The Religious Settlement, 1559

Elizabeth's religious settlement of 1559 is one of the most heavily examined topics on Paper 2 Section B. It is the moment she had to decide what kind of Church England would have — and how far she would go to please Protestants, Catholics and those in the middle. This lesson walks through the two key Acts, the doctrines they established, and the compromises built into them.

Understanding the settlement means understanding three things: the legal framework (the Acts), the doctrinal framework (the Prayer Book and the Articles), and the strategic compromise (what Elizabeth called the via media).

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The problem Elizabeth faced in 1559

England had changed religion four times in 25 years:

Monarch	Dates	Religious direction
Henry VIII	1509–47	Broke with Rome 1534; Church retained much Catholic doctrine
Edward VI	1547–53	Reformed Protestant Church; Book of Common Prayer 1549 / 1552
Mary I	1553–58	Restored Catholicism; around 280 Protestants executed
Elizabeth I	1558–1603	Protestant settlement with deliberate ambiguities

Elizabeth could not please everyone. A fully Protestant settlement risked Catholic rebellion and foreign intervention. A Catholic settlement would destroy her own legitimacy — the Pope did not recognise Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn. She therefore chose a broad Protestant settlement with enough Catholic ceremony to keep moderate conformists in the pews.

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The Act of Supremacy, 1559

Passed by Parliament in April 1559, the Act of Supremacy:

• Made Elizabeth Supreme Governor of the Church of England (not "Supreme Head" — a concession to those who thought a woman could not head a Church and to those uncomfortable with the term)
• Required clergy and officeholders to swear the Oath of Supremacy recognising her as Supreme Governor
• Restored the monarch's authority over Church appointments and doctrine
• Repealed Mary I's heresy laws

Refusal to take the oath could lead to loss of office. A second refusal was originally treason, though in practice Elizabeth was reluctant to push bishops into martyrdom.

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The Act of Uniformity, 1559

The Act of Uniformity laid down what services would look like:

• Made the Book of Common Prayer (1559 edition) the only legal form of worship in England
• Required attendance at Church of England services on Sundays and holy days; non-attendance was fined 12 pence per offence (the recusancy fine, later raised sharply in 1581)
• Prescribed clerical vestments broadly in line with the 1549 Prayer Book — a more "Catholic-looking" position than strict Protestants wanted

The 12-pence fine was modest in 1559 but symbolic: outward conformity was the minimum.

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The Book of Common Prayer 1559

The 1559 Prayer Book was a deliberate compromise. It was closer to the reformed 1552 Prayer Book than to the more traditional 1549 version, but it included wording that could be read in either Catholic or Protestant ways. The classic example is the communion:

• The 1549 words suggested Christ's real presence in the bread and wine
• The 1552 words denied it
• The 1559 version combined both phrases — allowing worshippers to take from it whichever meaning they preferred

This ambiguity was intentional. A Catholic in the pews could still hear echoes of the old Mass; a committed Protestant heard the reformed gospel.

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The Thirty-Nine Articles, 1563

Agreed by Convocation in 1563 and finally given statutory backing in 1571, the Thirty-Nine Articles set out the doctrine of the Church of England. Key features:

Article topic	Position
Authority of Scripture	The Bible is sufficient for salvation
Salvation	Justification by faith alone (Protestant)
Sacraments	Two — baptism and communion (not the Catholic seven)
Transubstantiation	Rejected
Clerical marriage	Allowed
Role of the monarch	Supreme Governor of the Church

The Articles are clearly Protestant in substance, but ambiguous in tone on several questions — deliberately leaving space for different emphases inside the Church.

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The role of bishops

Elizabeth kept bishops and the traditional Church hierarchy. This was unusual for a Protestant country — Calvinist churches on the continent had replaced bishops with presbyteries. The reasons were political as well as theological:

flowchart LR
    Queen["Elizabeth I<br/>Supreme Governor"]
    AC["Archbishop of Canterbury<br/>(Matthew Parker 1559)"]
    AY["Archbishop of York"]
    Bish["26 bishops"]
    Parish["~9,000 parish clergy"]
    Laity["Parish congregations"]