SECOND PERIOD. CHAPTER XXIII. JAMES I. AND THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. (1603-1614.) 1. Accession of James I.-James I., the king who succeeded Elizabeth, came from Scotland. He was the son of Mary Queen of Scots who had been beheaded at Fotheringhay, and the great-grandson of the eldest sister of Henry VIII. For the first time the same king ruled over Scotland as well as England; though each country, for a long time afterwards, kept its own laws and its own Parliament. 2. The Hampton Court Conference.-Many people expected that when the new king arrived he would. make many changes which Elizabeth had been unwilling to make. Amongst these, the Puritans thought that he would do something for them. They did not want to separate from the Church of England, and to have churches or chapels of their own. Those of them who were clergymen asked to be allowed to leave out parts of the service which they thought it wrong to make use of. They were unwilling to wear surplices, or to make the sign of the cross when they baptised children, or to allow a ring to be placed on a bride's finger at her marriage; because they thought that these things were superstitious. They also wanted a few other changes to be made in the Prayer Book. James sent for some of them to come to Hampton Court to talk with him and the bishops. He really wanted to hear what they had to say, but unfortunately he was a very impatient man, and he fancied that every one who differed from him was a fool. He therefore got very angry, and refused to help the Puritans. The only good thing that came of this conference was an order which was given for a new translation of the Bible, in which the mistakes which had been made in former translations were to be set right. After several years this new translation was finished, and is the one which is used generally in England at the present day. 3. James I. and the House of Commons. When Parliament met, the members of the House of Commons did not like what James had been doing. They thought that, as it was very difficult to find a sufficient number of clergymen who could preach good sermons, it would be better to allow them all to preach, whether they would wear surplices or not. The Commons were, therefore, not in a very good humour with the king, and they were the more displeased when they found that James wanted them to give him money. Elizabeth had been very sparing, and even stingy, but when James came to England from such a poor country as Scotland then was, he fancied that he was going to be extremely rich, and began giving away estates and money to his Scotch friends. He soon found out that if his income was greater in England than it had been in Scotland, his expenses were also much more, and that unless the House of Commons would give him money he would run into debt. The Commons, however, would not give him money unless he did what they wanted, so that they and the king did not agree very well together. 4. The Gunpowder Plot.-The Catholics were more badly treated than the Puritans. James promised that if they did not make disturbances he would not make them pay the fines which they were bound to pay by law, but he soon broke his promise. One of their number, named Catesby, resolved to blow up with gunpowder the Lords and Commons, when they came to hear the king's speech at the opening of Parliament. In this way, both James himself, and the men who refused to alter the laws which directed the persecution of the Catholics, would be punished. Catesby expected that James's sons would be blown up with their father, and he intended, after this had been done, to take James's little daughter Elizabeth, who was being educated in Warwickshire, and to bring her up as a Catholic Queen. If Catesby had succeeded, he would probably have been murdered, or executed for his crime. long before he could get near the child; but he |