This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Post Reformation Catholicism in the Midlands of England Verner, Laura Anne Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 23. Sep. 2021 Abstract of a thesis entitled Post-Reformation Catholicism in the Midlands of England Submitted by Laura Anne Verner for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Hong Kong and King’s College London in August 2015 This dissertation examines the Catholic community of the Midlands counties during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603). While local studies of post- Reformation Catholics have been attempted in other English regions, no substantial body of work has been produced for the Midlands, despite its significance with the Gunpowder Plot and later Catholic Emancipation. The approach has been to endeavour to understand the causes and consequences of recusancy and how this affected the identity of the Catholic individual and community. Also of interest was the methods of innovation the community used in order to maintain adapted forms of devotion. The principal findings and discoveries demonstrate that the Catholic community of the Midlands was, in general, detached from its medieval predecessor, but also did not follow Tridentine teachings; Elizabethan Catholicism was a unique experience. Unable to worship freely, Midlands Catholics resorted to clandestine and surreptitious practices and proved to be eclectic and fluid with regard to religious doctrine when the occasion demanded. This dissertation is arranged into six thematic chapters plus an epilogue. This method allowed several key aspects of the continuation of Catholicism in the Midlands to be analysed separately. Chapter 1 introduces the themes explored in the dissertation. Chapter 2 introduces the geographical, political and ecclesiastical jurisdictions of the Midlands, along with the gentry families of the counties. Chapter 3 examines the kinship and patronage networks used by the community to protect themselves. Chapter 4 looks at the anti-Catholic measures implemented by the state, and their effect in the Midlands counties. Chapter 5 focuses on the methods used by Midlands Catholics to adapt Catholic devotion in the absence of priests. Chapter 6 considers the themes of material culture and sacred space, and the innovations used by the community to maintain familiar traditional rituals. Chapter 7 considers how the Catholic and Protestant communities interacted, worked and lived with one another, and how Catholics related with the state, either with resistance or passivity. An epilogue considers the effect of post-Reformation Catholicism in England, and the enduring memory that reverberated through the centuries. 30 August 2015 (339 words) Post-Reformation Catholicism in the Midlands of England by Laura Anne Verner MPhil, HKU BA(Hons), UNB A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Hong Kong and King’s College London June 2016 Acknowledgements It is a welcome opportunity to recognise those who have helped me manage the load of research and writing for this dissertation from time to time. Many people have been generous with help, advice, encouragement and support, and as my term as a PhD student at the University of Hong Kong and King’s College London draws to a close, I would like to mention them here. A number of archival and library staff in London and the Midlands were generous in helping me navigate my way through the archival research of this dissertation, especially at Lambeth Palace Library, The British Library, The National Archives, Kew, and The Bodleian Library. Dr Caroline Bowden, Dr Simon Healy, Prof Peter Marshall, Prof Michael Questier, and Prof Alexandra Walsham have been generous with advice and suggestions at conferences and seminars. At The University of New Brunswick, Dr Cheryl Fury was always up for a chinwag, long distance or in London, and my secondary supervisor at the University of Hong Kong, Dr Priscilla Roberts, was particularly helpful with the final revision and editing of this dissertation. She was always willing to offer advice and guidance, and I have enjoyed our chats. When I first moved to London from Hong Kong, Nicholas and Julia Bailey opened their home to me, and I fear they got rid of me far later than they imagined! Nicholas and Julia’s, along with Sarah Cunich’s, continual friendship, as well as their high expectations, has been a massive support, added to a sense of purpose that I couldn’t possibly let them down! I would also like to thank the University of Hong Kong for its financial support. ii I was lucky enough with this uniQue programme to have two ‘homes’, and therefore two support groups. In Hong Kong, Malcolm Drew, Dr Kris Erskine, Aurelio Insisa, Vivian Kong, Dr Dave Macri. Maurits Bastiaan Meerwijk and Dr Carol Tsang have on countless occasions offered comfort and encouragement. In particular, I could depend on Angharad Fletcher and Chi Chi Huang for their unfailing ears outside of the office. In the UK, Leisbeth Corens, Hannah Dobson, Jennie Dobson, Alice Ferron, Eilish Gregory, Katie McKeogh, Dr Emilie Murphy, Michael Netzloff, Marlee Newman, Rebecca Simon, Coral Stoakes and Tricia Walker offered friendship and listening ears in the archives, at conferences and at more sociable venues. My parents and my brother have also shown continuous personal support and academic encouragement. My greatest debt is reserved for my supervisors, Dr Peter Cunich at The University of Hong Kong and Dr Lucy Kostyanovsky at King’s College London. I was fortunate to be able to continue as Dr Cunich’s student with my PhD, and also to have the opportunity to be Dr Kostyanovsky’s student with this joint programme. I think in some ways I was a bit of a problem child, but each of my supervisors offered me unwavering support, both academic and personal, from beginning to end. They constantly pushed me to improve my research and writing, to ask the significant Questions, and to look at sources from different angles. Without their direction and assistance this dissertation would not have been possible, and any unseen split infinitives or overlooked sources that missed their watchful eyes are entirely my own blunders. It has been a genuine privilege and pleasure to be their student. iii Contents Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Contents iv Appendices vi 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Historiography 4 1.2 Defining Catholicism 17 1.3 Methods and Approaches 20 1.4 Conclusion 28 2. The Elizabethan Midlands and the problem of Catholicism 31 2.1 Geography 37 2.2 Local Government 43 2.3 Ecclesiastical Government 47 2.4 The Parish 50 2.5 The Clergy 52 2.6 Associations with Recusant Priests 75 2.7 Catholic Gentry and non-Gentry Lay Families 78 2.8 Religious Identity 82 iv 2.9 Conclusion 83 3. Communities and Kinship Networks 85 3.1 Impact at the Local Level 88 3.2 Non-violent Political Resistance 101 3.3 Violent Resistance 105 3.4 Social and Religious Networks 115 3.5 Patronage 118 3.6 Woman 123 3.7 Clergy 133 3.8 Conclusion 135 4. The Evolution of the State’s Response to Recusancy 137 4.1 The Religious Settlement and Anti-Catholic Laws 138 4.2 Punishments and Consequences 167 4.3 Impact 176 4.4 Conclusion 178 5. Catholic Thought and Patterns of Devotion: The Sacraments of Penance and Devotion 180 5.1 Change in Rituals 183 5.2 Sacrament of Penance 190 5.3 Sacrament of the Eucharist 203 5.4 Conclusion 219 6. English Catholics and the Invention of Sacred Space in the Elizabethan Midlands 221 v 6.1 Parish Church 224 6.2 Traditional Sites 229 6.3 Purgatory 233 6.4 Prisons 240 6.5 Executions 243 6.6 Martyrologies 247 6.7 Rosaries, Relics, Holy Water and Wells 249 6.8 Conclusion 256 7. Encountering ‘The Other’ 257 7.1 Anti-Catholic Laws and Reactions 258 7.2 Religious Identity and Communal Culture 267 7.3 Protestant Hostility and Catholic Resistance 275 7.4 Conclusion 295 8. Catholic Memory 297 9. Conclusion 322 Appendix 1 The Catholic Midlands 338 Appendix 2 Herefordshire 339 Appendix 3 Worcestershire 340 Appendix 4 Staffordshire 341 Appendix 5 Warwickshire 342 Appendix 6 Leicestershire 343 Appendix 7 Northamptonshire 344 vi Bibliography 345 vii 1. Introduction _____________________________________________________________________________________________ And though our condition be so desolate, that wee can neyther be freed from outward miserie, but by becomming inwardly more miserable, nor complaine of our troubles, but our very complaints are punished: yet an infamed life, being to free mindes more irkesome then an innocent death, we had rather put our vttermost hazards to your highnes clemencie, then seeme with our silence to giue credit to our obliques: to which if wee doe not, it may be imagined we cannot answere.1 These words, written by Robert Southwell to Elizabeth I near the end of her reign, rang true for longer than he would have liked.