SECTION Introduced into England. right of kings prevailed. A VINDICATION OF. honour to be noticed here in the famous Oxford Decree in 1683. This doctrine soon found its way into England, and though the Protestants here at first supported Henry the Eighth in the assumption of a power, which placed him out of the reach of the anathemas of the Pope, yet they did not forget the principles of their brethren abroad, when it became necessary to resort to them in their own defence against the subsequent tyrannical But the divine proceedings of their Sovereigns. The power of Henry was too strong to be resisted with any prospect of success; and Edward the Sixth who succeeded him, wielded his sceptre with so much prudence, as to conciliate his subjects, without yielding any part of the usurpations of his father. Mary's proceedings were of so sanguinary a nature, as to make her reign a system of terror, and her religion an object of fear, and detestation. Elizabeth by the ability, and splendour of her government retained much of that power, which at her succession to the throne was cheerfully yielded to her for the necessary security of her people against foreign invasion; and the fear of a repetition of the scenes of horror, which had disgraced the preceding reign, impelled her people to cling fondly to her throne for protection, and chearfully to submit to her oppressions. Was disputed under James the first. When the House of Stuart succeeded to the crown of England, James the First assumed in fact, and de V. fended in argument the divine right, by which his four SECTION immediate predecessors had claimed to hold the royal f authority. But he was not aware of the alteration, which had gradually taken place in the sentiments, and feelings of the people, and in the relative importance of the House of Commons. Even in Queen Elizabeth's reign, that branch of the legislature had occasionally shewn a disposition to interfere, more than she wished, with the affairs of religion, and state; and if they yielded to her mandates, it was partly from their admiration of the wisdom, and energy of her government, but more from the general persuasion that the property and lives of her people were secure only from her having power to defend them. James the First, in the exercise of what he had been taught to believe, were the undoubted prerogatives of his crown, met with a resistance, which he was not prepared to expect, and by his imprudent conduct provoked an opposition, which was a source of misery to, and ended in the final expulsion of the first reigning branch of his descendants, Charles the First, And Charles was educated in the highest prerogative, doctrines. He was taught that, as the anointed of God, he had a divine right to the throne, and that passive obedience, and non-resistance were the duties of his subjects. In the defence of these doctrines, and what he had been taught to consider as his just rights, he lost his crown and life. Against his opposing and rebellious, subjects, he did not conceive himself to be struggling for any the first. V. SECTION new accession of power, but for the preservation of that, which had belonged to his predecessors, and which none but rebels, and traitors could withhold, or wish to take from him. Charles and James, in exile, catholics, and to Charles the Second and his brother, the Duke of York, thought well of fled to the continent. Their father had been murdered, ill of sectaries. his throne overturned, his family driven from their country, and they themselves become poor and friendless exiles. In such a calamitous state, it is not wonderful, that actuated by the most honourable feelings wound up the highest pitch of sensibility, they should sometimes form hasty, and not always just opinions of the conduct both of their friends and foes, and occasionally attribute to whole classes of people, the vices or virtues of those individuals who had best served, or most molested their family or themselves. Because some catholics had continued faithful subjects in all emergencies to Charles the First, and others had essentially assisted in the preservation, and escape of his successor, these Princes naturally felt a strong predilection for all professing that religion; and the execution of their father, by a few of the independents, under the orders of Cromwell, fixed in their minds an indelible stain upon sectaries in general, and of all denominations. The Parliament, the Army, and Cromwell were, in contemplation of the royal brothers, involved in one common guilt, all equally traitors, and rebels, The royal exiles beheld, with indignation, V. and horror, the governing power wrested forcibly from SECTION the true owner, and exercised by persons who had no title to it, but their crimes. If any thing could add to the poignancy of those feelings, with which they bid adieu to their country, or was necessary to give to these impressions the most complete and permanent possession of their minds, it would be found in the situation, to which they were afterwards unfortunately reduced, in the company they necessarily associated with, in the conversation they were constantly parties to, and the spirit it became their policy to excite, and nourish in their adherents, during their exile. divided into Catholics and Protestants. The reformation had divided the powers of Europe, The Continent into two great parties, the Catholic, and the Protestant. The weakness of the latter had made it necessary, to form a general league for the defence of all professing that faith, and the catholics had adopted the same line of policy to stop the further progress of heresy, though the union among them was perhaps not so strong, or general, as among the protestants. The two contending parties, at the time we are now treating of, supported the profession of their respective tenets, with a zeal and energy, unknown in the subsequent history of the continent. The protestants of England had also been divided into Puritans in two distinct sects or parties, the members of the esta England, SECTION V. connected with Protestants abroad. Catholics would not unless he blished church, and the puritans: the latter objected to the establishment, chiefly, for retaining in its discipline, too many of the objectionable ceremonies of popery, and as the greater part of the protestants upon the continent, had embraced tenets congenial with theirs, they fled from persecution in their own country, and sought an asylum there. Afterwards, when permitted to return in safety, they still continued to keep up a correspondence with their former friends. In the reign of Charles the First, the rash measures of the court, and folly of Archbishop Laud gave the puritans an opportunity to charge the King, and the episcopal Church with an inclination to popery, and to spread that report through the protestant states abroad. In the eventful period which followed, the protestants of the continent, generally attached to the puritan cause, expressed their wishes for the prosperity, first of those, who had taken arms against the King, and afterwards for those, who usurped the government. This state of affairs on the continent was peculiarly assist Charles, distressing to the royal brothers, for they could expect no assistance from the protestants, and the catholics could not trust them. Princes of the latter persuasion might reasonably be expected to hesitate about grant changed his religion. ing succour to a heretical King, whose religion, in case he should be restored, would naturally lead him to take his station among their enemies. Besides, they |