Elizabethan Religious Settlement

The laws and policies enacted under Elizabeth I that restored royal supremacy over the Church of England and established a Protestant religious framework with some retained traditional forms.

Act of Supremacy 1559: An act that re-established Elizabeth I as supreme governor of the Church of England. It restored the Crown’s authority over the English church.
English Reformation: The sixteenth-century break between the English church and papal authority, accompanied by major religious changes. The settlement continued the transformation begun before Elizabeth’s reign.
Roman Catholicism: The largest Christian tradition, led by the pope and organized around sacramental and ecclesiastical teachings. The settlement rejected papal jurisdiction and restored Protestant worship.
Recusancy laws: English laws penalizing refusal to attend services of the established church. They made outward attendance a central test of religious conformity.
Act of Uniformity 1559: An act requiring use of the Book of Common Prayer in English parish worship. It imposed a common form of public worship across England.
Edwardian Reformation: The Protestant reforms carried out in England during Edward VI’s reign from 1547 to 1553. Its liturgical reforms supplied precedents for Elizabethan worship.
Puritanism: A movement within English Protestantism that sought to further reform the Church of England. Puritans opposed ceremonies and structures they considered insufficiently reformed.
Northern Rebellion: The 1569 uprising by northern English nobles against Elizabeth I’s government, with Catholic restoration among its aims. The revolt exposed the political risks of religious opposition to the settlement.
Book of Common Prayer: The Church of England’s authorized collection of liturgies and prayers. Its revised services gave the settlement its prescribed worship.
Marian restoration: The restoration of Roman Catholic doctrine and papal authority in England under Mary I. Elizabeth reversed this restoration while avoiding an identical return to Edwardian reform.

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