I
n 1828, builders removing a lintel
over a doorway at Rushton Hall in
Northamptonshire were surprised
to see an old, beautifully bound
book come down with the rubble.
They decided to investigate, and
knocked through a thick partition
wall, exposing a recess about 5
feet (1.5 metres) long and 15 inches (40cm)
wide. Inside, wrapped in a large sheet, was an
enormous bundle of papers and books that
had once belonged to Sir Thomas Tresham,
a Catholic gentleman who lived during the
reign of Elizabeth I.
Other discoveries were made in other
counties: a secret room chanced upon by a
boy exploring a derelict wing of Harvington
Hall, near Kidderminster, in 1894; a small
wax disc bearing the imprint of a cross and
a lamb (an Agnus Dei), found in a box nailed
to a joist by an electrician working in the attic
of Ly ford Grange, Berkshire, in 1959; and
a ‘pedlar’s chest’ containing vestments,
a chalice and a portable altar, bricked in at
Samlesbury Hall, Lancashire. Each bears
testimony to the resourcefulness and courage
with which Catholic men and women tried to
keep their faith in Protestant England.
Under Elizabeth I, Catholics grew adept at
concealment. The Mass was banned; anyone
who heard it risked a fine and prison, hence
the need for secret Mass-kits and altar-stones
small enough to slip into the pocket. Their
priests – essential agents of sacramental grace- were outlawed. Reconciling anyone to
Rome (indeed, being reconciled) was made
treason. After 1585, any priest ordained
abroad since 1559 and found on English soil
was automatically deemed a traitor and his
lay host a felon – crimes punishable by death.
Hence the need for priest-holes such as the
one at Harvington Hall and at Hindlip, where
a feeding tube was embedded in the masonry.
Even personal devotional items such as
rosary beads or the Agnus Dei found at
Lyford were regarded with suspicion, since
a statute of 1571 had ruled that the receipt
of such ‘superstitious’ items, blessed by the
pope or his priests, would lead to forfeiture
of lands and goods.
It is impossible to know how many
Catholics there were in Elizabethan England,
because few were willing to be categorised
and counted. John Bossy, defining a Catholic
as one who habitually, though not necessarily
regularly, used the services of a priest,
estimated that there were some 40,000 in
1603 – less than 1 per cent of the population.
This was not a homogenous group but a
wide and wavering spectrum of experience.
Many were branded ‘church papists’: they
attended official services according to law,
but some conformed only occasionally or
partially. For example, William Flamstead
read his book during the sermon “in
contempt of the word preached”, while for
two decades of attendance Sir Richard
Shireburn blocked his ears with wool.
Parishioners might refuse Protestant
communion, or they might hide the bread up
their sleeve to dispose of later. Mrs Kath Lacy
from the East Riding of Yorkshire trod it
“under her foot”. Other wives avoided church
altogether and, since their husbands owned
the property, they often escaped prosecution.
“Such here have a common saying,” groused
one Northamptonshire official in 1599, “the
unbelieving husband shall be saved by the
believing wife.”
At the disobedient end of the spectrum
were those individuals (8,590 recorded in
1603) who staunchly adhered to the Roman
church’s insistence that compliance was an
insult to the faith. They were known as
recusants (from the Latin recusare: to refuse)
and they paid a high price for their
‘obstinacy’. In 1559, the fine for missing
church was 12 pence. In 1581 it was raised to
a crippling 20 pounds. In 1587 enforcement
became much stricter, with the introduction
of cumulative monthly fines and the
forfeiture of two-thirds of a defaulting
recusant’s estate. Lord Vaux of Harrowden
was reduced to pawning his parliamentary
robes; poorer folk did not have that luxury.After 1585, any priest ordained abroad
since 1559 and found on English soil
was automatically deemed a traitor
BRIDGEMANWhat recusants publicly requested –
freedom of worship and the right to abstain
from official church services – may not
sound unreasonable, but this was the age of
Inquisition, Conquistadors, religious wars
and, during the reign of Elizabeth’s half-
sister Mary I, human bonfires. Elizabeth
was a divine-right queen with a sworn duty
to maintain the one true faith (though,
unlike Mary, she had conformed during
her predecessor’s reign). She did not like “to
make windows into men’s hearts and secret
thoughts”, noted the oft-misquoted Francis
Bacon, but she expected outward obedience,
in church and state.Illegitimate pretender
On 25 February 1570, Pope Pius V issued a
bull of excommunication against Elizabeth I.
In late support of the 1569 northern rebellion
(led by the Catholic earls of Northumberland
and Westmorland, and crushed with ruthless
efficiency – 450 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).
A later resolution from Pius’s successor,
Gregory XIII, allowing for provisional
obedience “under present circumstances”,
did not alter the fundamental message. It was
impossible, wrote Privy Council clerk RobertOutlawed practices English Catholic women are arrested for attending an illegal Mass,
from Martyrology of Campion, a 1582 engraving by Richard VersteganElizabethans and the world / Catholics