confess it my principal honour to be the
great servant of the Commonwealth._"

And in this very matter of Cowell's book James not only denied
any preference for the civil over the common law, but professed
"that, although he knew how great and large a king's rights and
prerogatives were, yet that he would never affect nor seek to
extend his beyond the prescription and limits of the municipal
laws and customs of this realm."[59:1]

A few years later Sir Walter Raleigh's first volume of his
_History of the World_ was called in at the King's command,
"especially for being too saucy in censuring princes." This fate
its wonderful author took greatly to heart, as he had hoped
thereby to please the King extraordinarily;[59:2] and,
considering the terms wherewith in his preface he pointed the
contrast between James and our previous rulers, one cannot but
share his astonishment.

This would seem to indicate that the King grew more sensitive
about his position as time went on; and this conclusion is
corroborated by his extraordinary conduct in reference to the
works of David Paraeus, the learned Protestant Professor of
Divinity at Heidelberg. One can conceive no mortal soul ever
reading those three vast folios of closely printed Latin in which
Paraeus commented on the Old and New Testament; but in those days
people must have read everything. At all events, it was
discovered that in his commentary on Romans xiii. Paraeus had
contended at great length and detail in favour of the people's
right to restrain, even by force of arms, tyrannical violence on
the part of the superior magistrate. On March 22nd, 1622,
therefore, the Archbishop of Canterbury and twelve bishops, at
the King's request, represented this doctrine to be most
dangerous and seditious; and accordingly, on July 1st, the books
of Paraeus were publicly burnt after a sermon by the Bishop of
London; and about the same time the Universities of Oxford and
Cambridge, ever on the side of the divine right, proved their
loyalty by condemning and burning the book, perhaps the only book
whose condemnation never tempted to its perusal. But that very
same year (August 22nd, 1622) the King found it necessary to
issue directions concerning preaching and preachers, so freely
was the Puritanical side of the community then beginning to
express itself about the royal prerogative.

As connected with the question of the prerogative must be
mentioned, as burnt by James' order, the _