1 May 1572 A.D. Pius V (Michele Ghisleri) Dies—Rome’s 225th; He Put the Boot to the Neck of England’s Queen Elizabeth 1 & Excommunicates Her; He Also Put his Foul Boots to the Necks of the French Reformed Huguenots
1 May 1572 A.D. Pius
V (Michele Ghisleri) Dies—Rome’s 225th; He Put the Boot to the Neck
of England’s Queen Elizabeth 1 & Excommunicates Her; He Also Put his Foul Boots to the Necks of
the French Reformed Huguenots; Of Course, Pius V was Canonized
Graves, Dan. “Pius V Excommunicated Queen Elizabeth
1.” Christianity.com. May 2007. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1501-1600/pius-v-excommunicated-queen-elizabeth-i-11630017.html.
Accessed 27 Sept 2014.
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:
"Elizabeth I." The Oxford
Dictionary of the Christian Church. Edited by F. L. Cross and E. A.
Livingstone. Oxford, 1997.
Fuller, Thomas. "The Life of
Queen Elizabeth." The Holy State and the Profane State, Volume II. New
York: Columbia University Press, 1938; p. 312ff.
Lataste, T. "Pope St. Pius
V." The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton, 1914.
Neale, J. E. Queen Elizabeth
I. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1957.
Various encyclopedia and internet
articles on Elizabeth, Pius V and the excommunication.
Last updated May, 2007.
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