The social impact of religious and economic change under Edward VI

What was an evangelical?

anyone who favoured religious reform; those who were opposed to further religious reform are usually described as conservatives

Major religious changes - July 1547

Issue of royal injunctions which are radical in nature

Major religious changes - December 1547

Dissolution of the chantries

Major religious changes - January 1549

Act of Uniformity, which laid down the publication of the Book of Common Prayer

Major religious changes - May 1549

Book of Common Prayer introduced

Major religious changes - March 1552

Second Act of Uniformity, which laid down the publication of the second Book of Common Prayer

Major religious changes - December 1552

Revised Book of Common Prayer introduced

Major religious changes - June 1553

Forty-Two Articles of Religion published

Major religious changes in the reign of Edward VI - all dates

July 1547

December 1547

January 1549

May 1549

March 1552

December 1552

June 1553

What direction did religious policy move in under Edward VI?

considerable move in the direction of Protestantism

What was Somerset’s approach to religion?

had what seems to be a genuine, but late, conversion to Protestantism + welcomed religious radicals eg. John Hooper and Thomas Beacon into his household

for the most part religious policy proved cautious - exemplified by moderate Book of Common Prayer written in 1549 by Archbishop Cranmer who himself was cautious by temperament and anxious to avoid an increase in religious tension

What were the 1549 Book of Common Prayer’s two key objectives?

What did it also include?

established a single form for services within the Church of England

translated the services into English to enhance understanding of the key texts

(therefore simply translated into English many of the traditional Latin services)

included an ambiguous Eucharistic declaration which the Catholic Bishop Gardiner thought could still imply the acceptance of transubstantiation

In what areas was a more radical approach taken to religion by Somerset?

(despite the reluctance of public opinion to embrace religious reform)

Somerset’s period of power experiences a sustained attack on popular religious practice, particularly in London

Religious changes under Somerset:

February 1547 - Denunciation of images in London

July 1547 - Injunctions issued

December 1547 - Dissolution of chantries and religious guilds

May 1549 - Introduction of Book of Common Prayer

February 1547 - what happened?

Reason for change?

Significance of change?

Denunciation of images in London

Reflected radical attitudes among churchmen, especially Nicholas Ridley

Ridley was supported both within government and by Protestant activists within London who engaged in widespread iconoclasm

July 1547 - what happened?

Reason for change?

Significance of change?

Injunctions issued

Reflected radical attitudes in government

Attacked many features of popular Catholicism, such as lights, images, stained glass, processions and practices associated with Candlemas, Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday

December 1547 - what happened?

Reason for change?

Significance of change?

Dissolution of chantries and religious guilds

Crown needed money to pay for expensive foreign policy

Chantries, guilds and lay brotherhoods abolished and their property seized by Crown. This represented a further attack on popular Catholicism

May 1549 - what happened?

Reason for change?

Significance of change?

Introduction of Book of Common Prayer

Need for uniform approach to religious services

Imposed a more moderate approach to religious reform than that which had been followed in 1547

Religious changes under Somerset - all dates

February 1547

July 1547

December 1547

May 1549

What percentage of Londoners were Protestant in 1547?

And what was the situation elsewhere?

20%

some places with entrenched Protestant minorities eg. Sussex + Essex, but elsewhere it was almost non-existent and Catholic survivalism remained strong in the north, in Midland counties and in the far south-west

What was the social impact of religious changes under Somerset?

highly significant social impact, even they amounted to a sustained attack on the religious experience of ordinary people, and enabled a renewed plundering of the Church’s resources

injunctions of 1547 attacked many traditional Catholic practices

attack on chantries and plundering of their assets by the Crown destroyed one means of connecting the dead to the communities of which they had once been part, whilst the attack on guilds and confraternities meant that the Crown confiscated money and property which had previously unpinned charitable activities, feast and celebrations

widespread fear that this would only be the start of systematic asset stripping of the Church

What was Northumberland’s strategy in relation to the Church?

wished to continue the Protestant reforms initiated by Somerset

sought to plunder more of its wealth

In what way did the wider political context help to shape a more radical approach to Protestantism than might have been expected of a political figure like Northumberland, who hitherto had seemed to be fairly cautious in religious matters?

the tactically cautious Cranmer was moving in a more radical direction - reflected in the much more radical Book of Common Prayer which he introduced in 1552

more radical senior clergy eg. the Bishop of London, and the even more radical John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester, were becoming more influential

eminent continental reformers had moved to England and were becoming influential in decision on religious matters, also close links between many English reformers and the Swiss reformer, Heinrich Bullinger of Zurich, who had carried on the Zwinglian Reformation in that city

MOST IMPORTANTLY it reflected the increasing influence, as the reign progressed, of Edward VI on the policy-making process, king took his role as head of the Church seriously and believed it was his mission to destroy idolatry

What were the changes introduced by the revised Book of Common Prayer, 1552?

removal of remaining ‘conservative’ ceremonies

rewriting of baptism, confirmation and burial services

radical reform of Communion service, including replacement of wafer by ordinary bread

ban on use of ‘popish’ vestments

restriction on use of church music

1552 revised Book of Common Prayer change - removal of remaining ‘conservative’ ceremonies

Reason for change + significance of change?

removal of remaining ‘conservative’ ceremonies

no longer fitted with the regime’s religious radicalism

conservatives could no longer find anything in the prayer book which the could accept

1552 revised Book of Common Prayer change - rewriting of baptism, confirmation and burial services

Reason for change + significance of change?

to make services more easily understood by congregations

showed Cranmer’s desire to see greater simplicity in church services

1552 revised Book of Common Prayer change - radical reform of Communion services, including replacement of wafer by ordinary bread

Reason for change + significance of change?

need for decisive change from ambiguity of 1549 prayer book

Showed the influence of Zwinglianism in the Eucharistic declaration ‘Do this in remembrance that Christ’s blood was shed for thee’

1552 revised Book of Common Prayer change - ban on use of ‘popish’ vestments

Reason for change + significance of change?

seen as objects of ‘superstition’

simpler clerical vestments were seen as more in keeping with the simpler approach to services

1552 revised Book of Common Prayer change - restriction on use of church music

Reason for change + significance of change?

moderate Protestants thought that church music hindered religious understanding; radical opinion considered it idolatrous

simpler approach to music reflected the emphasis on greater simplicity in church services

What confirmed the firmly Protestant nature of official doctrine?

Cranmer’s Forty-Two Articles of Religion, although these left some ambiguity between competing varies of Protestantism

In addition to the adoption of a more strongly Protestant approach, what did the Crown do to aid its financial difficulties after the ruinous expenditure of the protectorate?

pursued a systematic policy of asset stripping, extracting wealth from the Church through the plundering of the property of bishoprics eg. the diocese of Gloucester and Worcester were combined, with two thirds of the Worcester estate going to the Crown

the bishops of Exeter and Winchester made substantial ‘grants’ from their property to the Crown

there was a plan, never implemented, to divide the bishopric of Durham and to appropriate much of its wealth to the Crown

What rate were the Crown’s orders regarding the destruction of old Catholic habits put into effect?

seem to gradually have been put into effect (evidence from churchwarden’s accounts)

although responses to the restoration of Catholicism in 1553 were often rapid

How did expenditure on church goods change after 1540?

declined after 1540

seems to have been a reaction to the destructive attitudes of the Crown - people increasingly felt there was little point in leaving money to the Church if there was a chance that their bequests might be confiscated by the Crown

BY THE END OF THE REIGN OF EDWARD VI PEOPLE WERE MUCH LESS LIKELY TO LEAVE MONEY TO THEIR PARISH CHURCH

How was religion at the parish level impacted?

crisis in religion at the parish level

people much less likely to leave money to their parish church

decline in church attendance in the diocese of Exeter

decline in the number of candidates for orientation as priests, which could potentially have left the Church with a severe manpower shortage

What did the radical Hooper admit in 1550 related to the pace of reform?

that is was hampered by uncooperative public opinion

What was the crisis at parish level made worse by?

fear of a Crown attack on church plate - many parishes tried to avoid their by selling their treasures

such actions proved justified as in January 1553 the Crown started to confiscate church plate, although some resourceful parishes were able to hide their treasures - not only was this an attack on the assets of parishes, it was an attack on the history and collective memory of each parish, which encourage a climate of discontent and disobedience

Evidence from wills, what percentage of northern wills between 1540 and 1546 left money to their parish, and what percentage did so during Edward VI’s reign?

1540 - 1546: 70% of northern wills

during Edward VI’s reign: 32%

In Lincolnshire and Huntingdonshire what percentage of wills left money to their parish in 1545 compared to 1552?

1545: 66%

1552: 10%

What were the interconnected economic factors helped bring about discontent during Somerset’s period of rule?

inflationary pressures

agrarian issues, particularly enclosure and harvest failure

taxation

What had the rate of inflation been doing during the later stages of Henry VIII’s reign?

the rate of inflation had been rapidly increasingly, bringing about a marked reduction in real wages for many people, particularly those at the lower end of the income scale

How did inflation change under Somerset?

grew worse under Somerset

he continued Henry’s disastrous policy of debasing the coinage in order to finance the war against Scotland

a poor harvest in 1548 reinforced inflationary pressures even more

How much did Somerset’s debasement of coinage raise?

+BUT

£537,000

but it heightened inflationary pressures and added to the social distress many were feeling at the time

How did enclosure become a serious political issue during Somerset’s protectorate?

Somerset was influenced by a writer who argued that enclosure was the root cause of many of the country’s social and economic problems

Somerset therefore, like Wolsey before him, agreed to set up a commission to investigate the problem and issued a proclamation against enclosure, little was achieved apart from raising the expectations of the poor, and annoying landowners

despite the scale of controversy, the rate of enclosure seems to have been slowing down and Somerset’s proclamation might have been wrong-headed

What were reactions to taxation?

caused great discontent

money had to be raised to pay for the Scottish war; this was mostly financed by land sales and borrowing, which simply added to the long-term problems of Crown finance

What caused more short-term problems relating to the Scottish war?

a failed social experiment

main driver of increasing amount of enclosure was perceived to be the profits that could be gained by converting land from arable to pasture in order to graze large flocks of sheep; these would provide cloth and wool for the export market - to deter this Somerset introduced a tax on sheep, intended to deter enclosure

main effect, however, was to create huge financial pressures on small farmers in upland areas who had little choice but to rely on sheep for subsistence

What impact did Northumberland have on the national finances?

after the disastrous final years of Henry VIII’s reign and the protectorate, Northumberland achieved a measure of stability in the national finances

brought an end to the wars against Scotland and France = considerable reaction in Crown expenditure + brought in £133,333 as a French payment for the return of Boulogne

succumbed to the temptation of one final debasement, but then abandoned the practice

How did Crown income change under Northumberland?

improved, although some of this was achieved by increasing revenue from the Church by unscrupulous methods eg. the melting down of church plate for bullion

a commission produced a detailed analysis of the shortcomings in royal financial administration and plans were made for the streamlining of financial administration, although many of these did not come to fruition until the reign of Queen Mary

What year was perhaps the worst year of the whole Tudor period?

Why?

1549

major rebellions in East Anglia and the south-west

considerable levels of disorder throughout much of the rest of the country

Somerset’s government found it difficult to cope with the rebellions; the thin resources of the Tudor State were overstretched with substantial numbers of troops engaged in the garrisoning of the south of Scotland, while other were stationed in the south-east of England to ward off a potential French invasion

What were the reasons for rebellion and disorder?

in some parts of the country religious reasons predominated

in the Midlands and East Anglia agrarian and social grievances were most important, with the Council receiving numerous reports of riots and of uprooting of enclosures

resentment of taxation appears to have been a consistent factor

Why happened to most of the risings in terms of duration?

Why was this the case?

Where was this not the case?

most died out fairly quickly

either because of insufficient support or through prompt action from the local nobility and gentry, such as the Earl of Arundel who managed to calm matters down in strategically sensitive Sussex - heard grievances + punished a few oppressive landlords even-handedly

similar methods worked in Cambridgeshire, Yorkshire and the Midlands

south-west lacked a resident aristocrat of Arundel’s structure who could bring matters under control, and both the Western Rebellion and Kett’s Rebellion in East Anglia required significant military action to suppress them and restore order

When was the Western Rebellion?

June - August 1549

What was the Western Rebellion prompted by?

religious grievances

rebels detested the new Book of Common prayer, but in reality they had little chance to experience the new prayer book and the actual religious grievances ran much deeper

Where was the Western Rebellion?

Devon and Cornwall

What did the rebels of the Western Rebellion want?

to reverse the religious reforms which were destroying the way in which people had experienced religion - both the traditional rituals of the church services and much of the Church’s wider role in the community had gone

What was the Western Rebellion also provoked by?

distrust between the rural labourers, on the one hand, and the landowners on the other, and grievances over taxation

peasant labourers resented the sheep tax, which they regarded as an imposition by an uncaring and ignorant government in London - resentment had been made worse by its implementation by insensitive local officials

Western Rebellion - timeline

6 June - formation of Cornish rebel camp

11 June - start of Devon rebellion

20 June - two rebellious groups converged

21 June - dispute between the rebels and a Devon JP

23 June - rebels camped near Exeter

2 July - rebels besieged Exeter

28 July - Lord Russel began his advance on the rebels

4 August - rebels defeated

17 August - final defeat of rebels

When was the sheep tax introduced?

March 1549

When was the Kett’s Rebellion?

July - August 1549

Where was the Kett’s Rebellion?

East Anglia

What was the cause of the Kett’s Rebellion that was shared with the Western Rebellion?

little evidence in East Anglia of conservative religious tendencies among the leadership + the rebels at Norwich and services conducted according to the Book of Common Prayer

but - as shared with Western Rebellion - sense of class antagonism which was less evident in those counties where the ‘commotions’ were more easily resolved

What were the specific grievances of the Kett’s rebellion?

hatred of local government officials

resentment of the abuse by landowners of the Norfolk foldcourse system

the release of pent-up frustrations about the maladministration locally of the Howards

What was the Norfolk foldcourse system?

the right to graze sheep on an enclosed piece of common land

problems were caused in some villages by landowners denying access to the foldcourse, despite many of these rights being held by peasant farmers

What did the rebels of Kett’s rebellion want?

the government to act on the promises of reform which had been made by Somerset in his proclamation against enclosures in April

this contrasts with the western rebels who wished to reverse government policy

What did the rebels of the Kett’s Rebellion do just outside Norwich?

camp, where their leader not only achieved the remarkable feat of maintaining order and discipline but was also able to negotiate with the civic authorities in Norwich

How were the rebellions suppressed?

Somerset had appointed Lord Russell to deal with the Western Rebellion - eventually Russell had enough forces, including foreign mercenaries, to be able to defeat the rebels near Exeter on 4 August

government’s original attempt to crush the East Anglian rebellion by the Earl of Northampton had ended in humiliating failure

Somerset was forced to send an army including foreign mercenaries under the command of the Earl of Warwick to deal with the rebels, on 27 August the rebellion was brutally suppressed and Kett was convicted of high treason and hanged

Which two reforming traditions did the reign of Edward VI witness a contest between?

the tradition of evangelical humanism associated with those who identified with the teachings of Erasmus

more radical forms of Protestantism

In what way did moderate humanism, though it had been weakened by the divisions of the 1530s, still exert some influence? (7)

Archbishop Cranmer had been influenced by humanism

the 1547 injunctions required each parish church to acquire a copy of the ‘Paraphrases’ of Erasmus

Edward’s tutor was a humanist

the government gave encouragement to a humanist writer

the junior Secretary of State in Northumberland’s administration encouraged humanist scholars at Cambridge

humanist-influenced reformers were invited to work in England during Edward’s reign, such as Martin Bucer; Cranmer secured for Bucer a Crown appointment as Professor of Divinity at Cambridge

the great Lutheran and humanist scholar Philip Melanchthon, the leading continental moderate reformer, was invited to be Bucer’s replacement

What approach to reform gained pace under Northumberland?

a more militant and less comprehensive approach to reform

partly brought about by the strained relationship which existed between Northumberland and Cranmer - Northumberland seems to have come more under the influence of the radical figure John Hooper, whom Cranmer found divisive

with the move towards more radical reform in 1552 and 1553 it looked as if this movement was gaining ground, however the death of Edward VI destroyed both contending groups

How impactful was religious change during Edward VI’s short reign?

PROFOUND

never before, throughout the whole of English history, had the population been subjected to so much religious change so quickly

for many people the experience was disorientating

whilst the government could be criticised for dealing rather ineptly with the two major rebellions of 1549, they should be praised for implementing the policy with so little disruption