The Calvinist International
King James I on the need for a ruler to have a virtuous life (archaic spelling updated): But it is not enough to be a good King, by the scepter of good Laws well execute to govern, and by force of arms to protect his people; if he join not therewith his virtuous life in […]
Basilicon Doron (1598) was King James I of England’s (also James VI of Scotland) heartfelt appeal to his son, Henry. It contained instructions for him should he succeed James to the throne. At the beginning James placed a sonnet summarising the argument of the work. It is rather charming and contains a simple statement of the divine right […]
In his recent book, The Watershed of Modern Politics (Yale, 2015), the eminent historian of ideas Francis Oakley makes the case that the theory of the divine right of kings is a constant and central one for a large part of the history of western political thought. In short, the prominence of ‘sacral kingship’ in western […]
Derek Wilson, writing about the context just prior to the publication of the King James Bible, illuminates the strikingly bad conditions of learning and reading among the 16th-century English clergy: Clergy considered themselves, and were considered by their flocks, to be primarily performers of rituals rather than teachers of Christian truth. As late as 1551, […]
King James VI of Scotland and I of England has a split reputation among Christians. Some have nearly divinized him because of his association with the Authorized Version of the Bible. Others, typically those taking themselves to be heirs of the stricter Puritans, have reacted strongly against this portrait, going out of their way to […]