ABSTRACT
The Church with which Bartolomé Carranza was in contact during his stay in England was a curious hybrid. Traditional Protestant historiography has represented it as highly reactionary, full of the grossest superstition. Mary's Church conducted one of the fiercest and most concentrated persecutions in Christian history, and ended by having the effect of demonizing Catholicism, in Protestant circles, for centuries. The Marian Church undoubtedly carried a baggage of unre-formed attitudes, both among the clergy and the laity, and the persecution gave free rein to some base instincts. However, the Queen herself made three serious errors, each one understandable and defensible in itself, but together eventually fatal. Mary was undeniably unfortunate. She was childless, and her country was ravaged by harvest failure and disease. She lost England's last Continental possession, Calais, and she died when things were almost at their worst. However, it was her mistakes which made her death a turning point in English history.
