ABSTRACT
In the last decade of Elizabeth’s reign, two leading figures in the exile English Catholic community – Richard Verstegan and Robert Persons – approached William Reynolds with the idea of producing a comprehensive history of the English Church. Reynolds, then in Antwerp, had played an important role in defending English Catholicism throughout Elizabeth’s reign. Professor of Scripture and Hebrew at the English College at Rheims, Reynolds had been involved with the translation of the Rheims Bible as well as producing a series of influential polemical texts.2 Though too ill to write the history himself, Reynolds discussed with Verstegan what shape this ‘generall ecclesiasticall history’ should take. Volume one would start with the introduction of Christianity to England – Augustine’s mission in c.597 – and end just before Henry VIII’s break with Rome: ‘the tyme of the peace of the Churche’. The second volume should run up to the present, addressing the ‘troobles that have been caused by schisme and heresy’.3
