Catholicism and Community in Early Modern England
Politics, Aristocratic Patronage and Religion, c.1550–1640

A study of the political, religious and mental worlds of the Catholic aristocracy from 1550 to 1640,

Michael C. Questier (Author)

9780521068802, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 July 2008

588 pages, 28 b/w illus.
22.8 x 15.3 x 3.4 cm, 0.86 kg

Review of the hardback: '… you get the feeling that Questier is enjoying himself … the term 'must read' is over used but, it's the only possible description.' Catholic Times

This is a study of the political, religious, social and mental worlds of the Catholic aristocracy from 1550 to 1640. Michael Questier examines the familial and patronage networks of the English Catholic community and their relationship to the later Tudors and Stuarts. He shows how the local history of the Reformation can be used to rewrite mainstream accounts of national politics and religious conflict in this period. The book takes in the various crises of mid- and late Elizabeth politics, the accession of James VI, the Gunpowder Plot, religious toleration and the start of the Thirty Years War and finally the rise of Laudianism, leading up to the civil war. It challenges recent historical notions of Catholicism as fundamentally sectarian and demonstrates the extent to which sections of the Catholic community had come to an understanding with both the local and national State by the later 1620s and 1630s.

1. Introduction
2. The local setting
3. The emergence of a catholic dynasty: the Brownes of Cowdray
4. The Brownes, catholicism and politics until the Ridolfi Plot
5. The Brownes, catholicism and politics from the 1570s until the early 1590s
6. The entourage of the first Viscount Montague
7. The household at Battle Abbey and the Lady Magdalen's entourage
8. The 1590s to the Gunpowder Plot
9. Catholic politics and clerical culture after the accession of James Stuart
10. The household and circle of the Second Viscount Montague. 11. 'Grand Captain' or 'Little Lord': the second Viscount Montague as Catholic leader
12. The later Jacobean and early Caroline period
13. The second Viscount Montague, his entourage and the approbation controversy
14. Catholicism, clientage networks and the debates of the 1630s
15. Epilogue: the Civil War and after.

Subject Areas: Educational: Religious studies [YQR], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1]