Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/296

 282 //. FROM THE llOO'S TO THE 1800'S responsibility of their own acts. Twenty years later Coke himself declared against the constitutional character of the Court of High Commission, and, by refusing to act upon it, paved the way for its downfall. But Coke was then in opposition to the king's advisers, and made it his account to be an independent judge. But I am antici- pating. The change of Elizabeth for James I was a critical event in English Church history. James's dealings with the Church are not among the strongest, but are perhaps among the least reprehensible parts of his administration. He willingly confirmed the canons of 1604, which make a substantive addi- tion to the canonical lore of the clergy. He failed to secure co-operation between the House of Commons and the Con- vocation, or between the bishops and the Puritan divines. But this is no wonder. A House of Commons which could listen to Sir Herbert Crofts declaring that the Church had declined ever since doctors began to wear boots ; or could expel Mr. Sheppard, M. P. for Shaftesbury, for explaining that ' dies Sabbati ' meant not the Sabaoth as they called it, but Saturday, and suggesting that as David danced before the ark, the legality of dancing was a question on which the bishops might decide before it was altogether forbidden, — such a House of Commons was not likely to impress men like Hooker or Andrewes with respect, or King James either. It is clear I think that, if the Puritan party had been well represented at the Hampton Court Conference, James would have seen justice done to them; but he saw their intolerance and their frivolity, and the balance remained unredressed. One of their minor complaints, against the issuing of eccle- siastical sentences by lay chancellors, touches directly on our subject: their idea was to give all the disciplinary power to the clergy, but to their own clergy : the prelates of the time chose to maintain the stattis qiu) which left the power where it was. On this point the civilians were peremptory. Some of the prelates, either wishful to promote their sons or willing to lodge Church discipline in clerical hands, appointed clergy- men to be chancellors. The doctors took umbrage at this, petitioned King Charles I in 1625, and obtained from him