continued interaction with continental Reformed churches, and deference to their leading theologians, was essentially subversive, since those churches were nonepiscopal. Episcopacy, the sacraments, the ritual—these were the things that the Laudians held dear and which the Calvinists, it was argued, were threatening.44 In pursuance of these objectives, Laud required absolute submission to the king, extending to acceptance of every detail of church ritual. He introduced genuflecting, called the communion