The Trials of Margaret Clitherow: Persecution, Martyrdom and the Politics of Sanctity in Elizabethan England

by Peter Lake, Michael Questier

Overview

This is a new biography of a Catholic martyr exploring the complicated and controversial story of her demise. The story of Margaret Clitherow represents one of the most important yet troubling events in post-Reformation history. Her trial, execution and subsequent legend have provoked controversy ever since it became a cause celebre in the time of Elizabeth I. Through extensive new research into the contemporary accounts of her arrest and trial the authors have pieced together a new reading of the surrounding events. The result is a work which considers the question of religious sainthood and martyrdom as well as the relationship between society, the state and the Church in Britain during the C16th. They establish the full ideological significance of the trial and demonstrate that the politics of post-Reformation British society cannot be understood without the wider local, national and international contexts in which they occurred. This is a major contribution to our understanding of both English Catholicism and the Protestant regime of the Elizabethan period.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826431530
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	03/24/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Peter Lake is University Distinguished Professor of History and Professor of the History of Christianity, Divinity School at Vanderbilt University, USA. From 1993-2009 he was Professor of History at Princeton University, USA. He is the author of many books including The Boxmaker's Revenge and a forthcoming volume on Shakespeare's history plays.
Michael Questier is Professor of Early Modern History at Queen Mary, University of London, UK. He is the author of Catholicism and Community in Early Modern England (CUP), Conversion, Politics and Religion in England 1580-1625 (CUP), and co-authored with Peter Lake The Antichrist's Lewd Hat: Protestants, Papists and Players in Post-Reformation England (Yale).
Peter Lake is University Distinguished Professor of History and Professor of the History of Christianity, Divinity School at Vanderbilt University, USA. From 1993-2009 he was Professor of History at Princeton University, USA. He is the author of many books including The Boxmaker's Revenge and a forthcoming volume on Shakespeare's history plays.
Michael Questier is Professor of Early Modern History at Queen Mary, University of London, UK. He is the author of Catholicism and Community in Early Modern England (CUP), Conversion, Politics and Religion in England 1580-1625 (CUP), and co-authored with Peter Lake The Antichrist's Lewd Hat: Protestants, Papists and Players in Post-Reformation England (Yale).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements\Preface\Abbreviations\1. The Controversial Mrs Clitherow\2. The Radicalisation of the mid-Elizabethan Catholics\3. Mrs Clitherow, her Catholic household and her Catholic enemies\4. The Quarrels of the Catholic Community\5. Recusancy and its Discontents\6. Thomas Bell and his Enemies\7. Christianity sans Eglise: the Religion of the Heart among Catholics and Puritans\8. Fainthearted Catholics and Real Catholics: Mrs Clitherow and the Local Politics of Conformity\9. The Reckoning: Arrest, Trial and Execution\10. Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know?\11. Appealing to the Court of Public Opinion\12. Endgame: from Life to Death\Mrs Clitherow and the Catholic Community after 1586\13. Aftermath of Execution\14. The Tyrant and the Quisling\15. Between Resistance and Compromise? Thomas Bell's Revenge and the 1591 Proclamation\16. Thomas Bell changes Sides\17. Acting on Information received\18. Reading against the Grain; or what Thomas Bell had really been doing in Lancashire Clitherow Vindicated; The Church under the Cross and the Resort to the Public 19.\Thomas Bell and the Politics of Failure\20. Mrs Clitherow entirely vindicated as the Epitome of Catholic Order\Aftermath\Bibliography\Conclusion\Index