The gripping true story of an Elizabethan hunted priest. John
Gerard was a Lancashire man, educated at Oxford and ordained in Rome. After
a ministry in East Anglia he was arrested and tortured in the Tower of
London but, miraculously, escaped and continued working as a priest for the
next eight years, even gaining access to the courts of Elizabeth I and
James I. After the Gunpowder Plot, however, he fled to the continent where
he wrote this autobiography, which transports the reader into a world of
priest-holes, secret Masses and high intrigue. He died in Rome in 1637
without ever seeing England again. This new edition of Philip Caraman's
translation includes many fascinating new and previously unpublished images
and photographs, and an introduction by the recusant historian Michael
Hodgetts. "As an adventure story", wrote historian S T Bindoff , "it ranks
with the best of our own or any other age."
This very important book is a reprint of the rare 1956 edition
by Philip Caraman. It has been enhanced with a new Introduction by Michael
Hodgetts, one of Britain's authorities on recusant history. Furthermore,
the new book contains fascinating images from the Jesuit archives and
pictures of the houses and priest's hiding-holes that Gerard and his fellow
Jesuits used. Most of these have not been published before.
