"Flowers of Fathers": Resistance and Consolation in a Catholic Manuscript Compilation, Bodleian MSS. Eng. th. b. 1–2

Abstract

This article re-introduces to scholars Bodleian MSS Eng. th. b. 1-2, a substantial and enigmatic two-volume manuscript work bearing witness to the English Catholic community, its identity, its preoccupations, and the ways through which these found expression. It makes new arguments for the circumstances of the work's compilation and gives an account of its contents in order to facilitate further research into this important source. The manuscript's compiler sought to console and to educate his readership in the traditions and doctrines of the Catholic faith, but he also wrote to stir them to future resistance against persecution. A rich example of lay authorship, the manuscript served as a vehicle for views which could not be expressed publicly, and spoke for a community that identified itself as persecuted.