Elizabeth I & Religious Developments Flashcards
Who were the Puritans?
Puritans were very pious (religious) Protestants. They were influenced by European reformers such as John Calvin. They wanted to remove all Catholic elements from the Church of England.
What were Puritan services like?
Their services were simple and they rejected ceremonies. They wore simple clothing and studied the Bible very closely.
Who were Presbyterians?
- Presbyterians went further. They questioned the need for bishops at all and often criticized the meeting during prophesyings (religious meetings).
- John Field, one of the most prominent Puritans, was banned from preaching in 1580. Elizabeth also suspended Edmund Grindal, the Archbishop of Canterbury, for encouraging prophesyings.
Why were Puritans hostile towards Elizabeth?
- Puritans argued that Elizabeth’s reforms were not enough.
- They argued that the 39 Articles were Popish (Catholic).
What was the separatist movement?
- Separatists did not want a national church. They wanted parishes to establish their churches based on the Bible’s teachings.
- By 1583, small groups of Separatists were emerging. Their activities were illegal, e.g., The Brownists
Was Elizabeth tolerant of Catholicism?
- Yes, in the early years of her reign.
- Despite parliament passing stricter laws against Catholics in 1563, Elizabeth I saw to it that they weren’t fully implemented.
- These laws included:
- Failure of officeholders to take the oath of supremacy a second time was now punishable by death.
- The penalty for saying mass was now death.
- Private masses, especially in gentry and noble households, were ignored as long those people also attended the Church of England.
What was the Catholic threat in the 1560s?
- Spain was persecuting Dutch Protestants. Alba had a large army in the Netherlands and Philip II aimed to stamp out heresy.
- Mary, Queen of Scots came to England (1568). She was the focus of several plots to overthrow Elizabeth I.
- William Allen founded the Douai seminary (1568) for Catholic Englishmen to become priests who would return to England. They would first arrive in 1574.
- The Pope excommunicated (excluded from the Catholic Church) Elizabeth I in 1570. This meant Catholics were free to disobey her.
What was the Catholic threat in the 1570s?
- A new Treason Act in 1571 made denying Elizabeth I’s supremacy and bringing in copies of the papal bull excommunicating, acts of high treason.
- Elizabeth I blocked attempts to increase the punishments for recusancy (Catholics refusing to attend Church of England services).
- By the late 1570s worsening Anglo-Spanish relations and continued plotting around Mary, Queen of Scots heightened fear of Catholics in England.
- Jesuit priests began arriving in England in 1580. They were seen as more fanatical and threatening.
What was the Catholic in the 1580s?
- Surveillance and arrests of English Catholics also increased after the Throckmorton (1583) and Babington (1586) plots.
- In 1581 the first Jesuits were executed.
- A new law increased fines for recusancy to £20, impossible for ordinary people to afford.
- In 1585 parliament passed an act which gave Catholic priests 40 days to leave England or be executed.
- Overall nearly 150 Catholic priests were executed under Elizabeth I, although most were simply imprisoned in a specially built gaol.
What was the Catholic threat in the 1590s?
- Mass was still held in secret, mainly for the gentry.
- Douai priests were reluctant to support Philip II, unlike the Jesuits. They said Philip II’s agenda was not simply religious.
- Catholicism was dying out among the ordinary people. The war against Spain helped this process. People’s instinct was to support England and Elizabeth I.
- By 1603 Catholicism in England is estimated to have been at 10% with perhaps only 2% actively worshipping.
What was the extent of the Catholic threat to Elizabeth?
- Alan Dures (1983) says that there were only 16 recusants who paid the full £260 fine each year but there were also people who were poorer who did not pay it.
- Dures (1983) argues that ‘historians underestimate the extent to which the fine did produce conformity amongst heads of households.’ Jane Shelley of London paid the £260 under Elizabeth yet, in 1606 when the government chose to take ⅔ of her land rather than money, she converted to Catholicism.
What is the ‘new catholicism’ argument for the extent of the catholic threat to Elizabeth?
Historian Bossy argues that the Catholicism that existed after the Reformation in England was not just a continuation of medieval religion. He argues that it was a new entity that emerged in reaction to the new religion.
How was Anglicanism enforced?
- The structure of the Church of England made enforcing Anglicanism easier.
- The High Commission enabled the prosecution of disobedient clergy and there were regular visitations.
- Treason laws made Catholicism and Separatism punishable.
- Attendance at Church of England services was compulsory.
- A licence was needed to preach. If local clergy had no licence, there was an approved Book of Homilies to use.
- Whitgift was an enthusiastic enforcer of Church of England discipline.
What was Anglican identity?
- Anglicanism developed its own identity and its very name emphasised its national links – especially when England was under threat from abroad.
- The 39 Articles laid out Anglican beliefs.
- By 1603, two generations had grown up with and were used to Anglicanism
Why was religious moderation important?
- Puritanism was too radical for mainstream religious tastes in England.
- Aversion to change made the more Catholic feel to the church welcome.
What was Hooker’s Ecclesiastical Policy?
- Hooker wrote ‘Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie’ in 1594.
- He put an effective case for Anglicanism as having stripped away medieval, papal superstition leaving a Bible-based, true Christian faith.
- All other issues (vestments, décor) were adiaphora (trappings irrelevant to faith).
- Existing ceremonies and adiaphora should be accepted for Christian unity.
- The hierarchical structure was a useful way of organising a national church.
What was the religious conflict at the time?
- Catholicism became associated with foreign influence and treason. Given Anglo-Spanish relations and the war from 1585, these feelings intensified.
- Religious conflict on the continent led to bitter civil wars. The English had the opportunity to avoid this in the compromise that was the Church of England
What was the irreconcilable difference between Catholics and Puritans?
There would always be Roman Catholics and Puritans who did not accept Anglicanism, but by the end of Elizabeth I’s reign, they were marginalised.
