The rights of property had remained untouched.

But, early in the year 1687, it was determined to strike at freehold interests, and to impress on every Anglican priest and prelate the conviction that, if he refused to lend his aid for the purpose of destroying the Church of which he was a minister, he would in an hour be reduced to beggary.
It would have been prudent to try the first experiment on some obscure individual.

But the government was under an infatuation such as, in a more simple age, would have been called judicial.

War was therefore at once declared against the two most venerable corporations of the realm, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
The power of those bodies has during many ages been great; but it was at the height during the latter part of the seventeenth century.

None of the neighbouring countries could boast of such splendid and opulent seats of learning.