as Elizabeth lived. When
Elizabeth died, the balance was no longer fairly kept. The High Church
party obtained the ascendancy and abused their power. Tyranny brought
revolution, and the Catholic element in turn disappeared. The Bishops
were displaced by Presbyterian elders. The Presbyterian elders became
in turn 'hireling wolves,' 'old priest' written in new characters.
Cromwell had left conscience free to Protestants. But even he had
refused equal liberty to Catholics and Episcopalians. He was gone too,
and Church and King were back again. How were they to stand? The stern
resolute men, to whom the Commonwealth had been the establishment of
God's kingdom upon earth, were as little inclined to keep terms with
Antichrist as the Church people had been inclined to keep terms with
Cromwell. To have allowed them to meet openly in their conventicles
would have been to make over the whole of England to them as a
seed-bed in which to plant sedition. It was pardonable, it was even
necessary, for Charles II. and his advisers, to fall back upon
Elizabeth's principles, at least as long as the ashes were still
glowing. Indulgence had to be postponed till cooler times. With the
Fifth Monarchy men abroad, every chapel, except those of the Baptists,
would have been a magazine of explosives.

Under the 35th of Elizabeth, Nonconformists refusing to attend worship
in the parish churches were to be imprisoned till they made their
submission. Three months were allowed them to consider. If at the end
of that time they were still obstinate, they were to be banished the
realm; and if they subsequently returned to England without permission
from the Crown, they were liable to execution as felons. This Act had
fallen with the Long Parliament, but at the Restoration it was held to
have revived and to be still in force. The parish churches were
cleared of their unordained ministers. The Dissenters' chapels were
closed. The people were required by proclamation to be present on
Sundays in their proper place. So the majority of the nation had
decided. If they had wished for religious liberty they would not have
restored the Stuarts, or they would have insisted on conditions, and
would have seen that they were observed.

Venner's plot showed the reality of the danger and justified the
precaution.

The Baptists and Quakers might have been trusted to discourage
violence, but it was impossible to distinguish among the various
sects, whose tenets were