Mary I: Religion

1.       Mary’s key religious reforms

·         The religious laws passed during Edward IV’s reign were repealed

·         The order of service at the time of Henry VIII was restored

·         All clergy who married when permitted to do so could be deprived of their livings.

2.       Issues Mary faced

·         Protestantism had attracted adherents in London and the South

·         The reformed protestant Church of England was protected in statute law.

·         Many political elites had benefitted financially from the acquisition of monastic lands.

3.       Mary’s religious reforms

·         Mary began cautiously, prominent Protestant clergy were deprived of their livings and some imprisoned. Foreign protestants were ordered to leave the country but most left voluntarily.

·         Mary faced a dilemma. To rely on parliamentary legislation to reverse the royal supremacy would mean acknowledging that the original laws of Henry VIII were valid, meaning she would have to accept the superiority of Statute law over the divine…