Elizabeth I: puritan threat

Question 1

Walter Strickland bill

Answer 1

• 1571
• puritan MP Walter Strickland introduced a bill into the commons to change the prayer book along puritan lines
• Elizabeth closed parliament and banned commons from bringing in bills to do with religion

Question 2

Freedom of speech

Answer 2

• Many Puritan MPs challenged Elizabeth over the issue of freedom of speech on religious policy
• e.g. Puritan MP, Peter Wentworth was imprisoned on several occasions for raising the issues of freedom of speech, eventually died in the Tower of London 1597
• 1586, Anthony Cope had been imprisoned with Wentworth for several months for again introducing a bill to change the Religious Settlement
• These setbacks in Parliament forced Puritans to look for other ways to gain influence

Question 3

The Privy Council

Answer 3

• Some of her most powerful advisors were Puritans, e.g. Sir Francis Walsingham and her long-standing favourite Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester
• relatively moderate Puritans who hoped to encourage Elizabeth to introduce more change

Question 4

was parliament puritanism that big of a threat?

Answer 4

• not necessarily

- she had the power to simply close Parliament if they tried to discuss issues she did not want them to

Question 5

Marprelate Tracts of 1588-89

Answer 5

• A pamphlet against the role of Bishops and other Puritan complaints
• Puritans now took to printing and issuing pamphlets
• E responded by issuing an order to control the printing presses

Question 6

Prophesyings

Answer 6

• 1570s
• Puritans valued good preaching above the services laid down in the Prayer Book
• groups of clergymen began to meet to hear sermons from good preacher
• viewed as dangerous by Elizabeth as they threatened her position as Supreme Governor of the Church of England
• 1577 therefore, Elizabeth issued instructions to her bishops in which she banned prophesyings

Question 7

Three Articles

Answer 7

• 1583
• John Whitgift: Elizabeth was able to appoint an Archbishop of Canterbury who agreed with her views
• he produced three articles
• reinforced the 1559 Religious Settlement and clergymen who did not agree were dismissed from their posts

In the ‘Three Articles’, clergy were forced to swear the acceptance of:

• everything in the Book of Common Prayer
• bishops
• the ‘Thirty-nine Articles’ – these laid down the beliefs of the Church of England and had been issued in 1563

Question 8

John Pentry

Answer 8

• leading welsh puritan
• educated at Cambridge then Oxford
• 1580s, he took to writing pamphlets that were critical of the Settlement and that called for reform of the Church
• his activities he came into conflict with John Whitgift: 1587 after publishing critical pamphlet, he was arrested and imprisoned