Historical and Religious Background in the 17th Century

Historical and Religious Background

* The Queen Elizabeth died childless in 1603. Thus, the Tudor Dynasty is over and begins the reign of The Stuarts with James 1st, The King James VI of Scotland, son of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. * In 16th July 1054 three Roman legates fractured relations between the Western and Eastern Christian churches by placing an invalid Papal Bull of Excommunication on the altar during Saturday afternoon divine liturgy. This is often dated as the start of the East-West Schism. England was a catholic country, of the West. * In 1521 Martin Luther founded another religion – The Protestant Church. The Pope was no longer the head of the Church; the power was taken by the King. * The Anglican Church derived from the Protestant Church and Catholicism; the churches belonging to this religion were built very simple, with no statues and no riches. * Henry 8th dismantled any church/monastery that did not have a social function, an idea derived from the Protestant Church. * During the 17th and 18th centuries was maintained the same religion. * In 1605 there had been a plot, engineered by Catholics, to blow King James and his ministers up in the Houses of Parliament where Guy Fawkes had planted barrels of gunpowder in the cellars. * Thus, the prestige of Catholicism went down. They could not go to university, vote or have a public position, and were taxed and penalized in other ways - they were not, for example, allowed to keep a horse worth £10.– this lasted all the 18th century. * In 1620 took place the first emigration of the Pilgrims to the New World; the Pilgrim Fathers left England on a ship named “Mayflower”. The first colony landed in America and established in Virginia, Jamestown. The city revived and flourished with the discovery of tobacco and trade marketing which brought riches to the town. Virginia