ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY During the rule of the Long Parliament many parochial clergymen had been displaced by sequestration or otherwise ; some for immorality, some for heresy or incompetence, and a still larger number for ' malignancy,' i.e. active hostility to the party in power. It was recognized by the Convention Parlia- ment (25 April— 29 December 1660) that these displacements were irregular and of doubtful legality, and all who survived of the sequestered clergy were at once restored to their benefices ; the rest of the parochial clergy, with some exceptions, being confirmed in their respective posts. The effects of this Act ^ in London may be thus summarized ; ten ministers in the City, two in the borough of Southwark, and four others within the district known as the Bills of Mortality, are known to have given place to their restored predecessors ; six others within the same area and one in Westminster were removed, mostly from sequestered benefices, before the general eviction of Nonconformists in 1662.* Owing to loss of records, the dates of four removals from sequestered benefices in the City and two in Westminster are uncertain ; and a like uncertainty attends three lecturers or assistants in the City and three in Southwark ; but altogether about thirty-five ministers were displaced in the metropolitan area before the Act of Uniformity, a large proportion of whom were Presbyterians or Independents. Early in January 1 660-1 a handful of fanatical Fifth-monarchy men attempted an insurrection in the City under the leadership of Thomas Venner, who had a meeting-house in Swan Alley, Coleman Street.^ The riot was easily suppressed, though not without considerable loss of life ; and sixteen of the insurgents were executed for treason, Venner being hanged in front of his own meeting-house on 19 January, This outbreak alarmed the Court party; many sectaries, especially Quakers, were cast into prison ; and on 10 January a proclamation was issued forbidding all meetings for worship except in parish churches and chapels. Addresses were presented to the king by Baptists, Independents, and Quakers declaring their loyalty to the Crown and their abhorrence of Millenarian fanaticism ; ° and several declarations to the same effect were published both by Baptists and Independents. It was probably to intimidate the Fifth-monarchy men that John James, minister of a Seventh Day Baptist congregation in Bullstake Alley, Whitechapel, was arrested while preaching on 19 October 1661. The evidence only proved that he had violently denounced the king and his nobles for the execution of the regicides, and declared that ' Christ is King of Nations as well as of Saints.' He was convicted of treason ; the king emphatically refused to mitigate the sentence, and James was hanged on 26 November.* The nation, meanwhile, was suffering from an intoxication of loyalty, which found expression in the character of the Cavalier Parliament. This met on 8 May 1661, and at once entered on a course of reactionary legislation. One of its earliest Acts re-established the ancient ecclesiastical courts.' Another was the Corporation Act, which required all members of municipal corporations ' See examples in White, First Centuiy of Scandalous Malignant Priests ; Walker, Sufferings of the Clergy. ' Stat. 12 Chas. II, cap. 17.
- Newcourt, Parochial Hist, of the Diocese of Lond. ; Walker, op. cit. ; Calamy, Lives of Ejected Ministers.
' Kennett, Chron. 354. et seq. ^ Ibid. 358, 363, 366. ' B.M. Pamphlets, E. 1017 (14) ; E. 1057 (i), &c. ° A 'Narrative of the Apprehension . . . and Execution of John fames (1662). ^ Stat. 13 Chas: II, cap. 12, sec. 2, 4. 375
