Cardinal William Allen, Robert Persons, S. J. and the Rev. Gregory Martin supervised the production in about 1581 of a discussion of cases of consciences, which were intended for the use by students trained for the English mission at the Venerable English College, Rome. The principal manuscript copy of these cases previously known is missing a final section. This has now turned up in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries of London. This article consists of an introduction to the manuscript sources, the cases and their doctrine; a transcript of the Latin text; and a translation of it into English.

After Jesuit priest Robert Southwell's execution in February 1595, his letters and poems surged in popularity, and demand for his newly printed works quickly outstripped supply. Moeoniae, a collection of twenty-two poems ‘both Diuine and Wittie’ printed as an addendum to his popular Saint Peter's Complaint, had two editions in 1595 alone, and at least one more before the end of the century. Poem number 18 in Moeoniae, ‘Upon the Image of Death’, also appears in the seventeenth-century Waferer Commonplace Book (British Library Add. MS 52585) but only in one other manuscript collection with the rest of his poems. Modern Southwell editions have quarantined the poem under headings such as ‘Poem of Dubious Authorship’. And yet the poem, a meditative confession and plea for grace in the face of mortality, does display some elements of Southwell's style, and is particularly compelling if in fact it was written in the years Southwell struggled to provide spiritual guidance to his loyal congregation while evading capture and execution. This paper investigates the relationship between the commonplace book, the Moeoniae print editions, and the manuscript poetry collections from which ‘Upon the Image of Death’ is conspicuously absent, and offers a new annotated edition of the poem.

This article considers the impact of Catholic reform within the English Catholic community in the first half of the seventeenth century through an examination of hagiographical works published between c.1600 and 1642. In addition to the continuing popularity of regional saints in English Catholic devotion, a significant number of hagiographical texts were produced from the early seventeenth century onward, offering English Catholics a varied subject matter of contemporary and traditional saints. Particular attention is given to hagiographical accounts translated into English, the largest sub-category within this genre of literature. In doing so, this article illustrates that there was a conscious choice made by Catholic reformers and translators to place the cult of saints in England within the wider initiatives of Tridentine reform. This study also considers the accessibility of continental works for an English audience, and stresses the importance of examining the development of English Catholicism in its wider European context.

Discussion of the dispersal of Catholic literature in post-Reformation England tends to focus on the tenacity of recusants and ‘church papists’ in perpetuating allegiance to Rome. Relatively little attention has been paid to the extent to which Catholic texts, either in their original form or modified for a Protestant readership, formed a part of the mainstream culture of the reformed Church. This paper attempts to demonstrate the significance of Catholic literature in the Protestant context by showing the range of Protestant adaptations, the extent of Protestant readership and the influences of Catholic literature on Protestant writers.

The decision by the Holy See in 1878 to divide the diocese of Beverley into two smaller dioceses was unwelcome initially to many Catholics of the region, who felt it was unbalanced and unfair. This was a particularly long-held perception within the new diocese of Middlesbrough, which was comprised of the more rural areas of Yorkshire together with a new but often uneconomical industrial conurbation on the River Tees. The article examines whether this was an honest perception by scrutinising the logistics of the division, its geographical implications and the consequences for the future of the diocese in terms of the presbyterate and growth of mission.