As early as the 26th May, their lordships were
engaged on such matters, when we find Dr. Wood
claiming the rectory of Whickham, in the bishoprick
of Durham, and Cuthbert Stoote, the party then
in possession, was ordered to appear before the
House in three weeks, to show cause why the
appellant should not be restored to his incum
bency.* The dioceses in England at once had
bishops appointed ; but it was not until the
next Parliament, a year after the Restoration,
that they resumed their old places amongst the
Peers. The Liturgy was immediately introduced into
those parish churches where ministers avowed them
selves Episcopalians. It had been used in the
House of Lords two days after the proclama
tion of the King, and in the Royal Chapel soon
after the King's arrival ; and with great joy does
good Mr. Evelyn record, under date of the 8th
July, it " was publicly used in our churches whence
it had been for so many years banished." But in a
number of parishes, between the Restoration and
Bartholomew' s-day, 1662, ministers carried on wor
ship in their former manner, either observing the
Presbyterian Directory, or as Independents en
gaging only in free prayer. The Universities ap
pear to have been the first to come under a thorough
and sweeping change. The Fellows of New Col-
* Journals of the House.

The Kings Return.

lege, Oxford, who had been ejected during the
Commonwealth, appealed to the Lords, upon which,
to prevent the recurrence of such troublesome ap
plications, it was ordered that the Chancellors of
both Universities should take care that their col
leges should be governed according to their respec
tive statutes, and that those who had unjustly been
put out of fellowships and offices should be rein
vested with their honours and emoluments.* And
so many were in consequence expelled from the
Universities, that, though all the ejected Fellows of
colleges were restored without exception, there were
still vacancies left, for the filling up of which the
honours of the University were offered to almost
any that would declare their aversion to Presby-
terianism, and their attachment to Episcopacy, f
By the Act for confirming and restoring ministers,
while present incumbents, in the absence of other
claimants, were suffered for the present to remain,
every clergyman ejected under the Commonwealth
* Journals of the House, Monday, June 4th. Throughout this year
many joyous references to the restoration of Episcopal worship appear in
newspapers and diaries. Take the following example from the Worcester MS. :
— "Sept. 2, 1660. Mem. — There was a very great assembly at morning
prayer by six in the morning in the Cathedral of Worcester, and at nine of the
clock there appeared again at prayers all the gentry, many citizens, and others
numerous, and after prayers, Dr. Dodswell, a new prebend, did preach the first
sermon, and the Dean and prebends being to resettle the Church in its service,
and also to repair the same by degrees, which hardly 10,000/. will put the whole
fabric in that order it was before the barbarous civil wars." — Worcester MS.
t This is Neal's statement, and it seems borne out by what he says, and
his references to Kennet and Wood. — "History of the Puritans," iv. p. 267.
G

82 The King's Return.
was reinstated, if he had not been implicated in the
death of the King, or discountenanced infant
baptism.* This brought back a number of dispersed
Episcopalians, and some hundreds of Puritan
ministers were displaced ; but, as the number
afterwards ejected by the Bartholomew Act
shows, a multitude of Puritans for the present
retained their livings.
It is easier to imagine than describe the excite
ment that must have attended this rapid change.
In the course of about three months it took
place. And beyond the parties immediately con
cerned, a deep feeling of sympathy would flow on
both sides. Congregations would bewail the loss
of faithful and attached ministers, and accustomed
to their spiritual teaching, would, in many cases,
deplore the contrast presented in their new rector ;
while, again, many a country squire and his
dependent peasantry would rejoice in the restoration
of the Prayer Book, and the genial-hearted vicar
who had been exiled from his church for some
dozen years. Not without some confusion did the
reintroduction occur ; for example, in the town of
Halifax, when the Presbyterian Mr. Bentley was
beginning service in the Church in his usual manner,
the Episcopal Dr. Marsh, the old vicar, made his
appearance at the door with the Prayer Book under
his arm, and marching up the aisle, insisted upon the '
* 12 Charles IL, chap. 17.

The King's Return. 83
intruder vacating his desk in the presence of
all the people, and then, clothed in his surplice, he
read the prayers, and the walls of the edifice once
more resounded with the Litany and the Te Deum.
Five ministers were installed at Oxford with bell-
ringing and rejoicing, and were met by many of the
students.* Texts, after the fashion of the day,
were taken, expressive of the feelings which were
natural to the occasion. Mr. Johnson, on his
return to a church at Manchester, discoursed upon
the sufferings of Episcopalians from the passage,
"The ploughers ploughed upon my back : they
made long their furrows. The Lord is righteous :
He hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked."
The vicar of Ecclesfield, in milder tone, dis
coursed on the words, " He that goeth forth and
weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless
come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with
him." Mr. Nathaniel Heywood at this time lost
his appointment as an itinerant missionary for Lan
cashire, with an income of fifty pounds a year, when
a wicked Cavalier taunted the Puritan with his Resto
ration text, " Let him take all."f Great joy filled
many a clergyman and his family on recovering pos
session of the parsonage, with its familiar rooms, and
garden, and glebe ; and one of them made the follow
ing entry in his parish register : " Memorandum —
* State Papers, 1660, viii. 64.
t Hunter's "Life of Oliver Heywood," pp. 125, 126.
G 2

84 The King's Return.
That John Whitford, rector of Asten, alias Ashton,
in the county of Northampton, was plundered and
sequestered by a committee of rebels sitting at
Northampton, for his loyalty to his gracious
Sovereign, of blessed memory, Charles the First,
in the year of our Lord 1645, and was restored to
his said rectory in the twelfth year of the reign of
Charles II. , in the year 1660." One can imagine the
bitter feeling towards his predecessor with which he
wrote these words, and the triumphant flourish of his
pen as he signed himself "John Whitford, Rector."
As it is a great mistake to suppose that the eject
ment of the Puritan clergy did not commence till
the Act of Uniformity was passed, it is not less so
to imagine that then also commenced the reign of
persecution. In 1660 there was published in a tract,
still to be seen in the British Museum, " a collection
of so much of the statutes in force as pertains to
the taking of the oaths of allegiance and supremacy,
to the uniformity of prayer and administration
of sacraments, and the punishment of those who
obstinately refuse to come to church, and the penal
ties for being present at religious conventicles."*
* The laws against dissent before the Restoration were as follows. The
Canon laiv prohibited separation from the Church under pain of excommunication.
The same penalty was threatened against all who affirmed that ministers not sub
scribing to the form of worship in the Communion Book, " may truly take unto
them the name of another church not established by law," or that religious assem
blies, other than such as by the law of the land are allowed, may righteously
challenge the name of true churches, or that it is lawful for any sort of
ministers or lay persons to join together to make ecclesiastical rules or consti-

The King's Return. 85
Such old laws in the statute book unrepealed
afforded an armoury of weapons with which the High
Church parishioners and magistrates could effectually
torment their Puritan ministers and neighbours. It
would be unfair to attribute to those who were at
the head of the Government the direct origin of the
numerous persecutions which preceded the Bartho
lomew tide of 1662, though there must have been
very much connivance on their part, if not something
more direct, in the way of injustice. Troublesome
people, no doubt, there were, who provoked perse
cution by their irritating conduct ; and some, by
refusing to take the oath of allegiance, though on
religiously conscientious grounds, because they did

tutions without the King's authority. No minister without licence of the
Bishop, could presume to hold meetings for sermons. As all conventicles
were hurtful to the state of the Church, no ministers or other persons were to
meet together in any private house or elsewhere for ecclesiastical purposes,
under pain of excommunication. (Canons 9, 10, 11, 12, 72, 73.) As to
Statute laiv, the t Eliz. c. ¦¦., required all persons to resort to church every
Sunday and days ordained as holidays. The penalty of disobedience was a
shilling fine for every offence, and Church censure. The 23 Eliz. c. ,, made
the fine twenty pounds a month, and the offender who persevered for twelve
months was to be bound with two sureties in two hundred pounds at least to
good behaviour until he conformed. To keep a schoolmaster who did not
attend church, was to be liable to a fine of ten pounds a month. The 29
Eliz. c. 6, empowered the 0.ueen, by process out of the Exchequer, to seize all
the goods, and two parts of the lands, of offenders upon default of paying fine.
The 35 Eliz. c. 1, made the frequenting of conventicles punishable by
imprisonment. Those who after conviction would not submit, were to abjure
the realm. Refusal to abjure was felony, without benefit of clergy. " Pro
vided that every person that shall abjure by this act, or refuse to abjure, being
thereunto required as aforesaid, shall forfeit to the Queen all his goods and
chattels for ever, and his lands during life." See also 3 Jac. 4., 21 Jac. 4.

86 The Kings Return.

not admit Charles to be the Head of the Church,
might seem to put themselves in a position of poli
tical disloyalty ; but many, who could not be
accused on either of those grounds, had to suffer
severe penalties for their ecclesiastical opinions and
proceedings. In Wales the fire was hottest, and
first kindled. Even before the King had landed at
Dover, the Episcopal party was busy sending forty
Quakers to Cardiff gaol, and twenty-eight to Den
bigh and Flint. Jenkin Jones, and several of his
congregation, were imprisoned at Caermarthen,
and the Montgomery gaol was so full of Indepen
dents, Baptists, and Quakers, that the governor
had to pack them into garrets. Vavasor Powell,
with some exaggeration perhaps, tells pitiful
stories of sufferers in May and June, 1660 :
dragged out of their beds, and driven in summer
heat, with blistered feet, to bridewells, or driven
like stray cattle into the parish pound, and there
locked up — while their drivers were drinking at the
public-house, — or dragged to the quarter sessions'
hall in chains.* If violence with so wide and foul a
sweep did not rage on this side the border, there were
confessors for conscience sake numerous enough,
and some of more distinguished name than the
poor Welsh victims. Andrew Parsons, a worthy
preacher in Shropshire, was accused of saying that

Rees' " Nonconformity in Wales," p. in. A careful, trustworthy book,

The Kings Return. 87
»
" the King was like the devil." But the good
man had only made the trite remark, perhaps
under the circumstances not very judicious, that
" the devil is like a king who courts the soul, and
speaks fair till he has gotten into the throne." For
this Parsons was afterwards tried at Shrewsbury.
Still more inexcusable was the treatment of a man
of rare piety, and far better known, Oliver Hey
wood, who was insolently harassed for a twelve
month with citations to appear before the Con
sistory Court at York, and blamed by one Stephen
Ellis, a parishioner of his, zealous for the intro
duction of the Prayer Book in the Parochial
chapel of Coley.* Philip Henry, whose life in its
holy wonders may be well said to surpass the
popular Commentary of Matthew his son, was not
left to preach in quiet, but was presented in Sep
tember, 1660, at the Flint assizes, for not reading
the Common Prayer. Even the great John Howe
was troubled with accusations of treason on ac
count of what he had said in the pulpit ; and it
is not generally remembered that it was long before
Uniformity, and Conventicle, and Five Mile Acts,
that John Bunyan was thrown into Bedford gaol.
As early as November 12, 1660, he was appre
hended by warrant from Francis Wingate, a Bed-

* Mr. Hunter, who relates the facts with judicial calmness, allows " the
insolent humour " of the parties opposed to Heywood. — " Life," p. 1 29.

88 The Kings Return.
fordshire justice, under one of those statutes
already named. And to return for a moment
to a comparison with the number and extreme
suffering of the Welsh brethren, we may observe
that in England there were plenty of Quakers, and
Anabaptists, as they were called, crowded into the
loathsome prisons of those days, and barbarously
treated for what, at the worst, were only the wild
vagaries of an innocent enthusiasm.
In the British Museum Collection of Pamphlets
for [660, there is " A Fanatick's Letter, sent out
of the Dungeon of the Gate House Prison, West
minster, to all his Brethren in the Three King
doms at Liberty, and also in the several Gaols and
Dungeons therein, that are under all the Principles
of the Doctrines of Christ, by Henry Adis, a Bap
tized Believer, undergoing the Name of a Free-
wilier, and also most ignominiously, by the
tongue of Infamy, called a Fanatic or a Madman."
The writer complains of false charges, frequent
searchings of his house, and that weekly news
mongers, falsely, ingeniously, and most igno
miniously, in weekly pamphlets, branded him and
his brethren with "that most stigmatical title of
traitors."

Chapter III.

*&& WLovmtzv Stouse Italaraiioit*
^RESBYTERIAN ministers were ap
pointed Royal Chaplains, at the in- '
stance, it is said, of the Presbyterian
Earl of Manchester, then Lord Cham
berlain. They were Dr. Reynolds,
Dr. Spurstow, Dr. Wallis, Dr. Manton, Dr. Bates,
Mr. Calamy, Mr. Ash, Mr. Case, Mr. Baxter, and
Mr. Woodbridge. Of these, Reynolds, Spurstow,
Calamy, and Baxter, alone, had the honour of
preaching in the royal presence. Baxter tells us
that there was no profit connected with the dis
tinction. " I suppose," he remarks, " never a man
of them all ever received or expected a penny for
the salary of their places."
This worthy man was for immediately turning
the influence which his chaplaincy gave him to some
account in promoting the cdncord of the Church,
and the comprehension within its bosom of those

90 The Worcester House Declaration.
who differed in subordinate points. He suggested
to the Earl of Manchester, and Lord Broghill,
afterwards Earl of Orrery, a conference for agree-
, ment or coalition.* Calamy, Reynolds, and Ash
concurred with him, and arrangements were made
in the month of June for these Presbyterian chap
lains to meet the King, with Clarendon, now Lord
Chancellor, the Earl of St. Albans, and others,
at the house of the Lord Chamberlain. Baxter,
with characteristic candour, earnestness, and pathos,
made a long address to the King, such, probably,
as his Majesty had never in his life heard before,
though he had met with plain dealing in Scotland.
The honest minister besought the royal favour for
the ending of differences, urging that it would be a
blessed work to promote holiness and concord,
and that he hoped " the King would never undo
the good which Cromwell and others had done,
because they were usurpers, but rather in that
respect go beyond them ;" and with exquisite
* Amongst the Baxter MSS., there is a note, apparently referring to the
period now before us. Baxter said: — The late Archbishop Usher and he
' had in an hour's time agreed on the most easy terms. These words were
printed. Episcopal divines called on him to know what the terms were, i.e.,
Dr. Gauden, Dr. Gouldson, Dr. Helen, Dr. Bernard, Sec. They expressed
great delight, and were willing to make abatements necessary thereto. Some
men of greater power stept in and frustrated all. Mr. Calamy thought the
best way was to interest and engage the King on the matter. It was men-
. tioned to him accordingly. Calamy consulted the London ministers, and it
was agreed that Usher's reduction should be offered as a ground of union.
This was laid before the King with other proposals, but the Lord Chancellor
would not allow the matter to be taken into consideration.

The Worcester House Declaration. 91
simplicity and a noble truthfulness he went on to
remind Charles that common people judged of
governors by their conduct, and that they take
them to be best who do them the most good. He
declared that he was not speaking on behalf of a
particular party, but for the interests of religion ;
and finished by saying, " that differences might be
treated by making only necessary things a ground
of union, by the exercise of Church discipline
against sin, by not casting out faithful ministers,
nor obtruding unworthy ones." The whole address
was pitched in a high key of religious earnestness,
quite beyond the sympathy of Charles ; but, with
his usual politeness, he professed to be glad at any
approach to agreement ; said, sensibly enough, that
there ought to be an abating on both sides, and a
meeting midway ; adding, he was resolved to see it
brought to pass — that, indeed, he would draw
parties together himself. Upon this, good Mr.
Ash burst into tears. The chaplains were requested
to draw up proposals to be considered in a future
conference with Episcopalian divines. To this
Baxter consented, with the understanding that he
and his brethren could only speak for themselves,
and not as the commissioned representatives of
other ministers. He also craved that if they offered
concessions on the one side, the Episcopalians
should come prepared to offer concessions on the
other, which the King promised should be arranged.

92 The Worcester House Declaration.
Next, there were meetings of the London brethren
at Zion College. Baxter complains of the great
inconvenience of too many actors in these debates,
" for that which seemed the most convenient ex
pression to one seemed inconvenient to another,"
and that those who agreed in matter had much ado
to agree in words ; but at last papers of proposals
were drawn up. What the ministers stipulated for
was, that their flocks should have liberty of worship,
and not be exposed to scorn and abuse ; that they
should have godly pastors ; that none should be
admitted to the Lord's Supper but on a credible
profession of faith ; and that care should be taken
to secure the sanctification of the Lord's Day. As
for other matters, they professed not to dislike
Episcopacy, " or presidency balanced with a due
commixture of Presbyters ; " and then went on to
complain of the extent of Episcopal dioceses in
England ; of the bishops acting through officials,
of their having the sole power of ordination and
government, and of their exercising arbitrary power.
The remedy was in the adoption of a scheme such
as Archbishop Usher proposed — i.e., a suffragan
bishop in each rural deanery, yearly diocesan synods,
and a national synod once every three years to
receive appeals frorn the inferior courts ; in short, a
blending of Episcopacy and Presbyterianism toge
ther. They sought also a revision of the Liturgy,
and liberty as to kneeling at the Sacrament, bow-

The Worcester House Declaration. 93
ing at the name of Jesus, using the sign of the
Cross, and wearing the surplice.
When Baxter and his friends went to Court, ex
pecting to find the Episcopalians prepared with
concessions, as the King had promised, he " saw
not a man of them, nor any papers from them."
Still Charles was very gracious, and renewed his
professions (" I must not call them promises," says
Baxter) : — he would after all bring the Bishops
together, and get them to yield something, he
seemed pleased with the papers, and said he was
glad the Presbyterians were for a liturgy. But,
instead of any conference, a written answer was
given by the Prelates, and communicated on the 8th
July, in which they conceded little or nothing, but
chiefly endeavoured to confute all that had been
said on the other side. Respecting certain cere
monies, they deferred to the King's judgment what
liberty should be allowed, and though they were
not against a revision of the Liturgy by discreet
persons, they did not think that it would do good,
but rather " encourage unquiet spirits to make fur
ther demands." A long defence of the Presby
terian document, and a warm remonstrance was re
turned by the Presbyterians, without any effect.
Some of Baxter's companions were for giving up
further attempts in despair, but he, though not at
all hopeful, was determined to persevere for reasons
which deserve to be remembered. After saying they

94 The Worcester House Declaration.
were " commanded, if possible, as much as lieth
in them, to live peaceably with all men ;" that
failure in these negotiations was not certain ; that
it was the only thing remaining for them to do ;
" that for their parts they were not formidable to
the Bishops even if their numbers had been five times
as great as theirs, because they abhorred all thoughts
of sedition and rebellion," he nobly ended in
these words : — " I looked to the end of all these
actions, and the chief thing that moved me, next to
the pleasing of God and conscience, is, that when we
are all silenced and persecuted — and the history of
these things shall be delivered to posterity — it will
be a just blot upon us if we suffer as refusing to
sue for peace, and it" will be our just vindication
when it shall appear, that we humbly petitioned for
and earnestly pursued after peace, and came as near
them for the obtaining it as Scripture and reason
will allow us to do, and were ready to do anything
for peace except to sin and damn our souls."* " Let
God be judge between you and me," were Oliver
Cromwell's words when he dismissed his last intract
able Parliament, thus appealing to Heaven and
posterity. To the like issue, Richard Baxter was
prepared to remit his controversy with the High
Churchmen of his age.
On the 4th September, Clarendon sent to the

* " Life and Times," p. 259.

772<? Worcester House Declaration. 95
Presbyterian divines a draft of declaration for cer
tain indulgence and liberty as to religion. Baxter
thought that in the form sent it would not serve to
heal differences ; he therefore wrote an elaborate
reply, which was altered at the suggestion of Pres
byterian friends. It took the shape of a petition to
the King, and was of such immoderate length, and
so full of ecclesiastical discussion, that the idea of
Charles reading and pondering such a document is
perfectly amusing. None but a good and guileless
man like Baxter could write such a paper ; but he
showed that he was sadly wanting in that prudence,
tact, and political sagacity, of which there was so
much amongst those anxious to guide matters in
another direction.
Clarendon, however, proposed a meeting at
Worcester House, in the Strand, where he was
then living ; and there we find assembled in the
month of October a party of very distinguished
persons. It was on the 22nd of the month that
Clarendon's conference occurred. It was a time of
great excitement in London, for the execution of
the regicides had just taken place, and through the
bravery with which some of them had suffered there
was a reaction of feeling, and the people were more
than satiated with the bloody spectacles. There were
present the Dukes of Albemarle and Ormond, the
Earls of Manchester and Anglesea, and Lord
Hollis, with the King himself, on whom they were

96 The Worcester House Declaration.
in waiting. Six Bishops, too, were there — London,
Worcester, Salisbury, Durham, Exeter, Lichfield
and Coventry. Presently were ushered into the
room — some grand apartment in the seventeenth-
century style, with costly furniture and decorations,
for Clarendon, lived like a prince — a band of Pres
byterian divines,whose Puritan habits would contrast
with the costume of the courtiers and the Bishops —
Dr. Reynolds, Dr. Spurstow, Dr. Wallis, and Dr.
Manton, Mr. Ash, and Mr. Baxter. They would
be eyed oddly by the pages as they retired and shut
the door. No disputing could be allowed.
The Lord Chancellor was to read over his
revised declaration, and the two parties were to
declare as he went on their approbation or dis
approval. The particulars of the interview are
too long to be repeated. After much conversation
on the subject of Episcopal power, and many com
ments on Clarendon's declaration and re-ordination,
the Lord Chancellor drew out another paper, say
ing, " the King had been petitioned by Inde
pendents and Anabaptists for toleration," and that
he therefore proposed to insert in his declaration,
that others be permitted to meet for religious
worship, provided they did not disturb the public
peace. There was a pause. " The Presbyterians all
perceived," says Baxter, " that it would secure the
liberty of Papists." Dr. Wallis whispered to him
not to speak, but to leave it to the Bishops to reply.

The Worcester House Declaration. 97

But Baxter could not refrain from breaking silence.
" I only said this," he tells us, " that this reverend
brother, Dr. Gunning, even now speaking against
sects, had named the Papists and the Socinians.
For our parts we desired not favour to ourselves
alone, and rigorous severity we desired against
none ! As we humbly thanked his Majesty for his
indulgence to ourselves, so we distinguish the
tolerable parties from the intolerable. For the
former, we humbly crave just lenity and favour ; but
for the latter, such as the two sorts named before
by that reverend brother, for our parts we cannot i
make their toleration our request. To which his
Majesty said, that there were laws enough against
the Papists ; and I replied, that we understood the
question to be, whether those laws should be
executed on them or not. And so his Majesty
brake up the meeting of that day."*
Baxter went home dejected ; but only two or
three days afterwards he was walking in the City,
when, amidst the noise and din of carts and coaches,
and the strange confusion of the then London

* ''Life and Times," P. II. p. 277. While the business of the Declaration
was going on, there was another kind of business proceeding elsewhere. The first
batch of regicides were tried, condemned, and executed in the month of October.
The Worcester Diarist relates these severities, commencing with an inci
dent characteristic of the King, who did not, to his other bad qualities, add a fond
ness for shedding blood : — " Oct. 3rd, 1660 : The King gone down to Ports
mouth to see his navy, &c, but some say to be absent from the clamour of
petticoats concerning putting to death the late King's triers and judges for
mercy in the manner of their punishment." H

98 The Worcester House Declaration.
cries, he heard a boy bawling at the top of his voice
that he had for sale copies of " the King's new
declaration." Baxter at once bought one of the
rough-printed sheets, and briskly stepped into a
shop to con the contents with those bright hawk
like eyes of his. He was vastly delighted to find
certain amendments suggested by himself and others
at Worcester House introduced into the document.
This important manifesto commended in the
highest terms the Church of England, and also ac
knowledged the moderation of the Presbyterians (as
not opposed to episcopacy or a liturgy), but excused
for the present the not calling together a synod of
divines, because party feeling ran so high. It spoke
of episcopacy as the best support of religion, but
placed the ecclesiastical power in subordination
to the civil. It promised that none should be
appointed to sees but men of learning, virtue, and
piety. It admitted the too large extent of dioceses,
and promised the appointment of suffragan bishops.
The censures of the Church were not to be inflicted
without the advice and assistance of presbyters.
The Liturgy was to be revised by an equal number
of divines on both sides, until which revision none
should be punished for neglecting it. Subscription
was not necessary for ordination or degrees. It
finished by renewing the declaration from Breda,
that no one should be disquieted for differences of
religious opinion. The High Presbyterians were

The Worcester House Declaration. 99

not satisfied because episcopacy was allowed and
the Covenant ignored,* but moderate Presbyterians
were highly pleased. In accordance with the liberal
tone of the declaration, and as soon as it was pub
lished^ bishoprics were offered to Reynolds, Baxter,
and Calamy, and other distinguished preferments
to other distinguished men. Reynolds accepted
the see of Norwich, Baxter refused a mitre, from
scruples peculiar to himself, but he by no means
blamed Reynolds for what he did. Calamy and
others waited to see the declaration passed into a
law. On the 9th of November, a fortnight after
the declaration was published, royal letters were
issued requiring the University of Cambridge

* " Old Mr. Jackson, a very worthy man," Baxter tells us, " and Mr.
Crofton spake against returning thanks to the King, not that they were not
truly thankful, but because their thanks would signify an approbation of
bishops and archbishops, which they had covenanted against. This I under
took to confute by proving that the bishops and archbishops in the King's
declaration are not ejusdem species with what they were before, and that there
is the same name, but not the same thing." — " Life and Times," p. 284.
*j- Baxter says that on the day the King's declaration came out, he was asked
to accept a bishopric. It is curious to find him when he refused it, proposing
to Clarendon a number of names from which to choose some one, instead of
himself. Baxter at this time had the reputation of being " intimate with the
Lord Chancellor Hyde," and accordingly his influence was solicited on behalf
of ministers in trouble. Adam Martindale tells us that when his own name
was sent up to the Privy Council, Baxter, at the solicitation of a friend, spoke
on his behalf to Clarendon, who " did so rattle one of the Deputy Lieutenants
and so expostulate with the Earl of Derby, that Martindale was released." The
account is very amusing, and shows Martindale's exultation at his enemies
being outwitted in their application to the Privy Council. The story indicates
that Clarendon at that time wished to show favour to the Presbyterians.
— " The Life of Adam Martindale," printed for the Chetham Society, p. 153.
H 2

100 The Worcester House Declaration.
to confer the diploma of D.D. on three eminent
Presbyterian ministers — William Bates, Thomas
Jacombe, and Robert Wilde, the King being fully
satisfied " of their integrity and loyalty."* The
City ministers prepared an address of thanks to the
King. " We crave leave to profess," they said,
" that though all things in this frame of government
be not exactly suited to our judgments, yet your
Majesty's moderation has so great an influence on
us, that we shall to our utmost endeavour the heal
ing of the breaches, and promoting the peace and
union of the Church. We would beg of your
Majesty, with all humility upon our knees, that
re-ordination and the surplice in colleges might not
be imposed, and we hope God will incline your
Majesty's heart to gratify us in these our desires."
The address was presented on the 16th of
November, by Mr. Samuel Clark, of Bennet Fink,
who headed the brethren, and was noted as a man
" of great plain-heartedness and sincerity." The few
words he uttered as he knelt in the presence chamber
with the address in his hand, are preserved by Calamy,
who perhaps had often heard his grandfather repeat
them. " Your Majesty's loyal subjects, the minis
ters in and about the City of London, have com
manded us humbly to present this their congra
tulatory acknowledgment to your Royal Majesty
* " Kennet's Register," p. 308.

The Worcester House Declaration. 101
for your gracious condescension in your Majesty's
late declaration concerning ecclesiastical affairs."*
Before we notice the fate of this declaration
when it came before the Commons' Parliament, let
us ascertain the spirit which marked the proceed
ings of that assembly. We have seen already the
way in which they restored the King, and the en
thusiastic spirit of loyalty in which they arranged for
his return. Yet' in their early sittings something of
the Commonwealth temper appeared in the reproof
of Mr. Lenthall ; nor was the preponderance of the
Presbyterian party without some marked indica
tion in the earliest appointments of preachers before
the House. But it is instructive to watch the his
tory of Parliament through the brief period of its
duration, and to mark how the Presbyterian ele
ment became weaker and weaker in its political
influence. The treatment of the men who had
been foremost in what the Royalists called the
Great Rebellion, affords a critical instance. At
first, and for some little time after Mr. Speaker's
vindication of the war, the majority were for a
large measure of oblivion. Not more than seven
persons were to be excepted from the Act of

* The declaration was thankfully received in Wales, and as late as
April 29 of the following year, we find Samuel Jones, of Brynllwarch, telling
Baxter, "A blessed respite His Majesty's, declaration afforded us, though
against the hearts of those amongst whom we live." — Baxter MSS., vol. iii.
No. 38.

102 The Worcester House Declaration.
Indemnity, and they were certain of the late King's
judges. But the number was speedily increased to
twenty-nine. Then it was decided that twenty
names should be excepted, and no more. This was
carried by two divisions — the first, 160 to 131 ; the
second, 153 to 135. Afterwards, all the King's
judges, who had not rendered themselves up accord
ing to a late proclamation, were to be excluded
from the Act of Oblivion — a point carried without
any division at all. The Lords made the Bill more
severe. They determined to except all who had
signed Charles' death-warrant, or were sitting when
sentence was pronounced, whether they had sub
mitted since the Restoration or not ; and to these
regicides, as they were called, the Lords added the
names of Hacker, Vane, Lambert, Haselrig, and
Axtell. Yet they struck out a clause reserving
Lenthall and others for future punishment. The
Commons had been slow with the Act of Indemnity,
though the salvation of many of their old friends
was involved in it. The Lords were slower still,
and both had to be hastened on by royal messages.
When the Bill, with its added severity, came down
from the Lords to the Commons, the latter resisted
the sweeping amendment for excluding the King's
judges from the royal amnesty. It was pleaded
by the Commons, that such an exclusion would
violate the promise from Breda, and the terms of
the recent proclamation. There were repeated con-

The Worcester House Declaration. 103

ferences between the Houses, reported at length in
the journals, and it is visible enough that the spirit
of resistance on the part of the Commons to the
vindictiveness of the Lords gradually gave way,
and that " the violent royalists were gaining
ground amongst them." The Commons entered
into a compromise. Most of the judges were
excepted; others were reserved for lesser penal
ties. About twenty, as well as those who had pro
nounced sentence of death in the high court of
justice, were incapacitated for any office, civil or
military. The Commons also left Hacker and
Axtell to their fate, who were deeply concerned in
the King's death, and they sacrificed Vane and
Lambert, who could not be fairly accused of that
offence. They did, however, join in an address that
the lives of these Republicans might be spared, and
they saved Haselrig.* But great and rapid as was
the growth of vindictive loyalty in the Convention
Parliament, it rose to much more alarming dimen
sions, and assumed a perfectly frantic mien, when,
* See the Commons' Journals, May 14, June 5, 6, 1, 8, 30. The
Lords' Journals, July 20, 27. Commons' Journals, Aug. 10, 13, 17, 23,
24. Hallam gives a correct synopsis of these proceedings, and we have
ventured to adopt a few of his expressions. — "Constitutional History," ii. p. 5.
In the Conference on the 23rd of August, Clarendon told the Commons
that his Majesty, who was duly sensible of the great wound he received on
that fatal day (the day of his father's execution) when the news of it came to
the Hague, bore but one part of the tragedy, for the whole world was sensible
of it. And particularly instanced that a woman at the Hague, hearing of it,
"fell down dead with astonishment."

104 The Worcester House Declaration.
after reassembling in November, the Commons
" resolved that the carcases of Oliver Cromwell,
Henry Ireton, John Bradshaw, and Thomas Pride,
whether buried in Westminster Abbey or elsewhere,
be, with all expedition, taken up, and drawn upon
a hurdle to Tyburn, and there hanged up in their
coffins for some time, and after that buried under
the said gallows." This was on the 4th December,
and the superintendence of the execution of the
sentence was then entrusted to the Sergeant-at-
Arms. On the 8th, however, the Honourable
House added, that the Sergeant was to take care
" that this order be put in effectual execution by
the common executioner for the county of Middlesex,
and all such others to whom it shall respectively
appertain."* To turn now, for a moment, to the eccle
siastical proceedings of the same assembly. A
Bill for confirming possession of livings to the
present incumbents, in case of the death of their law
ful predecessors, was read a first time on the 9th
May, and reached a second reading on the 16th,
when it was committed. This was of course
favourable to the interests of the Presbyterian
clergy who held benefices in the Church. It must
be remembered, however, as stated before, that the
same bill restored every ecclesiastical person to his

* See Commons' Journals under the dates given.

The Worcester House Declaration. 105
benefice on the 22nd of December, who had been
dispossessed, provided he had not in any way been
implicated in the trial or execution of the King, or
declared his judgment against infant baptism.* He
was also authorized to claim any arrears of fifths
due to him. Presbyterian anti-papal zeal made its
appearance on the 24th of May, when a declaration
was reported for enjoining Papists to depart twenty
miles from the City of London and Westminster,
and read a second time. On the 26th Mr. Pryn
made a report, touching the quiet possession of
ministers, schoolmasters, and other ecclesiastical
persons, in' sequestered livings, until they, on order,
should be legally evicted ; and two days afterwards
allusion was made in a further report from the same
member, to several riots which had " been com
mitted, and forcible entries made upon the posses
sions of divers persons, ecclesiastical and temporal ;"
when an order to prevent such disturbances in
future was recommitted to be put into the form of
a proclamation " to be offered to the King." The
interests of the Nonconforming clergy were of
course consulted in these proceedings, and the
Lords, on the 29th, concurred in a proclamation,
the form of which appears in the journals of the
House for that day. On the 30th June complaint
was made that a paper had been printed in his

* See the Act 12 Caroli Sec. Reg. chap. xvii. clause 4.

106 The Worcester House Declaration.
Majesty's name " authorizing an uniformity of the
Book of Common Prayer to be used throughout
the realm, superscribed c C. R.,' and subscribed,
Given at our Court the 5th of March." Also that
" a form of prayer for the 28th June, and a pro
testation of the Bishops against proceedings during
their absence were connected with that book." All
this the Commons referred to a committee, who
were to ascertain how these papers came to be
printed, and by what authority. Uneasiness at Epis
copal zeal was apparent in these proceedings ; and
counter zeal in the opposite direction was shown
by the introduction of a Bill for the maintenance of
the true reformed Protestant religion, and for the
suppression of Popery, superstition, profaneness,
and other disorders and innovations in worship and
ceremonies. This Bill was read twice ; and at the
second reading, on the 6th July, it was resolved,
" that a grand committee of the whole House be
appointed for religion." In all these proceedings
Presbyterian influence is plain ; it was then making
vigorous attempts to preserve the rights of Noncon
formist ministers, and to resist a return to Epis
copal uniformity.
But soon afterwards there are signs of change.
The tide of ecclesiastical affairs in the House
turned. Sharp, agent for the Scotch, in a letter
to Douglas, of Edinburgh, dated July 7th, says,
" Some yesterday spoke in the House for Episco-

The Worcester House Declaration. 107

pacy, and Mr. Bamfield, speaking against it, was
hissed down. The English lawyers have given in
papers to show that the Bishops have not been
evicted by law. The cloud is more dark than was
apprehended. The Presbyterians are like to be
ground between two millstones. The Papists and
fanatics are busy." While Sharp uttered these
laments, long and stormy debates were going on
in the Grand Committee about religion. The
members " sat an hour in the dark before candles
were suffered to be brought in, and then they were
twice blown out ; but the third time they were
preserved, though with great disorder."* On the
20th July, Mr. Charlton reported from the com
mittee an opinion that the King's Majesty should
be desired to call such a number of divines as his
Majesty should think fit, to advise concerning reli
gious affairs, and that the Grand Committee should
forbear sitting any more till the 23rd of October.
Before that time, Parliament adjourned. This
measure for the settlement of religion dropped, and
with it the prospect of Presbyterian comprehension.
Indeed, in the month of August, some of the Epis
copal party were so conscious of increasing strength
as to propose that all ministers ordained by
Presbyters should, without re-ordination by a

* "Kennet's Register," p. 200. " Woodrow's Introduction to the History
of Scotland," p. xiv.

108 The Worcester House Declaration.
Bishop, be expelled from their livings within a
month. The review of these proceedings — the declining
manifestations of Presbyterian influence, and the
increasing boldness of the Episcopal party, with
the virtual defeat of the Bill for the maintenance
of "the true Protestant religion" upon some prin
ciple of compromise — shows that the disposi
tion of the House was undergoing a change —
Presbyterianism was losing ground, Prelacy was
gaining strength. In accordance with these facts,
indicating a like retrogression, was the treatment of
the Worcester House Declaration. On the 6th
November it was resolved that the humble thanks
of the Commons should be presented to his Majesty
for his gracious and tender care and indulgence ex
pressed to his people in his late gracious declara
tion concerning ecclesiastical affairs. The declaration
was referred to a committee to take it into con
sideration, and to bring in " a bill in such form as
they should think fit, for making of the same
effectual." On the 28th November the Bill was
brought in and read a first time. On a proposal
of the second reading there was a division, and the
bill was thrown out by 183 against 157. " So it
passed in the negative."
Several circumstances must be noticed that we
may account for the course pursued by the House
of Commons. There was " out of doors " a strong

The Worcester House Declaration. 109

feeling which made itself loudly heard in favour of
palmy episcopalianism such as England had seen in
the days of " Good Queen Bess," and the earlier
period of the Stuart dynasty. Just at the moment of
the King's return, even amidst the loyal uproar in
which sober Presbyterians joined, there was much
talk of ecclesiastical moderation on the part of the
more politic men in the Church. Sheldon himself,
who afterwards became a leader of the intolerants,
spoke about charity in honied accents, when preach
ing before the King in the month of June.* But
the tone of the principal clergy soon began to alter,
and before the end of the year we have a specimen
of the change in a consecration sermon, when the
preacher declares that " the work of the Bishops
was not so much to convert infidels as to confute
heretics and schismatics." No doubt there was a
sincere religious conviction in the minds of many
who desired the restoration of the mitre along with
the crown ; but the cry on the part of the Church
was immensely swollen by the voices of the Cavalier
party. That party was much more political than
religious — the out-growth of a romantic sentiment
cultured amidst the storms of the Civil War, rather
than the deduction of reason, or the fruit of

* " That is the best and most Christian memory," says he, " that, as
Caesar's, forgets nothing but injuries. Let us all seriously and sadly look back,
consider and bemoan one another, for what we have mutually done and
suffered from each other."

no The Worcester House Declaration.
principle. The Royalists had often accused the
Commonwealthmen of being fanatics. The Com-
monwealthmen might now return the compliment.
There was as much blind enthusiasm growing up
throughout England in the autumn and winter of the
Restoration year, on the side of the Episcopal
Church, as had ever been seen in former years on
the side of the sectaries. Noisy Prelatists made
themselves heard, and almost stunned the Presby
terians with their clamour. The latter, who, as a
religious party, had been "in the saddle" before
Easter, were thrown out of it completely before
Christmas. Multitudes without principle followed
those who were in the ascendant, no matter what
their opinions might be. They were tide-waiters
on providence, watching the ebb and flow. Their
backs were turned on the setting light, their faces
were toward the rising sun. Numbers of people of
this sort in a few months became as staunch in the
maintenance of Church and Crown, as they had
been in the cause of Puritanism and the Cove
nant. While this feeling in the country influenced the
Commons, there was another circumstance, men
tioned by Clarendon, which affected the decisions of
the House. He tells us the Presbyterian party was
very numerous, " and had before the King's return
made a committee to devise such a government for
the Church, as might either totally exclude Bishops,

The Worcester House Declaration. 1 1 1
or make them little superior to the rest of the clergy.
But the spirit of the time had of itself elected
many members, notwithstanding the injunctions
sent out with the writs, and expressly contrary to
such injunctions of a very different allay ; who,
together with such as were chosen after his
Majesty's return, were numerous enough to ob
struct and check any prevalence of that party,
though not of power enough to compel them to
submit to sober counsels." " By degrees the heads
of that party grew weary of the warmth of their
prosecution which they saw not like to produce
any notable fruit that they cared for." There was
then a vigorous opposition to the Puritan majority,
an opposition which increased in numerical power
as well as in boldness of attack. The obstructives
were more than the Presbyterians knew how to deal
with. The leaders were alarmed, and seeing which
way the wind blew, numbers went over from the
benches on one side to those on the other.
But there was a further cause which worked
against the Presbyterians, and to which we are to
attribute mainly the defeat of the Bill for making
the declaration law. That defeat was in accordance
with the wishes of the King. With regard to the
royal policy in the summer, when the Grand Com
mittee was engaged on the settlement of religion,
we learn from Clarendon, " that the King desired
no more than they should do nothing, being sure that

112 The Worcester House Declaration.
in a little time he should do the work best."* Charles
wished to have the matter entirely under his own con
trol. On the ist of November, Secretary Nicholas
wrote to Sir Henry Bennet, telling him, that
Parliament would meet with better hope of success
because the King had removed the main bone of
division by "taking into his own hand the great point
of Church Government."^ It is quite plain from
this that Charles was averse to any Act of Parlia
ment on the subject. Clarendon was at that time
so far quite in accordance with him. " When the Par
liament came together again after their adjournment,
they gave the King public thanks for his declara
tion, and never proceeded further in the matter of
religion, of which the King was very glad ; only
some of the leaders brought a Bill into the House
for the making that declaration a law, which was
suitable to their other acts of ingenuity to keep the
Church for ever under the same indulgence, and
without any settlement, which being quickly per
ceived, there was no further progress in it." Taking
all this into account, together with the statement
elsewhere made by Clarendon, that from the Resto
ration, he and Lord Southampton, by desire of the
King, had every day conference with some select
persons of the House of Commons, and consulted
with them about disposing the House, sometimes

* Continuation of the "Life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon," p. 1034.
f State Papers. Domestic. Charles II. Vol. xxi. 1.

The Worcester House Declaration.

lie

to propose, sometimes to consent to what should
be most necessary for the public, and by them to
assign parts to other men whom they found dis
posed to concur in what was desired ;* there is no
room left for believing otherwise than that the
Chancellor, in agreement with the King, did what
could be done to influence members to vote against
the Bill for the enactment of his own declaration.
Consistently with this we find Sir William Morrice,
a Secretary of State, speaking against it. And
Secretary Nicholas, writing to Sir Henry de Vic, on
the 7th of December, informs him that the Bill
for passing the King's late declaration "had
happily been thrown out."f In a letter on the
previous day, he alludes to it as quashed by the
violence of its promoters. The circumstance of
the removal of Hale, -who was on the committee
for framing the Bill and an advocate for it, from the
House of Commons just at that juncture, to be
Chief Baron of the Exchequer, fits in with the other
proceedings indicative of the policy of the Court,
and, evidently, all was done which ministerial activity
and power could command to defeat the measure.
There is reason to question the sincerity of both
Charles and Clarendon in the whole of the
Worcester House affair.

* Lister's "Life of Clarendon," vol. ii. p. 218.
f State Papers. Domestic. Charles II., 1660. Vol. xxiii. 46.
I

114 The Worcester House Declaration.
No one who knows much of the character of the
King can suppose that he had any desire to retain
the Presbyterians in the Church for their own sakes,
or that he had any sincere regard for the interests
of the Protestant religion. A useless controversy
was once carried on as to whether he was really a
Papist at the time of the Restoration. It is idle to
dispute respecting the theological opinions of a
man so utterly destitute of religious feeling and
thoughtfulness. But that he was not a Protestant
at that time — meaning by the word a person
attached to the Reformed faith — is plain enough
from what is said by those who knew him best.
Probably Buckingham, who calls him a Deist, is
nearest the truth.* But that he had sympathies
with the Roman Catholic party, and considered
their Church as the most convenient for an easy-
living gentleman like himself, there can be no
doubt. Had death stared him in the face just
after his return, he would then have sought refuge
in confession and priestly absolution, as he did
twenty-five years later. Yet he professed to be a
Protestant by solemn kingly acts, and in other
ways when he thought it politic. Charles was a
dissembler.! He had, with all his occasional rol
licking frankness, an almost equal mastery over his

* Buckingham's Works, ii. p. 55. See Harris's Charles II., vol. ii. p. 54
et seq., for evidence as to his being a Papist.
f See what Harris has collected on this subject. Vol. i. p. 14.

The Worcester House Declaration. 115
conversation and his countenance. His face was
said to be as little a blab as most men's ; it might
tell tales to a good physiognomist, but it was no
prattler. If he had a mind to conceal his purpose,
it was not an easy matter to make him out. Lord
Halifax attempted to apologize for him by saying
that if he dissembled, it is to be remembered he
was a King, and that dissimulation is a jewel of
the crown, and that " it is very hard, for a man not to
do sometimes too much of that which he concludeth
necessary for him to practise."* We dare say the
Merry Monarch looked as grave and as gracious as
possible, while talking at Worcester House with
Baxter and the brethren ; and though he alarmed
them by his reference to laws against Papists, he took
care not to betray the utter hollowness of those pro
fessions he so often had to make of zeal for Pro
testantism. So far as he had any sincere desire to
grant indulgence, it was not for the sake of Presby
terians, but for the sake of others whom they most
disliked. He looked upon all Puritans as trouble-

* "Character of Charles IL," p. 56. Nothing can exceed his deceitfulness
when in Scotland. Just after the Scots had placed the crown on his head, and
he had sworn to the Covenant, he wrote in cipher to Sir Edward Nicholas
(see "Evelyn's Correspondence," iv. p. 195) : — " I shall only say this to you, that
you cannot imagine the villany of the party ; indeed it has done me a great
deal of good, for nothing could have confirmed me more to the Church
of England than being here seeing their hypocrisy." While accusing Presby
terians of hypocrisy, here was double-faced hypocrisy on his own part, for while
professing Presbyterianism to the Scotch and Anglicanism to Nicholas, he was
in heart either a Deist or a Roman Catholic. I 2

n6 The Worcester House Declaration.
some people, whom he would keep quiet as long as
he could, and, in the meanwhile, use them as tools
for working out the liberty of the Papists. Look
ing at the business from beginning to end — at the
circumstances under which the declaration was
drawn up and published, and at the Court influence
employed to prevent the declaration from becom
ing law — we cannot but consider the King as en
gaged throughout in deceiving the Presbyterians,
who, with all their suspicion of his Papistical
likings, were too apt to catch at anything in what
he said or did, on which they could manage to hang
a hope of better days.
Clarendon was a different man from his master.
Like Charles I., he was sincerely attached to the
Episcopal Church of England. That unhappy
Monarch, in one of his recently published letters,
dated Oxford, March 30, 1646, assures Queen
Henrietta that " Ned Hide" was, and still is, fully
of his mind on the subject of Episcopacy. He
was almost, if not altogether (at that time), the only
person in the confidence of the King who con
curred with him on the point of religion. On
the ist June, the same year, when matters were
even worse, — Hyde expressed himself " against
buying a peace at a dearer price than was offered at
Uxbridge," and encouraged the notion that it was
the duty of the Royalists to submit to a kind of
martyrdom. "It may be," he remarked, "God

The Worcester House Declaration. 117
hath resolved we shall perish, and then it becomes
us to perish with those decent and honest circum
stances that our good fame may procure a better
peace to those who succeed us than we were able
to procure for them, and ourselves shall be happier
than any other condition could render us."* There
can be no reason, looking at the circumstances
under which the letter was written, to doubt the
sincerity of Hyde in this singular confession. Taken
by itself, it would be a burst of chivalry and heroism,
which we could not but admire. The whole his
tory of Clarendon, however, must be considered,
that we may form an estimate of his character.
That he was a man of great ability, and of con
summate political prudence, his administration of
public affairs sufficiently proves. But that ability
manifested itself at the expense of principle, and
that prudence sank into deceit and falsehood. No
actor could perform his part to more perfection
than he did when, upon the discovery of his
daughter's connection with the Duke of York, he
broke out into an immoderate passion against her
wickedness, shed tears, declared he would con
sent to their cutting off her head, and fell on his
knees, desiring the King, with all possible earnest
ness, to consent to his retirement, and allow

* Charles I. in 1646. Letters edited by John Bruce, Esq., F.S.A., printed
for the Camden Society, p. 30.

ii8 The Worcester House Declaration.
him to live beyond the seas. And the way
in which he himself relates the whole story, in the
Continuation of his Life, is an exquisite specimen of
hypocritical writing. He was a more accomplished
dissembler than his Sovereign, and he acted in that
capacity for the furtherance of his Church schemes.
He seems to have been one of those men who are
conscientious in devoting themselves to a particular
object, but are utterly without conscience as to the
means of its accomplishment. Many a Jesuit has
been a martyr ; and while we give Clarendon credit
for such an attachment to the Episcopal Church as
would have led him to suffer on its behalf, we are
persuaded no man could be more Jesuitical than he,
in his course of policy for its establishment. His
hatred to Presbyterianism was no less intense than
his love for Prelacy, of which his speeches in Par
liament, and numerous passages in his life, give
ample proofs. But before he left Breda he care
fully sought to secure for his purposes the objects
of his dislike, by assuring them of present good
preferments, and by seeking to win over those of
" reputation and desire to merit from the Church."
And, in the same spirit, he rebuked men of the
prelatical party, whose zeal outran their discre
tion. Till the work of the Restoration was com
plete, and the King firmly established on the
throne, and the way open for the re-inauguration of
Episcopacy with no abatement of its power and

The Worcester House Declaration. 119
pomp, the Prime Minister of Charles was anxious
not to offend the members of the old ecclesiastical
party, who had still their friends at Court and their
influence in the country. To play with, flatter,
bribe, and deceive them, was his policy ; and of
this policy the Worcester House Declaration was a
perfect masterpiece.

Chapter IV.

^niter's Ingurwrtfon*

ONDON, in the winter of 1659, was
the stronghold of the Presbyterians,
and of " the sects." In the winter
^.%Z^M of l66o> and tne following spring,
after the King's return had restored
the Prayer Book to some of the churches, Non
conformity was still in the ascendant.* Charles
and Clarendon kept up friendly appearances
towards the Presbyterian leaders in the metropolis.
Baxter, though not a City pastor, but only a City
resident, was so able and so active a man, that he
came in for a lion's share of notice. Soon after the
Declaration he had an audience at Whitehall, when
the outspoken Puritan, instead of being reproved

* In a letter dated March 19, in the State Paper Office, it is said — "There
are more churches that have not the reading of the Common Prayer than that
have it." — Domestic. Charles II. Vol. xxxii. 144. And again, April 1 , we
hear of " great congregations of Presbyterians, Anabaptists, and Fifth Monarchy
men, so that the major part of London was there." — Vol. xxxiv. 1.

Venner's Insurrection. 121
as he expected, for certain things he had said at
Worcester House, was graciously told by the King
that " so far from being offended, he took him for
his free speech to be the honester man." We have
the story from Baxter himself, who shrewdly adds,
" I suppose this favour came from the Bishops, who
having notice of what last past, did think that now
I might serve their interests." The good opinion
of such a person was of great importance, and to
secure him, if possible, as an agent in furthering
the designs of the Court was worth a little polite
ness. So we find him again very soon, in company
with Dr. Manton,* talking plainly to Charles about
some clergymen " newly put into the ministry,"
who by their immoral conduct disgraced their
calling ; and he tells us, too, that at this time he was
often with the Lord Chancellor. It was not, how
ever, for courtly chat, and to share in the festivities
of Worcester House, but to consult with Clarendon
touching certain lands in New England, which had
been purchased for John Elliot, the apostle to the
Indians, out of the collections which Cromwell had
caused to be made in every parish throughout
the country. The Presbyterian citizens, who no

* Manton went a long way towards conformity ; he subscribed the
articles, and took the oath of supremacy and of canonical obedience, " in
omnibus licitis et honestis." He was episcopally inducted to the living of
Covent Garden ; and upon a petition from the parishioners to the Bishop
of London, used the Book ofCommon Prayer.—" Kennet's Register," p. 358.

122 Venner's Insurrection.
doubt heard and talked of what was thus going
on, looking at these signs of Court favour, and
proud of their numbers and influence, might
naturally be led to entertain sanguine hopes, not of
regaining their old supremacy, for that was out of
the question, but of being included in some com
prehensive form of ecclesiastical establishment, such
as would seem to be betokened by the royal Decla
ration.* But if in London Nonconformity was strong, it
was rapidly becoming otherwise in the provinces.
Bishops were busy. Episcopal rectors were being
restored. Loyal corporations were getting more
and more noisy in their demonstrations of zeal for
Church and Crown. Feelings pent up for twenty
years were bursting out, all the more violently for
long repression. Grey-headed squires in Cavalier
costume, with their courtly dames in rustling silk,

* Probably it was in a great degree with reference to London Nonconfor
mity, that Sanderson, in a letter dated December 31st, 1660, prefixed to
Archbishop Usher's " Power of the Prince," complains of the uneasiness of
the people, the wildness of the sectaries, the refusal by multitudes to take the
oath of supremacy, the habit of mincing it by such an interpretation of the
word only as destroyed its force, the omission in pulpit prayers of the King's
title in full, as supreme in all causes and over all persons, as ivell ecclesiastical as
temporal in his dominions, the open aspersion of the King and Government,
and the covert suspicions of mal-administration, and, finally, a world of
wicked pamphlets dispersed throughout the kingdom, and lying " upon the
stalls, and in the shops, free for any man that list to buy." The Bishop's
practical application of all this was very sensible. Instead of calling for the
enactment of severe laws, he urged that books should be met by books.

Venner's Insurrection. 123
sat with new joy before the crackling yule log that
merry Christmas time ; and when the boar's head
and the roast beef had been despatched, they related
stories of their virtuous and devout King,* and

* It may seem strange to some that so worthless a character as Charles II.
should excite so much enthusiasm. But it must be remembered that by
letters from abroad and other means, the most extraordinary ideas of his
excellence had been diffused throughout the country. Some amusing illustra
tions of the reports circulated by the Royalists are supplied in the
Worcester MS. : —
" June 6th. — Mr. Prinn coming to kiss his Majesty's hands, prayed God
to bless him, ' and so also you, Mr. Prinn,' and smilingly clapt him on the
shoulder." " 6th. — It is said that Mr. Calamy, a Presbyterian, and one of the King's
chaplains, desired his Majesty that he might not officiate in these canonical
habits, especially in a surplice, for it was against his conscience, who answered
he would not press it on him, and as he refused to do in the one, so he would
spare him in the other. It is also said when his Majesty was at primal
prayers in his presence-chamber, and seeing all on their knees but the Earl of
Manchester, his chamberlain, who stood by him (a Presbyterian), his Majesty
suddenly took a cushion, and said, 'My lord, there is a cushion, you may
now kneel ;' which for shame he was glad patiently to do. O meek,
O zealous, O pious prince !"
« Juiy. — The King going to swim one night in the Thames, there were
divers ladies and gentlemen looking out of the windows of Whitehall, which
he beholding, sent a message that either they should shut their windows and
pray for his safety, or begone out of court. O chaste and good prince !"
" Oct. 23rd. — A settling of the King's household according as the book
was 6 Charles I.— wherein his Majesty declares that his officers should collect
out of the same all such wholesome orders, decrees, and directions as may tend
most to the planting, establishing, and countenancing of virtue and piety in his
family, and to the discountenancing of all manner of disorder, debauchery, and
vice in any person of what degree or quality soever."
The next year the saint-like Charles was working miracles.
"March.— On the 21st instant, Mary, the daughter of James Barnes, of
Stoney Stratford, having been long blind by the king's evil, was touched by
his Majesty, and immediately, by the mercy of God, her eyes were opened
so as she beheld his Majesty washing his hands in the basin, and still enjoys
the blessing of her sight."

124 Venner's Insurrection.
told their sons and daughters of the gay doings and
merry games of their own young days, which were
now restored, and were long to last, since the dull
reign of Roundhead prohibitions had come for ever
to an end. And the mistletoe that hung in the
hall was connected with the holly that adorned the
church. The service some of them had heard
that morning for the first time, as they sat in the
old family pew, claimed association with the
pleasant festivities of the afternoon and evening.
Puritanism had been to them a religion of restraint.
The return of Bishops and Prayer Books brought
back social freedom and joy. Of course there
were sentiments of a far higher order cherished
at that season, but much of this lower kind we are
sure existed. Other ceremonials, besides those
immediately connected with Christmas, took place
that winter, with new pomp and solemnity, of
which we have full intelligence in the news
papers of the day. Letters from Exeter, on
the 29th of December, announced the joyful
welcome of Dr. Gauden, the new Bishop of the
diocese, who was met by most of the gentry, to the
number of a hundred and twenty, and was escorted
by the High Sheriff with at least five hundred horse.
The mayor and aldermen, in scarlet and fur, waited
on his Lordship amidst the ringing of bells. And
then, a week after the London folks had read of this
grand procession in the streets of Exeter on a cold

Venner's Insurrection. 125
winter day, they saw in the " Mercurius Publicus "
a glowing account of a public christening at Dover
— a most significant service when Anabaptists were
numerous, and when baptismal regeneration had
been long denied. So great a concourse had seldom
been seen. The mayor was obliged to make way
for the children that they might reach the font, —
that font " which had not been used for almost
twenty years, and was by the care and prudence of the
honest churchwarden, Mr. Carlisle, set up against
this solemnity." Yet after the boastful style in
which the news is told, it turns out that only twelve
were baptized. A little before these pieces of
information were recorded, the editor of the " Par
liamentary Intelligencer " assured his readers, how
he had learnt from several parts of the kingdom,
that the piety of the Bishops with whom his
Majesty had blessed the people, so generally won
the hearts of his subjects, that daily many of both
extremes (Catholics and Protestants, we presume)
joined the Church. It is triumphantly added,
" There is not any noise of discontent among us ;"
a statement which, like the other general ones,
must be taken with much qualification. As a
set-off against the " Intelligencer " we may mention
that a letter from Benet College, Cambridge,
informs us of " great strife about the restoration of
ceremonies there."*
* State Papers. Domestic. Charles II. Vol. xxix. 34.

126 Venner's Insurrection.
While this revival of Christmas festivities and
of church processions and ceremonies was occurring
in provincial towns and villages, the Episcopa
lians of London were not behind their country
friends in like demonstrations. From Whitehall,
on Christmas Eve, the King, in council, commanded
the Lord Mayor to give order to the ministers of
every parish, duly to solemnize and observe the
feast of our blessed Saviour by divine service. The
citizens were to shut their shops, and forbear the
works of their ordinary calling. We can easily
imagine how Christmas would be kept at the
palace. But not with equal zeal, we may venture
to say, were the mortifications after Ash Wednes
day observed, when his Majesty set forth " a pro
clamation for restraint of killing, dressing, and eat
ing of flesh in Lent, or on fish days appointed by
the law to be observed." From the obligation to
abstinence* which the King enjoined, the Arch
bishop of Canterbury, with something like Popish
authority, claimed, in particular cases, the power to
release. Both the injunction and the indulgence
must have equally shocked the Nonconformists,
and so must some other things that were soon after
witnessed at Whitehall. There was touching for the

* In the State Paper Office there are licences from the Archbishop of
Canterbury to Secretary Nicholas, Anne his wife, and ten persons to be chosen
by him, to eat meat at his table during Lent, provided he pay T35. ^d. to the
poor chest in his parish. — State Papers. Charles II. Vol. xxx. 73.

Venner's Insurrection. 127
king's evil,* with a most superstitious ceremonial
of a religious kind connected with it ; and on
Maunday Thursday his Majesty, " according to
the example of the Kings of England," washed and
kissed the feet of thirty-one poor men in the Great
Hall of the palace. Charles' age was thirty-one.
The reaction against the Puritanism of the Com
monwealth, visible in so many ways, received a
strong impulse at the commencement of the year
from the mad insurrection of Venner and his asso
ciates. Years before, this fanatical wine-cooper
was transacting plots under ground and transiently
" emitting soot and fire." In the April of 1657 he
and his miserable confederates had assembled on
Mile End Green, hoping to begin the reign of
the Saints, when Cromwell sent a troop of horse
and seized him and twenty ringleaders with chests
of arms, inflammatory pamphlets, war manifestoes,
and a standard, exhibiting the lion of the tribe
of Judah couchant, with the motto, " Who shall
raise him up ?" The fray ended in the imprison
ment of the cooper and his fellow-workmen. The
fifth monarchy was put under lock and key.t We
shall not give an account of the new attempt in

* " Certain persons, too many one would think, who having the king's
evil, and have been touched by his sacred Majesty, have yet the forehead to
come twice or thrice." — "Mercurius Pub.," Jan. 31. A gift of money was
connected with the royal healing.
t See Carlyle's " Cromwell," ii. p. 502.

128 Venner's Insurrection.
words of our own, but simply transfer to our pages
a letter in the State Paper Office, written in the
midst of the excitement produced by that savage
outbreak. The incident mentioned at the close of
the letter, respecting the Duke of York's cudgelling
an informer, is too amusing to be omitted ; even
the blood-letting has a certain interest. The writer
is Sir John Finch ; he directs to Lord Conway, and
dates " from your own chamber, Jan. 11, 166-f : " —
" My dearest and best Lord, — As for news, my
last acquainted you with the Duchess of York's
coming to Court. I forgot to tell you that the
child was christened Charles, and created Duke of
Cambridge, and that his Majesty in person and the
Duke of Albemarle were godfathers, and my Lady of
Ormond personated the Queen for godmother. Our
great news here is, that since his Majesty's departure
to Portsmouth there have been two great alarms.
Upon Sunday night about fifty Fifth Monarchy
men, at ten of the clock, came to Mr. Johnson, a
bookseller at the north gate of St. Paul's, and there
demanded the keys of the church, which he either
not having, or refusing, they broke open the door,
and, setting their sentries, examined the passengers
who they were for, and one with a lantern reply
ing that he was for King Charles, they answered
they were for King Jesus, and shot him through
the head, where he lay as a spectacle all the next
day. This gave the alarm to the main guard at

Venner's Insurrection. 129
the Exchange, who sent four files of musketeers to
reduce them. But the Fifth Monarchy men made
them run, which so terrified the City, that the Lord
Mayor in person came with his troop to reduce them.
Before he arrived they drew off, and at Aldersgate
forced the constable to open the gate, and so
marched through Whitecross-street, where they
killed another constable, and so went into the woods
near Highgate, where being almost famished, on
Wednesday morning, about five of the clock, fell
again into the City, and, with a mad courage, fell
upon the guard and beat them, which put the City
into such confusion that the King's Life and all the
City regiments advanced against them. These forty
men beat the Life Guard and a whole regiment for
half an hour's time. They refused all quarter;
but at length Venner, their captain, a wine-cooper,
after he had received three shots, was taken, and
nine more, and twenty slain. Six got into a house,
and refusing quarter, and with their blunderbusses
defending themselves, were slain. The Duke and
the Duke of Albemarle, with 700 horse, fell into
the City ; but all was over before they came.
This, my Lord, is strange, that all that are alive,
being maimed, not one person will confess anything
concerning their accomplices, crying that they will
not betray the servants of the Lord Jesus to the
Kings of the earth. Ludlow Major is committed
close to the Tower for saying he would kill the
K

i3o

Venner's Insurrection.

King. These things have produced these effects :
that no man shall have any arms that are not
registered ; that no man shall live in the City that
takes not the oath of allegiance ; that no person of
any sect shall, out of his own house, exercise
religious duties, nor admit any into his house
under penalty of arrest, which troubles the Quakers
and Anabaptists, who professe they knew not of
this last business. And besides all this, his Majesty
is resolved to raise a new army, and the general is not
known ; but I believe it will be the Duke of Albe
marle, rather than the Duke of York or Prince
Rupert, in regard he hath the office by patent, and
in regard of his eminent services. The Duke took
it very unkind of my Lord Chamberlain that upon
information of Prince Rupert's attendants, his Lord
ship, in the Duke's absence, searched his cellar
for gunpowder, it being under the King's seat at
the Cockpit, and the Duke with his own hands so
cudgelled the informer that he hath almost maimed
him ; and Prince Rupert assured the Duke
that he so resented it, that he was not content
to put away his servant, but offered to fight
any person that set the design on foot. How
ever, the business is not made up, though my
Lord Chamberlain told the Duke he had done
over hastily. The Princess Henrietta is sick
of the measles on shipboard ; but out of danger
of wind. Dr. Frasier hath let her blood ; I hope

Venner's Insurrection. 131
with better success than the rest of the royal blood
have had."*
Venner's outbreak occurred on the 6th of January;
but it is very remarkable that four days before that,
there is an order in Council against the meetings of
Anabaptists, Quakers, and other sectaries in large
numbers and at unusual times, and restricting their
assemblies to their own parishes. Rumours of
plots had been rife for some time, though not so
rife as they afterwards became, and they were
alleged as reasons for the decision at the Council
Board of the 2nd of January, t That decision
showed, ere a shot was fired by the insane fanatics
of Coleman-street, that whatever liberty had been
conceded by the declaration from Worcester House,
was now to be abridged. There is in the Council
minute-book sufficient evidence, that if this unfortu
nate event had not taken place, an intolerant design
was contemplated by the King and Court at the
beginning of the year 1661. Venner's insurrection
was not the cause, as is generally assumed, of the sub
sequent curtailment of religious liberty, but it served
to give, if not a colouring of justice, yet a plausible
pretext for the declaration which followed. The
declaration was issued on the 1 oth of January, four
days after the riot; and the terms in which the docu-

* State Papers. Charles H. xxviii. 42.
+ The entry in the Council Book and the subsequent declaration are printed
in " Kennet's Register," under date 2nd and 10th January.
K 2

132 Venner's Insurrection.
ment is couched are so similar to those employed in
the entry on the records of Council as to show
that, with the exception of a broad allusion to the
disturbance of the public peace by insurrection
and murder, no alteration was made in the
form of the paper. The proclamation agrees with
the minute in alluding to Anabaptists and Quakers,
only adding the mention of " Fifth Monarchy men ,-"
and it then forbids that any meeting of those people
should be held, except in parochial churches or
chapels, or in private houses " by the persons there
inhabiting." Other meetings are declared seditious,
and authority is given to magistrates to bind over
the disobedient to appear at the next sessions. The
justices of the peace are further ordered to tender
the oath of allegiance to every one so brought
before them. This proclamation put an end to
all liberty of public worship throughout the
country, and confined it within the walls of the
parish churches. It did not, of course, touch any
who might still be remaining within the Establish
ment, as yet not reduced, to strict Episcopal dimen
sions ; but all who were outside, even Presbyterians,
now received a command to be silent, and no more
to preach and to pray according to their own con
science.* * The mild and gentle Oliver Heywood thus characteristically records in
his journal what had happened: — "This day, Jan. 23, 1661, we had
designed to meet together for fasting and prayer in private, but are prevented
by a declaration from authority. The truth is, our dread sovereign, at the

Venner's Insurrection. 133
. Against Venner's insurrection both Independents
and Baptists protested as a horrid rebellion, repu
diating all Fifth Monarchy notions, and declaring
their loyalty to the King.* Adam Martindale, a
Presbyterian minister of Rotherston, in Lan
cashire, tells a curious story of the way in
which the declaration was perverted by country

first and hitherto, hath allowed us abundant liberty for religious exercises, both
in public and private j but his clemency has been abused, which hath occa
sioned this severe and universal prohibition." Nobody could charge such a man
with being disaffected to the Government.
* The Independents in their declaration disown " the principles of a Fifth
Monarchy, or the personal reign of King Jesus on earth, as dishonourable to
Him, and prejudicial to His Church ; and abhor the propagating this or any
other opinion by force or blood." With regard to those involved in Venner's
insurrection, they add — " Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce ; and their
wrath, for it was cruel ; O my soul, come not thou into their secret, but let
God divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel." We subjoin the
names, putting an asterisk to those who were parochial ministers in London.
* Jos. Caryl Corn. Helme
* George Griffiths John Hodges
Richard Kenrick John Bachiler
* Robert Bragge * Seth Wood
* Ralph Venning Will. GreenhiU
John Oxenbridge * Matth. Barker
* Philip Nye * Tho. Malony
* John Rowe * John Loder
Thomas Weld John Yates
* Samuel Slater Thomas Owen
* George Cockayn Nath. Mather
Thomas Goodwin Will. Stoughton.
* Thomas Brooks
At p. 7 we stated that eleven of these were beneficed clergymen of London.
We have since discovered that Barker and Loder were united as lecturers with
Wood and Nye. This makes thirteen Independent parish ministers in
London. GreenhiU had the living of Stepney. Some of the others were
country ministers.

134 Venner's Insurrection.
magistrates. Though " without a torturing gloss it
would not reach Presbyterians," a justice and deputy-
lieutenant sent a paper to be read in church, plainly
meant not for sectaries only, but for the vicar's Pres
byterian parishioners. Martindale was not yet
ejected, and he counted this an unlawful stretch
of authority ; so he would not read the obnoxious
document, for which he had to appear at the
sessions. When threatened by the justice, he re
plied, " Sir, you may perhaps affright your servants
by such words as these, but I thank God they do
not affright me." He maintained he had no reason
to read the magistrate's precept, and he " denied to
say whether he had read it or no."*
The Quakers also addressed the King in their
own way, desiring that he and his Council might
" live for ever in the fear of God," and praying
that Friends' Meetings might not be broken up,
and that four hundred of their number imprisoned
in London might be released. These addresses,
far from turning aside, did not even blunt the
edge of the King's displeasure, nor did they
destroy at all the unjust suspicion of many amongst
the Royalist and Episcopalian party, that Noncon
formists in general sympathized with the out
rageous Fifth Monarchy men. A few Quakers
" and other sectaries," as they were called, met at

* "Life," Chetham Society, p. 149.

Venner's Insurrection. 135
the Savoy, St. James', and elsewhere, but were
immediately seized by constables, the people crying
out that they met only to plot mischief and commit
murder.* Even Presbyterians, to whom the decla
ration did not allude, and who were infinitely re
moved from all resemblance to Venner and his
band, shared in the wide reproach, and Puritans of
all classes were insulted abroad, and annoyed at
home. Cavalier mobs abused them in the streets,
and, as they worshipped in their own houses, the
rabble drowned the psalm and prayer by blowing
horns, or put an end to the service by throwing
stones. Venner's plot was known throughout the country,
and with it the prohibitory proclamation. A day
after the date of the declaration, and before it
could be received at the Wakefield Quarter Session,
orders were given there forbidding the holding of
large meetings by Quakers, Anabaptists, and others,
in the West Riding, f Dr. Lamplugh, on the 15th,
wrote from Queen's College to say, that the late
alarm in London had made the country more active
than ever against fanatics, and that in Oxford,
Abingdon, and other places, the last Sunday, the
meeting-houses of Anabaptists and Quakers were
beset by the militia ; some were dismissed and others

* "Mercurius Publicus," January 3 — 10.
f State Papers. Domestic. Charles II. xxviii. 45.

136 Venner's Insurrection.
secured.* Sir John Maynard, on the 19th, informed
Lord Mordaunt that so many people were com
mitted at the last sessions, who would not take the
oath of allegiance, that they were puzzled what to
do. All to whom it was tendered refused it ; some,
because they would not swear at all ; others, because
they would not take any promissory oath ; others,
because, as the King had taken no oath to obey the
laws, they would take no oath to obey the King.f
In a letter to Sir Robert Long, vague rumours were
conveyed about troublesome people having great
meetings, in consequence of which " two emissaries "
were seized and sent to Salisbury gaol ; and it was
said, that if all were taken who refused the oath of
allegiance, six men would not be left in some
parishes. J Venner's plot drove the Royalist Church
party mad, and from Chester, Oxford, Canterbury,
and other places, communications were posted to
London, fraught with tidings of " unlawful assem
blies " and of " secured fanatics." " Letters from
all parts," cries the " Kingdom's Intelligencer,"
" assure us that none of this wild faction have
offered to assemble but were instantly seized."
Amongst other methods adopted for discovering
plots now rumoured far and wide, was that of open-
* State Papers, xxviii. 56. — The letter states that arms had been taken
from Dr. Owen, of Stadham, and others. The distinguished Dr. Owen was at
that time living at Stadham. The idea of his having arms for any insur
rectionary purpose was very absurd.
f lb., 86. % lb., 87.

Venner's Insurrection. 137
ing letters at the Post Office, a practice we shall
have more fully to notice soon. The bag that went
down to the Midland Counties was freely ransacked
by some commissioned official, and an epistle in the
handwriting of Richard Baxter was unsealed and
read. " I wrote a letter at this time to my mother-
in-law, containing nothing but usual matter. By
the means of Sir John Packington, or his soldiers,
the post was searched, and my letter intercepted,
opened, and revised, and by Sir John sent up to
London to the Bishop and the Lord Chancellor. I
went to the Lord Chancellor and complained of this
usage. He disowned it, and blamed men's rash
ness, but excused it from the distempers of the
times; and he and the Bishops confessed that they
had seen the letter, and there was nothing in it but
what was good and pious. Two .days after came
the Lord Windsor, Lieutenant of the county, and
Governor of Jamaica, with Sir Charles Littleton, the
King's cupbearer, to bring me my letter again to
my lodgings ; and the Lord Windsor told me the
Lord Chancellor appointed him to do it. After
some expression of my sense of the abuse, I thanked
him for his great civility and favour. But I saw
how far that sort of men were to be trusted."*

* Baxter's " Life and Times," p. 301.

Chapter V.

^abog Gttmfmmt.

hs§M OTWITHSTANDING the intolerance
m, °f tne King's last declaration, and the
mad excitement created by Venner's
plot, nothing had at present destroyed
the appearance of friendly relations
between the London Presbyterian ministers and the
Court at Whitehall. They had not been distinctly
pointed at in the declaration, nor had the King or
his Council expressed suspicion of their sympathiz
ing in the plot. So far above the vulgar sectaries
did they still deem themselves to stand, that when
their brethren laid a declaration of allegiance at the
foot of the throne, they saw no need of their making
any such professions, and therefore allowed the
crisis to pass without an address at all. The open
ing of Baxter's letter, awakening, though it did,
some misgivings in his mind, was followed by the
continuance of seeming favour on the part of the

Savoy Conference. 139

•Chancellor, and other noble Lords. And, strange
to say, this honest-hearted man, just after the insult,
actually went to the Bishop of London, and asked
for a licence to preach ; for which we do not wonder
that some brethren blamed him " as being an owning
of prelatical usurpation."
The Worcester House declaration had spoken of
revising the Liturgy, and Baxter had been urgent
with the Lord Chancellor, to accomplish that
important work. Though the matter had been
delayed, it was not dropped, and as the winter wore
on, there were conferences between the two parties
about the mode of conducting so delicate a business.
At last Clarendon arranged that Reynolds, who,
though Bishop of Norwich, was still called a Pres
byterian, and Calamy, who was such altogether,
should nominate the commissioners on the Presby
terian side of the question. Baxter wished to be
left out, for though desirous the work should be
done, he found he had made himself unacceptable
to the opposite party ; but he says, he " could not
prevail, unless he had peremptorily refused it,"
an expression which shows that he was not very
earnest in declining the office. ' Indeed, we cannot
imagine how the worthy disputant could have
endured to hear of the conference, without taking
a part in it himself, and a prominent one too.
Other Presbyterian ministers were put on the
commission, and, together with their names, ap-

140 Savoy Conference.

peared those of the Archbishop of York and other
prelates and dignitaries. There were twelve Bishops
with nine coadjutors to represent the Episcopalian
party, and twelve leading divines and nine coad
jutors on the Presbyterian side.*
Gilbert Sheldon, Bishop of London, afterwards
of Canterbury, though he took no share in the
viva voce discussions of the conference, was no
doubt the chief adviser of his party ; and as he bore
so conspicuous a name in the ecclesiastical policy
of the times, and will so often appear in connection
with the events we have to describe, it will be
proper to say a word respecting his character. It
would be easy to give our own impression, but we
prefer in this stage of the history, to present what

* At the Savoy Conference the Presbyterian Divines were :
Edward Reynolds, Bishop of Norwich ; Dr. Tuckney, Master of St. John's
College, Cambridge ; Dr. Conant, Reg. Prof. Div. Oxford ; Dr. Spurstow ;
Dr. Wallis, Sav. Prof. Geom. Oxford; Dr. Manton; Mr. Calamy; Mr.
Baxter ; Mr. Jackson ; Mr. Case ; Mr. Clarke ; Mr. Newcomen.
Coadjutors :
Dr. Horton ; Dr. Jacomb ; Dr. Bates ; Dr. Cooper ; Dr. Lightfoot ; Dr-
Collins ; Mr. Woodbridge ; Mr. Rawlinson ; Mr. Drake.
The Episcopal Divines tuere :
Accepted Frewen, Archbishop of York ; Gilbert Sheldon, Bishop of Lon
don, Master of the Savoy ; John Cosin, Bishop of Durham ; John Warner,
Bishop of Rochester ; Henry King, Bishop of Chichester ; Humphrey Hench
man, Bishop of Sarum ; George Morley, Bishop of Worcester ; Robert San
derson, Bishop of Lincoln ; Benjamin Laney, Bishop of Peterborough ; Bryan
Walton, Bishop of Chester ; Richard Sterne, Bishop of Carlisle ; John
Gauden, Bishop of Exeter. With the following Coadjutors :
Dr. Earle, Dean of Westminster ; Dr. Heylin ; Dr. Hacket ; Dr. Barwick ¦
Dr. Gunning ; Dr. Pearson ; Dr. Pierce ; Dr. Sparrow ; Mr. Thorndike.

Savoy Conference. 141

has been said by two contemporaries who looked
at him from different points of view.
Parker, Bishop of Oxford, who had been his
chaplain, observes that " he was a man of un
doubted piety ; but though he was very assiduous
at prayers, yet he did not set so great a value upon
them as others did, nor regarded so much worship
as the use of worship, placing the chief point of
religion in the practice of a good life. In his daily
discourse he cautioned those about him not to
deceive themselves with a half religion, nor to
think that divine religion was confined within the
walls of the church, the principal part of it being
without doors, and consisting in being conversant
with mankind. He had a great aversion to all
pretences to extraordinary piety, which covered real
dishonesty, but had a sincere affection for those
whose religion was attended with integrity of
manners." Burnet, who belonged to a different
order of churchmanship from Sheldon, plainly tells
us what we should gather from Parker. " Sheldon
was esteemed a learned man before the wars, but
he was now engaged so deep in politics, that
scarcely any prints of what he had been, remained.
He was a very dexterous man in business, had a
great quickness of apprehension, and a very true
judgment. He was a generous and charitable man.
He had a great pleasantness of conversation, perhaps
too great. He had an art that was peculiar to him,

142 Savoy Conference.

of treating all that came to him in a most obliging
manner, but few depended much on his professions
of friendship. He seemed not to have a deep sense of
religion, if any at all ; and spoke of it, most com
monly, as of an engine of government, and a
matter of policy. By this means the King came
to look on him as a wise and honest clergyman."
Burnet clearly exhibits what Parker only betrays
by the cautious language he was forced to employ.
Pepys details some disgusting gossip of his
" cozen Roger," relative to Sheldon's character as
a thoroughly immoral man.* Though we have no
love for the Bishop at all, we hesitate to believe the
filthy stories of Pepys' cousin, seeing that Burnet
makes no allusion to any rumours of the kind, which
—with his dislike to the man, and his means of
picking up all sorts of scandal — he would no doubt
have done, if he had heard and believed anything
like what Pepys reports. The charge of vice is quite
inconsistent with the account of Sheldon's offending
Charles and forfeiting his favour by rebuking his
licentiousness, f
Bishop Morley, next to Sheldon, was a leader
* " Pepys' Diary," 29th July, 1667.
+ The following memorandum amongst the Kennet MSS. in the British
Museum, is very odd : — " Dr. Pope in his life of Bishop Ward tells us that
Archbishop Sheldon did not only wish for the gout, but proffered a thousand
pounds to any one who would help him to it, looking upon it as the only
remedy for the distemper in the head which he feared might in time prove an
apoplexy, as in fine it did, and killed him." Sheldon, no doubt, was a free
liver. — " Kennet Col.," vol. 52.

Savoy Conference. 143

in ecclesiastical affairs, and a prominent debater
in the conference. He had been a friend of
Falkland, of Chillingworth, and of Waller, and
before the wars was thought to favour the Puritans.
The Chancellor had long been his patron. Indeed,
he had lived in Hyde's family, and after the Resto
ration, it was, no doubt through his interest, that
Morley became first Bishop of Worcester and then
of Winchester. Burnet says he was doctrinally a
Calvinist, and was pious and charitable, but he also
speaks of him as extremely passionate, and full of
obstinacy — a statement which Baxter confirms in
his account of the Savoy disputations, in which his
hot and hasty temper was plain enough.* He had
in early days been " one of Ben Jonson's sons," a
circumstance which accords with his life-long repu
tation for brilliant wit. That gift, always dangerous,
is particularly so to a clergyman ; and Morley, who
is said to have been " keen, but inoffensive," though
admired by his friends for his companionable
qualities, was condemned by many for social habits
and a tone of conversation unbecoming a Christian
minister. * Baxter tells us, " he was the chief speaker of all the Bishops, and the
greatest interrupter of us, vehemently going on with what he thought
serviceable to his end, and bearing down answers by the said fervour and in
terruptions." — "Life and Times," partii. p. 363. Of course I do not forget that
in all these quotations from Baxter, we have the reports of an antagonist ; but
the readiness and candour with which he allows moderation and other virtues
when they existed on the part of any of the Episcopalians, give force and
weight to his reports of character.

144 Savoy Conference.

Cosin, Bishop of Durham (a devout man and
renowned for his patristic learning), brought with
him recollections not at all favourable to an un
prejudiced view of the matters in debate. He had
been Prebendary of Durham, and Dean of Peter
borough, at the beginning of the late troubles, and
had excited the anger of the Puritan party by his
great fondness for ceremonies, the introduction of
what were considered superstitious innovations, and
the persecution of Peter Smart, who preached
against Episcopacy. His preferments were the
very first to be sacrificed when Parliament entered
on its sweeping sequestration of dignities and livings.
His Catholic tendencies had not been checked by
his chaplainship to the Protestant members in the
family of Queen Henrietta, during part of their
exile in Paris.
Gauden, Bishop of Exeter, whose hand in the
" Eikon Basilike " has been the subject of as much
dispute as theauthorship of " Junius's Letters," seems
to have shown practically, according to Baxter,
much more moderation than his writings would lead
any one to suppose, and to have been really
desirous of union.* But then it must be remem
bered that union of the kind sought by men of
Gauden's character was not union arising out of the
mutual concessions of brotherly love, but union to
* It is only justice to state that Baxter says, "if all had been of his mind,
we had been reconciled." — "Life and Times," p. 364.

Savoy Conference. 143

be produced by drawing every one into the ranks
of conformity.
Gunning, afterwards successively Bishop of
Chichester and Ely, came to the Conference with
the reputation of being an almost unequalled
textuary, and of having such an acquaintance with
ecclesiastical historians, as to be able to quote them
with ease whenever it was necessary. But Burnet
speaks of him as a dark and perplexed preacher,
interlarding his sermons with Hebrew and Greek
quotations, much to the delight of the Court ladies,
who, as Charles said, admired his preaching because
they did not understand it. And though Gunning's
admirers extolled him for his liberality, Baxter,
who felt the lash of his ready tongue, speaks of
him as vehement for his high imposing princi
ples, over-zealous for Arminianism, formality,
and Church pomp, and very eager and fervent in
his discourse ; so much so, that his prejudice and
passion perverted his judgment, and " made him
lamentably overrun himself in his discourse."*
Pearson, by far the most eminent man on the
Episcopal side of the Conference, was endowed
with great intellectual gifts, and a master of

* Baxter's " Life and Times," part II. p. 364. Newcome, in his Diary,
speaking of Cambridge(i662), says, "Things go sadly on. Very gross appearances
of popery in Dr. Gunning." An example of Gunning's want of all generous
feeling occurs in Baxter's " Life," part III. p. 105, and will be noticed
hereafter. L

146 Savoy Conference.

immense stores of theological learning. He had
already delivered in the form of lectures to the
parishioners of St. Clement, Eastcheap, the elaborate
dissertations on Christian doctrine which compose his
" Exposition of the Creed," — a work which proves
how well fitted he was to take a part in the pro
ceedings of the Commission, not only as it regards
devoutness, erudition, and general ability, but also
in reference to that closeness of thought and
judicious selection of proofs which give eminence to
the advocate and secure success at the bar.*
Though a thorough Churchman, as is indicated in
his great work, and a decided Episcopalian, as may
be seen in his vindication of the epistles of St. Igna
tius, he appears to have possessed great moderation
and candour, since he won credit for these qualities'
from Richard Baxter, who was not wont to concede
a title to them where it was not due. Reynolds,
from his position as a Presbyterian Bishop, ought
to have taken a leading part in the Conference, and
to have been a sort of mediator, using all his
influence to moderate the temper of certain of his
brethren on the bench, but he was a man of feeble
character, and by changing sides lost rather than
gained in moral weight. With regard to his
acceptance of a bishopric, it should be remembered
that, according to Baxter, his Presbyterianism

'* Hailam's " Introduction," iv. p. 170.

Savoy Conference. 147

differed scarcely at all from Usher's Episcopalian-
ism. That Reynolds should retain his bishopric
after the Act of Uniformity, was an altogether
different thing, and will not bear the same charitable
construction. On the Presbyterian side, Baxter himself took the
lead. His " Life," in some form or other so gene
rally read, his practical works, so wonderfully
popular that his name is a household word when
the other members of the Commission are scarcely
known, — proclaim fully his excellences and defects,
his adaptation in some respects, and his unfitness
in others, for the part assigned him in the Com
mission. No one had a greater love for truth.* No
one was more ready to be a martyr for charity.
Though not an accomplished scholar, he read an
enormous amount of divinity, both Latin and Eng
lish. An acute metaphysician, and a keen disputant,
he lacked that sobriety of judgment, that patience
under contradiction, and that application of means
to the attainment of practicable results, founded
upon common-sense acquaintance with men and
things, which are essential to success in all delibera
tive council, when we have to deal with those whose

* The following is very characteristic : — " I did many years suppress my
own reasons for communion in parish churches, while I was censured, and
told that I did more harm by it than good ; and many wished I had
never been born ; though I changed not my judgment from what it was when
they said less against it." April 20, 1684. — " Answer to Nameless Accuser,"
vol. ii. ; MS. Treatises, No. 25.
L 2

148 Savoy Conference.

minds are differently constituted, and whose educa
tion and habits are widely diverse from our own.
There were other men of the Presbyterian party
engaged in the Conference who, i n addition to some
of Baxter's excellences, possessed qualities better
fitting them for their difficult task. Mr. Calamy,
whom Baxter mentions as taking a prominent
part in the deliberations of the Presbyterian Com
mittee, though he does not mention him as a
debater in the general Conference, was a man of
eminence in his own day far beyond what his
reputation now would lead us to suppose. No
minister, we are quaintly told, was "more followed,
nor hath there ever been week-day lecture so fre
quented as his, which was attended not only by his
own parish (Aldermanbury), but by other eminent
citizens, and many persons of the greatest quality,
and that constantly, for twenty years together, for
there seldom were so few as sixty coaches." His
preaching before Parliament when the King was voted
home, his share in the deputation sent to meet him,
and the offer made to him of a bishopric, show the
importance of his position among the Presbyterians,
and countenance the assertion of his grandson that
he was reckoned to have the greatest interest in
Court, City, and country. He was probably as good
a theological scholar as any amongst the Puritans of
his day, — being well read in Bellarmine, Chamier,
Whitaker, and Raynolds, and other writers on the

Savoy Conference.

Popish controversy, thoroughly at home in Thomas
Aquinas, and by no means a stranger to the rest of
the schoolmen ; whilst, it is stated, he perused all
Augustine's works five times over, and was largely
acquainted with authors and commentators both
ancient and modern. He was distinguished for his
prudence, dignity, and courteous bearing, and on
that account was generally voted into the chair at
meetings of his brethren. As in early life he had
been disposed to make concessions, and had been one
of the divines who in 1641 met some of the Bishops
with aview to accommodation ; so, at the Restoration,
he wished for some comprehensive ecclesiastical
scheme, and would have accepted preferment had
the Worcester House Declaration been made
Parliamentary law. Bates was a Presbyterian
member of the Commission, particularly recom
mended by Baxter for his solidity, judiciousness,
and pertinence in debate. With none of the vehe
mence of the Kidderminster rector, and inferior, as
regards theological learning, to the popular preacher
of Aldermanbury parish, Bates surpassed them both
— and perhaps most of the Puritan divines of the
age — in " the politic parts of learning," in the
accomplishments of scholarship, and especially in
the cultivation of the graces of style, his being
" always neat and fine, but unaffected, free from
starch, lusciousness, or intricacy." His voice is said
to have been charming, and, together with his elo-

150 Savoy Conference.

quence, won for him the appellation, not of the
" golden-mouthed" — for he had not the grandeur of
John Chrysostom — but of the " silver-tongued "
Bates. He had one of those retentive memories
which never suffer knowledge to escape after it has
been once acquired. His perception was quick,
and his reasoning prompt and expert ; and as to his
wit, for which his biographer almost apologizes, " it
was never vain or light, but most facetious and
pleasant, by the ministry of a fancy both very
vigorous and lively, and most obedient to his reason,
always remote both from meanness and enormity."
His books on the " Harmony of Divine Attributes "
and " Spiritual Perfection" are still read and appreci
ated. Like other Presbyterians, he declined high pre
ferment, but was distinguished among the members
of the moderate school as to questions of Church
government, and for his large-hearted charity and
catholic temper. Dr. Jacomb, Mr. Newcomen,
and Mr. Clarke, were commissioners, who were also
active on committee, though not prominent in the
Conference. The first of these was a man of
superior education, and was celebrated as the pos
sessor of a large library. " His sermons were clear,
solid, and affectionate, and they were also pointed in
a fair and lively character in his conversation. He
was of a staid mind and temperate passions, and
moderate in counsels. In the managing affairs
of concernment he was not vehement and confident,

Savoy Conference. 151

not imposing and overbearing, but receptive of ad
vice, and yielding to reason." If learning, devout-
ness, and a catholic spirit, could fit men to take part
in the Conference, those we have just named had the
proper qualifications. But in diplomatic skill they
were defective, especially Baxter.
The warrant was dated the 25th of March.
It gave the Commissioners authority to review
the book of Common Prayer, comparing it with
the most ancient liturgies, to take into consi
deration all things which it contained, to consult
about the exceptions that should be taken against
it, and to make such necessary alterations as
should be agreed upon for giving satisfaction to
tender consciences and restoring peace and unity to
the Church. The appointed place of meeting was
" in the Master's lodgings in the Savoy," an old
palace rich in historical associations. The Commis
sion was to end within four months after the date
of the warrant ; yet three weeks were suffered to
elapse before there was any meeting of the divines.
The first day of their coming together was the 15th
of April, a week before Charles' coronation. The
programme for that ceremony had been already pre
pared. The officers of the Crown and of the
Heralds' College had long been busy in examining
claims, and searching precedents relating to a ser
vice which, after such an interregnum as had hap
pened, was to be performed with unusual state,

152 Savoy Conference.

pomp, and solemnity. In the order of procession,
and the details of the ceremonial, several of those
who now met at the Savoy, or were included in the
commission for the Conference, had assigned to
them places of distinction and functions of im
portance. Sheldon, Bishop of London, was to
officiate in part that day for the Archbishop of Can
terbury, Dr. Juxon, who attended Charles I. on
the scaffold — he being now old and full of years, and
incapable of performing the whole of his duty at
the coronation. Cosin, , Bishop of Durham, was
to support the King on the right side under the
canopy borne by the Barons of the Cinque Ports,
and to assist his Majesty in divers parts of the cere
mony. Warner, Bishop of Rochester, was to deliver
the prelates' petition to the King, praying him to
preserve to them all canonical privileges. Henry
King, Bishop of Chichester, was to read the Epistle
before the Holy Communion. George Morley,
Bishop of Worcester, was to preach the sermon. John
Gauden, Bishop of Exeter, was to carry the patena.
All the other Bishops, with the rest of their
brethren, besides the fulfilment of particular offices,
were to swell the grandeur of the procession, and to
kiss the King on the left cheek before any marquis
or duke was allowed that privilege. Other Epis
copal divines named in the commission were also to
be present on the occasion. Dr. Earle, Dean of
Westminster, was to assist at the anointing, to put

Savoy Conference. 153

the coif, with the colobium sindonis, or surplice,
upon the royal person. Dr. Heylin was to carry
the sceptre with the cross ; while other doctors of
divinity were to bear the sceptre with the dove, the
orb with the cross, King Edward's staff, the
chalice, the spoon, and the ampulla. The cere
mony of the coronation was, according to' im
memorial usage, to be an Episcopal ceremony.
Of course no part could be assigned to Presby
terians, unless — as in the case of the Bishop of Nor
wich, who, we presume, was present with the other
prelates — Presbyterianism clothed itself in the robes
of Episcopacy. Presbyterians, as such, had been
appointed chaplains and preached before the King ;
but, as such, they were ignored in the gorgeous
ceremonies of Westminster Abbey. All this was
very significant, and bears immediately on the
nature and probable issues of the Savoy Con
ference. It has often been said, the Presbyterians
were " in the saddle" at the time of the Restora
tion. It is plainer still, that the Episcopalians were
in the saddle at the time of the coronation. A
meeting at the Savoy, between divines of the two
schools, to consult about a revision of the Prayer
Book, in the spring of 1660, would have been a
perfectly different affair from such a meeting in the
spring of 166 1. Something at least like equal
terms of conference might at the former date have
been secured, though presbyters were then beginning

154 Savoy Conference.

to give way to priests ; but, at the later date, it is
plain to everybody now, that the men of the school
of Geneva stood no chance whatever with men of the
school of Canterbury. Episcopacy, with the Prayer
Book, was in possession. What use was it for Presby
terianism, with its alterations and reforms, to seek
admission ? According, indeed, to the theory of
the Worcester House Declaration, and also accord
ing to the commission for the Savoy Conference,
Puritans and prelates were on a level, each having
claims worthy of respect, which could be settled
only by mutual compromise ; but the position of
the parties, in point of fact, was utterly different.
They came together to the Bishop's lodgings on
the morning of the 15th April — all London astir
about the coronation — men's minds full of the
coming pageant, its splendours shining round the
Bishops as they were landing from their barges
on the river-stairs, in Episcopal habits, the Thames
boatmen doing them homage ; the poor Presby
terians thrown utterly into the shade, as they were
humbly walking through the Strand in their Genevan
cloaks, only members of their flocks paying
them reverence. The Archbishop of York opened
the Conference by apologizing for his ignorance of
the business, and leaving all to the Bishop of Lon
don. That prelate proposed at once that the
Presbyterians should reduce their objections to
writing; to which they replied that the meeting

Savoy Conference. 155

was for conference, and that a free debate would
best prepare for ultimate agreement. The Bishop
adhered to his first proposal, and Baxter fell in with
it, prevailing on his brethren to do the same.
According to the terms of the commission, they
met together to " advise " and to " consult," and the
whole spirit of the commission implied there was to
be friendly conference and mutual concession. As it
was, however, the Bishops showed no disposition to
concede anything, but assumed the port and bearing
of persons who were in the ascendant, and had to
do with troublesome people come to ask disagree
able favours. The Bishops had made up their
minds not to speak freely, and as men of business
bent upon keeping up old restrictions, the course
they pursued could be plausibly defended ; and
perhaps it would have mattered little in the end, if
Baxter's colleagues had persevered in their objec
tions. Yet his falling at once into the trap, and
so eagerly adopting the method of written commu
nications, especially of the description he had in his
mind, showed he had little of the wisdom of the
serpent, and very much of the harmlessness of the
dove. His sagacity was still more seriously at
fault, in proposing entirely new forms of worship. ,
The lawfulness of a liturgy being allowed, that of
the Church of England could justly claim unrivalled
excellences, and the omission or modification of
certain parts of it was a better course than the

1 56 Savoy Conference.

throwing of such formularies altogether aside, for
the sake of introducing a modern one, which could
not, however carefully prepared, fail to be open to
successful criticism. Historical and sentimental
associations, strong in the minds of his opponents,
Baxter did not seem to appreciate or recognise, but
set to work, as many good men do, insensible to
the charms of antiquity, and treating the question, —
what is best for the future? — as a purely abstract one.
To think, under any circumstances, of proving
that a new liturgy, hastily framed by a single
person, was better than the venerable form he sought
to displace, was unreasonable enough ; but for Baxter
to dream that men just about to figure amidst the
splendours of the coronation would give up what
they held dear, for the sake of the scruples of him
self and other unbeneficed brethren, was idle in the
extreme. Yet, after all, Baxter's guileless breadth
of soul, and pantings after an ideal Church of the
future, were nobler far than the narrow-minded
cleverness of his antagonists in preserving their
actual Church of the past ; and surely there is a
touch of true sublimity in the idea of vindicating
his cause, as he says he did in the account he wrote
of the Conference, for his own people, for foreigners,
and for posterity.
Exceptions, alterations, and additions, were re
quired by the Bishops to be brought in all at once ;
but Baxter succeeded so far as to obtain permission

Savoy Conference. J57

for bringing exceptions at one time, and additions
at another. It was arranged that his brethren should
take the former, and he the latter. The parties
separated, and the Bishops went back to prepare for
the coronation, Baxter to set to work on his " addi
tions." While bells were ringing and guns firing,
and the coronation in the Abbey was witnessed by
thousands — and when, as Baxter relates, after a serene
day, while the procession was returning from West
minster Hall, there was a terrible and unexpected
thunderstorm, reminding him of an earthquake
which he felt as a schoolboy, the very afternoon
that Charles I. was crowned — the great Puritan
divine, insensible to the attractions of sight-seeing,
was, we dare say, busy with his Bible and Con
cordance, compiling the new liturgy ; at any rate, in
the short space of a fortnight he finished his task,
and when he brought his draft to the brethren, he
found them " but entering on their work of excep
tions against the Common Prayer." So he lay by
his work for a fortnight longer, till theirs was done,
and then brought as many exceptions of his own
as fill eight closely-printed folio pages.
When exceptions and additions were finished,
approved, and adopted by the Presbyterian brethren,
Baxter, foreseeing, as he said, what was like to be
the end of the conference, proposed that a plain
and earnest petition should be laid before the
Bishops, begging them to yield to such terms of

158 Savoy Conference.

peace and concord as they themselves confessed to
be lawful. For though, he went on to argue, " we
are equals1 in the King's Commission, yet we are
commanded by the Holy Ghost, ' if it be possible,
and so much as in us lieth, to live peaceably with
all men,' and if we were denied, it would satisfy
our consciences, and justify us before all the world
(two points Baxter ever kept in view), much more
than if we only disputed for it." A petition to that
effect was accordingly prepared.
When all the Commissioners met again, Baxter
presented his paper and craved consent to read it.
Some objected, but at length it was allowed. " Their
patience," says he, " was never so put to it by us as
in hearing so long and ungrateful a petition." Gun
ning made a vehement speech, to which Baxter
replied, but the latter was interrupted ere he had
done, because, as the Bishops said, " they had been
patient so long before." The Presbyterians in
their paper pleaded that as the first reformers com
posed the Liturgy so as to draw the Papists into
their communion, the Liturgy ought now to be
revised so as to unite all substantial Protestants.
It was suggested that certain repetitions should be
omitted; that the Litany should be one prayer;
that neither Lent nor Saints' days should be any
longer observed; that free prayer should be allowed;
that only the Old and New Testament should be
read in the daily lessons; that no part of the Com-

Savoy Conference. 159
munion should be read at the table, except when
the Lord's Supper was administered; that the word
"minister" should be changed for " priest," and
" Lord's day " for " Sunday ;" that offices should
be reformed where the phrases presumed the con
gregation to be regenerated and in a state of grace ;
that the Liturgy was defective in praise and thanks
giving; that the Confession and Catechism were
also imperfect'; and that the surplice, the cross, and
kneeling at the Lord's Supper were unwarrantable.
Special exceptions were taken to certain expres
sions in the daily service, such as " deadly sin " and
" sudden death," to the sentences from the Apo
crypha in the offertory, and to the rubric about
Communion. But the main objections were to the
form for the ordinance of baptism, as teaching Bap
tismal Regeneration, and requiring sponsors without
mention of parents ; and the marriage service, the
forms of absolution in the visitation of the sick, and
the burial service also came in for exception.
The Bishops replied, that they would not admit
the force of a single objection, — thus showing an
utter disregard of the commission, which directed
that "what was needful should be done to give
satisfaction to tender consciences." The task of
answering the Bishops' reply was imposed on
Baxter. Nothing loth to undertake it, he went
out of town to Dr. Spurstow's house in Hackney
for retirement, and there in eight days finished his

too Savoy Conference.

rejoinder. Time wore away. Ten days only
remained. At last a session for viva voce debate
was appointed. The Puritans wanted the Bishops
to talk freely, but their Lordships maintained a
prudent reticence. Even Reynolds could not
persuade his brethren of the bench by " friendly
conference to go over the particulars excepted
against." No ; they kept on resolutely insisting
that they had nothing to do till the necessity for
alteration was proved ; — proved that necessity
already was, in the estimation of the Puritans,
proved it could not be, in the estimation of the
High Church party.
All hope of a pacifying conference being aban
doned, the Presbyterian divines agreed to a debate,
and then many hours were spent in fixing the order
of disputation. The Bishops, according to their
policy throughout, maintained that it belonged to
those who were accusers to argue. They were
simply on their defence. The rejoinder proved as
vain as it was just : — " We are the defendants against
your impositions ; you command us to do certain
things under pain of excommunication, imprison
ment, and silence. We defend ourselves against
this cruelty, by asking you to show authority for
this." At last it was settled, that there should be
a formal dispute, to be conducted by three on each
side. Strangers were allowed to be present, and
the room was full of auditors, young Mr. Tillotson 

Savoy Conference. 161
the great preacher and eminent Archbishop of
after days — was among them.
Through the sinuosity of the verbal discussion
we shall not attempt to follow the disputants. It
turned upon vague abstractions, and subtle theo
logical distinctions, interrupted by outbursts of
temper and uncivil personalities. As might be ex
pected, the hall of the Savoy Palace was turned
into an arena for logical gladiatorship, and the pur
pose of the meeting became a strife for victory.
Weary of such useless contention, Bishop Cosin
proposed that the complainers should distinguish
between what was sinful in the book of Common
Prayer, and what was inexpedient, — a course, how
ever, which did not help on the matter, but only
led, as Baxter confesses, to wandering discourses
and unprofitable disputes.
With abundance of viva voce wrangling, there
was mixed up a continuance of paper warfare, the
disputants on each side writing extempore, with
drawing into the next room for that purpose.
After the debates were all over, the Presbyterians
waited on the Lord Chancellor to advise with him
as to the account they were to give of their doings
to the King. At first he received Baxter " merrily,"
and comparing his spare figure and thin face with
the rotunder form and plumper cheeks of one of
his companions, said, " If you were as fat as Dr.
Manton we should all do. well." To which the
M

1 62 Savoy Conference.
other replied, fixing his dark piercing eyes on
Clarendon, "If your Lordship can teach me the
art of growing fat, you will find me not unwilling
to learn by any good means."* Becoming serious,
the Chancellor charged the divine with being severe,
strict, and melancholy, making things to be sin
which were not so, in allusion to charges against the
Liturgy. The latter simply answered that he had
spoken nothing but what he thought, and had given
reasons for. Baxter drew up a paper in the form of
a petition, giving an account of the Conference.
It was arranged that Reynolds, Bates, and Manton,
should present the petition. At their request, Baxter
accompanied them. Manton delivered the account
to the King. Reynolds said a few words ; of
course, Baxter could not be silent. He made, he
acknowledges, " a short speech, in which he in
formed his Majesty how far they were agreed with
the bishops, and wherein the difference did not lie,
as in points of loyalty, obedience, and church order."
The King put the commonplace question sug
gested in theological disputes, But who shall be
judge? Baxter seized the opportunity to say
that "judgment is either public or private — private

* "Aug. 13. — A facetious divine, being commended to Lord Chancellor
Sir Edward Hyde, who loves witty men, desired to converse with him • being
come to him, the Chancellor asked him his name ; he said Bull ; he replied
he never saw a bull without horns. It is true (was the answer), for the horns
go with the hide." — Worcester MS.

Savoy Conference. 163
judgment called discretionis, which is but the use
of my reason to conduct my actions, belongeth to
every private rational man ; public judgment is
ecclesiastical or civil, and belongeth accordingly to
the ecclesiastical governors or pastors, and the civil,
and not to any private man." If Charles II. had
been like his grandfather James, a scholastic dis
cussion would have been inevitable. But the gay
grandson, perhaps without heeding what was said,
passed over Baxter's remark in silence. The earnest
Puritan winds up the account by the curt observa
tion, " And this was the end of these affairs."
Sorrow and trouble came out of the Conference.*
The Presbyterians were treated as a vanquished
party. Episcopalian Royalists were glad enough
to retort on their old persecutors. All sorts of
charges were brought — all sorts of stories told.
The Presbyterians were seditious and disaffected ;
plots were hatched by them all over the country.
Young clergymen thought it the road to prefer
ment to revile and calumniate the Puritan ministers.
Baxter was a special butt for malignant marksmen.

* After the Act of Uniformity, Baxter shrewdly observes, " This is worthy
the noting by the way, that all that I can speak with of the conforming party,
do now justify only the using and obeying, and not the imposing of these
things with the penalty by which they are imposed. From whom it is evident,
that most of their own party do now justify our cause which we maintained at
the Savoy, and which was against this imposition, whilst it might have been
prevented, and for which such an intemperate fory hath pursued me to this
very day." — " Life and Times," p. 394.
M 2

164 Savoy Conference.

He could not preach but he was accused of treason.
Even his prayers were heard with suspicion, and so,
he said, it was a mercy when he was silenced.
There was, however, something to alleviate
Baxter's affliction. When the account of the Con
ference was published it produced a favourable im
pression in quarters where Baxter and his friends
had been suspiciously regarded. The Indepen
dents, in the first instance, were annoyed that the
Presbyterians had not consulted them. Some of
the divines, too, were jealous of their more influ
ential brethren. Both parties joined in saying of
the Puritan commissioners that they were too for
ward in meeting the bishops, and too ready to make
concessions; that if they had "stood off" they
would have " done more good," and " had better
terms." Baxter, though unimpeached as to his
motives, was censured for being eager after con
cord through an excess of compromise. " Both
extremes were offended with me," he writes, " and
I found what enmity charity and peace are like to
meet with in the world."* But now the papers were
printed the tide turned. The Independents declared
that the Presbyterians at the Savoy had been
faithful to their principles ; people who were not
partizans confessed that the diocesan debaters,

See Appendix III.

Savoy Conference. 165

though victorious by reason of their position and
authority, had on the main points the worst of the
argument.* * Baxter's words are, "The chief of the Congregational party took it ill that
we took not them with us in our treaty, and so did a few of the Presbyterian
divines. Most of the Independents, and some few Presbyterians, raised it as
a common censure against us, that if we had not been so forward to meet the
bishops with the offers of so much at first, and to enter a treaty with them
without just cause, we had all had better terms. Men on both extremes were
offended with me, and I found what enmity charity and peace are like to
meet with in the world." — " Life and Times," p. 379. Baxter's experience in
this respect is not an uncommon one.

Chapter VI.

Cfje blouse of (ftommortg in 1661.
,'T was necessary to call a new Parlia
ment, for the Convention obviously
lacked certain constitutional attributes.
But it was a further reason with the
King and Court for summoning a
fresh House that the Presbyterians in that assembly,
returned under the influence of the rulers before
the Restoration,were too numerous and troublesome
to be managed.
The writs were issued on the 9th March, 1661,
and in ten days the country was busy in the return
of knights and burgesses. The City of London
took the lead ; and as so much new and curious in
formation on the subject has been afforded us by
researches in the State Paper Office, we shall
describe what we have discovered relative to the
proceedings at the election.
The Guildhall of London, — which, though now
altered much, retains enough of its early archi-

The House of Commons in 1661. 167
tecture to carry back our thoughts to distant days, —
has known many a scene of civic strife at ward
motes, elections of Lord Mayors, and the like ;
but rarely, if ever, did it contain a throng so
densely packed, and echo with shouts and screams so
loud and dissonant, and witness a contest for the
choice of representatives in Parliament, so tri
umphant on one side, so humiliating on the other,
so earnest on both, as on this occasion. In con
fused ways, on the 19th of March, the Lord Mayor
and most of the aldermen were proposed as candi
dates : Recorder Wylde, Sir John Robinson, Sir
Richard Ford, Sir Thomas Bloworth, Sir Nicholas
Crisp, and Alderman Adams, were all named on
the Royalist side ; on the popular side were Alder
man Thompson and Alderman Love — "godly men,
and of good parts, Congregationalists" — Captain
Jones, a Presbyterian man, and Alderman Foulke,
" not much noted for religion, but a countenancer
of good ministers, one who was present at the act
for abolishing Kingly Government, and deeply en
gaged in Bishops' lands." Recorder Wylde, Sir
Richard Brown, Sir John Robinson, and William
Vincent, had been the City members in the Conven
tion Parliament, and were then no doubt sound
Presbyterians ; but the Londoners disliked them,
not only because they were unfaithful to their prin
ciples, but also for not having spoken against the
taking away of Purveyance, and the Court o

168 The House of Commons in 1661.
Wards, and the laying on of the Excise Tax, and
the levy of Poll Money. The tide was running
strong in favour of ultra-dissent. The candidates
of the opposite party, except Ford, had scarcely
any one to speak for them. The poor Recorder's
name, Wylde, was received with rude shouts, amidst
which was a feeble pun, reminding us of modern
elections: "We have been too wild already."
Episcopacy was at a discount, and the old hall was
rent with cries of " No bishops — no bishops."
Ten thousand citizens in livery — no doubt an ex
aggeration — were computed to be present ; but the
multitude, whatever the exact number, seemed so
much of one mind, that a sympathizing friend
declared " there was a general acclamation for love
and amity ;" adding, that "he never saw so general
a union of Presbyterians, Independents, and Ana
baptists, crying down the Episcopalians, who went
away cursing and swearing, and wishing they had
never come." A shrewd courtier in one corner
whispered to an elector that he hoped what was
going on would be a warning to the bishops. The
calling of nicknames, and the outpouring of ridi
cule, were not monopolized, but shared in about
equal portions by the two parties. The Royalists
pelted their opponents with scurrilous abuse, yet
they seemed to have had nothing worse to say of
Alderman Thompson than " that he was a rare
pedlar ; so fond of smoking, that his breath would

The House of Commons in 1661. 169
poison a whole committee." Jones was reproached
as another smoker ; but the Captain was admitted
by an opponent to be an honest man, if amongst
such a party there could be one.* No applause
was so loud as that which his name called forth ;
and when the Episcopal party would fain have had
him left out, " the court never left off crying c A
Jones — a Jones,' till it was otherwise resolved."
When it came to a show of hands, only a few
were held up for the Recorder and his friends.
The election was all but unanimous, and no poll
was demanded by the party thus signally defeated
at the hustings.
Some Nonconforming ministers are noticed as in
teresting themselves in this election, though "others,
like Demas, wounded their consciences by complying
somewhat." In an election squib, called "A Dialogue
between the two Giants in Guildhall," which came
out just afterwards, — one pastor of a Congregational
Church was said " to bring a hundred, another of
the holders forth sixty, to the destruction of the
beast." And as Gog and Magog went on talking
the matter over, one of them, referring to the union
of Presbyterians and Independents in the election,
observed, " I thought these two, like two buckets,
could not possibly be weighed up together." " Yes,"

* Loyal Subject's Lamentation for London's perverseness in the malignant
choice of some rotten members on Tuesday, 19 March, 1661.

170 The House of Commons in 1661.
said his brother giant, " there's an engine called
Necessity, made with the screws of Interest, that
doth it secundum art em." Of course such publica
tions are worth nothing as witnesses to particular
facts, but they vividly bring to light that old
election contest ; they repeat the rumours and they
reveal the hatreds that influenced the contending
parties. In other ways than heading mobs, certain
ministers are mentioned as taking part in the great
City strife. " Mr. Carill, and other eminent min
isters, held a fast, and prayed heartily, and God has
heard them," wrote a godly Independent to a friend
at Norwich. But Zachary Crofton, a noted divine,
is most frequently mentioned as a champion on the
side of the anti-episcopal party. " A subtle, witty
man, bitter against the bishops, and a great vexa
tion to them. He prosecuted his argument last
Lord's Day, and there were more people than could
get into the church." " Little Crofton, who preaches
against bishops, has the greatest auditory in London,
and the anti-episcopal spirit is strangely revived."
" Thank God that Mr. Crofton is still at liberty ; he
preaches that bishops are a human institution, and
led to the Papacy." " Little Crofton preaches
against Bishop Gauden every Sunday night, with an
infinite auditory, itching, and applause." Others,
like Crofton, joined in these unseemly demonstra
tions, and won popularity by their political ha
rangues. " All who oppose prelacy," observes one

The House of Commons in 1661. 171
who evidently opposed it himself, and no doubt
went to hear the men whom he mentions so ad
miringly, " are mightily followed, as Dr. Seaman
and others. Mr. Graffen had two thousand in the
streets, who could not get into the Tantling Meeting
House, to hear him bang the bishops, which theme
he doth most exquisitely handle." Crofton, who
clearly was a sad troubler of the London Israel, was
prosecuted for writing two inflammatory books,
"The Fastening of St. Peter's Fetters by Seven
Links ;" and " Berith Anti-Baal ; or Zachary Crof-
ton'sAppearance before the Prelate Justice of Peace."
Imprisoned in the Tower immediately after the elec
tion, while preparations were going on for the coro
nation, Zachary petitioned the King for pardon and
release, that he might share in the approaching
festival ; and, as was the wont in those days, he
pleaded loyalty in the old bad times, and how he
had suffered sequestration and imprisonment, and
that his late inconsiderate expressions on matters
out of his sphere were not written with intent to
disturb the peace of the kingdom.
Citizens of London talking over the sermons of
this peppery little man, who certainly does not
inspire much respect, and talking still more over the
great folk-mote of the morning, went home to their
quaint wainscoted parlours, on the evening of the 19th
of March, to write letters to their friends in the
country. Some deplored the disgrace they thought

17a The House of Commons in 1661.
the City had incurred, calling the new members
fanatic Presbyterians and fanatic Independents,
but many more in a jubilant strain proclaimed the
Liberal triumph, and called on the country to follow
the City example. Nicholas Roberts, writing to
Birmingham, hoped the country would choose such
men. Mr. Benson told a friend at York, the members
just elected for Parliament gave hopes of help and
relief from losses, if other places would do the same.
" The lawn sleeves don't like the election," said
J. C. to a Newcastle correspondent. " Out of thirty-
three men " (an unprecedented number of candi
dates) " who stood for the election for next
Parliament, four honest sound Presbyterians were
unanimously chosen. It is hoped the country will
do the same." So wrote Thomas Cjuincia, not an
over-accurate reporter, to a man in Staffordshire.
Another citizen, addressing Mr. Darley of York,
after communicating private affairs, " hoped their
county and corporations would choose as well, and
then religion would flourish, and the King's throne
be established in peace and righteousness." Each
wrote, of course, according to his own humour. An
unknown liveryman scribbling to the Mayor of
Coventry, informed his worship that " the City was
fond of good ministers, and unwilling that they
should be forced to conform to ceremonies, many
wondering that Bishops should impose, when the
King declared a forbearance. " They will preju-

The House of Commons in 1661. 173
dice his Majesty," the writer adds, " for sober men
have a most loving heart to him, and hope he will
not countenance such things." He finished by
wishing that the fanatics in other places would agree
together to choose honest Presbyterians. The
correspondent of the Coventry chief magistrate
was evidently one of the stiff old league and
covenant gentlemen, no liker of the Independents
at all. Another of the unknown, by no means
elated like his neighbours by the London victory,
said in rather a gloomy strain, that he would " not
go to New England unless driven by necessity, nor
leave the country till all possible means had been
tried for liberty of conscience, and the cause of God
had been more witnessed to by suffering."
These letters were penned in the afternoon cr
evening of the 19th of March, and were carefully
folded up and taken to the post.* Some of the
writers, no doubt, thought that by so early a
despatch of tidings, they would influence the pro
ceedings in the country, and help to secure the
return of such members as they wished. But the
relatives and friends in the country, waited in vain
for the postman's arrival on his weary horse, in those
windy March days.f There were no letters for

* These letters are calendared in Mrs. Green's volume. Domestic.
Charles II. 1660-6 1. No. 83 to 147.
+ The Government monopoly of letter-carrying was sometimes invaded,
and I notice in the Minute Book of Privy Council, 1661-62, a curious order

174 The House of Commons in 1661.
them in the bag, and the sober Londoners
were equally disappointed, that no answers came to
their communications. It is from those time-stained
yellowish-looking sheets of different sizes, and of
varied calligraphy, that we have found the materials
for this portion of our history. The fact is, the
letters were intercepted at the Post Office, and
seized by the Government. Letter-bags had been
rifled in the times of the Commonwealth, and, after
the Restoration the practice was common. Other
notices of it appear elsewhere in this volume.
The object of the interception plainly was to
prevent the example of London from influencing
the country. Whether, if the letters had gone, it
would have made much difference, we doubt. At
all events, the elections went chiefly the other way.
Sir Thomas Bridges indeed wrote to Secretary
Nicholas, telling him he had vainly endeavoured to
bring in loyal members for Bath, being opposed
by the mayor ; and he asked directions to prevent
the election of Prynne and Popham, notorious in
the late rebellion, but still courting popular applause.
What, however, Bridges attempted in vain, was
accomplished in most places ; interference from head
quarters being sought, as this communication
indicates. Clarendon, Chancellor of Oxford Uni-

for taking into custody two persons who obtained large quantities of letters,
under pretence of conveying them to their proper destination ; but who in fact
threw them into the Thames and still worse places.

The House of Commons in \66i. 175
versity, claimed the right of nominating members,
whereupon his son and Sir Heneage Finch were
elected, " for want of a competitor," grumbled
certain men, since " only twenty placets were given,
and some gave their non-placets."* These plain indi
cations of Government influence sought and exercised
at that memorable general election, together with the
interception of letters, and the notorious fact of
subsequent bribes to members, warranting the title
of the pensionary parliament, are enough to show
that no influence needful for securing the object of
the court would be withheld from conscientious
scruples. Some of the members were returned
simply by corporations, and several corporations
were just before, by royal order, purged of men
disaffected to Governments No doubt many
electioneering tricks were played, of which all
traces have disappeared. But independently of un-

* State Papers, Charles II., xxxiv. 9. Sir Thomas Browne, in a letter to
his son, says — "Two Royalists gained it here (Norwich) against all opposition
that could possibly be made j the voices in this number — Jaye 1070, Corie loor,
Barnham 562, Church 436. My Lord Richardson and Sir Ralph Hare
carried it in the county without opposition." — " Works," i. 8.
•f As instances of such purging, we may mention that on the 25th of
February, just before the election, orders of that kind were sent to Hull and
Norwich. State Papers. Domestic. i66r. Vol. xxxi. 36, 37. Oldfield's
"History of the Original Constitution of Parliament," gives * veiy large
number of instances in which members for boroughs in the seventeenth century
were returned by the Corporation. For example, Abingdon j Andover,
votes 24 j Banbury, votes 18; Bath, votes 18 j Beaumaris, votes 24.
These instances are taken, because coming at the head of the alphabetical
arrangement.

176 The House of Commons in 1661.
constitutional interference, there were causes at work
which will largely account for the result of the
elections in favour of the Cavalier party. Some of
the old members, Presbyterians and Independents,
had been rendered ineligible by political offences.
The nobility restored to their former position, com
manded the votes of their tenants. The zeal of the
Episcopal clergy was as strong and active in the
support of Royalist members, as that of Crofton and
' the rest in an opposite direction. Great was the
personal popularity in counties and rural boroughs
of any candidate who had been an officer in the
civil wars, and had fought at Naseby or Marston
Moor under the banner of Charles. Whatever
might be the remaining attachment to " the good
old cause," it was completely overborne by the
strong tide of enthusiasm set in against it.
The Parliament met on the 8th of May. The
Upper House presented some appearance of its
ancient splendour, for though the Bishops were not
yet restored to their seats, more than a hundred
peers were on the benches, — a striking contrast to
the opening of the Convention Parliament, when
only five Earls, one Viscount, and four Barons
mustered in the chamber at Westminster. His
Majesty, arrayed in regal robes, with the crown on
his head, ascended the throne. On each side were
the officers of state ; the Peers were decked in their
crimson velvet and ermine, and the Commons came

The House of Commons in 1661. 177
rushing in, to take their places below the bar.
With regard to ecclesiastical matters the King was
silent, unless there was a reference to the Breda
declaration, when " he said he valued himself much
upon keeping his word and making good whatsoever
he had promised to his subjects." It did not look
at all as if his word were likely to be kept, when
Lord Chancellor Clarendon, in his long and elaborate
harangue to both Houses,— after an allusion to the
disorders of the State, in which he dwelt with
medical minuteness upon its constitution and dis
tempers, its humours and fever, its stomach and
appetite, — went on to ask, " what Christian could
thinkwithout horror of ministers, who by their func
tion should be messengers of peace, being in practice
trumpets of war ? And if the person and the
place could aggravate the offence, he thought the
preaching rebellion and treason from the pulpit
should be as much worse than the advancing it in
the market, as the poisoning of a man at the Com
munion would beworse than killing him at a tavern."
Clarendon went so far as to declare, what he called
preaching rebellion to be the sin against the Holy
Ghost.* Sir Edward Turner, a thorough-going Royalist,
was elected Speaker of the House of Commons,
and when presented with ' due formalities to the

* See Speech in the Lords' Journals.
N

*7§ The House of Commons in 1661.
King, delivered one of those tiresome speeches full
of figures and flatteries so characteristic of the times.
The difference between the new Commons and the
old, — the change from Presbyterianism to Epis
copacy, was manifested in one of the earliest orders,
i.e., that the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper on the
Sunday sevennight should, in the forenoon, be ad
ministered at St. Margaret's Church, according to
the form prescribed in the Liturgy of the Church
of England, and that no one should come into the
House who did not partake of the Communion
either there publicly, or afterwards in the presence
of two or more witnesses. Certain Commissioners
were appointed to see that this was duly regarded.*
The Saturday before the Communion, the House
did not sit, that the members might have time
for religious preparation. Dr. Gunning preached
in the forenoon, and Mr. Carpenter, the chaplain,
in the afternoon. A diary-keeping member pre
sent, states — in one of those gossiping MSS. which
are such precious waifs to the antiquary — that "the
Doctor refused the bread to Mr. Prinn because
he did not, and would not kneel ; also, that Bis-
cowen took it standing."t Afterwards, a report was
made to the House by Sir Allen Brodrick of those
who had not received the Sacrament. Some were

* Journals of the House of Commons, 13 Car. II., 13 Maii.
•f Quoted in Lathbury's " Hist, of Convocation."

The House of Commons in 1661. 179
sick ; others made excuses. Mr. Love's was unsatis
factory, and it was resolved that " he be suspended
from sitting in this House until he shall commu
nicate, and bring certificate thereof from the said
Commissioners according to the former order.* The
Solemn League and Covenant had now been dis
placed a year. This new Parliament resolved to
brand it with fresh indignities. On the 17th May it
was put to the House that the well-known symbol
of Presbyterian ascendancy should be burnt by the
hand of the common hangman. There were 228
" for the yeas," and 103 " for the noes." The Lords
were desired to concur in the order. They did so ;
and on the 20th May they resolved that the Cove
nant should be burnt by the common hangman in
the New Palace at Westminster, in Cheapside, and
before the Old Exchange, on Wednesday, the 22nd
May, and that all copies in churches and chapels should
be taken down.t The burning followed in due form,
and "the hangman," says the " Mercurius Publicus,"
" did his part perfectly well ; for having kindled
his fire, he tore the document into very many pieces,
and first burned the preface, and then cast each parcel
solemnly into the fire, lifting up his hands and eyes,

* Journals, Car. IL, 3 Jul. Pepys, on the 26th May, speaks of this case,
and of another person to whom " the bread was brought, and he did take it
sitting, which was thought very preposterous."
f The Act for the High Court of Justice to try Charles I., and other public
Acts, were formally doomed on the 27th of May to the same fate. See
Journal of the Commons for that day. N %

1 80 The House of Commons in 166 \.
not leaving the least shred, but burnt it root and
branch." The Cavalier party thought that so
edifying a spectacle was worth repetition in the
provinces, though not enjoined in the Lords' orders.
Hence, at Bury St. Edmunds, on celebrating the
Restoration, the town was decorated with boughs,
and made full of arbours, — the streets were strewed
with rushes, the windows were decked with gar
lands, and the houses with tapestry and pictures ;
faces peering out of the casements, or crowding the
highway, all radiant with joy. After service at St.
James', poor Hugh Peters, already hanged in reality,
was in effigy whipt by the common beadle, and
finally gibbeted, — the Solemn League and Covenant
being in one hand, a string of bodkins, thimbles,
and rings in the other, and the Presbyterian Direc
tory tucked under his arm. It is added, that at
St. Mary's " a factious brotherhood still assemble,
the Levites being presented with the form of divine
service for the day, were frightened by it out of
their religion — i.e., preaching — and left the church."*
This evidently means that a quiet Nonconforming
congregation, met to celebrate the festival loyally in
their own way, were insulted and dispersed. At
Southampton there was the firing of reculvers, and
the marching of train bands, with aldermen in scar
let, to end in the burning of the League in a "stately
* "Public Intelligencer," June 6-13, 1661.

The House of Commons in 1661. i8r
frame, taken from the chancel of an Anabaptist
church."* As a further indication of the temper of
the Commons, we find in the records of the House
on the 20th June, that " the Mayor of North
ampton, being in the custody of the Sergeant-at-
Arms, for his miscarriage in the election for that
borough, and irreverent carriage in the church and at
the Communion Table, — was this day brought to
the bar of this House, and, making a humble sub
mission upon his knees, received a grave reprehension
from the Speaker, and was thereupon discharged
of his imprisonment, paying his fees." A bill for
the punishment of Quakers, together with one against
vagrants, speedily followed, and came into the hands
of the same committee on the 29th June. The bill
proposed that every person refusing to take a law
ful oath, or defending the lawfulness of such refusal,
or meeting with Quakers " to the number of four
or more of the age of sixteen years or upwards, at
any one time, in any place, under pretence of
joining in religious worship," should for the first
offence forfeit five pounds, for the second ten
pounds, and for the third " abjure the realm, or be
transported in any ship or ships to any of his
Majesty's plantations beyond the seas." On this bill
becoming known some effort was made to prevent
it becoming law. " A petition," so runs the entry

1 Kingdom's Intelligencer," June 10-17, 1661.

1 82 The House of Commons in 1661.
in the journals, " was tendered on the behalf of
certain persons called Quakers, by some at the door,
who go under that notion, and desired to be heard
before the said bill do pass. Resolved that they
be called in." Thereupon entered, without doubt
in drab attire, and with broad-brimmed hats on,
Edward Burroughs, Richard Hubblethorn,* George
Whitehead, and Edward Pyot. What these four
Friends, — all well known for their zeal and sufferings,
and duly celebrated in Quaker histories, — affirmed
and pleaded on this occasion, no more appears upon
the journals than do the quizzing glances, the satiri
cal smiles, or the angry frowns from the Cavalier
benches. But it is quite certain these advocates for
a persecuted sect made no favourable impression on
their persecutors, for, when they had withdrawn,
the stern resolution was taken " that the bill do
pass." Such incidents show the spirit in which the new
House of Commons had assembled. Predominant
in the minds of the majority were hatred for the
Presbyterians, contempt for the Quakers, and in
tolerance towards all who did not conform. Like
feelings were expressed in more decided ways. Ere
the House had been sitting two months, measures
were introduced of a character to prove, that from
the first assembling of the Parliament, a system was

* So it is written in the Journals, but it should be Hubberthorn.

The House of Commons in 1661. 183
framed for bringing back the Church to what it
had been in the days of old, without making any
concessions to weak consciences as promised at
Breda ; and at the same time for crushing all Non
conformity on the part of laymen as well as
ministers. The Savoy Conference was all this while
lingering on, and the proceedings there, if they had
any meaning, meant, surely, that some changes
ought to be made in the constitution of the Church ;
but Parliament utterly opposed everything like the
moderation and tolerance, under pretence of which
that Conference had been planned and called. The
grand measures for the restoration of the Church
to its former position, by reseating the Spiritual
Lords in Parliament ; for a revival of the ancient
ecclesiastical jurisdiction ; for the exclusion of Non
conformists from civic offices ; and for the re-
establishment of the Church on the exclusive basis
of Anglican Episcopacy and the Prayer Book, were
not conceived at distant periods, as if they arose out
of a pressure of circumstances. They did not
spring from alarm created by the increasing insta
bility of affairs, or by plots discovered and declared.
The true history of these acts does not develope
a policy evoked by alarming events which
might serve as some excuse, though no justification.
Yet such is a common historical tradition. One
measure, it is supposed, slowly followed another,
and the rebuilding of the ecclesiastical constitution

184 The House of Commons in 1661.
was tardily because perilously progressive, — like the
rebuilding of Jerusalem, the builders having to build,
each man with a weapon by his side. The two most
decisive measures,weha ve been told — the Corporation
Act which shut out Nonconformists from the
government of boroughs, and the Act of Unifor
mity which ejected many hundreds of ministers from
their livings in the Church — did not make their
appearance till many months after the meeting of
the Pensionary Parliament. In December, 1661, the
Corporation Act is said to have been passed, because
of the recent revelation of plots, rendering such
municipal securities indispensable. And in the
following spring, the Bill for Uniformity is described
as making its first appearance, in consequence of
insurrections intended by Nonconformists, and offi
cially exposed in a conference between the two
Houses in January, 1662. But the simple narra
tive .we are about to give, drawn from the Journals
of the Lords and Commons, will prove that the
facts of the case were quite otherwise, and that a
comprehensive method of establishing the Church,
and crushing all opposition, had been devised up
wards of six months before.
A bill for restoring the prelates to Parliament
was introduced into the House of Commons on the
ist of June; a fortnight afterwards the bill reached
the Upper House. Clarendon speaks of its being
carried, " notwithstanding the prejudice the clergy

The House of Commons in 1661.

had brought upon themselves, upon their too much
good husbandry in granting leases ;" and he informs
us it was proposed in the House of Commons, by a
gentleman of Presbyterian family, and found there
less opposition than was looked for ; but in the
House of Lords it met with obstruction from the
Earl of Bristol, the head of the Roman Catholic party.
The Earl went to the King, and told him, " that
if this bill should speedily pass, it would absolutely
deprive the Catholics of all the indulgence which
he intended ; for the Bishops, when they should sit
in the House, whatever their opinions were, would
be obliged to oppose what would look like conni
vance at Popery : and therefore, if his Majesty
continued his gracious inclination towards the
Roman Catholics, he must put some stop to the
passing of the bill, till the other should be more
advanced, which he supposed might shortly be
done."* Charles listened, and was for delaying the mea
sure. Whereupon the Earl informed his friends
in the House, that the King would be well pleased
if there should not be overmuch haste in presenting
the bill for the Royal assent. Its progress was accord
ingly retarded in committee, till the Chancellor
spoke to his Majesty, who, veering from point to
point, as the influence brought to bear on him by

* Clarendon's " Continuation," p. 1070 (Oxford, 1843).

186 The House of Commons in 1661.
his courtiers varied — though, no doubt, he was in
his heart more disposed to follow Bristol than Cla
rendon — at last consented that the bill might be
despatched as soon as possible. It passed at the
end of the session ; and when the Parliament was
adjourned at the end of July, and Mr. Speaker in
his robes, at the summons of the Black Rod, knelt
before Charles enthroned, this memorable repeal was
the subject of emphatic reference in a speech deli
vered, full of quaint conceits. " Thanks be to
God," said the Speaker, " the flood is gone off the
face of this island. Our turtle-dove hath found
good footing, your Majesty is happily restored to
the Government, the temporal Lords and Commons
are restored to sit in Parliament. And shall the
Church alone now suffer ? ' Sit Ecclesia Angli-
cana libera et habeat libertates suas illaesas.' In
order to this great work the Commons have pre
pared a bill to repeal that law which was made in
17th Caroli, whereby the Bishops were excluded
this House. These noble Lords have all agreed,
and now we beg your Majesty will give it life.
Speak but the word, great sir, and your servants
yet shall live."*

* We may here mention as an illustration of the spirit for dishonouring the
dead — and that too on the anti-Church as well as the anti-Puritan side — that
there are repeated references in the Journals of the Lords during this session, to
accusations brought against Matthew Hardy, for taking up the body of Arch
bishop Parker, for selling the lead wherein he was wrapped, for defacing his
monument, for turning his tombstone into a table, and for burying the bones

The House of Commons in 1661. 187

The next step in the course of ecclesiastical pro
ceedings was the introduction of a bill for the well
governing of Corporations. It was read the first
time on the 1 9th June ; was then speedily com
mitted, and largely discussed ; and, after some
amendments and divisions, entered the House of
Lords, where it was read the first time on the 17th
July. After the reading for the third time, on the
23rd, there were conferences with the Commons,
who declared that the Lords, by their amendments,
had changed the whole body of the bill. The fur
ther consideration of the measure was thereupon
postponed till the 9th of December, and the bill
was not ready for the Royal assent till the 20th.
The Act required that all members of corporations
should, besides taking the oaths of allegiance and
supremacy, swear that it is not lawful, under any
pretence, to bear arms against the King, and that
the Solemn League and Covenant was unlawful. It
also enacted that no one was eligible for office who
had not, within one year before, taken the Sacra
ment according to the rites of the Church of
England.*

"of that worthy person " under a dunghill. The delinquent was ordered to
put the bones again in their old place, and to restore the monument, but he
" neglected the doing of these things." At last Matthew Hardy acknowledged
his hearty sorrow, obeyed the order of the House, and was discharged on pay
ment of fees. (See Journals, i66t, 13 Car. IL, 24 die Julii, 9 die Decemb.,
13 die Decemb., 14 die Jan., 28 die Jan.)
* Our Worcestershire friend notices the operation of this act the next

The House of Commons in 1661.

Another link in the chain was the restoring of
the old ecclesiastical jurisdiction. A Committee
was appointed on the 25th of June to report their
opinions as to how far the coercive power of eccle
siastical courts had been taken away, and to prepare
a bill for settling the same. This business was
entrusted to Mr. Serjeant Keeling. It resulted in
the Act " for explanation of a clause contained in
an Act of Parliament, made in the sixteenth year
of the late King Charles, and entituled an Act for
Repeal of a Branch of a Statute the first of Eliza
beth, concerning Commissioners for Causes Eccle
siastical." The High Commission Court, that
scourge of Puritanism, had been destroyed by the
Long Parliament, and this new Act was passed to
declare that whereas such a Court was not to be
revived, the ordinary ecclesiastical jurisdiction of
Archbishops and Bishops should be restored. A
proviso was introduced, forbidding the use of the
ex officio oath, and another proviso for preserving
the Royal Supremacy from abridgment.*
This bill was read a third time on the 13th of
July, and received the Royal assent in that month,

summer : — " 1662, August. — This month, throughout the nation, the Commis
sioners for purging Corporations by virtue of an Act of Parliament have sat.
Some places, few as in Worcestershire, refused subscription. In many towns
where the Presbyterian ministers had very much tainted them, most were re
moved or put out themselves." * Statutes. 13th of Charles II., c. xii.

The House of Commons in 1661. igg

at the same time as the removal of the Bishops'
disabilities, and their restoration to the House of
Lords. Thus, within a few weeks, three mea
sures made their appearance, tending to conso
lidate the Church and repress dissent. But the
fourth grand measure, that which was central in
point of importance, remains to be considered, and
its origin and progress in the House of Commons
must be patiently traced. It was mentioned on the
same day as the measure for restoring ecclesiastical
jurisdiction. On the 25th of June, it was ordered that a Com
mittee should be appointed to view the several laws
for confirming the Liturgy of the Church of Eng
land, and to make search, whether the original Book
of the Liturgy, annexed to the Act passed in the
fifth and sixth years of King Edward VI. was still
extant, and to bring in a compendious bill to supply
any defect in the former laws, and to provide for
an effectual conformity to the Liturgy of the
Church for the time to come. A Committee was
immediately appointed of all the members " of the
long robe," and the bill was especially recommended
to the care of Mr. Serjeant Keeling, to whom was
also entrusted the measure last noticed.
Reference is made in these instructions to exist
ing laws confirming the Liturgy. There were two
Acts of Uniformity — one passed in the second year
of Edward VI. 's reign, simply enjoining the use of

j 9° The House of Commons in 1661.
the Prayer Book, and forbidding any to " deprave
or despise" it by " plays, songs, or tunes," under
certain penalties of fine and imprisonment ; and
that Act having been repealed under Queen Mary,
another, repealing that repeal, passed in the first
year of Queen Elizabeth, afresh enjoined the use
of the Prayer Book and revived the penalties for
disobedience.* What honourable member broached the question,
and pressed the restoration of one uniform and ex
clusive ecclesiastical establishment, does not appear.
Nor can we ascertain precisely how the measure
originated. But a vital matter like that would not
be left for any private individual to deal with at his
pleasure. It was so essential to the success of the
policy adopted by the King's Ministers — their pro
ceedings had for some time so plainly pointed that
way — that the Bill of Uniformity from the com
mencement can be regarded in no other light than
as a Government measure. Besides, it formed part
of a fourfold scheme which could have but one
origin. The fashion of cabinet meetings, long re
garded with jealousy, and even thought unconsti
tutional, had begun in the reign of Charles I.

* The penalties for " depraving " the book slightly differ. According to the
second of Edward VI., the penalty for the first offence was ten pounds, for the
second twenty ; according to the first of Elizabeth, the penalties were one
hundred marks and four hundred. In both cases penalty for the third offence
was imprisonment for life.

The House of Commons in 1661. 191
That business-like and hard-working monarch, from
time to time drew around him a few select mem
bers of Council, who assembled in his Cabinet ; and
would seem sometimes to have been obliged to re
gister his decrees, rather than by their opinions and
advice to guide his imperious career. Charles II. ,
idle and dissolute, and in that respect the opposite
of his father, held cabinets too ; not to guide the
helm of the State, but rather to sit on the quarter
deck, and joke with the officers, while they ma
naged the ship pretty much as they liked. At some
meeting of a few Privy Councillors with the King,
the Act of Uniformity, no doubt, was originated
and discussed.
The character and history of Serjeant Keeling
throw light on the spirit in which it was introduced
to the House of Commons. He had been em
ployed as junior counsel for the Crown on the trial
of the regicides, in which he was " busy and bust
ling, and eagerly improved every opportunity of
bringing himself forward." In the course of those
proceedings, he attained the distinction of the coif,
and was entrusted with the prosecution of Hacker,
Colonel of the guard at Charles's execution ; he
was also engaged on the trial of Sir Harry Vane ;
and on these occasions showed himself to be un
scrupulous — a mere tool in the hands of the ruling
party. In 1663, he was made a puisne judge, and
afterwards raised to the seat of Chief Justice, over

1 92 The House of Commons in 1661.
the head of the illustrious Sir Matthew Hale, — all
through the favouritism of Clarendon, who was his
great patron. It is important further to state that
"Kelinge" — for so his name was usually spelt — when
a judge, fined a jury a hundred marks each man, for
acquitting some poor people who assembled toge
ther one Sunday with Bibles without Prayer Books.
It was said of him that he was more fit to charge
the Roundheads under Prince Rupert than to charge
a jury. At length his arbitrary proceedings, and his
contemptuous allusion to Magna Charta, brought
him under the judgment of Parliament, whose con
demnation he escaped by obsequious submission.
Such was the agent entrusted with the introduc
tion of the Bill for Uniformity ; and looking at the
estimation in which he was held by Clarendon, it seems
very probable that he was selected for the under
taking at his lordship's suggestion. The reference
to King Edward's Prayer Book in the instructions
for the Committee, is remarkable, and would seem
to imply that, in the first instance, some alterations
in the formularies, of a somewhat Puritan character,
were contemplated ; but however that might be, all
reference to the early form of English Common
Prayer immediately disappears from the proceedings
of Parliament. On the 29th June, " a Bill for the
Uniformity of Public Prayers and Administration
of Sacraments," was read the first time. It was
ordered, that on the following Wednesday it should

The House of Commons in 1661. 193
be taken as the first public bill, and read a second
time. At the same period, the Serjeant introduced
the measure entrusted to him, touching ecclesiastical
jurisdiction. That, too, was to be read a second
time on the next Wednesday. The bill — together
with the printed Book of Common Prayer now
brought in, not Edward's, but Elizabeth's, as used
in the time of Charles I. — was committed on the
3rd of July to a long list of members duly named
in the journals, who were to meet the same after
noon, at four o'clock, in the Star Chamber. If the
original Book of Common Prayer could not be found,
then the Committee were to report the said printed
book, and their opinion touching the same ; and to
send for persons, papers, and records. No further
reference is made to the original book.*
Serjeant Keeling's hands were full of Govern
ment business ; for the same day he, and Sir
John Maynard, and Sir Solomon Swale, were ap
pointed to prepare a Censorship Bill, and " for
calling in all seditious >and schismatical books and
pamphlets, in whose hands soever they be." It was
during the same sitting in St. Stephen's, that the
members who had not taken the Lord's Supper

* Cardwell says, " Probably as the book is not uncommon now, a copy
of it was produced and was not found to be sufficiently in accordance with the
higher tone of ordinances which, since the days of Elizabeth, had more gene
rally prevailed."— Cardwell's "Conferences," p. 376. But it is possible that
the reason alleged might be that the original of the book could not be found.
0

194 The House of Commons in 1661.
were reported ; and Mr. Love underwent suspen
sion. The House with the one hand was making
Church law, and with the other executing a sort of
Church discipline. Two days after, July 5th, more
business was thrown into the hands of the Unifor
mity Bill Committee ; for to them the Ecclesiastical
Clause Bill was also entrusted, after being read the
second time.* Four days later, the bill being en
grossed, was read the third time ; and a copy of
the Book of Common Prayer, "imprinted at London
in the year 1604," was annexed. Everything con
nected with the proceedings showed the utmost de
spatch ; and on the next day, Wednesday, the 10th,
according to the " Mercurius Publicus," " the Bill
for establishing the Book of Common Prayer was
brought up to the Lords by a very great number
of Members of the House of Commons, to testify
their great desire for the settlement of the Church
of England."
The bill, as it left the Commons, differed mate
rially from the act as it ultimately passed. It pro
vided that the Book of Common Prayer should be
used, and that all clergymen should publicly declare
" their unfeigned assent and consent to the use of all
* On Monday the 8th, Mr. Prynn made a report from the Committee, to
whom it was referred to see which of the bills depending in the House and
already committed, were of most necessity to be proceeded with before the ad
journment. Bills against rogues and vagabonds, that against Quakers, the Bill
of Uniformity, and the Bill for Restoring Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, were of
the number. See Journals.

The House of Commons in 1661. 195
things in the said book contained and presented ;"*
but the original bill included no particular form of
declaration. Those who neglected or refused to de
clare such " assent and consent" were to be deprived
of their benefices. Everyi clergyman was, within
two months after his promotion, publicly to read
the Morning and Evening Prayers, under penalty
of deprivation. Lecturers were to do the same,
under pain of being disabled to preach. The bill
declared that laws formerly made for uniformity,
still remained in force. And what is particularly
worthy of notice, the time first appointed for the
execution of the measure was Michaelmas, not St.
Bartholomew's Day.
The arrival of the bill in the House of Lords is
noticed on the 10th of July. On the 12th, it is
stated — " This day the House heard the Anabap
tists, and those that call themselves good Christians,
what they could offer to this House, at their desire.
And upon consideration thereof, it is ordered that
on Tuesday next, the House will proceed in the
Report of the Committee concerning the Penal
Laws ; and when that business is determined, then
to read the Act of Uniformity brought from the
House of Commons." The penal laws referred to
were against Popish priests and recusants. Hoping
to share in any relief which might be shown to

* Observe the words of the act immediately before the form of declaration.
0 a

196 The House of Commons in 1661.
Catholics, these poor Anabaptists and " good Chris
tians" had presented a petition to the Lords, on the
5th of July, and were now heard on their own be
half. On Tuesday, the 16th, the Lords finished
the Report concerning the Penal Laws against
Roman Catholics ; and a Committee was appointed
to prepare a bill to repeal certain statutes and clauses
concerning Jesuits and seminary priests ; and
also the clause in the 35th of Elizabeth, c. 1, con
cerning Nonconformists ; also the writ de Heretico
Comburendo. In the preamble of the bill there were
to be set forth the reasons and grounds of these
alterations ; and fit and proper remedies were to be
devised to preserve the Protestant religion from any
inconveniences which the repeal of these laws
might possibly produce. This measure looked like
a step toward religious liberty. But there is reason
to believe that the reference to the statute against
Nonconformists was simply intended to cover the
relief designed for Catholics. The business came to
nothing ; and we find no further allusion to it in
the journals. Nor during the year is any more-
mention made of the Bill of Uniformity ; though
the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Bill, which had been
connected with it, was duly passed.
In those days the transmission of intelligence to
the provinces was always slow, and when it reached
its destination was often inaccurate. The broad-
wheeled coach, or the horse laden with saddle-bags

The House of Commons in 1661. 197
could only with measured pace convey the London
citizen to the house of a country friend. The news
he related at the supper-table on his arrival, or which
was quaintly written in the square-shaped but legibly
directed epistles he carried in his pocket, would be
very stale, according to our judgment of news in
these days of telegrams. The " Mercuries " were
tardy in their flight, and the "Public Intelligencer "
gave garbled reports and told false stories. What
was doing in this session of Parliament would
therefore not be known in distant counties till
some time afterwards ; and then probably it was
circulated through the town or village in some
erroneous form. Tidings of the new Bill
of Uniformity in some confused fashion tardily
straggled down to Worthenbury, a little village
seven miles from Wrexham, where lived the emi
nently pious Philip Henry, father of the great
commentator.* On the 4th of July, just before the
Bill passed its last stage in the Lower House, the
good man wrote down in his diary, " News from
London of speedy severity intended against Non
conformists. The Lord can yet, if He will, break
the snare. If not, welcome the will of God." In
daily doubt of what was coming, on the 7th he
recorded, " In despite of enemies, the Lord hath
granted the liberty of one Sabbath more. To Him

Williams' "Life of Philip Henry," p. 91.

198 The House of Commons in 1661.
be praise." Next day, he adds, " I received a
letter from Dr. Bridgeman (the restored rector),
wherein he informed me, if I did not speedily conform,
his power would no longer protect me." Henry
wrote a " dilatory answer," hoping that time might
bring some deliverance. The rector acted kindly,
and showed no sympathy with the ruling powers.
On the 24th, news of the bill sent up to the Lords
reached the little Flintshire rectory, and shaped
itself into the report, that the bill had already
passed both Houses, and only waited the assent of
his Majesty. " Lord, his heart is in thine hand,"
ejaculated the devout Puritan; "if it be thy will,
turn it, if otherwise, fit thy people to suffer, and
cut short the work in righteousness." Adam
Martindale, a good man, but of a different spirit,
while narrowly watching the progress of events,
gives this version of what rumour was bruiting
abroad round Rotherston when he had the parish
living. " A stop was put to it till another session,
that, in the meantime, a benevolence to the King
might be paid, or at least engaged for, by the
clergy, lest the Nonconformists should have an
excuse to pay nothing when they had left their
estates." Honest Adam offered twenty shillings to
the Chancellor and other Commissioners at Knuts-
ford (by what authority and for what purpose they
acted does not appear), which they thought too
little ; but when, to use his own expression, " they

The House of Commons in 1661. 199
saw he was not to be hectored out of his money,"
they took the sum, and gave him an acquittance.*
Such being the rumours about the bill, means
were not wanting for the annoyance of Noncon
formist ministers by squires and churchwardens
who longed to restore the surplice and Prayer Book.
Such people were exceedingly busy in urging the
use of the Liturgy, with its connected forms of service.
On Sunday, the 25th of August, 1 661, just a year
before the legal enforcement of uniformity, Oliver
Heywood, another eminent Presbyterian minister,
had the Prayer Book publicly presented to him in
church, with the demand that he should use it in
the devotions of the day. It was laid on the pulpit
cushion. He took it quietly down, and placed it on
the reading-desk, which he did not use, and then
went on with the service in his accustomed Presby
terian fashion. " I was wonderfully assisted," he
says, " that day, in praying and preaching, so as
many were amazed, as since they have told me ;
and it satisfies me I did but my duty in what I did
upon my former convictions."t In the beginning
of the winter of the same year, Adam Martindale was
indicted at the assizes for refusing to read the service,
and being a shrewd man, he contended, though wit
nesses might swear that he did not read the book such

* "The Life of Adam Martindale," printed by the Chetham Society.
t Hunter's " Life of Heywood," p. 128.

200 The House of Commons in 1661.
a day, they could not swear that he refused it, for it
was not offered. Undaunted by the decision that
not reading was refusing, he persevered in his de
fence, and entered his appearance, and took out a
copy of the bill against him, making himself
" merrie by comparing the barbarousnesse of the
Latine with that of the design of the prosecutors."
The sturdy Puritan found all manner of flaws in
the indictment, and proved more than a match for
his opponents. The autobiography of this gentle
man, printed by the Chetham Society, throws much
light on the passing times, and on the village feuds
which arose from the Puritan dislike to May
poles. A rabble of profane youth and doting
fools, the pastor tells us, affronted him by setting
up one of these ornaments in his way to church,
upon a little bank called Bow-hillock, where, in
former times, when the book of sports was the
Sunday law for the village green, there was music
and dancing, and a rendezvous of rakehells. The
minister preached against these abominations, taking
for his text, " How long, ye simple ones, will ye
love simplicity ?" and after he had laid before his
congregation " many other things of greater weight,"
he told them certain learned men were of opinion that
a Maypole was " a relic of the shameful worship of
the strumpet Flora of Rome ;" but however that might
be, it was a thing that never did, and never could do
any good, and might occasion much harm to people's

77/i? House of Commons in 1661. 201
souls. The village folks were " nettled," and asked
a neighbouring clergyman to come and preach ; but
he, instead of prophesying smooth things in the
matter of the Maypole, smartly reproved their " sin
and folly," calling them " scuff, rabble, riff-raff, and
the like, insomuch," says Adam Martindale, " that
my words were smooth as oil in comparison of
his, so full of salt and vinegar." Mrs. Martindale
made shorter work of it, and assisted by three young
women, whipt down at night, with a saw, the rustic
standard of old English revels, cutting it breast
high, so as to make it resemble a deal post. The
villagers sought to piece up the unfortunate instru
ment of offence, but Adam triumphantly tells us,
it was " such an ugly thing, so rough and crooked,"
as to proclaim the folly of those who set it up, and
to content them at last that it should be taken
down. Master Martindale decidedly won the field at
Bow-hillock ; but victory on the Puritan side in such
encounters was far from being the rule. In a num
ber of places the old incumbents were already re
stored, and the feasts of Christmas and Martinmas,
like that of May, flourished in all their glory. Loud
and fierce were the diatribes uttered from the pulpits
against Roundheads, Anabaptists, and Quakers.
They were treated as rebels, who had narrowly
escaped the gallows. Only the clemency of " that
gracious monarch, his Sacred Majesty King Charles,"

202 The House of Commons in 1661.
had saved them from the doom they so richly de
served. In the Abbey Church of Waltham, in a
funeral sermon for James Earl of Carlisle, the title
of which is, " The Cedar's Sad and Solemn Fall,"
the preacher, Dr. Reeves, noted for his violence,
addressed a crowded audience in this wise : — " Many
of you have gotten a pardon for all your exorbi-
tancies, but death will seal no act of indemnity.
Ye have escaped the halter of many of your fellow-
miscreants, but death hath set up her gibbet for
you." While some Royalist clergymen adopted
this plan of dragooning their parishes into the reli-
ligion of Royalism, the press was plied to the utmost
with the same intent. Swarms of pamphlets and
broadsides were issued — some reprints, some origi
nal — to support Church and State by argument,
but more frequently by ridicule and satire. Mar
vellous stories of the supernatural were manufac
tured for the same purpose ; amongst which we may
notice a tract printed in the spring of 1661, entitled,
" Wonder in Staffordshire ;" relating an apparition
of the devil to one James Fisher, " a phanatick,"
near Birmingham, in the shape of one of his com
panions, as late in the night he was going to a con
venticle. This visitation of Satan, who is familiarly
called " Robin Goodfellow," is related for the shame
and terror of all other sectaries, being testified by
Mr. John Hill, and Mr. Francis Collins, and one
Mr. Pack. But worse still is " The Presbyterian

The House of Commons in 1661. 203
Lash ; or, Noctroft's Maid Whipt ;" a piece of
coarse and filthy satire. With these we have an
" Antidote against Melancholy, made up in Pills,"
compounded of " witty ballads and jovial and merry
catches," in which there is the song of " The Hot
headed Zealot," and " The Schismatic Rotundos."
Of course there were sharp and bitter things written
and said on the other side ; but in none of the publi
cations by Republicans or Nonconformists have
we seen anything like the abominable and indecent
scurrility which the Royalist press poured out upon
them. One admirable publication, called " A Plea
for Toleration of Opinions in Matters of Religion,
by John Sturgeon, a Member of the Baptized
People, being an answer to the proclamation for
bidding public worship except in the parish church,"
is well worthy of perusal even now, being a lucid
and admirable statement of the broad principles
of religious liberty. The Baptists certainly, led
the vanguard in the fight for universal toleration.

Chapter VII.

©onbotaitom
feg^sL HOUGH the meeting of Clergy in
WW

Convocation had, before the Civil
Wars, been connected with the meeting
it would

of the Lords and Commons
appear as if, at first, in 166 1 there was
no intention of summoning the ecclesiastical as well
as the civil assembly. Of course, there had been no
Convocation connected with the Convention. The
Convention was Presbyterian, and any sitting of the
National Clergy at that time would have been in
a General Assembly. Now that the King and
Constitution were restored, it might be plausibly
assumed, and was so by some, that the Constitution
in Church, as well as in State, at once took the place
of what was considered the confusion of the Com
monwealth. But, certainly, the party who had
brought back the King contemplated nothing of
that kind ; and if the Breda and Worcester House

Convocation. 205

declarations were to be interpreted literally, they
would be taken to signify that some sort of adjust
ment of the conflicting claims of the old Church of
England on the one hand, and of the new Church
of England on the other— the narrow Church of Eli
zabeth and the broad Church of Cromwell — should
be honestly attempted. The professedly intended
revision of the Common Prayer Book — a thing long
talked of and solemnly promised^rested obviously
on that principle. The Savoy Conference, if
not a nullity, was to provide some broader plat
form of worship than existed in the Liturgy ;
and to effect a settlement of other ecclesiastical
matters in the same assumed spirit of con
ciliation and catholic liberality, it was absolutely
necessary that there should be further conferences
between divines, including others besides such as
belonged to the old Episcopal Church. What
ever, then, might be the plea as to prescription,
the critical state of facts afforded the strongest
ground for another plea : while the friends of eccle
siastical conservatism urged, Let things fall back
into their old place, the friends of ecclesiastical re
form might most reasonably reply, No, there must
be some reform before things can be settled on terms
of justice. The Convocation belonged to the
Church of the past. Did it follow that Convoca
tion must be part of the Church of the future ?
Dr. Heylin, a type of the English High

2o6 Convocation.

Churchman, was aware of a feeling adverse to the
meeting of Convocation. At the beginning of
March, he wrote a letter, humbly offering advice, in
a way that shows the matter was doubtful.* " There
is," he says, " a general speech, but a more general
fear, withal amongst some of the clergy, that there
will be no Convocation called with the following
Parliament, which, if it should be so resolved on,
cannot but raise sad thoughts in the hearts of those
that wish the peace and happiness of our English
Sion." It was perfectly consistent in Dr. Heylin,
with his views of Church and State, to urge a
meeting of Convocation ; but Clarendon, who had
pledged himself to the Savoy Conference, might
well feel a difficulty in taking measures for the
purpose. On the ioth April, more than five weeks after
Heylin's letter, the subject of Convocation was dis
cussed at the Whitehall Council Board. Whatever
might have been the previous difficulty in the way,
it was now ordered that the Lord Chancellor should
give warrants to the Clerk of the Crown to draw
up writs. This was a fortnight after the warrant
for the Savoy Conference, and just five days before
the Commissioners met. Had there been no change
in the private councils of the King between the 25th
of March and the ioth of April ? At any rate, it

* See " Kennet's Register," p. 389.

Convocation. 207

is very curious now to turn to Clarendon's Life, and
to find him saying, " At the same time that the
King issued out his writs for convening the Parlia
ment, he had likewise sent summons to the Bishops,
for the meeting of clergy in Convocation, which is
the legal synod in England, against the coming toge
ther whereof the Liturgy should be finished, which
his Majesty intended to send thither to be examined,
debated, and confirmed. And then he hoped to pro
vide, with the assistance of the Parliament, such
a settlement in religion as would prevent any dis
order in the State upon those pretences."* Not to
notice the instance here of Clarendon's habitual in
accuracy as to dates — inasmuch as the writ for calling
Parliament together was dated March 9, and the
writ for Convocation was April 11 — it is worth
while asking, Did Clarendon mean by this, that it
was ever intended the Savoy Conference should be
a sort of Committee to revise the Prayer Book for
the sanction of Convocation ? If Clarendon and
the King ever had such a design, they and the
Bishops must have been, at least to that extent, at
cross purposes, since it is plain the Bishops at the
Savoy never meant to attempt any revision at all
in connexion with the Puritans. And if, by any
means, a compromise as to the Prayer Book could
have been effected at the Savoy, what chance was

* Clarendon's Continuation.

2c8 Convocation.

there of its being sanctioned by Convocation, con
stituted as the Convocation was ?
As the time approached for meeting, elections
took place for members of the Lower House,
Baxter puts the London election in an ugly light.
It was appointed to be in Christ Church, on the
2nd of May. The London ministers who were
not ejected proved the majority against the Diocesan
party ; and when he meant to join them, they sent
to their busy friend not to come, and also requested
Mr. Calamy to absent himself. The object was, to
secure the election of these two Presbyterians. The
votes were given in their favour by a majority of
three. The Bishop, however, as Baxter says,
" having the power of choosing two out of four, or
four out of six, that are chosen by the ministers in
a certain circuit, did give us the great benefit of
being both left out. So we were excused, and the
City of London had no clerk in the Convocation.
How should I have been baited," adds the worthy
man, " and what a vexatious place should I have
had in such a Convocation !"* No doubt he would ;
nor is there doubt that his presence and discussions
would have been excessively " vexatious" to his
opponents. Baited like a bull, he would have
tossed many of the dogs. Lamb-like patience was
not one of Baxter's characteristics. The shutting

* "Lite and Times," p. 333.

Convocation.

209

him out, together with Calamy, from Convocation,
however advisable on prudential grounds for Bishop
Sheldon and his party, was an act of great injus
tice to the London clergy ; for the ministers there
at that time formed a part of the national establish
ment, by holding parish livings, and had just as
much right to be represented in a convocation of
clergy by men of their own choice as any other body
of ministers. Sheldon's upsetting the election at
Christ Church enables us to understand the meeting
at the Bishop's lodgings in the Savoy.
On the 8th of May, when Parliament assembled
at Westminster, the two great synods of England
met, the one in London, the other in York. The
Bishop of London, with other Bishops of the province
of Canterbury, Deans, Archdeacons, and Priests, as
also the Dean of the Arches, Advocates, and Proc
tors, met at the house of Dr. P. Barwick, a physician,
in St. Paul's Churchyard — that house in which we
are told, during the Civil Wars, he entertained his
brother John, afterwards Dean of St. Paul's, and
allowed him the use of an oratory — some Gothic
chamber, perhaps, with quaint oriel, destroyed in the
London fire — an oratory which the Episcopal doctor
restored, beautified, and re-dedicated, after its profa
nation during the Civil Wars. Arrayed in ecclesiastical
vestments, indicating their rank — the Bishops in lawn
sleeves, and black rochets, preceded by vergers and
the sacrist with his mace — the clergy in procession
p

210 Convocation.

entered through " the little south gate," into the old
Gothic edifice. There the Dean, Residentiaries,
and the rest of the Canons, in their several habits,
were waiting to receive them with due ceremony,
and to conduct them into the choir, where the
Bishops seated themselves in their respective stalls.
It was a jubilant hour for the Episcopal Church of
England. It betokened a resurrection after years
of death-like silence, imprisonment, and humiliation.
No doubt that in many a bosom, with feelings of
excusable pride, there were mingled sentiments of
the deepest gratitude and adoration, as the choir
fervently sang theTe Deum in English. Dr.Thomas
Pearce preached — from Acts xv. 28, " For it seemed
good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you
no greater burden than these necessary things " 
a very learned sermon in Latin. Another anthem
was sung. Then the Lord Bishop of London —
President of this Convocation, because of the ad
vanced age and infirmities of Juxon — with the rest
of the dignified clergy, went into a Chapter House
provided for the occasion, " the goodly old house
being, by the impiety of Oliver Cromwell's Horse
Guards, rendered unfit for use." The King's Writ
and the Archbishop's Commission to the Bishop of
London were formally presented and read; after
which the Bishop spake, " in excellent Latin," to
the Lower House, bidding them go and choose
their prolocutor, whom they should present the

Convocation. 211

Thursday following, May 16, in King Henry the
Seventh's Chapel. Dr. Henry Fearne, Dean of
Ely, was elected, and Dr. John Pearson, Arch
deacon of Surrey, presented him.
One of the first acts of Convocation (May 1 8) was
to adopt a form of prayer and thanksgiving for the
29th of May, the anniversary of Charles's Restora
tion. The form was prepared by the Bishop of Ely.
On the same day, the Bishop of London recom
mended a form for the baptizing of adult persons —
as it was alleged so many in their childhood, owing
to the diffusion of Anabaptist opinions and other
causes, had not been baptized at all. The prepara
tion of the service was entrusted to the Bishops of
Salisbury, Peterborough, and St. Asaph. The last
of these Bishops, Dr. George Griffith, was thought
to have the chief part in its preparation. The
service " for Charles's Martyrdom" was confided
to the Bishops of Rochester, Chichester, Worces
ter, and Norwich. It is a curious fact that there
were two offices for the 30th January published in
1661. In one of them, referring to Charles and other
saints and martyrs, it was said : — " That we may be
made worthy to receive benefit by their prayers,
which they, in common with the Church Catholic,
offer up unto Thee for that part of it here militant."
This recognition of the Intercession of the Saints
in Heaven, indicating certain Romish tendencies
amongst the clergy of that day, was afterwards
P 2

212 Convocation.

made a ground of reproach by Benjamin Robinson,
in his Book upon Liturgies. Bishop Kennet, the
indefatigable compiler of the Chronicle and Re
gister, denies the existence of any such clause in
the form of service for Charles's Martyrdom. And
he is perfectly right, so far as the form adopted
by Convocation is concerned. But, in the other of
the two offices, there actually was such a petition as
called forth the animadversions of the Noncon
formist critic*
On the 31st of May, Dr. Pory introduced the
form of prayer for Parliament. It was not a new
composition. Just such an one, including the
words " our religious and gracious King," had been
inserted in the Prayer Book in the time of Charles I.f
On the same day, at a meeting of the Council at
Whitehall, it was ordered by his Majesty, that Mr.
Attorney-General should forthwith "prepare a com
mission, to authorize the Convocation to consult
of matters relating to the settlement of the Church;"
and that a reform of the canons was contemplated,
appears from its being added, that there was not to
be inserted therein, any clause to the effect, that the
canons be not repugnant to the Liturgy, rubric, or
articles, already established. The King in Council
was here evidently making way for an alteration in

* Joyce's "Sacred Synods," p. 703. Kennet, p. 369. Lathbury's "His-,
tory of Convocation," p. 306.
f Cardwell's " Conferences," p. 375.

Convocation. 213

the canons, needful to bring the Church of England
into harmony with such changes as might result
from a revision of the Prayer Book. To an eccle
siastical assembly earnest for reform, and for a com
prehensive establishment, this order of Council gave
great power ; but it was an instrument to avail
very little in the hands of persons whose desires
looked quite the opposite way. The revision of
canons, says Mr. Joyce, in his " Sacred Synods," was
carried on, but it came to nothing, " for somewhat
mysterious reasons." Why some of the canons should
not have been altered, the 74th for example, which
requires that ecclesiastical persons shall wear on their
journeys " priests' cloaks without guards, welts, long
buttons, or cuts," and not have "wrought night
caps," or cloaks " cut or pinkt," or " light-coloured
stockings,"- — it is difficult to imagine, unless it was
that beginning to alter, it was impossible to say
when there should be an end. The ground of re
taining many of the canons is obvious enough,
especially the 36th, which requires subscription to
the three articles of the King's supremacy, the use of
the Prayer Book as containing " in it nothing con
trary to the Word of God," and the Book of the
Nine-ahd-Thirty Articles, — all which are to be sub
scribed in the order and form of words, " I, N. N.,
do willingly and ex animo subscribe to these three
articles above mentioned, and to all things that are
contained in them."

214 Convocation.

The Savoy Conference was limited within four
months. The warrant was dated the 25th of
March, the authority given by the commission
expired at the end of July. All idea of a
revision of the Prayer Book there, had vanished be
fore that time ; but so long as the Conference con
tinued to exist by royal authority professedly for
that purpose, the subject could not with propriety
be discussed in Convocation. As the last meeting
at the Savoy was held only a few days before the
breaking up of the great clerical assembly, there
remained no time for the consideration of the sub
ject by the latter, during that session. But when
the clergy reassembled in the month of November,
they took the matter up immediately. Parliament
sat on the 20th, and on the following day, the two
houses of Convocation resumed their deliberations.
To facilitate the despatch of business, the Convoca
tion of the province of York agreed to unite with
their brethren of Canterbury by means of proxies,
binding themselves to abide by votes so given,
under a heavy penalty if they acted otherwise.*

* Though the Lower House at York sent a proxy to the Canterbury Synod,
we find the members had some discussions of their own. Dr. Samwayes,
proctor for the clergy of Chester and Richmond, proposed some queries, be
ginning with the question, " Whether, in case any alterations in the Liturgy
should be decided on, a public declaration should not be made, stating that the
grounds of such change are different from those pretended by schismatics ?"
The last inquiries he suggested were, " Whether those who persist in holding
possession unjustly gotten in the late rebellion be meet, communicants ? and

Convocation. 215

But so earnest was the Archbishop of York, that
he begged the Lower House to send up their proxy
by the next post ; and in a letter he wrote to the
Registrar of his diocese, urging despatch, he said,
" The Chancellor who hath been our clerk herein will
perhaps (if at leisure) say more, I adding only this
here in the case, that if we have not all from you
by the end of next week, we are lost." The matter
about which both York and Canterbury were now
in such wonderful haste, was the revision before
delayed. The King had written to the Archbishop
of Canterbury on the ioth of October, ordering him
with the other Bishops and clergy of the province
to revise " the Book of Common Prayer,* and the
manner of consecrating bishops, priests, and
deacons." Before we proceed to describe the
alterations which were now made, it is proper to
give a brief sketch of the previous history of the
book. The middle ages had no Act of Uniformity.
There were several rituals, called Uses, of York,
Hereford, Exeter, Lincoln, and other dioceses.
These Uses, which did not materially differ from each
other, gave place after the eleventh century, especially

whether some addition ought not to be made to the oaths of supremacy and
allegiance excluding all evasions ?" The spirit of the proposals and the temper
of some in the Northern Convocation may be easily inferred from these speci
mens. — Joyce's "Sacred Synods," p. 712.
* State Papers. Domestic. Charles II. Vol. xliii. Entry Book 6, p. 7.

216 Convocation.

in the south of England, to that of Sarum ; Osmund,
Bishop of Salisbury, having about the year 1085,
bestowed great pains upon the revision of the eccle
siastical offices in his church. The Missal and
Breviary contained in Osmund's revision of the
English mediaeval formularies, constitute the basis
of the Book of Common Prayer. The first re
formed Liturgy for the use of the Protestant
Church in England was set forth under Edward VI.,
in the year 1549. A second, which showed a
further advance on the side of the Reformation,
appeared in 1552. A primer, or book of private
prayer, containing the Catechism, with collects,
and other forms for secret devotion, was pub
lished in 1553. Elizabeth's Book of Common
Prayer belongs to the year 1559; and afterwards, at
different times, came particular forms of devotion,
prepared for particular seasons and circumstances.
The Prayer Book of 1559 underwent some alter
ations at the commencement of the reign of James
I., after the Hampton Court Conference, but they
were very slight, and were simply called Explana
tions. The book prepared in the reign of Elizabeth,
thus altered, was that which the Convocation of
1 661-2 had to revise.
Perhaps we shall best succeed in giving with
brevity some idea of the origin of the Common
Prayer, and other offices of the Church of England,
if we take the Morning service, the Communion,

Convocation. 2 1 7

and the Order for performing Baptism, as they were
found in the book used before the revision under
Charles II. , and point out, in a general way, the
sources from which those forms were derived.
Morning prayer is in the main drawn from the
Matins, Lauds, and Prime of the Sarum Breviary.
That which may be called the introduction, extend
ing from the opening sentence to the end of the
Absolution, was a new feature in the Prayer Book
of 1552. The materials of it may be found in
mediaeval Lent services, the old office of visitation
of the sick, and certain portions of a homily by
Pope Leo. Some have supposed that hints for
framing this introduction were taken from the
reformed Strasburg Liturgy, published by Pollanus.
The idea embodied was that of substituting public
confession, awakened by the reading of Holy Scrip
ture, for private confession made to a priest ; and,
on the same principle, the using of a public form
of absolution for a secret one. The object was to
make that congregational and common which had
previously been individual or monastic. The
second portion or main substance of the morning
service, from the Lord's prayer to the three collects,
is derived obviously from different sources. The
versicles are taken from the Sarum Use, and other
old offices. The version of the psalter is that of
Cranmer's Bible, 1539. The lessons were substi
tuted for the numerous but brief Scripture lections

2i 8 Convocation.

of the Breviary, the Apocrypha being occasionally
used. The Te Deum is a glorious old canticle of
Gallic origin, composed by Hilary of Poitiers (355),
or Nicetius of Treves (535). The Benedicite is the
Song of the Three Children, a Greek addition to
the 3rd chapter of Daniel. The Apostles' Creed was
said in the Anglo-Saxon office of Prime. As to the
other creeds, we may add here, the Nicene was sung
at Mass, after the Gallican Use. The Athanasian,
in the Sarum Breviary, was sung at Prime, after the
psalms and before the prayers.
The Litany may be regarded as a distinct ser
vice. It is a very old form of devotion, differing
somewhat in different countries. The Invocation
of Saints was removed by the Reformers ; and
in the compilation of its numerous sentences, along
with the Sarum ritual, the Consultation of Her
mann, the reforming Archbishop of Cologne (1543),
was extensively employed. Collects were gathered
from various sources. Many of them came from
the Sacramentary of Gregory, and some from that
of Gelasius. Others were drawn from ancient
models, but much altered. Several were new.*
The few Occasional Prayers in the books of 1552
and 1559 were, like those added in the revision of
166 1-2, new compositions, arising out of existing
circumstances.

* See Table of Collects in Procter's useful Manual, " History of the Book
of Common Prayer," p. 266.

Convocation. 219

The Communion Service, or Liturgy proper, was
derived from the Missal, expurgated of course.
The second Prayer Book of Edward, in that re
spect, was a decided improvement on the first.
It omitted even an implied oblation of the consecrated
elements, and simply expressed the oblation of
the worshippers — the difference of oblation being
one grand difference between the Romish and
Protestant Eucharist. The second Book also
omitted the celebration of " the most blessed Virgin
Mary," with " the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles,
and Martyrs," contained in the first. Other alte
rations were made of a decidedly Protestant cha
racter. The Prayer Book of 1559 shows certain
changes of a retrograde kind. The omission of
the thoroughly Protestant declaration respecting
the Lord's Supper, in King Edward's book of 1552,
is very significant. It may be added, however,
that Bishop Grindal and Horn, when writing to
Ballinger and Gaulter, assured them that the decla
ration " continued to be most diligently declared,
published, and impressed upon the people."*
The Baptismal Service was founded upon formu
laries, priestly and pontifical, in the Sarum offices.
Certain idle ceremonies were omitted ; but the
order of making catechumens, the blessing of the
font, and the form of baptizing, as constituted in
* " King Edward's Liturgies " (Parker Society), preface, p. xiii., also compare
p. 2S3, and " Elizabeth's Liturgies " (Parker Society), p. 198.

220 Convocation.

the mediaeval Church, were adopted by the Re
formers. There are also in the service plain traces
of the influence of Bucer and Melancthon, through
Hermann's Consultation. The first prayer was
originally composed by Luther. The thanksgiving
after the rite is a much stronger expression of the
doctrine of baptismal regeneration than the ancient
Gallic form of words from which it seems to be
derived.* This very imperfect notice of the earlier history
of the English Common Prayer Book, we may ob
serve in passing, suffices to show how carefully the
Reformers retained what they considered most pre
cious in the ancient records of Christian devotion ;
how reverently they looked on words which had
been vehicles for ages of the service of song, and
the offering of prayer. This conservative element
- — connected with a prudential policy lest offence
should be given to semi-Protestants, when it could
by any means be avoided — will appear to many an
admirer of the Liturgy in the present day to have
been a snare betraying the compilers into the reten
tion of much which marred the beauty of their work,
and really caused it to narrow " the communion of

* The old Gallic form ran thus : " Domine Deus Omnipotens, famulos tuos,
quos jussisti renasci ex aqua et Spiritu Sancto : conserva in eis baptismum sanctum
quod acceperunt," &c. In the English Prayer Book, it reads : " We yield Thee
hearty thanks, most merciful Father, that it hath pleased Thee to regenerate
this infant with thy Holy Spirit, to receive him for thine own child by adoption,
and to incorporate him into thy Holy Church, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen." — See Palmer's " Origines Liturgies," vol. ii. p. 195.

Convocation. 221

saints" in the kingdom of England. We may add,
that as the sources whence the book was compiled are
so numerous and so ancient, belonging to European
Christendom in the remotest times — as there is in
it so little that is really original, so little that be
longs to the Reformed Episcopal Church in
England, any more than to other Churches con
strained by conscience to separate from Rome — the
bulk of what the book contains, including all that
is most beautiful and noble, ought to be regarded as
the rightful inheritance of every one who believes in
the essential unity of Christ's Catholic Church, and
can sympathize in the devotions of a Chrysostom,
a Hilary, and an Ambrose.
Such, then, was the book which Convocation had
now to examine and revise, in connexion with ne
cessities which had been felt ever since the Refor
mation, and had greatly increased during the seven
teenth century. In consequence of the Royal letter
of the ioth of October, if not earlier, certain of the
Bishops devoted themselves to some review of the
volume. What they intended was in a forward
state, if not quite accomplished, at the opening of
the session in November.* For, on Saturday, the
23rd, three days after, a portion was ready for deli
very to the members of the Lower House, and the
* Joyce says, " The Bishops after the rising of Convocation and Parliament
applied their minds vigorously to the revision of the book. Some were for re
establishing the former Service Book entire ; while others pressed for alterations
such as might silence scruples and satisfy claims." — " Sacred Synods," p. 708.

222 Convocation.

remainder of it so swiftly followed, that on the
next Wednesday the whole was in their hands.
The Episcopal Committee* was to meet at the
Bishop of Ely's house, and to use all despatch.
But their lordships — when they walked on those
cold winter mornings to Hatton-garden — had really
little or nothing to do ; for there is still in ex
istence a copy of the edition of 1634, with a num
ber of corrections by the Bishop of Durham's
chaplain, ready for the press, which may be fairly pre
sumed to be the very book produced as soon as Con
vocation assembled, and handed down entire to the
prolocutor of the Lower House by the 27th. Pro
bably Cosin, Bishop of Durham, and Wren, of Ely,
at whose house the Episcopal brethren met, had
done the work beforehand. The materials used in
the revision were MS. notes by Bishop Overall ;
others collected by Cosin himself; some in Latin,
by the Rev. C. Neal, Vicar of Northallerton, and
others which had been written by Bishop Andrews.f
Certain of those MS. alterations, as it respects the
Eucharist and Prayers for the Dead, were in har
mony with the High Church tendencies of Laud,
and betokened a return to the very spirit which

* The Bishops on the Committee were Cosin of Durham, Wren of Ely,
Skinner of Oxford, Warner of Rochester, Henchman of Salisbury, Morley of
Worcester, Sanderson of Lincoln, and Nicholson of Gloucester. — " Synodalia,"
p. 652 (166 1, Sessio xxv). Five out of the eight were Commissioners at the
Savoy. + See Joyce's "Sacred Synods," p. 714.

Convocation. 223

had produced such confusion in the reign of
Charles I. The suspicions awakened amongst the
Commons by this fact, we shall have hereafter to
notice.* The book, as presented by the Bishops to the
Lower House, underwent further revision there.
About a month was spent upon it, and portions
were returned to the Upper House, from time to
time, with schedules of amendments. Without
noting the proceedings of the two Houses day by
day, we would add to the account of new forms
already given, the following particulars of what
was done in Convocation, after it assembled in
November. The service appointed for a General
Fast had appeared before, on the 12th of June — a
day set apart for humiliation, in consequence of
immoderate rains, which it was feared would occa
sion both scarcity and sickness. It was now trans
ferred by Convocation to the new book. Forms
respecting the weather were prepared by Dr. A.
Hyde, Dr. Bailie, and others ; and Prayers to be
used at Sea, and emendations in the Form of Burials
at Sea, and in the Commination, and Churching
services, were also drawn up and adopted. The
General Thanksgiving, ascribed by Isaac Walton
to Bishop Sanderson, was, according to the pro-

* Procter on the "Book of Common Prayer," p. 136. All the MS.
notes are published in Dr. Nichols' "Comment on the Common Prayer
Book."

224 Convocation.

ceedings of Convocation, introduced by Reynolds,
and was most likely the production of his pen.*
The Bishops, in the course of their proceedings,
came to a unanimous vote in favour of some con
stant forms of prayer to be used before and after
sermon. f This was to cut off all liberty for the
introduction of extempore prayer, and so to extin
guish one of the last hopes of the Puritan party.
The design was afterwards dropped, " upon pru
dential reasons," says Kennet, in his Register.
The Calendar was revised by the eminent mathe
matician, Mr. Pell, assisted by Mr. Sancroft, after
wards Archbishop of Canterbury.! With the
Calendar was connected the arrangement of the
daily lessons. Was the Apocrypha to be read in
the Service of the Church ? This was known to be

* These particulars are collected from the original minutes of proceedings
in Convocation, as given in Cardwell's " Synodalia," p. 656 et sea., and from
his " History of Conferences," p. 375.
t In 1659 appeared "Pulpit Sparks; or, Choice Forms of Prayer, by se
veral reverend and godly divines, used by them both before and after sermon."
X Pell was a singular character, greatly admired for his learning, with a con
tinental reputation, and had been sent by Cromwell as Envoy to the Protestant
Swiss cantons. After his return to England, at the Restoration, he took Holy
Orders and became Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury. A deanery
was thought of for the illustrious scholar, " but being not a person of activity,
as others who mind not learning are, could never rise higher than a rector."
The truth is, " he was a shiftless man as to worldly affairs, and his tenants and
relations dealt so unkindly by him, that they cozened him of the profits of his
parsonage, and kept him so indigent, that he wanted necessaries, even paper
and ink, to his dying day." Poor Pell was twice cast into prison for debt, and
was at last buried by charity. These are curious biographical associations ga
thering round the Calendar in the Prayer Book.

Convocation. 225

a vital question with all the Puritans, who deemed
it a profanation to introduce into the public worship
the reading of uninspired, erroneous, and supersti
tious books, as if they really formed part of Scrip
ture. A severe battle seems to have been fought
on this subject. We can easily imagine how, on
such a point, feelings would be excited to the
utmost — how in Puritan and High Church circles
the question would be canvassed — how people, in
sympathy with one party or the other, would watch
at the door of the Convocation House, to catch
tidings of the debate about the Apocryphal lessons
— how " Susannah and the Elders" would become
an object of strife, like a standard wrestled for in
the tug of war — and how very natural and pro
bable is Andrew Marvell's story, that a jolly doctor
coming out, with a face full of radiant joy, shouted
with exultation, " We have carried it for Bel and
the Dragon !"*
The preface was written by Sanderson, Bishop
of Lincoln. About 600 alterations were made in
the body of the volume. The Absolution was
ordered to be pronounced by the Priest, instead of
by the Minister. In the Litany, the words rebellion
and schism were added to the petition against sedi
tion ; the words " bishops, priests, and deacons ,"
were substituted for " bishops, pastors, and minis-

* " The Rehearsal Transposed," p. 500.
0.

226 Convocation.

ters of the Church ;" and the word " Church" was
used in several places for " Congregation."
In the Communion Service, the last clause re
specting saints departed was added to the prayer
for the Church Militant ; and the rubrics preceding
this prayer were altered from the Liturgy prepared
for Scotland in 1634, directing the presentation of
the alms, and the placing of the bread and wine on
the table, this latter being taken from the Prayer
Book of 1549. The order in Council (1552) re
specting kneeling at the Communion, which had
been removed by Queen Elizabeth, was now again
placed at the end of the office, though not printed
as a rubric ; and the words " corporal presence"
were substituted for " real and essential presence."
The declaration, which had formed a part of the
preface to the Confirmation Service, of the un
doubted salvation of baptized infants dying before
they have committed actual sin, and a reference to
the 30th Canon (1604) for the meaning of the sign
of the cross, were placed at the end of the office of
Public Baptism. The story of Bel and the Dragon,
omitted in the daily lessons since 1604, was again
introduced, as already mentioned.
Other alterations were made, some of them im
portant and useful, but not at all connected with
any theological or ecclesiastical controversies.*

* Procter on the "Book of Common Prayer," p. 141. I have availed

Convocation. 227

On the 19th, the form of subscription was com
mitted by the Upper House to the Bishops of
Durham and Salisbury (Cosins and Henchman),
to be assisted by Dr. Chaworth and Dr. Burrett.
They met the same afternoon, and after inspecting
records, came to a perfect agreement.*
In one month the work was finished. On the
20th December, 1661, the Book of Common Prayer,
as revised and altered, was adopted and subscribed
by the two Houses.
Convocation has been charged with indecent
haste in the management of this whole business. t
No wonder at this, after the like charge had been
brought against the Presbyterians at the Savoy, espe
cially against poor Richard Baxter's Prayer Book.
So far as the adoption of alterations, proposed to the
Houses by individuals or committees, is concerned,
there is ground for the charge. Six hundred alter
ations could never have been properly considered
by two large bodies of men in the short time ac
tually devoted to them. J Looking at the matter

myself of his careful analyses of alterations in the above notice of them. He
candidly admits " no regard was paid to the objections of the Puritans."
¦* The form was : " Unanimi assensu et consensu in hanc formam redegimus
recepimus, et approbavimus eidemque subscripsimus."
+ A clergyman — the Rev. D. Mountfield — in his Lecture on the " Expulsion
of the Puritans," says (p. ig), "Besides marks of an angry anti-Puritan spirit,
our Prayer Book bears traces of the haste with which it was pushed through
Convocation, for, in truth, as Lathbury admits, ' the time was too short for
revision.' "
X A curious mistake was afterwards detected. " Archbishop Tenison told
Q.2

228 Convocation.

as one so much affecting their own individual con
sciences, and as one affecting the conscience of every
single clergyman in all future time, we must pro
nounce so speedy a decision on the part of Convo
cation, especially the Lower House, as most un
warrantable. But, as it regards the preparation of
the chief alterations, we see no ground on which to
charge the persons who made them with want of
care. Much time had evidently been devoted to
them before Convocation met. The book was
ready before the King's letters were read commis
sioning the revision. The fact is, that the whole
thing was a foregone conclusion on the part of some
leading bishops. Sheldon and Morley were the grand
political agents ;* and Cosin, Wren, and Sanderson
were the careful, painstaking theological secretaries.

me by his bedside on Monday, Feb. 12th, 1 7 10, that the Convocation Book
intended to be the copy confirmed by the Act of Uniformity had a rash blunder
in the Rubric after Baptism, which should have run, ( It is certain by God's
word, that children which are baptized, dying before they commit actual sin, are
undoubtedly saved.' But the words * which are baptized ' were left out till
Sir Cyril Wyche, coming to see the Lord Chancellor Hyde, found the book
brought home by his Lordship, and lying in his parlour window, even after
it had passed the two Houses, and happening to cast his eyes upon that place,
told the Lord Chancellor of that gross omission, who supplied it with his own
hand." — " Kennet's Register," p. 643.
* Calamy in his " Life of Baxter " states, that when Dr. Allen, who
came up from Huntingdonshire to attend Convocation, urged Sheldon to
reform the Prayer Book so as to meet the scruples of Dissenters, he told him
" there was no need to trouble himself about that, they had resolved upon
their measures."

Chapter VIII.

Pots,
MONGST the letters in the State Paper
Office pertaining to the years 1661 and
1662, there are numbers bearing on
the subject of plots. As the rumours
respecting plots produced very great
excitement, and were alleged by Clarendon and
others in justification of their severe measures, they
deserve at least a passing notice in this portion of
our history. The letters furnish little information,
but they do supply a little entertainment. We
shall not pursue the subject into the history of 1662,
as the talked-of plots of that year will more advan
tageously come under consideration when we have
reached the passing of the Uniformity Act. Should
any one complain of vagueness and confusion in
the following report, he will please to understand
they are just the characteristics of the documents on
which the report is based. At least, they will serve

230 Plots.
to show the spirit working in many parts of the
country at the period under review. Bubbles were
rising to the top of the seething cauldron, bursting
as they rose. They came, more from Royalist
fear than from Republican power. They had in them
more of unjust suspicion than of treasonable design.
Their real nature will be seen before we have done.
Rumours of disbanded soldiers longing for " a
stir and a change," who said the King would not
reign long, that ministers were rogues, and that the
churches were " show-houses," had been embodied
in written reports, and handed over to the Secre
tary of State before Venner's insurrection. Inter
cepted letters, and other communications pregnant
with alarm, occur for the first six months of 1661,
but they become much more numerous in the next
half year, and it is to these that Charles and Cla
rendon referred in the inflammatory speeches they
made in December. Let us turn over a few of
these documents.
Sir Richard Brown, Lord Mayor of London, one
of the defeated candidates at the March election,
writes on the 24th of August to Secretary Nicholas,
that he has obeyed his orders, and has searched
St. Bartholomew's — a secret place for Nonconfor
mist assemblies — to find Major John Corbet, whom
the Secretary directed him to apprehend. Three
hundred persons had been on the spot, but were
all gone, except ten men and twenty women, who

Plots.

231

were secured and sent to Newgate. The poor
people affirmed they only met to serve God ; and
on being told that they best served Him who served
the King, "they replied they were not bound to obey
even a king, when the Spirit of God commanded
the contrary." Of two days' later date, there are
memoranda jotted down by Sir Edward Nicholas,
to the effect that he has information respecting the
Presbyterians ; that certain colonels are frequenting
certain places where they receive intelligence from
the Earl of Crawford, through Lieutenant-Colonel
Weekes ; and that there are some who meet at Lady
Ranelagh's. Also that Presbyterians talk higher than
ever, and speak of a party in Scotland, rejoicing in
disturbances there. Further, that one Glover, con
nected with the Post, was last Sunday at Mr. Jenkins'
church, whispering to the people that they should
mind what they write, because their letters are opened
at the office. Swift upon such memoranda comes
information on the 27th, from one John Theedam,
late gunner to Captain Bargrave, to the effect that
thirty Fifth Monarchy men have met at Norton
Folgate. Green, a gunsmith in the Minories, told
them that the Republican Generals Ludlow, Whalley,
and Tilham had returned from the Continent, and
landed in Essex. Sir Edward, after pondering the
information, adds notes of his own about eleven
officers, and others, who are laying plots and pre
paring for trouble. On the ist of September, a

232 Plots.
long communication is despatched from Sir William
Killegrew, concerning certain people just come from
Holland to Lowestoft, including Pooly, a " great
dipper," and Love, " a holder forth at a private
assembly of Independents in Holland," where the
regicides and such like persons meet. They give
out that they have been to the Palatinate to settle a
hundred families there, and " their coming together,
and wishing to land obscurely is a circumstance to
be noted." No doubt the Secretary thinks so, espe
cially when, on the 2nd of September, Lieutenant
Hickman tells him he thinks 40,000 arms are being
prepared by the godly, besides those formerly con
cealed : and that they correspond so well with one
another, as to be ready for a rising at any moment.
Hickman is a far-seeing man, and looks for an in
surrection every night, since the ill-affected people
"have a prophecy that the Lord will come and
redeem Sion." " The King," adds the informer —
confidentially whispering into the Secretary's ear,
with a knowing look — -" has some as false at court
as any in England." But, unfortunately, this much-
knowing Lieutenant does not know what is most
important — the names of the conspirators; a circum
stance to be regretted by Sir Edward. The same
day, Thomas Baker, of Wrexham, writes to Henry
Bishop a letter which finds its way, with many
others, into the Secretary's cabinet. He rejoices
that those "at the stern" of the good old ship are

Plots. 233
beginning in earnest to look about them, for their
enemies assuredly are not idle. People now talk
very high — dangerous people, who have served no
less than three apprenticeships in rebellion. It is
plain they plot another rising. " Wrexham is the
most factious town in England. Jones, Ludlow,
and Harrison all belong to it. Oh, that the King
had a standing army !" He, Baker, valiant man,
" can raise a hundred old Royalists, who never re
belled, and never would. If encouragement be
given to intelligences" {i.e., if spies be well paid),
"all will be revealed." Baker hopes the King will
trust Cavaliers, and no others ; of course he is a
Cavalier, and, moreover, has been imprisoned. He
has the promise of a company in case of an army
being raised ; in short, this informant will be glad
of anything he can get. On the 3rd September,
a poor creature, one Jane Holmes, is examined : —
" Does not know the name of the stranger who
lodged at her house" — " he came by chance, with
his wife, and one trunk, a month ago, and had only
one man to see him." (As we turn over these
papers, London, in 1661, looks like Paris in 1849.)
Again, Humphry Lee tells Katherine Hurleston that
Praise-God Barebones is constantly resorting to the
Fleet prison, to see Major Bremen and Vavasor
Powell. The gaolers are not to be trusted. Potter,
a very busy man in the informing line, sends word,
on the 7th September, to his Grace the Archbishop

234 Plots.
of Canterbury, that at Great Allhallows there are
great gatherings to break bread. The meetings
must be disturbed, that the people may be dissatis
fied ; and the longer they are let alone, the stronger
they will grow. They are careful not to discover
anything ; but Mr. Potter can assure his Grace he
"will leave no stone unturned." Extracts of sermons
accompany the information, which simply encourage
God's people to activity, constancy, and decision.
The hands through which these precious documents
are conveyed, and the Secretary's inability to make
any treason out of such very harmless accusations,
appear from the very significant endorsement in
Nicholas' handwriting — " Lord Chancellor sends me
unintelligible collections." Hence it seems that
Clarendon is at the bottom of the espionage and
information. Even at Windsor, under the shadow
of the Castle, people are suspected. Lord Mor-
daunt, Constable of the Round Tower, assures Sir
Edward Nicholas that the Presbyterians in the
neighbourhood preach nothing but rebellion, and if
they pray for the King, it is for his conversion.*

* Records in the office of Woods and Forests show that numbers of the
soldiers belonging to the Commonwealth army, settled down in the Windsor
Parks on grants of land made to them by the old Government, and turned the
grass into corn, and extemporized little homesteads in all directions, much to
the disgust of his Majesty and the Court, who were anxious to get rid of the
intruders, and were even buying them off. The process of ejectment, howeve^
created unpleasantness, and roused the spirit of republican soldiers, who longed
to see the old cause on its legs again.

Plots. 235
Cromwell's poor knights, too, are very insolent,
and will not obey commands, and refuse to quit
their lodgings in the Castle. Richard Muston, of
Dorchester, tells of a lieutenant and a tailor joining
in traitorous discourses, and saying, " the people of
God will not be persecuted any longer, for the time
of deliverance is near, and they will hang all turn
coats." Rumours about Allhallows are again sent
by Edward Potter, on the 26th, with a report that
in a recent sermon the preacher argued " that the
people of God must fight against and overcome
principalities and powers." Captain William Pes-
tell has a very great deal to say to the Secretary.
"People are transported with jealousy ; they will not
believe in the King's goodness ; they are spreading
seducing pamphlets everywhere." " Fifth Monarchy
men preach and visit with Presbyterians, and en
courage the people to withstand the Common
Prayer." Some old sea captains at Plymouth — a
sturdy set of men — are resolved "that the Common
Prayer shall not come into Mr. Hughes' church."
There is the same feeling at Dartmouth, and other
places on the coast. Even officers of the fleet are
corresponding with known enemies of the Govern
ment ; and though for the present things may ap
pear all very well, should any disturbance arise,
these gentlemen will be found " wolves in sheeps'
clothing." Sir Edward Hales tells the Secretary, in
October, that the wild of Kent is a receptacle for

236 Plots.
" running parsons," who vent an abundance of
sedition on their newly-created lecture days. In
dark London alleys, too, there are strange prayers,
even " that God will deliver his people from the
scarlet whore, who bathes herself in the blood of the
saints." The Bishop of Salisbury is at the same
time taking much trouble to bring his diocese into
order, and has succeeded in many parishes, but
some factious spirits, especially one " Stanley, a
cordwainer," who claims to be the minister of Shin-
field Church, by the choice of the parish — sets the
Bishop at defiance, despises Episcopal order, and
praises the good old times. All this is duly laid
before the already much-perplexed Secretary, with
the hope that he will get the justices of the peace
to help his lordship. More terrible grow reports
as the autumn rolls on. A Mr. Longland, of
Chancery-lane, has actually heard from one " Gra
cious Franklin, that there are 6000 men in arms in
London." Joshua Jones hears there are 3000.
Joshua Jones is found out and questioned, and he
says in his deposition that Arthur Fleetwood, son
of Dr. Fleetwood, provost of King's College, told
him so. This not very hopeful clue to finding out
a plot is hereupon dropped. A list of twelve of
the most bitter and dissatisfied London ministers is
handed over by Potter to Sir Edward Broughton.*
* Amidst names unintelligible or unknown, I can make out those in
tended for Dr. Annesley, Matthew Mede, Mr. Bragg, and Mr. Venning. A

Plots.

237

Soon afterwards Sir Edward Hales grows very im
patient, and on a general order without any special
warrant, secures some ill-principled fanatics, " though
without any recent charge against them." Knowing
their principles, this righteous magistrate thinks it
best, " in such times of imminent danger, to be be
forehand, and search houses and secure persons
before any charge is brought against them." Unfor
tunately he can prove nothing, so he has reluctantly
to release his prisoners, except one, on parole.
Secretary Nicholas was indefatigable in his endea
vours to find out plots. Two of his letters, both dated
November 16th, 1661, now, amongst many others,
lie before us. In one of them he writes to Sir John
Pakington, Deputy-Lieutenant of Worcestershire,
thanking him and some informer named Simonds,
for their services, and urging the utmost diligence to
get at the bottom of designs mentioned in inter
cepted letters. In the other letter, addressed to the
Mayor of Bristol, he informs him of a messenger to
be sent from the Council with directions about one
" John Casebeard," and deplores " that ungrateful
fellows bred in rebellion do not know how to be
have themselves ; that the King's mercy, instead of

short report of a sermon by Mr. Barman is appended. The sermon appears
to have been a perfectly harmless one. The writing and spelling of the docu
ment betray the extreme ignorance and vulgarity of the informer. Not one
name is correctly given, and there are misstatements as to where the ministers
preached.

238 Plots.
making them penitent, only hardens them, while
the devil suggests to them the idea that they are
penitent."* The most frivolous rumours, the
vaguest charges, the most contemptible accusations
were encouraged at Whitehall. The silliness of
some of the communications from retained and paid
informers, is almost incredible. One day, a grave
information is laid before the Secretary against a
poor man and his wife, for saying in a beer-house,
after they had been at Westminster Abbey, that " it
made their hair stand on end to see people bow to
the altar !" Some of the stories, at the close of the
year, get as horrible as they are absurd. In De
cember, an informer reports, that a porter of the
Duke of Buckingham said he hoped soon to tram
ple in bishops' blood, and in the King's too, and
that he could raise two or three thousand men for
such a purpose. Edward Potter is conspicuous
amongst the Government emissaries, and it serves
to show what kind of character he must have been,
and the excitements to rebellion which were em
ployed at the time — when we quote from one of his
letters the confession, that he had gone about among
the disaffected in Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, and
had gained " much love among them in a little time,"
but did not dare to be too bold at first, but would
"help them forward in any plot, and then reveal it."

* These letters are contained in Entry Book I. 19. Charles II.

Plots. 239
This wretched creature had afterwards to acknow
ledge that he did not succeed — that he could not get
them to work, so that they could be dealt with — that
they would be quiet so long as they were let alone
— that congregations ought to be broken up as an
excitement to mischief — that he wanted more
agents — and more money.*
Other methods were employed to criminate sus
pected persons. William Kiffin, a distinguished
Baptist merchant and minister, was followed every
where with a lynx-eyed vigilance ; and when other
methods to bring the man into trouble failed, the
following plan was adopted : — A letter was found
in the Taunton post-bag, bearing the name of
Colonel Basset, of that town, and directed to Na
thaniel Crabb. After alluding to thousands ready
to lay down their lives to do the work of the Lord,
Basset desired his correspondent to get " powder
and arms ready before Easter." The letter was to
be shown to his brother Jesse, and brother Kiffin. t
On the interception of this letter, Kiffin and Crabb
were arrested ; and the letter, which looks genuine
enough, is now in the State Paper Office, seeming
to throw some suspicion on the parties. But it so
happens, that William Kiffin wrote an Autobio-

* Domestic. Charles II. Vol. xliv. 84. All the letters we have noticed
are described by Mrs. Green. Calendar, 1661-2.
d- The letter is in the State Paper office. Domestic. Charles II. Vol. li.
No. 15.

240 Plots.
graphy, which was published from the original
MS. about forty years ago ; and from this it ap
pears that the letter in question was an infamous
forgery.* * " I was seized," he says, "on a Saturday at midnight, and earned to the
guard at Whitehall. None were suffered to speak with me, and I continued all
next day under many taunts and threats of the soldiers. On the Lord's day
evening, I was sent for before General Monk, and several others of the Council,
who read the said letter to me. They even charged me, that I must needs be
guilty of those things in the said letter. To whom I replied, that I knew not so
much as the name of the man mentioned in the letter, by whom it was said to
be written ; and I did abhor even the entertaining any thoughts of doing any
thing which might be to the disturbance of the peace of the kingdom.
" After the examination, I was put into the hands of the soldiers, to take care
of me, and ordered to be sent next day to the Lord Chief Justice Foster, to be
examined. I was strictly watched by them all that night, in an inn in King's-
street, whither they carried me.
" Under this dispensation, I found many supports from God ; and knowing my
own innocence, did not doubt but the Lord would one way or other work for
my deliverance. The next day I was carried in a coach to Serjeant's Inn to
be examined. Soldiers being about the coach, occasioned a great concourse of
people, who inquired what was the matter ; some crying out ' traitors,' ' rogues,'
( hang them all.'
"On coming to my Lord Chief Justice, I was strictly examined by him about
the said letter ; to which, when I had returned answer, I told his Lordship
that I did not doubt but his Lordship took more pleasure to clear an innocent
man than to condemn a guilty ; and therefore prayed him that I might have
liberty to speak for myself, and I doubted not but my innocence would ap
pear. He returned me for answer I should speak freely what I could.
" I told him there were some things in the letter itself which might give
satisfaction that it was a mere forgery. For first, the letter states the rise of
the execution of this plot from the death of the Princess of Orange, and yet
it was dated at Taunton three days before she died. To which my Lord re
plied ' It was a considerable observation ;' and looking upon the date of the
letter to be so indeed, said ' that might be but a mistake in the date, yet the
letter might be true.'
" To which I made answer, I should leave that to his Honour's consideration.
But there was one thing more, which, with submission to his Lordship's judg
ment could be no mistake ; that was, that there could be no letter written
from London to Taunton, and an answer to it from Taunton, from the time

Plots.

241

This was not the only trick of the sort. Captain
Yarrington was served in a similar way, about ten
months afterwards. He published a full account of
this and other forgeries and sham plots. And there
is at Whitehall a letter from Sir John Pakington,
mentioning the seizure of Yarrington, and other
zealous Parliament men, on suspicion ; with the re
mark, that they " disown the intercepted letters."*
With these informations and intercepted letters
before us, we are put into possession of the Cabinet
secrets of thewinter of t66i. This then,after all, was
the kind of evidence on which Clarendon must have
grounded his appeals to the King and Privy Council
to crush the plots that threatened the peace of the

of the death of the Princess of Orange to the time I was seized. For, I told
him, his Lordship knew the Princess died on the Monday night, and no
letter could give advice of it by post till the next night ; and no answer could
be to that letter till the next Monday morning ; while I was seized the Saturday
night after her death, which must needs be before any post came in.
" Upon this, my Lord, looking very steadfastly upon the Lieutenant-Colonel,
whose prisoner I was, the said Lieutenant-Colonel desired my Lord to give me
the oaths. My Lord replied to him in great anger that he would not. And
that things were come to a fine pass, when a Lord Chief Justice must be
taught by a soldier what to do. Telling him it was a trapan ; and then my
Lord directed his speech to me ; and told me he was satisfied I was abused,
and that if I could find out the author of the said letter he should punish him
and discharge me.
" Mr. Henry Jesse and Mr. Crape were mentioned with me in the letter
from Taunton, and they were both examined and discharged also. Thus did
God work for my deliverance, and ensnare them which contrived this letter
in the work of their hands, while we escaped as a bird out of the net of the
fowler ; having great cause to praise his holy name." — " Remarkable Passages
in the Life of W. Kiffin," p. 29.'
* See Vol. xliv. No. 62 ; Neal, iv. p. 321; andCalamy's Abridgment, p. 178.
R

242 PktS.
kingdom ! Here we have the subjects of manifold
conversations in the Royal closet, and the ministe
rial Council Chamber, the substance of information
adduced by the Lord Chancellor in parliamentary
conferences, and the topics of speeches made by
him to the Lords, as well as of speeches delivered
by Sir Edward Nicholas and Sir John Pakington
to the Commons. And here, too, we have the
foundation of the formal Royal message communi
cated by the Chancellor, on the 19th of December.*
The object all the way through was to make it
appear that Nonconformists were politically dis
affected, that their principles made them so, that
dissent in itself was a species of treason and rebel
lion, and that severe measures must be taken against
them. Whereas, so far as any disaffection existed
among such persons it was the result of the oppression
and cruelty to which they were exposed. Informers
were forced to allow that the religious people would
be quiet, if they were let alone. But these abomi
nable instruments of tyranny would not let them

* He said the King wished him " to let them know, that besides the ap
prehensions and fears that are generally abroad, his Majesty hath received
letters from several parts of the kingdom, and also by intercepted letters it does
appear, that divers discontented persons are endeavouring to raise new troubles,
to the disturbance of the peace of the kingdom, as in many particulars was
instanced j which matter being of so great consequence, his Majesty's desire
is, that the House of Commons may be made acquainted with it, that so his
Majesty may receive the advice and counsel of both Houses of Parliament,
what is fit to be done herein j and to think of some proper remedy to secure
the peace of the kingdom."

Plots.

243

alone — would, if possible, constrain them to attempt
some outbreak.
Reviewing the contents of this mass of letters, it
appears that the nation was dissatisfied, that multi
tudes .murmured against those in power,* that the
old Republican officers were uneasy, and if a good
opportunity offered would not, perhaps, be unwill
ing to take up arms. That a few ignorant and
wild fanatics of the same class with Venner and his
band, entertained rebellious designs, is possible.
But that Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, or
Quakers, were plotting to overthrow the Govern
ment, and were covering political crimes under a
cloak of religious worship — the grand point, be it
remembered, which the party in power wanted to
establish — was, to use the mildest terms, a surmise
without any foundation whatever.

* " At Court things are in very ill condition, there being so much emula
tion, poverty, and the vices of drinking, swearing, and loose amours, that I
know not what will be the end of it but confusion. And the clergy so high,
that all people that I meet with do protest against their practice."— Pepys'
"Diary," 1661, Aug. 31.

R 2

Chapter IX.

m^t lagging of tfie MIL
^FTER the adjournment of July, the
Parliament reassembled on the 20th
November. Next to the day when
Convocation first met at St. Paul's,
this was to the Episcopal Church the
brightest of the year. The Journals of the House
of Lords duly record that the King's most excellent
Majesty being present, sitting on his throne, in his
regal robes, " the Lords spiritual and temporal
being likewise in their robes, his Majesty com
manded the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod to
signify his pleasure to the House of Commons,
that they presently come up to attend him."
They came, and through the eyes of a diary-keep
ing member of Parliament,* we see the grand
spectacle. " The Black Rod came down and com-

* MS. Diary, quoted in Lathbury's " History of Convocation.'

The Passing of the Bill. 245
manded us up to the King, where we found him,
sitting on the throne, with his crown on, and his
robes, and all the Peers and Bishops, with their
robes also, so as, in my judgment, I never saw so
magnificent a sight in all my life. The King spoke
all himself." There he was, as we recognise him
in old pictures, crowned, and attired in crimson
velvet, and abundant ermine, with his sallow face,
sharp eyes, and profuse locks of rich black hair.
Clarendon was not in attendance, the Lord Chief
Justice of the Common Pleas acting as Speaker of
the House for the occasion ; but the Lord Treasurer
and Privy Seal, the Lord Chamberlain, and Steward
were all in their places, lacking in no way the pomp
and pride of office — with a goodly number of Earls
and Barons, filling up the temporal benches. But
the new sight, the sight that had not been seen so
long, was the goodly array of twenty-three Bishops
in robe and rochet, lawn and cap, the pure white
and sober black on the long vacated bench, setting
off the more brightly the scarlet and ermine on the
other seats. We dwell on this because it was very
significant, and because Charles referred to it.
Indeed, he seems to have come down to the House,
partly in honour of this episcopal presence, for as
the House met only after an adjournment, his
appearance was not required. " My Lords, and
Gentlemen of the House of Commons," said he,
"I know the visit I make you this day is not

246 The Passing of the Bill.
necessary, is not of course, yet if there were no
more in it, it would not be strange that I come to
see the Lords spiritual and temporal and the Com
mons of England met together." It is very true
that the larger part of the royal speech related to
" the crying debts, which every day called upon
him," but still let us give Charles credit for pleasure
in seeing his friends, the heads of the English
hierarchy, in all their olden splendour round about
his throne. There came out, before the royal speech
was finished, an odd faint utterance to this effect,
" Those which concern matters of religion, I con
fess to you are too hard for me, and therefore I do
commend them to your care and deliberation, which
can best provide for them." Certainly he was no
theological polemic, like his grandfather, and no
hand at ecclesiastical business of any kind, but he
had undertaken, in the autumn of 1660, to manage
the Church question himself. A year's experience
with ecclesiastical parties at war with one another,
had taught him a little more practical wisdom.
Religious matters were more than Charles the Fifth
could manage, no wonder they were much too hard
for Charles the Second.*

* Persecution was going on in the west. In the " Public Intelligencer " we
read :—" Exon, March 22, 1662. The loyal grandjury have here found atleast
40 indictments against some eminent Nonconformists, for not reading Com
mon Prayer. They presented, as a grievance and a concernment to the peace
of the nation, the travelling about of divers itinerant ministers, justly ejected
out of other sequestered men's benefices, by them unlawfully possessed."

The Passing of the Bill. 247

Passing over minor bills of an ecclesiastical cha
racter, including that about Quaker oaths, we come
to the Bill of Uniformity, of which we lost sight
when it reached the Upper House in the summer
of 1661.
There was a short recess of Parliament during
the Christmas holidays. Just before, a committee
of Lords and Commons was appointed, to report
respecting the plots which were now everywhere
talked about. On the ioth of January, Mr. Waller
reported that the committee had met, and that the
members, when assembled with those appointed by
the Lords, " sat down with them, and put on their
hats, without any exception taken by the Lords."
He went on to repeat the information laid before
the committee by the Lord Chancellor. He stated
that a suspicious list of one hundred and sixty of
the old army officers had been discovered, and that
there should have been a " meeting in London about
the 16th or nth of December ; and that they in
tended about the end of January or February, to
have made sure of Shrewsbury, Coventry, and
Bristol ; and that they should rise in several parts
at once ; that if they did but disturb our peace, they
should lessen our reputation abroad, by discovering
we were at variance among ourselves ; that, where
they were prevalent, they should begin with assas
sination, which moved one of them to relent ; that
some of the late King's murderers were entertained

248 The Passing of the Bill.
in France, Holland, and Germany, and held con
stant correspondence with these," and were fomented
by sortie foreign princes ; that many arms were
bought in order to this design ; and that they
bragged that if they once got footing, they should
not want means to carry on the work ; that they
were discovered by one of the one-and-twenty, and
his relation confirmed by such intelligence from
abroad as never failed : that by a letter from Mr.
Walden, at Huntingdon, it was informed that many
there met under the name of Quakers, that were
not so, and rid in multitudes by night to the ter
ror of his Majesty's good subjects : that there was
there a dangerous inn, and a seditious preacher, who
uttered the same thing there as was here at London
by seamen who used the late King so barbarously
at the Isle of Wight ; that the name of the discoverer
was concealed, because some in this design were
not taken, but that all would shortly be made to
appear in Westminster Hall ; that it may be won
dered that some proposals were not made to remedy
this impendent evil : but the King had advised with
the Duke of Albemarle (who was present at this
committee), and had put two troops into Shrews
bury, and as many into Coventry (who, by the way,
had broken a great knot of thieves, and taken
twenty) ; that a rumour was spread, that the ap
pointing of this committee was only a plot to govern
by an army, and that the committee was made in

The Passing of the Bill. 249
order to it ; but the committee was very sensible
of the real danger, and hoped this House would be
so too ; and that, since all our adversaries were
united to destroy us, so we should unite to preserve
ourselves." Presently after this rambling speech, which
amounted to nothing — no such insurrectionary de
signs ever having been " made to appear in West
minster Hall," as the Lord Chancellor promised —
the Bill of Uniformity comes on the carpet again.
As there had been only an adjournment, the bill
was eligible for the consideration of the Lords. It
was read for the first time on the 14th January,
1662.* The second reading followed on the 17th,
and a committee appointed, consisting of the Lord
Chamberlain, Albemarle, the Bishop of Norwich,
Sheldon, and others. Their lordships, or any five,
were to meet in the afternoon of the following
Thursday, at " three of the clock." On the 13th
of February, a report came that the committee had
frequently met, and expected "a book of unifor
mity" to be brought, which not being done they
had made .no progress. Therefore they desired to
know the pleasure of the House, whether they
should proceed upon the book sent by the Com
mons, or stay till the other came. The Lords knew
what the Bishops intended, and justly counted it a

State Papers. Domestic. Charles II. Entry Book 6, p. 27-

250 The Passing of the Bill.
waste of time to work on the old volume tacked to
the Commons' bill. The King was evidently in
no hurry. Whether from a dislike of the measure,
or from his invincible inattention to business, he
had put aside the folio which had been handed to
him by Convocation, with its erasures and inter
lineations. It is in harmony with what we know of
the Merry Monarch and his chosen friends, to sup
pose that business-like men had to tease and plague
him quite as far as courtly etiquette allowed, ere he
opened the leaves of the revised formularies, or
wrote one word on the subject. At last, on the
24th of February, the King formally approved of
the alterations.*
Clarendon tells us, that when the new book was
presented to the House by the two Archbishops,
the Earl of Northumberland proposed, " That the
old book might be confirmed, without any altera
tion ; and that Queen Elizabeth's Act of Unifor
mity should be applied to it ; since a new Act of
Uniformity might take up much time, and raise
much debate, all of which would be avoided by
adhering to the old."* It was answered-, probably
by Clarendon himself, that if that proposition
had been made on the King's return, it would have
been met with a general approbation. But after the
Puritan clergy had inveighed against it, and the

Clarendon's " Continuation" History, p. 1077.

The Passing of the Bill. 25 1
King had granted a commission to several bishops
and other divines to review, and had authorized
Convocation to revise the same, it could not but
" be great levity and offence to reject what was
with all this ceremony and solemnity presented."
The Earl of Northumberland was silenced, and the
book was delivered over to a committee. The
Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Pembroke
were added on the 27th, and Mr. Justice Hyde and
Mr. Attorney-General had notice to attend that
afternoon. On the 6th March, Lord Wharton, a
Nonconformist, was included in the committee list.
The journals state, on the 13 th March, that the Earl
of Bridgewater reported that the committee had
made divers amendments and alterations, which were
offered to the consideration of the House ; and that
the committee, in their amendments and alterations,
had made the bill relate to the book recommended
by the King to this House, and not to the book
brought with the bill from the House of Com
mons."* It was resolved that the alterations in the
book be read before the alterations in the bill.

* At the risk of being tedious, I have recorded this resolution, as Bishop
Kennet, in his " Register," p. 642, has fallen into a strange mistake. He says,
the committee reported that " the Commons had made divers alterations and
amendments ;" and that the Commons had made the bill relate to the book
recommended by the King to the Lords. This is one of the strangely con
fused representations to which most historians have been addicted in describing
the Act of Uniformity, from not examining carefully the Journals of Par
liament.

252 The Passing of the Bill.
The next day saw the whole House at work on
the book. One day more, and all was finished.
The Peers had caught the spirit of the Convocation,
and made up for lost time. Their despatch in
dicates that they paid less attention to the altera
tions than the clergy had done, and that was
little enough. Clarendon, as spokesman of the
assembly, in the name and by the direction of the
House, gave the Bishops thanks for their care in
the business, and desired them to present like thanks
to the Lower House of Convocation. The pre
amble, with certain amendments and alterations,
was agreed to on the 17 th ; and then came a Royal
interference, which made their lordships pause. The
Chancellor communicated a message from the King,
and read a proviso which his Majesty wished to be
inserted. " Read it again," said the House. He
read it again. It was deferred to the next day.
The journals are silent as to what the proviso
was. But a despatch, by De Wiquefort, identifies
the suggestion which so startled the Lords. That
Dutch minister, on the 31st of March, retails to
his court a great deal of gossip, — how, in a chest
belonging to Henry Martin, was found a memoir
by the French ambassador, full of the praises of the
Commonwealth, — how the Irish Catholics were
getting into trouble because they had been nego
tiating with Rome to the King's prejudice, — how
they were forbidden to present any request, — how

The Passing of the Bill. 253
their agent was not allowed to appear at court, —
and how the Chancellor had a strong party formed
against him. Amidst all this he states the said
Chancellor had informed the Lords that the King
wanted a power to be inserted in the Act of Unifor
mity, enabling him to dispense with ministers wear
ing the surplice and making the sign of the cross.*
His Majesty then was already feeling after a dispen
sing power, which, before the year was ended, he
eagerly tried to grasp. But the Lords were jealous
of all such interference, and raised a question as to
whether a salvo should not be entered on the records
to save the privilege of the House, in going so far
as even to take the matter into consideration. The
19th of March found the Bill recommitted, together
with the proviso sent from the King.f The divers
amendments and alterations which had been made
by the committee, referred to in the report of the
13th of March, may be inferred from such papers
as are preserved in the House of Lords ; and from
a comparison of the Act with the Parliamentary
journals. They included some addition to the
preamble, and the connection with the Prayer Book
of the Psalter or Psalms of David, as they are to
* State Papers. Charles II. Vol. Hi. Holl. Cor.
t In the Journals, die Merc. 19 die Martii, it is also said, " The House
took into consideration the matter in the King's proviso to the Bill for Unifor
mity of Worship. And the proviso was read again and debated. And there being
another proviso offered to the House, which was read, the question being put,
" whether the proviso shall be rejected," it was resolved in the affirmative.

254 The Passing of the Bill.
be sung or said in churches, and the form of making,
ordaining, and consecrating bishops, priests, and
deacons. The feast of St. Bartholomew was sub
stituted for that of Michael the Archangel, which
was a great hardship for the ejected ministers, as it
deprived them of the .tithes of the year, and en
riched, at their expense, the new incumbent.*
There was inserted the form declaring unfeigned
assent and consent, not simply to the use of the
book, as originally proposed, but to all and every
thing contained and prescribed in and by the book ;
and also another form to be subscribed, utterly re
pudiating the Solemn League and Covenant, as con
trary to the laws and liberties of this kingdom. A
further amendment required that every minister of
the Church of England should be episcopally or
dained. And a further addition was, that licence
from a Bishop, or guardian of the spiritualities,
should be necessary for all lecturers. f

* Dr. Southey, in his " History of the Church," ii. p. 467, observes, "The
ejected were careful not to remember that the same day, and for the same
reason, because the tithes were commonly due at Michaelmas, had been ap
pointed for the former ejectment, when four times as many of the loyal clergy
were deprived for fidelity to their sovereign." This is a singularly inaccurate
statement throughout. To say nothing of the latter part, we may ask, with
Mr. Hallam, Where has Dr. Southey found his precedent ? Not any one Par
liamentary ordinance in Husband's Collection mentions St. Bartholomew's*
Day. Dr. Southey has, no doubt, followed Walker in his "Sufferings of the
Clergy," who makes the statement without any authority.
f I have been permitted to have copies taken of all the papers that can
be found in connection with the Act of Uniformity. They consist chiefly
of amendments and schedules of alterations made by the Lords.

The Passing of the Bill. 255
These amendments and alterations were less or
more discussed. Most of them were agreed to with
little or no debate. This was the case as it respects
the royally suggested proviso, touching the power
of dispensing with the use of cross and surplice.
The points which chiefly occupied attention and
called forth speeches from the Peers, were — -first,
the requirement of episcopal ordination as a sine
qua non for clerical ministry in the Church of Eng
land ; and next, the imposition of the form which
repudiated the obligations of the Covenant, and de
clared that national bond of Presbyterianism to have
been utterly unlawful.
It was argued on that side of the House where
old Puritan sympathies were not quite extinguished,
that the first of these requirements " was not in ac
cordance with what had been the opinion of the
Church of England ; and that it would lay a great
reproach upon all other Protestant churches who
had no bishops, as if they had no ministers, and
consequently were no churches ; for that it was
well known the Church of England did not allow
re-ordination, as the ancient Church never admitted
it ; insomuch as if any priest of the Church of
Rome renounces the communion thereof, his ordi
nation is not questioned, but he is as capable of any
preferment in this Church as if he had been ordained
in it. And therefore the not admitting the minis
ters of other Protestants to have the same privi-

256 The Passing of the Bill.
lege, can proceed from no other ground than that
they looked not upon them as ministers, having no
ordination; which is a judgment the Church of
England had not ever owned, and that it would be
very imprudent to do it now."
This called' forth replies from other members
of the House — most likely some of the Bishops — -
to the following effect : — " That the Church of Eng
land judged none but her own children, and did
not determine that other Protestant Churches were
without ordination. It is a thing without their
cognizance, and most of the learned men of those
Churches had made necessity the chief pillar to
support that ordination of theirs. That necessity
cannot be pleaded here, where ordination is given
according to the unquestionable practice of the
Church of Christ ; if they who pretend foreign
ordination are his Majesty's subjects, they have no
excuse of necessity, for they might in all times have
received Episcopal ordination ; and so they did
upon the matter renounce their own Church ; if
they are strangers, and pretend to preferment in
this Church, they ought to conform and to be sub
ject to the laws of the kingdom, which concerns
only those who desire to live under the protection
thereof. For the argument of reordination, there
is no such thing required. Rebaptization is not
allowed in or by any Church ; yet in all Churches
where it is doubted, as it may be often with very

The Passing of the Bill. 257
good reason, whether the person hath been baptized
or no, or if it hath been baptized by a midwife or
lay person. Without determining the validity or
invalidity of such baptism, there is an hypothetical
form — ' If thou hast not been already baptized, I
do baptize,' &c. So in this case of ordination, the
form may be the same — c If thou hast not been
already ordained, then I do ordain,' &c. If his
former ordination were good, this is void ; if the
other was invalid or defective, he hath reason to be
glad that it be thus supplied."
This mode of silencing the scruples of ministers
on whom reordination was imposed, came exten
sively into fashion after the passing of the act.
When, on the 6th April, the House resumed their
discussions, the journals inform us " the point now
in consideration was the clause of ministers de
claring against the Covenant." The form of ab
juring both the doctrine of resistance, and the
obligations of the Covenantwas, in fact, a coupling
together in one, the two oaths required to be
taken by the Corporation Act, passed a few months
before. On comparing the words in that Act with
the words in the Bill of Uniformity, it will be
found that the latter are just the same, with the
addition of two short clauses, — first, " that I will
conform to the Liturgy of the Church of Eng
land, as it is now by law established ; " and, se
condly, that the Covenant entailed no obligation

258 The Passing of the Bill.
" to endeavour any change or alteration of govern
ment in Church or State."* As this form of re
nouncing the Covenant was only of temporary use,
to be abolished in twenty years, it ceased afterwards
to receive much attention; but at first, it was a
chief point of interest both to the upholders and
opponents of the bill, even beyond what attached
to the form of subscription and declaration re
specting the Prayer Book. Many Lords, we are
told by Clarendon, who had taken the Cove
nant, were not so much concerned that the clergy
(for whom only this act was prepared) should be
obliged to make this declaration, but apprehended
more, that when such a clause should be passed, it
could not be disputed, and so would be inserted
into other acts which related to the functions of
other offices, and so would, in a short time, be re
quired of themselves. t

* I give a literal copy of a draft of amendment found in the Paper Office,
House of Lords, connected with the act, showing the fruitless attempts made
to modify the abjuration of the Covenant —
" I, A. B., doe declare That I hold that there lyes no obligation upon mee or
any other person from the oath commonly called the Solemn League and
Covenant I otherwise than in such things only whereunto I or any other person
1 other than what I or they were otherwise legally oblig'd unto before
were legally and expressly obliged before the taking of ye sd Covenant,
the taking of the Covenant,
and that the same was in itselfe an unlawfull oath," Sec.
•(- A comparison of Clarendon's history of the act, in his " Continuation,"
with the Journals of the two Houses, shows that in almost every paragraph of
his narration there are gross inaccuracies. It would require too much space to

The Passing of the Bill. 259
The Presbyterian Lords opposed it warmly, " as a
thing unnecessary, and which would widen the breach
instead of closing up the wounds that had been
made : which the King had made it his business to
do, and the Parliament had hitherto concurred with
his Majesty in that endeavour. That many men
would believe or fear (which, in such a case, is the
same) that this clause might prove a breach of the
Act of Indemnity, which had not only provided
against indictments and suits at law and penalties, but
against reproaches for what was past, which this clause
would be understood to give new life to. As for
what concerned the conformity to the Liturgy of the
Church as it is now established, it is provided for
as fully in the former subscription in this act, and
therefore is impertinent in this place. That the
Covenant contained many good things in it, as de
fending the King's person, and maintaining the
Protestant religion : and therefore to say that there
lies no obligation upon it, would neither be for the
service of the King, or the interest of the Church ;
especially since it was well known that it had
wrought upon the conscience of many to serve the
King in the late revolution, from which his
Majesty had received great advantage. However,

point them out. I have adopted his report of the speeches delivered, but with
much misgiving as to their correctness ; probably, however, the general tenor
of the debate was as the Chancellor represents j and in the arguments for the
bill perhaps he gives his own orations. See Cont., p. 1077-9.
S 2

260 The Passing of the Bill.
it was now dead ; all men were absolved from
taking it, nor could it be imposed or offered to any
men without punishment ; and they, who had in
the ill times been forced to take it, did now in
violably and cheerfully perform all the duties of
allegiance and fidelity to his Majesty. If it had
at any time produced any good, that was an excuse
for the irregularity of it : it would do no mischief
for the future ; and therefore that it was time to
bury it in oblivion."*
In reply, the Court party made themselves very
merry with the allegation, " that the King's safety
and the interest of the Church were provided for
by the Covenant, when it had been therefore entered
into, to fight against the King, and to destroy the
Church. That there was no one lawful or honest
clause in the Covenant, that was not destroyed or
made of no signification by the next that succeeded ;
and if it were not, the same obligation was better pro
vided for by some oaths, which the same men had or
ought to have taken, and which ought to have re
strained them from taking the covenant : and there
fore it may justly be pronounced, that there is no
obligation upon any man from them. That there

* Clarendon intimates that the former part of the declaration respecting
war against the King, was most obnoxious to the Presbyterian Lords, yet that
they durst not oppose it, because the principle of non-resistance had already been
recognised in the Corporation Act. He adds, that they who were most soli
citous that the House should concur in this addition, " had field-room enough
to expatiate upon the gross iniquity of the Covenant."

The Passing of the Bill. 261
was no breach of the Act of Indemnity, nor any
reproach upon any man for having taken it, ex
cept what would result from his own conscience.
But that it was most absolutely necessary, for the
safety of the King's person, and the peace of the
kingdom, that they who had taken it should declare
that they do not believe themselves to be bound by
it : otherwise they may still think that they may
fight against the King, and must conspire the de
struction of the Church. And they cannot take
too much care, or use too much diligence, to dis
cover who are of that opinion, that they may be
strictly looked unto, and restrained from doing that
which they take themselves obliged to do. That
the Covenant is not dead, as was alleged, but still
retains great vigour ; was still the idol to which the
Presbyterians sacrificed : and that there must and
would always be a general jealousy of all those who
had taken it, until they had declared that it did not
bind them ; especially of the clergy, who had so
often enlarged in their pulpits how absolutely and
indispensably all men are obliged to prosecute the
ends of it, to destroy the Church, whatever danger
it brings the King's person to. And therefore they,
of all men, ought to be glad of this opportunity
that was offered to vindicate their loyalty and obe
dience ; and if they were not ready to do so, they
were not fit to be trusted with the charge and care
of the souls of the King's subjects."

262 The Passing of the Bill.
The journals bear witness to the existence of dis
satisfaction with what was done in the matter of the
Covenant. Even on the Episcopal bench, after the
declaration had been voted, there was a wish to
modify the proceeding.
On the 7th of April, " the Lord Bishop of Wor
cester offered to the consideration of the House an
explanation in a paper, of the vote of the previous
Saturday, concerning the words in the act which
declared against the Solemn League and Covenant,
which he first opened, and afterwards, by permission
of the House, read." The question was raised,
Whether a debate on the paper was against the
orders of the House ? It was resolved in the nega
tive. And it was ordered, that the paper should
be taken into consideration the next morning. A
memorandum is entered in connection with this mi
nute, " That, before the putting of the aforesaid
question, these Lords, whose names are subscribed,
desire leave to enter their dissent if the question was
carried in the negative." No names, however, are
subscribed. The day following, the House took
into consideration the paper brought in for an ex
planation of the clause in the Act of Uniformity
concerning the Covenant ; and, after a long debate,
it was ordered that the paper should be laid aside.
On the very same day, the bill now being in its
last stage, certain Lords were appointed to draw up a
clause empowering the King to make such provi-

The Passing of the Bill. 263
sion for any of the deprived clergy as he should
think fit. This was a second proviso for Royal
interference, and perhaps, like the former, proceeded
from Royal suggestion.
The Lords on the committee were the Duke of
Buckingham, the Earl of Bristol, the Earl of
Anglesey, the Bishop of Worcester, the Bishop of
Exeter, the Bishop of Hereford, and the Lords
Wharton, Mohun, Lucas, and Holies. The Earl
of Anglesey reported the next day, "that the com
mittee had considered of a proviso, that such per
sons as are put out of their livings by virtue of the
Act of Uniformity, may have such allowance out
of their livings for their subsistence as his Majesty
shall think fit. After some debate, a few altera
tions were made, and it was resolved that the pro
viso, with the alterations, shall stand in the bill."
The bill was read a third time on the 9th of
April ; it had undergone considerable modification,
and been rendered more severe by changing Mi
chaelmas for St. Bartholomew — by imposing re
ordination on those who had not been episcopally
ordained — by altering a general assent and consent
to the use of the book, into a precise form of assent
and consent to all the book contained — and by re
quiring a declaration of non-resistance, and of the
unlawfulness of the Covenant, like that prescribed
in the Corporation Act. But two very important
modifications of a far different kind were made, in

264 The Passing of the Bill.
the allowance of a dispensing power as to the use
of the surplice and the cross ; and in a grant of
one-fifth to the exiled ministers out of their for
feited livings. The origin of one, if not both pro
visoes, belongs to Charles IL, and shows, united
with his fondness for exercising arbitrary power,
some kindness and consideration towards " tender
consciences" and impoverished clergymen. The
Lords were evidently jealous as to the assumption
of unconstitutional prerogatives ; but they should
have credit for sympathy with him in those kindlier
feelings expressed in the two provisoes.
We must now return to the House of Commons.
On the 1 st of March, the members went in proces
sion to Whitehall, and were formally introduced by
Mr. Speaker to the King, who had sent for them
on a pressing emergency ; for he wanted to have
his exchequer replenished. He had, however, some
thing else to say. " Gentlemen," he observed,
" I hear you are very zealous for the Church, and
very solicitous, and even jealous, that there is not
expedition enough used in the affair : I thank you
for it, since, I presume, it proceeds from a good
root of piety and devotion ; but I must tell you, I
have the worst luck in the world, if, after all the
reproaches of being a Papist whilst I was abroad, I
am suspected of being a Presbyterian now I am
come home. I know you will not take it unkindly,
if I tell you that I am as zealous for the Church of

The Passing of the Bill. 26$
England as any of you can be ; and am enough
acquainted with the enemies of it on all sides; that
I am as much in love with the Book of Common
Prayer as you can wish, and have prejudice enough
to those that do not love it ; who I hope in time
will be better informed, and change their minds ;
and you may be confident I do as much desire to
see a uniformity settled as any amongst you. I
pray, trust me in that affair ; I promise you to
hasten the despatch of it, with all convenient speed ;
you may rely upon me in it. I have transmitted
the Book of Common Prayer, with those alterations
and additions which have been presented to me by
the Convocation, to the House of Peers, with my
approbation, that the Act of Uniformity may re
late to it : so that I presume it will be shortly des
patched there ; and when we have done all we can,
the well settling that affair will require great pru
dence and discretion, and the absence of all passion
and precipitation."
Evidently, just before this, the Commons had been
uneasy at the delay of the bill. Charles — who, about
a week before the Whitehall interview had sent the
revised Prayer Book to the Peers, with his message,
and so had removed the obstruction to its progress in
the Upper House — could now therefore boldly face
the Commons. He ventured also, at the same time,
to indicate that strong desire to claim a dispensing
power, which he asked in the matter of the cross

266 The Passing of the Bill.
and surplice. He wished that the execution of the
law should be left to himself. The gentlemen who
waited on the King that March morning must have
risen with the sun, for Mr. Speaker returned with
the members about ten o'clock, and took the chair.
On the ioth April, Sir M. Brampton and Sir
N. Hobart, with due formalities, approached the
mace-covered table of the Lower House, and signi
fied that the Lords desired a Conference on the Bill
of Uniformity in the Painted Chamber. Serjeant
Keeling, with other gentlemen, were appointed to
attend the Conference. He soon returned, and re
ported that the reason of delay was, that the Lords
had been waiting for the Convocation Prayer Book,
and that it now awaited the consideration of the
House, together with the bill and amendments.
The new volume was exchanged for the old one of
1604; and the Commons at once went vigorously
to work upon the task before them. The com
mittee sat till eight at night — a late hour in those
days — and met early next morning to complete their
duty, for which they received the thanks of the
House. It is curious to find how jealous the Com
mons were of their privileges. A question was put
on the 1 6th April, whether there should be a debate
on the alterations made by Convocation :* upon a

* It is singular to see how Convocation was pushing its way for three
months before this, and treating things as though done by the Commons, when

The Passing of the Bill, 267
division, the question was negatived by 96 to 90.
But lest it should be thought the State submitted
to the Church, and allowed the right of the Convo
cation to dictate to Parliament, another question, i.e.,
" that the amendments made by the Convocation and
sent down by the Lords to the House might, by the
order of the House, have been debated," was de
cided at once in the affirmative, without a dissen
tient voice. Even that House of Commons, Royalist
as it was, and corrupt and pensionary as it after
wards became, had enough of English spirit to
maintain its liberties after this fashion. The love
of Parliamentary government, free both from kingly
despotism and ecclesiastical supremacy, was the true
secret of the Civil Wars ; and now, amidst the re
action which had set in against the Commonwealth,
this noble passion was not quite extinguished ; and
though its light grew pale, it serves to illumine a
rather dark period in our political annals. But,
while jealous of any interference with Parliamentary
prerogatives, the Commons had no regard for the

they were not thought of. On the 29th January, a copy of the bill pending
in Parliament was read and examined in the Bishops' House. On the 5th
March, the Bishops of St. Asaph, Carlisle, and Chester were deputed to revise
certain alterations made in the Common Prayer Book during its progress through
Parliament. Was it not strange to do this more than a month before the
Commons touched the measure ? The Commons, as we see, really made no
alterations at all; nor did the Lords. On the 8th March, Mr. Sancroft, after
wards Archbishop of Canterbury, was directed to superintend the printing of
the book ; and Mr. Scattergood and Mr. Dillingham were appointed correctors
of the press. This was more than two months before the bill passed.

268 The Passing of the Bill.
interests or feelings of the Puritan clergy. They
accepted the harsh amendments of the Peers, and
added others of their own, so as to render the bill
more intolerable than at first. When the Lords'
substitution of " Bartholomew" for " Michael the
Archangel" was put to the vote in the Commons'
House, there were 87 for the Angel's day, and 96 for
the Saint's. The amendments and alterations
respecting ordination, the form of subscription, and
renouncing the Covenant, were adopted without any
division. The Commons still further added to the
severity of the measure by extending its operations,
so as to bring within the meshes of the net not
only the clergy, commonly so called, but all who
held offices in the Universities, and every kind of
teacher, down to the common village pedagogue.
A penalty of three months' imprisonment for the
first offence against this law, incapacitated all but
Conformists to instruct the young in any kind of
school. The Lords' proviso for dispensing with
the cross and surplice was negatived at once. But
there was an adjourned debate upon the allowance
of a fifth part of the income to ejected incumbents.
The Lords' amendment was thrown out by 94 to
87.* . 
* It is curious to notice Hallam's correction of Neal. Referring to the division
on the 26th of April, he says, " This may perhaps have given rise to a mis
take we find in Neal (624), that the Act of Uniformity only passed by 186 to
180. There was no division at all upon the bill, except that I have men
tioned." — "Constitutional History," ii. p. 37. Neal is undoubtedly incorrect, for

The Passing of the Bill. 269
When all this was done, a message was sent
to secure a conference on the amendments. The
Lords were willing. This was the 30th of
April. The Commons waited patiently till the 6th
of May. No message from the Upper House.
The Lords were once more slumbering over their
work. Before the evening of the 6th, the clerk
made this entry in the Journals of the Upper
House — " A message was brought from the House
of Commons by Sir Thomas Meares and others to put
their Lordships in mind of giving despatch to this
Bill for Uniformity, as conceiving it to be of great
consequence, and the rather because they believe
they shall not sit long." Next day the conference
was held, and in the Painted Chamber, Mr. Serjeant
Charlton, manager for the Commons, in a long
speech, defended the bill in the last shape into which
the Lower House had moulded it. It was a very
elaborate and earnest oration. The learned Serjeant
minutely pointed out, and defended each alteration,
dwelling upon the extension of the act to school
masters, as necessary for the proper education of the
young, — the neglect of which amongst the gentry and
nobility, had been the root of many mischiefs in the

there was no division on the bill as a whole j but, as to parts of it, there were
at least four divisions, according to the journals. The neglect of the journals,
more or less, by all historians, has been one main cause of the inaccurate and
confused accounts found in the best of them.

270 The Passing of the Bill.
Long Parliament. " It was an oversight," he added,
" in the usurped powers, that they took no care in
this particular, whereby many young persons were
well seasoned in their judgments as to the King.
This made the Commons take care that school
masters as well as ministers should subscribe, and
rather more." The three months' imprisonment,
the eloquent gentleman ingeniously argued, was to
meet the case of those who had no livings to lose.
It was imprisonment in default of paying a fine.
The proviso to dispense with cross and surplice, he
presumed, was a thing without precedent, which
would establish schism, and not gratify those for
whom it was intended. All these heads, logically
distributed, were by the keen lawyer rhetorically
amplified and enforced. The King's engagement
at Breda to "respect tender consciences," had been
noticed by the Lords in support of their amend
ment. With the commonplace sophistries always
at hand for the use of intolerance, the manager
laughed at the idea of calling schismatical con
sciences tender ones. " A tender conscience,"
according to his definition — no doubt he looked
amazingly wise as he said it — " denotes an impres
sion from without received from another, and that
upon which another strikes." The meaning we
must leave the reader to guess. Mr, Serjeant
Charlton was more plausible, though equally
sophistical, in his legal argument that the Breda

The Passing of the Bill. 271
declaration had two limitations : first, a reference to
Parliament ; and, secondly, the universal principle
that liberty must consist with the kingdom's peace.
As to allowing fifths to the ejected ministers it was,
he said, repugnant to the idea of uniformity, and
"joined with the pity of their party, would amount to
more than the value of the whole living." It would
be a reflection on the Act, would impoverish incum
bents, and would encourage dissent. He concluded
by recommending to Convocation, "the directing
of such decent gestures to be used in time of divine
service as was fit." The day following, the amend
ments and alterations reported to the Lords — with
Serjeant Charlton's reasonings — were all agreed to.
A clerical error in the bill, detected by Charlton,
" persons " being put for " children," was formally
rectified at the clerk's table by the Bishops of
Durham, St. Asaph, and Carlisle, by authority of
Convocation. The Bill of Uniformity received the Royal assent
on the 19th of May. The reader, we hope, will
not be wearied by an account of the ceremony, and
a notice of the characteristic speeches delivered on
the occasion. The Lord Chancellor took his place
on the woolsack, and the Lord Chief Justice of the
Common Pleas sat amongst the judges. His
Majesty came and occupied the throne, arrayed in
royal robes. On the right side of the chamber, below
the throne, sat, lawned and tippeted, with caps in

272 The Passing of the Bill.
hand, the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of
Durham, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, and others
of the brotherhood — including Reynolds, of Nor
wich, who, if he occupied in comfort the episcopal
bench that day, as he witnessed the act which ex
pelled from his fellowship many an honoured friend,
was a worse man than we take him to have been.
Sheldon was not there to witness the triumph of the
Church ; nor Morley either. On the left side, at the
upper end, enrobed in scarlet and ermine, were
the Lord Treasurer and Lord Privy Seal, taking
precedence of the only three noble Dukes who at
tended — Buckingham, Richmond, and Albemarle ;
the last came to witness the final humiliation of that
party which he had once professed zealously to serve,
and then had treacherously helped to overthrow.
The Marquis of Winchester sat next to Albemarle,
and below came twenty-six earls, one viscount, and
thirty-six barons. The King gave command to
the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, to let the
Commons know it was his Majesty's pleasure they
should attend him forthwith. In obedience they
came presently, attended by their Speaker, who,
after low obeisance made to his Majesty, delivered
a speech full of strained and pedantic metaphors
from which we extract the following passages : —
" If your Majesty but please to cast your eyes
upon the table, and behold the great number of
bills that there present themselves before you, like

The Passing of the Bill. 273
so many sheaves of corn bound up ready to be
housed, and will vouchsafe to see how both my
hands are filled with no light presents from your
loyal Commons ; and if your Royal Majesty, the
great lord of the harvest, shall vouchsafe to crown
this day by your gracious concessions to our desires,
the world will then see how great a duty your
people cheerfully pay both to your Royal person
and your Government."
" Great sir," he went on to say, " we know the
strongest building must fall if the coupling pins be
pulled out ; therefore our care hath been to prepare
such constitutions that the prerogative of the Crown
and the propriety of the people may, like squared
stones in a well-built arch, each support the other,
and grow the closer and stronger for any weight or
force that shall be laid upon them.
" We cannot forget the late disputing age, wherein
most persons took a liberty, and some men made it
their delight, to trample upon the discipline and
government of the Church. The hedge being trod
down, the foxes and the wolves did enter ; the swine
and other unclean beasts did defile the temple. At
length it was discerned, the Smectymnian plot did
not only bend itself to reform ceremonies, but
sought to erect a popular authority of elders, and
to root out Episcopal jurisdiction. In order to
this work, Church ornaments were first taken away ;
then the means whereby distinction or inequality
T

274 The Passing of the Bill.
might be upheld amongst Ecclesiastical governors ;
then the forms of Common Prayer, which, as
members of the public body of Christ's Church,
were enjoined us, were decried as superstitious, and
in lieu thereof nothing, or worse than nothing, in
troduced. " Your Majesty having already restored the
governors and government of the Church, the
patrimony and privileges of our churchmen, we
held it now our duty, for the reformation of all
abuses in the Public Worship of God, humbly to
present unto your Majesty a Bill for the Unifor
mity of Public Prayers and Administration of
Sacraments. " We hope the God of order and unity will con
form the hearts of all the people in this nation to
serve Him in this order and uniformity."
The speech being ended, the Clerk of the Parlia
ments came to the Speaker, and received from him
those bills which he presented from the House of
Commons to his Majesty — including the Bill for
Conformity — to all of which the Royal assent was
pronounced by the Clerk in these words — Le Roy
le veult.The King volunteered a piece of advice, which,
from what we know of his habits, is rather amusing.
After promising to bring his own expenses within
compass, he proceeded to say : —
" Now I am speaking of my own good husban-

The Passing of the Bill. 275
dry, I must tell you, that will not be enough. I
cannot but observe to you, that the whole nation
seems to me a little corrupted in their excess of
living. Sure all men spend much more, in their
clothes, in their diet, in all their expenses, than they
have used to do. {This grave lecture from the luxu
rious Monarch, if heard with becoming gravity by
the Lords that sat near — surely made some of the gen
tlemen below the bar look a little merry.) I hope it
hath only been the excess of joy, after so long suf
ferings, that hath transported us to these other ex
cesses. But let us take heed that the continuance
of them doth not indeed corrupt our natures. I
do believe I have been faulty that way myself.
{No doubt his Majesty had.) I promise you I will
reform ; and if you will join with me in your
several capacities, we shall by our examples do
more good, both in city and country, than any new
laws would do."
When the King had ended this edifying homily,
without saying one word about the Act of Unifor
mity — the Lord Chancellor Clarendon pronounced
a long oration, in the course of which he observed,
with regard to the ecclesiastical measure just sealed
with the Royal assent : —
" You have done your parts like good physicians
{a stock metaphor on such occasions), made wholesome
prescriptions for the constitution of your patients ;
well knowing that the application of these remedies,
T 2

276 The Passing of the Bill.
the execution of these sharp laws, depends upon
the wisdom of the most discerning, generous, and
merciful Prince, who, having had more experience
of the nature and humour of mankind than any
Prince living, can best distinguish between the ten
derness of conscience and the pride of conscience,
between the real effects of conscience and the wicked
pretences to conscience, — who, having fought with
beasts at Ephesus, knows how to guard himself and
the kingdom from the assaults and violence of a
strong, malicious, corrupted understanding and will
— and how to secure himself and the kingdom from
the feeble traps and nets of deluded fancies and
imaginations : {his Lordship is almost out of breath
with so long a sentence) — in a word, a Prince of so
excellent a nature and tender a conscience himself,
that he hath the highest compassion for all errors
of that kind, and will never suffer the weak to un
dergo the punishment ordained for the wicked, and
knows and understands better than any man that
excellent rule of Quintilian, c Est aliquid quod non
oportet, etiamsi licet, et aliud est jura spectare,
aliud justitiam.' "
This was a very extraordinary speech for an
English statesman to make, who professed to be an
advocate for constitutional government. It can
bear no other construction than that of being a plea
for the King's dispensing power. The Houses had
framed a law ; but it was to be left to the Royal

The Passing of the Bill. 277
wisdom to temper its administration according to
the Royal will. His Majesty was to distinguish
between the tenderness and the pride of conscience,
and act accordingly. What in the lips of any
English senator would be inconsistent, was doubly
so in the present instance ; for Clarendon was the
very man to oppose afterwards the exercise of such
power as he now claimed on behalf of his master.
The bill had passed and become law.* What
change did it make in the Episcopal Establishment
of England ? The alterations in the Prayer Book,
though they were not of such a character as, looking
at some circumstances connected with the revision,
might have been expected, were yet rather of a re
trograde order.t The insisting upon Episcopal
ordination, in every case, as essential to public ser
vice in her pulpits, certainly cut off the Church
more completely than ever from all ministerial
fellowship with other reformed Churches ; J and, for

* See Appendix IV. for a literal copy of the act taken from the rolls.
t Mr. Fisher in his " Liturgical Purity our Rightful Inheritance," goes
at great length into this subject. I cannot adopt all his extreme conclusions
as to the Romanizing tendency of the alterations, but he certainly adduces
enough to establish what I have said.
X It is evident from the 13th of Elizabeth, cap. xii., "An Act for the
Ministers of the Church to be of Sound Religion," that a particular form of ordi
nation was not then made requisite for ministration in the Establishment. The
words of the Act are, " That every person under the degree of a Bishop, which
doth or shall pretend to be a priest or minister of God's holy ivord and sacraments
by reason of any other form of institution, consecration, or ordering, than the
form set forth by Parliament, in the time of the late king of most worthy
memory King Edward the Sixth, or now used in the reign of our most gracious

278 The Passing of the Bill.
a certain period, the pastoral office in her commu
nion became dependent upon the taking a political
oath, to which it was quite possible that some
approving of her doctrine and discipline might
conscientiously object. There were persons not
unfriendly to moderate Episcopacy, who, notwith
standing, felt it to be very wrong to swear re
specting the League and Covenant as the act pre
scribed, and that it was unlawful, under any
pretence, to take up arms against the King, — a
principle, it will be seen at once, which tended to
make a revolution like the glorious one of 1688
impossible. We may here observe, by the way, a
curious parallel between the events of that period
and the events of 1662. When the Low Church
party concurred in the imposition of oaths to the
new Government, on the accession of the House of
Orange, — thus, in the estimation of the High
Church party, treating the moral obligation of old
oaths, under the reign of the House of Stuart, as a
nullity — that Low Church party in this respect, so
far, only walked in the footsteps of that High
Church party at the Restoration. And the non
jurors under William III., in their scruples about
repudiating what they had solemnly sworn, justi-

Sovereign Lady, before the Feast of the Nativity of Christ next following,
shall, in the presence of the Bishop or guardian of the spiritualities of some
one diocese where he hath or shall have ecclesiastical living, declare his assent
and subscribe to all the Articles of Religion," Sec. This was the law till 1662.

The Passing of the Bill. 279

fied to that extent such Nonconformists under
Charles II. as were chiefly, if not entirely, pre
vented from submission to the Act of Uniformity
by their scruples in reference to the formal repudi
ation of the Covenant. That class of persons, it
appears now, was much larger than has been com
monly supposed.* And we may add, that some of
the same party which in 1662 condemned all sepa
rate worship as schism, and refused to tolerate it,
did in 1688 themselves set up separate worship.
A distinct congregation of Nonjurors continued in
London as late as the year 1750.
Another important question arises in reference
to the Act of Uniformity. Who were responsible
for it ? It rarely happens that persons combining
to effect any great change in Church or State are
influenced by the same views. In this instance the
variety of design which prompted different parties
to unity of action, may be easily discovered when
we look below the surface.
Some supported the measure from zeal for eccle
siastical order and visible unity. The Bishops, with
the Lower House of Convocation, would be influ
enced by this motive. Yet, in different cases it
would assume a different character. We have no
doubt whatever that some, however misguided —
though casting out from their communion many of
* See Hook's Letter. State Papers. Charles II. Vol. lxix. We shall
give large extracts from it hereafter.

280 The Passing of the Bill.
its holiest members, and so perpetuating a wrong,
which, while in one way felt for a while by the im
mediate sufferers, was, in another way, inflicted per
manently on the Church of England itself — were
influenced by a like spirit to that of Cyprian, in the
third century, as expressed in his treatise on Unity.
They confounded, as he did, unity with uniformity,
and allegiance to Christ with submission to Bishops.
With this misconception, they fancied they were
striving after an answer to the Redeemer's prayer
that his people might be one, so as to convince the
world of the divinity of His mission. The miscon
ception was traditional. It had been handed down
through the Nicene Church, and the Church of the
Middle Ages, to the English Church of the Refor
mation ; and was firmly held by Cranmer and
Parker, as well as by Whitgift and Laud. The
desire for uniformity through episcopal order, was
with some so interlinked with submission to Christ,
and zeal for his glory, as to have its errors, in a
measure, redeemed by noble affections ; but that
desire, as it wrought in others, had nothing what
ever to relieve it, and was an utterly base-born
passion, the daughter of policy and pride.
Clarendon's attachment to the Church has been
repeatedly noticed. He worked in fellowship with
the Bishops. Burnet says that he was more a
friend of the Bishops than of the Church. It must
be admitted that the prelatical party, without the

The Passing of the Bill. 281
Chancellor's aid, could scarcely have carried out all
their alterations. Yet, in sanctioning the views of
certain prominent churchmen, and in adopting some
of the amendments made by the Commons, that
able statesman seems to have gone beyond his better
judgment respecting what is wise and right. In
estimating his share of responsibility, however, we
must look not at his private convictions, but at his
public acts ; and they were of a kind which show
that to a great extent the new law, in the shape
which it ultimately took, is attributable to him.
In the House of Commons — where, as he informs
us, " every man, according to his passion, thought
of adding somewhat to the bill, which might make
it more grievous to somebody whom he did not
love" — we find a mad Royalist party bent on making
the act as rigid as possible. But in the Upper
House, where certain liberal amendments originated,
the violent pressure from below met with no for
midable resistance. Those amendments were aban
doned almost without a struggle ; and additions,
ungenerous and unjust, made to some of the Peers'
own additions of a like character, were adopted
with little reluctance. In all these proceedings,
Clarendon, as leader of the Lords, made himself
mainly answerable for the law, as it was finally
engrossed upon the Parliament rolls.
Another party concurred in the act from en
tirely different motives. The Roman Catholics

2S2 The Passing of the Bill.
had been on the increase since the Restoration. The
court of the Queen Mother was the resort of the
party. There, and at the mansion of the Earl of
Bristol, they consulted respecting the interests of
the Papal Church. Of course they had no idea of
seeking comprehension in the English Establish
ment. Their policy was to procure for themselves
toleration. With that, at present, they would be
satisfied, whatever their ulterior designs might be.
Nothing was so likely to favour their views as the
passing of some stringent act, which should cast
out of the Establishment as large a number of Pro
testants as possible. While the Papists were well
aware of the terror they inspired in the breasts of
the sectaries, especially the Presbyterians, they
hoped that fellowship in suffering might soften
antipathy, and make their enemies willing, for their
own sakes, to seek a general toleration. They consi
dered that, at least the fact of a large number of
Protestants suffering from persecuting laws, would
strengthen the argument in favour of some broad
measure of indulgence. It was on this principle
that the Duke of York and the Catholic Peers con
curred in all the provisions for uniformity ; and
when, the next year, it was proposed to put a con
struction on the words assent and consent, which
would make them mean nothing more than practice
and obedience, he, at the head of twelve lay Lords,
signed a protest against the alteration, declaring it

The Passing of the Bill. 283
to be destructive of the Church of England, as by
law established. At the head of this party of
Roman Catholic favourers, the King himself is to
be placed. Not for the sake of the Protestant
Episcopal Church did he ever wish for any Act of
Uniformity. Indeed, it appears that he reluctantly
fell in with it, and when he had made up his mind
to consent to the measure, it was in accordance with
the circuitous policy now pointed out. Besides,
he was fond of dispensing powers. He liked Royal
declarations better than acts of Parliament. Any
statute almost would be tolerable to him, if it gave
the prospect of his being called upon to afford relief
to his subjects, in the way of sovereign concession.
Clarendon, who subsequently opposed the exercise
of the power, virtually recognised it, as a preroga
tive of the King, in the speech already quoted, and
plainly pointed to the Royal intention of employing
it for mitigating the severities of the law.
Policy and passion, then, beyond all doubt, mainly
moved the passing of this measure. It would be the
bitterest of all satires on the men principally con
cerned in it to say, that they were influenced by
stern religious conviction — that conscientiously and
in the sight of God, they performed an act which
they lamented was rigorous, though they felt it to
be righteous. Amidst all the keenly excited feelings
of that day, on the side of this exclusive policy,
perhaps there was no impulse of greater force than

284 The Passing of the Bill.
the very vulgar one of party passion. The Royalists
were in office. All emoluments belonged to them
and their friends. They virtually said, No one in
opposition shall enjoy any political or ecclesiastical
advantages, if we can help it. Let there be a
clean riddance for ever of these wretched sectaries.
Away with the whole tribe of Roundhead rascals,
and let better men take their place. Revenge came
in to increase the exasperation. We have suffered,
it was also said ; and as they did unto us, so we will
do unto them.
But if, with regard to so many of the leaders of
Conformity, this is a fact, the case most certainly
was quite different with the chiefs on the other side.
Their voluntary sacrifices to satisfy their consciences,
proved that with them the question now was a
moral and religious one. They had nothing what
ever to gain by Nonconformity, not even the pal
triest gratification of party spite — Nonconformity
entailed unmitigated loss. The conscientiousness
of the men so far is above suspicion. In some of
them we recognise what awakens no sympathy ; but
people like Cawdrey and Crofton were not types of
the two thousand. The holy fame of the heroes
of that day is not in any danger of being stained by
anything which malignity can say against them.
Baxter, Owen, Calamy, Manton, Heywood, Henry,
and the like, are seen by all men to be sufferers in
the cause of moral conscientiousness and catholic

The Passing of the Bill. 285
charity. The confessions of their inmost souls,
since brought to light, confirm the impressions re
ceived from the tenor of their lives. They and
their chief opponents were in principle and spirit
so remote, that there was a whole heaven between
them.

Chapter X.

,HEN tidings of the act and of its
character and provisions reached the
country, many hailed it as the har
binger of order and beauty to the
Church of England ; others, though
they wished the gate of entrance to that enclo
sure of unity less strait, were prepared to press
through it themselves. It would be unjust to
attribute a want o'f conscientiousness to the Con
formists in general. In the Episcopal Church of
Ireland the author of the " Ductor Dubitantium,"
and " The Golden Grove," who had suffered for the
sake of Episcopacy, could not be suspected of dis
honourable motives. Nor in the Episcopal Church
of Scotland could the author of" the Commentary on
St. Peter" be thought unfaithful to his convictions.
Pearson, Patrick, Tillotson, and many more in
the Episcopal Church of England, were equally

The Interim. 287

above suspicion. But there were those who were
more anxious about their livings than anything else.
Men who had been Presbyterians overcame or
evaded the difficulty of reordination by the ingenious
theory that it was merely accumulative or corrective,
and that by submitting to the hand of a Bishop they
did not repudiate what had been done by the
hands of the Presbytery.* With regard to subscrip
tion, after having strongly objected to the Prayer
Book, a favourite subterfuge was, not " to philoso
phize upon the words," as Bishop Morley said, but to
take them as meaning an approval of the use of the
Common Prayer — though the change of the words
in the bill contradicted this, and the philosophizing
was on the side of the Bishop, rather than that of
the objectors. The blessedness of union, and the
need of some method for reducing the ecclesiastical
confusions of the times, were unanswerable reasons
with many. Then, the arguments of the Presby
terians, during the Commonwealth, in favour of their
own Confessions and Directories, were taken up and
turned to use, by new-fledged Episcopalians in
favour of the Articles, the Liturgy, and the Canons.
One M. Frank, S.T.P., asked with impassioned
eloquence, were their talents, their offices, and their
powers of doing good, at their own disposal ?

* A pamphlet entitled, "A Serious Review of Presbyters Reordained by
Bishops," examines this theory, and exposes it in a letter to a Warwickshiie
minister so exercised. See also Baxter, " Life and Times," p. 389.

288 The Interim.

Were the cries of their people, and their families
hanging upon them, easily answered ? Was the
importunity of friends, the persuasions of foreign
divines, and the authority of ancient custom to go
for nothing ? Only small matters were in the way,
and he that died of the bite of a weasel, lamented it
was not a lion.*
Some made cunning attempts to get out of the
way, and yet retain their benefices. Others took
into their gravest consideration the newly enacted
terms of conformity. With some a chief difficulty
was abjuring the Covenant and reordination ; with
others the form of subscription to the Prayer Book
was the main obstacle.
Mr.'Thomas Gawen, in February, obtained from
the King a licence, by reason of infirmity, to go to
" the waters of Bourbon, in France, or other waters,
for a year, enjoying all the benefits of his spiritual
preferments, if he took care that they were faithfully
served meanwhile."t A fortnight after, the King
sent to the Dean of Winchester, to say that he had
reason to suspect the design of the prebend's
journey, and his affection to the Church, and de
sired the revenues of his prebend to be sequestered,
till he should give good proof of his conformity. N
The volume was not issued till the 6th of

* Author of the "Grand Case." 1662.
¦j* The letters are in the State Paper Office. Charles II. Vol. Iii., No. 33 ;
and Entry Book 6, p. 26.

The Interim. 289

August,* and in those times, when editions were
not thrown off in thousands by a steam press, and
there was no book-post to convey copies in one
night from London to the Land's End, it was
slow work to multiply, and equally slow to
circulate them. Some ministers could not get
sight of the alterations before Bartholomew's Day.
As it showed indecent haste to name a time for de
cision so early as the 24th of August, so it showed
indecent delay not to issue the book till within
three weeks of that date. It has been asserted that
few parishes received it till a fortnight or so after
the time prescribed for subscription. Burnet says
he was informed by some of the Bishops that too
many subscribed before they had seen the volume.
A divine in the diocese of Lincoln gave it as a
reason of his being silenced, that he jiad not assented
to the contents of a volume he had never had an
opportunity of reading. He adds, it was the case
* After the act had passed, public advertisement was given. " London,
August 6, 1662 : That in pursuance of the late Act for the Uniformity of
Public Prayers in the Church of England, the book itself is now perfectly and
exactly printed ; and by the great care and prudence of the Most Reverend
Archbishops and Bishops, books in folio are provided for all churches and
chapels in this kingdom, the price of which book (though it contain one hun
dred and fifty-five sheets) is ordered to be but six shillings ready bound."
Printed copies, examined and corrected by Commissioners, were certified
under the Great Seal, and the Deans and Chapters of Cathedral and Collegiate
Churches were required to obtain one of these sealed books annexed to a copy
of the act before the 25th of December. A similar copy was to be delivered
into the Courts at Westminster and into the Tower of London to be deposited
amongst the records. The MS. Prayer Book originally attached to the Act
is lost. U

290 The Interim.

with many more in the diocese. Some who wished
to see them, had to write up to London for copies of
the alterations. Certainly the book ought to have
been on the study table of every rectory and vicarage
at least a month or two before the day of decision.
Yet it must be acknowledged that too much was
made of the difficulty at the time, and too much
has been made of it since. The fifth clause of the
act distinctly provides for lawful impediments "to
be allowed and approved of by the ordinary of the
place," and enjoins subscription within one month
of the removal of the impediment. Upon this
clause we have a practical commentary in the certi
ficate issued by an " Ordinary," the Bishop of Peter
borough.* He refers to the act as giving him power to
provide against any " lawful impediment ;" and he
* " Whereas by an Act of Parliament, made and printed this present year,
1662, for the Uniformity of Publick Prayers, &c, it is enacted, among other
things, &c, and that every such person who shall (without some lawful impedi
ment, to be allowed and approved of by the ordinary of the place) neglect or
refuse to do the same within the time aforesaid, shall ipso facto be deprived of
his spiritual promotions. And forasmuch as the books of Common Prayer,
appointed by the said act to be read, could not be gotten by the Dean and
Prebendaries of the Cathedral Church of Peterborough (so as they might read
the same in the said cathedral) before the 17 th of this instant August, being
the Sunday immediately preceding the Feast of St. Bartholomew, upon which
day it is not possible, that all the members of the said Cathedral Church should
read the said service in manner and form as is by the said act directed. We,
therefore, by the power given to us by the said act, do allow and approve of
the said impediment, and do hereby declare it so to be for the not reading the
said service as directed, and for not declaring of their consents as required in
and by the said act. Sealed and signed this 17th of August, 1662. — R. Peter
borough."

The Interim. 291

very properly treats as such, the inability of a man
to examine the book beforehand. We may add,
that in the following year, an Act was passed for
the relief of such persons as, by sickness or other
impediment, were disabled from making the de
claration. There can be no doubt, then, that when
a bishop was disposed, as in the case just cited,
allowance was made for those who could not
examine the alterations before Bartholomew's
Day. Some, as we shall see hereafter, actually did
conform after that time. But the fact remains,
that it rested entirely with the Bishop to determine
what was a lawful impediment, and to allow or not,
according to his uncontrolled pleasure, the force of
an incumbent's conscientious scruples. A patron
might present another man to the living, if his
diocesan chose to decide, that one who did not sub
mit in time might have seen the book if he liked.
Better than any general statements as to the
reasons for the nonconformity of the ejected minis
ters, will be a few particular instances of the way
in which the approaching execution of the act was
regarded. Baxter had no preferment, but only
preached twice a-week to other men's congregations
at Milk-street and Blackfriars. His last sermon
in public was on the 25th May, and he gave as
reason for his early silence, that lawyers interpreted
a doubtful clause in the Act as meaning that the
liberty of lecturers came to an end at once, and that
u 2

292 The Interim.

he wished it to be known, he meant to obey in all
that was lawful ; that he would give his brethren
generally to understand what he designed, and not
let them suppose he was about to conform. No
one could accuse Philip Henry of rashness. He
spent days of prayer and fasting in his study at
Worthenbury, that he might obtain a higher wis
dom than his own. Besides careful reading and
meditation, he conferred at Oxford with Fell, and
at Chester with the Dean. They cautioned him
against losing preferment. Some said, " You are
a young man, and are you wiser than the King and
the Bishops ?" Such counsels could not help good
Philip Henry ; and he explicitly states the grounds
of his general conclusions. He could not say he
thought himself moved by the Holy Ghost to take
on him the office of a Deacon, when for years he
had been ministering as a Presbyter. He could
not " assent and consent" to several things which to
him were not true ; and as Christ had freed him
from the yoke of one ceremonial law, he objected
to the imposition of another. He refused to kneel
at the Communion, inasmuch as the practice was
without Scripture warrant — not suited to the ordi
nance as a supper, and liable to be " grossly abused,
even to idolatry." " Oaths," he added, " are
two-edged tools, and not to be played with ;" and
though he had never taken the Covenant, he could
not condemn those who had, as acting unlawfully.

The Interim. 293

"On the whole, he thought it a mercy," said his son
Matthew, " that the case of nonconformity was
made so clear as abundantly to satisfy him in his
silence and sufferings."*
Edward Bury, a worthy minister at Great Bolas,
in Shropshire, thus deliberately wrote down his
resolve : — " I solemnly profess, in the presence of
the great God, before whom I must shortly give
an account of my words and actions, that in my
most impartial judgment, after all the light that I can
get by reading, praying, thinking, and discoursing
with about twenty judicious and solid divines of
both persuasions, I look upon it as my duty not to
conform : and whatever becomes either of myself
or family, as I cannot force my judgment, so I will
not dare to force my conscience." " Before the
Act of Uniformity came forth," writes Mrs. Alleine,
" my husband was very earnest, day and night, with
God, that his way might be made plain to him, and
that he might not desist from such advantages of
saving souls, with any scruple upon his spirit. He
seemed so moderate, that both myself and others
thought he would have conformed ; he often saying,
that he would not leave his work for small and
dubious matters ; but when he saw those clauses of
assent and consent, and renouncing the Covenant,
he was fully satisfied."
* " Life of Philip Henry," by his son, Matthew Henry. Edited by Wil
liams. Pp. 97"99-

294 The Interim.

Reordination was a difficulty which pressed with
peculiar weight on some. That John Howe felt
this to be a very great hindrance to conformity ap
pears from what he said before, and after the Act
was passed. He had not, like Owen and Baxter,
taken episcopal orders, but had been ordained at
Winwick, in Lancashire, by Mr. C. Herle, the
pastor of the church there, and the other ministers
officiating in the chapels of the parish ; on which
account he used to say, that few had so truly pri
mitive an ordination as himself. After the Act had
passed, Dr. Wilkins expressed his surprise that " a
man of Howe's latitude" should have stood out.
The latter replied, he would gladly have remained
in the establishment, but his latitude was the very
thing that made him a Nonconformist ; and then,
on another occasion, when asked, " Pray, sir, what
hurt is there in being reordained ?" he replied,
" Hurt, my lord, it is shocking — it hurts my un
derstanding : it is an absurdity, for nothing can
have two beginnings."
We can enter into the struggles between faith
and feeling which agitated many during the three
months before St. Bartholomew's Day. As the
corn ripened, and the country rector sat with his
wife in the snug little parlour and looked out of
the latticed window on the children chasing the
butterflies in the garden, or picking up daisies on
the glebe, it was a terrible alternative — " we must

The Interim. 295

conform, or we must leave all this next August."
The ugly necessity stared them in the face, and it
required now and then a woman's quiet fortitude to
reinforce a man's more loud resolve. Means of
usefulness had still bright attractions, and hardest
wrench of all was it to unfasten the union between
shepherd and flock. It is ridiculous to look on
these men as obstinate fanatics. They had hearts
and heads — but here the victory was on the side
of their judgments, not of their affections. We
remember visiting Scotland some twenty summers
since, just on the eve of the great disruption, and
spending an evening at a beautiful manse inhabited
by a minister and his wife — both of them most in
telligent and accomplished — who were pondering the
question of going out with a free Church, or re
maining with a Church in bonds ; — and never can we
forget the attitude and look of anguish with which
they referred to the coming crisis. That visit
brought vividly to mind the English parsonages of
1662. This is not the place to discuss the validity of
the grounds on which so many ministers declined
to conform.* Few, if any, in the present day will
feel anxious to defend every position they took, and
every objection they urged ; but surely there is no
one, however he may disapprove of their reasons,
* The reasons for nonconformity are stated at the fullest length by the inde.
fatigable Richard Baxter in his "Life and Times," Part II. p. 387 et sea.

296 The Interim.

but will give the men credit for an exemplary con
scientiousness, such as cannot be too highly extolled
in this selfish world. What especially deserves to
be noticed is, that they regarded words in their plain
meaning. They never dreamed of taking them in
a " non-natural sense." A pledge to use the
Liturgy, and generally to approve of the faith and
order of the Church of England — was to them one
thing. A declaration of unfeigned assent and con
sent to all things contained in the Prayer Book —
quite another. They were plain, straightforward,
honest Englishmen, who would not on any account
say what they did not mean.*
It required some effort to brace themselves up
for the occasion. One of them, Samuel Birch,
vicar of Bampton, wrote down these lines in his
journal : — " I am at thy footstool ; I may not do
evil, that good may come. I may not do this
great sin against my God and the dictates of my

* Light is thrown upon the proper legal construction of the words " assent
and consent" by what happened the following year when the bill for relieving
those who had been prevented, unwillingly, from conforming in due time, was
in the House of Lords. An amendment was adopted "that the declaration
and subscription of assent and consent in the said act mentioned shall be un
derstood only as to practice and obedience to the said act, and not otherwise."
The Duke of York and thirteen other Lords recorded a protest against it.
The amendment was indignantly rejected by the Commons. They said that
what was sent to them " had neither law nor justice in it." The Upper House
resented this insult as a breach of privilege, and resolved to consider the next
session how to prevent such conduct in future. But they gave way to the
Lower House, and the strict grammatical meanmg was left to express the law.
See Journals. Lords, July 25, 27 1663.

The Interim. 297

conscience. I therefore surrender myself, my soul,
my ministry, my people, my place, my wife, my
children, and whatsoever else is herein concerned,
into thy hand, from whom I received them. Lord,
have mercy upon me, and assist me for ever to
keep faith and a good conscience." Another pre
pared for the crisis by preaching to his congrega
tion four successive Sundays from words to the
Hebrews, " Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your
goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in
heaven a better and an enduring substance." Mr.
John Hicks, the brother of Dr. Hicks, the Non
juror, when asked what he would do with his
family, replied, " Had I as many children as that
hen," pointing to one with a numerous brood, " I
should not question that God will provide for them
all." Edward Lawrence, at Baschurch, near Shrews
bury, who had a wife and ten children, — " eleven
reasons," so he said, " for conformity," — remarked,
in a like spirit, that his family must live on the
sixth of Matthew, " Take no thought for your life,
what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink ; nor yet
for your body, what ye shall put on." Such are some
of the traditions handed down in Puritan families
for half a century, and at length collected by Dr.
Calamy, whose grandfather was the eminent ejected
minister of that name.*

* That he bestowed as much critical care as possible on his well-known
compilation, entitled " An Account of the Ministers Ejected or Silenced by or

298 The Interim.

Several of the nonconforming clergy conferred
or corresponded with each other. A few came to
London to know the opinions of their metropolitan
brethren. Letters went to and fro as fast as the
post could carry them ; and sheets full of argu
ments, questions, replies, and rejoinders, were con
veyed from place to place. Stories respecting the
treatment of the Presbyterian chaplains, the over
bearing conduct of the Bishops at the Savoy, the
debates in Convocation, and the speeches in Parlia
ment, Sheldon's intolerance, and Clarendon's cun
ning, would be told freely enough, and not without
considerable exaggeration. Ministers conversed
with Presbyterian peers and other patrons. It was
said that Benjamin Agas, of Chenies, in Bucking
hamshire, conversing with a certain noble lord, was
asked by him whether he would conform. He
answered by saying, " Such things were required
and enjoined as he could not swallow, and he was
necessitated to march off and sound a retreat."
Whereupon his lordship added, with a sigh, " I
wish it had been otherwise ; but they were re-

before the Act of Uniformity," appears from his preface. The acute Mr.
Hunter in his " Life of Oliver Heywood" has well vindicated the general
credibility of Dr. Calamy's narratives. A valuable service would be rendered
to our ecclesiastical history by as careful and critical a sifting and revision as
possible of the whole mass of material contained in both Calamy and Palmer.
And let me add, I should be glad to have the same thing done with
Walker's " Sufferings of the Clergy." Let us be just towards all sufferers
for conscience sake.

The Interim. 299

solved either to reproach you, or undo you." But
though there was conference and correspondence,
there was no organized confederation to meet
the emergency. Each took his own ground, and
pursued his own course. Many a village vicar
stood alone. It was a development of individual
conscientiousness and power of will. Without re
flecting at all upon the Free Churchmen of Scot
land, we may say that the ejected Puritans had
nothing to strengthen and animate them, like the
thorough mutual understanding which preceded the
disruption, the popular applause that welcomed it,
and the eclat of the public procession along the
High-street of Edinburgh. There was no ovation
for the cast-out on St. Bartholomew's Day. The
feast was turned into a humiliation and a fast. It
was as in the Valley of Megiddon of old — " The
land mourned, every family apart."
What were the Episcopal clergy doing ? Cathe
drals and churches were sadly out of repair at the
Restoration. Some of the noblest edifices in the
country were in ruins. We do not place implicit
reliance upon all the tales of High Church into
lerance on one side, or of Puritan iconoclasm on
the other. That cats were hunted by hounds up
and down the aisles of Lichfield, while Cromwell's
soldiers enjoyed the sport — that they broke in pieces
the organ at Chichester, and cracked the pipes with
pole-axes, crying in fun, " Hark, how the organs

300 The Interim.

go !" — we are not bound to believe because their
enemies afterward reported such stories. But no
body can deny that fanatical violence spoiled a good
deal of rich Gothic beauty — that troops in the
Cloister and the Close caused plenty of havoc — and
that sieges and cannonades did abundant mischief.
One of the first acts of the Episcopalians, therefore,
was the reparation of cathedrals. Bishop Hacket
set to work with exemplary decision and diligence.
The very next morning after his arrival at Lichfield,
he roused his servants at peep of dawn, set his
coach-horses to cart away the rubbish from the
Minster, and with his own hands began the repairs
of the noble edifice. We honour him for his hearty
earnestness. In 1662, the repairs were steadily going
on, and the Bishop was winning golden opinions
from Episcopalians in this and other ways. In June,
just after the passing of the act, he issued articles
of visitation to ministers and churchwardens, and
then made a progress through Shropshire and Staf
fordshire, preaching eight times in as many days,
and confirming five thousand young people. Other
prelates, at the same time, were visiting their sees ;
Sanderson, of Lincoln, amongst the rest, whose re
ception at Bedford is duly chronicled and glorified
in the " Mercurius Publicus," as though it had been
the entrance of a general, the train bands, as he
passed by, giving " a handsome volley," and then
" a second salute from their muskets." Morley, of

The Interim. 301

Winchester, also busied himself with articles of visi
tation, and strenuously urged his clergy to present
the young for confirmation. How this would be
looked upon by the Puritan party — how the clergy
on the two sides would discuss the matter- — how the
Bishops would be criticized, and their proceedings
in turns be impeached and vindicated, we can well
conceive. Cosin, of Durham, who, on the whole,
was esteemed by the Nonconformists, put his castle
in order, and restored the old prince-like hospitality
of the see, entertaining the judges, the gentry, and
the clergy at the August assizes,- — the " gravity and
good order of the entertainment" being " much ad
mired by all." Religious duties were not omitted ;
the Bishop, with his family, and the Dean and
Prebends, went to the choir every day at six o'clock
for divine service. His friends said his zeal con
sumed him ; and as, in his exile in France, he had
been a pillar of the Church against the Papists, so
now he was the same against schismatics. " Many,
indeed most, of the Presbyterian persuasion," we
are assured, " struck sail to the force of his reasons
and example." If we were to believe all that we
read in the newspapers of the day, and in some
biographies of the Bishops, we should conclude that
there was hardly a relic of nonconformity left —
that almost every minister was well contented with
the act — that parishes were episcopalianized — that
only a few noisy spirits were dissatisfied — and that

302 The Interim.

the coming St. Bartholomew's Day would prove
the most glorious festival England had ever seen.
But on looking a little abroad, very different
revelations are made. At a time when some still
would make us believe that England was joyful at
the sight of a Stuart on the throne — there were such
mutterings of discontent, and growlings of sedition,
that the King and his councillors were thoroughly
alarmed. Communications secretly made to Secre
tary Nicholas, never meant for any eye but his, now
turn up as evidence of public feeling at the period
under review.* The busy spies that skulked about
London and other parts, were constantly whispering
into the ears of the Secretary, reports about dis-

* This undated document in the State Paper Office, Domestic, Charles II.,
I think, from internal evidence, belongs to this period.
" A general defection in point of affection in the middle sort of people in
city and country from the King's interest, and viru'ent opposition to the prelacy.
A universal expectation of a change, from the necessities of the Court and pre
tended extravagances of the clergy.1
" A coalition in judgment and affection between the Presbyterian and other
sectaries against Court and Church and for reformation.
"An expectation of sudden and great revolutions "in Scotland, conformed to
the principles and desires of the malcontents specified in the former branch.
" A numerous resort of officers and soldiers (lately in arms) to the City,
under pretence of getting employment.
"The multiplying lectures in public and increasing the auditories in private,
whence, though closely, his Majesty's interest is weakened, and the Church's
decayed with indignation.
"The expectation of great triumph and rejoicing in, and waiting for, any
motion to the public disturbance, expressing that if any riot arose the whole
would quickly be in confusion. Generally it is judged by themselves, that all
indulgence to Presbyterians or others in matters of religion, is not of grace, but
mere necessity and State policy."

The Interim. 303

affected persons ; and — though no proof of any
actual plot could be obtained, so as to justify a
public prosecution, though probably no plan for
taking up arms against the Government existed,
yet — there was a feeling of discontent as wide as it
was deep. Stories, idle and utterly useless for the
purpose for which they were communicated, were
as straws, showing how the wind blew in certain
quarters. But when rumours were afloat, that some
in the King's regiment were disaffected ; that there
were eight thousand such in Scotland; that old
soldiers were looking for Bartholomew's Day, when
it was expected, as people felt the scourge of the
act, Presbyterian disquietude would rise into ex
asperation ; that they were only " waiting till the
iron was hot," till people were pricked by recent
taxes, especially the Londoners by the vexatious
hearth money ;* indications appeared of a state of
things not very hopeful to any Government, espe
cially one like Charles the Second's. As the summer
months wore on, and August approached, the

* State Papers, vol. lvi. p. 17. Kennet, in his " History of England,"
vol. iii. p. 237, says of the act for settling an annual revenue of two shillings
upon every fire-hearth in the nation, " that this duty, commonly called chimney
money, was a burden more uneasy to the people of England than any other
seems to have been to their forefathers, and the arbitrary w?y of collecting it
made it the more intolerable. The King himself met with a blunt rebuke for it,
when, thinking himself to be unknown in a barge, and allowing himself and
his company to droll upon the watermen that passed, one of them, knowing
the King's face, instead of other common ribaldry, cried out only, ' Chimney
sweep ! chimney-sweep !' "

304 The Interim.

reports became increasingly serious.* In July, it
was said that Cromwell's soldiers were waiting to
learn what the Presbyterians would do. They
kept quiet, and laughed to see Quakers imprisoned,
but took care to blow the fire of sedition by exciting
pamphlets. From various parts of the country
came news of seditious meetings. Trained bands
were refractory or negligent. Gunsmiths were busy
dressing arms. Lancashire ministers talked little
less than treason. None intended to conform.
There was to be a general rising about the 22nd or
28th of August. In the same month of July, there
were letters sent up from the west, Taunton in par
ticular, relating how old commissioned officers met
twenty at a time, and that they had two thousand
arms, and two thousand pounds in money at their
command. The mention of Presbyterians, as well
as other Nonconformists, is frequently found in
these statements, and Presbyterian ministers are
represented as going about like firebrands, and
Presbyterian gentlemen as being dissatisfied because
put out of the commission of the peace. To win
now such a mass of ancient and confused reports —
much contributed by hireling informers — so as to

* It was reported that the policy of the Presbyterians had been, — " that they
could do no good except by passing such bills as would run the Royal party
aground by alienating the affections of the people." Probably some might think
and say, matters must be worse before they could be better, but there is no
evidence of such a fixed policy as was alleged. The letters above referred to
are all in the State Paper Office. See Calendar, 1661-2.

The Interim. 305

separate grains of truth, if such there be, from the
chaff of falsehood, is impossible. All we can venture
to say with regard to an insurrection is, that if any
thing of the kind was contemplated at the time,
the secret lay in the breasts of old Republican officers
— that some laymen might possibly be acquainted
with it — but that there is nothing whatever to prove
Presbyterian or Independent ministers to have been,
in the slightest degree, implicated in any such con
spiracies. But in the absence of any sufficient proof of
active treason, there is enough to show that within
two years of the Restoration, the joy at seeing a
crowned monarch was giving way — that there was
surging up again the strong old English tide of
resistance to oppression and injustice. Parliament,
so long the bulwark of the nation's liberties, became
an object of angry feelings, in common with Church
and throne. Beyond religious circles, or Republican
ones, the disaffection went. People began not only
to ask what they had got by the Restoration, but
also to institute comparisons between the grand old
Long Parliament and this new Pensionary one.
De Wiquefort, the Dutch minister, in a despatch
dated the 14th May, informed his Government
that there was great trouble in levying the chimney
tax, that uniformity was the chief business, that
the inexperienced were doing what the Bishops
desired, and that Parliament, which had been the

306 The Interim.

idol of the nation, was now sinking in popular
respect.* There were several sources of discontent. The
licentiousness and extravagance of the Court were
passing beyond all bounds. Even such of the
Cavaliers as combined with their hatred of Puritan
precision, some regard for outward decency, wei e
shocked at the stories told all over the country,
about the mad revelries and shameless debauchery
of Whitehall. Moreover, some had been beggared
in the Royal service, and now saw themselves not
only unrequited for their fidelity, but totally neg
lected by the Prince in whose cause they had
sacrificed their treasure and shed their blood. To
replenish an empty exchequer, or to waste what
was obtained in further extravagance, the Govern
ment effected the sale of Dunkirk — a town which
had been won by the valour of Oliver Cromwell,
and was not only a prize of which the nation was
proud, but a place of considerable military impor
tance. It wounded the national honour, and roused
popular indignation, to see the keys of the old for
tress put into the hands of Louis XIV. for a sum
of money. Dunkirk was sold, yet Tangiers, a
useless possession, but part of the wedding dowry
of Queen Catherine, was carefully preserved at a
large cost. This arrangement increased the dis-

* State Papers. Vol. liv. Holl. Corresp., May 14.

The Interim. 307

pleasure of the people at the King's marriage, which
was never liked, because the lady was a Roman
Catholic, and a daughter of the house of Braganza.
Dissatisfaction was heightened by reports of the
growth of popery in the kingdom, and by the pro
ceedings at Somerset House, where, the Queen-
Mother Henrietta kept her court, gathered round
her the English Roman Catholics, and encouraged
the intrigues of Jesuits and priests.
Yet another circumstance made the Government
more unpopular. Meant to strike terror into the Re
publican party, it was reprobated even by those who
were not Republicans, as an act of gross injustice.
A second batch of the late King's judges — Okey,
Corbet, and Berkstead — had been brought to the
scaffold in April, and died with a fortitude which
inspired admiration. But a nobler victim was sa
crificed in the month of June — Sir Harry Vane.
It has been with him as with Oliver Cromwell.
Intensely disliking each other, they have met with
a common fate. After years of odium, their names
are at length raised to honour. Cromwell was a
vulgar hypocrite ; Vane a crazy fanatic. The first
is now esteerhed a patriot and a hero ; the second a
sage and a martyr. For our part, we must say,
that Vane appears a better philosopher than states
man, and a better Christian than either. His ideal
republicanism rendered him impracticable. His
intense mysticism, though undeserving the refiec-
x 3

3°8 The Interim.

tions of Baxter and Burnet, threw a haze over his
speculations which make them rather unintelligible
to English common sense. But the devout piety
which breathes through his meditations awakens
our reverent sympathy, and makes him an object
of affection, no less than honour. Whatever his cha
racter, he was no regicide. He had not any part
in the death of Charles I. The evidence on his
trial only went to show that he had held office under
the Commonwealth — that he was member and pre
sident of the Council of State in 1651 — and had
belonged to the Republican Committee of Safety in
1659. To construe that as treason against Charles IL,
who was at the time no more King of England than
Francis II. is now King of Naples, was monstrous.
Besides, intercession for Vane's life had been made
by the Convention Parliament, and Charles had so
lemnly promised to spare it. The secret of his
execution comes out in a Royal letter to Clarendon.
" He is too dangerous a man to let live, if we can
honestly put him out of the way." On that ground
Vane was sacrificed. His spirit in prison appears
in a magnificent sentence he wrote in a letter to his
wife. " This dark night and black shade, which
God hath drawn over his work in the midst of us,
may be, for aught we know, the ground colour to
some beautiful piece that He is now exposing to
light." The execution of such a man was an ova
tion. " From the tops of houses," says one pre-

The Interim. 309

sent, " and out of windows, the people used such
means and gestures as might best discover at a dis
tance their respects and love to him, crying aloud,
' The Lord go with you, the great God of heaven
and earth appear in you and for you ;' whereof he
took what notice he was capable in those circum
stances, in a cheerful manner, accepting their re
spect, putting off his hat, and bowing to them.
Being asked several times how he did by some
about him, he answered, { Never better in all my
life.' " On the scaffold his demeanour was so noble,
that the people would not believe " the gentleman
in the black suit and cloak^ with a scarlet silk waist
coat (the victorious colour) showing itself at the
breast," was the prisoner. There were frequent in
terruptions of his speech from the sound of drums
provided to drown his voice, which, as Burnet says,
was " a new and very indecent practice." The
officers put their hands in his pockets searching for
papers, thus greatly exasperating the spectators,
while the sufferer's calmness led a Royalist present
to say, " he died like a prince." Before the stroke,
he spoke to this effect : — " I bless God, who hath
counted me worthy to suffer for his name. Blessed
be the Lord, that I have kept a conscience void of
offence to this day. I bless the Lord, I have not de
serted the righteous cause for which I suffer." His
last words at the block were, " Father, glorify thy
servant in the sight of men, that he may glorify

310 The Interim.

Thee in the discharge of his duty to Thee and to
his country." One blow did the work. Burnet
tells us, that " it was generally thought the Govern
ment had lost more than it gained by his death."
Pepys declares the people counted his constancy " a
miracle." Adding, " The King lost more by that
man's death, than he will get again for a good
while." To Charles and his Council — as is commonly the
case with such persons under such circumstances —
the truth never clearly came, so as to reveal exactly
what the discontent was, and whence it really
sprung, but only some,, wild phantasmagoria of
the truth, with the great Gorgon-head of insurrec
tion in the midst of it : therefore, instead of striving
to see what could be done to re-establish popular
confidence, they set to work to demolish the fortifi
cations at Northampton, Gloucester, and other
places, and issued instructions to lieutenants of
counties to take precautions against rebellion.*
The press was active. Numbers of political
papers and tracts were published, expressing the
uneasiness of people's minds under the existing
Government. We cannot attach much authority
to such a random writer as Roger L'Estrange ; but
when he tells us not so few as 200,000 copies of
seditious works had been printed " since the blessed

* State Papers. Charles II. Entry Book 4, p. 62.

The Interim. 311

return of his sacred Majesty," and that to these
were to be added new editions of old ones to the
amount of millions more,* we are justified in believ
ing, even after some large abatement from his
estimate, that the printers were kept very busy by
people of the kind so much detested by this noto
rious newsmonger and pamphleteer. And we do
not doubt that, as he says, the publications " were
contrived and penned with accurate care and cun
ning to catch all humours." On the other hand,
the Church and State party were not inactive.
Roger's own fiery pen was unceasingly employed
in the laudation of the King, the Church, and the
Bishops, and in the malignant vilifying of Round
heads, Republicans, Presbyterians, and all sectaries.
There were " Histories of the Rebellion," in
wretched doggerel, and " Visions concerning Crom
well the Wicked." Some mingled in the melee
after a very equivocal fashion, drawing " parallels be
twixt ancient and modern fanatics," in such wise as
to place Anabaptists, and Quakers, and Indepen
dents in company with the Lollards, and even Hugh
Latimer, t But what was much more effective than
abuse and satire, papers were printed against Bar
tholomew's Day, giving " a brief martyrology and
catalogue of the learned, grave, religious, and
painful ministers of the City of London, who were
* " Truth and Loyalty Vindicated." 1662.
f These Tracts are in the Harleian Miscellany. Vol. VII.

3i2 The Interim.

deprived, imprisoned, and plundered during the
Commonwealth." This was a strong point with the
High Church party, especially before it was possible
to retaliate upon them by the list of the ejected two
thousand. Names of men reviled, and forced to
resign, and " compelled to fly " — " violated, as
saulted, abused in the streets," and imprisoned in
"the Compter, Ely House, Newgate, and the ships"
— were so many arguments for severe measures with,
the Nonconformists, who were charged with these
persecutions in the day of their power. Large
numbers of such confessors were reckoned up.
There were one hundred and fifteen counted in
London. It is plain, from the looseness of the
statements, that they were very far from trust
worthy ; and no account is taken of the grounds on
which these clergymen were removed, though in
some cases there were proofs of utter incapacity or
of flagrant vice. The authors were not scrupulous,
and the readers not critical. So these martyrologies
served their purpose, and were amongst the most
efficient weapons with which the warfare on the
Episcopal side was waged.
Pleas for toleration were met by anti-pleas ; and
Puritans were charged by their Protestant brethren
With making a schism in the Church, and multiply
ing divisions to an endless extent; just as those very
Protestant brethren are themselves charged by the
Church of Rome with the sin of needless division,

The Interim. 313

and the authorship of sects. When Papists pleaded
for liberty of worship, use was made of it to the
disadvantage of the Nonconformists. They were
told, their own arguments for freedom of conscience
paved the way for the admission of Catholics to
equal rights — a thrust against which some of the
worthies so assailed did not know how to use their
shield. General toleration was a formidable bug
bear, and Baxter argued with Bagshaw, that he
was keeping up the Papists' hopes by asking for
universal liberty ; that if equal in England in other
respects, their transmarine connections would make
them more than equal, notwithstanding the theolo
gical disadvantages of their cause, and its contrariety
to the interests of the King. Long time and much
thoughtful ness were required before the Protestant
Church could unravel this intricate web of sophistry,
and only of late has she disentangled the last threads.
Jeremy Taylor — whose love for liberty of prophe
sying impelled him to go as far as ever his political
logic would allow, and in whom sound practical
wisdom was in alliance with an imagination marvel
lously superb — saw that whatever might be said of
the mischiefs of toleration, Protestantism was at the
time actually suffering from the effects of intoler
ance, and that the strength spent in striving to
crush the sectaries, was just so much withdrawn
from the resources of the controversy against Rome.
Antipapal zeal had let in the sects ; but now, he

3I4 The Interim.

said, zeal against the sects was bringing back popery.
Public watchfulness respecting Nonconformists
might give to the emissaries of the Church of Rome
leisure and opportunity to grow into numbers, and
strength to debauch many souls, and to unhinge
the safety and peace of the kingdom.*
It is time for us to turn from this general survey
to notice what was going on at Whitehall. Burnet
says, the Court was uncertain whether to execute or
suspend the Act of Uniformity. Presbyterian
Lords were for indulgence. Some desired to have
the enforcement of the Act delayed till the next
session ; others were for conniving at certain emi
nent men, leaving them to preach, and to put in
curates to read prayers. The Earl of Manchester
urged this plan, but Sheldon was opposed to it,
contending that England was accustomed to obey
laws, and that while the rulers stood on this ground,
they were safe, and need not fear any danger. He
undertook to fill all vacant pulpits in London, to
the entire satisfaction of the people ; for he fancied
that only a small number would decline to subscribed
Charles, who was idle, but good-natured, and
though he would rarely take any trouble to prevent
injustice, had no pleasure in seeing people unjustly
treated,| would, we believe, from an indolent sort

* " Dissuasives from Popery." Works, a. p. 1 14-
+ Burnet's "Own Time." Vol. i. p. 279-
X The following anecdote in the Worcester MS., though relating to an

The Interim. 315

of kindness, have been quite willing to let things
remain as they actually were. Certainly an unplea
sant idea of the Breda and Worcester House decla
rations haunted the Royal memory. Perhaps his
own policy — if such a superficial creature could be
said to have any — was just then hovering between
the two methods of favouring popery — one by
driving Puritans to extremity, and so forcing them
to advocate universal toleration ; the other, by a
kingly exercise of indulgence towards Puritans, pre
paring for a like exercise of indulgence towards
Papists. Clarendon gives a much fuller account than
Burnet of conferences in relation to the Noncon-

earlier period, may be inserted here. " Mem. : — So great h the King's justice,
that he having given a parsonady to one of his chaplains worth 160/. per
annum, at Henley-upon-Thames, where one Mr. Brise was then incumbent,
and was possessed thereof by the present powers ; the said Mr. Brise being
an ancient man, and well-beloved, and desirous to stay, offered to be curate
for him, who at length told him he should, but would give him only
20/. per annum. He answered ' that is too small a competency ; but if that
was his resolve, he must leave it,' and so did, and went after to London, where,
walking in Westminster Hall, casually the Earl of Manchester met him, and
knowing him asked him how he did. He answered, 'Never worse.' 'Why?'
says my lord. ' Because I am put out;' and told him as before. He replied,
' Come away with me to the King;' who being acquainted therewith, asked
whether it were past the Great Seal. He knew not. But presently sent
to know; and it was not. Then said the King to the Earl, 'Go yourself to
the Chancellor and see that this Mr. Brise hath passed over to him the
parsonady ;' which was done. Mr. Brise would needs, howsoever, have been
the other's curate, and asked him what he would give him. ' Why,' said he,
c2£,l. shall be the uttermost.' 'Then, sir,' said he, 'I have it under the
Great Seal, and here it is ; so I will hold it by the King's gracious con
cession.' " Brise was afterwards ejected. See Calamy. Cont. p. 704.

316 The Interim.

formists. Some leading men amongst them pre
vailed with Albemarle, " who, without any violent
inclination of his own, was always ready for his
wife's sake," to bring them to the King. Thus
introduced to the Royal presence, they lamented
" the sadness of their condition which, after having
done so much service to his Majesty, and been so
graciously promised by him his protection, must
now be exposed to all misery and famine." They
stated that a number of churches would become
void by the Act, and that they feared the people
would not continue as quiet and peaceable as they
had been. Other arguments were used ; after which
the King assured the ministers that he felt for
them, was sorry the Parliament had been so severe,
and that he would afford them what indulgence he
could. The Chancellor attributes this promise to the
King's irresolution, adding that, " in his nature,
judgment, and inclinations, he did detest the Pres
byterians." Yet, while Charles hated the Presby
terians, he was not willing, Clarendon says, to be
thought an enemy to them. The promise of in
dulgence was reported, and it soon took wings and
flew over the land ; raising false hopes, which ren
dered the trial the greater when the day of doom
came, without any mitigation of the severity of the
Act. Clarendon speaks of the continued address
and importunity of these ministers as St. Bartho-

The Interim. 317

lomew's Day approached ; * and admits that the
King made a positive promise " to do what they
desired ;" and though the Chancellor disapproved
of the promise, he says he advised his Majesty to
perform it, though it was to his disadvantage.
It was the long vacation. Few of the Council
remained in town. The nobility were at their
country-seats enjoying the summer months ; and
the Bishops were performing their visitations. The
King, at Hampton Court, was joking with his
Lords, toying with his mistresses, rambling in the
green alleys, lounging in the cool saloons, watching
games in the tennis-court, and feeding the ducks
in the broad ponds. But, however unwilling to
buckle to business, a Council must be held. So
the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of
London and of Winchester were summoned, with
Chief Justice Bridgman, and the Attorney-General,
the Duke of Ormond, and the Secretaries of State.
The King's promise was communicated to the
Council. " The Bishops were very much troubled
that those fellows should still presume to give his
Majesty so much vexation, and that they should
have such access to him. As for themselves, they
desired to be excused for not conniving, in any
degree, at the breach of the Act of Parliament,
either by not presenting a clerk where themselves

* Clarendon's Contin., p. 1081.

318 The Interim.

were patrons, or deferring to give institution upon
the presentation of others : and that his Majesty,
giving such a declaration or recommendation, would
be the greatest wound to the Church, and to the
government thereof, it could receive." Clarendon
states that he said himself, much to the displeasure
of the Bishops, " he should not dissuade his Ma
jesty from doing what he had promised ;" but the
lawyers present — the Chief Justice and Attorney-
General — gave it as their opinion, that any dispen
sation would be illegal, and whatever the King
might do, the patrons might present their clerk, as
if the incumbent were dead. Our authority then
informs us, " Upon the whole matter the King was
converted, and, with great bitterness against that
people in general, and against the particular persons
whom he had always received too graciously, con
cluded that he would not do what was desired, and
that the connivance should not be given to any of
them." Thus the King's kindness was turned
into gall, and he vented his spleen against those
whom he had deceived ; because, according to the
lawyers, what he had done was illegal. Very absurd,
but very natural in a man like Charles. He left
the Council-table full of wrath, the Bishops left full
of satisfaction, and Clarendon left full of suspicion
that he had been making the latter his enemies.*
* It is difficult to harmonize satisfactorily the accounts of conferences and
councils given by Burnet, Clarendon, and Bishop Parker. The former two

The Interim. 319

It will be some relief, after this wearisome narra
tive, to go down into the country, and visit one of
the Puritans, and watch his ways, and learn his
thoughts during this critical interim. Henry New-
come, already mentioned, was a Cambridge man,
had loved preaching from a boy, and achieved the
art of extempore preaching before his ordination,
which took place in 1648. He was first Rector of
Gawsworth, where he led an active life, and was as
much on horseback as the Arab of the desert, but
not with like success — since " for being run away
with, tumbling off, nearly drowned in floods, and
seeing in each and all a special manifestation of
God's will, he surely had no fellow." He was at
times exceedingly merry, and records that in 1650,
when the gentlewomen from the Hall came to see
him, he would, to affright the fair visitors, charge a
pistol, and fire it off. Playing at billiards and
shovel-board* were amongst his amusements, for

speak of their occurring before Bartholomew's Day. The last of these autho
rities gives a petition from the ministers presented on'the 27th, and a debate
upon it in council on the 28th, agreeing to a considerable extent with Claren
don's statements. Clarendon says nothing of a petition and a council after
Bartholomew's Day, but leaves us to conclude all thought of indulgence was
dropped beforehand. In this respect we know he is wrong. Parker gives
dates, and the newspapers confirm their accuracy. There seems to have been
more than one interview between the King and the Presbyterian ministers,
and probably the matter of indulgence was frequently debated in council.
* Strutt says, "Among the domestic pastimes, playing at shovel-board
claims a principal place. In former times the residences of the nobility, or
the mansions of the opulent, were not thought to be complete without a
shovel-board table ; and this fashionable piece of furniture was usually stationed

320 The Interim.

which purpose he went to Zachary Taylor's, though
oft checked for this, lest he should be too much
concerned in it. He resolved not to go forth for
this recreation unless he had been close at serious
business all day; "and for mirth," he adds, "which
I was afraid of taking too great a latitude in, I
thought it was my duty to let some savoury thing
fall, where I had spoken merrily, or to count my
self truly in debt for as much serious discourse, for
every jest I had told." There follows in his diary
a case of conscience, as to whether it was right to
go to see " an horse in the town of Manchester,
that was taught to do strange things for such a
creature to do." He finds seven reasons against
going, and thus concludes : — " To go might be a
sin, not to go I know was no sin, and therefore
this was the safer way."*
In his diary we trace from day to day the work
ings of his mind on the subject of Conformity. On
the 23rd of May, he heard the fatal Act was passed,
that it was signed by the King the last Monday.
It was a Friday, and a lecture day, and he preached,
a " little straitened by a cold, and, worse still, by a

in the great hall." The game appears to have been something of this kind :
the players stood at one end of the board and shoved flat weights of metal to
the opposite end. It required considerable nicety, as it was necessary to give
the weights sufficient impetus to carry them beyond a mark at some little
distance from the end of the board ; but if they were too strongly impelled
they fell from the table, and the throw was not counted.
* " Autobiography," p. 82.

The Interim. 321

cold heart to his work, through want of prepara
tion." Presently intelligence reached him, how
sadly things were going on at his Alma Mater —
what gross appearances of popery there were in Dr.
Gunning — and that " profaneness at the University
was intolerable." But hearing of a Mr. Humphrey
" renouncing reordination" was of " great use, arid
a providence satisfying a doubtful mind." No
body's puritanism could be more thoroughly loyal
than Henry Newcome's ; and as he advocated the
Restoration most heartily, so now he records how,
at twelve o'clock at night, upon his knees, but after
prayer, " he drank the Queen's health." Honest
piety was mixed up with his oddities, and he beauti
fully says, " If the Lord bring us to want, and
teach us from his own good Spirit, I care not. I
must beg it of Him. It may reduce us to that
frugality and contempt of the world, that may do
us good, if matters should mend with us." At the
end of May, he saw, and read the Act, and found it
what he expected, and then prayed for guidance.
In earlier days, because of his loyalty, he had been
counted a Cavalier ; and now he preached a sermon,
on the anniversary of the King's restoration, which
did not please the Independents, while Royalists
counted him a fanatic ; and so he had to endure the
double discomfiture which always attends the walker
in a middle way. In prospect of the ejectment, he
went to Mr. Heyrick's lecture, who took for his text,

322 The Interim.

" And Abraham called the name of that place Jeho-
vah-jireh : as it is said to this day, In the mount of
the Lord it shall be seen." " The Lord," adds Mr.
Newcome, " is able to deliver Isaac when bound to
the altar, and to find a ram not thought of" — a very
comfortable thought for him just then. " Rumours
of indulgence came, and with it, on the 6th July,
news by post, that a great Bishop rode to Hampton
Court (Sheldon, no doubt), and prevented the pro
clamation for indulgence, and so nothing but the
utmost rigour is expected. Yet in the mount it
may be seen." He was joyful in the midst of his
troubles, and informs us, " Mr. Pyke came in, then
the warden and I went with them to Strangways,
where, to make him merry, it was well if I ex
ceeded not in mirth." We further learn that
August the 20th was to be a day of prayer, touching
public affairs. Newcome had made up his mind
as to his own course, but would not condemn
those who acted differently. " Methinks it is
very sad that we should differ as we do, but sure it
is sad to have godly men dissatisfied with one. It
would be death to me to have my precious brethren
turn their backs on me. I would retain their love,
and will endeavour to reserve my love for them
that are good, and yet can conform." He tells us
of sleepless nights, and of writing letters to neigh
bouring ministers, to know what they meant to do.
Troubled at the thought of leaving his people, he

The Interim. 323

again learnt that there would be an indulgence.
On the 23rd, he writes, " Before prayer I received
a letter from Mr. Ashurst, which gave us an ac
count that, past all expectation, there was some
indulgence to be hoped for in some cases. What
ever it amount unto, yet it is a mercy that any re
spite is granted ; God still puts off the blow, and
one would think by his dealings that He did not
intend they should harm us. Methinks God seems
to do by us as King Henry VIII. by Cranmer. A
poor simple innocent people as he — and He doth
but let us see what men would do, but takes it into
his own hands, and will not suffer us to be harmed
for all this. That we should be so many, unsatis
fied to dare to preach one day more, and now just
this night to receive some notice, any glimmerings
at all of any the least indulgence ! Blessed be
God."* 
* "The Diary of the Rev. H. Newcome" (Chetham Society), p. 114.

Chapter XI.

' N Friday, the 22nd of August, there
issued from Hampton Court a Royal
proclamation for releasing Quakers
imprisoned in the gaols of London
and Middlesex. It was done, because
" of public joy for the first coming of our dear
Consort the Queen, to our Royal Palace at West
minster." The alliance with Catherine of Braganza,
a Roman Catholic, was by no means a popular
step ; and was hateful to people, in proportion
as people hated popery. It is very natural to sup
pose, that the King would do something on the
occasion to please his subjects ; but we do not see
how an act of indulgence to the poor Quakers, who
were disliked and ridiculed by almost everybody,
could answer that purpose. Charles, however, was
fond of exercising any power he could claim to bind

The Crisis. 325

and loose, irrespective of laws and parliaments ;
therefore the performance of such an act would be
a personal gratification ; and as to the selection of
the objects of this deed of grace, we should remem
ber, he had a sort of liking to the Quakers, for their
harmlessness and their oddity. He was not afraid
of their taking up arms against the throne ; and to
quiz them in their queer dresses, and with their
quaint speech, was to him a piece of good fun.
On Saturday, the 23rd of August, Catherine
reached Whitehall ; and the citizens of London,
ever prompt on such occasions, gave " a large de
monstration of their duty and affection to the King's
and Queen's Majesty on the river Thames." The
Mercers, the Drapers, the Merchant Taylors, and
the Goldsmiths, were in their stately barges. There
were innumerable boats adorned with extraordinary
pomp ; but far outpeering the rest of the brilliant
regatta were the thrones, arches, pageants, and other
representations belonging to the Lord Mayor, and
the City companies. Music floated on the water
from bands on deck, and thundering peals roared from
huge pieces of ordnance on shore. Their Majesties
came in an antique-shaped, open vessel, covered with
a cupola-like canopy of cloth of gold, supported by
Corinthian pillars, wreathed with festoons and gar
lands of flowers. And John Evelyn — who was
sailing near in his own new-built barge — tells us, that
the Royal one exceeded the Venetian Bucentoras,

326 The Crisis.

when, on Ascension Day, the Doge went to wed
the Adriatic. Everybody extolled the sight.*
The same day there were some people far other
wise employed. Edmund Calamy was preaching a
funeral sermon at St. Austin's Church, for " Father
Ash" — the good old man who shed tears of joy over
Charles's early promises. The text was — " The
righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart ;
and merciful men are taken away, none considering
that the righteous is taken away from the evil to
come." And very fitting words they were for the
interment of a Puritan patriarch, on St. Bartholo
mew's Eve. The preacher reminded his audience
how Methuselah died a year before the flood, and
Austin a little before Hippo was taken, and Luther
just as the wars in Germany were about to begin.
Good Simeon Ash was saved much sorrow by his
timely departure. And, by a singular coincidence,
on the same day they were burying him in London,
the death of a distinguished northern pastor occurred
at York. Mr. Edward Bowles, there cut off in the
flower of his age, left behind him an honourable
reputation in the esteem of such men as Stillingfleet
and Tillotson — who, it is said, had spent an after
noon with him in town, striving to persuade him to
conform, but could get no other answer than this,
" I can easily do enough to lose my friends, but I

' Evelyn's Diary," vol. i. p. 390.

The Crisis. 327

can never do enough to gain my enemies." It was
currently reported at the time, that he might have
had the Deanery of York ; but though he forfeited
that honour by his nonconformity, he continued
preaching at Allhallows, and St. Martin's, in the
Archiepiscopal city. He had been also elected
Vicar of Leeds — a benefice, from which his non
conformity would, on the 24th August, have effec
tually ejected him, if his Great Master had not the
day before, called him to a nobler ministry in the
holiest of all temples.
Most of the farewell sermons were preached a
week before the Feast of St. Bartholomew. No
such a Sunday was ever known in England, before
or since. There have been mourning, lamentation,
and woe in numbers of churches at times, when
death, or persecution, or removal has burst pastoral
ties, and severed the fellowship of a loving congre
gation and its spiritual guide ; but that so many
hundreds on the same day and hour should be em
ployed in uttering farewells — the flock, as they
gazed on the shepherd in the old familiar spot,
" sorrowing most of all that" (there at least) "they
should see his face no more" — is an unparalleled
instance of wide-spreading spiritual grief. In after
years, how did Puritan fathers and mothers tell
their children of the crowds in the churches that
day — of aisles, and standing-places, and stairs cram
med to suffocation — of people clinging to the open

328 The Crisis.

windows like swarms of bees — of the overflow in
the churchyards and streets — of the deep silence of
the assemblies — of the broken utterances of the
preacher, of the stifled sobs of the hearers, and
the salt tears of both.
Let us gather up a few of the examples upon re
cord, of the kind of preaching there was on the
Sunday before Bartholomew's Day, 1662.
Pepys, who liked to see and hear what was going
on, walked to old St. Dunstan's Church, at seven
o'clock that summer's morning, but found the doors
not open. He took a turn in the pleasant Temple
Gardens till eight o'clock, when, on coming back
to the church, people were crowding in at the side
door, and the Secretary of the Admiralty found the
edifice already half-filled, ere the public entrance was
opened for general admission. Dr. Bates, minister
of the church, took for his text — " Now the God
of peace, that brought again from the dead our
Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,
through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make
you perfect." " He made a very good sermon,"
Pepys says, " and very little reflections in it to any
thing of the times." After dinner, the gossip went
to St. Dunstan's again, to hear a second sermon
from Bates on the same text. On his arrival at
the church, about one o'clock, he found it thronged,
and had to stand during the whole of the ser
vice. Not till the close of the afternoon discourse

The Crisis. 329

did the celebrated preacher make any distinct allu
sion to his ejectment, and then it was in terms the
most concise and temperate. " I know you expect
that I should say something as to my nonconformity.
I shall only say thus much — it is neither fancy,
fashion, or humour, that makes me not to comply,
but merely for fear of offending God. And if after
the best means used for my illumination, as prayer
to God, discourse, or study, I am not able to be
satisfied concerning the lawfulness of what is re
quired, if it be my unhappiness to be in error, surely
men will have no reason to be angry with me in this
world, and I hope God will pardon me in the next."
At the Church of Allhallows, Lombard-street,
there was a less noted divine, Thomas Lye, who,
however, had made himself immensely popular with
young folks of the Puritan class, whose parents
were wont to send them to his catechetical lectures.
He had a happy art of fixing attention by his fami
liar illustrations and pungent appeals ; and many
were said, in after life, to owe no little to the
lessons of truth and love they had heard from the
Rector of Allhallows. He preached twice on St.
Bartholomew's Day, from the words — " Therefore,
my brethren, dearly loved and longed for, my joy
and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly
beloved." Lye mentioned in the introduction to
his morning address, that on the 24th of August,
1 65 1, he had delivered a farewell sermon, because

33° The Crisis.

he would not swear against the King. Now he was
expelled a second time, for a very different reason.
Sufferings by the same individuals at one time
for loyalty, at another for nonconformity, were
by no means uncommon in those changeful and
troublous days. Little occurs in Lye's parting
charge which bears directly on his removal. He
says, in conclusion : — " By way of exhortation, be
loved, I remember good Jacob, when he was come
into Egypt, ready to die, calls his children together,
and before he dies, blesseth his children. I cannot
say you are my children ; but I can say in the strength
of God, you are dearer to me than the children of my
own bowels. I remember what poor Esau said,
£ Hast thou but one blessing, my Father ? bless me,
even me also, O my father !' O beloved, I have a
few blessings for you, and, for God's sake, take them
as if they dropt from my lips when dying. 'Tis very
probable we shall never meet more until the day of
judgment. Whatever others think, I am utterly
against all irregular ways ; I have (I bless the Lord)
never had a hand in any change of Government in
all my life ; I am for prayers, tears, quietness, sub
mission, and meekness, and let God do his work,
and that will be best done when He doth it."
Dr. Jacomb occupied his old pulpit in St. Mar
tin's, Ludgate, the 17 th of August; and, like the
rest of his brethren, had no doubt that day a
crowded congregation. It would seem, from his

The Crisis. 331

remarks, that he did not expect it to be the last
pastoral discourse he would deliver to them ; but
we are unable to say whether the hope he had of
preaching to his parishioners again, arose from his
entertaining an idea of some mitigation of the
severity of the law through a Royal indulgence, or
from some other cause. At all events, he was pre
pared for the sacrifice he had actually to make.
" I am not here at present," were his words, " to
take my last farewell. I hope I may have a little
further opportunity of speaking to you ; but if not,
let me require this of you, to pass a charitable in
terpretation upon our laying down the exercise of
our ministry : there is a greater Judge than you who
must judge us all at the great day ; and. to this
Judge we can appeal before angels and men, that
it is not this thing, or that thing, that puts us
upon this dissent, but it is conscience towards God,
and fear of offending Him. I censure none that
differ from me, as though they displeased God :
but yet, as to myself, should I do thus and thus, I
should certainly violate the peace of my own con
science, and offend God, which I must not do, no,
not to secure my ministry ; though that either is
or ought to be dearer to me than my very life ; and
how dear it is, God only knoweth. Do not add
affliction to affliction ; be not uncharitable in judging
of us, as if through pride, faction, obstinacy, or de-
votedness to a party, or, which is worse than all, in

33 3 The Crisis.

opposition to authority, we do dissent. The Judge
of all hearts knows it is not so : but it is merely
from those apprehensions which, after prayer,
and the use of all means, do yet continue ; that
doing thus and thus we should displease God:
therefore deal charitably with us, in this day of our
affliction. If we be mistaken, I pray God to con
vince us : if others be mistaken, whether in a public
or private capacity, I pray God in mercy convince
them : but however things go, God will make good
this truth to us ; in this work He will not leave us,
and our Father will not leave us alone ; for it is the
unfeigned desire of our soul in all things to please
God." The same day, Edmund Calamy took leave of
his parishioners at Aldermanbury, and the only re
ference to the separation we can find was an earnest
appeal touching religious privileges and responsi
bilities. " You have had the Gospel in this place
in great abundance. Doctor Taylor, he served an
apprenticeship in this place ; Doctor Stoughton
served another apprenticeship ; and I, through
Divine mercy, have served three apprenticeships,
and half another almost, among you. You have
had the Spirit of God seven-and-thirty years in the
faithful ministry of the word knocking at the door
of your hearts, but many of you have hardened
your hearts. Are there not some of you (I only
put the question) that begin to loathe the manna of

The Crisis. 333

your souls, and to look back towards Egypt again ?
And that I may not flatter you, you have not pro
fited under the means you have enjoyed ; there
fore you may justly expect God may bring you
into a strait, and take away the Gospel from
you : God may justly take away your ministers by
death or otherwise. Have you not lost your first
love ? Why did God take away the Gospel from
the Church of Ephesus, but because they lost their
first love ? Are you not like the Church of Lao-
dicea, that was neither hot nor cold ? therefore God
may justly spue you out of his mouth. What God
will do with you I know not ; a few weeks will de
termine. God can make a great change in a little
time : we leave all to God. But in the mean time
let me commend one text of Scripture to you, Jer.
xiii. i.6, ' Give glory to the Lord your God, before
he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble
upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for
light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make
it gross darkness.' Ver. 17, ' But if you will not
hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your
pride; and mine eyes shall weep sore, and run down
with tears, because the Lord's flock is carried away
captive.' Give glory to God by confessing and
repenting of your sins, by humbling your souls
before the Lord, before darkness come, and who
knoweth but this may prevent darkness ?"*

* On the 24th of August, the French congregation at the Savoy adopted

334 The Crisis.

The fire of London swept away so many of the
old City churches, that we are unable to picture the
localities in which the congregations assembled to
hear their pastors preach their own funeral sermons,
as they were commonly called. In the country it
is otherwise. Every one who has entered the
charming Vale of Taunton, and tarried in the town
from which it takes its name, must have lin
gered long under the shadow of the noble Church
of St. Mary, and longer still within its spacious
nave, restored of late with such exquisite taste. The
senior minister, in 1662, was George Newton, who
had been presented to the living by Sir William
Portman. He was " a noted gospeller," and one
of the earliest in the field on the Sabbatarian side,
when the " Book of Sports" provoked so much
righteous controversy. Few men, besides Richard

the Liturgy of the Church of England, and a sermon was preached on the
occasion by Jean Durel, minister of the congregation. The sermon was
translated and published. It contains an elaborate defence of the Liturgy
from the words, " If any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom,
neither the churches of God." — i Cor. xi. 16. Prefixed to the discourse are
commendations of it by M. Bochart, M. Daille, M. Gaches, and M. de
l'Angle. It is bound up in one volume with " A Treatise on the government
and public worship of God in the Reformed Churches beyond the seas." That
treatise is an ingenious piece of special pleading, for the purpose of making out
some sort of agreement between the polity and ritual of the Continental
Reformed Churches and the Anglican Church as settled by the Act of Uni
formity. Prefixed to it is a long and fulsome dedication to Lord Clarendon,
from which it appears that public opinion attributed the Act mainly to him.
The copy of this curious book now before me was bought out of the Earl's
library. It is bound in crimson morocco and gold, and is most likely a pre
sentation copy.

The Crisis. 335

Baxter, equalled Newton in what is now usually
called missionary zeal, and there still remains a dis
course of his upon the duty of propagating the
Gospel throughout the world ; a part of which
might be taken for the words of a modern speaker
at Exeter Hall, for the passage ends with the prac
tical application, " Help this choice work with your
purses and your prayers."*
Taunton had just had its walls razed to their
foundations, as a mark of the King's displeasure for
what the people had done in the Parliamentary War,
and from an unfounded suspicion of their continued
disloyalty. The bones of Blake, their townsman, had
been recently dug out of their grave in Westminster
Abbey. Puritan members of the Taunton corporation
had, a few months before, been displaced for others
of Cavalier sympathies ; and it was with these bitter
recollections that the nonconforming parishioners
went to St. Mary's on the 17 th August, to listen to
their rector for the last time. " It is good," said
he, " to part with each other in the consideration
of that, from which those who are God's shall never
be divided — that is, c the love of God in Christ
Jesus our Lord.' .... As to the particular
divine providence now ending our ministry among
you, whatever happeneth on this account, let it be
your exercise to cry out for the Holy Spirit of
* See Mr. Stanford's interesting work on "Joseph Alleine, his Com
panions and Times," p. 78-

336 The Crisis.

Christ, and He will grant you a greater support
than you may expect from any man whatever. . . .
The withdrawing of this present ministry may be
to cause you to pray for this Holy Spirit, day and
night ; and Christ promiseth that the Father will
give it to them that ask it  If I cannot
serve God one way, let me not be discouraged, but
be more earnest in another. You may also think
it is a time for you to exercise what you have
learned. God is calling you to see if you have not
lost all the advantages He hath allowed you. ' Ye
have been a long time learning,' He is saying to
you ; c let me now see what you can now do or
endure.' If you have forgot all, Christ hath made
a promise, ' the Spirit shall bring again to remem
brance,' when there is occasion for it. Consider
also, Christ is touched with a feeling of the infir
mities of a people in such a condition. Let none
of you be troubled in your heart ; you believe in
God, believe also in Christ Jesus  He
hath promised to give you pastors according to his
own heart, that shall feed his flock with truth and
with understanding. He can find one, or frame
one, that shall fulfil his ministry better than this
weak instrument. He is the Great Bishop of our
souls, and is never non-resident, and hath always a
care of his flock. Let not your hearts be troubled,
but let us commend you, yea, each other, unto
God, and let Him do what is good in his eyes.
Let us pray."

The Crisis. 337

Beer Regis, in Dorsetshire, a quiet little town on
the banks of the river from which it is named, has
still a spacious church, with a square tower and
pinnacles, dedicated to St. John the Baptist. In
former days, the living, in conjunction with Char-
mouth, formed the golden prebend of Salisbury
Cathedral. How much of the income of the stall
belonged to the incumbent under the Common
wealth we do not know, but the incumbency must
have been of a kind strongly to tempt Philip
Lamb, who then held it, to obey the Act of
Uniformity, had he been a worldly-minded man.*
But his farewell teaching proves how far he was
above the reach of such a temptation. Like those
already mentioned, the discourse is full of spiritual
instruction and earnest appeal, with the following
allusion to the great event of the day, so charac
teristic of the tone in which all the ejected touched
upon their removal : — " For now I must tell you
that perhaps you may not see my face or hear my
voice any more in this place ; yet not out of any
peevish humour, or disaffection to the present
authority of the kingdom (I call God and man to
witness this day), it being my practice and counsel
to you all, to fear God and honour the King ; — but
rather a real dissatisfaction in some particulars
imposed, to which (notwithstanding all endeavours
* Calamy speaks of his holding this living in conjunction with Kingston.
" An Account," &c, p. 279. Z

338 The Crisis.

to that purpose) my conscience cannot yet be
espoused ; and in all my abode with you, I may say
(without ostentation) with the Apostle in 2 Cor.
i. 12, c Our rejoicing is the testimony of a good
conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity
we have had our conversation in the world, especially
to you-wards.' And as he said in Acts xx. 26, 27,
f So I take you to record this day, that I have
endeavoured to be free from the blood of all men.
For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole
counsel of God both by my life and doctrine.'
Because I know this very well, that (as one says)
' Suadet loquentis vita, non oratio ' — the preacher's!
life is the most lively preaching. I shall only
add this (my friends), that though my lips
be sealed up, that I may not speak from God
to you, yet I shall not cease to speak to God
for you, as ever I have done. And though I can
not have you in my eye, yet I shall lodge you in
my heart ; and asking nothing of you but your
prayers, shall hope to meet you daily at the throne
of grace, and that at last we may enjoy one
another in heaven."*
We have mentioned one minister who was ejected,

* This and the former specimens of the Farewell Sermons are extracted
from the volume published as " A Compleat Collection," with a queer array
of little portraits. I have three editions before me of 1663, all differing some
what from each other. The sermons are carelessly printed ; some from loose and
inaccurate notes probably. Several prayers offered on the occasion are
reported in one of the editions. The prayers are very loyal and devout.

The Crisis. 339

first, for refusing the oath of the Commonwealth,
and next, for refusing to comply with the Act
of Uniformity. A second case occurs of a double
ejectment; but in a different fashion. The
cathedral of Exeter, after the wars, was divided
into two parts by a brick wall, like some of the
churches in Scotland and on the Continent. The
nave was used by the Independents, and called
West Peter's, the choir by the Presbyterians, and
styled East Peter's ; St. Peter being the patron
saint of the ancient Saxon conventual church, on
the site of which had risen the more lordly cathe
dral. The chapterhouse, during "this general
eclipse," we are told, was turned into a stable, and
the Bishop's palace, the deanery, and the canons'
houses were used as barracks. The two preachers,
we are informed, enjoyed great comfort and quiet
until the Restoration, when they were expelled.
Robert Atkins, an Oxford man, preached at St.
Sidwell's, while the cathedral choir was being pre
pared for him, and when it was finished, he thought
it a most convenient and capacious church. Here
Mr. Atkins had a vast auditory, being esteemed one
of the best preachers in the West of England. In
September 1660, he was ejected from the choir.
"Church music," to use his own words on the
occasion, "justling out the constant preaching of
the word, the minister being obliged to give place
to the chorister, and hundreds, yea thousands, to
z 2

34° The Crisis.

seek where to hear a sermon on the Lord's-day,
rather than singing service should be omitted, or
not kept up in its ancient splendour and glory."
Driven at the Restoration from East Peter's, he
found refuge in the Parish Church of St. John, an
instance which shows that Nonconforming clergy
men might lose one living and gain another, between
the King's return and the execution of the decisive
act. From St. John's, he was ejected in August,
and then he preached a sermon in which, rising
above all such Presbyterian narrowness as prompted
a fling at the cathedral music, the worthy minister
caught the ennobling inspiration of the season, and
only used words of loyalty and love.
" Let him never be accounted a sound Christian
that doth not fear God and honour the King.
I beg that you will not interpret our nonconfor
mity to be an act of unpeaceableness and disloyalty.
We will do anything for his Majesty but sin.
We will hazard anything for him but our souls.
We hope we could die for him, only we dare not
be damned for him. We make no question, how
ever we may be accounted of here, we shall be
found loyal and obedient subjects at our appearance
before God's tribunal."*
Such was the style of addresst at a religious crisis

* Palmer's " Nonconf. Memorial," i. p. 366.
f Yet Kennet is so unfair as to say, the preachers who resolved not to conform
were many of them angry in their last sermons. And he quotes the following

The Crisis. 341

the most exciting in the history of England. The
preachers might have been expected to reflect some
what the agitation of the times. We should not
have been surprised, had they largely dealt in
controversy and indulged in dashes of bitterness.
It would have been pardonable, if with appeals to
the flocks from which they were torn, there had
been mingled some signs of indignation at the
Act which was the instrument of their removal.
But instead of that, the discourses on the occasion
were as calm as the pastors had ever preached, and
some of them scarcely alluded to the peculiar
circumstances in which, on that memorable Sunday,
they found themselves placed. Certain of them,
though ejected from the parish pulpit, continued to
attend and occupy the parish pews, others fell into
the ranks of nonconformity and became separate.
They would have called the Church of England
Mother, — but she drove them from her door.

piece of malignity and spite from the preface to "Evangelium Armatum,
being a Collection of Sayings destructive to Government vented by Mr. Calamy,
&c. :" — " There seems to be a more than ordinary significance in that say
ing of the prophet, that ' Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,' and that I con
ceive not only for its equal malignity, but also for its peculiar analogy and
cognation. For if we reflect upon the late instances of it amongst ourselves,
we shall find that the people could never be brought to rebel till their
preachers had first bewitched them. But I hope the world will be so far unbe-
witched as to read this collection, with their farewell sermons, lately printed,
together, and exposed to sale with so much ostentation, of which I shall say
this, that they may very properly be called farewell sermons, since experience
is like to manifest that their congregations never fared so well as when such
preachers preached their last."

Chapter XII.

erottformfetg an& i^oiuonformfets*

VEN after St. Bartholomew's Day
had passed, and the Act had taken
effect, some of the Presbyterians con
tinued to look for a mitigation of its
severity. Those who lived in Lon
don, and were upon terms of friendship with the Earl
of Manchester and other noblemen of the old Puri
tan stamp, encouraged themselves with the idea that
they had influence at court, and resolved to make
another effort to obtain his Majesty's help. Calamy,
who was highly respected beyond his own imme
diate circle, was the leader of this forlorn hope.
He prepared a petition, which was numerously
signed by London pastors.* It alluded to their

* Baxter informs us that he had resolved not to meddle in such business any
more ; but says in the margin, "If I should at length recite the story of this
business, and what peremptory promises they had, and how all was turned to their
rebuke and scorn, it would more increase the reader's astonishment." He
further observes, " Some of the Independents presumed to say that the reason
why all our addresses for liberty had not succeeded was because we did not ex-

Conformists and Nonconformist's. 343
former experience of his Majesty's tenderness and
indulgence. It spoke of the Act as casting them
out of the public service of the ministry, because
they could not conscientiously conform to its re
quirements ; and then, throwing themselves and
their concernments " at his Majesty's feet," they
desired him, in his princely wisdom and compassion,
to take some effectual course whereby they might
be continued in the exercise of their ministry, and
be still able to teach the people their duty both to
God and the King. Bishop Parker says, this peti
tion was presented, three days after the ejectment,
by Calamy in person, accompanied by Manton,
Bates, and others.* He also informs us, that Ca-

tend it to the Papists, and that for their parts they saw no reason why the
Papists should not have liberty of worship as well as others, and that it was better
for them to have it than for all to go without it. — "Life and Times," p. 429.
* Parker's " Hist, of his Own Time," p. 29. Newcome notices the
petition in his diary as if an unsuccessful attempt had been made to
present it before the 28th: — "August 28. I was sent for to the minis
ters to Mr. Greene's. We perused Mr. Heyricke's letter, whereby we under
stand that last Lord's Day was a very sad and doleful day in London, in that
the ministers preached not. None but Mr. Blackmore, Mr. Crofton, and Dr.
Manton, between the Tower and Westminster, the Bishops having provided
readers or preachers for every place. And the ministers in the dark waited
with their petition on Monday, and could not get it delivered, and came away
more dissatisfied than they went ; and what the issue of all this will be the
Lord only knows. I rose afore seven ; we despatched duty. And the minis
ters came in again, and we discoursed of matters, and got things done about the
petitions. Mr. Alsley dined with me and Mr. Haworth, we having a venison
pasty. After dinner, Mr. James Lightbourne was with me an hour or more. I
wrote letters to London, and then went to bowls ; but as if it was not a time
for me to take recreation in, I had no freedom of spirit by a little accident
about Mr. Constantine." — " Newcome's Diary," p. 115.

344 Conformists and Nonconformists.
lamy made a speech on the occasion. If the ac
count by Clarendon, already given, of debates in
the Council on the question of indulgence, related
only to discussion about the Act, before St. Bartho
lomew's Day, another change must have come over
the mind of the King, for the petition was gra
ciously received ; and on the next day, when the
matter came before the Council, he was present, and
declared his intention of affording relief to the peti
tioners, " if at all feasible." There were advocates
for the Presbyterians at the Board, who supported
the Royal purpose. But one man was in the way.
Sheldon urged, with vehemence, that it was now too
late to alter ; that the Sunday before he had ejected
those who would not subscribe ; that he had thus
provoked them ; and that now, after all, to admit
them to the Church would be to put his own
head in the lion's mouth. Such an argument was
what might be expected from a man who was a per
secutor and a coward. But he adduced one reason
which, despite our hatred of his bigotry and into
lerance, we must allow was not to be easily dis
posed of by any who valued the English Constitu
tion. Could the resolutions of the Council, he
asked, justify contempt of a law unanimously en
acted in both Houses ? Should that authority now
be suspended, it would render the Legislature ridi
culous and contemptible. Good weapons are often
used in a bad ¦ cause. It is an old story. Men

Conformists and Nonconformists. 345
make or encourage the making of unjust laws, and
then cover the injustice which they have thus pre
pared themselves to perpetrate, with the plea that
it is perfectly legal. Sheldon did not care one
straw for constitutional principles, except when
they served his purpose ; and before he had finished
his notable speech the spirit of the man was seen,
for he contended, that if the importunity of such
disaffected people were a reason for humouring
them, neither Church nor State would ever be free
from distraction and disturbance. Sheldon had
been amongst the first to begin the chase, and now
he comes in, at the death, to prevent any mercy
being shown to the hunted deer.
The operation of the Act, the petition of the poor
ministers, and the discussions in Council, were soon
the topics of miserable little newspapers, and the
talk of-the whole country. The scanty columns of
the " Mercurius Publicus" were filled with tidings
of the " care and prudence of the most worthy
diocesan" of London in filling up the numerous
vacancies. At Northampton, " all except two or
three" conformed. At Gloucester, there was
" scarcely a man" who did not subscribe. " The
city and county of Norwich," says a correspondent,
" are ready to conform. You expected they would
refuse ; you were misinformed." A month after
wards, the Congregational party were found to have
meetings in private houses. Driven to assemble

346 Conformists and Nonconformists.
at night in holes and corners, to escape observation,
they were reproached for it, as if it had been their
own crime, instead of a necessity caused by the
conduct of their enemies. " Darkness is the fittest
time," said some unknown slanderer, " that the
brethren and sisterhood could find, as bearing some
resemblance to their actions. Shame, not awe of
authority, made them choose the night to meet in."
Then comes a flash of editorial wit : " We have
heard, too, of another meeting of night-walkers
about Sherborne ; but, poor little inconsiderable
wretches, these were lights of the smallest size, and
accordingly they were used, for in came a ruffling
headborough, and at once puft and blew them all
out." At Newport, an instance occurred of a
building erected by Nonconformists being seized
and appropriated for Episcopal worship. " At the
Bishop's departure, he visited the new chapel built
by fanatics for a meeting-house, and now con
secrated as a church."* In the city of Chester,
the Nonconformists persevered to preach on the
24th of August, though cautioned against it by the
Bishop. Next Sunday they were displaced, and
other ministers were appointed, but still the Pres
byterians came to the parish service. " So there is
hope," says the correspondent, " they may be

•Mercurius Publicus," Newport, 4 th September.

Conformists and Nonconformists. 347
brought to their right mind. There are four non-
conformable ministers in the city, the most eminent
ofthem is Mr. Harrison, who before and after noon,
on Sunday, attended church. Very peaceable."
In Northumberland, there were " only three dis
affected ministers, Scotchmen, who quietly left their
livings, and crossed the Tweed." In the Isle of
Wight, " out of twenty-six parishes, only two Non
conformists had come." Thus the High Church
party were striving to persuade themselves that the
Act was very popular — that nonconformity was a
mightily insignificant affair, a mere puff of smoke
which a moment's wind would blow away. Pasans
of victory were, at the same time, sung on ac
count of popular Episcopal visitations and crowded
Episcopal services. All the gentry went out to
meet the Bishop of Exeter. There were one thou
sand horse, and foot without number, and many
coaches, and city music from the top of Guildhall ;
and the Bishop was escorted to the deanery amidst
volleys of shot. At Chippenham like honours were
paid to the Bishop of Salisbury. A rumour about
the ministers' petition was very exasperating. Papers
were said to be distributed, to the effect that his
Majesty would write to the Bishops to suspend the
act ; and the Dorchester Nonconformists are espe
cially noticed as expecting a dispensation, and there
fore " carrying it very high." The meeting at
Whitehall, on the 28 th, was duly reported, and the

34-8 Conformists and Nonconformists.
Bishop of London, alone present to defend the
Church, was honoured for his zeal. Some of the
reports in the " Mercurius Publicus" are not trust-
Worthy as independent historical authorities, but
there is in such old newspapers a good deal which
helps to decide questionable dates, and the idlers'
tales show what rumours were afloat in certain
quarters. Quite opposite rumours were afloat in other
quarters. In a letter written by William Hook,
who had been ejected from the Savoy, he tells an
American correspondent, that after the Act of Uni
formity there were few communicants at the
churches — " only ten, twenty, or forty, where there
were 20,000 persons more than sixteen years old ;
and on festival days only the parsons and three or
four at their devotions."* We do not suppose that
Mr. Hook was more careful in sifting evidence
than the " Mercurius Publicus ;" but still there is
no doubt some considerable truth in what he says.
Beyond all idle rumours, some grave facts are esta
blished as to the state of certain parish churches
after the Act of Uniformity was enforced : for ex
ample, St. Mary's, at Taunton, was closed for
several weeks successively ; " and though subse
quently a public service was held at rare intervals,

* State Papers. This letter is dated March 2, 1663. It is anonymous ;
the reason for ascribing it to Hook will appear further on.

Conformists and Nonconformists. 349
the parishioners had no resident minister amongst
them for the next nine months."*
A large majority of the clergymen in the Esta
blishment conformed. They may be divided into
three classes. First, those who had been Presby
terians or " Sectaries," and had more or less op
posed Episcopacy and the Prayer Book ; secondly,
those who had conformed to previous changes,
passively submitting to their superiors, without
identifying themselves with any ecclesiastical party ;
and, thirdly, a class of consistent Episcopalians, in
cluding such as had forfeited their benefices during
the Commonwealth, but had been reinstated since
the Restoration ; such (but they were few) as had
been allowed to hold their livings throughout that
period, and to use the Prayer Book, and such as
were newly ordained, and inducted into livings
between the King's return and the August of i662.f

* "Joseph Alleine, his Companions and Times," by Charles Stanford,
p. 204. There is a glowing account in the "Mercurius P." of an Episcopal service
at St. Mary's, on the 25th, when the church was so full that people fainted
away with the heat, and " the mayor and aldermen were all in their formali
ties, and not a man in all the church had his hat on, either at service or
sermon." t What was the exact number of the clergy just after the Act of Uniformity I
cannot ascertain. Chamberlayne says, in his " Present State of England,"
ed. 1692, that there were 9700 rectors and vicars, besides curates — p. 332.
But this must be in excess of the actual number, as he mentions in another
place 9725 livings ; and as there were many pluralists, there could not have
been 9700 beneficed clergy, besides curates. The total number of the clergy
in 1850 was 11,728; in 1815, 10,501. We should presume, rectors, vicars,
and curates, altogether, in 1662, must have been under 10,000. Reckoning

350 Conformists and Nonconformists.
Some who ultimately subscribed shrunk from it
at first. Sir Thomas Browne in his "Tour through
the romantic highlands of Derbyshire,* lighted
on a clerical friend who, the day before he saw him,
which was in the month of September, " had most
manfully led up a train of above twenty parsons,
and though they had been great Presbyterians, yet
they followed this leader to Chesterfield, and by
subscribing there kept themselves in their livings
despite of their own teeth." Some lingered a good
while on neutral ground, and then went back to a
rectory at last. Certain men of character and
worth, belonging to the old Puritan party, over
came their scruples and put a general meaning on a
precise declaration, silencing many an awkward
doubt by emphasizing the thought of their shep
herd-like influence within the Episcopal penfold.
The temptation to give up principles which may
be slow in producing practical results, for the
sake of positions promising an immediate harvest,
is always ensnaring. We must lament short
sightedness of this description, however ready we
may be to praise the motives that morally redeem
it. There would never be any reformation in

them at 9000, probably too high an estimate, and taking the ejected and
silenced in round numbers as being 2000, about 7°00 men would be in the
Church of the description just indicated. We shall have occasion to refer to
the subject again.
* " Tour in Derbyshire," 1662. Works, vol. i. p. 30. At Buxton, he says,
" we had the luck to meet with a sermon, which we could not have done in

Conformists and Nonconformists. 35 t
Church and State, and corruptions would grow till
society would rot; there would be no Wicliffs
and Luthers in the world, and Rome and the devil
would in the end have it their own way, if men
of wider range of view than mere spiritual utili
tarians did not set their feet, and stake their lives
on principles, which opponents pronounce subtle
and far-fetched, and obstructive of present useful
ness. Lightfoot, Wallis, and Horton, who were
men of singular learning and of unimpeachable
character, and had been Presbyterian Commis
sioners at the Savoy, became Conformists. Conant,
another distinguished scholar, after seven years'
silence, joined them. Gurnall, the devout author of
" The Christian Armour," a book deservedly
popular, was of the same class. All such men, how
ever excellent, had to pay the penalty of separating
themselves from old friends. They were liberally
abused, being freely taunted for the use of " Epis
copal eyesalve," and for bowing down to " the
whore of Babylon." All sorts of stories were told
to their discredit. It was said that a Conformist
crossing a bridge, on his way to the place where he
meant to subscribe, was thrown from his horse and
killed, by striking " his heart " against a stone.

half a year before by relation. I think there is a true chapel-of-ease here, for
they hardly ever go to church." — P. 34. Calamy gives the name of Mr.
John Jackson as ejected from Buxton, but supplies no account of him. —
"Account," p. 204.

352 Conformists and Nonconformists.
The tale appears in connection with an account of
some clergyman who, in a sermon, expressed him
self most bitterly against the Presbyterians, and
then dreamed he should die at a certain time, and
at the precise period was " found dead in his bed."*
And years afterwards it is sad to see how this
wretched feeling rankled in the breasts of the two
parties towards each other. f
Selfishness, no doubt, did sway some of the
Presbyterian Conformists. Low, mean, grovelling
spirits valued the priest's office because it gave
them a piece of bread. They could not endure
persecution because they were without principle.
But others were of a character to raise them above
all such suspicions, and now that the heat of party
strife is over, in a serener atmosphere, we may
* Letter from William Hook, March 2, 1663. State Paper Office.
+ The following extract from the diary of Edmund Bohun illustrates this : — •
"July 19, 1677. I visited Sir John Rous, Bart., as I have often done
before. He had some clergymen with him, and among them H (enry)
W (otton), rector of W (rentham). We had much conversation on ecclesiastical
affairs and on our divisions. H. W. extolled his own forbearance towards the
wandering sheep of his own parish. To which I answered that, nevertheless, he
himself was hated, because, although as he acknowledged he had formerly been
of the same party, he had forsaken them. He said, however, that he had fallen
in with the Church because he saw that peace could not otherwise be established.
But I asked him whether, for the same reason, he would not leave the Church
when he saw fit. He was excessively angry, and gave no answer. Then I
declared that men of this sort would read the Koran when they could derive
emolument from so doing; which he again denied. I proceeded to prove this,
and described their detestable and known perjuries, inferring that they who
would commit perjury for party's sake, would do anything that might seem ex
pedient. To this he made no reply. Striving to conciliate both parties, he
is suspected by both."

Conformists and Nonconformists. 353
impartially judge them, and while lamenting they
were not men of wider vision, we would vindicate
their disinterested motives, and strive to clear
their honest fame.
" High Church " and " Low Church" are terms
which everybody now understands. " The Court
party" and "the Country party" were the corre
sponding appellations in the seventeenth century.
The Court party distinguished themselves by ex
tolling the recent Act as the palladium of English
Christianity, by preaching up passive obedience as
the bulwark of the throne, and by reviling every
week in the parish pulpit the crushed Presbyterians
and their fellow sectaries.* The Country party,
with more sense, lamented the vices of the nation,
opposed the progress of despotism and popery,
were friendly with Dissenters, and were disposed

* Henry Newcome gives the following account of a service he attended.
It shows the state of feeling in some minds. Newcome was a different man
from Oliver Heywood and Philip Henry : — " We were together awhile and
then went to church, where we heard the Chancellor's Charge at a Visitation,
where he inveighed against the old Puritan, and spake against conceived
prayer and singing of psalmes. People are so disquieted and hindered with
these fopperys as they never were. If one did conform, what a sad case were
one in, to have all these things more tumbled upon us. Dr. Burwell, the
Chancellor of York, came on Visitation, and a virulent speech he made both
days. The sons of the Church were many of them very blank, having some
what to do to give content. And, indeed, I could not but pity my brethren
that day that were under his authority, to see a worthless, sorry man, a layman,
give them instructions about God's services, and domineer over divines as if
they had been as many schoolboys. I could not but be thankful that I had
nothing to do among them." A A

354 Conformists and Nonconformists.
to an accommodation. Such men, up to the time
of the Revolution, were discouraged ; but then they
were freely recognised as among the lights of their
age. The public opinion of the nineteenth century
ratifies that later judgment. Who reads anything
by Sheldon and Morley, the oracles of the Resto
ration ? Who cares to ask whether they ever wrote
anything at all ? But it is far otherwise with respect
to Tillotson, Stillingfleet,* and Cudworth, chiefs of
the Country party, who longed for union, and advo
cated toleration. It is remarkable that now nearly all
classes in the Church of England, while unmindful,
if not ignorant, of the authors of the Uniformity
Act, combine in doing homage to men whose
opinions would have prevented its ever being
passed. But when we have excepted such divines of liberal
sentiment, and have added to them the Puritan Con
formists — without forgetting clergymen of devout
spirit, but of High Church principles, and others,
of whom there must have been many, of moral lives
and average respectability — we are compelled to be
lieve that a very considerable number who occupied
the parish pulpits after the re-establishment of Episco
pacy, were utterly unworthy of their high vocation.f
* Stillingfleet published his admirable " Irenicum ; or, a Weapon Salve
for the Church's Wounds," the same year in which the Act of Uniformity
passed. ¦f Baxter divides the Conformists into three classes : —
i. Some of the old ministers called Presbyterian, who subscribed to the

Conformists and Nonconformists. 355
It would be an easy, but to us an unwelcome task,
to pick out instances of idle and immoral incum
bents, referred to in contemporary publications.
We will only refer to one or two books written not
by vulgar sectaries, but by clergymen themselves,
containing general descriptions of their brethren.
" Ichabod; or, Five Groans of the Church," is the
production of a clergyman, in 1663. He personi
fies the Church, and makes her lament the number
of young men who turn the pulpit into a desk for
children, and by their juvenile orations provoke
scorn and laughter. He denounces a number of
clergymen as debauched, and not a few as unlearned
tradesmen, and the like. Some others were " factious
ministers," who had submitted to Episcopal ordi-

Parliament's words, and put their own sense upon them by word of mouth or
on paper. Some raw young men never versed in controversies, some persuaded
of the sinfulness of the war, and the rebelliousness of the Covenant, and
some who had wives and children, and poverty, which were great temptations.
¦z. The Latitudinarians, mostly Cambridge men, Platonists or Cartesians,
many of them Arminians, having more charitable thoughts than others of
the salvation of heathens and infidels, and some holding Origen's opinion
about the pre-existence of souls. They abhorred at first the imposition of little
things, but thought them not great enough to stick at when imposed.
These two parties were laudable preachers, and the horror of the Con
formists. 3. Conformists who were heartily such throughout. I. Those who were
zealous for the diocesan cause, and desirous to extirpate and destroy the Non
conformists. II. Those who were also zealous, but more moderate, and put a
liberal meaning on the words of subscription. And III. Those who were
raw, or ignorant readers, or unlearned men, or sensual, scandalous ones, who
would be hot for anything by which they might rise, or be maintained. —
Baxter's " Life and Times," p. 386.
A A 2

356 Conformists and Nonconformists.
nation, and against these the pamphleteer is espe
cially bitter, declaring that years might improve the
young, and discipline the debauched, and educate
the illiterate ; but, he adds, "I cannot with patience
see your hands laid upon their heads so suddenly for
their ordination, who laid their hands lately on you
for your ruin. A sad thing it is, to see men in the
same desk, reading Common Prayer in a surplice,
where they preached against both — to see men
build up in a day what they have destroyed these
twenty years : men, Presbyterian in the beginning of
the war, Independent in the end, and now Episcopal."
The writer goes on to declare, how the Church
resents the scandalous profaneness of many of her
sons ; and reproaches the reverend in function,
who were shameful in life — such as were disorderly
in holy orders — and who, bound to walk circum
spectly, reel notwithstanding, having their conver
sation in the ale-house as well as in heaven. He
proceeds in the name of the Church to complain of
unconscionable simony, and of encroaching plura
lities ; saying, " Lately you were thought incapable
of one living, now three, four, or five cannot suffice
you :" and the whole is wound up by charges of non-
residence, whereupon the writer inveighs, in most
violent terms, against the employment of curates.*

* The author gives the number of persons in some of the classes he
describes. He says there were in the Church above 3000 newly ordained, 426

Conformists and Nonconformists. 357
We hesitate to rely on this writer. His tone is
not such as to inspire confidence ; yet it is incredible
that without a substratum of facts he could make
such bold assertions ; and though he might not be
able to prove all he said to be true, yet what he says
is certainly sufficient to prove, that there must have
been in the Church he belonged to, a great deal that
was false and wrong. We always read Burnet with
discrimination, yet in a matter so nearly concerning
the honour of his own community, he is to be
trusted, when he declares, that with the accession
of wealth, there broke in upon the Church a great
deal of luxury and high living, that those " grow
ing into old age became lazy and negligent, left
preaching and writing to others, while they gave
themselves up to ease and sloth. Bishops were ex-

unlearned, 1500 debauched, and 1342 factious. He states in conclusion, that
there were 12,000 Church livings, of which 3000 were impropriate, and 4165
were sinecures or non-resident. On what ground he came to his conclusions about
the number of the debauched it is impossible to say. The preciseness with which
he speaks of the unlearned and factious is remarkable, but by no means trust
worthy. The 4165 sinecurists or non-residents is not an improbable number,
as I find in the "Encyclopaedia Brit." (ed. 1830) that according to the then
last return the total number of benefices in England and Wales, including 133
dignities, was 10,582. The number of non-resident parochial clergy was
5037, of which, however, 986 did duty, and the number of residents 5397.
The number of curates in livings where the incumbents were not resident
was 3926.
As to the number of livings — Chamberlayne, as we have seen, says in his
"Present State of England," that in 1669 the number of parishes was 9725,
which probably is near the mark. I place no dependence on the statistics of
" Ichabod," though I cannot but think there was some ground of fact for his
general statements.

358 Conformists and Nonconformists.
travagant, a pattern to all the lower dignitaries, who
generally took more care of themselves than of the
Church."* The same authority represents the King
as having said, when complaint was made of disor
ders and conventicles — " The clergy were chiefly
to blame, for if they had lived consistently, and
attended to their parishes, and taken pains to con
vince the Nonconformists, the nation might have
been settled ; but they thought of nothing but to
get rich benefices and to keep a good table, "t
The fact of a great number of the London clergy
rushing off into the country at the time of the plague,
leaving their pulpits to be occupied, and their pa
rishioners to be cared for by ejected Puritans — shows
how inferior, as to ministerial conscientiousness and
Christian zeal, some of the new men were to those
whom they had displaced. The awful dissolute
ness of public manners, in the reign of Charles II. ,
contrasted with the social decorum of the Common
wealth, though attributable to other causes as "well, is
surely to be traced to this amongst the rest — that
the clergy, after the Restoration, were too commonly
slow to rebuke the vices they witnessed, and were
poor examples of the virtues they enforced.
The miserable condition of many who held coun
try livings is notorious. In the "Grounds andOcca-

* "Hist, of his Own Times," i. p. 271.
f Ibid., p. 379.

Conformists and Nonconformists. 359
sions of the Contempt of the Clergy," we read of a
little hole over an oven, with a lock to it, called the
minister's study ; and of the parsonage-house as
holding scarcely anything but a budget ,of old
stitched sermons hung up behind the door, with a
few broken girts, two or three yards of whipcord,
and perhaps a saw and a hammer to prevent dilapi
dations. We are assured the reverend chaplain was
sent from the table, picking his teeth, and sighing,
with his hat under his arm, whilst the knight and
my lady ate up the tarts and the chickens.* Lord
Macaulay,t following such authorities, describes the
rural chaplain as not only ready in fine weather for
bowls, and on a rainy day for shuffle-board, but as
saving the expense of a gardener and a groom,
nailing up the apricots, and currying the coach-
horses, casting up the farmers' bills, and trudging
ten miles with a letter or a parcel. But these were
not so much the causes as the consequences of the
contempt of the clergy.
The writer just quoted, who largely descanted on
the theme ten years after the Restoration, gives us
lively pictures of the absurd pedantry of some parish
ministers, and the deplorable ignorance of others.
Those who could, sported a few Greek and Latin
words for the benefit of the squire, and pitched their

* "Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy," 1670, ascribed
to Dr. Eachard.
f " Hist, of Eng.," vol. i.

360 Conformists and Nonconformists.
discourses so as to accommodate themselves to the
fine clothes and abundance of ribbons in the highest
seats of the church, instead of seeking to instruct
those of the congregation who had to mind the
plough and mend the hedge. And even in cities
and corporations were " ten or twelve pound men"
whose parts and education were no more than suf
ficient for their reading the lessons after twice con
ning them over. An unlearned rout of contemptible
people, it was said, rushed into holy orders, just
to read the prayers, and " understood very little
more than a hollow pipe would, made of tin or
wainscot." But one evil is particularly mentioned
— it was a great hazard if the clergy were not
idle, intemperate, and scandalous. His trenchant
style of satire makes us hesitate to receive the
writer's testimony in full, and we make deductions
from the report, as in the case of the "Five Groans ;"
but, after all, we have here and elsewhere enough
to convince us that the contempt of the clerical
office, so far as it existed at the time, was produced
by the want of clerical knowledge, consistency, and
zeal. Poverty and dependence would not neces
sarily have inflicted so much humiliation. A half-
starved cur£, with love for his poor parishioners —
a ragged friar, with the odour of sanctity — has an
utterly different social standing, from curates and
chaplains under Charles II.*
* A few extracts from the register of Morley Chapel, near Leeds, at the

Conformists and Nonconformists. 361
The King's letter to the Archbishop of Canter
bury, in the month of October, 1662,* indicates, in
some respects, a similar state of things immediately
after the act was passed. Ministers are charged
with making it a great part of their business to
beget in the minds of their hearers an evil opinion
of their governors by insinuating fears and jealousies,
to dispose them to discontent, and to season them
with principles leading to schism and rebellion.
Young divines are accused of handling deep points
of God's eternal councils and decrees, meddling
with affairs of State, and wrangling about forms
and gestures. All these charges point to the doc
trinal Calvinism, the political liberalism, and the
practical puritanism of some of the parsons in Shel-

time in the possession of the Episcopalians, illustrate the miserable state of the
clergy. Mr. Wilmot must have been a Conformist. I find no one of the
name of Rhodes among the ejected. Two ministers named Walker are
described by Calamy and Palmer, but neither could be the person mentioned
in the following entries. I have no doubt the persons referred to were Con
formists without cures : —
" 1669. Given to a poore minister who preached at the church, April 25 th,
35. Bestowed on him in ale, \d.
"Feb. 13th, 1669. Collected then, by the churchwardens, in the church,
upon a testimoniall, and at the request of the Lord Bishop of York, for one
Mr. Wilmot, a poore minister, 8s. 4*/.
" 1670, April loth. Given then by the neighbours, to a poor mendicent.
minister, one Mr. John Rhodes, who then preached here, and after the sermon
stood in the middle ile to receive thecharity of 'the people, the summe 12s. 3d.
" 1670, July 3rd. Given then by the neighbours to a poore lame itinerary,
one Mr. Walker, who preached here, and after the sermon stood in the middle
ile to receive the people's charity, which was 91. 3d." — See " History of Morley
Old Chapel," by the Rev. J. Wonnacott.
* It is given at length in " Kennet's Register," p. 794.

362 Conformists and Nonconformists.
don's Establishment. Directions are appended as
to the manner of performing pulpit duties, and the
like ; which, coming from Whitehall, in the name of
Charles, and signed by the Secretary of State, has
the appearance of being a piece of Erastianism,
offensive to even moderate Churchmen. To think
of Charles II. undertaking to instruct the clergy in
their holy vocation ! In the " Mystery and Ini
quity of Nonconformity," published in 1664, a good
deal is found to the same effect. Complaints are
made of conforming Nonconformists, and they are
described as wearing neither girdle nor cassock,
being alamode and querpo divinus — as setting up
miserable readers to make the Liturgy contemp
tible, and as then engaging in extempore prayer for
an hour. They preached over " the old one's
notes," full of cant about " indwelling, soul-saving,
and heart-supporting ;" they " affected a mortified
countenance," and " set the Sabbath above holi
days," and " a pure heart above the surplice," and
were men " overflowing with the milk and honey
of doctrine, instead of the inculcation of honesty
and obedience and good works."*
Both the publications just noticed bear witness to
a fact, often overlooked, that many remained in the
Establishment whose sympathies were with puri-

* The author of the " Five Groans " implies the same thing, and Eachard's
" Grounds of the Contempt of the Clergy" contain many satirical allusions to
evangelical preaching in the Church of England.

Conformists and Nonconformists. 0,6$
tanism, and whose preaching was evangelical. The
author of the " Five Groans" numbers them at a
very high figure, and Eachard, in his " Grounds of
Contempt of the Clergy," alludes to their style of
teaching in contemptuous but unmistakeable terms.
From all this, it appears that the act did not ac
complish all its purpose, and that some of the new
Conformists were only so in name. The fact is,
that while, as we shall see, it drove out, with few
exceptions, the best and most eminent of the Puritan
class, it retained a good many whose consciences
were of a pliable description, who, after having ex
pressed under the Commonwealth opposition to Epis
copacy and the Prayer Book, and after having
sworn to the Covenant, and obeyed the Directory,
or professed to be for independency and extempore
prayer, were willing to nestle under the wings
of the Anglican Church, seeing that she now rose
like a phoenix out of her own ashes.*

* A friend has directed my attention to a very curious tract entitled " The
Ceremony-Monger, his Character, in six chapters." It describes " bowing to
the altar, implicit faith, reading dons of the pulpit, reading the Psalms, &c, alter
nately, bowing at the name of Jesus, unlighted candles on the altar, organs,
church music, and other popishlike and foppish ceremonials," all of which are
unmercifully ridiculed. The author is E. Hickeringhill, Rector of the Rectory
of All Saints, in Colchester. There is no date to the publication, but from
abundant internal evidence, it must have been written after the Act of Unifor
mity. Hickeringhill is justly described by Chalmers as " a half crazy kind of
writer." He was a pensioner of St. John's, Camb., in 1650; junior Bachelor of
Gonvil and Caius ; Lieut, in the English army in Scotland, and Captain in
Fleetwood's Regiment. He took orders in 1661 or 1662, being ordained by
Bishop Sanderson ; became vicar of Boxted, Essex, in October 1662, and

364 Conformists and Nonconformists.
Bishops, though responsible for the law, showed,
in a few instances, consideration for Noncon
formists. From friendship, respect for character,
or kindliness of disposition, they treated certain of
them with great civility. It is related even of
Morley, that he stopt proceedings against a Mr.
Sprint, commenced by the Chancellor of the Dio
cese, invited him to dine, and endeavoured to per
suade him to conform, by giving a loose interpre
tation to the terms of conformity — an interpreta
tion which the worthy man could not accept. It
is reported of him, too, that afterwards, when grow
ing old, he treated a bigoted intermeddling country
mayor with a cup of Canary, and advised him to let
people live quietly, " in many of whom he was
satisfied there was the fear of God, and who were
not likely to be gained by rigour or severity."
Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln, was not extreme in
his views, but said, after the act had received the
Royal assent, that more was imposed than he
wished. To a clergyman of his diocese he con-

about the same time Rector of All Saints, Colchester. He resigned that
living in 1664, but held the rectory till his death in 1708, notwithstanding
his attacks on the Church system, and his most unseemly abuse of its formu
laries. In reference to the Act of Uniformity he says it is an unnatural, im
possible, and therefore irrational, wicked, and vain attempt. " Go, teach God
to make a new heaven with uniformity of stars and skies — teachHim to make
men uniform — teach Him to make a new earth and set a new race on it, &c.
Wilt thou, silly ceremonger, be wiser than God ?" Did this man write thus
after having himself conformed ? or did he merely submit to ordination, and
then refiise to subscribe and declare according to the act?

Conformists and Nonconformists. 365
fessed that things had been carried with a high hand,
which would not have been the case could he have
prevented it : and, shortly before his death, he re
quested that " the ejected ministers should be used
again" — a request which, as Baxter says, " was re
jected by them that outwitted him." Cosin, Bishop
of Durham, was willing to ordain privately in his
chapel at Auckland, according to a form in harmony
with Clarendon's idea, " If thou hast not been
ordained, I ordain thee" — a kindly meant subter
fuge, which was conscientiously declined. He could
administer merited rebuke to those who laughed at
Puritans, and wrote in his will, " I take it to be my
duty, and that of all the bishops and ministers of
the Church, to do our utmost endeavour, that at
last an end may be put to the differences of religion,
or, at least, that they may be lessened." Laney,
Bishop of Peterborough, in his primary visita
tion before Bartholomew's Day, said very signifi
cantly to the assembled clergymen, " Not I, but the
law." " And he could," to use his own phrase,
" look through his fingers," and suffer a worthy
Nonconformist to preach publicly very near him for
some years together, after his removal to the
Bishopric of Lincoln.
Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, manifested consider
able forbearance in the county of Lancashire, where
presbyterianism had been for some time in the
ascendant. By this prelate many informations were

366 Conformists and Nonconformists.
discharged, and several ministers liable to ejection
met with indulgence. Croft, Bishop of Hereford,
" wished the church doors were wider ;" and Earle,
Bishop of Salisbury, at a later period, laboured with
all his might to prevent the passing of the Five-
mile Act. Nor does Reynolds of Norwich appear
to have been rigid in the enforcement of the Act ;
but regretting its severity, " he carried the wounds
of the Church to his grave." We are anxious to do
justice to these men, and have therefore carefully
set down whatever is recorded on good authority to
their advantage.*
A few ministers were allowed to remain in the
Establishment without submitting to the act. The
case of Richard Heyrick, Warden of the Collegiate
Church of Manchester, was a peculiar one. A
warm Royalist, and, though a Presbyterian, attached
to the Liturgy, he had been connected with Chris
topher Love, in his plots against Cromwell, and
had also been favourable to the northern insurrec
tion under Booth. The Manchester collegiate
body had been dissolved during the Commonwealth,
and Heyrick lost his wardenship, but came into
office again at the Restoration. After the Act of
Uniformity had been passed, Dr. Woolley was

* For these anecdotes, see " Nonconformists' Memorial," vol. i. p. 489,
vol. ii. pp. 24, 275 ; "Calamy's Abridgment," vol. i. p. 172 ; the Rev. D.
Mountfield's admirable lecture, entitled " The Church and Nonconformists ;M
and " Hibbert's History of Foundations in Manchester," vol. i. p. 367.

Conformists and Nonconformists. 367
appointed to succeed Heyrick, who refused to
submit to the law. The Earl of Manchester,
Lord Chamberlain, took up his case and remon
strated against his ejectment, on the ground of this
eccentric minister's influence and popularity. He
was thereupon confirmed in possession of the
church and college. But this remarkable excep
tion appears to have occurred on the ground that
the wardenship had been given him as a life estate,
in lieu of a treasury debt due from the crown.*
It was a new way to pay old debts. We are not
aware of any other case in which a nonconforming
minister was allowed to retain a valuable prefer
ment. Mr. Tilsey, a friend of Heyrick's, in the
diocese of Chester, continued to preach in his
church, another clergyman being sanctioned as
vicar to read prayers.t Mr. Ashurst, of Arlesley,
in Bedfordshire, an old man with a miserably poor
vicarage, continued to officiate, reading parts of the
Liturgy, and taking for his small tithes just what
his parishioners liked to give.| John Chandler
had the living of Petto ; and though he had only
received Presbyterian ordination, Bishop Reynolds
pronounced him as good a minister as he could
make him. He only conformed so far as to read
part of the prayers, and occasionally wear a
surplice. § Mr. Swift, of Peniston, officiated in the
* "Hibbert's History of Foundations in Manchester," vol. i. p. 367.
¦j- Ibid. J "Calamy's Account," p. 93. § Ibid., p. 315.

368 Conformists and Nonconformists.
parish church without conforming ; the principal
families in the place being his supporters. " A free
dom," remarks Oliver Heywood, who sometimes,
after his ejectment, preached there himself, " the
more worthy of observation, because the Church of
Peniston had been made a garrison, in the time of
the war, by Sir Francis Wortley, whose seat is at
no great distance, who from hence roved up and
down the country, robbing and taxing many honest
people. But now," Mr. Heywood adds, "the
good people from all parts flock thither, and are
sweetly refreshed with the bread of life in public
when a spiritual famine is through the land."*
Mr. Angier, of Denton, in the same diocese, retained
his living.f So did Gamaliel Jones, of Chadkirk,{
and Nicholas Billingsley, at Blakeney, Gloucester
shire^ Some after being ejected were allowed to
become chaplains in hospitals and prisons, chapels
of ease, and other places exempt from ordinary
jurisdiction, or to officiate occasionally for pa
rochial incumbents. Kennet makes out a list of

* " Hunter's Life of Heywood," p. 156.
f " Aspland's History of Nonconformity at Duckinfield." Of Colonel
Duckinfield, a Parliamentary officer, and a patron of nonconformity, buried at
Denton, near Manchester, there is the following anecdote in the notes to this
sermon. The Colonel " after the Restoration lived quietly, and avoided all
unnecessary publicity. There is a local tradition which I have not seen in
print, that in anticipation of danger after the restoration of monarchy he had
secured a retreat in a coal-mine on his estate, in which he had fitted up an
apartment. The pit is called to this day The Colonel's Mine."
X Ibid. § " Calamy's Account," p. 358.

Conformists and Nonconformists. 369
about twenty such cases.* We also find that
Robert Perrot preached regularly for three years
in the church of another minister,t and Robert
Sherborne was connived at as assistant to his father,
a Conformist, in Braylin, Yorkshire. J These are
all the instances of such kinds we have been able to
discover. Other irregularities were winked at, even at a
much later period. Gardner, in his " History of
Dunwich and Southwold," states, that through the
indulgence of " Master Sharpen," the parish
minister, the separatists were favoured with the
free use of the church, where they resorted weekly
or oftener, and every fourth Sunday both ministers
celebrated divine worship alternately. He that
entered the church first had the precedency of
officiating, the other keeping silence until the con
gregation was renewed at the benediction. Most
of the people attended throughout the two services.
The liberty of using the parish church was also
enjoyed by the Nonconformists of Waltham-le-
Willows, a small village in Suffolk, and in con-

* " Kennet's Register," p. 901.
•f " Calamy's Abridgment," vol. ii. p. 92.
X " Calamy's Account," p. 816. Kennet, in his " Register," p. 758, says on
some MS. authority, that in 1665, among articles objected to Thomas Sander
son Vicar of Thingdon, Northamptonshire, besides idleness, immorality, and
dilapidations, was this, that after the Act of Uniformity he had not read the
morning and evening prayer, nor declared his unfeigned assent and consent, nor
subscribed the declaration. B B

37° Conformists and Nonconformists.
nection with this circumstance a ludicrous occur
rence is related. On one occasion, when Mr.
Salkeld, the Congregational minister, was occupy
ing the parish pulpit, Sir Edmund Bacon, of Red
grave, premier baronet of England, and Sir William
Spring, of Packenham, greatly scandalized at what
they deemed a profanation of the holy edifice, came
with divers other gentlemen to the church, and
planted themselves at the doors. Sir Edmund was
for compelling the minister immediately to desist,
but Sir William was for patiently waiting till he had
finished his discourse. Whereupon a noisy alter
cation arose in the churchyard between these two
personages ; and when Sir Edmund Bacon had
become outrageously violent, his friend observed,
" We read, Sir Edmund, that the devil entered into
a herd of swine, and, upon my word, I think he is
not got out of the Bacon yet."*
The total number of ejected and silenced ministers
whom Calamy mentions in his " Account," including
those who were removed from sequestered livings
upon Bartholomew's Day, is 2188. Palmer gives
a list amounting to 2196 ; and mentions in the
preface to his " Nonconformists' Memorial " a MS.,
entitled " Index eorum Theologorum aliorumque,
No. 2257, qui propter Legem Uniformitatis, Aug.
24, Anno 1662, ab Ecclesia Anglicana secesse-
* I find this in a MS. History of the Suffolk Churches, by the Rev. T.
Harmer, author of " Observations on Scripture."

Conformists and Nonconformists. 371
runt." Out of the names collected by Calamy and
Palmer, we reckon up 529, to which no particulars
are appended, and consequently they are cases which
appear uncertain ; although no doubt many, if not
all the names, are really those of persons ejected in
1662, or during the two previous years. Perhaps
it is impossible, certainly it would be difficult, now
to ascertain the exact amount of the ministers com
pelled to leave the Church at that time ; but in
round numbers the old statement of 2000 cannot
be far from the truth. It is common to speak of
2000 ejected on Bartholomew's Day, 1662 — this is
incorrect. What was the proportion of those
ejected on that day we do not know. Hook, in a letter
to be quoted hereafter (March 2, 1663), speaks of
the number as 1600, and says " as many had been
removed before." We do not see how the latter can
be true. That statement being more than doubtful,
we can place no dependence on the other. If persons
interested in the subject who may be living in
cathedral towns, would search the Bishop's Registers
for 1660-2, much might be done towards supplying
what it is so desirable to know. Surely it is time
to look at this question of numbers without any of
the prejudice of party feeling. Let the number of
the clergy whose livings were sequestered under the
Commonwealth, with the causes of sequestration,
be looked at also, with all the impartiality of
historical justice. The principles of conformity and
B b 2

372 Conformists and Nonconformists.
nonconformity are not at stake in the settlement of
matters concerning their history.
With regard to the ejected, it may be observed
generally, that some were moderate Episcopalians,
and those who would have conformed according to
the old method — men also who did condemn the
Covenant, but then they could not give their un
feigned assent and consent to all that was now in
the Prayer Book, nor could they absolve those who
entered into the League from the obligations it im
posed. Many others were of no sect or party, but
liked what was good in Episcopacy, Presbyte
rianism, and Independency. They could use a
liturgy ; they opposed the imposition of the Cove
nant ; but they could not adopt the Prayer Book as
prescribed, nor annihilate the responsibilities which
the kingdom had incurred by solemn vows. A
third sort of Nonconformists were Presbyterians, of
whom — together with the last-named division 
Baxter says, " They were the soberest and most
judicious, unanimous, peaceable, faithful, able, and
constant ministers in this land, or that he had ever
heard or read of in the Christian world." A fourth
class was composed of Independents ; for the most
part, as the same writer allows — and here he is quite
impartial — "A serious, godly people ; some ofthem
moderate, little differing from the Presbyterians, and
as well ordered as any." " But others were more
raw and self-conceited, and addicted to separations

Conformists and Nonconformists. 373
and divisions, their zeal being greater than their
knowledge." Amongst those expelled from the Establishment
by the Act, or removed by measures preparing for
that event, were men who would have done honour
to any communion. The loss sustained by driving
them away was incalculable. Richard Baxter, who,
as soon as the Act was passed, declared his intention
not to conform, has been often noticed in the course
of this history. In his theological disputations
and ecclesiastical diplomacy, he does not appear
to advantage. His subtle intellect, warm tempera
ment, want of prudence, and invincible restless
ness, unfitted him for the very work upon which,
through life, he set his heart. Fervently did he
desire to bring all evangelical parties together, and
to build up one strong Church in England ; and in
doing this he resembled Arnold in his earnestness,
who was so " like a cloud, which moveth altogether,
if it move at all." His aims, too, with regard to a
national Church, were not unlike Arnold's, though
the theories of the two men, and their modes of
procedure, were very different. Baxter, like Arnold,
failed. And as Arnold's greatness lay in another
direction than in that of healing divisions, so with
Baxter. Nobody who has ever read the story
of his life at Kidderminster — how he preached the
whole counsel of God, not ceasing to warn every
one, night and day, with tears ; and how he visited

374 Conformists and Nonconformists.
his flock, and went from house to house with apos
tolic zeal — but must admit, that though he con
scientiously refused the see of Hereford, he was
one of the truest bishops that this country ever saw,
being consecrated by the holiest of all hands, even
one from heaven. And we willingly leave the
judgment about Baxter as a Christian teacher for
all God's Churches, to those who have read his de
votional treatises, and have laid open their con
sciences to the burning appeals of his " Now or
Never," or their sorrowing hearts to the healing
touch of his " Saints' Everlasting Rest."
John Howe was ejected from Great Torrington,
Devonshire. We are neither writing the lives, nor
undertaking even to sketch the characters of these
men, or we should dwell with intense delight on
the character and works of this very extraordinary
person — strangely passed over by some critics and
students, who, if they would only take the trouble
to open his works, would find there trains of thought
and occasional glows of eloquence which they could
not fail to appreciate and admire.* We are fully
alive to the narrowness of some of the worthies of

* How strange that Hallam in his " History of Literature " has not one
word for any Nonconformist theologian except Baxter, and in his case he refers
to one of the least known of his works. Will the time never come when
Conformists and Nonconformists will feel that good and wise men's writings
of all communions are common property ? The great Professor Wilson
(Christopher North) used to read to his class, with rapturous emphasis, Howe's
description of Humanity in his " Living Temple."

Conformists and Nonconformists. 375
the Puritan school. Their reading was too exclu
sively theological. But Howe's sympathies were
broad, and his reading vast. Bishop Wilkins, as
we have seen, talked of his " latitude."* No one
could sneer at Howe, as not reading Aristotle, or
as having no taste for Plato. His mind had more
affinity to the last than the first. There is nothing
of the hard, grinding, terrible logic of ultra-Cal
vinism in the writings of Howe. He rises into
serene regions of thought — devoutly contemplates
there the mysteries of the universe, bows before the
" venerable darkness" of Him who hideth Himself;
and then comes down to speak, with indescribable
pathos, to his fellow-sinners, of " the Redeemer's
tears wept over lost souls."
Matthew Poole was ejected from St. Michael's
Quern, London. His " Synopsis," in five goodly
folios, still occupies a leading place in a critic's
library, to whatever school the critic may belong ;
and those most familiar with Rosenmuller and Blom-
field find there is not a little to be learnt from the
Compilation of the Puritan annotator ; and that, too,
sometimes more succinctly expressed and more to
* Men trained in the principles of Chillingworth, strongly averse to popery,
more full of Plato and Plotinus than Jerome or Chrysostom, great maintainers
of natural religion, and not illiberal in their judgment of others, were called
Latitude men, or Latitudinarians. Moore, Cudworth, Tillotson, Stillingfleet,
were of this party. See " Burnet's Hist, of his own Time," p. 2725 " Hallam's
Int.," vol. iv. p. 147. Howe resembled these men in many respects, but he
was far more evangelical.

376 Conformists and Nonconformists.
the point, than can be gathered from the oft bewil
dering pages of his learned successors in England
and Germany. As we look at Poole's magnum
opus, we do not wonder to find that it was the
author's rule to rise about three or four o'clock in
the morning, and to continue his studies till the
afternoon was far advanced.
The " silver-tongued" Bates, who refused a
deanery, and might have been made a bishop, had
to resign St. Dunstan's-in-the-West, as already de
scribed ; Thomas Manton, the Savoy Commissioner,
and the celebrated commentator on the Epistle of
St. James, was expelled from St. Paul's, Covent
Garden ; and Joseph Caryl, the patient expositor of
the Book of Job, was forced to take leave of the
parishioners of St. Magnus. Gale, the learned
author of " The Court of Gentiles ;" and Hill, the
editor of " Schrevelius' Lexicon," were also among
the sufferers for nonconformity. Alleine, Flavel,
Brooks, and others, were also turned out of their
livings in different parts of the country. They
were authors and preachers, full of spiritual fervour
and evangelical unction ; adepts in the kind of in
struction fitted for the common people, dealing in
" wise saws and modern instances," and arresting
the attention and fixing the memory by alliterative
jingles, which, " like a sheep-bell, keep good say
ings from being lost in the wilderness."

Conformists and Nonconformists. 377
These were all ejected by the Bartholomew Act ;
but there were others ejected before, who were
effectually silenced by the new law. John Owen,
whose voluminous theological works need be only
mentioned as proofs of his learning, orthodoxy, de-
voutness, and zeal, — first removed from the Deanery
of Christchurch before the Restoration by the Pres
byterians, — was now denied the liberty of ministering
in the parish pulpits, or elsewhere. Thomas Good
win met a like fate. Though less celebrated than
Owen, his great attainments in scholarship, and the
range and variety of his thoughts, astonish us when
we read his writings, showing how familiar he was
with all forms of theological speculation, ancient
and modern. He was not a man to be startled at
phases of inquiry differing from his own. There
has been much fun, since the days of the Spectator,
about this Puritan Rabbi's " night-caps ;" but those
caps, few or many, whether of plain woollen or em
broidered velvet, certainly covered a larger amount
of brains and knowledge than some ever had, who
are fond of laughing at the Congregational Presi
dent of Magdalen College, Oxford. John Ray,
the eminent naturalist, is to be mentioned among
the ministers silenced by the Act, inasmuch as,
though he remained a lay communicant in ( the
Church of England, he refused to conform ; and in
1663 quitted his fellowship, nor did he ever preach any

378 Conformists and Nonconformists.
more.* Samuel Shaw's " Immanuel," and " The
Angelic Life," and " A Welcome to the Plague,"
are books not yet forgotten ; the last a memorial
of the singular devotedness of the author during
the terrors of the plague year ; and all of them spe
cimens of pulpit teaching, faithful and earnest,
such as must win the praise of all good men of
every Church. t He, though not first ejected, was
sentenced to silence, by this Bartholomew Act. To
think of silencing such a man ! No severe and
morose man either — though preaching in plague
years, and writing " A Farewell to Life" — but one
who, like all honest people, could laugh as well as
weep ; and though " his highest excellency was in
religious discourse, in prayer, and preaching, wrote
comedies for schoolboys to act at Ashby-de-la-
Zouch, and had quick repartees, and would droll
innocently with the mixture of poetry, history, and
other polite learning." There must have been
* He said though he had no objection to use the Common Prayer, he could
not declare his unfeigned assent and consent to all and everything contained in it.
•j* Much has been said about the long sermons of the Puritans. I by no
means defend them in that respect. But the bad habit, like some others,
belonged to the times more than to any one class of people. Take the follow
ing stories of Barrow. His Spital Sermon lasted three hours and a half. What
the Lord Mayor and Aldermen thought of it we do not know ; but the preacher
was asked if he felt tired. He merely replied, " he began to be weary of
standing so long." Once, when preaching at Westminster Abbey, he enlarged
so much, that the servants weary of waiting to let visitors in to see the church
" caused the organ to be struck up against him, and would not give over playing
till they had blowed him down." — Dr. Hamilton's "Christian Classics," vol.
ii. p. 274-400.

Conformists and Nonconformists. 379
something very amiable and winning in Samuel
Shaw, inasmuch as, six years after the Act, he ob
tained licence to be master of the Free School of
Ashby, and lived on good terms with the Vicar,
and with the Bishop of the Diocese.* Yet though
he went every Sunday to the parish church, he was
nowhere allowed to preach till the Indulgence came.
Besides all these, more or less known to posterity
by their books, there were the Henrys and the
Heywoods, who are equally remembered and ho
noured for the simple and beautiful story of their
lives. Thus, to use the words of Charles Julius
Hare — " The Act of Uniformity cast out many of
the best fish from the net ; all the bad, all the care
less, all the unscrupulous, all the unprincipled,
might abide in it unmolested."! And he cle
verly adds — "The age which enacted this rigid
ecclesiastical uniformity, was addicted, as might be
imagined, to the practice of uniformalizing all
things. It tried to uniformalize men's heads, by
dressing them out in full-bottomed wigs. It tried
to uniformalize trees, by cutting them into regular

* How often it is forgotten that several of the ministers who were silenced
remained in communion with the Church of England. This shows the severity
and rigour of the Act of Uniformity, and its extreme injustice towards moderate
and conscientious men.
*f* It is curious to observe how strongly both Churchmen and Dissenters will
express themselves about things connected with their own communion j
whereas both are apt to be very angry, when precisely the same things are
said by other people. It is human nature all over.

380 Conformists and Nonconformists.
shapes. It could not bear the free growth and
luxuriance of nature. Yet even trees, if they have
any life, disregard the Act of Uniformity, and
branch forth according to their kinds, so that the
shears have constant work to clip their excrescences ;
and none submit quietly except the dead."

Chapter XIII.

Strfbingg after CoUration*

FTER all the prudent advice of Lord
Chancellor Clarendon, and all the fiery

opposition of Bishop Sheldon, within
about four months of the Council
meeting last described, Charles returned
to his favourite expedient of indulgence. He
published a declaration on the 26th of December,
in which the following passages occur :* — " That
having made use of such solemn promises from
Breda, and in several declarations since, of ease and
liberty to tender consciences, instead of performing

* At the Privy Council meeting when this declaration was issued, I find
from the minutes, which I have been allowed to inspect, there were present —
Royal H. Duke of York Lord Holies
Duke of Albemarle Lord Ashley
Lord Chamberlain Sir W. Compton
Earl of Berks Mr. Treasurer
Earl of Carlisle Mr. Sec. Morice
Earl of Lauderdale Mr. Sec. Bennett
Lord Walton Sir Edward Nicholas.

382 Strivings after Toleration.
any part of them, we have added straiter fetters
than ever, and new rocks of scandal to the scrupu
lous by the Act of Uniformity. We find it as
artificially as maliciously divulged throughout the
whole kingdom — That at the same time we deny
a fitting liberty to those other sects of our subjects
whose consciences will not allow them to conform
to the religion established by law, we are highly
indulgent to Papists, not only in exempting them
from the penalties of the law, but even to such a
degree of countenance and encouragement, as may
even endanger the Protestant religion."
" Concerning the non-performance of our pro
mises, we remember well the very words of those
from Breda, viz., c We declare a liberty to tender
consciences, and that no man shall be disquieted or
called in questionfor differences of opinion in matters
of religion, which do not disturb the peace of the
kingdom ; and that we shall be ready to consent to
such an Act of Parliament, as upon mature delibe
ration shall be offered to us for the full granting
that indulgence.'
" We remember well the confirmations we have
made of them since upon several occasions in
Parliament ; and as all these things are still fresh in
our memory, so are we still firm in the resolution of
performing them to the full. But it must not be
wondered at (since that Parliament to which those
promises were made in relation to an act, never

Strivings after Toleration. 383
thought fit to offer us any to that purpose) that
being so zealous as we are (and by the grace of God
shall ever be) for the maintenance of the true
Protestant religion, finding it so shaken (not to say
overthrown) as we did, we should give its establish
ment the precedency before matters of indulgence
to dissenters from it. But that once done (as we
hope it is sufficiently by the Bill of Uniformity),
we are glad to lay hold on this occasion to renew
unto all our subjects concerned in those promises
of indulgence by a true tenderness of conscience,
this assurance : That as, in the first place, we have
been zealous to settle the uniformity of the Church
of England, in discipline, ceremony, and govern
ment, and shall ever constantly maintain it ;
so as for what concerns the penalties upon
those who (living peaceably) do not conform there
unto, through scruple and tenderness of misguided
conscience, but modestly and without scandal per
form their devotions in their own way, we shall
make it our special care, so far as in us lies, without
invading the freedom of Parliament, to incline their
wisdom at this next approaching session to concur
with us in the making some such Act for that pur
pose, as may enable us to exercise, with a more uni
versal satisfaction, that power of dispensing which
we conceive to be inherent in us. Nor can we
doubt of their cheerful co-operating with us in a
thing wherein we do conceive ourselves so far en-

384 Strivings after Toleration.
gaged, both in honour, and in what we owe to the
peace of our dominions, which we profess we can
never think secure whilst there shall be a colour
left to the malicious and disaffected."
Upon the King's declaration being published, the
hopes of the ejected ministers rose afresh. The
Independents took courage. Ever since the Resto
ration they had been thrown into the background.
Their political influence had chiefly sprung from
their connexion with the army, and the favour of
the Republican officers. That influence terminated
with the dissolution of the Commonwealth party,
previous to the King's return ; and, after that event,
we can understand, without for a moment suspect
ing their loyalty, how such a party would lose
social position and influence. Their prosperity under
the Protectorate would entail adversity on the
restoration of kingly power. As a matter of
fact, the chiefs of the old cause were under the ban
of the law. The extreme Royalist faction clamoured
for the restraint of their liberty, if not the destruc
tion of their lives. Besides, while the Presbyterians
had powerful friends at Court in the Earl of Man
chester, and other noblemen, who were well known
to favour their interests, the Independents had
no aristocratic patrons. Lord Charles Fleetwood,
Colonel Desborough, Major-General Berry, and
other distinguished men of the Congregational
denomination, so far from being able to assist their

Strivings after Toleration. 385
fellow-religionists, had enough to do to take care
of themselves. Moreover, the Presbyterians had
still in London clergymen of high standing and
importance, such as Calamy, Manton, and Bates — to
say nothing of Baxter, who, though not a parish
minister, was on the spot, and took a prominent part
in public ecclesiastical affairs ; but the Independents
were very differently circumstanced. Dr. Owen,
who, of all the Independent divines, possessed
the greatest political influence, was in retirement at
Stadham. John Howe, never a party man, and
thoroughly averse to the occupations of public life,
quietly preached at Torrington. Dr. Goodwin, it
is true, removed to London on his ejectment from
Oxford, but he lived in seclusion ; and Caryl,
another distinguished Independent, though a metro
politan pastor, preferred commenting on the Book
of Job to any entanglement in political affairs.
Philip Nye, perhaps, was the most active Indepen
dent in London, but he had no power to serve the
cause to which he was attached, as, at the Resto
ration, he narrowly escaped the fate of Hugh Peters,
being let off by Parliament with a simple dis
qualification for exercising any office, ecclesiastical,
military, or civil.* These facts will serve to
* He was now getting old, and in a petition he humbly tendered to Parlia
ment in January, 1662, we find him representing himself as a minister of forty
years' standing, now become infirm, with a wife and three children unpro
vided for, his present maintenance depending on voluntary contrihutions, which
if taken away would leave him penniless and ruined. — Kennet, p. 602.
C C

386 Strivings after Toleration.
account for the retirement of the Independents as
a powerful ecclesiastical party after the Restoration.
They had nothing to do with the Savoy Conference.
They were consulted neither by Episcopalians nor
Presbyterians. Their disappearance from the stage
of party strife was to them no disadvantage. On
the contrary, Providence had appointed them to
undergo a moral discipline, of which the fruit was
to appear in after time. Cromwell's Broad Church
being at an end, there was no longer any temp
tation for men of their principles to seek inclusion
within the narrow walls of a State Establishment.
All which remained for them to do was to seek
liberty to worship God according to the convictions
of their own consciences. They only wished to be let
alone to manage their own ecclesiastical affairs, and to
support their own religious services, as faith in Scrip
ture taught them their polity, and love to Christ
prompted their offerings. Not asking help from
the State, they did deprecate hindrance from the
State. Philip Nye — to whom we have just referred, and
who had the reputation of being a man " of uncom
mon depth, and one seldom, if ever, outreached " — -
put himself at the head of his brethren, eager in seek
ing the liberty of worship, which he justly deemed a
Christian birthright. Though, to an unpleasant
extent, under the ban of the law, he found admis
sion to Whitehall with some other Independent

Strivings after Toleration. 387
ministers, and was graciously allowed an interview by
the King ; for Charles was glad to have any support
in furtherance of his favourite policy of granting
indulgence. We do not know exactly what passed,
but Nye was encouraged by the tenor of his
Majesty's conversation ; for, after the interview, he
went and told Baxter that " the King was now
resolved to give them liberty." The day after
New Year's Day, the diplomatist of the Indepen
dents was at the house of the famous Presbyterian
divine, to " treat about owning the King's decla
ration " by returning thanks for it. Baxter was on
his guard. " I perceived," he says, " that it was
designed that we must be the desirers or procurers
of it, but I told him my resolutions to meddle no
more in such matters, having incurred already so
much hatred and displeasure by endeavouring
unity." The Presbyterians consulted together, and
resolved to take no share in the business. They
had had enough of it, they said ; but the real
reason, at the bottom of their policy, was that they
dreaded the toleration which they knew would be
extended to the Roman Catholics, if conceded to
themselves. Narrow in their views, they were dis
interested in their motives, and would rather suffer
themselves, than do anything which they imagined
was likely to imperil the interests of Church and
State. They looked on the declaration as a sort of
Trojan horse concealing within itself all kinds of
c c 2

388 Strivings after Toleration.
mischief. Nye, who had been growing in his
acquaintance with the principles of religious free
dom, and probably was now willing that Catholics
should be tolerated, thought the proceedings of the
Presbyterians unadvised, and that it was through
them that " he and his brethren missed of their
intended liberty."*
There was further talk between Baxter and the
Independent brethren. They told him they had
heard from the Lord Chancellor that their liberty
was proposed when the declaration came out, but
that the Presbyterians had opposed it ; even he,
Richard Baxter. The worthy man explained, and
the accusers had no more to say. The old feeling
of alienation between the two parties had sprung up
afresh, and Baxter, evidently nettled by the accu
sation brought against him, records in his history
that the Independents grew greatly affected to the
popish Earl of Bristol, thinking that the King's de
claration was procured by him, and that he and the
Papists must be the means of obtaining toleration.
Burnet informs us, that just before this declaration
was issued, there was a meeting of Papists at the
house of the Earl of Bristol, at which it was re
solved that a proper time had arrived for making
an effort in favour of the Roman Catholic religion,
and that it would be wise to promote a toleration

* Baxter's " Life and Times," vol. ii. p. 430.

Strivings after Toleration. 389
for Dissenters in such terms as to include them
selves.* It was argued that this would conciliate
the Protestant Nonconformists, and make it their
interest to help their fellow-subjects of another faith.
This, Burnet considers, had influence with the King,
and led to the declaration ; but, as he says, the de
claration had " a deeper root." It lay in the King's
own breast, who was anxious as much as he could
be about anything, to relieve the Roman Catholics
from their disabilities ; and who, as we have seen
all along, followed his father in preferring laws that
he could make with a stroke of his pen to statutes
deliberately enacted by Parliament.
Clarendon was alarmed at the policy of the Papists,
and their brightening prospects. So he took a leaf
out of their own book, and fought them with their
own tactics. " Divide and conquer" was the Roman
motto. " There was nothing," said a concealed Pro
testant, wearing still the Franciscan habit, to Burnet,
who gossiped with everybody — " there was nothing
which the whole popish party feared more than an
union of those of the Church of England with the
Presbyterians : they knew," adds Burnet, " we grew
weaker the more our breaches were widened, and
that the more we were set against one another we
would mind them the less. The Papists had two

* " Burnet's Hist, of his own Time," i. p. 282. Hook in his letter to
Davenport says, " Popish worship is set up at Somerset House, and the Papists
are not disquieted, or if informed against, are acquitted, and then relieved."

39° Strivings after Toleration.
maxims, from which they never departed — the one
was to divide us, and the other was to keep them
selves united ; and either to set on an indiscrimi-
riated toleration, or a general prosecution. And he
observed, not without great indignation at us for
our folly, that we, instead of uniting among our
selves, and dividing them, according to their maxims,
did all we could to keep them united, and to dis
joint our own body ; for he was persuaded, if the
Government had held an heavy hand on the Regu
lars and the Jesuits, and had been gentle to the
Seculars, and had set up a distinguishing test, re
nouncing all sort of power in the Pope over the
temporal rights of princes, to which the Regulars
and the Jesuits could never submit, that this would
have engaged them to such violent quarrels among
themselves, that censures would have been thun
dered at Rome against all that should take any such
test ; which would have procured much disputing,
and might have probably ended in the revolt of the
soberer part of that Church."
Clarendon, in order to divide and conquer, adopted
a plan, in consequence of which some Roman Ca
tholics were for taking the oath of allegiance which
renounced the Pope's deposing power, but others
would on no account go so far. A proposition was
also made for tolerating secular priests, coupling
with it the banishment of the Jesuits and all regular
orders. The Lord Chancellor " set this on," to use

Strivings after Toleration. 391
Burnet's expression, " for he knew well it would
divide the Papists, amongst themselves."* Burnet
does not make the effect of Clarendon's policy in
this respect very clear ; but, by means more direct,
with which that very able minister had to do, he
knew that the hopes of the Papists were extin
guished, and all idea of indulgence for the present
abandoned. f
Parliament met on the 18th of February, 1663.
The King's speech indicates the unpopularity of
the recent declaration, and he found it necessary to
declare that he did not mean to favour popery —
that he would not yield to the Bishops in his liking
for uniformity ; but still, if Dissenters would be
peaceable and modest, he could heartily wish that
he had such a power of indulgence as might not
needlessly force them out of the kingdom, or give
them cause to conspire against its peace. Five days
afterwards, a bill to grant the King's wish was
brought into the House of Lords, and read the first
time, entitled, " An Act concerning his Majesty's
Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs," which was read a
second time the next day of meeting, a third the
day after, and then committed and reported on the
day following. J The bill gave distinct power to
the King to dispense with the Act of Uniformity , and

* " Burnet," vol. i. p. 283. + "Clarendon's Cont.,'' p. 109
X See the Lords' Journals for February 23, 23, 27, 28.

393 Strivings after Toleration.
with any other laws concerning the same, requiring
oaths or subscriptions, or enjoining conformity to
the order, discipline, and worship of the Church of
England. A schedule of all acts touching the
King's power in ecclesiastical affairs was produced.
There was a call of the House for Thursday, the
1 2th of March. The bill was opposed by Lord
Southampton and the Bishops. Clarendon, who
during the winter had been severely afflicted with
gout, was prevented by illness from attending
on the first day's debate ; but his zeal induced him,
in spite of illness, to be present at the adjourned
debate, when, in a forcible speech, he offered the
most uncompromising opposition to this favourite
measure of the King.
Whilst the Lords were debating on the subject,
the question of indulgence agitated the country. It
was keenly discussed in many a private meeting of
Nonconformist ministers — by many a clerical gather
ing at archidiaconal visitations — -and oftener, and
perhaps with equal heat, around the firesides of
burghers and yeomen in those cold wintry even
ings. Largely did it enter into the contents of
letters ; and in one which, for its length, resembles
a modern newspaper, written by William Hook to
his late colleague in New England, we find copious
references to this and other ecclesiastical topics. It
is a curious specimen of the reports and opinions
afloat at that period ; and in the perusal of the fol-

Strivings after Toleration. 393
lowing curious extract from this unpublished epistle,
now in the State Paper Office, the reader must
make allowance for the writer's strong prejudice
against both Prelatists and Presbyterians :* —
" There is a toleration talked of, and expected by
many, since tjie King's declaration, which came
forth about a month or six weeks since. The
Papists improve the best of their interest to move
it ; but as for their being tolerated, there are many
of the grandees against it, who are ready enough to
move a motion for toleration of the Protestant suf
fering party. The Bishops greatly abhor such a
thing, as not being able to subsist but by rigour
and persecution : for had we liberty as to the exer
cise of religion, they would be contemned by almost
all men ; and whereas few frequent the meeting-
places now, they would scarce have any then.
They have therefore striven to strengthen them
selves by moving and writing to Parliament men,
before they come up to the City, to sit again on
February 18. And, as I hear, some of their letters
were intercepted, and made known to the King,

* Under date April 21, 1663, there is a petition from Samuel Wilson, who
was seized in the Downs for ignorantly receiving a seditious letter from Hook, a
minister, which came wrapped up in a bundle of books. This person, Mrs.
Green suggests, is the writer of this remarkable letter before alluded to. No
doubt of it. The letter is dated March 2, 1663, addressed to Mr. Davenport,
who was colleague with Hook at New Haven, in New England. On Hook's
return to England he became a minister at Exmouth, and afterwards Master of
the Savoy and chaplain to Cromwell.

394 Strivings after Toleration.
who was offended at some passages, and their prac
tices. Much to do there has been about this
business, and what will become of it, and the issue
be, we are all waiting for."
In another part of the same epistle, relating to
the same period, and to the same .subject, Hook
gives a glimpse of an amusing incident : — " His
Majesty sent for Mr. Calamy, Dr. Bates, and Dr.
Manton (and some say, Mr. Baxter also), on the
last of the last week, and took them into his closet,
and promised to restore them to their employments
and places again, as pitying that such men should
lie vacant, speaking also against the Popish religion,
as it is said. Before they went in with the King,
some said, ' What do these Presbyterians here ?'
but when they came out, they said, ' Your servant,
Mr. Calamy, and your servant, Dr. Manton,' &c.
It was told them that a bill for liberty should be
given in to the House ; but, however it went, they
should have their liberty, i.e., upon subscribing (I
take it) thirteen articles touching doctrine and wor
ship, in which there is nothing (as they say) offen
sive to a tender conscience. There is a distinction
between an act of comprehension and an act of
judgment. Some are for the first, others not. The
first is comprehensive as to all forms in religion
(excepting Papist, &c, but I cannot well tell).
The other leaves it to his Majesty to indulge whom
he seeth good. On the last day of the last week, a

Strivings after Toleration. 395
motion was made in the Lower House for liberty,
according to the King's declaration, which I have
sent you. A disaffected spirit to liberty was much
discovered by very many, and the business was re
ferred to be debated upon the Wednesday following,
which is this present day : what will come of it I
cannot yet tell."*

* The following extracts from this letter may be introduced here. The
first illustrative of the ideas some had of the commercial state of the country at
the time. The second showing the writer's view of his own- party and of the
Presbyterians. " It is well seen now, that the Act of Uniformity hath gotten
no ground upon that which they call the fanatic party, but it hath gained and
prevailed by suffering, and the opposites lost very much ; and that the land
hath been and is greatly disquieted, and the minds of multitudes, godly and
sober, very much troubled. Trade also declines exceedingly, both in city and
country, the causes whereof are — I. Want of liberty of conscience for the
people of God j multitudes are discouraged, many are removing to foreign
parts, the Dutch giving them encouragernent'to come over to them, and pro
mising a competent salary for such ministers as come, it., roo/. per annum.
1. Vast sums of money are lying in the hands of the Bishops. 3. Innume
rable protections are granted to debtors by King and Parliament men. 4. Much
of our manufactory in times of trouble was made known to other countries
by such as fled to them. 5. The ill manufactory of commodities at home
is another cause. Commodities are better made abroad. 6. The curse of God
is upon our trading and upon the land. Had not God, out of great pity, given
this land very great plenty of corn and fruits of all kinds the last year, but
had continued the former dearth, England had been very miserable this day."
"The Presbyterians are very much hated and reproached by the Episcopal
party, far more than the Congregational, because these are contented to enjoy
their Church pay among themselves j whereas the other, espousing a national
Church interest, will call the highest to an account, admonishing and, if need
be, excommunicating them. Many of these, conterminous with Episcopacy, have
broken down the pale (between them) and laid themselves common with the
prelacy, and taken up their mode in vesture and gesture. Some of those who
are Nonconformists, yet retain too much of the old way, and sundry ofthem,
if not many, are content to be moderate Episcopalians, and some prelatical."
He says again, " Some would have set Prelates and Presbyterians at one by

39^ Strivings after Toleration.
While rumours of this sort were afloat, and inci
dents of the nature described were taking place, and
while the Upper House was still occupied in debates
on the bill — the Lower House showed the utmost
zeal on behalf of the Established Church, by taking
into consideration, on the 25th February, that
part of the King's speech which referred to an
indulgence.* The Commons, accordingly, on the
27th, in their formal address, when thanking the
King, proceeded to say, that it was in no sort ad
visable that there be any indulgence to Dissenters,
because, first, it would establish a schism by law ;
secondly, it would not become the gravity and wis
dom of Parliament ; thirdly, it would expose the
King to restless importunities ; fourthly, it would
increase sects and sectaries ; fifthly, it was altogether
without precedent ; and lastly, it would be far from
promoting the peace of the kingdom. This for
midable array of objections alarmed his Majesty.
He said at once he would take time to consider
them. On the 16th March, he sent an answer, and
told his faithful Commons he was misunderstood,

alleviating the Act of Uniformity, and some Presbyterians are ready enough to
meet the Bishops half way, and to swallow down the Liturgy. Here hath been
treating with one party and another by grandees of different State principles.
But there are in that form others of a more sweet, tender, and godly frame,
who abhor to move an inch forward to meet the Prelates."
* There was much debating, and two divisions as to adjournment. A
motion to proceed with the debate on the 25th, was carried by 269 to 30. A
motion for adjournment the same day was lost: — Yeas, J 1 9 j Noes, 161. See
Journals of the House of Commons.

Strivings after Toleration. 397
thanked them for their thanks, and desired them to
put the kingdom into a state of defence ; but in his
laconic reply, said not a word about that apple of
discord — the Indulgence. So the matter dropped.
But Lords and Commons returned to the charge on
the larger question. They requested that Charles
would, by proclamation, banish the Jesuits, and all
popish priests, except those who attended the Queen
and foreign ambassadors. The Commons also passed
two bills respecting Papists and Nonconformists,
which were stopped by the Lords ; " these fruits,"
said Mr. Speaker, with accustomed Parliamentary
rhetoric, " not being yet ready for the harvest."
It is a curious example of the difference between
a chief minister of that day and a prime minister of
this — that Clarendon should, in the House of Lords,
oppose the measure brought in to grant the wish
expressed in his Royal master's speech, and that
through his instigation, in the House of Commons,
that very speech should be directly met by a long
train of objections.
Clarendon's course in reference to the declaration
is chargeable with duplicity. He opposed it in
Parliament. It was certainly not his own composi
tion. Some attributed it to Bristol, and others to
Bennet. Whether it was Bennet's or not, he had
a good deal to do with it ; and in a letter to Ormond,
he makes this startling revelation : — "Whatever is
said otherwise of it, nobody can affirm with more

398 Strivings after Toleration.
truth than I, that the Lord Chancellor had it dis
tinctly read twice to him, period by period, and not
only approved it, but applauded the contents of it,
and assured me it was entirely according to his
mind. Your grace may judge by this how falsely
it is suggested that his lordship was not privy to
it." Bennet was then plotting mischief against the
Chancellor. His testimony, therefore, is not con
clusive. Besides, his story is certainly opposed to
the professed policy of Clarendon in relation to the
indulgence. Still, from Clarendon's own confession,
it appears that Bennet did call upon him when he
was ill and in pain ; — did read the declaration to him
twice — that he was surprised — never heard a word of
it before — made objections — had doubts of its season-
ableness — and said, at a second interview, after the
second reading of the document with its alterations,
" By the time you have written as many declara
tions as I have done, you will find they are a very
ticklish commodity, and that the first care is to be
that it shall do no hurt."* It is plain, then, that
Clarendon had something to do with it, and did not
strenuously oppose it. All he says in his own de
fence is, he objected to parts, and doubted the sea-
sonableness of the whole. That was at the first in
terview. Taking his own account of the second, he
merely said a declaration was "a ticklish commodity,

* Lister's " Life of Clarendon," vol. ii. p. 204.

Strivings after Toleration. 399
and that the first care is to be that it shall do no
hurt." To say nothing more — then vigorously to
oppose and throw out the thing — and finally to
attempt self-vindication in the way he did — was not
the part of a straightforward man. Clarendon, in
many ways, showed himself anything but straight
forward. Again, in the summer of 1663 it was rumoured
that Parliament meant an indulgence or compre
hension. This created discussion between the
Presbyterians, who wished to be included in the
Establishment, and the Independents, who only
longed for toleration. In reference to indulgence,
the Papists were the difficulty. Most of the Inde
pendents were against any concessions to Romanists ;
but some thought differently, and as we read Bax
ter's report, we see the two Nonconformist parties in
eager debate, and we hear their voices waxing louder
and louder. " You are blind," exclaim certain
Independents, " if you don't see that this very Act
of Uniformity was made so rigorous, and the height
of conformity so much increased, as to make the
ejected very numerous, and force them to seek a
general toleration. If you think to stand it out,
you are mistaken. The Papists will come in, in
spite of you. They will increase your burdens and
lay you in prison, till you petition for indulgence,
and so help the Papists; and the odium of favouring
popery will at last lie, not on the Bishops, but on

400 Strivings after Toleration.
you. Stay till the markets rise, and you will be
glad to buy liberty at the dearest price." " Never,"
rejoined the Presbyterians. " Never ; it is against
our Covenant to promote popery and schism. What
ever we suffer, we will not contract the odium of
favouring Romanism. Toleration wont help us,
for it will be clogged with the renunciation of the
Covenant, or some other condition, which we can
not accept, but the Papists will, and so the odium
will be ours, and the liberty theirs."* So the Pres
byterians " sate still and would not meddle with
that business." Baxter was of the same mind. He
had been made a scapegoat before, and he was
cautious now. But a paper " from an honourable
person," submitted to him for opinion, as to whether
the way of indulgence or comprehension was more
desirable, was too great a temptation for the casuist,
and he could not refrain from writing a long reply.
It is in some respects very admirable. He advo
cates comprehension and indulgence too. The one
is incomplete without the other. Comprehension
alone is not sufficient, because it must leave out
many excellent men who cannot conform, and he
that rightly values the Gospel would rather have a
millstone hung round his neck and be thrown into the
sea than silence any faithful preacher of Christ. The
loss by such silence is very great. Why should

See "Baxter's Life and Times," p. 433, slightly abridged.

Strivings after Toleration. 401

men be denied the means of salvation and perish,
because a minister differs from the State in lesser
things ? There will be much want when all are
employed. Nor is the way of indulgence alone suffi
cient. " Because," and here we will use Baxter's
own words, as worthy of being pondered by Church
men in the present day — " because the present im
positions and restrictions are such as the age that is
further from the heels of truth will so describe and
denominate, as will make our posterity wish too late
that the good of souls, the welfare of the Church,
and the honour of our nation had been better pro
vided for. Because it is exceedingly desirable that
as much strength and unity as may be, may be
found in the established body of the clergy, which
will be the glory of the Church, the advantage of
the Gospel, the prevention of many sins of uncha-
ritableness, and the great safety and ease of his
Majesty and the realm."

D D

Chapter XIV.

Itoecutton.
[OMPREHENSION was one thing,
toleration another. Plausible argu
ments might be adduced for the uni
formity of an Establishment : strong
reasons might be urged against a
coalition of Episcopacy and Presbyterianism within
the pale of the same Church. The government of
bishops and the use of a liturgy being adopted, it
might be said it was only consistent that there should
be the maintenance of ministerial order, and the en
forcement of regularity in worship. A broader eccle
siastical platform might have been framed, and in
the judgment of some of the best friends of the
Church of England in the present day, ought to
have been; but that not being the case, Epis
copacy, with its accompaniments, being restored
and established, there was feasibility in the applica
tion of the principles of a corresponding discipline

Persecution. 403

to all belonging to a Church so situated. But the
Act of Uniformity in 1662 went further than merely
to establish certain forms and orders within the en
closure of the patronized community. It did not
refer simply to an Episcopal Church in the midst
of the nation, but to the nation itself, the whole of
which it sought to bind most rigidly to the forms
and orders of that Church. It proceeded upon the
theory of a spiritual incorporation of the entire
State. It made no provision for, it did not reco
gnise the religious existence of any persons out
side. Nonconformists were virtually treated as
disobedient subjects, as those deprived of social
status, as people without any ecclesiastical rights,
as culprits and felons. The Toleration Act of
William completely altered the position to the
country at large of the Uniformity Act of Charles.
Other forms of worship besides that of the Epis
copal being legalized — the building of Presby
terian, Independent, and Baptist meeting-houses,
and the ministration of dissenting pastors within the
walls, being recognised as perfectly allowable ac
cording to law — quite as much so, indeed, as the
building of churches and the ministrations of clergy
men — the Uniformity Act, after the Revolution,
no longer remained a law for the whole kingdom,
but only a law for the patronized Church. But so
it was not in the beginning, and if this fact be
forgotten, the character of the Act, in its original
d d 2

404 Persecution.

relations, cannot be understood. At first it did not
say merely there shall be no comprehension. That
it says still. It said much more. It declared there
should be no toleration. Worship according to the
form in the Prayer Book, or publicly no worship
at all — was the spirit of the enactment. It carried
in it the essence of persecution. Conventicle and
Five Mile Acts did not appear in 1662, but the germs
of them were in the measure carried that year.
It is now almost universally understood and be
lieved in our own country, that to forbid men, who
conscientiously object to certain terms of unifor
mity, to worship God in any other way, — is an out
rage upon humanity, for which no sort of colour
able pretext can be found. The Papist, it is true,
with his utterly false notions of human society, may
consistently plead the infallibility and unity of the
Church as a reason for controlling and shaping all
human interests for its own ends ; but the Pro
testant cuts away all such ground from under his
feet, and a dissenter from Rome punishing his
neighbour for dissenting from him, is a perfect
solecism in our social morality. To clear himself
from such absurdity, the Protestant persecutor
makes the exercise of religious liberty a political
offence. A certain creed and order of worship are
identified with loyalty. Deviations from these
standards are counted signs of disaffection to the
Government. Dissent is a species of rebellion. A

Persecution. 405

Nonconformist is only half an Englishman, and but
the lesser half. It is an old fashion for rulers to
think in that way. Heathen precedents had been,
in a very early age, followed by Christian princes.
The Reformers had fallen into the cruel blunder.
The wise statesmen of the wisest of queens could
not shake off this folly. The men who fought the
battle against the tyranny of Charles I. committed
themselves, in a measure, to this other kind of
tyranny : the Presbyterians, to a large extent, — the
Independents, in a very much less degree, yet enough
to make some of them but awkward advocates
afterwards of a full toleration even for themselves.
The Episcopal Royalists of the Restoration were
willing enough to follow old examples — to go fur
ther back than the mitigated restraints under Crom
well, and to plunge themselves into an intolerance
as deep as that of the first of the Stuarts and the
last of the Tudors. The endeavour to make reli
gious freedom a political crime is happily now, by
almost all parties, seen to be monstrous in the ex
treme. More than a century and a half's expe
rience of the loyalty of Nonconformists has practi
cally confuted the ridiculous sophism ;¦ but it is a
very humiliating fact in the history of humanity,
that toleration as a popular doctrine even in this
country, which leads the van of liberty, is scarcely
more than sixty years old.
The great effort of the Court party, in 1662, was

40<5 Persecution.

to make it out that Nonconformists were disloyal ;
and this brings us back to notice once more the
rumours of plots revealed in the State Papers. In
October business was going on at Whitehall as usual.
Sir Edward Nicholas was succeeded by Sir Henry
Bennet. Like his predecessor, he gave himself
diligently to inquiries about suspected persons. A
month before the former retired, he told Lord
Rutherford that there were rumours of disturbance
intended by Presbyterians and Independents, but
still all was quiet. A month afterwards, he con
fessed to the same person that there was no com
motion in any part of the kingdom, though factious
sectaries raised reports to frighten people.* Fri
volous letters were constantly pouring in upon the
bewildered officials. There came notes of conversa
tion with Edward Bagshaw,t who said London was
discontented; that i960}; ministers were turned out
of their livings ; that Dunkirk was sold ; that the
King only minded his mistresses, that the Queen
and her cabal carried on the Government at Somer
set House; that popery was coming in; that the
people would not endure these things, but would
rise on the ground that the Long Parliament was
not yet dissolved, because they had passed an act

* State Papers. Domestic. Charles II. Vol. lix. Entry Book 2, p. 34.
f Ibid. Vol. lx. Entry Book 1, p. 74.
J This reported number should be borne in mind in connection with others
already stated.

Persecution. 407

against any dissolution but by themselves. Such chat,
partly true and partly absurd, was going on that
autumn in some of the quaintly timbered dwellings
of Old England. Again, a good large bundle of
examinations was forwarded by the Earl of North
umberland to Secretary Bennet — an informer con
veying them, and adding to the written secrets
viva voce revelations. The papers disclose such
momentous facts as that three gentlemen and two
servants, whom nobody knew, had been seen
somewhere, and that " an ancient grey man" and
" a Jersey Frenchman" were mysteriously moving
about from place to place. Another time there
arrived a packet promising much information,
which, when opened, was found to contain only re
ligious sentences, and a lot of love verses. Suspi
cious persons were reported to head-quarters, and it
is amusing, amongst unknown names to find " also
Dr. Goodwin and Owen, who now scruple at the
surplice, but used to wear velvet cassocks, and to
receive from five to seven hundred a-year from their
churches." The letter-bags were still made free
with at the Post-office ; and as we now peruse the
intercepted epistles, we find in them very harmless
expressions of hope that the Lord would keep his
people in the day of trial, some narrow opinions
about church communion, and a promise of five
pounds a-year to a poor ejected minister. From
other documents we learn that people's houses were

4°8 Persecution.

broken into, and trunks full of papers seized and
carried off by constables ; that a poor minister in
disguise was arrested with two hundred of his flock,
who all escaped except thirty, and they were willing
to take the oath of allegiance, and meet no more.
That eighteen people, chiefly Anabaptists, were
committed to the Tower for speaking of the rising
in London, wishing it well, disliking the King and
Bishops, and expecting help from Holland on con
dition of free fishing and free trade. It is wearisome
to go over these trifling details, but it is only by
thus minutely recording them, that a correct idea
can be given of their worthlessness, and of the sys
tem which encouraged the accumulation of such
heaps of rubbish.
The most careful search was made after certain
proscribed individuals. No ferret could track its
prey with more exemplary persistence. But the
rogues escaped. A man named Caitness could not
be taken because there was too much noise about it.
Another, Dundas, got away on pretence of going
to obtain some money. Nobody was so talked
about amongst the informers, and so diligently
sought after as Colonel Ludlow.
" After the straitest sect he lived " a Republican.
In Cromwell's days he would not acknowledge the
government of a single person, though he were his
own father. He was allowed to live quietly in
Essex by his quondam friend, and when that friend

Persecution. 409

was dying, we find Ludlow coming up to town in
that awfully boisterous storm which swept over
England, tolling the Lord Protector's death-knell.
That death opened before Ludlow new visions of
England, freedom under a republic. A " glorious
hour of disenthralment and immortal liberty, to
plunge over precipices with one's self and one's
cause" came nigh. And the stolid old officer, as
Carlyle says, " took the precipices like a strong-
boned, resolute, blind gin-horse, rejoicing in the
breakage of its halter, in a very gallant, constitu
tional manner." The Republican dream soon
vanished, and the veteran soldier was glad to seek
a retreat in the Swiss Republic, and to spend his
time in quiet memories and musings on the shores
of Lake Leman, in the beautiful little town of
Vevay. As early as the August of the preceding
year it was whispered that he and others had landed
in Essex. In October, report said he lurked about
Cripplegate. The next midsummer somebody
affirmed that he saw him disguised. Then he was
found in Westminster, and near Canterbury dressed
as a sailor. In November it was affirmed he had
embarked at Deal. But the following month " the
old grand rebel," as he is called in one of the docu
ments, turns up " in or near Bristol."*
* State Papers. " The old grand rebel" had tidings of these rumours in his
Vevay home, and thus records them in after years : — " They were not ashamed
to give out that their messengers had been so near to seize my person, that

4*0 Persecution.

There were further reports of risings. It was
said the Anabaptists and Presbyterians of London
united in a design against the King, but deferred
action till the next year. Desperate people were
going to shoot or stab his Majesty, and were to
" wear plush-jackets and plumes in order not to
be suspected." The King was to beware of his
company and of his food. Aldermen were prying
into Court transactions, and other distinguished
people were very active. Down into the country
these tidings spread, and, with knowing looks and
low voice, it was affirmed at Yeovil horse-fair,
that there were twenty thousand men in London
pledged to an insurrection before the end of
October. People employed by the Secretary of
State were extremely active in collecting all such
they had taken my cloak and slippers, and committed two gentlemen to the
Tower for accompanying me, as they said, to the seaside, in order to my escape,
though at the same time they knew so well where I was, that they had em
ployed instruments to procure me to be assassinated, which was discovered to a
merchant of Lausanne, by a person of quality living in these parts, who had
refused 10,000 crowns offered to him on the part of the Duchess of Anjou
(Orleans is intended), sister to his gracious Majesty, if he would undertake that
province." Ludlow further remarks that " money was advanced and arms
put into the hands of some persons." One Baker, he says, who had been of
the guard to Cromwell, and since the disbanding of the army, had been reduced
to grind knives for a poor living, having received half-a-crown from Bradley,
and promised his assistance when there should be occasion, was executed with
some others for this conspiracy. (Baker's name is mentioned in the trial at
the Old Bailey, but he does not appear among the prisoners.) "This served
the Court for a pretence to seize five or six hundred persons, to disarm all they
suspected, to require those they had taken to give bonds of 200/. each not
to take up arms against the King, and to increase the standing guards." —
" Ludlow's Memoirs."

Persecution. 41 1

reports, and, there can be little doubt, sometimes
quite as much so in inventing them. Two of these
gentlemen, named Peter and John Crabb, bring the
most awful account of intended doings ; but they
also make awkward revelations of themselves.
Peter tells the Secretary of State that he and his
brother John are the Secretary's devoted servants,
and wish to be employed in pursuing a certain
business ; that he has a protection from the Duke of
Albemarle, but not against payment of just debts ;
has only received ^l. out of 60/., which he under
stands the said Secretary had sent him ; and, to cover
his profession as informer, lest City people should
wonder at his employment, he has put out a bill
advertising " the cure of the rickets in children, in
Red Lion-court, Bishopsgate." After this, we are
not surprised to find depositions against this spy
employed by his Majesty's Secretary, charging him
with being a liar and a villain, which depositions,
however, are met by cross-swearing, leaving on
one's mind the impression that Whitehall was be
set by a troop of scoundrels.
In December, Tonge, Phillips, Stubbs, Hind,
Sellers, and Gills, were tried at the Old Bailey,
charged with being implicated in a plot to assassinate
the King. William Hill was the first witness, who
reported divers conversations with the accused and
others about an intended rising of " Fifth Monarchy
men, Anabaptists, Independents, and fighting

4i^ Persecution.

Quakers." Riggs was the next witness, himself
charged with being implicated in the treason. A
question arose as to the admissibility of his evi
dence. The majority of the judges considered it
legal ; but Hale and Brown held that if the King
promised a pardon upon condition that he should
witness against others, that being acknowledged by
Riggs, it made him incapable of giving evidence.*
He gave evidence about a Council of Six that had
been appointed, of an intention to take the Tower,
and of talk he had heard of arms at the Artillery
Garden. Another man, Taylor, gave evidence as
to what he had heard others say. An examination
of Phillips was produced, in which he confessed
having heard of an intended outbreak. The Secre
taries of State said they had received intelligence of
plots from various quarters, but neither produced
letters or added any facts. Two other witnesses
testified to rumours of a rising. The prisoners
denied many of the statements made by the wit
nesses, but produced no counter testimony. f We
presume no one would be convicted of high treason
on such evidence in the present day. These un
happy persons were not charged with being princi
pals in the plot, and it seems strange that, with all
the information collected by the Secretaries of State,
the principals — if there was any plot at all — were
* " Hale's Pleas of the Crown," c. xxiv.
f " Cpbbet's State Trials," vol, vi. p. 226.

Persecution. 413

never discovered. The poor fellows thus tried at
the Old Bailey were condemned and executed. At
the gallows they expressed regret for not having
early communicated what they heard, but denied
their own complicity in any plans of insurrection.
Gibbs made a very long speech, in fact, he preached
a sermon, but was interrupted by the sheriff. They
all seem to have been religious men.
Before we conclude the subject of plots we
ought to state that there was an actual rising in the
month of October, when certain people living about
Morley and Gildersome, in Yorkshire, encamped
themselves in Farnley Wood. What was going
forward the Government knew,* and enormously
exaggerated reports of the designed insurrection
were conveyed to Whitehall. The wood was
narrowly watched. Twelve armed men met there.
Two hundred were seen riding in an open glade,
after which they moved away, four or six together,
in different directions. Entrenchments were thrown
up, but there was no fighting. Several of these
persons were arrested ; amongst them were Captain
Thomas Oates and Major Thomas Greathead,

* There is in the State Paper Office a letter from Sir Thomas Gower to
Secretary Bennet, in which he gives a pretty full account of what he heard was
going on, concluding with the remark, the truth of which we can easily believe,
that he had a hard part between those who believe nothing and those who
believe too much. — State Papers. Domestic. Charles II. Vol. lxxxi. 53.
In May the plotter's watchword was reported to be, "The sword hews
before the scythe mows." — Vol. lxxiv. 66.

414 Persecution.

trustees of the curious little chapel at Morley, once
an Episcopal church, but in 1650 placed by the
Earl of Sussex in trust for Presbyterian worship.*
Oates was tried at York, when the infamous Ralph
Oates — who became a clergyman, had the living of
Smeaton, got into debt, and became a soldier — actu
ally appeared to give evidence against his father, but
was refused a hearing by the judge. The Captain
suffered death at York. Greathead turned informer ;
he was promised not only life but reward, if he
would declare the whole design. The Royalist
spies and informers said, that he was thought " so
absolutely necessary to the military part, that nothing
could be done without him, and was therefore fully
trusted by the rebels." This appears from allu
sions to the man in some of the documents touching
the Northern plot preserved in the State Paper
Office. They are very numerous, and amidst a
great deal that is vague and confused, as in others
of the like kind, we discover some definite and ap
parently well-authenticated evidence that a plot in
the North did exist in the year 1663, with which
the Farnley Wood entrenchments were connected.
To enter fully into the subject here is impossible ;
but we would just state that there were exiles in

* There were five places of worship in the diocese of York, held in private
(just : — Branhope, Ellenthorpe, Great Houghton, Stannington, and Morley.
Foundations of this kind at that period were very rare. These are the earliest.
See " Hunter's Life of Heywood," p. 164.

Persecution. 415

Rotterdam who were connected with what was
going on in Yorkshire, especially a Dr. Richardson,
who confessed that none were concerned in the plot
further north than Durham, or further south than
Nottinghamshire, except two people in London.
This confession dwarfs the dimensions of a plan
which was said by informers to have its ramifica
tions all over the country. Among the implicated,
Richardson mentions one Ralph Rymer — father
of Thomas Rymer, editor of the "Foedera" — which
said unhappy Ralph was hanged for his treasonable
doings. Richardson declared that if there had been
a good leader, the business would have " taken
stronger and sooner. Their numbers were small,
but their faith was strong, and they believed mira
cles would have attended their godly design."
Richardson is not to be implicitly trusted, but his
statements, with other evidence sifted out of a mass
of papers, serve to show that there were persons in
the North of England brewing some sort of treason
able design. Several distinguished names were
mentioned in connection with it, such as Lords
Wharton and Fairfax ; but no proofs are given of
their complicity in the affair, and the Government
had too much prudence to meddle with such for
midable personages.
Throughout it is plain, that spies were at work,
and that they not only sought information, but
trepanned unsuspecting men into mischief. One

416 Persecution.

John Strangeways writes to Sir Roger Langley,
that he hopes so to dissemble as to retain the esteem
of the plotters, " and will be imprisoned if thought
good," though his "private affairs must suffer,"
and " a rebel's name is odious, and want of liberty
irksome." All which of course means that
Strangeways will do anything, and only hopes to be
well paid for it. In December, a very different
sort of communication bewails the severity of the
Government towards men deluded and betrayed
by informers. The writer instances " Mr. Waker-
ley, a sober Yorkshire Quaker, visited by Thomas
Denham, a privileged spy, who tried to persuade
him to join the Northern design; he steadily refused,
and even wrote to Sir Thomas Gower an account
of what passed, but his letter was suppressed, and
he summoned before the Duke of Buckingham as
a plotter, and only discharged on his letters being
searched for and found."*
In order to give as complete an account as pos
sible of plots pretended or real, we have included
this statement of the Farnley Wood insurrection ;
but the reader must carefully remember that this
did not occur till the autumn of 1663 — more than
a year after the Act of Uniformity had been
passed. * The letters, in the State Paper Office, from which all these particulars
are taken, will be indicated in the forthcoming Calendar for 1663, and fol
lowing years.

Persecution. 417

We have dwelt, perhaps, more than once upon
the plots of that period at greater length than the
conditions of our history strictly require, but it is
our conviction that the curious disclosures now
made by the papers opened to our research through
the Record Commission, not only throw a broad
light over the state of society at the time — not only
enable us to overhear after the lapse of centuries the
current talk of certain classes of the people in high
and low and middle life — not only give us openings
into private scenes, both vulgar and polite, amidst
which our forefathers two hundred years ago played
their parts at times dishonourably — not only prove
the existence of a system of espionage at that era in
England which would be now a disgrace to Austria,
and is just what one might have expected a few
years ago to have been found at Naples ; — but here,
in these encouraged rumours of plots, in these traps
laid to catch the unwary, in this paid staff of
informers, we have light thrown on the Clarendon
policy, the object of which was to make Noncon
formists infamous in the eyes of their fellow-
citizens, to brand them with accusations of social
crime, that they might be made victims of social in
dignation. Though no real plots at the beginning
suggested the intolerant policy of the Government,
rumoured plots at the end did materially advance
the progress and triumph of that iniquitous policy.
The skins of wild beasts were sewed to the shoulders
E E

4i 8 Persecution.

of the quietest of people, a hue and cry was raised
against them, and so they were hunted down. We
have too much faith in the English spirit of the
seventeenth century, in the generosity that mingled
with the High Churchmanship of the best of the
Cavaliers, in the kind-heartedness and good feeling
which gleamed out at times in our great Civil Wars,
(so different from those in certain nations boasting of
a loftier chivalry than ours,) and in the religious con
scientiousness of many of the Conformists — to be
lieve that they could have concurred as they did
in the Act of Uniformity, and in the permission
of after hideous Acts, if they had not first been
hoodwinked and deceived by certain leaders, who
persuaded them that Nonconformists were not true-
hearted Englishmen, but only so many wretched
rebels. The Act of Uniformity revived the intolerant
statutes of Elizabeth. Accordingly, the men who
were cast out of the parish churches were not
allowed to have any churches of their own. Some,
indeed, felt a scruple about separate worship. Not
a few who claimed for themselves that right were
unprepared to exercise it during the usual church
hours. They would have been content to be
allowed to preach when the rector or curate
was not so employed. Of course Baptists and
Quakers took different ground ; so did the Inde
pendents.

Persecution. 419

In a long letter by Hook, a part of which we
have already quoted, the following story of per
secution is briefly told : —
" As touching the Act of Uniformity, which I
suppose you have seen, we have found the severe
and sad effects of it — for many of God's people
have met with very hard measure by means hereof.
Multitudes of ministers have been ejected out of
their habitations and employments since the execu
tion of the said Act — I hear about 1500 or 1600 in
the nation, besides near as many before upon the
point of title^ and very unworthy and unabla
and woeful men succeeding in their room, so
that if the ability of the ejected and the igno
rance and scandalous lives of their successors
were expressed for the far greater part of them,
I think the like hath scarce been ever heard ;
and there is not an ejected minister, or any
other not conforming, that durst exercise in
pubhc since Aug. 24th, excepting, perhaps, some
one or two, and thereabout ; for which they have
suffered great and strict inquisition. Search and
watching there hath been in the City upon the
Lord's Days, to find out private meetings, by sol
diers, constables, and officers, that it hath been very
difficult for a very few to meet together in families
here and there. Sometimes masters of families have
kept at home. Sometimes they have adventured
to take in two, or three, or four, but seldom above
E E 2

420 Persecution.

the number of five, the permission of authority
reaching no higher. Multitudes have been sur
prised, and forthwith carried to prisons. The gaols
are filled — as the Guard-house, Newgate, Tower,
White Lion, and some in the Fleet, and in the
King's Bench. Many have died in imprisonment,
and been stifled through thronging together and
want of air, and necessary help. Reliefs have been
sent to the prisoners by such as have escaped, and
enjoyed some liberty. The prosecution of this
Act was very fierce about October and November
last, and cruel handling was met with by the most,
The Anabaptists held out long, as to more public
appearings ; and the Quakers held their ground to
the last, and have smarted more than any. Few
of the Presbyterians I hear of have looked after
the churches, many of the members of them com
plying with the public worship now on foot. Yet
some of the ministers have suffered as refusers of
the abjuration of the Covenant, and as non-assenters
and consenters to the present liturgy ,* Had not

* The following case of imprisonment is well known : — " Mr. Calamy going
to the Church of Aldermanbury, where he had been minister, with an inten
tion to be an hearer, the person expected to preach happened to fail. To
prevent a disappointment, and through the importunity of the people present he
went up, and preached upon the concern of old Eli for the Ark of God.
Upon this, by a warrant of the Lord Mayor, he was committed to Newgate, as
a breaker of the Act of Uniformity. But in a few days, when it was seen
what a resort there was to him of persons of all qualities, and how generally the
severity was resented, he was discharged by his Majesty's express order." See
" Calamy's Account," and " Palmer's Nonconformists' Memorial."

Persecution. 42 1

the Covenant pinched them, very many of them
would not have stuck at submitting to the Common
Prayer, as it is generally believed." ..." Four have
lately been executed at Tyburn, who were trepanned
into treason by those who pretended to be of their
opinions. John Baker, "some time of New England,
is in prison about this matter. Many imprisoned
for conscience sake are liberated, including 100 or 200
Quakers ; but twenty have died in prison, one of
whom was attended to the grave by 1500 or 2000
persons of his own opinions. Lord St. John has
gone beyond seas, unwilling to stay longer. Con
tributions are made for the poor ejected ministers.
Dr. Cornelius Burgess, who had 1000/. a year, begs
his bread; some teach in schools, some get into
families, some cut tobacco, and take up very mean
employments. As for the Independent churches
in London, they meet privately, divided into several
companies ; and during the winter quarter, the dark
evenings were disadvantageous to them. Ministers
are blamed for not keeping to their flocks and
appearing in assemblies, for fear of losing 20/. a
month. Thus many church members have fallen
off." In spite of the severity of the law and the activity
of informers, many in different parts of the country
met for religious worship. Of course, it is very
common in the informations sent to Secretary Ben
net respecting these assemblies, to speak of them as

422 Persecution.

having some revolutionary purpose in view. There
were daily great conventicles near Canterbury ; and
on Whit-Tuesdav, June 20, three hundred persons
met in the quiet little village of Waltham, in some
farm cottage, described as one Hobday's house.*
Others heard preaching in a*cherry orchard, sitting
there under trees rich with ripening fruit ; and on
leaving the fenced enclosure, they had with 'them
" fifty or sixty good horses," " several portman
teaus," and certain bundles " supposed to contain
arms."* Liberty exercised on this wise frightened
the intolerants. Sectaries in the cathedral city of
Chichester were very bold, and put contempt on
the surplice and Prayer Book. Some were impri
soned, and others bound over to • the sessions.
Though the ringleaders promised to be quiet, they
entered the church in great numbers, and inter
rupted the ministers ; in consequence of which
trained bands were marched into the town to keep
guard for a fortnight, at the expiration of which
another company was to take their place. Trained
bands, too, were appointed to keep guard and
watch over the Puritan sea-port of Yarmouth,
where two hundred people were prosecuted in the
-
* State Papers. Domestic. Charles II. Vol. lxxv. 99. I may add
that a very affecting illustration of the sufferings of the ejected ministers
through trial and imprisonment, for preaching in some retired place after the
Act of 'Uniformity, is to be found in Mr. Stanford's " Joseph Alleine,"
chap. x. & xi.
t Ibid. vol. Ixxx. 99.

Persecution. 423

Commissary Court, for not taking the Sacrament.*
In the old city of Norwich, the Deputy-Lieutenant
hearing of a Nonconformist meeting in some pri
vate house, or hidden building, issued warrants to
search for arms. The officers, upon being denied
entrance by the sturdy citizens, broke open the
doors, and found two or three hundred persons en
gaged in worship, one hundred of whom were
strong men. Their teacher was identified, and all
were bound over to the following sessions. t John
Hetherington, writing from Lewes, complained that
the sectaries in that town were as numerous as ever.
One of their " saints " happening to die, the minister
of the parish heard the people were to bury him
at night ; so when it grew dark, he began carefully
to watch, and as the corpse arrived, made his ap
pearance to read prayers at the grave ; on which the
disaffected mourners took back the body. But they
brought it again in two hours ; and again the vigi
lant incumbent was indistinctly discerned, through
the dark atmosphere, standing at his post. Where
upon they became so insolent, that he bound several
of them over to good behaviour. Twenty shops
in that seafaring town on the Sussex coast were
open, in contempt of Christmas Day, though the
minister sent to bid the tradesmen close their
shutters. " Fair means did no good to these stub-

* State Papers, voL lxxxi. 74. + Ibid. vol. lxxxiii. 57.

424 Persecution.

born rascals," said the irritated John Hetherington.
His letter is a specimen of a large class.*
Lucy Hutchinson tells a touching story, relative
to the same summer months, to which the earlier
of these informations belong. Mr. Palmer, a Not
tingham Nonconformist minister, was taken, and
some others with him, at his own house by the
mayor for preaching on the Lord's Day, and put
into the town gaol for two or three months.
Through a grated window he and his brethren
could be seen by the people in the street. One
Sunday, as the prisoners were singing a psalm, the
passengers stood still by the grated window to
listen, and Mr. Palmer went on to preach to the
congregation outside, when the mayor, a renegade
Parliament officer, came with his officers, and beat
the people, and thrust some into prison. f

* State Papers, vol. lxxxvi. 87. I here follow Mrs. Green's abstract, which
that lady has kindly furnished me with. These letters will be found calendared
in a volume to be shortly published.
f " Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson," p. 391. " There was another minister
of the same name, a Mr. Thomas Palmer, according to the " Memoirs of
Colonel Hutchinson," who was a minister in Nottingham, as early as 1643.
At that time, owing to the unsettled state of the district, from the vicinity of
the Royalist forces, this Mr. Palmer laid aside his ministerial avocations, in part
at least, in favour of the military profession. He became captain of a troop of
horse in the service of the Commonwealth, and in this character was for some
time quartered at Broxborne. From a book published, as appears, by the same
person, sixteen years after, viz., in 1659, we learn that " God had (then)
taken him from rough employment in the wars of England " to preach the
Gospel. In order to superintend the publication of his book, Mr. Palmer
appears to have sojourned for awhile in London. He dedicates his work
(which is called " A Little View of this Old World") to " the Council of

Persecution. 425

Some persons were apprehended at a Presbyterian
conventicle, but as it was the first offence they were
liberated, on promising not to do the same again ;
but they had to pay the soldiers who had first seized
and then released them. The next month, Chris
topher Fowler — in custody at Windsor Castle " for
reading sermons in his own house, when some of
his neighbours came in to hear" — petitioned the
King for release, " as his family were numerous,
and his means small," he " promising to live as a
loyal subject, to remove in a quarter of a year from
his dwelling at Windsor, and to hold no more such
meetings." When Mr. Davis, an Independent mi
nister of Dover, was indicted for holding clandestine
assemblies, and for seducing subjects from their
allegiance, on the Lord's Day, Councillor Vincent
Denn pleaded on his behalf so vehemently, " that
some threatened to throw him over the bar." The
same barrister also undertook the case of Edwards,
"a fanatic," indicted for a violent interruption of the

State of the Commonwealth of England," and it is dated "from his lodging
upon London Bridge, the 4th month, 1659." At this time he describes him
self as " Pastor of a Church of Christ at Nottingham." This title was more
likely to be used by an Independent than a Presbyterian, even if the latter
body had not^ been, as it then was, in possession of the three parish
churches of that town, and of the majority of those throughout the kingdom.
Mrs. Hutchinson's references to this Mr. Palmer are not generally favourable ;
but when first introduced into her narrative, he is described as " having a bold,
ready, earnest way of preaching, and as one who lived holily and regularly as to
outward conversation." — "Bicentenary of Castle-gate Meeting, Nottingham,"
by the Rev. S. McAU, p. 72.

42<5 Persecution.

burial service. " The Royalists were aggrieved
that a factious man should be so countenanced."*
And beyond all imprisonments, assaults, and
other injuries inflicted directly by persecution, there
was the poverty of those ministers who were only
silenced. It drove them, Baxter tells us, to lay aside
their books and take up the spindle to earn a few
pence at a woman's employment, and made them
content with rye-bread and pure water. And in
sult was added to injury. Illustrations of both are
supplied in the following incident, related by Baxter,
in his " Life and Times :"f —
" About the beginning of May (1673), in my
walk in the fields, I met with Dr. Gunning, now
Bishop of Chichester (with whom I had the conten
tion at the Savoy), and at his invitation went after
to his lodgings. He vehemently professed that he
was sure that it was not conscience that kept us
from conformity, but a desire for our reputation
with the people, and that we were fed as full and
lived as well as the Conformists did. I told him
that he was a stranger to the men he talked of ; that
those of my acquaintance were generally the most
conscionable men that I could find on earth. That
he might easily know reputation could not be the
thing which made them suffer so much affliction,

State Papers, XC. 54. Entry Book 1 8, p. 16. XCVII. 32.
t Part III. p. 104.

Persecution. 427

because he knew that we lost that worldly honour
which we were as capable of as he and others. We
did not so vilify the King and others, as to think it a
piece of honour to be vilified by them, and sent to
the common gaols with rogues. Our consciences
would not allow us to say, that he and such as he
did conform out of pride or love of reputation ; and
which was the most like a reasonable conjecture ?
And ministers are not so impudent as to turn beg
gars without shame. I had but a few days before
had letters of a worthy minister, who, with his wife
and six children, had many years seldom other food
than brown rye-bread and water, and was then
turned out of his house, and had none to go to ; and
of another that was fain to spin for his living ; and
abundance I know that have families, and nothing
or next to nothing of their own, and live in exceed
ing want upon the poor drops of charity which they
stoop to receive from a few mean people. And if
there be here and there a rich man that is charitable,
he hath so many to relieve, that each one can have
but a small share. Indeed, about a dozen or twenty
ministers about London, who stuck to the people
in the devouring plague, or in other times of dis
tress, and feared no sufferings, have so many people
adhering to them as keep them from beggary or
great want ; and you judge of all the rest by these,
when almost all the rest through England, who have
not something of their own to live upon, do suffer

428 Persecution.

so much as their scorners will scarce believe. It is
no easy thing to have the landlord call for rent, and
the baker, the brewer, the butcher, the tailor, the
draper, the shoemaker, and many others call for
money, and wife and children call for meat and
drink and clothes, and a minister to have no answer
for them but — I have none."*
By giving this extract from Baxter, we have
stepped far beyond our boundary. And we must
not pursue the subject of persecution further. Illus
trations of the reign of intolerance — which, with
short intervals, extended from 1662 to 1688 — are
yielded in abundance by the general histories of the
period, the works of Baxter, Calamy, Neal, and
others, the distinct memoirs of certain of the ejected,
and now, in addition to all the rest, by numerous
documents in the State Paper Office. An amount of
suffering was endured far greater than had occurred
in the same space of time, since the days of the Re
formation. Jeremy White collected a list of Non
conformist sufferers, containing 60,000 names, and
he states that 5000 died in prison. All kinds of suf
ferings were endured for all kinds of offences against
ecclesiastical laws. If more than five people met
together to read and pray, they subjected them
selves to fine, imprisonment, and transportation ;
and the innocent convict was threatened with death
if he endeavoured to escape from his captivity. In-
* " Baxter's Life and Times," p. 105.

Persecution. 429

formers skulked about cottages, garrets, back
rooms, lofts, stables, and outhouses, where a few
dozen quiet Christians assembled to hear their
pastor ; and, in spite of curtains, shutters, trap
doors, and other simple devices, seized on their
helpless prey, and dragged them before merciless
magistrates. Even an ejected Oxford scholar could
not board and lodge a gentleman's son as his pupil
. without being sent to gaol as a felon for six months.
A man who, in theological literature, attempted
nothing beyond the very harmless performance of
a " New and Easy Primer," was subject to a fort
night's experience of Bridewell ; and any minister
who declined to take the High Church oath of non-
resistance, was exiled from the parish where he had
lived, and forbidden to come within five miles of
the familiar threshold. Some wandered far away ;
while others, secreting themselves in the fields and
woods till sundown, then stealthily crept home to
the back door. The more daring remained in their
former abodes, and openly preached ; in consequence
of which they were led off to prison. Students,
deprived of all means of subsistence suited to their
previous habits, had to lay aside their books, take
up the spindle, earn a few pence at knitting, and
content themselves with the coarsest fare. The
deliverances which some would relate to their chil
dren and grandchildren in happier times, served also
to illustrate the perils and risks in their daily life,

43° Persecution.

during this reign of terror. Closets, beds, tubs,
hayricks, and other places of concealment, which
the persecuted were wont to describe, were con
nected with pictures of ruffianly soldiers pointing a
musket at the door, or thrusting a sword into the
straw. The rabble attacked the dwelling-houses
of Nonconformists, and destroyed their furniture ;
and troopers made no scruple to rush into a good
man's presence while he was at prayer, and hold
ing a pistol to his head, threaten to blow out his
brains if he did not desist. And beyond the
severity of the law, the harshness of magistrates,
the brutality of constables, the deceitfulness of in
formers, and the rudeness of the rabble, there was
the persecution of domestic life, and " a man's foes
were of his own household." And even where
what may be called suffering, in the strongest sense
of the word, was not endured, annoyances were met
with of the most irritating character. A Noncon
formist divine, if he rode in his coach along the
road to London, was liable to be stopped and in
sulted by spies ; and if he happened to live near
the boundary line drawn by the Five Mile Act, he
was exposed to vexatious litigation.*
In connection with facts illustrative of the pre
valence and cruelty of the persecutions at that
period, Neal very justly remarks, that the numbers
* See Neal, iv. 554, lives of Benjamin Keach, Ralph Button, Dr. Owen,
Philip Henry, and numerous facts recorded by Calamy.

Persecution. 43 1

of Nonconformists did not diminish ; and this in
vincibility under the fire of intolerance he fairly
attributes to their firmness of character — their plain,
practical, and awakening ministry — the severity of
their morals — their strict observance of the Sabbath
— their care for family religion — a succession of
able and" learned ministers — the disgust excited by
the persecuting spirit of their adversaries — and the
reaction produced by pushing High Church princi
ples to an unbearable extent. The successors of
the Puritans might say, in the words of Sulpi-
cius Severus, when reviewing the reign of Diocle
tian, " Never did we achieve a more glorious
victory, than when we could not be subdued by
years of slaughter."* The Conventicle and the Five
Mile Acts were amongst the principal means em
ployed in working out these results, so infamous
for the torturers, and so honourable for the victims.
And, be it remembered, the Conventicle and Five
Mile Acts were but consistent consequences of the
Act of Uniformity.

In this book we have told the story of one of the
five great religious struggles in England within the

Suipicius uses the words " decern annorum " — " Hist." ii. p. 47.

43 2 Persecution.

last five hundred years. The first was for Reforma
tion, which began even as far back as the time of
Wicliff, and reaped no mean victories in the six
teenth century, though, in the estimation of many,
the hands of the reformers, like the hand of Joash
in Elisha's death-chamber, were stayed too soon ;
and instead of smiting but thrice what was popish
in the Church, it should have been smitten six times
till it was consumed. The second was for Ascendancy :
Anglicans, as they are called, and Puritans, doing
battle with each other, to see which should be sove
reign in the ecclesiastical world, which should keep
the other in complete subordination — a struggle
which afterwards became one for existence : Angli
cans crushing Puritans under James I. and Charles
I., and Puritans crushing Anglicans during the Com
monwealth. The third was for Comprehension, and
this is the conflict which we have endeavoured in
the present volume impartially to relate. The issue
was a failure. Comprehension was denied by the
party in power. For years they had been kept out
themselves, and they were determined now to reta
liate with more than double vengeance ; and not
only to drive away their brethren without mercy —
not only to deny them a fifth of their forfeited
revenue to save them from starvation, an allowance
which was made under the Commonwealth to cler
gymen whose livings were sequestered — but to per
secute them unto prison and exile and death, as the

Persecution.

433

Puritans in their palmiest days had never done with
their Episcopalian neighbours. Fourthly, Losing
hopes of Comprehension, the Presbyterians were at
last glad — together with Independents, Baptists, and
Quakers, who had all less or more adopted the volun
tary principle — to seek for Toleration, and for nearly
twenty long years did Dissenters in common, struggle
for a bare liberty of worship without hindrance —
for the first of the rights of humanity — the right,
in the service of the Lord of conscience, to be let
alone. The scantiest instalment of religious liberty
was obtained at the Revolution ; and it took much
above a century more, to secure further payment of
the debt, and even to reconcile the minds of bigoted
people to so much as had been yielded to Dissenters
by the Act of Toleration. The enforcement of
uniformity according to the original idea is now
universally pronounced unjust : schemes of compre
hension, fromi the experience of the past, appear to
most men impossible : full liberty of religious wor
ship is demanded on the one hand and conceded on
the other, and common rights of citizenship belong
by law to all kinds of religionists. Another problem
is now waiting to be solved. A fifth great question
presses for an answer on all true Christian English
men. Can there not be some real and visible Union
between Churchmen and Dissenters, distinct from
Comprehension — not involving the destruction or
injury, and not at all threatening the independence
F F

434 Persecution.

of any free ecclesiastical organization whatever ? We
mean union not founded on Acts of Parliament —
not beginning even with compromises on the part of
religious bodies towards each other — but union first
springing from the sympathy of a common love and
obedience to that Divine Person who is Lord of the
Churches ; and from a recognition of the religious
equality of all real Christian men, of all honest be
lievers in the Bible, of all who conscientiously obey
its divine precepts — and then union strengthened in
its progress by intercourse, public and private,
between persons of different creeds, — on the ground
that no one section of Christendom has a monopoly
of truth and goodness, — that intellectual, moral, and
spiritual excellence is independent of theological and
ecclesiastical peculiarities, — and that those who hope
to live together in heaven for ever, are really bound to
see a little more of one another than they do at pre
sent upon earth. Social ecclesiastical caste is perpe
tuating to this hour, much of the evil that was done
by the Act of Uniformity, and by the Conventicle
and Five Mile Acts. English society has been
thus rent asunder for two hundred years. Is it not
now time to seek to close the gap, to fill up the
gulf? We cannot so check the aspirations of a
benevolent humanity — so disbelieve in the sympa
thetic influences of Christian faith — so dishonour
the character of Englishmen, whose highest boast
is that they are " of one heart and one mind" — as to

Persecution. 435

pronounce impossible some social religious union of
differing sects, that shall heal the divisions of ages,
and obliterate for ever the injuries of persecution.
Call it a dream : but we will cling to it till our
dying hour. It is, after all, not more unlikely than
our present liberties would have seemed amidst the
angry strifes of 1662.

f f 2

APPENDIX.

i.
©obenant of tfic Yarmouth <&f)mc%
"It is manifest by God's word, that God alwaies was pleased
to walke in a way of couenant with his people knitt together
in a visible church estate, He promising to be their God, and
they promising to be his people, separated from the world
and the pollutions thereof, as may appeare therein.
" Wee therefore, whose names are subscribed, being desirous
(in the feare of God) to worship and serve Him according to
his reuealed will, and beleeving it to be our duty to walke
in a way of church couenant, doe freely and solemnly coue
nant with the Lord and one another, in the presence of his
saints and angelis —
"' i. That we will for euer acknowledge and auouch the
Lord to be our God in Christ Jesus, giuing up ourselues to
Him, to be his people.
" 2. That we will alwaies endeuour, through the grace of
God assisting us, to walke in all his waies and ordinances,
according to his written word, which is the onely sufficient rule
of good life for every man. Neither will we suffer ourselues
to be polluted by any sinfull waies, either publike or priuate,
but endeauour to abstaine from the uery appearance of euill,
giuing no offence to the Jew or Gentile, or the Churches of
Christ. " 3. That we will humbly and willingly submit ourselues
to the gouernment of Christ in this Church, in the adminis
tration of the word, the seales, and discipline.

Appendix. 437

" 4. That we will, in all loue, improve our com'union as
brethren, by watching ouer one another, and (as need shal
be) counsell, admonish, reproue, comfort, releeue, assist, and
beare with one another seruing in love.
" 5. Lastly, we doe not couenant or promise these things in
our owne, but in Christ's strength ; neither doe we confine
ourselues to the words of this couenant, out shall at all tymes
account it our duty to embrace any further light or trioeth which
shal be reuealed to us out of God's word."

II.
dform of JEntfuction unDer t&e dtommon-
foealtf)*
Know all men by these presents, that the 20th day of
April, in the year one thousand six hundred and fifty-nine,
there was exhibited to the Commissioners for Approbation of
Publick Preachers, a presentation of Edmund Calamy the
younger, to the Rectory of Moreton in the county of Essex,
made to him by the Right Honourable Edward Earl of
Manchester, John Lord Roberts, Sir Gilbert Gerrard, Bart.,
Anthony Tuckney, Doctor in Divinity, Master of St. John's
College in Cambridge, Simeon Ash, Clerk, and Edmund
Calamy the elder, Clerk, Feoffees in Trust of Robert Earl of
Warwick, deceased, the Patrons thereof, together with a
Testimony in the behalf of the said Edmund Calamy, of his
holy life and good conversation : Upon Perusal and due
Consideration of the Premises, and finding him to be a person
qualified as in and by the ordinance for such approbation is
required, the Commissioners above mentioned have adjudged
and approved the said Edmund Calamy to be a fit Person to
preach the Gospel, and have granted him admission, and do
admit the said Edmund Calamy to the Rectory of Moreton
aforesaid, to be full and perfect Possessor and Incumbent
thereof: And do hereby signify to all persons concerned
therein, that he is hereby intituled to the profits and per
quisites, and all Rights and Dues incident and belonging to

43 8 Appendix.

the said Rectory, as fully and effectually as if he had been
instituted and inducted according to any such Laws and
Customs as have in this case formerly been made, had, or
used, in this Realm. In witness whereof, they have caused
the Common Seal to be hereunto affixed, and the same to be
attested by the Hand of the Register by his Highness in that
behalf appointed.
Dated at Whitehall, the twentieth day of April, one
thousand six hundred fifty and nine. — John Nye, Reg.
Being thus settled in his Living, he was to pay his first
fruits, for which he gave four Bonds, to the Protector Richard,
having two substantial citizens bound with him for payment.
The Form runs thus : —
Know all men by these presents, that we Edmund Calamy,
Clerk, Samuel Bayley of Ironmonger lane,London, Citizen and
Cordwainer, and Richard Brinley of Aldermanbury, London,
Citizen and Haberdasher, do owe and are firmly bound to
Richard Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and
the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging, in the sum
of nine pounds of lawful money of England, to be paid to the
said Lord Protector or his successors : To the which pay
ment well and truly to be made, we bind us and every of
us by himself for the whole, and in the whole, our and every
of our Heirs, Executors, and Administrators by these presents,
sealed with our seals, and dated this seven and twentieth
day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand six
hundred fifty and nine. Samuel Bayley : Richard Brinley.
The Reverse was in these words : —
I. Part.
The Condition of this Obligation is such, that if the within
named Edmund Calamy, Clerk, his Executors, Administrators,
or Assign es, shall pay or cause to be paid, to the Receiver-
General of First fruits and Tenths for the time being, on the
first day of October which shall be in the year of our Lord
one thousand six hundred fifty and nine, the sum of four
pounds ten shillings, in part of eighteen pounds for the first
fruits of the Rectory of Moreton, in the County of Essex,
that then this obligation be void and of none effect, or elsa
to remain in full force and vertue.

Appendix. 439

The Second Part was for the payment of the like sum, on
the ist of April, 1660 : the third for the like sum, payable
October the ist, 1660 : and the fourth for the like, payable
April ist, 1661. — Calamy's " Cont.," p. 461.

III.
i&abog (&onhxtmt.
Baxter called the reformed Liturgy, which he presented at
the Conference, " additions and alterations." How a com
pletely new Liturgy, as his was, could be so called, I cannot
understand. In its composition he omitted all reference to the
Book of Common Prayer, and produced a new collection of
devotional forms. It bore on the face of it the intention of
superseding the old Prayer Book : wherever it might have
been adopted it would have virtually put the other aside.
Still Baxter, as the petition he prepared plainly shows, was
willing to consent, that it should be left to ministers to
decide which book they would accept and use, his or the old
one, and I dare say he would not have objected to a blending
of the two, incongruous as the union would have been.
I have abstained from going at all minutely into the theo
logical discussions connected with the Conference, but it may
be well in this Appendix, to give some idea of the exact forms
of objection to the Prayer Book made by the Puritan Com
missioners, and the sort of replies returned by their Episcopal
colleagues. Amongst the most remarkable objections and replies are
the following : —
With respect to the service of Baptism, exception was
taken to the words in the second prayer, " may receive re
mission of sins by spiritual regeneration." It was .said, " This
expression seeming inconvenient, we desire it may be changed
into this, ' May be regenerated and receive the remission of
sins.' " The answer was, that the form in the Prayer Book
was " most proper, for baptism is our spiritual regeneration.
St. John iii. ' V nless a man be born again, of water and the

440 Appendix.
Spirit, &c.' and by this is received remission of sins. Acts
ii. 38, ' Repent, and be baptized every one of you for the re
mission of sins.' So the creed, ' one Baptism for the remission
of sins.' " Again, in reference to the words after baptism,
" that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this infant by thy
Holy Spirit ;" it is remarkable, that exception is taken in
the most cautious way. " We cannot in faith say that every
child that is baptized is regenerated by God's Holy Spirit, at
least, it is a disputable point, and therefore we desire it may
be otherwise expressed." The reply of the Bishops shows
plainly enough the sense in which they took the words in
the formulary, as expressing the doctrine of Baptismal Re
generation in the strongest terms. " Seeing that God's sacra
ments have their effects where the receiver doth not (ponere
obicem) put any bar against them (which children cannot do),
we may say in faith, of every child that is baptized, that it
is regenerated by God's Holy Spirit, and the denial of it
tends to Anabaptism, and the contempt of this holy sacra
ment as nothing worthy, nor material, whether it be admi
nistered to children or no."
Objection was not made to Confirmation altogether, but it
was urged, " We conceive that it is not a sufficient qualifica
tion for confirmation, that children be able, memuriter, to
repeat the Articles of the Faith, commonly called the
Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Command
ments, and to answer to some questions of this short Cate
chism ; for it is often found that children are able to do this
at four or five years old. 2ndly, it crosses what is said in
the third reason of thefirst rubrick before confirmation, con
cerning the usage of the Church in times past, ordaining that
confirmation should be ministered unto them that were of
perfect age, that they, being instructed in the Christian
religion, should openly profess their own faith, and promise
to be obedient to the will of God. And therefore (31'dly),
we desire that none may be confirmed but according to His
Majesty's Declaration, viz., " that confirmation be rightly
and solemnly performed by the information and with the
consent of the minister of the place."
The Bishops said in reply, " This qualification is required as
necessary rather than as sufficient ; and therefore it is the

Appendix. 44 1

duty of the minister of the place to prepare children in the best
manner, to be presented to the Bishop for confirmation, and
to inform the Bishop of their fitness ; but submitting the
judgment to the Bishop, both of this and other qualifications,
and not that the Bishop should be tied to the minister's
consent." Further, in relation to the words " who hast vouchsafed
to regenerate these thy servants by water and the Holy
Ghost, and hast given unto them the forgiveness of all their
sins," the objectors said, " This supposeth that all the
children who are brought to be confirmed have the Spirit of
Christ, and the forgiveness of all their sins ; whereas a great
number of children at that age, having committed many sins
since their baptism, do show no evidence of serious repent
ance, or of any special saving grace ; and therefore this
confirmation (if administered to such) would be a perilous
and gross abuse." The Episcopalians rejoined — " It sup
poseth, and that truly, that all children were at their baptism
regenerated by water and the Holy Ghost, and had given unto
them the forgiveness of all their sins ; and it is charitably
presumed that notwithstanding the frailties and slips of their
childhood, they have not totally lost what was in baptism
conferred upon them ; and therefore adds, ' Strengthen them,
we beseech thee, O Lord, with the Holy Ghost, the Com
forter, and daily increase in them their manifold gifts of
grace, &c.' None that lives in open sin ought to be con
firmed." While the Puritan Commissioners could by no
means admit the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration, as
taught in the Prayer Book, according to the sense in which
it was taken by the Episcopalians in the Conference, the
cautious language in which the former couched their objec
tions is truly surprising. It should be further remem
bered that the exposition of the formularies, given in the
replies to the Presbyterian exceptions, afford us a clear idea
of what the revisers of the Prayer Book intended should be
understood by it, on the part of those who subscribed.*

* The exceptions to the Liturgy are given at length by Baxter in his " Life
and Times," Part ii. pp. 32 1 — 338. They were drawn up, he says,by Dr. Rey
nolds, Dr. Wallis, Dr. Bates, Dr. Jacomb, Mr. Calamy, Mr. Newcomen, and

442 Appendix.

It may be added that a wish was expressed that confir
mation might not be made necessary to communion.
The objections to the order of burial to be used at the
grave are much the same as those current ever since. " These
words cannot in truth be said of persons living and dying in
open and notorious sins. They may harden the wicked and
are inconsistent with the largest rational charity." Touching
the last prayer it is added, " These words cannot be used
with respect to those persons who have not by their actual
repentance given any ground for the hope of their blessed
state." As an illustration of the scholastic form of argument
adopted in the Conference, I subjoin the following speci
men. It was argued by the Episcopal divines, " That which
commands only an act, in itself lawful, is not sinful." Baxter
denied this, contending that some unlawful circumstance
might hang in the command, or that the penalty might be
overcharged. The proposition on the other side was recon
sidered and put thus — " That command which commandeth
an act, in itself lawful, and no other act whereby any unjust
penalty is enjoined, nor any circumstance whence directly, or
per accidens, any sin is consequent which the commander
ought to provide against, is not sinful." Baxter denied this
again, on the ground, that the first act commanded may be
accidentally unlawful, and be commanded by an unjust
penalty, though no other act or circumstance be such. This
sort of answer set the Bishops upon amending their propo-

Mr. Clark, &c. The influence of Reynolds and Others on the Committee
would account for the moderateness of the tone of exceptions. Of the Bishops'
replies there is no complete copy extant, but all the fragments quoted in the Puritan
rejoinders have been collected and edited by Cardwell in his " Conferences :"
Documents, chap. vii. s. 6. The whole of the rejoinder, which is very long,
may be seen in " An Accompt of all the Proceedings of the Commissioners
of both Persuasions, &c. London, printed for R. H., 1661." Baxter in his
" Life and Times," Part ii. p. 379, alludes to this publication as falsely printed.
" Whole lines," he says, " are left out, and the most significant words are per
verted by alterations." As to the Bishops' answers, however, we presume, the
charge of garbling would not apply. My extracts from the Bishops' answers
will be found in Cardwell, pp. 356, 358, 359.

Appendix. 443

sition once more, and making their logical network so exceed
ingly fine, that even a disputant as subtle as Baxter could
not wriggle through the meshes. " That command which
commandeth an act, in itself lawful, and no other act where
by any unjust penalty is enjoined, nor any circumstance
whence directly, or per accidens, any sin is consequent which
the commander ought to provide against, hath in it all things
requisite to the lawfulness of a command, and particularly
cannot be guilty of commanding an act per accidens unlawful,
nor of commanding an act under an unjust penalty." Thomas
Aquinas was not more acute, more ingenious, or more weari
some. Morley afterwards in his " Letter to a Friend for the
Vindication of himself from Mr. Baxter's Calumny," urged
that denying such a proposition as the last, was not only
false and frivolous, but destructive of all authority, and
struck the Church out of all power to make canons for
order and discipline. To those who admit that the Church
may decree rites and ceremonies at all, and Baxter in his
arguments did not deny that, Morley's reasoning is forcible
enough. The manner in which Baxter met the above
position was by no means satisfactory, and we are forced to
acknowledge that his mode of conducting this part of the
controversy was as injudicious as it was honest.
I add the following passage, which does credit to Baxter's
head and heart. It is addressed to the most reverend Arch
bishop and Bishops.
" The things which we humbly beg of you are these —
" 1. That you will grant what we have here proposed and
craved of you in our preface, even your charitable inter
pretation, acceptance of, and consent unto the alterations
and additions to the Liturgy, now tendered unto you ; that
being inserted as we have expressed, it may be left to the
minister's choice to use one or other at his discretion, upon
his Majesties approbation, according to his gracious De
claration, concerning ecclesiastical affairs. And that seeing
we cannot obtain the form of Episcopal Government de
scribed by the late Reverend Primate of Ireland, and
approved by many Episcopal divines, we may at least enjoy
those benefits of reformation in discipline, and that freedom
from subscription, oaths, and ceremonies which are granted

444 Appendix.
in the said Declaration, by the means of your charitable
mediation and request.
" 2. Seeing some hundreds of able, holy, faithful ministers
are of late cast out, and not only very many of their families
in great distress, but (which is of far greater moment)
abundance of congregations in England, Ireland, and Wales
are overspread with lamentable ignorance, and are destitute
of able, faithful teachers ; and seeing too many that are in
sufficient, negligent, or scandalous, are over the flocks (not
meaning this as an accusation of any that are not guilty,
nor a dishonourable reflection on any party, much less on
the whole Church), we take this opportunity earnestly to
beseech you, that you will contribute your endeavours to
the removal of those that are the shame and burdens of the
Churches"; and to the restoration of such as may be an
honour and blessing to them. And to that end, that it be
not imputed to them as their unpardonable crime, that they
were born in an age and country which required ordination
by parochial pastors, without diocesans : and that reordina
tion, whether absolute or hypothetical, be not made necessary
to the future exercise of their ministry. But that an uni
versal confirmation may be granted of those ordained as
aforesaid, they being still responsible for any personal insuffi
ciency or crime. Were these two granted — the confirmation
of the grants in his Majesties Declaration, with the liberty
of the reformed Liturgy offered you, and the restoring of able
faithful ministers to a capacity to be serviceable in the
Church of God, without forcing them, against their con
sciences, to be reordained — how great would be the benefits
to this unworthy nation 1 How glad would you make the
people's hearts 2 How thankful should we be, for the cause
of Christ and the souls of men, to those that grant them and
procure them ; being conscious that we seek not great things
for ourselves or for our brethren ; that we are ambitious
of no greater wealth or honour than our daily bread, with
such freedom and advantage for the labours of our ministry,
as may most conduce to the success, the increase of holiness
and peace. We shall take the boldness to second these re
quests, with many of our reasons, which we think should
prevail for your consent, chusing rather to incur whatsoever

Appendix. 445

censures or offence may by any be taken against our neces
sary freedom of expression, than to be silent at such a time
as this, when thousands of the servants of the Lord, that
are either deprived of their faithful teachers, or in fears of
losing them, together with the freedom of their consciences
in God's worship, do cry day and night to Heaven for help ;
and would cry also in your ears with more importunate
requests, if they had but the opportunity as now we have."

IV.
The following is a careful copy of the Act taken from
the Rolls. All the passages printed within brackets, with a
broader margin or underlined, are amendments upon the
Bill in its original form, and notified accordingly in the
original.
An Act for the Uniformity of Publique Prayers and Admi- w 0. 2,
nistracon of Sacraments other Rites Ceremonies and ap' 4'
for establishing the form of making ordaining and con
secrating Bishops Priests and Deacons in the Church of
England. Whereas in the first yeare of the late Queene Elizabeth „ .}-, ,
A i t- rn ci ¦ it. Eecital of
there was one umtorme Order 01 Comon oervice and Jrrayer Act of Uni-
and of the Administration of Sacraments rites and Cere- 4°™^,™"
monies in the Church of England (agreeable to the word of beth.
God and usage of the primitive Church) compiled by the
Reverend Bishopps and Clergy set forth in one Booke enti-
tuled the Booke of Comon prayer and Administration
of Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies in the
Church of England and enjoyned to be used by Act of Par
liament holden in the said first yeare of the said late Queene
entituled An Act for the Uniformity of Comon prayer and
Service in the Church and Administration of the Sacraments
very comfortable to all good people desirous to live in
Christian conversation and most profitable to the Estate of
this Realme upon the which the Mercy Favour and Blessing
of Almighty God is in no wise so readily and plentifully

44^

Appendix.

Amendment.

The King's
declaration 25th October
1660.Commission
for Confer
ence.

Convocation.

poured as by Comon prayers due useing of the Sacraments and
often preaching of the Gospell with Devotion of the Hearers
And yet this notwithstanding a great number of people in
divers parts of this Realm following their own sensualitie
and liveing without knowledge and due feare of God do will
fully and schismatically abstaine and refuse to come to theire
Parish Churches and other publique places where Comon
Prayer Administracon of the Sacraments and preaching of the
word of God is used upon the Sundayes and other dayes
ordained and appointed to be kept and observed as Holy
dayes And whereas by the great and scandalous neglect
of Ministers in using the said order or Liturgy so set forth
and enjoined as aforesaid great mischeefs inconveniences
during the times of the late unhappy troubles have arisen
and grown and many people have been led into Factions and
Schismes to the great decay and scandall of the Reformed
Religion of the .Church of England and to the hazard of
many souls [For prevention whereof in time to
come for setling the Peace of the Church and for
allaying the present distempers which the indisposicon
of the time hath contracted The King's Majestie
according to His Declaration of the five and twentieth
of October One thousand six hundred and sixty
granted His Comission under the Great Seale of
England to severall Bishopps and other Divines to
re-view the Booke of Comon prayer and to prepare
such alterations and additions as they thought fitt to
offer And afterwards the Convocations of both the
provinces of Canterbury and Yorke being by His
Majesty called and assembled and now sitting His
Majestie hath beene pleased to authorize and require
the presidents of the said Convocations and other
the Bishopps and Clergy of the same to review
the said Booke of Comon prayer and the booke
of the forme and manner of the making and
consecrating of Bishops Preists and Deacons And
that after mature consideracon they should make
such additions and alterations in the said Bookes
respectively as to them should seem meet and con
venient and should exhibit and present the same

Appendix. 447

to His Majesty in writing for his further allow
ance or confirmation since which time upon full and
mature deliberation they the said President Bishops
and Clergy of both provinces have accordingly
reviewed the said Bookes and have made some alter
ations which they thinke fitt to be inserted to the
same and some additionall prayers to the said booke
of Comon prayer to be used upon proper and emergent
occasions And have exhibited and presented the
same unto His Majestie in writing in one Booke
entituled the Booke of Comon Prayer and Adminis
tration of the Sacraments and other rites and Cere
monies of the Church according to the use of the
Church of England togeather with the psalter or
Psalmes of David pointed as they are to be sung or
said in Churches and (the) forme and manner of
making ordaining and consecrating of Bishopps
Preists and Deacons All which His Majesty have-
ing duly considered hath fully approved and allowed
the same and recomended to this psent Parliament
that the said bookes of Comon prayer and of the forme
of ordination and consecration of Bishops priests and
Deacons with the alterations and additions which
have beene soe made and psented to His Majesty by
the said Convocations be the Booke which shall be
appointed to be used by all that officiate in all Cathe-
drall and Collegiate Churches and Chappells and in
all Chappells of Colledges and Halls in both the Uni
versities and the Colledges of Eaton and Winchester
and in all Parish Churches and Chappells within the
Kingdome of England Dominion of Wales and Toune
of Berwick upon Tweed and by all that make or con
secrate Bishops Priests or Deacons in any of the said
places under such sanctions and penalties as the n
Houses of parliament shall thinke fitt] Now in Religion ad-
regard that nothing conduoeth more to the setling of theu^onn7
Peace of this Nation (which is desired of all good men) norworshiP-
to the honour of our Religion and the propagation thereof
then an universall agreement in the publique worshipp of
Almighty God and to the intent that every person within

44 8 Appendix.

this Realme may certainely knowe the rule in which he is to
conforme in publique worship and administration of Sacra
ments [and other rites and ceremonies of the Church
of England and the manner how and by whom
Bishops Preists and Deacons are and ought to be
made ordained and consecrated] Be it enacted by
the Kings most Excellent Majestie by the advice and with
the consent of the Lords [Spirituall and Temporall and of
the] Comons in this present parlaiment assembled and by
the authority of the same That all and singular Ministers
in any Cathedrall Collegiate or Parish Church or Chappell
or other place of publique worship within this Realme of
England Dominion of Wales and Toun of Berwick upon Tweed
shall be bound to say and use the morning prayer Evening
prayer Celebracon and administracon of both the Sacraments
and all other the publique and Comon prayer in such order
and forme as is menconed in the [said] booke annexed and
joyned in this present Act and intituled The Booke of Comon
prayer and administration of the Sacraments and other
rites and Ceremonies of the Church [according to the use
of the Church] of England [togeather with the psalter or
Psalmes of David pointed as they are to be sung or said in
Churches and (the) forme or manner of making ordaining
and consecrating of Bishops Preists & Deacons] And that
the Morning and Evening prayers therein contained shall
upon every Lords day and upon all other [dayes and] occa
sions and att the times therein appointed be openly and
solemnly read by all and every minister or Curate in every
Church Chappell or other place of publique worshipp within
this Realme of England and places aforesaid And to the
All ministers encl tnat uniformity in the pnbliq worshipp of God (which is
to declare s0 much desired) may be speedily effected bee it further
Book of Enacted by the authority aforesaid That every parson vicar
Prayer011 or other Minister whatsoever who now hath and enjoyeth
any Ecclesiasticall Benefice or promotion within this Realme
of England or places aforesaid shall in the Church Chappell
or place of publique worshipp belonging to his said benefice
or promotion upon some Lords day before the Feast of Saint

Appendix. 449

Bartholomew which shall be in the yeare of our Lord God
One thousand six hundred sixty and two openly publiquely
and solemnly read the morning and Evening prayer ap
pointed to be read by and according to the said Booke of
Comon prayer att the times thereby appointed and after
such reading thereof shall openly and publiquely before the
congregation there assembled declare his unfeigned assent <fc
consent to the use of all things in the said booke contained
and prescribed [in these words and no other Amendment.
I, A. B doe declare my unfaigned assent and consent iv.
to all and every thing contained and prescribed in aSration
and by the booke intituled The booke of Comon
Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and
other rites and ceremonies of the Church according
to the use of the Church of England togeather with
the psalter or psalires of David poynted as they are
to be sung or said in Churches and the form or manner
of making ordaining and consecrating of Bishops
Preists and Deacons] And that all and every such PonaZ; of
person who shall (without some lawfull impediment to be refusing.
allowed and approved of by the Ordinary of the place)
neglect or refuse to doe the same within the time aforesaid
(or in case of such impediment) within one moneth after
such impediment removed shall (ipso facto) be deprived of
all his spirituall promotions And that from thenceforth it
shall be lawfull to and for all patrons and donors of all and
singuler the said Spiritual promotions or of any of them accord-
in <* to theire respective rights and titles to present or collate
to the same as though the person or persons so offending or
neglecting were dead And bee it further Enacted by the Declaration
authority aforesaid that every person whoe shall hereafter be?°ab^o™aedseof
presented or collated or put into any Ecclesiastical Benefice promotion.
or promotion within this Realme of England and places
aforesaid shall in the Church Chappell or place of publiq
worshipp belonging to his said benefice or promotion within
two moneths next after that he shall be in the actuall pos
session of the said Ecclesiastical benefice or promotion upon
some Lords day openly publiquely and solemnly read the
morning and Evening prayers appointed to be read by and
according to the said booke of Comon prayer att the times

G G

45°

Appendix.

VII.
Amendment. Incumbents
to read trie
Common
Prayer once
a month.

thereby appointed and after such reading thereof shall openly
and publiquely before the Congregation there assembled
declare . his unfeigned assent and consent to the use of all
things therein contained and prescribed [according to the
forme before appointed] And that all and every such per
son who shall (without some lawful impediment to be allowed
and approved by the ordinary of the place) neglect or refuse
to doe the same within the time aforesaid (or in case of such
impediment within one moneth after such impediment re
moved) shall [ipso facto] be deprived of all his said Eccle-
siasticall Benefices and promotions And that from thence
forth it shall and may be lawfull to and for all patrons and
Donors of all and singuler the said Ecclesiastical Benefices
and promotions or any of them (according to theire respective
rights and titles) to present or collate to the same as though
the person or persons so offending or neglecting were dead
[And be it further Enacted by the authority aforesaid
that in all places where the proper Incumbent of any
parsonage or vicaridge or Benefice with Cure doth
reside on his living and keepe a Curate the Incum
bent himselfe in person (not haveing some lawful im
pediment to be allowed by the Ordinary of the place)
shall once (at the least) in every moneth openly and
publiquely read the Comon prayers and service in and
by the said Booke prescribed and (if there be occa-
' sion) administer each of the sacraments and other rites
of the Church in the parish Church or Chappell of or
belonging to the same parsonage vicarage or benefice
in such order manner and forme as in and by the
said booke is appointed upon pain to forfeit the sum
of five pounds to the use of the poore of the Parish
for every offence upon conviction by confession or
proofs of two credible witnesses upon Oath before two
Justices of the peace of the County City or Toun
Corporate where the offence shall be comitted which
Oath the said Justices are hereby impowered to ad
minister) and in default of payment within ten dayes
to be levied by distresse and sale of the goods and
chattells of the offender by the warrant of the said
Justices by the Church Wardens or Overseers of the

Appendix. 451

poore of the said Parish rendring the surplusage to
the party And be it further Enacted by the autho- Deals^nd
rity aforesaid that every Deane Canon and prebendary Canons, &c,
of every Cathedrall or Collegiate Church and all Masters aoribe"1 *
and other Heads Fellowes Chaplaines and Tutors of or declaration
in any Colledge Hall House of Learning or Hospitall
and every publique professor and Reader in either of
the Universities and in every Colledge elsewhere and
every parson viccar curate lecturer and every other
person in Holy Orders and every Schoolmaster keeping
any publique or private Schools and every person
instructing or teaching any youth in any House or
private family as a Tutor or Schoolmaster who upon
the first day of May which shall be in the yeare of our
Lord God One thousand six hundred sixty two or at
any time thereafter shall be Incumbent or have posses
sion of any Deanry Canonry Prebend Mastershipp
Headshipp Fellowshipp Professors place or Readers
place Parsonage vicarage or any other Ecclesiasticall
Dignity or promotion or of any Curates place Lecture
or School or shall instruct or teach any youth as
Tutor or Schoolmaster shall before the Feast day of
St. Bartholomew which shall be in the yeare of our
Lord One thousand six hundred sixty two or at or
before his or theire respective admission to the In
cumbent or have possession aforesaid subscribe the
Declaration or acknowledgement following scilicet. —
I, A, B, do declare, that it is not lawfull upon any ix.
ptence whatsoever to take Armes against the King tjon 0fno"'
and that I do abhorr that traiterous position of resistance
... . , ,¦.,,., • t- and repudi-
takmg Armes by his Authority against his person ating the
or against those that are commissionated by Coveuant-
him And that I will conforme to the Liturgy of
the Church of England as it is now by Law esta
blished And I do declare that I do hold there lies
no obligacon upon me or on any other person from
the Oath comonly called the Solemne League and Co
venant [to endeavour any change or alteration of Go
vernment either in Church or State] And that the
same was in itselfe an unlawfull Oath and imposed
g c a

452

Appendix.

x.
Penalty for
not sub
scribing.

XI.
School
masters in
privatehouses
included.

upon the subjects of this Realme against the kuowne
lawes and liberties of this Kingdome. — Which said
Declaration and acknowledgment shall be subscribed
by every of the said Masters and other Heads
fellowes Chaplaines and Tutors of or in any Colledge
Hall or House of Learning and by every publique
professor and Reader in either of the Universities be
fore the Vice Chancellor of the respective Universi
ties for the time being, or his Deputy And the said
Declaration or acknowledgment shall be subscribed
before the respective Archbishopp Bishopp or Ordi
nary of the Diocesse by every other person hereby
enjoyned to subscribe the same upon pain that all
and every of the persons aforesaid failing in such sub
scription shall loose and forfeit such respective
Deanery Cauonry Prebend Mastershipp headshipp fel-
lowshipp Professors place Readers place parsonage
viccarage Ecclesiasticall Dignity or promotion Curates
place Lecture and School and shall be utterly disabled
and (ipso facto) deprived of the same And that
every such respective Deanry Canonry Prebend Mas
tership headship fellowship Professors place Readers
place parsonage viccarage Ecclesiasticall Dignity or
promotion Curates place lecture and schools shall be
void as if such person so failing were naturally dead. —
And if any Schoolmaster or other person instructing
or teaching youth in any private House or family as
a Tutor or Schoolmaster shall instruct or teach any
youth as a Tutor or Schoolmaster before licence ob
tained from his respective Archbishop Bishop or
Ordinary of the Diocesse according to the Lawes and
Statutes of this Realme (for which he shall pay twelve
pence onely) and before such subscription and acknow
ledgement made as aforesaid then every such School
master and other instructing and teaching as aforesaid
shall for the first offence suffer three moneth imprison
ment without baile or mainprize and for every second
and other such offence shall suffer three months im
prisonment without baile or mainprize and alsoe forfeit
to his Majesty the surne of five pounds And after such

Appendix. 453

subscription made every such Parson Viccar Curate
and Lecturer shall procure a Certificate under the
hand and seal of the respective Archbishop Bishop or
Ordinary of the Diocese (whoe are hereby enjoyned
and required upon demaund to make and deliver the
same) and shall publickly and openly read the same
togeather with the declaration or acknowledgement
aforesaid upon some Lords day within three moneths
then next following in his Parish Church where he
is to officiate in the presence of the Congregation
there assembled in the time of Divine Service upon
pain that every person failing therein shall loose such
Parsonage Viccarage or Benefice Curates place or Lec
turers place respectively and shall be utterly disabled
(ipso facto) deprived of the same And that the said
Parsonage Viccarage or Benefice Curates place or Lec
turers place shall be void as if he was naturally dead
Provided alwaies that from and after the twenty fifth xn.
day of March which shall be in the yeare of our Lord deration
God one thousand sixhundred eighty two there shall be after 25
omitted in the said Declaration or Acknowledg*- so to
be subscribed and read these words following scilicet.
— And I do declare that I do hold there lies no obliga-
con on me or any other person from the Oath co-
monly called the Solomne League and Covenant to
endeavour any change or alteration of Government
either in Church or State and that the same was in
itselfe an unlawfull Oath and imposed upon the Sub
jects of this Realme against the knowne lawes and
liberties of this Kingdome So as none of the per
sons aforesaid shall from thence forth be at all obliged
to subscribe or read that part of the said declaration
or acknowledgement Provided alwaies and be it xnr.
Enacted that from and after the feast of St. Eartho- Pe.rs<™3 not
lomew which shall be in the yeare of our Lord Oneorfained J

1 Omissions in

thousand six hundred sixty and two no person who ecSStical
now is Incumbent and in possession of any Parsonage preferment.
Vicarage or Benefice and who is not already in Holy
Orders by Episcopall Ordination or shall not before
the said feast day of St. Bartholomew be ordained

454

Appendix.

XIV.
And of ad
ministeringsacraments.

XV.
Exception on behalf of
foreigners, XVI.
Cases of
voidance or
deprivation.

Preist or Deacon according to the forme of Episcopall
Ordination shall have hold orenjoyethe said Parson
age Vicaradge Benefice with Cure or other Ecclesias
ticall Promotion within this Kingdome of England
or the Dominion of Wales [or town of Berwick upon
Tweed] but shall be utterly disabled and (ipso facto)
deprived of the same And all his- Ecclesiastical pro
motions shall be void as if he was naturally dead.
And be it further Enacted by the authority aforesaid
that no person whatsoever shall thenceforth (be ca
pable to bee admitted to any parsonage vicarage
benefice or other Ecclesiastical Promotion or Dignity
whatsoever nor shall) presume to consecrate and admi
nister the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper before
such time as he shall be ordained Preist according to
the forme and manner in and by the said booke pre
scribed unlesse he have formerly beene made Priest
by Episcopall Ordination upon pain to forfeit for
every offence the sum of one hundred pounds one
moyety thereof to the Kings Majesty the other
moyety thereof to be equally divided betweene the
poore of the parish where the offence shall be comit-
ted and such person or persons as shall sue for the
same by Action of debt bill plaint or information in
any of His Majesties Courts of Record wherein no es-
soine protection or wager of law shall be allowed and
to be disabled from taking or being admitted into the
order of Preist by the space of one whole yeare then
next following Provided that the penalties in this
Act shall not extend to the forreiners or aliens of the
forrein Reformed Churches allowed or to be allowed
by the Kings Majestie his heires and successors in
England Provided alwaies that no title to conferre
or present by lapse shall accrewe by any avoydance
or deprivation (ipso facto) by vertue of this Statute
but after six moneths after notice of such voidance or
deprivation given by the Ordinary to the patron or such
sentence of deprivation openly and publiquely read
in the Parish Church of the Benefice Parsonage or

Appendix.

Vicarage becomeing void or whereof the Incumbent
shall be deprived by vertue of this Act. And be it ^ XXIL
further Enacted by the authority aforesaid that no form of
form or order of Comon prayers administracon of putSSiy0 be
Sacraments rites or Ceremonies shall be openly usedused'
in any Church Chappell or other publique place of or
in any Colledge or Hall in either of the Universities
the Colledges of Westminster Winchester or Eaton or
any of them other than what is pscribed and ap
pointed to be used in and by the said booke And that
the present Governour or Head of every Colledge or
Hall in the said Universities and of the said Colledges
of Westminster Winchester and Eaton within one
moneth after the feast of St- Bartholomew which
shall be in the yeare of our Lord One thousand six
hundred sixty and two And every Governour or
Head of any of the said Colledges or Halls hereafter
to be elected or appointed within one moneth next
after his Election or Collation and admission into the
same Government or Headship shall openly and pub
liquely in the Church Chappell or other publique place
of the same College or Hall and in the psence of the
fellowes and Sckolars of the same or the greater part
of them then resident subscribe unto the nine and subscription
thirty Articles of Religion mentioned in the Statute *° Arfcio'es-
made in the thirteenth yeare of the Reigne of the late
Queene Elizabeth And unto the said booke and
declare his unfeigned assent and consent unto and
approbation of the said Articles and of the same booke
and to the use of all the prayers rites and ceremonies
formes and orders in the said Booke prescribed and
contained according to the form aforesaid And that
all such Governours or Heads of the said Colledges
and Halls or any of them as are or shall be in Holy
Orders shall once (at least) in every quarter of the
yeare (not having a lawfull impediment) openly and
publiquely read the Morning prayer and service in
and by the said booke appointed to be read in the
Church Chappell or other publique place of the same
Colledge or Hall upon pain to loose and be suspended

456 Appendix.

of and from all (the) benefitts and profitts belonging
to the same Government or headshipp by the space
of six moneths by the Visitor or visitors of the same
Colledge or hall And if any Governour or head of
any Colledge or Hall suspended for not subscribing
unto the said Articles and booke or for not reading
of the Morning prayer and service as aforesaid shall
not att or before the end of six moneths next after
such suspension subscribe unto the said Articles and
booke and declare his consent thereunto as aforesaid
or read the Morning prayer and service as aforesaid
then such Government or headshipp shall be (ipso
XVIII. facto) void. Provided alwaies that it shall and may
use the be lawful to use the Morning and Evening prayer and
Latin6 m a^ °ther prayers and service prescribed in and by the
said booke in the Chappells or other publique places
of the respective Colledges and Halls in both the
Universities in the Colledges of Westminster Win
chester and Eaton and in the Convocations of the
Clergies of either province in Latine any thing in
this Act contained to the contrary notwithstanding.]
XIX- And be it further Enacted by the authority aforesaid [that
Amendment. in, i , t ,
Lecturers. no person shall be or be received as a Lecturer or
permitted suffered or allowed to preach as a Lecturer
or to preach or read any Sermon or Lecture in any
Church Chappell or other place of publique worshipp
within this Realme of England or the Dominion of
Wales and Towne of Berwick upon Tweed unless he
be first approved and thereunto licensed by the Arch-
bishopp of the province or Bishopp of the Diocesse or
(in case the See be void) by the Guardian of the
Spiritualities under his Seale and shall in the psence
of the same Archbishop or Bishop or Guardian read
the nine and thirty Articles of Religion mentioned
in the Statute of the thirteenth yeare of the late
Queene Elizabeth with declaration of his unfeigned
assent to the same And] that every person and per
sons whoe nowe is or hereafter shall bee (licensed) assigned
(or) appointed or received as a Lecturer to preach upon any
day of the weeke in any Church Chappell*or place of pub-

Appendix. 457

liqne worship within this Realme of England or places afore
said the first time he preacheth (before his Sermon) shall
openly publiquely and solemnly read the Comon prayers
and service in and by the said booke appointed to be read for
that time of the day and then and there publiquely and
openly declare his assent unto and approbation of the said
booke and to the use of all the prayers rites and ceremonies
formes and orders therein contained and prescribed according
to the forme before appointed in this Act And alsoe shall
upon the first lecture day [of every moneth afterwards Amendment.
so long as he continues lecturer or preacher there at
the place appointed for his said lecture or sermon be
fore his said Lecture or Sermon openly publiquely
and solemnly read the Common prayers and service
in and by the said booke appointed to be read for that
time of the day at which the said lecture or sermon
is to be preached and after such reading thereof shall
openly and publiquely before the Congregation there
assembled declare his unfeigned assent and consent
unto and approbation of the said booke and to the use
of all the prayers rites and ceremonies forms and
orders therein contained and prescribed according to
the forme aforesaid] and that all and every such person
and persons who- shall neglect or refuse to do the same shall
from thenceforth be disabled to preach the said or any other
lecture or sermon in the said or any other Church Chappell or
place of publique worshipp untill such time as he (and they)
shall openly publiquely and solemnly read the (Common)
prayers (and service appointed) by the said booke and con
form in all points to the things therein appointed and pre
scribed (according to the purport true intent and meaning
of this Act [Provided alwaies that if the said Sermon xx.
 =  Amendment.
or .Lecture be to be preached or read in any Cathe- in Cathedral
drall or Collegiate Church or Chappell it shall be cwhT'6
sufficient for the said Lecturer openly at the time
aforesaid to declare his assent and consent to all
things contained in the said booke according to the .y.XI
form aforesaid] And be it further Enacted by the Penalty for
authority aforesaid That if any person who is by this Act ^personsdisabled.

45 8 Appendix.

disabled to preach any Lecture or Sermon shall during the
time that he shall continue and remaine so disabled preach
any Sermon or Lecture that then for every such offence the
person and persons so offending shall suffer three monthes
imprisonment in the Comon Goal without baile or mainprize
and that any two Justices of the Peace of any County of
this Kingdome and places aforesaid and the Maior or other
Cheife Magistrate of' any City or Town Corporate within
the same upon Certificate from the Ordinary of the place
made to him or them of the offence committed (shall and are
hereby required) to committ the person or persons so offend
ing to the Goal of the same County City or Town Corporate
xxii. accordingly [Provided alwaies and be it further
Amendment. Enacted by the authority aforesaid that at all and
Prayer to be every time and times- when any Sermon or Lecture is
read before ^o ^g preached the Comon Prayers and Service in and
lecture. by the said Booke appointed to be read for that time
of the day shall be openly publiquely and solemnely
read by some Preist or Deacon in the Church Chap
pell or place of publique Worship where the said
Sermon or Lecture is to be preached before such
Sermon or Lecture be preached and that the Lecturer
then to preach shall be present at the reading thereof
xxiii. Provided neverthelesse that this Act shall not extend
touching to the University-Churches in the Universities of this
Universities. Realme or either of them when or at such times as
any Sermon or Lecture is preached or read in the
same Churches or any of them for or as the publique
University-Sermon or Lecture but that the same
Sermons and Lectures may be preached or read in such
sort and manner as the same have been heretofore
preached or read this Act or anything herein conteyned
to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding.]
xxiv. And bee it further Enacted by the authority aforesaid That the
for unifor- severall good Lawes and Statutes of this Realme which have
firmed011 been formerly made and are now in force for the uniformity
of Prayer and administration of the Sacraments within this
Realme of England and places aforesaid shall stand in full
force and strength to all intents and purposes whatsoever for
the establishing and confirming of the [said booke entitled

Appendix. 459

the] booke of Comon Prayer and administration of the Sacra
ments [and other rites and ceremonies of the Church accord
ing to ye use of y° Church of England together with the
Psalter or Psalraes of David pointed as they are to be sung
or said in Churches aud the forme or manner of making
ordeyning and consecrating of Bishops Preists and Deacons]
herein before menconed to bee joyned and annexed to this
Act And shall be applyed practised and put in use for the
punishing of all offences contrary to the said Lawes with
relation to the Booke aforesaid and no other Provided xxv.
alwayes And bee it further Enacted by the- authority afore- th^King.'&c.
said That in all those Prayers Letanyes and Collects which
doe any way relate to the King Queene or Royal Progeny
the names be altered and changed from time to time aud
fitted to the present occasion according to the direccon of
lawfull authority. Provided also and be it Enacted by the „ xxvi.
Conies of
authority aforesaid that a true printed Copy of the said Booke Prayer Book
entituled the Booke of Common Prayer and Administration '^ Pro'
*> vided in all
of the Sacraments and other rites and. ceremonyos of the parishes, &o.
Church according to the use of the Church of England to-
geather with the Psalter or Psalmes of David pointed as they
are to be sung or said in Churches and the forme [and manner]
of making ordeyning and consecrating of Bishops Preists and
Deacons shall at the costs and charges of the parishioners of
every parish church and chappelry cathedrall church col
ledge and hall be attained and gotten before the Feast clay
of Saint Bartholomew in the yeare of our Lord one thousand
Sixe hundred sixty and two upon paine of forfeiture of three
pounds by the moneth for so long time as they shall then-
after be unprovided thereof by every Parish or Chappelry
Cathedrall-Church Colledge and Hall making default therein.
Provided alwayes and bee it Enacted by the authority afore- xxvii.
said That the Bishops of Hereford St. David's Asaph ofcommoS
Bangor and Landaph and their successors shall take such Prayer into
order among themselves for the soules health of the flocks Welsh-
coniitted to their charge within Wales- That the Booke here
unto annexed be truly and exactly translated [into the
British or Welsh Tongue and that the same so translated]

460 Appendix.
and being by them or any three of them at the least viewed
perused and allowed bee imprinted to such number at least
so that one of the said Books so translated and imprinted
may be had for every Cathedrall Collegiate and Parish
Church and Chappell of Ease in the said respective Diocesses
and places in Wales where the Welsh is comonly spoken or
used before the first day of May one thousand six hundred
sixty five And that from and after the imprinting and pub
lishing of the said Booke so translated the whole Divine
Service shall be used and said by the Ministers and Curates
throughout all Wales within the said Diocesses where the
Welsh Tongue is comonly used in the Brittish or Welsh
Tongue in such manner and forme as is prescribed according
to the Booke hereunto annexed to be used in the English
Tongue differing nothing in any order or forme from the
said English Booke For which Booke so translated and
imprinted the Churchwardens of every of the said Parishes
shall pay out of the parish money in their hands for the use
of the respective Churches and be allowed the same on their
account And that the said Bishops and their successors or
any three of them at the least shall sett and appoynt the
price for which the said Booke shall be sold And one other
Booke of Comon Prayer in the English tongue shall be
bought and had in every Church throughout Wales in which
the Booke of Comon Prayer in which is to bee had by force
of this Act before the first day of May one thousand six
hundred sixty and fower and the same Booke to remaine in
such convenient places within the said Churches that such
as understand them may resort at all convenient tymes to
read and peruse the same. And alsoe such as doe not un
derstand the sayd language may by conferring both tongues
together the sooner attaine to the knowledge of the English
Tongue Any thing in this Act to the contrary notwith
standing And untill printed Copies of the said booke soe to
bee translated may bee had and provided The forme of
Comon Prayer established by Parlyament before the making
of this Act shall be used as formerly in such parts of Wales
"leaied'1" wnere the English Tongue is not comonly understood And
books" to be to the end that the true and perfect copies of this Act and
obtained and
kept.

Appendix. 461

the said booke hereunto annexed may be safely kept and per
petually preserved and for the avoyding of all disputes for
the tyme to come Bee it therefore Enacted by the authority
aforesaid that the respective Deanes and Chapters of every
Cathedrall or Collegiate Church within England and Wales
shall at their proper costs and charges before the Tventie
fifth day of December one thousand six hundred sixty and
two obtaine under the Greate Seale of England a true and
perfect printed Copie of this Act and of the said booke
annexed hereunto to bee by the said Deanes and Chapters
and their successors kept and preserved in safety for ever
and to bee allso produced and shewed forth in any Court of
Record as often as they shall bee thereunto lawfully required
and also there shall bee delivered true and perfect Copies of
this Act and of the same booke into the respective Courts at
Westminster and into the Tower of London to be kept and
preserved for ever among the Records of the said Courts and
the Records of the Tower to be alsoe produced and shewed
forth in any Court as neede shall require which sayd books
soe to be exemplyfied under the Great Seale of England shall
be examined by such persons as the King's Majestie shall
appoint under the Great Seale of England for that purpose
and shall bee compared with the originall booke hereunto
annexed and shall have power to correct and amend in
writing, any error comitted by the Printer in the printing of
the same booke or of any thing therein conteyned and shall
certifie in writing under their hands and seales or the hands
and seales of any three of them at the end of the same booke
that they have examined and compared the same booke and
finde it to bee a true and perfect copie which said books and
every one of them so exemplyfied under the Greate Seale of
England as aforesaid shall be deemed taken adjudged and
expounded to bee good and available in the law to all intents
and purposes whatsoever and shall be accounted as good
Records as this booke it selfe hereunto annexed any law or
custome to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding Pro- xxix.
vided also that this Act or any thing therein conteyned shall King's Pro-
not be prejudiciall or hurtfull unto the King's Professor of Jawat*
the Law within the University of Oxford for or concerning Oxford.

463 Appendix.

the Prebend of Shipton within the Cathedrall Church of
Sarum united and annexed unto the place of the same King's
Professor for the time being by the late King James of
xxx. blessed memory Provided alwaies that whereas the sixe
Jrroviso con."
cerningArt. and thirtieth Article of the nine and thirty Articles agreed
364 upon by the Archbishops and Bishops of both Provinces and
the whole Cleargy in the Convocation holden at London in
the yeare of our Lord One thousand five hundred sixty two
for the avoyding of diversities of opinions and for establish
ing of consent touching true Religion is in these words fol
lowing (vizfc.) " That the Book of Consecration of Arch-
" Bishops and Bishops and ordeyning of Preistes and Deacons
" lately set forth in the time of King Edward the Sixth and
" confirmed at the same time by Authority of Parliament
" doth conteyne althings necessary to such Consecration and
" ordeyning Neither hath it any thing that of it selfe is
" superstitious and ungodly : And therefore whosoever are
" consecrated or Ordered according to the Rites of that Booke
" since the second yeare of the aforenamed King Edward
" unto this time or hereafter shall be consecrated or ordered
" according to the same rites. Wee decree all such to be
xxxi. " rightly orderly and lawfully consecrated and ordered." It
to extend to be Enacted And Be it therefore Enacted by the authority
Consecratinff af°resa'd That all subscriptions hereafter to be had or made
Bishops, &c. unto the said Articles by any Deacon Preist or Ecclesias
ticall person or other person whatsoever who by this Act or
any other Law now in force is required to subscribe unto
the said Articles shall be construed and taken to extend and
shalbe applyed (for and touching the sa sixe and thirtieth
Article) unto the Booke conteyning the forme and manner
of making ordeyning and consecrating of Bishops Preists
and Deacons in this Act mentioned in such sort and manner
as the same did heretofore extend unto the Booke set forth
in the time of King Edward the Sixth mentioned in the said
six and thirtieth Article anything in the sd Article or in any
Statute Act or Canon heretofore had or made to the contrary
xxxii' thereof in any wise notwithstanding Provided also that
used till the Booke of Comon Prayer and A dministration of the Sacra-
mewVDay men*s and other rites and ceremonyes of this Church of Eng-
1662.

Appendix. 463

land together with the forme and manner of ordeyning and
consecrating Bishops Preists and Deacons heretofore in use
and respectively established by Act of Parliament in the first
and eighth years of Queen Elizabeth shalbe still used and ob
served in the Church of England untill the Feast of Saint
Bartholomew which shall be in the yeare of our Lord God
one thousand six hundred sixty and two.

INDEX.

Act for confirming and restoring
ministers, 8t
Act for restoring Bishops to Parlia
ment, 184
Act for the well governing of Corpo
rations, 187
Act for restoring Ecclesiastical juris
diction, 188
Act of Uniformity, introduction of,
189 ; Bill passed the Commons,
194 ; arrival in the House of
Lords, 195 ; Bill committed, 249 ;
discussions on, 250, 264 ; con
ferences between the two Houses,
266 ; Bill receives Eoyal assent,
271 ; royal speech on the occa
sion, 274 ; changes effected by,
277 ; motives of different parties,
279 ; publication of Act, 289
Addresses from Devon ministers,
72 ; from ministers of London
and Westminster, 75 ; from Lan
cashire ministers, 77
Agas, Benjamin, 298
Alleine, 293
Angier, Mr., 368
Ashe, Mr., 91, 326
Ashurst, Mr., 367
Atkins, Robert, 339
Bacon, Sir Edmund, 3 70
Baptists, characteristics of, 2 1 ;
early, 19 ; persecution of, 88
Barrow, Isaac, 378

Bates, 149, 328, 376
Baxter, Rickard, consulted about the
restoration, 44 ; made royal chap
lain, 89 ; . conversing with the
King, 91 ; his letter intercepted,
137 ; at the Savoy, 147 ; pre
pares a Liturgy, 155 ; draws up
petition, 162 ; excluded from Con
vocation, 208 ; preaches his last
sermon, 291 ; character of, 373;
conversation with Gunning, 426
Beccles, church book of, 4
Beer Regis, 337
Bel and the Dragon, 225
Bennet, Sir Henry, 407
Berry, Edward, 293
Billingsley, Nicholas, 368
Birch, Samuel, 296
Bishops in the House of Lords, 244
Booth, Sir George, 32
Bowles, Edward, 326
Breda, declaration from, 49
Browne, Sir Thomas, 350
Brownists, 4, 8
Brussels, news from, 47
Bunyan, John, 20; 87
Burnet, his account of conference
about toleration, 314; state of the
clergy, 357
Burrows, Edward, 22
Calamt, Mr., 148, 326, 332, 342,
394, 42°
Calendar, revision of, 224

Index.

4^5

Canons, revision of, 213
Canterbury, King's letter to the
Archbishop of, 361
Caryl, Joseph, 376, 385
Case, Mr., 63
Catherine of Braganza, 324
Cavaliers, 26
Cawdry, Daniel, 13
Chandler, John, 367
Chaplains, Presbyterian, 89
Charles I., 116
Charles IL, proclamation of, 52 ; pre
parations for return of, 56 ; dis
cussion on return of, 57; at the
Hague, 61 ; crossing to Dover,
67 ; landing, 69 ; entrance to
London, 70; addresses to, 72 ;
Presbyterian interview with, at
the Lord Chamberlain's, 90 ; du
plicity of, 1 14 ; washing the feet
of poor men, 127 ; coronation of,
151 ; speech in the House of
Lords, Nov., 1661, 245 ; com
munication to the Commons, 264 ;
at Hampton Court, 317; declara
tion of indulgence, Dec, 1662,
381 ; speech, 18 Feb., 1663, 391 ;
Commons' answer to, 396
Chester, 346
Chichester cathedral, 299
Chichester, sectaries at, 422
Chippenham, 347
Christmas time in 1660, 122
Clarendon, Lord, and the Presby
terians, 90 ; produces declaration
at Worcester House, 96 ; influ
ence in the House of Commons,
112; duplicity of, 116 ; speeches,
177, H7> 259> 275 ; inaccuracies
of, 207 ; account of conferences,
315 ; share in declaration of in
dulgence, 397
Clark, Samuel, 100
Commonwealth, persecution under,
18
Comprehension, 402, 432
Conformists, different kinds of, 349,
354
Convention Parliament, 41, 102, 104
Convocation, elections for, 208 ;
H'

meeting at St. Paul's, 209 ; ser
vices prepared by, 211 ; at York,
214; revision of Prayer Book,
222 ; charge of indecent haste,
227
Corporation Act, 184
Court and country parties, 353
Crabb, Peter and John, ^n
Croft, Bishop, 366
Crofton, Zachary, 170
Cromwell, Oliver, disinterment of,
104
Cromwell's triers, 3
Decrees conferred on Bates, Ja
comb, and Wilde, 100
De Wiquefort, 252, 305
Disruption in Scotland, 295, 299
Dover, baptism at, 125 ; Dissenters
at, 425
Duckinfield, 368
Durel, Jean, 334
Dutch congregations, 9
Eachard, his " Grounds and Occa
sions of the Contempt of the
Clergy," 359, 363
Earle, Bishop, 366
Ejected, number of, 370
Episcopalians, characteristics of,
16 ; loyalty of, 29 ; sufferings of,
29, 312 ; restoration of, 82 ; ser
mons by, 83
Exeter, 347
Exeter Cathedral, 339
Evelyn, 80, 325
Farewell sermons, 327
Farnley Wood plot, 4 13
Fifth Monarchy men, 23
Finch, Sir John, letter about Ven
ner's insurrection, 128
Fleetwood, 36
Fuller, Thomas, 18
Gale, 376
Gauden, Dr., 48, 124
Gawen, Thomas, 288
Gloucester, 345
Goodwin, 377
H

466

Index.

Grenville, Sir John, 48, 5 1
Gunning, Dr., 97, 145, 426
Gurnall, 351
Hacket, Bishop, 300
Hague, The, incidents at, 63, 64
Hale, Sir Matthew, 50
Hales, John, 18
Hare, Charles Julius, 379
Heywood, Oliver, 87, 132, 199
Henry, Philip, 87, 197, 292
Heylin, 205
Heyrick, Richard, 322, 366
Hickeringhill, 363
Hicks, John, 297
Hook, William, 348, 352, 371, 392,
419
Howe, John, 87, 294, 374, 385
Hutchinson, Lucy, 39, 424
Ichabod, 355, 363
Independents, characteristics of, 1 ;
under the Commonwealth, 2 ;
number of beneficed, 6 ; East
Anglian, 8 ; of Yarmouth, 14 ;
declaration of, 133 ; state of, after
the Restoration, 384
Insurrection, rumours of, 233, 302
Jacomb, Dr., 42, 330
Jonson, Ben, 25
Jones, Gamaliel, 368
KJEELlNG, Serjeant, 191
Kiffin, William, 239
Lamb, Philip, 337
Laney, Bishop, 365
Lawrence, Edward, 297
Laws against dissent, 84
Lent, keeping of, 126
Lenthall, 55
L' Estrange, Roger, 310
Lewes, 423
Lichfield Cathedral, 299
Liturgy, restoration of, 80 ; excep
tions to, at Savoy Conference, 158
Livings, number of, 349, 357
London citizens, letters from, 171
London election, 166

Ludlow, Col., 408
Lye, 3^9
Manchester, 32
Manchester, Earl of, 42, 314
Manton, Dr., 121, 376
Martindale, Adam, 99, 133, 198
Maypole, 200
Mayor of Northampton, 18 1
" Mercurius Publicus," 125
Milton, John, 40
Monk, General, 42
Morley, Bishop, 142, 287, 364
Morley Chapel, 360
Newcombe's Diary, 319, 343, 353
Newport, 346
Newport Pagnel, 5
Newton, George, 334
Nicholas, Sir Edward, 231, 237,
302, 406
Northampton, 345
Norwich, 345, 423
Nottingham, 39
Nye, Philip, 386
Owen, Dr., 14, 41, 136,377, 385, 407
Pageant on the Thames, 325
Palace-yard, 52
Palmer, Mr., 424
Parliament of 1661, meeting of, 176
Peterborough, certificate of the
Bishop, 290
Pepys, 36, 38, 60, 328
Poole, Matthew, 375
Prayer Book, history of, 215; re
vision of, 221 ; alterations in, 225
Presbyterians, first presbytery at
Wandsworth, 10; ordination of,
it; at Yarmouth, 14; restoration
of the King, 42 ; at theHague, 62 ;
in Convention Parliament, 1 10 ;
views of toleratioD, 387
Pryn, 105
Puritans, characteristics of, 24 ; at
Savoy Conference, 153
Quakers, characteristics of, 2 1 ;
address to the King, 134 ; perse
cution of, 182; indulgence to, 324

Index.

467

Rat, John, 377
Regicides, debates on, 102
Republicans, 27, 32
Reynolds, Dr., 99, 366
Roman Catholics, 388
Rous, Sir John, 352
Royalists, 37, 109
Rump Parliament, 36
St. Bartholomew's Day, change of
Michaelmas for, 268
Salkeld, 370
Sanderson, 369
Savoy Palace, 154 ; debates at con
ference, 1 60
Sealed books, 289
Sharp, Archbishop, 62, 106
Shaw, Samuel, 378
Sheldon, Bishop, 109, 140, 345
Sherborne, 346
Singing, 4
SolemnLeague and Covenant, 34, 46,
179
Southwold, 369
Stillingfleet, 354
Swift, Mr., 367
Taunton, 334
Taylor, Jeremy, 17, 19, 313
Tilsey, 367

Toleration, 6 ; pleas and anti-pleas
for, 312; conferences in reference
to, 3r5, 393, 399; denied, 404
Tonge, &c, trial of, at Old Bailey,
411
Union, meetings for, under the
Commonwealth, 15
Vane, Sir Harry, 307
Venner, 127
Wales, 86
Walker's "Sufferings," &c, 298
Wallingford House, 33
Waltham, 422
Wandsworth, 10
Wattisfield, 10
Wheat, prices of, 35
White, Jeremy, list of sufferers, 428
Whitford, John, 84
Whitlock, 34
Wilkins, Bishop, 365, 375
Windsor parks, 234
Worcester House, meeting at, 95
Worcester manuscript, 53, 56, 65,
68, 71, 81, 123, 315
Yarmouth, 422
Yarrington, Captain, 24:

THE END.

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