the seventeenth century.14 It seems to have been commonly accepted by English Congregationalists from the time of the Revolution. Robert Browne, Henry Barrowe, and John Robinson had also insisted on the real authority of the pastor and elders; but they did not attempt to define the precise limits of that authority; nor is it probable that they would have approved the restrictions which were imposed on the constitutional duties and rights of the commonalty of the Church by the theory of John Owen, and by what seems to have been the practice of Congregational Churches at the end of the seventeenth century and during a great part of the eighteenth.

Most of the Congregational Churches of this period were small Churches; even the most famous of them were small, when compared with the Churches of our own times. Caryl died in 1673, and the Church of which he was pastor numbered only 136 communicants. John Owen, who had a small congregation in the neighbourhood, was invited to be his successor. Owen brought with him thirty-five members, and the united Church numbered 171. Nineteen years later, when Watts became pastor of the Church, it had greatly declined.15

Nor were the Churches strong in the energy of their religious faith, the fervour of their devotion, and their loyalty to Christ in conduct. Burnet, in his Pastoral Care, which was published soon after the Restoration, said that the Dissenters had largely lost their reputation for strictness in religion. He was not an unfriendly critic of the Nonconformists, and this account of them is supported by other evidence.1

16

Their condition under Charles II. and James II. had been

14 See Dexter, 281-282.

15 When Caryl's Church and Owen's united, there were among the members Lord Charles Fleetwood, Sir John Hartopp, Colonel Desborough, Colonel Berry, and other distinguished officers of Cromwell's army; also Lady Abney, Lady Hartopp, Lady Vere Wilkinson, Lady Tompson, Mrs. Bendish, Cromwell's grand-daughter. The pastors of this Church were Caryl (1660-1673); Owen (1673—1683); David Clarkson, who for a year was Owen's colleague (1682-1687); Isaac Loeffs (from some uncertain date to 1689); Isaac Chauncey, who for two years was the colleague of Loeffs (1687-1702). (Wilson, Dissenting Churches, i. 254. Palmer, Memorial, i. 146.) The decline of the Church is said to have taken place under Chauncey's pastorate. Some of the Presbyterian Churches were much larger. Pomfret's Church in Gravel Lane, Houndsditch, numbered at one time 800 communicants. 16 Pastoral Care, 201.

extremely unfavourable. A steady, unrelenting persecution would have been less injurious to the vigour of their spiritual character; it would have driven from the Nonconformist Churches all those persons whose Nonconformity was the result of education or of intellectual preference, but had no deep roots in the spiritual life; it would have disciplined the rest to a robust and courageous piety. But the persecution, though at times cruelly severe, was intermittent. When the conventicles were fiercely repressed, those Nonconformists who had no great religious zeal consulted their safety and stayed at home, and their zeal became still less fervent. In the intervals of the storm they returned to the Nonconformist congregations, and by their presence lowered the religious temperature of their brethren.

Even the leaders of the Congregational Churches, the men whose intense faith and lofty courage had made so profound an impression on the conscience and heart of the nation under the Commonwealth and the Protectorate, were tempted to a policy of moderation and compromise. From the Restoration to the Revolution the Court was constantly encouraging them to expect that the persecuting laws would be relaxed. The true policy of the Nonconformists was a policy of frank and open resistance to the laws which oppressed them; but they were warned that if they acted too vigorously, all chance of obtaining greater liberty would be lost. In these circumstances of difficulty the leaders showed an admirable resoluteness as well as an admirable sagacity; but large numbers of their adherents, who might have stood firm if there had been no hope that the persecution would be relaxed, temporised and the effect of their temporising on their personal character was disastrous-their moral fibre was enfeebled, and the fires of their religious zeal were almost extinguished. It is probable that there were large numbers of such persons in the Churches which were formed after the passing of the Toleration Act. They failed to maintain, either in their religious earnestness or in their personal habits, the great traditions of Congregationalism.

When the time of peace came, most of the great Nonconformist leaders had passed away. Bridge died in 1670; Caryl in 1673; John Rowe in 1677; Theophilus Gale in 1678; Thomas Goodwin in 1680; John Owen in 1683. Their

17

successors were men of another type. Some of them were men of great learning, and some who were not learned had considerable intellectual vigour; but they had not the great qualities of the race that had passed away. The most eminent of them were Isaac Watts, who became pastor of the Church in Mark Lane in 1702, and remained its pastor till 1748; John Nesbitt, of Hare Court (1690—1727); Matthew Clarke, of Miles's Lane (1692-1726); Thomas Reynolds, of the Weigh House (1695-1727); Thomas Rowe, of Haberdashers' Hall (1678-1705), who also had an Academy; Daniel Neal, of Silver S.reet (1706-1743); and Thomas Bradbury, of Fetter Lane (1707-1728), who afterwards removed to Carey Street and died in 1759. 18

17 He had been for a short time morning preacher during Dr. Chauncey's pastorate. In 1704 the Church removed to Pinners' Hall, on account of the decayed condition of its own building; and from 1708 it met in a new meeting-house erected in Duke's Alley, Bury Street, St. Mary Axe.

18 The dates are taken from the lists in Wilson, Dissenting Churches.

CHAPTER VI

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY UNDER GEORGE I. AND

GEORGE II.

(1714-1760)

NONCONFORMIST DEPUTATION TO GEORGE I. ON HIS ACCESSIONMANIFESTO OF THE PRetender-RIOT AND INSURRECTION-REDRESS OF DISSENTING GRIEVANCES-ACT FOR STRENGTHENING THE PROTESTANT INTEREST "-ACCESSION OF GEORGE II.-BILL INDEMNITY-ITS UNSATISFACTORY CHARACTER-APPOINTMENT OF DISSENTING DEputies-WALPOLE AND NONCONFORMIST CLAIMS THE "REGIUM DONUM "-ITS HISTORY AND EFFECTS -AN INDEMNITY TO Dissenters FOR LOYALTY TO THE THRONE.

OF

N

I

EARLY a hundred of the Dissenting ministers of London, with Dr. Williams at their head, presented an address to George I. on his accession (1714). They wore black Genevan cloaks; and as the dark procession moved towards the King, a nobleman touched Bradbury on the arm and said, "Pray, sir, what is this? A Funeral? "_" No, my lord," answered Bradbury promptly, "it is a Resurrection." 1

66

On August 29 the Pretender sent out a manifesto from Plombières, asserting his claim to the throne of Great Britain, and explaining that till the death of Queen Anne he had not pressed his rights because he knew her "good intentions" to him, and this was the reason we then sate still, expecting the good effects thereof, which were unfortunately prevented by her deplorable death." The manifesto confirmed the

66

2

1 According to another version of the story, Bradbury answered: "Yes, my lord; it is the funeral of the Schism Bill, and the resurrection of Liberty." Wilson, Dissenting Churches, iii. 514. For the address, see Calamy, Historical Account, ii. 299–300.

2 Cobbett, Parliamentary History, vii. 21-22.

suspicions of the country that the Tories who were in the confidence of Anne had been plotting on behalf of the Stuarts. Bolingbroke and Ormond fled to France. The Earl of Oxford was impeached of high treason and committed to the Tower.

In the midland and southern counties of England, the High Church and Tory party demonstrated their hatred of the House of Hanover by outrages on the Dissenters. Dissenting meeting-houses at Oxford, Birmingham, Bristol, Norwich, Reading, Wrexham, and other towns, were gutted or burnt. In Staffordshire the outrages were exceptionally numerous and violent.3

The High Churchmen said that if the good old Church of England was to fall, it mattered not whether it was destroyed by a Catholic like King James II., or a Lutheran like King George. In the north of England, and in Scotland, there was open rebellion; but early in November the royal army reached the main body of the English rebels near Preston, and compelled them to lay down their arms; the rebel leaders were sent to the Tower. The insurrection in Scotland was suppressed a few months later, and the Pretender, who had landed in Scotland late in December, sailed for France early in February (1715-6).

During these troubles the Dissenters had in many ways given solid proofs of their loyalty; under the House of Hanover they expected with confidence a large extension of their religious liberties. The rebellion delayed any attempt to assert their

3 Cobbett, Parliamentary History, vii. 108, note. Calamy, Historical Account, ii. 313-314. Lecky, History, i. 263, note 1. These outrages occasioned the passing of the Riot Act in 1715, which contained the following clause: "That if any persons unlawfully, riotously, and tumultuously assembled together, to the Disturbance of the public Peace, shall unlawfully, and with Force, demolish or pull down, or begin to demolish or pull down, any Church or Chapel, or any Building for religious Worship certified and registered" (according to the Statute I William III. cap. 18, the Act of Toleration) . . . the same shall be adjudged felony without Benefit of Clergy." The Hundred in which such damage is done is made liable for damages, as in cases of robbery. stat. 2, cap. 5, §§ 4, 6. These clauses were repeated (7 and 8 George IV. cap. 30, §§ 2, 8), and other enactments were made for the protection of Nonconformist places of worship. The Act of George IV. has been amended and explained by subsequent legislation. See Stephen, History of Criminal Law, ii. 271, 291–293.

I Geo. I.

See the various addresses to the Crown in Calamy, Historical Account, ii. 299–300, 366–368, 460-462, 490-492, 496-500; and ibid., 329-330.