FAITH AND TREASON: TERROR & FAITH IN 1605. by Fraser, Antonia - 1996

Toronto: Doubleday, 1996. 347 pp, 9 1/2" H. B&w illustrations. "(Fraser) re-creates the seventeenth-century terrorist conspiracy known as the Gunpowder Plot. In England, November 5 is Guy Fawkes Day, when fireworkds displays commemorate the shocking moment in 1605 when government authorities uncovered a secret plan to blow up the House of Parliament - and King James I along with it. A group of English Catholics, seeking to unseat the king and reintroduce Catholicism as the state religion, daringly placed thirty-six barrels of gunpowder in a cellar under the Palace of Westminster. Their aim was to ignite (it) at the opening of the parliamentary session. Thought the charismatic Catholic Robert Catesby was the group's leader, it was the devout Guy Fawkes who emerged as its most famous member, as he was the one who was captured and who revealed under torture the names of his fellow plotters. In the aftermath of their arrests, conditions grew worse for English Catholics, as legal penalties against them were stiffened and public sentiment became rabidly intolerant. In a narrative that reads like a gripping detective story, Fraser has untangled the web of religion, politics, and personalities that surrounded that fateful night. And in examining the lengths to which individuals will go for their faith, she finds in the long-ago event a reflection of the religion-inspired terrorism that has produced gunpowder plots of our own time." A few tiny dents on the bottom edge of the boards. Dust jacket has minor edge wrinkling.- mainly at the top/bottom of the hinges.. Hard Cover. Very Good+/Very Good+.