was important that there should be a great preponderance of
authority in favour of the dispensing power; yet it was important
that the bench, which had been carefully packed for the occasion,
should appear to be independent. One Judge, therefore, the least
respectable of the twelve, was permitted, or more probably
commanded, to give his voice against the prerogative.86

The power which the courts of law had thus recognised was not
suffered to lie idle. Within a month after the decision of the
King's Bench had been pronounced, four Roman Catholic Lords were
sworn of the Privy Council. Two of these, Powis and Bellasyse,
were of the moderate party, and probably took their seats with
reluctance and with many sad forebodings. The other two, Arundell
and Dover, had no such misgivings.87

The dispensing power was, at the same time, employed for the
purpose of enabling Roman Catholics to hold ecclesiastical
preferment. The new Solicitor readily drew the warrants in which
Sawyer had refused to be concerned. One of these warrants was in
favour of a wretch named Edward Sclater, who had two livings
which he was determined to keep at all costs and through all
changes. He administered the sacrament to his parishioners
according to the rites of the Church of England on Palm Sunday
1686. On Easter Sunday, only seven days later, he was at mass.
The royal dispensation authorised him to retain the emoluments of
his benefices. To the remonstrances of the patrons from whom he
had received his preferment he replied in terms of insolent
defiance, and, while the Roman Catholic cause prospered, put
forth an absurd treatise in defence of his apostasy. But, a very
few weeks after the Revolution, a great congregation assembled at