THE ENGLISH INQUISITION: CONSTITUTIONAL CONFLICT AND ECCLESIASTICAL LAW IN THE 1590s

Shagan, Ethan H.

doi:10.1017/s0018246x0400384x

“…In response, the Crown forged explicit links between the stability of the church and that of the realm: dissident Protestants were harried by church courts such as High Commission, parishes were subject to regular episcopal visitations, and Catholics were constrained by punitive acts and oaths. 9 While Elizabeth claimed no desire to make windows into men's souls, and James affected the image of a peaceful unifier of Protestants, each regime nevertheless used legal means to defend the (disputed) orthodoxy of the Church and, by extension, the authority of the Crown. 10 The extent to which the origins of the civil war can be traced back into the late 16th and early 17th centuries remains an open question among historians.…”

Section: What Was Political About Religion?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Religion, Political Thought and the English Civil War

Prior

¹

2013

History Compass

2

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Religion has always been central to explanations of the political and ideological causes and course of the English civil war. Where historians once privileged aspects of the conflict that associated it with a broader narrative about the historic development of religious toleration and parliamentary democracy, the 1980s witnessed a shift whereby it was more firmly contained within local and European contexts. More recently, there has been an effort to place the civil war within another broad context, yet one that traces its roots in the Reformation rather than its legacies in the 18th and 19th centuries. However, a question remains as to what the English Reformation meant for the relationship of civil and ecclesiastical power: in many ways this was the key issue that shaped the politics of religion in the English civil war. This essay suggests that we understand the politics of religion more effectively by situating the conflict within the wider contexts opened up by Atlantic and imperial history.

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“…On appeal, the judges in queen's bench upheld the queen's 'imperial' authority as supreme governor to empower that prerogative court; since 'by the ancient laws of this realm this kingdom of England is an absolute empire and monarchy'. 19 In what I have called the nasty nineties, there was a declared war against terror, aimed at puritan extremists who were allegedly prepared to use violence to achieve their ends; a war, to be sure, mostly of words, although there were three barely legal executions. 20 Let us return to the question of confessionalization.…”

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confidence: 99%

The politics of religion and the religion of politics in Elizabethan England

Collinson¹

2013

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Were politics and religion in Elizabethan England two distinct substances? The practice of religion, specifically of the religion defined by the Act of Uniformity and the Book of Common Prayer, was compulsory, and enforced. The structures of church and state were analogous. Yet, politics and religion were prised apart both in the justification offered for the persecution of Catholics and in the Catholic response. There were areas of religion which were private and voluntary, but they were far from apolitical. The politics of religion in Elizabethan England was heightened by the inability of the state to enforce strict religious uniformity.* This article is a revised version of a plenary lecture delivered at the 75th Religion and politics in Elizabethan England 75Elizabeth modelled herself on the biblical figure of Melchizedek, who was both priest and king. She was not an ayatollah. Yet, by her authority, and that of the parliament of which she was the principal member, every one of her subjects was legally bound to be present at the liturgical services of the church, twice on every Sunday and holy day, services which were constructed in minute detail in a Book of Common Prayer which, in the eyes of the law, was no more than an appendix to an act of parliament, the Act of Uniformity of 1559. Absence from church, and any deviation from the forms and rubrics of that book, were statutory offences and attracted the secular penalties of fine and imprisonment, penalties sharply increased by a further act of parliament in 1581. Other religious and ecclesiastical misdemeanours invited excommunication. That was a religious matter, but it had political and social implications. So far was religion from being private or voluntary that you could be put to death by incineration for the simple offence of holding beliefs which were contrary to orthodox Christianity. It did not happen very often, but it still happened, so far as we know, to eight persons between 1575 and 1612. 4 Political interest in religious belief and practice was not, of course, an Elizabethan innovation. Readers of Eamon Duffy's brilliant and hugely influential book The Stripping of the Altars might be forgiven for gathering that the politicization of religion began with Henry VIII. 5 But it was much older than that, and had been ratcheted up by the Lancastrian kings, using the threat of heresy and an act of parliament dealing with heresy to bolster their dubious entitlement to the throne. Henry VIII merely moved the goalposts and changed the rules.Since parliament had made the religious settlement, it could presumably unmake it, or change it (that had happened several times before, since the fifteen-thirties), and many sessions of successive Elizabethan parliaments were dominated by the politics of what Protestant critics of the settlement called 'further reformation'. Parliamentary campaigns to improve the state of the church, by reforming the prayer book, or even changing the very structure of the church, but above all to promote what hot Protestants cal...

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“…What was appropriate for the church was the mixed government described by Aristotle: 'For, in respect of Christ the head, it is a monarchy; and in respect of the ancients and pastors that govern in common and with like authority amongst themselves, it is an aristocracy, or the rule of the best men; and in respect that the people are not secluded but have their interest in churchmatters, it is a democracy, or a popular estate.' 19 In what I have called the nasty nineties, there was a declared war against terror, aimed at puritan extremists who were allegedly prepared to use violence to achieve their ends; a war, to be sure, mostly of words, although there were three barely legal executions. Whitgift's response was to say that he knew all about the theory of mixed government, but since the buck stopped with the queen, England was without limitation a monarchy.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The politics of religion and the religion of politics in Elizabethan England*

Collinson

¹

2009

Historical Research

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Were politics and religion in Elizabethan England two distinct substances? The practice of religion, specifically of the religion defined by the Act of Uniformity and the Book of Common Prayer, was compulsory, and enforced. The structures of church and state were analogous. Yet, politics and religion were prised apart both in the justification offered for the persecution of Catholics and in the Catholic response. There were areas of religion which were private and voluntary, but they were far from apolitical. The politics of religion in Elizabethan England was heightened by the inability of the state to enforce strict religious uniformity.* This article is a revised version of a plenary lecture delivered at the 75th Religion and politics in Elizabethan England 75Elizabeth modelled herself on the biblical figure of Melchizedek, who was both priest and king. She was not an ayatollah. Yet, by her authority, and that of the parliament of which she was the principal member, every one of her subjects was legally bound to be present at the liturgical services of the church, twice on every Sunday and holy day, services which were constructed in minute detail in a Book of Common Prayer which, in the eyes of the law, was no more than an appendix to an act of parliament, the Act of Uniformity of 1559. Absence from church, and any deviation from the forms and rubrics of that book, were statutory offences and attracted the secular penalties of fine and imprisonment, penalties sharply increased by a further act of parliament in 1581. Other religious and ecclesiastical misdemeanours invited excommunication. That was a religious matter, but it had political and social implications. So far was religion from being private or voluntary that you could be put to death by incineration for the simple offence of holding beliefs which were contrary to orthodox Christianity. It did not happen very often, but it still happened, so far as we know, to eight persons between 1575 and 1612. 4 Political interest in religious belief and practice was not, of course, an Elizabethan innovation. Readers of Eamon Duffy's brilliant and hugely influential book The Stripping of the Altars might be forgiven for gathering that the politicization of religion began with Henry VIII. 5 But it was much older than that, and had been ratcheted up by the Lancastrian kings, using the threat of heresy and an act of parliament dealing with heresy to bolster their dubious entitlement to the throne. Henry VIII merely moved the goalposts and changed the rules.Since parliament had made the religious settlement, it could presumably unmake it, or change it (that had happened several times before, since the fifteen-thirties), and many sessions of successive Elizabethan parliaments were dominated by the politics of what Protestant critics of the settlement called 'further reformation'. Parliamentary campaigns to improve the state of the church, by reforming the prayer book, or even changing the very structure of the church, but above all to promote what hot Protestants cal...

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THE ENGLISH INQUISITION: CONSTITUTIONAL CONFLICT AND ECCLESIASTICAL LAW IN THE 1590s

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Religion, Political Thought and the English Civil War

Religion, Political Thought and the English Civil War

The politics of religion and the religion of politics in Elizabethan England

The politics of religion and the religion of politics in Elizabethan England*

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