A Research On Anti-Catholicism In Early Modern England

Religious conflicts have been existing from ancient times, and they can not only bring bloody and direct clashes, but also barriers, prejudices and hatreds between both sides. As the most famous and representative religious conflict in modern European history, the Reformation is no exception. Though comparing with the Reformation in the Continent, English Reformation is gentler without mass religious wars and persecution except for the tragedy during Mary I’s reign. Particularly, after Elizabeth I’s accession, the Reformation ran more smoothly. That is to say, Protestants got the overwhelming victory over Catholicism soon. Then the conflicts between Protestants and Catholics had been covered by the internal conflicts of the Protestants. But the ease of the direct conflicts doesn’t mean the true peace.With the going on of the Reformation, English Catholicism, which used to be the official religion with absolute dominance, declined to be a suppressed minority. In this process, the anti-Catholicism in English society also gradually budded, developed and matured, leaving far-reaching influences of hundreds of years. Like the Reformation, the emergence of anti-Catholicism was not an overnight process, but rather a result of all factors during a long period. As for Catholicism itself, the high-level corruption for many years laid the foundation of anti-Catholicism; the bloody religious persecution during Mary I’s reign left Protestants indelible and terrible memory; the nature relationship among English Catholicism, Vatican and other Catholic countries in the Continent made English Catholics more and more like foreigners; and the battles which are taken in order to restore Catholicism by sword, pen and missionary tied Catholicism with high treason closely. As for Protestant England, the Parliament passed a series of anti-Catholicism acts which made the Catholics’the other’in legal sense; and the Protestant church pushed the Catholics into hell in religion sense by persistent religious propaganda and education. For common people, the impact of anti-Catholicism was also great:Iconoclasm changed the common people’s religious lives up and down; the ridicules for Catholicism in dramas, ballads and pamphlets integrated anti-Catholicism into the mass culture; at the same time, in the process of reforming folk religion and traditions by Protestants, anti-Catholicism also infiltrated into the common people’s daily lives. In essence, the emergence of anti-Catholicism is the result of the identity division between Protestants and Catholics. In this sense, the true method for solving the religious prejudice like anti-Catholicism is to replace the exclusive identity division with the multivariant identities.The body of this thesis is comprised of four chapters.The first chapter gives a definition of anti-Catholicism, and discusses the manifestation of anti-Catholicism in the fields of law, culture and ideology.The second chapter centers on Catholicism, and presents how the actions of Catholics themselves effect the anti-Catholicism. Firstly, the corruption of Catholicism created the foundation. Secondly, the seigneurial structure of Catholicism not only made Catholics continue their tradition, but also made them isolate and suspicious. Thirdly, the persecution and Spanish marriage during Mary I’s reign made Catholicism tied with blood and foreigner, and the plots and rebellions during Elizabeth I and James I times made them become a synonym for treason. At the same time, the remarks of Catholicism thinkers deepened these kinds of ideas. Fourthly, the external factors are also important.The third chapter emphasizes the Protestant side, discussing the effects of the Protestant government and church. The anti-Catholicism laws made the Catholics "other" in law sense, and the religious propaganda and education of the church made Catholicism heresy.The fourth chapter evaluates the role of anti-Catholicism in the common lives by centering on the common people. Firstly, the Iconoclasm which was sweeping the country showed the influences of anti-Catholicism in common religious lives. Secondly, the ballads, novels, dramas and pamphlets proved that the common culture lives had been infiltrated by anti-Catholicism. Thirdly, some folk religion and traditions indicated that the anti-Catholicism was widely existing in common daily lives.