Lake And Questier Analysis

Summary of Lake and Questier

Peter Lake and Michael Questier’s contextualization of the Edmund Campion affair uses Elizabethan religion in terms of the public sphere to frame the event. The characterization of theological divides of the period as nuanced and performative argues against the theorization of sixteenth century Catholic practices as purely opposed to Elizabeth’s government. Lake and Questier instead posit that such interdenominational conflicts were actually a means of political exercise by various levels of society and served as a crucible for promoting and supporting governmental reform. By examining the various media of Catholic discourse as both subversive performance and political debate, the authors provide insight into the
Parliament in particular is uniquely noted as being both an institution of privacy in which business was conducted almost secretly, but simultaneously being something of the ultimate public forum for the discussion and implementation of new political ideology. However, the constraints of office and appearance often prevented individuals from open opposition of the Queen’s positions, which resulted in the need for participation in the public sphere by more subtle attempts to influence policy. This sort of activity was analogous to the sort of techniques employed by religious actors who disseminated their rhetoric in the hopes of effecting political reform. Thus, the tensions at court during this period ultimately prompted the growth of a public sphere in Elizabethan
A potential marriage between the Queen and the French Duke of Anjou was widely unpopular as it would have placed a Catholic monarch on the throne of Protestant England, as well as placing the state in a precarious relationship with the continent. Publication of John Stubb’s The Gaping Gulf illustrates many of these concerns and, more importantly to Lake and Questier, displays the type of rhetorical sensibility regarding national interests that would become typical of that seen in the emerging public sphere. The authors also point to Philip Sydney as another example of this sort of political behavior wherein individuals used public opinions and public forums to influence the institution. The responses to these actions by the government are also interesting in that they display a similar approach. Members of multiple religious persuasions from both the regime and the laity used the ideology of the public sphere to address areas of concern during the