... ister, Mary, attempted forcibly to restore Catholicism. As Henry VIIIs reign had terrorized Catholics, so Marys persecuted Protestants. Under Mary, prominent Protestant clergymen ere either executed or they fled abroad. The poer of the pope as reestablished in England, though even Mary could do nothing to restore the church lands sold off during Henrys reign.Elizabeth inherited a highly charged religious situation, hich she handled ith great skill. Although there as never any doubt she ould return England to Protestantism, Elizabeth had to contend ith opposition from both Catholics and radical Protestants. Catholic bishops and peers controlled the House of Lords and fought Elizabeths first attempts to bring back Protestantism. Protestants exiled under the reign of Mary I returned to England, and many brought ith them ne and radical Protestant ideas, especially those of John Calvin, a French religious reformer. Calvin stressed the importance of predestination, the belief that salvation as predetermined for some people and not for others. Calvin also anted the clergy to play a less important role in the state church and to concern themselves ith preaching the gospel rather than in becoming bishops.Under Elizabeth, England again broke ith the pope, Catholic services ere forbidden, priests ere alloed to marry, and relics and decorations ere removed from the churches. In attempting to diffuse the religious situation, Elizabeth tried to accommodate Catholic sensibilities in matters she judged less essential. She used Parliament to establish the official doctrine of the ne church, hich ensured that the voice of Catholic peers ould be heard. Under the Act of Supremacy, she assumed the title of Supreme Governor of the Church, rather than the title of Supreme Head, a move to placate critics because Supreme Governor sounded less poerful. She ould not allo retaliation against those ho had assisted Mary, and she treated ith some leniency those ho refused to sear an oath to her supremacy.The English form of Protestantism as defined in part by to measures enacted during Elizabeths reignthe Act of Uniformity of 1559 and the Thirty-nine Articles of 1563. The Act of Uniformity established a common prayer book and set the basic ceremonies of the church. The Thirty-nine Articles established religious doctrine that governed the church until the English Revolution in the 1640s. Both acts ere compromises that favored the vies of more conservative or moderate Protestant groups.Elizabeth vieed the church as an inseparable part of her monarchy and ould not tolerate challenges to it. Such challenges came from both Catholics, ho clung to the old faith and plotted to remove the queen, and from Puritans, radical Protestants ho anted to abolish all traces of Catholicism see Puritanism.Catholic challenges and plots persisted through much of Elizabeths reign, and Elizabeth reacted to them strongly. In 1569 a group of poerful Catholic nobles in northern England rose in rebellion but ere savagely repressed. The northern earls ere executed, their property and those of their folloers as confiscated, and their heirs ere deprived of their inheritance. In 1570 the pope excommunicated Elizabeth, sanctioning Catholic efforts to dethrone her. In 1571 an international conspiracy as uncovered to assassinate her in favor of her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots. Although Mary as beheaded in 1587 after years of being at the center of Catholic plots against Elizabeth, such plots did not end until England defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588.Elizabeths battles against the Puritans ere less conclusive. She suspended Archbishop of Canterbury Edmund Grindal hen he ould not punish Puritans ho refused to kneel or make the sign of the cross. She also imprisoned a member of Parliament in 1576 for introducing a bill to change the prayer book, and she refused to aiccept the Lambethi Articles of 1595, hich contained a Calv ... Download