Read God's Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England

God's Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England

Jessie Childs

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Description:For many in reformation England, the Elizabethan "Golden Age" was an alien concept. After Elizabeth I criminalized Catholicism, almost two hundred Catholics were executed during her reign, and hundreds more wasted away in prison. Torture was used more than at any other time in England's history. Families giving refuge to outlawed priests risked the death penalty, and even refusal to attend Anglican church services led to imprisonment. Few Elizabethans would have disputed that obedience was a Christian duty, but after the Pope excommunicated Queen Elizabeth in 1570, it became increasingly difficult for English Catholics to maintain a dual allegiance to their God and their Queen. In God's Traitors, Jessie Childs offers a fascinating account of reformation England from the perspective of one Catholic family. Seeking to explain how acts of religion came to be treasons and why "unnatural practices" were motivated by faith, Childs follows the Vauxes of Harrowden Hall into the heart of the underground movement and explores the conflicts of loyalty that they, as Catholics and Englishmen, faced. The story of the Vauxes shows, in microcosm, the pressures and painful choices that confronted the persecuted Catholic community, as the family moves from staunch loyalty to the Crown, to passive resistance and on to increasing activism. Disobedience was widely perceived as a challenge to monarchical authority and a deliberate fracturing of society, and the Vauxes eventually lived in a state of siege, under constant surveillance - their ordinary family life punctuated by sudden arrests and clandestine meetings. Childs considers the shuttered world of the Elizabethan recusant household-those Catholic families who, like the Vauxes, refused to go to church and outwardly conform to Protestant practices, and looks at how parents, children and servants tried to keep the faith on a daily basis. Though the recusants, the "obstinate papists," were a tiny fraction of the minority of Catholics in England, Childs argues that they aroused fears of a fifth column poised to strike at the heart of the commonwealth. "Anti-popery" became an ideology and a cultural force, shaping not only the life and policy of Elizabeth I, but also those of her successors. Childs shows that such anti-popery was a contributory factor in the Civil War and left some weeds in the British constitution, and argues that it must be studied in the context of its time to fully understand this rich era. From clandestine chapels and side-street inns to exile communities and the corridors of power, God's Traitors exposes the tensions and insecurities masked by the cult of Gloriana. Above all, it is a timely story of courage and frailty, repression and reaction and the terrible consequences when religion and politics collide.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with God's Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England. To get started finding God's Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

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ISBN: 0199392358

Description: For many in reformation England, the Elizabethan "Golden Age" was an alien concept. After Elizabeth I criminalized Catholicism, almost two hundred Catholics were executed during her reign, and hundreds more wasted away in prison. Torture was used more than at any other time in England's history. Families giving refuge to outlawed priests risked the death penalty, and even refusal to attend Anglican church services led to imprisonment. Few Elizabethans would have disputed that obedience was a Christian duty, but after the Pope excommunicated Queen Elizabeth in 1570, it became increasingly difficult for English Catholics to maintain a dual allegiance to their God and their Queen. In God's Traitors, Jessie Childs offers a fascinating account of reformation England from the perspective of one Catholic family. Seeking to explain how acts of religion came to be treasons and why "unnatural practices" were motivated by faith, Childs follows the Vauxes of Harrowden Hall into the heart of the underground movement and explores the conflicts of loyalty that they, as Catholics and Englishmen, faced. The story of the Vauxes shows, in microcosm, the pressures and painful choices that confronted the persecuted Catholic community, as the family moves from staunch loyalty to the Crown, to passive resistance and on to increasing activism. Disobedience was widely perceived as a challenge to monarchical authority and a deliberate fracturing of society, and the Vauxes eventually lived in a state of siege, under constant surveillance - their ordinary family life punctuated by sudden arrests and clandestine meetings. Childs considers the shuttered world of the Elizabethan recusant household-those Catholic families who, like the Vauxes, refused to go to church and outwardly conform to Protestant practices, and looks at how parents, children and servants tried to keep the faith on a daily basis. Though the recusants, the "obstinate papists," were a tiny fraction of the minority of Catholics in England, Childs argues that they aroused fears of a fifth column poised to strike at the heart of the commonwealth. "Anti-popery" became an ideology and a cultural force, shaping not only the life and policy of Elizabeth I, but also those of her successors. Childs shows that such anti-popery was a contributory factor in the Civil War and left some weeds in the British constitution, and argues that it must be studied in the context of its time to fully understand this rich era. From clandestine chapels and side-street inns to exile communities and the corridors of power, God's Traitors exposes the tensions and insecurities masked by the cult of Gloriana. Above all, it is a timely story of courage and frailty, repression and reaction and the terrible consequences when religion and politics collide.We have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with God's Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England. To get started finding God's Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

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God's Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England

God's Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England

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