The Puritan threat

• Puritans were strict Protestants who wanted to ‘purify’ the Church and get rid of all traces of the Catholic faith
• Many Protestants had fled abroad when Mary I , a Catholic, was queen, but had started to return when Elizabeth, a Protestant, came to the throne
• Elizabeth’s Religious Settlement meant that the country was now officially Protestant, but allowed some traditions of Catholic worship
• At first many Puritans seemed to accept the Religious Settlement, but they soon started organising campaigns to make it more Protestant
• Puritans raised their points in Parliament but did not on the whole get involved in plots to overthrow Elizabeth or destabilise the country and were therefore seen as less of a threat than the Catholics
• Some of Elizabeth's most trusted Privy Councillors and Members of Parliament, notably Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and Sir Francis Walsingham, were Puritans and tried to pressure her into taking harsher steps against Catholics.
• Even if they weren't a great threat, Elizabeth still did not welcome the Puritans' increasing challenge to her authority
• What were the Puritan threats to Elizabeth?

  • Vestarian Controversy 
  • Prophesyings 
  • John Stubbs’ pamphlet
• What was the Vestarian Controversy?

  • Walter Strickland was the leader of the Puritan group in Parliament 
  • He wanted to reform Elizabeth’s new Prayer Book and ban clergy vestments
• How did Elizabeth respond to the Vestarian Controversy?

  Elizabeth punished Walter Strickland by closing Parliament so that his ideas could not be discussed
• What were Prophesyings?

  • 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. 
  • She was concerned ideas might spread that challenged the Religious Settlement.
• How did Elizabeth respond with Prophesyings

  • Elizabeth ordered her new Archbishop of Canterbury, Edmund Grindal, to ban the meetings but he protested.  
  • She suspended him, suggested he resign, and 200 Puritan priests were expelled from their roles
• What was John Stubbs' pamphlet?

  • The Puritan, John Stubbs, published a pamphlet  
  • It criticised Elizabeth’s on-going marriage negotiations with the brother of the Catholic French king
• How did Elizabeth respond to John Stubbs' pamphlet?

  Stubbs was found guilty of stirring up trouble and sentenced to have had his right hand cut off
• Elizabeth held strong against the Puritan attempts to get her to change the Religious Settlement and the movement lost momentum towards the end of her reign as, one by one, the old Puritan leaders died
• By 1590 most of the people accepted the Church of England as the national Church