In 1562, Jerónimo Osório, a Portuguese Humanist, sent a copy of his Epistola ad Serenissimam Elisabetam Angliae Reginam to Queen Elizabeth of England. This work attempted to persuade Elizabeth to return England to Catholicism and initiated a twenty-year, four-book polemical battle.

The Epistola was translated into English in 1565 by exiled English Catholics in Louvain who attempted to spread Osório's message to a non-academic audience within England. The study of this English translation and its repercussions reveals important information about the philosophy of the exiled English Catholics, recusant book culture, and the structure of the community at Louvain.