Mary's Catholic Counter-Reformation Flashcards
1
Q
What evidence suggests England had become legislatively Catholic again?
A
- 1553 First Act of Repeal: undid all changes made under Edward
- 1554 Royal Injunctions: restored catholic practices such as holy days and led to the deprivation (sacking) of priests who had been married - eventually 10-25% of the clergy were deprived for this reason
- 1554 Revival of the Heresy Acts made heresy a religious and civil offence equal to treason allowing Mary to execute around 289 Protestants including high profile bishops like Latimer and Cranmer
- 1555 Great Act of Repeal reunited England with Rome and reinstated Papal authority
- The Twelve Decrees issued by Cardinal Pole stressed that priests should live in parishes and urged an end to pluralism and nepotism - priests were encouraged to make regular visits to teir dioceses to check clergy discipline. Pole also wanted to establish semenaries across England to train future priests
2
Q
What evidence suggests England had NOT become legislatively Catholic again?
COUNTER SK
A
- Parliament refused to restore church lands and attach any penalty for not attending mass - Protestantism was surpressed at 1st Parliament but Catholicism was not necessarily restored
- The Heresy laws were originally defeated - Mary had to compromise and ensure that ex-monastic land would not be reclaimed by the crown
- When the heresy laws were passed nearly a quarter of all eligible peers had stayed away from parliament - changes were superficial and weren’t supported
- Underfunding meant Pole’s attempts to revive Catholicism and weren’t able to be implemented - only one seminary was actually set up
3
Q
What can we use as consensus for England becoming legislatively Catholic?
A
- Opposition regarding monastic land was less out of religious opposition within parliament and moreso due to many MPs being land owners
- Even if the laws weren’t necessarily passed with a significant majority they were still passed
4
Q
What evidence suggests England had become socially Catholic again?
A
- Mary sponsored Catholic preachers at St Paul’s Cross
- Large crowds came to watch the burnings of Protestants - cherry-growers in Kent even supported them as it gave them the opportunity to sell their produce to crowds
- Mary’s gov recruited laymen like Early of Derby and Sir John Tyrrell to hunt heretics
5
Q
What evidence suggests England had NOT become socially Catholic again?
COUNTER
A
- Most printers were Protestant and so had fled England when Mary came to the throne thus preventing enough literature (e.g. hymn books) to revive Catholicism to produced - sponsoring parishes did not provide these means
- There is some evidence that people sympathised with those being burned - when Rowland Taylor was executed the streets were lined with people protesting his godliness
- When Mary came to the throne there were 19,000 copies of the second book of common prayer in circulation allowing a protestant movemement to exist underground
6
Q
What can we use as consensus for England socially becoming Catholic again?
A
- As the printers had fled so the Protestants would not be able to release much literature either
- The protest for Rowland Taylor was one single incident and there is no evidence suggesting this opposition existed outside London
