[238] On the fourth of April appeared the memorable Declaration of Indulgence.
In this Declaration the King avowed that it was his earnest wish to see his people members of that Church to which he himself belonged.

But, since that could not be, he announced his intention to protect them in the free exercise of their religion.

He repeated all those phrases which, eight years before, when he was himself an oppressed man, had been familiar to his lips, but which he had ceased to use from the day on which a turn of fortune had put it into his power to be an oppressor.
He had long been convinced, he said, that conscience was not to be forced, that persecution was unfavourable to population and to trade, and that it never attained the ends which persecutors had in view.

He repeated his promise, already often repeated and often violated, that he would protect the Established Church in the enjoyment of her legal rights.

He then proceeded to annul, by his own sole authority, a long series of statutes.