fectively closed down theCatholic church in England, but they did not stop the people from being loyal toCatholicism in their hearts. This idea will be very important in the part aboutShakespeare's parents later on in this page.One of the effects of the break from Rome was the welcoming of an English translationof the Bible. If they were going to have an English form of Christianity, then they wantedto have a Bible that was theirs also. One of the first English translations of the Bible waswritten by . Known as or the Great Bible, this Bible along with the would have been thetwo translations used widely during Shakespeare's lifetime . With the advent of the before this time, the Bible was becoming more and more commonly a household item.Certainly access to Scripture was at it highest point in human history to that time. Theaccessibility of the Bible had an impacted greatly the work of Shakespeare because he hadsuch a resource at his disposal. Along with these two translations of Scripture alreadyavailable to Shakespeare came a new translation authorized by King James I. Today thistranslation is known as the (Milward 86). At this point in time, the climate was right forShakespeare to learn a great deal about Christianity directly from Scripture, even if thechurch in England was still in upheaval. II. SHAKESPEARE'S UPBRINGING To bring this a little closer to home for Shakespeare, an examination of the effect theEnglish Reformation had on Shakespeare's town and family is in order. Shakespeare wasborn and raised in . Being a small town meant that these religious changes occurred moreslowly and later than they did in London. As with the majority of English towns, Stratforddid not welcome the reformations of their religion imposed by the state (Milward 17). Intime, the town bore these mandated changes out of necessity. There is some evidence that Shakespeare's parents were Catholic before the Reformationand remained so at heart after it. J...
