The families involved in the Harewell faction campaign such as the Littleton’s and the Habbingtons figured prominently in 1605 in an attempt to make their opinions heard.
The Gunpowder Plot was a conspiracy to kill James as well as the Lords and Commons at the opening of parliament on November 5th 1605. The plot was formed by a group of prominent Roman Catholics in retaliation against the oppressive anti-catholic laws being applied by James I. The Roman Catholics were dissilusioned by James’ failure to deliver toleration and with the treaty with Spain in 1604 were now deprived of the hope of any outside assistance. The originator of the scheme was Robert Catesby, who took his cousin Thomas Winter and his friends Thomas Percy and John Wright into confidence, along with Guy Fawkes. They in turn drew other Roman Catholic gentlemen into the plot, among them Sir Everard Digby, John Grant, Ambrose Rokewood, Francis Tresham, Thomas Winter’s brother Robert and John Wright’s brother Christopher. The conspirators discovered a vault under the House of Lords. They rented this cellar and stored in it 36 barrels of gunpowder.
The final arrangement was for Fawkes to set alight the fuses. Although through a letter of warning written by Tresham to a peer, the plot was exposed.
Fawkes was caught and tortured, in the end revealing the names of his associates, who in turn were caught and punished.
Following the Gunpowder Plot, James’ attitude hardened, at least for a period, it provoked new penal laws in 1606 and united the king and parliament in a harsher anti-catholic stance. Once again the king and his parliament had treated the Catholic harshly, although aggravated by the assassination plot, it was simply another method to make their opinions heard, as previous attempts had been stopped. If James had tolerated the Catholics instead of taxing and forcing laws upon them and ignoring their rights of a parliamentary candidate then the plot in 1605 could have been avoided.
Later on in 1606, Catholics were promised hope of change when the penal laws were not seriously enforced once the initial concern had died down. An oath of allegiance was devised, which saw that Catholics, who were happy to accept royal authority and ignore papal commands to withdraw their allegiance, were granted a measure of toleration. It was aimed at separating those Catholics form those who acknowledged the Pope’s deposing power.
After initial concern, resulting laws and fines and an attempt to reinstate Catholic equality, James’ attitude to Catholicism remained undogmatic; he was prepared to accept it as a mother church but acknowledged its corruption.
Unhappiness towards Catholics was made apparent in parliament, MP’s complained about papists in high places, the spread of popery and the slack enforcement of the penal laws. George Abbot was one of these MP’s. He was an evangelical Calvinist who showed hostility towards Puritans, however, he agreed with Puritan critics of James’ regime, objecting to the presence of papists in the Privy Council.
In 1618, James’ foreign policy interfered with the religious struggle in England. In order to create safety and allegiance for the future, James tried to marry Charles off to the Spanish Infanta. In pursuing this goal his policy towards Catholics at home softened. In 1621, however, James did not efficiently deal with religious problems overseas. Ferdinand the Holy Roman Emperor invaded Bohemia and later the Palatinate, defeating Frederik V of the Palatinate at the battle of White Mountain. Frederik, married to James’ daughter Elizabeth in 1613 called for assistance from his father in law to rid Ferdinand and Catholic threat and to restore Protestantism. However, due to James’ reluctance to go to war, an attack on the Palatinate was never achieved partly due to Parliamentary and money restrictions. Instead James redoubled his efforts to marry Charles to the Spanish Infanta, and use Spain to put pressure on the Habsburg cousins to pull out of the Palatinate.
After 1618 there were no executions of Catholics and fines were issued less often.
James’ pro-Catholic foreign policy favoured Catholics in England although it resulted in much tension in parliament. After the Gunpowder plot there was little catholic political activity and they were left in peace.
In general James dealt well with the Catholics, often using his foreign policy and marriage alliances to aid catholic happiness in England. Although in the early years of his reign he mistreated them, ignoring their opinions and views. Catholic anger built up towards the anti-Catholic policies eventually causing the Gunpowder plot.
The Puritans thought that the Church of England had kept too many catholic practices. They wanted church government put into the hands of the people rather than a hierarchy of bishops and archbishops.
Puritans were encouraged that James was Calvinist in theology; however, he did not share Calvin’s views on church government.
Returning home to London in 1604 James was met by a group of petitioners, called the millenary petition because it bore the signatures of over a thousand church ministers. They stressed Puritan grievances and wanted an improvement in clerical standards and changes in style or worship. Their main aim was to increase the amount of church sermons, improvements in clerical vestments and they made clear their dislike for the Catholics, as they saw it, the existence of ‘popish opinion’ within the church.
James resolved this matter extremely efficiently and fairly. Seeing that they were not radicals but ministers of the gospel, he called a conference at Hampton Court to discuss their grievances, at which he would chair.
In 1604 the Puritan leaders argued their grievances to James, who was prepared to listen to their case. James after hearing their side, remained unmoved, but some clerical standards were changed, such as ensuring a well-paid educated clergy and greater missionary activity in Ireland and Wales. The only improvement which met the demands of the Puritans was to produce a new translation of the Bible. When Dr John Reynolds of Corpus Christi College, Oxford proposed a new translation of the English Bible, he found James enthusiastic. The king detested the Geneva Bible, which was the most popular translation used in England. He considered it not to support the theory that kings have divine right to rule, even if they behave badly. James wanted a Bible free of political and theological notes.
Apart from minor, nothing else was changed. James recognised the democratic tendencies of Puritanism and suspected that if the people dumped bishops then they might one day dump their king.
Puritanism was not static and unchanging. At first it simply stood for further reform of worship but it soon began to attack episcopacy as unscriptural.
At the Hampton Court Conference, a Puritan minister used the term ‘presbytery’ frequently; this angered James who conclusively said ‘no bishop, no king’.
After this threat James and Charles harassed the Puritans so fiercely that many fled to America.
Potential threat of William Laud enforcing his views on the church to exclude Puritans caused James to protect the Puritans by refusing to promote Laud as James wanted the church to remain tolerant of the Puritans. To do this James prevented the Church of England from splitting into groups, which could develop their own Protestant ideas and support Laud.
Puritanism became a political as well as religious movement when the parliamentary protest against Stuart depotism became entwined with the religious protest against Archbishop Laud’s policy of enforced conformity.
When the Puritans Sabbatarianism came into conflict with king James’ defence of sports and games on a Sunday, he withdrew his idea. In 1618 James introduced the Book of Sports, encouraging people to play sports such as archery, vaulting and dancing on Sundays. Puritans objected strongly, because they thought that the Sabbath day was a day of rest. Realising the upset, James withdrew the order that the Book of Sports should be read out from the pulpit.
When Bancroft became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1604 he was determined to enforce some discipline in the church. Using convocation he issued canons regulating many aspects of church life, they were aimed at the more extreme Puritans ministers who had never accepted all the rules of the Church of England.
Bancroft ordered that the Puritan ministers must dress differently, that they must accept that the king was head of the church of England, that the original 39 articles of the Elizabethan church were correct and that the prayer book was all from the word of God. Although some accepted these orders, the more extreme ministers left the Church of England due to the harsh demands.
Other MP’s argued against Bancroft, suggesting that parliament not convocation alone should settle church matters.
In 1611 Abbot became Archbishop of Canterbury and with him came a more tolerant respect for Puritans. He wanted to prevent more ministers from leaving the church and setting up independent congregations like Thomas Browne and the Brownists.
As Abbot had sympathy for the Puritans he sought them to become parish ministers and did not force strict regulations of Bancrofts canons.
With the cooperation of Abbot and king James in control of the Church of England the most extreme Puritans remained happy to a certain degree.
At the start of the thirty-year war between Protestantism and Catholicism James was threatened and pressured by the Puritans for support which caused him to support the Catholic cause. Puritans became increasingly influential in parliament, criticising his foreign policy based on James’ reluctance to go to war and support them.
Unlike with the Catholics, James listened to the Puritans allowing them to voice their own opinions at the Hampton Court Conference. Although not passing any laws which were requested by the Puritan ministers, apart from the new translation of the Bible. Abbot supported the Puritans through sympathy and allowing them higher positions in the Church of England. James showed further respect for their beliefs by withdrawing the Book of Sports from sermons. Although he did not intervene in defence of the puritans in the thirty years war.
With the Religious struggle throughout the thirty-year war, James was pressured by both Catholics and Puritans for support, James found himself increasingly dependant on those at the opposite side of the Church of England called anti-Calvinists. Other wise known as Arminianism and later on in Charles reign Laudism. A religious development had threatened parliament as much favour was shown towards Arminians. The matter of the growth of Arminianism and the current actions of them became apparent as a regular discussion point during parliament, although mostly during Charles reign. The growth of Arminianism was formed by a Dutch theologian Jacob Arminius. He attacked Calvin’s doctrine of predestination, declaring that he believed men had the right to determine their destination because God willed the salvation of all those who believed. They also believed in more importance towards sacraments. Similar to James, Arminians believed that the Catholic Church was the true church although plagued with error.
In 1618 James sent representatives to argue the theology of the Arminians, as James believed that their theology was not perfect in that James believed in Calvinist theology. However towards the end of his reign he grew more sympathetic towards them because of the practical support it gave him.
Gradually James’ support for the Armianians grew. Similar to the oath of allegiance, the Arminians upheld royal authority and did not share the irrational hatred of popery. Due to this James realised that they would not cause too many problems for him and he promoted them, however this decision was disliked by many MP’s who regarded Arminians as little better then papists.
Further leniency was shown towards them when in 1622, James, understanding that the Arminians disrespected the theory of predestination, issued instructions to the clergy forbidding popular preaching about predestination from the pulpit.
In 1624 James went one step further by allowing the publication of an Arminian book by Richard Montagu.
It is apparent that James found that Arminianism was closest to what he believed in, this is shown by the favours and gestures he does to promote Arminianism. In return the Arminians kept relatively quiet. During the reign of Charles, like his father, he promoted Arminianism without discussing the consequences with his parliament.
In 1604 James ended England’s war with Spain, but his tactless attitude toward parliament, based on his belief in divine right, led to prolonged conflict with that body. James convoked the Hampton Court Conference at which he authorized a new translation of the Bible called the King James Version. His undue severity toward Roman Catholics, however led to the abortive Gunpowder plot. James tried unsuccessfully to advance the cause of religious peace in Europe through marriage. His daughter married the elector of the Palatinate FrederikV, the leader of the German Protestants. He also sought to end the conflict by attempting to arrange a marriage between his son, Charles and the Infanta of Spain, then the principal Catholic power.
James mistreated the Catholics by ignoring them and pressing laws and fines on them, hence the Gunpowder plot was conspired in retaliation to his anti-Catholic policy.
With the Puritans he did listen to a certain degree, holding a conference for their grievances. With the help of Abbot the Puritans gained respect and equality.
William Laud’s contribution to drive the Puritans away was stopped by James, however under the ruling of Charles, Laud developed a further doctrine of Arminianism called Laudism.
James treated the Arminians with most respect out of the three religions, publishing a book of theirs and controlling the use of predestination in sermons, which was repressed by the Arminians. His Respect towards them in comparison to Catholicism and Puritanism is down to his theological belief in Arminian doctrine to which he discovered throughout his reign. Overall James dealt effectively with religious problems during his reign, however favouring one resulted in anger for the other. His intolerance to listen to the Catholics was probably the only negative part about his reign in terms of religion, as it led to one of the biggest events in history, the gunpowder Plot of 1605.
