opery, which was ever the chief of their grievances, and
now their only one.[**] They demanded a strict execution of the penal
laws against the Catholics, and remonstrated against some late pardons
granted to priests.[***] They attacked Montague, one of the king's
chaplains, on account of a moderate book which he had lately published,
and which, to their great disgust, saved virtuous Catholics, as well as
other Christians, from eternal torments.[****]

* Journ. 18th April, 1626.

** Franklyn, p. 3, etc.

*** Parl. Hist. vol. vi. p. 374. Journ. 1st Aug. 1625.

**** Parl. Hist. vol. vi. p. 353 Journ. 7th July 1625.

Charles gave them a gracious and a compliant answer to all their
remonstrances. He was, however, in his heart, extremely averse to these
furious measures. Though a determined Protestant, by principle as well
as inclination, he had entertained no violent horror against Popery: and
a little humanity, he thought, was due by the nation to the religion
of their ancestors. That degree of liberty which is now indulged to
Catholics, though a party much more obnoxious than during the reign of
the Stuarts, it suited neither with Charles's sentiments nor the humor
of the age to allow them. An abatement of the more rigorous laws was all
he intended; and his engagements with France, notwithstanding that their
regular execution had never been promised or expected, required of him
some indulgence. But so unfortunate was this prince, that no measure
embraced during his whole reign, was ever attended with more unhappy and
more fatal consequences.

The extreme rage against Popery was a sure characteristic of Puritanism.
The house of commons discovered other infallible symptoms of the
prevalence of that party. They petitioned the king for replacing
such able clergy as had been silenced for want of conformity to the
ceremonies.[*] They also enacted laws for the strict observance of
Sunday, which the Puritans affected to call the Sabbath, and which they
sanctified by the most melancholy indolence.[**] It is to be remarked,
that the different appellations of this festival were at that time known
symbols of the different parties.

The king, finding that the parliament was resolved to grant him no
supply, and would furnish him with nothing but empty protestations of
duty,[***] or disagreeable complaints of grievances, took advantage of
the plague,[****] which began to appear at Oxford, and on that pretence