tion in all the Public Departments--Dismission of
Sawyer--Williams Solicitor General--Second Declaration of Indulgence;
the Clergy ordered to read it--They hesitate; Patriotism of the
Protestant Nonconformists of London--Consultation of the London
Clergy--Consultation at Lambeth Palace--Petition of the Seven
Bishops presented to the King--The London Clergy disobey the Royal
Order--Hesitation of the Government--It is determined to prosecute the
Bishops for a Libel--They are examined by the Privy Council--They are
committed to the Tower--Birth of the Pretender--He is generally believed
to be supposititious--The Bishops brought before the King's Bench and
bailed--Agitation of the public Mind--Uneasiness of Sunderland--He
professes himself a Roman Catholic--Trial of the Bishops--The Verdict;
Joy of the People--Peculiar State of Public Feeling at this Time

THE marked discourtesy of the Pope might well have irritated the meekest
of princes. But the only effect which it produced on James was to make
him more lavish of caresses and compliments. While Castelmaine, his
whole soul festered with angry passions, was on his road back to
England, the Nuncio was loaded with honours which his own judgment would
have led him to reject. He had, by a fiction often used in the Church
of Rome, been lately raised to the episcopal dignity without having the
charge of any see. He was called Archbishop of Amasia, a city of Pontus,
the birthplace of Strabo and Mithridates. James insisted that the
ceremony of consecration should be performed in the chapel of Saint
James's Palace. The Vicar Apostolic Leyburn and two Irish prelates
officiated. The doors were thrown open to the public; and it was
remarked that some of those Puritans who had recently turned courtiers
were among the spectators. In the evening Adda, wearing the robes of his
new office, joined the circle in the Queen's apartments. James fell on
his knees in the presence of the whole court and implored a blessing.
In spite of the restraint imposed by etiquette, the astonishment and
disgust of the bystanders could not be concealed. [278] It was long
indeed since an English sovereign had knelt to mortal man; and those who
saw the strange sight could not but think of that day of shame when John
did homage for his crown between the hands of Pandolph.

In a short time a still more ostentatious pageant was performed in
honour of the Holy See. It was determined that the Nuncio shoul