Recusancy

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Map of the historic counties of England showing the percentage of registered Catholics in the population in 1715–1720[1]

Recusancy (from

Latin: recusare, lit.'to refuse'[2]) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation.[3]

The

Interregnum (1649–1660), remained on the statute books until 1888.[4] They imposed punishments such as fines, property confiscation and imprisonment on recusants.[5] The suspension under Oliver Cromwell was mainly intended to give relief to nonconforming Protestants rather than to Catholics, to whom some restrictions applied into the 1920s, through the Act of Settlement 1701, despite the 1828–1829 Catholic emancipation.[6]

In some cases those adhering to

Catholicism faced capital punishment,[7] and some English and Welsh Catholics who were executed in the 16th and 17th centuries have been canonised by the Catholic Church as martyrs of the English Reformation.[8]

Definition

Today, recusant applies to the descendants of Roman Catholic families of the British gentry and aristocracy. It derives from the Latin word recūsant, meaning to demur or object.

History

After the

Protestant dissenters from the Church of England were later labelled "recusants" as well. Recusancy laws were in force from the reign of Elizabeth I to that of George III, but were not always enforced with equal intensity.[9]

The first statute to address sectarian dissent from England's

official religion
was enacted in 1593 under Elizabeth I and specifically targeted Catholics, under the title "An Act for restraining Popish recusants". It defined "Popish recusants" as those

convicted for not repairing to some Church, Chapel, or usual place of Common Prayer to hear Divine Service there, but forbearing the same contrary to the tenor of the laws and statutes heretofore made and provided in that behalf.

Other Acts targeted Catholic recusants, including statutes passed under

civil disabilities and penalties under English penal laws, most of which were repealed during the Regency and the reign of George IV (1811–30). The Nuttall Encyclopædia notes that Dissenters were largely forgiven by the Act of Toleration under William III, while Catholics "were not entirely emancipated till 1829".[10]

Early recusants included

Restoration of Charles II, they were distinguished from Catholic recusants by the terms "nonconformist" or "dissenter". The recusant period reaped an extensive harvest of saints and martyrs
.

Among the recusants were some high-profile Catholic aristocrats such as the

English base
continued to inform the country's Catholicism.

In the

Douai, France in 1609 (Old Testament). It was revised by Bishop Richard Challoner in the years 1749–52. After Divino afflante Spiritu, translations multiplied in the Catholic world (just as they multiplied in the Protestant world around the same time beginning with the Revised Standard Version). Various other translations were used by Catholics around the world for English-language liturgies, ranging from the New American Bible and the Jerusalem Bible to the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition
.

Prominent historical Catholics in the United Kingdom

Recusant families

There were dozens of recusant families, some no longer extant. For example, the

Weld Chapel in Southgate, all married into recusant families and were technically "converts" in the 1640s. The eldest, Humphrey, began a lineage, referred to as the "Lulworth Welds".[11] They became connected by marriage to Catholic families across the kingdom, including the Arundells, Blundells, Cliffords, Erringtons, Gillows, Haydocks, Petres, Ropers, Shireburns, Smythes, Stourtons, Throckmortons, Vaughans and Vavasours.[12] The Acton (also known as Dalberg-Acton and Lyon-Dalberg-Acton)
family is another well-known recusant family.

Individuals

William Shakespeare came from a family background of English Catholic recusants.

Although William Shakespeare (1564–1616) and his immediate family were conforming members of the established Church of England, Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, was a member of a particularly conspicuous and determinedly Catholic family in Warwickshire.[13]

Some scholars also believe there is evidence that several members of Shakespeare's family were secretly recusant Catholics. The strongest evidence is a tract professing secret Catholicism signed by John Shakespeare, father of the poet. The tract was found in the 18th century in the rafters of a house which had once been John Shakespeare's and was seen and described by the reputable scholar Edmond Malone. Malone later changed his mind and declared that he thought the tract was a forgery.[14] Although the document has since been lost, Anthony Holden writes that Malone's reported wording of the tract is linked to a testament written by Charles Borromeo and circulated in England by Edmund Campion, copies of which still exist in Italian and English.[15] Other research, however, suggests that the Borromeo testament is a 17th-century artefact (at the earliest dating from 1638), was not printed for missionary work, and could never have been in the possession of John Shakespeare.[16] John Shakespeare was listed as one who did not attend church services, but this was "for feare of processe for Debtte", according to the commissioners, not because he was a recusant.[17]

Another notable English Catholic, possibly a convert,[18] was composer William Byrd. Some of Byrd's most popular motets were actually written as a type of correspondence to a friend and fellow composer, Philippe de Monte. De Monte wrote his own motets in response, such as the "Super Flumina Babylonis". These correspondence motets often featured themes of oppression or the hope of deliverance.

The Jacobean poet John Donne was another notable Englishman born into a recusant Catholic family.[19] He later, however, authored two Protestant leaning writings and, at the behest of King James I, was ordained into the Church of England.

Thomas Percy, was arrested and charged with attempting to blow up Parliament
on 5 November 1605. The plot was uncovered and most of the plotters, who were recusants or converts, were tried and executed.

Other countries

The term "recusancy" is primarily applied to English, Scottish, and Welsh Catholics, but there were other instances in Europe. The vast majority of native

British crown, rejected both the reformed Church of Ireland and the dissenting churches, remaining loyal to the Roman Catholic Church, suffering the same penalties as recusants in Great Britain. The situation was exacerbated by land claims, paramilitary violence, and ethnic antagonisms on all sides.[20]

Recusancy in

Liturgical Struggle until anti-Catholicism lessened towards the end of the 18th century and freedom of religion was re-established in the mid-19th century (although there were individual cases of Catholic sympathies occurring even in the 17th and 18th centuries). Notable converts were Christina, Queen of Sweden, daughter of Gustavus Adolphus; and Sigrid Undset, Nobel Prize-winning author of Kristin Lavransdatter. The number of ethnic Swedes who are Roman Catholic is fewer than 40,000, and includes Anders Arborelius, a convert and the first Swedish bishop since the Reformation. In 2017, he was made a cardinal.[citation needed
]

See also

References

  1. .
  2. Robert Appleton Company; retrieved 11 September 2013 from New Advent
  3. .
  4. .
  5. ^ See for example the text of the Act of Uniformity 1559
  6. ^ Wood, Rev. James. The Nutall Encyclopædia, London, 1920, p. 537
  7. .
  8. .
  9. ^ Roland G. Usher, The Rise and Fall of the High Commission (Oxford, 1968 reprint ed.), pp. 17–18.
  10. ^ Wood, Rev. James. The Nutall Encyclopædia, London, 1920, p. 537.
  11. ^ "Weld (Wild), Humphrey (1612–85), of Lulworth Castle, Dorset and Weld House, St. Giles in the Fields, Mdx". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  12. ^ Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, Volume 2. H. Colburn, 1847. pp. 1545–1546 view on line [1]
  13. .
  14. ^ Quoted in Schoenbaum (1977: 49) "In my conjecture concerning the writer of that paper I certainly was mistaken".
  15. ^ Holden, Anthony. William Shakespeare: The Man Behind the Genius Archived 2007-12-15 at the Wayback Machine. Little, Brown (2000).
  16. Shakespeare Survey
    56 [2003] pp. 184–204.
  17. ^ Mutschmann, H. and Wentersdorf, K., Shakespeare and Catholicism, Sheed and Ward: New York, 1952, p. 401.
  18. Music and Letters
    , p. 79 (1998), pp. 475–488
  19. BBC2
    . Retrieved 18 June 2009.
  20. ^ Burton, Edwin, Edward D'Alton, and Jarvis Kelley. 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia, Penal Laws III: Ireland.

External links