A brief account of our diocesan history
This section was added in October 2004, containing chapters in the history of the Diocese.
At present we cover the period 1500 - 1844. The history has been written by Rev David Milburn
- Under the Earlier Tudors (1500-1558)
- Elizabeth I (1558-1603)
- James 1 (1603-25)
- Charles I (1625-49)
- The Protectorate (1649-1660)
- Charles II (1660-1685)
- James II (1685-88)
- 18th Century (i)
- 18th Century (ii)
- 19th Century
2. Catholicism in Northumberland and Durham during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603)
The daughter of Anne Boleyn and brought up as a Protestant, the new queen had little liking for Catholicism except for its ritual. Politically astute and sensitive to the need to bring an end to the religious warfare which had afflicted England for so long, she attempted to settle matters in her own way. Her settlement of religion of 1559, superficially Catholic in its retention of bishops, vestments, candles and the like, was in reality profoundly Protestant, at the heart of it being a reassertion of the English crown’s authority over the Church. After years of episcopal prevarication the Catholic bishops of Mary’s reign stood firm. All but one had refused to assist at the queen’s coronation, and now, apparently ,all preferred deprivation and imprisonment rather than go against their consciences. To ensure the loyalty of the clergy the queen then ordered a nationwide visitation. Many, following the bishop’s example, refused to recognise Elizabeth as head of the Church and were deprived of their benefices. Here in the north resistance seems to have been the strongest. Of the 180 parochial clergy in Durham county 38 absented themselves from the enquiry. Others were deprived, including 6 of the Durham canons and the vicar of Gainford who held the post of regius professor of divinity in the university of Cambridge. He “obstinately refused” to take the oath, was put in prison and died there. In Newcastle the priest at St Nicholas who was also archdeacon of Northumberland lost his benefice and was restricted in his movements, though later he managed to escape to the continent. The short-fall created by these deprivations necessitated the re-instatement of priests who had married in the 1550s and had been dismissed by Mary Tudor.
Here in the always unsettled north isolated from central government the decade 1560-70 actually witnessed a resurgence of Catholicism. Deeply conservative and fearful of any change, people now began to appreciate their traditional faith. When they refused to attend services in the parish churches, they were quietly served by deprived Marian priests and some Scottish priests fleeing their own persecution.. In 1569, pressurised by the gentry, the earls of Westmorland and Northumberland raised the flag of revolt against political and religious change. The rebel army marched on Durham where enthusiastic crowds gathered in the cathedral to celebrate the latin Mass at its restored high altar. Similar scenes occurred elsewhere, for instance at Sedgefield where a crowd estimated between 30 and 80 people dragged the massive stone altar back into place and burned the English bible. The rebel force amounted to about 5,000 foot soldiers and 1,200 horse, a sizeable army but poorly equipped and lacking any clear plan of action. After initial success the rebels lost heart, retreated and disbanded. Westmorland escaped abroad, but Northumberland who had fled to Scotland was there betrayed, imprisoned and later executed. Determined to prevent further insurrection, the government made sure that there was at least one public hanging in every town and village sympathetic to the rebel cause, a total of 600, mostly from the poorer sort of people. In the city of Durham 80 were executed, and 201 from the county’s other 109 implicated towns and villages. Noteworthy was the number of clergy cited before the court of high commission at Durham to account for their support of the rebels. Most repented, but some remained defiant, like John Brown, curate at Witton Gilbert. From his own pulpit he confessed publicly that he had consistently misled his congregation by preaching Protestant doctrine. He left the church saying: “Wheresoever you meet me... take me as a stranger.” He was later caught and indicted.
An even greater threat to Elizabeth than this northern revival of the 1560s came from the initiative of the exiled Lancashire academic and later priest William Allen to make provision for the training of English priests abroad. His first college opened it doors at Douai in Flanders in 1568. Many of its students were products of the two English universities, and some of them converts to the Faith. In their secret mission to England they were later joined by compatriots who had studied at other English colleges abroad and those who had joined religious communities there, particularly the newly founded Society of Jesus. At first these missioners returned to England not only to minister to the hapless Catholic minority but also to reach out to the rest of the nation in an effort to re-establish the nation’s traditional faith. So the clandestine printing and distribution of Catholic and anti-Protestant literature formed an important part of their work. Against these priests the government took an increasingly strong line, culminating in a statute making it treason for them to enter the country with the intention of saying Mass. Of the 450 priests (28 from Durham) which the college at Douai itself provided for England during Elizabeth’s reign, it is reckoned that some 122 suffered the fearful fate of being hung, drawn and quartered, the penalty for treason.
Here in the north as elsewhere these missioners were first known as “riding priests”, generally on the move and always in secret, consequently it is easier to record their deaths than to give a picture of their activities. Richard Holtby worked here in 1578 before joining the Jesuits. Richard Thirkheld and Richard Kirkman came the following year. The courage of such priests evoked a similar response from the laity. In 1585 a well organised underground network existed to guide priests arriving in the Tyne to different parts of the country. In 1590 its discovery by the authorities meant that four newly ordained priests who arrived by boat were picked up almost at once. Imprisoned at Durham, they were shortly afterwards executed there. Meanwhile the layman George Errington at whose house at South Shields the priests were to have found safe lodging was taken to York gaol where he languished until his equally cruel death in 1596. . John Boste, who was among the forty English martyrs canonised in 1970, worked in Durham and Westmorland from 1581 onwards. Described as the “greatest stag in the forest”, he seems to have been a key figure in the distribution of Catholic literature. Furthermore, as he made several visits to Scotland, he may well have been privy to Catholic plans there to oust Elizabeth in favour of the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots. Captured in 1593 at the Waterhouse (present Esh Winning), he was important enough to be transferred to London for questioning before being brought back physically broken by torture to face execution in Durham. Other priests who worked in this area and were similarly treated include Joseph Lambton and Edward Waterson (Newcastle), John Ingram (Gateshead) and Thomas Pallaser (Durham).
The zealous efforts of such men brought many Catholics to a better knowledge of their faith, and led to such absenteeism from the Anglican services that by 1586 a special exchequer roll, the recusant roll, had to be provided to record fines for non - attendance. The first of these contains as many as 150 Northumbrian Catholics, among them prominent landowners like the Collingwoods, the Greys, the Radcliffes, Widdringtons, Haggerstons, who were convicted in July 1592 and charged £20 for each month’s absence from church, a hefty sum, which if paid regularly, could reduce even a wealthy family to poverty. Durham too had its recusants: for example Leonard Hartburn of Stillington., a relative of the priest who had celebrated Mass at Sedgefield during the rebellion of 1569. Also Robert Hodgson of Hebburn, twice mayor of Newcastle, who was convicted with his wife Anne. He died in 1634, his six children staunchly Catholic, two of them becoming priests. Another was William Blakiston, whose lands were seized. His son is known to have been a “church papist”, that is, someone who occasionally put in an appearance at the parish church to protect the family’s property, . John Claxton of Old Parke who had lost his estates after the 1569 rising was also convicted in 1592 but reported to be in hiding. He is known to have been in Sedberge gaol six years later.
Despite all this heroism - the fines, imprisonment , and execution on a large scale, Elizabeth’s long reign ensured the defeat of every effort to restore the Catholic Church in England. Years of compromise, apathy and fear left only a remnant of a once Catholic nation loyal to the Old Faith. By 1603, given the subtlety of government propaganda and a rigorous enforcement of the law the English people had come not only to regard themselves as thorough-going Protestants, but also to hate the name of Catholic. Demonised, disorganised and dispirited, the country’s 40,000 Catholics (about 2% of the population), clutched at the single straw available to them, the wild hope of toleration following the accession to the English throne of the son of Mary, the staunchly Catholic Queen of Scots.
Copyright 2004 Roman Catholic Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle