UNIFORMITY BILL.
1662.
The MS. volume, copied from the printed Book of Common Prayer, of the edition of 1636, and altered according to the decisions of Convocation, was with the printed Book attached to the Act.[337]
CHAPTER XI.
The Bill received the Royal assent upon the 19th of May. Perhaps the reader will not be wearied with an account of the ceremony, and of the speeches delivered at the time.
His Majesty occupied the throne in Royal magnificence. The Lord Chancellor took his place on the woolsack. On the right side, below the throne, sat the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of Durham, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, and other prelates, including Reynolds of Norwich, who could scarcely, with comfort, have witnessed the proceedings of that day. Neither Sheldon nor Morley was present. On the left side, at the upper end of the Chamber, were the Lord Treasurer, the Lord Privy Seal, and three Dukes—Buckingham, Richmond, and Albemarle. The Marquis of Winchester sat by Albemarle's side, and below came twenty-six Earls, one Viscount, and thirty-six Barons. The Commons appeared at the bar, with the Speaker of the House, who delivered a highly rhetorical speech.
1662.
The King, after giving his assent, delivered a curious homily upon the extravagant habits of the people, without saying one word about the Act of Uniformity—after which Clarendon pronounced a long oration, in the course of which he observed, "the execution of these sharp laws depends upon the wisdom of the most discerning, generous, and merciful Prince, who, having had more experience of the nature and humour of mankind than any Prince living, can best distinguish between the tenderness of conscience and the pride of conscience, between the real effects of conscience and the wicked pretences to conscience—a Prince of so excellent a nature and tender a conscience himself, that he hath the highest compassion for all errors of that kind, and will never suffer the weak to undergo the punishment ordained for the wicked."[338]