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The origins of English protestant nationalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

David Loades
David Loades*
Affiliation:
University College of North Wales, Bangor
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Extract

In 1581, in his Answer to a seditious pamphlet, William Charke wrote

He that smiteth our religion woundeth our commonwealth; because our blessed estate of policie standeth in defence of religion, and our most blessed religion laboureth in maintenance of the commonwealth. Religion and policie are, through God’s singular blessings, preserved together in life as with one spirit; he that doth take away the life of the one doth procure the death of the other.

This was, of course, a partisan point of view. However, the extent to which it had won general acceptance among Englishmen of all social classes can be demonstrated by reference to the Armada crisis of seven years later. Not only did pamphleteers like Thomas Deloney appeal for patriotic effort,

      That... all with one accord
      On Sion hill may sing the praise
      of our most mightly Lord

but recusant apologetic makes it clear that the catholics were fully aware of the prevailing opinion that papists could not be good Englishmen.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 18: Religion and National Identity , 1982 , pp. 297 - 307
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1982

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References

1 STC 5005; sig C 1 r & v.

2 T[homas], D[eloney] ‘Three Ballads on the Armada fight’, Tudor Tracts, ed Pollard, A.F. (London 1903) p 491 Google Scholar.

3 Pollen, H., English Martyrs, 1184-1603, CRS 5 (1908) p 314 Google Scholar.

4 A relation of the Island of England, ed C. A. Sneyd, CSer (1847); reprinted in Williams, C. H., English Historical Documents, 5 p 196 Google Scholar.

5 For example ‘Forasmuch as it is well perceived by long approved experience that great and inestimable sums of money be daily conveyed out of this realm to the impoverishment of the same, and specially such sums of money as the Pope’s Holiness, his predecessors, and the Court of Rome by long time have heretofore taken . . .’ (23 Henry VIII, c. 20).

6 William Thomas, ‘Pelegrine’. BL Add MS 33383 fol 19.

7 This was the burden of a number of letters written to Somerset during the latter part of 1547. Muller, J. A., The Letters of Stephen Gardiner (Cambridge 1933) pp 378–438 Google Scholar; Loades, D. M., Oxford Martyrs (London 1970) pp 52-6Google Scholar.

8 Muller, Letters, p 416.

9 STC 13559.5. A newe ABC paraphrasticallye applied by Miles, Huggarde (London March 1557)Google Scholar.

10 Ridley, J., Nicholas Ridley (London 1957) pp 303-4Google Scholar.

11 In spite of her Spanish blood, Mary had never previously been accused of being a foreigner; however, commitment to her mother’s cause gave some substance to the charges which began to be voiced after her accession. Prescott, H. F. M., Mary Tudor (London 1952)Google Scholar; Loades, [D. M.], [Two Tudor Conspiracies] (Cambridge 1965)Google Scholar.

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15 For example STC 10024.

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17 John, Christopherson, An exhortation to all menne to take hede and beware of rebellion (London 1554)Google Scholar (STC 5207), sig B iv.

18 The copye of a letter sent by John Bradforth to the right honorable lordes the erles of Arundel, Darbte, Shrewsbury and Pembroke (London (?) 1556) (STC 3480) preface.

19 Loades, [D. M.], [The reign of] Mary [Tudor] (London 1979) pp 219-21Google Scholar.

20 Philip’s possible share in the responsibility for the persecution has been extensively, but inconclusively discussed. Nevertheless the senior ecclesiastic in his household, Alonso à Castro, the bishop of Cuenca, was a well known and energetic advocate of persecution.

21 Sermons and Remains of Bishop Latimer PS (1845) p 385.

22 BL Harleian MS 3838; Fairfield, J. P., John Bale (West Lafayette, Indiana 1976) pp 50-1Google Scholar.

23 Image, II, sig K vii.

24 The first two partes of the Actes or unchast examples of the Englyshe votaryes (London 1560) sig xvii. Fairfield p 87.

25 Homily ‘of the nature of the churche’, A profitable and necessarye doctryne with certayne homelies . . . (London 1555) (STC 3281.5) p 33.

26 A praier to be sayd of all trewe Christians against the pope and all the enemies of Christ and his gospell (London May 1554) Society of Antiquaries broadsheet 36A.

27 Robert Pownall, April 1557. STC 19078.

28 John, Ponet, A Shorte Treatise of politike power (Strasbourg 1556)Google Scholar (STC 20178) sig E vi.

29 The council made strenuous efforts to blame the protestants for the fall of Calais, and the lord deputy, Thomas Wentworth, was arraigned for high treason. These charges, however, seem to have done nothing effective to divert responsibility. Davies, C. S. L., ‘England and the French War, 1557-9’, The Mid-Tudor Polity, 1540-1560 ed Loach, J. and Tittler, R. (London 1980) pp 159-85CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 Loades, Mary pp 378-80. The council was anxious to save money by refraining from aggressive policies on the grounds of military incapacity.

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32 A compendious treatise in metre (London 1554) (STC 17469).

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34 A songe betwene the Queens majestie and Englande (London 1559) Society of Antiquaries broadsheet 47 (STC 3079).

35 Aylmer, J., An Harborowe for Faithfull and Trewe Subiectes . . . (Strasburg 1559) (STC 1005) p 35 Google Scholar.