should concur with the king in the enacting what 1687. he now granted so graciously. Few concurred in those addresses: and the persons that brought them up were mean and inconsiderable. Yet the court was lifted up with this. The king and his priests were delighted with these addresses out of measure : and they seemed to think that they had gained the nation, and had now conquered those who were hitherto their most irreconcileable enemies. The king made the cruelty of the church of England the common subject of discourse. He reproached them for setting on so often a violent persecution of the dissenters. He said, he had intended to have set on this toleration sooner; but that he was restrained by some of them, who had treated with him, and had undertaken to shew favour to those of his religion, provided they might be still suffered to vex the dissenters. He named the persons that had made those propositions to him. In which he suffered much in his honour: for as the persons denied the whole thing, so the freedom of discourse in any such treaty ought not to have been made use of to defame them. indignation But, to carry this further, and to give a public The king's and an odious proof of the rigour of the ecclesiastical against the courts, the king ordered an inquiry to be made into party. all the vexatious suits into which dissenters had been brought in these courts, and into all the compositions that they had been forced to make to redeem themselves from further trouble; which, as was said, would have brought a scandalous discovery of all the ill practices of those courts. For the use that many that belonged to them had made of the laws with relation to the dissenters, was, to church 1687. draw presents from such of them as could make them; threatening them with a process in case they failed to do that, and upon their doing it leaving them at full liberty to neglect the laws as much as they pleased. It was hoped at court, that this fury against the church would have animated the dissenters to turn upon the clergy with some of that fierceness with which they themselves had been lately treated. Some few of the hotter of the dissenters answered their expectations. Angry speeches and virulent books were published. Yet these were disowned by the wiser men among them : and the clergy, by a general agreement, made no answer to them. So that the matter was let fall, to the great grief of the popish party. Some of the bishops, that were gained by the court, carried their compliance to a shameful pitch: for they set on addresses of thanks to the king for the promise he had made in the late declaration of maintaining the church of England ; 716 though it was visible that the intent of it was to destroy the church. Some few were drawn into this. But the bishop of Oxford had so ill success in his diocese, that he got but one single clergyman to concur with him in it. Some foolish men retained still their old peevishness. But the far greater part of the clergy began to open their eyes, and see how they had been engaged by ill meaning men, who were now laying off the mask, into all the fury that had been driven on for many years by a popish party. And it was often said, that, if ever God should deliver them out of the present distress, they would keep up their domestic quarrels no more, which were so visibly and so artfully managed by our enemies to make us devour one another, and so in the end to be consumed one of another. And 1687. when some of those who had been always moderate told these, who were putting on another temper, that they would perhaps forget this as soon as the danger was over, they promised the contrary very solemnly. It shall be told afterwards, how well they remembered this'. Now the bedchamber and drawingroom were as full of stories to the prejudice of the clergy, as they were formerly to the prejudice of the dissenters. It was said, they had been loyal as long as the court was in their interests, and was venturing all on their account; but as soon as this changed, they changed likewise. ment was The king, seeing no hope of prevailing on his The parliaparliament, dissolved it; but gave it out, that he dissolved. would have a new one before winter. And, the queen being advised to go to the Bath for her health, the king resolved on a great progress through some of the western counties. He thought it below pope's, not to give the tion of the cio. Before he set out, he resolved to give the pope's The recepnuncio a solemn reception at Windsor. He appre- pope's nunhended some disorder might have happened, if it had been done at London. both his own dignity and the nuncio a public audience. This was a hard point for those who were to act a part in this ceremony; for, all commerce with the see of Rome being declared high treason by law, this was believed to fall within the statute. It was so apprehended by queen Mary. Cardinal Pool was obliged to stay in Flanders till all those laws were repealed. But the king would not stay for that. The duke of Somerset, 1687. being the lord of the bedchamber then in waiting, had advised with his lawyers: and they told him, he could not safely do the part that was expected of him in the audience. So he told the king, that he could not serve him upon that occasion; for he was assured it was against the law. The king asked him, if he did not know that he was above the law. 717 The other answered, that, whatever the king might be, he himself was not above the law. The king expressed a high displeasure, and turned him out of all employments m. The ceremony passed very heavily and the compliment was pronounced with so m Upon his refusal, the nun- The king said, he would pardon low a voice, that no person could hear it; which 1687. was believed done by concert. made a pro gress many parts When this was over, the king set out for his pro- The king gress, and went from Salisbury all round as far as to Chester. In the places through which the king through passed, he saw a visible coldness both in the nobility of England, and gentry, which was not easily borne by a man of his temper. In many places they pretended occasions to go out of their countries. Some stayed at home. And those who waited on the king seemed to do it rather out of duty and respect, than with any cordial affection. The king on his part was very obliging to all that came near him, and most particularly to the dissenters, and to those who had passed long under the notion of commonwealth's men. He looked very graciously on all that had been of the duke of Monmouth's party. He addressed his discourse generally to all sorts of people. He ran out on the point of liberty of conscience: he said, this was the true secret of the greatness and wealth of Holland. He was well pleased to hear all the ill-natured stories that were brought him of the violences committed of late, either by the justices of peace or by the clergy. He every where recommended to them the choosing such parliament men, as would concur with him in settling this liberty as firmly as the Magna Charta had been: and to this he never forgot to add the taking away the tests. But he received such cold and general answers, that he saw he could not depend on them. The king had designed to go through many more places: but the small success he had in those which he visited made him shorten his progress. He went and visited the queen at the Bath, where he stayed only a few |
