Yet, when a version of the 1559 Settlement was restored in 1660, never again was the established church to prove comprehensive enough to contain the spectrum of Protestant belief which had been possible in the late sixteenth century. The impact of Protestantism You need to be careful with A-level questions that ask about this. Though MacCulloch's article establishes that the government's religious policy was emphatically Protestant, this was only on the official level. There has been lively debate about what was going on lower down in society. Elton believes controversially that 'by 1553 England was almost certainly nearer to being a Protestant country than to anything else'.
Most historians now disagree.
To get to grips with this problem, you need to discuss the impact of Protestantism at three different levels. On paper the government had made Protestantism the sole legal religion. In parish churches most priests were Catholic and opposed to many of the changes. But they reluctantly implemented them - churchwardens' records show that most parishes installed the 1552 Prayer Book as instructed and on time. Forcing the Reformation on hostile parishes was a striking demonstration of the local grip of Tudor government.