Sunday, December 22, 2013

Question from Ashley - Catherine Parr and charges of heresy

Did Catherine parr ACTUALLY committ Heresy herself??and(is it known)who saw the information on the arrest warrant(after it was accidently dropped)and Quickly told catherine about it??

2 comments:

kb said...

At the time heresy was a fluid concept. In other words, it is difficult to assess what constituted heresy at any given moment. Katherine did keep books that were considered heretical in 1545. Just possession of these books was enough to bring charges. According the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, John Foxe, author of the Book of Martyrs, one of the court doctors (possibly Robert Huicke) saw the warrant when it was dropped and warned the queen.

Leanda de Lisle said...

The vital essay to read on this is Dr Tom Freeman's One Survived in Henry VIII and his Court edited by Tom Betteridge and Suzannah Lopscomb. I draw from it in Tuodr: The Family Story (Tom Freeman kindly let me see it pre publication)