Their pastoral letters, directed to the lay Catholics of England, were printed and dispersed by the express allowance and permission of the king.

The regular clergy of that communion appeared in court in the habits of their order; and some of them were so indiscreet as to boast, that, in a little time, they hoped to walk in procession through the capital.
While the king shocked in the most open manner all the principles and prejudices of his Protestant subjects, he could not sometimes but be sensible, that he stood in need of their assistance for the execution of his designs.

He had himself, by virtue of his prerogative, suspended the penal laws, and dispensed with the test; but he would gladly have obtained the sanction of parliament to these acts of power; and he knew that, without this authority, his edicts alone would never afford a durable security to the Catholics.

He had employed, therefore, with the members of parliament many private conferences, which were then called "closetings;" and he used every expedient of reasons, menaces, and promises to break their obstinacy in this particular.

Finding all his efforts fruitless, he had dissolved the parliament, and was determined to call a new one, from which he expected more complaisance and submission.