"Persecutors Under the Cloak of Policy": Anti-Catholic Vengeance and the Marian Hierarchy in Elizabethan England.

REIGN of Elizabeth I, England, 1558-1603; ANTI-Catholicism; CHURCH & state; PERSECUTION; HISTORY of the Church of England; CHURCH of England & state; REVENGE; SIXTEENTH century; HISTORY

UNITED Kingdom; ENGLAND

This article examines questions of retributive justice and conflict resolution in early modern England. In particular, it focuses on Protestant demands for anti-Catholic vengeance in the aftermath of the Marian persecution. Following the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558, some godly critics called for the execution of the Marian leadership, whom they blamed for the deaths of the Protestant martyrs. The Elizabethan government, however, was reluctant to launch a full-scale religious persecution, and so the surviving Roman Catholic dignitaries were imprisoned, remanded to house arrest, or released. The perception that the Marian leadership had gone unpunished would become a lingering point of resentment, especially as members of the godly community were themselves increasingly targeted for prosecution by the English church and state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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