Editing Religious persecution (section)

==Religious persecution for political reasons==
[[File:HooperBurning.jpg|thumb|Protestant Bishop [[John Hooper (bishop)|John Hooper]] was burned at the stake by Queen [[Mary I of England]].]]
{{Main|Political violence}}
More than 300 Roman Catholics were put to death for [[treason]] by English governments between 1535 and 1681, thus they were officially executed for secular rather than [[religious offense]]s.<ref name="John Coffey 2000, p. 26"/> In 1570, [[Pope Pius V]] issued his [[papal bull]] ''[[Regnans in Excelsis]]'', which absolved Catholics from their obligations to the government.<ref>Coffey 2000: 85.</ref> This dramatically worsened the persecution of Catholics in England. The 1584 [[Parliament of England]], declared in "[[An Act against Jesuits, seminary priests, and such other like disobedient persons]]" that the purpose of all Catholic missionaries who had come to Britain was "to stir up and move sedition, rebellion and open hostility".<ref>Coffey 2000: 86.</ref> Consequently, even strictly apolitical priests like [[Saint John Ogilvie]], [[Dermot O'Hurley]], and [[Robert Southwell (priest)|Robert Southwell]] were subjected to torture and execution, as were members of the laity like Sts. [[Margaret Clitherow]] and [[Richard Gwyn]]. This drastically contrasts with the image of the [[Elizabethan era]] as a golden age, but compared to the antecedent [[Marian Persecutions]] there is an important difference to consider. [[Mary I of England|Queen Mary]] was motivated by determination to exterminate [[Protestantism]] from all her Kingdoms and to restore the independence of the English Church from control by the state. During her short reign from 1553 to 1558, about 290 Protestants<ref>Coffey 2000: 81.</ref> were burned at the stake. While Mary's sister [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth I]] allegedly, "acted out of fear for the security of her realm",<ref>Coffey 2000: 92.</ref> she sought to coerce both Catholics and Protestants to embrace a [[national church]] that was completely [[Caesaropapism|subservient to the state]].

Over the centuries that followed, English governments continued to fear and prosecute both real and imaginary conspiracies like the [[Popish Plot]], an alleged plan to assassinate [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]] and massacre the Protestants of the [[British Isles]]. In reality, the plot was a fictitious concoction by [[Titus Oates]] and [[Whig (British political party)|Whig]] politician [[Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury|Lord Shaftesbury]]. Before the falsity of their claims were exposed, however, at least 22 innocent clergy and laity, including Archbishop [[Oliver Plunkett]], had been unjustly convicted of [[high treason]] and executed at [[Tyburn]].