Editing Regnans in Excelsis

{{Short description|1570 papal bull by Pius V excommunicating Queen Elizabeth I of England}}
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{{Infobox papal document|title=Regnans in Excelsis|type=bull|pope=Pius V|language of title=latin|translation of title=Reigning on High|signature date=25 February 1570|Papal coats of arms=C o a Pius V.svg|subject=Excommunication of [[Queen Elizabeth I]]|web_en=https://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius05/p5regnans.htm|before=Consueverunt Romani Pontifices|after=Quo primum}}
[[File:Papa Pio V.PNG|thumb|[[Pope Pius V]]]]
[[File:Elizabeth I c 1570.jpg|thumb|[[Queen Elizabeth I]], {{circa|1570}}]]
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'''''Regnans in Excelsis''''' ("Reigning on High") is a [[papal bull]] that [[Pope Pius V]] issued on 25 February 1570. It [[excommunicated]] Queen [[Elizabeth I of England]], referring to her as "the pretended Queen of England and the servant of crime," declared her a heretic, and released her subjects from allegiance to her, even those who had "sworn oaths to her," and excommunicated any who obeyed her orders: "We charge and command all and singular the nobles, subjects, peoples and others afore said that they do not dare obey her orders, mandates and laws. Those who shall act to the contrary we include in the like sentence of excommunication."<ref name = "Regnans in Excelsis - Latin">{{cite web | url = https://www.papalencyclicals.net/paul06/p5regnanslatin.htm | author = Pope Pius V | author-link = Pope Pius V | title = Regnans in Excelsis | date = 25 February 1570 | website = Papal Encyclicals Online | language = Latin | access-date = 5 March 2020}}</ref><ref name = "Regnans in Excelsis - English">{{cite web | url = https://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius05/p5regnans.htm | author = Pope Pius V | author-link = Pope Pius V | title = Regnans in Excelsis | date = 25 February 1570 | website = Papal Encyclicals Online | language = English | access-date = 5 March 2020}}</ref>

Among the queen's offences, "She has removed the royal Council, composed of the nobility of England, and has filled it with obscure men, being heretics; oppressed the followers of the Catholic faith; instituted false preachers and ministers of impiety; abolished the sacrifice of the mass, prayers, fasts, choice of meats, celibacy, and Catholic ceremonies; and has ordered that books of manifestly heretical content be propounded to the whole realm and that impious rites and institutions after the rule of [[John Calvin|Calvin]], entertained and observed by herself, be also observed by her subjects."<ref name = "Regnans in Excelsis - English" />

The bull, written in [[Latin]],<ref name = "Regnans in Excelsis - Latin" /> is named from its ''[[incipit]]'', the first three words of its text.

==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.

==Content==
The bull declared Queen Elizabeth excommunicated and absolved her subjects from any allegiance to her. It also excommunicated any that obeyed her orders.<ref>{{cite book|last=McGrath|first=Patrick|title=Papists and Puritans under Elizabeth I|url=https://archive.org/details/papistspuritansu0000mcgr|url-access=registration|publisher=Blandford Press|location=Poole, England|date=1967|page=[https://archive.org/details/papistspuritansu0000mcgr/page/69 69]}}</ref> Its argument drew on the [[hierocracy (medieval)|hierocratic theory]] of the papacy established by medieval [[canon law|canonists]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Watt|first=John A.|year=1988|chapter=Spiritual and temporal powers|title=The Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought c. 350–c. 1450|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521423885|page=422}}</ref>

Pius did not consult any Catholic rulers. Both [[Philip II of Spain]] and the Holy Roman Emperor [[Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian II]] disagreed with his approach. Philip thought, correctly, that it would only harden the Crown's treatment of English Catholics.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=UDg0F1pit6sC&dq=Regnans+in+Excelsis&pg=PA258 "Regnans in Excelsis", ''Historical Dictionary of the Elizabethan World''], (John A. Wagner, ed.), Routledge, 2000, {{ISBN|9781579582692}}.</ref> According to [[Evelyn Waugh]], it provided a convenient pretext for those in Elizabeth's court, looking for an excuse to do so, to persecute Roman Catholics, and they took full advantage of it.<ref>[https://evelynwaughsociety.org/2017/__trashed-2/ Manley, Jeffrey. "Anniversary on Horizon', The Evelyn Waugh Society, February 27, 2017]</ref>

To take effect in church law the bull had to be promulgated. This logistical effort relied on individuals such as [[John Felton (martyr)|John Felton]].

==Aftermath==
The bull provoked the English government into taking more repressive actions against the [[Society of Jesus|Jesuits]], whom they feared to be acting in the interests of [[Spain]] and the papacy. This reaction soon seemed justified: it was the publication in England of Pius's exhortation that gave the impetus in 1571 to the [[Ridolfi plot]], in which the [[Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk|Duke of Norfolk]] was to kidnap or murder Queen Elizabeth, install [[Mary, Queen of Scots]], on the throne, and then become ''de facto'' king by marrying her.<ref>{{cite book|last =Haynes|first =Alan|title =Walsingham: Elizabethan Spymaster and Statesman|publisher =Sutton Publishing|date =2004|location =Stroud, England|page=13|isbn=0-7509-3122-1}}</ref>

[[Heinrich Bullinger]] of [[Zürich]] published a [[Objection (argument)|critique]] of the bull in 1571.<ref>[[Heinrich Bullinger|Bullinger, Heinrich]]. ''Bullae Papisticae ante biennium contra sereniss. Angliae, Franciae & Hyberniae Reginam Elizabetham & contra inclytum Angliae Regnum promulgatae, refutatio, orthodoxaeque Reginae, & vniuersi Regni Angliae defensio''. John Day, London 1571.</ref>

==Suspension from 1580 to 1584==
At the request of the Jesuits and to relieve the pressures on Catholics in England, it was said that [[Pope Gregory XIII]] issued a clarification or suspension in 1580, explaining that Catholics should obey the queen outwardly in all civil matters, until such time as a suitable opportunity presented itself for her overthrow.<ref>P. J. Corish, "The origins of Catholic nationalism", part 8, vol. III, pp 15–18, in "The History of Irish Catholicism" (Dublin, 1967).</ref> How widely this was communicated to, and understood by, Catholics in England and Ireland is unknown. The evidence against any suspension of the Bull comes from the small invasion of Ireland in 1579 led by [[James FitzMaurice FitzGerald]] that was supported by the Papacy. Then in 1580 Pope Gregory sponsored another abortive expedition to Ireland in support of the [[Second Desmond Rebellion]], that ended in the tragic [[Siege of Smerwick]]. Soon after the start of the [[Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)]], an English Act "against Jesuits, seminary priests and other such like disobedient persons" was passed into law.

==Renewal in 1588==
In 1588, [[Pope Sixtus V]], in support of the [[Spanish Armada]], renewed the solemn bull of excommunication against Queen Elizabeth I, for the [[regicide]] of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587 as well as the previously catalogued offences against the Catholic Church.<ref>[http://recherche.univ-montp3.fr/mambo/CERRA/MEMED/1Sixtus5Eliz.html Text of Sixtus V's 1588 Bull against Queen Elizabeth in support of the Armada] {{dead link|date=September 2014}}</ref> During the threat of invasion by the Spanish Armada, it transpired that most of the Catholic residents in England remained loyal, and that those who were a real threat to the throne, like [[William Allen (cardinal)|William, Cardinal Allen]] and [[Robert Persons]], were already exiles.

While the bull had little impact in England, it caused a rift in Elizabeth's [[Kingdom of Ireland]] where most of the population remained Roman Catholic; [[Gerald FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond]], had used the bull as justification for the [[Second Desmond Rebellion]].<ref name="Canny2001">{{cite book|last=Canny|first=Nicholas P.|author-link=Nicholas Canny|title=Making Ireland British, 1580-1650|url=https://archive.org/details/makingirelandbri00cann|url-access=registration|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford, England|isbn=0-19-925905-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/makingirelandbri00cann/page/124 124]}}</ref> While divisions had existed before 1570, after the bull the officials based in Dublin conformed to [[Anglicanism]] while the majority of the [[Parliament of Ireland]] were Catholics until 1613.<ref>MacCurtain M., ''Tudor and Stuart Ireland'' Gill & Macmillan, Dublin 1972.</ref>

==See also==
* [[Religion in the United Kingdom]]
* ''[[Cuius regio, eius religio]]''
* [[Papal deposing power]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* Jardine, Lisa (2004). [https://books.google.com/books?id=pZXcviUTeM8C&pg=PA209 Gloriana Rules the Waves: or, The Advantage of Being Excommunicated (and Being a Woman)], in [[Transactions of the Royal Historical Society]], Volume 14, Sixth Series, pp.&nbsp;209–222.

==External links==
* [http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius05/p5regnans.htm Text of Regnans in Excelsis of Pope Saint Pius V]
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[[Category:1570 in England]]
[[Category:1570 works]]
[[Category:16th-century papal bulls]]
[[Category:16th-century anti-Protestantism]]
[[Category:Documents of Pope Pius V]]
[[Category:Elizabeth I]]
[[Category:History of Catholicism in the United Kingdom]]
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