or two forward lord Stafford was beheaded on Tower-hill. But the court party turned the plot into ridicule; the king told lord Halifax, that it was not probable that the Papists should conspire to kill him, for have I not been kind enough to them?" says his majesty. "Yes (says his lordship), you have been too kind indeed to them; but they know you will only trot, and they want a prince that will gallop." The court employed their tool sir Roger L'Estrange*, to write a weekly paper against the plot; and the country party encouraged Mr. Car to write a weekly packet of advice from Rome, discovering the frauds and superstitions of that court; for which he was arraigned, convicted, and fined in the court of King's-bench, and his papers forbid to be printed. An admirable order for a Protestant court of judicature!

But it was impossible to allay the fears of the parliament, who had a quick sense of the dangers of Popery, and therefore passed a bill, to disable all persons of that religion from sitting in either house of parliament, which is still in force, being excepted out of the act of tolerationt. The act requires all members of parliament to renounce by oath the doctrine of transubstantiation, and to declare the worship of the Virgin Mary, and of the saints, practised in the church of Rome, to be idolatrous. Bishop Gunning argued against charging the church of Rome with idolatry; but the house paid him little regard; and when the bill was passed, he took the oath in common with the rest.

The duke of York got himself excepted out of the bill, but the fears of his accession to the crown were so great, that there was a loud talk of bringing a bill into the house, to exclude him from the succession as a Papist; upon which the king came to the house November 9, and assured them, that he would consent to any bills for securing the Protestant religion, provided they did not impeach the right of succession, nor the descent of the crown in the true line, nor the just rights of any Protestant successor. But this not giving satisfaction, his majesty, towards the end of December, first prorogued, and then dissolved the parliament, after they had been chosen almost eighteen years.

It may

be proper to observe concerning the Popish plots, that

* This person, of whom we have already spoken, formerly called " Oliver's Fiddler," was now the admired "Buffoon of High-church." He called the shows, mentioned in our last note, "hobby-horsing processions." Calamy's MSS. p. 67. -ED.

† Burnet, vol. 2. p. 211.

This point was carried in favour of the duke by no more than two votes. Had it been negatived, he would, in the next place, have been voted away from the king's presence. Sir John Reresby's Memoirs, p. 72.-ED.

§ It was a happy effect of the discovery of this plot, that while it raised in the whole body of the English Protestants alarming apprehensions of the dangers to which their civil and religious liberties were exposed, it united them against their common enemy. Mutual prejudices were softened; animosities subsided: the

though the king's life might not be immediately struck at, yet there was such strong evidence to prove the reality of a plot to subvert the constitution and introduce Popery, that no disinterested person can doubt it. Mr. Rapin, who had carefully considered the evidence, concludes that there was a meditated design, supported by the king and the duke of York, to render the king absolute, and introduce the Popish religion; for this is precisely what was meant by the plot: the design of killing the king was only an appendage to it, and an effect of the zeal of some private persons, who thought the plot would be crowned with the surer success, by speedily setting the duke of York upon the throne. Bishop Burnet adds*, that though the king and he agreed in private conversation, that the greatest part of the evidence was a contrivance, yet he confesses it appeared by Coleman's letters, that the design of converting the nation, and of rooting out the northern heresy, was very near being executedt. To which I beg leave to add, that though the design of killing the king did not take place at this time, his majesty felt the effects of it, in his violent death, four or five years afterward.

This year died Mr. Thomas Vincent, M. A. the ejected minisster of Milk-street, born at Hertford May 1634, and educated in Christ-church, Oxford. He was chaplain to Robert earl of Leicester, and afterward minister of Milk street, London, till the act of uniformity took place. He was an humble and a zealous preacher, of moderate principles, and an unspotted life. He continued in the city throughout the whole plague, the awfulness of which gave him a peculiar fervency and zeal in his ministerial work. On this occasion he published some very awakening treatises; as, "A spiritual antidote for a dying soul;" and, "God's terrible voice in the city§." He not only preached in public, but visited all the sick who sent for him in their

dissenters were regarded as the true friends of their country, and their assemblies began to be more public and numerous. At this time an evening lecture was set up in a large room of a coffee-house, in Exchange-alley: it was conducted by Mr. John Shower, Mr. Lambert, Mr. Dorrington, and Mr. Thomas Goodwin; and it was supported and attended by some of the principal merchants, and by several who afterward filled the most eminent posts in the city of London. Tong's Life of Shower, p. 17, 18.-ED.

* This corresponds with his declarations to sir John Reresby; whom at one time he told, in the presence of the lord-treasurer, at the duchess of Portsmouth's lodgings, he took it to be some artifice, and that he did not believe one word of the whole story." At another time his majesty said to him, "Bedloe was a rogue, and that he was satisfied he had given some false evidence concerning the death of sir Edmundbury Godfrey." Memoirs, p. 67. 72.

Dr. Grey refers to Echard and bishop Burnet, as fully discrediting Mr. Neal's account of this plot; and with this view gives a long passage from Carte's History of the Duke of Ormond, vol. 2. p. 517.

The reader may see the evidence both for and against it fully and fairly stated by Dr. Harris, Life of Charles II. vol. 2. p. 137-157.-ED.

† Page 198-214.

Cal. cont. p. 30.

§ Calamy, vol. 2. p. 32. Palmer's Noncon. Mem. vol. 1. p. 125.

infected houses, being void of all fear of death. He continued in health during the whole of that dreadful calamity, and was afterward useful, as the times would permit, to a numerous congregation, being generally respected by men of all persuasions; but his excessive labours put an end to his life October 15, 1678, in the forty-fifth year of his age*.

Mr. Theophilus Gale, M. A. and fellow of Magdalen college, Oxford, was ejected from Winchester, where he had been stated preacher for some time; after which he travelled abroad as tutor to the son of Philip lord Wharton. Upon his return, he settled with Mr. John Rowe as an assistant, in which station he died. The Oxford historian allows, that he was a man of great reading, an exact philologist and philosopher, a learned and industrious divine, as appears by his Court of the Gentiles, and the Vanity of Pagan Philosophy. He kept a little academy, for the instruction of youth, and was well versed in the fathers, being at the same time a good metaphysician and school divinet. He died of a consumption this year [1678], in the forty-ninth year of his age ‡.

The king having summoned a new parliament to meet in March, all parties exerted themselves in the elections; the Nonconformists appeared generally for those who were for prosecuting the Popish plot, and securing a Protestant succession: these being esteemed patriots and friends of liberty, in opposition to those who made a loud cry for the church, and favoured the arbitrary measures of the court, and the personal interest of the duke of York. The elections in many places were the occasion of great heat, but were carried almost every where against the court. Mr. Rapin says, that the Presbyterians, though long oppressed, were still numerous in corporations. The semiconformists, as Mr. Echard calls the moderate churchmen, and the dissenters were on one side, and the high churchmen and Papists on the other. Before the parliament assembled, the duke of York was sent out of the way to Flanders, but with this positive assurance, that his majesty would consent to nothing in

Mr. Thomas Vincent had the whole New Testament and Psalms by heart. He took this pains, as he often said, "not knowing but they who took from him his pulpit, might in time demand his Bible also." Calamy. Besides his publications enumerated by this writer, Mr. Vincent, on occasion of an eruption of mount Etna, published a book, entitled, "Fire and Brimstone: 1. From heaven in the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah formerly. 2. From earth, in the burning of Mount Etna lately. 3. From hell, in burning of the wicked eternally." 1670, 8vo. Granger's History, vol. 3. p. 329, note.-ED.

† Mr. Gale was a frequent preacher in the university and a considerable tutor : bishop Hopkins was one of his pupils. He left all his real and personal estate for the education and benefit of poor students, and his library to the college in NewEngland, except the philosophical part, which he reserved for the use of students in England. The world had like to have lost his great and learned work, The Court of the Gentiles, in the fire of London. A friend, to whose care he left his desk while he was travelling, threw it into the cart merely to make the load, when he was removing his own goods. Palmer, p. 190. British Biography, vol. 5. p. 182— 186.-ED.

prejudice of his right of succession. And farther to ingratiate himself with the people, and make a show of moderation, a new privy-council was chosen out of the low church party; but this not satisfying as long as the duke's succession was in view, the commons, soon after the opening the sessions, ordered in a bill to disable the duke of York from inheriting the imperial crown of England, and carried it through the house with a high hand. Upon which his majesty came to the house, and dissolved them, before they had sat three months. This threw the nation into new convulsions, and produced a great number of pamphlets against the government, the act for restraining the press being lately expired.

The Popish plot having fixed a brand of infamy and ingratitude on the whole body of Roman Catholics, the courtiers attempted to relieve them, by setting on foot a sham Protestant plot, and fathering it upon the Presbyterians*: for this purpose spies and other mercenaries were employed, to bring news from all parts of the town, which was then full of cabals. At length a plot was formed by one Dangerfield, a subtle and dangerous Papist, but a very villain, who had been lately got out of jail by the assistance of one Mrs. Cellier, a midwife, a lewd woman, who carried him to the countess of Powis, whose husband was in the Tower for the Popish plot; with her he formed his scheme, and having got a list of the names of the chief Protestant nobility and gentry, he wrote treasonable letters to them, to be left at the houses of the Nonconformists and other active Protestants in several parts of England, that search being made upon some other pretences, when the letters were found, they might be apprehended for treason. At the same time, he intruded into the company of some of the most zealous enemies of Popery about town, and informed the king and the duke of York, that he had been invited to accept of a commission; that a new form of government was to be set up; and that the king and royal family were to be banished. The story was received with pleasure, and Dangerfield had a present, and a pension of 37. a week, to carry on his correspondence. Having got some little acquaintance with colonel Mansel in Westminster, he made up a bundle of seditious letters, with the assistance of Mrs. Cellier, and having laid them in a dark corner of Mansel's room behind the bed, he sent for officers from the custom-house, to search for prohibited goods while he was out of town; but none were found, except the bundle of letters, which, upon examination of the parties concerned, before the king and council, were proved to be counterfeit; upon which the court disowned the plot, and having taken away Dangerfield's pension, sent him to Newgate. Search being made into Mrs. Cellier's house, there was found a little book in a meal-tub, written very fair, and tied

* Burnet, vol. 2. p. 272. Rapin, vol. 2. p. 741.

up with ribands, which contained the whole scheme of the fiction. It was dictated by lady Powis, and proved by her maid to be laid there by her order, from whence it obtained the name of the Meal-tub plot. Dangerfield, who was a notorious liar, finding himself undone if he persisted in what he could not support, made an ample confession, and published a narrative, wherein he declared that he was employed by the Popish party; and chiefly by the Popish lords in the Tower, with the countess of Powis, to invent the Meal-tub plot, which was to have thrown the Popish plot wholly upon the Presbyterians. It was printed by order of the house of commons in the year 1680. Dangerfield being pardoned, went out of the way into Flanders; but returning to England in king James's reign, he was tried for it, and sentenced to be whipped at the cart's tail from Newgate to Tyburn; in his return from whence he was murdered by one Frances in the coach. Mrs. Cellier was tried June 11, 1680, before lord-chiefjustice Scroggs, and acquitted for want of evidence. But the discovery, instead of relieving the Papists from the charge of the Popish plot, turned very much to their disadvantage; for when the next parliament met, the house of commons resolved, that sir Robert Car be expelled the house, and sent to the Tower, for declaring publicly in the city of Bristol, that there was no Popish but a Presbyterian plot*. Sir Robert Yeomans was sent into custody on the same account; and Mr. Richard Thompson, a clergyman, was impeached for decrying the Popish plot in his sermon, January 30, 1679, and for turning the same upon the Protestants; for which, and for preaching against the liberty and property of the subject, and the privileges of parliament, the house declared him a scandal and reproach to his profession.

This year [1679] died the reverend and learned Mr. Matt. Pool, M. A. the ejected minister of St. Michael's Querne he was born in the city of York, and educated in Emanuel college, Cambridge, a divine of great piety, charity, and literature. He was indefatigable in his labours, and left behind him (says the Oxford historian) the character of a most celebrated critic and casuist. After ten years' close application, he published his Synopsis Criticorumf, in five folios. He afterward entered on

* State Tracts, vol. 2, p. 217.

"The plan of this work (says Mr. Granger) was judicious, and the execution more free from errors than seems consistent with so great a work, finished in so short a time, by one man." It includes not only an abridgment of the "Critici Sacri," and other expositors, but extracts from a great number of treatises and pamphlets, that would have been otherwise lost. It was undertaken by the advice of the learned bishop Lloyd; it was encouraged and patronized by Tillotson, and the king granted a patent for the privilege of printing it. Mr. Pool formed and completed a scheme for maintaining young men of eminent parts at the university of Cambridge, for the study of divinity: and by his solicitations, in a short time raised 9007. a year for that purpose. The scheme sunk at the Restoration; but to it the world is said, in some measure, to owe Dr. Sherlock, afterwards dean of St. Paul's. While he was drawing up his Synopsis, it was his custom to rise at three