HAMPTON COURT CONFERENCE

HAMPTON COURT CONFERENCE, a conference which took place at Hampton Court shortly after the accession of James I. to the throne of England, in order to the settlement of ecclesiastical disputes. Of the divines summoned the representatives of the High Church party were more numerous than the Puritans; the Puritans were among the least extreme of their party. Archbishop Whitgift, with eight bishops, six deans, and an archdeacon, appeared on the High Church side; two Oxford professors of divinity, two divines from Cambridge, and along with them Patrick Galloway, minister of Perth, maintained the Puritan cause. On the king's accession the Puritans, entertaining great hopes of release from the rigid enforcement of ceremonies which galled their consciences, and of the reformation of abuses in the church, had addressed a petition to the king, known as the Millenary Petition, because it was signed by nearly one thousand ministers in all parts of the country. But the king's intention was not to comply with their wishes, and the Hampton Court Conference seems to have been merely a device for making it appear that their demands had been considered and found unreasonable. On the first day of the conference (12th January 1604) the High Church representatives alone were admitted to the presence of the king, who demanded their opinion, which they gave on the third day after, in favour of the existing system in all the parts complained of. On the 16th of January the Puritans were called to the king's presence, but along with them some of their opponents, when James debated keenly against the Puritans, and, according to his own account of the matter, 'peppered them soundly.' On the 18th of January both parties were called in, and the royal judgment intimated, which was afterwards announced in a proclamation very adverse to the Puritans. See S. R. Gardiner's History of England.