Today I want to find out about one of the biggest religious challenges that Elizabeth I faced during her reign.
When we think about the Puritans, many of us think of Oliver Cromwell or the settlers who travelled to North America. But the Puritan movement actually started much earlier than you would think. It began during the reign of Elizabeth I.
When Elizabeth became Queen in 1558, she introduced the Religious Settlement of 1559, which ae talked about a few days ago. It established the Church of England as a Protestant church. But importantly it still kept some traditional practices of the Catholic church that many people were more familiar with. Elizabeth hoped that the compromise would bring some stability after many years of religious conflict.
For many people it did. But, not everyone was satisfied.
A group of people who became known as the Puritans were among those who were not satisfied. They believed that the Church of England had not gone far enough in its reforms. They wanted to remove anything that they thought resembled the Roman Catholic church or worship. They pushed hard for the introduction of simpler church services with fewer ceremonies. They wanted plain clothing for the clergy and a greater emphasis on preaching and studying the Bible. Some also wanted to replace bishops with a different form of church government.
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Thomas Cartwright
Elizabeth did not share their views. Although she was a Protestant, she believed that her Religious Settlement struck the right balance. She wanted one national church that most of her subjects could accept and she feared that making any further changes would divide the country again.
Throughout her reign, Elizabeth insisted that the clergy follow the rules of the Church of England. As time went on, some Puritans even criticised the Queen’s authority over the Church, something Elizabeth would not tolerate.
Elizabeth was prepared to take action against any Puritans who openly challenged her Religious Settlement or who refused to obey the rules of the Church of England. Some ministers who would not wear the required clerical clothing were suspended or removed from their positions, while others who published attacks on the Church or called for further reforms were arrested and imprisoned. Elizabeth thought that if she allowed these challenges to go unpunished it could undermine the Church and even her own authority as Queen, so she insisted that her religious settlement must be obeyed.
Some of those who were punished were the Puritan ministers John Field and Thomas Wilcox. They were imprisoned at Newgate Prison in 1572 after they had published An Admonition to the Parliament, which was a book that called for major changes to the Church of England. They were released after about a year. Thomas Cartwright was one of the leading Puritan thinkers of the time. He also faced repeated dismissal from his university and church positions because of his views. This shows that while Elizabeth accepted moderate differences of opinion, she would not tolerate anyone who openly challenged the authority of the Church or her role as its Supreme Governor.
The Puritans remained part of English religious life throughout Elizabeth’s reign. They didn’t stop calling for more reform.
After Elizabeth I died in 1603, many Puritans had hoped that James I would introduce further reforms. But he largely kept the Church of England as Elizabeth had left it. During Charles I reign, religious tensions sharply increased, which influenced some Puritans to leave England and emigrate to North America in search of greater religious freedom. Others that stayed behind became involved in the conflicts that led to the English Civil War. Puritan influence reached its height under Oliver Cromwell in the 1650s before declining after the monarchy was restored in 1660.
How different do you think English history might have been if Elizabeth had agreed to the Puritans' demands?
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