Elizabethan Religious Settlement: Difference between revisions

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The '''Elizabethan Religious Settlement''' was [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]]’s response to the religious divisions created over the reigns of [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]], [[Edward VI of England|Edward VI]] and [[Mary I of England|Mary I]]. This response, described by A.G. Dickens as 'The Revolution of 1559',<ref>{{cite book|first=A.G.|last=Dickens|title=The English Reformation|publisher=Fontana|year=1967|pages=401}}</ref> was set out in two Acts of the [[Parliament of England]]. The [[Act of Supremacy 1559|Act of Supremacy of 1559]] re-established the [[English church]]’s independence from [[Roman Catholic Church|Rome]], with Parliament conferring on Elizabeth the title [[Supreme Governor of the Church of England]]. the [[Act of Uniformity 1559|Act of Uniformity of 1559]] set out the form the English church would now take, establishing the [[Book of Common Prayer]].

The settlement is often seen as a terminal point for the [[English Reformation]] and in the long run the foundation of a "via media [[Anglicanism]]"but at the time it was believed to have established a Protestant Church, one among other Protestant Churches in Europe.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Diarmaid|last=MacCulloch|title=Putting the English Reformation on the Map|journal=Trans. RHistS|publisher=CUP|year=2005|volume=XV|pages=75–95}}</ref> Although Elizabeth "cannot be credited with a prophetic latitudinarian policy which foresaw the rich diversity of Anglicanism" her preferences made it possible.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dickens|first=A.G.|title=The English Reformation|publisher=Fontana|year=1967|pages=403}}</ref> To some it can be said to represent a compromise in both doctrinewording and practice between the first Prayer Book of Edward VI (1549) and the Second Prayer Book (1552). For example, when [[Thomas Cranmer]] first wrote the [[Book of Common Prayer]], which came into operation in 1549, it contained the words "The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life." The 1552 edition replaces these words with "Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith, with thanksgiving." However, some liturgical scholars such as Gregory Dix, Ratcliff, and Couratin would say that both prayer books taught the same eucharistic doctrine, albeit more cautiously in the first book.<ref>For an extended treatment, see {{cite book|first=EC|last=Ratcliff|title=Reflections on Liturgical Revision|publisher=Grove Books|year=1980|pages=12–17}} discussing ''The Communion Service of the Prayer Book: Its intention, Interpretation and Revision'', and also {{cite book|first=Gregory|last=Dix|title=Dixit Cranmer Et Non Timuit|publisher=Dacre|year=1948}}</ref> The Act which authorised the second book spoke of it as explaining and making 'fully perfect' the first book.<ref>{{cite book|first=JR|last=Tanner|title=Tudor Constitutional Documents|publisher=CUP|year=1948|pages=19}}</ref> Finally, the 1559 book, published under Elizabeth, includes ''both'' phrases.<ref>{{cite book|last=Chadwick|first=Owen|title=The Reformation|___location=Harmondsworth|publisher=Penguin|year=1964|pages=121}}</ref> The 1559 Book was in fact that of 1552 with minor but important amendments .

Some recent historians regard the "settlement" as taking place long before [[England]] had become an extensively quasi-[[Protestant]] nation on a popular level, and belying or even provoking great divisions in the population and among the clergy which cannot be reduced to the traditional categories of "[[Conservatism|conservatives]]," "[[Anglicans]]," and "[[Puritan]]s".<ref>{{cite book|first=Christopher|last=Haigh|title=English Reformations: Religion, Politics and Society under the Tudors|___location=Oxford|publisher=OUP|year=1993}}</ref>