The definition of her relationship with State and nation, if at the moment it aroused less bitterness, was in the long run more intricate in its nature.

That some sort of toleration was inevitable few, save a group of prejudiced irreconcilables, would have denied.

But greater things were in the air, and there were still many who dreamed of a grand scheme of Comprehension, by which all save the more extreme Dissenters would have been admitted to the Church.

It is this which explains the acrimonious debates of the next two years.

The hatred of the Church for dissent can only be understood by those who study with care the insults heaped upon her by the sectaries during the Civil Wars.