Marian Persecutions

The Marian Persecutions were carried out against religious reformers, Protestants, and other dissenters for their heretical beliefs during the reign of Mary I of England. The excesses of this period were recorded in Foxe's Book of Martyrs.

Contents

Historical context

The English Reformation resulted in the end of Roman Catholic ecclesiastical governance in England, the assertion of royal supremacy over the Church, the dissolution of Catholic institutions such as monasteries and chantries, the prohibition of Catholic worship and the institution of Church of England services and clergy. During the Reformation in England, many people were caught in conflict between Catholic and Protestant ascendancy.

An important year in the English Reformation was 1547, when Protestantism became a new force under the child-king Edward VI, England's first Protestant ruler. Edward died at age 15 in 1553 leaving the throne to Lady Jane Grey, who held it for nine days before Edward's Catholic half-sister Mary deposed her and assumed the crown, as was stipulated by Henry VIII in his Third Succession Act but revoked by Edward VI.[1]:p62 Mary reigned for five years (1553-1558) until her death. During her reign, she restored the relationship with Rome, returning Catholicism as the official religion. Protestants opposed Mary's actions. Many people were exiled, and hundreds of dissenters were burned at the stake, earning her the nickname "Bloody Mary".[2]

Persecutions

Troubles for Protestants

After the accession of Queen Mary I to the English throne in 1553, and her repeal of all religious legislation passed under Edward VI, Protestants faced a choice: exile, reconciliation/conversion, or punishment.[3]:p.186 Several of those who remained in England to profess and defend their Protestant beliefs would be executed by burning, and thus their supporters considered them martyrs. Mary's privy council had some 284 Protestants burned at the stake (including 56 women). Thirty others died in prison.[4]:p.79 While the so-called “Marian Persecutions” began with four clergymen,[3]:p.196 relics of Edwardian England’s Protestantism, the tendentious record of events Foxe’s Book of Martyrs offers an interesting account of the executions, which branched well beyond the anticipated targets – high-level clergy. Tradesmen were also burned, as well as married men and women, sometimes in unison; at least one couple was burned alive with their daughter.[3]:p.196

Judicial process

However bloody the end, the trials of Protestant heretics were judicial affairs, adhering to a strict legal protocol under the privy council, with Parliament's blessing.[3]:p.195 Because of her controversial accession, Mary had difficulty forming an efficient Privy Council—which eventually numbered over forty and never worked as a source of political advice, though it effectively pursued police work and enforcement of religious uniformity.[1]:p62-65 During the session which restored the realm to "papal obedience" parliament reinstated the heresy laws.[3]:p.196 From 20 January 1555, England could legally punish those judged guilty of heresy against the Catholic faith.[4]:p.91 Thus it became a matter of establishing the guilt or innocence of an accused heretic in open court – a process which the lay authorities employed to reclaim "straying sheep" and to set a precedent for authentic Catholic teaching.[4]:p.102 If found guilty, the accused were first excommunicated, then handed over to the secular authorities for execution.[4]:p.102 The official records of the trials are limited to formal accusations, sentences, and so forth; the documents to which historians look for context and detail are those written by the accused.[4]:p.102

The Marian martyrs

The first four

The following is not a complete list:

1555

1556

1557

1558

Irony of John Rogers's execution

Before Mary's ascent to the throne, John Foxe, one of the few clerics of his day who was against the burning of even obstinate heretics, had approached John Rogers to intervene on behalf of Joan Butcher, an Anabaptist who was sentenced with burning.[3]:p.193 Rogers, a Protestant preacher and royal chaplain, refused to help, as he supported the burning of heretics. Rogers claimed that the method of execution was “sufficiently mild” for a crime as grave as heresy.[4]:p.87 Later, after Mary I came to power and converted England to Catholicism, John Rogers spoke quite vehemently against the new order and was burned as a heretic.[4]:p.97

Legacy

Throughout the course of the persecutions, Foxe contends that 300 individuals were burned for their faith. However, no complete list of these names has ever been documented. These people are commemorated with an elaborate gothic memorial in Oxford, England.[7] They are known as the "Marian Martyrs".

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Loades D. Power in Tudor England St Martin's Press, New York, 1997. ISBN 039216391
  2. ^ Haigh, C., The English Reformation Revised, Cambridge 1987
  3. ^ a b c d e f Richards, Judith M. Mary Tudor, Routledge 2009
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Duffy, Eamon Fires of Faith: Catholic England Under Mary Tudor, New Haven, Yale 2008
  5. ^ a b c Blanchard, A. Book of Martyrs: Or, A History of the Lives, Sufferings and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive and Protestant Martyrs from the Introduction of Christianity to the Latest Periods of Pagan, Popish, Protestant, and Infidel Persecutions. Compiled from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and other Authentic Sources N. G. Ellis, 1844
  6. ^ Richings, R (1860) The Mancetter martyrs: the suffering and martyrdom of Mr Robert Glover and Mrs Joice [sic] Lewis (London: pp xiii/xiv)
  7. ^ Baker, Margaret. Discovering London Statues and Monuments, Princes Risborough: Shire Publications, 2003