Introduction

Abstract

In 1589, Richard Topcliffe, the man the Elizabethan state employed to do its dirtiest work, reported that ‘the Jhezewts & Semenaries’ — Jesuits and other Catholic priests — who were on the verge of taking over the country were aided not only by ‘discrett & trusty patroans’ but by ‘crafty Catholic childrene abroade in every quarter and coaste’, lending them better assistance ‘than ever frend to England had Imbassador’.1 In the year after the Spanish Armada, Catholicism was not only a proscribed religion in Protestant England, it was perceived as a political threat to the existence of the nation. Catholics practised their religion clandestinely, sometimes at risk of their lives; around them, Protestant propaganda about Catholicism in general and the alleged nefarious activities of English Catholics in particular ensured that they were the most controversial minority in early modern England.KeywordsEarly Modern PeriodCatholic PriestDirty WorkPolitical ThreatCatholic CommunityThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.