How far this petition, which points to the alarming increase of the Anabaptists, might influence certain proceedings of the same year, it is a fact, that a law for the suppression of Nonconformity soon afterwards appeared. Charles, when proroguing Parliament in the month of July, 1663, had promised a further measure against Conventicles. The recent Act of Uniformity had rendered the Dissenting clergy liable to three months' imprisonment if they publicly preached; but it had not directly touched the case of laymen, except so far as schoolmasters were concerned. Through the application of Elizabeth's Act of Uniformity, and of other laws for repressing civil disaffection, laymen, frequenting Conventicles, became liable to penalties; but the Conventicle Act, now to be described, aimed, by a direct and decisive blow, at crushing for ever the nests of sedition. It was passed in the month of May.[447] It recognized the Act of Elizabeth as still in force; and it provided, that no person of sixteen, or upwards, should be present at any assembly of five, or more, under colour of religion "in other manner than is allowed by the Liturgy;" and that every such offender should, for the first offence, be imprisoned for a period not exceeding three months, or pay five pounds; for the second offence, be imprisoned not exceeding six months, or pay ten pounds; and, for a third offence, be transported, for seven years, to any foreign plantation (Virginia and New England only excepted); the goods of the offenders to be distrained for the charges of transportation, or his service made over as a labourer for five years. The payment of one hundred pounds would discharge from such imprisonment and transportation; and such a fine was to be appropriated for the repair of churches and highways. Escape before transportation subjected the victim to death. Power was given to prevent Conventicles being held, or, if held, to dissolve them. Any one who allowed a meeting in a house or outhouse, in woods or grounds, incurred the same penalties as the attendants. Gaolers were forbidden to allow offenders to remain at large, or to permit any person to join them. The houses of Peers were exempted from search, except by Royal warrant, or in the presence of a Lieutenant, a Deputy-Lieutenant, or two Magistrates. Quakers, for refusing to take oaths, were to suffer transportation. Noblemen, if they offended against the law, were, in the first two instances, to pay double fines—and in the third instance to be tried by their peers.[448]
The Bill proceeded upon the principle, already established by the Act of Uniformity, that Nonconformist clergymen were incompetent to preach; and it laid down another principle, a legitimate corollary of the former, that Nonconformist laymen were, as such, incompetent to worship. The intolerant measure would seem to have passed the two Houses with little or no discussion, as not any notice is taken in the Parliamentary History of speeches delivered upon the occasion; and Clarendon remarks, that, at this time, there was great order and unanimity in debates, and Parliament despatched more business of public importance and consequence than it had done before, in twice the time.[449]
1664.
As we examine the Act, we cannot help calling to mind the ordinance of the Long Parliament in 1646, forbidding the use of the Prayer Book "in any private place or family." Here, as in other cases, are seen the footsteps of avenging Deities; and, as is their wont, they meted out penalties exceeding the original offence. In this case, fines of five pounds and ten pounds, indeed, just equalled the pecuniary mulcts of Presbyterian law; but the one year's imprisonment, without bail or mainprise, threatened by the Long Parliament against a third offence, was now thrown into the shade by the enactment—first, of a penalty of transportation for seven years, in cases where means did not exist for paying the sum of one hundred pounds; and next, of capital punishment, in case of the convicted Conventicler being caught after making his escape.
The difference in some respects, the similarity in others, between the principles upon which the Anglican politicians proceeded in their conduct towards Puritans, and the principles upon which the Puritan politicians had proceeded in reference to Anglicans, has been little, if at all, noticed. As to the difference, the Conventicle Act regarded Conventicles simply as seditious, it punished men for religious convictions, under pretence of preventing rebellion; on the other hand the Long Parliament and Oliver Cromwell had forbidden the use of the Prayer Book, in order to break up assemblies for worship held by persons who, not without reason, were suspected of political disaffection. There was a further difference—Clarendon and his party sought to establish uniformity by the use of the Anglican Liturgy; the Presbyterians had aimed at their uniformity through a prohibition of that Liturgy, not by any enforcement, under penalties, of the Westminster Directory. The Anglican law was prescriptive; the Puritan prohibitive. But there is involved in all this a general resemblance between the two. Neither appears thoroughly straightforward; each is exceedingly intolerant; and both aim at doing one thing, under pretence of doing something else. Yet let it not be forgotten, that while there is little to choose between them in point of principle, the extent to which persecution was carried, under Charles and his brother James, immensely exceeded anything reached under the Long Parliament, or under Oliver Cromwell.
CONVENTICLE ACT.
The new law was ordained to take effect after the 1st of July; but formidable difficulties in the way of its execution presented themselves as the time approached, arising from political disaffection, from the numbers of Nonconformists, and from the sympathy which their more tolerant neighbours felt with them in the sufferings which they endured.
"The Quakers, Anabaptists, and Fifth Monarchy men," it is stated, in the month of June, "will meet more daringly after the time limited in the Act, and say they will neither pay money nor be banished. They have solicited others of different persuasions to join them in opposing the Act, and they get encouragement, though no promises. If dealt with severely, a body of 10,000 would rise, and demand fulfilment of the King's Declaration for liberty of conscience. They say, if their spirit of suffering be turned into a spirit of action, woe to those who stand in their way. Other Sectaries resolve to keep to the limits of the Act, and increase their number as they can safely. The hopes of a war with the Dutch, fermented by spies at Court, dispose the desperadoes to dangerous resolutions."[450] This is the representation of an enemy, and cannot be trusted for accuracy in particulars; but, so far as a general determination to persevere in worship is concerned, probably the writer is perfectly correct, and the whole drift of his communication manifests the difficulty which was felt with regard to the anticipated execution of the new statute.
The Congregational Churches about Furness were reported as resolved to meet, notwithstanding the Act; and as wasting their money by rewards, and by maintaining prisoners, and other people, who absconded in order that they might not be cited to bear witness.[451]