Religious Change under Mary

Question 1

What factors hindered the development of Catholicism?

Answer 1

• short length of Mary’s reign
• Pole (Archbishop of Canterbury) focused on foreign policy rather than religion: his scheme to overhaul church finance required two huge surveys which took 18 months and was inefficient
• Pope Julius III died and was replaced with the anti-Spanish Pope Paul IV
• the government failed to realise the potential of literacy: critical works outnumbered publications that supported Mary’s policies by 2 to 1
• Pole rejected the help of the Jesuits in 1555: they were an order of priests who offered to come to England to preach and evangelise about Catholicism
• many members of the political elites whose support M depended on benefitted financially from the acquisition of monastic land and had no desire to surrender it to Mary

Question 2

How did Mary develop the reputation of ‘Bloody Mary’?

Answer 2

• burnt protestant heretics (however failed to prevent heresy)
• recorded in Foxe’s ‘Book of Martyrs’ published in 1563 - he condemned Mary’s cruelty
• 289 Protestants burnt
• some victims famous (e.g. Archbishop Cranmer)

Question 3

What did the First Statute of Repeal do under Mary?

Answer 3

• repealed laws passed under Edward
• the order of service as at the time of Henry’s death was restored
• the legal status of the church was upheld
• 80 MPs voted against the repeal and 800 (mostly political elites) went into exile

Question 4

Why were monastic lands an issue for Mary?

Answer 4

• dissolved lands from monasteries had already been distributed amongst followers so couldn’t be restored to the Church

Question 5

What did the Second Act of Repeal do under Mary?

Answer 5

• revoked Royal Supremacy

Question 6

Why did Pope Paul IV dismiss Pole as papal legate and what did it mean?

Answer 6

• suspicious of Pole and regarded him as a heretic
• Pole could no longer act directly on behalf of the Pope on his supervision of the English church
• Mary refused to let Pole go to Rome to face his charge of heresy
• William Peto was named the new papal legate but Mary refused to acknowledge his superior papal authority
• her aim of restoring England to be truly Catholic could not be fulfilled