A Crypto-Catholic is someone who outwardly conforms to different religion while secretly remaining a Catholic in private. Crypto Catholicism became a common term and practice between “1558 when Elizabeth I acceded to the throne and the Supreme Head of the English Church to the Glorious Revolution of 1688.” (1) Catholicism was mainly associated with certain key events in the Protestant imaginary, the most prominent were the rebellion of the northern earls in 1569, the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, the Spanish marriage between Charles I and Henrietta, the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and lastly the Popish Plot of 1678-81. (2) Being publicly declared that you were a Catholic could potentially be detrimental to any fortune or titles possessed as well as being a risk for the family's welfare and well being. Since Catholics did not conform to the ecclesiastical law of the time, becoming a secret Catholic became more and more common because of the great solution it offered. There were many crypto Catholics, in fact an "accurate" statement of the number of Catholics in early Stuart England is admittedly impossible.(3) In order to make society believe that you conformed to ecclesiastical laws, crypto Catholics would often attend the established church with the purpose of blending in. A Catholic could accompany a Protestant official to his service, especially if it meant keeping their secret and not suffering a loss of position or status. (4)One example of a man who failed at keeping crypto rumors away was Sir Richard Weston. It was never confirmed nor denied if Weston was actually a crypto Catholic but nevertheless suffered the consequences when he suffered losses and suffered bad reputations. Interestingly enough, the important element to note from Weston is that it was simply a rumor that affected him so catastrophically; this rumor was enough to ruin his reputation and make him widely unpopular and disliked. Being a suspect of crypto Catholicism can have periods of status disfavor in which reputations suffer greatly.
English Catholicism can be described as a “catacomb culture, defined by secret or discreet worship…exiled from English history.” (5) Catholics often admitted the need for equivocation and encryption as well as for secrecy in the proscribed culture of English Catholicism. Precautions to keep their religion a secret were put into place. Markers of the Catholic religion such as ancient crosses, altars and sepulchers were often hidden and kept in the domestic sphere. Alongside hiding and confining Catholic items came along the concept of the priest hole. Catholics would commonly complete renovations of their country house in order to install a priest hole in their home as a hidden structure that was not visible from the outside. (6) The installation of priest holes safely allowed priests to attend private homes in order to perform Catholic rituals for the Catholic residents. A priest hole was intricately hidden inside of the house structure of a recusant household for the priest to hide in from pursuivants if they came to search the house. (7)
(1) Sarah, Beckwith, “Shakespeare, Crypto-Catholicism, Crypto-Criticism,” Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England, 19 (2006): 260. (2) Ibid, 261. (3) Albert, J. Loomie, “A Jacobean Crypto-Catholic: Lord Wotton,” The Catholic Historical Review, 53, no. 3 (Oct., 1967): 330. (4) Ibid, 336. (5) Beckwith, 260. (6) Ibid, 265. (7) Ibid, 268.
