In substance this set forth, that all persons
holding office, or place of trust, or profit, should take the
oaths of supremacy and allegiance in a public court; receive the
sacrament according to the Church of England in some parish
church on the Lord's Day; and deliver a certificate of having so
received communion, signed by the respective ministers and
church-wardens, and proved by two credible witnesses on oath.
After prolonged debates upon this singular bill, it was passed
through both houses of parliament, and received a reluctant
consent from the king. [This act continued in force until the
reign of George IV.]
A great commotion followed the passing of this Act. Immediately
the Duke of York resigned his post of lord high admiral of
England. Suspicion now became certainty; he was truly a papist.
His enemies were elated with triumph, his friends dejected by
regret. Before public feeling had time to subside, it was
thoroughly startled by the news that Lord Clifford, who was
supposed to be a staunch protestant, had delivered up his staff
of office as lord treasurer; and Lord Bellasis and Sir Thomas
Strickland, papists both, "though otherwise men of quality and
ability," had relinquished their places at court. The king was
perplexed, the parliament divided into factions, the nation
disturbed. No man knew who might next proclaim himself a papist.
As days passed, excitement increased; for hundreds who held
positions in the army, or under the crown--many of whom had
fought for the king and his father--by tendering their
resignations, now proved themselves slaves of what a vigorous
writer calls the "Romish yoke: such a thing," he adds, "as
cannot, but for want of a name to express it, be called a
religion.
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