Note 85 — Chapter XIV · THE REIGN OF JAMES II.
Reading edition
It is curious to remark that both James and Louis considered the re-establishment of the catholic religion and of the royal authority as closely connected, and parts of one great system. Barillon in Fox, Append. 19, 57; Mazure, i. 346. Mr. Fox maintains (Hist. p. 102) that the great object of the former was absolute power rather than the interests of popery. Doubtless if James had been a protestant, his encroachments on the rights of his subjects would not have been less than they were, though not exactly of the same nature; but the main object of his reign can hardly be denied to have been either the full toleration, or the national establishment of the church of Rome. Mr. Fox's remark must, at all events, be limited to the year 1685.