3. heresy

Paragraph 1

• In trials heretics had opportunity to recant

  • would receive prison sentence

• Refusal to recant → guilty → death

• Believed heretics rebelled from God → bodies destroyed by burning

  • Or burning would free soul and ascend to heaven

Paragraph 2

• 280 heretics executed in ‘bloody Mary’ reign

  • Including bishops Hugh Latimer + Nicholas Ridley → burned as protestant heretics 1555

Welsh examples

• Robert Ferrar, Bishop of St. David → burned, Carmarthen, 1555

• Rawlins White, fisherman → burned, Cardiff, 1555

• William Nichol, labourer → burned, Haverfordwest, 1558

Paragraph 3

• Queen Elizabeth I against religious extremism

  • first Welsh person executed → Richard Gwyn, schoolteacher in Llanidloes → executed in Wrexham 1584 → spreading Catholic ideas

  • Denbighshire born Catholic priest William Davies of Beaumaris → executed 1593

    • publishing Catholic literature

• Extreme protestants (puritans) → closely watched

  • Welshman John Penry → guilty of spreading puritan ideas, executed, London, 1593