gloria lloyd

history 231

november 10, 2003

in 1559, queen elizabeth issued a proclamation entitled "announcing injunctions

for religion." the queen's reign was relatively new, and the monarch issued the

proclamation as a way to assuage the doubts of many of her followers in relation to her

possible catholic sympathies. while overall the queen enjoyed a relatively problem-free

reign, the issue of religion would cause problems for her until her death. her first attempt

at solving them came in 1559 in the form of this proclamation, condemning catholicism

in favor of protestantism.

in the proclamation, the queen makes 53 direct commands, mostly aimed at

clergy, and makes her position on catholicism clear to any who may have experienced

any doubt. she instructs her subjects to obey her commands and those of god, not those

of the pope. all clergy must be approved in order to lead worship. the queen instructs the

clergy to abolish all catholic-inspired rituals and adornments. the remnants of these

rituals were to be destroyed. prayers, hymns and sermons should be conducted in

english, for all to understand, not the latin of catholic services. the monarch concluded

by reasserting her own beliefs, setting herself as the example that all good subjects should

follow. her subjects were to swear allegiance to her and only her, instead of any foreign

influences such as the pope. she concludes by reasserting her power, saying that anyone

who disobeys her instructions "will answer to her majesty for the contrary (hughes 132)."
 for the most part, the items included in the proclamation were aimed at members

of the clergy, instructing them to promote certain aspects of christianity in a certain

number of sermons per year. the queen's rhetoric, with its repetition of religious imagery,

is meant to encourage clergy to seriously consider the queen as a formidable model of

religious thought. at the same time, the document is simply written and very direct in its

meaning, which demonstrates that it was also directed at the queen's subjects themselves.

the queen wished to reach all her subjects of the christian faith, reminding them the

proper ways to worship. she commanded members of the clergy to read the proclamation

once a year to their parishioners, so that all would become familiar with its contents.

the proclamation seems to be equally directed at catholics and protestants. the

queen lets catholics know that she will not allow them to practice their religion publicly.

meanwhile, the queen assures protestants that she has absolutely no sympathy for

catholics and will not tolerate their religion in any way. many of her protestant subjects

took the fact that she had not executed her cousin mary, a devout catholic, as a sign that

she did not plan on condemning those of the catholic faith. many catholics considered

mary to be their true monarch, and therefore did not take elizabeth seriously as a leader,

especially a religious leader, in any way. therefore, the queen hoped to reach her

subjects of all beliefs with her words. by condemning their faith and asserting her power

in such a public way, she ensured catholics that she was not sympathetic toward them in

the least. meanwhile, the queen assures protestants that she is a strong christian, an

example of what their religious beliefs should be , and she has absolutely no sympathy

for catholics and will not tolerate their religion in any way. the proclamation was also no

doubt targeted at one catholic in particular-- mary, queen of scots herself. while strong in
language and unmistakable in meaning, the proclamation was not inflammatory in any

way. the document was instead used as a way to bring peace and stablity to her country.

by issuing a document with such a strong and open bias against catholicism, the

queen ensured that she would be taken seriously as a protestant monarch. many members

of parliament and other subjects believed that she was too sympathetic to the catholic

cause. by stating specifically that papists were heretics in this proclamation, the queen

succeeded in making a strong statement of her support of protestantism and disapproval

of catholicism. the proclamation itself is extremely biased against catholicism,

repeatedly calling its traditions, such as rosary beads, "idolatry and superstition (hughes

119.)" she even goes so far as to call the pope a "usurped and foreign power (hughes

118)." by issuing this proclamation, the queen intended to establish herself as a paragon

of protestant beliefs, harboring no sympathy toward those of the catholic faith.

i found this document in the course packet of my english 204, renaissance

literature, class, taught by jennifer munroe. in it, she includes excerpts from a book of

documents edited by paul hughes and james f. larkin entitled tudor royal proclamations:

v.ii. the later tudors (1553-1587). the book was published in 1969.

this proclamation, one of hundreds by queen elizabeth, is particularly relevant to

the issues she faced in her reign. as the daughter of a protestant and the sister of a

catholic, she was caught in the middle of a religious debate that would become the central

issue of her reign as monarch. because her cousin was catholic, many insisted that

elizabeth must be sympathetic to their cause. by issuing a strong statement of the

religious beliefs that were acceptable to practice in her nation, she made it clear that

catholics would not be able to publicly practice their religion in her country in any way.
she wanted no one to doubt that she believed that protestantism was "god's true religion

(hughes 127)."