5th November 1605
"Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot."
Here are a couple of images of the Pope and Popery which illustrate part of British protestant folk lore about Roman Catholics.
Above: a late 19thc. illustration of John Bunyan's Giant Pope in his cave - from "The Pilgrim's Progress" (1678):
"In this light, therefore, he (Christian) came to the end of the valley. Now I saw in my dream, that at the end of this valley lay blood, bones, ashes, and mangled bodies of men, even of pilgrims that had gone this way formerly; and while I was musing what should be the reason, I espied a little before me a cave, where two giants, POPE and PAGAN, dwelt in old time; by whose power and tyranny the men whose bones, blood, and ashes, lay there, were cruelly put to death. But by this place Christian went without much danger, whereat I somewhat wondered; but I have learnt since, that PAGAN has been dead many a day; and as for the other, though he be yet alive, he is, by reason of age, and also of the many shrewd brushes that he met with in his younger days, grown so crazy and stiff in his joints, that he can now do little more than sit in his cave's mouth, grinning at pilgrims as they go by, and biting his nails because he cannot come at them."
Above: an anthopomorphic English pottery drinking cup depicting the Pope. It is in the Brighton Museum.
This is the same cup turned over for drinking.
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot."
Here are a couple of images of the Pope and Popery which illustrate part of British protestant folk lore about Roman Catholics.
Above: a late 19thc. illustration of John Bunyan's Giant Pope in his cave - from "The Pilgrim's Progress" (1678):
"In this light, therefore, he (Christian) came to the end of the valley. Now I saw in my dream, that at the end of this valley lay blood, bones, ashes, and mangled bodies of men, even of pilgrims that had gone this way formerly; and while I was musing what should be the reason, I espied a little before me a cave, where two giants, POPE and PAGAN, dwelt in old time; by whose power and tyranny the men whose bones, blood, and ashes, lay there, were cruelly put to death. But by this place Christian went without much danger, whereat I somewhat wondered; but I have learnt since, that PAGAN has been dead many a day; and as for the other, though he be yet alive, he is, by reason of age, and also of the many shrewd brushes that he met with in his younger days, grown so crazy and stiff in his joints, that he can now do little more than sit in his cave's mouth, grinning at pilgrims as they go by, and biting his nails because he cannot come at them."
Above: an anthopomorphic English pottery drinking cup depicting the Pope. It is in the Brighton Museum.
This is the same cup turned over for drinking.
posted by S W at
8:49 am
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