4. Catholic Responses

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we think about some of the Catholic responses to Elizabeth's penal laws, focusing in particular on: (i) the presence of militant Catholics in England in this period, who were actively planning to have Elizabeth assassinated or otherwise to remove her from power; (ii) the importance of Cardinal William Allen: his role as leader of the Catholic mission to England, and his success in gaining support from foreign rulers such as Philip II of Spain and various popes; (iii) extent to which Allen wanted the Catholic priests he sent to England to be agents of sedition and rebellion in England; (iv) the figure of Edmund Campion (1540-81), and his insistence (even when interrogated under torture) that his role was to be a priest, not a political agitator; (v) the prevalence of Catholicism among the aristocracy and the gentry, and the level of threat this represented for Elizabeth.

Course

In this course, Professor John Morrill (University of Cambridge) thinks about the treatment of Catholics during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603). The course begins by thinking about Elizabeth's own religious beliefs, focusing in particular at the practices in her private chapels as well as her treatment of Catholics who were known personally to her. After that, we turn to the Elizabethan Religious Settlement of 1558-59, before moving on in the third module to look at the Penal Laws that were introduced followed the Catholic rebellions in 1569-70. We continue to explore the Penal Laws in the fourth and fifth modules, focusing first on the Catholic response to the laws – especially on the Continent – and then on the enforcement of the laws, before moving on in the sixth module to think about the lives of ordinary Catholics under Elizabeth's rule.

Lecturer

John Morrill was educated at Altrincham Grammar School (Cheshire) and at Trinity College Oxford (BA 1967, DPhil 1971). He was a Research Fellow there (1970-4) and a Lecturer at Stirling University (1974-5) before moving to Cambridge in 1975 as Lecturer, Reader and now Professor. He has been a Fellow of Selwyn College since 1975 and was Director of Studies in History 1975-92, Tutor 1979-92, Admissions Tutor 1982-7, Senior Tutor 1987-92 and Vice Master 1992-2001. He was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy in 1995 and served as Vice President from 2001-9. He is also an Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy and the Academy of Finland, and he holds honorary degrees from several universities and is an Hon. Fellow of Trinity College Oxford and Trinity College Dublin. He is also a permanent deacon in the Roman Catholic Church and holds several senior positions in the Diocese of East Anglia (eg Chair of the Commission for Evangelisation and Assistant Director for Diaconal Formation) and he teaches Church History and pastoral theology one weekend a month at St John's Seminary, Wonersh.