TheReligiousReformationoftheEnglishQueenElizabeth英国女王伊丽莎白一世的宗教改革

The Religious Reformation of the English Queen Elizabeth 英国女王伊丽莎白一世的宗教改革Abstract: Elizabeth I is the last Tudor monarch in the 15th century. At that time, England was confused by the religious issue and because of the wrong religious policy adopted by her brother king Award and her sister Queen Mary; the religious issue became more and more dangerous. It endangered the stability of regime and the unity of England. Queen Elizabeth changed the attitude toward different religions and found a more effective method to settle the issue. At the beginning of her accession to the throne, she actualized the mild religious policy and in the middle and late time, she changed he religious policy and adopted more strict policy to adjust to the development of society. Historian reviewed that the religious policy of Queen Elizabeth was very successful. It saved England from the civil war and laid a good foundation for the future of England.Key Words: Elizabeth I； religious policy；Catholicism； Protestantism； Puritanism摘要: 伊丽莎白一世界是都铎王朝的最后一位君主。在这个时期，由于她的弟弟爱德华国王和姐姐玛丽女王施行了错误的宗教政策，使英国面临严重的宗教问题。这个问题已经影响到了英国的政治稳定和团结。伊丽莎白一世改变了对待不同宗教问题的态度，寻求更有效的方法去解决宗教问题。在她初登王位的时候，她采取温和的宗教政策，但在中后期，随着社会的发展，她改变她的宗教政策，转而采取相对教严厉的宗教政策。历史学家认为，她的宗教政策是成功的。这个政策把英国带出了内战的危险并且为英国以后的发展奠定了良好的基础。关键词: 伊丽莎白一世；宗教政策；天主教；新教；清教IntroductionElizabethan is a very important period in the history of England. The religious policy issue is the important part in this time. It is about the diplomacy, marriage and the throne. Foreign academia paid more attention for it. But they only discuss the religion of England in that time or the religious reform. The religious policy issue of Elizabeth I was without enlarging on any of them. So this thesis discusses the issue in all the time of Queen Elizabeth and gives a comprehensive cognition to us.During this period, the religious issues, which involves the stability of reign and the security of kingdom, is extremely complex and acute. Under the guide of rationalistic religious views, Queen Elizabeth according to the variable situation, strived to seek the balance between the politics and religion and practices a mild religious policy. One important method was that she abandoned the traditional view that the political unification must depend on the religious unification, and implemented the new reign conception that political unification was separated from the religious unification. During the early period of Queen Elizabeth, because her power was poor, she had to harmonize the Catholics and Protestants and practiced mild religious policy. But in her later time, because of the change of the position, she practiced severe religious policy. In a word, the religious policy of Queen Elizabeth was favorable to the development of England.This thesis falls into four parts in discussing the religious policy of Queen Elizabeth.Part 1 lays emphasis on the fact that appropriate understanding of Queen Elizabeth largely depends on the understanding of the religious policy during her reign and it also introduces the formation of the religious attitude of Queen Elizabeth.Part 2 and part 3 introduce the specific content of the religious policy of Queen Elizabeth. At the beginning of her time, Queen Elizabeth actualized the moderate religious policy and in the middle and late times because of the change of the social conditions, she adopted more strict policy to protect her rule and the unity of England.Part 4 epitomizes the influence of the religious policy of Queen Elizabeth in 3 parts which political influence, economic influence and cultural influence. The Religious Attitude of Elizabeth IIn the 15th century circumstances of home and abroad affected the establishment and implementation of Elizabeth I religious policy, but the formation of the religious policy was also influenced by her subjective factors. So when we analyze the religious policy of Queen Elizabeth, we must analyze her religious attitude at first.A. The Religious Influence from the Family of Elizabeth IElizabeth I was the last queen of the Tudors. She was born on Sunday the 7th of September 1533 in Greenwich and died in 1603. She succeeded to the throne in 1558. At that time, England was in a state of extreme confusion and disorder, but after half a century she succeeded in unifying England and made her country become one of most powerful and the richest countries in European. The period under her rule was called Elizabeth time and was also named golden age and a many of well-known people emerged in her time, such as Shakespeare, Bacon and so on. How did she manage to do this?Before getting acquainted with Elizabeth Is attitude to religion, we needed to get acquainted with her family. Because historian reviewed her family influenced her religionary attitude profoundly. Henry VIII was Elizabeths father who was one of the biggest names in English history. Elizabeth was the second wifes child of Henry VIII. Henry VIIIs first wife was Catherine who brought only one child for Henry VIII. But the exclusive child was a girl whose name was Mary. Henry VIII always wanted to have a boy acceded to the throne of England but Catherine could not give a boy to him. So when Mary was born, Henry VIII wanted to divorce Catherine and get married with Catherines lady-in-waiting, who was Ann Boleyn. But this marriage was not approved by Pope, so the marriage was a lawless marriage by Catholic. And Elizabeth was their first child but she was not expected by Henry VIII. Henry VIII always wanted to have a boy but Elizabeth was a girl and when Elizabeth was two years old, Henry VIII put Ann Boleyn to death. At that time Elizabeth was deemed to bastard by catholic because her parents marriage was not allowed by Pope. When Ann Boleyn was dead, Henry VIII got married with his third wife who was Parr Katherine. And his third queen finally gave him a boy whose name was Edward. During this time, Elizabeth was growing. But she and her sister Mary were called illegitimate daughter by theirs father, Henry VIII. Queen Catherine Parr who was Henrys new queen introduced some humanity into Henrys household, and Edward and Elizabeth were well and happily educated together, principally at old Hatfield house. Elizabeth was a very intelligent girl. She loved to learn. She was familiar with Greek, French, Italian as well as theology, music, literature and so on. And she also knew how to protect herself and how to let others like her. She never talked about her dead mother before everybody. She learned how to make little presents and made them for his father, her step mother, and her brother. And after Henry VIIIs last queen was dead, Henry seemed likely to have no further issue, Elizabeth was by act of parliament placed next in order of the succession after Edward and Mary and their issues. Then in 1548 Elizabeths father, Henry VIII, a legal murderer, finally died. He left a country that was trembled with fear and also left a group of misery children after him. In this year, Edward who was the only son of Henry VIII acceded to the throne. The boy was only ten years old in that year and he died in his sixteen but He had never owned the power of a king. In the meantime, Elizabeth got into some intrigues that objected King Edward. Elizabeth finally succeeded in getting rid of these intrigues and kept her life. But the Elizabeth was also punished by her little brother, King Award. Her brother forbade her from entering into the palace. All this things gave Elizabeths first lessons in the arts of self-defensive. After King Edward was dead, Elizabeths old sister Mary acceded to the throne. Queen Mary was a fanatical Catholic and she blamed her misery on Protestant. So a great number of Protestants were killed. English fell into panic again. They had called their Queen Mary by “Bloody Mary”. Queen Mary was seized with burning hatred for the Protestant. But Elizabeth was a Protestant and she had offended Mary when she was a baby. So Queen Mary hated her young sister, but she had no reason to throw Elizabeth into Tower of London at that time. After that Queen Mary wanted to find the joy in her marriage. Her husband was Philip of Spanish and he also was a careerist and a dictator. He sured brought his ambition and barbarity to go to England. England was swept by a great blood-shed. At last, Englishmen could not bear it. They upraised under Elizabeths banner. The uprising failed and Queen Mary finally found a reason to throw Elizabeth into the Tower of London. But at last Queen Mary could not find concrete evidence to kill her young sister. So she had to free the young princess from London Tower. After that the queen put her under house arrest near Oxford for many years.B. The Formation of Elizabeth Is Religious AttitudeWhen we studies the early time of Elizabeth, we could easily find that Elizabeth always existed in intrigue and trap, so her character was tactful and mutable. She could change her religious belief and then protect her life. Second, Elizabeth had received good education .We had known that Elizabeth was a well-informed, educated person. She could master six languages and delve into many literatures that were history, theology and philosophy and so on. So she could rationally and profoundly treat religious issue. And at last, Elisabeths brother and sister gave her deep impression in judging religious issue. Her brother, King Edward, was a devotional protestant. He carried out jacobinical Protestantism under his rule. In his rule, religionary fever exceeded political sense. He confiscated churchly possession and glebe and then innovated teaching and so on. Her sister, Queen Mary, was a crazy Romanist. She carried out reactionary papistical policy when she acceded to the throne. Her religious attitude overstepped rational edge. She frantically suppressed protestant and wanted to get back the power of Rome in England. In only twenty years, King Edward and Queen Mary put in force adverse religious policy and all of them put England into balefulness. So Elisabeth did not want to make the same mistake in religious issue. All of the factors affected Elisabeths attitude to religion. Her attitude was rational and under the attitude that Elisabeth put political advantage over personal sensation. Elisabeth was a Queen of England rather than a Queen of Protestant.The Religious Policy in the Early Age of Elizabeth IFrom 1558 to 1568 was the early stage of Elisabeths rule. At the beginning of her accession to the throne, Elizabeth I had to face so many different situations hard facts. Her sister Queen Mary followed Spain to oppose France, but at last Queen Mary had lost the last colony, Calais. The thing reduced the international status of England. England was also very abortive in Scotland at that time. France controlled Scotland for a long time. Catholic did not admit the marriage of Elizabeths parents, so they also did not admit the legitimacy of Elizabeth. Especially in financial matters, Elizabeths brother, King Award and her sister, Queen Mary left her high debt. English financial situation was in crisis. Her predecessors left a so confused country to her. And she also endured twofold pressure from Catholic and Protestant. Of course she could not make use of Protestant to hit Catholic or make use of Catholic to hit Protestant or together hit Catholic and Protestant. Elizabeth wanted to found a middle course of action and thought in the problem. So Elizabeth I established the Church of England and then she promulgated two bills that declared English King was the leader of the Church of England. She did not admit the authority of the Roman Catholic Church and she demanded all clergy and officials to give theirs allegiance to her. She did these things in a suave manner, so a great number of people accepted it. Elizabeth I won support from her people at large. She was charitable in her opinions of religion. Protestantism and Catholicism could exist together under her rule. She found a good method to solve the religious problems. Protestantism and Catholicism were blended together by Elizabeth I. She unified the faith of English people, so she successfully broken the possibility of the civil war result from religious problems. It was one of the most important achievements in Queen Elizabeths life. England got ride of the shadow of religious wars under the rule of Elizabeth I. Many others European countries were all in the civil wars because of religious problems in the same time and they had spent a large amount of manpower and money in it. Religious wars consume their countries power in a heavy way. But the soft religionary attitude was only in the early stage of Elizabeth I. The Religious Policy in the Middle and Late Age of Elizabeth IIn the middle of later age of Elizabeth I, the domestic and international situation was changed. So Elizabeth I abandoned the foregone policy and actualized the stricter policy. She began to restrict and suppress the movement of Romanist and Puritan.A. The Development of the IllogicalityThe soft religious attitude of Elizabeth could relieve the political pressure, but it could not absolutely eliminate the menace from religion. Actually from the beginning of Elizabeth accession to the throne, the opponent movement against her from Protestantism and Catholicism did not stop. During the middle and late time of Elizabeth, the opponent movement became more and more aboil. Elizabeth also gradually abandoned the soft attitude. She began to restrict and suppress the movement of Protestantism and Catholicism. The problem revealed in 1568 and initiated by the Queen Mary Stuart of Scotland. Mary Stuart was the senior great-granddaughter of Henry of England. So she also had the power to accede to the throne, and the most important point was that Mary Stuart was a Catholic. She could recover the power of Rome if she became the Queen of England. In 1568 Queen Mary fled to England because of the rebellion of Scotland, so she wanted to find refuge from Elizabeth. The demand was a threat to Queen Elizabeth but she had to accept the demand at last. Now England had two queens and one was Catholic and the other one was Protestant. The coming of Mary Stuart destroyed the brittle balance of religion of England. Next in 1569, Catholic revolted in the north of England. They wanted to overturn the rule of Elizabeth and made Mary to become Queen of England. And after the Pope announced to deprive the right of church membership of Elizabeth, the movement from Catholic that opposed the rule of Elizabeths government became more and more frequent. All of them badly threatened the rule of Elizabeth. And at the same time Puritan was getting more and more powerful. They demanded to clear Catholic in England. These all challenged the rule of Queen Elizabeth.At that time Catholic abroad became stronger and stronger. They wanted to overturn the rule of Queen Elizabeth. The Pope even agreed to murder Queen Elizabeth in 1588. And in 1588 Spain took its Invincible Armada to go to war to England. Everybody knew Spain was a papistic country and this war farther intensified the conflict of Catholic and Protestant in England. All of the external factors also activated the religionary issue in England. All of them augmented the pressure of the rule of Elizabeth. Some crazy Catholic wanted to follow the Pope and assassinated Queen Elizabeth. The religionary issue became more and more outstanding and serious. These were outer factors and in England Catholic and Puritans movement were more active than before. In 1569 Catholic revolted in the north of England. They straight challenged the government of Queen Elizabeth and after 70s, some exiled Catholics secretly returned from abroad and wanted to overthrow Elizabeth. On the other side, Puritans also challenged the rule of Elizabeth. At first they just wanted to reform church but at last they wanted to break away from Anglican Church. It suggested that they gainsay the rule of Queen Elizabeth. Both Catholics and Puritans aroused the fear of the government of Elizabeth. Elizabeth was convinced that she could not keep the unification of her country if she continued of the foregone religionary policy. The foregone soft religionary policy must be abandoned and take the place of severe religionary policy. Different from the beginning of her early time Elizabeth began to limit and suppress Catholic and Puritan. Compared with the beginning of Queen Elizabeths early time, the power of economy and military greatly improved and the society was also more stable than ever before, so now Elizabeth had the power to limit and suppress her opposition. But Elizabeth was also convinced that she could not depend on the power of army to beat her opposition. She wanted to use legal and political power to maintain the stabilization of society. So when England entered in 70s, Queen Elizabeth put the religious issue into political scope. If some Catholics and Puritans objected the government of Elizabeth, they would be put to death on the change of treason rather than a heretic.B. The Puritans Policy of Elizabeth IHaving run back over the past of Queen Marys time, we may learn that she was a crazy Catholic and in her time she put so many heathenries to death. It also included Puritans and they had to escape to abroad. When Elizabeth acceded to the throne, they came back from abroad. And in the early time of Elizabeth, they just active managed affairs that were the Elizabeths government and church. But after 70s, they wanted to innovate the Church of England and downright eradicated Catholic when their power became stronger and stronger. Elizabeth was on to the modus operandi would break unite of England, so she began to restrict and squash Puritan.At first, she just restricted Puritan, so at that time her practiced soft policy to them. The character of English church was episcopacy. English episcopacy was different from another country in Europe. It was under the jurisdiction of the king of England, but in another country it was under the jurisdiction of Curia Romana. English episcopacy was the base of the religion of England, so it could not be under suspicion and waver. But after the developing of Puritans, they began to oppugn the episcopacy and wanted to reform it. A professor whose name was Thomas gave air to their grievances to episcopacy in 1570. It was the first time that Puritan published their grievances to episcopacy. And in the decades to come, the movements of Puritans that wanted to reform episcopacy became more and more often. But in this time, comparing with Puritan, Catholic was more dangerous. Puritan just wanted to reform Anglicanism, but Catholic wanted to gainsay Anglicanism, and in this period the Queen Mary of Scotland and Spanish Armada threatened England. So Elizabeth had to concentrate more on Catholic. She limited the development of Puritan before1583. But on the whole, Puritan also developed quickly on that period. After 1583, as the threat of Catholic was down, Elizabeth began to change her policy to Puritan. Puritan wanted to constitute a new regime to replace the present regime. This view threatened the power of Elizabeth. So she began to suppress the development of Puritan. The bishop of Elizabeth laid down the famous six clauses what was dead against Puritans and he required all priesthoods must accept it. Besides this the bishop of Queen Elizabeth controlled The Court of High Commission to hit the leaders of Puritan. But after 90s, the threat of Puritan began to die down. Because Puritan lost many important leaders so they lost the main auspice in the government. And the society under the rule of Elizabeth was peaceable so the people of England did want to follow the Puritan. The movement of Puritan lost the base that was from the people so they could not confront the government of Eli