Edward VI (1547–1553)
Despite Henry’s attempts to maintain Catholicism, Protestant beliefs continued to be disseminated in the kingdom. Although vehemently opposed to these beliefs, Henry allowed Protestant sympathizers to sit on the royal council and to educate his only son Edward, born of his third wife, the Protestant Jane Seymour, in 1537.
By 1546–1547 the Seymours had become predominant at court and were able to engineer the disgrace of Gardiner and the fall of the Howard family. As a result, when Henry appointed a council to govern England for his minor son after his death, it included no Catholics of sufficient stature to oppose the Seymours. The council was to govern as a body, but, on Henry’s death in 1547, the councillors were persuaded to choose Edward’s elder Seymour uncle, the duke of Somerset, as protector.
Somerset’s coming to power saw a resurgence of Protestantism. Henry’s acts had caused a great deal of uncertainty and confusion throughout the country. The result was an increase in religious unrest. During 1547 unrestrained controversy raged over the nature of the Eucharist, and there was considerable destruction of statues and images. Somerset was anxious to put an end to this unrest and believed the best way to do so was to introduce moderate Protestant changes. The Six Articles and the heresy laws were repealed and numerous ceremonies were abolished. In 1549 the first Book of Common Prayer was established by parliament as the only form of worship permitted in England. It was basically Cranmer’s work, and although it did not specifically deny Catholic doctrine, it reflected a number of Lutheran beliefs. In many respects it was independent of Continental influences and resulted from Cranmer’s deep knowledge of patristic and medieval literature. Wherever possible, Cranmer adapted medieval English liturgies and retained and translated the words of the medieval rites.
For this reason the prayer book failed to satisfy many Protestants. The presence in England after 1547 of Continental reformers such as Martin Bucer also strengthened the influence of Swiss thought in theological circles. As a result, English Protestants began moving away from Lutheranism to the Swiss movements. Cranmer was strongly influenced by Bucer, and by the early 1550s he was no longer satisfied with his own prayer book. Of particular importance, his view of the Eucharist had changed, from belief in a real presence as reflected in the 1549 book, to belief in the sacrament as a spiritual eating of the body of Christ.
Cranmer’s changing views coincided with a change in government. Somerset fell from power in 1549 and was replaced by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. Under his rule, Protestantism was firmly established. The churches were stripped of their altars, Catholic bishops such as Bonner and Gardiner were imprisoned, and the authority of the bishops was so weakened that their traditional role in society was irretrievably changed. A policy of confiscation of episcopal lands saw their financial independence undermined and turned them from powerful landowners into little more than civil servants.
In 1552 Cranmer introduced a new Book of Common Prayer which marked a radical break with Catholic doctrine. Although he was not attempting to write a Zwinglian or Calvinist book, the changes he introduced into the Eucharist brought his book into line with Swiss doctrine. To further stress the symbolic nature of the sacrament, the privy council inserted the Black Rubric into the book, which declared that kneeling at communion did not imply acceptance of a real presence.
In 1553 the doctrines of the church were formulated in the Forty two Articles which gave a decisive Protestant colouring to Anglicanism. Justification by faith alone and predestination were both included.
These changes tended, as in the reformed churches, to transform the priest into a minister whose function was not to mediate between God and man, but to preach and teach. This, and the other changes, were not necessarily welcome to all English-men. Many who had been prepared to accept the Act of Supremacy and the dissolution of the monasteries were alienated by the swing towards Swiss doctrines. The abolition of the Mass and the introduction in quick succession of two English prayer books caused considerable resistance. Despite pockets of Protestantism, the English remained overwhelmingly Catholic.
To these people, the imposition of Protestantism, and in particular, the destruction of church ornaments and the abolition and confiscation of the revenues of chantry chapels in which priests prayed for the souls of the dead, were seen as attempts by Edward’s protectors to enrich themselves. They identified Protestantism not with reform, but with desecration, blasphemy, robbery and anarchy.
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