was the elizabethan religious settlement successful

Elizabeth's cautious reforms resulted in 'a Church that was Protestant in doctrine, Catholic in appearance'. The Act of Uniformity of 1559 set out the groundwork for the Elizabethan church. Most Catholics, however, were "church papists"Catholics who outwardly conformed to the established church while maintaining their Catholic faith in secret. Around 900 ministers refused to subscribe to the new prayer book and were removed from their positions, an event known as the Great Ejection. [2], During Edward's reign, the Church of England preached justification by faith alone as a central teaching,[3] in contrast to the Catholic teaching that the contrite person could cooperate with God towards their salvation by performing good works. Implemented between 1559 and 1563, the settlement is considered the end of the English Reformation, permanently shaping the theology and liturgy of the Church of England and laying the foundations of Anglicanism's unique identity. World History Publishing is a non-profit company registered in the United Kingdom. Even this was possible only through political intrigue. The 1559 Religious Settlement was an honest attempt to bring as many as was possible into the fold - but it could never have satisfied the wishes of those who were at the religious extremes of society. Many did so out of sympathy with traditional Catholic religion, while others waited to see if this religious settlement was permanent before taking expensive action. The reforms included allowing clerics to marry and denying transubstantiation. With your support millions of people learn about history entirely for free, every month. This was partially due to ambiguous doctrinal changes which did not greatly affect everyday life, among other factors. The reforms may have been mild but they were enough for the Pope to eventually excommunicate the queen for heresy in February 1570 CE. [40] There were also conflicting directions for the placement of the communion tables that were to replace stone altars. [30], The Ornaments Rubric was added as one of the concessions to traditionalists in order to gain passage in the Lords. [87] Bishop Jewel called the surplice a "vestige of error". Elizabeth then set about returning the Church of England to its reformed state as it had been under Edward VI or, if possible, not quite as radical. 'Bloody Mary's' brief reign was ended by cancer, and her half-sister Elizabeth took the throne in 1558 CE. A French ambassador, writing in 1597 CE, confirms this view in his description of a typical English Church service: Sign up for our free weekly email newsletter! Submitted by Mark Cartwright, published on 02 June 2020. As the queen put it, she would "open windows into no man's soul" (Woodward, 171). [13] At the same time, he calls the idea that the prayer book modifications were concessions to Catholics "absurd", writing that "these little verbal and visual adjustments" would never satisfy Catholic clergy and laity after the loss of "the Latin mass, monasteries, chantries, shrines, gilds and a compulsory celibate priesthood". [49], The Queen was disappointed by the extreme iconoclasm of the Protestants during the visitations. The bishops struggled for decades to impose the prayer book and Injunctions on reluctant parishes. Henry VIII secured his position on the throne through violence in 1485 when he defeated Richard III. This was by no means a simple task as, in these early stages, nobody quite knew what Anglicism precisely was except that it was not Catholicism or extreme Protestantism but somewhere in-between. [50] A year later, the Queen herself ordered the demolition of all lofts, but the rood beams were to remain on which the royal arms were to be displayed. [63], The Elizabethan settlement was further consolidated by the adoption of a moderately Protestant doctrinal statement called the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion. Identify your study strength and weaknesses. The Elizabethan Religious Settlement was a collection of laws and decisions concerning religious practices introduced between 1558-63 CE by Elizabeth I of England (r. 1558-1603 CE). [16] The Queen's principal secretary was Sir William Cecil, a moderate Protestant. Elizabeth's first Parliament was inaugurated on 25 January 1559. [84], Leading Protestants within the Church of England were attracted to the Reformed churches of south Germany and Switzerland led by theologians such as John Calvin, Heinrich Bullinger and others. Find out with the European Space Agency's groundbreaking mission, Explore how water and the sea seeps into Shakespeare's works with the National Maritime Museum, Search our online database and exploreour objects, paintings, archives and library collectionsfrom home, Come behind the scenes at our state-of-the-art conservation studio, Visit the world's largest maritime library and archive collection at the National Maritime Museum, The Van de Veldes: Greenwich, Art and the Sea, Astronomy Photographer of the Year exhibition, Coronation celebrations at Royal Museums Greenwich, A Sea of Drawings: the art of the Van de Veldes, The Prince Philip Maritime Collections Centre, Find out how you can use our collections for research, Royal Greenwich: A History in Kings and Queens by Pieter van der Merwe. As the older generation of recusant priests died out, Roman Catholicism collapsed among the lower classes in the north, west and in Wales. Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving" [1552]. The 1662 prayer book mandated by the 1662 Act of Uniformity was a slightly revised version of the previous book. Help our mission to provide free history education to the world! The specific words were: The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life, and take, and eat this, in remembrance that Christ died for thee, feed on him in thine heart by faith and thanksgiving. A revised supremacy bill had passed the House of Commons before the recess but had been . Most Puritans, however, remained in the Church of England. Fig. One thing Elizabeth did insist upon was to reinstate herself as head of the Church. [75], Catholics were forced to choose between attending Protestant services to comply with the law or refusing to attend. To realise this vision it was necessary to reach a new religious settlement that was as inclusive as possible. At this point, the Privy Council introduced two new bills, one concerning royal supremacy and the other about a Protestant liturgy. [103][104] James, however, did the opposite, forcing the Scottish Church to accept bishops and the Five Articles of Perth, all attempts to make it as similar as possible to the English Church. Numerous educational institutions recommend us, including Oxford University. In 1564 there were shall engines to it from radical protestants and in 1 568 conservative Catholics also reacted against it.However despite such challenges, which were from a . Few thought this was the rubric's meaning, however. The Elizabethan Settlement established a unified Church of England that included Protestant beliefs and the Catholic hierarchical structure. The bishops were placed in the difficult position of enforcing conformity while supporting reform. Sign up to highlight and take notes. [83], The persecution of 15811592 changed the nature of Roman Catholicism in England. The Elizabethan Religious Settlement was a collection of laws and decisions concerning religious practices introduced between 1558-63 CE by Elizabeth I of England (r. 1558-1603 CE). [13][14] At certain times, the Queen made her religious preferences clear, such as on Christmas Day 1558, when before Mass she instructed Bishop Owen Oglethorpe not to elevate the host. [107] Due to their belief in free will, this new faction is known as the Arminian party, but their high church orientation was more controversial. So much flipping back and forth between Protestantism and Catholicism left the country deeply divided. [71], In the early years of Elizabeth's reign, most Catholics hoped the Protestant ascendancy would be temporary, as it had been prior to Mary's restoration of papal authority. After his wife, Catherine of Aragon, failed to produce a male heir, Henry applied to the pope for an annulment of his marriage. 8,000 priests and less important clergy did so. The Church of England was Protestant at its core but took the hierarchy from the Catholics by keeping archbishops and bishops. Henry wished to dissolve his marriage to Catherine and to be remarried to Anne Boleyn, but Pope Clement VII refused. Mark is a full-time author, researcher, historian, and editor. Those who refused to attend Church of England services were called recusants. [57] Churches employed singers for special occasions,[58] which might be paid with money, wine, or ale and bread. A large number of the Parliament, who were still Catholic, opposed the bill, and it was eventually only passed by three votes: 21 to 18. Did the Elizabethan Settlement heal the divide between English Catholics and Protestants? Matters were to be debated in a respectful fashion. Take a closer look with the unique Van de Velde drawings collection, How habitable are Jupiter's icy moons? It also deleted the Black Rubric, which in the 1552 book explained that kneeling for communion did not imply Eucharistic adoration. What was a Catholic element of the new Church of England? While most people conformed, a minority of recusants remained loyal Roman Catholics. [111] Puritans became dissenters. [5][6] The Mass, the central act of Catholic worship, was condemned as idolatry and replaced with a Protestant communion service, a reminder of Christ's crucifixion. Two other important features of the Act of Uniformity were, first, church attendance was made compulsory. 8,000 priests and less important clergy did so. [56] Parish churches tended to have less music as Puritan influences argued against using of funds to pay for choristers. Calvinists were divided between conformists and Puritans, who wanted to abolish what they considered papist abuses and replace episcopacy with a presbyterian church government. This group was led by Richard Neile of Durham and became known as the Durham House group. Those who refused to conform to the new Church of England were persecuted. Bishop Goldwell of St Asaph was never summoned to Parliament, and the elderly Bishop Tunstall of Durham was excused from attending on account of age. As a Protestant, Elizabeth had to tread carefully between both faiths to maintain unity. The collections at Royal Museums Greenwich offer a world-class resource for researching maritime history, astronomy and time. Search here. This pressure meant that the Act was passed by Parliament but only by the slightest of majorities. They were not going to waste time on abstract theological debates, but rather get down to the business at hand of finding concrete solutions to the problems of the day. Bibliography The articles removed Catholic sacraments: Confirmation, Penance, Holy Orders, Marriage, and Last Rites or Extreme Unction. [40], Another historian, Diarmaid MacCulloch, also finds Neale's thesis flawed. The Elizabethan Settlement was religious legislation that provided a compromise between English Catholics and Protestants. Article 34, for example, stated the following: It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one, or utterly alike; for at all times they have been divers, and may be changed according to the diversities of countries, times and men's manners, so [provided] that nothing be ordained against God's WordEvery particular or national church hath authority to ordain, change, and abolish ceremonies or rites of the Church. The Thirty-nine Articles were not intended as a complete statement of the Christian faith but of the position of the Church of England in relation to the Catholic Church and dissident Protestants. 30 Apr 2023. The Ordinal and Prayer Book provisions were removed and the Mass left unchanged, with the exception of allowing communion under both kinds. The Act of Supremacy 1559 This required all clergymen and government officers to . The Church of England's refusal to adopt the patterns of the Continental Reformed churches deepened conflict between Protestants who desired greater reforms and church authorities who prioritised conformity. [76] Initially, recusant priests advised the laity to simply abstain from Protestant communion. One of her first acts as queen sought to heal the religious division brought on by the past half-century by treading a middle ground between the two sides: a new united Church of England. The Elizabethan Settlement intended to provide a compromise between Catholics and Protestants by incorporating elements of each faith into the Church of England. Episcopacy was replaced with a semi-presbyterian system. However, only 4% of all lower clergy . During Edward's reign, the Church of England adopted a Reformed theology and liturgy. [98] Whitgift's first move against the Puritans was a requirement that all clergy subscribe to three articles, the second of which stated that the Prayer Book and Ordinal contained "nothing contrary to the word of God". The first act passed by the House of Commons in February 1559 joined together a bill of supremacy, establishing Queen Elizabeth I as head of the church, with one of uniformity, dealing with the type of faith and service. Her government's goal was to resurrect the Edwardian reforms, reinstating the Royal Injunctions of 1547, the 1552 Book of Common Prayer, and the Forty-two Articles of Religion of 1553. The Church that Elizabeth created is unique. Want to search our collection? Christians must not make oaths for civic duty. Neither France nor Spain reacted to the changes, perhaps believing that they were as temporary as they hoped Elizabeth's reign would be. Examples of permissible music included metrical psalms and liturgical texts such as the Te Deum. The main features of the settlement include: establishing a Church of England that included Protestant beliefs and the Catholic hierarchical structure and making Queen Elizabeth I Supreme Governor of the Church. This bill would have returned the Church to its position at the death of Henry VIII rather than to that when Edward VI died. The bill was hotly debated but eventually passed by three votes. Debating the Elizabethan religious settlement. Anyone suspected of not recognising Elizabeth as head of the Church would now find themselves before a new court, the Court of High Commission. Wealthy church papists attended their parish church but had Mass at home or hired two chaplains, one to perform the prayer book service and the other to perform the Mass. - Elizabeth proclaimed that she did not wish to made windows into men's souls. However, Ronald Hutton argues that certain Catholic elements such as altars were present in some regional churches as late as 1567, demonstrating a reluctance to convert to the new Church. Historians John Coffey and Paul C. H. Lim write that the Elizabethan Church "was widely regarded as a Reformed church, but it was anomalous in retaining certain features of late medieval Catholicism", such as cathedrals, church choirs, a formal liturgy contained in the prayer book, traditional clerical vestments and episcopal polity. The Elizabethan Settlement was an attempt to end this religious turmoil. [101], In response to Bridges' A Defence of the Government Established in the Church of England for Ecclesiastical Matters, an anonymous Puritan under the pseudonym Martin Marprelate published a series of tracts attacking leading conformist clergy. [112], The Church of England was fundamentally changed. It was a good start but finding the balance between radicals on either side of the religious debate was going to be more difficult than mere wordplay. However, this stance hardened over time. Its leaders were arrested and the Classical Movement disintegrated. The Council hoped that by separating them at least the Supremacy bill would pass. [90], In 1572, a bill was introduced in the Queen's 4th Parliament that would allow Protestants, with their bishop's permission, to omit ceremonies from the 1559 prayer book, and bishops would be further empowered to license clergymen to use the French and Dutch stranger church liturgies. World History Encyclopedia. [23][21] It was not popular with the clergy, and the Convocation of Canterbury reacted by affirming papal supremacy, transubstantiation and the Mass as a sacrificial offering. Laud and his followers believed the Reformation had gone too far and launched a "'Beauty of Holiness' counter-revolution, wishing to restore what they saw as lost majesty in worship and lost dignity for the sacerdotal priesthood. The 1549 prayer book required clergy to wear the alb, cope and chasuble. "Of Common Prayer and Sacraments" taught that although only baptism and the Eucharist were sacraments instituted by Christ other rites such as ordination had a sacramental character. [21], When the Queen's first Parliament opened in January 1559, its chief goal was the difficult task of reaching a religious settlement. Have all your study materials in one place. Elizabeth I inherited a kingdom bitterly divided over matters of religion. Likewise, Elizabethan Puritans abandoned the hopeless cause of presbyterianism to focus on less controversial pursuits. Earn points, unlock badges and level up while studying. "[78] By the late 1560s, recusancy was becoming more common. In 1581, a new law made it treason to be absolved from schism and reconciled with Rome and the fine for recusancy was increased to 20 per month (50 times an artisan's wage). "[114] Historian Judith Maltby writes that Anglicanism as a recognisable tradition "owes more to the Restoration than the Reformation". [85] In England, however, Protestants were forced to operate within a church structure unchanged since medieval times with the same threefold orders of bishop, priest and deacon along with church courts that continued to use medieval canon law. The Religious Settlement was an attempt by Elizabeth I to unite the country after the changes in religion under Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary I. Some Catholic religious opposition was not constraint to England, but failed to affect the successful establishment of Elizabeth's religious settlement. . Crucially, the Prayer Book dealt with the bread and wine of the communion service. Under pressure from the Privy Council, Whitgift was forced to accept conditional subscriptions from defiant ministers. Catherine of Aragon was Henry VIII's brother's wife. [34][35] Opposition to the so-called "popish wardrobe" made it impossible to enforce the rubric. The traditionalist argument was very pro-Protestant. A series of Church reforms that sought to create a middle ground between rival Catholics and Protestants. Subsequently, two Catholics, John Felton and John Story, were executed for treason. Here is an example answer to the following 16-mark question on whether geographical divisions were the biggest problem for Elizabeth I in establishing the religious settlement in England. Elizabeth was seemingly a moderate in religious views and she wished above all to avoid the bloody scenes of executed martyrs that her predecessor had presided over. [68][69][70] Efforts to introduce further religious reforms through Parliament or by means of Convocation were consistently blocked by the Queen. Then the student should consider the . As spokesman for the government, Bacon delivered its mission statement, to unite the people of this realm into a uniform order of religion'. From there they wrote and published a large body of Catholic polemical work to counter Protestantism, particularly Thomas Harding, Richard Smyth, and William Allen. Enjoy the bank holiday weekend celebrating King Charles III's coronation, Why do artists draw, and what can their sketches teach us about their skills and techniques? After Elizabeth's death, the Puritans were challenged by a high church, Arminian party that gained power during the reign of Charles I. They went through several revisions and were finalized in 1571 and added to the Book of Common Prayer. The 1588 Marprelate Controversy led to the discovery of the presbyterian organisation that had been built up over the years. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms. The Holy Scriptures contain "all things necessary for salvation. When Elizabeth I became queen in 1558, England's religious situation was dire. It can be argued the settlement was successful among ordinary people as there were no widespread religious inspired revolts, unlike under HVIII (drawing comparisons across the Tudor period).

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