{"product_id":"9780060542283","title":"God's Secret Agents : Queen Elizabeth's Forbidden Priests and the Hatching of the Gunpower Plot","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eGod's Secret Agents\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Alice Hogge\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne evening in 1588, just weeks after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, two young men landed in secret on a beach in Norfolk, England. They were Jesuit priests, Englishmen, and their aim was to achieve by force of argument what the Armada had failed to do by force of arms: return England to the Catholic Church.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEighteen years later their mission would be shattered by the actions of the Gunpowder Plotters -- a small group of terrorists who famously tried to destroy the Houses of Parliament -- for the Jesuits were accused of having designed \"that most horrid and hellish conspiracy.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlice Hogge follows \"God's secret agents\" from their schooling on the Continent, through their perilous return journeys and lonely lives in hiding, to, ultimately, the gallows. She offers a remarkable true account of faith, duty, intolerance, and martyrdom -- the unforgettable story of men who would die for a cause undone by men who would kill for it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e“Hogge’s absorbing narrative of the experience of [Catholic] underground life reads like a historical novel.”\u003cbr\u003e“Hogge deftly narrates the seething world of religious conflict in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England.”\u003cbr\u003e“An illuminating look at an often overlooked period of church-state turmoil . . . Draws surprising parallels with events today.”\u003cbr\u003e“An exciting account of the Catholic resistance in England under Elizabeth.”\u003cbr\u003e“Compelling storytelling.”\u003cbr\u003e“Alice Hogge’s vivid narrative culminates in a gripping account of the [Gunpowder] Plot and its disastrous denouement.”\u003cbr\u003e“A well-researched, skillfully crafted book that evokes the physical as well as the intellectual world of Renaissance English Catholicism.”\u003cbr\u003e“A tense, taut, real-life political thriller.”\u003cbr\u003e“[A] vivid and moving portrait of the Counterreformation in the Elizabethan age.”\u003cbr\u003e“Paints a vivid picture of the stresses of operating in secret, under false identities, in constant fear of betrayal.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9780060542283\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":41019393671374,"sku":"9780060542283","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/9780060542283_30100bdf-55ed-477b-99c2-d9984fea9dcc.jpg?v=1652120830","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9780060542283","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}