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

THE CONFERENCE 149
nine Articles as they stood. Bancroft burst in
with a somewhat ineffectual attempt to pour contempt
upon the Puritans by a far-fetched jest: " I
conclude you are of Master Cartwright's mind, who
affirmed that we ought in ceremonies rather to conform
to the Turks than the Papists; otherwise, why
do ye come here in your Turkey gowns instead of
your proper habits ? " The humour of phrase was illtimed.
The stout objectors sat on in their rich gowns,
and the King demanded that the objection should be
formally answered. Bancroft was more successful in
his theology than in his wit. He had little difficulty
in persuading the King that it would be rash indeed to
tie down the Church of England by the bonds of the
Lambeth Articles to a rigid Calvinism such as he had
never favoured. James himself would have, he said,
Predestination " tenderly handled." Common sense, it
would appear, was not out of court in the long theological
discussion that followed. Such bitter questions
as intention were debated by Dr.Reynolds, and one of
the prime points in the controversy between Laud and
Fisher twenty years later was touched by the King
with a smart onslaught of practical application : " Why,
this is like one Master Craig in Scotland, with his /
renounce and/ abhor, his multiplied detestations and
abrenuntiations,which so amazed simple people that
they fell back to Popery. You would swell the Book
of Articles into a volume as big as the Bible: andI
must carry my confession of faith in my table-book,
not in my head."