Why resist pigeonholing Shakespeare and his religious allegiances? (Dr. Gillian Woods)
Sometimes people debate Shakespeare’s religious allegiances as if cheering for a favorite football team. It can seem as if some secret truth about his religious beliefs is more important to them than the richness of the plays and poems. Instead of asking which team he was on, we might wonder if, at heart, he was perhaps a kind of "free agent," free to admire certain things in a variety of traditions, while passing as an obedient Protestant? It's true that Shakespeare was much more sympathetic in his portrayal of Catholic elements in his plays than many of his contemporaries, but this alone does not prove he was secretly Catholic. England had flip-flopped from Catholic to Protestant under Henry VIII and his son, then back to Catholic under Mary I, then to Protestant again under Elizabeth. Maybe Shakespeare embraced certain values in Christianity, but wanted to hedge his bets, since Catholics (and others) in England were being persecuted for being too outspoken on religion....