This article seeks to identify a vein of ‘Puritanism’ running through orthodox religious culture in England over the century or so prior to the Break with Rome. It suggests that alongside the strong emphasis on the sensual and material in worship, it is possible to identify a current of austere and moralistic teaching, which was guarded or sceptical about the value of relics, images and pilgrimage. In the religious ferment around the turn of the fifteenth century, such attitudes developed alongside the forms of heterodoxy known as Lollardy, but were often explicitly anti-Lollard in intention. The article argues further that the strain of ‘puritanical’ Catholicism survived and developed through the fifteenth century, and into the sixteenth, partly as a consequence of the ability of print to preserve and promote old arguments. It converged with currents of Christian humanism, as well as providing a point of connection and reception for emergent evangelical ideas in the 1520s and later. The article thus aims to shed new light on the proposition that the origins of the Reformation are best looked for within the confines of late medieval orthodoxy.

This paper examines the lives and careers of two Welsh Catholics, David Stradling and Hugh Owen, who sought refuge on the Continent during the reign of Elizabeth I. Whereas something about Hugh Owen's life is known, particularly of his career as the creator of an intelligence service which countered that of Sir Francis Walsingham, David Stradling's life has, in contrast, remained somewhat obscure. Little is known of him other than some details of his family background and his education. My recent research at the Simancas Archive and at the Archives Royales de Bruxelles, however, has revealed hitherto unknown sources that now provide further information on both men. In describing the events of their flight from England to the Continent and their establishment there, I re-examine the circle of well-known English Catholic refugees in the Spanish Low Countries and in Spain.

Cardinal William Allen, Robert Persons, S. J. and the Rev. Gregory Martin supervised the production in about 1581 of a discussion of cases of consciences, which were intended for the use by students trained for the English mission at the Venerable English College, Rome. The principal manuscript copy of these cases previously known is missing a final section. This has now turned up in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries of London. This article consists of an introduction to the manuscript sources, the cases and their doctrine; a transcript of the Latin text; and a translation of it into English.

It is now fifty-six years since I wrote my first piece for Recusant History, and I am happy to have survived to welcome its reincarnation. Since its foundation in 1951 as an addendum to Gillow’s Biographical Dictionary of English Catholics it has had an honourable career, getting into print a number of essential contributions to the history of Catholics in England, mainly between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. It has been a companion to the distinguished bibliographical work of Anthony Allison, David Rogers and Tom Birrell. It was a creation of laymen, which is to say that it was an attempt to transcend the efforts of a period when this history had been largely a monopoly of the clergy, and ran the risk of degenerating into feuds between rival sections of that body. This lay input was much strengthened by the effect of the 1944 Education Act, which produced numbers of students keen to make a mark in the field. In view of their education, they did not necessarily alter the terms in which questions were put, and when the modest journal was launched a degree of hegemony in the Catholic Record Society was being exercised by the Jesuit side, which ought to have but failed to put out the letters and papers of Robert Persons. It had an invitation to wider thoughts in the philo-Jesuit lectures on the Counter-Reformation of the Cambridge academic Outram Evennett, delivered also in 1951.1 As these were not published until 1968 the invitation was muffled, but something of it was in the atmosphere.

After Jesuit priest Robert Southwell's execution in February 1595, his letters and poems surged in popularity, and demand for his newly printed works quickly outstripped supply. Moeoniae, a collection of twenty-two poems ‘both Diuine and Wittie’ printed as an addendum to his popular Saint Peter's Complaint, had two editions in 1595 alone, and at least one more before the end of the century. Poem number 18 in Moeoniae, ‘Upon the Image of Death’, also appears in the seventeenth-century Waferer Commonplace Book (British Library Add. MS 52585) but only in one other manuscript collection with the rest of his poems. Modern Southwell editions have quarantined the poem under headings such as ‘Poem of Dubious Authorship’. And yet the poem, a meditative confession and plea for grace in the face of mortality, does display some elements of Southwell's style, and is particularly compelling if in fact it was written in the years Southwell struggled to provide spiritual guidance to his loyal congregation while evading capture and execution. This paper investigates the relationship between the commonplace book, the Moeoniae print editions, and the manuscript poetry collections from which ‘Upon the Image of Death’ is conspicuously absent, and offers a new annotated edition of the poem.

Cardinal Thomas Wolsey has seldom been associated with the University of Cambridge. But in a little-known episode, he was invited to follow John Fisher as chancellor of the University of Cambridge in 1514. Although Wolsey declined, his willingness to protect Cambridge’s evangelicals, even after he burned Martin Luther’s books in 1521, has been an overlooked phase in the history of the university and in the Reformation in England.

This article compares and contrasts the 1580 texts A briefe discours contayning certayne reasons why Catholiques refuse to goe to Church by Robert Persons, and Gwssanaeth y Gwŷr Newydd by Robert Gwyn. Both books deal with church papism, and were written whilst the authors were in Rome together. Despite the simi-larity of theme, and the fact that the two most likely consulted each other about the work, many significant differences remain between the two texts. This article seeks to discuss these differences, and to assess what conclusions can be inferred from them as to the relative conditions of English and Welsh Catholicism, and the effect that this had on the authors’ work.

This essay considers the life, death, and afterlife of William Cowbridge a religious eccentric executed for heresy in 1538. It explores the significance of his religious beliefs, which became the source of a heated controversy between the Protestant martyrologist John Foxe and the Catholic polemicist Nicholas Harpsfield. The case casts light on a range of issues, including the dynamic between Protestant and Catholic controversialists, the use of the label of ‘madness’ in argument, and the value of archival documentation alongside the use of oral sources in Reformation-era polemic. It also yields insight into Thomas Cromwell’s authority over the English Church during the late 1530s, and highlights his position among Henrician evangelicals as a source of influence and aid. Finally, it offers a critique about interpretations of early modern belief and the designation of the label ‘Lollard’.

This paper will discuss the history of the College of St Francis Xavier, the Welsh territorial district of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, and the history of Jesuit association with its headquarters, the Cwm farms at Llanrothal, near Hereford. One of 12 territorial divisions created by the Society of Jesus upon the creation of the English Province by 1623, the College of St Francis Xavier and its extensive surviving library, now housed at Hereford Cathedral, is being analysed as part of a three-year project funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council [AHRC]. The article argues for a re-evaluation of the Welsh District and its importance to the successes of the English Jesuit Province, concluding that, far from being a small, local missionary outpost of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, the College of St Francis Xavier, or the Welsh District, was in fact a diverse, vibrant and crucially important lynchpin in the successes of the Jesuits in England and Wales.

This article examines the vernacular translations of the famous catechisms prepared by the Dutch Jesuit Peter Canisius which circulated in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Britain. The various editions and adaptations of Canisius produced for English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish readers are texts in which anti-Protestant identity formation converges with the task of basic indoctrination. These include Laurence Vaux’s popular catechism of 1567, the traditionalist character of which is reassessed. Shedding light on the reception and domestication of the literature of the European Counter Reformation, these books illustrate how catechesis was revived and harnessed as a clerical tool for cultivating polemical resistance and as a device for inculcating saving knowledge and redeeming piety in those young in faith as well as in years. Recusant clergy, seminary priests and Jesuits tackled the task of restoring England to its traditional allegiance to Rome as if they were planting the faith in a pagan land and they utilised the same techniques and strategies as their colleagues in the newly discovered world. A study of Canisius’s catechisms highlights the fluid boundary between conversion and reconciliation in contemporary minds; illuminates the intertwining of the histories of evangelical mission and confessionalisation in the context of the British Isles; and helps to reintegrate minority Catholic communities back into our picture of the global movement for religious outreach and renewal.

Rome’s decision to name an archpriest and to erect a highly irregular administrative structure, the archpresbyterate, surprised secular clergy and Jesuits who had advocated the establishment of bishops. Recent tension between Jesuits and secular clergy highlighted the need and importance of an hierarchical, ecclesiological office. But the appointment was made in such a way that some secular clergy questioned its legitimacy and authenticity. Until they ascertained that the decision had in fact been made by the pope, they withheld recognition of the archpriest. As they awaited a reply to their appeal, two Appellants, John Colleton and William Clarke, debated the matter with two Jesuit supporters of the archpriest, Henry Garnet and Edward Oldcorne who apparently failed to see the canonical issue involved, as they perceived anti-Jesuitism as the motivating factor.

This article considers the impact of Catholic reform within the English Catholic community in the first half of the seventeenth century through an examination of hagiographical works published between c.1600 and 1642. In addition to the continuing popularity of regional saints in English Catholic devotion, a significant number of hagiographical texts were produced from the early seventeenth century onward, offering English Catholics a varied subject matter of contemporary and traditional saints. Particular attention is given to hagiographical accounts translated into English, the largest sub-category within this genre of literature. In doing so, this article illustrates that there was a conscious choice made by Catholic reformers and translators to place the cult of saints in England within the wider initiatives of Tridentine reform. This study also considers the accessibility of continental works for an English audience, and stresses the importance of examining the development of English Catholicism in its wider European context.

This essay adds to our existing understanding of what it meant to be a member of the English Catholic community during the late Elizabeth and early Stuart period by exploring Catholic musical culture in Lancashire. This was a uniquely Catholic village, which, like the majority of villages, towns and cities in early modern England, was filled with the singing of ballads. Ballads have almost exclusively been treated in scholarship as a ‘Protestant’ phenomenon and the ‘godly ballad’ associated with the very fabric of a distinctively Protestant Elizabethan and Stuart entertainment culture. By investigating the songs and ballads in two manuscript collections from the Catholic network surrounding the Blundell family this essay will show how Catholics both composed and ‘converted’ existing ballads to voice social, devotional, and political concerns. The ballads performed in Little Crosby highlight a vibrant Catholic community, where musical expression was fundamental. Performance widened the parochial religious divide, whilst enhancing Catholic integration. This essay uncovers the way Catholics used music to voice religious and exhort protest as much as prayer. Finally, by investigating the tunes and melodies preserved in the manuscripts, I demonstrate how priests serving this network used ballads as part of their missionary strategy.

This article re-considers Alexander Seton, First Earl of Dunfermline (1555–1622) in his cultural context, particularly in the light of the recently-discovered inventory of his private library. This sophisticated collection of continental books, with strong holdings in art, architecture and Catholic apologetics, offers new information on the intense private Catholicism of a statesman who conformed outwardly to Protestantism. The inventory casts light also on his work of building and decoration at Pinkie House, Musselburgh. The article concludes by raising the possibility of some kind of continuance at Pluscarden Priory in Moray after the reformation and under Seton’s protection, and that Seton’s daughter Sophia may have built a freestanding Catholic chapel on her marriage to David Lindsay, first Lord Balcarres.

Discussion of the dispersal of Catholic literature in post-Reformation England tends to focus on the tenacity of recusants and ‘church papists’ in perpetuating allegiance to Rome. Relatively little attention has been paid to the extent to which Catholic texts, either in their original form or modified for a Protestant readership, formed a part of the mainstream culture of the reformed Church. This paper attempts to demonstrate the significance of Catholic literature in the Protestant context by showing the range of Protestant adaptations, the extent of Protestant readership and the influences of Catholic literature on Protestant writers.

The Bishop's Palace at Ely was used as a prison for Catholics between 1577 and 1597, and between 1588 and 1597 was exclusively a prison for lay recusants. Its inmates included Abbot John Feckenham between 1577 and 1580 and Thomas Tresham, who was imprisoned in Ely four times. Unlike Wisbech Castle, however, the Palace at Ely's period as a prison for recusants has received little attention. This article draws on the documentary evidence for the Catholic prisoners in official records, as well as Tresham's extensive writings during his Ely imprisonment. It also draws on a newly discovered inventory of the Palace's contents in 1581, arguing that the prisoners, and Tresham in particular, were affected by their stay in Ely. It makes the case for the prisoners’ rich cultural life, as evidenced by the prison writings of Tresham and a fellow inmate, George Cotton, who used his time to translate Jesuit letters from Japan. The prisoners in the Bishop's Palace at Ely may have made less public noise than their fellow prisoners at Wisbech Castle, but like Wisbech, Ely was a focus of Catholic culture and resistance during the late Elizabethan period that deserves to be better understood.

The decision by the Holy See in 1878 to divide the diocese of Beverley into two smaller dioceses was unwelcome initially to many Catholics of the region, who felt it was unbalanced and unfair. This was a particularly long-held perception within the new diocese of Middlesbrough, which was comprised of the more rural areas of Yorkshire together with a new but often uneconomical industrial conurbation on the River Tees. The article examines whether this was an honest perception by scrutinising the logistics of the division, its geographical implications and the consequences for the future of the diocese in terms of the presbyterate and growth of mission.

The systematic proselytisation of Catholic children institutionalised under the New Poor Law of 1834 was felt by the Catholic community as a very serious grievance. The legislation was framed so as to make the ministrations of the state church an integral part of the workhouse regime, while providing safeguards for the religious rights of non-Anglicans, both adults and children, through a conscience clause which however was not envisaged as applicable to children perceived as having no meaningful family connections. Loose wording allowed locally elected poor law bodies to frustrate the intentions of Parliament, and nullify all efforts of relatives and others to secure appropriate religious upbringing for Catholic children. The problem was particularly acute in the London area. Earlier lobbying initiatives came to nothing, but a fresh campaign begun in 1859, waged with the participation of Catholics at all levels of society, and persisting in the face of repeated setbacks, succeeded in 1868 in bringing about a change in the law, whereby procedures were established to enable the transfer of all poor law children of proven Catholic background to voluntary institutions under Catholic management, with funding for their maintenance paid from the poor rates.

The foundation of new English convents in exile placed demands on the early leaders regarding the furnishing of appropriate texts for the religious life for women at a time of limited resources and strict controls over printing Catholic texts in English. This article examines challenges facing the convents and external influences on the choice of titles, ranging from women’s reading experiences in their families to authors whose works appeared in libraries owned by both pious Catholic and Protestant lay women. It then considers how communities assembled collections of books in the first half of the exile period, concluding with an appendix giving some examples of surviving key texts found in convent libraries dating from the seventeenth century.