Religious controversy to 1625

English Recusants learned to defend the authority of the Pope from works of controversy. The Catholic priest Nicholas Sanders (1531-1581), who obtained the help of Philip II to go to Ireland to promote the rebellion against Queen Elisabeth and…

The English Catholics in exile in Europe created whatare known as ‘English Colleges’, Jesuit seminars where they were ordained to the priesthood, with the risky mission of secretly returning to their country to restore Catholicism. In Spain rose…

In 1596, the port of Cádiz suffered the attack of an Anglo-Dutch fleet. In the sack of the city, the English desecrated an image of the Virgin, hacking off both of Our Lady’s arms with their sabres and slashing her face. The English seminarians…

This Defense of the Catholic faith against the errors of Anglicanism, by Francisco Suárez, was published in response to the controversy raised by the proclamation and defense made by James I of his Oath of Allegiance (1606), through which he tried to…