This study examines the problem of religious and political obedience in early modern England. Drawing upon extensive manuscript research, it focuses on the reign of Mary I (1553-1558), when the official return to Roman Catholicism was accompanied by the prosecution of Protestants for heresy, and the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603), when the state religion again shifted to Protestantism. I argue that the cognitive dissonance created by these seesaw changes of official doctrine necessitated a society in which religious mutability became standard operating procedure. For most early modern men and women it was impossible to navigate between the competing and contradictory dictates of Tudor religion and politics without conforming, dissimulating, or changing important points of conscience and belief. Although early modern theologians and polemicists widely declared religious conformists to be shameless apostates, when we examine specific cases in context it becomes apparent that most individuals found ways to positively rationalize and justify their respective actions.

This fraught history continued to have long-term effects on England's religious, political, and intellectual culture. Therefore, this study also traces the ways in which the official commemoration of religious conflict, with its emphasis on a romanticized past of martyrdom and resistance, often contrasted sharply with the remembered history of capitulation and conformity. The decisions and rationalizations made during the Marian persecution did not simply disappear after Elizabeth's accession, but continued to fundamentally shape the collective memory of early modern English society.