664 Outlines of European History Church, which shocked the more strongly Protestant members of the House of Commons. The communion table was again placed by many clergymen at the eastern end of the church and became fixed there as an altar, and portions of the service were once more chanted. Charles dis- These " popish practices," as the Protestants called them, ^^^^(1629)^' with which Charles was supposed to sympathize, served to and deter- widen the breach between him and the Commons, which had mines to rule by himself been caused by the king's attempt to raise taxes on his own ac- count. The Parliament of 1629, after a stormy session, was dis- solved by the king, who determined to rule thereafter by himself. For eleven years no new Parliament was summoned. Charles's Charles was not well fitted by nature to run the government exactions of England by himself. He had not the necessary tireless energy. Moreover, the methods resorted to by his ministers to raise money without recourse to Parliament rendered the king more and more unpopular and prepared the way for the trium- phant return of Parliament. For example, Charles applied to his subjects for " ship money." He was anxious to equip a fleet, but instead of requiring the various ports to furnish ships, as was the ancient custom, he permitted them to buy themselves off by contributing money to the fitting out of large ships owned by himself. Even those living inland were asked for ship money. The king maintained that this was not a tax but simply a pay- ment by which his subjects freed themselves from the duty of defending their country. John John Hampden, a squire of Buckinghamshire, made a bold Hampden , . i • -n 1 i r • stand agamst this illegal demand by refusing to pay twenty shillings of ship money which was levied upon him. The case was tried before the king's judges, and he was convicted, but by a bare majority. The trial made it tolerably clear that the country would not put up long with the king's despotic policy. In 1633 Charles made William Laud archbishop of Canter- bury. Laud believed that the English Church would strengthen
