Early in 1659, when the poet was twenty-seven years old, appeared Dryden's first serious contribution to English literature, the Heroic Stanzas consecrated to the Memory of His Highness, Oliver, late Lord Protector of this Commonwealth. In the very next year, he hailed the restoration of Charles as a return of the Golden Age in the poem entitled Astræa Redux, and in the year following published a Panegyric on his Coronation. In November, 1682, he published Religio Laici, a carefully reasoned defense of the English Church. Less than five years later, in April, 1687, in the Hind and the Panther, we find him ardently espousing the cause of Rome; and during these five years a Roman Catholic sovereign had succeeded to the throne of England. James II had become king in February, 1685; and, if we may trust an entry in Evelyn's Diary, Dryden was already a Roman Catholic in the following January.