He had issued a declaration that there should be no religious tests or
penal laws, in order to let in the Catholics more easily; but the
Protestant dissenters, unmindful of themselves, had gallantly joined the
regular church in opposing it tooth and nail. The King and Father Petre
now resolved to have this read, on a certain Sunday, in all the churches,
and to order it to be circulated for that purpose by the bishops. The
latter took counsel with the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was in
disgrace; and they resolved that the declaration should not be read, and
that they would petition the King against it. The Archbishop himself
wrote out the petition, and six bishops went into the King's bedchamber
the same night to present it, to his infinite astonishment. Next day was
the Sunday fixed for the reading, and it was only read by two hundred
clergymen out of ten thousand. The King resolved against all advice to
prosecute the bishops in the Court of King's Bench, and within three
weeks they were summoned before the Privy Council, and committed to the
Tower. As the six bishops were taken to that dismal place, by water, the
people who were assembled in immense numbers fell upon their knees, and
wept for them, and prayed for them. When they got to the Tower, the
officers and soldiers on guard besought them for their blessing. While
they were confined there, the soldiers every day drank to their release
with loud shouts. When they were brought up to the Court of King's Bench
for their trial, which the Attorney-General said was for the high offence
of censuring the Government, and giving their opinion about affairs of
state, they were attended by similar multitudes, and surrounded by a
throng of noblemen and gentlemen. When the jury went out at seven
o'clock at night to consider of their verdict, everybody (except the
King) knew that they would rather starve than yield to the King's brewer,
who was one of them, and wanted a verdict for his customer. When they
came into court next morning, after resisting the brewer all night, and
gave a verdict of not guilty, such a shout rose up in Westminster Hall as
it had never heard before; and it was passed on among the people away to
Temple Bar, and away again to the Tower. It did not pass only to the
east, but passed to the west too, until it reached the camp at Hounslow,
where the fifteen thousand soldiers took it up and echoed it. And still,
when the dull King, who was then