styles "one of the worst acts of one of the worst governments that
England has ever seen"--that of the Cabal. Our national honour was at
its lowest ebb. Charles had just concluded the profligate Treaty of
Dover, by which, in return for the "protection" he sought from the French
king, he declared himself a Roman Catholic at heart, and bound himself to
take the first opportunity of "changing the present state of religion in
England for a better," and restoring the authority of the Pope. The
announcement of his conversion Charles found it convenient to postpone.
Nor could the other part of his engagement be safely carried into effect
at once. It called for secret and cautious preparation. But to pave the
way for it, by an unconstitutional exercise of his prerogative he issued
a Declaration of Indulgence which suspended all penal laws against
"whatever sort of Nonconformists or Recusants." The latter were
evidently the real object of the indulgence; the former class were only
introduced the better to cloke his infamous design. Toleration, however,
was thus at last secured, and the long-oppressed Nonconformists hastened
to profit by it. "Ministers returned," writes Mr. J. R. Green, "after
years of banishment, to their homes and their flocks. Chapels were re-
opened. The gaols were emptied. Men were set free to worship God after
their own fashion. John Bunyan left the prison which had for twelve
years been his home." More than three thousand licenses to preach were
at once issued. One of the earliest of these, dated May 9, 1672, four
months before his formal pardon under the Great Seal, was granted to
Bunyan, who in the preceding January had been chosen their minister by
the little congregation at Bedford, and "giving himself up to serve
Christ and His Church in that charge, had received of the elders the
right hand of fellowship." The place licensed for the exercise of
Bunyan's ministry was a barn standing in an orchard, once forming part of
the Castle Moat, which one of the congregation, Josias Roughead, acting
for the members of his church, had purchased. The license bears date May