25 Feb 1570. Mr.
(Pope) Pius V Excommunicates Queen Elizabeth 1.
The story below has the date wrong. According to the official Roman site for Papal bulls, the date for the bull of excommunication was 25 Feb 1570, not 27 Apr 1570. We'll address that in another post.
The story below has the date wrong. According to the official Roman site for Papal bulls, the date for the bull of excommunication was 25 Feb 1570, not 27 Apr 1570. We'll address that in another post.
The story is told at: http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1501-1600/pius-v-excommunicated-queen-elizabeth-i-11630017.html
During the Reformation, England broke away from the
Roman Church. Mary Tudor briefly reestablished the connection, but when
Elizabeth came to the throne, she saw that it was politically expedient (and
perhaps morally preferable) to uphold the reformed church and did so. Like her
father before her, she headed the English church through an act of Parliament,
although her private chapel services remained more Catholic than Protestant.
On this day, April 27, 1570, Pope Pius V issued a
bull against her. He claimed that there was no salvation outside the Roman Church and
that the pope alone was successor to Peter and head of the earthly church. The
ungodly had grown in power and "Elizabeth, the pretended queen of England
and the servant of crime, has assisted in this."
The pope went on to excommunicate Elizabeth.
"...we do out of the fullness of our apostolic power declare the foresaid
Elizabeth to be a heretic and favorer of heretics, and her adherents in the
matters aforesaid to have incurred the sentence of excommunication and to be
cut off from the unity of the body of Christ."
In his fourth point, he said "And moreover (we
declare) her to be deprived of her pretended title to the aforesaid crown and
of all lordship, dignity and privilege whatsoever."
He forbade all nobles, subjects and people to obey
Elizabeth on pain of excommunication. This, of course, placed England's
Catholics in a trying position. While most were loyal to the throne, some used
the papal statement as an excuse to plot against Elizabeth for the purpose of
replacing her with a Catholic. Elizabeth cracked down on these opponents with
vigor. Innocent Catholics suffered alongside the guilty.
The bull concluded with the words, "Given at
St. Peter's at Rome, on 27 April 1570 of the Incarnation; in the fifth year of
our pontificate.
Elizabeth survived this blast and maintained high
popular approval during much of her reign. She is admired by historians as one
of England's greatest monarchs, and according to Thomas Fuller, was also
admired by Pope Sixtus the Fifth.
Bibliography:
1. "Elizabeth I." The
Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Edited by F. L. Cross and E. A.
Livingstone. Oxford, 1997.
2. Fuller, Thomas. "The Life of
Queen Elizabeth." The Holy State and the Profane State, Volume II. New
York: Columbia University Press, 1938; p. 312ff.
3. Lataste, T. "Pope St. Pius
V." The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton, 1914.
4. Neale, J. E. Queen Elizabeth I.
Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1957.
5. "Pope Pius V's Bull Against
Elizabeth (1570)." http://tudorhistory.org/primary/papalbull.html.
6. Various encyclopedia and internet
articles on Elizabeth, Pius V and the excommunication.
Last updated May, 2007.
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