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The Persecution Under Elizabeth Author(S): John H The Persecution under Elizabeth Author(s): John H. Chapman Source: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Vol. 9 (1881), pp. 21-43 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal Historical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3677935 Accessed: 28-06-2016 03:09 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Royal Historical Society, Cambridge University Press are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Transactions of the Royal Historical Society This content downloaded from 132.236.27.111 on Tue, 28 Jun 2016 03:09:04 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE PERSECUTION UNDER ELIZABETH. BY JOHN H. CHAPMAN, ESQ., M.A., F.S.A., BARRISTER-AT-LAW. THIS subject has been ignored by the majority of writers of English history. Some have assumed that the unfortunate persons who suffered death and lesser penalties for their reli- gion during this reign, were also guilty of what we should admit to be acts of treason against the State. This theory is not supported by facts. Modern research (and the word "modern," in this case, means that of the last ten or fifteen years) has proved beyond question the utter falsity of Coke's statement, "That in the reign of Elizabeth there was put to death for religion not one." The most has been made of the persecution under Queen Mary, and the names of the sufferers have become as household words, yet even now but little is generally known of similar deeds that were done in the reign of her sister. In tne first place, the Penal Acts speak for themselves. Secondly, there are many well-authenticated cases of persons having been indicted under these Acts, condemned, and exe- cuted, without any act of treason having been even alleged, still less proved, against them at their respective trials, other than the fictitious treason created by the statutes. Thirdly, there was the merciless system of fines for recu- sancy which was adopted by the Queen's Government. The chief statutes affecting Catholics were these:- The Ist of Eliz., c. I, which prohibited anyone from main- taining the jurisdiction of the Pope by word, deed, or act under penalties- This content downloaded from 132.236.27.111 on Tue, 28 Jun 2016 03:09:04 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 22 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY. For the Ist offence, of forfeiture of all goods and chattels; For the 2nd, of premunire; For the 3rd, of death and forfeiture, as in high treason. Chapter 2 enacts the compulsory use of the Book of Common Prayer in all cathedrals, parish churches, and chapels, and even protects it from adverse criticism under penalties-for the Ist offence, of a fine of Ioo marks (f363 of our money); for the 2nd, 400 marks (t1,452) and one year's imprisonment; for the 3rd, of forfeiture of all goods and chattels, with imprison- ment for life. To this is added :-For non-attendance at church, a fine of 12d. (equal to 5s.) for each default. This Act, passed in the first year of her reign, is of itself sufficient to place the Queen and her advisers in the position of persecutors for religion. With much ingenuity it is aimed at two cardinal points of the religion of Catholics: the unity of the Church and the Sacrifice of the Mass. Its framers knew well that no Catholic subject could obey it with a clear conscience. Bad, however, as it is, it was extended, both as to its application and to its penalties, by that of the 5th of Eliz., chapter I, which adds a praemunire to the penalties of the former Act. The judgment in a premunire was to be out of the king's protection, lands, tenements, goods and chattels to be forfeited to the king (entailed lands but for life), and perpetual impri- sonment (I Inst., 129, 130); to be disabled as awitness (I Inst.,6), or to bring any action (Littleton, 41). The next Act of importance is that of 1571--the I3th of Eliz., c. 2-which forbids the putting in ure any bull, writing, or instrument from the See of Rome. This is to be held to be high treason; offenders, with their procurers, abettors, and even counsellors, are to suffer death, and the forfeiture of all lands, goods and chattels to the Queen. There is a somewhat remarkable provision in this Act: the bringing in of tokens or things called by the name of " Agnus Dei," crosses, pictures, beads, &c., from the Bishop of Rome,and giving them to any sub- ject of the realm to be worn or used, is visited with the penalties of premunire, both to giver and receiver, unless the receiver This content downloaded from 132.236.27.111 on Tue, 28 Jun 2016 03:09:04 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE PERSECUTION UNDER ELIZABETH. 23 gives notice of the fact within three days to a justice of the peace; and the justice incurs a praemunire if he does not also give notice to one of the Privy Council within fourteen days. It is difficult for us to conceive how these objects, now so frequently seen, could at any period have been deemed dangerous to the commonwealth, or to require the attention of the Queen's Government. The possession of them will be presently shown to have been a very serious matter. By the 23rd Eliz, c. I, to withdraw anyone from the State religion, or to be so withdrawn, is made high treason; to say mass is visited with a fine of 200 marks (?726) and imprison- mpnt for one year, or until 2o0 marks are paid in addition; to hear mass, with a fine of Ioo marks (?363) and one year's imprisonment. The penalty for non-attendance at church is raised from 12d. a week to ,?20 a lunar month, counting thirteen months to the year, ?260 (or about ?1,300 of our money). The education of the young in the principles of the State Church is also provided for. Everyone who keeps a school- master who is a recusant, and not licensed by the bishop of the diocese, shall pay a fine of ?Io (?50) a month, and the master himself shall be imprisoned for one year. With the view of adding to the force of the Act, the for- feitures are declared to be payable, not entirely to the Crown, but one-third to the Queen, one-third to the poor of the parish, and one-third to the informer. Thus these two last classes of persons were also made parties interested in its due execution, and active agents in the persecution. The next Act (that of 1585), the 27th Eliz., c. 2, is an important one, for it is impossible for anyone without pre- judice to regard it otherwise than as a persecuting Act. Every person (and English subjects were specially meant) who had been ordained priest or deacon beyond the seas, and who comes into the Queen's dominions, is to be dealt with as a traitor, and anyone receiving him, as a felon. This most oppressive enactment was not long permitted to remain upon the statute book without being put in force, for upon 14 This content downloaded from 132.236.27.111 on Tue, 28 Jun 2016 03:09:04 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 24 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY. the 19th of the following January, Nicholas Deverox als. Woodson, and Edward Barber, were condemned for being made priests in France, and two days later were hanged at Tyburn. In the following year two more priests, William Thompson and Richard Lea, were hanged, bowelled, and quartered. Under this Act, in 1588, at the Sessions Hall, Newgate, eight priests and six laymen were condemned, and executed two days later. These few instances merely serve to show that the Act was put in force at once; they are by no means the only persons who were indicted and executed under the 27th Eliz., c. 2. The last Act worthy of note is that of 1598, the 35th Eliz, c. 2. This is directed more especially against the poorer class of subjects. It restricts such recusants to one place of abode under pain of forfeiture of goods and chattels, and in the case of a copyholder, of his copyhold. We must not suppose that the humbler class of people escaped the fine meshes of the Penal Acts: for Dr. Allen writes-" Such as be of the vulgar sort of honest husbandmen and artizans (of which condition great numbers be Catholics in our country), they not being able to pay that impious mass-mulct (i.e., the Ioo marks), much less the forfeiture for not coming to the Calvinists' preaches and service, are most cruelly and barbarously whipped in the open market-places, as both elsewhere, and specially of late in the city of Winchester they were so used. Others have their ears cut off, others burnt through the ear, and others of both sexes contumeliously and slavishly abused."- "Allen's Answer to the Libel of English Justice," p.
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