Today, recusant applies to the descendants of Roman Catholic families of the British gentry and aristocracy. It derives from the Latin word recūsant, meaning to demur or object.
History
After the English Reformation, from the 16th to the 19th centuries those guilty of such nonconformity, termed "recusants", were subject to civil penalties and sometimes, especially in the earlier part of that period, to criminal penalties. Catholics formed a large proportion, if not a plurality, of recusants, and it was to Catholics that the term initially was applied. Non-Catholic groups composed of Reformed Christians or Protestant dissenters from the Church of England were later labelled "recusants" as well. Recusancy laws were in force from the reign of Elizabeth I to that of George III, but were not always enforced with equal intensity.[9]
The first statute to address sectarian dissent from England's official religion was enacted in 1593 under Elizabeth I and specifically targeted Catholics, under the title "An Act for restraining Popish recusants". It defined "Popish recusants" as those
convicted for not repairing to some Church, Chapel, or usual place of Common Prayer to hear Divine Service there, but forbearing the same contrary to the tenor of the laws and statutes heretofore made and provided in that behalf.
Other Acts targeted Catholic recusants, including statutes passed under JamesI and Charles I, as well as laws defining other offences deemed to be acts of recusancy. Recusants were subject to various civil disabilities and penalties under English penal laws, most of which were repealed during the Regency and the reign of George IV (1811–30). The Nuttall Encyclopædia notes that Dissenters were largely forgiven by the Act of Toleration under WilliamIII, while Catholics "were not entirely emancipated till 1829".[10]
Among the recusants were some high-profile Catholic aristocrats such as the Howards and, for a time, the Plantagenet-descended Beauforts. This patronage ensured that an organic and rooted English base continued to inform the country's Catholicism.
William Shakespeare came from a family background of English Catholic recusants.
Although William Shakespeare (1564–1616) and his immediate family were conforming members of the established Church of England, Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, was a member of a particularly conspicuous and determinedly Catholic family in Warwickshire.[13]
Some scholars also believe there is evidence that several members of Shakespeare's family were secretly recusant Catholics. The strongest evidence is a tract professing secret Catholicism signed by John Shakespeare, father of the poet. The tract was found in the 18th century in the rafters of a house which had once been John Shakespeare's and was seen and described by the reputable scholar Edmond Malone. Malone later changed his mind and declared that he thought the tract was a forgery.[14] Although the document has since been lost, Anthony Holden writes that Malone's reported wording of the tract is linked to a testament written by Charles Borromeo and circulated in England by Edmund Campion, copies of which still exist in Italian and English.[15] Other research, however, suggests that the Borromeo testament is a 17th-century artefact (at the earliest dating from 1638), was not printed for missionary work, and could never have been in the possession of John Shakespeare.[16] John Shakespeare was listed as one who did not attend church services, but this was "for feare of processe for Debtte", according to the commissioners, not because he was a recusant.[17]
Another notable English Catholic, possibly a convert,[18] was composer William Byrd. Some of Byrd's most popular motets were actually written as a type of correspondence to a friend and fellow composer, Philippe de Monte. De Monte wrote his own motets in response, such as the "Super Flumina Babylonis". These correspondence motets often featured themes of oppression or the hope of deliverance.
Dorothy Lawson was a Catholic noblewoman who used her autonomy, financial independence and social status as a widow to harbour priests in her household.[19] She was a patroness of the Society of Jesus, who met yearly at her home to discuss the mission in England, employed Catholic servants, held religious services for the local community,[20] and visited recusants who were imprisoned in jail for their beliefs. Her children were raised in the Catholic faith. Three daughters entered convents on the continent and a son attended a seminary in Douai.[21]
The Jacobean poet John Donne was another notable Englishman born into a recusant Catholic family.[22] He later, however, authored two Protestant-leaning writings and, at the behest of King James I, was ordained into the Church of England.[23]
The term "recusancy" is primarily applied to English, Scottish, and Welsh Catholics, but there were other instances in Europe. The vast majority of native Irish, while subject to the British crown, rejected both the reformed Church of Ireland and the dissenting churches, remaining loyal to the Roman Catholic Church, suffering the same penalties as recusants in Great Britain. The situation was exacerbated by land claims, paramilitary violence, and ethnic antagonisms on all sides.[25]
Recusancy in Scandinavia is not considered to have survived much past the period of the Liturgical Struggle until anti-Catholicism lessened towards the end of the 18th century and freedom of religion was re-established in the mid-19th century (although there were individual cases of Catholic sympathies occurring even in the 17th and 18th centuries). Notable converts were Christina, Queen of Sweden,[26] daughter of Gustavus Adolphus; and Sigrid Undset, Nobel Prize-winning author of Kristin Lavransdatter. The number of ethnic Swedes who are Roman Catholic is fewer than 40,000, and includes Anders Arborelius, a convert and the first Swedish bishop since the Reformation. In 2017, he was made a cardinal.[citation needed]
