Chapter The Caroline Church, 1625-40 of Donne to Dryden: The Historical Background by History

given Puritan attitudes to 'immoral' pastimes such as dancing. The greatest opposition to Arminianism came from what it seemed to be leading towards rather than the changes actually made.

This was compounded by Charles' toleration of Catholics. Like his father, Charles was not a religious fanatic and was willing to tolerate other theological views than his own providing there was outward conformity and submission - the King is reputed to have claimed 'so long as a man believed in Christ he could save his soul whatever religion he was born baptized and bred'. There was however a double standard; while Catholics in the country at large were subject to financial burdens of tightly enforced recusancy fines (largely for financial expedient) Catholicism was openly tolerated at Court, with mass at Henrietta Maria's or foreign ambassadors' chapels. Among the aristocracy there were a number of conversions, and opinion circulated that Catholicism was gaining ground at the core of government. However much Charles enforced recusancy fines or expelled Jesuits, the perception in England was that popery was a growing threat from within as well as from without. Laud's habit of calling clergymen 'priests' was further sign of this - though Laud was one of the most ardent opponents of Catholicism at the Caroline Court. With fear of popish plots, Englishmen could take little confidence in protection from a King who tolerated Catholics at home and first aligned himself with France and then later assisted the Spanish in their war against the Dutch. Papal envoys from 1634 noted the numbers of Catholics at the Caroline Court - indeed a number of the King's most senior ministers, such as Lord Treasurer Weston or Sir Francis Cottington, were open or closet Catholics. Perceptions were vitally important, and in no area of his reign could Charles be seen to be actively supporting the Protestant faith.

The mid-seventeenth century saw great social and political upheaval. Religious issues were at the forefront of these changes, a major factor in the causes of the English Civil War, and a feature of government from 1649-60. Radical religious ideas had been fermenting since the late sixteenth century. During the seventeenth century they diversified until the atmosphere of Civil War and the breakdown in government censorship permitted an explosion of subversive religious ideas disseminated through the press and the pulpit.