How serious of a challenge did Elizabeth face from the Puritans? Flashcards
What were Puritans?
extreme Protestants
What did Puritans want to do?
-those who wanted to ‘purify’ the church of all catholic practices/ritual and focus on preaching and scriptures
What did Puritans want?
-wanted a Settlement that went further towards Calvinism and to eradicate anything which related to Catholicism
Who were the Presbyterian group?
-radical puritans
What did the Presbyterian group believe?
-believed the entire Church government was democratically elected
What did Calvinists want?
-non hierarchical ministry elected by the congregation->everyone is equal in the church
-church and state should be separate
When was the Puritan challenge over vestments? What happened?
-May 1565/1566
-Thomas Sampson refused to wear the surplice
What was evidence of success of the Puritan challenge over vestments?
-they won some concessions (compromise)
-’comely surplice with long sleeves’
What was evidence of failure of the Puritan challenge over vestments?
-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
What was the Puritan challenge in the House of Commons?
-Thirty-Nine Articles
-Beliefs and practices
-1571 – clergy with reservations only the Articles about doctrine
What was evidence of success with the Puritan challenge in the House of Commons?
-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
What was evidence of failure with the Puritan challenge in the House of Commons?
-authorities did not always recognise its existence
What was the Strickland’s Bill and when was it?
-1571 – bill to reform the Book of Common Prayer
What was evidence of success on the Strickland’s Bill?
-there was some support of the bill in the House
What was evidence of failure on the Strickland’s Bill?
-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
What Puritan challenges were there in the House of Commons in 1572?
-admonition to parliament 1572 – Field and Wilcox
-eradication of superstitious Catholic practices and Church hierarchy
What was the evidence of success was there for the Admonition to parliament in 1572?
-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
What was evidence of failure of the Admonition to parliament in 1572?
-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
What were Puritan challenges in the House of Commons from 1586-1587?
-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
What was evidence of success of the ‘Bill and book’?
-the bill won some support in the following debate and was passionately defended by another MP Job Throckmorton
What was evidence of failure of the ‘Bill and book’?
-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
What was the Puritans and propaganda (popular appeal)?
-Cartwright’s criticism against bishops
-not biblical practice
What was evidence of success with the Puritans and propaganda (popular appeal)?
-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
What was evidence of failure with the Puritans and propaganda (popular appeal)?
-Cartwright’s academic freedom of speech was rapidly removed along with his professorship
What threats were there in the 1580s and 1590s?
-Separatists
-survival or Puritanism
What was evidence of success with Separatists?
-Separatists and Puritans were not prepared to compromise
What was evidence of failure with Separatists?
-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
What was evidence of success with the survival of Puritanism?
-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
What was evidence of failure with the survival of Puritanism?
-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
What were the different Puritan groups?
-Moderates
-Presbyterians
-Separatists
What were Moderates? How much of a threat were they?
-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
What were Presbyterians? How much of a threat were they?
-wanted to reform/the structural re-organisation of the church
-medium threat
-prophecisings
-constantly wanted change and were attacking policy etc
What were Separatists? How much of a threat were they?
-those who wanted to detach themselves from the Elizabethan church entirely->greatest threat
-most radical
Why did Elizabeth not like Puritans?
-attack on her authority
How much of a threat were they?
-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
What did Puritans not want to do?
-remove Elizabeth from the throne
How did Puritans attack through church (1560s)?
-vestments etc
How did Puritans attack through parliament (1570s)?
-Strickland’s bill 1571
-Thirty nine Articles
-Field and Wilcox’s Admonition to Parliament 1572
-Cope’s ‘bill and book’
How did Puritans attack through Propaganda (1580s)?
-prophesying
