[134] And now a letter arrived from London, fully explaining to the Scottish Privy Council the intentions of the King.

What he wanted was that the Roman Catholics should be exempted from all laws imposing penalties and disabilities on account of nonconformity, but that the persecution of the Covenanters should go on without mitigation.

[135] This scheme encountered strenuous opposition in the Council.

Some members were unwilling to see the existing laws relaxed.

Others, who were by no means averse to some relaxation, yet felt that it would be monstrous to admit Roman Catholics to the highest honours of the state, and yet to leave unrepealed the Act which made it death to attend a Presbyterian conventicle.