Javascript required
Skip to content Skip to sidebar Skip to footer

In What Way Did Elizabeth Help to Usher Protestantism Into England?

Function of England's switch to Protestantism

The Elizabethan Religious Settlement is the proper name given to the religious and political arrangements fabricated for England during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603) that brought the English Reformation to a conclusion. The Settlement shaped the theology and liturgy of the Church of England and was important to the development of Anglicanism as a singled-out Christian tradition.

When Elizabeth inherited the throne, England was bitterly divided betwixt Catholics and Protestants every bit a outcome of various religious changes initiated past Henry 8, Edward VI and Mary I. Henry VIII had cleaved from the Roman Catholic Church and the authority of the pope, condign Supreme Head of the Church of England. During Edward's reign, the Church of England adopted a Reformed theology and liturgy. In Mary's reign, these religious policies were reversed, England was re-united with the Catholic Church and Protestantism was suppressed.

The Elizabethan Settlement, sometimes called the Revolution of 1559,[one] was an endeavor to end this religious turmoil. The Act of Supremacy of 1558 re-established the Church building of England'southward independence from Rome, and Parliament conferred on Elizabeth the title of Supreme Governor of the Church of England. The Human action of Uniformity of 1559 re-introduced the Book of Common Prayer from Edward's reign, which contained the liturgical services of the church. Some modifications were made to appeal to Catholics and Lutherans, including giving individuals greater breadth concerning belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and permission to utilize traditional priestly vestments. In 1571, the Xxx-Nine Manufactures were adopted as a confessional statement for the church building, and a Book of Homilies was issued outlining the church'due south reformed theology in greater particular. Throughout the reigns of Elizabeth and James I, Calvinism was the predominant theology within the Church of England.

The Settlement failed to end religious disputes. While about of the population gradually conformed to the established church, a minority of recusants remained loyal Roman Catholics. Within the Church building of England, Puritans pressed to remove what they considered papist abuses from the church'due south liturgy and to replace bishops with a presbyterian system of church government. After Elizabeth'south death, the Puritans were challenged by a high church building, Arminian political party that gained power during the reign of Charles I. The English language Civil War and overthrow of the monarchy allowed the Puritans to pursue their reform agenda and the dismantling of the Elizabethan Settlement for a period. After the Restoration in 1660, the Settlement was restored, and the Puritans were forced out of the Church of England. Anglicanism became defined by the via media or center way between the religious extremes of Catholicism and Protestantism; Arminianism and Calvinism; and high church building and low church building.

Background [edit]

From correct to left: Elizabeth I, Edward VI, Henry 8, Mary I and her husband Philip Two of Espana

Elizabeth I inherited a kingdom bitterly divided over matters of organized religion. This segmentation began during the reign of her father, Henry 8. After his married woman, Catherine of Aragon, failed to produce a male person heir, Henry applied to the pope for an disparateness of his marriage. When his request was denied, Henry separated the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church building and claimed that he, rather than the pope, was its supreme head on earth.[2] Nether Elizabeth's one-half-blood brother, Edward VI, the Church of England became more explicitly Protestant, projecting a "restrained" Calvinism, in the words of historian Christopher Haigh.[3]

During Edward'south reign, the Church building of England preached justification past faith alone equally a central teaching,[four] in contrast to the Cosmic teaching that the contrite person could cooperate with God towards their salvation by performing good works.[5] The doctrines of purgatory, prayer for the expressionless and the intercession of saints were also rejected during this time.[6] [7] The Mass, the central act of Catholic worship, was condemned every bit idolatry and replaced with a Protestant communion service, a reminder of Christ's crucifixion.[8] Christ's Real Presence in the Eucharist was no longer explained past the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation; instead, the 1552 Book of Common Prayer promoted the Reformed didactics of Christ's spiritual presence.[nine] The veneration of religious images (icons, roods, statues) and relics were suppressed,[ten] and iconoclasm was sanctioned by the regime.[11]

Mary I, Elizabeth's half-sister, became queen in 1553. She reversed the religious innovations introduced by her male parent and brother. Under Mary's rule, England returned to the Cosmic Church and recognised the pope's authority. Mary died in Nov 1558 without a Catholic heir, leaving the throne to the Protestant Elizabeth.[12]

Elizabeth'due south religious views were Protestant, though "peculiarly conservative".[13] She as well kept many of her religious views private, which can go far hard to determine what she believed. She disliked married clergy, held Lutheran views on Eucharistic presence, and in that location is bear witness she preferred the more formalism 1549 prayer book.[14] [15] At sure times, the Queen made her religious preferences clear, such equally on Christmas Day 1558, when earlier Mass she instructed Bishop Owen Oglethorpe not to elevate the host. He refused, so the Queen left the chapel before the induction. In event, Elizabeth was declaring that she did not believe in the doctrine of transubstantiation.[16] At Westminster Abbey—still a Benedictine monastery—the Queen disapproved of what she considered Catholic superstition, telling the monks begetting candles in procession, "Away with those torches, for we see very well".[17] The Queen's principal secretary was Sir William Cecil, a moderate Protestant.[18] Her Privy Quango was filled with former Edwardian politicians, and only Protestants preached at Court.[19] [20]

To avoid alarming strange Catholic observers, Elizabeth initially maintained that nothing in religion had changed. A declaration forbade any "breach, alteration, or change of any gild or usage presently established within this our realm".[21] Nevertheless, Protestants were emboldened to practice illegal forms of worship, and a proclamation on 27 December prohibited all forms other than the Latin Mass and the English Litany.[16] It was obvious to most that these were temporary measures. Her government's goal was to resurrect the Edwardian reforms, reinstating the Purple Injunctions of 1547, the 1552 Book of Mutual Prayer, and the Forty-ii Articles of Religion of 1553.[22]

Legislation [edit]

Reformation bill [edit]

When the Queen's first Parliament opened in Jan 1559, its master goal was the difficult job of reaching a religious settlement. Twenty bishops (all Roman Catholics)[23] sat in the House of Lords as Lords Spiritual, and the Lords in general were opposed to change.[17] In Feb, the Business firm of Eatables passed a Reformation Bill that would restore royal supremacy as well equally the 1550 Ordinal and a slightly revised 1552 prayer book.[24] [22] It was non pop with the clergy, and the Convocation of Canterbury reacted by affirming papal supremacy, transubstantiation and the Mass every bit a sacrificial offering.[25]

The lay peers joined the bishops in their opposition and succeeded in amending the bill considerably. The Ordinal and Prayer Book provisions were removed and the Mass left unchanged, with the exception of allowing communion under both kinds. The Pope'south authority was removed, but rather than granting the Queen the title of Supreme Head, it merely said she could adopt it herself. This pecker would have returned the Church to its position at the death of Henry VIII rather than to that when Edward VI died. It was a defeat for the Queen's legislative program, and so she withheld imperial assent.[26] [27]

Act of Supremacy [edit]

Post-obit the Queen'south failure to grant approval to the previous bill, Parliament reconvened in Apr 1559. At this point, the Privy Council introduced ii new bills, one concerning royal supremacy and the other nearly a Protestant liturgy. The Quango hoped that by separating them at least the Supremacy beak would pass.[28] Under this bill, the Pope'southward jurisdiction in England was one time once again abolished, and Elizabeth was to be Supreme Governor of the Church of England instead of supreme head. All clergy and royal office-holders would be required to swear an Oath of Supremacy.[29]

The alternative title was less offensive to Catholic members of Parliament, but this was unlikely to have been the only reason for the alteration. It was too a concession to the Queen's Protestant supporters who objected to "supreme head" on theological grounds and who had concerns about a female leading the Church. John Calvin, an influential Continental reformer, had chosen Henry Viii'due south claim to supreme headship blasphemy. Thomas Sampson, a Marian exile, believed that "All scripture seems to assign the title of head of the Church building to Christ alone".[29]

The bill included permission to receive communion in two kinds. It as well repealed the medieval heresy laws that Mary I had revived. Catholics gained an of import concession. Under the bill, only opinions contrary to Scripture, the Full general Councils of the early on church, and any future Parliament could exist treated every bit heresy by the Crown'southward ecclesiastical commissioners. While broad and ambiguous, this provision was meant to reassure Catholics that they would take some protection.[thirty]

The bill easily passed the House of Eatables. In the House of Lords, all the bishops voted against information technology, merely they were joined by simply one lay peer. The Human activity of Supremacy became law.[28]

Act of Uniformity [edit]

Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556), Edward 6's Archbishop of Canterbury and editor and co-author of both the 1549 and 1552 Books of Common Prayer.

Some other pecker introduced to the same Parliament with the intent to return Protestant practices to legal dominance was the Uniformity bill, which sought to restore the 1552 prayer volume as the official liturgy.[31] Information technology encountered more opposition in the Lords than the Supremacy Act, passing by only three votes. Even this was possible merely through political intrigue. Bishops Watson of Lincoln and White of Winchester were imprisoned in the Tower. Bishop Goldwell of St Asaph was never summoned to Parliament, and the elderly Bishop Tunstall of Durham was excused from attending on account of historic period.[32]

The Act of Uniformity required church attendance on Sundays and holy days and imposed fines for each twenty-four hours absent. Information technology restored the 1552 prayer volume with some modifications.[33] The Litany in the 1552 book had denounced "the bishop of Rome, and all his insufferable enormities".[31] The revised Book of Common Prayer removed this denunciation of the Pope. Information technology also deleted the Black Rubric, which in the 1552 volume explained that kneeling for communion did not imply Eucharistic adoration.[31]

The Ornaments Rubric was added as i of the concessions to traditionalists in social club to proceeds passage in the Lords.[34] The rubric provided instructions for clerical vestments, stating that until the Queen ordered otherwise ministers were to "use such ornaments as were in utilize by the say-so of Parliament in the 2nd yr of the reign of King Edward VI".[35] Edward's second regnal year ran from 28 Jan 1548 to 27 Jan 1549. During this time, priests said Mass in Latin wearing traditional Cosmic vestments. Few idea this was the rubric's significant, nevertheless. Since the Deed of Uniformity 1549 which approved the beginning prayer book was passed in January, it is probable that the provisions of the 1549 prayer volume were intended, even though Edward's 2d year ended several months earlier the volume was published. The 1549 prayer book required clergy to wear the alb, cope and chasuble.[35] [36] Opposition to the so-called "popish wardrobe" made it impossible to enforce the rubric.[36]

The most pregnant revision was a change to the Communion Service that added the words for administering sacramental bread and wine from the 1549 prayer book to the words in the 1552 volume.[37] When communicants received the bread, they would hear the words, "The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life [1549]. Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving" [1552].[38] This combination could be interpreted as an affidavit of an objective existent presence to those who believed in it, while others could interpret information technology to mean memorialism.[39]

Scholarly estimation [edit]

In his "Puritan Choir" thesis, historian J. E. Neale argues that Elizabeth wanted to pursue a bourgeois policy just was pushed in a radical direction by a Protestant faction in the House of Eatables.[40] This theory has been challenged by Christopher Haigh, who argues that Elizabeth wanted radical reform but was pushed in a conservative direction past the Firm of Lords. Haigh argues that the Deed of Uniformity "produced an ambiguous Book of Mutual Prayer: a liturgical compromise which allowed priests to perform the Church of England communion with Catholic regalia, standing in the Catholic position, and using words capable of Catholic interpretation".[33] This fabricated information technology easier for priests to "apocryphal" the Mass without risking abort.[41]

Some other historian, Diarmaid MacCulloch, besides finds Neale's thesis flawed.[14] At the same fourth dimension, he calls the idea that the prayer book modifications were concessions to Catholics "absurd", writing that "these trivial exact and visual adjustments" would never satisfy Catholic clergy and laity after the loss of "the Latin mass, monasteries, chantries, shrines, gilds and a compulsory celibate priesthood".[fifteen] He argues the modifications were most likely meant to appease domestic and foreign Lutheran Protestants who opposed the memorialist view originating from reformed Zurich.[39] In 1559, Elizabeth was still unsure of the theological orientation of her Protestant subjects, and she did not desire to offend the Lutheran rulers of northern Europe past veering too far into the Reformed camp. "It was worthwhile for Elizabeth'south government to throw the Lutherans a few theological scraps, and the alter besides chimed with the queen's personal inclination to Lutheran views on eucharistic presence."[15]

Historians Patrick Collinson and Peter Lake fence that until 1630 the Church of England was shaped by a "Calvinist consensus".[42] During this time, Calvinist clergy held the best bishoprics and deaneries. Historians John Coffey and Paul C. H. Lim write that the Elizabethan Church building "was widely regarded equally a Reformed church building, but it was anomalous in retaining certain features of belatedly medieval Catholicism", such as cathedrals, church choirs, a formal liturgy contained in the prayer book, traditional clerical vestments and episcopal polity.[43]

Implementation [edit]

Episcopal appointments [edit]

To enforce her religious policies, Queen Elizabeth needed bishops willing to cooperate. Seven bishops, including Cardinal Pole, Mary's Archbishop of Canterbury, died in 1558 and needed to be replaced. The remaining bishops were all Catholics appointed during Mary's reign, and Elizabeth's advisers hoped they could exist persuaded to proceed serving. Ultimately, all only two bishops (the undistinguished Anthony Kitchin of Llandaff and the absentee Thomas Stanley of Sodor and Man) lost their posts. Most of their replacements were non consecrated until Dec 1559 or early 1560.[44]

Elizabeth chose Matthew Parker to replace Pole as Archbishop of Canterbury. Parker was a prominent scholar and had served every bit chaplain to Elizabeth's mother, Anne Boleyn. Too, like Elizabeth, Parker was a Nicodemite—someone who stayed in England during Mary's reign and outwardly conformed to Catholicism. Virtually of the other posts went to Marian exiles such as Edmund Grindal for London, Richard Cox for Ely, John Jewel for Salisbury, William Barlow for Chichester and John Scory for Hereford. Those exiles with ties to John Calvin's reformation in Geneva were notably excluded from consideration. The Queen never forgave John Knox for writing The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regiment of Women, which denounced female monarchs, and the Reformation in Geneva was tainted by association.[45]

Imperial injunctions [edit]

Ancient altar rock at Jacobstow Church. It was the chief altar stone upwards to well-nigh 1550 in the reign of Edward VI when it was removed and used equally a footbridge over a stream.

In the summer of 1559, the regime conducted a purple visitation of the dioceses. The visitation was conducted according to injunctions based on the Royal Injunctions of 1547.[41] These new royal injunctions were meant to fill up in the details of the settlement and were to be enforced nationwide past vi groups of clerical and lay commissioners. All of the leading clergymen were Protestants and former exiles (Robert Horne, Thomas Becon, Thomas Bentham, John Jewel, Edwin Sandys, and Richard Davies), and they interpreted the injunctions in the almost Protestant fashion possible.[46]

According to the injunctions, church images that were superstitiously driveling were condemned equally idolatry, but the commissioners mandated the destruction of all pictures and images.[41] Across the nation, parishes paid to have roods, images and altar tabernacles removed, which they had merely recently paid to restore under Queen Mary. They would spend more money on buying Bibles and prayer books and replacing chalices with communion cups (a chalice was designed for the priest lonely whereas a communion cup was larger and to be used by the whole congregation).[47]

A 17th-century communion table in St Laurence Church, Shotteswell

The Injunctions offered clarity on the matter of vestments. Clergy were to wear the surplice (rather than cope or chasuble) for services. In 1560, the bishops specified that the cope should be worn when administering the Lord's Supper and the surplice at all other times.[48] Other provisions of the Royal Injunctions were out of footstep with the Edwardian Reformation and displayed the Queen's conservative preferences. These included injunctions assuasive processions to have place at Rogationtide and requirements that clergy receive permission to ally from the bishop and two justices of the peace.[49]

In some instances, the injunctions contradicted the 1559 prayer book. While the prayer book directed the use of ordinary staff of life for communion, the Injunctions required traditional wafers to be used.[41] There were also alien directions for the placement of the communion tables that were to replace stone altars. According to the prayer volume, the tabular array should exist placed permanently in the chancel oriented eastward to west. The injunctions ordered the "holy tabular array" to be carried into the chancel during communion services merely at all other times to be placed where the altar would take stood. When not in apply, it was to be oriented north to south, the same as an chantry.[49] These provisions offended many Protestants, and in practice, the Injunctions were often ignored by church leaders.[l]

The Queen was disappointed by the extreme iconoclasm of the Protestants during the visitations. In October 1559, she ordered that a crucifix and candlesticks be placed on the communion table in the Chapel Royal. Later, she decided that roods should be restored in parish churches. Elizabeth's bishops protested both moves as revivals of idolatry, arguing that all images were forbidden past the Second Commandment. In the end, the Queen and the bishops reached an unspoken compromise. She kept her crucifix and candles and dropped her plans to restore roods. In 1560, Bishop Grindal was allowed to enforce the demolition of rood lofts in London.[51] A yr later, the Queen herself ordered the demolition of all lofts, only the rood beams were to remain on which the royal arms were to be displayed. The Queen still believed there should be a division betwixt the chancel and the remainder of the church.[52]

Many parishes were slow to comply with the injunctions. Many did so out of sympathy with traditional Catholic faith, while others waited to run into if this religious settlement was permanent earlier taking expensive activity. Churchwarden accounts bespeak that half of all parishes kept Catholic vestments and Mass equipment for at to the lowest degree a decade. Gradually, however, parishes complied equally bishops exerted force per unit area. Near of the parish clergy were Catholics.[53] Through the mid-1650s, there were an estimated 800 clergy who resigned or were deprived for refusal to arrange. Most parish clergy kept their posts, but it is not clear to what caste they conformed.[54] The bishops idea that Catholicism was widespread among the old clergy, only priests were rarely removed considering of a clergy shortage that began with an influenza epidemic in 1558.[55]

Manufactures of Religion and the Book of Homilies [edit]

The Elizabethan settlement was farther consolidated by the adoption of a moderately Protestant doctrinal argument called the Thirty-ix Articles of Organized religion. While affirming traditional Christian pedagogy as defined by the first four ecumenical councils, it tried to steer a middle way between Reformed and Lutheran doctrines while rejecting Anabaptist thinking. The Thirty-nine Articles were not intended as a complete statement of the Christian faith merely of the position of the Church building of England in relation to the Cosmic Church building and dissident Protestants.[56] [ page needed ] In 1571, Convocation finalised the Thirty-nine Manufactures. It was given statutory strength by the Subscription Deed, which required all new ministers to affirm their understanding with this confessional statement.[57]

With the Queen's blessing, Convocation also issued a second Volume of Homilies with sermons on twenty topics. One, "Of the Worthy Receiving of the Sacrament", added more than detail to the church's doctrine of the Eucharist, which was described as "spiritual food" and "a ghostly substance and non carnal" fabricated real by faith. This receptionist view had much in mutual with John Calvin's Eucharistic theology. "Of Mutual Prayer and Sacraments" taught that although only baptism and the Eucharist were sacraments instituted by Christ other rites such as ordination had a sacramental character.[58]

Music [edit]

Music in the Church building of England was limited to biblical texts and music sung during worship in the early church building. Examples of permissible music included metrical psalms and liturgical texts such as the Te Deum. Although most people were able to sing, worship was dominated by choral liturgies, especially in the cathedrals. During this time, motets were replaced by anthems,[59] and William Byrd's Great Service was composed for the royal chapel and cathedrals.[60] Parish churches tended to have less music as Puritan influences argued against using of funds to pay for choristers.[61] Churches employed singers for special occasions,[62] which might be paid with money, wine, or ale and staff of life.[63] The impressment of boys for service equally singers in St. Paul'southward Cathedral and the imperial chapel continued during this menses.[64]

Devotional singing at abode was shared between family and friends.[65] By far the well-nigh popular and reprinted metrical Psalter was Thomas Sternhold'due south Whole book of Psalms.[66] Although it was not legally required, it was traditional for near all Protestant churches and was also used at dwelling house.[67]

Reception [edit]

The settlement of 1559 had given Protestants command of the Church of England, but matters were different at the parish level, where Catholic priests and traditional laity held large majorities. The bishops struggled for decades to impose the prayer book and Injunctions on reluctant parishes. "For a while, information technology was possible to sustain an attenuated Catholicism within the parish framework, by counterfeiting the mass, teaching the seven sacraments, preserving images of saints, reciting the rosary, observing feasts, fasts, and community".[68] Over fourth dimension, however, this "survivalist Catholicism" was undermined by pressures to conform, giving way to an hush-hush Catholicism completely separate from the Church of England.[68]

Gradually, England was transformed into a Protestant country as the prayer book shaped Elizabethan religious life. Past the 1580s, conformist Protestants (termed "parish anglicans" by Christopher Haigh and "Prayer Volume protestants" by Judith Maltby) were becoming a majority.[69] [70] [71] Efforts to introduce further religious reforms through Parliament or by ways of Convocation were consistently blocked past the Queen. The Church of England'due south refusal to adopt the patterns of the Continental Reformed churches deepened conflict between Protestants who desired greater reforms and church government who prioritised conformity.[72]

Roman Catholic resistance [edit]

A recusant business firm in Wales that served equally a Mass centre during the Reformation

In the early years of Elizabeth's reign, most Catholics hoped the Protestant ascendancy would exist temporary, as it had been prior to Mary's restoration of papal dominance. There were priests who conformed to the prayer book while also providing the Mass to their parishioners. Others refused to adjust. Large numbers of deans, archdeacons, cathedral canons, and academics (mostly from Oxford but also from Cambridge) lost their positions.[73] In the early years, some 300 Catholics fled, specially to the University of Louvain. From in that location they wrote and published a large trunk of Catholic polemical work to counter Protestantism, specially Thomas Harding, Richard Smyth, and William Allen.[74] They also acted as a "Church building government in exile", providing Catholics in England with advice and instructions.[75] In 1568, the English College at Douai was founded to provide a Catholic education to young Englishmen and, eventually, to train a new leadership for a restored Catholic Church building in England.[75] Other leading Marian churchmen remained in England to serve equally individual chaplains to Catholic nobles and gentry. Many became leaders of an underground Catholic Church.[76]

Catholics were forced to choose between attending Protestant services to comply with the law or refusing to attend. Those who refused to attend Church of England services were chosen recusants. Well-nigh Catholics, however, were "church papists"—Catholics who outwardly conformed to the established church while maintaining their Catholic faith in hole-and-corner. Wealthy church building papists attended their parish church building but had Mass at dwelling or hired ii chaplains, i to perform the prayer book service and the other to perform the Mass.[77] Initially, recusant priests advised the laity to simply abstain from Protestant communion. However, this stance hardened over time.[78] In 1562, the Council of Trent ruled out whatever outward conformity or Nicodemism for Catholics: "Yous may not be present at such prayers of heretics, or at their sermons, without heinous offence and the indignation of God, and it is far improve to suffer most bitter cruelties than to give the to the lowest degree sign of consent to such wicked and beastly rites."[79] By the late 1560s, recusancy was becoming more mutual.[78]

In 1569, the Defection of the Northern Earls attempted to overthrow England's Protestant regime. The rebellion was defeated, but it contributed to a perception that Catholicism was treason. This perception was seemingly confirmed when Elizabeth was excommunicated past Pope Pius V in February 1570. The papal bull Regnans in Excelsis released Elizabeth'due south Catholic subjects from whatsoever obligation to obey her. Subsequently, two Catholics, John Felton and John Story, were executed for treason.[80] The discovery of the Ridolfi plot–a Catholic conspiracy to overthrow Elizabeth and place Mary, Queen of Scots on the throne–further alarmed the English government.[81]

By 1574, Catholic recusants had organised an hush-hush Roman Catholic Church, distinct from the Church of England. However, it had ii major weaknesses: membership loss as church papists conformed fully to the Church of England, and a shortage of priests. The latter problem was addressed past establishing seminaries to train and ordain English language priests. In addition to the English College at Douai, a seminary was established at Rome and two more established in Spain. Between 1574 and 1603, 600 Catholic priests were sent to England.[82] In 1580, the starting time Jesuit priests came to England.[83]

The Queen'southward excommunication and the arrival of the seminary priests brought a modify in authorities policy toward recusants. Before 1574, most laymen were not made to take the Oath of Supremacy and the 12d fine for missing a service was poorly enforced.[83] Afterwards, efforts to identify recusants and force them to conform increased. In 1581, a new police made it treason to exist absolved from schism and reconciled with Rome and the fine for recusancy was increased to £20 per month (50 times an artisan's wage). Later, executions of Cosmic priests became more mutual, and in 1585, information technology became treason for a Catholic priest to enter the country, too as for anyone to aid or shelter him.[84]

The persecution of 1581–1592 changed the nature of Roman Catholicism in England. The seminary priests were dependent on the gentry families of southern England. As the older generation of recusant priests died out, Roman Catholicism collapsed among the lower classes in the due north, due west and in Wales. Without priests, these social classes drifted into the Church of England and Catholicism was forgotten. By Elizabeth's decease, Roman Catholicism had become "the faith of a modest sect", largely confined to gentry households.[85]

Puritanism [edit]

Leading Protestants within the Church of England were attracted to the Reformed churches of southward Germany and Switzerland led by theologians such equally John Calvin, Heinrich Bullinger and others.[86] In England, however, Protestants were forced to operate within a church structure unchanged since medieval times with the aforementioned threefold orders of bishop, priest and deacon along with church courts that continued to use medieval canon police. In improver, the liturgy remained "more elaborate and more reminiscent of older liturgical forms" and "took no account of developments in Protestant thinking after the early on 1550s". According to historian Diarmaid MacCulloch, the conflicts over the Elizabethan Settlement stem from the "tension between Catholic structure and Protestant theology".[86]

Thomas Cartwright was a leading Puritan and promoter of presbyterianism in the reign of Elizabeth I

There were objections over the prayer book, including certain formulas and responses, the sign of the cross in baptism, the surplice and utilize of a wedding ceremony ring in union.[87] Throughout her reign, the Queen successfully blocked attempts past Parliament and the bishops to introduce further change. The bishops were placed in the hard position of enforcing conformity while supporting reform. This was particularly axiomatic betwixt 1565 and 1567 during the Vestments controversy over the refusal of some clergy to clothing the clerical dress required by the Royal Injunctions. For many Protestants, clerical vestments symbolised a continued conventionalities in a priestly guild separate from the congregation,[72] and could be interpreted by Catholics as affirmation of traditional doctrines.[88] Bishop Jewel called the surplice a "vestige of mistake".[87] In general, the bishops considered clerical apparel adiaphora and tried to find compromise, just the Queen believed that the church—and herself equally Supreme Governor—had authority to determine rites and ceremonies. In the end, Archbishop Parker issued a code of discipline for the clergy called the Advertisements, and the well-nigh popular and effective Protestant preachers were suspended for non-compliance.[89]

The controversy over dress divided the Protestant community, and it was in these years that the term Puritan came into apply to depict those who wanted further reformation. Some lost religion in the Church of England as an agent of reform, becoming separatists and establishing underground congregations. Virtually Puritans, however, remained in the Church of England.[90] These Puritans were not without influence, enjoying the support of powerful men such as the Earl of Leicester, Walter Mildmay, Francis Walsingham, the Earl of Warwick and William Cecil. [91]

In 1572, a beak was introduced in the Queen's 4th Parliament that would allow Protestants, with their bishop's permission, to omit ceremonies from the 1559 prayer book, and bishops would be further empowered to license clergymen to use the French and Dutch stranger church liturgies. Roman Catholics, withal, would accept no such freedom. The Queen did not approve, disliking any try to undermine the concept of religious uniformity and her own religious settlement.[92]

By 1572, the debate betwixt Puritans and conformists had entered a new phase—church building government had replaced vestments every bit the major issue.[93] While Parliament withal met, Thomas Wilcox and John Field published An Admonition to the Parliament that condemned "Popish abuses yet remaining in the English Church" and episcopal polity.[94] Information technology chosen for the church to be organised co-ordinate to presbyterian polity. In November, A Second Admonition to Parliament was published—nigh likely authored past Thomas Cartwright or Christopher Goodman—which presented a more detailed proposal for church building reform along presbyterian lines. John Whitgift of Cambridge University, a leading advocate for conformity, published a reply in Oct 1572, and he and Cartwright subsequently entered into a pamphlet state of war. The Admonition Controversy was not a disagreement over soteriology—both Cartwright and Whitgift believed in predestination and that human works played no role in salvation.[95] Rather, the Admonition's authors believed that presbyterianism was the simply biblical form of church government, whereas Whitgift argued that no unmarried grade of church government was allowable in the Bible.[96] Under Field'south leadership, the Classical Motion was agile among Puritans within the Church of England throughout the 1570s and 1580s. Puritan clergy in this move organised local presbyteries or classes, from which the movement took its name. Through the 1580s, Puritans were organised plenty to conduct what were essentially covert national synods.[97]

John Whitgift was Archbishop of Canterbury and a defender of the Elizabethan Settlement

In 1577, Whitgift was fabricated Bishop of Worcester and six years afterward Archbishop of Canterbury. His rise to power has been identified with a "bourgeois reaction" confronting Puritanism. Information technology is more accurate to phone call Whitgift and those like him conformists, since the word bourgeois carries connotations of Catholicism.[98] The majority of conformists were office of the Reformed consensus that included the Puritans; what divided the parties were disputes over church government.[99] Whitgift's commencement move against the Puritans was a requirement that all clergy subscribe to three articles, the second of which stated that the Prayer Volume and Ordinal contained "null ... contrary to the word of God".[100] Whitgift's demands produced widespread turmoil, and around 400 ministers were suspended for refusal to subscribe. Under pressure from the Privy Council, Whitgift was forced to accept conditional subscriptions from defiant ministers.[101]

In the Parliaments of 1584 and 1586, the Puritans attempted to push through legislation that would plant a presbyterian course of government for the Church of England and replace the prayer book with the service book used in Geneva. Both attempts failed, mainly because of the Queen's opposition. In response, a group of conformists including Richard Bancroft, John Bridges, Matthew Sutcliffe, Thomas Bilson, and Hadrian Saravia began defending the English Church'south episcopal polity more than strongly, no longer merely accepting it every bit convenient but asserting it every bit divine law.[102]

In response to Bridges' A Defence of the Regime Established in the Church building of England for Ecclesiastical Matters, an anonymous Puritan under the pseudonym Martin Marprelate published a serial of tracts attacking leading conformist clergy. The 1588 Marprelate Controversy led to the discovery of the presbyterian organisation that had been built up over the years. Its leaders were arrested and the Classical Motion disintegrated. This debacle occurred at the aforementioned time that Puritanism's most powerful defenders at Court were dying off. In the aftermath of the conformist assault, the 1590s were relatively free of theological controversy. Once Whitgift had destroyed presbyterian activism, he was content to leave the Puritans alone. As well, Elizabethan Puritans abased the hopeless cause of presbyterianism to focus on less controversial pursuits.[103]

Aftermath [edit]

In 1603, the King of Scotland inherited the English language crown as James I. The Church of Scotland was even more strongly Reformed, having a presbyterian polity and John Knox's liturgy, the Book of Common Order. James was himself a moderate Calvinist, and the Puritans hoped the King would move the English Church building in the Scottish management.[104] [105] James, still, did the opposite, forcing the Scottish Church building to have bishops and the V Manufactures of Perth, all attempts to go far as similar as possible to the English Church.[106]

Archbishop William Laud's promotion of high church policies caused controversy inside the Church of England

At the start of his reign, Puritans presented the Millenary Petition to the King. This petition for church reform was referred to the Hampton Court Conference of 1604, which agreed to produce a new edition of the Book of Common Prayer that incorporated a few changes requested by the Puritans. The nearly of import outcome of the Conference, still, was the conclusion to produce a new translation of the Bible, the 1611 King James Version. While a disappointment for Puritans, the provisions were aimed at satisfying moderate Puritans and isolating them from their more radical counterparts.[107]

The Church of England'due south dominant theology was still Calvinism, merely a group of theologians associated with Bishop Lancelot Andrewes disagreed with many aspects of the Reformed tradition, especially its didactics on predestination. Similar the Puritans, Andrewes engaged in his own brand of nonconformity. In his private chapel, he added ceremonies and formulas not authorised in the prayer volume, such as burning incense. James I tried to balance the Puritan forces within his church with followers of Andrewes, promoting many of them at the end of his reign. This grouping was led past Richard Neile of Durham and became known equally the Durham House group. They looked to the Church Fathers rather than the Reformers and preferred using the more traditional 1549 prayer book.[108] Due to their belief in costless volition, this new faction is known as the Arminian party, but their loftier church orientation was more than controversial.[109]

During the reign of Charles I, the Arminians were ascendant and closely associated with William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (1633–1645). Laud and his followers believed the Reformation had gone too far and launched a "'Dazzler of Holiness' counter-revolution, wishing to restore what they saw as lost majesty in worship and lost dignity for the sacerdotal priesthood."[109] Laudianism, nonetheless, was unpopular with both Puritans and Prayer Volume Protestants, who viewed the high church innovations as undermining forms of worship they had grown fastened to.[110] The English Ceremonious State of war resulted in the overthrow of Charles I, and a Puritan dominated Parliament began to dismantle the Elizabethan Settlement. Episcopacy was replaced with a semi-presbyterian organisation. In 1645, the prayer volume was fabricated illegal and replaced past the Directory for Public Worship. The Directory was not a liturgical book but simply a fix of directions and outlines for services.[108]

The Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 allowed for the restoration of the Elizabethan Settlement besides. The 1662 prayer book mandated by the 1662 Human activity of Uniformity was a slightly revised version of the previous book.[111] Many Puritans, however, were unwilling to adjust to it. Effectually 900 ministers refused to subscribe to the new prayer book and were removed from their positions, an event known every bit the Great Ejection.[112] Puritans became dissenters. Now outside the established church, the different strands of the Puritan movement evolved into separate denominations: Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and Baptists.[113]

The Church of England was fundamentally changed. The "Jacobean consensus" was shattered, and the Church of England began defining itself less broadly.[114] The suppression and marginalisation of Prayer Volume Protestants during the 1640s and 1650s had fabricated the prayer book "an undisputed identifier of an emerging Anglican self-consciousness."[115] Historian Judith Maltby writes that Anglicanism equally a recognisable tradition "owes more to the Restoration than the Reformation".[116] It was in the period after 1660 that Richard Hooker'south idea became influential within the Church of England, as Anglicans tried to define themselves in ways distinct from Protestant dissenters.[116]

Diarmaid MacCulloch states that Hooker's writings helped to create an "Anglican synthesis". From Hooker, Anglicanism "inherited its belief in the identify of reason every bit an authority for action, its esteem for continuity over the Reformation divide, and a hospitality towards sacramental modes of thought". From the Arminians, it gained a theology of episcopacy and an appreciation for liturgy. From the Puritans and Calvinists, information technology "inherited a contradictory impulse to assert the supremacy of scripture and preaching".[117] The clash between Calvinists and Arminians was never resolved, and the "seesaw battle between Catholic and Protestant within a single Anglican ecclesiastical structure has been proceeding ever since".[118] The preface to the 1662 prayer volume divers the Church of England as a via media "betwixt the ii extremes of too much stiffness in refusing and of too much easiness in albeit any variation".[119] Although Elizabeth I "cannot be credited with a prophetic latitudinarian policy which foresaw the rich diversity of Anglicanism", her preferences made information technology possible.[120]

See too [edit]

  • A View of Popish Abuses yet remaining in the English Church
  • Convocation of 1563
  • History of the Church of England
  • Liturgical struggle
  • Peace of Augsburg 1555
  • Religion in the United Kingdom

References [edit]

Citations [edit]

  1. ^ Dickens 1967, p. 401.
  2. ^ Moorman 1973, p. 168.
  3. ^ Haigh 1993, p. 181.
  4. ^ Marshall 2017, p. 308.
  5. ^ MacCulloch 1996, p. 210.
  6. ^ MacCulloch 2001, p. 112.
  7. ^ Duffy 2005, p. 475.
  8. ^ Winship 2018, p. 12.
  9. ^ Marshall 2017, p. 348.
  10. ^ Duffy 2005, p. 458.
  11. ^ Duffy 2005, pp. 450–454.
  12. ^ Moorman 1973, p. 192,197.
  13. ^ MacCulloch 2005, p. 89.
  14. ^ a b MacCulloch 2001, p. 25.
  15. ^ a b c MacCulloch 2005, p. 88.
  16. ^ a b Marshall 2017, p. 423.
  17. ^ a b Marshall 2017, p. 425.
  18. ^ Moorman 1973, p. 200.
  19. ^ Haigh 1993, p. 238.
  20. ^ Marshall 2017, p. 419.
  21. ^ Marshall 2017, pp. 419–420.
  22. ^ a b Haigh 1993, p. 239.
  23. ^ Moorman 1973, p. 199.
  24. ^ Marshall 2017, p. 426.
  25. ^ Marshall 2017, p. 427.
  26. ^ Haigh 1993, p. 239–240.
  27. ^ Marshall 2017, p. 428.
  28. ^ a b Haigh 1993, p. 240.
  29. ^ a b Marshall 2017, p. 430.
  30. ^ Marshall 2017, pp. 431–432.
  31. ^ a b c Marshall 2017, p. 433.
  32. ^ Marshall 2017, p. 432.
  33. ^ a b Haigh 1993, p. 241.
  34. ^ Haigh 1993, pp. 240–241.
  35. ^ a b Marshall 2017, p. 434.
  36. ^ a b Moorman 1983, p. 61.
  37. ^ For an extended treatment, see Ratcliff (1980, pp. 12–17) discussing The Communion Service of the Prayer Book: Its intention, Estimation and Revision, and also Dix (1948).
  38. ^ MacCulloch 2001, p. 26.
  39. ^ a b MacCulloch 2001, p. 27.
  40. ^ For a summary of Neale's thesis, encounter Neale (1953, pp. 33–84).
  41. ^ a b c d Haigh 1993, p. 242.
  42. ^ Spurr 2002, p. 109.
  43. ^ Coffey & Lim 2008, pp. 3–4.
  44. ^ Marshall 2017, pp. 435–436.
  45. ^ Marshall 2017, pp. 436–437.
  46. ^ Marshall 2017, p. 438.
  47. ^ Marshall 2017, p. 440.
  48. ^ Marshall 2017, p. 444.
  49. ^ a b Marshall 2017, p. 445.
  50. ^ MacCulloch 2005, p. 26.
  51. ^ Haigh 1993, p. 244.
  52. ^ Marshall 2017, p. 452.
  53. ^ Haigh 1993, pp. 246–248.
  54. ^ Marshall 2017, p. 443.
  55. ^ Haigh 1993, pp. 248–249.
  56. ^ Wilson & Templeton 1962.
  57. ^ Marshall 2017, p. 500.
  58. ^ Marshall 2017, pp. 458–459.
  59. ^ Run into the entry on Anthem in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
  60. ^ Byrd 1922, p. 123.
  61. ^ Lord 2003, p. 86.
  62. ^ Harley 2010, p. 28.
  63. ^ Harley 2010, p. 33.
  64. ^ Williamson 2018, p. 421.
  65. ^ Lord 2003, p. 39.
  66. ^ Sternhold 1705, p. 1.
  67. ^ Quitslund 2016, p. 229.
  68. ^ a b Haigh 1993, p. 252.
  69. ^ Marshall 2017, pp. 542–543.
  70. ^ Haigh 1993, p. 291.
  71. ^ Maltby 1998, p. eleven.
  72. ^ a b MacCulloch 2001, p. 30.
  73. ^ Haigh 1993, p. 253.
  74. ^ Marshall 2017, pp. 467–469.
  75. ^ a b Haigh 1993, p. 254.
  76. ^ Haigh 1993, p. 255.
  77. ^ Haigh 1993, p. 256.
  78. ^ a b Haigh 1993, p. 259.
  79. ^ Marshall 2017, p. 465.
  80. ^ Marshall 2017, pp. 487–494.
  81. ^ Marshall 2017, p. 495.
  82. ^ Haigh 1993, p. 261.
  83. ^ a b Haigh 1993, p. 262.
  84. ^ Haigh 1993, p. 263.
  85. ^ Haigh 1993, p. 266.
  86. ^ a b MacCulloch 2001, p. 28.
  87. ^ a b Spinks 2006, p. 47.
  88. ^ Marshall 2017, p. 479.
  89. ^ Marshall 2017, pp. 470–472.
  90. ^ MacCulloch 2001, pp. 30–31.
  91. ^ MacCulloch 2001, p. 48.
  92. ^ Marshall 2017, p. 504.
  93. ^ MacCulloch 2001, p. 33.
  94. ^ Marshall 2017, p. 505.
  95. ^ Marshall 2017, p. 506.
  96. ^ MacCulloch 2001, pp. 35–47.
  97. ^ MacCulloch 2001, p. 43.
  98. ^ MacCulloch 2001, p. 38.
  99. ^ MacCulloch 2001, p. 50.
  100. ^ MacCulloch 2001, p. 41.
  101. ^ MacCulloch 2001, p. 42.
  102. ^ MacCulloch 2001, pp. 43–47.
  103. ^ MacCulloch 2001, pp. 47–51.
  104. ^ Spinks 2006, p. 48.
  105. ^ Newton 2005, p. 6.
  106. ^ Spinks 2006, p. 49.
  107. ^ Spinks 2006, pp. 49–50.
  108. ^ a b Spinks 2006, p. l.
  109. ^ a b Maltby 2006, p. 88.
  110. ^ Maltby 2006, p. 89.
  111. ^ Hefling 2006, p. 61.
  112. ^ Spinks 2006, p. 54.
  113. ^ Bremer 2009, p. 27.
  114. ^ Maltby 1998, p. 235.
  115. ^ Maltby 2006, p. 92.
  116. ^ a b Maltby 1998, p. 236.
  117. ^ MacCulloch 2001, p. 85.
  118. ^ MacCulloch 2001, p. 86.
  119. ^ Gregory 2006, p. 94.
  120. ^ Dickens 1967, p. 403

Bibliography [edit]

  • Bremer, Francis J. (2009). Puritanism: A Very Brusk Introduction. Oxford University Printing. ISBN9780199740871.
  • Byrd, William (1922). Neat Service. Oxford University Press.
  • Coffey, John; Lim, Paul C. H., eds. (2008). The Cambridge Companion to Puritanism. Cambridge Companions to Religion. Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-0-521-67800-1.
  • Dickens, A. M. (1967). The English Reformation. Fontana.
  • Duffy, Eamon (2005). The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, c. 1400–c. 1580 (2nd ed.). Yale University Printing. ISBN978-0-300-10828-half-dozen.
  • Dix, Gregory (1948). Dixit Cranmer Et Non Timuit. Dacre.
  • Gregory, Jeremy (2006). "The Prayer Book and the Parish Church: From the Restoration to the Oxford Motility". In Hefling, Charles; Shattuck, Cynthia (eds.). The Oxford Guide to The Book of Mutual Prayer: A Worldwide Survey. Oxford University Press. pp. 93–105. ISBN978-0-xix-529756-0.
  • Haigh, Christopher (1993). English language Reformations: Religion, Politics, and Society Under the Tudors. Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-822162-3.
  • Harley, John (2010). Globe of William Byrd: Musicians, Merchants and Magnates. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN9781315551388.
  • Hefling, Charles (2006). "The 'Liturgy of Comprehension'". In Hefling, Charles; Shattuck, Cynthia (eds.). The Oxford Guide to The Volume of Common Prayer: A Worldwide Survey. Oxford University Press. pp. 61–63. ISBN978-0-19-529756-0.
  • Lord, Suzanne (2003). "Life and Music of the Middle Grade". Music from the Age of Shakespeare: A Cultural History. Greenwood Press. ISBN978-0-313-31713-2.
  • MacCulloch, Diarmaid (1996). Thomas Cranmer: A Life (revised ed.). London: Yale University Press. ISBN9780300226577.
  • —— (2001). The Later Reformation in England, 1547-1603. British History in Perspective (2nd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN978-0333921395.
  • —— (December 2005). "Putting the English Reformation on the Map". Transactions of the Royal Historical Guild. Cambridge Academy Press. 15: 75–95. doi:x.1017/S0080440105000319. JSTOR 3679363.
  • Maltby, Judith (1998). Prayer Volume and People in Elizabethan and Early Stuart England. Cambridge Academy Printing. ISBN978-0521793872.
  • —— (2006). "The Prayer Book and the Parish Church building: From the Elizabethan Settlement to the Restoration". In Hefling, Charles; Shattuck, Cynthia (eds.). The Oxford Guide to The Book of Common Prayer: A Worldwide Survey. Oxford University Press. pp. 79–92. ISBN978-0-nineteen-529756-0.
  • Marshall, Peter (2017). Heretics and Believers: A History of the English Reformation. Yale University Press. ISBN978-0300170627.
  • Moorman, John R. H. (1973). A History of the Church in England (tertiary ed.). Morehouse Publishing. ISBN978-0819214065.
  • —— (1983). The Anglican Spiritual Tradition. Templegate Publishers. ISBN0-87243-139-viii.
  • Neale, John (1953). Elizabeth I and her Parliaments 1559–1581. London: Jonathan Greatcoat.
  • Newton, Diana (2005). The Making of the Jacobean Regime: James VI and I and the Government of England, 1603-1605. Studies in History. Royal Historical Guild. ISBN9780861932726.
  • Quitslund, Beth (2016), "The Psalm Book", in Smith, Emma (ed.), The Elizabethan Peak Ten: Defining Print Popularity in Early Modern England, Routledge, ISBN9781409440307
  • Ratcliff, E. C. (1980). Reflections on Liturgical Revision. Grove Books.
  • Spinks, Bryan (2006). "From Elizabeth I to Charles 2". In Hefling, Charles; Shattuck, Cynthia (eds.). The Oxford Guide to The Volume of Mutual Prayer: A Worldwide Survey. Oxford University Press. pp. 44–54. ISBN978-0-19-529756-0.
  • Spurr, John (March 2002). "The English 'Post‐Reformation'?". The Periodical of Modern History. University of Chicago Press. 74 (i): 101–119. doi:x.1086/343369. JSTOR 10.1086/343369. S2CID 142464028.
  • Sternhold, Thomas (1705). Whole Volume of Psalms. Company of Stationers.
  • Williamson, Magnus (2018). "Music and Reform in France, England, and Scotland". In Fenlon, Iain; Wristreich, Richard (eds.). The Cambridge History of Sixteenth-Century Music. Cambridge University Press. ISBN9780511675874.
  • Wilson, William Gilbert; Templeton, J. H. (1962). Anglican Didactics: An Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles. Dublin: Clan for Promoting Christian Cognition.
  • Winship, Michael P. (2018). Hot Protestants: A History of Puritanism in England and America. Yale University Press. ISBN978-0-300-12628-0.

Further reading [edit]

  • Frere, Walter Howard (1904). The English language Church building in the Reigns of Elizabeth and James I (1558-1625). London; New York: Macmillan. OCLC 1182585959.
  • Gee, Henry (1898). The Elizabethan Clergy and the Settlement of Religion, 1558-1564. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. OCLC 559639008.

External links [edit]

  • Elizabethan Religious Settlement - World History Encyclopedia
  • Documents Illustrative of English Church History

brunningpissompons.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabethan_Religious_Settlement