Mary I of England

Life

Mary I was the daughter of King Henry VIII of England and his first queen, Catherine of Aragon. Henry VIII broke with the papacy in Rome over his divorce and became head of the Church of England. In the process, her parents' marriage was declared invalid, and Mary for a time lost her place in the line of succession. Nevertheless, Mary remained faithful throughout her life to her mother's faith, Roman Catholicism.

In 1553 her half-brother Edward VI died. Protestant factions attempted to make Lady Jane Grey queen, but Mary rallied her supporters and took the throne. In 1554 she married Prince Philip of Spain (later Philip II). A rebellion against the marriage broke out but was suppressed. Mary died childless in 1558 and was succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I.

Policies and Achievements

Mary I reversed the Protestant Reformation that had been advanced under Edward VI. In 1554 she returned the Church of England to the authority of the papacy and restored the Latin Mass. She also revived the old laws punishing heresy (teaching that departs from orthodox doctrine).

Under these laws, Protestants were burned at the stake beginning in 1555. The number executed is generally given as about 280 to 300. Among them were Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the bishops Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley. Many of those executed were charged with denying transubstantiation, the doctrine that the bread and wine of Holy Communion are actually changed into the body and blood of Christ.

Many Protestants fled persecution to the Continent; they are commonly known as the "Marian exiles." Exiles who settled in Geneva translated the Geneva Bible under the influence of John Calvin. Its New Testament appeared in 1557 and the complete Bible in 1560. John Knox, then a pastor in Geneva, attacked Mary in a 1558 pamphlet criticizing female rulers. John Foxe's Acts and Monuments (1563), popularly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, made the stories of the martyrs of this period widely known.

Influence on the Korean Church

Mary I had no direct influence on the church in Korea. However, the Protestants who went into exile during her reign absorbed Calvinism in Geneva and later returned home. They played a major role in the English Puritan movement and in the formation of Scottish Presbyterianism. This stream led to the Westminster Confession of Faith, which many Korean Presbyterian denominations have adopted as a doctrinal standard. In this sense, the persecution and exile of the Marian era are sometimes described as part of the distant background of the Korean Presbyterian tradition.

Assessment

Protestants have long remembered Mary as a persecutor, giving her the epithet "Bloody Mary." Foxe's accounts of the martyrs helped solidify this perception.

Catholics and some historians offer a different perspective. They point out that Mary followed the contemporary European practice of punishing heresy and that other rulers also executed people over religious matters. They also argue that the efforts at church renewal undertaken during her reign deserve reassessment. Critics, on the other hand, contend that the scale and concentration of the executions were exceptional given the brevity of her reign.