English speaking Catholics have a proud heritage of being faithful unto death to Christ. Let us never forget that we have powerful friends to assist us against the World, the Flesh and the Devil.
A Cloud of Witnesses
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 41 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Quick poll. Was Shakespeare Catholic?
LKL:
Despite Pearce’s insistence, I give the Scottish verdict “Not Proven”. Belloc made the valid point that the “protestantizing” of the old society took more than a generation, and that many ordinary Englishmen of 1600 could still be expected to use traditional Catholic language even while nominal members of the new state church.
I lean towards yes, but Tom Byrne’s point is well-taken.
It seems clear that there were recusants in Shakespeare’s family circle, and Elizabeth I played favorites, protecting quieter recusants she liked.
My wife tells me John Henry De Groot’s older book on the question is persuasive, and that author was a Presbyterian.
But we don’t have smoking-gun direct evidence, for lack of a better term.
John Shakespeare was born before Henry VIII appointed himself head of the Catholic Church so most likely John was a practicing Catholic. There is information that William was 18 and Ann Hathaway 26 and pregnant when they married. It seems the Bishop was petitioned to hurry the date of marriage because of the pregnancy. They were married in a nuptial Mass though it did not take place in Stratford to save embarrassment. Ann was of normal marriage age. William at 18 was considered a minor and had to have a parent’s permission.
Twenty years ago or more I was a guest at a wedding in the Georgetown U. chapel The Jesuit priest who officiated explained why he used one of Shakespeare’s Sonnets as a talking point for matirmony. He claimed that Wm. Shakespeare was indeed a Catholic but nominally a Protestant when he moved to London during Queen Elizabeth I’s reign.
The stained glass window is haunting, representative of all those Roman Catholic lay men and women being murdered in hideous ways because of an adultrous king wanting his way not God’s. The Dissolution of the Monasteries were ordered by Henry because of greed. The result was a series of rebellions by lay people. At one point 30,000 rebelled. The king had little standing army so Henry had to compromise. Of course one year later against his word he executed many involved.