with by poison, an indication of the morality generally supposed to
prevail among the higher classes. If such was the state of society in
its serious aspect, it was no better in its lighter. We can scarcely
credit the impurity and immodesty of the theatrical exhibitions. What is
said about them would be beyond belief if we did not remember that they
were the amusements of a community whose ideas of female modesty and
female sentiment were altogether different from ours. Indecent jests
were put into the mouths of lively actresses, and the dancing was not
altogether of a kind to meet our approval. The rural clergy could do but
little to withstand this flood of immorality. [Sidenote: Degraded
condition of the lower clergy.] Their social position for the last
hundred years had been rapidly declining; for, though the Church
possessed among her dignitaries great writers and great preachers, her
lower orders, partly through the political troubles that had befallen
the state, but chiefly in consequence of sectarian bitterness, had been
reduced to a truly menial condition. It was the business of the rich
man's chaplain to add dignity to the dinner-table by saying grace "in
full canonicals," but he was also intended to be a butt for the mirth of
the company. "The young Levite," such was the phrase then in use, "might
fill himself with the corned beef and the carrots, but as soon as the
tarts and cheese-cakes made their appearance he quitted his seat, and
stood aloof till he was summoned to return thanks for the repast," the
daintiest part of which he had not tasted. If need arose, he could curry
a horse, "carry a parcel ten miles," or "cast up the farrier's bill."
The "wages" of a parish priest were at starvation-point. The social
degradation of the ecclesiastic is well illustrated by an order of Queen
Elizabeth, that no clergyman should presume to marry a servant-girl
without the consent of her master or mistress.

The clergy, however, had not fallen into this condition without in a
measure deserving it. Their time had been too much occupied in
persecuting Puritans and other sectaries, with whom they would have
gladly dealt in the same manner as they had dealt with the Jews, who,
from the thirteenth century till Cromwell, were altogether interdicted
from public worship. [Sidenote: Burning of books and persecution of
preachers.] The University of Oxford had ordered the political works of
Buchanan, Milton, and Baxter to be public