The Corrupted Church

Abstract

Once the optimism and euphoria produced by the succession of Elizabeth to Mary and the consequent establishment of a Protestant Church had gradually subsided, those English Puritans who sought more far-reaching changes were faced with an extraordinarily recalcitrant and potentially demoralising situation. For it now suddenly became all too apparent that the English Church, for no very explicit set of doctrinal reasons, had resolved to pitch camp indefinitely, while the Celestial City of a truly reformed religion still beckoned tantalisingly on the horizon. Their best hope for more purposive action came in 1575 when Edward Grindal, who was sympathetic to their aims, was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury; but Grindal was rapidly shunted aside by Elizabeth once his attitudes became apparent and subsequently they were persecuted and pursued first by Whitgift and then, with still greater ruthlessness and severity, by Archbishop Bancroft. If it were at all possible they would have preferred to avoid a confrontation with the Queen herself, proclaiming in the ‘Second Admonition to Parliament’ of 1572: ‘her Majestie shall not finde better subjectes, in her land, than those that desire a righte reformation’,¹ but, on the other hand, they insisted, in the same document, ‘we say the worde is above the church’,² which, of course, is also to say that the authority of the Bible must take precedence over earthly rulers, over bishops and monarchs alike.