Between 1600 and 1800 around 4,000 Catholic women left England for a life of exile in the convents of France, Flanders, Portugal and America. These closed communities offered religious contemplation and safety, but also provided an environment of concentrated female intellectualism. The nuns’ writings from this time form a unique resource.

    Acknowledgements, Notes on the Text, Introduction, Select Bibliography, Part I: Polemics (edited by Michael Questier), Part II: American Connections (edited by Caroline Bowden), Part III: The French Revolution, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Return to England, Editorial Notes, Index

    Biography

    Caroline Bowden, Katrien Daemen-de Gelder, James E Kelly, Richard G. Williams, Carmen M. Mangion, Michael Questier, Emma Major