. A short history of England and the British Empire. ,James now turned for moral support to the dissenters whoDeclaration of were largely Whigs. In April, 1687, he issued hisIndulgence. first Declaration of Indulgence by which he sus-pended all the laws against Catholicism and dissent and grantedfreedom of worship to all. The old recusancy laws dating fromElizabeths time and the Conventicle Act with the other lawsof the Clarendon Code were thus swept away. There was muchiniquity in these laws; but if the king could set aside bad laws,he could also annul any other law. Moreover, his hands weren
. A short history of England and the British Empire. ,James now turned for moral support to the dissenters whoDeclaration of were largely Whigs. In April, 1687, he issued hisIndulgence. first Declaration of Indulgence by which he sus-pended all the laws against Catholicism and dissent and grantedfreedom of worship to all. The old recusancy laws dating fromElizabeths time and the Conventicle Act with the other lawsof the Clarendon Code were thus swept away. There was muchiniquity in these laws; but if the king could set aside bad laws,he could also annul any other law. Moreover, his hands werenot clean and his purposes scarcely honest. As the declara-tion was issued only a few days before the kings interferenceat Magdalen College, it soon became clear to most men that hisprofessions of tolerance had a purpose behind them. TheAnglicans, at least, were not to share in this new were many strong partisans of the Stuarts among the 1 Review sees. 282, 306. 2 Gardiner, 640-641. THE FIRST DECLARATION OF INDULGENCE. 1687 405 .cMSSJS. wlV !? IJH| IK, % 1 406 THE WHIG REVOLUTION dissenters, the most notable of whom was the famous Quaker chief, William Penn. These were in favor of ac-Stuart / . ,.!../, partisans cepting the royal gift, and, their influence was among the strong with many, especially with Quakers andBaptists. But the great majority, the Presbyte-rians in particular, refused to accept a privilege that was deniedthem by the laws of the land. 380. The Second Declaration: the Protest of the SevenBishops. 1688. A year later (April, 1688), James II issued asecond Declaration of Indulgence in which he reaffirmed theearlier grant; he also ordered that this document should beread in all the Anglican churches. The church rebelled; only
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