The sixteenth (and the coming seventeenth) century had been an incredibly bloody one for all of Europe.  The schism between Christian Catholicism and Christian Protestantism was a battle over power and souls.  The Catholic Church was a colossal international superpower. The Catholic Church had basically scared the hell out of protestants all over Europe, in particular in England. Notable events in recent memory for Guido Fawkes:

 

1555-1558, over the course of 3 years, Mary Tudor burns nearly 300 protestant heretics at the stake. Dies young.

1558 — Elizabeth I, Protestant, becomes Queen.

1569 — Mary Queen of Scots incites a massive Catholic Rebellion known as the “Northern Rising.”

1570 — The Pope excommunicates Elizabeth I, effectively giving her subjects the right to rebel against her authority.

1572 —  Henri of Navarre murdered. This is followed by the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre where many, many (thousands) of Hugonauts (French Protestants) were murdered.

1575 — Spanish Treasury goes bankrupt, Spanish troops pillage across Europe.

1588 — Spanish (Catholic) Armada meets its doom on the English coasts.

 

In short, Elizabeth I and all of English Protestantism were terrified of the Catholic Church, and not without basis. 

So Elizabeth responds with many, many repressive taxes on Catholics in England, namely:

 

1559 — Act of Supremacy and Act of Uniformity, basically a tax on being Catholic.
1562-3 —  A fine imposed for upholding the authority of the Pope.
1575 — restrictions on civil liberties of Catholics and a census for Catholics only.
1581 — huge fine if you miss four successive Protestant Sunday services.
1586 — New law effectively allowed the government to seize Catholic property.
1593 — New law: Catholics must stay within 5 miles of their homes

By 1603, when Elizabeth died and James I took the throne, Catholics in England had experienced nearly forty years of increasingly rigorous oppression.  Which is why Guy Fawkes, merely one man in a team of 13, felt it right and just to dig a tunnel under Parliament, fill it with gunpowder, and blow the whole thing up.  Until,of course, the lot of them realized they could just rent a room in Westminster and fill that up, which removes the whole problem of digging a tunnel.

Unfortunately for them, one of their number ratted them out and James I lived another day.

 

“Thirty-six barrels of gunpowder” doesn’t register too clearly to our 21st century ears, since most of us have long since stopped doing business in barrels (except Lowell Stein Club), and fewer still of us have recently singed our beards firing an arquebus.  Lucky for you, I read a book about it:

 

In 2003, the Institute of Physics in London asked scientists at the University of Aberystwyth Centre for Explosion Studies to estimate the probable effects of detonating thirty-six barrels of gun powder. The exercise, as the scientists made clear, had to be an approximate one. Translating thirty-six barrels of gunpowder into an exact weight is difficult, as is making any definite comparison between seventeenth-century gunpowder and modern explosives. The Aberystwyth team estimated that the amount of explosives would be about 5,000lb, and decided, admittedly constructing a worst-case scenario, to assume that the gunpowder used by the plotters would have a force equivalent to that of TNT. On this basis, they calculated that Fawkes, if successful in his mission, would have caused structural damage within a radius of 500 yards. All buildings within forty yards would have been destroyed, roofs and walls within a 100-yard radius would have collapsed, and even at 900 yards some windows would have been broken.  The Palace of Westminster, Westminster Hall, Westminster Abbey, and the surrounding streets would have been obliterated. (Sharpe, 7)

 

This is what a radius of 500 yard radius (approximately) looks like according to “NukeMap” (green circle):

 

Guido Fawkes was a tall, powerfully built man who was, by all accounts, a gentleman.  He had served as a “gentleman-ranker” in the Catholic Counter-Reformation armies attempting to squash the Protestant Dutch rebels in the Netherlands. He was liked by everyone (even the King he tried to murder) for his intelligence, his bravery, his loyalty to his friends, and he was known in particular for his artistic expertise with the medium of gunpowder. We might say he was not unlike Sarah June. Fawkes was upset as all getup with the Protestant (Anglican) oppression of Catholics in England. But why would he do this unspeakable act? What oppression was he facing? Who are the good guys in this early act of terrorism? Why do we root for the terrorists in Star Wars? How do we remember Guy Fawkes today?  How did he become a hero? How has the meaning of this movie changed since the January 6th Insurrection?

 

To get answers to these questions, I suggest that those of you bookworms who aren’t busy lucuburating towards some deadline take some time to get a real education. Tonight is the night to watch V for Vendetta (2005), a movie that is quintessentially Lowellian to its core: 1) the movie stars Lowell alumna and former Star Wars queen Natalie Portman (seriously, ask Beth Terry), 2) the movie features Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, 3) the plot centers around the effort to–I kid you not–blow up a bell tower and 4) it highlights the core value (which Lowell has a long history of participating in) of actively resisting and overthrowing tyranny in the name of justice, which is a good lesson to remind your Faculty Deans of (#DaVidLaibson).

 

So if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then someone should screen V for Vendetta tonight (because I can’t do it because I live in Indiana right now but I will be there in spirit), and together we shall give them a Fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgot.