X.

KING JAMES I., AND THE GOING TO HOLLAND.

Change of James' Principles on his accession to the English throne. Hampton Court Conference. Hundred and forty-one Canons. Extrajudicial decision of the twelve Judges. Gathering of the Pilgrim Church. Flight to Holland.

KING JAMES, of Scotland, came to the throne of England, A. D. 1603. The prelates dreaded his accession, and spoke of it with apprehension as the coming of the "Scotch Mist." The Puritans entertained hopes of relief; for King James was not only a Presbyterian, but he had subscribed the solemn League and Covenant. He had, often and solemnly, declared his full conviction of the pre-eminent purity and excellence of the Church and worship of Scotland. Once standing in the General Assembly at Edinburgh, with his bonnet off and his hands lifted up to Heaven, he praised God that he was born in the time of the true light of the Gospel, and in such a place as to be king of such a Church, the sincerest [purest] kirk in the world. "The Church of Geneva," said he, "keep Pasche and Yule" [Easter and Christmas]," what have they for them? They have no institution. As for our neighbor kirk of England, their service is an evil said Mass in English; they want nothing of the Mass but the liftings. I charge you, my good ministers, doctors, elders, gentlemen, and barons, to stand to your purity, and to exhort the people to do the same."

While James was making these professions, he was at that very time "carrying on a correspondence with the English nobles and bishops, and promising to continue that very Liturgy which he derided as an ill-said Mass.* The whole character of James was that of a false and lying prince: and he used to glory in his double dealing as the art and mystery of "kingcraft." After his arrival in England, he sank into drunkenness and low debauchery; and would yet from time to time with tears express his hopes, that "God would not impute unto him his infirmity." Queen Elizabeth and her courtiers saw through this shallow

* Bogue and Bennett, p. 52.

monarch, and discovered "that he was either inclined to turn Papist, or to be of no religion."* Such was the man who was now made head of the Church of England.

While James was on his way to take possession of the throne, a petition was presented to him, called the Millenary petition from being subscribed by nearly one thousand ministers ;-desiring the reformation of certain ceremonies and abuses of the Church. The University of Oxford came out against the petition. "Look," said they, "upon the reformed church abroad: whenever the desires of the petitioners take place, how ill it suits with the state of monarchy." They commended the present church establishment to the sovereign, as the great support of the crown, and calculated to support unlimited subjection. The heads of the University of Cambridge wrote a letter of thanks to the Oxonians; and bade the "poor pitiful Puritans" (whom they style homunciones miserrimi) "to answer their almost a thousand books in defence of the hierarchy, before they pretend to dispute before so learned and wise a king." The truth was, that the Puritans desired nothing more than a fair field to discuss the pretensions of the hierarchy; but if they wrote, their books were stopped by the censorship of the press; if they were suspected of uttering anything against the hierarchy, they were imprisoned or banished; and for an unpublished manuscript found in his possession, Penry had been hanged.

The king, however, to furnish himself with some pretext for his own apostasy from principles which he had so often avowed and so solemnly subscribed, or to give some color of regard to the millenary petition, and possibly to indulge himself with an opportunity of displaying his own theological lore, appointed a conference between himself and the two parties, at Hampton Court. James himself nominated nine bishops and about as many other dignitaries, and four Puritan divines to conduct the conference for their respective parties.

The first day of the conference, was between the king and bishops and deans alone; the Puritans being excluded. The king made a speech in commendation of the hierarchy of the Church of England, and congratulated himself that he was now come into the promised land; that he sat among grave and reverend men, and was not a king as formerly without a State. He assured them, that he had not called this assembly for any innovation; and declared, "That howsoever he had lived among the Puritans, yet since he was ten years old, he ever disliked their opinions; and as Christ said, though he lived among them, he was not of them."

At the next day's conference, four Puritan ministers were * Bp. Burnet, in Bogue and Bennett.

admitted. When Dr. Reynolds petitioned that the ground for confirmation might be examined, Bancroft fell upon his knees, and begged the king to stop the Doctor's mouth, according to an ancient canon, that schismatics are not to be heard against their bishops. The king at last settled the question by repeating his now favorite maxim, "No bishop, no king." With regard to the garments, the Puritan ministers ventured to express a doubt "whether the power of the Church could bind the conscience without impeaching Christian liberty." The king interrupted them at once: "As to the power of the Church in things indifferent," said his majesty, "I will not argue that point with you; but answer as kings in parliament, Le Roi s'avisera"-the king shall think of that" but as to liberty in ceremonies, I will have none of that; I will have one doctrine, one discipline, one religion, in substance and in ceremony; never speak more to that point, how far you are bound to obey."*

The Puritans desiring that the clergy might have liberty for assemblies once in three weeks, and that in rural deaneries they might have the liberty of prophesying [conference meetings], the king broke out into a flame, and told the ministers they were aiming at a Scots' Presbytery: which," says he, "agrees with monarchy as well as God with the devil." Turning to the bishops, he put his hand to his heart, and said, "My lords, I may thank you that these Puritans plead for my supremacy; for if once you are out and they are in place, I know what would become of my supremacy; for-no bishop, no king." Then turning to Dr. Reynolds, and rising from his chair, the king said, "If this be all your party have to say, I will make them conform, or I will harry them out of the land, or else hang them, that is

Throughout the conference, the Puritan ministers were treated with brow-beating and insult. As the king grew hot against the Puritans, the bishops cheered him on with flatteries so gross as to have disgusted any other than one so weak and vain as King James. They broke out into exclamations of wonder at his wisdom; called him the Solomon of the age. Bancroft fell on his knees and said, "I protest my heart melteth for joy, that Almighty God of his signal mercy has given us such a king as from Christ's time has not been." The lord chancellor said, "He had never seen the king and priest so fully united in one person." The king was equally well pleased with himself, and wrote to a Scotsman, that he "had soundly peppered off the Puritans."

The third day of the conference, was between the king and the bishops and the dignitaries alone. The king defended the court of High Commission, the subscription to the Prayer-Book, and

* Neale.

the oath ex officio. One of the lords ventured to insist that the proceedings of the High Commissioners Courts' were like the Spanish Inquisition, and that by the oath ex officio men were forced to accuse themselves. But the king vindicated the whole, and declared that if any man would not be quiet and show his obedience," the Church were better without him, and he were worthy to be hanged." Archbishop Whitgift cried out in transport, "Undoubtedly your majesty speaks by the special assistance of God's Spirit."

A few alterations of the Prayer-Book, agreed upon by the king and bishops, was all the reform that this conference afforded. One result of the Hampton Court Conference, however, was our present English translation of the Bible, suggested by the Puritan ministers, who complained of the inaccuracy of the version then in use.

When things were arranged by the king and bishops, the four Puritan ministers were called in, and the Hampton Court Conference closed by the declaration of the king, that he "would have no arguing; let them conform, and that quickly too, or they should hear from it."*

The king issued his proclamation, warning the Puritans that there was to be no toleration of non-conformity: they must conform or suffer the extremities of the law. In his opening speech to his first Parliament, he acknowledged the Romish Church to be his Mother-Church: he said he would indulge their clergy if they would but renounce the Pope's supremacy, and his pretended power to dispense with the murder of kings. He wished there might be a means of uniting the two religions; and said he would be content to meet them midway. But as to the Puritans, said the king, "Their sect is insufferable in any well governed commonwealth."*

The bishops were pleased with this speech. The thoroughly Protestant part of the nation heard, with alarm, the king's offer to meet the Papists half way. "What does he mean? Is there no difference between Popery and Protestantism but the Pope's Supremacy? Is this the only point on which we are separated from Rome?"

In the Parliament, it appeared that the principles of the Puritans had taken deep root. There were those who dared to assert the liberties of the people with such spirit and vigor that the king declared "he would rather live like a hermit in a forest, than be king over such a people as the pack of Puritans that overruled the lower house."

The convention of the clergy, meeting at the same time with the Parliament, busied themselves in framing a book of one hundred † Neale, and Prince.

* Neale.

do

and forty-one canons, aimed chiefly at the Puritans. Whoever should speak against the Apostolic character and authority of the Church of England, or against its worship, or articles or ceremonies, or its government by archbishops, bishops, deans, or archdeacons, or against the form and manner of ordaining bishops, priests or deacons, or separate from its communion, or allow the claims of any other in England to be a Church ;-whoever should any of these things, was to be by that very deed excommunicated, with no power anywhere to restore him save the archbishop, and that only after repentance and public "revocation of his wicked error." Nor was this excommunication a simple exclusion from the privileges of the Church: the excommunicated person was incapable of suing for his just dues; he might be imprisoned till such time as he should make satisfaction to the Church; and at his death he must be denied Christian burial.* Whitgift died a few weeks after the Hampton Court Conference, and the fierce Bancroft was made Archbishop of Canterbury in his room. It was he who in A. D. 1588, first publicly maintained in England, the right of Diocesan Bishops above Presbyters by divine appointment; the common doctrine of the Reformers, and of those who preceded them for centuries, having been, that by divine institution, Bishops and Presbyters were one and the same: and that a Diocesan is superior to a Presby

Canon 4.

One or two of these 141 Canons will serve as a specimen of the whole: "Whosoever shall affirm the form of God's worship in the Church of England established by law, and contained in the book of Common Prayer, and administration of sacraments, is a corrupt, superstitious, and unlawful worship, or contains anything repugnant to Scripture, let him be excommunicated, ipso facto, and not restored but only by the Archbishop, after his repentance and public revo

cation of his wicked error.

Canon 6.

"Whosoever shall affirm that the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England as by law established, are wicked, anti-christian, or superstitious, or such as being commanded by lawful authority, good men may not with a good conscience approve, use, or as occasion requires, subscribe,-let him be excommunicated," &c.

Canon 11. "Whosoever shall affirm that there are within this realm other meetings, assemblies, or congregations of the king's born subjects, than such as are established by law, which may rightly challenge to themselves the name of lawful churches, let them be excommunicated," &c.

Canon 7.

"Whosoever shall affirm that the government * * of the Church of England, by archbishops, bishops, deans, archdeacons, and the rest that bear office in the same, is anti-christian or repugnant to the Word of God, let him be excom

municated." &c.

Canon 8 denounces the same upon those who speak against the forms of ordination.

Canon 14 denounces the same upon such as shall add to, or leave out any part of

the prayers.

Canon 18, in like manner enjoins bowing at the name of Jesus. Four others relate to the wearing of habits; one forbids requiring parents to be present at the baptism of their children, and forbids their answering as God-parents. The book concluded with denouncing the anathema of excommunication upon all who should deny that the Assembly making the Canons was not the true Church of England by

representation.