Elizabeth I: The Church - Archbishops, Injunctions & Enforcement (AQA A Level History: Component 1: Breadth study): Revision Note

Summary

• The Royal Injunctions of 1559 set out the practical rules that turned the Settlement into a working national Church, from how clergy dressed to how they preached

• Archbishop Parker (1559–1575) stabilised the Church in its first decade, produced the Bishops' Bible and enforced the Settlement cautiously without making martyrs

• Archbishop Grindal (1575–1583) was suspended by Elizabeth for refusing to ban prophesyings, leaving the Church without effective leadership for much of his tenure

• Archbishop Whitgift (1583–1604) broke organised Puritanism within the Church through the Three Articles, the Court of High Commission and his campaign against the classis movement

• The Settlement survived all challenges intact, but its success depended on enforcement machinery that was uneven in practice and often relied on local co-operation

• Historians debate how successfully Elizabeth managed the Church:

  • Williams argued her management looked like failure in the early years

  • Others credit her consistency and Whitgift's enforcement with securing the Settlement long-term

The Royal Injunctions & Enforcement of the Settlement

What were the Royal Injunctions?

• The 1559 Settlement was established through three interlocking documents

  • The Act of Supremacy made Elizabeth "Supreme Governor of the Church"

  • The Act of Uniformity required the use of the Prayer Book and compulsory attendance at church

  • The Royal Injunctions filled in the practical detail that Parliament could not legislate for

• The Royal Injunctions of July 1559 contained 57 separate instructions

  • Below are some of the key instructions:

    • Preachers had to be licensed by a bishop before they could preach at all

    • Licensed preachers were expected to preach regularly or risk losing their licence

    • Every church had to display a Bible written in English

    • Pilgrimages were outlawed

    • Further destruction of church fittings, including altars, was to cease

    • All clergy had to swear the Oath of Supremacy, accepting Elizabeth as Supreme Governor of the Church

• The Injunctions were the practical backbone of the Elizabethan Church

  • They gave archbishops and bishops the tools to enforce conformity at parish level

  • The licensing requirement was the key mechanism for controlling who could preach

  • It also aimed to raise standards:

    • Unlicensed or inactive preachers could be removed

What did the Settlement look like in practice?

• The Settlement was deliberately designed to retain a familiar, Catholic-looking appearance

  • Elizabeth wanted a Church that the majority could accept, not one that drove people away

  • English psalms, music and vestments such as the surplice all remained

    • This was a source of frustration for Puritans and comfort for moderate Catholics

Enforcement machinery

• The Court of High Commission was the main tool for enforcing Church discipline

  • It was an ecclesiastical court with the power to prosecute those who refused conformity

  • It could summon, examine and punish clergy who broke the Settlement's rules

  • It had the power to use the ex officio oath:

    • Ministers had to answer questions under oath without being told the charges in advance

    • This was deeply resented but highly effective

• Royal visitations checked that the Settlement was being implemented

  • Commissioners visited dioceses to inspect church practice in 1559 and at intervals thereafter

    • They found wide variation: enthusiastically Protestant in some areas, deeply conservative in others

    • The north of England and parts of Wales remained particularly slow to accept the new Church

• Justices of the Peace (JPs) and local gentry were essential to making enforcement work at parish level

  • Recusancy fines required JPs to report and collect them

  • In practice, JPs often had Puritan or Catholic sympathies that shaped how vigorously they enforced the law

  • The Settlement's success depended heavily on the co-operation of local elites

The Role of the Archbishop of Canterbury: Parker, Grindal & Whitgift

Illustration: Parker, Grindal and Whitgift (new)

Archbishop Matthew Parker (1559–1575)

• Parker was Elizabeth's first archbishop and the man who shaped the Church in its formative decade

  • He had previously served as Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University and was a moderate Protestant

  • He had spent Mary's reign in hiding in England rather than going into exile

  • Elizabeth appointed him in 1559; he accepted reluctantly and served until his death in 1575

• Parker oversaw the practical establishment of the new Church

  • He organised the 1559 visitation that checked the Settlement was being put into place

  • He worked to implement the Royal Injunctions across the country

  • He organised the production of the Bishops' Bible in 1568, a new translation approved for use in churches

  • He supervised the approval of the Thirty-Nine Articles through Convocation in 1563

• Parker's approach was cautious and broadly effective

  • He sought to hold together a wide range of opinion within the Church

  • He enforced the Settlement without needlessly provoking either Catholics or Puritans

  • When the Vestiarian Controversy broke out in 1566, he watered down his own requirements to try to limit the damage

• Parker's limits as archbishop

  • He lacked the political strength to impose full conformity on resistant clergy

  • The Vestiarian Controversy rumbled on without resolution through his tenure

  • He was more scholar than church politician

    • He worked best on administration, not confrontation

Archbishop Edmund Grindal (1575–1583)

• Grindal was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in 1575, having previously served as Archbishop of York

  • He was a committed Protestant with genuine Puritan sympathies

  • He had been in exile during Mary's reign and had direct experience of Reformed churches abroad

  • His appointment suggested Elizabeth was willing to work with moderate reformers

• Grindal's downfall came quickly over the prophesyings crisis of 1576

  • Prophesyings were organised clerical gatherings for preaching practice and biblical discussion

  • Elizabeth ordered Grindal to suppress them; she saw them as a vehicle for Puritan ideas

  • Grindal refused and defended the prophesyings directly to Elizabeth in writing

  • Elizabeth suspended him from exercising his authority as Archbishop

• Grindal remained Archbishop in title but was unable to exercise his authority

  • He was never formally dismissed, but was unable to carry out his duties from 1577 until his death in 1583

  • Prophesyings were suppressed by Elizabeth's direct orders to other bishops

  • A prolonged period of reduced leadership at the top of the Church was a serious gap in management

• Assessment of Grindal

  • He is sometimes viewed sympathetically as a man of principle who genuinely believed prophesyings improved the clergy

    • But his refusal created a dangerous vacuum at a critical moment for the Church

  • His suspension showed that ultimate authority over the Church rested with the Crown, not the archbishop

Archbishop John Whitgift (1583–1604)

• Whitgift was appointed in 1583 after Grindal's death

  • He was a committed Anglican with no sympathy for Puritanism and shared Elizabeth's instincts

  • Elizabeth called him "my little black husband" due to his sombre dress and unmarried state

  • She backed him fully and without reservation throughout his tenure

• Whitgift moved immediately to enforce strict conformity

  • He issued the Three Articles, requiring all clergy to subscribe to royal supremacy, the Prayer Book and the Thirty-Nine Articles

    • Around 300 ministers were reportedly suspended for refusing

  • He used the Court of High Commission and the ex officio oath to prosecute non-conformists

  • See the Puritan Challenge revision notes for further details

• Whitgift broke the organised Puritan challenge within the Church

  • The classis movement, a shadow Presbyterian network growing across several counties in the 1580s, was broken up by the early 1590s

  • The Marprelate Tracts (1588–1589) backfired on the Puritan cause and gave the government grounds for harsher action

  • After the Act against Seditious Sectaries (1593), organised separatism in England collapsed

• Whitgift gained unusual political authority for an archbishop

  • In 1586, he was appointed to the Privy Council, one of the few archbishops to sit on it after the Reformation

    • This gave him both ecclesiastical and political power to pursue uniformity

• Assessment of Whitgift

  • He was the most effective archbishop of the reign in terms of enforcing conformity

  • His methods were harsh and drew criticism even from Cecil (Burghley)

  • The Settlement survived intact to 1603, due in large part to his work from 1583 onwards

  • Puritan sentiment survived underground and re-emerged vigorously under James I, suggesting the underlying tensions were managed rather than resolved

How Successfully Did Elizabeth Manage the Church of England?

• Use the specific evidence to build and support your own argument

• The evidence below is not an exhaustive list, consult the other revision notes concerning Elizabeth's approach to the Church for a full picture

The case that Elizabeth managed the Church successfully

• The 1559 Settlement survived intact for the entire reign

  • Neither Catholic recusancy nor Puritan pressure produced a single concession on Church structure

  • The Settlement Elizabeth established in 1559 remained the Settlement England had at her death in 1603

• Three archbishops, however different in approach, each contributed to the Church’s survival

  • Parker stabilised the Church in its first and most vulnerable decade

  • Even Grindal’s suspension did not break the Settlement: Elizabeth governed the Church directly in his place

  • Whitgift broke organised internal opposition within a decade of his appointment

• The Royal Injunctions and enforcement machinery worked effectively over time

  • The licensing system gave bishops long-term control over who could preach and what they said

  • The Court of High Commission gave the Crown real power over Church discipline

  • By 1603, the licensing system had shaped what the clergy said for more than 40 years

• England avoided the religious civil wars that destroyed France and the Netherlands

  • By that standard alone, Elizabeth’s management of religious difference was a significant achievement

  • Two generations of English people had grown up knowing no other Church by 1603

The case that Elizabeth's management of the Church was limited

• The Grindal episode showed how badly things could go wrong

  • Grindal’s suspension created a prolonged period of weak central leadership

  • Grindal was Elizabeth’s own appointment and his refusal left her with no good options

• Enforcement was uneven and depended on local co-operation that was never guaranteed

  • By the mid-1560s, only around half of JPs could be relied on to support the Settlement

  • Lancashire and parts of the north remained strongholds of Catholicism throughout the reign

  • The gap between what the Settlement required and what happened in practice was often wide

• The Puritan challenge was managed rather than resolved

  • Whitgift drove Puritanism underground rather than winning the argument against it

  • The movement re-emerged with renewed force under James I

• Elizabeth’s personal religious conservatism sometimes confused the Church’s direction

  • Her attachment to crucifixes and candles puzzled both Puritans and committed Protestants

  • Her personal preferences, including discomfort with some Protestant practices such as clerical marriage, created friction with bishops and ministers

Key historian