So I was reading up on Guy Fawkes as last night was the 5th of November and in the Wikipedia page it said that Fawkes was trying to assassinate James I because he was protestant:

In 1604 Fawkes became involved with a small group of English Catholics, led by Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate the Protestant King James and replace him with his daughter, third in the line of succession, Princess Elizabeth.

Now in school I had learned that James was Catholic (hence why his son met an untimely end), but I haven't edited the article because I don't know enough about James, Fawkes, or the plot. So I would like to pose the question here. Could someone please either prove me wrong or edit the article so it is more accurate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes#Gunpowder_Plot

Isn't the protestant King James Bible named after him?

Thank you, so it should be that he was Catholic but with strong Protestant sympathies. And I'm pretty sure all English Christians have the same Bible, but yes Catholic Bibles back then were more likely to be in Latin.

King James gave the translators instructions to make the translation conform to the episcopal structure of the Church of England. So, King James I of England was pretty clearly protestant.

Ah, okay. I was under the conception that some Protestant Christians believe the bible is the word of God and the King James Bible was of special standing. It seemed odd for that bible to be named after a Catholic king but perhaps that's the case.

I'm almost positive he was Catholic, my guess would be the inertia of the protestant administration under Elizabeth I was behind most of this anti-Catholic legislation. His family was also Catholic right down to Bonny Prince Charlie (with the women generally taking the religion of their husbands, Mary and Anne), hence why they were expelled during the Glorious Revolution.

during his rule there was legislation passed that made people swear he had higher authority than the Pope, he commissioned a Bible translation which he gave explicit instructions to favour the Church of England's teachings.

He did exercise tolerance to the Catholics in England however, until the gunpowder plot, which was the third assassination attempt orchestrated by Catholics against his person.