archbishops, bishops, deans and chapters, prebends, and other ecclesiastical persons, and the said purchasers or pretended owners, and thereupon to make orders and agreements between them in writing under your hands and seals, and in such manner as you in your discretion 5 shall find just and reasonable with their consents; and in case of refusal or disagreement on either part, then you are forthwith to certify the same unto us, and our council, whereupon you shall receive such further order therein as shall be meet: and you are then also to propose unto 10 the said officers and soldiers, and other purchasers of our own lands such satisfaction for and in respect of their several pretended interests in the same, as upon consideration of their several interests, you shall think fit to advise in that behalf, and thereof you shall certify us with 15 all convenient speed. And for your better information and proceeding in the premises, we do hereby will and authorize you to send for and convene before you all such treasurers, receivers, accountants, registers, witnesses, clerks, officers and other persons as you shall 20 think fit, and to examine all or any of them upon their corporal oaths to be administered unto them, or any of them by your discretion, and to send for and peruse all such books of account, register books, surveys and other writings, as you shall think meet for your better discovery 25 and finding out of the truth in all things touching the premises, and what monies have been raised by the said sales, and to whom the same hath been paid, and how the same hath been accounted for and disposed of, and how much remains in the treasurers', receivers', or ac- 30 countants' hands, or any others', and how long it hath remained. And we do also hereby will and authorize you, to inquire by the oaths of good and lawful men of every county, city or privileged place, wherein the said lands and premises or any of them do lie, of all things 35 comprehended in this our commission: hereby willing and commanding all our sheriffs, mayors, bailiffs, and all other officers and ministers, whom it may concern, upon your precepts and warrants to return good and sufficient jurors for the better inquiry and finding out of the truth 5 of the premises, and to be obedient, aiding, and assisting unto you in all things, tending to the execution of this our commission. And whatsoever you, or any five, or more of you shall do or cause to be done in or about the premises, we do hereby ratify, confirm, and approve of. 10 And our will and pleasure is, and we do hereby require the said archbishops, bishops, deans and chapters, prebends, and other ecclesiastical persons by themselves or by other persons sufficiently authorized by them to appear before you, when they shall be so required, to the end 15 that your mediation and interposition may be the more effectual; we in no wise doubting of their readiness to comply with us in the end of this our commission, and that they will accept such reasonable conditions, as shall be tendered to them by you on the behalf of such as 20 have been purchasers of any lands held from them or their respective churches, according to the several considerations of the persons and their interests, and that they will do no act to the prejudice of any purchasers, by granting any new or concurrent leases, whereby their 25 present interest or possession may be hurt or disturbed, whilst the same is under your deliberation, and until our pleasure be further known. In witness whereof we have caused these our letters to be made patents. Witness ourself at Westminster the seventh day of October, in 30 the twelfth year of our reign. CXLIX. Archiepisc. Cant. Anno Christi 1660. Reg. Angliæ His majesty's declaration to all his loving subjects of his kingdom of England and dominion of Wales, concerning ecclesiastical affairs. CHARLES REX. HOW much the peace of the state is concerned in the peace of the church, and how difficult a thing it is to preserve order and government in civil, whilst there is no order or government in ecclesiastical affairs, is evident 5 to the world; and this little part of the world, our own dominions, hath had so late experience of it, that we may very well acquiesce in the conclusion, without enlarging ourself in discourse upon it, it being a subject we have had frequent occasion to contemplate upon, and to lament, 10 abroad as well as at home. His majesty's declaration] When the convention-parliament was adjourned on the 13th of September 1660, the lord chancellor [Clarendon] in the course of his speech gave the following notice: "This disquisition [respecting religion] hath cost the king many a sigh, many 15 a sad hour, when he hath considered the almost irreparable reproach the protestant religion hath undergone, from the divisions and distractions which have been so notorious within this kingdom. What pains he hath taken to compose them, after several discourses with learned and pious men of different persuasions, you will shortly see by a Decla- 20 ration he will publish upon that occasion: by which you will see his great indulgence to those who can have any pretension from conscience to differ with their brethren." The Declaration was issued on the 25th of October; and on the 6th of November, the day on which the parliament assembled after its adjournment, a committee of the house of 25 In our letter to the speaker of the house of commons from Breda we declared how much we desired the advancement and propagation of the protestant religion; that "neither the unkindness of those of the same faith 5 towards us, nor the civilities and obligations from those of a contrary profession (of both which we have had abundant evidence) could in the least degree startle us, or make us swerve from it, and that nothing can be proposed to manifest our zeal and affection for it, to which 10 we will not readily consent;" and we said then, “that we did hope in due time, ourself to propose somewhat for the propagation of it, that will satisfy the world, that we have always made it both our care and our study, and have enough observed what is most like to bring disadvantage 15 to it." And the truth is, we do think ourself the more competent to propose, and with God's assistance to determine many things now in difference, from the time we have spent, and the experience we have had in most of the reformed churches abroad, in France, in the Low 20 Countries, and in Germany, where we have had frequent conferences with the most learned men, who have unanimously lamented the great reproach the protestant religion undergoes from the distempers and too notorious commons was appointed, with sir Matthew Hale at its head, to bring 25 in a bill for the purpose of making his majesty's gracious declaration effectual. A bill was consequently brought in, and was ordered to be read on the 22nd of the same month; but on that day the king sent down a message, announcing his intention to dissolve the parliament in the next month, and a few days afterwards it was determined, on a division, to 30 proceed no further in the business. It was probably the wish of his majesty's government to delay the consideration of ecclesiastical matters, not so much because the acts of the convention-parliament would require confirmation afterwards, as because the ancient institutions of the church were more likely to meet with favour and protection from 35 any future parliament. The declaration itself, drawn up originally by lord Clarendon, was revised by bishops Morley and Henchman for the church, and Reynolds and Calamy for the dissenters, with the lords schisms in matters of religion in England: and as the most learned amongst them have always with great submission and reverence acknowledged and magnified the established government of the church of England, and the great countenance and shelter the protestant religion 5 received from it, before these unhappy times; so many of them have with great ingenuity and sorrow confessed, that they were too easily misled by misinformation and prejudice into some disesteem of it, as if it had too much complied with the church of Rome; whereas they now 10 acknowledge it to be the best fence God hath yet raised against popery in the world; and we are persuaded they do with great zeal wish it restored to its old dignity and veneration. When we were in Holland, we were attended by many 15 grave and learned ministers from hence, who were looked upon as the most able and principal assertors of the presbyterian opinions; with whom we had as much conference, as the multitude of affairs which were then upon us would permit us to have, and to our great satisfaction 20 and comfort found them persons full of affection to us, of zeal for the peace of the church and state, and neither enemies, as they have been given out to be, to episcopacy, or liturgy, but modestly to desire such alterations in Anglesea and Hollis as referees (Baxter's life, p. 151); and there cer- 25 tainly was at this period a strong disposition among the clergy in favour of moderate measures, occasioned partly by an earnest wish for peace and union, and partly by the circulation of such works as archbishop Usher's Reduction of Episcopacy, and Stillingfleet's Irenicum. But the royalists in general, and more especially those who had resided on 30 the continent, were opposed to any deviation from the ancient model of church government. Lord Clarendon (Life, vol. i. p. 483.) clearly foresaw that the king could not act upon the terms of the declaration; one of the secretaries of state is said to have voted in the house of commons against its passing into a law; and in the following parlia- 35 ment, in which the royalists greatly prevailed, an act of uniformity was passed (13 and 14 Charles II. c. 4.) which put an end to all projects |