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Discontent

the public

Catholic

rites and Vestments.

The temper of the nation was indeed | The skill and care with which those such as might well make him fathers had, during several generations, excited by hesitate. During some months conducted the education of youth, had display of discontent had been steadily drawn forth reluctant praises from the Roman and rapidly increasing. The wisest Protestants. Bacon had procelebration of the Roman nounced the mode of instruction Catholic worship had long followed in the Jesuit colleges to be the best yet known in the world, and had warmly expressed his regret that so admirable a system of intellectual and moral discipline should be employed on the side of error.* It was not improbable that the new academy in the Savoy might, under royal patronage, prove a formidable rival to the great foundations of Eton, Westminster, and Winchester. Indeed, soon after the school was opened, the classes consisted of four hundred boys, about one half of whom were Protestants. The Protestant pupils were not required to attend mass: but there could be no doubt that the influence of able preceptors, devoted to the Roman Catholic Church, and versed in all the arts which win the confidence and affection of youth, would make many converts.

been prohibited by Act of Parliament. During several generations no Roman Catholic clergyman had dared to exhibit himself in any public place with the badges of his office. Against the regular clergy, and against the restless and subtle Jesuits by name, had been enacted a succession of rigorous statutes. Every Jesuit who set foot in this country was liable to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. A reward was offered for his detection. He was not allowed to take advantage of the general rule, that men are not bound to accuse themselves. Whoever was suspected of being a Jesuit might be interrogated, and, if he refused to answer, might be sent to prison for life.* These laws, though they had not, except when there was supposed to be some peculiar danger, been strictly executed, and though they had never prevented Jesuits from resorting to England, had made disguise necessary. But all disguise was now thrown off. Injudicious members of the King's Church, encouraged by him, took a pride in defying statutes which were still of undoubted validity, and feelings which had a stronger hold of the national mind than at any former period. Roman Catholic chapels rose all over the country. Cowls, girdles of ropes, and strings of beads constantly appeared in the streets, and astonished a population, the oldest of whom had never seen a conventual garb except on the stage. A convent rose at Clerkenwell on the site of the ancient cloister of Saint John. The Franciscans occupied a mansion in Lincoln's Inn Fields. The Carmelites were quartered in the City. A society of Benedictine monks was lodged in Saint James's Palace. In the Savoy a spacious house, including a church and a school, was built for the Jesuits.

27 Eliz. c. 2.; 2 Jac. 1. c. 34.; Jac. 1. c. 5. † Life of James the Second, ii. 79, 80. Orig. Mem.

Riots.

These things produced great excitement among the populace, which is always more moved by what impresses the senses than by what is addressed to the reason. Thousands of rude and ignorant men, to whom the dispensing power and the Ecclesiastical Commission were words without a meaning, saw with dismay and indignation a Jesuit college rising on the banks of the Thames, friars in hoods and gowns walking in the Strand, and crowds of devotees pressing in at the doors of temples where homage was paid to graven images. Riots broke out in several parts of the country. At Coventry and Worcester the Roman Catholic worship was violently interrupted. At Bristol the rabble, countenanced, it was said, by the magistrates, exhibited a profane and indecent pageant, in which the Virgin Mary was represented by a buffoon, and in which a mock host was carried in procession. Soldiers were called out to disperse the mob. The mob, then and ever since one of the fiercest in the kingdom, *De Augmentis, i. vi. 4. + Van Citters, May 1686.

14 24

city.

resisted. Blows were exchanged, and | Church which he found established in serious hurts inflicted.* The agitation his dominions. He had strictly kept was great in the capital, and greater in his word, and had not suffered himself the City, properly so called, than at West- to be provoked to any violence by the minster. For the people of Westminster indiscretion of preachers who, in their had been accustomed to see among them antipathy to his faith, occasionally forthe private chapels of Roman Catholic got the respect which they owed to his Ambassadors: but the City had not, person.* He learned, with concern, within living memory, been polluted that great offence had been given to by any idolatrous exhibition. Now, the people of London by the injudicions however, the resident of the Elector act of his representative, and, much to Palatine, encouraged by the King, his honour, declared that he would fitted up a chapel in Lime Street. The forego the privilege to which, as a heads of the corporation, though men sovereign prince, he was entitled, rather selected for office on account of their than endanger the peace of a great known Toryism, protested against this "I, too," he wrote to James, proceeding, which, as they said, the "have Protestant subjects; and I know ablest gentleman of the long robe re- with how much caution and delicacy it garded as illegal. The Lord Mayor is necessary that a Catholic prince so was ordered to appear before the Privy situated should act." James, instead Council. "Take heed what you do," of expressing gratitude for this humane said the King. "Obey me; and do and considerate conduct, turned the not trouble yourself either about gentle- letter into ridicule before the foreign men of the long robe or gentlemen of ministers. It was determined that the the short robe.' The Chancellor took Elector should have a chapel in the up the word, and reprimanded the un-city whether he would or not, and that, fortunate magistrate with the genuine if the train bands refused to do their eloquence of the Old Bailey bar. The duty, their place should be supplied by chapel was opened. All the neighbour- the Guards.† hood was soon in commotion. Great The effect of these disturbances crowds assembled in Cheapside to attack on trade was serious. The Dutch the new mass house. The priests were minister informed the States General insulted. A crucifix was taken out of that the business of the Exchange was the building and set up on the parish at a stand. The Commissioners of the pump. The Lord Mayor came to quell Customs reported to the King that, the tumult, but was received with cries during the month which followed the of "No wooden gods." The trainbands opening of the Lime Street Chapel, were ordered to disperse the crowd: the receipt in the port of the Thames but the trainbands shared in the popu- had fallen off by some thousands of lar feeling; and murmurs were heard pounds. Several Aldermen, who, from the ranks; "We cannot in con- though zealous royalists appointed science fight for Popery." † under the new charter, were deeply The Elector Palatine was, like James, interested in the commercial prosperity a sincere and zealous Catholic, and of their city, and loved neither Popery was, like James, the ruler of a Protest- nor martial law, tendered their resig ant people; but the two princes re-nations. But the King was resolved sembled each other little in temper and understanding. The Elector had promised to respect the rights of the * Van Citters, May 18. 1686; Adda, May

19

29

19

28

Ellis Correspondence, April 27. 1686;
Barillon, April 1.; Van Citters, April 20
Privy Council Book, March 26.; Luttrell's
Feb. 26. Mar. 26.
Diary; Adda,
April 5. April,
April 23.
May 3.

Mar. 8.

Hounslow.

not to yield. He formed a A camp camp on Hounslow Heath, and formed t collected there, within a circumference of about two miles and a half, fourteen battalions of foot and thirty two squadrons of horse, amount

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ing to thirteen thousand fighting men. | He was a man already under the frown Twenty six pieces of artillery, and many of power. His character was remarkwains laden with arms and ammunition, able, and his history not uninstructive. were dragged from the Tower through His name was Samuel Johnson. He the City to Hounslow.* The Londoners was a priest of the Church of Samuel saw this great force assembled in their England, and had been chap- Johnson. neighbourhood with a terror which lain to Lord Russell. Johnson was one familiarity soon diminished. A visit of those persons who are mortally to Hounslow became their favourite hated by their opponents, and less amusement on holidays. The camp loved than respected by their allies. presented the appearance of a vast His morals were pure, his religious fair. Mingled with the musketeers | feelings ardent, his learning and abiliand dragoons, a multitude of fine ties not contemptible, his judgment gentlemen and ladies from Soho Square, weak, his temper acrimonious, turbusharpers and painted women from Whitefriars, invalids in sedans, monks in hoods and gowns, lacqueys in rich liveries, pedlars, orange girls, mischieVous apprentices, and gaping clowns, was constantly passing and repassing through the long lanes of tents. From some pavilions were heard the noises of drunken revelry, from others the curses of gamblers. In truth the place was merely a gay suburb of the capital. The King, as was amply proved two years later, had greatly miscalculated. He had forgotten that vicinity operates in more ways than one. He had hoped that his army would overawe London: but the result of his policy was that the feelings and opinions of London took complete possession of his army.†

Scarcely indeed had the encampment been formed when there were rumours of quarrels between the Protestant and Popish soldiers. A little tract, entitled A humble and hearty Address to all English Protestants in the Army, had been actively circulated through the ranks. The writer vehemently exhorted the troops to use their arms in defence, not of the mass book, but of the Bible, of the Great Charter, and of the Petition of Right.

* Ellis Correspondence, June 26. 1686; Van Citters, July; Luttrell's Diary, July

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lent, and unconquerably stubborn. His
profession made him peculiarly odious
to the zealous supporters of monarchy;
for a republican in holy orders was a
strange and almost an unnatural being.
During the late reign Johnson had
published a book entitled Julian the
Apostate. The object of this work
was to show that the Christians of the
fourth century did not hold the doc-
trine of nonresistance. It was easy to
produce passages from Chrysostom and
Jerome written in a spirit very different
from that of the Anglican divines who
preached against the Exclusion Bill.
Johnson, however, went further. He
attempted to revive the odious imputa-
tion which had, for very obvious
reasons, been thrown by Libanius on
the Christian soldiers of Julian, and
insinuated that the dart which slew the
imperial renegade came, not from the
enemy, but from some Rumbold or
Ferguson in the Roman ranks. A hot
controversy followed. Whig and Tory
disputants wrangled fiercely about an
obscure passage, in which Gregory of
Nazianzus praises a pious Bishop who
was going to bastinado somebody. The
Whigs maintained that the holy man
was going to bastinado the Emperor;
the Tories that, at the worst, he was
only going to bastinado a captain of the
guard. Johnson wrote a reply to his
assailants, in which he drew an elaborate
parallel between Julian and James, then
Duke of York. Julian had, during
many years, pretended to
idolatry, while in heart an idolater.
Julian had, to serve a turn, occasion-
ally affected respect for the rights of
conscience. Julian had punished cities

abhor

Hugh
Speke.

against

which were zealous for the true religion, | were struck off and brought to Speke's by taking away their municipal privi- room, whence they were distributed leges. Julian had, by his flatterers, over the whole country, and especially been called the Just. James was pro- among the soldiers. A milder governvoked beyond endurance. Johnson ment than that which then ruled Enwas prosecuted for a libel, convicted, gland would have been moved to high and condemned to a fine which he had resentment by such a provocation. no means of paying. He was therefore Strict search was made. A subordinate kept in gaol; and it seemed likely agent who had been employed to circuthat his confinement would end only late the address saved himself by with his life.* giving up Johnson; and Johnson was Over the room which he occupied in not the man to save himself by giving the King's Bench prison lodged up Speke. An information Proceedanother offender whose charac- was filed, and a conviction ob- ing ter well deserves to be studied. This tained without difficulty. Ju- Johnson. was Hugh Speke, a young man of good lian Johnson, as he was popularly family, but of a singularly base and called, was sentenced to stand thrice in depraved nature. His love of mischief the pillory, and to be whipped from and of dark and crooked ways amounted almost to madness. To cause confusion without being found out was his business and his pastime; and he had a rare skill in using honest enthusiasts as the instruments of his coldblooded malice. He had attempted, by means of one of his puppets, to fasten on Charles and James the crime of murdering Essex in the Tower. On this occasion the agency of Speke had been traced; and, though he succeeded in throwing the greater part of the blame on his dupe, he had not escaped with impunity. He was now a prisoner; but his fortune enabled him to live with comfort; and he was under so little restraint that he was able to keep up regular communication with one of his confederates who managed a secret

press.

Johnson was the very man for Speke's purposes, zealous and intrepid, a scholar and a practised controversialist, yet as simple as a child. A close intimacy sprang up between the two fellow prisoners. Johnson wrote a succession of bitter and vehement treatises which Speke conveyed to the printer. When the camp was formed at Hounslow, Speke urged Johnson to compose an address which might excite the troops to mutiny. The paper was instantly drawn up. Many thousands of copies

* See the memoirs of Johnson, prefixed to the folio edition of his life, his Julian, and his answers to his opponents. See also Hickes's

Jovian.

Newgate to Tyburn. The Judge, Sir
Francis Withins, told the criminal to
be thankful for the great lenity of the
Attorney General, who might have
treated the case as one of high treason.
"I owe him no thanks," answered
Johnson, dauntlessly. "Am I, whose
only crime is that I have defended the
Church and the laws, to be grateful
for being scourged like a dog, while
Popish scribblers are suffered daily to
insult the Church and to violate the
laws with impunity?"
The energy
with which he spoke was such that both
the Judges and crown lawyers thought
it necessary to vindicate themselves,
and to protest that they knew of no
Popish publications such as those to
which the prisoner alluded. He in-
stantly drew from his pocket some
Roman Catholic books and trinkets
which were then freely exposed for sale
under the royal patronage, read aloud
the titles of the books, and threw a
rosary across the table to the King's
counsel. And now," he cried with a
loud voice, "I lay this information
before God, before this court, and
before the English people. We shall
soon see whether Mr. Attorney will do
his duty."

66

It was resolved that, before the punishment was inflicted, Johnson should be degraded from the priesthood. The prelates who had been charged by the Ecclesiastical Commission with the care of the diocese of London cited him before them in the chapter house

clergy

of Saint Paul's Cathedral. The man- | England Johnson found no sympathy. ner in which he went through the He had attempted to justify Zeal of the ceremony made a deep impression on rebellion: he had even hinted Anglican many minds. When he was stripped approbation of regicide; and against of his sacred robe he exclaimed, "You they still, in spite of much Popery. are taking away my gown because I provocation, clung to the doctrine have tried to keep your gowns on your of nonresistance. But they saw with backs." The only part of the formali- alarm and concern the progress of ties which seemed to distress him was what they considered as a noxious the plucking of the Bible out of his superstition, and, while they abjured hand. He made a faint struggle to re- all thought of defending their religion tain the sacred book, kissed it, and by the sword, betook themselves manburst into tears. 66 You cannot," he fully to weapons of a different kind. said, "deprive me of the hopes which To preach against the errors of Popery I owe to it." Some attempts were was now regarded by them as a point made to obtain a remission of the of duty and a point of honour. The flogging. A Roman Catholic priest London clergy, who were then in offered to intercede in consideration of abilities and influence decidedly at the a bribe of two hundred pounds. The head of their profession, set an example money was raised; and the priest did which was bravely followed by their his best, but in vain. "Mr. Johnson," ruder brethren all over the country. said the King, "has the spirit of a Had only a few bold men taken this martyr; and it is fit that he should be freedom, they would probably have one." William the Third said, a few been at once cited before the Ecclesiyears later, of one of the most acri- astical Commission; but it was hardly monious and intrepid Jacobites, "He possible to punish an offence which has set his heart on being a martyr; was committed every Sunday by thouand I have set mine on disappointing sands of divines, from Berwick to him." These two speeches would Penzance. The presses of the capital, alone suffice to explain the widely of Oxford, and of Cambridge, never different fates of the two princes.

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The day appointed for the flogging came. A whip of nine lashes was used. Three hundred and seventeen stripes were inflicted; but the sufferer never winced. He afterwards said that the pain was cruel, but that, as he was dragged at the tail of the cart, he remembered how patiently the cross had been borne up Mount Calvary, and was so much supported by the thought, that, but for the fear of incurring the suspicion of vainglory, he would have sung a psalm with as firm and cheerful a voice as if he had been worshipping God in the congregation. It is impossible not to wish that so much heroism had been less alloyed by intemperance and intolerance.*

Among the clergy of the Church of

Life of Johnson, prefixed to his works; Secret History of the Happy Revolution, by

Hugh Speke; State Trials; Van Citters

Nov. 23.

Dec. 3.
1686. Van Citters gives the best ac-

count of the trial. I have seen a broadside

which confirms his narrative.

VOL. I.

rested. The Act which subjected literature to a censorship did not seriously impede the exertions of Protestant controversialists; for that Act contained a proviso in favour of the two Universities, and authorised the publication of theological works licensed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. It was therefore out of the power of the government to silence the defenders of the established religion. They were a numerous, an intrepid, and a well appointed band of combatants. Among them were eloquent declaimers, expert dialecticians, scholars deeply read in the writings of the fathers and in all parts of ecclesiastical history. Some of them, at a later period, turned against one another the formidable arms which they had wielded against the common enemy, and by their fierce contentions and insolent triumphs brought reproach on the Church which they had saved. But at present they formed an united phalanx. In the van appeared a rank of steady and

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