{{Short description|Religious debate in the Palace of Westminster}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}} The '''Westminster Conference of 1559''' was a religious disputation held early in the reign of Elizabeth I of England. Although the proceedings themselves were perfunctory, the outcome shaped the Elizabethan religious settlement and resulted in the authorisation of the 1559 ''Book of Common Prayer''.

==Participants== The participants were nine leading Catholic churchmen, including five bishops, and nine prominent Protestant reformers of the Church of England.

Catholics: *The bishops Ralph Baynes, John White, Thomas Watson, Owen Oglethorpe,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/johnfoxe/apparatus/person_glossaryO.html |title=John Foxe's Book of Martyrs |access-date=15 June 2011 |archive-date=14 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614110416/http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/johnfoxe/apparatus/person_glossaryO.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Cuthbert Scott;<ref>[http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/johnfoxe/main/person12_793.html] {{dead link|date=February 2022}}</ref> with Alban Langdale,<ref>{{ODNBweb|id=16008|title=Langdale, Alban|first=Jonathan|last=Wright}}</ref> Henry Cole, William Chedsey, and Nicholas Harpsfield.

Protestants *John Jewel, John Scory, Richard Cox, David Whitehead (in some sources called Thomas Whitehead),<ref>{{ODNBweb|id=29286|title=Whitehead, David|first=Andrew|last=Pettegree}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.johnfoxe.org/index.php?realm=text&gototype=modern&edition=1583&pageid=2142|title=''Acts and Monuments Online'', Conference or Disceptation had betwixt the Protestantes and the Papistes at Westminster|website=Johnfoxe.org|access-date=13 February 2022}}</ref> Edwin Sandys, Edmund Grindal, Robert Horne, John Aylmer, and Edmund Gheast.

==Accounts== From the Protestant side, Cox and Jewel gave official accounts, and John Foxe and Raphael Holinshed published on the conference based on those.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/holinshed/texts.php?text1=1587_8809|title=''Holinshed Project'', The peaceable and prosperous regiment of blessed Queene Elisabeth (1587, Volume 6, p. 1182)|website=English.ox.ac.uk|access-date=13 February 2022}}{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Other accounts, from Catholics, are by Aloisio Schivenoglia, the Count de Feria, and Nicholas Sanders;<ref>G. E. Phillips, ''The Extinction of the Ancient Hierarchy'' (1905), p. 80; [https://archive.org/stream/theextinctionof00philuoft#page/80/mode/2up archive.org].</ref> Schivenoglia acted as secretary to Sir Thomas Tresham.<ref name="Chaney1990">{{cite book|author=Edward Chaney|author-link=Edward Chaney|title=England and the Continental Renaissance: Essays in Honor of J.B. Trapp|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=24wcpBPmNQAC&pg=PA92|access-date=14 November 2012|year=1990|publisher=Boydell Press|isbn=978-0-85115-270-7|page=92}}</ref>

==Proceedings== The conference started on 31 March 1559; the disputation began, and was stopped because of disagreement on rules, and was adjourned (as it turned out, permanently), on April 3 (a Monday).<ref name="Morrissey2011">{{cite book|author=Mary Morrissey|title=Politics and the Paul's Cross Sermons, 1558-1642|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j7smutvuRcYC&pg=PA71|access-date=14 November 2012|date=16 June 2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-957176-5|page=71}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=William P. Haugaard|title=Elizabeth and the English Reformation: The Struggle for a Stable Settlement of Religion....|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YRY7AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA107|access-date=14 November 2012|year=1968|publisher=CUP Archive|pages=102–3|id=GGKEY:LA9WJTAP5T9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Charles Dodd|title=Dodd's Church History of England from the Commencement of the Sixteenth Century to the Revolution in 1688. With Notes, Additions and a Continuation ...: Edward VI. Mary. Elizabeth. Appendix|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MgVMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA136|access-date=20 November 2012|year=1839|publisher=C. Dolman|pages=135–6 note}}</ref> The timing coincided with the Easter recess of Parliament. It has been argued that the event was staged to discredit the Catholic position on reform,<ref name="S.J.1996">{{cite book|author=Thomas M. McCoog, S.J.|title=The Society of Jesus in Ireland, Scotland, and England 1541-1588: Our Way of Proceeding?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BB4u8Lg9-lwC&pg=PA43|access-date=14 November 2012|year=1996|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-10482-2|page=43 note 4}}</ref> and Patrick Collinson states that the disputation was manipulated to that end.<ref>{{cite book|author=Patrick Collinson|title=The Elizabethan Puritan Movement|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O8c9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA32|access-date=14 November 2012|year=1967|publisher=Methuen|isbn=978-0-416-34000-6|page=32}}</ref> It took place in Westminster Hall.<ref>{{cite book|author=Patrick Collinson|title=Godly People: Essays On English Protestantism and Puritanism (History Series, 23)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EXWCEhxY0M0C&pg=PA587|access-date=14 November 2012|date=2 August 2003|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-907628-15-6|page=587}}</ref>

There were three articles at issue in the disputation (on the liturgical language, church authority over forms of worship, and scriptural warrant for propitiatory masses).<ref name="RWD">Richard Watson Dixon, ''History of the Church of England: from the abolition of the Roman jurisdiction'' vol. 5 (1902) pp. 75–7 note; [https://archive.org/stream/historyofthechur05dixouoft#page/n109/mode/2up archive.org.]</ref> Nicholas Bacon was in the chair, with Nicholas Heath sitting by him.<ref name="Bacon">{{ODNBweb|id=1002|title=Bacon, Nicholas|first=Robert|last=Tittler}}</ref><ref>Birt, p. 105.</ref> John Feckenham and James Turberville sat with the bishops' side.<ref name="RWD"/>

For the Catholic side, Henry Cole began, defending the use of Latin in the liturgy.<ref>{{ODNBweb|id=5851|title=Cole, Henry|first=T. F.|last=Mayer}}</ref> Then Robert Horne replied, with a prepared statement. He put the case for English.<ref>{{ODNBweb|id=13792|title=Horne, Richard|first=Ralph|last=Houlbrooke}}</ref> The disputation then foundered: there was a lack of agreement whether it should be oral or written, and whether Latin or English should be employed.<ref name="Solt1990">{{cite book|author=Leo Frank Solt|title=Church and State in Early Modern England: 1509-1640|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a57Ypa5dZBQC&pg=PA70|access-date=13 November 2012|year=1990|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-505979-3|page=70}}</ref> Heath, who had collaborated in Bacon in setting up the disputation, did not intervene to support the Catholic side's view on the pre-agreed conditions.<ref>{{ODNBweb|id=12840|title=Heath, Nicholas|first=David|last=Loades}}</ref>

Bacon in the chair was not neutral: he pushed some of the Catholic participants into offensive behaviour.<ref name="Bacon"/> Of the bishops, Watson and White were sent to the Tower of London. Sir Ambrose Cave and Sir Richard Sackville were ordered to search their houses and papers.<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Cave, Ambrose}}</ref><ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Sackville, Richard}}</ref> Six more of the participants were fined by the privy council.<ref name="Solt1990"/>

==Aftermath== William Bill preached on the reasons for the imprisonment of the two bishops on 9 April. On the following day a new bill for royal supremacy was moved.<ref name="Morrissey2011"/> The Act of Uniformity 1558 passed successfully through Parliament, but the margin in the House of Lords was a slender three votes. Edward Rishton attributed absences of Catholic bishops and laymen from the Lords to underhand tactics.<ref name="Solt1990"/>

When in the following year Jewel restated the position of the Church of England after the settlement, and invited refutations, Cole replied to him, starting an extended controversy.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Thomas M. McCoog, S.J.|author2=Campion Hall (University of Oxford)|title=The Reckoned Expense: Edmund Campion and Early English Jesuits : Essays in Celebration of the First Centenary of Campion Hall, Oxford (1896-1996)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f01RY4H7MfoC&pg=PA121|access-date=14 November 2012|year=1996|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd|isbn=978-0-85115-590-6|page=121}}</ref>

==References== *Henry Norbert Birt, ''The Elizabethan religious settlement: a study of contemporary documents'' (1907); [https://archive.org/stream/elizabethanrelig00birtrich#page/100/mode/2up online.]

==Notes== {{Reflist}}

Category:1559 in Christianity Westminster Category:History of the Church of England Category:1559 in England Category:History of the City of Westminster Category:16th century in London Category:Conferences in London