Elizabethan religious settlement

Re-establishment of the Protestant church in England by Queen Elizabeth I during the Reformation. Papal authority was renounced in the Act of Supremacy (1559), and the Prayer Book of 1552, introduced under Edward VI, was restored in the Act of Uniformity (1559). The Thirty-Nine Articles (1571) confirmed Protestant doctrine, particularly the use of the English bible and justification by faith. However, at the same time, the settlement made certain concessions to Roman Catholics in England. Elizabeth declared herself only supreme governor of the English church rather than supreme head as her father Henry VIII had done. She kept bishops, music, and vestments, and allowed the celebration of saints' days.

Article 22 of the Thirty-Nine Articles declared that ‘Romish Doctrine...is a fond thing vainly invented’ and Article 28 declared that ‘Transubstantiation ... is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture’. However, the Protestant doctrine of the real presence was a move towards the doctrine of transubstantiation (the transformation of bread and water into the body and blood of Jesus during the Eucharist). For this reason, the Elizabethan settlement is often portrayed as a ‘middle way’ in religion. Nevertheless, the guiding principle was the Act of Uniformity (1559), not a declaration of religious toleration - in the 16th century rulers did not allow their subjects the right to worship according to their conscience.

Opposition to the Elizabethan settlement came from the English Catholics, especially after the pope excommunicated Elizabeth in 1570. Jesuit missionaries such as Edmund Campion entered the country to minister to the Catholic recusants (non-conformists to the state religion). They tried to avoid capture by hiding in ‘priest holes’ in the houses of the Catholic aristocracy. If they were caught they were executed. Despite their efforts, however, recusancy was restricted largely to a few aristocratic families. Greater danger came from Catholic rebellions and assassination plots. In 1569 the Northern rebellion occurred, and there was an Irish Catholic rebellion in 1579. The Ridolfi Plot (1571), the Throckmorton Plot (1583), and the Babington plot (1586) were attempts to replace Elizabeth with the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots.

Elizabeth also found herself opposed by Puritans who wished to introduce more extreme Calvinist practices, such as the authors of the Marprelate controversy (pamphleteering attacks on the English clergy made under the pseudonym Martin Marprelate). The Puritans, and many bishops of the Church of England, favoured much more preaching, but Elizabeth feared that uncontrolled preaching would lead to the spread of ‘dangerous opinion’ and result in anarchy. In 1577 Elizabeth ordered bible-study classes (called ‘prophesyings’) to be suppressed, and later put the archbishop of Canterbury, Edmund Grindal, under house arrest for refusing to stop those conducted by the Church of England. In 1579 a Protestant pamphleteer called John Stubbe had his hand cut off for criticizing Elizabeth's proposed marriage to the French prince François, Duke of Alençon, and a number of Puritans were executed. (See also Reformation, England.)