ABSTRACT
This chapter sets the Elizabethan settlement of religion in this context and shows how the formulation and implementation of domestic policy was analogous to Elizabeth's early foreign policy towards greater Germania. Pettegree shows how the Nicodemism of Princess Elizabeth and William Cecil helped to preserve their Protestant ideologies and asserts that to a very large extent the Elizabethan settlement was a Nicodemite Reformation. John Jewel emphasized that the superficial division between German and Swiss Protestants was shallow, temporary and to be overcome by stressing areas of agreement in opposition to Tridentine Catholicism. Elizabeth's marriage prospects brought the regime into contact with major personalities of the Empire and Scandinavia. These embassies and their correspondence almost always discussed religious identity and the direction of the Protestant International along with matrimonial issues. English diplomatic activity and Anglo-Lutheran correspondence during Elizabeth's first year reflected the domestic scene and suggested a pattern for the coming years.
