have been her nursing fathers. By virtue of this act, James could have legally removed all the protestant bishops, and have placed popish prelates in their sees; and, to all appearance, measures in Scotland were ripening to that object. He had deprived two prelates, for the performance of their duty in preaching against the withering blight of popery, which was then making such rapid strides; and he threatened others with the same vengeance. Few of the writings of the clergy of that period have come down to our time; but even their adversaries admit that they both preached and wrote powerfully against the Roman schism. It was their faithful boldness in their official duties that brought many of them into trouble with the court, and the popish ministry were not slack in prosecuting them; so that, in fact, they were now called on to endure a new species of persecution.

NEITHER were the clergy in England negligent of their duty at this trying season, nor did they escape the tender mercies of the crown, now entirely in the hands of jesuits. It is said the see of York was kept two years vacant, that James might place his jesuit confessor, father Petre, in it. "To their immortal honour, they [the English clergy] did more to vindicate the doctrine of their own church, and expose the errors of the church of Rome, both in their sermons and in their writings, than ever had been done, either at home or abroad, since the reformation; and in such a style, and with such an inimitable force of reasoning, as will be a standard of writing to succeeding ages. The discourses and other writings which were then composed, form collectively, perhaps the most powerful bulwark against those adversaries which has ever been produced1."

THE SCOTTISH reformed catholic clergy have been accused by their presbyterian enemies of having preached the doctrines of non-resistance and passive obedience; but we have seen the disastrous effects of the contrary doctrines, that were taught by the presbyterian ministers. The catholic clergy preached none other than the true christian doctrines, which can never be overthrown by all the attempts of papists and presbyterians conjoined. They maintained that in every government there must be a supreme legal tribunal, from whose decisions there can be no appeal on earth, and that this supreme tribunal was not to be resisted; and that the frequent insurrections of the presbyterians, and their constant disobedience, was rebellion in its most rigorous conception. But presbyterian resis

1 Dr. D'Oyley's Life of Sancroft, 132.

tance and rebellion arises from their setting up their own independency and supremacy over the crown; for there cannot be two supreme powers in one kingdom. Wherever the supreme tribunal may be resisted and controled, there the party so resisting and attempting to control is superior to the supreme power, which is an absurdity; and this was the point at which the presbyterians have always aimed. The sovereign is supreme over all estates of men, and, by the advice and assistance of parliament, makes laws which are binding on every man; to these the church always inculcated obedience, according to her warrant in holy scripture. But the presbyterian general assemblies have, even in modern times, set both the sovereign and the parliament at open defiance, and enacted or repealed the laws of the land according as it suited their own convenience. This is an assumption of papal supremacy over the crown, which has had the most disastrous effects ever since the days of Andrew Melville, when presbytery was first introduced into Scotland. This is a doctrine which would overturn every government, and which undermines the foundations of all civil society. The struggle for mastery between the king as supreme, and the presbyterians who desired to be supreme, created all the bloodshed and confusion, and occasioned all the severities of the preceding century; for "the crowning of king Jesus," and "Christ's crown," meant nothing else than their own supremacy over king, parliament, and laws; and therefore, whatever name the resistance of the presbyterians may receive from their partizans, it is decidedly rebellion. The Romish clergy never pleaded their exemption from the secular powers more violently and factiously than the presbyterian ministers did; and it is remarkable that the latter always watched the politi cal embarrassments of the affairs of the king, and whenever they found him perplexed with either foreign or domestic troubles, then they always commenced tumults, riots, and insurrections.

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CHAPTER XLVIII.

PRIMACY OF ARCHBISHOP ROSS.

1687.—Meeting-houses erected.-English universities.-Arrival of the Pope's nuncio. Perplexities of the nobility.-Consecration of Popish bishops.-Magdalen College, Oxford.-A general meeting of the presbyterians.-Petre the jesuit sworn of the privy council.-1688.-General thanksgiving.—Another Indulgence -Deaths, translations, and consecrations of bishops.-Renwick— arrested and condemned.-Position of the clergy.-Birth of the Prince of Wales.-Action betwixt the presbyterians and the king's troops.-Declaration for liberty of conscience-the English prelates refuse to read it.-Their petition to the king-their interview with the king-their petition declared a libel, and themselves committed to the Tower.-Behaviour of the people.-Prelates' conduct in the Tower.-Dissenting ministers wait on them.-The bishops brought to Westminster Hall-admitted to bail, and acquitted-joy of all ranks, and of the army.-Proclamation for liberty of conscience-another, announcing a Dutch invasion.--King's retrograde movements.—King sends for the archbishop of Canterbury-his speech.-Prince of Wales' baptism.-William's preparations-his manifesto.-Address of the University of St. Andrews to the king-address of the bishops to the king—the king's answer.―The prince of Orange-Correspondence with the prince.-A formal invitation given to William. Sunderland's treachery.-Prince of Orange embarks- lands at Torbay his declaration.-The king sends for the bishops-his military preparations-deserted by his army-offers to treat with William-consults with Petre-resolves to retire to France-his departure-put ashore at Feversham. -Mob of London's exploits.-Alarm of a popish massacre.-Meeting at Guildhall.—King returns to Whitehall-receives orders from the Prince of Orange to retire.-He finally departed and arrived in France.-His letter to lord Feversham.-Remarks.

1687. — IN THE PRESBYTERIAN districts the liberty now granted was speedily accepted, and the presbyterians began to build meeting-houses; and Wodrow asserts, what is not truth, that the churches were emptied of all the parishioners, and all that the curates could muster was their own families. This is not truth; but it is true that the presbyterians erected meeting-houses, and were permitted to meet in them without molestation. The king pressed popery faster upon his English

even than he did upon his Scottish subjects. In April his majesty published a declaration, allowing liberty of conscience to all his English subjects. He suspended and dispensed with the penal laws and tests, and even with the oaths of allegiance and supremacy on admission into offices, civil or military. All the different sects of dissenters made haste to return thanks for this unexpected and jesuitical favour, and vied with each other in the most abject and slavish professions of loyalty and gratitude. James had his own views in caressing the dissenters and in persecuting the church. The vice-chancellor and senate of Cambridge were summoned before the High Commission court in April, to answer to whatsoever might be objected to them. On the 11th the king sent a mandate to Magdalen College, Oxford, commanding them to elect Anthony Farmer, a papist, their president, and on the 27th of April sentence of deprivation was passed against Dr. John Peachall, the vice-chancellor, for not having admitted the said father Francis without taking the oaths; and the senate was reprimanded, and ordered to send up copies of their statutes. They refused to elect Farmer, and elected Mr. John Hough; they were therefore cited before the court of High Commission on the 6th of June, to answer for the said refusal, and consequent election of Mr. Hough. The court declared Mr. Hough's election to be void, and suspended Dr. Aldworth from being vice-president, and Dr. Fairfax from his fellowship, for their contempt in not electing Mr. Farmer1.

EARLY IN JUNE, signior Fernando d'Adda, titular archbishop of Amasia, arrived in London, as nuncio from "the protestant pope," as he was called. James did not think it safe to receive him in London; but he thought it due, both to his own person and to the pope's dignity, to give him a public reception. This placed many of the nobility in a most unpleasant position, for the law made all intercourse with the pope treason. The duke of Somerset, as a lord of the bedchamber, was included in this unusual ceremonial. He therefore consulted with his legal advisers, who informed him that he could not with safety do those duties in this ceremonial that his office required him to fulfil. The duke of Somerset informed lord Lonsdale, " that the nuncio might have all the honours done that was possible; it was resolved that a duke should introduce him. The matter was therefore proposed to the duke of Somerset. He humbly desired of the king to be excused; the king asked him his reason: the duke told him

1 Salmon's Chronology, i. 242, 43.

he conceived it to be against law; to which the king said, he would pardon him. The duke replied, he was no very good lawyer, but he thought he had heard it said, that a pardon granted a person offending, under the assurance of obtaining it, was void. This offended the king extremely; he said publicly, he wondered at his insolence, and told the duke he would make him fear him as well as the laws. To which the duke answered, that as he was his sovereign, he should ever have all the duty and reverence for his person that was due from a subject to his prince; but whilst he was no traitor or criminal, he was so secure in his [majesty's] justice, that he could not fear him as offenders do. Notwithstanding the extreme offence this matter gave his majesty, yet, out of his goodness, he was pleased to tell the duke that he would excuse him1."

DURING the brief remainder of this reign, the nuncio resided openly in London. Four individuals were publicly consecrated after the popish ritual, in the chapel royal, St. James's, and sent throughout England as the pope's vicars apostolical. They published ostentatiously pastoral letters to the laity of their own communion, which were printed and dispersed by the king's express allowance; and their priests and dignitaries appeared at court in the habits of their order. Some of these men were so indiscreet as to boast that, in a little time, they hoped to walk in public procession through the streets of London.

THE KING sent a second mandate to Magdalen College, requiring them to choose the bishop of Oxford their president, but which they refused. After the public reception of the pope's nuncio, the king made a progress through the west of England, and on coming to Oxford, on the 4th September, he threatened the fellows of Magdalen College for their contempt in refusing to elect the bishop of Oxford. On the 16th November following, sentence of expulsion was pronounced against the fellows, by visitors whom his majesty had appointed to visit that college; and the court of high commission disabled them from holding any ecclesiastical preferments in England. On the 10th November, father Petre was sworn of the privy council; which, says Mr. Skinner, but without giving his authority, "we are told his Italian queen, popish as she was, begged on her knees, though to no purpose, might be forborne 2." In a short time, these arbitrary

1 Note to Burnet's Own Times, iii. 189.

? Skinner's Ecclesiastical Hist. ii. 497.-Salmon's Chronology, i. 242-44.