1. Puritan Threat Threat from Parliament-
1559: Religious Settlement: Neale argues that the existence of a Puritan Choir worked together in an organised way to force Elizabeth to change her original Religious Settlement put to the House of Commons to be more Protestant in nature (Neale believes Eliz was an Henrician Protestant). However Elton argues that it was in fact the Catholic peers in the House of Lords who forced a change to Elizabeth’s original Religious Settlement to be more sympathetic to Catholicism. Eval: Lack of evidence for the existence of a Puritan choir (i) Neale’s overall method of study was to look for evidence to support his preconceived hypothesis that the origins of the civil war started in Elizabeth’s reign. (ii) many influential Puritans in the fist 3 months of 1559 when the RS was passed through Parliament had not yet returned from being exiled in Mary’s reign so it calls into questions the existence and therefore influence of the Puritan Choir. (iii) At the same time, the House of Lords were still dominated by Catholics at the time the RS was being passed. They had the numbers and reason to try and influence the RS at the time. Judgement: the strength of argument of the existence of the Puritan Choir casts serious doubt on the argument of Neale over the threat of Puritans to Elizabeth’s authority over the passing of the Religious Settlement.
1560s, 70s and 80s:Largest threat was Anthony Cope’s Bill and Book in 1586 where Cope introduced a new Bill to change the Book of Common Prayer to make it more Protestant. Cope received no support in the Commons and he was arrested and sent to the Tower. Parliament asked questions of Elizabeth about marriage and succession, being a single, young female monarch given the contemporary beliefs of gender at the time that she needed a consort in order to be a successful monarch. She also had no direct Tudor heir and the next in line was the Catholic Mary Stuart (Queen of Scots) which placed Elizabeth in a threatening position. The House of Commons questioned Elizabeth on this prerogative issue without permission which angered Elizabeth. However the session was simply closed down by Elizabeth and the discussions were cut short with Elizabeth announcing she would not be naming marriage suitors or successors at their request. Other prerogative issues were also discussed throughout her reign without permission such as the execution of MQS and sending support to Protestant rebels in the Netherlands. All of these sessions were closed down with no comment made by Elizabeth. Eval: Neale believes this was the work of the Puritan Choir, pushing the boundaries of the role of the Commons in order to raise it’s profile and in time, it’s power in the country – in particular Cope’s Bill and Book but he received no support – and surely he would have if the Puritan Choir existed. However Haigh would argue that Neale’s Puritan Choir did not exist and that it was ‘men of business’ placed by members of the Privy Council in the Commons to exert further pressure of Elizabeth to make a decision over threatening issues which she was, frustratingly, not making decisions on. Judgement: Whether it was the work of an organised group of Puritans or the Privy Council, ultimately, apart from a prerogative issue being discussed without permssion, Elizabeth never responded or introduced policy because of it – eg she never married, nor named a successor, she sent support to Prot rebels when she deemed it politically necessary in early 1580s when it was clear the Spanish were planning to invade and it took 15 years after the first discussion in the Commons to execute MQS before she agreed to it after she had received the evidence from Walsingham she had demanded.

2. Threat from within the Church
First problem faced by Eliz after the passage of the Rel Sett was to control the clergy – many strong Catholics started to leave, some were ‘sacked’ for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy but the largest problems was enforcing the new Act of Uniformity on the clergy. Articles and petitions were made to the Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker requesting changes to make the Act of Uni more clearly Protestant. The Archbishop and Elizabeth simply kept outlining what was expected of the clergy and nothing was altered. However in 1566 the Vestments Controversy sparked a shift in Elizabeth’s own reaction to Puritan criticism of her Rel Set. The petition called for a marked change in the Vestments which the clergy could wear – trying to ‘de-catholicise’ them. Elizabeth saw this as a conformity issue where the clergy involved were simply not prepared to accept what she had outlined. Parker gave some concessions in the Advertisements about what parts of the clergy’s apparel was essential and which were not. Those that did not agree were sacked. Eval: Elizabeth saw this as a conformity issue and that her own ministers were threatening her authority of Supreme Governor. Parker did dampen the fuory on both sides. Judgement: However it was not a complete success as some ministers still refused to accept Parker’s concessions, although the majority of the clergy responded to Elizabeth’s harsh stance on the issue and it was not a serious issue for the remainder of her reign.
Threat from local movements
1560s, 70s and 80s: Presbyterian teachings and discussions took place, especially in some academic circles such as Thomas Cartwright at Cambridge, claiming the Elizabethan Rel Set was not leading to a ‘true’ Reformation. Cartwrights’s acadmeic freedom of speech was quicklu removed along with his professorhip at Cambridge. The vice-chancellor of the university (John Whitgift) was determined it should be a model of orthodoxy. Eval: leading thinkers of England were stopped from studying the beliefs and claims and it showed the support Eliz had from the academic strongholds in England.
The Admonition to the Parliament was published in 1572 by two leading Puritans – Field and Wilcox, in which they argued that all superstitious images should be removed and that a Genevan ministry of pastors should replace the leadership of the Church of England. This was seen a Puritan threat to the CofE and as such Elizabeth quickly had both authors arrested and they spent a year in prison. Eval: although stopped quickly and easily, the Admonition was an appeal to the general public and had a wide readership and initiated a pamphlet war between its supporters and detractors, so it did bring into the public field the Puritan debate.
Prophesyings: meetings where prayers and sermons were said. Originally they took place to improve standards of the clergy and were popular with clerics and even members of the Privy Council at times. However by 1570s Elizabeth saw it clearly as Puritans trying to put forward their views. Eliz saw them as potentially dangerous as they could encourage unrest and rebellion. Parker died and was replaced with Edmund Grindal and was instructed to suppress prophesyings. He refused as he saw the benefits of them to educate clergy further. Elizabeth banished him to his house until his death in 1583 when she replaced him with John Whitgift who was far more conciliatory to Elizabeth and followed her orders. Eval: easily stopped when Whitgift was in post, and there was no talk of threatening Eliz’s authority however in the 1570s at a time of heightened security due to the Cath threat, Eliz was overly cautious and sensitive to any threats to her authority. Judgement: If organised the threat could have been real, but there is no evidence that this was the case. Elizabeth ‘disposed’ easily of those who would not support her.

3. Threat from local movements cont….:
Separatism: Puritans who were not prepared to compromise. They could no accept the services offered in the English Church as reflecting the true religion and so set up their own church.
1560s and 70s: there were 2 which were rooted out easily and stopped – one by Grindal in 1567 and anther in Cambridge who formed their own church in Norwich but who ere arrested and after the spell in prison fled to Holland.
Eval: in theory a threat as it completely went against Eliz’s RS and her authority but neither group received much support and were stopped easily. Judgement – theoretical threat, but easily stopped.
1590s : A separatist movement was established by Henry Barrow and John Greenwood in London. The Act against sectaries led to their arrest and execution. This was the end of the threat. Eval: the fact there was an act passed against separatism as a treasonable issue showed the govt and Eliz saw this as a real threat. Judgement: received very little support and the leaders were easily found, stopped and convicted.
Overall judgement for local movements – her Rel Sett, Prayer Book and 39 Articles ruled by her Supremacy left little room for question as to what was expected. There was very little evidence at all of dissent.