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blustocking's review
3.0
I'm not entirely sure what Duffy is trying to do with this one. It begins as an examination of a couple of the major personalities of the counter-reformation in England and moves on towards a more general overview of the English Catholicism of the period. The title, the introduction, and the actual content of the book appear to be doing different jobs. While I do appreciate Duffy's attempt to rescue Catholicism from its Protestant detractors in history (even if he does stretch it a bit in his partisan zeal), this book feels less like a major contribution and more like a place to stick research that didn't make it into his other works. That said, I thought his chapter on the conflicts between secular clergy and monastic houses was excellent.
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