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Recusants were Roman Catholics who refused to attend Church of England services as required by law. [55] Recusancy was punishable by fines of £20 a month (fifty times an artisan's wage). "Church papists" were Roman Catholics who outwardly conformed to the established church while maintaining their Catholic faith in secret. [56]
The English Protestant Reformation was imposed by the English Crown, and submission to its essential points was exacted by the State with post-Reformation oaths.With some solemnity, by oath, test, or formal declaration, English churchmen and others were required to assent to the religious changes, starting in the sixteenth century and continuing for more than 250 years.
These included a number of prominent clergy, mainly in the diocese of London, whose bishop, Grindal, had packed his see with former exiles and activists for reform. [e] The petition was approved by all the commissioners except Parker and Guest, who rejected it. Sampson and Humphrey were then the first nonconformist leaders to be targeted by Parker.
Some Puritans refused to bow on hearing the name of Jesus, or to make the sign of the cross in baptism, or to use wedding rings or the organ. Yet, the main complaint Puritans had was the requirement that clergy wear the white surplice and clerical cap. [20] Puritan clergymen preferred to wear black academic attire.
Puritan clergy in this movement organised local presbyteries or classes, from which the movement took its name. Through the 1580s, Puritans were organised enough to conduct what were essentially covert national synods. [97] John Whitgift was Archbishop of Canterbury and a defender of the Elizabethan Settlement
The clergy were to acknowledge the King to be "singular protector, supreme lord and even, so far as the law of Christ allows, supreme head of the English Church and clergy". When Warham requested a discussion, there was silence. Warham then said, "He who is silent seems to consent", to which a bishop responded, "Then we are all silent."
The king was given possession of all church property, church appointments required royal approval, the clergy were subject to the civil law, and the "pure Word of God" was to be preached in the churches and taught in the schools—effectively granting official sanction to Lutheran ideas. [53]
Nor was the process of assimilation by any means one-sided. If Spain and Gaul borrowed from Rome, they also exercised a reciprocal influence on the Roman use. A large proportion of the names of the liturgical vestments are not of Roman origin, and the non-Roman names tended to supersede the Roman in Rome itself. [a] [4]