Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/80

66 learned that the Scotch, both clergy and laity, were loud in denouncing the administration of the eucharist in private houses as a remnant of popery; the revival of the festivals of Christmas as the return to the ancient Saturnalia; and those of Easter and Whitsuntide as the renewal of the feasts of the Jews. And on the 24th of November the clergy, in their assembly at St. Andrews, confirmed none of the five articles except that of the administration of the sacrament at the houses of the sick, provided that the sick person first took an oath that he or she did not expect to recover. James was highly enraged. He ordered the observance of the five articles to be commanded by proclamation, and withdrew the promised augmentations of stipend from the clergy. Nor did James give way in the slightest degree. The next year he managed the assembly so far, through lord Binning, as to carry the articles by a majority of eighty-six against forty-one; and in 1621, three years later, he obtained an act of parliament enforcing these articles on the repugnant spirit of the people. Dr. Laud, whose name we now meet for the first time, afterwards to become so notorious, even urged James to go further lengths; but his fatal advice was destined to act with more force on the next generation.



Whilst James's hand was in, however, he hit upon another mode of incensing the puritans, and showing his dislike of them. He had been extremely annoyed by the severity of the presbyterian manners during his visit; and when, on returning, the catholics of Lancashire presented to him petitions complaining of the strictness of the puritans, who forbade those sports and recreations to which they had been accustomed on Sundays after service, adding that it drove men to the ale-house, a bright idea occurred to him, and he determined to publish a book of sports, encouraging the people on Sundays after church to play at running, leaping, archery, morris-dances, and to enjoy their church-ales and festivities as aforetime. These sports, however, were not to be indulged in by the recusants, nor any who had not attended church in the morning. He also prohibited on