Elizabethan Religious Settlement - Act of Uniformity

Act of Uniformity

The Act of Uniformity 1558, which required the population to attend Sunday service in an Anglican church, at which a new version of the Book of Common Prayer was to be used, passed by only three votes. The Bill of Uniformity was more cautious than the initial Reformation Bill. It revoked the harsh laws proposed against Roman Catholics, it removed the abuse of the Pope from the litany and kept the wording that allowed for both a subjective and objective belief in the Real Presence in the Communion.

After Parliament was dismissed, Elizabeth, along with Cecil, drafted what are known as the Royal Injunctions, 1559. These were additions to the settlement and largely stressed some continuity with the Catholic past: ministers were ordered to wear the surplice; wafers, as opposed to ordinary baker's bread, could be used as the bread at Communion. There had been opposition to the settlement in the shires, which for the most part were largely Roman Catholic, so the changes are often said to have been made in order to allow for acceptance of the Settlement, although MacCulloch sees it as "absurd to see these concessions as intended to mollify Catholic-minded clergy and laity" and only of help in conciliating possible Lutherans. Catholics had lost so much that these minor changes meant nothing to them. What succeeded more than anything else was the sheer length of Elizabeth's reign; while Mary had been able to impose her programme for a mere five years, Elizabeth had more than forty. Those who delayed, "looking for a new day" when restoration would again be commanded, were defeated by the passing of years.

"5 Elizabeth, c. 23, provides for giving the aid of the temporal power in execution of the Church's sentence of excommunication, which involved imprisonment for not more than six months."