Chapter 23

Question 1

What was Puritanism?

Answer 1

The belief amongst godly
Protestants that the Church of England needed to be purged of any remaining ‘superstitious” (i.e. Catholic) practices.

Puritanism was an important influence in the 1560s and 1570s. Puritans believed in the eradication of popish superstition and their emergence can be traced back to the failure of the Convocation of Canterbury in 1563 to go further in its reform of the Church. However, some groups within the broader Puritan framework certainly posed a challenge to the Elizabethan settlement.

Question 2

Why did religious problems begin to appear for Elizabeth?

Answer 2

From the queen’s perspective the state of religion in 1563 was broadly positive.
She had achieved the settlement that she largely desired. However, there was much concern among both the higher and lower clergy regarding the apparently unreformed nature of the Church. Equally, Catholics, although not subject to persecution, found it difficult to practise their faith in public.
The key issue was whether the settlement was to be regarded as ‘complete Or whether there was scope for further change. Against this background, Puritanism emerged amongst those who considered the settlement incomplete.

Question 3

Who was Matthew Parker?

Answer 3

Archbishop Matthew Parker
(1504-75), who had been chaplain to Anne Boleyn, was a Cambridge academic. He did not go into exile during Mary Is reign, choosing to live quietly in East Anglia. He was a somewhat reluctant appointee as archbishop, and he seems never to have been happy in his discharge of the political aspects of his role.

Question 4

Why did the Vestiarian Controversy come about?

Answer 4

The emergence of tensions between the queen, who desired conformity and obedience based on complete acceptance of the settlement, and ‘Puritans, who believed in the eradication of ‘superstitious practices, led to the Vestiarian Controversy. Several figures within the Church decided that they could not obey the rules on clerical dress laid down in the Act of Uniformity and royal injunctions as this specified the wearing of Catholic and therefore ‘superstitious’ dress.

Question 5

How did the Queen and Parker deal with the Vestiarian Controversy?

Answer 5

The queen forced the issue by dismissing the prominent Oxford academic
Thomas Sampson from his post at Christ Church College for his refusal to wear the required vestments.
Archbishop Parker, and five bishops, issued the Advertisements’ in March 1566 which required dlergy to follow one uniformity of rites and manners in the administration of the sacraments and one decent behaviour in their outward apparel. Thirty-seven London clergymen refused to signify their support and were consequently deprived of their posts.

Question 6

What did the Vestiarian Controversy show?

Answer 6

The whole business showed the extent of the queen’s determination to enforce the settlement, but reforming bishops were caught between conflicting pressures: the need to obey the royal supremacy and the desire to remove the remaining vestiges of Catholic practice within the Church.

Question 7

What was the Presbyterian movement?

Answer 7

The Presbyterian movement was one aspect of the broader Puritan movement.
Presbyterians believed that the Church of England, which was already Calvinist in its doctrine, should be further reformed in its structure and its forms of worship. Its ideas grew out of Calvin’s views on Church organisation and discipline, and it emerged partly in reaction to the Vestiarian Controversy.

Question 8

Difference between Presbyterians and Puritans?

Answer 8

The terms Presbyterian and Puritan are not synonymous. Puritan’ was usually employed as a term of abuse to describe those who thought of themselves as ‘godly. Presbyterians believed specifically in the introduction of a Calvinist form of Church government: the office of bishop should be abolished, all ministers should be equal in status and lay elders should have a key administrative role. A crude simplification would be that all Presbyterians were Puritan but not all Puritans were Presbyterian.

Question 9

Areas of Presbyterian action (5)

Answer 9

-Admonitions
-Pamphlet war
-High ranking support
-Ideas for church gov discussed in synods and assemblies
-Efforts in parliament

Question 10

What were the two Admonitions?

Answer 10

Some Presbyterians began to question the scriptural basis for the authority of bishops and other aspects of the Church. The criticisms were voiced in two pamphlets known as the two Admonitions, whose main author was John Field
•The first Admonition attacked the Book of Common Prayer and called for the abolition of bishops.
•The second Admonition provided a detailed description of a Presbyterian system of Church government.

Question 11

Pamphlet war between Whitgift and Cartwright

Answer 11

There followed a pamphlet war between Thomas Cartwright, a Cambridge academic, and the vice-chancellor of Cambridge University, John Whitgift.
Cartwright and the Presbyterians believed that a Church founded on
‘superstitious or popish’ principles must be spiritually flawed and the 1559 settlement had to be modified, while Whitgift argued that the Presbyterians’ attitude was destructive and would split the Church.

Question 12

High ranking support of Presbyterians

Answer 12

Although a geographically narrow movement, largely confined to London, Essex, the university of Cambridge, Suffolk and parts of the east Midlands, Presbyterianism attracted some high-ranking support. The Earl of Huntingdon, the Earl of Leicester and even Lord Burghley saw the advantages of Presbyterianism as a bulwark against the influence of Catholicism. All three of them defended clergymen who fell foul of the authorities because of their alleged sympathy for the Presbyterian movement.

Question 13

Presbyterians attempts to enact reform in 1580s

Answer 13

The Presbyterian movement grew in the 1580s. Ideas for Church government through local assemblies and provincial and national synods were developed, but attempts to bring change through Parliament failed, despite the efforts of Peter Turner in 1584 and Anthony Cope in 1587.

Question 14

Presbyterian efforts in parliament and gov response

Answer 14

Both Turner and Cope introduced bills which, if enacted, would have replaced the Book of Common Prayer with a new prayer book stripped of any remaining popish’ elements. Neither bill generated much support.
Cope was imprisoned briefly, though the fact that Elizabeth knighted him five years later suggests that he quickly recovered his position.

Question 15

Who was Thomas Cartwright?

Answer 15

Thomas Cartwright (c1535-1603)
was Professor of Divinity at
Cambridge until he was forced out of his post by Whitgift. He was the spiritual leader of the Presbyterian movement.

Question 16

What was a synod?

Answer 16

a Church council that in this context would exist outside the official Church hierarchy

Question 17

What were Whitgift’s articles?

Answer 17

The Archbishop of Canterbury, John Whitgift, was determined to destroy Presbyterianism. He issued Three Articles to which clergy had to subscribe:
1. Acknowledgement of the royal supremacy.
2. Acceptance of the prayer book as containing nothing contrary to the Word
of God.
3. Acceptance that the Thirty-Nine Articles conformed to the word of God.
The second Article created a crisis of conscience for many clergy, not just Presbyterians, who thought that some parts of the prayer book lacked scriptural justification. Whitgift was forced to back down under pressure from councillors such as Leicester and Walsingham. He reduced the second Article to a simple acceptance of the prayer book and most clergy were able to justify accepting this by arguing that their preaching ensured godliness within the Church.

Question 18

What were the Marprelate tracts?

Answer 18

a set of scurrilous and satirical attacks written in the late 1580s about some of the bishops of the time

Question 19

What were sectaries?

Answer 19

a term used, usually with disapproval, to describe members of sects which had separated from the Church of England

Question 20

How successful was Whitgift’s campaign?

Answer 20

Whitgift’s campaign had some success: he forced Burghley’s protégé, George Gifford, out of his post, and Cartwright was refused a licence to preach, despite Leicester’s pleas. However, the Church paid a price. By treating radical and moderates alike, Whitgift caused much despair among clergymen.
Moreover, while he undoubtedly had the complete support of the queen, his policies and attitudes were regarded with suspicion by many of her ministers.

Question 21

Decline of Presbyterianism

Answer 21

Bv the late 1580s Presbyterianism was in decline. Very few Puritan clergy were prepared to break with the Church by refusing to accept the Three Articles, and the failure of Copes ‘Bill and Book in 1587 showed the futility of a parliamentary approach. Presbyterianism was further weakened by the death of its key organiser.
John Field, in 1589. No synod was held after 1589 and the reputation of the Presbrterian movement suffered on account of the satirical Marrelate tracts.

Question 22

What was Separatism?

Answer 22

Separatism was the most extreme form of Puritanism. Indeed, most mainstream Puritans regarded Separatists with abhorrence. Its adherents wanted to separate from the Church of England altogether. Separatists regarded the Church of England as incapable of reforming itself sufficiently to root out all ‘popish’ or ‘superstitious’ practices and they wanted to create independent church congregations. They were resolutely opposed to the queen’s status as Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

Question 23

When did Separatism emerge?

Answer 23

Separatism as a movement emerged in the 1580s. Robert Browne became the leader of a significant congregation in Norwich, but his challenge soon petered out, and he went into exile in the Netherlands with some of his congregation in 1582.
He later returned to England and made his peace with the authorities in 1585, aided by the good offices of his relative, Lord Burghley.

Question 24

Separatism action and destruction of Separatism

Answer 24

Henry Barrow and John Greenwood led Separatist movements in London, although the numbers involved were small. Nevertheless, their activities were sufficient to alarm the authorities and led to the passing of the Act against Seditious Sectaries in 1593. Barrow, Greenwood and John Penry were tried and executed for devising and circulating seditious books. Quite why the authorities chose to adopt such harsh measures against such a numerically insignificant movement is difficult to explain, but vindictiveness on the part of Archbishop Whitgift has been put forward as an explanation. Whatever the reason, Elizabethan Separatism was destroyed.

Question 25

Decline of Puritanism

Answer 25

Puritan influence declined in the late 1580s, partly because of the deaths of Leicester, Mildmay and Walsingham, its political supporters at court, and partly because the defeat of the Spanish Armada reduced the perceived threat of Catholicism and lessened its attractions. Furthermore, the disappearance of Presbvterianism meant that Puritan attitudes became more acceptable within the traditional Church structure. The fundamentally Calvinist beliefs of the Church of England were reaffirmed in the Lambeth Articles of 1595, which proved acceptable to Puritans and their opponents such as Whitgift alike.
Furthermore, the 1559 Book of Common Prayer was accepted by both as the basis for an acceptable form of worship.

Question 26

What were the Lambeth Articles?

Answer 26

The Lambeth Articles were a series of nine points of doctrine, approved by Whitgift and issued under his authority, which largely reasserted the essentially Calvinist doctrine of the Elizabethan Church. (Disputes between Whigit and his Puritan enemies had never been about the Churchs doctrine.) By the end of Elizabeth’s reign, religion was no longer a serious political issue and the godly Puritans were housed within the Church, although they were still hoping to purify it and others by their example.

Question 27

Early actions and policy towards Catholics

Answer 27

Elizabeth is often quoted as not wishing to make ‘windows into men’s souls.
This has frequently led to an assumption that Elizabeth adopted an attitude of toleration towards Catholics in the early years of her reign. However, toleration of Catholics was conditional on obedience, and not all Catholic practices were tolerated
Although the Act of Supremacy in 1559 laid down fines for those who did not attend Church services - the recusants - these were rarely demanded. Much energy was spent on removing Catholic imagery from parish churches and on searching out images that had been hidden away, however. Furthermore, the old religious ‘mystery plays were abolished because of their link to the feast of Corpus Christi and hence to the doctrine of transubstantiation.

Question 28

Actions of different Catholics

Answer 28

Most English Catholics survived as church papists, outwardly conforming and obeying the law by attending Anglican services. However, an active minority followed the Catholic bishops, who had (except one refused to conform to the Oath of Supremacy in 1559. While some Catholic intellectuals went into exile, most frequently to the Spanish Netherlands, rather than conform, some priests survived as private chaplains to Catholic members of the nobility who protected them or conducted secret Catholic services. Such Catholics were known as recusants.

Question 29

Why did Elizabeth’s policy towards Catholics change?

Answer 29

The Northern Rebellion of 1569 (with its Catholic religious undertones) provoked a punitive attitude towards Catholics. To make matters worse, Pope Pius V excommunicated Elizabeth in 1570 and called on all loyal Catholics to depose her. This placed English Catholics in an impossible position, forced to choose between loyalty to their Church and loyalty to their monarch.

Question 30

Penal laws against Catholics (3)

Answer 30

Three progressively more severe Acts against the Catholics were passed during the 1570s and 1580s.
1. A 1571 Act made the publication of papal bulls treasonable.
2. The 1581 Act to Retain the Queen’s Majesty’s Subjects in their Due
Obedience. This made it treason to withdraw subjects’ allegiance to either the queen or the Church of England. Saying Mass became punishable by heavy fine and imprisonment and the fine for non- attendance at church was raised to the prohibitive figure of £20 per month. Although the laity were not too harshly treated, 4 Catholic priests were executed in 1581, and
11 in 1582.
3. The 1585 Act against Jesuits and Seminary Priests. This made it treasonable for priests ordained under the Popes authority to enter England. This made it much easier for the courts to secure convictions for treason; 123 priest were convicted and executed under the terms of this Act from 1586 to
1603.

Question 31

How were the Penal laws complemented later and why?

Answer 31

The penal laws were complemented by a savage increase in the financial penalties with the fine for recusancy being set at £20 per month in 1581. In 1587 the law was tightened and any recusant who defaulted on his payment of fines could have two thirds of his estate seized by the Exchequer. The persecution of recusants was at its height from 1588 to 1592.

The tightening of legislation was partly a response to the international situation and the worsening relations with the Catholic King Philip Il of Spain and partly because of fear of Catholic rebellion, made worse by the onset of and pale missions of priests intent on upholding and spreading the Catholic faith.

Question 32

Bond of Association and reason for introduction

Answer 32

The pressure against Catholics was reinforced by the drafting of a Bond of Association for the Preservation of the Queens Majesty’s Royal Person’ by Burghley and Walsingham in October 1584 in response to the throckmorton Plot. Anyone who took the oath of association was required to execute summarily lie. murder] anyone who attempted to usurp the Crown or make an attempt on Elizabeths life.

Question 33

What was the Society of Jesus?

Answer 33

formally recognised as a religious order in 1540, this looked actively to reconvert places which had become Protestant during the Reformation

Question 34

Catholic missions involving Seminary priests

Answer 34

In 1568 a college was founded at Douai, in the Spanish Netherlands, in order to train Catholic priests to be sent to England and to keep Catholicism alive and win new converts. By 1575, 11 of these seminary priests’ had arrived in England, by 1580 there were about 100, and 179 arrived in England between 1580 and 1585. This was dangerous work as they had to operate, in secretive circumstances, from the country houses of Catholic gentry and aristocracy.
Merely being a Catholic priest was sufficient, from 1585, to incur the death
penalty.

Question 35

Catholic missions involving Jesuits

Answer 35

The Society of Jesus began sending Jesuit priests to England in 1580.
The Jesuits combined high intelligence and organisational skills with a dedication to the cause of the restoration of Catholicism to England. The first Jesuits to become involved in attempting to re-Catholicise England were Robert Parsons and Edmund Campion. (Campion was captured and executed in 1581.)

Question 36

Success of Catholic missions

Answer 36

However, the success of the missions was limited. While the Catholic gentry were enabled to retain their faith, humbler Catholics were often ignored. The educated priests associated more readily with their protectors than the ‘ordinary people and often became more like household chaplains.
Catholicism thus became more of a ‘country-house religion’ than the popular faith it had been in the 1560s. Moreover, priests themselves became divided as a result of a bitter dispute over leadership of the missionarv movement, thereby weakening the Catholic mission.

Question 37

Geographical concentration of Catholic priests

Answer 37

Because of the proximity to the Channel ports, most Catholic priests operated in the south-east of England, where the proportion of Catholics in the population was smallest. In 1580 nearly half of the priests in England were serving the relatively small population of Catholics in London, Essex and the Thames Valley. Meanwhile, there were far fewer priests in the north, where the proportion of Catholics in the population was much higher and where their ministry might have borne more fruit.

Question 38

Intro to Golden Age section

Answer 38

The reign of Elizabeth witnessed a considerable flourishing in many aspects of English culture. The high’ culture of the well-off was transformed and a vigorous popular culture also developed. However, popular and elite culture were not necessarily mutually exclusive. One aspect of Shakespeares distinctive appeal was his ability to appeal both to an educated elite and to the
‘groundlings’ who attended performances in large numbers.

Question 39

Info on Hilliard

Answer 39

Hilliard, in particular, enjoyed much favour at court, portrayed the queen and many courtiers and redesigned the royal seal. His most famous portrait Young Man among Roses, whose sitter might well have been the Earl of Essex, is an impresa, a combination of portrait and motto, which was intended to depict the ideals and aspirations of the sitter.

Question 40

Art developments

Answer 40

English painting, heavily influenced by Flemish models, flourished during Elizabeths reign, with artists benefiting from a range of patrons. Formal portraiture remained important, with the queen a frequent sitter, as were courtiers, especially the Earl of Leicester, along with sitters from the gentry and mercantile classes. Formal portraiture, however lacked an artist as skiful as Holbein had been during the reign of Henry VIII. Instead, what became culturally the most important aspect of Elizabethan painting was the portrait miniature, whose most technically gifted exponents were Nicholas Hilliard
and Isaac Oliver.

Question 41

Developments in architecture

Answer 41

It was also a golden age in architecture. The queen was very reluctant to commission new buildings, but her courtiers and other wealth individuals made up for this lack, often being able to afford extravagant building projects because of the family acquisition of former monastic land at knock-down prices. This period saw the emergence of the first named English architect (as opposed to formerly anonymous master masons. This was Robert Smythson, who worked on Longleat in Wiltshire and Wollaton Hall in Nottinghamshire as well as on a series of other country houses.

Question 42

Examples of builders and work

Answer 42

Courtier builders included
Burghley (Burghley House in Northamptonshire and Hatfield
House in Hertfordshire), Sir Christopher Hatton (Holdenby House and Kirby Hall, both in Northamptonshire), and the Earl of Pembroke (Wilton House in Wiltshire).

Question 43

Developments in literature on the stage

Answer 43

The increased educational opportunities of the sixteenth century led to the emergence of a highly literate and often quite sophisticated viewing and reading public. The viewing public was treated to plays, not just by Shakespeare, but also by significant dramatists such as Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe. There was an increasingly sophisticated infrastructure for the production of plays in London. Companies of actors operated under the patronage of courtiers, most importantly the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, of which Shakespeare was a member, However, the companies operated within a competitive market environment at theatres such as the Globe and the Swan. These placed an emphasis on the ability of dramatists such as Shakespeare to produce new plays on a regular basis to appeal to audiences drawn from across the social classes. Occasionally, Shakespeare’s plays had direct political connotations. The most notorious was the sponsoring at the Globe Theatre by supporters of the Earl of Essex of a performance of Richard II, a medieval king who had been the victim of usurpation in 1399. Elizabeth was alleged to have remarked: ‘I am Richard.
Knowe ye not that?’

Question 44

Developments in non-stage literature

Answer 44

Much prose literature tended to have a narrow readership. An exception was Foxes Book of Martyrs, which had a wide readership amongst godly Puritans. The two most influential writers were Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser. Sidney saw himself as a conscious moderniser of the English language through the adaptation of classical forms. He was largely responsible for the revival of the sonnet in English poetry and was therefore an essential precursor of Shakespeare in that context. Despite their courtly connections, both Sidney and Spenser were political outsiders; some of their work can be seen as being highly critical of the Elizabethan court.

Question 45

Developments in religious music

Answer 45

Music fourished in a variety of forms in Elizabethan England. Elizabeth, herself a skilful musician, was responsible at the time of the settlement for saving the musical culture of English cathedrals and Oxbridge colleges which were threatened by Protestant reformers who emphasised the importance of the word of God rather than the ‘beauty of holiness. The two greatest composers of the reign, Thomas Tallis and William Byrd, wrote extensively for the Church of England. Each of them, however, was Catholic and Byrd, in particular, demonstrated the strength of his Catholicism in works composed in secrecy for his Catholic patrons.

Question 46

Developments in secular music

Answer 46

Secular music making also flourished, especially at court. Renaissance convention laid down that courtiers should be skilled musically. This encouraged the development of the madrigal, a musical form which originated in Italy, as a complex part-song that could be sung by a small mixed-voice choir and whose most important composers were Thomas Morley and Thomas Weelkes. Madrigals were usually ‘non-political? However, in 1601 Morley put together a collection of 25 madrigals by 23 different composers entitled The Triumph of Oriana which explicitly honoured the queen. Music was therefore a means of reinforcing the ‘Gloriana myth which sustained support for the queen at a time when her reputation was slipping. More intimate music was provided by John Dowland.

Question 47

Developments in popular music

Answer 47

At a more popular level both instrumental music and song flourished.
Many towns had official bands (waits’) who performed on formal occasions
and who presumably performed informally on other occasions. Broadside
ballads, songs printed cheaply on a single sheet of paper, became popular.
Often these were extremely bawdy; the innuendo in a popular song such as
Watkins’ Ale is unmistakable.

Question 48

Who was John Dowland?

Answer 48

John Dowland
{1563-1626]
Dowland’s speciality was the solo voice accompanied by lute, with an emphasis in his songs on the fashionable late-sixteenth-century theme of melancholia. This was popular in elite circles because of the link which had been made in the Renaissance between melancholia and artistic or literary pretensions.

Question 49

Work of William Byrd

Answer 49

Byrd’s Latin motets, in particular, emphasised themes such as captivity, martyrdom and liberation and offered unmistakable moral support for the Catholic missionary movement. It was only Byrd’s skill as a musician, his willingness to continue to write for the established Church and his courtly connections which ensured his safety, despite his obvious sympathy for the Catholic cause. In such instances music was fulfilling a fundamental religious and political purpose, and it is no coincidence that Byrd’s music for the Church of England, while being extremely well crafted, lacks the emotional intensity of his Catholic compositions.

Question 50

Summary

Answer 50

By the end of Elizabeth’s reign England had been transformed both religiously and culturally. Catholicism survived essentially as the country-house religion of a small minority. The Church of England, from its uncertain start, had become much more assured and confident, increasingly commanding the support, or at least the acceptance, of most people. In addition, by the end of the reign England demonstrated a great cultural fowering which in its range and depth would not be achieved again for several centuries.