the right of
regulating English commerce.

[Sidenote: The Toleration Act.]

The religious results of the Revolution were hardly less weighty than
the political. In the common struggle against Catholicism Churchman and
Nonconformist had found themselves, as we have seen, strangely at one;
and schemes of Comprehension became suddenly popular. But with the fall
of James the union of the two bodies abruptly ceased; and the
establishment of a Presbyterian Church in Scotland, together with the
"rabbling" of the Episcopalian clergy in its western shires, revived the
old bitterness of the clergy towards the dissidents. The Convocation
rejected the scheme of the Latitudinarians for such modifications of the
Prayer-Book as would render possible a return of the Nonconformists, and
a Comprehension Bill, which was introduced into Parliament, failed to
pass in spite of the king's strenuous support. William's attempt to
partially admit Dissenters to civil equality by a repeal of the
Corporation Act proved equally fruitless. Active persecution however
had now become distasteful to all; the pledge of religious liberty given
to the Nonconformists to ensure their aid in the Revolution had to be
redeemed; and the passing of a Toleration Act in 1689 practically
established freedom of worship. Whatever the religious effect of this
failure of the Latitudinarian schemes may have been its political effect
has been of the highest value. At no time had the Church been so strong
or so popular as at the Revolution, and the reconciliation of the
Nonconformists would have doubled its strength. It is doubtful whether
the disinclination to all political change which has characterised it
during the last two hundred years would have been affected by such a
change; but it is certain that the power of opposition which it has
wielded would have been enormously increased. As it was, the Toleration
Act established a group of religious bodies whose religious opposition
to the Church forced them to support the measures of progress which the
Church opposed. With religious forces on the one side and on the other
England has escaped the great stumbling-block in the way of nations
where the cause of religion has become identified with that of political
reaction.

[Sidenote: The Revolution and the Church.]

A secession from within its own ranks weakened the Church still more.
The doctrine of Divine Right had a strong hold on the body of the clergy
though they