0:00:05 > 0:00:09400 years ago, throughout the summer of 1605,
0:00:09 > 0:00:11a group of men spent their nights
0:00:11 > 0:00:13rowing back and forth across this river.
0:00:17 > 0:00:21They were religious extremists intent on carnage.
0:00:24 > 0:00:28What they were doing was transporting barrels of gunpowder
0:00:28 > 0:00:31from a house further down the Thames up to the Houses of Parliament.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36Their aim was to blow up the building and with it the King,
0:00:36 > 0:00:40his family, the nobility, the bishops, the MPs.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42In effect the entire English establishment.
0:00:46 > 0:00:50It's what we all know as the Gunpowder Plot.
0:00:50 > 0:00:52And in the end it failed.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55POLICE SIRENS
0:00:55 > 0:00:58On the 5th November, Guy Fawkes was discovered by guards,
0:00:58 > 0:01:02in a vault below the House of Lords, about to light the touchpaper.
0:01:10 > 0:01:14This conspiracy had the potential for destruction on a 9/11 scale.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17Now these men would be seen as terrorists.
0:01:17 > 0:01:19They were the Al Qaeda of their day.
0:01:19 > 0:01:20Catholics.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24And their conspiracy remains one of the greatest threats
0:01:24 > 0:01:26to state security in English history.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33We've never forgotten Guy Fawkes.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36We remember, remember the 5th November.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38But this episode clashes
0:01:38 > 0:01:42with everything the English think about themselves.
0:01:44 > 0:01:46The English have a rooted belief
0:01:46 > 0:01:49that they have a long and glorious tradition of tolerance.
0:01:49 > 0:01:54Multi faith, multi ethnic, everybody welcome here.
0:01:56 > 0:02:00But Guy Fawkes night is certainly not about live and let live.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04It's the symbolic enactment of burning a Roman Catholic,
0:02:04 > 0:02:06Guy Fawkes.
0:02:06 > 0:02:07It's a memory of a time
0:02:07 > 0:02:11when this nation was one of the least tolerant in the world.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20In this series, I'm examining English identity.
0:02:20 > 0:02:22What it is.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24And how it's changed through time.
0:02:28 > 0:02:29In this programme,
0:02:29 > 0:02:33I'll be tracing the English attitude towards tolerance.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37Looking at how they've treated those they've regarded as different.
0:02:40 > 0:02:44And I'll reveal there's been a profound transformation.
0:02:44 > 0:02:49The English have gone from being religious persecutors,
0:02:49 > 0:02:53to pioneers of freedom of belief.
0:02:53 > 0:02:57Some might argue this change was inevitable.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00As religion lost its grip on society.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03And secular ideals took hold.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06So the English became more civilised,
0:03:06 > 0:03:09more tolerant.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11I disagree.
0:03:15 > 0:03:17I believe the root of English toleration
0:03:17 > 0:03:20is to be found in its Christian history.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27But this is no simple story of love thy neighbour.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33It's been a journey of accident rather than design.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38It's often the fears of the English Church
0:03:38 > 0:03:40which have paved the way
0:03:40 > 0:03:43for toleration of different cultures and beliefs.
0:03:45 > 0:03:50This is the story of how the English discovered liberty and tolerance.
0:03:50 > 0:03:55And the remarkable role the church played in it all.
0:04:18 > 0:04:22Every year people flock to Britain to start a new life.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27One of the things this country does really well
0:04:27 > 0:04:29is to invent brand new rituals.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32And one of the latest is a citizenship ceremony,
0:04:32 > 0:04:35which is for those who want to settle here.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38And I've come to Camden Town Hall just to see how it's done.
0:04:48 > 0:04:53Could those becoming citizens please get together their photo ID
0:04:53 > 0:04:54and their invitation letter.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58In these ceremonies, about 200,000 immigrants a year
0:04:58 > 0:05:02swear their loyalty to the UK.
0:05:02 > 0:05:10SONG: "God Save the Queen"
0:05:10 > 0:05:13But I want to know what it is about England in particular
0:05:13 > 0:05:15that attracts them.
0:05:15 > 0:05:19SONG: "God Save the Queen"
0:05:19 > 0:05:21I came from Philippines,
0:05:21 > 0:05:25and the freedom of speech in our country is a bit limited.
0:05:25 > 0:05:30Erm, unlike in England where you can voice out your own opinions freely.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34I belong to a minority Muslim community
0:05:34 > 0:05:39it's in minority in Pakistan, and there's a lot of persecution against
0:05:39 > 0:05:44the community as such. We're not very free to practice the religion.
0:05:44 > 0:05:48And I think one of the things that I absolutely love about this country
0:05:48 > 0:05:53is that I feel free to do whatever I want to do.
0:05:57 > 0:06:02What these folk think they'll find is an indifference to difference.
0:06:02 > 0:06:04Room to be themselves.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09England's reputation for tolerance
0:06:09 > 0:06:11is something the nation prides itself on.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17But before the English get too pleased with themselves,
0:06:17 > 0:06:19behind this modern day story
0:06:19 > 0:06:22of freedom and individual self expression,
0:06:22 > 0:06:25there is a rather more discreditable tale.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29The English once did persecution and intolerance
0:06:29 > 0:06:32in a way which would make any modern dictator proud.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41Yet, curiously, it was often strands from this dubious past,
0:06:41 > 0:06:46which prompted the English to discover tolerance.
0:06:47 > 0:06:52And at the heart of that change was the Christian church.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02In the City Of London there are traces of one of the first
0:07:02 > 0:07:05groups to experience persecution in England.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14These street names date to 1070.
0:07:15 > 0:07:19When William the Conqueror first brought Jews here, from Normandy.
0:07:20 > 0:07:22With a single purpose.
0:07:22 > 0:07:23Moneylending.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28This was a time when Medieval England
0:07:28 > 0:07:30was a proudly Catholic nation.
0:07:30 > 0:07:32But the Catholic church insisted
0:07:32 > 0:07:35that lending money at interest was a sin.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39And since everyone in England was Catholic, that was a problem.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43So it was a stroke of financial genius on the part of King William,
0:07:43 > 0:07:46to import a set of non-Christians to do the money lending.
0:07:46 > 0:07:50After all, what's it matter if Jews do the sinning.
0:07:53 > 0:07:55But money lenders are never popular.
0:07:55 > 0:08:00And in less than a century things would turn poisonous.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16Anti-Jewish feeling in England can be traced back
0:08:16 > 0:08:18to the story of an horrific murder.
0:08:27 > 0:08:32On Easter Saturday 1144, the dead body of a 12-year-old boy
0:08:32 > 0:08:35was found here.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41He was gagged and half naked.
0:08:45 > 0:08:47His name was William.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50And he'd been missing since the previous Tuesday.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53Over the Easter weekend people came out here from the city
0:08:53 > 0:08:55to gawp at the site of the killing.
0:08:55 > 0:08:57And soon the rumours started.
0:08:57 > 0:09:02Some of the family said that he'd been murdered by Jews.
0:09:02 > 0:09:03Well, that was horrific enough,
0:09:03 > 0:09:06but then came the story came that he'd been crucified
0:09:06 > 0:09:09in mockery of the death of Christ.
0:09:13 > 0:09:15The argument went that, if,
0:09:15 > 0:09:18as the Gospels claimed, the Jews had killed Jesus,
0:09:18 > 0:09:23then it was in their nature to kill a child in the same way.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28It was the start of a toxic Christian myth,
0:09:28 > 0:09:30known as The Blood Libel.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35A false accusation that the Jews murdered Christian children
0:09:35 > 0:09:39and used their blood in their own religious rituals.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46William was soon seen as a Saint.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50And his body was brought here to Norwich Cathedral.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56His shrine has long disappeared.
0:09:56 > 0:09:59But I've come here to meet the historian, Miri Rubin,
0:09:59 > 0:10:02to discuss why the Jews were blamed for his murder.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08Did the Jews really kill little William of Norwich?
0:10:08 > 0:10:12No, and we have absolutely no evidence from the period
0:10:12 > 0:10:14that's at all reliable to suggest so.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17So why do the Jews get the blame for it?
0:10:17 > 0:10:19Well, just like we know from our own times,
0:10:19 > 0:10:23a child disappears, a child dies, it's absolutely appalling.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25You look to blame people.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28Families tend not to look at themselves,
0:10:28 > 0:10:32but rather to seek someone already thought to be evil
0:10:32 > 0:10:35or different or other.
0:10:35 > 0:10:39And the Jews are the only religious minority in England.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42So they're, you know, the typical sort of outsider group
0:10:42 > 0:10:46in whose houses one can imagine appalling things happening.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49So what were the consequences for the Jews of England?
0:10:49 > 0:10:52Well, the story had a real afterlife
0:10:52 > 0:10:56and very soon, indeed the second half of the 12th century
0:10:56 > 0:11:00we have a number of copycat cases, really, where it was rumoured
0:11:00 > 0:11:04that Jews might have been involved in the killings of little children,
0:11:04 > 0:11:06usually boys.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09We know also that in 1255 in Lincoln
0:11:09 > 0:11:16such an accusation unfolds fully whereby Jews of the city are accused,
0:11:16 > 0:11:19they're arrested and ultimately executed.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22So over a century of the aftermath of Norwich, really,
0:11:22 > 0:11:27this becomes a very powerful, well known, resonant narrative
0:11:27 > 0:11:30about Jews and what they might do to Christians.
0:11:35 > 0:11:39The English had set in motion a devastating rumour.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43Which spread across Europe.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47Triggering pogroms and massacres of Jews.
0:11:47 > 0:11:52And not just in the medieval period.
0:11:55 > 0:11:57In 21st century England
0:11:57 > 0:12:01with its synagogues and flourishing Jewish communities,
0:12:01 > 0:12:04it's painful to acknowledge the English invention
0:12:04 > 0:12:06of this most poisonous of lies.
0:12:09 > 0:12:14The English ruthlessly used and then abused the Jews.
0:12:14 > 0:12:19In 1290 they expelled them altogether.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22The first kingdom to do so in all Europe.
0:12:24 > 0:12:26But it wasn't just the Jews.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29The medieval English church hounded anyone
0:12:29 > 0:12:31who resisted official doctrine.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38Heretics were forced to convert to the Catholic faith
0:12:38 > 0:12:41and if they resisted, they faced death.
0:12:45 > 0:12:47But what I find fascinating
0:12:47 > 0:12:50is what lay behind this systematic brutality.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57It's too simple to dismiss these medieval Christians
0:12:57 > 0:12:59just as sadists or bigots.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02There was a good reason for persecuting non believers.
0:13:04 > 0:13:06And it stemmed from a fear.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09A fear of hell.
0:13:20 > 0:13:26In the leafy suburbs of Surrey, in a church dating back over 800 years,
0:13:26 > 0:13:28you can still get a glimpse
0:13:28 > 0:13:33into the terrifying fate that the 13th century English believed
0:13:33 > 0:13:36was awaiting them after death.
0:13:36 > 0:13:40If they failed to live exemplary Christian lives.
0:13:48 > 0:13:50Paintings like this were the way
0:13:50 > 0:13:53that most Christians learned their Christianity
0:13:53 > 0:13:56because they couldn't read or write so pictures were everything.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59And this picture taught them their priorities.
0:14:04 > 0:14:06Look at the middle of it.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09We've got this quite narrow white band.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14Now that is the here and now.
0:14:14 > 0:14:17That's where you and I live.
0:14:17 > 0:14:19And everything else is the afterlife.
0:14:25 > 0:14:27Now also look, there's a ladder.
0:14:29 > 0:14:31It goes in two directions.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34And upwards it goes to a distant heaven.
0:14:37 > 0:14:43But downwards and look at those souls tumbling down, into hell.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50It was this fear of eternal pain in the afterlife
0:14:50 > 0:14:54which underlay English persecution of those who were different.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59If Jews, heretics or sinners failed to change their ways
0:14:59 > 0:15:03they would be damned forever.
0:15:05 > 0:15:07So medieval Christians argued
0:15:07 > 0:15:12that forcibly converting such deviants to true Christian faith
0:15:12 > 0:15:15was an act of compassion.
0:15:18 > 0:15:23We think that tolerance of all beliefs or none is a good thing.
0:15:23 > 0:15:25They thought it was wicked.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28You were preventing people getting to heaven.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31You were condemning them to hell.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34You were a murderer of souls.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43It's shocking to realise that for the first 1,000 years
0:15:43 > 0:15:47of English history what defined this nation was its intolerance
0:15:47 > 0:15:50of all who were different.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54Quite a contrast with this country today.
0:15:56 > 0:16:02But just as it was religious fear that sparked English persecution
0:16:02 > 0:16:07so it was fear that also fired the English to become more tolerant.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12And I'm heading to Italy to uncover why.
0:16:28 > 0:16:30Every Good Friday this quiet Italian town,
0:16:30 > 0:16:33is transformed by a unique religious ritual.
0:16:35 > 0:16:39Dating back at least 1,000 years.
0:16:41 > 0:16:45The ceremony gives us a glimpse of what Catholic England
0:16:45 > 0:16:50would've have looked and felt like 500 years ago.
0:16:57 > 0:16:59It begins outside the Cathedral.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03And everyone seems to have turned out.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07You couldn't imagine this happening in England could you?
0:17:07 > 0:17:09What's different, I think,
0:17:09 > 0:17:13is the way in which church has spilled out into the street
0:17:13 > 0:17:17and yet England was like that once.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22In the 15th century the English were extrovert, emotional,
0:17:22 > 0:17:24they had great processions in the street.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28This was England about 1480.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52Up until the 16th century to be English was to be Roman Catholic.
0:17:52 > 0:17:54Devoted to the Pope.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00But for many in secular England today, this Catholic pageantry
0:18:00 > 0:18:04comes from an alien and perhaps rather frightening world.
0:18:09 > 0:18:14All these hoods might suggest the stifling of free expression.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17The tyranny of Catholic belief.
0:18:23 > 0:18:27The received wisdom is that when the Catholic Church
0:18:27 > 0:18:29lost its grip on England,
0:18:29 > 0:18:33so more enlightened values began to flourish.
0:18:34 > 0:18:40That's when the English started to become a more tolerant nation.
0:18:40 > 0:18:44And this process is seen as beginning with the Reformation.
0:18:47 > 0:18:52In 1534 the Pope and Henry VIII fell out spectacularly.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57Over the annulment of Henry's first marriage.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02England was going to break with Rome.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05And all this Catholic drama would disappear as if it had never been.
0:19:05 > 0:19:10The statues destroyed, all the holy objects burnt.
0:19:10 > 0:19:15A thousand years of English history was going to be junked.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24I agree that this Reformation was a watershed.
0:19:24 > 0:19:29And that the English eventually did become more tolerant.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32But it had nothing to do with supposedly more noble,
0:19:32 > 0:19:34secular values.
0:19:34 > 0:19:36Quite the contrary.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40The road to tolerance is entirely tangled up with religion.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45The Protestant reformation actually unleashed a new religious fear.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48This time of Catholics.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53And the funny thing is that's what first pushed the English
0:19:53 > 0:19:56towards becoming a more tolerant people.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09Here at one of Henry VIII's favourite palaces,
0:20:09 > 0:20:13you can get a taste of just how this hatred of Catholicism began.
0:20:21 > 0:20:25In one of the corridors is a chillingly brutal image.
0:20:25 > 0:20:30Which set the tone for the next four centuries of English history.
0:20:35 > 0:20:37King Henry commissioned this picture
0:20:37 > 0:20:40soon after he'd been excommunicated by Pope Paul III,
0:20:40 > 0:20:45and it's a real distillation of his rage into an allegory.
0:20:45 > 0:20:47A set of symbols.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50The violence in this painting is extraordinary.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53There, the Pope is actually dying.
0:20:53 > 0:20:55He's being trampled underfoot.
0:20:55 > 0:20:57He's being stoned to death,
0:20:57 > 0:20:59but I think the most surprising,
0:20:59 > 0:21:03in fact, shocking aspect of the painting is that the stones
0:21:03 > 0:21:06with which the Pope is being killed are labelled.
0:21:07 > 0:21:10They're labelled with the names of the gospel writers.
0:21:11 > 0:21:13There's Matthew,
0:21:13 > 0:21:14Luke,
0:21:14 > 0:21:15Mark,
0:21:15 > 0:21:17and John.
0:21:19 > 0:21:25So, the weight of true religion is killing the enemy of God, the Pope.
0:21:30 > 0:21:32Early in Henry's reign,
0:21:32 > 0:21:35the Pope had honoured him as defender of the faith.
0:21:35 > 0:21:36The Catholic faith.
0:21:37 > 0:21:41This painting shows how far he'd strayed from that role.
0:21:45 > 0:21:49It was the first step in a process of demonisation of Catholics,
0:21:49 > 0:21:51which had far reaching consequences
0:21:51 > 0:21:55for the English journey towards toleration.
0:21:59 > 0:22:04Henry had broken with the Rome, but his son Edward opened the doors
0:22:04 > 0:22:07to Europe's new form of Christianity,
0:22:07 > 0:22:09Protestantism.
0:22:12 > 0:22:17But Edward died prematurely, at the age of 16,
0:22:17 > 0:22:19and his half sister, Mary, seized the throne.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26She was still a loyal Catholic.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29And enraged by Edward's Protestant Reformation,
0:22:29 > 0:22:33she launched a violent campaign of persecution.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40In three and a half years,
0:22:40 > 0:22:43she had over 300 Protestants executed for heresy.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52One man grasped the opportunity to record the atrocities.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59This is Fox's Book of Martyrs.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03A record of the burnings of Protestants.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09Which began to push the fear of Catholicism out of the palaces
0:23:09 > 0:23:13and into the parishes of England.
0:23:13 > 0:23:14The author of this book
0:23:14 > 0:23:16was John Fox, a Protestant clergyman
0:23:16 > 0:23:18who had to flee abroad under Queen Mary.
0:23:18 > 0:23:22While he was in exile, abroad, he started collecting stories
0:23:22 > 0:23:24of the people who work being burnt at that time.
0:23:25 > 0:23:29It became a bestseller, partly because of pictures like these.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36I think this is one of the most horrific.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41It's three people, and one of them is a pregnant woman.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47She's tied to the stake and she is giving birth,
0:23:47 > 0:23:52we know from the story that her baby was then thrown back into the fire.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01The stories of the burning martyrs
0:24:01 > 0:24:04fanned equal flames of Protestant hatred.
0:24:08 > 0:24:13Catholicism was shown as pitiless, tyrannous and cruel.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21When Mary died, England officially became Protestant once more,
0:24:21 > 0:24:24under Elizabeth I.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32Across the country, Fox's book was placed in churches,
0:24:32 > 0:24:35alongside the Bible and the book of Common prayer,
0:24:35 > 0:24:39by government order.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43Fear of Catholicism
0:24:43 > 0:24:47was beginning to seep into the national consciousness.
0:24:51 > 0:24:56The real nail in the Catholic Coffin came during Elizabeth's reign.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59When a papal order transformed them
0:24:59 > 0:25:02into full-blown enemies of the state.
0:25:14 > 0:25:19In 16th century England, this was a place of terror.
0:25:23 > 0:25:28In 1570, the Pope excommunicated Queen Elizabeth.
0:25:28 > 0:25:35Absolving English Catholics from any loyalty to her and her laws.
0:25:36 > 0:25:43It was a moment which cast ordinary Catholics as potential traitors.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47And this was where those accused of treason were held.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53Well, this is a prison cell,
0:25:53 > 0:25:56but as you can see it's quite a luxury prison cell.
0:25:56 > 0:25:58It's got a fireplace, it's got windows.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01That tells you straight away this was for high status prisoners,
0:26:01 > 0:26:02dangerous people.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06Attempted poisoners of the Queen, assassins.
0:26:09 > 0:26:14When you look closely at the walls, you can see Catholic inscriptions.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18Carved by those who were locked up here.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26Now, I think Catholics may well find this offensive and rightly so,
0:26:26 > 0:26:29but if I say the Elizabethan government thought of these
0:26:29 > 0:26:32people like Al Qaeda, they are terrorists.
0:26:32 > 0:26:36And they are the worst possible danger to the Crown.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42If a Catholic was held here under suspicion,
0:26:42 > 0:26:44he knew what fate awaited him.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47Interrogation, torture.
0:26:47 > 0:26:52And, at the end of it all, hanging, drawing and quartering.
0:26:52 > 0:26:57English suspicions of Catholic treachery were amply confirmed
0:26:57 > 0:27:00by conspiracies like The Gunpowder Plot.
0:27:02 > 0:27:04It was a dramatic turnaround,
0:27:04 > 0:27:07Henry VIII, Fox's Book of Martyrs,
0:27:07 > 0:27:10and the reign of Elizabeth had a devastating effect
0:27:10 > 0:27:13on how the English viewed Catholicism.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20Within a generation it changed
0:27:20 > 0:27:23from being the only religion tolerated in England,
0:27:23 > 0:27:25to being the religion of the devil.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34For the next 300 years, Catholics would be excluded
0:27:34 > 0:27:37from all positions of power,
0:27:37 > 0:27:40fined if they refuse to worship in Protestant churches,
0:27:40 > 0:27:43and often treated with the utmost suspicion.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51But here's the strange thing,
0:27:51 > 0:27:53it was this Protestant religious bigotry
0:27:53 > 0:27:57which first got the English seriously thinking about
0:27:57 > 0:27:59the very possibility of tolerance.
0:28:00 > 0:28:05And it all happened in the wake of a bloody religious conflict...
0:28:06 > 0:28:10..that ripped England apart.
0:28:21 > 0:28:26This building still bears witness to the reasons behind England's descent
0:28:26 > 0:28:30into civil war in 1642.
0:28:37 > 0:28:42The present Somerset House is essentially a very grand office block
0:28:42 > 0:28:44for 18th century civil servants,
0:28:44 > 0:28:49but its predecessor was a real Royal palace for the wives of kings.
0:28:51 > 0:28:55And below this great courtyard,
0:28:55 > 0:28:59one Stuart Queen in particular has left her mark.
0:29:18 > 0:29:20Now this is called the Dead House,
0:29:20 > 0:29:23because it's actually built over the site of a graveyard
0:29:23 > 0:29:28and some of the gravestones are still here, built into the walls.
0:29:28 > 0:29:33What strikes me straight away is that there is something very strange about this.
0:29:33 > 0:29:40This lady died in 1633 and yet she has a Catholic prayer for the dead.
0:29:40 > 0:29:42"Pray God for her soul."
0:29:42 > 0:29:46Now, it was illegal to practice your catholic faith
0:29:46 > 0:29:49in England at the time and yet here,
0:29:49 > 0:29:54are Catholic gravestones in a palace owned by a Protestant monarch.
0:29:59 > 0:30:00The King in question was Charles I.
0:30:00 > 0:30:05And it was his wife, Henrietta Maria,
0:30:05 > 0:30:07who caused these graves to be here.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17Henrietta Maria was a French Catholic and at her court,
0:30:17 > 0:30:20Roman Catholicism was openly practised.
0:30:20 > 0:30:23In 1630, she commissioned a Roman Catholic chapel
0:30:23 > 0:30:25to be built on this spot,
0:30:25 > 0:30:28the only one to have a legal existence in England at the time.
0:30:29 > 0:30:35Members of her household were buried here and these are the last traces.
0:30:38 > 0:30:42It was small concessions to Catholicism like these
0:30:42 > 0:30:45that ultimately cost Charles his life.
0:30:51 > 0:30:54The vast majority of Charles' subjects
0:30:54 > 0:30:57saw him as dangerously soft on Catholics.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01The gunpowder plot showed you couldn't trust Roman Catholics.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04Now, here was the king, not just married to one,
0:31:04 > 0:31:07but allowing her to practice her faith in public.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10All good Protestants snarled.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17And when Irish Catholics massacred Protestants in Ireland,
0:31:17 > 0:31:22these godly men, brought up on Fox's book of martyrs,
0:31:22 > 0:31:25wouldn't trust the King to put the rebellion down.
0:31:27 > 0:31:29So civil war broke out.
0:31:32 > 0:31:33Charles was defeated
0:31:33 > 0:31:39and put to death for endangering the Protestantism of this nation.
0:31:40 > 0:31:44Out of the chaos, one general, Oliver Cromwell,
0:31:44 > 0:31:46was left ruling these lands.
0:31:50 > 0:31:55Yet the war led the English to think the un-thinkable.
0:31:58 > 0:32:03It inadvertently opened up the first national debate about toleration.
0:32:06 > 0:32:11I met up with the historian Alexandra Walsham to talk about why.
0:32:14 > 0:32:16Alex, it's odd isn't it that this civil war period
0:32:16 > 0:32:20is the clash of opposing intolerant ideologies?
0:32:20 > 0:32:24And yet at the end of it all, we've got much more of an idea of toleration.
0:32:24 > 0:32:25How do we get to that?
0:32:25 > 0:32:29One of the consequences of the descent into civil war
0:32:29 > 0:32:34is the breakdown of control, the collapse of institutions
0:32:34 > 0:32:39that had been responsible for harassing and repressing
0:32:39 > 0:32:42religious dissenters in the past.
0:32:42 > 0:32:45And there's been a total collapse
0:32:45 > 0:32:49of the mechanisms of press censorship,
0:32:49 > 0:32:54and into the vacuum of power, has emerged a flood of radical sects
0:32:54 > 0:32:58that have begun to articulate ideas
0:32:58 > 0:33:04and to behave in ways that completely horrify their conservative contemporaries.
0:33:04 > 0:33:07Groups like the Quakers,
0:33:07 > 0:33:12who believe that the inner light that illuminates them
0:33:12 > 0:33:16is superior to the Bible and the groups such as the Ranters,
0:33:16 > 0:33:24whose view is that the moral law no longer applies to them.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27So they can say the un-sayable suddenly?
0:33:27 > 0:33:30And I guess this is exciting, isn't it?
0:33:30 > 0:33:36Absolutely yes, and it's in a sense that capacity for people
0:33:36 > 0:33:42to articulate new ideas that allows calls for toleration
0:33:42 > 0:33:46to be brought into the public domain.
0:33:46 > 0:33:48With all these horrifying opinions around,
0:33:48 > 0:33:51why would tolerance be considered a virtue?
0:33:51 > 0:33:55Toleration, of course, had hitherto been regarded
0:33:55 > 0:34:00as a recipe for social chaos, for political anarchy,
0:34:00 > 0:34:04but over time, people come to realise
0:34:04 > 0:34:08that the sky is not going to fall in
0:34:08 > 0:34:11and some people are coming round to the view that toleration
0:34:11 > 0:34:15may be a better solution to the problem of religious pluralism
0:34:15 > 0:34:21than the attempt to persecute religious dissent out of existence.
0:34:25 > 0:34:28The civil war had created a new climate.
0:34:29 > 0:34:31For the first time in their history,
0:34:31 > 0:34:36the English could openly voice ideas about tolerance.
0:34:37 > 0:34:42And the war also set another remarkable precedent.
0:34:50 > 0:34:54In 1657, this Jewish graveyard
0:34:54 > 0:34:57was opened on the orders of Oliver Cromwell...
0:34:58 > 0:35:01..following a radical decision.
0:35:02 > 0:35:05Against the advice of his closest councillors,
0:35:05 > 0:35:07he decided to re-admit the Jews
0:35:07 > 0:35:13and so they came back, after an absence of 366 years.
0:35:16 > 0:35:18It's a moment the English are proud of,
0:35:18 > 0:35:24their first step towards creating a multi-faith society.
0:35:26 > 0:35:31But it had little to do with an enlightened commitment to diversity
0:35:31 > 0:35:35and everything to do with Cromwell's obsessive Christian beliefs.
0:35:35 > 0:35:38He was convinced that the end of the world,
0:35:38 > 0:35:42the last days predicted in the Bible, were just around the corner.
0:35:42 > 0:35:45Jesus would come again, the wicked would be judged.
0:35:45 > 0:35:49But Cromwell also knew that one thing needed to be in place
0:35:49 > 0:35:52before the last days were ushered in.
0:35:54 > 0:35:58According to scripture, for Christ to come again,
0:35:58 > 0:36:02the Jews had to be living in all four corners of the world.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05And that included England.
0:36:07 > 0:36:11It was Cromwell's longing to speed up the return of Jesus
0:36:11 > 0:36:14which was behind his decision to let them back in,
0:36:14 > 0:36:18not a nice piece of Guardian-reading liberalism at all.
0:36:23 > 0:36:29The 17th century didn't just see the return of the Jews.
0:36:29 > 0:36:33Protestant dissenters, like Quakers, Baptists and Ranters,
0:36:33 > 0:36:34were now being heard.
0:36:34 > 0:36:37But they were still illegal.
0:36:37 > 0:36:43That was about to change in a great Act of Parliament,
0:36:43 > 0:36:46triggered once again by English terror of Catholics.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03Everybody behind the chains, please!
0:37:03 > 0:37:06Cromwell's Protestant rule had been short-lived,
0:37:06 > 0:37:08and in 1660, the monarchy was re-instated.
0:37:12 > 0:37:18In 1685, James II came to the throne.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21He was a convert to Catholicism
0:37:21 > 0:37:25and determined to improve the lot of English Catholics.
0:37:26 > 0:37:30What this meant in practice was that he began to introduce Catholics
0:37:30 > 0:37:35into the army and universities, after a century of exclusion.
0:37:35 > 0:37:38And he began to put his supporters into positions of power
0:37:38 > 0:37:40in local and national government.
0:37:40 > 0:37:45The obvious aim was equality for his fellow Catholics in national life.
0:37:50 > 0:37:56James really believed in religious toleration.
0:37:56 > 0:37:57In a remarkable speech,
0:37:57 > 0:38:01he said it made as little sense to hate people of differing Christian beliefs
0:38:01 > 0:38:03as it did to hate a black man.
0:38:05 > 0:38:09Anglicans fumed. He must be stopped.
0:38:15 > 0:38:19Politicians wrote to the Dutch Prince, William of Orange,
0:38:19 > 0:38:24Protestant son in law to James, asking him to intervene...
0:38:24 > 0:38:28..and save Protestant England.
0:38:38 > 0:38:42Five months later, their prayers were answered.
0:38:44 > 0:38:49A Dutch monarch invaded on these shores.
0:38:51 > 0:38:54It's become known as the Glorious Revolution.
0:38:57 > 0:38:59James II fled abroad.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04The Protestant hierarchy so hated Catholics,
0:39:04 > 0:39:08that they'd rather suffer a foreign invasion
0:39:08 > 0:39:11than have a home-grown Papist King.
0:39:11 > 0:39:16And this event had huge implications for Protestant dissenters,
0:39:16 > 0:39:20who'd eventually lent their support to this Anglican revolution.
0:39:21 > 0:39:24This was a moment of unity for all Protestants,
0:39:24 > 0:39:27Anglicans and dissenters alike.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30The dissenters demanded a reward.
0:39:30 > 0:39:34And what they got from the new King William and the new Queen Mary
0:39:34 > 0:39:39was a law finally legalising all Protestant denominations.
0:39:41 > 0:39:44It was known as The Act of Toleration.
0:39:46 > 0:39:50And the original is kept here, in the Parliamentary Archives.
0:39:51 > 0:39:57We have every Act of Parliament in here, dating from 1497.
0:39:58 > 0:40:03This was an act borne out of the sheer hunger of the Church of England,
0:40:03 > 0:40:07to cling to power in the face of a Catholic King.
0:40:11 > 0:40:14- Ah.- Here we are. Here's the Act of Toleration.
0:40:14 > 0:40:19- It's quite small. - Compared with some of them, yes. - Compared with some.
0:40:19 > 0:40:24- Yes, it's not one of our bigger ones.- Let's have a look at it.- OK.
0:40:26 > 0:40:32But while the motives behind the act were decidedly mixed...
0:40:32 > 0:40:34I'll just take the tie off for you.
0:40:34 > 0:40:39..It's always been hailed as a defining moment in the story of English tolerance.
0:40:40 > 0:40:44- OK, I'll leave you to have a look at that then.- Thank you,
0:40:44 > 0:40:47so we've got the title straight away, "An Act
0:40:47 > 0:40:51"for Exempting their Majesties' Protestant subjects
0:40:51 > 0:40:54"dissenting from the Church of England,
0:40:54 > 0:40:57"from the penalties of certain laws."
0:40:57 > 0:40:58Now, we open it up...
0:41:00 > 0:41:04Ah, now here you see the phrase, lovely phrase,
0:41:04 > 0:41:10"Some ease to scrupulous consciences in the exercise of religion."
0:41:10 > 0:41:14What this act is saying is that dissenting bodies,
0:41:14 > 0:41:17like Quakers or Baptists were no longer in any danger
0:41:17 > 0:41:20of going to prison for their beliefs and better than that,
0:41:20 > 0:41:23if they signed up to certain specified Christian beliefs,
0:41:23 > 0:41:27then they could worship freely in their own buildings.
0:41:27 > 0:41:31So this really does look like a very significant act of toleration.
0:41:33 > 0:41:35But looks can be deceiving.
0:41:36 > 0:41:40Many dissenters had wanted much more from the Anglicans.
0:41:40 > 0:41:44To be welcomed into a broad national church.
0:41:44 > 0:41:48All they got was grudging toleration.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51The right to their own places of worship.
0:41:52 > 0:41:57And there were many groups the Act failed to acknowledge at all.
0:42:00 > 0:42:02At the start of the 18th century,
0:42:02 > 0:42:05atheists, heretics and Catholics in England
0:42:05 > 0:42:09all still faced imprisonment for their beliefs.
0:42:13 > 0:42:17So what drove England's next move towards tolerance?
0:42:21 > 0:42:27Well, it was a tangle of motives. Greed, power and religion.
0:42:28 > 0:42:32God was still making the English.
0:42:39 > 0:42:42In 1707, Protestant England and Scotland
0:42:42 > 0:42:47united to create Great Britain.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50Together, they forged a world wide empire.
0:42:54 > 0:42:58And nothing brings back the memory of colonial expansion
0:42:58 > 0:43:01more than this, the trooping of the colour.
0:43:10 > 0:43:15This is extraordinary. Here I am on a cold, wet, June morning,
0:43:15 > 0:43:19watching some of the greatest pageantry that we do in this country.
0:43:19 > 0:43:24English, Imperial. What more could you want?
0:43:28 > 0:43:31The Empire's often seen as a symbol of intolerance
0:43:31 > 0:43:33of other cultures and beliefs.
0:43:35 > 0:43:38But, in fact, it was this Imperial expansion
0:43:38 > 0:43:43that saw the British embrace the idea of full scale religious freedom
0:43:43 > 0:43:45for the first time.
0:43:50 > 0:43:57For many British Christians, these newly conquered lands were the ideal hunting ground for conversions.
0:44:00 > 0:44:05When the British Empire expanded, the Church of England expected to expand too.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08There were lots of people ready to convert the world to Anglicanism.
0:44:08 > 0:44:10But it didn't work out like that.
0:44:14 > 0:44:18In fact, this mission to convert other nations to the Protestant faith was doomed to failure.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25And the British were forced yet further on the road
0:44:25 > 0:44:27to becoming a more tolerant nation.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32And the first to benefit, were those traitors to the state,
0:44:32 > 0:44:34the Catholics.
0:44:55 > 0:44:58There's no house that better encapsulates
0:44:58 > 0:45:01the fortunes of English Catholics than this one.
0:45:05 > 0:45:09Since 1409, it's been the home of the Throckmortons,
0:45:09 > 0:45:13one of the oldest Catholic families in England.
0:45:15 > 0:45:19And it's through this one family history that you can trace
0:45:19 > 0:45:23how Catholicism was re-integrated into English society.
0:45:30 > 0:45:34Before the Reformation, the Throckmortons were landed gentry,
0:45:34 > 0:45:40friends of kings. Then, in the Tudor age, many of them they refused to give up their Catholic faith
0:45:40 > 0:45:42and suddenly they were outcasts,
0:45:42 > 0:45:46frequent visitors to the Tower of London with some conspiracy or another,
0:45:46 > 0:45:50fatally involved with the Gunpowder plot.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54But in the 18th and 19th century, this family who'd been seen
0:45:54 > 0:45:57as religious terrorists were to be welcomed back
0:45:57 > 0:45:59into the English establishment.
0:46:12 > 0:46:16And here in the saloon is the evidence of that transformation
0:46:16 > 0:46:18and how it came about.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28Now here's a happy story. It's from the Times of 1831.
0:46:28 > 0:46:31And it's the result of the Berkshire election.
0:46:31 > 0:46:35And sir Robert Throckmorton, 8th Baronet, has just been elected MP.
0:46:35 > 0:46:41Now, for 250 years, no Roman Catholics had been allowed to take public office.
0:46:41 > 0:46:44But now Sir Robert took the oath of allegiance,
0:46:44 > 0:46:50and took his seat in the House of Commons, the First Roman Catholic since the Reformation.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58The family had gone from violent subversives
0:46:58 > 0:47:01back to members of the ruling elite.
0:47:01 > 0:47:03It was a remarkable turnaround.
0:47:06 > 0:47:10And the Throckmortons themselves had done much to make it happen.
0:47:13 > 0:47:17From the late 1700s, they'd lobbied to change the perceptions
0:47:17 > 0:47:19of the powers that be.
0:47:21 > 0:47:25They reassured anxious Protestant politicians
0:47:25 > 0:47:28that although Catholics listened to the Pope on matters of faith,
0:47:28 > 0:47:33there was no question that they were anything less than loyal subjects of the crown.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39So there was gentle political pressure at home,
0:47:39 > 0:47:44but just as important was the plain fact of the growth of the British Empire.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48First the British conquered Menorca in the Mediterranean, then Canada.
0:47:48 > 0:47:51Now the population of these places was solidly Roman Catholic
0:47:51 > 0:47:55but, more to the point, the ruling classes were Roman Catholic
0:47:55 > 0:47:57and they were not going to give up their religion without a fight.
0:47:57 > 0:47:59So the British had a plain choice.
0:47:59 > 0:48:04Either lose their conquests or tolerate Roman Catholicism.
0:48:04 > 0:48:07And, hey presto, they tolerated Roman Catholicism
0:48:07 > 0:48:10and religious freedom came to the British dominions
0:48:10 > 0:48:13for the first time.
0:48:15 > 0:48:19The Government might be happy to tolerate Catholics
0:48:19 > 0:48:22but what about the people?
0:48:22 > 0:48:26They'd been fiercely anti-Rome for as long as they could remember.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33It was the French Revolution that finally tipped the balance.
0:48:35 > 0:48:40Catholic refugees flooded into England to escape the guillotine.
0:48:42 > 0:48:44Pity replaced terror.
0:48:44 > 0:48:50The English now feared foreign revolution more than Catholic uprising.
0:48:52 > 0:48:57In 1792, Catholics were finally allowed to worship freely.
0:48:59 > 0:49:02And from 1829, they were once again able to take
0:49:02 > 0:49:04a full role in public life.
0:49:07 > 0:49:11Priest holes like this were at last redundant.
0:49:11 > 0:49:13Coughton Court, which had been a safe house
0:49:13 > 0:49:17for illegal Catholic missionaries in the time of Elizabeth,
0:49:17 > 0:49:20commandeered by Roundhead armies in the civil war,
0:49:20 > 0:49:25sacked by anti-Catholic rioters in the glorious revolution,
0:49:25 > 0:49:26could finally relax.
0:49:28 > 0:49:31It was a milestone.
0:49:31 > 0:49:33By the mid 19th century,
0:49:33 > 0:49:37the British could proudly claim to be tolerant of religious diversity.
0:49:37 > 0:49:42Well, Christian diversity anyway.
0:49:50 > 0:49:55The expansion of the British Empire didn't only challenge British ideas
0:49:55 > 0:49:58about toleration of Catholics.
0:49:58 > 0:50:01As the Protestant Brits arrived in India,
0:50:01 > 0:50:05they were greeted by an explosion of different religions.
0:50:07 > 0:50:12Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims seemed ripe for conversion.
0:50:12 > 0:50:15So in the early 19th century,
0:50:15 > 0:50:18missionaries descended on India in droves.
0:50:27 > 0:50:31The Honourable East India Company, the ruling British body in India,
0:50:31 > 0:50:35was the focus for much of this missionary activity.
0:50:44 > 0:50:46So we just take a sip?
0:50:46 > 0:50:50Nothing so vulgar as lifting it to your lips.
0:50:50 > 0:50:53'I met up with William Dalrymple for a tea tasting
0:50:53 > 0:50:58'from the sub-Continent, to discuss the effect of this clash of religions in India.'
0:51:02 > 0:51:06Well, the background to this is that by the early 19th century
0:51:06 > 0:51:08you were beginning to get missionaries turn up.
0:51:08 > 0:51:12And alongside that comes the notion that God has given
0:51:12 > 0:51:17the British their Empire in order that they can spread the one true religion,
0:51:17 > 0:51:19which, in their minds, is Protestant Anglicanism.
0:51:19 > 0:51:22So you're actually going to get something really rather disastrous
0:51:22 > 0:51:25happening out of this?
0:51:25 > 0:51:28Indeed something very disastrous does happen very quickly.
0:51:28 > 0:51:30It's this that angers Indians
0:51:30 > 0:51:32who are worried about forcible conversion,
0:51:32 > 0:51:34which is indeed being discussed
0:51:34 > 0:51:36among a small minority of extreme evangelicals.
0:51:36 > 0:51:39And you have the great explosion against that happening
0:51:39 > 0:51:43in 1857 at the uprising that we call here, in Britain, still,
0:51:43 > 0:51:49the Indian Mutiny, but which in India has long been known as the First War of Independence.
0:51:49 > 0:51:51So this is a religious war?
0:51:51 > 0:51:56Certainly in the main centres such as Delhi, the rhetoric is almost entirely religious.
0:51:56 > 0:52:01And what's most astonishing when you read the accounts of the padres and the regimental Chaplains,
0:52:01 > 0:52:05in 1857, is this astonishingly violent language they use.
0:52:05 > 0:52:09We, today, are brought to think Christianity as being a language of reconciliation
0:52:09 > 0:52:12and peace and brotherhood. In the 19th century, there's not a whiff of that.
0:52:12 > 0:52:16In 1857, Christianity's all about blood for blood
0:52:16 > 0:52:21And General Neil, who's this evangelical general,
0:52:21 > 0:52:24who's organising wholesale Christian genocide,
0:52:24 > 0:52:27saying that we must be God's avenging angels.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30And so Christianity's seen as a militant force
0:52:30 > 0:52:33and reflects a genuinely bloody
0:52:33 > 0:52:36Al-Qaeda/Old Testament vengeful God.
0:52:43 > 0:52:48The uprising of 1857 was a wake up call for the British.
0:52:50 > 0:52:53And the disastrous Christian mission to India
0:52:53 > 0:52:57had a huge and unexpected impact on the nation's official attitude
0:52:57 > 0:52:59to religious toleration.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13The government in India was instructed by Queen Victoria
0:53:13 > 0:53:15to abstain from any interference
0:53:15 > 0:53:20with the belief or worship of any of our subjects.
0:53:24 > 0:53:26And back home, it ushered in a new era
0:53:26 > 0:53:30of much greater acceptance of other faiths.
0:53:32 > 0:53:34Here at Brighton Pavilion,
0:53:34 > 0:53:38there's evidence of just how far-reaching that change was.
0:53:46 > 0:53:49The Pavilion is the famously silly
0:53:49 > 0:53:53and deliciously extravagant Georgian seaside retreat,
0:53:53 > 0:53:55created by the Prince Regent.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58But a century later it played a much more serious
0:53:58 > 0:54:01and rather admirable role in the First World War.
0:54:08 > 0:54:12The Pavilion was converted into a hospital.
0:54:12 > 0:54:16And between 1914 and 1916, it was used for troops from the Indian Army
0:54:16 > 0:54:20who'd been injured while fighting for the British.
0:54:24 > 0:54:28Recruits came from across India's religious divides.
0:54:32 > 0:54:36And Britain saw in this hospital a way of showing it had learnt
0:54:36 > 0:54:40the lessons from the excesses of its missionary activities.
0:54:41 > 0:54:44The army went to incredible lengths
0:54:44 > 0:54:46to respect religious and caste sensibilities.
0:54:46 > 0:54:48In sanitation, food preparation.
0:54:48 > 0:54:52So there were separate water supplies for Muslims and Hindus on the wards.
0:54:52 > 0:54:55Separate latrines, bathrooms,
0:54:55 > 0:54:59and no fewer than nine kitchens for Muslims,
0:54:59 > 0:55:03meat eating Hindus, vegetarian Hindus.
0:55:03 > 0:55:08Everything intended to keep all the faiths happy.
0:55:10 > 0:55:14The meat for Hindu and Muslim meals was scrupulously prepared.
0:55:14 > 0:55:19Just down the road was Brighton's first halal butcher.
0:55:19 > 0:55:23But perhaps the biggest change was in the attitude of the authorities
0:55:23 > 0:55:27to Christian missionaries who tried to storm the Pavilion with their Evangelism.
0:55:32 > 0:55:33In a report to the War Office,
0:55:33 > 0:55:37the King's Commissioner for the welfare of Indian troops
0:55:37 > 0:55:42wrote that he had seen "translations of the gospels at the Pavilion"
0:55:42 > 0:55:47but that he had "orders that they should be strictly excluded."
0:55:51 > 0:55:56He also said that he had daily requests from clergy or missionaries
0:55:56 > 0:55:59to gain admittance to the hospital, to which he replied that,
0:55:59 > 0:56:04"If it were abroad that any attempt had been made to proselytise
0:56:04 > 0:56:09"men who are sick or wounded, there would be great trouble".
0:56:13 > 0:56:16The British Government knew that success in the war
0:56:16 > 0:56:19was dependant on Indian support.
0:56:19 > 0:56:22And the hospital, heavily promoted in the media,
0:56:22 > 0:56:26showed that the British were now treating Indians with respect.
0:56:31 > 0:56:36Ironically, you could say that the change was the work of fanatical Christian missionaries.
0:56:36 > 0:56:39The very fact that they called Hindus and Muslims "reptiles"
0:56:39 > 0:56:42and "demons" in the Great Indian Rebellion,
0:56:42 > 0:56:46and advocated indiscriminate slaughter, triggered a backlash
0:56:46 > 0:56:49in the form of greater respect for other faiths.
0:56:55 > 0:56:58Just as with every other push towards English toleration,
0:56:58 > 0:57:02these 20th century roots of our multi-faith society
0:57:02 > 0:57:05were inextricably tangled up with religion.
0:57:15 > 0:57:17Today, a commitment to toleration
0:57:17 > 0:57:22has become one of the defining characteristics of the English.
0:57:33 > 0:57:36The nation prides itself on being a global trailblazer
0:57:36 > 0:57:40in the fight for individual freedom of expression.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45But it's sobering to realise that the journey to achieve it
0:57:45 > 0:57:49was motivated not by good intentions,
0:57:49 > 0:57:52but by fear.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55Whatever happened to be the prevailing paranoia of the times,
0:57:55 > 0:58:00that was what forced tolerance or intolerance onto the English psyche.
0:58:00 > 0:58:02The medieval fear of Hell,
0:58:02 > 0:58:06the Protestant terror of Catholics,
0:58:06 > 0:58:11the Imperial nightmare of losing a grip on power.
0:58:11 > 0:58:15These were the elements that fuelled change.
0:58:19 > 0:58:21The English may have quite a few illusions
0:58:21 > 0:58:26about their history as a tolerant people,
0:58:26 > 0:58:29but they've got there anyway.
0:58:32 > 0:58:35And whatever they think about their past,
0:58:35 > 0:58:39let's hope that toleration, indifference to difference,
0:58:39 > 0:58:42remains as part of their future.
0:58:48 > 0:58:53In the final episode, is there an ethnic core to Englishness?
0:58:53 > 0:58:58In this series I've been arguing that God made the English.
0:58:58 > 0:59:01But did he also make them white and Christian?