The majority of the English people did not like this, but
James was their King and they kept quiet.
Soon there were other causes of friction. King James and
his son, Charles I, who succeeded him in the year 1625 both
firmly believed in the principle of their ``divine right'' to
administer their realm as they thought fit without consulting the
wishes of their subjects. The idea was not new. The Popes,
who in more than one way had been the successors of the
Roman Emperors (or rather of the Roman Imperial ideal of
a single and undivided state covering the entire known world),
had always regarded themselves and had been publicly recognised
as the ``Vice-Regents of Christ upon Earth.'' No one
questioned the right of God to rule the world as He saw fit.
As a natural result, few ventured to doubt the right of the
divine ``Vice-Regent'' to do the same thing and to demand the
obedience of the masses because he was the direct representative
of the Absolute Ruler of the Universe and responsible
only to Almighty God.
When the Lutheran Reformation proved successful, those
rights which formerly had been invested in the Papacy were
taken over by the many European sovereigns who became
Protestants. As head of their own national or dynastic
churches they insisted upon being ``Christ's Vice-Regents''
within the limit of their own territory. The people did not question
the right of their rulers to take such a step.
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