Introduction – Give a brief summary of the key changes that happened in the English and Welsh Church during the Tudor period. State that you do or don’t believe that the dissolution of the monasteries was the most important. The Regency Council that ran Edwards’s government was reformist in character. Both Somerset and Northumberland implemented a number of pieces of religious legislation. Act of Six Articles repealed. Heresy laws repealed. Act of Supremacy 1549 – required the first use of the Book of Common Prayer (it was in English but was a direct translation of the Catholic rites and the use of the Eucharist). Protestant refugees welcomed. Priests allowed to marry. Tolerance of publication of Protestant texts. No one executed only for religion. Chantries dissolved in Combined with an attack on the doctrine of purgatory. January 1548 – several traditional religious practises banned (e.g. fasting at Lent). February 1548 – destruction of stained-glass windows and images of saints. No more Elevation of the Host altars removed and replaced by Communion tables Prayer Book enforced by the Act of Uniformity which included a Zwinglian (after Huldrych Zwingli) declaration about the Eucharist (‘Take this and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee’). Steered England in a more Protestant direction. Again, these reforms would have had an impact on the services that would have been taking place. Some of these were reforms considered to be too extreme and they were partly the cause of the Western Rebellion in Brought about by the 1536 Act for the Dissolution of the Smaller Monasteries. After this 399 of the 800 or so were closed. Led to the Pilgrimage of Grace gave Cromwell the excuse to close down the rest of the larger monasteries between 1538 and Was important because: it removed a potential Papal power base – and ends the opportunity for people to go on pilgrimages. A huge amount of wealth and land was now available to the monarchy (it could have doubled its income although the land was sold off quickly and without getting a maximum amount for it). Those who did buy the land now had a stake in continuing the Protestant Reformation. There were also important effects in terms of landscape (many ancient buildings were left in ruins) and poverty. Monasteries had been providers of charity and employment. This was now no longer available. Mary’s First and Second Acts of Repeal (1553 and 1555) reversed the religious legislation of Edward (firstly), then Henry (secondly). England and Wales were now Catholic and the Pope was again the head of the Church. Mary enforced these changes through education and also persecution. Around 300 Protestants were burnt at the stake for refusing to recant. To what extent was the dissolution of the monasteries the most important of the religious changes in Wales and England in the period ? Elizabeth’s religious or Church settlement attempted to end the divisions over religion. England and Wales would be Protestant but there would be some toleration of private Catholic practice. The Act of Supremacy, Act of Uniformity, and the Royal Injunctions of 1559, combined with the Act of the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1562 defined this settlement. Extremism was not tolerated – neither Catholicism or Puritanism. This laid the foundations for the modern Church of England (Anglican) Church. Without the Break with Rome and, arguably the most important part of this, the Act of Supremacy of 1534, the dissolution of the monasteries would not have happened. Increasingly, the legislation from Parliament throughout the 1530s gradually separated the English and Catholic Churches. Mention some of these laws: E.G. Act Extinguishing the Authority of the Bishop of Rome in The importance of this: led to religious division and issues for the future Tudor monarchs. Henry could get his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. There was an increase in brutality as the Act of Supremacy was enforced by the Treason Act of The way of life of many ordinary people was to change (for example, the Bible would now be in English). The translation of the Bible into Welsh in 1588 could be seen as an important religious change for the Welsh. It meant that Welsh speakers could have direct access to the scriptures and a fuller understanding of the services. It also laid the foundation for Welsh literature today (the language may have died out if it wasn’t for this).