Demonstrates how, far from being peripheral, the stable communities of conventual religious in mainland Europe acted as important centres of religious and secular activity in the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation. This collection aims to explore new perspectives on the British and Irish conventual, mendicant and monastic movements in mainland Europe and rediscover their roles and wider impact within early modern European Catholicism. Building on recent scholarship, the book addresses a historiographical imbalance, which has led to an over-emphasis being placed on the role of the Society of Jesus in the development of British and Irish Catholicism following the Protestant Reformation. The stable communities of religious in mainland Europe also acted as important centres of religious and secular activity. This volume explores the ways in which British and Irish conventuals and monastics, both men and women, engaged with the seismic religious and philosophical developments of the early modern period, such as the Catholic Reformation and the Enlightenment in mainland Europe, as well as important political developments at 'home', exploring the connections between centres and peripheries. Building on recent movements within the field to 'decentralise' the Catholic Reformation and recognize the international nature of Catholicism, the volume aims to change the perception that the activities of British and Irish religious were 'peripheral', bringing the islands' experience in line with work on their European confreres and the broader global network of the religious orders.

Ranging from devotional poetry to confessional history, across the span of competing religious traditions, this volume addresses the lived faith of diverse communities during the turmoil of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Together, they provide a textured understanding of the complexities in religious belief, practice and organization.

Ranging from devotional poetry to confessional history, across the span of competing religious traditions, this volume addresses the lived faith of diverse communities during the turmoil of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Together, they provide a textured understanding of the complexities in religious belief, practice and organization.

The evolution of the Counter-Reformation church in Ireland is central to Irish history. The papal nuncio GianBattista Rinuccini was at the heart of the turbulent events of the 1640s, a decade which formed a prologue to the Cromwellian conquest. This book offers a scholarly reappraisal of the man and his role in shaping the religion and history of Ireland.

The theme of 'community' has proved a focus of considerable interest in recent historiography, but has been neglected in its application to Ireland. Here the question of 'community' is pursued in terms of the political, cultural, social and religious condition of Ireland, and in its European context. Contents -- Tadhg hAnnrachin (UCD) on the ideal of representative communities; Colm Lennon (NUIM) on fraternity and community in early modern Ireland; John McCafferty (UCD) on early modern interpretations of the Island of Saints and Scholars; Tim Harris (Brown U) on politics, religion and community in later Stuart Ireland; Patrick Little (History of Parliament, London) on The New English in Europe 1625-1660; Clodagh Tait (U Essex) on Catholic bequests and recusancy in Ireland; Aoife Duignan (UCD) on Shifting allegiances: the Protestant community in Connacht, 1643-5; Darren McGettigan on the political community of the lordship of Tir Chonaill and reaction to the Nine Years War; Robert Arms