THE DISSENTING DIVINES PRESENTING THEIR PETITION TO JAMES. (See p. [416.])
No sooner was he in England than he spoke his mind roundly as to his real feelings towards the Puritans. He said to the bishops and courtiers: "I will tell you, I have lived amongst this sect of men ever since I was ten years old; but I may say of myself as Christ said of Himself, though I lived amongst them, yet, since I had ability to judge, I was never of them." And this was at least sincere. He had grown more undisguisedly Episcopalian as he saw Elizabeth sinking, and felt his hold on the throne through her own ministers. He had given seats in parliament to a certain number of clergymen, thus making them bishops without the name; but it was in his "Basilicon Doron"—a manual for the instruction of his son, published in 1779—that he had let loose his deep dislike of the Presbyterians. He tells his son to "take heed to such Puritans, very pests in the church and commonwealth, whom no deserts can oblige, neither oaths nor promises bind, breathing nothing but sedition and calumnies, aspiring without measure, ruling without reason, making their own imaginations, without any warrant of the Word, the square of their conscience. I protest," he added, "before the great God, and since I am here upon my testament, it is no place for me to lie in, that you shall never find with any Highland or Border thieves greater ingratitude, and more lies and perjuries than with these fanatic spirits; and suffer not the principal of them to brook your land, if ye list to sit at rest; except you would keep them for trying your patience, as Socrates did an evil wife."
But whilst the royal Solomon thus plainly enunciated his hatred of Puritanism, he was cautious not to let the English bishops too early into his fixed intention to patronise them. He liked to feel himself the undoubted head of that Church, and to see those dignitaries in fear and trembling prostrate at his feet; and it was not till they had sufficiently humbled themselves before him, that he revived their spirits with the declaration of his real sentiments. The Puritans precipitated this avowal, by urging on James a further reform of the Church, and its purgation from ceremonies. In their millenary petition (so called because it was expected it would have a thousand signatures, but in reality it had only about eight hundred) they demanded a conference, in which to settle the form and doctrines of the Church. This, of all things, delighted James. It was the very arena in which to display his theological knowledge; he gladly consented to it, and appointed it to take place at Hampton Court early in January, 1604. On the 14th of that month the first assembly took place; and the bishops, who were first admitted to the royal presence alone, were so alarmed at the prospect of a conference which had been demanded by Dissenters, that they threw themselves on their knees, and earnestly entreated the king not to alter the constitution of the Church, nor to give the Puritans the triumph in the coming debate, lest the Popish recusants should rejoice over and declare them justly punished for their repulsion and persecution of them. Then James condescended to lift the weight of fear from their hearts. He avowed to them that he was a sincere convert to the Church of England, and thanked God "who had brought him to the promised land, to a country where religion was purely professed, and where he sate among grave, reverend, and learned men; not as before, elsewhere, a king without state, without honour, and without order, and braved to his face by beardless boys under the garb of ministers."
The delight of the bishops and dignitaries at this gracious confession may be imagined. They were nearly twenty in number, whilst the Reformers summoned numbered only four—namely, Doctors Reynolds and Sparkes, divinity professors of Oxford, and Doctors Knewstub and Chatterton, of Cambridge. James somewhat cooled the raptures of the Churchmen, by adding that he knew all things were not perfect, and that, as some modifications of the ritual and the ecclesiastical courts were, in his opinion, needed, he had called them together in the first instance, in order that they might settle what concessions should be made to the Puritans. It was necessary to show some compliance; and after the day's discussion it was agreed that some explanatory words should be added in the Book of Common Prayer to the forms of general absolution and of confirmation; that the Chancellor and the Chief Justice should reform the practice of the commissary court; that excommunication should only be inflicted for particularly serious offences; that the bishops should neither confer ordinations nor pronounce censures, without the assistance and concurrence of other eminent divines; that baptism should not be administered by women or by laymen.
These points being determined, on the 16th the four Puritan divines were admitted, and instructed to state their demands. These embraced a general revision of the Book of Common Prayer, the withdrawal of excommunication, of baptism by women, of the use of the ring in marriage, of bowing at the name of Jesus, of confirmation, of the wearing of the cap and surplice, of the reading of the Apocrypha. They further required that pluralities and non-residence should cease, that obligation to subscribe the Thirty-nine Articles be abrogated, as well as the commendatories held by bishops. The bishops defended such parts of the church service and practices as the king had agreed should remain, and the prelates of London and Winchester argued in their behalf long and vehemently. As the Puritan doctors were not thus to be satisfied, and had by much the best of the argument, James himself took up the debate, and conducted it in that royal style which admits of no contradiction. He was now in his true element: theological discussion was his pride and glory, and he believed himself capable of silencing all Christendom. Dr. Reynolds, however, who was the chief speaker, undaunted by his crowned opponent, insisted boldly on various points; but when he came to the demand for the disuse of the Apocrypha in the Church service, James could bear it no longer. He called for a Bible, read a chapter out of Ecclesiasticus, and expounded it according to his own views; then turning to the lords of his Council, he said, "What trow ye makes these men so angry with Ecclesiasticus? By my soul, I think Ecclesiasticus was a bishop, or they would never use him so." The bishops and courtiers applauded the royal wit. James continued to hold forth on all sorts of topics—baptism, confirmation, absolution, which he declared to be apostolical, and a very good ordinance—and assured the anti-episcopal divines that in his opinion, if there were no bishops, there would soon be no king.
When he had tired himself out with talking, Dr. Reynolds again ventured to open his mouth, and inquired how ordinances of the Church agreed with Christian liberty. This was touching James closely: it brought back to his memory the harangues on the same liberty which he had heard from his clergy in Scotland. He declared that he would not argue that point, but answer as kings were wont to do in parliament, "Le roy s'avisera." Without pretending to treat the matter as one of conviction, he treated it as one of authority. He exclaimed, "I will have none of that: I will have one doctrine and one discipline, one religion in substance and in ceremony." He was resolved to be as absolute over every man's conscience and understanding as Henry VIII. had been. "If that is what you be at, then I tell you that a Scottish presbytery agreeth with monarchy as well as God with the Devil. Then shall Jack and Tom and Dick meet, and at their pleasure censure me and my council and all our proceedings. Then Will shall stand up and say, 'It must be thus;' then Dick shall reply and say, 'Nay, marry, but we will have it thus;' and therefore, here I must once more reiterate my former speech, and say, Le roy s'avisera."
It was in vain that Dr. Reynolds, who was reputed one of the most able divines and logicians of the age, attempted to state his views and opinions. The king constantly interrupted him and scoffed at him, treating him in the most insolently overbearing manner, and when he paused, asked him, "Well, doctor, have you anything more to say?" Reynolds, perceiving it useless, replied, "No, please your majesty;" on which James told these brow-beaten divines, that had they disputed no better in college, and he had been moderator, he would have had them all fetched up and flogged for dunces; that if that was all they had to say for themselves, he would make them conform, or hurry them out of the kingdom, or worse. With this scandalous treatment they were dismissed till the 18th, when the Conference met again. The greater part of the day was consumed by the king, the Council, and prelates in inquiring into the abuses of the high commission court, and devising means for checking them. At a late hour the Dissenting delegates were again admitted, not to continue the discussion, but to hear the fixed decision of the king. On hearing it they prayed that a certain time might be allowed before the new regulations were enforced. This was granted, but not strictly kept, for the new Book of Common Prayer was immediately prepared and published by authority.
Thus ended this curious Conference, in a complete triumph for the High Church party. The Reformers complained bitterly of this, but James himself was incapable of feeling the force of public opinion. He was inflated with the idea of his own unrivalled eloquence and ability. He boasted that he had "peppered the Dissenters soundly. They fled me," he said, "from argument to argument like schoolboys." The bishops and ministers of his Council added to his absurd egotism, by actually pouring deluges of the most fulsome adulation upon him. Bancroft, Bishop of London, flung himself on his knees before him, and exclaimed "that his heart melted with joy, and made haste to acknowledge unto Almighty God His singular mercy in giving them such a king, as since Christ's time the like had not been"; and Whitgift, the primate, protested "that his majesty spake by the special assistance of God's spirit." The Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, emulating the sycophants of the Church, said that "the king and the priest had never been so wonderfully united in the same person;" and the peers echoed the plaudits, declaring that his majesty's speeches proceeded from the spirit of God operating on an understanding heart. "I wist not what they mean," wrote Harrington, in "Nugæ Antiquæ"; "but the spirit was rather foul-mouthed."
All parties connected with the Church having thus admitted that the king was acting under the most luminous effusion of the Divine spirit, ought not, therefore, to have murmured when soon afterwards, without waiting for ecclesiastical sanction, he made his own alterations in the Book of Common Prayer, and then issued a proclamation, warning all men neither to attempt nor expect any further alterations in the Church, and commanding all ecclesiastical and civil authorities to enforce the strictest conformity. Whitgift soon after died (1604), and many attributed the acceleration of his death to his mortification at the king's ordering the affairs of the Church by his own will and wisdom, which Whitgift had been one of the first to extol as infallible. Bancroft succeeded him in the primacy, and showed himself a capable instrument of James's bigotry, and ready to enforce whatever cruelty he would attempt.
James spent fully half of his year in hunting, and if any person or party had an urgent matter to prefer, the only opportunity of doing so was by waylaying him in his rides to the forest. The Dissenters, as the time approached for the enforcement of the new canons of the Church, presented a petition to him near Newmarket, praying a prolongation of the time allowed them for conforming. James received them with savage fierceness; told them that it was from such petitions that the rebellion in the Netherlands originated; that his mother and he had been haunted by Puritan devils from their cradles; that he would sooner lose his crown than encourage such malicious spirits; and if he thought his son would tolerate them in his time, he would wish to see him that moment lying in his grave. The Nonconformists complained that he persecuted the disciples whilst he favoured the enemies of the Gospel. This was referring to his reception of Catholics at court, and his promises not to molest them if they abstained from the open prosecution of their worship. But James left them under no mistake on that head. He expressed an equally vehement hatred of Papists; and on the 22nd of February he issued a proclamation enjoining the banishment of all Catholic missionaries. He went to the Star Chamber, framed regulations for the discovery and prosecution of recusants, and issued orders to magistrates to see the penal laws put in force against all persons, of whatever faith, who did not fully conform to the rites and ordinances of the Church. Thus the miseries and oppressions of religious persecution were renewed with all their virulence; and the only consolation for those who refused to conform was that they might persecute one another.