Germany, and of
particular interest was the concept of solo fide (faith alone), which was about
your own beliefs in God and had nothing to do with good works.
William Tyndale's English Bible (see Chapter 6) sold in huge quantities, espe-
cially when it was backed by Henry VIII who believed everybody should read
God's word.
The Tudor era was a time of great religious change:
Henry VIII fell out with the Pope, changed the calendar and destroyed
the monasteries. Henry himself stayed Catholic, but breaking up with
Rome was the only way he could get a son to continue the Tudor line. So
he made himself supreme head of the Church and the idea lived on after
him (see Chapter 6).
Edward VI, under advice from his Protestant uncles, changed the Latin
mass to English, brought in an English prayer book and stopped indi-
vidual confession. This caused confusion and dismay for many (see
Chapter 7).
When Mary became queen she brought back the Latin mass and all the
traditional ceremonies, causing confusion and dismay to all those happy
under Edward's arrangements. Her religious package included kowtow-
ing to the Pope again and she burned opponents at Smithfield in London
(see Chapter 10).
Elizabeth's Church of 1559 was a via media (a compromise) � part
Catholic and part Protestant. She made herself supreme governor and
brought in a new English prayer book. Over time, her Church became less
and less Catholic, but she refused to bring in yet more changes demanded
by off-the-wall revolutionaries called Puritans (see Chapter 14).
England was just as Christian at the end of the Tudors' reign as it had been at
the start, but some things had changed forever:
The Pope was now the Bishop of Rome, and the Church of England was
totally independent.
Confession between priest and man had gone, as had carvings of saints,
wall paintings and pilgrimages.
Chapter 1: Touring the Time of the Tudors 17
Good Christians did charitable works, went to church and read their
Bibles. They did not go on pilgrimages; they did not say prayers for
the dead.
Seeing How the Masses Lived
The 16th century saw a dramatic population growth. Accurate figures don't
exist (the first census wasn't made until 1801), but from Church and tax
records historians can work out that in 1500 about 2.5 million people lived
in England and Wales (Ireland was a sort of colony and was always counted
separately) and by 1600 it was about 4 million.
Farming and agriculture were by far the most common jobs and this didn't
change over the Tudor period. About 90 per cent of people lived and worked
on the land and most towns were very small by modern standards. London
was the exception, with about 50,000 inhabitants, but that was only a quarter
of the size of, say, Venice.
Following in father's footsteps
Most boys grew up to do the job their fathers did and most girls followed
their mothers. For a minority of boys (never girls), that meant becoming
apprenticed to learn a trade; the training lasted seven years. At the end of
that time, the apprentice made a masterpiece to prove he was competent
to go it alone in the world of manufacture. Some boys entered services at
all levels, running pubs, teaching, fishing along various rivers or around the
coasts, or learning nasty, dangerous trades, such as working in the tanning
industry, which were known as stink jobs. Another tiny but growing hand-
ful became merchants dealing with the European centres like Antwerp and
organisations like the Hanse. The vast majority of boys, though, followed
their fathers to work on the land.
Visiting the average village
Historians know a lot about the lives of the majority of Tudor men and
women from The Book of Husbandry written by Sir Anthony Fitzherbert in
1523 and updated throughout the century.
Early Tudor England wasn't full of downtrodden peasants longing for the
Reform Act of 1832 to give them
particular interest was the concept of solo fide (faith alone), which was about
your own beliefs in God and had nothing to do with good works.
William Tyndale's English Bible (see Chapter 6) sold in huge quantities, espe-
cially when it was backed by Henry VIII who believed everybody should read
God's word.
The Tudor era was a time of great religious change:
Henry VIII fell out with the Pope, changed the calendar and destroyed
the monasteries. Henry himself stayed Catholic, but breaking up with
Rome was the only way he could get a son to continue the Tudor line. So
he made himself supreme head of the Church and the idea lived on after
him (see Chapter 6).
Edward VI, under advice from his Protestant uncles, changed the Latin
mass to English, brought in an English prayer book and stopped indi-
vidual confession. This caused confusion and dismay for many (see
Chapter 7).
When Mary became queen she brought back the Latin mass and all the
traditional ceremonies, causing confusion and dismay to all those happy
under Edward's arrangements. Her religious package included kowtow-
ing to the Pope again and she burned opponents at Smithfield in London
(see Chapter 10).
Elizabeth's Church of 1559 was a via media (a compromise) � part
Catholic and part Protestant. She made herself supreme governor and
brought in a new English prayer book. Over time, her Church became less
and less Catholic, but she refused to bring in yet more changes demanded
by off-the-wall revolutionaries called Puritans (see Chapter 14).
England was just as Christian at the end of the Tudors' reign as it had been at
the start, but some things had changed forever:
The Pope was now the Bishop of Rome, and the Church of England was
totally independent.
Confession between priest and man had gone, as had carvings of saints,
wall paintings and pilgrimages.
Chapter 1: Touring the Time of the Tudors 17
Good Christians did charitable works, went to church and read their
Bibles. They did not go on pilgrimages; they did not say prayers for
the dead.
Seeing How the Masses Lived
The 16th century saw a dramatic population growth. Accurate figures don't
exist (the first census wasn't made until 1801), but from Church and tax
records historians can work out that in 1500 about 2.5 million people lived
in England and Wales (Ireland was a sort of colony and was always counted
separately) and by 1600 it was about 4 million.
Farming and agriculture were by far the most common jobs and this didn't
change over the Tudor period. About 90 per cent of people lived and worked
on the land and most towns were very small by modern standards. London
was the exception, with about 50,000 inhabitants, but that was only a quarter
of the size of, say, Venice.
Following in father's footsteps
Most boys grew up to do the job their fathers did and most girls followed
their mothers. For a minority of boys (never girls), that meant becoming
apprenticed to learn a trade; the training lasted seven years. At the end of
that time, the apprentice made a masterpiece to prove he was competent
to go it alone in the world of manufacture. Some boys entered services at
all levels, running pubs, teaching, fishing along various rivers or around the
coasts, or learning nasty, dangerous trades, such as working in the tanning
industry, which were known as stink jobs. Another tiny but growing hand-
ful became merchants dealing with the European centres like Antwerp and
organisations like the Hanse. The vast majority of boys, though, followed
their fathers to work on the land.
Visiting the average village
Historians know a lot about the lives of the majority of Tudor men and
women from The Book of Husbandry written by Sir Anthony Fitzherbert in
1523 and updated throughout the century.
Early Tudor England wasn't full of downtrodden peasants longing for the
Reform Act of 1832 to give them
Similar Books
