1
Mary’s Religious Reforms:
- Restoration of Catholicism caused trouble in some areas, for the most part local
enthusiasm produced large sums of money, to devote to popular conservative religious
projects
- Protestantism, although minority had attracted adherents in London and other parts of
the south
- The reformed Protestant Church of England was protected in statute law
- Many political elites had benefited from the acquisition of monastic lands and had no
desire to surrender them
- Foreign Protestants were forced to leave the country
- Legislative attack on Protestantism began with Mary’s first session of Parliament in
October 1553
- Religious laws that had been passed in Edward’s reign were repeated
- The order of service as at the time of Henry VIII’s death was restored
- All married clergy were deprived of their livings
- The legal status of the Church of England was upheld
- Mary faced a dilemma- to rely on parliamentary legislation to reverse the royal
supremacy would mean she was acknowledging that the original laws passed during
Henry’s reign were legally valid, thus suggesting that statute law was above divine law
- Status of the church was not resolved until Third Parliament which lasted from
November 1554 to January 1555- delayed what would happen to lands
- Pope Julius III and Reginald Pole recognised that there was no way that the monastic
lands could be restored to the Papacy
- Cardinal Pole took the position of legate and Archbishop of Canterbury in November
1554
- Third Parliament reversed the Henrician Act of Attainder
- Some councillors asserted that no foreigner {Pole} could have jurisdiction over English
property
- January 1555, Act of Repeal revoked royal supremacy
- Pope Julius III died in 1555, who was succeeded by anti-Spanish Pope Paul IV-
regarded Pole as a heretic
- Pope Paul IV named William Peto as the new legate but Mary refused to accept him and
gave him a high position in the English Church
- Foxe’s Book of Martyrs:
• Published in 1563 and went through 5 editions in Elizabeth’s reign
- 289 Protestants were burnt at the stake for heresy.
- John Rogers and Rowland Taylore who suffered at Smithfield and Haldeigh, were so
popular as preachers they gained widespread sympathy because of their burnings
- Council took measures against the burnings- not allowing servants, apprentices and the
young in general to attend the burnings
- Bulk of country remained Catholic in sentiment
Mary’s Religious Reforms:
- Restoration of Catholicism caused trouble in some areas, for the most part local
enthusiasm produced large sums of money, to devote to popular conservative religious
projects
- Protestantism, although minority had attracted adherents in London and other parts of
the south
- The reformed Protestant Church of England was protected in statute law
- Many political elites had benefited from the acquisition of monastic lands and had no
desire to surrender them
- Foreign Protestants were forced to leave the country
- Legislative attack on Protestantism began with Mary’s first session of Parliament in
October 1553
- Religious laws that had been passed in Edward’s reign were repeated
- The order of service as at the time of Henry VIII’s death was restored
- All married clergy were deprived of their livings
- The legal status of the Church of England was upheld
- Mary faced a dilemma- to rely on parliamentary legislation to reverse the royal
supremacy would mean she was acknowledging that the original laws passed during
Henry’s reign were legally valid, thus suggesting that statute law was above divine law
- Status of the church was not resolved until Third Parliament which lasted from
November 1554 to January 1555- delayed what would happen to lands
- Pope Julius III and Reginald Pole recognised that there was no way that the monastic
lands could be restored to the Papacy
- Cardinal Pole took the position of legate and Archbishop of Canterbury in November
1554
- Third Parliament reversed the Henrician Act of Attainder
- Some councillors asserted that no foreigner {Pole} could have jurisdiction over English
property
- January 1555, Act of Repeal revoked royal supremacy
- Pope Julius III died in 1555, who was succeeded by anti-Spanish Pope Paul IV-
regarded Pole as a heretic
- Pope Paul IV named William Peto as the new legate but Mary refused to accept him and
gave him a high position in the English Church
- Foxe’s Book of Martyrs:
• Published in 1563 and went through 5 editions in Elizabeth’s reign
- 289 Protestants were burnt at the stake for heresy.
- John Rogers and Rowland Taylore who suffered at Smithfield and Haldeigh, were so
popular as preachers they gained widespread sympathy because of their burnings
- Council took measures against the burnings- not allowing servants, apprentices and the
young in general to attend the burnings
- Bulk of country remained Catholic in sentiment
