burdens, and lay them in gaols till they complied. The independents went up to court to speak for themselves, but the presbyterians refused; upon which Mr. Baxter says, the independent brethren thought it owing to them that they missed of their intended liberty.* The court being displea.. sed, lord Clarendon and bis friends took the opportunity to awaken their resentments, by fathering upon the nonconformists some new plots against the government. There was said to be a conspiracy in the North among the republicans and separatists, to restore the long parliament, and put Lambert and Ludlow at their head, though the former was shut up in prison in a remote island, and the other gone into banishment. There had been some unadvised and angry conversation among the meaner sort of people of republican principles, but it was not pretended that any gentleman of character, much less that the body of the English non-conformists, were acquainted with it; however, about twenty were tried and condemned at York and Leeds, and several executed. Some very mean persons were indicted at the Old-Bailey for a branch of the same design, as Tongue, Phillips, Stubbs, Hind, Sellars, and Gibbes: they were not tried separately, but set at the bar together, and condemned in the lump. It was pretended that the fifth monarchy men, anabaptists, independents, and some quakers, were consenting to some desperate designs, but the authors were never discovered; however, four of these pretended conspirators were executed, who confessed, at the place of execution, that they had heard some treasonable expressions in company, but denied to the last that they were acquainted with any conspiracy against the king; and whoever reads their trials will be inclined to think, that it was a design of those who were at the head of affairs, to inflame the populace against the nonconformists, in order to bring on them greater severities.†

An act was passed this summer for the relief of such persons as by sickness, or other impediments, were disabled from subscribing the declaration in the act of uniformity, and explanation of the said act. The preamble sets forth, "That divers persons of eminent loyalty, and known *Baxter's Life, part ii. p. 430, 3.

+ Kennet's Chron. p. 840, 1. Calamy, vol. i. p. 305. Rapin, p. 635.

affection to the liturgy of the church of England, were out of the kingdom; and others by reason of sickness, disability of body, or otherwise, could not subscribe within the time limited, and were therefore disabled, and ipso facto deprived of their prebendaries, or other livings, therefore further time is given them to the feast of the nativity of our Lord next ensuing; or if out of England, forty days after their return :"* Which shews, that the time limited by the act of uniformity was not sufficient. The journal of the house of lords mentions a clause inserted by their lordships, explaining the subscription and declaration to relate only to practice and obedience to the law, which passed the upper house, though several temporal lords protested against it, as destructive to the church of England; however, when it came down to the commons, the clause was rejected, and the lords did not think fit to insist upon its being restored.†

While the parliament were relieving the loyalists, they increased the burdens of the non-conformists, for under color of the late pretended plots, they passed an act for suppressing seditious conventicles; the preamble to which having set forth, that the sectaries, under pretence of tender consciences, at their meetings had contrived insurrections, the act declares the 35th of Queen Elizabeth to be in fall force, which condemns all persons refusing peremptorily to come to church, after conviction, to banishment, and in case of return to death, without benefit of clergy. It enacts further, "That if any person above the age of sixteen, after the first of July 1664, shall be present at any meeting, under color or pretence of any exercise of religion, in other manner than is allowed by the liturgy or practice of the church of England, where shall be five or more persons than the household,shall for the first offence suffer three months imprisonment, upon record made upon oath under the hand and seal of a justice of peace, or pay a sum not exceeding five pounds; for the second offence six months * 15 Car. II. cap. 6.

"Thus it is the declared sense of the legislature, that the unfeigned assent and consent relates not only to the use, but to the inward and entire approbation of all and every thing as expressed in the subscrip tion." Fowler's French Constitution, p. 352, note.

16 Car. II. cap. 4.

imprisonment, or ten pounds; and for the third offence the offender to be banished to some of the American plantations for seven years, excepting New-England and Virginia, or pay one hundred pounds; and in case they return, or make their escape, such persons are to be adjudged felons, and suffer death without benefit of clergy. Sheriff's, or justices of peace, or others commissioned by them, are empowered to dissolve, dissipate, and break up all unlawful conventicles, and to take into custody such of their number as they think fit. They who suffer such conventicles in their houses or barns are liable to the same forfeitures as other offenders. The prosecution is to be within three months. Married women taken at conventicles are to be imprisoned for twelve months, unless their husbands pay forty shillings for their redemption. This act to continue in force for three years after the next session of parliament."

This was a terrible scourge over the laity, put into the hands of a single justice of peace, without the verdict of a jury, the oath of the informer being sufficient. The design of the parliament (says Rapin) was to drive them to despair, and to force them into real crimes against the government. By virtue of this act the gaols in the several counties were quickly filled with dissenting protestants, while the papists had the good fortune to be covered under the wing of the prerogative. Some of the ministers who went to church in the sermon time, were disturbed for preaching to a few of their parishioners after the public service was over; their houses were broke open, and their hearers taken into custody; warrants were issued out for levying twenty pounds on the minister, twenty pounds upon the house, and five shillings upon each hearer. If the money was not immediatly paid, there was a seizure of their effects, the goods and wares were taken out of the shops; and in the country, cattle were driven away and sold for half the value. If the seizure did not answer the fine, the minister and people were hurried to prison, and held under close confinement for three or six months. The trade of an informer began to be very gainful, by the encouragement of the spiritual courts. At every quarter-sessions several were fined for not coming to church, and others excommunicated; nay, some have been sentenced to abjure the

realm, and fined in a sum much larger than all they were worth in the world.

Before the conventicle act took place the laity were courageous, and exhorted their ministers to preach till they went to prison; but when it came home to themselves, and they had been once in gaol, they began to be more cautious, and consulted among themselves, how to avoid the edge of the law in the best manner they could for this purpose their assemblies were frequently held at midnight, and in the most private places; and yet, notwithstanding all their caution, they were frequently disturbed; but it is remarkable, that under all their hardships they never made the least resistance, but went quietly along with the soldiers or officers, when they could not fly from them. The distress of so many families made some confine themselves within their own houses, some remove to the plantations, and others have recourse to occasional conformity, to avoid the penalty for not coming to church; but the independents, anabaptists, and quakers, declined the practice, for they said, If persecution was the mark of a false church, it must be absolutely unlawful to join with one that was so notoriously guilty.

Indeed the quakers gloried in their sufferings, and were so resolute as to assemble openly at the Bull and Mouth near Aldersgate, from whence the soldiers and other officers dragged them to prison, till Newgate was filled, and multitudes died by close confinement in the several gaols. The account published about this time says, there were six hundred of them in prison, merely for religion sake, of whom several were banished to the plantations. Sometimes the quakers met and continued silent, upon which it was questioned, whether such an assembly was a conventicle for religious exercise; and when some were tried for it in order to banishment, they were acquitted of the banishment, and came off with a fine, which they seldom paid, and were therefore continued in prison.† In short the quakers about London gave such full employment to the informers, that they had less leisure to attend the meetings of other dissenters.

Baxter's Life, part ii. p. 436.

Sewel, p. 445.

Baxter's Life, part ii. p. 436

So great was the severity of these times, and the arbitrary proceedings of the justices, that many were afraid to pray in their families, if above four of their acquaintance who came only to visit them were present. Some families scrupled asking a blessing on their meat, if five strangers were at table. In London, where the houses join, it was thought the law might be evaded if the people met in several houses, and heard the minister through a window or hole in the wall; but it seems this was over-ruled, the determination being (as has been observed) in the breast of a single mercenary justice of peace. And while conscientious people were thus oppressed, the common people gave themselves up to drunkenness, profane swearing, gaming, lewd. ness, and all kinds of debauchery, which brought down the judgments of heaven upon the nation.

The first general calamity that befel the kingdom was a war with the Dutch, which the king entered into this winter, by the instigation of the young French monarch Lewis XIV. who being grown rich by a long peace, sought for an opportunity to make new conquests in the Spanish Flanders; for this purpose be engaged the maratime powers in a war, that by weakening each other's hands they might not be at leisure to assist the Spaniards whom he intended to attack. The English made complaints of the encroachments of the Dutch upon their trade, and indignities offered to his majesty's subjects in India, Africa, and elsewhere; the French promoted these misunderstandings, and promised to supply the king with what sums of money he wanted; till at length war was proclaimed Feb. 22, 1664-65, in the course of which sundry bloody engagements happened at sea; the two nations were drained of their blood and their treasure, and the protestant interest almost ruined, while the French were little more than spectators. The war continued about two years and a half, and then ended with no manner of advantage to either nation.

[In the year 1663 there was obtained, by the interest of Mr. Baxter and Mr. Ashurst, with the lord chancellor Hyde, a charter for the incorporating "A society or company for propagation of the gospel in New-England, and the parts adjacent in America." Such a society had been VOL. IV.

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