English Reformation

3 main historical positions on ER

1. progressivist

2. revisionist

3. postrevisionist

Traditinality/ progressivist school

swift Prot. victory

good & inevitable

ER came ab. through alliance bet. Crown & anticlerical laity illusioned by institutional corruption & spiritual malaise late MA RCC.

• Vibrant & dynamic English church had run down → complex lax & depopulating monasteries, world & absentee bishops, ignorant parish clergy, & pop. religion that had become top-heavy w/superstition & fear, focused on cult material objects & buying one’s way out of purgatory.

• Drew directly on contempt. criticisms by educ. clergy & devout & prominent churchmen

(C16) Prot. precepts (sola fide & sola scriptura) quickly captiv. English people.

(G. R. Elton, 1977) Edward VI's reign brought ‘real transform. among the people"… ‘by 1553 England was alm. certainly nearer to being a Prot. country than to anyth. else’ (R4)

A. G. Dickens’ The English Reformation (1964)

• Anglican - emphas. home-grown nature Anglicanism & its widespread appeal (ERn had rapid & pop. proc. - quick spread largely complete by end 16C)

• (1553) Pop. Prot. had already become strong and ineradicable, not merely in London, Kent & Essex but throughout other politically influential areas of the kingdom

Mary I's short reign = fortun. blip, w/Liz’saccession (1558) & her moderate Prot. settlem. 1559 bring. ER to fitting & triumphant conc.

(Ronald Hutton) Why did this change?

1. Practical developm. research techniques

• Proliferation large & well-funded record offices → lots local sources in good condition avail. to historians for 1st time

  → Historians examined new categories material: visitations bishios & their officials, finance books parishes, procedures for legitimising last wills & testmanets.

2. (1960s) Expansion uni system & professionalisation its career structure released precedented no. historians onto those records.

leashed 1980s

Revisionist school (1980s-90s)

long drawn-out & v/succ. RC reaguard action… emphas. endur. appeal RCCism

Duffy, Jack Scarisbrick, Christopher Haigh

Chall. inherited Prot. & nationalistic assumptions

Us. parish-based sources like churchwardens' accounts.

Argued ER swift/ inevitable.

Present. late MA RCCism as flexible & dynamic.

Highlight. resistance & reluctance @ pop. level to reform implementation.

→ ER thorny & protracted proc. in 1 straightforw. dir.

Postrevisionist

ER = gradual but profound cultural transformation

Blank refutation revisionism but rather acceptance need to work outw. ← some its basic premises.

• Fundam. vitality late MA parochial & pop. relig.

• Distinctly limited appeal exerted by Prot. ideas in 1st decades their intro.

Haigh & Duffy recently indic. supp. PR.

Linked to increased readership - cultural phenomenon; more literate you were, more Prot. you were.

• M/ER due to chance/ other movements, relig. zeal (e.g. printing press + if Mary had reformed longer + if Liz hadn’t reigned so long → heir Mary Queen of Scots)

(Ronald Hutton) What was state late MA English Church?

Monasteries in slight trouble

• Hit by agricultural & pop. snuffle + decline supp. ← laity (boom in new kinds relig. institution)

• NEVERTHELESS, still strong institution undergoing structural reform.

Friars dynamic & pop. - great preachers

Boom in new kinds relig. institution, supposed to serve founders’ souls better than monasteries.

• wealthy: chantries (_ chapels in parish churches, where priest prayed for soul)

• poor: guilds (paid money for priest to pray for their souls & to fav. saints)

  • could be contirb. to by even poorest (few pennies) & for everyone: men, women, traders…

  • afforded comforts social club & insurance policy for yourself

(Ronald Hutton) What role did late MA church play in community?

Parish booming - church main communal building community

Parish accounts prove churches being rebuilt & redecorates extensively @ indiv./ group expense

• Often in self-consc. rivalry w/neighbouring communities

  • 15C accounts St. Ewens: directed altarpiece had to be better than next door’s St James’

Parish increasingly → focus for communal festivity & celeb.

• (1520 provincial towns) Dominant custom for reg. expenses services, church building & cost minor repairs & improvements to be raised by holding regular parties, dances or public entertainments by professionals.

• (every parish) Church houses built to make comfy settings for these parties & entertainments

• Cost religion being funded by fun

(Ronald Hutton) late MA church’s cult of the saints

Another focus relig. enthusiasm & loyalty

Operated as powerful divine intercessors on behalf their human intercessors

• Prov. ordinary people w/friend

• Many concerned w/illnesses…

Alm. as many female as male saints, led by VM

Each parish church had 10-20 side chapels dedicated to saints parish ssaint

Shrines containing their bones = key targets for pilgrimages (combined relig. devotion & summer holiday)

Wayside chapels, holy wells, holy trees… dedicated to saints for those against structure church

(Hutton) What role did late MA church play in social mobility?

Parish priests drawn ← common people & locality in which they served → could understand their neighbours

• not to be educated; to draw ritual on their neighbours (partic. mass)

• church records show that though some priests unpop., little overall tension bet. clergy & laity at local level

Church also prov. main & only way for which talented young boys could ascend social scale for wealth & political power

• many rags to riches stories - Cardinal Wolsey

(John Reeks) How many ERs were there?

@ no stage ER did people know what final product would be → what did emerge happened in largely planned way → people alw. thought job complete.

(Diarmaid MacCulloch) ‘There were as many English reformations as were monarchs on the throne’ - changed w/dynastic change/w/every successive gen.

Historically constituted - diff. stages ER as they developed

Henrician ER

• Henry as RC

Henry VIII lived & died (bad) RC - never thought of himself as Prot. yet gave us 1st flush ER - likely Reformer.

Trad. con. in his views: believed in transubstantiation, confession, liked images, etc…

(1521) Got into spat w/Martin Luther →won title Defensor Fidei ← Pope writing in defence trad. RC view 7 sacraments, to which Luther called him ‘a pig, an ass, a dung hill, the spawn of an adder, a basilisk, a lying buffoon dressed in a king’s robes, a mad fool with a frothy mouth and a whorish face’

Early Protestants could be ferociously persecuted by Henry VIII’s govt - e.g. Norfolk preacher Thomas Bileny people burnt for herecy 1531 for preaching

(Hutton) Why was there a Reformation?

• relig. division

since late C14, England had harboured its own brand heresy - known derogatively as Lollards

• modern historians cited them as indication sickness church + idea of them as Prot.’s ancestors - their ideas corresponded to partic. features ER

• but their ideas did indicate critic. church not not ser. menace to pre-ER Church

  • _ minority popul. concentrated in few areas S & E England, often in few families

• remarkably stubborn in their beliefs but isol. & unpop.

• priority not to convert but to survive themselves

• didn’t critic. church for its structural failings (as perceived by historians and Reformers, who’d claim them as their ancestors) but theological points - partic. consecration Mass (transubstantiation)

(Hutton) Why was there a Reformation?

• Clashes interest w/partic. groups amongst laity, lawyers & nobles

Early Tudor church had clashes interest w/clergy over jurisdiction (partic. crimes & clergy’s legal privileges that prevented them ← being tried for crimes straightforwardly, like everybody else)

• nobles didn’t like political power of chief churchmen (when ceased to work w/but rather against them)

• both lawyers & nobles could get hearings ← king at moments when king had fallen out w/pope

• nobles & gentry getting better educ. → snooty ab. pop. religion (priests were common people, too ill-educ. precepts Bible/ too inclined uppity, too inclined to run things for themselves)

(Hutton) Why was there a Reformation?

• Criticisms by reforming clergy

Devout & prominent churchmen did complain ab. failings CofE early Tudor period (but saying that it was unusually succ. bit church that couldn’ve been better than it was, or at worst was in danger going to the bad if it didn’t do something.)

• CH: extreme pop. dynamism, localism, interest in guilds, relative lack interest in biblr

• wanted someth. more cohesive, better regulated than them: better centralsied, more focused on trinity & central doctrine Christ. salvation

• worried RCC getting out of control & getting preoccupied w/externals

• so were looking at succ. church but not the church they wanted

(Hutton) Why was there a Reformation?

• New approach to salvation

Prot. presented English w/totally diff. message than MA church… wholly diff. way presenting problem salvation

• seized, gutted, then refurbished strong & viable institution - didn’t knock over dying one

• didn’t convert people lukewarm but won over those who’d been enthusiastic w/prev. curch

• white-hot MA RCC → white-hot Prot. (check reading)

• extreme cognitive dissonance (used to call it conversion)

1. (Hutton) How did Henry try to wield his power over pope?

Henry VIII tried to regain more power his father had ← Church after Yorkist concessions TCW…

Wanted to → most powerful king in realm religion England had ever known (megalomania)

(1512-17) Lateran Council complain ab. his antics

Full-scale fight over papal powers called off when Henry & Pope agreed Chief Minister Thomas Wolsey → cardinal & people legate

• Pope delegated to Wolsey his own power over English Church, to wield it on his behalf

• In practice, do anyth. w/o H’s approval → could tax England more than before whilst maintain. papal auth. - perfect sol.

2. (Hutton) How did Henry try to wield his power over pope?

   Why did things change?

problem = Anne Boleyn

Katherine debacle = The Great Matter

Henry could have annulled marriage officially over technicality 1st marriage

• Pope willing to let Wolsey deal w/issue in England over doc. issue

BUT Henry being megalomaniac, wanted it to be dec. in Rome + chall. pope’s interpretation Bible

• Henry needed allies; Cardinal Wolsey (trusted friend) tried in vain to secure divorce by letter/papal route which came to nothing

• Pope not going to give into these terms → sacked Wolsey as failure

(1530s) → increasingly clear breach w/rome = only way Thomas Cromwell (led govt) & Henry passed legislation w/view to gaining that divorce

→ domesday measure: seized church himself & made himself the head

gradual proc. ER

• How was Pope excluded?

• Why did it snowball ← here?

(1530-5) Pope excluded

• (1533) Act of Restraint in Appeals gave Henry final legal auth. over church matters in England

• (1534) Act of Supremacy gave him complete power over the Church in his own territory - ‘Supreme Head CofE,’ effectively ceding Pope's authority over English Church to H

  → people no longer able to rec. their relig. services ← pope but H

(Hutton) H had to reform it to show he had better understand to justify being in charge church. religion than pope - many had expected to just be temp. measure.

(Reeks) Henry’s alliance w/Prot. to secure divorce → Trojan horse of Prot., larely against him own will.

What did the dissolution monasteries entail?

Transfer powers transferred 800 abbeys into H’s hands…

(1536) Lesser monasteries dissolved to help greater

• (Hutton) Officially to use their money to supp. less but better no. bigger monasteries; except just pocketed funds

• Monks had to hand over anyth. any value

(1536-40) ‘Corrupt’ greater monasteries dissolved to help educ. & defence

• (Reeks) King’s Prot. allies (Cromwel & Carnmer) used their alliance w/H to promote dissolution this (rode against king’s own traditionalism & con.)

• ‘Forasmuch as manifest sin, vicious, carnal and abominable living is daily used and committed’ = line ← preamble Suppression Religious Houses Act 1535

• Destroyed monastic libraries

• Sold relig. relics

• Stole & sold land to fund fortifying coast + given/ sold @ knockdown prices to gentry, give. them stake in his ER

• Flogged off abbey bricks to local peasants

• Melted down lead to be used for war against France

(1538) Every parish church ordered to buy Bible

• We know ← their accounts alm. none them did

• Only did it 1541 when told fined if they did → all do it (single record church not doing it).

How does John Reeks characterise Henrician ER?

Church under Henry VIII = confusing mix diff. principles & ideas: ostensibly Catholic & traditionalist but also had removed Pope as its head & replaced it w/Henry (reflecting king’s own ego & personality

10 & 6 articles = traditionalist statements of what it means to be an English Christian but would not have been nec. w/o confusion as to what church believed/represented

• his protestantism = confusing blend Henry’s coservatism w/Trojan horse Protestantism

(Hutton) Why did this not → war religion?

• higher church

• nobles

• parish clergy

• parl.

Higher church (bishops, archdeacons) all old men (have to work their way up ranks → bishops) who die soon → Henry replaces them w/loyal supporters who enact his will (others cowardly & outnumbered; 1 who stands up for himself executed_

Nobles (buys them off w/church land - those who make noise, he executes & gives aw. their land to others)

Parish clergy (noth. changes rlly except prayers → nothing for people on the ground to get upset ab. + ordered to toe the line by their bishops)

Parl. (Henry ensures all his measures approved by Paril. - allows them to argue ab. it, he amends… - but he takes care to control institution, ensuring his best speakers elected so they can address it + ensures he selects speaker (chooses order in which people speak → help direct outcome debate by ensuring best speakers your side last & best speakers for other side get passed over)

• elects 1/4 HoL himself, gratified others with grants church land

• attends parl. himself - says those who disagree should walk out meeting past him (so he can memorise their face → sure not to give them any grants…)

signif. Henrician ER through contemp. interaction Edward Hall & John London, Warden of New College, Oxford

Expertise English think they have in realm religion → confusion as to what is happening

Hall (1539): asked how parl. could hand over church land to king

• said they were not relig. men - that was for churchmen & king - experts not on religion but property

• → can’t argue w/king when said needed Reformation, like most people

John London’s nephew converted to Lutheranism: told him that continenal heretical rebellions alw. put down (even if it took 100s yrs) + many kings had argued w/pope (HRE, etc) but they alw. make it up (2 generations: rival popes but they made it up ) - Henry/ child of his will go back to Rome as they alw. do

• it had never happened before - perm. crack in church → nobody saw it coming

• sort of right? Mary did take England back to Rome + if no sister, heir Mary Queen of Scots devout RCC

• Liz stood in way as devout Prot.

Edwardian ER

Protestantism took hold w/Edward VI

• Henry placed Prot. allies around Edward VI because they were most likely to supp. his succession

• Edward Seymour made himself Duke of Somerset & Lord protector of England shortly after Edward’s accession

• → under Edward, Edward Seymour & thomas Cranmer had much more freedom to Protestantise/promote Protestantism Britain

  • alm. immed. repeal traditonalist statements faith e.g. 6 articles, repeal heresy laws & restrictions on bible readingoc. building new Prot. church - invites reformers from continent (e.g. Martin Busser of Strasbourg who’d given shelter to John Calvin + Italian reformer Peter Mater) to get their advice on how to construct a new church & a new confession of faith

    • results in/ invited them etc over to Britain for advice over how to natigate new faith → Book of Common prayer, 1549 which is guide to practice worship in English churches (removed ancient rites/prayers and use of Latin ← church; authorised use communion both kinds (bread & wine); authorised clerical marriage BUT (compromise not too far): retained prayers for dead, use clerical vestments + talk of the ‘real presence’ of JC in bread & wine communion/eucharist)

followed up w/further reform 1550: Ordinals 1550

• Ordinals 1550: priests redefined as minsiters in similarity to practice in Lutheran & Calvininist churches + images & lables labled popery & superstitious → removed from worship

Under Northumblernad dudley, Reformation accelerated for final 2 yrs Edward’s rule

• Revised BOCP 1552 scrapped prayers for dead, removed all talk noble presence, abolished vestments & turned trad. stone altars into simple wooden tables

England’s 1st real taste of proper Protestantism

Marian Restoration

Northumberland’s failed attempt to keep Protestantism → lady Jane Grey

• Mary’s appeal to legitimacy (she was Henry’s daughter) → v/pop.

Determined to turn the clock back on Edward VI’s Reformation

• Married Philip which was deeply unpop. - even amongst Catholics like Bishop Steven Gardner - people otherwise very predisposed to support Mary & her Catholic restoration w/fears England becoming a mere Habsburg or Spanish province

• 1st Statue of Repeal pop. - worship will be as it was when Henry VIII died (turned clock back to 1547) → this (trad. elemenents Cath. worship) was v/pop. in parished England (Ronald Hutton used church warden accounts to investigate what parochial responses were to that statute that repealed: they loved it)

• if she had lived longer/had child, Cath. restoration may well have taken root in England & Reformation could have been reversed - consensus is that GB would have been Catholic.

• but because she died childless so early after only 5 yrs, Protestants wrote her reign → emphas. brutality her reign, the 300 burnings heresy & exile ab. 800 Protestants to the continent → rep. Bloody Mary (bloodthirsty individual)

  • her childlessness & untimely death gave Protestants their martyr story: can turn these executions into heroic defenders truth & true faith

(Reeks) What was the 1559 Elizabethan Settlem.?

Series acts parl. which re-establish Prot. worship but retained some key elements trad. church structure too

• act of supremacy reinvested auth. over church in crown & in person of Elizabeth - but not called Henry’s title ‘supreme head’ (only head church= JC, not a human) but ‘supereme governer’

• act of univformity - brought back revised Book of Common Prayer - effectively 1552 more Prot. version but politically astute version → fudged key phrases obscrued meaning of what it rlly meant

  • political piece of work which didn’t nail itself too far to one particular doctinr

Series injunctions bring Prot. back to churches

• removal pilirigmages, shrines, images + promotion preaching, bible-reading, allowing clerical marriages

• yet kept RC practices clerical vestments, kneeling for communion, use of bells by parish churches etc (vestments of controversy in 153/56)

Elizabethan Settlement

• Pop. narrative Elizabethan Settlement

Built oup over 100 yrs in Anglo-American alliance culminated 1950s

• Sir John Neal + William Hadler

Agreed Liz CofE = perfect combin. bet. best elements old RCism & new Prot., queen & puritans

• RC in its hierarchy & retention distinctive ritual dress for clergy

• Prot. in its theology, church decorations & form service

Result innate English genius for compromise, work. through LIz’s exceptional skill & compromise as ruler

• Compromise bet. Liz’s more con. instincts (ritual) & brash Puritan demands

• This creativity continued when Liz & Puritan fell out, when she refused to accept more reformation

→ Anglican Trad. w/its emphasis on ceremony, physical beauty & hierarchy

→ Puritan trad. came Dissenter Trad. (Prot. Dissent → Oliver Cromwell, Pilgrim’s Prog., URC, Baptists, Quakers… community churches dedicated to political & relig. liberty

Marxist historians turned Pilgrim Fathers into symptoms forces social & econ. change, repres. solvent force broke down establishment, monopoly & hierarchy in… relig. expression spirit modernity

(Hutton) Why have views on Elizabeth’s ER changed?

Tremendous expansion higher educ. prod. unprecedented no. prof. historians in research-based career

→ by 1970s, realised couldn’t agree who Liz Puritans were

1. Presbuterians who chall. alleged structure Liz Church? But ineffective minority.

2. Members reformed church most zealous for new faith. but 1560s, no cool Protestants amongst those genuine converts to new religion. Large majority would-be Catholics and majority people confused & grudgingly conformists. Genuine Prot. were minority, genuinly enthusiastic for their religion.

→ both these religions, Puritans = non-event,

Historians realised couldn’t understand Liz either

(Hutton) new consensus Elizabethan ER

Why was Liz’s new Church so satisfactory?

• extenuating circumstances

Like under prev. monarchs, Mary’s bishops & 100s parish clergy defect

• 1/5 those in London resigned/ sacked)

• Shocking Mary had prod. such stubborn bunch RC bishops → only 1 (most pop. & despised) swapped sides.

17/25 new bishops had been exiles under Mary, on whom Liz forced to depend.

• Settlem. only made poss. by arresting/ intim. RC leaders in HoL + introd. series compromises.

new consensus

Why was LIz’s new church so satisfying?

• her character

Experts can agree kind church Liz herself wanted. Said diff. things to diff. people & altered her relig. policies w/circumstance.

We don’t know what Elizabeth personally felt ab. matters theology

• Prot. - educ. w/Edward’s tutors under Catherine Parr

• BUT also had high tastes in religion → kept people guessing what direction Reformation would go under her reign she would go religoin-wise → retained crucifix in royal chapel & celeb. Cath. mass in chapel royal @ beg. reign, much to consternation Protestants

• Want reformed RC church like her father’s but forced for more Prot. church OR wanted more Prot. church but forced to have more con. 1?

• (1560s) Did her best to keep both sides content

• (early 1570s) @ direct attack ← RCs at home & abroad → leans tow. more enthusiastic Prot.

  (later 1570s) Her pos. at home more secure & irritated by campaign radical Prot - adopts more con. Prot. pos.

Letters show her own most abiding characteristics…

• commitm. to her own power over Church (asserted against RCs & Prot. alike)

  • Saw herself as Prot. & believed in powerful God over human affairs BUT vague over doctinre

  • Bundle of doctrine should have made her flexible BUT her actions rather than words signif, even consciously… due to her…

• like change

  • willing to undertake radical actions but once sit. → familiar, willing to change any aspect of it

  • this manifested in her attit. to church - whether or actually wanted church settlem. 1559, once got used to it, obstinately refused to alter it

Elizabethan Settlement

• (new consensus ER) What was result of Liz settlement?

(Reeks) → masterclass in indecision - delib. concious middle way but politically astute fudge to keep everyone guessing

• Initially, nobody liked her fudge (1569 Northern rebellion + Prot. vestments rebellion) BUT her long life meant that it settled & embedded itself into GB. By time James king, possible to have it rolled back

(Hutton) ‘rushed botch of a job’ prod. least Prot. Prot. church in world & ‘most perfect Church in history’

• (Bishop Jewel) ‘leaden mediocrity’

• Everyone who supp. it for 1st 100 yrs its existence did so in spite like aspect of it.

• Delib. left vague many points on which people wanted reassurance on matters belief

• List 39 Articles drafted by committee & left form Church compl. obscure

• Stop-gap arrangem. viewed by everyone except Liz as destined for alteration.

39 articles left m/resolved… theological & administrative nonsense

Only Liz’s extraordinary personality kept it going - Prot. shocked to discover no more Reformation going to happen

• W/exception Liz, nobody content w/settlem.

• Concern over what people going to do - put up with existing sit. or declare open dissatisfaction with it?

  → those who refused to accept 1559 Settlem. & campaigned for further Reformation = Puritan

What did 39 articles fail to resolve?

• If CofE was better heir to Church of Rome or someth. compl. diff. & assoc. instead w/continental Prot. churches

• How people can win salvation by their own efforts

• Whether clergy have sacred status that sep. them ← laity

• Whether royal supremacy vested in monarch alone or have to work w/parl.

• Whether bishops control lesser clergy &/or serve state

  • did bishops have absol. power over rest clergy & any role in running country

    • Liz kept bishops as her father & brother had done - as handy agents in running church for crown + as emblems hierarchy for monarchs who sat at apex one, whilst helping herself to their welath & barely listening to their advice in secular & relig. affairs + left them w/o influence (sank to their lowest level England since country’s conversion to Christianity)

    • YET left them with pot. to regain their power at all levels

clashes bet. Queen & Puritans

Elizabethan Puritans = Prot. refused to accept Church Settlem.

1566: Liz expected them to wear remnats robes Cath. clergy

• no sign liz herself partic. fond them as things as themselves but they were part rulebook she enforced

• to fail to wear them chall. their auth.

• man caught bet. Queen & clergy in London was Bishop London, Edmund Grindal (loyalty to Liz made himobey her, despite grumblings)

• Moved grumblers to countryside → grumble w/o punishm. → ending crisis.

1571: obvious time had come for RC features Church

• Grindal (now Archbishop Canterbury) + most other bishops & msot queen’s privy council & majority in parl. wanted change

• BUT her lack co-oper. → some lost faith in settlem. altog. & demanded removal bishops

• came to head over Prophesyings (meet Prots secreat, pretending not to compensate that Settlem. not designed for evangelism)

  • Settlem. not designed for clergy - who needed to be converted aw. ← Mass

  • Supp. by…

  • Liz hated them due to their informal & ad hoc nature → not under her contorl in way formal church could be

  • Encouraged people to think ab. religion for themselves, isntead of listening to what state told them

  • Hostility → implaccable loathing by 2 unrelated instances (viol. outbursts)

  • banned prophecies → too much for Grimble, who went into mutiny over matter → suspensed ← his job for life, had neevr happened to Archbishop Canterbury before (sign what Royal Supermacy meant)

Why did Liz win?

Only Prot. option

• Pruning fam. tree by luck & Henry VIII exec. relatives left no other credible Prot. contender for throne

(by 1580s) ER had succeeded - most English Prot.

Gen. had grown up used to new Church & thought it nat.

• Those who privately hoped for return to RCism had no realistic hope for one w/o coup d’etat → supp. her in not enacting further reform

Its cheerleaders: Sir Christopher Hatton recruited young new bishops supp. Settlem. who know any altern.

• e.g. John Whitgift, new Archbishop Canterbury

lots backlash against Puritanism… see seminar notes

was ER successful?

by taking steps towards his final action & using Parliament to announce the Acts, Henry made it appear to be what England wanted