interest in circulating. James now took a step which greatly
disconcerted the whole Anglican party. Two papers, in which were
set forth very concisely the arguments ordinarily used by Roman
Catholics in controversy with Protestants, had been found in
Charles's strong box, and appeared to be in his handwriting.
These papers James showed triumphantly to several Protestants,
and declared that, to his knowledge, his brother had lived and
died a Roman Catholic.46 One of the persons to whom the
manuscripts were exhibited was Archbishop Sancroft. He read them
with much emotion, and remained silent. Such silence was only the
natural effect of a struggle between respect and vexation. But
James supposed that the Primate was struck dumb by the
irresistible force of reason, and eagerly challenged his Grace to
produce, with the help of the whole episcopal bench, a
satisfactory reply. "Let me have a solid answer, and in a
gentlemanlike style; and it may have the effect which you so much
desire of bringing me over to your Church." The Archbishop
mildly said that, in his opinion, such an answer might, without
much difficulty, be written, but declined the controversy on the
plea of reverence for the memory of his deceased master. This
plea the King considered as the subterfuge of a vanquished
disputant.47 Had he been well acquainted with the polemical
literature of the preceding century and a half, he would have
known that the documents to which he attached so much value might
have been composed by any lad of fifteen in the college of Douay,
and contained nothing which had not, in the opinion of all
Protestant divines, been ten thousand times refuted. In his
ignorant exultation he ordered these tracts to be printed with
the utmost pomp of typography, and appended to them a declaration
attested by his sign manual, and certifying that the originals