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history 231
for religion." the queen's reign was relatively new, and the monarch issued the
proclamation as a way to assuage the doubts of many of her followers in relation to her
possible catholic sympathies. while overall the queen enjoyed a relatively problem-free
reign, the issue of religion would cause problems for her until her death. her first attempt
at solving them came in 1559 in the form of this proclamation, condemning catholicism
in favor of protestantism.
clergy, and makes her position on catholicism clear to any who may have experienced
any doubt. she instructs her subjects to obey her commands and those of god, not those
of the pope. all clergy must be approved in order to lead worship. the queen instructs the
clergy to abolish all catholic-inspired rituals and adornments. the remnants of these
english, for all to understand, not the latin of catholic services. the monarch concluded
by reasserting her own beliefs, setting herself as the example that all good subjects should
follow. her subjects were to swear allegiance to her and only her, instead of any foreign
influences such as the pope. she concludes by reasserting her power, saying that anyone
who disobeys her instructions "will answer to her majesty for the contrary (hughes 132)."
for the most part, the items included in the proclamation were aimed at members
number of sermons per year. the queen's rhetoric, with its repetition of religious imagery,
religious thought. at the same time, the document is simply written and very direct in its
meaning, which demonstrates that it was also directed at the queen's subjects themselves.
the queen wished to reach all her subjects of the christian faith, reminding them the
proper ways to worship. she commanded members of the clergy to read the proclamation
once a year to their parishioners, so that all would become familiar with its contents.
queen lets catholics know that she will not allow them to practice their religion publicly.
meanwhile, the queen assures protestants that she has absolutely no sympathy for
catholics and will not tolerate their religion in any way. many of her protestant subjects
took the fact that she had not executed her cousin mary, a devout catholic, as a sign that
she did not plan on condemning those of the catholic faith. many catholics considered
mary to be their true monarch, and therefore did not take elizabeth seriously as a leader,
especially a religious leader, in any way. therefore, the queen hoped to reach her
subjects of all beliefs with her words. by condemning their faith and asserting her power
in such a public way, she ensured catholics that she was not sympathetic toward them in
the least. meanwhile, the queen assures protestants that she is a strong christian, an
example of what their religious beliefs should be , and she has absolutely no sympathy
for catholics and will not tolerate their religion in any way. the proclamation was also no
doubt targeted at one catholic in particular-- mary, queen of scots herself. while strong in
language and unmistakable in meaning, the proclamation was not inflammatory in any
way. the document was instead used as a way to bring peace and stablity to her country.
by issuing a document with such a strong and open bias against catholicism, the
queen ensured that she would be taken seriously as a protestant monarch. many members
of parliament and other subjects believed that she was too sympathetic to the catholic
cause. by stating specifically that papists were heretics in this proclamation, the queen
repeatedly calling its traditions, such as rosary beads, "idolatry and superstition (hughes
119.)" she even goes so far as to call the pope a "usurped and foreign power (hughes
118)." by issuing this proclamation, the queen intended to establish herself as a paragon
literature, class, taught by jennifer munroe. in it, she includes excerpts from a book of
documents edited by paul hughes and james f. larkin entitled tudor royal proclamations:
v.ii. the later tudors (1553-1587). the book was published in 1969.
the issues she faced in her reign. as the daughter of a protestant and the sister of a
catholic, she was caught in the middle of a religious debate that would become the central
issue of her reign as monarch. because her cousin was catholic, many insisted that
religious beliefs that were acceptable to practice in her nation, she made it clear that
catholics would not be able to publicly practice their religion in her country in any way.
she wanted no one to doubt that she believed that protestantism was "god's true religion
(hughes 127)."