AQA A-LEVEL HISTORY 7042/1D ||Component 1D Stuart Britain and the Crisis of Monarchy, 1603–1702||QUESTIONS & MARKING SCHEME MREGED|| GRADED A+

Section A Answer Question 01. Extract A In 1625 the religious anxieties of James I’s subjects ran high. This was not the fault of his domestic religious policies but the impact of the religious aspects of his foreign affairs. Charles I’s approach to the power of the bishops made tensions worse. James had supported the privileges of the clergy, but Charles so promoted the status of bishops that the Church became wealthier and more prominent, relying on the support of Charles’ prerogative powers. Rather than a change from James’ approach, an intensification of what had gone before gathered momentum through the 1630s. It was not Arminian theology but the increasing power of the bishops and Charles’ prerogative that caused concern. As a result, Protestant perceptions of religious policy moved, in the years 1625 to 1645, from frustration to suspicion and then to simmering anger. By the late 1630s there was a widespread belief in a ‘popish plot’, and trials, petitions and angry debates brought a bitter war in the 1640s. Adapted from J McCafferty, The Churches and the Peoples of the Three Kingdoms, 2000 5 10 Extract B The Laudian vision of the Church that came to dominate from 1625 to the early 1640s increasingly differed from the Church of James I. Despite the long-standing protestant hostility to idolatry, Laud aimed to restore visual symbols – stained glass, an altar at which worshippers would kneel. He sought through the ‘beauty of holiness’ to develop reverence, and through his insistence on a shared parish worship to build community spirit in the parishes. But he could not do this without political cost. His programme was enforced not only through determined visitations of the dioceses by the two busy archbishops and their officials, but also by some well-publicised legal actions in the 1630s. But coercion had its limits. The ‘beauty of holiness’ cost money, and money demanded for alterations that many churchwardens saw as idolatrous and popish was not easily collected. Laud’s programme thus divided communities and came under challenge, especially by Puritans in the 1630s until they destroyed it in the years 1640 to 1645. Adapted from D Hirst, England in Conflict 1603–1660, 1999 5 10 3 IB/M/Jun23/7042/1D Turn over ► Extract C In 1625, moderate Puritans had suffered no particular harassment and a broad theological consensus had been reached. A form of anglicised Calvinism allowed Puritan preachers to rise in the Church. This did not last under Charles I, as Puritans immediately came under attack. Charles’ regime pressured some into conformity, and drove a few into exile, but the main effect of his religious policy was to energise a dying Puritanism. Laud drew up a list of churchmen, marking Puritans with the letter, P. However, Puritans themselves divided people into two groups, identifying themselves as the ‘godly’ and the rest as the ‘profane’. While there was no one Puritan manifesto in the years 1625 to 1645, no unifying body of principles and beliefs, many Puritans shared the view that the Reformation had been undermined from 1625. Religious developments under Charles appeared to increase the threat of Catholicism and plunged Puritans either into pessimism, or, after 1640, into activism. Adapted from D Cressy, Charles I and the People of England, 2015 5 10 0 1 Using your understanding of the historical context, assess how convincing the arguments in these three extracts are in relation to the development of religious divisions in the years 1625 to 1645.