The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 19.0574 Sunday, 28 September 2008
From: Larry Weiss <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 24 Sep 2008 01:29:04 -0400
Subject: 19.0564 My Name Is Will
Comment: Re: SHK 19.0564 My Name Is Will
>To celebrate mass, hear confession, or perform any other
>priestly office in the name of the Roman Catholic church
>was to affirm the authority of Rome and the illegitimacy
>of Elizabeth. Campion was by statutory definition thus guilty
>of treason by all accounts -- and his own affirmation. (And
>yes, of course, the laws were politically motivated -- the
>Pope had in effect declared war against Elizabeth by means
>of the bull, and himself engaged in sedition in inciting her
>people to disobey her in all things, and these laws were
>designed to reaffirm her legitimacy and supremacy.)
There are gaps in this syllogism. It does not follow from the Pope's assertion
of authority to relieve Elizabeth's subjects from their allegiance to her (a
matter of Roman canonical law) that practicing the rituals of Roman Catholicism
was treason (governed by English statutory law). In fact, thousands of
Englishmen and women continued to celebrate mass during ER's reign without being
hanged, drawn and quartered. Supporting the Pope in his attempt to dethrone the
queen was treason; serving mass was not such support and was not regarded as
such (at least in practice). It was possible then, as now, to be a practicing
Catholic without adhering the the Pope's political agenda. Thousands of loyal
Englishmen were.
Walsingham's portfolio was state security, not religious orthodoxy. His spies in
Douai -- including Christopher Marlowe, a notorious atheist -- went there to
protect the regime, not the church. The national treasury was probably
insufficient to enforce a sweeping persecution of Catholics, even if some
hotheads would have preferred a reign of terror, and the risk of civil unrest
was not worth running.
All this having been said, it seems to me that this thread, having only the most
tenuous connection with Shakespeare, has probably exceeded its useful life.
[Editor's Note: RIP --HMCook]
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