The majority of the Bishops gave immediate effect to the orders of Sancroft. Ken circulated the Articles through his diocese, and prevented his Clergy from reading the Declaration of Indulgence. If lately, within the royal chapel, almost within the King's hearing, he had, "with wonderful eloquence," "defcribed the blafphemies, perfidy, wrefting of Scripture, fuperftition and legends of the Romish Priests, and their new Trent religion," he was now equally prompt to show by deeds, as well as words, his devotion to the Church of England. He joined Trelawney, of Briftol, in a remonstrance to Lampleugh, of Exeter, for ordering the King's Declaration to be published in his diocese. Trelawney gives the following account to the Archbishop;

"May it please your Grace,

'August 16. 88.

“Mr. Gilbert, the bearer, goeing for London, and being defirous of paying his duty to your Grace, I gave him this opportunity, as well to receive your bleffing, as to present you with the present ftate of the west. He is the labourious minister of Plymouth, who by his courage, life, and doctrine hath done a greate deale of good in that town: I wish his Lord, the Bishop of Exeter, had as fixt and steady refolutions; but his Lordship, acting according to a settled maxim of his own, 'I will be safe,' had given order for the publishing the Declarations notwithstanding the Bishop of Bathe and Wells and my letters to him, and was at last brought to recall them by the Deane's fending him word that, if he would betray the Church, he should not the Cathedral, for he would rather be hang'd at the doors of it, than the Declaration should

be read there, or in any part of his jurisdiction, which is large in the county.

I hope I fhall doe fome good with the gentry of Devonshire and Cornwall. I humbly beg your bleffing, and remaine "Your Grace's moft obedient humble Servant,

"J. BRISTOL."*

The Pope had appointed four Romish Bishops, who styled themselves Vicars Apoftolical. They made their circuits through the country, dividing England into four Provinces, or Districts, according to printed maps, and affuming openly an ecclefiaftical jurisdiction, fimilar to that of the English Bishops. They had published an address to the lay Roman Catholics, with the title of a Paftoral Letter, in which they claimed fpiritual authority over the nation. It seems scarcely poffible to imagine how the King's advisers fhould have precipitated a measure of this kind;-a measure futile in itself, and tending to bring his Government into contempt, because of the very few persons who profeffed the Romish faith,-yet fo manifeft an infringement of the law as to excite the greatest alarm.

James, in his Memoirs, admits that even the reception of a Nuncio from Rome was an error of judgment:

"It was, he fays, His Majefty's misfortune, to think it would render people lefs averfe to fuffer the exercise of Catholic religion amongst them, by familiarizing the nation, not only to the ceremonies of the Church of Rome, but the Court of Rome too; this made His Majefty, befides the folemn fervices he had in his own chapel, permit the Monks

* Tanner MSS., vol. xxviii. p. 158.

in St. James's to wear their habits, and admit a Nuncio from the Pope, according to the formes practifed in the most Catholick Countrys."*

It had been fortunate for him if, even now, late as it was, he had given up the perilous conteft before him, and returned within the bounds of the law. But he hurried into ftill more hazardous measures, which completely alienated all claffes of the people, at a moment when a fecret and extenfive plot was ripening to bring over a foreign Prince, and to wrest from him both his crown and kingdom.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Invafion of England by the Prince of Orange-Measures of the King to oppofe him-Ken and other Bishops advife James to call a Parliament-He refufes: the defertion of his officers: he withdraws to France-William calls a Convention Parliament.

MIDST all this confufion, there was one who at a distance kept a fteady watch on every turn of the King's wayward policy, his nephew, and fon in law, the

Prince of Orange. He had already laid the foundation of a secret scheme, which waited only the fitting occafion for development. But the birth of a Prince of Wales, and the acquittal of the Bishops, prompted him at once to a more decifive courfe. He had engaged in no violent cabals, which might endanger his interefts with the King: but, holding a guarded intercourfe with fuch of the nobility as were difaffected, he knew all that was paffing, and was acquainted with the exact temper of the people. In this he followed the advice of Lord Halifax, " to stand firm and quiet, neither to yield, nor to give advantage by acting unfeasonably." "Accidents come," faid "which either relieve, or

that intelligent counsellor, at least help to keep off for a longer time, the things we fear; and that is no fmall matter in the affairs of

the world."* Each step of William was well confidered, and marked by the same adroitness, which had characterized him from his youth. We have feen how his good sense, sobriety of judgment, almost imperturbable temper, and untiring perseverance, had conducted him through a complicated path of policy, till he at length became the leader of a great European confederacy. Although chief of a Presbyterian Republic, and of the Proteftant caufe in Europe, he had been able to perfuade the Emperor of Germany, the King of Spain, and other Roman Catholic Princes, -nay even the Pope himself,-to combine with him for their common defence against the ambitious defigns of Roman Catholic France. This project took effect in the league of Augsburg. By the fame address he now brought the various parties in England to regard him as the difinterested champion of their liberties, and the protector of their religion.

The birth of the Prince of Wales, which might exclude all hope of his wife's fucceffion, was to him the fignal for more active interference in English politics. His fchemes were conducted under cover of the national ferment which followed the trial of the Bishops. The clandeftine correfpondence, which he had for

* Dalrymple Appendix, p. 186.

+ The Pope's Minister was aware, fo early as the end of the year 1687, of the intention to dethrone James. "It was a strange complication; at the Court of Rome were combined the threads of that alliance, which had for its aim, and refult, the liberation of Protestantism from the laft great danger by which it was threatened in Western Europe, and the acquifition of the English throne to that Confeffion for ever." Ranke's History of the Popes, vol. ii. p. 424. See alfo Lingard's Hift. of England, vol. x. p. 319.

In 1687.