The Situation In 1603
When James VI of Scotland became James I of England he must have felt like he had won the lottery. Not only was England wealthier than Scotland but royal authority seemed unchecked by nobility or church. As re-established by the Elizabethan settlement, the Church of England was a compromise between mildly Protestant theology and partially reformed Catholic rites as embodied in the 39 Articles and the Common Book of Prayer. The Anglican Church was intended as a catch -all national church. Some hard line Protestants or Puritans wanted far reaching reform. Some Puritans saw James’s ascension as an opportunity to have an English church along the same lines of the Scots Kirk, and presented their demands in the Millenary Petition.
The Hampton Court Conference
The demands of the Puritan delegates at the conference at Hampton Court during 1604 were mostly moderate. The conference had been called in response to the Millenary Petition. This petition was thus titled because it was supposed to have been signed by a thousand members of the clergy. The petition had been worded in moderate terms so as to avoid being rejected out of hand. James would not concede on all but the most minor points mainly on political grounds. The Bishops refusing to implement them nullified those minor compromises that the Puritans did gain from James. However scratching underneath the surface as James and the Bishops certainly did revealed radical undercurrents to seemingly moderate reforms. For instance, removing rites such as the exchanging of wedding rings would be an assault on Episcopalian authority as it attacked the Prayer Book and the structures that lay behind it.
Preventing Puritan Reforms
A royal proclamation of July 1604 gave the clergy until the end of the year to accept all the Church’s rites and doctrines. James entrusted the task to his main ally amongst the Bishops, Richard Bancroft the new Archbishop of Canterbury. Bancroft also undertook to reform canon law within the Church of England attempting to strengthen the Bishops’ position and allowing greater sanctions against the Puritans.
Ashley has estimated that there was not a vast number of Puritans, only around 750 amongst the parish clergy at the start of James’ reign. There were the beginnings of small sects such as the Baptists who were not tolerated. Another of these sects the Brownists did not have more than 500 members. Expelling clergy may have had the effect of driving sects underground but they probably would have separated from the established church eventually.
Although the greatest number of expulsions occurred before 1607, James’ reign did see an exodus of non-conformists to the New World and the Netherlands. The Elizabethan Settlement had held the two wings of the Church together. James had started the process of fragmentation that his son and Archbishop Laud completed. Excluded clergy could still preach where congregations were able to establish lectureships and pay for the sermons they wanted to hear. Official clergy could often have to compete for their parishes with Puritan lecturers less subject to censorship, and Episcopal or royal authority.
Bibliography
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Gardiner, J & Wenborn, N. The History Today Companion to British History, Collins & Brown. London1995.
Hill C. the Century of Revolution 1603 – 1714 2nd edition (1980) Routledge.
Schama, S. A History of Britain – The British Wars 1603-1776. BBC Worldwide, London (2001).
