The reintroduction of Roman Catholicism in this country has had something of a troubled path as this Thomas Parr Staffordshire pottery ‘No Popery’ group depicts.
On the face of it the scene looks benign and like the kneeling monk is beseeching the maid to do the right thing, but what is the right thing?
The maids purse only has the residue of its original caption, but would have read ‘£10,000’ and was based on an anti – Catholic cartoon, called The Kidnapper that first appeared in Punch in March 1851, it shows the priest offering a veil in return for the cash, a very anti-Catholic response to the Pope granting English territory to his Bishops.
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