RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF ED MARY AND ELIZ

“The personal religious beliefs of Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I explain the religious changes of the period 1547-1566” how far do you agree? The period of 1547-1566 was a period of religious uncertainty and discontinuity. Edward and Elizabeth were both sworn Protestants, whereas Mary on the other hand saw Protestantism as Heresy. During this period there were several acts which changed the official religious status of England from Protestant to Catholic and back to Protestantism again but there is much debate as to whether this was caused by the Monarchs’ personal beliefs.
The most ideological of the three Monarchs was Edward VI. Having grown up under the care of Catherine Parr who ensured him the best Protestant scholars such as Roger Ascham, there is little doubt that Edward was an avid Protestant. This statement is backed in examples of his early writings where he wrote of his hatred for the Pope. During Northumberland’s reign, Starkey has argued in favour of Edward’s involvement in policy making, and that it was Edward’s personal beliefs that motivated the changes. This view is backed by Beer who thought that during Northumberland’s rein, the majority of policies were Edward’s and Northumberland “supplied few personal ideas”. We can see from the fact that Northumberland confirmed himself a Catholic on his death bed that the Protestant changes made during this period are likely to have been Edward’s own. For example, the Act of 42 articles was so radical that the articles were offensive to Catholics. They included images of the Pope with Satan-like characteristics.
However there is little also doubt that the changes between 1547 and 1549 had little to do with Edward and solely reflect Somerset’s beliefs because it was Somerset who was passing these changes as Lord Protector of the Realm and Edward was only 10 years old when he ascended to the throne. Elton argues that Edward’s "characters and views mattered little" and that even during the reign of Northumberland, "his so-called opinions were those of his advisers". Furthermore, the changes made by Somerset are likely to have been inspired by religious agitation in England; we can see examples of iconoclasm and Protestant uprisings in the Protestant Crescent such as Kett’s rebellion who did not believe that Edward had taken the reforms far enough. This undoubtedly affected religious policy. Additionally there were still Catholic aspects of Edward’s policies such as in the First Act of Uniformity, such as the fact that transubstantiation was retained. John Knox famously argued that Edward’s reforms were not protestant enough because it was still a requirement to kneel at Communion and Randell called Edward’s policies “careful” noting that an important factor was to avoid offending Charles V. This demonstrates that Edward was restrained in terms of his religious policy and also that personal beliefs were not the only factor. It could also be argued that finance was a motivation of Edward’s policies. The removal of Catholic bishops granted Northumberland considerable wealth and loyalty since he used the lands gained to cement alliances to the New Faith. This demonstrates that personal religious beliefs were not the only consideration in Edward’s religious policy. Mary was the second most ideological of the three monarchs during 1547-66. She grew up in the Spanish courts amongst a family who prided themselves on being the most Catholic family in Europe and her religious inclination is reflected in her policies. The most radical being the burning of 284 Protestants for heresy during her reign, as documented by John Foxe in his Book of Martyrs. Upon her ascension to the throne, she claimed that she aimed to return England to Papal Supremacy as she believed that this was her God given duty. She did this primarily by issuing two separate Acts of Repeal the first of which in 1553 and the second in 1554 which effectively turned back the hands of time until 1527 and therefore eradicated all of the religious change made by Edward and Henry VIII. An example of her ideological tendency is given to us by the fact that she gave the Pope £60,000 worth of Crown lands which weakened the crown to please the Pope. Similarly to during Edward’s reign, rebellion can be seen as evidence of religious ideology. Mary’s personal beliefs threatened her safety when Wyatt managed to raise 3,000 men in January 1554 and gain access to the Capital with further evidence of support for him there with the aim to replace Mary with the Protestant Lady Jane Grey. The fact that Mary created policies which inspired such opposition shows that it was a personal belief which motivated the policy because otherwise she would not have done something which could threaten her safety. However Mary also shows Pragmatism in the fact that she did not return the former monastic lands to the Pope because she knew that it would mean the loss of support from all of the nobles who owned the ex-monastic lands. Her personal policy would have been to give them back to the Pope however she did not which shows that her policy did not always reflect her religious beliefs. Additionally under Cardinal Pole, Mary hoped to introduce seminaries to England, however only one was created (in York) due to a lack of finance which shows that her personal beliefs were restricted by finance Elizabeth was the most pragmatic of the three monarchs. She was the daughter of the evangelical Anne Boleyn and had grown up with Edward and the Protestant care of Catherine Parr. Furthermore her legitimacy relied on Protestantism since the Catholic faith did not recognise Henry VIII’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon and so saw her as a bastard. Elizabeth therefore had a vested interest in creating a Protestant Church of England. This explains some of her religious changes such as the Act of Supremacy and then the Act of Uniformity in 1559 which disengaged England from Rome (again) and implemented certain Protestant religious changes such as a new Common Prayer Book and the dissolution of the monasteries founded by Mary.
The culmination of her Protestant policy is echoed in her excommunication by the Pope in 1572. However in the period 1558-1566 her policies were perhaps more moderate that she would have wanted because she had to consider her international relations. This has lead J.R. Green to believe that Elizabeth saw religion in a “purely political light”. Elizabeth feared a joint religious crusade from France and Spain which would threaten her control and she also hoped to reacquire Calais. So we can see in her policies during the first years of her reign that she refrained from making any changes that would have offended the Pope or Philip II and therefore it could be said that her religious changes were not explained by her personal beliefs. In the royal injunctions of 1559 that Catholicism was not forbidden but it was discouraged showing somewhat of a compromise. Elizabeth endorsed the 39 Articles in 1573 after her excommunication when she had nothing more to lose which shows that that her personal policy would have probably been to remove Catholicism altogether. Yet in her Act of Uniformity in 1551, Elizabeth implemented communion of both kinds which retained the Catholic Transubstantiation. It can therefore be concluded that the international scene had more of an effect of Elizabeth’s religious policy than her personal beliefs did.
Edward, Mary and Elizabeth were all avidly religious and there is no doubt that their religious inclinations did infiltrate their policies. However, it is clear that their personal beliefs were not the only factors which they needed to consider when creating religious policy. All three monarchs show some form of compromise after having considered the national or international scene and therefore the most convincing argument is that the religious changes of the period 1547-66 are partially but not fully explained by the personal beliefs of the Monarchs.