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The Third Earl of Huntingdon and Trials of Catholics in the North, 1581–1595

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

M. Claire Cross
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Extract

In 1580 Robert Persons and Edmund Campion led the first Jesuit mission for the conversion of England. Their success in stirring up a new zeal among English Catholics and in reconciling sympathisers to the church greatly alarmed the government. The result was an intensification of the persecution of Catholics, which culminated in the passing of the statute against recusants in the Parliament of 1581. From this time those who withdrew the Queen’s subjects from their allegiance, or converted them to Catholicism for that intent, together with those who willingly allowed themselves to be so withdrawn, were judged to be traitors. The penalties against those who remained Catholics and refused to conform were drastically increased. A fine of £20 a month could now be imposed for non-attendance at church.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , October 1965 , pp. 136 - 146
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1965

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References

Notes

1. This figure is based on the recorded attendances in the High Commission Act Books, 1572-1595 in the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, York. Huntingdon's attendance fluctuated widely, even before 1581. In 1577, for example, he was present at 12 meetings, in 1578 at only one.

2. Verses from The Crie of the Poore for the Death of the Right Honourable Earle of Huntingdon. (1596) STC 12929. (British Museum pressmark: Huth 50.56.)Google Scholar

3. Huntington Library, San Marino, California, Hastings MS. H.A.5099. I quote from these documents with permission of the Director of the Library.

4. Morris, J. (ed.): Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers, Ser. 3 (1877), 65 Google Scholar (hereafter referred to as Troubles).

5. Morris: Troubles, Ser. 3, 132

6. Huntington Library, Hastings MS. H.A.1440. Thomas Clarke to Huntingdon. 4 Nov. [no year, but perhaps about 1585.]

7. Public Record Office, S.P. 12/247/21. Richard Topcliffe to Puckering. 25 Jan. 1593/4.

8. Dasent, J. R. (ed.): Acts of the Privy Council XXI, 40 Google Scholar (hereinafter referred to as A.P.C.). Historical Manuscripts Commission Reports, Salisbury X, 203.

9. Dasent, A.P.C. XXII, 196.

10. P.R.O., S.P.15/27A/23.

11. P.R.O., S.P.15/29/156 & 157.

12. P.R.O., S.P.12/247/21.

13. P.R.O., S.P.15/27A/107.

14. Dasent, A.P.C. XV, 297. XXIII, 365. P.R.O., S.P.12/242/105.

15. H.M.C. Reports, Salisbury V, 135.Google Scholar

16. P.R.O., S.P.12/247/21.

17. British Museum, Harleian MS. 6696.37 & 40.

18. Morris, Troubles. Ser. 3, 314.

19. English College, Rome, Archives, Scritt. 21/2 ff. I owe my knowledge of this document as well as a transcript of it to the kindness of Dom Hugh Aveling O.S.B. Rawlings was put to death on 7 April 1595 at York.

20. P.R.O., S.P. 15/27A/107.

21. Huntington Library, Hastings MS. H.A.5396.

22. B.M., Harl. 6995. 76.

23. Challoner, R.: Memoirs of Missionary Priests, (revised ed. 1924), xix–xxii.Google Scholar

24. Dasent, A.P.C. XIII, 432–3. He misread the first name as “Anfield”.

25. B.M., Harl. 6996. 28 & 29.

26. Strype, J.: Annals of the Reformation. (1824) vol. 7, 236.Google Scholar B.M., Harl. 6996. 37.

27. Morris, Troubles. Ser. 3, 204 ff.

28. Op. cit. and Catholic Record Society, Miscellanea I (1905), 85.

29. Challoner, op. cit., xxii.

30. English College, Rome, Archives, Scritt 21/2 ff.

31. Reid, R. R.: The King's Council in the North (1921), 209–210.Google Scholar

32. Morris, Troubles. Ser. 3, 333 ff.

33. Gentleman's Magazine (1840), 465 Google Scholar. This contains a transcript of a contemporary manuscript account of some of the sufferings of northern Catholics. It is the source quoted by Dr. Reid.

34. B.M., Harl. 6996. 34.

35. Morris, Troubles. Ser. 3, 227–30.

36. Op. cit., 183-ff.

37. I have described briefly something of the effects of Huntingdon's patronage of Protestant ministers in the north in an article in The Historical Journal vol. 3 no. 1 (1960), 1.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

38. Christopher Fetherstone, translation of Calvin: The Commentaries on the Actes of the Apostles (1585) STC 4398. Dedication.

39. The figures are taken from Challoner, op. cit. (1), xxiii.