The secrets of that Committee have not been disclosed. It is remarkable that it included a decided Nonconformist in Lord Wharton, one still favourable to Nonconformity in the Earl of Manchester, and two Bishops who had been Presbyterians—Gauden, the Bishop of Exeter,[315] and Reynolds, Bishop of Norwich,—to say nothing of the Duke of Albemarle, who had been identified both with Independents and with Presbyterians. These persons formed but a small minority in a Committee which consisted altogether of above thirty members; and they formed but a feeble minority compared with such powerful men as Sheldon, Bishop of London, Cosin, Bishop of Durham, Morley, then Bishop of Worcester, and Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln. Was the opposition of the small minority violently overborne? or did the small minority tamely submit? Wharton was the only man likely to make much resistance.
UNIFORMITY BILL.
The Earl of Bridgwater reported on the 13th of March, "divers amendments and alterations," stating that they related to the Book recommended by the King, and not to the Book brought up from the House of Commons. The alterations in the Book were read before reading the amendments to the Bill.
Two days after the report had been delivered, the business was completed; the Peers had caught the spirit of Convocation, and, by their haste now, had made up for lost time. Clarendon took occasion to thank the Bishops for their revision of the Book in Convocation, and requested them to thank their clerical brethren of the Lower House. The preamble to the Bill received approval upon the 17th of March, when the Minister just mentioned communicated a message from His Majesty, and read a proviso which he wished to be inserted. The House, evidently startled at the wish, requested him to read the proviso a second time. This being done, the matter stood over for consideration until the following day. The Journals are silent as to the nature of this proviso; but a despatch by De Wiquefort, the Dutch Minister, explains the matter. Amongst the gossip which he details to his Court—how in a chest belonging to Henry Marten, was found a memoir by the French Ambassador, full of the praises of the Commonwealth; how the Irish Catholics were getting into trouble because they had been negotiating with Rome to the King's prejudice; how they were forbidden to present any request; how their agent was not allowed to appear at Court; and how the Chancellor had a strong party formed against him;—the writer communicates an important fact, which solves the enigma left by the Journals. The Chancellor, says De Wiquefort, informed the Lords that the King wanted a power to be inserted in the Act of Uniformity, enabling him to relieve clergymen from an obligation to wear the surplice and to make the sign of the cross.[316] From this information it appears that Charles, even at this early period, aimed at a dispensing power, a power which, before the close of the year, he eagerly endeavoured to grasp. The Lords, however, were jealous of the interference of the Crown in sending such a message as had been delivered by Clarendon; and they questioned whether a resolution ought not to be entered on the Journals in reference to it, fearing lest their privileges might be endangered by their going so far as even to take such a subject into consideration. The 19th of March found the Bill recommitted, including the Royal proviso and the several amendments.
1662.
The amendments consisted of certain additions to the preamble—of the connection with the Prayer Book of the Psalms of David, as they were to be said or sung in churches; of the form of ordaining and consecrating Bishops, Priests, and Deacons;—of the substitution of the feast of St. Bartholomew for Michaelmas, as the time when the Act should come in force;—of the insertion of a new form, according to that adopted by Convocation, declaring "unfeigned assent and consent" not only as originally prepared to the use of the Book, but to all and everything it contained and prescribed; and of an additional form, repudiating the Solemn League and Covenant. Both these forms required subscription. A further amendment rendered it necessary, that every minister of the Church of England should be episcopally ordained, and that licenses from Bishops should be secured by all who undertook the office of Lecturers.[317]
UNIFORMITY BILL.
Some of the amendments occasioned little or no debate, a circumstance which surprises us when we consider the Puritan tendencies of certain Lords. The points which chiefly occupied attention were—first, the requirement of Episcopal ordination as a sine quâ non; and, secondly, the imposition of the form which repudiated the Covenant. The debates on these questions, so far as they can be recovered, will now be given.
I. It was argued by some who retained Puritan sympathies, that the first of these requirements was not in accordance with what had "been the opinion of the Church of England,—and that it would lay a great reproach upon all other Protestant Churches, who had no Bishops; as if they had no ministers, and, consequently, were no Churches:—for, that it was well known, the Church of England did not allow reordination, as the ancient Church never admitted it; insomuch, as if any priest of the Church of Rome renounces the communion thereof, his ordination is not questioned, but he is as capable of any preferment in this Church, as if he had been ordained in it. And, therefore, the not admitting the ministers of other Protestant Churches, to have the same privilege, can proceed from no other ground than that they looked not upon them as ministers, having no ordination; which is a judgment the Church of England had not ever owned, and that it would be very imprudent to do it now."
1662.