ABSTRACT
Elizabethan Catholics recognized the potential damage to their cause posed by the great popularity of Foxe's Acts and Monuments but were initially slow to respond effectively. Once alerted to the tremendous power of visual imagery for propaganda, English Catholics abroad employed the visual arts in an increasingly elaborate and sophisticated strategy, often influenced by the artistic traditions of their adopted countries. This chapter aims to give a brief indication of the methods and aims of this strategy. A demonstration of how pictures of the execution of English priests could be used as a visual aid before the general population occurred in Paris in 1587. Richard Verstegan had printed another six pictures illustrating the arrest, torture, and execution of priests in England but of a much higher quality and greater visual sophistication than his earlier attempts. The techniques pioneered in France and Rome for the exploitation of visual propaganda were developed by the English colleges in Spain.
