‘Having drunk heresy with their (mother’s) milk’: English Protestant converts to Catholicism in Malta, 1600–1798

This article analyses the conversion of 379 English Protestants to Catholicism in Malta between 1600 and 1798. It explores the motivations behind their recantation, the agents of their conversion and the role of dissimulation in discarding their Protestant faith. It ends with two remarks. First, peo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inBritish Catholic history Vol. 36; no. 2; pp. 182 - 203
Main Author Ciappara, Frans
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.10.2022
Subjects
18th century
Calvinism
Christianity
Common ground
Protestantism
Quakers
Religious conversion
England
United Kingdom > UK
Malta
Spain
Protestants
religious orders
Christendom
dissimulation
inquisition
conversion
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Summary:This article analyses the conversion of 379 English Protestants to Catholicism in Malta between 1600 and 1798. It explores the motivations behind their recantation, the agents of their conversion and the role of dissimulation in discarding their Protestant faith. It ends with two remarks. First, people in the Mediterranean ‘knew no religious frontiers’.1 Malta, like other Mediterranean territories was a place with a mixed religious profile. Second, though English Protestants considered themselves to be the ‘elect’ and their country the new Israel, the two faiths were not mutually exclusive and could find common ground over the defence of Christendom.
ISSN:2055-7973
2055-7981
DOI:10.1017/bch.2022.22