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Home King James I and Domestic Affairs The King and Protestant parties The King and Protestant parties; Part 3 |
The King and Protestant parties; Part 3Finally, in 1583, Whitgift became Archbishop of Canterbury. He was a stern disciplinarian, and had the queen's complete confidence (The queen used to call him "her little black husband", and treated him as her confessor to whom she revealed "the very secrets of her soul"). The Press was muzzled, no manuscript being allowed to be set up in type without the licence of the Archbishop or the Bishop of London. This regulation did not prevent, however, some gross libels on the bishops, known as the " Mar-Prelate Tracts", from being secretly printed, the authors of which were never discovered; but some other libellers were caught and were put to death. To the Court of High Commission was delegated by the queen the punishment of ecclesiastical offences, and, armed with tremendous powers, it persecuted the more advanced exponents of the Puritan doctrines. The Brownists (so called because of their leader Robert Browne), who held opinions then considered very extreme and had seceded from the Church, were especially attacked, and a large number took refuge in Holland, whence many returned to make the famous voyage in The Mayflower to America in 1620.The Puritans, however, on James's accession were inclined to be well-disposed to him, for they expected much from him. James had been brought up in Presbyterian Scotland, and the Puritans believed that his attitude towards them would be sympathetic. They consequently lost no time in presenting him with a Millenary Petition —so called because it was supposed to be signed by a thousand ministers—asking for certain reforms, A conference, which included the two archbishops and six bishops on the one side and four Puritans on the other, was held at Hampton Court to consider the situation (1604). The king himself presided and behaved at first with admirable impartiality. Then, at the end of the second day, a Puritan mentioned the word "Presbytery". Now James, though the Puritans did not know it, hated the Presbyterian form of religion, with its outspokenness and its democratic government, as he had experienced it in Scotland. "A Scottish Presbytery," he said, "agreeth as well with a monarchy as God with the devil. Then Jack and Tom and Will and Disk shall meet, and at their pleasure censure me and my council (Stay, I pray you," James went on, "for one seven years, and if then you find me pursy and fat, and my windpipes stuffed, I will perhaps hearken unto you; for let that government be once up, I am sure I shall be kept in breath). The Conference soon broke up, and its only result—though it was a very important result—was the preparation of the Authorized Version of the Bible (which appeared in 1611); the Puritans otherwise went away disappointed and empty-handed. James himself became a strong supporter of the extreme Anglican position, and a strong believer in the maxim "No bishop, no king"; if once the authority of the bishops was overthrown, that of the monarchy itself, he felt, would be threatened. |
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