How did Elizabeth I pursued the Via Media way?

Answer 1

Anglican Catholic Opinion!

We should have to define the, 'via media way', first!

For most commentators the Via Media is a middle way between Catholicism and protestant attitudes.

This is not, to my mind what was originally intended at the time of Eliza!

Via Media was a middle way between Romanism,[ or papalism] and Protestantism, a totally different thing.

Elizabeth was a Catholic and in being an Anglican was an active one who sought the preservation of the Anglican,"Catholic," Church in England!

Anglican beliefs were those of the Undivided Church of the first thousand years, before the split between East and West. At the Council of Trent , the new Holy Roman Church had ensured that the medieval additions to the Catholic Faith were enshrined in the new canons thus breaking S.Paul's injunction to Timothy,[?]'to preserve the Deposit'

Elizabeth's work was to preserve the deposit and the Church from the heretics. This she did by refusing to accept the Pope's Ordinary Jurisdiction and his flouting of the Canons of The Ecumenical Councils, especialy of Nicea! But there were other people who held wrong beliefs and were just as pushy as the Romans, they were the followers of John Calvin. There notion of Christianity was a cold cruel view of Christianity that held total change from the norms of the day, in that the accept medieval order of polity fell before a clerical Dictatorship ruled by the Church!

These were the alternatives Elizabeth and the Anglican Church faced in fight for their religious life.Eliza played the part of the broker, playing both sides fear of the other group off against them. She protected the Anglicans against the Calvinists who were ruder and tougher than the ancient Church. She rejected the New Church of Trent, as John Evelyn was to name it at a later date. [Diary, 1687 March.] and was helped by the Pope's attempt to start a Holy War against her, which would have led to a civil war and ultimately a persecution!