#043 Elizabethan religion and religious ideas

carefully, severe, not harsh, Oath of Supremacy, CofE, Lancashire, support, 1560s, Latin, non-attendance, 1563 Act, not fully

Elizabeth moved _______ against Catholics, making penalties for carrying out traditional ceremonies ______ but ___ _____. Most parish priests accepted ____ __ ________, but not all wholeheartedly behind ____. Regional surveys show some areas like _________ had some substantial Catholic _______. Many clergy in the _____ led worship with traces of Catholicism(using _____ instead of English). Eliz issued many fines for ___________ and a _____ ____ to give the death penalty for those refusing the Oath of Supremacy, however, she made sure that these measures were ____ _____ implemented.

1577

When were the first Catholic priests executed for saying Mass?

Papal hostility and Duke of Alva puts down Dutch rebellion in ‘67, Mary QofS arrival in ‘68, Dutch Catholic seminary set up in ‘68 for training missionaries to go to England, northern earl rebellion in ‘69, excommunication in ‘70, Ridolfi Plot in ‘71, Bartholomew Day massacre in ‘72

What led to a change of policy towards Catholics in 1567-72?

instructed English Catholics not to attend CofE services

What was the Pope’s hostility in ‘67?

Presence of 10k Spanish troops across the Channel raised fears of Spanish invasion

• What was the significance of the Spanish Duke of Alva’s clamping of Dutch rebels in 1567?

• Sent to Nethelands ot put down the rebellion that had broken out there against Spanish Catholic rule

Catholic contended and successor to Eliz’s throne; focus of traditional hate for Scotland; symbol of Franco-Scottish alliance against England

What was the significance of Mary QofS’s arrival in England in 1568?

1569 northern earl rebellion

• Led by Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland in kahoots with Spain

• Planned to marry Duke of Norfolk(Catholic sympathiser) with mary QofS

• Eliz found out and forbade it, sent Norfolk to the tower and rebel leaders fled to Scotland

all Catholics free of oath of loyalty and those obeying her would also be excommunicated; justification for rebellion

What was the significance of Eliz’s excommunication in 1570?

1571 Ridolfi Plot

planned to murder Eliz and replace her with Mary QofS

1572 St Bartholomew Day

• Catholics in France slaughtered Protestants

• Brought religious wars there to a temporary end

• Eliz feared France would not turn its attention to heresy in England

1571 Treason Act

• Made denial of Eliz’s supremacy or importation of the Pope’s order of excommunication punishable by death

• Eliz cautious about provoking an outright confrontation with English Catholics

• Eliz consistently blocked attempts by more aggressively Protestant MPs to increases penalties for Catholics

Pope’s ban on CofE attendance exposed them to recusancy unaffordable fines; Ridolfi plot and excommunication unpopular with English catholics; landowners happy with Eliz’s stability; Eliz’s lawful accession

How did the Catholics bring about their own decline in the 1570s?

saw difference between Elizabeth as the illegitimate head of the churhc and as their righful ruler

Why was the Pope’s excommunication of Eliz unpopular with English Catholics?

first four in 1574; Jesuits arrived in 1580; over 100 in 1590s

What did the arrival of missionary priests to England include?

Edward Campion

• arrived in England in 1590 as the first Jesuit Catholic Missionary

• Moved around from Lancashire to London

• Arrested and executed in 1581

1581 Act

• Douai priests not seen as major threat in 1570s but in late 1570s took it more seriously due to deteriorating Spanish relations and Mary QofS

• “to retain the Queen’s Majesty’s subjects in their due obedience”

• Harsh penalties: saying mass incurred a 200 marks fine and a year’s imprisonment, and failure to attend church was £20 a month

1585 Act

• “Against Jesuit seminary priests and other disobedient persons”

• catholics priests to leave country within 40 days, continued presence deemed high treason

• nearly 150 Catholic priests executed under this Act

• closely linked to the drift to war with Spain in the mid-1580s and the threat of Mary QofS

haths laws and wish to remain loyal subjects

Why did catholicism become less of a threat?

Yorkshire, Lancashire, Herefordshire, South Wales

Though there were less Catholic plots against Eliz the landed classes still secretly practicised Mass, with the strongholds being mostly in…

10% had Catholic sympathies but 20% were active recusants

What proportion of the population in 1603 had catholic leanings?

Puritan

those protestants in England who wished to purify the CofE of those vestiges of Popery

dissatisfied with 1559 religious settlement, wished to get rid of Bishops, simplify worship

What were the opinions of the Puritans?

moderate Puritan, Presbyterian, Separatist

Three main strands of puritan thought

Moderate Puritan

reluctantly accepted the structure of the Church and pressed for reform of beliefs and religious practices along the lines of the European churches

Presbyterian

• called for a thorough reform of the structure of the Church and the simplifying of faith and ritual

• Well-established in Scotland

Separatist

broke away from the national Church to pursue its own radical Protestant reformation, on a parish-by-parish basis

Vestiarian Controversy, Cartwright Lectures, John Field and the Admonitions to the Parliament, Archbishop Grindal and ‘Prophesyings’, Brownists, The Marprelate Tracts, 1586-87 Parliament

Examples of the Puritan Threat…

Vestiarian Controversy 1565-66

• 37 Protestant London clergy disagreed with the dress code set by ArchB. Parker’s Book of Advertisements as it was too reminiscent of Catholicism.

• No conclusion nor explicit support from Eliz. who wished not to provoke enemies at a time when the threat from Catholicism was growing.

Cartwright Lectures 1570

Thomas Cartwright, a Cambridge Professor, argued for the…

• abolition of bishops

• adaptation of John Calvin’s church structure where in control was exercised by the ministers of each church, helped by respected elders of the community

Eliz. was horrified by Cartwright’s ideas of a Presbyterian system that left no room for a ‘Supreme Governor’

John Field and the Admonitions to the Parliament 1572

• Argued the Presbyterian church structure was the only one sanctioned by scripture, with no mention of bishops

• Denounced the Book of Common Prayer as ‘Popish’.

Eliz reaction…

• John field imprisoned

• Foreign Catholic threats, like Spain, united Protestants

• St. Bartholomew Day frightened all English Protestant

Archbishop Grindal and ‘Prophesyings’ 1576

• well-organised gatherings of clergymen aimed at educating the clergy and laity.  Many local bishops supported this.

• Eliz did not react well

Grindal, not dangerous. house arrest, stop, Whitgift, 3 Articles, uproar, 300 ministers, south,

Eliz’s reactions to Archbishop Grindal and ‘Prophesyings’ 1576:

Once news of this reacher Eliz in 1576, she order ArchB. ______ to investigate upon which he reached the conclusion that Prophesying was ___ ________. Eliz. did not respond well and put him in ______ ______. She issued direct orders to her bishops that prophesyings were to ______, and appointed John _____, a devout Anglican, as Grindal’s replacement after his death in 1583. Whitgift passed the __ _____ that called for all clergy to swear an absolute acceptance of bishops, the Prayer Book, and the 39 Articles. This lead to ______ and ____ ________ were suspended in the _____ of England.  Over the next few years, strict controls were enforced to end prophesyings and suppress any other development of Presbyterian practices.

Brownists 1580, A Treatise of Reformation Without Tarrying For Any

• Robert Browne set up a Separatist congregation in Norwich

  • left England to settle in Holland after brief imprisonment, where he wrote “__ _______ __ ________ ________ _________ ____ ____” that argued the CofE was corrupted by its Catholic traces and lack of moral discipline, and that true Christians must leave it in favour of separate, voluntary gatherings of ‘saints ‘who would exercise proper discipline.

• Eliz reaction: Imprisoned Browne and suppressed his ideas, such as in 1583 when John Copping and Elias Thacker were hanged for distributing Brownist pamphlets.

The Marprelate Tracts 1588-89 

• Martin Marprelate attacked the Church and the bishops

• Even Puritans like Cartwright rejected the tract and it served as the final nail in the coffin for Puritanism as the government used it as an opportunity for an all out attack on Puritanism.

• Eliz reaction: In 1593 Parliament was persuaded to pass an Act against Seditious Sectaries which allowed the authorities to execute those suspected of being Separatists.

1593 Act

• Act against Seditious Sectaries which allowed the authorities to execute those suspected of being Separatists.

• In response to Marpelate Tracts

Parliament of 1586-87

• Demands, led by MP Anthony Cope, for the introduction of a Calvinist Prayer Book, which assumed a Presbyterian Church structure, to replace the Book of Common Prayer.

• Eliz reaction: Cope and his supporters sent to the Tower.