Editing William Byrd (section)

===Catholicism===
From the early 1570s onwards Byrd became increasingly involved with Catholicism, which, as the scholarship of the last half-century has demonstrated, became a major factor in his personal and creative life. As John Harley has shown, it is probable that Byrd's parental family were Protestants, though whether by deeply felt conviction or nominal conformism is not clear. Byrd himself may have held Protestant beliefs in his youth, for a recently discovered fragment of a setting of an English translation of [[Martin Luther]]'s hymn "{{lang|de|[[Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort]]}}", which bears an attribution to "Birde" includes the line "From Turk and Pope defend us Lord".{{sfn|Neighbour|2007<!-- |p= -->}} However, from the 1570s onwards he is found associating with known Catholics, including Lord [[Thomas Paget, 3rd Baron Paget|Thomas Paget]], to whom he wrote a petitionary letter on behalf of an unnamed friend in about 1573.<ref>{{Harvnb|Harley|2016b|pp=44{{ndash}}48}}</ref> Paget's household itself was a musical centre where "songes of Mr Byrdes and Mr [[Thomas Tallis|Tallys]] were sung", implying that both composers were involved there in some way to permit the use of their music.{{sfn|McCarthy|2019}} Byrd's wife Julian was first cited for [[recusancy]] (refusing to attend Anglican services) at [[Harlington, London|Harlington]] in [[Middlesex]], where the family then lived, in 1577. Byrd himself appears in the recusancy lists from 1584.{{sfn|Harley|2016b|p=74}}

His involvement with Catholicism took on a new dimension in the 1580s. Following [[Pope Pius V]]'s [[papal bull]] ''[[Regnans in Excelsis]]'', in 1570, which absolved Elizabeth's subjects from allegiance to her and effectively made her an outlaw in the eyes of the Catholic Church, Catholicism became increasingly identified with sedition in the eyes of the Tudor authorities. With the influx of missionary priests trained at the [[English College, Douai]] (now in France but then part of the Spanish Netherlands), and in Rome from the 1570s onwards, relations between the authorities and the Catholic community took a further turn for the worse. Byrd himself is found in the company of prominent Catholics. In 1583 he got into serious trouble because of his association with Paget, who was suspected of involvement in the [[Throckmorton Plot]], and for sending money to Catholics abroad. As a result of this, Byrd's membership of the Chapel Royal was apparently suspended for a time, restrictions were placed on his movements, and his house was placed on the search list. In 1586 he attended a gathering at a country house in the company of Father [[Henry Garnett]] (later executed for complicity in the [[Gunpowder Plot]]) and the Catholic poet [[Robert Southwell (Jesuit)|Robert Southwell]].{{sfn|Kerman|1980|pp=49{{ndash}}50}}