power to appoint bishops to the vacant sees, issued his royal mandate to Dr. Bramhall, archbishop of Armagh, and Dr. Taylor, bishop of Down and Connor, by virtue of which they consecrated two archbishops and ten bishops in one day*. His grace insisted on the reordination of those who had been ordained in the late times without the hands of a bishop, but with this softening clause in their orders: "Non annihilantes priores ordines (si quos habuit) nec validitatem aut invaliditatem eorundem determinantes, multo minus omnes ordines sacros ecclesiarûm forinsecarum con

demnantes, quos propriô judicio relinquimus: sed solummodo supplentes quicquid prius defuit per canones ecclesia Anglicana requisitum"-i. e." Not annihilating his former orders (if he had any) nor determining concerning their validity or invalidity, much less condemning all the sacred ordinations of foreign churches whom we leave to their own judge, but only supplying what was wanting according to the canons of the church of England." Without such an explication as this, few of the clergy of Ireland would have kept their stations in the churcht. On the 17th of May, the lords spiritual and temporal, and the commons in parliament assembled in Ireland, declared their opinion and high esteem of episcopal government, and of the Book of Common Prayer, according to the use of the church of England; and thus the old constitution, in church as well as state, was restored in the three kingdoms.

The French ministers, who had been tools to persuade the English Presbyterians to restore the king without a treaty, went along with the torrent, and complimented the church of England upon her re-establishment; they commended the liturgy, which they formerly treated with contemptuous language. Some few of them pretended to bemoan the want of episcopacy among themselves, and to wonder that any of the English Presbyterians should scruple conformity. The French church at the Savoy submitted to the rites and ceremonies of the English hierarchy; and M. Du Bosc, minister of Caen, writes to the minister of the Savoy, that he was as dear to him under the surplice of England, as under the robe of France§. So complaisant were these mercenary divines towards those who disallowed their orders, disowned their churches and the validity of all their administrations.

Lord Clarendon and the bishops having got over the Savoy conference, and carried the service-book with the amendments through the convocation, were now improving the present temper of the parliament to procure it the sanction of the legislature; for this purpose the king, though a Papist, is made to speak the language of a zealous churchman. In his speech to the parliament, March 1st, he has these words: "Gentlemen, I hear you are zealous for the church, and very solicitous, and even jealous, that there is not expedition enough used in that affair. I thank

Kennet's Chron. p. 440, 441. Ibid. p. 449. Ibid. p. 462. § Ibid. p. 475.

you for it, since I presume it proceeds from a good root of piety and devotion; but I must tell you, that I have the worst luck in the world, if after all the reproaches of being a Papist, while I was abroad, I am suspected of being a Presbyterian now I am come home. I know you will not take it unkindly if I tell you, I am as zealous for the church of England as any of you can be, and am enough acquainted with the enemies of it on all sides. I am as much in love with the Book of Common Prayer as you can wish, and have prejudices enough against those who do not love it; who I hope, in time, will be better informed, and change their minds. And you may be confident, I do as much desire to see a uniformity settled as any among you; and pray trust me in that affair, I promise you to hasten the dispatch of it with all convenient speed; you may rely upon me in it. I have transmitted the Book of Common Prayer with the amendments to the house of lords-but when we have done all we can, the wellsettling that affair will require great prudence and discretion, and the absence of all passion and precipitation."*

The reason of the king's requiring discretion in the parliament, and the absence of passion, was not in favour of the Presbyterians, but the Papists, who went all the lengths of the prerogative, and published a remonstrance about this time, "wherein they acknowledge his majesty to be God's vicegerent upon earth in all temporal affairs; that they are bound to obey him under pain of sin, and that they renounce all foreign power and authority, as incapable of absolving them from this obligation." It was given out, that they were to have forty chapels in and about the city of London, and much more was understood by them, says archbishop Tenison, who have penetrated into the designs of a certain paper, commonly called the Declaration of Somersethouse; but the design miscarried, partly by their divisions among themselves, and partly by the resoluteness of the prime-minister, who charged them with principles inconsistent with the peace of the kingdom +. Father Orleans says, "There were great debates in this parliament about liberty of conscience.-The Catholic party was supported by the earl of Bristol, a man in great repute; the Protestant party by chancellor Hyde, chief of an opposite faction, and a person of no less consideration, who, putting himself at the head of the prevailing church-of-England party in that parliament, declared not only against the Roman Catholics, but against the Presbyterians, and all those the church of England call Nonconformists. The king, who was no good Christian in his actions, but a Catholic in his heart, did all that could be expected from his easy temper, to maintain the common liberty, that so the Catholics might have a share in it; but the church of England and chancellor Hyde were so hot upon that point, that his majesty was obliged to yield rather to the chancellor's importunity than to * Rapin, vol. 2. p. 628, folio. + Compl. Hist. p. 252.

Kennet's Chron. p. 482. 498.

his reason However, by the favour of the queen-mother, swarms of Papists came over into England, and settled about the court; they set up private seminaries for the education of youth; and though they could not obtain an open toleration, they multiplied exceedingly, and laid the foundation of all the dangers. which threatened the constitution and Protestant religion in the latter part of this and in the next reign.

Towards the latter end of this year, the court and bishops, not content with their triumphs over the living Presbyterians, descended into the grave, and dug up the bodies of those who had been deposited in Westminster-abbey in the late times, lest their dust should one time or other mix with the loyalists; for besides the bodies of Cromwell, and others already mentioned, his majesty's warrant to the dean and chapter of Westminster was now obtained, to take up the bodies of such persons who had been unwarrantably buried in the chapel of king Henry VII. and in other chapels and places within the collegiate church of Westminster since the year 1641, and to inter them in the churchyard adjacent; by which warrant they might have taken up all the bodies that had been buried there for twenty years past. Pursuant to these orders, on the 12th and 14th of September they went to work, and took up about twenty †, among whom were,

The body of Eliz. Cromwell, mother of Oliver, daughter of sir Richard Stewart, who died November 18, 1654, and was buried in Henry VII.'s chapel.

The body of Eliz. Claypole, daughter of Oliver, who died

Kennet's Chron. p. 498.

Among the following names, the reader will find some who have not been noticed in the preceding history, or in the notes. The mother of Oliver Cromwell was by no means deserving of the malevolence and indignity with which her memory was treated. For, though she lavished the greatest fondness on her only son, she was averse to his protectorate, seldom troubled him with her advice, and with reluctance partook of the pageantry of sovereignty. She was an amiable and prudent woman who, to make up the deficiency of a narrow income, undertook and managed the brewing trade on her own account, and from the profits of it provided fortunes for her daughters, sufficient to marry them into good families. Her anxiety for her son's safety kept her in such constant alarm, that she was discontented if she did not see him twice a day. The report of a gun was never heard by her, without her crying out, "My son is shot."-It ought to have softened the resentment of the royalists against Mrs. Claypole, though the daughter of Cromwell, that she had importunately interceded for the life of Dr. Hewett ; and the denial of her suit had so afflicted her, that it was reported to have been one cause of her death, and was the subject of her exclamations to her father on her dying bed.Thomas May, esq. whose name appears in the following list, was a polite and classical scholar, the intimate friend of the greatest wits of his time, and ranked in the first class of them. He was the author of several dramatic pieces; and of two historical poems of the reigns of Henry II. and Edward III. But his principal work was a "Translation of Lucan's Pharsalia," and a continuation of it.-Colonel, or Sir John Meldrum, a Scotsman, displayed his military prowess in the west, defeated the earl of Newcastle before Hull, with the assistance of sir Thomas Fairfax took the strong town of Gainsborough and the isle of Axholm, conquered the forces of the lords Byron and Molyneux, near Ormskirk, and took the town and castle of Scarborough. Biogr. Britan. vol. 4. p. 517. Ludlow's Memoirs, 4to. p. 257. Granger's History of England, vol. 3. p. 94, and vol. 2. p. 265.—ED.

August 7, 1658, and was buried in a vault made for her in Henry VII.'s chapel.

The body of Robert Blake, the famous English admiral, who after his victorious fight at Santa Cruz, died in Plymouth-sound, August 7, 1657, and was buried in Henry VII.'s chapel :-a man, whose great services to the English nation will be an everlasting monument of his renown.

The body of the famous Mr. John Pym, a Cornish gentleman, and member of the long-parliament, who was buried in the year 1643, and attended to his grave by most of the lords and commons in parliament.

The body of Dr. Dorislaus, employed as an assistant in drawing up the charge against the king, for which he was murdered by the royalists, when he was ambassador to the states of Holland in 1649.

The body of sir William Constable, one of the king's judges, governor of Gloucester, and colonel of a regiment of foot, who died 1655.

The body of colonel Edward Popham, one of the admirals of the fleet, who died 1651.

The body of William Stroud, esq. one of the five members of parliament demanded by king Charles I.

The body of colonel Humphrey Mackworth, one of Oliver Cromwell's colonels, buried in Henry VII.'s chapel, 1654.

The body of Dennis Bond, esq. one of the council of state, who died August 8, 1658.

The body of Thomas May, esq. who compiled the history of the long-parliament with great integrity, and in a beautiful style. He died in the year 1650.

The body of colonel John Meldrum, a Scotsman, who died in the wars.

as,

The body of colonel Boscawen, a Cornish man.

To these may be added, several eminent Presbyterian divines;

The body of Dr. William Twisse, prolocutor of the assembly of divines, buried in the south cross of the Abbey-church, July 24, 1645.

The body of Mr. Stephen Marshal, buried in the south aisle, November 23, 1655.

The body of Mr. William Strong, preacher in the Abbeychurch, and buried there July 4, 1654. These, with some others of lesser note, both men and women, were thrown together into one pit in St. Margaret's churchyard, near the back-door of one of the prebendaries; but the work was so indecent, and drew such a general odium on the government, that a stop was put to any farther proceedings.

Among others who were obnoxious to the ministry, were the

Kennet's Chron. p. 536.

people called Quakers, who, having declared openly against the lawfulness of making use of carnal weapons, even in selfdefence, had the courage to petition the house of lords for a toleration of their religion, and for a dispensation from taking the oaths, which they held unlawful, not from any disaffection to the government, or a belief that they were less obliged by an affirmation, but from a persuasion that all oaths were unlawful; and that swearing, upon the most solemn occasions, was forbidden in the New Testament. The lords in a committee rejected their petition, and, instead of granting them relief, passed the following act May 2, the preamble to which sets forth, "That whereas sundry persons have taken up an opinion, that an oath, even before a magistrate, is unlawful, and contrary to the word of God. And whereas, under pretence of religious worship, the said persons do assemble in great numbers in several parts of the kingdom, separating themselves from the rest of his majesty's subjects, and from the public congregations, and usual places of divine worship; be it therefore enacted, that if any such persons after the 24th of March, 1661-2, shall refuse to take an oath when lawfully tendered, or persuade others to do it, or maintain, in writing or otherwise, the unlawfulness of taking an oath; or if they shall assemble for religious worship to the number of five or more, of the age of fifteen, they shall for the first offence forfeit 5.; for the second 107.; and for the third shall abjure the realm, or be transported to the plantations: and the justices of peace at their open sessions may hear and finally determine in the affair." The act was passed by commission, and had a dreadful influence upon that people, though it was notorious they were far from sedition or disaffection to the government. G. Fox, in his address to the king, acquaints his majesty, that three thousand and sixty-eight of their friends had been imprisoned since his majesty's restoration; that their meetings were daily broken up by men with clubs and arms, and their friends thrown into the water, and trampled under foot, till the blood gushed out, which gave rise to their meeting in the open streets. other narrative was printed, signed by twelve witnesses, which says, that more than four thousand two hundred Quakers were

An

* Some of the society, getting early intelligence of this bill, interfered to stop its progress. Edward Burrough, Richard Hubberthorn, and George Whitehead, attended the parliament to solicit against passing it into an act: and were admitted, but without success, to offer their reasons against it, at the bar of the house. "But political considerations, party animosity, and bigoted exasperated zeal for the church (so called), were the moving causes of action with the majority. Appeals to their reason and humanity were vain." It aggravated the injustice and severity of this act, that it was framed, notwithstanding a paper, containing the sentiments of the Quakers respecting oaths, had been lately presented to the king and council by Edward Burrough, entitled "A Just and Righteous Plea :" which stated their conscientious scruples, expressed in strong terms their loyalty, and declared, "that it had ever been with them an established principle, confirmed by a consonant practice, to enter into no plots, combinations, or rebellions, against government, nor to seek deliverance from injustice or oppression by any such means." Gough's History of the Quakers, vol. 1. p. 499, &c.-ED.