Religion



 **Religon in the Elizabethan era By: Alex Carolan**
Religion in the Elizabethan era (1558-1603) was a very dicey subject. Most people in England during the 1500's were either Protestant or Catholic. What made religion a such a touchy topic? The fact that the group known as Protestants derived from the roots of Roman Catholicism. During the Elizabethan era, many priests and higher hierarchies of the church were said to be abusing their power. The priests were said to be having parties that included drinking large sums of alcohol, stealing the churches money, and various sexual activities. Upon hearing about the churches' corruption, the Protestants formed what's known as "**The Great Formation**," which made for new rules, new ideas, and an overall new religion. [|www.elizabethan-era.org] 

 The formation was created by a German man named Martin Luther. The largest organization of a church in the Western hemisphere during the Elizabethan era was the Roman Catholic church. An addition to the list of priests' misbehavings, the Catholic church was also blamed for the plaugue known as the "Black Death." The church also was selling indulgences and allowing ordinary people to be blessed with sainthood. A larg group of practioners got fed up, along with them was Luther. They released new information, that spread throughout many countries, of the amount of corruption the priests and even the pope was commiting. Luther took one of the largest steps by nailing his ninty-five theses onto the Castle Church at Wittenberg. Among the theses were complaints about the church written in Latin and more specifically, about the indulgences. Martin Luther and his group of followers branched out to create new forms of Christianity and among them, Protestantism. Queen Elizabeth made sure to make Protantism, if not the main focus of religion, one of the two. [|www.brysons.net]



Mary queen of Scotts was born and raised Catholic, but her sister Queen Elizabeth was a devote protestant. Elizabeth grew up with Henry VIII as a father, and Anne Boleyn as a mother. The Catholic church said her parents' marriage was not legal, and for as much as Elizabeth wanted some part in the royal family of England, she made sure to associate herself with the Protestant church, in which the marriage was fully legal. [|www.erasofelegance.com] 

Both Catholicism and Protestantism are responsible for many executions, for if the royal leader wanted the nation to be one of the two religions, and some were not, those would be the ones punished. Although the two religions had a vast amount of similarities, the churches had strong hate for the beliefs that were different- such as
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">how to worship God
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">how sins could be forgiven
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">priesthood and ministers
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">contents of the bible
 * <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">contents of the services