[696] Ellis Correspond. vol. ii. p. 211; Life of James II., edit. Clarke, vol. ii. p. 189.
[697] In November 1687, it was said that he wished the dissenters to have ‘entire liberty for the full exercise of their religion,’ and to be freed ‘from the severity of the penal laws.’ Somers Tracts, vol. ix. p. 184. This is the earliest distinct notice I have seen of William's desire to deprive the church of the power of punishing nonconformists; but after he arrived in England his intentions became obvious. In January 1688–9 the friends of the church complained ‘that the countenance he gave the dissenters gave too much cause of jealousy to the Church of England.’ Clarendon Correspond. vol. ii. p. 238. Compare Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, vol. v. p. 81; Bogue and Bennett's Hist. of the Dissenters, vol. ii. p. 318; Birch's Life of Tillotson, pp. 156, 157; Somers Tracts, vol. x. p. 341, vol. xi. p. 108. Burnet, in his summary of the character of William, observes that, ‘his indifference as to the forms of church-government, and his being zealous for toleration, together with his cold behaviour towards the clergy, gave them generally very ill impressions of him.’ Own Time, vol. iv. p. 550. At p. 192 the bishop says, ‘He took no notice of the clergy, and seemed to have little concern in the matters of the church or of religion.’
[698] Sir John Reresby, who was an attentive observer of what was going on, says, ‘The prince, upon his arrival, seemed more inclined to the Presbyterians than to the members of the church; which startled the clergy.’ Reresby's Memoirs, p. 375: see also pp. 399, 405: ‘the church-people hated the Dutch, and had rather turn Papists than receive the Presbyterians among them.’ Compare Evelyn's Diary, vol. iii. p. 281: ‘the Presbyterians, our new governors.’
[699] Burnet (Own Time, vol. iv. p. 50) says of the clergy in 1689: ‘The king was suspected by them, by reason of the favour showed to dissenters; but chiefly for his abolishing episcopacy in Scotland, and his consenting to the setting up presbytery there.’ On this great change, compare Bogue and Bennett's History of Dissenters, vol. ii. pp. 379–384; Barry's Hist. of the Orkney Islands, p. 257; Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, vol. v. pp. 85, 86: and on the indignation felt by the Anglican clergy at the abolition of episcopacy in Scotland, see a contemporary pamphlet in Somers Tracts, vol. ix. pp. 510, 516, where fears are expressed lest William should effect a similar measure in England. The writer very fairly observes, p. 522, ‘For if we give up the jus divinum of episcopacy in Scotland, we must yield it also as to England. And then we are wholly precarious.’ See also vol. x. pp. 341, 503; Lathbury's Hist. of Convocation, pp. 277, 278; and Macpherson's Original Papers, vol. i. p. 509.
[700] Burnet's Own Time, vol. iii. p. 340. Burnet, who had the best means of information, says, ‘Though he had once agreed to it, yet would not come.’ Lord Clarendon, in his Diary, 3rd January 1688–9, writes, that the archbishop expressed to him on that day his determination neither to call on William nor even to send to him (Clarendon Correspond. vol. ii. p. 240); and this resolution appears to have been taken deliberately: ‘he was careful not to do it, for the reasons he formerly gave me.’
[701] See the account given by his chaplain Wharton, in D'Oyly's Life of Sancroft, p. 259, where it is stated that the archbishop was very irate (‘vehementer excandescens’), and told him, ‘that he must thenceforward desist from offering prayers for the new king and queen, or else from performing the duties of his chapel.’ See also Birch's Life of Tillotson, p. 144. Thus too the Bishop of Norwich declared ‘that he would not pray for King William and Queen Mary.’ Clarendon Correspond. vol. ii. p. 263. The same spirit was universal among the high-church clergy; and when public prayers were offered up for the king and queen, they were called by the nonjurors ‘the immoral prayers,’ and this became a technical and recognized expression. Life of Ken, by a Layman, vol. ii. pp. 648, 650.
[702] Lathbury's Hist. of the Nonjurors, p. 45; D'Oyly's Sancroft, p. 260.
[703] Nairne's Papers mention, in 1693, ‘six hundred ministers who have not taken the oaths.’ Macpherson's Orig. Papers, vol. i. p. 459.
[704] The only friends William possessed among the clergy were the low-churchmen, as they were afterwards called; and it is supposed that they formed barely a tenth of the entire body in 1689: ‘We should probably overrate their numerical strength, if we were to estimate them at a tenth part of the priesthood.’ Macaulay's Hist. of England, vol. iii. p. 74.
[705] The earliest allusion I have seen to the injury the clergy were inflicting on the church, by their conduct after the arrival of William, is in Evelyn's Diary, vol. iii. p. 273,—a curious passage, gently hinting at the ‘wonder of many,’ at the behaviour of ‘the Archbishop of Canterbury, and some of the rest.’ With Evelyn, who loved the church, this was an unpleasant subject; but others were less scrupulous; and in parliament, in particular, men did not refrain from expressing what must have been the sentiments of every impartial observer. In the celebrated debate, in January 1688–9, when the throne was declared vacant, Pollexfen said: ‘Some of the clergy are for one thing, some for another; I think they scarce know what they would have.’ Parl. Hist. vol. v. p. 55. In February, Maynard, one of the most influential members, indignantly said: ‘I think the clergy are out of their wits; and I believe, if the clergy should have their wills, few or none of us should be here again.’ Ibid. vol. v. p. 129. The clergy were themselves bitterly sensible of the general hostility; and one of them writes, in 1694: ‘The people of England, who were so excessively enamoured of us when the bishops were in the tower, that they hardly forbore to worship us, are now, I wish I could say but cool and very indifferent towards us.’ Somers Tracts, vol. ix. p. 525. The growing indignation against the clergy, caused by their obvious desire to sacrifice the country to the interests of the church, is strikingly displayed in a letter from Sir Roland Gwyne, written in 1710, and printed in Macpherson's Orig. Papers, vol. ii. p. 207.