There is as little truth in the assumption, which has been often made, that the influence of Cuneo, and a tendency to Catholicism on his own part, had kept back the King from doing justice to the demands of the Scots. The King thought only of the supremacy of the Anglican Church: the regard paid to Scotland operated at first even to the prejudice of the Catholics, for the Archbishop wished above all to convince every one that he had no leanings towards them. But if the King and the Archbishop had hoped to calm men’s feelings by this means, they were mistaken. The English Puritans, no less than the Scottish, considered the demonstrations of the rulers of the Church against Catholicism a mask which they would soon let fall again. They thought that if the King wished to keep the Puritans in England in subjection, he must first put down their fellow-believers in Scotland. With the religious agitation in England moreover there was now connected another of a civil character, which had reference principally to the interpretation of the laws. Just during those months in which the revolt in Scotland was gaining consistency, the question about the legality [A.D. 1638.] of ship-money which, as has been mentioned, the King allowed to be raised, came on for discussion before the Judges of the Realm during the term of their regular session, from the autumn of 1637 to the summer of 1638. Who does not know the passionate interest which is wont to attend proceedings of the higher courts of justice when they bear on unsettled political questions? This was strengthened by the compulsory exaction of the tax which went on simultaneously with the discussion of the point at issue. The Judges, who declared themselves in favour of the legality of the tax, incurred hatred and obloquy. But there were two of them. Crooke and Hutton, who pronounced against it. Their arguments agreed with the assumptions made by public opinion. They affirmed that the right to which the crown laid claim belonged to it only in very exceptional cases, and then only with the reserve of the subsequent consent of Parliament; but that in the present case such an extraordinary necessity had not arisen, and Parliament had now for some years not been summoned. The two judges contested the precedents adduced by the other party in favour of its own view: they looked upon the question as a simple controversy between legal justice and authority; and they threw themselves without reserve on the side of the former. This however was no reason why the sentence of the majority of the judges may not have been consistent with former ordinances. The refusals of payment were condemned as illegal; but nevertheless the proofs alleged by the two dissentients had made an indescribable impression[115].