VISITATION RETURNS

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Macaulay, "this account to have been very near the truth."1 In support of the supposed universal and instantaneous conformity of England to the Reformed religion, the Edinburgh Reviewer uses the old argument of the Visitation-returns. "Out of 9,400 parochial clergy," he says, referring evidently to the Visitation of 1559, "less than 200 refused to give in their allegiance to the supremacy of the Queen."2 Now, these records still exist, and were studied and analysed by Mr. Simpson, who reports as follows: Out of 8,911 parishes and 9,400 beneficed clergymen, only 806 clergymen took the oath of supremacy; 85 absolutely refused. The remaining 8,509 either evaded appearing, or were unsummoned by the Commissioners.

Thus the true inference from these returns is exactly the contrary to that which is commonly drawn. Instead of its being true that only an insignificant fraction of the clergy held aloof from the new order of things, the fact is that eight-tenths of the whole did not take the oath, many of them, indeed, not being called upon to do so. In the province of York, in August and September 1559, to give a single instance of the working of the Commission, out of 89 clergymen summoned to take the oath, 20 appeared and took it, 36 came and refused to take it, 17 were absent, unrepresented by Proctors, while 16 sent Proctors. Such results proved the

3

1 44 'Critical and Historical Essays: Burleigh and his Times," 230, ed. 1877. 2 Vol. cxxiii. p. 147. 3 Dom. Eliz., vol. x.

futility of the commission, which in December 1559 was ordered to suspend its proceedings, and only terminate cases already commenced.1

At

An

The change in religion was indeed effected slowly and gradually, and this was equally the case with the laity and clergy. What proportion remained firm it is very hard to determine. The position of Catholics under the penal laws of Elizabeth was very similar to that of Christians under the persecutions of Nero and Diocletian. neither period were there professed Christians or Catholics, for the public profession of the Faith meant grave risk of life, if not certain death; and such risk might not be voluntarily incurred. individual was supposed to be a member of a proscribed creed, rather from his abstaining from any participation in the worship ordained by the State, and from his family antecedents, friends, birthplace, and political party, than from any overt religious act. As the first Christians practised their faith in secret when opportunities occurred, and took part in public life as far as was possible for them without doing violence to their conscience, so did the Elizabethan Catholics. And the temper of the rulers in both periods favoured intervals of comparative truce; for men of tried ability and position were valuable to the State, and were worth winning, if position, honour, or power could win them. It was only when a policy of persecution

1 Dom. Eliz., vol. vii. No. 79.

RELIGION IN WARWICKSHIRE

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was deemed expedient, that a formal profession of faith was demanded with the alternative of apostasy or death. Thus a Sebastian could remain unmolested in the bodyguard of Diocletian, and a Howard among the courtiers of Elizabeth, till the summons to the tribunal or the rack-chamber

was heard. These facts, showing the condition. of Catholics at the period under discussion, must be borne in mind, if we are to estimate rightly the kind of historical evidence available as to Shakespeare's religious belief.

That evidence will be necessarily, as a rule, circumstantial, consisting of indications, inferences, probabilities, as all direct external proof of their religion, whether in documents, goods, words, or acts, was studiously concealed by Catholics during the period treated of. But it should be remembered that while with direct evidence its strength is measured by its weakest link, in circumstantial evidence, facts which taken singly are of no appreciative value, combined together may produce moral certitude.

What then was the religious condition of Stratford and of Warwickshire in the sixteenth century? The most prominent institution of Stratford, and one which tells us most of its religious history, was its Guild of the Holy Cross.1 "The Guild has lasted,"

1 The following particulars of the Guild are taken from Halliwell, "Descriptive Calendar of the Records of Stratford-on-Avon, 1863," and from S. Lee, "Stratford-on-Avon in the Time of the Shakespeares."

wrote the chief officer in 1309, "and its beginning was from time whereunto the memory of man reacheth not." The earliest extant documents are from the reign of Henry III., 1216-1272, and include a deed of gift by one William Sude of a tenement to the Guild, and an indulgence granted October 7, 1270, by Giffard, Bishop of Worcester, of forty days to all "sincere penitents who had duly confessed and had conferred benefits on the Guild." By the close of the reign of Edward I. (1307) the Guild was wealthy in houses and lands, and the foundation was laid of its chapel and almhouses, which, with the hall of meeting, the "Rode" or "Reed Hall," stood where the Guildhall is at this day. In 1332 Edward III. granted the Guild a charter confirming its rights. They were again confirmed by Richard II. in 1384, who sent commissioners to report on the ordinances of all the Guilds throughout England. During the fifteenth century the Guild increased in importance and wealth. Gifts in kind are recorded, of silver cups, spoons, chalices, vestments, missals, statues of saints, wax; also of corn, wine, and malt. A schedule of 1434 is remarkable for the numerous and costly offerings registered. In 1481 the Guild acquired the Rectory and Chapelry of Little Wilmcote, the home of the Ardens and of the poet's mother. About the close of the century, the Guild chapel was rebuilt by Hugh Clopton, the head of the great Catholic family of Stratford.

ORDINANCES OF THE GUILD

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This marks the most flourishing epoch in the history of the Guild. Of purely local origin, its fame had now spread so wide as to attract to its ranks noblemen like George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV., together with his wife and children; the Earl of Warwick and the Lady Margaret; Sir Thomas Littleton, the eminent judge; and also merchants of towns as distant as Bristol and Peterborough.

We now come to the objects of the Guild as set forth in its ordinances.

The first object was mutual prayer. The Guild maintained (in 1444) five priests or chaplains who were to say five masses daily, hour by hour, from six to ten o'clock. They were to live in one house under strict discipline, and were to walk in procession with the Guild in their copes and surplices, with crosses and banners. Out of the fees of the Guild, one wax candle was to be kept alight every day throughout the year at every mass in the church, before the blessed cross, "so that God and our Blessed Virgin and the Venerated Cross may keep and guard all the Brethren and Sisters of the Guilds from every ill."

A second object was mutual charity and works of mercy. The needs of any brother or sister who had fallen into poverty or been robbed were to be provided for "as long as he bears himself rightly towards the Brethren. When a Brother died, all the Brethren were bound to follow the body to the