Recusancy
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Recusancy was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation.
William Shakespeare came from a family background of English Catholic recusants.
John Donne
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John Donne was an English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a cleric in the Church of England. Under royal patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's Cat
Recusancy
…children were raised in the Catholic faith. Three daughters entered convents on the continent and a son attended a seminary in Douai. The Jacobean poet John Donne was another notable Englishman born into a recusant Catholic family. He later, however, authored two Protestant-leaning writings and, at the behest of…
Portrait by Isaac Oliver, 1616
Part of the house where Donne lived in Pyrford
The memorial to John Donne, St Paul's Cathedral
John Donne Memorial by Nigel Boonham, 2012, St Paul's Cathedral Churchyard