During the reign of Elizabeth London was not only the home of numerous literary giants, among them William Shakespeare himself. In her days also lived John Stow, the worthy chronicler of that ancient metropolis. His Survey describes London in minute detail and shows us a medieval metropolis undergoing substantial change, wrought mainly by the dissolution of the monasteries. Many of these establishments lay in ruins or had disappeared altogether, and in some cases beautiful Elizabethan structures were built on the sites. The Charterhouse is a notable example. The increase in wealth of the upper classes was reflected in elaborate tombs and memorials within the churches, some remaining to our own time. However, while some buildings were repaired during the Elizabethan period, no new churches were built in London during her reign.
Yet the Elizabethan era was a most significant time in London’s and all of England’s history for Christianity. Elizabeth restored Protestantism as it was at the conclusion of the reign of Edward VI and set the Church of England on its long-term course.
Elizabeth was born from a marriage forbidden by the pope, and she had reason to fear for her life during the reign of her Catholic half-sister, Mary. She wanted no part of papal domination in her realm. Her chief advisor, Lord Burleigh, and her archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker, were both Protestants. But she also loved established order and was above everything else devoted to England, so the forms and doctrines of the European Calvinists were not attractive to her either. Thus, acting boldly in the capacity of absolute ruler established by Henry VIII, she chose for all her people a ‘middle way’..
The settler r lei it of Uie u ideal religious question, which occurred at Elizabeth’s first parliament two months after her succession in- 1558, is called the ‘Elizabethan Compromise’. Although it was violated for much of the century following her reign. it resulted in the unique and flexible body that is the Church of England. By two important laws, the ‘Act of Supremacy’ and the ‘Act of Uniformity’, church government went back to the episcopal system arrived at under Henry VIII, all acts against control by the pope—repealed under Mary—were reinstated. the order and ceremonies of the church were to be the same as under Edward VI, and the mass was abolished and replaced by the Book of Common Prayer. Later the doctrines of the church were officially set forth in what are known as the ‘Thirty-nine Articles’.
Not only was the official religious position settled peaceably in Elizabeth’s day, but also during her time the Reformation began to make a widespread difference in the lives of the general populace. A notable sign of this was the tremendous popularity of John Foxe’s Actes and Monuments, which chronicled the sufferings of those who had dared to make the Bible their supreme religious authority during the days of Henry VIII and Mary. As Trevelyan has written:
When she [Elizabeth] came to the throne, the bulk of the people halted between a number of opinions, and the anti-Catholic party still consisted of anti-clericals as much as of Protestants. When she died, the majority of the English regarded themselves as ardent Protestants, and a great number of them were living religious lives based on Bible and Prayer Book.
Finally, we look back to Elizabethan London for the roots of two great movements, both related to the history of Christianity and also interrelated with one another. First was the flowering of the English language, brought to a peak of classical perfection through the genius of William Shakespeare and a host of gifted contemporaries. Out of such rich soil grew the King James Version of the English Bible which is unrivalled—except by Shakespeare—in its contribution to both the style and the imagery of everyday English ever since.
The other movement which arose in Elizabethan London (despite the canny queen’s rigorous attempts to suppress it) was Puritanism. The Puritans were those members of the Church of England who were dissatisfied with the extent of reform and on occasions refused to go along with the established regulations.