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Elizabethan Settlement

Decent Essays

Elizabethan Settlement

After Elizabeth took the throne and became the ruling monarch of England she wanted to relieve the tension between the Protestants and the Catholics. Elizabeth decided on a compromise between the two religions, one that would have characteristics of both, this new religion was called Anglicanism. The factors that caused Elizabeth to make this decision were her personal religious preferences, the views of the Marian Bishops and the opinions given to her by the parliament. However this compromise did have consequences. These include the dissatisfaction from both Protestants and Catholics, The Vestiarian Controversy and the Catholic opposition the settlement.
After the death of Henry in 1547, a 10 year old Edward …show more content…

Elizabeth had also been told by the Archbishop of Canterbury (Matthew Parker) that the Anglican Book of Common Prayer had been ignored by ministers of the church. The tensions between the two religions were soon seen by Elizabeth as the country broke out into civil war.
A consequence that came from the opposition of the Catholics was that the Catholics of England were starting to oppose Elizabeth as their queen; they saw Mary, Queen of Scots to be more suited to the throne. France, a Catholic country was seen as a threat as Mary, Queen of Scots had married a French prince and may team up with France to overthrow Elizabeth as queen. Spain at this time was also a threat its king, Philip II was an ardent Catholic who wanted to stop the spread of Protestantism. France and Spain were the two most powerful powers and were strongly Catholic, and the Catholics in England saw Mary, Queen of Scots as their hope of restoration of Catholicism to England, Mary also had a claim to the English throne which made her more of a threat.
Another consequence of the Elizabethan settlement was the Vestiarian Controversy. Puritans were unhappy with the Elizabethan settlement as they saw too many Catholic elements in the settlement, they saw Anglicanism insufficiently protestant in both worship and beliefs. A major cause of this controversy was the

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