302 CHAP. LIII. CHAP. 1637. Discontents in Scotland-Introduction of the canons and liturgy-A tumult at Edinburgh-The covenant-A general assembly-Episcopacy abolished-War-A pacification-Renewal of the war-Fourth English parliament -Dissolution-Discontents in England-Rout at Newburn-Treaty at Rippon-Great council of the peers. THE grievances under which the English laboured, when considered in themselves, without regard to the constitution, scarcely deserve the name; nor were they either burdensome on the people's properties, or anyway shocking to the natural humanity of mankind. Even the imposition of ship money, independent of the consequences, was a great and evident advantage to the public, by the judicious use which the king made of the money levied by that expedient. And though it was justly apprehended, that such precedents, if patiently submitted to, would end in a total disuse of parliaments, and in the establishment of arbitrary authority; Charles dreaded no opposition from the people, who are not commonly much affected with consequences, and require some striking motive to engage them in a resistance of established government. All ecclesiastical affairs were settled by law and uninterrupted precedent; and the church was become a considerable barrier to the power, both legal and illegal, of the crown. Peace too, industry, commerce, opulence; nay, even justice and lenity of administration, notwithstanding some very few exceptions: All these were enjoyed by the people; and every other blessing of government, except liberty, or rather the present exercise of liberty and its proper security. It seemed probable, therefore, that affairs might long have continued on the same footing in England had it not been for the neighbourhood of Scot - o Clarendon, p. 74, 75. May, p. 18. Warwick, p. 62: land; a country more turbulent, and less disposed to CHAP. submission and obedience. It was thence the commotions first arose; and it is therefore time for us to return thither, and to give an account of the state of affairs in that kingdom. 1637. tents in THOUGH the pacific, and not unskilful government of DisconJames, and the great authority which he had acquired, Scotland. had much allayed the feuds among the great families, and had established law and order throughout the kingdom; the Scottish nobility were still possessed of the chief power and influence over the people. Their property was extensive; their hereditary jurisdictions and the feudal tenures increased their authority; and the attachment of the gentry to the heads of families established a kind of voluntary servitude, under the chieftains. Besides that long absence had much loosened the king's connexions with the nobility, who resided chiefly at their country seats; they were in general at this time, though from slight causes, much disgusted with the court. Charles, from the natural piety or superstition of his temper, was extremely attached to the ecclesiastics: And as it is natural for men to persuade themselves that their interest coincides with their inclination; he had established it as a fixed maxim of policy, to increase the power and authority of that order. The prelates, he thought, established regularity and discipline among the clergy; the clergy inculcated obedience and loyalty among the people: And as that rank of men had no separate authority, and no dependence but on the crown; the royal power, it would seem, might with the greater safety be intrusted in their hands. Many of the prelates, therefore, were raised to the chief dignities of the state :" Spotswood, archbishop of St. Andrews, was created chancellor: Nine of the bishops were privy counsellors: The bishop of Ross aspired to the office of treasurer: Some of the prelates possessed places in the exchequer: And it was even endeavoured to revive the first institution of the college of justice, and to share equally between the clergy and laity the whole judicial authority. These advantages possessed by the p Rushworth, vol. ii. p 386. May, p. 29. Burnet's Mem. p. 29, 30. LIII. 1637. CHAP. church, and which the bishops did not always enjoy with suitable modesty, disgusted the haughty nobility, who, deeming themselves much superior in rank and quality to this new order of men, were displeased to find themselves inferior in power and influence. Interest joined itself to ambition, and begat a jealousy, lest the episcopal sees, which, at the reformation, had been pillaged by the nobles, should again be enriched at the expense of that order. By a most useful and beneficial law, the impropriations had already been ravished from the great men: Competent salaries had been assigned to the empoverished clergy from the tithes of each parish: And what remained, the proprietor of the land was empowered to purchase at a low valuation." The king likewise warranted by ancient law and practice, had declared for a general resumption of all crown lands, alienated by his predecessors; and though he took no step towards the execution of this project, the very pretension to such power had excited jealousy and discontent. S NOTWITHSTANDING the tender regard which Charles bore to the whole church, he had been able, in Scotland, to acquire only the affection of the superior rank among the clergy. The ministers in general equalled, if not exceeded, the nobility, in their prejudices against the court, against the prelates, and against episcopal authority. Though the establishment of the hierarchy might seem advantageous to the inferior clergy, both as it erected dignities to which all of them might aspire, and as it bestowed a lustre on the whole body, and allured men of family into it; these views had no influence on the Scottish ecclesiastics. In the present disposition of men's minds, there was another circumstance which drew consideration, and counterbalanced power and riches, the usual foundations of distinction among men; and that was, the fervour of piety, and the rhetoric, however barbarous, of religious lectures and discourses. Checked by the prelates in the license of preaching, the clergy regarded episcopal jurisdiction both as tyranny and an usurpation, and maintained a parity among ecclesiastics r King's Declaration, p. 7. Franklyn, p. 611. t Burnet's Mem, p. 29, 30. to be a divine privilege, which no human law could alter THE people under the influence of the nobility and clergy, could not fail to partake of the discontents which prevailed among these two orders; and where real grounds of complaint were wanting, they greedily laid hold of imaginary ones. The same horror against popery, with `which the English puritans were possessed, was observable among the populace in Scotland; and among these, as being more uncultivated and uncivilized, seemed rather to be inflamed into a higher degree of ferocity. The genius of religion, which prevailed in the court and among the prelates, was of an opposite nature; and having some affinity to the Romish worship, led them to mollify, as much as possible, the severe prejudices, and to speak of the catholics in more charitable language, and with more reconciling expressions. From this foundation, a panic fear of popery was easily raised; and every new ceremony or ornament, introduced into divine service, was part of that great mystery of iniquity, which, from the encouragement of the king and the bishops, was to overspread the nation." The few innovations which James had made, were considered as preparatives to this grand design; and the farther alterations attempted by Charles were represented as a plain declaration of his intentions. Through the whole course of this reign, nothing had more fatal influence, in both kingdoms, than u May, p. 29. VOL. V. Burnet's Mem. p. 29, 30, 31. Rr LIII. CHAP. this groundless apprehension, which with so much indus-try was propagated, and with so much credulity was embraced by all ranks of men. 1637. AMIDST these dangerous complaints and terrors of religious innovation, the civil and ecclesiastical liberties of the nation were imagined, and with some reason, not to be altogether free from invasion. THE establishment of the high commission by James without any authority of law, seemed a considerable encroachment of the crown, and erected the most dangerous and arbitrary of all courts, by a method equally dangerous and arbitrary. All the steps towards the settlement of episcopacy had indeed been taken with consent of parliament: The articles of Perth were confirmed in 1621 In 1633, the king had obtained a general ratification of every ecclesiastical establishment: But these laws had less authority with the nation, as they were known to have passed contrary to the sentiments even of those who voted for them, and were in reality extorted by the authority and importunity of the sovereign. The means, however, which both James and Charles had employed, in order to influence the parliament, were entirely egular; and no reasonable pretence had been afforded for representing these laws as null or invalid. BUT there prevailed among the greater part of the nation another principle, of the most important and most dangerous nature, and which, if admitted, destroyed entirely the validity of all such statutes. The ecclesiastical authority was supposed totally independent of the civil; and no act of parliament, nothing but the consent of the church itself, was represented as sufficient ground for the introduction of any change in religious worship or discipline. And though James had obtained the vote of assemblies for receiving episcopacy and his new rites, it must be confessed that such irregularities had prevailed in constituting these ecclesiastical courts, and such viodence in conducting them, that there were some grounds for denying the authority of all their acts. Charles, sensible that an extorted consent, attended with such invidious circumstances, would rather be prejudicial to his measures, had wholly laid aside the use of assemblies, |