[551] Concilia, iv. 588. The returns are found among the Tenison MSS., Lambeth, No. 639. They include accounts of Conventicles in the dioceses of Canterbury, Chichester, Ely, Exeter, Llandaff, Lichfield and Coventry, Lincoln, London, Norwich, Winchester, Worcester, York, Chester, Carlisle, and St. Asaph. There were returns from some dioceses in 1665.
[552] Sheldon complained that he could not obtain the returns that he wanted. Lambeth MSS., August 16, 1669.
[553] Own Times, i. 258. "He told me he had a chaplain, that was a very honest man, but a very great blockhead, to whom he had given a living in Suffolk, that was full of that sort of people. He had gone about among them from house to house, though he could not imagine what he could say to them, for he said he was a very silly fellow; but that he believed his nonsense suited their nonsense, for he had brought them all to church; and in reward of his diligence, he had given him a bishopric in Ireland." Burnet gives the other report on the authority of a letter written by Sir Robert Murray. I may observe here, that party writers on both sides treat Burnet according to their prejudices; the one party believing implicitly everything he says to the disadvantage of the Church; the other party rejecting his evidence on this subject as utterly worthless. It appears to me that,—remembering Burnet's gossiping habits, and that he was a strong party man, and also noticing that he often tells his stories in a loose way, and, like Clarendon, writes down his recollections long after the time when the incidents he records had occurred—we ought to read him with great care, and not place implicit reliance upon his unsupported testimony. Yet, on the whole, Burnet appears to me to have been an honest man. His character will come under review in a future volume of this history, should I be permitted to complete it.
[554] Life and Times, iii. 46.
[555] Lords' Journals, March 26. Referring to a Royal journey at this period, Dalrymple says:—"It was intended that the King and the Duke should have gone to Dover together; but by an accident, Charles went alone. For all the Conventicles were to be shut up in London upon the ensuing Sunday, and the Duke was left behind to guard the City against riots, which were dreaded upon that occasion."—Dalrymple's Memoirs, vol. i. 31.
[556] 22 Car. II. cap. i. It appears from a letter written by Colbert to Louis XIV. that Charles had a political end in view in connection with the Act. "The King designs to make the last Act of Parliament against the meetings of the sectaries be observed; and he hopes that their disobedience will give him the easier means of increasing the force of his troops and coming speedily to the end he proposes." 6th June, 1670.—Dalrymple's Memoirs, vol. iii., App. 60.
[557] See Wilkins Concilia, iv. 589.
[558] See Popes Life of Ward, 67, 69.
[559] Calamy, ii. 333.
[560] The trial is given in State Trials; and in Sewel's History of Quakers, ii. 195 et seq. There is a draft letter in the State Paper Office. Entry Book, June 29th, 1670, addressed to Reynolds, Bishop of Norwich, and another in the Lambeth Library, dated July 6th (No. DCLXXIV. No. 24), which when brought together and compared show how the Act of Uniformity was evaded, and how combined efforts were made after the second Conventicle Act had passed to bring the Church of England into correspondence with the laws. The letters relate to a case of irregularity at Bury St. Edmunds, when fanatics were said to make use of the Church.