Empresa: MASTER PLANT

Under the relatively long and peaceful reign of Elizabeth, the daughter of Anne Boleyn, Protestantism was reinstated and enduringly established in England. At the outset, she had to grapple with the storms of militant Calvinists who trooped into England with other Protestants from exile.

They wanted a more rapid and vigorous reformation. Internally, she faced the threat of civil war and doubts expressed by some nobles about her own claim to the throne. Externally, there was the theological and political threat from the Catholic Church which had been invigorated by the Counter Reformation.

She launched out on a political course by making the Parliament pass the Act of Supremacy, of 1559 which designated her the only ‘Supreme Governor’ in England in all spiritual or ecumenical things. She launched out also on the religious course. She gradually replaced the Catholic Church leaders with Protestants. She however, refused to allow the persecution of Catholics bishops under Mary. She kept them under arrest despite demand for their deaths. She had to treat Catholics carefully for pragmatic political reasons, they were too numerous and powerful.

She subsequently made the Parliament to pass The Act of Uniformity which made compelling a revised form of Cranmer’s Book of Common

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Prayer of 1552. Convocation also accepted a ‘moderate’ revision of 39 Articles with a tilt more toward classical Protestantism.

Elizabeth, for obvious reasons allowed only moderate revisions. At virtually every moment she declined to make severe changes. She preferred to keep England, via media (on a middle way). Many Protestants were disturbed when she instituted some changes which leaned towards Catholicism. She ordered a Latin translation of the Book of Common Prayer for use in colleges. She ordered a reform of the Church Calendar which led to the restoration of the observation of many saints’ days. She also insisted on keeping the cross and candlesticks on the communion table.

Catholics like John Martial dedicated books to her because she kept a cross in her chapel. It was after Pope Pius V excommunicated her in 1570 that she identified English papal adherents as potential traitors and turned against them.

Her moderation all the same encouraged the Catholics but frustrated the enthusiastic reformers, particularly the religious refugees who were returning from Switzerland. When the radical reformers began to agitate for a purer religion, creating the Puritan movement, Elizabeth assented to the Conventicle Act which ordered death for anyone who attended a separatist meeting. Elizabeth’s reluctance to allow innovation in her church stimulated the growth of Puritanism and Presbyterianism. But she refused to understand either their theology or their loyalty to their faith. Many were killed, some fled but Puritanism continued to gain adherents.

Ironically, foreign Protestants saw Elizabeth as the supporter of their faith.

She sent troops and money to aid Protestant rebels in Scotland and Spanish Netherlands. She also organised assistance to the Huguenots during the Wars of Religion in France.

Besides, Queen Elizabeth attempted to unite Protestant rulers in the Protestant League to oppose the Pope. In 1577 she presided over a counsel which drew up an outline for the proposed Protestant League. It was entitled “Heads of the Treaty between the Queen of England and the Protestant Princes of Germany”. She softened her stand on this later on the advice of her counsellors who cautioned that ‘leagues often betrayed’.

4.0 CONCLUSION

Protestantism passed through many phases in England. Here, more than in any other place, the reformation was initiated from above. In all, Elizabeth’s long reign, her royal prerogatives, and political acumen which

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earned her distinguishing period “Elizabethan”, is marked as the most religious age in English history. Elizabeth’s moderation or rather conservative taste profoundly influenced the development of Anglicanism.

But for that, there might have been a civil war and there might never have been Puritanism. This English Protestantism with a strong anti-Roman Catholic outlook was eventually absorbed into the religious life of the English people after the restoration of the Stuarts in 1660. We will learn more about the Stuarts and the reformation in Scotland in the next unit.

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5.0 SUMMARY

The following are the major points you have learnt in this unit:

 Henry VIII married Catherine, his late brother’s wife, and they were both crowned together in June 24, 1509.

 After sixteen years, due to still births and early deaths, the marriage produced no male survivor.

 As a result, Henry decided to divorce Catherine which the Catholic Church will not grant.

 He thus removed Cardinal Wolsey and appointed Thomas Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury without the Pope’s approval.

 Thomas Cranmer approved Charles VIII’s divorce.

 When Mary Tudor, the daughter of Catherine, became queen, she determined to re-establish Roman Catholicism in England.

 Her killing of Protestant leaders earned her the title, “Bloody Mary”.

 She led England back to “papal Catholicism” unlike her father’s

“nationalist Catholicism”.

 It was at the time of Queen Elizabeth that Protestantism was revived though without official support.

6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT

Discuss the events that led to Protestantism in England.

7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING

Bowker, J. (Ed.). (1997). The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. New York: Oxford University Press.

Cameron, E. (1991). The European Reformation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Chaunu, P. (Ed.). (1989). The Reformation. Gloucester: Alan Sutton.

Dowley, T. (Ed.). (1996). Lion Handbook, The History of Christianity.

Singapore, Lion Publishing Plc.

Gonzalez, J. L. (1985). The Story of the Church, The Reformation to the Present. New York: HarperCollins.

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Greengrass, M. (1998). The Longman Companion to the European Reformation, c.1500–1618. London: Longman.

Hillerbrand, H. J. (Ed.). (1996). The Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Reformation. 4 Vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Houghton, S.M. (2001). Sketches from Church History. Great Britain. The Barth Press.

McGrath, A. E. (2003). Christian Theology: An Introduction. Malden &

Berlin: Blackwell.

Pettergree, A. (Ed). (1992). The Early Reformation in Europe. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Scribner, R. W. (1981). For the Sake of Simple Folk: Popular Propaganda for the German Reformation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Stephen, T. (2005). A Short History of Christianity. Grand Rapids: William Eerdmans.

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MODULE 3