The Construction of Martyrdom in the English Catholic Community - 1603-1700

Between the accession of King James I in 1603, and King James II in 1685, eighty-one English Catholics were put to death by the state for treason and fifteen others died in prison while awaiting execution. This book considers the ways in which the English Catholic community, both at home and abroad, transformed these deaths into acts of martyrdom. Through a detailed study of the nature and function of the rhetoric of images, manuscripts and texts, this book redresses the confessional balance and maps the changing nature and self-image of English Catholicism during the turbulent years of the 1600s. It demonstrates how the rhetoric of martyrdom came to reflect and highlight many of the arguments and divisions within the English Catholic community as it sought to come to terms with its minority status in a country increasingly dominated and defined by militant Protestantism.