Thursday, March 29, 2012

Question from Georgia - Elizabethan settlement

Hi, i am doing a project at school (im 17, in my final year at college) and need an 'out of the box source' so thought that maybe you could help. One of the questions i'm trying to focus on is how successful Elizabeth's decision to re-establish the Anglican Church was. If you could briefly describe how you think it was successful/ unsuccesful it would be very helpful. Thanks Georgia

2 comments:

Kate said...

Henry, her father split with Rome crating himself the head of the church in England, this was not protestantism but reformed catholicism. When he died and Edward came to the throne, he adopted protestent dogma and very clearly established the church of England as protestant. When Mary succeded him, she spent a lot of time trying to resetablish the Catholic church in England, killing a lot of people and earning her the nickmane "Bloody Mary". When Elizabeth came to the throne, she was a practicing prostestant she however said she would not make windows into men's souls and allowed her subjects the use of their consciencous, (religous belief)and never persecuted catholics for the sake of their religion but rather only when it was used as a weapon against her reign. Mary never successfully reverted the church and Elizabeth allowed it to continue to florish and was tollerant of Catholics in her reigh, althought their ability to hold office, marry etc...was impaired. She practiced and promoted a faith which was already established, her decision not to mess around too much with it is probably her biggest contribution to it. Hope this helps a little

Mary R said...

Actually, Catholics were persecuted during the reign of Elizabeth I, hence the number of "priest holes" in houses built during the era.

Elizabeth was the least religious of all the Tudors, and probably would have continued to tolerate her Catholic subjects had they been willing to tolerate her! There were numerous plots to assassinate Elizabeth and put (Catholic) Mary, Queen of Scots, on the throne in her stead.

Eventually, Elizabeth's patience wore a bit thin, and Catholicism was forbidden and those who practiced it were persecuted.