This project was initially inspired by Weber's provocative opinion that Catholicism has never been associated with the ‘spirit of capitalism’. Although much debated – and many would say outdated – the theory left me thinking about the position of Catholics in Britain. This was just after I had completed my Masters dissertation on seventeenth-century Dutch Catholicism and the practices of tolerance (and intolerance) in the Netherlands. After concluding that the country at this time had adopted a pragmatic attitude of acceptance towards Catholics, I wondered if the same pattern could be applied to communities in Britain. Perhaps it was being from a very Catholic country that sparked my curiosity, and I wanted to understand how it would have been to live as a Catholic in a country where the religion was not so influential. But also what in particular it meant to be a Catholic in a Protestant country in the early modern world, when tolerance was a contested concept. I started to navigate the literature with Weber's thesis in mind. What I found was a belief that Catholics did not embrace risk, were less ambitious in business and more concerned with their place in the ‘other world’ than in pursuing success in this life. On the other hand, there was a widespread belief and acceptance that Protestants, in particular Puritans, were being called to fulfil their roles within society and that success in this life meant proof of being part of the elect and of God's benevolence. Indeed, Weber argued that Protestant minorities successfully engaged in a variety of economic activities at this time, even when operating in predominantly Catholic countries, as is evident in the example of the Huguenots in France. The same, however, could not be said for those Catholics living in Protestant countries such as England. Weber contended that religion profoundly shaped culture and ethical behaviour, a rather bleak depiction of Catholicism and one that certainly did not match later studies on the community and its endurance. Certainly, the influence of religion on culture cannot be underestimated, and much has been written to refute this controversial theory, with recent literature showing instead how much the spirit of enterprise has been a feature of other religions such as Judaism.