emies; inflamed with hereditary hatred, and stimulated by every motive
which the passion either for power, property, or religion could inspire.
Even the barbarous banditti were let loose to prey on them in their
present defenceless condition. A renewal of the ancient massacres was
apprehended; and great multitudes, struck with the best-grounded terror,
deserted the kingdom, and infused into the English nation a dread of
those violences to which, after some time, they might justly, from the
prevalence of the Catholics, think themselves exposed.

All judicious persons of the Catholic communion were disgusted with
these violent measures, and could easily foresee the consequences. But
James was entirely governed by the rash counsels of the queen and of his
confessor, Father Peters, a Jesuit, whom he soon after created a privy
counsellor. He thought too, that, as he was now in the decline of life,
it was necessary for him, by hasty steps, to carry his designs into
execution; lest the succession of the princess of Orange should overturn
all his projects. In vain did Arundel, Powis, and Bellasis, remonstrate,
and suggest more moderate and cautious measures. These men had seen and
felt, during the prosecution of the Popish plot, the extreme antipathy
which the nation bore to their religion; and though some subsequent
incidents had seemingly allayed that spirit, they knew that the settled
habits of the people were still the same, and that the smallest
incident was sufficient to renew the former animosity. A very moderate
indulgence, therefore, to the Catholic religion would have satisfied
them; and all attempts to acquire power, much more to produce a change
of the national faith, they deemed dangerous and destructive.

On the first broaching of the Popish plot, the clergy of the church of
England had concurred in the prosecution of it, with the same violence
and credulity as the rest of the nation: but dreading afterwards the
prevalence of republican and Presbyterian principles, they had been
engaged to support the measures of the court; and to their assistance
chiefly, James had owed his succession to the crown. Finding that all
these services were forgotten, and that the Catholic religion was the
king's sole favorite, the church had commenced an opposition to court
measures; and Popery was now acknowledged the more immediate danger.
In order to prevent inflammatory sermons on this popular subject, James
revived some direction