... church and get rid of any last traces of Catholicism. However Catholics thought James would be sympathetic towards them because of his tolerant nature and the fact that his wife was a practising Catholic. They were hoping to be allowed to practise their faith and have recusancy fines abolished. When he first came into power, James made some attempts at achieving religious harmony. He pleased the Catholics in 1603 by reducing recusancy fines to less than a quarter of what they had been previously. As James was travelling south from Scotland he was presented with the Millenary petition, which had apparently been signed by 1000 members of the clergy. This petition was in favour of moderate Puritan reforms and prompted James to call a conference at Hampton Court. At this conference it was decided to publish a new version of the Bible (King James Bible appeared in 1611) but the Puritans ...

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