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There was also a lot of conflict between Charlatanry and Catholicism. In both time periods there was an Intense debate and conflict about what It meant to be religious, or more specifically, Christian. Mainstream Charlatanry teaches that God exists In three forms: the Father, who created the world; the Son, Jesus, who redeemed humankind: and the Holy spirit, the continuing supernatural power In the life of the Church. This belief has inevitably given rise to numerous questions and differences of interpretation that have divided Christians across the centuries.
It’s these questions that split the western Christianity world during the Reformation. The nominate expression of western Christianity emphasized the importance of tradition, and the authority of the church as the interpreter of Christian teaching. The observation of particular rituals and the reception of sacraments administered by the church were perceived as vital for personal salvation. When Roger Martyr talks about what it meant to be religious in his childhood years, it’s easy to identify that there was a lot of respect for material objects.
It helped people visualize and understand Christian teaching, and which were hallowed by long association and presence in the church. Participation in rituals were also a common thing in the years of Roger Martyr’s childhood, so was processions and music highlighting the perceived presence of God in the consecrated bread and wine. There is much emphasis in the richness of the liturgical calendar that marked out the cycle of the year, and the centrality to worship of the Mass and the consecrated bread believed to become the actual body of Christ.
In contrast to this, Protestantism stressed that salvation depended on personal faith rather than participation in the rituals of the church, that believers could draw erect spiritual inspiration from God rather than being dependent on the hierarchy of priests and bishops, and that ultimate authority lay In the original text of the Bible rather than in the church traditions. It also meant that churches had to be much plainer, the colorful rituals and Images that Martyr loved were seen as distractions from essential spiritual realities and had to be suppressed.
However, these changes took place over a number of years during Roger Martyr’s childhood. It first started when King Henry VIII conflict with the Papacy. After the came Protestant. Although Protestantism didn’t last long; after the death of Henry Vic’s son, Edward VI, Mary I came to the throne and she sough to impose Catholicism. She faced opposition from the minority if convicted Protestants. But once again, after the death of Mary l, her sister Elizabeth l, took the throne.
Queen Elizabeth I was a convicted Protestant, so one again, Protestantism was introduced. Elizabeth I was a shrewd politician who wanted religion as far as possible to unite rather than divide her subjects. The Church of England’s position was defined in Leary Protestant terms in the Act of Uniformity of 1 559, which enforced the use of the Protestant forms of worship, and the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1 563, which specified the doctrine of the church, but it retained some of the traditional features.
These traditional features included the hierarchy of bishops. Once the church became Protestant, the experience for church-goers changed and so did the appearance of churches. Images, especially roods, were removed and destroyed and all the books and all the physical paraphernalia of Catholic worship were to be removed and replaced with a board displaying the Ten Commandments. The clergy were no longer meant to wear colorful vestments; they now had to wear ‘a decent large surplice with sleeves’.
As for the interior of the churches, they became much plainer and visual representations of Christian teaching gave way to written ones. Instead of the rituals that Roger Martyr knew as a child, in the reign of Elizabeth l, it was emphasized to preach rather than take part in rituals. After this implementation, pulpits became a prominent feature in churches. Christian teaching was now to be communicated through the study of the biblical text, by participation n the prescribed language of the liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer and preaching.
In conclusion, in the years of Roger Martyr religion had a lot of authority. People had to rely on the church for worship and had to take part in rituals. However in the reign of Elizabeth l, worship became a personal thing and even though people still had to go to church, they didn’t have to solely reply on the church. The church no longer had the same authority it used to have but the hierarchy of bishops were still around. Rituals were also taken away and people worshipped using biblical text.