Chapter 16 Flashcards
Local enthusiasm at returning to Catholicism
Many parts of the country anticipated that Mary would restore Catholicism,
even while the Edwardian religious legislation still technically remained in force. Although the restoration of Catholicism caused trouble in some areas, for the most part local enthusiasm produced large sums of money, raised at great speed, to devote to popular conservative religious projects. It is certainly Evident that the first religious changes of Mary’s reign were generated not by government action but by the willing anticipation of a largely enthusiastic populace.
Problems Mary Initially faced regarding religious policy
• Protestantism, although a minority faith, had attracted adherents in London and in other parts of the south.
• The reformed Protestant Church of England was protected in statute law.
• Many members of the political elite, on whose support Mary depended, had benefited financially from the acquisition of monastic land and had no desire to surrender what Mary saw as their ill-gotten gains.
Evidence of opposition to religious changes (3)
About 80 MPs went so far as to vote against the repeal of the Edwardian religious laws. Moreover, about 800 persons, mostly drawn from the political elites, their families and servants, went into exile at centres of European Protestantism such as Strasbourg, Geneva, Frankfurt and the port of Emden in north Germany.
The bulk of the heresy sufferers were men and women of fairly humble status, in contrast to the more exalted background of those who had gone into exile once Mary became queen. This suggests that Protestantism was important to some people who did not simply benefit financially from religious change
Mary’s initial religious policy actions and first parliament
Mary began cautiously, although some of the most prominent Protestant clergy, including seven bishops, were deprived of their livings and, in some cases, imprisoned. Foreign Protestants were ordered to leave the country, but most of them had already left voluntarily. The legislative attack on Protestantism began with the meeting of Mary’s first parliament in October 1553.
• The religious laws that had been passed during Edward VI’s reign were repealed.
• The order of service as at the time of the death of Henry VIII was restored.
All clergy who had married when permitted to do so could be deprived of their livings.
• The legal status of the Church of England was upheld.
Dilemma with reversing royal supremacy
However, Mary faced a dilemma. To rely on parliamentary legislation to reverse the royal supremacy would mean acknowledging that the original laws passed during Henry VIII’s reign were legally valid. In other words, Mary would have to accept the superiority of statute law over divine law, precisely the opposite of her own fundamental belief.
Why was the status of the Church was not finally resolved until the meeting of Mary’s third parliament?
What delayed the process was the issue of what should happen to the lands from dissolved monasteries which had fallen into private hands. It was made clear to Pope Julius IlI and his legate Reginald Pole that there was no question that such land could be restored to the Church. The Imperial ambassador Renard had told Charles V that more ex-monastic land was in the hands of Catholics than Protestants.
However, the Pope and Pole wanted the English Church to submit to Rome first before dispensations might be awarded to landowners on an individual basis. The Council, along with the emperor, Charles V and Philip, was aware that this would be politically impossible. In the end Julius reluctantly accepted Charles’s advice. Once this had been agreed, Cardinal Pole arrived in England in November 1554 to take up a position as legate and Archbishop of Canterbury.
Religious changes in third parliament Nov 1554-Jan 1555 and obstacles
Mary’s third parliament reversed the Henrician Act of Attainder that had been passed against Pole. Royal assent was given the day before Pole’s arrival. However, until the issue of the former Church lands was resolved there could be no final religious settlement. There were furious debates between Pole and councillors who asserted the view that no foreigner could have jurisdiction over English property. Mary sympathised with Pole and even threatened to abdicate, although doubtless she was bluffing since abdication would necessarily have been followed by the rapid restoration of Protestantism. In lanuary 1555, the Act of Repeal revoking the royal supremacy was passed. However, Poles grudging attitude on the subject of Church property had made him an object of suspicion among landowners and his reputation never really recovered. Furthermore, Mary had been forced to acknowledge, however reluctantly, the jurisdiction of statute law in matters involving religion.
Problem with new Pope for Mary
Pope Julius III died in 1555 and was succeeded by the anti-Spanish
Paul IV. Not only was Paul IV hostile towards Mary’s husband Philip, he was also suspicious of Pole whom he regarded as a heretic. Paul IV’s hostility wards Philip was demonstrated in his open hostility towards the Spanish side in a war which broke out in 1555 and into which Mary’s England was later dragged. To all intents and purposes, Mary found herself at war with the
papacy.
Pope and Mary conflict over Pole
Paul IV’s attitude towards Pole was made clear when he dismissed him as papal legate in April 1557. Not only was this a considerable blow to Pole’s prestige, it also meant that he could no longer act directly on behalf of the Pope in his supervision of the English Church. The Pope went on to accuse Pole of heresy but Mary refused to let him go to Rome to face the charge.
The Pope named a new legate, William Peto, but Mary trusted Pole, and in effect refused to acknowledge superior papal authority that placed Peto in a higher position in the English Church than the Archbishop of Canterbury.
This placed Mary in a difficult legal relationship with the Pope, so that her reward for restoring England to what she regarded as the true Catholic faith was meager.
Mary’s bloody legacy and book of martyrs
Mary’s historical reputation has come to rest on the burning of Protestant heretics. This policy earned her the nickname of ‘Bloody Mary? The fate of Mary’s victims was recorded at length in John Foxes Acts and Monuments (more familiarly known as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs’).
This was first published in 1563 and went through five editions in Elizabeth’s reign. It became probably the most widely read book in England apart from the Bible and established the notion of the English as God’s elect (and Protestant) nation. Mary was therefore condemned for her cruelty and ungodliness, and such views have long tended to influence historians interpretations of her reign and of her conduct.
Timeline of key religious changes
1553-Bishops punished, exiles took place, First statute of repeal, which repealed the religious legislation of Edward VI’s reign
Nov 1554-Mary’s third parliament
assembled
Heresy laws restored
Return of Cardinal Pole to England
1555-Second statute of repeal, which repealed anti-papal legislation from Henry Vill’s reign
Feb 1555-First burnings for heresy
21 Mar 1556- Burning of Archbishop
Cranmer
Post 1556-Levantine synod decisions put into practice
The geography of Martyrdom
The geography of martyrdom is also significant. There were 60 burnings in London, which reflects the extent of Protestant penetration there. The other main locations of burnings were all in the south-east of England:
Canterbury (Kent), Lewes (Sussex) and Colchester (Essex). More than three quarters of the martyrs were to be found in the south-east and East Anglia, the regions where Protestantism was most highly developed, as indicated by the map in Fig. 3. On the other hand, there were no burnings, for example, in the diocese of Durham.
How many were burned for heresy and what types of people were they?
Altogether, 289 Protestants (237 men, 52 women were burnt at the stake for heresy. Some of the victims were famous. These included three bishops at the time of Mary’s accession - Archbishop Cranmer and bishops Hooper and Ridley - as well as Hugh Latimer, a noted preacher and former bishop of Worcester. Twenty-one other clergymen suffered; eight victims were from the gentry. However, the bulk of the sufferers were men and women of fairly humble status, in contrast to the more exalted background of those who had gone into exile once Mary became queen. This suggests that Protestantism was important to some people who did not simply benefit financially from religious change.
Effect of burnings and government response
It is difficult to be certain about the effects of the burnings. At one level the Crown’s strategy appears to have misfired. The first two victims, John Rogers and Rowland Taylor, who suffered at Smithfield in London and Hadleigh in Suffolk respectively, seem to have been chosen on account of their popularity as preachers. Their deaths appear to have elicited widespread public sympathy Moreover, extending the range of victims to include humble persons seems to have strengthened the sympathy for their martyrdom.
That the Council started worrying about the effects of the burnings is evident in the measures which it took in attempting to ban servants, apprentices and the young in general from attending burnings. It ultimately failed to extinguish heresy. In some continental countries such strictness succeeded, and the failure of the policy in England may have been a consequence of lack of time rather more than the extent of popular feeling. What is certain, however, is that the policy did nothing for Mary’s reputation.
Mary’s other religious reforms
Mary’s religious policy was not purely repressive. Pole, in particular, saw his role in largely pastoral terms. The resources of the Church, which had been eroded for 20 years, needed to be restored, and both the quality and the quantity of priests needed to be improved.
Pole tried to ensure the quality of pastoral provision. Most of the new bishops whom Mary and he appointed took their pastoral responsibilities seriously and in a manner that was perfectly in accord with the spirit of the Catholic Reformation. Pole’s legatine synod of 1555 to 1556 made his expectations clear. Bishops were to reside in their dioceses, they were to preach and they were to oversee carefully the religious life of their parishes.
Also within the spirit of the Catholic Reformation there was a proposal, never put into effect, that each cathedral should have a seminary attached for the training of new recruits to the priesthood.
