Catholic Threat in England (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes

Catholic Threat in England

Introduction: Elizabeth's religious dilemma

The Elizabethan Church Settlement of 1559 appeared to offer a moderate compromise that satisfied the majority of the nation, reflecting widespread desire for religious stability after the upheavals of previous reigns. However, deep religious convictions could not be easily set aside. The settlement faced opposition from two directions: some wished to purify the Church of England from 'Popish' elements, while others sought restoration of traditional Catholic worship under papal authority.

Elizabeth's initial approach to English Catholics (1559-1567)

Elizabeth's strategy in the early years of her reign centred on persuading English Catholics to accept the new Church of England. She allowed many traditional ceremonies to continue, hoping this would make the reformed church acceptable to all but the most committed papists. Public celebration of Mass was prohibited, but private worship faced little interference.

Recusancy laws were established to compel church attendance. A recusant was someone who refused to attend parish church services regularly. Attendance was made compulsory by Parliament, and those who failed to attend faced fines of 1 shilling (5 pence) for each absence. While this represented a modest sum for the gentry and nobility, it constituted a substantial amount for those below the rank of gentleman. The legislation also meant that Catholicism persisted longer among the gentry and aristocracy, who could more easily afford the financial penalty.

Anyone persuading a priest to say the Catholic Mass risked imprisonment. Penalties were intentionally harsh enough to discourage dissent but not so severe as to create martyrs—Elizabeth had no desire to replicate the religious executions of Mary I's reign.

Initial evidence suggested limited Catholic resistance. Although most of Mary I's bishops refused to accept Elizabeth's religious changes and were consequently removed from their positions, few parish priests rejected the Oath of Supremacy. Regional surveys indicate substantial Catholic support in certain areas, particularly Lancashire, though not many fines for non-attendance were actually collected due to administrative failures. Many clergy in the 1560s conducted worship that retained traces of Catholic practice, such as using Latin rather than English.

This cautious policy originated with Elizabeth herself. She often needed to moderate more radical Protestants who spoke out against Catholicism. It was during this decade that Foxe's Book of Martyrs was first published, cataloguing the horrors of Protestant burnings under Mary I. The Parliament of 1563 passed stricter legislation against office-holders such as lawyers and MPs who refused the Oath of Supremacy, with a second refusal carrying the death penalty. However, these laws were not rigorously enforced on Elizabeth's instructions to Archbishop Parker. No one was required to subscribe to the Oath a second time; consequently, no death penalty was imposed. No Catholic priest was executed for celebrating Mass until 1577. This restraint reflected the dramatic transformation in international circumstances by that point.

The turning point: policy shift towards Catholics (1567-1572)

Between 1567 and 1572, Elizabeth found sustaining her tolerant approach increasingly problematic. Multiple developments at home and abroad transformed English Catholics from a discontented group into what appeared to be a genuine threat to her survival.

• 1567: The Pope demonstrated his hostility to the Religious Settlement by instructing English Catholics not to attend Anglican Church services.
• 1567: The Spanish Duke of Alba was dispatched to the Netherlands to suppress the rebellion against Spanish Catholic rule. The presence of 10,000 Spanish troops just across the Channel from southern England raised alarm that Spain might attempt to restore England to Catholicism by force.
• 1568: Mary Queen of Scots arrived in England seeking sanctuary. She embodied multiple worst-case scenarios for English foreign policy: she represented the Catholic claimant to Elizabeth's throne; as Elizabeth remained childless, she focused attention on the traditional hatred between Scotland and England; and she might encourage a French-Scottish alliance against England.
• 1568: A seminary (training college) for priests was established by William Allen in Douai in the Netherlands to train missionaries for work in England supporting Catholics.

• 1569: Leading Catholic northern nobles, led by the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland, rebelled against Elizabeth. The background to this uprising involved a conspiracy for Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk and a Catholic sympathiser, to marry Mary Queen of Scots. At minimum this would position Mary as first in line to succeed Elizabeth and ensure the restoration of Catholicism. The Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland had been in communication with the Pope and Spain regarding securing military support for Norfolk and Mary.

  When Elizabeth discovered the marriage plan, she quickly forbade it. Norfolk begged for mercy from the Queen and was sent to the Tower. Rather than appear before Elizabeth, Northumberland and Westmorland initiated a rebellion. The rebels occupied Durham, replaced the Protestant communion table in the cathedral with Catholic symbols, and restored the Catholic Mass. The rebellion failed to attract widespread support, except in North Yorkshire, and a government army marched north to confront them. The rebel leaders fled to Scotland.

• 1570: The Pope finally excommunicated Elizabeth and declared that Catholics were released from any oaths of loyalty to her. Any Catholic obeying her would also face excommunication. This provided direct encouragement to Catholics in England and abroad to oppose Elizabeth's rule, offering justification for rebellions centred on Mary Queen of Scots and for Catholic powers to wage war on England.

• 1571: The Ridolfi Plot was discovered, which planned to murder Elizabeth and replace her with Mary.
• 1572: Catholics in France massacred Protestants during the St Bartholomew Day celebrations, bringing the religious wars there to a temporary conclusion. Elizabeth feared that France would now redirect its attention to confronting heresy in England.

Despite this accumulation of problems, Elizabeth remained cautious about provoking outright confrontation with English Catholics. A new Treason Act was passed in 1571 making denial of Elizabeth's supremacy or importation of the Pope's order of excommunication punishable by death. Beyond that, she consistently prevented attempts by more aggressive Protestant MPs to increase penalties for recusancy or attendance at mass.

Catholicism in the 1570s: decline and persistence

In many respects, the decline of Catholicism in England from the 1570s resulted from Catholic actions themselves rather than from Elizabeth's policies. By prohibiting church attendance and exposing Catholics to fines for recusancy that few could afford, the Pope forced them to choose between loyalty to Rome and loyalty to friends and neighbours. For many, the parish church remained central to village life. Attacks by foreigners on Elizabeth, such as the excommunication order and the plotting by Ridolfi and others, proved unpopular with English Catholics, who recognized a distinction between Elizabeth as the legitimate head of the Church and Elizabeth as their lawful monarch.

The arrival of missionary priests

A 'new Catholic' emerged in the mid-1570s with the arrival of Catholic priests specially trained in Europe. They predominantly came from Douai in the Netherlands, where a Catholic seminary was established, founded by William Allen, an Englishman. It was created for Catholics in England who could receive training as priests for work in England. The first four priests arrived in England in 1574. By the 1590s there were over one hundred operating in England. They moved around in secret, residing with Catholic families.

In 1580 another wave of priests began arriving—the Jesuits. The Jesuits (more formally the Society of Jesus) were a religious order established in 1534 and dedicated to serving the Pope. Jesuits underwent rigorous spiritual training to emerge as committed opponents of anti-Catholic beliefs and used their influence as educators to the wealthy and powerful in European courts as an effective counter-attack against Protestantism.

The first two Jesuit missionaries to work as priests in England were Edmund Campion and Robert Parsons. They began building up a network of safe houses, often with specially-constructed priest hiding holes.

Edmund Campion (1540-81)

Edmund Campion was among the first Jesuits to work as a Catholic missionary in England. He arrived in secret in 1580 and travelled to Lancashire, which had the greatest concentration of Catholics who would not accept the Anglican beliefs of Elizabeth's Church. Subsequently in London, he preached in the homes of prominent Catholic families, disguising his identity and using safe houses to avoid arrest. Although this afforded him some protection, the government became sufficiently concerned about the threat of the Jesuits to use agents to locate, arrest and execute him in 1581.

Government reactions to the Catholic threat (1580s and 1590s)

In the 1570s the Douai priests were not initially perceived as a major threat. However, by the late 1570s, and with deteriorating relations with Spain and the continued imprisonment of Mary Queen of Scots, the government was compelled to take action. Several priests were executed for denying the royal supremacy.

The Jesuits were viewed as fanatics and therefore more dangerous. Campion was executed in 1581. When Parliament met, it sought to impose severe penalties on any Catholic worship. After several attempts, Parliament agreed on an Act in 1581 'to retain the Queen's Majesty's subjects in their due obedience.'

With Mary Queen of Scots remaining a focus for discontented Catholics, further plots emerged. The Throckmorton Plot in 1583 saw French Catholics planning to invade England in support of English Catholics, the expedition being financed by Spain and the Pope. It was easily defeated, but Elizabeth came to accept Parliament's view that the situation was dangerous.

In 1585 an even more extreme Act was passed—Against Jesuit seminary priests and other disobedient persons. Catholic priests were ordered to leave the country within 40 days. Even their continued presence in England would be considered high treason. In Elizabeth's reign nearly 150 Catholic priests were executed, most of them under this Act. This was closely connected to the drift towards war with Spain in the mid-1580s and the pressing need for Elizabeth to act against Mary Queen of Scots.

With a combination of harsh legislation and the desire of most Catholics to remain as loyal subjects of the Crown, Catholicism became less of a threat. In some parts of the country, especially among the landed classes, Mass continued to be practised in secret. The strongholds were mostly in North and West Yorkshire, South and West Lancashire, Herefordshire and South Wales. However, there was minimal enthusiasm for plots against Elizabeth.

Assessing the extent and effectiveness of Catholic resistance

How much the seminary priests achieved in preserving Catholicism until the next reign remains a matter of dispute among historians. Some have argued that Protestantism had nearly eliminated Catholicism until the priests arrived and gained converts. Others have contended that the success of Protestantism at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign has been exaggerated, with the government not seeking to pry too deeply into what happened in some of the great houses of England.

Whichever interpretation is accepted, Catholicism was surviving in the 1590s, often based on gentry households and a few of the nobility. However, among ordinary people Catholicism appears to have had less support. The Catholic cause was not helped in the late 1580s and 1590 with disputes between the Douai priests and the Jesuits. The Jesuits firmly supported Spain's plans to invade England, while the Douai priests urged caution in supporting Spain because Philip II was not simply fighting against England in the cause of Catholicism. He had his own agenda centred on power and wealth.

Overall, Elizabeth's cautious policy towards Catholics appears to have been successful. She gained the loyalty of almost all her subjects, including the landowners who had most to lose if they rebelled. It is estimated that in 1603 perhaps ten per cent of the population had Catholic sympathies, but only two per cent were active recusants.