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‘Makynge Recusancy Deathe Outrighte’? Thomas Pounde, Andrew Willet and The Catholic Question in Early Jacobean England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Stefania Tutino
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Extract

With the accession of James VI of Scotland to England’s throne as James I, many English Catholics began hoping that the vexing question of religion would soon be resolved in a manner not unfavourable to their faith. James, after all, was the son of the Catholic Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, and it seemed not impossible that he would convert to the Catholic faith. The diplomatic contact with Spain that would eventually produce the Treaty of 1604 was already in process and religious toleration was one element in the discussion. But the more significant grounds for Catholics’ hope came most certainly from the position on the English religious question enunciated by the King himself. As his reign began, James seemed to be demonstrating a more favourable attitude towards Catholics than towards Puritans. His Basilikon Down declared the Church of Rome and the Church of England ‘agree in the grounds’, while his first speech to Parliament in March 1604 characterized Catholicism as ‘a religion, falsely called Catholik, but trewly Papist’, while defining the Puritans, as ‘a sect rather than a Religion’.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , May 2004 , pp. 31 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 2005

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References

1 It is well known that the young heir to the kingdom of Scotland was supposed to play a leading rôle in the so-called ‘Scottish strategy’ in the 1580s, and that the Jesuit Robert Persons and others pressured for the conversion of James to his mother’s religion: see Persons to Aquaviva, (Rouen?) 21 October 1581, in ARSI, Fondo Gesuitico 651/640. The ambiguous way in which James was perceived, on the one hand, as the son of the Catholic Mary, and, on the other hand, as the legitimate successor of a queen for whom anti-Catholicism was a central issue, is well described by J. Walkins, ‘Out of her Ashes may a Second Phoenix Rise’ James I and the Legacy of Elizabethan Anti-Catholicism’, in Catholicism and Anti-Catholicism in Early Modern English Texts, ed. A. F. Marotti, London 1999, pp. 116–36. On James’s attitude towards his mother’s murder, see Doran, S., ‘Revenge her Foul and Most Unnatural Murder? The impact of Mary Stewart’s execution on Anglo-Scottish Relations’, in History, vol. 85 n. 280 (2000), pp. 589–612 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 On the Anglo-Spanish relationship in the very first years of James’s reign see Loomie, A. S., ‘Toleration and Diplomacy. Religious issue in Anglo-Spanish relations, 1603–05’, in Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 53, part 6 (1969), pp. 3–60 Google Scholar.

3 Doron, Basilikon. Or his maiesties instructions to his dearest sonne, Henry the prince, ed. in Mcllwain, C. H., The political works of James I. Cambridge 1918, pp. 3–52, pp. 7–8Google Scholar.

4 A speech, as it was delivered in the upper house of the parliament, to the Lords spirituall and temporall, and to the knights, citizens and burgesses there assembled, on Munday the XIX Day of March 1603 being the first day of the first parliament, ed. in The political work of James I, pp. 269–80, p. 274. The statements expressed by the King in both the Basilikon Doron and his speech at Parliament had a great impact not only among English Catholics (see for example Robert Persons’s considerations in the ‘Preface to the English Catholics’ in the first volume of his Treatise of the three conversions of England, [St. Omer] 1603, sig. *3r-v), but also among some irenic circles in France. Jean Hotman, for instance, translated the Basilikon Doron into French in 1603, expressly addressing this work to the young sons of Henry VI and Marie de’ Medici: for Hotman’s translation and its impact in France see Vivanti, C., Lotta politica e pace religiosa in Francia fra Cinque e Seicento, Turin 1974 (1963), pp. 331–362 Google Scholar. On James’s relations with some prominent figures in Protestant circles in Europe see Patterson, W. B., King James VI and I and the reunion of Christendom, Cambridge 1997, pp. 124–154 Google Scholar.

5 See Basilikon Doron, pp. 7–8 and A speech, pp. 274–275.

6 See Lake, K. Fincham-P., ‘The Ecclesiastical Policy of King James I’, in Journal of British Studies, n. 24 (1985), pp. 22–36 Google Scholar. Among the numerous works on James’s policy in religion see also Bossy, J., ‘The English Catholic Community 1603–1625’, in The Reign of James VI and I, ed. Smith, A. G. R., 1977, pp. 91–105 Google Scholar; Rocca, J. J. La, ‘“Who Can’t Pray with me, Can’t Love with Me”: Toleration and Early Jacobean Recusancy Policy’, in Journal of British Studies, n. 23 (1984), pp. 169–207 Google Scholar.

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8 Foley, H., Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, vol. III, pp. 557–67 Google Scholar.

9 Foley reports that Pounde had been admitted to Elizabeth’s court for his skills in dancing. But once, after he had made a mistake during a dance, he was treated with so much contempt that he decided to leave the Court and to convert (pp. 570–1). On Pounde’s conversion see also Questier, M., Conversion, politics and religion in England, 1580–1625, Cambridge 1996, p. 182 footnote 63Google Scholar.

10 Gardiner, S. R., History of England, London 1863, vol. I, pp. 221–223 Google Scholar.

11 These documents are edited in Foley, Records, pp. 632–57.

12 A written reply to Pounde’s Sixe Reasons was published by Crowley in 1581: Answer to Sixe Reasons that Thomas Pownde at the commandement of her Maiesties commoners, required to be answered, London, 1581 Google Scholar.

13 See Monumenta Angliae, vol. II, pp. 444.

14 Southern, A. C., Elizabethan Recusant Prose 1559–1582, London 1950, pp. 149–50 Google Scholar; Lake-M., P. Questier, ‘Puritans, Papists and the “Public Sphere” in Early Modem England: The Edmund Campion affair in the Context’, in The Journal of Modern History, n. 72 (2000), pp. 587–627 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; McCoog, T. M., ‘The English Jesuit Mission and the French Match, 1579–1581’, in The Catholic Historical Review, vol. lxxxviii n. 2 (2001), pp. 208–9 Google Scholar.

15 Foley, Records, p. 611.

16 The title of the manuscript as it is written in the catalogue is A collection by Thomas Pounde of various papers respecting his adherence to the Roman Catholic religion in spite of thirty years’ imprisonment, submitted to King James in 1604, in Rawlinson Mss. D 320, n. 1, ff. 1–28, Bodleian Library.

17 Ibidem, ff.lr-v.

18 Ibidem, f.7r.

19 The question of conformity was perceived as of a crucial importance since the beginning of the Jesuit mission in England: Pollen, J. H., The English Catholicism in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, London 1930, pp. 334 Google Scholar and ff, and Hicks, L., Letters and memorials of Father Robert Persons S.I. (to 1588), in Catholic Record Society n. 39 (1942), pp. xviii–xxi Google Scholar of the introduction. Persons himself had written a pamphlet on the necessity for English Catholics to avoid occasional conformity: A brief discourse contayning certayne reasons why Catholique refuse to goe to the Church, Doway [vere London] 1580. Due to the nature of the question, this position was not always unanimous, and the debate was quite strong: see for example the exceptions provided by the analysis of the casus conscientiae in Casuistry, Elizabethan, ed. Holmes, P. J., Catholic Record Society (hereafter C.R.S.) n. 67 (1981), pp. 120–1 Google Scholar, and Walsham, A., Church Papists. Catholicism, Conformity and Confessional polemic in early Modern England, London 1999, pp. 50 et seqGoogle Scholar.

20 In italics in the text.

21 In italics in the text.

22 Ibidem, f.7v.

23 See Renold, P., The Wisbech Stirs, 1595–1598, in C.R.S. (1958), pp. 46–54 Google Scholar.

24 A motion for repealinge of the penall statutes againste Recusants wich to be graunted many Recusants will accept it for a lesse cruelty that their lande & goods beinge freed, Recusancye be made deathe outrighte, ff.27v-28r.

25 Ibidem, f.28r.

26 A speech, pag. 275.

27 On the bitter Catholic propaganda against the memory of Elizabeth during the very first years of James’s reign see J. Watkins, ‘Out of her Ashes may a Second Phoenix Rise’, pp. 122 et seq.

28 A motion, f.28r.

29 On Willet’s biography see The Dictionary of National Biography under Willet, Andrew, and Milton, A., Catholic and Reformed. The Roman and Protestant Churches in English Protestant Thought, 1600–1640, Cambridge 1995, pp. 13–45 passimCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 Many contemporary historians, for instance, tend to consider Willet the author of a libel published anonymously in 1599, entitled A Christian Letter. A pamphlet expressed bitter criticism of Hooker’s Ecclesiastical Polity, which was considered dangerous on account of its mild judgments of the Catholic Church: See Booty, J.’s introduction to The Folger Library Edition of the Works of Richard Hooker, vol. IV, Harvard University Press 1982, pp. xix–xxv Google Scholar; White, P., Predestination, policy and polemic. Conflict and answers in the English Church from the Reformation to the Civil War, Cambridge 1992, pp. 129–39 Google Scholar. On the Christian letter and on Willet’s attitude towards Hooker’s doctrinal and ecclesiological position see also Lake, P., ‘Business as usual? The Immediate Reception of Hooker’s “Ecclesiastical Polity”‘, in Journal of Ecclesiastical History, vol. 52, n. 3 (2001), pp. 456–486 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and McCulloch, D., ‘Richard Hooker’s Reputation’, in The English Historical Review, vol. cxvii, n. 473 (2002), pp. 773–812 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31 See Calendar State Papers Dom. James I, vol. xciv n. 79, and DNB under Willet, Andrew.

32 A. Milton, Catholic and Reformed, pp. 12–19. On Willet’s support of the episcopal model enforced by James, see Fincham, K., Prelate as Pastor. The Episcopate of James I, Oxford 1990, pp. 299–300 Google Scholar. On the complex relations between Puritanism and anti-Catholicism, Lake, P., Moderate Puritans and the Elizabethan Church, Cambridge 1981, pp. 93–115 Google Scholar.

33 A. Milton, Catholic and Reformed, p. 13.

34 P. Lake, Moderate Puritans, and Id., Lancelot Andrewes, John Buckeridge and avant-gard conformity at the court of James I, in Levy, L. Peck (ed.), The Mental World of the Jacobean Court, Cambridge 1991, pp. 113–133 Google Scholar.

35 A. Willet, , Synopsis Papismi: that is a generall viewe of papistry, London 1592, pp. A2v–A3r Google Scholar.

36 In italics in the text.

37 Ibidem, p. A2v.

38 Ibidem.

39 Ibidem.

40 Wiener, C. Z., ‘The beleaguered isle. A study of Elizabethan and early Jacobean anti-Catholicism’, in Past and Present, 51 (1971), pp. 35 et seqCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

41 Willet, A., Synopsis Papismi (1952), p. 497 Google Scholar.

42 Ibidem, pp. 497–8.

43 A. Willet, Synopsis Papismi (1600), p. A4r.

44 Ibidem, pp. B2r-v. On this epistle see also A. Milton, Catholic and Reformed, pp. 14–6.

45 Barlow and Greenwood had been imprisoned in 1586 and executed in 1593, together with John Penry, the supposed leader of the Puritan group within which the well known ‘Marprelate’s tracts’ were composed. On Barlow and Greenwood see Carlson, L., The writings of John Greenwood and Henry Barlow. 1591–1595, London 1970 Google Scholar. On Bancroft and Withgift’s role see McGinn, D. J., John Penry and the Marprelate Controversy, Rutgers University Press 1966, pp. 174–82 Google Scholar.

46 A. Milton, Catholic and Reformed, p. 14.

47 A. Willet, Synopsis Papismi (1600), p. B2r.

48 Ibidem, pp. 181–3.

49 Ibidem, pp. 608–21.

50 In italics in the text.

51 Ibidem, pp. 618–9.

52 Ibidem, p. 739.

53 Willet, A., Synopsis Papismi, London 1603 Google Scholar; see the letter addressed to To the right vertuous, most excellent, noble and victorious prince James, sig. A2r-v, A3r-v, A4r-v.

54 Ibidem. In italics in the text. On the significance of the relationship between James and Mary and James and Elizabeth within the religious debate, J. Walkins, ‘Out of her Ashes may a Second Phoenix Rise’ James I and the Legacy of Elizabethan Anti-Catholicism.

55 A. Willet, An Antilogie or Counterplea to an Apologicall Epistle published by a Favourite of the Romane separation, and (as is supposed) one of the Ignatian faction, London 1603. Willet’s text was a reply to Richard Broughton’s An Apologeticall Epistle (see DNB on Boroughton).

56 Ibidem, The preface to the King (unfoliated).

57 Ibidem.

58 On the question of the necessity of a great number of well-educated preachers for the establishment of the Church of England in Elizabethan and Jacobean England see Haigh, C., ‘The taming of the Reformation: Preachers, Pastors and Parishioners in Elizabethan and early Stuart England’, in History, vol. 85 n. 280 (2000), pp. 572–588 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

59 A. Willet, An Antilogie, The preface to the King.

60 Ibidem, pp. 60–61.

61 Ibidem, p. 112.

62 See A premonition to all most mightie monarches, Kings, free princes and states of the Christendome, London 1609, in The political works, p. 129 Google Scholar. On the implications of the doctrine of the Pope as the antichrist in early Jacobean England see Hill, C., Antichrist in Seventeenth-Century England, London 1971 Google Scholar; Bauckham, R., Tudor Apocalypse. Reformers and Babylon: English Apocalyptic vision from the Reformation to the Eve of the Civil War, Toronto 1978, pp. 91–112 Google Scholar; A. Milton, Catholic and Reformed, pp. 93–127; W. B. Patterson, King James VI and I, pp. 94–96.

63 Willet, A., Hexapla in Genesim: that is, a sixfolde commentarie upon Genesim, Cambridge 1605 Google Scholar.

64 Ibidem, The dedicatory epistle to the King, (unfoliated).

65 Ibidem.

66 See A. Milton, Catholic and Reformed, pp. 20 et seq.

67 Willet, A., Synopsis Papismi, London 1613: the catalogue is at pp. 1219–1243 Google Scholar, the Tetrastylon Papismi is at pp. 1244–1342.

68 The letter to James is at pp. A4r-v, while the one to the Reader is unfoliated. At the beginning of the volume there is another epistle to the princess Elizabeth and the dedication to Christ.

69 In italics in the text.

70 Ibidem, p. A4V.

71 On Protestant propaganda against James’s foreign policy and his overtures towards Spain see also Anderson, R., ‘“Well disposed to the affairs of Spain?” James VI & I and the propagandists: 1618–1624’, in Recusant History vol. 25, n. 4 (2001), pp. 613–635 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

72 A. Willet, Synopsis Papismi (1613), p. A4v.

73 One very well known example of anti-Catholic satire picturing the licentious behaviour of Catholics during holy days is Munday, A., The Englishe Romayne Lyfe, London 1582, pp. 68 Google Scholar et seq. On the subject of hypocrisy in anti-Catholic literature see Lake, P., Anti-popery: the Structure of a Prejudice, in Conflict in Early Stuart England. Studies in Religion and Politics 1603–1642, ed. by Hughes, R. Cust-A., London 1989, pp. 72–106 Google Scholar, and Shell, A., Catholicism, Controversy and the English Literary Imagination, 1558–1660, Cambridge 1999, pp. 32–36 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

74 A. Willet, Synopsis Papismi (1613), To the Reader, sig. B2r.

75 See Bossy, J., ‘Henry IV, the Appellants and the Jesuits’, in Recusant History, vol. 8 n. 2 (1965), pp. 80–122 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

76 Archivum Romanum Societatis Jesu, Rom. Anglia Ms. 37, ff. 316v-317r; Historical Manuscripts Commission, Various Collections Mss., III, 139–147. I am indebted to Michael Questier for making this point and for giving me these references.

77 On the complexity of the notion of nonconformity within the Catholic field in late Elizabethan and early Jacobean reigns, M. C. Questier, ‘Conformity, Catholicism and the Law’, in Lake-M., P. Questier (eds.). Conformity and Orthodoxy in the English Church, c. 1560–1660, Woodbridge 2000, pp. 237–261 Google Scholar.