byterian public worship.

In 1610 James established two Courts of High Commission (in 1615 united
in one Court) to try offences in morals and religion. The Archbishops
presided, laity and clergy formed the body of the Court, and it was
regarded as vexatious and tyrannical. The same terms, to be sure, would
now be applied to the interference of preachers and presbyteries with
private life and opinion. By 1612 the king had established Episcopacy,
which, for one reason or another, became equally hateful to the nobles,
the gentry, and the populace. James's motives were motives of police.
Long experience had taught him the inconveniences of presbyterial
government as it then existed in Scotland.

To a Church organised in the presbyterian manner, as it has been
practised since 1689, James had, originally at least, no objection. But
the combination of "presbyterian Hildebrandism" with factions of the
turbulent _noblesse_; the alliance of the Power of the Keys with the
sword and lance, was inconsistent with the freedom of the State and of
the individual. "The absolutism of James," says Professor Hume Brown,
"was forced upon him in large degree by the excessive claims of the
Presbyterian clergy."

Meanwhile the thievish Border clans, especially the Armstrongs, were
assailed by hangings and banishments, and Ulster was planted by Scottish
settlers, willing or reluctant, attracted by promise of lands, or planted
out, that they might not give trouble on the Border.

Persecution of Catholics was violent, and in spring 1615 Father Ogilvie
was hanged after very cruel treatment directed by Archbishop
Spottiswoode. In this year the two ecclesiastical Courts of High
Commission were fused into one, and an Assembly was coerced into passing
what James called "Hotch-potch resolutions" about changes in public
worship. James wanted greater changes, but deferred them till he visited
Scotland in 1617, when he was attended by the luckless figure of Laud,
who went to a funeral--in a surplice! James had many personal bickerings
with preachers, but his five main points, "The Articles of Perth" (of
these the most detested were: (1) Communicants must kneel, not sit, at
the Communion; (4) Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost must be observed; and
(5) Confirmation must be introduced), were accepted by an Assembly in
1618. They could not be enforced, but were sanctioned by Parliament in
1621. The day was called Black Saturday, and omens were dra