The Persistence of Catholicism

This collection of previously published essays, all substantively updated and revised, explores the religious and political complexities of early modern English Catholicism from the late sixteenth through the late seventeenth centuries. Using both literary and non-literary evidence and the work of such writers as William Shakespeare and John Donne, this volume deals with the residual presence of Catholic culture within the larger narrative of English history.

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations

Introduction

CHAPTER ONE
What Counts as Early Modern English Catholic Writing
CHAPTER TWO
In Defense of Idolatry: Catholicism and the Protestant Assault on the
Sensuous in Early Modern England
CHAPTER THREE
Religion, Secularity, and Shakespeare
CHAPTER FOUR
Shakespeare and Catholicism
CHAPTER FIVE
Shakespeare, Papal Temporal Power, Regicide, and Tyrannicide
CHAPTER SIX
Donne’s Conflicted Anti-Catholicism in His Sermons
CHAPTER SEVEN
Saintly Idiocy and Contemplative Empowerment: The Example of Dame
Gertrude More
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Intolerability of English Catholicism in the Early Modern Era

Bibliography
Index