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CHAP.
I.
18 THE RESTORATION IN ENGLAND. 1662
new appointment was to be made by the archbishop of Canterbury
and the bishop of London. No book might be published
without a licence from the appropriate censor. The act was
only made in the first instance for two years, but it was regularly
renewed before expiry until 1679.
These reactionary measures of parliament were accompanied
by renewed acts of severity against the unpopular
republicans. In April, 1662, three of the regicides who had
sought safety in Holland were seized at Delft and shipped to
England, where they were hanged, drawn and quartered. Their
execution was followed by the trial of Lambert and Vane. In
defiance of the statute of Henry VII., which justified obedience
to a de facto ruler, both were condemned to death. Lambert,
who had adopted a submissive attitude during the trial, was
allowed to end his life in easy confinement, but to Charles'
eternal discredit the sentence upon Vane was carried out on
June 14. The king had virtually promised the convention to
spare his life, and he broke his word, not because Vane was
more guilty than others, but because he was more feared.
As St. Bartholomew's day approached, the clergy had to
decide whether they would accept the liturgy and episcopal
ordination or abandon their benefices. If the number of the
recusants had been small and their reputation insignificant, the
triumph of the Anglican party would have been complete, and
religious uniformity would undoubtedly have weakened the
forces of political discontent. No compensation was offered
by the state, and no arrangements had been made by supporters
to supply the evicted ministers with even a moderate
stipend. The most obvious alternative occupation, that of
teaching, was closed to them by the act of uniformity itself.
But puritanism had been too strongly forged by previous
adversity and by the proud memory of a great victory to
yield even to such a temptation as the choice between comfort
and penury. More than 1,200 clergy went forth from
their homes and their churches on August 24, 1662. And
among them were men who were regarded with the greatest
veneration by their followers: Richard Baxter and Edmund
Calamy, who had refused bishoprics; Thomas Manton, who
had been offered a deanery ; William Bates, the " silver-tongued
divine " ; Thomas Case, another eminent preacher, though Pepys