Printed Translations and Catholic Reformation

Abstract

Abstract This chapter provides a historical overview of the printed translations composed by British and Irish Catholics between Elizabeth’s accession in 1558 and the outbreak of the civil wars in 1640. Over the course of these eighty-odd years, British and Irish Catholics published over one hundred translations, which fit roughly into two distinct categories: devotional texts and polemics. Taken together, these works offer vital insight into the ways that Catholic translators from Britain and Ireland adapted the tenets of Catholic reform for a very specific context: nations where Catholicism had been banned by Protestant regimes. While some translators responded to the Protestant Reformation by translating medieval and patristic works that had been appropriated or dismissed by English reformers, others imported Counter-Reformation spirituality by popularizing cutting-edge texts from the Continent. Looking backward to the past glories of the Catholic Church and forward to Continental innovations, these translations responded to the unique needs of British and Irish Catholics, who faced governmental oppression as they sought to find their place within the wider Catholic Church.