Religion3

PREPARED BY: HENRY**
 * WHAT ROLE DID RELIGION PLAY IN ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN ENGLAND? WHAT RELIGIOUS CONFLICTS AND STRIFE WERE FACED? WHAT IS THE KING JAMES BIBLE AND WHY IS IT SIGNIFICANT? WHO WAS OLIVER CROMWELL? WHAT IS HIS LEGACY?

In the Elizabethan era England was a Christian nation; most people were either Catholic or Protestant. Catholics were their own single branch, but protestants split into Anglicans; worshippers in the Church of England, or Puritans. Puritans were the most extreme of all forms of Christianity of the time. They wanted to strip away all the features of Christian Worship that weren’t in the bible. For example they thought that the Anglican Church should get rid of bishops, vestments or church clothes, and all elaborate ceremonies. In fact many rejected the use of the crucifix as a Christian symbol, and they looked with horror on richly jeweled crosses. The main difference between Catholics and Anglicans is that Catholics believed that their priests could turn bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ., but Anglicans still performed this ceremony just not believing it was the real body and blood of Christ. Although religion of Elizabethan England was Christianity there were forms of that that made people and the religion different.

If you were a king or queen at the time you would decide which form of Christianity England would practice. Henry VIII (1534-1547) was an Anglican, his son Edward VI (1547-1558) was Protestant, his daughter Mary (1553-1558) was Catholic, and his daughter Elizabeth (1558-1603) was Protestant. The branches of Christianity in England changed for what the rulers worshipped.

The 16th century was a hotbed of bitter religious division. The concept that differences in religion were acceptable was revolutionary. One example of religious division is in 1570 Pope Pius V called all faithful Catholics to revolt against Elizabeth to make England Catholic once again. In reaction, for the time being Catholicism was forbidden in hopes of preventing a rebellion. As a result the vast majority of Catholics remained loyal to Elizabeth. Another example is the attempted invasion by Spain in 1588. The invasion depended on England’s Catholics rising up. This failed because they were Englishmen first, Catholics second. Lastly, when England had a civil war there were the Puritans and the Royalists. The Puritans were lead by a man named Oliver Cromwell. During this war in 1644 the Globe Theatre was destroyed by the Puritans. After the war when the Puritans won stricter laws were created by puritans restricting the staging of plays. The form of Christianity would change in England and sometimes a conflict involving religion would rise up.

Queen Elizabeth placed a lot of importance on religion in her reign. Elizabeth did not like extreme Catholics or Protestants. Under Elizabeth, the “Acts of Settlement” were enacted by parliament to help lower religious conflict. It was made up of tow acts; The Act of Supremacy and the Act of Uniformity. The Act of Supremacy required all church and government officials to swear absolute loyalty to Elizabeth as the supreme governor of the church. The Act of Uniformity was intended to make church services the same throughout the country. She didn’t want church services to be too Catholic or too Protestant. Another thing it enforced was that if one didn’t attend church one was fined, and lastly the prayer book written during Edward VI’s reign was reissued and appealed to a wide range of her subjects. Only Puritans objected. She would create laws to protect her way of worship even if it acted as an inconvenience for many.

One thing that set Elizabeth and England away from the rest of Europe was that the Elizabethan religious settlement concentrated on external worship instead of internal faith, which was not the case in other parts of Europe. The bible had been translated into English under Henry VIII who put copies in every church, but it was not for unqualified people to read. The bible was then banned under Mary and then reinstated in churches and home under Elizabeth. After Elizabeth under King James I a new translation of the bible was made, it was called the King James Bible. It would use the best available translations, sources and was free of biased footnotes and commentaries. The King James Bible is the most published text in the English language. Thousands learned to read just for the bible; it became a family pastime. Priests were asked to describe certain passages, and those were called sermons. She personally disliked sermons, thinking they bred too much independent thought. Churchmen were far less powerful under Elizabeth than any previous reign. She depended on bishops to keep firm control of religious matters and she kept firm control of them. She refused clergymen to dictate her. Later in her reign there became more anti-Catholic laws because of Catholic plots to kill Elizabeth and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots her cousin. One last interesting thing about her rule is that less people were killed in Elizabeth’s 45 years of ruling than Mary’s 3. By acting to limit the power of Catholics and Puritans Elizabeth gave the Church of England time to grow strong enough to survive


 * WORKS CITED:**

Lace, William W. //Elizabethan England//. Farmington Hills MI: Thomson Gale, 2006. 20-22 45-55. Print. Newsweek Book Division,. //Tower of London//. Italy: Newsweek, 1971. 78-79. Print. Hinds, Kathryn. //Life in Elizabethan England The Church//. TarryTown New York: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2008. 42,71. Print. Chrisp, Peter. //Shakespeare//. New York, New York: DK Publishing, 2004. 10-11. Print. "Oliver Cromwell." Spartacus Educational, Web. []. "King James Bible." The British Library Board, Web. [].

For information about Oliver Cromwell go to []

For information about the King James Bible go to []