[112] Orme’s Life of Owen.

[113] Howe’s Case of Protestant Dissenters; Life, 247. In a letter which Howe wrote in the year 1685 from the Continent, when he was travelling with Philip Lord Wharton, to escape the persecution of the times, he uses the following words, which indicate, more than any laboured description, the reign of terror he had left behind him in England:—“The anger and jealousies of such as I never had a disposition to offend, have of later times occasioned persons of my circumstances very seldom to walk the streets.”—Life by Rogers, 225.

[114] The trial is published in a volume edited by Samuel Rosewell, 1718. The trial took place in the months of October and November, 1684. In the Memoir there is an account of his apprehension and first appearance before Jeffreys at his house in Aldermanbury. Rosewell, lest he should commit himself before witnesses, answered Jeffreys in Latin. The Judge flew into a passion, and told him, he supposed he could not utter another sentence in the same language to save his neck. Rosewell did not give him the lie, but thought it better to give his next answer in Greek. “The Judge seemed to be thunderstruck upon this.”—p. 47.

[115] Trial of Rosewell, p. 52, et seq. Speaking of the latter part of the reign of Charles II. Mrs. Mary Churchman says, “Persecution now came on apace, the Dissenters could have no meetings but in woods and corners. I, myself, have seen our companies often alarmed with drums and soldiers; every one was fined five pounds a month for being in their company.”—Abstract of the Gracious Dealings of God, &c., by Samuel James, 74.

[116] I have gathered this account entirely from Delaune’s pamphlets on the subject, which were collected and published in a volume in the year 1704. The controversy had been mixed up with a reference to Calamy’s invitation to private Christians, to consult their pastors in their religious difficulties; and to Nonconformists also to hear both sides; which—by a wide stretch of interpretation—Delaune construed into a public challenge to an answer in print. It had been further complicated with reproaches, because Calamy did not intercede for the sufferer, or visit him in prison. Defoe says, “It was very hard such a man, such a Christian, and such a scholar, and on such an occasion should starve in a dungeon; and the whole body of Dissenters in England, whose cause he died for defending, should not raise him £66 13s. 4d. to save his life.” A modern Baptist historian justly says, “We would not mitigate this crime an atom; but it is right to suggest that Mr. Delaune may have interdicted the payment of the fine.”—Evans’ English Baptists, ii. 337. Delaune, I suspect, was one of those men who, in the judgment of an opposite class, are said to court martyrdom.

[117] Neal, iv. 521.

[118] De Felice, Hist. of the Protestants of France, 261.

[119] “The King of France uses the Huguenots with inexpressible severity, takes away very many of their children by force, and puts them into Popish convents, and has published an edict for taking away one half of their churches that remain throughout all the provinces, and has actually begun to execute it in Normandy.”—Morice’s Diary, December 2, 1679. For a minute record of proceedings against the French Protestants, see Histoire Chronologique de L’Eglise Protestante de France, par C. Drion, ii.

[120] Elie Benoit Hist. de L’Edit de Nantes, iv. 479.

[121] Hist. des Réfugiés Protestants, par Weiss, i. 265–267.

[122] Hist. des Réfugiés Protestants, par Weiss, i. 268.

[123] Coxe’s House of Austria, ii. 352.

[124] State Papers, 1682, quoted in Smiles’ Huguenots. I have found several other documents on the same subject in the Record Office. The Mayor and Aldermen of Bristol, on the 2nd of January 1682, oddly enough, proposed that fines levied on Dissenters should be applied to the relief of French Protestants.—State Papers, Dom. Charles II.

[125] Life of Tillotson, by Birch, 131.

[126] I find an illustration of the number of refugees who arrived in London, in a curious book I have elsewhere cited, The Happy Future State of England, published in 1688. It is there noticed (p. 122), that they had lately come, and filled 800 of the empty new-built houses of London.

[127] The letter is dated January 2, 1684.—Life of Sancroft, i. 197.

[128] Reresby’s Memoirs, 290.

[129] North’s Lives, ii. 70.

[130] Abridged from North’s Lives, ii. 72.

[131] Palmer’s Nonconformist Memorial, i. 100; Observator, January 29 and 31, 1685; Macaulay, i. 407.

[132] By Ward.

[133] James’ Memoirs, by Clarke, i. 747–9. See Macaulay, ii. 13, for authorities respecting the death of Charles. In the appendix to this volume will be found a copy of the recently discovered MS., which solves a riddle referred to by Macaulay.

[134] Gazette, 2006.

[135] James’ Memoirs, by Clarke, ii. 4.

[136] Ibid., ii. 6.

[137] Dalrymple’s Memoirs, i. 109. I do not find that this circumstance is referred to by D’Oyley in his Life of Sancroft.

[138] As to the coronation, it is observed in a Diary amongst the Morice MSS. in Dr. Williams’ library, under date April 25, “Far above one-half of the nobility made excuses, for one reason or another, and were absent.” “The noblemen were rather more than the ladies.”

Amongst the Baker MSS., Cambridge University Library, marked 40–2, are notes concerning the Coronation Office by Archbishops Laud and Sancroft, with the Coronation Office at large, used by Archbishop Sancroft.

“During the coronation of James, the crown not being properly fitted to his head, tottered. Henry Sidney, Keeper of the Robes, afterwards so famous for the mischiefs he brought upon James, kept it once from falling off, and said, with pleasantry to him, ‘This is not the first time our family has supported the Crown.’ This trifle was much remarked and talked of at the time; a sure mark that the minds of the people were under unusual agitations.”—Dalrymple’s Memoirs, i. 112.

[139] Evelyn. 1685, May 10, 22.

[140] From a MS. in the University Library, Cambridge. See Appendix to this volume.

[141] It was proposed in Committee that the word Reformed religion should be inserted in the address, for the word Protestant was excepted against. Sir Thomas Meres said, “The word Protestant had been used in a good sense by well-meaning persons, but time and use change the nature of words. As knave formerly was an honourable title, but now signified a very ill man.”—Entring Book, June 4.—Morice MSS.

[142] Compare Eachard, Kennet, Reresby, Barillon, and Fox.

[143] See Commons’ Journals, May 27; Parl. Hist., iv. 1358.

“Lest the last words of this resolution should not make sufficient impression on James, the Speaker, when he presented the Revenue Bill, remarked, that the Commons had passed that Bill, without joining any Bill to it for the security of their religion, though that was dearer to them than their lives.”—Dalrymple’s Memoirs, i. 133.

[144] Orme’s Life of Baxter, 359.

[145] The appearance of Sharp and Moore is mentioned in the Morice MSS.

[146] Baxter MSS., Dr. Williams’ Library. Quoted by Orme, Life of Baxter, 363–366.

[147] Burnet’s Hist. of his Own Time, i. 649. For a report of the proceedings against Alicia Lisle and Elizabeth Gaunt, see State Trials, iv. 105, et esq.

[148] Hist. of the Revolution, 31.

[149] Mackintosh’s Hist. of Revolution, 159, where authorities are given.

[150] Ibid., 160; Neal, iv. 552, 554.

[151] The story told about White’s MS. in Neal, iv. 555, does not appear to me at all probable.

When persecution was at its height, extraordinary cases of escape occurred. Many a wonderful story is told of deliverances vouchsafed to suffering Dissenters, of which the following anecdote is a conspicuous example. Henry Havers, of Catherine Hall, Cambridge, had been ejected from the Rectory of Stambourne in Essex. Receiving friendly warning of an attempt to apprehend him, and finding the pursuers on his track, he sought refuge in a malt-house, and crept into the kiln. Immediately afterwards, he observed a spider fixing the first line of a large and beautiful web, across the narrow entrance. The web being placed directly between him and the light, he was so much struck with the skill of the insect weaver, that, for a while, he forgot his own imminent danger; but, by the time the network had crossed and re-crossed the mouth of the kiln in every direction, the pursuers came to search for their victim. He listened as they approached, and distinctly overheard one of them say, “It’s no use to look in there, the old villain can never be there. Look at that spider’s web, he could never have got in there without breaking it.” Giving up further search, they went to seek him elsewhere, and he escaped out of their hands.

A similar narrative I find related in reference to Du Moulin, the French Protestant. It is impossible, after the lapse of two centuries, to ascertain the exact truth of such accounts. That incidents of the kind occurred I have no doubt; but whether they are attributed to the right persons, and are quite accurate in minute details, may admit of question.

[152] Castlemaine wrote an apology for the Catholics.—Butler’s English Cath., iii. 47.

[153] I must refer to the pages of Macaulay and others, for the politics of the period. Of the theological debates in the presence of the King and the Earl of Rochester, there is a curious account in Patrick’s Autobiography, 107.

[154] Entring Book, 1686, July 17, Morice MSS.

[155] Abridgment, 374.

[156] Entring Book, 1686, June 26, Morice MSS.

[157] Ibid., 1687, Jan. 1.

[158] Compare, as to James’ designs, Fox’s Hist. of James II., 332; Hallam’s Const. Hist. ii. 212; and Mackintosh’s Hist. of Revolution, chap. v.

[159] Articles were exhibited against them “too scandalous to be repeated.” Burnet’s Own Time, i. 696; D’Oyley’s Life of Sancroft, i. 237. Sancroft consecrated these two worthless men at Lambeth Palace, the 17th October, 1686, from fear of a premunire.

[160] Clarendon’s Correspondence, i. 258.

[161] “At Tonbridge Wells, this last summer, some company of condition, dining with Dr. Sherlock, amongst others the Doctor himself, talking of the great changes that had been in men and things these late years, even in his time, who was not old. Saith Mrs. Sherlock, his wife (who is a very brisk, sharp gentlewoman), ‘a greater instance thereof cannot be given, than yourself Doctor, for I have known you set up for a Sectary, a Presbyterian, a Papist, a Church of England man, but you never nickt your time right, nor turned seasonably, but when those respective interests were falling, and what you will turn to next, no man living knows. If ever I become a Papist, call me a knave,’ whereupon the company smiled.”—Entring Book, 1686, August 9, Morice MSS.

[162] Printed in State Trials, iv. 243.

[163] See Evelyn’s Diary, December 29, 1686.

[164] The last of these facts comes to light in the State Papers, Dom. 1687, August 21.

[165] Mackintosh’s Hist. of Revolution, 207.

[166] Ibid., 209. Mackintosh cites proofs from letters written by the King, the Queen, the Nuncio, and the French Minister.

In the Entring Book, Morice MSS., it is remarked, under date 1686, November 7—“The King told the Archbishop of York he depended upon his vote to take off the Test, and other penal laws from the Papists, for he remembered his lordship was against the making of the Test. The Archbishop answered, he hoped His Majesty would excuse him in that, and leave him to give his vote according to his judgment. It was true he was against the imposing of the Test, but the case was altered; for then the Papists’ interest was so little, that he thought it not (as others did) then necessary, but now the Papists’ interest did so preponderate, that he thought it necessary to keep it on.”

[167] Dalrymple’s Memoirs, ii. 175.

[168] Ibid., i. 166.

[169] Ibid., 157.

[170] Entring Book, January 9, Morice MSS.

[171] Macaulay, ii. 337, 453; Secretan’s Life of Nelson, 24.

[172] Concilia, iv. 612.

[173] Abridgment, 373.

[174] April 19/29, 1686. Quoted in Macaulay, ii. 375.

[175] October 4, 1685. Dalrymple, ii. 177.

[176] Lingard, xiii. 105. In the Entring Book, Morice MSS., under date 1687, January 8, there are allusions to the anti-Jesuitical Papists, as uneasy at present proceedings—fearing lest by an ill-understanding between the King and the Prince of Orange, there should come a revolution, and Roman Catholics should be destroyed. It was still treason to be reconciled to the Church of Rome; and Papists might be convicted now by law, though twenty years after the fact. It was asked, if the King pardoned their past conversion, would not the continuance of their fellowship with the Romish Church be a continuance of treason?

[177] All this information I gather from the Morice MSS., Entring Book, 1687, April 30; May 14, 28.

[178] Transcripts of Digby MSS., D.d., iii. 64, 57.

[179] London Gazette, April 14.

[180] Ibid., April 28.

[181] Ibid., April 30.

[182] London Gazette, June 11.

Lord Macaulay is very severe upon Lobb. He certainly disgraced himself; but Wilson, in his Dissenting Churches (iii. 436), puts the whole case so as to modify the reader’s judgment. What may be said in palliation of Alsop’s conduct may be seen in Calamy (Account, ii. 488); but really Alsop’s address to James (see Somers’ Tracts, i. 236) is inexcusable. Alsop accepted an Alderman’s gown, and was called Alderman Alsop. His Lordship mentions also Henry Care and Thomas Rosewell amongst the tools of the Court. As to Henry Care, I cannot find that he was a Nonconformist minister; and as to Thomas Rosewell, there is not one word in the State Trials, or in his Life by his son, or in Calamy’s Account (the references made in his Lordship’s notes), to justify his statement in the text about Rosewell’s services being “secured.” No doubt much was done to court the Dissenters at this time, but the picture in Macaulay’s Hist. (ii. 474), is too highly coloured.

[183] London Gazette, July 9.

[184] Ibid., August 18.

[185] Dalrymple, i. 169.

[186] Diary, April 10, 1687.

[187] It appears to me that no impartial person, who reads Macaulay’s defence of his own charges against Penn, in the last edition of the History of England, can fail to see how unsatisfactory are the arguments which he employs. The subject has been discussed afresh in the Spring number of the Quarterly Review for 1868.

[188] When the sister of these youths presented a petition on their behalf, while waiting in the ante-chamber for admission to the Royal presence, Lord Churchill, standing near the chimney-piece, said, “Madam, I dare not flatter you with any such hopes, for that marble is as capable of feeling compassion as the King’s heart.”—Kiffin’s Life, quoted in Wilson.

[189] Wilson’s Dissenting Churches, i. 403–31.

[190] Clarendon’s Correspondence, ii. 506.

[191] Autobiography of Sir John Bramston.—Camden Society, p. 280.

[192] Autobiography of Sir John Bramston, and A Full and True Relation of the Entry, reprinted in Somers’ Tracts, 2nd Edition.

[193] State Trials, iv. 250.

[194] State Trials, 258, et seq. “Dr. Fairfax is a very modest, quiet-tempered man, of very few words, loves to be concerned in no public business, and offered great violence to his own temper, to appear now; but he has other apprehensions of the danger the Church and State are in, than formerly he had, and so is far more tender to the Dissenters for these last ten or twelve years than he was before.”—Entring Book, June 11. Morice MSS.

[195] Vol. iv. 265, et seq.

[196] State Papers, Dom. James II. 1867, Sept. 9.

[197] Life of James II., ii. 120.

[198] “Penn went the progress with His Majesty, and earnestly pressed the King to let the business of Oxford fall; for, he said, it would prejudice his designs and purposes more than his Declaration had advanced them.”—Entring Book, Sept. 3, Morice MSS.

[199] Neal, iv. 588.

[200] Mackintosh, 246.

[201] See notice of Fowler’s writings in a subsequent chapter.

[202] Salmon, in his Lives, p. 212, states that Lake was useful in the Church in maintaining order and decency, and tells a story of what he did on a Shrove Tuesday, when Archdeacon of Cleveland. He went from his seat in the choir, and pulled off the hats of a noisy mob, who afterwards insulted him, and attacked his house.

[203] Granger, iv. 290.

[204] Life of Ken, by a Layman, 142. An entry appears in the list of contributors to the rebuilding of St. Paul’s. “January 26, 1684/5. Dr. Thomas Ken, Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells, in lieu of his consecration dinner and gloves, £100.” Ibid., 148.

[205] Diary, 1687, March 20; 1688, April 1. This sermon for its circumstances, ingenuity, eloquence, and power was one of the most remarkable ever preached.

[206] Hawkins’ Life of Ken, 17, 99.

[207] Life of Ken, by a Layman, 62, 207.

[208] Burnet’s Hist. of his Own Time, i. 424, 429, 434, 446.

[209] See Burnet’s account of Lloyd’s conduct in reference to Turbervill’s evidence against Lord Stafford. Hist. of his Own Time, i. 488. Neither Lloyd nor Burnet appear to advantage in this business.

[210] Philip Henry’s Life, by Matthew Henry. Edited by Williams, p. 152. For particulars and remarks respecting Lloyd see Wood, Burnet, Salmon, Mackintosh’s Hist. of Revolution, Wharton’s Life in Appendix to D’Oyley’s Sancroft, and Rees’ Nonconformity in Wales. There were two other Bishops of the same name. The following extract in the Entring Book, 1686, September 25, Morice MSS., refers to Dr. Lloyd, Bishop of Norwich: “He, at his first going down thither, gave great encouragement to religion, and set up evening exercises in his family upon the Lord’s Days, in the evening, and explained The Whole Duty of Man, and prayed and carried himself very respectfully to all. But of late, he has set a day for all Dissenters to come to the Sacrament, and if they do not come, then he will proceed against them with all severity. Many of his own way always had and still have bad thoughts of him.” The other Lloyd was Bishop of St. David’s, 1686–7.

[211] D’Oyley’s Life of Sancroft, i. 263.

[212] Calamy’s Life, i. 198.

[213] Perry’s Hist. of the Church of England, ii. 510.

[214] State Papers, 1682/3, Feb. 23.

[215] The significant Articles which he sent out to the clergy in July, 1688, will be considered in the next volume in connection with the ecclesiastical history of the Revolution.

[216] State Trials, iv. 362. Gutch Collect. Curiosa, i. 335.

[217] Patrick’s Autobiography, 134.

[218] D’Oyley’s Life of Sancroft, i. 265–268.

[219] Evelyn, ii. 285, May 20, 1688.

[220] Mackintosh, 252. He observes, “perhaps the smaller number refers to parochial clergy and the larger to those of every denomination.” We are not aware that other denominations did read it.

[221] Buckden, May 29, 1688, Baker MSS., Cambridge University Library.

[222] In James’s Memoirs, ii. 158, the foolish step of committing the Bishops is attributed to Jeffrey’s influence, and it is added, “When the veil was taken off,” the King “owned it to have been a fatal counsel.”

[223] Reresby’s Memoirs, 347.

“Sir Edward Hales, Lieutenant of the Tower, invited the Bishops to dine on Lord’s Day; but being to receive the sacrament that day, they desired to be excused. He sent them half a buck, and knowing that they would be at church on Lord’s Day, being now sufferers, he, on Saturday night, told Dr. Hawkins he had an express command to deliver to him from the King, to read the Declaration in the Tower Church the next Lord’s Day following. Hawkins, after expressing the most abject kind of loyalty, refused.”—Entring Book, 1688, June 9, Morice MSS.

[224] Entring Book, 1688, June 9, Morice MSS.

[225] Gazette, May 3.

[226] Mackintosh’s Hist. of the Revolution, 253; also, Ibid., D’Adda, 1/11 June.

[227] D’Adda, 15/22 June; Mackintosh, 262.

[228] State Trials, iv; D’Oyley, i. 297. The first part of the defence was entrusted to Sawyer. That part which related to the dispensing power was in the hands of Finch.

[229] Reresby, 348. A letter of Barillon (12 Juillet) leaves no room for doubt as to the reason of their discharge.

[230] Hunter’s Life of Oliver Heywood, 163, 187, 219.

[231] Life of Oliver Heywood, 235.

[232] Hunter’s Life of Heywood, 244.

[233] Hunter’s Life of Heywood, 285–6.

[234] Neal, iii. 600.

[235] For preparations made in Oliver’s lifetime with a view to this meeting, see Church of the Commonwealth, 514. For a notice of the place of meeting, see the third volume of this history (Church of the Restoration, i.).

[236] The Savoy Declaration is printed in Hanbury’s Memorials. Most of the passages I have given are abridged.

[237] Mather remarks, “There is no Congregational man, but he reports to the Church something of what the person desiring communion with them has related to him, which the Presbyterian does not, only declares his own satisfaction, and giveth the brethren a liberty to object against the conversation of the admittendi.”—Magnalia, ii. 61. Such reports may be found in the Choice Experience of Mrs. Rebecca Combe, and Mrs. Gertrude Clarkson, printed in An Abstract of the Gracious Dealings of God, &c., by Samuel James.

[238] Life of Heywood, 238.

[239] Works, xxi. 547.

[240] Works, v. 46.

[241] Works, xi. 452.

[242] Some very high views and strong expressions may be found in Jacomb’s Dedication, 136.