The Presbyterian movement

What did Presbyterians believe?

That the Church of England should be reformed further in its structure and its form of worship

What did its ideas grow out of?

Calvin’s views on Church organisation and discipline

What did it merge partly in reaction to?

The Vestiarian Controversy

What did they begin to question?

The scriptural basis for the authority of bishops and other aspects of the Church

Where were the criticism voiced?

In 2 pamphlets known as the two Admonitions, whose main author was John Field

What did the first Admonition attack and call for?

The Book of Common Prayer and called for the abolition of bishops

What did the second Admonition provide?

A detailed description of a Presbyterian system of Church government

Where did a pamphlet war follow between?

Thomas Cartwright, a Cambridge academic and John Whitgift, the vice-chancellor of Cambridge University

What did Cartwright and the Presbyterians believe about the Church

A Church founded on ‘superstitious’ or ‘popish’ principles must be spiritually flawed and the 1559 settlement had to be modified

What di Whitgift argue in contrast?

The Presbyterians’ attitude was destructive and would split the Church

Where was the geographically narrow movement largely confined to?

London, Essex, Nni of Cambridge, Suffolk, and parts of the east Midlands

What did Presbyterianism attract however?

High-ranking support

Who saw the advantages of Presbyterianism?

The Earl of Huntingdon, the Earl of Leicester, and Lord Burghley

What did all 3 of them defend?

The Clergymen who fell foul of the authorities because of their alleged sympathy for the Presbyterian movement

When did the movement grow?

In the 1580s

How were ideas for Church government developed?

Through local assemblies and provincial and national synods

What happened to attempts to bring change through Parliament?

Failed

What did both Peter Turner and Anthony Cope introduce?

Bills which, if enacted, would have replaced the Book of Common Prayer with a new prayer book stripped of any remaining ‘popish’ elements

What did neither bill generate much?

Support

What happened to Cope?

Imprisoned briefly but Liz knighted him 5 years later suggesting that he quickly recovered his position