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Remembering the Catholic Blackfriars

This chapter argues that although St. Anne’s was closely identified the godly, the local residents were not all puritan. In fact, several Catholic families also lived here among the remains of pre-Reformation London’s most prestigious religious house. Many Catholics revered the Blackfriars as a sacred space, whose very name conjured memories of better days and inspired loyalty to the Old Faith. The area’s continuing significance for Catholics is nowhere more evident than at the so-called “Fatal Vesper” in 1623, when dozens of people were crushed to death at an illegal Jesuit sermon. Memories of the pre-dissolution Blackfriars also intrigued playwrights like Shakespeare, Fletcher, and Webster. Their plays Henry VIII and The Duchess of Malfi evoke the history of the playing space and its surroundings to open up questions about the origins and results of England’s Reformation.