Nag's Head Fable
The Nag's Head Fable was a fiction which purported that
Roman Catholics
as fact until the dawn of the 20th century.
Fact and fiction
On the passing of the
Jesuit and exiled Anglo-Romanist priest, Christopher Holywood (or Christophorus a Sacrobosco),[2]
in 1604, over 40 years after the event.
According to propaganda, John Scory, the deposed Bishop of Chichester, was sent for and officiated at the Nag's Head tavern in Cheapside.[1] There, Parker was supposedly consecrated by having a Bible pressed to his neck while Scory said, "Take thou authority to preach the word of God sincerely."[1]
This story was later discredited, as a full eyewitness description was found of the consecration of Parker, in
Lambeth Palace Chapel, by bishops John Scory, William Barlow (chief consecrator), Myles Coverdale, and John Hodgkins. In this account it is stated that it was not the consecration which took place at the Nag's Head, but only that those who took part in it dined there subsequently.[3][4]
As recently as the late nineteenth century, the legend was still being told as fact by controversialists in such countries as Sri Lanka.[3]
References
Sources
- Brewer, E. Cobham (1894). Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.
- Moss, C. B. (1965) [1943]. The Christian Faith: An Introduction to Dogmatic Theology. London: SPCK. Retrieved 18 March 2018 – via Katapi.