“A Scandalous Business”: A Clandestine Catholic Marriage in Early Modern England

This paper focuses on a case of contested recusant marriage in early modern England.  William Worthington, aCatholic gentleman, claimed that he had consummated a clandestine marital union with his coreligionist, Penelope Parkins.  Clandestinity was prominent among recusants because the illegality of Catholic practice often forced couples seeking church-sanctioned unions to marry secretly.  Parkins, however, denied that a match of any sort had occurred.  She also disputed Worthington’s assertion that intercourse had occurred.
In 1632 Worthington alleged before the King’s Bench that Lady Mary Parkins (Penelope's mother) and Father John Wakeman had forced Penelope to enter the English convent at Ghent against her will, despite Worthington’s prior “claim” to her.  He embarked upon a campaign to enlist the help of ecclesiastical and governmental authorities to invalidate Parkins’ religious vows and return her to England.  His publicizing of this private Catholic dispute was an unprecedented violation of the unspoken recusant etiquette governing such matters.  By bringing his case to the King, Worthington violated the Council of Trent’s declaration that Catholic ecclesiastical courts were to adjudicate all questions relating to Catholic marriages.  Worthington’s action scandalized beleaguered recusants because it placed Catholics’ safety in jeopardy. For conspiring to send Penelope to the cloister, the state could confiscate Lady Parkins's estate and execute Father Wakeman.

The Parkins/Worthington relationship offers a unique view of the “social side of the sacred.”  The case provides rare, detailed evidence of the legal difficulties Catholics encountered in regulating marriage and adjudicating disputed matches.  Furthermore, the case demonstrates that the seemingly arcane debates on canon law as it related to marriage in the unique situation of early modern English Catholicism—a “mission” church— held profound importance in the lives of ordinary believers, who could find themselves caught between competing governmental and religious claims to authority over the most intimate matters of their lives.