The Pilgrimage Of Grace: Most Serious Rebellion In Tudor Dynasty

The Pilgrimage of Grace is regarded as the most serious rebellion in Tudor dynasty. It is a rising against reforms of Henrician government took place in Yorkshire on October 1536. The rebels were discontent about the government's new policies accompanied by Reformation. In this popular rising they expressed their grievances in December Petition (Bush, 1996). Its participants did not constrained to commons; evidence showed that gentlemen and clergy also protested against the government since their interest were eroded in terms of property and liberties (Bush 2009, p.150). Although the traditional historical view regards the Pilgrimage of Grace as a revolt which fought for the defence of Catholicism and angry with religious changes initiated by King Henry VIII, scholars like Davies
There are several threatened aspects which was resulted from Reformation (Bush, 2009). Firstly, the basic beliefs of Christ religion was shocked significantly by these new policies because of rooted faith since childhood. According to Bush (2009), the rebels might be irritated because the government showed no respect for the former religious practices such as the clear distinction between church and state, clergy and laity, soul and body, spiritual matters and temporal ones. Secondly, the Pilgrims' charge of the government's heresy was in the dissolution of religious houses (Bernard, 1998). The wealth and liberty of church was onslaught as well as clergy's right. Thirdly, eviction of the papacy resulted in erosion of pope's position. The Act for the Submission of the Clergy prevented clergies from accomplishing or spreading ecclesiastical laws without the King's permission (Bush, 2009). Therefore, changes of religious policies aroused severe grievance and the desire to fight in defence of the faith and seem to be the most accepted cause in the pilgrimage of