James, shrewd as ever, had hit the weakness of the Puritan contention. Religion, he would say, must needs be a matter which, in its fundamentals, we may carry in our heads: it cannot be for every man to learn a long catena or corpus theologiæ, with its corrections and its qualifications. The King was reaching towards the conclusion which the greatest prelate of the age expressed in after years," Nor will I ever take upon me to express that tenet or opinion, the denial of the foundation only excepted, which may shut any Christian, even the meanest, out of heaven."
Out of the controversies, however, some good did emerge. The Church Catechism was strengthened by the addition of the question and answers on the two chief Sacraments, and it was agreed that the Bible should be newly translated into English. Hampton Court has thus a special claim on the interest of all English-speaking people, for it was there that the plan was made which gave to literature and religion the priceless treasure of the Authorised Version. The High Commission was last touched on—a tribunal which no one really liked, bishops nor lawyers, lay folk nor ministers. It was compared with the Inquisition, and defended, and restricted. And nothing happened, as might have been expected. Besides this came the objections to the cross in baptism, to the surplice, and little matters which seem trivial to us to-day. James again had his flouts and jeers. "You aim at a Scottish Presbytery,
