Church Council and Its Punishments

England had had a long history of religious turmoil throughout the 1500's. When Henry VIII decided to divorce his first wife in order to marry Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth's mother, he had to challenge the primacy of the Catholic Church in England. When Henry realized the financial advantages for the Crown of seizing all the property of the Church, he happily completed the break, confiscated the enormous holdings of the Church and sold much of it off to raise money. However, he maintained a view that England was still a Catholic country, one that was reforming the church and replacing the Pope with the anointed king. When Henry died his only son followed him to the throne, Edward VI. The young king completed the process of turning England into a Protestant country, which was the direction most of the inhabitants were headed anyway. But Edward died in a few years and was followed by his stepsister Mary Tudor, who was married to Philip, King of Spain. As daughter of Henry's first wife, Mary was determined to right the injustices that had been committed by her father and Edward. She forced England back into the Catholic camp and burned anyone who dared oppose her. In a few years Mary died and Elizabeth came to the throne. Her primary response to the struggles over doctrine was to try and keep the religious extremists from exercising too much power. Look at this church council and ask yourself how tolerant they would be if you were found to have violated some rule about worship? This was an age where people lost their lives because they wanted to change the location of the altar or not play musical instruments during the service.

Religious advocates played for keeps. Often it was Elizabeth's secret police that ferreted out religious outlaws who defied the laws governing worship. You usually burned your doctrinal enemies at the stake, but sometimes you used special punishment to impress the general population. Here we see a group of religious dissenters who have been brought to the site of execution. First the executioners terrorize the victims by showing what awaits them. Then they are hanged slowly until just before they die. Then they are cut down and disemboweled while still conscious in a process called "drawing." After the victim was dead, the executioner cut the body into four parts ("quartering") and sent the pieces to be displayed in different parts of the city as a warning to others. When Macbeth complains about the blood on his "hangman's hands," we see what he is talking about in this picture. Often the heads of the executed were displayed on spikes at London Bridge so that people who wanted to see Romeo and Juliet, for example, walked past the heads to get to the theater. In relative terms Shakespeare was very tolerant and humane compared to the attitudes of his age and his peers.