Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/294

 256 Readings in European History January jo, 1661. This day (O the stupendious and inscrutable judgments of God !) were the carcasses of those arch-rebells Cromwell, Bradshaw, the Judge who condemned his Majestie, and Ireton, sonn-in-law to ye Usurper, dragged out of their superb tombs in Westmin- ster among the kings, to Tyburne, and hanged on the gal- lows from 9 in the morning till 6 at night, and then buried under that fatal and ignominious monument in a deepe pitt ; thousands of people who had seene them in all their pride being spectators. May 22, 1661. The Scotch Covenant was burnt by the common hangman in divers places in London. O pro- digious change ! 327. Act of Uniformity (1662). (Extracts.) IX. Religious Questions under Charles II Charles II and Parliament had to face the old diffi- culty of steering a middle course between the various Protestant sects, on the one hand, — Presbyterians, In- dependents, etc., who were supposed to be disaffected toward the government as well as toward the Estab- lished Church, — and, on the other hand, the Catholics, whom Parliament and the nation at large abhorred, although the king was secretly favorable to them. Fol- lowing the policy of Elizabeth, the Act of Uniformity was passed in 1662. Whereas, in the first year of the late Queen Elizabeth, there was one uniform order of common service and prayer, and the administration of the sacraments, rites, and cere- monies in the Church of England (agreeable to the word of God and usage of the primitive Church), compiled by the reverend bishops and clergy, set forth in one book, en- titled The Book of Common Prayer. . . and enjoined to be used by act of Parliament holden in the said first year of the said late queen, entitled "An act for the uniformity of