Creating the Ideal English Catholic: Martyrs and Their Scripts in Elizabethan England (thesis)

Abstract

. . . My analysis does use quotes and stories from various martyrdom accounts, but the purpose of this thesis is to look specifically at how martyrdom and martyrs were framed and described at different times and in different contexts, rather than to look at the martyrs themselves or explicitly at the relationship between Protestants and Catholics. The changes in Catholic attitudes over the period cited specifically by McClain and Holmes are extremely interesting, but they take on even more importance when paired with the martyrdom accounts and martyr literature that were produced over the period. [From Introduction]