A number of anthologies on Anglican theology and spirituality have been published in recent years, perhaps reflecting the hegemony of the Church of England in the nation. Eclipsed have been the piety, devotion, prayers, hopes and sufferings of the adherents to the ‘old religion’ and their successors. This anthology of the Catholic tradition closes the gap. The book is divided into three chronological periods – 1483–1688 (persecution), 1688–1850 (quiet recusancy) and 1850–1999 (restoration). It contains extracts from pamphlets, theological works, homilies, prayers, letters and poetry. To be included a writer had to have died in full communion with the Catholic Church (so nothing from George Tyrrell) and the work had to be written during the time of full communion (nothing from Newman's Anglican days). William Caxton and John Colet find themselves alongside Thomas Stapelton and Robert Parsons. A wonderful piece by Mary Howard (Mary of the Holy Cross, 1653–1735) on praying the Divine Office jostles alongside Herbert Thurston's (1856–1939) teaching on the Paschal Candle. Robert Benson (1871–1914), a son of Archbishop Benson of Canterbury, wrote novels as well as theological and devotional works, and extracts of both are included. An incredibly moving (and painful) account of the execution of a Great War deserter, recorded by Robert Steuart, is a reminder of the great anguish army chaplains of all denominations had during those times with a very different take on battle trauma and human fear. W. E. Orchard's From Faith to Faith is included, and this at least raises a question of whether being in communion with the Holy See means that one's theology automatically becomes ‘Catholic’. Orchard's Catholicism was genuine enough, but one formed and selected through a Presbyterian (and later nominally Congregationalist) lens, which is evident in his book. In this context, one of the most intriguing pieces is a prayer before communion by John Colet, the pre-Reformation humanist and Renaissance Dean of St Paul's Cathedral: ‘Make thy Word and Sacraments always so powerful and effectual in our ears and hearts . . . O Lord, seal and confirm this covenant of grace in our hearts by these holy Sacraments (pledges of thy grace and love towards us).’ This is so Reformed in vocabulary, one wonders whether a Protestant interpolated the prayer into the late seventeenth-century publication of Colet's prayers. If not, then either Colet was a Calvinist avant la lettre, or Calvin was a Colet-type Catholic sacramentalist! For the compilers of this anthology, though, dying in communion with the Holy See is what gives the imprimatur. The book contains many treasures, which cumulatively shed a really helpful light on what for far too long has remained a concealed strand in British Christianity.