Religion Around Shakespeare

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Peter Iver Kaufman. Religion Around Shakespeare

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PETER IVER KAUFMAN, General Editor

Books in the Religion Around series examine the religious forces surrounding cultural icons. By bringing religious background into the foreground, these studies give readers a greater understanding of and appreciation for individual figures, their work, and their lasting influence.

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Captured Jesuits were said to be particularly dangerous. During interrogations, they pretended to be curious about the arguments for reform to get interrogators to identify texts they trusted, whereupon the interrogated would smuggle the titles to eager collaborators who relayed them to Rome so that the next Catholic council could condemn the authors and burn their books. And, during arguments, Jesuits and other missionaries allegedly challenged religiously reformed interrogators to demonstrate that doctrinal declarations that the “true” church was invisible did not preclude responsible management of congregations’ affairs. When proof was provided and valued, visible leaders of reformed congregations on the Continent were named, the Catholics passed along that information as well, turning admired advocates of reform into targets. The conclusion to be drawn from such tales: the missionaries and “massing priests” were shrewd, treacherous villains, even when apprehended.83

On the loose, they were doubly dangerous predators who stalked entire households and “devour[ed] parents, children, masters, and servants.” A comprehensive crackdown was called for, according to Bishop Tobie Matthew; how sad, he said, that conformists and reformists in the realm relentlessly quarreled with each other while England was infested with papists! How could the religiously reformed watch without wailing (ingemiscere) while predatory missionaries made a meal of the realm’s families and turned them back to Catholicism?84

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