| During the Elizabethan period in England, subjects who were discovered participating in Roman Catholic rites or rituals were vulnerable to fines or imprisonment, or both. Catholics of the period conformed, emigrated, or resisted; recusant is the name given to a person who resisted attending the government-sanctioned Prayer Book service (the term recusant is used for anyone who refused to attend, and could thus also be used for Puritans; this study, however, uses the term exclusively to refer to Catholics). For those who refused to conform, and thus risked the ire of the government, their spiritual lives had to be satisfied in secret. One method through which they accomplished this task was the reading of devotional literature.;This study analyzes English Catholic devotional literature on two levels, by examining both the works themselves and their impact upon the recusant community. To this point, little analytical work has been done on these works; this study breaks the works down categorically and by decade, to provide a picture of the development of devotional literature over the period. Catholic devotional literature during the Elizabethan period came from both English and continental authors and can be divided into several categories: spiritual directories, works related to the sacraments, catechisms, and works related to prayer and meditation. This study examines many aspects of the works, including introductions and dedications, as well as the specific content of the texts. The forty-six devotional texts that appeared during the Elizabethan period make up the pool of writings for this dissertation.;More critical than the particulars of these works is the notion of how the texts affected the recusants in their devotional lives. Due to the intense religious changes that took place in England during the Tudor period, Catholics had to adapt to a changing religious environment. When driven underground, the persecuted recusants who would not conform depended upon devotional literature to provide part of their spiritual regimen---a regimen no longer available through traditional avenues. Their ability to adapt in the face of government persecution forced the recusants to develop a new type of community---a Catholic community based upon personal piety and infrequent services conducted by clandestine priests. In the face of this adversity, devotional literature provided one of the props that would uphold the Catholics in England and help to create a new sense of community. |
