Religious scruples likely shaped Knollys’s refusal of the November oaths.

Evidence

The wording here suggests that religious scruples may have been a real factor in Knollys’s decisions regarding the oaths of 20 November (see p. 141). — Mary Frear Keeler, Sir Francis Drake’s West Indian Voyage,…, 781

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the motive behind Knollys’s otherwise puzzling refusal to swear Drake’s oaths — a religious conscience clause the editor proposes as the cause.
• XREF: Knollys’s Puritan leanings (he was brother of the Puritan leader William Knollys) explain his scruples against a secular oath imposed by a privateer commander.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Mary Frear Keeler, Sir Francis Drake’s West Indian Voyage,…, 781