Alexander Lock's work begins with the claim that the study of the life of Sir Thomas Gascoigne is a worthy one, because it touches upon a number of issues relating to ‘religion and identity in the eighteenth century, which will advance the understanding of the English Catholic community, and their interaction with their Anglican counterparts’ (p.1.). This study essentially seeks to address the question of what it was like to be an English Catholic landowning aristocrat in the ‘age of Enlightenment’ through the lens of Gascoigne's life, and this it does, with some success.

Thomas Gascoigne was born in 1745 in the northern French town of Cambrai, to a family immersed in promoting the Catholic cause, both in exile and in England. He spent much of his early years at the English Benedictine convent at Cambrai, following the death of his father, his aunt being Catherine Gascoigne (b. 1702), abbess of Cambrai. The book follows a chronological narrative, with chapter i tracing his early years, which were especially influenced by his guardian, Stephen Tempest (1689–1771). He received much of his early education at St Gregory's, Douai, a school run by English Benedictine monks. It was here at Douai, that centre of exiled English Catholicism, that Gascoigne received his first major exposure to Enlightenment thought. And, essentially, this is what the book portrays: Gascoigne as a man of the Enlightenment and of secular learning. His enlightened credentials were honed substantially on two Grand Tours, the subject of the book's second chapter. These tours, we are told, were largely the motive for his adoption of ‘liberal Catholicism’, rejecting the alleged ‘superstitions’ of Italian and Spanish Catholicism. While on the Continent, Gascoigne also found that his aristocratic status opened many doors, allowing him to mix with European elites. This exposure to elite society would not have been possible in his native England, a factor which, Lock tells us, influenced his subsequent apostasy.

Gascoigne returned to England in 1779, having spent practically all his life up to that point on the Continent, and the following year conformed to the state Church before the archbishop of Canterbury, a topic which is explored in chapter iii. Gascoigne found England an inhospitable place for a socially and politically ambitious Catholic, and it was for these practical reasons, as opposed to any theological objections, that Gascoigne conformed. This decision allowed him to fully participate in social and political life, and he was returned as an MP for Thirsk in 1780. Many of his contemporaries cast doubts over the sincerity of his conversion, alleging that he retained Catholic sympathies, assuming the role of a ‘crypto-Catholic’, a thesis which Lock himself appears to advocate.

Chapters iv and v are the ones in which Lock excels, offering readers insight into Gascoigne's estate management and entrepreneurial endeavours. Lock firmly links his economic success to both his liberal, ‘enlightened’ education at St Gregory's, Douai, and his experiences at the Academy of Turin whilst on one of his Grand Tours. The suggestion is made that the continental exile that Catholics like Gascoigne endured, far from having a debilitating effect, had a positive upshot when it came to agriculture and enterprise, having forced them to look beyond traditional practices that were considered best practice in England. Gascoigne, for example, embraced new methods of farming and engineering which, Lock suggests, he would never have had done had his family not been exiled. The penal laws against Catholics, as Lock argues, ‘actually fostered their economic resistance and longevity’ (p.150).

Lock uses an impressive body of primary source material, and places his findings expertly within the current body of scholarship. His arguments are bold, and add to the expanding corpus of scholarly work re-exploring English Catholicism in the eighteenth century. He is most convincing when illustrating the agricultural and entrepreneurial advances that Gascoigne made, a feat which should inspire others to examine the economic activities of British and Irish Catholics in the ‘Age of Enlightenment’. Where one might raise questions, however, is in his portrayal of the nature of English Catholicism, Gascoigne's engagement with the Enlightenment and his apostasy. We are told that English Catholics ‘lived on the Continent not because of a loyalty to a foreign continental faith but, rather, their opportunities as Catholics were so much more restricted in England’ (p.90). Reducing Catholic exile in this period to a merely economic phenomenon is unproven, but to label the Catholicism practised abroad as a ‘foreign continental faith’ is more than a little problematic.

Yet this is the thesis that is put forward: that English Catholicism was fundamentally different from its European equivalents. Lock refers to Gascoigne's ‘liberal Catholic education’, and his distaste for the supposed superstitions, zealotry and piousness that he had witnessed on his Grand Tours as proof of this. His apostasy is characterised as an attempt to create a sort of via media between Catholics and Anglicans. Yet even if a proportion of English Catholics shared these so-called liberal principles, many unquestionably did not, and even amongst those Catholics who did, few went as far as to conform to the state Church. English Catholicism, like any religious body, was not intellectually homogenous, but rather was a complex mix of ideological factions, which Lock could have done well to illustrate.

However, Lock's opening declaration regarding the worth of a study of the life of Gascoigne certainly holds true. And while the route chosen by Gascoigne can hardly be described as typical for English Catholics of his social stature in this period, this ‘life history’ will none the less prove to be a welcome and worthy addition to the expanding corpus of scholarly works which examines English Catholics within their true international context.