This volume compares the position of Catholic minorities in England and the Dutch Republic. Looking beyond the tales of persecution that have dominated traditional historiography, the contributors focus on the realities of Catholic existence.

Thematically organised, the book explores Catholicism as a minority culture that resorted to unorthodox means, both to retain its own identity, and to survive in a hostile political environment. It examines ritual, material culture, international networks, and above all relations: between laity and clergy, men and women, Catholics and Protestants

By highlighting differences as well as similarities between the English and Dutch experiences, Catholic communities in Protestant states will help both undergraduate readers and specialists to rethink the history of Catholicism and the consequences of minority status for religious communities.

1. Shifting identities in hostile settings: towards a comparison of the Catholic communities in early modern Britain and the Northern Netherlands - Willem Frijhoff
2. Cooperative Confessionalisation: lay-clerical collaboration in Dutch Catholic Communities during the Golden Age - Charles H. Parker
3. 'So they become contemptible': clergy and laity in a mission territory - Michael Mullett
4. Integration vs. segregation: religiously mixed marriage and the `Verzuiling' model of Dutch society - Benjamin J. Kaplan
5. 'Getting on' and 'getting along' in parish and town: Catholics and their neighbours in England - William Sheils
6. Burying the dead; reliving the past: ritual, resentment and sacred space in the Dutch Republic - Judith Pollmann
7. Beads, books and bare ruined choirs: transmutations of Catholic ritual life in Protestant England - Alexandra Walsham
8. The southern Netherlands connection: networks of support and patronage - Paul Arblaster
9. Priests, nuns, presses and prayers: the southern Netherlands and the contours of English Catholicism - Claire Walker
10. Second-class yet self-confident: Catholics in the Dutch Generality Lands - Charles de Mooij
11.Between conflict and coexistence: the Catholic community in Ireland as a 'visible underground church' in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries - Ute Lotz-Heumann
12. Orphans and students: recruiting boys and girls for the Holland Mission - Joke Spaans
13.Harbourers and housekeepers: Catholic women in England 1570-1720 - Marie B. Rowlands
14.Paintings for clandestine Catholic churches in the Republic: typically Dutch? - Xander van Eck
15.Cultures of dissent: English Catholics and the visual arts - Richard L. Williams
16.Conclusion: Catholic communities in Protestant states, Britain and the Netherlands c.1580-1720 - Ben Kaplan and Judith Pollmann
Index

Editors

Benjamin J. Kaplan is Professor of Dutch History at University College London

Bob Moore is Professor of Twentieth-Century European History at the University of Sheffield

Henk van Nierop is Professor Emeritus of Early Modern History at the University of Amsterdam
Judith Pollmann is professor of early modern Dutch history at Leiden University