ebruary 1637
Charles obtained an opinion in favour of his claims from the judges, and
in 1638 the great Hampden case was decided in his favour. The apparent
success, however, of Charles was imperilled by the general and growing
resentment aroused by his exactions and whole policy, and this again was
small compared with the fears excited by the king's attitude towards
religion and Protestantism. He supported zealously Laud's rigid Anglican
orthodoxy, his compulsory introduction of unwelcome ritual, and his
narrow, intolerant and despotic policy, which was marked by several
savage prosecutions and sentences in the Star Chamber, drove numbers of
moderate Protestants out of the Church into Presbyterianism, and created
an intense feeling of hostility to the government throughout the
country. Charles further increased the popular fears on the subject of
religion by his welcome given to Panzani, the pope's agent, in 1634, who
endeavoured unsuccessfully to reconcile the two churches, and afterwards
to George Conn, papal agent at the court of Henrietta Maria, while the
favour shown by the king to these was contrasted with the severe
sentences passed upon the Puritans.

The same imprudent neglect of the national sentiment was pursued in
Scotland. Charles had already made powerful enemies there by a
declaration announcing the arbitrary revocation of former church estates
to the crown. On the 18th of June 1633 he was crowned at Edinburgh with
full Anglican ceremonial, which lost him the hearts of numbers of his
Scottish subjects and aroused hostility to his government in parliament.
After his return to England he gave further offence by ordering the use
of the surplice, by his appointment of Archbishop Spotiswood as
chancellor of Scotland, and by introducing other bishops into the privy
council. In 1636 the new _Book of Canons_ was issued by the king's
authority, ordering the communion table to be placed at the east end,
enjoining confession, and declaring excommunicate any who should presume
to attack the new prayer-book. The latter was ordered to be used on the
18th of October 1636, but it did not arrive in Scotland till May 1637.
It was intensely disliked both as "popish" and as English. A riot
followed its first use in St Giles' cathedral on the 23rd of July, and
Charles's order to enforce it on the 10th of September was met by fresh
disturbances and by the establishment of the "Tables," national
committees which now became the