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The Oath Tendered

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2016

Ann M.C. Forster
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Extract

During the two and a half centuries after the Reformation, at almost every political crisis, Catholics were confronted with the demand that they should bind themselves with an oath to deny some principle of their religion; and the consequences, if they refused, could be severe: loss of property, sometimes total, imprisonment, even death. It seems worth while therefore, to survey the various circumstances under which this trial took place.

Type
Articles
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , October 1977 , pp. 86 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1977

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References

Notes

(1) Philip, Hughes, The Reformation in England, 1, p. 270 f.n.Google Scholar

(2) Ibid., p.273.

(3) Tierney-Dodd, 1, pp.417–418.

(4) Gosling, R., The Penal Laws against Papists and Popish Recusants, Nonconformists and Nonjurors, pp. 1–3.Google Scholar

(5) Ibid., pp. 34–35.

(6) ‘An Act for Discovering, etc.’ printed by Henry Hills and John Field (1657), pp. 2–4.

(7) Gosling, op.cit. p. 64.

(8) Ibid. p. 65.

(9) Sharp MS. 79, Prior's Kitchen, Durham.

(10) Gosling, op.cit. p. 68.

(11) Charles, Butler, Historical Memoirs respecting the English, Irish and Scottish Catholics, 2, pp. 83–85.Google Scholar

(12) Ibid., pp. 132–134.

(13) Bernard, Ward, The Eve of Catholic Emancipation, 3, p. 362.Google Scholar

(14) (Translation) ‘I, N.N. student of the English College of Douay, mindful of the blessings of God bestowed upon me, and above all, that he has brought me forth from a country oppressed with heresy, and made me a member of his Catholic Church, and wishful to show that I am not utterly ungrateful for his great mercy and to offer myself wholly to the divine state, his service, by following the course of this College to the best of my ability: do promise and swear to Almighty God that I am resolved in mind and ever shall be, as far as his sanctifying grace shall sustain me, in his good time to take holy Orders, and return to England for the saving of the souls of my country-men, whenever and however the Superior of this College, in accordance with his plans, shall see fit in the Lord to direct me. Meanwhile, so long as I am here, I promise to live quietly and peaceably, and to observe the customs and rules of the College to the best of my power’ (Knox, Douay Diaries, p. 47).