Many hard line Protestants had fled to Europe during Mary’s reign for their safety, and now that Elizabeth had the throne, they were going to come back. However they were expecting to come back to an England where Protestantism was the only religion there, but many Catholics had remained as Elizabeth seemed to have religious issues sorted out. Many Purtians still disliked this idea of a united England, and so any settlement plans would have been threatened.
Elizabeth also had to be very careful about any decisions she made, as there were both Protestant and Catholic rulers in Europe who were watching the religious situation in England very closely. Elizabeth was also very aware that two very powerful Catholic states, Scotland and Spain, were carefully scrutinising religious events in England. Spain was seen as an ally as Queen Mary had been married to , and the last thing Elizabeth wanted to do was to get on the wrong side of a very Catholic and push the French government into an even closer relationship with Scotland.
The final religious settlement recognised royal supremacy within the church. The Act of Supremacy made Elizabeth Supreme Governor of the Church and church officials were required to take an oath of obedience to Elizabeth. Neither the Catholics or Protestants were willing to accept a woman as Head of the Church, which is why Elizabeth compromised, and took the ‘Supreme Governor’ as opposed to ‘Head’.
The heresy laws passed in the reign of Mary were reversed and the celebration of Communion in both kinds was confirmed. Catholic bishops in the Lords were against this idea, and were not really willing to accept it, but were eventually outnumbered in voting terms and the Act of Supremacy was confirmed.
Religion was a highly debated and argued about issue in Tudor England, often bringing up many conflicts. Many held views that put them strongly on one side, the Catholics, or the other, the Protestants. The Religious Settlement was an honest attempt to bring as many as was possible into a united England, but it could never have satisfied those who held ery extremist Catholic or Protestant views, as they would have wanted the entire country to be one religion or the other. Only one Catholic bishop took the oath to Elizabeth, all the rest that refused and lost their office. However, only 4% of all lower clergy refused to take the oath to the Queen. While the clergy was allowed to marry, they were discouraged from doing so. An injunction was passed that stated that any member of the clergy who wanted to marry had to be questioned by his bishop and by two JP’s from his church area. Elizabeth made it clear that she herself wasn’t in favour of the clergy marrying.
The Act of Uniformity in 1559 just about passed the Lords. It was Elizabeth’s attempt to ensure as many believers as was possible could be saved from ‘evil’. The 1552 Prayer Book was to be used in services while the wording of the 1549 Prayer Book was to be introduced and used into the Communion service, so that a generous interpretation as to what was meant by the ‘real presence’ could be brought into church services.
