for treason because he possessed a supplication or petition
which the Lords of the minority, in the late Parliament, had drawn up but
had not presented. He was found guilty, but spared: the proceeding
showed of what nature the bishops were, and alienated and alarmed the
populace and the nobles and gentry. A remonstrance in a manly spirit by
Drummond of Hawthornden, the poet, was disregarded.

In 1635 Charles authorised a Book of Canons, heralding the imposition of
a Liturgy, which scarcely varied, and when it varied was thought to
differ for the worse, from that of the Church of England. By these
canons, the most nakedly despotic of innovations, the preachers could not
use their sword of excommunication without the assent of the Bishops.
James VI. had ever regarded with horror and dread the licence of
"conceived prayers," spoken by the minister, and believed to be
extemporary or directly inspired. There is an old story that one
minister prayed that James might break his leg: certainly prayers for
"sanctified plagues" on that prince were publicly offered, at the will of
the minister. Even a very firm Presbyterian, the Laird of Brodie, when
he had once heard the Anglican service in London, confided to his journal
that he had suffered much from the nonsense of "conceived prayers." They
were a dangerous weapon, in Charles's opinion: he was determined to
abolish them, rather that he might be free from the agitation of the
pulpit than for reasons of ritual, and to proclaim his own headship of
the Kirk of "King Christ."

This, in the opinion of the great majority of the preachers and populace,
was flat blasphemy, an assumption of "the Crown Honours of Christ." The
Liturgy was "an ill-mumbled Mass," the Mass was idolatry, and idolatry
was a capital offence. However strange these convictions may appear,
they were essential parts of the national belief. Yet, with the most
extreme folly, Charles, acting like Henry VIII. as his own Pope, thrust
the canons and this Liturgy upon the Kirk and country. No sentimental
arguments can palliate such open tyranny.

The Liturgy was to be used in St Giles' Church, the town kirk of
Edinburgh (cleansed and restored by Charles himself), on July 23, 1637.
The result was a furious brawl, begun by the women, of all presbyterians
the fiercest, and, it was said, by men disguised as women. A gentleman
was struck on the ear by a woman for the offence of saying "Amen," and
the famous Jenny G