"As it was first settled and established under Queen Elizabeth": Laudian joy on the day of Elizabeth's Accession
And now we may behold the face of the Church of England, as it was first settled and established under Queen Elizabeth. The Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops, according to the practice of the best and happiest times of Christianity. These Bishops nominated and elected according to the statute in the 25th of King Henry VIII, and consecrated by the Ordinal, confirmed by Parliament, in the fifth and sixth years of King Edward the 6th, never appearing publickly but in their Rochets, nor officiating otherwise than in Copes at the Holy Altar. The Priests not stirring out of doors but in their square caps, gowns, or canonical coats, nor executing any divine Office but in their Surplice, a vestment set apart for Religious services in the Primitive times, as may be gathered from St. Chrysostom for the Eastern Churches, and from S. Hierom for the Western. The Doctrine of the Church reduced unto its ancient purity, according to the Articles agreed upon in Convocation Anno 1552. The Liturgy conform to the Primitive patterns, and all the Rites and Ceremonies therein prescribed, accommodated to the honour of God and increase of piety. The Festivals preserved in their former dignity, observed with their distinct Offices peculiar to them, and celebrated with with a Religious concourse of all sorts of people; the weekly Fasts, the holy time of Lent, the Embring weeks, together with the Fast of the Rogation, severely kept by a forbearance of all kind of flesh, not now by virtue of the statute, as in the time of King Edward, but as appointed by the Church in her publick Calendar before the Book of Common Prayer. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper celebrated in most reverend manner, the Holy Table reared in the place of the Altar, the people making their due reverence at their first entrance into the Church, kneeling at the Communion, the Confession, and the publick Prayers, standing up at the Creed, the Gospels, and the Gloria patri, and using the accustomed reverence at the same of Jesus. Musick retained in all such Churches where provision had been made for the maintenance of it, or where the people could be trained up at the least to plainsong. All which particulars were either established by the Laws, or commanded by the Queen's Injunctions, or otherwise retained by virtue of some ancient usages not by Law prohibited.
Now, of course, Heylyn's account was (to say the very least) somewhat romanticised. There were plenty of parishes in the Elizabethan Church in which the reality was quite different. This, however, misses the point: the Laudian Heylyn presented a romantic account of the Elizabethan Settlement. Any rather silly suggestion that the Laudians somehow wanted to undo the Reformation (as seen, for example, in the conclusion of Diarmaid MacCulloch's otherwise excellent Tudor Church Militant) has not meaningfully engaged with what the Laudians themselves (as opposed to their opponents) said. As Laud himself insisted, he sought conformity to those rites and ceremonies settled "from the beginning of the Reformation". Note, too, that Heylyn's praise for the Elizabethan Settlement is not confined to matters liturgical and ceremonial. He also praises the "ancient purity" of the Articles of Religion, describing them as equivalent to the confessions of "all other Protestant and Reformed Churches".
Heylyn goes on to rejoice in "this glorious posture" of the Elizabethan Church, standing "in so much glory" under "so excellent a mistress", following her "great example". Here was the Church the Laudians sought to defend against Puritan agitation. To quote from the concluding paragraph of Ecclesia Restaurata, here was the ecclesia Anglicana "in her primitive lustre". Here was the tradition which would become known as Anglican, "as it was first settled and established under Queen Elizabeth".
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