Having commenced the practice of granting dispensations to certain individuals before the reign of persecution came to an end, he was sometimes found pursuing a course which placed him and some chiefs of the Church in apparently contradictory positions, whilst, notwithstanding, they were, for awhile, promoting the same end. “You may see,” says a contemporary Diarist, “somewhat remarkable in this last week’s account--the Hierarchy so severely prosecuting the Dissenters, and the Crown’s granting dispensations to them under seal. Cross winds sometimes raise waves that break the force of one another, and the ship is thereby preserved--sometimes they presage a tempest that destroys it, when those winds centre in a dangerous quarter. The Hierarchists have not appeared in the prosecution of one Papist this Assizes, nor Sessions, upon the strictest inquiries that can be made; but they say the only way to prevent Popery is to prosecute the penal laws against the Protestant Dissenters, and, which is somewhat mysterious, the best way to prevent Popery is not to prosecute Papists.”[154] Calamy refers to the Royal exercise of a dispensing power, and to the sending out of injunctions by the Bishops for the presentment of all such as did not receive the Lord’s Supper at Easter.[155] [Sidenote: JAMES’ POLICY.] In the Journal just quoted, an entry occurs a little earlier, showing the indignity with which the Monarch treated some of his suppliants, and the fruitlessness, occasionally, of their humble applications. The Anabaptists presented an address for “His Majesty’s gracious pardon,” when “they were kept long on their knees, while His Majesty showed the petition to several about him, at which they were very merry;” and the Quakers, who had petitioned for liberty, received “only a verbal order for impunity,” and were, nevertheless, still “disturbed and punished.”[156] Such were the floating stories of treatment experienced by the persecuted sects; and, if I may be permitted further to use the MS. from which our knowledge of these impressions is derived, I will extract the following passage which vividly reflects the perplexity some Dissenters felt at this time, in consequence of endeavours made to obtain their consent to measures of toleration, including Papists as well as themselves.