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Title Page and Contents
Chapter I
Before the Restoration
Parts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
 The
benevolent spirit of the Christian morality is undoubtedly adverse to
distinctions of caste. But to the Church of Rome such distinctions are
peculiarly odious; for they are incompatible with other distinctions which
are essential to her system. (ch. 1:2)
The
line which bounded the royal prerogative, though in general sufficiently
clear, had not everywhere been drawn with accuracy and distinctness.
(ch. 1:2)
It
is difficult for an Englishman of the nineteenth century to imagine the
facility and rapidity with which, four hundred years ago, the check of
physical force against tyranny was applied. The people have long unlearned
the use of arms. (ch. 1:2)
The
struggle between the Roman Catholic religion and the Reformation in our
country was long, and the event sometimes seemed doubtful. There were
two extreme parties, prepared to act with violence or to suffer with stubborn
resolution. (ch. 1:3)
It
seemed monstrous that a woman should be the chief bishop. (ch. 1:3)
The
spirit of Protestantism was far fiercer and more intolerant after the
cruelties of Mary than before them. (ch. 1:3)
It
was in the Parliament of 1601 that the opposition which had, during forty
years, been silently gathering and husbanding strength, fought its first
great battle and won its first victory. (ch. 1:3)
It
was gravely maintained that the Supreme Being regarded hereditary monarchy,
as opposed to other forms of government, with peculiar favour. (ch. 1:4)
It
was hinted that, if the established worship had any fault, that fault
was extreme simplicity. (ch. 1:4)
After
the fashion of oppressed sects, the separatists mistook their own vindictive
feelings for emotions of piety. (ch. 1:4)
The
opponents of the government began to despair of the destiny of their country;
and many looked to the American wilderness as the only asylum in which
they could enjoy civil and spiritual freedom. (ch. 1:5)
When,
in October, 1641, the Parliament reassembled, two hostile parties appeared
confronting each other. (ch. 1:5)
The
great majority of the nation was firmly attached to hereditary monarchy.
Those who held republican opinions were as yet few, and did not venture
to speak out. (ch. 1:5)
In
August 1642 the sword was at length drawn. (ch. 1:6)
Cromwell
saw it was necessary to look for recruits of decent station and grave
character, fearing God and zealous for public liberty. (ch. 1:6)
The
army which now became supreme was an army very different from any that
has since been seen among us. (ch. 1:6)
A
revolutionary tribunal pronounced Charles a tyrant, a traitor, a murderer,
and a public enemy; and his head was severed from his shoulders, before
thousands of spectators, in front of the banqueting hall of his own palace.
(ch. 1:6)
The
object of the warlike saints who surrounded Cromwell was the settlement
of a free and pious commonwealth. For that end they were ready to employ,
without scruple, any means, however violent and lawless. (ch. 1:7)
Under
no English government since the Reformation, had there been so little
religious persecution. Even the Jews were, in spite of the strong opposition
of jealous traders and fanatical theologians, permitted to build a synagogue
in London. (ch. 1:7)
Oliver
was succeeded by his son Richard as quietly as any King had ever been
succeeded by any Prince of Wales. (ch. 1:7)
The
officers who had the principal influence among the troops stationed near
London were not Richard's friends. Some of them were honest, but fanatical.
Others were impatient to be what Oliver had been. (ch. 1:7)
There
appears to have been less fanaticism among the troops stationed in Scotland
than in any other part of the army; and their general, George Monk, was
himself the very opposite of a zealot. (ch. 1:7)
At
length Monk broke silence, and declared for a free Parliament. (ch. 1:7)
The
new Parliament is more accurately described as a Convention. Both Houses
instantly invited the King to return to his country. (ch. 1:7)
Chapter II
Under Charles the Second
Parts: 1 2 3 4 5 6
The
military tyranny had passed away; but it left deep and enduring traces.
(ch. 2:1)
The
political feud was, as usual, exasperated by a religious feud. (ch. 2:1)
The
Puritans had undoubtedly, in the day of their power, given cruel provocation.
They ought to have learned, if from nothing else, yet from their own discontents,
that it was not in the power of the civil magistrate to drill the minds
of men into conformity. (ch. 2:1)
At
the time of the Restoration the Quakers were popularly regarded as the
most despicable of fanatics. (ch. 2:1)
As
a man eminently well bred, and keenly sensible of the ridiculous, Charles
the Second was moved to contemptuous mirth by the Puritan oddities. He
had indeed some reason to dislike the rigid sect. (ch. 2:1)
Episcopal
ordination was now, for the first time, made an indispensable qualification
for church preferment. About two thousand ministers of religion, whose
conscience did not suffer them to conform, were driven from their benefices.
(ch. 2:1)
It
was made a crime to attend a dissenting place of worship. A single justice
of the peace might convict without a jury, and might, for the third offence,
pass sentence of transportation beyond sea for seven years. (ch. 2:2)
Men
flew to frivolous amusements and to criminal pleasures with the greediness
which long and enforced abstinence naturally produces. (ch. 2:2)
A
vague suspicion that the King and the Duke were not sincere Protestants
sprang up and gathered strength. (ch. 2:2)
Secret
Treaty of Dover - Charles bound himself to make public profession of the
Roman Catholic religion, to join his arms to those of Lewis for the purpose
of destroying the power of the United Provinces, and to employ the whole
strength of England in support of the rights of the House of Bourbon to
the vast monarchy of Spain. (ch. 2:3)
The
Cabal. (ch. 2:3)
Against
the Declaration of Indulgence, all the enemies of religious freedom, and
all the friends of civil freedom, found themselves on the same side; and
these two classes made up nineteen twentieths of the nation. (ch. 2:4)
The
general impression was that a great blow was about to be aimed at the
Protestant religion. (ch. 2:4)
Habeas
Corpus Act. (ch. 2:5)
Protestants
set up the Duke of Monmouth as a claimant of the crown. (ch. 2:5)
Exclusion
Bill - to block a Catholic from the throne - passes the Commons, rejected
by the Lords. (ch. 2:5)
Whig
conspiracies - to overthrow Charles the Second and his brother, James
II. (ch. 2:6)
Chapter III
State of England in 1685
Parts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
The
country gentleman - His animosities were numerous and bitter. He hated
Frenchmen and Italians, Scotchmen and Irishmen, Papists and Presbyterians,
Independents and Baptists, Quakers and Jews. (ch. 3:2)
The
rural clergy were even more vehement in Toryism than the rural gentry,
and were a class scarcely less important. (ch. 3:3)
It
would be hard to find, in the comedy of the seventeenth century, a single
instance of a clergyman who wins a spouse above the rank of cook.
(ch. 3:3)
Among
those divines who were the boast of the Universities and the delight of
the capital were those who lived on friendly terms with Presbyterians,
Independents, and Baptists. But such latitudinarianism was held in horror
by the country parson. (ch. 3:3)
In
Bristol, luxury was supported by a thriving trade with the North American
plantations and with the West Indies. (ch. 3:3)
In
the streets of London, the Muns and Tityre Tus had given place to the
Hectors, and the Hectors had been recently succeeded by the Scourers.
At a later period arose the Nicker, the Hawcubite, and the yet more dreaded
name of Mohawk. (ch. 3:4)
The
coffee house must not be dismissed with a cursory mention. (ch. 3:5)
It
was still usual for men who enjoyed health and vigour, and who were not
encumbered by much baggage, to perform long journeys on horseback. If
the traveller wished to move expeditiously he rode post. (ch. 3:5)
In
the capital the coffee houses supplied in some measure the place of a
journal. But people who lived at a distance from the great theatre of
political contention could be kept regularly informed of what was passing
there only by means of newsletters. (ch. 3:6)
English
women of that generation were decidedly worse educated than they have
been at any other time since the revival of learning. (ch. 3:6)
The
war between wit and Puritanism soon became a war between wit and morality.
The hostility excited by a grotesque caricature of virtue did not spare
virtue herself. (ch. 3:6)
Nothing
is more characteristic of the times than the care with which the poets
contrived to put all their loosest verses into the mouths of women.
(ch. 3:6)
While
factions were struggling for dominion over each other, a small body of
sages had turned away from the conflict, and had devoted themselves to
the nobler work of extending the dominion of man over matter. (ch. 3:7)
We
have, in the course of ages, become, not only a wiser, but also a kinder
people. (ch. 3:7)
We
too shall, in our turn, be outstripped, and in our turn be envied.
(ch. 3:7)
Chapter IV
James the Second
Parts: 1 2 3 4
His
face grew black; his eyes turned in his head; Charles uttered a cry, staggered,
and fell into the arms of one of his lords. (ch. 4:1)
Charles
had never been a sincere member of the Established Church. His mind had
long oscillated between Hobbism and Popery. When his health was good and
his spirits high he was a scoffer. In his few serious moments he was a
Roman Catholic. (ch. 4:1)
"We
have now for our Church," cried one loyal preacher, "the word
of a King, and of a King who was never worse than his word."
(ch. 4:1)
No
election had ever taken place under circumstances so favourable to the
Court. Hundreds of thousands whom the Popish plot had scared into Whiggism
had been scared back by the Rye House plot into Toryism. (ch. 4:2)
Oates
and Dangerfield were still within the reach of the stern prince whom they
had wronged. (ch. 4:3)
"Pollexfen,
I know you well. I will set a mark on you. You are the patron of the faction.
This is an old rogue, a schismatical knave, a hypocritical villain."
(ch. 4:3)
In
Scotland, it was enacted that whoever should preach in a conventicle under
a roof, or should attend, either as preacher or as hearer, a conventicle
in the open air, should be punished with death and confiscation of property.
(ch. 4:3)
"Dear
Margaret, only say, God save the King!" The poor girl, true to her
stern theology, gasped out, "May God save him, if it be God's will!"
(ch. 4:3)
The
two extreme sects - Quakers and Roman Catholics - precisely because they
were extreme sects, had a common interest distinct from the interest of
the intermediate sects. (ch. 4:4)
The
Quakers had a powerful and zealous advocate at court. This was the celebrated
William Penn. (ch. 4:4)
Penn
strongly represented the sufferings of his brethren to the new King.
(ch. 4:4)
It
was matter of vulgar notoriety, that the Test Act, the rampart of religion,
and the Habeas Corpus Act, the rampart of liberty, were marked out for
destruction. (ch. 4:4)
The
Whigs would doubtless have wished to see the Protestant dissenters tolerated,
and the Roman Catholics alone persecuted. But the Whigs were a small and
a disheartened minority. (ch. 4:4)
Chapter V
The Monmouth Rebellion
Parts: 1 2 3 4 5 6
A
politician driven into banishment by a hostile faction generally sees
the society which he has quitted through a false medium. Every object
is distorted and discoloured by his regrets, his longings, and his resentments.
(ch. 5:1)
The
unexpected demise of the crown changed the whole aspect of affairs. Any
hope which the proscribed Whigs might have cherished of returning peaceably
to their native land was extinguished by the death of a careless and goodnatured
prince. (ch. 5:1)
It
was determined that an attempt should be forthwith made on the western
coast of Scotland, and that it should be promptly followed by a descent
on England. (ch. 5:1)
It
was speedily known at Edinburgh that the rebel squadron had touched at
the Orkneys. Troops were instantly put in motion. (ch. 5:2)
The
army had become a mob; and the mob melted fast away. (ch. 5:2)
Surrounded
by factious and cowardly associates, Rumbold had, through the whole campaign,
behaved himself like a soldier trained in the school of the great Protector.
(ch. 5:2)
The
gentry and clergy of that part of England were, with few exceptions, Tories.
But the yeomen, the traders of the towns, the peasants, and the artisans
were generally animated by the old Roundhead spirit. (ch. 5:3)
That
Monmouth was legitimate, nay, that he thought himself legitimate, intelligent
men could not believe. He was therefore not merely an usurper, but an
impostor. (ch. 5:3)
Magistrates
and clergy were everywhere active; the Dissenters were everywhere closely
observed. (ch. 5:4)
In
his misery Monmouth complained bitterly of the evil counsellors who had
induced him to quit his happy retreat in Brabant. Against Wildman in particular
he broke forth into violent imprecations. (ch. 5:4)
"For
whom are you?" called out an officer of the Foot Guards. "For
the King," replied a voice from the ranks of the rebel cavalry. "For
which King?" was then demanded. The answer was a shout, "King
Monmouth," mingled with a war cry. (ch. 5:4)
The
next day a long line of gibbets appeared on the road leading from Bridgewater.
(ch. 5:4)
Ships
bound for New England were crowded with so many fugitives from Sedgemoor
that there was great danger lest the water and provisions should fail.
(ch. 5:5)
Early
in September, Jeffreys, accompanied by four other judges, set out on that
circuit of which the memory will last as long as our race and language
- Bloody Assizes. (ch. 5:5)
At
every spot where two roads met, on every marketplace, on the green of
every large village which had furnished Monmouth with soldiers, ironed
corpses clattering in the wind, or heads and quarters stuck on poles,
poisoned the air, and made the traveller sick with horror. (ch. 5:6)
Abraham
Holmes, a retired officer of the parliamentary army, and one of those
zealots who would own no king but King Jesus, would make no submission.
"I am an aged man," he said, "and what remains to me of
life is not worth a falsehood or a baseness. I have always been a republican;
and I am so still." (ch. 5:6)
"You
are a rebel; and all your family have been rebels since Adam. They tell
me that you are a poet. I'll cap verses with you." (ch. 5:6)
"Mr.
Penne,
"Her Majesty's Maids of Honour having acquainted me that they design to employ you and Mr. Walden in making a composition with the Relations of the Maids of Taunton for the high Misdemeanour they have been guilty of..." (ch. 5:6)
Dissenting
ministers, however blameless in life, however eminent for learning and
abilities, could not venture to walk the streets for fear of outrages,
which were not only not repressed, but encouraged, by those whose duty
it was to preserve the peace. (ch. 5:6)
Comparative History
"Reformation and Restoration," from England: a Narrative History, by Peter N. Williams
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