The exiles for religion were received at Frankfort, Strassburg
and Zürich. At Frankfort a party among them objected to the ceremonies
retained in the prayer-book, and, encouraged by Calvin and by Knox, who
came to them from Geneva, quarrelled with those who desired to keep the
book unchanged. Mary died in 1558. Her reign arrested the rapid
spoliation of the church and possibly prevented the adoption of
doctrines which would have destroyed its apostolic character; the
persecution by which it was disgraced strengthened the hold of the
reformed religion on the people and made another acceptance of Roman
supremacy for ever impossible.
Elizabethan settlement.
Elizabeth's accession was hailed with pleasure; she was known to dislike
her sister's ecclesiastical policy, and a change was expected. An Act of
Supremacy restored to the crown the authority over the church held by
Henry VIII., and provided for its exercise by commissioners, whence came
the court of High Commission nominated by the crown, as a high
ecclesiastical court; but Elizabeth rejected the title of Supreme Head,
and used that of Supreme Governor, as "over all persons and in all cases
within her dominions supreme." An Act of Uniformity prescribed the use
of the prayer-book of 1552 in a revised form which raised the level of
its doctrine, and injunctions enforced by a royal visitation
re-established the reformed order. All the Marian bishops save two
refused the oath of supremacy and were deprived, and eight were
imprisoned. Of the clergy generally few refused it; for only some 200
were deprived for religion during the first six years of the reign.
Bishops for the vacant sees were nominated by the crown and elected by
their chapters as in Henry's reign; Matthew Parker was canonically
consecrated archbishop of Canterbury. The orthodoxy of the church was
vindicated by Bishop Jewel's _Apologia ecclesiae Anglicanae_. Adherents
to Rome vainly tried to obtain papal sanction for attending the church
services, and were forced either to disobey the pope or become
"recusants"; many were fined, and those who attended mass were
imprisoned. Meanwhile a party, soon known as Puritans, rebelled against
church order; the exiles who had come under Genevan influence objecting
on their return to vestments and ceremonies enjoined by the prayer-book.
There was much nonconformity in the church which the queen ordered the
bishops to correct. Parker, though averse to violent measures, insisted
on obedience to his "Advertisements" of 1566, which, though not formally
authorized by the queen, expressed her will, and became held as
authoritative, and some of the refractory were punished. A company
engaged in irregular worship was discovered in London in 1567 and a few
persons were imprisoned by the magistrate. Active opposition to the
government was stirred up by Pius V., and in 1569 a rebellion in the
north, where the old religion was strong, was aided by papal money and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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