38

HISTOKY Off ENGLAND.

CHAP.

VII.

1687 .

granted to Roman Catholics. All the laws which bore hardest■ on the Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists, had beenfor a time severely executed by him. While Hales commandeda regiment, while Powis sate at the Council board, whileMassey held a deanery, while breviaries and mass books wereprinted at Oxford under a royal license, while the host waspublicly exposed in London under the protection of the pikesand muskets of the foot-guards, while friars and monks walkedthe streets of London in their robes, Baxter was in gaol; Howewas in exile; the Five Mile Act and the Conventicle Act werein full vigour; Puritan writers were compelled to resort toforeign or to secret presses; Puritan congregations could meetonly by night or in waste places, and Puritan ministers wereforced to preach in the garb of colliers or of sailors. In Scot-land the King, while he spared no exertion to extort fromthe Estates full relief forltoman Catholics, had demanded andobtained new statutes of unprecedented severity against thePresbyterians. His conduct to the exiled Huguenots had notless clearly indicated his feelings. We have seen that, whenthe public munificence had placed in his hands a large sum forthe relief of those unhappy men, he, in violation of every lawof hospitality and good faith, required them to renounce theCalvinistic ritual to which they were strongly attached, and toconform to the Church of England, before he would dole outto them any portion of the alms which had been entrusted tohis care.

Such had been his policy as long as he could cherish anyhope that the Church of England would consent to share as-cendency with the Church of Rome. That hope at one timeamounted to confidence. The enthusiasm with which theTories had hailed his accession, the elections, the dutiful lan-guage and ample grants of his Parliament, the suppression ofthe Western insurrection, thecompleteprostration of the partywhich had attempted to exclude him from the crown, elatedhim beyond the bounds of reason. He felt an assurance thatevery obstacle would give way before his power and his re-solution. His Parliament withstood him. He tried the effectsof frowns and menaces. Frowns and menaces failed. He tried