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property: persons convicted of sending a child beyond seas, to be educated in the romish religion, were to forfeit 1007; and the chancellor was authorized to compel the catholic parent of a protestant child to allow him a competent maintenance.

The last clause was defensible :-the other enactments were of unexampled severity. The causes of it are fully explained, in the account given by bishop Burnet, of the circumstances which attended the passing of this act.

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Upon the peace of Ryswick," says he, (two years before,) "a great swarm of priests came over "to England; not only those, whom the revolu"tion had frightened away, but many more new

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men, who appeared in many places, with great "insolence; and it was said, that they boasted of "the favour and protection, of which they were "assured. Some enemies of the government began "to give it out, that the favouring of that religion was a secret article of the peace; and so absurd "is malice and calumny, that the jacobites began to "say, that the king was either of that religion, or at "least a favourer of it. Complaints of the avowed "practices and insolence of the priests were brought "from several places during the last session of par"liament; and those were maliciously aggravated

by some, who cast the blame of all on the king.

"Upon this, some proposed a bill, that obliged "all persons, educated in that religion, or suspected "to be of it, who should succeed to any estate, be"fore they were of the age of eighteen, to take the "oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and the test,

"as soon as they came to that age; and, until they "did it, the estate was to devolve to the next of "kin, that was a protestant; but was to return "back to them, upon their taking the oaths. All "popish priests were also banished by the bill, and

were adjudged to perpetual imprisonment, if they "should again return to England; and the reward "of 100l. was offered to every one, who should "discover a popish priest, so as to convict him.

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Those, who brought this into the house of com"mons, hoped, that the court would have opposed "it; but the court promoted the bill; so, when the party saw their mistake, they seemed willing to "let the bill fall; and when that could not be "done, they clogged it with many severe, and some "unreasonable clauses, hoping that the lords would "not pass the act; and it was said, that if the lords "should make the least alteration in it, they, in the "house of commons, who had set it on, were re"solved to let it lie on the table, when it should be "sent back to them. Many lords, who secretly "favoured the papists on the jacobite account, did, "for this reason, move for several alterations; some "of these importing a greater severity; but, the "zeal against popery was such in that house, that "the bill passed, without any amendment; and it "had the royal assent."-Such is bishop Burnet's account of this extraordinary bill.

CHAP. LXVIII.

QUEEN ANNE.

1702.

To a reader of these pages, who has noticed the number and severity of the laws which were passed against the catholics in the reign of William, it may have appeared extraordinary, that the writer should assign this æra for the commencement of the religious toleration of the catholics: but he should carry back his reflections to the commencement of the reformation under Elizabeth; and then, if he contrast the sufferings of the catholics during the reigns of that princess and of the three succeeding monarchs, with their condition during the reign of William, he must be sensible that, throughout the whole of it, their situation was considerably ameliorated. If we except the reign of James the second, it was the first, after the reformation, in which no new sanguinary law was enacted against them, or in which no catholic suffered capitally for his religion; the government showed nothing like a willingness to carry into execution, either the former penal laws, or even their own milder, yet still severe enactments. The press teemed with publications against the catholics, but no fictitious plot was imputed to them, and no informer against them was encouraged. Some exceptions from this representation, (as the restoring of Oates to credit,

and rewarding him with a pension), may be cited: but these are so few as not to detract, in any respect, from its general accuracy; and, speaking also generally, the laws against positive recusancy were allowed to fall insensibly into disuse. This system of toleration did the greater honour both to William and the nation, as the glaring pretension of the exiled family would have furnished a government less wise or less liberal with a plausible excuse for persecution. The tolerating spirit of the times, was greatly owing to the eminent latitudinarian divines, who formed, at this time, a considerable proportion of the English church: I. Of these we shall attempt to give some account*: II. Then, show the general state of the catholics under the princess, to whose reign we have now brought our history.

What is said on this subject we have principally taken from "A brief Account of the new sect of Latitude Men, "together with some reflections upon the new philosophy, "by S. P. of Cambridge, in answer to a letter from his friend " at Oxford; London, 1662;" Burnet's History of his own Times, vol. i. p. 188; Mosheim's History, cent. xvii. c. 2, sect. 27; and "The Principles and Practices of certain "moderate Divines of the Church of England, (greatly mis"understood), truly represented and defended, in a free "discourse between two intimate friends, in three parts, 8vo. "1670," by Dr. Fowler, afterwards bishop of Gloucester; and "The Design of Christianity, 8vo. 1671," by the same author: both are written with learning, ability, and method.

LXVIII. 1.

The Latitudinarian Divines.

THE intolerance of the first reformers has been mentioned; but it must be acknowledged, that though religious liberty was not their object, it was yet a consequence of the reformation. Always discountenanced, and generally persecuted by authority, the reformers appealed to the people, and submitted their arguments and their feelings to the understanding and sympathy of the public. At first, each party asserted truth to be exclusively and unquestionably on their side, and claimed the whole church establishment for their own partisans. In the course of time, this lofty claim was abandoned, and the weaker party, professing to leave the established clergy in possession of the dignities and the wealth conferred on them by the state, sought no more than a reasonable toleration. They contended, that Christ sent his disciples to propagate his religion by instruction, not by the aid of the secular power:-and, as a subsidiary argument, observed, that, among the points in difference between them and their adversaries, those, which either party considered to be essential, were few; and that, wherever truth resided, the error was not of a nature to disturb the state or injure individuals. This strain of argument seems to have been used, if not for the first time, at least with the greatest ability and success, by the Arminians of Holland. The synod of Dort, as we have mentioned, decided

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