tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21432259.post1278266155532148843..comments2023-09-07T18:57:41.344+01:00Comments on Early Modern Whale: Lucky to have got there in one piece: Sir John Davies, PangbourneDrRoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01351695058512676554noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21432259.post-85579422427929025702009-08-23T11:43:58.296+01:002009-08-23T11:43:58.296+01:00Thank you for this (I have been away this last wee...Thank you for this (I have been away this last week). I guess it was normal for the age to have inner allegiances in faith which you kept quiet about. They cannot have been that strong in Davis: he would not have worked with Essex, militantly Protestant, and I suppose a devout Catholic would never have been happy with astrology. On the other point, 'confessing' witches did get away with their imaginary crime, and that's perhaps another part of the analogy with our man here.DrRoyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01351695058512676554noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21432259.post-5101296919872584102009-08-14T21:51:02.212+01:002009-08-14T21:51:02.212+01:00Interesting! The part where Davies is a surviving ...Interesting! The part where Davies is a surviving conspirator of the Essex rebellion reminds me somewhat of the way the then-Catholic Ben Jonson kept surviving all of the accusations against him, including the Gunpowder Plot allegations.<br /><br />Regarding the question of Davies' religion, I'm always a little torn on how much to believe in confessions (I want to say "confessions" with ironic quotation marks), even when there are corroborting reports as there are here of Davies' Catholicism. It seems to me that in that climate accusing him of Catholicism would be roughly comparable to accusing a woman of witchcraft, with similar odds of obtaining a confession, and the fact that he didn't by some other evidence appear to be Catholic before or after supports that.<br /><br />(I'm also reminded of the Roderigo Lopez case, where Lopez apparently never confessed but many people still consider the fact that he was tried and condemned as proof that he was secretly Jewish.)<br /><br />On the other hand, ignoring the evidence we <i>do</i> have is so arbitrary....Jenniferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09075041892999096779noreply@blogger.com