Elizabeth I - The Puritan Threat

Question 1

1566

Answer 1

The Vestments Controversy

Question 2

1570

Answer 2

Proposals by Thomas Cartwright

Question 3

1579

Answer 3

French marriage pamphlet of John Stubbs

Question 4

1583

Answer 4

Three Articles

Question 5

1588-89

Answer 5

The Marprelate Tracts

Question 6

1593

Answer 6

The Act Against Seditious Sectaries

Question 7

Puritans

Answer 7

An extreme Protestant who wanted very plain churches and
simple services

Question 8

Calvinists

Answer 8

Supporters of the French Catholic, John Calvin. He believed in abolishing bishops

Question 9

Moderate Puritans

Answer 9

A Puritan who reluctantly accepted Elizabeth’s
Religious Settlement

Question 10

Presbyterians

Answer 10

Wanted even simpler services, established in Scotland

Question 11

Separatists

Answer 11

The most radical Puritan who wanted to break away from the national church and run churches parish by parish

Question 12

Prophesyings

Answer 12

Meetings of ministers and other interested people in
which ministers practised their preaching skills

Question 13

Thomas Cartwright

Answer 13

A Professor at Cambridge University, he gave a series of lectures calling for a Presbyterian church system. His system would have weakened the power of Elizabeth as Supreme Governor, which is why
she bitterly rejected his ideas and he was forced to flee to Geneva

Question 14

John Stubbs

Answer 14

A Puritan, Stubbs wrote a pamphlet criticising Elizabeth’s marriage
talks with the Duke of Anjou, a Catholic. Elizabeth was so unhappy that she had him arrested and charged with ‘seditious writing’. He was sentenced to have his right hand cut off and later imprisoned

Question 15

Puritan MPs

Answer 15

Some MPs attempted to use Parliament to further their Puritan idea. Elizabeth closed down Parliament before the ideas of Walter
Strickland could be discussed. Peter Wentworth demanded MPs be allowed to discuss religion in Parliament and was imprisoned as a
result

Question 16

Matthew Parker

Answer 16

Archbishop of Canterbury from 1559 to 1575, he issued a book
laying down the rules for wearing vestments. Many Puritans refused
to follow these rules as they argued the clothing was too similar to
Catholic dress. Elizabeth insisted the rules were followed and anyone
who refused lost their positions in the church

Question 17

Edmund Grindal

Answer 17

As Archbishop of Canterbury, Grindal refused to follow Elizabeth’s instructions to put an end to prophesying as he believed it was
improving the standard of the clergy. He was suspended from his
post and Elizabeth shut down prophesying herself

Question 18

John Whitgift

Answer 18

Became the Archbishop of Canterbury after Grindal. He issued the Three Articles and imposed strict controls on the clergy to end all prophesying

Question 19

John Penry

Answer 19

A Welsh Puritan martyr who was eventually executed following
numerous arrests for publishing pamphlets criticising the state of the
church in England and Wales, as well as being involved with secret
Puritan printing presses

Question 20

The Vestments Controversy

Answer 20

The Vestments controversy of 1566 followed Matthew Parker, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s ‘Book of Advertisements’,
which identified the specific clothing (or vestments) which should be worn by priests during services. A number of
Puritan priests believed the vestments chosen by Parker were too similar to the clothing of Catholic priests, and refused
to wear them. Some priests, such as Thomas Sampson, the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, was dismissed for refusing to
wear the correct clothing. Another 37 priests in London were also dismissed from their jobs for the same reason

Question 21

The Marprelate Tracts

Answer 21

Puritan pamphlets were produced anonymously in 1588 and 1589. They are known as the Marprelate Tracts and were
an attack on the church and its bishops. The content of the pamphlets offended a number of people as the language
used was often violent. The pamphlets did not have their desired effect as it turned many people against the Puritans, so
they actually lost them support! In response, some Protestants, such as Richard Hooker and Richard Bancroft, published
pamphlets criticising Puritanism. The authors of the Marprelate Tracts were never caught so went unpunished

Question 22

The Three Articles 1583

Answer 22

John Whitgift was a devout Anglican and a member of Elizabeth’s Privy Council who became Archbishop of Canterbury
in 1583. He had no sympathy for Puritan beliefs at all and issued the Three Articles in 1583. They were designed to
ensure uniformity by forcing all clergy to swear an oath accepting bishops, accepting everything included in the Book
of Common Prayer and accepting the Thirty-nine Articles. Between 300 and 400 ministers refused and were dismissed
from office

Question 23

The Act Against Seditious Sectaries

Answer 23

This act gave the authorities the power to banish or execute those who refused to go to Anglican Church services. These arrests and executions marked the end of the Separatist movement