English prelacy; he wished only that the
best clergy should take cognizance of the affairs of the Church in the
council of the nation. In order to unite both interests he desired
that the General Assembly should propose to the King six candidates
for each vacancy and should have the right of giving instructions to
the King's nominee for his Parliamentary action, and of demanding an
account from him of his execution of the same. The King esteemed it a
great triumph when in the Parliament of 1600 he was able actually to
introduce two bishops whom he had nominated with the concurrence of a
Commission of the Synods.

It appears a general result worth noticing that he had again brought
both parties in the country into subjection to the crown, the one
however by open battle, the other by compliance which had somewhat the
air of inclination towards it.

_Preparations for the Succession to the English Throne._

That the former of these parties was properly speaking Protestant, and
the latter in its sentiment Catholic, created a certain feeling of
surprise. Queen Elizabeth, who had been attacked and insulted by the
Presbyterians sometimes even from the pulpit, could not find fault
with the crown for liberating itself from the ascendancy of the new
Church as it had done from that of the old: on the contrary she had
expressly approved of this policy; but she warned the King not to
allow himself to be so blinded by personal preference as again to put
confidence in any traitor, and not to separate himself from the flock
which must fight for him if he wished to stand. In the case of
Scotland, as well as in the case of her own dominions, she always kept
before her eyes the contrast between the Catholic and the Protestant
principle, in comparison with which all other differences appeared to
her subordinate.

In his own views less rigid and consistent, King James had on the
contrary even made advances to the Papacy. He at one time found it
advisable to enter into relations with Pope Clement VIII, whose
behaviour about the absolution of Henry IV showed that he did not at
least belong to the party of Spain and the zealots. A letter to the
Pope was forwarded from the Scottish cabinet addressing him as Holy
Father, with the signature of the King as his obedient son. A Scot, by
profession a Catholic, afterwards made the statement that, at the time
when Pope Clement was encamped before Ferrara, he had been sent to him
in order to seek