Impact of Religious Change

Impact of Religious Change on Culture

The Reformation had a tangible impact on English culture. Aural and visual culture were used to carve a Protestant identity.

Congregational worship

Congregational worship transformed following the Reformation.
A parish in a Catholic Church engaged in confession and moved around the Church reciting prayers.
A parish in a Protestant Church, over the course of the century, remained seated and silently listened to the sermon.

Music

Music was central to the religious experience because of congregational singing.
The amount of music in services was very contentious amongst Protestant reformers. For example, some Puritans believed music detracted from the message of God.
- In 1562, there was an attempt to ban organs. But this failed.
The Psalms written by Sternhold and Hopkins were very popular.
Historians argue that music was central to religious identity in Elizabethan England.

Popular ballads

Outside of congregational worship, the Godly Ballad developed.
These ballads helped shape a Protestant mentality, as they defined Protestantism against an enemy (Catholicism).
Ballads were not directly derived from scripture.
Most importantly, they coalesced around the theme of anti-catholicism.

Protestantism and art

The rhetoric of early reformers suggests that Protestants rejected art and imagery.
Iconoclasm did feature in the Reformed Church, particularly under Edward VI.
The suspicion of imagery (and its connotations of idolatry) can be seen in the pressure on Elizabeth I to remove images from the Book of Homilies.
However, it is too simplistic to argue that the visual did not play a part in the Protestant Church.
E.g. historians have noted the importance of royal arms in Churches to symbolise the supreme governorship.

1Monarch & Government

1.1Tudor Monarchs

1.1.1Henry VII

1.1.2Henry VIII

1.1.3Edward VI

1.1.4Mary I

1.1.5Elizabeth I

1.1.6Succession Disputes

1.2Changing Role of Parliament

1.2.1Parliament & Henry VII

1.2.2Parliament & Henry VIII

1.2.3Parliament After the Reformation

1.3Principal Servants to the Crown

1.3.1Principal Servants to the Crown

2Religious Changes

2.1Tudor Monarchs & Religious Change

2.1.1The Henrician Reformation

2.1.2Impact of Religious Change Under Henry VIII

2.1.3Religious Change Under Edward VI

2.1.4Religious Change Under Mary I

2.1.5Elizabethan Settlement

2.2Catholicism & Survival

2.2.1Popular Attitudes to Catholicism

2.2.2Catholicism Under Henry VIII

2.2.3Catholicism Under Elizabeth I

2.2.4Catholic Nobility

2.3Protestantism & Puritanism

2.3.1Protestant Influences

2.3.2Protestantism Under Edward VI

2.3.3Protestantism Under Elizabeth I

3State Control & Popular Resistance

3.1Tudor Control of the Country

3.1.1Councils

3.1.2Role of Nobility

3.1.3Justices of the Peace

3.1.4Lord Lieutenant

3.2The State & the Poor

3.2.1Reasons for Growth of Poverty

3.2.2Punishments for Paupers

3.2.3Role of Charities

3.3Resistance to Tudor Rule

3.3.1Resistance to Tax & Subsidies

3.3.2Uprisings Against Henry VIII

3.3.3Uprisings Against Edward VI

3.3.4Uprisings Against Elizabeth I

3.3.5Decline of Popular Resistance

4Economic, Social & Cultural Change

4.1Patterns of Domestic & Foreign Trade

4.1.1Wool & Cloth

4.1.2Exploration & Trade

4.2Changing Structure of Society

4.2.1Population

4.2.2Dissolution of Monasteries

4.2.3Enclosure

4.3Cultural Change

4.3.1Education & Literature

4.3.2Impact of Religious Change

4.3.3Patronage

4.3.4The Arts

4.3.5Cult of Gloriana

5Historical Interpretations

5.1Significance of Threats to National Security

5.1.1Spain

5.1.2The Spanish Armada

5.1.3Ireland

5.2Court Politics

5.2.1Court Factions

5.2.2Essex's Rebellion

5.3Elizabeth & Parliament

5.3.1Conflict with Parliament

5.4Social Distress in the 1590s

5.4.1Social Distress in the 1590s

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