" To this
request these honest gentlemen replied it would be difficult to
move the duke to his majesty's desires; but even if they
succeeded, it would fail to convince the world his royal highness
was not a catholic. With these answers Charles seemed satisfied;
but again on Christmas Eve he urged Lord Clifford to advise the
duke to publicly communicate on the morrow. His royal highness,
not being so unscrupulous as the king, refused compliance with
his wishes.
The following Easter he likewise refrained from communicating.
Evelyn tells us that "a most crowded auditorie" had assembled in
the Chapel Royal on this Sunday; possibly it had been drawn there
to hear the eloquence of Dr. Sparrow, Bishop of Exeter--probably
to observe the movements of the king's brother. "I staied to
see," writes Evelyn, "whether, according to costome, the Duke of
York received the communion with the king; but he did not, to the
amazement of everybody. This being the second year he had
forborn and put it off, and within a day of the parliament
sitting, who had lately made so severe an act against ye increase
of poperie, gave exceeding griefe and scandal to the whole
nation, that the heyre of it, and ye sonn of a martyr for ye
Protestant religion, should apostatize. What the consequence of
this will be God only knows, and wise men dread."
That the nation might no longer remain in uncertainty concerning
the change the duke was suspected to have made, a bill, commonly
called the "Test Act," was, at the instigation of Lord
Shaftesbury, introduced into the House of Commons, on its
reassembling.
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