d to the foreign despotism of the Roman Tiara, or that of
the republican rabble of the Presbytery of Geneva?

[Footnote A: Sir Edward Coke, attorney-general, in the trial of Garnet the
Jesuit, says, "There were no Recusants in England--all came to church
howsoever Popishly inclined, till the Bull of Pius V. excommunicated and
deposed Elizabeth. On this the Papists refused to join in the public
service."--"State Trials," vol. i. p. 242.

The Pope imagined, by false impressions he had received, that the Catholic
party was strong enough to prevail against Elizabeth. Afterwards, when he
found his error, a dispensation was granted by himself and his successor,
that all Catholics might show outward obedience to Elizabeth till a
happier opportunity. Such are Catholic politics and Catholic faith!]

* * * * *

POLEMICAL STUDIES WERE POLITICAL.

It was in these times that James I., a learned prince, applied to
polemical studies; properly understood, these were in fact political
ones. Lord Bolingbroke says, "He affected more learning than became
a king, which he broached on every occasion in such a manner as would
have misbecome a schoolmaster." Would the politician then require a
half-learned king, or a king without any learning at all? Our eloquent
sophist appears not to have recollected that polemical studies had long
with us been considered as royal ones; and that from a slender volume of
the sort our sovereigns still derive the regal distinction of "Defenders
of the Faith." The pacific government of James I. required that the King
himself should be a master of these controversies to be enabled to balance
the conflicting parties; and none but a learned king could have exerted
the industry or attained to the skill. In the famous conference at
Hampton Court, which the King held with the heads of the Nonconformists,
we see his majesty conversing sometimes with great learning and sense,
but oftener more with the earnestness of a man, than some have imagined
comported with the dignity of a crowned head. The truth is, James,
like a true student, indulged, even to his dress, an utter carelessness
of parade, and there was in his character a constitutional warmth
of heart and a jocundity of temper which did not always adapt it to
state-occasions; he threw out his feelings, and sometimes his jests.
James, who had passed his youth in a royal bondage, felt that these
Nonconformists, while they were d