There was no prebendary, no rector, no vicar, whose mind was not haunted by the thought that, however quiet his temper, however obscure his situation, he might, in a few months, be driven from his dwelling by an arbitrary edict to beg in a ragged cassock with his wife and children, while his freehold, secured to him by laws of immemorial antiquity and by the royal word, was occupied by some apostate.

This then was the reward of that heroic loyalty never once found wanting through the vicissitudes of fifty tempestuous years.

It was for this that the clergy had endured spoliation and persecution in the cause of Charles the First.

It was for this that they had supported Charles the Second in his hard contest with the Whig opposition.

It was for this that they had stood in the front of the battle against those who sought to despoil James of his birthright.