How serious of a challenge did Elizabeth face from the Puritans?

Question 1

What were Puritans?

Answer 1

extreme Protestants

Question 2

What did Puritans want to do?

Answer 2

-those who wanted to ‘purify’ the church of all catholic practices/ritual and focus on preaching and scriptures

Question 3

What did Puritans want?

Answer 3

-wanted a Settlement that went further towards Calvinism and to eradicate anything which related to Catholicism

Question 4

Who were the Presbyterian group?

Answer 4

-radical puritans

Question 5

What did the Presbyterian group believe?

Answer 5

-believed the entire Church government was democratically elected

Question 6

What did Calvinists want?

Answer 6

-non hierarchical ministry elected by the congregation->everyone is equal in the church
-church and state should be separate

Question 7

When was the Puritan challenge over vestments? What happened?

Answer 7

-May 1565/1566
-Thomas Sampson refused to wear the surplice

Question 8

What was evidence of success of the Puritan challenge over vestments?

Answer 8

-they won some concessions (compromise)
-’comely surplice with long sleeves’

Question 9

What was evidence of failure of the Puritan challenge over vestments?

Answer 9

-37 London preachers lost their jobs as a result but this was hardly a significant number overall
-Puritans were defeated but they then went underground

Question 10

What was the Puritan challenge in the House of Commons?

Answer 10

-Thirty-Nine Articles
-Beliefs and practices
-1571 – clergy with reservations only the Articles about doctrine

Question 11

What was evidence of success with the Puritan challenge in the House of Commons?

Answer 11

-the articles had been accepted by the Convocation in 1563
-in 1571 it was agreed that clergy with reservations need to only acknowledge the articles concerned with doctrine->concession to the Puritans

Question 12

What was evidence of failure with the Puritan challenge in the House of Commons?

Answer 12

-authorities did not always recognise its existence

Question 13

What was the Strickland’s Bill and when was it?

Answer 13

-1571 – bill to reform the Book of Common Prayer

Question 14

What was evidence of success on the Strickland’s Bill?

Answer 14

-there was some support of the bill in the House

Question 15

What was evidence of failure on the Strickland’s Bill?

Answer 15

-not much support from higher authority
-he was barred from the House but was allowed to return after an outcry from MPs
-his bill was not heard of again

Question 16

What Puritan challenges were there in the House of Commons in 1572?

Answer 16

-admonition to parliament 1572 – Field and Wilcox
-eradication of superstitious Catholic practices and Church hierarchy

Question 17

What was the evidence of success was there for the Admonition to parliament in 1572?

Answer 17

-the Admonition had a wide readership and initiated a pamphlet war between its supporters and detractors so it succeeded in bringing Puritan ideas to the forefront of debate

Question 18

What was evidence of failure of the Admonition to parliament in 1572?

Answer 18

-the proposal horrified all believers in established authority even though some of them were Puritan in outlook
-they were arrested and spent a year in Newgate prison

Question 19

What were Puritan challenges in the House of Commons from 1586-1587?

Answer 19

-Turner and then Cope’s Proposals 1586/87
-‘Bill and book’ – over turning of the government of the Church to Calvin’s system at Geneva
-Wentworth argued that Parliament should have the right to discuss religion

Question 20

What was evidence of success of the ‘Bill and book’?

Answer 20

-the bill won some support in the following debate and was passionately defended by another MP Job Throckmorton

Question 21

What was evidence of failure of the ‘Bill and book’?

Answer 21

-Elizabeth sent for the bill and book and didn’t like it
-Cope and 4 others were sent to the tower
-the bill and book disappeared
-these 2 setbacks led the Puritans to feel that there was nothing to be achieved by campaigns in parliament and they must seek their ends by other means

Question 22

What was the Puritans and propaganda (popular appeal)?

Answer 22

-Cartwright’s criticism against bishops
-not biblical practice

Question 23

What was evidence of success with the Puritans and propaganda (popular appeal)?

Answer 23

-resentment against bishops had been growing as they had been clamping down on dissenting ministers and failing to lead steps towards a ‘true’ reformation->more people would agree with him

Question 24

What was evidence of failure with the Puritans and propaganda (popular appeal)?

Answer 24

-Cartwright’s academic freedom of speech was rapidly removed along with his professorship

Question 25

What threats were there in the 1580s and 1590s?

Answer 25

-Separatists
-survival or Puritanism

Question 26

What was evidence of success with Separatists?

Answer 26

-Separatists and Puritans were not prepared to compromise

Question 27

What was evidence of failure with Separatists?

Answer 27

-trouble with the authorities and spells in prison
-people were arrested and executed->end of the separatist movement->numbers it attracted were very small as most Puritans had come to accept that the English church was something they could live with
-never a united movement and beliefs were not regimented and defined

Question 28

What was evidence of success with the survival of Puritanism?

Answer 28

-both Sir William Cecil (Elizabeth’s chief advisor) and Earl of Leicester (Privy Councillor and close friend of the queen) spoke up for ministers who were being threatened with loss of their posts or their licence to preach by bishops
-the survival probably owed more to the growth of supportive peer-groups
-very considerable success under noble and gentry sponsorship in setting up lectureships and increasing the volume of preaching

Question 29

What was evidence of failure with the survival of Puritanism?

Answer 29

-John Field tried to use the classic movement to build up alternative church organisations ->not enough classes to achieve this
-a Puritan Minister drew up a Book of Discipline to be the basis for an alternative Church->there were disputes about its content
-lack of any kind of agreed Puritan doctrine-> hard to overcome
-Puritanism was Bible centred->needed reasonable literacy which was limited
-the Doctrine of predestination was not easily understood
-limits to the extent to which average Elizabethan wished to listen to 2 sermons on a Sunday

Question 30

What were the different Puritan groups?

Answer 30

-Moderates
-Presbyterians
-Separatists

Question 31

What were Moderates? How much of a threat were they?

Answer 31

-willing to work within the system to achieve changes to the religious settlement
-challenge through church or parliament
-constantly wanted change and were attacking policy etc
-1559=threat minimum

Question 32

What were Presbyterians? How much of a threat were they?

Answer 32

-wanted to reform/the structural re-organisation of the church
-medium threat
-prophecisings
-constantly wanted change and were attacking policy etc

Question 33

What were Separatists? How much of a threat were they?

Answer 33

-those who wanted to detach themselves from the Elizabethan church entirely->greatest threat
-most radical

Question 34

Why did Elizabeth not like Puritans?

Answer 34

-attack on her authority

Question 35

How much of a threat were they?

Answer 35

-Elizabeth kept control of Parliament and the Church->removing clergy etc
-but she couldn’t defeat Puritanism->there was lots of support from leading courtiers (someone within the court) eg Earl of Leister (Robert Dudley) and Presbyterianism directly challenged that church government was the responsibility of the monarch

Question 36

What did Puritans not want to do?

Answer 36

-remove Elizabeth from the throne

Question 37

How did Puritans attack through church (1560s)?

Answer 37

-vestments etc

Question 38

How did Puritans attack through parliament (1570s)?

Answer 38

-Strickland’s bill 1571
-Thirty nine Articles
-Field and Wilcox’s Admonition to Parliament 1572
-Cope’s ‘bill and book’

Question 39

How did Puritans attack through Propaganda (1580s)?

Answer 39

-prophesying