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William Shakespeare
Section IV:
Relig ion in Shakespeare's Eng land
1. History of Religion in Shakespeare's England 2. How Religion Changed in
England: The Reformation
3.
Edward as King
4.
Mary as Queen 5. Elizabeth as Queen
6. Differences between the Protestant and Catholic
Faiths
7.
Shakespeare's Own Religion
8.
Shakespeare and the Bible
9. Shakespeare and the Gunpowder Pot
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We should remember that:
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Religion
is extremely important in Shakespeare's England. Religion influences everyone's
actions and thoughts. It is a part of the fabric of life, like sleeping and
working and breathing, and the Sunday church service is a central activity.
After 1559, church attendance is compulsory: if you are absent (a recusant)
you are fined.
•
The
official religion of England changed three times in 12 years.
•
At first
all Christians everywhere are Roman Catholic. The Pope is the head of the
Church. The Church is very powerful, and becomes very wealthy.
•
Then there is rebellion
against the excesses of the Church, by a few men in particular: Martin Luther in
Germany, Huldrych Zwingli
and John
Calvin in Switzerland, John Knox in Scotland, and (for very
different reasons) King
Henry VIII in England.
•
The rebellions
lead to Protestantism, via the Reformation.
•
Henry
VIII (1491-1547) becomes heir to the throne in 1502 after the death of his
older brother, Arthur. He is crowned in 1509, at 18, and marries Catherine of
Aragon, his brother's widow.
Henry wants a son, but as the years go by he and Catherine have only
one child, a daughter, Mar.
A male heir is necessary, everyone thinks, to keep the Tudor power on the
throne and to keep peace in England.
•
Henry, a
man of many appetites, falls in love with Anne Boleyn, lady-in-waiting to the
Queen. He asks the Pope in Rome for an annulment of his marriage to Catherine.
When the Pope refuses, Henry breaks away from the Catholic Church, divorces
Catherine, and marries Anne Boleyn.
•
The Pope
excommunicates him, and parliamentary legislation in England confirms Henry's
decision to break with Rome. Henry establishes himself as "’the only
supreme head on earth of the Church in England" and orders the dissolution
of the monasteries; other reforms follow.
•
His Act of Supremacy (1534)
insists that everyone admit his authority, and swear loyalty to him as the head
of the Church of England. Many people who cannot bring themselves to do so are
beheaded. One of these is the brilliant humanist Sir Thomas More. (Watch the
Academy Award-winning film A Man For All Seasons, made in 1966.)
•
England
is now no longer Roman Catholic under the Pope, but officially Protestant under
Henry VIII. Naturally, many people remember Catholicism, and perhaps keep it in
their hearts.
•
Anne
Boleyn soon bears Henry a daughter, Elizabeth, to Henry's immense
disappointment. Wearying of Anne, he falls in love with Jane Seymour, and has
Anne beheaded for treason, accusing her of adultery. He marries Jane Seymour,
who gives him the son he wants, Edward; Jane dies 12 days later from complications of the
birth.
•
After
three more wives (Anne of Cleves, Kathryn Howard and Katherine Parr), none of
whom bears any children, Henry
VIII dies. His
only son, Edward VI, becomes
king in 1547, at the age of 9. Edward's protector (guardian) is his mother's
brother,
Edward Seymour.
•
Edward
keeps his father's religion. During Edward's short reign (1547 -53), the Church
of England is reshaped by his strong Protestant advisors. The initial reforms
are modest, but eventually radical Protestants gain power and try to eliminate
all traces of Roman Catholicism from the Church. Edward dies of consumption
(tuberculosis) at 16. England is without a ruler.
Mary as Queen (reigned 1553-58)
• Henry's first-born, Mary, daughter of Catherine of Aragon
(Henry's first wife), ascends the throne of England in 1553. Raised in the
Roman Catholic faith, Mary punges England back into Roman Catholicism. In 1554,
by an Act of Parliament, she cancels Henry's divorce from her mother, Catherine
of Aragon, repeals all the religious legislation made under Edward VI, and
returns England fully to the Pope's authority.
• Nearly 300 peope are burned to death at the
stake for refusing to change their Protestant religion. Among them are Thomas
Cranmer, the former Archbishop of Canterbury; Nicholas Ridley, the former
Bishop of London; and the reformist Hugh Latimer. Almost as many people are put
to death for religious reasons in 34 months under Mary as in the whole 45 years
of Elizabeth's reign, earning Mary the nickname "Bloody Mary". After five
years on the throne, Mary dies childless (possibly of tuberculosis) at age 42.
Elizabeth as
Queen (reigned
1558-1603)
•
Mary's half sister Elizabeth, Henry's daughter by Anne
Boleyn, becomes Queen in 1558 at the age of 25. Raised as a Protestant,
Elizabeth I reinstates Protestantism as the official religion of
England. She tries to be even-handed and alow freedom of belief as long as it
does not openly flout the law or promote treason. However, throughout the
country there is constant spying and constant worry about who is what religion,
and who may be trying to usurp the throne (and to whom it rightfully belongs).
•
The new Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity re-establish
England's independence from the Pope, but also make broad concessions to
Catholics. Elizabeth, a strong female ruler, reigns for 45 years.
Roman Catholic beliefs and practices under
attack by Protestant reformers indude:
•
purgatory;
•
particular judgment (i.e., the judgment given
by God to a departed soul immediately after death, as opposed to the General or
Last Judgment of all souls at the end of the word);
•
devotion to the Virgin Mary;
•
intercession of the saints (praying to a saint
to intercede with God on the believer's behalf);
•
most of the sacraments;
•
authority of the Pope;
•
corruption within the Church.
•
Although
Catholicism is against the law, Shakespeare may well have been
Roman Catholic in his heart. His parents certainly had been Roman
Catholic. In 1591, the authorities put John Shakespeare on a list of
"obstinate papists," and report that he has missed church "for
fear of process for debt," a common Catholic excuse. In 1757, a
hand-written Catholic statement of faith is found hidden in the rafters of John
Shakespeare's home, every page signed by John Shakespeare. Shakespeare's
daughter Susanna is also accused of missing church.
•
Like everyone else in his day, Shakespeare
believes in ghosts and witches and the supernatural. The ghost of Hamlet's
father suffers horribly in purgatory "until the crimes done in [his]
lifetime are burned away". A belief in purgatory is not a Protestant
belief, but a Catholic one.
•
We will
never know whether Shakespeare was secretly Catholic. You will find an
interesting article on the topic here: www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xCatholic.html
interesting article on the topic here: www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xCatholic.html
•
"Shakespeare's debt to Scripture is
profound; biblical imagery is woven into every play. No writer has integrated
the expressions and themes found in the Bible into his own work more
magnificently than Shakespeare." Amanda Mabillard, “Biblical Imagery in Macbeth",
in About.com; accessed September 9, 2008
•
The Bible
and the Book of Common Prayer are sources of Shakespeare's imagery and of many
of his explicit or implicit themes. He believes in happy endings, that good
eventually triumphs over evil, and that goodness is rewarded and evil punished.
Here are just a few of the Biblical
references in Shakespeare's pays:
“Golgotha | porter of hellgate | devil-porter | angels pleading
trumpet-tongued against the blast | heaven’s cherubim | loosed from Hell to
speak of horrors | Jephthah | temple | winged messenger of heaven | fiend
evangelical | fiend in mortal paradise | mine eternal jewel given to the enemy
of man | Heaven finds ways to kill our joys with love”
The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was an attempt by a group of English
Catholics to assassinate their new King, James I, and to kill much of the
Protestant aristocracy by bowing up the Houses of Parliament at the State
Opening on November 5.
Shakespeare may have known about the infamous
Gunpowder Plot, because Shakespeare's father, John, knew the head conspirator,
Robert Catesby.
Here is a contemporary
sketch of the conspirators, and the beginning of a modern-day article which
suggests that Shakespeare might have been close to the action:
"It was November, 1605,
and high treason was on the mind of every English subject. A small group of
angry Catholics, fed up with ongoing persecution at the hands of the
Protestant monarchy, hatched an elaborate plot to blow King James I and his
government to smithereens.
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"As luck would have it, a warning letter surfaced at the last
minute and James ordered a search of his Palace. The most notorious
conspirator,
Guy Fawkes,
was discovered in the cellar, match in hand, ready to ignite twenty barrels of gunpowder
"all at one thunderclap."
"To
say that Shakespeare would have been familiar with the conspirators is an
understatement. These traitors of the realm had some deep connections to
Shakespeare and his family. Shakespeare's father, John (undoubtedly a covert
Catholic) , was friends with William Catesby, the father of the head
conspirator, Robert Catesby. John Shakespeare and William Catesby shared
illegal Catholic writings that eventually wound up in the attic of John's home
in Stratford. Moreover, the Mermaid Tavern in London, frequented by Shakespeare
and owned by his closest friend and confidant, was a preferred meeting spot of
the turncoats as they schemed to obliterate the Protestants once and for all...."
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