after meat--his repairing to hear the word more rarely than was
fitting--his profane banning and swearing, and keeping of evil
company--and finally, of his queen's carding, dancing, night-walking,
and such like profane pastimes.--_Calderwood_, p. 313. A curse, direct
or implied, was formally denounced against every man, horse, and spear,
who should assist the king in his quarrel with the Earl of Gowrie; and
from the pulpit, the favourites of the listening sovereign were likened
to Haman, his wife to Herodias, and he himself to Ahab, to Herod, and
to Jeroboam. These effusions of zeal could not be very agreeable to the
temper of James: and accordingly, by a course of slow, and often crooked
and cunning policy, he laboured to arrange the church-government upon
a less turbulent and menacing footing. His eyes were naturally turned
towards the English hierarchy, which had been modelled, by the despotic
Henry VIII., into such a form, as to connect indissolubly the interest
of the church with that of the regal power.[A] The Reformation, in
England, had originated in the arbitrary will of the prince; in
Scotland, and in all other countries of Europe, it had commenced among
insurgents of the lower ranks. Hence, the deep and essential
difference which separated the Huguenots, the Lutherans, the Scottish
presbyterians, and, in fine, all the other reformed churches, from that
of England. But James, with a timidity which sometimes supplies the
place of prudence, contented himself with gradually imposing upon the
Scottish nation a limited and moderate system of episcopacy, which,
while it gave to a proportion of the churchmen a seat in the council of
the nation, induced them to look up to the sovereign, as the power to
whose influence they owed their elevation. But, in other respects, James
spared the prejudices of his subjects; no ceremonial ritual was imposed
upon their consciences; the pastors were reconciled by the prospect of
preferment,[B] the dress and train of the bishops were plain and decent;
the system of tythes was placed upon a moderate and unoppressive