Ask Shakespeare #3
Are You a Roman Catholic?
Like you, I live in times full of loud religious factions. To take a public stand about such matters is often dangerous.
All columns · November 2024 newsletter
The Question
Are you a Roman Catholic?
Shakespeare Answers
Like you, I live in times full of loud religious factions. To take a public stand about such matters is often dangerous. In my theatre company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later called the King’s Men, we are loyal all to the monarch, Supreme Head of the Church of England; but we make little noise about it. Our performances do not use the words “catholic” and “protestant.”
In my father’s time, King Henry VIII, like his predecessors, was of the Church of Rome. But he broke with the Pope and renewed the ancient Church of England so that he might divorce his first wife and marry the second. He had two daughters who became Queen: first Mary, who executed many for refusing the Church of Rome, and then Elizabeth, who executed many for refusing the Church of England. I was born under Queen Elizabeth.