17th Century England

Lesson 1: Guide to pre-civil war England

The Church

At his/her Coronation, the Monarch would swear to uphold the Church of England. The Monarch was called "Defender of the Faith" or "Head of the Church of England" in the same way as the Pope was Head of the Catholic Church. This had been the case since Henry VIII had England break away from Catholicism - thereby facing the wrath of the Catholic nations like France and Spain.

Henry VIII had removed England from the Pope, but kept up most Catholic practices, whereas his son Edward moved to Protestantism. After Edwards’s death, his sister Mary moved back to Catholicism, but Elizabeth I finally settled the argument with Protestantism. Catholics was viewed with immense suspicion in England and it was illegal to worship in that faith. England had beaten the Catholic Spanish Armada in 1588 and survived the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 when Catholics tried to blow up the King and Parliament. Since then, the slightest hint of a Catholic uprising or Catholic congregtin would cause a national emergency and widespread panic.

King Charles I’s Queen, Henrietta Maria, was a staunch French Catholic, which caused deep mistrust after a while. Initially the people welcomed her, but Henrietta did not like crowds of people watching her every move and would flaunt her Catholicism and try for conversions in her immediate circle. This caused a breakdown in relations between her and the people of Great Britain who perceived her as having an intolerable lack of regard for English ways.

British subjects feared she would convert the King, but nothing could be further from the truth. Again, with feelings about Catholics running so tense and Henrietta's naive flouting of her religion, the false rumour spread of the King’s friendliness to the Catholic religion and it tainted the Monarch’s reputation to a certain degree.

Elizabeth’s Church of England as it was now called, still retained some Catholic practices such as clergymen wearing vestments, the beautifying of churches through stained glass, paintings, crucifixes, the church hierarchy which included Bishops etc, but with a Protestant sermon and preaching. Thus the Church of England was the middle of the road between Catholic and the extreme Protestantism of Puritan, Calvin and Luther.

The Monarch appointed all Bishops and Archbishops, and would promote men with his/her ideals. The church in the 17th century had become not only a place to worship regularly, but also a source of news. Before sermons, the congregation heard of the country’s news and events, so it was an important propaganda machine for the government and Monarch.

King Charles I thought that churches should be even more beautiful, to show the beauty of God. He and Archbishop Laud began improving churches and kept the communion table at the east side. They introduced more decoration and made the clergy into a body who were above parishioners. Although the changes appear small, they were huge to some, for it resembled Catholicism.

In reality, Charles and Laud were staunchly Protestant, but only wished to drive all churches and worshipping into strict conformity, rather than having worshipping dependent upon the area you lived in and the sitting Bishop’s attitude. Charles also did not like the fact that each of his three kingdoms had totally different churches.

After improving the English churches and creating better uniformity, Charles wanted to bring Scotland, which was severely Protestant (Presbyterian) and which favoured plain churches and austere services, into line. Charles’s father had managed to get Scotland to accept having Bishops, but had accomplished little else.

Ireland was a staunchly Catholic nation, but since Protestant English and Scots had settled there and England had taken over most of the country, it had a Protestant Lord Lieutenant appointed by the King. Disputes were never ending and battles and revolts were commonplace when Catholics tried to throw out their Protestant neighbours. To this arena, Charles wished his nations peace under one uniformed religion, where the Church of England could steer a middle path between the two.

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