Marian Restoration

In July 1553, the English people revolted against an attempted coup to alter the royal succession. John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, sought to keep England Protestant by placing Lady Jane Gray on the throne with his son Guildford as king. Why? Because the rightful heir to the throne, Mary I, was Catholic. Jane reigned for nine days before Mary, at the head of a mob of English people, stormed London and seized the crown. But what happened after this?

Marian Restoration Meaning

The period from 1553 to 1558 is known as the Marian Restoration. It was the period when the Catholic Queen Mary I ruled England. Mary's primary goal was to re-establish Catholicism as the sole religion in England. During the reigns of her father, Henry VIII, and brother, Edward VI, England's religion was Protestant due to the Reformation. Mary wanted to return England to its Catholic roots and reconcile with the Pope's court in Rome. She did so through a carefully planned and executed combination of traditional Catholic principles and innovative reforms, such as establishing seminary schools to better educate the clergy.

Mary I of England, by Antonis Mor, 1554. Source: Museo di Prado, Spain, P02108 (CC)

Marian Restoration: Timeline

• 1536-1541: Henry VIII dissolved all English monasteries and seized their assets. He sold the land and buildings to noblemen, who converted them into homes.
• July 1553: Mary I claimed the English throne from Lady Jane Gray. Jane, her husband, and John Dudley were thrown in the Tower of London and later executed.
• September 1553: The Protestant Church of England leader, Thomas Cranmer, was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Cranmer was the architect of the Protestant Reformation and lived to see his work undone by the Marian Restoration. Under duress, he recanted his Protestant faith three times before finally resolving to remain a Protestant. He was burned as a heretic in 1556.

Thomas Cranmer by Gerlach Flicke, 1545. Source: National Portrait Gallery, UK, NPG 545, CC-PD-Mark.

• October 1553: Mary's first Parliament passed the First Statute of Repeal, which revoked the pro-Protestant laws of her brother, Edward VI, returning the church to what it was like in 1539 under her father Henry VIII.

• The Henrician Reforms of 1539 (The Six Articles)

  This set of religious reform laws returned the Church of England to a form closer to Catholicism from its Protestant leanings earlier in Henry VIII's reign. These articles affirmed:

  • 1) that communion was not symbolic but an actual transformation into the body and blood of Christ (transubstantiation),

  • 2) communion with both wafer and the wine was not necessary for all people,

  • 3) priests may not marry,

  • 4) priests must follow their chastity vows,

  • 5) private masses for a person's soul were permitted,

  • 6) English people were required to go to confession.

• March 1556: Cardinal Pole was named the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury.
• 1557: The Pope refused to confirm English bishops because they were appointed by Mary and not himself, hurting the Catholic revival in England.
• November 1558: Mary I died, and Cardinal Pole died 12 hours later. The Protestant Elizabeth I became queen and reversed all of Mary's pro-Catholic policies.

Cardinal Reginald Pole, by Sebastiano del Piombo, 1549. Source: Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary, 989 (CC)

Marian Restoration: Catholic Reform and Reinterpretation of the Church

Mary I sought to reinterpret the Catholic Church by introducing reforms to help it regain relevance in a post-Reformation world. Mary's Catholic Church was humanist in its philosophy, meaning that it focused more on internal faith than external acts of penance. Humanism was a form of philosophy that emerged during the Northern Renaissance and had a profound impact on England. It sought to reform the Church from within by getting rid of corrupt clergy and focusing on reform from within.

Reconciliation with the Catholic Church

Mary sought to bring England back into the Catholic Church, and her efforts were well received by Pope Julius III. He struck a special medal in honor of her ascension as queen. In her role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England, Mary gave back to the Church the taxes called First Fruits and Tenths from tithes collected during services. Her father Henry VIII had seized these assets for the crown during his Reformation, and her brother Edward VI continued the policy during his reign.

Church Reforms

Mary's church developed alongside the Council of Trent, taking place in Italy. The Council was a landmark reform movement for the Catholic Church and began the Catholic or Counter-Reformation. Both Mary and the Council sought to improve the Church's quality and reputation by using techniques borrowed from the Protestants.

For example, the restored Catholic church promoted religious texts to educate the public. Many were written and published during Mary's reign, including a collection of sermons by Bishop Edmund Bonner, which was widely used in churches across England. Mary's church also emphasized preaching much more than the traditional Catholic Church ever did because she had seen first-hand how influential preaching was during the Protestant Reformation and wished to produce a similar effect for Catholicism.

Marian Restoration: Reaction and Result

The Marian Restoration was short-lived but impactful. For five years, it reversed the Protestant church reforms during the reigns of Mary's father and brother and returned the Church to its 1539 pro-Catholic position. However, there was resistance. When Mary and Cardinal Pole restored Bishops to the Church of England, she also mandated that all clergy readopt the vow of celibacy. Under Henry VIII and Edward VI, the clergy was allowed to marry and many did so. The clergy who refused to give up their wives were dismissed from service.

The Burning of William Tyndale from John Foxe's Book of Martyrs, 1563. Source: The Horizon Book of the Elizabethan World, CC-PD-Old.

The Marian Restoration was short-lived but impactful. For five years, it reversed the Protestant church reforms during the reigns of Mary's father and brother and returned the Church to its 1539 pro-Catholic position. However, there was resistance. When Mary and Cardinal Pole restored Bishops to the Church of England, she also mandated that all clergy readopt the vow of celibacy. Under Henry VIII and Edward VI, the clergy was allowed to marry and many did so. The clergy who refused to give up their wives were dismissed from service.

Did Mary really convert the English people?

Mary imposed strict discipline over the reconversion of the English people, and those who refused to comply faced imprisonment or burning as a heretic. Whether this deterred them from true conversion or not is under debate by historians. For example, historian Eamon Duffy argues that there was no increase in disapproval of or resistance to Mary's church reform on account of the burnings.

Diarmaid MacCulloch offers a different opinion on the subject. He contends that the Marian Restoration's most lasting legacy was the burning of nearly 300 Protestants who refused to return to the Catholic Church. The 1563 John Foxe's Book of Martyrs memorialized these Protestant deaths and gave rise to the unfortunate nickname, "Bloody Mary." In MacCulloch's view, the burnings were a primary reason for the failure of the Marian Restoration.