THE CATHOLIC REACTION UNDER MARY TUDOR, 1553-1558 A.D.
The short reign of Mary Tudor, daughter of Catherine of Aragon, was marked by a temporary setback to the Protestant cause. The queen prevailed on Parliament to secure a reconciliation with Rome. She also married her Roman Catholic cousin, Philip of Spain, the son of Charles V. Mary now began a severe persecution of the Protestants. It gained for her the epithet of "Bloody," but it did not succeed in stamping out heresy. Many eminent reformers perished, among them Cranmer, the former archbishop. Mary died childless, after ruling about five years, and the crown passed to Anne Boleyn's daughter, Elizabeth. Under Elizabeth Anglicanism again replaced Roman Catholicism as the religion of England.
234. THE PROTESTANT SECTS
EXTENT OF PROTESTANTISM
The Reformation was practically completed before the close of the sixteenth century. In 1500 A.D. the Roman Church embraced all Europe west of Russia and the Balkan peninsula. By 1575 A.D. nearly half of its former subjects had renounced their allegiance. The greater part of Germany and Switzerland and all of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Holland, England, and Scotland became independent of the Papacy. The unity of western Christendom, which had been preserved throughout the Middle Ages, thus disappeared and has not since been revived.
[Illustration: Map, EXTENT OF THE REFORMATION, 1524-1572 A.D.]
COMMON FEATURES OF PROTESTANTISM
The reformers agreed in substituting for the authority of popes and church councils the authority of the Bible. They went back fifteen hundred years to the time of the Apostles and tried to restore what they believed to be Apostolic Christianity. Hence they rejected such doctrines and practices as were supposed to have developed during the Middle Ages. The Reformation also abolished the monastic system and priestly celibacy. The sharp distinction between clergy and laity disappeared, for priests married, lived among the people, and no longer formed a separate class. In general, Protestantism affirmed the ability of every man to find salvation without the aid of ecclesiastics. The Church was no longer the only "gate of heaven."
[Illustration: CHAINED BIBLE
In the church of St. Crux, York.]