The elizabethan era began in the mid fifthteenth century and marked a very important moment in time, history, and dramatic literature. During the beginning of this time known as the Shakespearean age, Catholicism was the predominant faith of England which began to change when King Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church. After this event, the two major and dominantly chosen religions of England became the Catholic and Protestant faiths. Due to Protestantism originating from the Catholic faith, they had both similar and different religious beliefs. In addition to the religious events taking place during this time, William Shakespeare was alive during this time and used a variety of biblical allusions within his plays. These uses of biblical …show more content…
The religions of Catholicism and Protestantism were very important during the 1500s, and almost everyone knows about Catholicism and how Jesus is the Son of God, however, Protestantism is different. The Protestant faith was formed from the Catholic church in the 16th century after a list of events occured which became known as the Protestant Reformation. During this time the Catholic church was extremely corrupt which caused many catholics to switch to the Protestant faith. Additionally, Catholic Masses were spoken in latin, which at the time, was not spoken by a large portion of England. This caused many Catholics to change faiths because they were unable to understand the mass (Alchin). The changes in faith among the people led to a variety of issues involving dangerous problems which included death for some. The views and “beliefs in these different religions were so strong that they led to the executions of many adherents to both of these Elizabethan religions.” (Alchin). These …show more content…
The first of these differences involved their individual views of how the ceremonies of mass should be said, which to Catholics was said in Latin, this was a belief that was followed for thousands of years. On the other side, Protestants believed that the bible should be spoken in the language of the people so everyone could understand them. Secondly, Protestant masses were ministered by ordinary people rather than a Pope or priest because of their belief that normal people were able to reach God without the use of religious officials that Catholics used. Finally, the people of the Catholic faith “believed that Priests and the Pope were able to forgive sin”(Alchin) because they were considered the messengers of God. In the Elizabethan era, being forgiven of sin often came at a price, this price was usually paid in the form of gifts, and sometimes money. In addition to these small differences, the Catholic and Protestant faiths also differed in areas such as the Magisterium, Tradition, Salvation, The Eucharist, Justification, and especially
All of Europe used to be united under one religion, Catholicism. Europe started inching away from Catholicism during the 13th - 15th centuries. The church leaders started to only think about money and the power they held, instead of the real reason they were supposed to be there, God. This caused an uprising of people who no longer wanted to be a part of the Catholic church, nicknamed Protestants because they protested the ways of the catholic church. The Protestant Reformation was caused by corruption in the church, Martin Luther and John Calvin’s ideas, and the clergy and their preachings.
There are so many causes from the Protestant Reformation. In the Protestant, there was three different sections that got affected more the the others. When the Protestant Reformation happened it affected the Sociality, Political, and Economic the most.
The Factors That Shaped the Elizabethan Religious Settlement When Elizabeth I was proclaimed Queen in 1558 a new era of religious tolerance began. With her religious settlement, Elizabeth had to consider a number of different factors. Without doubt, the most important task following her accession was to resolve the ideological divisions in the country brought about by the religious changes in the past three monarch's reigns. However, when deciding on her own religious settlement, Elizabeth had a number of influencing factors.
The 17th century was a chaotic time period in England. England saw a transition in their nation’s religion during the reign of different monarchs. Before the start of the 17th century, England was under a Roman Catholic monarch with Queen Mary. Mary attempted to turn the Church of England into a Catholic Church and in the process earned the name “Bloody Mary”. She earned this name through her executions of many Protestants in England. However once Mary was unsuccessful in creating a Catholic England and was no longer the monarch, the Church went back to a Protestant Church. With the church now being Protestant, the Catholic minority in England began to become upset with the church and even plotted to make the church Catholic again through violence.
The 1500’s were a time of reformation and also a time of corruption in the church. The pope, Pope Leo X was one of the most corrupt popes because of his greed for money. The church was very wealthy during the protestant reformation promoting false beliefs to many people, but one man named Martin Luther changed that with his 95 theses because of his dislike for the wrongdoings from the Catholic church.
The church was an integral part of the British society in the 17th century, and the Reformation which featured the split of the Catholic church under Henry VIII provoked feelings of uncertainty amongst the general population. The weakness of the established church had been revealed, generating disunity among the highly conservative and religious population. Nachman Ben-Yehuda describes the effect of this transformation in relation to the witchcraze: "Where the Catholic Church was weakest {they} experienced a virulent witch craze. Where the Catholic Church was strong hardly any witch craze occurred". This correlates to the figures for Italy, Spain and Portugal, countries where the church was strong, having much lower fi... ...
The Elizabethan Era was a Golden Age for the English people during the late 1500s and early 1600s. This time period is referred to as the English Renaissance because new ideas were introduced to Elizabethan daily life. People enjoyed learning; they enjoyed art, culture, music, and food. The people also enjoyed celebrating many customs and festivals. These celebrations became a major part of daily life, and there were many customs to celebrate.
The Protestant Reformation was a period of time (1500-1700) where there became a change in Western Christendom. This reformation was caused by the resentment from the people because the Catholic Church abusing their powers for political and economic advances. In this time the church was selling pardons for sin and indulgences to forgive sins, decrease days spent in purgatory and save the dead from damnation. The reformation was when people became more aware with the back hand dealings with the church and men like Martin Luther and John Calvin created their own churches to what they believed was not corrupt unlike the church. Unfortunately there many consequences as far at the Roman Catholic church attempting to bring people back to the church,
Protestantism, a new religion separated from the Catholic Church, spread around Europe. Sovereign could increase power because of Protestants. Protestantism was helpful for the government to separate from the Catholic since Protestant leaders taught people to obey godly rulers while Catholic Church believed that the religion is more powerful than government. In Germany, Luther’s Bible words became the linguistic standard for all separated regions. In England, reformation fostered a sense of nationalism. In the Catholic Church, Counter Reformers changed the system dramatically, but it had less finance than before, less power than the government, and lost millions of worshipers to Protestantism. Both Protestantism and Catholicism influenced not only Europe but also across the new world and Asia.
From there I did an online search, why were the Jews and Christians separated in Shakespeare’s time in the Google search engine? Of the many sites that were available, I chose to use the Queen Elizabeth I – Jews and Catholics. On this site, the information on the Jews and Catholics was well organized, there were many head topics with information following making it very easy to understand, and it provided some answers to my question. This website contains Elizabethan Era Copyright information along with a privacy statement. With this listed, I knew I was on a website with valuable information that I could use.
The protestant reformation of 16th century had both: immediate and long term effects. Thus, we can see that it was a revolution of understanding the essence of religion, and of what God is. The protestant reformation is said to a religious movement. However, it also influenced the economical, political and social life of people. The most global, short term effect of the reformation was the reevaluation of beliefs, and, as a result, the loss of authority of the Holy Roman Empire. The long term effects were: the emergence of new heretical movements, the declining of papacy, thus the reevaluation of people’s view on the church and life values.
Protestant churches formed against what its followers considered to be errors of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Elizabethan era of “1558-1603” consisted of a new and inspired culture and great success for the emerging middle class ("Daily Life in the Elizabethan Era."). During Elizabeth’s reign, a cultural revolution transpired in England that would produce expanded “new views” of human nature and nationalistic thinking consisting of “seemingly unlimited potential of human reason and spirit” (“The Elizabethan Court.”). The cultural revolution that was brought forth as a result of the golden age of Elizabeth eventually gave rise to “ the Renaissance, a cultural movement involving the rebirth of classical thinking and the arts…” (par.2). Elizabeth’s reign is also regarded as a time of “unparalleled literary achievement” in which the rate of literacy rose considerably (“Elizabeth I.”). As the amount of people who could read and write increased, playwriting greatly advanced allowing for highly influential writers like Shakespeare to emerge. Shakespeare’s profoundly popular play, Romeo and Juliet, was set in Elizabethan times and it’s characters, namely Juliet, alluded to the Queen’s well known principle of chastity (Shakespeare 11). Also, due to developing businesses and industries and the rapid increase in population during Elizabethan times, a new middle class “consisting of successful merchants and craftsmen arose” ("Daily Life in the Elizabethan Era."). The rapid increase in population provided
Catholics and Protestants share a fair amount of fundamental ideas and concepts from the Christian faith, but there are critical differences which continue to make prominent and contrasting differences between their beliefs and practices. Those differences are just as important in defining the religions today as they were during the Protestant Reformation. In the sixteenth century, the Protestant Reformation began and religious leaders such Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and others that protested against some of the practices and abuses of the Catholic Church. The protest is actually what spawned the name of Protestantism; the root of the word is Protestantism is “protest.” The main purpose for the protests was to reform the church from within; they saw a need for reformation to eliminate the blatant corruption and the abusive practices, such as “indulgences.” But as the years passed by, it became abundantly clear that their movement was unable to coexist with the Rome Catholic ideology, so those with Protestant beliefs/views broke away and organized their own church hierarchy and structures, this purge from Catholicism and new
The Elizabethan age was a very important time in the history of England. The time period is named after the queen who ruled England during this time, Queen Elizabeth I (Haigh). This time was a great time for the advancement of England, as they were ushered out of the Middle Ages, and into this new era. While there were many hardships, and plague was a common occurrence, the people lived a much more comfortable life than they ever had before (Jonson). Many great accomplishments were also achieved, including Sir Francis Drake’s circumnavigation around the world, which was only the second time it had ever been done, and the victory of the British navy over the Spanish Armada (Haigh). Another one of the things that affected the Elizabethan age so greatly was the theater.