reforms in the Church of England – reforms that were very much of a Puritan nature. He had an intense aversion to Puritanism, and called a conference at Hampton Court in 1604 at which he chaired a debate between the conservative Anglican authorities and Puritan parties. King James’ hatred of Puritanism was increased by this conference. It was during the conference that he made his now famous angry outburst, “No bishop, no king,” by which he expressed his fear that Puritan reforms of the ecclesiastical structure would remove the basis of his own authority. This principle would be carried into his version of the Bible by the translators who would replace the word “elder” used in earlier versions with “bishop” out of respect for the king’s political preference. Numbers of Puritans now left not only the Church but the country, moving firstly to Holland then to New England: these “separatists” deemed conscience of greater importance than conformity. The new Bible version was one of two important results of the Conference at Hampton Court. The other was the institution of a new wave of persecution of evangelical Christians by the King and his Church. Soon after the conference ended, James made his opposition to Evangelical Christianity plain. He ordered a new translation of the Bible, as had been suggested at the conference, to be written; and at the same time he issued a decree requiring complete conformity to Church decrees and rituals – effectively prohibiting every expression of Puritanism. When, after a period of almost six months it was apparent his law would not prevail over all consciences, he expelled 300 Evangelical ministers from their churches.19 Persecution of 19
The official figure was only 50 ministers expelled; some modern scholars consider 90 more likely. [see David Willson King James VI & I Jonathan Cape, London, 1966 (1956) p209]. However, even among those who supported the King, the alarm created by the expulsions and the consequent social disruption was so widespread, the smaller numbers seem most unlikely. Then, as
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