[Quick note of relevance: James was a Protestant monarch, and Catholics had long been oppressed in England at that time.]
James, pleased and relieved by the welcome [by the citizens of York], declined the offer of a coach the next morning, saying “the people are desirous to see a King, and so they shall, for they shall see his body as his face.” It was an unfortunate consequence that James was to find himself face-to-face with a Catholic priest.
As James walked back to his lodgings from another religious service, a man dressed as a gentleman stepped forward. His name was Thomas Hill, a priest considered to be a troublemaker, even by the Vatican. He had been condemned by Pope Clement VIII in 1597 as a “factious man” and subsequently had been refused papal permission to carry out his priestly functions, but he was intent on delivering a petition on behalf of England’s Catholics. James had already been presented with a number of petitions from Catholics. Typically they pointed out that Puritans and atheists were tolerated in England and asked for the same treatment, drawing attention to the good effects of religious tolerance in France. This one, however, had a very different tone. Hill’s petition demanded the suppression of penal laws and compared the lot of England’s Catholics to that of the Israelites under King jeroboam, whose tyrannies had given them “a just occasion to leave their due obedience.” In short, Hill’s petition threatened treason.
James asked Hill what college he was from. Hill replied “that he belonged to the true college of Christ, and that in this kingdom he had forty thousand of his religion.”
James quipped back, “Well then, amongst so many, have you never found a chief to take ten of your tribes and lead them elsewhere?” Hill was arrested soon after and hauled off to the Gatehouse prison in London.
That evening was James’s last in York, but Cecil’s arrival had been delayed “by his fat horses failing him.”
[That last line was a bit irrelevant, but I thought it was funny and decided not to omit it.]
Source:
Lisle, Leanda De. "Lots Were Cast Upon Our Land" After Elizabeth: The Rise of James of Scotland and the Struggle for the Throne of England. New York: Ballantine, 2005. 151-52. Print.
Original Source(s) Listed:
Loomie, Spanish Treason, pp. 22-3.
CSPD, 1603, p. 5.
CSPV, 10, p. 26.
HMC Salisbury, 15, p. 52.
Further Reading:
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