Editing Regnans in Excelsis (section)

==Background==

The [[papacy]] had previously reconciled with [[Mary I of England|Mary I]], who returned the [[Church of England]] and [[Church of Ireland]] to [[Catholicism]]. After Mary's death in November 1558, Elizabeth's Parliament passed the [[Act of Supremacy 1558|Act of Supremacy of 1559]], which re-established the Church of England and Church of Ireland's independence from [[papal]] authority. This bull can be seen as an act of retaliation for the religious settlement, but it was delayed by eleven years, caused in part by a number of royal Catholic suitors who hoped to marry Elizabeth, and because she had allowed Catholic worship in private.

Pius V issued the bull in support of, but following, the failed [[Rising of the North]] of 1569, by which Catholic nobles attempted to depose Elizabeth and replace her with [[Mary, Queen of Scots]],<ref>Ehler, Sidney Z., ''Church and State Through the Centuries'', (Biblo-Moser, 1988), 180.</ref> and the first [[Desmond Rebellions#First Desmond Rebellion|Desmond Rebellion]] in Ireland, which broke out in June 1569. Although the Desmond Rebellion's main goal was to preserve the independence of feudal lords from the English throne, it developed religious overtones as [[James FitzMaurice FitzGerald]] sought support from Catholic Europe.