And therefore we have thought good hereby to clear and make
our pleasure to be manifested to all our good people in those parts."
And he sums up his arguments, in favour of the license granted, as
follows:--"For when shall the common people have leave to exercise, if
not upon the Sundays and holidays, seeing they must apply their labour,
and win their living in all working days?" Truly, an unanswerable
proposition.
At the same time that these provisions for rational recreation were
made, all unlawful games were prohibited. Conformity was strictly
enjoined on the part of the Puritans themselves; and disobedience was
rendered punishable by expatriation, as in the case of recusants
generally. Such was the tenor of the royal mandate addressed to the
bishop of each diocese and to all inferior clergy throughout the
kingdom. Arbitrary it might be, but it was excellent in intention; for
stubborn-necked personages had to be dealt with, with whom milder
measures would have proved ineffectual. As it was, violent opposition
was raised against the decree, and the Puritanical preachers wore loud
in its condemnation, and as far as was consistent with safety, vehement
in their attacks upon its royal author.
The boon, however, was accepted by the majority of the people in the
spirit in which it was offered, and the licence afforded them was but
little abused. Perfect success, indeed, must have attended the benign
measure, had it not been for the efforts of the Puritanical and Popish
parties, who made common cause against it, and strove by every means to
counteract its beneficial influence: the first because in the austerity
of their faith they would not have the Sabbath in the slightest degree
profaned, even by innocent enjoyment; the second, not because they cared
about the fancied desecration of the Lord's day, but because they would
have no other religion enjoy the same privileges as their own.
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