The Trial of Tobacco 35 



The hatred of James was shared and his example 

 followed by his fellow-monarchs, Christian and pagan. 

 English smokers, indeed, were but little harried com- 

 pared with the persecution visited upon the heads of 

 their foreign brother- smokers. The conquest of 

 tobacco in England was speedier and more complete 

 than on the Continent, though introduced into this 

 island twenty years later. With quickness of per- 

 ception our forefathers recognised the wonderful 

 virtues and qualities of the herb ; it was particularly 

 agreeable and helpful to the English temperament. 



Not until thirty years after the duty on tobacco 

 imported into England had been raised, in the hope 

 of reducing its use, were steps taken in France to 

 check the use of tobacco. The tobacco presented to 

 her by Nicot, Catherine de Medici took in the form 

 of snufif. This also was prescribed for Charles IX. to 

 cure his chronic headache. Snuff-taking gradually 

 increased, so that in 1635 Louis XIII. prohibited the 

 sale of tobacco in France except by apothecaries, 

 and then only on the order of a physician. This law 

 was soon repealed, however. Eleven years before 

 the custom of taking snuff in churches had become 

 so common in Italy, Spain, and Austria — priests 

 even taking it when celebrating Mass — that Pope 

 Urban VIII. issued a Bull excommunicating with 

 bell, book, and candle all who took the accursed 

 weed into churches. 



' We have recently learned,' proclaimed the Holy 

 Father, ' that the bad habit of taking the herb com- 

 monly called tobacco by the mouth and nose has 

 spread to such a degree in some dioceses that per- 



3—2 



