Notes from Doran
How did concerns to keep Catholics happy influence Elizabeth’s religious settlement?
For both personal and political reasons Elizabeth was anxious to retain certain Catholic ceremonial traditions within her Church. Personally, she disliked the idea of a married clergy, she loved elaborate Church music and refused to accept that all images were idolatrous. Equally, she was aware that she had to persuade Spain that her Church was little different, externally, to theirs. At the same time, she had to persuade the Lutherans that she was a follower of their Augsburg Confession. Therefore, outward Catholic signs such as the use of vestments, crosses and candlesticks would serve to reassure both Lutherans and Catholics.
How widespread does Doran say Catholicism was up to 1580?
When Elizabeth came to the throne, the majority of people in England and Wales were Catholic in belief. By 1559 only 14% of wills in Sussex contained Protestant formulae and bequests; by 1560 only 10% of wills in Kent had a statement of Protestantism in the preamble. Therefore, Elizabeth’s task was to slowly wean the population away from their traditional Catholic beliefs and towards her protestant regime through preaching and education.
The government was actually particularly successful in this, reducing Catholicism to a mere household religion with only 1-2% of the population supporting it. Some say this was down to the gentry and clerical leadership’s failure to mount any resistance to Elizabeth’s Religious Settlement, thus allowing ordinary laity to drift into conformity.
“When the parish priest was ready to use the Book of Common Prayer and the squire publicly appeared at the new services, it was hardly surprising the ordinary people followed the examples of their social superiors” Patrick McGrath
The Catholic Church did not simply give in without a struggle when Elizabeth came to the throne.
The Clerical leadership made an early start against Elizabethan
For both personal and political reasons Elizabeth was anxious to retain certain Catholic ceremonial traditions within her Church. Personally, she disliked the idea of a married clergy, she loved elaborate Church music and refused to accept that all images were idolatrous. Equally, she was aware that she had to persuade Spain that her Church was little different, externally, to theirs. At the same time, she had to persuade the Lutherans that she was a follower of their Augsburg Confession. Therefore, outward Catholic signs such as the use of vestments, crosses and candlesticks would serve to reassure both Lutherans and Catholics.
How widespread does Doran say Catholicism was up to 1580?
When Elizabeth came to the throne, the majority of people in England and Wales were Catholic in belief. By 1559 only 14% of wills in Sussex contained Protestant formulae and bequests; by 1560 only 10% of wills in Kent had a statement of Protestantism in the preamble. Therefore, Elizabeth’s task was to slowly wean the population away from their traditional Catholic beliefs and towards her protestant regime through preaching and education.
The government was actually particularly successful in this, reducing Catholicism to a mere household religion with only 1-2% of the population supporting it. Some say this was down to the gentry and clerical leadership’s failure to mount any resistance to Elizabeth’s Religious Settlement, thus allowing ordinary laity to drift into conformity.
“When the parish priest was ready to use the Book of Common Prayer and the squire publicly appeared at the new services, it was hardly surprising the ordinary people followed the examples of their social superiors” Patrick McGrath
The Catholic Church did not simply give in without a struggle when Elizabeth came to the throne.
The Clerical leadership made an early start against Elizabethan