James I is perhaps best remembered as the sponsor of the King James
Version of the Protestant Bible, first published in 1611. Although since
surpassed in scholarship by much more accurate translations, many Bible
verses and aphorism still are quoted using the 400-hundred-year old
wording of the King James Version.
The same year King James published his Bible, his reputation became
forever stained as the last Protestant king to burn "heretiks" at the
stake. In the salutation to his royal edict condemning a group of
Anabaptists to death, James claimed his authority to "root out and
extirpate" the "diverse wicked Errours, Heresies, and blasphemous
Opinions" came "by Grace of God" from his role as "Defender of the
Faith." This is the very language used on his coinage.
