The religious establishement under Queen Elizabeth

The landscape we will view at the beginning of the 17th century, with the accession of James I, owes many of its features to the way that religion was settled--and allowed to remain unsettled--in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. There is a very cogent summary of that settlement in Gardiner's history starting at page 26.

An important point, and one so obvious to Gardiner that he doesn't bother to emphasize it, is that the parish clergy of England were a politically potent force, and this for several reasons. First, as poorly prepared as many of them were, they were among the most educated of common people, Second, they had the attention of the entire population at least twice a week, and in many cases three times. Third, they were viewed as men involved in the most important work imaginable: the maintenance of the true religion in England.

Such a force could not be allowed to exist undisciplined, and Elizabeth's councillors realized that there were two essential elements to the necessary discipline:

• It must be ultimately be directed by the central government; and
• It must be administered by fellow clergy.

The doctrine and the ceremonies of the Church of England were secondary considerations. The ideas of the 16th century assumed that order and discipline required hierarchy, and in the Church, hierarchy meant Bishops. So the establishment and maintenance of episcopacy became the political doctrine of England.

This forced submission of religion to practicality could not last. It rankled both the preaching clergy and a small but growing class of laymen for whom religion was an intellectual passion. We will pick up with some of the early cracks in the foundations of the English Church next time, around page 30.