Stage I – Challenging the Settlement
Almost immediately, the Puritans began to throw challenges at the Church Settlement which they viewed as incomplete. According to the Neale thesis, this trend began even in the 1559 Parliament which conceived the Settlement, as the ‘Puritan Choir’ forced the Queen to construct a Settlement far more radical than the one which she had envisaged. Certainly Puritan opposition became apparent in 1563 with the introduction of six extra, radical Articles in Convocation which were defeated by a single vote. This continued with the Vestiarian Controversy of 1566, which saw the deprivations of numerous clergy (some 37) and even warranted the intervention of a notable Continental reformer, Heinrich Bullinger, who warned that Puritan radicals threatened the progress of the Reformation in England. In 1571, Strickland proposed a more radical Prayer Book in Parliament, one ‘purified’ of all ‘popish’ remnants which were key to ensuring the success and acceptance of the 1559 edition: the veto of the Alphabet Bills provoked a strong anti-Puritan backlash.
In short, Puritan elements threw continual challenges at the 1559 Religious Settlement, often targeting the characteristics which were vital to ensuring its widespread acceptance by the majority of the population.
Stage II – Challenging the Church of England
Unsatisfied by their efforts to effect further reforms, certain Puritan extremists turned away from the Anglican Church itself, seeking an alternative to the rigid hierarchy of the Erastian structure which entailed royal dominion in the field of religion. This emerged as early as 1567, in the aftermath of the Vestiarian Controversy, when Grindal uncovered a London Separatist sect, the Family of Love. John Field’s ban from preaching in 1572 after failing to subscribe unconditionally to the 39 Articles and the Prayer Book made him a champion of Presbyterianism, co-authoring the Admonitions to Parliament in 1572 which Wilcox and Cartwright. The movement gathered steam after Grindal’s suspension in 1577 for refusing to suppress prophesyings, as this was taken by some to be indicative of the hopelessness of fighting the conservative impulses within the Church.
The Presbyterian Movement was twofold, in and out of Parliament. In the House of Commons, the ‘bill and book’ campaign aimed to abolish the royal supremacy and establish a radically Protestant, Presbyterian Church. Bills to this effect were introduced by Turner and Cope in 1584 and 1587 respectively. Concurrently, Field et al took advantage of Grindal’s suspension, and the consequent limitations upon the Church’s authority, to set up the Classical Movement, a grassroots Presbyterian framework which held its first national synod in London in 1582.
Stage III – The Reduction of the Puritan Danger
The growing tendency towards Protestant extremism provoked something of a conservative reaction among the authorities, exacerbated by the rise at court of the more conservative Christopher Hatton while Leicester’s star waned in light of his secret remarriage in 1578.
Whitgift’s appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1583 heralded the beginning of a crackdown on Puritan tendencies among the clergy. He implemented an ex officio oath, demanding that clergy subscribe to the Royal Supremacy, 39 Articles and Prayer Book and Ordinal: those who refused were deprived or banned from preaching. Some 300-400 became victims of this before an outcry forced him to restrict the tactic to new clergy.
Puritanism was dealt a further blow by the deaths of its leading patrons in quick succession: Leicester passed away in 1588, followed by Mildmay in 1589 and Walsingham in 1590. Puritanism was further discredited by the scurrilous Martin Marprelate tracts, published in 1589, at a time when national unity was most essential due to the risk of Spanish invasion. At the height of the Gloriana Cult, after the defeat of the Armada, the minority of radicals were seen as dangerous subversives: a view confirmed by the sad Hacket affair of 1591, which allowed the Separatists to be portrayed as potential traitors.
Ultimately, as the impetus of Parliamentary Puritanism failed, so did the grassroots tactics of Field, whose Classical Movement was dismantled by Bancroft in 1589. By the early 1590s, in the wake of punishing propaganda blows and the failure of various initiatives to establish any kind of foothold for radicals, Puritanism was effectively dead according to John Guy, and religion faded as a pivotal political issue. The Act Against Sectaries sealed the persecution of Separatists, and Morrice’s bills in 1593 failed quietly.