In 1637, however, Charles began to make serious mistakes. These resulted
from the religious situation in Britain. His father, James, had been pleased
that the Anglican Church had bishops. They willingly supported him as head of the
English Church. And he disliked the Presbyterian Kirk in Scotland because it
had no bishops. It was a more democratic institution and this gave political as
well as religious power to the literate classes in Scotland. They had given him
a difficult time before he became king of England in 1603.
There were also people in England, known as Puritans, who, like the
Scottish Presbyterians, wanted a democratic Church. Queen Elizabeth had been
careful to prevent them from gaining power in the Anglican Church. She even
executed a few of them for printing books against the bishops. In 1604,
Puritans met James to ask him to remove the Anglican bishops to make the
English Church more like the Kirk, but he saw only danger for the Crown.
"A Scottish Presbytery agrees as well with monarchy as God with the
Devil," he remarked, and sent them away with the words, "No bishop,
no king."
