There were many things King James VI and I disliked beyond witches; one was tobacco. Despite his abhorrence, however, it quickly became popular at all levels of society, with both men and women.
Shall we that disdain to imitate the manners of our neighbour France (having the style of the first Christian King) and that cannot endure the spirit of the Spaniards (their King being now comparable in largeness of dominions to the great Emperor of Turkey), shall we, I say … abase ourselves so far as to imitate those beastly Indians, slaves to the Spaniards, refuse to the world, and as yet aliens from the covenant of God? Why do we not as well imitate them in walking naked as they do? In preferring glasses, feathers, and such toys to gold and precious stones, as they do? Yea, why do we not defy God and adore the Devil, as they do?
… Is it not both great vanity and uncleanness, that at the table, a place of respect, of cleanliness, of modesty, men should not be ashamed to sit tossing of tobacco pipes and puffing of the smoke of tobacco one to another, making the filthy smoke and stink thereof to exhale athwart the dishes and infect the air, when very often men that abhor it are at their repast? …
A custom loathesome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian fume of the pit that is bottomless.