EdVI RELIGION

Question 1

WHICH areas of England were more Protestant at the start of EdVI’s reign?

Answer 1

(Mainly South-East) Kent, Sussex, Essex, Bristol, the East Anglian ports

Question 2

WHICH areas of England were more Catholic at the start of EdVI’s reign?

Answer 2

Catholicism dominated all areas of England and Protestants were almost non-existent in areas outside the south-east. Particularly strong areas:
* The north (e.g. Lancashire and the Midlands)
* The far south (e.g. Cornwall)

Question 3

WHAT were some key religious changes implemented under Somerset?

Answer 3

• 1547 injunctions: attacked Catholic holy days, images/stained glass, etc.
• Dissolution of the chantries (and religious guilds)
• 1549 Book of Common Prayer: centralised and translated services to English (BUT, ambiguous on transubstantiation)
• Iconoclasm (destroying icons/images): less widespread

Question 4

WHAT were some key religious changes implemented under Northumberland?

Answer 4

• 1552 Book of Common Prayer: restricts music, vestments and ceremonies, changes communions (less ambiguous), rewrote services to be more understandable
• Forty Two Articles of Religion: official religious doctrine, much more explicitly Protestant
• 1552 Second Act of Uniformity: attendance at CofE services was compulsory

Question 5

WHEN was each Book of Common Prayer passed under EdVI?

Answer 5

Somerset: 1549
Northumberland: 1552

Question 6

HOW were ordinary churches changed under EdVI?

Answer 6

• Altars replaced with communion tables
• Vestments were banned
• Gold and silver ornaments were removed
• Somerset banned images from churches (influenced by iconoclasm)

Question 7

WHAT evidence is there that the religious changes had a significant impact on society/ordinary people?

Answer 7

• Churchwardens’ accounts suggest the slow destruction of Catholic habits
• Expenditure on church goods declined
• People were less likely to leave money to their church in their wills (although perhaps they just didn’t trust the Crown with the Church’s money now)
• Evidence for a decline in church attendance

Question 8

WHAT evidence is there that the religious changes did not have a significant impact on society/ordinary people?

Answer 8

• Restoration of Catholicism under Mary I was quick
• Some parish churches hid their treasures to avoid the Crown confiscating them in 1553
• Hooper (Protestant radical of the time) admitted reform was hampered by public opinion

Question 9

WHAT did historian Eamon Duffy say about the ordinary response to religious change under EdVI?

Answer 9

That there was a ‘climate of discontent and disobedience’

Question 10

WHAT did Archbishop Cranmer say about the slow speed of religious reform?

Answer 10

“We are now in doubt how men will take the change, or alteration of abuses, in the church.”

Question 11

WERE humanists Catholic or Protestant?

Answer 11

Initially, they had been neither, but the rise of Protestantism saw the group being divided. Some were more conservative, while other younger thinkers were more closely linked with Protestantism

Question 12

WHAT are some examples of humanist influences under EdVI?

Answer 12

• Archbishop Cranmer
• 1547 injunctions required each church to have a copy of Erasmus’ ‘Paraphrases’
• Humanist influenced reformers like Peter Martyr and Martin Bucer, and the Lutheran and humanist scholar Philip Melanchthon were all invited to work in England

Question 13

WAS Northumberland influenced by humanism?

Answer 13

Not as much as Somerset. He was more militant and influenced by the radical John Hooper, rather than humanist scholars. He also had a strained relationship with Cranmer.