A Brief History of English Puritanism and the Westminster Assembly, Part 2

The Protestant Reformation in Britain "begins" with Henry VIII of the House of Tudor. Although his motivation was chiefly that of dynastic succession, Henry inaugurated the official Reformation of the English church by establishing the English sovereign as the head of the church in place of the pope. Henry had no interest in doctrinal reform--he was to remain Roman Catholic in belief and practice to the end of his life and fought bitterly against what he considered Martin Luther's innovations. But inevitably his split from Roman headship brought a more reforming spirit into the English church leadership, a trend that accelerated under the short reign of his more Protestant son Edward and Edward's advisors.

But Edward, sickly all his life, died childless, bringing his thoroughly Roman Catholic sister Mary to the throne. Along with her Spanish husband Philip she sought to return England to the Roman fold and used some rather drastic means to accomplish this. Those whom she did not kill were driven out of England, often finding a safe and inviting haven in John Calvin's Geneva, where they were exposed to a higher form of Christian teaching than they had previously known. Many of these refugees, such as John Knox, later returned to England and Scotland after Mary's death. They formed the core of a Calvinistic reforming force that sought to duplicate Geneva on their home soil. As it happened, the Scots took to this more quickly and enthusiastically than did the English.

The last of Henry VIII's three children, Elizabeth, ascended to the throne following the death of Mary. With her came a period of greater political stability but a resistance to thoroughgoing reform of the church. She was content with just a certain amount of Protestantism, enough to suit her own needs yet keep the church tightly bound to the crown. Within the church of England there developed a body of Christians that sought to "purify" the church of all traces of Romanism and bring about a greater sanctity among the people--hence the term "Puritan." Through most of Elizabeth's reign the Puritans grew as an opposition party, particularly in defense of religious and civil liberties upon which the state increasingly encroached. An extra-constitutional system of courts was used by the state to enforce the party line. This heavy-handedness was not tolerated for long.

Tomorrow: Political and theological divergences cost a king his head.