The king soon went further.  He made no secret of his intention to exert vigorously and systematically for the destruction of the Established Church all the powers he possessed as her head.  He plainly declared that by a wise dispensation of Providence, the Act of Supremacy would be the means of healing the fatal breach which it had caused.  Henry and Elizabeth had usurped a dominion which rightfully belonged to the Holy See.  That dominion had, in the course of succession, descended to an orthodox prince, and would by him be held in trust for the Holy See.  He was authorised by law to suppress spiritual abuses; and the first spiritual abuse which he would suppress would be the liberty which the Anglican clergy assumed of defending their own religion, and of attacking the doctrines of Rome.

No course was too bold for James.  To confer a high office in the Established Church on an avowed enemy of that Church was indeed a bold violation of the laws and of the royal word.  The Deanery of Christchurch became vacant.  It was the head of a Cathedral.  John Massey, notoriously a member of the Church of Rome, and destitute of any other recommendation, was appointed.  Soon an altar was decked at which mass was daily celebrated.  To the Pope’s Nuncio the king said that what had thus been done at Oxford should very soon be done at Cambridge.

The temper of the nation was such as might well make James hesitate.  During some months discontent steadily and rapidly rose.  The celebration of Roman Catholic worship had long been prohibited by Act of Parliament.  During several generations no Roman Catholic clergyman had dared to exhibit himself in any public place with the badges of his office.  Every Jesuit who set foot in this country was liable to be hanged, drawn, and quartered.

But all disguise was now thrown off.  Roman Catholic chapels arose all over the land.  A society of Benedictine monks was lodged in St. James’s Palace.  Quarrels broke out between Protestant and Romanist soldiers.  Samuel Johnson, a clergyman of the Church of England, who had issued a tract entitled “A humble and hearty Appeal to all English Protestants in the Army,” was flung into gaol.  He was then flogged and degraded from the priesthood.  But the zeal of the Anglican clergy displayed.  They were Jed by a united Phalanx, in the van of which appeared a rank of steady and skillful veterans, Tillotson, Stillingfleet, Prideaux, Patrick, Tenison, Wake.  Great numbers of controversial tracts against Popery were issued by these divines.

Scotland also rose in anger against the designs of the king, and if he had not been proof against all warning the excitement in that country would have sufficed to admonish him.  On March 18, 1687, he took a momentous step.  He informed the Privy Council that he had determined to prorogue Parliament till the end of November, and to grant, by his own authority, entire liberty of conscience to all his subjects.  On April 4th appeared the memorable Declaration of Indulgence.  In this document the king avowed that it was his earnest wish to see his people members of that Church to which he himself belonged.  But since that could not be, he announced his intention to protect them in the free exercise of their religion.  He authorised both Roman Catholics and Protestant Dissenters to perform their worship publicly.