Today we are going to speak of the Catholic, or Roman Catholic faith, which forms the largest branch of Christianity. Oddly, the word comes from the Greek, "Katholikos", which means Universal, and it was first used in the second century.
Their head is The Pope, the Bishop of Rome, and he is both the Head of State, and the closest non Royal equivalent to the King, of the Vatican City, a separate city state inside Rome. The current Pope is the latest in a long line of others, of whom the first was Saint Peter, one of the apostles of Jesus Christ.
Catholics are one of the most persecuted of all religions - back as far as the time of the Romans. In England, they suffered most during the reign of King Henry VIII. He had no son to take his throne, and asked the Catholic Church for the cancellation of his marriage so that he could marry another who may prove more fruitful. This was denied, and led to the King founding a whole new religion, the Church of England, in which he was allowed the divorce he sought. And to the dissolution of the monasteries all across the land. Mary I tried to bring Catholicism back during her brief reign, but it was swept away again when Elizabeth I took over. And during the reign of her successor, King James I, came the Gunpowder Plot, enacted by Catholics.
This set first appears in our original British Trade Index part II as :
FLAGS AND EMBLEMS. Sm. Nd. (25). See D.282. ... AME-4
and in our updated version as :
FLAGS AND EMBLEMS. 1964. Nd. (25). See HX-17. ... AMB-100
Returning, a bit, the "D" codes are in the handbook, at the back of our original British Trade Index part II, and they mean that the set was duplicated, issued by another maker. In this instance we are told that there were several - and the text reads :
D.282 FLAGS AND EMBLEMS. Nd. (25)
- Amaran Tea - Set AME-8
- Goodies Ltd - Set GOT-1
- A.S. Prior - Set PTO-4
- Anonymous, Letterpress back - Set ZB9-20
Now let us deal with those separately.
Goodies Ltd, of either Cherry Tree Road in Watford, (the address on the black backed version) or Bristol, were confectioners. Their version was issued before ours, in 1963, but there were two versions, for it was available with either a red or black back.
A. S. Prior, of Battersea in London, were actually a fish and chip shop. They have long gone. We do not know when this version of the set was issued. Amusingly, to me, anyway, they issued a set of ten cards of "Freshwater Fish" in the 1970s.
The anonymous version is just that, we have no idea who issued it. But I might find it one day, whilst looking for something else.