Religious change under Mary and its social impact
The social impact of religious and economic changes under Mary I
- Created by: ellarachel
- Created on: 05-12-17 09:34
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- Religious change under Mary and its social impact
- Mary's greatest desire as queen was to restore the Catholic faith and Church in England. This desire was not unpopular.
- In many areas, local people began restoring Catholic practices even before Mary's government ordered religious changes, showing that Protestantism was far from secure in 1533
- However, Mary proceeded cautiously as a number of problems had to be resolved
- Problem: A strong Protestant minority in London and other parts of the South. Reformed Protestant Church of England had been established by statute laws. Many members of the political elites, on whose support May depended, had acquired Church land and had no desire to return it.
- Action: Beginning of Reign - some prominent Protestant clergy, including seven bishops, were deprived of their livings. Foreign Protestants were ordered to leave the country. Around 80 MPs voted against the religious changes of Mary's first Parliament
- First Parliament, Oct 1553: - Edwardian religious legislation was repealed but the legal status of the Church of England was upheld. The Church was restored to its state of 1547. Clergy who had married could be deprived of their livings
- Action: Beginning of Reign - some prominent Protestant clergy, including seven bishops, were deprived of their livings. Foreign Protestants were ordered to leave the country. Around 80 MPs voted against the religious changes of Mary's first Parliament
- Problem: Pope Julius III demanded that the Church submit to Rome before dispensations to landowners of ex-Church property could be granted
- 1554: Pope Julius agreed not to try to claim back Church land that had been sold (this reduced opposition to the return of Catholicism from MPs and local landowners)
- Cardinal Pole was sent to England, as legate and Archbishop of Canterbury, to facilitate a change to Catholicism
- Problem: Act of Repeal provoked furious debates particularly directed against Pole. Paul IV (Pope from 1555) dismissed Pole as papal legate, April 1557
- Third Parliament (Nov 1554-Jan 1555): This restored the heresy laws, these made it punishable by death to deny papal supremacy. Act of Supremacy 1555 made the Pope the leader of the Church agai n
- Problem: A strong Protestant minority in London and other parts of the South. Reformed Protestant Church of England had been established by statute laws. Many members of the political elites, on whose support May depended, had acquired Church land and had no desire to return it.
- However, Mary proceeded cautiously as a number of problems had to be resolved
- In many areas, local people began restoring Catholic practices even before Mary's government ordered religious changes, showing that Protestantism was far from secure in 1533
- Mary's key religious reforms
- In 1553, Mary repealed earlier religious legislation and reinstated the Catholic faith. Under the heresy laws, Mary persecuted Protestants, including the Oxford martyrs (Cranmner, Ridley and Latimer). Around 280 Protestants were burnt at the stake, most in the south-East and East Anglia. Because of this, Mary became known as 'Bloody Mary'
- The persecutions under the heresy laws increasingly turned people against Mary. While facing opposition only from a small number of ardent Protestants at the beginning of her reign, by the end she was widely unpopular
- Pole tried to introduce reforms into the Church and increase the number of Priests. He appointed new bishops, who were to reside in their dioceses, to preach and to oversee carefully the religious life of their parishes. He also proposed that each cathedral should have a seminary for training priests. However, Mary's reign was too short for these reforms to have much impact and while some areas (such as Catholic Durham and Lancashire) were enthusiastic about his reforms, many others were not.
- Mary's greatest desire as queen was to restore the Catholic faith and Church in England. This desire was not unpopular.
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