2 Religion: conflict and dissent, 1625-88 Flashcards
What were the traditional features of Catholic worship that the Anglican Church retained?
Priests’ vestments and incense.
What was Arminianism?
A set of beliefs which promoted church services involving rituals and formal ceremony. Arminians followed the traditional Catholic belief in free will, which meant that individuals could choose whether or not to follow a path to salvation.
What were the changes to the Church made under Archbishop William Laud?
The communion table was moved to the east end of the Church and was railed off from the congregation.
Vestments and incense were to be used in services, and hymns and sacred music were encouraged.
Stained-glass windows were to be installed in churches.
Why was it that these Arminian measures angered the Puritans?
They stressed outward forms of worship. Puritans believed that Laud was moving the church in the direction of Catholicism.
What was done to ensure that Laud’s measures were imposed?
Visitations by the agents of bishops in their dioceses were conducted more thoroughly.
Church courts.
What did many of the gentry who opposed Laud’s actions regard his innovations as?
Disrupting the Elizabethan ‘middle way’.
Harsh sentences were out of proportion to their offences.
What were some of the measures that parliament used to reform the Church of England from 1643?
Office of bishop was abolished in favour of a Presbyterian form of government.
The Book of Common Prayer was banned and replaced by the Directory of Worship.
Arminian features, such as stained glass and statues, were removed.
End to the celebration of traditional festivals.
1650 Toleration Act.
What was one of Cromwell’s key aims?
To bring about a religious and social reformation, which meant establishing godly rule and an improvement in public morality.
What was the Instrument of Government of 1653?
England’s first written constitution.
What had Charles demonstrated in the Declaration of Breda?
That he favoured religious toleration for non-conformists and Catholics.
What did the Corporation Act of 1661 require?
All involved in local government had to be communicant members of the Church of England.
When was the Conventicle Act passed?
1664
Why did Puritans remain within the church?
They supported Anglican doctrines which reflected the views of John Calvin.
Where in England was Puritan opposition particularly strong?
London and provinces such as East Anglia.
It could be argued that in some aspects Puritans were not a serious threat to the authority of Charles I - why was this?
Many Puritans were politically conservative, and the gentry knew that they had much to lose from opposing the king.
In what ways did Arminianism limit the scope for Puritan opposition?
Puritan books and pamphlets were censored, and texts brought from abroad were seized/destroyed.
Preaching on predestination was banned.
Puritan preachers were no longer financed by town councils or by individuals.
What happened to the Puritans of the parish of St Gregory’s in London in 1633?
Tried to use the courts to oppose Charles’ policy of railing off the altar.
What was the estimated number of Puritans that emigrated from England during the 1630s?
80,000
When was the Laudian Prayer Book read for the first time in Scotland?
23 July 1637
In 1638, how many Scots signed the National Covenant in protest against Charles’ actions?
300,000
What did the Baptists believe in?
Adult, rather than infant, baptism. They separated from the Church of England and preached that only those ‘born again’ through adult baptism would attain salvation.
What did the Millenarians believe?
Jesus would soon return to earth and reign for 1,000 years.
Why was Quakerism significant?
By the late 1650s the Quaker movement had grown to about 50,000 members.
Before 1660 the Quaker movement was willing to take direct political action.
What happened when the Conventicle Act expired?
Non-conformists met freely.
