Online Reference For Body, Mind & Spirit

Term: James I

DEFINITION:

(1566–1625) He was just 13 months old when this son of Mary, Queen of Scots was crowned King James VI of Scotland. In 1603 he became James I of England after the death of the last Tudor ruler, Elizabeth I. He becme a believer in demons and evil Witches, thinking they were going to kill him. He even wrote a book, Daemonology, in 1597. He personally supervised the torture of women who were supposedly Witches. In 1604 he had passed repressive anti-Witchcraft laws. He commissioned a group of scholars to translate the Bible into English. He insisted that “his” Bible must be Protestant and passages must not support the Catholic Church. He also demanded that Witches should be made evil and condemned wherever possible. In 1611, the King James Version of the Bible was published. James refused to pay the people who had translated it.