Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

But the most odious and oppressive of these
imposts was the project of "ship-money." This tax
was laid upon the port towns and the adjoining
counties, which were required to furnish one or
more fully equipped warships for his Majesty's use.
The City of London was required to furnish twenty
ships, with sails, stores, ammunition, and guns,
which, however, the citizens might commute into
money; and seeing that what the king wanted was
not so much ships to go to sea, as gold Caroli to fill
his empty exchequer, the tax was more acceptable
in the latter form than in the former. One injustice
must be supported by another, and very commonly
a greater. The Star Chamber and the High
Commission Court followed, to enforce these
exactions and protect the agents employed in them,
whose work made them odious. These courts were
a sort of Inquisition, into which the most loyal of
the nation were dragged to be fleeced and tortured.
Those who sat in them, to use the words
applied by Thucydides to the Athenians, "held for
honorable that which pleased, and for just that
which profited." The authority of religion was
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