1554
The English Church returns to Roman Catholicism. The reign of Henry VIII (d. 1547) had seen the Church of England leave the obedience of Rome, though retaining most Catholic doctrine. His young son Edward VI (r. 1547-53) had decreed a full-blown Protestant church with a new Prayer Book, vernacular services and married clergy. His death brought to the throne his half-sister Mary I who had clung to her Catholicism and who was determined to see her church return to Rome. Because the Henrician reformation had distributed church lands to the nobility, Mary had to proceed carefully. In November 1554, with her marriage to a Spanish Catholic prince and the pope’s agreement that the return of church lands was not necessary, her Parliament passed the Second Act of Repeal. The House of Lords and the House of Commons declared themselves “very sorry for the schism and disobedience committed in this realm . . . against the See Apostolic” and they sought “as children repentant to be received into the bosom and unity of Christ’s Church.” All the antipapal legislation passed since 1529 was repealed and the old treason and heresy laws were revived. Within a few months the Marian government had started burning stubborn Protestants and earning the queen her sobriquet of “Bloody” Mary. Historians have argued ever since whether Roman Catholicism could have ever been successfully reimplanted into the English character had the queen lived longer than she did (d. 1558). In any event the succession of her half-sister Elizabeth would lead to a return to Protestantism and an Anglican Church.