MARY I RELIGION

Question 1

WHAT, in England, opposed Mary I achieving her religious policy aims?

Answer 1

• Protestant reformers (minority)
• Protestant Church of England was protected by statute law
• Disagreements over ex-monastic land
• Divisions in her council over the extent of religious reform

Question 2

WHERE in England was there some support for Protestantism under Mary I?

Answer 2

London and other southern parts (albeit small)

Question 3

WHAT was the problem with returning ex-monastic land to the Church under Mary I?

Answer 3

While Mary saw ex-monastic land as illegally gained, many of the political elite (and many MPs) benefited from it and so were reluctant to give it up.

Question 4

WHO of Mary I’s advisers were for radical religious reform?

Answer 4

• Cardinal Pole
• Philip of Spain (wanted the prestige of restoring England to Catholicism)

Question 5

WHO of Mary I’s advisers were against radical religious reform?

Answer 5

• Stephen Gardiner (unenthusiastic about a return to papal supremacy)
• Simon Renard (worried about the property concerns from the nobility)
• Charles V and Pope Julius III urged caution as they feared unrest following fast reform

Question 6

WHAT were Mary I’s 3 options for religious policy?

Answer 6

1) Full Protestantism
2) Moderate Catholicism: to the end of HVIII’s reign
3) Full Catholicism: to before the Break with Rome

Question 7

WHAT were the cons of changing to full Catholicism under Mary I?

Answer 7

• Protestant reformers could rally behind Elizabeth as a focus of their discontent
• Those who owned ex-monastic land would not support her with returning it to the Church
• Many might see Mary changing the religion as her following what her husband Philip wants, undermining her independent authority.

Question 8

WHAT did ordinary people want Mary I to do for her religious policy?

Answer 8

Most people expected her to restore full Catholicism, and in most places money was raised for Catholic projects

Question 9

WHEN was the First Act of Repeal passed (Mary I)?

Answer 9

October 1553

Question 10

WHAT did the First Act of Repeal (1553) do?

Answer 10

• Repealed all religious legislation passed under EdVI, restoring the doctrine and order of service of 1547
• No more clergy could marry and those who had done so would lose their jobs
• Legally Church of England remained in place

Question 11

WHAT was the issue with changing the legal status of the Church of England?

Answer 11

Mary would have to use parliamentary law to remove royal supremacy, which would contradict her belief that divine law was superior to statute law.

Question 12

WHEN was the Second Act of Repeal passed (Mary I)?

Answer 12

January 1555

Question 13

WHAT did the Second Act of Repeal (1555) do?

Answer 13

• Abolished all doctrinal legislation passed since 1529 (including the Act of Supremacy)
• Did not restore church lands or property

Question 14

WHAT were the problems Mary I faced after the passing of the Second Act of Repeal?

Answer 14

• Restoration of church land/property was too divisive and complex to resolve
• MPs had gained confirmed power over religion through the use of Parliament

Question 15

WHAT pastoral reforms did Mary I introduce?

Answer 15

• Resources of the church had to be restored
• Better training and supervision of parish priests
• New editions of the Prayer Book and Bible as guidance
• Priest recruitment encouraged

Question 16

WHICH places more strongly opposed Mary I’s pastoral reforms?

Answer 16

Southern areas like Kent

Question 17

HOW MANY Protestants did Mary I burn, and according to WHO?

Answer 17

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs records her burning 289 victims in total

Question 18

WHICH famous clergymen were burned for Protestantism under Mary I?

Answer 18

Archbishop Cranmer, and Hugh Latimer (former Bishop of Worcester)

Question 19

WHAT type of people were targeted by Mary I for Protestant sympathies?

Answer 19

Most were people involved in politics, but some humble men and women of low status were also executed. This shows how Protestantism was a genuinely held belief by some people.

Question 20

HOW effective was Mary I’s method of executing Protestants for her religious policy?

Answer 20

It had little effect for extinguishing heresy, because:
- Deaths of popular preachers elicited widespread public sympathy
- Deaths of ordinary people strengthened sympathy and turned them into martyrs.

Question 21

WHAT did Pope Paul IV do that limited Mary I’s restoration of the Catholic faith?

Answer 21

He dismissed Pole as a papal legate (1557), meaning Pole could no longer act on his behalf. Mary I refused to replaced Pole’s position with the new legate, Peto, and essentially refused to acknowledge superior papal authority.

Question 22

HOW did Mary I undermine papal authority during her reign?

Answer 22

• Used statute law to enforce papal supremacy
• When Pole was dismissed as a papal legate (1557), Mary I refused to replace Pole’s position with the new legate, Peto

Question 23

HOW FAR did Mary I transform the religious situation in England?

Answer 23

• Most of England remained Catholic
• Her reign was too short to make any effective impact
• More could have been achieved regarding:
  1) The delay in restoring the Church’s institutional structure
  2) Divisions between Crown and papacy
  (HOWEVER, both of these weren’t entirely in her control)

Question 24

WHAT elements of humanism were in official (Catholic) religious thought under Mary I?

Answer 24

While the Catholic Church wanted to dissociate itself from humanism, there is evidence of Mary I translating humanist texts herself, showing its importance in England.

Question 25

WHAT were the divisions between Protestant exiles under Marian Catholicism?

Answer 25

1) Some were happy with the 1552 Prayer Book while others wanted a more radical direction
2) Some were happy to keep existing political structures while others wanted radical and active resistance against the regime.

Question 26

WHAT happened to most of the Protestants exiled under Mary after she died?

Answer 26

Most were brought back to England in Elizabeth’s reign.