The Jesuit English mission.

Abstract

This chapter concentrates on the English Jesuit Mission following its inception in 1580. It opens by examining Jesuit navigation of the issues surrounding religion and politics, arguing that it was impossible for the Jesuits’ activities not to have been considered political due to the entwining of the temporal and the spiritual in England. The second part of the chapter explores the Jesuits’ effect on the character of English Catholicism, both in how it was viewed by outsiders and in how it influenced the community’s self-understanding in relation to the Catholic Reformation. The final section considers the wider contexts of the English Jesuit mission through its links to mainland Europe, arguing that events on the periphery of Catholic Europe helped shape its centers. The English Jesuits were part of an international movement active in a specific national story.