King James, it turns out, was a hypocrite. He maintained a state monopoly over tobacco's cultivation. Continuing his war on the weed were the New England Puritans, who passed (but did not enforce) laws to license and restrict tobacco use. Pope Urban VIII threatened in 1642 to excommunicate priests who partook of tobacco. In the 1700s, Cotton Mather preached against tobacco, insisting that smokers were slaves who had regressed beneath "the Dignity of a Rational Creature." He was followed by a supporting cast of dozens of kings, religious leaders (including George Trask, Massachusetts' 19^th century "Anti-Tobacco Apostle"), and in this century, the full force of the United States government.