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Elizabethan Religious Settlement

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The Elizabethan Religious Settlement was Elizabeth I’s response to the religious divisions created over the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary I. This response, described by A.G. Dickens as 'The Revolution of 1559',[1] was set out in two Acts of the Parliament of England. The Act of Supremacy of 1559 re-established the English church’s independence from Rome, with Parliament conferring on Elizabeth the title Supreme Governor of the Church of England. the 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.[2] Although Elizabeth "cannot be credited with a prophetic latitudinarian policy which foresaw the rich diversity of Anglicanism" her preferences made it possible.[3] To some it can be said to represent a compromise in wording 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.[4] The Act which authorised the second book spoke of it as explaining and making 'fully perfect' the first book.[5] Finally, the 1559 book, published under Elizabeth, includes both phrases.[6] 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 "conservatives," "Anglicans," and "Puritans".[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ Dickens, A.G. (1967). The English Reformation. Fontana. p. 401.
  2. ^ MacCulloch, Diarmaid (2005). "Putting the English Reformation on the Map". Trans. RHistS. XV. CUP: 75–95.
  3. ^ Dickens, A.G. (1967). The English Reformation. Fontana. p. 403.
  4. ^ For an extended treatment, see Ratcliff, EC (1980). Reflections on Liturgical Revision. Grove Books. pp. 12–17. discussing The Communion Service of the Prayer Book: Its intention, Interpretation and Revision, and also Dix, Gregory (1948). Dixit Cranmer Et Non Timuit. Dacre.
  5. ^ Tanner, JR (1948). Tudor Constitutional Documents. CUP. p. 19.
  6. ^ Chadwick, Owen (1964). The Reformation. Harmondsworth: Penguin. p. 121.
  7. ^ Haigh, Christopher (1993). English Reformations: Religion, Politics and Society under the Tudors. Oxford: OUP.


 

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