A small victory for Catholic blogging

Coughton Court - a haven for Recusant Catholics but not assassins!

Some weeks back I posted on the National Trust property and Recusant house of Coughton Court in Warwickshire. I was concerned that one guide in particular was claiming that the Pope issued a decree to all English Catholics "to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I".


Also, other guides were 'dumbing down' the effects of the Dissolution of the Monasteries by using terms such as "Henry VIII closed the monasteries" - some closure!
Well, a stout hearted blogger, one, Umblepie, decided to take the matter up with the National Trust and, as a result, has received a letter promising a review of the interpretational literature and a promise that the issue will be discussed at the next team meeting of the guides. 
A good result I would say and a not insignificant victory for Catholic bloggers. Next issue.......more EF Masses! 

Here is the Trust's response:

Dear Mr ...............

Thank you for your letter dated 6 April and your interest in Coughton Court.  Our Administrator has passed your letter to me so that I may reply to you, as I lead the team who support our room guides.

We are keen to provide an accurate and balanced interpretation of the house, the people who have lived here or who have been associated with it, together with the times in which they lived. Your comments regarding the 'Reformation' and the comments made by my colleagues will be presented at our next interpretation work group meeting. I have also passed a copy of your letter to our Interpretation Officer who is responsible for the presentation material for the house.

We always welcome discussion about our presentation and thank you for taking the time to share your views.

Yours sincerely,

Julie Brunton,

Volunteer Support and Development Team Leader,

Coughton Court.

So casually are we traduced....

Readers of this blog will have seen my recent posts on Coughton Court, country seat of an old Recusant family, the Throckmortons.
When I visited there recently I stood on the edge of a small group while a guide (each room has a knowledgeable volunteer who offers information) gave forth on the history of the period.

"The Pope at the time excommunicated Queen Elizabeth and told Catholics that is was their duty to assassinate her"

Spouted the guide firmly.
I could not believe what I was hearing, so much so that I interjected and stated that the Pope issued no such command.

"Oh yes he did!" Was the response and I am afraid that I made the less than original reply - "Oh no he didn't".

For the sake of clarity I now relay the ensuing conversation:-

Guide: "Well he implied it"

Me: "No, he did not even imply it"

Guide: "Well he might not have implied it"

Me: "He didn't so please stop distorting the facts"

Now this may all sound rather trivial and even childish but stop to think for one minute, just how many vistors each day would leave Coughton Court under the impression that Catholics are a violent lot who only listen to the Pope on matters secular as well as spiritual. A modest estimate of visitor numbers would be c. 240 each day, 1,680 each week and, very roughly, 60,000 each year.
So are prejudices implanted and ingrained.


A hiding hole for priests revealed at Coughton
Court, still the seat of lies today regarding the Faith


Moving on to another room I asked yet another guide about an item of furniture and she relayed the information that it came from a Cambridge convent after Henry VIII had "closed" the monasteries and religious houses. More angst on my part. I politely pointed out that Henry did a shade more than "close" the monasteries".

There is an undercurrent of anti Catholicism in England and Wales, I have come across it many times in my career and, of course, socially. It never erupts beyond much more than a sideways swipe at all things Catholic at a dinner party or a mealy mouthed comment at a business meeting but it is the sort of thing that would not be contemplated if Islam or race or homosexuality was the topic of conversation.

Heavily distorted historical "facts" passed on to an audience who have no reason to suspect that the truth has been distorted beyond recognition, only adds fuel to the flames and helps embed prejudices.
I recall how, in history lessons at school we were first taught the textbook answers and then, pause, the Catholic ones. Thankfully, we never seemed to confuse the two.

The words of St Robert Southwell ring as true today as they did back in Reformation times......

“We are generally accounted men whom it is a credit to pursue, a disgrace to protect, a commodity to spoil, a gain to torture, a glory to kill”….

He might have added....."a requirement to traduce!"

Catholic Emancipation and the feast that followed

I am sorry to impose this on you in the season of Lent but this is a feast too good to hang on to....I have to share it!

The occasion? Following the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 Sir Robert Throckmorton, a noted and prominent Catholic of Coughton Court, Warwickshire, became, in 1831, the first Catholic since the Reformation, to sign the Oath of Allegiance and to take his seat in the House of Commons as a Member of Parliament.

If ever an event called for a feast it was this one. It might be worth recounting just what Catholics had to put up with since the 17th Century. We were not allowed to vote, our churches could not be built near a main road but had to be accommodated down a side street, our land ownership attracted higher taxes than our Protestant countrymen and if anyone took a fancy to our horses, they could claim them as their own and we would have to hand them over without a quibble. The horse was, of course, more vital than a car in today's world so imagine someone walking up to you today and laying hold of the keys to your beloved BMW or Fiesta. You might be more than a little miffed!

So small wonder that the Throckmorton family rejoiced at this post Emancipation progress and invited the great and the good to join with them in a feast. The dining room at Coughton accommodates around twenty people, sadly, I have no information as to whom they were.

For the trenchermen amongst you, here is the menu of the day:-

Feast to celebrate Sir Robert Throckmorton’s

appointment in 1831 as the first Catholic Member

of Parliament since the Reformation

FIRST COURSE

Asparagus Soup

Oxtail Soup

Salmon with lobster sauce

Fried filleted Soles

MAIN COURSE

Lamb cutlets and Cucumber

Fricandeau of Veal

Lobster Pudding

Stewed Mushrooms

Saddle of Lamb

Braised Ham

Roast Veal

Vegetables

PUDDINGS

Charlotte Russe

Almond Cheesecake

Gooseberry Tart

Vanilla Cream

Ices

This all has a very solid 19^th Century English cooking ring about it, nothing to excite the appetite too much in modern terms but, of course, at a time when there was no artificial refrigeration, the provision of ices (and fish) must have been quite challenging.

THE CABINET OF DECEIT

It constitutes a lie, sitting there under the massive stairwell, unobtrusive despite its size. Most if not all, pass it by without a second glance. It's a nice piece of furniture but there is nothing special about it to attract attention, it's just a sideboard, cabinet, call it what you will.

No flash photography allowed so apologies for the quality here

You may be somewhat astonished, therefore that Fine Art auctioneers, Christie's has placed an insurance value of £3 million on it.....that's $488 million in USA currency.
Not something to be sneezed at perhaps?

Why so special? You could pick up a  look-alike model for under £1000 at any half decent auction house. The clue lies in its name......in Warwickshire's Coughton Court, family seat of the Catholic Throckmorton family, it is known as "The Mass Cabinet".

Aha....the penny/dime is dropping....this has links with the Reformation, Catholic recusancy, undercover priests and the rest. If you speak kindly to one of the guides they may consider opening the doors for you but, after careful consideration they say: "No". So then if you speak particularly obsequiously in a wheedling fashion to the top guide (no, not Arkela) she may relent and yield to your flattery by carefully, oh so carefully, opening the cabinet doors.

Be warned, this is a jaw dropping event. What is revealed within is not what one would expect to find in a cabinet; instead the eye is treated to a display of drawers and doors all crafted exquisitely by some Tudor craftsman or men in a manner that would be hard to reproduce  even using computer aided technology today. It is, of course, not a cabinet but an altar, hidden from prying eyes.

As I am a person who has difficulty in even nailing together a bird nesting box for the garden, I am impressed beyond words. Each minute set of drawers, intended to house patens, palls, purificators and other small altar items. The cupboards perhaps to house amices, chalices and the like.

But glory of glories, the centrepiece is worth a post just to itself. Behold a small tabernacle with a glass front, again precision crafted: just imagine exposition taking place with a 12" high monstrance behind the glass.

The centrepiece, a tabernacle in miniature

The wood used in the construction (that seems too clumsy a word for such a divine object) is, so we are told, a Caribbean softwood that requires carving immediately, more or less. It then hardens to a mahogany type density. I am not sure that this rings true. For my money, carving in fine detail requires a hard wood to start with in order to achieve sharp delineation. My guess is that it is teak or, more likely, mahogany.
It does not really matter.
What does matter is that this cabinet duped the pursuivants, those who would spy and track down our priests and their supporters. It is better really than a priests' hole which were built to totally deceive the eye by their very invisibility.
The Mass Cabinet is a shade, dare I say, magical as first you see it and then you don't.
It is Father Brown's postman; so commonly seen and such an accepted part of the scenery that he escapes notice altogether.
How the Throckmorton family must have held back their chortles as the pursuivants marched to and fro within the house, tapping on the panelling, peering up the fireplaces and looking behind the portraits hanging on the wall.

If they only knew it, what they were seeking was under their very noses - there is a metaphor lurking there somewhere!

Coughton Court (pronounced Co-ton) is a National Trust property in the English Midlands. It is well worth a visit. Many members of the Throckmorton family emigrated to Boston, Virginia and other parts of the USA to escape the persecutions...but more of that in a post to come.