Miles - History 3. The impact of the Church settlement and growth of Puritanism

Question 1

The religious situation in 1558

Answer 1

Mary dies in 1558. The religious settlement is introduced by Elizabeth. She was Protestant.

The religious settlement was difficult assess.

It was difficult to understand whether to the bulk of the population leanings towards the Protestant or Catholic faith. It was even harder to determine what the populace thought about religion in general.

Historians - the general consensus is that the ruling elites accepted the principle of Royal supremacy and were confirmed to conform to the religion the monarch favored.

Question 2

…pt 2

Answer 2

The lower orders were generally considered to have had a conservative affection to the traditional forms of worship.

When Elizabeth I came to the throne, the country was prepared to return to a form of moderate Protestantism. However, during her reign , deeper religious divisions began to appear, and the unity of the Church of England was under increasing pressure.

Question 3

The Elizabethan religious settlement

Answer 3

This was a way to decide on what religion would look like on future grounds. There were 2 key aspects of this ;

1. The legal status of the church
2. Liturgical books to be used in church services.

The confusion was whether the church would be Anglo-Catholic ,an apparently moderate protestant church as implied by the Act Of Uniformity of 1549 or a radically evangelical church as implied by the Act Of Uniformity 1552?

Question 4

What did the Elizabethan settlement of 1559 create?

Answer 4

It created a settlement between Catholicism and Protestantism in practice (middle way) through supremacy and uniformity.

The 39 articles of religion were introduced in 1563

Question 5

What was the Act of Supremacy?

Answer 5

This act restored in law the Royal supremacy in the church, which had been established under Henry VIII and then removed under Queen Mary.

Question 6

What did the Act of supremacy establish?

Answer 6

• The reformation legislation of Henry VIII’s reign was restored.
  -The Heresy laws were repealed.
  -Powers of Royal visitation were revived.
  -Queen was now named ‘supreme governor’ of the church.
  -An oat to supremacy was to be taken by clergymen and church officials.

In essence, this act restored the loyal position of the crown in relation to the Church when it had been established in the reign of Henry VIII. It gave legislative authority for the crown to act in matters relating to the church.

Question 7

The Act of uniformity 1559 - what was it?

Answer 7

It specified the use of a single prayer book of common prayer, which was a modified version of the second and strongly Protestant prayer book that Cranmer introduced in 1552.

Question 8

What did the act of uniformity do?

Answer 8

2 modifications - 1,
-Variations on Eucharistic belief were possible in that both the 1549 wording, which even the conservative Bishop Gardiner felt able to accept at the time , and the 1552 wording derived from the beliefs of Swiss reformer Zwingli were permitted.

Question 9

2nd modification

Answer 9

The ‘Black Reburic’, which had been included in the 1552 prayer book to explain away the practice of kneeling at the administration of the Eucharist was omitted.

Question 10

The royal injunctions 1559

Answer 10

These were a set of instructions about the conduct of church services and government of the church issued in the Queen’s name as supreme governor. On the 3 previous, royal injunctions had been used by the crown as a mechanism for imposing its will in relation to church practices.

Question 11

the 1st royal injunction.

Answer 11

Made the Protestant character discernible. For example ‘the suppression of superstition’. They banished the use of traditional catholic isms such as pilgrimages and the use of candles which were described as ‘works devised by man’s facilities’.

In essence, the royal injunctions were drafted in a way in which intended that they were to be an attack on traditional Catholic practices.

Question 12

The significance of the settlement (Historians views)

Answer 12

John Neal

3 historians challenged his interpretation ;
William Haugaard,
Winthrop Hudson,
Norman Jones.

Question 13

John Neal

Answer 13

He argued that the Queen faced pressure from radical clergymen, as well as from their allies in the House of Commons, the so-called ‘Puritan choir’ ‘ The Queen had to back down and accept a much more Protestant prayer book and settlement than she had really wanted.

Question 14

William Haugaard (Elizabeth and the English Reformation 1968)

Answer 14

Argued that Elizabeth saw the settlement as final, rather than, as Neale had suggested, a precursor to further reform. Many of the subsequent religious controversies of Elizabeth’s reign therefore become easily explicable in this light,

Question 15

Winthrop Hudson (The Cambridge connection and the religious settlement of 1559)

Answer 15

Argued that Elizabeth and her ministers always intended that the settlement should be firmly Protestant and that there was never any serious intention to restore the first Edwardian prayer book, but that appearances to the contrary had to be maintained, mainly to keep support in the conservative House of Lords.

Question 16

Norman Jones (Faith by statute)

Answer 16

Argued that Elizabeth and her ministers wanted a complete religious settlement from the start. The political opposition they faced came not from the Puritan choir but the Catholic bishops and conservative peers in the House of Lords. Though the bishops and conservative peers grudgingly accepted the restoration of the royal supremacy, they provided much more opposition to the uniformity bill, which was only passed in the Lord by 3 votes.

Question 17

The moved to translate the scriptures into Welsh.

Answer 17

.

Question 18

The translation of the scriptures into Welsh

Answer 18

To Protestants the Bible was central to their belief, which meant that it was important for ordinary men and women to be able to hear the word of God in their own language if they were to obtain salvation.

Question 19

The importance of the 1563 Act of Parliament

Answer 19

The two most important persons were William Salsebury and William Morgan.
It was Richard Davies who was largely responsible for persuading Parliament to pass an Act in 1563 which ordered the five Welsh bishops (they included the bishop of Hereford in their list) to ensure that the Bible and prayer book were translated into Welsh.

Question 20

…pt2

Answer 20

This Act was the reason for the start of the translation, but it was a process that was to take 25 years before it was completed.

Question 21

Who was William Salesbury?

Answer 21

Born in 1520 in Llanasannan in Denbighshire, he was educated at Oxford where he became heavily influenced by Protestant beliefs.

Question 22

His role in translating the new testament and the book of common prayer.

Answer 22

Salsebury was helped by Richard Davies and Thomas Huet. In 156, he moved to St David’s to join them and for nearly two years they worked on the translation. As well as the New Testament, Salsebury also translated the book of Common Prayer. Both were published in 1567 in London which was a significant moment in welsh history as religious books were finally available in Welsh.
However, his translations were hard to read and undertsand.

Question 23

….pt2

Question 24

The growth of Puratism

Answer 24

.

Question 25

Protestants and puritans

Answer 25

Most English Puritans were Protestants who followed beliefs and teachings of John Calvin of Geneva. As Calvinists, they were strongly anti catholic and they wished to remove any trace of Roman Catholicism from the church.
As iconoclasts, they wished to destroy all statutes and images in churches, preferring plain, whitewashed walls.

Question 26

…pt2

Answer 26

As Puritans , they detested bishops, whom they regarded as catholic style hierarchy, and they preferred plain clerical vestments rather than the ‘rags of popery’, hence the vestiarian controversy.

Question 27

What did Puritans believe?

Answer 27

They believed that Elizabeth’s religious settlement was a starting point for further reform. They wished to push the church into a wholly Protestant direction and did not agree with the Queen’s religious compromise.

Question 28

What did the Puritans want?

Answer 28

1- firstly, the speed at which the church was to be fully reformed - for Puritans it was to be done immediately, irrespective of the practical problems which this might entail. Meanwhile they would adapt the regulations set down in 1559 to create a more ‘Godly church’ like the reformed churches abroad.

Question 29

….pt2

Answer 29

secondly - there was an issue of obedience to the princely power - what Patrick Collinson considers ‘the geological fault-line bewteen Anglicanism and Nonconfirmity’

Question 30

The Vestiarian Controversy

Answer 30

The emergence of tensions between the queen, who desired conformity and obedience based on complete acceptance of the settlement, and ‘Puritans’, who believed in the eradication of ‘supersticious’ practices, led to the Vestiarian controversy. They resented clerical dress.

The Queen forced the issue by dismissing the prominent Oxford academic Thomas Sampson from his post at Christ church college for his refusal to wear the required vestments.

Question 31

Archbishop Parker

Answer 31

Archbishop Parker with 5 bishops issued the ‘Advertisments’ in March 1566 which required clergy to follow ‘one uniformity of rites and manners’ in the administration of the sacraments and ‘one decent behaviour in their outward apparel’. 37 London clergymen refused to signify their support and were consequently deprived their posts.

Question 32

What was the Queen determined to do?

Answer 32

The whole business showed the extent of the Queen’s determination to enforce the settlement, but reforming bishops were caught between conflicting pressures : the need to obey the royal supremacy and the desire to remove the remaining vestiges of Catholic practice within the church.

Question 33

The Presbyterian movement

Answer 33

This was one sphere within the Puritan domain. They believed that the church of England, which was already calvinist in its doctrine, should be further reformed in its structure and its forms of worship. Its ideas grew out of Calvin’s views on the church organisation and discipline, and it emerged in reaction to the Vestiarian controversy.

Question 34

….pt2

Answer 34

Some Presbyterian’s began to question the scriptural basis for the authority of bishops and other aspects of the church. The criticisms were voiced in two pamphlets known as the
Two admonitions, whose main author was John Field.
-The first admonition attacked the book of common prayer and called for the abolition of bishops.
-The second admonition provided a detailed description of a Presbyterian system of church government.

Question 35

The pamphlet war

Answer 35

Between Thomas Cartwright, a cambridge academic and the vice chancellor of cambridge univeristy, John Whitgift, Cartwright and the Presbyterians believed that a church founded a ‘superstitious’ or ‘popish’ principles must be spiritually flawed and the 1559 settlement had to be modified, while whitgift argued that the Presbyterians’ attitude was destructive and would split the church.

Question 36

…pt2

Answer 36

Although it was a geographically narrow argument, Presbyterian attracted some high ranking support. The earl of huntington, the earl of leicester and the Lord Burdghley saw the advantages of Presbyterian as a bulwark against the influence of Catholicism. All 3 of them defended clergymen who fell foul to authorities because of their alleged sympathy for the Presbyterian movement.

Question 37

Presbytarians and Puritans

Answer 37

The terms are not synonymous. ‘Puritan’ was employed as a term to describe those who thought of themselves as godly. Presbyterians believed specifically in the introduction of a Calvinist form of church government : the office of bishop should be abolished; all ministers should be equal in status and lay elders should have a key administrative role.

Question 38

Support for Puritanism and the influence of Puritan leaders

Answer 38

.

Question 39

Edmund Grindal

Answer 39

Appointed chaplain to Edward VI in 1551. He fled abroad during Mary’s reign. Returned to England in 1559 and was appointed bishop of london. In 1570 he was promoted to Archbishop of York before becoming head of the church as Archbishop or Canterbury in 1575. He was a Calvinist Puritan.

Question 40

Thomas Cartwright

Answer 40

Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University and radical Puritan who embraced Presbyterianism. He was a formidable preacher who became a vocal critic of the Religious settlement and the church hierarchy,

Question 41

John Field

Answer 41

Graduate of Oxford University who was ordained a priest by Bishop Edmund grindal. He became a radical Puritan preacher who supported Presbyterianism, which earned him the enmity of the Church authorities and government. His publications were attacked by the church and government authorities.

Question 42

Puritan challenge from within the church

Answer 42

The first challenge came from within the Anglican church.

In the Convocation of 1563, Puritan ministers, with the support of some bishops like Edmund Grindal of London, began a campaign to purify the church.

Adopting a policy of ‘godly churchmanship’, the Puritans aimed to push through reforms such as :

Question 43

Reforms :

Answer 43

• Rejecting the sign of the cross on foreheads at Baptisms.

-Giving communion with bread to seated, rather than kneeling, parishioners.

-Banning plays and merry-making on the Sabbath on holy days.

-Making amendments to the Book of Common Prayer.

Question 44

Parliament and the ‘Puritan Choir’

Answer 44

A phrase coined b y historian Sir John Neale.
-According to Neale, the Puritans were more unified and better organised the parliamentary sessions of 1563 and 1556-7.
-Consisting of 43 Puritan MPs named in a contemporary pamphlet in 1556, Neale believed that the aim of this group was to change the laws regulating religion so as to make the Church of England more Protestant.

Question 45

The ‘choir’ was credited with :

Answer 45

-forcing Elizabeth to adopt a more Protestant Religious settlement in 1559 than she really wanted.
-Stirring up trouble in 1563 and 1556 over the Queen’s failure to marry.
-Conspiring between 1563 and 1571 to bring about further reforms in the church.
-Agitating in 1572 for the executions of the Duke of Norfolk and MQoS.

Question 46

39 articles. 1563-71

Answer 46

While the royal injunctions dealt with the day-to-day administration and organisation of the Elizabethan church, it took until 1563 for the doctrine (religious beliefs) of the church to be produced. Instead of using Parliament, Elizabeth allowed convocation to deal with this matter.

Question 47

The attitude of Elizabeth’s bishops.

Answer 47

During Elizabeth’s long reign three men occupied the highest and most powerful posts in the Anglican Church, that of Archbishop of Canterbury:

Matthew Parker 1559-75

Edmund Grindal 1575-83

John Whitgift 1583-1604

Question 48

…pt2

Answer 48

These men had the power to shape and influence religious reform in the kingdom, but they were often hampered by the Queen’s reluctance to go
beyond that agreed in the Settlement of 1559. Also faced opposition from Puritan and Catholic factions both within and outside the Church.

Question 49

Archbishop Parker

Answer 49

Parker was a dedicated reformer who supported and helped to shape Elizabeth’s Religious Settlement. His sixteen years in power were significant because he:
-Established the Anglican Church through the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity.
-Enforced compliance through Injunctions and Visitations.
-Secured the theological identity of the Settlement through the Thirty-nine Articles.

Question 50

Problems with Archbishop Parker

Answer 50

His Advertisements of 1566 provoked the
Vestiarian controversy, which helped to fuel the growth of the Puritan movement. It is fair to say that Parker’s attitude to the Church and religion was very much in line with that of his mistress, Elizabeth. Compromise and leniency were the key features of his policy and he largely achieved his aim of a peaceful transition from the Marian to the Elizabethan Church.

Question 51

…pt2

Answer 51

For almost a decade, the Religious Settlement endured without much challenge, but this came to an end in 1569-70. The reasons for this are three-fold:
-The detention of Mary, Queen of Scots.
-The Rebellion of the Northern Earls
-Pope Pius V’s excommunication of Elizabeth

These events stirred up the Catholics in England and frightened the Puritans. The government was forced to adopt a more belligerent attitude towards both Catholics and Puritans.

Question 52

Archbishop Grindal

Answer 52

Grindal was, like Parker, a keen reformer but, unlike his predecessor, he was a reluctant archbishop. Grindal had spent his years in exile trying, unsuccessfully, to heal the rift between the ‘Coxian’ and ‘Knoxian’ wings of the Protestant community.

Question 53

…pt2

Answer 53

This desire to steal a middle path between the
extremist wings of the Protestant Church became a cornerstone of his policy as Archbishop of
Canterbury. He followed Parker in adopting the concept of adiaphora and he championed the views of the Moderate or Conformist Puritans.

Question 54

Grindal’s aims :

Answer 54

Backed by Lord Burghley, who had been instrumental in persuading the Queen to appoint him archbishop, Grindal sought to:
-Stiffen the laws against Catholics
-Tackle the abuses of ecclesiastical discipline within the Anglican Church
-Improve the moral and educational standards of the Anglican ministry

Question 55

Grindal and the Queen

Answer 55

His drive to convert the north to Protestantism, after his appointment as Archbishop of York in the
weeks following the suppression of the Rebellion of the Northern Earls, impressed both the Queen
and her Court. He was a committed Protestant and no friend of Catholic Recusants. However, when
the time came to appoint a successor to Parker, Elizabeth was concerned by his partiality for
Puritanism.

He was eventually named Archbishop of Cantebury in 1575 December.

Question 56

Archbishop Whitgift

Answer 56

Grindal was succeeded as Archbishop of Canterbury by the Bishop of Worcester, John Whitgift. Whitgift’s first clerical appointment of note came in 1560 when he became the personal chaplain of former Marian exile, Richard Cox, Bishop of Ely (leader of the so-called ‘Coxians’). He was later appointed Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University, which brought him
into conflict with his fellow academic, Thomas Cartwright.

Question 57

…pt2

Answer 57

It was his dispute
with Cartwright that thrust Whitgift into national prominence. Whitgift soon attracted the attention of the Queen, who expressed her support for his
views. His promotion to the bishopric of Worcester enabled him to take a more active role in Church affairs. He early demonstrated an intense dislike
of radical Puritans. Especially Presbyterians and Separatists, whom he believed to be only marginally less odious and dangerous than Catholic
Recusants. Whitgift would prove to be a ruthless persecutor of both during his tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury.