Western Civilization_ Volume B_ 1300 to 1815 - Jackson J. Spielvogel [116]
Since the new king was only nine years old at the time of his accession to the throne, real control of England passed to a council of regency. During Edward’s reign, Archbishop Cranmer and others inclined toward Protestant doctrines were able to move the Church of England in a more Protestant direction. New acts of Parliament instituted the right of the clergy to marry, the elimination of images, and the creation of a revised Protestant liturgy that was elaborated in a new prayer book and liturgical guide known as the Book of Common Prayer. These rapid changes in doctrine and liturgy aroused much opposition and prepared the way for the reaction that occurred when Mary, Henry’s first daughter by Catherine of Aragon, came to the throne.
REACTION UNDER MARY Mary (1553–1558) was a Catholic who fully intended to restore England to the Roman Catholic fold. But her restoration of Catholicism, achieved by joint action of the monarch and Parliament, aroused opposition. There was widespread antipathy to Mary’s unfortunate marriage to Philip II, son of Charles V and the future king of Spain. Philip was strongly disliked in England, and Mary’s foreign policy of alliance with Spain aroused further hostility, especially when her forces lost Calais, the last English possession in France after the Hundred Years’ War. The burning of more than three hundred Protestant heretics aroused further ire against “bloody Mary.” As a result of her policies, Mary managed to achieve the opposite of what she had intended: England was more Protestant by the end of her reign than it had been at the beginning. When she came to power, Protestantism had become identified with church destruction and religious anarchy. Now people identified it with English resistance to Spanish interference. Mary’s death in 1558 ended the restoration of Catholicism in England.
Henry VIII and His Successors. This allegorical painting of the Tudor succession, entitled The Family of Henry VIII, was done by an English artist about forty years after the death of Henry VIII. King Henry sits on his throne under the Tudor coat of arms. At the far left is the figure of a Roman soldier representing the god of war. Next is Philip II of Spain, the husband of Mary Tudor, who stands beside him. On the other side of Henry stand Edward, Elizabeth, and two female figures who represent peace and plenty.
© Yale Center for British Art//The Bridgeman Art Library
John Calvin and Calvinism
Of the second generation of Protestant reformers, one stands out as the systematic theologian and organizer of the Protestant movement—John Calvin (1509–1564). Calvin received a remarkably diverse education in humanistic studies and law in his native France. He was also influenced by Luther’s writings, which were being circulated and read by French intellectuals as early as 1523. In 1533, Calvin experienced a religious crisis that determined the rest of his life’s work. He described it in these words:
God, by a sudden conversion, subdued and brought my mind to a teachable frame, which was more hardened in such matters than might have been expected from one at my early period of life. Having thus received some taste and knowledge of true godliness, I was immediately inflamed with so intense a desire to make progress therein, although I did not leave off other studies, I yet pursued them with less ardor.10
Calvin’s conversion was solemn and straightforward. He was so convinced of the inner guidance of God that he became the most determined of all the Protestant reformers.
After his conversion and newfound conviction, Calvin was no longer safe in Paris, since King Francis I periodically persecuted Protestants. Eventually, Calvin made his way to Basel, where in 1536