Reply #22: And Mary's Birthday was a Holy Day in the Anglican Church till 1732. [View All]

[happyslug]

Mary's birthday as a holy Day had been proclaimed by Elizabeth I. This shows you the confusion at lot of people have of the Politics of the day. Henry VIII died considering himself a Good Catholic (Ann Boleyn had been executed AFTER his first Wife had died of Natural Causes, leaving him free to marry his Third Wife), Mary fined most of the Protestant and exiled them (Mary's list f people executed is why less than Henry's and Elizabeth, but Mary executed people whose power base was in London as opposed to the rest of England (and did more execution by burning than did Henry and Elizabeth who both preferred to draw and Quarter their enemies).

While Mary did try to bring the Catholic Church back to England (It really had never left, thus her attempts was more in the nature of Shifting allegiance to Rome) Mary did NOT return the land Henry had taken from the Church (and this had been EXTENSIVE, some historians consider it a greater confiscation of property then what Britain did after WWII during Labor's nationalization movement).

As to Elizabeth while technically a "Protestant" did not officially break with Rome, she just ignored Rome. Elizabeth wanted an English Church, it could be Protestant or Catholic, as long as is was English (Thus the nature of the Anglican Church it is NOT Lutheran or Reform, but it is also NOT Roman Catholic). On top of this as the 1500s went on, the business area of London expanded and this was dominated by Puritans (Members of the Calvinistic Reform Church Movement in England). As time went on, Elizabeth catered more and more to the Puritans, and less and less to the Catholics (For example in 1596 Elizabeth replaced the last Royal Long Bowmen in her Service, for Long Bowmen tended to come from Catholic Area of England, they were replaced by Musketeers, who tended to be poor people with no other way to make a living and thus loyal to their pay checks more than any one religion or dogma).