Early Religious Conflict Flashcards
Describe the key features of the Millenary Petition (March 1603)?
This was set up by the puritans and as James travelled to England he was stopped with the petition demanding removal of superstitious actions such as bowing to Jesus’s name and doing the cross at baptism, wearing vestments such as the cap and surplice, ending pluralism (using the same person for multiple offices in church which led to uneducated clergy), recognition of Sabbath and the Sabbath Gods, and the rules at the Court of High Commission to be based on the bible.
What was the issue for Puritans at the Court of High Commission?
Catholics such as Whitgift and Bancroft could persecute Puritans at the Court so Puritans hoped the parliament would fight for them and demand more power to define the rules and boundaries.
Why was the Millenary Petition a suspicious one?
The Puritans didn’t ask to get rid of the bishops as they hoped to build up their requests to this point.
What happened in May 1603?
James I introduced recusancy fines for not attending Protestant services to persecute Catholics.
What was the Bye Plot (May 1603-Sept 1603)?
This was a plot by priests and Puritan preachers to kidnap James I on the way to London and claim his crown to make him offer concessions. This was wishful thinking as the plan was unlikely to work. The Jesuit Priests, priests based in Spain and led by Ignatius Loyola, feared the Catholics and Jesus’ name would suffer as a result so they abandoned this.
What was the Main Plot (1603)?
This was a plan to replace James with Arabella Stuart, his catholic cousin, and was supported by such influences as Sir Richard Walt and the Spanish Hasburgs who ruled Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands as the Holy Roman Empire.
What were the results of these plots?
Trials for both plots were held but as James I was sympathetic to the Catholics he only executed one.
James stopped collecting recusancy fines.
On 22nd Feb 1604 James banned Catholic priests as part of his edict. He did this as he asked the Pope (Clement VIII), if he could relinquish his powers if James would convert to Roman Catholicism. He hoped to get rid of the Pope influence for Catholics and Puritans/Jesuits for the Protestants in order to combine the churches for a single United church.
