Confessional Mobility and English Catholics in Counter-Reformation Europe

Abstract

In the wake of England’s break with Rome and gradual reformation, English Catholics took root outside of the country, in Catholic countries across Europe. Their arrival and the foundation of convents and colleges on the Continent has attracted scholarly attention. However, we need to understand their impact beyond that initial moment of change. Confessional Mobility, therefore, looks at the continued presence of English Catholics abroad and how the English Catholic community was shaped by these cross-Channel connections. This study proposes a new interpretative model of ‘confessional mobility’. Changing perspective opens up our study to include pilgrims, Grand Tour travellers, students, and mobile scholars alongside exiles. The diversity of mobility highlights that those abroad were never cut off, isolated on the Continent. Rather, through correspondence and constant travel they created a community without borders. This cross-Channel community was not defined by its status as victims of persecution, but provided the lifeblood for English Catholics for generations. Confessional Mobility also incorporates minority Catholics more closely into the history of the Counter-Reformation. Long sidelined as exceptions to the rule of a hierarchical, triumphant, territorial Catholic Church, English Catholics have seldom been recognized as an instrumental part in the wider Counter-Reformation. Attention to movement and mission in the self-understanding of Catholics incorporates minority Catholics alongside extra-European missions and reinforces current moves to decentre Counter-Reformation scholarship.

The legacy of exile and the rise of humanitarianism 1

“…In some areas, the experience of exile in fact encouraged experiments with religious toleration. 16 All the same, the rise of parallel, confessional mentalities in post-Reformation Europe cannot be separated from the formative experiences of its various migrating minorities.…”