360 Proposed Repeal of the Test and Penal Statutes 



step thereto, the Repeal of the Penal Laws and Test Act. He had 

 become a Roman Catholic at the time he was in exile, during the 

 Commonwealth, but had not openly announced his faith until 1671, 

 and the passing of the Test Act in the late reign — ^by which he was 

 compelled to throw up all his several appointments — was, doubtless, 

 to him a subject of personal grievance, not to be forgotten or tolerated 

 after coming to the throne. By virtue, therefore, of his sole Pre- 

 rogative, he issued in 1687 his "Declaration of Toleration and 

 Liberty of Conscience,'^ abrogating thereby all oaths and tests, 

 together with his instructions for the election of Members to serve 

 in Parliament, and although this measure led to great discontent 

 among those who looked upon it as jeopardising the Protestant 

 doctrines of the country, it was repeated twelve months after, by 

 another " Declaration of Indulgence," to be read from the pulpit, 

 upon which occasion seven Bishops, who refused to distribute and 

 circulate the same among their clergy, were committed to the Tower. ^ 

 The King, bent upon the repeal of the main obstacle to his Romish 

 views in the next Parliament ^ that he might be disposed to convoke, 

 had, in furtherance of this object, already instructed, through his 

 Council, the several Lords-Lieutenant of counties throughout England 

 and Wales, to propound certain questions to all the Deputy-Lieuten- 

 ants and Magistrates in their respective lieutenancies, touching their 

 views on these statutes, with a view naturally to calculate how far 

 he could rely upon a majority in any forthcoming elections ^ ; and 

 also to give a semblance of constitutional authority to his acts, 

 which, hitherto, relying solely on his own Prerogative, he had 

 utterly disregarded. These different steps, especially the imprison- 

 ment of the bishops — which caused profound indignation through- 

 out the kingdom — brought about a crisis not many months 



' The Bishops who protested against the Declaration were : Canterhury, Ely, 

 Peterborough, Norwich, St. Asaph, Bath and Wells, Bristol, Gloucester, and 

 Chichester. Seven of them were imprisoned : Sancroft (the Primate), Ken, Lake, 

 Lloyd, Turner, White, and Trelawney. 



* He had prorogued his last Parliament indefinitely on 20th November, 1685. 



^ The King promised in his second Declaration to hold a parliament in November. 



