[Footnote 275: So says the memorable "Test of the Church of England's Loyalty."]
[Footnote 277: Roman Catholic Principles, 1680.]
[Footnote 278: There is a copy of this old caricature print in Luttrell's Collection.]
[Footnote 279: History of his Own Times, Vol. I. p. 280.]
[Footnote 280: See Burnet's Life, by his Son, p. 686.]
[Footnote 281: See Dr Flexman's catalogue of his works, under the head "Tracts, Political, Polemical, and Miscellaneous."]
[Footnote 282: Mr B--ty, vice-chamberlain.]
[Footnote 283: Notes on the Phœnix Pastoral Letter, _Johnson's Works_, pp. 317, 318.]
[Footnote 284: The Declaration of Indulgence. See Vol. IX. p. 447.]
_Di patrii indigetes, et Romule, Vestaque mater, Quæ Tuscum Tyberim et Romana palatia servas, Hunc saltem everso puerum succurrere sæclo Ne prohibete! satis jampridem sanguine nostro Laomedonteæ luimus perjuria Trojæ._
The remarkable incident, which gave rise to the following poem, was hailed by the Catholics with the most unbounded joy. That party, whose transient prosperity depended upon the declining life of James II., could hardly enjoy their present power, embittered as it was by the reflection, that it must end with the reign of the king and the succession of the Princess of Orange. Many circumstances seemed to render the hopes of the king having a male heir of his body extremely precarious. His system was said to have been injured by early dissipation, and he was now advanced in life. The queen, also, had been in a bad state of health; had lost all her children soon after they were born; and had now, for several years, ceased to have any. Amidst these discouraging considerations, the queen's pregnancy was announced in 1687; and even before his birth, addressers and panegyrists in verse hailed the future prince, as a pledge for the maintenance of liberty of conscience, and the security of the royal line.[285]
But the Catholics were so transported with this unexpected happiness, that they could not refrain from spreading an hundred follies, tending to connect the queen's pregnancy with the efficacy of the king's faith. Some said, that the queen's conception took place at the very time when her mother made a vow to the Lady of Loretto, that her daughter might by her means have a son: Others attributed it to the queen's personal influence with Saint Xavier: Others to the intercessions of the Jesuits, among whom the king had enrolled himself: All ascribed so happy and unhoped an event to something more than mere natural causes, and ventured to presage, that the joyful fruit of the queen's conception would prove a son, since otherwise, it was said, God would have done his work by halves.[286] It is dangerous for a religious sect to cry, a miracle! for it is always echoed by their adversaries, shouting out, an imposture! The same circumstances which induced the Catholics to believe that this happy event was owing to a peculiar divine interposition, led the nation to ascribe so unexpected and opportune an occurrence to artifice and imposition; and they were prepared to pronounce a birth spurious, which their adversaries had incautiously pushed to the verge of miraculous.