Lest We be Damned

This book provides a new glimpse of the Reformation from the viewpoint of ordinary Catholics negotiating a treacherous course between salvation and damnation, sovereign and pope, and faith and social position. Employing an interdisciplinary methodology, this work opens a window onto the daily realities faced by ordinary believers and the clergy who attempted to provide realistic opportunities for Catholics to remain Catholic in Protestant England. Lisa McClain challenges traditional views that Catholicism in the Reformation period should resemble late-medieval Catholicism or post-Tridentine Catholicism, and asserts that new types of religious communities arose with alterations in English Catholics' beliefs, rituals and devotional practices. Through compelling personal stories and in rich detail, McClain reveals the give-and-take interaction between the institutional church in Rome and the needs of believers and the hands-on clergy who provided their pastoral care within England. In doing so, she illuminates larger issues of how believers and low-level clergy push the limits of official orthodoxy in order to meet devotional needs.