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Caroline casuistry. The cases of conscience of Fr Thomas Southwell SJ . Edited by Peter Holmes . (Catholic Record Society, Records Ser., 84.) Pp. l+308 incl. frontispiece. Woodbridge : Boydell Press (for the Catholic Record Society) , 2012. £45. 978 0 902832 27 5
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One has to say that, if one were to rank topics in early modern history in order of sheer excitement, casuistry would not normally be near the top of the list. Nor has casuistry itself always had a good reputation, and never less so than in the early modern period when its alleged abuses were made notorious in, for example, the treason trials of Robert Southwell and Henry Garnet. However, this really well edited volume in this respect bucks the trend. It comprises two overlapping manuscripts, both assigned to the Jesuit Thomas Bacon, alias Southwell. The texts are his teaching notes for his lectures in pastoral theology at Liège. However, as the introduction stresses, his work circulated in manuscript and was perhaps actually used in practice by missionary clergy. As the editor says, 'the English cases of conscience ......