1485-1603

EDWARD, MARY AND THE CHURCH

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Whilst there isnt the time to examine the entirity of the 16th Century here, we can look at the religious aspects of the era and examine how religious tensions developed from Henry to Elizabeths reigns.

Edward VI: The Puritan King. how did Edward bring about radical change?
Edward VI was the sole male heir to Henry VIII and he was born into a world of religious change. Edward was the son of Jane Seymour and was raised by his uncle, Edward Seymour, who later became the boys regent after Henry VIII died. The Seymours were deeply religious and puritan in their faith. Henry VIII had managed to remove the Pope as head of the Church of England but this did not mean a break with Catholicism, only a break with Rome. Henrys desperation for a divorce had brought about the Break With Rome, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey had been unable to secure a divorce from the Pope and Henry allowed him to be attaindered by Parliament as a result. Wolsey died before he could be tried and executed but this would no doubt have been his fate. Thomas Cromwell managed to secure the divorce, not by asking the Pope for permission but by arranging a coup that removed papal power altogether. Cromwell was a protestant and was well read in the new ideas of the time. He particularly admired Martin Luther and Nicolo Machiavelli, one, the spiritual founder of the new Protestant faith and the other a philosopher and intellectual on modern state craft. Both argued that the King of a particular realm should be the head of the faith in that realm also, state power and religious authority should be combined in one body. Cromwell believed this and it also suited his purposes to argue it too. Whilst Henry was excommunicated from the Catholic Church, he believed himself to be true to the faith and died without having become Protestant. During Henrys reign Protestantism was still a heresy and whilst its inuence had reached England from Germany and Switzerland, it was not a dominant idea. Henrys son, Edward would bring about a real doctrinal change in the Church and it was under his reign, not Henrys that the way in which people worshipped fundamentally changed. Edward at the age of 12, strongly inuenced by his fathers courtiers and raised by the Seymour family, wrote a treatise

1485-1603

Edward and Mary Protestantism and Catholicism

By Trenz Pruca

on the Pope as Anti Christ. When he came to the throne he saw the transformation of the Anglican Church into a Protestant body and also saw the spread of Protestantism throughout the population due to his own beliefs. He was too young to control government and his uncle, Edward Seymour ruled as regent. Edwards interest in religious matters and took the church that had broken with Rome but that had retained the essence of Catholicism into the new religion of Protestantism. He viewed Catholicism as idolatrous and insisted his Catholic sister Mary: to attend no longer to foreign dances and merriments which do not become a most Christian princess". The English Reformation had two forces driving it forward, a moderate, traditionalist Protestantism that viewed the established church itself as being the most important aspect of change and radical Zealots who wanted faster and more extreme change and who engaged in iconoclasm (smashing of idolatrous images, carvings and sculpture). These forces would exist in an uneasy truce for decades to come but would emerge as enemies under James and Charles. Following Edwards death, Mary came to the throne and initially promised religious tolerance, but swiftly imprisoned Protestant Bishops and abolished Edwards laws. Religious changes such as allowing married priests were abolished and she returned England to Rome, but the church never got its lands back, Mary was too wary of the power of the landowners who had benetted from church lands. Protestantism was declared a heresy

and 283 Protestants were burned at the stake. Some of the most wealthy and inuential Protestants ed the country and many went to Geneva under John Calvin (after Luther the most inuential founder of the Protestant Faith) and the killings were deeply unpopular and brought about a long standing anti Catholic feeling in England (Mary was also married to Phillip of Spain and anti Catholicism was merged with anti Spanish sentiment). After Marys death Elizabeth had to nd some way of creating a religious settlement that could accommodate both Catholics and Protestants and was pragmatic instead of being doctrinaire. She was a Protestant, but sought not to offend Catholics in England too much, partly out of fear of a Spanish invasion. She looked to create a Protestant religion but was not interested in pandering to Puritan radicals, so in 1559 she created a Protestant Anglican Church, but one that had many of the vestements and trappings of Catholicism. This religious settlement held together but began to unravel under Charles. The radicals were never fully satised or appeased by it and when the wealthy Protestant exiles returned from Switzerland (called the Genevans) they wanted nothing short of a bloody purge of Catholicism. Edwards translation of the Common Book of Prayer into English meant that lay preaching could ourish and as it did, so did Puritanism and the radicalisation of Protestant doctrine. By the 1640s, the Anglican Church was no longer in control of worship in England and its attempts to regain control would only lead to conict.

Mary sought to undo Edwards changes.