Bloody Mary Essay Research Paper In his

Bloody Mary Essay, Research Paper

In his book, W.F.M. Prescott makes it quite clear that Mary I has come down in history with the unpleasant name of “Bloody Mary” because of the religious persecutions of her reign. Also called Mary Tudor (well-evidenced by the book’s title), she was the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. I must ass that Prescott does a bit more to honor Mary and begins well in part by writing how one of her first benevolent” priorities was the return of the ceremonies and physical beauties of the old faith.

I learned from the book that years before the first parliament of the reign overturned all the Edwardian religious legislation, white-washed churches, decorated only with the royal arms and scriptural texts, were (apparently for the first time in quite a while–) flooded with color and movement as “altars, statues and painted windows were replaced, and processions and ceremonies restored; some of the confiscated church plate was turned round as soon as it reached the royal

coffers, and restored to the churches and chapels from which

it had come.” And yes indeed– Mary’s first acts were all apparently quite good-willed. In accordance with the Articles of March 1554, which ordered observance of ‘all manner of processions’ and ‘laudable and honest ceremonies’, Palm

Sunday in London was marked by ‘bearing of palms’, and Good

Friday by ‘creeping to the cross … with the cryptic lights

and the Resurrection on Easter Day’. Soon, anniversaries

such as St Catherine’s Day and St Andrew’s Day were being observed with great solemnity, and craft processions, Corpus

Christi plays and the old traditions forbidden by Protestants, such as May games and morris dancing, re-appeared. Prescott writes how during the summer of 1554, when Mary’s marriage to Philip of Spain was solemnized at Winchester, the church exterior and the choir were lavishly hung with tapestries and cloth of gold, and the queen’s chapel joined the Winchester choir in ’such sweet proportion of music and harmony as … was never before heard or invented.’ By the time of the formal reconciliation with Rome in November 1554, it would seem that the magnificence of polyphony and the old high treble style were to be heard once more in many cathedrals and in the Chapel Royal, where the choir was occasionally supplemented by Philip’s Low Country choristers, the “capilla flamenca.” In one of the

more artistic sections of the book, Prescott describes how

organs, silenced by reformers such as Holgate at York and

Ridley in London, were tuned and restored — that in the

Chapel Royal was in use by September 1553 — and song-books

written out again. The demand of the reformers of the

previous reign for musical settings which did not obscure

the words of the confirmation had created some difficulties

for church musicians, while composers such as Thomas Tallis

and John Sheppard seem to have relaxed in the more congenial

atmosphere of Marian England, producing various pieces with

special emphasis on the word ‘Maria’ in tribute to the queen. — At this, I can not help but balk slightly–wondering about the support that someone so crudely remembered might have once received… It was; of course, not possible to restore the church to its former glory overnight, and the authorities concentrated their efforts accordingly on improving the appearance of cathedrals and parish churches. They were especially determined that rood-screens should be re-erected and that the patron saint of individual churches should be adequately represented. While some shrines were restored — for

instance, Prescott offers in the book that of Edward the onfessor was set up again at Westminster in March 1557, with ‘a hundred

lights’ — no great official effort was made to revive places of pilgrimage. Equally, although a few monasteries were restored, Prescott’s book does make it clear that neither Mary nor the church authorities appear to have given them very high priority: only the return of the Benedictines to Westminster, where the installation of the new abbot, John Feckenham, in November 1556, was marked by numerous ceremonies ‘after the old fashion’, received much publicity. In retrospect, I realize that this is not really that surprising since monasticism had a bad reputation probably from as far back as the days of Erasmus, while Thomas Cromwell’s propaganda efforts in the 1530’s had undoubtedly increased English mistrust of what Prescott refers to as ‘baldpated abbots’. In any case, neither shrines nor

monasteries were usually the result of ‘official’ patronage,

depending rather upon the inspiration of private individuals.

Similarly, no concerted official effort seems to have been made to restore the fraternal groups, or “lay associations” providing members with a good funeral and regular masses for their souls, which had been so characteristic of late medieval English Catholicism. According to Prescott, this depended upon private initiative. One or two associations, like the Holy Ghost guild and confraternity at Guildford, were indeed refounded, while others, such as the Jesus Guild at St Paul’s, were restored in a different form. But there was no great rush to recreate such institutions, because in Prescott’s opinion

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