He continued to consider himself a Catholic. Except during the reign of the Catholic James II , Catholicism remained illegal for the next years. The Emancipation Act of restored most civil rights to Catholics. It is still in force. Francis Campbell, the first Roman Catholic appointed ambassador to the Vatican for years, presented his credentials to Pope Benedict in December Parishioners might refuse Protestant communion or they might hide the bread up their sleeve to dispose of later.
Other wives avoided church altogether and, since their husbands owned the property, they often escaped prosecution. In the fine for missing church was 12 pence. In it was raised to a crippling 20 pounds. Lord Vaux of Harrowden was reduced to pawning his parliamentary robes; poorer folk did not have that luxury. In late support of the northern rebellion led by the Catholic earls of Northumberland and Westmorland and crushed with ruthless efficiency — executions under martial law is the conservative estimate , the bull declared Elizabeth an illegitimate pretender and bound her subjects to disobey her, upon pain of anathema a formal curse by the pope.
There was, indeed, some rancour towards the queen. Conflicted loyalties caused considerable anguish, as evinced by the desperately sad letter that the year-old convert Robert Markham wrote to his parents in Markham chose exile, like many others, some of whom became radicalised by the experience. The Catholics who stayed at home used various methods to sustain their faith, from spiritual reading, prayer and meditation to the preservation of rosaries and relics.
They were advised to internalise their devotions. In June , they were joined in England by the Jesuits, members of a dynamic religious order founded in the furnace of the Reformation. But they were also armed with faculties to print books anonymously, they insisted upon absolute recusancy and they challenged the state to a public debate.
The expense is reckoned, the enterprise is begun; it is of God, it cannot be withstood. So the faith was planted, so it must be restored. A further 60 of their lay supporters were also put to death. Torture was used more than in any other English reign. With no named successor, and a Catholic heir presumptive — Mary, Queen of Scots — waiting, wings clipped but ready to soar, Elizabeth I was vulnerable to conspiracy.
The security of the realm depended entirely on her personal survival in an age that saw brother rulers taken by bullet and blade. The assassination in of William of Orange, the Dutch Protestant figurehead shot in the chest by a Catholic fanatic chasing the bounty of Philip II of Spain, was particularly alarming.
The threat from Spain, the papacy, the French house of Guise and the agents of Mary, Queen of Scots was very real and seemingly unceasing. There are obvious differences on issues such as contraception, but common accord on education for girls and the vaccination of children against disease. When we think of how far we have come since the terrors of the 17th century, we should celebrate that the British state can do business with the papacy, bringing the benefits of justice and peace to the world.
And yet that newfound understanding may be in jeopardy. Talking to Vatican diplomats, it is apparent that they think Britain in the past few years has regrettably turned inward: not so sure of itself on the world stage, its priorities increasingly domestic. And Rome is deeply alarmed by any assault on the EU — given the European project, thanks to its founders Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman, was shaped by the Catholic theologies of solidarity and subsidiarity.
In recent years, as I watched the UK develop such a constructive accord with the Holy See, I thought the neurosis had been cured. Now Brexit makes me fear it could return. This article is more than 4 years old.
Catherine Pepinster. Protestant paranoia about Catholicism has receded in recent years, but Brexit now threatens the harmony.
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