God's Secret Agents: The Story of a Deadly Game of Cat and Mouse between Priests and Government Spies, in which Queen Elizabeth and Her Ministers Fought to Defend the State, and English Catholics Fought to Defend Their Souls

by Alice Hogge

Overview

One evening in 1588, just weeks after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, two young men landed in secret on a beach in Norfolk, England. They were Jesuit priests, Englishmen, and their aim was to achieve by force of argument what the Armada had failed to do by force of arms: return England to the Catholic Church.

Eighteen years later their mission would be shattered by the actions of the Gunpowder Plotters -- a small group of terrorists who famously tried to destroy the Houses of Parliament -- for the Jesuits were accused of having designed "that most horrid and hellish conspiracy."

Alice Hogge follows "God's secret agents" from their schooling on the Continent, through their perilous return journeys and lonely lives in hiding, to, ultimately, the gallows. She offers a remarkable true account of faith, duty, intolerance, and martyrdom -- the unforgettable story of men who would die for a cause undone by men who would kill for it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062047250
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/11/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	1219
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Alice Hogge was educated at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. She lives in London. This is her first book.

What People are Saying About This

Eamon Duffy

“Alice Hogge’s vivid narrative culminates in a gripping account of the [Gunpowder] Plot and its disastrous denouement.”

Editorial Reviews

One day in 1603, five devout British Catholics met secretly and swore an oath on the Holy Sacrament to blow up King James and the Houses of Parliament. This desperate act was designed to lift the rampant repression and persecution of Catholics within the country. On the night before the plot was to be enacted, conspirator Guy Fawkes was arrested in the cellars beneath Parliament with gunpowder. Alice Hogge's God's Secret Agents describes how warring religious fundamentalists nearly changed the face of England.

As historian Hogge points out in this sometimes dry and sometimes lively popular religious history, the impulse to return Catholicism to England in the latter part of the 16th century arose with the establishment of the Anglican Church. In the early days of her reign, Elizabeth instituted strict laws regarding church attendance and religious practice with punishments that included fines and death. By the time that James I ascended to the throne, persecution of Catholics had risen to such a pitch that a group of Catholic conspirators, including most famously Guy Fawkes, hatched a plot to blow up Parliament. Hogge provides a tantalizing glimpse into the lives of the priests-such as Edmund Campion, John Gerard and Henry Garnet-who made martyrs of themselves in their efforts to reinstate Catholicism in England. Hogge deftly narrates the seething world of religious conflict in late 16th- and early 17th-century England, as well as the intra-Catholic conflicts that arose in the face of persecutions by the throne. Anyone interested in vibrant details of the Gunpowder Plot will have to look elsewhere, since the event plays a small role in Hogge's book, but for a detailed sketch of the religious conflict that led to the plot, Hogge's book provides a starting point. (June) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

[A] vivid and moving portrait of the Counterreformation in the Elizabethan age.

Jonathan Mirsky

Paints a vivid picture of the stresses of operating in secret, under false identities, in constant fear of betrayal.

London Times

Alice Hogge’s vivid narrative culminates in a gripping account of the [Gunpowder] Plot and its disastrous denouement.

Eamon Duffy

An illuminating look at an often overlooked period of church-state turmoil . . . Draws surprising parallels with events today.

National Catholic Reporter

The final chapters make moving, even tragic reading.

Evening Standard

A well-researched, skillfully crafted book that evokes the physical as well as the intellectual world of Renaissance English Catholicism.

Weekly Standard

Excellently researched and beautifully written.

Financial Times

[A] vivid and moving portrait of the Counterreformation in the Elizabethan age.

The Spectator

An exciting account of the Catholic resistance in England under Elizabeth.

New Statesman

Compelling storytelling.

The Observer

Hogge’s absorbing narrative of the experience of [Catholic] underground life reads like a historical novel.

The Guardian

A tense, taut, real-life political thriller.

Booklist

Paints a vivid picture of the stresses of operating in secret, under false identities, in constant fear of betrayal.

London Times

Hogge’s absorbing narrative of the experience of [Catholic] underground life reads like a historical novel.” — The Guardian

“Hogge deftly narrates the seething world of religious conflict in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England.” — Publishers Weekly

“An illuminating look at an often overlooked period of church-state turmoil . . . Draws surprising parallels with events today.” — National Catholic Reporter

“An exciting account of the Catholic resistance in England under Elizabeth.” — New Statesman

“Compelling storytelling.” — The Observer

“Alice Hogge’s vivid narrative culminates in a gripping account of the [Gunpowder] Plot and its disastrous denouement.” — Eamon Duffy, New York Review of Books

“A well-researched, skillfully crafted book that evokes the physical as well as the intellectual world of Renaissance English Catholicism.” — Weekly Standard

“A tense, taut, real-life political thriller.” — Booklist

“[A] vivid and moving portrait of the Counterreformation in the Elizabethan age.” — The Spectator

“Paints a vivid picture of the stresses of operating in secret, under false identities, in constant fear of betrayal.” — London Times

“The final chapters make moving, even tragic reading.” — Evening Standard

“Excellently researched and beautifully written.” — Financial Times

From the Publisher