In short, we may despair of that nation, therefore your holiness may very lawfully exact something more than ordinary from those who are still your subjects, that what you lose out of your revenue by their revolt may be thence supplied. But we would likewise admonish you of this, that in raising money out of the Datary and Pænitentiary, as they call it, and other offices, as also in the exaction of tithes and tribute, you use circumspection; and though you are desirous to pick up money from every thing, yet carry yourself so in it as to silence the clamours of people for the future. It is certain, indeed, that all the riches of the world are yours, who are Christ's vicar, to whom the possession of all things belongs; and therefore you may lawfully take what you please any where. But do this neatly and dextrously; for (let us confess the truth) it is incredible with how great hatred people are incensed against you, and what horrid things are spread amongst the multitude concerning you; and there has hardly been any pope, to whom, both in words and writing, they have more manifestly declared their aversion. For, as for England, upon which you value yourself so much, as if it were to be ascribed to your good fortune that that queen takes care to extirpate heresy out of the kingdom, you have certainly no share in that praise: then we fear lest that sudden felicity should not be lasting. Besides, the queen stiles herself supreme head of that kingdom, next and immediately after Christ; so that, though the old worship and ceremonies were never so much restored, your power and authority is not to be retrieved. In short, you must be very watchful and face the storm, unless you are desirous to venture all at one cast. Wishing your holiness all health, we, humbly prostrate, kiss your sacred feet. Bononia, Oct. 20, 1653. Servants and creatures, Vincentius de Durantibus, Bishop of Termula.. Gerards Burdragus, Bishop of Thessalonica. The Petition of the Bishops. The dispute between the king and church was now drawing to a crisis. The king renewed his declaration of indulgence upon 27th April, 1688, and upon the 4th May following enjoined the bishops to disperse it through their several dioceses, for the purpose of its being read by the clergy in all the churches. "The Archbishop of Canterbury, Sancroft, resolved upon this occasion to act suitably to his post and character. He wrote round his province, and desired that such of the bishops as were able would come up and consult together in a matter of this great concern; and he asked the opinion of those whom their age and infirmities disabled from taking the journey. He found that eighteen of the bishops and the main body of the clergy concurred in the resolution against reading the declaration. So he, with six of the bishops that came up to London, resolved in a petition to the king to lay before him the reasons that determined them not to obey the order of council that had been sent them. This flowed from no want of respect to his majesty's authority, nor from any unwillingness to let favour be shewed to dissenters, in relation of whom they were willing to come to such a temper as should be thought fit when that matter should be considered and settled in parliament and convocation: But this declaration being founded on such a dispensing power as had been often declared illegal in parliament, both in the year 1662, and in the year 1672, and in the beginning of his own reign, and was a matter of so great con sequence to the whole nation, both in church and state, they could not in prudence, honour, and conscience, make themselves so far parties to it as the publication of it once and again in God's house, and in the time of divine service, must amount to. "The archbishop was then in an ill state of health. So he sent over the six bishops with the pe tition to the king, signed by himself and the rest. The king was much surprised with this, having been flattered and deceived by his spies. Cartwright, Bishop of Chester, was possessed with a story that was too easily believed by him, and was by him carried to the king, who was very apt to believe every thing that suited with his own designs. The story was, that the bishops intended by a petition to the king to let him understand that orders of this kind used to be addressed to their chancellors, but not to themselves, and to pray him to continue that method; and that by this means they hoped to get out of this difficulty. This was very acceptable to the court, and procured the bishops a quick admittance. And they had proceeded so carefully, that nothing concerted among them had broken out; for they had been very secret and cautious. The king, when he heard their petition, and saw his mistake, spoke roughly to them. He said he was their king, and he would be obeyed; and they should be made to feel what it was to disobey him. The six bishops were St Asaph, Ely, Bath and Wells, Peterborough, Chichester, and Bristol. The answer they made the king was in these words: The will of God be done,' and they came from the court in a sort of triumph. Now matters were brought to a crisis. The king was engaged on his part as the bishops were on theirs. So all people looked on with great expectations, reckoning that upon the issue of this business a great decision would be made, both of the designs of the court and of the temper of the nation."-BURNET's History, Lond. 1725, 12. III. 126. To the King's most excellent Majesty. The humble Petition of William Archbishop of Canterbury, and of divers of the suffragan Bishops of the Province now present with him, in behalf of themselves, and others of their absent Brethren, and of the clergy of their respective Dioceses, Humbly sheweth, THAT their great averseness they find themselves to the distribution and publication in all their churches of your majesty's late declaration for liberty of conscience, proceedeth neither from any want of duty and obedience to your majesty, our holy mother, the church of England, being both in her principles and constant practices unquestionably loyal, and having to her great honour been more than once publickly acknowledged to be so by your majesty, nor yet from any want of due tenderness to dissenters; in relation to whom, they are willing to come to such a temper as shall be thought fit, when the matter shall be considered and settled in parliament and convocation. But among many other considerations, from this especially, because the declaration is founded upon such a dispensing power as has been often declared illegal in parliament, and particularly in the years 1662, 1672, and in the beginning of your majesty's reign, and is a matter of so great moment and consequence to the whole nation, both in church and state, that your petitioners cannot in prudence, honour, and conscience, so far make themselves parties to it, as the distribution of it all over the na- . tion, and reading it, even in God's house, and in the time of his divine service, must amount to, in common and reasonable construction. Your petitioners therefore most humbly and earnestly beseech your majesty, that you will be graciously pleased not to insist upon the distribution and reading your majesty's declaration. A Letter from a Dissenter to the petitioning Bishops. It was too much to expect that all the oppressed dissenters could be won by the reasoning of Halifax and Burnet. Many there doubtless were, who, like the author of this Tract, saw, or wished to see, nothing in the present national crisis, save the exaltation of dissenters of every description over their old enemies of the church of England. My Lords, HAVING seen a paper that goes under the name of your petition to his majesty, for not insisting upon his order for reading his most gracious declaration in your publick assemblies, I confess I was not a little startled at it, that men so long, and so much professing loyalty, should appear so miserably defective in that point I challenge you (after all your exclaiming against the poor dissenters as factious and rebellious) to give an instance of their disobeying their prince's command in any such matter; what they stuck at was purely for conscience sake, which you have not to plead in this thing. Here was no assent nor consent required, no interfering with any law of God, but only a publication of his majesty's most pious design to set all his subjects at liberty from that bondage they so dolefully groaned under. Now, as Samuel reasoned with Israel about their affairs then, pray, my lords, give me leave to reason with you about this important affair now; you are men of worth and learning, you are professors of the gospel of peace and love, and it might therefore be well expected from you, that you should have put the king upon it before he did it, and improved your great interest in his majesty on the behalf of the sore oppressed and horridly abused dissenters; but alas! altum silentium, to say no more, what provoking and incensing the king there was against them you best know: however, after heaven had inspired his majesty with this glorious project, we expected your rejoicing at it, your thanking the king for it, and hearty closing with him in it. But who could imagine the murmuring, the grumbling, the discontent this great act of goodness and grace has raised among you, especially the unmannerly (pardon the expression) refusing to make it known to the people, though the king so absolutely commanded it. Pray, my lords, let me ask you a question: Suppose the king, instead of his declaration, had issued out a proclamation commanding justices of the peace, constables, informers, and all other persons, to be more rigorous (if possible) against dissenters, and do their utmost to the perfect quelling and destroying them, and had ordered this to be read in your churches in the time of divine service, would you have made any scruple of that? Ah, no! methinks I see your chirping parsons, how brisk they look in the desk with such a paper in their hands, as the second course after the first mess of prayers is over, being a dish more dainty than the rest, and how the paraphrase upon it would furnish them with matter all the day after, without being beholden to the Bible for any other text. Good, my lords, consider what can we or the whole world think of you, who are so averse to mercy, and so eager to any thing of rigour? You intimate in your paper, that you want no tenderness to dissenters; strange and wonderful news if true; but pray, my lords, tell us the meaning of this expression in plain English, for it is more intri cate to us than Samson's riddle was to the Philistines. An interpreter the other day undertook to expound it thus, that your lordships want no tenderness to dissenters, because you never judged tenderness a thing fit for them; and it must be carried some such way; for, to take it in the literal sense, it is a great untruth (which we cannot suppose your lordships guilty of) to say you want no tenderness to dissenters, when the whole land knows you never shewed any. How many scores of prisons were filled with dissenters not many ages past, and their families suffering at home, nor did your lordships, out of your great revenues, ever send a penny to relieve them; here would have been a notable proof of your tenderness, and to have been a testimony against (or at least using endeavours to prevent) the horrible wrongs, oppressions, and abuses put upon them, even to the ruining their families. Something of this nature (my lords) would have convinced this unbelieving generation of your tenderness. But hujus con trarium miserrimum est. My lords, the design of this letter is to offer you good and seasonable advice, and pray be not angry with me for my good will: I am a person that has suffered much, very much, by the fury of that church you sit at helm to guide, and yet, God is my witness, I desire not an hair of your head should fall to the ground, so far am I from revenge; and therefore pray, my lords, for your own sake, for your churches sake, for England's sake, and, if all this will not do, then for God's sake, debate the matter well you are now in hand with, weigh every thing in a right ballance, and consider thoroughly, whether flying in your sovereign's face and disobeying his most just command be a cause will bear you out in suffering. My lords, I pity you, and am really concerned for you; retract, retract, before it be too late; ask God and the king pardon for your opposing the best of works, and give us (who would fain have) some ground to believe you inclinable to heal, as you have been to destroy. I think you have it in your liturgy, "From pride, vain glory, and hypocrisy," &c.; a good prayer,-I pray God keep you all from it. My lords, believe me if you can, (I am sure you may,) that I am Your well-wishing servant. London, June 1st, 1688. An Answer to a Paper importing a Petition of the Archbishop of Canterbury and Six other Bishops to his Majesty, touching their not distributing and publishing the late Declaration for Liberty of Conscience. Vide, utrum tunica filii tui sit, an non? Quam cum cognovisset pater, ait, tunica filii mei est, fera pessima comeGen. xxxvii. ver. 32, 33. dit eum. With Allowance. London: Printed by Henry Hills, Printer to the King's most excellent Majesty, for his Household and Chapel, 1688. The bishops had no sooner taken their ground in direct opposition to James's measures, than pamphlets and libels of every description were published against them with unreserved hostility, under the authority of government. They had sedulously avoided the appearance of giving publicity to their petition: but that to which they themselves seemed decently averse, was privately managed by others, for the petition was scarce presented before it got into print, and was dispersed over the whole kingdom by the clergy instead of the Declaration of Indulgence; the king, therefore, resolved no longer to keep terms with the church of England, but to publish the petition in his own way, and with his own comments. Accordingly the following piece, which appears to have been printed by authority, is a sort of casting the gauntlet by the crown to the church. Nor to amuse my reader with any reasons or excuse of this undertaking, let this suffice for both, that several copies of this paper, instead of distributing his majesty's declaration for liberty of conscience, having been privately dispersed through most counties of England, I thought it every man's duty and (among the rest) mine, to undeceive them who have not the same brains, but more honesty and loyalty, than those that sent it, and bestow some ink upon the tetter, that it spread no further. In order to which, and that every man may at once see the whole before him, and thereby come to the truer conclusion, I shall take my rise from the occasion of this paper, and thence proceed to the matter of it. Now the occasion was thus: His majesty finding it had been the frequent endeavours of the four last reigns to reduce this kingdom to an exact conformity in religion, and how little the success had answered the design, but rather destroyed trade, depopulated the country, and encouraged strangers, and being resolved to establish his government on such a foundation as might make his subjects happy, and unite them to him by inclination as well as duty, on the 4th of April, 1687, issued his most gracious declaration for liberty of conscience, thereby declaring, that he will protect and maintain his archbishops, bishops, and clergy, and all other his subjects of the church of England, in the free exercise of their religion, and full enjoyment of their possessions and properties, as now established by law, without any molestation, &c.: That all execution of penal laws for matters ecclesiastical, as nonconformity, &c., shall be, and are thereby suspended: That all his |
