e
the arguments that established this thesis. The time when Dryden was
composing his defence of the royal _Declaration_ is approximately fixed
from the reference to it on June 22, 1681, in _The Observator_, which
had noted the Whig pamphlet Dryden was answering under the date of May
26.

The bitter controversy into which Dryden thrust himself was the
culmination of eleven years' political strife. In 1670, by the secret
Treaty of Dover, Charles II and Louis XIV agreed that the English king
should declare himself a Roman Catholic, and receive from his brother of
France the equivalent of 80,000 pounds sterling and, in case of a
Protestant rebellion, 6000 French soldiers. In addition, the two kings
were pledged to undertake a war for the partition of the United
Provinces. In the words of the late Lord Acton this treaty is "the solid
substance of the phantom which is called the Popish Plot." (_Lectures on
Modern History_ (1930), p. 211) The attempt to carry out the second part
of the treaty was made in 1672, when England and France attacked the
United Provinces which made a successful defence, aided by a coalition
including the Emperor, Elector of Brandenburg, and King of Spain. The
unpopularity of the war compelled Charles II to make peace in 1674.
Meanwhile the King had taken a step to put into operation the first part
of the Treaty of Dover by issuing a Declaration of Indulgence relieving
Catholics and Dissenters alike from the penal laws. He was forced,
however, to withdraw it and to give his assent to the Test Act which
excluded from all public offices those unwilling to take the sacraments
according to the rites of the Church of England. Henceforth Charles II
abandoned all hope of restoring Catholicism, though his brother and
heir, James, Duke of York, already a convert, remained resolute to
secure at least toleration for his co-religionists. But many Englishmen
continued to suspect the royal policy.

Roman Catholicism was feared and hated by many Englishmen for two
distinct reasons. The first was based on bigotry, nourished by memories
of the Marian persecution, the papal bull dethroning Elizabeth, Guy
Fawkes' Plot, and by apprehensions that a Catholic could not be a loyal
subject so long as he recognized the temporal power of the Pope. The
second was political and assumed that Catholicism was the natural
support of absolutism. As Shaftesbury, the leader of the opposition,
stated, popery and slavery went hand in han