Ere the House had been sitting two months, Bills were introduced of such a character as to prove, that, from the beginning of the Session, measures had been framed for bringing back the Church to the standard of former days, without making any concessions to Nonconformists. The Bills now about to be described, did not appear one after another, as expedients adopted for public safety in consequence of plots, real or suspected; but they constituted parts of one coherent and comprehensive method for re-establishing Episcopacy and crushing Dissent. They must be traced out distinctly.
I. A Bill for restoring the prelates to the Upper House was introduced to the Commons by "a gentleman of a Presbyterian family," and it met with little opposition. The ancient constitution of the Upper House could be successfully pleaded in its favour, but it involved the principle of a State Establishment of religion; and would, if discussed by voluntaries on the one hand, and by the advocates of a nationally-established Church on the other, raise the whole question as to the Christian legitimacy and the social justice of such an arrangement. It involved, also, the recognition of Prelacy as the most expedient, if not the most scriptural form of ecclesiastical government, and would thus present a momentous subject of controversy to Presbyterians. But few, if any, decided voluntaries could then be found in the House of Commons; the number of Presbyterians also was small, and their influence manifestly on the decline.
1661.
Upon the Bill reaching the Lords, some obstruction of a very different kind from that which, under other circumstances, might have been expected from the parties just named, arose from the Roman Catholic Earl of Bristol. He obtained an interview with the King and told him "that if this Bill should speedily pass, it would absolutely deprive the Catholics of all those graces and indulgence which he intended to them; for that the Bishops, when they should sit in the House, whatever their own opinions or inclinations were, would find themselves obliged, that they might preserve their reputation with the people, to contradict and oppose whatsoever should look like favour or connivance towards the Catholics: and therefore, if His Majesty continued his former gracious inclination towards the Roman Catholics, he must put some stop (even for the Bishops' own sakes) to the passing that Bill, till the other should be more advanced, which he supposed might shortly be done."[260] Charles listened, and desired the Earl to inform his friends in the House, that he "would be well pleased, that there should not be overmuch haste in the presenting that Bill for his Royal assent." Its progress was accordingly retarded in Committee, until the Chancellor decided the Monarch, who—veering from point to point, as influence brought to bear on him by his Courtiers varied, although, no doubt, he was in his heart more disposed to follow Bristol than Clarendon—at last consented that the Bill might be despatched. It passed at the end of the Session; and when the Parliament was adjourned at the end of July, and the Speaker in his robes, at the summons of the Black Rod, knelt before the enthroned Sovereign, the measure was the subject of emphatic reference in a speech filled with quaint conceits.[261]
PROCEEDINGS OF PARLIAMENT.
II. Next, in the course of proceedings, bearing upon religion, came the Bill for the well-governing of Corporations. It was early read, speedily committed, and largely discussed; and within a month of its being introduced, it passed the Lower House. The Lords amended it, and, according to the complaint of the Commons, changed "the whole body of the Bill." First read on the 19th of June, it did not receive the Royal assent until the 20th of December.[262] The Act required that all members of Corporations should, besides taking the Oath of Supremacy, swear that it is not lawful, under any pretence, to bear arms against the King, and that the Solemn League and Covenant was illegal. It also declared every one ineligible for a municipal office, who had not, within one year, received the Lord's Supper, according to the rites of the Church of England.
1661.
III. The House, on the 25th of June, appointed a Committee to report, how far the coercive power of Ecclesiastical Courts had been taken away, and to prepare a Bill for their restoration. The Bill provided that, although the High Commission had been abolished, Archbishops, Bishops, and other persons exercising ecclesiastical jurisdiction, should have their power restored as before, two provisions being subjoined—one forbidding the use of the ex officio oath, and another preserving the Royal Supremacy from abridgment. This Bill involved the further re-establishment of Episcopalianism. It does not appear that any debate was raised on that ground. The Bill passed, as if a matter of course; and together with the Bill, reinstating the Bishops, received the Royal assent before the end of July.[263] Thus within a few weeks, three measures were introduced, and two of them were carried, tending to repress Dissent and consolidate the Episcopalian Church. The fourth measure, which was central in point of importance, remains to be considered. Its origin and progress must be patiently followed.
PROCEEDINGS OF PARLIAMENT.
IV. Whilst many of the Episcopalian party assumed the existence of a legal obligation to use the Common Prayer, some Nonconformists adopted this curious line of argument: "That the Common Prayer Book, 5th and 6th of Edward VI., with some alterations made 1st of Elizabeth, was so established we know, but what that book was, or where it is, we cannot tell; it is apparent that the books ordinarily walking up and down are not so established."[264] It would seem as if this odd kind of objection secured some respect; for the first step towards a settlement of the question of worship is found in a resolution, by the House of Commons, that a Committee of all the members, who were of the Long Robe,[265] should view the several laws for confirming the Liturgy of the Church of England, and make search, whether the original Book of the Liturgy, annexed to the Act passed in the fifth and sixth years of the reign of King Edward VI., was still extant; they were also "to bring in a compendious Bill to supply any defect in the former laws, and to provide for an effectual conformity to the Liturgy of the Church for the time to come."