Then rose up John Pym, the man of all others in that assembly in whom the union of Puritan and Parliamentary principles was most clearly displayed. He had drawn up for himself a list of the grievances, which he now set [A.D. 1640.] forth, with methodical and almost scholastic accuracy, but with clear vision, and not without statesmanlike insight. He gave especial prominence to the religious grievances, to the failure in executing the ancient laws in consequence of which men of the Catholic faith were placed in positions of trust and power, and to the presence of a Papal Resident in England, who, he said, was only carrying into execution what a congregation sitting at Rome was devising for the conversion of England. It was necessary, he affirmed, to consider the Papacy in its connexion with the other states which it governed, as the sun governs the course of the planets; he thought it was intended that England also should be torn from her proper path and subjected to the same influence[171]. To this origin--for everything, he said, had its source--most of the abuses were then referred by him and by others; especially the suspension of the sittings of Parliament, and the attacks made on private property by the collection of taxes which had not been granted, measures intended to relieve the government from any need of convening that body[172]. The various complaints of a similar nature which came in from every county and every class made all the stronger impression, as they were also based on the ground of a general danger to the religion ‘which was professed according to the law of God and the law of the land.’ These all showed the same conception of the King’s intentions as that entertained by the Scots, although much more moderately expressed; yet, for all that, it cannot be accepted as resting on an historical basis. The efforts of the government certainly proceeded from one fundamental design, but this was the design of uniting the three kingdoms in a like obedience, not by the acceptance [A.D. 1640.] of Catholicism, but only by more lenient treatment of it; according to the King’s idea, Great Britain far from again becoming a satellite of the Papacy, was, on the contrary, to describe its own course as an independent portion of the universe, while external influence was to be neutralised. But nevertheless Pym’s assertions made a great impression even in England. In the religious conflict which filled the world neutrality might well seem to be partiality to one side; the danger lay, not merely in the intention of the ruler, but in the nature of things, which often exercises an influence even beyond that of individuals.