have been regarded as inspired; his prayers were frequently political
addresses. To silence these the infatuated policy of Charles I. thrust
the Laudian Liturgy on the nation.

The preachers were to be chosen by popular election, after examination in
knowledge and as to morals. There was to be no ordination "by laying on
of hands." "Seeing the miracle is ceased, the using of the ceremony we
deem not necessary"; but, if the preachers were inspired, the miracle had
not ceased, and the ceremony was soon reinstated. Contrary to Genevan
practice, such festivals as Christmas and Easter were abolished. The
Scottish Sabbath was established in great majesty. One "rag of Rome" was
retained, clerical excommunication--the Sword of Church Discipline. It
was the cutting off from Christ of the excommunicated, who were handed
over to the devil, and it was attended by civil penalties equivalent to
universal boycotting, practical outlawry, and followed by hell fire:
"which sentence, lawfully pronounced on earth, is ratified in heaven."
The strength of the preachers lay in this terrible weapon, borrowed from
the armoury of Rome.

Private morals were watched by the elders, and offenders were judged in
kirk-sessions. Witchcraft, Sabbath desecration, and sexual laxities were
the most prominent and popular sins. The mainstay of the system is the
idea that the Bible is literally inspired; that the preachers are the
perhaps inspired interpreters of the Bible, and that the country must
imitate the old Hebrew persecution of "idolaters," that is, mainly
Catholics. All this meant a theocracy of preachers elected by the
populace, and governing the nation by their General Assembly in which
nobles and other laymen sat as elders. These peculiar institutions came
hot from Geneva, and the country could never have been blessed with them,
as we have observed, but for that instrument of Providence, Cardinal