Elizabethan Religious Settlement
The Elizabethan Religious Settlement was the religious and political arrangements made for England during the reign of Elizabeth I. The settlement, implemented from 1559 to 1563, marked the end of the English Reformation. It permanently shaped the Church of England's doctrine and liturgy, laying the foundation for the unique identity of Anglicanism.
When Elizabeth inherited the throne, England was bitterly divided between Catholics and Protestants as a result of various religious changes initiated by Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary I. Henry VIII had broken from the Catholic Church and the authority of the pope, becoming the supreme head of the Church of England. During Edward's reign, the Church of England adopted a Reformed theology and liturgy. In Mary's reign, these religious policies were reversed, England was re-united with the Catholic Church and Protestantism was suppressed.
The Elizabethan Settlement was an attempt to end this religious turmoil. The Act of Supremacy of 1558 re-established the Church of England's independence from Rome. Parliament conferred on Elizabeth the title of Supreme Governor of the Church of England. The Act of Uniformity 1558 re-introduced the Book of Common Prayer, which contained the liturgical services of the church. Some modifications were made to appeal to Catholics and Lutherans, including giving individuals greater latitude concerning belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and permission to use traditional priestly vestments. In 1571, the Convocations of Canterbury and York adopted the Thirty-Nine Articles as a confessional statement for the church, and a Book of Homilies was issued outlining the church's reformed theology in greater detail.
The settlement failed to end religious disputes. While most people conformed, a minority of recusants remained loyal Catholics. Within the Church of England, a Calvinist consensus developed among leading churchmen. Calvinists split between conformists and Puritans, who wanted to abolish what they considered papist abuses and replace episcopacy with a presbyterian church government. After Elizabeth's death, a high church, Arminian party gained power in the reign of Charles I and challenged the Puritans.
The English Civil War and the overthrow of the monarchy allowed the Puritans to pursue their reform agenda, including dismantling the Elizabethan Settlement. The Restoration in 1660 reestablished both the monarchy and the religious settlement, but the Puritans were forced out of the Church of England. Anglicans now defined their church as a via media or middle way between the religious extremes of Catholicism and Protestantism; Arminianism and Calvinism; and high church and low church.
Background
inherited a kingdom bitterly divided over matters of religion. This division began during the reign of her father, Henry VIII. After his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, failed to produce a male heir, Henry applied to the pope for an annulment of his marriage. When his request was denied, Henry separated the Church of England from the Catholic Church and claimed that he, rather than the pope, was its supreme head on earth. Under Elizabeth's half-brother, Edward VI, the Church of England became more explicitly Protestant, projecting a "restrained" Calvinism, in the words of historian Christopher Haigh.During Edward's reign, the Church of England preached justification by faith alone as a central teaching, in contrast to the Catholic teaching that the contrite person could cooperate with God towards their salvation by performing good works. The doctrines of purgatory, prayer for the dead and the intercession of saints were also rejected during this time. The Mass, the central act of Catholic worship, was condemned as idolatry and replaced with a Protestant communion service, a reminder of Christ's crucifixion. Christ's Real Presence in the Eucharist was no longer explained by the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation; instead, the 1552 Book of Common Prayer promoted the Reformed teaching of Christ's spiritual presence. The veneration of religious images and relics were suppressed, and iconoclasm was sanctioned by the government.
Mary I, Elizabeth's half-sister, became queen in 1553. She reversed the religious innovations introduced by her father and brother. Under Mary's rule, England returned to the Catholic Church and recognised the pope's authority. Mary died in November 1558 without a Catholic heir, leaving the throne to the Protestant Elizabeth.
Elizabeth's accession
Elizabeth's religious views were Protestant, though "peculiarly conservative". She also kept many of her religious views private, which can make it difficult to determine what she believed. She disliked married clergy, held Lutheran views on Eucharistic presence, and there is evidence she preferred the more ceremonial 1549 prayer book.The Queen's principal secretary was Sir William Cecil, a moderate Protestant. Her Privy Council was filled with former Edwardian politicians, and only Protestants preached at Court.
To avoid alarming foreign Catholic observers, Elizabeth initially maintained that nothing in religion had changed. A proclamation forbade any "breach, alteration, or change of any order or usage presently established within this our realm". Nevertheless, Protestants were emboldened to practice illegal forms of worship, and a proclamation on 27 December prohibited all forms other than the Latin Mass and the English Litany. It was obvious to most that these were temporary measures. Her government's goal was to resurrect the Edwardian reforms, reinstating the Royal Injunctions of 1547, the 1552 Book of Common Prayer, and the Forty-two Articles of Religion of 1553.
Elizabeth gave her first indication of changes to come at Mass on Christmas Day 1558. Prior to the service, she instructed the celebrant, Owen Oglethorpe, bishop of Carlisle, not to elevate the host. He refused, so the Queen left the chapel before the consecration. In effect, Elizabeth was declaring that she did not believe in the doctrine of transubstantiation.
Elizabeth's coronation took place on 15 January 1559 at Westminster Abbey, and there was no elevation during the coronation Mass. The Queen returned to Westminster Abbey on 25 January for the state opening of Parliament. She was greeted by Abbot Feckenham and the other monks bearing candles in procession. Signaling her disapproval of what she considered Catholic superstition, Elizabeth told the monks, "Away with those torches, for we see very well".
Legislation
Reformation bill
When the Queen's first Parliament opened in January 1559, its chief goal was the difficult task of reaching a religious settlement. Twenty bishops sat in the House of Lords as Lords Spiritual, and the Lords in general were opposed to change. In February, the House of Commons passed a Reformation Bill that would restore royal supremacy, the Edwardine Ordinal, and a slightly revised 1552 prayer book. It was not popular with the clergy, and the Convocation of Canterbury reacted by affirming papal supremacy, transubstantiation and the Mass as a sacrificial offering.The lay peers joined the bishops in their opposition and succeeded in amending the bill considerably. The ordinal and prayer book provisions were removed and the Mass left unchanged, with the exception of allowing communion under both kinds. The pope's authority was removed, but rather than granting the Queen the title of supreme head of the church, it merely said she could adopt it herself. This bill would have returned the Church to its position at the death of Henry VIII rather than to that when Edward VI died. It was a defeat for the Queen's legislative programme, so she withheld royal assent.
Act of Supremacy
Following the Queen's failure to grant approval to the previous bill, Parliament reconvened in April 1559. At this point, the Privy Council introduced two new bills, one concerning royal supremacy and the other about a Protestant liturgy. The Council hoped that by separating them at least the Supremacy bill would pass. Under this bill, the Pope's jurisdiction in England was once again abolished, and Elizabeth was to be supreme governor of the Church of England instead of supreme head. All clergy and royal office-holders would be required to swear an Oath of Supremacy.The alternative title was less offensive to Catholic members of Parliament, but this was unlikely to have been the only reason for the alteration. It was also a concession to the Queen's Protestant supporters who objected to "supreme head" on theological grounds and who had concerns about a female leading the Church. John Calvin, an influential Continental reformer, had called Henry VIII's claim to supreme headship blasphemy. Thomas Sampson, a Marian exile, believed that "All scripture seems to assign the title of head of the Church to Christ alone".
The bill included permission to receive communion in two kinds. It also repealed the medieval heresy laws that Mary I had revived. Catholics gained an important concession. Under the bill, only opinions contrary to Scripture, the General Councils of the early church, and any future Parliament could be treated as heresy by the Crown's ecclesiastical commissioners. While broad and ambiguous, this provision was meant to reassure Catholics that they would have some protection.
The bill easily passed the House of Commons. In the House of Lords, all the bishops voted against it, but they were joined by only one lay peer. The Act of Supremacy became law.
Act of Uniformity and prayer book
Another bill introduced to the same Parliament with the intent to return Protestant practices to legal dominance was the Uniformity bill, which sought to restore the 1552 prayer book as the official liturgy. It encountered more opposition in the Lords than the Supremacy Act, passing by only three votes. Even this was possible only through political intrigue. Bishops Watson of Lincoln and White of Winchester were imprisoned in the Tower. Bishop Goldwell of St Asaph was never summoned to Parliament, and the elderly Bishop Tunstall of Durham was excused from attending on account of age.The Act of Uniformity required church attendance on Sundays and holy days and imposed fines for each day absent. It authorized the 1559 prayer book, which effectively restored the 1552 prayer book with some modifications. The Litany in the 1552 book had denounced "the bishop of Rome, and all his detestable enormities". The revised Book of Common Prayer removed this denunciation of the Pope. It also deleted the Black Rubric, which in the 1552 book explained that kneeling for communion did not imply Eucharistic adoration.
The Ornaments Rubric was added as one of the concessions to traditionalists in order to gain passage in the Lords. The rubric provided instructions for clerical vestments, stating that until the Queen ordered otherwise ministers were to "use such ornaments as were in use by the authority of Parliament in the second year of the reign of King Edward VI". Edward's second regnal year ran from 28 January 1548 to 27 January 1549. During this time, priests said Mass in Latin wearing traditional Catholic vestments. Few thought this was the rubric's meaning, however. Since the Act of Uniformity 1549 which approved the first prayer book was passed in January, it is likely that the provisions of the 1549 prayer book were intended, even though Edward's second year ended several months before the book was published. The 1549 prayer book required clergy to wear the alb, cope and chasuble. Opposition to the so-called "popish wardrobe" made it impossible to enforce the rubric.
The most significant revision was a change to the Communion Service that added the words for administering sacramental bread and wine from the 1549 prayer book to the words in the 1552 book. When communicants received the bread, they would hear the words, "The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life . Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving" . This combination could be interpreted as an affirmation of an objective real presence to those who believed in it, while others could interpret it to mean memorialism.