Problems with religion
By 1568 Elizabeth’s new religious settlement had been in place for nearly a decade. Her approach had been to avoid the kind of traumatic extremism of the reigns of her brother Edward VI (Christians who broke away from the Roman Catholic Church during the Reformation. They believe in the teachings of the Bible but reject the authority of the Pope.) and her sister Mary I (The Church in Western Europe before the Reformation. The Pope was head of the Church. A member of the Roman Catholic Church.).
The established religion under Elizabeth was Protestant, so the English did not acknowledge the authority of the Pope in Rome: the English monarch was to be the overall leader of the The Church of England (C of E) is the official Protestant state religion of England. Its supreme governor is the monarch of the UK, with the Archbishop of Canterbury as the most senior priest., but not a spiritual authority. However, there were some actual religious practices that were very similar to the Catholic Church, including the celebration of the mass (also known as Holy Communion) and the priests’ wearing of vestments.
Learn more about religious changes during Elizabeth’s reign in this podcast.
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To try to bring together these different groups and ease religious tensions, Elizabeth came up with what became known as the Religious Settlement. In 1559 she passed two laws:
The Act of Supremacy
This made Elizabeth the Supreme Governor of the Church. The term ‘Supreme Head’ was avoided because Christ was seen as Head of the Church. There was a strict prohibition of foreign leadership in the English church, so denying Elizabeth’s position in the Church was considered treason.
The Act of Uniformity
This made Protestantism England’s official faith and also set out rules of religious practice and worship in a revised prayer book. This retained some Catholic traditions which Elizabeth hoped would make a good compromise and keep her people happy.
There was broad support for the new Settlement and very few refused to take the oath of loyalty to the queen. Elizabeth’s tolerant approach seemed to have worked on the whole, but it did not keep everyone happy and she faced numerous threats. Opposition came not only from Catholics, but also from more extreme Protestants, known as Strict Protestants who wanted to get rid of ritual in church services and lead a plain and simple life., who objected to any compromise with Catholic ideas.
