The New Appeal

The first appeal was a comprehensive failure, but this did not mean that Blackwell’s and the Society’s critics simply gave up. The arguably unwise labelling of them as schismatics, and the suspension of several of the archpriest’s opponents, triggered a new appeal which, for complex political reasons, had the support of the French monarchy and of intellectuals in the Sorbonne. It also had the backing of figures inside the late Elizabethan regime, notably Richard Bancroft. This was the period which saw the publication of the principal texts of the controversy. Some of the appellants’ pamphlets were published on a royal press. The assistance rendered to these Catholics produced fury among those who regarded it as evidence of a popish conspiracy inside the regime. The new appeal was heard in Rome during 1602.