The Shaping of Elizabeth’s Religious Settlement (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes
The Shaping of Elizabeth's Religious Settlement
Religious uncertainty and Elizabeth's challenge
England's religious landscape in 1558 remained unclear. Historians cannot determine with precision what proportion of the population remained Catholic or had converted to Protestantism. Many among the largely uneducated population held opinions that fell somewhere between the two extremes. Some individuals appreciated aspects of Protestant practice, such as worship conducted in English and the absence of financial payments to Rome, while simultaneously valuing the traditional rituals and ceremonies of Catholic worship.
The religious confusion of 1558 reflected decades of rapid change. England had experienced Catholic rule under Henry VIII (with the break from Rome), Protestant reform under Edward VI, and Catholic restoration under Mary I - all within a single generation. This created a population with mixed and often contradictory religious views.
Elizabeth faced the task of establishing a Church that could command widespread acceptance. The stakes were high: failure to achieve this would risk the kind of religious warfare erupting across Europe at the time.
What shaped the religious settlement?
The religious settlement that emerged between 1558 and 1563 reflected multiple pressures. Elizabeth had to act swiftly to prevent confusion, but she could not ignore Parliament's views or the precarious state of England's foreign relations with Spain, France and Scotland.
Elizabeth's personal religious convictions
Determining Elizabeth's genuine religious beliefs presents substantial difficulties for historians. As Queen, she remained conscious of the impression she created and deliberately avoided giving excessive support to any single religious faction, particularly at the start of her reign. This caution stemmed partly from the reality that Elizabeth's priorities concerning the Church derived from political calculations rather than theological conviction. She aimed to establish a form of religion that would repair divisions between Catholics and Protestants while maximising her own authority over the Church, rather than creating something that necessarily reflected her personal theology.
Elizabeth, like most contemporaries, believed that peaceful coexistence between different religious faiths was impossible, and that their mutual antagonism would undermine national unity and provoke civil unrest. This conviction shaped every decision about the religious settlement.
Several factors suggest Protestant sympathies. As Anne Boleyn's daughter, Elizabeth had grown up within a family network sympathetic to reformed religion. Her education had been supervised by teachers knowledgeable about Lutheran theology, including Sir Roger Ascham. During Mary I's reign, when Elizabeth was compelled to live as a Catholic, certain incidents have been interpreted by historians as evidence of genuine Protestant conviction. Within a month of becoming Queen and before any formal religious settlement was reached, she forbade priests in the Royal Chapel to elevate the host (the bread transformed into Christ's body at the central moment of Catholic Mass). She reportedly expressed fury when the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral presented her with a Prayer Book containing illustrations of saints.
Yet Elizabeth also demonstrated affection for certain traditional teachings and practices. She enjoyed the comforting ornaments of Catholic worship, including the crucifix, candles and church music. She maintained the traditional position that priests should dedicate their lives to God and not marry. This brought her into disagreement with Matthew Parker, her first Archbishop of Canterbury, when she issued an instruction forbidding any clergyman to live with his wife on cathedral grounds or in a college.
Holding such views while simultaneously supporting more radical ideas about faith was not unusual. Religious change had been underway in England throughout Elizabeth's lifetime, so an intelligent person would probably find some aspects of that change more acceptable than others. This complexity makes Elizabeth's true beliefs difficult to determine with certainty.
Domestic pressures
The Elizabethan settlement took shape during 1558-59, with its essential components in place within six months of the new Queen's accession in November 1558. This rapid process, however, did not proceed smoothly.
Confronted with high expectations from both Catholics and Protestants immediately upon becoming Queen, Elizabeth issued a Royal Proclamation in December 1558 instructing that no preaching should take place except for readings from the gospels, epistles and Ten Commandments in the vernacular (the common language). The Proclamation also prohibited any manner of public prayer, ritual or ceremony in churches other than that already used in the royal chapel, and stated that the Lord's Prayer and Creed should be recited in English until Parliament could be consulted.
The Royal Proclamation's Strategy
By restricting preaching and standardising practice to what was used in the royal chapel, Elizabeth achieved several goals:
- Prevented inflammatory sermons from either Catholic or Protestant extremists
- Bought time to consult Parliament
- Introduced English-language worship gradually
- Asserted royal authority over religious practice from the outset
The following month, January 1559, brought developments on both sides of the religious divide. The first attempt to introduce bills into Parliament was destroyed by opposition from the Catholic bishops appointed under Mary, along with some noblemen in the House of Lords, who formed a solid Catholic voting bloc. They objected to the legislative attempt to restore the Protestant Prayer Book of 1552 and to the prospect of the Church being headed by a woman.
The Catholic Opposition in the House of Lords
The Catholic bishops' resistance was formidable because they:
- Formed a unified voting bloc with some Catholic noblemen
- Held seats in the House of Lords with equal voting power to Protestant nobles
- Objected fundamentally to both the Prayer Book of 1552 and female headship of the Church
- Nearly succeeded in blocking Elizabeth's first religious legislation entirely
Foreign policy constraints
Elizabeth had to proceed cautiously in political terms. England remained at war with France and could not rely entirely on Spanish support. While the population of London had demonstrated overwhelming support for a Protestant settlement, opinion elsewhere proved less clear-cut, and the north of England remained deeply conservative in religious matters. Beyond the northern counties lay Scotland, still firmly allied to Catholic France, whose young queen was wife to the heir to the French throne. Any modification of religion in England would therefore affect England's relationship with France, Spain and Scotland.
Elizabeth received assistance in securing agreement on a settlement because of two events around Easter 1559. The first was the signing of the Peace of Câteau-Cambrésis between France and Spain. This treaty brought an end to half a century of periodic fighting between Spain and France. The second was a government-sponsored debate between Protestant and Catholic clergy, at which some of the Catholic bishops made the error of suggesting that they did not accept Elizabeth's authority over them, which allowed her to arrest and imprison two of them.
Peace of Câteau-Cambrésis: A treaty signed at Easter 1559 which brought an end to half a century of periodic fighting between Spain and France. This changed the diplomatic landscape significantly, as it freed both France and Spain from their conflict and allowed them to potentially turn their attention to England's religious reforms.
Once Parliament reassembled after Easter, steering legislation through became somewhat easier. Elizabeth made concessions regarding her title and the wording of the Prayer Book, and applied considerable pressure on the noble members of the Lords to support her. This pressure, combined with the imprisonment of the two bishops in the Tower, secured her a majority of one vote.
Key Points to Remember:
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Elizabeth's religious settlement (1558-59) was shaped more by political necessity than personal theology; she prioritised healing divisions and maximising royal control over the Church.
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Evidence suggests Elizabeth held Protestant sympathies (her family background, education under Protestant teachers like Sir Roger Ascham, and actions during Mary's reign), though she also retained affection for Catholic traditions such as church music and clerical celibacy.
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Domestic opposition came primarily from Catholic bishops in the House of Lords who formed a voting bloc against Protestant legislation, objecting to the restoration of the 1552 Prayer Book and female headship of the Church.
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Foreign policy significantly constrained Elizabeth's options; England's war with France, Scotland's alliance with Catholic France, and the need to avoid antagonising Spain all influenced the pace and nature of religious reform.
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The Peace of Câteau-Cambrésis (Easter 1559) and the imprisonment of two Catholic bishops provided Elizabeth with the political opportunity to secure parliamentary approval for her settlement by a majority of one vote.