ABSTRACT
On the cusp of a new reign, Catholic De Feria registers the liminal nature of the period leading up to the coronation of Elizabeth Tudor. The death of Queen Mary, the relative freedom of ‘the people,’ Elizabeth’s continued participation in traditional religion, and the apparent social and religious chaos wherein ‘nothing is certain’ aptly represent a state in-betwixt-and-in-between two cultural and religious epochs. A correlative of change, liminal periods enable individuals to examine and reconfigure existing social patterns and behaviors, creating alternate identities through the transposition and combination of normally distinct and relatively static cultural elements. As Victor Turner writes of liminal states, in fact, ‘undoing, dissolution, decomposition are accompanied by a process of growth, transformation, and the reformulation of old elements in new patterns.’2 The Count’s recognition (and fear) of the polyvocal nature of this liminal moment and the possibility of cultural transformation finds expression in the competing voices of conservative tradition, ‘pray for the Pope,’ and radical innovation ‘persecute the Catholics.’ Although such destabilizing periods threaten the social order, they also provide possibilities out of which social actors create new identities, practices, and relationships.3
