Preview: The 420th Anniversary of The Gunpowder Plot

Why do people in England still "Remember, remember, the fifth of November?" Why do they still shoot off fireworks and light up bonfires? This year is the 420th anniversary of the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot--that's almost 14 generations ago! We'll discuss these issues in our 2025 Anniversary Series on the Son Rise Morning Show on Monday, November 17. 

I'll be on at my usual time, about 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central to discuss this anniversary and its importance. Please listen live here or catch the podcast later here.

Of course, it was a fiendish, horrible, and murderous plot! Blow up Parliament with King James VI and his family and the members of Parliament, kidnap the Princess Elizabeth to make her a figurehead monarch, orchestrate a violent uprising to overthrow the government! Who knows how horrible it could have been? Well, we do know as the French Revolution offers us an example. So yes, in some way there is "no reason/Why the Gunpowder treason/Should ever be forgot!"

One of the lessons, however, of the context of the Gunpowder Plot was highlighted by Father Paolo Molinari, S.J., postulator of the cause of 40 Martyrs of England and Wales 55 years ago: the government of England was forcing religious compliance and church attendance: it was violating its subjects' freedom of conscience. How many bonfire night celebrators in England on November Fifth today accept that? Even in Lewes and other parts of Sussex, where there are still wild celebrations of Bonfire Night?

Until 1859 the Church of England remembered the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot in the liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer, expressed as God's protection of the Church of England against the "Church of Rome"! The Act establishing the commemoration required attendance:

II. Be it therefore enacted by the King’s most excellent majesty, the lords spiritual and temporal, and the commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That all and singular ministers in every cathedral and parish church, or other usual place for common prayer, within this realm of England and the dominions of the same, shall always upon the fifth day of November say morning prayer, and give unto Almighty God thanks for this most happy deliverance: (2) and that all and every person and persons inhabiting within this realm of England and the dominions of the same, shall always upon that day diligently and faithfully resort to the parish church or chapel accustomed, or to some usual church or chapel where the said morning prayer, preaching, or other service of God shall be used, and then and there to abide orderly and soberly during the time of the said prayers, preaching, or other service of God there to be used and ministred.

III. And because all and every person may be put in mind of this duty, and be then better prepared to the said holy service, be it enacted by authority aforesaid, That every minister shall give warning to his parishioners publickly in the church at morning prayer, the Sunday before every such fifth day of November, for the due observation of the said day; and that after morning prayer or preaching upon the said fifth day of November, they read publickly, distinctly and plainly this present act.

There were no penalties, however, for not attending, because the remembrance did not replace the regularly scheduled Sunday liturgy, when there were penalties.

Since like some other holidays, officially recognized or not, some of the cultural, historical, and religious significance of the Fifth of November/Bonfire Night has deteriorated and in most parts of the country it's just a party with fireworks--with concerns every year about dogs being scared or humans with PTSD being affected--what about the tradition of burning the Pope (Saint Paul V) in effigy--or any living or dead figure? 

The BBC reported some of the trouble at this year's Bonfire Night in Lewes (Loo-is) with the comment: "Sussex Police said the Lewes Bonfire event was "both unique and challenging"." With 40,000 people in the streets, bonfires and torches being lit, etc., only seven going to hospital and a few arrests isn't that bad. 

But there's a spirit of disorder and anarchy in the celebration even in Lewes which not only recalls the discovery of Guy Fawkes checking on the explosives under Parliament and the Protestant martyrs executed there during the reign of Mary I, as this commentary notes: "Elsewhere, people might say it’s a tricky occasion to parse from the outside: full of fire and hollering, vaguely Pagan, expansively anti-establishment, sometimes intimidating in press photos — more so than it is in real life" and still very anti-Catholic, because "(Pope Paul V, the leader of the Catholic church during the Gunpowder Plot, remains a popular effigy today, and gets blown up in Lewes most years; some bonfire societies still march beneath signs reading ‘No Popery’)"! At least the Lewes Bonfire nights remain a localized celebration: "trains from London won’t stop at the stations nearest to Lewes, and roads in the vicinity will close" every year.

Can you imagine Catholics marching on May 4 near the site of Tyburn Tree burning Henry VIII, the head and governor of the Church of England at the time, in effigy while remembering the protomartyrs of 1535? Or, even more congruently, of James VI while remembering Saint Nicholas Owen, tortured to death, Saint Thomas Garnet, and Blesseds Edward Oldcorne and Ralph Ashley, martyred in 1606 and 1607? Of course you can't. Catholics in England wouldn't do it and shouldn't do it. As Father Paolo Molinari, S.J also emphasized in his article about the Canonization of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales: "Right from the first announcement of the Re-opening of the Cause of the 40 Martyrs, decreed by Pope John XXIII on 24 May 1961, the Hierarchy of England and Wales let it be clearly understood that nothing was further from the intentions of the Bishops than to stir up bad feelings and quarrels of the past."

I wonder what it's like to be a Catholic in Lewes on Bonfire Night. Here's a story about how the consecration of Saint Pancras Catholic Church was greeted in the 19th century (not well!):

When the Church was opened, there was a crowd estimated at between 2000 and 3000, reaching some distance above Ireland’s Lane and down below The Pelham Arms, the pavements and road being completely lined with people who were singing bonfire songs, howling and jeering. Then some of the bonfire boys were let out of a window of The Pelham Arms into the passage between the latter and the Church, and made such a disturbance that scarcely anything could be heard, and the service was brought to a rather abrupt conclusion. . . .

As a result of the disturbance in the passage, eight persons were arrested and sentenced to six weeks imprisonment each, the Magistrates threatening to take away the licence of The Pelham Arms, which used to be the meeting place of the Borough Bonfire Society, which is now the Brewers’ Arms. After this came a comparative calm, only the door now and then being sharply rapped and the windows in the front of the Church broken by stones until they were covered by wire . . .

These are just some reflections on how we remember history and how we commemorate or celebrate certain events. I look forward to discussing them with Matt or Anna on Monday and of learning what you think about them!

Pope Saint Pius V, pray for us!

Holy Catholic Martyrs of England and Wales, pray for us!