ABSTRACT
In November 1558 Elizabeth I succeeded her late half-sister Mary remarkably smoothly and without opposition, as directed by her father’s will and despite remaining technically illegitimate. The rosy myth of an Elizabeth golden age was already being strongly propagated, yet it needs to be viewed in context and treated with care. Thomas Cartwright, who was in his mid-thirties, represented a new generation of Elizabethan Puritans who believed that the structure of the Church of England was incompatible with scriptural precepts. Thomas Cartwright, who returned from exile in late 1572, went to see John Field in prison and demonstrated his support for the polemicist by writing and publishing A Second Admonition. John Whitgift believed that if the Church was to defend itself against the acquisitive laity it needed a united and conforming clergy. Whitgift’s suspicion of Puritan activities was not without justification, for even before he became archbishop the Presbyterian movement was making headway once again.
