Since the 6th century the Church of England has been Roman Catholic, therefore it was held in high regard and the English people’s aversion to change led to an unfavourable look at the dissent caused by the beginning of the Protestant movement. It is easy to view the Church of England as a single body that changed as one to follow the new direction. However, as the Protestants gained strength and support the Church of England became divided with some still recognising the authority of the pope and others following the distinctly more Protestant path, this demonstrates the first example of both tradition and dissent in the Church of England. After the 1533 split from Rome, some of the Roman Catholic traditions were rejected, for example, monasteries were abolished and a Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer was appointed. Despite the dissent implied here however the traditional doctrine and religious practice remained largely unchanged. It was not until after the death of Henry VIII in 1547 that the dissent truly took hold as Cranmer used the opportunity of a Protestant King to push his more radical Protestant ideas.
Cranmer’s new order of service was introduced in 1549 and was distinctly Protestant it was then revised in 1552 to be more heavily Protestant. Up until the death of Edward VI in 1553 the dissent from traditional Roman Catholicism had been gaining strength, however when Mary I took the throne she took the Church of England back towards its traditional routes by once again recognising the authority of the pope. This radical reversal of all of the dissenting policies led to the abolition of Cranmer’s prayer book and order of service, and the summary execution of Cranmer himself, while many of the other leaders of the Protestant movement went into exile. Whilst the Roman Catholic Church’s revival in England was accepted by the many of the population the country was still divided, the revival was however short lived as Mary I was only on the throne for 5 years before her death and succession by the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I. It was under Elizabeth I that the Church of England began to find some stability and a balance between the tradition and dissent. That is not to say however that Elizabeth I was not a strong Protestant, but she was also a strong politician and recognised that the church was still very much divided between the traditional ways and the Protestant’s dissenting ways, it fell to her then to try and strike an amicable balance between the two views. Using religion as a tool to unite her subjects, Elizabeth I began to reintroduce the Protestant ideals but not as strongly as many would have liked. The Protestant Book of Common Prayer was re-introduced and its use enforced by the act of uniformity in 1559, whilst documents like these and the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1563 were heavily Protestant, they also included certain Catholic principles, the hierarchy of bishops for instance.
It would appear that up until the reign of Elizabeth I, Roman Catholicism was a force for tradition in England whereas the Protestant views were the dissenting force in the contest. However once Elizabeth I had found the middle ground as it were, things began to settle down, admittedly there were still those that longed for more radical Protestant reforms, in contrast there were those that desired the return of the strict Roman Catholic principles of the 1520’s. As such there were those who enacted more radical changes such as Edmund Grindal Archbishop of York, who in 1571 demanded a complete Protestant redesigning of the interior of the churches under his control. By the early 1600’s the vast majority of people accepted the church at the time as the traditional church, meaning that by 1600 the old tradition had become superstition, the old dissent had become the new tradition making way for a new line of dissent, by the time Charles I took the throne in 1625 the Protestant Church of England had become widely accepted as the traditional church and had its own traditions arising from its history, such as the attempted terrorist attack of 5th November 1605. This shows that while just 100 years earlier Roman Catholicism had been tradition it was now a dissenting force in the England of the 17th Century. It was in 1633 that the Roman Catholic dissent started to gain power as William Laud began to move the Church of England back towards Catholicism with the support of Charles I. These dissenting policies were not accepted well by the population leading to the English civil war and culminating in the deposition of Charles I and his execution in 1649, the resulting parliament then began leading the church back towards Protestantism but taking it to new highs with the abolition of bishops and the prayer book. This demonstrates the existence of another dissenting force, the hard line Protestants.
With the return of the monarchy in 1660 with the rise of King Charles II the church returned to the new traditional way, bishops were reinstated, a new prayer book published and all dissenting clergymen removed from office. Many of the new religions were however outlawed and persecuted as they were seen as Dissenters. The church continued in a state of flux from then until 1688 when Mary II took the throne and the Protestant Church of England was reaffirmed, the conflicts in the church from this point onwards were greatly reduced.
In conclusion I believe that at the start of the 16th Century, Roman Catholicism in England was an example of tradition, it had been the main religious factor in English life for approximately 1000 years, from 1533 onwards however the dissenting force of Protestantism gained power and support. During the 17th Century however the Protestant Church of England was seen as being traditional and was the most accepted religion in England, it was at this point then that Roman Catholicism began to be an example of dissent. I therefore conclude that Roman Catholicism has displayed both tradition and dissent in relation to the religious views of the Church of England.
Bibliography
The Open University. AA100 Book 2, Tradition and Dissent. Chapter 3, Tradition and Dissent in English Christianity, John Wolffe. 2008
The Open University. AA100 The Arts Past and Present-Book 2 Tradition and Dissent DVD ROM00686 St Chad’s Religious Art. 2009
