In 1582, exiled English Catholic scholars living at the English College in Rheims, France, published the Douay-Rheims New Testament, translating directly from the Latin Vulgate. This translation was specifically designed to provide English Catholics with an orthodox alternative to the increasingly popular Protestant vernacular Bibles circulating in Britain. The translators deliberately retained many Latinate theological terms rather than using simpler Anglo-Saxon equivalents, creating a distinctively formal, majestic, and ecclesial tone that stood in sharp contrast to contemporary Protestant translations.

The ornate, Latinate vocabulary of the Douay-Rheims Bible left a noticeable mark on the language of English Catholic underground poetry. Its distinct phrasing and sonorous vocabulary resurfaced centuries later in the deeply religious, complex linguistic structures of late Victorian Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins.