Author: JOHN J. LAROCCA, S.J. (EDITOR)
Title: Catholic Record Society: Jacobean Recusant Rolls for Middlesex, Volume 76
Description: London, Catholic Record Society, 1997. First Edition. Hardcover. Blue cloth. x, 178p. Book in fine condition. The Catholic Record Society (Registered Charity No. 313529), "the premier Catholic historical society in the United Kingdom", founded in 1904, is a scholarly society devoted to the study of Reformation and post-Reformation Catholicism in England and Wales. Particularly active members in its early years were Joseph Gillow, J. H. Pollen, and Joseph S. Hansom. The society was initially established as a text publication society, with the aim of publishing Catholic historical records. Only later did it become a more general historical society. It has been credited with making much otherwise obscure archival material more readily available. This book contains records from 1603-1625, giving us historical insight into Catholic recusancy during the period (the Jacobean period, referring to life under King James I). Recusancy was the state of those who refused to attend Anglican services during the history of England and Wales; these individuals were known as recusants. The term, which derives ultimately from the Latin recusare (to refuse or make an objection) was first used to refer to those who remained loyal to the pope and the Roman Catholic Church and who did not attend Church of England services, with a 1593 statute determining the penalties against "Popish recusants". The "Recusancy Acts" began during the reign of Elizabeth I and were repealed in 1650. They imposed various types of punishment on those who did not participate in Anglican religious activity, such as fines, property confiscation, and imprisonment. The repeal under Oliver Cromwell was mainly intended to give relief to nonconforming Protestants rather than to Catholics, and despite the repeal of the Recusancy Acts, restrictions against Roman Catholics were still in place until full Catholic Emancipation in 1829. In some cases those adhering to Catholicism faced capital punishment, and a number of English and Welsh Catholics executed in the 16th and 17th centuries have been canonised by the Catholic Church as martyrs of the English Reformation.

Keywords: Anglo-Catholic, British, English, anti-Catholicism


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