This published pamphlet – in the style of a letter of four pages – warns fellow Dissenters about the motives behind King James II’s Declaration of Indulgence, which offered freedom of religious worship to Dissenters and Catholics. Defoe sees James’s darker purpose as the emancipation of Catholics so that he can stuff the church, the army and state offices with his allies, thus achieving control of the state apparatus and enabling him at a later date to re-establish Catholicism as the state religion.
Published in The Hague, supposedly. Probably published in London.
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96 words
Citation: Clark, Robert. "A Letter from a Dissenter from his friend at the Hague, concerning the Penal Laws and the Test". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 June 2017 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=38737, accessed 23 November 2024.]
