St. Margaret Clitherow, The "Pearl of York"

St. Margaret is considered the first woman martyred under Queen Elizabeth's religious suppression. Margaret was raised a Protestant but converted to Catholicism about two to three years after she was married. According to her confessor, Fr. Mush, Margaret became a Catholic because she "found no substance, truth nor Christian comfort in the ministers of the new church, nor in their doctrine itself, and hearing also many priests and lay people to suffer for the defense of the ancient Catholic Faith." Margaret's husband, John Clitherow, remained a Protestant but supported his wife's decision to convert. They were happily married and raised three children: Henry, William, and Anne. She was a businesswoman who helped run her husband's butcher shop business. She was loved many people even her Protestant neighbors.

Margaret practiced her faith and helped many people reconcile themselves back into the Catholic Church. She prayed one and a half hours every day and fasted four times a week. She regularly participated in mass and frequently went to confession. When laws were passed against Catholics, Margaret was imprisoned several times because she did not attend Protestant services. Other laws were passed which included a 1585 law that made it high treason for a priest to live in England and a felony for anyone to harbor or aid a priest. The penalty for breaking such laws was death. Despite the risk, Margaret helped and concealed priests. Margaret said "by God's grace all priests shall be more welcome to me than ever they were, and I will do what I can to set forward God's Catholic service."

Margaret wanted her son Henry to receive a Catholic education so she endeavored that her son be sent outside the Kingdom to Douai, France for schooling. Such an act was considered a crime. When the authorities discovered their intention, the Common Council had the Clitherow house searched. They initially found nothing but later retrieved religious vessels, books and vestments used for Holy Mass. They also found a secret hiding place but no renegade priests. Still, Margaret was arrested. Margaret refused to plead and to be tried saying, "Having made no offense, I need no trial". English law decreed that anyone who refused to plead and to be tried should be "pressed to death". So on the morning of March 25, 1586, after sewing her own shroud the night before and after praying for the Pope, cardinals, clergy, and the Queen, Margaret was executed. She lay sandwiched between a rock and a wooden slab while weights were dropped upon her, crushing her to death. She did not cry out but prayed "Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, have mercy upon me. She died at age 30.

Move by her saintly life, all her children entered the religious life. Anne became a nun. Henry and William both became priests.

Elizabeth I never killed anyone ‘in the name of God’. Her attitude was that as long as someone believed in Christ as the saviour, the details of Christian worship shouldn’t really matter that much.
However, because Pope Pius V had issued an (aptly named) bull decreeing that Catholics who remained faithful to the ‘heretic’ Queen would be excommunicated, she was constantly subject to plots by Catholics at home and abroad.
Catholics were basically the Muslims of their day as far as England was concerned. They were a 5th column that plotted to kill Elizabeth and replace her with the foreign Mary Queen of Scots. Abroad, Catholic Powers such as Spain viewed the idea of invading and subjugating England as a Holy Crusade for their faith. Thus QEI was forced to deal with them as the threat which they genuinely constituted, despite the fact that she would have been quite willing to tolerate them if they had been willing to tolerate her, which thanks to the influence of the Vatican, they were not...

Elizabeth was a minor league butcher compared to her sister Bloody Mary

Actually, the numbers are fairly comparable. Victors get to write history, which is why you call Mary "Bloody" and Elizabeth a "minor league butcher".

Also, at least a few of those killed under Mary were objectively guilty of treason for their complicity in the Lady Jane Grey affair, although Mary tried and executed them on charges of heresy.

By contrast, under Elizabeth (and her father), merely being a Catholic could suffice to convict one of treason. My namesake, St. Edmund Campion, a Jesuit priest, protested at his trial that he was loyal to Queen Elizabeth in everything but religion, and did not support the Pope's call to overthrow her.

He was executed anyway.

Catholics were basically the Muslims of their day as far as England was concerned. They were a 5th column that plotted to kill Elizabeth and replace her with the foreign Mary Queen of Scots.

Except that practically *everyone* in England was a Catholic before the Reformation. The government forced people to change religion by law--which it had zero right to do. And in your mind this is the equivalent of Islamicization in a country that has been Christian for a could thousand years?

Bizarre analogy, my friend.

Absolutely false.

She executed people for attending Mass and for celebrating Mass.

Not only that, she imprisoned Protestants for attending their own worship services instead of following her official worship services.

Elizabeth's position was quite clear: unless someone adhered to the state-regulated church that she presided over they were a criminal.

decreeing that Catholics who remained faithful to the ‘heretic’ Queen

The concept of being "faithful" to a queen instead of to God is simply bizarre.

If the queen orders you to sin, you don't listen to her. Who is she, anyway?

Catholics were basically the Muslims of their day as far as England was concerned.

I'd say the Muslim-style party in the dispute would be the ones who crushed a mother to death with heavy stones for the "crime" of possessing a chalice and vestments.

It's very strange for someone who claims to be an American to defend a dictator who murdered people for worshipping as they pleased.

I wouldn't be caught dead defending Queen Mary's crimes - yet here you are making ridiculous, laughable excuses for "Good Queen Bess."

Did you miss the War of Independence?

Her attitude was that as long as someone believed in Christ as the saviour, the details of Christian worship shouldn’t really matter that much.

No, she didn't really care about the "details of Christian worship," as long as her subjects received communion at the hands of an Anglican priest once a year (with harsh taxes for those who refused), had nothing whatsoever to do with a Catholic priest upon pain of death or imprisonment, said nothing favorable about the Pope, had nothing to do with various forbidden Catholic practices, etc.

As long as you strictly toed the Anglican line and were an obedient member of the Church of England in all outward appearances, you could worship any way you want.

Sort of like how Henry Ford would sell you a Model T in any color you liked, as long as it was black.

replace her with the foreign Mary Queen of Scots

Mary Queen of Scots was so "foreign" that her son succeeded Elizabeth as King James I of England. She was also Elizabeth's cousin. That's "foreign"?

she would have been quite willing to tolerate them if they had been willing to tolerate her, which thanks to the influence of the Vatican, they were not

As I previously pointed out, my namesake protested in the Queen's own presence that he was loyal to her in all matters save religion. It did not save his life. The only real charge against him was that he was a functioning Catholic priest.

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