The Re-Catholicisation of England

Why did Mary want to restore Catholicism?

Honour her mother, Catherine of Aragon and assert her legitimacy as the rightful Queen
Rid England of heretics heretics to her were people who had led her father astray, ruined her mother,
plundered the church and destroyed the Godly peace of England
So one of the first measures taken by Mary was a bill reaffirming the validity of Henrys marriage to
Catherine of Aragon

What assumptions did Mary have on the religious situation when she took the throne?
Believed her triumph over the succession was a miracle, specifically brought about by God to enable her to
restore the true church
Believed there was general and enthusiastic support for the religious Counter Reformation she intended to
launch actually for the true dynastic legitimacy
Assumed that the majority of her subjects were still fundamentally Roman Catholic and had been led astray
by a minority
Believed in a large scale and voluntary resumption of Catholic practise
Hoped there would be widespread and voluntary return of the Church lands

Marys religious aims
2 important aims:
Restoration of the Mass
Restoration of the Pope to his traditional position as Supreme Head of the Catholic Church in
England

Measures taken to restore Catholicism
Governments programme was quite moderate to begin with
Restoration of the churches
But by 1554, Mary had began to realise that she had underestimated the staying power of her Protestant
opponents
March 1554 Priests who had been permitted to marry by legislation passed in Edwards reign were
ordered to leave their wives
Medieval heresy laws were restored by Marys third parliament
1555 Restoration to church authorities of First Fruits revenue which Henry had diverted from papal
revenue to his own treasury from 1534 to mark his royal supremacy
Mary faced problems when it came to the restoring the English Church with Rome:
Pope Paul IV (4
th
) was an old enemy of Poles and he was fanatically hostile to the Spanish
Mary cast into the role of political enemy of the Pope

Reginald Pole
Needed the full restoration of church property and lands that had been lost since the beginning of Henry
VIIIs reign in order for the full reconciliation with Rome
Pole did not return to England until November 1554 because of his radical condition and out of touch
views
Returned to England as Cardinal Legate
Identified lack of financial resources and lack of ecclesiastical discipline as his chief priorities

Protestant Opposition
Rapid growth in the number of hostile pamphlets Mary was rarely directly attacked because the critics
did not want to associate Protestantism with treason
Censorship was enforced
Radical evangelicals remained a minority but they were a significant minority concentrated in the
wealthiest and most influential parts of the country access to trading routes so were able to smuggle in
hostile books/pamphlets
Large group of Edwardian Evangelicals remained in England during Marys reign, conforming to her
religious laws and remerged as Protestants when Elizabeth took the throne
Criticised by Protestants who were following writers such as John Calvin referred to as Nicodemites

Persecution and Burnings
Mary felt that no measure was too extreme to eradicate a virus that threatened all who it infected
To punish these heretics was a not a policy it was a duty to God
Many of the prominent Protestant clergy were deprived of their livings and some Thomas Becon,
Thomas Cranmer, John Hooper and Nicholas Ridley were imprisoned
Burnings of heretics began 1 February 1555, Cranmer went to the stake in March 1556
About 285 were burnt at least 54 women and many males of much lower social status and education than
the first victims
David Loades sees Mary as primarily responsible for the whole process
Susan Brigden argues that each martyrs death was a failure for the persecutors because they did not just
want to them to die, but to be reconciled many would not recant denial of the sacrifice of the Mass and
of transubstantiation

Was Mary really trying to turn the clock back?
Revisionist scholars such as Jennifer Loach and Eamon Duffy had rejected the prevailing view that the
religious policy of Marys reign was a backward attempt to resolve the church of the early 1520s, argue
that an English Counter Reformation only failed because of political and dynastic circumstances
A.G. Dickens on the other hand argues that Mary failed to discover the Counter Reformation
Examples of why Mary was not trying to turn back the clock:
Brigden Pole and the Bishops had deeper designs for the Catholic reform than the recovery of what had
already past they restored only in order to move forward
Education and teaching, and transubstantiation were extremely important priestly power, Pilgrimages and
Blessed Saints were not so (significant elements in earlier Catholicism)
Initial steps had been taken towards producing a new orthodox English translation of the New Testament
Mary never took a pilgrimage as a queen and followed no particular Saints which was unusual, especially
in the c16th
Great pre-reformation shrines and pilgrimage centres were not revived