[Milton-L] Re: AV/KJV

[Sabrina Baron]

The impetus for a new translation of the Bible came out of the  
Hampton Court Conference which was convened in January 1604 (n.s.).   
This Conference was to be a debate that the new king, James, was  
sponsoring and moderating, in hopes of resolving some of the problems  
within the Church of England.  Many of these problems had been  
pointed out in the Millenarian Petition, so-called because it was  
signed by 1000 members of the English clergy, that was delivered to  
James while he was still on his trip south to take the throne.  There  
was a lot of anticipation that James would resolve some of the  
problems in the church that Elizabeth had allowed to stew because he  
had been raised a presbyterian.  But of course it was James who was  
the author of the dictum "No bishop, no king."

The Conference was a disappointment for most concerned because it did  
not inspire action to redress the grievances.  Conventional wisdom  
holds that the new translation of the Bible was the only thing of  
substance to come out of it.

So, the king was sponsoring the translation.  I presume the crown or  
the church establishment paid for the translation, although this is  
an interesting question.  It was printed by the King's printer, who  
would not have been printing something like this without authority to  
do so.  The king was the ultimate authority for allowing works to be  
printed, and the church hierarchy also played a major role in  
licensing for the press.

It is then a good question, I think, to ask who else would be  
expected to authorize it, and in what sense would they be authorizing  
it?

Sabrina Baron