Nor let Thomas Stanley, a minister who had been ejected from the living of Eyam, be forgotten. He could not preach to the people whom he loved; but by visitation, advice, and prayer, he sought to promote their temporal and spiritual interests. Some looked with jealousy upon his efforts, and endeavoured to persuade the Earl of Devonshire to remove him from the place; but, whoever they were, the Earl was his friend, declaring it much more reasonable that the whole country should testify their thankfulness to such a spiritual benefactor.
These are instances of activity. There were also examples of endurance. Samuel Shaw, ejected from the rectory of Long Whatton, in Leicestershire, retired to the village of Coates, near Loughborough, and there engaged in agricultural pursuits for the support of his family. His fields were ripe for the sickle, the valleys were covered with corn, and the good man shared in Nature's joy, as he looked upon his quiet homestead, "little dreaming," as he tells us, "of the Plague, which was almost a hundred miles off." Some friends from London came down to see him, and brought the infection; soon the Plague-spot appeared, and touched one after another of his household, until all were smitten, and the farm-cottage became a pest-house. The master of the dwelling shut himself up for three months, tending the sick as far as his own health permitted; for he himself suffered from the fearful malady. Two of his children died, one of his servants died, two of his friends from London died: five out of ten were thus cut off. Yet, although enfeebled by sickness, having no one besides himself to perform the rites of sepulture, he turned his garden into a grave-yard, and with his own hands buried the dead.[477]
THE PLAGUE.
Driven from London by the Plague, the two Houses held their sittings in the Great Hall of Christ's Church, Oxford, where Charles I. had met his mock parliament.
The subject of the continued existence and of the alarming increase of Nonconformity again came upon the carpet. Instead of disinterested exertions, put forth by ejected ministers in a Plague-stricken country, being rewarded by commendation, jealousy was expressed respecting the manifestations of their zeal. It was odiously represented in parliamentary circles, that Dissenters in many places, "began to preach openly, not without reflecting on the sins of the Court, and on the ill-usage that they themselves had met with."[478] Prejudices were increased by reports to the effect, that Conventiclers in Scotland were bold and mutinous, and that they were supposed to have entered into treasonable correspondence with English Presbyterians;[479] at the same time, perhaps, circumstances pertaining to a new conflict with Holland, in which this country was then engaged, served to intensify these mischievous feelings.
1665.
The Dutch war, though not approved of by the King or by his Chancellor, found favour at Court with a party headed by the Duke of York, and was warmly supported by Parliament; besides which, an Act was passed for attainting the English who should continue to reside in Holland, or who should engage in the Dutch service.[480] Some of the fanatical Sectaries, it was alleged, entered that service, and were intending to take up arms against their King and their country; and, moreover, it was known that this war against the United Provinces incurred much unpopularity even with moderate Nonconformists. Influenced by such considerations, and also by reports, of which we have so many specimens, Archbishop Sheldon felt anxious to ascertain the numbers and the strength of these disaffected people—a project which he afterwards carried out, with results appearing at a later period. He not only issued orders, that Bishops should be careful what persons they received into the ministry: that in all things the canons concerning ordination should be observed: that all pluralists should be reported, with full particulars respecting their pluralities: that it should be certified to the Archbishop where lectures were set up, and who were the lecturers, and how they were "affected to the Government of His Majesty, and the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England:" but that information also should be returned respecting all schoolmasters and instructors of youth, and practisers of physic: and that the Bishops of his province should inform him what Nonconformist ministers in their dioceses had been ejected, what was their profession in life, and how they behaved themselves in relation to the peace and quiet, as well of the Church, as of the State; and also whether any such had removed from one diocese into another.[481]
FIVE MILE ACT.
Parliament now determined to deal another heavy blow at the obstinacy and insolence of Dissent. If there were in England people disposed to conspire against the Government, adequate means for detecting such persons existed: but, not satisfied with laws against treason, Parliament, under cover of putting an end to plots, passed a measure affecting men, against whom no reasonable suspicion whatever could be entertained.
The Five Mile Act—the measure to which we now refer—was passed in the month of October, 1665, and was entitled "An Act for restraining Nonconformists from inhabiting in corporations." It complained of persons taking upon themselves to preach to unlawful assemblies, under pretext of religion, in order to instil the poisonous principles of schism and rebellion into the hearts of His Majesty's subjects; and it imposed, more stringently than ever, the oath of non-resistance and passive obedience.