s in matters ecclesiastical cannot be
suspended but by consent of Parliament," and refused supplies till the
Declaration was recalled. The king yielded after long hesitation, for
the grant of supplies was still before the House and France counselled
compliance. But the Declaration was no sooner recalled than the
Parliament passed from considerations of the past to provisions for the
future. A Test Act was passed through both Houses without opposition,
which required that every one in the civil and military employment of
the State should take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, subscribe a
declaration against transubstantiation, and receive the sacrament
according to the rites of the Church of England. It was known that the
dissidents were prepared to waive all objection either to oath or
sacrament, and the result of the Bill therefore was to bring
Protestants, if not to union, yet a step nearer to one another.
Catholics, on the other hand, were wholly excluded from all share in the
government of the State. The Act was fatal to the king's schemes, and
Clifford at once counselled resistance while Buckingham talked
flightily about bringing the army to London. But the grant of a subsidy
was still held in suspense till the Test was accepted: and Arlington,
who saw that all hope of carrying the "great plan" through was at an end
and looked to the Test as a means of freeing himself from Clifford's
rivalry in the cabinet, pressed Charles to yield. A dissolution in fact
was the king's only resource, but in the temper of the nation a new
Parliament would have been yet more violent than the present one.
Charles therefore sullenly gave his assent to the Bill.

[Sidenote: Shaftesbury.]

Few measures have ever brought about more startling results than the
Test Act. It was no sooner passed than the Duke of York owned himself a
Catholic and resigned his office as Lord High Admiral. Throngs of
excited people gathered round the Lord Treasurer's house at the news
that Clifford too had owned to being a Catholic and had laid down his
staff of office. Their resignation was followed by that of hundreds of
others in the army and the civil service of the Crown. On public opinion
the effect of these discoveries was wonderful. "I dare not write all the
strange talk of the town," says Evelyn. The resignations were held to
have proved the existence of the dangers which the Test had been framed
to meet. From this moment all trust in Charles was