Catholics in England and Wales, c. 1745–c. 1829

Abstract

Our final period in the history of the Catholic communities of England and Wales between the Reformation and Emancipation is in some ways the most intriguing. The decades in question are punctuated with clear marks of transition: the Catholic Relief Act of 1778 as the first breach in the wall of penal legislation; the Gordon Riots as a violent reminder of the stubborn persistence of popular anti-popery; the impact of the French Revolution in softening national anti-popery; the Second Relief Act of 1791, licensing Catholics’ worship by, in effect, extending to them the benefits that Nonconformists enjoyed under the 1689 Toleration Act; the arrival of refugee French priests in the 1790s, bringing refreshment to the faith, especially in its newer urban centres; and, finally, after protracted political struggle, the achievement of full civil rights in 1829.¹