PROTESTANT OPPOSITION.
The storm of public indignation manifestly increased with the advance of time, and when the Duke of Buckingham traversed Yorkshire, raising recruits for his regiments, so jealous of Popery were the people there, that scarcely a man would enlist until he had gone with the recruiting officer and publicly taken the Holy Sacrament, as an evidence of his Protestantism. In the autumn, as the period returned for commemorating the frustration of Gunpowder Plot, the Pope with great solemnity was burnt in several places within the City of London, a barbarism which the Roman Catholic who reports the circumstance thought no nation but the Hollanders could have been guilty of, yet members of Parliament assisted on the occasion, but whether it proceeded from wine or from zeal the informant could not say. Bonfires blazed on the fifth of November all the way from Charing Cross to Whitechapel with a fury unknown for thirty years.[651]
As the next year opened, Charles consulted with the Bishops touching the subject of this immense excitement, assuring them of his readiness to do all in his power for the suppression of Popery, for which purpose he thought it fit to have the assistance and advice of the Right Reverend Fathers, and he wished them first to debate upon the subject amongst themselves, and then to inform him what best could be done for maintaining the interests of the Church of England, as by law established.[652]
1675.
Towards the close of the year 1675, the Protestant agitation received a new impulse from a debate in Parliament relative to an assault by a priest, named St. Germain, upon one Monsieur Luzancy, who, after being a French Jesuit, had become a minister of the Church of England. This zealous convert, preaching at the Savoy, had bitterly attacked the errors which he had repudiated, and, having printed his controversial sermon, he stated that he was visited by St. Germain, who, with three ruffians, forced him to sign a recantation of his faith. This story was told to Sir John Reresby, who immediately related it to the House of Commons.[653] Luzancy, examined by a Committee, added further particulars, inflaming the House to the last degree, by the statement that two French Protestant merchants, residing in the Metropolis, had received from their Popish neighbours a threat, that soon the streets of the City would flow with torrents of Protestant blood. Some immediate results of the excitement appeared in the House of Lords, where a Bill was introduced for encouraging monks and friars, in foreign parts, to forsake their convents; and in an order from the Commons to the Lord Chief Justice to issue his warrant for the apprehension of all Catholic priests.[654]
PROTESTANT OPPOSITION.
In the following summer, Popish books were seized at Stationers' Hall, by order of the Privy Council; and in the autumn, authority was given to watch the doors of the chapels allowed for the use of the Queen, and of the foreign ambassadors, and to observe such of His Majesty's subjects, not being in the service of those illustrious personages, as attended the service which was there performed. Those who watched were not to stop or question any as they went in, but they were to apprehend them instantly as they came out, and if that could not be accomplished, the names of such delinquents were to be ascertained and returned.[655] It may here be mentioned that, at the time when these measures were employed, Protestants formed the wildest estimates of the numbers of Papists. Some one reported that as many as 20,000 or 30,000 of them were living in the parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, yet in a survey, made by order of the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the year 1676, it is affirmed that, in this much-suspected parish, only 600 Papists could be found, and that not more than 11,870 were discovered in the whole province.[656]
1676.
PARLIAMENT.
Parliament, which in 1676 had been sitting fifteen years, at that time laboured under a very bad character. It was commonly said, that one-third of the Commons were dependent upon Government and the Court; that large bribes were paid for votes and speeches; and that the Lord Treasurer declared members came about him like so many jackdaws for cheese at the end of every session. Complaints were rife of the depression of trade, and of the embarrassment of the country, in consequence of the prolonged existence of the same House of Commons, whilst especial stress was laid upon the singular unreasonableness of a number of men being allowed for such a length of time to engross the representation of the people, and upon the advantages which would accrue, both to the Crown and the nation, from the calling of another Parliament. Some of these arguments were eloquently exhibited by the Earl of Shaftesbury, who had ends of his own to serve by a dissolution, since he trusted by means of it to be carried back to power; and in addition to political reasonings this clever politician held out to all sorts of religionists, hopes the most inconsistent—and, taken altogether, perfectly absurd—as bribes to secure their support of his policy in the approaching struggle. Careful to throw out a bait to the Church of England, by assuring her that a new Parliament would preserve her honours, her dignities, and her revenues, would make her a great protectrix, and asylum of Protestants throughout Europe, and would increase the maintenance of the Ministry in Corporations and large towns;—Shaftesbury also, strange to say, encouraged the Roman Catholics to expect deliverance from the pressure of penal laws under which they groaned, if they would also be contented, for the sake of their religion, to forego access to Court, promotion to office, and employment in arms.[657] Certainly the existing Parliament had shown an unconquerable hatred to Popery, and perhaps Romanists had more to fear than to hope from its continuance; and for this reason, amongst others, the Duke of York advocated a dissolution, and appeared, to that extent, amongst the supporters of the Earl. The Earl at the same time threw out his nets so very wide as to aim at catching Dissenters, telling them that whereas they had suffered so much of late from persecuting laws, a new House of Commons would procure them "ease, liberty, and protection." He had, ever since he parted with the Great Seal in 1673, professed the utmost love for Protestantism, and had been proclaimed by its zealots as the saviour of the faith; it being profanely said that wherever the Gospel should be preached that which he had done should be told as a memorial of him.[658] And now, influenced by the incredibly high religious reputation of this Protean statesman, also, in all probability moved by his flatterers, certainly bound to him by party ties, the virtuous Lord Wharton took his place amongst the helpers of "the chief engineer," as the Duke of York styled the Ex-Chancellor. Upon a debate respecting an address to His Majesty to dissolve Parliament, His Royal Highness and Lord Wharton joined with the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Shaftesbury in supporting it, the non-contents carrying their point only by a majority of two.[659]