How did Elizabeth deal with Puritans?

Queen Elizabeth I inherited a nation suffering from religious flux, but went on to build a stable, peaceful nation.

• 1534: The Reformation of Henry VIII made England’s monarch the spiritual and secular head of the realm.
• 1547: Protestantism is continued under Edward VI.
• 1553: Queen Mary I reversed this decision when she restored Roman Catholicism as the state religion, and the Pope became head of the church once again.
• 1559: Queen Elizabeth wished to create a new moderate religious settlement derived from Henry VIII's break from Rome. She established the Church of England in 1559.

Queen Elizabeth I and religion

Queen Elizabeth I wanted to build a stable, peaceful nation with a strong government, free from the influence of foreign powers in matters of the church and the state. To realise this vision it was necessary to reach a new religious settlement that was as inclusive as possible. Changes needed to be introduced with a minimum of confrontation in order to overcome fear and suspicion at home and abroad.

The choice of state religion would have political consequences, whatever the decision. Choosing to remain Catholic would surrender power to Rome and ally England with other Catholic states, such as France and Spain. Returning to Protestantism would align England with the Dutch, its main trading partner, but risked antagonising Spain, the most powerful nation in the world. Protestantism would also create a fear of persecution among England’s Catholics.

Building a united and prosperous England

Elizabeth's first Parliament was inaugurated on 25 January 1559. Queen Elizabeth was in attendance for the opening speech which was delivered by Nicholas Bacon, the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal. As spokesman for the government, Bacon delivered its mission statement, ‘to unite the people of this realm into a uniform order of religion'.

Bacon outlined the course to reach this goal by explaining that members were not to insult each other with terms like 'heretic', 'schismatic' or 'Papist'. They were not going to waste time on abstract theological debates, but rather get down to the business at hand of finding concrete solutions to the problems of the day. Matters were to be debated in a respectful fashion. Extremism would not be tolerated and name-calling and mud-slinging would not move things forward. In this address, Elizabeth deliberately disassociated herself from the unpopular regime under Queen Mary I by signalling how hers would be different.

Debating the Elizabethan religious settlement

The first act passed by the House of Commons in February 1559 joined together a bill of supremacy, establishing Queen Elizabeth I as head of the church, with one of uniformity, dealing with the type of faith and service. The proposed settlement was roundly rejected and adulterated by the House of Lords, with its Catholic majority.

Elizabeth and her pro-reform ministers had to regroup and plan another strategy. A debate was scheduled during the Easter recess between a team of Catholics and a team of Protestants, with the Privy Council as judge and Bacon as Chairman. The debate quickly descended into name-calling and two of the Catholics were sent to the Tower for contempt.

What was the Act of Supremacy?

When Parliament reconvened in April, the two issues were presented separately and considerable concessions were made. The revised Act of Supremacy still abolished papal supremacy, but defined Elizabeth as Supreme Governor, rather than Supreme Head, of the church. This change of title placated those who did not feel that a woman could be the head of the church, and the act passed fairly easily.

What was the Act of Uniformity?

The Act of Uniformity of 1559 set out the groundwork for the Elizabethan church. It restored the 1552 version of the English Prayer Book but kept many of the familiar old practices and allowed for two interpretations of communion, one Catholic and one Protestant. The bill was hotly debated but eventually passed by three votes.

Using our collections for research

The collections at Royal Museums Greenwich offer a world-class resource for researching maritime history, astronomy and time. 

Find out how you can use our collections for research

Whilst most people were happy with Elizabeth's Religious Settlement, Puritans were not happy as they believed that it should go further in its reforms and make a truly radical Puritan church. They believed that Elizabeth had sacrificed too much to the Roman Catholics when creating the settlement.

One key road block to further reforms of the English Church was the Archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker. He was a moderate or middle of the road Protestant who helped Elizabeth keep her Settlement in the middle way. Puritans disliked Parker because of this. Puritans wanted all aspects of Roman Catholicism removed from the English Church.

The Vestment Controversy

One of the major conflicts with Puritans came in the form of the Vestment Controversy during the 1560s.

Vestments are the clothing that Priests wear in the Protestant and Catholic Churches when celebrating the church service. Part of the vestment is the surplice, which is a white robe worn over the top of a cassock.

Puritan priests rejected the surplice as it was used by Catholics. This became a problem as the Act of Uniformity had made it the law for priests to wear one.

At first Elizabeth had ignored this fact that Puritan priests were ignoring the law, however, this changed in 1565. Elizabeth ordered the Archbishop of Canterbury to make sure that surplices were being worn properly. Any refusal meant the loss of jobs or being arrested.

In order to continue enjoying our site, we ask that you confirm your identity as a human. Thank you very much for your cooperation.

Religious dissension was not solely the problem of the Netherlands. At home, there was increasing dissatisfaction with the state of the Anglican Church, from those who thought not only that the 1559 religious settlement hadn’t gone far enough, but who wanted to see a far greater intrusion of the Church into public life. Far from accepting that the queen, as Supreme Governor, should order the Church as she saw fit, with bishops to supervise the people, these Puritans (as they were disparagingly termed) thought that control over the Church and the people should be at the level of the parish minister. Even Elizabeth should be subject to haranguing from the pulpit if she were to sin.

Unsurprisingly, given Elizabeth’s views on monarchical power, she thoroughly disliked the Puritans and all their works, seeing their pretensions as deeply subversive, and calling them ‘[a] sect of perilous consequence, such as would have no kings but a presbytery…’ It has been suggested that her refusal to engage with the Puritans ultimately led to the civil wars of the following century.

A significant confrontation between the queen and the Puritans, was that later termed the ‘vestiarian controversy’. The 1559 settlement enjoined the use of distinct clerical dress, but Puritans objected to it as a hang-over from ‘popish’ superstition. Initially, with Elizabeth keen not to provoke religious controversy with either Catholics or Puritans, enforcement of the rules had been minimal. By 1565, however, she was unhappy with the lack of uniformity of religious observance across the kingdom and ordered Archbishop Parker to enforce the rules. As vestments were ‘things indifferent’, that is not related to the salvation of the soul, rules about them fell within the queen’s competence as Supreme Governor.

Parker accordingly drew up regulations, and tried to enforce them. There was widespread dissatisfaction amongst the Puritans, and eventually, eight were deprived of their positions for failure to observe the rules. Although he had not been the prime mover in the matter, because Elizabeth did not make her position public, Parker and the bishops were blamed by recalcitrant ministers who began murmuring against the whole idea of having bishops at all.

The parliaments of the early 1570s tried to bring in measures making the Prayer Book more Protestant, and applying the Act of Uniformity only against Catholics, but the queen would not brook such interference in her prerogative, and sent the Commons the message that no bill touching religion could be brought for debate, without prior approval from the bishops. Nevertheless, Puritanism and anti-episcopal feeling began to gain ground.

In December 1575, Edmund Grindal succeeded Parker as Archbishop of Canterbury. Grindal was at the radical end of Protestantism, having been an exile during Mary’s reign and his appointment was welcomed by the Puritans. Soon, however, he and Elizabeth had fallen out. Grindal was greatly in favour of ‘prophesyings’. These were meetings of serious-minded ministers who would meet to hear a sermon on some knotty point of the scriptures and then expound upon it. Elizabeth viewed such meetings with alarm – before long, she was sure, the ministers would leave aside the obscure biblical arguments and start discussing church discipline and structure.

Grindal was told to put a stop to the meetings. He refused, sending her a tactless and inflammatory letter in which he suggested she should accept admonition from the Church for, although she was ‘a mighty prince’, if she turned from God she might expect a ‘heaping up of wrath’ from the offended deity.

Elizabeth was outraged. She was Supreme Governor of the Church, and if Grindal would not stop the prophesyings, she would. She sent out circulars to all bishops banning them, and determined to deprive Grindal of the archbishopric. Burghley persuaded her that to try to do so might be outside her competence as Governor, so she contented herself with having Grindal confined to his palace at Lambeth, rendering him impotent as archbishop. He remained powerless until his death in 1583.