The reign of Elizabeth II

The reign of Elizabeth

II. 1571- 1585

Building of 1570 in Hertford
(now the Salisbury Arms Hotel)

The Catholic threat

The reversal of Queen Mary's Catholic restoration had been effected with little difficulty, and in the decade to 1570 the survival of Catholic observances in parts of English society caused the government no problems. Older clergymen with Catholic sympathies were dying and being replaced by those educated in Protestant beliefs.

The gradual disappearance of English Catholicism was stemmed by a new supply of priests from abroad. Able and committed Catholic exiles established themselves first at Louvain and then at Douai and began the education of Catholic youths as priests. The first four Douai priests reached England in 1574. Later, English priests were also trained in Spain and Italy.

Gregory Martin.
Working at Douai between 1578 and 1581, he made a translation of the Bible for English Catholics.

The 1569 Revolt of the Northern earls (centered on Mary, Queen of Scots, who had been conspiring since her flight to England in May 1568) was followed rapidly by a Bull of Pope Pius V that excommunicated and deposed Elizabeth. The Bull was intended to rally Catholic resistance but it and deteriorating relations with Spain prompted government repression.

The main legislation of the Parliament of 1571 (2 April - 29 May 1571) was aimed against the Catholic threat. Parliament extended the definition of treason to include verbal threats and passed other laws designed to penalize Catholic practice.

English hostility to Catholicism was exacerbated the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew's Day in France (24 August 1572).

(Compare with the map of Protestant commitment under Mary I).

The first seminary priest to be executed - Cuthbert Mayne - died in 1577. The most intense assault on Catholicism was during the 1580s. 438 priests were sent to England from Douai College; 98 of them were executed - 67 in the years from 1582-91.

	The first priests of the Society of Jesus arrived in England in 1580. These Jesuit priests were particularly well-trained and disciplined, with a special obedience to the pope. Two of the most famous were Robert Parsons, and Edmund Campion. There were comparatively few Jesuits in England (c.20 in 1603) but their influence was disproportionately great.
	The Parliament of 1581 (16 January - 18 March 1581) increased recusancy fines to £20 per month. The Parliament of 1584-85 (23 November 1584 - 29 March 1585) allowed the execution of any Englishman proved to have been ordained a priest.

The Presbyterian movement

During the 1570s Elizabeth also faced increasing dissent within the Church of England. When the opposition to traditional ceremonies and distinctive clerical dress achieved no success, some radical Protestants decided that a change in the government of the church was needed.

Thomas Cartwright, preaching at Cambridge University in 1570 attacked the government of the church by bishops. He advocated a system of locally elected presbyters and elders like that used in the churches of Geneva and Scotland.

A London minister, John Field organized support for Presbyterianism amongst sympathizers throughout the country.

Henry Hastings
Earl of Huntingdon (1535-1595)

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Sir Francis Walsingham and Henry Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon were a few of the important laymen who supported further reformation of church and society. They wanted more local control of churches, more preaching, higher moral standards and the elimination of all the "superstitious" practices of the traditional religion.

Although support for puritanism was common - especially in the south and east of England - the Presbyterian movement never gained the adherence of the majority of the clergy, let alone the laity. An attempt in the Parliament of 1587 to introduce Presbyterian government ("Cope's Bill and Book") failed completely.