What were the elizabethan protestant/catholic beliefs?

Question

How did their beliefs differ and how did religion affect shakespears writtings?

Answer 1

they were not all that different at all, even today if you got the a catholic service and then an anglican service you will find them almost identical.

Answer 2

PROTESTANT VERSUS CATHOLIC RELIGION

In the early 1500's the people of England all practised the Roman Catholic religion. The practises of the Catholic religion were questioned during the Reformation and the beliefs of men such as the German Martin Luther (1483 - 1546) prompted a new religion called Protestantism...

The term 'Protestant' was adopted when supporters of Martin Luther formally protested against efforts to limit the spread of Luther's new ideas

So what were the differences between the Catholic and Protestant religion and beliefs in Elizabethan England?

ELIZABETHAN CHURCH SERVICES & THE BIBLE

Elizabethan Catholics believed that Church Services and the Bible should be in Latin, as it had been for 1000 years

Elizabethan Protestants believed that Church Services and the Bible should be in the language of the people so that the ordinary people could understand them

THE PRIESTS

Elizabethan Catholics firmly believed that Priests were the link between God and the people and that the Pope was ordained by God.

Catholic Priests were viewed as special and expected to devote their lives to God and remain unmarried and wear elaborate robes

Elizabethan Protestants believed that people could find God without a priest or a Pope and that Ministers were ordinary people who should lead normal lives and wear ordinary robes

SINS

Elizabethan Catholics believed that Priests and the Pope were able to forgive sins - at a price. Gifts, or indulgences, were given to the church

Elizabethan Protestants believed that only God could forgive sins

ELIZABETHAN CHURCHES

Catholics believed that Churches celebrate God and elaborately decorated with statues and shrines

Protestants believed that Churches should be plain allowing the people to concentrate on the sermons

RELIGION IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND

The above explanations detail the differences between the Catholic and Protestant religions providing a greater insight into the major religions in Elizabethan England

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/religi...

Many of Elizabeth's subjects seem to have been confused by the religious changes in England. Confirmed Protestants (influenced by the Reformation in Europe) believed in preaching, reading the Bible in English, and worship in unadorned churches; Catholics, on the other hand, enjoyed the ceremonies of Christianity, and decorated their churches with pictures and statues. Because it was important for Elizabeth to have the support of her subjects, the Church of England tried to steer between these two faiths, and it was criticized by both fervent Catholics and Protestants. (One of the great masterpieces of Elizabethan prose, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity by Richard Hooker, attempted to chart this middle course.) Most of England went to neither extreme: in the 1560s, the government was worried that many subjects were “neutrals” (people who did not care either for Protestantism or Roman Catholicism) and even “pagans” (not Christian at all). People were generally happy following the traditions and rituals their own families had followed for generations, and these were particularly important in the small village communities. Because many parts of England were very isolated, and the government relied on the local gentry to keep order in the counties, it was often very difficult to enforce the religious laws that had established the Church of England.

http://uk.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_7...

The fact that Henry didn’t meet any opposition has a certain reason: He didn’t change neither the Catholic faith nor the practices the English were used to. All Henry wanted was to free the English Church from Roman influence and papal authority. Above all, he sought to strengthen his own power. In November 1534, the "Act of Supremacy" officially established the Anglican National Church. Henry VIII made himself be appointed "Head of the English Church". He disbanded all monasteries on English territory and confiscated their property. After his death, during the reign of his son Edward, the English clergy worked out the "Act of Uniformity" which required the use of the first "Anglican Book of Common Prayer". In 1553, Henry’s daughter Mary became Queen of England. Since she was very catholic, she tried to re-establish Catholicism in England and even burnt "heretics" at the stake in order to reach her goal. In other words, she regarded to all non-Catholics as her enemies and persecuted them. However, she died after five years and was succeeded by Elizabeth I in 1558. She had the same conviction as Henry VIII and consequently revived his ecclesiastical laws. Furthermore, she continued and finished the church reform of her father Henry VIII. During her reign, the Anglican Church became what it is until today. Elizabeth I approved of Luther’s ideas and introduced them into her church, because she wanted them to be the dogmatic basis of the Anglican Church. Nevertheless, she stuck to the Catholic rite. She was uncompromising as far as religion was concerned and didn’t tolerate any kind of criticism or deviation from the principles of "her" Anglican Church. For that reason she persecuted radical followers of Luther’s reformation who didn’t want to accept the Catholic rite of the Anglican Church. The latter demanded for further reform in the Church of England. Elizabeth strictly rejected their demands and didn’t make any concessions. That’s why the majority of the radical Protestants later on emigrated to the new Colonies in North America. In order to push back the protestant influence on the Anglican Church, Elizabeth I introduced another "Book of Common Prayer" that should replace the "Second Prayer Book" which was too "Protestant-minded" in her opinion. The last attack on the Anglican Church was made when the Catholic king James II came to the throne.

However, when he was defeated by the Protestant William of Orange in 1688, the last Catholic king had to leave the English throne. From that time on, no more attempts at replacing the Anglican Church by Catholicism were made.

http://www.bg-gallus.ac.at/projekte/eliz...

Answer 3

Check out some Christopher Marlowe, a Catholic writer of the same period.

The subject material was pretty much the same. I don't think there was that much influence on Shakespeare besides trying to write popular plays that would fill the theatre and his pockets! He wrote one shockingly shameless piece of propaganda to keep the usurping Tudors happy (Richard III) but that's about it in terms of bowing to pressure.

Answer 4

At the start of Elizabeth's reign, most english people were still practicing Catholics, but by the end of her reign the Anglican church was well entrenched as the established church, and catholic practices had been mostly eliminated.

One of the major differences was that the mass in Catholic churches had been said in Latin, and the Bible had been published in Latin, whereas the Protestants believed in having church services and the bible in english.  In the reign of Henry VIII, the English bible had only been available to be read by men of the upper and middle classes (labourers, servants and women were forbidden to read it) but in the reign of Edward VI it became widely available to be read by everyone.  people of all sorts were encouraged to read the bible as the basis for their religion.  

Another big difference was that Protestants did not believe in the doctrine of Transubstantiation 9the Catholic doctrine that during the Eucharist the bread and wine actually becomes the body and blood of christ).  Protestants believed that the bread and wine were merely bread and wine.  The procession round the church at the start of high mass in which salt and water were exorcised, blessed and mixed, and the congregation sprinkled with it, was done away with.

The Protestant church disapproved of the cult of the saints, and so many of the saints days that had been celebrated as holidays in Catholic times were banned (this meant that people had far fewer days off work.  Religious images were destroyed, and walls whitewashed over, covering up the beautiful religious paintings that had adorned churches in Catholic times.  Pilgrimage shrines were destroyed.

There was a great deal of resistance to the changes in many parts of england, but gradually most people came to accept the status quo.  The monarchy in those days was all-powerful, and they had the will to impose their wishes on the people of England, whether the people wanted it or not.

The person above who says that Catholic and Protestant services were much the same is mistaken.  That might be true nowadays, but was certainly not true then.  it is Vatican II that has made them almost identical, and that only took place in the 1960s.  The Mass is no longer said in Latin, but in the vernacular, and many other Catholic rituals have been done away with.  The Catholic church today has, in fact, been Protestantised.