A Settlement After Religious Whiplash
Elizabeth I inherited a kingdom divided by the reversals of Henry, Edward, and Mary. She was Protestant, but politically cautious. Her solution was neither a full return to medieval Catholicism nor a completely continental Reformed church.
Protestant Doctrine, Traditional Form
The Act of Supremacy restored the Church of England’s independence from Rome and named Elizabeth its Supreme Governor. The Act of Uniformity authorised a revised 1559 Book of Common Prayer. The church adopted Reformed doctrine, later expressed in the Thirty-Nine Articles, but retained bishops, cathedrals, choirs, formal liturgy, and traditional vestments.
This combination created a lasting tension. Protestant theology coexisted with a Catholic-looking structure and ceremonial life. The settlement was designed to make religious conformity possible, but its compromises ensured that arguments would continue.
Catholics and Puritans
Catholics who outwardly attended the established church could preserve their faith privately as “church papists.” Those who refused attendance were recusants, punished by fines that reached £20 a month—fifty times an artisan’s wage. As priests became scarce and Catholic clergy faced execution, Catholicism increasingly contracted into gentry households.
Puritans, meanwhile, believed the settlement had not gone far enough. They challenged practices such as bowing at Jesus’ name, the sign of the cross, wedding rings, organ music, and clerical vestments. Many wanted bishops replaced by government through elders.
Elizabeth’s church endured because it balanced competing pressures. Its very ambiguity became its defining strength—and the source of future conflict.