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The Roman Catholic Church is drafting an apology for the
religiously inspired excesses of Bloody Mary one of England's
most brutal monarchs.
The Catholic bishops of England and Wales have identified the
five-year reign of Queen cold Mary, daughter of Henry VIII and
elder sister of Elizabeth I, as one of the most savage eras in
the history of the 2,000-year-old church. The 28 bishops are
deciding whether to make their formal apology next week as a
contribution towards Human Rights Day and as part of the
church's campaign in the run-up to the new millennium to
reconcile its modern claim to the moral high ground with its
often violent past.
Queen Mary's reign between 1553 and 1558 marked the high point
of the counter-reformation, when the Papacy attempted to reclaim
countries lost to the Protestant reformers earlier in the
century. Nearly 300 Protestant leaders were burnt at the stake
in England. The most prominent martyr was Thomas Cranmer,
Archbishop of Canterbury and author of the Book of Common
Prayer. Facing death in Oxford he signed six "recantations",
saving that all Protestants should obey the queen and follow her
faith, but at his last sermon in St Mary's Church he regained
his nerve and declared: "As for the Pope, I refuse him as
Christ's enemy."
He then ran to the stake shouting "This hand has offended" and
thrust it into the fire so that the fingers that signed his
original recantation were burnt first. He was then consumed in
flames. Mary was the daughter of Catherine of Aragon, whose
marriage annulment from Henry was the catalyst for the king
breaking away from Rome. Mary saw it as her personal crusade to
re-establish the link, and married Philip II of Spain in a vain
attempt to bring England back into the Catholic sphere. Her
policy was deeply influenced by friars sent directly from Rome
to keep her "on message".
Mary's early death without issue, leaving the throne to her more
coolheaded half sister Elizabeth, ensured that her reign is
remembered largely for its religious persecution and the loss of
Calais, the last of the English medieval possessions in
France, which she declared was marked upon her heart.
Bloody Mary has entered British folklore: in the latest
manifestation, she is played as a spiteful and neurotic monster
by Kathy Burke in the current hit film Elizabeth.
In the Guy Fawkes's night celebrations at Lewes in East Sussex,
prayers are said in commemoration of the 17 Protestants burnt
outside the Star inn during Mary's reign. Local Catholics are,
however, offended that an effigy of the Pope is still burnt as
retaliation in the festivities.
Church leaders are more willing to accept blame. The English
bishops and their secretariat are still discussing the final
form of words and a final decision may not be taken in time for
Human Rights Day There is, however, believed to be a consensus
among the bishops that Bloody Mary is a stain on their
forebears.
The steps towards an apology were set in train in 1995, when
Pope John Paul issued a plea to his followers to prepare for the
millennium by atoning for the past. In his Apostolic Letter,
Tertio Millennio Adveniente, he urged Catholics "to return with
a spirit of repentance" to periods of intolerance and violence,
such as the Holocaust and the Inquisition.
His call resulted in a gathering of experts to assess the role
of Catholics in the genocide of Jews during the second world
war. In October last year, the panel published a document called
We Remember: A reflection on the Shoah, which the Pope described
as "an act of contrition" for Catholic hostility towards
Judaism.
After this statement, the pope established a committee to
reassess the Inquisition. The results will be published before
Ash Wednesday 2000, which the Pope has set aside as a day of
repentance. Catholics in British, and all over the world, will
hold a ceremony in the afternoon asking forgiveness for the
sins of church members throughout history. There are, however,
Catholics who think that the breast-beating will go too far.
Christina Odone, deputy editor of the Catholic Herald, said: “To
apologies for a murderous monarch is to blame it on Mary’s
Catholicism rather than on her. The church is overdoing it and
getting their politics and religion mixed up.”
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