Hello everyone and welcome to the history of England, episode 297, Servant of Crime.

Last time I left you with the Pope's slip up. Actually I have absolutely no idea what

Renaissance Popes wore on their feet, so if someone has the low down on that, get in touch.

But before I talk about said slipper, we should go back a bit. As Vladimir Yunanov wrote

in 1904, one step forward, two steps back. To hear about the progress of religion and

all that stuff in the 1560s. So, there we go. We've seen the introduction of the acts

of supremacy and uniformity, instituting Elizabeth's via media based on Edward VI's church

followed by the 39 articles in 1563 from the convocation of the church, the statement

of the church's core beliefs. All but one of the Marion bishops walked, refusing to

accept the church of England. Most were initially imprisoned, none were executed, and after

a few years those that remained were moved to comfortable house arrest. It is a feature

of the early years of Elizabeth's reign that as exiles returned, many of the hottest sort

of Protestant bade furiously for revenge against the persecutors of Mary's reign. Very

rarely indeed did Elizabeth give in anyway, not at all in the 1560s, only when the gain

changed from the 1570s and 80s, but you just wait for that slipper.

The neo-Archbishop of Canterbury was one Matthew Parker, an academic and theologian by

nature rather than administrator. Once hailed as the author of Anglicanism, it's now being

recognised that Anglicanism is a term of a distinctive religious philosophy only properly

used after 1660 or even later, and Parker now gets little credit for doing more than

just survive his time in the job. He had been chaplain to Elizabeth's mother of course,

but the position into which Cecil, Nicholas Bacon and Elizabeth forced him as archbishop

of Canterbury, made his blood run cold. His was an unfortunate situation, working for

...