JAMES THE SECOND.

49

terror, tlie -whole Church seemed to be animated by the c yff-spirit, and guided by the counsels, of the calumniated Lati- 1687 _tudinarians.

Then followed an auction, the strangest that history has™ d e 5°“ rtrecorded. On one side the King, on the other the Church, Church,began to bid eagerly against each other for the favour of thosewhom up to that time King and Church had combined to op-press. The Protestant Dissenters, who, a few months be-fore, had been a despised and proscribed class, now held thebalance of power. The harshness with which they had beentreated was universally.condemned. The court tried to throwall the blame on the hierarchy. The hierarchy flung it backon the court. The King declared that he had unwillingly per-secuted the separatists only because his affairs had been insuch a state that he could not venture to disoblige the estab-lished clergy. The established clergy protested that theyhad borne a part in severity uncongenial to their feelings onlyfrom deference to the authority of the King. The King gottogether a collection of stories about rectors and vicars whohad by threats of prosecution wrung money out of ProtestantDissenters. He talked on this subject much and publicly,threatened to institute an inquiry which would exhibit the par-sons in their true character to the whole world, and actuallyissued several commissions empowering agents on whom hethought that he could depend to ascertain the amount of thesums extorted in different parts of the country by professors ofthe dominant religion from sectaries. The advocates of theChurch, on the other hand, cited instances of honest parishpriests who had been reprimanded and menaced by the courtfor recommending toleration in the pulpit, and for refusing tospy out and hunt down little congregations ofNonconformists.

The King asserted that some of the Churchmen whom he hadcloseted had offered to make large concessions to the Catho-lics, on condition that the persecution of the Puritans mightgo on. The accused Churchmen vehemently denied the truthof this charge; and alleged that, if they would have compliedwith what he demanded for his own religion, he would mostMacaulay, History. HI. 4