155-588: Guy Fawkes ( / f ɔː k s / ; 13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes while fighting for the Spanish, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. He was born and educated in York ; his father died when Fawkes was eight years old, after which his mother married a recusant Catholic. Fawkes converted to Catholicism and left for mainland Europe, where he fought for Catholic Spain in
310-515: A Jesuit priest. Guy was an uncommon name in England, but may have been popular in York on account of a local notable, Sir Guy Fairfax of Steeton. The date of Fawkes's birth is unknown, but he was baptised in the church of St Michael le Belfrey, York on 16 April. As the customary gap between birth and baptism was three days, he was probably born about 13 April. In 1568, Edith had given birth to
465-471: A Catholic from the throne. In 2013, this law was partially changed when the disqualification of the monarch marrying a Catholic was eliminated (along with male preference in the line of succession). The law was also changed to limit the requirement that the monarch "must give permission to marry to the six persons next in line to the throne." Still, Catholics today once again are permitted to hold Wolsey and More's office of Lord Chancellor as did Catholics before
620-987: A Catholic through the Baynbrigge family's recusant tendencies, and also the Catholic branches of the Pulleyn and Percy families of Scotton, but also from his time at St. Peter's School in York. A governor of the school had spent about 20 years in prison for recusancy, and its headmaster, John Pulleyn, came from a family of noted Yorkshire recusants, the Pulleyns of Blubberhouses . In her 1915 work The Pulleynes of Yorkshire , author Catharine Pullein suggested that Fawkes's Catholic education came from his Harrington relatives, who were known for harbouring priests, one of whom later accompanied Fawkes to Flanders in 1592–1593. Fawkes's fellow students included John Wright and his brother Christopher (both later involved with Fawkes in
775-430: A Catholic, Catherine of Braganza . (He would become Catholic himself on his deathbed.) Charles' brother and heir James, Duke of York (later James II ), converted to Catholicism in 1668–1669. When Titus Oates in 1678 alleged a (totally imaginary, a hoax) " Popish Plot " to assassinate Charles and put James in his place, he unleashed a wave of parliamentary and public hysteria which led to the execution of 17 Catholics on
930-626: A Lloegr ) is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See . Its origins date from the 6th century, when Pope Gregory I through a Roman missionary and Benedictine monk, Augustine, later Augustine of Canterbury , intensified the evangelization of the Kingdom of Kent , linking it to the Holy See in 597 AD. This unbroken communion with the Holy See lasted until King Henry VIII ended it in 1534. Communion with Rome
1085-716: A court with " Papist " elements and a Parliament in which the Puritans were strong was one of the major factors behind the English Civil War , in which almost all Catholics supported the King. The victory of the Parliamentarians meant a strongly Protestant, anti-Catholic regime, content for the English Church to become "little more than a nationwide federation of Protestant parishes." The restoration of
1240-461: A court with continental influences, where Catholicism was the official religion of many countries, and tolerated in others; even somewhat fashionable. Some anti-Catholic legislation became effectively a dead letter. The Counter-Reformation on the continent of Europe had created a more vigorous and magnificent form of Catholicism (i.e., Baroque , notably found in the architecture and music of Austria, Italy and Germany) that attracted some converts, like
1395-567: A daughter named Anne, but the child died aged about seven weeks, in November that year. She bore two more children after Guy: Anne (b. 1572), and Elizabeth (b. 1575). Both were married, in 1599 and 1594 respectively. In 1579, when Guy was eight years old, his father died. His mother remarried several years later, to the Catholic Dionis Baynbrigge (or Denis Bainbridge) of Scotton, Harrogate . Fawkes may have become
1550-553: A daughter, born some time in the late 1590s. As a precautionary measure, in 1596 they were each arrested during Queen Elizabeth I 's illness. They were incarcerated at the White Lyon prison in 1601 for their involvement in the Earl of Essex's rebellion. Both were skilled swordsmen, and John was renowned for his courage. The Jesuit priest Oswald Tesimond wrote that he possessed a "good physique and sound constitution. Rather on
1705-433: A day of thanksgiving for "the joyful day of deliverance", and remained in force until 1859. Fawkes was one of 13 conspirators, but he is the individual most associated with the plot. In Britain, 5 November has variously been called Guy Fawkes Night , Guy Fawkes Day, Plot Night, and Bonfire Night (which can be traced directly back to the original celebration of 5 November 1605). Bonfires were accompanied by fireworks from
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#17327829384611860-772: A former pupil, Thomas Weld (of Lulworth) , as Europe became engulfed in war. This act was followed in Ireland with the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1793 , an Act of the Irish Parliament with some local provisions such as allowing Catholics to vote in elections to the Irish House of Commons and to take degrees at Trinity College Dublin . John and Christopher Wright John (Jack) Wright (January 1568 – 8 November 1605), and Christopher (Kit) Wright (1570? – 8 November 1605), were members of
2015-493: A generally sympathetic light and his novel transformed Fawkes in the public perception into an "acceptable fictional character". Fawkes subsequently appeared as "essentially an action hero" in children's books and penny dreadfuls such as The Boyhood Days of Guy Fawkes; or, The Conspirators of Old London , published around 1905. According to the historian Lewis Call , Fawkes is now "a major icon in modern political culture", whose face has become "a potentially powerful instrument for
2170-488: A half a million Catholics in England." Their civil rights were severely curtailed: their right to own property or inherit land was greatly limited, they were burdened with special taxes, they could not send their children abroad for Catholic education, they could not vote, and priests were liable to imprisonment. Writing about the Catholic Church during this time, historian Antonia Fraser notes: The harsh laws and
2325-402: A hoax". Fawkes checked the undercroft on 30 October, and reported that nothing had been disturbed. Monteagle's suspicions had been aroused, however, and the letter was shown to King James. The King ordered Sir Thomas Knyvet to conduct a search of the cellars underneath Parliament, which he did in the early hours of 5 November. Fawkes had taken up his station late on the previous night, armed with
2480-599: A mask. During the 19th century, "guy" came to mean an oddly dressed person, while in many places it has lost any pejorative connotation and instead refers to any male person and the plural form can refer to people of any gender (as in " you guys "). James Sharpe, professor of history at the University of York, has described how Guy Fawkes came to be toasted as "the last man to enter Parliament with honest intentions". William Harrison Ainsworth 's 1841 historical romance Guy Fawkes; or, The Gunpowder Treason portrays Fawkes in
2635-667: A noblewoman named Richeldis de Faverches reputedly experienced a vision of the Virgin Mary in 1061, asking her to build a replica of the Holy House at Nazareth . Some of the other holiest shrines were those at Holywell in Wales which commemorated St Winefride , and at Westminster Abbey to Edward the Confessor . In 1170, Thomas Becket , Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered in his cathedral by followers of King Henry II and
2790-413: A slow match and a watch given to him by Percy "becaus he should knowe howe the time went away". He was found leaving the cellar, shortly after midnight, and arrested. Inside, the barrels of gunpowder were discovered hidden under piles of firewood and coal. Fawkes gave his name as John Johnson and was first interrogated by members of the King's Privy chamber , where he remained defiant. When asked by one of
2945-542: A small group of Catholic conspirators who aimed to kill both King and Parliament and establish a Catholic monarchy. A mix of persecution and tolerance followed: Ben Jonson and his wife, for example, in 1606 were summoned before the authorities for failure to take communion in the Church of England, yet the King tolerated some Catholics at court; for example George Calvert , to whom he gave the title Baron Baltimore (his son, Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore , founded in 1632
3100-616: A thousand years. That is, there was no doctrinal difference between the faith of the English and the rest of Catholic Christendom, especially after calculating the date of Easter at the Council of Whitby in 667 and formalizing other customs according to the See of Rome. The designation "English Church" ( Ecclesia Anglicana in Latin) was made, but always in the sense of the term as indicating that it
3255-416: A tunnel from beneath Whynniard's house to Parliament, although this story may have been a government fabrication; no evidence for the existence of a tunnel was presented by the prosecution, and no trace of one has ever been found; Fawkes himself did not admit the existence of such a scheme until his fifth interrogation, but even then he could not locate the tunnel. If the story is true, however, by December 1604
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#17327829384613410-612: A unique monastic tonsure and calculations for the date of Easter . Regardless of these differences, historians do not consider this Celtic or British Christianity a distinct church separate from general Western European Christianity. During the Heptarchy , the English people (referred to as the Anglo-Saxons ) were converted to Christianity from Anglo-Saxon paganism , from two main directions: The Gregorian mission , as it
3565-674: A wholly Catholic board. The last straw was the birth of a Catholic heir in 1688, portending a return to a pre-Reformation Catholic dynasty. Observing this was Princess Mary, James' daughter by his first wife, and her husband " 'Stadhouder Willem,' whose wife stood to lose her future thrones through this new arrival." In what came to be known as the Glorious Revolution , Parliament deemed James to have abdicated (effectively deposing him, though Parliament refused to call it that) in favour of his Protestant daughter and son-in-law and nephew, Mary II and William III . Although this affair
3720-506: Is celebrated as solidifying both English liberties and the Protestant nature of the kingdom, some argue that it was "fundamentally a coup spearheaded by a foreign army and navy". James fled into exile, and with him many Catholic nobility and gentry. The Act of Settlement 1701 , which remains in operation today, established the royal line through Sophia, Electress of Hanover , and specifically excludes any Catholic or anyone who marries
3875-765: Is for obvious reasons more difficult to uncover than that of their theoretical superiors. The unspoken survival of the Catholic community in England, despite Penal laws, depended also on these loyal families unknown to history whose existence is recorded as Catholics in Anglican parish registers. That of Walton-le-Dale parish church, near Preston in Lancashire in 1781, for example, records 178 families, with 875 individuals as 'Papists'. Where baptisms are concerned, parental occupations are stated as weaver, husbandman and labourer, with names such as Turner, Wilcock, Balwin and Charnley. A bishop at this time (roughly from 1688 to 1850)
4030-521: Is in doubt whether he did this to gain support from Dissenters or whether he was truly committed to tolerance (seventeenth century Catholic regimes in Spain and Italy, for example, were hardly tolerant of Protestantism, while those in France and Poland had practiced forms of toleration). James earnestly tried "to improve the position of his fellow Catholics" and did so "in such an inept way that he aroused
4185-623: Is known, is of particular interest in the Catholic Church as it was the first official Papal mission to found a church. With the help of Christians already residing in Kent , particularly Bertha , the Merovingian Frankish consort of the then pagan King Æthelberht , Augustine established an archbishopric in Canterbury , the old capital of Kent. Having received the pallium earlier (linking his new diocese to Rome), Augustine became
4340-486: Is still considered controversial. Anglicans like Giles Fraser have noted that the property "was stolen" from the Roman Catholic Church and that "this theft of land is the really dirty stuff – the original sin of the Church of England." Nevertheless, Henry maintained a strong preference for traditional Catholic practices and, during his reign, Protestant reformers were unable to make more radical changes to
4495-579: The Babington plot , together with other subversive activities of supporters of Mary, Queen of Scots , all reinforced the association of Catholicism with treachery in the minds of many, notably in middle and southern England. The climax of Elizabeth's anti-Catholic legislation was in 1585, two years before the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, with the Act against Jesuits, Seminary priests and other such like disobedient persons . This statute, under which most of
4650-470: The Dominicans and Franciscans , settled in both universities and maintained houses for students. Archbishop Walter de Merton founded Merton College , Oxford and three different popes – Gregory IX , Nicholas IV , and John XXII – gave Cambridge the legal protection and status to compete with other European medieval universities . Augustinians also had a significant presence at Oxford. Osney Abbey,
4805-540: The Eighty Years' War against Protestant Dutch reformers in the Low Countries . He travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England without success. He later met Thomas Wintour , with whom he returned to England. Wintour introduced him to Robert Catesby , who planned to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. The plotters leased an undercroft beneath
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4960-1007: The English Catholic martyrs were executed, made it high treason for any Jesuit or any seminary priest to be in England at all, and a felony for any one to harbour or relieve them. The last of Elizabeth's anti-Catholic laws was the Act for the Better Discovery of Wicked and Seditious Persons Terming Themselves Catholics, but Being Rebellious and Traitorous Subjects. Its effect was to prohibit all recusants from going more than five miles from their place of abode, and to order all persons suspected of being Jesuits or seminary priests, and not answering satisfactorily, to be imprisoned until they did so. However, Elizabeth did not believe that her anti-Catholic policies constituted religious persecution, though "she strangled, disembowelled, and dismembered more than 200" English Catholics and "built on
5115-477: The Gunpowder Plot ) and Oswald Tesimond , Edward Oldcorne and Robert Middleton, who became priests (the latter executed in 1601). After leaving school Fawkes entered the service of Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu . The Viscount took a dislike to Fawkes and after a short time dismissed him; he was subsequently employed by Anthony-Maria Browne, 2nd Viscount Montagu , who succeeded his grandfather at
5270-599: The House of Lords ; Fawkes was placed in charge of the gunpowder that they stockpiled there. The authorities were prompted by an anonymous letter to search Westminster Palace during the early hours of 5 November, and they found Fawkes guarding the explosives. He was questioned and tortured over the next few days and confessed to wanting to blow up the House of Lords. Fawkes was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered . However, at his execution on 31 January, he died when his neck
5425-528: The Protestant King James and replace him with his daughter, third in the line of succession, Princess Elizabeth . Fawkes was described by the Jesuit priest and former school friend Oswald Tesimond as "pleasant of approach and cheerful of manner, opposed to quarrels and strife ... loyal to his friends". Tesimond also claimed Fawkes was "a man highly skilled in matters of war", and that it
5580-622: The Province of Maryland as a refuge for persecuted Catholics), and the Duke of Norfolk , head of the Howard family . The reign of Charles I (1625–1649) saw a small revival of Catholicism in England, especially among the upper classes. As part of the royal marriage settlement Charles's Catholic wife, Henrietta Maria , was permitted her own royal chapel and chaplain. Henrietta Maria was in fact very strict in her religious observances, and helped create
5735-801: The Seven Years' War when the British Empire , in 1763, acquired the French-speaking (and predominantly Catholic) territory of Canada. Only after the Treaty of Paris in 1783, and in 1789 with the consecration of John Carroll , a friend of Benjamin Franklin , did the U.S. have its own diocesan bishop, free of the Vicar Apostolic of London, James Robert Talbot . The introduction of Vicars Apostolic or titular bishops in 1685
5890-512: The "Act to retain the Queen's Majesty's subjects in their obedience", passed in 1581, made it high treason to reconcile anyone or to be reconciled to "the Romish religion", or to procure or publish any papal Bull or writing whatsoever. The celebration of Mass was prohibited under penalty of a fine of two hundred marks and imprisonment for one year for the celebrant, and a fine of one hundred marks and
6045-408: The 1650s onwards, and it became the custom after 1673 to burn an effigy (usually of the pope) when heir presumptive James, Duke of York , converted to Catholicism. Effigies of other notable figures have found their way onto the bonfires, such as Paul Kruger , Margaret Thatcher , Liz Truss , Rishi Sunak and Vladimir Putin . The "guy" is normally created by children from old clothes, newspapers, and
6200-551: The 2021 census, the Christian population (of Catholic, Anglican, nonconformists, and unaffiliated Christians together) dropped to 46% (about 27.6 million people, the majority of whom were not of the established church). In North West England one in five are Catholic, a result of large-scale Irish migration in the nineteenth century as well as the high number of English recusants in Lancashire . Much of Great Britain
6355-538: The 3rd century. Eventually, the position of the Roman authorities on Christianity moved from hostility to toleration with the Edict of Milan in 313 AD, and then enforcement as state religion following the Edict of Thessalonica in 380 AD, becoming a key component of Romano-British culture and society. Records note that Romano-British bishops, such as Restitutus , attended the Council of Arles in 314 , which confirmed
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6510-417: The Anglican church as "parish Anglicans". By then most English people had largely been de-catholicised but were not Protestant. Religious "uniformity," however, "was a lost cause," given the presence of Dissenting, Nonconformist Protestants, and Catholic minorities. The reign of James I (1603–1625) was marked by a measure of tolerance, though less so after the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot conspiracy of
6665-645: The Benedictine continental rule became grafted upon the monasteries and parishes of England, drawing them closer to the Continent and Rome. As a result, the pope was often called upon to intervene in quarrels, affirm monarchs, and decide jurisdictions. In 787, for example, Pope Adrian I elevated Lichfield to an archdiocese and appointed Hygeberht its first archbishop. Later, in 808, Pope Leo III helped restore King Eardwulf of Northumbria to his throne; and in 859, Pope Leo IV confirmed and anointed Alfred
6820-641: The Britons), due in part to their geographical distance from the rest of Western Christendom. Of particularly importance was the Easter controversy (on which date to celebrate it) and the manner of monastic tonsure . Columbanus , his fellow countryman and churchman, had asked for a papal judgement on the Easter question, as did abbots and bishops of Ireland. This was particularly important in Northumbria, where
6975-666: The Catholic gentry: Baron Petre (who wined and dined George III and Queen Charlotte at Thorndon Hall), Thomas Weld the bibliophile, (and friend of George III ) who in 1794 donated his Stonyhurst estate to the Jesuits to establish a college, along with 30 acres of land, and the Duke of Norfolk, the Premier Duke in the peerage of England and as Earl of Arundel , the Premier Earl . In virtue of his status and as head of
7130-462: The English antiquarian William Camden describing them as men "hunger-starved for innovation". Christopher may have travelled to Spain in 1603 using the alias Anthony Dutton, seeking Spanish support for English Catholics, although biographer Mark Nicholls mentions that Dutton's role may have been attributed to Christopher by Fawkes and Thomas Wintour , held in the Tower of London after the failure of
7285-600: The English Church passed from the Anglo-Saxons to the Normans following the Norman conquest of England . The two clerics most prominently associated with this change were the continental-born Lanfranc and Anselm , both Benedictines. Anselm later became a Doctor of the Church . A century later, Pope Innocent III had to confirm the primacy of Canterbury over four Welsh churches for many reasons, but primarily to sustain
7440-700: The English College in Seville. Given that Douai was located in the Spanish Netherlands , part of the dominions of Elizabethan England's greatest enemy, and Valladolid and Seville in Spain itself, they became associated in the public eye with political as well as religious subversion. It was this combination of nationalistic public opinion, sustained persecution, and the rise of a new generation which could not remember pre-Reformation times and had no pre-established loyalty to Catholicism, that reduced
7595-510: The Great king, according to Anglo-Saxon Chronicle . Individual Benedictines seemed to play an important role throughout this period. For example, before Benedictine monk St. Dunstan was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury in 960; Pope John XII had him appointed legate, commissioning him (along with Ethelwold and Oswald) to restore discipline in the existing monasteries of England, many of which were destroyed by Danish invaders. Control of
7750-482: The Gunpowder Plot, on 21 April he told how Fawkes was to be brought by Tesimond to England. Fawkes was a well-known Flemish mercenary, and would be introduced to "Mr Catesby" and "honourable friends of the nobility and others who would have arms and horses in readiness". Turner's report did not, however, mention Fawkes's pseudonym in England, John Johnson, and did not reach Cecil until late in November, well after
7905-444: The House of Lords, and expressed regret at his failure to do so. His steadfast manner impressed King James, who described Fawkes as possessing "a Roman resolution". James's respect did not, however, prevent him from ordering on 6 November that "John Johnson" be tortured, to reveal the names of his co-conspirators. He directed that the torture be light at first, referring to the use of manacles , but more severe if necessary, authorising
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#17327829384618060-504: The Howard family (which included some Church of England, though many Catholic members), the Duke was always at Court. It seemed the values and worth of aristocracy "trumped those of the illegal religion". Pope, however, seemed to benefit from the isolation. In 1713, when he was 25, he took subscriptions for a project that filled his life for the next seven years, the result being a new version of Homer's Iliad . Samuel Johnson pronounced it
8215-501: The Huddlestons of Sawston Hall were "the key to Queen Mary's successful accession to the throne. Without them she would never have made it." However, Mary's execution of 300 Protestants by burning them at the stake proved counterproductive as this measure was extremely unpopular with the populace. For example, instead of executing Archbishop Cranmer for treason for supporting Queen Jane , she had him tried for heresy and burned at
8370-470: The Mass", a Christian game. The rebellion—resistance to Protestantism—was put down ruthlessly. Under Queen Mary I , in 1553, the fractured and discordant English Church was linked again to continental Catholicism and the See of Rome through the doctrinal and liturgical initiatives of Reginald Pole and other Catholic reformers. Mary was determined to return the whole of England to the Catholic faith. This aim
8525-574: The Midlands, attempting to gain support for a popular uprising. Eventually the group opted to wait for the authorities at Holbeche House , on the border of Staffordshire . On 8 November the Sheriff of Worcester arrived with a large group of armed men, and both brothers were killed in the ensuing firefight. John and Christopher Wright were born to Robert Wright and his second wife, Ursula Rudston, daughter of Nicholas and Jane Rudston of Hayton . John
8680-459: The North against the religious changes, were bloodily repressed. All through 1536–41, Henry VIII engaged in a large-scale dissolution of the Monasteries in order to gain control of most of the wealth of the church and much of the richest land. He disbanded monasteries , priories , convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland, appropriated their income, disposed of their assets, sold off artefacts stolen from them, and provided pensions for
8835-443: The Papist sect driven out of England." He denounced Scotland, and the King's favourites among the Scottish nobles, writing "it will not be possible to reconcile these two nations, as they are, for very long". Although he was received politely, the court of Philip III was unwilling to offer him any support. In 1604 Fawkes became involved with a small group of English Catholics, led by Robert Catesby , who planned to assassinate
8990-414: The Polish primate, whose Catholic career came "to an abrupt end in 1540 when he married", and who later become a Calvinist —arrived in London and became superintendent of the Strangers' Church of London . He, among other Protestants, became an associate of Thomas Cranmer and of John Hooper . He had some influence on ecclesiastical affairs during the reign of Edward VI. For instance, the Tridentine Mass
9145-427: The Protestant succession in the Kingdom of Great Britain . This allowed Catholic schooling and clergy to operate openly and thus allowed permanent missions to be set up in the larger towns. Stonyhurst College , for example, was able to be established in 1794, as the successor establishment for the fleeing English Jesuits, previously at the Colleges of St Omer, Bruges and Liège , due to a timely and generous donation by
9300-412: The Reformation. Cardinal Henry Benedict Stuart , the last Jacobite heir to publicly assert a claim to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland, died in Rome in 1807. A monument to the Royal Stuarts exists today at Vatican City. In the 21st century, Franz, Duke of Bavaria , head of the Wittelsbach family, is the most senior descendant of King Charles I and is considered by Jacobites to be heir of
9455-513: The Spanish in 1587 he, and most of his troops, had switched sides to serve Spain. Fawkes became an alférez or junior officer, fought well at the siege of Calais in 1596 , and by 1603 had been recommended for a captaincy . That year, he travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England. He used the occasion to adopt the Italian version of his name, Guido, and in his memorandum described James I (who became king of England that year) as "a heretic", who intended "to have all of
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#17327829384619610-400: The Stuarts. Though direct descendant of the House of Stuart, Franz has said being king is not a claim he wishes to pursue. The years from 1688 to the early 19th century were in some respects the lowest point for Catholicism in England. Deprived of their dioceses, four Apostolic Vicariates were set up throughout England until the re-establishment of the diocesan episcopacy in 1850. Although
9765-400: The Thames. Simultaneously, a revolt in the Midlands would help to ensure the capture of Princess Elizabeth. Acts of regicide were frowned upon, and Fawkes would therefore head to the continent , where he would explain to the Catholic powers his holy duty to kill the King and his retinue. A few of the conspirators were concerned about fellow Catholics who would be present at Parliament during
9920-687: The actions of Mary." In the context of the uncompromising wording of the Papal Bull against her, she failed to distinguish between those Catholics in conflict with her from those with no such designs. The number of English Catholics executed under Elizabeth was significant, including Edmund Campion , Robert Southwell , and Margaret Clitherow . Elizabeth herself signed the regicidal death warrant of her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots , after 19 years as Elizabeth's prisoner. As MacCulloch has noted, "England judicially murdered more Roman Catholics than any other country in Europe, which puts English pride in national tolerance in an interesting perspective." So distraught
10075-426: The age of 18. At least one source claims that Fawkes married and had a son, but no known contemporary accounts confirm this. In October 1591 Fawkes sold the estate in Clifton in York that he had inherited from his father. He travelled to the continent to fight in the Eighty Years War for Catholic Spain against the new Dutch Republic and, from 1595 until the Peace of Vervins in 1598, France. Although England
10230-412: The appointment of William Laud as Archbishop of Canterbury . How many Catholics and Puritans there were is still open to debate. Religious conflict between Charles and other "High" Anglicans and Calvinists – at this stage mostly still within the Church of England (the Puritans ) – formed a strand of the anti-monarchical leanings of the troubled politics of the period. The religious tensions between
10385-451: The articulation of postmodern anarchism " in the late 20th century. Fawkes is regarded by some as a martyr , political rebel or freedom-fighter, especially amongst a minority of Catholics in the United Kingdom. Footnotes Citations Bibliography Catholic Church in England and Wales The Catholic Church in England and Wales ( Latin : Ecclesia Catholica in Anglia et Cambria ; Welsh : Yr Eglwys Gatholig yng Nghymru
10540-489: The barge from the Tower to Westminster Hall with seven of his co-conspirators. They were kept in the Star Chamber before being taken to Westminster Hall, where they were displayed on a purpose-built scaffold. The King and his close family, watching in secret, were among the spectators as the Lords Commissioners read out the list of charges. Fawkes was identified as Guido Fawkes, "otherwise called Guido Johnson". He pleaded not guilty, despite his apparent acceptance of guilt from
10695-466: The border of Staffordshire . On the arrival the following morning of the Sheriff of Worcester and his company of men, a gun battle broke out and Catesby, Percy, and both Wright brothers were shot. With medical attention they might have survived, but "the baser sort" among the sheriff's men hurriedly stripped them of their clothes (Christopher's boots were pulled off to reach his silk stockings), and left them to die. Their younger sister, Alice Wright,
10850-428: The brothers were on several occasions arrested for reasons of national security. Both were also members of the Earl of Essex 's rebellion of 1601. John was one of the first men to join the conspiracy, which was led by Robert Catesby . Christopher joined in March 1605. At about midnight on 4 November Fawkes was discovered and arrested, following which John, Christopher and the rest of the conspirators travelled across
11005-528: The century there was some liberalization of the anti-Catholic laws on the basis of Enlightenment ideals. In 1778 the Catholic Relief Act allowed Catholics to own property, inherit land and join the army, provided they swore an oath of allegiance. Hardline Protestant mobs reacted in the Gordon Riots in 1780, attacking any building in London which was associated with Catholicism or owned by Catholics. The Catholic Relief Act 1791 provided further freedoms on condition of swearing an additional oath of acceptance of
11160-518: The chamber's undercroft they discovered and arrested Fawkes, who was guarding the gunpowder the conspirators had placed there. As news of Fawkes's capture spread, particularly through the great houses of the Strand, Christopher deduced what had occurred and went to Thomas Wintour at the Duck and Drake inn, exclaiming "the matter is discovered". Wintour ordered him to verify the news, and on confirming that
11315-530: The conspiracy as well, but in October that year, as the plan was nearing its culmination, its existence was revealed to the authorities by an anonymous letter delivered to William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle , warning him to stay away from Parliament. Uncertain of its meaning Monteagle delivered the letter to the English Secretary of State , Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury . Monteagle's servant
11470-439: The conspirators were busy tunnelling from their rented house to the House of Lords. They ceased their efforts when, during tunnelling, they heard a noise from above. Fawkes was sent out to investigate, and returned with the news that the tenant's widow was clearing out a nearby undercroft , directly beneath the House of Lords. The plotters purchased the lease to the room, which also belonged to John Whynniard. Unused and filthy, it
11625-522: The conspirators, Thomas Percy , was appointed a Gentleman Pensioner in June 1604, gaining access to a house in London that belonged to John Whynniard, Keeper of the King's Wardrobe. Fawkes was installed as a caretaker and began using the pseudonym John Johnson, servant to Percy. The contemporaneous account of the prosecution (taken from Thomas Wintour's confession) claimed that the conspirators attempted to dig
11780-556: The continent to meet with the Constable of Castille. Wintour also met with Welsh spy Hugh Owen, who introduced him to Guy Fawkes, a man with whose name Catesby was familiar. A fifth conspirator, Thomas Percy , joined them several weeks later. Percy was related to the Wright family by marriage, having wed John's sister, Martha. The group met on 20 May 1604 at the Duck and Drake inn, in the fashionable Strand district of London. After
11935-460: The dismembered parts of their bodies displayed so that they might become "prey for the fowls of the air". Fawkes's and Tresham's testimony regarding the Spanish treason was read aloud, as well as confessions related specifically to the Gunpowder Plot. The last piece of evidence offered was a conversation between Fawkes and Wintour, who had been kept in adjacent cells. The two men apparently thought they had been speaking in private, but their conversation
12090-612: The fears of both the Anglican establishment and the Dissenters. In the process, he encouraged converts like the poet John Dryden , who wrote " The Hind and the Panther ", to celebrate his conversion. Protestant fears mounted as James placed Catholics in the major commands of the existing standing army, dismissed the Protestant Bishop of London and dismissed the Protestant fellows of Magdalen College and replaced them with
12245-521: The first in the series of Catholic archbishops of Canterbury , four of whom ( Laurence , Mellitus , Justus and Honorius ) were part of the original band of Benedictine missionaries. (The last Catholic archbishop of Canterbury was Reginald Pole , who died in 1558.) During this time of mission, Rome looked to challenge some different customs which had been retained in isolation by the Celts (the Gaels and
12400-439: The government were seeking Thomas Percy (for whom Fawkes, using the alias "John Johnson", claimed to be working), ordered him to alert Percy. Christopher and Percy left London together, heading for Dunstable . With the group mostly reintegrated, they spent the next two days moving across Warwickshire and Worcestershire , attempting to drum up support for a rebellion that as time passed became ever more unlikely. On 6 November,
12555-600: The greatest translation ever achieved in the English language. Over time, Pope became the greatest poet of the age, the Augustan Age , especially for his mock-heroic poems, Rape of the Lock and The Dunciad . Around this time, in 1720, Clement XI proclaimed Anselm of Canterbury a Doctor of the Church. In 1752, mid-century, Great Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar decreed by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. Later in
12710-487: The group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605, a conspiracy to assassinate King James I by blowing up the House of Lords . Their sister married another plotter, Thomas Percy . Educated at the same school in York , the Wrights had early links with Guy Fawkes , the man left in charge of the explosives stored in the undercroft beneath the House of Lords. As known recusants
12865-608: The gunpowder plotter Thomas Percy in 1591. The brothers were pupils at St Peter's School in York, along with Guy Fawkes , whose name has become synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot . Although outwardly conformist, the school's headmaster John Pulleine came from a notable family of Yorkshire recusants , and his predecessor at St Peter's had spent 20 years in prison for his recusancy. Three Catholic priests, Oswald Tesimond , Edward Oldcorn and Robert Middleton , were also educated at St Peter's. John and Christopher were both married, to Dorothy and Margaret respectively. John had
13020-493: The importance of the Gregorian foundation of Augustine's mission. During mediaeval times, England and Wales were part of western Christendom: monasteries and convents, such as those at Shaftesbury and Shrewsbury , were prominent institutions, and provided lodging, hospitals and education. Likewise, centres of education like Oxford University and Cambridge University were important. Members of religious orders , notably
13175-535: The importation of several religious cults into Britain, including Roman mythology , Mithraism and the imperial cult . One of these sects, then disapproved by the Roman authorities, was the Palestinian -originated religion of Christianity . While it is unclear exactly how it arrived, the earliest British figures considered saints by the Christians are St. Alban followed by SS Julius and Aaron , all in
13330-431: The issue was causing factionalism. Later, in his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum , Bede explained the reasons for the discrepancy: "He [Columba] left successors distinguished for great charity, Divine love, and strict attention to the rules of discipline following indeed uncertain cycles in the computation of the great festival of Easter, because far away as they were out of the world, no one had supplied them with
13485-409: The letter. He returned to London and assured John, Thomas Wintour and Robert Keyes that they had nothing to be concerned about. That same evening John probably set off for the Midlands with Catesby and his servant Thomas Bates , while the others moved into their positions, ready for the planned explosion the following day. At about midnight the authorities made a search of the House of Lords, and in
13640-479: The live-and-let-live reality were two very different things. This world was divided into the upper classes, the aristocracy and the gentry, and what were literally the working classes. Undoubtedly, the survival of Catholicism in the past [up until 1829] was due to the dogged, but hopefully inconspicuous, protection provided by the former to the latter. Country neighbours, Anglicans and Catholics, lived amicably together in keeping with this "laissez-faire" reality. There
13795-499: The lords what he was doing in possession of so much gunpowder, Fawkes answered that his intention was "to blow you Scotch beggars back to your native mountains." He identified himself as a 36-year-old Catholic from Netherdale in Yorkshire, and gave his father's name as Thomas and his mother's as Edith Jackson. Wounds on his body noted by his questioners he explained as the effects of pleurisy . Fawkes admitted his intention to blow up
13950-510: The meeting they swore an oath of secrecy on a prayer book and celebrated Mass in another room with Father John Gerard, who was ignorant of their purpose. From these early meetings, according to biographer Mark Nicholls, John exhibited "little sign of doubt or scruple thereafter". He remained close to the heart of the conspiracy, moving his family to Lapworth in Warwickshire, and stabling horses there. By March 1605 Christopher had joined
14105-464: The military struggle was demanded of them, not spiritual allegiance". Fraser also notes that the role of the working class among themselves was important: ...servants of various degrees and farm workers, miners, mill workers and tradesmen, responded with loyalty, hard work and gratitude for the opportunity to practice the faith of their fathers (and even more importantly, in many cases, their mothers). Their contributions should not be ignored, even if it
14260-631: The moment he was captured. The jury found all the defendants guilty, and the Lord Chief Justice Sir John Popham pronounced them guilty of high treason . The Attorney General Sir Edward Coke told the court that each of the condemned would be drawn backwards to his death, by a horse, his head near the ground. They were to be "put to death halfway between heaven and earth as unworthy of both". Their genitals would be cut off and burnt before their eyes, and their bowels and hearts removed. They would then be decapitated, and
14415-653: The monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church of England . Failure to so swear was a crime, although it did not become treason until 1562, when the Supremacy of the Crown Act 1562 made a second offence of refusing to take the oath treason. During the first years of her reign from 1558 to 1570 there was relative leniency towards Catholics who were willing to keep their religion private, especially if they were prepared to continue to attend their parish churches. The wording of
14570-613: The monarchy under Charles II (1660–1685) also saw the restoration of a Catholic-influenced court like his father's. However, although Charles himself had Catholic leanings, he was first and foremost a pragmatist and realised the vast majority of public opinion in England was strongly anti-Catholic, so he agreed to laws such as the Test Act requiring any appointee to any public office or member of Parliament to deny Catholic beliefs such as transubstantiation . As far as possible, however, he maintained tacit tolerance. Like his father, he married
14725-534: The night of 6 November he spoke with Waad, who reported to Salisbury "He [Johnson] told us that since he undertook this action he did every day pray to God he might perform that which might be for the advancement of the Catholic Faith and saving his own soul". According to Waad, Fawkes managed to rest through the night, despite his being warned that he would be interrogated until "I had gotton the inwards secret of his thoughts and all his complices". His composure
14880-399: The number of Catholics in England during this period – although the overshadowing memory of Queen Mary I's reign was another factor that should not be underestimated (the population of the country was 4.1 million). Nevertheless, by the end of Elizabeth's reign probably 20% of the population were still Catholic, with 10% dissident "Puritan" Protestants and the remainder more or less reconciled to
15035-574: The official prayer book had been carefully designed to make this possible by omitting aggressively "heretical" matter, and at first many English Catholics did in fact worship with their Protestant neighbours, at least until this was formally forbidden by Pope Pius V 's 1570 bull, Regnans in Excelsis , which also declared that Elizabeth was not a rightful queen and should be overthrown. It formally excommunicated her and any who obeyed her and obliged all Catholics to attempt to overthrow her. In response,
15190-492: The opening. On the evening of 26 October, Lord Monteagle received an anonymous letter warning him to stay away, and to "retyre youre self into yowre contee whence yow maye expect the event in safti for ... they shall receyve a terrible blowe this parleament". Despite quickly becoming aware of the letter – informed by one of Monteagle's servants – the conspirators resolved to continue with their plans, as it appeared that it "was clearly thought to be
15345-475: The other hand, failure to accept his break from Rome, particularly by prominent persons in church and state, was regarded by Henry as treason, resulting in the execution of Thomas More , former Lord Chancellor, and John Fisher , Bishop of Rochester , among others. The See of Rome Act 1536 legitimised the separation from Rome, while the Pilgrimage of Grace of 1536 and Bigod's Rebellion of 1537, risings in
15500-474: The parent house of the college, lay on a large site to the west, near the current railway station. Another Augustinian house, St Frideswide's Priory, later became the basis for Christ Church, Oxford . Pilgrimage was a prominent feature of mediaeval Catholicism, and England and Wales were amply provided with many popular sites of pilgrimage. The village of Walsingham in Norfolk became an important shrine after
15655-466: The persecution was not violent as in the past, Catholic numbers, influence and visibility in English society reached their lowest point. The percentage of the population that was Catholic may have declined from 4% in 1700 (out of a population of 5.2 millions) to 1% 1800 (out of a population of 7.25 million) with absolute numbers halved. By 1825, however, the Bishop of Chester estimated that there were "about
15810-427: The plan, was convinced by Catesby to travel to the continent to seek help. Wintour met with the Constable of Castile, the exiled Welsh spy Hugh Owen, and Sir William Stanley, who said that Catesby would receive no support from Spain. Owen did, however, introduce Wintour to Fawkes, who had by then been away from England for many years, and thus was largely unknown in the country. Wintour and Fawkes were contemporaries; each
15965-424: The plot had been discovered. It is uncertain when Fawkes returned to England, but he was back in London by late August 1605, when he and Wintour discovered that the gunpowder stored in the undercroft had decayed. More gunpowder was brought into the room, along with firewood to conceal it. Fawkes's final role in the plot was settled during a series of meetings in October. He was to light the fuse and then escape across
16120-588: The plot. Early in 1604 Robert Catesby, a Catholic convert who had lost patience with King James I 's lack of toleration of Catholics, invited his cousin Thomas Wintour to a meeting at which John was also present. Catesby proposed to blow up "the Parliament House with gunpowder", killing the king and his government, as in "that place, have they done us all the mischief". Catesby had not then given up hope on foreign help, and so he sent Wintour to
16275-467: The plotters' plan. At some point during this trip his name made its way into the files of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury , who employed a network of spies across Europe. One of these spies, Captain William Turner, may have been responsible. Although the information he provided to Salisbury usually amounted to no more than a vague pattern of invasion reports, and included nothing which regarded
16430-408: The poet Richard Crashaw . Ironically, the explicitly Catholic artistic movement (i.e., Baroque) ended up "providing the blueprint, after the fire of London, for the first new Protestant churches to be built in England". While Charles remained firmly Protestant, he was personally drawn towards a consciously "High Church" Anglicanism. This affected his appointments to Anglican bishoprics, in particular
16585-455: The practices and the "continued innovation" of his own "personally devised religious 'middle way. ' " Indeed, Henry "cruelly emphasized his commitment" to his innovations "by executing three papal loyalists and burning three evangelicals." The 1547 to 1553 reign of the boy King Edward VI saw the Church of England become more influenced by Protestantism in its doctrine and worship. In 1550, John Laski —a Polish ex-Catholic cleric and nephew of
16740-639: The reign of Henry VIII, the English church became independent of the Holy See for a period owing to "continued" innovations with Henry declaring himself its Supreme Head. This breach was in response to the Pope's refusal to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon . Henry did not himself accept Protestant innovations in doctrine or liturgy. For example, the Six Articles of 1539 imposed the Death Penalty on those who denied Transubstantiation. But on
16895-552: The robbed monks and former residents. He did not turn these properties over to his local Church of England. Instead, they were sold, mostly to pay for the wars. The historian G. W. Bernard argues that the dissolution of the monasteries in the late 1530s was one of the most revolutionary events in English history. There were nearly 900 religious houses in England, around 260 for monks, 300 for regular canons, 142 nunneries and 183 friaries; some 12,000 people in total, 4,000 monks, 3,000 canons, 3,000 friars and 2,000 nuns. One adult man in fifty
17050-431: The sacrament. Most Catholics, it could be said, retreated to relative isolation from a popular Protestant mainstream, and Catholicism in England in this period was politically invisible to history. However, culturally and socially, there were notable exceptions. Alexander Pope , owing to his literary popularity, was one memorable English Catholic of the 18th century. Other prominent Catholics were three remarkable members of
17205-563: The same day they were helping to raid Warwick Castle for supplies, the brothers were identified by the Lord Chief Justice Sir John Popham as suspects. This prompted the authorities to issue a public proclamation on 7 November naming them and several of their fellow conspirators as wanted men. The group tried unsuccessfully to recruit more rebels at Hewell Grange , but on 7 November, tired and desperate, they decided to make their stand at Holbeche House , on
17360-479: The same imprisonment for those who heard the Mass. This act also increased the penalty for not attending the Anglican service to the sum of twenty pounds a month, or imprisonment until the fine was paid or until the offender went to the Protestant Church. A further penalty of ten pounds a month was inflicted on anyone keeping a schoolmaster who did not attend the Protestant service. The schoolmaster himself
17515-550: The scaffold, and the death of many more over the next two years, which Charles was either unable or unwilling to prevent. Throughout the early 1680s the Whig element in Parliament attempted to remove James as successor to the throne. Their failure saw James become, in 1685, Britain's first openly Catholic monarch since Mary I (and last to date). He promised religious toleration for Catholic and Protestants on an equal footing, but it
17670-597: The sons of English recusant families. The government also placed legislative restrictions on Catholics, some continuing into the 20th century, while the ban on Catholic worship lasted until the Catholic Relief Act 1791 . The ban did not, however, affect foreign embassies in London , although serving priests could be hounded. During this time, the English Catholic Church was divided between
17825-638: The stake. Foxe's Book of Martyrs , which glorified the Protestants killed at the time and vilified Catholics, ensured her a place in popular memory as Bloody Mary , though some recent historians have noted that most of the Protestants Foxe highlights in his book, who were tried for heresy, were primarily Anabaptists, which explains why mainstream Protestants like Stephen Gardiner and William Paget (who were members of Philip's "consejo codigo") went along with it. These historians also note that it
17980-498: The supposedly ancient truth" that he was truly the "Supreme Head of the Church within his dominions", he backed a series of legislative acts through the English Parliament between 1533 and 1536 that initiated an attack on papal authority and English Catholics. "The centrepiece of the new legislation was an Act of Supremacy of 1534." In some cases those adhering to Catholicism faced capital punishment . In 1534, during
18135-413: The surprise of his enemies." The first meeting of the five central conspirators took place on Sunday 20 May 1604, at an inn called the Duck and Drake, in the fashionable Strand district of London. Catesby had already proposed at an earlier meeting with Thomas Wintour and John Wright to kill the King and his government by blowing up "the Parliament House with gunpowder". Wintour, who at first objected to
18290-638: The synodal decrees relating to the Paschal observance." A series of synods were held to resolve the matter, culminating with the Synod of Whitby in 644. The missionaries also introduced the Rule of Benedict , the continental rule, to Anglo-Saxon monasteries in England. Wilfrid , a Benedictine consecrated archbishop of York (in 664), was particularly skilled in promoting the Benedictine Rule. Over time,
18445-554: The tall side, his features were pleasing. He was somewhat taciturn in manner, but very loyal to his friends, even if his friends were few". Christopher's appearance was slightly different from that of his brother, "not like him in face, as being fatter and a lighter coloured hair and taller of person". According to Father John Gerard , John's involvement with Essex coincided with his conversion to Catholicism. Gerard also noted that John's household, Twigmoor Hall in Lincolnshire,
18600-757: The theological findings of an earlier convocation held in Rome (the Council of Rome ) in 313. The Roman departure from Britain in the following century and the subsequent Germanic invasions sharply decreased contact between Britain and Continental Europe. Christianity, however, continued to flourish in the Brittonic areas of Great Britain. During this period certain practices and traditions took hold in Britain and in Ireland that are collectively known as Celtic Christianity . Distinct features of Celtic Christianity include
18755-512: The throne. His third confession, on 9 November, implicated Francis Tresham . Following the Ridolfi plot of 1571, prisoners were made to dictate their confessions, before copying and signing them, if they still could. Although it is uncertain if he was tortured on the rack, Fawkes's scrawled signature suggests the suffering he endured at the hands of his interrogators. The trial of eight of the plotters began on Monday 27 January 1606. Fawkes shared
18910-695: The upper classes, aristocracy and gentry, and the working class . In the 2001 United Kingdom census, there were 4.2 million Catholics in England and Wales, some 8% of the population. One hundred years earlier, in 1901, they represented only 4.8% of the population. In 1981, 8.7% of the population of England and Wales were Catholic. In 2009, post the 2004 enlargement of the European Union , when thousands of Central Europeans (mainly heavily Catholic Poles, Lithuanians, Slovakians and Slovenians) came to England, an Ipsos Morioka poll found that 9.6%, or 5.2 million people, were Catholics in England and Wales. In
19065-406: The use of the rack : "the gentler Tortures are to be first used unto him et sic per gradus ad ima tenditur [and so by degrees proceeding to the worst]". Fawkes was transferred to the Tower of London . The King composed a list of questions to be put to "Johnson", such as " as to what he is , For I can never yet hear of any man that knows him", "When and where he learned to speak French?", and "If he
19220-422: Was Bartolome Carranza, an influential Spanish Dominican of Philip II's workforce, who insisted that Thomas Cranmer's sentence be put into effect. "It was Carranza, not Mary, who insisted that the sentence against Cranmer be carried out." For centuries after, the idea of another reconciliation with Rome was linked in many English people's minds with a renewal of Mary's fiery stakes. Ultimately, her alleged harshness
19375-604: Was Elizabeth over Catholic opposition to her throne, she was secretly reaching out to the Ottoman Sultan Murad III , "asking for military aid against Philip of Spain and the 'idolatrous princes' supporting him." Because of the persecution in England, Catholic priests were trained abroad at the English College in Rome , the English College in Douai , the English College at Valladolid in Spain , and at
19530-522: Was a Papist, who brought him up in it?" The room in which Fawkes was interrogated subsequently became known as the Guy Fawkes Room. Sir William Waad , Lieutenant of the Tower, supervised the torture and obtained Fawkes's confession. He searched his prisoner, and found a letter addressed to Guy Fawkes. To Waad's surprise, "Johnson" remained silent, revealing nothing about the plot or its authors. On
19685-470: Was a pivotal figure in the dispute between King John and Pope Innocent III. This critical situation led to the creation of Magna Carta in 1215, which, among other things, insisted that the English church should be free of ecclesiastical appointments fixed by the king. The dynamics of the pre-Reformation bond between the Catholic Church in England and the Apostolic See remained in effect for nearly
19840-403: Was a place where "he had Priests come often, both for his spiritual comfort and their own in corporal helps", although the government's description, "a Popish college for traitors", was somewhat less favourable. Following his conversion John became "a man of exemplary life". Two years later, as the queen's health waned, a nervous government ensured that John and Christopher were again imprisoned,
19995-428: Was a success but at the cost of alienating a fairly large section of English society which had been moving away from some traditional Catholic devotional practices. These English were neither Calvinist nor Lutheran, but certainly leaning towards Protestant reformation (and by the late sixteenth century, were certainly Protestant). When Mary died and Elizabeth I became queen in 1558, the religious situation in England
20150-654: Was baptised at Welwick in Yorkshire, on 16 January 1568, and Christopher was born in 1570. Their sister Ursula married Marmaduke Ward of Givendale, Mulwith and Newby in 1584, and their first born child (John and Christopher's niece) would become the Venerable Mary Ward founder of the Sisters of Loreto (also known as the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary ). Their sister, Martha, married
20305-541: Was broken as he was hanged, with some sources claiming that he deliberately jumped to make this happen; he thus avoided the agony of his sentence. He became synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot , the failure of which has been commemorated in the UK as Guy Fawkes Night since 5 November 1605, when his effigy is traditionally burned on a bonfire, commonly accompanied by fireworks. Guy Fawkes was born in 1570 in Stonegate , York. He
20460-408: Was broken at some point during the following day. The observer Sir Edward Hoby remarked "Since Johnson's being in the Tower, he beginneth to speak English". Fawkes revealed his true identity on 7 November, and told his interrogators that there were five people involved in the plot to kill the King. He began to reveal their names on 8 November, and told how they intended to place Princess Elizabeth on
20615-685: Was called a vicar apostolic . The officeholder was a titular bishop (as opposed to a diocesan bishop) through whom the pope exercised jurisdiction over a particular church territory in England. English-speaking colonial America came under the jurisdiction of the Vicar Apostolic of the London District . As titular bishop over Catholics in British America, he was important to the government not only in regard to its English-speaking North American colonies, but made more so after
20770-444: Was closely related to Christopher's wife, Margaret, and thus the plotters soon became aware of its existence. Catesby, by then at White Webbs near Enfield Chase with the Wright brothers, decided that the letter did not constitute a sufficiently serious threat to the scheme, and he decided to forge ahead. On 4 November Percy visited his patron, Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland , to see if he could discern what rumours surrounded
20925-455: Was confused. Throughout the alternating religious landscape of the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary I, a significant proportion of the population (especially in the rural and outlying areas of the country) were likely to have continued to hold Catholic views, or were conservative. Nevertheless, Elizabeth was a Protestant and the "very rituals with which the parish had celebrated her accession would be swept away". Thus Elizabeth's first act
21080-471: Was considered an ideal hiding place for the gunpowder the plotters planned to store. According to Fawkes, 20 barrels of gunpowder were brought in at first, followed by 16 more on 20 July. On 28 July however, the ever-present threat of the plague delayed the opening of Parliament until Tuesday, 5 November. In an attempt to gain foreign support, in May 1605 Fawkes travelled overseas and informed Hugh Owen of
21235-501: Was heavily intermarried. Their great houses, however, still had chapels called "libraries", with priests attached to these places (shelved for books) who celebrated Mass, which worship was described in public as "Prayers". Interestingly, one area where the sons of working class Catholics could find religious tolerance was in the army. Generals, for example, did not deny Catholic men their Mass and did not compel them to attend Anglican services, believing that "physical strength and devotion to
21390-508: Was in religious orders in a country of two and one half million. In the Catholic narrative, Henry's action was sacrilegious, a national violation of things consecrated to God, and evil. The fate of the English Carthusians was one of the worst of the period. Thomas Cromwell had them "savagely punished" with their leaders "hanged and disembowelled at Tyburn in May 1535, still wearing their monastic habits." Even today, Henry's act
21545-650: Was incorporated into the Roman Empire during the Roman conquest of Britain , starting in 43 AD, conquering lands inhabited by Celtic Britons . The indigenous religion of the Britons under their priests, the Druids , was suppressed; most notably, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus launched an attack on Anglesey (or Ynys Môn) in 60 AD and destroyed the shrine and sacred groves there. In the following years, Roman influence saw
21700-547: Was intercepted by a government spy. When the prisoners were allowed to speak, Fawkes explained his not guilty plea as ignorance of certain aspects of the indictment. On 31 January 1606, Fawkes and three others – Thomas Wintour, Ambrose Rookwood , and Robert Keyes – were dragged from the Tower on wattled hurdles to the Old Palace Yard at Westminster, opposite the building they had attempted to destroy. His fellow plotters were then hanged and quartered. Fawkes
21855-567: Was militant, and had first-hand experience of the unwillingness of the Spaniards to help. Wintour told Fawkes of their plan to "doe some whatt in Ingland if the pece with Spaine healped us nott", and thus in April 1604 the two men returned to England. Wintour's news did not surprise Catesby; despite positive noises from the Spanish authorities, he feared that "the deeds would nott answere". One of
22010-443: Was nevertheless quartered and, as was the custom, his body parts were then distributed to "the four corners of the kingdom", to be displayed as a warning to other would-be traitors. On 5 November 1605, Londoners were encouraged to celebrate the King's escape from assassination by lighting bonfires, provided that "this testemonye of joy be carefull done without any danger or disorder". An Act of Parliament designated each 5 November as
22165-523: Was no longer, as once in Stuart times, any notable Catholic presence at court, in public life, in the military or professions. Many of the Catholic nobles and gentry who had preserved on their lands among their tenants small pockets of Catholicism had followed James into exile, and others, at least outwardly in cryptic fashion, conformed to Anglicanism, meaning fewer such Catholic communities survived intact. For "obvious reasons", Catholic aristocracy at this time
22320-674: Was not by then engaged in land operations against Spain, the two countries were still at war , and the attempted invasion of England, led by the Spanish Armada in 1588, was only five years in the past. He joined Sir William Stanley , an English Catholic and veteran commander in his mid-forties who had raised an army in Ireland to fight in Leicester's expedition to the Netherlands . Stanley had been held in high regard by Elizabeth I , but following his surrender of Deventer to
22475-462: Was not necessarily at odds with the feeling of a large section of the populace; Edward's Protestant reformation had not been well received everywhere, and there was ambiguity in the responses of the parishes. Mary also had some powerful families behind her. The Jerningham family together with other East Anglian Catholic families such as the Bedingfelds , Waldegraves , Rochesters together with
22630-521: Was part of one Catholic Church in communion with the Holy See and localised in England. Other regions of the church were localised in Scotland ( Ecclesia Scotticana ), France ( Ecclesia Gallicana ), Spain ( Ecclesia Hispanica ), etc. These regional cognomens or designations were commonly used in Rome by officials to identify a locality of the universal church but never to imply any breach with the Holy See. When King Henry VIII "suddenly became alerted to
22785-573: Was quickly canonised as a martyr for the faith. This resulted in Canterbury Cathedral attracting international pilgrimage and inspired the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer . An Englishman, Nicholas Breakspear, became Pope Adrian IV (also known as Hadrian IV), reigning from 1154 to 1159. Fifty-six years later, Cardinal Stephen Langton , the first of English cardinals and later Archbishop of Canterbury (1208–1228),
22940-614: Was replaced by the (English) Book of Common Prayer , representational art and statues in church buildings destroyed, and Catholic practices which had survived during Henry's reign, such as public prayers to the Virgin Mary, e.g. the Salve Regina , ended. In 1549 the Western Rising in Cornwall and Devon broke out to protest against the abolition of the Mass – the rebels called the 1549 Holy Communion Service, "commonly called
23095-640: Was restored by Queen Mary I in 1555 following the Second Statute of Repeal and eventually finally broken by Elizabeth I's 1559 Religious Settlement, which made "no significant concessions to Catholic opinion represented by the church hierarchy and much of the nobility." For 250 years, the government forced members of the pre-Reformation Catholic Church known as recusants to go underground and seek academic training in Catholic Europe, where exiled English clergy set up schools and seminaries for
23250-454: Was the last to stand on the scaffold. He asked for forgiveness of the King and state, while keeping up his "crosses and idle ceremonies" (Catholic practices). Weakened by torture and aided by the hangman, Fawkes began to climb the ladder to the noose, but either through jumping to his death or climbing too high so the rope was incorrectly set, he managed to avoid the agony of the latter part of his execution by breaking his neck . His lifeless body
23405-458: Was the second of four children born to Edward Fawkes, a proctor and an advocate of the consistory court at York, and his wife, Edith. Guy's parents were regular communicants of the Church of England , as were his paternal grandparents; his grandmother, born Ellen Harrington, was the daughter of a prominent merchant, who served as Lord Mayor of York in 1536. Guy's mother's family were recusant Catholics , and his cousin, Richard Cowling, became
23560-402: Was this mixture of piety and professionalism that endeared him to his fellow conspirators. The author Antonia Fraser describes Fawkes as "a tall, powerfully built man, with thick reddish-brown hair, a flowing moustache in the tradition of the time, and a bushy reddish-brown beard", and that he was "a man of action ... capable of intelligent argument as well as physical endurance, somewhat to
23715-537: Was to be imprisoned for one year. England's wars with Catholic powers such as France and Spain, culminated in the attempted invasion by the Spanish Armada in 1588. The Papal bull had unleashed nationalistic feelings which equated Protestantism with loyalty to a highly popular monarch and made Catholics "vulnerable to accusations of being traitors to the crown." The Rising of the North , the Throckmorton plot and
23870-613: Was to reverse her sister's re-establishment of Catholicism by Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity . The Act of Supremacy of 1558 made it a crime to assert the authority of any foreign prince, prelate , or other authority, and was aimed at abolishing the authority of the Pope in England. A third offence was high treason became punishable by death. The Oath of Supremacy , imposed by the Act of Supremacy 1558, provided for any person taking public or church office in England to swear allegiance to
24025-447: Was very important at the time and ought not be misprized. For example, when John Leyburn, formerly of the English College, Douai, was appointed as Vicar Apostolic of England, it was the first time a Catholic bishop had been present in England for nearly sixty years. Up until that time, Archpriests were overseeing the church. In Leyburn's combined tour north and visitation to administer Confirmation, in 1687, some 20,859 Catholics received
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