What influence did religion have on Shakespears writings?

Question: What influence did religion have on Shakespears writings!?
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I actually wrote a report on this!.!.!. The time in which Shakespeare grew up was a time of great religious turmoil in England!. The old religion of catholicism was traded for Protestantism by Henry VIII!. It was switched back to Catholicism not too much later by Queen Mary!. After her death Elizabeth came to the throne and switched it back to Protestantism!.

Officially the town of Stratford upon Avon (where Shakespeare was born) was a Protestant town!. They were ordered to cover up all the medieval religious paintings in their church by decree of Elizabeth!. This chore was actually carried out by William's father John Shakespeare!. It was later discovered however that the paintings had only been thinly covered and easily reversed!.

Before the religious switch, Shakespeare's family had been zealously Catholic, so although they became Protestant, many believe that the family remained Catholic!.

His father was a member of the town government, and as such young William was given a front row seat to all the religious news in England!. The town where he grew up quickly fell under suspicion of Catholic leanings and his father was fined heavily for it!. This, coinciding with a decrease in wool values (the field in which John worked) threw the Shakespeare family down a slippery slope to financial and societal ruin!. Many years later there was a document discovered in the roof of the Shakespeare home signed by John stating that he remained faithful to the Catholic faith!. There is much doubt over whether this is a true document or a forgery, but it has raised much speculation over the true loyalties of the family!.

Although William's later plays have no hint of the Catholic faith, there aren't any Protestant leadings in his plays either!. He cleverly steers clear of ever naming a religion!. In part this can also be attributed to the uncertain religious future in the time in which William wrote his plays!. At the time Elizabeth issued a decree controlling the publication of all plays to ensure there was no Catholic propaganda!. By steering clear of any mention of a specific religion William ensured his own safety!. He often performed his plays in front of the Queen herself!.

With the rise of King Henry, also came the rise of William Shakespeare, who was named as one of the King's Men!. James wasn't fond of religious extremism on either side, and playwrights were once more given free reign!. Despite this newfound freedom of speech, William still never made any religious declaration!. As such, it is somewhat difficult to tell the exact influence religion had on his writing!. There is no record of his having attended church and he was criticized by proponents of both sides!. From his upbringing he knew about both sides, but remained inbetween, most likely because it was safest!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

In 'The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare' it says:

'Like every English person of his time, Shakespeare descended from Catholic antecedents, and like many he numbered recusants among his extended family!. The tangible facts of Shakespeare's life - notably his baptism, marriage, and the language of his will - imply he was born, lived and died a conforming member of the Anglican church!.

If William Shakespeare's spiritual life is mirrored in his work, then its salient characteristics are a refined knowledge of both the Genevan and Bishops bibles, and magnanimity towards the adherents of (almost) every religion which he depicts!. When a Pagan Lear movingly invokes his gods - "If you do love old men!.!.!.!.if you yourself are old" (Act 2, scene 2) when the Jew Shylock rebukes his despicable persecutors, "Hath not a Jew eyes!?" (act 3, scene 1) when Cleopatra definatly proclaims "I am again for Cydnus! To meet Mark Antony!" (Act 5 scene 2) - the stark humanity of these unbaptised souls compels our sympathy and admiration!.

Unlike his contemporaries, Shakespeare even extends his grace to Catholicism!. Wistfully, he glances at the ruined monasteries of the Tudor landscape in Sonnet 73 and in Titus Andronicus (Act 5 scene 1)!. He makes an abbess preside over the joyful conclusion of The Comedy of Errors, a play set in Ephesus, the city where Paul taught and Mary Magdalene was believed to have died!. Although Friar Laurence's stratagems culmiante in catastrophe for Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare draws the Fanciscan as a thoughtful, compassionate man!.

Towards Puritans, Shakespeare displays apparently less forebearance!. But each of these instances may have a topical rather than religious inspiration!. Puritanical Malvolio, target of anti-nonconformist humour (act 2 scene 3) and cruel degredation in Twelfth Night, may be a caricature of the oxford pedant Gabriel Harvey!. Angelo, surrogate ruler of "strictures and firm abstinence" in Measure for Measure may be Shakespeare's response to the Puritan elders of London whose hostility towards the theatres and brothels of the city's Southwark suburbs was a continuing threat to the livelihood of the Globe sharers!. Some 20th century commentators have found meditations on the Reformation in Hamlet, with its allusions to Wittenberg (a centre of Lutheran learning), and its questions about purgatory!. The religious dimenson of Cymbeline too - a play set at the dawn of the Christina era, at the concusion of which Cymbeline senses that "The time of universal peace is near"!.

In another late play, Henry VIII, a mature Shakespeare and co-author John Fletcher coolly dissect the Henrician reformation for the political event it was!. But the playwright continues his remarkalbe even-handedness towards both old and new religions; Catholic Catherine is a woman of great dignity; reformer Thomas Cranmer is a man of conscience and humility, the Duke of Buckingham meets the headman with the dying words of William Tyndale on his lips (act 2 scene 4) even CArdinal Wolsey experiences a purifying epiphany (act 3 scene 2)!. Until new documentary evidence resolves the question of Shakespeare's personal religion we might best characterize his outlook as chrisitian, tolerant, humane!.'Www@QuestionHome@Com