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The Poor Man’s Catechism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Geoffrey Scott O.S.B.
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Extract

Catechisms in the vernacular for the Catholic community in England appeared surprisingly early after the break with Rome, and were published continuously from the 1560s by English and continental presses, although many have not survived. Catechetical material is also often found within books dealing primarily with apologetical, educational, devotional and liturgical subjects. From the beginning, there seems to have been types of catechism written for particular groups such as teachers, children or the illiterate. Laurence Vaux, who taught English exiles’ children in Louvain in the 1560s, published the first extant catechism for the simple and unlearned in 1568, and with the publisher John Fowler’s encouragement, his later catechisms carried illustrations ‘for those not yet able to read’. Vaux’s catechisms were followed by popular European catechisms translated into English by the Jesuits.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , May 2005 , pp. 373 - 382
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 2005

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References

1 Allison, A.F. & Rogers, D.M., The contemporary printed literature of the English Counter-Reformation between 155 and 1640, II: Works in English, Aldershot 1994 (A& Rii), nos. 333–6, 342–44, 462, 748–756Google Scholar. English catechisms generally adopted a standard structure: Creed (Faith), Prayer (Hope), Ten Commandments, Commandments of Church (Charity), Sacraments, Theological & Cardinal Virtues, Gifts & Fruits of the Holy Spirit, Spiritual & Corporal Works of Mercy, Sin, Four Last Things.

2 Birrell, T. A., ‘English Catholics without a Bishop, 1655–1672’, Recusant History, vol. iv, 4, 1958, pp. 142–178 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Duffy, E., ‘The English Secular Clergy and the Counter-Reformation’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 34, 2, April 1983, pp. 214–30 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Allison, Antony F., ‘The English Augustinian Convent of Our Lady of Syon at Paris: its foundation and struggle for survival during the first eighty years, 1634–1713’, Recusant History, vol. 21, no. 4, Oct 1993, pp. 451–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Clancy, T.H., English Catholic Books 1641–1700. A Bibliography, Revised edition, 1996, nos. 503, 505, for HoldenGoogle Scholar.

3 Clancy, 834, as appendix, an example of a ‘Prone’ for the clergy, and ‘A Christian exercise for the simpler sorte’ which they might memorise.

4 A&Rii 801, Clancy 1066. Bossy, J., The English Catholic Community 1570–1850, 1976, p. 63 Google Scholar, Bradley, R. I., ‘Blacklo and the Counter-Reformation: An Inquiry into the Strange Death of Catholic England’, in Carter, C. J., From the Renaissance to the Counter-Reformation, 1966, p. 362 Google Scholar.

5 Clancy 364.

6 Clancy 230–33. Blom, F., Blom, J., Korsten, F., Scott, G., English Catholic Books 1701–1800. A bibliography, Aldershot 1996, (BKS), 729, 730Google Scholar. Duffy, ‘English Secular Clergy’, p. 229.

7 Duffy, E., ‘A rubb-up for old soares; Jesuits, Jansenists, and the English Secular Clergy, 1705–1715’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History (JEH), 28, 3, July 1977, pp. 291–317 Google Scholar. Scott, G., ‘The education of James III’, in Corp, E., A court in exile. The Stuarts in France, 1689–1718, Cambridge 2004, pp. 257–79.Google Scholar

8 Clancy 22.

9 Pickering, B., ‘Bishop Challoner and Teaching the Faith, The Clergy Review, Jan. 1980, lxv, 1, pp. 6–14 Google Scholar.

10 Clancy 580, 859, Scott, G., ‘Oxford and the Benedictines’, in Wansborough, H. & Marett-Crosby, A., ed., Benedictines in Oxford, London 1997, pp. 210–213 Google Scholar.

11 Clancy 7–10, BKS 8–16. Burton, H.E., The Life and Times of Bishop Challoner, ii, 1909, p. 293 Google Scholar.

12 Clancy 9, *89.7, 90, 184, 233, 335, 838.5, 908.3, *908.5, 933, 979.3, 980.

13 Clancy 184.

14 Clancy 520–523.

15 For eye catechisms, see BKS 1257–58, appended catalogues, Gillow, J., A Bibliographical Dictionary of the English Catholics, London. I, p. 572 Google Scholar, Edinburgh, Scottish Catholic Archives, George Hay Correspondence, 49, BL 3/463/4. For Lime St. mission, Macdonald, G., ‘The Lime Street Chapel. Parts I & II’, Dublin Review, April, July 1927, pp. 253–265 Google Scholar, 1–16, J. Miller, Popery and Politics in England 1660–1688, Cambridge 1973, pp. 245–7.

16 BKS 1279, introduction.

17 e.g. Clancy 758, by the Franciscan Leo of M. Magdalene Randolph, not John Parlor.

18 Clancy 431, BKS 1302.

19 BKS 802–06. Williams, J.A., “Our Patriarch”; Bishop Bonaventure Giffard, 1642–1734 Google Scholar. An Introductory Sketch’, Recusant History, 26, 3, May 2003, pp. 442, 446–8, 452.

20 BKS 1332, 1632–33.

21 Clark, R., Strangers & Sojourners at Port Royal, Cambridge 1932, pp. 159 Google Scholar, 174, note 4, 175, 185, note 2: Clancy 838.5 is another example of a book probably under Jansenist influence.

22 BKS 1523–25.

23 BKS 889–92.

24 For Hall, Duffy, ‘English Secular Clergy’, p. 229.

25 BKS 2769, vol. 3, 90, for Hall. BKS 2351 (Lloyd). BKS 481 appears to be another (anonymous) translation of the Montpellier Catechism. BKS 439, 1354, 1355, see also 2536. McMillan, J., ‘Scottish Catholics and the Jansenist Controversy: The Case reopened’, The Innes Review, xxxii, 1, 1981, pp. 30, 32Google Scholar. Halloran, B. M., The Scots College, Paris, 1603–1792, Edinburgh 1997, pp. 73, 107, 116f., 133f., 150Google Scholar.

26 BKS 1052, 1065–8.

27 Duffy, E., ‘Richard Challoner and the English Salesian Tradition’, Clergy Review, Dec. 1981, xvi, 12, pp. 449–455, BKS 1, 698–700Google Scholar.