The Trial of Oliver Plunkett
Type
Book
Authors
Category
Catholic Saints
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Publication Year
1953
Publisher
Pages
239
Description
Alice Curtayne is already well known for her biography of Saint Catherine of Siena, a steady favorite with many readers over many years. In her new book she turns her attention to a figure nearer our own time - Blessed Oliver Plunkett, one of the last victims of that shameful and tragic fabrication, Titus Oates' "Popish Plot." In its essence, Blessed Oliver's story is simple. A gentle, lovable man respected even by some of those who were passionately opposed to his Faith, he was the victim of a judicial murder which formed part of a game of power politics played for the most part by men whose cynicism rotted the whole spiritual fabric of England. Even the twisted nobility of fanaticism was absent from them.
The story is simple in its essence, but its details are a complicated web - the intrigues of Court against Parliament, the competition of spy with spy and informer with informer, the treachery and repentance of a priest who could not live up to his calling, the mob psychology of seventeenth-century London, the cruel sufferings and degradations and heroisms of oppressed Ireland. All these things and many more must be brought into the picture if we are to understand what lies beneath the dialogues of the trial; and Alice Curtayne conducts us through it, as it was taken down verbatim by the court reporters, filling in the picture for us so that we can share the reactions of those who actually played the tragedy out. Everything that makes us human is here: the fears and weaknesses, the love and courage and capacity to forgive, the strength of the gentle and the despairing viciousness of the weak. But above all is the radiance of the Faith, and a charity which triumphed superbly and joyfully over the worst that could be done by the world, the flesh and the devil.
Alice Curtayne is Mrs. Stephen Rynne in private life. She lives in County Kildare, Ireland, with her husband and four children, where she looks after them and writes. Her other books include St. Catherine of Siena, St. Bridget of Ireland, A Recall to Dante, St. Anthony of Padua, and House of Cards, a novel.
Taken from the inside flaps.
The story is simple in its essence, but its details are a complicated web - the intrigues of Court against Parliament, the competition of spy with spy and informer with informer, the treachery and repentance of a priest who could not live up to his calling, the mob psychology of seventeenth-century London, the cruel sufferings and degradations and heroisms of oppressed Ireland. All these things and many more must be brought into the picture if we are to understand what lies beneath the dialogues of the trial; and Alice Curtayne conducts us through it, as it was taken down verbatim by the court reporters, filling in the picture for us so that we can share the reactions of those who actually played the tragedy out. Everything that makes us human is here: the fears and weaknesses, the love and courage and capacity to forgive, the strength of the gentle and the despairing viciousness of the weak. But above all is the radiance of the Faith, and a charity which triumphed superbly and joyfully over the worst that could be done by the world, the flesh and the devil.
Alice Curtayne is Mrs. Stephen Rynne in private life. She lives in County Kildare, Ireland, with her husband and four children, where she looks after them and writes. Her other books include St. Catherine of Siena, St. Bridget of Ireland, A Recall to Dante, St. Anthony of Padua, and House of Cards, a novel.
Taken from the inside flaps.
Number of Copies
1
