As at St. James’, so at Whitehall, the King provided a Roman Catholic Chapel.[163] He encouraged the fitting up of a similar place of worship at the residence of an Englishman in London, who acted as Envoy for the Elector Palatine. The Benedictines established themselves at St. James’, the Franciscans in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, the Jesuits at the Savoy, and the Carmelites in the City; and Roman Catholics are accused of having seized some of the parish churches in Lancashire.[164]
JAMES’ POLICY.
The religious orders of Rome, arrayed in their distinguishing costumes, now appeared in the streets of the Metropolis,—a sight which must have shocked the old Puritans—but in such exhibitions the King greatly rejoiced, prematurely exulting “that his capital had the appearance of a Catholic city.”[165]
If the facts adduced be not sufficient to indicate the King’s intentions, any remaining doubts must be dispelled by turning to his private correspondence. The letters of the last two years of his reign serve the same purpose as the letters of Charles I. in the year 1646. They fully reveal his private designs, whatever, on certain occasions, he might publicly declare. They repeatedly refer to the “establishment” of the Catholic religion—which means, in the judgment of one of the calmest of critics, that he “meditated no less than to transfer to his own religion the privileges of an Established Church.”[166] What is now so manifest from this correspondence, Halifax, Nottingham, and Danby, perceived at the time, and though they differed from each other on many points they agreed on this.
1686.
Sunderland thoroughly engaged himself on behalf of the interests of Popery, and communicated, without reserve, the Royal intentions to Barillon, the French representative at the Court of St. James’. “This minister,” wrote Barillon to Louis XIV., “said to me, I do not know if they see things in France as they are here, but I defy those who see them near, not to know, that the King, my master, has nothing so much at heart as to establish the Catholic religion; that he cannot, even according to good sense and right reason, have any other end; that without it he will never be in safety, and always exposed to the indiscreet zeal of those who will heat the people against the Catholic religion as long as it is not fully established.”[167] Another fact at the time is significant. The oath administered to Privy Councillors included the words, “I shall to my utmost defend all jurisdictions, pre-eminencies, and authorities, granted to His Majesty, and annexed to his Crown by Act of Parliament, or otherwise, against all foreign Princes, Persons, Prelates, States, or Potentates.” But this part of the oath, it is stated, was by the Royal order expunged from the Council-book.[168] In addition to all these circumstances, James availed himself of the religious sympathies of the Irish people, to establish a Roman Catholic hierarchy amongst them, assigning to the Primate a revenue of £2,000 a year, and he authorized the clergy to wear in public the habits belonging to their order.[169]
JAMES’ POLICY.
It must be confessed that the King met with much in the preaching of the Protestant clergy to encourage his fondest hopes. A Chaplain to the Bishop of Ely maintained the immaculate holiness of the Virgin, and the necessity for seeking her intercession. Also, a Popish priest, in a sermon at Court, proclaimed himself as an ambassador sent from heaven to admonish the King to extirpate heresy, and to plant in the kingdom the true grace of God.[170]
Encouragement of another kind presented itself. Conversions to Popery became numerous. The Earl of Peterborough and the Earl of Salisbury both embraced the faith patronized by royalty; the first described as a worn-out Courtier, the second as a worn-out sensualist. Sir Ellis Leighton, brother of the good Archbishop of that name, recanted the Protestantism of his youth; and Sir Christopher Milton, a Judge, brother of John Milton, the poet, if he did not do the same thing, at any rate scrupled to communicate with the Church of England, in consequence of Popish leanings. The lady of Sir Thomas Grosvenor, “the Elizabeth Ebury, who brought the Westminster estates into his family,” and the Lady Theophila, wife of Robert Nelson, both joined the Papal communion; and Samuel Pepys, tells us in his Diary, that he did not press his wife to attend the parish church, lest she should “declare herself a Catholic.” Dryden, the poet, a man who perhaps cared little about religion, Wycherley, the licentious dramatist, Haines, an utterly worthless adventurer, and Tindal, who afterwards wrote against Christianity, also seceded from the Church of the Reformation to the Church of the Council of Trent.[171]
1687.