At the beginning of 1687, a declaration of indulgence was issued by proclamation at Edinburgh, “We, by our _sovereign authority, prerogative royal, and absolute power_, do hereby give and grant our royal toleration. We allow and tolerate the moderate Presbyterians to meet in their private houses, and to hear such ministers as have been, or are willing to accept of our indulgence, but they are not to build meeting-houses, but to exercise in houses. We tolerate Quakers to meet in their form in any place, or places, appointed for their worship: and we, by our sovereign authority, suspend, stop, and disable, all laws or Acts of Parliament made or executed against any of our Roman Catholic subjects, so that they shall be free to exercise their religion and to enjoy all; but they are to exercise in houses or chapels: and we cass, annul, and discharge all oaths by which our subjects are disabled from holding offices.”[31] ----- Footnote 31: Knight’s _Pictorial History_ ----- On the 4th of April, 1687, “a declaration for liberty of conscience,” came out in the _Gazette_, by which all the penal laws against Protestant Nonconformists, as well as Catholics, were to be suspended. The declaration gave leave to all men to meet and serve God after their own manner, publicly as well as privately; it denounced the royal displeasure, and the vengeance of the laws against all who should disturb any religious worship; and it granted a free pardon to all the king’s loving subjects from penalties, forfeitures, and disabilities incurred on account of religion and the penal laws. About the same time, King James went to Oxford, and, in the exercise of his popish inclinations and despotic principles, made the disgraceful exhibition of himself, in Magdalen College, which was witnessed by Samuel Wesley, and which is related in Chapter IV. Twelve months after, on April 27, 1688, he published another declaration of indulgence, in substance the same as the two above mentioned; but which went a step farther, for not only was the declaration published, but all the clergy were commanded to read it in their churches. This was the spark that set fire to the train, which had been accumulating for many months.