Was Lord Howard of Effingham, who commanded in chief against the Spanish Armada, a Protestant or a Papist?

On the one hand, it is highly improbable that Queen Elizabeth should employ a popish commander against the Spaniards. 1. The silence of Dr. Lingard and other historians is also negatively in favour of his being a Protestant. But, on the other hand, it has been repeatedly asserted, in both houses of Parliament, that he was a Papist. 2. It is *likely*, because his *father* was the eldest son by his second wife of Thomas, second Duke of Norfolk, and was created Baron Howard of Effingham by Queen Mary. 3. Whatever his own religion may have been, he was contemporary with his cousin, Philip, Earl of…