Religion: The Role Of Religion In Elizabethan England

Religion has always been and probably always will be a huge part of the majority of society’s life, dictating their every thought and action. Politics, communication, education, it’s all affected by religion. People’s opinions and views are shaped based on religious texts and speeches, and our laws are too. It’s everywhere we look within the modern world and it is not about to go away, and even back in Elizabethan England religion was a major part of the people’s lives.

Christianity is the belief that a jewish man named Jesus was the son of god and that he is the 2nd part of the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost. The Christians believe that faith in the man would grant “everlasting life”. After Jesus’ death in the year 30, his followers began to preach throughout the Mediterranean world and even the Roman emperor Constantine was

Christian and converted his empire to his religion (Ashby 44).

The two major religions of Christianity during the Elizabethan era were Catholic and Protestant, and even though both groups were Christian and seemingly similar to an outsider, to someone on the inside the religions were so separate and different that it resulted in numerous deaths (Alchin). At the beginning of the 16th century, Protestants emerged from the ashes of a rebellion against Catholicism (Ashby 44). The rebellion was sparked by a man named Martin Luther, a priest from Germany who posted his objections to the Catholic church publically. He started Protestantism, the religion of the protestors of the Catholic faith, for those who wanted to go back to using the Bible as the guide to

life (Ashby 45). The protests caused many religious wars, though not as bad in England as elsewhere in Europe as reported by Queen Elizabeth’s court, who said that “depopulations and devastations of whole provinces and countries, overthrowing, spoiling, and sacking of cities and towns, imprisoning, ransoming, and murdering of all kinds of people.” (Hinds 46) The reportedly less severe situation in England was attributed to Queen Elizabeth’s genius by her court (Ashby 46). For years before then, Christianity, and mainly Catholicism, had been the main religion in Europe for over 10 centuries, and now it was seemingly falling apart (Ashby 44).Protestants believe that by reading the bible themselves instead of through a higher power, they would be responsible for their own salvation. Many Protestant sects got rid of the hierarchy of the church completely, and ministers instead of priests were asked to leave individual congregations. The church services were translated to the country’s native language from Latin, so the common public could comprehend them (Ashby 46). Puritans were not much different from Protestants, they were just Christians that wanted to “purify” church and society by reforming strictly to the bible (Hinds 11).
The Church of England was originally Catholic under Queen Elizabeth I’s father, Henry (Hinds 10). The Catholic church had a hierarchy of priests and bishops that ran the church. The Pope of Rome was the Catholic head of church and by the middle ages, the Roman Catholic church was the most power institution in Western Europe, Eastern Europe had it’s own main religions. The Catholic church was also often corrupt and money-hungry, taking money and gifts from church-goers to forgive their sins (Ashby 44). For personal reasons, King Henry then switched his faith to Protestant, and so the Church of England followed. The Protestant church was less structured and more based on God than forgiveness, claiming that only god could forgive their sins (Ashby 46). After Henry, his son Edward became monarch, dying not soon after, but he too was Protestant. After Edward was Lady Jane Grey, who was put off the throne, she too was Protestant. Then Queen Mary, a Catholic and King Henry’s daughter, was put on the throne (Hinds 10). Queen Mary was known as “Bloody Mary” for her persecution of the Protestants. After Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth I became Queen, and the Church was no longer Catholic (Alchin). She herself was Protestant, but believed in some Catholic practices and, so the Anglican faith was made (Hinds 10). Despite the Anglican church being mostly Protestant themed, Elizabeth believed that Catholicism should be tolerated if practiced privately. Despite this, Catholics wanted Elizabeth off the throne and replaced with her Catholic cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots. She was later executed (Alchin). Soon after Queen Elizabeth’s begin of reign, the Pope of Rome, Pope Pius V shunned Elizabeth and refused to accept her into the Church, so the Catholics were given a decision, side with their faith or their country. If allegiance to their country was not sworn, they could be executed (Ashby 47). With the memory of Queen Mary’s slaughter of the Protestants fresh in everyone’s mind, Queen Elizabeth was a happy change to a more accepting monarch, but as time went on she was less and less so (Ashby 46). The hierarchy of the new Anglican church consisted of Elizabeth at the head to replace the pope, and then everything else was the same as the previous Catholic church (Hinds 12). The services were in the country’s native language and the Common Book of Prayer was instated as the only literature needed for church other than the Bible itself (Ashby 46; Hinds 15). The book of Common Prayer was created and used so each part of the service could be reported over the course of months or years consistently. Inside the book there was also special prayers for difficult times and special occasions (Hinds 15) .Also required within the new Church of England was attending church on every Sunday and Holy Day, not doing so would result in a fine. The church slowly became a social and societal center, serving as the informational center for international news, and the most important events of people’s lives happened in churches (Ashby 47). The adornment of religion that occurred in the Catholic Church remained within the Anglican, with church music and special robes present during services, but the priests were allowed to marry, though it was not encouraged (Hinds 12). Monasteries, monks and nuns were removed from the church, and less saints were recognized, along with their respective days (Hinds 12).
The English Church was separated into administrative units by region, the basic division being a parish (Hinds 19). The word parish means neighborhood, as a parish was the church and cemetery for the local community. Villages could be their own parish, serving all people within walking or driving distance. Sometimes a parish would have more than one chapel to serve more people, London itself had more than 100 chapels. Overall, there was about 13,000 parishes in Elizabethan England (Hinds 21). Parishes were a major part of social and religious life, while also playing a part in government. Each parish needed to provide and equip a certain number of men for the militia, these men would be called for training and marching periodically for 2-3 days, and were also able to be called for serving in the army for an indefinite amount of time (Hinds 21). A parish was also expected to take care of the poor, finding work for the able-bodied and providing support for those who were not. Mostly the work was spinning flax or wool for the church’s pay, sometimes the work was taking food to families with the plague and reporting deaths. Among the poor were orphans who would often be found homes in a respectable family’s home and the parish would provide money for their needs (Ashby 22). Parishes also had a poor fund to provide one-time assistance to families in need. The parishes recorded books leaving the amount given and why, once citing that 46 pence was needed for a sheet, bearers, a grave marking, a clerk, and two burials; one for a woman, one for her child. The expenses included food for her children left behind (Hinds 22). A group of parishes was a diocese, overseen by a bishop and a large group of dioceses was a archdiocese which had an archbishop to oversee it (Hinds 19).
From the beginning, religion started as a guiding hand to the people who needed it, giving them something to believe in, but it slowly delved into the realm of corruption and darkness. Though people attempted to fix it through Protestantism, it didn’t succeed completely.