Crossbows & Crucifixes: A Novel of the Priest Hunters and the Brave Young Men Who Fought Them

England, 1585: Queen Elizabeth's spies lurk everywhere, searching out Catholics who refuse to attend the non-Catholic services of the State religion. Officers of the law hunt down and kill Catholic priests, and imprison those who shelter them.

In these perilous times, fifteen-year-old Nicholas Thorpe discovers that his widowed mother has become Catholic, and he soon joins the Church she has come to love.

Thus begin Nicholas's adventures in the Companions, a pious undergrou...