Religion and culture

• Religious developments


  Elizabeth viewed the state of religion as broadly positive as she had achieved the settlement she largely desired
• There was much concern among both the higher and lower clergy regarding the apparently unreformed nature of the Church
• Catholics found it difficult to practise their faith in public
• The key issue


  Whether the settlement was to be regarded as 'complete' or whether there was scope for further change
• Puritanism


  Emerged amongst those who considered the settlement incomplete
• Puritanism


  • Important influence in the 1560s and 1570s
  • Believed in the eradication of 'popish superstition'
• The Vestiarian Controversy emerged from the failure of the Convocation of Canterbury in 1563 to go further in its reforms of the Church
• Queen's view


  Wanted conformity and obedience based on complete acceptance of the settlement
• Puritans' view


  Believed in the eradication of 'superstitious' practices
• The Vestiarian Controversy


  1. Several figures within the Church decided they couldn't obey the rules on clerical dress

  2. The queen forced the issue by dismissing Thomas Sampson

  3. Archbishop Parker and 5 bishops issued the 'Advertisements' in March 1566

  4. 37 London clergymen refused to signify their support and were consequently deprived of their posts
• Presbyterian Movement


  Believed the Church of England should be further reformed in its structure and its forms of worship
• Presbyterian Movement


  • Ideas grew out of Calvin's views on Church organisation and discipline
  • Emerged partly in reaction to the Vestiarian Controversy
  • Believed that the office of bishop should be abolished and all ministers should be equal in status and lay elders should have a key administrative role
• The two Admonitions by John Field

  1. Questioned the scriptural basis for the authority of bishops and other aspects of the Church

  2. The first Admonition attacked the Book of Common Prayer and called for the abolition of bishops

  3. The second Admonition provided a detailed description of a Presbyterian system of Church government
• Cartwright and the Presbyterians believed that a Church founded on 'superstitious' or 'popish' principles must be spiritually flawed and the 1559 settlement had to be modified
• Whitgift argued that the Presbyterians' attitude was destructive and would split the Church
• The Earl of Huntingdon, the Earl of Leicester and Lord Burghley saw the advantages of Presbyterianism as a bulwark against the influence of Catholicism
• Attempts to bring change through Parliament failed, despite the efforts of Peter Turner in 1584 and Anthony Cope in 1587
• Whitgift's Articles and the attack on Presbyterianism

  1. Whitgift issued Three Articles to which clergy had to subscribe

  2. No.1 acknowledgement of the royal supremacy

  3. No.2 acceptance of the prayer book as containing nothing 'contrary to the Word of God'

  4. No.3 acceptance that the Thirty-Nine Articles conformed to the word of God

  5. Whitgift was forced to back down under pressure from councillors such as Leicester and Walsingham
• By the late 1580s Presbyterianism was in decline
• The failure of Cope's 'Bill and Book' in 1587 showed the futility of a parliamentary approach
• Presbyterianism was further weakened by the death of its key organiser, John Field, in 1589
• No synod was held after 1589
• The reputation of the Presbyterian movement suffered on account of the satirical Marprelate tracts
• Radical Puritans (Separatists)


  • The most extreme form of Puritanism
  • Wanted to separate from the Church of England altogether
  • Regarded the Church of England as incapable of reforming itself sufficiently to root out all 'popish' or 'superstitious' practices and they wanted to create independent church congregations
  • Were resolutely opposed to the queen's status as Supreme Governor of the Church of England
• Separatism as a movement

  1. Emerged in the 1580s

  2. Robert Browne became the leader of a significant congregation in Norwich, but his challenge soon petered out, and he went into exile in the Netherlands with some of his congregation in 1582

  3. Henry Barrow and John Greenwood led Separatist movements in London which despite their small numbers were sufficient to alarm the authorities and led to the passing of the Act against Seditious Sectaries in 1593

  4. Barrow, Greenwood and John Penry were tried and executed 'for devising and circulating seditious books'
• Overall Elizabethan Separatism was destroyed
• The decline of Puritanism


  • Influence declined in the late 1580s
  • Because of the deaths of Leicester, Mildmay, and Walsingham
  • The defeat of the Spanish Armada reduced the perceived threat of Catholicism and lessened its attraction
  • The disappearance of Presbyterianism meant that Puritan attitudes became more acceptable within the traditional Church structure
• The fundamentally Calvinist beliefs of the Church of England were reaffirmed in the Lambeth Articles of 1595, which proved acceptable to Puritans and their opponents such as Whitgift
• By the end of Elizabeth's reign, religion was no longer a serious political issue and the 'godly' Puritans were housed within the Church
• Elizabeth's view on Catholicism


  'Video et taceo'- I see and keep silent
• The Act of Supremacy (1559)


  Laid down recusants of 12p for those who didn't attend Church services
• Much energy spent on removing Catholic imagery from parish churches and on searching out images that had been hidden away
• The old religious 'mystery plays' were abolished because of their link to the feast to the feast of Corpus Christi and hence to the doctrine of transubstantiation
• Most English Catholics


  Survived as 'church papists' outwardly conforming and obeying the law by attending Anglican services
• Active minority of Catholics

  Followed the Catholic bishops, who had refused to conform to the Oath of Supremacy in 1559
• Some Catholic intellectuals went into exile rather than conform (most frequently to the Spanish Netherlands), some priests survived as private chaplains to Catholic members of the nobility who protected them or conducted secret Catholic mass
• Recusants


  Such Catholics who were known as recusants
• The penal laws against Catholics

  1. A 1571 Act made the publication of papal bulls treasonable

  2. The 1581 Act to Retain the Queen's Majesty's Subjects in their Due Obedience made it treason to withdraw subjects' allegiance to either the queen or the Church of England

  3. The 1585 Act against Jesuits and Seminary Priests made it treasonable for priests ordained under the Pope's authority to enter England
• 123 priests were convicted and executed under the terms of the 1585 Act from 1586-1603
• The pressure against Catholics was reinforced by the drafting of a 'Bond of Association for the Preservation of the Queen's Majesty's Royal Person' by Burghley and Walsingham in October 1584 in response to the Throckmorton Plot