Stoker and Catholicism

In Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, the protagonists use a wide range of weapons to fight the vampire menace plaguing London. The weapons range from garlic and rose branches to crucifixes and holy wafers. By giving Catholic artifacts as much power over the undead as superstitious artifacts, Stoker equates Catholicism to superstition. Throughout English history Catholicism and Protestantism have been at odds with each other. Dracula was originally published in 1897, only 68 years after the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829, which emancipated Catholics throughout the United Kingdom and repealed laws which required Catholics to swear allegiance to the crown and prevented them from being elected to parliament (Roman Catholic Relief Act 8).

Since the famous split between Catholic Church and England led by King Henry VIII, there has been much tension between Protestants and Catholics within Great Britain. Queen Mary I, daughter of King Henry VIII, was originally removed from the line for the thrown by her brother, King Edward VI, due to her Catholic views; however, she took the thrown after his death. During Mary I’s reign she revived a law making it a crime “to believe in a different religion than the sovereign,” and burned around 300 Protestants in 3 years (Mary I). After the reign of Queen Mary, the Church of England was restored by her successor, Queen Elizabeth I. Along with the revival of the Church of England came “the arrival of Jesuits and Catholic ministers  from  the  European  continent…  coupled  with  a  national  anxiety  and  fear  of continental  Catholicism  and  the  papacy…  the  English  government  [began] persecutions  against Catholics” (Scott 6). Even today, “No Roman Catholic, nor anyone married to a Roman Catholic, [can] hold the English crown” according to the Act of Settlement passed in 1701. The split from the Catholic Church along with the retaliation of Queen Mary I led to distrust and enmity between Catholics and Protestants in England.

Throughout the novel, Stoker dances with the reader on the line between faith and superstition. Before Jonathan Harker leaves the inn for the Borgo Pass and, what is meant to be his final destination, Dracula’s castle, he is begged by the inn keeper’s wife not leave on St. George’s day, and given a crucifix for protection. Harker writes in his journal, “as an English Churchman, I have been taught to regard such things as in some measure idolatrous”, and in the same entry he notes that he is unsure whether his feeling of uneasiness stems from the strange traditions of the village or the crucifix (Stoker 4).  Later in the story, Van Helsing plans to place a rose branch on Dracula’s crate to prevent him from getting out. Similarly, while attempting to slay the vampire who had been Lucy, Van Helsing places clay containing a holy wafer around the door to prevent Lucy from getting into her tomb. In the Catholic faith, it is the believed that bread is turned into the body of Christ through transubstantiation. The rose and the holy wafer that is thought to be the body of Christ both have equal power over the vampires.

The history of Catholics in Great Britain is one full of enmity and persecution. Although the world is a different place today and tolerance is easier to come by, the tradition of distrust and tyranny of the majority can still be seen in England’s Act of Settle. Stoker’s Dracula is another reminder of the attitude towards Catholics that was so prevalent in his time. While Van Helsing discusses the the rose branch, he says “to superstition must we trust at first; it was man’s faith in the early, and it have it’s root in faith still” (Stoker 281). Perhaps Stoker believed that the Catholic ideology was applicable before, but felt that it was time for a more efficient form of Christianity, such as Protestantism.

Stoker, Bram. Dracula. London: Constable & Co., 1897. Print

Act Of Settlement. The Royal Household, 2008/09. Web. 18 November 2012.

http://www.royal.gov.uk/historyofthemonarchy/kingsandqueensoftheunitedkingdom/thestuart                s/maryiiwilliamiiiandtheactofsettlement/theactofsettlement.aspx

Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829. National Archives, n.d. Web. 18 November 2012.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo4/10/7/contents

 Mary I. The Royal Household, 2008/09. Web. 18 November 2012.

http://www.royal.gov.uk/historyofthemonarchy/kingsandqueensofengland/thetudors/maryi.aspx  

Scott, Mitchell. “The Marian and Elizabethan Persecutions: How England Was Prepared for Persecution

and Defended From Martyrdom.” Diss. U of Louisville, 2002. Web. 18 November 2012.

http://digital.library.louisville.edu/utils/getfile/collection/etd/id/569/filename/570.pdf