Religion: Protestantism and Catholicism Flashcards
What sparked the religious friction between Protestantism and Catholicism?
Henry VIII’s break with the Catholic Church was to create religious friction in England for centuries to come. From 1558 when his daughter Elizabeth I ascended the throne, English Catholics were seen as disloyal and potentially treacherous. Much of this anti-Catholic feeling had resulted from the reign of Henry’s eldest daughter Mary Tudor (‘Bloody Mary’) who was a Catholic, and who burned and tortured many Protestants during her short reign.
What was the religious feeling in England when James I came to the throne?
When James I came to the throne in 1603, the accepted religion of England was Protestantism, though there were many faces to this. The Reformation of the late 16th century had shown Protestants that there were other ways to worship God without the formality of the Church of England. Dissenters and Puritans moved away from the established Church to a simpler, more direct and personal way of worship that reflected the importance of individual conscience rather than the infrastructure of clergy, bishops and King.
What would have been the attitudes towards religion by audiences at the time?
Audiences at The Duchess of Malfi would be in general anti-Catholic - if not, they would have hidden it well. With these strong anti-Catholic feelings came demonisation of the Catholic church and Catholic countries, especially in Spain, England’s avowed enemy. Italy, too, posed a threat, yet not so much a political one as Italy as a unified country did not exist in 1613; it was a collection of autonomous states and provinces all ruled by separate princes.
