Oath Of Supremacy Analysis

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Pages: 7

The second way he ensured the plantations survival was he made sure the undertakers owed loyalty to him. James I required undertakers who were English or Scottish and Servitors of the kingdom of Ireland to swear the Oath of Supremacy which by reaffirmed the king as the supreme head of state. He also made sure that they “[conformed] themselves in religion according to his majesty’s laws.” Since James I was protestant, this mean that the undertakers would also have to be protestant. This was in contrast to the native Irishmen who are largely catholic. The Oath of Supremacy would have conflicted with the beliefs of the native Irish because due to their catholic back rounds, most of the native Irish would have believed that the Pope was supposed …show more content…
Some stipulations regulated when colonists had to practice: “twice a day upon the first Towling of the Bell shall upon the working daies repaire unto the Church” Some dictations were so highly religious that they went so far as to have inserted segments from the bible, such as this stipulation: “He that shall take an oath untruly, or beare false witnesse in any cause, or against any man whatsoever, shall be punished with death.” The stipulation took “beare false witneese” out of one of the Ten Commandments from the bible. The codes went so far as to judge how religious a person was. This was done sending people to the priest to “give up an account of his and their faith, and religion, and repaire unto the Minister” so that by confessing to him, the priest could then evaluate “whether heretofore they have beene sufficiently instructed, and catechised in the principles and grounds of Religion.” These practices enabled authorities to keep commoners under religious control. Similar to that of the king of England, Jamestown wished to regulate …show more content…
Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall, Etc, there was also stipulations regarding authority. The codes forbid people to “give any disgracefull words, or commit any act to the disgrace of any person in this Colonie”. There were actually multiple parts which prevented people from talking negatively about, all different kinds aspects of the colony like authority figures: “No manner of person whatsoever, shall dare to detract, slaunder, calumniate… either against his Majesties honourable councell for this colony, resident in England…” It even went so far as to state that a person could not be negative towards “publique booke, or bookes, which by their mature advise, and grave wisedomes, shall be thought fit, to be set foorth and publisht, for the advancement of the good of this Colony” Jamestown also made sure that authority figures were obeyed by forbidding people to “ mutenie, resist, disobey, or neglect the commaundments of … any authorised Captaine, Commaunder or publike Officer.” The code went to great length to specify what could not be criticized. The results were that if a person could not open criticize some part of the colony, they would be less inclined to rebel against the