CAMEO XI. They were a standing menace to those who remembered their doings both in Somersetshire and in Scotland, and who were con- Declaration tinually welcoming Huguenot fugitives with terrible memories of the dragonnades. The English Church held strongly the doctrine of passive resistance, namely that it was the duty of. a Christian "to suffer and be still," after the example of the primitive church, which had finally prevailed, without disobedience to the heathen emperors in things lawful, but, taking patiently whatever they might have to suffer for non-compliance with sinful practices. Knowing that these were their tenets, James took ungenerous advantage of them by all the means of oppression that came in his way. By his prerogative, he gave permission to various Religious Orders to have houses and open schools. There were Benedictines at St. James's, Jesuits in the Savoy, Franciscans in Lincoln's-inn-fields, Carmelites in the City. Schools were opened by the Jesuits, and as they were admirable teachers, were quickly filled, but, not contented with this, the King commanded the Governors of the Charterhouse to admit as Master one Andrew Popham, a Romanist. This was successfully resisted by Bishop Compton and Lord Halifax; but, encroachments went on everywhere. Several Oxford men, namely, the Master and two fellows of University College, Romanized and obtained dispensations to hold their preferments, and a lay fellow of Merton, John Massey, was nominated by the Crown to be Dean of Christ Church. Father Petre, James's Confessor, was a descendant of Sir William Petre, the founder of Exeter College, and in this right, he claimed the nomination of seven fellows, but this the University absolutetly refused to sanction. James hoped to obtain the support of the dissenters, and on the 18th of March, 1687, he announced to the Council, that it was contrary to his principles that any one should be persecuted for conscience sake, and he therefore, by his royal prerogative, suspended all penal laws, made worship free, and dispensed with tests and oaths of supremacy, and it ended with an assurance that there should be no disturbance of property in Church and Abbey lands. How far James had any real spirit of toleration, there is no knowing. He had always been one of those depressed and persecuted, and to these it is natural to talk of toleration. He was at first kind to the Huguenot refugees, and Penn, the Quaker, was his friend; but no one could trust a man of his harsh temper, any more than his Church could be trusted, when once the upper hand had been gained, not to persecute. In point of fact this Declaration gave what had been gradually granted in the course of the two ensuing centuries; but to the English mind at that time, it was in the first place illegal, since the King had no constitutional right virtually to set at naught Acts of Parliament, and in the next place, it was evident that the real intention was to Indulgence. 1687. CAMEO XI. destroy the bulwark of the English Church, and the nonconformists understood the traditions of Rome well enough to know that this was a ruse to gain them over for the time, and that to accept these favours would only be a step to their final ruin. Addresses of thanks to the King were got up. There were about sixty from the Nonconformists, but none of their men of mark signed them. Five bishops thanked the King; these were Barlow, of Lincoln, commonly called Bishop of Buckden, who never saw Lincoln; Wood, of Lichfield, who had been suspended by the Archbishop for scandalous conduct; Crewe of Durham, and Cartwright of Chester, both notorious time-servers, and Watson, afterwards detected in simony. Parker, whom James had appointed to Oxford, could only get one signature among his clergy, and Sir Jonathan Trelawney, then Bishop of Bristol, only two. The Archbishop, being in weak health and much perplexed, held back as long as possible. But James was taking further steps, most alarming to the English Church. The Presidentship of Magdalen College, Oxford, was vacant, and James commanded the fellows to elect Anthony Farmer, a Roman Catholic of well-known bad character. This they refused, on the ground that he was disqualified by their statutes, and as they received no answer they elected one of their own number, Dr. Hough, and the election was confirmed by their visitor; but it was annulled by the Court of High Commission, and when a deputation of the college was sent up Jeffreys behaved with his usual insolence. When Dr. Fairfax tried to argue the point, and said it was one to be argued in Westminster Hall, he was answered "Pray are you a doctor of law or divinity?" 66 By what authority do you sit here?" demanded Fairfax. This enraged the Chancellor, who exclaimed "What commission have you to be so impudent in court? This man ought to be kept in a dark room! Why do you suffer him without a keeper? Why do you bring him to me? Let my officers serve him." The Nuncio d'Adda, had been appointed to a bishopric. James had him consecrated in his own chapel, and then presented in great state. The Duke of Somerset refused to share in the ceremony saying it was against the law. "I am above the law," said James. "Your Majesty is so, but I am not," said the duke; and the introduction was performed by James's nephew, the Duke of Grafton, son of Lady Castlemaine. Soon after the King set forth on a royal progress, with the intention of influencing the parliamentary elections. At Bath, he issued an invitation to the sufferers from scrofula, or the King's evil as it was called, to come and be touched. This curing power, supposed to be inherent in the royal families of England and France, was believed in by the English Church, and the form of prayers on the occasion had Bishop CAMEO XI. been translated and adapted as "The Office of Healing," Ken afterwards wrote to the Archbishop an explanation of his inability to interfere, but said that the next Sunday he had preached a sermon on the Good Samaritan, explaining that though the church doors could not be opened to a different worship, yet they ought not to be closed against an act of charity. That curious person, William Penn, the Quaker, was in the King's suite, since an honest representative of the principle of toleration might, it was thought, conciliate the Nonconformists. He was also sent forward to Oxford to try to persuade the fellows of Magdalen to submit, but they stood firm, even when the King came in person and threatened them, commanding them to elect as president their Bishop Parker—a man of whom Burnet said-"It was a sufficient lampoon on the times that he was a bishop." Again they refused, and in two months a sitting of the Court of High Commission was held there, presided over by Bishop Cartwright. Hough refused to appear and appealed to the Courts of Law at Westminster, whereupon soldiers were sent who expelled him and twentyfive fellows, the Court of High Commission declaring them incapable of holding preferment. Parker died in a few months' time, and James then nominated an absolute Papist, and Fellows of the same communion. When in 1834, the Duke of Wellington, on entering Oxford, to be installed as Chancellor, passed the beautiful tower and gateway of Magdalen, and asked its name he was answered "That is the college that James II. ran his head against. And assuredly these arbitrary proceedings had a great effect in alienating the loyalty of the universities. Barillon, the French ambassador, who accompanied him on his journey, could not help observing the want of heartiness in the welcome of the King-no wonder in the counties still reeking with the bloodshed of Kirke and Jeffreys. But there was a single-minded dulness and obtuseness about James which made him utterly impervious to those signs of the times that his brother would have instantly detected. He had dismissed nearly the whole bench of judges for not ruling that he had the power of abrogating a constitutional law. "Your Majesty can make fresh judges but not lawyers," said one. He had turned out his brother-in-law, Rochester, from the Treasury for not Romanizing. He degraded half the lords, lieutenant for refusing to interfere with the elections; he had expelled the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, and all the fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford; he had set aside officers in the army and navy, including the Rear-Admiral of England, and no redress was to be had. Still the nation was enduring in patience, confident that better times Remonstrance 1687. CAMEO XI. Discontent. 1698. would come with Mary, Princess of Orange, and though she was childless, the reversion was to her sister Anne, who was devoted to the English Church. It was therefore not willingly that the clergy obeyed the command to pray that the Queen might become a joyful mother of children, nor was there much sincere thanksgiving when it was announced that the prayer was likely to be fulfilled. JAMES II., greatly encouraged by the hope that his work of restoration (as he believed it) would be permanent, and not overthrown by a Protestant heir, took a further step. The Declaration of Liberty of Conscience had been in force for a whole year, and was known to everybody, when on the 4th of May, 1688, an order was put forth calling on all parish priests to read it from their pulpits at divine service on the Sundays the 20th and 27th of that month. It was merely for the purpose of forcing the clergy to take in their own mouths that which they were known to hold as an illegality, not indeed to be met with rebellion, but not acknowledged as right because not assented to by Parliament. Therefore there was great consternation and Archbishop Sancroft summoned a gathering at Lambeth of his suffragans and the principal clergy within reach. William Sancroft himself was son to a squire in Suffolk. He was born in 1617, was a fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, but had been ejected on account of his loyalty, and, during the Protectorate, travelled abroad. His learning and piety were much esteemed by Bishop Cosin, who made him his domestic chaplain, and availed himself of his assistance in the revision of the Prayer-book in 1661. The next year he was made Master of his college, then Dean of York, and immediately after Dean of St. Paul's. Even then, his gentle spirit was so weary of change that he wrote to his brother on the move : "Only one comfort is that now I shall sit down and may justly be confident that my next remove will be to the grave." CAMEO XII. read the Declaration. 1688. |