ABSTRACT
During the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, all continental Europe had found out how explosive religious differences could be when associated with conflict over legitimate political authority. Up to the mid-seventeenth century, England had been spared religious wars, largely because Elizabeth I's diplomacy had kept violent religious differences in check. The Church of England, also called the Anglican Church was the only lawful church, but there were wide variations in how Anglicanism was practiced. True Catholics had little power in England and lost what little support they had after the discovery in 1605 of the Gunpowder Plot, an alleged plot by Roman Catholic conspirators to blow up the King and both Houses of Parliament. In regions closest to the court, the practices adhered most closely to the reforms instituted by Henry VIII by catholic rituals ans in others by English Calvinists, called Puritans, had established the austere churches, and the meetings of elders, associated with Calvinist reforms on the Continent.
