« Que l’ordre soit maintenu et que de bons exemples soient donnés » : le retour à l’orthodoxie catholique durant le règne de Marie Ire (1553-1558)

• Main Author: Isabelle Fernandes
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centre de Recherche et d'Etudes en Civilisation Britannique 2013-03-01
• Series: Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/3552

England knew unheard-of changes during the Henrician Reformation as the Act of Supremacy divided the subjects’ allegiance between Rome and London. The introduction of Protestantism was limited but sufficient for heresy to take root in a country where the plough of religious deviance had already been driven by Wycliffe and the Lollards. During his six-year reign, Edward VI favoured Protestant tenets and in 1549 Mary Tudor believed that the return to the old faith was impossible, the English being badly infected. And yet when she came to power in July 1553, mass spontaneously reappeared. How did Mary Tudor bring the English Church back to the Catholic fold? The queen has gone down in history as ‘Bloody Mary’, but the ‘fire and blood’ policy was not the only solution adopted by the Marian Government to give good examples: Reginald Pole and Mary also believed in the power of pedagogy.