No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Debates over the interpretation of the English Reformation often have followed from the wider controversies of the day. This was especially true in the years before Catholic Emancipation, when political tensions led Catholic, Anglican, and Whig historians to revive the many quarrels about the past. Of these disputes, the persecutions under Mary I and the alleged treason of Elizabethan Catholics seemed most relevant to the issue of Catholic freedom. From John Foxe had come the Anglican image of Catholic cruelty; from the statutes and official tracts of Elizabethan and Jacobean England, the obsessive fears of Catholic treason. John Foxe taught his generation that persecution and treason had been practiced by the papal antichrist since the fourteenth century. The apparent timelessness of Roman evil was given new support by the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 and the Irish Massacres of 1641. Moreover, by culling quotations from church councils, papal decrees, and Catholic divines, seventeenth-century Anglican writers alleged that treason and cruelty flowed from the very principles of the Roman church. Since those same principles had been established as early as 1215 and never had been rescinded, the lesson was clear enough: the penal laws could not be ended until Rome changed. For the historians of the English Reformation, Mary's fires and Elizabeth's traitors would show not only what Rome had been but what it must always be.
1. Foxe, John, Acts and Monuments, 8 vols., ed. Cattley, Stephen Reed (1837-1841; reprint ed., New York, 1965).Google Scholar For the most famous legislation, see Elton, G. B., ed., The Tudor Constitution: Documents and Commentary (Cambridge, 1965), pp. 418–432Google Scholar, and Kenyon, J. P., ed., The Stuart Constitution, 1603–1688: Documents and Commentary (Cambridge, 1966), pp. 456–460.Google Scholar
2. Haller, William, The Elect Nation: The Meaning and Relevance of Foxe's Book of Martyrs (New York, 1961)Google Scholar, chaps. 3 and 4; Hill, Christopher, Antichrist in Seventeenth Century England (London, 1971)Google Scholar, chap. 1; Clifton, Robin, “The Popular Fear of Catholics during the English Revolution,” Past and Present 52 (08 1971), pp. 34–39;CrossRefGoogle ScholarMiller, John, Popery and Politics in England, 1660–1688 (Cambridge, 1973)Google Scholar. To demonstrate his point, one seventeenth-century author used 200 Catholic authors; see Foulis, Henry, The History of Romish Treasons and Usurpations… (London, 1671).Google Scholar
3. 18 Geo. 3, chap. 60, may be seen in Horn, D. B. and Mary, Ransome, eds., English Historical Documents, 1714–1783 (New York, 1953), pp. x, 406–408.Google Scholar
4. Ward, Bernard, The Dawn of the Catholic Revival in England, 1781–1801, 2 vols. (London, 1909), 1: 287–289.Google Scholar
5. Henriques, Ursula, Religious Toleration in England, 1787–1833 (Toronto, 1961), pp. 31–98.Google Scholar In its Protestation of 1787, the Catholic Committee conceded that the deposing doctrine was “unchristianlike and execrable … wicked and erroneous,” indeed, as members later affirmed, even “damnable.” Butler, Charles, Historical Memoirs of the English, Irish, and Scottish Catholics…, 3d ed., 4 vols. (London, 1822), 4: 16; Ward, 1: 165.Google Scholar
6. Reid, Loren D., Charles James Fox: A Man for the People (London, 1969), p. 250.Google Scholar
7. John, Wright, ed., Speeches of…Charles James Fox in the House of Commons, 6 vols. (London, 1815), 4: 3–4, 58, 422.Google Scholar
8. Robert, Michael, The Whig Party, 1807–1812 (London, 1939), pp. 7–24.Google Scholar
9. Dictionary of National Biography, 1886 ed., s.v.“Charles Butler” (see also the 1921–1922 ed); Husenbeth, M. C., The Life of the Right Reverend John Mimer, D.D. (Dublin, 1862);Google ScholarShea, Donald, The English Ranke: John Lingard (New York, 1966).Google Scholar
10. See above, n. 5.
11. Milner, John, The History…and…the Antiquities of Winchester, 2 vols. (Winchester, 1798–1801);Google Scholaridem, Letters to a Prebendary… (Baltimore, Md., 1810); Lingard, John, Letters on Catholic Loyalty… (Newcastle, 1807).Google Scholar Lingard followed his Letters with his first history, The Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church, 2 vols. (Newcastle, 1806).Google Scholar Between 1807 and 1813, Lingard fought with a number of Anglican clergymen over the beliefs and practices of Roman Catholics; see Lingard, John, A Collection of Tracts… (London, 1826).Google Scholar
12. Butler, Charles, “An Address to the Protestants of Great Britain and Ireland”, The Pamphleteer 1 (1813): 457–485;Google ScholarMilner, John, The End of Religious Controversy… (Baltimore, 1818);Google ScholarButler, , Historical Memoirs; John Lingard, A History of England…, 14 vols. (Philadelphia, 1827–1831).Google Scholar Unless otherwise noted, all future references to Lingard's History will be to this first American edition.
13. Southey, Robert, Book of the Church (London, 1824);Google ScholarButler, Charles, Book of the Roman Catholic Church… (London, 1825);Google ScholarKenneth, Curray, ed., New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols. (New York, 1965), 2: 278.Google Scholar Southey replied to Butler in his Vindiciae Ecclesiae Anglicanae… (London, 1826).Google Scholar
14. Burgess, Thomas, “A Letter to Charles Butler…,” The Pamphleteer 14 (1825): 62–74;Google ScholarPhillpotts, Henry, A Letter to Charles Butler… (London, 1825);Google ScholarTownsend, George, The Accusations of History Against the Church of Rome…with a Supplemental Letter to Mr.Butler (London, 1826);Google ScholarWhite, Joseph Blanco, Practical and Internal Evidence Against Catholicism with Occasional Strictures on Mr. Butler's Book… (Georgetown, 1826).Google Scholar
15. Soames, Henry, The History of the Reformation of the Church of England, 4 vols. (London, 1826–1828);Google ScholarCarwithen, J. B. S., The History of the Church of England, 2 vols. (London, 1829);Google ScholarTodd, Rev. Henry, A Vindication of…Thomas Cranmer against some of the Allegations which have been made by…[Lingard, Mimer, and Butler]… (London, 1826);Google Scholaridem, The Life of Archbishop Cranmer, 2 vols. (London, 1831); Turner, Sharon, The Modern History of England, 3d ed., 4 vols. (London, 1828–1835)Google Scholar, including The History of the Reign of Henry the Eighth…, 2 vols., and The History of the Reigns of Edward the Sixth, Mary and Elizabeth, 2 vols. The first edition of turner's Modern History was published in 1826–1829.
16. “But if this charge can be refuted, there does not remain a pretext for the continuance of these penal laws…”, Milner, , Letters, p. 111.Google Scholar
17. Milner, , History of Winchester, 1: 355.Google Scholar
18. Ibid.; Butler, , Historical Memoirs, 1: 258;Google ScholarLingard, , History, 7: 110–111, 114,154, 157, 166–167Google Scholar
19. Lingard, , History, 7: 154–155.Google Scholar
20. Copus, Alano [Harpsfield, Nicholas], Dialogi Sex… (Antwerp, 1566);Google Scholar[Persons, Robert], A Treatise of Three Conversions of England…, 5 vols. (Saint Omer, 1603-[1604]).Google Scholar
21. Milner, , End of Controversy, p. 153;Google Scholaridem, Letters, pp. 66, 104–105; Andrews, William Eusebius, A Critical and Historical Review of Foxe's Book of Martyrs…, 3 vols. (London, 1824–1825).Google Scholar On these issues, Butler recommended the works of Milner and Andrews; see Butler, , Book of the Roman Catholic Church, p. 263.Google Scholar
22. Heylyn, Peter, Ecclesia Restaurata…Mary (London, 1661), p. 47.Google Scholar
23. Dodd, Charles, The Church History of England…, 3 vols. (Brussels, 1737–1742), 2: 97;Google ScholarPhillips, Thomas, The History of the Life of Reginald Pole, 2 vols. (London, 1767), 2: 160–161;Google ScholarMilner, , History of Winchester, 1: 355–356;Google ScholarButler, , Historical Memoirs, 1: 258;Google ScholarLingard, , History, 7: 168.Google Scholar For such Protestant provocations, see Lingard, , History, 7: 111, 140, 156–158.Google Scholar
24. Milner, , History of Winchester, 1: 356.Google Scholar
25. “King Edward, King James, Queen Elizabeth, as well as Queen Mary, have thought fit to execute this law upon hereticks,” wrote an author, who also included Cranmer. Woodhead, Alexander, Church Gov't Part V… (Oxford, 1687), pp. 78–79.Google Scholar See also another work of 1687, Bossuet, Jacques Benigne, Histoire des Variations des Eglises Protestantes (Paris, 1844), 1: 334.Google ScholarBurnet, Gilbert, History of the Reformation of the Church of England, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1865), 2: 205Google Scholar, says that the charge against Cranmer was common in Mary's reign. If so, it was not used by his Marian judges; see Foxe, , Acts and Monuments, 8: 37–38.Google Scholar
26. Milner, , History of Winchester, 1: 357n.;Google Scholaridem, End of Controversy, p. 314; Butler, , Historical Memoirs, 1: 262;Google Scholaridem, Book of the Roman Catholic Church, p. 217; Lingard, , History, 6: 215, 216, 267; 7: 65, 153–154;Google Scholaridem, A Vindication of Certain Passages in…the History of England… (London, 1827), p. 85.
27. Lingard, , History, 7:153–154;Google Scholaridem, A Vindication, p. 94; idem, History, copyright ed., 10 vols. (London, 1883), 5:463n. Earlier, , Burnet, , History, 2:333Google Scholar, had held that under the third title of the Reformatio Legum. “all capital proceedings for heresy were laid down.” However, Collier, Jeremy, An Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain…, 2 vols. (London, 1708–1714), 2: 326Google Scholar, had concluded that obstinate heretics “were to suffer Death by Law…,” but he did not conclude that Cranmer was planning to persecute Catholics.
28. Marsh, Herbert, A Comparative View of the Churches of England and Rome, 2d ed. (London, 1816), pp. 36, 38, 121, 125–126, 179, 218–221, 225–229.Google Scholar
29. Southey, , Vindiciae, p. 12;Google Scholar White, p. 5.
30. Southey, , Book of the Church, 2: 138;Google Scholar Townsend, p. 209.
31. Turner, , Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth, 1: 373.Google Scholar Only Carwithen, 1: 428–475, placed the blame on the queen and not on the principles of her church. Soames, 4: 285–312, 328–492, preceded his discussion of the Marian events with a long discourse on papal persecutions.
32. Townsend, p. 458; Southey, , Vindiciae, p. 27.Google Scholar
33. Todd, , Life of Cranmer, 2: 86.Google Scholar The document had been recently printed in Archaeologia 18 (1817): 81.Google Scholar
34. Todd, , Vindication of Cranmer, 94–95;Google Scholaridem, Life of Cranmer, 2: 147, 150–151; Soames, 3: 543–545; Lingard, , History, new ed., rev. and enl., 13 vols. (London, 1844), 7: 73–74.Google Scholar The Anglican historians followed Strype, John, Ecclesiastical Memorials, 7 vols. (London, 1816), 2: 348, 3: 357, 3: 362.Google Scholar For Cranmer's Register, Lingard, used Wilkins, David, Concilia…, 4 vols. (London, 1737), 4: 44–45.Google Scholar
35. Soames, 1: 394–395, 3: 547.
36. Milner, John, A Vindication of the End of Controversy…, rev. ed., 13 vols. (Philadelphia, 1825), pp. 166–167.Google Scholar “Accordingly, I adopted this method in the Letters to a Prebendary and in the End of Controversy,” wrote Milner.
37. For its most enduring form, see Challoner, Richard, Memoirs of Missionary Priests and other Catholics… (London, 1741).Google Scholar
38. Butler, , Historical Memoirs, 1: 345–431, 2: 1–60.Google Scholar Lingard's last edition has much new material. Lingard, , History (London, 1883), 6: 81–84, 243–244, 328–344, 375–376, 504–505, 520–530.Google Scholar
39. For the oflicial apology, see Cecil, William, Execution of Justice (London, 1583).Google Scholar The Catholic answer came from Allen, William, A True, Sincere and Modest Defense of English Catholics (1584).Google Scholar Both titles have been given a single edition by Kingdon, Robert M., ed., (Ithaca, 1965).Google Scholar The Protestant historians followed Cecil and such Elizabethan legislation as 27 Eliz. 1, chap. 1, an act “for the surety of the Queen's most royal person.” “Elizabeth put no Roman Catholic to Death upon the score of Religion and if any were executed in her Reign, it was only for having conspir'd against the Queen, or for having attempted to subvert the Gov't and to abolish the Religion established in the Kingdom.” Throyas, Paul Rapin de, Ada Regia…, 4 vols. (London, 1727-1731), 4: 85.Google Scholar
40. Townsend, p. 417; Turner, , Henry VIII, 2: 355.Google Scholar
41. Turner, , Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth, 1: 104–105.Google Scholar The old questions “are still at issue between the papacy and all that dispute its supreme sway.” Turner, , Henry VIII, 2: 356n.Google Scholar
42. Turner, , Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth, 2: 172–174.Google Scholar
44. As late as 1822, while George Brodie could admit that “some Catholics… were put to the rack to extort confession” in Elizabeth's reign, nevertheless he maintained that “the grand principles of the constitution were preserved however much its spirit might slumber.” Brodie, George, A Constitutional History…, rev. ed., 3 vols. (London, 1866), 1: 174.Google Scholar
45. Penny, N. B., “The Whig Cult of Fox in Early Nineteenth-Century Sculpture,” Past and Present 70 (02 1976):95, 101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
46. “Remember your Papa was the first man who moved C. Emancipation in the House of Lords… It is a proud thing for him.” Fox, Elizabeth, Holland, Lady, Elizabeth, Lady Holland to her Son…, ed. The Earl of Ilchester (London, 1946), p. 95.Google Scholar See also Fox, Henry Richard Vassall, Holland, Lord, Memoirs of the Whig Party…, 2 vols. (London, 1852), 1: 164.Google Scholar
47. In 1813 Lord Holland ordered the printing of 1,000 copies of Lingard's answer to some anti-Catholic tracts for distribution among the dissenters. A few years later, Mawman agreed to print Lingard's History of England only after Lord Holland, along with his secretary John Allen, and the Whig politician Henry Brougham, reported favorably on about 300 pages of the work. In 1839 Holland helped secure a £300 privy purse grant for Lingard. Haile, Martin and Boney, Edwin, Life and Letters of John Lingard, 1771–1851 (London, 1911), pp. 122–123, 158, 271;Google ScholarButler, Charles, A Memoir of the Catholic Relief Bill Passed in 1829… (London, 1829).Google Scholar
48. Hallam, Henry, Constitutional History of England…, 2 vols. (Paris, 1827);Google ScholarSanders, Lloyd, The Holland House Circle (London, 1908), pp. 195–203, 224–226, 256–257, 263–266, 347.Google Scholar
49. Macaulay, Thomas Babington, “Hallam's Constitutional History”, Edinburgh Review 48, (09 1828): 96–169.Google Scholar
50. Sanders, pp. 60, 80, 81, 95, 160, 258–263; Lady Holland, pp. 51, 58.
51. Hallam, 1: 128, 143–144; Macaulay, p. 100.
52. Hallam, 1: 155–159; Macaulay, p. 101.
53. Hallam, 1: 229; Mackintosh, 3: 161.
54. Butler, , Historical Memoirs, 1: 426;Google ScholarLingard, , History, 8: 114.Google Scholar The answers of Campion and his comrades to six questions involving the deposing power had recently been printed in Howell, T.B., State Trials 1, cols. 1049–1087;Google Scholar Butler, however, saw the original answers in the British Museum.
55. Hallam, 1: 194n.
56. Howell, Thomas Bayly, A complete collection of state trials and proceedings for high treason and other crimes and misdemeanors…, 21 vols. (London, 1816), vol. 1, cols. 1054, 1062–1063, 1070–1071.Google Scholar
57. For example, compare Hallam, 1: 222–223, with Butler, , Historical Memoirs, 1: 343–344;Google Scholar or Hallam, 1: 198, with Lingard, , History, 8: 114.Google Scholar
58. Mackintosh, 3: 286.
59. Hallam, 1: 211n; Macaulay, p. 101; Mackintosh, 3: 283.
60. On Ireland, see for an example, the Edinburgh Review 41, (01 1825): 356–410.Google Scholar On the civil disabilities of the Jews, see Macaulay's speech on 17 April 1833 in the House of Commons, in Macaulay, Thomas Babington, The Complete Works, 10 vols. (New York, 1899-1900), 9: 122–126.Google Scholar
61. Wright, 4: 459. Lord Holland said, “But we have always been taught to look for the remedy of such disorders in the redress of the grievances which justify them, and in the removal of the dissatisfaction from which they flow—not in restraints on ancient privileges, not in inroads on the right of public discussion, nor in violations of the principles of a government.” Macaulay, Thomas Babington, “Lord Holland”, Edinburgh Review 73 (07 1841): 560–561.Google Scholar
62. Halevy, Elie, The Liberal Awakening, 1815–1830 (New York, 1949), pp. 140–142, 144, 263.Google Scholar
63. “The Catholic question is not an English question, but an Irish one; or rather it is no otherwise an English question, than as it is an Irish one.” Sidney Smith quoted in Miller, George, The Policy of the Roman Catholic question…, 3d ed. (London, 1826), p. 44.Google Scholar See also Southey, , Vindiciae, p. xv;Google ScholarPhillpotts, , Letter to Charles Butler, pp. 316–317;Google Scholaridem, A Letter to … George Canning… (London, 1827), pp. 114–115.
64. Curray, , New Letters, 2: 248.Google Scholar
65. Southey's Book was so described by Lingard. Haile and Bonney, p. 204.
66. “In my account of the Reformation,” wrote Lingard, “I must say much to shock protestant prejudices; and my only chance of being read by them depends upon my having the reputation of a temperate writer. The good to be done is writing a book which protestants will read …” Haile and Bonney, p. 166.
67. Ibid., p. 167.
68. The quotation was suggested on 28 April 1819 by James Mackintosh as an epigraph for a Westmacott statue of Charles James Fox which would stand in Westminister Abbey. Mackintosh Papers, additional manuscript 52453, British Museum, London.