Was England a Protestant nation by 1553?

To determine whether England was a ‘Protestant nation’ by the end of Edward VI’s reign we must examine both the Church’s institutional form and the state of popular religious beliefs and practices. Whilst legislative reforms during the Henrician and Edwardian eras had produced a distinctly Protestant Church, the extent to which the masses were willing to abandon their Catholic devotions and embrace the Reformation is harder to ascertain. There is still much historiographical debate over where the religious loyalties of the majority of the public lay in this period. Firstly, it is clear that some aspects of Catholic life and devotion were less easily shed than others. Significant regional variances also make it harder to generalize about England’s national religious character. However, although such complexities should certainly not be overlooked, they do not mean that we should simply dismiss the notion that England was a ‘Protestant nation’ by 1553. It would be misguided to demand that England be entirely homogenous in its religious outlook in order to qualify as such. Indeed, it might be more useful to frame this question in less absolute terms, considering instead whether England was mostly Protestant, whether it had become more Protestant than Catholic. I would argue that this was the case by 1553.