religious developments Flashcards
(78 cards)
What was the queen’s perspective of the state of religion in 1563? What countered this?
It was broadly positive, she’d achieved the settlement she had largely desired.
There was large concern among the higher and lower clergy though, regarding the apparently unreformed nature of the Church.
What was the position of Catholics in England in 1563?
They were not subject to persecution but found it difficult to practise their faith in pubic.
What was the key issue regarding religion in 1563?
Whether the settlement was to be regarded as ‘complete’ or whether there was scope for more change.
What form of religion emerged amongst those who considered the settlement incomplete?
Puritanism.
In what years was Puritanism an important influence?
In the 1560s and 1570s.
What did Puritans believe in?
The eradication of ‘popish superstition’.
Where can the emergence of Puritanism be traced back to?
The failure of the Convocation (a formal assembly/gathering) of Canterbury in 1563 to go further in its reform of the Church.
What controversy emerged due to tensions between the queen, who wanted conformity + acceptance of the settlement, and Puritans who wanted to eradicate ‘superstitious’ practices?
It led to the Vestiarian Controversy.
What was the Vestiarian Controversy?
Several Puritan figures within the Church decided that they could not obey the rules on clerical dress laid down in the Act of Uniformity and royal injunctions as it specified wearing of Catholic and therefore ‘superstitious’ dress.
How did the queen force the issue of the Vestiarian Controversy?
By dismissing prominent Oxford academic Thomas Sampson from his post at Christ Church College for his refusal to wear the required vestments.
What did Archbishop Parker and 5 other bishops issue in March 1556?
The ‘Advertisements’ which required clergy to follow ‘one uniformity of rites and manners’ in the administration of the sacraments and ‘one decent behaviour in their outward apparel’.
Basically aimed to enforce conformity in the Church.
How many London clergymen were deprived of their posts for refusing to signify support for Archbishop Parker’s ‘Advertisements’?
37, all refusing to wear specific clerical vestments.
What did the whole business of the Vestiarian Controversy show about the queen?
The extent of her determination to enforce the settlement.
What inner conflict did reforming bishops face during the Vestiarian Controversy?
The need to obey royal supremacy and the desire to remove the remaining vestiges of Catholic practice within the Church.
What Puritan movement emerged partly in reaction to the Vestiarian Controversy?
The Presbyterian movement.
What did Presbyterians believe?
That the Church of England, already Calvinist in its doctrine, should be further reformed in its structure and its forms of worship.
Where did Presbyterian views grow out of?
Calvin’s views on Church organisation and discipline.
What did some Presbyterians begin to question? Where were these criticisms voiced?
The scriptural basis for the authority of bishops and other aspects of the Church.
They were voiced in two pamphlets known as the two Admonitions.
Who was the main author of the two Admonitions?
John Field.
What did the first Admonition do?
It attacked the Book of Common Prayer and called for the abolition of bishops.
What did the second Admonition do?
Provided a detailed description of a Presbyterian system of Church government.
Who was the pamphlet war between?
Thomas Cartwright and John Whitgift.
Who was Thomas Cartwright and what did he believe?
A Cambridge academic who believed that a church founded on ‘superstitious’ or ‘popish’ principles must be spiritually flawed, and the 1559 settlement had to be modified.
Who was John Whitgift and what did he believe?
He was the vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, later becoming the Archbishop of Canterbury, arguing that the Presbyterians’ attitude was destructive and would split the Church.
