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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1553 | - 1553: Roman Catholicism
Temporary return to Roman Catholicism under Mary Tudor
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| 2 | 1554 | - 1554: Protestantism
Widespread revolts in support of Protestantism erupt.
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| 3 | 1555 | - 4 Jan 1555: Parliament's Grand Bill
This Bill restores the Catholic situation as it existed prior to 1529 but preserves the rights of Elizabeth to worship as she sees fit. Widespread persecution of Protestants included the execution of deprived churchmen and those adhering to the Protestant faith. Cardinal Pole directed that the Bishops in their visitations were to inquire, "If the parish priest had a Register with the names of those who were baptized, of the sponsors, of the married, and the dead."
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| 4 | 1557 | - 1557: Cardinal Pole's Articles
Cardinal Pole enquired of the clergy "Whether they do keep the Book or Register of Christenings, Buryings, and Marriages, with the name of the Godfather and Godmother."
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| 5 | 1558 | - 1558: Anglican Church of England
Elizabeth I formally endorsed Anglican Church of England. Taxes, fines, punishments introduced for dissenters.
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| 6 | 1559 | - 1559: Oath of Supremacy
By the Second Act of Supremacy enacted during the first years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth all beneficied clergy and crown officials were bound to swear an oath against papal authority on penalty of death. The registration injunctions were also again issued in almost the identical phraseology used under Henry VIII and Edward VI, with the slight alteration that the defaulting penalty was to be divided equally between the poor and the repair of the church.
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| 7 | 1560 | - 1560: Presbyterians
Founded by John Knox through his "Confession of Faith", provided the basis for the Church of Scotland. John Knox had been fiercely antagonistic toward Mary, Queen of Scots after her ascension to the throne.
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| 8 | 1584 | - 1584: Instrument of Association
The murder of William of Orange and the uncovering of the Throckmorton plot by Francis Throckmorton, a nephew of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I led to the drawing up of an 'Instrument of Association' binding those taking it to give their 'lyves, landes and goodes' in defence of the Queen.
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| 9 | 1597 | - 25 Oct 1597: Constitution of Convocation
of the archbishop, bishops, and clergy of the province of Canterbury, and approved by the Queen under the great seal of Great Britain, directed the more careful keeping of parochial registers, which were pronounced to be of the greatest utility (permagnus usus). The registers were for the future to be kept on parchment, and parchment copies were to be made of those old registers which were on paper. For the prevention of guile or negligence in the keeping of the registers, it was enacted that the whole of the entries of the previous week were to be read out openly and distinctly by the minister on Sunday, at the conclusion of either mattins or evensong. The names of the minister and wardens were to be appended to every page of the register on its completion. Lastly it was ordained that a copy of the parish register was to be sent by the warden annually within a month after Easter, without any fee, to the diocesan register, and there to be kept faithfully among the episcopal archives. Unfortunately, these "Bishops' Transcripts," were fitfully and slovenly kept in many places.
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| 10 | 1600s | - 1600s: Baptists
The Baptist religion was founded by John Smyth.
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| 11 | 1601 | - 1601: Provision of the Poor Laws
A system of Settlement was laid down by law, and from 1697 parochial churchwardens were empowered to issue a parishioner with a settlement certificate acknowledging his right to their aid. Armed with this, a poor man could travel and take up residence elsewhere, and the wardens of his new parish would accept him because they had documentary evidence on which to return him, if necessary, to the parish that acknowledged responsibility for him.
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| 12 | 1603 | - 1603: Canons for Parish Registers
Canons were re-iterated for an order enacting that a parchment book was to be provided at the expense of the parish, wherein were to be copied former paper registers, "so far as the ancient books thereof can be procured, but especially since the beginning of the reign of the late Queen." The safe keeping of the register was to be entrusted to "one sure Coffer with three Locks and Keys," to be in the several respective custody of the minister and the two wardens. The provision for the public weekly reading of the register was not repeated. The Sunday register entries of the past week by the minister, in the presence of the wardens was again enjoined and so too was the order for the annual transmission of the bishops' transcripts, though the exact date was changed to within a month after 25th March.
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| 13 | 1606 | - 1606: Jacobean Loyalty Oath
This oath was a response to the gunpowder plot of 1605 in an effort to expose Catholics who were actively disloyal to the King. It was not intended to be universally prescribed, and was only to be taken by those persons aged over 18 who were convicted or indicted for recusancy.
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1551 - 1619 (~ 67 years)