The first full-scale account of the English Catholic Church in modern times, this study describes the issues and the individuals at the heart of Catholic affairs during a period when Emancipation, Irish immigration, elucidating how conversions radically changed the nature and role of the Church in English society. Here, Norman shows how the 19th-century English Catholics finally established their first secure base since the Reformation by careful adaptation, successful financing and, above all, by the force of spiritual re-awakening.