Tolerance in the sixteenth century

I’ve just handed in an essay for Church History, on the effects of English translations of the Bible in the sixteenth century (under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I). The essay is a little long to post, but here are some highlights:

• Elizabeth brought in a whole bunch of reforms when she came to power. She got rid of lots of the Catholicism of her predecessor and sister Mary I (‘Bloody Mary’), re-instituted the Prayer book in churches with its public readings from English Scriptures, and made going to church compulsory for everyone. You got fined a decent amount (at least in theory) if you didn’t turn up. The upshot of this was that the culture was steeped in the Bible, and not only that, but steeped in a Bible that they could understand.

• The Geneva Bible was the first bible that people could realistically afford to buy, and practically have for their own. It was like the 16th century equivalent of a modern study bible, with a whole lot of notes in the margins to explain the text. This was a deliberate effort to get the bible into the hands of the common people, so that they could read and understand it properly. The task of interpreting scripture no longer lay with the priestly class, but God’s words could be accessed (as the reformers thought that they should be) by everyone from the Queen to the common ploughboy.

• One note of interest: Revelation 9:11. The ‘Angel of the pit’, according to the notes, was ‘Antichrist the pope, king of hypocrites & Satan’s ambassador’. The Reformers didn’t mince their words.

• The Geneva Bible was the bible of the time. Everybody had it – Shakespeare, Spenser, most probably Milton and Donne too (although the KJV would have been making inroads by this time).

Pretty cool stuff, for which I for one am very thankful.