Edward VI: Religious Change and the Move Towards Protestantism (AQA A Level History: Component 1: Breadth study): Revision Note

Summary

• Religious change under Edward VI broadly moved in two stages:

  • Somerset's reform (1547–1549) was cautious and deliberately ambiguous

  • Northumberland's reform (1550–1553) was faster and more explicitly Protestant

• Cranmer was a key individual throughout

  • He wrote both Prayer Books and shaped the doctrine of the Church of England

• The 1549 Prayer Book kept the traditional form of worship but put it into English

  • It was vague on the Eucharist to avoid conflict

• The 1552 Prayer Book was openly Protestant

  • It removed all traces of the Catholic Mass

• The 42 Articles (1553) set out a Protestant statement of doctrine

  • Edward died before they could be formally enacted by Parliament

• Historians disagree on how Protestant England actually was by 1553:

  • Trevelyan argues Protestantism was taking root among the educated classes

  • Davies and Duffy argue that popular Catholicism persisted at parish level for a generation

The Religious Situation in 1547: What Edward VI Inherited

• Henry VIII's Reformation was driven primarily by political and dynastic concerns rather than a desire for doctrinal change

  • He broke with Rome but kept Catholic worship largely intact

• By 1547, most people in England still attended a recognisably Catholic form of service

• The reform faction on the Regency Council wanted to push the Church in a Protestant direction

• The conservative faction resisted further change

• Archbishop Cranmer was the most important religious figure in England at this time

  • He had survived Henry VIII by placing loyalty to the Crown above all else

  • Under Edward, he had the freedom to act

What did the two sides disagree on?

Somerset & Religious Reform: The First Prayer Book, 1549

• Somerset's approach was cautious and deliberate

  • He wanted to create space for Protestant reform without triggering a Catholic backlash

Early measures, 1547

• 1547 Treason Act

  • Repealed the Six Articles Act and the heresy laws

    • Protestant debate and preaching could now take place openly

• Protestant exiles began returning from the Netherlands and Germany

  • They settled in towns along the east coast and brought radical ideas with them

• Chantries Act (1547): abolished chantries (small religious foundations endowed to pay priests to pray for the souls of the dead)

  • The primary motive was financial, the money was needed for the war against Scotland

  • But it also removed a Catholic practice from everyday life

    • Praying for the souls of the dead was a Catholic doctrine

  • Hundreds of communities lost the charitable and educational functions chantries provided

The Act of Uniformity (1549) and First Prayer Book

• Parliament passed the Act of Uniformity in January 1549

  • It imposed a single standard of worship across England

  • Services were now conducted in English

  • Both bread and wine were offered to the whole congregation during communion

    • This was a Protestant break with Catholic tradition, which reserved the wine for the priesthood

• Cranmer's 1549 Prayer Book was a key document

  • It was deliberately ambiguous on the Eucharist

  • It did not clearly deny transubstantiation, but gave the impression the priest was simply commemorating an event

  • Cranmer's aim was to hold both sides together

  • He wrote it was best "not so much to have respect how to please and satisfy either of these parties, as how to please God and profit them both"

Assessment

• Somerset dismantled the obstacles to Protestant reform without committing to an openly Protestant church

• The deliberate vagueness satisfied nobody

  • Reformers pushed for more

  • Conservatives resisted what there was

• The 1549 Prayer Book was a key trigger of the Western Rising

  • Cornish rebels called it "but a Christmas game" and demanded Latin Mass back

Northumberland & Religious Reform: The Second Prayer Book, 1552

• Under Northumberland, the atmosphere at court became strongly Protestant

  • He actively brought leading Protestant theologians from Europe to England

    • Martin Bucer (Strasbourg) became Professor of Divinity at Cambridge

    • Peter Martyr (Florence) became Professor of Divinity at Oxford

  • Both had Calvinist leanings and directly influenced Cranmer's thinking on the Eucharist

The Second Act of Uniformity (1552)

• This made attendance at Church of England services compulsory for both clergy and laity

  • Offenders could be fined or imprisoned

    • This was enforcement, not just encouragement

The Second Prayer Book (1552)

• The 1552 Prayer Book removed most traditional features of the Catholic Mass and replaced them with a clearly Protestant service

Other changes under Northumberland

• Iconoclasm intensified

  • Statues, stained glass and religious images were removed from churches

• Commissioners began removing gold and silver plate from parish churches

• Holy days were reduced to 25

  • Many traditional feast days were abolished

• Metrical psalms were published for use in services, reflecting Calvinist expectations of worship

• Hugh Latimer's Sermon of the Plough (preached at St Paul's in 1548) was widely circulated

  • It combined Protestant ideas with calls for social justice

The 42 Articles, 1553

• The 42 Articles were drawn up by Cranmer in 1553

• They set out the first fully Protestant statement of doctrine for the Church of England

Key doctrines of the 42 Articles

• The articles were influenced by both Luther and Calvin

• Doctrines

  • Transubstantiation was rejected

    • The Eucharist was a commemorative ceremony, not a miracle

  • Purgatory was rejected

    • There was no place between heaven and hell where souls would be purified

  • Papal authority was rejected

    • The Pope had no authority over the Church of England

  • Justification by faith alone was affirmed

    • Salvation came through faith, not through good works or sacraments

Why do the 42 Articles matter?

• They represented the most complete Protestant statement of doctrine produced in England up to that point

• They were directly influenced by Calvinist ideas coming from Geneva and Strasbourg

• Edward VI died in July 1553 before Parliament could give the articles legal force

  • They were never officially enacted

• They were later revised by Cranmer's successor under Elizabeth I as the 39 Articles (1563)

  • They remain the basis of Anglican doctrine today

Where had the Edwardian Reformation reached by 1553?

• Doctrinally:

  • The Church of England was Protestant by 1553

    • The 42 Articles made that clear

• In practice:

  • Many churches had been stripped of altars, images and plate

• In law:

  • Attendance at Protestant services was compulsory

  • The Latin Mass was outlawed

• At parish level:

  • Much harder to measure

  • Many communities complied outwardly with the new laws while continuing Catholic practices in private

  • Whether ordinary people had genuinely changed their beliefs by 1553 is the central question historians disagree on

How Protestant was England by 1553?

• Use the evidence below to build your own argument

• The question is not about what the government did, but how far ordinary people changed their beliefs

Evidence that England was becoming Protestant

• London and the south-east showed genuine Protestant enthusiasm

  • Trade links with Protestant areas of Europe had brought reformist ideas into port towns

    • Protestant preaching and printing had been growing since the 1530s

• The educated and propertied classes were becoming increasingly Protestant

  • Many gentry had an economic stake in the Reformation through the purchase of monastic land

• Humanism had shaped the thinking of the educated elite

  • Protestant ideas about scripture, education and the individual had taken root particularly at Cambridge and in the court

• The printing press spread Protestant ideas widely

  • Metrical psalms, vernacular Bibles and Protestant pamphlets were all in circulation

• By 1553, a generation of young people had grown up knowing only English-language worship

Key historian

Evidence that England remained largely Catholic

• The Western Rising (1549) showed genuine popular attachment to the old religion

  • Cornish rebels explicitly demanded the Latin mass

• When Mary I reversed the Reformation in 1553, there was widespread acceptance

• In many parishes, mass was still said more or less openly in defiance of the law

• Most ordinary people were less concerned with theological debates than with the survival of familiar religious practices

  • What mattered to them was whether their local church was open and familiar

• The north and west remained strongly conservative

  • Protestant enthusiasm was concentrated in London and the south-east

• The uneducated majority had little access to the printed Protestant culture that was shaping the elite

Key historians