The Quest for Shakespeare: The Bard of Avon and the Church of Rome

The Quest for Shakespeare presents Joseph Pearce’s stimulating and controversial argument that William Shakespeare was a believing Catholic living in very anti-Catholic times. Dealing with the facts of Shakespeare’s life and times, Pearce’s quest leads to the inescapable conclusion that the Bard harbored Catholic sympathies and possibly practiced the old faith in secret.

The evidence cited shows that John Shakespeare’s will was based on a Catholic model; that both John and William Shakespeare left bequests and executorship to Catholics; that Shakespeare’s daughters were named from the Apocrypha; and that Shakespeare bought property that benefited Catholics, including a longtime venue for clandestine masses.