Shakespeare has been considered a political for centuries – apart from the concessions he made to appease his patrons – but a new school of thought claims the Elizabethan play wright was a covert Catholic sympathizer who sprinkled clues about his religious beliefs throughout his early sonnets.

Clare Asquith, the Countess of Oxford and Asquith, has interpreted the bard’s epic poem The Rape of Lucrece as a political manifesto assailing the persecution of Catholics in England, Britain’s The Telegraph reports.

Written in 1594, the poem ostensibly concerns the rape of a noble-woman but Lady Asquith sees hidden messages buried between the lines.

She interprets its coded messages as referring to the destruction of Catholic monasteries and the handing over of Church property to rich land-owners at the bequest of the Protestants.

In her eyes, the poem is an extended account of the Act of Supremacy of 1534, which was passed after Henry VIII founded the Church of England, the media reports.