Dryden informs us, that he was concerned in the last, which seems to exclude the idea of his having any share in the first and second parts of the Defence; * which, indeed, are written in a style more approaching to polemic controversy than that assumed by Dryden. Stillingfleet returned to the conflict, and published a " Vindication of his Answer;" in which he is severely personal upon Dryden, "the brisk defender,” as he calls him, of the duchess's paper, and the " new convert" to the church of Rome. Dryden, personally assaulted, made a personal retort, both directly upon Stillingfleet, and upon Burnet, his coadjutor in the controversy; and to this we probably owe the character of the Buzzard in "The Hind and Panther," as well as the reflections upon the moderate clergy, or Low Church divines, with which that piece abounds. †

In order to understand Dryden's defence, it is necessary to prefix the duchess's paper, and Stillingfleet's answer to it.

"I refer myself to the judgment of those who have read the answer to the defence of the late king's papers, and that of the duchess, in which läst I was concerned, how charitably I have been represented there."-Preface to the Hind and Panther, Vol X. p. 113, 114.

See Vol. X. p. 203-208, and the notes there referred to.

COPY OF A PAPER

WRITTEN BY

THE LATE DUCHESS OF YORK, &c.

*

Ir is so reasonable to expect, that a person always bred up in the church of England, and as well. instructed in the doctrine of it, as the best divines and her capacity could make her, should be liable to many censures for leaving that, and making herself a member of the Roman Catholic church, to

Morley, bishop of Winchester, who, as presently will be noticed, was chaplain in the family of Sir Edward Hyde during the usurpation, tells us, "that the duchess, (then Miss Hyde,) as she was the eldest, so was she the forwardest, and most capable to receive instruction; for God having given her an extraordinary good understanding for one of her sex and years, so he had given her an extraordinary good inclination to the exercises of piety and devotion; so that, when she was not, as I remember, above twelve years of age, I did think her every way fit to be admitted to the receiving the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, which she did then, and always afterwards, with very great devotion, so long as she and I staid together in her father's house at Antwerp."---Preface to Bishop Morley's Treatise, p. vi.

which, I confess, I was one of the greatest enemies it ever had; that I rather choose to satisfy my friends by reading this paper, than to have the trouble to answer all the questions that may be daily asked me. And first, I do protest, in the presence of Almighty God, that no person, man or woman, directly or indirectly, ever said any thing to me since I came into England, or used the least endeavour to make me change my religion: it is a blessing I wholly owe to Almighty God, and, I hope, the hearing of a prayer I daily made him ever since I was in France and Flanders; where, seeing much of the devotion of the Catholics, (though I had very little myself,) I made it my continual request to Almighty God, that, if I were not, I might, before I died, be in the true religion. I did not in the least doubt but that I was so, and never had any scruple till November last; when, reading a book called "The History of the Reformation," by Dr Heylin, † which I had heard very much commended, and have been told, if ever I had any doubt of my religion, that would settle me; instead of which, I found it the description of the horridest sacrileges in the world; and

Morley says, that he continued to be the duchess's spiritual director" until after her father's banishment; and all that time I must bear her witness, that she was not only a zealous Protestant herself, according as it is by law established in the church of England, but zealous to make proselytes."---Preface as above, P. xii.

Dr Peter Heylin was born at Burford, in Oxfordshire, in 1600, and rose high in the church, being one of the chaplains in ordinary to Charles I. During the great civil war, he was redu→ ced to distress, but survived the Restoration, and died in 1662. In 1661, he published his history of the Reformation, under the title of "Ecclesia Restaurata."

could find no reason why we left the church, but for three, the most abominable ones that were ever heard of among Christians. First, Henry VIII. renounces the Pope's authority, because he would not give him leave to part with his wife, and marry another in her lifetime; secondly, Edward VI. was a child, and governed by his uncle, who made his estate out of church-lands; and then Queen Elizabeth, who, being no lawful heiress to the crown, could have no way to keep it but by renouncing a church that could never suffer so unlawful a thing to be done by one of her children. I confess I cannot think the Holy Ghost could ever be in such counsels; and it is very strange, that if the bishops had no design but (as they say) the restoring us to the doctrine of the primitive church, they could never think upon it, till Henry VIII. made the breach upon so unlawful a pretence. These scruples being raised, I began to consider of the difference between the Catholics and us, and examined them as well as I could by Holy Scripture, which though I do not pretend to be able to understand, yet there are some things I found so easy, that I cannot but wonder I had been so long without finding them out; as-the real presence in the blessed sacrament, the infallibility of the church, confession, and praying for the dead. After this I spoke severally to two of the bishops we have in England, who both told

* These were Sheldon and Morley. Sheldon was bishop of London, and was promoted to the see of Canterbury on the death of the venerable Juxon. Burnet describes him as generous and charitable, and extremely dexterous in politics; but adds, that he only spoke of religion as an engine of government, and thus gained

me, there were many things in the Romish church which were very much to be wished we had kept: as confession, which was no doubt commanded by God; that praying for the dead was one of the ancient things in Christianity; that, for their parts, they did it daily, though they would not own it. And afterwards, pressing one of them very much upon the other points, he told me,-that if he had been bred a Catholic, he would not change his religion; but that being of another church, (wherein he was sure were all things necessary to salvation,) he thought it very ill to give that scandal, as to leave that church wherein he received his baptism.

All these discourses did but add more to the desire I had to be a Catholic, and gave me the most terrible agonies in the world within myself: for all this, fearing to be rash in a matter of that weight, I did all I could to satisfy myself; made it my daily prayer to God, to settle me in the right; and so went on Christmas-day to receive in the king's chapel after which, I was more troubled than ever, and could never be at quiet till I had told

with the king the character of a wise and honest clergyman. He was much blamed by the Low Church divines, for the rigour with which he followed up the parliamentary deprivation, by which two thousand divines, as was alleged, were ejected for non-conformity.

Blandford, successively bishop of Oxford and Worcester, was an able and excellent divine, modest and humble, says Burnet, even to a fault. Morley, bishop of Winchester, had recommended him to the duchess to be her spiritual director in his stead, when he himself retired from court in 1667 : “And I made choice of him," says that prelate, "not only because, in regard of his learning, piety, gravity, and modesty, together with the gentleness and sweetness of his address and conversation, he was at least as fit as any I could think of for that employment, but in regard of his former relation of chaplain to her father, to whom he owed his rise in the church."---Preface to Bishop Morley'sTreatise, p. xiv.