William III (1689-1702) and Mary II (1689-94)

Summary

Parliament

1692 5 October to 3 November. Dissolved on 26 June 1693.

Tuesday 11 October 1692.29 A commons committee was set up to consider all aspects of religion.

1695 27 August to 3 December 1697

Thursday 9 September 1697. Sir Richard Bulkeley31 reported from the committee on religion that Christianity not mysterious should be burnt by the common hangman, and its author, John Toland, should be arrested and prosecuted.

1698 27 September to 26 January 1699. Dissolved on 14 June 1699.

Saturday 15 January 1699. In discussion of an act for raising £120,000, the clergy's right to exempt themselves was accepted.

Monday 24 January 1699. The house of commons heard representations from Charles Northcote and Francis Higgins on behalf of the inferior clergy, demanding exemption from the above tax.

Tuesday 25 January 1699. The journal of the house of lords contains the following:

Whereas it hath always been the right of the clergy of Ireland to assess themselves by way of subsidy in convocation, and against which no precedent hath been offered, we the archbishops and bishops of the said kingdom, not having at present an opportunity of meeting in convocation, think it our duty for a saving to the aforesaid right, to declare that it belongeth and of due appertained to the clergy of this realm, assembled in convocation, to grant subsidies only of the lands, titles, tenements and hereditaments belonging to ecclesiastical persons, notwithstanding there hath been an engrossed bill brought up from the commons and passed the house, entitled: ‘An act for raising £120,000 on all lands, tenements and hereditaments in this kingdom', by which the lands of the persons abovesaid are assessed without their consent. And we do protest that the same right not to be drawn into example, to the prejudice of the ancient rights of the church of this kingdom.

Letter of Bishop William King of Deny to Bishop Foy, 5 October 1697

I own every one of those things you mention; they are in my thoughts, and I believe the laity might be brought to comply with us in most of them. But the clergy are resolute against them, and to struggle about them is to make that averseness public.