89Si MODERN CIVILIZATION of God, that I shall never put on that sleeve, which is a mark of the beast." Those who refused through scruples of conscience to conform to Anglican usage were called non-conformists. They were removed from the civil offices, they were obliged to pay fines, and if they spoke against the established church they were condemned to prison or to the pillory, and had their ears and hands cut off. Dr, Leighton, after spending fifteen weeks in irons, in a dog-kennel, with- out bed or fire, was put into the pillory, during in- tensely cold weather, then whipped, branded on the forehead, his nose and ears cut off, and then he was shut up in the prison for criminals. The Puritans pardoned Queen Elizabeth for perse- cuting them, because she opposed the Catholics. A Puritan, who had just had his right hand cut off by the executioner, threw his hat in the air with the left hand, crying: "Long live the Queen!" Under Charles I. the persecution became more sys- tematic. Prynne, a reputable man, had his ears cut off and was exposed in the pillory for having written against the church. Archbishop Laud succeeded in crushing out the Puritans in England, so that in 1638 no one dared acknowledge himself a dissenter. Then he ordered the Scotch to adopt in their turn the Angli- can ritual. But while in England the Puritans were but a minority, in Scotland almost the whole nation was Presbyterian. A league was formed in order to repel, by force, the innovations which the king wanted to impose on Scotland. All the Scotch, through hor- ror of the Anglican church, declared solemnly for the Covenant, that is, for the agreement to maintain a