A groundbreaking study of the familial networks and the political, religious and mental worlds of the Catholic aristocracy from 1550 to 1640. It demonstrates the extent to which sections of the Catholic community had come to an understanding with both the local and national State by the later 1620s and 1630s. 1. Introduction 2. The local setting 3. The emergence of a catholic dynasty: the Brownes of Cowdray 4. The Brownes, catholicism and politics until the Ridolfi Plot 5. The Brownes, catholicism and politics from the 1570s Until The Early 1590s 6. The entourage of the first Viscount Montague 7. The household at Battle Abbey and the Lady Magdalen's entourage 8. The 1590s to the Gunpowder Plot 9. Catholic politics and clerical culture after the accession of James Stuart 10. The household and circle of the Second Viscount Montague. 11. 'Grand Captain' or 'Little Lord': the second Viscount Montague as Catholic leader 12. The later Jacobean and early Caroline period 13. The second Viscount Montague, his entourage and the approbation controversy 14. Catholicism, clientage networks and the debates of the 1630s 15. Epilogue: the Civil War and after.