Examines the experiences of Catholics during the period when England was ruled by Puritan Protestants. This is the first book to examine thoroughly the ways in which Catholics adapted to political and social change during the turbulent years of the English Revolution. The book examines several important aspects of the Catholic experience in this period. It explores the penal laws by which the estates of Catholics were sequestrated, discussing the extent to which politicians designed the new laws to target Catholics specifically, rather than Royalists more generally, and outlining how the sequestration legislation operated in practice. It considers how Catholic gentry utilised their networks with influential Protestants with wider political connections when applying to have their sequestrations discharged. More broadly the book reveals how Catholics demonstrated their loyalty and assimilated into society despite being viewed as the natural enemies of the English Republic and Protectorate. The book also compares Catholic experiences to those of other religious minorities and sets the situation in England in the wider European international context of Catholic-Protestant rivalry and warfare, which made Catholics a particularly vulnerable religious minority in Puritan England.

About the Author
Eilish Gregory is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Royal Historical Society. She has held research fellowships at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Durham University and Marsh's Library and teaches at the University of Reading.

Reviews
[T]he leading work for understanding how Catholics interacted with the sequestration and compounding processes in the mid-seventeenth century. [...] Among its many other fine qualities, then, the book is characterized by a spirit of intellectual generosity and collegiality that suggests that it might well serve as a jumping-off point for further research. -- H-NET REVIEWS
Gregory's important book begins a long-overdue analysis of how English Catholics experienced nearly two decades of revolution and republican rule. The book should be required reading for advanced undergraduates and post-graduate students and will be very useful to specialists in the field. We can hope that other scholars will continue Gregory's analysis into the experience of Catholics during this significant period in British history. -- BRITISH CATHOLIC HISTORY
Eilish Gregory successfully tackles the complex and constantly evolving topic of sequestration during one of the most fractious periods of early modern England. -- JOURNAL OF CHURCH AND STATE
[A] meticulously researched book -- JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY
[An] excellent book that will become important reading for scholars of early modern Catholicism, the English Revolution and religious toleration. Gregory unpicks a complex topic and guides the reader through the sequestration and compounding processes with ease. * JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY, LITERATURE & CULTURE *
The book's greatest strength is its connection of several streams of interrelated material...that elucidate the complicated history of an engaged group rejected by the nation to whom they hoped to prove loyal. * THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY *
[A] detailed and lively study. * CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW *
[T]his detailed and lively study is essentially one of continuity in Catholic negotiation with the state before and after these years, notwithstanding the upheavals of the Revolution. * CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW *
Overall, Gregory succeeds in explaining the intricacies of a complex financial system that was constantly shifting, convincing with her argument that as sequestration evolved, so did Catholic efforts to protect their estates. Importantly, on a wider scale, Gregory plugs the Catholic experience back into the general narrative and opens the door to future research in the area. -- James E. Kelly, Durham University * Journal of British Studies *



Book Information
ISBN 9781783275946
Author Eilish Gregory
Format Hardback
Page Count 248
Imprint The Boydell Press
Publisher Boydell & Brewer Ltd