INTRODUCTION FEW people probably know that some fifty years ago an attempt was made to establish a Catholic Record Society . For many reasons the times seemed favourable for such an undertaking, and after much deliberation the late Lord Acton and others endeavoured to obtain the support of the Catholic body for a society which it was proposed to call the " Lingard Club , " very similar to the society which now presents its members with the first volume of its transactions . The then Sir John Acton was keen and even enthusiastic on the matter, and he promised as his initial contribution to the work of the club, a list of printed books and documents dealing with Catholics and Catholic interests in the latter half of the sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth: a work which would have been invaluable , and which his extensive and peculiar not to say astonishing knowledge of the literature of that period rendered him especially qualified to undertake. According to the project , this was to have been accompanied or followed by a similar catalogue of papers and documents of interest and importance for Catholic history during the same period , which were then still unprinted in the Public Record Office, the British Museum and elsewhere. This list of manuscript sources would have been undertaken by Mr Richard Simpson, who by long and arduous researches in archives and libraries , both in England and abroad, had gathered together extensive collections illustrating the condition of Catholics under Elizabeth and James I , which would have enabled him not only to compile the invaluable catalogue suggested, but to have followed it up with transcripts of papers up to that time wholly unknown . Unfortunately the project failed to elicit the support of the Catholics , and the " Lingard Club " was stillborn in the minds of the small but brilliant band of scholars who had
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conceived the idea. Since that time, of course, much has been done by individual enterprise to make accessible many of the tracts and documents necessary to understand the history of Catholics in the early days of religious persecution . In this connection the names of the late Fathers Knox, Bridgett and Morris, S.J. , suggest themselves at once as pioneer toilers in this branch of our history ; whilst Br Foley's Records, " andabove all, Mr Gillow's invaluable Biographical Dictionary of the English Catholics " are veritable storehousesof information. None of these, however , have done what it is now the sanguine hope of the Catholic Record Society to accomplish for the Catholic body, and which it certainly will accomplish in time in securing adequate support. it only succeeds As to the utility and importance of the work proposed to be done by the Society, there can hardly be two opinions. We should, indeed, be degenerate children of our forefathers if we did not take
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