Marian Priests is a term is applied to those English Roman Catholic

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

s who were ordained in or before the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary (1553–1558) and who survived into the reign of her

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

successor,

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudor. Her eventful reign, and its effect on history ...

. The expression is used in contradistinction to " Seminary priests", by which was meant priests ordained at

Douai Douai ( , , ; ; ; formerly spelled Douay or Doway in English) is a city in the Nord (French department), Nord département in northern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe (rive ...

in northern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, at

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or in other English seminaries on the European mainland.Burton, Edwin. "Marian Priests." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 9 August 2019

History

Shortly after Queen Elizabeth I's accession, Roman Catholic

ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

s ceased altogether in England, in consequence of the imprisonment of the church's surviving

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

s, and unless the Seminary priests had begun to land in England to take the place of the older priests who were dying, the Roman Catholic priesthood would have become extinct in England. There was an important distinction between the Marian priests and the Seminary priests in the fact that the penal legislation of the rigorous Jesuits, etc. Act 1584 only applied to the latter who were forbidden to come into or remain in the realm under pain of

high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its d ...

. Therefore, the Marian priests only came under the earlier statutes, e.g. the

Act of Supremacy 1558 The Act of Supremacy 1558 ( 1 Eliz. 1. c. 1), sometimes referred to as the Act of Supremacy 1559, is an act of the Parliament of England, which replaced the original Act of Supremacy 1534 ( 26 Hen. 8. c. 1), and passed under the auspices of E ...

which inflicted penalties on all who maintained the spiritual or ecclesiastical authority of any foreign prelate, or 5 Eliz. 1. c. 1 which made it high treason to maintain the authority of the Bishop of Rome (i.e. the Pope), or to refuse the

Oath of Supremacy The Oath of Supremacy required any person taking public or church office in the Kingdom of England, or in its subordinate Kingdom of Ireland, to swear allegiance to the monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church. Failure to do so was to be trea ...

. Dom Norbert Birt has shown that the number of Marian priests who were driven from their livings was far greater than was commonly supposed. After a careful study of all available sources of information he estimates the number of priests holding livings in England at Elizabeth's accession at 7,500 (p. 162). A large number, forming the majority of these, accepted, though unwillingly, the new state of things, and according to tradition many of them were in the habit of celebrating Mass early and of reading the Church of England service later on Sunday morning. But the number of Marian priests who refused to conform was very large, and the frequently repeated statement that only two hundred of them refused the Oath of Supremacy has been shown to be misleading, as this figure was given originally in Sander's list, which only included dignitaries and was not exhaustive. More than half of the Marian clergy resigned or were deprived at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign.Brigden, Susan. ''London and the Reformation'', Clarendon Press, 1989, p. 577 Dom Norbert Birt has collected instances of nearly two thousand priests who were deprived or who abandoned their livings for conscience' sake. As years went on, death thinned the ranks of these faithful priests, but as late as 1596 there were nearly fifty of them still working on the English mission. Owing to their more favourable legal position they escaped the persecution endured by the Seminary priests, and only the Venerable James Bell is known to have suffered martyrdom.

References

*{{CathEncy, title=Marian Priests, url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09661b.htm Catholic priesthood History of Catholicism in England