Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/292

 284 REVIEWS OF BOOKS April The English Catholics in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. A study of their politics, civil life, and government :. 1558-80. By JOHN HUNGERFORD POLLEN, S.J. (London : Longmans, 1920.) IN recent years much welcome light has been thrown on the interesting section of English life which found itself unable to accept what has been called ' the Elizabethan settlement '. From 1905 onward the lengthening row of volumes issued by the Catholic Record Society has contributed many valuable materials. The two beatifications of English martyrs in 1886 and 1895 have led to the publication of several volumes containing their lives, and some general discussions as to the incidence and character of the various stages of persecution to which the martyrs fell victims. The progressive opening and calendaring of archives at home and abroad has continued to furnish fresh information of a specially valuable kind. Thus, bit by bit, the full materials for the story are becoming available. An interesting story it is, though it concerns a by-way of history whether regarded as rational or ecclesiastical ; it is full of a drama of hopes and fears, lit up by much heroism, as well as spiced by a considerable element of rascality. It is natural that, so far, biography rather than history has taken advantage of the situation. The beatifications have focused attention on certain groups of actors, with the result that Bishop Challoner's biographical work has been done over again, on a larger scale, and with fresh wealth of illustration and detail. The public, too, which is interested in the subject most readily welcomes biography : it is a small and compact company of people interested in its own heroes. So Gillow's Biographical Dictionary has found its supplement, just as Challoner's Memorials have done ; but what is lacking is a survey on broad historical lines of the position of the recusants in England and the exiles abroad. Father Pollen is aware of this, and his book is an interesting attempt to meet the need. ' I am here endeavouring ', he says in his introduction, ' to supply an historical background, against which the work of others will be seen in due proportion.' At the same time it is doubtful how far he has succeeded in his laudable, but difficult, aim. The title which he has chosen raises larger hopes than the book satisfies. This volume deals only with the first twenty-two years of Queen Elizabeth, and the scene is laid for the most part not in England but abroad. It is the diplomatic archives which are most successfully employed ; with the result that, while much is shown of the political side of the matter, the inner life and the religious and social position of the party are very little handled or exemplified. We are made to see the situation mainly through the eyes of the exiles. This is unsatisfactory unless at the same time something better authenti- cated is also produced. For the exiles suffered from the usual disadvan- tages of the emigre, fed upon extravagant rumours and false hopes, and misled into fantastical ideas and projects. What in reality was the extent of recusancy, or of disaffection towards the Elizabethan view of religion ? This is a question of primary impor- tance ; but the book gives very little help towards arriving at any fair conclusion. The fancies of the emigre are very little confronted with the