A.D. 1660-1662. MARRIAGE OF THE KING, 481 officers to receive the sacrament according to the rites of the Church of England, to renounce the Covenant, and to take the oath of Non-resistance.* In the following year (1662) the ACT OF UNIFORMITY, was passed. By this act it was required that every clergyman should be re-ordained, if he had not before received episcopal ordination; should declare his assent to every thing contained in the Book of Common Prayer; should take the oath of canonical obedience; should abjure the Solemn League and Covenant; and should renounce the principle of taking arms, on any pretense whatsoever, against the king. This act, which received the royal assent on May 19, and was to come into operation on St. Bartholomew's day (Aug. 24), reinstated the Church in the same condition in which it stood before the commencement of the civil wars; and as the old persecuting laws of Elizabeth still subsisted in their full rigor, and new clauses of a like nature were now enacted, all the king's promises of toleration and indulgence to tender consciences were thereby eluded and broken.† The Church party added insult to injury. The Puritans objected to saints' days and to apocryphal lessons; the Church party added St. Barnabas to the calendar, and inserted among the daily lessons the apocryphal story of Bel and the Dragon. $ 4. On the king's restoration advances were made by Portugal for the renewal of the alliance which the Protector had made with that country; and, in order to bind the friendship closer, an offer was made of the Portuguese princess, Catherine of Braganza, and a portion of £500,000, together with two fortresses, Tangiers in Africa, and Bombay in the East Indies; and thus was concluded (May 21, 1662) the inauspicious marriage with Catherine, a princess of virtue, but who was never able, either by the graces of her person or humor, to make herself agreeable to the king. They were married in a private room at Portsmouth, according to the Roman Catholic rites. The attention of the public was much engaged at this time by the trial of two distinguished criminals, Lambert and Vane. These men, though none of the late king's judges, had been excepted from the general indemnity, and committed to prison. The indictment of Vane did not comprehend any of his actions during the war between the king and Parliament: it extended only to his behavior after the late king's death, as member of the council of state, and secretary of the navy, where fidelity to the trust reposed in him required his opposition to monarchy. Vane wanted neither courage nor capacity to avail himself of this advantage. He pleaded the famous statute *For farther details, see Notes and Illustrations (A). X of Henry VII., in which it was enacted that no man should ever be questioned for his obedience to the king de facto; urged that, whether the established government were a monarchy or a commonwealth, the reason of the thing was still the same; and maintained that the Commons were the root, the foundation of all lawful authority.. But this bold defense only hastened his destruction. Vane's courage deserted him not upon his condemnation. Lest pity for a courageous sufferer should make impression on the populace, drummers were placed under the scaffold, whose noise, as he began to launch out in reflections on the government, drowned his voice (June 14). By this execution Charles shamefully violated his promise to the last Parliament. Lambert, though also condemned, was reprieved at the bar; and the judges declared that, if Vane's behavior had been equally dutiful and submissive, he would have experienced like lenity in the king. Lambert survived his condemnation nearly thirty years. He was confined to the Isle of Guernsey, where he amused himself with painting and botany. He died a Roman Catholic. § 5. The fatal St. Bartholomew approached (Aug. 24), the day when the clergy were obliged, by the late law, either to relinquish their livings or to sign the articles required of them. About 2000 of the clergy in one day relinquished their cures, and, to the astonishment of the court, sacrificed their interest to their religious tenets. Bishoprics were offered to Calamy, Baxter, and Reynolds, leaders among the Presbyterians; the last only could be prevailed on to accept. Deaneries and other preferments were refused by many. The king, during his exile, had imbibed strong prejudices in favor of the Catholic religion, and, according to the most probable accounts, had already been secretly reconciled in form to the Church of Rome. His brother, the Duke of York, had zealously adopted all the principles of Catholicism, though he had not yet made an open declaration of his belief. The two brothers saw with pleasure so numerous and popular a body of the clergy refuse conformity, and it was hoped that, under shelter of their name, the small and hated sect of the Catholics might meet with favor and protection. Under pretense of mitigating the rigors of the Act of Uniformity, a declaration was issued on the 26th of December, 1663, in which the king mentioned the promises of liberty of conscience contained in the declaration of Breda; and he notified that, with a view to carry them out, he should make it his special care to incline the Parliament to concur with him in making some such act for that purpose as might enable him to exercise, with a more universal satisfaction, that power of dispensing with the penalties of the law which he conceived to be A.D. 1662-1C61. TRIENNIAL ACT REPEALED. 483 inherent in him.* The declared intention of easing the Dissenters, and the secret purpose of favoring the Catholics, were, however, equally disagreeable to the Parliament; and the king did not think proper, after a remonstrance which they made, to insist any farther at present on the project of indulgence. Notwithstanding the supplies voted to Charles, his treasury was still very empty and very much indebted. The forces sent over to Portugal, and the fleets maintained in order to defend it, had already cost the king nearly double the money which had been paid as the queen's portion. The time fixed for payment of his sister's portion to the Duke of Orleans was approaching. Tangiers was become an additional burden to the crown, and Dunkirk cost £120,000 a year. Clarendon advised the accepting of a sum of money in lieu of a place which he thought the king, from the narrow state of his revenue, was no longer able to retain, and a bargain was at length concluded with France for £400,000. The artillery and stores were valued at a fifth of the sum. The impolicy of this sale consisted principally in its having been made to France. § 6. At the instance of the king, the Parliament, next session (March, 1664), repealed the Triennial Act; and, in lieu of all the securities formerly provided, satisfied themselves with a general clause, "that Parliaments should not be interrupted above three years at the most." Before the end of Charles's reign the nation had occasion to feel very sensibly the effects of this repeal. By the Act of Uniformity, every clergyman who should officiate without being properly qualified was punishable by fine and imprisonment; but this security was not thought sufficient for the Church, and the CONVENTICLE ACT was accordingly passed, by which it was enacted that, wherever five persons above those of the same household should assemble in a religious congregation, every one of them was liable, for the first offense, to be imprisoned three months, or pay £5; for the second, to be imprisoned six months, or pay £10; and for the third, to be transported seven years, or pay £100. The Commons likewise presented an address to the king, complaining of the wrongs offered to the English trade by the Dutch, and promising to assist the king with their lives and fortunes in asserting the rights of his crown against all opposition. The Dispensing and Suspending Powers, as they are called, were claimed both by Charles II. and James II. The Dispensing Power consisted in the exemption of particular persons, under special circumstances, from the operation of penal laws; the Suspending Power in nullifying the entire operation of any statute or any number of statutes. (For details, see Amos, "The English Constitution in the Reign of Charles II.," p. 19, seqq.) Charles II. made a second attempt in 1672 to suspend the penal laws against Nonconformists. See below, p. 493. Medal of James, Duke of York, afterward James II., commemorating the naval victory over the Dutch, June 3, 1665. Obverse: LACOBVS. DVX. EBOR. ET. ALBAN. DOM. MAGN. ADMIRALLVS. ANGLIE. &c. Bust to the right. whatsoever. This was the first open step toward the Dutch war. The rivalship of commerce had produced among the English a violent enmity against the neighboring republic. The English merchants had the mortification to find that all attempts to extend their trade were still turned by the vigilance of their rivals to their loss and dishonor, and their indignation increased when they considered the superior naval power of England. The Duke of York was eagerly in favor of the war with Holland. He desired an opportunity of distinguishing himself, and was at the head of a new African company, the trade of which was checked by the settlements of the Dutch. The king yielded to the wishes of his brother and the nation; and, after various acts of hostility, Parliament was called upon in the autumn to redeem the promise they had made to the king. They cheerfully responded to the appeal, and voted two millions and a half, the largest supply that had ever yet been given to a king of England. This tax was imposed alike on the clergy and laity. Hitherto the clergy had taxed themselves in convocation, which had usually sat at the same time as the Parliament. By reason of ecclesiastical preferments A.D. 1664, 1665. WAR WITH HOLLAND. 485 NEC MIN OR IN TERRIS Reverse: NEC MINOR IN TERRIS. A naval engagement: in front the admiral's ship; beneath, 3 IVNII, 1665. which he could bestow, the king's influence over the Church was more considerable than over the laity, so that the subsidies granted by the convocation were commonly greater than those which were voted by Parliament. The Church, therefore, was not displeased to depart tacitly from the right of taxing herself, and allow the Commons to lay impositions on ecclesiastical revenues as on the rest of the kingdom. War was declared against Holland, Feb. 22, 1665. The English fleet, consisting of 98 sail, was commanded by the Duke of York, and under him by Prince Rupert and the Earl of Sandwich. Opdam was admiral of the Dutch navy, of nearly equal force. A battle was fought off the coast of Suffolk. In the heat of action, when engaged in close fight with the Duke of York, Opdam's ship blew up. This accident much discouraged the Dutch, who fled toward their own coast. The vanquished had 19 ships sunk and taken; the victors lost only one. In this war the method of fighting in line was first introduced into naval tactics by the Duke of York. The French monarch, alarmed lest the English should establish an uncontrollable dominion over the sea and over commerce, resolved to support the Dutch in that unequal contest in |