The battle between Protestants & Catholics

It was an age of intense religious passions, which Elizabeth managed to tone down in contrast to previous and succeeding eras of religious violence.

In the sixteenth century Catholicism, an international religion based in Europe, was reaching out to the New World. It was conducting a vigorous overhaul of its teaching, its organization and its procedures, to meet the challenge of Protestantism. Its decrees were to be obeyed by all Catholics, whether they lived in Catholic countries or in countries like England where Protestants were in the ascendant.

Battle Lines Drawn

After the first five years, the Elizabethan version of Protestantism was gaining ground. The new Bishops were putting their dioceses in order, vacancies were being filled, the parish churches were being cleared of Catholic devotional objects. The teaching of the Church of England was further clarified in 1563.

In 1570, Pope Pius V declared Elizabeth a heretic who was not the legitimate Queen and her subjects’ no longer owed ​​obedience. The pope sent Jesuits and seminarians to evangelize and support Catholics in secret. After several plots to overthrow her, Catholic clergy were mostly considered as traitors, and were pursued aggressively in England. Often priests were tortured or executed after capture unless they cooperated with the British authorities. People who publicly supported Catholicism were excluded from the professions, sometimes fined or imprisoned.

The Protestant Bishops and clergy meeting in Convocation set out 39 articles of the beliefs of the Church of England, which became law in 1571.

In the same year, the decrees of the Council put great emphasis on the training of priests to recover Protestant lands for the church. It defined the doctrinal differences between Catholics and Protestants and forbade Catholics to participate in heretical worship.