greatest liar, and one of the greatest drunkards of his age, in the same position" (Skeats). As in the Church of Scotland the contest had been waged between Ro- manists and I'rotestants for the favor of the throne, so in England the Iilstablished Church, the Episcopal, and the Puritans were arrayed against each other, and James was called upon to settle the dispute. Biased in favor of the episcopacy, James, however, decided on a conference of the two parties, anxious to display his "proficiency in theology," and "determined on giving both sides an opportunity of applauding his polemical skill, and making his chosen line of conduct at least ap- pear to result Irom partial inquiry" (Baxter, Eiiffl. Ch. I/iston/, p. 550). As yet no separation had taken place, neither had the Puritans even renounced episcopacy, nor did they ijuestion regal supremacy; they only ob- jected to being bound against the dictates of their con- science to the observance of certain performances ; they desired piu-ity of doctrine, good pastors, a reform in Church government and in the Book of Common Pray- er; in short, a removal of all usages which savored of Romanism. A conference (q. v.) was consequently as- sembled at Hampton Court in January, 160-1, and the points of difference discussed in James's presence, lie himself taking, as might have been expected, a con- spicuous and mosfr undignified part. " Church -Nmters, in dealing with this subject, have felt compelled to em- ploy language of shame and indignation at the conduct of the king and the bishops of this period, which a Non- conformist woidd almost hesitate to use" (Skeats). On the episcopal side appeared archbishop AVhitgift, assist- ed by bishops Bancroft, Bilson, and others ; on the side of the Puritans appeared four divines, headed by the celebrated Dr. Reynolds, at that time president of Cor- pus Christi College, Oxford. " It is obvious, from the M-hole proceedings, that the conference was summoned for a purpose opposed to its ostensible aim. It was not intended to bring the two parties in the Church into har- mony, but to give occasion for casting out one of them'' (Skeats). The attitude of the king pleased the church men, and " the prelates accepted him with devo'.it grat- itude. The more his character became revealed to them, the greater was their satisfaction. When he al- most swore at the Puritans, Whitgift declared that his majestj' spoke by the especial assistance of God's Spirit (comp. Baxter, Ch. Bist. ofEngluml, p. 559), and Bancroft that he was melted with joy, for that, since Christ's time, such a king had not been. When he drivelled they held up their hands in amaze at his wisdom."' Indeed, it seems that " the two parties fully understood each other. James had quite sufficient cunning to de- tect the ambitious designs of the prelates, and the prel- ates had sufficient learning, and sufficient liiiowlcdge of the theory of morals, to know that they were dealing with a dissembler and a fool. But it served their pur- poses to play into each other's hands. The king coidd put down Puritanism in the Church, and 'harry' all Brownists and Anabaptists out of the land, and the bish- ops, in their turn, could exalt the supremacy of the monarch" (Skeats). • But, as if the ungenerous and un- gracious action of the king had not yet reached the cli- max, the Hampton Court Conference Convocation met in the year following, and framed a new set of canons to insure conformity. " These laws — ^laws so far as the clergy are concerned— still deface the constitution and character of the English Episcopalian Church. . . . They are now little else than monuments of a past age of in- tolerance, and of the combined immobility and timidity of the ecclesiastical establishments of the present day. Old bloodhounds of the Church, with their teeth drawn and their force exhausted, they are gazed at with as much contempt as they once excited fear" (Skeats). Baxter (p. 563) says of these laws, " Some of them have become obsolete, others inoperative through counter leg- islation; but no consistent clergyman can forget that they constitute the ride of his pledged obedience, al- though there may be cases in which attention to the
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