GIACOMO DI CASCOLI - GIACOMO I, KING OF ENGLAND
Catholicism. In fact, whenever attempts were made to find a modus vivendi between the two faiths, they were followed by abrupt anti-Catholic manifestations as soon as the Catholics seemed to gain ground. A vast conspiracy known as the “Gunpowder Plot,” aimed at a Catholic restoration (1605), was crushed with the execution of all the conspirators. Motivated by aspirations for religious peace in Europe, his foreign policy also constantly wavered between various unpopular approaches toward Catholic powers and interventions in support of the Dutch Protestants.
Cultured, fond of letters, ecclesiastical controversies, and magic rather than the care of public affairs, he published numerous writings, among which some treatises defending his religious policy and especially the spiritual supremacy of the king and queen—which Catholics were required to swear to recognize—are particularly well known. Among his opponents worthy of mention are Cardinal R. Bellarmine, Father R. Persons, and Father F. Suárez. His regal absolutism resulted, as a consequence, in the persecution of Catholics, many of whom died in prison or on the scaffold for refusing to acknowledge the spiritual supremacy that G. arrogated to himself.