The Lobbying Begins: The Puritan Petition
THE LOBBYING BEGINS: THE PURITAN PETITION
While journeying south from Scotland in 1603, James was met by a Puritan delegation and presented with the “Millenary Petition,” so called since it was signed by more than one thousand ministers of the Church of England. The authors were clearly aware that James had at least some misgivings concerning their agenda—James had earlier written of Puritans as “pests”—and went out of their way to stress their loyalty to both king and country. They had, they declared, served their church faithfully, despite their serious misgivings concerning its practices; the time had now come to change things.
Now we, to the number of more than a thousand, of your Majesty's subjects and ministers, all groaning as under a common burden of human rites and ceremonies, do with one joint consent humble ourselves at your Majesty's feet to be eased and relieved in this behalf. Our humble suit then unto your Majesty is, that of these offences following, some may be removed, some amended, some qualified.
They then listed four broad areas in which they demanded reforms, in particular the removal of the “burden of human rites and ceremonies” with which they were laden. These included the practice of making the sign of the cross in baptism, the wearing of clerical dress, using a ring in the marriage service, and bowing at the name of Jesus. All these were unbiblical, they argued, and, therefore, could not be required of any minister of the church. The signatories insisted that they did not want “disorderly innovation but a due and godly reformation,” and requested that James should give them an opportunity to set out their concerns, either in writing or by means of a “conference among the learned.” The Millenary Petition had asserted that its signatories believed that they would be able to show that their criticisms of abuses were justified, if they were granted a hearing by the king.
These, with such other abuses yet remaining and practised in the Church of England, we are able to shew not to be agreeable to the Scriptures, if it shall please your Highness farther to hear us, or more at large by writing to be informed, or by conference among the learned to be resolved. And yet we doubt not but that without any farther process, your Majesty of whose Christian judgment we have received so good a taste already, is able of yourself to judge of the equity of this cause.
The bishops of the Church of England were alarmed at these developments, seeing them as presaging a renewal of what had been a relatively quiescent Puritan faction within England. The Puritans, it seemed, had seized the initiative from them, and were in the process of winning James over to their way of thinking. Unease turned to outright panic when they learned that, while still on his way to London, James had decided to end the practice of “impropriate tithes”—a long-standing traditional means of funding bishoprics from parish incomes—in response to Puritan lobbying. The bishops were aghast at this and, at an early meeting with the king, managed to persuade him to abandon the idea. It was, however, an important straw in the wind, which suggested that the new king might well be more sympathetic to the Puritans than the late Gloriana.
Where some despaired for the future, others plotted to change its course. Despite all the ominous signs of an imminent Puritan triumph, one bishop could see how James could be turned against Puritanism. He would win the day.