r leading ministers in Edinburgh,
had seized his sleeve at a public meeting and addressed him, with a
somewhat brutal excess of truth, as "God's silly vassal."[1]

[1] Gardiner in the "Dictionary of National (British) Biography,"
"James I," thinks that by "silly" Melville meant "weak." But that is
not much improvement.

But the new sovereign had a still deeper reason for his antipathy to
the Puritans. He saw that their doctrine of equality in the Church
naturally led to that equality in the State. If they objected to
Episcopal government in the one, might they not presently object to
royal government in the other? Hence to all their arguments he
answered with his favorite maxim, "No bishop, no king," meaning that
the two must stand or fall together.

At the Hampton Court Conference all real freedom of discussion was
practically prohibited. The Conference, however, had one good result,
for the King ordered a new and revised translation of the Bible to be
made (SS254, 357). It was published a few years later (1611). This
translation of the Scriptures excels all others in simplicity,
dignity, and beauty of language. After more than three hundred years
it still remains the version used in the great majority of Protestant
churches and Protestant homes wherever English is spoken.

James regarded the Conference as a success. He had refuted the
Puritans, as he believed, with much Latin and some Greek. He ended by
declaiming against them with such unction that one enthusiastic bishop
declared that his Majesty must be specially inspired by the Holy
Ghost!

He closed the meeting by imprisoning the ten persons who had presented
the petition, on the ground that it tended to sedition and rebellion.
Henceforth, the King's attitude toward the Puritans (S378) was
unmistakable. "I will make them conform," said he, "or I will harry
them out of the land" (S422).

Accordingly, a law was enacted which required every curate to accept
the Thirty-Nine Articles (S381) and the Prayer Book of the Church of
England (S381) without reservation. This act drove several hundred
clergymen from the Established Church.

419. The Divine Right of Kings, 1604; the Protest of the Commons;
"Favorites."

As if with the desire of further alienating his people, James now
constantly proclaimed the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings. This
theory, which was unknown to the English constitution, declared that
the King derived his power and rig