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God's Secret Agents: Queen Elizabeth's Forbidden Priests and the Hatching of the Gunpowder Plot

door Alice Hogge

LedenBesprekingenPopulariteitGemiddelde beoordelingAanhalingen
3181281,508 (4.06)5
A thrilling account of treachery, loyalty and martyrdom in Elizabethan England from an exceptional new writer. As darkness fell on the evening of Friday, 28 October 1588, just weeks after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, two young Englishmen landed in secret on a Norfolk beach. They were Jesuit priests. Their aim was to achieve by force of argument what the Armada had failed to do by force of arms: return England to the Catholic Church. Eighteen years later their mission had been shattered by the actions of a small group of terrorists, the Gunpowder Plotters; they themselves had been accused of designing 'that most horrid and hellish conspiracy'; and the future of every Catholic they had come to save depended on the silence of an Oxford joiner, builder of priest-holes, being tortured in the Tower of London. 'God's Secret Agents' tells the story of Elizabeth's 'other' England, a country at war with an unseen enemy, a country peopled - according to popular pamphlets and Government proclamations - with potential traitors, fifth-columnists and assassins. And it tells this story from the perspective of that unseen 'enemy', England's Catholics, a beleaguered, alienated minority, struggling to uphold its faith. Ultimately, 'God's Secret Agents' is the story of men who would die for their cause undone by men who would kill for it. opular pamphlets and Government proclamations - with potential traitors, fifth-columnists and assassins. And it tells this story from the perspective of that unseen 'enemy', England's Catholics, a beleaguered, alienated minority, struggling to uphold its faith. Ultimately, 'God's Secret Agents' is the story of men who would die for their cause undone by men who would kill for it. opular pamphlets and Government proclamations - with potential traitors, fifth-columnists and assassins. And it tells this story from the perspective of that unseen 'enemy', England's Catholics, a beleaguered, alienated minority, struggling to uphold its faith. Ultimately, 'God's Secret Agents' is the story of men who would die for their cause undone by men who would kill for it. opular pamphlets and Government proclamations - with potential traitors, fifth-columnists and assassins. And it tells this story from the perspective of that unseen 'enemy', England's Catholics, a beleaguered, alienated minority, struggling to uphold its faith. Ultimately, 'God's Secret Agents' is the story of men who would die for their cause undone by men who would kill for it.… (meer)
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‘God’s Secret Agents’ tells the story of Elizabeth’s ‘other’ England, a country at war with an unseen enemy, a country peopled – according to popular pamphlets and Government proclamations – with potential traitors, fifth-columnists and assassins. And it tells this story from the perspective of that unseen ‘enemy’, England’s Catholics, a beleaguered, alienated minority, struggling to uphold its faith.

Ultimately, ‘God’s Secret Agents’ is the story of men who would die for their cause undone by men who would kill for it.
  StFrancisofAssisi | Feb 1, 2020 |
This is the extraordinary story of the background to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, set against nearly 100 years of religious strife in England following its secession from Catholicism under King Henry VIII in 1528.

Displaying an impressive amount of knowledge of English history following what must have been an intense and extensive period of research, the author uncovers the bloodlines and crucibles of catholic uprising and recusancy in England more than 500 years ago.

Twelve meaty yet readable chapters, forty revealing illustrations, an epilogue, author's note, appendix, endnotes, extensive bibliography and an index together make up this substantial work.

Although the first mention of the Gunpowder Plot is over 300 pages in (on pg. 317), the epilogue nevertheless draws this and all the previous threads together very well, explaining the long shadow cast over English history by this single planned act of treachery.

The author's note, finally, draws stark parallels between the events of the 16th and early 17th centuries and today. Her comment that "once again the country stands trembling at the spectre of young men of a contrary religion, trained in martyrdom, hurling themselves at these shores" leaves us in no doubt about the threads which, in her mind, link the Gunpowder Plot with modern, religious-branded terrorism.

This is a serious and challenging work which was nevertheless an enjoyable and educational read. ( )
  SunnyJim | Oct 9, 2018 |
Lady Antonia Fraser’s Faith and Treason compared with Alice Hogge’s God’s Secret Agents.

The Gunpowder Plot was the 9/11 of its day (that day being November 5, 1605). Conspirators packed a cellar beneath the Houses of Parliament with gunpowder, the idea being to set it off when the Royal Family and both houses were present for the ceremonial Opening sand wipe out the entire English government at a stroke. Like 9/11, the plot was motivated by religion – all the conspirators were Catholic. Like 9/11, the plot evoked an outburst of patriotism in both its best and worst forms. And like 9/11, there were immediate and subsequent allegations that the whole thing was a Government-sponsored hoax.

Lady Antonia Fraser’s book, Faith and Treason, is a straightforward narrative with Fraser’s usual excellence in bringing the times and the characters to life.

Faith and Treason was written in 1997, well before 9/11, which makes many of the parallels even more unnerving. Although Guy Fawkes is the one who gets the day named after him, it was Thomas Catesby who fills the role of Osama bin Laden, extremely charismatic and able to persuade others that an act of terrorism was religiously justified. Like the 9/11 hijackers, all of the conspirators were young men, and almost all had come to religious fanaticism after a less than devout, even dissolute, earlier life. There were accusations that the conspiracy was actually sponsored by a foreign power – Spain perhaps, or the Papacy – and the government enthusiastically forced the Jesuits into the role of Al Qaeda, even though the Jesuits had publicly disavowed involvement in politics.

Lady Fraser, while emphatically disavowing the “hoax” theory, does point out that the English government was aware of the plot well before its intended date – about October 26. Salisbury deliberately fed information to James I so the King could reasonably believe he had penetrated the plot himself. Guy Fawkes was caught red-handed – with a dark lantern and a slow match – and the other conspirators were quickly hunted down: of the thirteen, four were killed resisting arrest (including Catesby), one died in prison awaiting trial, and the remaining eight were hanged, drawn, and quartered. Ironically, Guy Fawkes broke his neck at the hanging stage; the others were disemboweled alive. Sir Everard Digby reportedly made the physiologically unlikely comment “Thou liest!” when the executioner held his heart aloft at the end of the “drawing” and made the traditional cry “Behold the heart of a traitor!”. (Perhaps the executioner was anatomically challenged and Sir Everard meant not “Thou liest! I’m not a traitor!” but “Thou liest!” That’s my spleen.”)

The death of Catesby is what gave armament to the hoax theorists, who speculated that he was an agent provocateur who had recruited the others to give the government an excuse to further persecute Catholics, and who was then shot “attempting to flee” in order to insure his silence. There certainly are a few interesting details; the government claimed the original plot was a “mine” beneath Parliament but no trace of a mine was ever found; even though access to Parliament was fairly easy in those more trusting days, it’s not clear how somebody could have smuggled that much in with notice; the amount of gunpowder involved is unclear, varying from one to five tons; and when the gunpowder was returned to a powder magazine, the receipt noted it was “decayed”. Nevertheless, even though Fraser is a Catholic, and shows some sympathy to the conspirators, she is emphatic that it was not a hoax – “It was a violent conspiracy involving Catholic fanatics”.

If there’s a tragic hero to the story, it’s not Catesby or Fawkes or any of the other conspirators, but Father Henry Garnet, SJ. It was not, strictly speaking, illegal to be a Catholic priest in England, but it was illegal for one to enter the country or to celebrate Mass and Garnet met both of these qualifications. Garnet did know of the plot, but his knowledge was under the seal of the confessional. His attempts to prevent it may have seem less than vigorous, but since he was spending most of his time hiding in various “priest holes” he perhaps can be excused. Garnet was not captured until after the plotters had been executed; although any plotter who was asked denied that Father Garnet or any other priest had been involved, they were not available for cross examination. The prosecution made much of the Jesuit doctrine of “equivocation”; the idea that a someone could avoid self incrimination by answering a question in a misleading fashion – for example, if asked “Are you a priest?” you could answer “No”, meaning secretly “No, I am not a priest of Apollo”. Garnet was convicted after what was essentially a “show trial”; at least, his defense may have impressed King James I or others high in the government, because he was left hanging for fifteen minutes and was thus dead or insensible by the drawing and quartering stage.

God’s Secret Agents is Alice Hogge’s first book. Although subtitled “Queen Elizabeth’s Forbidden Priests and the Hatching of the Gunpowder Plot”, the Gunpowder Plot plays a very minor part in the story. Instead, it’s an engaging discussion of the politics, secular and religious, of Elizabethan and early Stuart times. A procession of priests, including the poets and intellectuals Edmund Campion and Robert Southwell, entered England to do missionary work and administer to the spiritual needs of the remaining English Catholics. Their stories, and those of many of the laity that aided or harbored them are all tragic and a little repetitious; there’s only so many ways you can describe an execution.

One the interesting characters is Nicholas Owen, a skilled carpenter who devised many of the “priest holes” in Catholic homes. Owen’s strategy was to build no two “hides” alike; to build double “hides” such that if searchers discovered the outer one, they would stop looking and miss the second; and to outfit the “hides” with a drinking tube so water and broth could be fed to the concealed priests. Owen eventually died under torture (the official story was that he committed suicide) without revealing the location of any of his “hides”; he was canonized in 1970. Every now and then a previously unknown hide, usually attributed to Owen, is discovered when some old manor house is remodeled.

Since this book is copyright 2005, Hogge does not hesitate to draw the obvious parallels between the Gunpowder Plot and 9/11; she’s completely silent on the question of a hoax, taking it for granted that the plot was as advertised.

One interesting observation here is the prevalence of wishful thinking by people who should have known better. Catholics almost invariably thought that there were a lot more of them than there actually were, probably because most people they associated with were also Catholics. Unfortunately they also spread that belief overseas, so that Spain and the Vatican frequently thought that Catholics were a majority in England and all it would take would be a token landing by Spanish troops and the populace would enthusiastically revert to the Old Religion. Catholic diplomats traveling in England would quickly disabuse themselves of this view, but it kept springing up. As the Spanish found out when they attempted a landing in Ireland, they didn’t get enthusiastic support from the people even if there actually was a Catholic majority.

This explains the poorly thought-out nature of the Gunpowder Plot. Blowing up Parliament was the easy part; the plotters only had a vague idea of what to do next. There were various arm-waving plans to kidnap Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth of Bohemia) or Prince Charles (later Charles I), put them on the throne and “force” them to be Catholic, but the basic idea was that the English people were just waiting for some excuse to all be Catholic again.

I found one other little item that appeals to my sense of the weird. Don Juan de Tassis was one of the Spanish diplomats sent to England to negotiate and snoop around a little. “Tassis” is a Hispanicized form of “Taxis”, part of the Hapsburg noble family of Thurn und Taxis. The Princess von Thurn und Taxis was a patron of poet Ranier Maria Rilke, who wrote the Duino Elegies at her castle at Duino on the Adriatic. Later, Thomas Pynchon used the development of the Hapsburg postal system by the Thurn und Taxis family as the centerpiece of a vast international conspiracy in the novel The Crying of Lot 49. The fictional aerospace company Yoyodyne also figured in the novel, and later turned up as the den of the alien Lectroids in the cult movie The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension. If you freeze-frame shots from various Star Trek films and TV shows, you can sometimes see equipment labeled with “YSP”, for Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems, the major manufacturer of Federation starships. While writing this review, another coffee shop costumer came, looked at the book, and asked “Why would God need secret agents?”, inadvertently echoing Kirk’s question from Star Trek: The Final Frontier: “What does God need with a starship?” The study of history is full of little surprises like that.

I can’t really say which book is better – Hogge for the big picture, Fraser for details and character studies.

Remember, Remember, Eleventh September,
For Hijacking, Terror, and Plot…
( )
  setnahkt | Jan 1, 2018 |
A very well researched and balanced account of the activities of Catholic priests in the England of Elizabeth I and James I. This illustrates the horror and tension of the secret lives Catholic priests - and lay Catholics - were forced to live, and the terrible penalties that awaited them. It also assesses reasonably the level of general threat posed by the Papacy to England's Government, particularly in light of the notorious Papal Bull Regnans in Excelsis, which left English Catholics in the terrible twin dilemma of being threatened with excommunication if they obeyed the orders of their monarch, and threatened with an accusation of treason if they obeyed their Catholic conscience. The book also examines the full weight of evidence for Jesuit involvement in the Gunpowder Plot, not reaching a firm conclusion, but leaving me with the impression that, while the plot was undoubtedly real and instigated by individual Catholics, the government of King James blamed Jesuits and Catholics generally in the climate of fear and suspicion that events of the past few decades had created. One of the most remarkable things was how Catholicism was now seen as un-English, despite its having been the religion of England (and Western Europe) for nearly a millenium; and how Protestantism was seen as essentially English, despite being a Swiss-German import.

My only slight criticism would be that the book could have been structured slightly better. Unusually for non-fiction, the chapters were numbered but had no titles and there was a bit of jumping around in the narrative that was slightly confusing. ( )
1 stem john257hopper | Jul 29, 2010 |
This book gives a great view of both sides of the story. A look into the trials and tribulations of those who pursue what they tuly believe is right. ( )
  trinibaby9 | Nov 24, 2009 |
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A thrilling account of treachery, loyalty and martyrdom in Elizabethan England from an exceptional new writer. As darkness fell on the evening of Friday, 28 October 1588, just weeks after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, two young Englishmen landed in secret on a Norfolk beach. They were Jesuit priests. Their aim was to achieve by force of argument what the Armada had failed to do by force of arms: return England to the Catholic Church. Eighteen years later their mission had been shattered by the actions of a small group of terrorists, the Gunpowder Plotters; they themselves had been accused of designing 'that most horrid and hellish conspiracy'; and the future of every Catholic they had come to save depended on the silence of an Oxford joiner, builder of priest-holes, being tortured in the Tower of London. 'God's Secret Agents' tells the story of Elizabeth's 'other' England, a country at war with an unseen enemy, a country peopled - according to popular pamphlets and Government proclamations - with potential traitors, fifth-columnists and assassins. And it tells this story from the perspective of that unseen 'enemy', England's Catholics, a beleaguered, alienated minority, struggling to uphold its faith. Ultimately, 'God's Secret Agents' is the story of men who would die for their cause undone by men who would kill for it. opular pamphlets and Government proclamations - with potential traitors, fifth-columnists and assassins. And it tells this story from the perspective of that unseen 'enemy', England's Catholics, a beleaguered, alienated minority, struggling to uphold its faith. Ultimately, 'God's Secret Agents' is the story of men who would die for their cause undone by men who would kill for it. opular pamphlets and Government proclamations - with potential traitors, fifth-columnists and assassins. And it tells this story from the perspective of that unseen 'enemy', England's Catholics, a beleaguered, alienated minority, struggling to uphold its faith. Ultimately, 'God's Secret Agents' is the story of men who would die for their cause undone by men who would kill for it. opular pamphlets and Government proclamations - with potential traitors, fifth-columnists and assassins. And it tells this story from the perspective of that unseen 'enemy', England's Catholics, a beleaguered, alienated minority, struggling to uphold its faith. Ultimately, 'God's Secret Agents' is the story of men who would die for their cause undone by men who would kill for it.

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