Then after some political advice in a strain of wise and magnanimous piety, the captive King concluded in these affecting words: "In sum, what good I intended, do you perform when God shall give you power. Much good I have offered, more I purposed to Church and State, if times had been capable of it.

.. Happy times, I hope, attend you, wherein your subjects, by their miseries, will have learnt, that Religion to their God, and Loyalty to their king, cannot be parted without both their sin and their infelicity. I pray God bless you and establish your kingdom in righteousness, your soul in true religion, and your honour in the love of God and your. people. And if God will have disloyalty perfected by my destruction, let my memory ever, with my name, live in you, as of your Father that loves you, and once a King of three flourishing kingdoms, whom God thought fit to honour not only with the sceptre and government of them, but also with the suffering many indignities and an untimely death for them, while I studied to preserve the rights of the Church, the power of the Laws, the honour of my Crown, the privilege of Parliament, the liberties of my People, and my own Conscience, which, thank God, is dearer to me than a thousand kingdoms. I know God can, I hope He yet will, restore me to my rights. I cannot despair either of His mercy, or of my People's love and pity. At worst, I trust I shall but go before you to a better kingdom which God hath prepared for me, and me for it, through my Saviour Jesus Christ, to whose mercies I commend you and all`mine. Farewell, till we meet, if not on earth, yet in Heaven."

The late King had also left in the care of one of his chaplains, afterwards Archbishop Sheldon, a written vow, that if it should please God to re-establish him on his throne, he would wholly give back to the Church all those impropriations which were held by the Crown; and what crown-lands soever had been taken from any see, collegiate church, or other religious foundation, he would hold hereafter from the Church, under such reasonable fines and rents as should be set by conscientious persons appointed to that trust.

Such had been the intentions of the murdered, King concerning the Church; and the feelings of the nation were as unequivocally understood: they desired the re-establishment of that

Church for which Cranmer had died at the stake, and Laud on the scaffold and this indeed was known to be the natural and sure consequence of Charles's restoration. But it was impossible to remedy the evil which twenty years of religious anarchy had produced. A fair promise, however, was held forth in the King's Declaration from Breda, that the most conciliatory measures should be pursued. It was there said, "because the passions and uncharitableness of the times have produced several opinions in religion, by which men are engaged in parties and animosities against each other, which when they shall hereafter unite in a freedom of conversation will be composed, or better understood; we do declare a liberty to tender consciences; and that no man shall be disquieted, or called in question, for differences of opinion in matters of religion which do not disturb the peace of the kingdom; and that we shall be ready to consent to such an Act of Parliament, as upon mature deliberation shall be offered to us, for the full granting that indulgence."

As Charles granted, in its full extent, the indemnity which was offered in this Declaration, so it may be affirmed that he was sincere in promising liberty of conscience. The promise was not kept; for Parliament' did not think proper to prepare such an Act, and all parties were in a temper the most unfavourable for the design, the King being, perhaps, the only person who was sincerely disposed to it. This disposition did not proceed in him wholly from looseness of opinion, nor from that easiness of temper which, though akin to virtue, is so easily made subservient to vice. It arose from a just and honourable sentiment of shame that laws so severe as those against the Romanists should continue to exist, after the political necessity for them had ceased. If any favourable inclination toward their system of belief had at that time begun to influence him, it did not appear in his conduct; nor does it seem to have been anything more than he naturally felt as one whose mother, most unfortunately for these kingdoms, was a Papist. The liberty of conscience which he desired for them, he would have allowed to all; but by a singular infelicity of circumstances there never was a time when such tremendous objections existed to this desirable toleration. The Puritans, who sought it for themselves, 'Clarendon's Life, vol. ii. p. 296.

would not allow it to the Papists; and indeed it was evident to all reasonable men that each of these parties required it only as a step to something more. There had arisen a general and well founded apprehension that the Romanists were becoming dangerous to the state. It was believed that the late troubles had been insidiously fomented by Romish agents with a view of promoting the Romish cause it was certain that they had profited by them, and made more converts than in any former' generation; among these were many persons of great note and influence, and more than had yet avowed themselves were suspected. It had been reported during the King's exile, that he and his brothers had changed their religion; the motives for raising the report were palpable; but there was too much ground for apprehending that such a perversion was far from improbable, and with a Popish King, or a Popish heir presumptive, it was certain that there could be no safety for the Protestant Church.

The Papists, however, soon, by their own imprudence, relieved Charles from any perplexity on their score. They could not agree among themselves: they reviled the Marian martyrs in a strain which evinced how willingly they would have commenced another such persecution had the power been in their hands; and they provoked the ministry to remember that they had slighted the King in his exile, and had treated with Cromwell for taking an oath of submission to his government as the price of that indulgence, which he, in his true spirit of toleration, was willing to have granted. The point was still to be settled with the Puritans, and with them it appeared that before the question of toleration was considered, that of power was to be decided. The Presbyterians, who were the most numerous and best organized party, made a skilful attempt, when they declared for the restoration of the monarchy, to establish that "pattern in the mount," for the sake of which they had commenced the work of its destruction. They had a majority in the House of Commons, and formed a Committee of Religion before the King's return, meaning to present for his sanction a plan of Church Government conformable to their principles; but notwith

Sir P. Warwick, p. 84. 2 Harleian Miscel, vol. vii. p. 262, 8vo edition. 3 Clarendon's Life, vol. ii. p. 272.

standing all the precautions which they had taken to manage the elections, many members faithful to the legitimate establishment were returned, who frustated their project by impeding it, till the first adjournment of the House, when the King told them that as they had offered him no advice towards composing the differences in religion, he would try what he could do in it himself.

The national feeling had already been manifested. At the moment when the cannon announced the King's peaceful return to the palace of his fathers, some of the sequestered Bishops,' and other clergy, performed a service of thanksgiving, in Henry the Seventh's chapel, with feelings such as no other service of joy can ever have excited. In most parts of the country, where the minister was well disposed, a repeal of the laws against the Liturgy was not waited for, so certain was it held, by every sound old English heart, that the constitution of their fathers, in Church, as well as in State, was now to be restored. The Presbyterians felt this; but when they saw how impossible it was to obtain a real triumph, they sought for such a compromise as might be made to bear the semblance of one. Their hope now was, that the Church would give up some of its ceremonies, and alter its Liturgy to their liking. But in aiming at this, their leaders proceeded with a bad faith, which, when it was detected, abated both the hope and the wish of conciliating them.

After a conference between some of the London ministers, who were the heads of the Presbyterian party, and an equal number of the loyal and long sequestered Clergy, the King published a Declaration, stating that he had commanded the Clergy on both sides to meet, and agree, if possible, upon an Act of Uniformity, which might be confirmed in Parliament. In the mean time, he signified his pleasure, that both should be at liberty, the one to use the Liturgy, the surplice, and the sign of the cross; the other, to follow their own custom. The draught of this Declaration was shown to the London ministers, before it was promulgated; it then contained a clause in which the King declared his own constant practice of the Common Prayer, and said he should take it well from those who used it in their Churches, that the people might be again acquainted with the piety, gravity, and

England's Joy. Somers' Tracts, vol. vii. p. 422.

devotion of it, and that their living in good neighbourhood might thus be facilitated. After some days' consideration, some of the ministers, and Calamy among them, who was one of the most active and influential of that party, came, deputed by the rest, to the Chancellor, Lord Clarendon, and requested that this clause might be omitted, saying, they desired it for the King's own end, and that they might the better show their obedience and resolution to serve him. They would first reconcile the people, they said, who for near twenty years had not been acquainted with that form. They would inform them that it contained much piety and devotion, and might lawfully be used; they would then begin to use it themselves, and by degrees accustom the people to it. And this would have a better effect than if the clause were published; for they should then be thought, in their persuasions, to act not from conscience and duty, but for the sake of complying with the King's wish, and meriting his favour; and they feared other ill consequences from the waywardness of the common people, who required management, and were not to be brought round at once.

Clarendon believed them, and in their presence repeated to the King what they had represented. They again protested that their sole object was to promote the King's end; Charles also gave them credit for sincerity, and the clause was left out. The people were generally satisfied with the Declaration; but it was soon perceived that the puritanical Clergy were not, and that their emissaries were employed in exciting discontent. Their letters were intercepted; and among many of a like tendency was one from Calamy himself, to a leading minister in Somersetshire, entreating that he and his friends would persist in the use of the Directory, and by no means admit the Common Prayer in their Churches; for he made no question but that they should prevail farther with the King than he had consented to in that1 Declaration. This proof of knavery in the leaders was followed by an instance of sufficient effrontery to defeat its own purpose, the days of mob petitioning being over. A petition was presented in the name of the London Ministers, and many others of the same opinion, thanking the King for his Declaration, and saying they received it as an earnest of his future good1 Clarendon's Life, vol. ii. p. 141-2, third edition.