Twenty pounds a month could, by law, be levied on every one who frequented not the established worship.

This rigorous law, however, had one indulgent clause, that the lines exacted should not exceed two thirds of the yearly income of the person.

It had been usual for Elizabeth to allow those penalties to run on for several years; and to levy them all at once, to the utter ruin of such Catholics as had incurred her displeasure.

James was more humane in this, as in every other respect.
The Puritans formed a sect which secretly lurked in the church, but pretended not to any separate worship or discipline.

An attempt of that kind would have been universally regarded as the most unpardonable enormity.