The story of Catholicism in England, told here through the broad sweep of the centuries, covers the periods of conversion, medieval consolidation, the crisis of the Reformation and then the Second Spring and its aftermath. This eBook offers readers a general framework into which they can slot whatever historical facts they already know. The often largely hidden history of the English Catholic Church and its intriguing personalities, cultural riches, controversies and stories of courage are...

The Church sets aside special days throughout the year to remember particular saints with feasts, memorials and solemnities. From the best-known reformers, founders and Doctors of the Church, to lesser-known saints and martyrs, each has been carefully chosen by the Church to be celebrated for his or her life and works. These texts help us to discover more about these holy men and women and why they are so important. It is an invaluable tool for daily prayer and a helpful introduction to th...

Essays to Commemorate the 850th Anniversary of the Martyrdom of St Thomas Becket (c. 1118-1170) | Foreword by Mgr Philip Whitmore Rector of the Venerable English College, Rome. Essays by Judith Champ, Peter Davidson, Eamon Duffy, Peter Leech, Peter Phillips, Carol M. Richardson, Nicholas Schofield. Edited by Maurice Whitehead | The murder on 29 December 1170 of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, sent shockwaves across the Christian world. The combination of his martyrdom, his canoniz...

The essays in this volume look at the mechanics of debt, the legal process, and its economics in early medieval England. Beneath the elevated plane of high politics, affairs of the Crown and international finance of the Middle Ages, lurked huge numbers of credit and debt transactions. The transactions and those who conducted them moved between social and economic worlds; merchants and traders, clerics and Jews, extending and receiving credit to and from their social superiors, equals and i...

In Asia and the Pacific, climate change is now a well-recognised risk to water security but responses to this risk are either under reported, or continue to be guided by the incremental or business as usual approaches. Water policy still tends to remain too narrow and fragmented, compared to the multi-sectoral and cross-scalar nature of risks to water security. What’s more, current water security debates tend to be framed in discipline specific or academic ways, failing to understand decis...

A simple guide to tracing British family tree before the onset of civil registration in 1837 and back to the Middle Ages.The trail that an ancestor leaves through the Victorian period and the twentieth century is relatively easy to follow—the records are plentiful, accessible, and commonly used. But how do you go back further, into the centuries before the central registration of births, marriages, and deaths was introduced in 1837, before the first detailed census ...

We are becoming increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters. Disaster Management is therefore an important topic for all—from high school students to researchers. Disaster data in recent years show increasing trends in physical, social and economic impacts. While a global perspective of disaster management is necessary, it is also important to emphasize local solutions. This book targets some of the key issues of disaster management, focusing on innovative research and application. The ch...

Catharism was the most successful heresy of the Middle Ages. Flourishing principally in the Languedoc and Italy, the Cathars taught that the world is evil and must be transcended through a simple life of prayer, work, fasting and non-violence. They believed themselves to be the heirs of the true heritage of Christianity going back to apostolic times, and completely rejected the Catholic Church and all its trappings, regarding it as the Church of Satan; Cathar services and ceremonies, by co...

The English reformers of the 1530s, with Thomas Cromwell at their head, continued to have a strong belief in kingly rule and authority, in contrast to their radical approach to the power of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. Resisting the king was tantamount to resisting God in their eyes, and even on a matter of conscience the will of the king should prevail. Yet just over 100 years later, Charles I was called the 'man of blood', and Oliver Cromwell famously declared...

A Financial Times Economics Book of the YearA brilliant narrative of early capitalism's most famous scandal, a speculative frenzy that nearly bankrupted the British state during the hot summer of 1720 – and paradoxically led to the birth of modern finance.The South Sea Company was formed to trade with Asian and Latin American countries. But it had almost no ships and did precious little trade. Instead it got into financial fraud on a massive scale, ...

This open access book presents multiple disciplinary perspectives on the challenges and opportunities for sustainable development in the South African mountain city of Phuthaditjhaba. These challenges are embedded in the complex environmental, socio-cultural and political contexts of the region. Established as the capital of the QwaQwa ‘homeland’ under Grand Apartheid, this city is now home to between 400,000 – 700,000 people but in many areas lacks formal infrastructure and services. Each...

An accessible biography of Henry VIII by one of the country's leading Tudor experts. The future Henry VIII was born on 29 June 1491, the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. This talented, athletic and temperamental man might have proved something of a handful to his elder brother, Prince Arthur, the firstborn, had he survived to wear the crown. But Henry's life was changed forever when Arthur died in 1502 and the course of English history took a very unexpected turn.