but the clergy and the Parliament persisted in
making the imaginary crime felony by the statute." So that if
James really burnt the book, he must have burnt it to please
others, not himself; and though he may have done so, the
presumption is rather that he did not.

The wonder is that Scot himself escaped the real or supposed fate
of his book. Pleasing indeed is it to know that he lived out his
days undisturbed to the end (1599) with his family and among his
hops and flowers in Kent; not, however, before he had lived to
see his book make a perceptible impression on the magistracy and
even on the clergy of his time, till a perceptible check was
given to his ideas by the _Demonologie_. But at all events he had
given superstition a reeling blow, from which it never wholly
recovered, and to which it ultimately succumbed. More than this
can few men hope to do, and to have done so much is ample cause
for contentment.

Fundamental questions of all sorts were growing critical in the
reign of James, who had not only the clearest ideas of their
answer, but the firmest determination to have them, if possible,
answered in his own way. The principal ones were: The
relationship of the King to his subjects; of the Pope to kings;
of the Established Church to Puritanism and Catholicism. And on
the leading political and religious questions of his day James
caused certain books to be burnt which advocated opinions
contrary to his own--a mode of reasoning that reflects less
credit on his philosophy than does his conduct in most other
respects.

But the first book that was burnt for its sentiments on
Prerogative was one of which the King was believed personally to
approve. This was probably the gist of its offence, for it
appeared about the time that the King made his very supercilious
speech to the Commons in answer to their complaints about the
High Commission and other grievances.

I allude to the famous _Interpreter_ (1607) by Cowell, Doctor of
Civil Law at Cambridge, which, written at the instigation of
Archbishop Bancroft, was dedicated to him, and caused a storm
little dreamt of by its author. Sir E. Coke disliked Cowell, whom
he nicknamed Cow-heel, and naturally disliked him still more for
writing slightingly of Littleton and the Common Law. He therefore
caused Parliament to take the matter up, with the result that
Cowell was imprisoned and came near to hanging;[54:1] James only
saving his life by suppressing his book by pr