On May 18, 1688, six bishops arrived at Whitehall bearing a petition for James II. The Archbishop of Canterbury, detained by illness, remained at Lambeth; his six brethren—Lloyd, Turner, Lake, Ken, White, and Trelawney—carried the text and defended it before the King. Their supplication ran to but a few lines: that they might not be compelled to distribute or have read in the churches the royal declaration touching liberty of conscience. They explained that their refusal sprang neither from any want of loyalty nor from hostility toward Dissenters. They contested the Crown’s power to dispense with the laws, which they held to be contrary to law.
The dispute had begun three weeks earlier. On April 27, the King had issued a fresh declaration of religious indulgence. On May 4, the Council ordered that it be read during divine service. In London and its environs, the readings were appointed for May 20 and 27; elsewhere, for June 3 and 10. The bishops were enjoined to convey the text to their dioceses and to command their clergy to read it. The order transformed an act of State into a word to be uttered from every pulpit, before the parishioners assembled for worship.
The declaration promised to maintain the Anglican clergy and their possessions, while immediately suspending the penal statutes against non-conformists. It likewise dispensed certain office-holders from the religious tests and oaths hitherto required. James presented the measure as one of clemency, inviting his subjects to return a Parliament that would finish what he had begun. To the bishops, reading the text publicly amounted to acknowledging a royal dispensing power they held to be unlawful. Yet their petition did not disclaim all accommodation toward Dissenters: they professed themselves ready to seek an accord, provided it were debated and settled by Parliament and Convocation.
The prelates present near the capital convened at Lambeth Palace to deliberate upon their course. After discussion, the Archbishop invited the bishops of his province to attend or transmit their counsel. Borrow relates that eighteen bishops and the greater part of the clergy concurred in refusing to read the text. Seven prelates subscribed the common petition: Sancroft, Lloyd, Turner, Lake, Ken, White, and Trelawney.
The petition affirmed the loyalty of the Church of England and promised their prayers for the King, but declined to make the bishops the instruments of the declaration. This measured tone did nothing to mollify James. At Whitehall, he told them he had heard tell of the petition without believing it could exist. He had not looked for such conduct from the Church, and least of all from certain among them. Should his pleasure alter, he added, they would be apprised; otherwise, he demanded obedience.
The bishops replied that they committed themselves to the will of God, and withdrew. The King resolved to proceed against them, holding them answerable for the opposition to his declaration. On June 8, they were summoned before the Council. They were asked whether they owned the petition. They answered that they appeared as accused persons, and trusted the King would not turn their answer against them. Pressed by the Lord Chancellor Jeffreys, the Archbishop at last acknowledged having penned the paper, and confirmed that the others had signed it. He hoped, he said, they had done nothing they could not justify.
Jeffreys then called upon them to enter into recognizances to appear before the Court of King’s Bench. The bishops pleaded their privilege of peerage, refusing to furnish immediate bail upon a charge of misdemeanor. The Chancellor threatened them with the Tower unless they withdrew their petition and obeyed the declaration. They answered that they were ready to go whithersoever the King might command, and that no punishment would shake their resolve. A warrant was issued charging them with framing and publishing a seditious libel against the King and his government.
The news of their committal to the Tower outstripped them. Fearing a tumult, they were conveyed by barge along the Thames. The shores were thronged with people who cheered them and prayed for their happy deliverance. At the Tower, officers and men knelt to ask their blessing. James, mistrustful of such sympathy, ordered fresh companies into the fortress.
On June 15, they appeared before the Court of King’s Bench. The Attorney General moved for an immediate habeas corpus to bring them from the Tower; Sir Edward Hales, the Lieutenant, brought them to the bar about eleven o'clock under the Council’s warrant. The prosecution maintained that they had conspired to diminish the royal prerogative and had contrived, under color of a petition, a libel against the Sovereign. Sir Robert Sawyer moved first for their discharge, arguing that they had been committed without lawful authority; the Solicitor General, Sir William Williams, answered that the King had himself commanded the process, and that his complaint must be heard. Counsel for the bishops urged further that they could not plead forthwith, having received neither a copy of the information nor leisure to advise with counsel.
The four judges named by Borrow—Wright, Holloway, Powell, and Allybone—overruled this preliminary exception. They held that a charge of seditious libel must be treated as a breach of the peace, and required an instant plea. Sancroft tendered a brief argument grounded on the bishops’ peerage. Wright took offense: four hours, he observed, had already been spent upon that matter, and this paper merely revived arguments already set aside. Holloway and Allybone concurred with him. Powell alone was for admitting the plea. The court accordingly rejected it, yet this division revealed the first crack upon the bench. The seven prelates thereupon pleaded not guilty. They were enlarged on bail to await their trial: two hundred pounds for the Archbishop, and one hundred for each of the rest, the Crown accepting their personal recognizances.
A fortnight elapsed between this arraignment and the verdict. At the close of the trial, the jury withdrew and passed the night of June 29 to 30 without fire or candle. On the morrow, Saturday, June 30, they returned the seven bishops not guilty of the libel. They departed from the bar acquitted.