Threat of the Puritans to Elizabeth

Events:
- 1559 - First Elizabethan Parliament - Religious Settlement established
- 1566 - The Vestiarian Controversy, Archbishop of Canterbury (ABofC) Matthew Parker's Advertisements are published.
- 1571 - Cartwright's Presbyterian lectures at Cambridge & William Strickland's Alphabet Bills (Bills to reform the Prayer Book)
- 1572 - Admonition to Parliament- a Puritan manifesto written by John Field and Thomas Wilcox demanded that Queen Elizabeth I restore the “purity” to the Church of England (CofE) and eliminate the remaining Roman Catholic elements and practices from the CofE.
- 1575 - Edmund Grindal becomes ABofC.
- 1576 - Grindal refuse, s orders to suppress prophesyings.
- 1577 - Grindal suspended and placed under house arrest.
- 1583 - Death of Grindal, John Whitgift appointed ABofC. Issues Three Articles.
- 1584 - Anthony Cope's "Bill and Book" vetoed by the Queen.
- 1588 - The Martin Marprelate tracts - pamphlets circulated across illegally in England. Their principal focus was an attack on the episcopacy of the Anglican Church.
- 1593 - Act against Seditious Sectaries passed, making Puritanism an offence.
- 1595 - Whitgift's Lambeth Articles - 9 doctrinal statements drawn up by ABofC John Whitgift in order to define Calvinist doctrine with regard to predestination and justification.

Why did Puritans oppose the Religious Settlement?
- Theology of the Church
  - Puritans were pleased with the theology of the Church as it set out the Calvinist belief of predestination.
  - This essential part of Calvinist theology was shared by all in the church - from puritans to conservatives like AB Whitgift.
- Liturgy of the Church
  - they were opposed to vestments (the Vestments controversy in 1565-6) bowing at the name of Jesus, candles in church, signing the cross in the baptism service, using a ring in the marriage service, keeping Holy Days and mixing of the words of the 1549 and 1552 prayer book to cause ambiguity about the administration of communion.
  - these were all seen to be superstitious by the Godly and as the means by which Satan could seduce the faithful from their proper worship.
- Discipline and Structure of the Church
  - Most Puritans accepted the church structure.
  - A minority that refused to accept the structure were presbyterians - they challenged episcopacy, preferring…

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