All the discourse now was about the Bishops refusing to read the injunction for the abolition of the Test, etc. It seems the injunction came so crudely from the Secretary's office, that it was neither sealed nor signed in form, nor had any lawyer been consulted, so as the Bishops who took all imaginable advice, put the Court to great difficulties how to proceed against them. Great were the consults, and a proclamation was expected all this day; but nothing was done. The action of the Bishops was universally applauded, and reconciled many adverse parties, Papists only excepted, who were now exceedingly perplexed, and violent courses were every moment expected. Report was, that the Protestant secular Lords and Nobility would abet the Clergy.
The Queen Dowager, hitherto bent on her return into Portugal, now on the sudden, on allegation of a great debt owing her by his Majesty disabling her, declares her resolution to stay.
News arrived of the most prodigious earthquake that was almost ever heard of, subverting the city of Lima and country in Peru, with a dreadful inundation following it.