1.

1621.

land, where his publications were securely multi- BOOK plied and diffused through Scotland. Severe penalties were denounced against those who abstained from public worship upon holidays, or who rejected the communion when required to kneel 58. The clergy were harassed and oppressed by persecution; they were suspended from the ministry, deprived of their benefices, imprisoned or confined to remote districts; and, during the short remainder of an unimportant reign, desolation spread through the whole church. But the rigour 1622. of the high commission was endured with fortitude. Regarding its authority as usurpation, and their own character as indelible and sacred, the clergy, when displaced or degraded, persisted in their functions; preached and instructed publicly, or in private assemblies; and abated nothing of their accustomed invectives against prelacy, in the confidence that banishment would not be inflicted, as the ministers already expelled from Scotland, had found a safe asylum in the reformed churches of the continent, from which their exhortations were received with increased veneration. Persecution was at length extended beyond the clergy: and the conformity of Edinburgh was anxiously solicited, from a well-founded persuasion, that the example of the metropolis would predominate through the kingdom. The city was threatened 1623. with the removal of the government, and courts of justice; the magistrates hostile to conformity

98 Calderwood, MS. vol. vi. 447. 80. 515. 32.

BOOK

1.

1624.

1625. Death,

66

were displaced; and the most contumacious among the citizens were selected and destined for the severe punishment of oppressive fines and a remote imprisonment, prevented only by the death of James 99. Persecution, however, was an ungracious task, which the council declined, and it was necessary to admonish even the prelates themselves, "not to suffer the sword to rust; that the popish religion was a disease of the mind, but "the puritan a more dangerous disease of the "brain." An impolitic severity was recompensed with the bitter, and customary fruits of intolerance, more obdurate aversion, a stedfast attachment to the good old faith, a distaste and secret. disaffection to government: and the success of these violent measures may be estimated by the reluctant confession extorted from James, that the churches were already deserted, and private conventicles already established 100.

In the preceding narrative, I have endeavoured to comprise a series of ecclesiastical transactions, extended through the last years of the reign of March 22. James. His death was occasioned by a tertian ague: but in a credulous age, and among a discontented people, the application of some empyrical remedies excited vague and unfounded suspicions of poison. He expired at the age of fiftynine, in the fifty-seventh year of his reign in Scotland, and the twenty-second after his accession to

99 Calderwood, MS. vi. 483. 6. 14. 695.8.

100 Id. 554. 610. 12. 15.

I.

1625.

and cha

James.

the throne of England. His fortune was superior BOOK to that of his progenitors, and his felicity greater than that of his descendants. His person inherited no share of the beauty of his parents, nor his mind racter of a portion of the exalted spirit which distinguished his ancestors. He was stedfast in his friendship; but his affections were irresistibly attracted, by address or elegance, to the most worthless of mankind. He was naturally lenient, yet vindictive and intolerant; and in consequence of an extreme facility, was frequently betrayed by his minions into a compliance with their most criminal pursuits and pleasures. Though unreserved and familiar, he was capable of profound dissimulation and cunning; and from a predominant vanity, accessible and prone to the grossest adulation, he was pedantic without the merit of useful literature, and prodigal without the praise of true generosity.

His tranquil reign was beneficial to England; but to Scotland it was unprofitable, as it was spent in a contemptible struggle with the clergy, and in a vain attempt to surmount the religious persuasions of his subjects. Historians partial to his family, have sought a vindication of his misconduct in the dangerous independence of a sullen enthusiasm, requiring an intermixture of more refined superstition; and have discovered an apology for his miscarriage, in the uncertain operations of the religious spirit, which, when infused into faction, is suscetible of mon calculaton or control. That the ecclesiastical should be subordinate to the civil

I.

1623.

BOOK establishment is essential to the preservation of every social institution; and if his views had extended only to the reduction of that dangerous independence which the church had assumed, the vindication would be just. But the monarch who aspires to regulate the national faith, forgets from whom his authority originates; and in every innovation it should at least be considered, that there is danger in counteracting the tide of popu. lar opinion, the source of power, and its exclusive support.

THE

HISTORY

OF

SCOTLAND.

BOOK II.

Accession of Charles.-Revocation of Tithes.-Scots in Gustavus fervice.—Coronation.—Parliament. Balmerino's Trial.-Canons and Liturgy introduced.-Tumults, Supplications, Accusation of the Prelates. Tables and Covenant instituted.-Assembly at Glasgow. - Preparations for War.Pacification, Assembly, Parliament.-War renewed. Expedition into England.-Treaty at Rippon.

HE accession of Charles, the only surviving BOOK

THE accession of Charles, the only surviving

II.

1625.

of Charles.

in Scotland by twelve years of profound tranquil- Acession lity; a period diversified with few transactions, and not distinguished by any strong indications of the convulsions with which the country was afterwards agitated. Among a people inured to laws and predisposed to submission, almost every commotion may be deduced from the improper