1603–1611

The Hampton Court Conference and the King James Bible

James I ascended the English throne in 1603. He rejected the Puritans' moderate petition and insisted on the divine institution of episcopacy ("no bishop, no king"). This stance was backed by Archbishop Bancroft's anti-Puritan canons (1604, 1606).

The Hampton Court Conference brought no reconciliation. Its only lasting result was a new Bible translation, published in 1611 as the King James Version.

Even this official translation retained the spurious addition of "the three that bear record in heaven" (1 John 5:7). Erasmus had earlier removed it as unattested in any Greek manuscript. This is an example of theological conservatism outweighing scholarly progress.