(Part Three: Troubles At Home And Abroad) Religious Matters

Question 1

When was the religious settlement

Answer 1

1559

Question 2

What was the act of supremacy

Answer 2

1. Made Elizabeth supreme Governor of the church
   2.denying Elizabeth’s position in the church was considered treason
   3.The term ‘supreme head’ was avoided, because Christ was seen as the head of the church

Question 3

What was the Act of Uniformity

Answer 3

1. Made Protestantism England’s official faith
2. Prayer book - set out rules of religious practice and worship
3. Compromise

Question 4

Religious Settlement rules

Answer 4

1. Priests can marry
2. All services in English, and followed Protestant Book of Common Prayer
3. Elizabeth was Governor, not Head, of the Church
4. Catholics could worship in their own way in private
5. A moderate Protestant, Matthew Parker, was appointed Archbishop of Canterbuty

Question 5

Reactions to the Religious Settlement

Answer 5

1. Most people were happy
2. Many Catholic opposed
3. Some Puritans (extreme Protestants) opposed, as they objected to any compromise with Catholic ideas

Question 6

When was the Northern Rebellion

Answer 6

1569

Question 7

What was the Northern Rebellion

Answer 7

1. Led by the Earl of Westmorland and the Earl of Northumberland
2. They took control of Durham Cathedral and held an illegal Catholic mass
3. Marched south with 4600 men but the rebels disbanded when the loyal Earl of Sussex raised an army against them
4. Northumberland was executed, and Westmorland escaped to France and the Duke of Norfolk was imprisoned
5. (Inspired by Elizabeth’s refusal to allow the Duke of Norfolk to marry her Catholic cousin Mary Queen of Scots)

Question 8

When was the Papal Bull

Answer 8

27 April 1570

Question 9

What was the Papal Bull

Answer 9

1. Pope Pius V issued a special message (papal bull) in which he stated that Elizabeth was not the true queen and called on the people of England not to obey her laws.
2. The bull also excommunicated her from the Church.
3. The Pope’s aim was to stir up rebellion by forcing English Catholics to choose between their queen or
   their religion.

Question 10

When was the Ridolfi Plot

Answer 10

1571

Question 11

What was the Ridolfi Plot

Answer 11

1. Led by an Italian named Ridolfi
2. Also involved the Duke of Norfolk and a second northern rebellion.
3. The uprising would coincide with an invasion of foreign Catholics from the Netherlands and the murder of Queen Elizabeth.
4. Her Catholic cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, was to be placed on the throne and would marry the Duke of Norfolk. 5. The plot was discovered before it could be carried out.

Question 12

When was the Throckmorton Plot

Answer 12

1583

Question 13

What was the Throckmorton Plot

Answer 13

1. Led by Sir Francis Throckmorton
2. The plan was to assassinate Elizabeth and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots.
3. Once Elizabeth had been killed, there would be an invasion by the French Catholic, Henry, Duke of Guise, and an uprising of English Catholics.
4. The plot also involved the Spanish ambassador.
5. When the plot was discovered, Throckmorton was executed and Mary, Queen of Scots, was placed under even closer guard.

Question 14

When was the Babington Plot

Answer 14

1586

Question 15

What was the Babington Plot

Answer 15

1. This was another attempt to murder Elizabeth and place Mary, Queen of Scots, on the throne.
2. Led by Anthony Babington
3. It was the discovery of this plot that led to Mary’s trial and execution when it was found that she had known about and agreed with the plot all along.

Question 16

What was the Counter Reformation

Answer 16

1. The Counter-Reformation was the attempt by the Catholic Church to bring many Protestants back to the old faith.
2. In 1568, William Allen established a seminary at Douai in the Netherlands to train Catholic priests.
3. Allen aimed to send these priests to England as missionaries. He had the full backing of the Pope.

Question 17

Who were the Jesuits

Answer 17

1. Edmund Lampion and Robert Parsons arrived in England on 24 June 1580 as missionaries.
2. Campion travelled the country spreading his message
3. Parsons kept a lower profile.
4. Lampion became a wanted man because the authorities were convinced he wanted to start a rebellion.

Question 18

Where the Jesuits really a threat?

Answer 18

1. Jesuits like Campion claimed not to want rebellion but just to spread their religious message.
2. Elizabeth and many others saw them as a genuine threat to the stability of England, even if they were not directly involved in any plots against her.

Question 19

How serious was the Catholic threat to Elizabeth?

Answer 19

1. The Pope had made it very clear with his papal bull that he wanted Elizabeth’s rule to end. He said it was the duty of Catholics to challenge her rule.
2. European Catholic rulers, like Philip II of Spain, were encouraged by the Pope to challenge her authority.
3. Jesuits and other missionaries were another serious threat as they could undermine the stability of her religious settlement.
4. English Catholics were encouraged by the Papal Bull to rebel.

Question 20

Who were the Puritans?

Answer 20

• Strict Protestants who were influenced by extreme
Protestants in Europe, like John Calvin.
• In some cases, they lived in exile in Europe during the reign of Elizabeth’s Catholic sister, Mary.
• They were keen to remove all Catholic elements from the English Church.
• They studied the Bible, wanted plain clothing and simple services.
• Some Puritans were appointed as bishops by Elizabeth, though some argued over their robes. By 1568, most of them had agreed to wear the white gown or surplice required by the Church of England during services.

Question 21

Powerful Puritans

Answer 21

A number of Puritans with less strict views were able rise to powerful positions:
•Sir Francis Walsingham - the queen’s senior minister and spymaster. He largely kept his religious views to himself, aware they might make him unpopular.
• Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester - a privy councillor and seen as a potential husband for Elizabeth. He was unwilling to put his position at risk by openly challenging the Church.
• Peter Wentworth and Anthony Cope - Presbyterian MPs who tried to bring change to the Church by introducing bills to Parliament, however, they did not gain much support from other MPs.

Question 22

What was Elizabeth’s response to Puritanism

Answer 22

When Grindal died in 1583, Elizabeth replaced him as Archbishop with John Whitgift, who took a tough stance against Puritans.
With this key appointment, and the deaths of Dudley in 1588 and Walsingham in 1590, Elizabeth began to crack down on Puritanism.
Measures against Puritans included:
• New rules introduced by Whitgift banning unlicensed preaching and forcing church attendance with recusancy fines.
• A new High Commission with the power to fine and imprison Puritans who refused to follow the rules.
• The dismissal or imprisonment of hundreds of clergymen.
• The punishment of printers for spreading the Puritan message.
• A crackdown on high profile Puritans, like Anthony Cope, who was imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Question 23

Elizabeth’s response to the Catholic Threat

Answer 23

1571 - Recusancy fines for Catholics who did not take part in Protestant services.
They could be fined or have property taken away. However, the rich could afford to pay and Elizabeth did not enforce the law too harshly; when Parliament tried to increase the fines, she resisted.
It became illegal to own any Catholic items such as rosary beads.

2 - Recusancy fines were increased to £20 - more than most could afford; this law was strictly enforced. It became high treason to convert to Catholicism.

3 - Any Cathalic priest who had been ordained (made a priest] after 1559 was considered a traitor and he, and anyone protecting him, faced death.
It became legal to kill anyone who attempted to assassinate the queen.

4 - The ‘statute of confinement’ - Catholics could not travel more than five miles from home without permission from the authorities.

Question 24

How did Elizabeth deal with the Jesuit threat?

Answer 24

• Campion: By July 1580,
Edmund Campion had spent a month travelling around England making speeches and encouraging people to convert to Catholicism.
Elizabeth saw him as a threat to order and therefore to her.
He was arrested and, despite maintaining that he had no plans to overthrow the queen, was brutally tortured and dragged through London before being hanged, drawn and quartered. It was clear that Elizabeth was not going to take any threat lightly.
• Priests: The 1585 Act Against Jesuits and Seminary priests called for them to be driven out of England. Many were executed.