TNTRODUCTOR K 5 



with James of Scotland. She could not foresee that this man 

 was to become the evil genius of the house of Stewart. * The 

 sun in his strength ' followed ' the bright occidental star.' 



James succeeded to the English throne by virtue of that 

 doctrine which the German reformation first gave occasion to, 

 the Divine right of kings. In order to countercheck the Pope, 

 the Lutheran reformers put their princes into the Pope's place. 

 The disciples of Calvin took a different view of the regal 

 function, and the Scotch had already insisted on revising the 

 sixteenth-century dogma, that the prince should dictate the 

 religion of his subjects, by demanding that their king should 

 be of their religion. While James was in Scotland, he ac- 

 quiesced in the national religion ; when he came to England, 

 he strove to enforce the contrary discipline. 



For a year after his accession, James, if Acts of Parliament 

 are to go for anything, was not legally king, for the succession 

 had been settled on the descendants of the Duke of Suffolk. 

 But no one thought seriously of their claims. There can 

 however, I think, be no doubt that the fact, well known of 

 course to James, that the legal succession was by Act of Par- 

 liament in another, induced James to insist so jealously on his 

 rights, and to distrust Parliament so completely. In this he 

 was aided by the Churchmen, who saw in the Crown the 

 strongest defence against Puritanism, and by the lawyers, 

 whom the Stewarts had rendered subservient by introducing 

 the clause into their patents which gave them office during 

 the royal pleasure only. Perhaps the greatest enemies of 

 public and private liberties which the seventeenth century had 

 were the lawyers, who could not ultimately be tied to common 

 honesty, except by giving them freeholds in their offices. 



yond those who lived on the Court, and those who hoped 



to live on it, it is plain that no one respected James. He was 



cd and ^hrcwd, but he was a pedant and a coward, coarse 



in his talk, and sluttish in his habits. He was the slave of 



avouritcs, and distrusted, perhaps with reason, those \\lio 



did him the best services. He endured the insolence of 



