-Lieutenant to Ireland, and raised the younger, Laurence, Earl of
Rochester, who had long been a minister under Charles the Second, to the
post of Lord Treasurer. But the sons of Hyde were as staunch to the old
Cavalier doctrines of Church and State as Hyde himself. Rochester
therefore was told in the opening of 1687 that the king could not safely
entrust so great a charge to any one who did not share his sentiments on
religion, and on his refusal to abandon his faith he was deprived of the
White Staff. His brother Clarendon shared his fall. A Catholic, Lord
Bellasys, became First Lord of the Treasury, which was again put into
commission after Rochester's removal; and another Catholic, Lord
Arundell, became Lord Privy Seal; while Father Petre, a Jesuit, was
called to the Privy Council.

[Sidenote: The Tory Nobles.]

The dismissal of Rochester sprang mainly from a belief that with such a
minister James would fail to procure from the Parliament that freedom
for Catholics which he was bent on establishing. It was in fact a
declaration that on this matter none in the king's service must oppose
the king's will, and it was followed up by the dismissal of one official
after another who refused to aid in the repeal of the Test Act. But acts
like these were of no avail against the steady growth of resistance. If
the great Tory nobles were staunch for the Crown, they were as resolute
Englishmen in their hatred of mere tyranny as the Whigs themselves.
James gave the Duke of Norfolk the sword of State to carry before him as
he went to Mass. The Duke stopped at the Chapel door. "Your father would
have gone further," said the king. "Your Majesty's father was the better
man," replied the Duke, "and he would not have gone so far." The young
Duke of Somerset was ordered to introduce into the Presence Chamber the
Papal Nuncio, who was now received in State at Windsor in the teeth of a
statute which forbade diplomatic relations with Rome. "I am advised,"
Somerset answered, "that I cannot obey your Majesty without breaking the
law." "Do you not know that I am above the law?" James asked angrily.
"Your Majesty may be, but I am not," retorted the Duke. He was dismissed
from his post, but the spirit of resistance spread fast. In spite of the
king's letters the governors of the Charterhouse, who numbered among
them some of the greatest English nobles, refused to admit a Catholic to
the benefits of the foundation. The most devoted loyalists beg