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Topic 23- Religious developments and the Golden Age of Elizabethan Culture…
Topic 23- Religious developments and the Golden Age of Elizabethan Culture:
A. Religious Developments:
Threats from Catholocism:
the two main groups of English Catholics
church papists- priests who did not conform to oath of supremacy, spent a lot of time in Spanish netherlands- on their return to england they would outwardly conform or work for/be protected by the nobility as private priests
recusants- those who refused to attend CofE and were fined as a result of the Act of Settlement 1559
there was an increased threat from catholics as a result of two events
1569- The Northern Rebellion
1570- Pope Pius V excommunicated E1 and. called upon loyal catholics to depose her. Catholics had to choose between loyalty to E1 or the Church of Rome
Penal laws and Acts against Catholics:
1571- publication of papal bulls treasonable
1581- Act to retain the Queen's Majesty's subjects in their Due Obedience: saying mass punishable by heavy fines or imprisonment, and heavy fines for not attending church raised to £20 per month
1585: Act against Jesuits and Seminary Priests: treason for pope ordained priests entering England (123 priests convicted and executed between 1586-1603)
Increased financial penalties 1587- any recusants who defaulted on fines could have two-thirds of estates seized
The Catholic Missions (extreme catholic groups):
The College of Douai (Seminary Priests- founded in 1568 in Douai in Spanish netherlands with the aim of training catholic priests to England to keep catholicism alive in the realm
by 1575 11 had arrived in England, by 1580 100 had arrived, and 179 arrived in England between 1580-1585
dangerous work and so had to act in secrecy- hid in catholic nobility and gentry's houses. Merely being a catholic priest was sufficient to be executed from 1585
The Society of Jesus (the Jesuits)
began sending jesuit priests to england in 1580- the jesuits combined high intelligence and organisational skills with a dedication to the cause of restoration of catholocism to England
the first jesuits to become involved in attempting to re-catholocise england were Robert Parsons and Edmund Campion (campion was captured and executed in 1581)
success of the missions was limited - while the catholic gentry were enabled to retain their path, humbler catholics were ignored.
the educated priests associated more readily with their protectors than ordinary people and became more like household chaplains
catholocism thus became more of a 'country house religion' than the popular faith it had been in the 1560s- priests had become more divided as a result of a bitter dispute over leadership of the missionary movement, thereby weakening the catholic mission
The Four challenges from protestantism/puritanism:
1st Challenge- from within the church
many English protests clergy did not regard the settlement as final and wanted a more calvinist form of prayer book and resented they had not been consulted
they accepted positions within church with hope of changing it from within e.g. John Jewel as Bishop of Salisbury
however these men were weak characters and most simply conformed and were viewed as selling out
e.g. Vestment Controversy- 1563 bishops petitioned the convocation to remove many catholic features and was defeated by one vote. AB Parker laid down strict rules for the conduct of servies, the main puritan issue was the wearing of vestments- the wearing of these became a testament of conformity to the Queen
protestnat bishops did not resign as was expected but conformed and continued to wear vestments
2nd Challenge- within parliament
by 1570s a small but influential group of puritans began to press for basic reforms in govt of the church through parliament, presenting a number of bills. They are referred to as the puritan choir and their main leader was Thomas Cartwright
they demanded that the name and office of the AB be abolished, bishops to have a spiritual role only, deacons should look after the poor, government of churches the responisibility of ministers and elders, and ministers should be elected by the congregation
the reaction by Elizabeth:
1571: Walter Strickland (a leader) was prevented from attending the HoC by privy council- the church became stricter with puritan choir and cancelled their licenses to preach
1572- the queen prevented parliament from discussing religious matters without permission from her bishops - puritan printing presses were destroyed and authors imprisoned
1576-1593: various leaders (Cartwright, Wentworth, cope, and morrice) were imprisoned at different times
1584- a bill to challenge the settlement was "lost from sight" after a heated debate
1587- MPs banned from discussing the bill further
3rd Challenge- through local movements
Prophesyings
public meetings held where prayers and sermons were said- this was publicised asa a way of improving the spiritual education of the clergy- the government viewed them as potentially dangerous and E1 believed they would encourage unrest and rebellion
reaction from Elizabeth
1577 E1 ordered AB Grindal to suppress them, however they refused claiming they were useful to improving the quality of clergy
in response, Grindal was confined to his house and suspended from his duties until he died in 1583
Presbyterians:
these were secret meetings of local clergy who met regularly with the aim to reorganise the church along the line of Calvin's radical church in Geneva- the network was controlled by John Field in London and they correspond with other groups
This was a direct threat as it challenged the idea that the church and state govt were the responsibility of the monarch
reaction from Elizabeth
E1 appointed John Whitgift to replace Grindal- he set up a high commission with a list of 24 questions to determine allegiance to the religious settlement
300-400 ministers were removed from office as a result
final challenge- through literature and separation:
Whigifts efforts forced the leaders underground- they realised that meetings either public or secret would never be permissible by law- during second half of reign there was an increase of puritan pamphlets and books illegally published
separatists established their own church under Robert Browne, when he later submitted to Whitgift, the leadership fell under Henry Barrow and John Greenwood
reaction from E1:
the government destoryed the illegal printing presses and imprisoned the authors nd publishers where they were found- however this was reactionary and they could never fully stop it
Act against Seditious Sectaries 1593- gave powers to arrest and execute separatist leaders- the same year Barrow and Greenwood were executed. The act was a sign that even towards the end of her reign E1 was having to find solutions to deal with puritans
B. the culmination of the English renaissance and the Golden Age of art, literature and music
Art:
paintings were heavily influenced by flemish models during E1's reign
formal portraiture remained important, with the queen as a frequent sitter, as were courtiers such as Leicester, along with sitters from the gentry and percentile classes
although the formal portraiture during E1's reign lacked an artist as skilful as Holbein had been during HVIII's reign
what became culturally the most important aspect of elizabethan painting was the portrait miniatures, whose most technically gifted exponents were Nicholas Willard and Isaac Oliver
a golden age of architecture also- gentry building allowed for it to thrive despite the queens reluctance to commission new buildings herself
first named English architect was Robert Smythson- he had worked on Longleat in Wiltshire as well as a series of other country houses
Literature
increased educational opportunities of the 16th C led to the emergence of a highly literate and quite sophisticated viewing and reading public
viewing public was treated to plays, not just by Shakespeare but by Kyd and Marlowe as well who were significant dramatists
there was significant infrastructure for the plays of London- companies of actors operated under the patronage of courtiers e.g. 'The Lord Chamberlain's men' which Shakespeare was a member
companies also operated under a competitive market environment at theatres, e.g. the Globe and the Swan- competition over the creation of new plays regularly for a variety of classes
occasionally Shakespeare's plays had direct political connotations, most notorious being the sponsoring at the Globe theatre by supporters of the Earl of Essex of a performance of 'Richard II' a medieval king the victim of a usurpation in 1399
E1 was alleged to have remarked; "I am Richard. Knowe ye not that?"
prose literature had a narrow readership except Foxes 'book of martyrs' which was read amongst puritans
two most influential writers were Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser- Sidney saw himself as a conscious moderniser of the English language through the adaptation of classical forms
both these two were political outsiders; some of their work was a direct criticism of the Elizabethan court
Music:
music flourished in variety of forms in the Elizabethan England- E1 herself was a skilled musician and was responsible at the time of the settlement for saving the musical culture of English cathedrals and Oxbridge colleges which were threated by protestant reformers who emphasised the word of God rather than the 'beauty of holiness'
the two greatest composers of the time (both catholic)- Thomas Tallis and William Byrd but they both wrote extensively for the church of england
secular music als flourished, especially at court- renaissance convention laid down that courtiers should be skilled musically
this encouraged the development of the Madrigal, a music form originating from Italy, a complicit part-song that could be sung in a small mixed-voice choir
the most important composers of this music were Thomas Morley and Thomas Weelkes
Madrigals were usually non-political but some did support the 'gloriana' myth which sustained the support of the queen at a time when her reputation was slipping
more intimate music was composed by John Dowland
At a more popular level, both instrumental music and song flourished- many towns had official bands('waits') who performed on formal occasions and who presumably performed informally on other occasions
broadside Ballards- songs printed cheaply on single a single sheet of paper- became popular
these were often extremely bawdy (sexual and comical) e.g. the innuendo in the popular song Watkins' Ale is unmistakeable