392 HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

CHAP. Had Charles been of a disposition to neglectj.vil. all theological controversy; he yet had beenobliged, in good policy, to adhere to episcopaljurisdiction, not only because it was favorableto monarchy, but because all his adherents werepassionately devoted to it; and to abandon them,in what they regarded as so important an article,was for ever to relinquish their friendship andassistance. But Charles had never attained suchenlarged principles. He deemed bishops essentialto the very being of a christian church; and

Christmas-dish among the churchmen , .was regarded,during that season, as a profane and superstitious viandby the sectaries; though at other times it agreed verywell with their stomachs. In the parliamentary ordinancetoo, for the observance of the sabbath, they inserteda clause for the taking down of may-poles, which theycalled a heathenish vanity. Since we are upon thissubject, it may not be amiss to mention ^ that, besidesetting apart Sunday for the ordinances, as they calledthem, the godly had regular meetings on the Thursdaysfor resolving cases of conscience, and conferring abouttheir progress in grace. What they were chiefly anxiousabout, was the fixing of the precise moment of their con-version or new birth; and whoever could not ascertainso difficult a point of calculation, could not pretend toany title to saintlhip. The profane scholars at Oxford,after the parliament became masters of that town , gaveto the house , in which the zealots assembled, the deno-mination of Scruple-Sbop: The zealots , in their turn ,insulted the scholars and professors; and, intruding intothe place of lectures , declaimed against human learning,and challenged the most knowing of them to prove thattheir calling was from Christ. See Wood’s Fasti Oxo-nienses, p. 740.