Solitary Sparrows: Widowhood and the Catholic Community In
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SOLITARY SPARROWS: WIDOWHOOD AND THE CATHOLIC COMMUNITY IN POST-REFORMATION ENGLAND, 1580-1630 By JENNIFER ASHLEY BINCZEWSKI A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY Department of History DECEMBER 2017 © Copyright by JENNIFER ASHLEY BINCZEWSKI, 2017 All Rights Reserved © Copyright by JENNIFER ASHLEY BINCZEWSKI, 2017 All Rights Reserved To the Faculty of Washington State University: The members of the Committee appointed to examine the dissertation of JENNIFER ASHLEY BINCZEWSKI find it satisfactory and recommend that it be accepted. Jesse Spohnholz, Ph.D., Chair Susan Peabody, Ph.D. Steven Kale, Ph.D. Todd Butler, Ph.D. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Just as artists create a stained glass window with a variety of shapes and colors to form a complete picture, this dissertation is the culmination of a patchwork of people who have inspired and directed my research in diverse ways. I would first like to thank my advisor and mentor, Jesse Spohnholz, for his constant, constructive, and patient support over the last six years. I am also grateful to the rest of my dissertation committee – Sue Peabody, Steven Kale, and Todd Butler – for their careful comments, critiques, and suggestions. In addition, there are a number of individuals who contributed towards refining my research by engaging in productive conversations and posing challenging questions. In particular, I would like to thank Liesbeth Corens, Alexandra Walsham, Michael Hodgetts, Marie Rowlands, Susan Amussen, Lisa McClain, James Kelly, and Bronagh McShane. I owe a debt of gratitude to Jan Broadway and Caroline Bowden for their work on the Who were the Nuns Project database, an invaluable resource for my research on women who crossed from England to the European continent to enter religious communities. In addition, I owe thanks to Mark Knights and Andrew Hardie at the University of Lancaster for assisting this non-tech savvy mind with the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership (EEBO-TCP) collocate program. In terms of funding, I would like to thank the Washington State University History Department for their continuous financial support of my research. My numerous archival research trips to England and trips to various national and international conferences would have been impossible without financial support from the Department. Additional support for my research came from the Catholic Record Society and the American Catholic Historical Association. I am also grateful to the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and the iii Stern Grant for providing funds to cover travel costs to conference presentations at the Sixteenth- Century Society Conference and the Pacific Coast Conference on British Studies, respectively. The archives and collections I had the pleasure to work in over the course of my research all employed individuals who were gracious, understanding, and extraordinarily helpful to this American graduate student. First, I would like to thank the archivists at the British Library, the National Archives, Lambeth Palace Library, and the Westminster Diocesan Library in London for their assistance. I would also like to thank the archivists at collections and archives around England, including the Northumberland Archives at Woodhorn, Tyne and Ware Archives, Hull History Centre, Lincolnshire Archives, Borthwick Institute of Archives at the University of York, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford, Bodleian Library Special Collections at Oxford, Oxfordshire History Centre, Arundel Castle, and the Surry History Centre. I am also grateful to the many county record offices for their help and hospitality, including the county record offices in Durham, North Yorkshire, Warwickshire, West Sussex, and The Keep in East Sussex. To the librarians at Washington State University, thank you for the many books and articles you rounded up for me over the years. Working with you has proven how small the world has become through digital innovations. A few archivists deserve particular mention. At the Bodleian Library, I would like to thank Mike Wells, the senior archivist for early modern manuscripts, for taking the time to walk me through research at the Bodleian. To the archivist at the Northumberland Archives at Woodhorn who joined in my excitement at finding Dorothy Lawson’s burial entry and found the original seventeenth-century parish record to double check the catalogue copy, I thank you for sharing in the joy of archival research. To Rebecca and Craig at Arundel Castle Archives, thank you for fetching box after box for me as I slowly figured out what it was that I was actually iv looking for, and for the many cups of tea. To Sue Gill at Stonor Park, the personal assistant to Lord Camoys, for our conversation about the mysterious location of Lady Cecily Stonor’s death and your diligence in emailing me additional information you gathered. Thank you to Pat Meanwell, retired historian and employee of Carlton Towers, for showing me the priest hide at Carlton Towers and allowing me to climb inside the hide. You provided an experience I will never forget. Many people in my personal life have served as the lead lining to this final project. Thank you to my parents, for their steadfast support and encouragement, and for joining me on one of my research trips. Thanks to my Dad, Kelly, for his constant encouragement, for reading my dissertation in its entirety, and offering suggested edits. To my Mom, Brigitte, and my Mother- in-Law, Val, for the countless hours you watched my daughter so I could have time to write. To my sister Amanda, not only for watching my daughter, but challenging me to make my deadlines, keeping me motivated, and talking through chapter topics. To Papa Wayne, for asking about my research every time we met. Those conversations mean more to me than you will ever know. My family and friends have been my constant support, and thus have probably learned more about early modern England than they ever cared to know. To my daughter Olivia, thank you for giving sweet smiles only a toddler can give, particularly in moments when work became overwhelming. Your smiles grounded me in my priorities and gave me perspective. To my husband, Nic, words cannot express my gratitude for the unwavering support you have shown me since we started this journey. Your sacrifices, patience, understanding, encouragement, and “you got this” attitude made you my rock. Lastly, to my Heavenly Father, “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen.”1 1 Romans 11:36. v SOLITARY SPARROWS: WIDOWHOOD AND THE CATHOLIC COMMUNITY IN POST-REFORMATION ENGLAND, 1580-1630 Abstract by Jennifer Ashley Binczewski, Ph.D. Washington State University December 2017 Chair: Jesse Spohnholz This dissertation examines the gendered nature of the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English Catholic community through widows’ attempts to preserve Catholicism. Catholics in post-Reformation England faced new challenges in their resolution to remain faithful to Rome following the passage of a wave of anti-Catholic laws in the 1580s. These legislative attempts to root out Catholicism resulted in the creation of a clandestine community where private households became essential sites for the survival of Catholic worship. My research extends prior studies of English women – as a general category – in the preservation of Catholicism by considering how marital status affected an individual’s ability to support and maintain the underground Catholic Church. By merging the study of widowhood with spatial analyses of Catholic households, I argue that early modern patriarchal structures provided specific opportunities inherent in widowhood that were unavailable to other men and women, whether married or single. Through their legal autonomy, economic independence, and the manipulation of gendered cultural stereotypes, many Catholic widows used their households to harbor priests, host clandestine Mass, and preserve Catholicism for future generations. This argument maintains that a broader interpretation of the role of women, one that includes an analysis of marital status, is essential to understanding the gendered nature of religious survival in the face of persecution. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... viii A NOTE ON CITATION .............................................................................................................. ix CHAPTERS INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER ONE: THE HISTORICAL AND HISTORIOGRAPHICAL PROBLEM OF CATHOLIC WIVES .............................................................................................................................. 26 CHAPTER TWO: POWER IN VULNERABILITY: AGENCY IN THE CULTURAL, ECONOMIC, AND SOCIAL FRAMEWORKS OF WIDOWHOOD.............................................................. 63 CHAPTER THREE: PROTECTING CATHOLICISM: WIDOWS, PRIESTS, AND BOUNDARIES OF SECLUSION..................................................................................................................