Document Type

Article

Publication Title

British Catholic History

Abstract

Catholics in post-Reformation England faced new challenges in their resolution to remain faithful to Rome following the passage of anti-Catholic laws in the 1580s. These legislative attempts to root out Catholicism resulted in the creation of a clandestine community where private households became essential sites for the survival of Catholic worship. This article extends prior studies of the role of women in the English Catholic community by considering how marital status affected an individual’s ability to protect the ‘old faith’. By merging the study of widowhood with spatial analyses of Catholic households, I argue that early modern patriarchal structures provided specific opportunities inherent in widowhood that were unavailable to other men and women, whether married or single. While widowhood, in history and historiography, is frequently considered a weak, liminal, or potentially threatening status for women, in the harsh realities of a clandestine religious minority community, these weaknesses became catalysts for successful subversion of Protestant authority. Assisted by their legal autonomy, economic independence, and the manipulation of gendered cultural stereotypes, many Catholic widows used their households to harbour priests and outmanoeuvre searchers. This argument maintains that a broader interpretation of the role of women and marital status is essential to understanding the gendered nature of post-Reformation England.

Pages

1-24

html

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1017/bch.2020.1

Volume

35

Issue

1

Publication Date

5-2020

Keywords

gender, widows, Catholics, priest-harbouring, England

Disciplines

European History | History | History of Religion

Comments

This article has been published in a revised form in British Catholic History [https://doi.org/10.1017/bch.2020.1]. This version is published under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND licence. No commercial re-distribution or re-use allowed. Derivative works cannot be distributed. © copyright holder.

ISSN

2055-7973

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