selfish intrigue,--the stalls of discontented prelates,--the chambers of
the wanton and adulteress,--the confessional of a weak prince, whose
mind, originally narrow, had been cramped closer still by the strait-
jacket of religious bigotry and superstition. The age of nobility and
heroism had well-nigh passed away. The pious fervor, the self-denial,
and the strict morality of the Puritanism of the days of Cromwell, and
the blunt honesty and chivalrous loyalty of the Cavaliers, had both
measurably given place to the corrupting influences of the licentious and
infidel court of Charles II.; and to the arrogance, intolerance, and
shameless self-seeking of a prelacy which, in its day of triumph and
revenge, had more than justified the terrible denunciations and scathing
gibes of Milton.

Both Catholic and Protestant writers have misrepresented James II. He
deserves neither the execrations of the one nor the eulogies of the
other. The candid historian must admit that he was, after all, a better
man than his brother Charles II. He was a sincere and bigoted Catholic,
and was undoubtedly honest in the declaration, which he made in that
unlucky letter which Burnet ferreted out on the Continent, that he was
prepared to make large steps to build up the Catholic Church in England,
and, if necessary, to become a martyr in her cause. He was proud,
austere, and self-willed. In the treatment of his enemies he partook of
the cruel temper of his time. He was at once ascetic and sensual,
alternating between the hair-shirt of penance and the embraces of
Catharine Sedley. His situation was one of the most difficult and
embarrassing which can be conceived of. He was at once a bigoted Papist
and a Protestant pope. He hated the French domination to which his
brother had submitted; yet his pride as sovereign was subordinated to his
allegiance to Rome and a superstitious veneration for the wily priests
with which Louis XIV. surrounded him. As the head of Anglican heretics,