What problems did the Church of England face under James I,
Catholicism was one of the first problems, which James had to deal with at the beginning reign, as Catholicism was deep-rooted and wide spread in seventeenth centaury England. But this problem was not a major or dangerous problem, as most English Catholics had been loyal to the English Crown since the reformation. The last major Catholic problem, which had faced the Crown, occurred when a minority led by Catholic exiles, Allen and Parsons, had been actively organising propaganda and occasionally armed forces against the Crown, but this incidents were in the past when James came into power. The problem that James faced was that the Church of England was based on protestant system and therefore the Catholics went against the basis of the English church. Many of James associates looked on Catholics as a danger and were suspicious of them, but James was more open-minded and could see that many of them were quiet and well minded people. James was successful in his handling of the Catholics. This is shown by the way that he balanced his view and actions towards the Catholics, by allowing a measure of toleration towards them, without offending too much the anti-papist prejudices of his subjects. This was a lot more than could be said for
James recognised that the church had been one of the main suffers under the reign of Elizabeth and its lands and income had been ruthlessly plundered by both Elizabeth and secular landowners, James saw this problem and took the necessary steps needed to solve it. For example in July 1603 he decide that all income from impropriated tithes would be devoted to paying better salaries to the Church ministers. In this way James successfully prevented further plunder of the Church and ultimately lead to the increasing wealth and prosperity of the church. The quality of the Clergy was another area, which needed serious addressing when James took over the throne. Many of the Clergymen who occupied the parishes of England were ill educated and some held more than one living and therefore did not live in their parishes. Also James was a Calvanist and he realised that the theory of pre-destination was a complex and somewhat demanding theory, so if it was explained in the wrong way, by an ill-educated member of the church it could have damaging affects. James undertook a reform of the church clergy and was successful in his mission, as by 1630 most clergymen were graduates. There was a more potentially explosive issue than Catholicism, which faced James and this was due to the people who wanted to reform the English Church in the Protestant direction. This group of people was mainly made up of Puritans, people whose life was more influenced by the Protestant principals, and they were more concerned than other to reform the church. These Puritans mainly put forward fairly moderate reformist ideas, due to the impact of Elizabeth, who had severely punished the more radical Puritan reformists during her rei
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