Hampton Court ... Illustrated with forty-three drawings by Herbert ...

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HAMPTON COURT
the service while the Queen in her " bathing-closet "
next door, according to the witticism of Lord Hervey,
would cry to her lady-in-waiting, "Shut a little that
door; those creatures pray so loud, one cannot hear
oneself speak."
Ill
Religion, we are bound to admit, has not, at least
since Wolsey's day, been a very obtrusive factor in
the life of Hampton Court Palace; yet it has been
none the less real for that, and, slight though the
ecclesiastical interest of the house may be, it is famous
in the history of the English Church for the Conference
which first made clear the irreconcilable division
between the Church of England, adhering in its
formularies to the doctrine and discipline of the
undivided Church, and the dissenting bodies who
desired an absolute break with the past.
The Conference met on Saturday, January 14, 1604,
in response to James's proclamation of October 24,
1603, in which he promised to consider the complaints
that hadbeenput beforehimby theso-calledMillennary
petition, and to take cognisance of the state of the
Church. On the evening of the 13th James saw some
of the bishops in his private chamber, and the next day
the King met the bishops in a solemn conclave. It was
proposed that the King, assisted by several bishops and
learned divines, should hear the complaints which were
to be made byministers who desired further changes in