On 15 Mar 1672. The Royal Declaration of Indulgence was Charles II's (age 41) attempt to extend religious liberty to Protestant nonconformists and Roman Catholics. It was highly controversial. Sir Orlando Bridgeman (age 66) resigned as Lord Keeper of the Great Seal because he refused to apply the Great Seal to it.

Around Mar 1673 the Test Act was a law enacted by Parliament that required public servants to take an oath according to the rites of the English church and to deny the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. The Act undermined the 1672 Declaration of Indulgence.