Religion

• Almost all Jacobeans were Christians. Catholics believed a priest to be the link between God and the people, whereas Protestants believed God could be found without a priest.
• Shakespeare was writing under two protestant monarchs (Elizabeth and James).
• However, there were still significant numbers of English and Scottish catholic families and churchmen who refused to give up the catholic faith. Some of these were persecuted for their beliefs.
• Regardless of whether the audience was catholic or protestant, they would have believed in the very real existence of heaven and hell and the difference in good and bad.
• The crimes that Macbeth committed against his king, his peers and against innocent women and children would be seen as mortal sins and a guarantee that his soul would end up in hell.