The reason Shakespeare’s Catholicism is such an intriguing question is because of his context and time period. England during the reign of Elizabeth I and King James I was a Protestant police state. For a priest to say Mass was a capital offense. You had to attend the state church. Attendance was taken and fines and deprivation and finally imprisonment, possibly torture and death would follow. To shield or hide a priest was treason. You could be executed and many were.
