Much was thus deferred for the present; nevertheless, an Act speedily passed, allowing present incumbents with undisputed titles to retain their livings, yet restoring to his preferment every clergyman who had been ejected under the Commonwealth, if he claimed re-induction, provided he had not been implicated in the death of Charles I., and had not discountenanced infant baptism.[108]
1660.
In consequence of this, many clergymen, including Presbyterians and Congregationalists, were immediately displaced, and dispersed Episcopalians came back to their former abodes.[109] It is easier to imagine than to describe the excitement attending this change. Not only did sorrow fill the dismissed and joy inspire the reinstated, but congregations, in many cases, deplored the contrast between the former and the present occupant of the pulpit; whilst, also, many a squire and yeoman hailed the reappearance of the Prayer Book, and welcomed home some genial incumbent after his long and weary exile. Unseemly contests were renewed in the House of God, such as had been witnessed at the outbreak of the Civil Wars. As a Presbyterian at Halifax began worship in his usual manner, the Episcopalian Vicar made his appearance at the Church door, with the Prayer Book under his arm, and marching up the aisle, clothed in his surplice, insisted upon entering the desk, after which he read the Litany and sung the Te Deum. Joyous peals of bells accompanied the return of the old clergy, and texts were selected expressive of natural feelings on the occasion. One discoursed upon the sufferings of himself and his brethren from the words, "The ploughers ploughed upon my back; they made long their furrows. The Lord is righteous; he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked." Another, in a milder spirit, selected this verse, "He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." An itinerating lecturer, with an income of £50 a year, chose as a Restoration motto, "Let him take all;" which, upon his losing his appointment, gave "occasion for a shrewd taunt of the adversary."[110] Parish registers contain curious memorials of the period. Thus one clergyman records his own story:—"Memorandum, That John Whitford, Rector of Ashen, alias Ashton, in the County of Northampton, was plundered and sequestered by a Committee of rebels, sitting at Northampton, for his loyalty to his gracious sovereign, of blessed memory, Charles I., in the year of our Lord 1645, and was restored to his said Rectory in the twelfth year of the reign of Charles II., in the year 1660."[111]
ECCLESIASTICAL PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT.
The Liturgy was reintroduced. It had been used in the service at Canterbury Cathedral upon the occasion of the King's visit to that city, on his way to London; and earlier still in the House of Lords, two days after he had been proclaimed. It appeared in the Royal Chapel immediately after his taking possession of Whitehall; and Evelyn, on the 8th of July, records, that the Prayer Book was publicly read in "churches, whence it had been for so many years banished." In a number of parishes, however, between the Restoration and Bartholomew's day, 1662, ministers continued to carry on worship as they had done before; either following the Directory or engaging in prayer as they pleased.
1660.
II. Parliament took up in detail a variety of business connected with the restoring of Cathedral and parochial edifices, the recovering of what had been taken away, the reinstating of things in their former condition, and the removing of alterations made by Nonconformists. For example: upon a report from the Lords, appointed to compose differences in the City of Exeter, it was ordered that certain churches, of which a list is given, should be repaired at the charge of the respective parishioners, and that all the bells, plate, utensils, and materials, formerly belonging to those buildings, should be delivered to the Churchwardens:—that money still unpaid for their purchase should not be paid; and that bonds for payment should be given up; and that the Chamber of Exeter should forthwith, at their own charge, take away the partition wall built in the Cathedral, and the new-built seats in the Choir, all the materials whereof were to be employed towards "the making up again the churches which were defaced."[112]
ECCLESIASTICAL PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT.
III. Petitions came from the Universities, and the Upper House ordered the Chancellors to take care that the Colleges should be governed according to their statutes, and that persons unjustly ejected should be restored to office.[113] Commissioners also were Royally appointed to hear and determine all questions of claim, and they were engaged through the months of August and September in restoring such as were eligible to their former position as Fellows and Heads of Houses. University honours were offered largely to such as professed attachment to Episcopacy, and a numerous creation in all faculties ensued.[114] Oxford and Cambridge immediately witnessed great changes. Restored Episcopalians occupied the places of the ejected, and the ancient forms of worship were at once resumed. The use of the surplice in Parish Churches, by the Royal Declaration of the 25th of October, fully noticed hereafter, was left at the option of incumbents; but it was enjoined upon those who officiated in the Royal Chapel, in Cathedrals, in Collegiate Churches, or in Colleges of the Universities.[115] Yet, we learn from a letter written by Thomas Smith, at Christ's College, Cambridge, November 2nd, 1660, that the Puritanical party were still powerful there. "In your College," says the writer, addressing Sancroft, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, "half the Society are for the Liturgy and half against it; so it is read one week and the Directory used another; but till the Directory be laid aside, I believe no surplices will be worn."[116]
During the progress of these measures, signs appeared in the House of Commons of changes in the relative position of parties which could not but entail important consequences.