devoured the news, which was often more false than true.
By this means the people learnt that the war was at an end; that after a trial, famous in history, the King had been beheaded; that "the House of Peers in Parliament was useless and dangerous and ought to be abolished," and, finally, "that the office of King in this nation was unnecessary, burdensome, and dangerous to the liberty, safety, and public interest of the people, and ought to be abolished." Such revolutionary measures must have filled the people's minds with that idea of instability which must needs accompany rapid change. With the victory of Puritanism fresh measures of suppression took place. Cathedral worship was put down, buildings were defaced and injured, altars and tables of stone in churches were abolished, communion tables removed from the east end of the church, rails pulled down, candlesticks taken away, crucifixes, images, and crosses destroyed. How careless men had grown about public worship is shown by Evelyn: "They read and pray without method, without reverence or devotion. I have beheld a whole congregation sit with their hats on, at the reading of the Psalms … in divers places they read not the Scriptures at all, but up into the
