The Elizabethan Religious Settlement

Elizabeth’s solution to the religious instability and division that had

wracked England under Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary I

Elizabeth’s dilemna

Putting aside her own beliefs and preferences:

•A Catholic settlement would please the continental powers, but not the British protestants.

•A protestant settlement would alienate British Catholics, France, and Spain.

Reformation Bill (1558)

• Communion – transubstantiation

• Abuse of the Pope in the litany• Surplice (priest’s fancy gear)

banned –• Priests could marry• Banned images from Church

Reformation Bill Voted Down

- Bishops sit in House of Lords- Many of the Bishops are Catholics- Vote against the Reformation Bill- Elizabeth replied with the Act of Supremacy and Act of Uniformity

Act of Uniformity (1558)

• Required the population to attend Sunday service in an Anglican church

• New compromise version of the Book of Common Prayer

• Removed abuse of the pope from the liturgy • Wearing of the surplice permitted• Rituals like the sign of the cross maintained.

Act of Supremacy (1558)

• Reestablished the situation under Henry VIII• Elizabeth > Supreme Governor• ‘Governor’ rather than ‘Head’ appeased

conservatives concerned about a woman claiming the latter title.

• Clergy had to swear an oath of loyalty to Elizabeth but the laity did not (no desire to “make a window into men’s souls”).

The Thirty-Nine Articles of Faith (1563)

• Defines Anglicanism in contrast to both Catholicism and Calvinism

• Devised by a convocation (assembly) of the Church under Archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker.

• Salvation through faith (though a role for the church and the sacraments) are maintained

• A.k.a. The Articles of Religion

The Settlement’s Success

• Elizabeth's settlement thinks Protestant but looks Catholic. It appealed to the most cherished traditions of both, the Word for Protestants and the ritual and structure for Catholics.

• The longevity of Elizabeth’s reign• It’s ‘compromise’ component shouldn’t be

overstated – Elizabeth excommunicated by the Pope in 1570 (Regnans in Excelsis)

Puritanism• Puritanism - purify the Church of England from all Catholic

remnants• Label arose as a pejorative term used by opponents – no single

doctrine, rather, defined by a common tendency• Marian exiles who had returned under Elizabeth to build a new

Israel.• Adultery and sabbath breaking should be capital offense• Issues over vestments worn by priests came up, where the

Catholics were bright and colorful, the Puritans desired black only. They also want no organ, no making the sign of the cross, and no holy days.

• presbyterian or Congregationalist structure (instead of rule by bishops)

• persecution of protestants – they fled England