CHAPTER VII.
1685.
James II. met his Privy Councillors within an hour after his brother’s death, on the 6th of February; and, upon taking his seat at the head of the Council-table, he delivered an extempore speech, which was afterwards written down from memory by Finch, the Solicitor-General. According to his report, the King declared “I shall make it my endeavour to preserve this Government both in Church and State, as it is now by law established. I know the principles of the Church of England are for monarchy, and the members of it have showed themselves good and loyal subjects; therefore I shall always take care to defend and support it.”[134] In explanation of this promise, coupled with so dubious a compliment to the English Church, James afterwards, in his own Memoirs, states that Finch worded “the speech as strong as he could,” and, in the hurry, it was allowed to pass “without reflection;” that he might have more clearly expressed himself had he used the words “he never would endeavour to alter the established religion,” instead of the words “he would endeavour to preserve it;” and that he said he would support and defend the professors of it, not the religion itself. He further remarks, that no one could expect he would “make a conscience of supporting what, in his conscience, he thought erroneous;”—that all he meant, or could be expected, or was understood to say, was, simply that he would not molest the members of the Protestant Church.[135] Read in the light of such sophistry, the speech,—certainly at the time taken to mean one thing, though the concealed intention of the King was to do quite another,—shows that James must have possessed even a larger share than his elder brother, of the inherent duplicity of the Stuart race. Yet, unlike his brother, he evinced unmistakeable frankness in the profession of religion; for on leaving the Council he immediately proceeded with the Queen to the little Roman Catholic Chapel in St. James’, leaving the door open during Divine service, that any one might see him at worship there.[136] On Holy Thursday, accompanied by his guards and gentlemen pensioners, he received the sacrament; and on Easter Sunday he publicly appeared at mass—the Knights of the Garter, in their collars, attending him, both as he went, and as he returned. The Duke of Norfolk, who carried the Sword of State, however, stopped at the chapel door, upon which His Majesty immediately observed to him, “My Lord, your father would have gone further.” His Grace promptly replied, “Your Majesty’s father would not have gone so far.” James not only commanded an account to be published of Charles’ conforming in his last moments to the Church of Rome, but he himself published two papers professedly written by his brother, in favour of its doctrines. These he showed to Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, who said, “That he did not think the late King had been so learned in controversy, but that the arguments in the papers were easy to refute.” James desired him to confute them if he could. Sancroft satisfied himself with politely answering, “It ill became him to enter into a controversy with his Sovereign.”[137]
JAMES II.
Plenty of gossip was circulated by lip and pen respecting the conduct of His Majesty and his sympathizing friends at this important juncture;—of which gossip a specimen is furnished in a letter, dated February 24, 1685, which, after being taken out of the post-bag, instead of reaching the person addressed, found its destination among the Secretary of State’s papers—to be transferred in the nineteenth century to the Record Office:—
“It can be no news to acquaint you of His Majesty declaring himself a Papist and going daily to public mass. Neither can I choose but commend the prudence and honesty of several great and worthy lords, who have already assured His Majesty, that they have been a long time past Papists in their hearts, and prayed His Majesty’s leave to declare themselves Papists, that they might be in a capacity to serve His Majesty at the holy altar. But His Majesty, it seems, very prudently commanded them to contain themselves till after the sitting of Parliament, and commended their holy zeal, and gave them many thanks, with great assurances of his favour, &c. We are also very well assured, from very good hands, that they are already under great apprehensions, in that God Almighty appears so early against them; since one of the first magnitude, Beauford [the Duke of Beaufort], has very lately, with great consternation of soul, declared themselves all undone by His Majesty’s too forward, and ungovernable zeal, in so soon and so openly declaring himself: for, said he, had His Majesty been pleased but to have dissembled himself till a Parliament had been called, we had been sure to have got through, whereas now I tremble to think of the dreadful blow an heretical Parliament may give us.”
1685.
In accordance with his unequivocal profession of Romanism, James complained to the Protestant Bishops of the declamations against Popery in the pulpits of the Church; and at his coronation, on the 23rd of April,[138] he declined to receive the sacrament, or to take any part in the responses, although his Catholic Queen did so devoutly. The King’s Romanism being demonstrated from the beginning of his reign, there appears exquisite naïveté or satirical shrewdness, in the address presented by the Quakers to him on his accession: “We are told that thou are not of the persuasion of the Church of England, no more than we; therefore we hope thou wilt grant us the same liberty which thou allowest thyself; which doing, we wish thee all manner of happiness.”
JAMES II.
The Ministry of the late King were not dismissed by his successor, but alterations were made in the allotment of offices. Rochester was appointed Lord Treasurer and Prime Minister. Halifax had to give up the Privy Seal, and become President of the Council. Ormond was removed from Dublin, where he had been Viceroy, to Whitehall, where he was to act as Lord Steward; and Godolphin exchanged his post at the Treasury for Chamberlainship to the Queen. Sunderland continued Secretary of State; and Guilford retained the Great Seal; but Jeffreys—Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, and now made a Peer of Parliament,—with a seat in the Cabinet, superseded, in political power, the Lord Keeper. The men who chiefly influenced the councils of the Sovereign, were Rochester, Sunderland, and Godolphin, and, in some respects, the infamous Jeffreys.
The Tories welcomed the accession of James with immense enthusiasm; they presented addresses of extravagant loyalty, and in the elections for the new Parliament, exerted themselves with a zeal which provoked the remark of one of their own party. Elections “were thought to be very indirectly carried on in most places. God grant a better issue of it than some expect.” “The truth is, there were many of the new members whose elections and returns were universally censured.”[139] When Parliament assembled, the King repeated, exactly, his reported declaration respecting the Established Church; thus confirming the false impression which his words were sure to produce, and this, too, notwithstanding the acknowledgment which he records respecting it in his Memoirs. “The Lords and Commons,” says the Bishop of Norwich, “hummed joyfully, and loudly, at those parts of the speech which concerned our religion, and the established Government.”[140] The House of Commons, resolving itself into a Grand Committee of Religion, determined to “stand by His Majesty” in the defence of the Reformed faith, and to beg him to “publish a proclamation, putting the laws in execution against all Dissenters whatsoever from the Church of England.”[141]
1685.
Perhaps the object of these resolutions was to embarrass the Government, to disturb the alliance between the King and the High Church party, and to decoy the Tories into an act, by which they would commit themselves, and run the risk of breaking with the Court. Certainly the resolutions tended to lay open to persecution, directly and distinctly, not only Protestant Nonconformists,—whom the Government and the Court, as well as the High Church party, were anxious to repress,—but also Roman Catholics, whom the High Church party wished to crush, the Court stood prepared to favour, and the Government were ready to tolerate, for the sake of pleasing their Royal Master. It has been suggested, that a reluctance in the majority of the House to trouble Protestant Dissenters just then, produced a reaction respecting the resolutions, but there is no foundation for this idea; whereas, it is perfectly plain, that the King and the Queen were exceedingly annoyed by the proceedings in the Commons’ House, and ordered the Court members to oppose them.[142] To crush Protestant Nonconformists was a thing which, taken by itself, James would have been very glad to do, but to persecute the members of his own Church, was a thing from which he very naturally recoiled. Obsequiousness to the Crown, in this case, triumphed over zeal against Popery; and the House underwent the mortification of eating its own words, and revoking the resolutions which had been passed in Committee, by declaring it would rest satisfied with His Majesty’s repeated declaration, to support the religion of the Church of England, as by law established.[143]
BAXTER’S TRIAL.
The disposition of the Government towards Protestant Dissenters appears in the trial of Richard Baxter. Three weeks after the King’s accession, this distinguished minister was committed to the King’s Bench, for a Paraphrase on the New Testament, which he published. On the 18th of May, being then unwell, he moved for an allowance of further time, in order to prepare his defence; but in reply to this very reasonable application, Jeffreys, the Chief Justice, who by his behaviour on the Bench whilst trying the venerable prisoner, has secured for himself everlasting infamy, savagely growled out, “I will not give him a minute’s time more, to save his life.” “Yonder stands Oates in the pillory, and he says he suffers for the truth, and so says Baxter; but if Baxter did but stand on the other side of the pillory with him, I would say, two of the greatest rogues and rascals in the kingdom stood there.”[144] Twelve days afterwards, Baxter appeared at the bar in Guildhall, with his friends Sir Henry Ashurst, Dr. Bates, Dr. Sharp, and Dr. Moore[145] attending by his side; when Jeffreys indulged in that coarse, vulgar, and well-known rhetoric, a single specimen of which is sufficient for our purpose. “What ailed the old blockhead, the unthankful villain, that he would not conform? Was he wiser or better than other men? He hath been ever since, the spring of the faction. I am sure he hath poisoned the world with his linsey-woolsey doctrine. Hang him! this one old fellow hath cast more reproach upon the constitution and discipline of our Church, than will be wiped off this hundred years; but I’ll handle him for it; for, by God, he deserves to be whipped through the City.”
1685.
An eye-witness states, that during this abuse, he himself could but smile sometimes,—notwithstanding his own tears, and those of others,—when he saw the Judge imitate “our modern pulpit drollery,” and drive “on furiously, like Hannibal over the Alps, with fire and vinegar, pouring all the contempt and scorn upon Baxter, as if he had been a link-boy or knave.”[146] After the Judge had secured a verdict from the Jury, the prisoner wrote a letter to the Bishop of London, to intercede in his behalf. Whether the latter complied with this request, we do not know; but there is reason to believe that Jeffreys wished to see the Puritan whipped at the cart-tail, and that the prevention of the punishment is to be attributed to the interference of his brother Justices, who might well think it mad and brutal to treat after such a fashion a man of the highest reputation, and one who had declined a mitre. But the aged Divine did not escape being fined five hundred marks, and condemned to imprisonment until he paid the sum. As he declined to do it, he remained in the King’s Bench until the 24th of November, 1686, when he obtained release by warrant, upon giving sureties for his good behaviour.
REBELLION.
Scarcely had James ascended the throne, when one rebellion broke out in Scotland, followed by the trial and execution of the Earl of Argyle; and another broke out in the West of England, followed by the trial and execution of the Duke of Monmouth. The latter aspiring to the Crown, issued an absurd manifesto, took the title of King, and entered in Royal state the Town of Bridgewater. This conduct could not be endured, and, consequently, an Army marched against the Pretender, and defeated him at Sedgemoor.
Mew, the warlike prelate of Winchester, who had fought both for Charles I. and Charles II., employed his coach-horses in dragging the King’s artillery to the field. Fell, Bishop of Oxford, assisted in organizing a body of volunteers for the King’s service; whilst, at the same time, Ken, whose loyalty is beyond suspicion, affected by the sight of mutilated bodies left to rot by the roadside, remonstrated against the cruelty of the officers; and, with an exemplary benevolence, visited and relieved, at Wells and other places, those who had been taken prisoners. The Church of England had made loud protestations of loyalty to King James; but the Protestant Nonconformists, whose constitutional loyalty in general cannot be impeached, were compromised, in the estimation of some, by the part which a few of them took in Monmouth’s rebellion. This unfavourable opinion received encouragement from sympathy with Dissenters, expressed for selfish purposes, by the unfortunate Duke himself, whose career could bring nothing but discredit on his friends; probably, these circumstances sharpened the severity of the persecution which marked the earlier part of James’ reign.
1685.
Two Nonconformists suffered death from an innocent connection with some incidents in the rebellion.
Mrs. (sometimes called Lady) Alicia Lisle stood at the bar in the City of Winchester, before Judge Jeffreys, charged with having concealed, after the battle of Sedgemoor, a Presbyterian minister named Hicks, and another man named Nelson. With Nelson there is reason to believe she had no acquaintance; but, respecting Hicks, she confessed that as there were warrants out, to apprehend all Nonconformist clergymen, she certainly wished to save him from apprehension. It was an office of Christian kindness, which this good woman fulfilled for one in sorrow, who professed with her a common faith; yet this perfectly innocent, and, as she imagined, laudable deed, being construed into an act of treason, the Jury, though they expressed their dissatisfaction with the evidence, were bullied by the Judge into a verdict of guilty. Jeffreys declared the evidence to be as plain as possible, and that upon it he would have convicted his own mother. The aged matron, weighed down under a load of more than seventy years, suffered from fits, and could hear but imperfectly; yet, throughout her trial, she evinced a singular calmness and serenity, and, save when overcome by drowsiness, exhibited altogether a dignified deportment truly astonishing. Her behaviour on the scaffold comported with her bearing in court; and, in the course of a speech which she delivered to the Sheriff, she freely forgave her enemies, and expressed a desire to possess her soul in patience. Jeffreys had condemned her to be burnt, but the King commuted her sentence, and this unfortunate lady perished at the block.
ELIZABETH GAUNT.
1685.
The other sufferer was Elizabeth Gaunt, a person in humble circumstances, and a member of a Baptist Church. The charge against her resembled that brought against Mrs. Lisle—namely, the harbouring of a person supposed to have been concerned in the Rye House conspiracy. This man had professed himself to be a Nonconformist,—certainly he proved himself a worthless villain, by becoming King’s evidence against the woman who, to save his life, had jeopardized her own. It did not appear that she knew that he had any share in the plot, or that his name had been mentioned in any proclamation; want of evidence, however, little affected the issue of a trial in those days, and this poor person, without being permitted to call witnesses in her defence, received a verdict of guilty, and the sentence of death. The miserable favour which had been shown to the sufferer of higher rank reached not so humble an individual; she had to die at the stake. Gathering round her the materials of torture, that she might the sooner expire, she remarked, that charity as well as faith was a part of her religion; that her crime, at worst, was the feeding an enemy; so she hoped she should find her reward in Him, for whose sake she did this service, how unworthy soever the person might be who had made such an ill return for it. She rejoiced that God had honoured her to be the first who suffered by fire in this reign, and that her suffering would prove a martyrdom for that religion which was all love.[147] “Thus,” to use the words of Sir James Mackintosh, “was this poor and uninstructed woman supported under a death of cruel torture, by the lofty consciousness of suffering for righteousness, and by that steadfast faith in the final triumph of justice, which can never visit the last moments of the oppressor.”[148] There have been many martyrs for faith, but these women were martyrs for charity, and their meek heroism in the hour of death seems worthy of the cause for which they suffered. Such examples illustrate that power of endurance, with which the Almighty has inspired the heart of woman. Strong in the midst of apparent feebleness, she bears up under trials sufficient to crush minds of the hardest texture; thus resembling those delicate flowers which grow in Alpine regions—
“Leaning their cheeks against the thick-ribbed ice,
And looking up with brilliant eyes to Him
Who bids them bloom, unblanched, amid the waste
Of desolation.”
PERSECUTION RENEWED.
The persecution of Dissenters, commenced before the breaking out of Monmouth’s rebellion, continued to rage, with additional vehemence, after the rebellion had been extinguished. The trade of the informer revived. The spiritual courts overflowed with causes. Ministers were seized, their houses searched, their rooms and closets broken open, and ransacked. The shopkeeper was taken from his business, the farmer from his homestead, husbands were separated from their wives, and parents from their children. The rich were mulcted in heavy fines, or bribes were wrung from them by informers—a present of wine or a few gold pieces being often sacrificed to these harpies, for the sake of escaping imprisonment. The loss of liberty is always an object of terror, but in those days it appeared with horrible aggravations—for dungeons were covered with filth of the most loathsome description; gaolers and turnkeys exercised despotic power, and extorted exorbitant fees; prisoners of all kinds were crowded together to suffocation; fever and pestilence were engendered and nourished; and numbers perished before their trial. It may seem incredible, but it is nevertheless a fact, that Ellwood the Quaker, and the friend of Milton, when immured in Newgate for his religion, saw the quarters of those who had been executed for treason placed close to the prisoners’ cells, and their heads tossed about like foot-balls.[149] The fear of punishment under such circumstances induced Nonconformists, in their worship, to return to those methods of secrecy and concealment which have been already described. Some proved faithless to their profession, and sought refuge from intolerant cruelty, in the bosom of the Establishment: on the other hand, there were not wanting Episcopalians, who seeing humanity outraged, professedly in support of the Church to which they belonged, left it in disgust, and cast in their lot with the sufferers for conscience’ sake.
1685.
PERSECUTION RENEWED.
The storm continued for two years; and as it terminated the series under the Stuarts, it seems to have been the worst—in this respect resembling the persecution under the Emperor Diocletian. The Quakers stated, in their petition to King James, that there had been of late above one thousand five hundred Friends in prison, of whom one thousand three hundred and eighty-three remained unreleased. Three hundred and fifty had died in gaol, since the year 1660; nearly one hundred of them since the year 1680. William Penn reckoned that altogether, more than five thousand perished for the sake of religion;[150] and Jeremy White is said to have collected a list of sixty thousand, who had suffered in some way or other for conscientious opinions. Making a large abatement from such rumours, there must have been an enormous extent of imprisonment, exile, extortion, oppression, and misery inflicted during those two reigns to account for such a rumour having been listened to for a moment.[151] Sulpicius Severus, speaking of the persecution under Diocletian, remarked, that Christians never achieved a more glorious victory than when they could not be subdued by years of slaughter. And, in the same spirit, Neal observes, that Nonconformists did not decrease, amidst all the engines of intolerance which were worked against them; their continuance and increase being attributed to their firmness of character, their practical and awakening ministry, their severe morality, their domestic religion, their able and learned ministers, the disgust excited by the conduct of their adversaries, and the reaction produced by carrying Tory principles to an unbearable extreme. In statements of this kind an author’s eye is wont to rest mainly on fines, imprisonments, and violent assaults. But there were other persecutions which Nonconformists had to endure. Much is made, by our High Church brethren, of the persecution which lingers amidst legal toleration. They point to attacks in the newspapers, to slander privately circulated, to innuendo and defamation, to irritation and annoyance in subtle forms; but no social persecution complained of in the present day, can be compared with what Nonconformists, in addition to fines, imprisonments, and brutal treatment, had to endure, when such a Christian gentleman and scholar as John Howe scarcely dared to walk the streets. In the library of Canterbury Cathedral is a large volume of MS. plays, recitations, and performances, in the reign of Charles II., wherein Roman Catholics and Nonconformists of all kinds are lampooned and abused with a vast deal more of coarseness than wit. Such things impressively indicate what the state of social feelings must have been at the time towards all who were not included within the pale of the Establishment.