In order to better understand the religious tension during the Elizabethan era it is important to understand what started it. Throughout the late 1500’s the catholic church reigned Supreme. Monarchs went to the extreme to be in the pope’s good grace. Kings sent warriors to fight Holy Wars, visited Relics, and purged their kingdom of people they believed to be blasphemer’s. Henry VIII was no exception. His loyalty to the catholic church was so great that Pope Leo X awarded him the title Defender in faith for his work against Martin Luther. A title that would be later stripped when Henry broke from the Catholic Church in order to marry Anne Boleyn. (Trueman) After Henry broke from the catholic church the church of England was established. Catholics
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Edward was a starch Protestant and shared his father’s disdain for Catholicism. Edward’s reign was a short one,after he died his older sister Mary Tudor became queen of England. Mary Tudor was a devout Catholic, she made it her goal to return England to the Catholic Church, during her reign many protestants were executed, earning her the nickname Bloody Mary. Her reign was also short lived. Elizabeth I. succeeded her Elizabeth did not follow in the steps of her step sister Mary or her father. Instead she said “I have no desire to make windows into men’s soul’,” meaning that she didn’t care whether her followers were Protestant or Catholic. By this time people were use to having to change their loyalties to match the preferred religion of the monarch. Shakespeare shows this in Hamlet by featuring both Catholic and Protestant …show more content…
Hamlet is the prince of Denmark a protestant country. He attends school in Wittenberg. “Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet. I pray thee, stay with us. Go not to Wittenberg.”. (Shakespeare 1.2 122-123) People who heard this during the time knew to associate Wittenberg with Protestant as “Wittenberg was home to Martin Luther, the man responsible for starting the Protestant Reformation.”(Bryan) When Hamlet ecounters the ghost. The ghost tells him that he is purgatorial ghost. “I am thy father 's spirit, Doomed for a certain term to walk the
Edward was a starch Protestant and shared his father’s disdain for Catholicism. Edward’s reign was a short one,after he died his older sister Mary Tudor became queen of England. Mary Tudor was a devout Catholic, she made it her goal to return England to the Catholic Church, during her reign many protestants were executed, earning her the nickname Bloody Mary. Her reign was also short lived. Elizabeth I. succeeded her Elizabeth did not follow in the steps of her step sister Mary or her father. Instead she said “I have no desire to make windows into men’s soul’,” meaning that she didn’t care whether her followers were Protestant or Catholic. By this time people were use to having to change their loyalties to match the preferred religion of the monarch. Shakespeare shows this in Hamlet by featuring both Catholic and Protestant …show more content…
Hamlet is the prince of Denmark a protestant country. He attends school in Wittenberg. “Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet. I pray thee, stay with us. Go not to Wittenberg.”. (Shakespeare 1.2 122-123) People who heard this during the time knew to associate Wittenberg with Protestant as “Wittenberg was home to Martin Luther, the man responsible for starting the Protestant Reformation.”(Bryan) When Hamlet ecounters the ghost. The ghost tells him that he is purgatorial ghost. “I am thy father 's spirit, Doomed for a certain term to walk the