As the great Revolution under William I. was perfected by the Coronation at Westminster on Christmas-day, 1066, so the great Revolution under William III. was perfected by the Coronation in the same place on the 11th of April, 1689. In both cases certain religious rites were necessary to the completeness of the new Monarch’s inauguration, but in both cases they were celebrated only as a solemn ratification of a choice made by the national voice. It is curious to notice, that in addition to the coincidence of names in the case of the authors of the two most momentous revolutionary successions to the English crown, there is a further coincidence: each arrived on the southern shores of England as an invader, and then became the choice of the people; and neither of them rested on the right of conquest as the basis of power.
COMPREHENSION.
At the time when the Allegiance and Coronation Oaths were under discussion, two other important subjects, immediately connected with Ecclesiastical History, occupied Parliamentary attention. The one was the widening of admission into the Church, the other was the concession to Dissenters of liberty to worship according to conviction: both measures had been repeatedly taken up and repeatedly laid down during the reign of Charles II.
The steps in reference to Comprehension may be conveniently considered first.
The Primate Sancroft, it is alleged,[126] looked favourably in that direction, amidst the excitement to liberal feeling, which sprung up on the eve of the Revolution: certainly at the beginning of the year 1689, Lloyd, the Bishop of St. Asaph, Tillotson, Dean of Canterbury, Sharp, Dean of Norwich, and Dr. Tenison, met at the house of Stillingfleet, Dean of St. Paul’s, as we are informed by Patrick, Prebendary of Westminster—who was present on the occasion—to consult about such concessions as might bring in Dissenters to communion, “for which,” Patrick says, “the Bishop of St. Asaph told us, he had the Archbishop of Canterbury’s leave. We agreed that a Bill should be prepared, to be offered by the Bishops, and we drew up the matter of it in ten or eleven heads.”[127] Coincident with the time when such proposals were sufficiently matured to be laid before Parliament, but not coincident with the particular purpose and method which these and other Divines had in view, was the publication of a draft, by some irresponsible person, for the universal accommodation of Dissenters, and the bringing of all parties into communion with the Established Church. This scheme, which bore the title of an amicable reconciliation, soon dropped into the limbo of quixotic plans, but it made some noise at the time, and is sufficiently curious to be worth a few words.
1689.
Amidst existing religious differences the principle is laid down that as there is one Catholic Church under Christ, so there must be many local Churches framed after some type of political organization. The Church of England is of the latter kind, placed under the government of King and Bishops. This Church requires a change. It wants comprehensiveness. Now, a distinction exists between tolerable and intolerable religions. Intolerable religions are set aside, but all tolerable religions, it is affirmed, ought not only to be legalized, but incorporated in the Establishment. Bishops should be King’s officers, to act circa sacra; and those now called Dissenters should be eligible for such an office, with power to supervise all parties, in order to the keeping of them in harmony with their own principles, so as not to disturb the peace of others.[128] This scheme included a provision that Ecclesiastical laws should be enacted by a Convocation, including non-episcopal members, or by the two Houses of Parliament.
A Bill “for uniting their Majesties’ Protestant subjects” was introduced in the House of Lords by the Earl of Nottingham on the 11th of March, and that day received its first reading. Upon the 14th it was read a second time and committed; and at the same sitting there was introduced by the same nobleman, and entrusted to the same Committee, another Bill, entitled “An Act for exempting their Majesties’ Protestant subjects, dissenting from the Church of England, from the penalties of certain laws.” Two measures, intimately connected with each other, and embodying opinions and wishes long cherished, were thus launched side by side, destined to meet different fates. Debated by the Lords with considerable sharpness, the Bill for uniting Protestants was narrowly watched by people outside, of different sentiments; and when no regular system existed for reporting speeches, fragments of senatorial oratory were casually picked up and preserved from oblivion by diarists and others; a person who looked at the subject from a dissenting point of view thus recorded what he learnt:
COMPREHENSION.
The Bill was thought by some not “large enough to comprehend the sober sort of Dissenters, for it did not grant to them some of the great points they had always and still did insist upon; and if it were thought the true interest of the Church and State to comprehend them, they must enlarge that Bill.”