First[a] nine-and-twenty, then[b] six hundred and eighty-two
royalists were selected for punishment. It was enacted that those in the
first class should forfeit their whole property; while to those in the
second, the right of pre-emption was reserved at the rate of one-third part
of the clear value, to be paid within four months.[1]
4. During the late reign, as long as the Presbyterians retained their
ascendancy in parliament, they enforced with all their power uniformity of
worship and doctrine. The clergy of the established church were ejected
from their livings, and the professors of the Catholic faith were condemned
to forfeit two-thirds of their property, or to abjure their religion. Nor
was the proof of recusancy to depend, as formerly, on the slow process of
presentation and conviction; bare suspicion was held a sufficient ground
for the sequestrator to seize his prey; and the complainant was told that
he had the remedy in his own hands, he might take the oath of abjuration.
When the Independents succeeded to the exercise of the supreme power, both
the persecuted parties indulged a hope of more lenient treatment, and both
were disappointed. The Independents, indeed, proclaimed themselves the
champions of religious liberty; they repealed the statutes imposing
penalties for absence from church; and they declared
[Footnote 1: Journals, 1651, July 16; 1652, Aug.
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