Church of Scotland after Re danger common to all Protestants, joined the church in supporting a measure fraught with evil to themselves. They were, indeed, promised further indulgence in the exercise of their religion, and even an exemption from. the Test Act itself: but the church party, having secured them in its toils, was in no haste to release them.1 The Church of Scotland fared worse than the English nonconformists, after the Restoration. Episcopacy was storation. restored: the king's supremacy reasserted: the entire polity of the church overthrown2; while the wrongs of Episcopalians, under the Commonwealth, were avenged, with barbarous cruelty, upon Presbyterians.3 Union of church and against James II. The Protestant faith and civil liberties of the people dissenters being threatened by James II., all classes of Protestants combined to expel him from his throne. Again the nonconformists united with the church, to resist a common danger. They were not even conciliated by his declarations of liberty of conscience and indulgence, in which they perceived a stretch of prerogative, and a dangerous leaning towards the Catholic faith, under the guise of religious freedom. The revolution was not less Protestant than political; and Catholics were thrust further than ever beyond the pale of the constitution. The Tole ration Act. The recent services of dissenters to the church and the Protestant cause, were rewarded by the Toleration Act. This celebrated measure repealed none of the statutes exacting conformity with the Church of 1 Kennet's Hist., iii. 294; Burnet's Own Time, i. 348, 516. 2 Scots Acts, 1661, c. 11; 1669, c. 1; 1681, c. 6; Wodrow's Church Hist., i. 190. 3 Wodrow's Church Hist., i. 57, 236, 390, &c.; Burnet's Own Time, i. 365, ii. 416, &c.; Crookshank's Hist., i. 154, 204, &c.; Buckle's 41 Will. & Mar. c. 8; confirmed by 10 Anne, c. 2; Bogue and Beanett's Hist. of Dissenters, i. 187– 204. England: but exempted all persons from penalties, on taking the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and subscribing a declaration against transubstantiation. It relieved dissenting ministers from the restrictions imposed by the Act of Uniformity and the Conventicle Act, upon the administration of the sacrament and preaching in meetings: but required them to subscribe the thirty-nine articles, with some exceptions. The dissenting chapels were to be registered; and their congregations protected from any molestation. A still casier indulgence was given to the Quakers: but toleration was withheld from Roman Catholics and Unitarians, who found no favour either with the church or nonconformists. public conceded. The Toleration Act, whatever its shortcomings, was Right of at least the first recognition of the right of public worship worship, beyond the pale of the state church. It was the great charter of dissent. Far from granting religious liberty: it yet gave indulgence and security from persecution. measures Unitarians and The age was not ripe for wider principles of tole- Further ration. Catholics and Unitarians were soon afterwards against pursued with severer penalties 2; and in 1700, the intolerant spirit of Parliament was displayed by an Act, Catholics. no less factious than bigoted,-which cannot be read without astonishment. It offered a reward of 1007. for the discovery of any Catholic priest performing the offices of his church: it incapacitated every Roman Catholic from inheriting or purchasing land, unless he abjured his religion upon oath; and on his refusal, it vested his property, during his life, in his next of kin, being a Protestant. He was even prohibited from 1 All except three and part of a fourth. See infra, p. 333. VOL. II. Y 21 Will. & M. c. 9, 15, 26; 9 & 10 Will. III. c. 32. Scheme of comprehension under William III. Church of Scotland after the Revolution. sending his children abroad, to be educated in his own faith. And while his religion was thus proscribed, his civil rights were further restrained by the oath of abjuration.2 Again the policy of comprehension was favoured by William III.: but it was too late. The church was far too strong to be willing to sacrifice her own convictions to the scruples of nonconformists. Nor was she forgetful of her own wrongs under the Commonwealth, or insensible to the sufferings of Episcopalians in Scotland. On the other side, the nonconformists, confirmed in their repugnance to the doctrines and cere monies of the church, by the persecutions of a hundred and fifty years, were not to be tempted by small concessions to their consciences, or by the doubtful prospects of preferment, in an establishment from which they could expect little favour.3 To the Church of Scotland, the Revolution brought freedom and favour. The king's supremacy was finally renounced; Episcopacy, against which she had vainly struggled for a hundred years, for ever abolished; her confession of faith recognised by statute; and the Presbyterian polity confirmed. But William III., in restoring the privileges of the church, endeavoured to impress upon her rulers his own moderation and tolerant spirit. Fearing the persecution of Episcopalians at their hands, he wrote thus nobly and wisely to the General Assembly: "We expect that your management shall be such that we may have no reason to repert 1 11 & 12 Will. III. c. 4; Burnet's 327, 520; Burnet's Own Time, i Own Time, iv. 409; Butler's Hist. 1033, &c.; Kennet's Hist., . Mem. of the Catholics, iii. 134-483, 551, et seq.; Macaulay's His, 138, 279; Burke's Speech at Bristol, iii. 89, 468 495; Bogue and 1780, Works, iii. 385. Bennett's Hist., i. 207. 2 13 Will. III. c. 6. 4 Scots Acts, 1689, c. 2; 1690, 3 D'Oyley's Life of Sancroft, c. 5; 1692, c. 117. what we have done. We never could be of the mind that violence was suited to the advancing of true religion nor do we intend that our authority shall ever be a tool to the irregular passions of any party." And not many years afterwards, when Presbyterian Scotland was united to Episcopalian England, the rights of her church, in worship, discipline, and government, were confirmed and declared unalterable.2 of Ireland To the Catholics of Ireland, the reign of William was Catholics made terrible by new rigours and oppression. They under were in arms for the exiled king; and again was their William faith the symbol of rebellion. Overcome by the sword, they were condemned to proscription and outlawry. III. under II. It was long before Catholics were to enjoy indulgence. Catholics In 1711, a proclamation was published for enforcing Anne, the penal laws against them in England. And in Ire. Geo. I. & land, the severities of former reigns were aggravated by Acts of Queen Anne. After the rebellion of 1715, Parliament endeavoured to strengthen the Protestant interest, by enforcing the laws against Papists.5 Again, in 1722, the estates of Roman Catholics and non-jurors were made to bear a special financial burden, not charged upon other property. And, lastly, the rebellion of 1745 called forth a proclamation, in the spirit of earlier times, offering a reward of 100l. for the discovery of Jesuits and popish priests, and calling upon magistrates to bring them to justice. formists Much of the toleration which had been conceded to NonconProtestant nonconformists at the Revolution, was again under withdrawn during the four last years of Queen Anne. Anne, 1 Macaulay's Hist., iii. 708. 2 Act of Union, 5 Anne, c. 8 Scots Acts, 1705, c. 4; 1706, c. 7. 3 Boyce's Reign of Queen Anne, 429, &c. 4 2 Anne, c. 3, 6; 8 Anne, c. 3. 69 Geo. I. c. 18; Parl. Hist., Geo. I. & II. State of the church and re ligion on the ac George III. Having found their way into many offices, by taking the sacrament, an Act was passed, in 1711, against occasional conformity, by which dissenters were dispossessed of their employments, and more rigorously disqualified in future. Again were nonconformists repelled, with contumely, from honourable fellowship with the state. Two years afterwards the Schism Bill was passed, prohibiting the exercise of the vocation of schoolmaster or private teacher, without a declaration of conformity. and a licence from a bishop.2 Both these statutes, i however, were repealed in the following reign.3 With the reign of George II. a wider toleration was commenced, in another form. The time was not yet come for repealing the laws imposing civil disabilities upon. dissenters but annual Acts of Indemnity were passed. by which persons who had failed to qualify themselves for office, were protected.* The reign of George III. opened under circumstances favourable to religious liberty. The intolerant spirit of the high church party had been broken since the death cession of of Anne. The phrensies of Sacheverell and Atterbury had yielded to the liberal philosophy of Milton and Locke, of Jeremy Taylor, Hoadley, Warburton, and Montesquieu. The angry disputations of convocation were silenced. The church was at peace; and the state had ceased to distrust either Roman Catholics or nonconformists. Never since the Reformation, had any monarch succeeded to the throne, at a period so free i from religious discords and embarrassments. In former reigns, high churchmen had been tainted with i 110 Anne, c. 2; Burnet's Own Time, ii. 364, 585, &c.; Bogue and Bennett's Hist., i. 228, 262. 2 12 Anne, c. 7; Parl. Hist., vi. 1319; Bogue and Bennett's Hist., 268. 35 Geo. I. c. 4. 4 The first of these Acts was in 1727; 1 Geo. II. c. 23. Hallam: Const. Hist., ii. 412. |