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Elizabeth I - Religion and 'Golden Age' - Coggle Diagram
Elizabeth I - Religion and 'Golden Age'
Golden Age
culture flourished and vigorous popular culture developed, but there was differentiation between popular and elite
Art
formal portraiture remained important, with Queen, courtiers and gentry but lacked skilful artist like Holbein
portrait miniature became culturally important e.g. Isaac Oliver and Nichols Hilliard
architecture (Robert Smythson) developed, despite queen's reluctance to commission new as courtiers could afford extravagance due to knock down of monastic land
Literature
highly literate and sophisticated public emerged due to increased educational opportunities so also increasingly sophisticated infrastructure of play production
companies of actors operated under patronage of courtiers e.g. Lord Chamberlain's Men with Shakespeare (having political connotations e.g. Richard II), in competitive environment of theatres e.g. Globe
prose literature had narrow readership, other than Foxe's 'Book of Martyrs' that was read by Puritans
most influential writers, Sir Philip Sidney (responsible for revival of sonnet in poetry) and Edmund Spenser were political outsiders as sometimes critical of Elizabethan court
Music
Elizabeth was responsible for saving musical culture of cathedrals and Oxbridge colleges, threatened by Protestants
2 great composers, Thomas Tallis and William Byrd wrote extensively for CofE despite being Catholic (Byrd secretly wrote for Catholic patrons)
secular music flourished, with Renaissance convention ensuring courtiers are musically skilled
instrumental and song flourished with towns having official bands (waits) who performed on formal occasions and broadside ballads became popular
Catholics
penal laws
1571 Act made publication of papal bulls treasonable
1581 Act to Retain the Queen's Majesty's Subjects in their Due Obedience made it treason to withdraw allegiance to queen of CofE, saying mass became punishable by fine, fine for non-attendance became £20 per month
4 priests executed in 1581, 11 in 1582
1585 Act against Jesuits and Seminary Priests made it treasonable for priests ordained by Papal authority to enter England so courts could secure tresonable convictions easier
123 priests convicted and executed 1586-1603
complemented by increase in financial penalties for recusancy, with punishments at its height from 1588-92
tightening legislation partly response to international situation and worsening relations with Catholic King Philip II and fear of Catholic rebellion increased by priest missions spreading the faith
'Bond of Association for the Preservation of the Queen's Majesty's Royal Person' drafted Oct 1584 by Burghley and Walsingham in response to Throckmorton plot, meaning those who took it had to murder those who attempted to usurp Crown
missions
Douai College (in Spanish Netherlands) founded in 1568 to train priests & send them to England
11 seminary priests had arrived by 1575, 100 by 1780, acting in secrecy in Catholic gentry's houses
Society of Jesus sent Jesuit priests from1580, combining intelligence and organisational skills with dedication to restoration of Catholicism e.g. first Robert Parsons and Edmund Campion
Catholic gentry could retain their faith but humbler Catholics were often ignored as educated priests associated with their protectors more than 'ordinary people', becoming household chaplains
so Catholicism became more of a 'country-house religion' that popular faith from 1560s and priests were divided as a result of bitter dispute over leadership of missionary movement
some assume Elizabeth was tolerant towards Catholics but it was conditional on obedience, not for all
Act of Supremacy 1559 laid down fines for recusants (absent from service) but were rarely demanded as energy was mainly spent on removing Catholic imagery from parishes and abolishing 'mystery plays' due to transubstantiation link
most survived as 'church papists' conforming but an active minority followed Catholic bishops that refused to accept 1559 Oath of Supremacy
some intellectuals went into exile in Spanish Netherlands but some were recusants acting as private chaplains to Catholic nobility providing protection or conducting secret services
1569 Northern Rebellion provoked punitive attitude towards Catholics and 1570 excommunication meant they had to choose between loyalty to Church or monarch
Puritans
Vestiarian Controversy
queen desired conformity and obedience of settlement but puritans believed eradication of 'suspicious' practices and dress
queen dismissed prominent Oxford Thomas Sampson from post at Christ Church College for refusal of vestments
Archbishop Parker and 5 bishops issued advertisements in March 1566 that required clergy to follow 'one uniformity of rites and manners' in admin of sacraments but 37 clergymen refused to signify support and so lost their posts
showed Elizabeth's determination to enforce settlement but removing bishops were caught between need to obey royal supremacy and desire to remove Catholic practice
Presbyterian movement
aspect of Puritanism that emerged partly in reaction to the Vestiarian controversy, believing in need for a Calvinist government
some questioned scriptural basis of authority (of bishops and other) and voiced this in pamphlets - 2 Admonitions - first attacked Book of Common Prayer and called for abolition of bishops - second provided description of Presbyterian govt system
Thomas Cartwright and presbyterians believed Church founded on 'popish' principles is spiritually flawed and the settlement had to be modified while John Whitgift argued their attitude was destructive and would split the church
geographically narrow movement but attracted high-ranking support with Burghley, Leicester and Huntington seeing advantages so defending presbyterian-sympathising clergymen to authorities
grew in 1580s with local assemblies and national synods (external Church council) developing but attempts to bring change in Parliament failed
Whitgift's articles
1st - acknowledgement of royal supremacy
2nd - acceptance of prayer book containing nothing 'contrary to Word of God' - creating crisis of conscience for many who thought prayer book parts lacked scriptural justification
so he reduced it after pressure from Walsingham and Leicester to simple acceptance
3rd - acceptance that the 39 Articles conformed to Word of God
forced Burghley's protege Gifford out of his post and Cartwright was refused license to preach
however caused despair amoung clergymen and his policies and attitudes were regarded with suspicion by many ministers
presbyterianism was in decline by late 1580s and little puritans would break with Church by refusing 3 articles
presbyterianism further weakened by death of key organiser John Field in 1589 with no synod held after
radical - Separatists
wanted separate from CofE completely, regarding it as incapable of reform sufficiently to root out 'popish' practices and to create independent church congregations
opposed to queen's Supreme Governor status
emerged in 1580s with Robert Browne as Norwich congregation leader but was in exile in Netherlands in 1582, returning in 1585 and making peace with authorities, aided by Burghley
Barrow and Greenwood led movements in London and despite small numbers involved, their activities alarmed authorities and led to passing Act against Seditious Sectaries in 1593
Penry and them were tried and executed, possibly due to vindictiveness of Archbishop Whitgift, destroying Separatism
decline
deaths of Leicester, Mildmay and Walsingham in late 1580s stimulated decline, along with defeat of Spanish Armada reducing threat of Catholicism
disappearance of presbyterianism meant Puritan attitudes were more acceptable in traditional structure
Puritans and Whitgift accepted 1559 Book of Common Prayer and reaffirmed Calvinist beliefs of CofE in Lambeth Articles of 1595