Was Elizabeths Religious Change/Settlement successful? Flashcards
Explain the background of Elizabeths Religious Settlement
Elizabeth’s religious settlement essentially comprised The Act of supremacy, Act of Uniformity, The Book of Common Prayer, Royal Injunctions and the 39 Articles of Religion which were introduced to law in 1563.
Elizabeths aim was that the settlement could be utilised as a means of preventing further religious turmoil like that seen under Mary I and her personal brutality in stamping down protestants and so perceived it as a final enforcement which could potentially unite england and restore the peace at a societal level and whilst she inforced her personal protestant doctrinal beliefs.
She equally attempted to ensure that catholic traditional ideas were gradually brought under attack in order to ensure support from the concervative house of lords.
Explain the 1st key point you could argue that Elizabeths Religious Settlement can be seen as both uncertain but also successful in solving religious problems
The legal status of church wasn’t altered until Mary’s death + there was confusion regarding how radical reform would be
Acts like the Act of Uniformity (enforcing Protestant doctrine whilst also retaining some Catholic teachings) meant Elizebeth contributed to this uncertainty + she didn’t necessarily solve the religious problems faced by her predecessors as there was a clear stamping down on anti-protestant teachings.
-However it can be argued this level of ambiguity was a core reason religious settlement was accepted.
Explain the 1st key reason you can argue Elizabeths Religious Settlement was successful + did solve religious problems
The levels of ambiguity often present within Elizabeth’s religious change ensured support amongst key officials. Eg the crowns decision to allow former monastic lands or remain with their owners and using nuanced language within the religious settlement contributed to keeping the concervative house of lords on side with religious changes.
- The majority of ordinary people accepted Elizabeth’s Religious Settlement and attended the Church of England services
- All members of the Church had to take the oath of supremacy under the Act of Supremacy if they were to keep their posts and as a result 8,000 priests and less important clergy did so.
- There were 10,000 parishes in England at this time so this shows that the religious settlement was largely successful.
Explain the 2nd key reason you can argue Elizabeths Religious Settlement was successful + was successful in solving religious problems
- By granting herself the title of ‘Supreme Governor’ as opposed to the Head of the Church it allowed most Catholics to continue there belief that the Pope was still clearly the head of the church and so increased the acceptability of the religious change for many.
Elizabeth allowed Bishops and Archbishops to continue to wear ornate vestments and ultimately because Parish churches still had decorations, stained-glass windows. The compromised in the physical appearance of the church which won many Catholics over.
- Elizabeth also achieved successful due to the fact that she thought carefully about enforcing harsh penalties as punishments for individual religious beliefs. Thus there were only usually fines in the form of fines for non-attendance not persecuting people people for so long as they were loyal to the crown.
In doing so, she successfully differentiated herself to the previous brutality of Mary I.
Explain the 1st key reason you can argue Elizabeths religious settlement was not successful + did not solve religious problems
Whilst many members of the church did swear an oath in order to remain in their posts this was not the case with Bishops and only one agreed to take the oath.
The remainder all had to step down and Elizabeth appointed 27 new bishops. This gave her the opportunity to enforce Protestantism with the church however she could not afford to lose the support of these new bishops, as there was a shortage of qualified Protestant clergy in England which contributed to problems.
Explain the 2nd key reason you can argue Elizabeths religious settlement was not successful + did not solve religious problems
There were an abundance of ways conservative catholics could get around the rules the Elizabethan Religious Settlement whilst opposing it.
eg many attended church but then had private Catholic services in their homes and often husband and fathers would go to Church of England services, but his wife and children would stay at home to say their prayers and practise Catholic beliefs whilst avoided their fines
Explain the 3rd key reason you can argue Elizabeths religious settlement was not successful + did not solve religious problems
The Religious Settlement itself was challenged a number of times both by catholics and protestants which acts as evidence towards its unpopularity.
- Ie fear of Catholic plots was an on-going and serious threat. This threat was exacerbated In 1570 when the Pope issued a Papal Bull of Excommunication against Elizabeth and encouraged Catholic priests to undertake secret missionary to convert people back to Roman Catholicism.
This increased the threats against both Elizabeth + brought server threats including that of the Ridolfi plot of 1571, The Throckmorton plot of 1583 and the Babington plot of 1586 where the main figurehead was Mary, Queen of Scots.
- The religious settlement/Elizabeth equally aced threats from protestants themselves such as Puritans who regularly questioned Elizabeth’s authority arguing she needed to enforce stricter Protestant ideals.
Some Puritan clergy started organising prayer meetings known as ‘prophesyings’ which displeased Elizabeth. In these meetings Puritans took a freer approach to prayer and did not follow what Elizabeth had specified.
