Page 27 - Pilgrims in Georgia

Bloody Mary, Elizabeth I

and the Elizabethan Settlement

Mary I

Mary, who was King Henry’s VIIIs daughter from his first wife became Queen of England
after her half brother Edward VI died. She was staunchly Catholic and aggressively
pursued the restoration of Roman Catholicism as the English Faith. During her five-year

reign, The Act of Supremacy was repealed, and she had over 300 religious dissenters
burned at the stake in the Marian persecutions. Protestants in England and Wales judged
guilty of heresy against Catholicism were executed. But then she died after five years in
1558.

Elizabeth I

Elizabeth, also a daughter of Henry VIII came to the throne in 1558 she reinstated The Act
Of Supremacy. Elizabeth declared herself Supreme Governor of the Church of England, as
opposed to Supreme Head for those who might be concerned about a female leader of
the Church of England.
Then Edwards reforms became the basis of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement. The
Elizabethan Religious Settlement or "The Revolution of 1559" was The Act of Supremacy

of 1558 which re-established the Church of England's independence from Rome, and the
Act of Uniformity of 1559 which detailed the form the Church of England would take,
including the re-establishment of the Book of Common Prayer. She was more moderate in
her governing and tolerant concerning religion. These actions would open the door to
greater Protestant freedom in England in the future. But it was not with out opposition.
In 1570 Pope Pius V, declared by a Papal Bull, "Elizabeth, the pretended Queen of
England and the servant of crime" to be a heretic, and released all of her subjects from
any allegiance to her, and excommunicated any who obeyed her orders. She reigned 44
years until 1603.