That men who had striven for her dissolution should be admitted to her privileges seemed to Churchmen as tragic as ironical.

Nor must we miss the political aspect of the matter.

William had received an eager, if natural, support from Nonconformists; and since the vast majority of them was Whig in temper, the greater the degree of toleration, the greater likelihood there was of an attack upon the Church.

Exclusion thus became a fundamental article of the Tory creed; and it was the more valued because it enabled them to strike at their opponents through an institution which at the trial of Sacheverell, in 1710, still showed an overwhelming hold upon the mass of the people.
The attitude of mind herein implied is in large part the reaction from the Erastian temper of the government.

Under William, that temper is intelligible enough; for unless he held the Church in strict control, he must have felt that he was giving a large handle to his enemies.