Recusancy and the Jesuit Missions Under Elizabeth I (Edexcel A-Level History): Revision Notes

Recusancy and the Jesuit Missions Under Elizabeth I

Introduction: the survival of Catholicism under Elizabeth I

Following Mary I's brief restoration of Catholicism, Elizabeth I's accession brought a Protestant settlement that placed increasing pressure on English Catholics. However, Catholicism did not disappear completely. Instead, it survived as an underground movement, particularly among those wealthy enough to practise it safely. The north of England, especially Yorkshire and Lancashire, remained strongly Catholic throughout Elizabeth's reign, despite growing government persecution.

Elizabeth's moderate approach in the 1560s

Elizabeth's initial religious policy aimed to create a settlement acceptable to most moderate Catholics. Her approach in the 1560s had several key features:

The 1559 Settlement and 39 Articles (1563) deliberately kept Church of England doctrine as moderate as possible. The liturgy of Communion was made intentionally ambiguous, allowing both moderate Protestants and Catholics to accept it more easily. This ambiguity regarding Communion in both kinds (where Protestants believed communicants should receive both bread and wine, while Catholic tradition only gave bread) helped many Catholics feel comfortable attending Church of England services.

This moderate policy created a group known as Church papists - moderate Catholics who conformed outwardly to the Church of England while potentially maintaining Catholic beliefs privately. This allowed many Catholics to avoid persecution while keeping their faith alive.

Until 1568, when the threat of Catholic rebellion became serious, authorities often turned a blind eye to recusant activity. Recusants were Catholics who refused to attend Church of England services, defying the religious settlement. This tolerance allowed Catholicism to remain strong in certain regions.

Regional survival of Catholic traditions

Catholic traditions survived most strongly in the north and west of England. Evidence of this includes:

• Lancashire: 304 identified recusants in 1578, rising dramatically to 3,516 by 1603
• Yorkshire: 750 recusants in 1582
• Hampshire (southern England): 132 recusants identified in 1569-70

Several factors supported this survival:

Conservative clergy who had received their training before 1559 continued clinging to older Catholic traditions well into the 1580s. This persistence occurred partly because there were not yet enough educated Protestant clergy to minister to every parish. In 1583, Protestant preacher Thomas Gibson complained that old priests kept people "in ignorance and blindness" and that they still held to "papistical transubstantiation."

Even in areas beyond the traditional Catholic strongholds, some Church of England congregations maintained Catholic practices. Historian Christopher Haigh has shown that parishioners in Berkshire were still refusing to receive Protestant Communion in both kinds as late as 1584. This evidence suggests that varying practices continued within the Church of England and were tolerated to some extent under the Elizabethan compromise.

However, as Elizabeth's reign continued, her religious compromise became more widely accepted and it became increasingly difficult to remain openly Catholic.

The 1559 Act of Uniformity and early recusancy

The Act of Uniformity (1559) required everyone to attend a Church of England service each Sunday. The punishment for non-attendance was set at 12 pence (1 shilling). This fine was affordable for wealthier members of society such as the gentry and nobility, meaning that wealthier recusants could continue worshipping at private Masses. Government authorities often turned a blind eye to these private gatherings during the early 1560s.

Political circumstances that changed Catholic treatment

In the late 1560s, political circumstances changed dramatically, transforming government attitudes toward Catholics. Catholics came under increasing suspicion of being possible rebels because their loyalties were potentially divided between Elizabeth and the pope.

Although the majority of Catholics chose national loyalty to their queen and country rather than allegiance to a foreign power, these events created intense pressure on Elizabeth from her Council and parliament to enact harsher punishments against Catholics.

The arrival of seminary and Jesuit priests

From 1574 onwards, the Catholic threat seemed to increase with the arrival of English Catholic priests who had been trained at continental seminaries. The English Catholic William Allen, who had fled England, established a Catholic seminary in Douai (in the Netherlands) in 1568. His purpose was to train priests who could reintroduce Catholicism to England.

Allen's example was followed with the establishment of seminaries in Rome, Valladolid, and Seville. During Elizabeth's reign, these seminaries sent approximately 800 priests to England, who were supported in secret by Catholic recusants.

English-trained Jesuit priests also began arriving in England. These highly educated and dedicated men included:

• Cuthbert Mayne: The first seminary priest to be captured and executed (1577)
• Edmund Campion: Jesuit priest who arrived in 1580 and was later executed
• Robert Parsons: Jesuit priest who arrived with Campion in 1580

Elizabeth's government viewed these highly trained priests and those who sheltered them as threats to political stability. When caught, they were dealt with harshly, facing execution for treason.

Catholic plots against Elizabeth and government responses

Encouraged by Elizabeth's excommunication and the presence of Mary, Queen of Scots, some Catholic recusants and their sympathisers became involved in plots to assassinate Elizabeth and replace her with Mary.

The Ridolfi Plot (1571)

The Duke of Norfolk was implicated in a plot by Florentine banker Roberto Ridolfi to use a Spanish invasion force to remove Elizabeth and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots.

Government response:

• Norfolk was executed in 1572
• Parliament attempted to pass an Act banning Mary from the English succession (Elizabeth refused to agree and prorogued parliament until 1576)
• Elizabeth agreed to stricter laws, including making it treason to bring the papal bull of excommunication into the country

The Throckmorton Plot (1583)

Elizabeth's spymaster Walsingham discovered a plot to put Mary on the throne. This plot was particularly threatening because it involved:

• English Catholic gentry including Francis Throckmorton
• The Spanish ambassador Mendoza
• The French Catholic Duke of Guise

Government response:

• The Bond of Association was circulated by Elizabeth's Council - a document in which signers pledged to put to death anyone who tried to gain the throne by harming Elizabeth
• The parliament of 1584-85 tightened controls on Catholic priests and their recusant supporters, making the Bond into law
• An Act against Catholic priests ordered them to leave the country within 40 days or be executed for treason
• Anyone found guilty of helping priests would also face the death penalty

These harsh measures were strengthened by additional fears:

• The assassination of the Protestant Dutch leader William of Orange by a Spanish Catholic sympathiser in 1584
• England being drawn into war with Spain in 1585 after years of increasing tension
• The existence of an alliance between Philip II and French Catholics, known as the Catholic League

The Babington Plot (1586)

In 1586, Walsingham discovered another plot to assassinate Elizabeth involving:

• Mary, Queen of Scots (directly implicated by letters she had written)
• English Catholic Anthony Babington
• The French ambassador who supported the Catholic League

Unlike previous plots, Mary was directly implicated by intercepted letters. Pressure from parliament and her Council forced the reluctant Elizabeth into signing Mary's death warrant in 1587, though she was reportedly furious when she discovered her orders had been carried out.

Legislative responses summary

The government's legislative response to Catholic threats escalated throughout the period:

The impact of Jesuit and seminary priests

Seminary and Jesuit priests played a significant role in keeping Catholic recusancy alive, even as laws against them became increasingly harsh.

Arguments for their effectiveness

Historian John Bossy has argued that the arrival of the priests transformed low-level and disorganised Catholic resistance in the 1560s into something more organised and determined. The numbers of recusants recorded by the government increased rather than decreased during Elizabeth's reign:

• Lancashire recusants increased from 304 (1578) to 3,516 (1603)

Many priests demonstrated remarkable courage and were prepared to die for their faith. Cuthbert Mayne and Robert Campion, among others, set an inspiring example for their followers through their martyrdom.

Arguments against their effectiveness

However, several factors limited the priests' impact:

Increased government surveillance: The rise in recusant numbers was not actually the result of missionary successes. Instead, increased numbers reflected that authorities were keeping better records and maintaining closer surveillance of possible threats.

Overall decline: By the end of Elizabeth's reign, actively practising Catholics formed only a minority. It has been estimated that by 1603, only 50,000 Catholics (including Church papists) remained in a population of approximately four million - just over 1% of the population.

Limited access for poorer Catholics: Many ordinary Catholics, lacking access to priests or the means to attend Catholic services safely, gradually moved back into the Church of England. The recusants who continued to practise tended to be from the nobility and gentry who had the resources to do so safely.

The role of the Catholic nobility

The support of the Catholic nobility and members of the gentry proved crucial to Catholicism's survival in England. Their status, power and wealth allowed them to protect missionary priests and led to the development of what Haigh has called seigneurial Catholicism - Catholicism as a religion of the landed classes.

Early Catholic nobility

At the start of Elizabeth's reign, some members of the nobility were openly Catholic:

• Thomas Percy (Earl of Northumberland): Openly Catholic, eventually executed for treason
• Thomas Howard (Duke of Norfolk): Protestant in name but Catholic in sympathies, also executed for treason

Although most Catholic nobility and gentry were not prepared to commit treason, their social position enabled them to protect Catholicism.

Geographical patterns

Seigneurial Catholicism was particularly strong in the north. In the 1560s, approximately 75 percent of the leading families of Yorkshire were Catholic.

Why the nobility protected priests

Several factors explain the close relationship between missionary priests and the nobility:

Consequences for the nature of Catholicism

These developments had significant consequences:

Many missionary priests became the equivalent of family chaplains rather than serving whole communities. This meant that Catholicism increasingly became a private religion of the wealthy rather than a community faith.

Poorer Catholics could not afford to house a priest or regularly access Catholic services. As one missionary priest, Thomas Stanney, complained in Hampshire in 1590, there were "many hungry souls that want bread, and there is no one to give it to them."

These developments help explain both the survival of Catholicism and why, by the end of Elizabeth's reign, Catholicism had become a minority religion practised primarily by members of landed society who could afford to do so.