In assemblies of scholars the remark is often heard, ‘what we need is an English Bremond.’ The reference is to Henri Bremond's Histoire de Sentiment Religieux en France which issued forth in eleven stout volumes from 1916 to 1933 and has since achieved a well-deserved reputation as a classic. There is no question here even of a beginning of an English Bremond. He limited himself to Catholic writers, but even so he was able to touch most of the high points of the French spiritual tradition. Our goal is to trace but one stream in the Recusant/ Catholic tradition, namely, the literature of the English Jesuits. By this we mean spiritual books in English written or translated by members of the English province of the Society of Jesus and published under Catholic auspices in the twenty-six years from 1615 to 1640.