Note 84 — Chapter IV
Reading edition
"Provided this liberty be not extended to Popery nor Prelacy, nor to such as under the profession of Christ hold forth and practice licentiousness."—Art. xxx. 61.
Short observes in his Sketch of the Church of England, ii. 189: "There was at one time a project for extending liberty of conscience to the Roman Catholics, and consultations were held among the members of the Government for the purpose of granting them security of person, and of the remainder of their property after composition, as well as for providing a safe living for a prelate who might execute his functions. But the loyalty of the Roman Catholics was alarmed at the idea of compounding with the usurper, and they communicated the circumstances to the exiled court, where a stop was put to the whole." He refers to Butler's Roman Catholics, 418, and Thurloe's State Papers, i. 740.