La Conférence de Hampton Court (janvier 1604) ou l’autorité de Jacques Ier sur l’Église anglicane

Abstract

The Hampton Court Conference was summoned by James I in January 1604, a few months after his accession to the throne. As an introduction, the historical circumstances and the king’s motives will be recalled : he aimed at liturgical uniformity in his new kingdom and wanted to crush the Puritan dissent comforted by the Scottish Presbyterians which was probably winning the battle of hearts and minds. Then we will come to the authority that the king actually exercised by relying on William Barlow’s ‘The summe and substance of the Conference ...at Hampton Court. ’ We will study first the initial day, comparatively easy for the king who loathed religious change. He met separately with the bishops and some deans, inquired about the practices of the Church of England and, when disagreements occurred, imposed his own interprétation of Scripture. Then we will examine the difficult second day, when the king committed himself personally in the theological debate against the dissenting Puritans, thus being both judge and judged. Passing rapidly over the third and last day devoted to implementing the decisions, we will finally ask ourselves if the king did not base his political and religious authority on the authoritative thought of his adviser Francis Bacon, who had just written up for him a memoir entitled Certain Considerations touching the better pacification & edification of the Church of England.