In 1598, the first English convent to be founded since the dissolution of the monasteries was established in Brussels, followed by a further twenty-one foundations, which all self-identified as English institutions in Catholic Europe. Around four thousand women entered these religious houses over the following two centuries. This book highlights the significance of the English convents as part of, and contributors to, national and European Catholic culture. Covering the whole exile period and making extensive use of rarely consulted archive material, James E. Kelly situates the English Catholic experience within the wider context of the Catholic Reformation and Catholic Europe. He thus transforms our understanding of the convents, stressing that they were not isolated but were, in fact, an integral part of the transnational Church which transcended national boundaries. The original and immersive structure takes the reader through the experience of being a nun, from entry into the convent, to day-to-day life in enclosure, how the enterprise was funded, as well as their wider place within the Catholic world.

Shortlisted, 2021 Ecclesiastical History Society Book Prize

'Many contemporaries regarded enclosed convents as major spiritual, intellectual and even ideological statements about the nature of true religion. In the context of the changes of religion in England from the mid-sixteenth century onwards, the setting up of English convents in exile was a serious public intervention in the post-Reformation Church. This book draws on an impressive array of archival sources about these convents, and comprehensively and authoritatively reinstates them in the modern-day historiography of the British and European Reformation and Counter-Reformation.'

Michael Questier - Research Chair, University of Vanderbilt, Nashville

'This important contribution to the study of the Early Modern English Catholic diaspora, shows how the English convents established on the continent were not inward-looking institutions, but were fully engaged with the latest Counter-Reformation ideas and practices. The book gives a wide-ranging account of the convents in their first two centuries by focusing on how the nuns created a collective identity in exile.'

Christopher Highley - Ohio State University

'Here is a work that reads the English convents as they understood themselves. That is as all-female communities at the heart of European Catholic reformation, as nuns on mission for England and for the world. Their rich world of cloisters, kin, song, prayer, money, and networking is beautifully reconstructed and interrogated in this essential and original volume.'

John McCafferty - University College Dublin

‘This broad-ranging study testifies to its author’s in-depth knowledge of conventual archives … Its treatment of complex issues allies nuance and clarity, and those qualities contribute to making this monograph a great read.’

Laurence Lux-Sterritt Source: British Catholic History

‘Kelly is to be congratulated for restoring the religious dimension to the discussion.’

Thomas M. McCoog Source: Journal of Jesuit Studies

‘… Kelly’s book is an outstanding and well-researched analysis which has finally shed light on a world which has not been properly understood and examined. One of the many merits of this book is to have described the rich array of details on the entrant nuns, their family background, the organization of the journey to mainland Europe, and their life inside the convent.’

Matteo Binasco Source: Studi irlandesi

‘Kelly has convincingly demonstrated the need to situate English Catholic convents firmly within their wider European context and recognise them as particularly vigorous expressions of Tridentine Catholicism. His book will therefore be of great interest not only to scholars of early modern English Catholicism, but also to historians of the European Counter-Reformation more broadly …’

Frederick E. Smith Source: English Historical Review

‘English Convents in Catholic Europe is a landmark monograph in several ways. Impeccably written and deeply researched, this magisterial work will set the standard for a dynamic field that is still largely in its infancy.’

Jaime Goodrich Source: Early Modern Women

‘… Kelly offers a meaningful contribution to the study of the early modern English convents and their relationship to the Catholic Reformation-one that will guide and sustain future research into these communities and the nuns who entered them.’

Jenna Lay Source: Church History

‘… it is essential that academia be reminded periodically that social activism or national sentiment does not explain why they abandoned so much for the cloister. Convents were more than a haven for more confessionally mobile English Catholics. Kelly is to be congratulated for restoring the religious dimension to the discussion.’

Thomas M. McCoog Source: Journal of Jesuit Studies

‘[Kelly] is an engaging writer and uses a wide array of sources, including letters, obituary books, accounts, and spiritual treatises, to powerfully evoke the quotidian experiences of these women.’

Colleen M. Seguin Source: American Historical Review

‘… This is an excellent survey based on close reading of the recent literature, which opens up new questions about the lives of these resilient and redoubtable women who contributed significantly to post-Reformation English and European Catholicism.’

William Sheils Source: Journal of Ecclesiastical History

‘… an impressive study … The book provides a fascinating window into the collective experience of nearly four thousand English nuns in the period of the Catholic Reformation … [it] provides an important answer to anyone wondering what happened to the long tradition of English monasticism, and especially of convents, after the Dissolution.’

Genelle Gertz Source: Renaissance Quarterly