Despite the resulting popular legend, Protestant reform in Great Britain did not consign Catholicism to historical oblivion; for too long, by general consent, the study of Catholicism in Britain operated in a silo. The dominant version of history held that Catholics disappeared at the Reformation – apart from the odd execution for treason – before reappearing in the 19th century thanks to immigration, to become, by the mid-20th century, a distinct but weird branch on the fringes of national life.