Voices for Tolerance |
on exhibit June 9 - October 30, 2004 |
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Catholics in England: Experience of a Religious MinorityThe experience of Catholics in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) provides an interesting example of the difficulties religious minorities faced in the period. Though Protestants were viciously persecuted by the Catholic Queen Mary, the beginning of Elizabeth's reign in 1558 ushered in a period of relative tranquility. The excommunication of Elizabeth in 1570 by Pope Pius V (1566-72), internal Catholic plotting, and international tension with Catholic Spain, however, changed all of this. Seen as security threats and potential enemy agents, Catholics, and especially continental-educated priests, were increasingly persecuted by the authorities as traitors and enemies of the state. |
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Anthony
Munday (1553-1633) |
This contemporary manuscript is a copy of the interrogation on 22 June 1587 of the Jesuit and friend of Edmund Campion, William Weston. The gallows symbol indicated that he was scheduled for execution. Weston avoided this fate and died in Spain in 1616. |
| The Jesuit and Catholic martyr Edmund Campion (1540-1581) was the best known of the victims of Elizabeth's persecution of Catholics. Returning to England from the Continent in 1580, Campion was eventually captured, tortured, and executed. | |
Voices for Tolerance in an Age of Persecution
Exhibition HighlightsHumanists for Peace | The Reformation | The Struggle for Religious Toleration | The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day | Jews in Early Modern Europe | The Miseries of Religious War | Ambivalence towards Islam | Encountering Africans | Catholics in England | James I and Religious Toleration | The Puritan Revolution | Ireland | Debating Toleration in the Restoration | "Acts" of Toleration | Voices for Tolerance Amidst Acts of Hate
This page updated September 29, 2004