The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England

by Mortimer, Ian

  Parliament meets on 25 January 1559. The debates are fervent from the start. On 4 February the queen recalls her ambassador to the papal court. Five days later a Bill is placed before parliament recognising the queen as Supreme Head of the Church. Then words really start to fly. But the first Supremacy Bill is turned down. So is the next. A third is introduced. Meanwhile the clergy – who have not been invited to attend this parliament – are discussing religious reform separately, in Convocation. They reaffirm their belief in transubstantiation, papal supremacy and the key pillars of Roman Catholicism. On 31 March, Sir Nicholas Bacon accuses the Catholic proponents of contempt for the Crown and locks two of them up in the Tower. In this heated atmosphere the Church of England is hammered into shape. The final form of the Supremacy Act, passed on 29 April by the narrow majority of three votes, carries the compromise that the queen is not Supreme Head of the Church (because she is a woman), but its Supreme Governor. All the religious legislation of the previous reign is repealed. The Act of Uniformity (passed on the same day) re-establishes the Prayer Book of Edward VI as the authorised version. All office holders – clergymen, judges, JPs, mayors, royal officials and university graduates – are required to swear an oath acknowledging Elizabeth as Supreme Governor of the Church. Refusal to do so results in loss of office. Anyone writing, teaching or preaching that Elizabeth should be subject to the authority of a foreign power (including the pope) is to lose all his or her property and moveable possessions. Repeated offences will be judged high treason and incur the death penalty. Henceforth it is compulsory to attend Church of England services every Sunday and holy day, and those who fail – recusants, as they are known – are to be fined a shilling for each Sunday they fail to attend.

  All in all, the queen succeeds in passing most of her agenda for reform. She has to allow the clergy to marry, ‘for the avoiding of fornication’, but she makes up for this by insisting that they only marry discreet, honest and sober women who have been approved by a bishop. She manages to retain the vestments and music of the Church, and much of its symbolism. And she succeeds in resisting the Calvinists, who would like to abolish the bishops. Most of all, she retains absolute authority over the Church, pointing out carefully that although her title as Supreme Governor differs from that borne by her father, she fully intends to exercise all the rights that he had. No one gets exactly what they want out of the Settlement of 1559 – everyone makes compromises – but Elizabeth makes fewer compromises than anyone else.

  The Establishment of Protestant England, 1559–69

  If you visit England in the 1560s, you are most likely to be struck by how easily people accept the Religious Settlement of 1559. All except one of the bishops refuse to swear the Oath of Supremacy and are deprived of their offices. But this collective replacement of the whole upper tier of opposition is a godsend for Elizabeth, who can freely appoint her supporters to the vacancies. She can also enjoy their revenues while the positions are vacant, and can tax the new incumbents the ‘first fruits’ on their offices, so she wins twice over. In fact she wins three times over, for she forces many of the new bishops to ‘exchange’ large portions of their estates in return for their appointments, thereby surrendering many manors to the Crown, which she then uses to reward her courtiers. The new bishop of Hereford buys his see by agreeing to give the queen seventeen episcopal manors.12 Having thus destroyed the power of the higher clergy, she finds that few lesser clerics have the stomach for a fight. They accept her rule, swear their oaths and lead their congregations in welcoming the re-established Church of England. In the summer of 1559 the parishes pull down the crosses from their rood lofts and burn them. They also burn all the images of the Virgin Mary and St John the Baptist. In London Henry Machyn records how, at the end of August 1559, great bonfires are made of ‘all the roods and Marys and Johns and many others of the church goods – both cope, crosses, censers, altar cloth, rood cloth, books, banner stays and wainscot.’13 Such is the level of destructive fury in London that people start destroying funerary monuments, forcing the government to intervene.14 At the same time, the reformers are painting over the old images inside the churches. Certain individuals and parishes do retain elements of ‘the old religion’ (as they call Catholicism), but it is only a matter of time before all comply. You can tell how Protestant or traditional your parish is by the speed with which it removes its medieval art. Not until January 1564 does John Shakespeare pay a workman 2s to obliterate the Day of Judgement images in Stratford church – whitewashing over the grinning devils, the fires of Hell, tortured sinners and kneeling saints.15

  Throughout England the saints’ cults and altars are once more dismantled and religious processions halted. Texts that defend and celebrate the new religion are published. Matthew Parker, archbishop of Canterbury, brings out his Book of Homilies in 1562, outlining a moral code for Protestant England and stressing both the heinousness of rebellion and the immorality of excessive dress. In the same year the newly appointed bishop of Salisbury, John Jewel, publishes a justification for the Church of England in Latin, entitled Apologia ecclesiae Anglicanae. Translated (as we have seen) into English by Anne Bacon in 1564, it grounds Anglicanism in the teachings of Christ, the apostles and the early Fathers of the Christian Church. A third hugely influential book appears in 1563 – Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.16 This massive history of the Christian martyrs gives special weight to the persecution and suffering of English Protestants, and implies that the English are God’s chosen people for putting down the antichrist (the pope). The book is an enormous asset to Elizabeth in her propaganda war against Catholicism. And propaganda is the key. Elizabeth makes sure all history books praise her and Protestantism, and reflect Mary’s reign in a negative light.17

  The parliament of 1563 confirms the reforms of 1559 and extends them. It is agreed that there should be a Bible in Welsh (a task that takes twenty-five years to complete). The list of those who are to swear the Oath of Supremacy is extended to include schoolmasters, MPs, lawyers and sheriffs, and harsher penalties for those claiming the superiority of the pope are introduced. But there are those who want to see the reforms go further and who submit a Bill to abolish ecclesiastical vestments and do away with many other symbols, such as wedding rings, the sign of the cross in the baptism service and church organs. They are very nearly successful, being defeated by just one vote.

  It is also in 1563 that Convocation accepts the Thirty-Nine Articles. These are the principal statements of the doctrine of the Church of England, establishing its position in relation to Catholicism and other Protestant doctrines. For example, Article 22 reads:

  The Romish doctrine concerning Pugatory, Pardons, worshipping and adoration as well of Images as of Relics, and also Invocation of Saints, is a fond thing vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture; but rather repugnant to the word of God.

  Article 24 removes Latin from church services: ‘It is a thing plainly repugnant to the word of God and the custom of the primitive Church, to have public prayer in the Church, or to minister the sacraments in a tongue not understood by the people.’ Article 32 allows for the marriage of priests.

  Although the Church of England is firmly established by the mid-1560s, not everyone is a willing, orthodox Protestant. A year after the 1563 parliament, half of all the JPs in the country still have not sworn the Oath of Supremacy. It is possible to be a Catholic recusant without too much trouble – if you can afford the 12d fine every Sunday – and the English government is still relatively tolerant of religious deviation in the 1560s. Yes, there are searches for seditious and heretical writings – even the house of the writer John Stow is ransacked in the search for ‘Popish’ texts, and he is only saved from arrest through the intervention of powerful supporters within the government. Certain people are placed under house arrest for harbouring Catholic agitators. Suspected Catholics are denied political roles and stripped of their offices; but it is not a treasonable act simply to be a Catholic.

  Thing
s become much more serious as a result of the events of 1569–70. In November 1569 the Northern Rebellion takes place. The earls of Westmorland and Northumberland gather an army and march into Durham, where they openly celebrate Mass in the Catholic fashion. That same month they write to the pope asking him to justify their rebellion by excommunicating Elizabeth. Accordingly, on 5 February 1570, Pope Pius V takes the dramatic step of commencing heresy proceedings against the queen of England. On the 13th she is found guilty – and on the 25th a papal bull is issued excommunicating and deposing her.

  Confrontation with Catholicism, 1570–1603

  You may feel that all this has got nothing to do with you, that it is just other people’s religion. However, it is essential that you understand the religious conflict – ignorance is no defence if you are deemed to be too friendly to Catholics. Whatever your faith, you cannot turn a blind eye to the papal bull of 1570, which requires all good Catholics to turn against their monarch – and thus forces them to choose between their loyalty to Elizabeth and their allegiance to the Roman Church. Nor can you afford to be ignorant of the establishment of the first English seminary college at Douai, in France, in 1568. This college and others set up later at Rome (1579), Valladolid (1589) and Seville (1592) teach theology to youths from respectable English Catholic families along the lines set out by the Jesuits, so that they can return to England, administer to existing Catholics and convert others. The government and senior clergy are alarmed. Bishop John Jewel rails at the pope from his pulpit, pouring scorn on Catholicism. The privy council orders the ports to be watched against incoming papal messengers; the importation of books is carefully monitored to guard against seditious tracts. In this atmosphere, parliament meets on 2 April 1571 and makes a number of key resolutions. A new Act is passed making it high treason to claim that the queen is ‘a heretic, schismatic, tyrant, infidel or usurper’. It also becomes illegal to proclaim that any particular person ought to be heir to the throne. A second Act forbids the importation of bulls from Rome, as well as crucifixes and rosary beads. A third confiscates the property of anyone leaving the country without the queen’s permission and staying abroad for six months, thereby removing the wealth of many émigré Catholic families. The twelfth Act of this parliament legally binds all the clergy to observe the doctrines laid out in the Thirty-Nine Articles. A separate order directs all cathedrals and members of the higher clergy to obtain a copy of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and make it available for visitors to read. The fight against Catholicism has started.

  In April 1571, as parliament debates these issues, secret letters in code to an Italian plotter named Roberto di Ridolfi are discovered at Dover. More ciphered letters and £600 in gold are intercepted later in the year on their way to Scotland, addressed to Elizabeth’s Catholic cousin, Mary, queen of Scots. By September the full Ridolfi plot has been exposed: the duke of Norfolk is set to marry Mary and lead Spanish troops in an armed insurrection against Elizabeth, removing her from the throne and restoring Catholicism in England. The duke is tried for high treason in January 1572, found guilty and beheaded in June. Coming so soon after the Northern Rebellion – as a result of which the earl of Westmorland flees abroad and the earl of Northumberland is executed – it is clear to everyone that stubborn adherence to the old religion and sedition go hand in hand. Henceforth, Catholics are widely seen as traitors to the Crown. In local courts people are accused of sedition, and some are hanged or burnt for treason.18 Bishops enquire at their visitations whether all the recusants have been properly fined.19 People inform on one another. George and William Binkes, tailors, find themselves hauled before the Essex magistrates in 1577 simply for claiming that, after the host has been consecrated, it becomes ‘the very body, flesh and blood of Christ’. John Howard is summoned to court in the same year for stating, ‘it was never merry in England since the scriptures were so commonly preached and talked upon such persons as they are’. John Williams, vicar of Grays Thurrock, is locked up in Colchester Castle in 1578 for pronouncing, ‘If Elizabeth with the council and other magistrates were hanged up against the Son, there would not be such wickedness done as there was.’20

  If you are a Catholic, life becomes increasingly hard at roughly ten-year intervals. The Settlement of 1559 is bad enough, and if the situation gets worse in 1570, in 1580 it becomes almost unbearable. In this year Catholic scholars from the college at Douai set up an illegal printing press at Stonor Park in Oxfordshire, thereby avoiding the censors who patrol the ports. Also in 1580, Jesuits arrive on a mission ‘to preserve and augment the faith of the Catholics in England’. More than a hundred of these disciplined militant Catholic priests are in the kingdom by the end of the year, living undercover and stirring up conspiracies. Consequently parliament is summoned and ‘An Act to retain the Queen’s Majesty’s Subjects in their due Obedience’ is passed in 1581. Anyone trying to persuade people to join the Catholic Church is to be held guilty of high treason and executed. Anyone missing a church service is now to be fined £20 per month. Offenders who fail to attend for a whole year must additionally submit a bond for £200 to guarantee their good behaviour. Saying Mass becomes punishable by a fine of 200 marks (£133 6s 8d) and a year’s imprisonment; even just hearing Mass will get you a fine of 100 marks (£66 13s 4d) and a year in prison. Anyone maintaining a schoolmaster who does not attend church is liable to pay a fine of £10 per month.21 A second Act makes it illegal to say anything derogatory about the queen. Many people are taken to the assizes as a result.

  The bitterness deepens. A leading Jesuit, Edmund Campion, confirms that Catholics should not attend Anglican services (even though many Catholic sympathisers do so).22 In 1581 Campion is caught, tortured on the rack and led through the streets of London with a sign on him saying, ‘This is Campion, the seducer of the People’, before he is publicly executed. Another Catholic, Anthony Tyrrell, is arrested for plotting to kill the queen in 1581: he too is tortured on the rack. John Payne, a graduate of the Douai college, is arrested for the same reason, tortured on the rack and hanged the following year. The abhorrence felt in Rome is expressed in a book by Robert Parsons, De Persecutione Anglicana (1582), which depicts the Catholic suffering and deepens the hatred of English Protestants across Europe.23 But every year the religious crisis seems to get worse. Every year there is at least one Catholic attempt to assassinate the queen.

  The year 1585 is a watershed. War breaks out with Spain. More worryingly, a Catholic agent called Gilbert Gifford is arrested at Rye, Sussex, and confesses to being part of a plot against Elizabeth. Sir Francis Walsingham offers to save Gifford’s life if he acts as a double agent; Gifford agrees and provides Walsingham with the information that leads to the uncovering of Anthony Babington’s conspiracy to kill Elizabeth and deliver the throne to Mary, queen of Scots, so that Catholicism can be restored. All those involved are caught, tortured and executed; in 1587 Mary herself is tried and beheaded. By this time, plans are already in place for the Spanish Armada to sail and conquer England. After the destruction of the Armada in 1588, treatment of Catholics worsens further still. In 1591 commissions are established in every county to examine people’s beliefs and test their church attendance. Finally, in 1593 the most extreme anti-Catholic Act of all is passed. Those not attending church for a month are to be imprisoned. Catholics are not allowed to travel more than five miles from their homes – on pain of forfeiting all their property and estates. They must register with the local authorities and obtain a licence if they wish to go anywhere.24

  We have come a long way from 1564, when half of the JPs hesitate to swear the Oath of Supremacy. Just thirty-five years see Catholicism change from being the respectable norm to the religion of a persecuted minority. Between 1571 and the end of the reign at least 180 Catholics are executed as traitors – perhaps more than 250.25 If you are a Catholic in the last years of the reign, you can expect to celebrate Mass in secret, late at night or very early in the morning, in the houses of the gentry. No doubt you will experience that fri
ghtening moment when a stranger knocks insistently on the door and you look at the terrified faces of those around you, wondering whether you have been discovered. You may find out what it is like to hide in a priest hole – a small, secret chamber in a wall or beneath a floor – while the authorities search the house. Father William Weston, a Jesuit priest educated at Douai, describes just such an experience in 1585:

  A house where I used secretly to be given hospitality was visited once by certain Catholics, who gave a satisfactory account of themselves, both to me and to the head of the family, and said that they wished to hear Mass. After the end of Mass, when the people had left, I stayed on as usual and went upstairs to the room where I kept my books and resumed my work. Not quite two hours later the house was surrounded by a large mob of men. Whether they came on information or on chance, I do not know. But the servant rushed up to my room – I was still there – and warned me of the danger. She made me come downstairs at once and showed me a hiding place underground; Catholic houses have several places like this, otherwise there would be no security. I got down into it, taking my breviary with me – it was all I had near me at the time, and to loiter would have been dangerous. In the meantime the heretics had already made their way into the house and were examining the remoter parts. From my cave-like hide I could follow their movements by the noise and uproar they raised. Step by step they drew closer, and when they entered my room the sight of my books was an added incentive to their search. In that room also there was a secret passageway for which they demanded the key, and, as they opened the door giving on to it, they were standing immediately above my head. I could hear practically every word they said. ‘Here, look!’ they called out, ‘a chalice! And a missal!’ The things were, in fact, there. There had been no time to hide them and, in any case, it would have been impossible. Then they demanded a hammer and other tools to break through the wall and panelling. They were certain now that I could not be far away.