A Story
of Catholic Valor
When Jesuits Were Hunted in England
by Suzanne Duque-Salvo
From the point of view of England’s Crown (Queen Elizabeth I), the Jesuits were a thorn in England’s side; they created obstacles to Protestant uniformity by ministering to the spiritual needs of English Catholics and fueled zeal to defy acquiescence to the Church of England.
o the Protestant, “‘Jesuit’…meant conspiracy…Their founder was Spanish
and they were sworn to another allegiance than the Queen’s…The Jesuits were the vanguard of Spanish invasion; their business was to murder the Queen and Council…The news that disguised Jesuits were now at large in the English countryside caused indignation and alarm.”
This took place against a background where humanism sanctioned a shift in focus from a theocentric to an anthropocentric view of the world, and intellectual skepticism normalized a historical-critical reading of the Bible.
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