illapses of the spirit, resigned himself to an inward "and superior direction, and was consecrated, in a "manner, by an immediate intercourse and com"munication with heaven.

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"The catholics, pretending to an infallible guide, "had justified, upon that principle, their doctrine "and practice of persecution: the presbyterians, imagining that such clear and certain tenets, as they themselves adopted, could be rejected only " from a criminal and pertinacious obstinacy, had "hitherto gratified, to the full, their bigotted zeal, "in a like doctrine and practice: the independents, "from the extremity of the same zeal, were led into "the milder principles of toleration. Their mind, "set afloat in the wide sea of inspiration, could con"fine itself within no certain limits; and the same "variations, in which an enthusiast indulged him"self, he was apt, by a natural train of thinking, to "permit in others. Of all christian sects, this was "the first, which, during its prosperity, as well as "its adversity, always adopted the principle of tole"ration; and, it is remarkable, that so reasonable a "doctrine owed its origin, not to reasoning, but to "the height of extravagance and fanaticism.

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Popery and prelacy alone, whose genius seemed "to tend towards superstition, were treated by the "independents with rigour. The doctrines too of "fate or destiny, were deemed by them essential to "all religion. In these rigid opinions, the whole "sectaries, amidst all their other differences, unani"mously concurred.

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"The political system of the independents kept Not content with pace with their religious.

confining, to very narrow limits, the power of the "crown, and reducing the king to the rank of first "magistrate, which was the project of the presby"terians; this sect, more ardent in the pursuit of "liberty, aspired to a total abolition of the monarchy, and even of the aristocracy; and projected "an entire equality of rank and order, in a republic, quite free and independent."

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CHAP. LXI.

Vol. 11. c. 30, p. 1 to 14; and c. 31. s. 3. p. 20.

CONDITION OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS FROM THE MEETING OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT TILL THE END OF THE REIGN OF CHARLES I.

CHAP. LXII.

LOYALTY OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS DURING THE CIVIL WAR, AND THE USURPATION :-NEW PROFESSION BY THEM OF ALLEGIANCE AND CIVIL PRINCIPLES CONDEMNED BY INNOCENT X.

THE history of the English catholics during the reign of Charles I. affords a view at once pleasing

and affecting, of the undeviating rectitude of their conduct towards their sovereign and the state, and of the persecutions which they suffered from all parties: it affords also a fresh instance of obstacles too successfully thrown in the way of their endeavours to obtain some relaxation of the penal code, by an unequivocal disclaimer of the pope's deposing power, and some other obnoxious tenets.

LXII. 1.

Loyalty of the English Catholics.

FROM the commencement of the reign of Elizabeth, till the time, of which we are now writing, attempts were unceasingly made to fix on the English catholics the odious charge of disloyalty: Charles I. knew it to be wholly groundless, but too often acted, as if he believed it. Undeviatingly, however, the catholics persevered in duty and loyalty.

Soon after the commencement of the contest between the monarch and his parliament, the latter obtained the command of the public money: from this time, the wants of the king were chiefly supplied from the private purses of his loyal subjects. The catholics contributed largely to them, by voluntary subscriptions, and, on several occasions, by advancing to him two or more years of their annual assessments or compositions for recusancy: and "no

sooner was the standard of loyalty erected," says

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doctor Milner*, "and permission given for catho"lics to serve under it, than the whole nobility of "that communion, the Winchesters, the Wor"cesters, the Dunbars, the Bellamonts, the Car"narvons, the Powises, the Arundels, the Fauconbergs, the Molineuxes, the Cottingtons, the Monteagles, the Langdales, &c. with an equal proportion of catholic gentry and yeomanry, were seen flocking round it, impatient to wash away, with their blood, the stain of disloyalty, "which they had been unjustly constrained to suffer, during the greater part of a century—that "is, ever since the accession of Elizabeth.

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Those

catholics, who were possessed of castles and strong "holds, turned them into royal fortresses; and the "rest of them raised what money their estates could "afford, in support of the king and constitution. "We may judge of their exertions in this cause by "their sufferings in it." Mr. Dodd' refers to a list before him,-(and it is confirmed by authentic documents),-of six lieutenant-generals, eighteen colonels, sixteen lieutenant-colonels, sixteen majors, sixty-nine captains, fourteen lieutenants, five cornets, fifty gentlemen volunteers, all catholics, who lost their lives, fighting in the field for the royal cause. The whole amount of the noblemen and gentlemen, who thus perished on the side of the king, was estimated at five hundred; thus nearly two-fifths of them were catholics ;-and this considerably exceeded the proportion, which the number of the

* Letters to a Prebendary, letter vii.
+ Hist. vol. iii. part vi. art. v.

catholics were at this time to that of the protestants of the same rank in society.

Several contemporary writers among the protestants did justice to the conduct of the catholics. "It is a truth beyond all question," says Dr. Stanhope*, “that there were a great many noble, brave, " and loyal spirits of the roman-catholic persuasion, "who did, with the greatest integrity, and without

any other design than satisfying conscience, ad"venture their lives in the war for the king's ser"vice ;" and that "several, if not all of these men, "were of such souls, that the greatest temptation "in the world could not have perverted or made "them desert their king in his greatest miseries." "The English papist," says another writert, "for "his courage and loyalty in the first war, deserves "to be recorded in history: and perhaps this may "be worthy of notice; that, whenever the usurper, "or any of his instruments of blood or sycophancy, "resolved to take away the life or estate of a papist, "it was his loyalty, not his religion, that exposed "him to their rapine and butchery."

Other protestants have not done so much justice to the catholics: perhaps the reader will be of opinion that lord Clarendon should have said more of their fidelity to Charles II, after the defeat of the royal army at Worcester, than that" it must

• "The surest Establishment of the Royal Throne," p. 30, cited by Dodd, vol. iii. p. 31.

+"State of Christianity in England, by a Protestant Clergyman, said to be a Bishop," p. 25; also cited by Dodd, in the place referred to.