rial came on, they applied to a
certain nobleman to know what they should do. "Where was the waiter,"
asked the nobleman, "when you drank the toast?" "At the door." "Oh!
very well, then," said he; "tell the court that he only heard a part
of the toast, as he was going out; and that the words really were,
'Confusion to the Archbishop of Canterbury's enemies.'" By this
ingenious plea, and by means of a great appearance of humility and
deference in the presence of the archbishop, the lawyers escaped with
a reprimand.

Laud was not content with establishing and confirming throughout all
England the authority of the Church, but attempted to extend the same
system to Scotland. When King Charles went to Scotland to be crowned,
he took Laud with him. He was pleased with Laud's endeavors to enlarge
and confirm the powers of the Church, and wished to aid him in the
work. There were two reasons for this. One was, that the same class of
men, the Puritans, were the natural enemies of both, so that the king
and the archbishop were drawn together by having one common foe. Then,
as the places in the Church were not hereditary, but were filled by
appointments from the king and the great nobles, whatever power the
Church could get into its hands could be employed by the king to
strengthen his own authority, and keep his subjects in subjection.

We must not, however, censure the king and his advisers too strongly
for this plan. They doubtless were ambitious; they loved power; they
wished to bear sway, unresisted and unquestioned, over the whole
realm. But then the king probably thought that the exercise of such a
government was necessary for the order and prosperity of the realm,
besides being his inherent and indefeasible right. Good and bad
motives were doubtless mingled here, as in all human action; but then
the king was, in the main, doing what he supposed it was his duty to
do. In proposing, therefore, to build up the Church in Scotland, and
to make it conform to the English Church in its rites and ceremonies,
he and Laud doubtless supposed that they were going greatly to improve
the government of the sister kingdom.

There was in those days, as now, in the English Church, a certain
prescribed course of prayers, and psalms, and Scripture lessons, for
each day, to be read from a book by the minister. This was called the
Liturgy. The Puritans did not like a Liturgy. It tied men up, and did
not leave the individual mind of the preach