English Catholic Converts and the Oxford Movement in Mid 19th Century Britain: The Cost of Conversion

Considered by many to be a classic in English 19th century religious history, this work discusses the converts who joined the Roman Catholic Church in the middle years of the nineteenth century. The converts were placed in a position of special prominence, their secession being seen as an important comment on trends within the Church of England, and their acquisition as of great consequence for the Church of Rome. This study is concerned primarily with the ways in which the converts’ own lives were affected by their change of religion: how conversion impacted on their relations with family and friends, their work, and their daily life, and how they themselves responded to the demands made by the Catholic Church on their faith and their taste, their political loyalties and their social habits. A central chapter deals with the married Anglican clergy converts whose family commitments debarred them from the Catholic priesthood. Beyond its intrinsic human interest, the experience of the converts sheds valuable light on such topics as the dynamics of Victorian family life, the secular implications of a religious Establishment, and the process by which English Catholicism, after Emancipation, became integrated into the mainstream of English society.