I agree with you. My point was that, having been the faith of their families for generations, it was not a matter of giving it up and becoming Anglican, like turning off a light switch. There must have been many who still, to some degree or in some small way, kept a toehold on Catholicism. But so many people seem to think it was more like "today I'm Catholic, tomorrow I'll be Anglican." I'm sure there were a lot of shades of grey in there. Nancy ------- I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days. --Daniel Boone On Jan 16, 2007, at 2:17 AM, [log in to unmask] wrote: > "Sunshine49" [log in to unmask] writes > > <<I just finished reading William Kelso's newest book on the recent > James > Fort discoveries, and he said that with one exception, every > religious relic they > there found was Catholic. So while these first colonists may have been > Anglican, they plainly still harbored Catholic feelings as well. > They were not > Puritanical religious zealots. Obviously, their religion was rather > ambiguous. Or > flexible.>> > > It's worth pointing out that the Church of England in 1607 was only > 75 years > old and Henry, had not initially sought to establish a Protestant > church per > se but rather, an autonomous Anglo-Catholic church independent of the > jurisdiction of the Church of Rome. It was more of a political than > a theological break > initially and it took several decades for the church to evolve into > a more > "Protestant" / Reformation inspired form. Even then, the "Reforms" > were more > focused on forms of worship / the prayer book / macro-theological > issues and > organizational structure rather than the ritual and accoutrements > of the Mass or > articles of personal devotion. > > Even Elizabeth I, as the restorer of English Protestantism after > the brief > reign of her Catholic older sister, had a crucifix on her altar, as > is pointed > out in this ca. 1997 APVA report on the James Fort excavations, > which reports > on some of the Catholic artifacts found > http://www.apva.org/pubs/97report.pdf > > This article also notes that three German glassmakers who came to > Jamestown > in 1608 may have come from a Catholic area of Germany and there was > an Irish > Catholic there for one year in the early days. > > So, it's hard to extrapolate from these artifacts that the majority > of the > Anglican colonists of Jamestown may have harbored "Catholic" > feelings in the > sense of loyalities to the Roman Catholic church. These artifacts > might indeed > have been owned by the handful of actual Roman Catholics in the > colony. > > However, if they were owned by members of the Church of England, > neither a > crucifix nor a rosary would have been a personal possession > inconsistent with > mainstream Anglican practice in those days, as the established > Church was, and > remains to this day, a great deal more "catholic" (with a small > "c") than the > various sects of dissenters, including the Puritans who dominated > the colony at > Plymouth. > > My 2 cents, > > Kathryn Coombs > a "whiskey-palian" from King George, VA > > > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the > instructions > at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html