THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 187
The case of the Puritans is entirely different. On opening Parliament, in March, 1604, the King declared his hostility to the Puritans, who were " ever discontented with the present Government, and impatient to suffer any superiority, which maketh their sect unable to be suffered in any well-governed Commonwealth." At the Hampton Court Conference in January they had stated their grievances, but James had not the slightest sympathy with them, and rated them soundly. " If this be all they have to say," were his last words, " I shall make them conform themselves, or I will harry them out of the land, or else do worse." Whereupon we are told that Cecil thanked God for having given the King an under- standing heart. Cecil's views are set forth in a letter to the Archbishop of York, 1 in which he says it was necessary to correct the Puritans " for disobedience to the lawful ceremonies of the Church ; wherein, although many religious men of moderate spirits might be borne with, yet such are the turbulent humours of some that dream of nothing but a new hierarchy, directly opposite to the state of a Monarchy, as the dispensation with such men were the highway to break all the bonds of unity, to nourish schism in the Church and Commonwealth. It is well said of a learned man that there are schisms in habit, as well as in opinion, et non servatur unitas in credendo, nisi adsit in colendo." Unity of belief could not be
1 February, 1605 (Lodge's Illustrations, III. 125).
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