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 RECORDS OF THE ENGLISH PROVINCE 
 OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS. 
 
ROEHAMPTON : 
 
 PRINTED BY JAMES STANLEY. 
 

FATHER EDMUND ARROWSMITH, S.J., 
 
 Martyr for the Faith. 
 
 Suffered at Lancaster, August 28, 1628 ; cet. 43. 
 (Vera effigies. From the Stonyhurst copy 0/ the original picture at 
 St. Mary's, Wigan.) 
 
SI. 90. 2D. 05. 
 
 RECORDS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ENGLISH PROVINCE OF THE 
 SOCIETY OF JESUS. 
 
 Historic Facts ilhistrative of the labours and sufferings of its 
 Members in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. 
 
 Seconti, anti jFourtf) Scries* 
 
 II. THE COLLEGE OF ST. ALOYSIUS, or the Lancashire District. 
 
 III. THE COLLEGE OF ST. CHAD, or the Staffordshire District. 
 
 THE COLLEGE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, OR THE 
 Derbyshire District. 
 
 IV. THE COLLEGE OF THE FIOLY APOSTLES, or the Suffolk 
 
 District. 
 
 THE COLLEGE OF ST. DOMINIC, or the Lincolnshire District. 
 
 BY A MEMBER OF THE SAME SOCIETY. 
 
 circuierunt in melotis, in fiellibus c a fir inis, egentes , angzisiiati, 
 afflicti." — Epist. ad Heb. xi. 37. 
 
 THE manresa press. 
 
 1875- 
 
 For private circulation. 
 
 BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARY 
 CHESTNUT HILL, MASS. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Introductory Note, Addenda, and Corrigenda ix 
 
 SERIES II. The College of St. Aloysius, or the 
 Lancashire District. 
 
 I. The College of St. Aloysius. Extracts from Annual Letters . i 
 
 II. Life of Father Edmund Arrowsmith, Martyr ... 24 
 
 III. Life of Father John Worthington ...... 75 
 
 Worthington Pedigree ....... 76 
 
 IV. Father Laurence Worthington .96 
 
 V. Life of Father Thomas Worthington (olim Dr. Worthington) . 104 
 
 VI. Father William Worthington in 
 
 Addenda to the Worthington Family . . . .116 
 
 Second Pedigree of the Worthington Family, and Pedigree 
 
 of the Allens of Rosshall 133 
 
 VII. The Life of Father Thomas Cottam, Martyr .... 145 
 
 VIII. Father Richard Bradley . . . . . . .178 
 
 IX. Father Humphrey Leech, alias Henry Eccles . . .181 
 
 Additional Note to the Worthington Family . . .189 
 
 SERIES III. Part I. The College of St. Chad, or the 
 
 Staffordshire District. 
 
 The College of St. Chad ......... 193 
 
 Father John Spencer ......... 194 
 
 Brother William Ellis . . .197 
 
 Life of Father Thomas Fitzherbert 198 
 
 Pedigree of the Fitzherberts of Swinnerton . . . .198 
 
 Brother Robert Fitzherbert ........ 230 
 
 Documents concerning the Relics of St. Chad 231 
 
 Father Francis Foster . 233 
 
 Life of Father Richard Walpole 235 
 
 Pedigree of the Walpole Family S.J. • • • *235 
 
 Mm 
 
VI 
 
 Contents. 
 
 Page 
 
 Life of Father Edward Walpole 258 
 
 Father Michael Walpole 265 
 
 Father Christopher Walpole 269 
 
 Father Henry Walpole, Martyr ....... 269 
 
 Father Christopher Warner ( vere Walpole) ..... 270 
 
 SERIES III. Part II. The College of the Immaculate 
 Conception, or the Derbyshire District. 
 
 The College of the Immaculate Conception 271 
 
 Life of Father William Wright 275 
 
 Father Arthur Laurence Faunt 286 
 
 Father Robert Parsons ......... 289 
 
 Father Gervase Pole 289 
 
 Father Thomas Hunt 294 
 
 Father Michael Alford, alias Griffiths 299 
 
 Father Henry Wilkinson ........ 309 
 
 Extracts from the Annual Letters 310 
 
 Spink Hill 316 
 
 Stanley Grange .......... 316 
 
 The Life of Father Francis Walsingham . . . . . .318 
 
 SERIES IV. Part I. The College of the Holy Apostles, 
 or the Suffolk District. 
 
 The College of the Holy Apostles. Foundation of it by Lord Petre. 393 
 
 Cipher Alphabet 394 
 
 Father Thomas Everard ......... 399 
 
 Father Thomas Flint ......... 409 
 
 Father Francis Sankey 41 1 
 
 Father Anthony Greenway, alias Tilney 41 1 
 
 Father Robert Alford {vere Griffiths) . . . . . .416 
 
 Father Henry More 416 
 
 Brother William Browne ........ 428 
 
 Pedigree (extract) of the Montague family .... 428 
 
 Brother Gerard Rogers ......... 441 
 
 Brother Henry Forster 445 
 
 Pedigree of the Forster Family ...... 445 
 
 Father James Mumford ......... 457 
 
 Father John Clare {vere Sir John Warner) ..... 459 
 
 The Life and Martyrdom of Father Thomas Garnet . . . -475 
 
 The Life and Martyrdom of Father Peter Wright .... 506 
 
 xtracts from the Annual Letters 5^5 
 
Contents. vii 
 
 Page 
 
 Braddox or Broadoaks, Essex, and the Wiseman Family . . . 574 
 
 Coldham Hall, Suffolk 581 
 
 Hengrave Hall 581 
 
 Ingatestone Hall and Thomdon Hall and the Petre Family . . 582 
 
 Father Gilbert Grey (vere Talbot) 582 
 
 Pedigree of three branches of the Petre Family .... 585 
 
 Lozell, Suffolk, and Mr. Henry Drury 587 
 
 Norwich 592 
 
 Wisbeach Castle 592 
 
 Brother Thomas Pounde. Addenda to his life . . . . 594 
 
 Father Thomas Mettam 608 
 
 SERIES IV. Part II. The College of St. Hugh, or the 
 Lincolnshire District. 
 
 The College of St. Hugh 617 
 
 Father James Sharpe 617 
 
 Father John Blackfan 625 
 
 Father Francis Berry ......... 635 
 
 Father Thomas Leukner 636 
 
 Father Adrian Talbot 637 
 
 Father John Grose [alias Fenton) ....... 637 
 
 Father John Hudd ......... 640 
 
 Father Thomas Forster 642 
 
 Father Richard Ashby (vere Thimelby) ...... 643 
 
 Extracts from the Annual Letters ....... 645 
 
 Brigg 648 
 
 Clasby ............ 650 
 
 Kingerby Hall . . . . . . . . . .651 
 
 Lincoln. Opening of the coffin of the “ Little St. Hugh ” . . 652 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA. 
 
 With the exception of Father Henry More’s history which 
 extends to 1635, and Father Bartoli’s Inghilterra which 
 does not go beyond 1610, there is no published account 
 whatever, of the labours and sufferings of the English 
 Province S.J. Short lives of some of its martyrs and con- 
 fessors are given in Father Mathias Tanner’s works — Vita et 
 mors Jesuitarum pro fide interfectorum , and Societatis Jesu 
 Apost 711 ■ Imitatrix ; also in a little book called Brevis relatio 
 felicis agon is, & c., which is attributed to Father Tanner, and 
 is compiled from the Annual Letters of the English Province 
 S.J. of the period, namely, the time of the terrible persecution 
 arising from the feigned plot of Titus Oates and his associates ; 
 to these we may add Floras Anglo-Bavaricus , in which Father 
 John Keynes is said to have had a great hand. But these 
 works, compiled in Latin and Italian, are extremely rare, 
 and, as regards the public in general, may be considered 
 as sealed books ; and, since those authors wrote, a large store 
 of most deeply interesting matter to which they had no access* 
 has become available by the opening to the public of the trea- 
 sures of the State Papers in the Public Record Office, the 
 British Museum, &c., and also many of the State Paper 
 Offices upon the Continent. 
 
 The object of the present series is to bring to light from 
 the obscurity in which they have been ^00 long suffered to 
 remain, men and facts, truly worthy of memory, and to present 
 
X 
 
 Introductory Note. 
 
 in a plain and readable shape, without any attempt at a 
 polished style (which in many instances would simply spoil 
 the materials) a consecutive history of the English Province 
 S.J., in the most eventful and exciting times of its career, 
 thus exhibiting a mass of matter of the most edifying and 
 historically interesting character, derived from the above 
 sources, and the records of the Province. 
 
 The volume containing the lives of Thomas Pounde, S.J., 
 George Gilbert, S.J., and Father Darby shire, S.J., lately pub- 
 lished, 1 may be considered as the first of the series. It is 
 intended in the present and future volumes, to give the history 
 of the English Province under the heads of the various colleges 
 and residences, or districts, into which it was allotted early 
 in the seventeenth century, as far as the year 1677, and from 
 that date (including the eventful times of Oates’ Plot and 
 the Revolution of 1688) to carry it on to about the year 
 1714, after which period, or a few years earlier, the terrible 
 pressure of the penal laws having greatly relaxed, there was 
 also a consequent cessation of the more exciting events, which 
 the violence of open persecution usually engendered. 
 
 The present volume contains five of these series, namely, 
 the Colleges of St. Aloysius, or the Lancashire District ; 
 St. Chad’s or the Staffordshire District ; the Immaculate 
 Conception of the B.V.M., or the Derbyshire District; the 
 Holy Apostles, or the Suffolk District ; and St. Dominic 
 (afterwards St. Hugh), or the Lincolnshire District. The 
 lives of four martyrs, with upwards of twenty-four lives, and 
 the same number of shorter notices of distinguished members 
 of the Province, and a large amount of interesting historical 
 matter with pedigrees, &c. are given; and, whilst the series 
 relates primarily to the English Province S.J., the facts 
 recorded may be considered as equally illustrative of Catholic 
 history in general. 
 
 1 Conflicts or Historic Facts. 
 
Introductory Note. xi 
 
 It remains to make the few following corrections and 
 additions. 
 
 I. In regard to the account of the Earl of Derby’s con- 
 version to the Catholic Church, mentioned in p. 9, seq. 
 
 The following pages were already in print when it came 
 to the knowledge of the Editor, that Canon F. R. Raines, 
 the well known and learned antiquarian, had been furnished 
 by the late Right Rev. Dr. Goss, Bishop of Liverpool, with 
 a copy of the narrative of Father Cuthbert Clifton ( alias 
 Norris), relating to the conversion of James, Earl of Derby, on 
 his way to the scaffold, and which must have been given to 
 the Bishop by the late Dr. Oliver. The Canon publishes 
 this narrative in his appendix to the life of that noble- 
 man 1 as a “ literary curiosity,” without admitting that it 
 affects in any way the fidelity of the Earl to the faith he 
 had heretofore held. He lays great stress on its want of 
 publication, at, or near the period in question, and on the 
 inherent improbability of such an event happening at such 
 a time and place, in opposition to all the Earl’s antecedent 
 convictions. 
 
 Father Clifton was a zealous and laborious missioner, who, 
 both from his distinguished birth, and the high character he 
 sustained throughout life, is a witness in every way entitled 
 to credit. He was son of Sir Cuthbert Clifton of Westby, 
 Knight, and through his mother, Ann (Tildesley), was first 
 cousin to the famous cavalier, Sir Thomas Tildesley, the 
 companion in arms and trusty right hand of the Earl, with 
 whom he was on the most familiar terms, as Canon Raines 
 abundantly shows ; and we find in Baines’ History of Lancashire 1 
 that, when at Leigh, on his way to Bolton, he wished to visit 
 the grave of his gallant companion in arms, interred there, but 
 was denied that gratification by his military guard. It may 
 
 1 Stanley Papers , Pt. iii. Chetham Society, vol. ii. 
 
 2 Vol. ii. p. 195. 
 
Xll 
 
 Introductory Note. 
 
 therefore be taken for granted that this relative of his, although 
 a priest, had some previous acquaintance with the Earl, and 
 would have it in his power to gain access to him, even under 
 the circumstances recorded, and the conduct of the Earl 
 implies as much, and even some former conversations upon 
 religion, for he observed to Father Clifton, who was no doubt 
 deeply disguised, upon his coming up to him in the cavalcade, 
 and making himself and his business known, that he had sus- 
 pected something of the kind the previous evening. This 
 argument is further strengthened by the well known devoted 
 loyalty of the Clifton family (and hence a probable intimate 
 acquaintance between its members and the’ loyal Earl), no 
 less than four of whom lost their lives in the King’s service, 
 viz. — Sir Cuthbert Clifton, a colonel, at Manchester; Laurence 
 Clifton, a major, and John Clifton, a captain, at Shelford, 
 Notts ; and Francis Clifton, a captain, at Newbury. As to 
 the publication of such a matter at, or even near the time 
 of its occurrence, it must be apparent to all, that to do so 
 would have been in the highest degree imprudent, and even 
 unjustifiable in the interest of those who would have been 
 the sufferers from the increased violence and persecution it 
 would have excited. The devotional frame of mind which 
 the Earl undoubtedly possessed, when considered in connection 
 with his freedom from that morbid hatred of Catholicism so 
 characteristic of his time, is a circumstance rather in favour 
 of, than opposed to the idea of his conversion. The last words 
 commonly attributed to him, and in which he professes his 
 attachment to the Protestant faith, were doubtless arranged 
 beforehand, and it does not appear certain that he spoke them 
 on the scaffold. In conclusion it must be confessed that this 
 account comes to us, as Canon Raines says, “secondhand,” 
 but it was undoubtedly furnished in the first instance by Father 
 Clifton himself, and forms part of the authentic Annual Letters 
 of the Society, and must stand upon his sole testimony, while 
 
Introductory Note. xiii 
 
 the conditions which Canon Raines requires to render this 
 testimony valuable were, under the circumstances, clearly im- 
 possible of attainment. 
 
 II. As to the Worthington family. 3 Some confusion occurs 
 arising from the uncertainty and want of information. Since 
 the sheets were printed further particulars have been received, 
 and an amended pedigree prepared. 
 
 III. In the short account given of Father Francis Young, 
 the fellow-prisoner of Father Laurence Worthington in the 
 Gatehouse, 4 the following documents were overlooked, which 
 show that in 1612 he was for a short time an inmate of 
 Newgate prison also, and effected his escape from thence with 
 several others. In the Stonyhurst Manuscripts 5 is a letter of 
 general news from a Father in London to Father Parsons 
 in Florence (under the name of Mark Mercante), dated 
 
 9 ber 1612, stating “that several Catholic priests had lately 
 escaped out of Newgate ; their names are Cornforth, Young, 
 Mayler, Yates ( alias Boulton), Green, Parr, and Cooper. Much 
 search hath been made for them, but none taken. The occa- 
 sion of their escaping was their hard usage, without compassion 
 or mercy ; whereupon they refused to give their words to be 
 true prisoners, but told their keeper that as long as they were 
 used so hardly they would give no such word, but would 
 escape if they could, and within a few days after they got 
 away ; and, as those seven went away, so they might all have 
 gone, to the number of twenty, but they refused it, choosing 
 rather to stay. Those that remained in prison have since been 
 cast into the dungeon, with fetters and geeves.” In the same 
 volume of manuscripts 6 is a letter from Father William Bartlet 
 to the same Father, addressed as Luke Mercante, dated the 
 5th of December, 1612. He says “that upon the escape of 
 two Jesuits, Young and Bilton [Cornforth] out of Newgate, 
 
 3 Pp. 75, 133, seq. 4 P. IOO, seq. 
 
 5 Stonyhurst MSS. vol. iii. Anglia, n. 114. 6 N. 118. 
 
XIV 
 
 Introductory Note. 
 
 the rest who stayed behind are cast into the dungeon and 
 laden with fetters, and have been very sorely afflicted.” Father 
 Young in a letter to the Very Reverend Father General Aqua- 
 viva, 1 8th of April, 1613, 7 thus briefly alludes to his imprison- 
 ment and escape. 
 
 “ As to what regards myself personally ; your Paternity is, 
 I think, already acquainted with my six months’ probation 
 in prison, which, although it was my first, and of no long 
 duration, yet it was on this account particularly vexatious, 
 because in the afflicted state of our country (through the malice 
 and cruelty of the heretics, not only against our bodies, but 
 the souls of others likewise), every way to the propagation 
 of the Catholic religion, and of my approaching the faithful, 
 was thus barred. But now having, by the favour of God, 
 broken prison, it remains for me, like a pent-up river that 
 has burst its banks, to rush forward with all the more zeal 
 to combat the efforts of the enemy, promote the salvation 
 of souls and the good of the Society.” 
 
 IV. The author of the quaint Fitzherbert Pedigree (p. 198) 
 we have since ascertained to be the notorious priest-hunter,. 
 Topcliff. 
 
 V. In the brief notice of Wolverhampton (p. 234), we have 
 omitted to mention that, in the year 1635 — how much earlier 
 does not appear — the Fathers taught a small school at the 
 house of a Mr. Levison (or Leuson) near that town. They 
 had also at the same time a similar school at the Grange, 
 near Derby (see p. 316). Information was given to the 
 Privy Council of these schools, and warrants were forwarded 
 for the seizure of the Fathers and their pupils. A copy of a 
 draft of this warrant is given under the head of Stanley Grange. 
 By a marginal addition of Secretary Cooke, it seems that the 
 same draft warrant was made to serve for the school at 
 Mr. Levison’s, “ Within two miles of Wolverhampton.” As w r e 
 
 7 Anglia , vol. iii. n. 126. 
 
Introductory Note. 
 
 xv 
 
 find by the Littera Annua for the College of the Immacu- 
 late Conception for 1635 (p. 31 1), the Derbyshire Fathers and 
 their pupils escaped ; but from the following extracts from 
 State Papers P.R.O., it appears that they were not so lucky 
 in Staffordshire, some of the boys having been carried off : 
 
 “ 9 December, 1635. No. 88, vol, 303, Dom. Chas. I. 
 The Council to Sir John Persall [Peshall], of Horseley, county 
 Stafford. John Stanford, son of William Stanford, of Paryshall, 
 Stafford, was lately found among the children in the house of 
 Mr. Leuson, in the county aforesaid, where he was trained up 
 a scholar under a Priest or Jesuit. In regard of his nearness 
 of blood, he being Sir John’s grandchild, the Council have 
 thought fit to put him in his custody until further orders.” 
 
 Written on the same draft letter, same date, are — 
 
 1. The Council to Sir William Wilmar, of Sywell, North- 
 ampton. A similar letter in respect of his nephew, William 
 Andrew, son of William Andrew, Esq., of Denton, in that 
 county, being about twelve years old. 
 
 2. The Council to Edward Newman, of Gray’s Inn. Simi- 
 lar letter in regard to John Atwood, of Acton, Worcestershire, 
 being about eleven years old. Newman, who is not stated 
 to have been a relation, is required to keep the boy in his 
 custody till further orders be taken for his education. 
 
 “Dom. Chas. Z, vol. 305, n. 5. 23 December, 1635. 
 Whitehall. The Council to Sir Ralph Dove, of Dutton, 
 Cheshire. John Bloomfield a youth of fourteen years of age, 
 was lately found in the house of Mr. Leuson, county of Stafford, 
 where he was trained up under a Priest or Jesuit. Upon Sir 
 Ralph’s promise to see the said Bloomfield brought up to 
 the liking of the Lords, or else to remain with him as a 
 servant, the Council put him into Sir Ralph’s hands.” 
 
 In reference to this seizure, the Annual Report says that 
 one of the Fathers had gathered together some children of 
 
XVI 
 
 Introductory Note. 
 
 good family for the purpose of educating them, and their 
 progress in piety and learning rewarded his zealous labours. 
 Information of his proceedings was carried to the Council. A 
 pursuivant was despatched to the spot, who, with the authority 
 of a neighbouring Protestant nobleman, assembled an armed 
 force and surrounded the house. The Father and his pupils 
 were apprehended, hardly used, and conducted to London. 
 The house was searched, and two chests of books, and a third 
 containing the sacred vessels of the altar, vestments, &c., were 
 seized. It was urged by the more bigoted Protestants that 
 these children should be committed to the charge of Protestant 
 tutors, and compelled to conform. After much difficulty and 
 delay they were again restored to their parents. The Father 
 remained in confinement. 
 
 Two years after this event the Fathers again found means 
 to collect a number of boys for the purpose of education, and a 
 favourable report is given of their progress in piety, and in 
 Greek and Latin literature. 
 
 VI. In p. 394, the principal Founder of the College or 
 District of the Holy Apostles is erroneously stated to be 
 Robert, the third Lord Petre. It was William, the second 
 Lord. 
 
 VII. The Mr. Darcy, writer of the interesting letter to 
 Father Henry More, in p. 425, was most probably Mr. Henry 
 Forster, of Copedock, afterwards S.J., whose life is given in 
 these pages. Two of his brothers, who were Priests, S.J.. 
 adopted the same alias (see Forster Pedigree, p. 445). 
 
 The Editor begs to acknowledge the kind assistance in 
 his labours, of Dr. Jessopp, of Norwich (in the Walpole 
 pedigree and family), of the Rev. Thomas E. Gibson, of 
 Lydiate, of FF. Morris and Anderdon, of Father Purbrick 
 for the use of Stonyhurst MSS., and of Father Hunter in 
 passing the volume through the press. 
 
 London, July, 1875. 
 
^econo Series. 
 
 THE COLLEGE OF ST. ALOYSIUS 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE LANCASHIRE DISTRICT. 
 
I. 
 
 THE COLLEGE OF ST. ALOYSIUS, 
 
 Usually called the Lancashire District. 
 
 The English mission of the Society of Jesus, which had 
 hitherto been governed by Vice-Prefects resident in England, 
 and a head Prefect living at the English College, in Rome, was 
 raised by the Very Reverend Father General Mutius Vitelleschi 
 to the state of a Vice-Province in the year 1619 ; and Father 
 Richard Blount, who had been Vice-Prefect since the martyr- 
 dom of Father Henry Garnett in 1606, was appointed Vice- 
 Provincial. 1 At this period, the English members of the 
 Society, partly in England, and partly in the various English 
 Colleges on the Continent, amounted to nearly two hundred, 
 including forty professed Fathers ; and in consequence of the 
 rapid increase in its members, the same Father General in the 
 year 1623 raised the Vice-Province into a separate Province 
 of the Society, and appointed Father Blount its first Provincial. 
 
 Father Blount held this office until 1635, an d modelled the 
 Province as much as possible on the plan of the Institute. As 
 it was impracticable to form regular Colleges, he divided it 
 into twelve districts, or ideal Colleges, to each of which he 
 allotted some revenue, which might form the nucleus of a 
 future College, in the much desired event of the restoration 
 of the ancient Faith in England. To each district a certain 
 number of Missioners was allotted, the Superiors of which were 
 Rectors appointed by the Father General. 
 
 Among these twelve districts, or ideal Colleges, was that of 
 St. Aloysius, commonly called the “ Lancashire District.” It 
 was one of the three first formed in the year 1622 ; those of 
 St. Ignatius, or the London District, and of St. Francis Xavier, 
 or the South Wales District, being the other two. Until the 
 year 1679, when the county of Stafford was made into a 
 
 1 A sketch of the life of this eminent Father may be seen in Father 
 Morris’ Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers , &c. Burns and Oates, 1871. 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 The College of St. Aloysius. 
 
 distinct College, under the title of St. Chad, St. Aloysius, 
 embraced the whole of Lancashire, with Cheshire, Westmore- 
 land, and Stafford. In the penal times, when concealment 
 was absolutely necessary, this College passed by various feigned 
 names, such as “Our Factory;” the Superiors being called 
 “ Head Factors,” or “ The Master,” whilst the Missioners 
 were called “Factors,” with their “Factories.” The College 
 was also sometimes called “ Mrs. Lancashire/’ or “Mrs. Lan- 
 caster,” or “Eloisa Lancaster.” 
 
 The College of St. Aloysius formerly served the following 
 places, and probably many others, of which the traces are now 
 lost. 
 
 Aston Hall (Stafford) 
 
 Liverpool 
 
 Bedford Leigh and Leigh 
 
 Lytham 
 
 Biddles or Biddulph (Stafford) 
 
 Lostock 
 
 Billington 
 
 Lydiati 
 
 Brin or Ashdon 
 
 Maynes in the Fylde 
 
 Brindle 
 
 Moor-hall (Ormskirk) 
 
 Blachroad 
 
 The Meales 
 
 Bailey-hall 
 
 The Manor 
 
 Croxteth 
 
 Orford 
 
 Chipping 
 
 Ormskirk 
 
 Cowley-hill 
 
 Poole (Cheshire) 
 
 Crosby 
 
 Pooton 
 
 Croxton 
 
 Portico and Prescot 
 
 Culcheth 
 
 Preston 
 
 Chester 
 
 Puddington 
 
 Crossen 
 
 Rixton 
 
 Dunkenhalgh 
 
 Stony hurst 
 
 Dutton Lodge (Cheshire) 
 
 South-hill 
 
 Eccleston Hall 
 
 Southworth 
 
 Fazakerley 
 
 S coles 
 
 Fernhead 
 
 Scarisbmck Hall 
 
 Formby 
 
 Sizergh (Kendall) 
 
 Furness 
 
 Stafford 
 
 Garswood 
 
 Stid (Ribchester) 
 
 Hooton (Cheshire) 
 
 Warrington 
 
 Highfield (near Wigan) 
 
 Westby 
 
 Ince, or Ince Blundell 
 
 Wigan 
 
 Leigh 
 
 Wolverhampton (Stafford) 
 
 Lowe-house (St. Helens) 
 
 The average number of 
 
 Missioners in the College 
 
 many years was about twenty. St. Aloysius’ College had its 
 share of sufferings in the times of open persecution ; and 
 counted amongst others Father Edmund Arrowsmith, its 
 proto-martyr, who suffered at Lancaster in 1628, and whose 
 Life we give in this volume ; Father John Worthington, its first 
 
The College of St. Aloysius. 
 
 o 
 
 Rector, a notice of whom is also given ; Father Ferdinand 
 Palmer ; Father William Atkins (once Rector), and Father 
 Nicholas Tempest, both of whom died in prison, martyrs for 
 the Faith. To this College also belonged Father Cuthbert 
 Norris, vere Clifton, and Father Richard Bradley who died in 
 Manchester gaol for the Faith, and of whom a notice is given. 
 
 The following Modus vivendi hominum S. J., or the mode of 
 living of the Missionary Fathers of the English Province in the 
 days of open persecution, will be read with interest ; the Latin 
 original, in the handwriting of Father Henry More, the historian, 
 may be seen in vol. iv., n. 45, MSS. Anglia, Stonyhurst. 
 
 “ Modus vivendi hominum Societatis, 1616. 
 
 “ The members of the Society who hitherto have laboured 
 in England for the consolation of Catholics, and the con- 
 version of heretics, pending better times, had three modes 
 of living. Some led an entirely private life at home ; others 
 were constantly moving about through various localities ; 
 while many were free either to confer at home with those 
 who wished, or to visit others out of doors. 
 
 “ For, as by the law, capital punishment hung equally over 
 the Priests and over those who harboured them in their houses, 
 so when any secular master of a family was raised above the 
 fear of the laws, either by nature, or grace, or the circum- 
 stances of the times or of the persons among whom he lived, he 
 would adopt a Priest, who, in one of the three modes indicated, 
 served the family and administered the Sacraments. And, as 
 among all classes of men the distribution of the gifts of nature 
 and of grace differs, so among all ranks were to be found 
 those who were more free, and those who were more sparing 
 in adopting Priests. The most opulent and powerful acted 
 more cautiously than the middle or lower class, as having more 
 to lose, and being more exposed to envy; neither did they 
 rely upon their own power, so long as they were conscious 
 not only of being subject to those who were still more powerful, 
 but also of being exposed to danger from the informer. But 
 what God had given to the middle and lower classes even, 
 for their moderate sustenance, was as dear to them, as was to 
 the more powerful that which He had given to them for their 
 abundance; and so, feeling that they had less means of con- 
 tending against the malice of the enemy, they often became, 
 like the more wealthy, cautious and timid in admitting the 
 service of Priests. 
 b 2 
 
4 The College of St. A loy sites. 
 
 “ However, from the commencement of the schism there 
 were never wanting either Priests to expose themselves to the 
 danger of capital punishment for the sake of defending the Faith, 
 or seculars who refused not to run the risk of their lives and 
 fortunes, lest they should be entirely deprived of the helps 
 to piety which the Sacraments offered them ; such was, and is 
 to this day, the singular goodness of God towards this once 
 most religious nation. 
 
 “ i. And to come to those of the Society who led a private 
 life. They for the most part lived in the upper stories or attics 
 of the house ; as remote as possible from the observation of 
 domestics and visitors. The same room contained altar, table, 
 and bed. Great caution had to be observed as to the windows, 
 whether to admit or exclude light ; by day they were careful 
 in opening them, lest the passers-by might observe that some 
 one lived in the room ; at night they were more careful still 
 in shutting them, lest the light might betray the inhabitant. 
 Walking in the room must be very light, or else cautiously 
 made along some beam. At certain hours . all movement in 
 the room was prohibited, that no noise might be heard either 
 in the room adjoining or in the one beneath. They were 
 not permitted to go about the house, except to a neigh- 
 bouring room, and that with caution. But if they left the 
 house either for the sake of charity, or for health’s sake, or 
 on their own business, or that of others, they must go out 
 at the second or third hour of the night, and return either 
 when the domestics were at supper, or else had retired to 
 rest. For there were heretics amongst these ; and although 
 the master of the house did not wholly distrust them, since 
 they were his servants, and under many obligations to him, yet 
 he did not so far trust them as to feel sure that they might 
 not attest they had seen, or at least knew a Priest to be in the 
 house. Nor did he consider that even Catholic servants should 
 be too much trusted. Whence it happened that in a very 
 numerous family of sixty or eighty persons, a Priest spent 
 almost entire days, weeks, and months, alone; for, except the 
 hour of Mass at which some at least were always present by 
 turns, and a short space of time before and after Mass, the 
 rest of the day each one spent in his own or other’s business, 
 or in different country recreations. A female servant brought 
 in his dinner and supper, and then immediately left. He 
 eat and took recreation alone, unless the servant hap- 
 pened to return after the meal, bringing perhaps one of the 
 
The College of St. Aloysius. 
 
 5 
 
 boys or girls of the family; or the lady of the house might 
 look in to apologize for not having been able to pay him a 
 visit sooner. 
 
 “ How oppressive this constant solitude was to many, 
 accustomed to habits of conversation and reading, no one 
 can imagine who has not tried it, especially since they were 
 deprived of the consolation which frequent confession or the 
 very sight and conversation of their Brethren, or variety in 
 occupation usually affords. For, except when the Superior 
 visited them, they scarcely ever saw one of the Society, or 
 any other Priest in the house ; as they were but seldom 
 allowed to go out of doors, and this only after an interval of 
 months. 
 
 “ 2. Those who in different localities, travelling either 
 on foot or horseback, assisted the Catholics, or brought 
 wanderers back to the Faith, had for the most part at least 
 one house in which they could remain for some days to 
 recruit themselves ; so that the surrounding Catholics were 
 able to learn where a Priest might be procured, if the needs 
 of the dying, or the administration of Baptism required it. 
 As for the rest, they were perpetually moving about, visiting 
 and administering consolation. In the evening, after dinner, 
 they entered the house either openly or privately, as circum- 
 stances would permit, and departed the next day. Very often 
 by a change of dress and name, or of the direction in which 
 they were going, or by other schemes, they managed to deceive, 
 as long as possible, those whose notice they had to escape. 
 The chief part of the harvest fell naturally to these active 
 men, who thus met with and seized upon every opportunity 
 of disseminating truth and virtue, whether by themselves or 
 •others. They were exposed to especial dangers ; but by the 
 more frequent opportunity of meeting their Superior, and 
 others of the Society, and by reaping at once the fruit of 
 their labours, their very distractions tended to increase piety ; 
 and after their communications with others, they returned to 
 their recollection all the more eager to draw interior fruit for 
 themselves. 
 
 “ 3. The third mode of living left others free to converse 
 either at home or abroad. For the head of the house in 
 which they lived, was made, either by his own virtue, or by 
 the good esteem of his neighbours, superior, as it were, to 
 the action of the laws. Though such men did not despise these 
 by living without any caution, yet they did not deem . it 
 
6 
 
 The College of St. Aloysius. 
 
 necessary to live in such servile fear, as though the liberty 
 either of the Priest, or of themselves, was likely to suffer. They 
 engaged for the most part Catholic servants, who did every- 
 thing within the house in a Catholic spirit. If any storm burst 
 out, they were warned of it by certain parties, and the absence 
 of the Priest for a few days, or his concealment for some hours, 
 restored liberty to them for the rest of the time. Among 
 such our Superiors commonly lived, that they might be at 
 liberty to visit the members of the Society when requisite, or 
 to summon them to the house where they were. And by 
 these, as possessing the greater means of converse with others, 
 the chief part of the harvest was gathered in. 
 
 “ But the face of affairs is now entirely changed. Scarcely 
 one in the whole kingdom is found who can furnish the 
 means of living after this third mode, though they were 
 formerly numerous enough. Those who go forth to assist 
 others in different places are forced to spend their nights 
 travelling, and their days in helping the Catholics at home. 
 Many are reduced to the first mode of living, they ‘ sit like 
 sparrows upon the house top,’ ‘ expecting the happy day, and 
 the advent of the glory of the great God,’ for, humanly speak- 
 ing, very little is hoped for, whichever side of the conflicting 
 parties prevails.” 
 
 The old Litter <z Annuce , or reports for the College, abound 
 with cases of miracles through the intercession of our holy 
 Father and Founder, St. Ignatius, especially in the case of 
 possessed persons and witches, by means of what is called 
 the blessed water of St. Ignatius. 2 “In the year 1636,” says 
 the report, “ under the guidance of Providence, the Fathers 
 in this district of Lancashire found a very convenient place, 
 in which they were enabled, without being observed or sus- 
 pected, to assemble according to the usages of the Society, 
 for the purpose of renewing their Religious engagements and 
 
 3 In the year 1639, a little boy of three years old, an only child, fell 
 into a cauldron of hot water. He was taken out senseless and remained 
 half an hour apparently dead, though all remedies were applied that could 
 be devised and procured on the spot. The afflicted father, falling upon his 
 knees, begged of God the life of his child, through the intercession of 
 St. Ignatius, and vowed that he would in some way assist the Society 
 of Jesus in its labours. The child revived and perfectly recovered. Another 
 person having received a grievous wound, was in danger of death from loss 
 of blood, when, on the application of a small volume of the Life of 
 St. Ignatius to the wounded part, the hemorrhage suddenly ceased. 
 Other similar miraculous instances are recorded. 
 
The College of St. Aloysius. 
 
 7 
 
 gaining fresh fervour by making the Spiritual Exercises, and 
 communicating with their Superior ; and they zealously availed 
 themselves of the opportunity. The Catholics in these parts 
 were subjected to great vexations and extortions in the eccle- 
 siastical courts, on account of their baptisms, marriages, &c., 
 performed according to the rites of their religion. During this 
 year there were twenty-three Fathers and one Lay-brother ; and 
 forty persons were received into the Church. 
 
 In the following year, 1637, the missions were assailed by 
 a more vehement persecution than ordinary. Money was 
 manifestly the object, and some who were unable to pay the 
 fines, betook themselves to hiding-places to escape imprison- 
 ment. Active inquiries were instituted by the courts with 
 respect to the marriages and baptisms, &c., of Catholics, those 
 even which had been performed long before. Heavy fines 
 were imposed on Catholics for not sending their children to be 
 catechised by Protestant ministers, a species of vexation to 
 which they had not before been subjected in those parts. The 
 oath of allegiance was tendered to such as were suspected 
 of Catholicity. Those Catholics, who had the means 
 wherewith to purchase the forbearance of their persecutors, 
 were enabled thereby to relieve themselves from other suffer- 
 ings; those who had not were obliged to fly, or conceal 
 themselves in order to avoid imprisonment. In the year 1638, 
 public feeling did not interfere with education, and many 
 sermons were preached before assemblies of Catholics. 
 
 The annual reports at this period in England generally, 
 and especially in the district of Lancashire, give very few 
 details. For the years 1640 to 1644, there is no report at 
 all, a fact which is thus explained by the Litter ee Annuce of 
 1645 — 1649. “During this period the number of Priests who 
 suffered for their religion was, indeed, less than in some of 
 the preceding years. It was, perhaps, found that this extreme 
 severity animated the zeal of the Missionaries, instead of 
 shaking their constancy, and that many Protestants were thus 
 brought back to the Catholic Church; yet the hatred that 
 the popular party, which since 1642 had been advancing to 
 sovereign power, bore to the Catholic religion had not 
 diminished, but rather increased in intensity ; and they daily 
 avowed their determination not to be satisfied with lopping 
 off its branches, but wholly to root it up out of the land. 
 Accordingly the Catholic laity were treated with great severity, 
 and every effort was used to find out and apprehend the 
 
8 
 
 The College of St. Aloysius. 
 
 Missionaries. It will be easy to conceive that the accounts 
 received from them during this period were very scanty and 
 imperfect. In sending letters by the ordinary means of con- 
 veyance, there was danger lest they might afford some clue 
 to the discovery of the writer and of his host, and letters thus 
 sent were liable to be intercepted. Hence those that were 
 despatched were generally so brief, and written purposely in 
 such obscure terms, that little detailed information could be 
 gathered from them. This is the more to be regretted, as 
 during this time the condition of the Missioners afforded 
 frequent instances of dangers incurred and escaped, and 
 opportunities of practising great Evangelical virtues, the recital 
 of which would be interesting and edifying.” The report 
 then continues — “ In the Lancashire district, called the College 
 of St. Aloysius, where eighteen Fathers of the Society were 
 labouring, the persecution still raged against the Catholics. 
 Some of the Fathers were of an advanced age, and having sur- 
 vived former troubles had grown old in the mission, yet even 
 these could not escape the more active pursuit of the Puritans. 
 One of them, seventy years old, contrived for a time to baffle 
 his pursuers by frequent changes of residence, and timely 
 resort to well contrived hiding-places. But he was at length 
 betrayed by a man whom he had before found trustworthy. 
 This person persuaded him to return to one of the missionary 
 stations, where, on his arrival, a party of soldiers, who had been 
 lying in wait for him, seized him, along with the sacred vessels 
 and furniture. As the party conducted him to a neighbouring 
 town, one of them put on the priestly vestments, and went 
 before him in profane mockery. He was then conveyed to 
 prison. Another Father, more than seventy years old, was 
 taken with two Secular Priests in a place where they thought 
 themselves quite safe, and carried to a prison thirty-two miles 
 off, in which they all three caught the fever, and died a year 
 after. A third Father, though eighty years old, and bed- 
 ridden from age and infirmity, was seized, and put into 
 a cart to be conveyed to prison. Before they had got far, 
 his captors, fearing he would die on the way, carried him 
 back again, but succeeded afterwards in conveying him alive 
 to prison, where he died after nine months of suffering. 
 
 “ During this period, most of the Catholic families who had 
 the means left this part of the country and retired to other 
 countries, where there was less persecution; and thus most 
 of the Fathers of this College, accompanying the families 
 
The College of St. Aloysius. 
 
 9 
 
 who had harboured them, withdrew also for a time from the 
 district. One Father went with the family, of which he had 
 the spiritual charge, to an island not far from the coast, in 
 which there were no Catholics before, and he succeeded in 
 making some converts there.” 3 
 
 The annual reports for 1651 — 1653 are equally scanty. That 
 for 1652, however, gives the following deeply interesting 
 narrative of the conversion, through Father Cuthbert Norris, 
 whose real name was Clifton, of James, the seventh Earl of 
 Derby, on the 15th October, 1651, 4 while he was being led for 
 execution to Bolton by the Parliamentarians, whose great 
 enemy the noble and loyal Earl had been. This conversion 
 is expressly stated to be minime nota in vulgus. 
 
 “ The most interesting information,” says the report in 
 question, “ is a detailed account of an endeavour made by 
 Father Cuthbert Clifton, and it would seem with success, to 
 reconcile to the Church the Earl of Derby, when he was 
 already condemned to suffer death for his attachment to the 
 Royal cause, and on his way to the town of Bolton, which 
 had been assigned for the place of execution. At this critical 
 time, Father Clifton conceived or was inspired with the desire 
 of bringing this loyal and gallant nobleman, before he died, 
 to a salutary acknowledgment of the higher allegiance which 
 he owed to God and His Church. Yielding to this impulse, 
 he hastened to the station at which the Earl, accompanied 
 by his son and his suite, and guarded by a strong military 
 escort, was to pass the night, and it being intimated that the 
 party should reach Bolton the next day, by means of a friend 
 who had much influence with the commanding officer, he 
 obtained access to the Earl’s chamber. Having introduced 
 
 3 Probably this was the Isle of Man. 
 
 4 According to Dr. Oliver ( Collectanea S.J.), Father Norris, vere Clifton, 
 was second son of Sir Cuthbert Clifton, of Clifton, Notts, Knight, by Anne 
 Tildesley, but he had assumed the name of his grandfather. He was bom 
 in Lancashire in the year 161 1, entered the Society of Jesus in 1630, and was 
 professed of the four vows nth May, 1651. In 1642 he was at Ghent 
 acting as “ Camp Missioner” to the English troops in Belgium, and at the 
 same time probably making his Tertianship, or third year’s probation. 
 Lancashire was the chief seat of his missionary labours in the English vine- 
 yard. The Catalogue of the English Province for 1655 names him as 
 serving in the College of St. Aloysius, of which he was then the Minister, 
 Procurator, and Consultor ; and as having been then a Missioner for thirteen 
 years, including his camp life. He died in Lancashire, 15th October, 1675, 
 aged sixty-five. “A holy man,” says the Litterce A nnutc, “who had for 
 many years laboured in the vineyard of our Lord, with much fruit.” 
 
io The College of St. Aloysius. 
 
 himself by the name of Norris, he expressed a wish to be 
 allowed to speak with the Earl in private, for a short time, 
 upon a subject of great value, which it most concerned him 
 to dispose of before his death. He was desired to call again the 
 next morning. He did so, and was again put off by the guards 
 with design apparently, as though they suspected something 
 wrong. At length the order to start was given, and the Father 
 was told he might find an opportunity of speaking to the Earl 
 on the road. He joined the cavalcade, and riding as near 
 to the noble prisoner as he could, tried to attract his notice. 
 The Earl, observing him, kindly asked him to come and ride 
 by his side. The Father, making himself known, hastened 
 to say that the object which he wished him to dispose of 
 properly before his death, was his immortal soul. The Earl 
 said he had suspected something of the kind the evening 
 before, and expressed great gratitude to the Father for thus 
 exposing himself for his sake. The Father briefly and forcibly 
 urged the great principle of faith. The Earl said that he agreed 
 with the Catholics with respect to the Blessed Trinity, the 
 veneration due to the Blessed Virgin and the Saints, and the 
 doctrine of Purgatory ; that he was so well disposed towards 
 the Catholic religion, that he had resolved, if he had lived, 
 to examine thoroughly into it ; that he thought the differences 
 between Catholics and Protestants were not of great import- 
 ance, but that he could not thus suddenly, and on the point of 
 death, abandon the Church to which he had been attached 
 all his life. The Father tried to overcome this repugnance, 
 though often interrupted by the approach of the guards. 
 Seeing the Earl’s Protestant chaplain advance, who had 
 left the halting-place of the preceding night later than the 
 rest of the party, he besought the Earl, by the sufferings and 
 death of his Redeemer, not to resist the grace afforded to him. 
 The guards and attendants now closed round, and the Father was 
 obliged to retire. Yet he "kept as near as he could, fervently 
 praying for the success of his attempt. They had arrived 
 within a mile of Bolton, when the Earl turned round and called 
 for Mr. Norris. The attendants made way, and the Father 
 was again at the Earl’s side, who now at once declared that he 
 received every part of the doctrine of the Catholic Church, and 
 professed himself a member of it, and as such, was ready to 
 confess all his sins and perform whatever penance should 
 be enjoined, asking earnestly for absolution. The Father, 
 having done what circumstances permitted, was about to pro- 
 
The College of St. A loy sms. n 
 
 nounce absolution, when the Earl reverently uncovered his 
 head to receive it. The Father instantly desired him to be 
 covered, and completed the sacramental rite. 
 
 “When all was concluded, the Earl turned round with a 
 smiling countenance, and rejoined the company of his son 
 and attendants. 
 
 “ On entering the town, he saw the scaffold, and observed 
 with a smile that it was his cross, and that he willingly 
 embraced it. When the party halted, the Earl desired his 
 son and attendants to retire for awhile, and declining the 
 proffered ministry of the chaplain, remained nearly an hour 
 in private and fervent prayer. As he went out, he repeatedly 
 said to those about him that he was most grateful to the 
 Divine Goodness for having enabled him to set his conscience 
 at ease before his death. 
 
 “The guards remarked that during a great part of that day’s 
 journey he had appeared much more cheerful than on the day 
 before. As he ascended the scaffold he kissed the steps, and 
 expressed his entire submission to the divine will. 
 
 “ On addressing himself to the people, he desired that they 
 would all pray for him ; then checking himself, he said that he 
 begged the prayers of all good persons present, and then went 
 on with his address to the people. 
 
 “ After he had finished, one of the officers asked him to 
 declare that he died a Protestant. He took no notice of 
 the suggestion, as if he had not heard it. It was repeated 
 more pointedly, when he answered that he had reconciled 
 himself with God by His great goodness, and hoped to be 
 saved through the merits of Christ. He then said he heartily 
 forgave all who had injured him, and asked forgiveness of 
 any one whom he might have offended. 
 
 “ He briefly and fervently recommended to God himself, his 
 wife and children, and his beloved sovereign, and declared 
 that he died willingly for God, his King, and country, calling 
 on all the creatures of the Lord to bless Him ; and invoking 
 His holy name, he laid his head on the block, and by one 
 stroke it was severed from his body.” 
 
 The Earl, when escaping, after the disastrous battle of 
 Worcester, was taken, or rather surrendered himself prisoner, 
 at or near to Nantwich, in Cheshire, to one Captain Edge, a 
 Lancashire man, and an officer in the service of the Parliament. 
 He had just assisted in placing his sovereign, Charles II., in 
 concealment at Boscobel, in the very place where the noble 
 
12 
 
 The College of St. Aloysius. 
 
 Earl had himself lain concealed on his route from Wigan, after 
 his defeat there, to join Charles at Worcester. He surrendered 
 on honourable terms, by which his life was to be spared. Yet 
 his enemies, who dreaded him, basely tried him by a court- 
 martial, overruled the plea of his honourable surrender, and, 
 in defiance of all military law and honour, condemned him 
 to the scaffold. 
 
 In the second volume of the Chetham Society’s valuable 
 series of Remains Historical and Literary , connected with the 
 counties of Lancaster and Chester , 1844, under the heading 
 “Civil War tracts of Lancashire,” pp. 320 — 323, amongst other 
 most interesting papers touching the noble and loyal Earl, is 
 one numbered lvi. “The Earl of Derby’s speech on the scaffold, 
 immediately before his execution at Bolton in Lancashire, 
 October 15, 1651, exactly taken in shorthand as it was spoken, 
 and now published for the satisfaction of those that desire to 
 be truly informed. London : Printed for Nathaniel Brookes, 
 and are to be sold at his shop at the sign of the Angel in 
 Cornhill. 1651.” 5 
 
 “ The Earl of Derby was brought to Bolton on Wednes- 
 day last, about noon, his guard being sixty foot and eighty 
 horse ; about two of the clock, brought forth to the scaffold, 
 which was built at the Cross, part of that scaffold built with 
 the timber of his own house of Latham ; 6 there were not 
 above one hundred lookers on, besides soldiers ; presently 
 
 5 The Editor of this volume says that there were three versions at 
 least given of the last address of the Earl, besides the one we copy here. 
 One, which was instantly condemned as spurious, is believed to be that 
 reprinted in Sir Walter Scott’s edition of Somer’s tracts. A second is 
 given in the Black Tribunal. A third may be found in Pech’s Desiderata , 
 and in Seacome, &c. Of its genuineness there can be no doubt, except that 
 it seems to have been retouched and amplified. The copy given here 
 appears as a tract in the King’s collection, and is stated to have been taken 
 down in shorthand by two clerks, one of whom (Roscow) is named, and 
 in some degree identified. All the versions, more or less, have the matter 
 of the original notes running through them ; but it appears to the Editor 
 that this one has more of the hurried abrupt character which the delivered 
 address is said to have had — of the simple pathos which characterized the 
 Earl’s other compositions — and of the keen feeling which, from the tone 
 of his petition to the Parliament, would be likely to pervade him, when, 
 amidst the unexpected sympathy of his hearers, he was so suddenly 
 compelled to exclaim — “God be thanked there is no man that revileth 
 me!” {Chetham Society, vol. ii., pp. 317, 318.) 
 
 6 This explains Father Norris’ account in the Litterce Annuce. “ He 
 observed ‘with a smile, that the scaffold was his cross;’ having been 
 in part built with the timber of his own house of Latham.” 
 
The College of St. Aloysius. 
 
 13 
 
 after his coming to the scaffold, there happened a great tumult 
 (the occasion thereof not being certainly known), in appeasing 
 of which there were some cut, many hurt, and one child killed. 
 The Earl was no good orator ; he was much afraid of being 
 reviled by the people of the town, but they rather pitied his 
 condition. 7 His son came with him to Bolton, and carried 
 his corpse back that night to Wigan.” 
 
 “ The last words of the Earl of Derby upon the scaffold at Bolton, 
 the 13th day of October , 1651. 
 
 “Coming to the foot of the ladder to the scaffold, he 
 said, ‘ I am thus requited for my love,’ and he kissed the 
 ladder and said, ‘ I do submit myself to the mercy of God ; ’ 
 and when he was upon the scaffold he said, ‘Now that it 
 pleaseth God to take away my life, I am glad to see that in 
 this town, where some were made believe I was a man of 
 blood, I was slandered to be the death of many. It was my 
 desire, the last time I came into this country, to come hither, 
 as to a people that ought to serve the King, as I conceive 
 upon good grounds. 8 It was said that I was acccustomed 
 to be a man of blood, but it doth not lie upon my conscience, 
 for I was wrongfully belied. I thank God I desire peace. 
 I was born in honour, and I hope to die in honour. I had 
 a fair estate, and did not need to mend it. I had good friends, 
 and was respected, and did respect ; they were ready to 
 do for me, and I was ready to do for them ; I have done 
 nothing but, as my ancestors, to do you good ; it was the 
 King that called me in, and I thought it was my duty to wait 
 upon his Highness to do him service.’ 
 
 7 “ The populous district round Bolton was termed the Geneva of 
 Lancashire , and had been long considered the very school and centre of 
 Puritanism” (Preface to the same volume of Chetham Papers). The same 
 Preface states that to the inveteracy of local feelings and bitterness of 
 religious animosity, may be added, as another cause of the duration and 
 severity of the struggle between the King and the Parliament in Lancashire, 
 the nice balance of opposite parties. The petition of the “recusants” 
 [Catholics] in an early part of the series of tracts, brings forward a few 
 of those ancient and highly descended families which still constitute so 
 marked a feature in the Lancashire aristocracy ; and in a later part will be 
 found a presentation of fifteen thousand recusants at one sessions. The 
 greater part of the principal Lancashire Royalists belonged to this class, 
 or were closely connected with it. 
 
 8 “The allusion obviously regarded the feelings of the Presbyterian 
 party, of which Bolton was a local centre, and which were directly 
 opposed to those of the Puritans, the predominant sect at this period” 
 
 (p. 321, note). 
 
14 The College of St. Aloysius. 
 
 “ There then arose a great tumult among the people ; 
 after which he said (looking all about him), ‘ I thought to 
 have said more, but I have said. I cannot say much more 
 to you of any goodwill to this town of Bolton, and I can 
 say no more, but the Lord bless you. I forgive you all, and 
 desire to be forgiven of you all, for I put my trust in Jesus 
 Christ .’ 9 And looking about him he said, ‘I did never 
 deserve this hard measure from above. Honest friends (you 
 that are soldiers), my life is taken away after quarter given, by 
 a council of war, which was never done before.’ And walking 
 up and down the scatfold, he said, ‘ The Lord bless you all ; 
 the Son of God bless you all of this town of Bolton, Man- 
 chester, and especially Lancashire ; and God send that you 
 may have a King again, and laws. I die like a Christian, a 
 soldier, and Christ’s soldier.’ 
 
 “ And sitting down in his chair, he said to a soldier that 
 had been his keeper — ‘ They are not ready’ (meaning the block 
 was not ready), and bade him commend him to all his 
 friends in Chester, ‘ and tell them I die like a soldier ; ’ 
 and causing the coffin to be opened, he said : ‘ I hope when 
 I am imprisoned in this, the watchmen will not lie by me with 
 their swords.’ And walking up and down the scaffold, he 
 looked about him and said, ‘ There is no man that revileth 
 me — God be thanked ! ’ 
 
 “ And looking upon them that were upon the scaffold, he 
 said, ‘ What do you stay for ? It is hard that I cannot get 
 a block to have my head cut off.’ He looked upon the execu- 
 tioner and said, ‘Thy coat is too burly that thou canst not 
 hit right, the Lord help thee and forgive thee.’ Then bowing 
 to Mr. Henry Bridgeman , 10 he said, 4 They have brought me 
 
 9 “At the time of this interruption, according to most of the accounts, 
 the Earl gave into the hands of a servant papers relating to the sentence of 
 the court-martial and his plea of quarter, which he intended to have 
 spoken, and which, in some copies of his speech, are worked into it, as 
 portions of his speech ” {Ibid). 
 
 10 We extract the following note from the same volume of the Chetham 
 
 Series, p. 316. “ The Sacrament was administered to the Earl at Leigh, 
 
 by Mr. Greenhalgh, who also appears to have been present at the Earl’s 
 execution, as Seacome mentions his note of it. This person may possibly 
 be the ‘ Doctor Green’ of the spurious account. The Weekly Intelligencer 
 states positively that ‘there was no divine’ — probably meaning thereby 
 in attendance on the scaffold itself. There was, however, one chaplain 
 who continued to the last such dutiful and affectionate attendance as 
 circumstances allowed him, and, according to all or most of the accounts, 
 was recognized by the Earl, as being seated on horseback among the 
 
The College of St. Aloysius . 
 
 1 S 
 
 hither too soon, the block is not ready for me, Mr. Bridgeman. 
 Tell your brother I take it as a great mercy of God that I 
 am brought hither, for I might have died in the midst of 
 a battle, and have not died so well, for now I have time to 
 make my peace with God.’ And turning then to James 
 Roscow (one of the two clerks that wrote his speech in short- 
 hand), he said, ‘ Do you write what I say ? It may be I 
 say not well, but my meaning is good/ And looking upon 
 the block he said to one of his men — ‘ Lay down your neck 
 upon the block, and see how it will fit/ but he refused ; and 
 a trumpeter that was upon the scaffold laid down his neck 
 to try how it would fit ; after that he laid down his own neck 
 upon the block, and rose up again, and caused the block 
 to be turned, and laying his neck again, said, ‘ Do not strike 
 yet. ; And when he rose he went about the scaffold, and said, 
 4 1 desire your prayers, pray for me, the Lord bless you all ! 
 The Lord bless this poor nation.’ 
 
 “Then he gave his handkerchiefs out of his two pockets 
 to his servants. Then he kneeled down and prayed privately, 
 and then laid down his neck upon the block, and said to the 
 executioner, ‘ When I lift up my hand, then give the blow 
 and just when he gave the sign, one of the servants said — 
 ‘ Good, my lord, let me speak one word before ; ’ and looking 
 up, he said, ‘ I have given you a sign, but you have ill missed 
 it.’ And being upon he knees, he said, ‘Honest friends, 
 I thank God I fear not death ; I rejoice to serve God, my 
 King, and country ; I am sorry to leave some of my Christian 
 friends, but I hope the Lord will keep them, and bless them ; 
 the Lord of Heaven bless my wife and poor children ; the 
 Lord bless His people, and my good King.’ 
 
 “ And laying his head upon the block, he said, ‘ Let the 
 whole earth be filled with His glory ! ’ and giving the last sign, 
 by holding up his hand, his head was severed from his body 
 with one blow.” 
 
 The account taken from the Litter ce Annuce of the English 
 Province, was most probably written for the Annual Letters by 
 Father Cuthbert Norris (or Clifton) himself, as having been 
 an eye-witness of, and so important an actor in the deeply 
 interesting and affecting scene. The original report is pre- 
 troopers, and receiving from him last remembrances to his (the chaplain’s) 
 brother. The following account explains this to have been Henry 
 Bridgeman, Rector of Wigan, after Dean of Chester, and Bishop of Man.” 
 
i6 
 
 The College of St. Aloysius . 
 
 served in the archives of the Society of Jesus in Rome. It 
 was a private document never seen, we may safely avouch, 
 by any stranger eye, these reports being strictly intended for, 
 and confined to the members of the body. We may also, 
 with equal certainty, assert that it has never hitherto been 
 published. It bears every appearance of originality, and as 
 we have already seen, the difficulty and danger of writing 
 anything in those times of bitter persecution against the 
 Catholic faith, its pastors and its members, sufficiently 
 rebut any idea that Father Clifton could have prepared it, for 
 the sake of publishing so interesting an event as the conversion 
 of the great Earl to the Catholic faith in his last moments. 
 In fact the words minime nota in vulgus, in reference to this 
 conversion, sufficiently proves this. 
 
 It may, therefore, be regarded as a fifth, and by no means 
 unimportant narrative of those last hours of that loyal and 
 gallant Royalist. We are particularly struck by its remarkable 
 accordance, in several most important points, with the authentic 
 account we have borrowed from the Chetham Society’s volume ; 
 both being almost word for word the same. We sum them up 
 as follows — 
 
 LAST SPEECH. 
 
 Chetham Society's Account. Annual Letters' Account. 
 
 “Coming to the foot of the lad- 
 der ... he kissed the ladder and 
 said, ‘ I do submit myself to the 
 mercy of God.’ ” 11 
 II. 
 
 “I forgive you all and desire to 
 be forgiven,” &c. 
 
 in. 
 
 His recommendation of his wife 
 and children to God, &c. 
 
 “As he ascended the scaffold he 
 kissed the steps, and expressed his 
 entire submission to the divine 
 will.” 11 
 
 II. 
 
 He heartily forgave them all who 
 had injured him, and asked forgive- 
 ness, & c. 
 
 in. 
 
 “He briefly and fervently re- 
 commended to God himself, his 
 wife, his children, &c. 
 
 11 To a Catholic this fact affords the strongest proof of the Earl’s 
 conversion to the one true faith. We have constantly read of Catholic 
 Martyrs following the example of the blessed Apostle St. Andrew, and 
 embracing their crosses, stakes, &c. ; and in the present volume of our 
 series, the very same thing is recorded as having been done by Father 
 Thomas Cottam. In proof of this, we have only to refer to Bishop 
 Challoners’ Memoirs of Missionary Priests , the Martyrs of China and 
 Japan , Rev. Alban Butler’s Lives of the Saints , &c. But we do not 
 remember to have ever read of a similar act by any Protestant, whether 
 lay or clerical, under equally terrible circumstances. 
 
The College of St. Aloysius. 
 
 17 
 
 IV. 
 
 “And laying his head on the 
 block, he said, ‘ Let the whole 
 earth be filled with His glory,’ . . . 
 his head was severed from his body 
 with one blow.” 
 
 v. 
 
 His allusion to the scaffold as his 
 cross — having been partly built with 
 his own timber of Latham House. 
 
 VI. 
 
 “I take it as a great mercy that 
 I am brought hither, for I might 
 have died in the midst of a battle, 
 and have not died so well, for now 
 I have time to make my peace with 
 God.” 
 
 IV. 
 
 “Calling on all creatures of the 
 Lord to bless Him ; and invoking 
 His holy name, he laid his head on 
 the block, and by one stroke it was 
 severed from his body.” 
 
 v. 
 
 On seeing the “scaffold, he 
 observed with a smile, that it was 
 his cross,” &c. 
 
 VI. 
 
 “As he went out he repeatedly 
 said to those about him, that he 
 was most grateful to the divine 
 goodness for having enabled him to 
 set his conscience at ease before his 
 death,” &c. 
 
 There are other expressions put into the Earl’s mouth, in 
 fact we might quote the whole of his reported utterances, which 
 any Catholic could use. The last striking fact we shall 
 notice, is the absence from the report of any praying or acts 
 of devotion in company with the chaplain, Mr. Bridgeman, 
 as is usual at such executions. Roscow, the reporter, 
 being actually upon the scaffold would never have been 
 guilty of omitting it, had it taken place ; especially seeing 
 that he carefully reports the substance of the noble Earl’s 
 conversation with the Vicar of Wigan. This we regard as a 
 confirmation of the Litter ce Annuce account that, on entering 
 the town, &c., “he retired for awhile, and declining the 
 proffered ministry of the chaplain, remained nearly an hour 
 in private and fervent prayer.” 
 
 The Litterce Annuce also confirm the Chetham Society's 
 account, as to the actual presence of the Chaplain, which the 
 Weekly Intelligencer denies. 
 
 In the annual report for 1651, it is stated that the Fathers, 
 especially in Lancashire, experienced the efficacy of the invo- 
 cation of St. Ignatius, and of water blessed in his name in 
 resisting the external influence of evil spirits. A poor woman, 
 for a long time possessed, was, after many fruitless exorcisms, 
 told by her cruel tormenter that he would not give her up 
 before the Feast of St. Ignatius, when he knew he would be 
 obliged to go. On that day, the poor sufferer, having received 
 Holy Communion, was immediately and permanently freed 
 c 
 
1 8 The College of St. Aloysius. 
 
 from the evil spirit, and from the bodily suffering which he had 
 caused. 
 
 One of these evil spirits inveighed bitterly against the 
 Sodalities of the Blessed Virgin, and their rules and practices. 
 These Sodalities, or Associations in devotion to the Blessed 
 Virgin, were zealously promoted in Lancashire by Father 
 Ferdinand Palmer, with great benefit to those who were 
 engaged in them. This Father was a native of Northampton- 
 shire. He entered the Society of Jesus in the year 1625, and 
 was solemnly professed of the four vows, on 19th of September, 
 1641. In the Catalogue of the English Province for the year 
 1655, he is entered as a Missioner in the Lancashire district. 
 During the plague of 1 666, which made such terrible ravages 
 in London, he was actively engaged as a Missioner there, 
 and in the midst of his heroic labours in relieving and comfort- 
 ing the plague-stricken, he was seized with the infection and 
 died a martyr of charity, 6th of May, 1 666, aged sixty-one; 
 having been in Religion for forty-one years; and a Professed 
 Father, twenty-five. When in Lancashire, Father Palmer says 
 he found the use of vows of chastity, for a limited period, in 
 many cases an effectual remedy against the opposite vice. He 
 also reports an instance of the awful judgment of God on 
 those who oppose the truth. He had instructed a married 
 woman, and received her into the Church. The matter came 
 to her husband’s ears, who positively forbad her to practise 
 any duty of religion. He was chopping some wood at the time, 
 and accidentally wounded himself very severely. His wife 
 took occasion from the occurrence to warn her husband not to 
 draw down the anger of God upon himself by opposing her 
 vocation to His religion. But the man only became angry 
 and more obstinate. The next day he was bitten by a mad 
 dog, and shortly afterwards died miserably. 
 
 In 1654, Father Palmer was sent for to a Protestant who 
 was alarmed by a severe illness. Feeling himself better before 
 the arrival of the Father, he sent word to say that he would 
 see him another time. The Father, as if anticipating what 
 was to happen, urgently insisted on at least seeing the sick 
 man, and so with great difficulty obtained access to him. He 
 gravely warned him that his death was nearer than he thought, 
 and invited him to follow the call of God, and seek His mercy 
 while he had the opportunity. The salutary fear of God had 
 its effect, the sick man was sincerely converted, and after 
 a second visit from the Father, died in a few days. Amongst 
 
The College of St. A loysius. 
 
 i9 
 
 other sick calls, he was requested to visit a lady of high rank 
 who was dangerously ill. On his arrival at the house, the 
 lady expressed surprise and displeasure at his coming, and told 
 him that she had not sent for him, nor for any other Priest. 
 He was about to retire, when the lady requested leave to ask 
 him whether he belonged to any Religious Order? He told 
 her at once what he was. She replied that she had heard from 
 some learned men long ago that the Priests of the Society 
 considered themselves at liberty to publish at pleasure their 
 penitents’ confessions. Father Palmer rejected with horror 
 the foul calumny, and explained to her what the Catholic 
 doctrine was upon that point, and the peculiar care with which 
 it was inculcated and observed in the Society of Jesus. She 
 expressed herself perfectly satisfied, and requested to be 
 allowed two days to prepare for a confession, which she said 
 must extend over a period of twenty years ; she begged him to 
 come to her again after that interval, which he did, and the 
 lady having performed her duty in the most satisfactory 
 manner, the Father took his leave. He never knew, nor 
 could he even guess who she was ; but he felt certain that she 
 was a person of high rank and superior intelligence. 
 
 Another lady is mentioned as being of noble birth and dis- 
 tinguished by her piety, constancy in faith, and charity to the 
 poor, and who had been given to understand by certain persons, 
 reputed to be pious and learned, that the Jesuits wished very 
 much to stay in England, and for that reason would rather im- 
 pede its conversion, because, were the country converted, they 
 would have to go back to their Colleges. Her son, an excel- 
 lent and prudent person, on hearing her repeat these remarks 
 gravely represented to her, and succeeded in convincing her of 
 the absurdity and criminal atrocity of such imputations. Being 
 no longer influenced by these impressions, she became well 
 acquainted with, and warmly attached to the Society. 
 
 A wealthy gentlemen had been in the habit of wasting much 
 precious time, and imbibing vicious principles, from reading 
 loose comedies and similar works, of which he had formed a 
 large collection, and had encouraged their perusal in his house- 
 hold, and amongst his guests. Father Palmer, wishing to 
 remove this occasion of sin, thought it prudent to begin by 
 asking the gentleman to give up to him one of those offensive 
 books, and after long solicitation, he consented. This first 
 victory over himself seemed to bring him more abundant 
 grace, for he presently afterwards cleared his house of all 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 The College of St. Aloysius . 
 
 the other books, though by doing so he incurred the ridicule 
 of his less scrupulous acquaintance. 
 
 The report for 1655, regarding the miracles wrought 
 through St. Ignatius, says — “ The power of our holy Father 
 St. Ignatius over the demons shows itself most clearly by 
 authentic proofs. There is a custom of blessing water, under 
 the invocation and patronage of St. Ignatius, which, after it 
 is thus consecrated, is called the Blessed water of St. Ignatius. 
 Of the great avail of this blessed water for the sick and afflicted, 
 and of its great power over evil spirits and their accomplices, 
 the dealers of witchcraft, not only individuals, but towns and 
 villages are witness ; for the devils cry out from the bodies 
 of those possessed that they are tormented by the water, and 
 that the charms are broken, and that it alone, without any 
 other exorcism, suffices to expel them. One person, without 
 hurt or pain, having drunk of the water threw up fifteen brass 
 pins, bent and twisted. Again on St. Matthew’s Day she 
 threw up ten more, and on St. Michael’s Feast the last one ; 
 all were strangely twisted, and we trust that on the Festival 
 of the Archangel, the most troublesome molester of her body 
 was finally dislodged, after having usurped possession of it for 
 six entire years.” 
 
 Another, who had been possessed for sixteen years, was 
 delivered by the same means, on St. Andrew’s Feast. 
 
 The following interesting case is also given. A girl below 
 twelve years, not a Catholic, was afflicted for some years by a 
 most incurable and troublesome sickness, caused, as it was 
 afterwards proved, by the devil’s agency ; so that twice, or 
 oftener, in the day she seemed at the point of death. One 
 of the Fathers, at the entreaty of a friend, visited her, and 
 having spoken kindly to her, taught her this prayer — “ O my 
 sweet Jesus, for the sake of Thy dear Mother, have mercy on 
 me and make me Thy servant.” At the same time he gave her 
 some of the water blessed by the relic of St. Ignatius, and told her 
 to take it with her food and drink • returning after fifteen days, 
 he found the sickness much abated, and having taught the child 
 the doctrines of the Faith, he exorcised the demon, using the 
 formula of the Church, which the devil durst not disobey, for 
 being ordered in Latin to come the next day “ to the chapel 
 door, and to creep on hands and feet to the foot of the altar, 
 and there confess that he was unable to resist the exorcism 
 of the Church of God,” the child, who had long been rendered 
 blind by the evil spirit, and was entirely ignorant of Latin, 
 
The College of St. A loysius. 21 
 
 strictly obeyed the command. The devil was then told, also 
 in Latin, that if on any day of the month of July he was forced 
 to leave that body, he must indicate it with the child’s own 
 finger; and upon this, taking in her hand the sacred Missal, 
 from which previously all the markers had been removed, 
 the child pointed out the day of St. Ignatius, and placed her 
 finger upon the Introit of the Mass, though she had never 
 seen a book of the kind before. And from that day (the Feast 
 of St Ignatius) she has remained strong, and restored to full 
 health, and has the grace of singular piety. 
 
 Not long after her cure, a labouring man’s son, whose 
 father had apostatized from the Faith, began to show signs 
 of strange fury and agitation ; and no marvel, for he had seen 
 three devils appear to him in the form of three black dogs, 
 who afterwards confessed that they were the same three who 
 had been ejected from the above child. By their threats 
 they induced the lad to kneel and ask their blessing, or rather 
 it should be termed, their malediction. Upon this he was 
 seized with such a hatred of God, that by grand promises, for 
 the author of lies had led the boy to entertain some great 
 expectations, he tried to induce his companions at school to 
 renounce God ; when this was discovered, the devil was 
 exorcised, and the lad, having been instructed, was restored 
 to sound health, both mental and corporal. 
 
 The fact which follows is very singular, and yet of no 
 little consolation to those whom Divine Providence permits, 
 without any fault of theirs, to be possessed by the devil. A 
 young girl, who, from the examples above mentioned, had 
 gained a true and great idea of the Catholic faith, was ardently 
 desirous of being instructed by a Priest, and received' into 
 the Church. But the bigotry of her father, who was an 
 obstinate heretic, prevented it. The child, therefore, prayed 
 earnestly to God that power might be given to the devil over 
 her body, on condition that it should be the means of an interview 
 with a Priest, and of becoming a Catholic. Upon this she was 
 possessed by the devil, and with the father’s consent delivered 
 by a Priest from it. But scarcely was she freed, when her father 
 insisted again on her abjuring her Faith, and returning to 
 heresy. She, having found the tyranny of the devil more 
 endurable than that of her father, renewed her prayer, and 
 again obtained her request, for even at the time when the 
 fact was narrated, she had the devil as a temporary lodger 
 in her body, that she might have God for her habitation for 
 
22 
 
 The College of St. Aloysius. 
 
 ever in her soul. And by this her singular love for God and 
 religion even her father’s hard and obdurate heart was being 
 softened, for he had given his solemn promise that though it 
 should cost him the loss of all his estate and fortune, he would 
 not be an obstacle in the way of her embracing the Catholic 
 faith, along with her mother and sisters, whom, by her example, 
 she had drawn to Christ, and to the love of His religion in 
 their hearts. 
 
 But not only did St. Ignatius banish the demons by the 
 water blessed in his name — his sacred pictures had the same 
 power. The following fact occurred in the house of a respectable 
 family. The servant kept the milk in the dairy carefully shut 
 and locked, but found in the morning more than twenty drops 
 of blood upon it. One of the Fathers, who chanced to be in 
 the house, guessing who was the cause of it, advised them 
 to put the place under the protection of St. Ignatius, and to 
 hang up a picture of the Saint there ; after which no other 
 harm occurred either to the milk or to the house. 
 
 But the Father who gave this advice, and who had worked 
 so many exorcisms, became the object of the fury of the enemy, 
 from whose rage the protection of St. Ignatius shielded him. 
 When sleeping, he was suddenly awakened at midnight by a 
 noise as though flint stones were flying and cracking in the fire 
 beside the bed in which he lay. He invoked St. Ignatius, his 
 Angel Guardian, and his Patron Saint, upon which the noise 
 grew fainter, and died away as he continued his prayers. The 
 next day an energumen, whom he was exorcising, came as 
 usual to him, when the devil was reluctantly compelled, by the 
 power of God, as he himself confessed, to declare that this 
 disturbance in the night had been raised by five wretched 
 spirits in order to deter the Father by threats from assisting 
 and relieving the poor sufferers. “ But why,” said the Father, 
 “did they do me no harm?” “It was not because they had 
 no wish to do so, but they were deterred by St. Ignatius and 
 your Guardian Angel, both quicker to help you than you were 
 to pray,” was the reply to the Father’s question. 
 
 Other instances are given, and in the following year, 1656, 
 mention is made of a case, showing the power of the exorcism 
 of the Church, and of the Priest, in the expulsion of evil spirits 
 from the possessed, which happened in a village called Halfcote, 
 on the borders of Worcestershire. The house of a respectable 
 man, named Hill, had for three years past been infested with 
 nocturnal spectres, horrid noises, and luminous appearances. 
 
The College of St. Aloysius. 23 
 
 He had invited the ministers of his own sect to perform 
 different services in order to free him from the annoyance. 
 Seven others also spent the night in prayer together, but in 
 vain, as peace was not restored to the house. Upon this the 
 master of the house, listening to wiser counsels, invited Father 
 William Atkins, then Rector of the College of St. Aloysius, to 
 come and assist in the work, and he spent the night watching 
 and praying in the very room which was especially haunted. 
 Nothing, however, was seen or heard that night. At daybreak 
 he purified the entire house, according to the solemn rite of 
 the Church, with wax tapers, holy water, and blessed palms, or 
 olive branches. From that time all was restored to perfect 
 peace and quiet, causing great astonishment in the people, 
 and from this no little fruit of souls was hoped. 
 
 Such miraculous powers of exorcism, &c., still continue to be 
 alluded to in the reports ; the last case which we shall notice 
 took place in 1672, at which period there were fourteen Fathers 
 in the district, and one hundred conversions were made. A man, 
 whose house was haunted by an evil spirit under the appear- 
 ance of two horrible spectres or ghosts, consulted by way of 
 remedy two witches, but the evil only increasing, he came at 
 length to one of the Fathers, and professed himself ready to 
 embrace the Catholic faith, if, by ]jis aid, his house should be 
 freed from the unwelcome guests. The Father, after accom- 
 panying the man home, recited the Litany of our Lady of 
 Loreto, and went though the whole house, carrying the Blessed 
 Sacrament; after which the evil spirit never again appeared. 
 The man abjured heresy, embraced the Catholic faith, and 
 continued a zealous Catholic. 
 
 Having dwelt so long upon the College of St. Aloysius, 
 we must now proceed to give an account of its famous 
 proto-martyr, Father Edmund Arrowsmith, intending to add 
 a biographical sketch of its first Rector, Father John 
 Worthington; of his brother, Father Laurence; and of his 
 uncle, Father Thomas ( olitti Dr.) Worthington ; concluding all 
 with a short notice of Father Richard Bradley, who died {in 
 vinculis ), in Manchester gaol, a martyr for his faith. 
 

 24 
 
 II. 
 
 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM OF FATHER 
 EDMUND ARROWSMITH, S.J. 
 
 He suffered at Lancaster , 2 Sih August, 1628, aged forty -three 
 years, having passed fifteen years on the mission, and having 
 been five years in the Society. 
 
 The following Life is principally gathered from a very rare 
 tract called u A true and exact relation of the death of twa 
 Catholics, who suffered for their religion at the Summer Assizes 
 held at Lancaster, 1628. London, 1737.” This octavo volume 
 contains two excellent portraits of the Martyrs, of whom the 
 second was Richard Herst, a farmer, who suffered the day 
 after Father Arrowsmith. Dr. Oliver, in his Collectanea S. J., 
 thinks that Father Cornelius Morphy, S.J., was its compiler; 
 and we may add with great probability, seeing that Father 
 Morphy laboured for some years in that district, and as early 
 as 1 740, if not before, was the Rector or Superior of St. Aloysius 
 College. This Life is more copious than Dr. ChalloneFs memoir. 1 
 Father Morphy uses the relation of the Martyr’s death, printed 
 in 1630; also Father Henry More’s Hist. Prov. Angl. S.J.; 
 Alegambe ; Nadasi’s Annus Dierum Memorabilium , &c. ; see 
 also Tanner’s Vita et Mors, &c. He also prints an account of 
 a great miracle, wrought through the Martyr’s intercession, by 
 means of the application of the famous relic, the Father’s hand, 
 in 1735, and which we shall add at the end of this Life. 2 
 
 1 Challoner’s Memoirs of Missionary Priests , vol. ii., p. 123. 
 
 2 The Rev. Cornelius Morphy, or Murphy, was a native of Ireland, and' 
 born 24th October, 1696. He entered the Society of Jesus, 7th September, 
 
 1 71 1, and was solemnly professed of the four Religious vows, 2nd February, 
 1730. This eminently gifted Father served the Lancashire mission for 
 several years, and was Superior or Rector of the College of St. Aloysius 
 from about 1740 to 1748. He was then appointed Rector of the College 
 of St. Ignatius, or the London District. At Christmas, 1759, he was at 
 Scotney Castle. He was a learned man, and author of A Pemeiv of thr 
 important controversy concerning miracles , and the Protestant systems 
 
Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 25 
 
 As the Lancashire District, or College of St. Aloysius, 
 was the birthplace as well as the principal seat of Father 
 Arrowsmith’s missionary labours, and the scene of his glorious 
 martyrdom, it seems very fitting to place this notice of his life 
 the first among the few selected for the history of the College. 
 
 Father Morphy remarks at starting — “We have little left 
 concerning Father Arrowsmith, after what inquiry could be 
 made, besides what relates to his happy suffering for the Faith ; 
 though perhaps fuller memoirs are to be found than those 
 here presented. It has often happened that of many celebrated 
 Martyrs, whose acts of martyrdom have escaped the injury of 
 time, very little came recommended to posterity by more than 
 the particulars of their behaviour in the last remarkable scene 
 of their lives. But if to live well be the art to die well, the 
 happy death of this servant of God assures us of a virtuous life, 
 which God of His mercy terminated with glory, and pleased 
 with his labours, crowned His own gifts, to which he had 
 faithfully corresponded, with eternal rewards.” 
 
 Father Edmund Arrowsmith, who was sometimes known by 
 the by-names of Bradshaw and Rigby — in fact, he was indicted 
 at his trial in the latter name — was bom at a place called 
 Haddock, in the parish of Win wick, five miles from War- 
 rington, and seven from Wigan, in the year 1585. 3 His father 
 
 relative to it ; to which is added a letter with some remarks on a late per- 
 formance called “ The Critei'ion of Miracles examined .” 8vo. London, no 
 date, p. 456. It was in the Appendix of this work, that Dr. Milner found 
 ready arranged the refutation of Detector Douglas, of which he has made 
 so important a use in his invaluable work, The End of Religious Controversy. 
 He also translated and published Pere Daubenton’s Life of St. John Francis 
 Regis, SJ. 8vo. London, 1731, pp. 368. Father Morphy died 31st 
 October, 1766, set. 70. See Dr. Oliver’s Collectanea , p. 259. It is 
 recorded that Father Morphy when Missioner at Brindle, or Slatedelf, 
 Lancashire, about 1740, was attacked by some priest-hunters. A 
 paper in the Archives Provincise Anglise, says that — “One night a gang 
 of these worthies came to take him, and several neighbours, who had heard 
 something of the matter, went and hid themselves behind a hedge leading 
 to the chapel, being determined if the gang succeeded in bringing him off 
 to rescue him, or lose their lives. The gang did not bring him off, though 
 he was at home, for his mild language softened their hearts. So his 
 valiant friends, that were hidden behind the hedge, lay quiet, listening to 
 the fellows as they returned, laying the blame on each other for not 
 bringing him off with them. These friends of the Priest therefore did not 
 stir till the gang was gone off.” 
 
 3 In the archives of the English Province at Rome is a MS., Processus , 
 condemnatio, et mors ex variis eortim qui prcesentes fuerunt litteris excerpta. 
 
2 6 
 
 Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 was Robert Arrowsmith, a yeoman or farmer in that country, 
 and his mother, Margery, was a lady of the ancient family of 
 Gerards. Both his parents were Catholics, and great sufferers 
 for their religion, as were also their fathers before them. For 
 Thurston Arrowsmith, father of Edmund’s grandfather, after 
 the loss of goods and frequent vexations from the pursuivants, 
 suffered a long imprisonment and died in bonds, a confessor of 
 Christ. And Mr. Nicholas Gerard, his maternal grandfather, 
 being a constant professor of the Catholic faith, was by order 
 of Sir Thomas Gerard, his own brother, forcibly carried to 
 the Protestant church, at a time when he was labouring under 
 a violent fit of the gout, so that he could not stir, and there 
 placed over against the minister ; but, instead of joining with 
 the minister or congregation in their service, he sang Psalms 
 in Latin with so loud a voice that the parson could not 
 be heard, and they were obliged to carry him away out of the 
 church. 
 
 As to the Martyr’s father and mother, after divers other 
 troubles and losses sustained for their conscience, they had 
 their house searched by the pursuivants, who with their swords 
 tried every bed and hole in which they suspected any Priest, 
 or priestly utensils might be hid ; and then they and all their 
 family were tied two and two together, and driven off to 
 Lancaster gaol, leaving at home four little children, of whom 
 Edmund was one, whom the pursuivants had taken out of their 
 beds in their night-dress, and left standing in the cold, not 
 suffering any of the family to dress them, till some neighbours, 
 compassionating their case, came in and did that charitable 
 office for the helpless infants. After this and some other 
 imprisonments, from which he redeemed himself with money, 
 the father of the Martyr went abroad with his brother Peter, to 
 be out of the way of these vexations, and they both served for 
 
 This MS., which is compiled from the various sources used in this Life, 
 contains a playful allusion to the Martyr’s name — “In the Latin, Sagitti- 
 faber, a name not undeservedly falling to Father Arrowsmith’s lot, whether 
 we regard his gifts of nature, or of grace, in which he ever showed himself 
 close and sharp in his combats with the heretics — like a chosen arrow. 
 It also observes in conclusion, that the death of Father Edmund 
 Arrowsmith, S.J., the last put to death for the Catholic faith for some 
 years, calls to mind the martyrdom of Father Edmund Campian of the 
 same Society, and its proto-martyr in England, seeing that their names are 
 the same, as were also their faith, their courage, disputations with the 
 heretics, and their deaths.” 
 
BOSTON COLLEGE LIBK*rt 
 
 CHESTNUT HILL, MASS. 
 
 Father Edmund Arrow smith. 27 
 
 a time in the wars in Holland. 4 Peter died at Brussels, of a 
 wound received in the wars, and was there honourably interred. 
 
 Robert, the father of Edmund, went to Rheims or Douay, there 
 to visit his other brother, Dr. Edmund Arrowsmith, a man of 
 great learning and piety, Priest and Professor in the College ; 
 after some time he returned again to England, and there made 
 a pious end, having foretold his death some time before. 5 
 
 The following is a copy of an ancient MS. we have been 
 kindly allowed to make from the original, No. 48, MSS. in 
 Arch. Dioc. Westm. It is written by a fellow-labourer. 
 
 u Notes concerning Mr. Arrowsmith’ s Death. 
 
 “ The things that I can call to mind concerning Mr. Edmund 
 Arrowsmith, late Martyr and Priest, were these — 
 
 “First, he was christened by the name of Bryan. His 
 father being but a farmer in the country and deceased, his 
 mother but poor and not able to bring him up in learning, and 
 being Catholics, a good, venerable, and virtuous Priest, con- 
 doling the poor widow’s estate, took the boy, her son Bryan, 
 into his service, not so much for any service he could then do 
 to him, as to help the widow of her burthen, and to bring 
 up her son in learning, who at the first, because of his public 
 education, 6 seem to be dull and blunt-witted, but after he had 
 
 4 In the original MS., Vita et martyrium R.D.D. Edmundi Arrowsmith , 
 in the valuable collection of MSS. at Oscott College, in page 523 of the 
 volume of the Rev. Alban Butler’s collection of materials for aiding Bishop 
 Challoner in his Memoirs of Missionary Priests , and which we have been 
 kindly permitted to transcribe, it is stated that they had no sooner landed 
 when they were ordered, in violation of their faith and conscience, to take 
 up arms against the Spanish, wherefore they were accustomed in the 
 engagements to discharge their muskets in the air, for fear that they should 
 hurt any Catholics. At length, by means of Sir William Stanley, who 
 was in the service of the King of Spain, they went over to the Spaniards, 
 and it was in their service that Peter got his mortal wound. 
 
 5 Vide Bishop Challoner’s Missionary Priests , vol. ii., p. 123, from the 
 above Oscott MS. 
 
 6 Probably alluding to a village school the boy had attended. 
 
 Dr. Challoner, in reference to Edmund’s village schooling, says (quoting 
 from the above Oscott Douay Latin MS.) — “That whilst he frequented 
 the schools, his practice was, as he w ent to school in the morning to a 
 place about a mile distant from home, to recite in the way with his 
 brethren, the Little Hours of our Lady’s Office ; and when he was coming 
 home at night, the Vespers and Complin ; and that his first care after he 
 came home was to withdraw into his oratory, and there to perform his 
 customary devotions of the Jesus Psalter, the Seven Penitential Psalms, &c. 
 
 And such was the sweetness of his temper and comportment, that even his 
 Protestant schoolmasters were very fond of him.” 
 
28 
 
 Father Edmund Arroiv smith. 
 
 been some two years or thereabouts brought up in our College 
 [Douay Secular College], his wits began to sharpen, and very 
 apt he was and very desirous to attain to learning ; but being 
 weak, he returned from our College into his own native style 
 to recover his health, and having in some reasonable manner 
 obtained it, his own loving master sent him back to. Douay the 
 second time, where he excelled exceeding well, although some- 
 what infirm, until the President, by reason of his bad health 
 (before he had ended his course) caused him to be promoted 
 to the Priesthood, and forthwith sent him into his country, after 
 which return of his he was called by that name of Edmund, 
 which he received at confirmation.” We will leave the MS. for 
 a short time. 
 
 Dr. Challoner says that Edmund was received into the 
 English College of Douay in December, 1605, having tried in 
 vain to pass over to one of the English Seminaries in Spain. 
 Soon after his arrival at Douay he received the Sacrament of 
 Confirmation, taking the name of Edmund after his uncle, 
 Dr. Arrowsmith. 7 That before his first return home on 
 account of his health, he had performed the greater part of his 
 humanity studies — that on his second return he took the usual 
 College oath and was admitted amongst the Pope’s alumni, 
 and applying himself close to his studies, though still somewhat 
 weak in health, he made great progress in learning. But, as 
 his too great application threatened a relapse, his Superiors 
 thought it most advisable (he having now gone through a good 
 part of his divinity course), to ordain him, and send him to 
 England. Upon this, he received all the minor Orders in 
 St. Nicholas Church, Douay, 14th June, 1612, and before the 
 end of the same year was advanced to the greater Orders at 
 Arras, where he was ordained Priest on the 9th December ; 
 
 7 Father Morphy says (p. 3), “He was christened Brian, but confirmed 
 Edmund, after many great Saints who had honoured that name, and chose 
 to be known by the name of Edmund. Under this name he revived the 
 memory of the first Christian hero of the Society of Jesus in England, 
 whom persecutors sent from the place of persecution to Heaven, the 
 famous Edmund Campian, who adorned a pious life, and many excellent 
 qualities, with the palm of martyrdom. ” Speaking of Douay College he 
 calls it: “a Seminary of many illustrious Martyrs, and zealous labourers in 
 the Vineyard, learned and pious persons who have adorned the Church 
 with their lives and their learned works, stocked Religious Orders with able 
 subjects, and particularly enriched the least Society of Jesus with many 
 eminent personages from that seat of piety and learning.” 
 
Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 29 
 
 and on the 17th June, 1613, he was sent upon the English 
 mission by Dr. Kellison, lately made President of the College. 
 
 In England he quickly recovered his health, and entered 
 upon his missionary labours in his own county of Lancashire, 
 with great zeal and success. The printed account of his death 
 published in 1630, gives his character in these words — “ He 
 was a man of mean presence but of great innocency in his life, 
 of great sincerity in his nature, of great sweetness in his con- 
 versation, and of great industry in his function, and was ever 
 of a cheerful countenance, a most probable sign of an upright 
 and unspotted conscience.” 
 
 To return to the MS. No. 48. “ Edmund, although he 
 
 retained but a very mean, homely carriage and presence, yet 
 he was both zealous, witty, and fervent, especially against 
 an heretic, and so forward that often I wished him merrily 
 to carry salt in his pocket to season his actions, lest too much 
 zeal without discretion might bring him too soon into danger, 
 considering the vehement, sudden storms of persecution that 
 often assailed us. Sometimes I have been in his company 
 when meeting with ministers sumptuously mounted, and have 
 had much ado to stay him from disputing with those proud 
 dogs (so was he wont to call them), which if he had done 
 it would have endangered, without doubt, both him and his 
 company. In his travels, on a time, he met with a schismaticai, 
 or other heretical gentleman, who seeing him of so mean a 
 presence, and understanding by some of the company who 
 and what he was, thought he had got a companion that he 
 might freely jest at and play upon, but he received such witty 
 answers, and his jests were so retorted back upon him, that 
 the gentleman swearing a great oath said, ‘ I thought that I 
 had met with a foolish fellow, but now I see he is either a 
 foolish scholar, or a learned fool/ 
 
 “ Much pains he took with possessed persons, yet seldom 
 or ever did he undergo that heavy and troublesome work 
 without the help and assistance of some of his brethren, and 
 so freed many from their troublesome yoke, and did much 
 good.” So far this interesting manuscript. 
 
 He laboured about ten or eleven years upon the mission 
 as a Secular Priest, and then in 1824 entered the Society 
 of Jesus, to which he had always an inclination after 
 making the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius under the 
 direction of a Jesuit Father. He did not go abroad to 
 make his noviceship, but retired only for two or three 
 
30 
 
 Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 months into Essex, which time he employed in a spiritual 
 retreat. 8 
 
 Father Cornelius Morphy says — “ He had been brought up 
 to trials; before his final combat he had suffered imprisonment, 
 and given a former testimony to God and his Church. He 
 entered into a dispute with the Bishop of Chester, wherein 
 the learned champion baffled his opponent, and eruditely 
 proved the truth of the Catholic religion and the authority 
 of the Holy See, with such strength and solidity that he 
 silenced his adversary, and behaved with so much courage 
 and constancy, that martyrdom was rather wanting to him, 
 than he to martyrdom. But God delayed his combat for 
 the benefit of many souls, and preserved him to another 
 trial, in which he proved himself a true son of the Church 
 and a companion of Jesus in his sufferings. His admission 
 into the Society of Jesus may not improperly be fixed about 
 the time of his first imprisonment, since the accounts of his 
 life inform us that it happened a few years before his death ; 
 for he lived only five years in the Society, but years full of 
 days consecrated to the glory of God, the service of his neigh- 
 bour, and his own sanctification. He had adorned his station 
 in the secular clergy with many virtues, and was a bright 
 ornament of that venerable body ; when, resolved to make 
 a full sacrifice of himself, he determined to reserve nothing 
 to himself, not even his own will, offering himself up to God 
 by Religious vows, making self-denial, which the perfection of 
 a Religious state requires, a preparation to his future martyrdom. 
 His intention was to conceal his eminent virtues under the veil 
 of humility in Religion, while that of Providence was to give the 
 Society an able subject and a great example in his person.” 9 
 
 The following is a copy of a manuscript in the handwriting 
 of the late Reverend Alban Butler, in the same volume of 
 Oscott MSS., p. 142, entitled, “ Memoirs of Missionary Priests. 
 MSS.” Dr. Challoner extracts only what was sufficient for his 
 purpose, but it is thought better here to give the whole. 
 
 8 Challoner’s Missionary Priests , vol. ii.,p. 127. Edit. 1742, quoting 
 the same Oscott Douay MS. In a list or catalogue of the English members 
 of the Society, which was seized with many other papers in the London 
 house of the Province at Clerkenwell, during the attack of the pursuivants 
 upon that establishment in 1627-8 (the history of which event is intended 
 to form part of a volume of the present series), the name of Pater Ed- 
 mundus Bradshaw appears as a Novice. The date of this catalogue would 
 be about 1624-5. See Domestic , Charles /., State Papers, vol. xcix., 1627-8. 
 
 9 Pp. 4 , 5- 
 
Father Edmund Arrow smith, 31 
 
 “ On Mr. Edmund Arrow smith, in an old hand scarce legible , in a 
 separate leaf in \to , dated 16th August , 1631. 
 
 “Mr. Edmund Arrowsmith was born anno 1585, in 
 Haddock, a township in the parish of Winwick, county 
 Lancaster. His parents were Catholics, and his father 
 suffered imprisonment at Lancaster for his faith, for which 
 God blessed his son. His mother was a gentlewoman of 
 good kindred, and near allied to divers great families. She 
 had married but meanly, namely, a yeoman, but a good 
 Catholic. When Edmund was first sent to school he was 
 observed by his fellows to bestow small time about learning 
 his lesson, and yet when he came to say it, was more ready 
 than others that had bestowed more time about it. He was 
 also observed to be full of mettle and courage, which still 
 accompanied his riper years, for he never seemed daunted 
 at any difficulties. At the end of his philosophy at Douay, 
 he made the Spiritual Exercises by help of one of the Society, 
 he being then ghostly father of the College, in which [retreat] 
 he was resolved to be one of the Society ; for a year after 
 making the Spiritual Exercises at the end of philosophy, by 
 the help of the same Father, and he in the end proposing 
 to me an exercise of states of life, and finding me to like 
 the Society, as best agreeing with my weakness of body if 
 I took to a Religious state, that Father made Mr. Edmund, 
 my countryman, an instrument to move me afterwards to go 
 with him to Louvain to the Noviceship, but I had a difficulty 
 which neither that Father nor any other could satisfy me in. 
 I said that if I entered a Religious state of life, I would have 
 the Order to be as firmly tied to keep me, at all events, 
 as I would tie myself to remain with them. He and others 
 answered me that the perfection of their Order consisted 
 very much in this, that they could free it at any time of bad 
 members by turning them out of the Order. I told him and 
 them that their Order no doubt chose it for good, but that 
 if I became a Religious, I would have a mutual tie on both 
 sides during this life, and that my aim was rather to seek 
 my own perfection, than the content and perfection of the 
 Order, which they said was much helped by turning out of 
 it whatever they pleased. 10 
 
 10 The good Priest who writes this evidently had no “vocation ” to the 
 Society of Jesus, and did not understand its true spirit. The government 
 of the Society is one of voluntary love and liberty. Its Institute, like the 
 laws of the Medes and Persians, changeth not — hence its stability. Let a 
 
32 
 
 Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 “ Mr. Edmund and I went both from Douay College into 
 England in the same year, but before me, where he laboured 
 divers years as one intending on fit occasion to become a 
 Jesuit; and divers times before he was a Jesuit would he 
 ask me about our clergy affairs, protesting he never would 
 discover anything thereof to the Jesuits, for any good and 
 advantage whatsoever; for till such time as he should enter 
 amongst the Jesuits he would always behave himself as a 
 true member of the secular clergy, which I verily think he 
 did. 
 
 “ Some few years before his execution he entered amongst 
 the Jesuits in England, without doing any noviceship, but 
 still in labour amongst us, except for some ten or twelve 
 days once a year for a spiritual recollection, at a place where 
 the Jesuits used to meet in Lancashire for that end. 
 
 “ He was arrested once before his last apprehension, and 
 imprisoned in Lancaster, but released upon pardon with 
 divers others . 11 At that apprehension he was brought before 
 Dr. Bridgeman, the pseudo-Bishop of Chester, where divers 
 ministers were at supper with the Bishop, who did all eat 
 flesh, it being in Lent. Dr. Bridgeman made his own apology 
 to Mr. Edmund for eating flesh, saying he was old and weak 
 and was dispensed withal. ‘But who dispenses with your 
 lusty ministers there ? ’ said Mr. Edmund, ‘ for they have no 
 such need.’ The ministers, both before and after supper, 
 were busy in disputing with Mr. Edmund, and one time, 
 divers of them urging against him at once, he merrily said 
 to the Bishop, ( Turn all your dogs loose at once against 
 me, and let us have a loose bait.’ For other matters the 
 other papers or the printed book may serve, only take care 
 
 member keep its holy rules, to which he has solemnly bound himself, and 
 he remains ever its beloved child ; but if he turns rebellious, and ‘ ‘ will not 
 have this man to rule over him,” it is rather he who casts himself out of 
 his mother’s arms, rather than she who rejects him. The principle laid 
 down by the writer is simply absurd and selfish, and were it adopted, 
 would speedily effect the ruin of every Religious Order. It need scarcely 
 be added that the writer is in error when he speaks of the Society “turning 
 out whatever it pleases.” 
 
 11 “ Probably in 1622, when I find by Mr. Rushworth’s historical 
 collections, vol. i., p. 62, the King (James I.), in favour of the treaty of 
 marriage then going forward with Spain, released a good many Priests and 
 other Catholics out of prison in and about London, and gave orders to the 
 judges to do the like in their respective circuits ” ( Challoner, vol. ii., p. 12S. 
 Edit. 1742). 
 
Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 of a mistake in the printed book, for it was not Mr. Rostern 
 who then was sheriff ; though it says so, it names him purposely 
 to defame him.” 
 
 Father Arrowsmith was very sensible that the late advan- 
 tage against the Bishop of Chester, and the glorious victory 
 of the Catholic cause, had raised the envy and malice of 
 many. Worldly prudence would have suggested a retreat 
 for a time until the storm had abated, and the very preser- 
 vation of the flock might have made it appear a necessary 
 step. But his heroic soul never knew fear, and was a stranger 
 to all the evasions that spring from mere human motives. He 
 scorned to desert the post of danger, which, though attended 
 with ignominy and confusion, he esteemed as the station of 
 honour under the standard of his crucified Lord. No dangers 
 deterred him, he never spared himself, never yielded before 
 the toil and fatigue of the mission, but with a holy confi- 
 dence and intrepidity ran all hazards in Christian prudence, 
 till being betrayed again, he was again imprisoned. The imme- 
 diate cause of his second arrest is recounted in a letter of 
 the Rev. William Harte, of Douay College, addressed to 
 Mr. Thomas Blackloe, the Clergy Agent in Rome, and dated 
 27th December, 1628. This letter is in the collection of the 
 MSS. in the Archives of the diocese of Westminster. We 
 have been kindly allowed to make a copy of it, and give 
 the following extract. 
 
 “ Reverend and ever respected Sir, — I have received yours 
 together with one from Signor Angelo Solutio, for which I 
 heartily thank you, &c. You wished me to inform you con- 
 cerning the Priest last executed, which I will do according 
 to the best relations I have from persons of credit. His name 
 was Barnaby Arrowsmith, in Confirmation changed into 
 Edmund, by which he was commonly known. He was 
 allied unto Dr. Arrowsmith, and brother unto Brother Edmund, 
 a Benedictine, of whom I suppose in times past you have 
 heard. Mr. Arrowsmith had his education in our College of 
 Douay ; there he got all the learning and sufficiency he carried 
 with him into England; there he received Holy Orders; from 
 thence he was sent into England by Mr. Doctor Kellison, 
 anno 1613, where he continued a Secular Priest until of 
 late years. This much, with all the particularities of time 
 and other circumstances, I find upon the College books. 
 The occasion of his apprehension was this. Two in Lanca- 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 shire 12 had married together ; the woman was not Catholic,, 
 the man was. There was somewhat in the marriage for which 
 they stood in need of a dispensation. Mr. Arrowsmith was 
 employed in obtaining it. In the meantime the woman became 
 Catholic. When the dispensation came, Mr. Arrowsmith would 
 not make use of it before the parties had separated for the 
 space of fourteen days, which thing incensed them much 
 against him, so that knowing the time when he was to 
 return to their father’s house where they lived, they secretly 
 sent word to one Rostern, a Justice of Peace, to come and 
 apprehend a Priest. The Justice, not willing to bring his 
 neighbour in danger, sent him word that he was to search 
 his house ; that by this means, having intelligence, he might 
 convey away the Priest. Which being done, the searchers, 
 according to the custom, busied themselves in looking, but 
 could find nobody, so returned home . 13 In their return, about 
 a mile from the gentleman’s house, upon the way they met 
 with Mr. Arrowsmith, who being apprehended after some dis- 
 
 12 Another letter gives the name of the young man’s father, “one 
 Mr. Holden, a Catholic.” The relationship between the parties was that 
 of first cousin. They had been married by the Protestant minister. 
 
 13 Recusants abounded in Lancashire, and the searchers were in fear of 
 them. With reference to this charitable act of the magistrate, Colonel 
 Rawsthorn, I will mention a paper in the Public Record Office, Domestic , 
 Elizabeth , State Papers, vol. cclxxxiii., nn. 86, 86 i., 86 ii. It is a letter of 
 Richard, Bishop of London, to Secretary Cecil, and encloses various pieces 
 of information against Catholics. Inter alia , he says upon some anonymous 
 information, “ They hold Wales to be almost all recusants, and, as it were 
 their own, and say no Queen’s officers dare apprehend any man there.” 
 ‘ ‘ In Lancashire, the most part being recusants, they stand in no fear, and 
 have beaten many pursuivants, and made them swear never to meddle with 
 recusants again, and one they made to eat his warrant ! ... It is said also 
 that in Lancashire, if a pursuivant came to the Justices and showed them 
 his warrant, they hindered him till they had sent to warn the recusant that 
 a search would be made, and that if he have anything in his house he must 
 convey it away,” &c. Amongst the same collection of MSS. of the diocese 
 of Westminster, is a letter from a Reverend Francis Barber formerly a 
 Douay scholar. It is dated 8th November, 1628, and sends, to the same Mr. 
 Blackloe in Rome, a shorter account of the martyrdom, &c., than the Rev. 
 W. Harte’s. He says that the magistrate, when directed by Mrs. Holden 
 and her son to send and arrest Father Arrowsmith then staying in their 
 house, replied that he would not do his neighbour Mr. Holden that 
 discourtesy. They then sent to him again, charging him on his office to 
 come, whereupon the Justice presently sent word to Mr. Holden thereof, 
 and willed him to convey the Priest out of his house, which Mr. Holden 
 did, but the said Justice of the Peace laid way for him with his assistant 
 and his son. 
 
Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 35 
 
 course, he said unto a young youth (the son of the Justice 
 of the Peace), ‘ Sir, it is a pity you are not a Catholic ; * and 
 being demanded the reason why, he answered, ‘ Because all 
 are damned who die in your religion.’ Upon this he received 
 his mittimus , and so was carried unto the gaol at Lancaster. 
 This much I understood from an honest and very intelligent 
 gentleman, who was at the same when all this happened in 
 
 Lancaster, and informed himself very well of all particulars 
 
 concerning this business.” 
 
 The manuscript letter then proceeds in a few lines to state 
 “ the manner of his examination, indictment, and execution.” 
 It narrates an act of great brutality on the part of the judge, 
 Sir Henry Yelverton, not given in Challoner’s or Father 
 Morphy’s accounts, namely, that after he had asked him 
 whether he was a Priest or not, being dissatisfied with the 
 information he could get out of the Martyr, the Judge “ said 
 
 there publicly, that if he could know for certainty he 
 
 was a Priest, he should die for it, because some before his 
 coming down from London had told him to his face that 
 he durst not hang a Priest.” The fact of this savage monster 
 having been thus “ chaffed ” in London, helps to account in 
 some measure for his great anxiety in getting the Martyr to 
 admit against himself the fact of his being a Catholic clergy- 
 man. The letter also refers to a relation of the martyrdom 
 in French, which is probably the same as the one named 
 by Dr. Oliver in the Collectanea^ — Recit veritable de la 
 cruaute et tyramiie faicte en Angleterre a Pendroit du P. Edm. 
 Arosmith , de la com. de Jesus. “ The English Jesuits (as 
 I suppose) have set forth a relation of the business in French, 
 printed at Liege, and approved by one, as seemeth, of authority, 
 who in his approbation, as near as I can call to mind, 
 saith he hath made the relation and judgeth it worthy of the 
 press — Ad majorem Dei gloriam , et suce religionis augmentumP 
 Mr. Harte, in the same letter, gives a brief narrative under 
 seventeen different heads, the details of which, however, are 
 all contained in this history of Father Arrowsmith. He then 
 shortly describes the martyrdom of Richard Herst, who was 
 condemned nominally for murder, but really in the cause of 
 the Catholic faith, and adds that “ a gentleman of our 
 country solicited the Judge for his (Herst’s) life, which 
 was granted upon condition that he would take the oath 
 u P. 32. 
 
 d 2 
 
36 Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 of supremacy. Hereupon the gentleman, going to the prison 
 with these tidings, signified to the prisoner what he had 
 done in his behalf, who gave many thanks, saying that he 
 had stood his friend in many things, but in this especially, 
 for that whereas before he was to die upon suspicion of a 
 foul murder, but now by his means he was to die for 
 his conscience and Catholic religion. Many wished him to 
 take the oath and to save his life ; but his wife, a courageous 
 woman, told them she loved her husband as well as other 
 women did theirs, yet she had rather see him die many deaths 
 than once wrong his conscience.” Mr. Harte’s letter goes 
 on to say : “ This might be some occasion of the report you 
 mentioned in yours, that Mr. Arrowsmith did not die for the 
 Catholic cause. Yet I will tell you a more probable ground 
 of that report. There was one Mr. John Lee, perhaps you 
 knew him, who in his younger days, before he was a Catholic, 
 had committed some such fact as taking silver which was none 
 of his (whether it was coined or plot I am not certain). The 
 matter was secret ; he came over seas and was received by Dr. 
 Worthington, and remained in the College until Mr. President’s 
 coming. He afterwards carried himself very well, and 
 so was made Priest; then he entered the noviceship of the 
 Benedictines, but continued there no longer than one month or 
 six weeks. From thence he returned into the College, and 
 obtaining faculties went in mission to England, where he 
 laboured divers years, not without profit ; afterwards came 
 back again and stayed in these parts for one year and some 
 months. Then returning into England he was apprehended 
 for his former fact (as I take it, but I am not certain). In 
 the meantime, before the assizes came on, the business was so 
 handled by friends that at the assizes he was indicted for 
 Priesthood, nor mention made of anything belonging to the 
 other business, and so was condemned for being a Priest, 
 but not executed, and so remains in prison, very well esteemed 
 of by Catholics. This much concerning that which you desired 
 to know. This condemnation of Mr. Lee happened two years 
 ago.” 
 
 But to return to our history. The oath of supremacy 
 having been tendered by the Justice of the Peace to Father 
 Arrowsmith and refused, he was committed to the common 
 gaol on account of his refusal and the strong suspicion felt 
 that he was a Priest and a Jesuit, and consequently, by dint 
 of reformed logic, a notorious seducer of his Majesty’s sub- 
 
Father Edmund Arrowsmith. 
 
 37 
 
 jects from their allegiance, and from the established religion 
 of the kingdom. He was apprehended in summer, a short 
 time before the assizes at which he was tried. 
 
 In the first letter he wrote from his confinement, the 
 blessed Martyr draws attention to the singular designs of 
 God’s providence regarding him. “All particulars,” says he, 
 “ did so cooperate to my apprehension and bringing hither, 
 that I can discern more than an ordinary Providence therein.” 
 And, indeed, this appears in every circumstance. Charles I. 
 had professed his abhorrence of shedding blood on account 
 of religion, and by his clemency, he faithfully carried out that 
 maxim from the time of his accession to the throne. It was 
 felt to be very certain at the time, and history has since 
 confirmed it, that his Majesty did in no way countenance or 
 encourage the proceedings of his Judge. Besides, when Father 
 Arrowsmith was apprehended, though he was well mounted, 
 yet all his endeavours to put his horse fo its full speed 
 proved ineffectual. He was also attended by a kinsman, 
 who followed him as his servant, and, being an able- 
 bodied man, could, by even a slight resistance, have protected 
 him and favoured his escape. As a further proof that God 
 feserved him for this glorious combat, he was twice during 
 his studies at Douay brought to death’s door, and twice 
 received the last Sacraments in that extremity, yet each time 
 he providentially recovered. 
 
 Though the Martyr’s body was held in confinement, his 
 zeal could not be bound. He, who had been indefatigable 
 in his duty when at liberty, gave himself no rest in gaol. 
 In his zeal for souls he exhorted the prisoners to do their 
 duty, and his words had such power that he won over even 
 the felons, and made them his friends. He preached the 
 Gospel with success, and converted one who followed him 
 in his death, had a share in his glory, and was a jewel in 
 his triumphal crown ; or rather, to use the words of the 
 Apostle, was “his joy and his crown .” 14 Of this case we 
 shall give fuller details further on. 
 
 Some time before the assizes, an order had been issued 
 requiring a more strict enforcement of the penal laws, some 
 of which bore date from the time that Henry VIII. made sacri- 
 fice of his conscience, and gave himself up to plunder, lust, 
 and sacrilege. According to the temper of the Government 
 of the time being, these laws had been either winked at, or 
 14 Philip, iv. i. 
 
38 
 
 Father Edmund Arrowsmith . 
 
 rigorously observed. Charles I. had very little peace during his 
 reign ; for even before the great troubles, the party which at 
 length overthrew that unhappy monarch, and had been restless 
 in his father’s time, began to grumble. Whether it was jealousy 
 of his marriage to a Catholic Princess, or something else 
 that really occasioned this resolution, it is certain that her 
 Majesty’s unpopularity got the credit of this new severity. 
 
 This order gave a favourable pretext for the exercise of 
 cruelty, in the name of the law, to Sir Henry Yelverton, one 
 of the judges appointed for the northern circuit, a Puritan, 
 and known in those times to be, on that very account, all the 
 more averse to Catholics. Gladly embracing the opportunity, 
 on the day after his arrival, which was the 26th of August, 
 he commanded Father Arrowsmith to be brought to the bar. 
 The Father was at the time conversing with some friends who 
 came to visit him ; and on the under-gaoler and sheriff’s men 
 coming to his chamber and calling him, in a sudden and unex- 
 pected manner, to appear before the Judge, he cheerfully 
 obeyed, saying : “ God’s holy will be done ; ” and was con- 
 ducted to the bar, amongst felons and other malefactors. 
 
 As soon as Judge Yelverton, who was appointed to the 
 Criminal Court, saw him, he sent to his colleague, Sir James 
 Whitlock, requesting his assistance in this case. He soon 
 came, and upon his arrival they conversed together for a 
 short time in private. The jury having been then called for his 
 trial, the Judge opened the proceedings with this rude and 
 ungentlemanly question — “Sirrah, are you a Priest?” the 
 soldier of Christ, arming himself with the sign of his Master, 
 the sign of the Cross, returned this gentle answer — “ I would 
 to God I were worthy.” The Judge repeating the same rude 
 and crafty question, he replied again — “I would I were.” 
 “Yes,” replied the Judge, “though he is not, yet he desires 
 to be a traitor ; this fact makes him guilty.” After this point 
 had been controverted awhile, the Judge, changing from the 
 affirmative to the negative, asked if he were “No Priest.” 
 To this the prisoner was silent; when the Judge, forgetting 
 his duty to take the part of natural counsel for the prisoner, 
 and becoming instead an inhuman accuser, exclaimed to the 
 jury, “ You may easily see he is a Priest. I warrant you, he 
 would not for all England deny his Order.” Prudence, says 
 Father Morphy, has recommended those accused not to 
 affirm that they are Priests, in order not to betray Catholics 
 who have harboured them. They are not to be their own 
 
Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 39 
 
 •accusers in matters that do not concern faith, nor are they 
 bound to depart from the just right, which every one has, of 
 refusing to answer an ensnaring question, where it may be 
 done without any prejudice to the interests of religion; especi- 
 ally since, according to the course of law, the ' charge has not 
 to be proved from the prisoner’s own confession, but from 
 the evidence of witnesses, till which time he continues, in the 
 tye of justice, not guilty of the indictment laid against him. 
 Here Mr. Leigh (or Lee), who acted in the double capacity 
 of both Parson and Justice of the Peace, and had some know- 
 ledge of the Father (perhaps through his famous encounter 
 with the Bishop of Chester, where Edmund had so gloriously 
 silenced error), whispered in the ear of the Judge, and shortly 
 after began to revile the prisoner, calling him “ a seducer, 
 who, unless some order were taken with him, would make 
 half Lancashire Popish.” By way of answer to the minister, 
 .and also to the Judge who accused him of being able to say 
 nothing for his religion, the Martyr humbly moved that he 
 might be suffered to defend his faith in disputation, which 
 he doubted not by God’s grace to perform against any one 
 who should oppose him. The Judge, without delay, stifled 
 that proposition, and told him “that his doctrine could not be 
 maintained, but that probably he desired that those of his own 
 religion should hear him talk.” The prisoner returned this 
 answer, “That he would not only defend it by words, but 
 would be glad to seal it with his blood.” The Judge took him 
 up after an insulting and savage manner, replying, “You shall 
 seal it with your blood.” And irritated by the generous liberty 
 >of the champion of Christ, without any regard to the fair 
 terms he offered, swore by all that was sacred that he would 
 not leave Lancashire before the prisoner was executed, “ and 
 saw his bowels burn before his face.” In furious anger, 
 he often repeated this threat, “You shall die;” till the Martyr 
 replied, “ And you, my lord, must die ; ” words which were 
 fatally verified in little more than a year. 
 
 The Judge exasperated, though still bent upon putting 
 ensnaring questions that might lead to the condemnation of 
 his prisoner, ordered him to answer in direct words how “ he 
 could justify his going beyond seas and taking the Order of 
 Priesthood, in disobedience to the laws of the realm.” To 
 which Father Arrowsmith replied, “ If any man can lawfully 
 accuse me, I stand here ready to answer him.” The Judge 
 made use of these captious questions, being very sensible that 
 
40 
 
 Father Edmund A rrow smith. 
 
 there was not sufficient proof of the allegations. Different 
 indictments had been drawn up, but failed through want 
 either of matter or evidence. At last, by the Judge’s direction, 
 two indictments were prepared, one accusing him of being 
 a Priest and a Jesuit, upon the strength of the letter written 
 by the young man Holden, and by his mother, to the 
 Justice of the Peace, when Father Arrowsmith was first ex- 
 amined; the other accusing him of being a perverter in 
 religion. The Martyr’s oblation of the spotless Sacrifice ; his 
 exercising the ministry given him by God ; his consecration to 
 God in a particular manner by Religious vows, and his imi- 
 tating the Apostles in the conversion of souls, these were 
 his crimes, than which nothing could be more honourable. 
 But mark the evidence, which, so far from proving what was- 
 alleged, only exposed the Judge’s inhuman barbarity. Th^ 
 servant of the Justice, who apprehended and committed the 
 Father, was called as a witness, and swore that the prisoner 
 tried to persuade him to be a Catholic, and told him that 
 “the religion now professed in England was heretical, and 
 only began in Luther’s time.” Then the Justice’s son, a 
 lad of about twelve years of age, affirmed, though not upon 
 oath, that the prisoner would fain have withdrawn him from. 
 Protestantism ! 
 
 The servant of God upon this humbly begged leave to 
 be heard, which being granted, he spoke to this effect — “ My 
 lord, as I was upon the road, that very man, as I take it, 
 rushed out upon me with a drawn sword. He was meanly 
 dressed, and on horseback. I made what haste I could from 
 him, but being weak and sickly was forced by him at last to 
 the moss, where I alighted and fled with all the speed I was 
 able ; which yet could not be very great, seeing 1 was loaded 
 with heavy clothes, books, and other things. At length he came 
 up to me at a moss-ditch, and struck at me though I had 
 nothing to defend myself with but a little walking stick, and 
 a sword, which I did not draw ; with the blow he cut the 
 stick close to my hand, and did me some little hurt. I then 
 asked him whether his design was to take my purse and my 
 life. He answered that perhaps it was ; and then I fled 
 again from him, but was soon overtaken. Then came up 
 this youth, who has offered to give evidence against me, with 
 others to assist him. They used me with much indignity, 
 and took me to an ale-house, and searched me to the skin*, 
 offering insults which modesty forbids me to relate, and which 
 
Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 4i 
 
 1 resisted as far as I was able. That done, they fell to drinking, 
 and spent nine shillings of my money in an hour ; they told 
 me that the Justice of the Peace, by whose warrant I was 
 apprehended, was there in person, but that I would not 
 believe. Upon this occasion my lords, I began to find fault 
 with the man’s wicked and rude behaviour, who seemed to 
 to be the ringleader ; and I besought him for Jesus’ sake to 
 give over his disordered life, drinking, dissolute talk, and 
 whatever might offend Almighty God. Upon my word and 
 my life, this, or to this effect, is all I said to him. Let him 
 look on me and gainsay it if he can. As for that youth, 
 I deny not to have told him, that I hoped when he came 
 to riper years, he would look better into himself, and become 
 a true Catholic, for that, and that alone, would be the means 
 to save his soul ; to which he made no answer at all. And 
 I hope, my lords, that neither they nor any other can prove 
 ill against me.” 
 
 Whether the Justice who committed him feared lest his 
 own or his servant’s barbarous usage, and the violence done 
 to the prisoner might be visited upon himself, or whatever his 
 reason was, he now began a fresh invective, treating him as a 
 dangerous seducer, and earnestly desiring that no favour should 
 be shown him ; for that if ever he got his liberty, he would 
 certainly do him some mischief. The Justice’s real or pre- 
 tended fear made the prisoner smile, and indeed it was not 
 easy to forbear doing so, for Father Arrowsmith’s countenance, 
 as his friends agree, was always cheerful and pleasant. But 
 nothing was to be excused ; the Judges, whose commission 
 includes a kind regard to the prisoner, whom they are to 
 protect as far as justice allows, reproved him with the unbe- 
 coming accusation of being a saucy fellow, who knew no better 
 manners, than to laugh and flout at those, who sat there to 
 judge in the name of the King. How fitly they represented a 
 gracious Sovereign, the reader may decide. The humble 
 servant of God, far from having any angry thoughts, begged 
 them not to harbour that opinion of him, and, immediately 
 kneeling down, prayed to God for the King, the honourable 
 Bench, and all the company ; that God, of His infinite mercy, 
 would be pleased to confound and extirpate heresy, and to 
 make us all of one religion. Upon this Judge Yelverton inter- 
 posed, with his charitable comment, to change a devout wish 
 into an imprecation. “ Look you,” said he, “ gentlemen of 
 the jury, how he wishes God to confound us all, and root 
 
42 Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 out heresy, by which he means our religion.” But true charity, 
 as Father Morphy remarks, would have taught the Judge, 
 had he not been a stranger to that virtue, that Catholic prayers 
 are not directed against persons, but their errors. This candid 
 behaviour of the Father might appear to some an instance of 
 weakness and simplicity, did they not bear in mind the 
 especial direction which Heaven grants to her Martyrs when 
 arraigned for their faith. He who encourages them with His 
 grace in these trials, has promised them an extraordinary direc- 
 tion, for, speaking to the Apostles, 15 He says — “When they 
 shall deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall 
 speak; for at that same hour shall be given you what ye shall 
 speak. For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your 
 Father that speaketh in you.” In this point of view Christians 
 should consider that the Martyrs of Christ are in their conflicts 
 exalted above themselves, and are guided by a superior Provi- 
 dence in a work that exceeds the strength of nature. 
 
 The Judge, upon the slender evidence we have seen, pro- 
 nounced against the prisoner, and endeavoured by malicious 
 suggestions to banish all sense of equity from the jury, and to 
 harden them like himself against reason, justice, and humanity ; 
 for he could not, by the laws of England, convict his prisoner in 
 the absence of witnesses. But God permitted this crying injustice 
 to increase the Martyr’s merit, and to demonstrate that his 
 religion (happy cause !) was his guilt. The jury withdrew after 
 the barbarous and inhuman charge, and the prisoner was 
 remanded to gaol in expectation of the verdict. This was in 
 fact an adjournment of the Court for dinner. The Martyr was 
 at the time suffering under severe toothache, and was glad of 
 the. adjournment, to get an hour or two of rest. The jury, 
 excited and inflamed by the Judge, soon agreed upon their 
 answer, and the prisoner having been brought back, they gave 
 their verdict, Guilty of high treason. Upon which the Judge 
 stood up (Sir Henry Yelverton was then alone) and, according 
 to custom, asked the prisoner what he had to say for himself, 
 why he should not die according to law. The Martyr instantly 
 lifted up his heart, his eyes, and hands to heaven, without 
 answering the question; and in profound silence and recollec- 
 tion waited for the result. Then the Judge pronounced the 
 following sentence — “You shall go from hence to the place from 
 whence you came; from thence you shall be drawn to the place 
 of execution upon a hurdle. You shall there be hanged by the 
 n St. Matt. x. 19. 
 
Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 43 
 
 neck, till you be half dead ; your members shall be cut off 
 before your eyes, and thrown into the fire ; where likewise your 
 bowels shall be burnt. Your head shall be cut off and set 
 upon a pole, and your quarters shall be set upon the four 
 comers of the castle. And may God have mercy on you.” 
 The Judge was not satisfied with passing this unjust sentence 
 upon the Martyr’s body, but in his rage passed sentence also 
 upon his soul, adding — “ Know shortly thou shalt die aloft 
 between heaven and earth, as unworthy of either ; and may thy 
 
 soul go to h with thy followers.” Nor did this satisfy him, 
 
 but he most insultingly added, “ I would that all the Priests in 
 England might undergo the same sentence.” 
 
 The blessed Martyr, far from being moved at the flagrant 
 injustice of the sentence, fell upon his knees, and lowly bowing 
 down his head, adored the loving decree of Providence that 
 had bestowed upon him this extraordinary blessing. He was so 
 filled with unspeakable joy at the prospect of the sacrifice he 
 was about to make to God, that, unable to control his tran- 
 sports, he exclaimed aloud Deo gratias , repeating in English, 
 “ God be thanked.” The sentence was attended with further 
 acts of cruelty, for the gaoler who led the Martyr to his cell was 
 ordered by the Judge, through the sheriff, to load him with the 
 heaviest irons . 16 He had been commanded before to place the 
 servant of God in a dungeon without light, and under solitary 
 confinement; but on the gaoler saying that he had no such 
 place, he was ordered to confine him in the worst he could. 
 When he was loaded with those heavy irons, he was rendered 
 so helpless by their weight, that he was rather carried, than 
 able to walk. At this time he recited very audibly and fervently 
 the Penitential Psalm, the Miserere; offering himself to God and 
 imploring Him, in the earnest prayer of the inspired King, to 
 “ deal favourably with Sion, that the walls of Jerusalem be built 
 up ; ” that He would complete the number of the elect, and place 
 him amongst those mystical stones that form the building of the 
 Heavenly City. He was thrust into a dark and narrow hole, 
 where he could not lie down, but was forced to sit supported 
 by a small bolster, which the humanity of the gaoler allowed 
 him to have. The news of his condemnation struck even the 
 felons and malefactors with horror at the Judge’s cruelty, and 
 with compassion for the prisoner whose virtues and innocence 
 
 16 The letter of the Rev. Francis Barber, before referred to, says — “He 
 •was sent close prisoner with the ‘Widow’s Mite,’ as they call it, a great 
 pair of bolts on his legs.” 
 
44 
 
 Father Edmund Arroiv smith. 
 
 could charm the inmates of a gaol, but had no effect upon a 
 merciless Judge. The confused sound of their groans and 
 outcries was so loud as to be heard a very great distance . 17 
 
 The weight of these heavy bolts could oppress his weak 
 body, but could be no incumbrance to a soul longing for 
 eternity. Pious aspirations, ardent ejaculations, the joyful love 
 and contemplation of his Creator, occupied the short remainder 
 of his life. He was watched, day and night, by three or four 
 of the sheriffs men ; all access to- him having been forbidden 
 by strict order of the J udge, under a severe penalty of jQ x °°* 
 He continued in this state, from one or two o’clock on Tuesday 
 until about twelve on "Thursday, with little or no nourishment, 
 as it appeared when disembowelled at his execution. 
 
 The motive of the order given by the Judge that no one 
 should be admitted to the prisoner, was to prevent his receiving 
 any consolation from friends. Justice-parson Lee was allowed 
 to visit him in his shackles, and came once or twice to challenge 
 him to a disputation, without witnesses. The remembrance of 
 the victory which the prisoner had obtained in conference 
 with the Bishop of Chester before so many, made him desire a 
 conference without any company, hoping by so mean an artifice 
 to obliterate the fame of Father Arrowsmith’s success, and 
 pretend that he had non-plussed his adversary. The wisdom 
 which descended with Joseph into his confinement aban- 
 doned not our Martyr. He prudently rejected the insincere 
 proposal of a person, who not long before had falsely reported 
 advantages which he never gained, in a dispute with a learned 
 Catholic gentleman. "The poor evasion was seen through 
 even by the Protestants, and by some of the minister’s 
 friends, who reminded him that if he desired to dispute, the 
 Father had made him a fair offer in the public Court, which 
 had not been accepted, and they were scandalized and indig- 
 nant at this shabby proceeding. But Mr. Lee and his adherents 
 sought to wipe off the aspersion, by asserting that their adversary 
 was a weak, silly fellow, and not conversant with Greek. A vain 
 attempt, as the Father was known to be a man of extensive 
 learning, great penetration, and solid judgment ; which some of 
 them had found out, not many years before, to their own con- 
 
 17 More than one of the MSS. quaintly say — “Coming back from the 
 bar to the prison, the other prisoners understanding that he was con- 
 demned gave a shriek, which was heard two miles ” As to this, the 
 Rev. William Harte, in the letter we have mentioned before, remarks — 
 “ Stretch your belief as far as you will.” 
 
Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 45 
 
 fusion. Another visit, which the same gentleman made towards 
 night, must not be omitted. Whether Mr. Lee really was, or only 
 pretended to be afraid, he called aloud for a candle on his 
 way to the cell, not daring to approach him, “ for the safety,” 
 he said, “ of his person, least that traitor should desperately 
 mischief him in the dark.” Great reason had he to fear 
 dangerous usage from a person weighed down with heavy 
 irons, and scarcely able to stir ! 
 
 The prisoner, a stranger to such thoughts, spoke with his 
 usual calmness and candour, saying — “Alas! good sir. can you 
 think so ill of me ? I would not hurt any of you, and would 
 be glad to do your souls good.” But on the other side, it was 
 not so easy for Catholics to speak to the prisoner. A Catholic 
 gentleman was seen by some spy near the door, and was at 
 once detained. But being soon after called before the Court 
 and examined as to what business he had there, he was dis- 
 missed, after giving some explanation. 
 
 Let us for awhile, says Father Morphy, leave the holy 
 prisoner in close communication with his God, preparing 
 manfully for his passage ; for though attentive only to his 
 approaching end, he became the subject of public conversa- 
 tion amongst others. It was thought by some that he would 
 assuredly suffer, whilst others imagined he would be brought 
 to the place of execution, and there reprieved. These 
 grounded their hope upon the royal clemency of Charles I.. 
 a gracious Sovereign, who abhorred shedding blood under 
 pretext of religion, and in whose reign no one had yet 
 suffered for his faith. But they forgot the influence of a blood- 
 thirsty Judge, who had malice enough in his heart and full 
 power in his hand, to carry out his barbarous intent. The 
 behaviour of the town of Lancaster on this occasion was 
 very remarkable. In proof of their detestation of this judicial 
 murder, no man could be prevailed upon to undertake the 
 execution, except a butcher, who, though ashamed to become 
 the hangman himself, engaged for five pounds that his servant 
 should despatch the Martyr. This the servant, out of a feeling 
 of humanity and respect for that good man, refused, and when 
 informed of his master’s shameful contract, he fled from his 
 service, and was never seen after by him again. Within the gaol 
 itself the same spirit was displayed. Felons and malefactors, 
 though offered their own lives, would lend no hand to in- 
 justice ; till a deserter, under sentence of death for leaving his 
 regiment, offered for the sum of forty shillings, the prisoner’s 
 
46 
 
 Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 clothes, and his own liberty, to be the vile instrument of the 
 murder. But this made him so detested by the good people 
 of Lancaster, that none would lend him an axe wherewith to 
 slay the servant of God. This man, after committing his 
 base act, was remanded to prison, although liberty had been 
 promised him ; but his fellow-prisoners held him in such 
 abhorrence, that he was kept out of their sight for fear of 
 violence. Some time after he was set at liberty, receiving 
 the Martyr’s clothes as an infamous reward for his detestable 
 service. This very man had been frequently relieved in prison, 
 and in fact saved from starvation by the charity of the 
 Martyr. 
 
 Some difficulty was found in preparing the sheriff’s warrant 
 for the execution, seeing that the illegal proceedings had 
 made it hard to draw one up in proper form. The elder 
 Judge, Sir James Whitlock, who, as we have seen, was called 
 in to assist Judge Yelverton with his advice, refused to sign 
 the warrant ; nay, the convicting Judge himself, would not put 
 his hand to any order. The sheriff, of course, would not 
 take the burthen of this guilt without a proper document, 
 though he too desired his death. At last a warrant was 
 drawn up in illegal form, for the usual words “the Judge 
 sitting,” substituting “ the Court sitting,” and “ ordered by the 
 Court.” Though these irregularities occurred in the order for 
 his execution, yet suitable directions were given to a proper 
 officer to disguise what was amiss. So true it is that the con- 
 science of the wicked apprehends even the testimony of men, 
 in those very facts on which they are eagerly bent Besides, 
 what is not usual at Assizes, by the Judge’s order the day 
 of execution was anticipated, that he might gratify his eyes 
 with the sight of the convict’s death. 18 
 
 On Thursday, the 28th of August, the eve of the Feast 
 of the Decollation of St. John the Baptist, to whom this 
 blessed Martyr was made so like through the brutal conduct 
 
 18 The letter of the Rev. Francis Barber, before referred to, says 
 regarding the death-warrant — “Judge Yelverton having wrote his com- 
 mission, sent it to his brother Whitlock to sign, who seeing it said that his 
 brother Yelverton should sign it first. Whereupon it was carried back to 
 Yelverton, who signed it ; then it was brought to Whitlock who would not 
 put his hand to it, and said, moreover, that perchance it would cost 
 Yelverton £ 560 . [sic in orig.] At this Yelverton was much offended, and 
 said, seeing it was an act of the Court, both the Priest and the layman 
 [Herst] should die.” The strange sum, named above, may have regard to 
 some fact well known at the time, but to which w r e have now no clue. 
 
Father Edmund A r row smith. 
 
 47 
 
 of the Judge, word was brought by the sheriff that he must 
 die within four hours. He received the news with perfect 
 resignation, and with great fervour and devotion replied, 
 raising his heart to God, “I beseech my Redeemer to make 
 me worthy of it.” The Judge, to disappoint the people of 
 so edifying a spectacle as the heroic combat of a valiant 
 champion, had proposed to have him executed early in the 
 morning ; but the delay in the arrangements, necessary for the 
 execution, thwarting his design, he ordered that it should take 
 place about noon, when men were most likely to be within 
 their homes, at dinner. But either the idle curiosity of many 
 persons, or the hope of Protestants to see him waver, or 
 the confidence felt by Catholics in his known virtue and 
 constancy, emptied Lancaster, for all crowded from it, and 
 other parts, to the place of execution, persons belonging to 
 all ages, sexes, and sects, awaiting the last scene of this 
 tragedy. So that when the gaoler handed over his prisoner 
 to the sheriff, there was scarcely a man or woman left at 
 home, either to take their dinners, or to keep their shops. 
 
 As he was being led through the castle yard, a worthy 
 and venerable Priest, his fellow-prisoner, who had been 
 condemned for his faith a year before, but stood then 
 reprieved, showed himself to Father Arrowsmith from a large 
 window. The Martyr, as soon as he perceived him, asked 
 for the last absolution by lifting up his hands (the sign they 
 had mutually agreed upon), in order that, being sent forth 
 by the servant of Jesus Christ, with comfort from on high, 
 he might endure in the day of battle, and triumph in the 
 conflict. This Priest was the Rev. Mr. Southworth, who 
 absolved him before all the multitude, and bid him with 
 the sign of Redemption, pass on to conquest and a crown 
 of glory . 19 
 
 19 The Rev. John Southworth was apprehended and brought to trial 
 in 1627, at Lancaster. He was then reprieved and kept close prisoner in 
 Lancaster Castle. Bishop Challoner believes that he was afterwards 
 removed to London to the Clink Prison, from which he was in 1630 set 
 free at the instance of the Queen, along with fifteen other Priests, and 
 delivered to the Marquis de Chasteauneux, the French Ambassador, to 
 be transported beyond the seas. If he ever actually went abroad he must 
 have returned soon ; as he was the fellow-labourer of the Martyr Father 
 Henry Morse, S.J., during the plague in London, 1635-6. He was 
 seized in that year, but his trial was postponed at the instance of the 
 Queen, and he was liberated. He was again* apprehended in 1654, 
 and suffered at Tyburn, 28th of June in that year. 
 
4 8 
 
 Father Edmund Arrowsmith . 
 
 A Catholic gentleman on this occasion revived, if he 
 did not surpass, the example of the great Constantine, who, 
 when he had given peace to the Church, embraced the 
 maimed Confessors, and kissed the marks of the Avounds 
 they had received in the late persecution. This gentleman, 
 being charmed with the courage and intrepidity of the 
 generous Martyr, marching out to victory with these marks 
 of ignominy and confusion, discovered by a clear-sighted 
 faith, under these humbling circumstances, the true signs 
 of a disciple of the Cross, and of a soldier and apostle of 
 Jesus Christ. He clasped the Martyr in his arms and kissed 
 him tenderly, till the high sheriff ordered him to be separated 
 by force. 
 
 When this gentleman had thus taken leave of Father 
 Arrowsmith at the Castle gate, he was laid and bound 
 upon the hurdle with his head towards the horses’ tail, for 
 his greater ignominy. Thence he was dragged through the 
 streets to the gallows, which was erected about a quarter 
 of a mile from the Castle, his friends being prevented from 
 approaching him by the halberds of the sheriff’s javelin-men. 
 
 To his greater torment, some Protestant ministers were 
 allowed to molest him. The executioner immediately pre- 
 ceded the horse drawing the hurdle, with a club in his 
 hand, marching as though in barbarous triumph ; whilst the 
 Martyr, bound upon the hurdle, held in his hand two papers 
 on which were written, under the title of “ Two keys to 
 Heaven,” an act of the love of God, and an act of contri- 
 tion, that by repeating them he might excite himself to fervour 
 and devotion. The Martyr’s thoughts were, no doubt, fixed 
 upon his Redeemer’s passage to Mount Calvary, bearing His 
 heavy Cross, to consummate our redemption. The contem- 
 plation of his Master sinking under its oppressive weight, and 
 that infinitely heavier burden of our sins for which He was 
 sacrificed, filled him, no doubt, with transports of content 
 and joy that he was thus found worthy to bear ignominy for 
 His Name, and was admitted to follow in the blood-stained 
 footsteps of his Saviour. 
 
 Drawing near the gallows, the horse and hurdle was stopped, 
 and “the old-limping” Justice-parson, Mr. Lee (Father Moore 
 says, “tanquam caco-daemonis minister”), not hoping to confirm 
 but wishing to shake the Martyr’s constancy, pointed out to him 
 the caldron boiling high over a vast fire so that none could 
 stand near it, and, at the same time, the gallows, the rope, the 
 
Father Edmund Arrow smith. 49 
 
 butcher's knife, and other terrible instruments of torture ; 
 saying, “ Look you, Master Rigbie, what is prepared for your 
 torment and death, unless you are ready to conform to the 
 laws, and accept the King’s mercy.” The Martyr with a 
 smiling countenance, looked at the tempter and replied, 
 “ Good sir, tempt me no more : the mercy which I look for 
 is in Heaven, through the death and Passion of my Saviour 
 Jesus Christ, and I most humbly beseech Him to make me 
 worthy of this death.” • He was then dragged to the foot 
 of the ladder, where being unfastened from the hurdle, he 
 prayed on his knees for a quarter of an hour, full of the 
 charity which fired the heart of the Apostle to defy 
 “ tribulation, distress, hunger, nakedness, danger, persecu- 
 tion, or the sword to be able to separate him from the 
 love of Christ,” and which made him by these things, “over- 
 come because of Him that loved us.” 20 Thrice kneeling, down 
 he, in his prayer, thrice repeated the following ardent obla- 
 tion of himself — “ I freely and willingly offer to Thee, sweetest 
 J esus, this my death in satisfaction for my sins ; and I wish 
 that this little blood of mine may be a sacrifice for them.” 
 Thus did he devote himself as an holocaust to his Saviour. 
 He was hereupon interrupted by the same old minister, and 
 charged with blasphemy, saying, “You attribute nothing to 
 Christ’s merits and Passion ! ” But Father Arrowsmith 
 instantly replied, “ O sir, say not so ! Christ’s merits and 
 Passion are always presupposed.” Having refuted this impu- 
 tation in these few words, he continued, “ O Jesus, my 
 life and my glory, I cheerfully restore the life which I have 
 received from Thee, and had it not been Thy gift, it would not 
 be mine to return. I have ever desired, O God of my soul, 
 to resign my life to Thee, and for Thee. The loss of life 
 for Thy sake, I own as my advantage, and the preservation 
 of it without Thee, my ruin. I die for the love of Thee ; 
 for our holy Faith ; for the support of the authority of Thy 
 Vicar on earth, the successor of St. Peter, true Head of the 
 Catholic Church, which Thou hast founded and established. 
 My sins, O Lord, were the cause of Thy death. In my death 
 I only desire Thee, Who art true Life. Permit not, most 
 merciful Jesus, that I escape torments to live without Thee. 
 Life can be of no advantage where Thou art not. Give me, 
 good Jesus, constancy to the last moment, let me not live 
 one instant without Thee. For since Thou art true Life, I 
 20 Rom. viii. 35. 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 cannot live unless Thou livest in me. When I reflect that 
 I have offended Thee, I am seized with greater grief than 
 can be caused by the loss of my life. O Life of my whole 
 life ! but how of my whole life if I have offended Thee ? 
 However, with true sorrow I wholly devote myself to Thee, 
 and with all my heart forgive those who take my life away, 
 and by that means, give me this opportunity to resign it into 
 Thy sacred hands.” Such were the fervent aspirations, or 
 rather flight of a soul carried straight to the centre of her 
 being — God, and preserved by the witnesses of his martyrdom 
 as precious remains of a Christian hero. 
 
 Often did they endeavour to interrupt him, but his prayer, 
 like himself, was fixed and immovable. When ordered by the 
 sheriff to make haste, he obeyed as to the voice of Provi- 
 dence, rising up with the words of resignation, “ God's holy 
 will be done." He then kissed the ladder, and mounted it 
 with courage and resolution. As he ascended the ladder, 
 he desired all Catholics to pray with and for him, that he 
 might obtain the graces necessary to support him in this 
 last and decisive conflict. 
 
 Mr. Leigh, the Justice-parson, replied most falsely that 
 none were present, but he would pray for him ; whereas 
 many Catholics had come for the sake of edification. The 
 Martyr replied — “ I neither desire your prayers, nor will I 
 pray with you. I will have nothing to do with you, and if 
 what you say be true that there are no Catholics here, I wish 
 to die as many deaths as here are people, on condition 
 that they were all Catholics." He then prayed for his 
 Majesty, and recommended to Almighty God the state of 
 this kingdom, praying more especially for his persecutors, whom 
 he freely forgave, and desiring forgiveness of whomsoever he 
 had offended. Ascending a little higher, he spoke as follows 
 to all the spectators — “ Bear you witness, who are come to see 
 my end, that I die a steadfast Roman Catholic ; and for 
 Jesus Christ's sake, let not my death be a hindrance to your 
 well-doing, and going forward in the Catholic religion, but 
 rather may it encourage you thereto. For Jesus Christ's sake 
 have a care of your souls, than which nothing is more 
 precious ; and become members of the true Church, as you 
 tender your salvation, for hereafter that alone will do you 
 good. I beseech you request my brethren, for His sake Who 
 redeemed us all, to be careful to supply my want and suffi- 
 ciency, as I hope they will. Nothing grieves me so much 
 
Father Edmund Arrowsmith. 
 
 5i 
 
 as this England, which I pray God soon to convert.” He 
 then prayed for a little while out of a paper, and drawing 
 the cap over his eyes, waited the moment of being turned off 
 the ladder. 
 
 But the tempter, Mr. Leigh, had not yet finished. A further 
 and last effort was made to shake the Martyr’s constancy. 
 “ Pray, sir,” said he, “ accept the King’s mercy. Take the oath 
 of allegiance, and your life shall be granted. Good sir, accept 
 your life. I desire you to live. Here is now one come 
 from the Judge to offer you mercy. You may live, if you 
 will conform to the Protestant religion.” The Martyr drew 
 his cap from over his eyes, and with a severe countenance, 
 feeling some resentment at the injury being offered to his reso- 
 lution of dying a thousand deaths rather than accept such 
 terms, answered — “ O sir ! how far am I from that ; tempt me 
 no more. I am a dying man. In no case, on no condition will 
 I do it.” Then with great firmness of mind he addressed 
 the high sheriff, exhorting him and the rest to take care of 
 their souls. “ The day will come,” said he, “ when far from 
 repenting your return to the Catholic Church, you will find 
 it your greatest comfort and advantage.” He continued in 
 this strain till some Protestant ministers answered, in a 
 muttering tone, as in the name of the rest, that they would 
 look well enough to themselves. While others who were further 
 off, fearing that the words of a dying hero might have too 
 great an influence on many, interrupted him, crying out — 
 “No more of that; no more of that. Away with him ; away 
 with him.” Father Arrowsmith now composed himself for 
 his last act ; he again covered his eyes, and, fixed in ardent 
 prayer, contemplated Him with a lively faith, Whom he was 
 to possess for all eternity. His lips were seen to move, and 
 Bone Jesu — “Good Jesus,” were the last words that imme- 
 diately preceded his being thrown off the ladder, when his 
 happy soul, freed from its mortal body, was admitted to 
 receive that crown of justice which is laid up for faithful 
 servants, and which, in the language of St. Austin, is by 
 God’s mercy their due. 
 
 The rest of the cruel sentence was immediately executed. 
 His body was cut down, dismembered, embowelled, and quar- 
 tered. His head was also cut off and with the quarters boiled 
 in the cauldron ; the blood, mixed with sand and earth, was 
 scraped up and cast into the fire. Lastly his head, as the 
 sentence directed, was set upon a pole amongst the pinnacles 
 e 2 
 
52 
 
 Father Edmund Arrowsmith . 
 
 of the castle, and the quarters were hung on four several 
 corners of it . 21 
 
 Widely different were the effects produced amongst the 
 persons assisting at this tragedy. Many Protestants, being 
 moved with his fortitude and patience, wished their souls 
 were with his. Others either out of remorse, or detestation 
 of this bloody act, repented of having come to see it. Some 
 praised it as highly laudable to be constant to their religion, 
 but yet thought it too great a stretch of obligation to die 
 for it. Some again in their compassion, called it an act of 
 barbarity to use one thus for his religion. Mr. Leigh, and 
 others like him, seemed the only persons who rejoiced in this 
 inhuman act. The Catholics, who in great numbers had 
 attended the last scene of his Apostolic life, were all the 
 more comforted and confirmed in the truth of their religion, 
 which he had so nobly recommended to them by his example. 
 They praised God for having raised up Father Arrowsmith, 
 and placed him before their eyes as a pattern of the patience, 
 humility, constancy, charity, and indefatigable zeal of souls, 
 which had shone forth with such lustre in the triumphant 
 Martyr, who had gone before them to assist them with his 
 prayers at the throne of God, as he had already on earth 
 by his pious labours, with the daily hazard, and at last 
 with the sacrifice of this mortal life, worked for the greater 
 glory of God, and for their eternal good. 
 
 21 The Rev. Francis Barber, in his letter already mentioned, says, “The 
 Priest’s quarters and his head were set upon the castle walls. None could 
 get any of his blood, for they kept all away from it until they had thrown 
 earth upon it the depth of a spade, and buried it. Only some Protestants 
 who were by, dipped their staves into the blood in putting some of the 
 straw into the fire, which they gave afterwards to Catholics. Mr. Leigh 
 hath his apparel in which the Priest was hung, and it is thought hath one of 
 the quarters by this time.” This Mr. Leigh was probably the Priest whom 
 we have before already named in the Rev. William Harte’s letter, p. io, 
 and who was then a prisoner. 
 
 Amongst the State papers in the Public Record Office, Domestic , 
 Charles /., vol. cli., n. 13, is a report dated 3rd November, 1620, and 
 written by Sir John Bridgeman, the high sheriff, I take it, of Cheshire, to 
 the Privy Council, of persons attending a great pilgrimage to St. Wine- 
 fride’s Well, Holywell, on her Feast that year ; as the Earl of Shewsbury, 
 Lord William Howard, Sir Cuthbert Clifton, &c. — “ The total number of 
 knights, ladies, and gentlemen is said to have been one thousand four 
 hundred, and one hundred and fifty Priests.” At the end of the report is 
 the following — “ It is stated that Mr. Arrowsmith’s clothes, and the knife 
 that cut him up, are at Sir Cuthbert Clifton’s house.” 
 
Father Edmund Arrowsmith. 
 
 53 
 
 The behaviour of the sanguinary Judge, Sir H. Yelverton, 
 increased the Martyr’s glory, and in that respect, must be 
 allowed a place in the acts of the Martyr. Pleased with the 
 success of his illegal and barbarous proceedings, he had (as 
 we have mentioned) anticipated the day of the execution, that 
 he might rejoice at the sight of the death of this blessed 
 Martyr, whom he had condemned in violation of the received 
 laws of civilized nations. He was either ashamed to appear 
 at the place of execution, or perhaps wished to indulge his. 
 savage taste by looking at the butchery from a distance 
 through a glass, without the restraint of being observed by 
 the spectators, who would justly be amazed at so unwonted 
 a proceeding in one of his Majesty’s Judges. The Rev. 
 William Harte’s letter says — “The Judge stood in a chamber 
 window within the town, with a pair of spectacles of long 
 sight upon his nose to behold the execution.” Thus he 
 glutted his eyes with blood, having first taken an oath not 
 to sit down to table till Arrowsmith was dead ; and dinner 
 was ordered up in a kind of triumph, when his oath was 
 discharged. After dinner some venison came as a present 
 to the Judge. Whilst he was admiring the venison, the 
 quarters of the blessed Martyr’s body were brought to him, 
 that he might look upon the bloody act of which he was 
 the author. To glut himself with horror, he barbarously 
 took into his hands the quarters of the dead Father, laying 
 them beside the venison, and not ashamed thus inhumanly 
 to compare them together ! 22 Not content with this, when 
 leaving the town the next day, he turned round his horse, and 
 made him prance, w'hilst he looked towards the Martyr’s head, 
 with vainglorious boast in his act of injustice, and not think- 
 ing it placed high enough, ordered it to be raised six yards 
 above the pinnacles of the castle. Vain and senseless efforts 
 these of impotent hatred ! Fruitless attempt to enhance the 
 spiteful malice of his deed ! The glory of martyrdom had 
 placed his victim out of his reach. If his head was to be 
 raised to a more eminent place, this would only serve to make 
 
 22 It is remarkable that all the historians of this martyrdom, Norris, 
 Tanner, Dr. Challoner, and the authorities he quotes, agree in narrating 
 this worse than cannibal sport ! In his letter written to Rome soon 
 after the event, the Rev. William Harte says — “After dinner there were 
 presented to him two fat stags, which as he did behold, admiring their 
 fatness, the Martyr’s head and quarters were brought into his sight, 
 whereupon he did make uncivil and barbarous comparison between the 
 quarters of the one, and of the other.” 
 
54 
 
 Father Edmitnd Arrowsmith. 
 
 the trophies of his victory more conspicuous. Divine justice 
 is not to be appeased without penance and satisfaction. 
 Within a little more than a year it overtook the cruel Judge, 
 for on the 23rd of January, 1629-30, sitting at supper, he felt a 
 blow on his head as if some one had struck him heavily with 
 his fist; falling into a passion with the waiter that stood behind 
 him, who protested that he had neither struck him, nor had 
 seen any one else do so, he received a second blow like the 
 first. He was carried off in great terror to his bed, where 
 the next morning he was found struggling with death, and 
 crying out — “ That dog Arrowsmith has killed me,” and so 
 died, leaving behind him an example and warning to judges. 
 It was felt by all that this visitation had come from the hands 
 of Divine Justice. And these two blows may have been 
 intended to recall to his mind the deaths of those two innocent 
 persons, Father Arrowsmith and Richard Herst, against whom 
 he had passed unjust sentences. This we leave to the dread 
 decrees of God. One account of his death says that the 
 event took place when Sir H. Yelverton was either on his 
 way to, or returning from, the circuit, and while he was dining 
 in an inn. Foss, in his Lives of the Judges, says that Sir H. 
 Yelverton died on the 24th of January, in that year, at his 
 house in Aldersgate Street ; so that we may suppose he was 
 attacked with a fit of apolexy, or some other disease on the 
 previous evening, at an inn not far from London, and was 
 removed thence to his own house. 
 
 The same Oscott College MS. relates a wonderful event 
 that occurred during the time of Father Arrowsmith’s execution 
 and astonished the minds of many persons. The day was 
 dark and cloudy, especially at the time when the Martyr was 
 being hung, when a certain gentleman (father of the Reverend 
 John Southworth) declared positively to those who afterwards 
 asked him, that he saw, at the moment of the Martyr’s death, 
 a very brilliant light extending in a stream from the prison to 
 the gallows, like resplendent glass, and that he had never 
 before, in the course of his life, witnessed anything of the kind. 
 
 How different, says Father Morphy in his narrative, was 
 the death of Father Arrowsmith, who, on the very day of 
 his memorable combat, appeared to the Reverend Father 
 Ambrose Barlow, 23 an English Benedictine monk, then at a 
 
 23 Bishop Challoner, in his Memoirs of Missionary Priests , vol. ii. , says 
 that his Christian name was Edward ; and his name in Religion, Ambrose. 
 He was an alumnus of Dr. Thomas Worthington, who afterwards joined 
 the Society. 
 
Father Edmund Arroivsmith. 
 
 55 
 
 great distance, and ignorant of what had taken place at 
 Lancaster ; and related to him his happy conflict and 
 triumph, foretelling at the same time that Father Ambrose 
 would share in a like glorious end. But let us hear the 
 Martyr himself speak of our blessed Father Arrowsmith. 
 Father Barlow was the next who was executed at Lancaster 
 on September io, 1641, at the age of forty-four; and from 
 his prison cell he tells of his future death, and narrates the 
 prediction of Father Arrowsmith, when writing to his brother, 
 the Rev. Father Rudisind Barlow, then at Douay, in May 17, 
 1641. This letter is quoted in his brother’s MS. narrative 
 of his martyrdom, addressed to the Abbot and monks of 
 Cellanova, dated January 1, 1642, and contains these words, 
 41 I believe I shall suffer ; for Mr. Bradshaw ” (this was one 
 of the names used by Father Arrowsmith for concealment), 
 41 the last that suffered martyrdom, the night after he suffered, 
 whereas I knew nothing of his death, spoke thus to me, standing 
 by my bedside, ‘ I have suffered, and now you will be to suffer ; 
 say little, for they will endeavour to take hold of your words.” 
 His happy death verified the prophecy. Father Ambrose 
 Barlow was of the ancient family of Barlow, of Barlow, in 
 the county of Lancaster. He was a Martyr, and had an 
 especial title to suffer for the Faith, for he belonged by 
 religious profession to the English Benedictine Congregation, 
 famous from its first institution for its apostles in many nations, 
 its illustrious Martyrs, and shining lights of the Church, who by 
 their eminent piety and learning, have down to our times in 
 different ways spread and adorned, and defended with their 
 blood the Catholic faith ; and he could also by inheritance 
 lay claim to the title of confessor of Jesus Christ, for his 
 grandfather, though he did not suffer a violent death, yet died 
 in confinement for his religion. This confessor was Alexander 
 Barlow, who in the same great cause was kept in confinement 
 first at Manchester, and afterwards at a gentleman’s seat in the 
 county. He left a blessing behind him in this last prison, 
 where he died, as the family embraced the religion for which 
 he suffered. Justice to his name and the edification of others 
 have led me to give a place in my narrative to this worthy 
 gentleman and illustrious confessor, lest by the injury of times 
 a noble example of Christian fortitude and patience should be 
 buried in oblivion. 24 
 
 24 Father Cornelius Morphy’s Relation of the Deaths of Two Catholics , 
 p. 28, seq. 
 
56 Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 We must not, says Father Morphy, wrong the zeal of Father 
 Arrowsmith, or divine grace of its influence, by passing over 
 in silence its effects in the person of a horse-stealer, happily 
 converted in gaol by the blessed Martyr. We must join to the 
 spiritual father the happy son, of whom in his prison he 
 travailed in birth till Christ was found in him. The 
 Redeemer of the world, Who suffered in His persecuted 
 Church, showed the power of His grace in those who co- 
 operated with Him to the salvation of souls, and triumphed 
 in His Martyrs. They followed His footsteps, and in their 
 behaviour we may trace the lineaments of the original. He 
 is their example, and w r e know those chosen vessels by the 
 resemblance they bear to the pattern. He snatched on His 
 Cross the good thief from perdition. It is but a consequence 
 of St. Paul’s theology, if we compare the valiant soldier of 
 Christ, Edmund Arrowsmith, with his Leader and Sovereign, 
 the King of Martyrs. “For whom He foreknew He also 
 predestinated to be made conformable to the image of His 
 Son, that He might be the first-begotten among many brethren.” 25 ' 
 The servant of God, suffering in prison and piously emulating 
 the work of his Saviour, through God’s grace, brought the 
 horse-stealer not only to be a companion of his faith, but a? 
 partaker in his reward of victory. Judge Yelverton, as we have 
 seen, anticipated the day of Father Arrowsmith’s execution, to 
 gratify his sanguinary disposition ; but did not Providence also 
 design that the Father should receive the purchase he had 
 made on earth, by his intercession in that glory and from that 
 blessed place, where St. Cyprian affirms the Martyrs are as 
 solicitous for our safety as they are assured of their own felicity ? 
 In effect faith had taken so deep a root in the heart of this 
 convert, that no promises of life could shake him. His life 
 was often offered him, but to no purpose. He was confirmed 
 by the blood of his spiritual father in Christ, and fixed by the 
 efficacy of his example and his prayers. Like the prudent 
 merchant who, having found one pearl of great price, sold 
 all he had to buy it ; so this fortunate horse-stealer preferred 
 the gift of faith, undervalued his life, and, in the sense of the 
 Gospel, sold all he had to secure this jewel. Wonderful but 
 adorable dispensation of Providence, by which the Redeemer,, 
 having, in the midst of His sufferings, converted a thief to be a 
 saint ; did now, by the person of this apostolical man, His. 
 disciple and imitator, from a horse-stealer raise up a martyr.. 
 
 2 * Rom. viii. 29. 
 
Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 57 
 
 Such was the blessed close of Father Arrowsmith's life in 
 the forty-third year of his age, and the fifth of his admission 
 into the Society of Jesus. Thus ended the labours of a Christian 
 hero, a valiant champion, a zealous missionary, a bright orna- 
 ment of the Secular and Regular Clergy. He adorned both with 
 his eminent virtues, illustrated both with the glory of his martyr- 
 dom. He was a man, under a mean person, remarkable for his 
 innocence of life, his affability, cheerfulness, great candour, and 
 easy conversation, which engaged all in his favour, and recom- 
 mended his virtue. He particularly excelled in the work of 
 an Apostolical Missionary ; he bent all his endeavours to fill 
 that character, he was fitted to this calling by great natural 
 parts, a sound judgment, a piercing wit. These he improved 
 by industry, and assiduous labour to acquire all possible 
 qualifications to discharge this eminent duty. His erudition, 
 his sharpness in refuting the adversaries of religion, his fervent 
 exhortations, his zeal of soul, and constant application to the 
 office of an Apostle, were particularly commended by his 
 exemplary piety. This gave a wonderful efficacy to his words 
 and his works, by both which he approved himself, before God 
 and men, a faithful and diligent labourer in the vineyard. Thus 
 qualified, he was true to his trust, he preserved his faith, he 
 fought a good fight, and finished his course. God, in Whose 
 treasures he had deposited a precious life, sent out His 
 champion to battle, forwarded him by His grace to victory, 
 and, as a just Judge, rewarded the conqueror with a triumphal 
 crown. 
 
 The Reverend Charles Dodd, in his Church History of 
 England , 26 gives a short account of Father Arrowsmith from 
 a manuscript account of his death, in his possession, and 
 which was evidently one of those consulted by Dr. Challoner 
 and Father Morphy. After stating that he finds no intimation 
 in his memoirs of Mr. Arrowsmith’s having become a member 
 of the Society of Jesus, which some of their writers pretend 
 that he did a few days before he suffered (this shows that 
 Mr. Dodd had not seen the manuscript we have already 
 mentioned), he goes on to say, “But as he is not the only one 
 of the Clergy that made that step, I will not dispute the fact. 
 Tis a serviceable expedient to increase the catalogue of men of 
 merit in that Order, and perhaps no detriment to the Clergy 
 in the main ; unless the person so admitted happens to be 
 possessed of a considerable substance, and bequeaths it away 
 96 Vol. iii., pp. 80, 8 r. 
 
58 
 
 Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 by will; which is not mere speculation, if I am not misinformed 
 in some facts of that kind. But even then, ’tis to be hoped the 
 Clergy will not repine at a temporal loss, for the spiritual (at 
 least imaginary) advantage of their dear brother, though they 
 make no vowed profession of poverty.'’ 
 
 This uncharitable remark and insinuation was very evidently 
 uncalled for in the case of Father Arrowsmith, who happened 
 to be, as we have seen, exceedingly poor in this world’s 
 goods. As it is a notorious fact, which shows itself throughout 
 Mr. Dodd’s useful volumes, that, for some cause or other, 
 he was not friendly disposed towards the Religious Orders in 
 general, and was particularly hostile to the Society of Jesus, we 
 take the present opportunity of recording the circumstance not 
 generally known, that Mr. Dodd on his death-bed made the 
 following solemn protestation, which is in the handwriting of 
 the Rev. James Brown, then chaplain at Mawley Hall, the 
 seat of the Blount family, and who attended Mr. Dodd during 
 his last illness. 
 
 “ March i, 1742-3. 
 
 “ We, hereunto ascribing, do attest that Mr. Charles Dodd, 
 late of Harvington, deceased, being on his death-bed, desired 
 to declare his charitable dispositions to all mankind, and to the 
 Society of Jesus in particular, as suspected to be prejudiced in 
 their regard, to demonstrate the contrary, he voluntarily and 
 freely gave full assent and consent to the following charitable 
 profession, viz., ‘ As you desire to die in charity with all man- 
 kind, and particularly with the Society of Jesus ; if you have 
 done them any wrong, in writing or otherwise, do you desire 
 pardon and forgiveness, as you forgive them for any either 
 supposed or received injury ? ’ Whereunto he cordially replied, 
 ‘ I do with all my heart, and that as worded and proposed. 
 
 “ By me, James Brown. 
 
 “ In the presence of Thomas Berkeley [of Spetchley Park].” 
 
 The Rev. Charles Dodd’s real name was Tootill, says 
 Dr. Oliver. He was born in Lancashire, and probably was 
 related to the Grand Vicar of that name, mentioned in Bishop 
 Witham’s will, dated November 20, 1723. For the greater 
 part of his missionary career he was stationed at Harvington 
 Hall, Worcestershire, and devoted his leisure and industry to 
 the collecting of materials for the elucidation of Catholic 
 doctrines, and of English Church History. The learned 
 
Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 59 
 
 writer died February 27, 174^, aged seventy, and was buried 
 at Chaddesley Corbett. 27 
 
 Dr. Oliver continues (ut supra ) : “ We are far, very far, 
 from approving that severe criticism and vague censure pro- 
 nounced by the Quarterly Review : 28 ‘ Neal’s history of the 
 Puritans is the most dishonest book in our language, Dodd’s 
 Roman Catholic Church History not excepted.’ Yet his 
 greatest admirers must confess that if the history has many 
 merits, it has also very prominent defects ; that its useful- 
 ness is marred by unbecoming spleen and feverish excite- 
 ment against Religious Orders approved of by the Holy 
 See ; that several of his statements stand refuted and con- 
 demned in the very authorities, which he enumerates in the 
 Preface to the first volume of his History. . . . With regret we 
 remark that [the work] is calculated to perpetuate prejudices, 
 little jealousies, and party feelings. Every writer, who makes 
 profession of truth and piety, will be delicately cautious in 
 point of charity and forbearance ; and all Priests especially 
 should act towards each other, as the Apostles did to Paul 
 and Barnabas, by giving the right hand of fellowship. 29 Dis- 
 union is irreconcileable with the spirit of that Gospel which 
 they preach.” 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 (From MSS. Dioc. Westmonast, No. 170). 
 
 A letter from Henry Holme , endorsed by Thomas Thornburgh 
 and John Rigmaden , addressed to Mr. Thomas Metcalfe , 
 November 5, 1629, attesting relics of Father Arrow smith. 
 Rigmaden was the Keeper of Lancaster Castle. 
 
 “ Worthy Sir, — My duty remembered ; for the certainty of 
 these things which I did deliver you at your being at Lancaster 
 I will affirm to be true, for the hair and the pieces of the ribs 
 I did take myself at the going up of the plumbers to see the 
 leads, when they were to mend them, and the handkerchief 
 was dipped in his blood, at the time of his quarters coming 
 back from the execution to the Castle, by me likewise with 
 my own hands. You know the handkerchief was your own 
 which you gave me at your departure, and for the piece of 
 the quarter, both I and some others had taken part of it for 
 our friends, which Mr. Southworth can witness, and that which 
 I gave you, John Rigmaden, our keeper, gave me leave to take, 
 
 27 Catholicon ., vol. iv., p. 121. 28 Vol. lvii. , p. 166. 29 Gal. ii. 9. 
 
6o 
 
 Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 and to bring the rest that I gave unto you again, which I did 
 promise, and you desiring all, I did excuse myself to him, and 
 I sewed it up with my own hands, and so did deliver it to my 
 daughter, who brought it you, which you did acknowledge at 
 your coming up to the Castle. All these were the relics of 
 Mr. Arrowsmith, who was executed here at Lancaster the 
 2 5[8] of August, 1628, upon the statute of persuasions. 1 
 did deliver this to you in July, 1629. I did all those I gave 
 you myself, and more at several times, and had none from any 
 man’s hands but my own. Thus, with my love and due respect, 
 1 rest at your service to my power. 
 
 “ Henry Holme.” 
 
 “ Nos infrascripti omnibus et singulis fidem facimus et 
 attestamur quod, quae suprascripta sunt, a viro fide digno 
 scripta sunt; quare dubitare non liceat, quin verae et propriae 
 suis felicis memoriae Edmundi Arrowsmith, quae D. Thomas 
 Medcalfe tradebantur reliquiae et quod ad pleniorem hujus 
 rei fidem pertineat idipsum Castelli hujus Lancastrensis, 
 clavifer testatur, in cujus custodia erant praedicta reliquiae 
 conservata. 
 
 “ Data 5 Nov., a.d. 1629. 
 
 “ Thomas Thornburgh. 
 
 “John Rigmaden.” 
 
 Address of letter — “ To his very loving and much respected 
 friend, Mr. Thomas Medcalfe, 31 give this. 5 ’ 
 
 31 Mr. Metcalfe was, I believe, a Secular Priest. There are several 
 papers regarding him in the P. R. O. State Papers. 
 
 1627, October 23. Domestic , Charles I., vol. lxxxii., nn. 74, 75. The 
 first number is the case of Thomas Metcalfe, taken on suspicion of being 
 a Priest, and brought by Habeas Corpus to London, having lain in 
 Lancaster Castle for more than tvyo years ; demands to be either tried 
 or released on bail. The second number is a certificate of the Gaoler and 
 Under Sheriff, stating the cause of his imprisonment, and his behaviour 
 in prison. 
 
 Domestic , Charles /., vol. cv., n. 65. May 29, 1629. Is a minute of 
 the case of Mr. Metcalfe, for two years in Lancaster Gaol, but now removed 
 to the Marshalsea, London. Underneath is the written opinion of Heath, 
 the Attorney-General, that if he be convicted of a premunire, or if there 
 be evidence of his being a Priest, he is not bailable ; but if it be a suspicion 
 only, and he be not in danger of a premunire for refusing the oath of 
 allegiance, then he may be bailed. 
 
 Domestic , Charles /., vol. xcii., n. 95. Secretary Lord Conway writes 
 to the Judges Yelverton and Whitlock, who were then upon circuit at 
 Lancaster, to enlarge upon bail Thomas Metcalfe, a prisoner at Lancaster ; 
 
Father Edmund Arrowsmith. 
 
 61 
 
 Miraculous cure of Thomas Hawarden , son of Caryl Hawarden, 
 of Appleton-within - Widnes, in Lancashire. 
 
 In the beginning of June, 1735, .Thomas Hawarden, a 
 child above twelve years old, who till that time had enjoyed 
 good health, was taken with a slow hectic fever, attended 
 with an aguish and intermittant disorder, and pains in the legs 
 and joints, which increased till the middle of the next following 
 August, when he became so weak that he was unable to walk 
 without crutches, which he used about a week or ten days, 
 when, the distemper still increasing, they were of no further 
 service to him ; and from that time it was necessary to carry 
 him to and from bed, he having lost all strength of his feet 
 and legs, and in all the lower parts of his body. He could 
 not even move his legs, and suffered great pain in his back, &c., 
 which continued off and on, until his wonderful recovery. 
 
 About the month of October following, he was seized 
 with a sort of fainting fits, or convulsions, which continued 
 with very quick returns until his cure, especially about 
 the full or the change of the moon. These fits so affected 
 his senses and memory, that he was almost deprived of both, 
 more especially his eyesight, so that he was scarcely able to 
 read above two or three lines, or to remember anything. 
 
 In the month of November after, he was seized with small- 
 pox, which he had very violently, together with his old disorder; 
 and it was thought with danger of his life. But he got well 
 through the small-pox. The other disorder still continued, 
 by which he was so wasted away, and become so very 
 low and weak, that his parents and those who visited him 
 
 or to procure his removal thence, where he suffers extreme misery, to some 
 prison about London, where the care of his friends can be more communi- 
 cable to him. He requests them either to do what is necessary, or to direct 
 him how to do it ; or if Metcalfe’s offence be such as is not capable of either 
 of these favours, to let him, Lord Conway, know, that he may give an 
 answer accordingly. 
 
 Domestic Charles /., vol. cxiv., n. 44. May 21, 1628. Serjeant’s Inn. 
 Judge Yelverton states in a letter to Conway, that according to command- 
 ment he has caused Thomas Metcalfe, a prisoner in Lancaster Castle, to be 
 brought before him, and now sends him to Lord Conway, to do with him 
 what he pleases. Upon examination he will neither confess nor deny himself 
 to be a Priest. He has perverted many from the religion here professed. 
 
 In Domestic Charles vol. iii. , n. 48. Is a petition from Mr. Metcalfe, 
 July, 1628, then in the Marshalsea Prison, London, where he had been for 
 two months, and for two years in Lancaster, on an unjust and causeless 
 accusation that he is a Priest ; but no indictment had been preferred against 
 him. He prays to be released on bail. 
 
6 2 
 
 Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 thought him in a consumption past recovery ; because 
 all the time of his illness he expectorated much, and particu- 
 larly after the small-pox. In the meantime several medical 
 men were consulted, and the opinion of an eminent physician 
 taken upon the boy’s case, who apprehended the pain in the 
 back and other symptoms to proceed from an interior ulcer, 
 and the convulsions and fainting fits, with the loss of his 
 memory and senses, to be occasioned by a stroke of the palsy, 
 for which proper medicine was prescribed ; but it had no 
 effect. The sufferer continued in this low and languishing 
 state until the 25th of October, 1736, when his parents having 
 often heard that many and great cures had been effected by 
 means of a hand of Father Arrowsmith, which had been care- 
 fully preserved ever since, Mrs. Hawarden, believing that her 
 child might receive benefit from the said hand, as others had 
 done before, procured leave to have it brought. And on 
 Monday morning, the 25th of October, 1736, the boy sitting 
 by the fireside, she took the holy hand, which was wrapt up 
 in linen cloth and laid in a box. She brought it to the boy 
 and told him that it was the holy hand of a Saint or Martyr, 
 who was praying in Heaven for him, and that she hoped it 
 would do him good. The boy’s grandmother helped him to 
 prepare his clothes. There were present an elderly woman 
 named Sarah Cross, the boy’s three sisters, and a youth who 
 had brought the hand, aged about eighteen. The mother 
 then applied the back part of the hand to her child’s back, 
 and drawing it down on each side of the back bone, and 
 then across, she said — “Sweet Jesus Christ give a blessing 
 to it, and may it do him good ; in the name of the Father, of 
 the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Which being done, the 
 boy the same instant said he believed it had done him good. 
 The mother said — “ I doubt thou dost but think so ; ” still 
 drawing the Martyr’s hand up and down the boy’s back, with 
 the sign of the Cross, repeating the same or the like words ; 
 which she had scarcely time to do twice before the boy 
 declared that he was sure it had done him good, and that he 
 could stand. Hereupon he immediately rose from his seat, began 
 to adjust his clothes, and standing upright, refused the help 
 of his grandmother, who offered to hold him lest he should fall. 
 
 Mrs. Hawarden, astonished at the miracle, and returning 
 God thanks for this great favour, carried the holy hand to a 
 room adjoining, where two Protestant tailors were working, 
 and desired them to come and see what had happened. They 
 
Father Edmitnd Arrowsmith. 
 
 63 
 
 both came, and were astonished to see the boy walking about 
 the house, whom they had both seen lame not a quarter of 
 an hour before. All the neighbourhood were equally surprised, 
 and flocked into the house in great numbers, upon the report 
 of this wonderful cure. From that time the boy has daily 
 grown and increased in strength and health, being quite free 
 from all his pains and disorders, his eyesight and memory 
 restored, to the great glory and honour of Almighty God, 
 adorning the crown of martyrdom in His servant by this 
 wonderful sign, to the inexpressible joy of the child’s parents, 
 the edification of the Faithful, and admiration of all the 
 country thereabouts. 
 
 After the child rose up, and walked about as above, his 
 mother asked him what he thought of the hand before she 
 touched him with it. He answered that he believed it would 
 do him good, and that immediately upon the first touch of 
 the hand, he felt something give a shoot or sudden motion from 
 his back to the end of his toes. 
 
 Several attestations by witnesses are attached to this 
 relation. 
 
 “We whose names are subscribed do hereby certify and 
 attest the truth of the above-written account, being present 
 at the cure. Witness our hands — 
 
 “Jane Crosbie, Sarah Cross. 
 
 “Thomas Hawarden, Catherine Hawarden. 
 
 “The 27th day of November, 1736. 
 
 “ We whose names are subscribed do hereby certify and 
 attest the truth of his lameness and cure, having seen him 
 almost every day during his illness and lameness, and imme- 
 diately after his cure. 
 
 “ William Naylor, 
 
 “ William Scott + his mark. 
 
 “ Margaret Thomason + her mark. 
 
 “John Chadwick, Protestant. 
 
 “ John Orme + his mark, Protestant. 
 
 “ Bridget Scott + her mark, Protestant. 
 
 “ Martha Eccleston. 
 
 “ Mary Dennett + her mark. 
 
 “Thomas Dennett + his mark. 
 
 “ William Dennett. 
 
 “Jane Scott + her mark. 
 
64 
 
 Father Edmund A rrowsmith. 
 
 “ We whose names are subscribed do certify and attest 
 the truth of his lameness and cure, being in the next room 
 and having seen him not a quarter of an hour before his 
 cure, and the moment after it. 
 
 “ William Appleton + his mark, Protestant. 
 
 “ Thomas Roscoe + his mark, Protestant. 
 
 “ The under-written attest seeing him lame the day before 
 his cure, and immediately after. 
 
 “ Catherine Dennett + her mark, Protestant. 
 
 “ Richard Thomason.” 
 
 Attestation of Mary Fletcher's wotiderful cure on the 10th of 
 November , 1768. 
 
 “ In the name of God, Amen. 
 
 “ I the under-written Mary Fletcher, daughter of Richard 
 and Ellen Fletcher, at present about fifty years of age, being 
 born at Denton’s Green, in the township of Windle, within 
 the parish of Prescot, in the county palatine of Lancaster, 
 in the year of our Lord, 1719, and now living at Denton’s 
 Green aforesaid, spinster, being at present sound of mind 
 and memory, and in perfect senses, thanks be to God for the 
 same, do hereby certify and attest that before I had attained 
 to the complete age of fifteen years, being then an orphan 
 under the care of my uncle and aunt, Mr. John and Mrs. 
 Perpetua Fletcher, with whom I then lived at Denton’s Green 
 aforesaid, it pleased Almighty God, on the 4th day of May, 
 1734, to visit me with a lameness, which so affected my right 
 side, particularly my arm and from thence to my right knee, 
 as to render me unable to bend, or dress my own feet. In 
 June, 1735, my aunt, Mrs. Perpetua Fletcher, took me with 
 her to Holywell, where by bathing I received some benefit, 
 and recovered so much strength, as to render some service in 
 the family after my return ; but a lameness still remained, 
 attended with pains in all the parts first affected, except my 
 arm. About four or five years after, being in an ill state of 
 health and bad habit of body, I broke out in boils and 
 blotches, particularly on the small of my back and about 
 my knees ; hard kernels growing at the same time on my 
 sides, so that I could scarce lift up my arms. Disorders thus 
 increasing, I had recourse to Mr. Thomas Tetlaw, apothecary 
 in Preston, aforesaid, but to no effect. Still desirous of relief, 
 
Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 65 
 
 I consulted Mr. Thomas Gill, another apothecary of the same 
 town, who delivered it as his opinion that nothing could 
 effect my cure but a salivation. Mr. William Shephard was 
 also of the same opinion, and accordingly, in May, 1748, I 
 was salivated by Mr. William Shephard, commonly known by 
 the name of Dr. Shephard of Stanley Gate, which salivation 
 had no effect, besides that of rendering me still weaker and 
 more helpless. From that time I grew worse and worse, and 
 in April, 1749, a slow fever came on, attended with convul- 
 sions and hysteric fits, and also with violent and almost 
 continual pains in my head and breast, which in a short 
 time reduced me to a wretched, low, weak, and miserable 
 condition ; in which situation X remained without much alter- 
 ation, except growing weaker and weaker, till the year 1756, 
 when a profuse spitting came on me, attended with retching 
 in such a manner that I could scarce retain any nourishment, 
 my stomach frequently rejecting it, almost as soon as it had 
 received it. 
 
 “In the year 1758, growing still weaker, I fell almost as 
 often as I made any attempt to move by the help of sticks or 
 crutches, which at length becoming quite useless, I was unable 
 to stand or move from one place to another, without the support 
 or assistance of some charitable hand. In the year 1764, most 
 of the above-mentioned disorders still continuing, and the 
 weakness in my back and loins greatly increasing, I became 
 almost entirely helpless, except the little assistance I received 
 from my hands and arms, which for the most part, since my 
 return from Holywell, I retained pretty good use of, thanks be 
 to God for the same. 
 
 “ For these three or four last years my convulsions often 
 returned, the pains in the head and breast were almost con- 
 tinual, and I was frequently seized with such cold shivering 
 fits and interior tremblings, that my sister Ellen and others 
 have often supposed me at those times in the agonies of death. 
 Doctor Ralph Thicknesse, physician, when consulted on my 
 case in December, 1767, declared me past all relief from any 
 human assistance. And three others (pretenders to physic), 
 who were known to have performed great cures on others, 
 were also consulted upon my case, but all and each of them 
 declared it was not in the power of medicine to afford me relief. 
 
 “ Between four and five years ago, reading the account of 
 the death of Father Edmund Arrowsmith (a holy man and 
 Priest of the Society of Jesus, who was executed at Lancaster, 
 F 
 
66 
 
 Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 on the 28th day of August, in the year 1628, on account of 
 his religion and as a Priest), together with the account of the 
 wonderful cure wrought by his intercession and the touch of 
 his holy hand in the person of Mr. Thomas Hawarden (which 
 account is prefixed to the relation of Father Arrowsmith’s 
 death, printed in the year 1737, and which holy hand is still 
 carefully preserved), I conceived great hopes of relief from 
 the same, in case I could procure the benefit of being touched 
 by it. Accordingly I frequently petitioned that blessing, but 
 not being able to obtain it, I endeavoured to submit, in the 
 best manner I was able, to the will of God and of those I had 
 made choice of as my directors under Him, still wishing and 
 praying that some day or other that favour might be granted 
 me. At length it pleased Heaven to favour my petition, and 
 my desires were accomplished on Sunday the 20th day of 
 November last, viz., 1768, when about three o’clock in the 
 afternoon, my brother, John Fletcher, brought the holy hand 
 aforesaid to the house where I then was. On that day and 
 for about a week before, I found myself as bad almost in every 
 respect, as I had ever been during the whole course of my 
 illness. At the sight of the holy hand I returned thanks to 
 Almighty God, rejoiced much, and conceived great hopes of 
 relief in my wretched situation. My brother John retired, 
 leaving the holy hand with my sister Ellen ; and whilst she 
 was preparing to stroke my back with it, I prayed to Almighty 
 God that His holy will might be perfectly accomplished in 
 me, and that if it was His blessed will and pleasure, and for 
 the good of my soul, He would please in His mercy to restore 
 to me the use of my limbs through the intercession of Father 
 Arrowsmith, and by the touch of his holy hand. Then I said 
 — £ Holy Father Arrowsmith, pray for me, that I may recover 
 the use of my limbs,’ or words to that effect. Then my sister 
 Ellen made the sign of the cross upon my back with the holy 
 hand, and stroked the same down to my loins, saying — ‘In 
 the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost, Amen’ — three times in honour of the Most Blessed 
 Trinity, beseeching holy Father Arrowsmith to intercede for 
 me : I repeating several times the same prayer, viz. — ‘ Holy 
 Father Arrowsmith, pray for me to Almighty God, that I may 
 receive the use of my limbs, if it be God’s holy will and 
 pleasure. Then my sister stroked the holy hand in the 
 form of a cross upon my breast, we both repeating the same 
 prayers as above, or words to the same effect. 
 
Father Edmund Arrowsmitk. 
 
 67 
 
 “My brother John who had brought the holy hand was 
 then called in, and finding myself better and some little 
 strength restored to me, they raised me upon my feet and 
 supported me on each side, I trembling very much all the 
 time through excessive weakness. Supported in that manner 
 I walked or rather shuffled across the room with great pain 
 and difficulty, then leaning on a chair which runs on castors 
 I found my strength increase very fast, still praying and 
 repeating — ‘Sweet Jesus, help me.’ In less than six minutes 
 after the holy hand had touched my breast my tremblings 
 both interior and exterior left me, and have never since 
 returned. I then knelt me down, but not in an erect posture, 
 to return thanks to Almighty God for the benefit I had received. 
 Finding my strength still increase, I soon imagined myself 
 able to kneel upright. Accordingly I raised myself without 
 assistance, and leaning on the chair with castors I went across 
 the room and back again with ease, and without any other 
 help. Soon after I walked about the room by the help only 
 of two sticks, and finding my strength continue to increase, 
 and the use of my limbs restored, with tears of joy I returned 
 thanks to Almighty God, who had wrought this miracle in 
 my favour by the intercession of holy Father Arrowsmith, and 
 the ministry of the Martyr’s holy hand. After saying my usual 
 prayers (which for the first time for above three years I recited 
 upon my knees in an erect posture) I retired to rest. Unable to 
 sleep for joy, I spent a great part of the night in thanksgiving, 
 sometimes on my knees in bed, and sometimes walking about 
 the room without a stick or any assistance. The next day being 
 Monday, the 21st of November, I got up about six, and it 
 being washing day, I assisted my sister Ellen at the washing 
 tub, after which I baked some cakes for the family, and per- 
 formed several other domestic employs that day, to the great 
 astonishment of those who had seen me a miserable cripple 
 the day before, and had known me a wretched helpless object 
 for many years. 
 
 “As to my other infirmities, thank God for it, they daily 
 mend and grow better, without the assistance of any medicine 
 or human application whatever. I have never yet had the 
 least return of any convulsion, hysteric shivering, or trembling 
 fits. But continue daily to improve in health and strength. 
 
 “A slight pain, indeed, sometimes attacks me in my right 
 thigh and knee, though I have the perfect use of both. In so 
 much that I have several times walked miles, and have 
 f 2 
 
63 
 
 Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 knelt half an hour at a time without support, and without 
 much fatigue ; so that I suffer those slight pains with joy, as 
 they serve frequently to put me in mind of the immense 
 blessing I have received from the merciful and all-powerful 
 hand of God, whose wonderful goodness has wrought the 
 above miracle in my favour, through the intercession, and by 
 the holy hand, of Father Edmund Arrowsmith, to His own 
 great honour and glory; to the adorning the crown of mar- 
 tyrdom in His servant; to my own unspeakable joy; to the 
 edification of the Faithful ; and to the admiration of all who 
 know me. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my 
 hand-seal, this 15 th day of February, in the year of our Lord 
 1769. 
 
 (L.S.) “Mary Fletcher + her mark. 
 
 “ Signed, sealed, and delivered by Mary Fletcher in the 
 presence of 
 
 “ Phil. Butler . 32 
 
 ‘ ‘ F r ances Blount. 33 
 
 “ Win. Eccleston . 34 
 
 “Thomas Conyers. 
 
 “Eliz. Rigby. 
 
 “We, whose names are subscribed, do hereby certify and 
 attest the truth of Mary Fletcher’s attestation, as above, con- 
 cerning her lameness and wonderful cure, having been with 
 her almost the whole time of her illness, and constantly, 
 almost every day, for these last twelve years, and also present 
 at the time of her cure. Witness our hand, 
 
 “ Perpetua Fletcher, 
 
 “ Ellen Fletcher + her mark. 
 
 “ We whose names are subscribed do hereby certify and 
 attest the truth of Mary Fletcher’s lameness and cure, having 
 frequently seen her during the time of her lameness, and soon 
 after her wonderful cure. Witness our hand, 
 
 “Joseph Beaumont . 35 
 
 32 Mr. Butler was the Vicar General of Bishop Francis Petre. 
 
 33 This was Lady Blount. 
 
 34 Dame Winifred Eccleston of Cowley Hill. 
 
 35 Father Joseph Beaumont, for many years Procurator of the College 
 of St. Aloysius, and for some time its Rector. 
 
Father Edmund Arrow smith. 69 
 
 “ I underwritten do declare that the cure effected on the 
 body of the above-mentioned Mary Fletcher may safely be 
 regarded as miraculous. 
 
 “ Francis Petre . 36 
 
 “Sholey, May ye 8th, 1769. 
 
 “ Mary Fletcher’s attestation, so far as it concerns me, 
 contains the truth in substance, though perhaps not in express 
 terms. I thought her lameness so bad, that it was not 
 probable that any remedy could be found for it. But I have 
 seen and conversed with her since her wonderful cure. 
 
 “ Ralph Thicknesse.” 
 
 The Rev. Father Francis Blundell, S.J., in sending a copy 
 of the above account to Father Richard Knight, S.J., of 
 Lincoln, in a letter dated March 17, 1770, recounts another 
 striking miracle wrought by means of the same holy relic upon 
 Father Joseph Beaumont himself, one of the witnesses of the 
 above attestation. Father Blundell says : 
 
 “ The above is Con’s [Conyer’s] composition. Several 
 other attestations might be procured of cures no less miracu- 
 lous by the same holy hand, but are neglected. Lately, 
 Mr. Beaumont’s throat and mouth were mortified, and nothing 
 but instant death expected ; he had not been able to swallow 
 his own spittle for several days, when upon the touch of the 
 holy hand he was cured of the complaint in an instant, to the 
 great surprise of the doctor and everybody else.” 
 
 For some generations past this very precious relic has been 
 in the possession of the Gerard family of Garswood, Ashton, 
 and is kept at the Presbytery, Ashton, in the care of the 
 Reverend Chaplain and Missioner there. How it first got 
 into the hands of that worthy family, we are unable to record. 
 The cures wrought by its means, through the blessed Martyr’s 
 intercession, are of constant occurrence, and a volume could 
 not contain the full narration of them. It is to be regretted 
 that no proper register of such events has been kept. 
 
 We close this life with the following interesting account 
 of a very striking miracle wrought in favour of a little child, 
 a few years ago. For this we are indebted to Brother John 
 Mullen, S.J., who himself suggested to the child’s parents 
 that they should apply to the holy relic, and in whose house 
 the cure actually occurred. We cannot do better than give 
 it very nearly in Brother Mullen’s own words. 
 
 36 The Right Rev. Bishop Petre, V. A. 
 
70 
 
 Father Edmund Arrowsmith. 
 
 A relation of a miracle wrought on the person of Bridget Conway , 
 daughter of Mr. Peter Conway , of Newton-le- Willows , labourer , 
 z# Messrs. James Musprats and Sons' Chemical Works , 
 Newton-le- Willows, Lancashire , through the intercession of 
 Father Arrowsmith , Martyr of the Society of Jesus, and on 
 the application of the holy hand of the said Martyr . 
 
 Bridget Conway was the child of Peter Conway, the 
 parents were Irish Catholics. About the year 1848 or 1849, 
 the child was about two years old, a fine, strong, lively child, 
 beginning to speak, and without the least sign of disease. 
 At the time I have mentioned above, I lived with my mother 
 and brother and a sister at Newton-le-Willows. My brother 
 and I were also in the employ of Messrs. Musprat, and we 
 lived next door to Mr. Conway. The child Bridget frequently 
 came into our house and I used to play with it, consequently 
 the child and I increased in affection for each other ; we were 
 also on friendly terms with the parents of the child. 
 
 Suddenly I missed the child for several days. I asked 
 my mother about it, wondering what could be the cause of 
 the child absenting itself for so long a time. My mother told 
 me that the child had been seized with some mysterious 
 disease, and was unable either to stand or walk, and what 
 was most wonderful, the child had no marks or signs of having 
 received any injury from falling, or any other cause, and in 
 all other respects was as healthy and lively as it had been, 
 previous to the loss of the use of its limbs. After many 
 examinations, the afflicted parents became thoroughly con- 
 vinced that the disease was of such a nature that human aid 
 could not be of the least service in the case. They told my 
 mother their affliction, and entreated her that she would not 
 spread the report among the neighbours, because they looked 
 on themselves as stricken by God. When I heard the above 
 account from my mother, I felt exceedingly grieved, both for 
 the affliction of the parents and the infirmity of the child, 
 and I observed to my mother that if the parents of the child 
 thought that human aid could not be of service to it, the best 
 thing they could do was to try supernatural means — that at 
 Ashton-le-Willows there was the holy hand of Father Arrow- 
 smith, renowned for its miracles ; that the distance was only 
 three miles, and that it was their own parish chapel, and the 
 inconvenience of trying was not great ; that no harm could 
 
Father Edmund Arrow smith. 71 
 
 come from their trying supernatural means ; that the Saints 
 worked their greatest miracles when practising charity to their 
 neighbour in affliction, and no doubt but God, through the 
 intercession of Father Arrowsmith, would console the afflicted 
 parents if they would have the holy hand applied in the 
 ordinary way, by taking it to the Parish Priest of the Ashton 
 mission. My mother told the parents of the child what I had 
 said ; they felt greatly consoled and resolved to take it to 
 the holy hand. Shortly afterwards as I was returning from 
 Mass on a Sunday, I met the father and mother on their way 
 to Ashton carrying their child to be touched by the holy hand? 
 which was applied shortly after the service of the last Mass. 
 The parents returned home full of hope, but there was no 
 change in the child, they waited some days and there was 
 not the least sign of amendment. The parents relapsed into 
 their former affliction, and told my mother of the failure of 
 ■supernatural means. I then said to my mother that there 
 could not be any impediment in the child, because she was 
 too young ; that the fault must be with the parents ; that 
 they were not likely to move God to work a miracle in their 
 behalf, while they were actually offending Him by not hearing 
 Mass on the very same Sunday that they had the holy hand 
 applied ; that if they would go to Confession and Communion, 
 and if the mother of the child would, at the time of the 
 Elevation of the Sacred Host, beg through the intercession 
 of Father Arrowsmith the cure of the child, that no doubt 
 God would grant the favour they desired, and that they need 
 not have the holy hand applied a second time. My mother 
 also exhorted them to this course, and shortly afterwards the 
 parents did exactly as they had been advised. They left 
 the child in my mother’s care during the Sunday morning that 
 they went to Mass in order to obtain the desired favour ; 
 the mother of the child begged, through the intercession of 
 Father Arrowsmith, during the time of the Elevation of the 
 Sacred Host in the Holy Sacrifice, that if it was pleasing to 
 the Divine Majesty her child might be restored to health. 
 Just exactly as the mother was praying for her child, as 
 appeared afterwards by comparing the time, she was in my 
 mother’s arms, and showed an inclination to walk. My mother 
 tried if she could stand, and to her joy and surprise the child 
 ran about the house as if nothing had been the matter 
 with it. The parents were overjoyed on returning to find 
 their child restored to health. The next morning the little 
 
72 
 
 Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 girl was running about her own house and ours as usual ; 
 she ran to me with her usual joyful laugh, saying — “ Ha r 
 ha, Johnny!” that being the familiar name by which I was 
 then called at home. The parents of the child and our family 
 were thoroughly convinced that the cure was a true miracle. 
 The child continued to enjoy the best use of her limbs up 
 to the time of my leaving Newton, which was about twelve 
 months after the cure. 
 
 Relation of Mr. Rigby's (A rrow smith ’s) Martyrdom ? 1 
 
 1. “Whereas, in the beginning of the examination of the 
 blessed Martyr, being demanded whether he were priest or 
 no, made this answer, that he was no ways bound to accuse 
 himself, but did refer himself unto his accusers, which when 
 the judge had once more urged, and that he could get no- 
 better answer, he turning himself to the jury said, he doth not 
 deny himself to be, as by his [answer is] manifest. Unto 
 which the prisoner made answer that he was there appointed 
 by the King’s majesty to execute the law and not to expound 
 it ; at which the judge being incensed gave some reproachful 
 words, and which you have related. 
 
 2. “The justices arising, being at the time of dinner, the 
 prisoner came up to his own chamber without any attendants,, 
 either sheriffs’ men or keeper, to take care of him there, 
 reposing an hour or very near, being much afflicted with the 
 toothache ; and [at] the time of dinner was some meat set 
 upon the table. The keeper came up to him weeping, and 
 told him that he must go into the chamber where at his 
 first coming into gaol he lay among debtors, where he was 
 very well beloved. When he was departed his meat was 
 sent after him, which he very nearly did eat. And when 
 the judges had dined, they came to sit again, which having 
 sat again, they called for this blessed Martyr, and after the 
 jury was despatched, and had their bill of indictment, they 
 presently returned and had found him guilty; the judge 
 demanded what he should say for himself, for it was manifest 
 he was a priest and seducer, and a setter of sedition between 
 men, as there was under oath delivered. Upon which occa- 
 
 37 From the collection of MSS. belonging to the Bishop of Southwark,, 
 p. 73. Endorsed as above. 
 
Father Edmund Arrow smith . 73 , 
 
 sion he began to speak for himself, but was suppressed with 
 command to keep [silence] whilst the judge gave sentence 
 of death, which he, interrupting the judge in the same sentence 
 said, ‘ Sirrah, hold thy peace, or I wall stay thy tongue/ 
 
 3. “ In his pursuit by the justice of the peace and his 
 company, the eldest son of the said justice, being well horsed, 
 continually crossed him in his way, and the two contending 
 together, his intent was to have unhorsed him, which if he could 
 have done he had escaped, but he could not ; the man which 
 struck at him with his sword was another man ; his staff which 
 he cut was [an] ordinary cudgel, so much that it was admired 
 that a man at one blow could cut in sunder, which if it had lit 
 upon his head, it was supposed would have cloven him to the 
 shoulders, but God for his greater glory did prevent. 
 
 4. “ The furious judge in his sentence of death could not 
 content himself to give sentence of death, but likewise gave 
 sentence of damnation, which was in these words — 4 Thou shalt 
 soon know that thou shalt die betwixt heaven and earth, as 
 unworthy of both, and thy soul to descend into hell with all 
 thy adherents.’ And likewise when he had thus said, he like- 
 wise said — ‘ I would to God that all the priests in England 
 were in the like case.’ 
 
 5. “ In the time of his death there was a gentleman who 
 was father unto Mr. Southworth, which was his fellow prisoner, 
 who [was] demanded at his return from [the] execution what 
 ceremonies they used at the time of his death, who did 
 sincerely protest that in the window of his chamber he saw 
 a most resplendent brightness, such an one as in all his life he 
 never saw before, which did show itself from the prison unto 
 the gallows, as if it had a glistering glow, and the sun at that 
 time was obscured with clouds, and the most part of that day 
 likewise, which being related seemed wonderful unto us. 
 
 6. “ Likewise, going to his execution, there was in his way 
 a maid, whose father and mother lived in the prison, who were 
 Catholics, and did live in the same part of the castle with him, 
 and upon same occasion she stood still with the drag whereon 
 he was sent, to whom he spake in these words — the maid’s 
 name was Margery — asking her by name if she wished any- 
 thing with him, who replied nothing she desired but his 
 company, who upon this persuaded her to continue in her 
 religion, and not question but she would be a blessed soul 
 in heaven ; so the sheriff arriving to the place of execution 
 she was parted. The maid returning home, when night drew 
 
74 
 
 Father Edmund Arrow smith. 
 
 on she went to bed, and was to lie in the chamber where one 
 of the keepers’ wives did lie at that time, which when this maid 
 being first asleep, she fell to dream as folio we th — Fetching a 
 great sigh she said, ‘ Lord, Mr. Rigby, in what a stately place 
 is this where you now live, which is so bright, composed of 
 silver and gold ; would God I might remain with you, for 
 methinks the place is most sweet, like flowers or perfumes. 
 But when in the morning she awaked, her chamber-fellow 
 demanded what she dreamed of, who made answer that to 
 her remembrance she had not dreamed of anything ; and thus 
 the woman who, being a Protestant, was greatly astonished, 
 and hath had many scruples concerning her faith and religion. 
 And this is all I can say upon his part.” 
 
75 
 
 hi. 
 
 FATHER JOHN WORTHINGTON. 
 
 Father John Worthington was the first Superior or Rector 
 of the College of St. Aloysius — Primus fuit qui in Provincia 
 Lancastrensi fixit sedem. He may be considered as the father 
 or founder of that extensive district. He was nephew to 
 Dr. Thomas Worthington, the third President of Douai 
 College (a notice of whom will be found in this volume). 
 He was also a relative of Cardinal Allen, the founder of 
 Douai College. 
 
 Father Henry More 1 says, there were at this time (159S) 
 enrolled in the Society of Jesus two brothers of the name of 
 Worthington, John and Laurence, most useful Missioners, 
 natives of Blainsco, in the County of Lancaster. 2 John, 
 then a boy of twelve years of age, was preparing to cross over 
 to the Continent with his Uncle Thomas and his three brothers, 
 when he was seized and put to great trouble by the pseudo- 
 
 1 Hist. Prov. Angl. S.J. 1 . vi. n. xxx. p. 273. 
 
 2 Bains’ History of Lancashire, vol. ii. p. 165, says, “ Blainscough Hall 
 gave name and residence to an ancient family, which terminated in Adam 
 Blainsco of Blainsco, gentleman, whose daughter and sole heiress was 
 married to Henry Worthington, Esquire, a younger brother of Worthing- 
 ton of Worthington, and grandfather of Richard Worthington, who died 
 1528, and whose son, Richard, married Dorothy, daughter of Robert 
 Charnock of Chamock, Esquire. Thomas, their eldest son, married 
 Mary, daughter of John Allen, Esquire, of Rosshall, and died 1619. His 
 descendant, William, was living, an infant, 1664, and had six sisters. The 
 hall passed into other hands, and is now a farmhouse.” There is a dis- 
 crepancy between Mr. Bains and Mr. Dodd, Church Hist, of England \ 
 vol. ii. p. 310. Edit. 1739. Mr. Dodd says that Dr. Thomas Worthing- 
 ton (afterwards S.J. ) was the son of Richard and Dorothy Worthington, 
 whereas Mr. Bains makes Thomas to marry Mary Allen. Mr. Dodd, who 
 wrote from letters and authentic MSS. (named by him), I shall treat as the 
 more correct authority, and shall therefore suppose Thomas to be the eldest 
 son, unmarried, and a second son to have married Mary Allen. The pedi- 
 gree might stand thus : — 
 
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 ILaurence S.J. John S.J. 
 
 died 1637. died 1648. 
 
Father John Worthington. 
 
 77 
 
 Bishop of Chester and the governor of that district, who, one 
 while by blandishments, another by threats and terrors, endea- 
 voured to seduce the tender mind of the boy from the true 
 faith, to the newly invented and false rites. The wonderful 
 constancy displayed by a child of such tender years, and the 
 precocious answers he made, excited the rage of the heretics 
 and encouraged the Catholics. 3 At length, escaping from 
 their clutches by a clever device, he went with his brothers 
 and uncle first to Rheims, and thence to Eu, in Normandy, to 
 Father Parsons ; from this place accompanying the Father to 
 Seville, in Spain, he there commenced his higher studies, and 
 in the year 1597 went with Father Parsons to Rome, to 
 complete his course of divinity at the English College. 4 
 Having been ordained Priest, he was admitted to the Society 
 in Rome, October 27, 1598. After making his novitiate at 
 St. Andrews, and spending a year or two at the Roman 
 College, he was sent to Valladolid, and made father minister 
 in that College ; during which office, although he was unable 
 (says Father More) to calm the disturbed minds of the alumni, 
 yet he so mingled sweetness with severity, that whatever he did 
 
 3 In an appendix, at the end of the account of the Worthington family, 
 will be found a deeply interesting narrative of the “conflict” of Father 
 John Worthington and his brothers, when children, taken from Bridge- 
 water's Concertatio. 
 
 4 Father More says, 1 . v. p. 159, speaking of the foundation of the 
 English College at Seville, that the Provincial of Boetica had sent to 
 Father Parsons for some subjects to begin it. Father Parsons, ever intent 
 upon an opportunity for doing a good work, and being a man of large soul, 
 quickly sent two, and followed after himself with four other chosen subjects. 
 George Chamberlain and John Worthington were the two sent. Having 
 prepared a short Latin address, which was heightened by the eloquence of 
 its delivery, in which they made known the causes of their exile, and their 
 plan of studies, they gathered, on their whole journey, much compassion 
 and applause from the Bishops and Abbots. Being kindly received by the 
 Fathers of Seville, and by the Senate, they merited by their piety, the 
 prosecution of their studies ; they also explained their mode of life, and 
 lastly, ended by assuming the modest dress of the Colleges, so that neither 
 house, nor furniture, nor any other point necessary for leading a community 
 life was wanting. 
 
 On the feast of St. Thomas of Canterbury, after solemn High Mass, 
 sung by the Bishop of Seville, John Worthington, having asked the 
 Bishop’s blessing, ascended the pulpit and delivered a Latin oration of an 
 hour’s length. The function being over, both of them on their knees before 
 the altar pronounced with a loud voice the form of oath prescribed by 
 Father Parsons at the English College, Rome, the nature and utility of 
 which Chamberlain afterwards explained in Spanish to the assembled 
 people. 
 
78 Father John Worthington . 
 
 they took in the best part. 5 At length, his health breaking 
 down from the unwholesomeness of the climate and the 
 burthens of his office, he was sent to the English Mission in 
 the year 1604. On arriving in London he was immediately 
 sent to visit an unfortunate man who, from fear of persecution 
 and the desire of gain, had been drawn to attend the conven- 
 ticles of the heretics. Being in imminent danger of death, he 
 was recalled to a sense of his state, and made his confession, 
 and after he was restored to health by the Sacrament of 
 Extreme Unction, he returned to the practice of his duties 
 as a Catholic. 
 
 Father John Worthington was the first of the Society who 
 fixed his abode in Lancashire. By his labour and industry, and 
 special gift of preaching, he rendered himself dear to many, not 
 only there, but in the neighbouring parts also, thus opening a 
 large field for the members of the Society. He did not readily 
 admit his catechumens to the Sacraments, but tried them well, 
 and made them often return to him for instruction. Indeed, 
 he allowed such as he found fit to make the Spiritual 
 Exercises according to the method of St. Ignatius; but others, 
 who were not so easily brought to that disposition, or whose 
 minds were unprepared for so strict a retirement, or were too 
 much occupied with business to allow them to meet together for 
 so many days, he would invite to private conferences, explaining 
 to them one day the foundation of a Christian life, or the end 
 for which man is created, to serve and honour his Creator, and 
 thus to save his soul. Another day he took consideration of 
 sins, of the gravest that can befall man; and thus he disposed 
 them to confession, with great feelings of sorrow for past faults, 
 and resolutions to lead in future lives worthy of Catholics, 
 labouring, as they were, beneath the heat of persecution. On 
 the district of Lancashire being formed into the College of 
 St. Aloysius, in 1622, he was appointed its first Rector, and 
 held that office for twenty years, to the great benefit of 
 Catholics and increase of his own merits. 
 
 5 The annual letters of the English College of Valladolid, for the year 
 1604, do not bear out Father More’s allusion to a disturbed state of the 
 alumni. There were then fifty-three scholars, and thirteen members of the 
 Society, besides servants. The College proceeded happily, and with dis- 
 tinction ; for in the size of the house, and the number of its alumni, it 
 rivalled the English College, Rome. The youths were an example of piety 
 and modesty to all, and at the same time so industrious in the pursuit of all 
 virtue and learning, that great things were expected from them, for the 
 glory of God and the salvation of their country. 
 
Father John Worthington. 
 
 79 
 
 He was sent as Procurator, or agent, for the English 
 Province to Rome in the year 1632-3, and returned thence 
 with the merited and confirmed opinion of all that city for his 
 prudence and sweetness of manners. He lived to see those 
 times in which, under King Charles, everything was turned 
 upside down, being then seventy years of age. Nevertheless, at 
 that age, and in those storms, he was so active, so observant 
 of his rules, as to excel novices in fervour of soul, and veteran 
 religious in prudence, as appears by his letter or narrative, 
 written by obedience to his Father Provincial during his 
 captivity, and which will be presently given. 
 
 He fell into the hands of the Parliamentary troops in 1643, 
 and his captivity lasted, according to Father More and 
 Mr. Dodd, until 1648, when it pleased Almighty God to 
 deliver this holy soul from all these troubles, by a death, 
 ordinary indeed, yet of which, though not rendered glorious 
 by the laurels of martyrdom, we may say, as reward for his 
 great labours, Fulgebit sicut stella in perpetuas ceternitates quid 
 ad justitiam erudivit multos — “ He shall shine as the stars for 
 perpetual eternities, because he hath instructed many unto 
 justice.” 6 He died January 25, 1648, aged seventy, having 
 passed fifty years in religion. He was solemnly professed of 
 the four vows November 4, 1613. As appears by his letter, he 
 was allowed, towards the end of his captivity, to go about on a 
 sort of parole of honour, which enabled him to render good 
 service to his fellow Catholics. An ancient M.S. says of him y 
 that on his arrival at the English College, Rome, he was treated 
 as a pilgrim for eight days, and then admitted ; that when in 
 Rome he had to deliver three orations, the first in April before 
 the Pope, upon occasion of Father Parson’s return from Spain ; 
 the second before the Very Reverend Father General, S.J. ; 
 and the last upon St. Stephen’s Day, before the Pope, and 
 that he was above forty-six years a missioner. 
 
 Father Matthias Tanner, S. J., in his Vita et mors Jesuitarum 
 pro fide interfectorum , 7 says : This veteran soldier of the army of 
 Christ in his zeal to subdue souls in England to His yoke, for 
 forty years watered that island with the sweat of his aposto- 
 lical labours. Hence it may be conceived with what troubles, 
 dangers, and great calamities this holy man must necessarily 
 have been tried, in the extreme difficulties of those times. 
 Whilst prodigal indeed of life and blood for the salvation of 
 souls, he was nevertheless so wisely cautious and circumspect 
 6 Dan. xii. 3. 7 Page 149. 
 
So Father John Worthmgton. 
 
 -as to elude for many years the scent of the hounds that 
 tracked him with the most sagacious pursuit in every corner of 
 the kingdom. Very often, like Athanasius, lying concealed, 
 and, as it were, buried in the deserted dykes and ditches of the 
 earth, like Felix, amongst ruined walls of houses, struggling 
 against hunger and thirst, cold and want ; then, after a lapse of 
 time, again issuing forth in public with renewed courage, he not 
 only strengthened Catholics in their constancy to the Faith, 
 restored the lapsed into heresy to the Church, but also 
 severely belaboured their over-confident leaders and masters 
 in controversial engagements. And because in all these 
 things he was distinguished by a singular prudence, and 
 rendered himself by the sweetness of his manners most 
 agreeable even to the Protestants, he was at length proposed 
 as Superior of his brethren. After fulfilling for some time 
 the duties of this office to the entire satisfaction of all, and 
 the no small fruit of Catholics, he fell at length into the 
 enemy’s nets, receiving the recompense of his long labours 
 in a glorious death for Christ. Confined in a wretched 
 prison, he endured severe sufferings for several years ; being 
 perpetually assailed with many harassing and dangerous ques- 
 tions concerning the equity of the oath of allegiance, of his own 
 proceedings during his long residence in England, and other 
 matters, from which they might, under the specious pretext of 
 justice, compass his death. Yet to all these he gave the 
 most able and satisfactory replies, cleverly eluding their cap- 
 tious questions, by which they hoped to ensnare him, cautiously 
 and circumspectly behaving himself throughout. He could 
 never, however, be made to swerve from his condemnation of 
 the oath of allegiance, offering his body to be slain by a thou- 
 sand deaths, and to be torn in pieces by the rack, rather than 
 he would allow himself in the slightest point to admit or 
 approve a thing so wicked and execrable. Whilst looking 
 out for the usual reward of his courageous confession, by the 
 death he so much desired at the hangman’s hands, his reward 
 came to him through the long sufferings of a prison, to his 
 greater merit, as the punishment was a more lingering one. 
 He died happily in vinculis , January 25, 1648. But how 
 meritorious was the cause of his envious death, may be con- 
 jectured from the form of this most wicked oath, which in 
 those times was proposed by the Parliamentarians to all 
 Catholics throughout Britain, and was so constantly con- 
 demned by the father. In proportion as this oath surpassed 
 
Father John Worthington . 81 
 
 in iniquity that of Queen Elizabeth and James, so much the 
 greater was the glory of the death he suffered for its rejec- 
 tion.” Father Tanner gives the following forms of the two 
 oaths : — 
 
 “ I, A. B., do truly testify and declare, in my conscience, 
 the Queen to be supreme governess both of this realm of 
 England and of all her Majesty’s other dominions, no less in 
 all spiritual and ecclesiastical matters and causes, as in 
 temporals. And that no foreign prince, person, prelate, 
 state, or potentate, either de facto or de jure , hath any juris- 
 diction, power, superiority, pre-eminence, or authority, eccle- 
 siastical or spiritual, in this realm. And, therefore, I do fully 
 renounce and repudiate all external jurisdictions, powers, 
 superiorities, and authorities.” 
 
 But the more execrable form proposed by Parliament runs 
 thus : — 
 
 “ I, A. B., do abjure and renounce the supremacy and 
 authority of the Pope over the Catholic Church in general, 
 and over myself in particular. And I hold it as of faith that 
 there is no transubstantiation in the Supper of our Lord, or 
 in the elements of bread and wine, after their consecration by 
 any person whomsoever. And of the same faith I hold that 
 there is no Purgatory; that the Consecrated Host, crucifixes, 
 or images ought not to be honoured with cultus , and that no 
 cultus is due to them. I also believe that no salvation can be 
 obtained by works ; and I abjure all doctrine in confirmation 
 of the aforesaid points, and I renounce them without any 
 equivocation, mental reservation, or secret evasion what- 
 ever, taking my words now uttered according to the common 
 and usual acceptation of the same. So help me God ! ” 
 
 Letter of Father John Worthington , Rector of the College of 
 St. Aloysius , to Father Provincial , Edward Knott. 
 
 The earnest desire and entreaty of your Reverence, that 
 I should write an account of my long captivity and painful 
 imprisonment, have the force of a command which I willingly 
 obey, though two special difficulties occur to prevent me. The 
 first is, that the roads are so beset, and the times so dangerous, 
 that nothing can be committed to writing so fully as to satisfy 
 G 
 
82 Father John Worthington . 
 
 friends, and not run the risk of sending me back to my prison 
 hole, if it be intercepted; since it is well known that I am not 
 liberated from imprisonment, but only allowed a respite within 
 certain bounds. The other is that, in the troubles of the whole 
 kingdom and the common calamity of all Catholics, my own 
 has little that is extraordinary to be looked upon as worthy 
 of notice. But as I must speak, the following is a part of 
 my history — 
 
 I was not yet taken prisoner, but next to being imprisoned 
 for many months before I actually fell into the enemy’s hands, 
 for as soon as the war broke out, the house in which I was 
 had been marked out for plunder by the heretics, from hatred 
 to our religion. At night stones were flung against the doors, 
 the windows smashed, and guns continually fired to alarm the 
 inmates, until the insolence of the mob rose to such a pitch 
 that our friends gave up hope for us, and said that our enemies 
 were resolved to pull down the house. I had a secret hiding- 
 place, in which for many years I had near me a safe retreat 
 from the search of the pursuivants, but the increase of fury and 
 rage against religion now made it less secure. At last there 
 came a regiment of horse, with threats and violence demanding 
 admission. I made my escape through a shrubbery and 
 betook myself to a coal shed, in which I could neither well 
 stand nor sit, and here I remained until two or three o’clock 
 in the morning, when a servant came and told me that the 
 house was ransacked but the enemy gone, and that I might 
 safely return. It was an unlucky haste, but I did so, and 
 being heartily tired I was about to take some rest, not having 
 slept a wink, when some Judas of the neighbourhood suggests 
 that the part of the house in which I usually resided had not 
 been searched, and that there I was to be found. Soon there 
 is a loud knocking at the doors, and the windows battered, and 
 cries of death to all unless there is immediate admittance. So 
 I quietly slipped on part of my clothes, carrying some with me, 
 and, escaping from the house, took refuge in an outhouse, 
 where, half clothed, I spent the night. The soldiers, rushing 
 into the room, found the bed warm, and shouted — “The Priest, 
 the Priest, that old fox ! We will have him unless he hide in 
 the earth ; we will burn him alive.” However, they had me 
 not as yet. At early dawn of day I betook myself to the 
 woods, where I wandered that day in “deserts and caves of 
 the earth.” And it was the mercy of God that I fell not 
 into the hands of the soldiers, for they were not far off ; and 
 
Father John Worthington. 
 
 83 
 
 they even brought up a cannon to demolish the house, which, 
 it was said, was going to stand on its defence. The gun 
 burst at the first attempt to fire it, and the enemy beat a 
 retreat. 
 
 But whither was I to go — a man of declining age and health? 
 Besides, I knew how little success had attended many others 
 who had attempted to escape, and had only fallen into the 
 enemy’s hands. And where could I be secure? So I returned 
 to the house, and concealing myself there, first I burned the 
 writings and the bundles of letters which had escaped the 
 search, and I had the best part of the stuff of the house 
 conveyed away; though, having none to trust with it or myself, 
 I hid the greatest part of the valuables in such places of con- 
 cealment as could not be discovered, even though the house, 
 as it was afterwards, should be pulled down. Your Reverence 
 knows that there was house stuff for the use of ours good 
 and in plenty, which I would not leave for the enemy to seize 
 upon. A few days of tranquillity followed, but this was not 
 for long. It was a Sunday, and after our religious duties we 
 were taking some refection, and had hardly sat down to table, 
 when a soldier at the window bawls out a decree of Parliament, 
 bidding us quit the house, which was to be seized for the use 
 of the Parliament. We rose from table and looked out to 
 see what was the matter, and saw a troop of some seventy 
 dragoons. What could a few weak people, unused to arms, 
 do against a troop of soldiers? But some, thinking it was 
 a shame to let in the enemy without striking a blow, seized 
 some guns and fired a few shots, killing one soldier. Upon 
 this the enemy, in a fury, endeavoured to break in with 
 crowbars, uttering threats of death mingled with oaths and 
 blasphemies. One of milder disposition than the rest advises 
 us to surrender, which accordingly we did, on condition of 
 our paying down to the soldiers three hundred florins, and 
 delivering up all our arms and ammunition. We were to be 
 allowed our liberty and a part of the house to live in, in which 
 we were to be safe from harm, but prevented from doing 
 violence and resisting. As it was evident we must either 
 capitulate or lose our lives, the enemy was admitted, the 
 money paid, and the arms given up. The soldiers took 
 possession of the house, and all the entrances were guarded, 
 that none might escape. I concealed myself that night, and 
 the following day they searched the house from top to bottom. 
 I still lay hid, which was to little purpose, in the chamber 
 G 2 
 
8 4 
 
 Father John Worthington. 
 
 occupied by your Reverence on your visitation, only the door 
 of it was hid by a cupboard placed against it. The soldiers 
 were close by, keeping up an uproar, and as the walls were 
 covered with handsome wainscot, they broke in almost every 
 panel, that nothing might escape them. Having finished their 
 search and made a meal, the colonel and the captain departed, 
 leaving a strong body to guard the house. When these were 
 gone I thought it best to come out and commit myself to 
 the care of Divine Providence, and take my chance with the 
 rest. So I left my hiding place and joined the community 
 unobserved, and for two days was not suspected, but the 
 traitor was upon me before I could, as I had intended, effect 
 my escape. 
 
 The colonel returned after the two days, being informed by 
 the Judas in what part of the house I was. He set his men to 
 guard the passages, and burst in up the stairs, and had nearly 
 reached my chamber, when, hearing the noise of their coming, 
 I went to meet him and see if in any way I could appease his 
 fury. The lieutenant first met me, and seizing hold of me, led 
 me to the colonel. He, knitting his brows and turning his 
 face away, would not so much as speak to me, but sent me for 
 examination to a young man of some parts and understanding, 
 but a great talker, who began to give me a compendium of his 
 life. He had studied at Oxford, and gone abroad (it seems he 
 had made a course of Humanities so far as grammar at Dieppe), 
 he had conversed with Jesuits, and on his return had betaken 
 himself to the ministry of the Word, and had held forth some 
 three times in public, and so on ; that seeing the country in 
 civil war, to give it his aid he had buckled on the sword, and 
 so joined the camp and cloth together, had fought in every 
 battle, and become a smart soldier. Then he broke out into 
 praise of the colonel, that he was a man of extraordinary piety, 
 and had held high posts in England and Ireland, where he had 
 been a judge. And now that I was sent for examination before 
 himself, to be declared a Priest and a Jesuit, and accordingly 
 guilty of death. I replied that I had deserved nothing of the 
 sort. Upon which he says, “ Stuff, that is taken for granted, 
 that is supposed.” “Well,” said I, “if that is taken for 
 granted, what, if you please, is to be done ? ” Then says he, 
 “If you have a care for your life, and look for favour, show 
 us where your hidden treasures are, and renounce your Order.” 
 To the first I replied, that there were no treasures ; and as 
 to the second, I was not the kind of man he took me for, but 
 
Father John Worthington . 
 
 85 
 
 were I so, that no man could, without disgrace, renounce his 
 duties and apostatize. A soldier was then set guard over me, 
 and so I was made a public show. And the next day a huge 
 crowd of people of all kinds came to see the place which had 
 been taken, and what sort of monster I was. To those who 
 seemed of the honester sort and questioned me, I replied that 
 I was a Roman Catholic, without saying more, not to put 
 myself by my own avowal in danger of death. Some of 
 the baser sort came to me and treated me with much indignity 
 and insult. One would put down his head and ask me to 
 absolve him from his sins, another would put some question in 
 joke to get an answer, a third would bring out a cartload of 
 lies against religion from Protestant books. One says, “ I’ll 
 take thee to London to the Parliament to be hanged;” another, 
 “ We’ll put thee on a horse, and jolt thee well, and tie thy legs 
 under his belly to keep thee on, and drive him with whip and 
 spur to teach thee to ride.” And abundance of such like 
 besides. 
 
 Meanwhile others are venting their rage on some holy 
 pictures which they had found hid. Several of the Blessed 
 Virgin, and St. Ignatius, and St. Francis Xavier they burned, 
 and of other Saints. There was one, a representation of 
 the Holy Name, of considerable size, which had served for 
 the canopy of an altar, and was well executed. This they tore 
 into fragments, and then betook themselves to burning the 
 books, of which there was a good number also. But to com- 
 plete their impiety they brought out a crucifix which I had 
 procured some forty years since, well and beautifully carved, 
 and because I had used it so long, and it was so full of moving 
 devotion, I valued it much. This they exposed in the midst 
 of the court, not for holy reverence, but for the mockery of 
 the blinded people, and as an object for daily and hourly 
 insult. This scene of mockery continued ten whole days, so 
 that I was never alone even at night, for my guard was always 
 laid beside me, and I was thrust into the vilest closet in the 
 house. Meantime they continue their search ; the floorings 
 are pierced, the walls battered, the staircases broken up, the 
 pavement dug up with spade and pick, and everything turned 
 upside down. When anything new is found there is a fresh 
 shout of triumph, and a bonfire lit in the hall. Missals, and 
 the Code of Canon Law, and many other valuable books, 
 are thrown into it, amid the jubilee of the malignant. Mean- 
 while my friends and acquaintances all forsook me, and none 
 
86 Father John Worthington. 
 
 durst hold out a hand to help me for fear of being involved in 
 the same calamity. When the riot had lasted long enough, an 
 order comes that I should be taken to the next town, four 
 Roman miles distant. At this town there was a garrison of 
 soldiery, of no great number, but as it was market day, and the 
 report of my coming had drawn many thither, but especially 
 three squadrons of horse, which came, it is said, for no other 
 reason, the cavalcade thither was not without its solemnity. 
 The whole of the way they carried before me the image of our 
 Lord J esus crucified. I rode upon a sorry beast, without boots 
 or spurs, but still I kept giving it my heels with such continual 
 motion, that it must have been evident to all that I was not 
 only content, but full of joy in following so nearly my Lord 
 and Master on the crucifix. Ten armed soldiers guarded me 
 round, and so as I entered the full market-place about mid-day, 
 the first who carried the crucifix cried several times aloud, 
 “ Here is the god of the Papists ! ” The poor wretch thought 
 that the people would shout and applaud, but quite the con- 
 trary. Only one woman was heard to say anything insulting, 
 and she was quickly stopped by many who cried “ Shame.” 
 And, indeed, along the whole way, and in the town, men stood 
 astonished, and gazed in silence on the spectacle. Among 
 others, a minister said, “ I am astonished to see such mockery 
 in my people. Do we not all believe that Christ suffered 
 on the Cross for the redemption of mankind ? ” 
 
 Dismounting, I am taken to a room where ten or twelve 
 soldiers were sitting eating and making merry. I was invited 
 to join, but I did not accept the invitation. Then the colonel, 
 who sat at the head of the table, said, “ I know this man, 
 and I saw him at Ghent among the Jesuits.” “When was 
 that, good sir ? ” said I. “ Three years ago,” said he. “ Some 
 one like me, perhaps,” said I, “ but out of England could no 
 one see me for the last ten years, for I have abundant proof of 
 the neighbourhood around that I have not been.” Still he stuck 
 to what he said, and there was nothing that stood in my way 
 more in the procuring of my liberty, than this one man’s ill- 
 founded but obstinate assertion. One who sat next the colonel 
 surpassed all bounds, crying out at almost every word, “It is 
 a lie!” and adding other injuries. Another cried in jest, “He 
 has paid four hundred florins for his life, squeeze him well, 
 and you will get as much for his liberty, and then send him 
 back to prison again, and so he will give you good plunder.” 
 When the colonel rose from table, he began to praise the 
 
Father John Worthington. 
 
 3 7 
 
 Jesuits, saying that they were polished, pious, and learned 
 in their way, temperate in their life, and, in fact, such as to 
 shame men of the reformed religion, who were so unlike them 
 in life. Then, as he was going out of the door, he turned 
 and said, “ But all this they spoil by their doctrine of merit.” 
 After he had gone out there came in a number of the common 
 sort as for a play, and with mocks and laughter made game 
 of me as a charlatan, asking in sport for absolution from their 
 sins. So I stood like a baited bear with dogs about me, until, 
 after some hours, the people dispersing at the close of day, 
 a kind entertainer took me to a chamber such as, time and 
 place considered, was wxll enough. And so that night I slept 
 pretty well, a guard sleeping by and the doors bolted. 
 
 The following days are spent in skirmishing with heretical 
 ministers, who were a set of poor antagonists, whom by the 
 help of God I always overcame. Meanwhile, report got abroad 
 that I was a Bishop, a Cardinal, or some great man of note. 
 Hence the commander-in-chief of those parts was desirous to 
 have me, and make some money by me. From hard travelling, 
 bad lodging, and change of living, I had got paralyzed of the 
 right side, and was hardly a little recovered when I was put 
 on a sorry, raw-boned, and half-denuded horse to be conveyed 
 to Stafford, where the commander was. It was a journey 
 of two or three days, but by showing kindness and pleasant 
 manners to my attendants and entertainers, I so won their 
 goodwill that, after the first day, I had nothing to complain 
 of as to my horse or other supplies, so readily and carefully 
 was all provided. The commander-in-chief was very polite, 
 until my ragged coat, and my refusal of all great titles, and 
 the rest of my conversation, changed the common opinion, and 
 I was sent to a place befitting my poverty. The number of 
 prisoners growing greater, we were all transferred to a hired 
 house in the town. Here a chamber was allotted me, poor 
 and ill-furnished, but not incommodious, with a decent bed 
 and fireplace, but also with watchmen and ward, so that 
 access was given to none without the written permission of 
 the governor, or a captain, or commissary. There must be 
 also witnesses of all that passes, and neither money nor any 
 necessary can be brought in without their knowledge. No 
 books, much less any sacred ones, and endless suspicions. 
 
 My courage did not abate ; nay, in this state of solitude and 
 weary imprisonment, I never was more full of peace, or found 
 the words more true, “ I am with him in tribulation.” So 
 
88 
 
 Father John Worthington. 
 
 that, not even in my novitiate at St. Andrea, under Father 
 Fabio de’ Fabii, nor in the Roman College, under Father 
 Benedict Justinian, did I enjoy greater happiness, or feel more 
 sensible consolation from Heaven. Blessed be my God for 
 ever ! My friends, meanwhile, were looking for every oppor- 
 tunity to assist me, and through means of one of our Fathers, 
 Prince Rupert had been induced to agree to give in exchange 
 out of the eight or ten prisoners whom he had at Shrewsbury 
 (all of whom were captains or officers of note), whomsoever 
 the commissioners of the Parliament chose in return for me. 
 The commissioners were delighted. The commander-in-chief 
 himself would bring me the good news, and tell me that the 
 bearer of the proposal had come. The townspeople wish me 
 joy, and are glad that I have such friends in authority. I 
 got ready for my journey, the commander promised me a good 
 horse, and I reckoned upon departing the next day, but it was 
 a delusion. The colonel, who said he had seen me at Ghent, 
 again full of spleen against me, goes to the commissioners and 
 says that I am incapable of the grace given me, as guilty of 
 high treason, and that I must appear before the Parliament. 
 I had scarce fallen asleep, for I had retired to bed full of 
 hopes, when I am roused by the commander summoning me 
 to a council of war and the commissioners of Parliament, and 
 that I must hasten without delay. And so I made ready for 
 another scene of the drama, which the colonel would fain 
 make a tragic one. On the road I earnestly besought God 
 to remember His promise and to aid me, so that without my 
 being solicitous what I should answer, He would give me a 
 mouth and wisdom which my adversaries should not be able 
 to resist. Entering the council I found a large table, round 
 which were seated colonels, captains, and commissioners. 
 
 I do not well remember how the trial began, but I know 
 that a seat was placed for me between the president of the 
 council, and my chief adversary was the said colonel. He had 
 in his bosom some papers, each of which he produced from 
 time to time. Having mentioned the house in which I was 
 taken he thus began his accusation. First, that when it was 
 surrendered, contrary to the conditions made, I had hid myself, 
 and had been forcibly dragged from my hiding-place; that 
 I had lain concealed many years in that house, and travelled 
 in various countries under false names, was an unmarried man, 
 had a magnificent chapel, and held by all to be a Priest ; and 
 finally, to prove this capital charge, he showed a document 
 
Father John Worthington . 
 
 89 
 
 written five years ago at Rome, in which were letters patent, 
 giving faculties to a certain Ralph Noel, and this name and 
 these letters he ascribed to me, and hence would prove that 
 I was a Priest, having suborned a boy who falsely swore that I 
 had told him that I was one. Having said this, he rose and 
 uncovered his head, and added, “Now my word is in question, 
 and whether you will believe this man or me as to the truth of 
 these things.” Then being ordered to speak by the president 
 I rose, and uncovered my head and spoke in the following 
 manner — “ Noble and honoured sirs, you see me an old man 
 of feeble health disturbed from my rest, and without prepara- 
 tion, to answer all my opponent has so carefully and variously 
 alleged against me ; therefore, if in my reply there be anything 
 omitted which I ought to answer, be pleased to remind me of 
 it. And to begin where he ended, I say it is so far from true 
 that I confessed to this man here that I was a Priest, that I call 
 Heaven and God to witness that I never spoke to this man one 
 word nor one syllable, nor he to me.” And when I affirmed 
 this again and again, and was ready to swear it upon the holy 
 Gospels, the man was ashamed of his effrontery, but tried to 
 cover it by saying that at least the servant, whom he had sent 
 to me, thought that I acknowledged something of the kind. 
 
 The hearers were in astonishment and were silent. But I 
 thinking that this falsehood was not to be lightly passed over, 
 “ Away with such excuse,” said I, “ you presume, and you 
 give this for certain proof. And what crime is it if I have 
 travelled abroad, am I therefore a Priest ? How many thou- 
 sands are there of you that have been abroad, and yet there 
 are not many Priests among you. I am unmarried ; are all 
 unmarried persons Priests? But why did I hide myself? Is 
 it so unusual to hide from a victorious enemy if one can 
 escape easily? Who trusts easily an enemy in the flush of 
 victory?” The judges themselves here said, “No one does.” 
 “ But I had paid the sum agreed, and I was free to stay in the 
 house or to leave it the next day if I pleased. As to hiding 
 myself, I met in open day, and in the most patent place in the 
 house, the lieutenant who seized me. Let him be called and 
 give his witness to it. As to the chapel, we are not Godless 
 unbelievers or Turks, we do not give to God, as some do, bams 
 or stables, or woods or groves as the heathen ; we consecrate 
 to holy usages the place in the whole house which is the most 
 honourable, nor are the ornaments of our altars poor, but if we 
 have the means, the vessels used are of silver and gold.” 
 
go 
 
 Father John Worthington. 
 
 “ But,” said he, “ some one must serve the altar.” “ That is 
 not necessary,” I replied, “ for there are never wanting among 
 us those who eagerly take on themselves this honour.” “ And 
 these are they,” says another, “whom we want to know of; 
 speak, where are they ? ” I smiled and answered, “ Whom do 
 you take me for ; for an informer ? ” Then another broke in 
 with warmth, saying, “ There are twenty persons in thy vicinity 
 who called thee the Priest of that house.” “ You are mistaken, 
 my good sir,” said I, “if you say only twenty, for there are 
 more than forty or a hundred who partly in jest and partly in 
 earnest call me so ; it is so easy that from one bad root many 
 stalks should grow, but what is more common than to give 
 a bad name of this kind where there is no truth at all in it ? 
 Many times it is so.” But why, it was then asked, hide so 
 many years ? “I hide ! there was no honest man in the parish 
 who did not know me and what table I kept, neither brewer, 
 nor baker, nor butcher, who was not anxious for my custom ; 
 none was better known than I to the Excise officer and other 
 public functionaries. If any contribution was to be made for 
 the poor, or dowry towards a wedding, my money was always 
 ready and given at church in my name. Was this to be living 
 in secret ? ’Tis true I was no huntsman, hawker, cockfighter, 
 or tennis player, nor was I a frequenter of taverns ; but I had 
 honest recreations with my friends in my garden and woods, 
 and I was so well known in all the town that there was not a 
 dog that barked at me.” Enough, said they, on this point. 
 But my old adversary had now furbished up the same weapon, 
 and attacked me, saying, “ What do you reply to the lad who 
 says you confessed you were a Priest?” “ Nothing,” said I, 
 “ and I appeal to the judgment of all who are present whether 
 it is likely, or credible, or possible, that any one in his senses 
 would confess against himself a thing of this kind if he could 
 conceal it ? Which one of yourselves would thus betray him- 
 self to such open peril ? ” “ Not one,” said they, “ for the 
 
 proverb is — Confess and be hanged.” But then some witling 
 among the colonels says, “Nay, but God first dements those 
 whom He will destroy.” To which I replied, “ Sirs, it is old 
 age which is my complaint, but not dotage.” 
 
 Then the paper is produced which they took for a testi- 
 mony of my ordination. It was entitled “ to the Rev. Ralph 
 Noel,” and then followed the faculties granted. This title I 
 read to them, and said that they were not testimonials of orders, 
 but conferring of powers or jurisdiction to some young man of 
 
Father John Worthington . 
 
 9i 
 
 that name, and that these were given five years ago, by which 
 it was proved that they did not belong to me, and that the 
 name of Ralph Noel had never been used by me in all my 
 life. “ As if,” said my opponent, “ it was not a daily practice 
 with you to assume new names.” Then the president averred : 
 “That this was essential to the Jesuits.” He knew more about 
 sword fence than logic. I professed myself ready to yield my 
 cause, if this could prove that I had ever been called by any 
 other name than John. Then a chief man among the com- 
 missioners put an end to the dispute by rising from the lower 
 end of the table, and saying, “ Sir, I bear witness to the truth 
 of what you say, that nothing was done or said by you from 
 the first time you were prisoner, by which you professed your- 
 self a Priest.” Hence my adversary was confounded, and the 
 council breaking up, the president addressed me thus — “ If we 
 had known that you were wearied from your journey and had 
 gone to bed, we would not have broken your rest.” “ And I, 
 honoured sirs, if I have in defence of my cause spoken with 
 too much freedom or vehemence, I beg you will pardon it.” 
 He replied, “You have said nothing deserving blame.” And 
 so, this tempest over, I seemed to have reached harbour. But 
 my adversary goes on to make a new objection. He contends 
 that letters had been written by him to the Parliament on this 
 business, and that its orders must be awaited unless they would 
 give offence ; that I was a man incapable of receiving pardon ; 
 and, as a friend informed me, said other malicious things of me. 
 By this my hope of liberty was again dashed. Closer guard was 
 kept upon me, nor was any one allowed to confer with me 
 except before witnesses. It was strongly urged that I should 
 be immediately sent to London, and that this would much 
 please the Parliament, nor was anything else looked for by 
 me each night than at each cock-crow I should have to depart. 
 But the commander-in-chief, who looked for money in the 
 matter, went to the commissioners and told them the com- 
 mand of General Denby, officer in those parts, by which it 
 was enjoined that no prisoner should be removed from thence 
 without his, the commander’s, consent, and that he would not 
 consent to my sudden removal. And so the storm was appeased. 
 In the judgment of many this was the prelude of perpetual 
 imprisonment. The same kindness was no longer shown me, 
 watchmen of a lower grade more often intruded on me. I 
 was never left alone — watchful eyes were on me through every 
 cranny, and the commander himself was dubious as to allowing 
 
9 2 Father John Worthington . 
 
 any of my fellow-prisoners to come to my chamber or converse 
 with me. 
 
 It happened that at midnight about the first cock-crow I 
 was suddenly wakened by a loud knocking at the door. I 
 asked who was there ? They knocked more loud, and said, 
 11 Open the door.” “ What is the matter, and what is this 
 about?” I said. “It is the captain of the watch; open,” 
 they cried. I rose, and in my night-dress only. It was the 
 depth of winter; I made haste to open the door. At least 
 twelve armed men rushed in with lanterns. A cunning fellow, 
 who led them, was before me at my bed, and turned it upside 
 down before I could reach it. Some examined the chest, some 
 the fireplace. I am shivering and half perished with cold, and 
 why this uncivil intrusion ? To find letters which I had not, 
 and to obtain proofs which they desired for my destruction. 
 Then there followed some months of greater quiet. Nor do I 
 remember anything of note except the closeness of my rigorous 
 imprisonment. Meanwhile the county assizes are to be held, 
 for deciding causes, for condemning the guilty and acquitting 
 the innocent. And who was the judge? None other than he 
 who had always been my bitterest enemy, the colonel. Some 
 few, however, gave me hope of being set at liberty, because as 
 yet nothing had been proved against me, and there was no pro- 
 bability of further proof. But many circumstances looked to 
 me very black. He who had lately suborned a boy could easily 
 find a witness to swear against me. And so a feeling came 
 upon me of a kind of presage that my death was quickly to 
 ensue, a thought which certainly gave me no alarm, but I wel- 
 comed it with such joy and exultation of heart that I never felt 
 God more near to me. I imagined that the hour was come, 
 and thought in what words I would address the people and 
 what reasons I would give for my death, how I would express 
 my excessive joy, and I felt such a strength of faith, hope, and 
 charity, that I had already prepared some words of a dying man 
 addressed to the point of saving souls, declaring that no one 
 could be saved out of the Catholic Church ; and I had 
 resolved after sentence passed how I would sing the Te Deum 
 and ask of God with prayers and entreaties the execution of it 
 
 Not long after the Protestant minister comes to me, and 
 positively declares that he had just lately spoken with a Catholic 
 (naming the man) who had confessed that I was a Priest and 
 a Jesuit. Frightened by this falsehood, all those who had 
 hitherto shown me some goodwill forsook me, for it was 
 
Father John Worthington . 
 
 93 
 
 thought to be all over with me, and that I should be con- 
 demned to death at the ensuing assizes. However, God aided 
 me, and would not have me perish in this storm. For this said 
 Catholic, whose testimony the minister adduced, when he heard 
 of it, being indignant above measure that his word should be 
 made use of for the destruction of the innocent, declared 
 himself ready to swear that he was not guilty of having said 
 such a thing, nor had ever so spoken ; nay, that I was not 
 even known to him. So shameless is the falsehood, and so 
 barefaced, of heretics. So the anger of my enemies was for 
 a time appeased, or rather baffled, but I had not yet to repose. 
 After this I had to contend with a fit of sickness so obstinate 
 that I was utterly exhausted, and could not move a foot, nor 
 even stand to have my bed made. There was no doctor there, 
 but only the apothecary of the regiment, who almost killed me 
 with his treatment. The commander again went to the com- 
 missioners to ask for a servant to attend me, and obtained his 
 request, and through the mercy of God he found me a good 
 man, and one who was very suited to me. So I got well \ and 
 this, moreover, was added to complete my satisfaction, that, by 
 the care of this faithful servant, a book was procured me with 
 the necessary stuff for use, and as the want of it for two whole 
 years and some months had increased the bitterness of my 
 captivity, so the joy at obtaining it was the greater. 
 
 About this time a pestilence began in the town, and the 
 commander’s wife, who was with child, was excessively afraid 
 of being taken with it, and urged his departure, upon which he 
 had been some time resolved. Many of the prisoners, either 
 having procured ransom, or having given bail, had betaken 
 themselves away. I, helpless and forsaken, what was I to do ? 
 The commander, about to part, had inquired of his people 
 what he should do with me ? They contemptuously replied, 
 “ Put him in the public prison.” This occurred over night, 
 and in the morning my servant comes to me crying and sob- 
 bing bitterly. “ What is it?” said I. “Alas, sir,” says he, “you 
 are to be sent to the public gaol.” “ Is that all,” said I ; “ I 
 care little whether, in the cause I suffer for, it is gaol or 
 gallows.” And I thought that I ought to show no sign of 
 sorrow on my countenance in presence of those who had 
 shown such charity in assisting me, nor indeed could I do 
 otherwise than look cheerful, when I felt my heart within 
 full of joy in the goodness of God ; but I know that at 
 that moment I would sooner have heard the sentence of 
 
94 
 
 Father John Worthington. 
 
 death passed on me, than the message to send me to that 
 prison. By the providence of God the purpose was not exe- 
 cuted, for the kindness of the commander was so great to me 
 that he would have me with him in the country, with leave of 
 the commissioners. The journey was for me a trying one, but 
 the pleasant situation and the flow of the noble river which ran 
 hard by the house soon restored me. Besides I had freedom to 
 go where I would, and this was of much good for souls, for in 
 the neighbourhood there were many Catholic inhabitants, who 
 had no opportunity of the Sacraments for three years, and so I 
 comforted their desires after so long a period of privation. The 
 commander was always well pleased to see me recreate myself, 
 and by his care and great kindness towards me, it was at last 
 brought about that under bail of appearance if summoned, I 
 should be allowed in a great measure my liberty, for I now live 
 in the house of a gentleman, who has not only given sureties 
 for me, but has me for his guest, and I am in no small comfort. 
 And I very frequently make excursions for the good of souls, 
 protected by the letters and signature of the commander from 
 the interference of ill-wishers. 
 
 Your Reverence’s most entirely obedient. “If I have become 
 a fool,” to quote the Apostle’s words, “ ye have compelled me.” 
 
95 
 
 IV. 
 
 FATHER LAURENCE WORTHINGTON, S.J., 
 
 Confessor of the Faith and Exile. 
 
 Father Laurence Worthington, brother to Father John, 
 entered the Society in Spain soon after his brother had joined 
 it in Rome, viz., in the year 1599. After his noviceship, which 
 he made in the province of Boetica (Guadalquiver), he passed 
 through his course of studies with so great success that he was 
 made Professor of Philosophy at Cordova and Seville for eight 
 years. Burning with zeal for the salvation of the souls of his 
 countrymen, he was sent into England in the year 1612, where, 
 as well when at liberty as when confined in prison, he gained 
 no small fruit. After three years in England he was appre- 
 hended (1615), and thrown into the prison called the Gate- 
 house, Westminster. After being confined there for three years 
 he was released at the intercession of Count Gondomar, the 
 Spanish Ambassador, and with eleven other Priests, all known 
 to belong to the Society, with the exception of one John 
 Bedingford, who was probably a Jesuit, bearing this assumed 
 name. Their names were Ralph Bickley, Alexander Fair- 
 clough, William York, Henry Hawkins, Richard Bartleet, John 
 Sweetnam, John Bedingfield, Francis Wallis, Francis Young, 
 and John Falkner. 
 
 Father Laurence was changed from the Gatehouse to the 
 Marshalsea, and from thence was sent into banishment. In 
 the Public Record Office 1 is the following document : — 
 
 “ We whose names are here underwritten, prisoners in the 
 Marshalsea for the Roman Catholic Faith, do willingly adopt 
 of the gracious favour his Majesty is pleased to grant us at the 
 instance of the Earl of Gondomar, Lord Ambassador for the 
 Catholic King of Spain. 
 
 “ June 20, 1618. 
 
 “ Laurence Worthington. 
 
 “John Bartlett.” 
 
 1 Domestic, James, State Papers, 1618, n. 114, vol. xcvii. 
 
g6 Father Laurence Worthington , S. J, 
 
 Upon his banishment he became Master of Novices at 
 Louvain, then Professor of Theology and Holy Scripture at the 
 English College for higher studies at Liege; then for a time 
 Prefect of Studies at the English College, Rome. He was 
 then sent, although advanced in years, in 1635, to Austria, 
 where he was Professor of Moral Theology and Lecturer on 
 Sacred Scripture at the College of Graecium. Then, returning 
 with the Duke of Lorraine and Prince Cassimir into Belgium, 
 he undertook the spiritual charge of the soldiers in the camp. 
 From his known sanctity of life and manner, and the excellence 
 of his learning, as well as his consummate prudence in treating 
 of affairs, he was chosen Confessor to Edward, brother to the 
 Duke of Braganza, afterwards King of Portugal, whom he 
 attended in the field, in the German wars. But being soon 
 worn out by the labours and inconveniences of a camp life 
 at his age, after receiving the rites of the Church, he died at 
 Lorraine, October 19, 1637, aged sixty-four. He had been 
 solemnly professed of the four vows, and was a man of great 
 simplicity combined with religious prudence, truly humble, 
 and a despiser of earthly things, and most tenderly devout 
 to the Blessed Virgin, whose rosary he would recite for whole 
 days together. 
 
 The following interesting letter he wrote from his prison 
 in the Gatehouse to Father Thomas Owen, Rector of the 
 English College, Rome, who succeeded Father Robert Parsons 
 as Prefect of the English Mission of the Society, on the 
 death of the former in 1610. 
 
 “ Hon. Sir, — 
 
 “ October 3, 1616. 
 
 “ P. Xti. 
 
 “ I know well how agreeable it will be to your 
 Reverence to be made acquainted with our affairs. I write 
 therefore briefly to relate what has befallen myself and Father 
 Francis Young, my companion, during the present year. 
 Having been arrested last year and confined in this gaol, I 
 applied myself in the first instance to the relief of five Catholic 
 laymen, who on account of their refusal to take the oath of 
 allegiance and supremacy (as it is called) being cast into the 
 lower dungeons of this prison, were overwhelmed with exces- 
 sive mental and bodily sufferings. For by the rough clamours 
 of abandoned men, together with the noise of the keepers, 
 they were hindered from the practice of prayer (that greatest 
 
97 
 
 Father Laurence Worthington . 
 
 solace of the miserable), and from the help of the sacraments 
 (the divine and salutary assistance of which we all experience 
 in these most calamitous times). They suffered in their food 
 and clothing, and from the severe want of the necessaries of 
 life, and were especially molested by the filth and stench of 
 the place, so that they could scarcely get any sleep. 
 
 “To enable me, for charity sake, to come to the aid of 
 these poor sufferers, I treated with the gaoler for their removal 
 to the apartment which had fallen to my lot, and which was 
 sufficiently large to admit them. The gaoler, however, and his 
 wife, a woman most greedy after money, would not agree to 
 this unless I promised them the enormous sum of four hundred 
 scudi (about ^90). This sum I got together partly by bor- 
 rowing, and partly by begging, so that I thus, according to my 
 wish, got them more conveniently lodged before winter set in. 
 The quarters of the prison so allotted to me, being divided into 
 two compartments, I adapted to sacred and profane uses. In 
 the one compartment was an altar of the Blessed Virgin 
 immaculately conceived, in the other were beds for our 
 nightly rest. I was, indeed, truly delighted with the society 
 of these my comrades, on account of their remarkable probity, 
 piety, and sanctity. We had daily two or three Masses, fre- 
 quently six or seven, according to the number of priests con- 
 fined here; these they attended with marked devotion, and 
 piously and frequently confessed and communicated. All, with 
 the exception of one who was a sexagenarian and infirm, rose 
 at four o’clock, and we occupied ourselves conjointly with 
 spiritual reading, prayer, both mental and vocal, and other 
 pious exercises, at stated hours, so that, to my no small 
 delight, religious life and discipline seemed to be in some 
 measure pourtrayed. To assist these companions and many 
 others, by the help of God and of Catholics, alms were not 
 wanting. 
 
 “ But that I should say something of the spiritual guest of 
 souls, be it known that indeed the first half-year succeeded 
 sufficiently happily to myself and my companion, Father 
 Francis Young 2 For the Catholics in great number flocked 
 to us, so much so that from fifty to sixty auditors would attend 
 our monthly sermons. But the enemy of all good and sanctity 
 
 2 As he is so intimately connected with Father Laurence, we shall give, 
 at the end of this notice of his life, a short account of Father Young, and an 
 extract from a letter written by him, in the same prison, to Very Rev. 
 Father Vitelleschi. 
 
 H 
 
9 8 
 
 Father Laurence Worthington. 
 
 stepped in, to prevent our enjoying for long so profitable a work. 
 For the pseudo-Bishop of London, upon the information, as it 
 is believed, of a false brother, whilst a pious Benedictine was 
 making a panegyric of his holy founder, upon the saint’s feast, 
 at Mass, sent his satellites to the assembly, especially a noto- 
 rious one of the name of Cross (a name most apropos ,) with a 
 large body of his comrades, and, seizing about thirty men and 
 women, distributed them in various places of confinement, 
 because they refused to take the oath of allegiance, as they call 
 it. Of these captives some were assigned to be with us ; these, 
 seeing the great opportunities we enjoyed of frequenting the 
 sacred mysteries, and of spending our time in holy things and 
 pious exercises, not only bore their captivity without repug- 
 nance, but greatly rejoiced. But I return immense thanks to 
 our great and good God that it happened on this occasion that 
 few, and scarcely any Catholics, especially of the richer class 
 (who are chiefly sought after by the pursuivants), who are in 
 the habit of coming to me and Father Francis, fell into these 
 snares. Two days before, they had heard me preach a panegyric 
 upon St. Joseph, the spouse of the most holy Mother of God, 
 and this accounted for their not being on the feast of St. Benet. 
 So many likewise, and these so frequently came to me to con- 
 fession during the first six months, that in each week I heard 
 more in the prison than I had heard in six or seven weeks 
 when free. I have brought back, by the help of God, six 
 wandering sheep to the fold of Christ; three others are in 
 preparation for a return. The pursuivants so seldom visited 
 us and ours, that almost all fear being laid aside, on feast 
 days the chapel was decorated with silk tapestry hangings and 
 the altar with flowers, pictures, and wax candles. Indeed, on 
 the greater festivals I exposed the most Holy Sacrament to 
 view in a crystal box or case, shining with rays, although 
 this was very seldom done ‘for fear of the Jews.’ May God 
 bless my good friends of Spain who sent me twenty-eight scudi, 
 to procure this crystal! On festival-days I have frequent 
 Catholic festive parties, who bring with them so abundant a 
 store of food that it suffices to supply the poor Catholics for 
 many days. It is incredible to how great distress some 
 Catholics are reduced. Men of rank, who formerly sup- 
 ported six or seven priests, are now almost struggling with 
 extreme poverty. These are nearly all the events that hap- 
 pened to me in the first six months. But from that time the 
 number of those who flocked to us is considerably diminished. 
 
Father Laurence Worthington. 
 
 99 
 
 Some, indeed, we persuade to deal more cautiously with us ; 
 others, careful of themselves, have no need of our caution in 
 that point, being deterred by the late arrests I have mentioned. 
 Wherefore I now began to visit both themselves and their 
 houses. Perhaps your Reverence will wonder that such great 
 liberty is allowed us ; but such is the opinion our gaoler enter- 
 tains of our faith, or rather so blind is the avarice both of 
 himself and of his wife, that there is nothing, however diffi- 
 cult, but may be obtained. For a more convenient locality in 
 the prison you give so much : for taking fresh air within its 
 bounds, for a little while, so much : to go out into the suburbs 
 for an hour or two (only on condition that you do not hold 
 controversy about religion), so much : I, therefore, purchase 
 each week, at a great price, suburban circuits of this kind, 
 under the pretext, indeed, of preserving health, but, in fact, 
 that I may visit the houses of Catholics, and of Protestants 
 also, if there is any hope of spiritual gain, whether by 
 administering the sacraments, disabusing them of schism, and 
 inciting Catholics to patience and fortitude. Truly this 
 avarice of our strange governor furnishes an abundant harvest ; 
 but the fear of losing a liberty so useful (for both the gaoler 
 and myself would be severely punished if the thing came to 
 the knowledge of the magistrates or pseudo-bishop), and the 
 enormity of the price demanded, sometimes deters me; not, 
 however, that I am wanting to any one who desires my 
 services. 
 
 As to what regards my dear brother and fellow-soldier in 
 Christ, Father Francis Young, he zealously labours in defending 
 and propagating Catholicity ; for he confirms the Catholics by 
 frequent sermons and private conferences ; confutes the heretics 
 by assiduous disputations, and spends the time he can spare 
 from the service of his neighbour in prayer, spiritual exercises, 
 and in translating pious books into English for good example 
 and public benefit. He chiefly devotes himself to the study of 
 controversy and languages. He has brought nine or ten from 
 the errors of Calvinism to the Church, and provides for the 
 necessities of poor Catholics, to the great glory of God and 
 the Society. May our Lord Jesus Christ second and favour 
 our beginning, that according to the degree of our high 
 vocation, we may be found worthy and faithful labourers in the 
 I vineyard of His Church. And that we may more surely and 
 ! prosperously persevere, we entreat the aid of your Reverence’s 
 prayers. Offering to our Very Reverend Father General, and 
 H 2 
 
IOO 
 
 Father Laurence Worthington. 
 
 his most worthy Assistants, and the rest of our brethren and 
 friends, our duty and regard, and every good wish, we earnestly 
 and humbly beg the prayers of all. From our excellent 
 hospice (commonly called the 4 Gate of the house,’ Gate-house, 
 or, as I shall interpret it, ‘ of heaven ’), the 3rd of October, 
 1616. 
 
 “ Your Reverence’s most devotedly in Christ, 
 
 “ Laurence Worthington.” 
 
 Father Laurence Worthington translated into English the 
 Meditations of Francis Coster on the Life and Passion of 
 Christ. Douay, 1616. 
 
 Father Francis Young, the companion and fellow-captive 
 of Father Laurence, was a native of Worcestershire, studied 
 for some time at Oxford, which he quitted for conscience 
 sake, and entered an alumnus at the English College, Rome. 
 
 We extract the following from the diary of the English 
 College: “Rome, 1598. Francis Young, Worcestershire, aet. 28. 
 Admitted among the alumni of the English College on the 
 30th November, 1598. Took the usual college oath 28th 
 February, 1599, in which year he received all the minor orders. 
 He was made subdeacon on the 16th, and deacon the 
 23rd of May, and ordained priest on the nth July, 1599. He 
 entered the Society about the feast of SS. Simon and Jude, 
 in the year of Jubilee, 1600. [Dr. Oliver says 27th July, 
 1608, at Louvain.] Relicta bona cedificatione in dom. 
 nostra .” 
 
 The following is from an account he gives of himself, when 
 examined according to custom on entering the English 
 College. [A valuable collection from these interesting ex- 
 aminations has been lately obtained for the Royal Historical 
 Manuscript Commission by the Rev. Joseph Stevenson.] 
 “ Born at Hartlebury, Worcestershire ; made his early studies 
 partly in public schools in that county, and partly at Eton. 
 Spent nearly nine entire years at Oxford ; two in St. Mary’s 
 Hall, the rest at Trinity College. He was then for three years 
 private tutor to Lord Robert Dormer’s eldest son. His father, 
 Mr. James Young, was a respectable person in easy circum- 
 stances, residing at Claines, near Worcester. His parents 
 were Protestants. He was a convert of Father Edward 
 Oldcorne, the martyr of Worcester. He then retired to 
 Flanders, and from thence went to Spain. Seized by robbers 
 
Father Laurence Worthington. 
 
 ioi 
 
 in France, he was plundered of everything, clothing and 
 money, and carried prisoner to Bonn, where, with his com- 
 panions, he was kept in prison, held for a long time between 
 hope and fear, in expectation of being ransomed. Regaining 
 their liberty, they came to Calais, where, embarking for 
 England, they were compelled to put back from stress of 
 weather, after being nearly lost. Attempting to reach England 
 a second time, they were captured by two men-of-war cruising 
 about, and after being stripped and robbed, were carried to 
 Holland, and at Rotterdam taken before the Council, and at 
 first harshly treated, being suspected to be Jesuits, but were 
 ■subsequently used more mildly ; and after one or two months’ 
 suffering in prison, were remitted to England, where, landing 
 at Dover, after being examined by the searchers, they were 
 sent on to London, and there examined by Sir William Wood, 
 Secretary to the Privy Council, and being found to be neither 
 Jesuits nor priests, they were remanded back to custody, in 
 the hope of being soon discharged, which, by the goodness 
 of God, and the interference of friends, happened after some 
 delay, and various incidents, and sendings to and fro between 
 Wood and the pseudo-Archbishop of Canterbury. His release 
 was effected partly by a money-payment, and partly by a bond 
 not to leave England.” 
 
 After some years’ service on the English Mission, he was 
 apprehended and confined, with Father Laurence Worthington, 
 as we have seen, in the Gate-house prison. He consoled 
 himself in his captivity by rendering spiritual succour to his 
 fellow-captives. He was released and banished with his 
 companion, Father Worthington, 1618. He returned again to 
 England, and continued his apostolical labours until his death, 
 which happened 30th March, 1633, aet 58, in Religion 25. 
 His name also appears in a list of English members of the 
 Society of Jesus, which was with other papers carried off by 
 the Government pursuivants on their seizing the residence of 
 the London Jesuits in Clerkenwell in 1628. He was then 
 a missioner in Suffolk. He was the translator of Cardinal 
 Bellarmine’s treatise, De ascensione mentis in Deum , 8vo. 
 London, 1614. 
 
 The following is an extract from his letter to the Very 
 Reverend Father General Mutius Vitelleschi (Stonyhurst MS. 
 Anglice , vol. iv. n. 40). 
 
102 
 
 Father Laurence Worthington. 
 
 “ Pax Christi. 
 
 “ Very Rev. Father in Christ, — The happy and fortunate 
 news of the election of your Paternity to the Generalship of 
 our Society, confirms the expectations of your children, and 
 brings no little joy to the whole Company. To me especially, 
 among the rest formerly your Paternity’s disciple in Rome, 
 now, indeed, become your son in England ; and I eagerly 
 embrace this the first opportunity that presents itself of 
 testifying my duty towards your Paternity, and my joy at so 
 great a good for the whole Society. What has befallen me, 
 now for upwards of eight years living in England, and gathering 
 such gain of souls as the difficulties of the times permit, should 
 not, I think, be unknown to your Paternity. For so, by the 
 providence of God, it has come to pass that, whilst employed 
 in the labours of charity and obedience, I have fallen into the 
 hands of heretics. Being apprehended, I appeared before the 
 chief secretary of the King, who having formerly been an 
 alumnus of the University of Oxford, because he retained 
 some recollection of me, being at the same time a student 
 there, he received me truly kindly and courteously. To cut 
 it short, the Archbishop, as he is called, of Canterbury, to 
 whom also, when a youth, I was familiarly known at Oxford, 
 interposing his authority, undertook the matter himself, and 
 without more ado, sent me to this same prison, who, before 
 this, had captured many Fathers of our Society, whose piety, 
 constancy, fortitude, and the rest of their virtues, if I should 
 happen to imitate (which, by the grace of God, I will sedu- 
 lously strive to do), there is no reason why I should grieve 
 over the thing which, by the providence of God, has happened 
 to me; rather there is great cause of rejoicing, for, with the 
 profit to be gained by my own soul, no mean opportunity 
 likewise is offered of assisting the neighbour. For many 
 Catholics from the remotest parts of London, not without 
 great trouble and danger in these difficult times, daily run to 
 us, whom we assist by administering the sacraments, by advice 
 and sermons. By the providence of God, and the kindness 
 of the pious, alms are often brought to us (sufficient for poor 
 fare and clothing), out of which, sometimes, some surplus also 
 remains, for helping the needs of the poor Catholics both at 
 home and out of doors, which, in the so great affliction and 
 exhausted fortunes of the Catholics, may be held as truly 
 miraculous. We are in this prison, besides laics, eight priests, 
 
Father Lattrence Worthington. 103 
 
 two of them of the family of St. Benet, the same number of 
 the Society, the rest of the number of those called Seculars. 
 Whatsoever there may be of misfortune in this, we greedily 
 devour with great alacrity and joy, and (which form our chief 
 cause for rejoicing) we are united together with wonderful 
 concord and unanimity of soul. And to me, indeed, the 
 association of our Laurence [Father Laurence Worthington] 
 is added as a cumulus to this my joyful felicity, who, by his 
 piety and his desire of suffering, and his mercy towards the 
 poor, is a ‘Laurence 7 indeed. One thing happens incon- 
 veniently, because by this event I am separated from certain 
 leading Catholics (who used me as their confessor), and at a 
 most inopportune time, all access to me to assist them is 
 shut out.” [The letter then continues at some length, regarding 
 Superiors, &c. &c.] 
 
 “ Your Very R. P. son and confrere in Christ, 
 
 “ Francis Young. 
 
 “ From the Prison of Westminster, 
 
 8th January, 1616.” 
 
 There is also a letter from the same holy confessor to 
 Father Fabio de Fabiis, Rome, of the same date, and on the 
 same matters of business ; the burthen of which was a strong 
 appeal against an unexpected order that had been received 
 from Superiors, for the departure of the Superior of the English 
 Mission from England, of whom he speaks in the highest 
 terms, and whose loss would be severely felt. 
 
104 
 
 v. 
 
 FATHER THOMAS WORTHINGTON, S.J. 
 (Olim Dr. WORTHINGTON). 
 
 Father Thomas was a native (as we have seen in the pedigree 
 in page 76 ante) of Blainsco, Lancashire, son of Richard 
 Worthington, Esq. The date of his birth does not appear, 
 but as he went to Oxford in 1566, and would have been then 
 at least sixteen years of age, we may suppose the date to have 
 been about 1550. He was the paternal uncle of Fathers John 
 and Laurence Worthington. Though far behind his nephews 
 in entering the Society, yet, as their adviser and helper in their 
 journey abroad, and in their bringing up and education, he was 
 truly connected with them, and those that are called at the 
 eleventh hour are equal to the rest. His father, Mr. Worthing- 
 ton, though remaining a Catholic at heart, had out of fear of 
 those terrible times conformed, and gone to the Protestant 
 church. Having received a good education in his lower 
 studies at home, his father sent him to the University of Oxford 
 to complete his higher course in the year 1566. 1 Here he 
 remained about four years and took degrees in arts. Becoming 
 disgusted with the heresy of the place, he left the University 
 for conscience sake, and passing over to Douay was admitted 
 to the English College there in February, 1573, and went 
 through his studies with great applause. In the year 1575, 
 November 21, he was called over into England upon some 
 domestic concerns; and returning again on the 3rd of February, 
 1576, he took over with him one Mr. Bell, formerly a 
 minister of the Church of England, who had suffered great 
 hardships for three years in Lancashire upon account of his 
 conversion. In 1577, Mr. Worthington was made Bachelor of 
 Divinity, and the year following removed with the rest of the 
 College to Rheims. Being ordained priest, he was sent back 
 to his native country, where he laboured for several years with 
 
 1 See extract from Wood’s Athen. Oxon , given at the end of this 
 notice. 
 
Father Thovias Worthingto 7 i. 105 
 
 great success. In England he found no greater foes and traitors 
 than those of his own household, even than his own father. 
 The clandestine return of his son to the kingdom had offended 
 him ; and fearing lest on this account any trouble should befall 
 his house, in consequence of the savage edicts of the Queen 
 against his son, he searched for and laid snares to catch him 
 on every side, with the intention of seizing him and delivering 
 him up to the magistrates, either to be punished according to 
 law, or else perverted. In the meanwhile he was wonderfully 
 preserved both by his own precautions, and the w r atchful care 
 of Providence over him, so that he -was enabled most usefully 
 to labour in reconciling the souls of his fellow’-countrymen to 
 God ; for having become acquainted with Father Edmund 
 Campian, and introducing him to the houses of divers of his 
 Catholic friends, he was himself by his long continued and 
 nightly labours the means of bringing many to the true faith 
 and salvation. Father Campian having been martyred in 
 December, 1581, Mr. Worthington still lingered on in the same 
 localities. Amongst the State Papers, Dorn. Eliz. vol. clxix. n. 27, 
 is one endorsed, (“22nd March, 1583 : the names of the Jesuits 
 and other Papists that are lately fled out of the county of 
 Lancaster, and the places were they are now supposed to be.”) 
 “ The names of the Jesuits and seminary priests, and other 
 gentlemen who are fled out of the county of Lancaster since 
 the last search.” (Amongst others,) 
 
 \ Supposed to be at Sir 
 “ Thomas Worthington a Jesuit. \ Thomas Fitzherbert, at his 
 Benton a priest 1 house in Staffordshire or 
 
 ) Derbyshire. 
 
 Mr. Latham, of Mosborow. ^ Supposed to be at the 
 
 ' Lady Egerton’s at her house 
 Mr. Worthington, of Blainscombe, f at Rydley in county Ches- 
 and others. J ter.” 
 
 He had matured his plans for taking his four young nephews 
 to France (two of them being John and Laurence), when 
 numerous hindrances were interposed by means of evil persons. 
 In the first place the boys were intercepted, but after many 
 troubles succeeded in effecting their escape; he himself on 
 two occasions being hotly pursued by the searchers, narrowly 
 escaped falling into their ambushes. At length, in the year 
 1584, being betrayed in his lodgings at Islington, near London, 
 
106 Father Thomas Worthington . 
 
 by the treachery of a youth to whom he had rendered great 
 services — one Richard Wood, a relative of Mr. Anthony Wood, 
 the author of the Athen. Oxon., &c. — he was apprehended and 
 thrust into the Tower of London ; put into chains as though a 
 great malefactor, and kept in close and solitary confinement, 
 amidst the severest incommodities and stench, in the “ Lake,” 
 as they call it, for upwards of two months. After six months 
 he was (1585) transported into Normandy with Father Jasper 
 Heywood, and about twenty other confessors of Christ. 2 He 
 courageously bore his exile for the cause of religion, and con- 
 verted it into a manifold aid to his afflicted country. Being 
 made chaplain to Sir William Stanley’s regiment, he served the 
 soldiers with great zeal and charity; he nevertheless found 
 time to pursue his studies, and in the year 1588 took the 
 degree of D.D. in the University of Treves. In 1590 he 
 returned again to Rheims, and was made professor of moral 
 theology. 3 Upon the death of Dr. Barret, President of the 
 English College, Rheims, he was appointed to be his successor 
 by Cardinal Cajetan, the Protector, 1st July, 1599, chiefly by 
 the interest of Father Robert Parsons; and on the 10th of 
 
 2 Dr. Challoner’s Miss. Priests , vol. i. p. 173, Edit. 1741, says: “But 
 one of the most remarkable occurrences in the history of this year is, the 
 banishment of about seventy priests within the compass of one twelve- 
 month. ‘On the 2 1st of January, 1584-5, says Mr. Stow in his annals, 
 Jesuits, Seminaries, and other Massing priests to the number of twenty-one, 
 late prisoners in the Tower of London, the Marshalsea, and King’s Bench, 
 were shipped off at the Tower wharf, to be carried towards France, and 
 banished this realm for ever, by virtue of a commission from her Majesty, 
 bearing date the 15th of the same month, ann. 1585.’ The names of the 
 twenty-one who Were sent into banishment in January were” (amongst 
 others) — 
 
 “Jasper Heywood, S.J. 
 
 James Bosgrave, S.J. 
 
 John Hart, B.D. 
 
 Edward Rushton. 
 
 William Hartley. 
 
 Robert Nutter. 
 
 William Dean. 
 
 William Bishop, afterwards Bishop of Chalcedon. 
 
 Thomas Worthington, who after Cardinal Allen and Doctor Barret, 
 was the third President of Douay College.” 
 
 3 Amongst the State Papers, Dom. Eliz. vol. ccli. n. 11 (endorsed 
 “ September, 1594. The catalogue of the names of rebels and fugitives in 
 the Low Countries”). “ The names of Jesuits and priests. Dr. Worthington 
 remaineth for the most part at Bruxelles, near to Sir William Stanley, and 
 both a pensioner and confessor to the regiment of Sir William Stanley.” 
 
 [ These three were condemned at the 
 same time with Father Campian and 
 his companions. 
 
 S These three were afterwards executed 
 for their priesthood. 
 
Father Thomas Worthington . 
 
 107 
 
 July he was installed, the College being now entirely removed 
 from Rheims to Douay. 4 He retired from Douay the 15th of 
 May, 1613, and went to Rome, where he was invited by the 
 Cardinal Protector. At his arrival he had an allowance of two 
 hundred Roman crowns a year from His Holiness with an 
 apartment, and diet for himself and servant. He was also 
 
 4 Dr. Worthington is also named in a long report of a spy, addressed to 
 Cecil, Lord Burghley. State Papers, Dom. Eliz. vol. xxxiv. nn. 42, 42 i. 
 42 ii. Addenda, October, 1601. The report seems chiefly aimed against the 
 Society and Father Parsons. The writer “knows not how to compare 
 this cursed crew to anything better than the bawling three-headed dog of 
 hell, whereof I will make the first head at Douay and in Flanders, the 
 second, middle, and chief head at Rome, the third and worst in Spain, 
 the heart of the hell-hound Cerberus I reckon to lie in England, and the 
 other parts and members dispersed all over, and in this form I will 
 anatomize this odious and ugly beast. To begin with Flanders ; they 
 reckon thereabouts six or seven hundred, the one half priests, scholars, 
 and religious, the other laymen, pensioners, and soldiers, ... of all of 
 which the most dangerous and pernicious are these few following : Doctor 
 Worthington, President of the College of Douay, Baldwyn, a Jesuit at 
 Bruxelles, &c. These five are the sources of this head. Worthington 
 does nothing but libel and write against her Majesty, the Council, and 
 State of England, and now of late against the Catholic priests of England 
 which have appealed from the archpriest’s authority.” 
 
 This report closes with an amusing incident in which Dr. Worthington 
 is named. The writer says, “ One John More coming over the seas by my 
 Lord Treasurer’s warrant ; the effect of his warrant was that he should go 
 into the parts beyond the seas, amongst the Queen' s friends , and contrary to 
 his warrant or order, goeth through Flanders and continued at Douay four 
 or five days by the least, where he was worthily entertained, and extraordi- 
 narily befriended. Dr. Worthington brought him out of the town, and 
 Dr. Harrison a mile on towards his road, which is more than common 
 courtesy, and so to St. Omer. . . . He did commend the Jesuits for 
 very good men, virtuous, religious, and godly, and full of charity ; . . . 
 besides letters passed between him and Dr. Worthington. . . . Besides he 
 would not miss a day to hear a Jesuit’s Mass, and in our travel towards 
 Padua he did not omit any town were the Jesuits were, to inquire for them, 
 and make himself known unto them. And upon the way met two Jesuits, 
 and he entreated to sup, and very courteously entertained them with 
 extraordinary fare provided for them, and was exceeding inquisitive of 
 English Jesuits in those parts, saying he would go twenty miles to see an 
 English Jesuit. And arriving at Fusbrook, in Germany, about eleven 
 o’clock, we remained all night, without any business at all there, only to 
 have further conference with the Jesuits. ... I know not his reason. . . . 
 It should seem his liberalities upon them were extraordinary. . . . Thus 
 much have I thought fit to certify you in that point, to give notice unto 
 others how to grant warrants to pass over and become knaves to their 
 country.” Mr. John More would seem from this to have completely 
 tricked the Lord Treasurer. 
 
108 Father Thomas Worthington. 
 
 made Notarius Apostolicus , and obtained a place connected 
 with the Index librorum prohibitorum. After he had lived two 
 or three years in Rome, he was desirous to see England once 
 more, and accordingly obtained leave to return upon the 
 mission. 5 
 
 At length, being now far advanced in years, he earnestly 
 begged admission to the Society of Jesus, and his request was 
 granted by Father Blount, then Provincial, but he died at 
 the house of Mr. Biddles or Biddulph, of Biddles or Biddulph, 
 in Staffordshire, about 1626, in the sixth month of his novice- 
 ship, which he was allowed to make upon his mission. 
 
 Mr. Dodd, whilst quoting the authority of Father Southwell’s 
 Bibl. Script. 3 .J. as to Dr. Worthington’s admission to the 
 Society, and dying a novice, and acknowledging that the 
 circumstances of some parts of his life make Father Southwell’s 
 account not improbable, goes on to say that another account 
 of equal, if not of greater authority (which he does not name), 
 assures us that he was admitted amongst the Oratorians while 
 he lived in Rome, which is confirmed by his last will and 
 testament, which Mr. Dodd had read. In this will he calls 
 himself a member of the Oratorians, though he desires his body 
 may be buried in some church belonging to the Jesuits, with 
 an account of his legacies to the English College, Douay. 
 The fact of his having joined the Oratorians, if true, would 
 not have been any obstacle to his being received into the 
 Society — the Oratorians not being a religious order, but a 
 congregation of secular clergymen. Mr. Dodd may not have 
 been aware of this. 
 
 We close this sketch of Father Thomas Worthington with 
 the following interesting account of him from Wood’s Athen. 
 Oxon., vol. i., p. 508, Edit. 1721. 
 
 Thomas Worthington, son of Peter [Richard] Worthington, 
 as it seems, was born in Blainscough, near to Wigan, in 
 Lancashire, and being fitted for the University in those parts, 
 
 5 In the State Papers, Dom. James I. vol. lxxxi. n. 40, 1615, is an infor- 
 mation of a spy “ regarding English recusants abroad, and the election, in 
 June, 1615, of Dr. Thomas Worthington to be Popish Archbishop of 
 Canterbury .” It contains a list of English present at the Spa on that 
 occasion. “Worthington is going to Rome, thence to England.” Mr. 
 Dodd says that the Doctor had been proposed at Rome for a bishop for 
 England, but the step was not then approved of. The spy may have 
 alluded to this. 
 
Father Thomas Worthington. 109 
 
 he was sent to Oxford in 1566, but to what house of learn- 
 ing, unless to Brasen-nose College, I cannot tell. After he 
 had been drudging in the studies of logic and philosophy 
 for about four years, he took a degree in arts, which being 
 completed by determination, he left the University, his country 
 and friends, and crossed the seas to Douay, where he was 
 received with great humanity into the English College, February 
 15th, 1572. Soon after he took upon him the priesthood, 
 and in 1577 he was promoted to the degree of Bachelor of 
 Divinity. And in years after, being translated to the English 
 College at Rheims, was thence sent into England to gain 
 proselytes ; but being taken at Islington, near to London, in 
 the house of my progenitor, Richard A. Wood, his friend and 
 countryman, 1584, was committed prisoner to- the Tower of 
 London, where remaining some months was at length released, 
 set on shipboard with Dr. Jasper Heywood, S .J., Edward Rishton, 
 John Coleton, and others, and wafted over the seas to the 
 coast of Normandy, where they were left to shift for them- 
 selves. In 1587, he being to return to England, was sent by 
 Cardinal Allen to Sir William Stanley, a colonel, to whose 
 regiment in the Low Countries he was by him made chaplain. 
 In 1588 he was promoted Doctor of Divinity in the University 
 of Treves, Germany, and in 1589 he was sent for to Douay by 
 the Jesuits (whom he was always afraid to offend) to assist 
 Dr. Richard Barrett, President of the English College, in the 
 government of that place. In 1591 he was sent to Brussels, 
 and remitted to the camp, to -exercise the office of chaplain 
 again ; where, with other exiles, they acted many things which 
 tended much to the destruction of the Queen of England ; 
 and not long after returning to Douay again by the command 
 of Cardinal Cajetan, Protector of the English nation, he was 
 made President of the English College there in 1599. At 
 length being grown old and unfit to govern, returned into 
 England, lived sometimes in London, sometimes in Stafford- 
 shire. But which is to be further noted of him is, that having 
 for the most part of his life lived in the habit of a secular 
 priest, did about six months before his death take upon him 
 the order and habit belonging to the Society of Jesus. His 
 works were : Annotations in the Old Testament. Douay, 1609. 
 tom. ii. ; Epistola Docta , et affedu plena ad sunm fratrem. 
 Opusculum de Mystei'iis Rosarii ; Catalogus Marty rum in 
 Anglia ab anno 1570, usque ad ann. 1612, cum narratione de 
 origme Sem. Anglorum; Motiva Doctoris Rich. Bristoi 1606. 
 
no 
 
 Father Thomas Worthington . 
 
 Anglice vero. Anchor am Doctrince Christiana , tom. ii. ; Contra 
 Doct. White Calvin : Tractatum quo corruptions , S. S. Patrum 
 in ejusdcm libro deteguntur , 1615, in 4to. 
 
 Wood says that his Narratio de origine Seminar iorium, &c., 
 and Catalogus Marty rum Angl. ab 1570 ad 1612, could not 
 be sold for more than sixpence when published (containing 
 only four sheets in 8vo); yet in 1682, when the choice library 
 of Mr. Richard Smith was sold by auction, Dr. Marshall, Dean 
 of Gloucester and Rector of Lincoln College, gave ns. 6d., 
 being then great bidding for, before he could get it. 
 
 The Anchor of Christian Doctrine , Douay, 1622, in two 
 thick quartos, were printed at London, and sold by the author 
 in Turnbull Street for 14s., which might have been afforded 
 for five. 
 
 This person, Thomas Worthington, who was esteemed very 
 learned among those of his persuasion, and had hazarded his 
 life and done great service for the cause, did quietly lay down 
 his head and submit himself to the stroke of death in the house 
 of one — Biddulph, Esq., of Biddulph, commonly called 
 Biddles in Staffordshire (near to Congleton in Cheshire), about 
 1626, and was buried in the parochial church there (as I have 
 been informed by one of the Society who was well acquainted 
 with him), having some years before his death been made titular 
 Archdeacon of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. 
 
Ill 
 
 VI. 
 
 FATHER WILLIAM WORTHINGTON. 
 
 Lastly. The last of this excellent family (so constant in its 
 faith, and to which the English Province of the Society of 
 Jesus is so deeply indebted for so many eminent members) to 
 be noticed is William Worthington. 
 
 The late Dr. Oliver in his Collectanea S. /., shortly remarks : 
 “ He is said to have died in Spain in 1604. But this cannot 
 be correct, as he wrote to Father Robert Parsons, dated Douay, 
 27th August, 1608, begging admission to the Society.” 
 
 Accompanying this letter, of which we shall give a copy, 
 was a statement of his miraculous cure through the powerful 
 intercession of Our Blessed Lady of Sichem. William 
 Worthington had been seized with epilepsy in the English 
 College, Rome, where he was an alumnus under Father 
 Robert Parsons, of whom he had no doubt begged in person 
 admission to the Society, but his sickness would have been 
 a fatal objection. We may well conceive his joy upon his 
 miraculous recovery, and the revival of his fond hope of enter- 
 ing religion. It does not appear what the result of his 
 application was, but backed by such powerful friends as 
 Fathers Thomas Talbot and Roger Lee, we may well believe 
 that it was successful, after due trial of his recovery. 
 
 The following is an extract from the Diary of the English 
 College, Rome. “No. 262, Gulielmus Worthingtonus, de 
 Preston in Comitatu Lancastriensis : aet 20, circiter. Admissus 
 est in hoc Collegium inter alumnos a Reverendo Patre Roberto 
 Personio ejusdem Collegii Rectore, 20 Octobris, 1604. 
 Accepit juramentum collegii in forma consueta, 10 Augusti, 
 1605. 
 
 “ Ita est Gulielmus Worthingtonus. 
 
 “Accepit primam tonsuram 15 Dec., 1604; factus est 
 ostiarius 16 ejusdem mensis; lector 21 Dec. qui erat festus 
 dies Sancti Thomae Apostoli, 1604; exorcistae officium 14 Janu- 
 arii, 1606 ; acolythus 12 Martii factus est. Discessit in Belgium 
 valetudinis ergo mense Maii anno 1607. In Anglia in carcere.” 
 
I 12 
 
 Father William Worthington . 
 
 His own narrative shows him to have been of the Blainsco 
 branch of the family. By the last words in the above extract 
 he appears also to have been a sufferer for his faith in 
 England. 
 
 We now proceed to give a copy of the letter to Father 
 Parsons and his own narrative, and so close our notice of the 
 Worthington family . 6 
 
 “ Rev. and most respected sir, — My humble duties 
 remembered, &c. I have written twice to your Reverence, 
 but as yet I could never by any means be certified whether 
 my letters came to your hands. Mistrusting therefore the 
 safe delivering, and fearing the miscarriage, I make bold once 
 again to write, humbly beseeching you (whereas it wholly 
 consisteth in you) that you would most willingly, kindly accept, 
 and grant me this my humble petition, though not the first, 
 yet the chiefest I ever made unto you : the subject whereof I 
 insinuated, being to depart from Rome, which was of my 
 admittance into the company of your most blessed Society of 
 Jesus; yet now I inculcate it again, and I have already 
 solicited the Rev. Thomas Talbot, who was first acquainted 
 with my vocation, and also Father Roger Lee, who, as I 
 persuade myself, both hath and will write again to you as 
 concerning this my admission, so that I only rely upon your 
 fatherly determination, and as it should please you to determine 
 of me it shall be performed : and albeit my desire be great, if 
 so it may please you to return to Rome, yet I refer this matter 
 wdiolly to your Reverence’s wisdom to dispose of me either 
 with you or otherwhere. I and all mine are at your disposition, 
 not doubting but you will do all which shall be most to God’s 
 honour and glory, and consequently that which shall be most 
 conducible to my own soul’s health. I have sent you here in 
 your letter a brief recapitulation of my miraculous cure and 
 supernatural recovery, which I hope will more content you 
 and the rest of my fellow-students, than any token that I can 
 send them. Thus I, humbly taking my leave, desire you to 
 remember my duty to the rest of the Fathers, and kindest 
 salutations to my fellows, to my cousin, James Worthington, 
 and the rest, . . . and would to God you found so good an 
 effect of my prayers, as I have, I doubt not, by yours. I 
 commit you and all your proceedings to God Almighty, who 
 
 6 Stonyhurst MSS., Anglia, vol. vi. 
 
Father William Worthington . 1 1 3 
 
 ever keep you. Hoping that I shall quickly hear of your 
 determined resolution, 
 
 “Your obedient child, 
 
 “William Worthington. 
 
 “Douay, this 27th day of August, 1608.” 
 
 “ Reverend Father and best beloved brethren, — I, William 
 Worthington, first and principally to the honour of Almighty 
 God and the most Immaculate Virgin Mary, and secondly, 
 that hereby others may hereafter be more incited to her praise 
 and daily service, thought it not amiss to set down the 
 miraculous cure, with the particulars thereof, wrought upon 
 myself by a vow made to the same most Blessed Virgin to visit 
 her holy pilgrimage of Sichem. 
 
 “ It happened, as you know, that in the third year of 
 philosophy in Rome, being the year of our Lord, 1607, 
 presently after New Year’s tide, it pleased Almighty God with 
 some infirmities to visit me, which in the begining not being 
 known, no, not so much as suspected to be that which in time 
 it grew to, with the epilepsy or falling sickness which there 
 increasing daily, insomuch that no hope was left of my 
 recovery, as the physician judged, unless preadventure by 
 change of air; whose counsels you following, sent me hither 
 into these parts, during all which time of my travel I only 
 once was visited with it, insomuch that I had some hope of 
 amendment : but afterwards coming to Douay, all the humours 
 settling themselves, it began as before : whereupon I found a 
 great desire in myself to take in hand this holy pilgrimage to 
 Our Lady of Sichem, which often I had proposed to Mr. Doctor 
 Worthington, 7 my kinsman, under whose charge I then lived. 
 He, upon mature consideration, consulting also with others, 
 judged it better to defer both vow and pilgrimage till other 
 natural means were tried. Whereupon he sent me presently 
 into England, and in Lancashire by my other friends, I was 
 committed to the care of Mr. Doctor Janion, Catholic 
 physician, who had cured divers of the same disease. He 
 therefore asked me of the particulars thereof, and I certified 
 him of all; but he (as it appeared afterwards) at that time had 
 little hope, for departing from me he insinuated as much to 
 my cousin, Agnes Worthington, of Blansco ; yet notwith- 
 standing, what art could afford (God blessing his labours) he 
 promised to do and agreed with my friends, not as he is 
 7 Father Thomas Worthington. 
 
 I 
 
1 1 4 Father William Worthington . 
 
 accustomed with others, but conditionally, to wit : that if he 
 should cure me, he would stand to the judgment of such 
 friends as my father should choose for his satisfaction; if 
 not, he would lose his labour and demand nothing. He 
 began with me in September, and did administer divers 
 medicines ; but perceiving that I rather grew worse than 
 better, and the disease to wax more sharp, more sudden, and 
 of longer continuance, being with Father Jolnr Worthington 
 and other reverend priests discoursing of my disease, he 
 signified to them that he thought all natural means to fail. 
 Whereupon others, telling certain means by which an ancient 
 priest, who in this schism went by the name of the ‘Old 
 Beggar,’ had cured divers; the doctor hearing it demanded 
 a copy thereof of him that told it, which was Mr. Hudlston, 
 priest, who gave it him written in paper, and the doctor 
 brought it to me the day following to the place where I 
 continued, which was this : that I should take the names of 
 the Blessed Virgin and the twelve Apostles, and writing them 
 in several papers, should chose one as a valentine, and which- 
 soever I chose, his or her eve I should fast on bread and water 
 as long as I lived, or else some for me, if I were not able. 
 Secondly : I should cause thirteen Masses in continuation to 
 be said for me, to wit, of every Apostle one, and of our Blessed 
 Lady ; then the priest saying the Gospel which is said upon 
 Saturday in Ember week, the people should arise, I only 
 kneeling with a holy candle in my hand. Lastly : that in all 
 my brothes and meat I should put holy water, saying before 
 meals certain of David’s Psalms, as Domine prolasti , and others. 
 By all which I perceived that natural means were not like to 
 prevail. Whereupon I resolved to perform and renew the 
 former desire I had to the aforesaid pilgrimage, refusing this 
 prescribed means ; and so that very same evening, being the 
 13th of November, according to the computation in England, 
 and the 23rd in these parts, going to say the Nocturn of our 
 Lady’s Office, according to my custom, at the end thereof, first 
 resigning myself to the will of Almighty God, not desiring 
 anything which might either tend to His dishonour, or my own 
 soul’s harm, I commended myself wholly to our Blessed 
 Lady, desiring her intercession to her dearly beloved Son for 
 me, and most Blessed Trinity, either to restore me my health, 
 if it might so be to His glory and my soul’s good, or else to 
 grant me patience to endure the same as part of my purgatory ; 
 in the end saying this prayer, “ O Domina mea sancta Maria 
 
Father William Worthington. 115 
 
 me in tuam benedictam fidem,” &c. Arising off my knees 
 and going towards the dining-chamber, I was suddenly taken 
 with my ordinary fit, which was for the time so vehement that 
 they that were present thought I should have died in their 
 hands ; but at last I, feeling it burst in my head, and corruption 
 running down into my throat and stomach, I cried out, I am 
 well ! I am well ! Desiring some of them to pray for me, 
 I myself said Te Deum , &c. Which my father hearing thought 
 that I was overcome by the vehemency of pain and said I was 
 diseased. But I answered, I was certain that I was well, and 
 suddenly thereupon my sinews and veins, before contracted, 
 instantly received their former vigour, and executed their 
 function, of the which I was accustomed to be benumbed for 
 the space of half an hour at the least after my fit, as you know; 
 but then immediately I did arise, was able to walk, stand, sit, 
 or do any other accustomed exercise. Notwithstanding all 
 this my father urged me still to the former medicine, but I 
 answered him I would not without more trial of my health, 
 lest thereby I might seem to do injury to our Blessed Lady, 
 because it would have been doubtful by which means I had 
 been cured. The next day following the doctor came to see 
 whether I had provided a priest to administer the aforesaid 
 means prescribed, to whom my father answered that I would 
 not meddle therewith, and withal signified unto him the manner 
 of my preceding fit; who hearing of it, gave me certain pills to 
 purge my stomach, which the next day I received, and by the 
 v effectual operation thereof, voided in great abundance blackish 
 kind of matter mixed with yellowish phlegm ; and the doctor 
 wished me to stay and meddle with nothing till his return to 
 me again; who afterwards asking counsel of divers priests what 
 he should do, they answered that they were not willing I should 
 try any other manner of cure, who returning told us what they 
 said, and my father demanding of him what he would have, he 
 answered, nothing, for that his bargain was, if he did cure me; 
 but he confessed it not to be his cure but supernatural, for 
 which reason he would take nothing, saying, that which should 
 have been due to him was due to our Blessed Lady. Since 
 which time returning out of England, I have performed my 
 vowed pilgrimage, and, thanks be to God and His Blessed 
 Mother, I find myself daily stronger and stronger. And thus 
 offering myself wholly to her service, wishing as much her help 
 and continual assistance in all my actions that I may never be 
 found ungrateful for this so infinite a benefit bestowed upon me.” 
 
n6 Addenda to the Worthington Family. 
 
 ADDENDA TO THE “WORTHINGTON FAMILY.” 
 
 The following is too deeply interesting, and at the same 
 time historically illustrative of those days of persecution which 
 even children could not escape, to be omitted. It is taken from 
 Father Bridgewater’s ( Aquapontanus ) edition of Father John 
 Gibbons’ Concertatio Ecclesioe Cath . in Anglia adversus Calvin, 
 et Pur it., sub Eliz. Reg. Treves, 1594. Pars 2, Addenda. 
 
 Father John Worthington appears from this narrative to 
 have been the youngest of the four sons. It is difficult to 
 point out which of the others was Father Laurence ; probably 
 either Robert or Richard, both of whom, as we find in the 
 sequel, with their brother John fled over to Rheims. Laurence 
 may have been the name he took, as is usual with Catholics, at 
 his confirmation. 
 
 The conflict of four boys of rank, Thomas, Robert, Richard, 
 a$d John Worthington, of whom the youngest was under twelve 
 years of age, and the eldest did not exceed sixteen; also 
 [amongst others] of Thomas Worthington, priest, their uncle. 
 
 How fiercely and cruelly the persecution in England raged 
 in these times, even to the frequent shedding of blood, is abun- 
 dantly attested in other books and letters, and daily confirmed 
 by new examples. We now offer one example only to show 
 that boys even, and those of a tender age, were not exempted 
 from its bitterness, though without shedding of blood. This 
 calamity is indeed increased, because the authority of the * 
 magistrates, who formerly were appointed in each county of 
 the realm for the suppression of crime and the preservation 
 of the public peace, is now converted, by a new edict of the 
 sovereign and the wicked laws, to the overthrow of the 
 Catholics as a kind of State pests. And certain abandoned 
 men, who whilst they consider that some proof of their faith 
 and honesty should be given, lend in some places their aid to 
 acts of holy religion, will at the same time betray priests and 
 denounce the names of Catholics to the magistrates. 
 
 A certain infamous pursuivant in the employ of the Sheriff 
 of Lancashire , 1 having reported that Thomas Worthington, 
 priest, and with him four of his nephews, Thomas, Robert, 
 Richard, and John Worthington, were staying at the house 
 of Mr. Sankey, of Great Sankey, near Warrington, no mean 
 town of that county, thinking that by well matured plans, with 
 1 Then Sir Edmund Trafford, Knight. 
 
Addenda to the Worthington Family. 1 1 7 
 
 these more might be captured also, he immediately despatched 
 the under-sheriff with twenty of his javelin-men, who, about 
 three o’clock a.m., most unseasonably aroused Sankey House, 
 and effecting an entrance seized the four above-named youths. 
 This happened on the 12th of February, 1584. 
 
 They strove as soon as possible to extract from them by threats 
 and terror whether they were intending to go to any pontifical 
 seminary, where their father or uncle had arranged for them ? 
 Also the place and time they last left them ; had they attended 
 Mass, &c. ? and pressed them with other questions of the sort. 
 With them they also apprehended George Hathersall, a relation 
 of theirs, suspected as being about to start for a similar semi- 
 nary; also William Cromwell, whom they took to be a priest, 
 affirming constantly that he was either Bell or Worthington, but 
 falsely ; for they have a great hatred against the holy and bene- 
 ficial institute of the seminaries, as against priests, and the pious 
 education of youths of rank. 
 
 Having made this preliminary examination, and searched 
 every corner of the house in vain for Father Worthington, 
 whom they eagerly sought for, they hastened off to the house 
 of Mr. Havard, of Hurleston, two miles distant, and diligently 
 searched there, and also every lodging and other house in 
 Warrington where there was the slightest suspicion of a priest 
 being harboured. They also set watch and ward both upon 
 Warrington Bridge and the banks of the Mersey, and other 
 points to prevent any escape. This storm raged for two or 
 three days, but they could not find Thomas Worthington, the 
 desired prey, although he lay all the time at the house of a 
 certain sick gentleman in Warrington itself, to whom he had 
 come the previous day for the purpose of consoling him in his 
 sickness, and totally unconscious of any impending danger. 
 Some nieces also of Cardinal Allen, who were in the same town 
 under the care of an uncle, also escaped, who on account of 
 the hatred entertained for his very name, would otherwise have 
 fared badly. 
 
 Being unable by threats or any art to shake the constancy 
 of the boys, they left the two youngest Worthingtons in charge 
 of Mr. Sankey, in whose house they were seized, and took the 
 two elder ones, with the two gentlemen they had captured, to 
 Wigan, a town not far from Warrington, where, on the same 
 1 2th of February, there was a meeting of the Earl of Derby 
 with Chatterton, who had assumed to himself the title of Bishop 
 of Chester, and other commissioners, to inquire into the affairs 
 
1 1 8 Addenda to the Worthington Family. 
 
 of Catholics. After undergoing some examination before these 
 gentlemen, they were conducted, on the fourteenth, to Preston, 
 a “ village ” not far from Wigan, in order that they might finally 
 appear before a new gathering of the commissioners, with their 
 two younger brothers from Mr. Sankey’s, if, by chance, they 
 could, on account of their weaker age and judgment, prevail 
 more with them than with the two elder ones. 
 
 The better to accomplish their amiable project, they kept 
 the youngest, John, not yet twelve years old, for a long time 
 fasting, but a short time before he was ushered into the 
 presence of the commissioners they offered him wine to 
 drink, and urged to do so to excess upon his empty stomach, 
 so that with his brain stupefied they could the more readily get 
 answers from him to every question. But their scheme did not 
 succeed according to their wishes, for, by the aid of God, the 
 child retained his perfect senses, and complained to the Earl 
 of Derby of this wicked conduct of his guards, keeping him the 
 whole day without food, for it was then after six o’clock p.m., 
 and then offering him drink to excess : “ And, indeed,” said 
 the ingenuous child, “ I think they had intended to deprive me 
 of my mind by drunkenness, which, however, by the goodness 
 of God, I still retain, for I am quite compos mentis , although 
 from the pain of body I am in, I am not in a fitting state to 
 appear before your honours as I should do.” But those who 
 presided, either that they disbelieved the child, or for want of 
 compassion towards him, began to examine about his father 
 and his uncle the priest. To all which questions he gave no 
 other answer than that he was overcome by the pains in his 
 body, nor could he stand in the place ; which was immediately 
 made manifest, for nature giving way, he was seized with 
 vomiting, produced by the pains in his empty stomach excited 
 by the wine ; thus exposing the infamous schemes of the parties, 
 which recoiled with shame upon their own heads. They in vain 
 tried to excuse themselves, and to throw the blame upon the 
 attendants. 
 
 After this they called up the eldest brother, who was about 
 sixteen years of age, and the Earl of Derby endeavoured to 
 move him partly by threats, but much more by flattering 
 promises of bettering his prospects, and not only of his own, 
 but those of his brothers also, and to persuade him to go to 
 the Protestant churches and hear a sermon ; “ to which,” added 
 the Earl, “ it is not necessary that you should attach any faith ? 
 but only to be present, and to influence your brothers by your 
 
Addenda to the Worthington Family. 119 
 
 example.” If he would only do this, he would make him his 
 page of honour, a situation usually filled by youths of rank, and 
 this would lead also to his own and his brothers’ promotion. 
 
 It may be easily conceived how tempting this promise was, 
 not only on account of the state of religion at that time, but 
 also from the high position both in rank, wealth, and popularity 
 then enjoyed by the Earl of Derby. 
 
 But all these spectres, whether of threats or blandishments, 
 the pious youth rejected with scorn, notwithstanding the urgent 
 solicitations of the nobles present at that assembly not to refuse 
 so ample and cumulative a favour. Amongst those most espe- 
 cially forward was the said pseudo-Bishop Chatterton, who 
 having in the beginning assumed a certain appearance of mild- 
 ness, yet a little after bethinking himself to act with greater 
 severity, ordered the youth in the name of his allegiance and 
 observance due to the Queen’s Majesty to answer on oath to 
 all questions put to him. This the youth modestly declined to 
 do, as he did not yet fully understand what he had to swear to, 
 nor was he skilled in all matters appertaining to that responsible 
 duty. “ But if,” said Chatterton, “ you wish to speak the truth, 
 I think you may safely swear to it.” To whom Thomas Worth- 
 ington replied, “ Whatever I shall declare will be the truth, but 
 it is a matter of religious duty to me to suppress those things 
 which may be injurious to myself and my dearest friends. And 
 I state this lest I may be evilly thought of, for to me it is a 
 thing certain and positively laid down, that in such matters no 
 oath is binding.” To whom Chatterton answered foolishly, 
 “ What, if you state that on oath which can injure no one ; for 
 instance, that the handkerchief I hold in my hand is a hand- 
 kerchief?” “I could not accept this,” said the youth, “not 
 being a sufficient cause.” Hereupon they derided the gentle 
 tone of voice, and modest expression of the youth, so usual to 
 boys of that age, exhibiting, as it does, sincerity in the answer, 
 and reflecting credit on themselves; and said that it was a 
 badge of the Papist religion, and that the greater portion of 
 Papists were Anabaptists, thinking it unlawful to swear in any 
 -case ; a calumny that destroyed itself by its own falsity, as they 
 themselves were well aware of. Finding all efforts to shake the 
 constancy of the youth in vain, they dismissed him from their 
 presence. 
 
 They then examined the other two brothers separately in 
 like manner. By the help of God, they could elicit nothing 
 from them that could infringe in the least upon the sacred 
 
120 Addenda to the Worthington Family . 
 
 rights of religion, or the charity due to their parents and 
 Catholic friends. And, in fine, the proof of constancy, sin- 
 cerity, and prudence in these little boys — infants rather — that 
 day so redounded to the glory of God, that not only many 
 Catholics of a maturer age who at that time, on account of 
 their defence of the rights of the Catholic Faith, were summoned 
 as criminals before the same judges, were incited to imitate 
 the like fortitude and integrity of heart, but likewise the 
 Protestants themselves, and others who were present, caught 
 in their own nets, remained so astonished and amazed, that 
 they sorely repented that these proceedings had taken place 
 before them in the presence of so great an assembly of 
 spectators. They were therefore more cautious in future not 
 to bring up the boys before them to exhibit such a specimen 
 of their constancy before so crowded a Court, but did so 
 privately, or before a few acting with them, and this indeed 
 very frequently. So also twice on that very same day they 
 were questioned by a certain clever and wordy man named 
 Fox, who had been appointed to pervert them — once prior 
 to their appearance before the commissioners, and once after- 
 wards ; who in many words extolled the liberal and magnificent 
 promises of the Earl of Derby to provide for them, would 
 they but conform to the wishes of his lordship and the rest ; 
 and then blamed their imprudence for rejecting such brilliant 
 prospects, and such as they could never hope to realize either 
 by their parents, or their own efforts. The youths, on the 
 contrary, declared that they would rather live by begging 
 within the pale of the Catholic Church, than, stained with 
 the crime of schism, superabound in all the delights and 
 honours of the court of the Earl of Derby, or the palace of 
 the pseudo-bishop. 
 
 All the four were taken to Manchester, but were not com- 
 mitted to the prisons in which other Catholics were confined, 
 for fear lest their society and pious conversation should 
 strengthen them the more in their profession of the Catholic 
 Faith ; for the commissioners had given this order upon the 
 children, urging that they might be sent to the House of 
 Correction ; but they were placed together in one house, where 
 for the first month they were treated more humanely, except 
 that some importunate persons would whisper wicked per- 
 suasions into their ears, whereby they strove to overturn their 
 constancy and induce them to attend the conventicles and 
 prayers of the heretics, and accept the gracious promises of 
 
Addenda to the Worthington Family . 12 1 
 
 the Earl of Derby and the other illustrious man, which would 
 bring them both great advantages and no small promotion. 
 Amongst other Protestants who in great numbers treated with 
 them, was one Mr. Ashton, of Chatterton, a rabid zealot. He 
 was a magistrate and commissioner. He was greatly surprised 
 at witnessing the constancy of such children in the Catholic 
 Faith. “What is this!” he exclaimed; “such little boys refusing 
 to join in our religious services and prayers? If this little 
 germ increases, and their elders are allowed to join it, it will 
 come to pass that we shall never succeed in extinguishing 
 the Papistical religion in our England.” Wherefore, with one 
 accord they tried every means to draw the souls of these 
 boys into their nets. But seeing all their efforts foiled, they 
 began daily to stint them in food and general comfort. 
 
 A little after this, four rectors of churches, cruel and sour 
 men, commanded them, in the name of the Queen, to go to 
 the schismatical church ; to whom the youths replied that 
 they were ready to obey the Queen in civil matters, but in 
 matters of faith and religion she had no right to command 
 them. Then these magistrates pronounced the boys to be 
 guilty of high treason, because they would not obey the royal 
 command, and said they should be indicted at the ensuing 
 assizes upon that charge accordingly ; nor would they be 
 permitted to escape the danger unless they would attend the 
 public service of the Calvinist Church. 
 
 Although these threats were merely intended to frighten, 
 yet the boys, especially the two elder ones, who answered for 
 the rest, really thought from their asseverations that they 
 would have to stand at the bar ; wherefore they commended 
 themselves to the goodness of God by many prayers, and 
 earnestly begged strength and constancy in their danger; for 
 they had now resolutely determined not to betray in the 
 slightest degree the Catholic Faith. The pseudo-bishop had 
 also, in nearly similar terms, signified the same to the boys, 
 though obscurely, and with reserve, lest he might afterwards 
 convict himself of a lie ; and he added that if they regarded 
 their lives they would be obliged to comply. 
 
 Upon the pseudo-bishop becoming excessively angry at 
 the constancy of the boys, a certain rough fellow, named 
 Bull, introduced himself, and offered his services to the bishop, 
 and boldly asserted that, if empowered to do so, he would, by 
 rods and stripes, within a few days reduce them to obedience 
 to the Queen’s commands. The pseudo-bishop, nodding 
 
122 Addenda to the Worthington Family. 
 
 assent, said, “Certainly; undertake the task, my Bull, and 
 try all you can, and don’t spare them unless they conform 
 and show themselves complying.” Therefore the next morning 
 the brutal man entered the boys’ apartment, armed with four 
 or five rods, very long and thin, and addressing the eldest of 
 them, said, “ What say you now, Thomas ; will you go to our 
 churches and places of prayer?” To whom the youth replied, 
 “You had a sufficiently decided answer from me yesterday.” 
 
 “ But I expect another reply from you now,” said Bull, “ which 
 will be more compliant to our affair in hand and at the 
 same time the savage fellow, dragging him out of bed upon 
 the floor, inflicted upwards of twenty severe strokes upon his 
 back, exclaiming at the same time, “ I’ll make you set a good 
 example to your brothers the impious fellow calling that a 
 good example which would be most wicked and pernicious 
 to the rest. The suffering youth, on the contrary, declaring 
 that it would be unlawful for him to attend their conventicles, 
 or be present at their prayers. 
 
 Having inflicted this injury upon Thomas (who, however, 
 being now sixteen years of age, was liable to the fine of sixty 
 gold crowns per month for not attending their places of 
 worship, but was exempt from the punishment of scourging), 
 Bull served the second brother in the same way, finding him 
 resolute in his determination, and he joyfully underwent the 
 infliction. 
 
 But this torturer, turning to the two youngest children, 
 demanded if they would consent to join in the Protestant 
 worship, which, notwithstanding the terror of the rods, they 
 refused to do ; but the man dealt more leniently with them, 
 for, standing out of bed with their clothes ready adjusted for 
 the scourging, he said there would be another opportunity of 
 doing it, and ordered the keeper to shut up the two eldest 
 in separate rooms ; but the two youngest he took away with 
 him, that the pseudo-bishop might decide what should be 
 done with them. After dragging them about on the same 
 day from one place to another, and from one magistrate to 
 another, the bishop at length took charge of the youngest of 
 the two himself, and forthwith sent him to his house. But a 
 certain rigid Dutch Puritan asked for, and obtained possession 
 of the other. 
 
 At nightfall, Bull, returning to the two elder brothers, 
 signified to them the pseudo-bishop’s orders, which were, that 
 unless they would attend the Protestant churches, they were 
 
Addenda to the Worthington Family . 123 
 
 to be taken, chained by the legs, the following day to a 
 schoolmaster. The next day, therefore, the keeper prepared 
 the fetters, and making, by way of pretence, as though about 
 to fasten them on, “How much better,” said he, “would it 
 be for you to attend our Church services than to bring this 
 disgrace upon yourself and your friends.” “We are ready,” 
 said they, “ to wear your fetters, and in doing so in this cause, 
 we incur no stain of disgrace or dishonour, either to ourselves 
 or our friends.” “ Come on then,” said the keeper, “ although 
 the commands of the lord bishop are otherwise, this time 
 you shall not be chained, but to school you must go, and I 
 will carry the fetters with me under my cloak.” Arrived at 
 the schoolmaster’s, having in vain urged them to attend the 
 Calvinist meetings, he at length annoimced that the bishop 
 had determined that they should learn a new catechism; but 
 they refused to be instructed there from any book treating 
 upon religion. Nevertheless, they were very often conducted 
 to this school, and teased by divers mockeries of the scholars 
 who there drank in heretical poison. But this ill-treatment 
 was not fruitless, for certain amongst them, moved by their 
 example and pious conversation, began to think correctly of 
 the Catholic Faith ; for when they were pressed, they gave 
 such reasons for their faith and religion, that neither were 
 the other scholars, nor yet even a Protestant preacher, Oliver 
 Cartwright, who attended at the same school to endeavour 
 to instil his poisonous errors into the hearts of the youths, 
 ably to satisfy. This man boasted immoderately of his learn- 
 ing, because he had confuted a work of Dr. Richard Bristow, 
 entitled, Postulata ab hcereticis , and showed them his own 
 work, which was really unworthy the name of a confutation ; 
 for even one of the boys frequently retorted upon him his 
 own reasons, and with such proofs, that the wretched man 
 found himself driven into a corner. 
 
 Their host, or rather keeper, was also troublesome to them 
 in the same line, and on being often forced by the children 
 into giving some silly answers, would fall into a passion. 
 Returning once from a Protestant sermon, “ I wish,” said he, 
 “ you had been present at this sermon, for it was there proved 
 to demonstration, that a woman was once consecrated Pope.” 
 Upon which the second brother, moved by zeal, freely replied, 
 “ Whoever it was,” said he, “ dared to assert this, clearly and 
 impudently lied.” “ But,” said the keeper, “ the preacher was 
 our bishop.” “ What of that,” replied the boy, “ I don’t except 
 
124 Addenda to the Worthington Family. 
 
 him rather than another, and he has committed a sin in publicly- 
 preaching this, and you another in hearing it.” This simple and 
 bold answer so enraged the keeper that he drove him with 
 great violence from the table and house, and gave severe 
 orders to all present to hold themselves in readiness to give 
 evidence of the fact when called upon. 
 
 A few days after, the keeper accused the boy before the 
 pseudo-bishop, who ordered all the brothers to be summoned 
 before him, some of the Royal Commissioners being also 
 present : he ordered the man to be sworn on oath to his 
 accusation, which indeed was not necessary, unless intended 
 to alarm the youth, since he freely admitted the fact as before 
 stated, about the lie of the female Pope; nor could his lordship 
 himself fully state what he had preached about this tale; where- 
 fore, shutting up the whole affair in silence, he ordered the boy 
 to be handed over to the care of another, and a little less irrit- 
 able, keeper. 
 
 Then the third brother who remained with the said Dutch 
 Puritan was accused at the same time, for not having touched 
 his hat to the said pseudo-bishop on meeting him in the streets,, 
 for which cause, and for greater security, he was given into 
 charge of a constable, a surly and crabbed fellow. In fine, 
 soon afterwards the said Dutchman took the boy back again, 
 for what reason or by whose advice was best known to himself; 
 perhaps it was because being a Puritan he did not disapprove 
 of the boy’s action ; for a Puritan is not over-pleased with the 
 pre-eminent authority and dignity assumed to themselves in 
 imitation of the ancient bishops, by these new and artificial 
 Parliamentary ones, for such we term them since they are 
 without any lawful consecration, or Catholic inauguration, but 
 derive their sham authority from the Queen and Parliament. 
 The Puritan saw that leniency and blandishments had the 
 greater force in overcoming the tender and young heart of the 
 boy. He therefore the more effectually to accomplish this 
 end, promised the child that if he would hear a sermon, or 
 enter the service and office of some merchant, he should 
 succeed to his paternal estate ; stating that all his father’s 
 property had already been confiscated to the Queen’s treasury, 
 and his elder brothers, on account of their obstinacy, had lost 
 all right of inheritance ; and would he but follow his advice, and 
 do this, the whole jus hczreditatis would devolve upon him. But 
 all was useless ; for the heart of the youth was not to be seduced 
 by such flattering promises from the profession of his holy 
 
Addenda to the Worthington Family. 125 
 
 religion, but he strove the more earnestly to be delivered from 
 these nets and ambushes of his enemies. 
 
 But John Worthington, the youngest, now in the palace of 
 the pseudo-bishop, the more leniently he was treated, so much 
 the greater danger was he exposed to on account of his tender 
 age. He sat at the table of the bishop, and was often invited 
 to sing and play upon musical instruments ; and scarcely any 
 thing he asked for was refused him. And when other youths, 
 sons of men of rank, would beg for a time for play, it was John 
 Worthington alone, who by a special favour, as it was made to 
 appear to serve their ends, could prevail upon his lordship to 
 grant him what had been refused to the others. 
 
 They tried by greater blandishments to induce him to eat 
 flesh meat in Lent ; on which point Chatterton once thus 
 addressed him: “Why is it, John, that you refuse good and 
 wholesome food ? Why, from a scruple of conscience do you 
 observe this abstinence, when as yet you know nothing ? Do 
 you not see me eat flesh?” “It is so,” said John, “for you 
 eat whatever comes first.” Which answer of the boy the silly 
 man, greedy of glory, interpreted harshly, as if in the judgment 
 of the child he had no regard for his own conscience, and from 
 thenceforth he sent him to the second table to dine with the 
 servants, where neither flesh or fish overabounded. 
 
 It happened that the pseudo-bishop was sick, and when 
 lying in bed, the medical man being present, they read to 
 him some extracts from John Fox’s foul works. Upon which 
 occasion Catharine, the wife, or rather sham wife, of this im- 
 pious priest, began to treat -with John about Fox’s Protestant 
 martyrs, and the great cruelty towards them in Queen Mary’s 
 reign. To whom he replied, “ If any other Catholic prince 
 whatever should obtain the reins of government, he would treat 
 my lord bishop in the same manner, and burn him for his 
 heresy.” “ That would by no means happen,” said the bishop, 
 “for he would obey those in power. I should not be so 
 refractory and contumacious against the Popish prince, should 
 any such by chance rule over us, as Papists now are, for then, 
 as good subjects, -we should observe his laws.” “ But yet,” 
 added the boy, “ this obsequiousness would not free you from 
 the punishment of laws, for whether you seemed to be con- 
 verted or not, thou wilt be consumed in the avenging flames.” 
 At this sentence Chatterton was greatly irritated and excited, 
 so much so as to increase his disease, and in the opinion of 
 the physician it brought on so unfavourable a phase, as clearly 
 
126 Addenda to the Worthington Family. 
 
 to resist the force of medicine. After thus keeping the boy for 
 four days to no purpose, and perceiving no further prospect of 
 a hope left, he sent him to Manchester, where he was confined 
 with his eldest brother. 
 
 Whilst these things were acting, and the boys could by no 
 threats or enticements be induced to accede to a schismatical 
 communion of prayer with the Protestants, orders were given 
 by the commissioners to three or four constables to drag them 
 there by force, if they would not go voluntarily. The youths, 
 learning this, prudently anticipated the officers whom they 
 could not resist, and went themselves to the appointed church. 
 
 The Protestants having thus succeeded so far, for they 
 could extract from the boys nothing beyond it, that could 
 imply a consent, cunningly and malignantly interpreted the 
 fact as a sort of mark of union and communion, and imme- 
 diately published reports that the youths had in part con- 
 formed. These good Catholic children began to be greatly 
 pained when they discovered that their act had been interpreted 
 in a sense gladdening to the Protestants, and detrimental to 
 the Catholic cause, and occasioning grief to the pious and 
 faithful, and to themselves in particular ; wherefore they con- 
 sidered that this stain should, be washed out at an opportune 
 time, and every cause of crimination and calumny cut off. And 
 the pseudo-bishop being now about to go to Chester, the elder 
 brother wrote and handed to him, in the name of himself and 
 his brothers a letter protesting against this disgraceful report of 
 their having gone voluntarily to the Calvinist’s meetings and 
 sermons, when they only went there by coercion and under 
 threats of violence, and against their wills. To heal which 
 wound for the future he had resolved, and fully determined that 
 they would never again enter the churches of Protestants unless 
 dragged there vi et armis ; and that they were ready to be 
 thrust into the gaols, or to live in the House of Correction, or 
 any other place to which they might wish to send them ; and 
 that, by the assistance of God’s grace, in word or deed, they 
 would never give any assent to the Protestant religion or 
 services. 
 
 The Bishop of Chester was very angry at this act of 
 freedom and firmness of the boys. He had received the 
 protest at first from the youth with a calm countenance and 
 bland words, thinking that it was merely a petition for their 
 liberty, so much so that he actually made him a small present 
 of pocket-money, but now having read the paper he was quite 
 
Addenda to the Worthington Family. 127 
 
 changed, and demanded back the money (which the youth 
 returned him much more readily than he had received it), 
 adding that they should not go to the House of Correction, 
 because Matthew Travers and other Papists were there, by 
 whose company and conversation they would only be made 
 worse. “ But yet,” said he, “ I myself will take care that you 
 shall be corrected and chastised, and if we only live, I will 
 bring it to pass that you follow our ecclesiastical rites.” The 
 boys again refusing, his lordship departed, after giving orders 
 to the keepers to confine them more strictly within bounds. 
 
 In the meantime, whilst the boys were enduring these 
 torments, many of their friends interceded for their liberty, 
 and to this they were especially urged on by the promise of 
 the sheriff that they should be restored to their parents, pro- 
 vided two sureties for each were found to give bail that they 
 should not go abroad to foreign parts. For this purpose eight 
 persons were bound to become bail, but as they were men 
 engaged in business, and attendants at the Protestant churches, 
 they were actually urged by the high-sheriff and other commis- 
 sioners to instil into the youths their heretical poison. They 
 proposed this seriously to the boys* who persevered in their 
 constancy, although these tempters falsely asserted that such 
 was the wish of their parents. At length the sheriff ended in 
 these words : “If you will hear only one sermon, behold 
 I will deliver you to your friends and sureties, who will take 
 you home ; but if not, you remain where you are ! ” “We 
 will go to none of your sermons,” said the boys, “ for had we 
 had done this, we should long ago have been released, and 
 have returned home without troubling any sureties ? Thus 
 they remained still in custody, and their friends spent their 
 labour and money in vain ; but, indeed, the infamous treachery 
 of the high-sheriff in tricking so many persons of respectability, 
 his own neighbours, redounded to his own disgrace. 
 
 Since, therefore, the boys could not by any means escape 
 from these snares of the heretics, and were living exposed to 
 great danger of faith and morals, and also suffered a great loss 
 in their studies — for although they were forced to attend 
 Protestant classes yet the masters would teach them nothing 
 but what was poisoned by heresy — at length, by the advice 
 and efforts of certain Catholic friends, Thomas, the eldest son, 
 and John, the youngest, contrived to effect their escape. 
 
 Chatterton, the pseudo-bishop, was very angry, and com- 
 plained to the Earl of Derby of this escape, when they met 
 
128 Addenda to the Worthington Family. 
 
 together at Manchester. They forthwith sent for Robert 
 Worthington, the other brother, and examined him about the 
 escape, and threatened that should they be retaken, a greater 
 accession of sufferings and afflictions awaited them ; that their 
 father would incur the highest danger of his goods and fortune ; 
 and as to the rest, they made promises of all prosperity and 
 everything desirable, if he would but lend his ear to only one 
 sermon. But he refused as he had been accustomed to do 
 before, and with great courage of heart, and more assurance 
 than ever professed the orthodox faith ; that as regarding his 
 brothers he had no care, nor was he detained in the same place 
 with them ; but as regarding himself, he was prepared to suffer 
 anything they choose to inflict in defence of the Catholic 
 faith. 
 
 At length the Earl of Derby assented to the pseudo-bishop’s 
 sending the boy to Chester Castle ; for being thus confined in 
 a safe place, he would be unable either to escape, or to hold 
 conversation with Catholics, or receive advice from them. 
 They had intended to send him to Chester gaol sooner, but it 
 was deferred until Corpus Christi, and this not by chance, as 
 we shall now show. 
 
 Two intimate friends of the boy having ascertained the day 
 on which he was to be sent to Chester Castle, after making 
 common counsel and concerting their plans, determined to 
 meet him on the way and liberate him from the merciless 
 grasp of his enemies, if it could by any possibility be effected. 
 Mounting their horses, and each of them attended by a servant 
 on foot, they were all animated with good courage, and the 
 resolution to undergo far greater dangers than the affair 
 involved, as the sequel will show. Two went to an inn in 
 Manchester, in readiness to follow the boy on his leaving ; the 
 other two stopped at a village called Budworth, in order to 
 reconnoitre early in the morning, and learn the strength of 
 the boy’s escort ; they found that only one constable was with 
 him, and he on foot, with whom they at once proceeded to 
 make acquintance, and to throw him off his guard, asked him 
 various questions — Whose child it was ? Where was he taking 
 him? For what purpose? and so on. They then separated 
 and ran back to meet the others, who were following at a 
 distance. The thing was clear enough that by some scheme 
 they could easily, when fairly in the country, carry him off 
 from his solitary keeper. They, therefore, dismissed the two 
 footmen as unnecessary. 
 
Addenda to the Worthington Family. 129 
 
 One of the horsemen setting spurs to his steed, overtook 
 the youth and his keeper. After some usual salutations, he at 
 length asked the boy if he was not fatigued with his journey, 
 and, by permission of the constable, he took him up behind 
 on his horse. They then travelled on for a mile or two, and 
 called at a roadside inn to refresh themselves. Continuing 
 their journey, the keeper was again so kind as to allow the 
 boy to remount, thus giving him up into the hands of this 
 humane and benevolent stranger. At first, indeed, they pro- 
 ceeded slowly, but gradually becoming separated by a con- 
 siderable interval, he suddenly applied his heels to the horse 
 and gallopped off, calling out to the luckless constable, “ Good- 
 bye, good sir; I will ease you of this charge : tell your master 
 that I am going direct to London.” 
 
 The man, astonished at this sudden flight, cried out, In 
 malam crucem ; in malam crucem — “Bad luck to me;” nor 
 was he able to utter more, but began running after them, — 
 useless race. The other confederate, who was following behind 
 at a short distance, watching the course of events, now came 
 up at a quick pace, pretending to pursue the fugitives. The con- 
 stable thought that he was only some passer-by totally ignorant of 
 the whole affair. After continuing his sham pursuit for some 
 distance, and until they were now quite out of danger, he 
 pulled up, and returning to meet the keeper, who was puffing 
 for breath, he stopped him, and telling him to be of good 
 heart, advised him to give over his pursuit, which, whilst it 
 was of no earthly use, might seriously injure his own health ; 
 and to this advice the good man acceded as deeming it the 
 best, and for this he was held by most persons to be acting 
 the more prudent part : for scarcely any one disapproved of 
 the planned escape of these children, or interpreted it as a bad 
 action, except the pseudo-bishop and a few of his ministers, 
 who, nevertheless, to save expense, took no great pains to 
 recapture them. 
 
 These three youths, as they were staying not long after at 
 the house of a certain nobleman in Staffordshire, were betrayed 
 to some night constables, for such were frequently employed in 
 England to pass at night through the towns and villages, 
 keeping watch. Having spent the whole night in the open 
 air, in the morning they fell into great danger of being taken ; 
 for the watchers, with other constables, entered the mansion, 
 and having arrested the three boys, with their father, Mr. 
 Richard Worthington, anxiously inquired after Thomas Wor- 
 J 
 
130 Addenda to the Worthington Family . 
 
 thington, the priest. He, indeed, had been there, and had 
 remained in the house for upwards of an hour after the 
 pursuivants had entered ; but watching his opportunity, had 
 escaped before they had penetrated into the interior parts and 
 rooms, Mr. Worthington purposely detaining them by a long 
 parley. Therefore, not finding the one they chiefly sought 
 after, they readily dismissed the rest, to which they were also 
 specially moved by the authority and word of the noble lady 
 of the house where they were taken. After this scattering 
 they again met at nightfall in a certain place in the adjoining 
 county, where, after a delay of one or two days, the father of 
 the boys returned home, and Thomas Worthington, the priest, 
 with his three nephews, went on towards London. 
 
 In this journey they fell in with the false brother who had 
 already on another occasion betrayed them, and who the more 
 easily engratiated himself, being known, and considered to be a 
 Catholic, so that no suspicion of fraud was entertained regarding 
 him. Being desirous of learning, he pretended that he wished 
 to pass over to the Continent for the purpose of becoming a 
 priest, and on this very journey he dared sacrilegiously to 
 approach the most Holy Eucharist, which it is a crime for any 
 one to do except with due preparation ; and being in want of 
 money, his expenses for the greater part of the journey, and 
 this on horseback too, were defrayed. This benevolence was 
 requited by the ungrateful man, first in abstracting the money 
 of the boys and a certain other person from their purses, 
 secondly in betraying these very persons who deserved so well 
 of him to Topcliff, the priest-hunter, and to the Recorder of 
 London, who were armed by the Privy Council with licence for 
 exercising the most cruel tyranny upon the Catholic priests. 
 
 These men, therefore, choosing Sunday morning for the 
 execution of this crime, seized Thomas Worthington, priest 
 and B.D., whilst yet in bed at an inn in Islington, a suburban 
 village of London, and together with him his nephew Thomas 
 Worthington, and Thomas Brown a priest, and Humphry 
 Maxfield a student of theology ; they also violently took 
 away the horses of the young men, which Topcliff retained 
 to their injury. . . . The two other boys, together with two 
 Catholic youths, escaped their hands, although search was 
 made after each of them. It is incredible how empty a triumph 
 of joy this seizure of Catholics caused to the Protestants. 
 
 In the evening, after they had undergone an examination, 
 and a report had been sent to the Privy Council, and their 
 
Addenda to the Worthington Family . 131 
 
 lordships’ instructions had been received, Brown and Maxfield 
 were sent to the Clink prison, and Thomas Worthington the 
 youth to the Gatehouse in Westminster, where he piously spent 
 his time with much constancy. Thomas Worthington the priest, 
 after spending the entire day in disputing with various Pro- 
 testants, was taken to the Tower of London, where, after 
 being plundered of his money and other things to the value 
 of fifty gold crowns, he was thrust into the underground 
 dungeon called Walesboure.* 
 
 After being tried with many examinations and calumnies, 
 and confined for the space of six months in the closest custody, 
 he was condemned to banishment on January 21, 1585, with 
 twenty other priests, without any judicial trial or sentence 
 against him, as a violator of the laws of the State. Wherefore 
 he did not hesitate, with his fellow-exiles, openly to denounce 
 as most iniquitous this sentence of banishment, especially as no 
 charge had been alleged against them, except that they had 
 preached the orthodox faith to their own people, and had 
 made them partakers of the holy sacraments of Christ, which 
 He had so benignly poured forth from His side upon the 
 Church. And being led to the Tower stairs, the place of 
 embarkation, they took a convenient opportunity of protesting 
 against it, declaring that they submitted to it unwillingly, 
 and that it was their desire to prove the justness of their cause 
 before the tribunals of their country, and, if need be, to shed 
 their blood for it. Father Jasper Heywood, S.J., a man of 
 great repute, one of the exiles, loudly protested the same in 
 his own and the names of others. To all these just protests 
 
 3 Connected with the arrest at Islington, there is a document in the 
 P. R. O. Dom. Eliz. vol. cxc. n. 25, June 12, 1586 : “ Prisoners in the 
 Gatehouse. Thomas Worthington, a boy sent in by the Lord Treasurer, 
 the 20th day of July, from his honour’s house, being apprehended by 
 Mr. Topcliffe, and taken in the company of a priest, his 110016.” 
 
 Strype, Annals iii., p. 420, says that Topcliffe reported to the Council 
 in 1586 : “ About twenty days past, one Thomas Worthington, a notorious 
 seminary priest, did resort hither, a stirrer of sedition as ever haunted 
 Lancashire, Cheshire, Shropshire, Derbyshire, and Yorkshire. One 
 Revel, a seminary priest, his companion ; one Humphrey Maxfield, a 
 seminary scholar at Rome and Rheims, a great companion, conveyor and 
 intelligencer to and fro, from Worthington ; and three boys, to be con- 
 veyed beyond seas to be made priests, stolen from their uncle Worthington, 
 and from the Bishop of Chester. The three men and one of the boys he 
 [Topcliffe] apprehended at Islington. Worthington was committed to the 
 Tower, by the Lord Treasurer’s discretion, Revel and Maxfield to the 
 Clink, and the boy to the Gatehouse. Worthington, Maxfield, and Revel 
 were twice examined by Sir Owen Hopton, Dr. Hammond, Mr. Rokeby, 
 and myself. We all agreed that there never did come before us so arrogant, 
 wilful, and obstinate persons,” &c. [Strype is wrong in his date.] 
 
 J 2 
 
132 Addenda to the Worthington Family. 
 
 the Prefect of the Tower could only reply, that having been 
 delivered into his charge to see the sentence carried out, he 
 could not do otherwise than obey. The officers also declared 
 that they had received orders themselves from the Privy 
 Council to deport them to the shores of Normandy, and 
 that they neither could, nor dare deviate an inch from 
 carrying them into execution . 3 
 
 At the beginning of this month of July, in which the others 
 fell into the hands of the Protestants, Richard Worthington, the 
 third son, learning that his brother had escaped from custody at 
 Manchester, and being himself in hopes of gaining his liberty, 
 wrote to his mother to tell her that any trusty friend might find 
 an opportunity of carrying him off also, on his way to school. 
 But this letter fell into the hands of the said Dutchman, in 
 whose house he was still detained ; nor was the event unfavour- 
 able. For he, thinking that all his labour in perverting the boy 
 had been thrown away, sent word to a certain person, a friend 
 of his, who was beholden to Mr. Worthington the boy’s father 
 for his annual income, that the boy might depart, which was 
 effected a few days after on some condition that he should not 
 be sent abroad. Nevertheless he hastened off to London, and 
 with Robert and John, who had escaped the danger as men- 
 tioned before, left England for Rheims, after having avoided 
 many perils of again falling into the hands of the heretics, 
 entered the English College there as Alumni. 
 
 3 The names of the twenty priests were — 
 
 Jasper Heywood, S.J. 
 
 James Bosgrave, S.J. ) These three were condemned to 
 
 John Hart, B.D., afterwards S.J. > death with Father Campion and 
 
 Edward Rushton. ) his companions, and reprieved. 
 
 John Colleton, or Collington. Acquitted at that time, but kept in 
 prison for four years. 
 
 Arthur Pitts. 
 
 Samuel Conyers. 
 
 William Cedder. 
 
 William Warmington. 
 
 Richard Slack. 
 
 William Harley. ) 
 
 Robert Nutter. > Afterwards martyrs for the faith. 
 
 William Dean. ) 
 
 William Bishop, afterwards Bishop of Chalcedon. 
 
 Thomas Worthington, afterwards S.J. 
 
 Richard Norris. 
 
 Thomas Stevenson, S.J. 
 
 Christopher Thompson. 
 
 John Barnes. 
 
 William Smith, and 
 
 Mr. Henry Orton, a lay-gentleman, condemned also with Father 
 Campion, and reprieved. 
 
THE WORTHINGTON OF BLAINSCOUGH (OR BLAINSCO) PEDIGREE. 
 
 teg te&r 
 
 “SaS 
 
 1~-“ IS? 
 
 THE ALLEN OF ROSSHALL PEDIGREE. 
 
 hn Allen of = E. F. 
 
 
 | J - L ^^^ ASLI5TER - . '- 
 
 *535^ 'iFssFS I T S£=F«~ 
 
 Vide Worthington Pedigree. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Addenda to the Worthington Family. 133 
 
 ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA. 
 
 The Editor takes this opportunity to correct some errors 
 in the pedigree of this excellent family, in page 76 ante , and at 
 the same time to add some further particulars regarding it, and 
 likewise a pedigree of the Allen family, connected by marriage 
 with the Worthingtons, and rendered so famous in Catholic 
 history by its glorious member, Cardinal Allen, to whose 
 strenuous exertions in behalf of suffering Catholicity in his 
 native land the Catholic Church in England is so deeply 
 indebted for the preservation of the ancient faith amidst the 
 terrible storms and persecutions of those times. 
 
 Much information is still wanting to perfect the family 
 pedigree and satisfactorily account for many members of the 
 collateral branches — for instance, Fathers John, Laurence, 
 William, and Peter, all S.J. The pedigree in page 7 6 was 
 partly made out from Baines’ History of Lancashire (who is 
 clearly wrong), without referring to the Harleian MSS., Visita- 
 tions , &c., in the British Museum. In that collection, 
 nn. 1468, f. 23, 1549, f. 1 17, 2066, f. 67, and 6159, f. 81, 
 may be seen short pedigrees and statistics of the two families 
 of Worthington of Blainscough and Worthington of Worthing- 
 ton. From these, and the further information supplied, we 
 give the following amended Worthington Pedigree to 1 666, 
 adding also one of the Allen family of Rosshall. 
 
 Father John Worthington is mentioned by Father Chris- 
 topher Grene, in his Collectanea P., to have made three orations 
 which Father More does not record in his history, viz. : one 
 before the Pope on his arrival at Rome from Spain with Father 
 Parsons, 13th April, 1597 ; one in the English College, Rome, 
 when Cardinal Cajetan, the Protector, returned from Poland, 
 30th of June ; and an earlier one than either to the Father 
 General, in March, 1597. We have briefly alluded to this 
 in page 79 ante. It seems likely that John Worthington was 
 not a priest when he entered the Society, as Father More says 
 he was, for no letter P is prefixed to his name in the list of 
 those that entered, as is usual with a priest. 
 
 The following extract from the Diary of the English College, 
 Rome, confirms this opinion. “1597. Joannes Worthing- 
 tonus, Cestrensis Dioc : Ex Collegio Hispalensi [Seville] 
 Romam veniens cum Rev. Patre Roberto Parsonio admissus 
 est inter Alumnos ad absolvenda Theologii Studia 14 Ap. 
 1597. Ingressus est Societatem 27 Oct. 1598.” According 
 
134 Addenda to the Worthington Family. 
 
 to the usual custom of the Society he would not have been 
 ordained till the third year of his theology. 
 
 It is probable that Father Thomas Worthington [D.D.], S.J., 
 the eldest son and heir of Richard and Dorothy Worthington, 
 had other married brothers besides Richard, and perhaps 
 Fathers John and Laurence are the sons of one of them. 1 
 Upon the same supposition, Father William Worthington, of 
 Preston (who calls himself a cousin of James Worthington [the 
 priest], 2 and of “Agnes Worthington of Blainsco” 3 ), and 
 Father Peter Worthington, S.J. (who was bom 1581, and 
 entered the English College, Rome, as an Alumnus, 18th of 
 October, 1598, and joined the Society on the vigil of SS. 
 Simon and Jude, 1602), may be sons of another brother. 
 
 The Douay Diary mentions several of the Worthingtons. 
 William arrived there from England, 14th April, 1590; William 
 and John ordained at Douay, 1609 ; William sent to the 
 English Mission, 1611; John sent to the same mission, 1615 ; 4 
 James, nephew of Father Thomas Worthington, D.D., the 
 President, arrived at Douay from Rome, a priest, in 1610. 
 Sent upon the English Mission, 1611. 
 
 The same Diary also gives the following entries concerning 
 Father Thomas Worthington, the President. He was admitted 
 at Douay in 1573, went to England while a student in theology, 
 “ ut patrem suum ex periculis illis et haereticorum procellis 
 liberatum (si possit) ad istas regiones transvehat, quo ita pie- 
 tatem et fidem Catholicam tranquillus et securus libere pro- 
 fiteatur;” November 21, 1575, returned to college; February 3, 
 1 5 75-6, ordained priest at Cambray with Martin Aray, William 
 Sutton and others on Holy Saturday; April 6, 1577, said his 
 first Mass on St. George’s Day [arrested by Topcliffe on Sunday 
 (Concert 0 ), July 19, 1584 (Rishton), sent to Tower and put 
 in “Whalesbury” (Concert 0 )]; exiled January 21, 1585, when 
 he had the Scripture lecture after supper at Rheims ; went to 
 Duventer to be chaplain to Sir William Stanley, April 27, 1587; 
 made Vice-President of Rheims, January 27, 1589; Professor 
 of “Cases,” i.e., Moral Theology, May, 9, 1590; left college 
 
 1 The Editor, for want of information, admits a somewhat random sug- 
 gestion in page 1 16, that Laurence may have been either Robert or Richard 
 in the “conflict” of the four boys, and that Laurence might be his con- 
 firmation name. But we now find from the pedigree this was not so. 
 As we have seen in page 75 ante , Father More makes John the youngest 
 of the four brothers in the “ conflict,” as he also calls Laurence a brother 
 of John. This would give a fifth brother. 
 
 2 See p. 1 12 ante. 
 
 3 P. 1 13 ante 
 
 4 This of course could not have been the John, S.J., of our history. 
 
Addenda to the Worthington Family . 135 
 
 and went to Brussels, July 3, 1591. Dr. Barret died on Whit 
 Sunday, May, 30, 1599. Dr. Worthington made President by 
 Cardinal Cajetan, Protector of England, June 28; reached 
 Douay, July 30; publicly declared President (August 12) by 
 the two Visitors of the College, Dr. Richard Hall and Dr. John 
 Wright, Dean of Cambray, and himself made co-Visitor. 
 
 “ Ita quarta hac vice idem ad hoc Collegium advenit. 
 i° Juvenis studiosus anno, 1573. 2 0 In secundum pro fide 
 
 exilium ejectus, anno 1585. 3 0 A praedecessore suo D. Bar- 
 
 retto Praeside ex castris vocatus, ut Vice-Praesidis munere 
 fungeretur, anno 1589. 4 0 Demum, ut eidem succederet (uti 
 
 dictum est), anno 1599.” 
 
 The two following extracts from the State Papers are given, 
 (1) to illustrate the history of Father Edmund Arrowsmith, 
 his grandfather, Thurstan Arrowsmith, being one of the victims 
 named therein; and (2) in further illustration of our friend 
 William, the pseudo-prelate of Chester; and of the intensity 
 of the persecution of the Catholics, which was mainly excited 
 by the hatred and unceasing activity of the bishops and 
 ministers of the State Church. 
 
 Domestic Eliz. vol. 167, n. 40. Endorsed — “January 22, 23. 
 Ann. 1583. A note of the proceedings against the recusants 
 at the Quarter Sessions holden at Manchester.” 
 
 “ A calender of the names of all such persons as were 
 indicted, arraigned, condemned, and adjudged at Manchester 
 for disobedience to her Majesty, &c., as well recusants as 
 others, with the number of months, &c., at the Sessions of 
 Peace, then holden before the Right Reverend Father in God, 
 William, Lord Bishop of Chester, John Byron, &c. &c., 
 Justices of the Peace within the County of Lancaster, 22 and 
 23 January, Ann. Reg. Eliz. xxvi th , &c. 
 
 “Indicted for 
 high treason, 
 for extolling < 
 the Pope’s 
 authority, &c. 
 
 Thomas Williamson, 
 priest. 
 
 Richard Hatton, 
 priest. 
 
 James Bell, 
 priest. 
 
 These priests were 
 lately taken in a search 
 made for such persons, 
 & c., in the county 
 aforesaid, the 17th day 
 of this present January. 
 
 > One of them, viz., J ames 
 Bell, by the Right Hon. 
 the Earl of Derby, and 
 the other two by Sir 
 Edmund Trafford, Kt., 
 the High Sheriff of the 
 
 l 
 
 said county. 
 
136 Addenda to the Worthington Family . 
 
 Condemned ac- ' 
 according to the 
 Stat. for saying 
 
 Mass in Golbome ^ James Bell, priest, 
 upon St. J ohn’s 
 Day in Xtmas. 
 last. 
 
 m § 
 
 e bp ej jy 
 
 S d 
 *4 C 
 
 O 
 
 All these 
 persons are 
 condemned 
 according to -< 
 the Stat. for " 
 xii. months’ 
 absence. 
 
 Priests. 
 
 John Southworth, Kt. 
 John Townely, ar. 
 John Locknell, ar. . 
 William Loughe, ar. . 
 John Loughe, ar. . . 
 
 Mattw. Travers, gent. 
 Robert Holland, gent. 
 Ralph Worsley, gent. 
 
 ' James Bell, priest 
 Richard Hutton, priest 
 Thomas Williamson, 
 
 priest 
 
 Ralph Scott, priest . 
 Thomas Langton 
 (? Houghton), priest 
 William Wilson, priest 
 Christ. Hankes, priest 
 Tho. Woodes, priest . 
 John Murren, priest . 
 J ohn Cubbage (? Cul- 
 page), priest . . . 
 
 ' Humphrey Cartwright, 
 schoolmaster . . 
 
 John Burge, school- 
 master .... 
 Richard Aspenhall, 
 schoolmaster . . 
 
 Henry Jacson, tailor . 
 John Finch, yeoman . 
 Thurstan Arrowsmith, 
 husbandman . . 
 
 Oliver Platt, smith . 
 Thomas Hatton, 
 labourer .... 
 
 These women, altho’ '| 
 they be very obsti- 
 nate, and have done 
 great harm, yet being • 
 indicted it was not 
 thought good to 
 arraign them. 
 
 Elizabeth Dewhurst. 
 Catharine Marshe. 
 Ellen Challoner. 
 Lucy Sedgwicke. 
 
 ccxl/. * 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
 cxxl/. 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
 vjccxl/. 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
 ccxl/. 
 
Addenda to the Worthington Family. 137 
 
 These 
 
 abroad, 
 
 taken. 
 
 parties are 
 and not yet - 
 
 Dorothy Brerton, wid. gent. 3 months. 
 Anne Massie, „ „ „ 
 
 Ann Sankie, wife of Thomas 
 Sankie of Sankie, gent. . „ 
 
 Anne Aston, wife of R( 
 
 Aston of Oxon, gent. 
 
 Jane Tarleton, wife of 
 
 Tarleton 
 
 Ellen Rigbie, wife oC Roger 
 
 9 months'. 
 
 Rigbie . . .jy . 
 
 Ann Modie, spinster*^. . . v , y . 
 
 “N.B. — That these Quarter Sessions afor^aid were holde^t 
 in divers other places of the county, viz. : 
 
 Preston, and Wigan, but not any one recusant 
 only at Manchester, although there was several given 
 
 thereof, and many notorious known recusants in every of the 
 said divisions. 
 
 “ There were also many recusants of divers counties within 
 the diocese of Chester presented at the Lord Bishop of Chester 
 his visitation this last summer, but they could not be indicted 
 by reason of the churchwardens and swornmen did not set 
 down any certain time of their absence. 
 
 “W. Cestren.” 
 
 State Papers, Dom . Eliz ., same vol. n. 41. Endorsed — 
 “1583. The names of the recusants that are remaining in 
 the gaol of Salford.” 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 “ The names of the recusants that are now remaining 
 in the gaol in Salford. 
 
 “Sir John Southworth 
 
 John.Towneley 
 Alexander Barloe . 
 William Loughe and 
 John Locknell 
 
 Robert Hulme 
 John Leigh . 
 Mattw. Travers 
 Robert Holland and 
 Ralph Worsley » 
 
 John Culpage 
 John Morren . 
 
 Ralph Scott . 
 William Wilson 
 Christ. Hankes 
 
 Knight. 
 
 Esquires. 
 
 j 
 
 Gentlemen. 
 
 Priests. 
 
 
138 Addenda to the Worthington Family . 
 
 Thomas Woods 
 Thomas Houghton. 
 
 Richard Hutton 
 James Bell 
 Thomas Williamson 
 John Alblaster (?) . 
 
 John Lowe . 
 
 John Burghe . 
 
 Hump. Cartwright . 
 
 Richard Aspenall . 
 
 John Finch 
 Henry Jackson 
 Oliver Plate . 
 
 Thurstan Arrowsmith 
 Thomas Hutton 
 John Rushocke 
 Henry Grimshawe . 
 
 Lucy Sedgwicke 
 Catharine Marsh . 
 
 Mary Leigh . 
 
 Elizabeth Dewhurst 
 Alice Hadcocke 
 Eleanor Challoner . 
 
 The whole 
 
 We also take the opportunity of adding a full copy of the 
 State Paper referred to in page 34 ante , note 13 — Life of 
 Father Arrowsmith. 
 
 State Papers, Dom. Eliz. vol. cclxxxiii. a, n. 86. April 27th, 
 1602, London. “ Bishop of London to the Right Hon. Robert 
 Cecil, Knight, Principal Secretary.” 
 
 “ Right Honourable. — I have sent you here inclosed two 
 informations, the shorter from a priest, the other from a young 
 man that is come lately from Douay. Both came to my hands 
 this day. The priest hath promised to do all his uttermost 
 to get the book, and I have assured him that if it be of that 
 argument and can be gotten, his friend whom he useth shall 
 have ^20. He desired me to keep the notes of it secret 
 till the book be had, and no creature but your honour for my 
 part shall see them. The larger discourse is but hearsay, and 
 yet worth your reading except you know them before. And 
 so I commit your honour into the tuition of Almighty God. 
 At my house in London, April 27th, 1602. 
 
 “Your honour’s most assured, 
 
 “ Ric. London.” 
 
 . Priests. 
 
 . I Schoolmasters. 
 . Husbandmen. 
 
 . j- Wives. 
 
 . Widow. 
 
 ’ | Spinsters, 
 number 38.” 
 
Addenda to the Worthington Family. 139 
 
 “ No. 86. 1. 
 
 “An especial book, said to be sent from the Archduke’s 
 Court, to be dispersed here and there amongst the con- 
 federates of the Spanish faction, containing these points as 
 near as I can remember by report made unto me. 
 
 “ Imprimis . — The number, breadth, length and depth of all 
 the havens, and other landing-places in England. 
 
 “ It. the number, strength and conveniency to offence or 
 defence of all and every fort, castle, town, or other hold 
 within this land. 
 
 “ It. the number, alliance, and strength of every noble 
 house or family of any reckoning within the realm. 
 
 It. the number of men of note in every shire that are 
 secretly sworn and confederated to aid with the Spaniard and 
 Jesuits, for the invasion of their native country. 
 
 It. the number and names of those of the Spanish faction 
 appointed to be in authority in time of the said invasion, and 
 afterwards in what authority every one shall be for his intended 
 treason against his country. 
 
 “ It. the number of houses, dignities, and honours 01 
 special marks, and who shall have this, and who that noble 
 or gentleman’s place or inheritance. 
 
 “ These points I heard spoken of in general to be in the 
 book or chartal, what else, God knows. But if it can be 
 gotten it will discover much good stuff. 5 
 
 “ No. 86. II. 
 
 “ As concerning the state of this land after the decease 
 of her Majesty (whom God long preserve), I have heard 
 Father Parsons say (being at supper in the English College, 
 Rome, and at other times by him and others that were 
 Englishmen), that the Infant of Spain is the true heir of the 
 throne of England, and they can prove it. And they say in 
 the College of Douay that all priests made in the English 
 Seminaries beyond the seas are sworn by a Jesuit, before their 
 coming into England, to be true to the Archduke, and the 
 Infant, his wife. And as for the King of Scots, they said, indeed, 
 it is his right, but he is a man not capable of government, and 
 of no religion, and altogether unfit and unworthy of so great 
 a place. As for the Lady Arabella, they say she is a notable 
 Puritan, and the Turk more worthy the place than she. I 
 have heard it spoken in secret that presently after the death 
 
 5 The above in R. London’s handwriting. 
 
140 Addenda to the Worthington Family. 
 
 of her Majesty, they will either massacre or be massacred. 
 And to the same effect they say that the Pope and the King 
 of Spain have promised to help them what they can. In 
 March last past there came to the College of Douay, directly 
 from England, two recusants seeming to be gentlemen, 
 and after supper sitting by the fire with the President of the 
 College, and the Doctor, his assistant. The President asked 
 them what news, and if there were any hope of liberty of 
 conscience, and they said yea, there was great hope. The 
 President made answer, it were best for them to grant it, least 
 they drink of the same cup that Paris did, for so they are 
 like if they remain in the same state they do. They say there 
 are in England 300,000 recusants and schismatics ; they 
 confess there be many Protestants, but they make no reckoning 
 of them, for they say they will turn as the wind, and to the 
 stronger side. And so the Puritans and all other sects, they 
 say they shall walk to the fire so long as they find one. 
 They hold Wales almost all recusants, and as it were their 
 own • and they say a pursuivant nor any of the Queen’s 
 officers dare not apprehend any man there. And it is a great 
 presumption to say it is so, because in the college beyond 
 the seas there be many Welshmen. Also they in Lancashire 
 and those parts, recusants stand not in fear by reason of the 
 great multitude there is of them. Likewise I have heard it 
 reported publicly amongst them that they of that country 
 have beaten divers pursuivants extremely, and made them 
 vow and swear they would never meddle with any reCusants 
 more. And one pursuivant in particular to eat his warrant, and 
 vow never to trouble them nor any recusants more. There be 
 maintained beyond the seas, by the Pope and the King of 
 Spain, five English Seminaries, viz. : one in Rome, two in 
 Spain, and two in Flanders, which Colleges all be governed 
 by Jesuits, except the College in Douay, which is governed 
 by Doctor Worthington, a priest, 6 some time prisoner in the 
 Tower of London condemned, and by her Majesty’s mercy 
 banished with a great many more of his consorts, whom, 
 as I heard say, some of them come into England with the 
 next wind. This President does nothing without the consent 
 of Father Thomas Connyers, 7 a Jesuit of great account dwelling 
 in the College of Jesuits in Douay. In all these five Colleges 
 the scholars observe the Jesuits’ orders as strictly as they 
 themselves in all points, and those that be of a good capacity 
 6 See life of the Worthington family. 7 Father Coniers. 
 
Addenda to the Worthington Family . 141 
 
 and an excellent spirit, they persuade them by all means 
 possible to be of their Order. In the College of St. Omer, 
 a city in the Archduke’s country, there be one hundred and 
 forty scholars, most of them gentlemen’s sons of great worship. 
 And I have heard say for a truth amongst those there be not 
 six that ever were at any of our churches in England, and 
 many of them be about twenty years of age. In the College 
 of Douay there be sixty persons, whereof the next year, and 
 the next following that, these are to be made priests, viz. : 
 Mr. Perceval, Mr. Hassold, Mr. Jarvis, Mr. Sweet, Mr. Brigg, 
 Mr. Thursby, Mr. Ammyus, Mr. Gwynes, Mr. Ainsworth, alias 
 Skevington, Mr. Trevor, Mr. Brever. The number in Rome 
 are seventy; the number in Valdelight [Valladolid], in Spain, 
 be eighty ; the number in Seville, in Spain, be seventy. The 
 number of priests which I do know and call to mind that 
 now be in England, and presently to come into this realm, 
 be these following, viz. : Dr. Weston, Dr. Britton, Dr. 
 Parkinson, Dr. Haddock, Dr. Legge, Dr. Tempest, Dr. 
 Jackson, Mr. Peake, Mr. Beesley, Mr. Cattrell, Mr. Morris, 
 Mr. Bateman, Mr. Pitts, Mr. Hickman, Mr. Parkinson, 
 Mr. Courtoise, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Potts, Mr. Robert Potts, 
 his brother, Mr. Buck, Mr. Purchwell, Mr. Evans, Mr. Butler, 
 Mr. Fitzjames, Mr. Harriss, Mr. Thursby, Mr. Kinge, 
 Mr. Mallett, Mr. Sadler, Mr. Kyerton, Mr. Morton, 
 Mr. Hassell, Mr. Smartford, Mr. Dawson, Mr. Wright, 
 Mr. Ascew, Mr. Clarkson, Mr. Griffyn,the elder, Mr. Griffyn 
 the younger, some time chaplain to Cardinal Allen in Rome ; 
 Mr. Tempest, Mr. Umpton, lately confessor to the English 
 company serving under the Archduke against her Majesty 
 at Ostend; Mr. Willis, some time a minister in London, and 
 lately prefect of the scholars in the College of Douay. 
 
 “These following were made Priests in Lent last past, 
 
 1602 : — 
 
 “ Mr. Tyrrell Mr. Wilson, lately executed 
 
 “ Mr. Browne Mr. Faller, some time Scholar of 
 
 Oxford 
 
 “ Mr. Younge Mr. Gamadge, some time Master of 
 Arts in Oxford 
 “Mr. Dowgell Mr. Evans 
 
 “Mr. Hughes Mr. Wyndems 
 
 “The Jesuits I know be these, viz.: Father Parsons, 
 Rector of the College of Rome and Chief-Governor of all 
 English Seminaries under the Protector and Cardinal in Rome ; 
 
142 Addenda to the Worthington Family. 
 
 Father Cowley, some time confessor to the Scholars of 
 Douay, Father Roberts, confessor to the English Noonnes 
 [Nuns] at Brussels, a city where the Archduke keeps his 
 court. These nuns be gentlewomen of great worship. Father 
 Flack, Father Baldwyn. Father Baldwyn, a famous Jesuit. 
 
 44 Other priests there be which I know, but I cannot call 
 their names to memory. 
 
 44 The recusants say they have three enemies in England 
 that doth vex them, and which they fear, viz. : The Lord Chief 
 Justice of England, Sir Robert Cecill, and the Lord High 
 Admiral of England. It was credibly reported in the College 
 of Douay, that the last Parliament, great complaints being 
 made of the recusants how they increased, that her Majesty 
 answered in these words, viz. : 4 If you will have them decrease, 
 do it by your good lives and work, for I will persecute no 
 more than I have already.’ 
 
 “ I have heard likewise said that some great recusants 
 get a licence for three years to travel, and in that time they 
 are made priests, and by that means come and go safe. As 
 one Mr. Beesley, a priest, told me he himself did the last 
 summer past 1601. When I was at the College in Douay, he 
 told me he was so well known in every place, he feared to stay 
 any longer. This man is now beyond the seas ; he is a very 
 strong man, about forty years of age, of a very black com- 
 plexion, wearing his beard and hair very long. There is 
 one Freeman, an English merchant, dwelling in Calais, that 
 hath and doth convey many priests into the realm for money. 
 
 44 They say the Pope hath dispensed with all priests and 
 Jesuits, and all recusants that are in danger of the law, to 
 kill the Queen’s officers, or any other person that offers to 
 take them, if they think they may escape. 
 
 44 1 have heard it reported the world is well amended in 
 Lancashire, for they say if a pursuivant come thither to the 
 Justice and show them his warrant, the Justice will take some 
 occasion to stay him until he hath sent to the recusant’s house 
 to warn him, and give notice that such a time they will come 
 to search, and if he have anything in his house to convey it 
 away. 8 Sithence my coming to London I have spoken to 
 some recusants, and telling one of them there were thirteem 
 priests to come from Douay, he made answer, 4 It is well if 
 there were thirteen score, they could set them on work.’ ” 
 
 8 This is true ; see an instance in the life of Father Arrowsmith, 
 P- 34- 
 
Addenda to the Worthington Family. 143 
 
 Two martyrs are found in the foregoing lists, viz.: the 
 Rev. James Bell, a native of Warrington, Lancashire. Edu- 
 cated at Oxford ; ordained priest in Queen Mary’s reign. 
 Upon the change of religion by Elizabeth he was carried 
 away with the stream against his conscience, and for many 
 years officiated as a minister of the State Church. In 1581 
 a severe sickness joined to the remonstrances of a pious 
 Catholic brought him to his senses, and he was duly recon- 
 ciled to God and His Church. With his soul his body was 
 also restored to health, and after some time spent in penitential 
 exercises, he resumed his priestly functions for the space of 
 two years. I11 January 1583-4 he was apprehended and com- 
 mitted to Manchester gaol. He was sent to Lancaster, with 
 his arms tied behind him, and his legs under the horse’s belly. 
 He was arraigned with the Reverends Thomas Williamson and 
 Richard Hutton (both of whom are named in the same lists,) 
 and Mr. John Finch, all for asserting the Pope’s supremacy. 
 Mr. Bell in his trial showed much courage and resolution, 
 boldly professing that he had been reconciled to the Church, 
 and that he did not acknowledge the Queen’s supremacy, but 
 that of the Pope. He was condemned as for high treason, 
 and showed great content upon the occasion, and looking at 
 the judge said : “ I beg your lordship would add to the 
 sentence that my lips and the tips of my fingers may be cut 
 off for having sworn and subscribed to the articles of heretics, 
 contrary both to my conscience and to God’s truth.” He 
 suffered with great constancy and joy at Lancaster, 20th April, 
 1583-4, at the age of sixty. 9 
 
 The other two priests were also found guilty by the jury, 
 but as the judge had instructions to put to death no more than 
 two, they were not sentenced to die, but only condemned to a 
 perpetual imprisonment and loss of all their goods, as in cases 
 of prce.munirey* 
 
 John Finch was a native of Ecclestoh, Lancashire. After 
 he was married and settled in the world, being heartily dis- 
 gusted with the new State religion, after a long examination of 
 the merits of the cause, he was reconciled to the Catholic 
 Church, and was so fervent a convert, that with his own 
 sanctification, he laboured in procuring the conversion and 
 salvation of others, as well by word and example as by 
 assisting the priests, in whose service he was wholly employed 
 for many years as a clerk and catechist, and in accompanying 
 9 Vide Challoner’s Miss. Priests. 1583-4. 10 Ibid. 
 
144 Addenda to the Worthington Family . 
 
 them to the houses of the Catholics. He was at length 
 betrayed by a false brother, and apprehended with the Rev. 
 George Ostcliffe, a priest of Douay College, by the Earl of 
 Derby. They used both threats and promises to induce 
 Mr. Finch to go to church, but failing in this they dragged 
 him there by violence through the streets, his head beating 
 all the way upon the stones, and he was seriously bruised and 
 wounded. They then thrust him into a dark loathsome 
 dungeon where his only bed was the bare and wet floor ; no 
 other food but liver, and that very sparingly. He was confined 
 in this dungeon sometimes for whole weeks, sometimes for 
 entire months together; not to speak of innumerable other 
 sufferings he endured for some years whilst in the enemies 
 hands. He was at length tried at the Lent Assizes, 1583-4, 
 for denying the Queen’s supremacy and asserting that of the 
 Sovereign Pontiff, found guilty and sentenced to die as for 
 high treason, receiving the sentence with great joy, having long 
 desired to suffer death for this cause. He was executed with 
 the Reverend James Bell, and his quarters exhibited on poles 
 in the four chief towns of that county. 11 
 
 11 Vide Challoner’s Missionary Priests, 1583-4. 
 
145 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM OF FATHER 
 THOMAS COTTAM, S.J. 
 
 Who suffered at Tyburn the 30 th of May, 1582, cet . 33. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HIS EARLY LIFEj ENTRANCE INTO THE SOCIETY OF JESUS; 
 MISSION TO ENGLAND ; CAPTURE, ESCAPE, AND HEROIC 
 VOLUNTARY SURRENDER TO SAVE HIS FRIEND, AND COM- 
 MITTAL TO PRISON. 
 
 This great hero of the Church Catholic, and of the English 
 Province of the Society of Jesus was a native of Lancashire, 1 
 bom in the year 1549, of respectable parents; his father was 
 Mr. I jaurence Cottam, and his mother’s maiden name was Ann 
 Brerewere ; they were Protestants, and being well to do, could 
 afford to give their son a liberal education. Being fitted for 
 the University, he was sent to Brazenose College, Oxford, 
 where he took his degree of B.A. 23rd of March, 1568. Having 
 completed his studies, he left his parents and home, and, to 
 better his fortunes, went to London, and there undertook the 
 direction of a noted free grammar school. 2 3 Here he had the 
 good fortune by the providence of God, to be introduced to, 
 and become on the most intimate terms of friendship with, 
 Thomas Pounde, Esquire, of Belmont (that noble confessor of 
 the faith of his forefathers, who suffered an imprisonment of 
 about thirty years duration, and was admitted to the Society of 
 Jesus in prison), who was then at liberty. Father Cottam was 
 not only a Protestant at that time, but his habits were not of 
 the most praiseworthy kind. Thomas, however, by the cogency 
 of his reasoning, and the example of his own holy life, not only 
 
 1 The author of an eulogium of the martyr, a copy of which, taken 
 from the Public Record Office, Brussels, may be seen in the Collectio 
 
 Cardwelli Vita et Martyr., S.J., &c. (Stonyhurst), says he was a native of 
 London, a mistake he was probably led into by the fact of Father Cottam 
 having for a short time in early life lived there. 
 
 3 Dodd’s Church History , vol. ii. p. 1 16. 
 
 K 
 
146 
 
 Father Thomas Cottam . 
 
 converted him to the Catholic faith, but wrought a total refor- 
 mation in him, changing him into another man ; so much so 
 that he resolved to give himself up entirely to God and the 
 service of His Church. He left England for the Seminary of 
 Douay, carrying with him, and retaining as he always did to 
 the last, a present and lively recollection of Pounde, the father 
 of his soul, and of the everlasting debt of gratitude he owed to 
 that holy man, through whom he had gained the precious 
 treasure of the faith. 
 
 In a letter to his benefactor, dated Ascension Day, May 
 12, 15 75, worthy of record, he says, “Your charity, like its 
 Author, is eternal, and as there is no comparison between 
 things eternal and perishable goods, between time and eternity, 
 so am I neither able by word or writing to sufficiently express 
 the testimony of gratitude I owe you. I remember when 
 you were to me a consoler in my solitude, the guide of my 
 path, my helper in my afflictions, and my refuge in need. 
 Through you the divine mercy recalled me from my wander- 
 ings, raised me up when fallen, sustained me in my wavering, 
 preserved me in my trials, restored me when lost. So great 
 a thing is it to possess a faithful friend, and such you have well 
 shown yourself to me; and at the same time the vast difference 
 there is between an honest and conscientious Christian, and an 
 ordinary one, and one of pleasures. I had already begun to 
 know vice (which I deeply lament). Now I follow virtue, and 
 wonderfully it refreshes my soul, now freed from earthly cares, 
 and safe from my enemies, and in no great fear of hell. These 
 are great things indeed, and for all of which I am indebted to 
 you ; but that by far the greatest of all, which the Holy Ghost, 
 by the mouth of the Apostle saith, Testimonium reddit spiritui 
 nostro , quod sumus filii Dei. 2, I beseech you by the same Holy 
 Spirit, by Christ this day ascending into heaven, by the Eternal 
 Father at Whose right hand He sitteth, by the Omnipotent and 
 Immortal God, Three in One, that you be always mindful of 
 me, and sometimes solace me by your letters. I will implore 
 this same God, even to my latest breath, that He may long 
 preserve you safe, with the highest increase of His honour and 
 merits, and at last crown you with a holy end. Farewell !” 4 
 
 At Douay he applied himself with great diligence to the 
 study of philosophy and theology for some years. After this, 
 
 3 Rom. viii. 16. 
 
 4 See Jesuits in Conflict , Series I. p. 141. “ Life of Thomas Pounde, S.J. 
 of Belmont. ” 
 
Father Thomas Cottam. 
 
 147 
 
 bidding farewell to the world with its pleasures, dignities, and 
 honours, he left Douay for Rome for the sake of embracing a 
 religious life, and offering himself to the Society of Jesus. 
 The author of the above-mentioned eulogium has confounded 
 Father Thomas Cottam at Rome with another party named 
 Paul Cottam, who early in life had been sent by His Holiness 
 Pope Gregory XIII. as one of his free alumni to the German 
 College then under the care of the Jesuits, and afterwards at 
 the English College. Father Bartoli 5 clearly exposes this error, 
 and refers to the diary of the German College, in which that 
 Cottam is named Paul and not Thomas. The dates fully bear 
 out Father Bartoli’s statement. 
 
 The spirit that had led Thomas Cottam from the world to 
 the desire of a religious life, and so from Douay to Rome, was 
 a heroic desire of spending his life in the Apostolical ministry 
 of the missions to the idolaters of India. Hearing certain 
 letters read that had been brought to Rome from the Fathers 
 of the Society labouring in those missions in the conversion of 
 souls, he was seized with such a burning thirst for aiding them 
 in their labours, that with the desire and in the hope of ex- 
 tinguishing these flames, and because he was told that the only 
 way of doing so was to get admission to the Society, he most 
 earnestly and repeatedly entreated that favour, being less 
 anxious about labouring in his native land, as the missioners 
 of the Society of Jesus had not as yet, in consequence of the 
 times, and the inscrutable providence of God so disposing, 
 penetrated into it. And perhaps Mr. Pounde, who had been 
 so good a master to him in matters regarding his soul, had 
 instilled into his heart those first desire which had also moved 
 himself ; since the first thing that had attracted Thomas 
 Pounde to the Society, and afterwards drew him into it, was 
 the reading of the Annual Letters that the Jesuit missionary 
 Fathers had sent from the East Indies to the Very Reverend 
 Father General in Europe ; and since they were written and 
 published in so primitive and laudable a manner, confined 
 solely to a relation of the conversion of the Gentiles, to the 
 fatigues and sufferings of the missionaries, their persecutions 
 and deaths, and of those new and tender, but by the help of 
 God most generous Christians, he would make long excerpta 
 of their spirit, reading them to excite himself to religion, &c . 6 
 
 But far otherwise were the designs of Divine Providence in 
 
 6 Bartoli, lnghilterra , lib. iv. p. 30. 
 
 8 “ Life of Pounde,” pp. 27, 40. 
 
 K 2 
 
148 
 
 Father Thomas Cottam. 
 
 his regard, who willed that he should shed his blood in and for 
 England, rather than his sweat in India; “and I am persuaded, 
 none the less useful to the Faith, seeing that he also with so 
 many other courageous priests and laymen there martyred for 
 the Catholic religion, cease not continually to raise their voices 
 to the throne of God, imploring His mercy for that their un- 
 happy country, to the end that she might come back again to 
 what she was for so many years, in the true Faith, in devotion 
 to the Holy See of Rome, in sanctity and great merits, the 
 glorious crown of the Church.” 7 
 
 His Superiors also had then equipped an expedition to 
 England, and were using every exertion in picking out zealous 
 men for the undertaking. 
 
 Therefore, having upon the promotion of Father Faber di 
 Fabri, a man of high and distinguished virtue, received the two 
 lower sacred orders, for he was under the canonical age for 
 the priesthood, he was admitted to the Society of Jesus, and 
 entered the Novitiate of St. Andrew in Rome on the 8th of 
 April, 1579. 8 He there lived a most innocent life, but it was 
 
 7 Bartoli, Inghilterra , lib. iv. p. 31. 
 
 * Bishop Challoner upon the authority of Raissius’ Catalogue states that 
 Father Cottam was dismissed from the Novitiate upon the ground of sick- 
 ness. This is true : he left after a six months’ stay there, but with the 
 express promise to be again received , if he should recover. Upon this 
 promise, still looking upon himself as a Jesuit, on his arrival in London, 
 having a scruple about the mode of his recovery of his liberty, he went, as 
 stated in his Life, to consult Thomas Pounde in prison, and Fathers Campion 
 and Parsons. Dr. Challoner was not aware that the same Raisssius in his 
 Hierogazaphilacium (Belgium, Douai, 1628. British Museum, pp. 164, 861, 
 c. xii. ) mentions the fact of his having been readmitted in prison. This is 
 confirmed by Alegambe, cited in Dodd’s Church History , vol. ii. p. 1 1 7. 
 And in the P.R.O. Brussels is the responsio of Father Cottam to certain 
 questions put to him and his six fellow-sufferers by the examiners, and this 
 he is there stated to have signed “Thomas Cottamus, Soc. S.J.” This re- 
 sponsio is embodied in a manuscript life of Father Cottam (see Collectio 
 Cardwelli Vita: et Martyr ., Stonyhurst MSS.), and was signed the 13th day 
 of May, 1582, about a fortnight before he suffered. In another eulogium 
 of the martyr extant in the P.R.O. Brussels (see Collectio Cardwelli Vitce 
 Martyr , vol. i. p. 69) it is stated that Father Cottam was received into 
 the Society of Jesus in prison, “Therefore that he might suffer with 
 greater glory and fortitude, he was received into the Society in prison.” 
 This would have been his readmittance, at which time also he would most 
 probably have been allowed to make his religious vows. It may be added 
 that none of the principal historians, such as Sacchinus, Bartoli, Tanner, 
 .Morus, &c., mention this dismissal at all, but all treat him as S.J. ; and 
 Nadasi in his Annus dierum memorabilium S.J. names him as in his third 
 year of religion at the time of his martyrdom. The reason of their silence 
 
Father Thomas Cottam. 
 
 149 
 
 of short duration, for in the sixth month of his probation he 
 was attacked by a consuming intermittent fever caused by the 
 heats ; and the medical men being of opinion that the only 
 remedy was to be found in a change of air, he was immediately 
 sent first to Avignon, and then to Lyons in France. This was 
 thought to be more advisable on all accounts, because from 
 thence his route to England whither he was destined, when 
 circumstances would admit, would be shorter and more ex- 
 peditious. But as this course was not found to be favourable 
 to his state of health, he was soon after his arrival at Lyons 
 sent on to Rheims whither the English Seminary of Douay had 
 lately been translated, and there he was ordained priest, having 
 been long before a deacon and a good preacher. 
 
 While Father Cottam was at Lyons, one Sledd, an English- 
 man, and an infamous Judas, called there. “He was a man,” 
 •says the eulogium above-mentioned, “ exceedingly wicked and 
 crafty, both a hater of, and a bitter enemy to the very name of 
 Christian, who, in order the more effectually to accomplish his 
 dirty work came to Rome, and passed himself off as a Catholic, 
 with intention of diligently observing Catholics and especially 
 his own countrymen, that on his return to England he might 
 betray them to the magistrates by his infamous perfidy, to be 
 dealt with according to the cruel laws in force against them.” 
 Sledd, according to Dr. Allen, was the man who published the 
 news at Rome about a Spanish fleet being prepared to invade 
 England; and he told one Jerome Vane in Paris that he had 
 published it on the persuason of some men of great name in 
 England. At Rome and Rheims he was a daily communicant 
 whilst he was making his observations with the intention of 
 betraying his companions. Even when he started for England 
 to put his design into execution, he made his confession 
 first. He communicated his observations in France to the 
 English Ambassador in Paris, who sent over his informations 
 to the Privy Council . 9 “ This most perfidious and detestable 
 man,” continues the eulogium, “ attached himself to some in 
 Rome, and having gained their familiarity, and completed his 
 
 4jpon the point probably was, that as these suspensions of the noviceship 
 ■on account of ill health are of frequent occurrence, and the date of his 
 readmission was so soon after, and so well known, they may not have 
 ■deemed it worth while to allude to it at all. — [Editor.] 
 
 0 Mr. Simpson’s Life of Campion, p. 312. Sledd was one of the prin* 
 •cipal witnesses against Fathers Campion and Cottam, and the rest, at their 
 {rials. 
 
I 5° 
 
 Father Thomas Cottam. 
 
 business there, he accompanied them back to England. The 
 whole journey was conducted with the most consummate 
 deceit. Meeting with Father Cottam at Lyons on his way, and 
 having gained his friendship, he travelled with him to Rheims 
 as his companion. On the way, as is usual with unsuspecting 
 persons, they with all confidence mutually disclosed each 
 others’ plans. Father Cottam laying open to him his intended 
 speedy journey to England, for the recovery of his health 
 indeed, but, when circumstances permitted, with the further 
 intention of propagating and defending the Catholic religion. 
 The traitor Sledd rejoicing in the knowledge thus gained of the 
 Father’s plans, took every care with the utmost dissimulation 1 
 to applaud his intentions, all the while making the most accu- 
 rate survey of his victim, the construction of his body, the 
 lineaments of his face, leaving in fine nothing unnoticed that 
 would aid in proving his identity. Arriving at Rheims with 
 the martyr, this Government spy soon hastened off to Paris, 
 and furnished the English Ambassador there with his accurate 
 description both of Father Cottam and several other of his' 
 victims. The Ambassador sent this to the Privy Council, by 
 which it was speedily communicated to the governors, and 
 through them to the searchers of the various ports, whereby it 
 is incredible how difficult and dangerous the access was 
 rendered to all new-comers. 
 
 In the meantime, whilst Father Cottam was at Rheims, he 
 learnt that some priests there, the Reverends John Hart and 
 Edward Rishton (the former afterwards admitted to the Society, 
 the latter was the writer of the diary in the Tower of London, 
 and both of them afterwards condemned), were about to go to 
 England, and considering that so good an opportunity as their 
 company offered was not to be lost, he made earnest suit to 
 his Superiors, and having obtained their leave, and not having 
 as yet completed his noviceship, he joined in with them for 
 England. Setting sail, they arrived safely at Dover about the 
 1 6th or 1 8th of June, 1580, with another priest, who passed 
 off as a layman under the assumed name of Havard or Howard, 
 but who was really Dr. Ely, Professor of Canon and Civil Law 
 in the English Catholic University of Douay. 10 They had 
 
 10 As Dr. Humphrey Ely forms a conspicuous figure in this important 
 period of our martyr’s life, the following note may be interesting. He was 
 a native of Herefordshire, brother to the Reverend William Ely, President 
 of St. John’s College, Oxford, one of the old Marian priests, and for many 
 years missioner at Hereford. Dr. Humphrey Ely was first admitted a 
 
Father Thomas Cottam. 
 
 151 
 
 scarcely arrived when Father Cottam, being recognized by the 
 searchers from the accurate description given of him by the 
 spy Sledd, was apprehended, and with his companions searched 
 to their skins, but nothing was found upon them. Mr. Hart 
 however was stopped, being taken for Mr. Orton (afterwards 
 tried and condemned to death with Fathers Campion, Cottam 
 and the rest, and reprieved and banished), whom, however, he 
 nothing at all resembled. Father Cottam was detained at an 
 inn in Dover; and in order to avoid expenses Mr. Allen, the 
 Mayor of Dover, and Stevens, the searcher, most civilly asked 
 Dr. Ely (Havard), whom he took to be a military man, to take 
 the Father under his own eye to London with him, and to 
 hand him over to Lord Cobham, the Governor of the Cinque 
 Ports, to whom he gave him a letter of introduction and expla- 
 nation. Havard agreed very readily to do so ; but being, as 
 we have seen, a Catholic and a conscientious man, and of a 
 most generous disposition, as soon as they were out of the 
 town Dr. Ely said, “ I have not accepted you as a deposit to 
 render you to Lord Cobham, but merely to accompany you to 
 
 student at Brazenose College, afterwards removed to St. John’s. Having 
 declared himself a Catholic he was obliged to leave Oxford, and went over 
 to Douay in 1570, where he gave himself entirely to the study of Canon 
 and Civil Law, in which faculties he took degrees, became an eminent 
 professor, and hiring a convenient house for the purpose, several young 
 gentlemen, especially of the English nation, boarded with him. When the 
 College was obliged to break up at Douay and remove to Rheims in 1578, 
 Mr. Ely followed, and applying himself to the study of Divinity at Rheims 
 and Rome, took his Doctor’s degree. In 1580 he accompanied Dr. Allen 
 from Rome to Rheims, where they arrived on the 2nd of April. He made 
 a considerable stay with Dr. Allen, who employed him in revising several 
 controversial books, which were preparing for the press. It was during 
 this stay that he took his journey to England. Dr. Ely and the Reverend 
 John Hart were in fact the two priests who were substituted for Bishop 
 Goldwell and Dr. Morton (who were compelled to stay behind at Rome), 
 in the great missionary expedition to England from Rome, of which Fathers 
 Parsons and Campion were the chief leaders ; and, as we have seen, they 
 both joined Father Cottam at Rheims. He afterwards received an invitation 
 from the Duke of Lorraine, who appointed him to a professorship of Canon 
 and Civil Law at Pont-a-Mousson, for which he left Rheims 22nd June, 
 1586. He died in that office on the ides of March, 1604. He is described 
 as a man of great candour and hospitality ; and being a man of substance, he 
 parted with it cheerfully, especially to his countrymen, who never failed of 
 a hearty welcome as often as their necessities obliged them to make use of 
 his house. He was also of a charitable and reconciliatory disposition, and 
 took great pains to heal differences that happened among missioners upon 
 account of the archpriest of England’s jurisdiction (See Dodd’s Church 
 History, vol. ii. p. 71). 
 
152 
 
 Father Thomas Cottam. 
 
 London, whither you are travelling. God forbid that a Catholic 
 should deliver up a priest into the hands of the enemies of the 
 Faith, and the persecutors of the priests; my conscience will 
 not suffer it ; I should deem it a sin to do so ; but we will 
 during the two days’ journey go together straight to London, 
 and when we arrive there you shift for yourself and I will do 
 the same.” 
 
 He accordingly allowed the Father to go at large. Coming 
 to London, Father Cottam felt uneasy about his escape, because 
 he well knew that his kind friend and keeper (Havard) himself 
 incurred danger of prison, unless he kept his faith by handing 
 him over with the letter to my Lord Cobham according to his 
 engagement : therefore, anxious to do the better thing, he went 
 directly to one, we know not which, of the prisons, which were 
 then full of valorous Catholics, and there conferred ■with a 
 friend of his, a prisoner for the Faith, to whom he related the 
 whole affair, with the order and manner of his escape. This 
 friend told him flatly that he could not in conscience make 
 that escape, and was bound to deliver himself up prisoner and 
 save his friend from harm, and this without delay . 11 Nothing 
 more was needed to urge Father Cottam to seek out his friend 
 Havard in London with all diligence. Having succeeded in 
 finding him he requested him to hand him the letter of the 
 Mayor of Dover to my Lord Cobham. “ Why, what will you 
 do with it?” said Havard. “I will go,” said the martyr, “and 
 carry it to him and surrender myself prisoner, for I am fully 
 persuaded that I cannot make this escape in conscience.” 
 “ Why,” said Havard, “ this counsel that hath been given you 
 proceedeth, I confess, from a zealous mind, but I doubt 
 whether it carrieth with it the weight of knowledge. You shall 
 not have the letter, nor may you in conscience yield yourself 
 to the persecutor and adversary, having so good means offered 
 to escape their cruelty.” But Father Cottam still persisting in 
 his demands : “ Well,” said Mr. Havard, “ seeing you will not 
 be turned from this opinion, let us go and first consult with 
 so-and-so ” (naming one but newly come over, whom Father 
 Cottam greatly honoured and reverenced for his singular wit 
 and learning, and for his rare virtues), “and if he be of your 
 opinion, you shall have the letter and go in God’s name.” 
 
 11 This was probably his dear friend Mr. Pounde, who about that time 
 was in the Tower of London. See “Life of Thomas Pounde, S.J.” The 
 plump and honest advice exactly suits that famous confessor’s character. 
 — [Editor.] 
 
Father Thomas Cottam. 
 
 *53 
 
 When they came to this person “he utterly disliked of his 
 intention, and dissuaded him from so fond a cogitation.” The 
 martyr being assuaged, but not altogether satisfied, went quietly 
 about his business, but never left London on account of this 
 affair. He could not rest, and determined to consult Fathers 
 Parsons and Campion, who had lately arrived in London from 
 Rome, and to put the question to them — “ Was it his bounden 
 duty, in order to avert the danger to his custodiant and friend, 
 to give himself up to the Privy Council?” Now although those 
 Fathers were fully competent to decide the point themselves, 
 and, it may be, felt no hesitation whatever upon the point, yet 
 as a meeting of the Catholic priests was about to be held on 
 other important affairs, they thought it safer in a matter of such 
 weighty moment, affecting as it did life and death, to submit 
 the case to the meeting. For greater secrecy and safety this 
 meeting was appointed to be held in a small house on the 
 other side of the Thames, in Southwark. Thither these Fathers 
 went to the great pleasure of all, and not without themselves 
 displaying the sweetest emotions of joy at meeting so large an 
 assembly of Catholic priests. The meeting appeared to con- 
 sider the case a difficult one . 12 
 
 12 See Collectio Cardwelli , vol. ii. p. 177. The origin of the Council 
 is stated in the Life of Campion , by Mr. Simpson, p. 129, seq. London 
 becoming too hot for the Jesuit Fathers Campion and Parsons, “their 
 friends advised them to shorten their stay there, and to despatch with 
 speed such matters as were to be considered or determined before their 
 departure. They therefore collected in a little house at Southwark, the 
 gravest priests then to be found in London, amongst whom were Edward 
 Mettam and Mr. Blackwell, afterwards the archpriest, and also divers 
 principal laymen for their greater satisfaction ; for that sundry points of 
 importance were to be discussed, Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari et 
 approbari debet ; and it was but natural that in matters of common concern 
 the clergy and laity should take common counsel at such a time of danger, 
 when the active cooperation of both classes was necessary in order to secure 
 the interests of either. So far as the Faith was concerned, there were no 
 questions to discuss amongst the English Catholics in 1580. But questions 
 of moral, of worship, of discipline and political conduct, in which all were 
 equally interested, urgently claimed at that moment the consideration and 
 agreement of all.” 
 
 After enumerating the various heads of matter to be discussed — “The 
 last thing to be determined in the Council was the case of Mr. Cottam. He 
 had landed at Dover with Dr. Ely and Messrs. Rishton and Hart. But 
 Sledd had caused a very particular description of the two last to be sent to 
 the port, where they were stayed. Hart had confessed, and was sent 
 prisoner to London. But the Mayor and searcher did not feel certain of 
 Father Cottam, and so asked Dr. Ely (who under the name of Howard 
 had passed and repassed several times and was not suspected) whether he 
 
154 
 
 Father Thomas Cottam. 
 
 Dr. Ely considering that the opinion of the person to whom 
 he had taken Father Cottam had settled his mind for once and 
 all, sent back the Mayor of Dover’s letter to his worship; “and,” 
 says an eye-witness in his account, “within two or three 
 days after, cometh up the host of the inn at Dover, where 
 Mr. Cottam was taken ” (and who had given bail for him, as we 
 have before mentioned). 
 
 “ This host, as Providence would have it, met with Havard, 
 and taking him by the shoulder said, ‘ Sir, you had like to have 
 undone me, because the prisoner you promised to deliver is 
 escaped. Wherefore you must come with me to one Mr. Andrews, 
 my Lord Cobham’s deputy, and give him satisfaction in the 
 matter.’ Havard was somewhat amazed at this sudden sum- 
 moning ; but after awhile coming to himself, he said, ‘ Why, 
 my host, if I deliver you the prisoner again you will be con- 
 tented?’ ‘ Yes,’ said the other, 4 deliver me the prisoner and I 
 have nothing to say to you.’ Upon this they went to Mr. Cottam’s 
 lodging, but he was removed, and the people of the house knew 
 not whither. The host would fain have had this Havard, so- 
 called for the time, to go with him to the said Andrews ; but 
 Havard sought all means to avoid his company, being sure if 
 he had once come within the persecutor’s paws he should not 
 escape them so easily; and being as then loth to fall into 
 further trouble, he said to the other, ‘ My host, there is no such 
 necessity why I should go to Mr. Andrews; for if I did, perhaps 
 he would pick some quarrel with me by reason of the prisoner’s 
 escape, and I might come to trouble, and you would reap no 
 gain or profit thereby. But this I will do for your discharge : 
 
 would undertake to present him to Lord Cobham, the Warden of the 
 Cinque Ports. Ely promised, and his host of Dover, who knew him as 
 Howard, joined in giving bail. But Dr. Ely thought it would be a greater 
 offence to offer up to the persecutors an innocent priest than to break his 
 promise to the Mayor, and so let Father Coham go free. But Cottam 
 conceived some scruple about it, and so being still a member of the Society, 
 having been sent to England only for lack of health, with express promise 
 to be again received when he was well, he sought out Campion and 
 Parsons and told them the case. They submitted it to the Council, which 
 after consultation determined that as he had made no promise he was not 
 bound to offer himself to so manifest a danger. ” This decision contented 
 him for a time ; but when he heard that the Mayor and Dr. Ely were like 
 to come into trouble for him, he consulted the Fathers again, who this time 
 permitted him to follow the dictates of his conscience ; and so with a merry 
 countenance and all alone he went to the sign of the Star, in New Fish 
 Street, and there offered himself prisoner to Mr. Andrews, a deputy of 
 Lord Cobham, who carried him to the Court then at Oatlands. 
 
Father Thomas Cottam. 155 
 
 I will bring you to a merchant, who I think will give you his j 
 hand that I shall bring you the prisoner by four of the clock, 
 or else that I shall deliver you my body again.’ ‘ I am content/ 
 saith he, ‘ so that I have the one of you two.’ To the merchant 
 therefore they went, who at the request of Havard, his brother- 
 in-law, gave his hand and promise for the performance of the 
 condition before specified, and which promise, though punc- 
 tually performed, caused the merchant eight months’ imprison- 
 ment afterwards ; but how justly, will be one day examined 
 before the Just Judge. Thus Havard leaving his host in the 
 merchant’s house went forth into the city with another of his 
 company, to see if he could meet with Mr. Cottam. 
 
 “And coming into Cheapside, there by chance he met him, 
 and after ordinary salutations he said, ‘ Mr. Cottam, such a man 
 is come to town, and hath so seized upon me for your escape 
 that either you or I must needs go to prison ; you know my 
 state and condition, and may guess how I shall be treated 
 if once I appear under my right name before them. You know 
 also your own state. Now it is your choice whether of us shall 
 go ; for one must go, there is no remedy ; and to force you I 
 will not, for I had rather sustain any punishment whatsoever/ 
 Mr. Cottam, lifting up his eyes and hands to heaven, said these 
 words : ‘ Now God be blessed. I should never while I lived 
 been without scruple if I had escaped from them. Nothing 
 grieveth me but that I have not despatched some business that 
 I have to do.’ ‘ Why,’ said Havard, ‘ ’tis but ten of the clock 
 yet, and you may despatch your business by four of the clock, 
 and then you may go to them.’ ‘ Whither is it,’ said he, ‘ that 
 I must go?’ ‘To the sign of the Star,’ quoth Havard, ‘in New 
 Fish Street, and there you must inquire for one Mr. Andrews, 
 my Lord Cobham’s deputy ; to him you must surrender your- 
 self.’ ‘ I will,’ said he ; and so they parted and never saw one 
 another after. 
 
 “ Mr. Cottam, after he had despatched all his business, went 
 at four o’clock, all alone, to the place appointed, and there 
 yielded himself prisoner (an invincible proof of his being inno- 
 cent of any treason), and was carried to the Court, then laying 
 at Nonesuch, or Oaklands. From hence, after five days’ con- 
 ference with divers Protestant ministers that strove but in vain 
 to induce him to abandon his religion, he was sent to the 
 Marshalsea prison, for his profession of the Catholic religion, 
 and not for treason; from thence he was transferred to the 
 Tower, there to be racked, not to reveal any secret treason, as 
 
Father Thomas Cottam, 
 
 156 
 
 the adversaries most falsely pretend, but tormented because he 
 would not confess his private sins unto them, as he both con- 
 fidently and truly affirmed to their faces at his arraignment.” 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 HIS SUFFERINGS IN PRISON BY TORTURE; ARRAIGNMENT, 
 TRIAL, AND CONDEMNATION. 
 
 From the beginning, Queen Elizabeth and her Council had 
 been very cautious that none should be put to the death for the 
 ostensible cause of religion, but solely under the pretext of high 
 treason ; on this account, as no grounds whatever for such a 
 charge could be proved against this most innocent Father, 
 therefore, when in the Marshalsea prison, he was cruelly tor- 
 tured in various ways to make him confess even his own 
 personal interior faults, nay, even his inmost secret thoughts. 
 He was removed to the Tower of London soon after (on the 
 25th December, 1580), that terrible place of more refined and 
 scientific torture. 
 
 Father Cottam, with many other most courageous heroes of 
 Christ, strenuously on every occasion, defended the dignity of 
 the Holy Roman Catholic Church against the reformed one of 
 England, as by law established. Hence the terrible persecution 
 of Catholics and their religion, the excessive nature of which 
 had provoked the just anger of His Holiness Pope Pius V. 
 against her Majesty, and impelled him to issue a Bull of 
 Excommunication against that Queen, cutting her off from the 
 communion of the faithful. She, indignant at this exercise of 
 the power of the Sovereign Pontiff, threw off the mask, and 
 sending back the Papal Nuncio, compelled all those of the 
 true and ancient faith, whom she caused to be apprehended, 
 to acknowledge her supremacy even in sacred things ; so 
 certain it is indeed that when once a person unhappily departs 
 from the truth, he must needs descend to absurdities such 
 as no barbarism was ever crazy enough to admit, to remove 
 the supreme authority in spirituals from men and to replace 
 it upon the will of an imbecile woman. Therefore certain 
 questions were carefully and craftily prepared upon this subject 
 of controversy and other points, upon which in the shape of 
 interrogatories, they would examine by torture, and endeavour 
 
Father Thomas Cottam . 
 
 157 
 
 to entrap the champions of the Faith. The following is a copy 
 of them and of Father Cottam’s answer in writing 13 — 
 
 “ Articles ministered to the Jesuits and Seminary Priests which 
 
 are in the Tower , and were condemned , and their answers to 
 
 the same, 13 th May , 1582. 
 
 “ 1. Whether the Bull of Pius Quintus against the Queen's 
 Majesty be a lawful sentence, and ought to be observed by the 
 subjects of England ? 
 
 “ 2. Whether the Queen's Majesty be a lawful Queen, and 
 ought to be obeyed by the subjects of England, notwithstanding 
 the Bull of Pius Quintus, or any other Bull or sentence that the 
 Pope hath pronounced or may pronounce against her Majesty? 
 
 “ 3. Whether the Pope have or had power to authorize the 
 Earl of Northumberland and Westmoreland, and other her 
 Majesty's subjects, to rebel, or take arms against her Majesty, 
 or to authorize Dr. Saunders or others to invade Ireland, or 
 any other her dominions, and to bear arms against her, and 
 whether they did therein lawfully or no ? 
 
 “ 4. Whether the Pope have power to discharge any of her 
 Highness’ subjects, or the subjects of any Christian prince, 
 from their allegiance or oath of obedience to her Majesty, or to 
 their prince for any cause ? 
 
 “5. Whether the said Dr. Saunders in his book of The 
 Visible Monarchy of the Church , and Dr. Bristow in his book 
 of motives (writing in allowance, commendation, and confirma- 
 tion of the said Bull of Pius V.) have therein taught, testified, 
 or maintained a truth or a falsehood ? 
 
 “ 6. If the Pope by his Bull, or sentence, pronounce her 
 Majesty to be deprived, and to be no lawful Queen, and her 
 subjects to be discharged of their allegiance and obedience 
 unto her ; and after, if the Pope, or any other by his appoint- 
 ment and authority, do invade this realm, which part would you 
 take, or which part ought a good subject out of England to 
 take?” 
 
 “ Thomas Cottam’s Answer. 
 
 “ To the first, and in this as in all other questions, he 
 believeth as the Catholic Church (which he taketh to be the 
 Church of Rome) teacheth him. And other answer he maketh 
 not to any of the rest of these articles. 
 
 “ By me, Thomas Cottam, Priest. 
 
 “Witness — John Popham, Thomas Egerton, Richard Lewis, 
 John Hammond.” 
 
 13 Howell’s State Trials , vol. ii p. 1,078. 
 
Father Thomas Cottam. 
 
 158 
 
 The excitement caused by the Jesuits’ preaching throughout 
 the counties of England did not escape the notice of the Govern^ 
 ment. It induced them to the greater severity against the 
 Catholics in prison, and to search with greater strictness for 
 those not apprehended. The above string of questions is a 
 proof of this. In the Public Record Office 14 will be found 
 a much fuller list of questions than the above, which 
 perhaps were the only ones put to Father Cottam. For 
 instance : “ What was the principal cause why you were sent 
 into this realm by the Pope, or by some chief minister of 
 his? To whom were you specially directed to repair unto 
 within the realm? What relief have you received since you 
 were committed to prison, and from whom and by whom 
 came the relief? How many have you reconciled to the 
 Church of Rome since your imprisonment, and what are 
 their names ? How many have you heard of lately to have 
 been reconciled to the Church of Rome by others ; what are 
 their names, and by whom reconciled ? What conference 
 have you had with Parsons or Campion since they came over, 
 or what letters or messages have you received from them ? 
 Where do you know or have heard that these Fathers, or 
 either of them, are or is? Whether have you not heard of 
 some catalogues of names of the principal favourers of the 
 Romish religion within this realm have been delivered to the 
 priests, and what principal persons do you remember to have 
 been contained in such catalogues ? ” There are also divers 
 other questions relating to Ireland and Dr. Saunders, and the 
 Queen of Scots, & c. 
 
 The Government, both in Church and State, were by this 
 time convinced that the penal laws against Catholics, bloody as 
 they were, were not yet sufficiently so to exterminate the 
 Catholic religion. It was felt that severity must be increased ; 
 and, as commonly happens, the first impulse towards a more 
 systematic persecution came from the ecclesiastical side. On 
 the 14th of January, 1581, the Bishop of Chester, the state of 
 whose diocese prognosticated to him the success that Campion 
 was to achieve there a few months later, wrote to the Council 
 urging them to bring in a Bill making traitors and felons, 
 without benefit of clergy, of “ all such vagrant priests as 
 walk about in disguised apparel seducing her Majesty’s 
 subjects, &c., by assembling of unlawful conventicles,” and 
 of their receivers or harbourers felons, “with some clergy.” 
 
 14 Domestic , Elizabeth , State Papers, vol. xcvii. n. 97. 
 
Father Thomas Cottam. 
 
 159 
 
 Also, to enforce preachers to reside in their benefices; to 
 make all work unlawful before eleven o’clock on the “ Sabbath- 
 day ; ” to forbid the holding of fairs and markets on Sundays ; 
 and to enact some general law to reduce all subjects to con- 
 formity. He adds, “ In this cathedral church of Chester 
 neither the dean nor any prebendary hath been resident or 
 kept hospitality of many years. Neither is any parson or 
 vicar of any parish church within the city a preacher.” Other 
 bishops begged to have the high commission in their dioceses. 
 Thus, the Bishop of Coventry writes to Burghleyin April, 1581, 
 about the hard state of Shropshire, “ being one of the best and 
 conformablest parts of my diocese,” where, however, “ of one 
 hundred almost presented for recusancy, they could get but one 
 only to be bound, the rest refusing most obstinately to come 
 before them.” What must it then be, he asks Burghley, in the 
 other shires of the diocese when it is thus in the best of them ? 15 
 
 This short digression has been made to give the reader 
 some slight idea of the state of things at the time, and the 
 causes of the extreme and savage cruelty of the Queen and 
 Privy Council towards Catholics. We will now return to' 
 Father Cottam in the Tower. The blessed martyr underwent 
 the torture they called by the name of the “ Scavenger’s 
 Daughter,” for the space of upwards of one hour, which 
 caused him to bleed profusely from the nostrils. This terrible 
 engine of torture was of very common use in the Tower. It 
 was a broad iron hoop, consisting of two parts fastened to each 
 other by a hinge. The sufferer was made to kneel on the 
 pavement, and to contract himself into as small a compass as 
 he could. Then the executioner, kneeling on his shoulders, 
 and having introduced the hoop under his legs, compressed the 
 victim close together until he was able to fasten the extremities 
 of the hoop over the small of the back. The time allotted to 
 this kind of torture was one hour and a half, during which 
 it commonly happened that, from excess of compression the 
 blood started from the nostrils, sometimes it was believed 
 from the extremities of the hands and feet. 16 Father Cottam 
 
 15 Life of Campion , by Mr. Simpson, pp. 198, 199. The Bishop of 
 Chester’s letter maybe found in the State Papers, P.R.O. December 1, 
 1581. The Bishop of Coventry’s in the Lansdowne MSS. 33, n. 14 
 (British Museum). 
 
 16 See Lingard’s History of England , n. u. vol. v. Also Andrew’ 
 Review of Foxds Book of Martyrs , vol. ii. p. 369, where a wood engraving 
 is given of the instrument, and a victim in it. 
 
i6o 
 
 Father Thomas Cottam. 
 
 suffered this torture on the ioth December, 1580, when also 
 his fellow-prisoner and martyr, the Reverend Luke Kirby, or 
 Kirkly, underwent the same torment. 
 
 This will be a fitting opportunity to introduce a transla- 
 tion of a letter written by a priest in the Tower (probably the 
 Reverend Edward Rishton himself) to other Catholic brethren 
 in other prisons, detailing the sufferings they were Subjected 
 to. 17 The date does not appear, but it would probably have 
 been about the end of 1580, or early in 1581. The original is 
 difficult to read, but we give the simplest translation we can. 
 
 “ A copy of a letter which a certain English priest confined in the 
 Tower of London for the cause of the holy Catholic religion , 
 lately sent to his Catholic brethren, now detained for the same 
 cause in other prisons. To which is also subjoined a brief 
 declaration concerning the dire inhumanity and truly bar- 
 barous cruelty which other Reverend Fathers in prisons far 
 distant from London are suffering on the same account. 
 
 “ They lately threatened Mr. Sherwin, a priest, with 
 renewed tortures, and then to execute him and his com- 
 panions; but he, preferring a present death to longer life, 
 was not at all dismayed by their threats. We shall, I hope, 
 very shortly learn what will become of us. We all indeed 
 greatly desire to pay the debt of nature at once, rather than to 
 languish on by a daily death. However, there is no one here 
 who does not earnestly pray our Lord Jesus Christ to grant His 
 aid, whereby to render us worthy to suffer for His glory all 
 torments and tortures, nay, even death itself, otherwise so bitter 
 to nature, rather than to offend the Divine Majesty in the least 
 degree contrary to each one’s conscience. It is, I think, patent 
 and a known fact to many, that some of our afflicted ones have 
 endured the most terrible tortures, than which, on account of 
 their excessive torments, death itself is far preferable, constantly 
 and willingly ere they would consent to the most abominable 
 crime [apostacy]. Of which things there are certain living 
 witnesses, especially Luke Kirby and Thomas Cottam, two 
 venerable priests, who were subjected to a certain iron instru- 
 ment of torture, called in English the “ Scavenger’s Daughter,” 
 enduring this most bitter torture for an entire hour or more. 
 Others, namely, the Reverend Mr. Skinner, and Mr. Briant 
 twice, Mr. J ohnson indeed but once, were cruelly tortured on 
 the rack, attended with the most exquisite sufferings. Mr. Alart 
 17 Domestic , Elizabeth , State Papers, 1581, vol. cxlix. n. 61, P.R.O. 
 
Father Thomas Cottam . 161 
 
 lay stretched upon it for three hours in torture, but beyond this, 
 or at least more severely tor that time he was not tortured. And 
 after the same manner they dealt with a portion of the rest of 
 his companions, not without some great attempts to bring them 
 to a compliance being made. Some were thrust down into 
 a certain underground dungeon, very deep, and being shut in 
 on every side, involved in the densest darkness . 18 Amongst 
 these were Johnson, Bristow, and Brian, all of them priests, 
 some of whom spent two entire months in this chamber of 
 horrors. As for the others, all of them, together with your 
 Superior, were thrust into certain obscure and dark corners, 
 deprived of hope and assistance, without beds or other neces- 
 saries of any kind. Thus they dealt with Stanislaus Bristow 
 and the others. The greater portion of them from this time 
 are confined separately in squalid and dismal cells, where they 
 are not allowed at any time to see any one, much less to speak 
 with a friend. 
 
 “ Mr. Brian, of whom I spoke before, was for some days 
 worn out, and well-nigh killed with hunger. At length for the 
 greater increase of his pain he was most atrociously tortured by 
 needles being violently thrust under his nails (Ah, miser !). 
 
 “ By these things which are written, most dear brothers in 
 Christ, it is well known what, and what kind of tortures the 
 sons of God, and true servants of Christ, patiently endure for 
 their firm defence of the orthodox faith, and should it be 
 required of them, are ready willingly to undergo still greater. 
 
 “ This only thing we implore of His mercy, that He will 
 of His goodness grant us patience and perseverance even to 
 the end. Which that we may the more speedily obtain, we 
 earnestly implore your prayers for us, and the more so as 
 we are not without some apprehension, seeing that the prefect 
 of the Tower yesterday, and again to-day, was summoned to 
 the Court, in order that, as we believe, he might be informed 
 with certainty what is decided upon about us. Farewell.” 
 
 “ The Declaration. 
 
 “ The Catholics incarcerated in the Port or Castle of Hull 
 are detained in close custody, not allowed on any pretext to be 
 visited, noj any help to be administered to them. For seven 
 weeks they have received no more than seven Roman asses, 1 ® 
 
 18 This was no doubt a horrible dungeon known as “the Pit” and 
 “ Walesbour.” 
 
 19 The Roman as was a copper coin, value at the time of Cicero about 
 three farthings of our money. 
 
 L 
 
162 
 
 Father Thomas Cottam . 
 
 / 
 
 besides which they have received nothing for food and the 
 common sustenance of life, save bread and beer and a 
 moderate supply of salt-fish, which was doled out to them in 
 the time of Lent. From the feast of Easter they have not to 
 this time tasted meat. For one quart of beer they are com- 
 pelled to pay seven asses (or in English money, seven pence), 
 and then, which is a refinement of cruelty, water for supplying 
 their necessities is denied them, unless they are content to 
 receive such as is putrid. 
 
 “ The Catholic prisoners in Wisbeach are treated with equal 
 cruelty. The Reverend Doctor Young, for many years Pro- 
 fessor of Sacred Theology, has happily exchanged this life 
 for death . 20 
 
 “ Not many days since a certain woman of bad repute was 
 introduced into the cell of the Right Reverend Bishop of 
 Lincoln (for his lordship still remains incarcerated there) to 
 tempt that aged prelate, worn out by cruel tortures, to sin.” 
 
 The letter then goes on to give particulars of this most in- 
 famous attempt, and the course pursued by the holy bishop to 
 rid himself of the intruder . 21 The letter also mentions another 
 sirnilar attempt in that prison, tried upon a Catholic priest, who 
 ridded himself of the nuisance by raising loud cries for help. 
 
 We have already alluded to Father Cottam having been 
 tortured in various ways in the Marshalsea prison, to make 
 him disclose even the inmost secrets of his soul. This dose 
 was often repeated in the Tower; for, not finding sufficient 
 matter for capital conviction, and the Council being unwilling 
 to be held up as persecutors of martyrs, rather than judges 
 of high treason, they often undertook to ferret out the very 
 secrets of his heart, in order, if possible, to elicit something 
 
 20 “John Young was a native of Yorkshire. He was educated in 
 Trinity College, Cambridge; was D.D., Master of Pembroke Hall, and 
 Vice-Chancellor of the University, a zealous maintainer of the Catholic 
 faith. On which account, being confined in the first year of the reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth, he died in prison, about 1579 * He was author of a 
 book entitled, Liber de Sc his mate, Louvain, 8vo., 1573 * Published by 
 Dr. Richard Hall, who prefixed a dedication.” See Dodd, Church History , 
 vol. ii. p. 90. [Mr. Dodd did not know the prison, which the above letter 
 informs us of. — Editor.] 
 
 21 This bishop was Dr. Watson of Lincoln, one of the old Marian 
 bishops. This was an infamous and common device, worse than hellish, 
 (it may be called), to give the adversary a handle against the afflicted 
 prisoners. Another case is mentioned about the same time in a letter of a 
 London priest to Father Agazzari, Rector of the English College, Rome, 
 dated in July, 1581. 
 
Father Thomas Cottam. 
 
 163 
 
 lending either to criminate him, or else to bring him into 
 odium. They endeavoured first by threats of the most cruel 
 tortures, and failing these, by the tortures themselves, to 
 compel him to disclose first, the penances his confessor had 
 enjoined him for his faults mentioned in confession, and then, 
 not suspecting their craft, when he would tell them accord- 
 ingly, for the sake of avoiding the torture, they would proceed 
 further to urge him to tell them the very faults themselves he 
 had confessed under the sacred seal of confession ; but the 
 athlete of Christ recovering himself, and discovering their 
 tricks, deprecating his previous weakness of heart, as he called 
 it, he exclaimed, “ I will disclose my sins to none but to God 
 and my confessor.” 
 
 And when, being provoked by the freedom of his answer, 
 they cruelly racked him beyond all possible conception, re- 
 peating the same interrogations amidst the most savage tortures, 
 he boldly declared their conduct to be barbarous, and foreign to 
 all sentiments of humanity, and that they would be able sooner 
 to force his life from him by their lacerations, than that he 
 would confess the things demanded of him. He afterwards 
 rebuked with a courageous spirit this cruelty of his examiners 
 before the tribunal, and in the presence of his enemies themselves, 
 as though he could extort shame from iron brows. Among 
 whom, Sir Owen Hopton, the Lieutenant of the Tower of 
 London, took upon himself to deny the whole matter with the 
 utmost effrontery. To whom the martyr thus spoke : “ Dost 
 thou deny the truth of what I relate ? Lo ! Dr. Hammond 
 here, and the rest of the commissioners, stood by whilst you 
 tortured me, to whose consciences, and to God Himself, I 
 appeal in testimony of my speaking the truth. Sir Gregory 
 Carey is also present who added to your insolence by his own 
 interrogations, and is both conscious of and a sharer in the 
 iniquity.” 
 
 From the 5th of February, 1581, until Pentecost, 19th of 
 March, the prisoners in the Tower were subjected to a more 
 severe infliction in its kind than even their cruel torturings; 
 they were ordered, and nolens volens were dragged by force 
 to hear the Protestant preachers in the Tower chapel. Here, 
 selected Calvinist ministers held forth against the Catholic 
 faith with arguments, lies, and utterances of the most daring 
 and skilful description. The prisoners did their best to stop 
 the pestilential effusions of the preachers, by interrupting their 
 words as they uttered them, refuting their arguments and false 
 
 L 2 
 
164 
 
 Father Thomas Cottam. 
 
 authorities, and replying to the reasons they urged, and on 
 the preacher descending from the pulpit, they would challenge 
 him to disputation upon the blasphemies he had uttered. 
 Hopton, the lieutentant, was desperate and furious, and in vain 
 uttered threats against them. He determined that Father 
 Cottam (as report says) as being the ringleader (and so the 
 more meritorious) should pay for the whole. 
 
 There was amongst these preachers in the Tower a furious 
 fanatic (or rather demoniac) of the name of John Nicholas, who 
 from a Calvinistic ranter, feigned to become a Catholic, and 
 had for some years been supported at Rome, at the expense 
 and by the charity of the Sovereign Pontiff. Returning thence 
 to England, by a previously arranged plan, he procured himself 
 as a Catholic, to be apprehended and imprisoned, to whom 
 presently, and as part of the same scheme, the Protestant 
 ministers ran, and by proposing arguments on religion, pre- 
 tended to convince the man, and in him to convict the Roman 
 Catholic faith of falsity — which by Nicholas’ renouncing they 
 would be the more easily able to wrest from the others. The 
 thing was done as agreed upon, and the man having apostatized 
 came forth a preacher of error. The champions of Christ, 
 then in great numbers in the Tower, were often compelled to 
 hear this man speaking, but on his coming down from the 
 pulpit they would hiss him. About Pentecost, 1581 (Rishton 
 in his diary says it was Easter Sunday, the 19th of March), 
 this madman raved before a large company of nobles and 
 persons of distinction and courtiers, who had been invited 
 by Hopton the governor, for the sake of honouring the 
 meeting, and by their presence giving a countenance to this 
 wretched apostate ; the prisoners were as usual dragged in. 
 Father Cottam, inspired with a wonderful liberty of spirit, 
 gravely rebuked this distinguished company, and admonished 
 them of their duty, and for having in so unseemly a manner 
 lent the weight of their authority and presence to this ignorant 
 babbler and notorious liar. To reason upon these abstruse 
 articles of the faith, he added, much more to define and 
 pronounce upon them as this preacher had done, they should 
 seek out for another than the unbridled tongue of a fanatical 
 ranter, devoid of learning, of knowledge, piety, and sense. He 
 warned them to attend to the concerns of their eternal welfare, 
 which they seemed to hold as of no account, but rather to 
 throw away by approving and patronizing such a man. In 
 this liberty of speech, Father Cottam felt no fear of the conse- 
 
Father Thomas Cottam. 165 
 
 quences, supported as he was by the lofty Christian spirit 
 within him. 
 
 Father Cottam, on Tuesday, the 14th of November, 1581, 
 with Father Campion, and the Reverends Ralph Sherwin, 
 Luke Kirby, James Bosgrave, Johnson, Rishton, and Mr. Orton, 
 were taken from the Tower to Westminster Hall, and arraigned 
 before the Grand Jury. The following is a copy of the 
 indictment — 
 
 “ The Jury present in behalf of the Queen that [with fifteen 
 others] being traitors against the Queen, not having the fear of 
 God in their hearts, nor weighing their due allegiance, but led 
 astray by the devil, intending altogether to withdraw, blot out, 
 and extinguish the hearty love and true and due obedience 
 which true and faithful subjects should bear, and are bound 
 to bear towards the Queen, did on the last day of March, 
 
 1580, at Rome, in Italy, in parts beyond the seas, and on the 
 last day of April in the same year at Rheims, in Champagne, 
 and on divers other days and occasions before and after both 
 at Rome and Rheims, and in divers other places and parts 
 beyond the seas, falsely, maliciously, and traitorously conspire, 
 &c., not only to deprive, &c., the said Queen from her royal 
 State, &c., but also to bring and put the same Queen to death 
 and final destruction, and to excite, &c., the subjects of the 
 said Queen throughout the realm, and to procure rebellion, &c., 
 against her, their supreme and natural lady, and to change and 
 alter according to their will, &c., the Government of the said 
 realm, and the pure religion there rightly and religiously 
 established, and totally to subvert and destroy the State of the 
 whole commonwealth, &c., and to invite, &c., divers strangers 
 and aliens not being subjects, &c., to invade, &c., and to raise 
 and make war against the said Queen. And in order to bring 
 to pass the said wicked, &c., designs, the said Campion, &c., 
 did on the last day of March at Rome, and the last day of 
 April at Rheims, and on other days, falsely, &c., conspire, &c., 
 by what means they could compass the death of the said 
 Queen, and raise a sedition in the realm. And with intent, 
 &c., the said Campion, &c., did afterwards on the 20th of May, 
 
 1581, at Rome, and on divers other days, before and after, 
 both by persuasions and letters, move, &c., aliens, &c., to 
 invade the realm, and raise war against the Queen. And 
 further, that the same parties did on the 20th day of May, at 
 Rome, and on the last day of the same month at Rheims, 
 traitorously agree that the said Parsons and Campion should 
 
Father Thomas Cottam . 
 
 1 66 
 
 go into England, there to move, &c., such subjects of, &c., as 
 they could to come and aid, &c., such aliens, &c., as they 
 should traitorously bring into the realm to make war against 
 the said Queen, and to change the religion established, &c., 
 against their due allegiance and against the peace of the said 
 Queen, her crown and dignity,” &c. 
 
 It was impossible, of course, to prove a tale so clumsily 
 constructed ; but the law officers of the Crown were directed 
 to obtain a conviction by any means that might be necessary — 
 packing the jury, suborning false witnesses, and overruling 
 evidence adduced for the defendants, confounding all the 
 cases into one, and general bullying and unfairness in the 
 conduct of the cause. 22 The charges against Father Cottam 
 appear to have been reduced to three heads, (i) That he had 
 entered into England about the same time with Fathers 
 Campion and Parsons, ergo was cognizant of and an accom- 
 plice in their rebellion. (2) For having carried with him a 
 book, The Sum of Dr. Navarre against the Queen's Supremacy , 
 &c. And (3) that he could not be induced to answer speci- 
 fically to his examinations regarding the Bull of Pope Pius V. 
 After the arraignment the prisoners were remanded, and on the 
 20th of November were again conducted from the Tower to* 
 Westminster Hall for trial. Father Campion was the great 
 hero and spokesman, acting the counsel for several if not all of 
 the rest, as well as for himself. The following is the only 
 mention made of Father Cottam upon the trial. 23 
 
 “ Cottam in his examination would neither agree to the 
 supremacy, nor answer directly concerning the Pope’s authority. 
 
 “ Queen's Counsel. — You came into England at or near the 
 same time that the rest came ; so that it must needs be intended 
 a match made between you for the furtherance of those that 
 were then brewing, and how answer you thereunto ? 
 
 “ Cottam. — It was neither my purpose nor my message to 
 come into England, neither would I have come had not God 
 otherwise driven me, for my journey was appointed to the 
 Indians, and thither had I been, had my health been thereto*- 
 answerable, but in the meanwhile it pleased God to visit me 
 with sickness, and being counselled by the physician for my 
 health’s sake to come to England, for otherwise, as they said,. 
 
 22 Life of Campion , by Mr. Simpson, p. 281. See also Howell’s State- 
 Trials. 
 
 23 Howell’s State Trials , taken from a MS. account Bib. Cott. British. 
 Museum. Also Howell’s State Trials , vol. i. p. 1050. 
 
Father Thomas Cottam . 
 
 167 
 
 either remaining there, or going elsewhere, I should not 
 recover it, I came upon that occasion and upon no other into 
 this realm. 
 
 “ Campion. — Indeed, the physicans in Rome have held for 
 certainty, that if an Englishman shall fall sick amongst them 
 there is no better, nor scarce any other way for his health, 
 than to take his natural air which best agreeth with his 
 complexion. 
 
 “ Cottam . — And that only was the cause, nor any deter- 
 mined attempt, either to persuade or dissuade, being otherwise 
 by my Provost charged to the Indians. Neither after my 
 arrival here did I hide myself or deal otherwise than might 
 beseem any man that meddled no more than I did. I lay for 
 the most part in Southwark ; I walked daily in Paul’s, I 
 refrained no place, which betokened my innocency. 
 
 “Queen's Counsel . — You did neither persuade nor dissuade? 
 Was there not a book found in your budget, the contents 
 whereof tended to no other purpose, the which was made by 
 one Dr. Espignata, entitled, Tractatus Conscientice , containing 
 certain answers unto the Supremacy, how superficially to 
 frustrate any kind of demand, with a further method how you 
 ought to demean yourself in every kind of company, whether 
 it were of Protestants or Puritans, and what speeches you 
 should use to convert them both ; as unto the Protestants 
 highly commending them, and showing that they are far nearer 
 the right way than the Puritans, and whom you should utterly 
 dispraise unto the Puritans, likewise in commending the 
 Protestants and persuading them to the obedience of the Pope? 
 To what end then should you carry this book about you if you 
 were not purposed to do as it prescribeth ? 
 
 “ Cottam . — I protest before God, I knew nothing of that 
 book, neither how nor when it came to me. 
 
 “ Then Campion seeing him driven to so narrow an exigent 
 as to deny that which was manifest, answered for him to this 
 effect following — 
 
 “ Campioti. — Many casualties and events may happen 
 whereby a man may be endangered ere he be aware, by the 
 carrying of a thing whereof he knoweth not, as either the 
 malice of others that privily convey it amongst other his 
 provisions, or his own negligence or oversight which marketh 
 not attentively what he took with him, whereof both are to 
 be judged his errors, yet not deemed an offence. And, there- 
 fore, this cannot be maintained to be done by Mr. Cottam on 
 
i68 
 
 Father Thomas Cottam. 
 
 purpose, which we see flatly to be out of his knowledge. But 
 suppose that purposely he brought the book with him, yet what 
 can that make against him for treason? It treateth of con- 
 science; it toucheth good demeanour; it showeth howto make 
 the unbelieving faithful, matters wholly spiritual, points of 
 edification, preparing to Godwards. Where is then the treason? 
 But were these reasons impertinent, yet it is a custom with all 
 students beyond the seas, when any man learned or well 
 thought of draweth a treatise touching either conscience or 
 good behaviour to copy it out, and to carry it about with them, 
 not thereby aiming at any faction or conspiracy, but for their 
 own proper knowledge and private instruction.” 
 
 After this the jury considered of their verdict; and then the 
 following miraculous event occurred, as related by Father 
 Parsons. Judge Ayloff was “sitting to keep the place when 
 the other judges retired, while the jury consulted about the 
 condemnation of Father Campion and his company, and 
 pulling off his glove, found all the hand and his seal of arms 
 bloody without any token of wrong, pricking, or hurt; and 
 being dismayed therewith, wiping, it went not away, but still 
 returned ; he showed it to the gentlemen that sat before him, 
 who can be witnesses of it till this day, and have some of them 
 upon their faiths and credits avouched it to be true.” 
 
 The pleadings had taken about three hours, and the jury 
 consulted for nearly an hour before they agreed upon their 
 verdict. In this interval some brought Campion a glass of 
 beer to refresh him after his labours. The greater part of the 
 lawyers and gentlemen present thought an acquittal was certain, 
 at least for Campion, “ but the judges and jury,” says Laing, 
 “had all been bought; and the desire to gratify Caesar 
 prevailed ” — Mr. Popham, the Attorney General, having plainly 
 signified to them what the Queen’s will was. Edward Plowden, 
 the famous lawyer, himself a Catholic, had come with the rest 
 to see the trial ; but one of the judges not liking that he should 
 report it, or even witness it, sent word to him to leave the 
 court. As he himself was in question for the Catholic religion, 
 he thought it prudent to obey. One of the jurymen, according 
 to Laing, afterwards excused himself by saying that, if he had 
 not found the prisoners guilty he had been no friend of 
 Caesar’s. The consultation then was a mere blind to put a 
 decent veil on a foregone conclusion ; but it did not avail 
 to deceive the public, who in their ballads accused the jury of 
 undue haste — 
 
Father Thomas Cottam. 
 
 169 
 
 They packed a jury that cried guilty straight, 
 
 You bloody jury, Lee and all the eleven, 
 
 Take heed your verdict, which was given in haste, 
 
 Do not exclude you from the joys of heaven. 
 
 And Lee himself in 1595, being once more “a prisoner restrained 
 from bodily travel,” wrote to Lord Keeper Puckering, “ I have 
 been persecuted by them [the Papists] for my verdict given in 
 haste, as Vallenger rhymed, against Campion and his traitorous 
 companions.” 
 
 When the jury returned they pronounced all guilty. 
 
 “The most unjust verdict,” says the old writer whom 
 Dr. Challoner follows, “ that ever I think was given, was given 
 up in this land; whereat already (1582) not only England but 
 all the Christian world doth wonder, and which our posterity 
 shall lament and be ashamed of.” When the verdict was 
 given, Mr. Anderson, the leading Queen’s Counsel said : “ For- 
 asmuch as these prisoners here indicted and arraigned under- 
 took to be tried by God and their country, and by the verdict 
 of a whole jury, directly and by sufficient and most manifest 
 evidence, are found guilty of the said treasons and conspiracies, 
 we pray of your lordship to accept of the verdict, and in her 
 Majesty’s behalf to give judgment against them as traitors.” 
 
 The Lord Chief Justice then asked the prisoners what they 
 had to say why sentence of death should not pass against 
 them? Father Campion then made a short, but as usual a 
 thrilling speech, and never, says Fitzherbert, was Campion’s 
 face more noble ; his conduct during the day had been full of 
 calmness and dignity, and his arguments of point and con- 
 clusiveness ; but in this last speech he surpassed himself. 
 His eloquence made his fellow-prisoners forget the fate that 
 hung over them; and Father Cottam on his return to the 
 Tower told Briscoe that now he was quite willing to die, after 
 hearing Campion speak so gloriously. 
 
 The Lord Chief Justice then pronounced sentence of death. 
 “You must go to the place from whence you came, there 
 to remain until ye shall be drawn through the open City of 
 London upon hurdles to the place of execution, and there be 
 hanged and cut down alive, dismembered, and your entrails 
 taken out and burnt in your sight ; then your head to be cut 
 off, and your bodies to be divided into four parts, to be dis- 
 posed of at her Majesty’s pleasure. And may God have mercy 
 on your souls.” 
 
 The condemned expressed their contentment and joy, some 
 
170 
 
 Father Thomas Cottam. 
 
 in one phrase of Scripture, some in another, whereby the 
 multitudes in the hall were visibly affected and astonished. 
 They were remanded back to their prisons, where being laid 
 up in irons for the rest of their time, they expected God’s 
 mercy and the Queen’s pleasure. 24 
 
 Three of the condemned only were selected to die then, 
 viz., Fathers Campion, Briant, and Mr. Sherwin, who suffered 
 at Tyburn on the ist of December, 1581. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 HIS EXECUTION AND CONDUCT THEREAT. 
 
 The execution of the iniquitous sentence of death upon our 
 blessed martyr was deferred until the 13th of the following 
 month of May, 1582. When the triumphant day dawned, at 
 the early hour of four, Father Cottam with three of his fellow- 
 priests, the Reverends William Filby, Luke Kirby, and Laurence 
 Richardson, were brought forth from the Tower and bound 
 upon hurdles or sledges (a sort of beam without wheels, 
 dragged by horses jolting on the ground), and were carried 
 off by a long route (Cheapside, Holborn, and the present 
 Oxford Street), well known to our readers, to the place of 
 execution at Tyburn, 25 where they arrived about seven o’clock 
 in the morning, chanting all the way without intermission, the 
 hymn of St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, Te Dernn laudamus. 
 Then as soon as the cart had been drawn away from under 
 the Reverend Luke Kirby, and he was left suspended, Father 
 
 84 Life of Campion , p. 307, seq. 
 
 85 Most of our readers probably know that this once renowned spot is 
 now marked by a stone, which is erected at a place where “ Tyburn Gate ” 
 once closed the great western road out of London, a few yards beyond the 
 present Marble Arch. Just outside of this, probably within the garden of 
 the house at the corner of the Edgeware Road, stood the famous gallows, 
 three posts in a triangle, connected at the top by three cross bars, where the 
 weekly batch of murderers, thieves, coiners, vagrants, traitors, or priests 
 were led out to suffer. It had been put up new for the execution of 
 Dr. Story, whose blood had consecrated it. Father Campion in his 
 frequent journeys from London or Westminster to Uxenden Hall, near 
 Harrow, where his friend and convert Mr. Bellany lived, would always 
 walk between the posts with his hat off, and with a profound bow, in honour 
 both of the Cross which is figured, and of the martyrs who had already 
 suffered there for their faith ; and, as he told Father Parsons, who often 
 accompanied him, because it was one day to be the place of his own 
 conflict {Life of Campion, by Mr. Simpson, p. 201). 
 
Father Thomas Cottam . 
 
 I7i 
 
 Cottam and Mr. Richardson were brought together and ordered 
 to look upon their hanging companion, if by chance the 
 example of so terrible a death might shake their constancy ; 
 but when the brutal executioners saw that this was in vain, 
 they cut him down, and then drew the cart in which they had 
 been placed from the hurdle, beneath the gallows according 
 to the usual custom, where with cheerful countenance signing 
 themselves with the sign of redemption, saying, In nomine Patris, 
 &c., Father Cottam, with an expression of hilarity, looking 
 round and saluting the multitude of people said, “ God bless 
 you all; God bless you all.” Mr. Richardson being com- 
 manded by the under-sheriff to look upon his companion who 
 was being quartered, said, “Oh, God’s will be done.” Here- 
 upon a Protestant preacher, named Martin Field, addressing 
 some one, I know not who (says the eye-witness writer), called 
 out “ Despatch thee , instantly — despatch!” Father Cottam, 
 thinking perhaps that he addressed him, turning to him said 
 smiling, “What art thou, an hangman, or a preacher ? fie, fie.” 
 Some Protestant ministers present, interrupting him said, 
 “ Leave off these jests ; it is no time to joke; he is a preacher 
 and not an executioner, and he cometh to exhort you to die 
 well.” The martyr still smiling replied, “ Truly by his words 
 he seemed to be an executioner, rather than a minister of 
 religion, for he said, ‘ Despatch , despatch!” Then, upon 
 Mr. Field excusing himself, and explaining that he had intended 
 by those words to convey a reprehension to the hangmen 
 for their want of skill and despatch in the execution of his 
 companion, Father Cottam said, “ I beg pardon of my God for 
 my idle speech, and I beg you, Doctor Martin, do not be 
 angry with me for my imprudences, for I had rather be trodden 
 under foot by your horse, than willingly give you offence.” 
 
 Whilst the executioners were engaged with Mr. Richard- 
 son, Father Cottam, burning with the desire of the salva- 
 tion of a stranger, took Bull the hangman by the sleeve, and 
 addressed him as follows : “ May God forgive thee, and be 
 good to thee, my man, and make thee His faithful servant; 
 take heed I pray thee in time, and implore His grace, and no 
 doubt but God will hear thee. I beg and pray for God’s sake, 
 that thou wilt take example from, and imitate the executioner 
 who beheaded St. Paul, whoever he was, and who by a single 
 drop of his blood falling upon his garment, white like milk, is 
 said to have be^n converted, to have done penance for his past 
 life, and to have become a good man, whose example mayest 
 
172 
 
 Father Thomas Cottam. 
 
 thou follow, and I pray God give thee His grace.” “ What do 
 you say?” said the parson of St. Andrews’; “is it true that he 
 was saved by virtue of blood falling upon him?” “Not so,” 
 replied the martyr; “ I truly wonder that it should have 
 entered your mind to say this, or that you should have so 
 understood me.” 
 
 Then the six articles were read, and Mr. Richardson’s 
 answer ; 26 who said, as touching the doctrine of Dr. Saunders 
 and Dr. Bristow, he allowed of it no further than they agreed with 
 the true Catholic Church of Rome. Topcliff, who was present, 
 and some ministers, said he built his faith upon Saunders ; to 
 whom he replied, “ I build not my faith upon any one man 
 whatsoever, but upon the whole Catholic Church.” Father 
 Cottam also declared the same, and with much freedom 
 rebuked the ministers present for having calumniated him in 
 the same manner, because he had praised the doctrine of 
 Saunders and Bristow. Then the rope being put about both 
 their necks, and fastened to the post, the sheriff said, “Now, 
 Richardson, if thou wilt confess thy faults and renounce the 
 Pope, the Queen will extend her mercy towards thee, and thou 
 shalt be carried back again.” Mr. Richardson answered, “I 
 thank her Majesty for her mercy; but I must not confess an 
 untruth, or renounce my faith.” 
 
 Whilst these things were going on, a certain Protestant 
 minister present exhorted Father Cottam to confess a certain 
 sin committed in the fish or meat market some four years ago. 
 “ What do you mean ? ” said the martyr. Mr. Martin Field 
 (before mentioned) replied that the minister wished him to 
 confess some grievous sin he had committed in the market 
 long ago. “O good Jesus,” replied the martyr, “may your 
 name be ever blessed ! Do you dare to charge me with this 
 crime?” “We do not charge you with it,” said the minister, 
 “we only wish you to free yourself from all suspicion of it, 
 if any such crime was ever committed.” The Father replied, 
 “ Hear me, I pray you ; how can you accuse me of com- 
 mitting a crime four years ago, not having for these seven 
 years past been in London? And if I should have committed 
 such an offence, who has put it into your minds to charge me 
 with it in such a place and at such a time as this ? ” Then 
 both of the ministers affirmed that it was not Father Cottam, 
 but a brother of his who had committed the offence in question. 
 
 Father Cottam then prayed, uttering divers good sentences, 
 28 The six questions at page 157. 
 
Father Thomas Cottam . 
 
 173 
 
 saying, “All that we here sustain is for saving of our souls;” 
 and therewith lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, “ O Lord, 
 Thou knowest our innocency.” Then he was bid to confess 
 his treasons. “ O Lord,” said he, “ how willingly would I 
 confess if I did know anything that did charge me ; and if 
 we had been guilty of any such thing surely one or other of 
 us, either by racking or death, would have confessed it, or else 
 we had been such people as never were heard of. And I 
 protest before God that before my coming into England, I 
 was prepared to go to the Indies ; and if I were to be set 
 at liberty, I would never rest but on the journey to those 
 countries.” With that the sheriff said, “The Queen will be 
 merciful to thee, if thou wilt thyself.” He answered, “ I thank 
 her Grace ; ” saying further, “ Do with me what you think 
 good.” Thereupon the sheriff commanded that the rope 
 should be loosed from the post, and the Father removed 
 down from the cart. 
 
 Then Mr. Richardson was once more called upon to 
 confess and ask pardon of the Queen, with an offer of 
 mercy, &c. “Never truly,” said Topcliff, “was such great 
 mercy ever shown by the Queen to any malefactor ; nay, if 
 thou hadst been in the power of any other, thou wouldst 
 have been torn asunder by wild horses.” Mr. Richardson 
 hearing this, answered that he had never offended the Queen 
 to his knowledge. Then he was willed to pray, which he 
 did, begging all the Catholics present to pray with him, whilst 
 he recited the Lord's Prayer, the Angelical Salutation, and the 
 Apostles’ Creed, and when the cart began to move, he said, 
 “ Lord, receive my soul; Lord Jesus, receive my soul.” 
 
 When the cart was drawn away from Mr. Richardson, 
 Father Cottam said, “ O good Laurence, pray for me ; Lord 
 Jesus, receive thy soul;” 27 which he repeated several times. 
 He uttered these pious words in order to defend the doctrine 
 of the invocation of Saints against the attacks of Clark and 
 other Protestant ministers who had assailed it. It seems that 
 the sheriff had misunderstood the meaning of Father Cottam’s 
 words, “ Do with me what you think good,” and thought that 
 they were signs of conformity. He was still with the sheriff 
 and the ministers upon the ground beneath the gallows with 
 the rope about his neck. The sheriff in the meantime not 
 to appear idle tried his utmost to persuade him to apostatize, 
 and addressing him in the most moving manner, said, “We 
 57 Hollingshead, 1582, f. 1383. 
 
174 
 
 Father Thomas Cottam. 
 
 can readily understand, Cottam, that you did not come into 
 England with the same intent as your companions to excite 
 the people to sedition, but for the sake of recovering your 
 health. I consider you truly fortunate that you did not join 
 company with evil men of this sort. You have no cause to 
 doubt the mercy of the Queen, who is disposed to show herself 
 a clement Prince in your regard.” 
 
 When the blessed martyr heard this speech, and saw him- 
 self loose from the gallows, really considering that his life had 
 been spared, he returned the Queen all thanks in his power> 
 But when he learnt from the sheriff that this one only thing 
 remained to be done, viz., that he should clear himself before 
 the people of the charges brought against him, and publicly 
 declare that he had not come to England for the same cause 
 as the rest who had been condemned had come, and that the 
 plans of the Roman Pontiff for this design were highly dis : 
 pleasing to him, he spoke with such boldness in behalf of his 
 own and his companions’ innocence, that it was easy to see that 
 the good and great God imparted to His soldier in this conflict, 
 both grace and light by which he detected the frauds of his 
 adversaries, and escaped the pit prepared for him. He con- 
 cluded by declaring that he would not swerve a jot from his 
 faith for anything — “ Yea, if I had ten thousand lives, I would 
 rather lose them all, than forsake the Catholic faith in any 
 point.” 
 
 The sheriff finding his mistake ordered the martyr to be 
 again lifted up into the cart, saying, “ Despatch him since he 
 is so stubborn.” 
 
 He was then turned round to look upon Mr. Richardson, 
 who was already cut down, and being quartered, which he 
 did, saying, “Lord Jesus, have mercy upon them. O Lord, 
 give me grace to endure to the end. Lord, give me con- 
 stancy to the end.” Which words he uttered nearly all the 
 time that Mr. Richardson was in quartering, excepting once, 
 when he said, “Thy soul pray for me.” And at the last, 
 u O Lord, what a spectacle hast Thou made unto me,” which 
 he repeated twice or thrice. And then the head of Mr. 
 Richardson was held up by the executioner who cried out, 
 as the custom is, “ God save the Queen.” To which Father 
 Cottam said, “I beseech God to save and bless her; and 
 with all my heart I wish her prosperity as my liege and 
 sovereign Queen, and chief governess.” They called upon 
 him to add, “ And supreme head in matters ecclesiastical.” 
 
Father Thomas Cottam. 175 
 
 To whom he answered, “ If I would have put in these words, 
 I had been discharged almost these two years since.” Then 
 the sheriff said, “You are a traitor if you deny that.” The 
 martyr said, “ No, not so ; that is a matter of faith, and 
 unless it be for my conscience and faith, I never offended 
 her Majesty.” And with that he looked up to heaven and 
 prayed secretly, then uttered these words, In te Domine speravi , 
 non confundar in ceternum — “ In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped, 
 let me never be confounded for ever.” And, O Domine, tu 
 plura pro me passus es, &c. — “ O Lord, Thou hast suffered 
 more for me;” thrice repeating, plura — “more.” 
 
 Then the sheriff said to him, “ Yet Cottam, call for mercy 
 and no doubt the Queen will be merciful unto you.” He 
 answered, “ My conscience giveth me a clear testimony that 
 I never offended her.” Adding that he wished her as much 
 good as to his own soul ; and for all the gold under the cope 
 of heaven, he would not wish that any one hair of her head 
 should perish to do her harm. And that all that he here 
 suffered was for saving her soul; praying Almighty God, for 
 His sweet Son’s sake, that He would vouchsafe to take him to 
 His mercy; saying that Him only had he offended; and 
 begging of God that if there were anything more unspoken, 
 which were proper to be said, He would be pleased now to 
 put it into his mind. 
 
 The martyr then prayed, desiring forgiveness of all the 
 world ; and saying that he did from the bottom of his heart 
 forgive all. Adding that the sins of this realm have deserved 
 infinite punishment, and God’s just indignation, and praying 
 Him of His goodness to turn away His wrath from this people, 
 and call them to repentance, to see and to acknowledge their 
 sins. Then he begged all Catholics to pray with him, and 
 having said the Pater, and being in the middle of his Ave, the 
 cart was drawn away. 
 
 He hung until he was dead, and on being stripped, he was 
 found to wear within his shirt a rough canvas cloth like a sack, 
 extending to the knees, the best substitute he could procure for 
 a hair cloth, an instrument of penance ; “ with which kind of 
 things,” says an author we are quoting from, “ England is not 
 now acquainted.” Admirable proof of his generous soul, who, 
 not satisfied with the terrible suffering of his nearly two years’ 
 incarceration and tortures, must needs use such acts of supere- 
 rogation. The Protestant preachers both of the mild and severe 
 class joined equally in making a thousand jokes upon this 
 
1 76 
 
 Father Thomas Cottam. 
 
 discovery, such as that from their fifth gospel they had gathered 
 how injurious all kinds of penances were to the merits of our 
 Redeemer. Nor in truth do they learn to exercise voluntary 
 penance in their new faith, but to treat themselves well, and 
 to gratify as much as possible the desires of their flesh. Yet, 
 nevertheless, the spectators remained all the more astonished, 
 and moved to compunction at such a sight. 
 
 The bodies of the martyrs, after the accustomed cutting up, 
 were buried on the spot, at the feet of the gallows, from whence 
 they were afterwards furtively carried off by the Catholics, and 
 devoutly guarded by them as relics of saints. Nor were they 
 indebted for even this kind of sepulture to the mercy of the 
 State Ministers instead of their quarters being exposed as usual 
 with others, to the public gaze ; but it was a wise policy not to 
 give further cause of exasperation to the people, already no 
 little excited, and loudly murmuring, that they had now made 
 all London but as one shambles for human flesh ; so numerous 
 were the heads exposed upon the towers of the bridges, and 
 the limbs hung here and there in many places. Whence that 
 which in the estimation of Englishmen was Justice, in the eyes 
 of foreigners resembled barbarism. For this same reason they 
 sent far from London, even to the city of York for execution, 
 and butchering, the last four of the twelve priests slaughtered 
 this year. 28 “And/’ writes a Protestant historian, “ with such 
 a 7 iumber removed from the world , the brooms of justice cleansed 
 England of cobwebs of this cloth , to wit , of Catholic priests, that 
 catch the flies of souls.” 29 So says he, with but little grace, or 
 to speak correctly, giving expression by the run of his pen, to 
 a vain and totally false joy; since, so far was the death of 
 twelve priests from lessening the usual gain of souls to the 
 Catholic faith in the kingdom, that in the following year, 
 1583, there was such a copious gathering that perhaps, whether 
 we regard the quality, or the multitude of Catholic converts, 
 no previous year can be compared to it. 30 
 
 88 (Query) Eleven. See Challoner, vol. i. ; seven hung at Tyburn, one 
 at Chelmsford, three at York. 
 
 89 Hollingshead, 1582, f. 138 3, is the author of this amiable passage. 
 
 80 Bartoli, Inghilterra, lib. iv. 
 
Father Thomas Cottam. 
 
 177 
 
 AUTHORS WHO HAVE TREATED UPON THIS MARTYR. 
 
 Concertatio Ecclesiae in Anglia, part 2, fol. 85, 86, 90, 
 93 ; part 3, fol. 212, 224, 296, 408. 
 
 Bombini in vita Campiani, c. 15, 24, 53. 
 
 Historia Martyrii 16 Sacerdotum in Anglia. Italice. Neap. 
 1584, c. 10. 
 
 Edw. Rishtonus in Diario addito hist. Sanderi. 
 
 Didacus Yepes de persecut. Angliae, fol. 4, c. 23. Hispanice. 
 Hieronomi Pollinus de pers. Angliae, fol. 4, c. 42. Italice. 
 Florimundus Remundus de orig. haeres., lib. 6, c. 12, n. 4. 
 Sanderus de Schism. Angliae, lib. 3. 
 
 Ribadeneira de centuria Martyrum, S.J. 
 
 Catal. eonimd. Martyrum. Edit. Cracovice. 
 
 Tabula eorumd. Romae incisa. 
 
 Menolog. (S.J.) MS. 
 
 Ludovic. Granatensis in Compendio Instruction^ ad Sym- 
 bolum fidei, lib. 2, c. 22. 
 
 Ratib. Bewyonius de Jubileo, lib. 5, c. 9. 
 
 Thomas Bozius de signis Eccles., signo 27, 43, 57. 
 
 John Rho. in hist, virtutum, lib. 4, c. 10, § 3. 
 
 Clarus Bonarscius in Amphitheatro honoris, c. 4. 
 
 Andraeus Cadaemon in Apol. pro Hen. Gameto, p. 165. 
 Petrus Oultreman in tabulis Virorum illust. S.J. Gallice. 
 Jacob Damianus in Synop. S.J. lib. v. c. 15. 
 
 Hilarion de Costae Hist. Cath. lib. 3, in Edmundo Cam- 
 piano et in Thoma. (Gort.) Gallice. 
 
 Hieron. Rappius in annalibus Seminarii Romani MS. 
 Tanner, S.J. Vita et mors Jesuitarum. 
 
 Bartoli, Inghilterra. 
 
 More, S.J. Hist. Prov. Angliae S.J. 
 
 Bp. Challoner, Miss. Priests. 
 
 M 
 
178 
 
 VIII. 
 
 FATHER RICHARD BRADLEY, S.J., 
 
 Confessor for the Faith , and Martyr in the Gaol of Manchester , 
 dying of gaol fever before his trial, 30 th January , 1646, cet. 41. 
 
 Father Richard Bradley was a native of Lancashire, 
 born a.d. 1605. He entered the Society 1623, set. 18, saw 
 much active and dangerous life as camp missioner to the 
 English and Irish soldiers in Belgium, and returning to 
 England, was seized by the Parliamentary soldiers in Lanca- 
 shire, the field of his labour, and being committed for trial 
 to Manchester gaol, died there from the pestilential effects of 
 the horrible dungeons of those times, before he was brought 
 out for trial, and, as we may presume, for public butchery. 
 The only record about this confessor of the Faith, is to be 
 found in Tanner’s Vita et mors Jesuitancm pro fide interfedo- 
 rum. 
 
 “The county of Lancaster,” says Father Tanner, “gave 
 birth to Father Richard Bradley, a man of great soul, and 
 prodigal alike of blood and life, as often as occasion or neces- 
 sity occurred. He entered the Society of Jesus at the age of 
 eighteen, under the discipline of which he was formed by 
 virtue and learning a most apt instrument of the divine glory. 
 In due course he was solemnly professed of the four 
 vows. How great labours he endured in the vineyard of the 
 Lord, how great dangers he incurred in the search for souls, 
 there is no need to explain, since of him it might truly be 
 said, 4 his soul was always in his hands.’ Indeed, the camp 
 mission in Belgium had been a field for the display of those 
 courageous virtues he possessed, before he arrived in England. 
 There, amidst the most frequent danger of death, so self- 
 possessed was he, that in the heat of battles he would run 
 through the ranks of the soldiers of the entire army, from 
 the rear to the van, undismayed by the shots whizzing around 
 him, armed with the crucifix alone, with which he encouraged 
 the combatants, boldly to engage the enemies of the Faith, 
 
Father Richard Bradley. 
 
 179 
 
 and animated those who had fallen mortally wounded to die 
 with fortitude in so good a cause. It once happened that in 
 an engagement more sanguinary than the rest, he ran through 
 the dense shower of bullets flying about his head, regardless 
 of his own safety, to hear the confessions of the wounded, 
 when a certain soldier, seeing his imminent danger, and 
 apprehensive for the Father’s safety, took off his own helmet 
 and placed it on the head of Father Bradley, so that one 
 might have suspected him to have been his good angel 
 guardian, for no sooner had the trooper performed this act 
 of charity, when a musket-ball struck the Father on the head, and 
 must have shattered it, had it not been turned off" by the 
 helmet ; heaven by this means preserving its faithful servant. 
 
 “ It was easy to foresee the sufferings he would have to 
 undergo in those difficult times, on being appointed to the 
 English mission, from those of others, since there was no 
 opportunity of going abroad in open daylight to visit, console, 
 and encourage the faithful, but this could alone be accomp- 
 lished under cover of the darkness of night. And although 
 Father Richard did this with the utmost caution he was never- 
 theless seized at length by the Parliamentary pursuivants, and 
 thrust into the gaol of Manchester, nor did he foresee any other 
 sequel in his regard, than the irrevocable sentence passed upon 
 all English priests — to be hung, drawn, and quartered, unless 
 previously killed by the most grievous sufferings of the prison. 
 But now, should any one wish to know the nature of the 
 imprisonment and dungeons of the English priests, let him 
 hear the description of two sufferers in them. 
 
 “Father John Gerard, of the Society of Jesus, speaking of 
 the prison called the Counter, which Father Garnett in one of 
 his letters calls ‘ a very evil prison and without comfort/ says, 
 * I was thrust through a little narrow door into a cell under 
 the roof, where there was nothing but a bed, and no room 
 to stand upright, except just where the bed was. There was 
 one window open day and night, through which the foul air 
 entered, and the rain fell on to my bed. The room door was 
 so low that I had to enter, not on my feet, but on my knees, 
 and even then I was forced to stoop ; however, I reckoned 
 this rather an advantage, inasmuch as it helped to keep out 
 the strong and pestilential stench that came from the common 
 place close to my door, that was used by the prisoners in that 
 part of the gaol. I was often kept awake by the bad smell, 
 to say nothing of the injury to the health/ 
 
 M 2 
 
180 Father Richard Bradley. 
 
 “ Father William Weston, of the same Society, well known 
 throughout England for his most horrible sufferings, being' 
 thrust into a prison, the terrible stench of which so exceeded 
 all its other miseries, that, as he himself writes, he was so- 
 suffocated by its pestilential vapours, that his natural feelings 
 inclined him rather to wish for death at once, than to linger 
 on for so long a time in such great suffering. He could get 
 no sleep there unless his body, worn out by weakness, sank 
 prostrate upon the ground, and of this sort, he says, that were 
 he to reckon the time, he did not get more than ten hours 
 repose out of the fifty nights. He had only a wretched light, 
 as much as a narrow little window, like the loophole of a 
 tower, afforded him ; so that he esteemed it a blessing that he 
 was not deprived of both sight and mind, although as it was, 
 his strength and head were so exhausted that he was unable 
 either to write or read four lines consecutively. 1 By sufferings 
 similar to these, Father Richard Bradley was worn out before 
 he was led forth to a public defence of Catholicity by a 
 glorious death upon the gallows of Manchester. He died in 
 gaol 30th January, 1645, set. 41.” 
 
 1 This would have been, no doubt, the infamous Wisbeach Castle, of 
 which some slight description is given in the “Life of Thomas Pounde of 
 Belmont, S.J. ( Jesuits in Conflicts , Series I.). 
 
FATHER HUMPHREY LEECH, S.J, 
 alias HENRY ECCLES. 
 
 We conclude this portion of our history of the College of 
 St. Aloysius, or the Lancashire district, with the following 
 memoir of this celebrated convert to the Catholic faith. 1 
 
 Father Leech was born at Allerton, in Shropshire, in the 
 year 1571. He was admitted a student of Brazenose 
 College, Oxford, in 1590. After some time he removed to 
 Cambridge, where he took the degree of M.A., and returning 
 to Oxford in 1602, he was incorporated there in the same 
 degree in the month of June. Then returning into his own 
 county he became vicar of St. Alkmund’s, in Shrewsbury, 
 where he stayed not very long before he was invited to Oxford, 
 •and made chaplain or minor canon of Christ Church. In the 
 year 1607, happening to preach a sermon concerning precepts 
 and Evangelical Counsels, he gave great offence to the 
 University, and was impeached before the Vice-Chancellor, 
 Dr. King, as a favourer of Catholic doctrine on that subject ; 
 .and endeavouring to excuse himself, his explanations gave less 
 content, and at last he was suspended. The opposition and 
 vexatious annoyance he had thus to encounter, opened his eyes 
 to the truth, and leaving the University he publicly declared 
 himself to be a Catholic, and retiring to Arras in Artois, he 
 published the motives of his conversion, with an account of 
 the controversy between himself and Dr. King, concerning 
 Evangelical Counsels. 
 
 In the year 1609 he went to Rome, and entered the 
 English College as an alumnus, in the assumed name of 
 Henry Eccles, set. 38, Father Robert Parsons being then 
 Rector, and on the 2nd May, 1610, he took the usual 
 college oath. He was ordained priest on the 21st of 
 April, 1612; left Rome for England on the 22nd of April, 
 
 1 See Alegambe , S.J., Biblio Script ., quoted by Dodd, Church Hist. 
 yoI. ii. p. 400 ; Wood’s At hen. Oxon Litt. Annuce Coll. Angl. Rom. 
 1609. 
 
I 82 
 
 Father Humphrey Leech. 
 
 1618, and in the same year entered the Society of 
 Jesus. 2 A status of the English College for the year 1613, 3 
 thus notices him : “ Henry Eccles, a graduate of Oxford, and 
 formerly a famous preacher among the Protestants, and greatly 
 versed in the sacred writings, by his study of which he was 
 converted to the Catholic faith, and for preaching in the 
 University of Oxford the doctrine of the Evangelical Counsels, 
 he had much to suffer. Finally he abandoned his benefice, 
 riches, and country, and printed and published an excellent 
 work in defence of the said doctrine and of the Sacred Scrip- 
 tures, and thus gained himself a glorious victory. He resided 
 in England with Mr. Massey, of Hooton, Cheshire. His 
 course was very short, for worn out with consumption and 
 languor, he passed to his reward on July T 8 ¥ , 1629, in the 
 College of St. Aloysius, set. 57 — in religion eleven years, in 
 the degree of formed spiritual coadjutor.” 
 
 The following are extracts from Mr. Anth. Wood’s Athen. 
 Oxoji, concerning this Father. 
 
 “ Humphrey Leech, or Lechins, as he is sometimes written, 
 was born at Allerton, commonly called Ollerton, Shropshire, 
 was entered a student in Brazenose College, before the 
 month of November, 1590, for in that year, and of his age 
 nineteen, he was as a member of that house matriculated. But 
 before he took the degree of B.A. he went to Cambridge, where, 
 taking the degree of Master of Arts, he returned to Oxon in 
 1602, and in June the same year was incorporated in the same 
 degree. About that time he was made vicar of St. Alkmund’s 
 Church in Shrewsbury, where making a short stay, he returned 
 to Oxon, and became one of the chaplains or petty canons of 
 Christ Church, of whose preaching and what followed you 
 may see in History and Antiquities Univ. Oxon , lib. i. sub. ann. 
 
 1608. In which year, being suspended of his chaplainship 
 for preaching publicly some Popish tenets (for so they were 
 accounted by the Puritanical Doctors of the University in 
 those days), he left the Church of England, and went to 
 Arras in Artois, where he wrote these things following : 
 
 “ The Ti'iumph of Truth ; or a Declaration of the Doctrine 
 concerning Evangelical Counsels. In two parts. Douay, 
 
 1609. 8vo. 
 
 “ Sermon in Defence of Evangelical Councils and the Fathers , 
 on Apoc. xx. 12. Printed with the former book. 
 
 2 English College Diary. 3 Vol. iv. Stonyhurst MSS. Anglia, n. 4. 
 
Father Humphrey Leech . 183 
 
 “ Twelve Motives which induced him to embrace the Catholic 
 Religion. 
 
 “An honourable Grand Jury of Twenty -four Fathers , testi- 
 fying the distinction between legal precepts and Evangelical 
 Counsels by their uniform verdict; which book, with the 
 motives, were printed with the Triumph of Truth. 
 
 “ Humble Considerations presented to King James concerning 
 his premonitory Epistle, sent to all Christian Princes. St. Omer, 
 1609. 
 
 “ Afterwards our author going to Rome, was admitted into 
 the Society of Jesus, ann. 1618, before or after which time he 
 lived in the English College of Jesuits at Liege, and was most 
 commonly the porter there. At length being sent into the 
 English Mission, settled in a Roman Catholic house in 
 Cheshire, near the river Mersey, owned by one Massie, where he 
 departed this life in July (about the 18th day), 1629, as I have 
 been informed by William Lacey, of Oxon, one of his Society, 
 whom I shall remember when I come to the year 1673 as 
 having been originally of this University. ” 
 
 Wood’s History of the Antiquities of Oxon Univ. y vol. ii. 
 p. 294, thus mentions Father Leach — 
 
 “ Anno Domini 1608, 6 Jac. 
 
 “Humphrey Leech, M.A., some time a minister in Shrews- 
 bury, but now one of the chaplains or petty canons of Christ 
 Church, having toward the latter end of last year made an 
 ingress in a sermon into the doctrine of Evangelical Counsels, 
 on the 20 Apoc. v. 12, which was murmured at by some of 
 the University, proceeded notwithstanding again on the same 
 subject in a sermon preached on the 27th of June this year: 
 which sermon also giving far more offence than the former, 
 was summoned before Dr. Leonard Hutton, the pro-vice- 
 chancellor, to surrender up a copy of his sermon. At length 
 Dr. King, the vice-chancellor, coming home, and with other 
 doctors, taking Leech to task, was, after several conferences 
 had of various points in his sermons, thus sentenced by him 
 in his lodgings at Christ Church : 4 Mr. Leech, for preaching 
 scandalous and erroneous doctrine — doctrine, as you well 
 know, stiffly defended by the Church of Rome, and where- 
 upon many absurdities do follow — I do first, as vice-chancellor, 
 silence you from preaching ; secondly, as dean of this house, 
 I suspend you from your commons and function here for the 
 apace of three months.* 
 
184 
 
 Father Humphrey Leech. 
 
 “ This it seems was his sentence, and before the doctors 
 his associates, the vice-chancellor required him to take notice 
 of it, and to obey it. Afterwards Leech making his appeal 
 to the Archbishop, and finding not from him that remedy which 
 he desired, left the Church of England and went beyond the 
 seas to Arras in Artois, where, being for the present settled, 
 he wrote a book in defence of himself and his doctrine that he 
 had delivered, entitled, A Triumph of Truth, &c., 4 which 
 being afterwards answered by Dan. Price, of Exeter College, 
 in a book entitled A Defence of Truth, &c., 5 and by 
 Dr. Sebastian Benefield, of Corpus Christi College, in his 
 appendix to his book entitled Doctiince Christiance sex capita , 
 &c. 6 
 
 “ I shall say no more of the matter at this time, but refer 
 the reader to those books where possibly he may find all the 
 matter well stated.” 
 
 In page 297, same vol., Wood gives the following extract 
 from a letter of the newly-appointed Chancellor of the Uni- 
 versity, Dr. Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, “ who had 
 no sooner settled, but took order about reformation of the 
 scholars, who were mostly drawn aside by the vices of these 
 times.” 
 
 “ And because all occasions of schism, heresy and false 
 doctrine might be removed from among the students (as he 
 further saith in his aforesaid letter), it was held very fitting that 
 men in their ordinary table-talk, much more in their lectures ' 
 and sermons, either privately within their colleges or publicly 
 in the University, should be very wary and circumspect that 
 they broach not, or maintain out of singularity or a spirit of 
 contention, any opinions contrary to the received doctrine of 
 the Church of England, coming very near to Popery : albeit 
 they now seemed to mince and qualify it, because thereby 
 having once gone awry in their definions and determinations, they 
 do in a sort bind themselves to persist in those errors which 
 they have set on foot, and oftentimes are the means of seducing 
 others, who are not able to judge of the truth of that which 
 is delivered by them. Of this they had a late example 
 amongst them, in an unadvised and indiscreet Mr. Leech, 
 who having rashly uttered doctrine which was unsound, yet 
 was so persuaded that it stood with his estimation to defend 
 it, that being called to question for the same, he rather chose 
 
 4 Edit. 1609. 8vo. English. 5 Edit. Oxon, 1610. 
 
 6 Edit. 1610. 
 
Father Humphrey Leech. 185 
 
 to make shipwreck of a good conscience by flying to the 
 common enemy, than to recall or acknowledge his error, &c.” 
 
 The Annual Letters for the English College, Rome, 1609, 
 give a fuller account of Father Humphrey Leech — 
 
 “ This year was truly fruitful in the conversion of Protestant 
 ministers, of whom we have heard of eight becoming Catholics, 
 ut plene salutem ex inimicis nostris sperare jam liceat. 
 
 “ Of these two, viz., Theophilus Higgons and Humphrey 
 Leech, have published admirable reasons for their abandoning 
 their country and its heresy, and embracing a religious life, 
 and these works are read in England with great fruit. 
 
 “ Theophilus’ book is entitled, Primum motivum quod 
 Protestantium jidem Theophilo Higgonio , M.A., suspectam 
 reddidit ; viz. Detectio falsitatis in Doctor ibus quibusdam 
 Protestantibus in controversia de Purgatorio et oratione pro 
 mortuis. In this book he so clearly exposes the frauds, the 
 lies, and impostures of the Protestants, that no one can doubt 
 that all this farrago of heresy, sowed and tacked together by 
 mere calumnies, falsehoods, and absurdities, as a piece of 
 patchwork, is composed of nothing else than of errors which 
 the ancient Church, the Councils, and the Fathers have 
 altogether rejected and condemned. 7 
 
 7 Theophilus Higgons unhappily fell away. He was son of Robert 
 Higgons, bom at Chilton, Bucks, and having learned his rudiments at 
 Thame in Oxfordshire, became a student at Christ Church College, Oxon, 
 in 1592, aet. about fourteen. He took his M.A. degree in 1600. He was 
 esteemed in the University as a man of good parts, and no mean poet. 
 As for his religion, he seemed much inclined to Puritanism, and expressed 
 an uncommon aversion to the Church of Rome ; an instance whereof he 
 gave, when being censor in his college, he caused a may-pole to be cut 
 down that stood too near him, upon the pretence that it was a mark of 
 Popery and superstition. When Dr. Ravis, dean of Corpus Christi, was made 
 Bishop of Gloucester, he took Mr. Higgons to be his chaplain, and upon 
 the further advancement of Ravis to London, his chaplain followed him, 
 and was made lecturer of St. Dunstan’s, Fleet Street, where he was much 
 admired and followed on account of his great talent in preaching, which, 
 notwithstanding, disgusted some of his supporters, who were no friends to 
 canting and long prayers. This, and his unsuitable marriage, was very 
 displeasing both to his friends and relations ; and debts coming upon him at 
 the same time, he forsook his wife, left London, and moved into the north 
 of England, where, not meeting with encouragement sufficient to satisfy 
 his ambitious mind, and answer the opinion he held of his own merits, he 
 became very thoughtful, and falling into conversation with Mr. Fludd, alias 
 John Floyd, a Jesuit, a noted controversial divine, was brought over to 
 the communion of the Church of Rome, and immediately published a 
 
1 86 Father Humphrey Leech. 
 
 “ But Humphrey (who is now an alumnus of this College) 
 gives his book the following glorious title, Triumphus veritatis , 
 quia vere in doctrina de Consiliis Evangelicis de toto Ministrorum 
 Oxoniensium grege sola veritate armatus non simul triumphavit. 
 The quarrel between Humphrey and the heads of the University 
 first commenced in consequence of his having quoted the 
 following passage of St. Gregory in a University sermon 
 preached by him : Quidam judicantur et pereunt , quidam non 
 judicantur et pereunt , quidam judicantur et regnant , quidam non 
 judicantur et regnant , 8 and commenting upon the last clause 
 of the sentence, ‘These/ he said, ‘are they who go beyond 
 the precepts of the law, by the observance of the Evangelical 
 Counsels.’ This was enough. Being charged with intro- 
 ducing new doctrine, he produced the whole assembly of the 
 Fathers of the Church with such force as to drive the heretics 
 into a dilemma. Either the Fathers are to be heard by us, 
 or else entirely rejected ; if the latter, why do we appeal to 
 them against the Papists? and so confidently brag that they 
 are on our side? ‘But/ he added, ‘if we admit these as 
 judges in the cause, then I cannot fall, for I can easily prove 
 without contradiction, the universal assent in opinion regarding 
 the Evangelical Counsels, whence it is permitted me to say 
 with St. Augustine : Istis cede , et mihi cede : quod dicunt dico , 
 quod docent doceo , quod prcedicant prcedico , non aquas furtivas 
 propono , sed ex horum fontibus et purissimis rividis haustas y 
 acceptasquel Humphrey’s freedom of speech greatly gravelled 
 the heretics, who by common assent, and according to the 
 custom of the University, appointed a lecture to be given, 
 in which the candidate held forth with marvellous audacity, 
 against the Evangelical Counsels, asserting that all works were 
 
 small treatise concerning mortal and venial sin, which is said to have been 
 agreeable to the principles of neither party. Afterwards he went abroad, 
 visiting Douay and St. Omer’s Colleges, whither his father went to reclaim 
 him, and bring him back into England, but in vain. From St. Omer he 
 went to Rouen, big with hopes of great preferments by the change of his 
 religion. But matters not succeeding according to his expectation, he 
 returned into England, and was reconciled to the Protestant Church 
 chiefly by the means of Dr. Thomas Morton, Dean of Winchester, after- 
 wards Bishop of Durham, who had before taken some pains to answer one 
 of his books. Being thus regained to the Church of England, he was 
 made rector of Hunton, near Maidstone, and lived there till the rebellion 
 broke out, when his benefice being sequestered, he lived private in 
 Maidstone, where he died 1659 (Wood, Athen. Oxon , vol. ii. p. 240). 
 
 8 26 Moral, cap. 24, 25. 
 
Father Humphrey Leech. 
 
 187 
 
 of precept, and these counsels manifestly repugnant to the 
 Word of God. After distorting various passages into this 
 sense, and miserably evading those objected by Humphrey, 
 for fear of their making against him, he at length came to 
 handle the universal assent of the Fathers, which, as a Gordian 
 knot he was unable to unravel, he therefore set to work to 
 cut it — for where he should have singled out some of them, 
 he instead rejected, repudiated, and scorned the whole in one 
 sentence. ‘As regarding the Fathers of the Church/ he 
 said, ‘ I pronounce them all to have been fascinated, deceived, 
 and seduced by the errors of their times/ A brief censure 
 indeed, but replete with impudence and blasphemy ; and thus 
 heresy cannot subsist unless he will take God from heaven, 
 the Fathers from the schools, Sacrifice from the temples, and 
 even from the entire globe of the earth. 
 
 ‘ Humphrey, moved to indignation at this response, pre- 
 pared another sermon, in which he showed that his doctrine 
 is the Catholic one, from so many proofs drawn from the 
 Sacred Scriptures, the Councils, and Fathers, which before he 
 had only incidentally touched upon, but now purposely, and so 
 clearly demonstrated, as completely to shut the mouths of 
 objectors. This raised a storm against him, and they pro- 
 ceeded to accuse him as a favourer of Papistry, and finally to 
 declare that such doctrine was repugnant to the Gospel, and 
 was not to be allowed with impunity, but its author must be 
 severely punished for having rashly mixed himself up in these 
 controversies. Especially they prohibited him from again 
 preaching without obtaining a license from the Faculty of 
 Theology, and then personally summoned him to purge himself 
 of the suspicion of Papistry, which indeed he obeyed, not 
 unwillingly, but most gladly : and being now before them, 
 they specially urged that the doctrine he had delivered regard- 
 ing Evangelical Counsels was scandalous, erroneous, and 
 Papistical, nor could be any longer permitted, since he had 
 thereby so disturbed the peace of the University. To whom 
 Humphrey replied, ‘And what epithets do you apply to the 
 doctrine of the most Holy Trinity, the consubstantiality of 
 the Son, and the procession of the Holy Ghost, seeing that we 
 receive these truths from no other sources than the same 
 written foundations, viz. : the Church, and the Fathers, by 
 which I show that this dogma of the Evangelical Counsels, 
 which you call erroneous, scandalous, and Papistical, is mani- 
 festly true.’ 
 
1 88 
 
 Father Humphrey Leech . 
 
 “ The doctors seeing that they could by no means 
 detach him from this most firm foundation, imposed silence 
 upon him, with an injunction not to act or write further 
 regarding this controversy. Humphrey replied, ‘ I must obey 
 God rather than men, and such an injunction is manifestly 
 unjust, and therefore invalid ; nay, altogether null and void.’ 
 
 “ Whilst these things were going on, the Vice-Chancellor of 
 the University returned to Oxford from London. He was a 
 haughty and savage man, an Epicurean also (that is, a Puritan). 
 He sent for Humphrey, and after discharging upon him a volley 
 of bile, at length thus addressed him. ‘ I am ashamed to hear 
 the things of you which are everywhere forced upon me. 
 Indeed I have been myself accused in London for having 
 permitted such doctrine to be promulgated by a University 
 preacher.’ To whom Humphrey — ‘ If the things be false that 
 I teach, let their falsity be proved. I know that the Scriptures, 
 the Fathers, the Councils, and the Church support my position; 
 how, I pray you, do you convict me of falsehood ? I shall be 
 always ready to give an account of my words, and to convince 
 you that I am not uttering words only, lo ! ’ (at the same time 
 offering a paper), 4 the opinions of the Fathers, to which, when 
 a reply shall be given, it will not be difficult to bring me to a 
 recantation.’ To whom the Vice-Chancellor — ‘ Whether I 
 can refute these things I know not — this I do know, that I am 
 able to convict you of precipitate rashness, because in the 
 present state of our affairs, and the general tendency to an 
 apostasy from the Gospel to Papistry, you have dared thus to 
 preach.’ After a few days, being again cited before the Vice- 
 Chancellor and other doctors, he hastened to appear. The 
 heretical doctors objected many things against him, to which 
 Humphrey, instead of replying, asked the Vice-Chancellor that 
 the matter might not be dealt with in so confused a manner, 
 but rather that articles of charges might be exhibited against 
 him, according to the custom of the University, ‘Otherwise,’ 
 said he, ‘ it will seem to all to be a marvellous injustice, if you 
 pronounce sentence against me for a doctrine which you your- 
 selves are unable to refute ; or if this does not please you, I 
 will subscribe this proposition — Dantur Ev angelica Consilia , 
 and I ask you to sign the contrary one, Non dantur Ev angelica 
 Consilia , and moreover that you declare that what I hold 
 affirmatively, and still hold, ought to be deservedly punished 
 according to the laws.’ This most just demand these iniquitous 
 judges rejected, and the Vice-Chancellor, non verbo scd gladio , 
 
Father Humphrey Leech. 189 
 
 by power, not by reason, judicially pronounced this sentence 
 against him — ‘ Mr. Humphrey, because he taught by preaching 
 a scandalous and erroneous doctrine (a doctrine, as ye know, 
 warmly defended by the Church of Rome, from which many 
 absurdities follow), first, as Vice-Chancellor I prohibit him from 
 again preaching; secondly, as Dean of this College I interdict 
 him from commons, and all ministerial functions.’ 
 
 “ Humphrey went to London and appealed to the pseudo- 
 Archbishop against this injury. He grievously complained of 
 the injustice of the sentence. But provoked truth in vain 
 demanded protection from these builders up of lies, from whose 
 hearts, long ago, together with piety, all honesty was expelled. 
 For the pseudo-Bishop said that he was bound to defend the 
 Vice-Chancellor, and that these counsels could not be sup- 
 ported by the Gospel, but Humphrey proved the contrary ; nor 
 could he obtain anything else either by way of answer or 
 remedy for the injuries received, except that he should wait for 
 the Bishop’s sentence ; and having done so for a fortnight, and 
 finding that the pseudo-prelate would do nothing, but deferred 
 and procrastinated from day to day, a plan he adopted with 
 a view to weary out Humphrey and so bring him to a compliance 
 with his wishes, changing his plans, and impelled by the force 
 of virtue and of truth, he embarked for Flanders, and being 
 restored to the bosom of the Church by a Father of the Society 
 of Jesus, at St. Omer’s College, he came to Rome, where he 
 lives (says the writer of the report) in the English Seminary 
 among the alumni, affording a great example of piety and 
 humility, and, although advanced in life, yet submits himself 
 with great humility and alacrity to the lowest duties of the 
 College.” 
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTE FOR THE WORTHINGTON FAMILY. 
 
 A doubt was expressed on a former page whether Father 
 More is correct in his statement that Father John Worthington 
 was one of the four boys who were so constant under persecu- 
 tion. This doubt is strengthened by a passage in a letter from 
 Father Parsons to the General of the Society, dated Paris, 
 September 15, 1584. 
 
 Two things are certain, that of the four boys John was the 
 youngest; and that Father John Worthington had a younger 
 
190 
 
 Additional Note . 
 
 brother, Father Laurence. Now Father Parsons’ letter says that 
 the four boys were the youngest of a family of twelve children, 
 and this leads to the inference that John, the youngest of 
 those four, cannot be the same person as Father John, who 
 had a younger brother Laurence. 
 
 It may also be gathered from the same passage that 
 Richard Worthington, the father of the four boys, was the 
 eldest son, for Father Thomas Worthington calls him his 
 eldest brother. 
 
 This information having been obtained since the Pedigree 
 was in type, it remains for the reader kindly to substitute 
 Richard instead of Thomas as the eldest son. 
 
 Father Parsons’ words are : “ Praedictus autem Worthing- 
 tonus (sacerdos) etiam scribit fratrem suum majorem natu, qui 
 in eadem provincia Lancastrensi vir est nobilis et perhonestae 
 conditionis, cum Catholicus esset, et hanc apertam tyrannidem 
 in omnes passim exerceri cemeret ut liberi omnes invitis paren- 
 tibus abriperentur, timens ne idem sibi contingeret, ex 12 
 filiis quos habebat, quatuor minimos quos magis periculo 
 obnoxios putabat, dimisit clam Londinum, qui tamen omnes 
 divina permissione in itinere capti,” etc. 
 
■(EljicS Keefes!. 
 
 Part L 
 
 HISTORY of the COLLEGE of St. CHAD ; 
 
 OR 
 
 THE STAFFORDSHIRE DISTRICT, S.J . 
 
 {Formerly included in the College of St.Aloysius or the Lancashire District). 
 
I. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE OF ST. CHAD, 
 OR THE STAFFORDSHIRE DISTRICT, 
 
 Formerly included in the Lancashire District. 
 
 This district was, until the year 1669-70, included in the 
 College of St. Aloysius, or the Lancashire District. The 
 Litter ce Annuce Prov. Angl. for 1670, after mentioning that 
 there were six Fathers in this College, continue — “ St. Chad's 
 College was recently erected by desire of our Very Reverend 
 Father General; each of the Fathers contributing his share, 
 whether arising from alms or donations, or from his own 
 peculium, to make a proper foundation.” We shall however 
 in this sketch go back to the earliest times for any facts we 
 can find connected with this district. 
 
 As far as the very imperfect returns enable us to speak, 
 the usual number of Fathers in the College or district, from its 
 foundation until 1677, to which period this sketch of its history 
 extends, was about seven each year. Very little is mentioned 
 regarding the conversions, which in 1672 are stated to have 
 been twenty-eight. 
 
 In the general history of the sufferings of the English 
 Province in consequence of the infamous Oates' Plot, and in 
 that terrible blow to Catholicity, the Revolution of 1688, we 
 shall have to return to this district, in which one or two of the 
 principal abettors of the miserable perjured Oates once resided. 
 
 The following places were served, or visited, by the Fathers 
 of the College — 
 
 (Alveton) Alton 
 Aston Hall 
 Biddles or Biddulph 
 Boscobel 
 Bromley 
 Levison Mr. 
 
 Moseley 
 
 Rudge 
 
 Stafford 
 
 Stone 
 
 Swinnerton 
 
 Tixhall 
 
 Wolverhampton. 
 
 The following extract from a letter of P. H. to Secretary 
 Sir Francis Walsingham, called secret advertisements, shows 
 a visit of two of our Fathers to Staffordshire as early as 1582. 
 
 N 
 
194 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 The letter is in vol. civ. n. 9 6, Domestic , Elizabeth , State 
 Papers, P.R.O. “Informations of a letter sent by Dr. Hen- 
 shawe, a Seminary priest, to a friend, stating that he with 
 Fathers Holt and Heywood, Jesuits, had spent three months 
 in Staffordshire, and had converted two hundred and twenty- 
 eight persons to the Catholic faith. ” 
 
 Sketches of several distinguished members of the Society, 
 as serving in or connected with this College, will be given 
 further on in noticing some of the places served. 
 
 Although some of the events recorded in the Annual 
 Letters for the College of St.Aloysius up to the year 1669 — 
 1670, may perhaps have been connected with the Staffordshire 
 district, yet the only one specially mentioned as happening in 
 it, is an instance of the power of the Church’s exorcisms in the 
 expulsion of evil spirits from the possessed, which happened 
 in this year 1656, in a village called Halfcote, on the borders 
 of Worcestershire, in the house of Mr. Hill, as already related 
 in page 22, ante , “College of St Aloysius,” by the agency of 
 Father William Atkins. 
 
 1672. — The same Father Atkins is mentioned as being 
 then upwards of seventy years of age. So long as his 
 strength permitted he had been a zealous and admirable 
 labourer; and still, though nearly speechless, and his whole 
 frame paralyzed, he did not give up work, but exhibited an 
 iljustrious example of zeal for souls, patience, and other 
 virtues. This Father, who fell a victim to Protestant rage in 
 Oates’ Plot, will be more fully noticed in the intended history 
 of that period. He died a martyr in prison about eighty years 
 of age. He had been condemned to death, although speech- 
 less and bedridden from paralysis. 
 
 Members of the English Province have at various times 
 lived as chaplains in the family of the Earls of Shrewsbury. 
 
 Alveton (Alton). — We meet with one of these within 
 the limits of the present history. 
 
 Father John Spencer . — This celebrated controversial writer 
 was a native of Lincolnshire, bom in 1601. He entered the 
 Society at the age of twenty-six, in 1627. In a Catalogue for 
 the year 1642, he is named as Professor of Moral Theology 
 at Liege, and said to have been Minister of the Juniors, and 
 camp missioner. He was a convert to the Catholic faith when 
 a student at Cambridge University. He passed by the name 
 of Vincent Hatcliffe, and in the short notice of him in page 52 
 
Father John Spencer. 
 
 J 95 
 
 Flortis Anglo- Bavaricus, he is mentioned by that name alone. 
 The writer of the Floras, and also Mr. Dodd, 1 agree that he 
 was an able controversialist, barely excelled by any. Mr. Dodd 
 says that he recommended himself to the world by a con- 
 troversy which he and Dr. Lenthall, also a convert from 
 Cambridge, held in 1657 with Dr. Peter Gunning and Dr. 
 John Pearson. The Floras says that he publicly overturned 
 the impious dogma of the atheists — “ a not unfrequent kind of 
 cattle in England ” — and that he wrote many other works with 
 equal fruit, wherein he asserted the majesty of the sacred 
 pages against the perverse insolence of the heretics. 
 
 Father Spencer’s works are — Trials of the Protestant private 
 spirit (4to. 1630, 392 pp.) ; Scripture Mistaken , the ground of 
 Protestant and common plea of all new reformers (8vo. Antw. 
 
 • 1655, 405 pp.) ; Thirty-six queries proposed to the heretical 
 ministers in England (8vo. London, 1657); Aut Deus aut 
 nihil (8 vo. London), contra Atheiost ; Schism detected (8vo. 
 London); Account of a Conference with Dr. Gunning , &c. 
 (Paris 1658). 
 
 The following is a short eulogy of this Father, contained in 
 the summary of the deceased of the English Province for 1670. 
 
 “ Father John Spencer was a native of Lincolnshire ; forti- 
 fied by all the rites of Holy Church, nearly seventy years of 
 age, he departed this life to receive the heavenly reward, as 
 we hope,- of his great virtues, on the 17th of January, 1670. 2 
 He was a man of remarkable piety and modesty, upon whom 
 our most benign Lord had heaped no few pledges of His love. 
 For in his youth, being then a student in the University of 
 Cambridge, called by the singular grace of God, he in due 
 season abandoned the camp of heresy and entered the fold of 
 the Catholic Church. He presently began seriously to deli- 
 berate with himself upon a more perfect, and a stricter plan of 
 life, after which he sighed. Then, having entered the Society 
 of Jesus, he made happy progress both in virtue and in learning, 
 especially in what belonged to the controversies of our times, 
 amongst the writers of which he shone forth, if not the first 
 of them, yet was he ‘an athlete of many palms.’ He was 
 inflamed with a great zeal of bringing souls 'back to their 
 Creator. He often gave proof of this generous flame in his 
 breast, no less by his ardour, than by his frequent preaching. 
 And, impelled by the same zeal, he often came into close combat 
 with the chief men amongst the Protestants, of whom he con- 
 1 Church History, vol. iii. p. 312. * Oliver says 1671. 
 
 N 2 
 
196 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 verted many to the orthodox faith. Besides, by his published 
 and very learned writings, he strenuously and successfully 
 asserted the Catholic cause against the enemies of the Faith ; 
 also in an erudite volume written shortly before his death 
 against a by no means ignoble adversary. And it is hoped that 
 a posthumous offspring so worthy of its parent, may in a short 
 time be published. He was a diligent observer of religious 
 discipline, so that when he was acting as Superior in the camp 
 mission amongst the English troops in Belgium, and afterwards 
 in England itself for some years, he laboured to be pre-eminent 
 in it, not so much by his position and authority, as by his own 
 example to all in the virtue itself. He was sought by many 
 principal men on account of his great repute for sanctity and 
 learning, combined with an equal sweetness of address. He 
 was at length taken into the family of the noble Earl of- 
 Shrewsbury, and there eventually closed his long life, leaving 
 to all a great blank behind him. Worn out with the 
 pains of a terrible disease, joined to a very troublesome 
 quartan fever, he lay bedridden for nearly a fortnight, during 
 which time he exhibited proofs of admirable religious patience 
 and humility. Being now near his end, he exhorted all, with 
 great feelings of piety, to the observance of virtue, the com- 
 mandments of God, and especially to constancy in the Catholic 
 faith. He apparently suffered no trouble of soul in his last 
 struggles with death. He went off like one falling by degrees 
 into a placid sleep, and may be said rather to have happily 
 reposed in God, than to have died. 
 
 Stafford. — Although this is the chief town of the county, 
 yet it does not appear to have been the main station of this 
 College or district. It is a place of great antiquity. The first 
 notice of it is said to be in the year 705, when St. Bertelin, 
 son of a Mercian king, settled there, living in a hermitage. He 
 was, however, shortly afterwards expelled from the building he 
 had erected, and a few houses, which subsequently occupied 
 the site of it, are supposed to have been the origin of the 
 present town. 
 
 We do not trace any of our Fathers here by name, prior to 
 the Stafford district being transferred to St. Chad’s College in 
 1669-70. In the time of Oates’ plot, several are mentioned, 
 most of whom were inmates of Stafford gaol ; and one at least, 
 Father William Atkins, died in his cell, a martyr for his faith. 
 We shall have, therefore, to return to Stafford in the general 
 
Brother William Ellis . 
 
 197 
 
 history of the Province in that eventful period, and of the 
 Revolution of 1688. 
 
 We must not, however, omit to mention a lay-brother, 
 William Ellis , who in the time of the Gunpowder Plot was here 
 tried and condemned to death. Mention is made of him in a 
 letter of Father John Gerard, October 17, 1614 3 — “Among 
 the four which are come out of Spain, one of them is William 
 Ellis, but we call him John Williams, for he was page to Sir 
 Everard Digby, and taken with him, though he might have 
 escaped, for his master offered him horse and money to shift 
 for himself, but the youth said he would live and die with him, 
 and so being taken was condemned at Stafford, and should 
 have been executed. He was offered to have his life if he 
 would go to their church, which he refused. In the end they 
 saved him, and some others. He never yielded in the least 
 point. He hath good friends near Sir Everard Digby’s, whom 
 I know, and he is heir to a y ear if his father do him justice. 
 He entered the Society in the same year, 1614, in the degree of 
 lay-brother.” Father Gerard further mentions him in his narra- 
 tive of the Gunpowder Plot 4 — “ Sir Everard Digby, thinking to 
 have escaped, offered all his servants that they might take their 
 horses and money and shift for themselves. But his page and 
 one other said they would never leave him, but against their 
 will. Therefore, being well mounted, they three went together, 
 but they found the country so up on every side, and all drawing 
 towards the place where the report was the conspirators were 
 beset, that it was not possible for them to pass or go unknown, 
 especially' Sir Everard Digby, being so noted a man for his 
 stature and personage, and withal so well appointed as he was. 
 Whereupon he did rather choose (after he had gained a little 
 ground) to strike into a wood, and thought there in a dry pit to 
 have stayed with his horses until the company had been passed. 
 But they tracked his horses unto the very pit-side, and then 
 cried out, 1 Here he is ! Here he is ! ’ Sir Everard, being alto- 
 gether undaunted, answered, ‘ Here he is indeed ; what then ? * 
 and advanced his horse in the manner of curvetting (which he 
 was expert in), and thought to have borne them over, and so 
 to break from them, esteeming them to be but ten or twelve 
 persons whom he saw about the pit, and though he easily made 
 them give way, yet then he saw above a hundred people hard 
 
 3 Stonyhurst MSS. Anglice , vol. iv. n. 29; and quoted in Father Morris’ 
 Condition of Catholics , pp. cci. ccii. 
 
 4 See Condition of Catholics , p. no. 
 
198 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 by and coming upon him ; so that seeing it in vain to resist, 
 he willingly yielded himself to the likeliest man of the 
 company.” 5 
 
 Swinnerton, near Stone. — This place, once a royal resi- 
 dence in the times of the Saxons, and the seat of the ancient 
 Catholic family of Fitzherbert, was served by the Fathers of the 
 College. We name it here for the sake of introducing a very 
 eminent man, who, late in life, became a member of the 
 Society of Jesus. 
 
 FATHER THOMAS FITZHERBERT. 
 
 This distinguished member of the Society of Jesus, and 
 ornament in turn of the secular, the ecclesiastical, and the 
 religious states, was born at Swinnerton, Staffordshire, in the 
 year 1552. By the quaint pedigree we give (as copied from 
 the State Papers in the Public Record Office), and which, by 
 the remarks written at the foot regarding several of the 
 members of the family, was no doubt furnished to the Privy 
 Council by some Government spy, Thomas appears to have 
 
 5 Dodd’s Church History , vol. ii. p. 364, gives the following short but 
 very interesting notice of this much lamented and pitied baronet. “ Sir 
 Everard Digby was a gentleman of great accomplishments and fortune. He 
 was a zealous Catholic, of great interest with his party, and was unfortu- 
 nately drawn into the plot of Catesby, in 1605. On the discovery of the 
 plot he was seized with others at the house of Mr. Littleton, at Holbeck, 
 near Wolverhampton. He was tried at Westminster, on an indictment of 
 being privy to the plot and consenting to it, and taking an oath of secrecy. 
 He pleaded guilty, and was executed with Mr. Winter and others in 
 St. Paul’s Churchyard, 30th of January, 1606. He showed much sorrow in 
 his last speech, but appears to have had no knowledge of the particular 
 design against the Parliament House, but only of a design in general, 
 ‘ Declaring,’ says Stow ( Chron . p. 881), ‘that if he had known it at first to 
 have been so foul a treason, he would not have concealed it to have gained 
 a world.’ Pie was much pitied by everybody, being only twenty-four years 
 of age, and in all respects one of the completest gentlemen of the time ; 
 but unfortunately drawn in to favour a cruel strategem he was both ignorant 
 of and had a horror of. He left behind him a son, the famous Sir Kcnelm 
 Digby. Lord Bacon, in his Historia vitcc et mortis , relates a very extra- 
 ordinary passage concerning a person he does not name, but some take it 
 to be spoken of Sir Everard Digby, viz., that the executioner plucking out 
 his heart, and according to custom holding it up and saying, ‘ Here is the 
 heart of a traitor,’ the person was heard to say distinctly, ‘Thou best.’ 
 Lord Bacon incidentally relates this to show how far the heart may be 
 esteemed the seat of life. ” Dodd leaves the reader to look upon it as a 
 miracle or not, as he pleases. 
 
hiSssa * ohn 
 
 j To Jace page /<$. 
 
Father Thomas Fitzherbert. 
 
 199 
 
 been the eldest son of William Fitzherbert, called Fitzherbert 
 of Swinnerton, who was the fifth son of Anthony Fitzherbert 
 the celebrated judge, who came (says the same pedigree), to 
 be heir of Norbury, Derbyshire. 6 His mother was Isabella, 
 daughter and one of the heirs of Humphrey Swinnerton of 
 Swinnerton, Staffordshire, through whom that property came to 
 the Fitzherberts. 
 
 After tracing the following brief outline of the history, we 
 propose to give it more fully from Dodd’s Church History and 
 More’s Hist. Prov. Angl . , adding to these, extracts from papers 
 in the Public Record Office, in which Father Fitzherbert is 
 referred to, Wood’s A then. Oxon., &c. 
 
 His parents were Catholics. At a proper age he was sent 
 to Oxford, where he improved an excellent capacity by the 
 study of the best authors. His zeal for the Catholic faith 
 exposed him to ridicule and persecution, and he was actually 
 sentenced to a year’s imprisonment for refusing to conform to 
 the Church established by law, and for saying his prayers, like 
 Daniel, in his own way, according to the ancient Faith. In 
 him the Catholic religion found a constant friend and advocate, 
 and a generous protector ; he was never so happy as when he 
 had opportunities of administering assistance and hospitality to 
 priests and religious. On account of the intense heat of the 
 persecution, he retired with his wife and family to the Con- 
 tinent, where he was greatly esteemed in the Courts of France 
 and Spain. In 1580 he had married Dorothy, the only child of 
 Edward East of Bleadlow, Bucks. She died about 1588, and 
 he then decided on embracing the ecclesiastical state. On the 
 24th of March, 1602, he was ordained priest in Rome. From 
 his own narrative, which we shall give further on, we find that 
 on the 15th of August, 1606, he made a vow of entering the 
 Society of Jesus ; but he does not appear to have entered the 
 Order before 1613. After passing through several offices, he 
 succeeded Father Thomas Owen as Rector of the English 
 College, Rome, in 1618, and his government of it was dis- 
 tinguished by integrity, prudence, and charity. He died in that 
 office, between six and seven o’clock in the morning, on the 
 -^th of August, 1 640, at the age of eighty-eight, and was buried 
 in the College chapel. 7 Father Thomas Courtney, who succeeded 
 
 6 It is said that this excellent judge on his death -bed required a solemn 
 promise of his children neither to accept grants nor to make purchases of 
 abbey lands, and then surrendered his soul to God, May 27, 1538 (Oliver). 
 
 7 Dr. Oliver, Collectanea S.J. p. 92. 
 
200 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 him as Rector of the English College, pronounced his eulogy, 
 which will be found in page 213. 
 
 Dodd 8 gives the life of this eminent man in greater detail. 
 He observes that, though his parents were zealous Catholics, 
 yet it was not unusual in the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign to 
 send young Catholic gentlemen to the Universities, especially 
 to Oxford, where several tutors and some heads of Colleges 
 were willing to connive at their religion, and even instruct 
 them in their own way. Besides, in those days the abuse of 
 occasional conformity, and now and then frequenting the 
 Protestant service to avoid the penalty of the laws, was not 
 entirely redressed ; though an order from the Council of 
 Trent, declaring that custom to be inconsistent with the 
 sincerity of the Gospel and behaviour of the Christians in 
 all ages, soon put a stop to the generality of the practice. 9 
 This occasioned several Catholics to leave the University, and 
 among others Mr. Fitzherbert was called home, where his 
 example and arguments prevailed with a great many of his 
 neighbours, who, to secure their property, had hitherto con- 
 formed according to law. In the meantime he married [1580], 
 and was a great support to the Catholic cause by his learning 
 and religious behaviour. But his avowed recusancy, and the 
 conferences he had with several Protestants upon that and 
 other subjects, brought him under prosecution ; so that in the 
 year 1572 he was committed to prison upon account of recu- 
 sancy, and was no sooner released, but fresh complaints were 
 made against him. Finding, therefore, that he could abide no 
 longer in his own country with any comfort or safety, he 
 retired for a time; and then going up privately to London, 
 sent down orders for his wife and family to follow him. 
 
 In London he omitted no opportunity of bringing back 
 many that had forsaken the religion of their ancestors, and 
 confirming others who wavered under fear of persecution. It 
 was during his residence here that he had the satisfaction of 
 
 8 Church History , vol. ii. p. 410. 
 
 9 Father Darbyshire, who was then held in great esteem among the 
 Catholics in England, and subsequently entered the Society, was deputed 
 in their name to the assembled Fathers of the Council of Trent to procure 
 their opinion upon this point then much agitated in England, among the 
 Catholics. He soon returned, having procured their answer to the effect 
 that to attend the Protestant churches and worship would be a grave sin. 
 Through his zealous representations the Council passed the decree, Dc non 
 adeundis hcereticorum Ecclesiis. See Historical Facts , Prov. Angl. SJ. t 
 Series I., “Life of Father Darbyshire.” 
 
Father Thomas Fitzherbert. 
 
 201 
 
 entertaining Father Parsons and Father Campion, whom he 
 assisted with all conveniences upon their arrival in England in 
 1580. 10 Though London was a place where a great deal of 
 good might be done with secrecy, yet Mr. Fitzherbert was so 
 extensive in his zeal, and the sanguinary laws were now put 
 in execution with so great severity, that he found himself 
 obliged to retire into France, which he did in the year 1582, 
 in company with his wife. While he lived in Paris he con- 
 tinued his former practices of charitable and zealous assistance 
 to all in distress. An instance of this kind was the pains he 
 took to draw up and exhibit a memorial to the King of France 
 and princes of the Guise family, in favour of the unfortunate 
 Mary Queen of Scots, who, as he represented, was detained in 
 prison, and every day in danger of being taken off, upon no 
 other account than her religion, and lest her succession to the 
 crown of England should prove a means of restoring the 
 ancient Catholic faith. He gave several other proofs of his 
 zeal while he lived in France. On the death of his wife [1588] 
 he altered his mode of living ; yet still so as to become more 
 useful to the public. Having contracted a friendship with the 
 Duke of Feria in Flanders, he was at his persuasion induced 
 to take a journey into Spain, where, upon the recommenda- 
 tion of that nobleman, he was well entertained at Court, and 
 in a little time had great interest with his Catholic Majesty. 
 This advantage he daily improved to the benefit of all his 
 countrymen in distress, for whom he procured very plentiful 
 alms, and also a pension settled upon himself. The corres- 
 pondence which several of the English held, during their 
 exile, with foreign courts, was easily misrepresented; and 
 though it went no further than petitioning for a subsistence 
 to support them in their extremity, yet at home they were 
 continually maligned as rebels and enemies to their Queen and 
 country. This was Mr. Fitzherbert’ s case, as well as of many 
 others who resided in France and Flanders ; although with 
 repeated protestations of loyalty they endeavoured to wipe off 
 the aspersion. 11 It is far from good reasoning, says Dodd 
 
 10 Thomas Fitzherbert was one of the active members of the Young 
 Men’s Club for the assistance of Fathers Campion and Parsons and the 
 other missionary priests, founded by George Gilbert, Esq., afterwards S.J. 
 See Hist. Facts, S.J. , ut supra, “Life of Thomas Pounde.” 
 
 11 Repeated mention is made of Mr. Thomas Fitzherbert in the 
 letters and reports of spies and others among the State Papers, Public 
 Record Office. Extracts from several of these will be found in 
 p. 220, seq. 
 
202 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 upon this point, “ that a person who cannot conveniently live 
 at home, for want of friends, must of consequence be an 
 enemy to his country, because he meets with charity abroad.” 
 This was Mr. Copley’s complaint ; who, being created a baron 
 in France, during his exile, was upon that score traduced in 
 England as a rebel to his Queen. 12 “Yet Copley,” says 
 Mr. Camden, “ laboured to clear himself of all suspicion, pro- 
 testing his obedience towards his princess, and that he had 
 accepted that title with no other intent but that the greater 
 honour might come to his wife, the companion of his exile, 
 and the larger pension to himself from the Spaniard.” Indeed, 
 had the English exiles been concerned in any particular 
 strategem against Queen Elizabeth or the Government, this 
 was sufficient ground for the reproach. But charitable con- 
 tributions, pensions, ecclesiastical preferments, and even 
 commissions in the army from a foreign prince merely by 
 way of subsistence, cannot with justice bring them within the 
 charge of rebellion, or any design against their Queen and 
 country. 
 
 The Duke of Feria, being a general friend to all the 
 English abroad, and particularly to Mr. Fitzherbert, the latter 
 made it his business to attend that nobleman in several 
 journeys he took into Spain and Flanders ; and being with 
 him in Brussels in the year 1595, the Duke drew him out of a 
 snare that was laid for his destruction. 
 
 Mr. Fitzherbert himself gives this account of the con- 
 trivance. While he was at Brussels with the Duke, the year 
 above mentioned, a certain great man, whom he does not 
 name, suborned two profligate wretches to accuse him before 
 the State of Flanders of holding a correspondence with Cecil, 
 Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth ; as also of having laid 
 a design to set fire to the magazine at Mechlin. The villains 
 charged Mr. Fitzherbert with these when they were upon the 
 rack upon some other account. The Duke of Feria, being 
 in great concern for his friend, whose innocence he durst 
 answer for, imagining it was a contrivance of some of his 
 enemies who envied his interest at the Spanish Court, was 
 resolved to have the matter narrowly sifted; and by cross- 
 examining the informers, and other circumstances, it was found 
 to be as he suspected ; the villians at last confessing that it 
 was the force of torments, and fear of death, that induced 
 them to accuse him. Though this affair cast a blemish upon 
 12 Camden, Annal. Eliz. p. 220. 
 
Father Thomas Fitzherbert. 203 
 
 Mr. Fitzherbert for a few days, yet when the stratagem was 
 detected, it added to his reputation, and secured him against 
 the attempts of his enemies for the future. 
 
 In addition to this libellous charge, Mr. Fitzherbert was 
 also in 1598, together with Father Richard Walpole, the 
 subject of another and more infamous one of a pretended 
 conspiracy against the Queen’s life by poison. Amongst the 
 works of Father Fitzherbert, of which a list will be given at 
 the end of this history, was his defence and apology in the 
 matter of this grievous charge. Some examinations and state- 
 ments regarding the pretended plot, copied from the State 
 Papers in the Public Record Office will be found further on, with 
 a short Life of Father Richard Walpole. Afterwards, returning 
 into Spain with the Duke of Feria, he went with him to 
 Milan, where the Duke was to reside by the King of Spain’s 
 orders. But the great desire Mr. Fitzherbert had of seeing 
 Rome made his stay very short at Milan. 
 
 At Rome he began to put in execution a resolution he had 
 taken some time before, of entering into the ecclesiastical 
 state, for which purpose an apartment was fitted up for him, 
 adjoining the English College. Being ordained priest, he was 
 made agent for the English clergy, and continued twelve years 
 in that office, spending what time he could spare from other 
 duties in study, and publishing several books much esteemed 
 by the learned. 
 
 In the year 1607, when the Court of Rome had some 
 thoughts of sending over a bishop into England, Mr. Fitz- 
 herbert was upon the list with three other candidates, viz. : 
 Dr. Thomas Worthington, Dr. Wright, and another. The 
 design was not put in execution, but it thus incidentally 
 affords a proof of Mr. Fitzherbert’s merits, and the con- 
 sideration in which he was held. 
 
 “In the year 1609,” continues Dodd, “Father Fitzherbert 
 gave up his employment of being agent for the clergy, upon 
 several remonstrances made by the Archpriest Birket and the 
 rest of the body, who appointed Dr. Richard Smith, after- 
 wards Bishop of Chalcedon, to take his place. They were 
 induced to it by a jealousy of some long standing. They had 
 discovered that Mr. Fitzherbert had constantly consulted 
 Father Parsons and the Jesuits in all matters relating to the 
 clergy; and that too, contrary to an express order lately 
 directed to the archpriest from Rome ; and moreover that 
 this correspondence had been very prejudicial both to the 
 
204 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 interest and reputation of the clergy, as it was made appear 
 from several instances. That Mr. Fitzherbert was an improper 
 person to be employed by the clergy, appeared a few years 
 after, viz., in 1614, when he pulled olf the mask, and became a 
 Jesuit, after he had been a member of the secular clergy about 
 thirteen years, and intrusted with all the concerns that regarded, 
 their domestic interest. I take notice of this, says Dodd, not 
 with any design of detracting from the merit of that worthy 
 person, or that he acted contrary to the suggestions of a good 
 conscience. But that the steps he took were somewhat 
 mysterious, and detrimental to the clergy, is observed by the 
 archpriest, Mr. Birket, in his letters to him, and to Father 
 Parsons, when he desired his accounts and instructions might 
 be delivered up to Dr. Smith, his successor. 13 
 
 13 It is to be regretted that the historian, who otherwise is perfectly 
 fair and candid in his notice and praise of this distinguished man, should 
 stop to make such manifest insinuations of improper, or rather, dishonour- 
 able conduct, as are implied in these words, “throwing off the mask and 
 becoming a Jesuit,” after as a secular priest, he had acted as agent in Rome 
 for the clergy in England. The insinuation rests only upon the insufficient 
 ground that Father Fitzherbert was in the habit of consulting and cor- 
 responding with his old friend Father Parsons, and other Jesuits. Dodd 
 gives extracts from eighteen letters from Fitzherbert to the archpriest and 
 others, while he was agent for the clergy. These letters may be read in 
 Dodd’s Church History , vol. ii. pp. 491 — 496, but as they do not relate to 
 Father Fitzherbert’s life as a member of the Society, they are not intro- 
 duced into this notice. They do not appear to warrant the above insinu- 
 ations. As to the charge of Jesuitical bias, Mr. Fitzherbert says in one 
 letter to the archpriest, p. 494, dated September 19, 1609, “Whereas you 
 signify in your postscript that your brethren there hold me either to be a 
 Jesuit, or disposed thereto, wherein you wish me also to give Dr. Smith 
 satisfaction, I assure you I am heartily glad that you hold me for so honest 
 a man ; and I do not see any reason why I should seek to purge myself of 
 a matter of that quality. Surely they go very near me that will examine 
 my secret inclinations, which are betwixt God and me. But however it is, 
 I shall be very well content that the Doctor here, or any of our brethren 
 with you, shall take that exception against me. I perceive the Doctor 
 is somewhat disgusted with the evil success of his business here ; though 
 truly he may rather ascribe it to the nature and quality of the matters 
 propounded than to anything else, and especially to any man’s labour 
 against him. I am still ready to do him all service, except in such of 
 his propositions as I cannot in conscience approve ; wherein I leave him 
 to his own opinion ; for that no advice of mine, or your old friend [Father 
 Parsons] can anything at all prevail with him. ” The real cause of the 
 dissatisfaction upon which Dodd grounds his insinuations may probably 
 have been the fact that Fitzherbert was both the friend and agent in Rome 
 of Dr. Thomas Worthington, afterwards S.J., who had been appointed 
 President of Douay College by Cardinal Cajetan, Protector of England, 
 
Father Thomas FitzherberL 
 
 205 
 
 “Afterwards,” continues Dodd, “Mr. Fitzherbert acted 
 openly for the Society he had embraced, and being every way 
 qualified, was made Rector of the English College in the place 
 of Father Owen, who held that preferment immediately upon 
 the death of Father Parsons in 1610. Mr. Fitzherbert was a 
 great lover of books, and perhaps few laymen of his time made 
 a better use of their academical education. He endeavoured 
 to render his qualifications useful to all mankind. His purse, 
 his learning, and his interest with men in power, were under 
 that influence. And while he himself seemed to decline all 
 preferments, his friends thought him worthy of the purple ; and, 
 as I find, there was some discourse of that dignity being con- 
 ferred upon him. He published several learned books under 
 the initial letters T.F., to say nothing of his manuscripts and 
 letters, which are a proof of his abilities. The letters he wrote 
 to Dr. Worthington and the Archpriest Birket, though they fre- 
 quently mention several contentious matters, yet are penned in 
 a Christian style, and demonstrate his capacity for business.” 
 
 Father More 14 opens his account of Father Fitzherbert 
 by observing that, “ as honourable mention is made of him in 
 the letter of Father Robert Parsons to Mr. Francis Englefield, 
 of the 10th of May, 1595, it is fitting that we here relate what 
 sort of, and how eminent a man he was, since he was reckoned 
 by Father Parsons amongst those he deemed worthy of the 
 purple, as successor of Cardinal Allen, and who embracing the 
 Institute of the Society many years before his death, besides 
 filling other offices in it, did for a long time and most mildly 
 govern the English College in Rome. 
 
 “ Born in the county of Stafford, he was rendered illustrious 
 both by the high rank of his family and his literary attainments; 
 but more distinguished still by his virtues and stern defence of 
 the ancient Faith. Marrying a lady of equal rank, he devoted 
 himself to the education of his family, attending equally to the 
 care of religion as to his domestic concerns. He gave also a 
 cordial reception and liberal support to Fathers Campion and 
 Parsons on their arrival in England in 1580. A severe inquiry 
 was at that time set on foot with regard to those who did not 
 attend the Protestant churches; the absentees were to be 
 
 through the interest of Father Parsons. Certain jealousies had arisen 
 regarding the government of that College, which some thought was too 
 much under the influence of the Society while it remained in Doctor 
 Worthington’s hands. 
 
 14 Hist. Prov. Angl. 1 . vi. n. vii. p. 235. 
 
206 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 punished, under the specious pretext indeed of procuring a 
 general conformity from all to the common laws, but in reality 
 to procure by this attendance a gradual corruption of their 
 minds to opinions adverse to the Catholic faith, or indeed to 
 fill the Exchequer by the fines extracted from the recusants. 
 Fitzherbert, heartily detesting this fraud and impiety, not only 
 abstained himself from attending, but published reasons why 
 all should refrain from the practice, if they would avoid putting 
 in jeopardy the fidelity and obedience they owed to God. Nor 
 was this the only scheme by which Catholics were assailed. 
 Suspicions were spread about of the existence of an under- 
 standing with the Sovereign Pontiff and the other Catholic 
 princes for the invasion of the kingdom and disturbing the 
 public peace. The leading Catholics were on this account 
 either shut up in the prisons, or confined to their residences, 
 and a limited circuit of a few miles. Mr. Fitzherbert’s lot was 
 cast amongst these latter. Although endowed with the greatest 
 constancy, united with the meekest disposition, yet he could 
 ill endure to live in this perpetual fear and vexation, and there- 
 fore to purchase his freedom he passed over the seas, and 
 resided first in France, so long as there were any hopes of 
 aiding the Queen of Scots (at that time confined in the closest 
 custody in England), by means of her powerful relatives, the 
 King of France and the Dukes of Guise. Mary Queen of Scots 
 having been barbarously put to death upon the scaffold by her 
 cousin Elizabeth, and his friends the Guises atrociously assassi- 
 nated, he travelled into Spain, and at the Court of the Spanish 
 monarch laboured zealously for the support of religion in his 
 native land, until, wearied of the world, and yearning for a more 
 tranquil life, he accompanied the Duke of Feria first to Milan, and 
 then passed on to Rome, where entering the ecclesiastical state 
 he consecrated the remainder of his life to God and the Church, 
 both by prayers and writings . 15 For this end he took apartments 
 close adjoining to the English College, Rome, and by the 
 sound of its bell regulated all his hours, of rising, prayer, meals, 
 studies, and retiring to rest, and was so careful to exclude all 
 vain sights that he would never allow his chamber window, 
 which looked out upon the opposite house, to be opened. 
 Here he published, first in Latin, a learned and pious work, a 
 treatise against Machiavellus’ thesis, An sit utilitas in seel ere? 
 He then published in English, in two goodly volumes, a work 
 
 15 This was in the year 1588, his wife having died that year. He was 
 ordained priest in i6 06, at Rome. 
 
Father Thomas Fitzherbert. 
 
 207 
 
 in which, using mainly the same line of argument, he teaches 
 that no one can be a good citizen or a useful governor of 
 a State, who does not ground his motives of action upon true 
 religion ; and then, Which is the true religion ? And he con- 
 firms both with a multiplicity of authorities and proofs, illus- 
 trated by examples. 
 
 “In the year 1613, having openly assumed the habit of the 
 Society, he was afterwards [1616] appointed Superior of the 
 mission of Brussels, an office which he filled for two years; 
 and during that period he wrote the controversies recounted by 
 Alegambe. He was then appointed Rector of the English 
 College, Rome [1618], which he governed for nearly twenty-two 
 years ; and although unable, with all his kindness and accom- 
 modating spirit, to secure entire freedom from the turbulent 
 intrigues of some unquiet scholars, he succeeded in restraining 
 them, and, by expelling a few, secured the peace of the rest. 
 At more than eighty-eight years of age, passing to his eternal 
 repose, he calmly expired on the 17th of August, 1640.” 
 
 His memory is cherished to this day (adds Morus), not only 
 among Catholics, but even they who differ from us in religion, 
 preserve the remembrance of the reputation and esteem he 
 enjoyed, recall it in conversation, and hold him up as one dis- 
 tinguished among the rest who have adorned his ancient and 
 noble family. In commendation of his virtue it is related of 
 him, that he was frequently so consumed with the flames of 
 fervent devotion, that in familiar discourses, when expounding 
 some hymn or verse of the Psalms, he would be so suddenly 
 enkindled, that his tears and sighs would choke his utterance, 
 nor could he restrain the tremulous motions of his body. But 
 regarding these affections of piety, let us hear his own account 
 of them, when compelled by an order of holy obedience from 
 our Very Reverend Father General to put them in writing. He 
 thus speaks — 
 
 “ I, Thomas Fitzherbert, an Englishman, now sixty-two 
 years of age, son of William Fitzherbert and Elizabeth 
 Swinnerton, by command of holy obedience, reply to questions 
 proposed to me relative to my vocation to the Society of Jesus. 
 First, as regards particular devotions (omitting ordinary ones), 
 I ever, by the grace of God, venerated the Blessed Virgin with 
 a special devotion ; whence when about twenty years of age, I 
 made a vow daily to recite her Office ; I also added other 
 obligations, not only to fast on her vigils, but also to abstain 
 from eggs, fish, and milk of any kind ; also to recite daily one 
 
208 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 pair of beads, but on Saturday two ; also on her feasts to 
 confess and communicate, and to recite the whole Rosary, even 
 for the octave ; lastly, to fast on all Saturdays when I was at 
 home. 
 
 “In the year 1588, my wife being now dead, after making 
 a general confession to a certain Father of the Society, on the 
 feast of the Annunciation I made a vow of chastity in honour 
 of the Virgin ; and in the year 1601, when I was in Spain, I 
 made another vow on the feast of her Nativity to enter the 
 priesthood, in which state I might be able to render greater 
 service to God and His most holy Mother ; and to this end on 
 the feast of the Purification in the following year, I assumed 
 the clerical dress here in Rome, and was ordained priest on 
 the vigil of the feast of the Annunciation the same year, and 
 sang my first Mass on the feast itself. Besides this, I made 
 a vow daily to say the Office of the Holy Ghost, and to recite 
 other prayers in honour of the most Holy Trinity, and my 
 patrons, and to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays when I was 
 alone. 
 
 “ I was chiefly moved to embrace the religious state by the 
 reflection that all Christians are bound to seek their own 
 perfect self-abnegation, which being much more easily com- 
 passed in the religious state than in the secular, I determined 
 to embrace that state. But, as to the Order I should enter, 
 the Institute of the Society of Jesus appeared to me to be both 
 more useful and necessary at this time for the Church of God, 
 since, perfectly uniting, as it does, the active with the contem- 
 plative life, it had for its proper end the defence of the Catholic 
 faith, and the salvation of souls ; and so seemed to be pre- 
 eminently suitable for the conversion of England. Whence 
 in the year 1600, in the Church of St. Mary Major, and on 
 the feast of the Assumption of the most glorious Virgin, I 
 vowed to live and die in the Society of Jesus, provided only 
 that the Very Rev. Father General Claudius Aquaviva would 
 deign to admit me. Of this vow the following is a copy — * Con- 
 fiding in the grace of God and the aid of the Holy Ghost, by 
 the merits of the Passion of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and the 
 intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of my Guardian 
 Angel, of the blessed Ignatius, and of all the Saints, I do 
 promise and vow to Almighty God that I will humbly and 
 earnestly beg of the Very Reverend Father General of the 
 Society of Jesus, that he will be pleased to deign to admit 
 me to the same Society ; and whensoever he shall see fit 
 
Father Thomas Fitzherbert . 209 
 
 to admit me to make my probation, that I will immediately 
 enter the Novitiate, and assume the habit of the Society, and 
 will afterwards observe the Rules and Institutions of the same, 
 as long as I shall live : and in the meantime I promise and vow 
 to obey his Very Reverend Paternity, and all those Superiors 
 of the same Society, to whose care and rule he may commit 
 me ; and moreover all other Generals and Superiors of the 
 same Society. So that it may be known that I now entirely" 
 renounce my own will, and give up and subject both it and 
 my entire self to the Very Reverend Father General now 
 being, and to all his successors, Generals of the Society of 
 Jesus, until my death. In witness whereof I have hereto 
 signed my name at Rome, August 15, being the feast of 
 the Assumption of the most Blessed Virgin Mary, 1606. 
 
 “ 4 T HOMAS F ITZHERBERT.’ 
 
 “ But as I have also to answer regarding particular favours, 
 I acknowledge that the divine bounty has bestowed divers 
 upon me, though I am a most worthless and grievous sinner,, 
 meriting nothing less than hell itself. And first and foremost,, 
 that, although being born in the reign of the heretical King 
 Edward VI., when there was no public profession of the- 
 Catholic religion of England, both my parents were by the: 
 singular providence and mercy of God, Catholic, and that I 
 was baptized with all the ceremonies of Holy Church, and was 
 educated a Catholic. And I remember when I was a boy of 
 five or six years of age, I possessed the light and gift of faith, 
 being accustomed to stand and contemplate the heavens and 
 to meditate upon God, especially upon His eternity, and that 
 it had existed without a beginning ; and I strove much to com- 
 prehend how this could possibly be ; and although I could not 
 understand it, nevertheless I believed it with much amazement. 
 
 I also seem to have had a certain faith in the resurrection, 
 although obscure to my infantile conception. For instance, in 
 *the year 1558, when I was six years of age, a friend of mine 
 told me for the first time that my father was dead, and he 
 waited to see what would be my reply. I was silent for some 
 time, as though meditating something; which he perceivings 
 and asking what it was, I replied that I grieved for the death 
 of my parent, because when he would rise again on the Day 
 of Judgment he would appear worm-eaten and full of holes. 
 The same friend himself afterwards explained it to me, and 
 I seemed always to have retained some recollection of his. 
 words. 
 
 o 
 
210 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 “ God, moreover, planted within me other seeds of virtue, 
 in my infancy itself, although from want of discretion, and the 
 many evils of my nature, they did not bring forth due fruit. 
 For when I had attained nine or ten years of age, I was seized 
 with a great desire of almsgiving, which as I could not satisfy 
 otherwise, I would secretly abstract food from the stock of the 
 house, and hiding it, would afterwards distribute it among the 
 poor. I fasted also sometimes indiscreetly, not having any 
 spiritual father to guide me : for instance, not being above 
 twelve years old I would fast the last three days of Lent upon 
 bread alone and a little fruit. And when I came to understand 
 many things about the Fathers of the Society and their Institute, 
 I was strongly affected towards them, and towards all who were 
 attached to them. And in that early age I conceived a great 
 desire of martyrdom, and often prayed God to bestow that 
 favour upon me. With increasing years the light of faith also 
 increased, and by the gift of the good God a zeal towards the 
 Catholic faith, and a hatred of heresy ; nor would I willingly 
 converse with Protestants, or attend their sermons. Upon 
 which point I cannot omit a benefit accorded me by God, for 
 when sixteen years old I was a student in the University of 
 Oxford, a temptation came over me, out of curiosity, to hear 
 a Protestant sermon. Nevertheless, I would not do so without 
 the advice and consent of my confessor, an aged and not a 
 very learned priest, who on account of the persecution lay 
 concealed in Oxford. I asked his opinion, which was that I 
 could be present without sin, provided I did not go to learn, 
 but merely to hear. Indeed, in those times but very few 
 Catholics abstained from attending Protestant sermons, although 
 they would not be present at the prayers. Therefore, having 
 heard the opinion of my confessor, I sallied forth on a certain 
 day to hear a special famous preacher, who had already 
 ascended the pulpit before I arrived; but no sooner had I 
 put my foot in the church, than I was seized with so violent 
 a horror that I could not possibly remain there ; I therefore 
 rushed out, the only word I heard being the name of Jesus 
 Christ. And from that time I openly professed myself before 
 all to be a Catholic, and took every opportunity of defending 
 the Catholic religion against the ministers and other heretics, 
 and of confirming the Catholics in their faith. On this account 
 I was forced to be hid for two years, and being at last seized, 
 I bore an imprisonment to my great consolation. On the 
 arrival of Fathers Campion and Parsons in England [1580], 
 
Father Thomas Fitzherbert. 
 
 21 1 
 
 I associated with them, and rendered them what assistance I 
 could, until the heat of the persecution became too strong for 
 me. I determined to emigrate and live in exile as long as 
 heresy was dominant. 
 
 “ I acknowledge also the high favour and goodness of God 
 which never suffered me, as far as I can recollect, to remain 
 for twenty-four hours in any mortal sin, although when a youth 
 I very frequently offended Him grievously, ungrateful and un- 
 worthy of such mercy ! 
 
 “The Divine Majesty, likewise, even from my childhood, 
 excited within me vehement feelings and spiritual affections, 
 with great emotions in my soul. For when my mother sug- 
 gested to me, being then a boy of ten years of age, to prepare 
 to receive the most Holy Communion, as I was going into the 
 fields, and reflecting upon the greatness of the mystery, and 
 begging of God to make me worthy of so great a benefit, such 
 a feeling of consolation suddenly seized my soul, that I burst 
 into a flood of tears, which affection lasted until I had, as 
 I hope with great profit, confessed and communicated; and 
 from that time even until the present, many similar visitations 
 have occurred to me in England, France, and Spain, especially 
 after my making the vow of chastity. And (to omit other 
 cases) when in Spain, for several days the representation of 
 our Lord Christ crucified remained so indelibly imprinted upon 
 my memory, that except when actually asleep it was always 
 present to me; which favour I lost by my own fault, since, 
 ungrateful as I was, I did not esteem it as it deserved, nor did 
 I endeavour to preserve it. 
 
 “At another time, whilst I read the Life of St.Benet written 
 by St. Gregory, I was melted into tears, and experienced 
 during the greater part of the night great consolation and 
 sweetness of soul, lasting until overcome by sleep. But after 
 my admission to the Society, I enjoyed these kinds of visita- 
 tion much more copiously; and I appeared to myself to be 
 sometimes totally inflamed with divine love; and one night 
 being unable to sleep, whilst praying in bed, it seemed to me 
 as though a stream, or rather I should say, a certain torrent 
 rushed into my heart, filling me with inexpressible sweetness, 
 giving me an assurance of the presence of God in my soul, 
 whereupon I began to praise God with great jubilee and 
 copious tears, frequently repeating, Bene venerit Dotninus mens, 
 bene venerit Dotninus meus — “Welcome my God, welcome 
 my God;” and returning thanks for so sweet a visitation. 
 
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212 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 Also, another time, when on the night of the Nativity of our 
 Lord, I was singing Mass in the English College, and was 
 administering the most Holy Eucharist to the scholars, I was 
 overtaken by so great a consolation and flood of tears, as to 
 be unable to proceed in giving Communion, or to finish the 
 singing part of the Mass, although I made many and great 
 efforts to do so. This happening in public, caused me so 
 great a confusion and distress, that I begged of God to be 
 pleased to remove from me this vehemence of devotion ; 
 nevertheless, it was quite impossible for me to sing, and it 
 was with difficulty that I read the remaining portion of the 
 Mass in secret, my utterance being choked by tears and sighs. 
 This holy consolation and joy lasted for two or three days. 
 From which may be gathered how great was the kindness and 
 mercy of God towards me, a wretched and ungrateful sinner. 
 
 “Lastly, God was pleased to confer the greatest favour 
 upon me, in placing me under the protection of His most holy 
 Mother during the whole course of my life, and especially 
 on her feasts, which I experienced in many and great neces- 
 sities, both spiritual and temporal, and especially in the 
 observance of the vow of chastity which I had pledged in 
 her honour. Also in a case of grievous calumny and false 
 witness borne against me in Belgium, in which my life was in 
 peril ; and likewise in many dangers both by sea and land, in 
 which I experienced the manifest help of the most holy 
 Mother of God : so that I might justly repeat what my 
 blessed Father Ignatius was accustomed to say of himself with 
 the most profound humility — that it was impossible to find 
 these two things combined at once in any other individual, 
 viz. : to have received from God such great and excellent 
 favours, and nevertheless to have been so ungrateful towards 
 His Divine Majesty. 
 
 “ But regarding the last thing inquired of me, I answer 
 that I find such great consolation and edification in all I see 
 in the practice of the Institute of the Society, that I have 
 great hopes by the means laid down therein, of attaining the 
 end which I ambition — my own and my neighbours’ salvation. 
 May our Lord Jesus Christ and His most holy and sweetest 
 Mother be for ever praised.” 
 
 So far Father Fitzherbert writes of himself. 
 
 Towards the end of his life he wrote the following docu- 
 ment, from which we gather his great care and effort in gaining 
 Indulgences — 
 
Father Thomas Fitzherbert. 
 
 213 
 
 “ Whereas I, Thomas Fitzherbert, priest of the Society of 
 Jesus, eighty-seven years of age, labour under constant in- 
 firmities, and these so severe that I am in daily expectation 
 of my final change, and yet in the meantime I desire to con- 
 tribute, as far as in me lies, to the public and common 
 necessities of the Church, I offer to our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 in union with His most holy Passion, all those corporal pains 
 and the other sufferings of my sickness which I now endure, 
 and may endure until the hour of my death, for the peace of 
 the Church and the propagation of the Catholic faith, and the 
 intention of our most holy Lord Urban VIII. according to 
 the Bull of Jubilee lately published by His Holiness. And 
 since, on account of my exceeding debility, I am unable to 
 undertake other corporal penances, I resolve to recite the 
 Rosary of the most Blessed Virgin Mary, with the Seven 
 Penitential Psalms, and the Litanies of the Saints, every day 
 (by the assistance of God’s grace) during the whole of this 
 time of Lent, provided only that my life and strength allow 
 me to do so; which I leave to the judgment of my con- 
 fessor. 
 
 “ Thomas Fitzherbert.” 
 
 The following brief but comprehensive eulogy was written 
 by Father Thomas Courtney, who succeeded Father Fitzherbert 
 as Rector of the English College. 
 
 “An elogium of the Rev. Father Thomas Fitzherbert, penned by 
 the Rev. Father Thomas Courtney , Rector of the English 
 College , the day after the said Father FitzherberCs decease , 
 1 640. 16 
 
 ‘•'Father Thomas Fitzherbert, of the Society of Jesus, and 
 for the space of twenty-two years Rector of the English College 
 in Rome, departed this life on the 17th day of August, 1640, 
 at the age of eighty-eight, and yet more full of merits than 
 years, with the last Sacraments of the Church, with the 
 Benediction of the Pope, without any agony, in his full senses, 
 and with all those signs of piety and sanctity which may give 
 assurance of his eternal happiness. The nobleness and anti- 
 quity of his family is known to all. His natural parts were 
 excellent. A clear and lively understanding, abetted by 
 diligent observation and study, as his works do testity, a 
 constant and perfect memory, a will more inclined to goodness 
 than is ordinarily found in corrupted nature, a happy and 
 16 Stonyhurst MSS. Anglia , vol. iv. n. 106. 
 
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 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 eloquent delivery of his conceits without affectation ; a comely 
 and venerable person even to his dying day. His moral 
 parts, if they can be separated from his supernatural gifts, 
 were also excellent, affability, benignity, liberality, and com- 
 passion general to all ; a conversation pious but not tedious, 
 witty but not offensive, candour and sincerity without any 
 duplicity, and a mind, naturally inclined by the constitution 
 of his body to choler, free even from all rancour and hatred. 
 But these are nothing in respect of his supernatural gifts. In 
 his tender years he had great illustrations concerning matters 
 of our holy Faith. He was sent to the University of Oxford 
 in the most dangerous times of Queen Elizabeth, and yet ever 
 remained constant in his belief, and being there persuaded by a 
 ghostly father he used, that it was lawful to hear the sermons 
 of Protestants, he went to St. Mary’s Church to hear a famous 
 preacher, but at the first entrance and sight of the preacher, 
 was surprised on a sudden with such a horror, as that alone 
 was sufficient for him in all his life never more to doubt 
 on that point. He applied himself when young to the studies 
 of controversies, and did not only in all occasions openly 
 defend the Catholic faith, but did also endeavour to draw 
 others to it. He liberally fostered and entertained priests 
 and religious persons, and for this cause suffered many 
 persecutions and imprisonment ; and finally was forced 
 to leave his country and fortunes. He lived in the Courts 
 both of France and Spain with so rare an example of piety, 
 that his life may worthily be called the holy Court . 12 His 
 hope and confidence in God was so great that nothing did 
 more trouble him in these latter years, than a fear of so much 
 assurance of his justification and salvation. His love and 
 charity towards God was ever discovered by the purity of his 
 life, not only in religion, but in so many princes’ courts wherein 
 he lived. His conscience was so tender that he did tremble at 
 the least shadow of a venial sin. In so many years of infirmity 
 he suffered, even almost to his dying day, he never omitted 
 his meditations, examen of conscience, reading of spiritual 
 books, and many other devotions he used ; nay, for many years 
 together his life was in a manner a continual prayer. His 
 charity towards all, and especially to the poor, was incredible, 
 that even in his countenance one might see an alteration 
 when he was not able to succour their wants ; his devotion 
 to the holy saints and our Blessed Lady especially, was so 
 12 Alluding to the work of Father Caussinus, S.J. which is so entitled. 
 
Father Thomas Fitzherbert. 215 
 
 great that even from his tender years he did not only choose 
 her for his patroness, but used many austerities, fasts, and 
 pious exercises in her honour. For her sake he vowed chastity 
 presently upon his wife’s death, and after made himself priest 
 in Rome, and finally did bear her such a pious and tender 
 love, as never child could love his mother more, and was by 
 her not less beloved and protected in occasion of many 
 calumniations and dangers. His virtues would require a 
 whole volume. Entering into the religion of the Society of 
 Jesus in his old age, he showed so great abnegation of himself, 
 so much humility towards all, so great obedience to his 
 superiors, as more could not have been expected from any 
 young novice. Finally, to be brief, he observed the precept of 
 Christ of loving our enemies in so eminent a degree, as not 
 only he prayed most heartily for them, but sought all means 
 to honour and serve them ; and this confused relation may 
 suffice for the present, until times give means for more dis- 
 tinction and particulars.” 
 
 The following honourable mention of this distinguished man 
 is from the liberal pen of the Protestant Wood. 18 
 
 “ Thomas Fitzherbert, son of William Fitzherbert (by Isabel, 
 his wife, daughter and one of the heirs of Hump. Swinnerton 
 of Swinnerton, Staffordshire), fourth son of Sir Anthony 
 Fitzherbert, ‘knight, the famous lawyer, son of Ralph Fitz- 
 herbert of Norbury, in Derbyshire, was bom in the county 
 of Stafford, 1552, in which county being initiated in grammar 
 learning, was sent either to Exeter or Lincoln College, 1568. 
 But having been mostly before trained up in the Catholic 
 religion, the College seemed uneasy to him, for though he 
 would now and then hear a sermon, which he was permitted 
 to do by an old Roman priest that then lived abscondidly 
 in Oxon (for to him he often retired to receive instructions 
 as to matters of religion), yet he would seldom or never go 
 to prayers, for which he was often admonished by the sub- 
 rector of his house. At length, seeming to be weary with 
 the heresy (as he called it) of those times, he receded without 
 a degree to his patrimony, where also refusing to go to his 
 parish church, was imprisoned about 1572. But being soon 
 after set at liberty, he became more zealous in his religion, 
 defending it against the Protestant ministers, and not only 
 confirmed and strengthened many wavering Catholics therein, 
 18 Wood’s Athen. Oxon. vol. i. p. 631. Edit. 1721. 
 
216 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 but wrote also several valid reasons for the not going of 
 Catholics to Protestant churches : for which, being like to 
 suffer, he withdrew and lived abscondidly. In 1580, when 
 Parsons and Campion, the Jesuits, came into the mission of 
 England, he retired to London, found them out, showed 
 himself exceedingly civil, and exhibited to them liberally. 
 Whereupon, bringing himself into a prcmunire , and foreseeing 
 great danger to come on him and all Catholics, he went as 
 a voluntary exile into France, 1582, where he continued a 
 zealous solicitor in the cause of Mary Queen of Scots, with 
 the King of France and the Duke of Guise, for her relief, 
 though in vain. After her decollation, and all hopes of the 
 Catholics frustrated for the present, he left that country, and 
 the rather because that he about that time had buried his 
 wife, and forthwith went into Spain. For some years there he 
 became a zealous agitator in the royal Court for the relief of 
 Catholics and their religion in England; but his actions, and 
 the labours of many more of that nature being frustrated by 
 the Spaniards’ repulse in 1588, he, under pretence of being 
 weary with the troubles and toils of this life, receded to Milan 
 with the Duke of Feria. Whence after some continuance 
 there, he went to Rome, where he was initiated in Sacred 
 Orders ; took a lodging near to the English College, and 
 observed all hours and times of religion, as they in the College 
 did, by the sound of their bell, and there composed certain 
 books of which that against Machiavel was one. A certain 
 author of little or no note, named James Wadsworth, tells us 
 [in his Engl. Span. Pilgrim , c. vii. p. 65] ‘ that the said 
 Thomas Fitzherbert had been before a pensioner and spy to 
 the King of Spain in France, and his service being past, and 
 his pension failing him, out of pure necessity he and his man 
 were constrained to turn Jesuits, or else starve. And he being 
 a worthy scholar and great politician, was very welcome to that 
 Order.’ But let this report remain with the author, who is 
 characterized by a Protestant writer [Wm. Sanderson, Reign , 
 &c. of King Janies. Lond. 1655] to be ‘ a renegado-proselyte- 
 turncoat, of any religion and every trade, now living (1655) a 
 common hackney to the basest catchpole bailiffs,’ &c., while 
 I proceed. In 1613 he took upon him the habit of the Society 
 of Jesus, on the feast of the Purification, initiated therein on 
 the vigil of the Annunciation following, and on the next day he 
 sung his first Mass. Afterwards he presided over the mission 
 of Brussels for two years, and at length, much against his will, 
 
Father Thomas Fitzherbert. 
 
 21 7 
 
 he was made Rector of the English College at Rome, which he 
 governed with great praise about twenty-two years. He was a 
 person of excellent parts, had a great command of his tongue 
 and pen, was a noted politician, a singular lover of his country- 
 men, especially those who are Catholics, and of so graceful 
 behaviour and generous spirit that great endeavours were used 
 to have him created a Cardinal some years after Allen’s death, 
 and it might have been easily effected, had he not stood in his 
 own way.” 
 
 After mentioning his various works, Wood continues : “ He 
 surrendered up his soul to that God that inspired it, on the 
 7th of August, according to the reckoning followed at Rome, 
 1640, set. 88, and was buried in the chapel of the English 
 College in Rome. He had a son named Edward, living I 
 suppose at the time of his death, to whom he dedicated 
 the first part of his treatise concerning policy and religion, 
 1606; which Edward was a most zealous man for the Roman 
 Catholic religion, and whether he was a priest or a gentleman 
 I know not.” 
 
 Erdeswich’s Survey of Staffordshire, p. no, noticing Father 
 Fitzherbert, confirms the pedigree we have given, and the date 
 of his birth and his going to Oxford in 1568. Attaching himself 
 to the Roman Catholic religion, he left the University without 
 a degree and retired to his patrimony, but refusing to go to 
 his parish church, he was imprisoned about 1572. He after- 
 wards lived in retirement and concealed himself. In 1582 he 
 went to France and Spain, and thence to Rome where he 
 entered the Sacred Orders, and after encountering many 
 difficulties and hardships, he became Rector of the English 
 College, Rome, over which- he presided for twenty-two years. 
 He was a man highly endowed with' parts and learning. The 
 committee of the Parliament at Stafford, “ Ordered that 
 Mr. Fitzherbert’s house at Swinnerton be forthwith demolished 
 by Capt. Stones’ soldiers. Dated 29th of February, 1643-4.” 
 
 The following interesting letter written by Father Fitz- 
 herbert to the Bishop of Chalcedon in defence of Father 
 John Gerard should not be omitted in this memoir. 19 
 
 “ Right reverend and my honourable good lord, — 
 
 “ Having understood that one of our Society hath been of 
 late traduced — tacito nomine — in a printed book as to have 
 
 19 Stonyhurst MSS. Anglioe , vol. iv. n. 94; and given in Father Morris’ 
 Life of Father Gerard, Condition of Catholics. 
 
2 1 8 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 bragged that he had sweat in working in the Powder Plot, and 
 that your lordship have named him, and as it seemeth, doth 
 believe him to be Father John Gerard, I think myself obliged 
 to represent to your lordship’s consideration some things 
 concerning him, and that matter, as well in respect of the 
 common bond of our religion and his great merits, as also 
 for that he is at this present under my charge (albeit I acknow- 
 ledge myself unworthy to have such a subject) and lastly 
 for the knowledge I have had many years of his innocence in 
 that point ever since that slanderous calumny was first raised 
 by the heretics against him, at which time I myself and many 
 other of his friends and kinsmen did very diligently and 
 curiously inform ourselves of the truth thereof, and found that 
 he was fully cleared of it even by the public and solemn 
 testimony of the delinquents, namely, of Sir Everard Digby (with 
 whom he was known to be most familiar and confident), who 
 publicly protested at his arraignment, that he did never 
 acquaint him with their designs, being assured that he would 
 not like of it, but dissuade him from it; and of this I can 
 show good testimony by letters from London written hither at 
 the same time, bearing date the 29th of January, in the year 
 1606. Therefore to the end that your lordship may the better 
 believe it, I have thought good to show the same to some 
 very credible persons, who are shortly to depart from hence, 
 and do mean to present themselves to your lordship, of whom 
 you may (if it please you) understand the truth of it, besides 
 that for your better satisfaction, I have also by our Right 
 Reverend Father General’s express order and commission 
 commanded him in their presence upon obedience (which 
 commandment we hold by our Rule and Institute to bind 
 under pain of mortal sin) to declare the truth whether he 
 had any knowledge of that Powder Plot or no, and he hath 
 in their presence protested upon his salvation, that he had 
 never any knowledge of it, either by Sir Everard Digby or any 
 other, until it was discovered, and that he came to know it by 
 common fame ; besides that, alleged many pregnant proofs of his 
 innocence therein, which I omit to write because he himself 
 doth represent them to your lordship by a letter of his own ; 
 and of this also the witnesses aforesaid may inform your 
 lordship if you be not otherwise satisfied. In the meantime, 
 I have only thought it my part to give this my testimony of 
 his solemn protestation and oath, and with all to send to your 
 lordship the enclosed copies of two clauses of letters from 
 
Father Thomas Fitzherbert. 
 
 219 
 
 England and Flanders touching this matter, not doubting but 
 that your lordship’s charity will move you to admit the same as 
 sufficient to clear him of that calumny, seeing there was never 
 any proof produced against him, nor yet any ground of that 
 slander but the malicious conceit and suspicion of heretics, 
 by reason of his acquaintance with some of the delinquents ; 
 in which case a solemn protestation and oath, as he hath freely 
 and voluntarily made, may suffice both in conscience and law 
 for a canonical purgation to clear him from all suspicion as 
 well of that fact as of all collusion or double dealing in this his 
 protestation; especially seeing he hath always been not only 
 integerrumz famce , but also of singular estimation in England, 
 for his many years most zealous and fruitful labours there, 
 and his constant suffering of imprisonment and torments for 
 the Catholic faith. Besides that he hath been ever since 
 a worthily esteemed and principal member of our Society and 
 given sufficient proof of a most religious and sincere conscience, 
 to the edification of us alL This being considered, I cannot 
 but hope that your lordship will rest satisfied of his innocence 
 in this point, and out of your charity procure also to satisfy 
 others who may have by any speech of your lordship conceived 
 worse of him than he hath deserved ; for so your lordship shall 
 provide as well for the reparation of his fame as for the 
 discharge of your own conscience, being bound both by justice 
 and charity to restitution in this case, as I make no doubt 
 but that your lordship would judge if it were another man’s 
 case, yea, and exact also of others if the like wTong had been 
 done either to yourself, or to any kinsman, dear friend, or 
 subject of yours, all which he is to me ; and therefore I am the 
 bolder, I will not say to expect this at your lordship’s hands 
 (because it does not become me), but humbly to crave it 
 of you as a thing which I shall take for a favour no less to 
 myself than to our Society, and so this to no other end, I 
 humbly take my leave, wishing to your lordship all true felicity, 
 this 15 th of March, 1631. 
 
 “ Your lordship’s humble servant, 
 
 “Thomas Fitzherbert.” 
 
 In a former note, page 201, -we have observed that repeated 
 mention is made of Mr. Fitzherbert in the letters and reports 
 of Government spies among the State Papers, P.R.O. Great 
 attention seems to have been paid to him by these gentlemen, 
 who knew him to be held in much esteem in foreign Courts, 
 
2 20 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 and to possess alike great influence and information. The fol- 
 lowing are extracts from some of these papers — 
 
 Domestic , Elizabeth , vol. xxix. n. 39, Addenda. Rouen, 
 August 11, 1585. Letter from Thomas Rogers (a famous 
 spy) to Secretary Sir Francis Walsingham. Amongst many 
 other matters, he says : “ From the conference at Paris he 
 found that his token of commendation brought the effect 
 he looked for. He delivered the token of Tramson to 
 Thomas Fitzherbert, who upon the sight thereof received me 
 into his company most willingly, and has given me credit with 
 all the Papists at Paris except Charles Paget, as they are 
 divided in factions, viz., Lord Paget his brother, the Bishop 
 of Ross (Dr. Lewis), Charles Paget, Thomas Morgan, and 
 Thomas Throgmorton, and some few priests; on the other 
 part, Dr. Allen, and Parsons, and all the Jesuits, with all the 
 rest. Dr. Allen plays on both hands, and Thomas Throgmorton 
 is rather with the Jesuits than against them. Thomas Fitzherbert 
 told me a great secret, on my showing him the three ciphers. He 
 has offered me a chamber in his house at Paris, but his commons 
 are above my reach, and I must buy a bed if I will be there. 
 Also he will want to borrow, and I have nothing to lend, being 
 six crowns in debt. Yet it is a place most necessary, as he gives 
 and receives intelligence, and his house is the place of common 
 conference, and the lodging of Charles Arundell when in Paris. 
 But if I lodge there I must do so amongst a great number of 
 the libels in French written against the Earl of Leicester. I 
 mean, however, to stay out of his commons till I hear your 
 resolution. If I go there I cannot so well sound Charles Paget, 
 as they are jealous one of another. Yet he has great means of 
 knowing the proceedings of Paget and his company. ... I 
 shall remain at Rouen till I know your pleasure as to lodging 
 with Fitzherbert, as he and his are the principal practisers, and 
 by them I shall know some of Paget’s courses. Fitzherbert is 
 the secretary of all the persons before mentioned of our nation 
 and of the Jesuit’s party.” 
 
 Domestic , Elizabeth, vol. xxxi. n. 107, Addenda, January 22, 
 1590. A letter from Hugh Owen, Madrid, to Mr. Hopkins, 
 Paris, says that Mr. Fitzherbert is sick. 
 
 Same vol. n. 109, same date. Letter from Thomas Stil- 
 lington, jun., to Robert Tempest, Mignon College, Paris, says 
 also {inter alia) Mr. Fitzherbert is ill. 
 
 Same vol. n. 161. Father Parsons writes to , “ Mr. 
 
 Fitzherbert embarked for Bilboa to come to you, and bor- 
 
Father Thomas Fitzherbert . 
 
 221 
 
 rowed twenty crowns of me to be repaid to you, but I fear he 
 will not be able to pay it soon.” Date, October 28, Valladolid. 
 
 Same vol. n. 162. William Copley writes to Robert 
 Tempest, of Mignon College, October 31, 1590 — “Mr. 
 Fitzherbert is gone to St. Malo. God preserve him.” 
 
 Domestic , Elizabeth , vol. cxcix. n. 46. Letter from W. 
 Sterrell, the spy, to Phelleppes, the Government decipherer, 
 Customs Officer, near Leadenhall. “ Desires to know what 
 resolution he has made with the Earl. He could not write 
 in the same disguise to Fitzherbert unless he sent him his 
 letter.” 
 
 Vol. ccii. n. 38. Same Thomas Phelleppes to 4 [Gilbert 
 Gifford]. Revives his former instructions as to furnishing 
 intelligence, particularly as to parties formed since the Queen 
 of Scot’s death. . To practice with the agents of foreign powers, 
 especially with the Nuncio and Glasgow, Mr. Paget, Morgan, 
 Charles Arundell, Fitzherbert, and others. Sends him a new 
 cipher, &c. 
 
 Vol. ccxvii. n. 3. Gilbert Gifford to Walsingham. Fitz- 
 herbert has orders from Cardinal Allen to deal with the 
 Bishop of Paris for his liberty. Eight priests arrived from 
 Rome, of whom John Gerard and Arthur Shefford will be in 
 England in a few days. 
 
 Vol. ccxviii. n. 19. Letter from Thomas Fitzherbert to 
 his cousin Gilbert Gifford. Regarding procuring Gifford’s 
 liberty. 
 
 Vol. ccxxxviii. n. 168, May, 1591. Letter from John 
 Snowden to Burghley. “ Requires secrecy, because when 
 Gifford used privacy with Secretary Walsingham, the Ambas- 
 sador then in France, being envious, let Sir Charles Arundell 
 and Thomas Fitzherbert know how they might discover Gifford 
 and intercept his letters.” 
 
 Vol. ccxxxix. n. 120, August 2, 1591. William Sterrell [alias 
 St. Main] to Phelleppes. “ There is none more fit to deal with 
 Cardinal Allen than Mr. Fitzherbert. ... Will be better able 
 to inform him, after being amongst the party on the other side, 
 yet thinks this peace may be effected, and would cause Thomas 
 Fitzherbert to go to Rome about it.” 
 
 Same vol. n. 154, August 20, 1591. A memorandum called 
 “ Remembrance for Mr. Baccar.” The letters brought by 
 Mr. Baccar from Robert Parsons and other English Jesuits 
 in Spain are addressed to (inter alios) “ Thomas Fitzherbert, 
 Cavalero-Engles en Rouen.” 
 
222 
 
 The College of Si. Chad. 
 
 Vol. ccxl. n. io. Henry St. Main [Sterrell] to Thomas 
 Phelleppes, September n, 1591. Sends Phelleppes the cipher, 
 and desires him to keep it safely, as there will be cause to use 
 it. Asks him to send him any letters he receives from Fitz- 
 herbert so that he may prepare himself. 
 
 Same vol. n. 142. Notes by Thomas Phelleppes, 1591. 
 “ Allott went to Scotland with two seminaries that landed at 
 Shields. Fitzherbert, Nelson, &c., will come, if assured of 
 pardon by a letter in the Dean of Westminster’s hand.” 
 
 Vol. ccxli. n. 2, January 2, 1592. W. Sterrell [H. St. Main] 
 to Phelleppes. The spy dares not trust Cloudesley with any 
 letter naming Fitzherbert, as he was Owen’s man. Will send 
 Sherwood’s letter to Fitzherbert to confirm him if he should 
 doubt the writer. Has credit with Fitzherbert, wants to go to 
 Dieppe to be near him. 
 
 Vol. ccxlii. n. 127, August 27, 1592. A list of “ Priests, and 
 others in England ill affected.” Among many others, including 
 Fathers Oldcorne and Southwell (the martyrs), Holtby, Creaton, 
 Holt, and Parsons, is the name of Fitzherbert. 
 
 Vol. ccxli v. n. 15, January 15, 1593. Same to same. 
 “Wonderful circumspection must be used in writing to Fitz- 
 herbert. Only to answer his, and not offer any service but 
 readiness in general. He (the spy) will see Phelleppes shortly, 
 when they will handle the matter cunningly. Fitzherbert wrote 
 something in milk, but it will not appear, and that kind of 
 writing is foolish.” 
 
 Same vol. n. 26. Same (alias Robinson) to same. The 
 spy begs Phelleppes to remember Fitzherbert’s cipher, that 
 their chief business be not slacked. 
 
 Same to same. Same vol. n. 103, March, 1593. Entreats 
 him to send away the letter he has for Fitzherbert, for the dis- 
 continuance of writing would mar all and breed suspicion. 
 
 Same to same. Same vol. n. 123, April 6, 1593. Asks him 
 to set down some course, so that they may send every week to 
 Fitzherbert, who otherwise may take exceptions against his 
 seldom writing, and all their endeavours will want success. 
 
 Same vol. n. 124, April 7, 1593. Thomas Phelleppes to 
 Sterrell (dictates the following letter to be written by him to 
 Fitzherbert). “ The Parliament is to end this week. The Bill 
 preferred in the Upper House against Catholics has passed 
 both Houses, with some amendment; they are to remain at 
 their dwellings, or be banished the realm. The other Bill 
 passed in the Lower House was suppressed, as it was thought 
 
Father Thomas Fitzherbert . 
 
 223 
 
 too extreme. A Bill was preferred against the Barrowists and 
 Brownists, making it felony to maintain any opinion against the 
 Ecclesiastical Government, which by means of the bishops 
 passed the Upper House, but was found so captious by the 
 Lower House that it was thought that it never would have 
 passed in any sort, and that all the Puritans would have been 
 driven within its compass, but by earnest labouring of those 
 who sought to satisfy the bishops’ humours it has passed to 
 this effect : that whosoever is an obstinate recusant, refuses to 
 come to church, denies the Queen’s power in ecclesiastical 
 causes, or is a keeper of conventicles, being convicted, is to 
 abjure the realm within three months, and lose all his goods 
 and lands ; if he return without licence it shall be felony. They 
 think that thus it will not reach any man deserving favour. 
 
 “ Barrow and Mr. Goodman, with others condemned upon 
 the statute for writing and publishing seditious books, were to 
 have been executed last week, but as they were ready to be 
 trussed up they were respited ; but the day after the Lower 
 House had showed their dislike of this Bill, they were hanged 
 early in the morning. The reprieve was through a supplication 
 to the Lord Treasurer, that in a land where no Papist was put 
 to death for religion, theirs should not be the first blood shed 
 who concurred about faith with what was professed in the 
 country, and desired conference to be convinced of their errors. 
 The Lord Treasurer spoke sharply to the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, who was very peremptory, and also to the Bishop of 
 Worcester, and wished to speak to the Queen, but none 
 seconded him. The executions proceeded through the malice 
 of the bishops to the Lower House, which makes them much 
 hated by people affected that way. 
 
 “ Sir Thomas Tresham has got a dispensation for three 
 months from his imprisonment, and it is thought by means of 
 the Earl of Essex, whom his son follows of late. Lord 
 Borough’s revocation has been sent him, and he is looked 
 for shortly. It is thought he will bring great protestations 
 from the King of Scots of his zeal for England and malice 
 against Spain. 
 
 “ A new discourse is coming out on Scottish matters, 
 written it is thought by the Lord Treasurer. The drift is to 
 make the King of Scots appear wholly devoted to this crown 
 and religion. The last stories of Bothwell were all with his 
 privity, and to serve a turn with all at home and here, but 
 those here take it not well that they were deceived in it. 
 
224 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 “ The Queen here daily bears more and more a new 
 conceit of the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Countess, for the 
 sake of the Lady Arabella, which has been evident in a late 
 quarrel between his lordship and the Stanhopes. His cousin 
 Fitzherbert [John] is a prisoner in the Fleet, being taken upon 
 an execution by Mr. Baggot of Blore, sheriff of Derbyshire, 
 after the other sheriff was returned a burgess of Parliament ; 
 whereupon much stir was made in the Lower House by 
 Topcliffe’s means, who openly gave out speeches deeply 
 touching Mr. Baggot, as if he were a receiver of priests, and 
 had intelligence with some on the other side the sea, where- 
 upon Mr. Baggot has made complaint to some of the lords, 
 but Topcliffe says he will prove it.” 20 
 
 Vol. ccxlv. n. 50, July 5, 1593. Phelleppes sends the same 
 Sterrell (Gaius Park, Epping) another letter to be written to 
 Fitzherbert, partly in cipher. He says, “ The plague is hot in 
 London and other places, and a great part of the household 
 cut off, and therefore cannot write so often,” &c. The rest is 
 upon politics without any interest. 
 
 VoL ccxlvi. n. 60, 1593 (?). Earl of Essex to Phelleppes. 
 The party employed was come to London two days before they 
 heard from him. He has brought over a letter-carrier, by whose 
 means he hopes to take Birkett the priest, to whom most of 
 the fugitives 5 messengers are directed ; as also by his credit 
 with Father Holt, Owen, and Fitzherbert, to discover all their 
 practices, as they commit their greatest secrets to him, and 
 their messenger is at their devotion. 
 
 Same vol. n. 61. Robinson (Sterrell) to Phelleppes. Returns 
 the cipher, and a copy of Owen’s. Has written to Fitzherbert, 
 sending the word “ Cupio,” lest he have not his cipher ready. 
 
 Vol. cclxx. n. 47, March 1, 1599. Dated Madrid. Letter 
 from Thomas Fitzherbert to Sterrell. “ You want to be satis- 
 fied whether the King of Spain will pretend himself [to the 
 Crown]. I protest that not only his [late] father, but now he 
 gives us as great assurance in that behalf as may be desired. 
 We assure him that if he does it will never prevail. We expect 
 the meeting of the Archduke and King of Spain soon, and then 
 a full resolution will be made about the manner of proceeding 
 with the Infanta. I want your opinion whether it were not con- 
 venient to publish her right, and make her a pretender presently, 
 partly to counteract the King of Scots, and partly to engage 
 
 20 I suspect that the name written Baggot should be Bassett. Blore was 
 the seat of that family, who were related to Sir Thomas More. — [Editor.] 
 
Father Thomas Fitzherbert. 
 
 225 
 
 the King of Spain, and win a party in England, seconding it 
 with negotiations and pensions here. All the inconvenience I 
 fear is that the Queen would exclude her by Act of Parliament, 
 and perhaps swear all her subjects against her, though this 
 would not do as much harm as some imagine. I think that 
 unless some good order be taken, the King of Scots will win 
 the game, if the Earl of Essex be not in his way, whom never- 
 theless the Scots take to be his greatest friend ; but I think that 
 they are deceived, and that the other takes him for his com- 
 petitor, which will be well for the Infanta : when two dogs fight 
 for a bone, you know what follows.” [The letter is not original, 
 but an exact copy.] 
 
 Domestic , Elizabeth , Addenda, vol. xxxiv. n. 42; 42 i. 42 ii. 
 October, 1601. In a very long and rambling report of a spy 
 [to Cecil] running over a good part of Europe, and directed 
 mainly against Father Robert Parsons, and pointing out his 
 friends and supporters, the following mention is made of 
 Father Thomas Fitzherbert. 
 
 N. 42 ii. “Priests . . . Doctor Haddocks, Parson’s coach- 
 man, for that he keepeth his coach and horses, and are at his 
 sole command, but sayeth or may say, Hos ego versiculos feci 
 tulit alter honor es. For it is well known unto the world that 
 Dr. Haddock is not able to keep a coach and two horses at 
 Rome, for it is very chargeable, and his living small, besides 
 two men to attend him ; but the poor scholars pay for all ; and 
 whereas the College [English] formerly was well able to main- 
 tain seventy scholars, now is not able to maintain fifty, although 
 the living or revenue is rather increased than decreased; 
 only except that Parsons, in despite and revenge of the 
 scholars, sold away a great vineyard, the goodliest in Rome 
 both for vines, walks, fruits, houses, water and other neces- 
 saries whatsoever, and a thousand crowns, under the value as 
 would have been given for the same. The said Mr. Doctor is 
 President of the Council at the College, and generally every 
 afternoon do they sit to deliberate of all causes. The coun- 
 cillors names are these following — Parsons, judge ; Walpole, 
 Stephens, Smythe, Owen, Dr. Haddock, Mr. Thomas Fitz- 
 herbert, Mr. Baines, and Mr. Sweete, when he was there. 
 When the case is litigious then Father Harrison is sent for to 
 censure his opinion in the same. 
 
 “ They cannot well agree among themselves who should be 
 Cardinal. Some will have Father Parsons, Mr. Fitzherbert, &c., 
 but the Pope will take an order for making of English 
 
226 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 Cardinals, for he is well persuaded of their sedition, and 
 .... 21 bishopric will not serve their turns, but must 
 presently become Cardinals. Mr. Thomas Fitzherbert is held 
 to be worthiest of our nation, a man of great learning and 
 knowledge, worthy to be employed in matters of State, for that 
 he hath [given] himself absolutely thereunto from the begin- 
 ning, and in regard of his worthiness the King of Spain both 
 made him equal to Sir Francis Ingleby for pension 22 . . . 
 
 Domestic , Elizabeth , vol. cclxxxii. n. 43, December 22, 1601. 
 Paris. Letter from W. Smith to Cecil, Secretary. Says that 
 “ my departure was secret till I got to Ghent, where the Arch- 
 duke ordered my apprehension, so I left as advised for 
 Cologne, and thence for Rome to get Father Parsons’ letter 
 to the Duke ; but Parsons threatened to have me put in the 
 Inquisition as being come from your honour to do service, so 
 I was driven to depart. I hear that Sir William Stanley is 
 gone to Rome ; also Mr. Fitzherbert, who is to be a Jesuit at 
 Lodi, in the Duchy of Milan. An army of 4,000 or 5,000 
 strong is preparing for Ireland. I have returned to Paris, 
 but am in extreme poverty. I want my pardon, and to come 
 home. I would keep secret, and could discover many notable 
 things, as a boat which the Jesuits have in Hampshire to 
 transport their money, for the great maintenance of the Semi- 
 naries comes from England. 1 will be the greatest plague the 
 Papists ever had ; do what you command me, but I am a 
 soldier, and not a scholar to write.” 
 
 Same vol. n. 52. Statement by . That Richard Cooke 
 
 was employed by Cresswell and Fitzherbert to burn the 
 Queen’s storehouses, and came to London to effect it, but 
 was deterred by frightful dreams. He was directed to 
 Wiseman to acquaint him with a second man, who by use 
 of the token that “ Valladolid was in Flanders,” would bring 
 him to a third , whom he was to request: to “ look over the 
 letters numbered 25,” when the man would find him an 
 opportunity to execute his purpose. Wiseman was appre- 
 hended, and the second man also, and they refused to intro- 
 duce him to the third, but they railed on them and the 
 cause. 
 
 Fearing to be discovered by remaining too long in 
 Bayonne for a pass, Cooke said he would go back to 
 Cresswell and Fitzherbert, and bring their own letters to prove 
 them arch-traitors, for which you gave him money. I have 
 21 MS. damaged. 22 MS. damaged. 
 
Father Thomas Fitzherbert. 227 
 
 not heard that he did so, or has shown reason why he did not 
 do what he was paid for. 
 
 He was in Ireland coming with the Spaniards when they 
 landed, and his papers show that he has had private conference 
 with Papists in England. He is too dangerous to be trusted 
 in the Western parts. Let him be ordered to leave the 
 country till he do some good service, or at least be banished 
 from those parts, and bonds taken of his friends for his 
 loyalty. 
 
 Vol. cclxxxiv. n. 25, June 4, 1602. Thomas Pheleppes writes 
 to Cecil, Secretary, inclosing information, inter alia he says 
 that Father Parsons has been out of town, having been forced 
 twice to go to Civita Vecchia; the first time on the request 
 of the Duke of Feria, who passing that way towards Sicily, 
 where he is appointed Viceroy, desired Parsons and Thomas 
 Fitzherbert to meet him there ; the second to go thither with 
 Cardinal Aldobrandini and the Duke of Sessa to meet the 
 Countess of Lemos, Vice-Queen of Naples, whose confessor, 
 Parsons, had been in Rome, &c. 
 
 Vol. cclxxxv. n. 6. Charles Paget in a letter of information to 
 Secretary Cecil (September 15, 1602, Paris), says, inter alia , 
 Parsons and Thomas Fitzherbert have written to Owen and 
 others that the Inquisitors at Rome have decided between the 
 modest priests and the broiling Jesuits — (1) That the Jesuits 
 shall remain in England ; (2) that the priests shall have their 
 faculties restored; (3) that no books be written against each 
 other on pain of excommunication ; (4) that the priests deal 
 no more with Queen and Council ; (5) that the archpriest 
 and assistants remain in office as before ; (6) that the Colleges 
 continue as they did, under the government of the Jesuits. 
 There is no news the last two posts from Rome from the 
 priests, so it is feared their affairs do not go on well, &c. 
 
 Addenda (1580 — 1625), vol. xxxv. n. 61. James I. A 
 long letter from Sir Anthony Standen to Father Parsons. 
 Dated Paris, December 17, 1603. Among other things 
 he says, “ As for Mr. Fitzherbert, his has been a long 
 acquaintance, and while I lived in Tuscany, no Saturday 
 passed without letters to each other. He came to Florence 
 at his own charge to visit me out of love, and com- 
 plained of hard measure, from being tossed from post to 
 pillar ; and it was most rueful to hear in every place where I 
 came, and where English were, a heap of griefs and mis- 
 contents.” 
 
 p 2 
 
228 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 Domestic, James I. vol. xix. n. 59, March 19, 1606. Letter 
 from the Earl of Salisbury to Sir Henry Wotton, Ambassador 
 at Venice. He praises the course he took with the Papal 
 Nuncio. Parliament has made severe laws against the Papists. 
 He has no authority to permit the return to England of Sir 
 Robert Basset or [Thomas] Fitzherbert : the times are not 
 fitting for their recall. Basset’s goods will be confiscated to 
 satisfy some French merchants, robbed by a pirate for whom 
 he was surety. 
 
 Vol. xix. n. 131, July 12, 1619. Grant to Bartholomew 
 Beale of Gray’s Inn, for the benefit of Sir William Harmon, 
 of the moiety of the manor of Norbury and other lands, 
 counties Derby and Stafford, seized into the King’s hands 
 for rent owing by Thomas Fitzherbert of Norbury, Derbyshire, 
 to Robert Harcourt of Stanton, Oxford, an outlaw, the benefit 
 of whose outlawry was granted to Sir William Harmon. 
 
 Domestic, Charles I. vol. vii. n. 70, 1625, October n, 
 Rome. Testimonial under the hand of Thomas Fitzherbert, 
 Rector of the English College at Rome, and under the seal 
 of that College, that Troillus Lovell had remained at that 
 College for six days, during which time he had attended divine 
 service and received the Sacrament. 
 
 Amongst other calumnies to which Father Fitzherbert was 
 subjected was that of being an instigator of Squires in the plot, 
 or pretended plot, to poison the Queen and the Earl of Essex. 
 Father Richard Walpole (brother of the martyr Father Henry 
 Walpole) was the chief party calumniated. 23 
 
 One of the books published by Father Fitzherbert was 
 a defence against this infamous calumny, entitled, “Defence 
 of the Catholic cause, containing a treatise in confutation of 
 sundry untruths, slanders, &c., with an apology of his inno- 
 cence in a feigned conspiracy against her Majesty’s person, 
 for the which one Edward Squire was wrongfully condemned 
 and executed in November, 1598, wherewith the author and 
 other Catholics were also falsely charged” (4to. St.Omer, 1602). 
 This plot is mentioned in Lingard’s History of England of that 
 date. 
 
 23 As Father Richard Walpole is thus introduced to our notice, we 
 subjoin (by way of addenda) at the close of this history of St. Chad’s 
 College, a memoir of that eminent member of the Society. As he was 
 never a missioner in England, but always resided in our Colleges on the 
 Continent, we do not find any better opportunity of noticing him than the 
 present occasion of this infamous calumny. We shall also give copies of 
 various State Papers from the Public Record Office connected with it. 
 
Father Thomas Fitzherbert. 229 
 
 The following are the works of Father Fitzherbert — His 
 treatise against Machiavel’s work, already mentioned ; also 
 his defence and apology in the Squire feigned plot ; a treatise 
 concerning policy and religion, &c. (a masterpiece of reasoning 
 and learning, dedicated to his son Edward Fitzherbert, who 
 died March 25, 1612); A supplement to the discussion of 
 M. D. Barlow’s answer to the judgment of a Catholic English- 
 man, &c. — this work was interrupted by the author’s death 
 (Father Robert Parsons) ; A confutation of certain absurdities, 
 &c., uttered by M. D. Andrewes in his answer to Cardinal 
 Bellarmine’s Apology (4to. St. Omer) ; A reply to Roger 
 Widdrington’s {vere Preston) Disputatio Theologica , de jura- 
 mento Fidtlitatis apologia Cardl. Bdlar. pro jure prindpium , 
 1614; Ob??iutesco of F. T. to the Eppheta of Dr. Collins (8vo. 
 St. Omer, 1621). 
 
 Dr. Oliver asks, “Did he not publish the English translation 
 of Tursellini’s Life of St. Frajicis Xavier , 4to. Paris, 1632?” 
 ( Collectanea S.J. p. 93). “There was formerly,” adds Dr. Oliver, 
 “ in the English College at Rome a portrait of Father Fitz- 
 herbert, of which a copy by Munch was in the sacristy at 
 Wardour Castle.” 
 
 Dr. Oliver also asks in a note (ut supra), “ Who was John 
 Fitzherbert, Esq., at whose house at Padly the martyrs Nicholas 
 Garlick and Robert Ludlam were seized by George Earl of 
 Shrewsbury in 1588? For harbouring them he lost his estate, 
 lay in Derby gaol two years, was then removed to London, 
 and lived six years there in great want and then died.” This 
 was probably John Fitzherbert, second son of the judge Sir 
 Anthony, and the uncle of Father Thomas Fitzherbert {vide 
 pedigrees, p. 198, ante). In the P.R.O. Domestic , Elizabeth , 
 vol. ccxliv. n. 51, 1593, is a letter from the Earl of Shrewsbury 
 to Queen Elizabeth in which he says {inter alia) “that in 
 Derbyshire, where John Fitzherbert and other Seminary priests 
 had lately been apprehended, he had induced many of the 
 people to come to church.” See the same vol. n. 124, April 7 
 1593. In the letter from Sterrell the spy to Father Fitzherbert 
 (see page 224) he mentions his (Fitzherbert’s) cousin being 
 a prisoner in the Fleet, &c. 
 
 Dr. Oliver also asks — “ Who was Nicholas Fitzherbert, 
 who so virulently opposed Father Parsons at Rome ? ” 
 “ In a MS.,” says Dr. Oliver, “ I read that Father Parsons 
 returned from Naples to Rome, October 8, 1598. All the 
 English in Rome came to the College to hear his reasons 
 
230 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 against Mr. Nicholas Fitzherbert. So quoteth Mr. Baines 
 in his diary. This Nicholas Fitzherbert, a great adver- 
 sary of Father Parsons, was drowned in a brook called 
 La Pesa, some miles this side Florence, November 6, 
 1612.” This Nicholas was probably the one named in the 
 “ spy’s ” pedigree, as Cardinal Allen’s secretary, &c. He was 
 first cousin to Father Thomas Fitzherbert (see pedigree). 
 In the P.R.O. Domestic , Elizabeth , vol. ccxxviii. n. 26, is an 
 intercepted letter of the same Nicholas to Thomas Throg- 
 morton at Brussels, dated Rome, November 20, 1589. It 
 possesses nothing of interest. 
 
 Nicholas was attainted, as appears by a grant 24 to Henry 
 Butler and others and their heirs, of such remainder of the 
 manor of Over-Padly, Nether-Padly, and other places in the 
 counties of Stafford and Derby, as may accrue to the King 
 by the attainder of Nicholas Fitzherbert. [This would have 
 been any expectancy from his father, John Fitzherbert of 
 Padly.] 
 
 The family of Swinnerton likewise furnished the Society 
 with another saintly member in the person of — 
 
 Brother Robert Fitzherbert, a most angelical youth, 
 who was received into the Society just before his death in 
 1708. He is thus noticed in the Annual Letters for the 
 College of St. Omer, 1708. “Born of a family of rank in 
 England, and descended from Catholic parents who were 
 remarkable for their piety and constancy under the severe 
 sufferings which they had to endure in persecution for the 
 Faith ; being most piously brought up, he carried his baptismal 
 innocence with him to the grave. He lived like an angel 
 upon earth, both before and after his entering the College. 
 When a boy of twelve years of age he converted a Protestant 
 companion in England by his words and example, who faith- 
 fully persevered. Robert lived a heavenly life at St. Omer’s 
 College, and was never seen to commit a fault. He bore his 
 last sickness, no less protracted than severe, and also the 
 deep incisions of the surgeons, and cruel sufferings caused by 
 removing mortified flesh and bones, with an angelical coun- 
 tenance, a joyful heart, and astonishing patience and equa- 
 nimity, even until death, and was regarded by all as a saint” 
 
 The following paper regarding the relics of St. Chad, now, 
 or at least formerly, kept at Swinnerton Hall, will be found 
 24 Domestic, James I. vol. vi. n. 84, February 29, 1604, P.R.O. 
 
Brother Robert Fitzherbert. 231 
 
 interesting, and not out of place in a history of the old College 
 or district dedicated to that great Saint. 
 
 “ Relatio quomodo sex ossa majora reliquiarum S. Ceaddce ad 
 
 manus meas pervenerunt scripta a P. D. Pietro Turnero et 
 
 D. Gulielmo Atkins Sacerd. Miss. S.J. 
 
 “A.D. 1615, 8 Sept, ipso B. Virginis natali, Henricus 
 Hodsheeds de Woodseten prope Segleiam in com. Stafford, 
 moribundus me accersivit. Hominem munito praesidiis Ecclae ; 
 deinde positis genibus litanias majores recitamus ad quas 
 aeger cum esset linguae Latinae non ignarus pia admodum 
 respondit : cu ad eu locum perventum est ubi SS. confessores 
 invocantur, sustulit utramque manum e lecto extractam et 
 devote junctam, offerens in has voces prorupit: Sanctus 
 Ceaddae ora pro me. Cum haec frequenter repeteret cursum 
 Litaniarum interrupi cumque petii cur toties S. Ceaddam 
 invocaret ? Respondit S. Ceadda desuper in superiore 
 parte lecti praesens est, quern ego thesauru majori cupio 
 cum honore asservari, et proinde ilium tibi dono. His 
 dictis et litaniis absolutis; sacras reliquias intueri cupio quas 
 exaudio tincto seu velo majori lineo, sed nigro (Anglice black 
 buckeram ) opertas, uxor Henrici mihi in manus dat. Turn 
 Henricus qu ego opinibamur hoc velo tectus fuisse dum in 
 theca aliqua argentea in Lichfieldensi Eccla reconderentur. 
 Ego x velo praedicto sacra ossa abstuli et in pixide lignea 19 
 vel 20 digitos longae, 6 digitos profunda, 6 digitos lata 
 minoribus seris firmata eadem ossa reposui cu velo separatim 
 complicato. 
 
 “ Roganti mihi qo-modo has reliquias nactus erat, res- 
 pondit ", cu fides Catholica everteretur, quidam Praebendarius 
 (Dudley) cognatus Dni Dudley (qui famoso noe Dns.) seu 
 Baro (quondam dictus est) has sacras reliquias ab Eccla 
 Lichfeldensi honoris et reverentiae causa sustulit quas duabus 
 nobilibus foeminis (ejusdem nois de Dudley) cognatis suis habi- 
 tantibus apud Russel Hall, domum prope Viliam de Dudley, 
 asservandas dedit. Mortuo Praebendario feminae timore legum 
 exterritae licet Catholicae sese periculo eripere cupiunt proinde 
 easdem reliquas mihi fratriq meo Gulielmo (Familiares vicinae, 
 et amicissimae nobis erant) libenter concesserunt. Pars altera 
 fratri, pars haec mihi divisione facta obvenit : ab illo tempore 
 ad hanc hora fideliter eas conservavi. Illo mortuo ejus uxor 
 mihi reliquias tradidit, qas in pixide cu velo ut ante dixi, 
 reposueram. Nec mihi dubium est quin verissima sint haec 
 
232 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 oia, cum prope 20 annos prudentia et fidem hominis illius 
 perspectam habuerim. In cujus rei fidem nomen meum 
 subscribo. 
 
 “ Oct . 1, 1652. 
 
 “Petrus Turnerus. 
 
 “Franciscus Cotton. “Thomas Wilkinson. 
 
 “Gulielmus Atkins. “Richardus Vavasour. 
 
 “Dno. Petro Turnero mortuo 27 Maii 1655, hse reliquae ap- 
 probante Dno. Edvardo Bedingfield depositae sunt apud Dnm* 
 Joannem Levesonum eo quod hie ad districts et Collegii B. 
 Aloysii huic temporis pertineret. Velum de quo ante eo quod 
 esset vetustum “nec satis honestu” a me Gulielmo Atkins com- 
 bustum est. Pixis in qua reliquiae hae repositae sunt a militibus 
 et apparitoribus effracta est, et os unum contra pavimentum 
 allisisum in duas partes dissiliit in festo S. Andreae 1658 in 
 domo Dni. Levesoni. Impii illi partem reliquiaru secum 
 asportaverunt. 
 
 “Gulielmus Atkins. 
 
 “ Ego Gulielmus Atkins ex pyxide ilia a militibus effracta 
 sacras reliquias in aliam pyxidem serico tectam removi an. 
 1661 2. martii. 
 
 “R. P. Franciscus Fosterus Prov. Anglicanae Provae. S.J. 
 ann. 1652, 1 Oct. diligenter inspexit reliquias S. Ceaddae 
 dixitq. sibi privilegium notarii Apostolici concessum reliquias 
 approbavit dixitq. sese effecturu ut relatio Dni. Turneri in 
 acta referretur et in archiviis reponeretur. 
 
 “ Ego Gulielmus Atkins 
 
 “Praesens interfui.” 
 
 To this relation is added another of Father Richard 
 Strange, Rector of Gant, dated December 10, 1670, certifying 
 that he brought out of England into Flanders the year before, 
 some of St. Chad ; s relics. 
 
 Also another of Father Anthony Terill, Rector of Liege, 
 dated September 21, 1671, attesting that he had obtained an 
 approbation of the relic of St. Chad, and leave to expose the 
 same to public veneration in the chapel of the College of 
 Liege, from the most Rev. and illustrious D. Earnest, Baron 
 of Surlet, Vicar General in Spirituals to his Serene Highness. 
 
 In another loose paper is a third attestation of Father 
 Richard Barton, Rector of St. Omer, dated January 20, 1667, 
 
Father Francis Foster . 
 
 233 
 
 bearing witness that, being Visitor of the Residence of 
 St. Chad, he took out of the box of St. Chad's relics, in domo 
 ejusd. nobilis Catholici j a particle of the same, and gave 
 them to the Father Director of the English Sodality, to be 
 exposed to public veneration if the Bishop of St. Omer should 
 think proper. These relics were then probably at Blackladies, 
 a house of Mr. Fitzherbert, not very far from Wolverhampton, 
 where they were under the custody of Father Collingwood, 
 Superior of that district, and from whence they were conveyed 
 to Swinnerton, two miles from Stone, after Mr. Collingwood's 
 death, this being the residence of Mr. Fitzherbert. 
 
 The authentic MSS. are kept with the relics at Swinnerton 
 Hall. 25 
 
 Tixall Hall, Staffordshire. — The seat of the ancient 
 and, until late years, Catholic family of the Lords Aston, was 
 often served by the Fathers of this district. In the time of the 
 Oates' Plot persecution we shall have to return to it again, 
 one of that unhappy perjurer's right-hand helpers, Dugdale, 
 having once been a steward in the family, and left the service 
 in consequence of his thefts. Father William Ireland, one of 
 the victims of Oates, was also there for a time. 
 
 Father Francis Foster appears to have been much there 
 from the following information of a Government spy, P.R.O., 
 1629, State Papers, Domestic Chas. I. vol. clxxviii. n. 43, who 
 says ( inter alia ) : “ Hem , Father Francis Foster, newly come 
 out of Spain. A Yorkshire man; was agent for the English 
 Jesuits at the Court of Spain, when his Majesty was there ; 
 resorts much to London, and to the Lady Aston’s house, 
 Staffordshire.” 
 
 Father Foster entered the Society in the year 1622, and 
 was solemnly professed on the 8th of December, 1635. In 
 1642, he was Rector and Master of Novices at Watten. After 
 professing theology at Liege, and filling other offices, he was 
 proclaimed Provincial in 1650, and died soon after the end of 
 his three years’ government, in England, 7th October, 1653, 
 aged 62. A business letter of his may be found in vol. v. 
 Stonyhurst MSS., Anglice , n. 31, dated 26th of March, 1649, 
 addressed to Father Thomas Barton. Father Foster was also 
 
 25 Copied from a MS. in the handwriting of the late Rev. Alban Butler, 
 in a vol. of MSS. at Oscott College, entitled “Memoirs of Missionary 
 Priests, MSS.” being Mr. Alban Butler’s collection for Bishop Challoner’s 
 Lives of Missionary Priests. 
 
234 
 
 The College of Si. Chad. 
 
 Socius to Father Henry Bedingfield, alias Silisdon, who was 
 Provincial 1646 — 1650. 
 
 Wolverhampton. — This ancient town was, we believe, the 
 head-quarters of St. Chad’s College or district. In the year 
 996 a monastery was founded here by Wulfrana, sister of King 
 Edgar, and widow of Aldhelm, Duke of Northampton, in 
 honour of whom this town, previously called Hampton, received 
 the appellation of Wulfranis-Hampton, of which its present 
 name is a corruption. The monastery continued till the 
 year 1200, when it was surrendered to Hubert, Archbishop 
 of Canterbury, and was subsequently annexed by Edward IV. 
 to the Deanery of Windsor. 
 
 In the intended history of the English Province in the 
 periods of Oates’ Plot, and the Revolution of 1688, we shall 
 have to return to Wolverhampton, where, on the revival of 
 religion on the accession of James II., the English Fathers of 
 the Society had a flourishing College, and large residence and 
 chapel. In fact, Wolverhampton was then called the “ Little 
 Rome” (Rarva Roma ) on account of the great number of 
 Catholics there. It was also the seat of the long-lived labours 
 of Father William Atkins who, as we have already said, died a 
 martyr for the Faith in Stafford gaol, 17th of March, 1681, 
 at the age of 80, and bed-ridden, being under sentence of 
 death ; and Wolverhampton also had for its missioner for some 
 years the blessed martyr, Father John Gavan, who suffered 
 at Tyburn, 30th of June, 1679. 
 
WALPOLE PEDIGREE, S.J. 
 
 (Extracted from the elaborate and valuable Walpole Pedigree compiled by Dr. Jessopp, of Norwich, and Everard Green, F.S.A., 1874.) 
 
 
 William Cobbe, 
 
 Herward Edward, of Houghton, = Lucy, 
 
 Sir Terry Rob- 
 sart, of Sedis- 
 tem, Norfolk, 
 Knight 
 
 Iibnry (of Harpley and = Margaret (first wife) Agnes = William Russell, 
 
 ffl kde> county Holtofte, of Whap- Had issue 
 
 , of Houghton, = Catharine daughter and 
 Esq. I co-heir of William • 
 
 Callibut of Coxford, 
 Norfolk, Esq. 
 
 Richard, of Braconash, 
 county Norfolk 
 
 Llizabeth = - ■ 
 
 n, county Norfolk. Died 19th July, 
 
 Henry Walpole, 
 
 Edward, S.J. Baptized 28th January, 
 iS59-6o. Matriculated pensioner of 
 Peter House, Cambridge, 26th May, 
 1576. Admitted a Convictor of the 
 English College, Rome, 23rd Octo- 
 ber, 1590, and as an Alumnus 5th 
 February, 1592. Received the Minor 
 Orders in Lent, 1592 ; ordained Sub- 
 deacon on Holy Saturday, Deacon 
 on Easter Monday in the Cathedral 
 Church of SL John Lateran, and Priest 
 on Ascension Day, 1592, in the 
 Chapel of the English College, Rome. 
 Entered the Novitiate S.J. at Tou 
 
 but 1 8th September, 1588, and 
 1612 renounced by deed all claim 
 his estates in favour of Calibut. Was 
 converted by his cousin, Fr. Henry 
 Walpole the Martyr. On the English 
 mission forty years. Died 3rd No- 
 vember, 1637, at . 77, in London. 
 
 Elizabeth, daughter of 
 Edmund Bacon of 
 Hesset, county Suffolk, 
 Esq. 
 
 Dorothy Katherine 
 
 >578. 
 
 1558. Bred at Norwich Grammar 
 School ” ■ ' ’ • ’ ' 
 
 Peter 
 
 1575. Resided thei 
 1579. Entered at Grays ini 
 Arrived at English College, 
 
 7th July, 1582. Admitted an Alum- 
 nus of English College, Rome, at. 
 24, 28th April, 1583. Received 
 ’ ' r ' r the usual dispen- 
 
 contractani , 
 am the exiled 
 
 John Jeffrey Richard, S.J. 
 
 at Docking ! 
 
 Walpole, Earlsi Orford. 
 
 Minor Order (after t 
 sation propter haresw 
 & c.) in October, 1583, fi 
 Catholic Bishop of St. Asaph. Left 
 the English College before taking 
 the usual college oath, in January, 
 1584. Entered the Society of Jesus 
 2nd February, 1584; ordained Sub- 
 deacon 26th December, 1587, Dea- 
 con 2 1st May, and Priest (in Paris) 
 17th December, 1588. In 1589, five 
 months in prison at Flushing ; de- 
 livered by his brother Christopher. 
 At Brussels 1590; at Toumay 1591 ; 
 at Madrid and St. Omer 1592. 
 Embarked at Dunkirk for English 
 brother Thomas ; 
 
 December, 1 593 ; apprehended next 
 day at Kirkham, and conveyed to 
 York. Sent to London 25th Feb- 
 
 1564. Matricula- 
 ted Pensioner at Peter 
 House, Cambridge, 1st 
 April, 1579. A Scholar 
 at Rheims 158 . En- 
 tered Alumnus of En- 
 
 
 26th November, Dea- 
 
 I589- In Seville 20th 
 
 1592. Rector of both 
 those Colleges. Died 
 at the latter end of 1607, 
 at. 42. Falsely accused 
 as an instigator, with 
 Father Thomas Fitz- 
 herbert, S.J., and others, 
 of the sham plot to 
 
 Thomas Christopher, S.J. Bap- 
 tized at Docking 23rd 
 , October, 1568. Educated 
 at Ely Grammar School, 
 under Speght. Matricu- 
 . lated Pensioner at Caius 
 
 College, Cambridge, 8th 
 December, 1587. En- 
 tered Alumnus of English 
 College, Rome, 22nd Feb- 
 ruary, 1592. Entered the 
 Society of Jesus 27th Sep- 
 tember, 1592. Died at 
 the English College, Val- 
 ladolid, ^ 1606, at. 38. 
 
 detrimento Patria." 
 
 Michael, S.J., alias 
 Michael Chris- 
 
 TOPHERSON. Bap- 
 tized at Docking 
 1st October, 1570. 
 Was companion to 
 Father John Gerard 
 1588. Entered an 
 Alumnus of English 
 College Rome, 12th 
 May, 1590. Took' 
 the usual college 
 oath 20th March, 
 1591. Entered the 
 Society of Jesus 8th 
 September, 1593. 
 At Valladolid, Su- 
 
 Mission. 0 . . .“Died 
 
 orothy Margaret 
 
 Christopher Walpole (alias Christopher Warner). Born 1598. Native of Norfolk. Entered 
 Alumnus of English College, Rome, nth October, 1617, under the name of Christopher Warner, 
 ver<- Christopher Walpole. Took the usual -college oath 1st May, 1618. Ordained Priest in 
 Rome 1 6th May, 1622. Seht in Vineam Atiglicanam , 19th January, 1624 {vide English Collegi 
 Diary). Entered the Society 1625. Professed of the four vows 6th August, 1637. Rector 
 of College S.J., Ghent {pom. Tert ), 1642, &c. In 1655 he was serving in the residence of 
 St. Stanislaus (Devonshire district). According to the Catalogue of 1655, he had filled various' 
 important offices— Rector, Procurator, Consultor, Prefect, &c. He is called Warner alone 
 in the . Catalogus. It is Uncertain to which tyanch of the family he belongs. He was 
 probably connected with the Warners of Docking. He died in England 1st December, 1664, 
 after a long missionary career. 
 
 ruary, 1593, and thrown into the 
 Tower, where he was many times 
 cruelly tortured. Remanded back to 
 York; and on Monday, 17th April, 
 
 1595, he suffered martyrdom by being 
 hanged, cut down alive, disembow- 
 elled, and quartered, after having 
 been tried and convicted of high 
 treason, for taking Holy Orders abroad 
 and returning to England to preach 
 the Catholic faith. He was then aged 
 thirty-six years ( Vide Challoned s Mis- 
 sionary Priests , Tanner’s Mattyrs, 
 
 S.J . , BartolVs Inghilterra, &c. ). 
 
 Portraits at Rome and at Valladolid. Copies of these at Rainthorpe Hall, 
 Norwich, in the possession of the Hon. Fred. Walpole,*M.P.; at Stonyhurst 
 College, and elsewhere. Nineteen of his letters in the collection of MSS. at 
 Stonyhurst College. These were printed by the Rev. Dr. Jessopp, of Norwich, 
 with Notes and'a brief Autobiography, in 1873. 
 
 [To /aee p.235 
 
Father Richard Walpole . 
 
 235 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 LIFE OF FATHER RICHARD WALPOLE, S.J. 
 
 Father Richard Walpole was a native of Anmer, in Norfolk, 
 son of Christopher Walpole, Esq. of Docking, Anmer Hall, 
 and Dersingham, county Norfolk, by Margery, daughter of 
 Richard Beckham of Narford, gentleman. He was born in 
 the year 1564-5, and was the fourth brother to Father Henry 
 Walpole, the blessed martyr. The annexed pedigree 1 shows 
 the members of the Walpole family who entered the Society of 
 Jesus. He was admitted an alumnus of the English College, 
 Rome, 25th of April, 1585 ; was ordained subdeacon the 
 26th, and deacon the 30th of November, and priest the 
 3rd of December, 1589, and was then sent into Spain. On 
 the foundation of the English Seminary at Seville in 1592, 
 he was sent with others to commence that establishment, 
 and on the 20th of February, 1593, he and another priest, 
 Henry Floyd, afterwards of the Society, publicly defended 
 “ conclusiones ex universa theologia decerptas, cum maxima 
 omnium approbatione.” He entered the Society 1596. 
 Father Richard Walpole is said, upon the testimony of 
 Pitzeus, to have been an eminent divine, ahd displayed his 
 powers in his Answer to Matthew Sutcliffes Challenge (8vo. 
 
 1 Amongst the State Papers, P.R.O. Domestic, James /. vol. lxi. n. 13, 
 is a note by a Government spy, “of such Jesuits, &c., as I knew in 
 Rome from 1589 to 1595*” The following of the Walpole family are 
 named : “ Father Richard Walpole, first a seminary and then a Jesuit, 
 and now a reader of the philosophy lectures in Valladolid, Spain ; 
 Michael Walpole, his brother, Jesuit, Rome; William Walpole [should 
 be Christopher], another brother, Jesuit, in Rome. Nota: that these 
 three brothers are Norfolk men born in Anmer, while another brother 
 of theirs, which once served Sir William Stanley, possesseth their land ; 
 Edward Walpole, their uncle [should be cousin], and heir of that 
 house, Jesuit, in Rome. Note that he was heir of their manor of Hauton 
 [Houghton], near Anmer, in Norfolk, and his brother, William Calipote 
 Walpole, now possesseth the said [manor].” The spy thus concludes, 
 “For England I understand [among others] one Tregean a seminary, 
 and Jesuit, in Norfolk. Item , one of the Walpoles a seminary in Norfolk. 
 Sir, I make no question but had you but warrant, I could ferret some of 
 these out. 
 
 “Your loving friend, to be ever commanded, 
 
 “Adam Kinge.” 
 
The College of St. Chad. 
 
 236 
 
 Antwerp, 1605), and two years before that, in his confutation of 
 Sallifi, a Protestant minister, under the initials O.E. (Dr. Oliver, 
 Collectanea). As we shall see, he was accused, with Father 
 Thomas Fitzherbert, of devising the absurd plot of poisoning 
 Queen Elizabeth’s saddle and the Earl of Essex’s chair in 
 1598. When he heard of the accusation he treated it with 
 contempt, but for the sake of truth was afterwards induced to 
 publish a pamphlet, The discovery and confutation of a tragical 
 fiction devised and played, by Edward Squyer , yeoman , soldier , 
 hanged at Tyburn , 23rd of November , 1598.” The unfortunate 
 Squires died proclaiming with his last breath Father Richard’s 
 innocence. 
 
 Father Walpole was Perfect of Studies at various times 
 in the English Colleges at Rome, Seville, and principally 
 at Valladolid, and succeeded Father Joseph Cresswell as 
 Superior of the mission in Spain. 
 
 In the will of the celebrated and saintly lady, Dona Louisa 
 de Carvajal, who founded the English Novitiate at Louvain, 
 dated Valladolid, December 22, 1604, Father Richard Walpole, 
 then Vice-Prefect of the English mission in that city, is named 
 as one of the executors. For a copy of this interesting and 
 pious specimen of Spanish devotion and humility, see Father 
 Morris’ Condition of Catholics , Life of Father John Gerard ; 
 also Father Henry More’s Hist. Frov. Angl. S.J. 
 
 Father Richard Walpole died prematurely at Valladolid, 
 aged 42, a.d. 1607. 
 
 The following account of the calumny against this eminent 
 Jesuit is taken from Father More’s Hist. Prov. Angl. S.J. 
 lib. v. nn. 44 — 46, p. 220, et seq. 
 
 “ One Edward Squire, an adventurer in the company of the 
 famous pirate Francis Drake, was taken prisoner in the Indies 
 with other robbers of the same breed, and carried to Seville. 
 Being allowed to go about the city at liberty, his conduct both 
 as regards his tongue and his actions was such as to bring him 
 under the notice of the Court of Inquisition. Having been 
 there tried, the judge committed him at first to prison, and 
 then, after some delay, handed him over to the charge of the 
 Carmelites, in whose monastery he was detained for two years 
 in the hope of working his reformation. Wearied out with the 
 tedium of the solitude of the place, he pretended that he 
 wanted to become a Catholic, and caused Father Richard 
 Walpole to be sent for, who having previously heard much 
 about the indomitable disposition of the man, whom he had 
 
Father Richard Walpole. 
 
 237 
 
 never seen, and surprised at this sudden change of affairs, 
 resolved to deal both slowly and cautiously with him. He 
 protracted the matter for many days in teaching and trying him. 
 Squires asked if he doubted him, and prayed and intreated 
 him to expedite it. At last Father Richard consented, and 
 remitting to God the hidden things of his heart, he heard the 
 man’s confession and absolved him. Squires had hoped by this 
 stratagem to hasten the recovery of his liberty, in which being 
 disappointed, he made his escape before a year had elapsed, 
 leaving a letter in his room for Father Walpole, excusing 
 himself for having departed in that manner without taking leave 
 of him ; which letter coming first into the hands of the Inquisi- 
 tors, reached Father Richard from them. Edward Squire 
 arrived at San Lucar, found a vessel leaving for England, by 
 which he took passage thither, and immediately on his arrival 
 went to sea again on board the fleet of the Earl of Essex, which 
 was setting out to attack Tercera.” 
 
 “ The reader will remember,” says Father More, “ in the 
 trial of Father Campion, that one Craddock declared, when 
 there was a talk of the formation of the Holy Alliance 
 for the subjugation of England, that he was present at the 
 conversation. The present fable is of a kindred stamp. 
 Squires, on landing in England, went to a certain magnate in 
 power, for the purpose of clearing himself, according to the 
 •laws, from the suspicion which busy report had raised of his 
 having joined the Catholics ; and, relating as a good joke what 
 he had shammed with Walpole, he offered his ready services 
 to the said magnate. The miserable man was as yet ignorant 
 that in what way a man sins, in the same does God 
 punish the crime, causing the guilt to fall upon the head of 
 the criminal. It was schemed that one of those who had been 
 taken prisoner with Squires should return from Spain with a 
 letter which, by the ambiguity of its contents hinted that some- 
 thing was to be undertaken by Squires, upon which hung many 
 and important issues. At first the letter was rejected as a 
 hoax; but as it appeared to some that the matter was sufficiently 
 important not to be neglected, Squires was recalled from the 
 fleet and examined. He denied having had any such conver- 
 sation with Walpole. He was then put upon the rack and 
 examined, and by force of the tortures confessed any fabrica- 
 tion put to him — that he had received from Father Walpole a 
 poisonous powder in a bladder, by sprinkling which upon the 
 pommel of the Queen’s saddle (which might be easily effected 
 
238 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 by perforating the bladder), she might get it upon her hands, 
 and thence by chance to her nose and mouth, and thus cause 
 death. Nor did it suffice for their purposes to confess that he 
 had merely received the poison, but he must go a step further, 
 and say that he really made the attempt, and this was extorted 
 from him by the tortures of the rack, and he afterwards signed 
 his confession with his own hand. 
 
 “When news of this reached Father Walpole, he treated it 
 as the idle dream of a silly fool. Becoming convinced by 
 repeated letters that the matter was taken in real earnest, he 
 wrote an epistle, commencing with the words of the great 
 St. Athanasius, ‘With a loud and distinct voice, and with 
 outstretched hand {quod didici ab Apostolo), I call God to 
 witness upon my soul, and as it is written in the Book of 
 Kings — -jusjurandum concipio — may God be witness, and may 
 His Christ be witness, that the whole of this accusation is 
 false, and I protest before God, and the whole court of 
 heaven, and on the word of a priest, that nothing of the kind 
 objected against me, even entered my thoughts. But although 
 I am fully convinced that this my protest is abundantly 
 sufficient to prove my innocence with all whose consciences 
 are unseared (for among the lapsed and profane, and the 
 excommunicate, as says St. Cyprian, from whose breasts the 
 Holy Spirit has departed, what else can remain except a 
 depraved mind and a false tongue, a venemous hate and 
 sacrilegious falsehood, with whom he that gives credence, must 
 needs be found in the Day of Judgment), I will here subjoin 
 some facts which will clearly show the whole of this accusation 
 to be a mere fable conjured up by those who, provided only 
 they can inflict an injury upon our Society, care little what 
 evil things they either say or do. In the first place, therefore, 
 so little acquaintance was there between me and Squires, 
 that he did not even correctly remember my name ; for in the 
 indictment I am called William instead of Richard. Then I 
 reckon that those who impute this crime to me must think that 
 my brain is affected; for who possessing the least spark of 
 sound judgment would intrust so great an affair to a stranger, 
 hitherto perfectly unknown to him, of whom also there was 
 no vague suspicion that he would be faithless to his oath, and 
 turn traitor, as it really happened ? Add to this, his repeated 
 request that I would, on his returning to England, recom- 
 mend him to some Catholic who kept a priest in his house ; 
 in which matter, finding that I showed but little confidence in 
 
Father Richard Walpole. 
 
 239 
 
 him, how is it reasonable to suppose that I should make him a 
 confidant in so great a crime ? Then, inter alia , he is reported 
 to have said that if any hesitation or doubt in perpetrating so 
 enormous a crime should occur to him, I had ordered him to 
 go to a certain doctor who, with other secular priests, was 
 confined in prison, whom he named [Dr. Bagshawe] : for since 
 they say also here, that I had imparted the affair to our 
 Fathers, why not rather have sent him to ours than to that 
 particular doctor, who of all the clergy in the whole island, 
 it is notorious, is most ill affected towards the Society? But 
 this happened by the providence of God, that no particle or 
 resemblance of truth should be mixed up in the whole affair. 
 Lastly, there is the first denial of Squires, then after a five 
 hours’ torture comes his retraction of his confession upon the 
 rack, and his reiterated protestation before the judges at his 
 trial that he had neither received any poison, nor had 
 attempted any evil whatever in England against the Queen; 
 all which facts show that the man was entangled in the nets 
 by the wickedness of others, and struggled to extricate himself 
 by shifting first to one side, then to the other ; and failing in 
 truth in both, tossed in the waves of fear and hope, perished 
 by his own inconsistency. For when the examiners had 
 extracted by tortures the man’s signature to his confession, 
 they considered the punishment of death not unmerited, 
 although it savoured of a lie, and by visiting so great a falsehood 
 by a real punishment, to stamp the affair with some shade of 
 truth, whereby the name of Jesuit might be brought into 
 popular odium. Thus, whether by the cunning or the gold 
 of the powerful, do they sport with the character and life of 
 the innocent, to serve their base purposes.’ 
 
 “ But there were many other facts besides those noted by 
 Father Walpole to show that the whole of this tragedy (save 
 only the real death of Squires himself) was a fiction and a 
 lie, and either his own patchwork for the purpose of com- 
 mending himself to the magistracy on entering the island, or 
 else imposed upon him by the suborned witnesses, Stanly, 
 Munday, and Rolles. For those who are favourable to the 
 plot, say that Squires did not run away from Spain, but left 
 it by some interchange of Spanish prisoners ; whereas it is 
 clear from his own letter, that he withdrew himself secretly. 
 Then they say that Father Walpole, when he saw that Squires 
 would not make any attempt of this nature, employed a 
 certain English released prisoner returning home from Spain 
 
240 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 to discover the affair to the authorities, and to accuse Squires. 
 As if forsooth Walpole was so prodigal of his character, that 
 although it was in his power to conceal so great a crime, yet 
 he should, without any fruit to himself beyond immense repro- 
 bation, intrust it openly to any chance person crossing the 
 Channel. But the man to whom the affair was said to have 
 been intrusted, on returning to England denied the fact, but 
 said that the letter which he had privately brought over had 
 been abstracted from his room. Tam difficile est sibi invicem 
 cohcerentia proferre inter mentiendum. I am astonished at this,” 
 adds Father More, “ or rather I will say a certain feeling of 
 indignation comes over me on reading an account of the pro- 
 ceedings taken down by one who was present, that Squires, 
 when defending himself upon his trial for his life, openly 
 repeated that he had during a terrible examination under 
 torture upon the rack for five hours, confessed things he had 
 never either said or done, merely that he might be released 
 from the severity of the torments. But the counsel for the 
 Crown, in the same place, affirmed that he had never been 
 examined by torture at all, which,” says Father More, “ I leave 
 to be reconciled by the reader. To me it seems most certain 
 that the whole affair was carried out with the most open collu- 
 sion of the parties. Since Rolles, who came over from Spain 
 with Squires, was in the meantime kept in close custody in the 
 Tower, lest if called as a witness by Squires, he should confirm 
 his denial that he had ever held any conversation with him on 
 matters of this nature, and thus prevent a capital conviction, 
 and leave it more at liberty to impute to Stanly and Munday, 
 known informers, the crime they wished to lay upon Squires ; a 
 scheme not unfrequent with those who, to compass their designs, 
 consider no crime unfitting.” The following are extracts from 
 the documents in the State Paper Office before alluded to. 
 
 Domestic , Elizabeth , State Papers, 1598, vol. cclxviii. n. 62. 
 
 “Examination of John Stanley, taken October 23, 1598. 
 Being first demanded during the time of his imprisonment who 
 had access and conference with him, he says that an English 
 Jesuit called Father Walpole, and one Davis and Owen came 
 to him and the other Englishmen and did use persuasions to 
 withdraw them from religion and to become Catholics. Being 
 asked, after they had been dealt withal in matters of conscience, 
 what other directions were made to him to do any service to 
 the King, he doth affirm that neither Father Walpole . . . 
 
Father Richard Walpole. 
 
 241 
 
 [N.B. — This examination is almost illegible. The main part 
 of it concerning Father Walpole is, that neither he nor the 
 others persuaded them to do any service against the Queen’s 
 Majesty or the estate of this realm ; but of themselves they did 
 devise to offer service to the King to procure their liberty. 
 Examinant told Munday privately of his desire to recover 
 liberty ; Munday promised to be true, and thereupon they sent 
 for Father Walpole, with whom Munday first dealt. After that 
 they wrote to Don John Idiaques, and to Don Christopher de 
 Mora offering to do the King service in general terms ; and 
 if they might come to Court to prove themselves good 
 Catholics and honest servants. Having no answer, Walpole 
 told them they must state what service they would undertake ; 
 they offered the taking of Flushing, and were sent for to the 
 Court with irons upon them. Before they went from Seville, 
 they told Father Walpole they would be honest men and do 
 what they ought.] 
 
 Same vol. n. 82. 
 
 “The declaration of John Stanley, under his own hand, 
 this 1 8th of October, 1598, at the Tower about twelve of the 
 clock at noon. 
 
 “The 5th of August last, about seven of the clock I was. 
 brought unto the King by Joseph Cresswell, Jesuit, where 
 they took me sworn by the living God to be secret in what I 
 was employed, which was to go to William Munday and receive 
 of him a perfume which should be cast in the way of her 
 Majesty, to cut off her life, and the King said the words that I 
 have already written in another paper, commanding me to 
 speak somewhat of peace, and to write over what was said 
 of it, especially what my Lord of Essex said about the same. 
 Also I was employed to help Munday to bum her Majesty’s 
 navy, and that I should go to Sir Thomas Arundell, and tell 
 him of one Father Smith, a seminary ; and after he had showed 
 me of some [original illegible] subjects, Papists, to go to them 
 and confer with them and tell them of the Catholics, their 
 names and places, seeing I was of the contemplative life, and 
 trusted in matters of fidelity ; and if they did trust me with 
 letters, then to acquaint them with my employments, or else 
 not. William Bostocke, Edmond Edmondes, both servants, 
 to Thomas Fitzherbert, shall be employed shortly. Bostocke 
 is about forty years old, with a bald head, somewhat talL. 
 Edmondes, a low man, slender and lean. Also there ar$ 
 
 Q 
 
242 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 three priests to come over, by name, Father Charles Tancred, 
 Father Cooper, and another Father whom I have forgotten; 
 they will repair to Scotney as they said. Bostocke is of a 
 flaxen hair, and with a great rolling eye, dwelling in West 
 Chester, where he hath a wife ; the other man a brown head, 
 short. 
 
 “ After I had been sworn, the King said these words, ‘ No 
 sera solomento los diniros nombrados, que vos Juan Stanley 
 termas si no ganaras con dios y yo y mi hi jo estaremos sempre 
 para loque vos terra munster .’ 2 And then said Cresswell 
 something to the King in secret : I heard a word or two 
 thereof, which was that they had often been deceived by taking 
 the bare oath of the Sacrament, and therefore they had taken 
 me sworn by the Lord, and as I hoped to be saved, never 
 to disclose it : but if I could not do it to come again, and 
 bringing some Papists’ letters with me. I sought often to be 
 employed into Flanders, and then Thomas Fitzherbert, Cress- 
 well, and Elliot, and James said if I would be constant in 
 what they would command me, I should have ten thousand 
 ducats at my return. They caused those two letters to be 
 written, and my pass, bidding me say to the boys I was sent 
 for Flanders, until I came to St. Jo. de Luz, and then say 
 again myself how I had escaped, which would be believed. 
 Don Juan de Idiaques, Don Christopher de Mora, and others 
 were all privy to my employments, so was Jo. Ruez de Velasco 
 and Don Fernando de Tolevo. 
 
 “Concerning Munday’s employment, he was dealt withal 
 secretly, for that he should not know of my coming over : they 
 commanded me to tell him how I would run away; that 
 thereby I should have more credit in the Court; if he should 
 not be honest to them, then he would declare my saying. 
 If he were honest I should deal with him, and join with him, 
 and if he gave me the perfume, and told me where he had it, 
 I should also write over of it ; and the King knew of this 
 perfume, and his Council also. Walpole told me at my depar- 
 ture from Seville to Madrid, Roals and Squier were employed 
 about her Majesty’s person, and how they had received money 
 for the same, all I have written of theretofore ... as near as 
 I can call to remembrance. They gave the said letters to 
 
 2 S.P. Calendar (Mrs. Green). “ That my gain would not only be much 
 money, but that he and his son would be my friends in case of need.” 
 Modern spelling has been adopted instead of the barbarous style of the 
 originals. 
 
Father Richard Walpole . 
 
 243 
 
 deliver to the Council, saying Roals and Squier had discovered 
 their employments, and for that they said of the King of 
 France would make all the rest be believed, and what was 
 said of the King of Scots, it were well if they would fall 
 together by the ears, meaning her Majesty and the said King 
 of Scots. 
 
 “ I know not any employed about anything more than her 
 Majesty’s person, and her royal navy. 
 
 “For Oliver Alman, the priest, I should find him about 
 Einsome or at Scotney, and he would also bring me to some 
 other Papists who should relieve me, and help me in any- 
 thing. 
 
 “ The King commanded me, which I had forgotten, if I 
 found not Munday honest to him, then to take any course for 
 her Majesty’s death. 
 
 “I could never perceive at any time that they meant to 
 make any invasion by force, but in treason hope, first of her 
 Majesty’s death, or by assurance of help of the subjects of 
 England : neither have they power to do it by force, but if 
 they were promised by them of Hamburg ships well provided, 
 if they would, to help to gain England by force, but I could 
 never hear any more of that. 
 
 “Jo. Stanley.” 
 
 “ At Essex House. Affirmed in the presence of 
 
 “Essex. Ro. Cecill. Edw. Coke.” 
 
 Same vol. n. 83. 
 
 “At the Tower. The examination of Edward Squier ? 
 taken this 19th of October, 1598. 
 
 . “ He confesseth that at that time that Walpole persuaded 
 this examinant to attempt and be employed against her 
 Majesty’s person, this examinant did take upon him to have 
 some skill in perfuming, and thereupon Walpole asked whether 
 he could compound poisons, and this examinant said no, but 
 said he had skill in perfumes, and said that he had read in 
 Tartalia of a ball, the smoke whereof would make a man in a 
 trance and soon to die, to whom Walpole said that should be 
 done with difficulty, but to apply poison to a certain place 
 is the convenientest way. Whereunto this examinant said, ‘ I 
 have no skill therein.’ ‘Then,’ said Walpole, ‘you shall have 
 directions in that behalf.’ To whom this examinant said, 
 ‘Is there no composition of poison to carry with me?’ ‘No,’ 
 said Walpole, ‘ that were dangerous, for being taken at sea 
 Q 2 
 
244 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 (the Earl being then ready to go to sea) on a sudden when 
 a man should have neither leisure nor memory to cast it away ; 
 for [said he] joy or fear may suppress a man’s memory.’ Then 
 asked this examinant what directions he would give him ; and 
 then Walpole said he would advise him against another time. 
 
 “And at another time upon a conference between them, 
 Walpole said he was resolved to now write ; and the exami- 
 nant asked to whom. Walpole said, ‘ Know you Wisbeach ? ’ 
 This examinant answered, ‘ I know it, but I was never in the 
 Castle, but I have heard of Bagshaw, an excellent man there.’ 
 Walpole said, 4 He knoweth all these courses the Jesuits do 
 hold, and you shall have a letter to him.’ 
 
 “Being demanded what directions he had from Walpole 
 concerning his employment : saith that he had certain directions 
 from Walpole in his own handwriting, which as he saith he 
 threw into the water the same day he came from Seville. And 
 the letter directed to Bagshaw he threw into the sea after he 
 came past Plymouth. And saith that certain poisonous drugs 
 whereof opium was one were to be compounded and beaten 
 together and steeped in white mercury water, and put in an 
 earthen pot, and set it a month in the sun, by Walpole’s said 
 directions . 3 
 
 “This examinant demanded of Walpole how he should 
 apply the poison, and he said it should be put in a double 
 bladder, and the bladders to be pricked full of holes in the 
 upper part, and carried in the palm of his hand upon a thick 
 glove for safeguard of his hand ; and then to turn the holes 
 downward, and to press it hard upon the pommel of her 
 Highness’ saddle ; and said that it would lie and tarry long 
 where it was laid, and that it would not be checked by the air. 
 And these ingredients he said this examinant should buy at 
 any apothecary’s, and willed this examinant to cause some 
 other to buy one of the ingredients at one place and another at 
 another, for fear of suspicions, there being five ingredients in 
 all as he saith, but remembreth not the other three. And 
 saith that he is assuredly persuaded that he should receive 
 further advertisement and directions therein, either from Bag- 
 shawe, or that Bagshawe knew who was able to direct this 
 examinant further therein. And this latter conference together 
 with the letter and conditions in writing were had and delivered 
 
 3 In the margin is written, (i) of opium, two drams, (2) mercury water, 
 five drams ; and of the other three, one a dram, and the other two, two 
 drams a piece. 
 
Father Richard Walpole . 
 
 245 
 
 in May was twelvemonth in the English College at Seville, in 
 Walpole’s presence, no other person being present ; and saith 
 that he came away with Walpole’s privity. 
 
 “Ed. Squier.” 
 
 “ Examined by us — 
 
 “John Peyton, 
 “E. Flemming, 
 “Edw. Coke, 
 
 “F. Bacon, 
 “W. Waad.” 
 
 “ He further confesseth that he bought two drams of opium 
 and fiye drams of mercury water, at an apothecary’s shop in 
 Paternoster Row, towards the further end, near Dr. Smith’s 
 house : one of the residue at an apothecary’s in Bucklersbury, 
 at the Plough, and the other two at an apothecary’s shop in 
 Newgate Market, beyond the Three Tuns on the left hand. 
 All which he bought in an evening in July was twelvemonth; 
 and saith that he carried them about him six or seven days : 
 and confesseth that he compounded them, and put them in an 
 earthen pot, and set it in a window of his house at Greenwich, 
 where it might take the sun; and saith that he applied part 
 of it to a whelp of one Edwardes of Greenwich, and never saw 
 the whelp after, and thinks it died thereof. 
 
 “John Peyton,” &c. (as above). “Edw. Squier.” 
 
 Same vol. n. 86. 
 
 “The declaration of Edward Squier, taken this 19th of 
 October, 1598. 
 
 “ If they find a man fearful to attempt villainy, then they 
 will choose him such a piece of work as may seem easy, promise 
 much merit, and small danger, and propose many reasons to 
 persuade the same. As in my case Walpole did, viz., that I 
 might safely attempt that matter against her Majesty, being a 
 thing to be done not when she should be present in person, but 
 before ; and that I need not fear [care] to be seen of any great 
 persons, nor men of the greatest care and judgment, but such 
 as were to be conversed withal without suspicion, drinking of 
 a pot of beer or a quart of wine, and such good fellow-like 
 parts ; for a man that would spend his money frankly should 
 be much made of, and be welcome. And so by little and little 
 to grow into familiarity, which was a way so far to remove 
 also suspicion, that I might come in time to help on the Queen’s 
 saddle divers times for expedition, and so at my fittest time 
 perform the deed. 
 
246 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 “ When I alleged that I had not any knowledge how to do 
 it, he answered, turning himself to me, and taking me by a 
 button of my jerkin, ‘ Let not that trouble nor any way hinder 
 your intention, for I will send you where you shall not need 
 to fear the want of instruction how to do it with much ease, 
 and he will do it for you so as you shall not need to study 
 anything but time and place. 
 
 “ 1 It were a very meritorious act to stab or kill the Earl of 
 Essex, if you can come at him, but this against the Queen is all 
 in all ’ for there shall need but little else than to do that well ; 
 which I charge you to perform before all other things, where- 
 fore I pray attend it, and let others alone with other things/ 
 At my next coming, seeing me very pensive and sad, he 
 demanded what I wanted, and if anything did trouble me ; if 
 there did I should tell him and assure myself that he would do 
 the best he could. I answered, ‘ No, but my mind was in 
 England/ ‘Be of good cheer,’ says he, ‘you may come there 
 to the great joy and comfort of your wife and children/ 
 
 “ At my next confession he charged me very hard with the 
 matter again, and so he found by me that I meant not to 
 perform my promise (which God only knows, to whom I 
 appeal), I was fain to protest unto him that I verily meant 
 to do it. Then he laid before me the danger I was in if I did 
 not endeavour to the uttermost to perform it ; and so I must not 
 now fear death, though it might seem very imminent, for ‘ what 
 availeth it a man to win the whole world, and lose his own 
 soul ? ’ And if I did but once doubt of the lawfulness, or the 
 merit, it was sufficient to cast me down headlong to hell, and 
 seldom did that sin obtain pardon. And then, taking me by 
 the arm he lifted me up, and took me about the neck with his 
 left arm, he made a cross upon my head, saying, ‘ God bless 
 thee, and give thee strength, my son. And be of good courage, 
 I will pawn my soul for thine, and thou shalt ever have my 
 prayers both dead and alive, and full pardon of all thy sins/ 
 He used a speech over my head which I could not understand, 
 save only Dominus, and that was the first word uttered with a 
 groan or sigh. 
 
 “ He told me at another time that I must change my spirit, 
 and talk of services done and to be done, and insinuate myself 
 into the company of the better sort ; but not reveal my intent 
 to any but my confessor, who was bound to keep counsel, but 
 others were not. And that some had been deceived in being 
 over-credulous of others. I said that it agreed not with my 
 
Father Richard Walpole. 
 
 247 
 
 estate to keep company much. ‘ Tush/ says he, ‘ let Mr. Dr. 
 Bagshawe but see you intent, and be assured of your resolu- 
 tion, and your wants will be supplied. 
 
 “ Also at another time of confession before absolution, he 
 charged me not to practise any matter against the Catholics, 
 and chiefly the Jesuits and priests; nor to come at church, 
 nor hear sermons, nor receive the sacrament; nor to take 
 arms against the Church upon pain of damnation eternally. I 
 asked what service were best to undertake and keep at Court? 
 He said that my apprehension was very simple if I could not 
 find out something that might fit the time ; but one thing is 
 necessary, and if you prefer it before all others, and perform it, 
 I have my desire, and you shall be a glorious saint in heaven. 
 The letter was delivered about some two or three days before 
 I came away, saying, ‘ Carry me that letter when you come 
 into England, and deliver it according to the direction, and 
 you shall do well in all things, fare you well, and God bless 
 you.' ‘I am not going yet/ said I. He replied, ‘But when you 
 go deliver, it ; I care not when you go, so you tell not men 
 of your going/ and the reason of this speech is, as I take it, 
 because they may not be directly acquainted with any matter 
 which concerns the King or the Inquisition, but they must 
 reveal it to the superiors of the house or the Inquisition within 
 some small time, and himself is of council in the Inquisition ; 
 and therefore would he say to the canons, to Jackson, and to 
 us, that he must know no more than we would have others to 
 know. The direction of the letter was ‘A. R°* P. D. Bagshawe . 5 
 
 “ He took me in his arms at my second confession ; so he 
 did at his first coming to me in the Carmen , 4 but the time 
 before spoken of, I do well remember that he put his left arm 
 about my neck in a kind of hugging manner, and held me fast, 
 making the cross, but I understood not what he said, save in 
 the beginning of his speech I understood Dominus, and when 
 he had done he said, ‘ God bless thee, and give thee strength, 
 my son.’ 
 
 “ His persuasion to religion, constancy, and service for the 
 Church he began at his first coming to me in the Carmen, 
 continuing then some at one time and some at another, but his 
 beginning with me about the matter that concerns her Majesty, 
 was (as I take it) in April before my coming away ; which was 
 after that Rolls had told me that he held me in suspicion, and 
 that Jackson suspected me about the supremacy. 
 
 4 The Carmelite Monastery. 
 
248 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 “ I asked him if he would not write to me by some friends 
 of his in Norfolk, that so I might know how to write to him, if 
 there were more occasion ; he said no, he would not trouble 
 me so much, nor should I need that help, if I did as I should 
 do. And I do verily persuade myself that if the canon’s 
 earnestness for the two priests had not prevailed more than his 
 persuasion of my constancy, I should never have come from 
 thence. 
 
 “ My relation to my lord was of the certainty of the Spanish 
 preparation and their undoubted meaning to proceed, which I 
 gathered from this — (1) That the King had given command- 
 ment to set all mills and ovens at work for bread, and to 
 proceed with all expedition. (2) Of the number of their 
 ships, which I understood, by a Dutchman, a Scot, and 
 an Irishman, all coming from Ferrol. (3) Of the place of 
 landing in England, which I saw pricked with red ink in 
 Don Pedro Tellow’s plot for England, which he said he 
 Teceived from Sir William Stanley, and the same places were 
 crossed in a general map of England, in the English College, 
 by the direction of Gray, master’s-mate of the Help. (4) Of the 
 plot against her Majesty and the State, out of the Jesuit’s 
 speech. (5) Of the number of men mustered in Spain. (6) Of 
 the means to invade and surprise Seville, & c. 
 
 “Edw. Squier.” 
 
 “ Read and affirmed before — 
 
 “J. Peyton, Edw. Coke, E. Bacon, E. Flemmynge.” 
 
 Same vol. n. 89. 
 
 “At the Tower. The second examination of Edward 
 Squier, taken this 23rd of October, 1598. 
 
 “ He sayeth that the other three drugs or ingredients, 
 whereof he did compound these poisons, were all such as 
 might be beaten to powder ; one of which was yellowish, and 
 the other of a brownish colour, and were called by the Latin 
 or Greek names. And sayeth that all three cost eight pence, 
 as he remembereth. And sayeth that all being compounded 
 together, the confection was of a duskish colour, having some 
 sort of yellow in it ; and the whole composition was not above 
 •the bigness of a bean. 
 
 “He confesseth that he hath dwelt in Greenwich these sixteen, 
 and married there about eleven years past, and being demanded 
 how he hath gotten his living, saith that chiefly he main- 
 tained himself by working or writing, taking upon him to be 
 
Father Richard Walpole. 249 
 
 a scrivener, and confesseth that he was deputy-purveyor to 
 Keys for provision of the stable for the space of two years, 
 immediately before his voyage with Sir F. Drake. 
 
 “ And saith that he came home from Spain on a Sunday in 
 July was twelve months, and within an hour after Rolls and 
 he came home, they made means to an honourable person in 
 the council-chamber that they might go with the Earl in the 
 last voyage, and on Monday following the honourable person, 
 spoke with the Earl, and obtained their suit to go with him, 
 and within two or three days after this examinant bought the 
 poison, as before he hath confessed in his former examination, 
 and within five or six days after he had compounded the poison, 
 he went to sea in one of the victualling ships. He confesseth 
 that he received the Sacrament at Walpole the Jesuit’s hands, 
 as well to put these practices in execution, as to keep it secret, 
 with such persuasions and execrations as are mentioned in his 
 former declarations. 
 
 “ He confesseth that at the persuasion of Walpole, the 
 Jesuit, he undertook to poison the Earl of Essex, when he 
 should be with him at sea, to the end to defeat the voyage, and 
 that he carried the confection of the poison with him to sea in 
 the Earl’s ship, in a little earthen pot of a red colour, glazed 
 within, with a narrow mouth, which he stopped with cork and 
 parchment, made it close with a pack thread, and carried it in 
 his portmanteau, and did apply it to the pommel of the Earl’s 
 chair, where he did use to sit and lay his hand, which chair 
 stood under the spare deck, where the Earl used to dine and 
 sup. And this he did in an evening a little before supper-time, 
 when the Earl was at sea between Fayal and St. Michael, and 
 saith that the confection was so clammy as it would stick to 
 the pommel of the chair, and that he rubbed it on with parch- 
 ment. And soon after the Earl sat in the chair all supper- 
 time, and that the arms of the chair were of wood. 
 
 “ And now at last confesseth that the Monday seven-night, 
 after his coming home from Spain, and had obtained leave to 
 go with the Earl to sea, understanding that her Majesty’s horses 
 were in preparing for her Majesty to ride abroad, as her horse 
 stood ready saddled in the stable-yard, this examinant came to 
 the horse, and in the hearing of divers thereabout, said, ‘ God 
 save the Queen,’ and therewith laid his hand on the pommel of 
 the saddle, and out of a bladder which he had made full of 
 holes with a big pin, he impoisoned the pommel of the saddle, 
 being covered with velvet by brushing the poison on it through 
 
250 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 the holes of the bladder, with his hand, and soon after her 
 Majesty rode abroad that afternoon. 
 
 “And saith that he came out of Spain a resolved Papist. 
 And that he was directed that after he had done this fearful 
 treason, he should go to the house of Mr. Woodhouse, of 
 Breccles, in Norfolk, and there he should find one Upton, a 
 priest, of whom he should be further directed ; but denieth 
 that he had any directions to acquaint Mr. Woodhouse himself 
 with it, or ever did so, or did ever see him. And saith that the 
 private token whereby Upton should know that he was assured 
 to them, was that after he had taken Upton by the hand, he 
 should take him by the thumb with his little finger. And saith 
 that Mrs. Woodhouse would direct him to the said Upton, and 
 had no token to Mrs. Woodhouse, but that he came from a 
 Norfolk man in Spain, and if she asked his name, he should 
 tell her. And saith that he brought for Mrs. Woodhouse a pair 
 of beads from Walpole, but that he cast them away with other 
 beads of his own ; and that Walpole said that the poison would 
 speedily work, and that after the act done, the Spanish fleet 
 should come, being then in readiness for that purpose. 
 
 “ Examined by us — “ Edw. Squier.” 
 
 “ Edw. Coke,” &c. (as before). 
 
 Same vol. n. 103 [Munday and Rolls’ examinations]. 
 
 “ The examination of William Monday, November 3rd, 1598. 
 
 “ He confesseth that between Whitsuntide and Midsummer 
 last, as this examinant was in the hall of Thomas Fitzherbert at 
 Madrid, for his departure, he came in from Father Cresswell in 
 a great rage and passion, and walking up and down the hall, and 
 saying what villains, rascals are Rolls and Squier to deceive the 
 Catholic King in this sort, and to undo us all, for they had be- 
 trayed a number of giddy priests in England, and opened all their 
 secrets, and undone them. And this examinant asked what they, 
 meaning what Rolls and Squier had done, to whom he answered, 
 Squier undertook to poison the Queen’s saddle, and Rolls under- 
 took to kill the Queen, and therewith departed away in a rage. 
 That J ohn Stanley two or three days after told this examinant 
 that Father Walpole did write a letter unto Cresswell and Fitz- 
 herbert, giving them thereby to understand that Rolls and Squier 
 had played the villains with them and betrayed them. Denies 
 having even spoken with Squier or Rolls about the attempt. 
 
 “ Examined by us — “ Wm. Munday.” 
 
 “ Edw. Coke,” &c. 
 
Father Richard Walpole . 
 
 251 
 
 “Examination of Richard Rolls, 3rd of November, 1598. 
 
 “ He confesseth that Squiers and Rolls came about the 4th 
 or 5th of June, according to the Gregorian computation, was 
 twelve months, from Seville towards England. That in April 
 or May was twelve months, Squier and Rolls received the 
 Sacrament at Walpole’s hands at Seville to make a show of 
 this examinant’s religion. That after he was sent out of prison 
 Walpole persuaded this examinant to serve the King, to whom 
 he answered that he would not serve him by any means, &c. 
 
 “ Edw. Coke,” &c. “ Richard Rolls.” 
 
 In the same vol. cclxviii. 11. hi, dated Brussels, November 
 19th, 1598, is a long letter, probably intercepted, from Richard 
 Bayley to Sir William Stanley. It states, inter alia , that Stanley, 
 Rolls, and Squiers, had been committed to the Tower, and 
 sorely racked, and were to be arraigned shortly for intending to 
 poison the Queen; the court gates were straightly watched; 
 no stranger may go into the private kitchen, &c. 
 
 The unscrupulous Attorney-General, Sir Edward Coke, had 
 the effrontery to introduce this manifest, though tragical fabri- 
 cation into his speech for the Crown in the prosecution of 
 Father Henry Garnet in 1606. He says : “Not long after him 
 comes Squires, sent by Father Walpole from Spain to poison 
 the Queen.” 
 
 Father Garnet in his defence thus answers the calumny: 
 “ The third thing I determined to speak of was the Jesuits in 
 general, of whom some have been by Mr. Attorney accused of 
 undertaking several treasonable attempts in the matters of . . . 
 and Squire, of all which I can say no more but this, that I have 
 had the hands and protestations of those Fathers that are 
 accused, as Father Holt and Father Walpole, who on their 
 salvation affirm they never treated with the parties concerning 
 any such matter ; and that it was very unlikely, seeing the 
 enterprizers of them were no Catholics, or but feigned 
 Catholics, as Yorke and Squires were, who died Protestants, 
 and were of so little acquaintance with those Fathers that it 
 was no way probable they would employ them in matters of 
 such weight. And however they might in time of torture, or 
 for fear be brought to accuse themselves, yet at their death,, 
 some of them discovered the practices, and protested they 
 died innocent, as Williams and Squires did.” 
 
 Dr. Lingard 5 notices this extraordinary case. After briefly 
 5 History of England, vol. vi. ch. viii. p. 58 I* 
 
252 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 detailing it, he says : “ It is difficult to conceive a more ridicu- 
 lous or incredible tale ; yet it brought the unhappy man to the 
 scaffold. At his trial one of the counsel for the Crown repre- 
 sented with great pathos the danger of Elizabeth ; but his 
 feelings grew too big for utterance, he burst into a flood of 
 tears and was compelled to sit down. The next who rose 
 was more successful. His task was to describe her wonderful 
 escape from the venom on the saddle. It was as evident a 
 miracle as any recorded in Holy Writ : ‘ For albeit the season 
 was hot, and the veins open to receive any malign tainture, yet 
 her body felt no distemperature, nor her hand no more hurt 
 than did Paul’s when he shook off the viper into the fire .’ 6 The 
 prisoner in his defence said that while he was on the rack, he 
 had confessed anything which he thought would satisfy the 
 commissioners and relieve him from torture ; the truth was, he 
 said, that Walpole had proposed the murder to him, but that 
 he had never consented to it, nor ever employed poison for 
 the purpose. Here one of the judges informed him that on 
 his own showing he had been guilty of concealment of treason, 
 and Sir Robert Cecil prevailed on him once more to confess 
 the charge. He received judgment, and suffered the punish- 
 ment of a traitor; but died asserting both his own and 
 Walpole’s innocence with his last breath .” 7 It would appear 
 that Squires and Stanley were both impostors. When Stanley 
 was asked why he had accused Squires, he replied that 
 the Spanish Minister, supposing that the assassin had 
 deceived them, had through revenge hired him to give infor- 
 mation of the treason. He was then put on the rack, and made 
 to confess that he himself had been sent by Christoval de 
 Mora to shoot the Queen (see Cecil’s letter, ut supra). Dr. 
 Lingard adds a note in the Appendix , 8 and appears to have 
 taken great pains in examining this strange event, which 
 made no small stir at the time. The Doctor well observes 
 that if Titus Oates had never existed, the history of this 
 ridiculous plot would suffice to show how easily the most 
 absurd fictions obtain credit when the public mind is under the 
 influence of religious prejudice. Father Walpole’s account was 
 put forth in opposition to the one issued by Government. Both 
 accounts agree as to who Squires was, but the Government one 
 
 6 Ellis, Sermon iii. 189. 
 
 7 Camden, p. 779, and Speed, 1183, are the authorities quoted. 
 Dr. Lingard also cites a letter of Cecil’s in Birch, Negotiations , 184, 185. 
 
 8 C. c. p. 714. 
 
Father Richard Walpole. 
 
 2 53 
 
 makes Father Walpole to put the man into the Inquisition, and 
 then to prevail on him to become a Catholic, and having sworn 
 him to kill the Queen, procured him and one Rolles to be 
 exchanged for two Spanish prisoners from England. 
 
 The poison of course failed, but how came the plot to be 
 discovered ? This is the most clumsy part of the story. 
 Walpole, finding that the Queen was still alive, through 
 revenge for the supposed infidelity of Squires, sent Stanley 
 from Spain to reveal his guilt to the Council. 
 
 Chamberlain (October 3, 1598), in Bacon’s works, 9 says: 
 “ Because nothing succeeded of it, the priest thinking he had 
 either changed his purpose or betrayed it, gave Stanley 
 orders to accuse him ; thereby to get him more credit, and 
 to be revenged of Squires for breaking promise. The fellow 
 confessed the whole practice, and, as it seems, died very 
 penitent.” 
 
 Father Walpole’s epistle is dated Rome, March 1, 1599. 
 He concludes thus : “ The world is now grown over well 
 acquainted with the tales of Queen killing, as also that these 
 bruites are inductions to the killing of such innocent servants 
 of God, as light into the hands and power of the bloodthirsty.” 
 
 These things occurred during Father Walpole’s residence at 
 Seville. Being removed to the English College at Valladolid 
 he there published a work to dispel a certain ghost of heresy of 
 his time (as may be seen in Pitzeus and Alegambe). He also 
 rendered signal aid in the conversion of the Honourable 
 Pickering Wootton, eldest son of Lord Wootton, upon his 
 death-bed ; the following narrative of whose conversion, 
 written by the convert himself, is too interesting to be 
 omitted in a memoir of this Father. It is given in More’s 
 Hist. Prov. Angl. lib. v. n. 47. 
 
 Pickering was the eldest son of Baron Wootton, and had 
 travelled through the greater part of France, Italy, Spain, and 
 Germany for the purpose of learning both the languages and 
 manners, an ancient custom among the northern nations. He 
 was most tenacious of the corrupt religion which, from his 
 tender years he had imbibed, both from his own disposi- 
 tion, as because it was that of his paternal uncle Henry 
 Wootton, who was then Ambassador at Venice. 10 Greedy of 
 
 9 Vol. vi. pp. 41, 42, note. Edition of 1803. 
 
 10 Sir Henry Wootton was no friend to the Jesuits. In the Public 
 Record Office are two documents concerning him, viz. : Vol. xciii. n. 97, 
 is a letter from Secretary Sir R. Winwood to Sir Henry Wootton, 
 
254 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 hearing, he conferred much upon matters of faith with many 
 persons, led either by inclination or curiosity, and being a 
 clever man would omit no opportunity of gaining information. 
 The following is his own narrative of what occurred to him at 
 Valladolid in his last sickness : 
 
 “On Monday, October 3, 1605, being seized with fever I 
 sent for the man who attended me in my chamber (he was a 
 Catholic), and bound him by an oath not to call in any Father 
 of the Society of Jesus, nor to mention a word about my illness. 
 For my mind was entirely made up to live and die a Pro- 
 testant, and to hear no more discussions regarding faith, for I 
 considered that I had heard enough from many in Italy, Spain, 
 and elsewhere. On Saturday, the thirteenth day of my illness, 
 a certain Father of the Society who by chance had heard of my 
 sickness, visiting me, asked me the reason of my unwillingness 
 to give him notice of my serious state. 4 I was afraid/ I replied, 
 4 lest you should introduce some discourse of religion ; and I 
 now beg of you, if you regard me, not to say a word about it.’ 
 And when the Father nevertheless several times offered me 
 various reasons why it behoved me to live and die a Catholic, 
 I as often implored him to desist and asserted upon my soul 
 that I had resolved, living or dying, to remain in the Protestant 
 Faith, in which I had hitherto worshipped, being assured of 
 the forgiveness of my sins through Jesus Christ, if I retained 
 that faith until death. The Father, preparing to take his leave, 
 asked if I should take it kindly should he again call to see me ? 
 * Certainly/ I said, ‘ if you visit me as a friend, but if with the 
 intention of again warning me upon the subject of religion, I 
 pray and entreat of you not to come.’ On finally departing he 
 said, 4 1 wish you however specially and seriously to weigh this 
 
 September 19, 1617, stating that the Jesuit sent over by him refused to 
 confess anything, except under a promise of remaining a pensioner in 
 England if needful for his safety. His narrative when given was “so 
 senseless and sleeveless a tale ” that all were surprised at a man of learning 
 travelling so far to tell it ; he declared he had nothing further to tell, and 
 was therefore dismissed with ,£100 lor his journey (Venice Correspondence, 
 September 19). In the same vol. n. 123 is a- letter dated October 17, 
 1617, from Nathaniel Brent to Dudley Carleton in which, inter alia , he 
 says, “ An Italian Jesuit sent over by Sir Henry Wootton, could not 
 obtain an audience of the King, was dissatisfied with the Secretaries and 
 knows not what to do with himself.” The name of the Italian Jesuit does 
 not appear. If he was one, which is highly improbable, he was a useless 
 and costly spy, and had bette have stayed at home. 
 
Father Richard Walpole. 
 
 255 
 
 — you and most other Protestants believe that salvation is pos- 
 sible to Catholics. On the other hand, how many are there 
 now, and heretofore have been, who consider that Catholics 
 hold as an indisputable article of faith, that Protestants and the 
 rest of the heretics out of the pale of the Catholic Church, 
 cannot possibly attain salvation. If, therefore, I join myself 
 to the Catholics, I enter by the assent of both parties upon a 
 secure way.’ This proposition did not at that time much 
 move me. He then cautioned me against rendering my soul 
 completely inflexible, and that I should beware lest by resisting 
 with thoughts, the things which the Divine Goodness was ready 
 to implant in my soul, I should obstinately exclude myself from 
 the means which He might mercifully dispose for its salvation ; 
 that I should rather commit myself entirely to Him with perfect 
 indifference, and should beseech Him, if hitherto I had devi- 
 ated from the right path, He would be pleased to teach me 
 the true way in which I might serve Him and save my own 
 soul. Bidding me good-bye, he begged me to send for him 
 should I wish to hear anything further about religion, and that 
 he would come to me at any hour of the night. 
 
 “ His last address sank deep into my heart, and seemed so 
 reasonable that I was unable to do otherwise than follow such 
 wise counsel. Therefore soon after his departure, raising myself 
 as far as I was able upon my knees, with my hands lifted up to 
 heaven, I implored of God my Creator, with all the fervour I 
 could, from the very bottom of my heart and with many tears, 
 that He would deign to look upon me with the eyes of His 
 mercy, and to make known to me His holy will in my regard, 
 and show me the right path to salvation, if I was not already in 
 it. As I was persevering in ardent prayer, a most brilliant light 
 presented itself to my eyes in the form of a cross, and at the 
 same time there was infused into my soul so many arguments 
 in favour of the Catholic faith, and that it alone was the way of 
 salvation, and on the other hand that the Protestant religion 
 was most absurd, and leading to damnation, that all doubt 
 entirely vanished from my mind. For among these proofs there 
 were many which I never before remember to have heard from 
 any one ; truly did my heart leap with such great joy that I 
 cannot find words to express it. I therefore immediately sent 
 again for the Father, in the meantime begging of God to pre- 
 serve me in this fervour of heart. Immediately on his arrival I 
 asked him to hear my general confession, and related to him all 
 that had happened to me. I was filled that day with an un- 
 
256 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 broken consolation and confidence of obtaining salvation, with 
 the firmest resolution, if I lived, of doing all in my power for 
 the exaltation of the Catholic faith ; but if it was the will of 
 God to take me out of this life, that I died willingly, and I gave 
 myself up entirely into His most holy hands, praying all the 
 court of heaven to help me in giving all thanks to God for this 
 His so great mercy, in making me by so wonderful a vocation, 
 a member of His Catholic and Roman Church, in which grace, 
 by His assistance, I will live and die. In witness of the truth 
 of all which I have signed my name this 17th day of October, 
 1605. In the presence of — 
 
 “Richard Walpole, 
 
 “Francis Young, 
 
 “John Persal.” 
 
 This was the fifteenth day of his sickness, which rapidly 
 increasing, the following day he changed this life for a better. 
 He was honourably buried in the Church of St. Laurence, 
 attended by a great concourse of the Spanish nobility who had 
 been summoned to the Court of Philip III., which at that time 
 happened to be held at Valladolid. 
 
 The written narrative, confirmed by the signature of his 
 dying son, having been transmitted to his father, the Baron 
 Wootton, it was so great an incitement to him that, casting off 
 with all haste the fear of the penal laws, and despising the 
 perishing goods of this world, he embraced the Catholic faith ; 
 and on that account having been called to trial, he persevered 
 undauntedly, resolved to suffer the loss of all things else, rather 
 than of the most certain and firmest of all — religion. 11 
 
 11 The Annual Letters for the College of Valladolid for the previous 
 year, 1604, relate another case of conversion of an Englishman of rank, a 
 Sir Thomas Palmer, Kt., a man singularly endowed with gifts both of mind 
 and body, of high birth in England, and enjoying great favour and authority 
 at Court. He came to Valladolid both for the purpose of seeing Spain and 
 of learning the language, and in the interim visiting the English College, he 
 treated familiarly with the Fathers, and began to entertain serious thoughts 
 in his heart of the Catholic religion, and at the same time to despise heresy, 
 in which he had been educated, and especially the Protestant ministers 
 (truly, say the annals, a mean race of men), and of whom he declared that 
 henceforward he should be most cautious, lest they should cheat him out of 
 his salvation. But lo ! whilst cogitating these things, he was overtaken by 
 a sudden and mortal sickness. Therefore, perceiving himself to be in 
 danger of death, he sedulously set to work to reconcile himself to the 
 Catholic Church. Having received all the last Sacraments he died, and 
 was honourably interred with Catholic rites ; to the great amazement alsp 
 
Father Richard Walpole . 
 
 257 
 
 Father Richard Walpole is named in a statement made 
 by a John Penkevelle to Secretary Cecil, who had been taken 
 prisoner on landing from a bark arrived from Spain. 12 He says 
 (among other things), that he was imprisoned thirty-seven days 
 in Madrid by the Jesuits, then sent by the King’s command to 
 Valladolid, and kept six months in a dungeon among thieves. 
 I was prisoner in all, eleven months — in irons and without a bed. 
 I was visited by Richard Walpole, the Jesuit, who asked why I 
 came to Spain and which of the Council sent me, saying the 
 King was informed of me and the causes of my coming, and if 
 he desired it I should be extremely tortured, and no mercy 
 afforded. After acknowledging himself to be a spy, he says 
 that Walpole carried his confession to the King, but brought 
 no answer. After staying seven months longer in prison he 
 was released. He says the Jesuits were his mortal enemies ; 
 would not admit him to their College, and blamed him for 
 frequenting Mr. Waad [the cruel rack-master, &c. in the Tower], 
 the only persecutor of Catholics. And that the Jesuits had 
 him apprehended, believing he was sent by Cecil to breed 
 factions in the College at Valladolid, as in Rome and England, 
 &c. &c. [No one reading the man’s own statement but would 
 say that he deserved all, and much more. He states himself to 
 be a Catholic.] 
 
 The following intercepted letter from Father Richard 
 Walpole, among the State Papers, P.R.O., is added, though 
 it possesses but little matter of interest. 
 
 State Papers, Domestic , Elizabeth , vol. cclxiv. n. 79. [En- 
 dorsed, August 10, 1597. Letter from Walpole.] 
 
 “Good Mr. Verstegan — With one of yours for me of the 
 1 8th of April came another yesterday for Father Pineda, wherein 
 you certify him in what state his Seminaries be in ; he is now 
 well forward in the reprinting of his book, and shall conse- 
 quently have need of what you have despatched in all haste. 
 If all three be done, he requireth they may be sent presently. 
 If only the first be done, that the other be let alone, and that 
 sent without expecting the title and name of the author, which 
 here shall be added. The only thing which he most desireth 
 
 of the English Protestants, who in great numbers were in the city, and 
 attended the funeral. In fact, the event was the cause of the greatest 
 admiration to all, who readily acknowledged in this change the hand of the 
 Most High. 
 
 12 Domestic , Elizabeth , vol. cclxxxiv. n. 32 i. June 14, 1602. 
 
 R 
 
25 § 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 is speedy despatch, not being a little afflicted with so long 
 delay, thanking you, notwithstanding, most heartily for your 
 pains, who in truth had reason to think no such haste 
 should be necessary, he having signified his want of letters and 
 desired to find them here ; but after met with a very good 
 commodity in these parts. We thank you all for your diligence 
 in buying these books, sent for by Father Penalty, which we 
 expect daily ; and hereafter shall have occasion to trouble you 
 much more in that kind for this College in Seville, which yet 
 is [wanting] of a library, the only and chiefest want it hath. 
 And so for this time our Lord be with you. 
 
 “ Seville, this ioth day of August, 1597. 
 
 “ Yours, 
 
 4 ‘Richard Walpole. 
 
 “To Mr. Verstegan. — These, 
 
 “ Anvers.” 
 
 We close this portion of the history of St. Chad’s College 
 with the following life of Father Edward Walpole, S.J., and 
 short notices of Father Michael and Father Christopher 
 Walpole. 13 
 
 LIFE OF FATHER EDWARD WALPOLE, S.J. 
 
 Father Edward Walpole was a native of Norfolk, eldest son 
 and heir of John Walpole, of Houghton, in the county of 
 Norfolk, Esq., the owner of the ancient family estates in that 
 county. He was first cousin to Father Henry Walpole, the 
 martyr (who suffered at York, 1594, for the Catholic faith, and 
 for having been ordained priest abroad and returning to England 
 to preach the Faith), and to Fathers Richard, Michael, and 
 Christopher Walpole. 
 
 As Father Henry Walpole, his cousin, was converted to the 
 Catholic faith by the merits and example of the blessed martyr, 
 Father Edmund Campion, so did Father Edward Walpole owe 
 his conversion to the merits, example, and instructions of his 
 martyred cousin Henry. Edward’s father was a member of 
 the strictest sect of Calvinists, and he himself, the eldest son, 
 
 13 It was not the orginal intention to introduce here the life of 
 Father Edward Walpole, as he was not connected with the Staffordshire 
 district, but it has been thought better not to disconnect the notices of the 
 Walpole family, which has furnished no less than six eminent members to 
 the English Province, S.J. 
 
Father Edward Walpole. 259 
 
 and the favoimte of his parents, was no less deeply imbued 
 with the same heretical doctrines. 
 
 His cousin Henry, moved to it by an early intimacy from 
 the very cradle, and the known sincerity of Edward’s soul, and 
 his happy disposition, greatly desired to point out to him the 
 right path ; but the impious tenets he had imbibed from early 
 years, strengthened by the example of his family and his own 
 dutifulness to his parents, combined with the severity of the 
 penal laws in force against Catholics, operated so forcibly to 
 hold him back, that he held on the war for two years, some- 
 times by familiar discourse with his cousin, sometimes by 
 letter. Books also that were lent him aided the work of 
 conviction : amongst others, the Confessions of St. Austin , the 
 Imitation of Christ , &c. When he saw the perfect agreement 
 in opinion of Catholics with those great Doctors and masters 
 of the spiritual life, and, on the other hand, by reading the 
 reply of Fulke, the Calvinist, to Cardinal Allen’s book upon 
 Purgatory ; the contempt with which his own sect treated all 
 the Fathers of antiquity, the Doctors and Councils both of the 
 Latin and Greek Church, a deep impression was made upon 
 him. But what put a finishing stroke to this contest was 
 a letter he received from his cousin Henry, written with such 
 force of argument, and such fervent zeal, that he recognized 
 the finger of God in it, and felt convinced that it was dictated 
 by the Spirit of Truth. This letter was handed to Edward 
 while sitting at table, who opened and read it there, and was 
 so overcome by his feelings that, unable to repress or conceal 
 them, he instantly rose from table and retired to a room alone, 
 where falling upon his knees, with a loud voice and floods 
 of tears, he acknowleged himself vanquished, begged mercy 
 of God for so long resisting His grace, and yielded himself 
 a conquest to the truth of the Catholic Church. All doubt 
 and hesitation of embracing it at the same moment vanished 
 from his mind, together with all fear of penal laws, or of 
 offending his family. 
 
 His parents took his conversion so much to heart, that they 
 actually complained to the Privy Council of his cousin Henry, 
 who in consequence had to escape to the Continent. Love 
 and grief struggled with rage in their breasts ; his parents 
 were also influenced by the fear of the laws which might come 
 into force against themselves, should their son become a 
 Catholic. Edward had not as yet seen a Catholic priest, 
 though he held firmly to the Faith he had embraced. The 
 
 r 2 
 
26 o 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 efforts made, and the schemes put in motion to move and 
 subvert him, were equal to a father’s natural affection, and 
 the false religious zeal of a Puritan, to whom the very death of 
 a son, and that an eldest and beloved one, as Edward was, 
 in the flower of his age, then twenty-two years old, was far 
 preferable to seeing him become a Catholic. He engaged 
 the most learned ministers in the county of Norfolk to dispute 
 with him, and endeavour to change his determination; these 
 failing, they took him to London to be convinced by more 
 able ones there, but with no greater success, for he was proof 
 against all their attempts whether by threats or blandishments. 
 Then, despairing of turning him from his resolve, his mother 
 one day quite unexpectedly summoned him to her presence, 
 and with many tears handed him about two pounds sterling (and 
 this as though it was something great), and drove him from her 
 sight and out of her house, telling him to go about his business, 
 and seek his own livelihood and fortunes; and that so long 
 as he remained a Papist, he should forget that he had father 
 or mother in England. She moreover disowned him as her 
 own son, repenting having brought him forth, and should he 
 by chance at any time recur to her memory in spite of 
 herself, it should be only to abominate, and call him most 
 miserable ! She finally branded him an insolent apostate, a 
 dishonour to his country, and a disgrace to his family. But 
 all was in vain ; Edward preferred the love of God before all 
 other considerations. His cruel mother was utterly ignorant 
 of what the grace of God is able to effect in so amiable a soul, 
 and the strength it can impart to meet such terrible threats ; 
 she foolishly imagined that the prospect of the inconveniences 
 of poverty to a youth as he was, an eldest son and heir to a 
 large property, so delicately nurtured, would alarm him, and 
 soon cause him to return to his home and to her arms, nay, 
 even to supplicate it at her feet. But by the help of God it 
 was not so to be, that he who had found the treasure of the 
 Faith, and through it eternal life and beatitude, should take 
 into account as worthy of comparison his future earthly 
 patrimony. 
 
 He even changed his proper name of Walpole at the same 
 time for that of Pauper (Edward Pauper, vere Walpole). And 
 thus embracing the state of poverty voluntarily for Christ’s 
 sake, he gave proof of a nobler spirit than was implied in 
 the splendour of any earthly descent. 
 
 Edward remained for some time privately with a relation 
 
Father Edward Walpole. 
 
 261 
 
 of the family, who was favourably inclined towards Catholics ; 
 waiting for a good opportunity of crossing over to the 
 Continent. Being detected in the very port, he was appre- 
 hended and taken to London, and brought prisoner before 
 the Privy Council. God was pleased to design this event 
 for the trial of His servant’s faith, and also to remunerate 
 the benevolence of his late kind host. For that gentleman 
 having for a long time, owing to some domestic quarrels, 
 been separated from his wife, Edward had during his 
 sojourn taken a favourable opportunity of adjusting their 
 differences, and obtaining their happy reconciliation ; and 
 the husband falling mortally sick, he also obtained his con- 
 version and reconciliation with God. This gentleman dying 
 without issue, made Edward heir to his estates . 14 Bettered 
 in his fortunes by this windfall, he obtained leave from the 
 Privy Council to travel on the Continent for three years. 
 “ Thesauro ostenso nunquam desunt qui inhient.” Edward’s 
 perseverance in his newly adopted Faith, joined to his long 
 absence from the country, raised hopes in some that they 
 would - be able to obtain by favour with the Queen, the 
 possession of his estates, should he become a priest- Again, 
 they thought he might never return to England ; or, should 
 he return, he might be readily deprived. They, therefore, at 
 first sought to get possession upon the ground of his being 
 
 14 This relative was no doubt Father Edward Walpole’s first cousin, 
 William Walpole (son of Sergeant John Walpole, of Harpley and Colkirk, 
 Norfolk), of North Tuddenham, Norfolk, and of Fitleworth, Sussex, and 
 of Gray’s Inn. He died in 1587. His will was proved in Doctors’ 
 Commons, December, 1587. He married Mary, daughter of William 
 Blackwell, town clerk of London. [See pedigree of the Walpole family 
 by Dr. Jessopp, of Norwich, 1874.] “This William Walpole was left by 
 his father’s will under the tutorship of Bishop Thirlby, of Ely. Thirlby 
 was connected with the Campions (whether closely with Edmund Campion 
 I have as yet failed to discover, but I have small doubt upon the point 
 myself) ; he was married after coming of age to Mary Blackwell (the 
 Blackwells were connected by marriage closely with the said Campions) 
 and at the death of her mother the pair were living apparently apart. 
 On William’s death, in 1587, they were living together, and almost 
 certainly reconciled. The great bulk of William’s property was left to 
 Edward after the death of the widow. I think this helped to save the 
 property to the Walpoles, i.e. it made it easier for Calibut to buy the 
 reversionary interest from the fellow to whom it had been made over by 
 the attainder ; but the difficulty is that the Tuddenham property had been 
 apparently already sold by hidward, though it too had been left to Edward 
 only after the death of the widow” [From a letter of Dr. Jessopp to 
 the Editor, 7th of September, 1874]. 
 
262 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 a fugitive ; then urged that he had incurred forfeiture by high 
 treason in joining the Catholics, the Queen’s enemies. 15 
 
 He had not as yet decided upon a state of life, and his 
 three years having expired he returned to England, ignorant 
 of the plots devised against him. He went to his brother, who 
 lived in London, and who at first kindly received him. After 
 a few days, however, he changed his tone, gave him notice to 
 depart, and not again to appear in his sight ; stating that he 
 could not conceal one who was under the ban of the penal 
 laws on account of so foul a crime ; neither would he furnish 
 him with what was lawfully his own, unless he cleared himself, 
 and becoming obedient to the laws, put himself in a position 
 in which he could without personal danger, render him assist- 
 ance. “ Tam parum fida est in discrimine ipsa sanguinis 
 propinquitas.” His return being noised abroad, they searched 
 the houses of many persons up and down the counties of 
 Norfolk and Suffolk for him; but, eluding the grasp of the pur- 
 suivants, he gathered together some money, and again crossed 
 the seas, more eager to preserve his faith and piety than his 
 estates. The lowly opinion he entertained of himself, deterred 
 him at first from going to Rome for his higher studies pre- 
 paratory to taking Holy Orders ; for, with his high sense of 
 the office of the priesthood, he could recognize nothing in 
 himself suitable for that dignity in the least degree. But 
 God was pleased to inspire him with the intention which he 
 feared himself to entertain, by the following event. On his 
 way to Naples, the vessel was overtaken by a terrible storm ; 
 Edward hereupon made a vow, that if they were spared alive, 
 he would give himself up to the Rector of the English College, 
 Rome, and take Holy Orders provided he judged him fit to do 
 so; and he made Dr. Richard Smith, afterwards Bishop of 
 Chalcedon (his fellow-passenger), a witness to this his vow. 
 They escaped the danger ; and, arriving at Rome, he entered 
 the English College as an alumnus on the 23rd of October, 
 1590, in company with his cousin Michael Walpole. After 
 making his theological studies for three years, he was ordained 
 priest ; then in order to go further on in the path of perfection, 
 
 15 Among the State Papers, P.R.O., Dom. Eliz. vol. cclxiv. n. 70, 
 August I, 1597, is a grant in fee farm to James Hussey and John Goodman, 
 of Houghton and Massington manors, in Norfolk and Suffolk, late posses- 
 sions of Edward Walpole, attainted. Rent, 3s. 8d. In consideration 
 of services and charges rendered to Sir Anthony Ashley, clerk of the 
 Privy Council, in finding out her Majesty’s title thereto. 
 
Father Edward Walpole. 
 
 263 
 
 he returned to Belgium, and entering the Society of Jesus at 
 Tournay, in the year 159^, in the thirty-third year of his age, 
 he dedicated to God all that remained to him in this world, 
 which was himself alone. 16 Having completed his noviceship, 
 he spent two years more in missionary work at Louvain, 
 Brussels, and Antwerp ; then, returning to England, he 
 laboured in that mission for full forty years, and accomplished 
 what few others could do — to live and labour for so long a 
 time, in the midst of the most bitter persecutions and in 
 constant danger of death, and elude the grasp of the 
 pursuivants. He was a man naturally affable and cour- 
 teous, which, with an innate candour of soul rendered him 
 a general favourite. As we have seen, he abandoned his 
 paternal estates — said to have been worth upwards of £ 8 00 
 a year in those early days — for conscience’ sake, and was 
 deprived of three other estates devised to him by his kind 
 friend and host, namely, the manors of Houghton and 
 Massingham in Norfolk, and Weybread in Suffolk. 
 
 When upwards of seventy-eight years of age he fell into 
 his last sickness. After receiving the Holy Viaticum he asked 
 to be anointed, in order to defend himself on his journey to his 
 heavenly country. He made all the responses with great sen- 
 timents of devotion ; then, giving to a father standing by, a 
 written paper which he kept in his prayer-book, he asked him 
 to read aloud the following profession of faith ; repeating after 
 him each sentence in a clear voice. 
 
 “I live and die in the faith of Jesus Christ, and of His 
 Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church : I believe all that is 
 contained in the Apostles’ Creed ; that there are likewise 
 seven sacraments ; and whatsoever Christ hath proposed by 
 His Church to be believed. I hate all heresies ; I humbly 
 beg pardon for my sins, and I firmly resolve to commit them 
 no more, should it please God to prolong my life. I forgive 
 my enemies all injuries committed against me, and I beg 
 pardon of any whom I may at any time have injured. I desire 
 to offer up these my sufferings and death, for the glory of God, 
 and in satisfaction for my sins.” 
 
 The Passion of our Lord was then read to him, which he 
 accompanied by frequent acts of the theological virtues — faith, 
 
 36 Father Henry Walpole, the martyr, in one of his examinations says 
 that he brought over with him in 1594 “a note concerning some business 
 to be done in England for his kinsman, Edward Walpole, the priest, who 
 then was at Tournay in Artoise. 
 
264 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 hope, and charity. Then, asking for his rosary, with the blessed 
 medal attached, he placed it round his neck, and closing his 
 eyes, as though in sleep, he quietly rendered his soul to God on 
 the 3rd of March, 1637. 
 
 The following short eulogy of this good Father is taken 
 from the summary of the deceased of the English Province, 
 
 1637- 
 
 “P. Edward Walpole, a native of Norfolk, aet. 77. In 
 Soc. 44. Professed Spiritual Coadjutor on 1st May, 1609. 
 Died in London, 3rd November [March], 1637 (O.S.). He 
 was born of a family of rank in the county of Norfolk. After 
 making his humanity studies, according to the custom of our 
 gentry, he studied the law in one of the Inns of Court in 
 London, where he was converted to the Catholic faith by his 
 relative Henry Walpole, who afterwards entered the Society, 
 and became a martyr for the Catholic faith. They were both 
 at the time studying the law together. In his conversion, 
 Father Edward Walpole encountered the greatest opposition 
 from his parents and relations. After this, renouncing his 
 paternal estate of three thousand gold crowns per annum, he 
 betook himself to Rome, where he became priest, and entering 
 the Society of Jesus, he returned to England, in which mission 
 he lived and laboured for thirty-nine years with great fruit and 
 edification. He was once Superior of the Devonshire district. 
 
 In 1627, Father Edward was in London, as appears by a 
 letter of one Alexander Couler to his friend William Jackson. 
 P.R.O. State Papers, Domestic , Charles I. vol. lxviii. n. 8, 
 June 26. After giving various information of Jesuits’ resi- 
 dences, &c., he says “that the Countess of Buckingham’s lodge, 
 called ‘ the Porch,’ at the end of the King’s garden, lodgeth 
 Fisher, Walpole, and Floyd. Two others dine there, but 
 they remove at the end of this week to the Duke’s house at 
 Chelsea.” 
 
 By a list of Jesuits, endorsed by Salisbury — “A note of 
 the Jesuits that lurk in England,” furnished to the Privy 
 Council by a spy, 17 it appears that Father Edward Walpole 
 was then “ with old Mr. Cotton, at Swanborough in Sussex.” 
 
 He was also fixed by Father John Gerard, 18 at a place near 
 Oxford, probably the seat of the ancient Catholic family of 
 Curzon, of Waterperry, near Oxford. Father Gerard says that 
 amongst the families who came to the determination to follow 
 
 17 See State Papers , Domestic, James I. vol. vii. n. 50, i6o|-. 
 
 18 See his Life in Father Morris’ Condition of Catholics , p. civ. 
 
Father Michael Walpole . * 265 
 
 the example of the Vauxes of Harrowden, in the religious 
 mode of life which the Father had established there — providing 
 altar, chapel, rooms for a priest, &c., in their mansions, was a 
 certain lady resident near Oxford, whose husband was indeed 
 a Catholic, but overmuch devoted to worldly pursuits. She 
 however gave herself to be directed by Father Gerard, as far 
 as she could, having such a husband. “ I often visited them,” 
 he says, “and was always welcomed by both, and there I 
 established one of our Fathers, Edward Walpole, whom I 
 mentioned in an early part of this narrative, as having left a 
 large patrimony for the sake of following Christ our Lord, in 
 the first year of my residence in England.” 
 
 Among the Stonyhurst MSS. Anglia A. i. n. 62, is an 
 original letter from Father Henry Walpole to Father Edward, 
 addressed — “ To my very good and loving cousin, Mr. Edward 
 Walpole, Rome.” The letter is upon family and business 
 matters, and scarcely worth insertion here, but Dr. Jessopp of 
 Norwich, in his “ Letters of Father Henry Walpole the martyr, 
 edited 1873,” gives the following annotation to his copy of this 
 letter. “This letter is written to Edward Walpole, son and 
 heir of John Walpole, of Houghton, county Norfolk, Esquire. 
 He was born, according to Collins’ Peerage, in 1559. Accord- 
 ing to his own brief biography in the album of the Tournay 
 Novitiate, 19 he was born about 1562 ; spent four years at Cam- 
 bridge, but at what College I have as yet failed to discover. At 
 the death of Robert Earl of Leicester, he succeeded to certain 
 estates in Norfolk, as heir to Amy Robsart. These he con- 
 veyed to his brother Calibut, 18th September, 1588. He 
 entered the Novitiate at Tournay, 1st July, 1593. He was 
 indicted in the King’s Bench for a supposed treason done 
 at Rome, 10th March, 38th Elizabeth; upon which indict- 
 ment, 26th May, 39th Elizabeth, he was outlawed. He was 
 heir to large possessions in Norfolk and Suffolk, which were 
 forfeited to the Crown; most of them, however, his brother 
 Calibut was able to redeem.” 20 
 
 Father Michael Walpole, as we have seen by the 
 pedigree, was seventh brother to Father Henry Walpole 
 the martyr. He accompanied his cousin, Father Edward 
 Walpole, to Rome, in 1590. Father John Gerard mentions 
 
 19 Brussels Royal Library MSS. 1016. 
 
 20 Dr. Jessopp’s Introduction to letters of Father Henry Walpole. 
 
266 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 him in his deeply interesting narrative. 21 He says, speaking 
 of the goodness of God towards himself in regard to the 
 faithfulness of his companions and friends, “ Those who were 
 my companions, or the servants I intrusted with commissions 
 to the gentlemen of my acquaintance, as they necessarily knew 
 all my friends, would have been able to do very great mischief, 
 and enrich themselves by ruining others ; yet not one of them 
 ever caused any harm either by word or deed, wittingly or un- 
 wittingly ; nor as far as I remember did they ever give me 
 cause of complaint. On many of them God, in His goodness, 
 poured the choicest gifts of His Holy Spirit. John Lasnet, the 
 first that I had, died in Spain a lay-brother of the Society ; the 
 second that I had for some little while was Michael Walpole, 
 who is now a priest of the Society, and labouring in England/’ 
 In another place Father Gerard introduces him as converting a 
 certain knight to the Catholic faith. “ About the same time I 
 received into the Church a lady, the wife of a certain knight, 
 who is at the present day a very good and useful friend of our 
 fathers. Her husband was at this time a Protestant, but his 
 brother had been brought by me, through the Spiritual Exer- 
 cises, to despise the world and follow the counsels of Christ. 
 He introduced me to his sister, and after one or two interviews 
 she embraced the Catholic faith, although she was well assured 
 that she should incur great losses as soon as it should become 
 known to her husband, as in truth it came to pass. For he 
 first tried caresses, then threats, and left no means unemployed 
 to shake her resolution ; insomuch that for a long time she had 
 nothing to expect or hope but to be separated from her 
 husband, and stripped of all. the goods of the world, that so 
 in patience she might possess her soul. When her husband 
 was on her account deprived of the public employment which 
 he held, she bore it with great fortitude, and remained ever 
 constant and even in mind. At length by her virtue and 
 patience she rendered her husband a friend to the Catholics, 
 and afterwards himself a Catholic. He was reconciled by the 
 ministry of Father [Michael] Walpole, to whom I had recom- 
 mended her on my leaving England.” 
 
 In the same Life of Father Gerard 22 is a short extract of a 
 letter written by Father Michael Walpole to Father Parsons in 
 Rome, January 29, 1606, regarding the false charge against 
 Father Gerard of being a party in the Gunpowder Plot. He 
 says : “ Touching Gerard’s letter, which I have seen, I can 
 21 Father Morris’ Condition of Catholics. 22 P. 245. 
 
Father Michael Walpole. 
 
 267 
 
 only say this much, that it seemeth to me to be so effectual, 
 as nothing can be more ; so that I am fully persuaded that the 
 King’s Majesty himself and the whole Council remain satisfied 
 of him [in] their own hearts, and his Majesty is reported for 
 certain to have declared so much in words upon the sight of 
 his letter.” 
 
 In the end, after his name, he writes thus — 
 
 “ This letter is confirmed since by Sir Everard Digby’s 
 speech at his arraignment, in which he cleared all Jesuits and 
 priests (to his knowledge) upon his salvation. And in par- 
 ticular, that though he was intimately acquainted with Gerard, 
 yet he never durst mention the matter, being fully assured that 
 he would be wholly against it, to which my Lord of Salisbury 
 replied, affirming the contrary, and that he knew him to be 
 guilty.” 
 
 As we have seen by the pedigree, Father Michael died at 
 Seville in 1620, at the age of fifty-one. 
 
 We have from his able pen — 1. A treatise on the subjection 
 of princes to God and the Church (4to. St. Omer, 1608); 
 2. “ Five books of philosophical comfort, with marginal notes,” 
 translated from the La-tin of Boetius (8vo. London, 1609, 
 144 pages) j 3. “ Admonitions to the English Catholics con- 
 cerning the edict of King James” (4to. St. Omer, 1610); 
 4. Antichrist Extant , against George Downham (2 vols. 4to. 
 St. Omer, 1613-14). He calls himself Michael Christopherson. 
 
 Connected with this work we add the following translation 
 of a letter written to the author by Cardinal Robert Bellar- 
 mine, S.J., taken from the very rare collection of the Cardinal’s 
 letters — 
 
 To Michael Walpole, S.J. {77th Letter). 
 
 “Very Rev. Father, — 
 
 RC. 
 
 “ I do not esteem myself so highly as to wish 
 other writers to swear to my words. Therefore your Reverence 
 will do me no injury if you follow the opinions of others rather 
 than mine. As to the first difficulty, I wish it could be clearly 
 proved that Antichrist is to be born of the tribe of Dan, and 
 your Reverence will do me a great favour if you could show 
 the passage of Scripture by which this is proved ; for though 
 it might be said that in the Apocalypse the tribe of Ephraim 
 is contained in Joseph, still it will always remain true that the 
 name of Ephraim was passed over in silence, not without 
 
268 
 
 The College of St. Chad. 
 
 mystery; nor could one gather for certain from the fact that the 
 name of Dan is not mentioned in the Apocalypse, that Anti- 
 christ is to be of the tribe of Dan, for it may have been passed 
 over for other reasons unknown to us. But it is probable that, 
 out of hatred to Antichrist, that tribe was not mentioned; I 
 have not denied, and I willingly accept that hypothesis, but as 
 an hypothesis, and not as a proof. As to the first beast, I 
 cannot persuade myself that it signifies Antichrist, as one of 
 its heads, viz., that which was slain and came to life, is held 
 by the common interpretation of the Fathers to be Antichrist ; 
 nor does it contradict this opinion, that the number 666 is the 
 number of the name of the beast, for I grant that the first beast 
 is Antichrist, by reason of the first head, but not of all its 
 heads. Again, it is ridiculous to call Antichrist Latin or 
 Roman, because Antichrist will not be a Latin or Roman 
 Emperor, but he will be one, and that the chief, of the heads 
 of the beast — that is, one of the kings who will divide among 
 themselves, destroy, and overturn the Roman Empire. In a 
 word, let your Reverence do as you like, and fight for God’s 
 glory and the good of the Church. He acts with me who 
 refutes the adversaries of the Faith. I seek not my glory, but 
 the glory of Christ. Wishing your Reverence all success, and 
 a remembrance of myself in your holy prayers, &c., 
 
 “ Servus in Christo, 
 
 “ Robert Cardinal Bellarmine. 
 
 * ‘ Rome , A ugust 7, 1610. ” 
 
 In his epistle dedicatory to King. James he treats of the 
 system of persecution practised against Catholics. “ It is 
 too notorious in the world what Catholics suffer for their 
 conscience in your Majesty’s dominions, how many things 
 lie hid which would astonish and amaze the world, if they 
 were laid open to the view thereof ! What prying into men’s 
 secret actions ! How many are beaten and often tormented 
 even to death in private houses without any trial ! I might 
 add such other particulars as the rods kept in store by some 
 of no small account, for young persons under twenty years 
 of age, whom they use like scholars, thinking it not to be 
 against their gravity to whip them privately with their own 
 hands.” 23 
 
 23 In confirmation of this, see the conflict of the four Worthington 
 boys, p. 122, ante. 
 
Father Christopher Walpole. 
 
 269 
 
 The work Antichrist Extant , against Dr. Downham, who 
 had written a work to prove the Pope to be the Man of Sin, 
 was reprinted in 1632. 
 
 Father Michael Walpole also published a translation from 
 the Latin of Father Ribadeneira’s Life of St. Ignatius of Loyola, 
 St. Omer, 1616, i2mo, which has gone, says Dr. Oliver, 
 through several editions. 
 
 Several of Father Michael’s letters are subscribed “ Martinus 
 Becanus.” 
 
 Father Christopher Walpole. — We have but little to 
 add to what is given in the pedigree regarding this Father. 
 When an alumnus of Cambridge University he was converted 
 to the Catholic faith by Father John Gerard. At the time of 
 his death at Valladolid College, S.J., in 1606, he was Spiritual 
 Father in that College, and died, as Father Gerard says, “ Cum 
 dolore omnium, et detrimento patriae.” 
 
 Father Henry More 24 very briefly notices him, thus — 
 “ Unum memoravimus Regis Hispaniae stipendiis militan- 
 tem ; alterum, qui postquam captivo fratri in Zelandia suc- 
 currerat exemplo et hortatione fratris petiit Societatem. Is 
 erat Christophorus, Academiae Cantabrigienses alumnus, nostri 
 Joannes Gerardi opera Ecclesiae conciliatus, et ad iter 
 Hollandi cum viatico adjutus ; profectus Romam in Anglicano 
 aliquandiu studuit; annum deinde aetatis cum ageret, 24, in 
 Societatem admissus 7 Sept. 1592, et missus in Hispanias non 
 diu superfuit. Nam ann. 1606, Vallisoleti obiit, spiritualium 
 rerum Praefectus, quarum et sanctae solitudinis fuerat perquam 
 studiosus.” 
 
 As to the blessed martyr Father Henry Walpole, we do 
 not here give any detailed account beyond the summary in the 
 pedigree. Dr. Jessopp in his Introduction to “ Letters of 
 Henry Walpole, S.J. (executed at York, April 17, 1595), from 
 the original MSS. at Stonyhurst College,” gives us good hopes 
 to look for a full and complete history from his pen of this 
 great martyr for the faith of his forefathers, in the following 
 paragraph : “ It would be out of place in my judgment to 
 preface such a collection by any long account of Father 
 Walpole’s history. I reserve that for another opportunity.” 25 
 
 In the meanwhile the reader is referred to Bishop 
 Challoner’s truthful Memoirs of Missionary Priests ; Bartoli, S.J., 
 24 Hist. Prov. Anglia. 25 P. 3. 
 
The College of St. Chad. 
 
 2 jo 
 
 Inghilterra ; Tanner, S.J., Martyrs of the Society of Jesus; and 
 the editor presumes leave of the above learned doctor to quote 
 the following deeply interesting passage in his said introduction, 
 in which, after speaking of a document in the Public Record 
 Office, Brussels, containing a brief record of Father Henry 
 Walpole’s life, from his birth down to a few months after the 
 date of his English letters, and which carries us by the help of 
 the marginal notes to within a year of the time when he was 
 summoned to Spain by Father Parsons, before being sent on 
 that mission which introduced him to the horrors of the torture- 
 chamber, and ended in the gallows, he continues — “ On these 
 matters it is not now the time to speak. Let it not be forgotten, 
 however, that we are dealing here with an English gentleman of 
 birth and fortune, a man of exceptionally high culture, of great 
 intellectual gifts, of deep and fervent enthusiasm, who had sacri- 
 ficed everything that most men hold dearest, for what he believed 
 to be divine truth ; and that, distinctly and unmistakeably, he 
 suffered simply and only because he, being a Jesuit and a 
 priest, returned to his fatherland to preach doctrines which 
 fifty years before his execution were the only doctrines 
 allowed in the land, and for controverting which in his father’s 
 boyhood, any man would have suffered as surely as the son 
 suffered for proclaiming them in that father’s old age.” 
 
 The sixth and last member of the family who entered the 
 Society was Father Christopher Warner (yere Walpole). 
 We cannot satisfactorily trace to which branch of the family 
 he belongs. We give in brief, at the foot of the pedigree in 
 page 235, all the information that our present means afford us. 
 
Wed Series 
 
 Part II. 
 
 COLLEGE OF THE IMMACULATE 
 CONCEPTION ; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE DERBYSHIRE DISTRICT, S.J. 
 
THE COLLEGE OF THE IMMACULATE 
 CONCEPTION. 
 
 This was another of the original Colleges, or ^^zjf-Colleges, 
 established by Father Richard Blount, the first Provincial of 
 the English Province, about the year 1633, or very soon after 
 that period. 
 
 For many years this ancient College had become extinct as 
 a district ; when, upon the establishment of the present College 
 and Convictus at Spink Hill, Eckington, Chesterfield (one of 
 the oldest missions of the English Province, dating upwards of 
 two hundred and fifty years), by the late Father Provincial 
 Randal Lythgoe, in the year 1842, it became partially revived, 
 under the appellation of Mount St. Mary’s College — Collegium 
 Sanctce Mar ice ad Montem. 
 
 This College or district embraced the counties of Derby* 
 Leicester, North Notts, and Rutland. The following places, 
 among others of which no record remains, were formerly 
 served or visited by the fathers attached to it, viz. — 
 
 Barlebrough 
 
 Belgrave (Leicestershire) 
 At Mrs. Brooksby’s 
 Clifton (Notts) 
 
 Derby 
 Highfield 
 Holbeck (Notts) 
 
 Holt (Leicestershire) 
 Husband-Bosworth 
 
 Leicester 
 N ottingham 
 Queensborough (Notts) 
 Spink Hill 
 
 Stanley Grange, near Derby 
 Westhallam, Derby 
 Wingerworth 
 Winsley. 
 
 In the P.R.O. State Papers is a letter from the infamous 
 Topcliffe, the priest-hunter, to Lord Burghley, with information 
 from Derbyshire, from which the following is an extract. 
 
 Derbyshire. Dom. Eliz . vol. ccxlv. n. 98. Sept. 19, 1593. 
 Richard Topcliff to Lord Burghley. 
 
 Sends him intelligence brought from Derbyshire touching 
 Francis Ridcall, the rebel and traitorous priest, late steward to 
 s 
 
274 College of the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 the old Lord and Lady Montague, and what company he met 
 at Buxton since he fled — Ridcall fled from his farm and goods 
 worth ^1,000, which was near Woking, Surrey, upon land 
 belonging to Lord Montague — to William Bassets, at Langford, 
 county Derby, where he had conference with Mr. Langford 
 the Papist, and Basset’s cousin germain. Basset was 
 examined upon these deep articles, whereof he was advised 
 by his cousin Fitzherbert upon talk with Gray the priest, his 
 old schoolmaster, but he denied talking of her Majesty. 
 Ridcall fled from thence to Buxton, where he met Sir Robert 
 Dormer and his wife, and Harris, her traitorous Seminary 
 priest, Sir Henry Constable, of Holderness, and his wife with 
 her traitorous priest J ohnson, Sir Thomas Lea, of Stoneley, and 
 his wife, and a number of Papists. From Buxton, Ridcall went 
 to a tower of Lord Windsor’s in Derbyshire, let on lease 
 to Edward Bentley, lately condemned for treason, but at 
 liberty, and to his wife, daughter of Reaper, and niece to 
 Lord Montague. There he was harboured and relieved in 
 a wood of Lord Windsor’s by his tenants and servants, but 
 hearing of the apprehension of Garnet and Gray by the writer, 
 he fled northwards to some of his late patronesses. One of 
 Lord Windsor’s tenants’ sons fled with him. Has taken the 
 father and mother of Ridcall’s guides ; expects to take Ridcall 
 also. Topcliff asks whether her Majesty knows how far the 
 examination by Sir Edward Stafford and himself, at her 
 express command, of Gilbert Langhton [or Laton], prisoner in 
 the Tower, come over from Father Parsons and Cardinal 
 Allen, touched Lord Windsor. He can deeply touch him and 
 other Papists. 
 
 From the year 1635 to 1677, the period to which the 
 present history extends, the average number of fathers labouring 
 in the district was about ten each year ; the number varying, 
 the highest being fifteen, and the lowest seven. 
 
 The average number of yearly conversions to the Faith 
 was about thirty, but the means of ascertaining are very imperfect. 
 
 The Leicestershire missions of the Society were founded in 
 1607, by Father William Wright, who, on his escape from 
 prison in London, retired into Leicestershire and there 
 laboured for about thirty years ; during twelve years of which 
 he was the Superior. It does not appear in what part of the 
 county he was settled, but in those days the priests were for 
 the most part missionarii excurrentes. The following memoir of 
 this Father will be read with interest. 
 
275 
 
 LIFE OF FATHER WILLIAM WRIGHT, S.J. 
 
 This eminent Father of the English Province of the Society, 
 was one of the many champions raised up for the defence of the 
 Catholic faith and the rights of the Holy See in our country 
 in the commencement of the seventeenth century. He con- 
 stantly witnessed against the oath of allegiance and supremacy, 
 which James I. endeavoured to force all Catholics to take on # 
 pain of death, as in cases of high treason. Such testimony was 
 the more urgent from the fact of the Rev. George Blackwell, 
 the Archpriest of England, having unhappily yielded under the 
 severe pressure of those terrible times of bloody persecution. 
 By his defection in this matter, the archpriest drew after him a 
 small party of the clergy and laity, too ready to shelter them- 
 selves under his authority and example. 
 
 Father William Wright was a native of York, born in the 
 year 1560. He entered the Society of Jesus in Rome, 1581, 
 and was solemnly professed of the four vows 1602, and died 
 January 18, 1639, at the age of seventy-nine. 1 He was for a 
 few months chaplain to the ancient family of the Gages of 
 Hengrave Hall, where he was seized by the pursuivants and 
 cast into prison in London, in 1606. By means of his friends 
 he effected his escape after three months, and then, retiring 
 into Leicestershire, became the founder of the mission of the 
 Society of Jesus in that county. 
 
 The Archpriest Blackwell having unhappily fallen, the King 
 appeared to think that he had also put all the rest of the 
 Catholics hors de combat , and that, as he observed to the 
 French Ambassador, he had but to show them the subscrip- 
 tion of the archpriest to the oath. But he did not calculate 
 that God had reserved to Himself instruments to witness to 
 the truth, and by meek persistency to withstand the royal will. 
 
 1 At Gratz, the Sodality of our Blessed Lady of the Annunciation and 
 Immaculate Conception was created and confirmed in 1595. On February 
 2 > 1 596, the first Rector of the Sodality, i.e. Prefect, was appointed — 
 Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, “Vices Rectoris gessit Illustrissimus 
 D. Nicholaus Ursinus Comes de Blagay.” Its Praeses was Father 
 William Wrightus, who, I presume, continued to act as such until 1603, 
 when I find a new Praeses. Annus Marianus Sodalis Grcecetisis , &c. 
 I 7 ° 7 > PP* I 57 > 158. (Information by Edmund Waterton, Esq.) 
 
 S 2 
 
276 College of the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 The first of these, it may be said, was Toby Matthews, son of 
 the Archbishop of York, who had been converted to the 
 Catholic faith in Rome by Father Robert Parsons, and had 
 lately returned to London ; a youth of the rarest parts, greatly 
 beloved and esteemed, especially among his young cotem- 
 poraries of the upper class. There were also three others, like 
 himself, of the house of Gage, all of whom appeared to be 
 possessed of that spirit of truth and courage in which the 
 Archpriest Blackwell had failed. Great was the astonishment 
 they caused to the whole of London, and afterwards to the 
 . entire kingdom, by their boldness in protesting against the 
 oath of supremacy, and in defending the unlawfulness of taking 
 it ; and this principally by word of mouth, and in the presence 
 of the Archbishop of Canterbury and Dr. Morton, his theo- 
 logian, whom Matthews, moreover, put to silence in a 
 disputation. This triumph over error procured them a very 
 severe imprisonment, which they underwent with great joy of 
 heart, being there visited by the fathers in stealth, and encou- 
 raged to place their confidence in God against all possible 
 events. 
 
 But the greatest check given to the designs of the King 
 was the opposition made to the archpriest by Father William 
 Wright, who, by the divine disposition of Providence, fell into 
 the hands of the pursuivants. When a youth, being possessed 
 of great courage and sincere faith, and unwilling to risk either 
 to any perilous encounters with the heretics who overran his 
 unhappy country, he escaped abroad by the aid of an uncle, 
 a priest, and went to Rheims, from whence, after a time, 
 he proceeded to the English College in Rome, in the year 
 1581, where on the 18th October, 1581, he was admitted 
 an alumnus, and in less than two months, viz. the 8th 
 December, 1581, was received into the Novitiate of the 
 Society of Jesus. Here he made admirable progress in the 
 science of virtue. He spent twenty years in Germany, partly 
 at Vienna, and partly at Gratz, teaching philosophy, mathe- 
 matics, and both moral and dogmatic theology, with the repute 
 of distinguished ability ; he also took his degree of doctor of 
 divinity. In both places he was Prefect of the Sodality of the 
 Blessed Virgin of the Annunciation. The pious Emperor 
 Ferdinand II. and the princes of the royal blood, with whom 
 he was equally in esteem, frequently honoured him with their 
 presence, and the Emperor, when absent, corresponded with 
 him. He made his profession of the four vows in 1602, into 
 
Father William Wright. 277 
 
 the hands of Father Alphonsus Catillo, the Provincial of those 
 parts, who made him his Socius. After so many years of labour, 
 for the increase of his merits he begged of his superiors, by 
 way of recompense, the favour of departing for England. • He 
 desired to spend there the rest of his life and strength, and per- 
 adventure his blood also, in the service of the Catholic faith, 
 and in assisting the souls of his beloved fellow-countrymen. 
 The need of such assistance was indeed great. In consequence 
 of the withdrawal, the martyrdom, and dispersion of distin- 
 guished men of the Society, in our mission in England, through 
 the iniquity of the times, others were sought for on every side 
 who could worthily supply their places. Father Parsons, by 
 virtue of a letter of authority from Very Reverend Father 
 General Aquaviva, called Father William from his college 
 labours, and sent him to England. He arrived safely in 
 London towards the end of the year 1606. Then arose a 
 spiritual strife among the Catholics, animated both by affec- 
 tion and interest, to obtain possession of Father Wright, whose 
 repute for virtue and learning had preceded him. But 
 Mr. Edward Gage (of Hengrave, Suffolk), a man high in 
 merit amongst the faithful, obtained from the Superior, Father 
 Richard Holtby, permission to receive him, and with joy he 
 kept him for eight months ; when he was betrayed by a spy 
 and traitor to the pursuivants, and by them handed over to Sir 
 William Wade, the Lieutenant of the Tower. He received the 
 captive with great satisfaction, and subjected him to strict 
 examinations and re-examinations, and finding him, contrary 
 to what the spies had led him to expect, a perfect stranger in 
 the country, to which he had only returned for eight months, 
 after a long absence of twenty years, he sent a report of it to 
 Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury. These worthies, finding that 
 they could not involve the Father in any suspicion of the 
 Gunpowder Plot, remanded him to be judged by Richard 
 Bancroft, pseudo-Archbishop of Canterbury. He was taken, 
 four days after, to Lambeth, before that morose old man, 
 always most hostile to Catholic priests, but especially to those 
 of the Society of Jesus. After a short conversation upon 
 matters of religion, without more ado he committed Father 
 Wright to the White Lion prison, with strict injunctions that 
 no living man should either visit him or speak with him. Upon 
 hearing which, Father Wright smilingly said, “ I have lived for 
 twenty years in Germany, and have evely day been on familiar 
 terms with those of your sect, with all sorts of Lutherans, and 
 
278 College of the Immaculate Conception . 
 
 have never given them offence. Now, that I am come amongst 
 my own people, why should they treat me worse than strangers, 
 and debar me from all intercourse with them ? ” He was sum- 
 moned four times before Bancroft : the three first occasions 
 were rather to sound his general capacity and character ; in the 
 fourth he was questioned about his opinion upon various 
 articles of religion, Bancroft flying off to trifles as soon as 
 the Father’s replies were in opposition to his Grace’s ideas. 
 
 The Catholics of London had at first been disheartened by 
 the wavering of the archpriest, and afterwards much more by 
 his lamentable fall, and especially by his general letter of 
 invitation to all to take the oath, and which the ministers of 
 the King had caused to be diffused far and wide. They now 
 stood in great suspense and anxiety about the line that Father 
 William would take, and which side he would adopt, knowing 
 him to be a man of such authority, a teacher for so many years, 
 and a doctor of divinity. It added to their anxiety, that Father 
 William had a brother in London name'd Thomas, a secular priest, 
 intimately attached to the archpriest, and with him entirely 
 defending the legality of the oath. But as to the opinion of 
 Father William upon the point, it needed but to demand it of 
 him. In the fourth summons to Lambeth, the Archbishop 
 accosted him with a goodly preamble, and between soft 
 speeches and threatenings, came at last to the point, to ask 
 for his reply — whether according to all reason, ecclesiastical, 
 natural, and civil, it was not most just, and therefore lawful, 
 and, as being commanded by the King, a duty, to take the 
 oath? To which the Father instantly replied, “No; in no 
 shape.” The rest of his answer will appear in his own narra- 
 tive presently given. He was proceeding in his argument, 
 but the Archbishop would hear no more, and angrily remanded 
 him back to the White Lion. The report of this answer spread 
 the very same day throughout all London, by means of secret 
 witnesses whom the Catholics kept in readiness. It is difficult 
 to express how great was their joy and consolation, and they 
 wrote to their friends throughout the kingdom to spread the 
 news. This reply, it seems, was the cause of that wonderful 
 manifestation of reverence and love expressed towards Father 
 Wright during the three months of his incarceration, and which, 
 in his humility, he was unable to account for. Catholics whom 
 he had never seen, nor even knew their names till two or three 
 days before, visited him, some to return him thanks, others to 
 bring him alms for his support, others to bring him medicines' 
 
Father William Wright. 279 
 
 by way of antidotes to the plague, which at that time was 
 raging. 
 
 On the other hand, the King, learning the answer that had 
 been given, wished the Father’s death ; he declared this at the 
 time, and often afterwards, adding besides, that he could not 
 otherwise preserve the public good; but he would not hang 
 him, as perhaps the plague, with less odium, and as effectually, 
 would do the work. 
 
 In the interim, whilst it was not as yet a firmly established 
 opinion that the plague was really in the prison, several Pro- 
 testant doctors and ministers tried their hands with the Father, 
 either in disputation, or in running through the controversies 
 upon religion. Being accustomed to receive persons of this 
 kind in Germany, and to the management of such discus- 
 sions, he w r as most courteous to all, drawing them from the 
 sophistries with which they usually came prepared, to discuss 
 necessary and main points ; inasmuch as the lesser details 
 would fall into their places as a consequence. By the mercy of 
 God, his words were not in vain, as will be seen by his own 
 narrative, in which will also be given other details of his stay in 
 prison, and his escape from thence, which his friends effected 
 by means of a false key, during the interval of the keepers’ 
 supper and recreation afterwards. 
 
 The Privy Council was indifferent about his escape ; they 
 rather made a jest of it. Father Wright was not a prisoner of 
 their stamp. All the mortification of it fell upon Bancroft. 
 
 The following deeply interesting narrative by Father William 
 Wright himself, is taken from a copy supplied from the archives 
 of the Society of Jesus in Rome. It is contained in a letter 
 from the Father Rector of the College of Gratz, to another 
 Superior of the Society. The original was written from London 
 by Father Wright, to Very Rev. Father General Aquaviva. It was 
 after his escape from prison, and is dated 13th November, 1607. 
 
 “ Rev. Father in Christ, — Pax Christi. 
 
 “ . . . Mindful of my promise, &c. ... I send a copy of a 
 writing most agreeable to your Reverence, . . . from a copy of 
 the author himself under the following head or title. 
 
 “ From a letter of Reverend Father William Wright, con- 
 cerning his apprehension and liberation from prison in England. 
 
 “ It is long since I have written to your Paternity, but being 
 hindered by the obstacle of prisons, without pen or ink, it was 
 impossible for me to accomplish what I had purposed. But 
 
280 College of the Immaculate Conception . 
 
 being now, by the blessing of God (and this a remarkable one, 
 as all Catholics think), beyond all hope and expectation again 
 set at liberty, I am able to write. The following week after the 
 capture of the archpriest, I was myself also seized in the house 
 of a certain gentleman of rank, most attached to us . 2 The 
 pursuivants who apprehended me, although famished, and most 
 greedy after money, nevertheless refused at any price or 
 entreaty to take a bribe and allow me to escape privately. 
 But being arrested as the Superior of the Jesuits, they imme- 
 diately carried me off to the Tower of London. When I 
 arrived at the Tower I was subjected to an examination by 
 the lieutenant. They interrogated me as to who I was, 
 whether a priest or Jesuit ? How many years I had been 
 abroad ? When I entered England ? and for what end ? I 
 replied candidly to all, because both my name and person 
 were previously known : That I was a priest of the Society 
 of Jesus ; that I had lived abroad chiefly in Germany for 
 about twenty-eight years ; that I had at length asked for and 
 obtained leave from my superiors to return to England, and that 
 I had returned eight months previously; that I had no other end 
 nor intended any other, than to propagate the things which be- 
 longed to my vocation, duty, and function. I was kept in the 
 Tower for three days, thence on the fourth day I was conveyed 
 by the river Thames to Lambeth, the Episcopal Palace of the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, who committed me to a prison 
 in Southwark, near London, called the White Lion. I was 
 summoned in four days fi;om that prison to the Fleet, a place 
 of residence of the pseudo-Archbishop. I only treated with 
 him in Latin, and so whilst I was examined, he himself was 
 compelled to translate the sentences in which I expressed my 
 mind into English. I was examined regarding matters con- 
 nected with their sect. Did I think that they had any faith at 
 all, any priesthood, or altar, any sacraments, good works, 
 penance, and whether a Calvinist was worse than a Turk? 
 To these and similar questions I replied according to the 
 orthodox Faith. Presently he proposed certain other matters 
 of lesser importance, and at length added some propositions 
 gathered from the last formula of the oath of allegiance, to 
 which he received from me an answer anything but agreeable 
 to him. This was, I said, contrary to the Sacred Writings; 
 I adduced one place, St. John xxi., from which it is gathered 
 that the Sovereign Pontiff w’as the Shepherd of the Church 
 2 Mr. Gage of Hengrave Hall. 
 
Father William Wright. 
 
 281 
 
 of Christ upon earth, to whose duty and office it thence 
 belonged not only to lead out his sheep to wholesome pastures, 
 but also to defend the same from the wolves, and these also 
 to ward off with the dog and staff of ecclesiastical censures, 
 should they be of any future hurt to them. My answer to 
 this article was most eagerly looked for by all the Catholics 
 about London ; for indeed, the archpriest shortly before, to 
 the grief of all Catholics, had approved the opposite before 
 the nobles of the kingdom, and had invited all the disciples of 
 the orthodox Faith in England to follow his example and do the 
 same; therefore, very many were most wonderfully strengthened 
 by this my answer and opinion. For in one prison alone there 
 were twenty, who one and all with a courageous heart rejected at 
 that time the oath proposed to them by the judges. The same 
 also did that magnanimous gentleman, with his son, in whose 
 house I was taken, with the excellent Toby Matthews, son of 
 the Archbishop of York, and many others detained in Rome. 
 
 “ When these things had been carried on for about fourteen 
 days, so severe a pestilence broke out in our gaol, as also 
 in the entire city, that a part of the prisoners for the sake of 
 precaution were liberated, another part escaped by flight, and 
 another part was left. My friends left no stone unturned to 
 induce the Archbishop to order my removal to another prison 
 in order to avoid the contagion, but in vain, for no other 
 reply could be extracted from him but this : ‘ If he will not 
 take the oath, 1st him take the plague ! , There were with 
 me in bonds two ministers, the one a Puritan Brownist, the 
 other a Calvinist. The former was always most faithful to me ; 
 but the latter having received leave to do so, migrated to a 
 locality more safe from the pestilence. The first, except by 
 night did not appear in the prison, for by day he was allowed 
 to remain with his friends where he wished in the city. Never- 
 theless he himself was also seized with the plague and died in 
 three days. Two of the turnkeys, who inspected me nearly 
 every hour, were attacked with the same violence of the 
 disease, of whom one died a Catholic, having been instructed 
 by me as well as circumstances admitted of. A little girl who 
 waited at table likewise died, as also did two others who 
 worked in the kitchen about the food. We buried fourteen. 
 Nearly all the rest, except myself, were either attacked by the 
 pestilence or by some other ailment; as many of the rest 
 of the infected as timely took the prescribed medicine, escaped 
 death. 
 
282 College of the Immaculate Conception . 
 
 “Whilst all this was going on in prison, my friends abroad, 
 moved by charity towards me, began seriously to think about 
 my safety. Therefore, after mature deliberation amongst them- 
 selves, they sent to me signifying as the result their desire that, 
 if in any manner I could possibly effect my escape from prison, 
 
 I should attempt it : not so much on my own account, as for 
 promoting the salvation of others, and they would spare neither 
 cost or labour, provided only that I could safely undertake it. 
 
 I found a man who was both a Catholic and trusty, to whom I 
 confided the matter, and in conference together we discovered 
 a mode which Ours approved. Therefore, making a vow to 
 God and the Blessed Virgin, after supper on the octave day of 
 the feast of her Nativity, whilst the keepers were recreating 
 themselves, our attempt succeeded according to our wish. On 
 the following day a rumour was spread throughout the whole 
 city of London that a certain Catholic had set fire to the 
 prisons at the White Lion, who had escaped by the aid of the 
 light of the burning buildings, and under cover of the dark- 
 ness of the night, whereas no such thing occurred. 
 
 “ My escape was gratifying to all sincere Catholics, though 
 it excited the wrath of my Lord of Canterbury, but other 
 members of the Privy Council appeared, by a certain merriment, 
 to approve it as though necessary in a case of this nature. 
 In the meantime I wrote two letters, the one in Latin to 
 Dr. Morton, the theologian of the pseudo-Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, with whom I held some conferences in prison 
 upon affairs of faith ; the other to my principal turnkey, to 
 whom I opened the reasons of my escape ; to the first, that 
 through him the 4 rc ^bishop might understand that in the 
 common opinion of all Protestants he should have dis- 
 played greater charity towards me; to the latter, that I might 
 exonerate him in the eyes of all these of any negligence on 
 his part in my escape, should any such charge be made against 
 him. 
 
 “ It is impossible to express how great was the charity 
 shown by Catholics towards me, even on the part of those 
 who had never before either known or heard of me, sending 
 me in presents, money, precious medicines, and fifty thousand 
 things besides. Nay, even the very Protestant preachers them- 
 selves were not wanting on their parts. Morton, for my 
 convenience, sent me in the works of Bellarmine, with a present 
 of four scudi, and some other things. A certain other doctor 
 of divinity and a veteran parson, being brought by means of 
 
Father William Wright. 283 
 
 frequent conferences with me to a better mind, sent me as a 
 present in return twenty crowns, and he has it in contemplation 
 to abandon the duties of his ministry and to assume the 
 character of a farmer, for saving his own soul, and even eventually 
 the numerous family he has ; and although I could not receive 
 his gift, still it showed the best dispositions in the old man. 
 The same person came to me another time, when he heard 
 that the plague was raging in the prison, and that I was placed 
 iir danger, and was willingly desirous to offer his own life in my 
 regard to any one who would deliver me from this contagious 
 captivity, although he should personally incur the most manifest 
 danger ; and he earnestly begged me to make my escape from 
 hence by any means I could safely do so, and promised that 
 he would on the next Sunday, or some other, even by himself, 
 declare from the pulpit to the assembly at St. Paul’s Cross, 
 that I had the best of rights to do so ; and he once invited 
 me to his own house, where I could stay most securely. 
 
 “ The third minister, also a preacher, was with me in prison, 
 who being taught by the catechism of the illustrious Cardinal 
 Bellarmine, and being convinced in disputations with Morton, 
 was brought to that point, as o signify to his Lord of Canter- 
 bury by means of Scudamoie, a famous apostate, that he would 
 never again enter a pulpit against the Catholic faith. And he 
 moreover privately told me that he was prepared also to resign 
 his living, and the abundant fortune, furniture, &c., he had 
 amassed, that he might thus in his extreme old age save his soul. 
 This old man, from my first being cast into prison, was my greatest 
 consolation, faithfully carrying my letters to and fro, since at 
 that time I had no opportunity of intercourse with my friends 
 except at the cell window, in a loud voice, and in the presence 
 of my keeper ; but now by the kindess of this well-affected old 
 man, I did as I wished, and this in the best and safest manner. 
 He was very often accustomed to break out into these words — 
 ‘O Mr. Wright, from an English cleric, Lord deliver us.’ The 
 cause of his being himself committed to prison, was because 
 being a man of rank and unmarried, he had preached against 
 mendicant and married parsons. 
 
 “ Although in the whole time of this my captivity, by the 
 express order of my Lord of Canterbury, that no one should be 
 allowed access to me ; nevertheless it pleased God so to con- 
 ciliate the hearts of all the keepers towards me, that almost 
 daily a very large concourse of persons of all descriptions came 
 to me : and, indeed, at first the turnkeys privately procured me 
 
284 College of the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 a breviary ; and in serving God daily with the rest of the 
 Catholics, I experienced no difficulty on their part. Out of 
 five dead, one died a Catholic, as I have before said. Three 
 others often said that they were unwilling to appear before God 
 the Judge, without that faith which we Catholics profess. The 
 fifth, from my discourses with him, was brought to that state 
 that he wavered in mind, and for the whole three months of my 
 imprisonment ingenuously and publicly confessed that he would 
 never enter a Protestant church. In the meanwhile as I treated 
 with many, chiefly of secular youths both of the upper and 
 middle classes, I found their minds entirely leaning towards the 
 true Faith, and repugnant to that which they so contend for in 
 England. A certain lady of the city of London came weeping 
 to me, repeatedly asking me for the love of God to receive her 
 into the fold of the Church ; that she cared for no persecution 
 or torture in this life, provided only she might be secure of 
 salvation in the next, whom I dismissed with her desire accom- 
 plished. Four youths of rank asked me with tears to prescribe 
 them some aid for their souls, but which for certain causes I 
 deferred to another time. The day before I escaped, the son 
 of a certain baronet begged to be admitted, which in like 
 manner I postponed until he had been well instructed. But 
 what I was unable to do then well, on account of my escape, 
 was accomplished elsewhere by the goodness of God. I have 
 had various conferences for disputation with Protestant ministers; 
 of these I will perhaps another time write an account. I only 
 mention this at present, that you would scarcely expect, nor 
 even believe, how great ignorance prevails in the academies 
 of our Englishmen. For I have found amongst them not even 
 one theologian, nor philosopher, nay, not even the worst sophist, 
 or still worse, grammarian. 
 
 “I have now nothing more to write about, but only to com- 
 mend myself to your Paternity and all, earnestly begging that I 
 may not be forgotten in your and their prayers, and other pious 
 duties, as on my part I will also do the same. 
 
 “London, 13th November, 1607.” 
 
 The rest of this letter relates to matters of business not 
 connected with the English Province. It is dated, “ Gratz, 
 17th March, 1608.” 
 
 The Catholics carried Father Wright off to a distance from 
 London, into Leicestershire, where he laid the foundations of 
 that mission, which for twelve years he governed and sup- 
 
Father William Wright. 285 
 
 ported, to the great increase of his own merits and of souls 
 to the Church. Here he taught, exhorted, strengthened the 
 Catholics in the Faith, and reconciled heretics both by word 
 and writing. Many were moved to admiration, to see a man 
 of his great age and consummate learning, a professor of 
 philosophy and theology in the most celebrated universities, 
 condescending to teach little children the lowest rudiments, 
 and spending sedulously whole days upon them, not only 
 willingly, but with a certain gust and hilarity. “And,” says 
 Father Bartoli, Inghilterra , lib. vi. “ I am bound to make 
 special notice of him, in regard to the great weight that he, 
 according to the universal expectation conceived of him, ren- 
 dered in establishing the truth of the impossibility of taking the 
 oath of supremacy with a safe conscience, contrary to the 
 opinion and exhortations of the Archpriest Blackwell, whose 
 authority the King and the Archbishop of Canterbury made 
 use of, if not to contravene that of Father William, yet as a 
 tool, to the great damage and loss of Catholics.” 
 
 At length the good Father grew superannuated in his work: 
 still, even at the last, he would teach his servant who waited 
 upon him, a rough, uncultivated man, the rudiments of Latin, 
 and only ceased from such labour with his life. Ten years 
 before he died he suffered severely from asthma, with constant 
 danger of sudden death. But this admirable religious, by the 
 daily sacrifice of the Mass, by his assiduity in prayer, by his 
 self-examination and meditation upon death, rendered that 
 solemn passage neither sudden nor unprovided. In spite of 
 the severe pains he suffered during these ten last years, he very 
 rarely omitted Mass or his stated course of prayers. The proofs, 
 indeed, of his patience were very wonderful ; for, although daily 
 urged beyond measure by the severity of the attacks to allay 
 the acuteness of his pains, he not only endured them with con- 
 stancy and evenness, but, after the example of a certain leper, 
 seasoned each attack with the following ejaculations, which 
 were very frequently on his lips : “ Da patientiam, bone Jesu, et 
 amorem ; auge poenam et dolorem ; Deo gratias, infinities in 
 infinitum, Deo gratias.” 
 
 In the last months of his life, the excruciations of the stone 
 added to his ever-accumulating merits, and this additional cross 
 our noble religious soldier by many self-conquests, and many 
 acts of patience, of charity, of faith, and other virtues endured, 
 until the 18th of January, the festival of St. Peter’s Chair in 
 Rome, which holy See he had always strenuously defended. 
 
286 College of the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 Then, about the hour of io a.m., after having said his Canonical 
 Office and recited his Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mother, the 
 Psalter of Jesus, the Litany of the Saints, and other prayers 
 with his usual serenity, betraying not the slightest suspicion of 
 the near approach of death, he said to a certain father, who was 
 preparing to say Mass, “ Remember me at the altar.” These 
 were his last words. Suddenly falling into a fainting fit, fortified 
 by the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, he sweetly slept in our 
 Lord, in the year 1639, aged seventy-nine, in the Society fifty- 
 eight. 
 
 Father More 3 gives a number of pious ejaculations in the 
 form of a litany, which this saintly Father composed in the 
 midst of his pains, and by constant recital of which, day and 
 night, he used to alleviate his severe sufferings. 
 
 FATHER ARTHUR LAURENCE FAUNT, S.J. 
 
 The Society of Jesus is indebted to Leicestershire for a very 
 eminent member in the person of Father Arthur Laurence 
 Faunt (erroneously stated by Alegambe 4 to have been a native 
 of Lancashire.) The following account of him is taken from 
 Mr. Wood’s Athen. Oxon b and leaves little or nothing to be 
 added. 
 
 “ Arthur Faunt, a most noted Jesuit of his time, was son of 
 William Faunt, of Foston, Leicestershire. Born of an ancient 
 and genteel family living at that place, in 1554, and being very 
 studious, and delighted in letters while he was a child, became 
 fit for academical studies at fourteen years of age ; whereupon, 
 being sent to Merton College in 1568, he was committed to the 
 tuition of the most noted philosopher of that house, named 
 John Potts, who, though he had been before ejected*by Mr. John 
 Mann, the warden, yet was he permitted to attend his pupil, 
 whom he had before instructed in grammar in the country. 
 But the said Potts, being a Roman Catholic, or else a hearty 
 well-wisher to the Popish religion, took away his pupil from the 
 said College, with the advice of his relations (who were Catholics 
 also), and in the beginning of 1570 conducted him to Louvain, 
 in Brabant, where, entering into the College of the Jesuits the 
 same year, left him and went into Ireland. In the said College 
 he continued until he was B.A., at which time, having a desire 
 
 3 Hist. Prov. Angl. lib. viii. n. 10. 
 
 4 Bib. Script. S.J. p. 538. 5 Vol. i. pp. 247, 248. Edit. 1721. 
 
Father Arthur Laurence Faunt. 287 
 
 to travel, he went to Paris, where he remained for a time. 
 Thence he went to Mynchen or Munchen [Munich], a city and 
 University in Bavaria, where William, Duke of that province, 
 did, for the towardliness that he saw in him, choose him for his 
 scholar, and maintained him in the said University. While he 
 remained there he took the degree of M.A., and then, having 
 an ardent desire to study divinity, he departed thence in the 
 year 1575, went to the English College of the Jesuits in Rome, 
 made a very forward progress in that faculty, and changed his 
 name to Laurence Arthur Faunt. Not long after he was con- 
 stituted Divinity reader in that College, and was in very great 
 favour with Pope Gregory XIII., who, had he lived a little 
 longer would, as it was then supposed, have honoured our 
 profound author, Faunt, with a Cardinal’s cap. However, in 
 token of his love he gave him, on his humble desire, licence to 
 make a seal, that by virtue of it, which should be set to a 
 writing to be drawn up by him, any of his countrymen (whose 
 welfare he ever tendered) might with safety pass through any 
 country without peril of the Spanish Inquisition, or any danger 
 else whatsoever. In the meantime, the King of Poland having 
 settled a College for Jesuits at Posna, a city in his dominions, 
 our author was sent by the said Pope to be governor thereof. 
 So that, leaving Rome in order for that employment, 10th June, 
 1581, he was, not long after, received there with ceremony, where 
 for his great learning, gravity, wisdom, and his religious life and 
 conversation, he was held in great esteem by the spiritual and 
 temporal estates of that kingdom. While he remained there 
 he wrote several books, which the Biblio. Script, of his Society 
 will tell you. This worthy person, who was much celebrated 
 in his time, gave way to fate at Vilna, the chief city of the 
 province of Lithuania in Poland, on the 28th of February, 159^, 
 after he had religiously served in the Society of Jesus about 
 twenty-five years, to their great renown and honour.” 
 
 Dodd says : “ He was admitted into the Society at Rome 
 in 1575. Alegambe seems to place his admittance in 1570, 
 which does not agree with other circumstances of his life. The 
 superiors of his Order, becoming acquainted with his capacity, 
 made him Professor of Divinity in the Italian [English] College 
 in Rome,” &c. Father Faunt’s visit to Paris was for the 
 purpose of study in the University there. Alegambe 6 says that 
 he was Professor of Greek for three years at Posna, and then 
 of Moral Theology and Controversy for nine years. 
 
 6 P. 538 . 
 
288 College of the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 Father More 7 agrees with Father Alegambe about the date 
 of his entering the Society at Louvain, saying he was there 
 about the age of sixteen. This would agree with Wood’s date 
 of his birth, 1554. The weight of evidence is therefore against 
 Dodd. Father More says that at Posna he was employed in 
 disputing with the heretical ministers. Alegambe,' ut supra , 
 gives a list of the works of this learned Father. 
 
 They are as follows : 1. A treatise against John White. By 
 W. G. (4to. St. Omer, 1613); 2. Ditto against N. E., a 
 minister of the* Church of England. W. G. (St. Omer, 1622); 
 3. Against the said N. E., proving that Catholics may be saved 
 from the testimony of twenty-four eminent Protestants. W. G. 
 (4to. St. Omer, 1623); 4. A letter to a person of honour, 
 concerning the evil spirit of Protestants. (4to. 1622); 5. The 
 controversies of James Gordon. A translation from the Latin. 
 J. L. (8vo. St. Omer, 1614) ; 6. Treatises of Martin Becan. 
 Translations from the Latin. (8vo. 1612) ; 7. A treatise of the 
 Judge of Controversies. A translation from the Latin of Martin 
 Becan. (8vo. 1619); 8. A treatise of Leonard Lessius, entitled 
 Which faith is to be embraced ? Also a translation from the 
 Latin. W. J. (8vo. 1619,1621); 9. The Persecution of Christians 
 in Japan. W. W. A translation from the Spanish. (8vo. 1619); 
 10. A short treatise on Penance, often reprinted. 
 
 The following is a copy of an intercepted letter from Arthur 
 Faunt to his brother Anthony. 8 
 
 “ Right worshipful and loving brother Anthony. After 
 hearty recommendations, &c. 
 
 “ These shall be to signify unto you how the bearer of this 
 present is my great friend, and of my brother being duly 
 acquainted, both when he lived in Oxfordshire and in London, 
 who for his courtesy hath offered himself to go and see you 
 and speak with you in my name. I pray you, seeing he is 
 a very good guest and my great friend, to handle him as his 
 virtue deserveth, and to credit him even as you would myself 
 in these matters which in my name he shall confer with you. 
 Of other things I write you by another bearer, as likewise to 
 my brother George and Michael Purfrey, and my mother also, 
 of the same date with this present. Thus leaving off to trouble 
 you, I desire you to answer as soon as you can. I have written 
 six or seven times since my abiding in Italy, but I have received 
 
 7 Hist. Prov. Angl. S.J. lib. i. n. 12. p. 19. 
 
 8 P.R.O. London, Do??iestic, Elizabeth, 1580, vol. cxxxvii. n. 16. 
 
Father Robert Parsons. 
 
 289 
 
 no answer. I pray you, good brother, to have 4 a care of your 
 soul and faith which our father did teach us in. I pray you 
 advertise me to my other brother and sisters, and to my cousin 
 William, and Judas Vincent, and to my brother Ambrose. 
 Then fare [you well. The 6th of April, 1580. 
 
 “ Your loving brother to command, 
 
 “ Arthur Faunt. 
 
 “To his right worshipful brother, 
 
 “ Mr. Anthony Faunt, 
 
 “At Foston, 
 
 “ Four miles from Leicester.” 
 
 Several eminent members of the English mission and pro- 
 vince have served in this district. 
 
 Father Robert Parsons. — After parting company with 
 Father Edmund Campion, the blessed martyr, at Hoxton near 
 London, in July, 1580, he says: “All the summer we passed 
 over in preaching. My lot was the shires of Northampton, 
 Derby, Worcester, Gloucester, and Hereford. Mr. Gilbert was 
 my companion.” 9 
 
 There is some vague tradition that Father Parsons was at 
 Park Hall, Spink Hill, for a time, during his short sojourn in 
 England, and that he there wrote one or more of his contro- 
 versial books. The grounds of this tradition have not been 
 ascertained. Very probably he may have sojourned there, as 
 Spink Hill was the ancient residence of the Pole family, through 
 which family the site of the College of Mount St. Mary was 
 originally derived to the English Province, S.J. 
 
 Father Gervase Pole, related to Cardinal Pole, was a 
 native of Derbyshire, born probably at Spink Hill, in the year 
 1 5 70. 10 He entered the Society, 1608, being then thirty-eight 
 
 9 See life of this saintly man, who was received into the Society at the 
 English College, Rome, upon his death-bed. Lives of Pounde, Gilbert, and 
 Darby shire. Historic Facts Prov. Ang. S.J. Series I. 
 
 10 Another member of this ancient family was an alumnus at the English 
 College, Rome, as appears by the following extract from the English 
 College Diary — “1616. (No. 371.) Francis Layton, alias vero nomine 
 Henricus Polus, Darbiensis, aet. 21. Admissus est inter alumnos, Oct. 13, 
 1616.” He took the usual College oath, May 3, 1617. Having received 
 the minor orders in June, 1617, “Discessit May 6, 1621, quia ob nimiam 
 apitis debilitatem non videbatur promovendus ad Ord. sacros, et si diutius 
 hie mansisset periculum eratne calores ei graviter officissent ; vixit in 
 Collegio quiete et pacifice.” 
 
 T 
 
290 College of the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 years of age. He was solemnly professed of the four vows, 
 1622. He was at the English College, Rome, in 1599, as 
 appears by the following intercepted letter from his brother, 
 German Pole, then a student at St. Omer, or some other of 
 the English Continental seminaries. 
 
 Domestic , Elizabeth, 1599, vol. cclxxii, n. 79, State Papers, 
 P.R.O. [Endorsed, “Priest resorting at Mrs. Ayre’s house at 
 Dunstone.”] 
 
 Addressed, “To his very good brother, Father Gervase 
 Pole, at the English College at Rome. Give these.” 
 
 “ Having at this time, good brother, some small opportunity 
 to write, what in my last letter I did omit, wherein I thought 
 good to signify unto you, because I understand you shall so 
 shortly return into England, as it is very like I may not enjoy 
 your company at Rome, I am very sorry ; yet in this I rather 
 desire it than otherwise, for that I doubt since Mr. Hynacre’s 
 death, my mother hath seldom had the company of any good 
 priests, except at Mrs. Ayre’s of Dunstone, which also you know 
 could not be often, and at my brother George’s, there hath none 
 been received to say Mass since he was married, by reason of 
 the evil counsel of my sister’s friends. Such alteration hath 
 been in Spink Hill since your departure as will be somewhat 
 strange unto you. William Ince is dead, an heretic, his living 
 [the MS. not clear] : his son Richard married against his friends’ 
 mind, scarcely worth anything ; besides, very many of the, town 
 are departed in miserable estate ; no more of these matters. 
 It grieveth me not a little that I was not meet to come into 
 Rome with Mr. Sylesdone, seeing most Reverend Father 
 Parsons had taken pains to provide my conducting, in whose 
 great and more than fatherlike charity I still hope, if sufficiency 
 of learning hereafter be found in me, to see that holy city, 
 which chiefly I desire. I shall enter, as I think, into poetry 
 at Michaelmas, and of necessity must spend the whole year 
 in that study. I would be most glad to come into Rome 
 this time twelvemonth, if any way it might be convenient, 
 because of the year of Jubilee : what you think of it I pray 
 you let me understand. It is requisite, I know, that I should 
 hear rhetoric before I come, but for an extraordinary com- 
 modity I would take extraordinary pains. Herein I trust my 
 most reverend and charitable father, Father Parsons, will not 
 forget me who hath always so remembered me, undeserving, 
 to whom my simple prayers shall not be at any time wanting. 
 
Father Gervase Pole . 
 
 291 
 
 I pray you remember my most humble duty unto his Rever- 
 ence. I have had my health, I thank God, as well since I 
 came hither for the most part as in England. I have also all 
 things necessary that I can wish or desire. Only I desire your 
 good prayers, for I know I have great need of them. My 
 reverend father, Father Nicholas Smyth, is never wanting unto 
 me. Mr. Bath very willingly hath vouchsafed the carriage of 
 these lines, by whose good precept I have received great com- 
 modity, to whom I beseech you render humble thanks for his 
 goodness towards me. Thus wholly commending myself unto 
 your good prayers, I cease, in haste this 25 th of August. 
 
 “Your very loving brother, 
 
 “ German Pole. 
 
 “ P.S. — I never received any word of writing as yet from 
 my brother John, whereat I marvel, for I wrote a letter unto 
 him shortly after I came hither, by a gentleman that came with 
 me over sea : it may be it was not delivered, or else he is 
 as forgetful of his friends as I have been. Good brother, 
 remember against the next year, if it may be that I may come 
 to Rome.” 
 
 In 1615, Father Gervase Pole was a prisoner in the Gate- 
 house. In the latter part of that year, he was, with Father 
 Alexander Fairclough, and others, transferred to Wisbeach 
 Castle, where certain interrogatories were again put to them. 
 In the same year he was delivered over to the Ambassador of 
 the Archduke, and taken by him out of England as an exile. 
 All this we gather from the following documents. 
 
 P.R.O. State Papers, Domestic, James I. 1615, vol. lxxxii. 
 n. 99. [The Archbishop of Canterbury to the Bishop of 
 Ely.] 
 
 “ To the Right Reverend Father in God, my very good 
 lord and brother, the Lord Bishop of Ely. Give these.” 
 
 “My very good lord,— It pleased his Majesty in March 
 last to give orders that certain interrogatories should by Sir 
 John Bennett, and some other commissioners, be propounded 
 to the priests which then remained prisoners in Newgate and 
 in the Gatehouse. What their answers were unto them your 
 lordship may see by the copy of the examinations which I now 
 send unto you, together with the interrogations themselves. 
 And because some of them then gave no answer, and some 
 other of them gave an ill answer, it is his Majesty’s express 
 t 2 
 
292 College of the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 pleasure that the said priests being now at Wisbeach should be 
 re-examined to know what they will say who have yet given no 
 answer unto the interrogatories, &c.” [His Grace then orders 
 his brother of Ely to procure by the Justices of the Peace such 
 examinations accordingly.] “ And so forbearing to be further 
 troublesome unto you, I rest, 
 
 “Your lordship’s loving brother, 
 
 “C. Cant. 
 
 “Lambeth, October 24, 1615.” 
 
 Interrogatories ministered to the priests. 
 
 “ 1. Whether his Majesty’s temporal judges be our lawful 
 judges in all temporal causes ? 
 
 “ 2. Whether a judge of our religion may not lawfully give 
 sentence against a man of their religion ? 
 
 “3. W T hether his Majesty may not lawfully banish any 
 subject offending against his laws, and being banished, if he 
 return, whether he be not liable to the penalty of the law ? 
 
 “ 4. Whether the Pope have power to censure the King in 
 any temporal cause that he shall transgress in ? 
 
 “ 5. Whether the King and his Parliament have not full 
 power to make laws for matters of life and death in matter of 
 religion ? 
 
 “6. Whether by this maxim of the law — Qui rapit jus 
 alienum perdit jus ad suum — the King by abrogating the Pope’s 
 pretended authority, hath lost the right he hath to his own 
 crown ? 
 
 “7. Whether it be not directly and absolutely murder 
 for any man to take away the life of the King’s Majesty? 
 
 “ 8. Whether before it be defined in a General Council, a 
 man may hold it lawful to depose or to kill the King ? 
 
 “ 9. Whether, if the Church should define it, a man be 
 bound to lose his life for the maintenance of that point ? 
 
 “10. To which part in this question of deposing and killing 
 in a man’s private opinion it were fittest to incline ? 
 
 “ 11. Whether the oath of allegiance be a damnable oath ? 
 
 “ 12. Whether it be treason to swear it?” 
 
 The following are copies from the State Papers of Father 
 Pole’s answers to the interrogatories, followed by the order for 
 his discharge from Wisbeach Castle to go into exile. “ xxxth 
 Martii. Domestic , James /. vol. lxxxii. nn. 99, 99 i. 99 xvii. 
 1615.” 
 
Father Gervase Pole . 
 
 293 
 
 The examination or personal answers of Gervase Pole, prisoner in 
 
 the Gatehouse , taken before Sir John Beiuiett, knight , and 
 
 others , to certain interrogatories. 
 
 “To the first interrogatory he answereth that he holdeth 
 that his Majesty’s temporal judges are lawful judges in all 
 temporal causes. 
 
 “To the second, that he maketh no doubt but judges of our 
 religion may give sentence against a man of his religion in 
 causes civil and criminal also, so as they concern not causes 
 of faith and religion. 
 
 “To the third, he holdeth that his Majesty may lawfully 
 banish any subject offending against his laws ; and that such 
 party being banished, if he return again, is subject to the 
 penalty of the laws, so as such banishment be not inflicted 
 for a matter concerning the Catholic Roman religion. 
 
 “To the fourth, he holdeth that the Pope hath no power 
 to censure the King’s Majesty in any temporal cause that 
 he shall transgress in, unless it be as it hath relation ad 
 spiritualia. 
 
 “To the fifth, he desire th time to deliberate before 
 answering. 
 
 “To the sixth, he desire th further time to answer. 
 
 “To the seventh, eighth, ninth, the same. 
 
 “To the tenth, he thinketh it most fit to incline to the 
 point of deposing, but for giving his answer to the point of 
 killing, he desireth respite for further answer. 
 
 “To the eleventh, he holdeth the oath of allegiance to be 
 a damnable oath. 
 
 “To the twelfth, he answereth that he doth not hold it 
 treason in any man against his Majesty to take the oath of 
 allegiance. 
 
 “ All these answers he maketh as a private man, subjecting 
 his judgment notwithstanding to the judgment of the Church. 
 
 “ Gervase Pole.” 
 
 P.R.O. Do?nestic, James I. 1615, vol. lxxxiii. n. 25. 
 
 This is a warrant to the constable of Wisb^ach Castle, to 
 deliver, with four other prisoners, priests, Gervase Pole, to 
 M. de Barschot, the Archduke’s Ambassador, or his messenger, 
 they being liberated at his request, to be conveyed out of 
 England. 
 
 Annexed — N. 25,1. Order of the said Ambassador, authoriz- 
 ing Peter Van den Velde to receive the said priests. London 
 
294 College of the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 November io (in French), with a note by Van Velde that he 
 had received the said priests. Wisbeach, November 15. 
 
 The Annual Letters for 1641, announcing the death of this 
 good Father, call him the Minister of this College or Residence, 
 and say that he received into the Church a young lady of high 
 rank. Some Protestant ministers, greatly exasperated at this 
 event, gave information to the magistrates, and took measures 
 to subject the Father to the extreme penalties of the law. 
 Having learnt the dangers which threatened him, he escaped 
 from the house at which he was staying, to take refuge else- 
 where. He was seventy years of age, and ill at the time ; it 
 was in the dead of winter, and the weather very severe. These 
 hardships overpowered his remaining strength, and he died 
 eight days after. He was a very laborious missioner, and truly 
 apostolical man. He was highly favoured with the spirit of 
 prayer, and from this holy exercise was derived the efficacy of 
 his missionary exertions. He received many persons into the 
 Church, and amongst the rest the countess who was the 
 mother of the young lady above mentioned. The countess 
 had been greatly attached to him in life, and when she heard 
 of his death she hastened to visit his remains, and with many 
 tears and great reverence embraced the feet of the corpse. 
 Similar sentiments of grief for his loss, and veneration for his 
 memory, were generally expressed by the laity who knew him ; 
 who, while they lamented their loss, were excited to virtue by 
 the remembrance of his piety, kindness, and zeal. He had 
 lived in the Society for thirty-five years. 
 
 The summary of the deceased of the Province for 1641 
 observes that he was a man specially devoted to prayer ; that 
 he spent, over and above the usual devotions of the Society, 
 at least three or four hours daily in communion with God ; 
 and that the fruit of this intimate union with Him was the con- 
 version of many souls. It observes that the journey in which 
 he risked his life at night was really one of charity, on the 
 occasion of a sick call, whence he contracted fever which 
 shortly carried him off. 
 
 Father Gervase Pole is mentioned in Gee’s list of priests 
 and J esuits residing in and near London, which list dates about 
 1624, vide “Gee’s Foot out of the Snare.” 
 
 Father Thomas Hunt, the subject of the following 
 memoir, was a native of this district. The records extant con- 
 cerning him do not mention the localities of his missionary 
 
Father Thomas Hunt. 
 
 295 
 
 labours, yet the account of this virtuous religious is so edify- 
 ing and interesting that we cannot omit it in the history of 
 this College, though he may not have actually laboured in it. 
 
 This Father was a native of Lindon, in the county of 
 Rutland. He appears to have been a convert from Protes- 
 tantism, and probably entered the Society about 1579, having 
 been made a formed spiritual coadjutor in 1594. Although 
 nothing very eminent is recorded of him, he appears to have 
 been a man of the most solid piety and strict observance of 
 every religious duty ; so that a brief account of him may be 
 both edifying and practically instructive. Father Henry More 11 
 says that nearly about the same time that Father William Holt 
 went to receive the reward of his labours in Spain, Father 
 Thomas Hunt was, after twenty years spent in various 
 employments in Upper Germany, attached to our English 
 mission. He was a man of primitive simplicity, and had 
 from his tender years imbibed such great innocency and piety, 
 that when a boy, on seeing his father inflamed with anger and 
 uttering intemperate and opprobrious language towards him, he 
 would spend the greater part of the night awake, and fearing 
 lest his parent might die before his anger had subsided, he 
 would get up and humbly beg him to lay it aside and to 
 receive him to his favour, that thus both might securely go 
 to rest. 
 
 After labouring at Dillingen and Ratisbon, and having taken 
 his last vows in 1594, he passed, over to England, carrying 
 with him that odour of virtues he had shed around him in 
 Germany. If any came to consult him upon worldly affairs, 
 he confessed that he was a stranger to such things, as not 
 being agreeable to his Institute \ and, at length, no matter with 
 whom he was engaged, he would insinuate into the conversa- 
 tion divine things, recounting something of the lives and 
 manners of the saints. He held that dancing was promoted by 
 the devil in mockery of Christ the Lord ; he would, however, 
 teach the sons of gentlemen, when exercised or drilled at home, 
 to refer that motion of the body to Christ hanging upon the 
 Cross, or to present it as though it was an act of becoming 
 veneration to the Sacred Host. It was a frequent saying of 
 his, that rank was a certain representation of the heavenly 
 habitation ; that all which could befall man in this life, how- 
 ever sharp, is rendered agreeable if dipped in the sacred Wounds 
 of Christ. 
 
 11 Hist. Prov. Angl. lib. vi. n. xxix. p. 272. 
 
296 College of the Immaculate Conception . 
 
 On festivals and Sundays he always took care that some- 
 thing for the profit of the attendants should be read by some 
 one, or he himself would propose some lesson taken from Holy 
 Writ, declaring with great ingenuity that as he was not suffi- 
 ciently learned to discourse on the subject he would offer his 
 auditors some eloquence, viz., from the holy Fathers, or from 
 authors who had more recently written piously upon the same 
 matters ; which method, although it would seem tedious to 
 some, yet others were greatly delighted with the candour of 
 the Father, and it prevailed to secure him so great an authority 
 amongst men of rank that no other person could easily obtain. 
 Hence he would sometimes induce parties too deeply immersed 
 in gaming, not only to cease play, but also to give some alms 
 from their winnings ; no one resisting him. At other times, on 
 a quarrel arising between the players, throwing himself on his 
 knees between them, he would entreat them not to give offence 
 to others, or to hurt themselves or others by continuing their 
 altercation, but to spare their words, and, after the example of 
 Christ rather to forgive if anything out of the way had been 
 said or done ; and his sanctity would prevail to bring about 
 a reconciliation. 
 
 But two events occurred which appeared to be means of 
 accelerating the hour of his recompense. He went on a call 
 of duty to a certain house seven or eight miles distant, taking 
 with him a guide, whose services he persuaded himself he could 
 dispense with on his return ; being therefore alone, he either 
 lost his way, or else out of his desire of prayer, he spent 
 the night in the fields. Being sought for in the morning, he 
 was found not far from the house he had been visiting, 
 and expressed to the servant who was lamenting what had 
 happened, that he had never before spent so sweet and 
 pleasant a night. 
 
 Not long after, when the pursuivants were searching the 
 house in which he was living, for arms, in order to be out of 
 the way he withdrew to a neighbouring garden, where, sitting 
 in an arbour, he was caught in a heavy and cold hailstorm ; 
 and in a few days after exchanged this life for a better, on 
 Sunday, February 10, 1602. 
 
 The following account of the Father is taken from the 
 collection of Father Richard Cardwell. 12 Unfortunately it does 
 not mention places. 
 
 15 Collectio Cardwelli vita Martyr , &c. vol. i. p. 225. Ex Arch. Belg. 
 Brussels. 
 
Father Thomas Hunt. 
 
 297 
 
 “ Of the Life and Death of Father Thomas Hunt , S.f, who died 
 February 10, 1602. 
 
 “ Very worthy Sir, — I have, according to your direction, 
 inquired as much as for the present I can, for the particulars of 
 the life and death of Mr. Thomas Hunt, who hath always ever 
 since his conversion from heresy to the Catholic religion, wholly 
 addicted himself to piety and devotion, and hath been very 
 exemplar for his profound humility and diligent observance of 
 our rules. Also in matter of obedience he hath ever been very 
 punctual, desirous to do all his actions by order of obedience, 
 and most strictly fulfilling what was commanded or com- 
 mended unto him by his Superior. He always showed 
 himself a great lover of poverty, not willingly holding or 
 keeping anything with him that seemed to him to be super- 
 fluous. His zeal of souls and desire of helping others was so 
 great that it hath been no small occasion of shortening his 
 days, taking his last sickness by going abroad to help others, 
 for in his return home, missing of his way, it being late and 
 dark, was forced to lie without in the fields all night. And a 
 little after being somewhat recovered, yet very weak, he went 
 in the night (it being dangerous to have gone in the day) ten 
 miles backward and forward to christen a child which had lain 
 more than a fortnight unchristened by reason that the parents 
 of it could not get any to do it. To add to all this, for the 
 safety of the house where he lived, being sick and weak, he 
 was constrained (while the Justices were searching) to stay 
 abroad at the time in the open air, it being cold and wet, 
 which did cause a relapse. He was of great patience and 
 mortification, not seeming to be troubled howsoever he was 
 treated or used. And at the time of his sickness he showed 
 himself very cheerful and comfortable, ever giving to those 
 that came unto him some good counsel or spiritual lesson or 
 other, still crying out to heaven, being then, as it seemed, not 
 willing to think or talk of anything but heaven and heavenly 
 things, which was his pious custom for all his whole life, for he 
 was never willing to speak of anything but of spiritual matters, 
 ever applying what himself or others said unto him of some 
 spiritual discourse, insomuch as that he hath left imprinted in 
 the minds of all that knew him a great opinion of his sanctity. 
 He was of so great charity and so compassionate of the poor 
 that he would give unto them all that he had in his power to 
 give, and some refused to give him any money, because they 
 
298 College of the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 said he would not keep it but give it away ; when he under- 
 stood of any to be in want, if he had nothing himself to give 
 them, he would beg of others for them, and was very untented 
 [discontented] until he had relieved their necessities. He was 
 never willing that any should spend more time with him in 
 talking and discoursing than was needed, nor to admit them 
 to discourse with him before they had both said a Pater noster 
 and an Ave Maria to commend it unto God, which he always 
 observed, never undertaking any business but he first com- 
 mended it unto God. In his diet he was accustomed to eat 
 of that which was the worst, if those which were with him did 
 not observe it. 
 
 “ Now in his last sickness he was wont to accuse himself 
 that he had not more endeavoured to gain perfection, 
 and of his unthankfulness to God and not answering to 
 His holy grace and good inspirations; he desired much 
 to go unto God, and that His holy will and pleasure might 
 be fulfilled in Him, keeping his mind continually united 
 to God by short ejaculatory prayers, pious affections and 
 devotions. He received before his death all the sacraments 
 and rites of the Church, and desired those that were about 
 him to pray for him ; and so great was his devotion to the 
 Blessed Sacrament and his reverence for It, that, notwithstand- 
 ing he was in extremis, yet he would not receive it but fasting, 
 and out of his bed, upon his knees, still crying out, ‘ More 
 reverence, more reverence,’ when they that were about him 
 would have persuaded him by reason of his weakness to have 
 communicated in bed. The last nourishment which he took 
 was five spoonfuls of physic. The first he took in honour of 
 the Passion of our Saviour, the second in honour of the sorrows 
 of our Blessed Lady, the third in honour of the angels, the 
 fourth of all the saints, the fifth in honour of the five Wounds of 
 our Saviour, and then he would take no more. He died upon 
 Sunday, February 10, in the morning, being often heard to say 
 that he was born upon a Sunday, and that he should die upon 
 a Sunday. He was accustomed in his lifetime every day to 
 say our Lady’s litanies, to beg by her intercession of her Son a 
 holy life and happy death. And a little before he died, sitting 
 in his chair, he called for our Lady’s Litany of Loretto, and so 
 holding the book of litanies in his hands, while that he was 
 saying them in the best manner that his weakness - would 
 permit, he yielded up his ghost to his Blessed Savicur after 
 a most sweet manner without any sigh or groan.” 
 
Father Michael Alford. 
 
 299 
 
 Father Francis Walsingham, the eminent convert and 
 controversialist, author of an “immortal” work, as Dr. Oliver 
 observes, in which he was probably assisted by Father Robert 
 Parsons, and which was dedicated to King James I., and is 
 entitled, A Search made into the Matters of Religion , was 
 serving in this College and district in 1640. He died the 
 1 st of July, 1647, aged seventy-one. His life is given at the 
 end of this series. 
 
 FATHER MICHAEL ALFORD, alias GRIFFITHS. 
 
 This celebrated historian, author of the Annales Ecclesiastici 
 et Civiles Brita 7 inorum, Saxonum , et Anglorum, was for many 
 years resident in this College or district, from about the year 
 1629. He was a native of London, born in 1587, and was 
 amongst the first who entered the English Novitiate in 1607, 
 arriving there on the 20th of February of that year. He made 
 his philosophy at Seville, and his theology at Louvain. On 
 being ordained priest, he was sent to Naples, where he acted 
 as chaplain or missioner to the English gentry, merchants, and 
 sailors who frequented that city. From thence he went to 
 Rome. From 1615 to 1620 he filled the office of Penitentiary 
 at St. Peter’s in that city, to the general satisfaction. Having 
 made his third years’ probation, or tertianship, he was solemnly 
 professed of the four vows during the sitting of the first Con- 
 gregation of Procurators under Father General Mutius Vitel- 
 leschi. In 1620 he was made socius to the Master of Novices 
 at Liege, and later, about August 1621, became Rector of the 
 House of Tertians at Ghent. He was then sent to the English 
 mission. This was probably late in 1628, or early in 1629. 
 Landing at Dover, he was seized by the searchers and placed 
 under arrest. What led to suspicion of his being a priest, was 
 the discovery of a copy of the Imitation of Christ by Thomas a 
 Kempis, on his person. A minister of the Church established 
 by law was called in for his opinion. After passing over the 
 contents he gravely announced that the title-page was more 
 objectionable than the text; that the author, Thomas & 
 Kempis, was a regular canon, and canonists were proscribed 
 by English statute, and that the bearer ought not be hastily 
 discharged. In fact, the prisoner was expected to turn out 
 to be the Right Rev. Dr. Richard Smith, Bishop of Chalcedon, 
 and Vicar Apostolic, for whose apprehension the English 
 Government had offered a reward of ^200, by two several 
 
300 College of the Immaculate Conceptio 7 i. 
 
 proclamations of December, 1628, and March, 1629. The 
 consequence was that Father Alford was conducted to London, 
 but as his person in no way corresponded with the Bishop’s 
 description, he was restored to liberty through the mediation 
 of Queen Henrietta Maria, consort of Charles I. 
 
 The county of Leicester now became the chief theatre of 
 his missionary labours, and Holt is supposed to have been his 
 residence. There is a tradition that he was also in the Resi- 
 dence of the ancient College of St. Francis Xavier, including 
 Herefordshire, South Wales, &c. This Residence was at Come, 
 or Combe, in Herefordshire. In the library of the British 
 Museum may be seen, “ A short narrative of the discovery 
 of a College of Jesuits at a place called Come, in the county 
 of Hereford, which was sent up unto the right honourable 
 the lords assembled in Parliament, at the end of the last 
 session, by the Right Rev. Father in God, Herbert, Lord 
 Bishop of Hereford, according to an order sent unto him 
 by the said lords to make dilligent search and return an 
 account thereof. London, 16 79.” 13 
 
 From this narrative it appears that “ in the parish of 
 Llanrorhall there were two houses called the Upper and Lower 
 Comes, or Middle and Lower Comes, with a walled court 
 before each of them, having lands belonging to them worth 
 about three score pounds per annum. . . . One of these 
 houses is a fair genteel house wherein there are six lodging 
 chambers, each one a convenient study to it, with a standish 
 left in them, besides several other lodging-rooms. The other 
 house is also a good country house, with several chambers and 
 studies to some of them. . . . These houses are seated at 
 the bottom of a thick woody and rocky hill, with several 
 hollow places in the rocks wherein men may conceal them- 
 selves, and there is a very private passage from one of the 
 houses into this wood. In one of these houses there was a 
 study found, the door whereof, very hardly to be discovered, 
 being placed behind a bed, and plastered over like the wall 
 adjoining, in which was found great store of divinity books 
 and others in folio and quarto, and many other lesser books, 
 several horse loads (but they are not yet brought to me, it 
 being Christmas holidays, but they remain in a safe hand), many 
 whereof are written by the principal learned Jesuits.” This 
 right reverend Father in God, after enumerating a large amount 
 
 13 A full copy of this very interesting paper is reserved for the intended 
 Series — “The History of the College of St. Francis Xavier, S.J. 
 
Father Michael Alford. 
 
 301 
 
 of MSS. and other valuable property plundered, says, “Two 
 vestments and some other small matters were found in two 
 boxes hid in the wood above mentioned (it seems the other 
 things were but newly removed, and they had begun also to 
 remove the library, for they had carried out and hid in a pig’s 
 cote adjoining about two horse load of books).” 
 
 In reference to this evidently valuable library (the extent 
 of which as briefly detailed above, tends to confirm the tradi- 
 tion that Father Alford resided in that district, and there, in 
 great part, composedhis famous works), the Reverend Father 
 Waterworth, S.J., of Worcester, long the resident Incumbent 
 of the Catholic Church in Hereford, in a letter to the editor, 
 says, “ I have seen a portion of our library seized at Holm 
 [Coombe]. It forms a part of the Hereford Cathedral library. 
 Several of the works contain the name of William Morgan, who 
 always wrote his name in German characters. A portion of 
 his works, however, were formerly in the chapel house, Here- 
 ford. Dean Mereweather one day came to my house at 
 Hereford with a large volume, of which the title-page was 
 missing, and asked me if I could tell him who the author was. 
 I said ‘ Yes ;’ but added, ‘ I can tell you more : that book 
 belongs to me ; see Father Morgan’s name in it. It was taken 
 from Holme [Coombe], and, knowing this, you will no doubt 
 now restore our books to us.’ He laughed heartily, but kept 
 the book ! There were also a good number of MSS., mainly 
 consisting of inventories, ministers’ books and such like things, 
 taken to the Cathedral library, but I cannot say whether or 
 not they are still there .” 14 
 
 14 This Herbert Croft was (says Mr. Wood, Athen. Oxon, vol. ii. 
 p. 264. Edit. 1721) son of Sir Herbert Croft, of Croft Castle, Hereford- 
 shire. The knight, weary of the vanities and fooleries of the world, 
 retired from his family to Douay, became a Catholic, and lived a very 
 austere life in a little cell assigned him by the English Benedictines there, 
 within the purlieus of their College. He wrote several works in favour of 
 the Catholic religion, and died a holy death there on the 10th of April, 
 1622. The knight, soon after his retirement, sent for his son Herbert to 
 Douay, and placed him in the College of St. Omer, S.J., where he was 
 received into the Catholic Church. His father did not wish him to enter 
 the Society of Jesus, but, according to Wadsworth ( English Spanish 
 Pilgrim , &c. London, 1630, c. 3), he did so enter, being drawn to it 
 by the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Wadsworth, who is held by 
 Mr. Wood to be an author of “little or no note,” was the notorious 
 pursuivant whose name so often appears in the lives of the English martyrs 
 of his time. Croft’s name does not appear in the Catalogues of the 
 Province for 1642 and 1653, and that he ever entered the Society must 
 
302 College of the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 Father Alford carefully devoted all the leisure time he could 
 command from the duties of his ministry to ecclesiastical 
 and historical studies, and when we consider the difficulty of 
 getting access to authorities and proofs, the personal danger 
 to which he was constantly exposed day and night, and the 
 comparative dimness of critical light at that period, the extent 
 and success of his researches are perfectly astonishing. The 
 author of Florus Anglo- Bavaricus 15 says that Father Alford 
 had searched all the existing libraries in England. 
 
 To put a finishing stroke to his herculean undertaking, 
 the Annales Ecclesiastici et Civiles Britannorum , Saxonum et 
 Anglorum , he obained leave to quit England in the spring of 
 1652. Soon after his arrival at the College of the English 
 Fathers at St. Omer, he was seized with fever, which preyed 
 upon his constitution, and of which he died on the nth of 
 August, 1652, aged sixty-five. “Four days before he died,” 
 says Father More, 16 “he observed to the infirmarian, ‘It is 
 now two-and-twenty years that I have been accustomed daily 
 to creep into one of the Sacred Wounds of Christ. Lest, 
 therefore, I should be less attentive to this practice on 
 account of my sickness, I entreat you to recall it to my 
 memory, and to remind me daily into which Wound I should 
 enter; to-day it is that of the left foot. On Wednesday, the 
 fourth day, on which day he had to enter the most holy Wound 
 of the side of Christ, and which he celebrated by the following 
 distich — 
 
 O anima, ingredere in centrum, pia viscera Christi : 
 
 O sacrum pectus ! da mihi amore mori ; 
 
 he breathed out his pious soul, received, as we may hope, to 
 that Divine Heart, at which he had so often knocked in humble 
 
 be considered more than doubtful. In 1626 he left Belgium for the 
 English College, Rome, where, under the assumed name of John Harley, he 
 was admitted a convictor among the alumni on the 4th of November of that 
 year. On the 8th of September, 1628, he returned to Belgium. The 
 diary of the English College observes, “Bene se gesserat, sed postea in 
 Anglia turpiter apostatavit. Modo anno 1666 est pseudo episcopus.” We 
 have seen how he requited his quondam friends and instructors. Mr. Wood 
 adds that Herbert was sent by his father into England on family business, 
 and in the meantime the knight died, and the son, after travelling about 
 and promoting his studies in the sacred faculty, returned again to England 
 on family affairs, and finally ended by rejoining the Church of England 
 and becoming Bishop of Hereford. 
 
 15 P- 54- 
 
 16 Hist. Prov. Angl. lib. 9. n. iii. 
 
Father Michael Alford. 
 
 303 
 
 prayer. He lives, besides that everlasting residence with his 
 God, in his useful work of the Anglo-Saxon Anna/s, deduced 
 through twelve hundred years, from the period of the first 
 entry of the Faith into this kingdom. The several volumes, 
 which are compiled after the model of Cardinal Baronius, 
 adorn the libraries of the Christian world. 
 
 The Floras Anglo-Bavaricus 17 observes regarding this 
 great work, that with the exception of Baronius and a few 
 others, nothing of the sort was then extant. The same author 
 records that Father Alford was remarkable for his candour and 
 affability of manners, and that he was not so buried in the 
 libraries as to forget his duty in the service of his neighbours’ 
 necessities ; and adds that he accommodated himself to high 
 and low alike, that with St. Paul he might gain all to Christ. 
 
 There is a letter from Father Alford mentioned in the 
 Annual Letters of the English Province, dated London, 28th 
 November, 1647, to the Very Reverend Father General 
 Caraffa ; giving his opinion regarding three propositions 
 signed by the superiors of all the religious orders in England, 
 and by the heads of the secular clergy, and by Father Henry 
 More, the historian, Vice-Provincial, and Father George Ward, 
 an eminent theologian; presented to the Parliament as the 
 basis for obtaining civil and religious liberty. In this letter he 
 ably and learnedly defends the subscribers. 
 
 The first work published by Father Alford was, The Admir- 
 able Life of St. Winefride , with a frontispiece (8vo. 1635), 
 re-edited the same year by Father John Falconer (not Flood, 
 as Dodd, in his Church History , vol. iii. p. 310, supposes). 
 See Alban Butler’s Lives of the Saints , November 3rd. 
 
 Next followed Britannia illustrata: sive Lucii , Helence 
 Constantini Patria et Bides (4to. Antwerpe, 1641). This ex- 
 cessively rare book on British history (says Dr. Oliver, 
 Collectanea S.f.) seems to have escaped the notice of 
 biographers. It consists of twenty-four pages of preliminary 
 matter. Title engraved, two pages ; Dedication to Charles, 
 Prince of Wales, four pages ; Index capitum, four pages ; 
 Synopsis libri, fourteen pages. Then follows the body of the 
 book from pages 1 to 352, and an Appendix ending at page 
 424. His great work was published at Liege in 1663, eleven 
 years after his death. It is in four volumes folio. The first 
 contains 642 ; the second 693 pages. At the end of this 
 second volume, is an Address to the reader, written when the 
 17 Ut supra. 
 
304 College of the Immaculate Conception . 
 
 author lay concealed during the civil wars, and accounting 
 for the unfinished state of the work. The two last lines furnish 
 the chronogram, 1645, viz., 
 
 Hos ego depinxi libros quando Anglia bello 
 Civili cunctos terruit, et latui. 
 
 The third volume contains 580 pages, besides a chronological 
 index of 136 pages ; and the fourth volume, which is supple- 
 mentary, containing the history down to the year 1189, is 
 divided into two parts, the first containing 328 pages, the 
 second 344. It is remarkable that the title-page varies in 
 each of these volumes. Bishop Fleetwood has pronounced 
 this collection to be a very valuable treasure of the ecclesi- 
 astical history of England. 
 
 The learned Benedictine Father Serenus Cressy, who died 
 the 10th of August, 1674, aged eighty, in his Preface to his 
 Church History of Brittany , printed in 1688, with the candour 
 of a great and generous mind, enlarges on his many obligations 
 to the profound researches of Father Alford. He repeats that 
 the Annales Eccl. formed the principal foundation for his own 
 history. That Father Alford possessed in an eminent degree 
 the two endowments which constitute an excellent historian, 
 learning and fidelity ; that to his unwearied labours all Catholics, 
 yea, the whole nation, are indebted. He styles him a principal 
 ornament of the age, and regrets his incapacity to raise a 
 monumental pyramid suitable to his merits. Speaking then of 
 his piety, he says that “great abilities and learning will per- 
 petuate one’s memory on earth ; but if unaccompanied with 
 piety, it will be apt to swell the person with pride, which can 
 find no place in heaven. The venerable Father knew this 
 well, and therefore made it his chief care and study to adorn 
 his soul with piety and virtue. As he carried the name, so did 
 he also bear a tender devotion to the glorious Archangel 
 St. Michael, of which he left a memorial several years before 
 his death, by a devout prayer and picture devised by him, 
 which he caused to be cut at Antwerp, and dispersed to the 
 honour of the saint, not only as his patron, but also the 
 standard-bearer of the Church against rebellious heresy, which 
 he endeavoured also to quell by word and writing.” Father 
 Cressy then alludes to Father Alford’s devotion to the Sacred 
 Wounds of our Blessed Redeemer, as noticed above, from 
 Father More’s history. 18 
 
 18 This Father Cressy, an ornament of religion and luminary of the 
 Benedictine Order, as Dr. Oliver ( Collectanea S.J . p. 43) justly calls him, 
 
Father Michael Alford ’ 
 
 305 
 
 The following quaint paper, in the Public Record Office, 
 Brussels ( Collectio Cardwelli , varia S.J. vol. iii. p. 868), is 
 no doubt written by Father Alford under the initials M. A. 
 (in the third person), and is evidently intended for some 
 
 was bom at Wakefield, though descended originally from a family of the 
 name of Holme, near Hodsock, Notts. His father was Hugh Cressy, a 
 barrister of Lincoln’s Inn. His mother, Margery, daughter of Thomas 
 D’Oylie, M.D., London. After having laid a good foundation of learning 
 in the country, he was sent to Oxford, at fourteen years of age, anno 
 1619, and about four years after took his degree of B.A., and not 
 long after of M.A. In 1627 he was chosen fellow of Merton College; 
 then, entering orders, he became chaplain to the Earl of Strafford. In 
 1638, he went to Ireland as chaplain to Lord Falkland, and returned 
 with him to England the following year. In 1642, Lord Falkland, 
 the Secretary of State, procured him the appointment of a Canon of 
 Windsor, and Dean of Leighlin, in Ireland. His patron, Lord Falkland, 
 having been killed at the battle of Newbury, 1643, Cressy became tutor 
 and guardian of Charles Berkeley, Esq. (afterwards Earl Falmouth), with 
 whom he travelled through several polite parts of Europe, about 1644. 
 This gave him an opportunity of informing himself, without prejudice or 
 misrepresentation, of the doctrine and practices of the Catholic religion. 
 His inquiries ended in his conversion to the Catholic Church, and he pub- 
 licly renounced Protestantism before the Inquisition at Rome, 1646. He 
 returned to Paris, and published his Exomologesis , or motives of his con- 
 version. He then deliberated upon a state of life, and was at first inclined 
 to enter the Carthusian Order at Nieuport ; but was dissuaded from it, 
 chiefly upon account of the usefulness of his pen, and chose the Order of 
 St. Benedict, where he might have more leisure for writing. He made his 
 noviceship at Douay, and took the name of Serenus upon his profession. 
 After spending seven years with great edification at Douay, he was sent to 
 England. On the marriage of Charles II. to the Infanta of Portugal, 
 Father Cressy became one of her chaplains, residing chiefly at Somerset 
 House. In his latter days, he retired to East Grinstead, Sussex ; and died 
 at the seat of Richard Carryl, Esq., the 10th of August, 1674, aged about 
 eighty. (See Wood’s Athen. Oxon , quoted by Dr. Dodd, Church History , 
 vol. iii. p. 307 ; where will be found a long list of Father Cressy’s works, 
 seventeen in number.) Dr. Oliver, ut supra , mentions another work 
 omitted by Wood and Dodd, “ Arbor Virtutwn , or An exact model of all 
 virtues,” &c., written by Father Cressy, for the use of Dame Mary Cary, at 
 Cambray, 7th October, 1649. the original of which is at Lord Clifford’s, 
 Ugbrooke. In the beginning of the Catholic Apology, third edition, 1674, 
 the author, speaking of the severity with which a person of honour had 
 animadverted on Mr. Cressy’s Fanaticism, fanatically imputed to the Catholic 
 Church , observes, “Certainly, if you knew that gentleman, you would, 
 instead of a wasp , have rather called him a bet, ; which gives honey, and 
 never stings unless exasperated, and in its own defence.” And again, page 
 59 2 » after stating that conscience, and not interest, animated the sterling 
 Catholic, adds, “ Of this Mr. Cressy is a worthy example, who might now, in 
 all probability have been one of the greatest clergymen in the nation. Nay, 
 had he had never so potent enemies, they could not have hindered him 
 
 U 
 
306 College of the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 materials for the Annual Letters of the Province for 1640. 
 These Annual Letters were always prepared in Belgium, and 
 hence the paper is headed, “ Occurrences out of England.” 
 
 “ 1640 . — Occurrences out of England. 
 
 “ Concerning pretty stories of passages in these times, I can 
 furnish you as followeth. 1. In the year 1640, Wilkinson 19 
 was taken, imprisoned, examined strictly, finally condemned 
 in prcemunire for refusing the oath, when by no means it could 
 be found that he was a priest. After three years’ imprisonment, 
 he got out by leave of soldiers that brought him out. 
 
 “ 2. Robert Arden, going to help a neighbour, was appre- 
 hended, carried from garrison to garrison, and lastly lodged in 
 prison, where, after nine months abode, he got out when the 
 King took the town. 
 
 “ 3. One of ours was killed at Shelford 20 (my cousin Brookes 
 knows his name). It is constantly reported that quarter was 
 given him, but when in searching they found what he was, he 
 was thereupon killed. 
 
 “4. Walsingham and Nelson 21 were sought for, being in a 
 house which did long defend itself, and finally was taken. 
 Both retired into a chamber, which by luck was not to be 
 plundered. Walsingham was physician, and Nelson a kinsman 
 to the lady; the kinsman was not known, the physician was, 
 and so fell twice or thrice into soldiers’ hands, but finally came 
 off, and ever since for the most part hath been in a measure 
 bedridden. M. A. 22 was in a castle garrison with his landlady, 
 whom he served every day, and being forced to pass daily 
 
 upon his bare going to church, from the enjoyment of his former ample 
 dignities, and the vast fines lately raised out of them. But a little cell with 
 an upright heart, was more dear to him than all those allurements ; nor 
 has he since ceased, by his prayers, mortifications, and labours, to show 
 himself, like the rest of his pious brethren, a true son of that holy Order 
 to which our nation is so much engaged.” 
 
 19 Father Wilkinson was serving in the College of the Immaculate Con- 
 ception at the time. 
 
 20 Shelford is a parish six miles from Nottingham. Here was formerly 
 an ancient mansion which was burnt down in the civil wars, having been 
 garrisoned for Charles I. Mr. Dodd ( Church History , vol. iii. p. 65), 
 mentions George Carey, a gentlemen volunteer, who, joining with the 
 royal army, was killed at Shelford House. 
 
 21 Both were serving in the College of the Immaculate Conception. 
 This is the celebrated Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 22 M. A. was Father Michael Alford, who was serving in the College of 
 the Immaculate Conception, at Holt. 
 
Father Michael Alford. 
 
 307 
 
 through the common hall to come to her chamber, was one 
 Sunday morning espied by a captain belonging to the garrison, 
 and brother to the governor. The captain understanding, or 
 at least conceiving him to be a priest, commanded his soldiers 
 who were then with him, to seek him, but none stirred. The 
 next Sunday he laid wait to search him, and accordingly placed 
 soldiers in the room (he being serjeant-major), to be ready 
 about ten o’clock in the morning. At the very hour came an 
 aged man, somewhat like M. A. The captain gave the watch- 
 word, and seized upon him, commanding his soldiers to bring 
 him to the governor. Upon which there was a great noise in 
 the castle, that a priest was taken. The governor, seeing his 
 brother come with the prize, and with a loud mouth that he 
 had brought a priest, asked him whether he was in his wits, 
 for he knew the man to be a layman, a married man, and a 
 Protestant. At which the captain stormed, and swore that the 
 Lady N. had a priest, 23 who came to see her, and that if he 
 met him he would run him through. The governor asked him 
 how he knew it? He answered because Captain Letoige (a 
 Fleming and Catholic) did threaten the parson to run him 
 through, if he would not lend his surplice to Lady N. for her 
 priest to say Mass in, while hers was washing. M. A., while 
 this was acting, knowing nothing, went his ordinary road to 
 his lady’s chamber, where he understood what immediately 
 before had succeeded. There he found Captain Letoige, who, 
 hearing what was reported of him, went to the governor, and 
 
 told him in good English, 4 By , your brother lies in his 
 
 throat, if he says I offered to borrow a surplice for the lady.’ 
 Then returning to the lady, and seeing that M.A. might be in 
 some danger, he went with him to his chamber to stave off all 
 encounters, and the next morning with two or three other 
 soldiers, rode with him to another garrison, where M. A. 
 remained, until news that the lady’s youngest son (sometimes 
 
 Mich. Car. then S. J s), was slain. Then the chief of the 
 
 castle desired M. A. might be sent for to comfort the mother, 
 which was done accordingly. 
 
 “ This also seemeth remarkable. A parson’s wife, who had 
 been long infirm, and for the space of twenty years never able 
 to go a mile from home, did wonderfully desire to change her 
 priest [parson]. But, being acquainted with none, found it 
 impossible. Her eldest son, a youth under twenty years, and 
 a prime scholar of Cambridge, was partly of his mother’s mind. 
 
 23 Lady Neville, of Holt, Leicestershire, where Father Alford lived. 
 
 U 2 
 
3 o8 College of the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 Whereupon, both plotted how to come to the speech of a good 
 man . 24 The youth was nimble-witted, and writ a lamentable 
 letter to my landlady, entreating her to help him to the speech 
 of one to satisfy him. This done, the youth was brought by 
 M. A. to our parish, declares his mother’s case, but no pos- 
 sibility appearing for any conference, the weak woman, in midst 
 of winter, unknown to her husband, comes three miles on foot 
 to M. A., and returned the same day, satisfied of her long trip. 
 And finding that tendered to her wishes, comes again and 
 again, still returning on foot, to the amazement of all that 
 knew her. She had provided for her parish, what my 
 cousin Brookes received from me in a box, which she bestows 
 on M. A., and entreats him to fetch it away suddenly. And if 
 he had not instantly sent a faithful messenger it had been lost ; 
 for immediately after the removal, the place where it lodged 
 was plundered. The youth did earnestly entreat to go to 
 Hilles . 25 I had promised him there a place ; his mother had 
 furnished him with money, but garrisons took him, threatened 
 him, and finally he was sent back to Cambridge. The mother 
 most constant endures from the husband much. She was once 
 or twice forced by him to the church, but falling in a swoon at 
 the porch, the parish cried shame, and she returns home. I 
 have no more of the story.” 2 , 6 
 
 24 The priests frequently passed by that appellation amongst 
 Catholics. 
 
 25 Watten, Belgium. 
 
 26 The lady here mentioned, and her son (the case is also further noticed 
 in the Annual Letters, p. 26, post ), were Mrs. Turner, and her son Edward, 
 who afterwards entered the Society, and died a martyr for his faith in 
 Newgate, in the time of Oates’ Plot. A detailed account of her, and her 
 two sons, Edward and Anthony (Father A. Turner, the martyr, who died 
 in the same persecution upon the gallows at Tyburn, 30th of June, 1679), 
 is given in the Brevis relatio felicis agonis , &c. (supposed author, Father 
 Matthias Tanner, S.J. ), and will be reproduced in the intended history of 
 the sufferings of the English Province, S.J., in the period of that terrible 
 persecution, and of the Revolution of 1688. This Mrs. Turner was a 
 lady *of high birth — Elizabeth Chesheldine, of Brandon, Leicestershire. 
 Her husband was rector of Dalby Parva, near Melton Mowbray. 
 Although she had never associated with Catholics, yet anxious about the 
 salvation of her soul, and trembling lest amidst the multitude of religious 
 sects in England she might find herself outside the true Church, she 
 diligently inquired of her sons, Edward and Anthony, on their return 
 home from Cambridge for their vacation, what they had learned in 
 the schools there about the true religion ; and on Edward’s asserting 
 that he had learned nothing at all regarding it, she earnestly exhorted 
 him to procure books, at whatever cost, treating upon that one all- 
 
Father Henry Wilkinson. 
 
 309 
 
 Father Henry Wilkinson, the same we have seen named 
 in the above paper written by Father Alford, was a native of 
 Yorkshire, born in the year 1595 ; entered the Society in the 
 year 1619, and was solemnly professed of the four vows 20th 
 January, 1633. In the year 1640, when a missioner in this 
 College or district, he was apprehended for refusing to take 
 the infamous oath of allegiance and supremacy, and committed 
 to prison, as we read in the Annual Letters for that year. As 
 he was on his way to prison, an elderly Protestant woman, 
 who had scarcely heard anything about the Catholic religion, 
 observing the cheerful composure of countenance with which 
 the Father bore the insulting and injurious treatment he under- 
 
 important affair, so necessary for salvation ; that she would readily assist 
 him with the means of doing so, and that he should use every effort to 
 discover the true religion. The youth, obedient to his mother’s instructions, 
 among other treatises on controversy, bought some of Bellarmine’s works ; 
 from these the mother, through her son’s interpretation, or, rather, by the 
 interior teaching of the Holy Ghost, in a short time began to discover the 
 darkness of her errors, and the light of Catholic truth. Therefore, in order 
 that she might be more fully instructed, she desired her son to seek out a 
 Catholic priest. But this task was no easy one. For what Catholic would 
 trust the son of a bigoted minister, and he a youth too ? Who would incur 
 the risk of drawing a priest into the danger of arrest? Nor was the youth 
 himself able to make inquiry, scarcely knowing a single Catholic ; and there 
 was great danger lest Mr. Turner should discover the matter. It happened, 
 however, that whilst daily urged on and encouraged by his mother, but 
 really accomplishing nothing, because of the distrust of the Catholics, the 
 matter came to the ears of Father Michael Alford, who, in consequence of 
 the hot persecution at that time, lay concealed in the house of a certain 
 Catholic of rank in the neighbourhood, who even with the uncertain hope 
 of gaining a single soul, did not hesitate to expose his life to danger, and 
 seizing a favourable opportunity of time and place, he met the lady, 
 expounded to her the mysteries of faith, and happily reconciled her to the 
 Catholic Church. This important event could not long remain concealed 
 from the husband, because she refused to attend the Protestant church and 
 services. In consequence he cruelly assailed her with threats, reproaches, 
 and blows, and in the most infamous manner daily assaulted her with his 
 fists and heels, all which she bore with incredible patience until her death, 
 which she most piously met soon after, laden with merits. Since, as Father 
 Alford himself declared in a funeral oration he made on the occasion, such 
 was her innocence of life, even as a Protestant, that, with the exception 
 only of her erroneous faith, her soul had never been stained with a mortal 
 sin. Her heroic example was the cause of the conversion of both the 
 brothers, who, as we have stated, entered the Society of Jesus. When the 
 faithless father suspected that his son Anthony was inclining towards the 
 Catholic faith, seized with extreme grief, amounting almost to insanity (for 
 it was but a bare suspicion), in a short time, and while yet in the obstinacy 
 of his errors, breathed out his unhappy soul ! 
 
310 College of the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 went from those who had him in custody, became greatly 
 troubled in mind, and having sought out the mistress of the 
 house in which the Father had been apprehended, she told her, 
 with many tears, that the religion which taught men to bear 
 injuries with so much patience, must be truly good, and much 
 better than her own. She was introduced to one of the fathers, 
 to be instructed as soon as this could be safely undertaken. 
 
 Father Wilkinson is again alluded to in the Annual Letters 
 of the following year, 1641, which state that he was this year 
 brought to trial. As there was not sufficient evidence to prove 
 who or what he was, the oath of allegiance and supremacy was 
 again tendered to him ; and on his refusing to take it, he was 
 condemned to the forfeiture of all his property and imprison- 
 ment for life. During the present year, his brethren were 
 merely able to provide him with the necessaries of life, to which, 
 indeed, he desired them himself to restrict their supplies. They 
 were, however, unable to obtain access to him, or to afford 
 him any consolation, or opportunity of hearing Mass, or 
 receiving the Holy Sacrament. Such were the dangers of the 
 times that no Catholic could for a long while venture to visit 
 him. As we have seen in the narrative of M. A. (Father 
 Michael Alford), he was liberated by some soldiers after three 
 years’ imprisonment. He again appears amongst the missionary 
 fathers of this College in the Catalogue of 1655. Father 
 Wilkinson died February 28, 1673, aged seventy-six. 
 
 The notices of the two Fathers, Anthony Turner and his 
 brother, Edward Turner, both martyrs, victims of Oates’ 
 Plot, the former expiring at the gallows of Tyburn, and the 
 latter in the Gatehouse prison, are reserved for the history of 
 that period. 
 
 The following are extracts from the Annual Letters of the 
 English Province, S.J. for this College — 
 
 “1635. The report for this year states that in the district of 
 Derbyshire one of the fathers had a providential escape from 
 an imminent danger. He had brought over to the Catholic 
 faith some Protestants living near the house in which he was 
 harboured. These conversions roused the indignation of a 
 Protestant Earl who lived near. He ordered a number of con- 
 stables suddenly to enter the house at which the father lived, at 
 an early hour in the morning, in search of him ; but the object 
 of their search was not there. He had said Mass that morning, 
 
College of the Immaculate Conception. 3 1 1 
 
 and shortly after had gone out to take a walk in the country. 
 This was very unusual with him, and was observed with some 
 surprise by the servants. Presently the officers arrived, and 
 searched every part of the house. The father, having taken 
 his walk, was returning home, when a Protestant peasant signi- 
 ficantly advised him to betake himself to a neighbouring wood. 
 The father took the hint, and escaped. His superiors presently 
 removed him to another part of the country, where his person 
 would be unknown. Enraged at the escape of his intended 
 victim, the Earl discharged his anger on one of his flock, a 
 poor Catholic in the neighbourhood, who was distinguished by 
 his piety and his attachment to his spiritual guide. The poor 
 man was thrown into prison, and after great sufferings died 
 there, a martyr for his faith. 
 
 “The persecution was, on the whole, rather more active 
 this year than usual in this district ; but it stimulated rather 
 than checked the exertions of the fathers. An attempt had 
 been made by them, two years before, to establish a school for 
 Catholic boys in a house designed for that purpose. The 
 attempt had been attended with a degree of success which was 
 hardly to be expected in such perilous times. A considerable 
 number of the children of persons of rank had been brought 
 together, and the work of education was proceeding prosper- 
 ously, when the establishment was suddenly dispersed by a 
 storm from a quarter least anticipated. A Catholic youth of 
 good family 27 had been for some years under the care of the 
 fathers for the purpose of education. Having returned home, 
 he was induced to abandon his religion, and become a Pro- 
 testant ; then, to manifest his zeal in the cause which he had 
 embraced, he gave information to the Council of the establish- 
 ment which his late masters had formed, and of their names, 
 and those of their pupils. They were soon apprized of this 
 denunciation, and of course immediately sent their pupils home, 
 and dispersed and concealed themselves as best they could. 
 The King prevented any further proceedings against them. 
 But the attention of the Council had been roused, and they 
 soon discovered other similar establishments under the charge 
 of the fathers. Some of these zealous teachers were taken, and 
 conveyed in custody to London, where they suffered, with more 
 or less severity, the usual inflictions of the law. In consequence 
 of these occurrences, the fathers thought it prudent to abstain 
 
 27 From the copies of State Papers presently referred to, it seems to 
 have been a Mr. Lumley. 
 
312 College of the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 for the present from any similar undertaking. This year there 
 were fifteen fathers and one scholastic, the highest number the 
 residence ever attained. 28 
 
 “ 1636. The report for this district observes that the perse- 
 vering zeal of the fathers for the education of the Catholic 
 youth was more successful this year than in the preceding, 
 when, as has been said, they and their scholars were violently 
 dispersed. The pupils were now reassembled in more limited 
 numbers, and in a more unobserved and convenient locality. 
 Here, under the care of three of the fathers, their education 
 was conducted in tranquillity, with much care. Though several 
 of the nobility earnestly solicited the admission of their children 
 into the new establishment, the fathers prudently refused to 
 increase the number of their inmates, at the risk of again raising 
 the storm which had lately proved so disastrous. It further 
 pleased Providence that these fathers should experience an 
 unusual share of hostility. Some of them who had been 
 dispersed by the persecution of the preceding year had not 
 returned, probably from prudential motives, to their former 
 localities. Some of the Catholics ♦ who, under their ministry, 
 had experienced not only spiritual but temporal benefit, or who 
 fancied they had acquired a claim to their gratuitous services, 
 formerly rendered to them, complained angrily of their with- 
 drawal. In one instance, in which the Superior was asked, but 
 was unable to afford, the services of one of the missioners, all 
 the abuse which an angry woman could devise was heaped on 
 the heads of the fathers. These assaults, which the fathers 
 met with religious patience, roused the zeal of their friends, 
 who loudly defended their character, warmly supported their 
 rising College, and bestowed upon them, in unusual abundance, 
 the alms needed for prosecuting their salutary undertakings. 
 The remarkable piety of a certain Catholic schoolmaster, his 
 patient endurance of imprisonment for the Faith, his devotion 
 towards the most Holy Sacrament, his habit of continual 
 prayer, and lastly, his holy death, are recorded. Also the fact 
 of a certain nobleman deprived of his office by the King, for 
 refusing to take the heretical sacrament. 
 
 “1637. The Annual Letters say that the hostility experi- 
 
 28 The school in Derbyshire was at Stanley Grange, the seat of Mrs. 
 Vaux. One of the other places alluded to was at Mr. Leuson’s (or Levison’s), 
 near Wolverhampton. In the notice of Stanley Grange, p. 316, post , some 
 interesting copies of documents from the State Paper Office, regarding the 
 seizure, &c., will be given. 
 
College of the Immaculate Co 7 iception. 313 
 
 enced during the preceding year from the adversaries of the 
 Society was gradually abated, as the falsehood of accusations 
 brought against the fathers became more apparent. 
 
 “ One of the fathers experienced further hostility from the 
 adversaries of the Faith. A number of Catholics had assembled 
 to avail themselves of his ministry. He had administered 
 to them the consolations of the Sacrament of Penance', and 
 was proceeding to the distribution of the Blessed Eucharist, 
 when the officers burst into the house so suddenly, that before 
 he had time to put off his vestments he was seized, and with 
 his breviary carried before the magistrates. The oath of 
 supremacy and allegiance was tendered to him, and, on his 
 refusing to take it, he was committed to prison as a recusant. 
 Having remained there for a few weeks, during which time 
 he reconciled eight of his fellow-prisoners to the Church, 
 he was transferred to London, and not long after set at 
 liberty. 
 
 “It happened to the fathers of this district, as had been 
 observed on similar occasions, that the liberality of the faithful 
 seemed to be commensurate with the activity of their enemies. 
 They received during the year abundant alms, which not only 
 supplied their own wants, but enabled them to afford extensive 
 relief to the poor. 
 
 “ A remarkable conversion of a lady of rank is recorded, 
 without mention of the circumstances. 
 
 “ 1638. In this year two of the fathers were employed in 
 teaching in the school. The Catholics in the district had 
 become fully aware of the injustice of the misrepresentations 
 and calumnies against the fathers, which had been circulated 
 during the preceding years ; and they now showed increasing 
 esteem for them and for their Institute. 
 
 " 1641-2. In these years, mention is made in the reports 
 of Fathers Henry Wilkinson and Gervase Pole, previously 
 noticed in their respective memoirs. 
 
 “ The civil dissensions and miseries in 1641 afforded to the 
 fathers much occasion for sufferings, but little for action. One 
 of them, as he was visiting the houses of Catholics by night, 
 for the purpose of administering the sacraments, was appre- 
 hended by the officers. They had intended to take him at 
 once before a magistrate, but as the nearest lived many miles 
 distant, and they felt some consideration for the advanced 
 age of their prisoner, they accepted of a sum of money and 
 released him. 
 
314 College of the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 “1645. The number of the missionary fathers this year 
 was greatly reduced, owing probably to the troublesome times. 
 Forty conversions to the Faith are recorded. A young man, a 
 student of the University of Cambridge, son of a Protestant 
 minister, was converted by reading the “Ten Reasons” of 
 Father Campion. Having obtained access to one of the 
 fathers, he was fully instructed by him, and received into the 
 Church. He made his mother acquainted with what he had 
 done, and induced her also to visit the same father, who 
 contrived likewise to call upon her. The father of the youth, 
 on discovering these proceedings of his son and wife, became 
 furious, and actually put her into strict confinement in his 
 own house. She then fell into a mortal illness, and through 
 the goodness of Providence was enabled to receive all the 
 sacraments, and died with sentiments of the greatest piety. 
 Her son went abroad to finish his studies in a Catholic 
 college. 29 
 
 “A remarkable case of conversion of a Protestant young 
 woman is recorded. Finding herself very ill, she was about 
 to retire to rest, when feeling no less anxious for the welfare of 
 her soul than for that of the body, she first knelt down and 
 with tears besought God to be pleased to afford her some 
 clear indication of the way by which she might come to 
 eternal life. Having then betaken herself to rest, she saw 
 in her sleep a man meanly clothed, whose presence seemed 
 to excite in her a great desire of becoming a Catholic, and 
 at the same time to diffuse in her soul a sense of great relief 
 and comfort. As soon as she awoke, she sent for her father 
 and related to him what had happened, entreated him to 
 permit her to embrace the Catholic faith. As he was himself 
 favourably disposed towards Catholicity, he readily granted 
 her request, and himself went by night to seek a Catholic 
 priest. He found one of the fathers, who was passing through 
 that part of the country and brought him to his daughter. 
 As soon as she saw him she declared that he was the very 
 person she had seen in her sleep. The father was indeed 
 very poorly dressed, that he might thus more easily escape 
 the notice of the numerous military parties who were travers- 
 ing the country. He had no difficulty in bringing to the 
 Catholic faith one who had been so singularly prepared 
 for it. 
 
 29 The Annual Letters here refer to the case of Father Edward Turner 
 and his mother, already mentioned in Father Alford’s life, p. 308, ante. 
 
College of the Immaculate Conception. 315 
 
 “ In this district, as in other parts, the fathers suffered 
 imprisonment and other hardships, and were preserved by 
 many narrow escapes. 
 
 “ There is no further mention of this district in the reports 
 until the year 1672; for which year edifying particulars are 
 given of an aged father residing in this College. He was 
 nearly eighty years of age, most observant of religious discipline, 
 and a great lover and practiser of humility and holy poverty. 
 Though he was afflicted with very severe bodily pains and 
 infirmities, and had lost the sight of one of his eyes from 
 violent disease, yet he exhibited no signs of either impatience 
 or sadness ; but maintained a wonderful and constant tran- 
 quillity of mind. He used great severity towards himself, and 
 although so advanced in years, he would allow himself no 
 indulgence, and was most abstemious both in food and sleep ; 
 the food he did take being moreover of the coarsest kind. 
 Shut up in his room, he led a saintly and angelical life, like 
 a real solitary ; he scarcely ever left it except for meals, unless 
 perchance to walk in the garden, or to visit the sick and dying. 
 He seldom admitted visitors. Always alone, he was never 
 idle, but spent his time in study or prayer. This mode of 
 life was not for one year only, but of many years standing, 
 and hence he was held by all in the highest veneration.” 
 
 The further extracts from the Annual Letters will be post- 
 poned to the history of the Province in the times of Oates’ Plot, 
 and the Revolution of 1688. 
 
 Among the ancient missions or resorts of the fathers of this 
 College was the seat of the Brookesbys in Leicestershire. 
 Father Henry Garnet is reported by a Government spy to have 
 been there, and is named in his list of “The Jesuits in 
 England with their chief places of abode.” This document 
 is amongst the State Papers, P.R.O. Domestic James I. i6o§, 
 vol. vii. n. 50. It is endorsed by Cecil, “A note of the Jesuits 
 that lurk in England.” “ Mr. Garnet with Mrs. Brookesby of 
 Leicestershire, at Arundel House. He hath lodgings of his 
 own in London.” Mrs. Brookesby was widow of Edward 
 Brookesby, Esq., and sister of the Hon. Ann Vaux, the friend 
 and succourer of Father Garnet, and of the Society. They 
 were daughters of William, third Lord Vaux of Harrowden. 
 
 Holt, Leicestershire, the seat of the Neville family was, 
 as we have said, the habitation of Father Michael Alford. 
 
3 1 6 College of the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 We shall have to return to Leicester in the history of the 
 sufferings of the College under the Oates’ Plot and the 
 Revolution. Father William Bentney died a martyr in the 
 common gaol there in 1692. 
 
 Spink Hill, now the College and Convictus of Mount 
 St. Mary’s, has been alluded to in our notice of Father Gervase 
 Pole. This has always been considered as one of the very 
 earliest centres of the labours of the English J esuits. As early 
 as 1600, Father John Pole is named in a passage in Father 
 More’s history of the Province, as having been sent from 
 Spink Hill to Spain, as Prefect of Studies, &c., at Valladolid. 
 In a letter of the late Dr. Oliver to Father Lythgoe, dated 
 26th of June, 1842, he says — “With respect to Spink Hill, 
 I have always understood that its mission was one of the 
 earliest in the kingdom. I suspect from a passage of More, 
 Hist. Prov. Angl. page 286, that Father John Pole, who joined 
 the Society in 1598, was sent from Spink Hill to preside over 
 the studies, and teach moral divinity at St. Alban’s College, 
 Valladolid, but died at San Lucar, 1604.” 
 
 Stanley Grange, Derbyshire, the residence of the Hon. 
 Anne Vaux, sister to Lord Vaux of Harrowden, mentioned 
 above, the attached friend of the English Province of the 
 Society. It was here that the fathers of this district had estab- 
 lished a small college for the education of boys, as mentioned 
 in the Annual Letters for 1635, which was dispersed by the 
 pursuivants in the latter part of that year. Stanley is a town- 
 ship and chapelry in the parish of Spondon, six miles from 
 Derby. 
 
 The following copies of documents relative to this event 
 have been taken from *the State Papers in the Public Record 
 Office. 
 
 Domestic , Charles /. vol. ccxciv. n. 74, 1635. [Endorsed, 
 “Warrant for Stanley Grange, 1635.”] 
 
 “ Whereas we are informed that there is a school kept at 
 the house of Mrs. Vaux, called Stanley Grange, 50 in the county 
 of Derby, and that there are the sons of divers persons of 
 quality brought up under the tutorage of the Jesuits, contrary 
 to the laws of this kingdom. These are therefore to will and 
 
 30 [In the margin — “ To the house of Mr. Leuson, within two miles of 
 Wolverhampton.”] 
 
College of the Immaculate Conception. 31 7 
 
 require you to make your repair to the house of the said 
 Mrs. Vaux. . . . And there if you shall find any Jesuit, or 
 other suspected person, to apprehend him or them, and cause 
 them to be brought up hither to be examined by us, as also all 
 such children as you shall find there ; and if they be dispersed, 
 to inform yourself by the best ways and means you can possible 
 whose sons they are, how long they were there at school, and 
 where they now remain. 
 
 “As also to seize upon all such books, papers, and Massing 
 stuff as you shall find in the said house, and locking them up 
 in a chest or trunk, cause them also to be sent up hither to be 
 disposed of as we shall think fit, and give directions therein. 
 And we do further in his Majesty’s name will and command all 
 mayors, sheriffs, justices of the peace, constables, headboroughs, 
 and all other his Majesty’s officers and loving subjects, to be 
 aiding and assisting unto you in the full and due execution 
 of this our warrant, whereof neither they nor you may fail, as 
 they and you will answer the same at the uttermost peril. 
 Dated,” &c. 
 
 [N.B. — The above is the draft of the warrant, and by 
 the marginal addition no doubt served for the search at 
 Mr. Leuson’s house near Wolverhampton, where was also a 
 school.] 
 
 Domestic , Charles /. vol. ccxcix. n. 36, 1635. [Endorsed, 
 “Received October 8, 1635. Mr. Lumle/s information con- 
 cerning Stafford and Derby, &c.” 31 ] 
 
 “This place where the most of the gentlemen’s sons do 
 remain is in Derbyshire, four miles off from Derby town, at 
 one Mrs. Anne Vaux’s house, called Stanley Grange, sister to 
 the Lord Vaux, where there is the Lord Abergaveney's grand- 
 child, with one Mr. Fossiter’s son, and divers more, which 
 cometh to the number of ten or eleven. 
 
 “There is also in Staffordshire, two miles off Wolver- 
 hampton, at one Mr. Leuson’s house, but who remains there 
 I am uncertain.” 
 
 We hope to return to this College in the history of the 
 sufferings of the Province during the trying times of Oates’ 
 infamous Plot, and of the Revolution of 1688. 
 
 !1 The handwriting of the endorsement is Archbishop Laud’s. 
 
318 
 
 Father Francis Walsingham . 
 
 THE LIFE OF FATHER FRANCIS WALSINGHAM, S.J. 
 
 Formerly a Deacon in the Church of England, a convert to the 
 Catholic faith , and celebrated controversialist. Entered the 
 Society of Jesus , 1609. Died July 1, 1647. Aged seventy-one 
 years. 
 
 This eminent convert to the Catholic faith, and learned 
 member of the Society of Jesus, was born (as we shall see in 
 the formal declaration signed by him on his being admitted 
 an alumnus of the English College at Rome in the year 1606, 
 at Hawick, in Northumberland. 1 His father was Edward 
 Walsingham, Esq. of Exhall, but the county he does not 
 mention. We find two parishes of that name in Warwick- 
 shire, the one near Alcester, the other near Coventry. His 
 mother was alive in 1606, and was a Catholic. His father 
 died about 1576. He had two brothers and two sisters, some 
 of whom were Catholics. He received a liberal education, 
 and studied for some time at All Souls College, Oxford, where 
 he appears to have been a tutor. For a short time he served 
 in the army under Sir Robert Sidney, Governor of Flushing; 
 but leaving the army for a time he studied civil and common 
 law. Sir Francis Walsingham, the Secretary of State in the 
 time of Elizabeth, seems to have been his great patron in 
 early life, and was probably a relation, but in what degree 
 does not appear. 
 
 The present life is mainly gathered from Father Wal- 
 singham’s “immortal” work (as the late Dr. Oliver in his 
 Collectanea S.J. , page 215, justly calls it), Search made into 
 matters of religion. This is in fact an autobiography regarding 
 that all important period of his life, the rise and growth of 
 his doubts on religion, the diligent and laborious means he 
 took to resolve them, his final conviction, and his embracing 
 the ancient faith of Catholic England. Father More in his 
 Hist. Prov. A?igl, and Father Matt. Tanner in his Societatis 
 Jesus Apostol. Imitatrix , chiefly derive their notices of this 
 
 1 A small township in the parish of Kirk Harle, north-east division of 
 Tynedale ward, fourteen miles from Hexham. 
 
Father Francis Walsingham. 319 
 
 Father from the same source. So too does the anonymous 
 author of a biographical sketch that appeared in the Catholic 
 Miscellany for December, 1824. The Annual Letters of the 
 English College Rome, 1608-9, probably written by Father 
 Robert Parsons himself, the then Rector, contains a brief 
 account of Father Walsingham’s conversion, but present no 
 facts that are not contained in the present history. Dr. Oliver 
 thinks, with much reason, that Father Walsingham was assisted 
 in his work by that eminent controversialist. This very 
 rare book is an octavo volume of more than five hundred 
 pages of close print. Its full title is, “A search made into 
 matters of religion. By Francis Walsingham, Deacon of 
 the Protestants’ Church before his change to the Catholic; 
 wherein is related how he first fell into his doubts ; and 
 how for final resolution thereof he repaired unto his Majesty, 
 who remitted him to the Lord of Canterbury that now is, 
 and he to other learned men, and what the issue was of 
 all those conferences. And how after this again he betook 
 himself to the reading of Protestant and Catholic authors for 
 better finding out the truth ; as also for discovering where, and 
 on what side, true or false doctrine was to be found; and 
 what the success of this search hath been.” 
 
 He divides the book into three parts. The first is an 
 historical narration of what happened to the author regarding 
 his first doubts in religion. The second part, what resolution 
 he took to read over more diligently Protestant books, for 
 clearing a special doubt that he had conceived of their insin- 
 cere writing, and what he found therein, to wit, far more 
 untruths than ever he could have imagined, of which he gives 
 copious examples. The third part, his like search into 
 Catholic books ; and finally, what conclusion he made of all, 
 after some conference had with a certain old man of the 
 Catholic religion. 
 
 This learned controversial treatise was written in the year 
 1609. We do not follow the author into all his researches, 
 which would amount to a reprint of the work, but shall merely 
 extract his personal history, with his discussions with the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, and others, and occasional extracts 
 of passages from authors, &c. Being a staunch Protestant^ 
 and looking upon the King as being indeed what he styled 
 himself, supreme head of the Church in England, Father 
 Walsingham took the singular course of laying his doubts 
 
 2 A beautiful copy is preserved in the library of Stonyhurst College. 
 
320 Father Francis Walsingham . 
 
 before King James himself presently, and dedicated his book 
 to his Majesty, written some five years afterwards. We give 
 his epistle dedicatory in full. 
 
 “To the King’s most excellent Majesty, — 
 
 “ It is now (most dread sovereign) almost five years since 
 making recourse unto your Majesty for comfort of my con- 
 science in certain doubts and perplexities of mind, which by 
 reading a Catholic book I had conceived; I was remitted by the 
 clemency of your Majesty unto my Lord of Canterbury that 
 now is, with order to give me satisfaction. And for so much as 
 many things have passed in this affair sithence that time, 
 wherewith I presuppose your princely Majesty hath not been 
 acquainted, nor doth know of the small satisfaction which 
 I have received ; I thought it a point of my loyal duty, and 
 not ungrateful to your royal benignity, to yield some parti- 
 cular account what hath been done in the business, and 
 what success it hath had; hoping that your Highness will 
 not be offended, that after due search and painful inquisition 
 made on my behalf, and finding that which here in this book 
 is set down, I took the resolution which I judged to be most 
 secure for my soul’s health and everlasting life in the world 
 to come. 
 
 “ Almighty God knoweth, in Whose presence I speak, that 
 if by any search I could have found out in all this time, but 
 any one sure ground on the Protestant’s behalf whereon to rest 
 my salvation, with any probable security, I should never have 
 yielded to any change, all worldly reasons under heaven 
 persuaded me to the contrary, as friends, kindred, country, 
 advancement, former education, and the rest : but I confess 
 that not finding this, the consideration of eternity struck deeply 
 into me ; hope and fear of endless future life did work 
 effectually with me. For having descried so great insincerity 
 in so many of your Majesty’s chief and principal learned 
 ministers, as in this search I have discovered ; and hereupon 
 considered with myself, how undoubtedly true it is, that God’s 
 most holy truth and sacred verity of Christian religion hath 
 no necessity (but abhored rather) to be founded, defended, 
 or supported by such sinister and concised means, I began 
 to distrust and suspect that it was not God’s truth which was 
 thus maintained, nor the saving verity which with these men 
 I had learned. And therefore, at length (dread sovereign), after 
 much travail and study herein, being compassed with a cloud 
 
Father Francis Walsingham. 321 
 
 of witnesses, so many ancient and most learned holy Fathers 
 and Doctors of Christ’s Church, now saints in heaven ; 
 and embarked on the forcible stream and current of all 
 venerable antiquity, persuading me to believe them ; I was 
 constrained (notwithstanding all resistance of flesh and blood) 
 to make earnest suit upon my knees to be received into the 
 only saving ark of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Roman 
 Church, ad quam perjidia non potest habere accession, as I 
 learned of that holy Bishop and Martyr, St. Cyprian, and 
 out of which Church the most holy Father and learned 
 Doctor, St. Augustine, assured me that there was no hope of 
 salvation . 3 
 
 “ I will not here take upon me to be a suitor unto your 
 royal Highness for some indifferent trial of this truth between 
 your Majesty’s learned Catholics and Protestants, by a free 
 and public disputation (so many years desired, though never 
 yet obtained) ; for that I must confess myself destitute of those 
 requisite talents wherewith so many of your Majesty’s learned 
 subjects are furnished, which would readily undergo that charge. 
 But might it only please your princely wisdom (imitating herein 
 that memorable example of the most Christian King in granting 
 that public trial 4 between the Bishop of Evreux, now Cardinal, 
 and the Lord Plessis Mornay) to ordain some indifferent trial 
 to be made in some one or other of your Majesty’s clergy (if 
 not of him who styleth himself your Majesty’s ‘Minister of 
 simple truth’) of those manifold untruths objected daily against 
 them by learned Catholics, as well of our own as of other 
 nations (for the fame of their infamous fidelity hath reached 
 far and near), I am persuaded your most prudent Majesty as 
 a severe judicator of only truth, would receive far more 
 content and satisfaction to sit as umpire and judge in such 
 a conference or trial, than by a hundred such fruitless con- 
 tentions between Protestant and Puritan ministers, as have 
 been often graced with your royal presence. For that this 
 trial would be most easy, brief, and pleasant unto your 
 Majesty, and whosoever present ; seeing it would be suffi- 
 cient herein, as the Bishop of Evreux 5 saith, to bring only 
 eyes to open the books and see whether the places be truly 
 alleged. 
 
 3 Cyprian, Epist. Iv. ad Cornel. Papam ; Augustine, t. v. 1 . 4, De 
 Symbolo, c. xiii. and Epist. 1 . ad Bonifac. 
 
 4 At Fontainbleau, May 4, 1600. 
 
 6 In his answer to the Lord Plessis’ challenge. 
 
 V 
 
322 Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 “And if peradventure your Majesty should resolve, and 
 first adjudge to make some trial of my religious meaning and 
 true fidelity in imputing this so heinous crime, prevarication in 
 God's cause , unto so many and principal men as in this search 
 are attacked; I shall ever be ready (God willing) to render 
 such account thereof unto your Majesty, as, if I shall be truly 
 found (and I dare appeal unto the mature judgment of your 
 royal Majesty alone) maliciously to have wronged any one of 
 them herein, I shall most willingly submit myself unto your 
 Majesty’s heaviest censure, yea, if it were to lay down my life 
 prostrate at your Majesty’s royal feet to be rejected and cast 
 forth from the society of men. And hereby, whereas your 
 Majesty’s noble ancestors have prom eri ted that thrice worthy 
 title to England’s victorious crown, 4 Defender of the Faith,’ 
 so your Highness shall by consent of tongues and nations, 
 purchase to your immortal fame this singular epithet or 
 encomium, ‘Zealous revenger of truth’s calumniation.’ 
 
 “But if contrariwise your Majesty’s judicious eye shall 
 well discern and see that I have only made sincere relation 
 unto your Highness of what I found to be most true, I would 
 then crave no other reward but this, that your prudent wisdom 
 will give strict order and command that never credit more be 
 given unto these sort of men, or to their writings, especially 
 in matters concerning men’s souls ; and also that your gracious 
 Majesty will still acknowledge my unworthy self for your 
 Highness’ most loyal and devoted subject, though having made 
 this charge upon such grounds and reasons as might prevail 
 with one that most carefully tendereth his eternal salvation. 
 
 “Wherefore, most humbly on my knees I beseech your 
 royal Majesty to pardon me this resolution, whereunto I 
 protest upon my soul and conscience, that no earthly motive 
 drew me, but only my love and obedience to Him that is 
 King of kings, Who saith and threateneth that whosoever 
 loveth father or mother more than Him (wherein no doubt 
 but that kings and princes are also included, as fathers of their 
 subjects) he is not worthy of Him. And therefore my trust 
 and supplication is that for obeying and following this my 
 Heavenly King (in the truth of Catholic religion discovered 
 unto me) I may not incur the displeasure of you my earthly 
 King, for whose prosperous life and happy reign to eternal 
 felicity, I shall be a daily suitor unto His Divine Majesty. 
 
 “Your Majesty’s most humble and devoted subject, 
 
 “ Francis Walsingham.” 
 
Father Francis Walsingham. 323 
 
 In his preface, he says, to the end the better to understand 
 the quality of the case that fell out to him these years past 
 with his excellent Majesty, he has thought it expedient to lay 
 down briefly at the beginning, a sincere relation of his state 
 and condition, before he fell into any doubt about religion at 
 all. Being brought up from his tender years in London, by 
 the care of the right hon. his very good patron Sir Francis 
 Walsingham, councillor and secretary of the late Queen, under 
 the fatherlike tuition and discreet government of Mr. Humphrey 
 Walsingham, his near kinsman and citizen of that city, he was 
 placed by him there for divers years in the common school of 
 St. Paul’s, where he had his first beginnings and laid some 
 foundation both of learning and Protestant religion, which he 
 continued after, and increased as his years and ability, or the 
 favour of friends served him, never so much as once doubting 
 any position held in the said religion by Protestants, but that 
 it was the very truth indeed, as they professed the same. From 
 thence he went to Oxford, and became a distinguished member 
 of the University. He says that when he came to sufficient 
 years and judgment to be able not only to follow sermons, but 
 to read books also of controversies written by Protestant 
 authors, he was not altogether negligent therein, as his often 
 and diligent reading in Mr. Fox’s Acts and Monuments , 
 Jewell’s writing against Harding, and Nappier’s Expositions 
 on the Revelations, with others, and amongst strangers the 
 works of Calvin and Beza, bore him witness. By which 
 readings and conferences with others that were of the same 
 religion, he became so earnest and fervent therein, as to 
 resolve not only to continue that profession during life, but 
 further also to make himself one of that clergy. And accord- 
 ingly in the year 1603, he procured himself to be made deacon 
 by the hands of the Bishop of Ely, and having taken that 
 degree, he thought it incident to the same not only to confirm 
 himself, but others also whomsoever he could in that way. 
 
 Hereupon he took all occasions to deal with others, either 
 for their confirmation or gaining them to the Protestant religion. 
 And to this effect he was accustomed gladly to lend books of 
 that profession to any that would read them, persuading them 
 also earnestly to the same. By which occasion it fell out that 
 one of his acquaintance that seemed to him to be wavering,. 
 “ somewhat backward in this zeal,” being offered a Protestant 
 book by him, was content to receive the same with this con- 
 dition that he should promise him to read another book that 
 
 v 2 
 
324 Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 he would lend him in lieu of his, which condition Father 
 Walsingham accepted, though at that time he neither knew 
 the argument nor the author of it. 
 
 Upon this Father More well observes that God drew him 
 to the embracing the orthodox faith by the very same art that 
 he himself adopted in his hatred of the Faith, to stifle the rising 
 scruples of a friend, which event clearly demonstrates that the 
 arguments of the most learned men who are wandering from 
 the truth are of no force in defending those points which raise 
 doubts upon their own sect. 
 
 This book was intitled, “ A Defence of the Censure given 
 upon two books of William Charke and Meredith Hanmer, 
 ministers, which they wrote against Mr. Edmund Campion, 
 priest of the Society of Jesus, and against his offer of dispu- 
 tation, taken in hand since the death of the said Mr. Campion,” 
 &c ., 6 which book he little esteeming at the time, and thinking 
 to have made a good exchange, by procuring his said friend to 
 read the Protestant book which he had lent him, for that he 
 somewhat suspected his soundness in religion, he carried the 
 other home with him, not meaning that it should ever come 
 so near his heart as afterwards it did, but rather that it should 
 serve him for some passing away of the time, but especially 
 for gathering out some absurdities against Papists, wherewith 
 he imagined all their books to be abundantly stuffed. And 
 therefore when he got home, he began presently to play with 
 it, as with a trifle ; but finding wheresoever he lighted certain 
 passages which he could not well digest, and many proofs 
 alleged whereunto he could not answer, he cast it often aside, 
 and then took it in hand again. And finally, after many 
 “ diversities of usage towards it,” he resolved to read and pass 
 it over hastily, “ as men take pills, with no good taste at all, 
 but aversion rather of stomach.” Yet soon after he felt himself 
 so strangely troubled, and turmoiled in judgment and con- 
 science upon the reading thereof, as if his soul had taken pills 
 indeed, and could not bear their operation. 
 
 Wherefore he turned often from this place to that in the 
 book, to find some ease, but everywhere he found grief and 
 affliction. He thought with himself to despise it, but this 
 endured not long. Then he imagined to confer with others 
 upon the same, but none were present, and he durst not 
 mention the fact that he had with him any such Papistical 
 
 6 Father Robert Parsons, the prince of controversialists, was the author 
 of this famous book. 
 
Father Francis Walsingham. 325 
 
 book, and seemed to be somewhat ashamed at finding matter 
 in so small a book which he himself could not answer. Yet 
 afterwards he did discuss divers of his difficulties with sundry 
 ministers, without naming that he had them out of such a 
 book, but they gave him but very little satisfaction, or none 
 at all. Whereupon he made divers journeys to London, as 
 well to see books of sundry sorts, as also confer with some 
 of his friends. And having wearied himself for divers months 
 in this manner, at last he betook himself to what will appear 
 in our days a very strange resolution, but yet such as then, 
 he says, seemed to him most necessary for the appeasing of 
 his mind. And this was that, inasmuch as he had taken two 
 or three several times the oath of supremacy, first to Queen 
 Elizabeth when living, and afterwards to King James I., pro- 
 testing and swearing by the same that he held them for 
 supreme heads of the Church in all causes, as well spiritual 
 as temporal, he persuaded himself that his best comfort of 
 conscience and full satisfaction of judgment would come from 
 the said superior powers, but especially from his Majesty, 
 who then governed the State, as from God’s lieutenant and 
 substitute in all causes and affairs whatsoever. 
 
 Wherefore, after much deliberation and beating his head 
 this way and that, not daring to confer with any Papist, or 
 almost to entertain any good thought of them or of their 
 religion, he determined with himself to make a short memorial 
 to the King, and to deliver him the sum of his afflictions and 
 doubts, together with the book itself, which had been the 
 cause thereof ; and to entreat his Majesty by his supreme 
 authority to give order for his sound satisfaction therein. And 
 so binding up the old worn-out book in the comeliest manner 
 he was able, he “got himself to London,” and thence to 
 Greenwich, where the Court then was ; and there, after many 
 difficulties of audience, he exhibited the same, together with 
 his memorial, both tied and conjoined in one, as his Majesty 
 was going into the chapel upon Good Friday, in the morning, 
 in the year 1604, being the 6th of April, and thereof had the 
 answer and issue, which afterwards he sets down more at 
 large, with the causes and occasions that were offered unto 
 him to enter further into the search of divers books and 
 controversies of religion than at the beginning he had deter- 
 mined. 
 
 In ending his preface or epistle to the reader, he gives his 
 “ ponderation after all his search made ” into matters of con- 
 
326 Father Francis Walsingham . 
 
 troversy, viz., “whensoever in impugning any point of Catholic 
 belief, as for instance, Purgatory ; Prayers for the Dead ; 
 Invocation of Saints ; Peal Presence, and the like, the learned 
 Protestants are found to be constrained through necessity of 
 their cause (for otherwise, I suppose, they would not) to falsify 
 and corrupt by cutting off or adding to, or otherwise embezzling 
 some authorities of the ancient Fathers or Councils, which 
 Catholics do sincerely and truly bring against them for proof 
 of the said doctrines ; it seemed to me that the same doctrine 
 was generally believed and practised by the most ancient 
 Christian Church, wherein those Fathers lived ; and conse- 
 quently I might with far more security believe and follow the 
 same venerable antiquity, than deny it to be a truth with 
 fallible novelty. 
 
 He thus begins his first chapter : “ Having set down before 
 in part the great variety of affections and troubles of mind 
 which I felt in reading this book, which cannot be effectually 
 expressed by pen, as I then felt them in every passage almost 
 that I read, and was not well able to answer, I could wish that 
 the learned reader would examine the matter rather by reading 
 the treatise itself than to stand to my relation thereof, but 
 yet some few principal heads wherein I did stick most at that 
 time, and was most desirous to be satisfied were these that 
 ensue.” He then goes at some length through nine several 
 difficulties. His first difficulty was, why Protestants refused 
 disputation and other public trials ; for he found Father Parsons 
 constantly complaining of this throughout the “ Censure .” 7 
 “ I considered that Mr. Campion, Mr. Sherwine, and others 
 of the learned sort of Papists that made these offers of public 
 disputation, had not in effect been disputed withal, but only 
 in the Tower privately, and that (as their friends gave out) 
 upon unequal conditions, when they were either condemned 
 to death, or like to be, as after they were, and executed also. 
 And that one Mr. John Hart, another young man of that 
 religion, though graduate, as I have heard, in divinity by the 
 University of Douay, coming over about the same time, and 
 either offering himself, or being taken and brought before 
 my said honourable patron, Sir Francis Walsingham, and 
 demanding this liberty of public trial, was not admitted there- 
 unto ; but rather, after some months’ liberty, was sent to the 
 
 7 The truth of this charge is apparent throughout the whole history 
 of those times. Vide Father Campion’s famous “Challenge” in the life 
 of Thomas Pound of Belmont, Historical Facts , &c., Series I. 
 
Father Francis Walsingham. 327 
 
 Tower, and there, after his condemnation to death, he was 
 assigned to confer with Doctor Reynolds in the said Tower, 
 and that conference afterwards published, but with partiality, 
 as the Papists say . 8 And the like they affirmed of the dispu- 
 tation held in the Tower by Mr. Campion and his fellows; all 
 which complaints and suspicions seemed to me might well 
 have been avoided if the said trials had been public and free, 
 as the Papists demanded them.” 
 
 8 John Hart was condemned to die with Father Edmund Campion, 
 December ist, 1581, at Tyburn, but was reprieved at the very hurdle, with 
 James Bosgrave : both afterwards joined the Society. In the Public Record 
 Office, State Papers, Domestic , Eliz. vol. clxxvi. n. 10, is a copy of the 
 royal commission or warrant for the banishment of John Hart, James 
 Bosgrave, Jasper Heywood, &c., dated 1585. Accounts vary as to the 
 exact date of his death. One says 19th of July, 1586, another in 1594. 
 Mr. Wood says, 14 cal. of August, 1595* He was cruelly tortured in 
 the Tower. The following is Mr. Wood’s account of this Father. He 
 avoids, however, probably because he was not a Catholic, all mention of the 
 fact that when the body was removed it was found wholly incorrupt. “John 
 Harte was educated in most kind of literature in Oxon, but in what 
 College or Hall I cannot find. One Mr. Harte was a sojourner of Exeter 
 College, 1551, but him I take to be too soon for our author, who was but 
 a young man when he encountered Dr. John Reynolds in a disputation. 
 What degrees he took here it appears not, though those of his profession 
 (the Jesuits) tell us that he was B. D. of Oxon ; yet upon the strict perusal 
 of our registers, I cannot find the least authority for it. After he had left 
 this University, being then and before very unsettled and wavering in mind, 
 he went beyond the seas, changed his religion, took priestly orders, and 
 was sent into the mission of England ; but soon after taken, and committed 
 to prison, to a filthy dungeon , as a noted author [Cardinal Allen] tells us, 
 who adds, that after he (whom he calls the happy young confessor) had 
 been by famine often tormented, was unexpectedly brought out to encounter 
 John Rainolds before mentioned, 1583 or thereabouts, which disputation 
 being smartly held on both sides,, those of Harte’s persuasion say that 
 Rainolds was foiled, though the opposite not ; whereupon some years after 
 was published, ‘The sum of a Conference between John Rainolds, and 
 John Harte touching the Head and Faith of the Church,’ &c. (Lon. 1588). 
 Afterwards our author, Harte, who is stated by a learned author [Camden 
 Annals, 1584], ‘A man beyond all others learned,’ being banished with 
 divers other Roman priests in 1584, he went to Verdun, where he entered 
 the Society of Jesus. Thence he was called to Rome, where making some 
 stay, till authority commanded him thence, he went into Poland and settled 
 for a time at Jaroslaw. At length giving way to fate on the 14th of the 
 cal. of August, 1595, or thereabouts, he was buried at Jaroslaw. Seven 
 years after, his body was taken up, and translated to another place belonging 
 to the Jesuits, who had an high esteem for his person while living, his 
 sanctity of life and learning, and when dead for his memory” {Athen. 
 Oxon. vol. i. p. 277. Edit. 1721). 
 
328 Father Francis Walsmgkam. 
 
 Father Walsingham’s difficulties, from the third to the 
 seventh inclusive, were concerning the first beginning of the 
 Protestant religion with Luther and his followers, the infamous 
 character of Luther himself, his acknowledged intercourse with 
 the devil, his shocking and immoral doctrines as shown in that 
 heresiarch’s book, De Capt. Babyl.p the contradictions between 
 these so-called Reformers, &c. He concludes this category of 
 his doubts thus: “These things then lay heavily upon my heart 
 and afflicted me exceedingly, being unable to determine what 
 way to take. For as for Papistry, I detested the same from my 
 heart, thinking them to be wholly amiss, and to hold the truth 
 in no one thing that lay in controversy between us. And yet 
 now I saw that in all these points before mentioned, they had 
 much more reason, and we much less truth in appearance of 
 argument than ever I had imagined, and the slips which I 
 had found in these learned Protestant ministers here named, 
 Dr. Fulke, Mr. Hanmer, and Mr. Charke, did make me greatly 
 to doubt lest they and others who wrote controversies did not 
 deal sincerely and truly in matters, but rather in heat of con- 
 tention did strive every one to maintain anything, true or false, 
 that made for their part or purpose which they defended ; and 
 so I came to doubt now whom I might believe or trust, and upon 
 this doubtfulness came to resolve at length to make recourse to 
 his Majesty, as before hath been said, hoping that by his means, 
 order, and commandment, as supreme head of the Church, I 
 might be best satisfied and quieted in mind, which Christ Jesus 
 knoweth was my only hope and desire in this world.” 
 
 We must follow Father Walsingham at some length in his 
 second chapter of the first part — his resolution to deliver the 
 book to the King and how he did so, “ and was the same day 
 called to the council table before my Lord of Canterbury and 
 others.” 
 
 “ Having thus wearied myself in seeking to and fro to 
 pacify my disturbed soul, by the space of two or three months, 
 and by no means able to recover my former peace of mind 
 and wonted security concerning the certainty of my faith and 
 assured hope of salvation, at last I began to think, What if this 
 book that hath so much troubled me were delivered to the 
 King’s Majesty, that the truth or falsehood of the contents 
 might be the better discovered? For now about the same 
 time there were disputations had with the Puritans concerning 
 their religion, or contrariety to the Protestants ; and the Papists 
 « C. de Bapt. 
 
Father Francis Walsingham . 329 
 
 had been busy to procure a toleration of their religion, which 
 was doubted by a great many, both Protestants and Puritans, 
 that his Majesty would have granted. The King also, in his 
 very first proclamation, seemed to be very desirous to procure 
 a uniformity in religion in England, so that both Papists, 
 Protestants, and Puritans might concur in one true faith, and 
 thereof his Majesty mentioned the calling of a general counci], 
 wherein he most especially, as I suppose, meant the deciding 
 of all controversies between Papists and Protestants. 
 
 “ Moreover, I conceived his Majesty to be very studious of 
 the truth, by that I had often heard he would dispute and 
 reason himself concerning religion ; being also of a good and 
 godly disposition, of sound judgment and bearing, as appeared 
 by his books which I had seen and greatly liked, and therefore 
 I presumed he would be the more ready upon my humble suit 
 and request, to cause the verity of this book to be searched and 
 sifted out, tending to great disgrace and contempt of the first 
 and chief proto-Protestant Mr. Luther, with Zuinglius, Calvin, 
 Beza, and the rest of his successors, not only of their lives and 
 manners, but also of their faith and doctrines. And the rather 
 for that this aforesaid book, The Defence , being once presented 
 unto his Majesty, would stand, methought, attending as a 
 solicitor in the name of all Papists and, as it were, at the 
 same instant with the Puritans, humbly craving one day of 
 hearing for some indifferent trial of their so long suspended 
 cause, as therein they grievously complained. So I resolved 
 at last to deliver this book unto the King’s Majesty himself. 
 
 “ But yet sundry doubts soon crossed this resolution, as my 
 own unfitness, considering my timorous and bashful disposition, 
 and moreover, I being a deacon and of the ministry, and 
 besides other respects I imagined what troubles might befall 
 me to my great loss and hindrance, both temporal and spiritual, 
 as also I considered the book itself was in respect of the 
 oldness and indecent form thereof far unmeet to be presented 
 to any noble personage whatsoever, and much less to his 
 Majesty ; neither could I possibly come to the sight of any 
 other copy to present, with a hundred such-like contradicting 
 cogitations. At length, therefore, I bound myself by vow unto 
 Almighty God in my fervent prayers, daily streaming forth of 
 the dolorous wounds of my languishing soul, thirsting after the 
 fountain of living waters, the knowledge of the true faith leading 
 to salvation by Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, 
 and accordingly to submit myself unto the most sweet direction 
 
330 
 
 Father Francis Walsingharn. 
 
 of His Holy Spirit, yea, though it were to yield assent to the 
 very Romish religion itself (which was the hardest point I could 
 then think of), if I might rightly discern them of that religion 
 to hold the truth, albeit my natural inclination and habitual 
 disposition even shrunk thereat, and as it were trembled to 
 hear my own voice often saying, ‘ And can I then become a 
 Papist ? ’ 
 
 “And further, besides the other motives aforesaid which 
 moved me to determine to deliver this book, as also to vow 
 the same, for the most certain performance thereof, being such 
 an enterprise as might happily procure so great and general a 
 good if it fell out well, I was further urged thereto by a certain 
 particular necessary cause, as I thought. For having lately 
 taken the oath of supremacy, acknowledging the King to be 
 the supreme head of the Church, as well in all causes eccle- 
 siastical as temporal, I esteemed myself so bound in conscience 
 that if I should perceive the Roman faith to be the truth, yet I 
 could not embrace the same (as to me it seemed), or submit 
 myself unto a foreign power, such as the laws accounted the 
 Pope and his supremacy to be, unless his Majesty should, as 
 it were, dispense therewith and grant me liberty to use my 
 conscience, which I intended to sue for at his Majesty’s hands. 
 
 “Thus, then, having at length, as it were, overcome the 
 difficulties, I framed a certain memorial, as I may call it, 
 wherein I comprehended as compendiously as then I could 
 (so many divers thoughts disturbing my obscured understand- 
 ing like to a troubled fountain which sendeth forth no pure or 
 pleasant water), some chief and principal causes of my doubts 
 and difficulties, thereby to induce his. Majesty to peruse the 
 whole book itself, desiring his Highness that if, upon exami- 
 nation of those things contained in that book, it should happen 
 to be truth which was by that author affirmed, that then his 
 goodness, for quiet of my conscience, would permit me to 
 follow that religion which the same author professeth ; but if 
 contrariwise he were found false in his assertions, that then 
 whereas his Majesty had begun (as it seemed) to take some 
 pity of the Papists’ former punishments, he would now most 
 justly extend upon them and all their adherents more sharp 
 chastisement! than before ; for that they would publish to the 
 world such falsities against the truth of Christ and saints of 
 God. 
 
 “With this memorial then, together with the book itself, 
 as fitly accommodated as I could, I went often to and from 
 
Father Francis Walsingham. 331 
 
 London during this time between Christmas and Easter, never 
 finding opportunity to deliver the same, until at length, hailed 
 thereto by my vow, I went to Greenwich, where the Court 
 then was, upon Good Friday, the 6th of April, 1604. And 
 there, attending his Majesty’s coming into the chapel, I, amongst 
 other petitioners, as he passed by, delivered the book, together 
 with the said memorial, not into the hands of his Majesty 
 immediately, for I could not get so near unto him by reason of 
 the press of people, but to Sir Roger Wilbraham, Master of the 
 Requests, who taking it at my hands, and somewhat wondering 
 thereat, delivered the same unto the King immediately after 
 his coming into the chapel, which as soon as the King beheld, 
 presently he spoke aloud, and with a great oath, as was reported, 
 smiting with his hand, said, ‘ This is some Papist,’ and pre- 
 sently sent forth a gentleman of his Privy Chamber to inquire 
 for him that delivered the book, to whom I answered myself to 
 be the man ; then he, after we had walked three or four turns 
 in the gallery, asking me sundry questions concerning my 
 name, kindred, calling, and estate of life, as also concerning 
 the book, wherein I was very sparing to answer him, willed me 
 to stay there until his Majesty returned, for, he said, it was his 
 Majesty’s pleasure to speak with me, unto whom I answered I 
 would willingly wait his Majesty’s pleasure. Neither had I 
 intent to depart without his Majesty’s gracious licence and 
 despatch of my business. 10 
 
 “ And now, he being returned into the chapel, and the rest 
 of the company leaving the gallery, every man as upon that day 
 exercising the best devotion he had, I walked alone, having no 
 devotion to hear the sermon, but remained as the man walking 
 between Jerusalem and Jericho, fallen into the hands of thieves, 
 robbed of all life of religion, sore wounded in my understand- 
 ing, and half dead in all my senses and power of my soul, 
 expecting the present remedy and help of that Good Samaritan, 
 Christ Jesus, my Saviour, Who as upon that day suffered death 
 upon the Cross for my redemption, unto Whom, as my chief 
 helper in tribulations, I commended my present business. 
 
 10 Mr. Dodd, Church Hist. vol. ii. p. 409, puts the King’s conduct in a 
 milder shape, hut gives no authority for it. We much prefer the account 
 of Father Walsingham himself, as being more in character with the man. 
 Dodd says, “The King, though somewhat surprised at the gentleman’s 
 method, yet finding that it proceeded neither from humour nor from an 
 unsettled brain, but from a real scruple, condescended so far as to enter 
 into some discouise with him, and for further satisfaction remanded him to 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury.” 
 
332 
 
 Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 “The sermon being ended, before the King came forth, 
 the Lord Chamberlain came inquiring for him that delivered 
 the book ; unto whom, as soon as I could, I presented myself ; 
 who asking me what I was, I answered, ‘ May it please your 
 lordship, I am a scholar/ ‘ What, are you a minister ? ’ saith 
 he. I answered, ‘ No, my lord ; I am a deacon.’ ‘ Me 
 thinketh,’ saith he, ‘you are a Papist.’ So he commanded 
 one of the grooms, there present, of the chamber to look 
 unto me. I said, ‘ My lord, I mean not to depart ;’ and with 
 this my lord returned into the chapel. Then presently came 
 flocking about me many people of sundry sorts and fashions, 
 and divers of the King’s guards, who would needs know what 
 was the book I delivered, what it contained, whether it were 
 of my own making, whether it were in Latin or English, and 
 whether I were a Papist or no. To all which I endeavoured, 
 as much as I* could, to answer with silence; but yet they 
 persisted in their examinations, one demanding one thing, 
 another another. To whom at last I replied, that it concerned 
 not them to know what it contained ; it was a book concerning 
 religion : then they stood gazing and wondering about me. 
 One said, ‘He thinketh he hath done a meritorious deed 
 to-day, he need care for no more.’ Another said, ‘By this 
 he hopeth to redeem a soul out of Purgatory.’ One said, 
 ‘Is he not a minister?’ Another, ‘He may happen to be a 
 priest.’ Another, ‘ How durst you give a Papist’s book to 
 the King?’ And another, who seemed to be a Puritan, and 
 would presently have entered into disputation with me (being 
 some tailor, as I supposed, or some other such-like artisan 
 or craftsman), began to insult me and say, ‘ Is it not a shame 
 for a man of your years not to be settled yet in religion?’ 
 To whom I vouchsafed no answer at all. And thus every 
 one spoke his pleasure, until his Majesty was coming forth ; 
 and the Lady Raighley being there present to prefer some 
 suit for her husband that was in the Tower, requesting me 
 and my keeper by earnest entreaties not to hinder her from 
 speaking to the King, I could not but yield thereunto, which 
 was the occasion that his Majesty passed by without speaking 
 unto me, for that the press of people and the multitude of 
 halberds was so great, as I could scarce come to the sight 
 of him. 
 
 “Then I attended with my keeper in the Great Chamber, 
 until word was brought unto him that he should bring me 
 into the Council Chamber after dinner before my Lord of 
 
Father Francis Walsingham . 
 
 333 
 
 Canterbury (lately before of London) and his assistants, and 
 so he did ; where, being come, my lord sitting in a chair at 
 the upper end of the council table, with Doctor Montague, 
 Dean of the King’s chapel, standing by him, and divers other 
 clergymen, but many more gentlemen of divers sorts which 
 came in from time to time. His lordship seeing me, willed 
 me to come near, and after some few questions about my 
 name, state, and condition, commanded a certain gentleman 
 (whose name I know not) to read the memorial which I gave 
 with the book, which were both brought thither, to the end, 
 as was said, I might explain my meaning concerning my 
 whole purpose, and particularly about a certain allusion used 
 by me in the memorial, taken out of the twenty-first chapter 
 of Deuteronomy, concerning the law of a strange captive 
 woman, whereunto I fitly, as I thought, applied this book, 
 being unto me, as it were, the voice of the Church of Rome, 
 which divers Protestants in their expositions of the Revela- 
 tion, and I, in that place, termed the woman sitting upon 
 many waters, and the harlot of Babylon. In all which I 
 declared my meaning, though it seemeth I was not so obscure 
 but that his Majesty himself (as I gathered after by my lord 
 and Mr. Dean’s talk) did rightly understand in what sense I 
 spake. And concerning Luther, Calvin, and Beza, whom I 
 had mentioned in my memorial and covertly glanced at, I 
 so explained my mind out of the Book of Defence itself, 
 that it was little pleasing to my lord, or Dr. Montague there 
 present to hear it : and therefore my lord called me yet nearer, 
 so that I stood close to the table, insomuch that divers that 
 were present could not hear what was spoken. 
 
 “ Then my lord proposing many questions about the place 
 of my dwelling, and of whom I had the book, &c., asked 
 what moved me to deliver this book unto the King, saying, 
 ‘ This is a book of Parsons’, that notorious traitor, from whom 
 I am sure you have heard how many treasons have proceeded 
 against the Queen in her time ; if he could be taken in 
 England, he would be soundly handled. What, had you no 
 other book but this to deliver to the King ? Why,’ said he, 
 ‘ I burnt I cannot tell how many of them.’ Whereto I 
 answered, ‘ May it please your Grace, I know not the author 
 of it, neither do I respect who it is that wrote it ; I only 
 desire to be satisfied concerning the truth of that which is 
 contained in the book, for if it be true, I cannot persuade 
 myself that we are in the truth, or the right way. And yet 
 
334 Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 it is well known how great an adversary I have always been 
 to the Papists’ religion to the utmost of my power, and I yet 
 think with horror how hard a thing it is for me to be of 
 their religion.’ 
 
 “ Then said my lord, ‘ Why, what so great matter is in 
 this book that should move you to doubt of that religion 
 wherein you have been brought up all your life, and that you 
 must needs give this book to the King above others ?’ I 
 answered, ‘There be divers points of great difficulties unto 
 me, as may in part appear by my memorial exhibited to his 
 Majesty, but much more by the book itself. And amongst 
 others, one chief point is concerning Mr. Luther and his 
 scholars, that first began this Reformation (as we call it) 
 from Papistry amongst us, of whom, as the learned of our 
 Church, Mr. Jewell, Mr. Fox, Mr. Whittaker, and others have 
 written, so have I accounted him to be a man of God and 
 one sent to enlighten the whole world, being before drowned 
 in the superstition of Papistry. But if he were such a one 
 as this book showeth him to be, one that was first moved by 
 the devil to write against the Mass, that he had much con- 
 ference with the said devil, and so great familiarity with him 
 as to eat a bushel of salt with him, as it seemeth his own 
 works do testify, I have reason to doubt of our religion which 
 should take beginning from the devil.’ 
 
 “ Then Dr. Montague replied that Luther was a holy and 
 learned man, but yet we took not our religion from him. 
 And my lord said, ‘ Will you believe a lying, traitorous Papist 
 that practiseth nothing else but lying? They have their pia 
 mendacia , and think it no sin to belie us that are their adver- 
 saries. Do you not know, when two men go to law together, 
 one will speak the worst he can against the other ? ’ I 
 answered, ‘ But then, the truth being known, my lord, it will 
 redound to the greater discredit of him and his cause that 
 belieth his adversary. And as for Luther’s incredible railing 
 against King Henry VIII., his adversary, the author of the 
 Defence quoteth the book and leaf, and setteth down his own 
 words ; 11 and surely I cannot think that any man indued with 
 the Spirit of God could speak so vilely against a king. And 
 even that alone, if it be true, though there were nothing else 
 against him, would make me to think he w T ere no such holy 
 man as I believed him to be.’ 
 
 11 Father Walsingham, in his second difficulty, quotes at length Luther’s 
 insolent and most scurrilous letter of abuse addressed to King Henry VIII., 
 who had written against the arch-apostate. 
 
Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 335 
 
 “Whereto a certain lay gentleman that stood there, who 
 had taken up the book from before my lord, and was reading 
 therein, said, ‘ Luther was somewhat rash indeed/ which (under- 
 derstanding that he had said a rascal ) I repeated the word 
 with admiration. ‘Nay/ quoth he, ‘I say not so.’ ‘But 
 surely I must think so/ said I, ‘ if it be true, or else he would 
 never have used such base terms, especially to so noble a 
 king as Henry ¥111/ 
 
 “ And here my lord spake somewhat which I remember 
 not; but I went on, saying: ‘And besides this, sir, if we 
 should not regard his person, but account that as a passion 
 either of infirmity or great zeal against the King, being then 
 a Papist, though it were so great a blemish in so rare a man ; 
 yet what may a man think of these foul doctrines which be 
 taught, 12 and which appear to be truly reported of him because 
 Mr. Charke confesseth them, and going about to defend the 
 first, hath no other way but to leave out some part of Luther’s 
 words and falsify his meaning very strangely, that I was greatly 
 ashamed at the reading thereof, like as he dealt before with a 
 place of St. Augustine, which made me think with myself that 
 God’s truth, if it be with us, needeth not to be defended with 
 lies, which moved me the more for that I do hold Mr. Charke 
 for some chief learned man, having been one of the chief dis- 
 putants with Mr. Campion in the Tower, and therefore I 
 thought if this were true, as it seemed, of this dealing of 
 Mr. Charke’s, it might well be that he and others used the 
 like liberty in other matters against the Papists, as the said 
 Defence complaineth very much ; and this, I assure you, my 
 lord,’ quoth I, ‘ hath bred in me a great scruple of mind, not 
 knowing whom to trust.’ Whereunto my lord answered, ‘ And 
 will you believe all that this paltry book saith to be true ? ’ I 
 answered, ‘ If it please your Grace, I desire to be certified of 
 the truth of this book, and that it may be examined, for I 
 was not furnished with books to examine the same, and the 
 author thereof is so full of his quotations of Luther’s own 
 books for proof of what he saith, as either they must needs 
 most of them prove true, or else he is the most impudent 
 creature that liveth, be it Parsons or whoever it may be.’ 
 
 13 Father Walsingham, writing a controversial work, was compelled to 
 enumerate some of the doctrines in this place, which he more fully details 
 n his second difficulty, naming, as we have before mentioned, the book of 
 Luther containing them. These doctrines are too shocking even to hint at 
 in our present history. The worst Mormonite tenets do not approach them. 
 
336 
 
 Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 “ And then my lord and Dr. Montague looking on each 
 other, my lord said : ‘ This book is answered already ; ’ and 
 then, whilst Dr. Montague looked on the date of the impres- 
 sion, my lord added further, ‘ I am sure it is answered ; I have 
 burnt a number of them,’ meaning of the Defence of the Censure. 
 Whereunto I said, ‘ My lord, I would gladly see the answer, 
 and then I hope I shall be fully satisfied.’ My lord made no 
 answer, but spoke something to Dr. Montague which I do not 
 remember, but sure I am it was of no moment for my satis- 
 faction, for still I urged to have the places and authorities 
 examined. From Mr. Luther we fell to talk of M. Beza, 
 concerning whom I told them that the book reporteth how 
 he sold his benefice to one, and took money for it beforehand 
 of another, and ran away with another man’s wife to Geneva, 
 with other such-like behaviour.’ Whereto my lord said, ‘ Beza 
 confessed so much of himself (concerning his benefice), or 
 else they had never known it ; but their cozenings and false 
 dealings (meaning of the Papists) go far beyond this.’ * And 
 for M. Calvin,’ said I, ‘whom I have always reverenced, and 
 employed my chiefest time of study in his Book of Institu- 
 tions ; I find him accused here to have been a false and 
 deceitful man, and that he was branded with a hot iron for 
 an abominable crime, and would have raised a dead man, 
 whilst he was alive, but afterwards found him dead indeed 
 by his prayers and endeavours to raise him. And many such 
 like things,’ said I, ‘ are in that book reported of him whilst 
 he lived, until he died most miserably, afflicted with sundry 
 loathsome diseases as were Herod and Antiochus.’ Then 
 said my lord, ‘These be all lies and tales of that Bolsack.’ 
 . . . Whereto I said, ‘ My lord, I know not what their lies 
 may be, but the question is now chiefly of their doctrines, 
 which if it be true, a man may lead, I think, a good life 
 amongst them if he will, though some of them be never 
 so bad.’ 
 
 “ Upon this, Dr. Montague took occasion to talk some- 
 what in praise and defence of M. Calvin, urging me to say 
 somewhat against anything that I had read in his doctrine; 
 and by chance I remembered a place which I had observed 
 in his Institutions, where he scoffs at St. Augustine and his 
 mother, St. Monica, for that she had demanded to be remem- 
 bered by him after her death in the sacrifice of the altar, which 
 Calvin saith was an ‘old wives’ request, whicfr the son not 
 considering well of was willing to grant, and would have others 
 
Father Francis Walsingham. 337 
 
 do the like , 13 whereby I inferred that St. Austin seemed to 
 approve two doctrines of the Papists together, the Sacrifice of 
 the Mass and prayers for the dead. But to this Dr. Montague 
 answered, 4 Tush, I can show you there is no such thing in 
 St. Augustine.’ 4 Then/ said I, ‘ is M. Calvin a false man, 
 that both confesseth and citeth the same.’ And with this I 
 began to have a scruple of Dr. Montague’s conscience also in 
 avouching so publicly an evident untruth. 
 
 “ But now my lord, being desirous to rise, said to 
 Dr. Montague (who had both the book and my memorial 
 in his hand), 4 Well, Mr. Dean, now you can show the King 
 his meaning.’ And then my lord and Dr. Montague, both 
 standing on foot, said with a loud voice to me, ‘ What did 
 you mean to say in your memorial, “ The King is only worthy 
 and able to open the book,” as if there were nobody else could 
 answer it ? ’ Whereto I answered, yielding for my reason the 
 scruple I made of my oath taken to the supremacy ; and then 
 my lord, calling me friendly by my name, said, ‘ Well, Mr. Wal- 
 singham, I see no cause why I should commit you to prison ; 
 have you any friends in the Court that will be bound for your 
 appearance?’ I answered, ‘No, my lord, none whom I would 
 willingly trouble upon such an occasion.’ Then he asked me 
 if I would promise him to come to his house at Lambeth the 
 next day. I answered that I would, by God’s help ; then he 
 conjured me, as I would answer at the Day of Judgment, that I 
 should not fail ; I told him I would not fail, and then I was 
 dismissed. And as I was going irt the throng after my lord out 
 of the Council Chamber, some one that came behind me spoke 
 somewhat loud to me, saying, Tenete fidem tudm , which com- 
 forted me at the heart, but I could not well discern who it 
 might be. And so I went somewhat more cheerfully that 
 night from the Court towards London. 
 
 “ The next morning, being Easter Eve, I went to Lambeth, 
 where being admitted into my lord’s presence in his gallery, he 
 bid me favourably welcome, and after some private speech 
 commanded one to call Doctor Cowell, his chaplain, unto him. 
 When he was come my lord said : ‘ Here is one that is fallen 
 into some doubts by reading a Papist’s book, the Defence* of 
 the Censure. Take him to you and see if you can satisfy him ; 
 he is willing to confer.’ So leaving my lord in the gallery, I 
 went with Mr. Doctor to his chamber, and being come thither 
 he began to ask me concerning my name, dwelling, calling, and 
 13 Calvin’s Instit. lib. iii. c. v. § io. 
 
 W 
 
338 Father Francis Walsingham . 
 
 proceeding in this matter, being nothing willing, as it seemed, 
 to talk with me of any further argument ; but yet in process of 
 much speech we came to talk of Papists and their religion in 
 general, but nothing to my purpose, until I began to speak of 
 the Church, saying : ‘ It seemeth to me very strange that the 
 Church of Rome should be so fallen into heresy and supersti- 
 tion as we hold, seeing our Saviour promised to be with the 
 Church unto the end of the world, and to send His Holy Spirit 
 which should lead it into all truth.’ Then Mr. Doctor said : 
 
 ‘ Christ hath always been with His Church, and has preserved 
 some true believers in all ages.’ ‘ But you yourself,’ said I, ‘ do 
 write in your book against the Puritans, that doubtless the 
 Church of Rome was once the light of the world for many 
 ages, and the King in his speech at the Parliament now in 
 print, calls her the Mother Church, which must needs import 
 that once she was the true Church, and therefore it seems that 
 either she endures so still, or else that Christ did forsake this 
 His true Church, and permit her to fall into heresy and super- 
 stition (which seems expressly against His own promise in the 
 Gospel), if it be true that the Church of Rome has fallen into 
 idolatry and blasphemous heresies, as we say.’ . . . 
 
 “ Then said Mr. Doctor : 4 do not condemn all the 
 doctrine of the Church of Rome ; I know they teach many 
 good things, but yet they hold some opinions contrary to the 
 Scripture.’ I answered, ‘ If they do hold any points against 
 the Scripture, they cannot be the true Church, for that she 
 holdeth nothing but truth, being, as St. Paul says, the pillar 
 and ground of truth ; and, moreover, they have many excellent 
 learned men amongst them, such as you yourself greatly com- 
 mended in your book, and they, may be, can discern no such 
 errors to be in their doctrine against Scripture ; and further- 
 more do allege not only Scripture, but say that all the ancient 
 Fathers did acknowledge and confirm their doctrine. And 
 whereas you say that Christ had always some true believers, it 
 seems that some in so great a multitude of Christians cannot 
 well stand for a Catholic Church.’ Dr. Cowell answered, ‘The 
 Fathers make as much for us as for them, though in many 
 things they followed the time wherein they lived, and in con- 
 tinuance of time men have attained to more light.’ Which 
 answer satisfied nothing at all my understanding, condemning 
 the Fathers as accommodating themselves unto the times, 
 which is to evacuate all their authority, and the authority of 
 the Church throughout all times. 
 
Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 339 
 
 “ Many such speeches Mr. Doctor uttered, but very coldly, 
 as not seeming to proceed from his heart. ‘ But/ said I, con- 
 cerning this book, * sir, I would gladly make trial of the truth 
 thereof/ and then I took out my notes and collections which I 
 had gathered out of the “ Defence,” saying, ‘ 1 pray you let me 
 see some of Luther’s works if you have any ; I would fain see 
 that De Missa Privata .’ ‘ I think I have it/ said Mr. Doctor, 
 
 and so he went into his study, and at length finding it brought 
 it forth. Then I began to speak of Luther’s conference with 
 the devil, and turning over a leaf or two of the book, as it lay 
 before us in the window, I lit upon the same place cited by 
 the “Censure,” and began to read until Mr. Doctor interrupted 
 me, and turning away from the book, said, * Tush, you see I 
 have this book and many such like, and I never regard them ; 
 this hath lain by me I know not how long/ &c. I answered, 
 ‘ But surely, sir, if I had known it, or could have seen it before 
 now, I should have regarded it, and considered well of it/ and 
 this seemed enough to me, for I had as much as in this matter 
 I desired, the thing being plain that Luther had this story of 
 his conference with the devil in his own writings, which my 
 Lord of Canterbury and Dr. Montague before ascribed to the 
 pious lies of the Papists. But Mr. Dr. Cowell, flying from this, 
 persisted in sundry other discourses, saying, ‘Why I have 
 myself divers of my own friends and kindred that are that way 
 minded towards Papistry, and yet it doth not move me. I 
 assure you, Mr. Walsingham, if I were persuaded that it were 
 the truth, there should no promotion nor anything else -cause 
 me to forsake it/ &c. 
 
 “To this, though I answered little, yet I thought the more, 
 and that promotion was not so lightly esteemed by him, for 
 that as soon as ever he perceived that I was not satisfied by 
 these his words, he showed himself not a little offended, 
 wishing that he had never known me, for that he should 
 receive, as he said, discredit by having talked with me, and 
 not satisfied me, and with this he left me, and went to my 
 lord, it being now dinner-time : and when my lord and his 
 company were set at table, I was invited and called in also 
 by one of his gentlemen to dine there, and by my lord’s 
 commandment placed at the end of his own table, right over 
 against him, who used me that day with extraordinary courtesy, 
 sending me from his own dish, and commanding divers par- 
 ticular favours to be used towards me ; for instance, he sent 
 me his own dish of rice, with some extraordinary fish, but 
 
 w 2 
 
340 Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 no flesh, though there was some at table. No matter of argu- 
 ment or dispute fell out at that dinner, though I somewhat 
 suspected that something would have been said concerning 
 me and my cause. There was also present Sir Christopher 
 Perkins, whom if I had then known as after I understood, 
 to have been a Jesuit many years, it would have given me 
 matter to muse upon. 14 
 
 “But after dinner, walking up with Mr. Doctor into the 
 Great Chamber, I found there another matter of ’greater musing, 
 among other cogitations occurring, for three or four hours 
 together, which was the pictures of all the Kings of England in 
 their proper habits, of whom among other things I considered 
 
 14 Sir Christopher Perkins, olim S.J. This unhappy apostate, who 
 died in 1622, was educated at Oxford, where he proceeded B.A. in 1565. 
 Leaving the University without further degree, he went abroad, and joining 
 the Society of Jesus, was for many years an eminent professor in it. He 
 was residing in Rome, when William Cecil, afterwards Earl of Exeter, 
 grandson to William, Lord Burleigh, was travelling in those parts : they 
 entered into a familiar correspondence. Mr. Perkins was very useful to 
 this young nobleman in various obliging offices, &c., and at last there was 
 such an intimacy between them that the young lord prevailed on Father 
 Perkins to accompany him to England; this finally resulted in the Father’s 
 apostasy to the Protestant Establishment. Afterwards, upon Cecil’s recom- 
 mendation, Lord Burleigh procured for him the Deanery of Carlisle, which 
 before was in secular hands, viz., Sir John Walley’s. Burleigh, observing 
 Mr. Perkins to be a person of good address, and singular parts, with a head 
 for business, recommended him in 1595, to the Queen, as a proper agent 
 to be sent into Germany to hear the complaints of the Hanse Towns, in 
 matters of trade. After his return it was the design of Burleigh that he 
 should live at Carlisle, and attend to his ministry, yet we find him living 
 still in London, where, being brought into acquaintance with Bancroft, 
 Protestant Bishop of London, he was employed both for researches beyond 
 seas, and upon other occasions also. In 1600, he, with the Doctor 
 (Bancroft), and John Swale, were sent by the Queen as Ambassadors to 
 Emden, to confer with the delegates of Denmark concerning trade, &c., 
 and Perkins performed his part ably. Soon after, by the said Bishop’s 
 persuasion, he became substitute for Sir Daniel Donne, Master of the 
 Requests, who was superannuated. On his death, Mr. Perkins succeeded 
 to the office and was knighted. About that time, the Duke of Buckingham, 
 being in great favour with James I., Sir Christopher, in order to promote 
 his own interest at Court, married the Duke’s maternal aunt. Afterwards, 
 the Duke, hearing of Sir Christopher’s former vow of celibacy, detested 
 him, and resolved that he should rise no higher. Out of revenge, Perkins 
 made over his estate to a servant man, who was childless, and near death. 
 This servant, dying a few months after Sir Christopher, left most of the 
 estate to the lady. This unhappy apostate is said to have had a hand in 
 contriving and drawing up the oath of allegiance, during his intimacy with 
 Bancroft ( Vide Dodd’s Church History of England^ vol. ii. pp. 417, 41B). 
 
Father Francis Walsingham. 341 
 
 how simple and plain they were, until King Henry VIII., who 
 first of all began to alter, or doubt at least of the religion 
 which they all professed unto his time. And when, after long 
 waiting, I saw myself not called, nor any come to me again 
 for giving me satisfaction in my doubts, I began to think that 
 there was more difficulty in them than I myself had hitherto 
 conceived ; and so at length, being wearied to wait any longer, 
 I thought best to repair to Dr. Cowell’s chamber, to know what 
 was my lord's pleasure of me; who going and returning 
 brought me word that I might go home into the country, until 
 my lord should send for me again. And so I departed, 
 marvelling not a little at my so slight and sudden dismissal, 
 whereof yet afterwards I perceived the cause and felt the 
 effects." 
 
 Father Walsingham then proceeds to detail his third and 
 fourth appearances before his Grace of Canterbury at Lambeth 
 Palace. 
 
 “But now I was no sooner departed, but my lord, whether 
 called upon by the King or otherwise, entering into deeper 
 apprehension of the matter than before, he asked his chaplain, 
 Dr. Cowell, the next day, what had become of me; and 
 perceiving I was dismissed, was exceeding angry, and gave 
 commandment that I was to be sought out and brought 
 back again with all diligence : whereupon Dr. Cowell, 
 besides the sending of some to seek me in London, sent 
 also another to the Commissary of St. Albans, near unto 
 whom I dwelt, charging him to seek me out, which made 
 a great noise in all that country. But I was met withal 
 two days after walking in Paul’s without cogitation of this 
 matter, and so was presently brought to Mr. Dr. Cowell, 
 where he then was, and with him passed to Lambeth again, 
 whereof Mr. Doctor was very glad, and I not sorry, thinking 
 that now I should have some good satisfaction indeed in all 
 my doubts. 
 
 “But as soon as I came, I perceived that my lord’s coun- 
 tenance towards me was changed, for I being brought by 
 Dr. Cowell before him into his study, where was also the 
 aforesaid knight, Sir Christopher Perkins, as soon as I came 
 into his presence, I beheld my lord’s countenance framed 
 to be angry. 1 How now, sirrah,’ saith my lord, ‘ how chance 
 you went away in that manner the other day ? ’ ‘ May it 
 
 please your Grace,’ said I, ‘ Mr. Dr. Cowell told me it was 
 your lordship’s pleasure I should go home, until your Grace 
 
342 Father Francis Walsingham . 
 
 sent for me/ My lord said he gave no such order ; 
 Dr. Cowell is a wise man. Dr. Cowell said, ‘ I understood 
 your Grace so.’ Then my lord, turning to the knight, said, 
 with an angry countenance, ‘ As soon as I came to i the Court 
 to-day, the first word the King spake unto me, he asked me 
 what I had done with him who had delivered the book ; you 
 are a fellow, indeed ; we have dealt too gently with you ; thou 
 art a bold companion to deliver such a book to the King.’ 
 Then I began to speak, and to give my reasons thereof. But 
 my lord proceeded in his wrathful speeches, and after many 
 fierce and angry words, he added, ‘ I will even send thee to 
 Bridewell ; thou art worthy to be set on the pillory, and to 
 have thine ears cut off for a libelling knave as thou art.’ I 
 answered, ‘May it please your Grace, I hope I have not 
 deserved any such punishment. I have set my name to that 
 which I have written. I desire of you, my lord, but to be 
 taught the truth.’ His Grace replied, ‘ Thou be taught, thou 
 art a foolish bold knave, and I will handle thee as thou art, 
 before I have done with thee.’ 
 
 “So when my lord had chaffed and spoken largely his 
 mind, thinking he had now put me in a bodily fear, the knight 
 in the corner began to speak, and say, ‘ My lord, he will be 
 better advised. Mr. Walsingham, I dare say, is sorry for his 
 rashness. You shall see he will conform himself, and behave 
 himself as he should.’ But my lord still continued his rough 
 and angry terms, saying, ‘No man will serve you, forsooth, but 
 the King, to deal withal ? ’ I answered : ‘ May it please your 
 Grace to consider my reasons, why I addressed myself chiefly 
 to the King ? ’ Then, said my lord, ‘ Why, what hast thou to 
 do with the King ; what careth the King, if thou wert hanged 
 like a foolish knave as thou art;’ with many other such-like 
 vehement and threatening speeches, but yet in the end he said, 
 ‘ Come near,’ for all this while I stood aloof. 
 
 “ And then he called for his secretary or notary, saying 
 with indignation to me, ‘Come, come you hither, I will 
 examine you further than I have done yet. I have but dallied 
 with you hitherto. Come on, take your oath.’ Whereto I 
 replied, ‘ It shall not need to exact any oath at my hands, for I 
 will answer nothing but truth to anything your Grace shall ask 
 me without my oath.’ Then said my lord, ‘ Grace me no more 
 Grace ! come, I will have thee swear, and I will handle thee 
 as thou art.’ So I was examined upon my oath : How I came 
 by the book ; whether anybody else had dealt with me herein, 
 
Father Francis Walsingham . 343 
 
 and such like; to all which I answered truly, but negatively, 
 for, in truth, hitherto I had never dealt with any Papist at 
 all. Then he further urged me, saying : ‘ What was your 
 meaning by delivering the book to the King?’ I answered: 
 
 1 My lord, I expressed my meaning and my cause in that 
 memorial which I gave with the book.’ ‘ What/ saith he, * but 
 you thought to convert the King, belike ? Did you think the 
 King would believe all the lies in that book, as well as 
 yourself? ’ I said, ‘ My lord, I did not weigh nor consider 
 his Majesty’s judgment by my own, and my only desire is to 
 know whether they be lies or no ; for then were I satisfied.’ 
 My lord urged me still, saying, ‘ But what did you think ? ’ I 
 answered : ‘ I had so many and diverse thoughts, my lord, that 
 I cannot say precisely what I thought.’ His Grace said, ‘ Nay, 
 you thought to do some notable act, I am sure ; you thought 
 to make the King a Papist, forsooth; come, I will have you 
 tell me what you thought.’ Whereunto I answered (forasmuch 
 as he urged me so eagerly, and that upon my oath), ‘That 
 albeit I had no express intention either to make his Majesty 
 or myself a Papist thereby, yet did I hope that if by his sound 
 judgment I should find any one of these things true, that are 
 alleged, he would cause the rest to be searched, and so myself 
 to be satisfied.’ 
 
 “ And now my Lord of Canterbury’s anger being somewhat 
 assuaged, the knight in the corner said, ‘If it please your 
 lordship, you shall see Mr. Walsingham will be better advised, 
 and conform himself as well as ever he did, after he shall have 
 conferred with some learned man.’ My lord said, ‘ Why, 
 Dr. Cowell here hath talked with him ; what say you of him?’ 
 Dr. Cowell said, ‘ I have had but little talk with him ; he will 
 talk of nothing but concerning that book : he stands altogether 
 thereupon and the points therein contained.’ Whereto I replied 
 saying: ‘Dr. Cowell showed me Luther’s book, De Missa 
 Privata , wherein he confesseth he had conference with the 
 devil, as the Book of Defence affirmed of him, and therefore 
 I think he could not be a man of God that should enlighten 
 the world/ &c. ‘ Why, then/ said my lord, ‘ we do not build 
 
 our faith nor religion upon Luther.’ ‘ Then/ said I, ‘ is there 
 Beza also, may it please your lordship, whom I took to be 
 a most reverend and holy man ; he wrote such vile and 
 indecent verses as is incredible.’ My lord said, ‘ What if he 
 did make such verses when he was in his youth ; and Beza 
 was a Papist when he was a young man. Dost thou not know 
 
344 
 
 Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 how St. Paul was a great persecutor of God’s Church, yet after 
 became a holy Apostle?’ I answered : ‘But if it please your 
 lordship, St. Paul was no persecutor after he became an 
 Apostle ; and further, if we should pardon Beza in his youth, 
 yet the book saith he became worse after he was a man of 
 years and a Protestant, and not better.’ . . . [Here Father 
 Walsingham mentions some shocking crimes recounted of this 
 miserable man, one being the murder of his own unlawful 
 child.] ‘And many such, while he lived at Geneva. And 
 further I added how Dr. Bolsack, the writer of the story, 
 protesteth before God, and all His holy angels, that he setteth 
 down nothing upon malice, or that is false, and therefore he 
 dedicated his book to the magistrates of Geneva that they 
 might make trial of that which he had written both concern- 
 ing Calvin and Beza ; and as for that concerning Beza, he 
 wrote whilst he himself was alive, as the Defence saith, 
 that he might the better answer for himself, but we never 
 heard that he convinced Bolsack of any lies or false reports. 
 And is it probable that any man will damn himself, my 
 lord,’ said I, ‘that he may disgrace or discredit another?’ 
 But my lord answered, ‘ Tush ; these are all Bolsack’s 
 lies, a renegade fellow. I have burnt a number of his 
 books.’ 
 
 “ And with this he rose from his place, and walked into the 
 inner part of his study, giving as it were place on purpose 
 for some others to interpose themselves, and to take up the 
 matter, which they did. For presently came the aforesaid 
 knight, and Dr. Cowell about me, the knight saying, ‘ Well, 
 Mr. Walsingham, I hope you will be advised ; my lord will 
 use you favourably ;’ and with some other few words to the 
 same effect, which seemed to me a strange speech of one that 
 had been a priest, and, as some say, a professed Jesuit, to 
 stand so much upon temporal favour in points concerning the 
 soul. And then Dr. Cowell said, ‘You see, Mr. Walsingham, 
 how angry my lord was. I would wish you not to be obstinate, 
 and you shall see my lord will deal the better with you.’ I 
 answered, I hope my lord shall have no cause to deal hardly 
 with me ; for I am willing to confer with any, but 1 cannot 
 be satisfied with any conference but the trial of the truth of 
 the citations in this book.’ 
 
 “Then my lord coming towards us, said, ‘Why, if you 
 stand so much upon books, I can show you enough ; you 
 shall want no books ; will you read one that I will lend you ? 
 
Father Francis Walsingham . 
 
 345 
 
 Othergates 15 books than that lying fellow’s libel?’ I answered : 
 ‘ Yes, that I will, if it please your grace to show them me, and 
 humbly thank your lordship for the same.’ Then my lord 
 called to one to fetch forth two books of Mr. Thomas Bell’s, 
 one entitled The Anatomy of Popish Tyranny , and the other 
 The Survey of Popery , which being brought, my lord said, 
 ‘Here are two books: will you read these? You shall see 
 what he saith here to the Papists.’ I answered : ‘ If it please 
 your lordship, I will read them willingly : ’ and furthermore, my 
 lord asked me if I had read Mr. Jewell and Mr. Harding’s 
 books? I answered that I had read Mr. Jewell’s only. ‘Why,’ 
 said he, ‘you might have taken those books to read rather 
 than this, and so you should have dealt more indifferently, and 
 have seen what had been said on both sides ; but to go and 
 take such a paltry book as this’ [meaning Parsons’ Defence 
 of the Censure ], ‘it was a very foolish part indeed.’ But I 
 stood still in this, to have the doubts and difficulties answered 
 which I had gathered out of this book. 
 
 “Then my lord returned to his former place, perusing my 
 examination before taken, and added this also to my former 
 oath, that I should be bound to read through both these books 
 of Bell, and return with them unto his lordship at the latter 
 end of the next term following. Whereunto I subscribed. 
 
 ‘ But,’ said Dr. Cowell, at the same instant, ‘ my lord, if it 
 please your Grace, you may swear him not to depart the land 
 without some licence or notice thereof given to your lordship.’ 
 Whereto, as I remember, my lord answered : ‘ Why, he will 
 come again, and then we will see further, and I trow,’ said he 
 unto me, ‘ by that time you have read these books, and marked 
 them well, you will have no mind to be a Papist.’ ‘ I will 
 see, my lord, what he saith,’ said I. ‘ Then,’ said my lord, 
 
 ‘ come again to me tp-morrow, and I will write to Mr. Rolfe, 
 the commissaiy, concerning you.’ And thus for that present 
 time I was dismissed. 
 
 “ The next morning I repaired again to my lord, who had 
 then put on a more mild and familiar countenance, and calling 
 me near unto him, said, ‘ Mr. Walsingham, you must be wise, 
 and staid, and not run too far into these matters of contro- 
 versy beyond your reading and knowledge. It is good that 
 
 15 i.e. Books of other gates, or ways; of a different tenor. The use 
 of term gate, for way, is common to the north of England and the lowland 
 Scotch. It is, in fact, an Anglian or Scandinavian usage which has died out 
 in the south. 
 
346 Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 you confer with some that be learned. Let me see, whom do 
 you know that you would desire should talk with you?’ 
 I answered : ‘ If it please your Grace, I do not know many, 
 but whom your lordship shall think meet, I shall be willing to 
 attend/ 4 Then/ said my lord, ‘ you are acquainted with the 
 Dean of Paul's?’ ‘No, my lord/ said I. ‘Nor with the 
 Dean of Westminster/ said he, ‘ Dr. Andrewes ?’ I said, ‘I 
 am not known unto him, my lord, but I have often heard him 
 preach before he was Dean of Westminster. He is held to 
 be very learned.’ Then my lord, pausing awhile, said, ‘ What 
 ministers have you near about where you dwell that are well 
 accounted of?’ ‘I know none, my lord, said I, ‘of any great 
 note near us.’ Then he said, ‘ Well, I will write to Mr. Rolfe, 
 that you may be conferred withal. How say you, are you 
 willing to confer?’ ‘Yes, my lord/ said I, ‘I am very willing 
 to abide any good order your lordship shall appoint me.’ 
 ‘ Then/ said my lord, ‘ I will write to the commissary that 
 he shall not trouble or hinder you in anything/ And so 
 calling for pen and ink, he wrote his letter, and having ended, 
 said, ‘ Here, I have written very favourable for you, and you 
 shall hear what I have written / and then my lord read his 
 letter to me, the sum whereof was thus : ‘ Whereas the bearer 
 hereof seemeth to be somewhat inclined towards Popery, we 
 will that you appoint some grave and learned divine who may 
 confer with him, and satisfy him in his doubts; but let all 
 things be so done, as that the young man may not be dis- 
 couraged, nor his infirmity divulged/ Then said my lord : 
 ‘You see what I have written; nothing that can any way 
 prejudice you, for you may confer with some learned man or 
 other, which Mr. Rolfe shall direct you unto ; and I doubt 
 not but by that time you come again, you will be well resolved 
 and conform yourself/ ‘ I hope so, my lord/ said I. ‘You 
 go to church?’ said my lord. ‘Yes, and if it please your 
 lordship/ said I. ‘Why, that is well/ said he. And thus 
 having received my lord’s letter, and humbly taking leave, he 
 bid me farewell : and then taking my leave of Dr. Cowell, he 
 spoke very kindly unto me, saying : ‘ I hope when you come 
 again, Mr. Walsingham, you will be of another mind, and all 
 shall be well ! ’ And so from Lambeth I passed to London, 
 and from thence the next day into the country, somewhat to 
 satisfy the expectation of my friends, and to appease somewhat 
 the rumours raised about me. 
 
 “ Whilst I was despatched by my lord, and on my way home, 
 
Father Francis W alsingham. 
 
 347 
 
 I began to think of divers matters, and amongst others of the 
 manner of my despatch ; how I had been treated by my lord 
 and his doctors in divers sorts, first by fair means and then by 
 foul ; and that in neither of them I had obtained that which 
 I most desired, and my soul had special need of, to wit, to 
 be satisfied of my doubts; whereof neither I had time to 
 propose, nor they patience to hear, more than a piece of one 
 or two of them, and that with such interruption as hath been 
 mentioned. Nor found I any man willing, as to me it seemed, 
 to enter charitably and soundly into the examination of the 
 doubts that I had conceived. Whereupon I began to distrust 
 with myself, and to suspect that matters went not so soundly 
 upon our side, as I had hitherto persuaded myself, if authority 
 of state were set aside, and things discussed simply by truth of 
 learning, which by all that I had seen and heard, I was resolved 
 to follow and seek out more than ever before. 
 
 “ And first of all I was now as good as fully persuaded that 
 the foul things written by Luther of himself, Zuinglius, and 
 others, about the conference with the devil and the like; as 
 also many of those things, at least, that are written of Calvin 
 and Beza, were true ; and thereof I did infer with myself for 
 certain that the first founders of our religion in these ages were 
 no saints, nor holy men, nor consequently could have the 
 Spirit of God in them (which cannot stand with the spirit of 
 the devil), at leastwise in that measure which is required for 
 so high an enterprise, as is the reforming of religion in matters 
 of doctrine and life ; and upon this I stood long, and my soul 
 trembled to think of it, and yet could not escape from it, for 
 still it came to my mind, that God having choice of virtuous 
 men, would never use such bad people, and scandalous persons, 
 to begin and plant so great a good as we hold our new religion 
 to be. 
 
 “ Secondly, I did consider that Papists stood much more 
 upon simplicity of truth in their Church than we do ; for that 
 they reject all sorts of sectaries that dissent from them in any 
 point of faith determined by the Church ; but we, as appeared 
 by this conference, do hold Luther, Zuinglius, and such others, 
 to be brethren of our Church, though we condemn their 
 doctrine in divers points, which seemed to me to be repug- 
 nant to all reason, and to the purity and unity of faith that 
 ought to be in a true church, whereby all must be saved that 
 are saved in that Church ; but yet again, on the other side, it 
 seemed to me impossible that Luther dying in all the points 
 
348 Father Francis Walsingham . 
 
 of his faith, and Zuinglius, and Calvin in theirs, and I in mine, 
 so different among themselves, as our books do show, though 
 all Protestants, that we should all be saved together, as by one 
 and the self-same faith ; especially remembering that saying of 
 St. Paul, ‘ One Lord, one faith, one baptism .’ 16 Whereupon 
 I determined to discuss the matter further. 
 
 “ And now remembering the two books that I had received 
 from my lord, with obligation of oath to read them, as also the 
 commission to peruse not only Jewell, but Harding also that 
 writeth against him, I purposed to perform both the one and 
 the other in due time ; and so coming home I repaired within 
 a day or two to Mr. Rolfe, the commissary of St. Albans, 
 delivering unto him my Lord of Canterbury’s letter before- 
 mentioned ; who first marvelling much at the matter, and then 
 conferring with me about the man which should be fit for our 
 purpose to answer my doubts, we could agree upon none more 
 fit for the purpose than one Master Dr. Downeham, a preacher 
 that dwelt some twenty miles off, and had written a book and 
 dedicated the same unto his Majesty, wherein he would prove 
 that the Pope was Antichrist, which was some special motive 
 (as it seemed) unto the commissary to appoint him to give me 
 satisfaction . 17 And as he was to be at a certain visitation within 
 a few days after, we agreed to wait that opportunity of meeting 
 and conference. 
 
 “ And so, not to be idle in the mean space, I read over one 
 of Mr. Bell’s works before I went to the said visitation, called 
 The Anatomy of the Popish Tyranny , the subject whereof was 
 to expose all the bitter speeches and contentions that had 
 passed from time to time between the priests and Jesuits, 
 about their obedience to the archpriest.” 
 
 Father Walsingham read the book with much disgust, 
 and saw that the said contentions were not dissensions in 
 point of faith, but merely as to the sufficiency of the arch- 
 priest himself. But yet, he says, being bound by oath to 
 read it over, he had patience to continue therein, though with 
 much loathsomeness, to hear so much dross gathered together 
 out of men’s passionate speeches and writings one against 
 another. He was also struck with Mr. Bell’s assertions 
 regarding the Jesuits, which, says he, he must have known to 
 have been false, such as that they were the murderers of King 
 
 36 Ephels. iv. 
 
 17 It was against this book that Father Michael Walpole took up his 
 pen. Vide p. 267, ante. 
 
Father Francis IValsingham. 349 
 
 Henry III. of France; and that Father Holt, the Jesuit, and 
 his companions in Flanders did gather from the Catholics in 
 England such an infinite mass of money for dispensations, 
 and other such uses, as it exceeded the sum of fifty thousand 
 pounds sterling, “which makes,” saith Bell, “ two hundred 
 millions of Italian scudi ” (more perhaps than all the princes 
 of Europe together do possess) and maketh this note upon 
 the fact, “Note here, gentle reader, the wealth, pride, and 
 saucy deceitful dealing of the Jesuits,” &c. 
 
 “ I do willingly pretermit almost infinite similar absurdities 
 found in that book, wherewith I was well wearied before I 
 came to the end. And truly I did marvel with myself how 
 my Lord of Canterbury could suffer such an exceeding railing 
 and defamatory book to lie in his study, and much more that 
 he would bestow it upon me to breed a good spirit in me, 
 which seemed for the spitefulness of style, and wickedness of 
 matter therein, to be fitter to frame the disposition of a 
 devil in a man, than to quiet or resolve his conscience in 
 matters of religion. 
 
 “ And being in this disgustful state, it was my chance, or 
 rather God’s providence, that I should make a journey with 
 a certain friend of mine to a place where I had occasion to 
 inquire of a good grave gentleman what this Bell should be 
 (for hitherto I had not known the man), ... of whom I under- 
 stood that he was a Yorkshireman, of a town called Raskall, 
 and out of that had been made minister, and afterwards 
 casting off his ministry became a Catholic, and so hot and 
 eager, as he was cast into York gaol, where he suffered much, 
 and was more troublesome to the keepers than all the rest of 
 the prisoners together. Being released, he went to Rheims, 
 and thence to Rome, and there, after some years of study, was 
 made priest, though always, as they say, of a fiery, turbulent, 
 and quarrelsome nature. . . . And so returning into England, 
 continued the same vein of dissension, and falling into a 
 licentious life, and fearing a threatened personal excommuni- 
 cation, he apostatized and became an open enemy, as did 
 Luther, Calvin, Beza,” &c. 
 
 Father Walsingham acknowledges that the writings of some 
 priests against the archpriest and Jesuits from which Bell drew 
 his arguments, greatly scandalized him, and caused an aversion 
 to their religion for a time. Yet afterwards, inquiring further, 
 he was credibly informed that one Mr. Watson, the chief 
 publisher of those contentions, did heartily repent him thereof 
 
350 
 
 Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 at his death, confessing that he had greatly wronged those 
 men, which somewhat pacified his aversion. “ So the reading 
 over of this book only wrought in me a great dislike both of 
 the matter and writer, that could make a volume of such foul 
 and unsavoury stuff, and no less of their sinister intentions that 
 put the book into my hands, in which I scarce found anything 
 worth a modest man’s reading, and much less writing.” He 
 then proceeds to give the dedicatory epistle of Mr. Bell’s book, 
 to Tobie Matthews, Archbishop of York, and expresses his 
 astonishment that his Grace could have allowed it. “ To let 
 the judicious reader see how little cause I had to be moved or 
 resolved in religion or in any of my doubts by reading this 
 man’s book, . . . the writer’s spirit seemed so base unto me, 
 and the subject so contemptible, as it often brought to my 
 mind the aforesaid town’s name where he was born, Raskal. 
 And gladly would I have cast the book both from my sight 
 and memory, only that it was commended and commanded 
 unto me by my Lord of Canterbury, and so I forced myself in 
 patience to go through it from the first line to the last.” 
 
 In this history of a very remarkable man of his times, it 
 is impossible to omit his journey to the visitation at Baldock, 
 and his conferences with Master Dr. Downeham and another. 
 The reader will therefore, it is hoped, pardon a few pages 
 devoted to this important passage of our subject. 
 
 “ And now the time appointed by Mr. Commissary for my 
 conference with Dr. Downeham being come, I repaired to the 
 visitation, where all the ministers of that diocese were present, 
 and so Mr. Doctor accepted this business, though with no 
 great willingness of mind, as it appeared, but that it was 
 imposed upon him by the commissary, by my Lord of 
 Canterbury’s authority. But after awhile, Mr. Doctor, 
 walking aside into the churchyard, began to ask me what 
 was the matter I desired to be resolved of? I answered, 
 ‘Sir, I would gladly know which were the true Church of 
 God wherein I might safely hope to a attain eternal life : great 
 controversies there are between Papists and our learned men 
 in England. They affirm that the Church of Rome is the 
 true Mother Church, teaching the true faith and religion 
 planted by Christ and His Apostles, confirmed by miracles, 
 deduced by succession of bishops and pastors, and that our 
 Church of England is heretical and newly sprung up of late 
 years as proceeding from Zuinglius and Calvin, and the first 
 original of all Protestancy to have been from Luther, before 
 
Father Francis Walsinghatn. 351 
 
 whom they say there was never Protestant heard of?’ ‘No/ 
 saith Mr. Doctor. ‘Then what were the Waldenses, and 
 Wyckliffe, and the Albigenses that were long before Luther? 
 The Church of Rome whatsoever it hath been in the beginning 
 of the primitive Church, yet it is very clear that now it is 
 that woman of Babylon sitting upon her seven hills/ &c. 
 Entering into a long discourse out of Revelations affirming 
 that the Pope was Antichrist, whereof himself having written 
 and printed an especial book, no marvel if he had his phrases 
 ready in that matter. I answered, ‘Why then, sir, belike 
 Christ hath not performed His promise that He would be 
 with His Church unto the end of the world, and that the 
 gates of hell should not prevail against it, which they of the 
 Roman religion say must needs follow if He permitted it to 
 fall into idolatry, and left it only to the Albigenses, &c., who 
 were held, as they say, for condemned heretics in their days, 
 and not agreeing either in religion among themselves, or with 
 us/ Then said Mr. Doctor, ‘Yes, Christ hath been always 
 with His Church, and hath preserved His elect in all ages, 
 who have not followed Antichrist, nor worshipped the image 
 of the beast, &c. You have met with some Papist book or 
 other, that with lies do seek to seduce many, and to draw 
 them from the truth of Christ’s Gospel.’ 
 
 “Whereupon I granted that I had read the Defence of 
 the Censure , which I confessed had driven me into many 
 doubts, and among other special matters I declared how that 
 it proved Luther, whom I esteemed to be a man of God, 
 to have been rather a very bad man, and to have opposed 
 himself against the Church of Rome by the instigation of the 
 devil himself, with whom he had much conference, as that 
 book affirmeth ; and many vile and wicked doctrines of his 
 be there set down, together with his scurrility and railing 
 against Henry VIII., in his book written against the King, 
 ... all which, with many other things, if they be true, and 
 the author shows most of them out of Luther’s own books; 
 surely, sir, I think it concerneth me to be of some better 
 faith and religion, than such as should have its original and 
 beginning from the devil : for what concord can there be 
 between Christ and Belial, light and darkness ? ’ Mr. Doctor 
 said, ‘It is a common practice of the Papists to blaspheme 
 the true servants of God, and I think/ quoth he, ‘ I have the 
 answer to that book.’ ‘ I would gladly/ said I, ‘ have a sight 
 of that answer, and make some trial of the truth thereof by 
 
352 Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 Luther’s own works, that I might know whether those things 
 were true or not, that are reported of him, and then I should 
 soon be satisfied.’ 
 
 “And now, it being dinner-time, Mr. Doctor said he was 
 to dine (as I remember) with Mr. Archdeacon, and so he left 
 me, not intending, as it seems, to have any further confer- 
 ence with me, which made me conceive a hard opinion of 
 Mr. Doctor’s charity and zeal; who perceiving in what state 
 I was, inclining now towards Popery, which himself esteemed 
 the worship of Antichrist, and consequently the ready way to 
 damnation, would seem so willing as he was to withdraw 
 himself from so good and charitable a work, especially being 
 commanded and appointed thereto by so supreme authority. 
 
 “But after I parted with Dr. Downeham I met with Mr. Com- 
 missary Rolfe, who demanding whether Mr. Doctor had con- 
 ferred with me? I answered, ‘Yes, sir, we have had some 
 conference.’ ‘What,’ said he, ‘hath he satisfied you?’ I 
 answered, ‘ truly, no ; we have had but small conference to 
 my purpose, but Mr. Doctor thinketh that he hath the answer 
 to the Defence which chiefly I desire to see.’ ‘Well,’ said 
 Mr. Rolfe, ‘ it were good you waited to speak with him again. 
 It may be he will help you to that book, and have some 
 further conference with you’.’ ‘ I am content,’ said I, ‘ to wait 
 for him awhile, for I would very willingly see that same answer.’ 
 And so I waited Mr. Doctor’s return to the church where the 
 visitation was held ; unto whom, as soon as I saw him, I asked 
 him for the said answer, and so, walking along towards the 
 church, we fell into speech concerning Luther, Calvin, and 
 Beza, and after that we had much talk for nearly an hour 
 concerning the Church and pastors thereof, the Doctor still 
 inveighing against the abominations of the Church of Rome, 
 and the Pope, affirming him to be Antichrist, and Luther to be 
 a holy man, notwithstanding he might have his infirmities ; and 
 yet not yielding him to be the first beginner of their Gospel, 
 but that in all ages there have been some that have withstood 
 the doctrine of the ( Church of Rome; and that there is 
 greater light and more illumination by God’s Spirit in many 
 of these days, for the understanding and delivering of the 
 truth, than in former times, wherein the ancient Fathers lived ; 
 upon whose writings or sayings, being men, we are not to ground 
 our faith and belief, &c. ; which kind of speech seemed very 
 fantastical and light unto me, though he were a doctor ; for that 
 by this means I thought that anything may be rejected, any 
 
Father Francis Walsingham. 353 
 
 creeping heretics of former ages may be accounted the elect of 
 God, and the Fathers that were the pillars of the true Church 
 in their days, and condemned them as heretics, may be thought 
 as men to have erred therein, seeing nothing is to be built 
 upon them ; yet I had not time, for we were interrupted by 
 certain ministers that came in — his neighbours — to call him 
 to go homeward. At our breaking off, Mr. Doctor said, 4 Well, 
 I can say no more unto you ; but take heed you forsake not 
 the truth and fall to worship Antichrist. I have some of 
 Mr. Luther’s works ; if you come to my house at any time, 
 I will show you what I have.’ I answered, 4 Thank you, sir, 
 and seeing it is the main business I come for, if it please you 
 I will go home with you at this present, for I know not when 
 to have a fitter time.’ So I went home with the Doctor, being 
 ten miles from Baldock, and one or two ministers more. 
 
 44 And being now come to his house at Munden, presently 
 the Doctor went into his study to seek for the answer to the 
 Defence, which at length he brought unto me, and amongst 
 other books, Dr. Fulke’s Rejoinder to Martial’s Reply, where- 
 unto was annexed at the end, 4 A Defence of the Writings of 
 William Fulke against the Quarrels of the Papists.’ And so we 
 walked into his garden with this Answer in his hand, wherein 
 he began to read some part concerning the Defence of Luther, 
 &c., consisting of nothing but bitter terms against the Papists, 
 and especially against the author of the Defence, which lie 
 esteemed to be Parsons. ... I desired to hear some con- 
 futation of those reports against Luther, and some defence 
 of his doctrines, and justifying Mr. Charke’s honest dealing 
 in citing Luther’s words. But Mr. Doctor, as not willing to 
 treat much of that which was my only desire, slipped over into 
 some other discourses concerning his own book, dedicated to 
 the King, wherein he said he had proved the Pope to be 
 Antichrist so substantially, as that 4 1 think,’ quoth he, 4 it is 
 sufficient to overthrow the Pope and all the Papists’ religion.’ 
 So he called unto him a little youth, that was both his curate 
 and schoolmaster for his little children (for he had a wife and 
 divers children), to bring him that book of his. But I said, 
 
 4 It need not, sir; I would first see some of Luther’s works, 
 for that is the chief cause of my coming to try what can be 
 found there ; and as for the argument of your book concerning 
 Antichrist, I assure you that I have talked with divers learned 
 men of our religion in England that hold the Pope not to be 
 Antichrist.’ 4 It is no matter for that,’ saith he : 4 if you will 
 
 x 
 
354 
 
 Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 read my book you shall see what proofs and arguments I 
 allege for what I say/ &c. And so we passed to supper, 
 which being ended, Mr. Doctor turning over his books (the 
 answer to the Defence, and his own), I still desired to see 
 some of Luther’s works, and I asked if he had that De 
 Captivitate Babylonica , which he brought, and so I began to 
 search for certain places I had noted out of the Defence, 
 whereof some I could not find, as not being in that volume, 
 but concerning the immodest and railing terms of his writing 
 against Henry VIII., I partly found those cited by the Defence 
 in his preface to the Earl of Passune, and being interrupted by 
 other talk of Mr. Doctor, &c., I was not very desirous to seek 
 further, taking that as a sufficient testimony of the truth of the 
 rest, although as the Defence affirmeth by the testimony of 
 Gesner, a Protestant, that Luther’s Latin edition of the book 
 against Henry VIII. was nothing like for immodesty the Dutch 
 edition. 
 
 “ Moreover I found in Assertionibus, where Luther repre- 
 hends the Pope for defining, besides Scripture, the immortality 
 of the soul, also this assertion, ‘ That neither man nor angel on 
 earth can lay any one law upon any one Christian, further than 
 he will himself.’ Also these words, ‘ So thou seest how rich 
 a Christian man is , who cannot lose his salvation though he 
 would, with never so great sins, except he will not believe ; for 
 no sins can damn him , but only incredulity Which words, 
 with the rest, Mr. Doctor endeavoured to justify with certain 
 glosses, highly extolling that excellent work of Luther upon 
 the Epistle to the Galatians ; and upon the Epistle of Peter, 
 adding that that upon the Galatians, was a most comfortable 
 book exhorting to good works, &c. Whereto I replied, 1 But 
 Mr. Doctor Cowell reprehended Luther’s writing upon the 
 Galatians, saying that he (Luther) was not unjustly called in 
 question by the Church of Rome for speaking harshly, as he 
 saith, concerning good works,’ when he writes thus : ‘ Faith 
 without, and before we have charity doth justify.’ And again, 
 * Faith, unless it be without even the least good works, 
 doth not justify ; nay, it is not faith.’ But Mr. Doctor would 
 scarcely believe this to be so in Luther, saying, ‘Tush; 
 Dr. Cowell is but a young man ;’ signifying thereby that there 
 was but little to be ascribed unto him, though both of them 
 had written books, and not more difference perhaps of age 
 between them than some half dozen years. Then I desired 
 18 See both in Capliv. Bab. title “De Baptismo.” 
 
Father Francis Walsingham. 355 
 
 we might try the place ; but then he said he had not Luther 
 upon the Galatians. Then I named that of Luther, 1 It is a 
 false opinion, and to be abolished, that there are four Gospels ; 
 for the Gospel of St. J ohn is the only fair, true, and principal 
 Gospel : ’ which Mr. Doctor seemed not to believe that it was 
 in Luther : yet because I told him how Charke and Hanmer 
 had confessed it, he made such an answer as Mr. Charke before 
 made to the Censure — that Luther’s meaning was that all the 
 four Gospels were but one Gospel. But I replied he could 
 have no good meaning in making such comparisons and pro- 
 posing such disparity among the four Evangelists, as when he 
 saith, 1 The Epistles of Paul and Peter do far pass the three 
 Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke/ ‘What passing or 
 pre-excelling is there,’ said I ; ‘ were they not all penned by 
 the Spirit of God?”’ &c. 
 
 Father Walsingham then goes on with various other 
 extracts from Luther’s writings, one of which books, he says, 
 “ I did see in English at the stationer’s shop next to the north 
 door of Paul’s Church, and there I presently copied out his 
 words verbatim. ... To all this Mr. Doctor made little or no 
 answer, but highly commended Luther, saying he was a holy 
 man, and his works were many and learned, and full of great 
 comfort, &c. And thus, having spent a good part of the 
 night, we drew to an end, and then after Mr. Doctor had 
 made a long extemporal prayer, without book, perhaps well 
 near for the space of half an hour, his wife and household 
 being also present, I was directed to my lodging. 
 
 “The next morning I prepared myself to take leave of 
 Mr. Doctor and his wife, but in the meanwhile it chanced 
 that another minister came to visit him, being a man somewhat 
 aged and grave ; to whom the Doctor named me, and the 
 object of my visit, and he desired to have some talk with me, 
 so we walked together with Mr. Doctor into his garden, where 
 again, at his request, relating my case, the elder minister began 
 to speak of the obstinacy of Papists, in that they would not 
 hear the truth manifested unto them. And besides, he accused 
 them of false writing and reports, &c. I said, ‘ This is what 
 I want to see ; if I could prove the book false in its reports, 
 I should have somewhat to say, but as far as I have made 
 trial, I find the author to write no untruth.’ Then he began to 
 tell us how himself had been lately sent for to talk with a 
 Papist in prison (in Hartford gaol, I think), ‘ but when I came, 
 he would neither hear nor speak, saying, You have no 
 x 2 
 
356 Father Francis Walsingham . 
 
 authority to teach, neither do I acknowledge you for a lawful 
 pastor/ &c. * Why/ saith he, ‘ I am a minister well known in 
 
 the country. I have been a preacher these (so many) years ; 
 I have taken the degrees of schools ; I am a master of arts, 
 and I have preached at the University, and the visitation, 
 before all the learned men in the country ; but for all this, as 
 he said, the Catholic Church would not abide to hear me 
 preach or dispute there, nor would so much as hear his voice/ 
 After some such frivolous talk, we were requested to breakfast, 
 where among other speeches against the Papists, and their 
 doctrine, Mr. Doctor exclaimed against Indulgences; and 
 thereupon calling for this answer to the Defence, read out 
 of the same a great deal which that author had huddled 
 . together concerning that doctrine ; upon which both ministers 
 made large commentaries. I replied but little, saying I would 
 leave it and many other things which the Catholics teach (for 
 the word Catholic I then began to use with them), in abeyance, 
 until I had heard what some learned men on their side can say 
 about them, for that I have never yet conferred with any; 
 granting unto them that there were many things among them 
 which as yet I did not believe, nor should very suddenly be 
 persuaded unto. 
 
 “And thus, breakfast ended, I asked Mr. Doctor to lend 
 me the Answer to the Defence, which he did, with Fulke and 
 Martial’s reply; he urged me to take his own book of Anti- 
 christ, as being sufficient alone to put me (said he) out of all 
 doubts. Other like treatises he wished to lend me ; but thinking 
 I had work enough to peruse Mr. Bell’s other book before the 
 time appointed by my Lord of Canterbury, &c., with those only 
 two, I took my leave of Mr. Doctor and the other minister, 
 and so returned homeward. 
 
 “ And now, by the way, I began to think of all that had 
 passed between the Doctor and myself, with the whole manner 
 of my proceeding ; and setting on the one side all the motives, 
 reasons, and inducements which might move me to become a 
 Papist and to think well of their religion ; on the other side I 
 began to examine my mind and conscience what I could now 
 say to the contrary. Again I expostulated with myself why I 
 should now forsake my former faith and religion, being therein 
 born and brought up, wherein also many men of great learning 
 continued, with many such like thoughts and contrary cogita- 
 tions, until I found myself to be as a man bereft of all his 
 weapons, not able to defend himself any longer, having little or 
 
Father Francis Walsingham. 357 
 
 nothing to say but to think thus within myself : There are many 
 strange doctrines which the Papists hold ; and yet again it may 
 be I do not know their doctrines aright, nor how they are able to 
 defend and maintain the opinions they hold. If I might once 
 speak with some learned Papist or other I should know further, 
 and upon what grounds they build their worship of images, 
 prayers to saints, praying for the dead, and their belief of the 
 Real Presence of Christ’s Body and Blood in the Holy Com- 
 munion, with other such like doctrines ; but what then, said I, 
 shall I ever become a Papist ? Surely I cannot tell what to 
 say, but methinks that would be a very strange alteration with 
 me. And so, wondering at myself and that strange alteration 
 which began to be in me, like unto the strong current of a 
 swift running river suddenly turned backward, committing and 
 commending myself to Almighty God, and resigning myself 
 wholly unto the direction of His Holy Spirit, at last resolved 
 fully with myself neither to turn to the right hand nor to the 
 left by mine own will, which peradventure might be drawn to 
 the one or to the other by fear of trouble, affection of friends, 
 or hope of preferments, with other temporal inducements, but 
 intended to put on as indifferent a mind as possibly I could 
 towards the Catholic and Protestant religion, to the end that 
 weighing and considering with most diligent and serious pon- 
 deration and advice, the force and strength of such arguments 
 and inducements as should either move me to follow the one 
 and neglect the other, I might absolutely embrace that faith, 
 and constantly profess that religion which Almighty God 
 should propose unto me for the only true way to eternal life, 
 which way and which truth I therefore desired by earnest 
 prayer to obtain, saying as near as I can remember these 
 words, or the like in substance, which I often reiterated — 
 
 “O Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all mankind, Who 
 invitest all that labour and are heavy laden with the burthen of 
 their sins to come unto Thee, promising unto them that they 
 shall find rest unto their souls ; refresh my wearied soul, 
 enlighten me with the knowledge of Thy truth. Thou art 
 the Way, the Truth, and the Life ! Teach me then, O Lord, 
 Thy ways and direct me in Thy paths. Thou wouldst not 
 the death of a sinner, but rather that he turn from his wicked 
 ways and live. Turn Thou me, O Lord, unto Thee, and then 
 shall I be truly converted. My heart is ready, O Lord, my 
 heart is ready ; with what simplicity and singleness of heart 
 Thou best knowest; I know it not. Create in me, O Lord, 
 
358 
 
 Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me. Give me 
 the comfort of Thy saving health, and confirm and strengthen 
 me in the same by Thy Holy Spirit. Then shall I teach 
 sinners Thy ways, and the ungodly shall be converted to Thee. 
 
 0 Lord, open Thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth 
 Thy praise. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to 
 Thee!” 
 
 He then goes on to relate what he did when he returned 
 home from the conference with Master Doctor Downeham. 
 
 “ And now being in this good disposition to hear what God 
 would say unto me in my heart, I thought best to open unto 
 Him my ear, and to look over diligently again the book 
 which before had so much moved me, to wit, The Defence of the 
 Censure , together with the answer or reply by Mr. Charke, as I 
 supposed, though he put not thereunto his name. The book 
 was of a good bulk, in quarto, the leaves gilded, the print fair, 
 the binding curious, the argument and subject much desired 
 and thirsted by me, all which you may imagine incensed me to 
 read with appetite, hoping to find thereby a full satisfaction to 
 all my doubts, and quietness to my afflicted conscience.” 
 
 He then set himself to weigh and consider with the greatest 
 indifferency he could, the arguments and proofs of either party. 
 He says he found very little or nothing in Mr. Charke’s reply 
 that could give him any contentment. He goes fully into 
 the various reasons, and thus concludes his examination of 
 Mr. Charke : “ So as indeed this answer of his seemed nothing 
 else but a shifting off and desire of revenging himself upon his 
 adversary by acrimony and acerbity of speech, which to me 
 seemed little satisfaction. And so I left the matter, and passed 
 over to read Mr. Bell’s other book, according to the band of 
 my oath and promise.” 
 
 Bell’s second book was entitled The Survey of Popery. 
 “ Although greatly wearied with the loathsome reading over of 
 so many foul narrations as Mr. Bell had laid forth in his former 
 volume of the anatomy, especially misdoubting with myself of 
 the man’s fidelity in relating many of them, &c., and therefore 
 
 1 had less appetite to return to the perusal of any more of his 
 works ; yet remembering my oath and promise to my Lord of 
 Canterbury, and hoping also that in his second volume I should 
 find more coherence between the subject and the title of the 
 book than in the former, and more cleanly and sober matter 
 handled therein, I began to peruse the part thereof, which was 
 divided into divers books.” He found it a chaos of confusion. 
 
Father Francis Walstngham. 
 
 359 
 
 . . . “ But yet reading over all for the avoiding of scruple, 
 though I had neither time nor opportunity of referring to books 
 to examine all, I thought it needful to collect some few points 
 here and there, to show afterwards unto my Lord of Canter- 
 bury, whereby his lordship might see that I had not passed 
 over all so lightly but that I had made some reflection thereon, 
 both for my own instruction and his Grace’s better information.” 
 
 He then goes at considerable length and with great clear- 
 ness, through some of the leading points of the book, and 
 concludes : “ All which, when I had read and considered, and 
 found Masses here named both solemn and private, conse- 
 cration of the sacrifice of oblation by the Apostles mentioned, 
 as also the recital of the Lord’s Prayer upon the consecrated 
 Body and Blood, as a tradition of Christ and His Apostles 
 according to St. Gregory ; I marvelled much why Mr. Bell 
 should cite him so confidently. And this bred in me many- 
 more doubts and scruples than I had before; and so per- 
 suading myself that the further I should read in this man’s 
 works the less satisfaction I should receive, I resolved not 
 to examine many more places, but to note out these few to 
 carry with me to my Lord of Canterbury, there to receive 
 further satisfaction or explication of the same. 
 
 “ The time now drawing [near] Easter term, when I was 
 bound to repair again unto my Lord of Canterbury, I began to 
 put myself in order for that journey, . . . but it so fell out that 
 after this again there came into my hands another book of 
 Mr. Bell’s, entitled, The downfall of Popery. And for that the 
 title was so terrible, and the enterprise of such importance, I 
 was moved to steal from myself a little time to overlook the 
 same, and to examine also some places that seemed more 
 pregnant for his purpose against the Papists.” After stating 
 that he found not the work to be answerable either to the title 
 or to the subject, which he proceeds briefly to show, he con- 
 tinues : “ But now, looking over his labours, I doubt me they 
 will be to small effect; yet some points that seemed to me 
 most remarkable of his defects in handling the same I took out 
 by the way, to carry with me to London, whereby to inform 
 my judgment about Mr. Bell’s talent in writing, against the 
 time I should be demanded what I thought thereof by my 
 Lord of Canterbury, as I presumed I should.” 
 
 He first mentions Mr. Bell’s dedicatory epistle to the King, 
 in which “ he showeth himself so impatient, or rather impotent, 
 in that behalf, as from the very first period thereof, not respect- 
 
360 Father Francis Walsingham . 
 
 ing the majesty of the person to whom he writes, he rageth 
 extremely, affirming priests and Papists to be the cursed brood 
 of traitorous Jesuits ; and then, as for the Jesuits themselves, 
 his epithets are, traitorous , seditious , brutish , barbarous , villainous, 
 most bloody , treacherous , proud, tyrannical, firebrands, thieves, 
 murderers, and dependents of the devil himself; which I con- 
 sidering thought with myself what he would do in the rest of 
 his book, seeing he began in this intemperate manner in his 
 very epistle to so £reat a prince. And further informing myself 
 that he had been for divers years the Jesuits’ scholar, and 
 received from them the learning he boasted of both in philo- 
 sophy and divinity, and also many instructions towards good 
 life (as some did report that would seem to know their pro- 
 ceedings in their public and private schools), it discredited 
 much with me the man’s judgment, that he would begin with 
 such passionate and unseemly speeches against them to whom 
 he had been somewhat beholden, though now he were never 
 so much different from them in religion.” 
 
 Father Walsingham then gives an analysis of this book, 
 exposing at considerable length many gross misstatements and 
 abuses, saying in conclusion, “Sure I am it perplexed me 
 greatly, making me to fear lest much of the rest that he writeth 
 was of this kind ; and yet I resolved not to exhibit anything of 
 this third book unto my Lord of Canterbury, until I had seen 
 my former doubts, which I had gathered out of his second 
 book, someway satisfied by his lordship’s grace, or by some 
 other at his appointment. And so, with these notes for a 
 supply, if need should require, I prepared myself for my 
 journey, being possessed (to confess the truth) with no very 
 good opinion of Mr. Bell’s truth or sincerity in writing. And 
 so I resolved to signify unto his Grace, if fit occasion should 
 be offered.” 
 
 We now come to his fifth appearance before the Archbishop. 
 *“ The prefixed time of my obliged appearance drawing near, I 
 repaired again to London, and upon the last day of Easter 
 term presented myself at Lambeth to my Lord of Canterbury, 
 whom I found not at home but at Westminster, where he had 
 spent the forenoon of that day, and had dined there, by reason 
 of a great cause handled that morning in the Star Chamber, 
 before him and the other lords of the Council and nobility, 
 who came from the Court, then at Greenwich, to be present at 
 the hearing of that cause, which was about the legitimation 
 of Sir Robert Dudley, son to the late Earl of Leicester, by 
 
Father Francis Walsingham. 361 
 
 which occasion I waited a good while at Lambeth before the 
 Archbishop returned, though in his absence there sat (as I 
 understood) divers doctors and prelates about other matters 
 appertaining to 'religion, in his said house at Lambeth. But 
 I thought it not best to present myself before them, but rather 
 to stay until my lord himself came, though indeed I would 
 willingly have talked apart with Dr. Cowell (but he was not 
 there), and have proposed somewhat to him concerning his 
 book against the Puritans, entitled, i A just and temperate 
 defence of Mr. Richard Hooke As five hooks of ecclesiastical 
 policy , by Mr. William Cowell, 1603/ which book, as I found 
 it to be written with a far different spirit from that of Mr. Bell’s, 
 so yet were there many things which made me greatly to muse, 
 for that he seemed to me to hold divers opinions far different 
 from those of other Protestants, as may be seen in every one of 
 his. articles.” He then at some length discusses two points in 
 the book, one regarding the Catholic Church, and the other 
 contended for in it, that the credit of a religion may not be 
 brought in doubt by the faults of some principal men, the 
 framers and founders thereof. “ And for that I saw Dr. Cowell 
 very unwilling to enter into any examination of Calvin’s affairs, 
 when before I proposed unto him those things which The 
 Defence of the Censure had alleged, therefore I thought it better 
 to let the matter pass for the present, until I had examined 
 things further, and might peradventure have fitter occasion to 
 return unto him again at some time when he should be at 
 home and more at leisure. And therefore, laying aside these 
 cogitations for the present, I turned my thoughts to consider 
 what I might answer to my Lord of Canterbury himself, con- 
 cerning such things as he should demand of me, especially 
 about Mr. Bell’s books, out of which I determined to present 
 unto him only at the first some of those notes which I had 
 gathered out of the first two, The Anatomy , and The Survey of 
 Popery , w’hich his Grace had commanded unto me to read, 
 reserving the third, and the notes taken thereof, for a supply, if 
 he should answer or make small account of the first. And 
 being in these cogitations, I was advertised that my lord was 
 come from Westminster indeed, and that his barge was arrived ; 
 whereupon I retired myself towards the hall to wait his passage 
 that way, meaning so to place myself that he should see me at 
 least as he passed by, for that there were so many there to give 
 petitions, and for other business, as I might doubt lest his 
 lordship might pass by without casting his eye upon me. 
 
362 Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 “ But now at length my lord came home, and a great train 
 with him, and I, to be seen the better by him at his passage 
 into his palace, placed myself within the hall, that his Grace 
 might behold me as he passed by; but it may be that his 
 distractions in other things did not permit him to look upon 
 me with any great attention; and in particular, there was a 
 young man that had also placed himself purposely to be seen 
 by his Grace at his passing by, who, as I partly understood, 
 was upon sliding back from the Roman religion, or at least 
 there was some hope thereof, and for that cause was retained 
 there, as I think, in the house ; he seemed to be some scholar 
 or young priest, though I could not certainly learn his name. 
 
 “ There was also a certain schoolmaster’s wife that gave up 
 a petition in her husband’s name, that was in prison for the 
 Roman religion in the White Lion prison, as I remember, she 
 suing for some release or relief of her husband. But my lord 
 seemed to hearken little unto her, but rather to use hard words, 
 and so passed into his garden. But after, coming to sit down 
 among his doctors, she was called into the parlour, and there 
 being on her knees, my lord told the doctors what a dangerous 
 Papist her husband was, and how long he had sought to catch 
 him, and so at length he bid her stand up, and dismissed her 
 with a cold answer. 
 
 “ With this woman, before she was called in, I had some 
 speech, and learning the state and cause of her husband’s 
 trouble, I told her that I was in some trouble also myself about 
 like matters, though, hitherto, I were no Papist. I inquired 
 also of the prison, where her husband was, meaning to become 
 acquainted with him, though afterwards, when I inquired after 
 him, I understood he was not there ; perhaps he was out upon 
 sureties. 
 
 “ But now to return to my lord. He went, as I said, pre- 
 sently after his return into his garden, to see certain workmen 
 that were building there; whereupon I, with divers others, 
 went in from the hall to a certain passage between the garden 
 and his parlour, to expect him there ; and so he, coming out of 
 his garden, cast his eye upon me among others in that place, 
 and presently said unto me with a friendly countenance, and 
 somewhat a low voice, ‘Now, Mr. Walsingham, how do you, 
 are you satisfied?’ To whom I answered, ‘No, truly, my lord, 
 I am not yet satisfied.’ Whereto he replied nothing, but went 
 and sat down at his table in the parlour, together with his 
 doctors and prelates about him, whither, after a little time, 
 
Father Francis W alsinghatn. 363 
 
 I was called in like manner, and then my lord began to 
 explain my case unto them, and to tell them what scruples 
 I had conceived upon the reading of a Papist book, and how I 
 had delivered up the same unto the King’s Majesty with a 
 memorial desiring that matters in that book contained, espe- 
 cially of fact, might be examined, and if they were found false, 
 that then the Papists might be the more severely punished ; if 
 true, then that his Majesty, as head of the Church, would give 
 me licence to believe them. And he further signified unto 
 them that his Majesty had remitted me to his Grace, and what 
 pains he had taken, and others at his appointment, for my 
 satisfaction ; and, finally, that he had delivered unto me two 
 books of Mr. Bell’s, written against the Papists, to satisfy and 
 resolve me withal, and then he calling me close unto him at 
 the table’s end, asked me very seriously whether I had read 
 them, and what I thought of them ? 
 
 “To this, I answered, that I had read them over with 
 diligence, and that my judgment was that the author was 
 a golden Bell, but his sound like as of a brazen candlestick, 
 which I said in respect of the many golden advices, references, 
 and corollaries, and the golden sentences which he mentioneth 
 so often in his books, but that his sound was no better than of 
 brass, according to the Apostle’s similitude, for that he seemed 
 not only to have no charity in his writing, but neither trust or 
 sincerity in his allegations, as before you have seen by that 
 which I have quoted out of him. 
 
 “ The Archbishop hearing me call him a golden Bell in the 
 first part of my answers, seemed much contented, saying : 
 
 ‘ That is well ; ’ but hearing the second, he demanded, * Why 
 so?’ And Dr. Barlow, then Dean of Chester, and Prebendary of 
 Westminster, afterwards Bishop of Lincoln, looking back upon 
 me with more displeasure, as it seemed, than the rest, said : 
 ‘ Why j what say you to Mr. Bell ? ’ And all the other doctors 
 in like manner cast their eyes upon me. But I gave the 
 reason before mentioned. And then my lord, answering, and 
 willing me to show wherein I had made that observation ; I 
 laid forth upon the table before them the two books I 
 had perused, turning to the places before mentioned out of 
 St. Chrysostom, St. Austin, and other Fathers, which I asserted 
 to have been untruly alleged by him ; presupposing that my 
 lord would presently have commanded the said Father’s works 
 to have been brought forth out of his study, and the places 
 quoted to be examined in all their presence ; but no such 
 
364 
 
 Father Francis Walsingkam. 
 
 matter ensued, for my lord having slightly looked over the 
 places in Bell as he citeth them, he laid them down again, and 
 the doctors presently took them up to peruse them ; in 
 which mean space his lordship began to talk somewhat 
 privately and mildly with me concerning things objected by 
 the Defetice of the Censure against Luther , signifying his 
 dislike that I should be so much moved by them, and in 
 particular with the doctrines objected against Luther ; to whom 
 I said : ‘ And will not your lordship have me moved to hear 
 him teach/ 19 . . . [The Archbishop gave an answer rather in 
 justification of the said doctrine.] 
 
 “And with this, my lord, answering me no further, began 
 to talk unto Dr. Barlow, who this while with the rest was 
 looking at Bell’s books, and began to speak somewhat con- 
 cerning them, seeming to maintain somewhat of a good 
 opinion of Bell’s fidelity, which yet appeared not to be great 
 with my lord himself, as by some conjectures I gathered. 
 But none of them, as I said, so much as once offered to call 
 for the Fathers’ works themselves to examine the places, 
 which was my desire. But after some words to and fro 
 among themselves, my lord commanded me to stand aside 
 whilst they talked. 
 
 “Whereupon I retiring myself by little and little down 
 to the lower end of the parlour that they might confer more 
 freely, they talked together of this and other matters ; and 
 after some little time, having despatched away the aforesaid 
 schoolmaster’s wife, my lord began to speak with a high and 
 angry voice concerning me and my affairs, and looking towards 
 me, complained of my importunity and obstinacy, and said to 
 the doctors that he would send me to prison ; and thereupon 
 calling for his pursuivant or apparitor, who presently appeared, 
 said : ‘ Let a mittimus be made to send him to the Clink 
 which the officer seemed very forward to have executed ; but 
 belike he understood my lord’s manner of speech to be but a 
 threat. But here now I felt within me some conflict about 
 this matter of going to prison. For as on the one side I 
 
 19 In a controversial work it was necessary for the author to state 
 explicitly what writers on the other side had affirmed ; which Father 
 Walsingham here does, and gives his authority from Luther’s words. 
 Happily, the necessity does not exist in this notice of his valuable work. 
 Moreover, the shameless teaching of that apostate friar are known to 
 those who have been led to consult the writings he has left behind 
 him. 
 
Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 365 
 
 found in myself an inclination, or rather a full resolution, 
 to suffer imprisonment, or any other disgrace, rather than to 
 do anything against my conscience : so on the other I 
 thought with myself, what discredit, besides loss and hindrance, 
 it might be to me to suffer imprisonment or open disgrace for 
 opinion of Papistry, which ever heretofore I had hated, and 
 had not yet resolved ever to admit, or embrace, but only had 
 demanded solution of certain doubts. I thought also how 
 my friends and kindred would wonder and complain thereof, 
 that I should suffer myself to be cast into prison for matter 
 of conscience, and yet not for being of any certain religion at 
 all, and for making recourse to the King’s Majesty in a 
 business so important to myself as concerning my soul. But 
 in fine, I concluded with myself to suffer whatsoever should 
 come; and yet I was of opinion that my lord would not 
 commit me indeed, lest his Majesty hearing of it should not 
 allow of such manner of solving doubts, arising upon so good 
 grounds as mine did, and so indifferently proposed, with 
 requiring only to have the truth declared. 
 
 “ But now, whilst I was in these cogitations and conflicts 
 of mind, there came unto me from the other side of the 
 parlour, the knight of the corner, mentioned by me before 
 (Sir C. Perkins), who, out of show of great compassion and 
 extraordinary friendship, began with divers temporal reasons 
 to persuade me not to meddle further in these matters, but 
 to accommodate myself to my lord’s will, and I should find 
 his Grace a good lord unto me, and ready to perform as 
 occasion should be offered : that these matters of contro- 
 versies did not appertain to my profession, and divers other 
 like reasons, all tending to worldly commodities and temporal 
 respects : but I told him that I, being now entered into 
 the ministry, and meaning by God’s grace to go forward 
 therein, whose office must be to teach and instruct others, 
 good reason it was that I should first seek to instruct myself ; 
 and for that cause, finding no other solution of my doubts, 
 I repaired to his Majesty, and was by him remitted to my 
 lord and his doctors, to be resolved in my said doubts. 
 Whereto the knight replied nothing concerning that point, 
 which was the substance of all, but he only inculcated unto 
 me again what danger I was in, and how like I was to go 
 to prison, and thereby to suffer no small disgrace and 
 hindrance; but he never offered to confer with me, or to 
 go about to resolve my difficulties, as I understood afterwards 
 
3 66 
 
 Father Francis Walsinghanu 
 
 that he had been able to do, for that he had been a priest 
 and a public reader of Roman divinity for divers years in 
 Germany, before he came to enjoy the temporal commodities 
 of England ; and consequently was best able, if he had listed, 
 to have given solution to my doubts ; but he never so much 
 as once named any point of religion, but left me as he found 
 me, when he saw that these human respects wrought nothing 
 with me, wherein he seemed to deal with me rather like a 
 knight, than like a priest or Jesuit, and consequently to esteem 
 more of his knighthood than his priesthood. 
 
 “ And now, for that my sending to prison was thus delayed, 
 my lord’s apparitor was busy with me to stand near and to 
 show myself, fearing belike lest my lord should forget me 
 and my cause, and so he miss his fee ; but I told him that 
 it needed not ; I was sure his Grace would have me in 
 memory. And after a little time they arose from the table, 
 and standing on foot my lord showed himself much displeased, 
 talked again of me and my business, threatening to send me 
 to prison. But after that again he retired himself into a 
 window together with Dr. Barlow, who having conferred some 
 little space together, my lord called me unto him, and insinu- 
 ating unto me that the said Doctor had entreated for some 
 favour towards me, said : ‘Well, Mr. Walsingham, I am 
 content you shall confer these places with Mr. Dean here 
 (meaning the said Dr. Barlow), who will take some pains with 
 you to resolve you.’ And then turning unto Mr. Doctor, he 
 said unto him : ‘You can show him, Mr. Dean, Chrysostom 
 both in Greek and Latin ; ’ and so willing me to repair unto 
 him for conference, dismissed me with saying only that I 
 should return unto him again in the end of the next term ; 
 and indeed his dismission was such and with such countenance 
 and speech, as it seemed to me that he could not well deter- 
 mine what to do with me, being weary of me and of my 
 suit, and that he could have been content to be handsomely 
 rid of me ; yet he willed me to take with me Mr. Bell’s 
 books again, which lay upon the table, though I would 
 gladly have left them there ; and this was my dismission 
 from my Lord of Canterbury, who never sent for me again, 
 nor did I return unto him, upon the causes which after shall 
 appear. 
 
 “Upon the next day, which was Sunday, I repaired to 
 Westminster to Mr. Doctor Barlow, who, after evensong, 
 went up with me to his study, and there at my request opened 
 
Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 367 
 
 first one of St. Austin’s volumes, wherein the book De lono 
 Viduitatis is contained, and there sought for the place cited 
 by Mr. Bell, and falling upon the words alleged by him, read 
 them, and would have seemed to defend them as there they lie. 
 But when I pressed him to have him go forward and to read 
 the words ensuing, which do explicate St. Austin’s meaning 
 and wholly overthrow Mr. Bell’s purpose, he was unwilling 
 at that time to pass any further ; especially his man coming 
 to tell him that it was now supper-time, and so with courteous 
 words he dismissed me, saying, notwithstanding, that if at any 
 other time I would come unto him, he would be glad to speak 
 an hour and take some further pains with me ; but I thought 
 to myself to what end should I come unto him, and trouble 
 both him and myself ; seeing it was but to weary and molest 
 him, as I had done many others in the same cause before, 
 for that I seemed now to perceive how little they were able or 
 willing to give me that satisfaction in these points which I 
 demanded about my doubts and scruples. And with this 
 I departed from him, not meaning again to return for the 
 present, but to take some other course, as afterwards I did. 
 And this may suffice for the first part of my narrative, wherein 
 I have set down sincerely, as near as I could remember, what 
 passed in my sundry appearances before my Lord of Canter- 
 bury, and conferences with others. Wherein not receiving the 
 satisfaction I desired, as now you have perceived, I took 
 another resolution, to examine books on both sides for finding 
 out truth or falsity, beginning first with the writings of Protes- 
 tants, and afterwards of Catholics.” 
 
 Father Walsingham thus begins the second part of his 
 treatise. “When I was thus dismissed by my lord, and in 
 effect also by Mr. Dean of Chester, I began to think with 
 myself what I should now do, and what way I should take 
 to quiet my conscience, which I felt to be much more troubled 
 than ever before. For as on the one side I had no serious 
 inclination to be a Papist, but rather a great aversion from 
 the same, so my confidence in the Protestant religion was 
 so shaken by that which had passed with my lord and his 
 doctors, as methought I durst rely very little on that side; 
 for that now two points among others seemed to me to be very 
 probable, if not clear and evident. The first, that my lord and 
 his learned men were not able to satisfy me indeed, and with 
 reality of truth, in the doubts I proposed ; for otherwise they 
 
368 
 
 Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 would have dealt with me no doubt after a more effectual way, 
 seeing one so urgent to be satisfied, and my cause commended 
 unto them by the King himself.” His second point was “ that 
 Protestant writers used not fidelity in their writings, nor alleged 
 things against the Papists with sincerity of truth.” He then 
 resolved upon the laborious undertaking before mentioned, 
 of examining books on both sides. “This then being my 
 resolution, I began to think what might be needful unto me 
 for the performance of the same. And first of all I thought 
 it not amiss that as hitherto I had never talked with any 
 learned Papist in all my life, now I should do it, if I might 
 find fit commodity and security for the same; for that still 
 I was afraid that if my Lord of Canterbury should call me to 
 him again (as I presumed he would, if I returned not of 
 myself), he would examine me again upon mine oath, as in the 
 beginning he did, whether I had talked with any Papist or no ; 
 the which I, being always very loath to bring any man into 
 trouble, was desirous to avoid. It staid me also somewhat 
 to consider that if I should have conference with any such 
 man, and he should press me with arguments which I could 
 not answer, to become a Papist, what I should then do in 
 that case, for so much as I had no determination that way, 
 as before I have said, but rather a great repugnance. And 
 yet finally, having well thought of the matter, and finding 
 myself greatly troubled thereabout, I resolved by help of 
 a certain gentleman of my acquaintance who was some- 
 what inclined that way (though no whit resolved therein), 
 to have some speech with one in prison who was learned indeed, 
 with whom, after I had at sundry times had somewhat large 
 conferences, and proposed my doubts, and had heard his 
 answers as also their grounds about divers controversies in 
 religion, though I felt myself not fully able to answer him, 
 yet I stood stiff not to yield, but to stand and continue in my 
 former Protestant religion until I should have seen and 
 examined matters further . 20 Whereupon I departed into the 
 country within very few days, though afterwards I returned 
 again to London somewhat oftener than before, upon divers 
 occasions falling out.” 
 
 20 For the sake of concealment, Father Walsingham withholds the 
 name of the learned Papist, nor can we get any clue to his identity. It 
 may very probably have been the Rev. Edward Tempest mentioned in 
 Walsingham’s declaration on entering the English College, and. which 
 is copied p. 382, post. 
 
Father Francis Walsmgham. 
 
 369 
 
 He then proceeds to relate at length how he informed 
 himself both of Catholic books and their positions, and also 
 of Catholic school-writers, and his difficulty in finding “any 
 Protestant book that all do follow.” He also narrates how, 
 by occasion of seeking out the book he had named in a 
 former chapter, he came upon others that gave much light 
 in divers matters, though with more trouble of mind than 
 before, but especially about Luther's conference with the 
 devil. He devotes a very interesting chapter to the exami- 
 nation of the statements in Luther’s works, De Missa Privata , 
 &c., and Zuinglius’ De Subsidio Euch., &c., regarding their 
 conferences and arguments with the devil personally as related 
 by themselves. “And now, having read these things in the 
 very arguments themselves that were the first teachers of 
 Protestant doctrine in our age, whereat I so much wondered 
 before, when I first read them briefly touched in the Defetice of 
 the Censure , I cannot well express how I was encumbered 
 with this cogitation, to think that they should confess of them- 
 selves that they had the very first and principle articles of their 
 difference from Catholics (which articles are also now held in 
 England), from the suggestion of wicked Satan; for that, 
 as we have seen, the very principal points in controversy have 
 been handled by the said spirit, as, namely, against the Mass, 
 the ordination and consecration of priests, against the Real 
 Presence, about the faith of the Church, invocation and 
 honouring of our Lady and other saints, . . . and these points 
 expressly impugned. . . . And I did marvel exceedingly that 
 Luther and Zuinglius would publish such things in print, and 
 much more that their followers would suffer them to be printed 
 again and set forth after their deaths.” He then' refers to 
 “ other speeches of Mr. Luther concerning the devil,” from his 
 Epistle to the Duke Elector of Saxony ; and thus closes the 
 chapter. . . . “And now, let any man imagine in what plight, 
 horror, and aversion of mind I was, when I read these things 
 in Luther’s own writings, not being able to doubt the truth 
 thereof, but that they were written by him. Then did I think 
 with myself, out of what spirit a man so conversant with the 
 devil could write anything of true religion and piety : and 
 how dangerous a point it were for a man to rely his soul 
 much upon him that was so beset with opposite and contrary 
 spirits. For as the Spirit of Christ cannot but persuade 
 good things and true doctrine, so cannot the spirit of the 
 devil but persuade to the contrary in all points either openly 
 Y 
 
370 Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 or covertly. So that now I remained more perplexed than 
 before.” 
 
 In his third chapter he relates how after the perusal of these 
 conferences of Luther and Zuinglius with the devil, he passed 
 further to examine some of their doctrines before mentioned, 
 and what he found confirmed thereof by themselves ; as also 
 the great dissentions he discovered in Protestant writers of 
 different professions. He then lucidly examines many of 
 Luther’s own writings, which he enumerates, and also points 
 out the contradictions in doctrine between Luther, Calvin, & c. 
 “ All which,” he says, in concluding the chapter, “when I had 
 read and pondered with myself, and remembered also the 
 common saying of all our English ministers to be that the 
 doctrine of the Church of England doth not disagree in sub- 
 stantial and fundamental points from that of the Lutherans and 
 Zuinglians in Germany, it amazed me greatly to think what 
 certainty I might have in points of religion, for so much as 
 these were great and learned doctors also of the Protestant 
 religion that write and defend these points, contrary to ours of 
 England, and do hold us for heretics and men out of the 
 way in most chief points of faith belonging to salvation. 
 
 . . . And therefore I found myself every day in more 
 
 perplexity than ever, not knowing which way substantially 
 to resolve myself ; but yet determined to prosecute this 
 search, with hope to find afterwards more light for my better 
 choice.” 
 
 In his next chapter he shows at great length what he found 
 in various Protestant authors cited in the Defence of the 
 Censure , “concerning the life and manner of proceeding of 
 Masters Calvin and Beza, the chief authentical doctors of our 
 present English religion ; wherein I had desired to have satis- 
 faction from my lord and his doctors, as before narrated.” And 
 further, “ what I observed of myself in perusing Calvin’s works 
 concerning the point in hand of untrue dealing, false accusa- 
 tion, & c. And so by a little more examination having found 
 so much bad dealing in our chief and prime writers, Luther, 
 Calvin, &c., I began to imagine what I might find in our 
 English writers who either took out of these or imitated them. 
 Whereupon I resolved and prepared myself with more atten- 
 tion to go over some works of our chief English writers, and 
 to observe such points as might appertain to this my purpose 
 of seeking out the truth, especially in Mr. Jewell and such 
 others as wrote in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth’s days, 
 
Father Francis Walsingham. 371 
 
 and were accounted the chief pillars of our English Church 
 for their times.” 
 
 He then relates from the fifth to the ninth chapters “ what 
 view I made of English Protestant authors, especially of 
 Mr. Jewell (sometime Bishop of Salisbury), for trial of this 
 point of true or untrue dealing in their writings ” — with a 
 note prefixed of the chief books he found written on both 
 sides from the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign, renewing his 
 purpose of noting only voluntary falsehoods. After giving his 
 opinion upon Jewell’s writings, he concludes that long and 
 most interesting examination of the standard Jewell. “Where- 
 upon I remember I had the cogitation, in what case many of 
 my condition are in England, that do found all their doctrine, 
 sermons, and writings commonly upon those of Mr. Jewell, 
 as their chief father, prelate, patriarch, and doctor in that 
 behalf. So as, if any man have his two great books of Reply 
 and Defence , they persuade themselves to have a competent 
 library for matters of controversy, and so did I also, especially 
 if they have the Acts and Monuments of Mr. Fox for matter of 
 ecclesiastical history. And if any do further add unto these 
 Mr. Calvin’s Institutions , he then hath his furniture very com- 
 plete for Protestant doctors.” Having clearly exposed the lies 
 of Fox, he passes on in the following chapters to examine the 
 falsities charged upon divers Protestant authors, naming them, 
 and among others, Mr. Thomas Roger’s book of the Thirty- 
 nine Articles ; and concludes his examination into Protestant 
 authors. . . . “Well, then, finding the whole work of Mr. Roger’s 
 to be faulty in the two general points, . . . the one, that he 
 setteth down these Thirty-nine Articles as conformably de- 
 fended by all Protestant Churches, wherein, notwithstanding, 
 there is infinite disagreement ; the other, that he never rightly 
 allegeth truly and sincerely the opinions of Catholics, wherein 
 they do dissent from him and his Church; by this, I say, I 
 lost all desire of proceeding any further in confronting places 
 together, for that I saw it would grow to a huge volume. And 
 therefore perceiving that he agreed with the rest in the spirit 
 of insincere dealing, I made resolution to end with this, as 
 being sufficient to give me a full taste of what I was like to 
 find hereafter. And so I thought good to pass to the third 
 part of this search, to see whether I could find the like dealing 
 in Catholic writers or no. And for better helping myself herein, 
 I thought it more easy to make this trial substantially by the 
 help of those collections which Protestant writers had gathered 
 
 y 2 
 
37 2 Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 against Papists concerning their untruths, which if I could see 
 well verified by the collectors, it seemed to me that it would 
 be a strong argument to induce me to think that neither part 
 dealt sincerely. Wherefore unto this search I applied myself 
 with great attention.” 
 
 He then proceeds at considerable length with his task, 
 under various heads — “Falsities objected to Catholics by 
 Master Jewell,” “Imputations of falsities by Mr. Dr. Sutcliffe 
 against Cardinals Bellarmine and Baronius,” and against Father 
 Parsons in particular, “And how I was more diligent and 
 attent in this point than in any of the former. And why ? ” 
 This part of his “ Search ” is exceedingly interesting and 
 instructive, and leads one to desire greatly to see a reprint 
 of this most useful volume of controversy . 21 He ends this part 
 by saying, “ Wherefore, being cloyed now, ... I resolved to 
 give over for the present this kind of search about false or true 
 dealing, being strongly impressed with that which already I 
 had read and examined, to wit, that the spirit of true dealing 
 remained not on the Protestant side, which did greatly shake 
 also with me the credit of their whole cause, though yet I 
 would not resolve wholly to leave them, until I had used some 
 further diligence, which afterwards I shall declare more in par- 
 ticular. Only, I must here say that among all other motives 
 gathered out of the view of English Protestant writers, none 
 moved me so much, after Mr. Jewell himself, as the considera- 
 tion and examination of Mr. Sutcliffe’s writings, in regard of 
 their lightness and small care of exact truth in anything, as to 
 me it seemed. And so I cast them from me, with some grief 
 and disdain that I had lost so much time in perusing them.” 
 
 He then brings his “ Search ” to an end by relating in three 
 chapters a “journey which I was forced to make; and first, 
 how by that means I became acquainted with a certain old 
 man that gave me much light in many things, with certain 
 notes for the profitable reading of books of controversy ; and 
 of the conferences I had with him about my doubts and 
 difficulties. 
 
 “ And now being arrived hitherto in reading and examining 
 of books there fell out a certain forcible occasion of interrupting 
 this course for a time by necessity of a large journey I was to 
 make ; in which many things happened to me too long to be 
 mentioned here ; and among other things, when I came to my 
 
 21 We believe that the edition which was published by Mr. Dolman in 
 1843, and forms vol. i. of “The English Catholic Library,” is out of print. 
 
Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 373 
 
 way’s end, I fell acquainted by means of friends with a certain 
 old man of the Roman religion, who seemed to me upon 
 further conference, not only to be learned, but also to have 
 been in times past in the very same state and condition of 
 perplexity and doubtfulness of mind, wherein I found myself 
 now. And so much the more it gave me encouragement to 
 deal freely and frankly with him. Whereupon after acquaint- 
 ance made and security given that nothing which I should say 
 to him or he to me should be prejudicial unto either of us, or 
 obnoxious to the laws, he seemed to take great compassion of 
 my case, and required me to utter unto him plainly what state 
 I was in, and what had passed with me hitherto. Hereupon 
 I began (though somewhat reservedly) to tell him some par- 
 ticulars ; but afterwards, finding indeed he dealt really with 
 me, I opened unto him largely the whole story as I have 
 before narrated. . . . All which points I recounted unto him 
 at large, with sundry circumstances which I thought not 
 necessary to put in writing. And further I told him the 
 state of my very soul, how troubled I was in my judgment 
 and reason about the matters which I had examined, and 
 yet how fearful to make any change in religion, for many 
 respects, which he might partly imagine. And finally I let 
 him understand that I felt such a war between my under- 
 standing, my will and affection, as I could not tell well what 
 to do, but had resolved to go forward in reading more books 
 both on the Protestant and Papist sides. 
 
 “ Here the old man interrupted me, saying that the word 
 Papist was not a fit term to express their party in religion, and 
 therefore not to be used in this conference, being a device only 
 of such as first opposed themselves against the Pope, and 
 thereby would make the word Papist odious; whereas it is 
 indeed a most honourable thing for men to stand with their 
 Head, and to have their denomination from him; and therefore 
 (said he) if we shall talk and treat without offence one of the 
 other, let us so proceed that as we grant to you and yours the 
 new particular name of Protestant, which yourselves chose at 
 the Diet of Augusta in Germany, not yet four-score years agone, 
 thereby to be distinguished from us, with whom you had been 
 united before ; so let us remain with our old general name of 
 Catholic, which our Church hath possessed time out of mind. 
 
 . . . Whereunto I easily gave consent, both names being now 
 well known, and I was not desirous to contend with the old 
 man about names, but to have opinion in greater matters. . . . 
 
374 
 
 Father Francis Walsingkam. 
 
 Wherefore, having giveii him satisfaction in this, I returned to 
 my former narration. . . . Where and with whom I had been. 
 
 . . . What read ; in what perplexity I was, . . . that I could 
 not tell what to think or say, much less what to do or resolve, 
 
 . . . very loath to break off my search wholly, . . . yet more 
 loath to make such a resolution of change in religion as many 
 reasons seemed to induce me to do. . . I meant, therefore, 
 to take a mean way between both, which was to suspend my 
 judgment for some more time, and to continue my search and 
 reading, &c. 
 
 “ All which being heard by the old man, he smiling told 
 me that he knew where the end would be, but yet seemed not 
 wholly to dislike my determination to read and search further, 
 though he told me .it was a long way about, and subject to 
 many stumbling-blocks, and not sufficiently secure or possible 
 for all men ; notwithstanding, if I would do it profitably, and 
 to the true quieting of my conscience, it was necessary to 
 observe certain notes about the manner of my reading, which 
 he. had partly fallen upon in his younger years, when his case, 
 perhaps, was not far unlike unto mine ; but much more had 
 observed them since that time,' by longer use and experience. 
 Whereof I accepted willingly, and desired him to let me know 
 what they w r ere, for that I was earnestly set upon the matter, 
 my soul being in the state King David speaketh of : Ani?na 
 mea turbata est valde. ‘ And I apprehend/ said I, ‘ that the 
 very state of my salvation doth depend much upon the event 
 of this search. 5 55 
 
 The old Catholic then proceeds to give seven notes or 
 advices ; the first being, to treat the matter as of the most vital 
 importance, not to read curiously or captiously, but sincerely 
 before God, making Him the Judge ; “ observing at the end of 
 his advices that for the present he did not mislike my purpose 
 of reading more books, for it would serve at least as weak 
 medicine that moveth humours, though it bring them not forth ; 
 or as the sun in March, that raiseth vapours, but dissolveth 
 them not ; and so this my reading would serve to fill my head 
 full of doubts at least, though not so soundly to resolve as 
 would be needful to the settling of my understanding and 
 judgment, which he doubted not that God would supply after- 
 wards by some other way. 
 
 “ When the old man had said all this I could not but thank 
 him for his friendly and careful dealing with me ; acknow- 
 ledging that I had discovered some of these observations in 
 
375 
 
 Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 my reading before, and very desirous I was to have understood 
 more largely of that compendious and more certain way which 
 he mentioned for resolving a man’s judgment ; and albeit I 
 guessed he meant the Universal Christian Church in every age, 
 yet not to suffer myself to be overmuch pressed that way, I 
 passed over the matter slightly for that present, telling him that 
 I was desirous to go forward in reading of more books ; and so 
 we parted and went to bed. 
 
 “ But having thought better that night of the matter, and 
 foreseeing, and partly, also, feeling that which he told me, that 
 by much reading of books of different spirits and doctrine, I 
 should but increase my own doubts and difficulties, I began to 
 desire to be informed more particularly of that briefer way 
 hinted at by him of resolving myself upon the authority of the 
 Church. Which desire, when I had well thought of and 
 imparted it to the old man, he said that he did ever think so, 
 that I would fall upon that in the end, or else remain restless. 
 For that it is more easy, quoth he, to gather doubts than to 
 resolve them, as it is more easy to raise up dust than to lay it 
 again. And, moreover, he said that this was indeed properly 
 to seek to be a true Catholic, for that the principal difference 
 between a Catholic and a heretic is this, that the one embraceth 
 traditum non inventum , to use old Tertullian’s words — that 
 which is delivered unto him by authority and succession of the 
 Church, and not invented of himself, as the heretic doth, who 
 therefore is called a chooser, for that he followeth not that 
 which is delivered, but preferreth his own choice, either in 
 things devised by himself or by others. 
 
 “ And by this occasion he entered into another short 
 discourse, but very substantial as to me it seemed, of the 
 folly of the one and true wisdom of the other.” This he 
 closed by counselling Father Walsingham to read more largely 
 St. Augustine, especially concerning the sure means of relying 
 upon Holy Church, particularly some sixteen or seventeen 
 paragraphs set down in the first book and sixth chapter of a 
 large collection out of St. Augustine’s works, called Confessio 
 Augustiniana . This he promised to do, and took his leave of 
 the old Catholic for two or three days. 
 
 Instead of returning in three or four days, as he had 
 intended, Walsingham found he had so much to do both in 
 digesting the old Catholic’s discourses and in reading, that he 
 was not prepared to talk with him again for eight or ten days. 
 He gives at some length the result of his reading of the Fathers, 
 
376 
 
 Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 and especially St. Augustine, perusing “ greedily what the said 
 Doctor writeth of the necessity of observing the Ten Com- 
 mandments.” “ And other such points of controversy I found 
 so distinctly and perspicuously handled by St. Augustine . . . 
 and so clearly in favour of the Roman religion at this day, that 
 I began to imagine that the Roman writers could scarce set 
 down matters more evidently for proof of their cause than these 
 testimonies, &c., of St. Augustine do make for them; whereby 
 my admiration was yet more increased of my own former 
 blindness, folly, and simplicity, that (notwithstanding my often 
 reading over sundry ancient Fathers) did think for many years 
 together Papistry to be a new device, and most of their opinions 
 and oppositions never heard of in the old Christian Church. 
 Wherefore, coming to talk again with the old man, I could not 
 tell well what to say unto him, but only that I had read, as he 
 willed me to do, and found much more than ever I had thought 
 to find, so that now my appetite of reading more Protestant 
 books of controversy was quite taken from me, seeing it was 
 but breaking of a man’s brains indeed. . . Wherefore I told 
 him that now I was ready to follow his advice, and resolve 
 myself upon the direction of the Church according to St. Augus- 
 tine’s counsel ; praying him that, as he had been the persuader 
 thereof unto me, so he would give some particular advertise- 
 ments how I might proceed therein. To this he answered that 
 he was glad of this my resolution, whereby, he did assure me, 
 notwithstanding that I should not lose the freedom of my own 
 judgment in subjecting it to the Church, but rather perfect the 
 same ; for that Catholics do allow as great a latitude unto their 
 reason and discourse as Protestants can do, though for the 
 conclusion they have far greater helps than the other to make 
 it well, viz., the direction of the said Church,” &c. After a 
 long address, the adviser concluded by saying that, as W T al* 
 singham had gained the great point of all, to submit his 
 judgment to Holy Church, he saw no cause why he should not 
 be accounted a true Catholic. His inquirer asked if anything 
 else were necessary to be done to make him a Catholic, but 
 only to submit his judgment to the Church, to which the 
 Catholic replied: “Not as regards faith; but, as to practice, 
 divers other points were required.” Then came the last struggle 
 and question, whether a man could be saved in both religions ? 
 “ How say you to this, sir ? ” quoth I ; “ for, as on the one hand 
 I would be loath to leave undone anything which is necessary 
 to my everlasting salvation, so, on the other side, I would not 
 
Father Francis Walsingham . 
 
 377 
 
 easily go further than absolutely is needful, nor make any 
 change without precise necessity, for that you know what 
 dependeth thereon for my whole estate of life, in this world at 
 least.” The old man answered that for his temporal estate he 
 could say little, but that he thought it both least and last to be 
 considered, in respect of eternal life in the world to come, 
 depending upon the right profession of true religion in this. 
 He then goes on to prove to him how this cannot be done — 
 that it is a desperate opinion, a refuge of a careless conscience, 
 if not devoid of all true faith ; a refuge that divers Protestants 
 fly unto, out of distrust of their own cause, or from sloth, and 
 unwillingness to seek out the truth ; it was a secret atheism 
 and infidelity to believe it, &c. “ After this he returned again 
 
 to the point that another thing was necessary, no less important 
 than the former ; which was, the conforming my life and actions 
 according to the precepts of the Catholic faith, wherein he said 
 that there was much more labour and length of time to be 
 bestowed than in the other, &c. . . ‘ Yet the Catholic Church/ 
 said he, i with the assistance of God’s holy grace, doth pre- 
 scribe also to this matter so many sweet and effectual remedies, 
 as with a little goodwill and industry all difficulties are easily 
 overcome.’ Whereat, when he saw me somewhat moved, and 
 desirous to know what these means were, he told me that this 
 should be for another conference, counselling me in the mean 
 space to commit the matter very seriously to God, as a business 
 of the greatest importance that ever hitherto I took in hand, or 
 ever should. And with this we ended our speech for that time.” 
 
 Father Walsingham then gives the particulars of his third 
 conference with the old Catholic — What was necessary to be 
 done as to practice, being now settled upon the point of faith 
 and submission to the Holy Catholic Church. His good old 
 friend tells him that the way to arrive unto this was already 
 set down by the Holy Ghost in these words .* Declina a malo , 
 et fac bonum — “ Decline from evil and do good.” The first 
 comprehendeth all the means that God hath prescribed unto 
 us to deliver us from sin, either already incurred, or for time 
 to come to be avoided. The second contains the different 
 ways of doing good and exercising ourselves in all kinds of 
 Christian justice, piety, and other virtues. His instructions 
 on this point ended in Walsingham’s resolution to make his 
 confession to the priest in the Sacrament of Penance; the 
 repugnance of doing which he had virtually overcome by 
 reading St. Augustine. To prepare him for this important 
 
378 
 
 Father Francis Walsingkam. 
 
 duty the old Catholic recommends him to make a spiritual 
 retreat of eight or ten days, which being a thing utterly new 
 to the convert, his friend explains fully and admirably to him, 
 and gives the necessary instructions how to make it. He then 
 describes the retreat which he made under a certain father. 
 At the commencement, he naturally felt it a great trial, 
 such solitude and silence being completely new to him ; 
 but soon afterwards he says, “I confess I found a new 
 world, and felt so many inward consolations and most sweet 
 visitations from the Father of Mercies, as I neither needed, 
 nor desired more company, but thought myself most happy 
 when I was most alone ; and remembering often that 
 saying of Scipio, recorded by Cicero, “Never less alone than 
 when alone .” 22 And methought I did both see and read 
 more of myself, as also of Almighty God, than ever I had 
 done before in all the books that I had pondered over.” 
 
 After his retreat, and reception into the Church Catholic 
 consequent upon it, he returned to thank the good old 
 Catholic to whom he was so greatly beholden ; and concludes 
 his interesting narrative with a short summary of his doubts, &c., 
 from his famous memorial to Kihg James, as head of the 
 Church, his comfortless conferences with my Lord of Canter- 
 bury, and his doctors and others, and his perusal of Pro- 
 testant and Catholic writers. “And this I speak here, good 
 reader, as in the sight of Almighty God, and as in truth of 
 conscience I have found, and no way out of passion and evil 
 affection or worldly respects ; in which each man will see how 
 much I do prejudice myself by this new course taken; but 
 that both reason and religion, prudence and all true piety, doth 
 require, that the everlasting salvation of our souls should be 
 preferred before all other human respects whatsoever, which 
 is the true and sincere cause of this my resolution. And this 
 I desire thee, good Christian reader, to believe, and assure 
 thyself to be most true, as at the last day, when we shall all 
 appear before the tribunal of our Saviour, and all hearts made 
 known, will evidently appear. Christ Jesus make us partakers 
 of His holy grace, and of the heavenly light of His only 
 saving truth of the Catholic religion. Amen.” 
 
 The following letter, preserved at Stonyhurst College , 23 
 appears to be the original draft of a letter from Father 
 
 22 “Nunquam minus solus quam quum solus.” 
 
 23 Stonyhurst MSS. Anglia , vol. vii. 
 
Father Francis Walsing ham. 379 
 
 Walsingham to his relation, Mr. Humphrey Walsingham, 
 citizen of London, accompanying a copy of his “ Search.” 
 This was the kinsman with whom, as we have already seen, he 
 was placed when a child, by his kind patron, Sir Francis 
 Walsingham, Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth. The 
 title of “your worship,” which would have applied to an 
 alderman and magistrate, rather supports this presumption. 
 
 “I may well persuade myself, right worshipful, that in 
 presenting this my labour unto you in search of true religion, 
 I shall do no pleasing thing unto you that are so settled, 
 as I presume you to be ; and yet had I so many reasons and 
 motives hereunto so as I could not well intermit the same. 
 For to say nothing of particular kindnesses and favours 
 received from your worship, the great obligation I have to 
 the grateful memory of your right honourable uncle, Sir 
 Francis Walsingham, late secretary to her deceased Majesty, 
 doth bind me thereunto, your worship now remaining as the 
 only stock and stem of that house and name, whereof that 
 honourable knight and renowned councillor was a worthy 
 head in his days, and vouchsafed also to admit both me and 
 mine as his poor kinsman of the said name and house, 
 binding me in particular, with many several and singular 
 benefits, especially in mine education and study, for which 
 effect he caused me to be brought in my very infancy almost 
 from Berwick to London, there to lay more profitably than 
 elsewhere, the very first foundation of the Latin tongue, and 
 other studies which were to ensue, which by his untimely 
 death were in great part cut off, and his further designed 
 favour towards me utterly made void. 
 
 “But yet his known goodwill and honourable intentions 
 towards me must needs continue my gratefulness; which, he 
 being departed, descendeth unto your worship, in all right 
 and reason of duty, and as, if he had lived, I should above 
 all other men, have desired to have given him satisfaction in 
 this my fact (which I know would have been very hard), so 
 now unto your worship, my desire is to give this satisfaction, 
 at least that I have not rashly or inconsiderately made change 
 in this mighty affair of religion, but upon much inquiry, search, 
 and deliberation, and with the most mature ponderation of 
 things that time and diligence could procure me, knowing 
 well that it is a matter of infinite consequence and importance 
 to my soul for her everlasting bliss or misery. 
 
380 Father Francis Walsingkam. 
 
 “Wherefore in this point I trust your worship, out of 
 your known wisdom and equity, will not judge (especially if 
 it please you to cast your eyes over this book) that I have 
 attempted this of any passion or other disordinate humour, 
 for so much as no interest of this life can be presumed to 
 have moved me thereunto : seeing that by making the resolu- 
 tion which finally I found myself enforced to make, I well 
 foresaw that I was to lose all interest which in this life the 
 world could give me, and therefore your worship may well 
 assure yourself that if the very fear of God and love of truth, 
 and dread of eternal damnation, and most manifest arguments 
 of reason and authority, had not, after long and laborious 
 search driven me thereunto, I had never made the same; 
 wherein, notwithstanding I must confess to have received so 
 great abundance of comfort and contentment from the hands 
 of His Divine Majesty as I could never have imagined the 
 same but by experience. And truly, sir, this pawn and pledge, 
 or earnest penny of His heavenly sweetness is so necessary 
 unto such a resolution, whereby country, commonwealth, 
 parents, kindred, friends, and the dearest things in this 
 life, are to be left or lost, that without the same you must 
 imagine the said lack or losses were not to be endured but 
 which that they are so sufficiently, or rather superabundantly 
 recompensed, as they yield no grief or difficulty at all, which 
 I shall pray unto Almighty God to impart also according to 
 the sweet measure of His merciful providence, unto your 
 worship and the rest of my good friends and patrons, as also 
 to make you for the reasons and urgent motives set down 
 here in this book, whereby it hath pleased Almighty God 
 both 24 and effectually to draw me to the said reso- 
 
 lution. His holy hand be blessed therefore, and assist me to 
 the end; and preserve ever your worship, with your hopeful 
 issue, in His holy protection and direction in the way of 
 eternal salvation, which only is that which purporteth indeed 
 in this transitory world to the attaining of happy eternity 
 in the next.” 
 
 He wrote his “Search” soon after becoming a Catholic. 
 He now determined to embrace the ecclesiastical state, and to 
 labour in the vineyard of the Lord for the sanctification of 
 his own soul, and the good of his neighbour. For this end 
 he quitted all his worldly connections, and desirous of being 
 24 Blank in original. 
 
Father Francis Walsingham . 381 
 
 more intimately penetrated with the truths of Catholicity, and 
 of drinking them in at the fountain-head, he resolved to travel 
 to Rome. Taking the opportunity of some proscribed priests 
 going into banishment for their faith, he accompanied them 
 as a voluntary exile ; for going with this goodly company 
 he passed over to Belgium, and hearing that Father Parsons 
 was then Rector of the English College, he hastened on to 
 Rome, eager to meet him, and was admitted as an alumnus 
 of that celebrated Seminary in the year 1606. Here he entirely 
 applied himself to the study of theology, and especially of 
 controversy. And as he was most fervent in the Catholic 
 faith, so in order to render himself the more fit to impart 
 it to his fellow-countrymen, he applied to enter the Society, 
 and was admitted as a novice in the year 1609, being then in 
 his thirty-third year of age. He entered the English College, 
 and also the Novitiate, under the assumed name of John 
 Fennell. Having received all the minor orders, he was ordained 
 priest in Rome, 12th April, 1608, and was sent to England in 
 April, 1609. 
 
 The following translation of the Latin declaration by 
 Father Walsingham on entering the English College in 
 1606, as an alumnus, is made from a copy of the original 
 supplied by Dr. O’Callaghan, the Rector of the English 
 College. 
 
 “Ihs. + Maria. 
 
 “ A dm. I. — I, Francis Walsingham, in the thirtieth year of 
 my age ; born at Hawick in Northumberland, was educated 
 by my parents in the liberal arts. In succeeding years I was 
 tossed about by various conflicts and storms of fortune. I 
 served in the army by means of commendatory letters from 
 the Hon. the Earl of Essex, under Sir Robert Sidney, kt., 
 Governor of Flushing. Returning from thence I studied civil 
 and common law under two different professors ; then for 
 some time I studied at All Soul’s College, Oxon ; then I was 
 appointed by the Rector of the College, tutor to the young 
 men and other sodalists of the same College. I went thence 
 to Middlesex, where also I was ordained deacon in the English 
 Church. 
 
 “ Adm. II . — My father, Edward Walsingham, was of Exhall 
 in the county of ... A man of birth, and died about thirty 
 years since. My mother is yet alive, and in moderate cir- 
 
382 Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 cumstances. She is a Catholic. I have other relations all 
 Protestants, and one schismatic. 
 
 “ Adm . III . — As to my studies. I studied a little at Oxford, 
 but reading divers heretical authors and becoming entangled 
 thereby, and using them for the destruction of the truth, 
 spending therein my ease and labour, I suffered loss. 
 
 11 Adm. IV . — I am not aware that I labour under any disease, 
 sickness, injuries, or infirmities, either mental or corporal (to 
 the honour and glory of God be it said). 
 
 “Adm. V . — For a long time I lived a heretic; at length by 
 the divine compassion, when I was studiously labouring to 
 pervert a schismatic who was earnestly defending the Catholic 
 faith, I myself caught the Catholic faith, and discovered the 
 falsity and depravity of heresy, by the perusal of a book which 
 I received from him entitled Defensio Censures, and written 
 by the Very Rev. Father Master Robert Parsons; and by 
 the assistance and counsel of Master Edward Tempest, a 
 praiseworthy priest in chains, and destined for martyrdom, 
 I was received into the Communion of the Saints in the 
 Catholic Church of God, suffering neither chains nor impri- 
 sonment. 
 
 u Adm. VI . — I also longed for the ecclesiastical state, and 
 now at length the true way of entering upon it is presented 
 to me. And I do freely embrace the observance of the 
 discipline of this College, and by the favour of God and 
 Superiors, I will not cease to observe it in all things, as 
 long as I remain here. 
 
 “Francis Walsingham, alias John Fennell.” 
 
 Being afterwards sent by his Superiors into England, and 
 there solemnly admitted to the degree of Spiritual Coadjutor, 
 during the entire space of thirty-three years he cultivated that 
 thorny portion of the vineyard with indefatigable zeal and 
 abundant fruit, and distinguished himself by every virtue. 
 As the famous book of the “ Search ” clearly proves, he was 
 well read in the religious controversies of the times, and had 
 many conferences with Protestant ministers, in which he dis- 
 played great learning and talent. His mission generally lay 
 amongst the poor, for it was his delight to instruct the ignorant 
 and needy. Children also claimed his particular attention. 
 These he sought out and patiently taught them the great 
 truths of the Christian doctrine, accommodating his words 
 and precepts to their tender capacities. Whilst catechising 
 
Father Francis Walsingham. 383 
 
 them, however, he did not overlook their parents, and others 
 of riper years, with whom he would hold familiar discourses 
 upon pious subjects. These he would especially instruct in 
 the manner of making the act of contrition ; also in the con- 
 stant practice of ejaculatory prayers. 
 
 Meantime the good Father was -not exempt from dangers, 
 being often betrayed to the magistrates by informers, and so 
 suddenly attacked by the pursuivants, that he was unable to 
 escape their hands except by means that would appear almost 
 miraculous. Once the satellites suddenly rushed into the 
 house where he was living, in order to seize and carry him off 
 to prison, and although they entered the very room itself where 
 he was actually kneeling before an altar, offering himself as a 
 victim to God, nevertheless they did not observe him : this 
 event the Catholics attributed to a manifest miracle, and on 
 that account held him to be a holy man, and dear to God. 
 The reader will recollect the mention made by Father Michael 
 Alford in his report of Occurrences in England , 1640, in page 
 306, ante. Possessed of the sweetest manners and a dovelike 
 simplicity, he was athirst for the glory of God, in prayer to 
 Whom he was accustomed to spend all the time he could 
 spare from the labours of the ministry. At length, worn out 
 by toils, he went to receive the hire of the workman from 
 the Master of the vineyard on the 1st of July, 1647, aged 71. 
 
 Besides his great work, The Search , Father Walsingham 
 wrote another book, Reasons for embracing the Catholic faith , 
 i6mo (London, 1615). Also he prepared a small manuscript 
 treatise on mental prayer for the use of the English Benedictine 
 Dames established in Pontoise, who were probably at the time 
 under his spiritual direction. This manuscript appears to have 
 been only for private use, and was never printed. It was 
 bound up in a volume of manuscript meditations, prayers, 
 spiritual exercises, and pious instructions, many pages of 
 which appear to be also in the handwriting of Father 
 Walsingham. This precious volume is in the library of 
 the Nuns of the Holy Sepulchre, New Hall Convent, and 
 by the kindness of the Reverend Mother Prioress we are 
 enabled to make this notice of it. It consists of thirty-two 
 pages 8vo, and is entitled, “ The Evangelique Pearl , or a 
 Treatise of Mental Prayer, whereby it is made easy to all 
 ages, sexes, and capacities.” The dedication, “ To the Vener- 
 able Lady Abbess of the English Benedictine Dames, 
 established in Pontoise.” 
 
384 
 
 Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 “ Right Reverend Madame and Religious Dames, — It is 
 usually a practice in case of presents to desire the person 
 they are made unto not to look upon the gift, but the heart 
 of the giver. But I, on the clean contrary, beseech you to 
 judge of the heart of the giver by the price and usefulness of 
 what he gives you, which I doubt not but when well examined, 
 will prove he that sends it is unquestionably one of your 
 humblest and most entirely devoted servants, 
 
 “Walsingham, S.J.” 
 
 The first heading or section is, “ Of the necessity and 
 excellency of Prayer.” “ The never enough admired St. John 
 Chrysostom, tells us that a ‘ soul without prayer is like a town 
 without walls, which lies as much exposed to the malice and 
 stratagems of the devil, as such a town does to the surprises 
 and attempts of an enemy, who may enter when and as often 
 as he pleases.’ ‘ St. Bernard assures us that prayer is a sacrifice 
 for God, music for angels, a banquet for the saints, and a 
 sanctuary for sinners.’ St. Bonaventure counsels thus, ‘ Would 
 you overcome any vice, give yourself to prayer ; would you 
 learn to be humble, obedient, chaste, patient; would you 
 become truly mortified, and learn not only to bear, but to 
 love your cross, exercise yourself in prayer.’ To conclude, 
 would you surmount all sorts of temptations, and triumph over 
 the devil himself, it must be by virtue and constant practice of 
 prayer,” &c. His second section is, “ Of the advantages mental 
 prayer hath over vocal.” After giving four reasons, he con- 
 cludes by saying, “ Daily experience shows us that for one 
 only half-hour every day faithfully employed in the exercise of 
 mental prayer, there is more profit made in spirit, than by five 
 or six hours of vocal prayer, insomuch that those who give 
 themselves in good earnest to this exercise, acquire in a very 
 short time that which others hardly attain to in many years.” 
 His next heading is, “ That mental prayer is not so hard as 
 it is imagined.” After giving three reasons, he says, “ Lastly, 
 because that to learn to meditate and pray mentally, there 
 are but two things necessary, whereof women and children 
 are as capable as the greatest Doctors. . . . The first is to 
 have a will to do it ; the second is to begin by times. I say 
 first they must have a will bent unto it, it being most sure that 
 whosoever has no affection to this exercise, can never learn 
 it, be he never so capable of other things. The reason of this 
 is that the principal exercise of prayer consists more in the 
 
Father Francis Walsingham . 385 
 
 will than in the understanding, insomuch that the understand- 
 ing is like the father unto prayer, whilst the will is its mother 
 conceiving it, and giving it its form, the understanding only 
 furnishing the matter. . . . The second thing necessary is to 
 begin by times, casting off all slothfulness and delays, betaking 
 yourself rather to the use and practice of it, than amusing 
 oneself upon its rules and precepts. . . . Half an hour or 
 an hour daily, according to health and circumstances, spent 
 in meditation upon some easy and moving subject of the life, 
 death, or Passion of our Blessed Lord, one month’s faithful 
 and hearty application to this exercise, will teach you better 
 how to pray and converse with the Majesty of God with 
 comfort .and devotion, than ten years study, a dozen spiritual 
 directors, and a library of books.” The next section is, 
 
 “Divers methods of mental prayer.” For every method he 
 proposes a pattern. “The first kind of prayer shall be that 
 of our Blessed Lord in the Garden; this is made with some 
 short aspiration of five or six words several times repeated, 
 with a pause between each, to the end you may taste them 
 the better, as our Lord thrice repeated “ Father,” &c. “ The 
 
 second sort of prayer is that taught us by that blessed penitent 
 St. Mary Magdalene, which is made by exterior signs when we 
 want thoughts to discourse upon the mystery meditated on. 
 For example, upon the Passion, we may take a crucifix or 
 picture in our hands, and kissing it on purpose to make so 
 many acts of adoration to the majesty of Jesus Christ, as we 
 shall salute that cross or picture, &c. This kind of prayer 
 is that which St. Mary Magdalen used at our Lord’s feet, where 
 with silence she kissed them, looked upon them, washed 
 them with her tears, embraced them, and held them fast 
 until she deserved to hear the divine words, 4 Go in peace,’ 
 &c. The third shall be in imitation of St. Teresa, who 
 used to meditate upon the words in saying her Pater , Ave, 
 or the Creed. She declares this plan to be better than a 
 hundred run over according to the usual mode. She prac- 
 tised it for many years, and it was the foundation of her 
 wonderful progress in the divine science of prayer and con- 
 templation. The fourth manner is taught us by Granada, to 
 take a book in hand and read all the points of our meditation, 
 and then take two or three lines at a time, stopping awhile 
 like a bee to suck the honey, making as many acts of adora- 
 tion, &c., as we find subjects for in our meditation. The fifth 
 kind is like the poor peasant, who, travelling with St. Ignatius 
 z 
 
3 86 
 
 Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 and his companions, and seeing those good fathers as soon 
 as they arrived at an inn, betake themselves to prayer, knelt 
 down with them, and finding himself unable to produce any 
 good thoughts or to discourse with God, usually prayed thus, 
 ‘Lord, I would say unto Thee, all that these Thy servants 
 say, and I do ask of Thee all that they demand ; these are 
 saints, and I am only a poor baggage horse, who knows neither 
 how to speak unto, or what to ask of Thee.’ If you be in the 
 company of many in prayer it is good to unite your devotions 
 with theirs, and to offer to God the prayers of others as 
 more worthy than your own. The sixth is taught by 
 the Royal Prophet, St. David, w'ho calls upon all creatures 
 one after another inviting them to praise God with him. For 
 this sort of prayer the matter is almost infinite, since all 
 creatures in the universe, with our souls and bodies, powers 
 and faculties, serve for subjects, &c. The seventh sort of 
 prayer may be called the prayer of children, since to make it 
 we use the letters of the alphabet, attributing to our Blessed 
 Lord, to the Blessed Sacrament, or to our Blessed Lady, all 
 the praises we can fit to the said letters — for example: 
 
 A. O my God, Thou art most amiable, most admirable, &c. 
 
 B. O my God, Thou art most beautiful, most bountiful, most 
 
 blessed, &c. C. O my God, how charitable, how condescending 
 Thou art. D. O my God, how dreadful, how divine, how 
 desirable art Thou, and so on. When three or four letters furnish 
 you with matter enough, rest there, and entertain yourself, &c. 
 The eighth sort of prayer is that which is called effective 
 prayer, consising in making sundry acts of virtue, especially 
 seven, (i) Faith: I believe assuredly such a truth, because 
 God hath revealed it to His Church. (2) Adoration : Lord 
 I adore Thee, and acknowledge Thee to be infinitely wise, 
 just, merciful, my sovereign good, &c. To these you may 
 add kneeling, prostration, kissing the ground, &c. (3) Acts of 
 
 Oblation : O my God, I offer and dedicate unto Thee, and 
 to Thy honour and glory, my body, soul, life, liberty, time, 
 and eternity, and the like; likewise the actions, sufferings, 
 merits, &c., of Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin, the saints, &c. 
 
 (4) Acts of thanksgiving for the mercies and benefits of God. 
 
 (5) Acts of contrition for sins, together with a firm purpose 
 of amendment from the bottom of your heart, a true sorrow 
 for and a detestation of sin, because displeasing to God. 
 
 (6) Acts of love and conformity to His holy will. (7) Acts 
 of petition which may be made to God upon all subjects, which 
 
Father Francis Walsmghani. 
 
 387 
 
 principally are the coming and increase of His kingdom, the 
 exaltation of His glory, the remission of our sins, the grace of 
 God,” &c. 
 
 In page 24 of this treatise he says, speaking of the best 
 way of placing oneself in the presence of God, “ The most 
 ordinary act in the beginning, the middle, and end of our 
 prayer is this act of faith, ‘ O my God, I believe Thee to 
 be here, and do confess that I am in Thy divine presence.’ 
 Yet to you I will tell a secret that is singular to help yourself 
 with, to keep yourself in the presence of God, which is the 
 application of the five interior senses of your soul, thus : 
 
 “ Sight. Lord, methinks I see Thee, and that I am 
 environed with the glory of Thy presence. 
 
 “ Hearing . Lord, methinks I hear Thee speak freely to 
 me : Thy servant is attentive. 
 
 “ Taste. Lord, methinks I taste Thee, Who art sweetness 
 Thyself. 
 
 “ Smell. Lord, methinks I smell Thy divine odours, sweeter 
 than all the perfumes of the world. 
 
 “ Touch. Lord, methinks that I do not only touch, but 
 that I embrace Thee, and hold Thee in my arms, Who art 
 my beloved ; nay, and I am resolved to hold Thee fast, till 
 Thou givest me Thy benediction. 
 
 “ Above all, remember that there is nothing makes us so 
 acceptable in the sight of God ... as true humility ; there- 
 fore to reap profit from your meditation, present yourself before 
 the Majesty of God in one of the following postures. (1) As 
 a poor beggar or lazar, begging only the crumbs that fall 
 from His table. (2) As a poor blind, deaf and dumb person. 
 (3) As a little child that knows not its wants, nor how to ask,” 
 &c. 
 
 After giving various other admirable advices regarding 
 distractions in prayer, and the common temptations of inter- 
 mitting it on account of business and other excuses, Father 
 Walsingham ends, “ Behold here comprised in a few leaves all 
 that I think fit to say to you concerning prayer. If you will 
 endeavour to put it in practice I dare promise you that what 
 to you now seems so harsh and difficult, will in a short time, 
 by the grace of the Holy Ghost, become sweet and easy to 
 you. St. Teresa tells us that the prayer and intercessions of 
 the great St. Joseph are very efficacious to obtain us the gift 
 and spirit of prayer. I do beseech him with my whole heart 
 to obtain that precious favour of God for him that writ this 
 
3 88 
 
 Father Francis Walsingham . 
 
 treatise, and for all them that shall read and study it the 
 grace and blessing to make their profit by it, and to become 
 true lovers of prayer, and constant practisers thereof. Amen, 
 sweet Jesus. 
 
 Speak efficaciously. Labour diligently. Mortify your- 
 self heartily. Suffer patiently. Pray devoutly. Resign your- 
 self wholly. Seek God only, and rest peaceably.” 
 
 From the same collection we have copied also the following 
 beautiful letter, for which the reader will no doubt pardon 
 us — 
 
 “ A pious letter from a Religious Monk to his Sister , being a 
 Novice , and upon the point of her profession. 
 
 “Dear Sister,— The approaching time of your solemn 
 engagement has invited me to return you two or three words 
 in thanksgiving for yours. I wish all the world were of your 
 opinion. Experience, then, would soon demonstrate how easy 
 the yoke of Jesus is to those who seek His love; and again, 
 how sweet His Spirit is to those that do not choke His inspira- 
 tions with fond affections. ’Tis worth our consideration to 
 ponder how bold men are in living, and how remiss in their 
 only concern to employ those moments which the Almighty 
 has given them for an eternity. How dismayed and dashed, 
 alas ! will these poor creatures be, when their glass is out, and 
 time shall be no more ! What horror and dread will attend 
 them at the sight of an inconceivable and an inevitable 
 eternity. Cast but an eye into the world, where people live 
 like atheists and die like brutes, and see if this be a just pro- 
 ceeding for those that have immortal souls. 
 
 “ Dear sister, you have taken the right way and chosen the 
 better part. You have chosen a Spouse which will never leave 
 you, unless you leave Him first. His company is always easy, 
 always pleasing, never cloying, always satisfying, but never 
 filling. You are like a bird in the air, at full liberty to soar on 
 high to contemplate your Maker’s greatness, neither clogged 
 nor loaded with worldly concerns. All that remains for you is 
 to make your offering, like the poor woman in the Gospel ; 
 give Him, with her, your two small mites, your body, and your 
 soul. Fling them into His hands, with the solemn promise 
 you are going to give Him, and that for ever ; never offering 
 to take them from Him for any fond or vain affection. If a 
 thousand years in God’s sight are but as yesterday, judge what 
 
Father Francis Walsingham. 
 
 389 
 
 a reward will attend, perhaps many, spent with an inviolable 
 fidelity in His service. Difficulties are to be found in all states 
 of mortality, and crowns are only given to such as overcome. 
 
 “ Dear sister, preserve the stole of innocency I saw you in, 
 unspotted ; keep your veil, which I hope by this you have 
 received, undefiled, to make a present of to your celestial 
 Spouse, and remember in your prayers, 
 
 “ Your loving Brother.” 
 
fourtlj Series* 
 
 Part I. 
 
 COLLEGE OF THE HOLY APOSTLES; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE SUFFOLK DISTRICT, S.J. 
 
I. 
 
 THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY APOSTLES, 
 OR THE SUFFOLK DISTRICT. 
 
 This was one of the early Colleges, or quasi Colleges, erected 
 by Father Richard Blount, the first Provincial. It was founded 
 about the year 1633. The following places, amongst many 
 others, of which no record remains, were served or visited by 
 the Fathers of this College, which embraced the counties of 
 Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Cambridge, and generally passed 
 by the name of “ Mrs. Suffolk.” 
 
 Acton (Sudbury) 
 
 Lynn 
 
 Beck Hall 
 
 Melford (Long) 
 
 Bodney 
 
 Norwich 
 
 Bromley Hall 
 
 Oswell 
 
 Bury St. Edmunds 
 
 Oxburgh Hall 
 
 Cambridge 
 
 Parham 
 
 Coldsea Wood 
 
 Redlingfield Hall (Suffolk) 
 
 Coldham Hall 
 
 Sawston (Cambridge) 
 
 Cossey Hall 
 
 Saxis (Sudbury) 
 
 Crandon Park 
 
 S waff ham (Norfolk) 
 
 Flixton 
 
 Thelton 
 
 Gifford Hall 
 
 Thetford 
 
 Great Wamingfield 
 
 Thomdon Hall 
 
 Hengrave Hall 
 
 Walthamstow 
 
 Hawley Park 
 
 Wealside 
 
 Hithelen 
 
 Writtle Park (Chelmsford) 
 
 Ingateston Hall 1 
 
 Wisbeach Castle 
 
 Ipswich 
 
 Witham 
 
 Kelvedon 
 
 Yarmouth 
 
 Lavenham or Lanham 
 
 Yaxley Hall. 
 
 The average number of fathers in this district, from 1633 
 
 until 1677, to which date the present history extends, was 
 about sixteen each year : and, as far as can be gathered from 
 
 1 This was one of the family seats of the Lords Petre. The word is 
 said to be derived from the Saxon Ing. atte Stone, or the Meadow ad 
 lapidem , i.e. at the Stone ; and in some old records it is called Ging or 
 Yng ad petrani ( vide Gortoni Topogr. Diet.). 
 
394 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 the scanty information in those trying times, the number of 
 Protestants reconciled to the Catholic Church, was about 
 thirty-five or forty per annum. 
 
 The principal benefactor, or rather the founder of this 
 College, was Robert, third Lord Petre. The following are 
 copies of letters from Father Richard Blount, Provincial, and 
 Lord Petre, to the Very Reverend Father General Vitelleschi, 
 regarding the foundation. Father Blount’s letter is partly in 
 cipher, deciphered . 2 The originals may be seen in Stonyhurst 
 
 3 The writing in cipher was a necessary art in the days of persecution, 
 and was also much used for State purposes. The State Papers in the 
 P.R.O., London, abound in intercepted letters and others in cipher. The 
 deciphering must have been a more difficult art. The loss of a key to a 
 cipher was fatal. In an intercepted letter of Father Henry Garnet the 
 martyr, written from the Tower of London to a friend, in orange juice, 
 2 1st of April, 1606 (P.R.O., Gunpowder Plot Book), he speaks of divers 
 crosses with which it had pleased God to afflict him (among others), “The 
 ransacking anew of Erith and the other house. And now, last of all, 
 the apprehension of Richard and Robert with a cipher, I know not of 
 who’s, laid to my charge ; and that which was a singular oversight, a 
 letter written in cipher, together with the cipher, which letter may bring 
 many into question. ” The following is a cipher alphabet, &c. , taken from 
 State Papers, P. R.O., Domestic , Elizabeth , vol. cclxxxiiiA. (1602) n. 75. 
 The first line of the alphabet, consisting of cipher hieroglyphics, is not 
 given here. 
 
 a b 
 
 c d 
 
 e f g h i k 1 
 
 m n 
 
 0 p q 
 
 r s 
 
 t u W X 
 
 y z 
 
 P 9 
 
 4 7 
 
 26 3 8 5 1 10 
 
 12 15 
 
 19 21 41 33 16 
 
 14 91 18 20 
 
 14 29 
 
 m f 
 
 g 1 
 
 0 k v x q f w 
 
 y s 
 
 r h d 
 
 a c 
 
 e z I 
 
 > n 
 
 p ^ 
 
 A 
 
 and 
 
 all am are as 
 
 Be 
 
 by but 
 
 best 
 
 Call 
 
 can 
 
 come 
 
 P 
 
 w 
 
 x 3 a 6 
 
 t 
 
 d t 
 
 f 
 
 g 
 
 h 
 
 i 
 
 Dare 
 
 deal 
 
 did doe End 
 
 else 
 
 Far fear first fast 
 
 for 
 
 from 
 
 k 
 
 1 
 
 m n 0 
 
 q 
 
 s 
 
 t 
 
 u w 
 
 X 
 
 y 
 
 God 
 
 good 
 
 Have hold haste 
 
 I in if 
 
 kill 
 
 king 
 
 Last 
 
 least 
 
 z 
 
 q 
 
 10 12 13 14 15 16 
 
 17 
 
 18 
 
 19 
 
 20 
 
 list 
 
 leave 
 
 live lost lust 
 
 Man me 
 
 men 
 
 most 
 
 must 
 
 my 
 
 21 
 
 22 
 
 23 24 25 
 
 26 27 
 
 28 
 
 29 
 
 30 
 
 3 i 
 
 No 
 
 none 
 
 nay nor near 
 
 Of 
 
 one once 
 
 or 
 
 our old 
 
 
 Proud 
 
 32 
 
 33 
 
 34 35 36 
 
 37 
 
 38 39 
 
 40 
 
 41 42 
 
 
 43 
 
 Queen Rest read Save spill search sin To try trust truth 
 
 45 46 47 48 49 50 5 i 52 53 54 55 
 
 Vice Was waste well which when where why what who will 
 
 57 58 59 60 61 63 64 65 66 67 68 
 
 with Y ou your 
 69 70 71 
 
 To know in which cipher you write. If you write according to the 
 first, then note C. If the second, then note P. If the cipher you sent to 
 me, then note (the first). If in that which I send to you, then note the 
 second. 
 
College of the Holy Apostles. 3 
 
 MSS., Angl. vol. iv. nn. 95, 98. Lord Petre signs “Cepha- 
 lini,” an assumed name doubtless referring to “ Cephas ” — 
 “Petra" — a rock or stone. 
 
 1234567 89 
 
 bis- 103 • ho- era- fig; le| na| Pel lu| 
 
 50 60 70 10,000 
 
 tw • tm ; ma • lan ■ 
 
 England 90 : 
 
 Scotland 40: 
 
 France 64: 
 
 Ireland 52: 
 
 Spain 33: 
 
 Denmark 72 : 
 
 Portugal 80: 
 
 East Indies 50: 
 
 West Indies 66: 
 
 Italy 55: 
 
 Florence 04: 
 
 Naples 93: 
 
 Milan 26: 
 
 Savoy 30: 
 
 Germany 19: 
 
 Venice 22: 
 
 The Low Countries — 
 Flanders 17: 
 
 Brabant 29 : 
 
 Holland 38: 
 
 Zealand 49 : 
 
 100,000 1,000,000 
 
 bu • bran | 
 
 
 Friezland 
 
 24 
 
 Gelderland 
 
 14 
 
 Brittany 
 
 81 
 
 Brest 
 
 97 
 
 Paris 
 
 12 
 
 Lyons 
 
 18 
 
 Orleans 
 
 16 
 
 Rome ? Rouen 
 
 11 
 
 Laon 
 
 08 
 
 Rhemes 
 
 06 
 
 Antwerp 
 
 53 
 
 Ghent 
 
 25 
 
 Brussels 
 
 03 
 
 Bruges 
 
 09 
 
 Flushing 
 
 7i 
 
 Middelburg 
 
 79 
 
 Ostend 
 
 75 
 
 Dunkirk 
 
 02 
 
 Brill 
 
 86 
 
 Kent 
 
 86 
 
 Sussex 
 
 36 
 
 10 
 
 20 
 
 30 
 
 40 
 
 kos • 
 
 tag! 
 
 ab; 
 
 try 
 
 Hampshire 
 
 10 
 
 Dorsetshire 
 
 01 
 
 Devonshire 
 
 21 
 
 Cornwall 
 
 31 
 
 Wales 
 
 34 
 
 Milford Haven 94 
 
 Essex 
 
 96 
 
 Norfolk 
 
 95 
 
 Suffolk 
 
 92 
 
 Isle of Wight 
 
 98 
 
 Portsmouth 
 
 99 
 
 Berwick 
 
 4i 
 
 Rye 
 
 43 
 
 Dover 
 
 45 
 
 Sandwich 
 
 47 
 
 Yarmouth 
 
 46 
 
 Portland 
 
 48 
 
 Weymouth 
 
 58 
 
 London 
 
 74 
 
 Bristol 
 
 78 
 
 York 
 
 79 
 
 The Pope 
 
 112 
 
 Owen 
 
 137 
 
 Emperor 
 
 116 
 
 Charles Paget 
 
 138 
 
 King of Spain 
 
 1 19 
 
 Fitzherbert 
 
 140 
 
 Queen of England 
 
 120 
 
 Thomas Throckmorton 
 
 143 
 
 King of Navarre 
 
 125 
 
 Sr Throckmorton 
 
 141 
 
 King of Scots 
 
 122 
 
 Sherer 
 
 142 
 
 King of Denmark 
 
 121 
 
 Stirr 
 
 144 
 
 Duke of Ernest 
 
 126 
 
 Jaques 
 
 145 
 
 Duke of Savoy 
 
 128 
 
 Earl of Essex 
 
 147 
 
 Duke de Mayne 
 
 127 
 
 Earl of Arundell 
 
 146 
 
 Duke de Guise 
 
 129 
 
 Earl of Derby 
 
 147 
 
 The Count Charles 
 
 132 
 
 Earl of Shrewsbury 
 
 148 
 
 The Count Foyntes 
 
 130 
 
 The Lord Treasurer 
 
 149 
 
 Verduge 
 
 133 
 
 The Lord Buckhurst 
 
 150 
 
 The Count Morris 
 
 131 
 
 The Earl of Worcester 
 
 152 
 
 The Estates 
 
 135 
 
 The Earl of Huntingdon 
 
 151 
 
 Cardinal Allen 
 
 134 
 
 The Earl of Hertford 
 
 153 
 
 Father Parsons 
 
 136 
 
 Arabella 
 
 155 
 
 Father Holt 
 
 139 
 
 
 
396 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 “ Adm^ R d ? in Chd. 0 Pater noster, — 
 " Pax Chr* 
 
 cupit hospes P. 
 
 ‘Illmiis Dnus Baro Cephalini (sic enim vocari 
 
 Henrici moti Baro Petri\ i r; j * 
 29252538302322 32403623 37213627 352538383°'' C uc 
 
 Religionis Catholicae propagandae accensus cum liberis suis 
 omnibus jam providerit, excepto natu minimo, pietatis in 
 patriam suam monumentum quoq’ aliquot relinquere post se 
 optat. 
 
 “ Collegium itaq. Societati nostrae fundare in animo habet, 
 cui dotando praeter reditum annuum perpetuum quasi mille 
 scutorum, summam capitalem sexdecim millium scutorum in 
 parata pecunia seposuit : quae si ad nummum duntaxat deci- 
 mum quintum exponatur, ad alendas vigenti quinque personas 
 omnino sufficiet. Quod si Divinae Bonitati vitam ipsi ad 
 aliquot annos prorogare visum fuerit, paratis quae filio natu 
 minimo sufficiant, dotem etiam Collegii aucturum se sperat. 
 Dignabitur P. V. hanc optimi sane viri et Societatis nostrae 
 studiosissimi piam voluntatem gratam habere, et Collegium sic 
 dotandum ad majus Dei obsequium et animarum auxilium 
 admittere ; quod ipse ^3^3^3^*72^23 ( hoc praecipuum illius 
 Comitatus oppidum est et nostris ministeriis percommodum) 
 sub nuncupatione Sanctorum Apostolorum collocandum censet. 
 Quod eo etiam nomine libentiiis concessurum spero P te . m V®? 1 
 quia idem Illus™ us Dnus ab obitu parentis per complures jam 
 annos insignis Benefactor extitit, donatis Societati in singulos 
 annos mille scutis ; quam eleemosynam hodieq. dat, et ad 
 obitum usq. daturus est 
 
 “Et quidem est Collegium, quod ab ejus majoribus 
 
 fundatum, ob conditiones quasdem in ejus traditione pactas, 
 sed jam manifesto ruptas, secundum jura ad ipsum devolutum 
 censetur, cujus possessionem haud dubio jam adiisset, si per 
 temporum iniquitatem jus suum prosequi licuisset. Itaq. lite 
 pendente, sed non abjudicata, Collegium illud si quando a 
 posteris recuperabitur, Societati nostrae per codicillum donan- 
 dum ordinabit. Quae sane res eximiam ejus in nos benevo- 
 lentiam satis ostendit. 
 
 “ Caeterum ubi perlatum fuerit responsum P. V. si Collegium 
 admittendum videbitur, pecunia supradicta, cum reditu annuo, 
 mihi statim legitime consignabitur ; simul verb, si placet P. V. 
 mittatur diploma, quo hujusmodi Collegium a se rite admissum 
 testetur. Cujusmodi diploma missurum etiam se promisit 
 D. Carolo Shirbundo, quod tamen hacteniis non accepi. Quod 
 
College of the Holy Apostles. 397 
 
 reliquum est, sanctis me P. V. S. S. et orationibus humillime 
 commendo. Londini, 27 Aug. 1632. 
 
 “Adm. R. P. V. 
 
 “ Indignus in Xto filius et servus, 
 
 “Ricardus Blondus.” 
 
 [translation.] 
 
 “Very Rev. Father in Christ, — 
 
 “ Pax Chti. 
 
 “The noble Lord, the Baron Cephalini (for thus 
 the host of Father Henry More, the Lord Petre, wishes to be 
 called), inflamed with zeal for the Faith, and the propagation 
 of the Catholic religion, since he has now made provision for 
 all his children, except his youngest, wishes to leave behind 
 him also some monument of piety for his own country. 
 
 “ He therefore contemplates founding a College of our 
 Society, for which, besides endowing it with a perpetual annual 
 income of one thousand scudi, he has laid aside a capital sum 
 of sixteen thousand scudi in ready money [^4,000], which if 
 he lays aside only fifteen thousand, suffices for the support of 
 at least twenty-five persons. But should it please the divine 
 goodness to prolong his life for some years, having by that 
 time sufficiently provided for his youngest son, he hopes to 
 increase also the gift to the College. Will your Paternity 
 condescend graciously to accept this pious wish of a man so 
 truly good and most solicitous for our Society, and to approve 
 of the College thus endowed to the greater service of God 
 and help of souls ; which he himself thinks of placing in the 
 town of Chelmsford (the capital of his own county, and most 
 convenient for our ministrations) under dedication to the Holy 
 Apostles ? And I also hope your Paternity will the more readily 
 grant it on this account, because the same noble lord, from 
 the death of his father, now for many years, has been a singular 
 benefactor, giving yearly to the Society a thousand scudi; 
 which alms he gives to this day, and will do so until his death. 
 
 “ And indeed there is a College at Oxford, which, founded 
 by his ancestors, on account of the manifest breach of certain 
 terms agreed upon at its delivery, he considers according 
 to right to have reverted again to himself ; the possession of 
 which he would without doubt now enter upon, if the iniquity 
 of the times allowed him to prosecute his right. Therefore 
 lite pendente , sed non abjudicata , should this College be 
 
398 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 recovered by his posterity, he intends to give it by a codicil 
 to his will to the Society. Which circumstance abundantly 
 shows his extraordinary benevolence towards us . 3 
 
 “As to the rest, when your Paternity’s answer shall have 
 been received, that it seems good to you to admit the College, 
 the above-mentioned sum and annual income will be at 
 once legally made over to me. But at the same time, if it 
 please your Paternity, let a diploma be sent duly approving 
 and authorising a College of this kind. 
 
 “ A diploma of this kind he also promised should be sent 
 by Mr. Charles Sherbourne, which, however, I have not as yet 
 received. 
 
 “ It only remains for me most humbly to commend myself 
 to your Paternity’s holy SS. and prayers. 
 
 “Your Very Rev. Paternity’s 
 “ Unworthy son and servant in Christ, 
 
 “ Richard Blount. 
 
 “ Reverendissime Pater, — 
 
 “ Inspecto Diplomate quod nuper ad me 
 destinandum censuit R™ a P a ! V a incessi, ut par erat, lsetitia ; 
 et felicem me apud animum meum prsedicavi, et praedicabo 
 semper, qui R™ P™ V ai sortitus sum interpretem tarn benignum 
 desiderii, et tenuium certe conatuum meorum Catholicae Reli- 
 gionis amplificandae in afhicta, quam incolo, patria : magnisq. 
 beneficentiae vinculis obstrictum me profiteor erga R™ P te . m V“, 
 quae exigua mea merita praemio tam amplo est remunerata. 
 
 “Haec pia R 1 ?. 35 P* V? liberalitas novis me erga hoc ipsum 
 opus, et Societatem vestram universam animavit affectibus ; 
 quos, si vita comes fuerit, novis etiam conatibus testatos et 
 obsignatos relinquere adlaborabo. 
 
 “ Hunc tantum ambio honorem apud R™ P^ m V 111 uti credat 
 animum mihi esse plenum zelo, et desiderio serviendi R " 1 . 31 
 pts ya3 e t universae SocP. Cui omnipotens Bonitas R™ P. tem 
 V™ ad multos annos servet precor incolumem. Utq. mei in 
 Sanctis SS. et precibus memor aliquando sit humillime et 
 
 3 This College must have been “Wadham College.” Dodd, Church 
 Hist., vol. iii. p. 278, speaking of William Petre says (quoting from 
 Athen. Oxon.) “second son of William Lord Petre, had his education for 
 awhile in the University of Oxford, being gentleman commoner of Wadham 
 College, which foundation was completed by his great aunt, Dame Dorothy 
 Wadham.” 
 
Father Thomas Everard. 
 
 399 
 
 enixe obtestor ; qui in hoc nomine unice glorior quod sim et 
 esse ex animo opto (infirmus licdt et indignus). R™ 33 P ri f V® 
 
 “ In Christo omnium Domino Servus, 
 
 “Guido Cephalini. 
 
 “ Londini, 3 Aprilis, 1635.” 
 
 [translation.] 
 
 “ Most Rev. Father, — 
 
 “ I have inspected the diploma which your 
 Paternity has been pleased lately to assign me. I was beside 
 myself for joy, as it was fitting I should be ; and I pronounce 
 myself happy, and shall always do so, that it has fallen to my 
 lot to find in your Paternity so kind an interpreter of my 
 desires, and truly poor endeavours, for extending the Catholic 
 religion in my afflicted country ; and I acknowledge myself 
 bound to your Paternity by the strictest obligations for having 
 been pleased to repay my poor merits by so ample a reward. 
 
 “ Your Paternity’s pious liberality animates me to renewed 
 affections for this work, and towards your whole Society, in 
 whose regard I will endeavour, if I live, to leave proofs and 
 marks of my esteem by fresh efforts. 
 
 “ I seek this only honour of your Paternity, that you will 
 believe me full of zeal and desire of serving your Paternity, 
 and the whole Society; to which I pray God always to preserve 
 your Paternity safe for many years to come. 
 
 “ I humbly and earnestly beg sometimes a memento in 
 your Holy Sacrifices and prayers, &c. 
 
 “Your Paternity’s most sincere (though poor and unworthy) 
 servant of all in Christ the Lord. 
 
 “ Guido Cephalini. 
 
 “London, April 3, 1635.” 
 
 The following fathers of the English Province, who served 
 in this College, deserve special notice. 
 
 FATHER THOMAS EVERARD. 
 
 Father Thomas Everard, alias Everett, was born at Linstead, 
 in the County of Suffolk, 8th February, 1560, so he himself tells 
 us in his examination at Dover Castle, upon his arrest on landing 
 there in 1623, of which a copy will be given presently. His 
 father, Henry Everard, was a man of rank, and a prisoner in 
 England for his faith in 1593. His mother was Catharine 
 Gawdyr. He made his early studies at home for about six 
 
400 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 years and a half. Lest he should be led astray in the slippery 
 time of youth, it pleased God that he should become acquainted 
 with Father John Gerard, under whom, with some other youths 
 of distinction, he made the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius in 
 London. In consequence, he remained deeply imbued with 
 a constant love and study of piety. Finding that he could not 
 securely follow out the vocation he was conscious of having 
 received, on account offthe severity of the persecution against 
 Catholics in England, he crossed over to the English College, 
 Rheims, where he studied moral and controversy for eight 
 months, and afterwards rhetoric at Courtrai for eleven months. 
 He received minor orders on the 22nd of February, 1592 ; was 
 ordained subdeacon on the 14th of March, by the Cardinal 
 Bishop Placentius, Apostolic Legate in France ; deacon on the 
 22nd of May, by the Bishop of Lyons; and priest on the 18th 
 of September, 1592, by the Bishop of Artois. He was admitted 
 to the Society by Father Oliver Manaraeus, the Provincial of 
 Belgium; went to the Novitiate at Tournay on the 3rd of 
 June, 1593, and began his novitiate the next day. On the 
 25th July, 1594, he was allowed to make his private vows of 
 devotion. On the 17th of June, 1595, after taking his simple 
 vows, he was sent ad Collegium Insulense . 4 Such a constant 
 piety and yearning after heavenly things, joined to the utmost 
 meekness towards all, shone forth in him, that his whole 
 countenance, and his very gait, seemed to breathe forth sanctity. 
 A certain candour and agreeableness in dealing with his neigh- 
 bour, both rendered him a general favourite, and wonderfully 
 attracted his auditors, and made them compliant to his admo- 
 nitions. He was afterwards seized with a slow fever, to which 
 it was feared he would have succumbed ; but by the goodness 
 of God he was spared for the salvation of many souls, and for 
 a series of years filled the offices of Minister at St. Omer’s 
 College and at Watten, and was subsequently appointed Socius 
 to the Father Master of Novices at Louvain. He took his last 
 vows as a spiritual coadjutor in the year 1604. But, burning 
 with an intense desire for the labours and sufferings of the 
 English mission, he was allowed, although advanced in years, 
 to cross over thither, and exercise his apostolical functions in 
 the county of Norfolk. This was about the year 1617. He 
 assiduously made a circuit of the district, attending the houses 
 of the Catholics, and always travelling on foot ; nor could he 
 ever be induced, although old and sickly, to make use of a horse. 
 
 4 Diary of Tournay Novitiate. 
 
Father Thomas Everard. 
 
 401 
 
 How abundant was the fruit he gathered into the garner of 
 the Lord, and how large a number, tom from the faith by 
 heresy, he reconciled to the Church, clearly appeared by the 
 rage of the magistrates, who caused all the roads to be narrowly 
 watched, and used every effort to arrest him. In 1618, about 
 a year only after his arrival, he was betrayed by wicked apos- 
 tates, and seized in a hiding-place at a house in the county of 
 Suffolk, which entailed heavy damages upon his host in conse- 
 quence. He was committed to prison, and there detained two 
 years in a painful and close confinement. Although he does 
 not mention it in his examination, he must have crossed over 
 to the English mission for a short time about i6of, when we 
 find from Father John Gerard’s narrative, 5 he fell into trouble. 
 We cannot omit the interesting passage. Father Gerard, who, 
 with the certain risk of death, if he should be taken, remained 
 on in England after his remarkable escape from the Tower of 
 London in 1597, was falsely suspected of a knowledge of the 
 Gunpowder Plot, and was searched for, high and low. “I took,” 
 says he, “ the greatest precaution to remain hidden ; and I lay 
 at a place in London known to no one. So, by the protection 
 of God, I continued safe ; and if it had seemed good, I could 
 have remained so still longer. I did not, therefore, leave England 
 to avoid being taken ; but as, in that great disturbance, it was 
 no time for labouring, but rather for keeping quiet, I took a 
 favourable opportunity that presented itself of passing over into 
 these parts [on the Continent] and reposing a little, and after 
 so long a period of distracting work in all kinds of company, 
 that I might take breath, and recover strength for future labours. 
 Why, even at that very time, when I was keeping so close, and 
 when nearly all my friends were either in prison or so upset 
 that they could scarcely help themselves, much less me, though 
 I had lost the house I had in London, through the fault of one 
 who disclosed it, as I have said, and though strict watch was 
 kept everywhere, and danger beset me on all sides ; yet before 
 I had settled to leave England, I managed to hire another 
 house in London, very fit for my purpose, perhaps more so 
 than the former. I managed also, to furnish it with every- 
 thing necessary, and made some good hiding-places in it ; and 
 there I remained in safety the whole of Lent, before my depar- 
 ture. Besides this house, I also hired another, larger and finer 
 than this, which I intended should be in common between 
 Father Anthony Hoskins and myself. This house, after my 
 5 See Father Morris’ Condition of Catholics , clxxx. 
 
 AA 
 
402 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 departure, was used by the Superior of the mission for a con- 
 siderable time. 
 
 “ The first of these last-mentioned houses I brought into 
 some little danger about the end of Lent, in order to rescue 
 one of our fathers from imminent danger. The thing happened 
 in this wise. The good Father, by name Thomas Everett, had 
 gone to a gentleman’s house in London, where there were some 
 false brethren, or else some talkative ones ; for the fact reached 
 the ears of the Council. And as he is something of my height, 
 and has black hair, Cecil thought it was I of whom notice was 
 given him, and s^id to a private friend of his, 4 Now we shall 
 have him,’ naming me. However, he had neither the one nor 
 the other. For I, learning that the Father had gone to this 
 place, where he could not possibly remain hidden, asked my 
 friend, in whose house I had myself been concealed before I 
 had procured and furnished my new abode, to fetch him, and 
 keep him close in his house for a time, which he did. Here 
 he remained, whilst the house he had just left was undergoing 
 a strict search. Now it so happened that, after a few days, a 
 search was also made in the very place to which he had been 
 brought, on account of some books of Father Garnet’s which 
 had been seen, and which this gentleman used to keep for him. 
 After rifling the place well, and finding no one (for Father 
 Everett had betaken himself to a hiding-place), they carried off 
 the master and mistress of the house, and threw them into 
 prison. Now when I heard this, and knew that there was no 
 Catholic left in the house, fearing lest the Father should either 
 perish with hunger or come forth to be taken, I sent persons 
 from my own house, to whom I described the position of his 
 hiding-place. They went thither, and called to him, and 
 knocked at the place, for him to open it ; he, however, would 
 neither open nor answer, though they said that I had sent them 
 for him. For, as he did not know their voices, he was afraid 
 that this was a trick of the searchers, who sometimes pretend 
 to depart, and then, after a time, to return, and assuming a 
 friendly tone, go about the rooms, asking any who are hidden 
 to come out, for that the searchers are all gone. The good 
 Father suspected that this was the case now, and therefore made 
 no answer. My messengers remained a long time, trying to 
 reassure him, and at last were obliged to return ; but so late, 
 that they fell into the hands of the watch. They were detained 
 in custody that night, and got off with some difficulty the next 
 day. One of them, however, was recognized as having formerly 
 
Father Thomas Everard. 
 
 403 
 
 lived with a Catholic, and was therefore believed to be a 
 Catholic himself ; and, as it was now known that he lived in 
 the house that I had hired, this brought that house into sus- 
 picion, though it had been ostensibly hired by a schismatic, 
 who was under no suspicion at all. The consequence was that 
 some four days later the chief magistrate of London, who is 
 called the Mayor, came with a posse of constables to search the 
 house. In the meantime, hearing that Father Thomas would 
 not answer, and knowing well that he was there, to prevent his 
 perishing from starvation, I sent the next night another party, 
 with the man who had made the hiding-place, and knew how 
 to open it. The place was thus opened, and the good Father 
 rescued from his perilous position. They brought him to my 
 house, and there he remained ; I myself however, before he 
 arrived, had gone to a friend’s house, a very secure place, for 
 the purpose of staying there a little, as I had some fears that 
 the apprehension of my servants a day or two back might bring 
 the searchers to my house. My fears were well founded ; for 
 on Holy Thursday, while Father Everett was saying Mass, and 
 had just finished the offertory, there was a great tumult and 
 noise at the garden gate ; and the Mayor used such violence, 
 and made such quick work of it, as to have entered the garden 
 and the house, and to be now actually mounting the stairs, 
 just as the Father, all vested as he was, and with all the altar 
 furniture bundled up, had entered his hiding-place. So near 
 a matter was it that the Mayor and his company smelt the 
 smoke of the extinguished candles, so that they made sure a 
 priest had been there, and were the more eager in their search. 
 But of the three hiding-places in the house, they did not find 
 one. So they departed, taking with them those men whom 
 they found in the house, and who acknowledged themselves 
 to be Catholics, and the schismatic also, who passed for the 
 householder. After this, having again released Father Everett 
 from his hiding-hole, and advised him to leave London, I 
 determined not to use that house again for some time.” 
 
 From the following copies of papers in the Public Record 
 Office, London, we gather that Father Everard was banished 
 the kingdom in 1620. 
 
 In the State Papers, Domestic, James /., 1620, vol. cxx. n. 4, 
 is a paper endorsed, “ February, 1620. A certificate from the 
 officers of the Port of Dover of such priests as were trans- 
 ported beyond seas by virtue of a warrant from the Lords,” 
 
 aa 2 
 
404 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 “ Dover. Whereas William Waterton and Henry Smith, 
 messengers, brought to the town and port of Dover by virtue 
 of a warrant from the Lords of his Majesty’s Privy Council, 
 dated the 29th of February, 1620, certain Jesuits and priests 
 amongst other persons that had taken orders in the Romish 
 Church, these, whose names are hereunder written, to be 
 exiled and banished his Majesty’s dominions. Amongst others 
 John Curry, Thomas Everard , John Grose, &c., all prisoners 
 from the new prison. . . These were all sent and put aboard 
 of a barque of Dover, called the Swan of Dover — John Danyel, 
 master — for Calais, on Friday, the 2nd day of March, about 
 two o’clock in the morning. In witness, 
 
 “ Jasper Fowler, Searcher. 
 
 “William Jones, Clerk of the Passage. 
 
 “ John Bangor, Mayor.” 
 
 Father Everard was afterwards stopped on his landing at 
 Dover, in endeavouring to return from this banishment. He 
 gave the assumed name of Harrison, and was disguised as a 
 soldier. Nothing can afford greater evidence of the burning 
 zeal for the conversion of their fellow-countrymen in the 
 missionary priests, both secular and regular, than their 
 constant attempts, generally successful, to return from their 
 banishment, in the face of the Acts of Parliament which 
 inflicted death as for high treason, in such cases. Father 
 Everard appears to have been released on bail in the follow- 
 ing October, after a confinement in Dover Castle of three 
 months. His speedy release was no doubt occasioned by 
 the treaties of marriage then going on at Court. 
 
 Dom. James /. 1623, vol. cxlviii. n. 57, 57 i. 57 ii. 
 
 Endorsed — “July 7th, 1623, Lord Zouch, concerning one 
 Everard, Jesuit, stayed at Dover.” 
 
 Address — “ For his Majesty’s special service.” 
 
 “To the Right Honourable Sir Edw. Conway,” &c. &c. 
 “ At the Court at Windsor, be these given. — Zouch. Haste, 
 haste, post haste. 
 
 “ Monday, 7th July, at three of the clock in the afternoon. 
 
 “ Noble Sir, — I am bold to use another man’s hand, by 
 reason I am not able to write myself. These inclosed came to 
 my hand this forenoon, and I am desirous to have your 
 account of them before I go to Dover, which will be (if God 
 please) to-morrow thitherward : if his Majesty be pleased to 
 
Father Thomas Everard. 
 
 405 
 
 have this party stayed, you had need write quickly, for I have 
 already given orders that all of that nature shall be presently 
 bound over as your former letter appointed, so as I doubt it 
 will be too late. If it please you to command me anything 
 else to Dover, I attend your commands; if not, I pray God 
 have you in his keeping, and I will ever rest, 
 
 “Yours faithfully to do you service, 
 
 “E. Zouch. 
 
 “Barbican, 7th July, 1623.” 
 
 N. 57 i. 
 
 Endorsed — “ Mayor, &c., of Dover, to Lord Zouch, con- 
 cerning one Everard, a Jesuit, stayed there.” 
 
 “To the Right Honourable and our very good lord, the 
 Lord Zouch, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, Privy Coun- 
 cillor, &c. 
 
 “ Right Hon., — Our humble duty remembered unto your 
 hon. good lordship. It may please your honour to vouchsafe 
 to be advertized that this present afternoon was brought before 
 us Thomas Everard, a Jesuit of continuance thirty years as 
 himself confesseth, for which he heretofore of late was im- 
 prisoned here in England, and banished out of the same about 
 the 2nd of May, 1620. The said Thomas Everard landed here 
 out of a ship of Calais, about two of the clock this morning, and 
 by the diligent care of William J ones, clerk of the passage, was 
 apprehended. At which time he named himself Thomas 
 Harrison, and said he was a soldier, and had his sword and 
 pass under the hand of Sir Edward Parham, thereby hoping to 
 have had here quiet entrance into this kingdom. We have 
 taken his examination and send the same, together with his 
 said pass unto your lordship, and detain him as a prisoner here 
 until it shall please your honour to command us otherwise to 
 dispose of him. And thus in all humble and dutiful manner 
 we commend your lordship to God’s protection, &c. 
 
 “ Your honour’s in all commandment, 
 
 “ Henry Steed, Mayor. 
 
 “Dover, this 6th of July, 1623.” 
 
 N. 5 7 ii. 1623. 
 
 “ The examination of Thomas Everard, of the age of three 
 score and four years or thereabout. Taken in the Town Hall 
 of the town and port of Dover, in the county of Kent, on the 
 
40 6 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 6th day of July, &c., before Henry Steed, mayor of the said 
 town and port, Francis Willsford, and William Jones, clerk 
 of the passage, commissioners for restraint of passage there.” 
 
 “ He sayeth he was born at Linsted, in the county of 
 Suffolk, and was brought up in his youth at Cambridge, by the 
 space of about one year and a half, and went over the seas, 
 when he was about the age of thirty-one years, and studied first 
 at Rheims, by the space of one year, and remained beyond 
 the seas many years ; and about thirty years hath been a Jesuit, 
 and was in England about three years before his banishment 
 out of this kingdom, and was in prison about two years of that 
 time, and confesseth that about the 2nd of March, 1620, he, 
 with about twenty-one other like Jesuits, priests, and others, 
 were banished out of this kingdom, and brought to Dover in 
 the custody of William Waterton and Henry Smith, messengers 
 of his Majesty’s chamber; and confesseth that sithence that 
 time he hath lived at Gant, where he had his provision of diet 
 allowed unto him. 
 
 “ Being examined where he took shipping for this port, the 
 last night, he sayeth at Calais, in a French ship, and that none 
 of his acquaintance came over with him. And sayeth that the 
 cause of his coming into England is for recovery of his health, 
 having been sickly about two years. And sayeth he was 
 partly sent by his Superior, named Mutius Vitelleschi, to 
 execute his function, and that his abode to be here in England 
 is without limitations. 
 
 “ Being examined why at his arrival he named himself 
 Thomas Harrison, and that he was a soldier, and did wear a 
 sword, and that he served under Sir Edward Parham, and had 
 his pass for coming into England; he sayeth he so named 
 himself and termed himself to be a soldier, and gained the 
 same pass, thereby hoping to have the more quietly entered at 
 this port, and from hence to have passed to London, whither 
 he did intend to have gone. 
 
 “ Being examined what money he hath brought over with 
 him, he sayeth he hath about fourteen shillings.” 
 
 Dom. James I. 1623, vol. cxlix. n. 19. 
 
 Lord Zouch to Secretary Conway. 
 
 “ I have by this bearer (the foot post of Dover), sent you 
 all those books, pictures, and other impertinences which were 
 taken from the three Papists that landed here about the begin- 
 ning of this month, having (as soon as I had knowledge of his 
 
Father Thomas Everard. 407 
 
 Majesty's pleasure), set them at liberty, upon their own bonds 
 of ;£ioo a-piece, to appear before Mr. Secretary Calvert, at 
 London, on the 10th of this present July. Howsoever, the 
 books and other things may be disposed of when you shall see 
 them ; I think that such subjects deserve well to have the 
 benefit of their own whip bestowed upon them. 
 
 “ I have also caused the Jesuit (that came over as a soldier), 
 to be kept safe prisoner in this town, as his Majesty's command 
 is, to whose royal pleasure I shall ever readily express in all 
 things my humble dutiful obedience, 
 
 “ E. Zouch.” 
 
 Dom. James I. vol. cliii. n. 59. 
 
 Endorsed, October, 1623. — “Lord Zouch, concerning a 
 prisoner at Dover, for whose release his lordship had received 
 a writ out of the King’s Bench.” 
 
 “ To the Right Hon. Sir E. Conway, Secretary. 
 
 “Noble Sir, — Having performed what you in his Majesty's 
 name hath commanded me, I have had no occasion to write unto 
 you until this time, but now in respect I have received a writ 
 out of the Crown Office concerning the delivery of one Everratt, 
 a Jesuit prisoner here by his Majesty's commandment, for that 
 he had been before set at liberty to be sent over at the suit of 
 the late Spanish Ambassador, which writ commands the taking 
 of his own bond for his personal appearance there at a day 
 prefixed in the same, to which I dare not obey until such time 
 as by you I shall understand his Majesty's pleasure to that end. 
 I beseech you therefore be pleased to acquaint his Majesty 
 herewith, and to let me receive his pleasure by you herein. 
 
 “ Dover Castle.” “ E. Zouch. 
 
 Father Everard’s name appears in Gee's list of priests and 
 Jesuits in and about London, 6 that list dating about 1623-24. 
 He is also named with five other Fathers in a Catalogue of the 
 Province, marked P among the Jesuit papers found in the 
 residence of the Fathers at Clerkenwell, on its seizure by the 
 Government in 1627-28. It is intended to give an account 
 of this stirring event in a history of the College of St. Ignatius, 
 or the London district in our next vol. of this Series. This 
 list would date about 1624. 
 
 “ In missione Suffolciensis, 
 
 P. Thomas Everard.” 
 
 6 “Foot out of the Snare." 
 
408 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 In 1629 he accompanied the Lady Falkland in the great 
 pilgrimage to St. Winefride’s Well, as appears by the following 
 State Paper, Doviestic , Charles I. 1629, vol. cli. n. 13. 7 
 [Endorsed, “A note of Papists and priests assembled at 
 St. Winefride’s Well, on St. Winefride’s day, 1629.”] “The 
 Lord William Howard, the Lord of Shrewsbury,” &c. “ The 
 
 Lady Falkland, and with her Mr. Everard the priest, . . . with 
 divers other knights, ladies, gentlemen, and gentlewomen of 
 divers counties to the number of fourteen or fifteen hundred ; 
 and the general estimation about a hundred and fifty or more 
 priests, the most of them well known what they were.” 
 
 Father Everard became eventually, from weakness in his 
 limbs and eyes, unable to get about or to read. He com- 
 forted himself in his loneliness by incessantly reciting his 
 rosary, and with other prayers both vocal and mental, 
 especially the Psalter of Jesus, to the use of which he had 
 been accustomed from boyhood. Being an especial hater 
 of anything like ease or idleness he was accustomed to spend 
 all the vacant time he could spare from his missionary work 
 and his long imprisonments, in translating a number of Latin, 
 French, and Spanish treatises on ascetical subjects ; all these 
 were printed at St. Omer’s College printing press. The 
 following is a list of his works — Fulvii Androtii Nudet. de 
 Comm: et Passione Domini (St. Omer, 1606, 1614, 1618); 
 Alberti Magni Paradisus animae, et ejusdem Tract, de adhse- 
 rendo Deo (1606); Lucii Pinelli, Gerson, seu de Perfect. 
 Religiosa (1618); Lucii Pinelli, Nudit. de Eucharistia (1622); 
 B. F. Borgia, Speculum operum Christiani homini (1620); 
 Tract, de modo bene vivendi (1620); P. Canisii, Manuale 
 peccatorum (1622); Lud. de Ponte. Medit. Compend. (1623); 
 Ignatii Balsami, Method. Medit. (1618, published under the 
 name of John Heigham) ; Dialog, de Contritione et Attritione 
 (four editions); Ribad. Pet., de Principe Christiano; Rob. 
 Card. Bellarm., de aeter. felicit. sanct. (1638). 
 
 At length worn out with labours, diseases, and sufferings, 
 he died most piously in London, May 16, 1633. The summary 
 of the deceased of the English Province for that year thus 
 names him — “Father Thomas Everard, of Suffolk, aged 
 seventy-three. A formed Spiritual Coadjutor. In religion 
 forty years. He had filled the offices of Minister and Pro- 
 curator in various Colleges. He had endured prisons, bonds, 
 
 7 A full copy of this interesting paper is intended to be given in the 
 history of St. Winefride’s Residence. 
 
Father Thomas Flint. 
 
 409 
 
 and exile, and laboured zealously for the cause of religion 
 in England, where at length he piously died, May 16, 1633. 
 He translated several books from the Latin into English for 
 the consolation of the Catholics.” 
 
 Father Thomas Flint. — According to the diary of the 
 English College, Rome, Father Flint was a native of the 
 diocese of Lichfield, born 1575. At the age of twenty, he 
 was admitted an alumnus of the English College, Rome, 
 February 11, 1596; having remained there for nearly three 
 months, tanquam peregrinus propter absentiam Must. Card. 
 Protector is. He was ordained subdeacon, February 26 th, 
 deacon, March 25th, and priest at Easter, 1600; and was 
 sent to the English mission, April 27, 1600. He entered 
 the Society in England, in 1621. He was apprehended soon 
 after, but the date of his arrest does not appear. In 1606 he 
 was sent into banishment for life with forty-seven other priests, 
 including several Jesuits. 8 According to the Annual Letters of 
 the Province for 1638-39, announcing his death, he was sent 
 that year, though an old man, to fill up the vacancy in this 
 College or district, caused by the death of Father Simeon 
 Swinbourne, who died November 11, 1638, upwards of eighty 
 years of age, leaving to his brethren a great example of piety 
 and all religious virtues, and his memory was greatly venerated. 
 
 Father Flint, however, soon followed him, for he died a 
 few weeks after, namely, December 28, 1638. Both of these 
 Fathers had laboured and suffered in the missions in England 
 for a great number of years, in the most difficult times ; during 
 which the activity of the persecution allowed them no rest nor 
 safety anywhere, so that all their spare time was spent in con- 
 cealment and solitude, where there was no human society to 
 disturb their pious communication with God. Father Flint 
 (continue the Annual Letters) had suffered a long and 
 rigorous imprisonment, in which the cold and his restrained 
 posture had caused great pain in all his limbs, particularly in 
 the lower extremities, of which he never recovered the free 
 use. Indeed, his last illness was no other than the loss of 
 health caused by his incarceration. Two days before his 
 death, being left a short time alone, he chanted in a feeble 
 voice, some passage from the Psalms. It was nearly the last 
 use of his voice, as he scarcely uttered a word after. He died 
 sitting upright, with his eyes and hands raised towards heaven, 
 8 See Challoner’s Missionary Priests , vol. ii. p. 14. 
 
410 College of the Holy Apostles . 
 
 with an expression of great sweetness in his features ; and the 
 corpse retained for some time this appearance. 
 
 The following is a translation of a letter from the Rector 
 of the College of the Holy Apostles to the Vice-Provincial, 
 Father Henry More, announcing the death of this saintly 
 Father . 9 
 
 “Rev. Father in Christ, — 
 
 “P.C. 
 
 “ On the day of the holy protomartyr, and about 
 four o’clock p.m., departed this life, fortified by ail the sacra- 
 ments of the Church, Father Thomas Flint. He had attained 
 the age of sixty-three; in the Society, to which he was admitted 
 as a novice in England, seventeen years ; and was a professed 
 Father. He was a man pious and humble, a lover of silence 
 also and modest. He indeed abundantly proved his con- 
 stancy in confessing the Faith. For on the death of King 
 James, when about to administer the sacraments to a certain 
 Catholic family in the diocese of Gloucester, being engaged 
 in the meantime in saying his office in a kitchen garden of 
 the house, a spiteful neighbouring woman, by chance observing 
 him, introduced the constables, who suddenly apprehended 
 the harmless man, and carried him off to Gloucester prison, 
 contrary to all right and justice, especially as at that time 
 there had been no confirmation or renewal by the new King 
 of the power of officers of this kind. Here the Father’s health 
 was injured by the sufferings and solitude of a nine years’ 
 imprisonment. His piety indeed, and sincere probity, were 
 so conspicuous, that he even met with admiration and bene- 
 volence from the pseudo-Bishop of Gloucester, who frequently 
 sent for him to converse with him, and dine at his episcopal 
 table ; and at length, for the sake of more readily obtaining 
 his liberty, he got him removed to London, from whence, at 
 the kind instance of the Queen-Mother of the King of France, 
 he was sent into exile. He shortly returned, and afforded 
 proof of confirmed virtue in divers parts of the Province, 
 sealing it by his death. A malignant fever produced mortifi- 
 cation in the bowels. In the meantime he breathed only piety, 
 and spoke of religious matters. Those who attended him in 
 his sickness bear testimony that no levity was observed in him, 
 nor any sign indeed of impatience. The daughter of the noble- 
 
 9 Collectio Cardwelli, MSS. (S.J.) Ex Arch. Brussels, 'State Papers, 
 vol. i. p. 227. 
 
Father Francis Sankey. 4 1 1 
 
 man with whom he lived, a lady of no common faith and virtue, 
 whose room was not far from his, a very few days before his 
 death, heard to issue from his room the sweetest voice singing 
 canticles, she had ever heard in the whole course of her life. 
 Ke was at the time quite alone and in such a state of weakness 
 as to be almost speechless. I came to him about a quarter of 
 an hour before his death, and he earnestly begged to be 
 removed from his bed into a chair. His wish being com- 
 plied with, he asked me for something, but in so low a voice 
 that I could not sufficiently catch his meaning. He then very 
 distinctly said, Deed mece. pi'ofessionis virum in indigentia mori 
 — t It becomes a man of my profession to die in want/ He 
 spoke no more; placing his hands in an attitude of prayer, 
 and with his eyes devoutly raised to heaven, he sweetly slept 
 in our Lord, retaining more the appearance of a living man 
 than of one dead, compensating for the severity of the chains 
 he had so meekly borne for Christ, by the eternal liberty of 
 the sons of God. However, should he by chance be still 
 detained from that bliss, I have myself said, and I have given 
 the usual orders for the accustomed Masses and suffrages of the 
 Society for the repose of his soul, and the same we humbly 
 ask of your Reverence. 
 
 “December 29, 1638.” 
 
 Father Francis Sankey, a native of Lancashire, born in 
 1604, entered the Society in 1628, and was solemnly professed 
 of the four vows on September 7, 1641. He was Superior of 
 the District, and wrote, in 1647-48, an interesting paper for 
 the Annual Letters of the College of the Holy Apostles, which 
 will be given when we come to them ; he probably took a 
 personal share in the events he mentions, though recording 
 them in the third person. He died in England in 1663. He 
 was serving at Norwich from 1647 t0 I 6S5, and probably for a 
 much longer period. He is the earliest missioner we can trace 
 in that city by name. 
 
 Father Anthony Greenway, alias Tilney, appears from 
 the records of the English College, Rome, to have been born in 
 1579 or 1580, and at the age of twenty-seven or twenty-eight 
 was admitted an alumnus of that College, as a convictor. 
 Having been ordained priest, October 4, 1608, he was sent to 
 the English mission, 1612. He was a native of Bucks; entered 
 the Society in 1611, was solemnly professed of the four vows in 
 
412 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 1623, and died in the Residence of St. Michael, or the York- 
 shire district. He is named in Gee's “ list of priests and 
 Jesuits in and about London,” circa 1623-4. It appears from a 
 very interesting MS., of which we give a translation, that he 
 was for eight years a student at Magdalen College, Oxford. 
 This MS. bears no date, but may be placed about 1616 to 
 1620 ; the seat of his labours in this district was Cambridge- 
 shire, where he was arrested. After examination before the 
 Protestant Bishop of London, who knew his father, he was 
 committed by that prelate to Newgate, where the MS. leaves 
 him. The summary of the deceased of the Province says : 
 “ Being converted to God from the vanity of the world, in 
 which he had obtained a great name for learning and the 
 belles lettres , he spent the rest of his life with great zeal and 
 humility in religion. The narrative in Latin, which from its 
 abrupt ending would rather seem to be a fragment, and is 
 badly written, is in Stonyhurst MSS. Anglia, vol. vii. 10 
 
 “ Of the seizure and imprisonment of Father Anthony Greenway, 
 an English priest of the Society of Jesus. 
 
 “ Anthony Greenway, being sent to bring forth fruit, 
 bestowed his industry laboriously and sedulously in the place 
 to which he had been appointed. For, both by example and 
 by word, he instructed the people of the house with whom he 
 dealt, and others who came there to see him. When news of 
 his arrival got out among his relations and friends, among whom 
 some there are who profess the Catholic faith, he was earnestly 
 entreated by them to go to their houses. He, both to satisfy 
 the claims of relationship, and to gratify the hope long enter- 
 tained by his friends, and reap the fruit — no trifling one — 
 which he had looked for, betook himself thither, with the 
 design of not being away long from his own home, but of 
 returning in the course of two or three days. Nay, after one or 
 two days, he began to get ready to go back; but he was 
 detained by the urgent entreaties of his friends till the third 
 day, since his manner and conversation so greatly pleased 
 them. During that time many came thither to visit him 
 and speak with him upon divine things ; yet not all with the 
 same disposition of mind and courage to receive the Faith. 
 All, however, were men of intelligence, and desirous to hear 
 
 10 The Editor is indebted to the Rev. Cyprian Splaine, S.J., for the 
 translation. 
 
Father Anthony Greemvay. 413 
 
 the truth. With these he treated in leisure moments as chance 
 offered ; he expounded the Faith, solved difficulties that were 
 proposed, and so discoursed, that all who had heard him 
 considered themselves satisfied. Some, however, among 
 them proposed far-fetched and unusual difficulties, lest they 
 should be received into the bosom of the Church. Others admit 
 honestly what is in fact the case, that through fear of danger 
 they continue to endanger their souls. They are apprehensive 
 lest, amid the tempests and storms of these times, they should 
 be hurried to the confinement of a prison, and be spoiled of 
 the use and enjoyment of their rights and possessions. All ask 
 for more frequent and longer conferences with him. While 
 things are going on in this manner the third day dawns. 
 Anthony, at early morning, when Mass was over, turns his 
 thoughts homewards ; but Divine Providence, which disposes 
 all things most sweetly and most holily, had already prepared 
 another road for Anthony to return by. His relatives, Catholics, 
 ignorant of this providence, obtain by their request and 
 entreaty, that he should wait anyhow till dinner-time. The 
 request being granted, behold, a bishop’s pursuivant, or lictor, 
 from London, taps at the door, produces a warrant, and shows 
 it for them to read if they would. The warrant, indeed, was out 
 of date, and therefore null and void ; but this could not easily 
 be observed by those who read it, or, if it could, under such 
 circumstances and at such a moment, yet provision was made 
 by decrees of the prelates that it should not avail such 
 Catholics as these lictors accost and summon by the name of 
 authority and power. For these pseudo-bishops are wont for 
 their own profit (for they are said to receive some share of that 
 of their lictors, or an annual revenue) to license their lictors 
 for the space of a year in their warrants. If they exceed this 
 time without renewing their powers, by means of a fresh 
 warrant, they are punished. The Catholics, however, as 
 matters stand, must obey the lictors, unless they would incur 
 the charge of contempt of authority. Wherefore he proceeds 
 to ask who, and whence, these persons are ; Anthony, together 
 with his companion, a secular priest, a pious man, is made 
 prisoner on suspicion, because they had a scruple about 
 denying that they were priests. The lictor did not altogether 
 despise the money offered him, and the estimated ransom ; but, 
 eager for gain, he wanted more. Anthony, indeed, had it in 
 his power, more than once, to seek safety in flight. But his 
 relations impeded these attempts, lest new danger might spring 
 
414 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 up for them. Wherefore from the county of Cambridge, 
 where he was caught, he is led off to London, both himself and 
 his companion. His companion thought that Anthony would, 
 if he were again to return to that place, bring forth very great 
 fruit in the salvation of souls ; and he himself wrote from 
 prison, that had not that accident stood in his way a great 
 door was open for him. ‘ Oh, that some fit person/ he said, 
 * may be sent to so great a work ; one who, after the lapse of a 
 little time, when the memory of my mishap shall have been 
 obliterated, may accomplish that which myself did hope for. 
 But, as to this, the Lord from heaven will provide.’ While 
 Anthony is delayed in London, that lictor, by whom he was 
 captured and taken off (when this fact became known to 
 another of that tribe who knew his power and the character of 
 his warrant), is ordered to be committed to gaol for having 
 violated the power intrusted to him. Then he himself 
 [Anthony] is brought before the Bishop of London 10 to be 
 examined. The questions were put, where he had studied? 
 whether at Rome ? was he a priest ? was he ready to take the 
 oath of allegiance and supremacy? To all this he answers 
 that he had been educated, for eight years, in the College of 
 St. Mary Magdalen, Oxford, but had taken no degree. That, 
 then he had crossed the sea, and afterwards while travelling had 
 applied himself to literary pursuits. That he had been a 
 student in the English College at Rome ; but, lest he should 
 embarrass the answers of others, who may perchance be 
 questioned on- this matter, he would neither affirm nor deny 
 anything about the priesthood. That he was hindered by the 
 principles of the Catholic faith from swearing the oath of 
 allegiance and supremacy in the form in which it was drawn 
 up. These, he said are the main items, so far as I can 
 remember, which either a public notary has noted down in 
 his own writing, or which I have acknowledged by signing my 
 name, to be the questions to me and my answers to them. 
 Many other things were asked about my parents. The Bishop 
 declared of his own knowledge that my father seemed to him 
 to be a good member of the Anglican Church, and a good 
 subject. Upon my admitting that this was so, he added that 
 he understood it in his own sense. I replied that I too was 
 of the same opinion, that he was a good subject. He asked 
 if, when I was taken, I had my breviary about me. I told him 
 
 11 The original has Archiminister Londinensis ; the writer having pro- 
 bably a scruple to assign the title of bishop to one whose orders he denied. 
 
Father Anthony Greenway. 415 
 
 a book had been found upon me ; that it was a breviary no 
 one could prove. The lictor was asked what had been done 
 with the book ; he answered that, for the sake of peace, he 
 had given that book back to me, but that I had handed it 
 over to another; that he would affirm on oath that it was 
 a breviary. I begged the Bishop not to let the wretched man 
 swear it, as he was illiterate and could not read. ‘ He is not 
 very clever at reading/ said the Bishop ; ‘ but still/ he added, 
 ‘ he knows how to read very well. I solemnly declared to the 
 Bishop that that man, whom the lictor was accusing, knew 
 nothing whatever about me except that I was his kinsman; 
 and, as the blood-relation of his wife, was received with 
 civility and affection. In my bag there was found a tom 
 bit of paper, on which had been written out some part of the 
 questions which had long before been put to priests. The 
 Bishop asked me whether I had torn up that paper ? I said 
 I had torn it up as a thing of no importance. ‘ It is, indeed/ 
 he said, a thing of small value/ These matters having been 
 so discussed, the Bishop brought up in conversation one 
 Mr. Ainsworth, who, he said, had answered the questions 
 he had put him in anything but a faithful way. This 
 observation caused me to ask for a copy of my examina- 
 tion, lest I should be similarly traduced. He answered that 
 that was not usual, nor had any one ever before made such 
 a request. When the formula of the oath which I was to 
 swear was tendered to me, I rejected it, with this observation, 
 ‘Your lordship will pardon me, I cannot take this oath under 
 this form of words/ *1/ he said, ‘cannot either pardon or 
 dispense ; ’ but he offers, by way of some scheme to enable 
 me to do so, if I would swear according to the formula, in 
 the words in which it was couched, to take care that it was 
 put before me, or held before my eyes for me to read. I 
 answered that whether it was held or hung, no matter how 
 it was presented, I would not take it. This said, I was sent 
 to Newgate prison. There I now remain, shut up and inclosed 
 in such a way, that no one may speak with me, nor come to 
 the prison window by way of paying me a visit. Nay, more, 
 the governor of the gaol has it set down in his instructions 
 that, if he sets any value on his own life, he must guard me 
 most securely, lest I should escape. 
 
 “ But this close confinement did not last long, for another 
 of our fathers wrote subsequently that such a concourse went 
 
41 6 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 to Father Anthony, and that he treated with them upon the 
 affairs of their souls with such skill and prudence, that great 
 fruit was reaped from it.” 
 
 Father Robert Alford, vere Griffiths, a native of 
 Surrey, born in 1582, was admitted an alumnus of the English 
 College, Rome, by the name of Griffiths, at the age of twenty, on 
 the 24th May, 1602. He was ordained subdeacon June 9, deacon 
 July 1, and priest July 8, 1607. He left Rome for the English 
 Mission, September 12, 1608 ; but it does not appear when he 
 entered the Society. He served the mission for thirty-three 
 years, exhibiting throughout an edifying example of charity. 
 The Annual Letters for this College, 1640, state that he died 
 in it, July 8, 1640; that he had laboured thirty-three years in 
 the mission ; that four years before his death the pestilence then 
 prevalent had attacked the numerous family with which he 
 lived, the greater part of whom took the disease, and some of 
 them died of it ; that the good Father was indefatigable in his 
 attendance on the sick day and night. He made it a particular 
 subject of his most earnest prayers that no one in the family 
 might die without the benefit of the last sacraments ; and once 
 or twice he awoke in the night from a sound sleep, at a moment 
 when an unfavourable turn in the disease had rendered his 
 attendance on the sick urgent. He retained his health until 
 the disease had entirely left the family, when he fell sick ; and, 
 after a long period of intense suffering, died on the day before 
 mentioned, a victim of charity. 
 
 FATHER HENRY MORE. 
 
 Father Henry More, the historian of the English 
 Province, was chaplain for some years with the family of 
 Lord Petre, at Ingatestone and Thorndon Hall, Essex. He 
 frequently passed by the name of Talman, that assumed name 
 being probably derived from his stature. This distinguished 
 member of the English Province of the Society of Jesus 
 was a native of Essex, born in the year 1586. He was great- 
 grandson to the great Chancellor, martyred for the Faith, Sir 
 Thomas More. He made his humanity studies at the English 
 College of the Society at St. Omer, which had been established 
 there in the year 1593. Special and very interesting mention 
 is made of him in the annual report of that College for the 
 year 1601, which says : 
 
 “Our family consisted of upwards of one hundred this 
 
Father Henry More. 417 
 
 year. Three of the alumni were sent to Rome : sixteen to 
 Spain, who have been replaced by other youths from England 
 of the best promise ; amongst others are two relatives of the 
 blessed martyr, Father Southwell. We should have received 
 more, had not fourteen boys on their way to us been seized, 
 with their conductor, who had heretofore rendered faithful 
 service in transporting both our fathers and scholars to the 
 Continent. They exchanged our schools for the confessors’ 
 prisons, from which, however, some of them at length contrived 
 to escape, and make their way over to us; and their guide 
 himself is reported to have been eventually set at liberty. 
 The eager application of all the scholars to the study both of 
 virtue and letters, gives daily promise of greater things from 
 them. The visitation of our Father Provincial has wonderfully 
 conduced to promote this spirit; his presence has imparted 
 fresh alacrity to all ; besides which he has ordained some new 
 and very convenient regulations as to our domestic economy. 
 
 “The most illustrious Countess de Zueda, of the Court 
 of her Serene Highness the Infanta of Spain , 12 is on a visit 
 to our city, going about with her suite with coaches and 
 horses to the astonishment of the inhabitants. She paid us a 
 visit, and desired all the scholars to be marshalled before her. 
 Seeing in the crowd Henry More (the brother of Thomas 
 More whom we lately sent to Rome), a pleasing boy of the 
 family of Sir Thomas More, and a stranger to her, she imme- 
 diately embraced him with maternal affection, adopted him 
 for her son both as to maintenance and education. She then 
 gave a liberal supply of money, and the next day, after 
 hearing Mass in our chapel, was present at an instrumental 
 concert, and an exhibition of Greek and Latin verse in the 
 College. She besides gave her adopted son a brass crucifix, 
 with which he was greatly delighted. On returning home 
 she immediately sent our Father Rector a sum of money by 
 way of a beginning of her said adoption. 
 
 “ The Bishop of St. Omer has paid us a visit, and conferred 
 the Sacraments of Confirmation and Holy Eucharist upon 
 upwards of fifty scholars, to their great consolation, no less 
 than that of the assembly present. This admirable Bishop 
 displays wonderful affection towards the English youths. 
 
 “ Many English priests having been hospitably entertained 
 
 12 Probably the same as the Countess Doha Maria de Zuniga mentioned 
 in the will of the Countess Doha Louisa de Carvajal. See More’s Hist. 
 Jfrov. Anglia, S.J. ; also Father Morris’ Condition of Catholics , p. cxciv. 
 
 BB 
 
41 8 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 here (some of whom had previously been unfriendly to the 
 Society), were pleased on their return to England to speak highly 
 of the integrity and charity of our Institute. 
 
 “Some conversions have been made; among others of 
 an English soldier who had escaped from the seige of Ostend, 
 where he was a great favourite with the Protestant Governor. 
 He passed over to our side, to the no small risk of his life 
 from the bullets of both parties. By order of his Serene 
 Highness he was assisted and sent on hither ; and having 
 been duly instructed, was received into the Catholic Church, 
 to his great consolation.” 
 
 Father More entered the Novitiate of St. John’s, Louvain, 
 the 19th of November, 1607, aged twenty-one. His higher 
 studies he probably made in Spain, which may account for 
 the mistake of Dodd 13 in stating that he became a Jesuit 
 in Spain. St. Omer’s Seminary annually drafted off a number 
 of scholars both to the English College in Rome, and to 
 Spain. The Novitiate of the English Province was estab- 
 lished by Father Parsons, through the munificence of the 
 pious Doha Louisa De Carvajal, in 1606-7. If was opened 
 in February, 1607, with six priests, two scholastic and five 
 lay-brother novices, under Father Thomas Talbot as first 
 Rector. Father More himself 14 describes it as seated on 
 “ high ground, commanding the whole city ; below was a 
 walled garden, and on the slope of the hill pleasant walks 
 amongst the vines, which were ranged in terraces, and the 
 whole, though within the city walls, as quiet and calm as 
 befitted a house of prayer. The Novitiate was removed from 
 Louvain to Liege in November, 1614, and Father John 
 Gerard became Superior : his Socius was Father Henry More. 
 When discussing before this appointment, those fathers who 
 were fitted for that office, after mentioning others, Father 
 Gerard says: “Father Henry More hath French well, Dutch 
 prettily, and Italian sufficiently, besides Spanish very well, 
 and Latin as I would wish him.” 
 
 It appears by a letter from Louvain, dated 1st August, 
 1614, 15 “that on the preceding Monday, Father More defended 
 his whole divinity with good satisfaction : ” that is to say, he 
 passed the great examen. 
 
 Shortly after this he was sent to the English College of 
 of St. Alban’s, Valladolid, where he filled the office of Minister. 
 
 13 Church Historv , vol. iii. p. 120. 
 
 14 Hist. Prov. Anglice , lib. viii. n. 8, p. 353. 15 Oliver’s Collectanea , S.J. 
 
Father Henry More. 
 
 419 
 
 He appears to have left it very soon, on being appointed 
 Socius to Father Gerard, at Liege. A long letter from 
 Father More, dated Liege, 12th of August, 1615, to Father 
 Owen, Rector of the English College, Rome, and Prefect of 
 the English Mission, giving his opinion regarding the intended 
 new buildings at Liege, may be seen in the Stonyhurst MSS., 
 Anglia, vol. iv. n. 39. This letter shows him, in addition to 
 his other gifts in virtue and learning, to have been also a good 
 man of business. Dr. Oliver observes that Father More in 
 the beginning disappointed the expectations of his colleagues 
 in the new establishment; he was naturally cautious, phleg- 
 matic, sparing of his words, avaricious of his time, and of 
 retired habits. Father Gerard, in a letter of the 25 th of March, 
 1616, acquaints Father Owen, “that Father More had no 
 talent for speaking, though his memory was excellent, and 
 though he possessed a facility of writing in his study, 16 but 
 that he will eventually be ripe, and qualified for governing.” 
 It does not appear when he first came over to England. In 
 Gee’s list, before referred to, of Priests and Jesuits in and 
 about London is “Fr. Moore a Jesuit.” This list dates about 
 1623. Father Henry More is also named in the list of 
 English members of the Society, marked P. i. among the papers 
 seized at the residence of the College of St. Ignatius, at 
 Clerkenwell, in 1628 17 — “ Veterani Missionarii,” among others, 
 
 “ Henricus Morus.” In Dom. Chas. I., 1628, vol. xcvi. n. 8, 
 is “ A list of the persons arrested at Clerkenwell.” Amongst 
 others, “Edward More.” The Secretary of State, Sir John 
 Cooke, has written against the name Edward, “ Henrie.” Upon 
 this authority, therefore, we must suppose that Father More 
 was one of the seven captured. 18 It is singular that he him- 
 
 36 See Stonyhurst MSS. 
 
 17 Domestic, Charles I. 1628, vol. xcix. 
 
 18 The following is an extract from this interesting paper : 
 
 “ Guido” 
 Tho. Poult on. ' 
 
 Henrie . ” 
 
 These five 
 were taken 
 in a secret 
 place. 
 
 ‘ George Holland, alias Guy Holt ') 
 
 Joseph Underhill, alias Thomas Poulton j 
 Robert Beoment }- 
 
 Daniel Stanhope 
 
 Edward More, Edward Parr j 
 
 Margaret Ishaw [the old housekeeper] 
 
 Edmund Weedon, sick ; Thomas \ . . 
 
 •.xr , I these remain in the 
 
 Weedon ^ ^ 
 
 John Pennington, his servant ) 
 
 Thomas Latham, the house- ) These two and the first 
 keeper > five are committed to 
 
 George Kemp, gardener ) the new prison.” 
 
 BB 2 
 
420 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles . 
 
 self makes but a brief allusion to this stirring event. In fact, 
 few of our historical writers have noticed it. He says, 19 “ It 
 happened that the Rector of London, with six of his socii, 
 were seized in a house appropriated for our purposes. A 
 day had been appointed for the renewal of the vows of some, 
 and for the solemn profession of others. The matter was 
 not so cautiously conducted but that the neighbouring Pro- 
 testants observed an unusual quantity of necessaries and 
 provisions carried in, which excited suspicion. The envy, too, 
 of the adjoining shop-keepers increased the suspicious feelings; 
 for the extra supplies were procured from a distance to avoid 
 suspicion. They therefore gave information ; and the house was 
 surrounded about nine o’clock in the morning. The officers 
 broke in and searched the house from top to bottom. They 
 seized the Rector, who was hidden in a cave underground, 
 with the sacred vessels and altar furniture, and other fathers : 
 others were caught in various places. They were conducted 
 to different prisons, and tried; and one only condemned to 
 death, who admitted the fact of his being a priest, which could 
 not be concealed, having openly lived and acted as such in the 
 residence of one of the ambassadors.” Itwill observed that Father 
 More makes no mention of himself. The King and his Privy 
 Council were then more leniently inclined towards Catholics ; 
 this, indeed, was one of the conditions made on the treaty 
 of his marriage with Henrietta Maria of France. No legal 
 steps seem to have been taken against the prisoners, who 
 W§re arrested in March, until the month of December. Three 
 of them were then put upon their trial at the Middlesex 
 Sessions, and one was convicted; but which of them does 
 not appear. He was reprieved the night before his intended 
 execution ; and soon after, all were discharged upon bail to 
 appear in twenty days, when called upon. This leniency 
 provoked the rancour of the Puritan party. A committee 
 of the lower House of Parliament was apppinted to investi- 
 gate the matter; witnesses were examined, even the judges 
 themselves; all took shelter under the King’s orders. No 
 further proceedings appear to have been taken ; for the Par- 
 liament itself was hastening to its premature dissolution, which 
 took place in a few weeks afterwards, the ioth of March, 1629, 
 by the King’s command. It did not reassemble for twelve 
 long years ; but then to maintain a more successful struggle 
 
 19 Hist. Prov. Anglia lib. x. n. 14, p. 467. 
 
 
Father Henry More. 
 
 421 
 
 against the King. This affair of the Jesuits had caused a 
 great storm in the house immediately before the dissolution, 
 and was, in fact, the leading cause of it. Though by com- 
 parison, an occurrence of trifling import, it was the origin of 
 deep and bitter political strife, and a forerunner of the 
 gravest consequences as contributing to alienate the sovereign 
 from his constitutional advisers. 20 
 
 Dr. Oliver believes Father Henry More to have been 
 chaplain to William, second Lord Petre. Father More 21 
 thus mentions that pious nobleman, and his edifying 
 death — “ In Essex, William Lord Petre, being summoned, 
 appeared before the Privy Council. And as the longer he 
 lived, so the more obnoxious did he render himself to the 
 penal laws ; he was first dismissed from the county magistracy, 
 and then stripped of his office of Armourer (on account of 
 the dignity of that office, and his own rank, he had admirably 
 arranged the armoury), and though the office was translated 
 to another, it was nevertheless annually embellished at his 
 own expense. At length, being refused a reinstatement to his 
 offices, unless he would abjure the Supremacy of the Sovereign 
 Pontiff, and his rights over princes, which he refused to do, 
 he remained so deprived until his pious death a few years 
 subsequently. His expiring words were, after bidding the 
 bystanders farewell, ‘ I am now going thither, where I shall 
 never more offend God.’” 
 
 That Father More was chaplain to his son and successor, 
 Robert Lord Petre, his special friend, and the benefactor of 
 the English Province, is shown by the letter of Father Richard 
 Blount, the Provincial, dated the 27th of August, 1632, already 
 given above, page 397. 
 
 Father More was admitted to his solemn profession of the 
 four vows on the 12th of May, 1622. The long proofs he 
 had exhibited of judgment, wisdom, and solid virtue, recom- 
 mended him as a fit successor to Father Richard Blount on 
 his resigning the office of Provincial of the English Province 
 in the year 1635. For six years, Father More discharged its 
 various duties, and in very trying times, with singular ability, 
 and credit. In 1646 he acted as Vice-Provincial in England 
 
 20 As we have before noted, it is intended to give a full account of 
 this interesting event in a subsequent Series, the history of the College of 
 St. Ignatius, London. 
 
 21 Hist. Prov. Anglia, p. 467. 
 
422 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 for Father Henry Silisdon, vere Bedingfield, the Provincial, 
 who resided in Belgium. In the year 1647-8 he was Superior 
 of the London district, or College of St. Ignatius. 
 
 Dr. Oliver notices that in the MS. letters of Conn and 
 Rosetti , Dr. Lingard discovered that Father More was liberated 
 from prison in July, 1640, to which he had been committed 
 for his services to religion — imprigionato per aver fatti 7 ?iolti 
 cose in benefizio della religione Cattolico. 
 
 He was twice declared Rector of St. Omer’s College ; from 
 1649 to 1652, and again from 1657 to 1660. He then retired 
 to Watten, and died of apoplexy, December 8, 1661, aged 
 seventy-five. 
 
 The following is a letter written by him to another father 
 in England. 22 He had then ceased to be Provincial, and was 
 probably acting as his vicar. 
 
 “ Dear Sir, — The quietest times of peace are never void of 
 occasions of virtue, and tribulations never fail to attend us so 
 long as we fail not in our pious observances, as daily experience 
 can witness ; and St. Leo doth prudently reflect conformably 
 to that of St. Paul, ‘ Omnes qui pie volunt vivere in Christo 
 Jesu persecutionem patiuntur.’ Of which kind of trials and 
 exercises whatsoever use others do make, it behoveth us to 
 follow the advice of the same Apostle in the same place, ‘ tu 
 vero permane in iis quae didicisti et credita sunt tibi.’ 
 
 “ These days do seem particularly to require this advice, 
 and that as the storm of holy affliction doth threaten all, and 
 hourly grows more fearful, we should be particularly vigilant 
 towards all, to strengthen and encourage both ourselves and 
 others (so far as any concern us) in all pious observances, 
 which, as they are followed by persecution, so are they the 
 only means on our side to abate it, and to leave us upright in 
 the sight of God and man, so as to make perfectly good that 
 which may be justly expected of us, who make profession of 
 carrying the cross of Christ, and of helping others in their 
 afflictions cheerfully to carry it. 
 
 “This consideration taking life from an advice which I 
 lately received from Father Provincial, doth put me on 
 to send you these few lines. And first, the particular 
 serious application of ourselves to all that which our holy 
 Institute doth daily and hourly require of us ; which doing we 
 
 22 Collectio Cardwelli , varia S.J. P.R.O. Brussels. 
 
Father Henry More. 
 
 423 
 
 may the more confidently expect the protection and concur- 
 rence of God in all good things, and fear the contrary if we 
 fail. 
 
 “ First, I say, by the advice aforesaid, to speak to you in 
 the words of the Apostle quoted by our Blessed Father — ‘Idem 
 sapiamus, idem quoad fieri potest dicamus omnes.’ That in the 
 several difficulties and doubts which now are apt to rise, we 
 walk all of us one way, careful not to vent or maintain an 
 opinion or resolution which others of our own may have just 
 reason to call in question, and much more careful not to oppose 
 or enter into contradiction of that which we find another of ours 
 to have delivered, but proceed advisedly in all things which we 
 do deliver, and have recourse to Superiors for preventing, and 
 when they cannot be prevented, for ordering such difference. 
 
 “ Secondly, that in our resolutions and discourses concerning 
 matters now most in agitation, we do not swerve from the best 
 and safest and necessary ways which hitherto all ours (blessed 
 be the goodness of God) have ever walked, not admitting in 
 things so nearly concerning faith and religion, any such subtle 
 ways or evasions as the love of the world only can suggest, 
 and cannot proceed from the Spirit of God and truth. 
 
 “ And therefore, as heretofore it hath been held and declared 
 unlawful to take the oaths even with protestation, or to go to 
 church, so I hope none of ours will be found to think or to 
 deliver their mind otherwise, and that they will proceed con- 
 formably in the late protestation also ; it being so advisedly 
 penned against religion, that whosoever takes it must needs 
 express in words a serious opposition to the true [truth], and 
 no less defence of Protestancy, than if we professed in the like 
 words to defend the Catholic religion (which is always under- 
 stood so far as lawfully we may, that is, not by means or actions 
 which in themselves are unjust, cruel, or otherwise unlawful), 
 the which towards Catholic religion, as it is our bounden duty 
 to do, so every Christian heart and tongue cannot but abhor 
 unfeignedly to profess towards another profession which is not 
 Catholic ; and far be it from us to admit of any saying about 
 religion: ‘Non enim satis est responsio confitentis Jesum, sed 
 aperta confessio/ saith St Ambrose, discoursing upon some 
 gloss given favourably in excuse of St. Peter’s denial, and 
 reproving them, adding, ‘ quid prodest verba revolvere, si 
 videri vis denegasse.’ 
 
 “ Thirdly, this showeth a fit fear wherein they to whom 
 God hath given ability of exhorting should exerfcise their talent 
 
424 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 and vocation in it, so it will be done with prudence and with- 
 out offence, animating Catholics to the esteem of things eternal, 
 that they may bear with less difficulty the loss which is threatened 
 of their temporals, and have their Saviour continually before 
 their eyes as a pattern and comforter and rewarder. 
 
 “ And finally, have often recourse to God by prayer, 
 wherein if we be diligent, and do willingly and feelingly retire 
 ourselves unto it, as to the fountain of all comfort in affliction, 
 and the refuge from which none can be barred, none amongst 
 us excused, that what we shall do in it will be of itself a great 
 encouragement to those for whom we do it, they finding by it 
 the care and compassion which we have of their dangers and 
 sufferings, far greater, doubtless, than any which can befall any 
 of us, and we shall be a means for them also to betake them- 
 selves the oftener and the more seriously to their devotions, 
 and to prepare themselves the better by them to whatsoever 
 God shall be pleased in His wisdom and Fatherly providence 
 to send, or to permit to happen. Sweet Jesus, give us strength 
 in Him, and Christian resolution. And this being all which 
 I am to say at this present, but to beg your prayers particularly 
 for myself, 
 
 “ I rest ever, your obliged servant, 
 
 “ Henry More. 
 
 “ 1 6th July, 1641.” 
 
 The following is an extract from a letter of Father More to 
 Very Reverend Father General Vincent Caraffa. 23 
 
 “ Ad. R. in Christo Pater N r -— 
 
 “P.C. 
 
 “Returning to England after a long journey, safe 
 and sound and without meeting with any great difficulties, to 
 an office which half a year before I had commenced, I deem 
 it to be my first duty to let your Paternity know, that we may 
 together return the due thanks to God our Lord for His 
 singular goodness in bringing it about. And lastly, should 
 your Paternity have any commands to give me, you may know 
 where I am, and in what dispositions. 
 
 “ As to the place, regarded in a human light, it is a most 
 unfortunate one, where you can do nothing, nor is anything to 
 be discerned but wretchedness of human affairs. Besides those 
 
 23 Stonyhurst MSS. Augluz, vol. v. n. 24. 
 
Father Henry More. 
 
 42 5 
 
 things which all shrink from, a continual expectation that all 
 Catholics will be expelled from hence. Almost daily new 
 cases of imprisonment, flight, and banishment of ours. I found 
 here fourteen shut up in a little narrow hut, for the most part 
 fled from home, and, like the dove in the ark, with but very 
 little hope of finding where to rest their feet. If the other 
 places are snatched from the King, reliquiis secundi diluvii 
 quis locus ! 
 
 “ However, we keep up our courage as much as possible, 
 hoping for better things, which God alone, Who casts down 
 to hell and bringeth back again, can of His providence, when 
 He sees the opportunity, restore. 
 
 “ This is what I have to say now in general ; more here- 
 after as time and occasion permit, &c. I earnestly pray that 
 God may be propitious to us, and especially to your Paternity, 
 to an interchange with whose Holy Sacrifices and prayer I 
 humbly commend myself. 
 
 “ Your V. R. Paternity’s servant in Christ, 
 
 “Henry More.” 
 
 “London, July 17, 1646.” 
 
 The following very interesting letter, 24 written by Mr. Darcy 
 to Father More, under the name of Talman, bears no date, but 
 as the Father finally left England for Belgium late in 1647, 
 and the letter commences by congratulating him upon his 
 safe arrival in those parts, its true date would be either the 
 latter end of 1647 or the beginning of 1648. It is worthy of 
 publication, as showing the sufferings of Catholics of every 
 age, sex, and condition, under the tyrannical robbers of the 
 rebel Parliament ; and displaying also the eminent courage 
 and constancy of a noble lady, whose initial only is given, 
 but who was no doubt the Lady Petre. 
 
 “ A copy of Mr. Darcy’s letter to Mr. Talman. 
 
 “Worthy Sir, — I must needs rejoice at your safe arrival 
 in those parts, and the more in regard I begin to be sensible of 
 those miseries which are like to overwhelm those whom you 
 have left here behind you. The Papists are like to have their 
 shares first, but afterwards I fear neither Protestant nor other 
 that hath anything to lose will be spared. It is now almost 
 a fortnight since the trained bands of Colchester, and the 
 
 34 Stonyhurst MSS. Anglia , vol. vii. 
 
426 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 whole country round, were raised to the number of five or 
 six thousand for the search of Sir John Lucas his house, 
 who, as they suspected (and it proved so indeed), was arming, 
 and even ready to send out by a back way, ten horsemen 
 to the King. They forced an entrance, took him, his mother, 
 and wife prisoners ; they rifled and plucked down his house 
 in a more outrageous manner than I can express, or I believe 
 you can conceive. This ended, when it was hoped that every 
 one would have returned home, some of the soldiers, country 
 clowns and women cried out that now they were met together, 
 the Parliament and country expected it of them to deal in the 
 same manner with the Papists. They were easily set on ; 
 presently the Catholic houses were named ; Sir Osither, Gifford’s 
 Hall; Sir Henry Studyes; Mr. Forster ; 25 Melford Hall; Borly; 
 Bulmer ; Sir Roger Martin’s ; Mrs. Caryes, and others ; to 
 every one of these they go ; they break in violently ; men 
 fall upon men, women strip and rifle women ; they pillage all, 
 even to the walls, scarce leaving one stool to sit on, and 
 miserably spoiling what they could not carry away. The 
 Countess of Rivers her park is said to be the worse by it 
 fifty or three score thousand pounds ; the rest go with like 
 proportion. You may conceive what effects this example will 
 produce elsewhere. Upon it those of Maldon side rise also ; 
 some fifty or sixty sailors made head, resolved to do as the 
 Colchester men had taught them. They came first to Crandon 
 Park, tore down all the hanging^, broke open trunks, took 
 some linen, silver, &c., but by a chance a company of the 
 Parliament volunteers coming to steal deer, the Maldon men 
 thought them the trained bands raised to suppress them, fled 
 away, and by this means did not the extremity of what they 
 intended. Upon this the Catholics went to the justices, opened 
 their case, and were answered, It is a hateful thing to protect 
 Papists : they fear their own houses, and therefore dare not 
 stir. Then they went to the captains of the bands, wholly 
 as backward, doubting whether the Parliament will allow that 
 they move in it Well, now the Parliament volunteers billeted 
 about the country must play their parts ; they begin to reflect 
 that others grow rich whilst they sit idle ; they rise in arms ; 
 some hasten on toward Writtle side; they set upon Park 
 House, upon Fitheles [? Fidlers], &c., others make on towards 
 Hutton ; there five some poor Catholics, one Goodman 
 
 25 This Mr. Forster afterwards became a lay-brother of the Society, and 
 his deeply interesting history will be given presently. 
 
Father Henry More. 
 
 427 
 
 Wortham, Joseph Froud, Goodman Ellis, Goodman Bernard, 
 Goodwife Wharton, and others, all of them known far and wide 
 for their honest lives, most of them charged with children, 
 and two of them having wives still expecting their hour of 
 delivery. They had by their own industry raised to themselves 
 a competent stock and living ; the soldiers come among these, 
 fall upon them like a raging tempest, threaten to kill them, 
 drive away all their cattle, leave neither shelf, bed, stool, or 
 any utensil; those who were yesterday well to live, now are 
 become beggars. Sir, this is a miserable case, but withal a 
 subject of infinite comfort to see, as I did, how these persons 
 themselves do bear it; they are nothing dismayed; they profess 
 that if they were to lose again, they would joyfully lose it for 
 God’s sake ; that He Who took this, gave it them first, and 
 can give them again as much more. I am confident the 
 Divine Goodness will not desert His and our cause, since 
 He gives some such resolutions to maintain it. Now I must 
 come to my Lady P.’s house, as she is one of the greatest 
 ladies for birth and fortune in that county. So you may 
 easily imagine they aimed first at her ; they were kept off by 
 the affection which the town and the respect which the neigh- 
 bours had towards her. She had spent twenty-two years, 
 the greatest part of her life, amongst them ; she is naturally 
 courteous to every one, also to the poorest beggar that comes 
 to her gates, and prodigally bountiful. Her house is ever open 
 to them for physic, and surgery, and alms, and particularly 
 every Saturday night she divides the milk of twenty kine 
 amongst those who have least in the parish. The soldiers 
 then began to try whether they could divide or avert the town 
 from her ; they put it into the townsmen’s minds that what 
 she had ever done for them she had done it through fear, 
 and if it might be done with her own safety she would poison 
 or cut all their throats ; then they go further, some hundred 
 or a hundred and twenty come to her gate ; they beat at it 
 with staves and halberts; she came down to them herself, 
 with her three youngest children ; she undauntedly asked what 
 they meant, told them she was a poor widow, meant no harm 
 to any ; if they hated her for being a Catholic, she was content, 
 she and her children would come out to them, and rather 
 than deny their religion, gladly be torn in pieces by them. 
 By this time the townsmen came on to assist her ; they parley 
 with the soldiers, they are persuaded to depart for that time 
 with some three or four pieces of gold amongst them. The 
 
428 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles . 
 
 next day after it was thought fit her house should be searched 
 for armour. She agreed to it. Two captains and some twenty 
 soldiers came to that purpose ; they were carried into every 
 corner of the house ; it was not possible to persuade her to 
 pluck her altar, or dissemble her chapel. No, said she, let 
 all the world know that I am not only a Christian but a 
 Catholic, and that I and my children and servants have a 
 devout place to honour God in. This is all. 5 ’ 
 
 This College or District gave birth to two members of the 
 English Province S.J., remarkable alike for their birth and 
 eminent virtues ; each giving the greatest evidence of contempt 
 of the world, with its pleasures and honours, and of the deepest 
 humility and self-abjection. In the case of one of them, long 
 suffering was added, and Christian fortitude under the iron rod 
 of proscription and persecution for the Faith. These are — 
 first, Brother William Browne, of Cowdray, Sussex, (followed 
 by a short memoir of his dear friend and fellow-religious, 
 Brother Gerard Rogers); and the second, Brother Henry 
 Forster, of Copdoke, Suffolk, with a short notice of his sons. 
 
 The first we shall name, being the earliest in point of 
 date, is — 
 
 BROTHER WILLIAM BROWNE. 
 
 The Annual Letters for 1637, of the College of Liege (the 
 house of higher studies and theologate of the English Province 
 of the Society of Jesus), record the death of this holy and 
 remarkable man, who was grandson, brother, and uncle of 
 successive Lords Viscount Montague, of Cowdray House, 
 Sussex. 
 
 He was bom in the year 1578; entered the Society of 
 Jesus in 1614, and died at Liege, 20th August, 1637, aged 
 fifty-nine. He was of the ancient family of the Lords Mon- 
 tague, or Montacute, of Cowdray House, Sussex. In the 
 narrative presently given he is stated to have been born in 
 Surrey. His father was Anthony Browne, eldest son of the 
 first Viscount Montague, and died the 31st of July, 1592 ; 
 three months before William’s grandfather, and consequently 
 before succeeding to the title. 
 
 The accompanying pedigree is an extract from the family pedi- 
 gree of the Montague family, of Cowdray, from which it appears 
 that Father Henry More and other biographers of William 
 
BROWNE, VISCOUNT MONTACUTE. 
 
 ^. s SS lifer | 
 
 
 A ES SSS5 
 
 
 
 feHMH 
 
 N - B - T g|» Tpx 
 
 To fact page {oS, 
 
Brother William Browne. 429 
 
 Browne are in error in calling him nephew of a Lord Montague. 
 The pedigree goes much further back, but the extract is suffi- 
 cient for our purpose. It was a family of great distinction ; the 
 head of it, Anthony Browne, being in the time of Henry VII. 
 in the enjoyment of the high post of Standard-bearer of 
 England, in which office he was followed by his son, Sir 
 Anthony, who was a Knight of the Order of the Garter ; while 
 the next in succession, Sir Anthony Browne, grandfather of 
 William, was one of Queen Mary’s Privy Council, and by her 
 created the first Lord Montague ; Brother William Browne’s 
 connexion with the Duchess of Feria was on his mother’s 
 side. The Duchess was Jane Dormer, his mother’s half- 
 sister. 
 
 The interest of the noble mansion of Cowdray House is no 
 little enhanced by the fact of its having been the residence 
 and property of the Countess of Salisbury, the mother of the 
 great Cardinal Reginald Pole, and who in her extreme old age 
 was so brutally martyred by Henry VIII. The following 
 extract regarding Cowdray is taken from Allen’s History of 
 Surrey and Sussex, vol. ii. p. 512. 
 
 “ About a quarter of a mile eastward of Midhurst, Sussex, 
 are situate the picturesque ruins of Cowdray House, once the 
 magnificent seat of the noble family of Montague. They 
 stand in a valley between two well-wooded hills, near the 
 banks of the Avon, which runs between them through an 
 extensive park. 
 
 “ Cowdray, and the manor of Midhurst, belonged to 
 Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, (daughter of George, Duke of 
 Clarence,) who was attainted of high treason 31st Henry VIII., 
 and two years afterwards beheaded in the Tower at the age of 
 seventy-two, because certain Bulls from Rome were found in 
 her mansion here, and it was thought that an insurrection in 
 Yorkshire had been occasioned through the instigation of her 
 son, Cardinal Pole. William of Fitzwilliam built the present 
 mansion, as appears by his arms and other devices displayed 
 in its various parts ; but, dying without issue in the 34th 
 Henry VIII., this estate went to his maternal brother, Sir 
 Anthony Browne, from whom the late possessor, Viscount 
 Montague, was lineally descended. It was built in the form 
 of a quadrangle, with the principal front towards the west, in 
 the centre of which was the gate, flanked by two towers. The 
 east side contained the chapel, hall, and dining parlour. The 
 
430 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 chapel was superbly fitted up, and had an altar piece of peculiar 
 beauty. The hall was decorated with paintings of architecture 
 by Roberti, and statues by Goupe. The parlour received its 
 embellishment from Holbein, or some of his scholars. On the 
 south of the quadrangle was a long gallery, in which were 
 painted the twelve Apostles as large as life ; and on the north 
 side was another gallery, containing many whole-length pictures 
 of the family in their proper habits . . . likewise several old 
 religious and military paintings from Battle Abbey. 
 
 “ This beautiful edifice, with most of its valuable contents, 
 was destroyed by fire in the night of 24th September, 1793, 
 and, by a coincidence that must certainly be deemed remark- 
 able, about the same time that this stately pile was laid in 
 ruins, the noble owner was drowned whilst imprudently 
 venturing to sail down the cataracts of the Rhine at Schaff- 
 hausen. Being the last male heir of his ancient family, his 
 estates devolved to his only sister, married to William Stephen 
 Poyntz, Esq. He erected a new brick house in the Park/' 
 
 The following document, mentioning the Montague family 
 of Cowdray, is copied from the State Papers in the Public 
 Record Office. 26 We may well suppose that mansion and its 
 neighbourhood to have been a refuge for the persecuted priests 
 and Catholics in those days. 
 
 “ The substance of the Confessions of Robert Graye , priest , and 
 matter wherewith he may be charged , <5 r*c . 27 
 
 “ Taken before Richard Topclyfe and three others. 
 
 “In his first examination, he commences by saying that 
 he is a Catholic, and a Catholic after the same faith and 
 religion wherein he was christened, and so he will die by the 
 grace of God. [In the margin are divers notes, amongst others, 
 
 ‘ He showed himself very obstinate.’ ‘ But after he was run 
 away, and did break prison at Windsor, and taken again, he 
 renounced the Pope and all his authority, and so will he do to 
 get lease, and then work mischief as he did before.’] 
 
 “In his third confession, 29th of August, 1593. 
 
 “After warning, and that Robert Graye is told how he 
 hath dissembled in his former confession, and denied that he 
 
 26 State Papers, 1593, Domestic , Elizabeth , vol. ccxlv. n. 138. 
 
 27 The original is in the handwriting of the infamous Topcliff, who 
 being as illiterate as he was base, the spelling has been modernized to 
 render it at all readable. 
 
Brother William Browne. 
 
 43i 
 
 had spoken with any Jhezewitt [Jesuit] or Seminary priest since 
 he did come to the old Viscount Montague’s service, now 
 again he is told that it is discovered by letters and by apparent 
 confessions, that he hath been in the company of divers Jesuits, 
 and beyond -sea priests, in Sussex, Surrey, in or about 
 London, Bucks, and elsewhere, within these six years; that 
 the names of divers of them be known, and the places of their 
 haunts. 
 
 “ At length he sayeth and confesseth that in summer, now 
 three full years last past, he being at Cowdray with his lord 
 and Mr. [master] Sir George Browne, that now is, knight, did 
 come to him and did ask him if he would go with him to speak 
 with a learned man, and this examinant said yea. Then they 
 two went together, and Sir George brought this examinant to 
 one Denny’s house to Todham, half a mile from Cowdray, 
 and there Sir George brought this examinant up into a 
 chamber, where they found a man sitting in his cloak, of 
 above forty years old, long, slender face, black hair of head, 
 and a little beard black, whom since he heard was Father 
 Curry the Jesuit. [In the margin, ‘Here he showeth that he 
 was forswore before in denying that he had been in the 
 company of any Jesuit or Seminary.’] But of whom he hath 
 heard so at that or any time, this examinant doth no way 
 remember. And he and also Sir George Browne had talk with 
 the said Curry about a contract of marriage betwixt Mrs. 
 Constance Cussalde (or Cafelde), and a gentleman. And they 
 talked also of old Garnett’s matters. He sayeth that they 
 three tarried together not above half one hour, and so departed, 
 and he did never see Curry the Jesuit after nor before, nor 
 never heard from him by letter, writing, or message since, nor 
 ever did hear of him before or since. But once that he heard 
 that the said Curry was at River Park, where Mr. Anthony 
 Browne was living, son and heir to the old lord. 
 
 “ He never heard nor did see a priest called Plaisden, nor 
 ever did hear or see any called Father Robarts called Jesuit 
 or priest, nor ever heard that either of them was in Sussex. 
 But he hath heard that Plaisden, the Seminary priest, was 
 executed for treason as the law hath made it. And have heard 
 twenty speak of Father Roberts, but doth not remember who. 
 
 “ He remembereth that when the Lord Montague, his old 
 master, and the Lady Viscountess, his wife, were at Wynge, with 
 Sir Robert Dormer, about St. James’ tide, in the next summer 
 before the Queen’s Majesty was at Cowdray, or a day or 
 
432 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 two before the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, 1590, this 
 examinant’s lord and master and lady being at Sir Robert 
 Dormer’s (who hath married their daughter Elizabeth) for the 
 space of five or six days. There was during those five or six 
 days there one Mr. Harris, a priest, whom there he did hear 
 that he had used much with the Lady Babington. A tall man, 
 blackish hair of head, and beard. And this man, during this 
 time, did always (for the time of the Lady Montague and the 
 ladies being at Wynge) dine and sup and lodge in Sir Robert 
 Dormer’s house. Sir Robert Dormer and his wife being at 
 home there at Wynge. And this examinant did daily resort 
 into the said priest’s chamber, called that Mr. Harris, and con- 
 ferred with him, the said Harris, and during that time he did 
 never see the said Harris go or come out of his chamber ; but 
 that he did twice, upon two several days, talk with the said 
 Harris, and so did the Lady Montague with my lord, and the 
 now young Lady Dormer, their daughter, they all being there 
 in Mr. Harris’ chamber. He doth well remember that Harris 
 moved the lord and lady to be good to Anthony Garnett, and 
 they both said to Mr. Harris then, that neither of them both 
 did malice Garnett. Examinant resolutely answered that he 
 would not accuse himself, having been asked if he had said 
 Mass there, but he did not deny it; but would not confess 
 whether Harris did or not : 1 for if he see a hundred priests say 
 Masses he would not accuse one of them thereof.’ 
 
 “ He confesseth that he hath seen Dowlman and Jackson 
 at Cowdray, in his lord and master’s house ; and his lord and 
 the old lady did speak with them, both his lord and lady 
 knowing them to be priests. Dowlman and Jackson did dine 
 in examinant’s chamber, and did both lodge there at Cowdray 
 one night ; and this was three or four years passed. 
 
 “ Robert Gray, Priest. 
 
 “ Confessed before me, Richard Topcliffe.” 
 
 He after says that he remembers that Dollman and Jackson 
 were made priests in Queen Mary’s time. 
 
 The Annual Letters for the College of Liege, before referred 
 to, thus reports (1637) the death of Brother Browne: “Three 
 temporal coadjutors died of the plague during this year. The 
 first of these, William Browne, a man of high rank, being 
 brother of the Viscount Montague, nephew of the Duchess of 
 Feria, and grandson of the last English Ambassador at Rome, 
 before the change of religion. He was still more distinguished 
 
Brother William Browne. 
 
 433 
 
 by the sanctity of his religious life ; for he spent twenty-three 
 years of great integrity in the Society, and wonderful self- 
 abjection, leading him eagerly to seek the meanest employ- 
 ments in the College ; and such was his ardent piety and union 
 with God, that he seemed to hold constant intercourse with 
 Him by prayer ; he could think of nothing, speak of nothing, 
 and aspire after nought else, save God alone. These virtues, 
 admirable in themselves, are yet pre-eminently so in a man so 
 delicately brought up. But we will say more about this good 
 brother in our circular letter.” 
 
 The following, which is no doubt the circular letter alluded 
 to, is in the P.R.O., Brussels (see the Collectio Cardwelli , MSS. 
 S.J., P.R.O., Brussels, and also More’s Hist. Prov. Angl, lib. ix. 
 n. xi. et seq. pp. 406, et seq.). 
 
 “ Reverend Father in Christ, — 
 
 “ Pax Christi. 
 
 “ It has pleased the Divine Goodness to call from 
 this life to a better, our very dear brother in Christ, William 
 Browne — the 20th of August — having attained his fifty-ninth 
 year, and his twenty-third in religion, in the degree of a formed 
 temporal coadjutor. A pestilential but hidden disease attacked 
 him, which after a few days, and having received the holy 
 viaticum, without any previous agony, invited him to bliss, 
 rather than forced him away. He was born in that county of 
 England we call Surrey, of a noble family, being nephew, 28 
 brother, and uncle, of successive Lords Montague, whose 
 mother of the family of the Lords Dormer, was sister of the 
 Duchess of Feria. His grandfather, before the birth of 
 heresy in England, was the last Ambassador of the Kings of 
 England to the Roman Pontiffs, who left as an heirloom to his 
 posterity until this day, the ancient faith which England lost, 
 although thwarted by many artifices. But the progeny to 
 which William gave birth, was an exalted virtue, which the 
 Divine bounty from his earliest years so implanted in his mind, 
 that although perhaps too much given to hunting and hawking, 
 as Englishmen in his station are wont to be, yet his confessor 
 testifies that he never sullied his baptismal innocence by any 
 mortal sin, and I myself indeed, who for four years heard his 
 confessions, can testify that I never heard of any fault com- 
 mitted by him that would amount even to a venial sin, and 
 that could afford sufficient matter for absolution. I should 
 28 Mistake, should be grandson. See pedigree. 
 
 CC 
 
434 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 not, indeed, have thoroughly known the purity of his soul, had 
 he not sometimes in order the more deeply to “ discuss ” 
 himself, if it were possible to do so, and which he certainly did, 
 being endowed with an interior light truly wonderful, “searched 
 Jerusalem with candles,” to discover any slight fault, even the 
 least. In humility he especially excelled, weighing all things 
 as in the scales of the Supreme Judge. Hence he had scarcely 
 any affection to worldly honour, none of earthly nobility; so 
 much so that the very mention of these things was nauseous 
 to him. On the contrary, he most studiously sought out, 
 and tenderly loved the lowest offices in our Colleges. For 
 fourteen years he spent almost two hours daily in the kitchen, 
 in washing the dishes, &c. He cleansed out the out-offices, 
 lit the fires, and performed other like offices, with so great a 
 sense of internal pleasure, that showed itself outwardly in his 
 countenance, and was a sign of a certain heavenly light 
 whereby he penetrated into the hidden treasures of these 
 employments, which are not revealed except to such as are 
 truly little. Many years ago I saw our William, when a garden 
 was being laid out at the foundation of this College, not long 
 before of the noble race of the Brownes, and honourable in 
 title, acting as a common hodman amongst the workmen. 
 With a sack or hodman’s basket on his back, which he so 
 fastened by a double cord over his breast as to leave his hands 
 at liberty, in which he held his hnitation of Christ by Thomas 
 h Kempis, he would carry rubbish backwards and forwards, 
 and whilst they were filling his hod with earth, or stones, &c., 
 he would sit for a little upon the trunk of a tree and draw 
 something from the book wherewith in the meantime to feed 
 his soul ; nor did any dilatoriness show itself in his countenance 
 or gait, but in the whole man a hidden fire which clearly 
 indicated how light was the burden he was carrying for Christ. 
 These things were so public, that from the first they became 
 known by report to his sisters and mother, who from mistaken 
 ideas interpreting them in a wrong light were indignant, and 
 reprobated these exercises of humility as stains upon the 
 honour of the noble family, to whom he made this only reply : 
 ‘You,’ said he ‘have your delights, whilst I in the meantime, 
 of the Divine bounty, overflow with heavenly joys. You are 
 upon the stormy and perilous ocean, God grant that you may 
 one day land safely in port.’ The Spirit of God which rests 
 upon the humble, inspired him with a comprehensive genius, 
 and wonderfully extolled this lowliness of his soul. Therefore 
 
Brother William Browne , . 435 
 
 God, Who is a Spirit, would change a mortal man in a short 
 time into an entirely spiritual man, or unite him closely to 
 Himself. Hence it was that all whatsoever he either thought, 
 spoke, or did, seemed always to turn out not only creditably* 
 but the best. One who knew him intimately asserts this from 
 himself. Hence he preferred a longer to a shorter life, with 
 the hope of increasing in the love of God, although in the one 
 there was assured salvation, in the other uncertainty. Hence, 
 also, when any one would see him perspiring in the perform- 
 ance of disgusting offices, and would put in a word upon the 
 future glory of it, ‘ Believe me/ he would say, ‘ my brother, 
 this it is I desire, this I aspire after, that I may please God 
 and. do His holy will ; as to heaven, He will dispose of me 
 as He sees fit/ At another time he would say, 1 If the Saints 
 from heaven should show themselves to us, I confess, indeed, 
 that they would be most grateful guests, but with their good 
 leave I would still attend to God alone/ When sometimes he 
 would be sitting or standing by a large fire, and the discourse 
 turned upon the Divine presence, it seemed wonderful to him 
 how the creature in such great ardours did not melt away like 
 a little butter cast into this fire. When it was once proposed 
 to him that according to the rule of our Blessed Father 
 St. Ignatius, our tepidity might be assisted by the hope of 
 rewards and the fear of punishment, he replied, 1 My father ’I 
 do not remember for twenty years to have needed any other 
 spur than the love of God alone.’ This was the source of 
 William’s continual communication with God. For my part I 
 little doubt but that he attained to the highest contemplation 
 in his mental prayer, and that in the same our brother for 
 the most part ‘ endured ’ divine things. Without any previous 
 discourse, he was drawn by the least attraction of the heavenly 
 sun, and like a pure crystal was totally filled with light and 
 flame. Nor were these rays speculative only, but active 
 beyond measure, which intimately penetrated his heart, and 
 communicated an effective force to all the powers of soul and 
 body, to such extent that it made a very feast of the rest of his 
 meditation. Fie made an hour’s meditation in the morning 
 before the rest ; besides two or three more on his knees before 
 midday. He beheld God present to him in whatsoever business 
 or place he was occupied, so much so, that when as companion 
 to the Brother Dispenser he would accompany him into the 
 town, on any occasion of their stopping to transact business he 
 would immediately, either on his knees pour forth his prayers, . 
 cc 2 
 
436 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 or retiring into some corner of the shop would read something 
 from the Imitation of Christ , with such edification to all, that 
 although this devotion of his might in others have been deemed 
 unseasonable, yet all things cooperated with him for good ; he 
 was called a saint, and became by degrees to be held as such 
 in the city, and on this account the people esteemed their houses 
 and shops fortunate that had been consecrated by his praying. 
 He tenderly loved the most holy Mother of God, and con- 
 stantly wore her rosary within his soutane suspended from his 
 neck. 
 
 William carried in his heart so strong a devotion to the 
 most holy Eucharist, that he felt its force though many walls 
 interposed, and hence he adored it as the God of his heart. In 
 his prayer no position was so grateful to him as where with the 
 high altar, and the chapel of our Lady he could make as it 
 were a triangle, that at equal distances he could from the one 
 drink milk from the breast, from the other feed upon the 
 wounds. The abundance of his tears in that spot truly testified 
 that this choice of situation did not happen of chance, but 
 by design. He especially honoured those saints he knew to 
 have excelled in the love of God, particularly St. Austin and 
 St. Gertrude. Moreover, from this communion with God, arose 
 frequent ecstasy, in which, although the soul was not entirely 
 wrapt from the senses, yet they were so weakened, that their 
 stupor often showed that his soul was rather there where it 
 loved, than where it lived. But this was peculiar to William, 
 that he was never so abstracted but he would recognise the 
 pictures of the saints, and piously salute them in the dark and 
 in out of the way corners, never so overwhelmed with sleep, 
 but that he would ihstantly awake on any mention of the name 
 of God or spiritual subjects, showing a certain sympathetic 
 feeling pleasing to him. If he knew any endowed with extra- 
 ordinary virtue, he clung to them like steel to the loadstone, 
 and it was most grateful to him to accompany the Fathers to 
 the houses the Curiae, and especially to monasteries which 
 excelled in the fame of sanctity ; and as he was a sweet odour 
 of Christ in every place, so he imbued others with the same, 
 and was most acute in drinking in, as it were, the same from 
 persons devoted to God, and this sagacity he possessed in a 
 truly wonderful manner. 
 
 Amidst all this, the servant of God greatly feared lest 
 this corruptible body should oppress the soul and oppose any 
 clouds of darkness to the great ardour and light of the mind. 
 
Brother William Browne. 437 
 
 Hence, therefore, from his first entrance into religion, he 
 declared the sharpest war against it. No one ever heard 
 William complaining of food, clothing, or lodging — no one saw 
 him eager for recreation. After mid-day, being exhausted with 
 labours, when rather, overwhelmed with sleep than desirous of 
 indulging in it, he would take a little repose laying upon the 
 ground, with his head resting upon a brick. He defended 
 himself against the cold of winter by his summer clothing ; he 
 never made use of any waistcoat, but simply a soutane over 
 his undergarment. If he saw any small bits of dry bread upon 
 the table, he took them as quickly as he could, as so many 
 delicacies. He could never be induced to take breakfast, 
 unless, indeed, by way of antidote against the plague. As to 
 the rest, nothing was more admirable in the good brother than 
 the constancy and equability of the whole tenor of his life. 
 He was not by nature formed for labour, nor did long habit 
 ease the burthen, but the love of God alone, which never 
 relaxed in his soul, made the burden easy to him, even to the 
 very day in which he fell sick; receiving the reward of the 
 good and faithful servant, when consumed with fever, and with 
 difficulty dragging himself through the house, he would carry 
 water to the cook, accompany the dispenser out of doors, and 
 to the admiration of all, fulfilled his usual offices of humility 
 in the kitchen. Thus the course of this just man increased, 
 and like a splendid luminary, went on daily increasing even 
 to the perfect day, that is to say, to that day in which encircled 
 with the immense load of his merits, he rendered up his spot- 
 less soul to God. It is attested that he was never observed to 
 be in a state of greater peace of soul in the whole course of his 
 life than at the approach of death. Therefore, with the most 
 holy Sacrament of the Body of Christ in his breast, the Office 
 of the Blessed Virgin Mary in his hands, her Rosary about his 
 neck, his Creator in his heart, and Jesus on his lips, he closed 
 his eyes with which he had looked upon heaven, and now 
 possesses, as we hope, that which his soul loves and shall 
 never lose. That religious charity may not be wanting, I 
 earnestly intreat your paternity to cause the usual suffrages 
 to be offered for the repose of his soul. 
 
 “ Your paternity’s humble servant in Christ, 
 
 “George Duckett. 
 
 “Liege, 22nd of September, 1637. ” 29 
 
 29 Father More says that he died in 1633, which is a mistake. 
 
438 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 Father More 30 chiefly borrows his account of Brother 
 Browne from the foregoing letter. He says, in addition, that 
 whilst in the world, when engaged in his honourable and lawful 
 sports, he was divinely inspired with an ardent desire of visiting 
 the most holy house of our Blessed Lady at Loreto. There- 
 upon, disposing of his horses, dogs, servants, &c., amongst his 
 friends, to be reserved for his return, he crossed over into 
 Belgium. He called on his way to salute our Fathers at 
 St. Omers’ College. It seems that although then upwards of 
 thirty years of age, he had not been confirmed. He had 
 scarcely been a day at the College when he acknowledged 
 the fact to our Fathers, who asked him, and he was inflamed 
 with an ardent desire of remaining to receive the sacred Chrism. 
 The better to prepare himself, he determined to mak# an 
 examination of his past life, and a meditation upon pious 
 things. In this spiritual retreat he conceived a great disgust 
 of all perishable things, and resolved upon a stricter mode 
 of life. Determined to quit the world, and uncertain to what 
 order in religion to give himself up, he returned to England, 
 and having received his rents went back again to St. Omers, 
 and after again deliberating he resolved to enter amongst the 
 temporal coadjutors or lay-brothers of the Society of Jesus, 
 embracing with such great devotedness that degree so humble 
 and so full of charity, that he would have wished the usual 
 recreations allotted to the rest to be denied to himself, or 
 he unwillingly admitted them, and he made so little account 
 of the health of his body that he would listen to no one on 
 this behalf until he was taught that he must submit in this 
 also, in order that he might render a more prompt obedience 
 to God. 
 
 In speaking of his utter disregard of all worldly honour 
 and esteem, Father More mentions the fact of a youth of 
 the College at Liege who happened to meet him laden with 
 a bucket of pigs’ wash, when he made some observation, I 
 know not what, as to his title and family splendour, upon 
 which the brother in great confusion stopped for a moment, 
 and laying down his load said, “ I had rather that the whole 
 bucket should be poured down my neck than to have heard 
 these words from you.” Then resuming his bucket, he carried 
 it to the pigs’ trough. 
 
 From his continual sense of the presence of God, it 
 happened that when even the name of mortal sin was men- 
 30 Hist. Prov. Angl. ut supra. 
 
Brother William Browne. 
 
 439 
 
 tioned you might instantly see him as in the act of resisting 
 some unexpected and dreadful thing, and exclaiming, at the 
 same time crossing himself, “ Oh ! how deplorable a thing it 
 is to be without the grace of God ! ” And when he heard 
 any speaking of the malice and heinousness of the sins com- 
 mitted by the wicked in the world, he would beg them to 
 abstain from such subjects of conversation, as it was intolerable 
 to him to see or hear of such things. 
 
 The Imitation of Christ , by Thomas a Kempis, was his 
 favourite book, which he read again and again so assiduously 
 and attentively that there was nothing hidden in the treasures 
 of that book that he had not fixed in his memory and reduced 
 to practice. Hence he drew mental illuminations and divers 
 precepts of virtue, and laid special stress upon this sentence : 
 “ Unless I can arrive to this point, to be willing to be despised 
 and forsaken by all creatures, and to be esteemed as nothing 
 at all, I cannot attain to interior peace and stability, nor be 
 spiritually illumined, nor fully united to Thee, my God.” 31 So 
 that it is no wonder he excelled in the virtue of humility, of 
 which he explained the advantage by the following homely 
 example: “As the black coal dust cast into the fire makes 
 a blaze, and causes it to burn brisker and brighter, so the 
 black dust of humility cast upon the fire of charity appears 
 for a while to obscure and suppress its flame, but afterwards 
 increases its intensity and light, and more widely diffuses its 
 rays on every side.” Being sometimes confined to his bed 
 by an injury of his leg, he congratulated himself on the 
 opportunity afforded him of learning by heart the chapter 
 of the Imitation , upon the Different Motions of Nature and 
 Grace. 
 
 Brother Browne not only took part, as we have seen, in 
 forming the garden at the new College at Liege, 1614, but 
 he also assisted in purchasing the property. We have a letter 
 of Father John Gerard to Father Owen, Rector of the English 
 College, Rome, written from Liege, 19th of September, 1614, 
 under the assumed name of Nelson. In this, speaking of 
 the new house at Liege, whither the Novitiate of the English 
 Mission, S.J., was about to be removed from St. John’s, 
 Louvain, he says, ( inter alia ), that whatever else was requisite 
 for the purchase was provided by Brother William Browne, 
 who, though grandson, brother and uncle of Viscounts Montague 
 — his grandfather being Queen Mary’s Ambassador to the Holy 
 31 Book iii. c. 41, last verse. 
 
440 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 See — was himself content to spend his life in the humble duties 
 of a Jesuit lay-brother. 32 
 
 In another letter of Father Gerard, written also in the same 
 name of Nelson, 33 to Father Thomas Owen, dated April 6, 
 1614, he mentions Brother Browne, who had lately entered 
 amongst the novices, and was then apparently engaged in 
 arranging some business matters regarding his property. 
 Amongst other things, he says, “ 1 have now a letter from 
 our Brother William’s mother, whereof I will send you the 
 copy. What those writings are that she would have to be 
 sealed, I yet know not ; but I suppose they be no harm to 
 his estate, she being so careful of him and so loving to him, 
 but when the man [messenger] comes, Father Talbot will look 
 into it. . . . she saith that she hath had much ado with one 
 bad fellow about part of William’s annuity, and that she will 
 send over a trusty man with writings unto him to be sealed this 
 month of April, to whom she requireth her son to give all 
 credit.” 
 
 In the Stonyhurst Library (iv. 55), is an ascetical book 
 written by Brother Browne, evidently the fruit of his assiduous 
 study and practice of Thomas a Kempis. In the first page is 
 the following note, “This book belonging to the pnglish 
 College at Liege, was written by Brother William Browne, 
 my Lord Montague’s brother, who lived and died a very holy 
 man, in the quality of a lay-brother of the Society of Jesus at 
 Liege.” It is a thick i6mo. volume of some 760 pages of 
 closely written matter, divided into thirty-four chapters. The 
 volume itself is too long, and the writing, though a beautiful 
 specimen of its day, too difficult to allow time to make any 
 extracts from, or review of it. In order, however, to give 
 some idea of the industry of this good brother, and the 
 extent of matter embraced in the volume, we will very shortly 
 state the heads of the chapters. The book begins thus — 
 
 “Jesus ►J* Maria.” 
 
 1st Chap. “ The flower of the field, in honour and remem- 
 brance of the same name given to our Blessed Lord in holy 
 Scripture.” 2. “Of the great profit of penance.” 3. “Of 
 suffering crosses and temptations.” 4. “ Of devotion to our 
 Blessed Lady.” 5. “Of avoiding unprofitable thoughts.” 
 6. “ Of being fervorous in good works.” 7. “ Of devout 
 
 3 See Condition of Catholics, p. cxcix. “ Life of Father John Gerard.” 
 
 33 Stonyhurst MSS. Anglia , vol. iv. n. 6. 
 
Brother Gerard Rogers. 
 
 441 
 
 following of our Lord by suffering crosses for His love.” 
 8. “ Of peace of mind and joy of the Holy Ghost” 9. “ Of 
 the great profit of time and how we may best use it.” 
 10. “That it is very profitable to increase daily much in virtue 
 and devotion ; to have a very true esteem and a high appre- 
 hension of virtue and perfection.” 11. “That we should 
 always do the best we can for the best end.” 12. “ How a 
 soul is honoured and dignified that is united to the Supreme 
 Good by charity and grace.” 13. “Of some means to come 
 to contemplation by degrees.” 14. “Of elevating our minds to 
 the Creator by means of creatures.” 15. “That a soul when 
 united to her Maker will then languish to depart this life, and 
 enjoy her Creator in the next.” 16. “The great and ever- 
 lasting reward in the next life for such who have lived and 
 died well.” 17. “Consider how delight will move men’s minds.” 
 18. “That the soul of a just man is the temple of the Holy 
 Ghost.” 19. “Of supernatural light.” 20. “That we should 
 always endeavour to go forward in the way of virtue.” 21. 
 “Of union of will with the divine will.” 22. “Of spiritual 
 fruit and profit.” 23. “Of charity and divine love.” 24. 
 “Of exterior and interior inclinations.” 25. “Of solitude and 
 silence.” 26. “Of heavenly wisdom and divine knowledge.” 
 27. “Wherein felicity consists.” 28. “Of divine union with 
 the highest good.” 29. “Of discreet government.” 30. “Of 
 admiration, affection and delight.” 31. “How a devout soul 
 may strengthen himself more in virtue and grace.” 32. “Of 
 the presence of God.” 33. “ What great and wonderful things 
 virtue and grace will work in the soul.” 34. “Of virginal 
 purity of body and mind.” 
 
 BROTHER GERARD ROGERS. 34 
 
 It will be well to give as a sequel to the life of Brother 
 William Browne, that of Brother Gerard Rogers, who was 
 admitted into the Society seven years later than the former. 
 A great union of heart existed between them, which nothing 
 human but a sincere charity had contracted, and a religious 
 emulation of better gifts. They w*ere, moreover, separated 
 from each other in death by the interval of only three weeks. 
 The day before Brother Rogers fell into his last sickness, he 
 said that he had been warned by William during his sleep to 
 
 34 More, Hist. Prov. Angl. lib. ix. n. xiii. p. 409. 
 
442 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 prepare himself, for that the time was near when he should 
 follow in the way which he had previously taken. 
 
 Brother Gerard was a native of Westphalia, born in a 
 humble station, which, as we see by many examples, is fre- 
 quently the habitation of exalted virtue. From his parents 
 he had imbibed the Lutheran heresy, which error he cherished 
 rather from ignorance than from perverseness of mind, for even 
 then he felt certain attractions to piety, and some conflicts 
 against the error of his conscience. The heavenly Husband- 
 man saw what the soil was capable of producing, and decreed 
 to transplant him where he might bring forth fruit in abund- 
 ance. The time of his passing over to England is not 
 mentioned, but when he returned thence to Belgium in the 
 year 1619, he was drawn, by what he had seen of the 
 Catholic Church, and by a certain sacred impulse, not only 
 to embrace the Faith, but to entertain thoughts of a stricter 
 course of life. Being just arrived from England, a foreigner, 
 making application to persons who were foreigners like himself, 
 he was engaged to serve our English Fathers who were 
 there. His good dispositions now developed rapidly. He gave 
 himself much to the reading of spiritual books, and he used 
 to say that he had received a fine patrimony from his parents, 
 inasmuch as they had taught him to read and write. While 
 he was reading the life of St. Teresa, not in a hurried careless 
 manner, but quietly and little by little, as was his custom, 
 pondering the force of divine grace which is capable of 
 changing in a moment the heart of man into better, he felt 
 his own to be touched and enkindled by a secret fire, so that 
 casting himself upon his knees, he exclaimed, “This is the 
 change of the right hand of the Most High.” From certain 
 writings of his it appears that this was no ordinary motion of 
 the soul, for he styles it the first step of his conversion, and 
 with vehement affection he calls upon the whole host of 
 heaven to render thanks to God for it. From that time also 
 he undertook to wage war against himself with such ardour, 
 that in a short time, having obtained the victory, he said that 
 the rule of seeking one’s own greater self-denial and continual 
 mortification in all things, the observance of which he had 
 conceived otherwise impossible to him, now appeared easy 
 and pleasant. Fie preferred the state of soul of a Religious, who 
 with a fixed and steady determination to deny himself, should go 
 to a table richly and daintily furnished, to another who without 
 this disposition should feed on bread and water. At table he 
 
Brother Gerard Rogers. 443 
 
 took just sufficient for the necessary refection of the body, but 
 refused everything that went for the mere gratification of the 
 palate. He would often weary his Superiors after the example 
 of St. Aloysius with requests to be allowed to increase his 
 fastings, watchings, and corporal afflictions. Thus, dead to 
 the world, did Gerard live to God alone. He resolved to 
 overcome sleep, which troubled him at unseasonable hours, 
 and was wont to molest him in the midst of his daily labours, 
 by subtracting one hour from his ordinary allowance of sleep, 
 which he ever after spent in prayer. He opposed pride by the 
 frequent remembrance of the poverty of his parents, and the 
 harder condition of his former life. The divine will, to which 
 he had entirely conformed himself, he used to say, could be 
 found in anything however difficult, like the kernel in the 
 hardest shell ; and he pitied those who stick at whatever has 
 any bitterness in it, and who know not how to suck honey 
 from the rock, and oil from the hardest stone, since it was 
 sweet whether it was offered on Mount Thabor or on Calvary. 
 And since he knew that the will of God was manifested to him 
 in the rules of his Institute, he obtained leave from his Superior, 
 three years before his death, to bind himself by vow never 
 deliberately to transgress any one of them, and this he observed 
 unbroken. But as one virtue gives birth to and perfects another, 
 the next year, at Pentecost, on the feast itself, he vowed always 
 to do that which was most perfect, which vow the Superior 
 allowed should only bind from month to month, although after- 
 wards this space of time was extended to a longer period. 
 
 To impress the presence of God more easily upon his mind, 
 he used to behold in the Rector of the house, God the Father, 
 in the minister, God the Son, in his confessor, God the Holy 
 Ghost, in priests, the Apostles, and in the rest of his brethren, 
 the seventy-two disciples. 
 
 He used to say that creatures were the dress of God, and 
 that He was to be loved in them in the same manner as we 
 should always regard a friend, a superior or parent, with the 
 same feelings, however differently he might be clothed; and 
 that, as the form of the Sacrament in the Holy Communion is 
 no hindrance to the person who believes from giving his whole 
 attention to the treasures concealed beneath that veil, in the 
 same manner created things, to those who love God, do not 
 separate them from Him, but are like vehicles which lead and 
 unite them to their beloved. When he had to endure any 
 inconveniences which happened to him for the love of God, 
 
444 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 he used to call it the art of alchymy, by the power of which 
 all things were turned into spiritual gold. When he was thus 
 illuminated with this increase of heavenly lights and virtues 
 during the three last years of his life, which at the time that 
 he read the Life of St. Teresa had been confirmed by the 
 spiritual exercises of an entire month, a pestilential fever seized 
 him ; but in the last stage of his life he had such an abundance 
 of supernatural light poured down upon him, that in his aston- 
 ishment he told the priest who was assisting him that nothing 
 similar in all his life had ever happened to him ; which was a 
 pledge, as it is hoped, of that happiness to which his subse- 
 quent death opened the door on the 5 th of September, in the 
 thirty-seventh year of his age, the seventeenth from his admis- 
 sion into the Society, after having obtained the degree of 
 formed temporal coadjutor, a little more than three years. 
 
 The Annual Letters for the College of Liege, a.d. 1637, 
 after noticing Brother William Browne, say, “ The next of these 
 victims of charity 35 was Gerard Rogers, who followed after a 
 very short interval. His great intelligence and skill had 
 enabled him to render valuable service to the College, in 
 which he had lived with great edification. During the last 
 three years of his life particularly he seems to have obtained 
 by self-denial a complete victory over himself, and had thus 
 been enabled to attain to great union with God. It was a 
 cause of great grief to the Community that these two great 
 examples of virtue were withdrawn from their sight ; but a 
 sensible increase of fervour in the survivors showed that these 
 examples were not forgotten nor disregarded.” 
 
 The third Temporal Coadjutor who died of the plague is 
 not named in the report for 1637, but “he had showed the 
 devotedness of his charity by four times exposing his life in 
 the service of the infected before he was at last allowed to 
 render it up to God for the sake of his neighbour.” 
 
 BROTHER HENRY FORSTER, S.J. 
 
 Like those of so many others, both religious and secular, 
 the life of this admirable person is an illustration of the 
 tyranny and bitter hostility of the rebel Parliament towards 
 the Catholics and the ancient faith. 
 
 35 From the tone of the Annual Report we may presume that both 
 Br. Browne and Br. Rogers, as also a third lay-brother not named, were 
 victims of charity, and had caught the plague in the service of the infected. 
 

 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
FOSTER PEDIGREE. 
 
 To face page pig. 
 
Brother Henry Forster. 
 
 445 
 
 Mr. Forster was a man of birth, and highly connected in 
 the county of Suffolk. He was one of the six children of 
 Christopher Forster, Esq., of the parish of Copdoke, in 
 Suffolk, by his mother, Elizabeth Rookwood, of the ancient 
 family of that name. He married the eldest of three co-heiresses, 
 daughters of a Mr. Mason, of the county of Huntingdon, and 
 had twelve children. The nine who survived infancy, viz. 
 six daughters and three sons, all entered religion. 
 
 The following narrative is taken from the Collectio Cardzvellt, 
 MSS., S.J., Prov. Angl. Ex Arch. Belgico, Brussels. 
 
 “Brother Henry Forster, my father of happy memory, was 
 born the 20th of March, 1604, in the county of Suffolk and 
 parish of Copdoke. His father, Christopher Forster, and 
 mother, Elizabeth Rookwood, were both persons of unspotted 
 fame and reputation, and great sufferers for their religion, both 
 as to imprisonment and loss of means, of whose virtues and 
 sufferings my father may then be said to have been a true 
 copy, as being a son who never degenerated in the least from 
 so worthy and virtuous parents, whose marriage God did bless 
 with six children, two daughters and four sons, whereof my 
 father was the youngest, who with the rest of my uncles was 
 carefully brought up in the fear of God, and taught the Latin 
 tongue by their own mother so far, as being afterwards sent 
 to St. Omer’s were judged fit for grammar. The two eldest 
 entered and died in the Society ; the third died at St. Omer’s 
 in the course of his studies there, where the fourth, my 
 father, was also prosecuting the same, with an intention 
 to follow his elder brother’s example, but my grandfather 
 thought fit to recall him at the end of Syntax, for the support 
 of his now old age, to my father’s indeed no small mortification, 
 yet even Providence itself did seem to dispense then with his 
 vocation to religion, and as it were lent him to the world for 
 some years trial, thereby to mould him, and perhaps the better 
 for religion hereafter, as it proved by the event. 
 
 “ Thus my father was forced to march back for England to 
 practise there, in the midst of a wicked nation, the solid 
 virtues which he had first received from the breasts of his most 
 pious parents, and afterwards nourished and finally brought 
 to perfection in the no less famous school of virtue than 
 learning, St. Omer’s College I mean, whereof he gave several 
 notable proofs, both whilst he lived in the world, and then in 
 religion, as may be gathered out of the series of his most 
 
446 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 pious life, which I shall divide into three parts, viz. the first 
 of prosperity, the second of adversity, and the third of religion. 
 
 But before I descend into particulars, I shall first give you 
 a glance of his virtues in general, constantly practised during 
 the whole course of his life led in the world, to very near fifty 
 years of age, and redoubled in the part of his adversity, which 
 generally even moves the greatest sinners to seek and call 
 upon God’s mercy with more frequent and reiterated devotions 
 and prayers. 
 
 “ i. Amongst then his general virtues, the beginning of 
 wisdom, the fear of God, justly deserves the first place here, as 
 I doubt not but that it had in his heart, which was so possessed 
 therewith, yet he ever seemed to have a kind of horror for 
 all sins, and would punish severely even the least lie in his 
 children, nor could suffer any one in his family who was any 
 ways given to swearing, drinking, and the like, or other 
 excesses, himself being always irreprehensible in them. I 
 myself being morally certain to have heard him say and 
 avouch, that by God’s grace he thought he had not once swore 
 an oath in all his life, nor exceeded in drink, meat, &c. 
 
 “ 2. Besides Thomas a Kempis, he had Father Rodriguez, of 
 Conformity to the will of God, both which he. equally cherished, 
 and profited so well by them, that he was scarce ever observed 
 to complain or murmur against God or man, how cross soever 
 things happened, or whatsoever losses he sustained, which 
 were many and frequent, at which all he was wont to say would 
 be, Fiat voluntas Dei : and indeed he had so admirable a 
 government over all his passions, that he was never seen in 
 any transport. 
 
 “3. Next after God his devotion to our Blessed Lady was 
 great, reciting daily her long office, but how often his beads in 
 a day none but God and he knows, he having for the most 
 part a little pair in his glove, which at home and abroad, 
 unless hindered actually by company, he would be often 
 reciting. He never failed to confess and communicate on 
 all the feasts of our Lady and other, chief feasts of the year, 
 to all which also he brought up his children, as soon as they 
 were of age. Besides high public devotions, he daily said 
 his private prayers in his closet of whole hours in the morning, 
 and before he went to bed, and many others unknown. 
 
 “ 4. His charity to the poor would never let any one go 
 from his gate without alms, and moreover, allowed corn and 
 other victuals to be distributed at several times in the year to 
 
Brother Henry Forster . 447 
 
 the poor of the parish, but frequently to all poor Catholics 
 about him. 
 
 “ 5. He always had a great veneration for priests, without 
 distinction of order, all being welcome, that sometimes I 
 remember seven or eight at a time of several orders, but 
 chiefly indeed did esteem those of the Society of Jesus, of 
 whom he had taken one into his family before he was engaged 
 with a secular priest, who was put upon him at first keeping 
 house and continued until he broke up and sold all. 
 
 “ 6. He always had a great care to spend his time well, 
 whereof he thought every moment precious, and therefore 
 what spare time his affairs and care of his family allowed, he 
 always spent in his devotions, and instruction of his sons in 
 the Latin tongue and catechism, entertaining a gentlewoman 
 to instruct his daughters, and teach them all sorts of work 
 belonging to their sex and condition, till hard times would no 
 more allow of the expense. 
 
 “ 7. He was always so just and upright in all his dealings, 
 and so punctual an observer of his word and promise, that 
 all who knew credited him his least word, as much as a lease 
 or bond in all its formalities, and if any difference happened 
 amongst his friends, they would often remit the case to him to 
 decide, and stand to his judgment. 
 
 “8. It was his constant practice, before he went about any- 
 thing, or to anyone, or even before he did open a letter that 
 came to him, to say always some short prayer upon his knees 
 before God. 
 
 “ 9. Displeasures, affronts, and even injuries were equally 
 welcome to him, whether from his betters, equals, or inferiors, 
 making a sacrifice of them all to God, with promise I believe 
 of never opening his mouth to man concerning them, as to 
 complain thereof, &c. ; as by experience Father Charles 
 Darcey, whilst he lived at Brussels, had disobliged if not 
 injured him in a high degree, as he confessed to me, but I 
 could never get from him what it was, giving for reason that he 
 had offered it up to God, and was not to speak of it. 
 
 “ 10. In fine, he was ever obliging to all, and careful never 
 to disoblige any, not even inferiors, with the least ill or harsh 
 language, and in his conversation prudently merry and cheerful, 
 which gained everyone to him, in so much that all his neigh- 
 bours, though never so great zealots otherwise in their ways, 
 were loath to part with him when he left England. Mr. Blosse, 
 who was a knight of the shire, asked a crucifix of him, for a 
 
448 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 memorial, with promise to keep it with all due reverence, 
 which with consent of our priest, my father gave him, and 
 one Squire Bruce kept many years correspondence with him, 
 and often urged to send him his picture over at any rate 
 whatsoever, that he might at least enjoy his likeness being 
 deprived of himself, to which my father (thinking it to be 
 out of its place, being then religious) would never consent, 
 out of mere humility. 
 
 “(i.) Thus far in general terms; now I will descend to parti- 
 culars, and begin the triple partition of his whole life ; and first 
 to enter into that part of his prosperity, the passage of his 
 marriage offers me a fair entrance. When having three sisters 
 of equal portion, but not of equal beauty (by name Mason, of 
 the county of Huntingdon, all three heiresses), left to his 
 choice, the beauty indeed of the youngest had gained much 
 upon his affections, which he knew so well how to temper and 
 command, even in the first fervour of his age, that merely not to 
 mortify and contristate the eldest by seeing her younger sister 
 preferred before her, made choice of the eldest, which God 
 Almighty did particularly seem to bless, first with a numerous 
 issue of about a dozen children, then never two humours 
 kept better together, before nor since perhaps, for it was never 
 observed that ever a cross word passed between them, but 
 about eighteen years they lived together in all reciprocal 
 love and peace, rather like brother and sister as to the exterior 
 or public than man and wife, so far were they from imitating 
 the froward carriage and behaviour of most married persons 
 now-a-days. 
 
 “The better to continue and secure this peace at home, 
 my father was one of those several Catholic families who 
 compounded with the King not to be molested from abroad 
 upon the account of religion, and thus they enjoyed themselves 
 in all peace and prosperity from about the twenty-fourth to 
 the forty-second year of his age, in as well a regulated family 
 as any doubtless in England, keeping always an open chapel 
 as long as the times did allow it, and Mass constantly about 
 eight in the morning, and at four after dinner on Sundays 
 and Holidays, Vespers of the Divine Office read by the priest, 
 and always at nine at night the long litanies, and in holy 
 week the whole office of the Church with all its ceremonies, 
 &c. ; likewise for dinner, constantly at two, and supper at 
 six in the evening. 
 
Brother Henry Forster . 
 
 449 
 
 “The heavens having destinated my father at length for 
 religion, and perhaps to wean him timely off from all affection 
 to worldly pastimes, the better to sup hereafter the bitter cup 
 of persecution which was preparing for him, gave him in all 
 this prosperity, as it were, a dislike and a kind of aversion to 
 all kind of youthly sports, as dancing, hawking, hunting, 
 which he used to tell us were rather a mortification than a 
 recreation to him. Indeed he confessed at first he had liked 
 to have been entangled in the snares of gaming, but his 
 constant bad luck made them soon so tedious to him. 
 
 “ In fine, when at home, both father and mother were for 
 the most part the first and last in the chapel, where both their 
 chiefest delights did seem to be, and indeed she grew so 
 emulous in her devotions at length, that she outstripped as 
 it were my father and herself too, for after a discourse held 
 with one of the Society she observed some defects in herself 
 which hitherto she had never perceived, and hereupon she 
 grew extreme scrupulous, thinking everything a sin, in so 
 much that my father and our priest were obliged sometimes 
 to bring her by force of arms from her prayers to do ordinary 
 actions, especially the last year of her life, which I will here 
 suppose to be drawing nigh its last period, and with it close 
 also the first partition of my father’s triple life promised. 
 
 “(2) Providence now seeming as it were fully satisfied with 
 his courageous wading through all the vain allurements of 
 prosperity, resolved also to try him by the fire of adversity, 
 and the better to encourage him thereto by the example of his 
 Sacred Redeemer, began the sad catastrophe the same day 
 which the Church does honour for His having ended the grand 
 work of man’s redemption, Good Friday I mean, when all 
 being met in the chapel for Tenebrae, only my mother wanting, 
 several messages were sent in vain, for she had barred herself 
 in her chamber, and gave no answer ; wherefore my father 
 himself went, but fared no better, till forcing the wainscot 
 door open, found her in a very modest posture stretched out 
 upon her bed, as in a quiet sleep, out of which she never 
 awaked, and may piously be supposed, that using sometimes 
 to be pulled away from her tedious and scrupulous devotions, 
 she had now bound herself up to give on this great day full 
 scope and bridle to the same, out of which it pleased God to 
 take her, to begin His eternal praises, as is hoped, in heaven. 
 Thus the 15th of April, 1642, and the thirty-ninth of her age, 
 
 DD 
 
450 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 she left ray father widower with nine children — three sons and 
 six daughters, whereof Michael, the least and last, had scarce 
 a year old complete, which my father bore with great resigna- 
 tion to God’s holy will, though nature could not but vent its 
 grief, in four or five days keeping his chamber. But this was 
 as it were only a little prologue to the grand scene which soon 
 followed the cruel wars not long after breaking out, and a 
 great persecution against Catholics, whereof my father had 
 his share. What stories were not raised against him ? of 
 armies underground which he had trained up in his court by 
 night : of I know not how many cooks, who after having 
 dressed and served in a vast number of oxen, and not so 
 much as a bone coming out again for them to pick, all quitted 
 his house and service; and the maid of the parson of the 
 next parish was said to have taken her oath that she saw a 
 cart load of bright armour enter our great gate, which vain 
 and false report gained even so much upon sober men, that 
 three nights together our house was beset by men sent by 
 the chief of Ipswich for to discover the hidden army, &c., but 
 the rabble of Ipswich was so incensed thereby, that they could 
 scarce be kept from gathering into a head to come and pull 
 our house down over our heads, lest we should cut their 
 throats with the hidden army, and what they long threatened, 
 six or seven thousand not long after of the rabble, out of the 
 associated counties did in a manner effect, our house being 
 the fourth they rifled and defaced, in so much so, that one 
 Squire Blosse, a Protestant neighbour, coming to see it after- 
 wards could not forbear weeping. Indeed, my father had 
 this advantage over his fellow-Catholic neighbours who com- 
 plained more of the insolence of their own parishioners than 
 of those who came afar off, whereas the whole parish urged 
 and offered to take arms to withstand the rabble, and defend 
 our house, which my father refused, to hinder the mischief 
 which might thence accrue to the parish itself, choosing rather 
 to see his house and self perish than to permit any harm to 
 happen to any one of them, resolved according to the example 
 of others his Catholic neighbours to abandon all to God’s 
 holy providence ; but the parish would not rest here, but came 
 in the night with carts to transport all the chief moveables 
 to there own houses, to which my father consented in part, 
 fearing lest finding the house wholly unfurnished it might 
 occasion their own plunder. 
 
 “In fine, the following day being come, my father sent 
 
Brother Henry Forster. 
 
 45i 
 
 all but me and his men servants in the morning to Protestant 
 neighbours’ houses, being himself resolved to stand it out, 
 hoping to hinder by his presence the breaking at least the 
 windows and walls of the house, but news was brought in 
 about noon, being at our prayers in the chapel, that the rabble 
 began to appear in troops, and were overheard to say, that 
 if they could catch my father (Mr. Forster) they would lock 
 him into some chamber, and set fire to the house, whereupon 
 as they almost entered in at one gate, we ran both out of the 
 other, till out of sight, and abandoned all to the fury of the 
 said rabble, which lasted not long, for the same evening by 
 God’s providence, a warrant came from the Parliament for- 
 bidding all such riots, which was scarce read out in the court 
 to them but the parish fell upon the rabble, and forcing them 
 to abandon many lots of goods and moveables, put them all 
 to flight, and we all returned home to a troublesome lodging 
 the night, after such a day of confusion, during all which my 
 father was not heard to utter one impatient word, but took all 
 with great resignation to God’s holy will, whose divine pleasure 
 was to try him further, for soon after not to leave his now 
 motherless children also fatherless, was forced to buy himself 
 off two or three times from being conveyed to prison for 
 refusing the oaths and not going to church, the common fault 
 of most Papists in those days. 
 
 “ Indeed, the # act of sequestration now also came forth and 
 did seem a little to startle his courage but not his confidence, 
 being, as it were, struck at the first news, saying, how will 
 it be possible to maintain so great a charge of children with 
 slender thirds of a small estate ? but after a short pause, doubt- 
 less recommending de more in some jaculatory prayer, his case 
 to Almighty, God, he bade us all cheer up, and assured us 
 with a cheerful countenance, that as long as he had a penny, 
 we should all have our share, and when all should be spent, 
 that he would go a begging with us. In the meanwhile, to 
 make a little now only left to rely upon, to stretch as far as 
 possible, he resolved to break up housekeeping, and let out 
 half the manner [manor] house, with tillage, to a tenant, and 
 make money upon his own stock to live upon in the other 
 part of the house, as it were privately, reducing his family of 
 some twenty, to himself, nine children, and one maid, and 
 priest when at home. 
 
 “Having thus contracted his family, and admitted, as he 
 thought, a honest tenant under his own roof, he had conceived 
 
 DD 2 
 
452 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 great hopes of living quietly and peaceably at home, in expec- 
 tation of better times from abroad, but was horribly cozened 
 in his tenant, who had no sooner got a lace [lease] for two 
 years for one-half of the house, but resolved to make my father 
 soon weary of the other, and by injuries and affronts tire him 
 out of the same, if possible, out of mad ambition only, as he 
 confessed himself, to lord and master it both in the village and 
 manor-house. 
 
 “ i. He thrust upon the sequestrator, Mr. Basely by name, 
 some hundreds he owed my father upon agreement for my 
 father’s whole stock sold to him, to which the very seques- 
 trator owned that he could not lay claim, seeing it concerned 
 not the rents, and could neither refuse it, being so frankly 
 brought and offered to him, and de facto took every farthing 
 of it. 
 
 “2. He called and let into his quarter of the house 
 troopers with pursuivants at midnight to take our cousin, 
 indeed our priest, as they did, but nothing being proved 
 against him, he came off well. 
 
 “3. He invited and called in new royalist troopers to 
 come and fetch a couple of saddle-horses my father had 
 reserved for his own use, and stood himself sentinel at the 
 gate, and helped to open the doors where the horses were, in 
 my father’s very sight, &c. 
 
 “4. Not to distract his pedantic devotions on Sundays, 
 we children were not to play in our own court, and upon 
 Christmas days he would put on all his worst clothes, and 
 offered twelve pence a day to every one of his men if they 
 would not work on that day, when my father, not to give 
 scandal, would have his very Christmas pies baked in a 
 private oven. 
 
 “ Hence you may judge of the rest ; for some eight years 
 we continued in this tribulation, under this base fellow’s 
 impudence, &c., and all this while my father was so far from 
 reharming him, or saying the least injurious word, or would 
 ever permit us ever to say any harm of him in our discourses of 
 times past, even to his dying day, having I confess myself 
 been often chidden by him for it. Being thus, I believe, 
 wearied out by the bad times and worse tenant, and being told 
 of Sir Edmund Beacon, a friend of his, and a Parliament man, 
 that things were likley to go rather worse than better with 
 Catholics, and who thereupon counselled him to lay hold of a 
 \ttte act of Parliament permitting such as would to sell their 
 
Brother Henry Forster. 
 
 453 
 
 states and leave the kingdom, he resolved to follow his 
 counsel, whereupon I was recalled out of France, whither I 
 was sent upon the noise of taking all the elder sons of 
 Catholics from their parents to breed them up in heresy, for 
 fear and horror of which he could never be brought to yield to 
 a certain heretic gentlewoman who had long solicited to have 
 and provide for one of his daughters, out of mere kindness, 
 though she promised to let her have all freedom of her religion, 
 and all helps necessary for the continuing and maintaining of 
 it. But he was persuaded that the company alone of heretics 
 was enough to work upon a young girl’s weak brain, and that 
 he could not so well answer to God for her, being out of his 
 sight, and therefore would never part with her. 
 
 “Being now myself arrived out of France, where I had 
 been about four years, my father was pleased to communicate 
 unto me his design of selling his estate, which he would not 
 do without my consent, though in rigour he needed it not, he 
 said, because it was not entailed upon me, and my brothers 
 and sisters being his children as well as I, he was obliged in 
 conscience to provide for them as such, and the hard times 
 not permitting him to make any reserve, but by their con- 
 tinuance might ruin us all, he thought it prudence to make the 
 best of what was left, and to divide it amongst us all, which I 
 could not gainsay ; but when it came to the execution it was 
 an unexpected hundred or two out of his way to get off the 
 aforesaid composition with the then king for his religion, which 
 at length happily effected, he sold all to Sir Thomas and 
 Mr. Anthony Bedingfield in the year 1649, and having sent 
 me with my brother John to St. Omer’s, in the month of May, 
 himself with the others his children, having cleared all things 
 so that no one could challenge the worth of a penny of him, 
 on the 5th of August following took leave of his house and 
 native soil, to go into a voluntary banishment for religion sake, 
 and came to Antwerp and Brussels, in which latter place he 
 continued between two or three years, spending the mornings 
 in the churches in an immoveable posture, to the admiration 
 of the whole town, and the afternoons in visiting the same 
 and other chapels of devotion. He dieted himself and 
 brother Michael with Mr. Bedingfield, but put my sisters to 
 pension among the Devotes, and not into monasteries, not to 
 seem to thrust them into religion, but to leave it wholly to 
 God and their own choice, which by God’s grace they all five 
 chose before two years came about. My brother John not 
 
454 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 having indeed the least genius for studies, broke them off, and 
 was admitted to the noviceship at Watten, but had not the 
 good luck to continue, but died afterward in quality of a 
 Donate amongst the English Benedictines at Douay. He had 
 ^2oa year settled upon him for his life. I chose the Society, 
 being now almost at the end of rhetoric, in which I was 
 admitted on the 23rd of August, 1653. There only remained 
 my brother Michael as it were unsettled, being only in the 
 lower schools at St. Omer’s : however, he settled ^330 for him, 
 and to the monasteries of Sepulchrins at Liege, Benedictine 
 Dames at Brussels, and English Teresians at Liege, where 
 my six sisters were, to each house about £ 600 , and upon 
 himself and me, ^400 a piece, and thus made all even with 
 the world, himself, and children, with which also I conclude 
 my second part and task begun, and now shall follow him 
 into religion, which in effect I entered some three months 
 after him, viz. : he about the middle of May, 1653, and I at 
 the end of August following. 
 
 “ (3) Being now come to the third and last part of my 
 father’s pious life, viz., led in religion, of which there being 
 many other eye-witnesses of our own, who lived constantly 
 with him, which I did not, I think I ought rather to leave this 
 part to them than myself, who might perhaps be thought also 
 partial, though 1 do profess hereby, that as to the substance 
 of all aforesaid, I have not added a word more than what of 
 my own experience I knew to be true, and what I received 
 and heard of others worthy of belief. 
 
 “ One circumstance I must not omit here, his resolution 
 being known of becoming religious, he was highly counselled 
 by the English Benedictines at D ouay, and invited thither with 
 promise of making him presently priest, but he thanked them, 
 acknowledging his want of learning to be able to comply with 
 the obligation of so high a dignity, and therefore had chosen 
 rather the degree of a temporal coadjutor in the Society of 
 Jesus, into which he was admitted at Watten, on the 16th of 
 May, in the year 1653, about the fiftieth year of his age, where 
 after his admittance he seemed to lay down his title of even 
 father of his own children, whom henceforth he scarce ever 
 styled otherwise than his brothers and sisters, and continued 
 always so contented and satisfied with his vocation and con- 
 dition, that he often told me, notwithstanding several difficulties 
 according to nature he had experienced in his change of life, 
 
Brother Henry Forster. 
 
 455 
 
 yet that he would not change his state for that of king or 
 emperor whatsoever, a proof of which may be reckoned his 
 cheerful and pious conversation in every time and place, 
 observing otherwise most exactly even the least rule or order 
 of the house, to which also he often excited me, I confess, 
 both by example and word, whenever we met, as we often did. 
 Whatever time his employments afforded was sure to be 
 spent in hearing all the Masses he could in the morning, and 
 after dinner in devotions before the Blessed Sacrament, which 
 he daily and frequently visited. His most general employment 
 was buyer, as long as he was able to go abroad, and porter at 
 home till almost his dying day, so that in his later years, when 
 his feet began to fail him, he would keep as it were to the 
 gate to serve his poor. He had also a care of the strangers’ 
 chambers, which he kept so clean and orderly, as well as his 
 own room, that I have often heard ours say that the exterior 
 cleanliness was a great argument of his well-ordered and pure 
 conscience. In fine, wheresoever obedience required his help, 
 in whatsoever other domestic office, he was ever ready, without 
 the least reply and effect, all with so much forward cheerful- 
 ness, as if he had ever been trained up to obey, and never 
 had a family of his own to command for about thirty years 
 together.” So far this deeply interesting narrative. 
 
 It only remains to say that his son Joseph followed his 
 father’s good resolution, and entered the Society in the same 
 degree of temporal coadjutor three months after his father, in 
 August, 1653. 
 
 His son Michael was born in 1642. At the age of eighteen, 
 and on the 30th of October, 1659, he was admitted an Alumnus 
 of the English College in Rome ; and on the 5th of April, 
 1660, he left the College and entered the Society at Watten, 
 and died in the Maryland Mission on the 6th of February, 
 1684, aged forty-two. He passed there by the name of Gulick, 
 and was Superior of that mission from 1678 to 1683. 
 
 The following report is extracted from the Annual Letters, 
 S.J., for the year 1653 — 
 
 “ Among those who joined our Society, to the great edifica- 
 tion, example, and admiration both of Ours and of the Flemish, 
 was Henry Forster, a man of high family and well to do. His 
 wife having died some time before, his six daughters took the 
 veil, and he himself, with his eldest son, consecrated themselves 
 amongst us in the year 1653. His son, indeed, having, with 
 
456 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 credit to himself, completed his course of humanities at 
 St. Omer’s College, would have been adjudged fit for the 
 priesthood, had he been disposed to have prosecuted his 
 higher studies ; but he determined to follow his father’s example, 
 in the humble and laborious lot of Martha.” 
 
 The Annual Letters S.J. for the year 1679, among the 
 summary of the deceased, thus mentions the death of this 
 holy patriarch, Brother Henry Forster — 
 
 “ Brother Henry Forster, a native of Suffolk, died the 5 th 
 of April, 1679, aged seventy-five. In religion, twenty-seven 
 years ; formed temp, coad., sixteen years. After having lived 
 in the married state for eighteen years, and had a large family 
 of either sex (the whole of which followed his example), becoming 
 a widower, he joined the camp of religion, late indeed in life, 
 but in very earnest. From the first day of his noviceship, he 
 courageously set himself to the work of taming his nature, 
 chiefly applying himself to the subjection of obstinate motions 
 of anger, to which the natural temperament of his body 
 rendered him very liable. So great was the victory he gained 
 over himself in this regard, that none was more mild, none 
 more humble, than he. He was never wanting in the virtue of 
 charity, and was always intent upon labour, and practices of 
 piety, and prayer, as became his degree in the Society — that of 
 Martha. He was a great lover of poverty, and hence arose 
 his great affection towards the poor themselves, to whom he 
 was exceedingly devoted. He was most observant of the rules 
 in the minutest points. 
 
 “ Full of years and merits, and fortified by all the rites of 
 Holy Church, he sweetly slept in our Lord, the day and year 
 above mentioned.” 
 
 Dodd 36 makes the following mention of one of Brother 
 Forster’s daughters, quoting from the Records of her convent. 
 
 “Anne Forster, daughter of Henry Forster, of Caddock 
 Hall [Cobdoke, or Copdoke], in Suffolk, Esquire, became a 
 Benedictine nun, and was chosen the sixth Abbess of the 
 English convent of her Order at Brussels, in the year 1676 ; 
 and she surrendered the dignity after enjoying it for about six 
 years. It is remarkable of this family of the Forsters that not 
 only her father became a Jesuit, but all his children entered 
 into religious orders, viz., three sons and three daughters.” 
 
 Dodd is correct about the sons, but not so about the 
 daughters. 
 
 Church Hist. vol. iii. p. 325. 
 
Father James Mumford. 
 
 457 
 
 Father James Mumford. — This able writer, and dis- 
 tinguished member of the English Province S.J., was a native 
 of Norfolk. He was born in the year 1606, entered the 
 Society at Watten the 8th of December, 1626, and made his 
 solemn profession in 1641. In 1642 he was at the English 
 College, Liege, in the capacity of Minister, Consultor, & c. 
 He was afterwards also Rector of that College. In or about 
 the year 1650, he was sent to the English Mission, and Norwich 
 appears to have been his allotted portion. The Catalogue of 
 the Province for the year 1655 notices him as serving in this 
 College or District, with a goodly number of offices he had 
 filled in the Society attached to his name, such as Rector, 
 Spiritual Father, Socius Master of Novices, Professor of Sacred 
 Scripture, &c. ; and with all this, that “ he was of weak health.” 
 He was also Rector or Superior of this College, which, as he 
 had also done at Liege, he governed with charity towards his 
 brethren, and was an example to them of every religious virtue. 
 He was a man intimately united to God by prayer, and most 
 zealous for the divine honour and the salvation of souls. He 
 was distinguished for his charitable compassion for the suffering 
 souls in purgatory ; applying to their relief every good work 
 he could. He was inflamed with an ardent desire of suffering 
 something for Christ, and God was pleased to grant him his 
 desire; for a few years before his death, being betrayed at 
 Norwich, he was seized by the insolent Parliamentary soldiers, 
 and thrust into a filthy prison, having been first led round the 
 city in his priestly vestments, amidst the scoffs of the rabble, 
 and with the sacred ornaments of the altar carried aloft on 
 spears in a sort of military triumphal procession, with swords 
 and muskets. All this while, Father Mumford was elated in 
 spirit, rejoicing that he was found worthy to suffer such 
 indignity for the Name of Jesus; and this he so clearly mani- 
 fested in his countenance, that the mob, at first insolent, 
 changed their sentiments into feelings of compassion for the 
 sufferer. After a few days he was put on board a vessel, 
 tightly handcuffed, and his feet fettered ; and after a full day 
 and night’s voyage, was taken to Great Yarmouth, a town 
 thirty miles distant from Norwich. But in consequence of a 
 dispute between the two towns respecting their chartered rights, 
 he was remanded to Norwich, where he was much more 
 humanely treated than before. A private apartment in the 
 prison was assigned him, and permission given to the Catholics 
 to visit him. By some of these he was furnished with a 
 
45 § 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 breviary and other books, and took that opportunity to write 
 a treatise, in which he clearly demonstrated that the Catholic 
 doctrine was maintained by Holy Scripture. After spending 
 some months in prison, he was liberated on bail, and bound to 
 appear at stated times at the Assizes before the Bench. This 
 condition he frequently and duly complied with, although most 
 inconvenient on account of the distance from his place of 
 residence, till at length his accuser ceased to appear against 
 him; and as they could produce no legal evidence of his 
 priesthood, he was finally discharged by the judges. After 
 these occurrences, he was Superior of the same district, in 
 which he was an indefatigable labourer, until his death, in 
 England, on the 9th of March, 1666. 37 
 
 The Annual Letters of the English Province for the College 
 of Liege, 1650-1, after stating that there were twenty fathers, 
 twelve students in theology, &c., go on to report an occurrence 
 connected with the treatise of Father Mumford on compassion 
 for the faithful departed souls in Purgatory. Of this pious and 
 instructive treatise the first edition had been nearly all sold 
 out ; and William Triessemius, the printer at Cologne, was 
 about to print and publish a second edition, when a son of his, 
 four years old, was taken dangerously ill, and, deriving no 
 benefit from medical treatment, seemed drawing near his end. 
 The pious father seeking for consolation in religion, took up 
 the first spiritual book that presented itself, which happened 
 to be Father Mumford’s treatise. Meeting with that part of it 
 in which the author represents works of charity to the souls in 
 Purgatory as very efficacious for obtaining all favours from 
 God, the good man felt himself inspired to have recourse to 
 this means to obtain of God the recovery of his child. His 
 trade suggested the special mode ; and, betaking himself to 
 the Church, kneeling before the high altar, he vowed to 
 Almighty God as follows : a O Lord, my God, if it please 
 your Divine Majesty to restore my boy to health, I here vow 
 to distribute one hundred copies gratis of this treatise to 
 Religious and Ecclesiastics, those most likely to diffuse the 
 devotion it recommends.” Having made this vow, and returned 
 home from his shop to dinner, he heard with joy and gratitude 
 that his son was asking for food, and the next day the child’s 
 recovery was already far advanced. . The father faithfully 
 accomplished his vow. 
 
 This worthy bookseller experienced a second time the 
 37 Vide Father Southwell, Bib. Script. S.J. 
 
Father John Clare. 
 
 459 
 
 efficacy of his charity. His wife became dangerously ill, but 
 recovered on his promising to distribute two hundred copies 
 of the salutary work. 
 
 Father Mumford’s works were : A Remembrance for the 
 Living to pray for the Dead. This admirable treatise upon the 
 doctrine of Purgatory has passed through several editions, and 
 a reprint of it has been lately put out by the Rev. Father 
 Morris, S.J. (London: Burns and Oates.) Also, A Defe?ice of 
 St. Gregory's Dialogues. His great work, which, Dr. Oliver 
 well observes, will ever stamp his name as a controversialist, is 
 The Question of Questions , under the assumed name of Optatus 
 Ductor , which has also passed through several editions. Nor 
 must we omit his Catholic Scripturist , written, as has been 
 noticed above, while he was imprisoned for the faith he there 
 so ably advocates. 
 
 FATHER JOHN CLARE. 
 
 Father John Clare (really Sir John Warner), the celebrated 
 convert of his day, who became a Jesuit, passed to the Society 
 of Jesus from this College. John Warner, Esq., of Parham, one 
 mile from Framlingham, Suffolk, was created a baronet by King 
 Charles II., on the 16th of July, 1660, in reward for his loyalty 
 and faithful services. On the 7th of June, 1659, he married 
 Miss Trevor Hanmer, whose father had been created a baronet 
 by James I., the 8th of July, 1620. He had two daughters, 
 both of whom, at a proper age, consecrated themselves to God 
 in the holy and happy state of religion. By the goodness of 
 God, Sir John and Lady Warner were converted to the 
 Catholic faith in the year 1664. Lady Warner, with her sister- 
 in-law, Miss Elizabeth Warner, were the first reconciled to the 
 Church, on the 23rd of June, 1664, and Sir John followed their 
 example on the 6th of July of the same year. Their unreserved 
 correspondence with divine grace procured for them the in- 
 estimable favour of a vocation to perfection in the religious 
 state of life. For this purpose they consented to separate, 
 and renounce each other in time, in the assured hope of being 
 reunited in heaven, never to part again. Sir John Warner 
 resigned his estates to his brother Francis, in October, 1664, 
 and reached Watten, the Novitiate of the English Province, 
 S. J., on the 20th of March, 1665, where on the 24th of that 
 month he was admitted to his noviceship, under the assumed 
 name of John Clare. 
 
460 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 In consequence of the death of his brother Francis, who 
 was drowned off Nieuport, on the 3rd of April, 1667 (he had 
 intended to embrace there the austere life of a Carthusian), 
 Sir John was obliged to defer his simple vows of religion until 
 the 1st of November, 1667. In 1685, November 29th, he was 
 made Rector of Watten, and Master of Novices ; and on 
 Sunday, the 4th of December, 1689, he was declared Pro- 
 vincial of the English Province. He held this office for nearly 
 four years, when he retired again to Watten. He died there 
 the 20th of March, 1705. Several of Father John Clare’s 
 business letters to the Very Reverend Father General and 
 others, are bound up in vol. v. MSS. Angl., Stonyhurst. 
 
 It will be interesting to add some particulars of the con- 
 version of this distinguished member of the English Province. 
 They are gathered from the Life of Lady Warner , of Parham , 
 in Religion called 11 Sister Clare of fesusf London, 1692. If 
 mentions briefly the interview of Father Hanmer, S.J., with his 
 cousin, Lady Warner, which led to her conversion on the 
 23rd June, 1664, at Parham, by means of Father Travers, S.J., 
 then a missioner in the College of the Holy Apostles. 38 On her 
 making known to Sir John her conviction of the truth of the 
 Catholic religion, and her wish to embrace it, he urged her 
 not to be too rash, adding, “How uncomfortable a thing it 
 would be for them to be of different religions; that he had a 
 soul to save as well as she ; and that no temporal interest or 
 loss of reputation should hinder him from doing what was 
 necessary to obtain salvation. That he was troubled no less 
 than herself upon what she had related ; and assured her that 
 he would not rest satisfied till he was thoroughly convinced 
 which of the two religions was the truest ; that perhaps after 
 diligent inquiry he might be of the same mind, and that it 
 would be most comfortable for both to be received into the 
 same church together. But he believed this gentleman (Father 
 Travers) would not be able to answer such difficulties as he 
 would propose to him concerning the Roman Catholic faith; 
 which if he could not, she would have little reason to acquiesce 
 in those arguments he had given her for it. And lastly, desired 
 her, for some time at least, to defer for his sake, the change 
 of her religion, at the same time leaving her to do what she 
 
 38 A full notice of Father Francis Hanmer is reserved for a future series 
 — the history of the College of St. Francis Xavier, or South Wales District, 
 to which he was attached. 
 
Father John Clare. 461 
 
 thought best if his reasons did not satisfy her.” Hereupon she 
 resolved to defer her reconciliation for a while. 
 
 The next morning, Sir John accosted the gentleman (Father 
 Travers), not doubting but that the difficulties he had to pro- 
 pose were unanswerable. Father Travers, however, politely 
 eluded all questions that might occasion a dispute in religion. 
 Sir John, perceiving this, told him that he wondered he showed 
 not the same zeal for his soul, that he had expressed for his 
 wife’s, and did not give him the same satisfaction in his doubts, 
 that he found he had given her in hers. Father Travers, per- 
 ceiving that she had informed Sir John of what had passed, 
 desired him to propose his difficulties; which he had no sooner 
 done, but the Father so clearly and easily answered them, that 
 Sir John was astonished, and had nothing to reply to his 
 answers, they being so convincing. Amongst other things, 
 Sir John asked him, what rational grounds there were for a 
 belief in Purgatory ? Hereupon he solidly explicated them, 
 showing the difference between the guilt of punishment, and 
 guilt of offence, by the example of David, who after the pardon 
 of his transgression, had the punishment of it inflicted upon 
 him by the death of his child ; and so ingeniously moralized 
 upon God’s infinite goodness and mercy, that would not permit 
 Him to damn a soul for one small offence, no more than His 
 justice would suffer anything that was defiled to enter into 
 heaven ; and therefore required either a voluntary penance or 
 mortification to be undergone in this life, or an involuntary 
 punishment to be suffered in the next, to purify such a soul, 
 and thereby render it fit for heaven ; and also clearly explained 
 the difference between a voluntary satisfaction made for sin in 
 this life, and a necessary undergoing the punishment inflicted 
 for it in the next; and how much more acceptable the one must 
 needs be to God than the other, and that therefore a small 
 penance performed in this world was able to satisfy more than 
 many years great suffering could do in the next — the one being 
 freely and willingly undertaken, the other suffered by force. 
 
 Sir John was so much touched by this discourse, that he told 
 the Father, “ That were he convinced there was a Purgatory 
 (as he should be, were he once a Roman Catholic), he should 
 use the best means he could to avoid it ; and he thought none 
 better than to betake himself to a religious course of life ; the 
 Roman Catholic Church affording this means of avoiding it, 
 having many religious houses, whither such as perceived the 
 great danger the world is exposed to, and the little satisfaction 
 
462 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 it gave, might retire themselves as to a secure harbour ; which 
 happiness his own religion wanted.” The Father earnestly- 
 discouraged Sir John from such an undertaking, as not being 
 necessary for salvation, and incompatible with his circum- 
 stances in life ; advising him to take a much more important 
 course, viz., the disposing himself to become a member of the 
 Roman Catholic Church, out of which there was no salvation ; 
 and giving him sound advice how to set about this great work. 
 Sir John told him he would follow his advice, but, being a 
 matter of such great weight, he would first consult others of his 
 own religion, who probably might be able to return some 
 satisfactory answer to the doubts raised in his mind about the 
 truth of the Protestant religion, although he could not himself 
 do so. He begged the Father to give in writing shortly, the 
 points of religion in which the Catholics and Protestants 
 differed, and the arguments, &c. 
 
 What most surprised Sir John was to find that the chief 
 things objected against Roman Catholics, and which he had 
 thought unanswerable, were either false, or falsely represented ; 
 such as idolatry, of merit, forgiving sins beforehand, or giving 
 leave to sin, &c. The Father promised to do so shortly, 
 and the very day he (Father Travers) left Parham, Sir John 
 resolved to set upon this all-important work. He therefore 
 most earnestly begged of Almighty God to direct him into 
 that same way that leads to bliss, and which Himself came 
 into the world to mark out, that by the knowledge of it he 
 might come to salvation. While he proceeded in these pious 
 exercises, it pleased God to bring into his mind certain good 
 thoughts and resolutions of living a more virtuous life, which 
 he had made in a recent dangerous illness, if his life was 
 then spared. A dream also came fresh to his memory, to 
 urge him on, which he had had not long before, of his being 
 ready to receive the sentence of eternal damnation before the 
 Great Tribunal, and how much he then wished he might 
 return again to the world, to make satisfaction by a new life 
 for his past offences. Also how insignificant all the pleasures 
 and satisfactions of this world then appeared, and how willingly 
 he would have sacrificed them all to have freed himself from 
 the eternal misery he seemed about to be involved in. 
 
 These things, presented in so lively a manner to his mind, 
 wonderfully urged him on, and caused him to make an oblation 
 of himself to God, begging pardon for past sins, and to teach 
 him how to love and serve Him hereafter. The fear of his 
 
Father John Clare. 
 
 463 
 
 wife’s death before his own, and the same thought of leading a 
 religious life that had so affected him when discussing the 
 doctrine of Purgatory with Father Travers, again offered itself 
 to his consideration, as a means to make death and judgment 
 (the most terrible of all things), comfortable and pleasant ; and 
 that nothing could so much dispose him for such a necessary 
 separation as death would one day make between him and his 
 lady, as a voluntary separation beforehand for the love of God. 
 
 Sir John was so violently carried away with these thoughts, 
 that they prevented his giving any reflection upon changing 
 his religion; a step so necessary to such a state of life he 
 was so urged to embrace. He communicated them to Lady 
 Warner, who received them with a flood of tears, the cause 
 of which Sir John not understanding, begged her to think 
 nothing more about it ; for unless she was of the same mind 
 he would put such thoughts away. But she assured him that 
 her tears were those of joy, that she was still of the same 
 mind as formerly, regarding a religious life being the happiest 
 in the world, but she had always put such thoughts aside, 
 as opposed to her calling in life, and not daring to utter 
 them for fear of wounding his feelings. Among other things 
 she impressed upon him, as Father Travers had done, that 
 a religious state they both so desired could only follow their 
 being made members of the Roman Catholic Church, none 
 but that affording the happiness of such a retirement, and that 
 therefore they ought first to satisfy themselves and embrace this. 
 
 Sir John then retired to his closet, where he suffered an 
 intense agony of mind from various disquiets, perplexities, &c., 
 all helping to ripen his conversion. Finding ease in no diver- 
 sion, although it was but ten days since Father Travers’ 
 departure, he resolved to go in person to him and get the 
 promised paper, from which he hoped to receive some comfort 
 and satisfaction. He found him just starting for Parham, with 
 the summary of the Catholic doctrine. He invited him back 
 with him to Parham, where, reading the articles over to Sir 
 John and Lady and Miss Warner, the two last were so 
 thoroughly convinced that they resolved to take the oppor- 
 tunity of the Father’s presence to be received into the Catholic 
 Church before his departure. This they did, upon the eve 
 of St. John the Baptist’s feast, and received the most Holy 
 Communion on that festival. But Sir John resolved to hear 
 what those of his Church would say to the reasons set down in 
 the said treatise, before he would make any change of religion. 
 
464 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 Wherefore he obtained leave of the Father to show it to 
 some learned men of the Protestant Church, and for this end 
 prevailed upon the Father to meet him in London, that they 
 might be able to confer about the objections that others should 
 make as to what he had set down in his treatise. 
 
 Arrived in London, Sir John first applied to Dr. Buck, 
 with whom, although he had formerly been his grandfather’s 
 chaplain, and had baptized him, he had no personal acquaint- 
 ance. The Doctor, who was a free-and-easy man, read over 
 the paper with Sir John, without even asking who he was, 
 and (as he had also done in his interview with Lady Warner, 
 as we have mentioned in the said memoir of Father Hanmer), 
 made no objection either against the Real Presence, prayer 
 to Saints, Purgatory, or satisfaction for sins. But when he 
 came to that point that there was no true ordination or priest- 
 hood in the Protestant Church (for a proof whereof Father 
 Travers had alleged what Dr. Thorndike in his Weights and 
 Measures wished, “ That since thei'e was a great doubt in so 
 essential a point , they would sub?nit to a re-ordinatio7i by 
 the suffragan bishops of Rome ,” the Doctor was so moved 
 that he declared “ the author of that pamphlet deserved severe 
 punishment.” And when Sir John endeavoured to pacify him, 
 telling him his citation was out of a Protestant author, and 
 therefore, unless false, was not so much to be blamed, yet 
 the Doctor could not be persuaded to read any further, which, 
 when Sir John perceived, he desired the Doctor “that he 
 would vouchsafe at least to inform him, since there was a 
 doubt in the Protestant Church of a point of so great con- 
 sequence as that of true ordination was, whether there could, 
 be any danger of his salvation, if for this reason, as well 
 as for the advantage of religious houses, which the Protestant 
 Church wanted (finding himself most particularly moved to 
 a religious state of life), he should quit the Protestant religion 
 he was bred up in, to become a member of the Roman 
 Catholic Church ? ” The Doctor expressed his concern that 
 there wanted that conveniency in the Protestant Church, but 
 would not own a want of ordination, and still inveighed against 
 the author of that embarrassing assertion, and earnestly per- 
 suaded Sir John to continue in the Church of England, which 
 was very good, and had everything necessary for salvation ; 
 assuring him that in a short time they would both be united, 
 the chief difference between them being the Pope’s supremacy, 
 a power Christ had not given him ; their Church allowing him 
 
Father Thomas Garnet . 
 
 481 
 
 against him. When this letter was thus read by warming 
 at the fire, because it could not then be delivered to the 
 priest, they therefore counterfeited the father’s hand, and sent 
 it to Mr. Garnet in the Gatehouse, to deceive him also and 
 to make him return answer to the father, that so he might 
 think himself secure, and be emboldened to commit yet further 
 trust to this false messenger. This letter was so cunningly 
 counterfeited, that it could not be distinguished from Father 
 Garnet’s own hand, and it was signed also, and so licensed 
 to pass, with the Lieutenant of the Tower’s brand unto it. 
 Yet all such necessaries as the father writ for, and the other 
 sent, were seized upon by the Lieutenant, and the priest 
 himself brought after in great trouble for returning this 
 charitable answer. Not only were all the necessaries sent to 
 Father Thomas by his uncle, but he himself was called into 
 question about the whole matter and strictly examined, and 
 so removed from the Gatehouse to the Tower, where he 
 remained, continues Father Gerard, in likely expectation both 
 of torture and of death for his charity shown to Father 
 Garnet, to whom no man could show any friendship and be 
 withal esteemed, Amicus Ccesaris. 
 
 Cecil afterwards tried another and a darker stratagem upon 
 Father Thomas Garnet. The martyr, on the evening before 
 the day of his execution, mentioned to his keeper the fact 
 that upon his being taken from prison to the ship on the 
 river for embarkation, in pursuance of his sentence of banish- 
 ment, Cecil sent a messenger to present him with a paper 
 containing divers deceitful ambiguities and manifest untruths, 
 injurious to not a few Catholics, and to Father Henry Garnet 
 himself, in whose feigned handwriting the document was 
 couched, and who, it was pretended, had sent it to his 
 nephew. “ But,” said the Father, “ how can I, unless to my 
 own damnation, approve, for so many truths, such notorious 
 and grave calumnies against my uncle and these other inno- 
 cent Catholics, and lie against my conscience by asserting 
 that Father Henry sent them to me, from whom I never 
 received them, and that the paper is in his handwriting, 
 which it certainly is not ? ” He then left the messenger and 
 rejoined his keeper. The object of this attempted fraud was 
 to have reserved this writing as authenticated by the nephew’s 
 signature, as a convincing proof against Father Henry. It 
 contained the very same things he had frequently seen of the 
 false assertions regarding the confessions and letters attributed 
 
 FF 
 
482 
 
 Father Thomas Garnet. 
 
 to Father Henry, upon which he was afterwards put to death, 
 and to make him appear to say things which when dead he 
 would be unable to refute, and thus confirm the falsehoods 
 which men had asserted concerning him, both in their deeds 
 and writings. 6 
 
 After all their efforts, finding no sufficient ground for 
 capitally convicting him on the charge of his priesthood and 
 of returning to England without leave, which was one of the 
 charges on which he was apprehended, nor even a shadow of 
 suspicion of any complicity in the Gunpowder Plot, he was 
 banished by royal edict in 1606, with forty-six other priests. 7 
 Thus exiled, Father Thomas eventually arrived at a better 
 port than the one at which he was landed. He repaired to 
 Louvain, the novitiate of the English Province, which had 
 lately been established, and which he was the first novice 
 to enter. That novitiate commenced in February 160,7, with 
 six priests, two scholastic novices, and five lay-brothers, under 
 the care of Father Thomas Talbot as novice-master. 8 Here 
 did this athlete learn the rudiments of a religious life, with 
 such fervour of soul, and so good an example to the novices, 
 as to show himself rather a master than a fellow-novice; 
 and by the testimony of all, his remarkable virtues seemed to 
 presage his future martyrdom. Father More, 9 after mentioning 
 the foundation of the College at Louvain, relates, as amongst 
 other prosperous events connected with it, that Father Thomas 
 Garnet, its first novice, had consecrated it by shedding his 
 blood for the Catholic faith. He made his simple vows on 
 the 2nd July, 1607. In the turn of the year 1608 he was 
 sent back again to England by his Superiors, to resume the 
 labours of his apostolic ministry. But God intended His 
 servant to combat, even to death, in defence of the high 
 principle of His own Vicar’s supremacy. He was to set 
 
 6 See Bartoli, ut supra. 
 
 7 The names of the forty-six are given in Bishop Challoner’s Memoirs , 
 vol. ii., p. 14. Amongst these were the following members of the English 
 Province S.J. : 
 
 Blundell, James. 
 
 Bradshaw (? Barton), Robert. 
 
 Bustard, Robert. 
 
 Dawson, Edward. 
 
 Flint, Thomas. 
 
 Floyd (or Lloyd) John. 
 
 Father Morris, Condition of Catholics , cxcv. 
 Hist. Prov. Ang. lib. viii. n. 8. p. 356. 
 
 Garnet, Thomas. 
 Norris, Silvester, D.D. 
 Laithwait, Thomas. 
 Stanney, Thomas. 
 White, Andrew. 
 
Father Thomas Garnet. 
 
 483 
 
 Catholics an example, of courageously refusing, even at the 
 cost of life, to take such an oath of allegiance to the King 
 as would involve disobedience to the Vicar of Christ; and 
 the Father persuaded men to this fidelity more efficaciously 
 by his voluntary death than by many years’ preaching it to 
 the whole kingdom. 
 
 Shortly after his return to England, being then in Warwick- 
 shire, he was petitioned for by the Catholics of Cornwall ; 
 and on his way thither (one account says whilst he lay con- 
 cealed in Cornwall), 10 he was discovered and betrayed by an 
 unhappy apostate priest named Rouse, who, in the King’s 
 name, gave him in charge. He was conducted under escort 
 to London, and again became an inmate of his former prison, 
 the Gatehouse, at Westminster. 11 How long he remained 
 there, and how treated before his examination, is not known 
 to us. The following are copies taken from the original of 
 three examinations of Father Thomas Garnet before Thomas 
 Ravis, then Protestant Bishop of London, in the valuable 
 collection of the Old Chapter MSS., which the Editor has 
 been allowed to copy by the kind permission of the Chapter, 
 through the Very Reverend Provost Hunt : — 
 
 “ 17 Nov. 1607. 
 
 “The examination of Thomas Garnet, a prisoner in the 
 Gatehouse, taken before the Reverend Father in God, the 
 Lord Bishop of London. 
 
 “Being asked whether he be not commonly known and 
 called by the name of Rookwood, 
 
 10 Dr. Oliver, in the Collectanea S.J., says he was on his way from 
 London to Coldham Hall, Suffolk, then the residence of the Rookwood 
 family. This is not improbable, as the martyr was commonly known by 
 that name, and was probably a relation of the family. 
 
 11 This was probably the priest Anthony Rouse, one of the forty 
 banished with Father Thomas Garnet in 1606 (see Bishop Challoner’s list, 
 ut supra). He would consequently have been well acquainted with his 
 victim. In an ancient list of benefactors to the College of the Holy 
 Apostles, amongst others, “Mr. Michael Hare gave land which was sold 
 f° r ^ 3 °°> with obligation of paying the rent of it to Mr. Rouse in case of 
 his repentance. The rent was twenty marks a-year, which Rouse enjoyed 
 for many years. After his death, it was given for the use of some of the 
 Society helping the poor Catholics in Suffolk or Norfolk. This money, 
 with other funds, was lost in troublesome times.” As Mr. Rouse enjoyed 
 this fund so long, we may hope that he was converted and returned again 
 to the bosom of the one true fold. 
 
 FF 2 
 
484 
 
 Father Thomas Garnet. 
 
 “ He confesseth and saith that he is so called and known 
 by the name of Thomas Rookwood. 
 
 “ That he hath been scarce known by the name of Garnet, 
 but hath been, within the space of these three or four years 
 last past, commonly called by the name of Thomas Rookwood. 
 
 “Being demanded whether he be a seminary priest or a 
 Jesuit, 
 
 “ He saith that he hopeth he shall not be pressed to make 
 any other or further answer hereunto than such as heretofore 
 he hath made at his former examination. 
 
 “Being showed the oath of allegiance, 3rd James, c. 4, 
 and every particular thereof, though debated for the present, 
 he saith that he cannot lawfully take the said oath, although 
 he doth acknowledge so much authority to be due unto his 
 Majesty as ever was prescribed unto any sovereign prince or 
 king by the Word of God. 
 
 “ He further saith that the same power that was given 
 unto Christ by His Heavenly Father in the words, 4 Data est 
 mihi omnis potestas in coelo et in terra,’ was by Christ given 
 unto Peter in these words, 4 Sicut me misit Pater meus, ita et 
 ego mitto vos.’ And consequently the selfsame authority is 
 derived from Peter unto all his successors. 
 
 “ Whereupon the said Lord Bishop inferring, 4 Ergo data 
 est Papae omnis potestas in coelo et in terra,’ the said exami- 
 nant said, 4 Yea, so far forth as maketh for the good of God’s 
 Church through the whole world.’ 
 
 “Being demanded whether, then, if the Pope, as Peter’s 
 successor, should declare it definitely that it is for the good 
 of God’s church in the universal world to depose King James, 
 whether then it were lawful for the said Pope so to depose 
 him, he this examinant saith that he hath no reason [bottom 
 of the sheet — signed ‘Thomas Garnet’] to suppose that the 
 Pope will declare so with his Majesty, and that his Majesty, 
 as he thinketh, hath given the Pope no cause so to do. And 
 being further urged, 4 But what if he should so deserve ? ’ this 
 examinant saith, 4 Dato uno absurdo mille sequuntur.’ 
 
 “Tho. London. “Thomas Garnet.” 
 
 “ Endorsed — Thomas Garnet’s Exam., 17 Nov. 1607.” 
 
 “Septimo Aprilis, 1608. 
 
 “Thomas Garnet, prisoner in the Gatehouse, being 
 further examined before the Lord Bishop of London, saith 
 as followeth — 
 
Father Thomas Garnet . 
 
 485 
 
 “That to take any oath of allegiance unto his Majesty 
 so far forth as ever any Christian subject either did, or was 
 bound to do, unto any his native sovereign, he is ready and 
 willing ; but to burden his soul and conscience by taking 
 such an oath as under pretence of allegiance, doth not only 
 imply a breach of the Catholic faith, but also, as he conceive th, 
 a violation of his duty unto his Majesty, he is fully resolved 
 never to do. And therefore utterly refuseth to take the oath 
 in manner and form as it is now set down, 3rd James, c. 4. 
 
 “ That he thinketh it would be a violation of the Catholic 
 faith if he should swear that he doth detest and abjure as 
 impious and heretical that doctrine and position, viz., that 
 princes which be excommunicated or deprived by the Pope 
 may be deposed or murdered by their subjects, or any other 
 whatever, because he thinketh that were a violation of the 
 Catholic faith, to abjure any king as heretical which the 
 Church hath not defined to be heretical, or is not manifest 
 by the Word of God to be heretical. 
 
 “ It being replied that this doctrine and position, viz., 
 that princes which be excommunicated or deprived by the 
 Pope may be deposed or murdered by their subjects, or any 
 other whatsoever, is heretical by the Word of God, he denieth 
 that so to be. And being further required to show anything 
 that is heretical by the Word of God, he giveth that for an 
 instance of St. Paul, ‘ Hereticum hominem post unum et 
 secundum correctionem devita ; sciens quia qui hujusmodi 
 est, subversus est, cum sit proprio Judicio condemnatus/ 
 
 “ It being replied that that place doth note what manner 
 of man a heretic is, and not define any position or doctrine 
 to be heresy, he answereth that the words may be understood 
 against a particular person, though not there named by the 
 Apostle, and consequently note unto us his heresy, though it 
 be not expressed. 
 
 “He being further desired to set down some more sub- 
 stantial and pregnant reason why he doth so peremptorily 
 deny to take the oath, as if in taking it he should violate 
 the Catholic faith, saith that the authority of the two Briefs 
 come from Rome do move him (together with divers reasons 
 which he forbeareth to specify), and persuade him that he 
 may not [bottom of page — signed ‘Thomas Garnet’] with a 
 safe conscience take the said oath. 
 
 “ That he thinketh he should violate his duty to his 
 Majesty if he should swear that, notwithstanding any declara- 
 
486 
 
 Father Thomas Garnet. 
 
 tion, &c., as it followeth in the second section, he will bear 
 faithful and true allegiance to his Majesty, his heirs and 
 successors, &c., because there wanteth the word lawful. 
 Secondly, he saith that he is not able to judge of right unto 
 the crown (if, which God forbid, there should grow a question 
 betwixt some challenger in England and some other out of 
 Scotland), and therefore he may not take the said oath without 
 violating his duty to his Majesty. 
 
 “Being desired to set down some better and sounder 
 reasons why, in respect of his duty to his Majesty, he refuseth 
 as aforesaid to take the said oath of allegiance, he answereth 
 that he doubteth not but the reasons by him formerly set 
 down are very sufficient why he should forbear to take the 
 said oath of allegiance in regard of his duty to his Majesty. 
 
 “ He confesseth that his name indeed is Thomas Garnet, but 
 that he hath been called Sawyer and Rookwood, but denieth 
 that he went beyond the seas in the year of our Lord 1594, or 
 thereabouts. Also he denieth that he went beyond the seas 
 in the company of any sister or sisters of Sir William Wiseman. 
 Further, he denyeth that Father William Holt, then resident 
 at Brussels, sent him, this examinant, unto the English 
 Seminary at St. Omers, &c. 
 
 “ Being pressed to say whether he ever was a student in 
 the said Seminary, he refuseth otherwise to answer than to 
 say that he desireth not to be urged therewithal, or to make 
 any other answer thereunto. 
 
 “ Being likewise charged that he’ was sent by a mission 
 from St. Omers to the Seminaries in Spain, and there ordained 
 a priest according to the Romish fashion, he refuseth to answer 
 otherwise than as before. Further, being charged that after- 
 wards he came into England, and was admitted into the 
 Society of the Jesuits by his kinsman, Father Henry Garnet, 
 then Vice-Provincial of the Jesuits, he answereth unto that 
 as unto the former. “Thomas Garnet.” 
 
 “Octavo Aprilis, 1608. 
 
 “ Being further pressed that he was so admitted, [and that] 
 his place of residence was of Coldenham Hall, in Suffolk ; 
 
 “ He refuseth to answer any otherwise than that it cannot 
 be proved to be true. Likewise, being charged that he was 
 apprehended about the time that the Gunpowder Treason was 
 discovered, in the county of Warwick, or the parts near adjoin- 
 ing, he saith he was not taken in the county of Warwick, and 
 
Father Thomas Garnet. 
 
 487 
 
 otherwise doth not think fit to answer, but confesseth that about 
 that time he was brought up to London and imprisoned in 
 the Gatehouse, and that Father Henry Garnet did write unto 
 him, whilst he was prisoner there, from the Tower, in which 
 letter of Father Garnet there was the Lieutenant’s hand, and 
 the same was brought unto him by a warder of the Tower, 
 keeper of the said Father Garnet : that thereupon this exami- 
 nant was also removed to the Tower, but upon what occasion 
 he forbeareth to say, lest by delivering the cause thereof he 
 should say somewhat that may offend the State, which yet, if 
 he be urged, he must be fain to do so. 
 
 “That he remained there in the Tower until he was sent 
 away anno 1605 [6], which he doth not think was a banishment, 
 because he never knew or heard of, nor yet took notice of 
 his Majesty’s proclamation until he came to the ship whereon 
 he was conveyed away with divers priests, as also with some 
 other lay Catholics. 
 
 “ Being offered the use of any books that shall be thought 
 fit to help resolve his judgment in the lawfulness of taking 
 the oath of allegiance as it is set down, 3rd James, c. 4, or 
 any conference with men of his own profession that have taken 
 the said oath, he saith that he is willing to read, thereby to 
 inform himself the better what reasons can be brought pro 
 and contra , but is fully resolved of the unlawfulness of the 
 said oath, and thinketh that they that have taken it, if they 
 be of the Catholic faith, have done it out of fear, which he 
 hopeth shall never so far prevail with him, this examinant. 
 
 “Tho. London. “Thomas Garnet.” 
 
 An eulogium upon the martyr 12 states that the Privy Council 
 had just issued a new form of oath of allegiance. This form 
 was all the more deadly because more artfully concealing the 
 injury intended to the Holy See than the former ones; and 
 Catholics who were less upon their guard would be caught by 
 the fraud, thinking that nothing was contained in what it 
 professed, beyond a servile subjection ; and indeed this device 
 involved not a few of the leading Catholics, following the 
 example of the archpriest, who had for want of sufficient 
 precaution fallen into the snare. Father Thomas was for a 
 long time most urgently pressed in prison to take this oath, 
 but always steadfastly refused, ever professing his readiness 
 to swear allegiance to the King, according to the form pre- 
 15 Collectio Cardwelli, Vita Martyr. , etc. ut supra. 
 
488 
 
 Father Thomas Garnet. 
 
 scribed by foreign princes to their subjects. He drew up 
 a form of oath himself, which will be given further on. Being 
 asked to consult with those who had consented to take the 
 oath, seeing that any delay or hesitation on his part, however 
 small, would afford occasion of scandal, as though the Society 
 of Jesus, of which he was a member, entertained a shadow 
 of doubt about the perfidiousness of the oath, he answered 
 that he had no doubt whatever upon his mind, that his firm 
 conviction was that the oath could not be admitted, and hence 
 he had no need for delay or deliberation. When threats were 
 held out, he showed himself imperturbable, and raising his 
 eyes to heaven, declared his readiness to offer his life for 
 Christ. As we shall see, his constancy enraged his examiners, 
 and the Privy Council, who, finding themselves thus defied 
 by the champion of Christ, ultimately determined upon his 
 death. Father Bartoli gives an account of an examination 
 of the martyr before the same Bishop of London and 
 Sir William Wade, the rack-master of the Tower, a most 
 cruel torturer of the priests. He fixes the date of the exami- 
 nation the T 3-th of June, 1608, shortly before the martyrdom; 
 and refers to a letter of the -j^th of June, 1608. At first 
 they examined him upon various points. Was he a priest and 
 Jesuit? For they had, they said, proof of this by his having 
 himself written upon the walls of his cell in several places in 
 large characters, “Thomas Garnet, sacerdos.” Three servants of 
 Wade also gave evidence to the same point, but it amounted 
 to mere conjecture. Then, had he been a medium for passing 
 letters to and fro between his uncle and Father John Gerard, 
 from one rebel to another? The bishop failing to prove these 
 and similar accusations, or even to establish the slightest 
 suspicion, laying aside all such minor points, came openly to 
 the grand one, to which from the beginning they intended to 
 lead him. The bishop, assuming a courteous tone, yet not 
 without threats, and urging him by reasonings to the dis- 
 covery, begged him to prove himself a good subject to the 
 King by taking the oath of allegiance and supremacy, whereby 
 his case, which must otherwise end in conviction and execu- 
 tion, would be at an end without more ado, and he himself 
 would obtain liberty and life. To this the Father replied 
 firmly, that he would not ; adding quickly and positively that 
 he could not; for that this oath involved ecclesiastical with 
 civil rights, and destroyed the one to establish the other : that 
 he was prepared to swear such allegiance to the King as 
 
Father Thomas Garnet . 
 
 489 
 
 became a subject, and as far as a Catholic was able to do so — 
 to wit, reserving the rights of the Supreme Pastor. The bishop, 
 with the same courtesy as before, said : “ This refusal that 
 you have given, I will not for your good accept, and by the 
 prudence with which you are sufficiently furnished, and in 
 the more mature consideration I will give you time to make, 
 promise me that you will take more wise counsel. Go then, 
 and take until the feast of St. Luke, four entire months, to 
 consider; in the meantime, hear what the archpriest, Black- 
 well, has to say upon if, and by means of a man of the 
 learning and conscience he possesses, I hope, as he has done, 
 that you will change your opinion.” But the Father courage- 
 ously replied : “I wish to take neither advice nor time to 
 deliberate upon the yea or nay to that which others so well 
 know cannot lawfully be done, and as to the Archpriest 
 Blackwell, I need not to hear him in a matter where the 
 Sovereign Pontiff speaks and defines to the contrary.” Now, 
 whilst the Bishop was again renewing the offer to Father 
 Thomas of the four months’ delay, and he again refusing it, 
 Sir William Wade interrupted them, and in a rage turning to 
 the bishop said, with an oath : “ I will never again examine 
 men of this sort, if this man be not at once sent off to Newgate.” 
 Into this prison malefactors once entering are left without any 
 hope of going forth, except to execution, it being the nearest 
 to Tyburn gallows. “ As this is your opinion, be it so,” said 
 the bishop. “And if the King wishes him to die, let him 
 die.” To whom the martyr meekly replied : “ My lord, I am 
 not only ready for Newgate, but to be dragged through 
 Holborn to Tyburn ; and death to me is my highest ambition, 
 that I may wholly possess my Jesus, to whom long ago I 
 have given my whole heart.” This reply, made with so lofty 
 a spirit as it was, and uttered at the same time with the 
 deepest humility and modesty, was a violent blow to both 
 Wade and the bishop, but as the same Father wrote, affecting 
 them differently according to their different dispositions ; 
 Wade, to whose brutal nature any act of lofty virtue could 
 not but be highly displeasing, was in a rage, and stamping on 
 the ground like a madman, loaded the innocent Father with 
 every insult and abuse that he could find words to utter. 
 But the bishop, affecting the guise of a preacher, and to 
 reprehend him in a milder manner, “ I fear,” said he, “ this 
 spirit of generosity savours but little wisdom, and is badly 
 advised. We must not do evil to arrive at the other world.” 
 
490 
 
 Father Thomas Garnet. 
 
 Adding that he went to his eternal damnation if he trusted in 
 his good works, &c. Then he went on to say that he had 
 heard of him through the Archbishop of Canterbury, and 
 thereby had a great regard for him, and would send him to 
 his Grace (which, however, he never did), who was, he said, 
 curious to know whether in him more than in the rest it were 
 verified, that in taking the habit of the Society, he had 
 divested himself of all habits of morality, in which he so 
 abounded before he became a Jesuit. Which Father Garnet 
 showed to be quite the contrary, and fully met this insinuation, 
 citing the testimony of all nations of the world in their 
 continual intercourse with the Society. This examination, 
 and his removal to Newgate, ended that day’s proceedings. 
 
 The next day Father Garnet procured ah opportunity of 
 writing to Father Holtby, who had succeeded Father Henry 
 Garnet, in 1606, as Superior of the English mission of the 
 Society, giving him an account of what had taken place. He 
 begged him moreover, in order to remove from himself, from 
 the priests, and from Catholics in general, the odious calumny 
 that they refused to swear fidelity to the King, to allow him to 
 present the following form of oath of allegiance — 
 
 “ I, Thomas Garnet, sincerely and heartily profess before 
 the court of heaven, that I will pay to my rightful King James 
 all fidelity and obedience due and owing to him by the law 
 of nature and the divine law of the true Church of Christ. 
 That if this proof of my loyalty is not deemed sufficient, 
 may God and the whole world be my judge, that no King 
 can exact a greater fidelity from his subjects than is accorded 
 to him by the law of God; and that no subject is able to 
 promise or swear a greater obedience than what is approved 
 of by the Church of Christ. This is my mind. So help me 
 God in the hour of my death.” 
 
 He also implored Father Holtby not to consent to any 
 attempts which the Catholics might wish to make to liberate 
 him; for perchance, said he, by the grace of God assisting 
 me, my death may avail more in the service of the Faith, 
 and of souls, than my life could possibly do. To induce 
 him the more readily to make this promise, he gave Father 
 Holtby as a sign, that on some Catholics making him an 
 offer of escaping death by some innocent plan, and he, out of 
 a desire of serving his neighbour, at the first proposal listening 
 to it, immediately heard within himself a voice speaking to 
 his heart, and saying to him, “ No, endure, persevere ; do not 
 
Father Thomas Garnet . 
 
 491 
 
 allow so unprofitable an exchange, since the common good is 
 more assisted in one hour by dying, than by the labours and 
 fatigues of a life of many years.” And this was the cause 
 of his great emotion and overwhelming joy of spirit when he 
 heard the sentence of death passed upon him. Several times 
 afterwards he said with many tears, that nothing that could 
 happen to him could give him so sensible an affliction and 
 grief as any event that should intervene between him and 
 his death. He feared lest, by the intercession of Catholics, 
 the sentence should be respited, and not carried into execution. 
 
 The fourth day after his examination before the bishop 
 and Wade, he was called to the bar of the Old Bailey Sessions 
 for trial, and the Attorney General, Mr. Henry Montague, 
 appeared for the Crown. He was indicted upon four counts, 
 (i) That he was a Catholic priest by authority derived from 
 Rome, and remaining in England contrary to the statute of 
 27th Elizabeth. To prove this, three witnesses were called, 
 who deposed that whilst he was prisoner in the Tower he 
 had written in several places, “ Thomas Garnet, priest.” He 
 readily admitted this fact, though the evidence was insufficient 
 to prove it. (2) That he was a Jesuit, which he also readily 
 admitted, though it could not be proved. (3) That, returning 
 to England, he had seduced his Majesty’s subjects from their 
 duty and allegiance ; this he denied, and by irrefutable argu- 
 ments showed it to be a false imputation, and very great 
 calumny; for he had no greater desire, nor could he make 
 greater efforts than he had done, to induce all Catholics to pay 
 all due allegiance to the King in temporals, and to the 
 Supreme Head of the Church and Christ’s Vicar upon earth 
 in spirituals. The fourth count, which was in fact the main 
 one, was that he refused to take the prescribed oath of 
 allegiance and supremacy. To this he pleaded that it was 
 not allowable for any Catholic to damage the authority of the 
 Sovereign Pontiff, who was the Supreme Pastor of the Church, 
 and Representative of Christ upon the earth. Let them 
 remove the injurious matter from the oath, and he was ready 
 instantly to bind himself to any service and fidelity to the 
 King. If the authority which by divine right is due to the 
 Vicar of Christ is sacrilegiously arrogated by an earthly prince, 
 a refusal to confirm this arrogance by oath cannot be imputed 
 as infidelity to the prince. Hear this, he said, as a proof of 
 my fidelity to King James; and, so saying, he drew from 
 his breast the paper already mentioned, in which he had 
 
492 
 
 Father Thomas Garnet. 
 
 written the form of oath sent by him to Father Holtby, his 
 Superior. He had reserved this copy for the purpose of 
 reading it publicly in court, and at the place of execution, 
 by way of protest on behalf of all Catholics, priests, and 
 Jesuits, that they do not withdraw themselves from the obedi- 
 ence to the King, except where forbidden by conscience and 
 by the Church of Christ. He was there stopped, and the 
 paper taken away from him by force, and torn ; but from the 
 copy sent to Father Holtby it has come down to us. Upon 
 the slender evidence before named he was found guilty by 
 the jury, and being remanded back to prison, was brought 
 up the next day for judgment, when the judges, regardless 
 of his plea, pronounced sentence of death against him. He 
 received this sentence so joyfully, that when certain Catholics 
 amongst the crowds that flocked to Newgate with the desire of 
 seeing him offered him a rope by means of which he might 
 have effected his escape from the prison, and at the same time 
 tendered their services to assist him, he said that he had 
 rather be raised up once into the air by a rope, than leap down 
 to the ground twice by the same means. These good people 
 eagerly sought his blessing, and strove to carry off whatever 
 they could lay hands upon, to reserve as precious memorials 
 and relics of the martyr ; to whom the holy man exclaimed, 
 “ What are you about ? And what new kind of pity is this of 
 yours, to increase your own consolation, and to redouble my 
 grief? I am yet alive, and possibly may not die.” And 
 returning to his weeping and his first affections, he said, “ I 
 have already mounted up three steps, I have been taken , tried , 
 and condemned. Alas me ! how intolerable will be my grief 
 and confusion if I do not arrive at the last grade of death.” 
 The good work of grace, however, which had been begun 
 in him was perfected even to the end. The last two days 
 of his life he spent in an underground cell called Limbo, 
 which was the condemned cell, and lay there heavily chained 
 and handcuffed, as was usual with the condemned, as a 
 precaution against committing self-destruction. Thus he 
 remained until the 23rd of June, the vigil of St.John the 
 Baptist, and the day fixed for his execution. Masten, in one 
 of his narratives, recounts that, being himself in the same 
 prison with Father Thomas, in that last night he got up and 
 announced to the martyr that the light of the day so eagerly 
 sighed for by him, wherein he was to make the sacrifice of 
 himself to God, had already dawned. He found him in 
 
Father Thomas Garnet. 
 
 493 
 
 his dark cell, rapt in prayer, his eyes brilliant with gladness 
 and joy of soul, that seemed to him to be a certain foretaste of 
 Paradise. The previous evening he had seen the same eyes 
 filled with tears, and heard him complaining, in his humility, of 
 the pious thefts which the devout Catholics had made, even to 
 his very girdle. This witness had seen him weep with appre- 
 hension lest his great prize should be snatched from him when 
 almost within his grasp, lest those same zealous disciples 
 should interest themselves in procuring the King’s favour for 
 his liberation. Now, however, seeing that the dawn of day 
 ushered in that hour when he should be led out to execution, 
 and feeling secure that neither pity of these Catholics, nor 
 (what he much more feared) his own unworthiness, would 
 prevent his sealing with his blood his faithful adherence to the 
 Holy See, he was so joyful, so radiant with gladness, so wholly 
 absorbed in God, and his heart so completely in heaven, that 
 he appeared to me (says the same narrator) more like a bride- 
 groom going to his espousals than as one about to suffer a 
 cruel and ignominous death at the hands of the public execu- 
 tioner. He adds that this great joy was nevertheless accom- 
 panied with an equal modesty, and a certain invincible 
 patience and fortitude of soul. 
 
 As he was leaving the prison, in the courtyard, a man 
 of respectability and of courteous manner accosted him, and 
 presented a young man that had read some theology, and 
 was now come to try his hand with the Father upon a certain 
 article of controversy between Protestants and Catholics. On 
 account of the narrow space, however, he was unable to force 
 his way near, and went from side to side, rather nodding to 
 the Father than speaking in any consecutive manner. As 
 the young man had changed from a theologian to a lawyer, 
 he was especially desirous to warn the martyr not to protest 
 from the gallows that he died for the Catholic Faith; but 
 wished him rather to acknowledge that he suffered for his 
 broken allegiance to his King, and was justly condemned 
 as guilty of high treason. The Father, smiling, answered 
 him pleasantly : “ Sir, he who is obedient to his prince is 
 not faithless. The prince issues a command : ‘ If any priest 
 returns to England, let him be slain.’ I have returned here, 
 and I consent voluntarily to be put to death, and with all 
 my heart ; thus I give my body to Caesar and my soul to 
 God — to each one that which is his own.” After thus speaking, 
 he courteously turned away from the young man. Meanwhile, 
 
494 
 
 Father Thomas Garnet. 
 
 approaching the door where the executioner awaited him, he 
 prayed him to hasten his pace. Arrived at the hurdle upon 
 which he was to be dragged to Tyburn, he blessed it, and 
 stretched himself upon his rude bed. Drawn at the horse’s 
 tail through the streets from Newgate to Tyburn, he found 
 there an innumerable concourse of persons of every class, 
 assembled to behold a man of whom it was reported that 
 he would not take the oath of allegiance, nor even accept 
 the offer of time to deliberate. More than three hundred 
 knights and noblemen were present, either on horseback or 
 in carriages. Arrived at Tyburn, and raised from the hurdle, 
 he was addressed by Thomas Cecil, Earl of Exeter, one of 
 the Privy Council, who asked him in the most gracious manner 
 about various things, and for nearly half an hour argued with 
 him in so low a voice that I could not well (says an eye- 
 witness) comprehend the whole. He tried to persuade him 
 to take the oath and save his life, alleging that several priests 
 had done so, and that many more looked upon it as a dis- 
 putable matter in which faith was not concerned. Why, 
 therefore, should he be so stiff, and not rather embrace the 
 offer of the King’s clemency by conforming, as others had 
 done ? Father Thomas replied : “ My lord, if the case be 
 so doubtful and disputable, how can I in conscience swear 
 to what is doubtful, as if it were certain? No; I will not 
 take the oath, though I might have five thousand lives.” 
 And with these words he cut short all further argument. 
 Having said this, he was ordered to mount up into the 
 cart beneath the gallows, which he did joyfully and with 
 alacrity ; when a preacher behind him began to persuade 
 him to take the oath, and, as though this did not suffice, 
 added an exhortation to die a Calvinist; but the Father, 
 not attending to him, cast around a glance at the great 
 multitude present; then, as though recollecting himself, he 
 made the sign of the Cross, and kissing the beam of the 
 gallows, he turned towards the people. But the said minister, 
 indignant at these ridiculous ceremonies (as he termed them), 
 exhorted the martyr to abstain from them. Father Thomas 
 in a tender manner gently tapping him on the shoulder, 
 said, with a pleasant countenance, “Don’t let us quarrel in 
 this place. Let us part friends.” He then in like manner 
 kissed and blessed with the sign of redemption the -rope 
 which the hangman proceeded to place round his neck, 
 while the martyr helped him to do so. Then turning to the 
 
Father Thomas Garnet. 495 
 
 people, he asked if they would listen to his reasons for a 
 while, and being answered in the affirmative, and silence 
 having been obtained, he said : “ By the mercy of God, I 
 am a priest of the Catholic Church, and though unworthy, 
 and the most imperfect of all, I am a religious of the blessed 
 Society of Jesus. It is nevertheless the truth that I hold 
 this day to be the most fortunate and joyful one of my 
 whole life ; and I call God to witness that I say this sin- 
 cerely from the bottom of my heart.” The aforesaid preacher, 
 utterly astonished at a doctrine so entirely new to him, asked 
 him, in the words of one incredulous, whether there was 
 any equivocation in what he said. The martyr replied, “ No, 
 sir ; if I had been minded to equivocate, I might have taken 
 the oath and saved my life, which oath I did not decline 
 out of any unwillingness to profess my allegiance to the 
 King, which I offered to do, and for that end produced at 
 my trial a form of an oath of allegiance, drawn up according 
 to what was looked upon as satisfactory in the days of our 
 forefathers, to which I was willing to swear; but this new 
 oath is so w r orded as to contain things quite foreign to 
 allegiance, to which in my opinion no Catholic can swear 
 with a safe conscience.” When he had said this, the hangman 
 began to remove his garments, in which the Father instantly 
 began to assist with great signs of joy. Being now 
 undressed to the lower garment, the same Earl Cecil turned 
 to speak to him, and amongst other things asked, in his 
 former courteous manner, why when first apprehended he 
 had not acknowledged himself to be a priest. The Father 
 replied that he left the ministers of justice to do their own 
 part, which was to prove it; and moreover, because I have 
 understood (and, says the eye-witness, he spoke the truth, 
 as I also remember to have heard elsewhere), that the members 
 of the Privy Council have very often openly complained of the 
 inconsiderate readiness of some priests to confess themselves 
 to be such, without any need at all of doing so, thus exposing 
 the judges to the necessity of proceeding according to the 
 laws*, and contrary to their wishes, by sentencing them to 
 death. And to show that it was not the fear of death, and 
 that none might be ignorant of the reasons for his not dis- 
 covering himself, he had left full evidence of it in several 
 cells of the Tower in which he had been confined, having 
 written in full seven places upon the walls, in clear characters, 
 “Thomas Garnet, priest,” which he was quite aware the servants 
 
496 
 
 Father Thomas Garnet. 
 
 of the Lieutenant Wade had read, and had given evidence 
 of the fact before the Bishop of London and their own master. 
 Having thus satisfied the earl, he resumed his interrupted 
 address to the people. He declared that he had lived in 
 England nine years, during which time he had employed 
 himself solely in the exercise of his ministerial duties ; that 
 by the watchful care of Providence over him, he had never 
 attempted anything either against the King or the State, nor 
 had such an idea ever even entered into his mind. On the 
 contrary, to the utmost of his power he had ever solemnly 
 warned Catholics to be patient under their wrongs, and never 
 to attempt any such machinations against either. He then 
 pronounced the before-mentioned form of oath, adding the 
 reasons why no Catholic could be allowed to take that form 
 prescribed by the Parliament and Privy Council. Then, 
 crossing his hands upon his breast, and lifting up his eyes 
 to heaven he returned thanks for all, and gave infinite blessings 
 to God for that, the last and happiest day of his life, adding, 
 “ May God turn away His just anger from this kingdom, 
 and not require an account of my blood at the King’s 
 hands. Domine , ne statuas illis hoc peccatum” He then spoke 
 as follows : “ The apostate Rouse has betrayed me ; may God 
 forgive him. The pursuivant Cross apprehended me ; may 
 God forgive him. The Bishop of London thrust me into 
 prison ; may God forgive him. His secretary, whispering into 
 his ear I know not what incitements, inflamed him against 
 me ; may God forgive him. May God pardon Sir William 
 Wade, the Prefect of the Tower, who eagerly solicited my 
 death, and Sir Henry Montague, the Attorney General, who 
 at my trial invented so many things against me. May all 
 attain salvation, and with me reach heaven.” Being warned 
 to make an end of speaking, he begged the Catholics who 
 were present to pray for him, for whom he would also pray. 
 He then prayed God to accept the offering of his blood for 
 his King and country, and with hands and eyes raised to 
 heaven, and endeavouring to fall upon his knees in the cart, 
 which the length of the rope round his neck would not allow, 
 he recited with a loud voice, and singular tenderness of 
 affection, the Lord’s Prayer, “ Our Father,” the angelical 
 salutation, “ Hail Mary,” the “ Apostles’ Creed,” and the 
 hymn of the Church, Veni Creator Spiritus — “ Come Holy 
 Ghost,” as far as the words in that hymn, Sermone ditans gut - 
 ter a, when the cart was drawn away and he was allowed to 
 
Father John Clare. 
 
 465 
 
 the primacy, but not to be Supreme Bishop ; which question 
 he believed would be decided by a condescension on both 
 sides ! 
 
 Sir John was not satisfied with this absurd and illogical 
 answer, but resolved to go to the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 Dr. Sheldon, whom Dr. Buck had quoted to be of his opinion. 
 And, that he might not be too troublesome to his Grace, he 
 reduced what he intended to propose to him to three queries : 
 
 First — Whether there were a Church established by Christ, 
 out of which there was no salvation ? 
 
 Second — Whether the Roman Catholic Church were a 
 member of this ? 
 
 Third — Whether there was salvation in the Roman Catholic 
 Church ? 
 
 Arrived at Lambeth Palace, his Grace would not give him 
 an audience before he sent up his name, which he did, con- 
 cealing his title. To the first question Dr. Sheldon answered 
 affirmatively. To the second, he said “it was a corrupted 
 member whereupon Sir John asked him “if it erred in any 
 fundamental point ?” He answered, “It did not , for then 
 it would be no Church .” Hence out of the premisses granted, 
 Sir John drew this conclusion to his third query, telling the 
 Archbishop that then it evidently followed there was salvation 
 in the Roman Catholic Church. But his Grace told him “ that 
 for Roman Catholics bred and born there might be salvation, 
 but for him who owned himself to be an educated or bred 
 and born Protestant it was very doubtful, it being very 
 dangerous to leave a pure Church to enter into one defiled 
 with errors.” Sir John replying, out of his own words, “that 
 they not erring in fundamental points, he humbly conceived 
 it could not be so dangerous as his Grace asserted, to embrace 
 the Roman Catholic religion ; ” to which the reply was, “ that 
 he was not so competent a judge of this as himself, and there- 
 fore should rely upon his (the Archbishop’s) opinion, rather 
 than upon his own.” Sir John humbly submitted his judgment 
 on this point ; but having understood from Dr. Buck the esteem 
 his Grace had for a religious state, from an expression he had 
 let fall when robing in the lobby to go into the House of 
 Lords, viz., “ How happy it would be did their Church afford 
 such a conveniency as the Church of Rome did, that brethren 
 might dwell together in unity, and what a comfort their con- 
 versations would be to each other,” resolved to propose the 
 same question to him as he had done to Dr. Buck, which gave 
 
 EE 
 
466 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 him occasion of relating this passage concerning his Grace, 
 viz., “Whether the embracing a religious state might not be 
 a sufficient warrant and motive for a Protestant to become a 
 Catholic ? ” His Grace avoided the question by asking Sir 
 John whether he were married? Who replying that he was, 
 the Bishop answered, a that it was a vain proposition, because 
 the state he was in rendered the other incompatible.” Sir 
 John answered, he humbly conceived that a mutual consent 
 would meet all difficulties. Dr. Sheldon then asked him if 
 he had any children, and he replied that he had. Whereupon 
 his Grace told him that he was obliged in conscience to see 
 them educated. Sir John met this by saying that he con- 
 sidered he should be better satisfying his conscience by leaving 
 them to a trusty friend with sufficient maintenance, than by 
 educating them himself with risk of his own salvation. 
 
 They were here interrupted by a boy of about ten years 
 of age, a relative of the Archbishop’s, who was going to 
 Westminster School, with whom the time was consumed in 
 asking trifling questions; while Sir John, who sat by, justly 
 concluded that the danger of becoming Catholic was not 
 so great as my lord affirmed, otherwise he would have thought 
 his time better spent in satisfying him in a business of such 
 great moment. 
 
 The Archbishop at length told him “ that since his weighty 
 affairs allowed him not so much time as the answering his 
 doubts required, he would recommend him to one who should 
 make it his business to do so ; ” and therefore called one of 
 his gentlemen-in-waiting, and ordered him to accompany Sir 
 John to Dr. Dolbin, the Dean of Westminster, afterwards 
 Bishop of Rochester, and finally of York, and in his name 
 desire the Dean to render him what service was in his power, 
 in the business he came about . 39 
 
 As Sir John was going out of the palace he met Dr.San- 
 croft (afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury), a neighbour and 
 acquaintance of his, entering in, who offered him his service, 
 and probably afterwards informed his Grace of the rank of 
 his visitor. For at the Thames’ side, Sir John, meeting 
 Dr. Dolbin just landed at Lambeth Stairs, desired my lord’s 
 gentleman to say nothing to him, but return back and follow 
 the Doctor to his Grace, whom he found much more civil 
 and obliging than before ; who after he had talked nearly a 
 
 39 The similarity between Sir. John’s case and that of Father Walsingham 
 cannot fail to strike the reader. 
 
Father John Clare. 
 
 467 
 
 quarter of an hour with the Doctor, they both came to Sir 
 John, and his. Grace assured him that he had thoroughly 
 informed the Doctor of his difficulties, and that he was ready, 
 whenever he pleased, to give him satisfaction in them, and 
 Dr. Dolbin, at Sir John’s request, promised to expect him 
 at his house the next morning for that end. 
 
 Sir John went according to appointment, and was imme- 
 diately introduced into his closet, where, perceiving by the 
 Doctor’s endeavours to prevent his proposing his doubts, as 
 well as by his answering such as had been proposed to his 
 Grace much after the same manner as the Archbishop before 
 him, that he was not likely to have the satisfaction he expected, 
 made few or no objections to what was said, thinking it better 
 to go away quietly, as in appearance satisfied, than otherwise 
 give occasion of dissatisfaction both to the Archbishop and 
 the Doctor, and thereby cause them to divulge what few knew 
 of; to wit, the disquiet and uneasiness he found in the Pro- 
 testant religion. Nor was the Doctor much bent upon inquiring 
 into doubts, but took occasion to ask many curious questions ; 
 such as, his wife’s name, what relation she was to his old 
 friend Sir John Hanmer, and being informed she was his sister, 
 he made greater professions and offers of service to Sir John 
 than before, for which he returned him thanks. The Doctor 
 also offered him a book called The whole duty of man , which 
 he civilly declined, telling him that he had it already. Where- 
 upon the Doctor counselled him “diligently to peruse that 
 book, and that he would engage soul for soul, provided he 
 followed the advice he met with there, that he should be as 
 happy both in this world and the next as he could hope to 
 be by his entering into a religious state.” He added also, 
 as Dr. Buck had done, “ that it was a mere punctilio the Pope 
 Stood upon which hindered the union of the two Churches, 
 a thing he hoped to live to see decided ; and assured him 
 that whenever any other difficulties occurred he should find 
 him ready at all times to answer them, and to render him 
 what further service he was able.” Which Sir John humbly 
 thanked him for and took his leave, resolving now to embrace 
 (as the securest way) that religion in which both allowed salva- 
 tion, rather than remain in one where the contrary Church 
 (which the Archbishop had owned to be a true one), denied 
 that any could be saved. 
 
 As soon as he had taken this resolution he began to find 
 some interior repose and quiet in his soul, which from his 
 
 ee 2 
 
468 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 first doubts about the truth of the Protestant religion had been 
 continually upon the rack, especially during the time he was in 
 London, and it had so affected his health that he feared by 
 his present feelings of indisposition that some violent sickness 
 would follow, and wrote accordingly to Lady Warner, who, 
 fearing that he might be worse than his letter stated, hastened 
 to London on horseback. But Providence ordered this for 
 their mutual satisfaction, that she might be present at his 
 reception into the Catholic Church ; he having appointed the 
 next morning after her arrival to meet Father Travers for that 
 purpose. Sir John was reconciled the 6th of July, 1664, and 
 afterwards experienced such a transport and security in his 
 soul, that it is impossible for any one to imagine what this 
 is but those that have felt it. This step now ushered him 
 on to execute his other design, of leaving the world. The 
 enemy of mankind, having failed to hinder the former, resolved 
 to prevent, if possible, the latter ; objecting to him in lively 
 colours the sweets of fortune he so abundantly possessed, in 
 family, rank, estates, &c., with the difficulties of observing 
 poverty, chastity, and obedience. But God’s grace assisted 
 him with reasons to answer these objections, by a reflection 
 upon the transitory nature of such happiness, and that if he 
 refused to follow God’s call he might thereby provoke Him 
 to deprive him of what he chiefly took a pleasure in, as a 
 just punishment for that ingratitude, and thereby make him 
 as well miserable in this world as in the next, for refusing 
 to restore to God what He had so liberally bestowed upon 
 him. 
 
 These thoughts increased his desire to abandon the world 
 and live a religious life; and finding Lady Warner’s inclina- 
 tions intensely the same, Sir John resolved speedily to dispose 
 his affairs for his going to the Continent by a settlement of 
 his estates, and in order to do so he sent for his brother, 
 Mr. Francis Warner, who was then in London. 
 
 As soon as his brother came to Parham, Sir John discovered 
 his intention to him ; that, having no son, he desired to make 
 him heir of his estates, securing portions to each of his daughters, 
 and that he would make no conditions with him that might 
 sway him to do what he himself was not convinced was for the 
 best, but only desired, in requital, that he would do what he 
 had done himself, viz., laying aside both passion and interest , 
 examine the principles of both religions, and upon solid 
 motives embrace that which he should find the most secure 
 
Father John Clare. 
 
 469 
 
 for his eternal happiness, and daily beg of God, by His 
 Sacred Passioh, to direct him into the true way to salvation. 
 Mr. Warner promised to do so, and for this end accompanied 
 Sir John to London, where, being present at a dispute between 
 Father Travers and Dr. Chamberlain, then chaplain to the 
 Duke of Ormonde, he was so convinced of the danger of 
 continuing a Protestant, that he soon after reconciled himself 
 to the Roman Catholic Church, and afterwards told his brother 
 that he was more obliged to him for the manner of giving him 
 the estate, than for the estate itself. For at first he was so 
 sure of the truth of his own religion, that, had these advan- 
 tageous offers been made to him upon condition of his 
 abandoning Protestantism, he would sooner have refused the 
 estate than have forsaken his religion, and so had never 
 enjoyed that happiness now experienced in his soul, beyond 
 his powers to express, and far exceeding any he could hope 
 for in the enjoyment of the estate. 40 
 
 Whilst Sir John was in London thus settling his affairs, 
 Lady Warner did the like at Parham, by disposing things in 
 such an order that as soon as he returned he might not be 
 hindered from his journey. She made an inventory of all 
 things in and about the house, that nothing might be em- 
 bezzled, or out of the way when called for by Mr. Francis 
 Warner; and she had done all this so carefully, that Sir John 
 at his return found nothing wanting for his departure. Where- 
 fore he, with Lady Warner, his two children, and sister, left 
 Parham the 20th of October, 1664, and came to London, 
 where she stayed till the 27th, upon which day, with Miss 
 Elizabeth Warner, her sister-in-law, and his kinswoman, Mrs. 
 Frances Skelton, his two children Catherine and Susan, and 
 a servant, with one Mrs. Fausset, a woman who knew the 
 Low Countries and was accustomed to conduct young gentle- 
 women on their way to convents, began their journey towards 
 Dover. Lady Warner then changed her name to Clare. They 
 immediately embarked on arriving at Dover, Sir John remain- 
 ing privately in London to see what consequences might follow 
 their departure, and to prevent any ills that might ensue. 
 
 A particular providence made them take the first oppor- 
 tunity ; for no sooner had they left London, but Dr. Edward 
 Warner, one of the King’s physicians, and uncle to Sir John, 
 
 40 It may be added that several of the servants and neighbours at 
 Parham followed the examples of Sir John and Lady Warner, and became 
 Catholics. 
 
470 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles . 
 
 heard of it ; he procured an order from the King and Council 
 to stop them. The Mayor of Dover did not receive it until 
 the packet boat was gone. He took a gentleman who 
 happened to sail in the same packet to be Sir John. 
 The Mayor therefore made a return to the Privy Council 
 accordingly. 
 
 Dr. Warner, upon the supposition that Sir John with his 
 whole family was gone abroad, endeavoured to secure his 
 nephew’s estate, and therefore petitioned the King and Council 
 for a grant of it, upon pretext of keeping it out of the Jesuits' 
 hands , who had, he alleged, persuaded Sir John out of his 
 estate, as well as his religion, and had been the principal 
 authors of his rash undertaking. His Majesty, who did not 
 like importunities of that kind, endeavoured to put him off with 
 a jest, telling him, “ if Sir John had a mind to make himself 
 one of God Almighty's fools , he must have patience ; a7id that 
 if he would let him alone a little , he himself would soon be 
 weary of the course he had imdertaken." The Doctor, how- 
 ever, persisted ; urging that it was to prevent the ruin of a 
 family that had always been faithful to His Majesty, and the 
 King at last told him to go to the attorney-general, and order 
 him in his name to do what the law required for the 
 security of the estate. 
 
 The author of the above-mentioned life here makes a 
 digression for the purpose of showing the incorrectness, if 
 nothing worse, of Dr. Warner’s charge against the Society of 
 Jesus. He mentions, first, the strong dissuasions used by 
 Father Travers with Sir John against hastily entering upon 
 his proposed state of life. Secondly, upon a strong scruple 
 which Sir John experienced in his noviceship, that after pro- 
 viding for his children, he should have given the residue of the 
 estate to pious uses, especially a portion of it that had formerly 
 belonged to an ancient abbey, his Superior assured him that 
 in the settlement he had made he had acted most prudently, 
 and had prevented clamours and disturbances which might 
 have arisen upon any different arrangement; and, as to the 
 obligation of restitution he was quite free, for the Pope had by 
 a special decree of dispensation (sent into England by Cardinal 
 Pole in the reign of Queen Mary), made the possession of such 
 property lawful to all persons, even Catholics, counselling them 
 only to a greater liberality in almsgiving to obtain God’s 
 blessing upon their estates, which they thus enjoyed by His 
 dispensation. 
 
Father John Clare. 
 
 47 * 
 
 Sir John, finding his uncle still busy in his earnest pursuit 
 after his estate, though he was assured by his counsel that the 
 deed of settlement was valid, and could only be set aside by 
 an Act of Parliament, thought it better to come forward and 
 check his uncle, than allow him and his brother to be engaged 
 in litigation. Having been out of London for a day, with his 
 father-in-law, Sir Thomas Hanmer, on his return, the same 
 night, he went to the tavern nearest to his uncle’s house in 
 Covent Garden, and sent word to let Dr. Warner know that a 
 friend desired to speak with him there. When his uncle came, 
 he was so overjoyed at the unexpected sight of Sir John, or 
 perhaps so confounded at what he had done, that he was 
 unable to speak. His nephew, out of compassion, was forced 
 to make that apology for him, which he ought to have made 
 himself ; thanking him for the pains and trouble he had taken 
 for the security of the estate ; though there was no need of it ; 
 inasmuch as he had settled it as firmly as possible by law upon 
 his brother Francis, who, if he had consulted him, would have 
 shown him the deeds ; wherefore, now he was assured of this 
 from his own mouth, he hoped that he would desist from giving 
 himself or his brother any further trouble in this affair. This 
 he promised to do, and was as good as his word. 
 
 Brother John Clare, now in his no viceship at Watten, met 
 with a serious distraction by the accidental death of that 
 brother, Mr. Francis Warner, upon whom he had settled his 
 estates. This obliged him, by order • of his Superior, to 
 make a journey to England for a resettlement of them, as they 
 now reverted to him as heir-at-law of Francis. The particulars 
 of these events are too interesting to be omitted. 
 
 In the month of January, 1667, Mr. Francis Warner visited 
 his brother at Watten. On his way through the Low Countries 
 he visited several religious houses, and among others the 
 English Carthusians at Nieuport, where the admirable order 
 and cheerfulness he beheld amongst them, amidst so much 
 solitude and austerity, had already, by the influence of grace, 
 so touched his heart, that he resolved to follow his brother’s 
 example in quitting the world. He never mentioned his 
 design until, one night at Liege, he and his brother being alone 
 together, he asked to borrow his biretta, which he put on, 
 and asked him how he looked in it ? Brother Clare answered, 
 it became him very well, and that he did not doubt but if God 
 gave him inclination to a religious state, he would find the 
 same happiness and satisfaction in it as he himself had done. 
 
472 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles . 
 
 Mr. Francis Warner replied, with tears, that he was sorry he 
 had not profited by his education at school as he wished he 
 had done, since by reason of his neglect he could not now 
 be so happy as to be his brother also in religion. But, he 
 added, that he had made a resolution of becoming a Carthusian, 
 in which Order literature was not so absolutely necessary as in 
 the Society. He expressed his intention to hasten back to 
 England, there to settle affairs, and on his way to make the 
 Spiritual Exercises of the Society at Watten, to try his vocation. 
 Brother Clare was overjoyed at this welcome and unexpected 
 news, and encouraged his brother with seasonable counsels. 
 On his way, Francis took his two nieces, Brother Clare’s 
 children, from the Ursuline Convent, Liege, to the English 
 monastery of Benedictine Dames at Ghent. After calling at 
 Gravelines upon his sister and Lady Warner, who were equally 
 rejoiced to hear the good news, he made his retreat at Watten, 
 and settled his vocation. He then hastened to the Carthusian 
 monastery at Nieuport, to take a view of the place in which he 
 had resolved to end his life, and thence to embark for England 
 to wind up his worldly affairs. 
 
 Having waited longer than he intended, as the weather 
 continued very stormy, his eagerness to compass his happy 
 design caused him to urge the captain of the packet to venture 
 out to sea. The captain, overcome by his large promises, and 
 earnest requests, hoisted sail; but instead of steering out of 
 the harbour, got upon a sand-bank, where the vessel stuck so 
 fast that the following tide quickly filled it with water, and the 
 waves washed those overboard who came upon deck to escape. 
 Among these was Mr. Warner, who, as the waves carried him 
 into deep sea, cried out to those who had got upon the shrouds, 
 conjuring them, if they escaped, to let the Carthusians know 
 the manner of his death, and how earnestly he desired they 
 would pray for his soul. This was done, and in their charity 
 the monks searched for and discovered his body, which they 
 buried amongst their own Religious, he having plainly declared 
 himself a Carthusian in desire. His innocent life merited, as a 
 reward, a death, which though sudden, was not unprepared. 
 It happened on the 3rd of April, 1667. 
 
 Thus was Brother Clare, with sorrow obliged to resume 
 again his worldly estate, and to revisit England. Arrived in 
 London, he received an express from his steward at Parham 
 (to whom he had given notice of his arrival), informing him 
 that he had been arrested and sent to prison, that Parham 
 
Father Iohn Clare. 
 
 473 
 
 House had been searched by order of the lord lieutenant of 
 the county, all the arms carried off, and the house placed 
 under guard. It seems that the Dutch, having planned a 
 descent into England, had appeared upon the coast of Suffolk, 
 about seven miles from Parham, upon which some malicious 
 persons gave out that Sir John was come over, and lay hid 
 at his mansion, with a great many more Papists he had brought 
 with him to assist the invaders. Sir John Warner, whose 
 family as well as himself had always been loyal sufferers for 
 the King, was more hurt by being accused of such black crimes 
 as treason and rebellion, than for any other charge they could 
 bring against him. He went at once to a friend, then in 
 London, a major in the King’s guard, desiring him to acquaint 
 the King of it; but instead, he accompanied him to the 
 Countess of Suffolk, whose husband was lord lieutenant of the 
 county, and informed her of what the Earl had done, an act 
 that could not fail to displease the King, convinced as his 
 Majesty was of Sir John’s fidelity and loyalty. Upon the 
 Major’s testimony, she wrote to the Earl, desiring him to make 
 all amends to Sir John, who posted off with the letter, and the 
 next morning handed it personally to the Earl, the consequence 
 of which was the release of the steward, the discharge of the 
 guards, and restitution of the arms, with an apology that the 
 Earl had given the order rather to secure Parham from the 
 rabble, who had threatened to pull it down, than from any 
 suspicion of his fidelity. Most of the informers and chief 
 actors living at Framlingham, Sir John first went thither, lest 
 the news of his arrival might create another alarm. Here he 
 was met by the chief inhabitants, who congratulated him on 
 his arrival, expressed regret for what had happened, and set 
 the town bells ringing, &c. 
 
 This storm being ended, Sir John returned to London to 
 make a settlement upon his second and only surviving brother, 
 Mr. Edmund Warner, a merchant in London. Here he met 
 with Sir Thomas Hanmer, who raised another storm ; for on 
 telling him of the increased portions he intended to settle 
 upon his grand-daughters, and the estates upon which he 
 meant to charge them, Sir Thomas made objections upon the 
 ground that they were old abbey lands, which he said “ never 
 thrived with the owners, but like a moth, little by little 
 insensibly eat up the rest of their estates.” Sir John, however, 
 at length satisfied him, by promising to settle other estates 
 instead. 
 
474 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 Another and the most severe storm raised by the enemy 
 against Sir John, came from a source he least suspected, viz., 
 a discontentment felt by Lady Warner at the Order of the 
 Poor Clares, and a strong temptation of trying another Order, 
 where she could practice greater austerities, &c. This was, in 
 fact, the last and most desperate assault of the enemy upon her 
 vocation ; but it was happily and victoriously overcome, by 
 means of Father Thomas Worsley, who had been her director 
 at Liege, and who was sent expressly to Gravelines to confer 
 with her. He did so with such success, that she was restored 
 to peace of soul, and finally confirmed in her vocation ; living 
 and dying in the same holy convent at Gravelines. 
 
 Father Clare having now finally settled all his affairs, 
 returned to Belgium, and having made the usual retreat under 
 Father Thomas Worsley, made his first, or simple vows of 
 religion in the church of the Poor Clares, before Father Worsley, • 
 on the ist of November, 1667. 
 
 Lady Warner died 26th January, 1670. Her two daughters 
 entered the convent of the English Benedictine Dames at 
 Dunkirk. 
 
 We now proceed to give the lives of two glorious martyrs, 
 of this College, viz. 
 
 1. Father Thomas Garnet, alias Rookwood, who was seized 
 on his way to Coldham Hall, Suffolk, the seat of the Rookwood 
 family, and martyred at Tyburn, the 23rd of June, 1608, aged 
 thirty-foilr. 
 
 2. Father Peter Wright, who suffered at Tyburn, the ^-fth 
 May, 1651. 
 
Father Thomas Garnet. 
 
 475 
 
 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM OF FATHER 
 THOMAS GARNET. 
 
 The Holy Catholic Church may be said to have its martyrs 
 and confessors in defence of every article of its Creed. 
 
 The noble martyr, St. Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, gave his life in defence of the temporal rights of 
 the See of Canterbury against the rapacity of a powerful 
 earthly monarch, who had long invaded them to the danger 
 and scandal of the Church of England. So did our blessed 
 martyr, Father Thomas Garnet, sacrifice himself by a more 
 ignominous death upon the gallows of Tyburn in defence of 
 the spiritual rights of the Sovereign Pontiff, in witness of his 
 supremacy or Headship of the Universal Church of God. A 
 new and more stringent form of the oath of allegiance and 
 supremacy than was known before, was forced upon all 
 Catholics in 1606. In this oath they were made to swear 
 (1) allegiance to James I., not only as their lawful King, but 
 as supreme head of the Church in England; (2) an open 
 and formal denial of the Headship of the Sovereign Pontiff 
 in all matters ecclesiastical. This no Catholic could take 
 without committing an overt act of apostacy. The Holy See 
 condemned this wicked oath ; and the prisons of England 
 were choked with Catholic recusants. Many, unhappily, worn 
 out by sufferings, and in order to save themselves and their 
 families from utter ruin, yielded and took the oath. The 
 lamentable example of the Rev. George Blackwell mainly 
 tended to produce this calamity. He was then in prison; 
 he fell, and drew a multitude after him. The expostulations 
 of the great Cardinal Bellarmine were in vain ; he was con- 
 demned by the Holy See, and removed from his office of 
 archpriest over the Catholics of England. 
 
 The members of the English province of the Society of 
 Jesus distinguished themselves by an unflinching support of 
 the Supreme Pastor against this act of iniquitous tyranny, and 
 drew upon themselves the utmost hatred and persecution 
 
476 
 
 Father Thomas Garnet. 
 
 both of Protestants, and of lax and nominal Catholics. The 
 Society had the special honour of giving, in the person of 
 Father Thomas Garnet, a glorious martyr in defence of this 
 righteous cause. His steadfast refusal to take the oath, or to 
 admit its lawfulness, was the main charge against him. It 
 was not his being a priest and a Jesuit, which, though capital 
 offences, were not proved by any sufficient legal evidence, 
 and would not have been publicly known unless he himself 
 had voluntarily admitted them. A singular circumstance 
 attended his execution ; in testimony both of the regard in 
 which he was held, and of the actual cause of his death. 
 A member of the Privy Council, Thomas Cecil, Earl of Exeter, 
 actually followed the martyr to the gallows, and repeatedly 
 urged him “just to take the oath,” and save his life, and this 
 in the King’s name. 
 
 After the martyrdom of Father Henry Garnet, who suffered 
 in St. Paul’s Churchyard on the 3rd of May, 1606, the members 
 of the English Province S.J., as also all priests throughout 
 the whole kingdom, like sheep scattered by the wolves when 
 the shepherd is stricken, were proscribed by the severest and 
 most exterminating edicts and punishments, contrary to the 
 solemn promises made by the King to his Catholic subjects 
 to whom both himself and his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, 
 were so deeply indebted. Amongst other measures was the 
 new oath we have briefly alluded to. All who were 
 detained in the prisons were banished from England. Father 
 Strange, however, of the Society of Jesus, was still detained, 
 and underwent most savage and barbarous treatment, decreed 
 against him by the Privy Council. For he was most cruelly racked 
 for the space of three days by the brutal Sir William Wade, rack- 
 master of the Tower; and for another three days so severely 
 tortured by iron manacles, that for the rest of his life he was 
 enfeebled, lame, afflicted with violent headaches, and a total 
 ruin of health. However, through the intercession of his 
 relations, he was eventually banished. 1 Amongst other cham- 
 pions in the same cause was Father George Wright, who suffered 
 severely in prison, and whose life is given in the History of the 
 College of St. Dominic , which follows this of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 Father Thomas was nephew of Father Henry Garnet, 
 and was born in London in the year 1574. His father, 
 Mr. Richard Garnet, “'a man above all praise,” says the 
 
 1 A short life of this confessor of the faith is intended to be given in 
 the History of the College of St. Ignatius, or the London District. 
 
Father Thomas Garnet. 
 
 4 77 
 
 writer of an eulogy of the martyr , 2 “ having more than 
 once confessed Christ with great constancy, both in chains, 
 and before the tribunals of judges and magistrates.” Mr. 
 Richard Garnet was a student at Oxford, where becoming 
 weary of the heresy into which the University had lapsed, 
 resolved to cross the seas and to prepare himself for the 
 priesthood by studying theology. He deferred putting his 
 plan into execution, and through this delay became involved 
 in the marriage state ; and in order to make some pious 
 compensation for his change of resolution, he vowed to con- 
 secrate his first-born son, should he have one, to Almighty 
 God and His great martyr, St. Thomas of Canterbury. This 
 he did, and named him Thomas, after that saint. The life of 
 Richard Garnet may be said to have been rather a tissue of 
 afflictions rather than of days, from his youth to his death ; 3 
 so much so, that Catholics were accustomed to say of him 
 and of his son Thomas, that they had made a good division of 
 favours between themselves ; the father a confessor of the 
 Faith by the testimony of his sufferings on its account, and 
 the son by martyrdom in its defence. As to Richard Garnet, 
 he was the first, or amongst the first, who boldly came forth 
 into the battle-field to sustain and defend the honour of 
 religion against all the oppressions with which Queen Elizabeth 
 attacked it in Oxford, where he studied, and had already 
 graduated in philosophy, with a reputation for distinguished 
 ability and learning. 
 
 A Court of Inquisition had been opened in Oxford to 
 punish and to plunder Catholics ; and having found in the 
 college room of Richard a statue of the most Blessed Virgin, 
 Mother of God, it was seized by these ministers of justice, 
 and carried in mock solemn procession through the most 
 frequented streets of Oxford, amidst the scoffs and blasphemies 
 of the people, until eventually the judges of this new tribunal 
 condemned it to the flames. Richard accompanied the statue 
 of our Blessed Lady, receiving with such great modesty and 
 joy of countenance the cursings and affronts that assailed him 
 on every side, that the very sight of him was in itself a rebuke 
 to the insane fury of the rabble. Having arrived at the court, 
 followed by a great crowd of all kinds of persons attracted by 
 curiosity, he there, before that dreaded tribunal, spoke in 
 
 2 Collectio C ar dwell i, Vitce Martyr , etc. Varia, S.J., P.R.O. Brussels, 
 vol. ii. p. 277. 
 
 3 Bartoli, Inghilterra , lib. vi. c. xv. 
 
478 
 
 Father Thomas Garnet. 
 
 favour of the cultus shown to holy images with such great 
 fervour of spirit and truth of reasoning, that a considerable 
 part of the students and other members of the University who 
 had been present, returned home impressed with worthier 
 sentiments of the ancient traditions and usages of the Catholic 
 Church. Nevertheless, the judges put him in prison, from 
 whence being afterwards liberated by means of his friends, 
 on condition of perpetual expulsion from Oxford, he came to 
 London, and there studied jurisprudence. Nor did this change 
 for any length of time tend to better his fortunes, seeing that 
 for nearly forty years he remained continually exposed to all 
 the dangers and assaults aimed at the Catholic recusants. He 
 was often thrust into prison, more frequently spoiled of his 
 property; continually under the surveillance of spies, and in 
 the more rapacious hands of commissioners; whilst he him- 
 self ever remained constant in his confession of the Faith, 
 and endurance of these afflictions. 4 
 
 Such was Richard Garnet, the worthy parent, and the 
 good instructor, both by word and example, of his son Thomas. 
 Like a careful father, and that nothing might be omitted that 
 would tend to a fulfilment of his child’s dedication, he kept 
 him at home, and there gave him a good primary education, 
 especially well grounding him in the articles of the Catholic 
 faith. When he was sixteen years of age, in order to remove 
 him out of the way of all danger, he sent him to St. Omers, in 
 Belgium, where a College for English youth had been lately 
 opened by the English members of the Society of Jesus. 
 Here he made his humanity studies with great success, and 
 in the end of the year 1595, went to the English College at 
 Valladolid, lately founded by Father Robert Parsons for the 
 use of the English Catholic youth, debarred as they were 
 from all education at home, and obtaining it abroad under the 
 ban of the same penal proscriptions. Here for the space of 
 four years Thomas Garnet made his higher studies of philo- 
 sophy and divinity ; when, his health beginning to suffer from 
 the insalubrity of the climate, change of air being necessary, 
 and having nearly completed his course of divinity, he was 
 ordained priest, having just attained the canonical age of 
 twenty-five. He was sent back to England in company with 
 Father Mark Backworth, a priest of the Order of St. Benedict, 
 who afterwards suffered martyrdom for his Faith, with Father 
 Roger Filcock, S.J., and the pious widow, Mrs. Anne Line, on 
 4 Bartoli, Inghilterra> ut supra. 
 
Father Thomas Garnet. 
 
 479 
 
 the same day, the 27th of February, 1601, at Tyburn gallows. 
 In the English vineyard Father Garnet laboured for about 
 six years, reaping a good harvest of souls, both by word and 
 example. He was especially industrious in bringing those 
 under his care to a thorough sense of solid piety. So powerful 
 was his ministry, that several persons in the married state, 
 and who by age, birth, and fortune were fitted to enjoy the 
 world, embraced the evangelical counsels, and consecrated 
 themselves to God by voluntary vows. But turning his mind 
 to a life of higher sanctity, he applied to his uncle, Father 
 Henry Garnet, then Superior, to admit him to the Society 
 of Jesus, which he had long desired to enter. To this he 
 was chiefly attracted by observing that its members were the 
 foremost defenders of the rights of the Holy See against the 
 new and ungodly oath of allegiance and supremacy, which 
 had been condemned by the Supreme Pastor of the Church. 
 He observed, too, that upon them and their friends every effort 
 was made to cast all the odium of its rejection. This conduct 
 towards the Society inflamed him all the more ardently with a 
 desire of entering it, especially when he saw that nothing was 
 further removed from their practices and habits than the things 
 falsely laid to their charge. Father Garnet most readily 
 complied with his request, and admitted him on the 29th of 
 September, 1604. He was about to send him into Belgium 
 to make his usual two years’ probation at the noviceship, 
 when the Gunpowder Plot broke out, and Father Thomas, 
 though most innocent, being suspected, and all the ports 
 and outlets of the kingdom being strictly guarded, so that 
 escape became impossible, was seized with his uncle, though 
 they were confined in different prisons — the former in the 
 Gatehouse, Westminster, the latter in the Tower of London. 
 The fact of his being a relative of Father Henry Garnet, and 
 the circumstances attending an intercepted letter written by 
 Father Henry in the Tower to his nephew in the Gatehouse, 
 led to his being strictly examined by Cecil concerning the 
 Gunpowder Plot, and that under severe threats of the rack. 
 Cecil being enraged at having drawn nothing from Father 
 Thomas to injure his uncle’s cause, looking him in the face 
 with a terrible countenance, said, “ I advise you rather yourself 
 to tell me of your treasons, or else I will take care to draw out 
 a confession from your mouth at your fingers’ ends,” meaning 
 to say, by force of tortures, by thumbscrews, and the rack. 
 Unable, however, to discover any ground whatever for a 
 
480 
 
 Father Thomas Garnet. 
 
 suspicion even of his being at all cognizant of the plot, they pro- 
 ceeded no further, but kept him in the Tower, whither he had 
 been removed, for eight or nine months in close confinement. 
 Here, by lying on the bare, damp, and frozen ground in his 
 loathsome cell, in the severest season of the winter, he con- 
 tracted rheumatic pains and a kind of sciatica, which afflicted 
 him for the remainder of his life. 
 
 Father John Gerard, in his Narrative of the Gunpowder 
 Plot, alludes to the above letter of Father Henry Garnet to 
 his nephew and the consequent removal of the latter from 
 the Gatehouse to the Tower . 5 Amongst other stratagems, 
 says Father Gerard, resorted to by the Lord Chief Justice 
 and the Attorney-General to entrap Father Henry Garnet, 
 his keeper, who alone was allowed to see him, was directed 
 to feign himself much moved with his behaviour and 
 words (as indeed they were sufficient to move a better 
 and wiser man than him that had not been without grace), 
 and to pretend that he began to be much inclined and 
 almost won to the Catholic faith, and in the meantime 
 to show himself very friendly, and promise to be faithful to 
 Father Garnet in anything wherein he might do him service. 
 And the fellow was so cunning in this art of cozenage, and 
 set so fair a gilt upon his copper, that the good father, being 
 full of charity, “which believeth all things, hopeth all things ,” 5 
 did hope the best of his mind, though he meant not to trust 
 him so far as might greatly endanger either himself or others 
 until he had better trial. But yet he made use of his offer 
 so far as to send by him some notes of ordinary matters (as 
 the fellow might think) ; first unto a prisoner in the Gate- 
 house, a virtuous priest, and his kinsman of his own name, 
 unto whom he sent a short letter concerning some necessaries 
 that he wanted, which letter being written with ordinary ink, 
 he wrote besides in the margin, and in the free parts of the 
 paper, some other things with the juice of orange, which could 
 not be seen without holding to the fire, and would not have 
 been suspected if the letter had only by casualty come to the 
 light. But this faithless messenger, opposing his malice to 
 the father’s charity, carried the letter presently to be scanned, 
 which imported, besides the writing in black, a brief relation 
 of the father’s estate, the effect of his examination, and that 
 he was so clear of the Powder, that it could not be proved 
 
 5 See Father Morris, Condition of Catholics, pp. 166, 167. 
 
Father Thomas Garnet. 
 
 497 
 
 hang until dead, by the order and kindness of the Earl Cecil 
 (who had during the martyr’s address frequently forbidden 
 any interruptions), and the favour of the people. Three or 
 four friendly persons were permitted to draw him down by 
 the feet with all their strength, to assist and hasten his 
 release from suffering, and to put him beyond all danger of 
 the most terrible part of the sentence, the being cut down 
 alive, and in that state disembowelled and quartered, accord- 
 ing to the Statute for high treason. Amongst these was a 
 Protestant relative of the martyr, whom the Father was 
 observed with one hand to motion away from him, and with 
 the other to bless him; then fixing upon him a glance suffi- 
 cient to distinguish him from the rest, he closed his eyes 
 and expired. Other criminals were executed after him for 
 various offences ; but the crowd of spectators, who were 
 attracted to the scene by the Father’s known reputation, 
 and to see a man voluntarily dying as a martyr to the oath, 
 returned back to London. Protestants were also heard to 
 praise him highly. But whilst the executioner was engaged 
 in quartering the body for the purpose of affixing the quarters 
 to the gates of the city, a person came up with disordered 
 hair, dressed in a green habit, like a wild man of the woods. 
 This was in fact one Mr. William Atkinson, whose great love 
 and esteem for Father Thomas Garnet had induced him to 
 assume that strange guise to prevent his being discovered. 
 Addressing the executioner, and telling him that the relatives 
 of this poor convict were in straitened circumstances, he 
 induced him to make a bargain for no great sum for the 
 martyr’s clothes and some portions of his flesh, which they 
 wished to obtain as a memorial. But Mr. Atkinson, with- 
 out knowing it, was really purchasing his own life. Not 
 long afterwards, being overtaken by a strange and most fatal 
 disease, and already given over by the physicians, he felt 
 within himself a great confidence of being cured by invoking 
 the aid of his friend Father Thomas. This he did with 
 much affection, placing the relics upon his breast, and felt 
 at once a most salutary relief, insomuch that the next day 
 he had strength to make a journey upon some necessary 
 affairs of business . 13 
 
 13 In the choir of the Church of the College of the English Fathers at 
 St. Omers, up to the 16th of October, 1762, when the College was violently 
 taken from them by the Parliament of Paris, was a cupboard containing 
 the remains of Father Thomas Garnet and Father Peter Wright, martyred 
 
 GG 
 
498 
 
 Father Thomas Garnet. 
 
 Father Thomas Garnet was in his thirty-fourth year. Stow, 
 in his Chronicles , thus honourably preserves the memory of 
 the martyr. “On the 23rd of June, 1608, in the sixth year 
 of the reign of King James, Thomas Garnet was executed 
 at Tyburn, being offered his life if he would accept the oath 
 of allegiance ; but he refused both the one and the other.” 
 
 It is said that on the Earl of Exeter, and others also, 
 relating to the King the beautiful death of Father Thomas 
 Garnet, and the prayer he offered to God for his Majesty, 
 James complained of and condemned the imprudence of the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, and 
 said they were badly advised in making choice, for putting 
 to death on account of refusing the oath, a man that could 
 exhibit to the people so glorious a spectacle of his virtues. 
 But his happy death was more worthily celebrated at the 
 Novitiate of St. John’s, Louvain, where the martyr was the 
 first to consecrate himself to God on the feast of the Visitation 
 of our Lady, 1607. A public act of thanksgiving to God, 
 and a lasting commendation and memory of his virtues, formed 
 there a tribute from fervent souls to him who so gloriously reigns 
 above, among the patrons and intercessors of the Church 
 militant, and of his own loved Society. 
 
 In a letter of Father Michael Walpole to Father Robert 
 Parsons, dated 26th of July, 1608, of which a copy is sub- 
 joined, it is stated : “ This blessed martyr’s death seemeth to 
 have silenced the Parliament oath, as his good uncle’s did the 
 Gunpowder treason.” 
 
 The following interesting original relation of Mr. Masten, 
 who was evidently the Protestant chaplain of Newgate, is 
 preserved in the Stonyhurst MSS., Anglia, vol. iii. n. 84. 
 
 “ Being necessarily urged out of the duty of humanity to 
 show what courteous attendance I might to the last rest of 
 Mr. Garnet, I rose at six in the morning to wish his last 
 light blessed to him. I found him at his prayers, but yet 
 in no such extraordinary devotion but that it seemed his 
 peace was confidently made with heaven long before. This 
 morning’s orisons being ended, suddenly he began to discourse 
 
 in 1651, 19th of May, at Tyburn, and of nine secular priests who had 
 suffered for religion. The cupboard bore this inscription — Rcliquia SS. 
 nondum approbate et nionumenta virorum pice memories. Father Wright’s 
 body was removed to Liege (Dr. Oliver, Collect. S.J. p. 101.) 
 
Father Thomas Garnet . 
 
 499 
 
 upon the day on which he died, zealously protesting much 
 devotion to St. Ethelred, the saint of that day, who being 
 twice married yet died a virgin, and (said he) since one of 
 my wives is chastity, I hope for the powerful mediation of 
 so blessed a maid. His eye was filled of extraordinary cheer- 
 fulness, which the night before I saw once wet only (as himself 
 testified), and all men might justly witness, for fear lest he 
 should not suffer the next day, but that some unwished 
 mediation would hinder him from the sudden accomplishment 
 of his reputed most glorious service to the Catholic Church. 
 I shall never forget his words, which have been in effect 
 these : 4 Oh/ quoth he, ‘ have I through the mighty aid of 
 the unresistible care of heaven happily passed through two 
 guards, and shall the least and weakest detain me from 
 entering into the palace of the blessed ? Alas ! 5 said he, 
 here zealous people have searched for rags from me, intending 
 to keep them as monuments of piety ; what a derision were 
 it to my readiness, and what a wrong to my holy resolution 
 to put me now back from my most expected service. I shall 
 account it the most heavy affliction I ever had sent me, 
 if I should now be reputed as unworthy to suffer for His 
 testimony/ This over night. 
 
 “ But the next morning, hearing of no hindrances to his 
 hopes, I protest he appeared to me risen with trebled spirits. 
 Certainly, for the little space I knew him, I never saw him 
 appear so full of life, and almost miraculous cheerfulness. 
 He distributed to the officers of the house liberally, and would 
 have given more, but (said he) ‘ I fear the hangman will be 
 angry if he find no more money in my purse/ 
 
 “ For my own part, protesting my inability to strengthen 
 his soul, and my want of learning to dissuade him from any 
 opinion, I desired him somewhat to comfort his body against 
 the last encounter, whereupon he asked for a caudle, but 
 remembering it was fasting day he recalled it, and only drank 
 some burnt wine. After he had washed he drank, and used 
 some passionate ejaculations; he appeared to me more like 
 a bridegroom that went with a raised affection to his espousals, 
 than a feeling man bound to the knife of the executioner. 
 Something he spake so humbly of his own perfections and 
 weak deservings, that no Protestant, nay, I think no man 
 but himself can worthily recite them. Therefore I omit to 
 repeat what my unworthiness shall much wrong to recite. 
 For his outward appearance in the morning he suffered, I 
 GG 2 
 
500 
 
 Father Thomas Garnet . 
 
 dare not, I protest, speak freely whom my imagination per- 
 suaded me he thoroughly resembled. Certainly unto the hour 
 of his departure he seemed full of a most willing affability, 
 holy modesty, more than human patience, and most unshakened 
 constancy. At his departure one of the sheriffs, whose name 
 I know not, but he seemed a man of much humanity, brought 
 a young divine to confer with him. A loose skirmish of words 
 passed betwixt them, and to my weak understanding they 
 appeared like wrestlers who rather caught for advantage to 
 take hold, than with plain and clear strength to overthrow. 
 At the last the divine persuaded Mr. Garnet not to wrong 
 the State in proclaiming at his death that he suffered for 
 religion, when assuredly he suffered for treason ; to which he 
 answered with an humble smile and a self-like modesty, ‘ Sir, 
 he that obeys his Prince is no traitor ; I obey my Prince, and 
 am therefore no traitor. 5 The minor, being desired, he pro- 
 ceeded : £ Obedience is twofold, active and passive. The law 
 is, if thou returnest thou shalt die. I render myself most 
 dutifully, my body to my King and my soul to my God — so 
 Caesar hath that which belongeth to Caesar. 5 With this, him- 
 self hastening the sheriff, and confessing his priesthood and 
 his holy Order of Jesus 5 Society, with an astonishing cheer- 
 fulness, he departed, and took his hurdle which he blessed, 
 and then with an unabated resolution lay down and was drawn 
 from our eyes, when we with poor prisoners, helpless pity, 
 only swam in tears after him. 55 
 
 The two following letters are written by Father Michael 
 Walpole, under his assumed name of Martin Becann, addressed 
 to Father Robert Parsons, under the name of Marco Mercante, 
 Venice. Anglia , vol iii. n. 86. 
 
 “Good Sir, — I cannot choose but take this fit occasion 
 of signifying to you the happy martyrdom of Mr. Thomas 
 Garnet, though I doubt not but you shall hear of it by many 
 other means. Yesterday, the 23rd of June, and St. John 
 Baptist’s eve, after our account, about nine of the clock, he 
 was drawn from Newgate to Tyburn upon a hurdle, as the 
 custom is. In his countenance he discovered much joy and 
 comfort, as before also in the prison he had shown extra- 
 ordinary forwardness to the sheriff and minister that were 
 with him in the morning. Yet though his desire of suffering 
 in so glorious a cause was exceeding great, his carriage was 
 
Father Thomas Garnet. 
 
 50i 
 
 so mild and moderate that it was offensive to none, but gave 
 exceeding great contentment and satisfaction to all. They 
 had exceeding little matter against him, but would willingly 
 have falsified his examination, at which he took exception in 
 the Sessions House, especially about the point of murdering. 
 There were about one thousand at his execution, more than 
 three hundred horses, and three coaches, in one of the which 
 was my Lord of Exeter, who spoke with him willingly half 
 an hour and used him very well, seeming to remain satisfied; 
 he spake divers times that he might not be interrupted either 
 in his speech or prayers, and likewise that he might not be 
 cut down till he was dead. The effect of his speech was 
 to declare his profession that he was a priest and Jesuit, 
 fighting under the banner of J esus ; that he had been well 
 nigh nine years in England, in which time all his endeavours 
 had been only to instruct and help such as he found disposed 
 in things appertaining to their salvation, without intermeddling 
 himself with any other affairs; that he was most ready to 
 show all lawful allegiance to his Majesty, and that he had 
 divers times offered to take his oath of allegiance, and that 
 now he had brought with him the form of the oath which 
 was heretofore taken by all loyal subjects in this realm, and 
 that he was now also prepared to take it ; but he found that 
 this new oath, which is by some called the oath of allegiance, 
 had many other things mingled in it which no Catholic could 
 take with a safe conscience. He prayed for the King, &c., 
 and in particular forgave Rouse and Cross, which were the 
 cause of his apprehension, the Bishop of London and Sir 
 W. Wade, who were the chief urgers of his condemnation 
 and death, and especially the latter ; and finally he beseeched 
 God that he might see all that were present in heaven. He 
 likewise protested that he esteemed himself the happiest man 
 in the world at that present, howsoever it might seem other- 
 wise in the eyes of others. Having ended his speech he 
 fell to his prayers, pronouncing the Pater , Ave, Credo , and 
 the Hymn of the Cross with a loud voice, and so the cart 
 was driven away ; and presently three or four ran in to weigh 
 him down, and the people cried hold, before anybody offered 
 either by word or deed to cut him down, and so he continued 
 till he was quite dead ; and then also no man seemed willing 
 to cut him down, but at length there was one with a Welsh 
 bill found out, who had withdrawn, and hidden his bill as 
 well as he could ; and so he was opened and quartered as 
 
502 
 
 Father Thomas Garnet. 
 
 the use is, and his quarters are set upon the gates. He 
 was offered and in a manner requested to take time to con- 
 sider of the oath till Michaelmas ; but he refused any such 
 respite, telling them he was altogether resolved, and therefore 
 they might assure themselves they should find him the same 
 man then as now. Surely the Catholic cause hath gotten 
 much by his glorious victory. It is wonderful how all sorts 
 agreed in his commendation at their return from his execution, 
 which the most part of the better sort did presently, not 
 expecting the rest; there were some coiners and women to 
 die. This is the brief narration of this glorious martyr, to 
 whose merits and prayers I humbly commend myself. 
 
 “The Spanish Ambassador is exceedingly troubled with 
 these courses. Mr. Blackwell sayeth that Mr. Garnet is a 
 glorious man, but I am afraid he will still be miserable. 
 
 “ D. L . 14 was in some trouble these days past. I was 
 then out of town, and returned not till the night of her 
 delivery. Some blame her of indiscretion, but as she relateth 
 the matter she could hardly excuse anything, she said, and 
 besides spake it with such circumstances and moderation that 
 the hearers took no offence at those words which are most 
 blamed, but only at her being Catholic, and giving so good 
 and resolute reasons of her faith. My Lord Treasurer, who 
 was informed thereof, was content to take an occasion to 
 make the Ambassador beholden to him, to which end he 
 urged these speeches in the worst sense, which troubled the 
 Ambassador, and made him also incline to condemn her the 
 more, to prevent the like occasions hereafter, and if he might, 
 with her departure out of this country. But it will be very 
 hard for him to draw her to, and besides not necessary for 
 that he desireth, for which it is sufficient that she be more 
 wary hereafter, as she will be ; and not to give him offence, 
 hath abstained from visiting Mr. Garnet in the prison, or being 
 present at his death, both which otherwise she would have 
 presumed ; and now she did all that was possible for her 
 to do in absence. You may do well to comfort and animate 
 her, for so she deserveth, and would be grieved to see her 
 friends forsake her to give content to others by hindering her 
 in her best courses, so long desired, and now at length 
 
 14 This was the pious Spanish lady, Dona Louisa de Carvajal y 
 Mendoza. See her Life, by Lady Georgiana Fullerton (Quarterly Series, 
 vol. vi. c. v.). 
 
Father Thomas Garnet. 
 
 503 
 
 obtained in great part, and as she hopeth, at length to be 
 accomplished, of which these accidents are no bad 
 signs. 
 
 “ Thus wishing you all happiness, I always rest, 
 
 “ Yours most assuredly at command, 
 
 “ Martin Becann. 
 
 “ (For mark.) 
 
 “ The 24th of June, 1608 (S.V.).” 
 
 Same to same. Anglia , vol. iii. n. 88. 
 
 “ Good Sir, — I have yours of the 5th of this, since which 
 time I doubt not you have received the happy martyrdom of 
 Mr. Garnet, of whom I wrote at large, and yet now think good 
 to add this more — that it is credibly reported that he being 
 cast from the ladder, among others that ran to pull and weigh 
 him down, one was a kinsman of his, but Protestant, whom he 
 put a \yay with one hand and blessed with the other, and withal 
 opened his eyes and looked upon him. This is reported from 
 the party himself. Likewise the evening before his execution, 
 he signified to his keeper and divers others of good credit, 
 that my Lord Salisbury had caused him, before his banishment, 
 to set his hand to a paper as coming from Mr. Henry Garnet, 
 in which there were many things added most untrue and pre- 
 judicial to others, as he perceived after he had set to his hand ; 
 and though he disclaimed from them, yet the paper was kept, 
 and may perhaps be produced hereafter, for the prevention of 
 which he discovered this much, and meant to have done the 
 like at his execution, if he might have had time ; but he was 
 cut off, and some think the going of my Lord of Exeter thither 
 was chiefly for this purpose. Well, this blessed martyr’s death 
 seemeth to have silenced the Parliament oath, as his good 
 uncle’s did the gunpowder treason. Though still the priests in 
 the Clink persevere, and Mr. Warnington as forward as any, 
 that is as Mr. Blackwell, Mr. Charnock, or Mr. Heburn, who 
 still stand in the defence of themselves and their faculties ; and 
 they give out that the doctors of Sorbonne are wholly for them. 
 But the Council inclineth rather to find out some new form, in 
 which Mr. Pugh hath holpen them well, for he hath presented 
 a form in the name of all the clergy, which the most mislike, 
 and none, or very few, will adventure to approve, till they hear 
 from Rome. The three priests in the Gatehouse are coura- 
 
504 
 
 Father Thomas Garnet . 
 
 geous, for Mr. Molineux, alias Almond, 15 is in Mr. Garnett’s 
 place. 
 
 “ And thus, wishing you all happiness, I ever rest your 
 most assuredly, 
 
 “ Martin Becann. 
 
 “ This 26th of July, 1608 (S. V.) 
 
 Address — “A 1 motto Magg. Sigor. il Signor Opim, Marco 
 Mercante, in Vinegia.” 
 
 The following is a letter from Father Thomas Talbot, 
 Rector of the Novitiate S.J. Louvain, and the Novice Master 
 of the blessed Martyr, to Father Robert Parsons, Rector of the 
 English College, Rome (Anglia, vol. iii. n. 87) — 
 
 “ Rev. Father in Christ, — 
 
 “ Pax Christi. 
 
 “ I send you now our first fruits of this little garden of 
 St. John’s, viz., the martyrdom of Father Thomas Garnett, our 
 first novice , and the first which made his vows in our novitiate. 
 The particulars I cannot relate, but I make no doubt but 
 Father Baldwin will send them you. It is told us of those 
 which came out of England that he behaved himself most 
 constantly. And now, dear Father, you may consider what 
 joy we have had here at St. John’s, for this so happy news, and 
 what courage we receive to go forward in this our course begun, 
 whose event we see so happy. Certainly, as it hath pleased 
 Almighty God to bless our beginnings, so I hope He will con- 
 tinue, and that out of this little novitiate, which hath been 
 begun with such difficulties and contradictions, I hope He 
 will bring forth many Campions, many Southwells, and many 
 Garnetts, who for His honour and glory, and for defence of 
 His holy Church, and the authority of Peter and his successors, 
 shall not be afraid to testify that faith which we have received 
 of our forefathers, of the Apostles, of Christ Himself, and to 
 sign the same with their own blood, as this our happy Father 
 (in times past our fellow, but now a most glorious martyr, and 
 I hope our intercessor in heaven) hath done. Yesterday we 
 said the Te Deum in the Church, with the prayer of thanks- 
 giving, and I think there is none of us which would not be 
 partakers, not only of his glory, but also of his death and 
 
 15 This glorious martyr suffered at Tyburn on the 5th of December, 
 1612. See Bishop Challoner’s Memoirs. 
 
Father Thomas Garnet. 
 
 505 
 
 passion. I am sorry we cannot relate the particular circum- 
 stances, but I hope you shall have them from Father Baldwin. 
 And thus, my good Father, desiring your blessing, and that it 
 would please you to remember us in your prayers and holy 
 sacrifices, that we may better imitate the example of this 
 glorious martyr, I take my leave this 18th day of July, 1608. 
 
 “ Rae Vae, Servus in Christo, 
 
 “Thomas Talbott. 
 
 “ From Louvain, al motto Rev. &c., II Padre Rob. Personeo, 
 della Comp, di Gesu, Rettore dal Coll. Inglese, Roma.” 
 
 The following authors have treated of this Father — And : 
 Cadaemon, Apol. pro Garneto , c. 6 ; Relatio MS. in Coll. 
 Angl. in Roma ; Menol. S. J. MS. ; Ribad. in appendix ad 
 centum M.M. S.J. ; Petrus Oultremon, De viris Must. S.J.; 
 Jacobus Damianus, in Synop. S.J. 1 . 5. c. 26 ; Hil. de Coste, 
 Hist. Cath. 1 . 3. in Edm. Camp. (Gallice) ; John. Rho. variae 
 virt. hist. 1 . 1. c. 5 and 9 ; Elias de St. Ker, in legatione Eccl. 
 triump. 1 . 2. c. 30. n. 74; Tanner, Vita et mors Jesuitarum ; 
 Morns, Hist. Prov. Angl. ; Bartoli, Inghilterra. 
 
506 
 
 Father Peter Wright. 
 
 THE LIFE AND MARTYRDOM OF FATHER 
 PETER WRIGHT. 
 
 The following life of this blessed martyr, and truly noble 
 champion of Christ, is compiled chiefly from the relation of 
 Father Edward Courtney vere Leedes, entitled, Mors ob fidertt 
 P. Petri Wrighti , who was an eye witness of his martyrdom, and 
 wrote his account on the spot. This narrative was used by Bishop 
 Challoner in his Memoirs of Missionary Priests , and was also to 
 a great extent adopted by Father Tanner — Vita et mors 
 Jesuitarum pro fide interfectorum. We have also made use of a 
 long and exceedingly interesting report written by Father 
 Francis Foster, who was the Provincial at the time, and in 
 London, and also wrote upon the spot. This letter is pre- 
 served in the Annual Letters of the English Province, 1651-52. 
 Litter oe N P. Provincialis Anglia* , S. J. ad socios in partibus 
 transmarinis agentes , de felici morte P. P. Petri Wrighti ejusdem 
 Societatis Londini ob fidem ccesi 29 Maii , (s.n.) 1651. Some 
 additional facts are also given from Father Tanner’s Vita et 
 Mors y &c., and Florus Anglo-BavaricuSy p. 84. Four interest- 
 ing letters of the Father, written a few years before his death 
 to another Father, of the Society are also annexed. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HIS EARLY LIFE IN THE WORLD. 
 
 Father Peter Wright was a native of the parish of Slipton, 
 Northamptonshire, about three miles distant from Thrapston. 
 He was born in the year 1603, of poor, but respectable parents, 
 who were zealous Catholics. His father, though unable to 
 bequeath him a rich patrimony, took care to bestow upon him 
 the better inheritance of a good education in the local schools $ 
 and the talents and disposition he there displayed gave no 
 small augury that he would one day become a priest and 
 Religious. His father was carried off by a premature death, 
 
Father Peter Wright . 
 
 507 
 
 leaving behind him a large family, thirteen in number. Sum- 
 moning his family to his bedside when dying, he earnestly 
 exhorted them to perseverance in the faith and the orthodox 
 Catholic religion. Peter was then entering upon manhood. 
 Compelled by his mother’s poverty to seek his own living, he 
 left home and engaged himself in the service of a country 
 lawyer, in whose employment he became tainted rather than 
 imbued with heretical and depraved opinions. He spent ten 
 years in this situation, ever nourishing the fond hope of better- 
 ing his fortunes, and at last of making a rich marriage with 
 a lady of rank who was residing in his patron’s family. The 
 lawyer, however, suspecting what was in contemplation, sent 
 the lady to another place, and thus frustrated the match. 
 Peter took this heavy disappointment so much to heart, that 
 leaving both his patron and his house, he turned his thoughts 
 to a different kind .of life. His father’s dying exhortations 
 began to rise up like spectres before his mind, and so vehe- 
 mently knocked at the door of his troubled heart, that like 
 a sheep long wandering in error, he began to look about 
 for a return to the fold of the Church. By means of a Catholic 
 sister, he was introduced to a pious priest, by whose whole- 
 some advice and opportune instructions, he was much streng- 
 thened in his desires ; but he was not as yet standing upon 
 firm ground, being carried away by the unsteadiness of youth. 
 For one day he allowed himself imprudently to be persuaded 
 to enlist in the English forces serving in Holland, although 
 naturally he had a horror of the dangers of a military life. 
 This resolution was so sudden, and, when taken, so hastily 
 executed, that he did not return home to settle his affairs, and 
 left everything to the mercy of the first comer. This would 
 have been about 1626-27. But, while he was thus carried 
 away by his owm impetuosity, Providence was the while 
 working out its own designs to bring him through storms 
 to shelter. His innate disposition to virtue could ill 
 brook the licentiousness of a soldier’s life and the de- 
 praved manners of a camp. Therefore, before a month 
 was over, disgusted with this kind of life, he sighed after some 
 Catholic land, where he might enlist in the more hallowed 
 camps of the Church. As no safe opportunity offered itself, 
 he preferred to run the risk of cutting the rope, than to incur 
 delay by loosening it. Therefore, in open day, running off in 
 sight of the whole army, and amidst a shower of bullets, he 
 got on board a vessel in the Scheldt, and crossed over to 
 
508 
 
 Father Peter Wright. 
 
 the Brabant side, near the fortress of Santulier, where some 
 Spanish regiments were lying in ambush to prevent the enemy’s 
 passage. The fugitive was received by them with open arms, 
 and he now felt himself safe. He was accustomed to relate 
 how, upon his first arrival, he was greatly strengthened in his 
 opinions of the Catholic faith and of Catholics, by the striking 
 contrast he observed in the soldiers of the rank and file ; the 
 English, given to excessive drinking, while the Spaniards, 
 naturally grave, evidenced their piety and veneration for sacred 
 things. He was ever grateful to these preservers both of his 
 life and soul, and always entertained sentiments of the highest 
 regard and honour towards the nation. He then pursued his 
 journey towards Brussels, but found the road infested with 
 robbers, who stripping and plundering him of his clothes and 
 money, taught him a lesson, though yet but a mere tyro, to 
 bear the cross of his Master, despoiled of all. In this plight, 
 without cloak, sword, cap, or shoes, he entered the gates of 
 Brussels, and meeting a poor man of his otvn country he was 
 asked, whether in joke or earnest, he did not know, how much 
 money he had left in his purse. He replied, that he was not 
 very well equipped for his furlough; and his companion led him 
 to an obscure inn, where he was treated to a much more splen- 
 did supper than he could have hoped for from so poor a man. 
 He found this good man to be a Catholic, and was encouraged 
 and advised by him to make a pilgrimage to Rome, the seat of 
 religion. His friend also fitted him out the following day with 
 clothes, shoes, cap, and pilgrims’ staff for his journey; adding 
 likewise a supply of silver money for his pocket. Thus 
 equipped, by little short of a miracle, he pursued his way, and 
 called at the English College of the Society of Jesus at Liege, 
 where, on ringing at the bell, he found in the Brother Porter 
 a true physician of his soul. The Father Rector, on discovering 
 the talents of the youth, and his parents being likewise known, 
 was so prepossessed in his favour, that after duly instructing 
 and reconciling him to the Church, he sent him with letters of 
 commendation from the English residents of Liege, to Ghent 
 (1627). There he spent two years, supported by the pious 
 liberality of the same Catholics, in the Seminary of the Flemish 
 Fathers of the Society, and during that time displayed such 
 assiduity as to obtain to be readily chosen among the select 
 scholars who in the year 1629 were sent from the College of 
 St. Omers to the English College, Rome, for their higher 
 studies. 
 
509 
 
 Father Peter Wright . 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ENTERS THE SOCIETY OF JESUS. 
 
 Instead of proceeding to the English College, Rome, with the 
 rest of the scholars, Peter, having a short time before petitioned 
 for admission to the English Province of the Society of Jesus, 
 was sent to the Novitiate at Watten. This favour was received 
 by no unthankful heart or indocile will. The recent convert 
 entered on his noviceship with great fervour of spirit. His 
 universally tractable disposition, his ingenuous manners, and 
 robust strength, no less of mind than of body, seemed to 
 promise great efforts for the glory of God and his own sanc- 
 tification. In the first year of his probation, he had gained so 
 great a mastery over himself and his passions, that whereas he 
 was naturally hot tempered and hasty, he became from that 
 time distinguished for his tranquillity and evenness of temper, 
 his perfect self-control and self-contempt. From this time 
 also, until his ordination (says Father Tanner), he strove, by 
 enduring cold, want, and other voluntary austerities, to temper 
 his body for the enduring of future harder trials in England, 
 revolving in his mind nothing else than chains, racks, the 
 gallows, &c., to be undergone there for the cause of the faith. 
 He was also most ready in making excursions, even in the 
 depth of winter, to the neighbouring villages. As he clearly 
 predicted by these self-conquests his own future bloody 
 combat, so by catechising poor children he foreshadowed the 
 dexterity he was to acquire as a preacher. During the three 
 years of his theological studies at Liege, he continued with 
 great ardour the practice of catechising in the village churches 
 of the neighbouring country. So inflamed was his zeal for the 
 salvation of souls, that he petitioned to be allowed to make 
 only the three years, or short course of theology, so as to be 
 the sooner at liberty to enter upon missionary work. 
 
 This he succeeded in obtaining. Having gone through the 
 short course of divinity, he returned again to Ghent, the first 
 cradle of his new life, for the purpose of making his tertian- 
 ship, or third year of probation, according to the institute of 
 the Society. This third year is dedicated to the renewal 
 of fervour after the distractions of study, preparatory to 
 solemn profession. In the severe exercises of this period of 
 preparation, he exhibited himself no less a man, than in the 
 
510 Father Peter Wright. 
 
 Novitiate at Watten he had approved himself a novice of the 
 highest promise. His tertianship being ended, and with it 
 his religious education, he was sent forth upon the sacred 
 campaign of souls. His first employment, not the least trying 
 certainly, nor the least responsible, was that of prefect of 
 morals over the scholars in the College of the English 
 Province at St. Omers. He acknowledged that nothing could 
 be less consonant to his natural inclinations than this trying 
 office; but he made a generous sacrifice of his own will to 
 the will of God declared to him by his superiors ; and the 
 more perfectly to overcome his repugnance, after having 
 prostrated himself before God in prayer, he went to the 
 Father Rector of the College and generously offered to 
 continue prefect, if superiors thought proper, during the whole 
 of his life . 1 
 
 A more spacious field, however, for gathering in a rich 
 harvest of souls, awaited him in the camp, as missioner or 
 chaplain to the English forces in Belgium. Having been him- 
 self in the army, and possessing naturally a special talent for 
 winning the hearts of the soldiers, he joyfully undertook the 
 appointment. His soul had long since yearned for it, and 
 God so disposed it as a reward for his generous self-conquest 
 in the matter of the prefectship ; for within an hour after that 
 act of self-sacrifice he was admonished by the Father Provincial 
 to prepare for the camp mission. He was ever a stout defender 
 of the Catholic cause among all ; and when in active service, 
 whether on the battle field or at sieges, especially where the 
 struggle was carried on in the cause of religion, he refused no 
 labour, and shrank from no danger in the exercise of his 
 functions. So too, when the army was quiet in camp, or 
 resting in winter quarters, he assiduously laboured amongst 
 them, preaching, hearing confessions, comforting the sick, 
 making up quarrels, or relieving the wants of the more needy 
 soldiers, “ of whom,” says Father Courtney, “ there is nowa- 
 days enough in the army.” Hence he endeared himself to all, 
 both high and low, and so captivated their hearts, that he 
 found it no hard task to draw them to a better life, and very 
 many, forsaking heresy, he reconciled to the Catholic Church. 
 Before all others he especially won the affectionate regard 
 of Colonel Sir Henry Gage, a man cf deep and sagacious 
 
 1 The Father Rector at that time, about 1636-7, was most probably 
 Father Thomas Worsley, mentioned further on, who was actually present 
 at Tyburn, and assisted the blessed martyr at his execution. 
 
Father Peter Wright. 5 1 1 
 
 penetration. With unwearied zeal he served in camp for 
 upwards of seven years, partly in Belgium, partly in England, 
 in both equally approving himself by his industrious zeal 
 for souls. He witnessed the brilliant action of his colonel, 
 when Sir Henry was sent by King Charles by a forced 
 march to the relief of Basing House, the seat of the Marquis 
 of Winchester, the long siege of which by the parliamentary 
 army was raised. 
 
 Father Peter was introduced on this occasion to the 
 Marquis and his wife, who perceiving his virtue, gave him 
 an affectionate invitation to stay with them. This he willingly 
 accepted, with the desire of being at once a consolation to 
 them in affliction, and of some assistance in the care of souls. 
 He spent, therefore, the last years of his life as their chaplain. 
 During his residence with them in their house in London, 
 he did not confine himself to that family alone, but visited 
 other houses of the citizens and nobles, to whom he often 
 preached, and yet more frequently gave exhortations and 
 administered the holy sacraments, with constant exertion, and 
 regardless of danger. He had prepared two sermons shortly 
 before his death, upon the happiness of those who suffer for 
 Christ ; little thinking, perhaps, at the time, that he was so 
 soon to give them at the gallows an example more efficacious 
 than the words of a preacher . 2 
 
 Before detailing the seizure and final combat of Father 
 Wright, it will be necessary to notice the general state of 
 Catholic affairs in England. This may be done partly from 
 the letter of Father Francis Foster, the Provincial before 
 alluded to, partly from Father Courtneys Mors ob fidem 
 P. Wrighti , and partly from Father Tanner’s Vita et mors , &c. 
 Father Foster observes, that from the commencement of this 
 new republic in England, better times for the Catholics seemed 
 at length to dawn. Their fortunes were indeed still daily 
 exhausted by heavy pecuniary fines; yet, inasmuch as the 
 persecution to blood had ceased, they were able to breathe a 
 little, deeming themselves well off in so escaping. They were 
 permitted, by the connivance of the magistrates, a certain 
 freedom and impunity in the practice of the Catholic worship 
 in their private houses, the more unmolested exercise of which 
 they secured by weekly pecuniary agreements made with the 
 
 3 Among the Stonyhurst MSS. is a collection of Father Wright's 
 Sermons for the course of a year, sixty-two in number, averaging about 
 thirteen pages in each. 
 
512 
 
 Father Peter Wright . 
 
 officers themselves, and by constant bribes to keep them quiet, 
 and prevent these troublesome dogs from barking at the Lord’s 
 flock. The Catholics now entertained great hopes that this 
 calm might be lasting ; seeing that the Parliamentarians them- 
 selves affected to respect religious liberty. In addition to 
 this, a new treaty of peace then agitating with Spain greatly 
 tended, as was commonly believed, towards the tranquillity of 
 Catholic affairs. 
 
 Father Courtney observes that the pecuniary fines and the 
 severity of their exaction, on account of the Catholic faith, 
 was so far from ceasing, that this species of persecution never 
 tried the Catholics more severely than under the sway of the 
 new Parliament. Especially on the breaking out of the civil 
 war, partly from an insolent soldiery, and partly by the riotous 
 rabble, the houses of nearly all the Catholics were miserably 
 plundered and stripped, the owners ejected, while the houses 
 themselves were despoiled, shattered, and in many instances 
 levelled to the ground. Nor were cases wanting in which the 
 most respectable families, and ancient nobility, driven from 
 their ancestral seats, were obliged, by flight through woods and 
 out-of-the-way spots to seek the most secluded hiding-places. 
 These enormities werefperpetrated simply by the popular fury, 
 without any authority of the magistrates, nor legal warrant, 
 except perchance in the case of the nobles who were of the 
 royal party, against whom the Parliamentary soldiers raged 
 more brutally. In the meantime it was decreed in Parliament, 
 under the tyrannical domination of the Calvinistic party, that 
 the most savage penal laws against the Catholics from the 
 time of Henry VIII., the rigorous execution of which seemed 
 to have been for a short period suspended by King Charles, 
 should be strictly enforced. It was no sooner said than done ; 
 all the prisons were filled with Catholics of every rank and 
 condition ; and when these were so crammed that they could 
 hold no more, then for want of other places they had to resort 
 to the Thames, and the very ships themselves were converted 
 into prisons for the innocent upholders of the ancient faith. 
 But such as were arraigned at the tribunals, and convicted of 
 having taken Holy Orders abroad, were condemned to death. 
 Instead of the effusion of blood, a more severe torture was 
 inflicted upon the laity ; they were stripped of half of their 
 goods, real and personal, and thus prevented from taking up 
 arms for the King : for being thus deprived of their property, 
 a fifth part being reserved for the support of their wives and 
 
Father Peter Wright. 
 
 5i3 
 
 families, they were totally ruined. Lastly, even the goods and 
 earnings of many were either mercilessly forfeited to the 
 Commonwealth, or sold by public auction. 
 
 The Catholics groaned under these intolerable burthens, 
 when, beyond all expectation, a new faction emerged from the 
 camp, called Independents ; by whose influence an army was 
 marched upon London, the purely Calvinistic party 3 either ex- 
 pelled from power, or forced to submit, and another form of 
 government in Church and State introduced. It seemed good 
 to the Independent party to grant liberty of conscience, and 
 to punish no one on the sole account of religion. The new 
 government, therefore, showed more moderation towards 
 Catholics in matters of faith, abstained from shedding the 
 blood of the priests, and from interfering with the Mass and 
 the accustomed Catholic religious ceremonies. The seeds of 
 a solid and permanent peace seemed to have been sown, and 
 this was strengthened by an agreement made with the pursuivants 
 and priest-hunters three years before, for an exemption, by 
 money payments, from their usual vexations. It is incredible 
 how great a relief and breathing-time this interval of lenity, 
 short as it was, afforded the afflicted Catholics. Although they 
 had little relief from the heavy pecuniary exactions, by which 
 many were reduced to poverty, yet the fact that they could 
 now with somewhat more security enjoy the private exercise 
 of their holy religion reconciled them to all the rest, and made 
 everything comparatively tolerable. Many, however, suspected, 
 and too truly perhaps, as the succeeding calamities attest, that 
 this act of lenity in favour of the recusants was not sincere, 
 but was rather a trap whereby the more surely to discover the 
 Catholics, who were certain to make an ample use of the 
 concession. 
 
 Further hopes were entertained from the repeal during 
 the past year of certain penal laws formerly enacted against 
 Catholic recusants, or those who refused to attend the Pro- 
 testant churches. The renewal of a firmer friendship between 
 the King of France and the Parliament came to crown this 
 hope. Don Alfonsus de Cardenas, the French Ambassador, was 
 first among the foreign representatives to acknowledge in the 
 name of his sovereign the new republic ; and from this recog- 
 nition, as a sort of diversion, all Catholics hoped to derive a 
 benefit. 
 
 This interval of repose lasted but three months. The very 
 3 Probably the Presbyterians are here included. 
 
 HH 
 
5H 
 
 Father Peter W right. 
 
 day before the French Ambassador was going to the Senate, to 
 demand his credentials (it was Christmas Day, 1650), an armed 
 and lawless body of soldiers attacked his residence, and by 
 the terror and dismay they caused, broke up the Christmas 
 devotions of the Catholics, who w^ere assembled there in 
 considerable numbers to hear Mass. On the first alarm the 
 priest withdrew, and unvesting himself passed through the 
 dense crowd, and so escaped. The soldiers had chosen that 
 festival day, and at that hour, in the certainty of finding and 
 arresting the priest. They made a most minute search, but, 
 being disappointed in their expected prey, they arrested 
 numbers of the Catholics, men and women, young and old, 
 and even the Ambassador himself and other French nobles 
 of his suite, who were detained prisoners for some hours. 
 After a few days, the Ambassador was ordered to depart 
 the kingdom. It was generally considered by the Catholics 
 that this first tumult was directed rather against the French 
 than themselves, until the Feast of the Epiphany, 1651, when 
 the residence of Count Egmond (who was formerly Spanish 
 Ambassador), was attacked by a like lawless and furious force, 
 and similar violence used, amidst the alarm and tears of the 
 Catholics, who were desolated at seeing the sacred furniture, 
 the pictures, crucifixes, &c., carried off. These, with the 
 Catholics who had been apprehended, were paraded through 
 the streets with the greatest indignity. It was now obviously 
 a revival of malicious and undying hatred against the Catholic 
 faith. All doubt on this point was removed when the faithless 
 pursuivants, who had shortly before received their usual peace- 
 offering, again resumed their work of priest-hunting. They 
 conducted this with such severity that none, even of the 
 leading nobility, eluded their quest. No house escaped ; and 
 these scrutinies were generally made on festivals, not once, but 
 repeatedly ; the searches being pertinacious and indefatigable. 
 To make things worse, the lawless and dominant soldiery, 
 jealous of the pursuivants who were armed with magistrates’ 
 warrants, and were thrusting their sickles into what they con- 
 sidered their own peculiar harvest, procured for themselves 
 warrants of similar authority. Armed with these, they went 
 on exploring parties through the town. They tracked the 
 priests at every step ; they watched the houses of Catholics 
 for every comer and goer, especially at early morning and 
 evening, the times when, as they knew, the priests were 
 accustomed to issue forth upon their ministerial functions. 
 
Father Peter Wright. 515 
 
 Every suspicious person, if he failed to give in reply to their 
 imperious questionings a satisfactory account of himself, was 
 instantly seized, and carried off to the magistrates. These 
 searchers did their business so effectually, that in a very short 
 time they had incarcerated altogether eight priests, amongst 
 whom was our own brave champion of Christ, Cut supremus 
 A go notheta Deus certamen forte dedit ut vinceretP 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FATHER PETER IS SEIZED : IMPRISONED : EFFORTS FOR 
 HIS RELEASE. 
 
 In this sudden and most unexpected storm, was our blessed 
 martyr Father Peter Wright involved. The parliamentary 
 bloodhounds, hunting down the lives of Catholics, especially 
 of priests, had scented their prey to the mansion of the Marquis 
 of Winchester, in London, with whom, as we have seen, the 
 Father was living as chaplain. An occasion of seizing him 
 soon presented itself. The feast of the Purification of the 
 Blessed Virgin Mary was at hand, when the Marquis, out of 
 his singular devotion to our Lady, was, with Father Wright, 
 preparing for it with greater solemnity. It was a happy augury, 
 that on the anniversary of the day on which the Divine Infant 
 Jesus was offered in the Temple as a victim, Father Wright 
 should thus enter upon his own sacrifice. The pursuivants 
 having ascertained that he was in the house, a body of them 
 concealed themselves in ambush early in the morning of that 
 day, watching their opportunity of rushing into the house. 
 This was afforded them by a footman of the family who 
 had gone out, either on business or by treachery. On his 
 return, they rushed from their hiding-place, and entered with 
 him by the open door into the house. Having by some 
 treachery previously gained all details, they made at once for 
 the back stairs, and would have gone direct to the chapel and 
 the Father’s room, had not the Marquis himself for some time 
 detained them in their progress. An opportunity was thus 
 afforded to the soldier of Christ, had he willed to take it, of 
 withdrawing to a secure hiding-place. But he preferred to 
 trust himself to a retreat among the leaden water pipes in the 
 
 hh 2 
 
 4 Wisdom x. 12. 
 
Father Peter Wright . 
 
 roof of the house, which he had for some time selected against 
 the hour of need ; these he quickly gained by an open window. 
 In his hurried retreat, he left sure traces of his flight behind 
 him ; his cassock, breviary, and the open window. In the 
 chapel, also, were various preparations for Mass, and the 
 cruets ready filled with wine and water. On finding these 
 things, the pursuivants had no doubt of their prey, and sent 
 a youth to hunt it out among the leads of the roof. After 
 searching through one or two of the divisions of the roof, he 
 discovered the Father, who was seized by the satellites eagerly 
 waiting the event, and brought down to his room. They then 
 conducted him to a lower room, where the Marquis himself 
 was. He was one of the leading nobility of England, and his 
 wife a lady of equally illustrious birth. They were renowned 
 for their constant fidelity to the King, but far more noble for 
 their undaunted profession of the Catholic religion. The 
 constables malignantly observed the honour and veneration 
 which the Father received from his noble entertainers, and 
 from this fact they strongly suspected the real character of 
 their prisoner. Later on, they used it as one of the proofs 
 for obtaining his conviction, when indicted and tried for the 
 priesthood. Meantime, the news spread through the city 
 among the Catholics that Father Peter was apprehended. This 
 afflicting news pierced them with the liveliest grief ; especially 
 those who had known him best. Many hoped that he might 
 be bought off for money, since the hungry pursuivants into 
 whose hands he had fallen, were known for their greed of gold, 
 and in the beginning were actuated only by the ransom they 
 hoped for, and would willingly accept. But these men, antici- 
 pated a greater reward for their capture from the Privy Council, 
 or most probably, some who hated the very name Catholic, had 
 exerted themselves to rekindle the decaying embers of per- 
 secution. The captors accordingly dragged their victim at 
 mid-day before the Court, shouting according to custom to 
 the Lord Chief Justice, that they had brought up a traitor and a 
 priest. But, as the proofs were very slight, his lordship thought 
 fit in the meantime to commit him to Newgate as a suspected 
 priest. 
 
 At first, he was placed among the better sort of prisoners in 
 the lower court of the gaol, where the habitation was less 
 inconvenient, and where he could at least have a cell to- 
 himself. But a heavy charge was demanded for this accommo- 
 dation, which he was unable, or, from his love of holy poverty. 
 
Father Peter Wright. 517 
 
 reluctant to pay ; his humility also made him prefer a humbler 
 treatment. He chose, therefore, to be removed to the upper 
 court. A new source of comfort here awaited him, as he found 
 other companions in his chains, his faith, and his hopes of 
 bliss. For Father Peter was not the first victim of the renewed 
 storm, several other priests having been arrested and com- 
 mitted not long before. In the preceding year of Jubilee, 
 when the treasury of Indulgences was again opened in Rome, 
 it pleased the Divine Goodness, with the recurring Indulgence, 
 -to visit the Catholics of England with a greater weight of 
 .affliction. One in their faith, and alike in disposition as 
 well as in the cause of their suffering, these fellow-combatants 
 of Christ were closely united in God, so that, although 
 of different Orders and rule, they manifested themselves to 
 be but branches of one vine, germinating from a common 
 root, fed by one circulation of grace. This little band was 
 greatly refreshed and strengthened by the arrival of Father 
 Peter. In proportion as they knew him better, they were 
 captivated with his virtues and the sweetness of his manners, 
 which acted upon them as a daily charm. He was, indeed, 
 gifted with a candour and simplicity of heart truly Christian, 
 without colour or deceit of any kind. Hence it was an easy 
 matter for them to live together as brethren of one heart ; and 
 they used one common table. It might in truth be said that 
 the prison of these captives was changed into a convent of 
 Religious. Nor was the opportune liberality of the pious 
 faithful wanting to them from that time, in abundantly pro- 
 viding for the confessors of Christ. All private donations 
 to Father Peter, he with most ready charity devoted to the 
 common use. But the chalice of the Lord is “ full of mixture,” 
 and, among other trials to his patience, it was not the least 
 that contrary to his Institute and custom, he was obliged to 
 share his cell and very narrow couch with another. Yet here 
 again, to his immense consolation, and not without the divine 
 interposition of Providence, he had as companion the Reverend 
 Mr. Cheney, a venerable priest, who emulated, while he wit- 
 nessed, the Father’s virtues, and who afterwards wrote and 
 sent to the Father Provincial a long account of what he had 
 observed. 
 
 As warriors love to discourse upon campaigns and the 
 dubious events of battles, so did these combatants of Christ 
 frequently discourse upon the mode and points of their 
 defence, and the probable events of their trials. Soon after 
 
Father Peter Wright. 
 
 51s 
 
 the arrest of Father Peter, the time of the meeting of the judges 
 approached for the trial of prisoners in London. In modem 
 times these meetings pass by the name of “ The Old Bailey 
 Sessions,” and used formerly to be held nearly every month, on 
 account of the great number of prisoners. As the Father had 
 been so short a time in prison, it was the common opinion 
 that he would not be called to the bar at the approaching- 
 Sessions. So indeed it fell out ; either from anticipation of 
 his ransom, or because as yet they were not prepared with 
 evidence sufficient to secure his conviction. They therefore 
 summoned to the bar the Reverend Mr. Baker, already a 
 veteran combatant in a similar arena, and the same Reverend 
 Mr. Cheney, also a well tried athlete. The notorious Luke,. 
 Mayo, and Wadsworth, one of them an apostate, attempted 
 to prove a case against them. The apostate swore that about 
 twenty years before, he had seen Mr. Baker saying Mass at an 
 altar. The difficulty was less in the case of Mr. Cheney,, 
 who, while admitting the priesthood, shielded himself by 
 another line of defence, the fact of his being a foreigner. He 
 was born in Belgium, and was therefore beyond the jurisdic- 
 tion of an English Court. Both cases having been left to the 
 jury, they returned a verdict of not guilty, amidst the immense 
 plaudits and congratulations of the by-standers, accompanied 
 with an outburst of indignation and derision against the infamous, 
 informers. The jury accounted to the Court for their verdict, 
 and said that, sitting in judgment upon the lives of men, other- 
 wise innocent, they did not deem the point of the priesthood 
 sufficiently proved by the mere fact of the accused being seen 
 officiating at an altar, unless the witness could go further, and 
 say that he had been present at the ordination itself. This 
 verdict gave great offence to some of the legal authorities, who, 
 to show their displeasure, on the following day, by some new 
 process, condemned each of the priests in a fine of two hundred 
 marks, for having celebrated Mass in England. In vain 
 Mr. Baker argued that, having been acquitted upon the charge 
 of the priesthood, he could not certainly be condemned for 
 saying Mass ; for Mass could not be said without a priest ! 
 But no small joy pervaded the Catholics, inasmuch as innocent 
 blood had been saved, and the attempt of malicious men 
 defeated. This victory is detailed more fully, as it serves, 
 to bring out in striking contrast, the greater goodness of God 
 in afterwards allotting the martyr’s palm for Father Wright. 
 
 The Sessions having terminated with this result, there was- 
 
Father Peter Wright. 
 
 5i9 
 
 a general and certain expectation among Catholics that 
 Father Peter would shortly be liberated. Meanwhile, Holy 
 Week and Paschal time came round. Never before were 
 the sacred sepulchres on Holy Thursday, which had been 
 splendidly constructed in the chapels of the Spanish and 
 Portuguese Ambassadors, more devoutly visited and vene- 
 rated by crowds of the faithful. Nor did the fear of danger 
 restrain them from visiting the prisons, where, with the 
 servants of God in bonds, some daily and others frequently 
 refreshed themselves with the Bread of Pleaven. Many, 
 especially of his old penitents, flocked to Father Peter, both 
 to confess to him as usual and to be strengthened and 
 confirmed by his conversation and example, always returning 
 home more joyful and consoled. Paschal time being ended, 
 the matter of the Father’s ransom began to be again 
 negotiated, and seemed frequently on the eve of being 
 concluded for a handsome price. The affair was undertaken 
 by a strenuous agent, who left no means untried to satisfy 
 the anxious desires of his friends, and especially the daily 
 importunities of the good Marquis of Winchester. But God 
 was pleased to ordain otherwise, designing His servant for 
 greater things, and inclining his ear to His ardent prayers, 
 who “ desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ.” The 
 generous soldier of Christ was justly indignant at the merce- 
 nary yet vacillating conduct of his captors, and earnestly 
 signified to the Father Procurator “ that he was unwilling 
 that he should treat any further with such merchants — let 
 them do their own work ; that this life was not so precious 
 to him but that he would willingly lay it down in death to 
 gain immortality.” Hence from that time, at his own request, 
 all further treaty for a ransom ceased. His friends, too, still 
 clung to the hope, and felt persuaded that it was not the 
 policy of the heads of the new republic to spill the blood of 
 the citizens for the sake of conscience or religion. 
 
520 
 
 Father Peter Wright. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR HIS ARRAIGNMENT. HIS TRIAL AND 
 
 CONDEMNATION TO DEATH. HIS CONDUCT IN PRISON. 
 
 RENEWED EFFORTS TO SAVE HIS LIFE. REV. MR. CHENEY’S 
 
 LETTER TO FATHER PROVINCIAL. 
 
 Father Peter’s fellow Religious, too, entertained the same 
 hopes regarding the policy of the men in power, until a few 
 days before the approaching sessions at Newgate, when it was 
 reported through the town that special messengers had been 
 sent into Kent by order of Rolles, the Lord Chief Justice, to 
 summon Thomas Gage, an infamous apostate priest, and now 
 a preacher among the sectaries, to London. This man, 
 member of a noble and most Catholic family, had a few 
 years before been guilty of a base defection from the Faith, 
 and that, too, from a most religious Order, 1 amongst whom 
 he had lived for many years, and had been brought up in the 
 school of Christ. As usual with apostates, he had fallen into the 
 lowest abyss of a scandalous life, and must now again crimson 
 his hands in the blood of this innocent victim, as heretofore in 
 that of the blessed martyrs, Fathers Thomas Holland, Ralph 
 Corby, and others. His brothers were eminent and excellent 
 men. Henry, the eldest, we have already mentioned — the 
 gallant and loyal colonel. He was a knight and a distinguished 
 officer in the Anglo-Spanish auxiliary army in Belgium, and 
 afterwards in the royal army in England. Appointed Governor 
 of Oxford, he had fallen mortally wounded in an engagement 
 with the Parliamentary rebel army at Collumbridge, near 
 Abingdon, January n, 1644. He died in the arms of his 
 affectionate friend and chaplain, Father Peter Wright. 2 Another 
 brother, the Reverend George Gage, was an excellent priest of 
 high standing among the English secular clergy, and of great 
 authority among Catholics. Lastly, Father William Gage, of 
 
 1 The Dominicans. 
 
 2 “ Henricus Hoardus alias vero nomine G.agoeus, Londini natus 
 annum agens 18 in Festo Sancti Joannis prox. elapso, habens confir- 
 mationem admissus est ut Convictor inter Alumnos Sanctissimi Dni 
 nostri a Rev^o Patre Thomseo (Jdoeno Rectore de mandato Illust. 
 Card. Farnesii Protectoris 17 Oct. 1615. Discesset Angliam versus 
 23 Sept. 1618 absoluto scilicet cursu Philosophise, evasit egregius vir in 
 sseculo, ut postquam aliquot annis in Belgio magna cum laude tribunus 
 fuisset legionis Anglorum transportavit in Angliam ut militaret pro Rege 
 
Father Peter Wright. 
 
 52i 
 
 the Society of Jesus, was a pious and prudent missionary in 
 England. Nothing gave his family so great affliction as to 
 have a member, whose Catholic parents had suffered the loss 
 of their property for the faith, so utterly fall away from it. 
 This unhappy man was now deservedly dreaded, both as 
 having before given testimony against the soldiers of Christ, 
 and because he had been familiarly acquainted with Father 
 Peter in Belgium. Meanwhile some relief was afforded by 
 the pious activity of his brother, the Reverend George Gage, 
 who did not shrink, though at considerable personal risk, to 
 go to the haunt of vice where the wretched debauchee was 
 lodging, and to warn him of the divine judgments that were 
 hanging over him, if he should make himself guilty of innocent 
 blood. He had regard especially to the safety of two, 
 viz., Father Peter, about whom there was less discourse, 
 and Father Dade, the Provincial of the Dominicans in 
 England, upon whose destruction, on account of some ancient 
 grudge, the apostate was the more set. After exhorting and 
 entreating him, in his own name and the names of other 
 friends, upon the faith of God and man, not to commit so 
 enormous a crime as to give evidence against the priests of 
 God in court, his fraternal exhortation so far prevailed that the 
 apostate solemnly pledged his word to his brother that he 
 would not injure either of them ; he also suggested to him a 
 means to avoid the force of the evidence forthcoming. The 
 Marquis of Winchester and the other friends of Father Peter, 
 hearing of this promise, rested in some degree of security. 
 But no reliance can be placed on a man who has broken his 
 faith with his God. As to Father Dade, he was as good as 
 his word ; for, while giving evidence that the Father had been 
 Superior of the Dominicans, he astutely avoided the main 
 point, viz., his priesthood, showing that though Superior he 
 might possibly be no priest, and citing the case of St. Francis 
 of Assisi, who was Superior of his order, yet not in priest's 
 orders. This argument prevailed with the jury, men decidedly 
 averse to shedding the blood of the innocent. They at once 
 
 Carolo primo contra Parliamentarios, multa egregie gessit, unde magnum 
 nomen et benevolentiam acquisevit, et in tanta fuit gratia apud Regem et 
 Magnates ut Gubernator Oxonioe creatus sit. Hinc orta invidia, paulo 
 post occisus prope Abingdoniam, et ut creditur proditorie caesum glandie 
 tormenti expiravit animam et mortuus est inter amplexus Patris Societatis 
 confessarii sui a.d. 1645. Hie Pater fuit Wrightus gloriosus postea 
 Martyr” (Extract from diary of the English College, Rome). 
 
522 
 
 Father Peter Wright. 
 
 unanimously declared Father Dade not guilty, and he was 
 thereupon released, and “ is now expending himself (says 
 Father Courtnay) throughout England in the salvation of 
 souls.” 
 
 Far different was the lot of Father Peter, through the 
 treachery of the unhappy apostate. Against all the pro- 
 mises he had given to his brother, he poured out upon him 
 all the virulence of his malicious heart, and to the very con- 
 clusion of his trial assailed him with every argument he could 
 bring to bear. It is uncertain whether he was urged on by 
 his innate envy and desire of revenge, or by pressure from 
 without. This at least is certain, that on his arrival in London 
 he went immediately to Bradshaw, president of the Privy 
 Council, and Rolles, the Lord Chief Justice, by whom, it is 
 believed,, he was instructed as to his evidence and course of 
 proceeding. 
 
 The tragedy having now commenced, the apostate Gage, 
 accompanied by the chief clerk of the Lord Chief Justice, and 
 Luke, the pursuivant, came to the prison the day before the 
 sessions, to ascertain beforehand that he was correct as to his 
 man. Being called into an adjoining room, Gage was instructed 
 to salute the father civilly in his own name. Father Peter, 
 to elude the trick, would not acknowledge Gage. He, how- 
 ever, persisted, and turning to his companions, boldly asserted 
 that he was the very Father Wright ; that he was well known 
 to him ; that he had formerly been confessor to his brother, 
 Colonel Gage ; that he lived with him several days in the 
 camp in Belgium, between Sassa and Ghent ; that another 
 Jesuit named Latham was present at the same time that his 
 brother crossed over into England ; that Father Wright after- 
 wards lived with the Colonel at Oxford, and lastly, was 
 present at the battle near Abingdon, where the Colonel 
 received his fatal wound, and had administered to him, when 
 dying, the last sacraments, in a carriage. Gage, having uttered 
 these things against the friend of his brother in a somewhat 
 spiteful manner, then, to obliterate any sign of malice, added 
 an apology ; that he was moved to allege these things against 
 the Father on two accounts : First, because the state of public 
 affairs required it, and he was compelled by lawful authority 
 to appear ; secondly, that his own conscience induced him to 
 do so ; and as he was here evidently labouring under a difficult 
 argument he prefaced it by a reference to history. “King 
 James,” said he, “caused Father Henry Garnet to be punished 
 
Father Peter Wright. 523 . 
 
 by a just death, not forsooth because he was an actor in the 
 powder plot, but because he would use no means to dissuade 
 the conspirators from the crime, being their confessor. I would 
 not,” he continued, “ assert against you that you had resolved 
 upon my death, but as you were my brother’s confessor, and 
 it was notified to you that he had on foot certain designs upon 
 my life, and had suborned one Vincent Burton to commit 
 the crime, you ought to have dissuaded them from that wicked 
 intention ; therefore have I a right to act as I do.” 
 
 He then added that the Father abounded in powerful 
 friends in the city, from whom he had just reason to fear that 
 his life was in danger, especially since that great lady in whose 
 house he lived, not so long ago caused a most respectable 
 person, to whose custody she had been consigned by the 
 Parliament, to be thrust through with a sword. 
 
 It would be impossible to conceive the deep grief, and 
 holy indignation of the blessed martyr on hearing these 
 infamous lies against his (Gage’s) own brother, and the excel- 
 lent Marchioness of Winchester. He was more concerned for 
 the reputation of the calumniated than for his own safety. 
 He therefore dismissed the man with a suitable reply. “Go 
 on;” said he, “do your utmost, since it so pleases you. I 
 care not a straw for all you are able to do.” Indeed, how 
 prodigal he was of life, and how great was his confidence in 
 God, he expressed the same day in a letter to the Father 
 Provincial. 
 
 “Wheresoever these things may end, I thank God I am. 
 not troubled. I have fortified my soul for all events, and 
 have resolved not to allay the fury of the satellites in one jot, 
 being ready by the help of God, to run every hazard. Where- 
 fore I humbly entreat the aid of your prayers, and those of my 
 brethren, and of friends in the city. Reverend Father, I am 
 truly your most humble and obedient servant in Christ, 
 
 “ P. W.” 
 
 From these beginnings it was not difficult to augur the 
 event. The day following was the decisive day. In the 
 morning the athlete of Christ was brought to the court, and 
 ordered to stand at the bar of the criminals. The court was 
 densely crowded. There sat the Recorder with his Assessors, 
 and in the midst of all the Lord Chief Justice Rolles, according 
 to custom, in solemn assembly. The four accusers— pi'ojecta 
 
524 
 
 Father Peter Wright. 
 
 omiies nequitice , , stood on one side, Luke, Mayo, Wadsworth, 
 and Gage. The three first gave such paltry evidence that the 
 court was unable to infer even a suspicion of the charge — the 
 real and only one being that he was a priest of the Roman 
 Catholic Church, and a Jesuit. Luke was the first to begin. 
 He testified that on such a day he had arrested Peter Wright 
 in the mansion of the noble Marquis of Winchester, before 
 he was yet fully dressed ; that the prisoner had leapt through 
 a window on to the roof of the house in order to escape ; 
 that he found in the said house the chapel with cushions here 
 and there lying about, with cruets prepared with wine and 
 water; and lastly, that he had seized the priestly vestments 
 from the hands of one of the servants who was running off 
 with them; and he concluded his evidence by relating the 
 great reverence shown by the Marchioness and the rest of the 
 family to Wright, upon his being brought down to the lower 
 room. Wadsworth and Mayo confirmed this evidence, and 
 then the Lord Chief Justice demanded of the accused what 
 he had to say in reply. With a modest excuse, the Father 
 declined to reply until his accusers had completed the series 
 of the charge against him, which when done, he would then 
 endeavour to satisfy the Judges and the whole court. He 
 was turning over in his mind /what he should say in defence, 
 for nothing but what could most easily be met was as yet 
 adduced against him ; when behold ! at last Thomas Gage 
 was produced, who had been kept in reserve, like the Triarins, 
 for the fatal attack, and by a well-prepared, and by no means 
 inelegant address, being a man of ability, he declaimed against 
 the Father for nearly half an hour in so violent and marked a 
 manner, that it was evident from the beginning that he was 
 instigated by hatred, and a thirst for his blood. The Father 
 Provincial, in his letter to the members of the Province to 
 which we have before alluded, states upon this point that 
 shortly before (which w r ould no doubt refer to the interview the 
 preceding day, in Newgate), in a private conversation Father 
 Peter had sorely wounded the unhappy man’s guilty conscience, 
 by giving him a strong warning about his running headlong 
 into crime, to the ruin of his own soul; again and again 
 exhorting him to enter into himself, as though about to die, 
 and to answer before an incorruptible judge, whose rewards to 
 the just and punishments to the wicked would last eternally. 
 This wholesome advice, however, profited nothing to a con- 
 science seared by crime. 
 
Father Peter Wright. 
 
 525 
 
 The sum and substance of Gage’s evidence was, that some 
 years ago he had passed over into Belgium, with the intention 
 of going to Rome ; and took that opportunity of visiting his 
 brother, at that time a colonel in the English army in Spanish- 
 Belgium, in order to prevent him from dismissing the Dominican 
 Fathers from the said army, and introducing the Jesuits, to 
 whom he found his brother zealously attached. Staying for 
 some time longer at a military station, at the long aqueduct 
 between Ghent and Sassa, he found there a certain Father 
 Latham, and this Father Wright (thus he always pointedly 
 called him), for whom a chapel had been fitted up in a tent ; 
 and this Father Wright he often saw saying Mass at the altar, 
 and hearing confessions. Being afterwards invited to the 
 English College of the Society at Ghent, he had been present 
 also when he had said Mass in the domestic chapel there ; and 
 at that time Father Wright was a sharer with him of the same 
 room; that this same Wright had passed over from Belgium 
 into England as the chaplain of his said brother, Colonel 
 Gage, whose confession he had heard when mortally wounded 
 in battle, and had administered the last sacraments to him. 
 Then intently and fiercely eyeing the accused, he vehemently 
 declared, “ This is he ; this, I say, is Father Wright himself, 
 although he is become somewhat grey, yet I know the man 
 by his voice, his eyes, his countenance ; I know him to be a 
 priest and a Jesuit.” He then affectedly fell to his yesterday’s 
 history of Father Garnet and its application, wishing to excuse 
 his conduct for appearing in court to give evidence against 
 a man arraigned for his life, from whom he had never received 
 hurt or cause of offence. In this digression he exerted to the 
 utmost of his skill all the force of eloquence, asserting before 
 that most distinguished bench of judges that his life was in 
 danger from the powerful friends of Father Wright, and 
 begging that they would deign to see him protected from 
 harm. 
 
 The blessed martyr bore with great equanimity this intem- 
 perate tirade, uttered as much against the apostate’s own 
 gallant departed brother and Father Garnet, as against him- 
 self. Whilst the man was thus declaiming against the prisoner, 
 the good Father’s mind was distracted by a double care. 
 Should he endeavour to rebut the evidence of his adversaries, 
 dr at once openly admit the truth, and acknowledge that he was 
 a priest and Jesuit ? Having shortly consulted God in prayer, 
 lie decided at last to waive his defence. On the one side he 
 
Father Peter Wright. 
 
 526 
 
 religiously concluded that in a matter so clear, either to 
 hesitate, or openly to deny the truth, would give a cause of 
 scandal to the by-standers ; on the other hand, if by a candid 
 avowal of the facts alleged, he entailed upon himself a certain 
 death, might it not be said that he was in some degree 
 accessory to the shedding of his own blood ? Having there- 
 fore taken his resolution, he prudently decided upon adopting 
 the middle course, and, as he afterwards wrote to the Father 
 Provincial, turning towards the judge with an intrepid counte- 
 nance, he thus addressed him: “ My Lord Judge, I give 
 Almighty God thanks from the bottom of my heart that He 
 has been pleased to dispose that I should be here arraigned, 
 to use the words of St. Peter, not as a murderer, nor as a 
 thief, nor a reviler, nor for any crime, but solely for my 
 religion, the Catholic religion, I say, which was, is, and ever 
 will be celebrated over all the earth. This is my cause ; this 
 is the charge against me, if charge it can be called. I have 
 nothing more to say.” Then, with the same serene counte- 
 nance, and in a firm voice, addressing the jury he said : “You 
 have indeed enough to do in discharging your duty. Weigh 
 my cause in a just balance, and pronounce your verdict 
 according to equity and conscience.” Having said this, he 
 turned back as though wishing to retire a little whilst the jury 
 consulted together, upon which the Chief Justice ordered him 
 to stand forward, and thus addressed him : “ Indeed, sir, you 
 greatly deceive yourself, if you consider this trial to be for 
 the cause of religion. I wish you to understand that the point 
 in question is whether you did not go out of England into 
 foreign parts, and being there ordained priest contrary to the 
 law of the land, and returning back, persuaded the people 
 to embrace the doctrines of the Church of Rome.” “Very 
 good, my lord;” the soldier of Christ replied, “Nero, Diocle- 
 sian, Domitian, and the other tyrants of ancient times might 
 just as well have objected this charge against the Apostles, the 
 priests, and all the martyrs of old.” “By no means,” inter- 
 rupted the judge, “ the case is far different. They preached the 
 true gospel of Christ. You, on the contrary, preach error.” 
 “ That is the very point in question,” said Father Peter, adding 
 with emotion : “all manner of heresies and errors are tolerated 
 in England, but the one only true and holy Catholic religion 
 of the Church of Rome is condemned, proscribed, and 
 punished with fire and sword.” 
 
 Upon this, Gage recommenced speaking upon trifling and 
 
Father Peter Wright . 527 
 
 irrelevant matters, drawing out of his pocket and exhibiting 
 in court the Father’s breviary, and also a small picture of 
 St. Francis Xavier, the Apostle of the Indies, and a manuscript 
 prayer of St. Ignatius, adding that these were two of the saints 
 that the Jesuits venerated. These were in fact some of the 
 spoils taken in the house of the Marquis of Winchester on 
 the arrest of the Father. These he produced by way of con- 
 firming his evidence. The servant of God could not now 
 
 repress the zeal that inflamed him. Hence he took the 
 
 opportunity of again closing with Gage, in order to vindicate 
 the honour of the colonel, Sir Henry Gage, whom the un- 
 grateful apostate had so grossly calumniated. He therefore 
 
 brought back to the recollection of the judges the praises of 
 
 that renowned officer, the great fame of whose noble character 
 and valiant deeds was spread throughout the land, and no 
 one in that court was ignorant of them. “ This I am able 
 to assert of that great soul, that so sweet and courteous were 
 his manners, that one knows not whether he did not gain 
 himself an equal name for kindness and philanthropy as for 
 military prowess. Certain it is that he was held in equal 
 esteem both by friend and foe.” “ But,” said the Lord Chief 
 Justice, “ he was a Papist.” “ Nay,” said the Father, “ he 
 was a Catholic, nor was his religion unbecoming to him, nor 
 he to his religion. It is sufficiently clear from his well-known 
 piety and meekness of character, how unlikely it is that he 
 would desire to plot against his brother’s life, whose welfare 
 he so earnestly desired. On the contrary, he strove entirely 
 to eradicate all remembrance of him and of his misdeeds 
 from his mind. And for myself, I also forget and forgive 
 both himself and his injuries.” These words stung the apostate 
 to the heart, so that he turned off the subject to give the 
 Father an admonition upon the Day of Judgment, and the 
 hour of death, both of which points the Father had the day 
 before opportunely urged upon him at the meeting in Newgate. 
 But now he endeavoured to turn off in the same noisy manner 
 to a discussion upon the invocation of saints, which being 
 declined also, he again, to the disgust of the court, began 
 to beg compassion for himself, as though snares were laid 
 for him by a man in chains and by his friends, and for a 
 protection against which he demanded that a military escort 
 should be assigned him. The Father upon this remarked 
 that the unhappy man fell under that saying of Solomon— 
 Fugit unpius , 7iemine pcrscquente. 
 
528 Father Peter Wright. 
 
 Gage having now left, the Father retired, while the jury 
 •were still consulting, from the bar of the criminals to an 
 adjoining apartment, where he was honourably received by a 
 large crowd of comers-in. Respectable citizens, with other 
 London jurymen, and various persons, were present, together 
 with a number of criminals. It is scarcely credible with what 
 honour and respect he was treated by them. Some congratu- 
 lated him on his wise answers ; others inveighed against Gage 
 for having so impotently raved against his brother and his 
 brother’s friend. Others remembered to have been present at 
 his (Gage’s) first sermon, when he renounced his faith, on 
 which occasion he related a silly tale about a mouse having 
 carried off the Sacred Host whilst he himself was saying Mass, 
 adding that the man appeared to them to be of a wanton dis- 
 position, and from that time they disliked him, although he 
 was their own preacher. 
 
 After the lapse of about forty minutes, he was again recalled 
 to the bar to hear the fatal verdict of the jury, which the 
 foreman pronounced in a sorrowful voice, and which was that 
 Father Wright was found guilty of being a priest. He received 
 this sentence unmoved, and, inclining his body as though about 
 to return thanks, with a most pleasant countenance, he bowed 
 his head; then, standing upright, with his hands and eyes 
 raised to heaven, and in as clear a tone of voice as he could, 
 and as he afterwards expressed to the Father Provincial, 
 flooded with consolation, he exclaimed, “ May the most Holy 
 Name of God be blessed now and for evermore.” Having 
 uttered these words, he remained silent. Remanded back to 
 prison, nothing else occurred that day beyond a great anxiety 
 among the Catholics. Some foreboded the worst, others more 
 cheerful results from the severe Chief J ustice. Learned lawyers 
 were consulted as to what delay might be obtained in carrying 
 out the sentence of death which would probably be passed the 
 next day. A humble petition to the Judges and Court was 
 advised to be prepared, begging them to consider that the 
 convict would perish by force of those very penal laws, which 
 they had themselves declared to be tyrannical and out of date. 
 This petition, which was only prepared the next morning, could 
 not be handed in before the confessor of Christ had been taken 
 back to the sessions-house among the criminals, and now 
 heavily fettered, a sure token of the sentence to be passed. 
 It was then thrust into his manacled hands by some individual, 
 who trembling the while let it fall. The Father, who was 
 
Father Peter Wright. 529 
 
 unable to open or read it, began to suspect some trick, fearing 
 lest he might be compromised, and compelled almost in the 
 final combat to commit some improper action ; for he dreaded 
 nothing so much as to petition for life by any unworthy 
 mode. However, in deference to the wish of some of the 
 officers, who appeared to favour him, he consented to 
 the petition being handed to the Bench. It, however, 
 failed of effect; for the Recorder taking the occasion to 
 make a prolix speech, produced Acts of Parliament passed 
 not only in the time of the Monarchy, but also under the 
 new Republic, by which priests were liable to death, and 
 excluded from all grace. Whereupon soon afterwards, for no 
 other cause than that of the most sacred character of the priest- 
 hood, amidst the breathless stillness of the Court, the Chief 
 Justice pronounced the horrid sentence in these words : “ You 
 shall be taken back to the prison from whence you were 
 brought, thence you shall be drawn to the place of execution, 
 and there hanged by the neck until thou art half dead ; your 
 head shall then be cut off, and the rest of your members divided 
 into four parts shall be fixed up at the four usual points of the 
 city, and may God have mercy upon you ! ” This brutal 
 sentence struck terror and grief into all ; he alone, the victim, 
 stood undismayed. Truly, after the example of the Apostles, 
 he went from the presence of the Court rejoicing that he was 
 counted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus . 3 
 Among his sorrowing friends he alone was cheerful and merry, 
 and beside himself for very fervour of joy. He testified, in a 
 letter written the same day to the Father Provincial, that he 
 had never in the whole course of his life before experienced 
 sweeter gusts of the Holy Spirit the Comforter, of Whose Feast 
 that very day was the vigil. The Father Provincial in his letter 
 says : “This, his joy at the result of the trial, is evidenced by 
 the last sentence of a letter he wrote to me on his return to 
 the prison : ‘ Sentence of death is passed upon me , and I thank 
 God for the excess of consolation I experience in my soldi Another 
 of the fathers, whom I sent in disguise to the prison to impart 
 to him the last consolations of religion, as to a dying man, 
 considered that it would be rather an intrusion upon one 
 who appeared to him overwhelmed with the superabundance of 
 holy joy, and who was melted in tears of consolation. He 
 himself candidly acknowledged to the same father that he 
 experienced within himself that abundance of divine consola- 
 s Acts v. 41. 
 
 1 1 
 
530 
 
 Father Peter Wright . 
 
 tion that he durst not make it known, for fear of being tempted 
 to vainglory, and it was only by virtue of an order of holy 
 obedience that he could be induced to acknowledge it. ‘ And 
 know/ said he, ‘ and tell Father Provincial from me, that in all 
 my past life I have never tasted spiritual joy like to this, nor 
 can I conceive it possible either to hope for or expect greater 
 in this mortal body.’ The other Father himself was so melted 
 into tears of joy and tenderness of soul, that he was scarcely 
 able to relate to me afterwards these words of the blessed 
 man.” 
 
 In the meantime, whilst the father in his condemned cell 
 was thus abounding in heavenly delights, his secular and dis- 
 tinguished friends in London (which, in fact, was full of his 
 spiritual children) were agitated with far different feelings of 
 soul. For although it was a matter of great joy to themselves, 
 and all the rest of the Catholics, that the father was combating 
 for the glory of God with such exalted and magnanimous 
 courage, yet when they reflected that such a priest, and one 
 whom they so greatly venerated, was about to be torn from 
 them, they could not but be excited with feelings of excessive 
 grief. All were, in fact, thunderstruck at the event, so unex- 
 pected, since it was difficult to persuade themselves that the 
 heads of the new Republic would ever allow blood to be spilt 
 for the sole cause of religion. Hitherto they had professed to 
 vindicate the liberty of conscience no less than of the person. 
 But those who were more intimately acquainted with Father 
 Peter predicted, indeed, his happy lot, though grieving at their 
 own impending loss. Hence it is incredible what great exer- 
 tions were made by many to retard, if possible, the execution 
 of the sentence. Pietaiis duccbant munus, nt piorum scrvcirciit 
 parentcm. It happened, also, most unfortunately for their 
 efforts, that the Houses of Parliament had adjourned for the 
 Whitsuntide holidays ; nor was the Privy Council then sitting. 
 Had it been otherwise, there were those in readiness who, both 
 by their authority and money, would have been able to obtain 
 the father’s respite. A man of high rank and great wealth, 
 though not a Catholic, signified that money would not be 
 wanting, if a ransom were set upon the father. In this desperate 
 state of affairs one thing alone remained to be done — to pro- 
 cure, if possible, a few days’ respite from some competent 
 authority. Recourse was had to that universal helper of 
 Catholics, the Count Alonso de Cardenas, the French Ambas- 
 sador. The representatives of the other Catholic powers had 
 
53i 
 
 Father Peter Wright. 
 
 been for some time dismissed from the realm. His own piety 
 and the example of others, and the sight of the tears of the 
 good Marchioness of Winchester and her family, induced him 
 readily to lend his aid. He instantly despatched his Secretary, 
 and afterwards his Chamberlain, to wait upon the authorities 
 to whom it might appertain to grant the reprieve of the con- 
 demned. At first they treated with the Recorder, who, with a 
 humanity beyond himself, and even an appearance of grief, 
 declared that it was not in his power to grant the petition, 
 and added that he thought it would not be very pleasing to 
 Mr. Wright, “ whose fortitude,” said he, “ amazed me ; and I 
 never before admired in any one such a contempt of death and 
 •desire of dying.” The Lord Chief Justice was then appealed 
 to, but was more concise and sparing in his words, giving this 
 short reply : “ I am not able to grant the reprieve.” The 
 President of the Council would not admit the applicants, but 
 •sent a message by another party, that the matter belonged to 
 -a public meeting of Parliament or of the Privy Council. In 
 the meanwhile, it was well known that the father would be 
 executed the day before they met. Thus all their efforts proved 
 abortive; not only those of the Ambassador and the other 
 Catholics, but also of certain members of Parliament, who 
 -ceased not unsparingly and openly to profess that trials of this 
 kind were not consonant with the spirit of the Republic ; and 
 that, although they had hitherto succeeded in gaining some 
 repute for moderation both at home and abroad in matters of 
 religion, yet that this good fame would be completely destroyed 
 by the blood-shedding of this one man. One member of 
 Parliament also wrote an excellent letter to the Lord Chief 
 Justice to caution his lordship upon this point. But vain, we 
 may say, were all efforts. Divine Providence had already 
 -decreed to Father Wright his martyr’s crown. 
 
 Thus between these fervent souls — his Catholic friends on 
 .the one part, and Father Peter on the other — a certain holy 
 contention seemed to be going on : they by indefatigable 
 exertions eager to save his life ; whilst he, on the contrary, 
 was quietly preparing himself for the death he so ardently 
 desired. 
 
 Upon this remarkable case Father Foster, the Provincial, 
 in his letter, makes the following reflection : “ To me indeed 
 it seems, after a careful review of all the facts, that this our 
 most blessed Father was chosen and set apart for this palm, 
 by the special favour and decrees of God. For humanly 
 1 1 2 
 
532 
 
 Father Peter Wright. 
 
 speaking it could scarcely happen that he alone in this new 
 Republic should be visited with the extreme sentence of death 
 for the cause of religion, seeing that it had hitherto kept its 
 hands unstained with blood in matters of conscience ; which 
 shortly before had repealed those very penal laws by which 
 he was condemned as redolent with tyranny ; which only a 
 few days before had actually acquitted at a public trial other 
 priests, fellow-prisoners of Father Wright, notwithstanding they 
 had been found to be priests by the same evidence that had 
 convicted him ; which received deputations and petitions in 
 his favour from so many notable persons, including the French 
 Ambassador himself, and deprecating the proceedings as 
 utterly inconsistent with its boasted spirit of moderation, &c. 
 All which circumstances whilst I ponder them, I am brought 
 at once to the conclusion ‘ that this soul was pleasing to 
 God ’ — Placitum fecisse Deo animam it tins , who willed to 
 bestow the reward of glory upon His soldier for his well- 
 earned virtues, and hastened to crown him as it were the 
 proto-martyr of this new republic. ” 
 
 But to return to Father Wright’s prison, from which we 
 have digressed. When he beheld himself thus destined to> 
 be sacrificed upon the altar of the gallows, as a victim for the 
 cause of religion, his first object was to present himself in the 
 Divine sight as a spotless lamb, by cleansing his soul in a 
 general confession of his whole life, and to wash away his- 
 faults by his tears, which were afterwards to be effaced in the 
 better laver of his blood. And therefore, being doubtful if 
 any of his co-religious would be able to reach him, on account 
 of the great danger to be incurred, he made his general 
 confession to his fellow-captive the Reverend Mr. Cheney,, 
 to whom he had also made a similar confession on his being 
 first committed to Newgate, as though he had received some 
 divine presentiment that he must quickly lay down the taber- 
 nacle of his body. His conduct, indeed, throughout confirms 
 us in the belief that such was the case. “ Oh ! admirable 
 virtue of the man,” exclaims Father Foster in his letter, “who 
 at the same time that he was, as I may say, like a river over- 
 flowing with divine delights, yet from him also flowed the 
 waters of sorrow and tears of penitence. This showed the 
 more praiseworthy care, as being in the case of a man of 
 such religious integrity, and about to die for Christ, the less 
 necessary. Prudent as he was pious, he tempered joy with 
 mourning. He listened to the advice of St. Austin, that no 
 
Father Peter Wright. 
 
 533 
 
 one although unconscious of any actual offence, should depart 
 this life without penitence. Truly God is taken with pure 
 victims, and unites Himself more strongly and liberally to 
 holy souls. ” 
 
 Having thus cleansed his soul, the blessed martyr would 
 gladly have spent the rest of his time alone, had not charity 
 for his neighbour almost entirely engrossed his attention. 
 When the first news of his certain condemnation got abroad, 
 eager crowds of Catholics of every rank and condition, and 
 of either sex, flocked to the prison, desirous with a certain 
 kind of pious emulation, to catch the last words of the blessed 
 man; some would congratulate the noble athlete of Christ 
 upon his approaching palm of victory and happiness, others 
 implored the aid of his prayers when he should have arrived 
 in heaven, others sought his salutary advice or his privileged 
 benediction; he heard the confessions of many, and these 
 general ones ; to many, and especially to those he knew, he 
 gave pictures with his own signature (one of his friends alone 
 sent him six hundred of these for signature) ; he wished God 
 speed to all, and was unwilling to omit a kind w T ord to any, 
 blessing all on going away with the sign of the cross, and 
 following them, on their leaving, with prayers for their welfare. 
 There was none in that great concourse who did not retire 
 inspired with feelings of great joy, and congratulating themselves 
 on having either spoken a word to, or at least seen, the saintly 
 man. An almost constant homage continued until night, only 
 to be renewed on the next morning. Not a few among the 
 Protestants began to entertain a great admiration of the 
 Father, and these also, mingling with the crowd, would come 
 to the prison, that they might contemplate the countenance 
 of such a man. When indeed he met with those whom he 
 had begotten to Christ, his children in the Gospel, or whom 
 he had fed as his penitents with the food of the sacraments, 
 then his paternal charity would be enlarged ; he would 
 insist on embracing them, and bedew them with his tears, 
 and could with difficulty separate himself from them. For 
 the two last days of his life, he was so occupied in this manner 
 as to be scarcely able to get any portion of repose. His 
 historians express great astonishment how any man was able 
 to receive so many visitors, and so thoroughly satisfy them, 
 exhausted as he was by a two days’ trial for his life, by a long 
 incarceration, and with the expectation of his terrible death. 
 But He who added strength for the combat, strengthened him 
 
534 
 
 Father Peter Wright. 
 
 also to expend his charity upon his neighbours. Thus did 
 the blessed Father Peter occupy the remainder of the time 
 left him upon earth. And now dawned the thrice happy 
 day when, relieved from the troubles of this miserable 
 life, he should be translated to the rest of a blessed eternity. 
 Having therefore spent his last night partly in watching and 
 contemplation, and partly in necessary repose for the purpose 
 of renewing his strength for the combat, he went to the altar at 
 break of day, and prefaced by the Sacrifice of the unbloody 
 Host, his own bloody oblation. Then the holy priest drank 
 the last chalice of his Lord’s Blood, which he was presently to 
 repay to the same Lord with the interest and addition of his 
 own. He was assisted at Mass by the Reverend Mr. Cheney. 
 He devoted what remained of his time after Mass and thanks- 
 giving, to the consolation of the Catholics, who returned again 
 and again to him, and could never be satisfied with seeing and 
 speaking to the blessed candidate for heaven. After having 
 satisfied them all, as far as the remains of his precious time 
 allowed, he visited the priests his fellow-prisoners in the Lord, 
 tenderly embracing each of them with a joyful and sweet 
 countenance, wishing them a last farewell, until they should 
 at length meet again “in the liberty of the sons of God.” 
 There was not one of them who did not shed tears, and piously 
 envy him the honour of the cross that awaited him. 
 
 The following letter was written by his affectionate friend 
 and fellow-prisoner the Reverend Mr. Cheney, from Newgate, 
 to the Reverend Father Provincial, in praise of the virtues 
 of the blessed martyr, and as a record of his own personal love 
 and veneration for him — 
 
 “ Reverend Father, — Some have brought me your Reve- 
 rence’s commands, which from my great love and veneration 
 for the friend so lately snatched from us, impose a grateful 
 task upon me, who, unworthy as I am of that happiness, 
 happened to be the sharer both of his cell and couch. 
 Being but a frail man, I cannot indeed deny that his departure 
 is bitterly felt by myself, and those more intimately acquainted 
 with him. But this I may say without any sign of boasting, 
 that I fearlessly assert that no man ever attended the last day 
 of his friend either with less grief, or rather mourning, or with 
 more copious tears of sincere joy. He was by nature wonder- 
 fully formed for attaching the souls of others to himself ; his 
 courteous manner, united by Divine grace to an upright and 
 
Father Peter Wright . 
 
 535 
 
 truly noble soul, not so much allured the affections of men 
 as bound them to him as it were by encircling chains. I was 
 permitted (and here I congratulate myself upon my good 
 fortune) to observe most intimately his manner of action and 
 of life ; and when I had accurately, I may say even to 
 curiosity, made my observations, I discovered in how very 
 rare a manner they were enjoyed in him, with a certain 
 innocent freedom void of any cloak of pretence. His open 
 frankness of heart towards all acquainted with him, not only 
 excited their affection, but even veneration towards him. 
 Whilst he was detained here our fellow-prisoner, nothing was 
 observed in him but what was equable, no change of counte- 
 nance or mien. For even from his first entrance here his care 
 was to season all the incommodities of a prison by a certain 
 wonderful courage and cheerfulness of soul ; and hence it 
 happened that after the fullest observation we never remarked 
 the contrary ; as if this was the only alleviation of trouble, 
 and the sole fountain whence all the joy we may be permitted 
 to look for here below, should issue. I know not if it be 
 possible for anything more admirable to be seen than in what 
 follows. Far from suspecting that his journey to eternal 
 felicity was approaching him so speedily, from daily assurances 
 we received from without, it was a matter of uncertainty which 
 of us two should be the first to be discharged from Newgate. 
 When therefore it was first announced that he was to be tried 
 for his life, we intently gazed upon each other, and stood in 
 astonishment as though some prodigy had happened, What I 
 now relate the grace of God could only have effected. For 
 the person, Winfield by name, who accompanied him on his 
 return from the sessions’-house, solemnly asserted, with tears 
 of joy running down, that he never before obs'erved in any one 
 such great presence of mind and intrepid courage. We had 
 resolved by arrangement to receive him on his return from the 
 court with all the serenity and cheerfulness we could muster, in 
 order to relieve in some measure the weight of sadness that 
 might afflict him ; but on his arrival he exhibited such great 
 hilarity of countenance, and was, as it were, so beside himself 
 for very joy of heart, as though now delivered from all dangers 
 and troubles, he was summoned from this miserable state of 
 existence to the last stage of attaining felicity. He related to 
 us in confidence the mode of proceeding he intended to 
 adopt at the bar, and how he was prepared to answer 
 the evidence that might be adduced against him by the 
 
53 6 
 
 Father Peter Wright. 
 
 pursuivants (a thing which did not seem to promise 
 much difficulty). ‘Yet when/ said he, ‘this Thomas 
 Gage gave such clear and convincing proofs of my priest- 
 hood and religious profession to the Court, then indeed 
 I resolved that I would neither attempt to rebut or to 
 weaken the evidence against me. With regard to myself, 
 I esteem it no little honour that whilst he lived with us in 
 prison, I shared with him a part of his couch. I must needs 
 confess that our nightly inconveniences were more severe than 
 those by day, for it was a new and unusual thing to both of 
 us thus to share our prison bed, especially as it was narrow and 
 very incommodious, and so was the cause of no little incon- 
 venience to both. But as this was the greatest portion of the 
 troubles we had to endure, animated by his words and example 
 I embraced the trial with a contented mind. ‘ For if/ said he, 
 
 ‘ the Palaestra lacked ever so little of these trials, what place 
 would be left for exercising our patience ?’ And thus by 
 mutual encouragement every difficulty was overcome. During 
 the time he was left in quiet to himself, after receiving sentence 
 of death (altogether two nights) he slept so soundly that it 
 seemed almost impossible to awaken him ; and so still, as 
 though void of those sad and feverish imaginations which the 
 near approach of death is accustomed to imprint on the mind. 
 Formerly the least motion, even breathing itself, was accus- 
 tomed to awaken him ; but having received the fatal sentence, 
 his senses were so wrapt in sleep as to become, as it were, 
 impervious to all approach. Oh, tranquil soul ! Oh serene 
 security of heart, which neither the near approach of death, 
 nor any other care could disturb ! The state of health of both 
 body and mind would, without doubt, have been injured had 
 he not been refreshed by this sound and almost unbroken 
 repose. 
 
 “ Such was his dexterity with visitors, that addressing all 
 in an affable and courteous manner, dissipating every cloud 
 of gloom by a pleasant countenance and agreeable conver- 
 sation, he dismissed them, not without exciting astonishment 
 in the most sedate among them. 
 
 “ When the day appointed for his glorious triumph arrived, 
 he was awake before I called him, being then five o’clock, 
 and the hour was come for preparing himself for his happy 
 journey to eternity. He then said, ‘ My friend, I feel myself 
 greatly oppressed by drowsiness, and although a long journey 
 is before me, yet I hope before midday to be in a secure 
 
Father Peter Wright. 
 
 5 37 
 
 lodging.’ He thereupon arose, and as soon as I was ready, 
 prayed with me. He observed that his time was short, and 
 he wished to spend some portion of it in again making his 
 general confession to me. This he did briefly indeed, but 
 with great fervour. He appeared, I may truly say, totally 
 transparent, and from his exterior candour of manners, it is 
 not difficult to conceive the interior whiteness of his soul. 
 Having performed this duty to his own consolation, he pre- 
 pared himself for duly celebrating, and, as I assisted at his 
 Mass, I frequently beheld him breaking forth in those ardent 
 flames of love and joy which were nourished in the bottom 
 of his heart, and which, although at other times they would 
 frequently betray themselves, yet never more vehemently, never 
 brighter, than at that time. Having finished the Holy Sacri- 
 fice and his thanksgiving, he descended to a lower room, 
 where he found refreshments prepared, and being told they 
 were for the purpose of strengthening him for his combat, 
 he took them without hesitation, adding that, feeling by the 
 Divine goodness he had sufficient strength of soul, he trusted 
 that strength of body also would not fail him. 
 
 “ An artist had been sent with an introduction to me in 
 order to take his likeness. When I learnt this, I begged 
 him not to think it too much trouble to sit for him. He 
 prepared himself accordingly ; but that no part of the time 
 should be lost and fruitless, he strengthened the souls of 
 those who were present with words replete with consolation, 
 which were so many internal witnesses of his confidence. He 
 repeatedly warned the artist not to delay, as he was expecting 
 every moment to be summoned away. 4 Nor was he deceived, 
 for in about half an hour his expectations were realized. 
 
 “When the sheriff’s officer knocked at the iron bars and 
 he heard his own name called out, he immediately broke 
 forth in these words, ‘I come, sweet Jesus, I come.’ Then 
 leaping up, he hastily and joyfully embraced us, and grasping 
 my hand, exclaimed, ‘ Farewell, my chamber-fellow and bed- 
 fellow, ere long we shall see each other again in heaven.’ As 
 he was going out I said, ‘ 1 will not yet leave you.’ ‘ I know 
 
 4 This artist was no doubt the one sent by the lady by desire of her 
 Protestant husband, as mentioned later on in the account of his miraculous 
 conversion, p. 555. The facility with which the martyr sat for the 
 artist, a thing which otherwise must have been most repugnant to him, 
 points, in connection with that marvellous event, to something out of the 
 ordinary course of things. 
 
538 Father Peter Wright . 
 
 you will not/ he answered, and again seizing my hand, 
 he retired with me, as he was accustomed to do, to 
 another part of the prison, where we found a truly miserable 
 group, who were condemned to suffer the extreme penalty of 
 the law with him, one and all of whom seemed to be over- 
 whelmed with stupor, deploring their unhappy fate with 
 mournings and lamentations, their faces streaming with tears. 
 These persons were as much astonished at the Father’s joy 
 as he was at their grief. ‘Will not this day/ said he, ‘put 
 an end to all our lives?’ On their assenting, ‘Would,’ he 
 said, ‘that it may open to all a gate to a happy eternity.’ 
 Then one of them named Webb said, ‘I hope, my master, 
 we shall enjoy a mutual meeting in heaven.’ ‘You rightly 
 hope/ said Father Peter, ‘if we both acknowledge the same 
 Church.’ As he was about to follow up the speech he had 
 commenced, one of the officials begged us to retire into 
 another room, where we should be apart from the crowd and 
 noise, but in reality the object was to interrupt the salutary 
 advice he was giving. Then leaving this miserable group, 
 who continued lamenting their own unhappy condition, yet 
 wished all success to Father Wright, we were conducted to 
 a large and spacious place, where we saw a certain preacher 
 walking about, who, according to custom as it appeared, briefly 
 and hastily put the Father in mind of his last hour, asserting 
 that they (the ministers) were both educated men and mindful 
 of their duty ; nor did he think that having run over so great 
 a part of his course, he (the Father) would retrace his steps ; 
 wherefore, extolling his firmness and constancy of soul, he said 
 that he had not the least doubt about his eternal felicity. 
 
 “Father Peter thanked him for the kind feeling he had 
 evinced, and prayed God, by a ray of His divine light, to 
 make known to him His will, and to teach him the right 
 path that would lead him to heaven. The minister then left 
 us, having saluted the Father, not without signs of gratitude. 
 Then having spent half an hour in pious conversation, in 
 which he exhibited wonderful ardour, he was summoned down 
 to be placed upon the hurdle. It is impossible to express 
 in words the air of triumphant joy he displayed, and the 
 swiftness with which he walked, so that the officers could 
 scarcely keep up with him, and on arriving at the hurdle, 
 turning to me he said, ‘ My companion, upon this bed I shall 
 lie alone ; henceforth you will have yours to yourself.’ Then 
 sitting upon the hurdle he said, taking my hand, ‘1 have 
 
Father Peter Wright. 
 
 539 
 
 sinned much in life ; I am sorry for my sins and, having 
 mutually embraced and imparted the kiss of peace, I gave 
 him absolution, and so we were parted from each other .” 5 
 Thus wrote this venerable priest. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 HIS TRIUMPHAL PASSAGE FROM NEWGATE TO TYBURN. 
 
 In England it was a part of the sentence upon those convicted 
 for high treason, that they should be drawn to the place of 
 execution upon a hurdle. All who suffered for the faith in 
 England were compelled to undergo this ignominy of traitors ; 
 as if they were traitors to an earthly monarch who were sub- 
 servient to the Divine, and betrayers of their country whose 
 great effort it was to save souls. This was the kind of punish- 
 ment now prepared for our combatant. He met the sheriff 
 of the city at the entrance, with the other officials and attended 
 by a large posse of constables. An immense multitude of 
 spectators was gathered around, forming a confused crowd. 
 In the midst lay a sledge upon the ground higher than usual. 
 It was a kind of hurdle made of osier and straw, somewhat 
 resembling a low car. To this four horses were linked, decked 
 out with plumes and little bells. “ One might have imagined,” 
 says Father Foster, “the High Priest going into the Holy 
 of Holies.” The executioners reverently laid the venerable 
 
 5 Nadasi, S.J., in his work, Prcclioscc Occupationes Morientium in Societcite 
 fcsu (Romae, 1657), in his second chapter, “Secunda occupatio : Frequens 
 confessio,” &c., after quoting at length examples from St. Stanislaus Kostka, 
 Ven. Cardinal Bellarmine, &c., he said, “ Denique in Societate fuere, qui 
 desiderabant non ab ordinario tantum confessario, verum illo absente, 
 ab aliis quoque, ac aliis praesentibus praemissa confessione, absolvi ; ac 
 velut in ipso illo actu mori.” He then quotes a striking example of 
 Father Rorive at Mussiponte in 1636, who, in the dead of the night, feeling 
 himself threatened with apoplexy, got up and went to a confessor who 
 happened fortunately to be in the same room, made his confession and 
 died. He then gives the example of Father Peter Wright, “Non absimile 
 quid fuit id, quod cum P. Petro Wright Anglo evenit, quern, cum in odium 
 fidei in patibulo pendere, subtracto curru, inciperet, signo doloris paulo 
 ante de peccatis praemisso, Confessarius, qui propc inter turbam erat, rite 
 absolvit.” Father Nadasi is mistaken as to the time, and evidently alludes 
 to Father Wright’s several confessions to the Rev. Mr. Cheney. 
 
540 Father Peter Wright . 
 
 servant of Christ, upon whom all eyes were fixed, upon the 
 sledge, not stretched out upon his back as was customary 
 with others, but gently placed in a sitting position supported 
 at his back ; nor was he bound tightly down to the hurdle, but 
 merely with loose bands, at which the Father, gently smiling, 
 asked them if they did not at least expect him to run away. 
 A cap or hat covered his head, and a violet-coloured mantle 
 was thrown over his body, and his hands were joined on his 
 breast, fastened with a silken band ; for the ministers of cruelty 
 remitted much of their accustomed severity, out of compassion 
 for his innocence, and veneration for his sanctity. Next to 
 the martyr’s hurdle followed three carts filled with the lowest 
 malefactors ; then two coaches containing some convicts of 
 the higher ranks of society, who had been convicted and 
 condemned for some notorious highway robberies. These 
 were followed by a long train of noisy horsemen, and many 
 persons on foot, partly javelin men to keep off the crowd, 
 partly musketeers to overawe them, and so closed the troop. 
 Such a multitude flocked to this great spectacle, that the 
 oldest man could scarcely recollect its like. In the streets, 
 and in booths and stalls, and at the windows and doors, and 
 upon the roofs of the houses, they crowded the whole line of 
 march from Newgate to the gallows at Tyburn, a distance of 
 about two miles, to be witnesses of the first scene, at least, 
 of this new tragedy now being played by the actors of the 
 new Republic. “I,” says Father Courtnay, “who write this 
 account, was personally present, and beheld this cavalcade 
 passing through the principal street of London, with no 
 less wonder than joy, when I saw the Father sitting boldly 
 rather than reclining, clothed in a purple cloak of rough cloth, 
 his head covered, his forehead bare, a smiling face, beaming 
 eyes, and a certain air of majesty and cheerfulness in his 
 comportment, exciting a feeling of astonishment in all. It 
 was rather a triumphal procession than of one going to 
 execution, bearing more the appearance of rejoicing than of 
 grief, unless by chance you turned your gaze from the hurdle 
 to the carts and coaches that followed it, which presented a 
 miserable aspect of mourning and wailing, showing by their 
 contortions and useless lamentations how unwillingly they 
 were carried off. It was easy to distinguish, by the diversity 
 of their gait and whole appearance, between the innocent and 
 the guilty, both their fate and its cause. 
 
 Father Foster says, “As to myself, I went to Holborn, 
 
Father Peter Wright. 
 
 54i 
 
 along which the Father was to pass, mingling with the 
 crowd. I came, and I saw, and was permitted to enjoy 
 one hasty passing glance of my beloved confrere, truly both to 
 my great profit and delight. His whole carriage, his gravity 
 and modesty, mixed with feelings of joyful emotion, violently 
 excited within me admiration and love. Indeed, the majesty 
 of his countenance seemed to me to be superhuman.” 
 
 The pious boldness of the Catholics enhanced the triumph 
 of the victor ; excited by the eager desire of witnessing the 
 sight, they poured in from every side, from the streets, the 
 suburbs and country, in such numbers, that on whatever side 
 he chanced to look, his eyes met some penitent or friend. The 
 sight of this most brave man inspired even the weakest females 
 with courage, some of whom penetrating through the dense 
 line of soldiers, actually sat upon the very hurdle. One of 
 these was indeed liberally rewarded for her pious boldness. 
 Having for many years suffered from a scrupulous turn of 
 mind, from thenceforward every cloud was dispelled, and she 
 gained a serenity of soul for which she had never hoped. The 
 men behaved even with greater boldness, either reverently 
 kissing his hands, or stealing away some relic ; and in order 
 to satisfy the desire of the faithful, a certain lady had bought 
 some yards of woven silk, which, being blessed by the Martyr, 
 she divided into fragments and distributed to numbers. Many 
 carried pieces tied to their hats. Others put into those hands, 
 bound for Christ, gold and silver coins, by doling out which 
 to the poor he doubly enriched the donors. Vast crowds 
 approached him to beg his holy prayers either for themselves 
 or their families ; all who drew near reverently bowing their 
 heads, asked his blessing, which some begged upon their knees 
 in the sight of all, and which he pronounced with a loud voice. 
 The driver of the sledge himself, an ignorant but humane 
 man, having so often heard him pronounce the well known 
 formula, Benedicat Pater , &c., caught it up, and on seeing 
 any one running to the sledge, turning back towards it, he 
 would cry out, Benedic Pater. Among the crowd were many 
 distinguished by birth, many noble ladies, closely veiled or 
 under some disguise to prevent recognition. Even when the 
 influx of the crowd was at its height, none retired but fully 
 satisfied and with feelings of incredible gladness. Great was 
 his affability in speaking to all ; great the cheerfulness of his 
 countenance ; with an unwearied effort to gratify all, accom- 
 panied with words of sweet and tender piety. Such reverence, 
 
542 
 
 Father Peter Wright. 
 
 in a word, appeared in his mode of acting, and the compo- 
 sition of his whole body, that many could not satiate themselves 
 with gazing upon him, but would often go and return again, 
 unable to tear themselves away. One man was prompted by 
 his alfectionate zeal to run forward again and again to points 
 in advance of the procession, and thus obtained no less than 
 twelve opportunities of speaking to the Father. Those of the 
 higher class, from their carriages and windows by means of 
 their pages sought his blessing, which the Father, sweetly 
 raising his eyes, and as, far as he was able, his hands and 
 body, gave them in succession with a placid countenance. 
 But his emotions of joy were never livelier than when he was 
 passing the house where he was told the Marquis of Winchester 
 and his noble lady were awaiting him ; when he caught sight 
 of these his especial friends in a balcony at an upper window, 
 surrounded by their family and others, begging his blessing, 
 he was overwhelmed with joy, and used all his efforts to raise 
 himself from his straw couch to perform this last office; he 
 did what he could and managed to bless them with a distinct 
 form of the sign of the cross, all the more grateful to the 
 receivers, because made with hands that were manacled for 
 Christ. Truly happy patrons who had nourished such a 
 guest. More happy he who by such distinguished merits 
 repaid his hosts to their great joy. 
 
 Wonderful to say, in such an immense multitude densely 
 crowded with noisy soldiery, and so large a gathering of aliens 
 from the Catholic faith, not a sharp or reproachful word was 
 heard. Father Wright had conciliated his very enemies by a 
 certain natural grace, which it pleased God on that day to 
 impart to him in greater measure. His firmness and constancy 
 of 1 soul caused astonishment, and the alacrity with which he 
 went to death, his manifest sanctity, joined to a simple dignity 
 of bearing, as of one on the threshold of eternity, inspired even 
 his adversaries with veneration. Hence none of the attendants 
 prevented the Catholics from their pious officiousness ; no one 
 hindered them from approaching, except when the press became 
 too dense ; no one throughout was found harshly to rebuke 
 those who addressed the Father. “ I observed/’ says Father 
 Courtnay, “many who were silent, as though thunderstruck, 
 except when they broke forth into his praises, as if their hatred 
 had been congealed, and had passed into the opposite feeling 
 of kindliness. Indeed, a companion of mine was at a loss to 
 distinguish which were the loudest, the praises and acclama- 
 
Father Peter Wright . 
 
 543 
 
 tions of Protestants or Catholics ; for, to the equal admiration 
 of both, the blessed Father was drawn like a triumphal victor 
 to Tyburn, the Calvary of England, deeply dyed with the blood 
 which for more than a century past had been offered by holy 
 priests for the crimes of England. 
 
 “At Tyburn you might have seen a new theatre prepared by 
 that immense multitude that spread on every side, presenting 
 rather the bosom of the plains than of the city. Whilst I passed 
 along the streets, blocked up with spectators, I had believed 
 that none would have been left in the city, but on reaching 
 the place of execution, I thought that all London had removed 
 from its site. They who could estimate numbers reckoned the 
 concourse at twenty thousand. Nearly two hundred carriages 
 lined the streets, in which were some of the principal nobility. 
 There were no fewer than five hundred horsemen composed 
 of men of rank and opulent citizens. These were chiefly 
 mingled with the carriages, and surrounded the gallows in 
 such a dense mass that collisions and overturns were appre- 
 hended, and that many would be trampled under the horses’ 
 feet. Another inconvenience was that many persons mounting 
 on the tops or hoods of the coaches nearly crushed them in 
 by their weight. The crowd of pedestrians was pushed further 
 back for fear of being kicked by the horses, and congregated 
 in thick masses here and there on every rise of the roads. At 
 length the whole field and the neighbouring deer inclosure 1 
 waved to and fro with a dense multitude of living souls, the 
 greater part of whom were too far off either to see or hear. 
 In many of the more curious, the desire of seeing was so 
 urgent that they climbed to the tops of the trees, and sat 
 upon the branches, though at a distance. The great danger 
 was near the gallows, but this was unable to deter some pious 
 persons, though on foot, from awaiting the arrival of the 
 Father under the very beam, in order to embrace him on 
 being taken from the hurdle.” 
 
 1 Vicinutn cervorum septum — Hind, now Hyde Park. 
 
544 
 
 Father Peter Wright. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 HIS GLORIOUS MARTYRDOM AND WHAT FOLLOWED. 
 
 “ On arriving at the place of execution, behold ! the magnani- 
 mous champion of Christ met with an unexpected happiness ; 
 for he found himself assisted in rising from the sledge by the 
 outstretched hand of Father Edward Latham, a man most 
 dear to him of all the Society, and his quondam confrere in 
 the Camp Mission in Belgium, as the apostate Gage had 
 testified at the late trial. Dressed in a hempen smock frock, 
 disguised as a common hodman, he had mingled with the 
 crowd, and in his eagerness to console his blessed companion 
 at his death, he was careless of incurring the risk of his own 
 life. Being at once recognized, it is impossible to express 
 the joy of the dying Father. They applied themselves instantly 
 to the one only affair, damnatus capite confitetur ; absolvitur. 
 The disguise was so complete that none of the by-standers 
 suspected it. Some little delay being thus occasioned, as 
 the time passed so quickly and unconsciously with them, the 
 officers interrupted them, and some of them struck Father 
 Latham some smart blows, saying, ‘ Be off, you troublesome 
 hodman; what do you mean by annoying a dying man?’ 
 Then, having placed Father Peter in the cart, they drew it 
 to another side of the gallows, and thus tore him away from 
 the sight of the sorrowing hodman. But neither here did the 
 good Jesus suffer His beloved soldier to want encouragement, 
 for by design, and a preconcerted plan, another priest of the 
 Society, was at hand, who for the greater certainty of being 
 seen had mounted the hood of a coach; between them a 
 signal had been mutually agreed upon for asking and receiving 
 the last absolution. And indeed on whichever side the martyr 
 turned his eyes, his fellow Religious had so surrounded the 
 gallows, that he found others ready also to give him the abso- 
 lution. Nor was it becoming that he who by thus nobly 
 shedding his blood, was rendering illustrious the Society of 
 Jesus, should find degenerate fellow soldiers who would shrink 
 from exposing life itself for his consolation in his combat.” 
 
 There were altogether thirteen criminals, convicted of 
 various offences, that day to suffer with the Father. Four of 
 these, as we have before observed, were men of the higher 
 class of society. These, as a mark of distinction, were hung 
 
Father Peter Wright. 
 
 545 
 
 from a separate beam; three others, also, less conspicuous, 
 were hung upon another. The Father was reserved for the 
 basest of all, and he was placed in the midst of three women, 
 thieves of the lowest class ; God so disposing it, that he who 
 would suffer for the love of Christ should undergo His shame 
 also, in being “reputed with the wicked.” When placed 
 amidst these unhappy ones, like a rose among thorns, he began 
 to communicate the fragrance of the word of life, and to preach 
 the message of salvation. But no sooner did he commence 
 speaking than a Calvinist minister interrupted him, and so con- 
 tinued, making a noise like the yelping of a hound. Being 
 therefore, frustrated in his holy purpose, and entirely self- 
 recollected, he buried himself in close communion with 
 God. Many asserted that no sight could be so sweet or lovely 
 as to behold the martyr amongst the thieves, thus transfixed 
 for nearly an hour (during which time the other criminals were 
 being executed), with closed eyes and hands joined upon his 
 breast, or raised to heaven, and his body motionless, showing 
 most visibly that his holy soul was rapt in God, and was now 
 soaring forth to Him to whom presently, freed from his earthly 
 bonds, he was to depart ; and it was but due to the servant of 
 God, that having spent his last three days in acts of charity to 
 his neighbour, he should spend his last hour in this heavenly 
 communing with his Lord. Father Foster says there were 
 some who affirmed that a Protestant minister, in their hearing, 
 said to the Father, when thus occupied with God, that if he 
 would have a little respect for himself, and renounce his errors, 
 there was yet room for pardon and hope of life ; whereupon 
 the Father, as one aroused from sleep by the voice, asked 
 whether he said this sincerely, or otherwise? The minister 
 replying that he had spoken sincerely, and bringing out some 
 passage of Holy Scripture, the Father instantly caught him up : 
 “ 1 Get thee behind me , Satan; thou art a scandal to met I 
 have long ago resolved to die a Roman Catholic, and willingly 
 would I a thousand times shed my blood for the same faith.” 
 Upon hearing this the parson, thinking his labour lost, said no 
 more to him. 
 
 Hitherto we have preluded the tragedy with the admirable 
 fortitude of our noble hero. The last act remains to be told, 
 and this, to many, would have been one of commiseration ; but to 
 our Father, victor, rather than vanquished, it was the path to his 
 highest glory. All the rest having been executed, the hangman 
 JJ 
 
546 
 
 Father Peter Wright. 
 
 now approached, and intimated to him that all was ready, that 
 he might dispose himself for his last moments. The rope had 
 been put loosely about his neck an hour and a half before. 
 The invincible athlete, nothing daunted at the close proximity 
 of death, and death in this terrible form, turning himself to the 
 multitude, hushed into a death stillness, with the same calm 
 countenance, addressed them in the following brief speech 
 from the cart, as from a funereal pulpit — 
 
 “ Most noble Sirs and dear fellow-citizens, — This is a short 
 passage to eternity. The time is short, as you see, for me ; I 
 have not much to say, nor do I desire to detain you long. 
 Accept, therefore, the outlines of a speech. I am brought 
 hither, convicted of no other crime but that of being a Catholic 
 priest. I confess I am a Catholic ; I confess I am a priest ; I 
 confess I am a Religious of the Society of Jesus, or, as you 
 call it, a Jesuit. This is the cause for which I die; for this 
 alone have I been condemned to death, nor is any other charge 
 alleged against me than the performance of the functions of 
 my calling in propagating the Catholic faith, which is spread 
 throughout the whole world, taught through all ages from 
 Christ’s time, and will be taught for all ages to come till the 
 end of time itself. These duties have constituted my greatest 
 happiness during my whole life, and the profit of my soul ; for 
 this cause I most willingly sacrifice my life, and would die a 
 thousand times for the same if it were needed ; for I regard it 
 as my greatest felicity that my good God has chosen me, most 
 unworthy, to this blessed lot, the lot of the saints. This is a 
 grace which so unworthy a sinner could scarcely have wished 
 for, much less hoped for. And now I beg of the goodness of 
 my God, with all the fervour I am able, and most humbly 
 entreat Him that He would vouchsafe to enlighten you, who 
 are Protestants, with the rays of His divine truth, to receive 
 and embrace the true faith. As for you Catholics, my fellow 
 soldiers and comrades, as many of you as are here, I earnestly 
 beseech you to join with me, and for me, in prayer till my last 
 moment, and when I shall come to heaven I will do as much 
 for you. I give you my last benediction (at the same time 
 making the usual sign of the cross). I forgive all men ; and 
 now farewell till we all meet in heaven in a happy eternity.” 
 
 Having spoken to this effect, he wiped his face with a 
 towel which a friend beneath the gallows had handed to him, 
 and which was thus tinctured with his precious sweat. Then 
 he again recollected himself a while in prayer, offering himself 
 
Father Peter Wright. 
 
 547 
 
 up as a victim well pleasing to God — and the cart was drawn 
 away. At the same moment he raised his hand, which was the 
 signal agreed upon for the last absolution, which was duly 
 imparted. 
 
 Contrary to the usual custom of being hanged in a nightcap, 
 or some other head covering, his face was exposed, and the 
 multitude stood amazed at the novelty of the spectacle presented 
 to their eyes ; for he exhibited no signs, as is usual in the case 
 of hanging, of any frightful distortions of the face, nor did his 
 countenance show anything horrible or alarming. On the 
 contrary, he appeared to be smiling, retained his usual colour, 
 was perfectly composed, and in every feature appeared as 
 though alive. Whilst all were astonished at the prodigy, the 
 Catholics especially greatly rejoiced, gathering from thence 
 quam pulchrum esset pro Christo mori. “ It might be said, 5 ’ 
 observes Father Foster, “that the innocent priest of Christ did 
 not die by any violent separation of soul and body, but rather 
 sweetly fell asleep in our Lord ! ” 
 
 Thus died Father Peter Wright, a man renowned by many 
 titles of praise, and adorned by God with many gifts ; but in 
 nothing more brilliant than that he alone of the eight priests 
 confined in prison (of whom two were condemned to death, 
 two others convicted upon the charge of priesthood, and the 
 rest exposed to the same dangers with him, and others also, 
 who in the meantime had been captured) — that he alone, as by 
 a certain special privilege, beyond all expectation, should be 
 destined for so glorious a combat and so noble a palm. 
 
 The usual barbarous sentence that the condemned should 
 be cut down alive , was so far remitted that he was allowed to 
 hang until dead. His body was then cut down, decapitated, 
 dismembered, drawn and quartered, and his heart and bowels 
 burnt. His head, for many days afterwards, presented the 
 appearance of that of a living person, to the wonder of all 
 ■spectators. The usual custom of holding up the heart by the 
 • executioner, calling out at the same time, “Behold the heart 
 of a traitor,” was omitted. The quarters were intended, 
 according to the sentence and common custom, to have been 
 fixed upon the gates of the city and on London Bridge ; but 
 the Sheriff of London, who, by virtue of his office, superintended 
 the execution of the criminals, when he saw that the Father 
 was dead, demanded in a loud voice, and with a humanity 
 wholly unheard of, if there were any relations or friends of the 
 noble gentleman (for so he called the Father) present ? And 
 JJ 2 
 
548 
 
 Father Peter Wright. 
 
 this call being reiterated by the crowd, great numbers came 
 forward. “ Take,” said he, “ the head and members, and bury 
 them with all the honour you wish.” The friends, rejoicing at 
 the offered treasure, paid some money, and joyfully and at 
 once carried off the sacred relics in a cart, for fear lest the 
 unexpected favour might be recalled ; “ and hence it is,” says 
 Father Foster, that I have in my possession the mortal remains 
 of our most blessed brother in Christ and confrere Father 
 Peter Wright, more precious than all jewels and treasures. I 
 possess his venerable head, still most pleasing to look upon, 
 retaining his own sweet smile, which he exhibited in the midst 
 of death. One might almost be inclined to say that perhaps 
 the head participates with its glorious consort the soul in some 
 little share of its joyful bliss.” 
 
 “ The concourse of Catholics to see and venerate the relics 
 of the blessed Father,” continues Father Foster, “is truly great, 
 without end or measure; and in order that nothing should be 
 wanting to the sum of our joy the heart also of Father Peter 
 is in the posession of Catholics. Count Egmond, out of his 
 singular devotion towards the English Martyrs, which he has 
 clearly shown by many proofs , 1 * 3 commissioned his servants 
 to linger behind at Tyburn after the execution was over, and 
 the crowd dispersed, and whatever relics of the Father they 
 found to bring to him as sacred treasures. They readily 
 obeyed his orders, and, in turning over the cinders and 
 
 1 The Duke of Gueldres, who, under the assumed name of Count 
 Egmond, or Egmont, was the Spanish Ambassador in London from 
 1640 — 1645, had the highest veneration for the English Martyrs, and was 
 present at the execution of eleven at Tyburn during that period. Among 
 others, of Father Thomas Holland, Father Ralph Corby, and Father Henry 
 Morse, all S.J. He made a large collection of the relics of the martyrs, 
 and conveyed them to the Continent on his return, and caused a solemn 
 attestation to be drawn up and signed by himself, dated St. Victors, Paris, 
 July 26, 1650. In it he gives particulars of the relics and to whom they 
 appertain. A copy of this most important and deeply interesting 
 document, taken from the Public Archives at Lille, was published by 
 Mr. Simpson in the Rambler for 1857, vol. ii. p. 119, with an excellent 
 article upon the subject of the English Martyrs. This document was 
 prepared as the date shows, shortly before the death of Father Wright. 
 The good Count appears to have been again in London in 1651, though 
 
 not as Ambassador, probably, and, as we see, was again present with his 
 servants at his old work of charity and devotion towards the martyrs. 
 This document has been made use of in the late process for the beatifi- 
 
 cation of the English Martyrs, and a copy of it annexed to the evidence 
 taken before the Court in July, 1874. 
 
Father Peter Wright. 
 
 549 
 
 ashes of the fire, they unexpectedly struck against what had 
 the appearance of a small piece of coal, which proved to be 
 the holy heart itself, much charred and burnt, indeed, yet re- 
 cognizable. So that, as many waters of persecution could not 
 extinguish his charity, so neither could strong flames consume 
 ;iiis flesh. Thus the Divine Goodness willed to reward his 
 ^athlete, that no portion of his body which had been entirely 
 immolated for God, with the exception of the bowels burnt, 
 should be wanting to the Catholics, in order, doubtless, that 
 they might hereafter be duly honoured. Others, equally 
 desirous of possessing some relic for their own private vene- 
 ration, ran with great ardour to the spot where the holy body 
 had been quartered, with garlands or girdles to dip in his 
 blood, or to procure some particles of his flesh or hair. Nor 
 were they molested or driven away by the officials, as had 
 previously been the custom, but free access was afforded 
 them. From the time that heresy had afflicted England, 
 never had the Catholics been made partakers of so great 
 a consolation and dear a pledge.” 
 
 They preserved the sacred relics in a safe place, whither 
 the Catholics in crowds were eager to flock to venerate them, 
 ibut from motives of prudence this was discouraged. It was 
 however impossible to refuse admittance to many, who could 
 never be satisfied with looking upon his venerable head, and 
 kissing his sacred flesh. “ The head,” says Father Courtnay, 
 “ still continues with its most placid smile to breathe a love 
 and veneration more majestic than that of a human being. 
 Those who visited the sacred deposit before it was embalmed 
 bear witness to having inhaled divers heavenly odours such 
 as they had never before experienced. One in high authority 
 amongst us was present 2 when a nobleman introduced his 
 wife’s sister, of the ancient family of the Earl of Shrewsbury. 
 On entering the place they perceived a certain admirable 
 perfume so fragrant that they thought it could only come 
 from heaven. They searched everything to ascertain if by 
 • chance there was any spice or aromatic herb beneath, but 
 nothing sweet-smelling was found. Whence it was naturally 
 concluded that the odour issued from the sacred relics, im- 
 parted to them by the soul in heaven, as a testimony that the 
 body had been a good odour to Christ upon earth. That 
 which I relate of the fragrant odour seems the more striking 
 since the member of our Society who was present was neither 
 2 This was probably Father Foster the Provincial. 
 
550 
 
 Father Peter Wright. 
 
 of a quick smell, nor did others who followed immediately 
 afterwards observe the fragrance. Whether what I relate 
 regarding the sweet odour, is above the force of nature or 
 not, is not for me to define ; I only assert that this prodigy 
 was evidenced to many.” 
 
 In thus mentioning the relics of the blessed Father we 
 should add that the Annual Letters of the English Province 
 of that date, after speaking of him as dying for the faith, say, 
 Caput venerabile et membra dissecta unguentis delibuta apud 
 nos sunt. The late Dr. Oliver, in his Collectanea S.J. says, 
 “ The body was kept, it seems, at St. Omers, until 1762, 
 when I believe it was conveyed to the College Sacristy at 
 Liege. For the details of the incorrupt state of his body at 
 Liege College, in 1781, see page 63 of Talbot’s Faith and 
 Doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church (Dublin, 1813).” 
 
 At Lanheme Convent is a picture of Father Wright, _ 
 u Petrus Wrightus passus 29 Maii, 1651, Soc. Jesu;” with 
 a relic marked, “ Rev. Father Wright, M.” At Stonyhurst 
 College there are also the following relics — “H. No. 13, Ex 
 Came P. Wright , M. No. 14, Cloth, blood-stained, Ex san- 
 guine B. P. Petri Wrighti, Londini, pro fide interfecti. No. 15, 
 Cloth, blood-stained, P. Wright , S.J. K. No. 12, B. P. Wright 
 (formerly at the Novitiate, Watten). L. No. 3, Sanguis B. P 
 Pet. Wright, Mart.” At St. Beuno’s College — C. No. 3, “Rel. 
 of B. F. P. Wright,” from Lanherne Convent. At Durham, in 
 the possession of Provost Consitt — No. 3, “ Relics of Fr. 
 Wright, S.J.” 
 
 But to return to our history. 
 
 “His exit,” says Father Courtnay,“was our triumph, the glory 
 of which was enhanced by various circumstances. It occurred 
 in the early springtide, with a brilliant sun, tempered by a mild 
 south-east wind ; it was on the second feria of Whitsun week ; 
 and lastly, the execution of other criminals of rank, and the 
 great number of the condemned, truly excited the whole city. 
 Hence an innumerable multitude of spectators had collected 
 in the streets and fields, God so disposing it by a singular pro- 
 vidence, that all eyes being attracted to His servant, they 
 should be so many witnesses of Catholic fortitude, and should 
 depart with a general astonishment at such a display of pru- 
 dence, constancy, and piety. Not a voice was heard deriding 
 the priest, although the name is so odious to Englishmen, no 
 one was heard who did not highly applaud him. For days 
 
Father Peter Wright . 
 
 55 1 
 
 after his death, he was the common topic of conversation, 
 always accompanied with amplest praises. His memory is still 
 fresh, and will flourish for years to come. The Earl of [name 
 erased], who stood near the gallows at the time of the execution, 
 and who ranks among the first of the English nobility in wealth 
 and station, is reported to have publicly asserted afterwards, 
 
 ‘ That he had, indeed, seen many Christians die, but among 
 them all he had never seen one die so piously and nobly/ 
 A soldier among the crowd of horsemen, being asked for what 
 crime that priest was executed, replied, ‘He has more of 
 courage than crime.’ A certain member of Parliament, a man 
 of great talent and standing, who, while indulging his sarcasm 
 against Catholics, yet highly reprobated the sentence against 
 the Father, made a no less pointed remark. ‘The Papists/ 
 he said, “according to their custom, are acting their absurdities 
 in worshipping the dead priest, but we have acted much more 
 absurdly in condemning such a man to death.’ Moreover, 
 that attestation to the innocence of the Father should not 
 be wanting, the editor of a certain weekly London gazette, 
 makes the following honourable mention of the death of Father 
 Wright, and its cause. ‘ To-day (Whit Monday), fourteen 
 persons condemned to death, were led out from Newgate prison 
 to Tyburne. Of these, one was a Jesuit, an excellent man, of 
 a firm and undaunted courage, who was hung in defence of 
 his religion, and his body according to custom, quartered .’ 3 
 This eulogy, such as it was, highly offended the apostate Gage, 
 who inserted an article in the newspaper, in which, after laud- 
 ing himself, he endeavoured to persuade the world that the 
 Father died for treason. No wonder that a man who had 
 renounced his faith in God, should be so active and persistent 
 a calumniator. A reference to the report of the trial will show 
 that neither in the verdict of the jury, nor in the sentence of 
 the judge, is any mention made of any other charge, except 
 
 3 Newspapers were then in their happy infancy. Father Foster, in 
 giving the above extract, observes : ‘ f There are in London, as also in 
 many other large towns, persons who report the daily occurrences and more 
 remarkable events of the place, and of other localities also ; which are 
 published in certain letters and despatches commonly called gazettes. These, 
 when printed, are' sold weekly to the public, ever eager for news.” The 
 reader need hardly be reminded of Macaulay’s graphic account of the rise 
 and progress of English newspapers in the seventeenth century, given in the 
 first volume of his romance of history. It would be well for himself and 
 the public, if all his narratives were equally reliable. 
 
552 
 
 Father Peter Wright . 
 
 that of his having been ordained priest abroad, and returned to 
 England for the conversion of Protestants to the Catholic 
 Church. 
 
 “Far different was the opinion of a writer of candour and 
 learning, a Protestant, who soon afterwards, under the name 
 of ‘Christian Moderator/ copiously and elegantly labours to 
 prove that the consciences of Catholics are not to be forced 
 by penal laws and violence. Referring to the case of Father 
 Wright, he thus treats of his death and the cause of it. ‘ Nor 
 can I avoid protesting how highly indignant I w*as at the dis- 
 gusting report regarding Wright the Jesuit, dragged like a 
 traitor to Tyburn for the cause of religion ; and the more so, 
 because up to that time I had predicted moderation in the 
 present Government; that it would not shed one drop of 
 blood on religious accounts. The confiscations of their pro- 
 perty, indeed, by which Catholics, though peaceful, are afflicted, 
 are entirely repugnant to our principles and institutions; yet 
 the dire necessities of the Republic, appeared greatly to 
 moderate the odium of this pecuniary severity. Now, with 
 a heavy heart, I throw down my arms, and at length, covered 
 with confusion, I recall the argument w r ith which I was accus- 
 tomed hitherto to extenuate this iniquitous proscription for 
 conscience’ sake, and to assuage the minds of so many well 
 affected and religious men, to whom that animarum pecunia , 
 as King James used to style it, was always so greatly displeas- 
 ing. In that matter, indeed, I met with no little success, but 
 in this I cannot with a safe conscience make any further 
 attempt, lest I should seem to lay a burthen on the people, 
 and myself to contribute to it. 
 
 “ ‘ I avow, indeed, that by these confiscations, all our 
 principles are violently shaken, or rather, by inference, entirely 
 disjointed and dissolved. To what end, during all of this 
 time, are our weapons principally applied, but that religion 
 should be foisted upon us by force of arms ? To what end so 
 many and such toilsome counter-marching of soldiers, so many 
 edicts published, except that at length they would obtain 
 liberty for tender consciences? Do they thus finally exhibit 
 truth in love ? Thus finally build up in meekness, as becomes 
 the servants of the Lord ? Let us beware, indeed, that we fall 
 not into the hands of the living God. Let us beware of the 
 interior voice that calls to us : “Judgment without mercy upon 
 those who show not mercy.” Besides the atrocity of the 
 sentence, as I take it, the very judicial trial itself has many 
 
Father Peter Wright. 
 
 553 
 
 singular and unusual points ; inasmuch as nothing was proved 
 against the accused, except that many years ago he had cele- 
 brated Mass in Flanders, and this upon the evidence of one 
 witness only, who did not shrink from confessing in open 
 Court, that he was influenced by an ancient and private grudge 
 against the prisoner, which he said was partly the cause of his 
 coming to London to give evidence against him. No disturb- 
 ance of the public quiet, no breach of the peace, was even 
 objected against him. This was the only charge — that he was 
 a priest, and in England. And that this was so, is proved even 
 by a Protestant minister, who out of charity to him made him a 
 promise upon the very gallows, that he might yet save his life 
 if he would renounce the errors of Popery : and when he 
 magnanimously refused the offer, as repugnant to his con- 
 science, saying that if he had a thousand lives he would most 
 willingly give them all up in defence of the Catholic religion, 
 he was hanged amongst thieves and homicides, and presently 
 quartered as a traitor ! And yet in the meanwhile, both the 
 undersheriff, the jury, and even the judge himself, and all who 
 in any manner were the authors of his judicial murder, one and 
 all professed that nothing was so dear to themselves, nothing 
 so consonant with reason, as that none should be in any way 
 coerced in matters relating to salvation. May God grant that 
 this mode of procedure, so brutal, so plainly abhorrent to the 
 Gospel, especially this most bloody one, so distasteful to the 
 spectators, and so little advantageous to its authors, may at 
 least not be injurious to our continental brethren, may not 
 cause alienation amongst friends and kindred, and scandalize 
 the whole world. For even upon the very day itself of the 
 execution, I myself heard a man of ready wit observe, “When 
 things come to this pass, that contra fadns armis , we contend 
 for the reforming Church, proscribe the goods of Catholics, and 
 wish to persevere in doing so, although they themselves but 
 little persevere in that their own religion ; when we are cook- 
 ing up a clandestine peace with Spain, and in the meantime are 
 doing away with Jesuits by public hanging, sit anima mea cu?n 
 philosophise So writes this ‘Christian Moderator,’ in this 
 book, printed and published in London, under the very eyes of 
 England, and of those who then bore sway. 
 
 “We can hardly conceive anything more as coming from 
 his point of view, or any ampler or more valuable commenda- 
 tion of the Father, and of the cause of his death. Catholics, 
 of course, members of the household faith, united in one creed, 
 
554 
 
 Father Peter Wright. 
 
 and one heart in the divine praises, joined also with one 
 voice to sound his praise, and in this, that of his Divine 
 Master. I cannot omit to name (amongst others), the 
 following account, sent to us by an illustrious lady in her own 
 handwriting. She visited the Father in prison, two days 
 before his death, and received a present from him of a small 
 picture of the Nativity of Christ, upon parchment, which he 
 asked her to keep in memory of the giver, and at the same 
 time to recite daily a Pater and Ave for him, until his perilous 
 combat should be over. Returning home joyful with her little 
 present, which in her gladness she showed to others, she 
 neither herself, nor any of the others who saw it, remarked 
 anything upon the parchment besides the picture itself, and 
 the Father’s name written upon the back. Neither on Whit 
 Sunday, when, mindful of her promise, she again curiously 
 examined it, did she observe anything more, upon it. But on 
 the Monday, as the hour of the Father’s being taken to execu- 
 tion approached, she took out the picture in order to say her 
 promised prayers, when she beheld spots of blood here and 
 there about the name of the Father on the back. To 
 this day the drops appear so distinct, that it would be 
 itself a marvel had they been overlooked before. Whether 
 these blood spots came by accident, or were put there by an 
 unseen hand, I would rather leave others to decide, to whom 
 it pertains. The pious lady accepted it as a sign that the hour 
 was at hand in which the Father should shed his blood to 
 water all England as with a heavenly sprinkling. This event 
 was indeed a sad omen of his bloody death. What follows is 
 a more joyful token of his assured felicity. In the midst of 
 the horrors of his execution, as the Father, suspended in the 
 air, drew his last breath, lo ! a little bird (they say it was a 
 sparrow), on a sudden, whence coming no one could tell, flew 
 through the forest of javelins, between the gallows and the 
 martyr’s head, then spreading its wings, it poised itself over 
 the crown of the head for some time, as hawks are used to do 
 in the air, and settling there, seemed to all the spectators 
 (some of whom called out to it), that the bird would perch 
 there by way of a sacerdotal crown upon the Father’s head. 
 This prodigy again drew all eyes upon the dying man, and 
 inspired many with the thought that perhaps God designed to 
 show by this sign that the most happy soul of the Father, now 
 freed from the prison of the body, like a bird had at that 
 instant flown away to its heavenly home. Truly could Father 
 
Father Peter Wright. 
 
 555 
 
 Peter sing with the martyrs of old : Anima nostra si cut passer 
 erepta est de laq.ueo venantium ; laquens co?itritus est, et nos liber ati 
 sumusP At all events, it excited the applause of all, and the 
 Catholics wonderfully exulted, and were not only filled with 
 incredible joy, but inspired with renewed courage of heart by 
 the death of their priest, so honourable and precious.” 
 
 A writer records the following amongst other cases of the 
 supernatural 4 5 — 
 
 “We relate the following upon the clear testimony of a 
 noble lady. She was a Catholic, but her husband, a man of 
 high birth, was most hostile to his wife’s religion ; he especially 
 detested holy pictures, and whilst his wife was engaged at her 
 prayers he would frequently rush into her oratory and tear in 
 pieces, like a madman, any pious pictures he found there. 
 The lady in her affliction opened her case to Father Thomas 
 Worsley, S.J., who procured for her a written promise from 
 Father Wright, who was about to die for the Faith, to pray to 
 God at the very place of execution for her husband’s con- 
 version. She kept this note as a treasure, and put it up, 
 as she thought, in a secure place. But it could not elude 
 the close scrutiny of her husband, who found it, but to 
 his great profit. For his wife, expecting he would be 
 inflamed with his accustomed rage, on the contrary, found 
 him suddenly changed. ‘ How is it,’ said he, ‘ that Father 
 Wright entertains such great kindness towards me, that 
 in the very article of a violent death, forgetful of himself, 
 he should remember me ? ’ Then again, addressing his 
 wife, he said, ‘By all means see that a portrait of so dis- 
 tinguished a man be painted, and that I get it as quickly 
 as possible, that I may make some return for such an 
 act of unmerited friendship.’ The pious lady did so, and 
 handed to her husband a vivid likeness of the Father, not 
 without some fear lest he would tear it in pieces. But not so, 
 for the nobleman thanked his wife for it, hung it in a good 
 situation, and appeared to be moved with affection for his 
 patron. He moreover sought the friendship and conversation 
 of the Fathers of Society, and by degrees became so inflamed 
 with the desire for religion, that he could get no rest, until by 
 the aid of Father Worsley, he entered the Catholic Church, in 
 
 4 Psalm cxxiii. 
 
 5 See Florns Anglo- Bavaricus, p. 87. 
 
556 Father Peter Wright. 
 
 the bosom of which, not long after, full of hope he rendered 
 up his soul to God .” 6 
 
 “ It is not without cause,” continues the same author, “ that 
 I here mention Father Worsley, both because possessing great 
 skill in treating with various characters of men, he brought 
 many from their native errors into the fold of the one true 
 Faith, and also because he honoured Father Peter in life, 
 assisted him at his death, and venerated him in heaven 
 with great devotion. Whilst Father Worsley was labouring 
 in the conversion of convicts under sentence of death in 
 Newgate (of whom he is said to have converted about sixty 
 each year, becoming himself almost a constant inmate of that 
 prison), the thing coming to the ears of the Privy Council, 
 they were so indignant that they issued a warrant for the 
 Father’s apprehension, and gave orders that should he be 
 taken, he should be tortured by a public flogging at the cart’s 
 tail along the whole way from Newgate to Tyburn gallows. 
 But by the Divine protection he succeeded in crossing safely 
 over to Belgium, and for some time acted as Spiritual Father 
 in the College of the Society at Liege. At length, attacked by 
 severe sickness, which he bore with the greatest patience, he 
 found much consolation from the fact that near the chapel of 
 the Infirmary was preserved the mutilated body of Father 
 Peter, who without doubt gave assistance in death to him 
 who had before stood by him in suffering .” 7 
 
 6 This may have been the occasion of the artist mentioned above, 
 page 537 - 
 
 7 We may here add that Father Thomas Worsley, alias Hervey, son 
 of John Worsley and Leonora Garniez, of independent fortune, was born 
 at Louvain on the 31st of May, 1597, entered the Society of Jesus at 
 Antwerp on the 30th of September, 1614, having made his humanity 
 studies at Antwerp for nine years with the Fathers of the Society. He 
 was professed of the four solemn vows on the 8th of December, 1629. 
 On the death of Father William Baldwin, Rector of St. Omers’ College, 
 S.J., in 1632, Father Worsley was appointed his successor. Having 
 finished his three years of government of that College, he was ordered to 
 the English Mission (1634-5) where he distinguished himself by his zeal 
 and charity, especially to his fellow-prisoners after his own apprehension. 
 In their conversion he was very successful, as we have seen from our 
 quotation from Floras Anglo- Bavaricns. Dr. Lingard ( History of Englana, 
 vol. viii. p. 645) gives a list of arrests of priests and Jesuits made by the 
 renowned pursuivants Wadsworth, Mayo, Newton and Luke, between 
 1640 and 1651; amongst others is “Thomas Worsley, alias Hervey, 
 indicted and proved, and reprieved by the Spanish Ambassador and 
 others.” Mention is also made of Father Worsley in the life of Father 
 Henry Morse, martyr, who suffered at Tyburn on the 1st of February, 
 
Father Peter Wright. 
 
 557 
 
 “ Well done ! brave combatants of Christ ! ” exclaims 
 Father Courtnay, “a progeny will never be wanting to the 
 Church in England so long as blood flows in the veins of 
 
 1645. He was then engaged in his dangerous work of charity in Newgate 
 in disguise amongst the prisoners. The life (quoting a manuscript at 
 Stonyhurst) says, “that Mr. Hervey having stayed with some twenty 
 gentlewomen all night in Newgate [they had been visiting the martyr the 
 previous evening], was in the morning detained and kept prisoner there by 
 the pursuivants. About noon the gentlewomen got away for some twenty 
 pounds, but no money would be taken for him. Wadsworth says his 
 name is Worsley, born at Antwerp, and that he is a priest. The Spanish 
 Ambassador will claim him for his Catholic Majesty’s subject. What 
 paper Mr. Morse had written the pursuivants got and tore in pieces.” The 
 Spanish Ambassador, as we see above, did claim him. Very interesting 
 mention is also made of this Father in the life of Miss Elizabeth Warner, 
 sister of Sir John Warner, alias Father John Clare, S.J. [see Life of 
 Lady Warner , p. 293 — 4. Abridgment.] Miss Warner was a Poor Clare 
 in the Convent at Gravelines, and suffered greatly from desolations. 
 Father Worsley was the confessor of the house. “ She was once in a 
 profound desolation, and found no ease from heaven, which she seemed 
 even to have tired out with her constant and fervent petitions for assistance. 
 And being able to receive none from any upon earth, because Father 
 Thomas Worsley (the only person from whom she used to receive comfort, 
 or at least direction how to bear her afflictions), was absent at Watten, 
 she kneeling down in her cell in this desolate condition, chanced in a 
 chink of the wall to perceive a little paper rolled up sticking between the 
 bricks (their cells being then only separated with bricks, without any 
 plastering), which she taking out and unfolding, found these words written 
 in it : ‘ Be at rest, and afflict yourself no more ; it is well between God 
 and you.’ This filled her sad heart with joy ; she looking upon it as sent 
 from heaven, because she had never before received any such paper from 
 Father Worsley, whose hand she found it to be. And when she showed it 
 to him, he owned it was so, though he never remembered to have written 
 it : and doubted not but that God (for reward of her fidelity) had permitted 
 her good angel this way to play the part of a comforter in his absence, 
 hereby to increase her confidence in His all powerful assistance, even in the 
 greatest desolation : and what effect his counsel, together with this favour, 
 wrought in her soul may be gathered from the following act which she 
 afterwards daily made to God with the approbation and permission of her 
 ghostly father.” This oblation is then given, and two spiritual letters to 
 Father Worsley. 
 
 Father Worsley’s name also frequently occurs in the same interesting 
 work. He was empowered by Father John Clarke, then Provincial, to 
 receive the profession of Brother John Clare (Sir John Warner), which was 
 done on the 1st of November, 1667, at Gravelins. He was also em- 
 powered by the Bishop of St. Omer’s to receive the vows of Lady Warner 
 (Sister Clare of Jesus), which he did on the same day, and at the Convent 
 of the Poor Clares. 
 
 Father Thomas Worsley died at Liege on the 8th of February, 1671, 
 aged 71. 
 
558 
 
 Father Peter Wright. 
 
 English priests ! May Peters arise ; may Pauls arise again, 
 who will joyfully shed their blood for the salvation of souls in 
 their native land ! May God grant that a most abundant 
 harvest may respond to the recent seed of Father Peter’s 
 blood. For from the time of his death, many have been 
 reconciled to their Holy Mother Church. Indeed, at the 
 very place of execution, a great stir amongst souls was excited, 
 which was expressed by tears, sighs, and groans, even from 
 many men. So that it was not surprising that one of the 
 softer sex, a woman who was present, and had long struggled 
 with God and the truth, urged on, as by additional goads, by 
 the sight of the dying priest, breaking into tears and sobs, 
 solemnly promised that she would instantly cast off all further 
 hindrances. 
 
 “ A nobleman returning in his carriage from Tyburn in con- 
 versation with his friends about the execution, declared that 
 he would die in no other religion but that which could minister 
 so great courage, and give such hope of an assured felicity. 
 
 “ We trust,” continues Father Courtnay, “ that many will 
 daily come in and surrender themselves into the hands of 
 Christ, as vanquished in the battle of Truth. Amongst others, 
 I wish that the servant, that wretched hound of the pursuivant 
 Wadsworth, who hunted after and caught the servant of God 
 in the roof of the house, might yield himself. This man, 
 after the death of the Father, like another Judas, betrayer of 
 innocent blood, began to be tormented with such stings of 
 conscience that he was very frequently upon the point of 
 putting an end to his life by a death like that of Judas. Not 
 many days ago that infamous searcher, disgusted with his pay 
 for priest-hunting, ran away from Wadsworth, his employer, 
 with his clothes, money, and whatever else he could secretly 
 carry off with him; to the no small loss of his most iniquitous 
 master. Precipitated from one calamity to another, he fell 
 at last into despair, hating the very light ; and declared to a 
 Catholic whom he met some time ago, that he should find no 
 rest until he had hanged himself. And some say that this did 
 happen to the miserable man. But I have not yet been able 
 to ascertain the real facts from any competent authority. 
 I sometimes rather hope that he may become a partaker of 
 the mercy, and not of the vengeance of the martyr’s sacred 
 blood, and emerging from the deep gulph of his sins and 
 despair, may return in safety from a fatal shipwreck to the 
 harbour of salvation.” 
 
Father Peter Wright. 
 
 559 
 
 The following is a short eulogy of the blessed martyr 
 among the State Papers in the Public Record Office, Brussels : 
 Carton, S.J. 
 
 “ May 28[9]. This day is kept the memory of the glorious 
 death of Father Peter Wright, who in the year 1651 was con- 
 demned to die in London by the Protestants for being a 
 priest of the Society of Jesus. He received the sentence of 
 death with such abundant proofs of spiritual joy, that he 
 affirmed in all his lifetime he had never felt greater comfort. 
 At the place of execution he rejected the Protestant minister, 
 who offered him the choice of life if he changed his religion, 
 or death if he persisted; testifying openly that if he had a 
 thousand lives he would sacrifice them all for the only true 
 Catholic faith. The Protestants themselves, full of admira- 
 tion and astonishment at his conduct, wrote singular commen- 
 dations of him, yet not without grief and envy that the Roman 
 Church, by means of the generous death of Father P. Wright, 
 had so gloriously triumphed in England, once their own.” 
 
 “ Father Wright spent nearly twenty-two years in the 
 Society, and was in his forty-eighth year, an example to the 
 spiritual coadjutors of the order, in which degree he had been 
 professed for ten years. His memory lives in perpetual bene- 
 diction, and flourishes for the increase of the Church, the 
 consolation of Catholics, an ornament to the priesthood, an 
 honour to “the least Society of Jesus,” and to the everlasting 
 glory of God and His most Blessed Mother.” s 
 
 The following are copies of four letters in the handwriting 
 of Father Wright in the Stonyhurst collection of manuscripts. 9 
 
 In the handwriting of Father Green at the head of the letter 
 is “ Autographum B. Pat r is Petri Wright, Martyr is” 
 
 “Sir, — The chiefest news this week affords is our great 
 preparations for Ireland ; the houses have voted two thousand 
 horse, and eight thousand five hundred foot to be taken out of 
 Sir Thomas Fairfax his army to be sent thither, but are 
 extremely troubled in that they know there is a petition framed 
 by the Independents and some of that army, to which have 
 subscribed eleven thousand, for the not disbanding or sending 
 for Ireland any part of that army, for liberty of conscience that 
 they may have the royal assent to keep them from damage from 
 what they have done, and that they may have an Act of Parlia- 
 ment passed for that purpose ; which petition is considered by 
 
 8 Father Courtnay’s Mors ob fidem , &c. 9 Anglia , nn. 5, 6, 7. 
 
56 ° 
 
 Father Peter Wright. 
 
 the Houses to be of dangerous consequence, and much 
 retarding the service of Ireland. Whereupon by order are 
 sent for the Lieutenant-General Hamond, Colonel Hamond, 
 Commissary-General Ireton, and Colonel Rich, who are the 
 men that took the said superscription, as also another prime 
 officer for saying publicly that he who should refuse to put his 
 name should be cashiered the army. Also a declaration is 
 published by the Houses to require all men to desist in that 
 petition, assuring that those who shall do so shall, notwith- 
 standing they have subscribed, be looked upon as men who 
 heretofore have done good service and should be remembered 
 with a bountiful recompense ; but if any shall persist they shall 
 be held disturbers of the State and public peace ; likewise that 
 the forces which are called from remote quarters do return, 
 being there is no need of increasing that army, and the country 
 where it is, much impoverished by such a multitude. Ten 
 pounds were given to him who brought the news of the sub- 
 scribers, and also money and other rewards ordered for those 
 soldiers which refused. Major-General Skippon, a zealous 
 Presbyterian, is sent for from Newcastle. It is said he shall 
 be appointed general of that army, because Sir Thomas Fairfax 
 is thought inclining to Independency. What will be the end 
 of this, time will show ; however, it is hoped that our Parlia- 
 ment abounding with money, will therewith so work upon the 
 affections of the Independents that at length they will con- 
 descend to what shall be required. Thanks are also ordered, 
 and all their arrears, to Colonel Rossiter’s regiment, being 
 the only pure regiment that hath conserved itself spotless from 
 that crime of subscribing. The King is kept so close that 
 there is no more speech of him than if there was no such man. 
 The six Scottish Commissioners, which have been so long 
 looked for, are now upon their way; then we shall see what 
 they will do with the King, who is threatened much if he take 
 not the Covenant and sign the propositions. Poor man, he 
 is as much afflicted for his conscience as ever poor Papist 
 was, for the Houses will grant him none but Covenanter 
 Ministers, which he refusing is debarred of all. 
 
 “ Sir, I am your humble servant, 
 
 “Pe. W. 
 
 “ London, this 2nd day of April, stilo veteri. This is the 
 third letter I have written to you. 
 
 “For Mr. Joseph Simons, these. Recommended to Mr. 
 John Clayton, Antwerp.” 
 
Father Peter Wright. 561 
 
 In Father Green’s handwriting is the following— 11 Auto- 
 graphum B. Patris Petri Wrighti, Martyris 
 
 “ Sir, — The inclosed paper is a speech made by a Judge 
 of our law, called Jenkins, who having been long prisoner 
 in the Tower for siding with the King, was called before the 
 Commissioners of Examination, whereof that famous and zealous 
 Parliament man, Corbet, was chief. None of them made any 
 reply thereto, but, being surprised with his unexpected answers, 
 stood amazed at his resolution and sent him back to the 
 Tower, where he remains in as great or rather greater freedom 
 than before. There is yet no certainty what Sir Thomas Fairfax 
 his army will do. The general opinion is it will not disband, 
 for as yet the Parliament hath not ready for them the ^200,000 
 (which notwithstanding is one of the least things required by 
 the soldiers), and I believe will not suddenly procure it, the 
 City exacting so great security for the same — (1) As delin- 
 quents’ estates at Goldsmiths’ Hall not compounded for; (2) the 
 estates of Papists and others in the Exception out of mercy ; 
 (3) the remainder of bishops’ lands not disposed of ; (4) the 
 security of the grand Excise of the kingdom. The soldiers 
 in that army cry, Viva the King, and this last week back, 
 beat soundly a Presbyterian constable in Norfolk, and some 
 others, for refusing the King’s health. The Scottish Com- 
 missioners, as Duke Hamilton, the Lords Lotherdale and 
 Dumfermline, are at length come to town, to join with our 
 Commissioners to try if they can persuade his Majesty to 
 take the Covenant and pass the resolutions, and ’tis said they 
 will give him ten days to consider, at the end of which, if 
 he refuse, then let him look to himself. He, on the contrary 
 side, remains the same, and seems resolved to condescend 
 unto them in nothing. He hath leave now to go some days 
 in the week to the Lord Vaux’s house at Boughton to bowls: 
 the Parliament hath [granted] every second Tuesday in the 
 month a play-day to the apprentices of London. Exceeding 
 good they are to all sorts of people, for which as some say 
 we shall know what our religion shall be within this month, 
 for from Tuesday next the house hath appointed fourteen 
 days together to consider thereof, and the Assembly of Divines 
 to bring in their places of Scripture. My prayer is that we 
 may have and keep a good one. 
 
 “ Sir, I am your humble friend, 
 
 [Some pious thief has cut off and stolen the signature.] 
 
 “ London, this 23rd of April, 1647. 
 
 KK 
 
562 
 
 Father Peter Wright. 
 
 “ To Mr. Joseph Simons, these. Recommended t.o Mr. 
 John Clayton, Antwerp.” 
 
 Endorsed by Father Green, “B. F. Peter Wright’s auto- 
 graph.” 
 
 “ Upon Friday last the grand council of the agitators 
 at Putney voted to have no King ; but General Cromwell, 
 understanding what the Scottish Commissioners’ message was, 
 both to the King and the two Houses, made an earnest speech 
 unto them to the contrary, telling them how dangerous such a 
 vote would be to the whole army ; for, said he, we have 
 hanging over our heads a black cloud from the north that 
 we shall not be able to disperse, for should we persist in 
 that opinion, not only the whole kingdom of Scotland with 
 all their Presbyterian brethren here, but all the King’s party 
 would join against us to our inevitable ruin. This made a 
 stop of the business, though many of the agitators stormed 
 thereat. In this printed paper inclosed you will find the 
 Scottish speech and demands, which speech hath also troubled 
 both the Houses, they not knowing what answer to return 
 thereunto ; neither is the trouble less in the army among 
 themselves, for Cromwell, Ireton, and the principal officers 
 are earnest to come to a speedy conclusion with the King. 
 Rainsborough and the agitators are of a contrary opinion, 
 and maintain the sense of the army to be that which was 
 put out in book by the agitators of the five regiments, which 
 was as bad almost as could be for the King, and ill enough 
 for the Presbyterians, for by it scarce one of them will be 
 permitted to remain in the House, and their ministers will 
 be pitifully provided for, for all tithes should be taken away, 
 and all sorts of people should have liberty of conscience, &c. 
 Hereupon, by instigation of the officers, Sir Thomas Fairfax 
 hath revoked his commission granted to the agitators for their 
 agitating, and remanded them to their quarters, calling also 
 all the soldiers together, and causing this next week a general 
 rendezvous to be, where the soldiers (as it is said) shall deliver 
 their own sense whether they are for the agitators or officers. 
 This rendezvous, as I understand now, is to be upon Monday 
 next. In the meantime, both agitators and officers labour to 
 make their party strong by endearing themselves unto the 
 soldiers, and many are of opinion that the agitators will prevail, 
 for upon Tuesday last a soldier of Colonel Husory’s regiment, 
 which lies about Streatham, four miles from London, was, for 
 
Father Peter Wright. 
 
 563 
 
 a mutiny against the officers, condemned to the gauntlet, that 
 is, to be stripped from the girdle upwards and to be whipped 
 by the soldiers of the whole regiment as he should pass through 
 them, and being put into this post, no not one of the soldiers, 
 though commanded by their officers present, would touch him 
 themselves or suffer their officers. The agitators are high 
 against the King, and so is that party of the Parliament which 
 sides with them ; for upon the Gunpowder Day a Presbyterian 
 minister, preaching bitterly against Catholics before the Lower 
 House, caused the old inveterate hate to be revived in them, 
 and they to begin to talk in the House to act against them, 
 until Martin, a professed enemy of the King, stood up and in 
 a speech said that that treason of the Papistry, nor any treason 
 he could call to mind, were to be paralleled with the King’s 
 against the State. And upon Wednesday last a chief agitator 
 said publicly at a meeting that that man which is called a 
 King was no better than a wild boar muzzled by them, and 
 if they should take the muzzle off his snout, which for the 
 safety of the people they had now put on, he would gore 
 them as deep as ever, and therefore in no case would he 
 ever consent it should be done. 
 
 “ This day being Friday we have strange news, which is, 
 that the King for certain is gone from Hampton Court, but 
 the manner, how, or upon what conditions, is not certainly 
 known. There are for the present two reports. The first, 
 that he is gone to some far distant garrison by the connivancy 
 •of the officers of the army, to have him out of the power 
 of the agitators and soldiers, if the soldiers upon their meeting 
 should declare for the agitators. Others confidently affirm 
 that he is stolen away without the knowledge either of the 
 Parliamentary army, Scottish Commissioners, or any other than 
 his own party, and these relate that he departed privately from 
 Hampton Court at the time his guards were changed, and 
 passed over the ferry at Ditton all alone at five of the clock 
 at night, not being missed till eight by the howling of his 
 dog which he had shut up in his closet, and that at this 
 ferry he met Ashburnham and Egg, and being on horseback 
 to go with them he despatched away five letters, one to the 
 Upper House, another to the Lower, a third to the Scottish 
 Commissioners, a fourth to the Lord Montague, chief of the 
 Commissioners from the Parliament, and the last to Colonel 
 Whalley, who had the guard of his person. The effect of 
 the first two was that he was certainly informed his life was 
 kk 2 
 
5<H 
 
 Father Peter Wright . 
 
 in danger, and therefore the law of nature gave him leave 
 to provide for himself, but he would be in such a place as 
 to be ready to correspond with his two Houses when they 
 could assure him a way of settling a firm and grounded peace ; 
 that to the Scottish Commissioners was to thank them for 
 their large proffers, and that he would make use of them when 
 he saw occasion ; by that to the Lord Montague he thanked 
 him and the rest of the Commissioners with him for their 
 civilities, and that he was retired for a while for reasons 
 best known to him ; and that of Whalley was to will him 
 to have care of Hampton Court till his return. These are 
 all the particulars that I can yet learn of his going away. 
 By the next I shall be able to write [more] certainly, till 
 when, 
 
 “ I am your servant, 
 
 “P. W. 
 
 “ November 12th [1647].” 
 
 “ Sir, — The Dippers in our county increase much ; they 
 are now for dousing over head and ears, and allege two places 
 of Scripture for it : John iii. 23 — “ And John also was bap- 
 tizing in Ennon beside Salem, because there was much water 
 there .” Whereupon they infer that he chose that place to 
 douse them in because there was much water. The other 
 text is Romans vi. 4 — “ For we are buried together with Him 
 by baptism unto death ” — which kind of death, say they, is 
 best performed by drowning. The practice of this doctrine 
 had lately a sad effect in Lincoln. The passage is most 
 certain. The Dippers having persuaded a poor man to be 
 re-baptized, brought him to the river below the bridge ; and 
 whether it was that his hair was too short, or the stream too 
 strong, the careless Dipper let the poor creature go and drowned 
 him. One Dr. Kayner, a famous Presbyterian, and others of 
 his companions, have instituted this form of baptism — “ I bap- 
 tize thee into the Father,” &c. Their meaning is into the 
 covenant of the Father, &c., for of this they make a long 
 harangue before the baptism. 
 
 “ Yesterday, as the Committee of Goldsmiths’ Hall was 
 treating the business of Papists’ compositions, one Allen, an 
 alderman, came and opposed, reprehending the Committee for 
 meddling in a business they had nothing to do withal, for, 
 saith he, all Papists’ lands were given in the beginning of 
 the Parliament, by the Parliament to the City for the security 
 
College of the Holy Apostles. 565 
 
 of the moneys they then lent them. Yet the Committee hath 
 sent a certificate thereof to the Council of State. What oppo- 
 sition Allen or any other will make there, or in the Parliament, 
 time must tell. The Scots have lately received arms and ammu- 
 nition from Holland, and their grand council is removed from 
 Sterling to St. Johnston’s. The Kirk was against this removal, 
 but they were enforced to submit, the cavaliering party being 
 there strong. We have taken a castle or two near Edinburgh, 
 and our mayne goeth there gallantly on. They begin to shoot 
 at us from the Castle, but they kill more of the Edinburgh 
 folk than they do of us. We have had an insurrection in 
 Norfolk by the Presbyterians, which we hope we have appeased; 
 yet some letters say that Rosseter and King are still up 
 in the Isle of Ely. Last night our State had ill news from 
 Ireland ; that which we expressed of Clanricards’ beating was 
 not considerable, and since that they have killed seven of our 
 best troops of horse, not giving quarter to any one of them. 
 Adieu. 
 
 “ Yours, 
 
 “P. 
 
 “ December 5th.” 
 
 The Annual Letters of the English Province are scanty 
 in the early times, on account of the danger and difficulty of 
 letter-writing, amid the unrelenting persecution carried on 
 against Catholics and their faith. We will briefly notice a 
 few of the leading facts. 
 
 1635. In the Suffolk district of this College, a ritualistic 
 movement somewhat similar to that of our own times sprang 
 up. There occurred one of those attempts which have been 
 made from time to time in the State Church to impress on the 
 people the necessity of, and to establish the practice of con- 
 fession of sins to the Church minister. In the present instance 
 the attempt was defeated by the indiscretion of one of the 
 ministers. A lady of high rank had confessed to him. Soon 
 afterwards, amidst the hilarities of a tavern, the parson made 
 known to his gay companions what he had thus confidentially 
 learnt. This breach of confidence put a stop to the practice, 
 as may be supposed. 
 
 1636. Some remarkable cures of dangerous diseases 
 through the application of relics of the blessed martyr, 
 
566 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 Father Robert Southwell, by his surviving sister are recorded. 
 In this and the preceding year, cases of evil spirits cast out 
 f>y the exorcisms of the Church are noticed. 
 
 1637. A Master of Arts of Cambridge was converted to 
 the Catholic Church. 
 
 1638. Two of the Fathers were chiefly employed this year 
 in teaching boys their religion and “ elements.” The rest 
 were occupied in the usual missionary duties. The Catholics 
 were desirous to increase the number of the Fathers, but none 
 could be spared. Among fifty-two cases of conversion of 
 Protestants this year, was that of a woman who became a 
 Catholic by the advice of a Protestant minister, who was 
 himself also received into the Church before he died. 
 
 1639. Among the conversions this year to the Faith was 
 that of a Fellow of one of the Colleges of Cambridge : he was 
 in consequence deprived of his fellowship, apprehended, and 
 brought before the tribunals in London, where he was required 
 to give heavy bail not to leave the kingdom for foreign parts : 
 he also suffered other great vexations. 
 
 Another Protestant minister acknowledged the truth of the 
 Catholic doctrine, but unhappily deferred the duty of embracing 
 it ; nor was he able on his death-bed to repair his fatal delay. 
 
 There were some remarkable instances of the recovery of 
 health following the reception of the sacraments. 
 
 A case is mentioned of a young gentleman who had been: 
 in his education inoculated with hostile feelings towards the 
 Society of Jesus, so that he would not even read the lives of 
 its Saints, and attributed a bad motive to every action of the 
 Fathers. Being completely changed, after accidentally coming 
 into communication with some of them, he was ever afterwards 
 their admirer and zealous co-operator. 
 
 1640. Among the conversions to the faith recorded this 
 year, many more who were brought to a full knowledge and 
 conviction of the truths of our holy religion, were deterred from 
 embracing them by the apprehension of the storm with which 
 the kingdom and the Catholics in particular were threatened, 
 and the great political changes which were expected, especially 
 after the Scottish army had invaded the Northern Counties. 
 In this state of things, the main object of the Fathers was to 
 strengthen the attachment of the Catholics to their faith, and 
 to animate them to bear with constancy whatever sufferings 
 Providence might permit their enemies to inflict upon them ; 
 and to induce them to implore the mercy of God, and to seek 
 
College of the Holy Apostles. 567 
 
 by fasting, prayer, and other exercises of piety, to appease His 
 wrath justly incurred by their sins. These labours were not 
 fruitless. Many were relieved from their fears, and many who 
 had begun to waver, were inspired with Christian fortitude. 
 
 During each year, the Fathers were able both to send over 
 boys to the seminaries on the Continent, and young ladies to 
 convents for education ; varying in number each year. 
 
 1641. In this district, as elsewhere, the Fathers experienced 
 the effects of the increased violence of the persecution. It was 
 only by the utmost vigilance that they could escape the active 
 pursuit of their enemies, who were too often guided by infor- 
 mation derived from false brethren. Following the injunctions 
 of the Gospel, they fled from city to city ; they often sought 
 concealment in woods and caves, without other solace or 
 society than Christian patience; going abroad mostly in the 
 night, to give comfort and spiritual help to the Catholics. 
 
 By means of considerable alms which were placed at their 
 disposal, they were enabled to relieve the temporal wants of 
 the more indigent Catholics. Through the special protection 
 of God, none of the Fathers during, this time fell into the hands 
 of the pursuivants. 
 
 There is mention of one of those attempts which had been 
 made from time to time by Protestants to devise some com- 
 promise by which Catholic and Protestant might be brought 
 to religious agreement. The author of this scheme proposed 
 among other things, that many of the forms of prayer in use 
 among Catholics, should be retained in his united church, 
 and among the rest the Litany of the Saints, but with some 
 omissions, among which he proposed, unaccountably, to leave 
 out the petition to be preserved from a sudden and unprepared 
 death. It was very remarkable that, shortly after, the person 
 died both suddenly and unprepared, suffering the very evil 
 which he had so strongly refused to pray against. 
 
 A case of miraculous cure is mentioned by means of an 
 Agnus Z)ei, a small portion of which the sick person swallowed 
 by advice of one of the Fathers. 
 
 1642 et seq. About thirty were in 1642 converted to the 
 Faith. In Suffolk, &c., the Parliamentary party had numerous 
 and zealous adherents. 1 Accordingly, the Catholics who re- 
 
 1 See Mr. Darcy’s letter to Father Henry More (alias Talman), ante , 
 p. 425, detailing the excesses of thsee rebels. The author of this letter, I 
 believe, was Mr. Henry Forster (Brother Forster, S.J.), under the assumed 
 name of Darcy. — [Editor.] 
 
568 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 mained faithful to the King were deprived of their property, 
 driven from their houses, and dispersed ; some seeking con- 
 cealment among their acquaintances, but most escaping to 
 the Continent. The Fathers became thus exposed to great 
 dangers and hardships, yet they continued to devote them- 
 selves, as they were able, by day and by night, to their 
 missionary duties. One of the Fathers had gone to London 
 on some business. During his absence, the rebels broke into 
 and plundered the Catholic house in which he usually lived, 
 placed the master of it in custody, dispersed his children 
 amongst different Protestant families, that they might be per- 
 verted, and turned the house into a military station. The 
 Father, having finished his business in London, set out on his 
 return to the country, ignorant of all that had taken place. 
 As he drew near the house, he observed some change in the 
 approaches to it, which put him on his guard. Instead there- 
 fore of going into the house, he went cautiously to a -window 
 and looked in. Seeing a strange female domestic, he asked 
 for a Flemish woman servant who had lived in the house 
 with the Catholic family, and to whom he said he had a 
 message to deliver. The woman answered that she had 
 been removed from that house, with her mistress ; and was 
 going on to tell him what had happened, when one of the 
 soldiers came up, and taking him by the arm, conducted him 
 to the military party. They examined him closely, but could 
 not elicit anything to criminate him. He accounted for his 
 inquiring for the Flemish servant, by saying that he had for 
 some time resided in Flanders, and had been sent to England 
 to transact some business. They finished, however, by saying 
 that he was, no doubt, a Papist ; and they accordingly made 
 him mount upon a lean horse without saddle, and so con- 
 ducted him to a fortress seven miles off. He was here ex- 
 amined by the governor, to whom he admitted that he was 
 a Catholic. The governor said that he had no doubt but 
 that he was a priest also, and had been sent over from France 
 by the Queen as a spy. He accordingly ordered that he 
 should be confined in a close damp dungeon under ground, 
 in which a number of common soldiers were already im- 
 prisoned. 
 
 Here he underwent great sufferings and privations for 
 nearly three months. He was examined a second and a 
 third time without any result. Proposals were made to him 
 to set him at liberty, on payment of a sum of money, and 
 
College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 569 
 
 he was sent in custody to London, that he might procure 
 his ransom. But the officer into whose charge he was 
 delivered, being more zealous in the popular cause, ignored 
 the agreement about the ransom, and brought the Father at 
 once before the Parliamentary Commissioners. By these he 
 was examined, and the oaths required by the Parliament to 
 be taken were tendered to him. On his refusal to take them 
 he was committed to Newgate prison, where he found many 
 of his brethren already confined ; and it was no small relief 
 to him to have them for his fellow-prisoners, instead of the 
 rude soldiers with whom he had been associated in the 
 country. He had daily before his eyes : “Quis nos separabit a 
 charitate Christi ? &c. Sed in his omnibus super amus, propter 
 Eum qui dilexit nos.” 
 
 1647-8. The following is the paper written for the Annual 
 Letters of this College or district by Father Sankey the 
 Superior, referred to in the short account of him given at 
 p. 41 1, ante. It shows that cases of obsessed persons were 
 common in England in those days. Indeed, throughout the 
 kingdom, the annual reports in the olden times abound in 
 such cases, and in the successful use of the Rites oY Exorcism 
 in the Catholic Church. 
 
 “Pro annuis Coll. S.S. Apostolorum, 1647-1648. 
 
 “ What here followeth, the under-written can testify to be 
 true as being an eye-witness of the passage. 
 
 “ Francis Sankey.” 
 
 “One of our Fathers of our least Society of Jesus being in 
 England, as I take it, in the year 1643, or thereabouts, as he 
 was performing that supreme service to God at the holy altar, 
 after consummation, being to give the most Blessed and all- 
 praiseworthy Sacrament of the Eucharist to the people there 
 present, who as far forth as I can remember, were about the 
 number of twelve persons, turning himself as the manner is to 
 the communicants, and saying, Ecce Agnus Dei , &c., one of 
 the company in the chapel or place of sacrifice, cried out with 
 a loud voice, as much terrified with some fearful and horrid 
 spectre, looking out at the window, as if he would leap into 
 the street of Norwich city in Norfolk, insomuch that the priest 
 judged it necessary to turn to the altar with the Sacred 
 Relic of Relics, the most venerable Sacrament, and then 
 desired the people to help him down, the party ran with such 
 
570 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 violence against the door, which was hard by the altar, as if 
 he would have broken it to pieces, with danger of throwing 
 himself headlong down the stairs, and when he was out of 
 the place he was very quiet and no more was made of it, but 
 divers were of an opinion that it was some diabolical power 
 that could not endure the presence of his Judge that had 
 condemned him to hell for his great pride and ambition. 
 
 “To this same priest of the Society it happened that being 
 to take a journey into the northern parts, by leave of his 
 Superior, the night before his journey was so troubled with 
 dangerous apprehensions of what might befall in that journey, 
 that he was forced to go to his Superior to free him from this 
 obligation ; and whilst the Superior was considering how to 
 give a satisfactory excuse to some people of good calling, 
 in whose company he was to travel, came a messenger with 
 a letter to desire him with all haste to go to one that was 
 dangerously ill, either by reason of some frenzy, or else as- 
 by some understanding men, whereof one was a priest, it: 
 was thought to be under some diabolical power. Time there was. 
 taken to consider of it, and it was finally concluded that some 
 trial might be made whatever [? whether] the devil had any 
 power or no. Lastly the manner how it was to be done 
 was proposed, and this priest of our Society, when it -was pro- 
 pounded to speak what he judged best, made this answer, 
 that, being men generally are sinners, and consequently though 
 such power be given by our all-powerful Master, Jesus Christy, 
 to cast out devils, or to vanquish all demoniacal fancies, 
 unto His substitutes, the lawfully made priests by the Church, 
 of Rome, yet he for his part was most inclined to ascribe 
 this power to the same Jesus Christ, present now in the 
 Eucharist, as He was in humanity shape formerly, though 
 not after the same manner, as is by our holy mother the 
 Catholic Roman Church expressed, and so the best to be 
 done, after consecration, and by virtue of the Blessed Sacra- 
 ment and Sacrifice [was a] trial to be made, which was assented 
 unto by all. But to pitch upon the party that should be 
 the actor there was some difficulty, which at last was over- 
 come, and it was resolved that the said Father of our Society 
 should effect what had formally been agreed upon, who, 
 having been at confession and prepared himself as well as 
 he could before the breaking of the Sacred Host in the most 
 holy Sacrifice of the Mass, he took the most Sacred Host 
 with him, and in the presence of some discreet Catholics, went 
 
College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 57i 
 
 to the bedside where the party lay distempered, commanded 
 by virtue of Christ Jesus, present before them all there, that 
 if the devil had any power that then he should make some 
 expression thereof; when, presently the party made an ugly 
 and a kind of horrid voice, dissonant from the ordinary tone 
 of the voice ; then presently the said priest commanded by 
 power of Him there present that he should depart and not 
 molest the party infirm, [who repeated] after him a confession 
 of Faith, an acknowledgement of the Real Presence, a detesta- 
 tion of sin, with an act of contrition, and such like works, 
 which were spoken in a different tone, and after an accustomed 
 manner of voice. Thence after some days, the party being 
 on the mending hand, our said Father returned for Norfolk, 
 where presently he was sent for to Mr. Jerningham, who 
 was then in danger of death, who, at his approach being 
 exceedingly glad saluted him with these terms, that he was 
 the man who was to help him, and such like ; and so after 
 some days, he reconciled that knight unto the Catholic 
 faith, who formerly for many years had laid in schism, and 
 frequented Protestant churches ; who, within a month after 
 his conversion, having received his Viaticum for his journey 
 to heaven, departed from earth to enjoy a better habitation 
 in paradise, out of which none shall ever be evicted. 
 
 “This present year of our Lord God, 1648, it fell out 
 that a party formerly noted for a scandalous life, and 
 being in a chapel, where was one of our Fathers, then 
 at his prayers, a pious thought coming into his mind, 
 and rising up from his prayers spake thus to the party, 
 calling him by his name. ‘ There is one thing may do 
 you good, and help you to gain your salvation;’ who, 
 being somewhat surprised to hear himself called by his 
 own true name, asked what that was, and it was replied 
 by the said Father, that three or four days of spiritual 
 exercises, or retirement of spirit, would do the deed ; which 
 motion was accepted. Yet being attempted twice, it would 
 not take by reason of some obstacles. At last, about the 
 Holy Week, the bud was turned to blossom, desires ended 
 in effects of a sincere conversion, after nine days’ retirement, 
 and a perfect general confession made him confess that he 
 had been blind, and gives now singular example to all, in all 
 that is good and virtuous.” 2 
 
 2 Collectio Cardwelli , varia SJ. Archives de VEtat , Brussels , vol. i. 
 
 p. 361. 
 
57 2 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 1650. Among the converts to the Catholic faith this year 
 was a Cambridge man of high talents, and greatly beloved by 
 his fellow-collegians. His conversion drew down upon him 
 great hatred, and was an effectual bar to his future academic 
 prospects. He had been a leading preacher of high repute 
 among the Protestants, which rendered his loss all the more 
 severely felt by that party. 
 
 1654. The following letter regarding this district is histori- 
 cally interesting. 
 
 “ Mr. P. Rock to Col. Mackworth. 
 
 “Ipswich in Suffolk, 15 Dec. 1654. 
 
 “Right Honourable, — May it please your honour to remem- 
 ber that I did inform you of twenty-three Popish priests that are 
 in these parts; Mr. Gilbert informed me that it was your pleasure 
 to have me write to you, if I could find any, that could prove 
 them priests, which causeth this boldness in me to trouble 
 your honour with these lines. I have spoken with the man 
 that did inform me of most of them, and he will take his 
 oath, that he hath seen five or six of them execute their 
 priestly office, and will find others that shall prove the same 
 against those and others of them; and he will bring me to 
 the places where they and their Church stuff are kept, and 
 also show me the person that they employ as a post to carry 
 letters among the Papists ; this man hath a relation to a great 
 Papist in the country, whereby he hath gotten this knowledge ; 
 and if your honour may think it may be for the glory of 
 God, and this good of the Commmonwealth, I shall use my 
 best skill to get them apprehended. If you please to let me 
 have a warrant, and power to call to my assistance officers, 
 military and civil, to search for them, at Christmas will be 
 the best time to look for them ; for then they will be employed 
 at gentlemen’s houses; or if your honour shall think fit to 
 employ any man else in this business, that may be more 
 fit for it, I shall give him all the light I can; for I conceive 
 that man which undertakes it, shall never be out of danger 
 of his life ; yet I shall willingly put that in my hand if I 
 am called to it. I know where they have some long pieces, 
 and pistols, and muskets, and swords, and rapiers ; and 
 when any Papist in this country ride, they be very well armed, 
 and here be very many in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Lincolnshire, 
 and Cambridgeshire hath some. I could give your honour 
 
College of the Holy Apostles . 
 
 573 
 
 a further account of some of them ; but I fear I am too 
 tedious, wherefore I beg pardon for this boldness, and shall 
 wait for your honour’s commands at Mr. Robert Hall, his 
 house in Ipswich, where I shall endeavour to show my 
 thankfulness for the many favours I have received from 
 your honour, by my faithfulness in what you please to com- 
 mand me. 
 
 “ Your honour’s faithful servant, 
 
 “Policarpus Rock.” 
 
 The superscription . — “ To the right honourable Colonel 
 Mackworth, at his lodging in the Green Mews, near Charing 
 Cross, London — humbly these present.” 3 
 
 1671. There is no further special notice of this College 
 until this date, when the Annual Letters make a general 
 remark relating to the whole Province, to the effect that 
 in England there were one hundred and thirty-two Fathers 
 labouring upon the mission. These were like soldiers 
 in an army, which, although under the command of one 
 general, and all proposing to themselves the same end, the 
 glory of God and salvation of souls, nevertheless occupied 
 each his several post. Some were chaplains in the families 
 of the nobility and gentry, strengthening them and their 
 households by sound doctrine and the Sacraments, as a guard 
 against the depravity of heresy and vice. Others were like 
 skirmishers, running hither and thither, 4 traversing country 
 and villages, and visiting the houses of the Catholics at stated 
 periods ; often taking long journeys to refresh them with the 
 holy Sacraments, consoling them with the word of God, 
 embuing them with sound doctrine, and bringing back many 
 from the first beginnings of heresy to the liberty of the sons of 
 God, restoring them to our holy Mother the Church. Others, 
 combating with the heretics themselves, would engage their 
 ministers in controversy; proving both by word of mouth, 
 and by books, their falsehoods and distortions of Scripture, 
 the ancient Fathers, &c. All were instant, both at home and 
 
 3 Thurloe’s State Papers , vol. iii. p. 23. 
 
 4 Thus, indeed, did they especially fulfil their mission as members of an 
 Order which has been called “The Light Horse of the Church;” ever 
 on the move, and ready at a moment’s notice to exchange place for place, 
 wherever a prospect opened of extending God’s glory, and winning souls. 
 
574 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 abroad,, in lending their aid to the utmost of their power, to 
 the urgent needs of their common country and of individual 
 souls. 
 
 Several of the places included in this College or district, 
 which were served or visited by the members of the English 
 Province at various periods, contribute much interest to its 
 annals. We will mention a few of these. 
 
 I. Braddox, or Broadoaks, Essex. This was the house 
 of the Wiseman family, the great harbourers of the priests, 
 and who were such severe sufferers for the Faith in the time 
 of Elizabeth and James I. 
 
 Bradokes or Broadoaks, the old family mansion of this 
 branch of the Wisemans, stands in the fields two miles from 
 Wimbish Church. The estate at Northend, in the parish of 
 Great Watlham, was called Billocks, and had been in the 
 possession of the family since the time of Edward IV. In 
 1551, Bradokes came into the possession of John Wiseman, 
 Esq. of Felsted, whose son Thomas was the husband of Jane, 
 who was well known as “ the Widow Wiseman.” 
 
 William, the eldest son, is said to have been subsequently 
 knighted. His wife was Jane, daughter of Sir Edmund 
 Huddlestone, Knight ; and his children, John, Dorothea, 
 and Winefrid. John, who married Mary, daughter of Sir 
 Roland Rydgetey, had two daughters Lucy and Elizabeth, 
 and an only son, Aurelius Piercy Wiseman, who was killed 
 in a duel in London, 1680. The following inscription on 
 his tomb-stone in Wimbish Church may be seen in Wrights’ 
 Essex — 
 
 Here rest the sad remains of Aurelius Piercy Wiseman, of Broadoak, 
 in this parish, esqre., the last of the name of that place, and head and chief 
 of that right worshipful and antient family, who was unfortunately killed 
 in the flower of his age, Dec. 11, 1680. 
 
 Amongst others, Fathers Henry Garnett, the martyr, and 
 John Gerard, with Brothers Richard Ful wood, and Nicholas 
 Owen, the martyr, were certainly there. 
 
 The following are extracts from the papers in the Public 
 Record Office, London, in which mention is made of this place. 
 
 1592. In P.R.O. Dom . , Elizabeth , vol. ccxliv. n. 7, may be 
 seen two forms of indictment of Richard Jackson, priest, for 
 
College of the Holy Apostles, 
 
 575 
 
 •saying Mass at Braddocks, and of various members of the 
 Wiseman family for being present at Mass, on the 25th of 
 August and the 8th of September, 1592. This paper is 
 endorsed Massemongers. 
 
 “ 1594, January 2nd. State Papers, Z>om. Eliz. vol. 
 ccxlvii. n. 7. Richard Young to Lord Keeper Puckering. 
 
 “Mr. Worsely and Mr. Newall have been to Widow 
 Wiseman’s house in Essex, 5 and found a Mass preparing, 
 but the priest escaped : they brought Robert, her son : 
 William Clarke a lawyer, &c., recusants, who all refused 
 to take an oath to answer matters touching the Queen and 
 .State : he has committed them close prisoners apart one from 
 the other. They also found in the house Mrs. Wiseman’s 
 family, servants, &c., all recusants. He thinks they ought 
 .all to be sent for and examined, as Mrs. Jane Wiseman’s house 
 is the only place of resort for these wicked persons. She was 
 .at Wisbeach with the Seminarists and Jesuits, but repented 
 she had not gone there bare-footed. She is a great reliever of 
 .them, and made a rich vestment and sent it to them. ” 
 
 “ 1594, April 4. Vol. ccxlviii. n. 68. Same to same. 
 
 “ If he should give him orders for examining the prisoners 
 committed, wishes Sir Thomas Wilkes, &c., to be employed 
 therein, with some of the counsel-at-law, as some of the 
 prisoners have long lain in oblivion, and by delay and 
 lingering, matters of great importance are hurt and hid. 
 Young incloses to the Lord Keeper a list of seven recusant 
 servants found in Mr. Wiseman’s house [Braddox], who will 
 not take the oath of allegiance, nor answer anything. One 
 Thompson was apprehended when his master was taken, but 
 fled with his master’s best gelding, and a handful of gold that 
 he gave him. Wiseman is a continual receiver of Seminary 
 priests : went to Wisbeach to visit the priests and Jesuits 
 there, and since his imprisonment there was a Seminary priest 
 in his house, who escaped from the Justices, leaving his 
 apparel behind. Mrs. Jane Wiseman, William Wiseman’s 
 mother, has also been a great harbourer of priests and other 
 bad persons, and went to Wisbeach with her two daughters, 
 where she was absolved and blessed by Father Edmonds the 
 Jesuit, since which her daughters have been sent beyond seas 
 to be professed as nuns, as her other two daughters were 
 5 At Northern!, Great Waltham, near Chelmsford. 
 
576 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 before. Her son Thomas is a Jesuit in Rome or Spain. 
 Robert Wiseman, her other son, is also an obstinate recusant, 
 and a prisoner in the Clink. Mrs. Jennings, her kinswoman, 
 sojourned in his house, and is a perverse recusant, as are three 
 others who sojourned there : two were apprehended.” 
 
 “ 1794, June 13. Vol. ccxlix. n. 12. 
 
 “ In one of Father Henry Walpole’s examinations he says : 
 He has heard that Garnet, alias Roberts, alias Whalley, was 
 kept at Mrs. Vaux’s house, and at Mr. Wiseman’s, and that he 
 had been at Braddox.” 
 
 “In another confession of Father Walpole’s on inter- 
 rogatories, same vol., n. 44, he says, 1 Garnet is at Mrs. Vaux’s 
 or William Wiseman’s. John Gerard has been at Mr. Wise- 
 man’s.’ ” 
 
 “ 1594, May 11. Vol. ccxlviii. n. 103. 
 
 “The examination of John Frank (the traitor who 
 betrayed Father Gerard). He says, when the pursuivants went 
 to old Mrs. Wiseman’s house at Northend, on December 26, 
 Brewster, a priest, was hid in a chimney, and was fetched 
 away by William Suffield, William Wiseman’s man. He gives 
 notices of other priests received by the Wisemans ; Scuda- 
 more [a secular priest called alias J ohn Wiseman] ; Rook 
 Chapman, born in Samford ; Gerard, alias Tanfield, alias 
 Staunton, a Jesuit; Richard Fulwood, was with Mr. Wiseman 
 in the examinant’s house, when Mr. Ormes, a tailor of Fleet 
 Street, took Gerard’s measure by the name of Tanfield. 
 Gerard lay one night at the Lady Mary’s [Percy’s], in Black- 
 friars, and Ralph Willis his servant, lay at examinant’s house. 
 Since Richard Fulwood has been a prisoner in Bridewell, he 
 has written to Gerard, and sent to Lady Mary’s : Received 
 and took the letter to Gerard at Mr. Wiseman’s house at 
 Braddox, where Gerard was hid whilst the pursuivants were 
 there. He heard them read it; Fulwood writing that he 
 expected torture every day; Gerard said he wished he 
 might bear some of Fulwood’s punishment. Willis said that 
 John Jeppes, Wiseman’s man, could do hurt in revealing 
 matters, and that Jeppes let Staunton [Father Gerard] and 
 Willis through his grounds from Mr. Wiseman’s house at 
 Braddox. The satin doublet and velvet hose found in 
 Middleton’s house at Gerard’s apprehension, were Mr. Wise- 
 man’s, and the cuffs Mrs. Wiseman’s. 
 
College of the Holy Apostles . 
 
 5 77 
 
 “Last autumn was sent by old Mrs. Wiseman from North- 
 end, to Mr. Gerard in London, with Scudamore, alias John 
 Wiseman, the priest, Richard Fulwood, Gerard’s man, and 
 others. John Jepps had them a week at his house, and then 
 they embarked at Gravesend and went over to Middleburg, 
 and thence to Antwerp, & c. 
 
 “ Nicholas Owen, who was taken in bed with Gerard the 
 Jesuit, was at Wiseman’s house last Christmas twelve months, 
 and was called Little John and Little Michael; the cloak 
 he wore was Wiseman’s : he was at Mr. Emerson’s house at 
 Felsted, whilst Mrs. Wiseman lay there. William Wiseman 
 has Muckin Hall, in Rochford hundred, which was Thomas 
 Wisemans, a Jesuit in Rome. Richard White owed Thomas 
 Wiseman ^400, which was to be paid to William Wiseman. 
 The writings were in Wiseman’s counting-house when the 
 pursuivants were there. If they had been taken they would 
 have ridden off to White with a counterfeit acquittance, 
 Wiseman having told him to so.” 6 
 
 “ 1599, August 12. Vol. cclxxii., n. 36. 
 
 “Sir A. Capel to Secretary Cecil. The townspeople of 
 Starford have brought me, John Gurgune, whom they stayed 
 on suspicion of being a Jesuit priest, with certain superstitious 
 wafers, which I send together with his examination, and a 
 book written by him containing some Popish prayers, and the 
 form of Mass. He only confesses that he is a messenger to 
 cany wafers, &c., to Mr. Wiseman’s house at Broadoaks, Essex. 
 I send him to you, not knowing whether there may be any 
 further matter to be got from him.” 
 
 The following notice of this excellent family is given by 
 Father Morris : 7 
 
 “Among those to whom Father Gerard gave the spiritual 
 exercises while in this residence, were two brothers of the 
 name of Wiseman, who entered the novitiate of St. Andrew’s 
 in Rome, under the name of Starkie and Standish, 1 which they 
 assumed,’ says Father Gerard, ‘as a remembrance of me; 
 for under these I passed in the first and second county where 
 I took up my residence.’ The one died there, and the other 
 at St. Omers not long after. Their eldest brother was William 
 
 (i For a full copy of this examination see Condition of Catholics , p. xli. 
 
 7 See Father Morris’ Condition of Catholics under fames /. Second 
 Edition, pp. xxx — xxxii. We refer our readers to the same work for 
 further information about the Wisemans. 
 
 LL 
 
573 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 Wiseman of Braddocks or Broadoaks, a family mansion which 
 stands in the fields, two miles from Wimbish Church, in Essex. 
 He had lately come to his estate on the death of his father, 
 and had made himself a large deer park in it. There he lived 
 like a little king in ease and independence, surrounded by his 
 children, to whom as well as to his wife he was tenderly 
 attached. As he kept clear of priests from the Seminaries, 
 he lived unmolested, feeling nothing of the burthen and heat 
 of the day; for the persecutors troubled chiefly those who 
 harboured the Seminarists, not caring to inquire after those 
 who kept the old Priests, that is those who had taken Orders 
 before the reign of Elizabeth. In his house there was living 
 my host’s mother, a most excellent widow lady, happy in her 
 children, but still happier in her private virtues. She had four 
 sons and four daughters. These latter, without exception, 
 devoted their virginity to God. . . . Her sons were all pious 
 young men; two, ‘Thomas and John,’ died in the Society, 
 as was related above : the third, ‘ Robert,’ chose the army, 
 and was lately slain in a battle with the heretics in Belgium : 
 he fell fighting when all around him had surrendered : the 
 fourth, ‘William, who married Jane, daughter of Sir Edmund 
 Huddlestone, knight,’ was master of that house, who to his 
 mother’s great joy had given himself up to every good work. 
 
 “ Mrs. Wiseman, or ‘ the Widow Wiseman,’ had a house of 
 her own at North end, Great Waltham, which had been in 
 possession of the family since the time of Henry VI. On 
 Father Gerard’s recommendation she went to live there, and 
 maintained a priest, ‘in order that so noble a soul, and one 
 so ready for good deeds, might be a profit not only to herself, 
 but to many, as in fact she became. Her house was a retreat, 
 and no small protection both to ours and to other priests.’” 
 
 As we have seen by the before-mentioned papers in the 
 Record Office, the good widow and her son William were in 
 bad repute with the Council. “She was condemned in 1598 
 to the peine forte et dure for refusing to plead when indicted 
 for harbouring Father Jones alias Buckley, the Franciscan 
 martyr. ‘ However, on account of her rank, and the good 
 name which she had, the Queen’s Councillors would not 
 let such barbarity be practised in London. So they transferred 
 her after condemnation to a more loathsome prison, and 
 kept her there. They wanted at the same time to seize 
 her income for the Queen. Now if she had been dead, 
 this income would not have gone to the Queen, but to her 
 
College of the Holy Apostles . 
 
 579 
 
 son, my host. The godly woman therefore lived in this prison, 
 reft of her goods but not of her life, of which she most desired 
 to be reft. She pined in a narrow and fifthy cell till the 
 accession of King James, when she received a pardon and 
 returned home : where she now serves the servants of God, 
 and has two of Ours with her in the house.’ ” 
 
 Father Gerard says further, that “ While Braddocks was 
 my headquarters, I found time both for study and missionary 
 excursions. I took care that all in the house should approach 
 the sacraments frequently, which none before save the good 
 widow, used to do oftener than four times a year. Now they 
 come every week. On feast days, and often on Sundays, 
 I preached in the chapel. Moreover, I showed those who had 
 leisure, the way to meditate by themselves, and taught all 
 how to examine their conscience. I also brought in the 
 custom of reading pious books, which we did even at meals, 
 when there were no strangers there : for at that time, we 
 priests sat with the rest, even with our gowns on. I had 
 a soutane besides, and a biretta, but the Superior would not 
 have us use these except in the chapel. In my excursions 
 I almost always gained some to God. There is, however, a 
 great difference to be observed between these counties where 
 I then was, and other parts of England : for in some places 
 where many of the common people are Catholics, and almost 
 all lean towards the Catholic faith, it is easy to bring many 
 into the bosom of the Church, and to have many hearers 
 together at a sermon. . . . On the contrary, in those parts 
 where I was now staying, there were very few Catholics, but 
 these were of the higher classes ; scarcely any of the common 
 people, for they cannot live in peace, surrounded as they are 
 by most violent heretics. The way of managing in such cases, 
 is first to gain the gentry, then the servants ; for Catholic 
 masters cannot do without Catholic servants.” 
 
 The widow Wiseman and her husband, Thomas Wiseman, 
 had four sons, as we have named before, viz. — 
 
 William, the eldest, of Braddox. 
 
 Thomas , who entered the Society in Rome (St. Andrea’s), 
 set. 24, May 26th, 1592, under the assumed name of William 
 Starkie, and died at St. Omers in 1596. 
 
 Robert, who died in battle in Belgium. 
 
 John , who entered the Society with his brother Thomas, 
 at Rome, under the assumed name of Robert Standish. He 
 died the same year 1592, in the novitiate. 
 
 ll 2 
 
580 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 The reader is referred to Father Morris’ Condition of 
 Catholics , p. lii. &c., for a full and thrilling history of a search 
 at Braddox, on Easter Monday, the 1st of April, 1592, and of 
 the escape of Father Gerard. The facts are shortly these. 
 Father Gerard, on account of threatened dangers, had risen 
 early on that morning and was trying to get ready for Mass 
 before sunrise, when suddenly the house was surrounded by 
 pursuivants, headed by two magistrates, and thus all escape 
 was cut off. The servant of Mr. Wiseman, J ohn Frank, had 
 turned traitor and given information of Father Gerard being 
 there. The doors w r ere kept fast until Father Gerard with 
 the altar furniture was stowed away into a hiding-place near 
 the chapel by Mrs. Wiseman. He had wished himself, to 
 go to another hiding-hole near the dining-room as being less 
 suspicious, and also affording him the means of getting some- 
 thing to eat, which the other did not. But by a wonderful 
 providence Mrs. Wiseman would not consent, and eventually 
 the one near the dining-room was discovered. The searchers 
 broke in, locked up Mrs. Wiseman, her daughters, and the 
 Catholic servants in various rooms during their search. They 
 spent two days, when finding nothing they thought Father 
 Gerard had left on the Easter Sunday, so the magistrates 
 went away, leaving the constables to take off Mrs. Wiseman 
 to London to be imprisoned and examined. The traitor 
 Frank was left behind with others to take care of the house. 
 Mrs. Wiseman, not knowing of his treachery, and anxious 
 to relieve Father Gerard, who would otherwise die of starva- 
 tion, having taken no food for four days except a biscuit 
 or two and a little quince jelly which Mrs. Wiseman had 
 hastily given him on entering the hiding-place, actually told 
 him (Frank) where Father Gerard was, and ordered him to 
 let him out. This the traitor promised to do faithfully, but 
 instead, called back the magistrates who the next morning 
 renewed the search. After a long search they actually came 
 upon the very place, and partly opened it, and he must 
 have been discovered but for a marvellous display of Divine 
 Providence in answer to the Father’s earnest prayer that he 
 might escape for the sake of the good family, in whose hos- 
 pitable mansion he had been so charitably entertained. The 
 searchers’ eyes, and memory too, appear to have been com- 
 pletely blinded, and Father Gerard eventually escaped. 
 His hiding-place was in a thick wall of the chimney behind 
 a finely laid and carved mantel-piece. At the end of four 
 
College of the Holy Apostles . 581 
 
 days the searchers gave up, leaving Mrs. Wiseman and her 
 domestics free. Father Gerard could not have held out 
 much longer ; he was all wasted and weakened, as well with 
 hunger as with want of sleep, having to sit so long in 
 such a narrow hole. Mrs. Wiseman hei'self too had eaten 
 nothing during the whole time, not only to share the 
 distress of Father Gerard, but to try upon herself how 
 long he could live without food, and especially to draw 
 down the mercy of God upon him and her family by fasting 
 and prayer. She was so completely changed, that Father 
 Gerard says he should not have known her but by her 
 dress and voice. 
 
 II. Cold ham Hall, Suffolk, the residence of the ancient 
 Rookwood family, will ever be dear in the recollection of the 
 Province, as connected with the noble martyr, Father Thomas 
 Garnet, alias Rookwood, whose history we have already given. 
 As we have seen, Father Thomas was betrayed by an unhappy 
 apostate priest, named Rouse. 
 
 In an ancient list of benefactors to this College is the 
 following item : “ Mr. Michael Hare gave land which was 
 sold for fsoo, with obligation of paying the rent of it to 
 Mr. Rouse in case of his repentance : the rent was twenty 
 marks a year, which he enjoyed for many years. After him 
 it was given to some of Ours, helping the poor in Suffolk 
 or Norfolk. This, with other moneys were lost in troublesome 
 times.” This Mr. Rouse is supposed to be the betrayer of 
 Father Garnet, and we may hope, from his having enjoyed 
 the above fund, that he repented and was converted. 
 
 This mission or chaplaincy remained with the members of 
 the Society for many years, and was frequently served from 
 Bury-St. -Edmund’s. 
 
 III. H engrave Hall, the seat of the Gage family, will 
 also be ever dear in the recollection of the English Province, 
 as connected with two of our Fathers. 
 
 1. Father William Wright, the courageous impugner of the 
 impious oath of supremacy, the form of which, as imposed 
 upon Catholicism in 1606, was even more stringent than 
 before, for which fearless conduct he was imprisoned in 
 Newgate, and escaping thence retired to Leicestershire, where 
 he founded the mission of the Society of Jesus about 1607. 8 
 
 8 See his life, p. 275 ante. 
 
582 College of the Holy Apostles . 
 
 2. The glorious martyr Father Peter Wright, chaplain 
 of the Gage family, whose life has been given above. 
 
 IV. Ingateston£ Hall and Thorndon Hall, the 
 seats of the noble family of Petre, the chief founders and 
 benefactors of this College, and to the present day the constant 
 friends and patrons of the English Province “ of the least 
 Society of Jesus.” Amongst other chaplains residing there we 
 find the historian Father Henry More ; and in later times. 
 Father Thomas Eccleston, son of Henry Eccleston Esquire, of 
 Eccleston, Lancashire, born 1659, was there at the close of 
 the seventeenth, and beginning of the last century. This 
 Father was an alumnus at the English College, Rome, in 
 1677, an d joined the Society in that city in 1697. When a 
 secular he had the misfortune of being drawn into fighting 
 a duel, in which unhappily he killed his adversary. This so 
 affected him, that renouncing the world he became a religious 
 of the Society of Jesus. His picture, a full-length portrait, was 
 formerly at Eccleston Hall. He is represented as pointing to 
 his sword thrown on the ground. 9 10 
 
 Succeeding to the Eccleston estates, he gave them up to 
 John Gorsuch Eccleston, Esq. He usually passed in religion 
 by the name of Holland. He was rector of the College of 
 St. Omer from August, 1731, to September, 1737. He died in 
 England 30th December, 1743. He wrote a treatise called 
 The Way to Happiness , 1726. A new edition was printed 
 in 1773. 
 
 Father Gilbert Grey , vere Talbot , thirteenth Earl of 
 Shrewsbury, for some time served as chaplain between 1720 
 and 1730. Father Gilbert Talbot, for the last twenty-five 
 years of his life was thirteenth Earl of Shrewsbury, though no 
 title could add to the lustre of his virtues. One pedigree 
 makes him eldest son of Gilbert, second son of John, tenth 
 Earl of Shrewsbury; another contends that he was the son 
 of Thomas, fifth son of the said John, Earl of Shrewsbury. 10, 
 He was born in the year 1670. Renouncing all the prospects 
 of fame and fortune, he entered the Novitiate of the English 
 Province S.J. at Watten, the 10th of April, 1694. He is 
 
 9 Letter of the late Father Nicholas Sewall to Dr. Oliver, 23rd 
 December, 1831, in Arch. Prov. Angl. 
 
 10 Burke's Peerage says that he was eldest son of Gilbert Talbot, who 
 was second son of J ohn, tenth Earl. 
 
College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 533 
 
 described by all that knew him, as a man of prayer, of un- 
 affected humility, of great self-denial, and of such charity 
 towards the poor, that occasionally he stripped himself of part 
 of his clothes to cover the needy. On the 29th of August, 
 1709, he was solemnly enrolled among the Professed Fathers 
 of the Society. By the death of Charles, twelfth Earl, and first 
 Duke of Shrewsbury (at Isleworth, 1st February, 1718), the 
 humble Father succeeded in right to the earldom. He had 
 long before renounced the family estates in favour of his 
 younger brother, George Talbot, who married Mary, daughter 
 of Thomas Viscount Fitzwilliam, of Merrion in Ireland. For 
 several years Ingatestone and Dunkenhalgh were the scenes 
 of his missionary labours. He was rector of the College of 
 St. Aloysius, or the Lancashire district, 1734 — 1738. At the 
 end of this period he removed to London, where he died 
 22nd July, 1743, at the age of seventy-three. He was buried, 
 as appears by the register book of Old St. Pancras, in the 
 burial-yard of that church. He also served the mission of 
 Preston, about 1700; also the little mission of Billington, 
 near Blackburn, regarding which mission a letter from Father 
 Talbot, dated 3rd October, 1736, is still preserved in the 
 Archives of the College of St. Aloysius. 
 
 Though now touching upon more modern times than 
 form the scope of the present volume, we must not omit 
 the following account, taken from a manuscript in the Archives 
 of the Province, of the visit of his Majesty George III. and 
 Queen Charlotte, to Thorndon Hall, written by Robert Edward, 
 the ninth Lord Petre, grandfather of the present and eleventh 
 noble lord, William Francis Henry, who has been pleased 
 most kindly to supply the editor with the dates of the royal 
 visit, and to express his lordship’s approbation of the insertion 
 of the paper. 
 
 The King and Queen arrived at Thorndon Hall on the 
 19th of October, 1778, and on the following day reviewed the 
 troops at Warley, and left Thorndon on the 21st. 
 
 “The accounts in the different newspapers of his Majesty’s 
 visit to Thorndon have been as wide from truth as any of 
 their other intelligence ever is, and as it may not be disagree- 
 able to you to hear a little of it as it really was, I shall 
 endeavour to describe it in few words. Being the first Catholic 
 that has ever had such an honour since the Reformation, and 
 especially as happening just after the favour we have received, 
 you may easily imagine that in such a situation I should leave 
 
584 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles . 
 
 nothing possible to be done unaccomplished, in order to give 
 his Majesty the most royal and respectful reception, and most 
 splendid entertainment that money, joined with a most ardent 
 desire to please him, could effect. 
 
 “Against his Majestys’ arrival on the first day, which was 
 about three o’clock, I had assembled all the country, some on 
 horseback and some on foot. The horse advanced to meet his 
 Majesty a little beyond Brentwood, and returned with him 
 through the town (which I had caused to be ornamented with 
 boughs and flags), the bells ringing, and bon-fires blazing with- 
 out number round the country so as to be either seen or heard 
 from all the windows of my house. The army arranged on 
 each side of my avenue, the park of artillery giving a constant 
 fire, his Majesty in the midst of this advancing with all his 
 suite, accompanied with innumerable horsemen, was, I think, 
 the finest sight I ever beheld. 
 
 “On their Majestys’ arrival at the door, Lady Petre and 
 I received them. I had obtained leave to have the honour 
 to act as her Majesty’s Chamberlain, and to wait on his 
 Majesty as Lord of the Bedchamber. I handed her Majesty 
 out of the chaise and upstairs, where the whole apartment 
 had been new furnished. There we had the honour to kiss 
 their Majestys’ hands. As soon as possible dinner was served 
 up, and Lady Petre dined with the Queen, as did Lady 
 Egremont and Lady Amherst. I dined with the King, the 
 lords that accompanied him, and the general officers. I served 
 the King, and Lady Petre the Queen, at table. I shall say 
 nothing of the dinners, as they were like other great dinners, 
 where everything possible to be had or cooked is served up. 
 The desserts were quite new come from Paris, and were both 
 days quite different. As to the second day, it was much the 
 same as the first with regard to the entertainment. I shall only 
 say that one hundred and fifty dishes were served up to the 
 King and Queen’s tables, and that (their suite included) there 
 were seven tables. How many dishes the five tables for their 
 attendants had I don’t know, but two of them were served 
 in plate, and were of consequence. The evening passed in 
 playing cards with their Majesties in the presence-chamber, 
 and his Majesty’s talking with the officers in the outward room, 
 as nobody but I and Lady Petre ever went into the presence- 
 chamber without the King or Queen sending for them. After 
 dinner I had his Majesty’s leave to drink several toasts : he 
 drank a good glass of wine, and was extremely cheerful and 
 
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College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 585 
 
 affable. I shall say nothing of the review, which was very 
 fine, and very much admired by all military people. Shall 
 only add that the King and Queen’s affability, politeness, and 
 attention to everything that was done for them surpasses all 
 that you can imagine. They expressed themselves here in the 
 strongest terms, they have talked of nothing else in London 
 but of the obligations to us for our entertainments, of their 
 happiness while here, and that they shall never forget Thorndon 
 and its inhabitants. I should not have tired you with this 
 long story had you not desired it in your last letter. The 
 account I have given is written in haste, but I hope you will 
 be able to form some idea of the fete, which I am happy 
 enough to hear gave everybody satisfaction, and that it was 
 thought to be well conducted. 
 
 “Petre.” 
 
 A mistake is made in page 394 ante, which we wish to 
 correct. The principal benefactor, or rather founder of this 
 College, in 1632, was William, the second lord, and not Robert, 
 the third, although that nobleman was also a kind friend and 
 benefactor to it. Several members of this family, the Fidlers 
 and Cranham (Essex) branches, became members of the 
 English Province. The annexed pedigree, which the Editor 
 has been enabled to prepare from information kindly furnished 
 by the Honourable Mrs. Douglas, sister to the present Lord 
 Petre, shows no less than five. Of the Fidlers’ branch 
 were John Petre, Esq., grandson of William, the second 
 Lord Petre. On the death of his wife Mary, daughter of Sir 
 Francis Mannock, Bart., in 1689, he abandoned the world and 
 its fickle fortunes and deceitful joys, for the solid peace and 
 happiness of the religious life, and entered the Society as a 
 lay-brother, and died, in 1697, at St. Omers’ College. His 
 two sons, John and Robert (under the assumed names of 
 Mannock), followed his example, and both became Professed 
 Fathers [see pedigree]. It is very probable that some of the 
 following were of the same branch; but the sad loss and 
 destruction of records we have so often to deplore in the times 
 of persecution, prevents our tracing their histories. 
 
 Thomas Petre, born 1663, entered the Society 1679; a 
 Professed Father, who lived for many years with the Waterton 
 esquires of Walton Hall, and died there January 5, 1729, aged 
 sixty-six. He was a great botanist, and appears to have had 
 full scope in following out that interesting science in the 
 
5 86 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 gardens of Walton Hall. 11 Also Father Richard Petre, who 
 died at Ghent, September 21, 1692. Also two other Robert 
 Petres : one was a victim in the Oates’ plot persecution, and 
 was arrested, but discharged on bail in July, 1680; he appears 
 also to have been again imprisoned at the breaking out of the 
 Revolution of 1688. The second Robert was born in 1700; 
 entered the Society in 1719; became a Professed Father, and 
 died at Dunkenhall, Lancashire, April 27, 1766; and Father 
 William Petre, who was born 1650, entered the Society 1670, 
 and died at Ghent 1722. The pedigree of the Cranham branch 
 shows the celebrated Father Edward Petre, who succeeded to 
 the baronetcy, and whose life is reserved for the history of the 
 College of St. Ignatius (or the London District), 1678 — 1710 ; 
 and his brother Charles, who was the first Rector of the 
 College of the Society, opened in the City of London in 1686, 
 and which, with the flourishing one at the Savoy in the Strand, 
 was broken up on the retirement of James II. in November, 
 1688. On that occasion Father Charles was arrested, but soon 
 after released, and crossed over to Belgium. A full account of 
 these stirring events is also reserved for the same history. 12 
 
 11 See many letters of his to the famous botanist, Richard Richardson, 
 D.D., F.R.S., in 1723; Nickolls ’ Literary Illustrations , vol. i. p. 330, 
 et seq. , where is also a letter from the then Lord Petre to the same Doctor. 
 
 12 The Editor takes this opportunity of introducing the following paper 
 (Laitsdown MSS. , Burghley Papers , 33 Plut. n: 1 6), in which frequent 
 mention is made of the Petre family. The original is endorsed, “10 Aug. 
 1581. A declaron of certain Papists, &c., writ by G. E., is by one that 
 was servant to the old Ladye Petre.” 
 
 [This G. E. was George Elliot, the base apostate and traitor, who 
 betrayed Father Campion at Mr. and Lady Yates’ house at Lyford, Berks. 
 Vide Mr. Simpson’s Life of Campion , p. 221 et seq. The spelling is as base 
 as was its author, and has therefore been changed to render the document 
 readable. This information was probably one of the first fruits of the 
 man’s apostacy or reconciliation. — Editor,] 
 
 “Certain notes and remembrances concerning a reconciliation, by me 
 exhibited to the Rt. Hon. my good the Earl of Leicester. 
 
 “ The names of all such Popish priests as I have been acquainted withal, 
 and at this time can call to remembrance : 
 
 Blackburn. Smith. 
 
 Sheppard als. Chapman. Jackson. 
 
 Hudson. 
 
 Pytts, and one other 
 with him, name for- 
 gotten. 
 
 Shert. 
 
 Newman als. Meredith. 
 
 Clitherow. 
 
 Gray. 
 
 Lee als. Cooper. 
 
 Todd. 
 
 Hay ter. 
 
 Sutton (three brothers). 
 Glaslyer. 
 
 Wade or Ward. 
 
 Cook. 
 
 Payne. 
 
 Physter. 
 
 Blackwell. 
 
 Scott. 
 
 Chester als. Barlow. 
 Norris, and one other 
 with him, name for- 
 gotten. 
 
 Thompson. 
 
 Thirkill. 
 
 In all thirty. 
 
587 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 V. Lozell, Suffolk, the residence of Henry Drury, Esq., 
 was a noted refuge and harbour of priests in the cruel days of 
 
 ‘ ‘ The names of all such Papists as carry the countenance of gentlemen 
 or gentlewomen, which I know of my own knowledge, as also such as 
 have been made known unto me by report of Papists. 
 
 “ Yorkshire . — The old. Lady Wharton who hath in’ her house a priest 
 that is steward of her house. 
 
 “ Derbyshire . — Sir Thos. Fitzherbert ; Sir Thos. Gerard ; Mr. Longford ; 
 Mr. Rolleston ; Mr. Powtrill of Westhallam ; Mr. Shirley; Mr. Bentley; 
 the old Lady Foljambes ; Mr. Whittall ; Mr. John Fitzherbert. 
 
 “ London . — The old Lady Pembroke; the Earl of Southampton; 
 Lord Montague ; Lord Compton ; Lady Goodwin ; Lady Paulett, she hath 
 a priest, is steward of her house ; Sir Geo. Peckham ; Mr. Talbot ; 
 Mr. Francis Browne ; Mr. Wm. Browne ; Mr. Edw. Peckham ; Thos. 
 Gerard ; Mr. Philip Bassett ; Mr. Chas. Bassett ; Mr. Wm. Rogers ; 
 Mr. Loveday ; Mr. Cocks ; Mr. Littleton, who I take it has an office in 
 the Court ; Mr. Smith, Dr. of physic ; Mrs. Treville, wife to Mr. Lodowick 
 Treville ; the wives of Sir R. Baker’s two sons; the wife of Sir John 
 Goodwin’s son and heir. 
 
 “ Staffordshire . — Mr. Rich. Fitzherbert; Mr. Dracot of Painsley ; 
 John Trevan, a man of good countenance but no gentleman. 
 
 “Berks. — Mr. Yates. 
 
 “ Oxfordshire. — Mr. Moore. 
 
 “Kent. — Mr. Tho. Roper; Mr. Geo. Gouldwell ; Mr. Fingean, he 
 hath a son, &c. 
 
 “Essex . — The old Lady Petre ; the young Lady Petre ; Mr. Milford, 
 Mrs. Pascall, widow; Mr. Pascal], her son and heir; Mrs. Napper ; 
 Mrs. George.” 
 
 “Sir John Petre is supposed among the Papists to bear good will that 
 way, and three causes which I now remember move me to think it rather 
 to be true. I. For that his wife is known to be an earnest Papist, and so 
 by him suffered. 2. For that he keepeth in his house a schoolman called 
 Watham, who hath spent a great time beyond seas, and we all know 
 to be a Papist ; for I have been divers times at Mass with him at the old 
 Lady Petre’s. This Watham teaches Sir John his son and heir, and 
 leameth him amongst other things such prayers as Papists use. And 
 third and last of all, I being the old Lady Petre’s servant, the last summer 
 it happened I went on business to Sir John Petre’s house in Sussex, Sir 
 John and his wife being then at home, at which time I found there the 
 aforesaid priest, Hudson, and another priest with him whose name I have 
 forgotten. They were then newly come from beyond the seas. This 
 Hudson was some time steward in the house of Sir Wm. Petre, and then 
 departing Sir Wm. his service, about nine or ten years ago, went beyond 
 the seas, leaving then Sir John within the compass of the Papists’ Church, 
 and now at his arrival though belike to have found him as he left him, took 
 upon him boldly to tell him of an array that was either prepared or 
 preparing by the King of Spain and the Pope, and that it was bent 
 towards the realm, and that there were certain prayers set out beyond 
 the seas, and delivered to the Papists, there to be used and said among 
 other prayers for the good success of the said array. Sir John thought 
 the said Hudson (so I hear say) to be unwise for declaring any such 
 
588 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 Elizabeth. This place gave, in the person of Mr. Henry 
 
 matters to him, and told his wife of him, and willed her to be beware of 
 him. Whereupon she told two of her men that be Papists, and wished 
 that her mother, the old Lady Petre, had warning of him, lest perchance 
 he might be suffered to say Mass there ; and so the two men told me 
 of it in manner aforesaid, and wished me to make haste home to give 
 warning to them for that they said they would go thither. And so I 
 went in haste and found the said priests there before me, and told my 
 lady what I had heard of them. And so she being then something 
 timorous gave them but cold entertainment, so that they tarried there but 
 one night. 
 
 Payne to be examined. “The said priest Payne went about once to persuade 
 [Burleigh’s hand.] me to kill (Jesus preserve her) the Queen’s Majesty, 
 and said there were divers matters from the Pope published against her, 
 that it was lawful to kill her Highness without any offence to Godward. 
 And said unto me that he had talked beyond the seas with the Earl of 
 Westmoreland, Dr: Allen, and divers othgr Englishmen touching that 
 matter, who left him to understand that the Pope would yield as much 
 allowance of money as would fully furnish fifty men, to every man a good 
 horse, an army sword, a privy coat, and a pocket dagger. These men 
 should be had in readiness against some convenient time that her Majesty 
 went in progress, not all in a livery, but in sundry sorts of apparel. 
 And for that it was supposed your honour, my Lord Treasurer, and also 
 Secretary Walsingham were like to be there, and that you were all thought 
 to be enemies to the Papists, it was appointed that four or five should 
 set upon her Majesty’s royal person, and so upon the sudden to destroy her 
 Highness ; three upon your honour, three upon my Lord Treasurer, and 
 three upon Mr. Secretary Walsingham as aforesaid. The rest of the 
 said company of fifty to be ready when the deed were done to come to 
 and fro with their horses amongst the people to dash them out of counten- 
 ance that they should not know what part to take. 
 
 A nobleman. “And that withal there should be a nobleman 
 
 [Burleigh’s writing.] (whom to me he would not name) ready well appointed 
 near the Tower, presently upon the deed done, to enter therein and keep 
 the same, and that forthwith the Queen of Scots to be there proclaimed 
 Queen of England. And further, he said, he doubted not but that the 
 „ aforesaid Mr. Talbot would be aiding therein. And 
 
 Fran. Elliot, Rob. Tam- that one Robert Elliott, servant to the aforesaid Lady 
 ^ sti e>Ph- Lowes. Paulett, Robert Tamistie, then servant to the said 
 ur eig s writing. p etre> anc [ one Philip Lowes, then servant to 
 
 the old Lady Petre should be of the number of the fifty aforesaid. And 
 this is all that yet I can call to recollection.” 
 
 “Certain further notes by me remembered concerning my aforesaid 
 
 reconciliation. 
 
 “About this time twelve months I served the aforesaid old Lady Petre, 
 and having some doing for her as touching her lands, I received also for 
 Sir John Petre, certain rents, who had then as I took it a very good 
 opinion of me in respect of dealing, which I dealt in under his mother and 
 him. The said Sir John had many times before persuaded me to go to your 
 church for fashion sake, and in respect to avoid the danger of the law, 
 yet to keep my own conscience. And then at the same time he persuaded 
 
College of the Holy Apostles. 589 
 
 Drury, a member to the Society, in the degree of lay-brother. 
 
 me to do the like, saying I might lawfully do it. And further saith he, 
 Do you think there are not that go to the church that bear as good a mind to 
 Godwards as those that refuse, yes, and if occasion serve, will be able to do 
 better service than they which refuse to go to the church. Yet would 
 I not for anything wish you to participate with them either in their prayers 
 or Communion. And I verily think that Sir John, although he goeth to 
 the church, doth not receive the Communion. 
 
 “Robert Tamistie, whom I before in other notes named, being then 
 Sir John Petre’s man, told me that Sir John was very timorous in respect 
 of the laws, but Mr. Talbot hath said unto me (saith the said Tamistie) 
 that if he were, as the said Sir John, he would not willingly part with 
 any such as the said Tamistie is, for, saith the said Mr. Talbot, the time 
 will come he will need such fellows. And if you do by any means go 
 from him, I will give you the best entertainment I can. 
 
 “ Mr. Lodowick Gryvell was imprisoned about Easter was two years, 
 concerning a fray between, as I take it, Sir John Conway and him. The 
 said Mr. Gryvell, upon the release of his imprisonment, came to the old 
 Lady Petre’s, his mother-in-law, and shortly after I heard the said old Lady, 
 as many times before she had done, say that your honour was a great enemy 
 to the said Mr. Gryvell, both touching that matter and other causes before. 
 But yet, saith the said Lady, let my Lord of Leicester take heed, for a 
 time will come that a revengement may be by my said son-in-law used. 
 
 “Priest Shepherd alias Chapman, whom I before in my other remem- 
 brance named, told me that if the Queen’s Majesty by any means were 
 taken away, that the Queen of Scots should be Queen of England, and 
 that Mr. Rolleston was sure to be one of her Privy Council, for that said 
 priest thinketh as well of the said Rolleston as of any one in England. 
 
 “I verily think Mr. Francis Browne or Mr. Chas. Bassett can tell of 
 the Jesuits where they are, for that indeed Mr. Browne and Mr. Bassett 
 were (by the report of one Plumphrey Heyton, late steward to Mr. Thos. 
 Rooper) not long ago very often in company with the said Jesuits, and so 
 was the said Heyton in like manner ; this Heyton is now beyond the 
 seas, unless very lately he be returned, and it is not long ago since he sent 
 letters over to the said Mr. Bassett. They were conveyed first to one 
 George Stoneide, a vintner’s man at the White Bell in New Fish Street, 
 and so by him delivered over to the parties, according to certain instructions 
 to him from the said Heyton sent. 
 
 “ Priest Thompson, whom I before named, brought two books (set 
 out by Campion and Parsons) to his master, Mr. Thos. Rooper, his 
 house at Orpington in Kent, and did leave both or one of them to one 
 Mr. Tyles Virar, of the said town. 
 
 “There are two bookbinders in Powell’s Churchyard, called Cawood 
 and Holder, whom I verily think were of the council for the printing and 
 binding of the said Jesuits’ books, for I am sure they sell Papistical books 
 forbidden to be sold. And this is all yet I can remember. 
 
 “ G. E.” 
 
 “ Oxfordshire . — John Payne said Mass at Mr. William Moore his 
 house at Haddon, upon Sunday, being the 2nd of July, Anno. Regoe. 
 23. At which Mass were the said William Moore and his wife ; one 
 
590 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 We give the following short notice of him, taken from the 
 State Papers of the Public Record Office. 13 
 
 " I have been most at Mr. Henry Drury’s, of Losell, Suffolk, 
 whose wife, during his imprisonment was content, so long as I 
 would stay there, to give me meat, drink, and lodging, and 
 that when at any time he did come home did never bid me 
 depart, but rather friendly did use me, because I did for three 
 years before teach his two sons, and had otherwise served 
 him as faithfully as I could. And because I felt myself at 
 my first coming unable to travel continually, partly by weakness 
 of body, partly for want of skill, audacity, and behaviour, 
 determined with myself, if I could, to stay in some one place, 
 though I take pains to teach children.” 
 
 Henry Drury, one of the above-named two sons, appears 
 to have become a lay-brother, and to have died in the novitiate 
 about the year 1594. His father and elder brother having died, 
 he came into the property. Father Morris, upon the authority 
 of Watson’s Deccicordon , says that it is almost certain this Henry 
 Drury was Father John Gerard’s second host. Father Gerard 
 arrived in England in 1588. The following State Paper 
 mentions him. 15 It is a list, by a Government informer, of 
 priests and Jesuits and their entertainers : 
 
 “ Names of J- — is, etc. “ Places of resort. 
 
 i ‘ Suffolk. Hance, alias Draiton, 
 
 brother to Hance that suf- “ Henry Drury, of Losell.” 
 fered.” 
 
 Flis death is also mentioned in one of Father Henry 
 Walpole’s confessions in the Tower. 16 Speaking of persons 
 he knew abroad he says : “ Also one Mr. Henry Drury, who 
 died lately at Antwerp, had some sums of money, of his own 
 
 Mrs. Tempas ; one other gentlewoman, daughter of the said William ; 
 Edward Moore and Mary Moore, brother and sister to William Moore ; 
 two serving men-servants to the said William, and myself. Godsafie 
 said Mass there on Tuesday, the fourth of the said month, at which Mass 
 were all the persons aforesaid, the said William Moore excepted. 
 
 “ G. E.” 
 
 13 Confession of a priest, Dom. Eliz., vol. 175, n. 75 ; date about 1584. 
 No name given. 
 
 14 1586. Dom. Eliz. vol. cxciii. n. 13. 
 
 15 Dom. Eliz. vol. ccxlix. n. 44. 1594. 
 
College of the Holy Apostles. 591 
 
 or others, which were to be made over when I came from 
 Brussels.” 
 
 Father Gerard went to live with Henry Drury about Sep- 
 tember, 1589. Father Morris 17 thus records Father Gerard’s 
 first acquaintance, and subsequent residence with, Mr. Henry 
 Drury, but Father Gerard purposely omits the name. 
 
 “ After some six or seven months I received a visit from 
 a Catholic gentleman of another county, a relative of one of 
 my spiritual children, who was very desirous to make acquaint- 
 ance with a Jesuit. He was a devout young man, and heir 
 to a pretty considerable estate, one half of which came into 
 his possession by his brother’s death, the other portion being 
 held for life by his mother, who was a good Catholic widow 
 lady. Her son lived with her, and kept a Priest in the house. 
 He had then sold a portion of his estate, and devoted the 
 proceeds to pious uses, for he was fervent and full of charity. 
 After the lapse of a few days, as I saw his aspiration to a 
 higher life and his desires of perfection wax stronger, I told 
 him that there were certain spiritual exercises by means of 
 which a well-disposed person could discover a short road to 
 perfection, and be best prepared to make choice of a state 
 of life. Fie most earnestly begged to be allowed to make 
 • them. I acceded to his request, and he made great spiritual 
 profit thereby, not only in that he made the best choice, which 
 was that he would enter the Society of Jesus as soon as 
 possible, but also because he made the best and most proper 
 arrangements to cany his purpose into execution, and to 
 preserve meanwhile his present fervour. After his retreat he 
 expressed the greatest wish that I should come and live with 
 him, and I had no rest until I promised to submit the matter 
 to my Superior. For my .own part, I could not but reflect 
 that my present public mode of life, though in the beginning 
 it had its advantages, could not be long continued, because 
 the more people I knew and the more I was known to, the 
 less became my safety and the greater my distractions. Hence 
 it was not without acknowledging God’s special providence 
 that I heard him make me this invitation. So after having 
 consulted with my Superior, and obtained his permission to 
 accept the offer, I bade adieu to my old friends, and stationed 
 a priest where they might conveniently have recourse to his 
 ministry. 
 
 17 Coitdition of Catholics , “ Life of Father Gerard,” p. xxix. 
 
592 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 “ In my new abode I was able to live much more quietly 
 and more to my taste, inasmuch as nearly all the members 
 of the house were Catholics, and thus it was easier for me 
 to conform to the manner of life of the Society, both as regards 
 dress and the arrangement of my time. . . . Whilst in this 
 residence (and I was there all but two years), I gave much 
 time to my studies. At times I made missionary excursions, 
 and not only did I reconcile many, but I confirmed some 
 Catholic families in the Faith, and placed two priests in stations 
 where they might be useful to souls.” 
 
 VI. Norwich 18 was a very ancient mission of the Society. 
 We have already named Fathers Sankey and Mumford, two 
 of its early missioners. Father John Gerard, also, who first 
 landed in the county, and often visited it, may have resided 
 here, though in close concealment. In the intended history 
 of the Province in the times of Oates’ Plot and the Revolution 
 of 1688, we shall have to return to this city. 
 
 The following extract from the State Papers 19 is a curious 
 specimen of the reformed Church in Norwich at that time. 
 
 “ Edward Gaston to Mr. Haddon, Master of Requests. 
 
 “ Since your departure from Norwich the preachers of the 
 city have taken in hand (both for their better exercise and also 
 for the education of the people), prophesying, which is done 
 once in three weeks, when one first interprets a piece of 
 the Scriptures, which at present is Paul to the Romans, for 
 an hour, and then two others reply for half an hour, when 
 we end with prayer. 
 
 “ My Lord Bishop, at his last giving orders, admitted none 
 that had no knowledge of the Latin tongue or that exercised 
 any secular occupancy, by means whereof John Cavme was 
 not admitted, for he lacked the Latin and was a butcher.” 
 
 VII. Wisbeach Castle, which may with truth be called 
 the tomb of Catholics in the reign of Elizabeth, was also 
 included in this district, though it had probably ceased to 
 
 18 Nordo - Vices , or the Northern Fill. The capital of the Kings of 
 East Anglia. In the time of St. Edward the Confessor it was so considerable 
 a place as to contain twenty-five churches within its limits. In Catholic 
 days it was full of religious houses and churches. A reference to Dugd ale’s 
 Monasticon will amply repay the reader’s trouble. 
 
 19 P.R.O., Dom. Eliz. vol. xii. n. 27. 1564. 
 
College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 593 
 
 be used as a place of incarceration long before the formation 
 of this College. The name of this celebrated Castle is said 
 to be derived from Wise , the ancient name of the river Ouse, 
 and Bee , a Saxon word signifying a place near the confluence 
 of two rivers. William the Conqueror here built a castle, 
 which was destroyed by a flood. Another was built on the 
 same site by Bishop Morton, and became the episcopal palace 
 of the Bishops of Ely. In the reign of Elizabeth it was used 
 as a place of confinement for State prisoners, and in the time 
 of the Commonwealth was bought by Thurloe, Cromwell's 
 secretary. Some short description of this Castle and dungeon 
 is given in the first volume of this series, in the Life of Thomas 
 Pounde, S.J ., 20 quoting from Bartoli . 21 Mr. Pounde was en- 
 tombed there with Father Weston, and many others, for ten 
 years. It is called “ a famous Castle,” and is truly so, for 
 the horror of its dungeons, and the blessed company of so 
 many priests and most noble confessors of the Faith sent 
 thither to rot in the foul atmosphere of that fetid and marshy 
 place. It is situate in the Isle of Ely, an island at that time 
 formed by the waters of various rivers that washed the extremity 
 of the county of Cambridge from the north, between Lincoln 
 and Norfolk. The ground is there so low that, until drained 
 as now, it had no sufficient outlet for the water of the many 
 streams running into it, which thus for a large extent within 
 became stagnant and brackish. A creek of the sea which runs 
 up inland added to this ill character of the spot. The Castle 
 was half in ruins, a most antique place, and for a long time 
 abandoned and forgotten, till that it occurred to the recollection 
 of the Ministers of Elizabeth to prepare it as a fitting place 
 to despatch their victims by a lingering death in its pestilential 
 atmosphere, and so save themselves the odium entailed by the 
 crying injustice of so many public executions . 22 
 
 Amongst other sufferers in that terrible prison was the 
 
 20 P. 67. 
 
 21 Bartoli, Inghilterra, lib. i. c. xv. p. 123. 
 
 22 Father Tanner ( Vita et Mors Jesuit, p. 21, Life of Father Thomas 
 Mettam), says of this place : “ It is fifty miles from London ; formerly a 
 castle of the Bishops of Ely, now rather a ruin than retaining the semblance 
 of a building ; surrounded with cracked walls on every side ; roofless, 
 because the avarice of heretical bishops has removed the lead and copper 
 sheeting ; without ceilings, the joists and rafters having been torn down. 
 A place destined by Elizabeth for a common sepulchre of Catholics and 
 priests, who were kept in close confinement and excluded from all inter- 
 course with those dear to them.” 
 
 MM 
 
594 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles . 
 
 eminent Father William Weston, alias Edmunds, whose life, 
 by Father Morris, S.J., has just issued from the press. 23 He 
 entered the Society in 1575 at Rome, and was sent to the English 
 Mission in 1584. Sailing from Dieppe, he landed on the coast 
 of Norfolk in September of that year, accompanied by Brother 
 Ralph Emerson, S.J., and a gentleman named Hubert. He 
 was appointed successor to Father Jasper Heywood, as Superior 
 of the Jesuits in England, that Father having been committed 
 a prisoner to the Tower. Great were the fruits of his zeal, 
 seconded by a holy life and engaging manner. Philip, Earl 
 of Arundel, was one of his converts. Father Weston was a 
 prisoner for the Faith for seventeen years, partly in the Clink 
 prison and the Tower, London, partly at Wisbeach Castle. 
 While in the Clink he was in daily expectation of being sum- 
 moned forth to Tyburn. On the accession of James I. he was 
 discharged from prison, having nearly lost his sight through 
 the rigour of his confinement. He left London for Rome the 
 13th of May, 1603. 
 
 After some stay there he became Rector of St. Alban’s 
 College, Valladolid, where he died in the odour of sanctity, 
 9th of April, 1615, aged sixty-five. His skull was brought 
 to Stonyhurst College, 15th March, 1843, and is now preserved 
 at the English Novitiate. Wood, 24 in a short notice, says that 
 he was born at Maidstone, Kent, and was contemporary with 
 Edmund Campion the Jesuit, in the University of Oxford, 
 which place he left and went beyond seas and entered the 
 Society of Jesus, 1571, aged twenty-five, and that he died, 
 leaving behind him a precious name amongst the brethren 
 of his order. We abstain from further notice of this good 
 Father, and refer our readers to Father Morris’ volume. 
 
 Thomas Pounde , S.f, the great confessor of the Faith, was 
 also for some years a prisoner in this castle. The reader 
 is referred to the life of that veteran soldier of Christ, 
 in Series I. Historic Facts , lives of Pounde, Gilbert, and 
 Father Darbyshire. The Editor avails himself of the present 
 opportunity of supplying two omissions in the life of Thomas 
 Pounde. The first is the confessor’s own most interesting nar- 
 rative of his cruel sufferings, which may be seen in the P.R.O. 
 London, Domestic, James /. vol. xxi. n. 48. It is endorsed — 
 “A malicious discourse of the sufferings of a recusant A 
 
 23 Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers , Series II. 
 
 24 Wood, Athen . Oxon. vol. i. p. 591. Edit. 1721. 
 
College of the Holy Apostles . 
 
 595 
 
 “ My God, my God, the eternal God of the Catholics, only 
 to Thy Almighty Majesty (to whom the greatest earthly 
 monarchs are but dust) I make my complaint to judge and 
 discern my cause, and to witness between Thy enemies and 
 me what their justice hath been towards me, and what my 
 weapons or offences against them, almost these forty years. 
 Thy admirable mercy it was which delivered my soul out of 
 the very jaws of hell mouth about the thirtieth year of my age, 
 perchance for the comfort and consolation of any sinner, never 
 so great, never to despair. The favours of Court and of all 
 this sinful world I found to be but very mermaid’s allurements 
 to perdition. My age is now sixty-eight years complete, this 
 29th of May, 1606 [a mistake for 1609]. The same year born 
 into this world that Father Edmund Campion was . . . and to 
 suffering some like disgraces, sweet Jesu, for Thy holy Name’s 
 sake as he did. Half these sixty-eight years Thou hast accepted 
 me to be for Thy Catholic cause in prison, and three times 
 there for to be put in irons. My first imprisonment was in the 
 town of Ludlow, and the shortest of all other, but for one fore- 
 noon’s space ; but much the sweeter for my fellow and partner 
 in that imprisonment, Father Thomas Stevens, these thirty-nine 
 years since a famous preacher of the Society at Goa, where 
 their colony of St. Paul’s is, at the East Indies, of whose 
 great favours there showed to many of our English Protestants 
 there sometimes arriving, they have in the history of their 
 navigation given good testimony. He and I going on foot, 
 first to see the ground in Herefordshire which moved, and 
 beyond that to Ludlow to try our legs in footmanship, because 
 we walked out, while we rested our blistered feet for a few 
 days in Ludlow, to see the high cliff called Olee Hill, we 
 were suspected forsooth for spies come to view the country. 25 
 
 25 This prodigy of nature made a great stir at the time, and no doubt 
 drew many others to see it besides Thomas Pounde and his faithful com- 
 panion, Thomas Stevens. 
 
 Spede thus quaintly mentions it under the head of Herefordshire. 
 “ Things of rare note in this shire are said to be Bone Well, a spring not 
 far from Richards Castle, wherein are continually found little fishes’ bones, 
 but not a finne seen ; and being wholly cleansed thereof, will notwith- 
 standing have againe the like, whether naturally produced, or in veynes 
 thither brought, no man knowith. 
 
 ‘ ‘ But more admirable was the worke of the Omnipotent, even in our own 
 remembrances, and yeare of Christ Jesus 1571, when the marshy hill in the 
 east of this shire, rouzed itselfe out of a dead sleep, with a roaring noise 
 removed from the place where it stood, and for three days together travelled 
 MM 2 
 
596 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 My second imprisonment was in the Marshalsea, for certain 
 months, by Mr. Sands committing me only for visiting and 
 comforting the best that I could of a merchantman of London, 
 one Whitelock, in Mark Lane, which was possessed . 20 My 
 third removing from thence was upon bonds, down into 
 Hampshire, to my own mother’s house, but not suffered there 
 a year in quiet. My fourth removing from her and committing 
 was by Horne, into the gaol of Winchester for a few months* 
 My fifth removing was from thence, and from all other Catholic 
 gentlemen of my own country, up by myself to the Marshalsea, 
 and there kept five years. My sixth removing from thence 
 was by Mr. Elmer, for a year to Starford Castle, in greater 
 desolation, by myself alone, in revenge partly of my Six 
 Reasons , and partly of my petition, which I put up at the 
 same time in the name of all the Catholics, for public disputa- 
 tion upon even conditions to be granted for open trial of our 
 cause. My seventh removing from thence was up to the 
 Tower of London, when Father Campion was apprehended 
 by Judas Elliot (for which good service his red coat was given 
 him), and there kept four years. My eighth removing from 
 thence was by the Queen and the Council, once more to my 
 mother’s house, first in Hampshire for half a year, and after- 
 wards to the brick house at Newington, until the beginning 
 of the tragedy of the King’s good mother’s death. My ninth 
 removing again from Newington was for a year into the White 
 Lion at Southwark, where, out of my window, I saw the 
 bonfires and banquets in the streets for our King’s mother’s 
 death; a justice there saying to me in derision, at sight of her 
 
 from her first site, .to the great amazement and fear of the beholders. It 
 began to journey vpon the seventh day of February, being Saturday, at 
 sixe of the clocke at night, and by seaven in the next morning had gone 
 fortie paces, carrying with it sheepe in their coates, liedgerowes and trees ; 
 whereof some were overturned, and some that stood upon the plaine are 
 firmly growing upon the hill ; those that were east were turned west ; and 
 those in the west were set in the east ; in which remove it overthrew 
 Kinnaston Chappell , and turned two liighwayes neere a hundred yards 
 from their usual paths formerly trod. The ground thus travelling was 
 about twentie-six acres, which opening itself with rockes and all, bare the 
 earth before it for foure hundred yards space without any stay, leaving that 
 which was pasturage in place of the tillage, and the tillage overspread with 
 pasturage. Lastly, overwhelming her lower parts, mounted to an hill of 
 twelve fathoms high, and there rested herself, after three dayes travell 
 remaining his marke, that so laid hand upon this rocke, whose power hath 
 poysed the hills in his ballance.” 
 
 2fi This is the case referred to in the life of Pounde, p. 33. 
 
College of the Holy Apostles . 
 
 597 
 
 picture in my chamber, that he was sorry for the loss to all 
 Papists of so great a friend. My tenth removing from thence 
 was to Wish each Castle, in the Isle of Ely, and there kept ten 
 years. My eleventh removing from thence — and three more 
 with me, viz., Father Edmonds, Mr. South worth, and Mr. 
 Archer, priests — the first into the Counter in Wood Street, for 
 six weeks ; from thence into the Tower again, for my second 
 durance there, for three years more close imprisonment, and 
 that my twelfth removing : my thirteenth removing from thence 
 was with Mr. Alabaster and Mr. Archer to Fremingham Castle, 
 and there kept three years. My enlargement from thence was 
 by the pardon of course at his Majesty’s coming to the crown ; 
 and afterwards my committing by the King himself to the 
 Gatehouse for my fourteenth durance ; and from thence to the 
 Tower for four months, my fifteenth durance. From thence to 
 Fleet, at twice, for three months, my sixteenth durance. Of so 
 many committings and manifold afflictions so many years for 
 my zeal of the holy truth and honour of Thy house, sweet 
 Jesu, send me some special comfort in Thee at my last hour 
 against all the enemies of my soul, for Thy accepting of me so 
 oft and so long to some partaking with Thee in Thy sufferings. 
 Some defamation besides Thou knowest that I have endured, 
 and besides all privy crosses ; moreover, of worldly substance 
 no small losses by most intolerable oppressions, even to 
 distressing of some orphans and innocents, whose dependence, 
 under Thee, is wholly of me, to our great distressing, I say 
 many times, but most of all at this present, for repayment of 
 that which of creditors we have borrowed for our poor main- 
 taining, while this ravening State hath robbed us these many 
 years of two parts of our poor revenues, taking away the 
 children’s bread, and giving it, Thou seest to whom. Thus 
 groaning, we lie under as grievous afflictions as ever did the 
 Israelites under the Egyptians. Vice is advanced and virtue 
 punished ; falsehood is impudently maintained, and truth 
 obstinately resisted, yea, as their fleeing from any open trial of 
 their cause manifestly betrayeth most certainly against the 
 contradictors’ own conscience. The godly under persecution 
 are still in misery, ^the ungodly they flourish still in prosperity. 
 This makes the atheist to think in his heart there is no God ; 
 .and from the grievous scandal lately given by a few, in whom 
 Abner his words to Saul were verified, that it is a perilous 
 thing to put men in desperation, and whether any other were 
 in it, God knoweth, the most innocent of Catholics do stink 
 
59S College of the Holy Apostles . 
 
 now in his Majesty’s nose, his heart being much hardened 
 against them, whom his royal mother at her last hour so well 
 wished to, specially commending them for her sake to his 
 favour, whensoever he should come to reign, as now he doth 
 in her right over them. Were we not recomforted by daily 
 meditating how far greater indignities Thy own majesty, sweet 
 Jesu, suffered for us, it were able to shake our confidence in 
 Thee. But Thy own blessed Mother’s heart was pierced with 
 many sharper swords of sorrow, and Thy great Apostle 
 St. Paul was five times whipped with whips, and three times 
 with rods, besides public stoning once for a blasphemer. 
 Therefore, what are all the despisings and disgracings in this 
 world now to such moths and worms as we are in comparison 
 of Thyself and Thy greatest saints. Neither can all these 
 heavy crosses inflicted by him upon us, which promised more 
 Christianity to protect us, make us to cease our prayer for him 
 and his prosperity. ‘ Maledicimur,’ said the Apostle, ‘ et bene- 
 dicimus, blasphemamur et obsecramus, persecutionem patimur 
 et sustinemus ; tanquam purgamenta hujus mundi, facti sumus 
 omnium peripsema.’ They which curse us, we bless them ; 
 they which blaspheme us, we pray to God for them ; of them 
 which persecute us we take compassion. We are become as 
 the outcasts of this world, contemptible as the pavings of 
 pavements under men’s feet. What remaineth for them which 
 any means have to flee out of this Egypt into any Catholic 
 country more flowing for them with the spiritual milk and 
 honey, but all speedy despatch thereto ? “ Exi de terra et de 
 
 cognatione tua/ said God to Abraham, ‘et veni in terram, 
 quam monstravero tibi.’ If God’s sweet providence in all 
 extremities have wonderfully provided for us here in this land 
 of such desolation, where every man in his own country is of 
 least estimation, His blessing and comfort may be more with 
 us in foreign peregrination for His more honour undertaken 
 He loving the pilgrim as ever He did, suffering him to want 
 neither food nor clothing ; and oh, how piercing are His 
 callings thereto, how sweet also His promises, therein to 
 provoke us ! ‘If any one come to Me/ saith our Saviour, 
 
 ‘ and hateth not father and mother, wife and children, lands or 
 livings, yea, and his own life, he cannot* be My disciple.’ 
 Again, ‘Whosoever shall forsake father and mother, wife and 
 children, house and land, for following of Me, shall receive a 
 hundred-fold in this world, and in the world to come life 
 everlasting.’ Yea, moreover, as He assured St. Peter, when He 
 
College of the Holy Apostles . 
 
 599 
 
 asked Him what their reward should be which had forsaken all 
 that they had and followed Him, 4 Verily/ said He, ‘when the 
 Son of Man at the dreadful day of judgment shall come in His 
 glory to judge men of the world, you shall be so secure from 
 damnation, that ye also shall sit with Him upon the judgment- 
 seat, as judges with Him upon the world/ Is it so, my good 
 King ? Is it so, my good lords, ye which here devour unstable 
 souls like bread as it were into excrements, which neither will 
 come yourselves into the only ark of safety, nor suffer any 
 others, if you can keep them back from it ? Do ye believe the 
 Scriptures or no ? or can ye forget that ye are but mortal men, 
 to give account of all your doings, and the more mighty ye be, 
 if ye abuse your authorities, to suffer most mighty torments. 
 Oh, what will your judgment be for so long resisting against 
 the Holy Ghost, from so long sinning, not only yourselves, but 
 making so many millions of souls to sin with ye ! My heirs be 
 of age to enjoy the gift which I have given them, of all that I 
 have, to be as loyal subjects to the crown in all temporal 
 things, as who is most, their obedience to God and His 
 spiritual Vicar, in all spiritual causes concerning their soul’s 
 everlasting safety, first reserved. My dear country, God con- 
 vert thee out of this pitiful captivity of schism and heresy. 
 My sovereign liege lord, with so fair issue blessed of God, 
 how gladly would I give my life for your conversion, that ye 
 might reign for ever, both in earth and heaven ! I envy not 
 your Majesty’s greatness; I hope you will not malign at my 
 fleeing and abjecting of myself rather to be a doorkeeper in 
 the house of my God, to which, in my heart I have these 
 many years been dedicated, than to be, if I might, among the 
 highest in your Majesty’s favour.” 27 
 
 The second omission is the following letter in the P.R.O. 
 State Papers, Dom. Eliz. 1586, September 1, from four justices 
 of the peace of Surrey, to Secretary Walsingham, on their 
 reapprehending Thomas Pounde, who had been bailed out 
 of the Tower by his mother under bond not to leave England : 
 
 “ Upon the late bruit of arriving of foreign forces, watches 
 being provided, and order taken for stay of seditious bruits 
 and for searches of suspected places — upon search, one Mr. 
 Poundes, of the Co. of South 1 was found, that heretofore hath 
 had (as he saith) twelve years’ imprisonment for religion (as he 
 27 State Paper Office, Dom. James I. vol. xxi. n. 48. 
 
600 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 pretendeth, but he is either impaired in mind or otherwise) ; 
 giveth very rash and unadvised speeches, affirming that the 
 cause of foreign forces was by reason of robberies and piracies, 
 and not by the Catholic means ; and that he meant to have 
 made bonfires : and being demanded why he would so have 
 done, he affirmed that it was to declare his innocency ; and 
 when these speeches were misliked, and it was said to him he 
 was to go with the officer for his forthcoming, he said that then 
 he was sure he should remain during the Queen’s life. The 
 same speeches being also suspected as proceeding either of 
 guilty conscience or else of some hope of her Majesty’s peril, 
 we have also sent your honour a letter found with him, and as 
 it seemeth written to him. And in consideration hereof, as 
 for that also he confessed himself to be the man named in 
 certain papers of notes of such as were suspected, we have 
 committed him to prison ; he allegeth that by the lords of the 
 Privy Council he was committed to the keeping of his mother. 
 We will proceed further with him as we shall be directed 
 by your honour, or otherwise leave him to your honourable 
 wisdom. 
 
 “Edward Fenner, Edward Bellingham, 
 
 “ Edward Sawyer, William Gardyner. 
 
 “ Southwark, ist Sept.” 
 
 A very interesting biographical sketch of Thomas Pounde 
 in the Rambler , vol. ii. 1857 (from the pen, we believe, of 
 Richard Simpson, Esq.), and to which we refer our readers with 
 pleasure, says that the following letter written to Pounde is the 
 one referred to by the justices in their report to Walsingham : 
 
 “+ Sub cruce laboro. 
 
 “Good Sir, — As I was verye glade to heare that youe 
 were plunged oute of the ponds and pitts of infinite perills 
 when youe were freed from the tragicall Towers, whence rather 
 was expected your marterdome then youre enlargement; so 
 hearing y l youe were rclcgaius in insula and confined to a place 
 of perpetuall imprisonment never to be sene or harde of of 
 youre lovinge frends dwringe the tymes of persecutyon : I 
 asswre youe even Gladius doloris pert?-ansivit animam meam 
 quod talem amicum amiserim , cujus amicitia tam jucutidissima 
 olim perfrui solebam. Howbeit nowe latly, havinge receyved 
 youre goulden cordiall coumforte, and made partaker w th my 
 aflicted frende of youre country’s prouysye, 2S ct tibi gratulor et 
 28 i.e. prowess. 
 
College of the Holy Apostles. 601 
 
 mihi gaudeo , et hdbetur et referetur a me {cum potero) tibi gratia , 
 semper. And forasmuch as, being acquainted w th your zealous 
 godly constancy, I have known your disposition to be delighted 
 rather w th authentical antiquities than w th new-fangled novel- 
 ties, I send for your new-year’s gift an oulde booke of Contem- 
 plative Centiloquies, in w ch ar comprysed a swete delectable 
 himme made of the Cros w th a dolefull songe of the nitingall 
 toutchinge Christ’s passion, w ch youe will putt pen to paper to 
 give it a new Inglish liverye. Utere , fraere , lege , relege , perlege , 
 coiitemplando meditare , et meditando contemplare , et {quam 
 graphice poteris ) in nostram Jdeomam [sic] traducito , sic semper 
 honos nomenque tuum sine fine manebunt. Thus being merye 
 w th my sorrowes when I wryte unto youe, besechinge oure 
 Lorde to bles youe w th all benedictyons temperall and eternall, 
 I ende. Vive, vale ; super es longos Nestoris annos. 
 
 “ Titus pro arkitratu [sic] tuo , 
 
 “ Stephanus Captivus.” 
 
 “ This Stephanus Captivus is probably Stephen Rousham, 
 the martyr of Gloucester, who had been long Pounde’s fellow- 
 captive in the Tower, having been brought there May 19, 
 1582 ; kept in the hole called Little-ease for eighteen months 
 and thirteen days, and then removed February 12, 1584, to the 
 Marshalsea. He was banished in the following year. The 
 ‘Golden Cordial Comfort’ was probably a poem of the suffer- 
 ings of Catholics, which Poundes had sent him.” 
 
 We subjoin a copy of the original letter of Thomas Pounde 
 to Father Robert Parsons, dated the 3rd of June, 1609, which 
 is preserved in the Stonyhurst MSS. Anglia , vol. iii n. 95. 
 Father More and the other historians of his life, give but a 
 very meagre extract from, or rather the spirit of it. 
 
 “ Having received your most loving letter to me of the 
 3rd of January, Right Rev., with our Father Cl. [Father- 
 General Claudius] so fatherly commendations and remembrance 
 to, and of one of the unworthiest of his children about three 
 months past, and thereupon expecting here my humble 
 governor his direction to me, until the 15th of May. At 
 length, upon the 29th of May, upon which very day of 
 that month I was born and christened, and my age 
 then just seventy years full completed, I received his loving 
 answer. To whose reverence here so near me as to your 
 
602 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 own, so far distant, I fall upon my face for very confusion 
 of so many years’ muteness to you both (my rule therein also 
 failed towards my nearest Superiors) and my negligence 
 towards your reverence inexcusable, whose special love and 
 affection towards me (belike for my love and zeal of our 
 Blessed Edmund C. [Campion]) his honour of glorious 
 memory, could not contain itself, but in some of your good 
 monuments [writings] wherewith God’s happy afflicted flock 
 (not only in England but elsewhere far and near are exceed- 
 ingly comforted and confirmed) to give me such titles as 
 the very hearing some time of them, out of such records 
 may make me to blush, and how could I then contain my 
 pen from rendering some kind of congratulation again to 
 you (such a Jacob-like wrestler with God Himself for the 
 conversion and preservation of your whole country as you 
 are), which attributed much more to me for a little suffer- 
 ance by God’s good favour laid upon me, than anything 
 else in me could deserve. O Father, 1 am too much 
 ashamed of it. Truly nothing else it was but a little (nay 
 not a little) pusillanimity. The last letter that I wrote to 
 the greatest of our Council was thus subscribed, Tot annis 
 in statera appensus T. P. If any strength or weight in that 
 time were God’s gift, it was (not of myself). And yet you 
 have seen now my weakness towards such whom in our 
 spiritual warfare the highest of our powers here are not ignorant 
 that I most honour them of all men living. And whereof 
 came such weakness? I will truly show you. When, after 
 thirty years’ imprisonment through ten prisons, under most 
 hungry caterpillars and many other oppressions, and in that 
 space ^4,coo spoil suffered of my substance, by i2o H for 
 twenty years yearly paid to the Queen and her patentees (my 
 land for all that, by God’s strange preserving, a good esquire’s 
 estate) worth between the King and my two nephews with 
 my own reservations, yearly above a thousand crowns. 
 
 “When after all this I say nine of our Council had set 
 their hands to a licence for me to pass over sea, they well 
 enough weeting [knowing] what my privy meaning was, there 
 to have rendered up myself at the Society’s feet (what they 
 laid in wait for, it was suspected). But my farewell here 
 given out in a few verses to honour my native country in the 
 best manner that I could. When I was ready to have cut 
 off all cables, and to cross the seas towards you, our dear 
 Father W.’s last words to me were out of the Apostle whose 
 
College of the Holy Apostles . 603 
 
 spirit was in him, Non qiuerimus vestra sed vos. Behold my 
 Superior here sent me word (under whose hold I must be 
 tanquam baculus in manu Domini) that my good will and 
 readiness were sufficiently seen ; but nevertheless I must stay 
 on this side until both he and I did hear further from F. G. 
 or with his privity from you. In which meanwhile, by long 
 expecting and re-expecting to hear from you, I still remained 
 mute, like one ashamed of my barrenness to such a company. 
 So many years through intolerable oppressions of so miserable 
 a time, and therefore . more desirous to prostrate myself to 
 some of you there by visible presence than by any letters, 
 to appear, as it were, empty before you in comparison of 
 presenting you with myself, the tree itself with whatsoever 
 fruit it may yield you, such as it is. Now in your desiring 
 to hear (as due correspondence between the Superior and 
 the inferiors every head and its members doth require) 
 of what comfort I am in my course, and what fruit I 
 reap thereof, your reverence doth make me to remember 
 what our Royal King and Captain, under whose glorious 
 banner of the cross our warfaring is, did inquire to know of 
 His disciples, “ Quern dicunt homines esse Filium hominis.” 
 An unprofitable member I acknowledge myself. And yet, as 
 long as I find so much comfort in this course taken upon 
 me, that I hope I shall say still to my last hour (as at Ipswich 
 openly long since I did, when for news by the pursuivants 
 to be carried back to the Council, to whom, by their spies 
 it was not before unknown, laying my own hand upon the 
 breast of my cloak, I protested to them that I would not 
 change that cloak for the Queen's crown). So long, I say, I 
 had rather your reverence should inquire what the voice is 
 that ab his qui foris sunt , as well as from friends more con- 
 versant, what men say of this man and his ways, but a little 
 contrary to theirs ; of this man in the furnace so long at 
 weyling [wailing] ; and in the end where rest and cherishing 
 should be sought, so yielding up his patrimony to his Catholic 
 nephews given him of God from Protestant parents, to be 
 bred up and adopted as his own children. A strange thing 
 I may tell you, I hope without vanity, giving the glory to 
 [the] God of all tribulations. The State hath almost wearied 
 themselves in persecuting and pilling of me, seeing me and 
 mine so brought down, and my sails so set to another course 
 than outwardly I bear still the name of. And yet the very 
 Protestants, yea, and some also Puritans, seeing my contempt 
 
604 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 of that which they so scrape for, do somewhat muse at it, 
 and are not unready to any neighbourly kindness that 
 lieth in them to serve me. Yea, Salisbury himself (upon my 
 plain telling him what our Gospel taught out of Christ’s own 
 mouth, that it was more blessed to give than to take, and 
 a fortiori , much more blessed to give than to take away from 
 Catholics, as they had taken so much from me), took so much 
 compassion on me for his own honour, as to give me back 
 2o u for my relief of 2oo u which for a ward that fell to me 
 of one of my tenants he had taken from me, and given it to 
 his secretary. 
 
 “ Moreover, to keep my weapons from rusting, and me 
 wheresoever I am waking, I have not wanted daily crosses 
 for three years’ space, very near to my own doors. “ Attamen 
 intercessione B. Virginis, totiusque in coelis Societatis, Deo nobis 
 protectore, Deo nobis adjutore in his omnibus superavimus. 
 Hi sunt spiritualis militiae nostrae triumphi. Nec tamen in 
 his justificati sumus, sed cum timore et tremore usq. ad 
 horam mortis, quae nobis est tarn incerta ut salutem nostram 
 operemur multo cautius vigilandum. 
 
 “Touching the state of my health, the constitution of my 
 jumentum hath been strong in a mean degree, and my stomach 
 still meetly strong for my years ; only my sight these two 
 years is grown very dim and hardly knoweth to read a small 
 print with any spectacles. Any rheumatisms or distillations 
 never troubled me, yet if I should much use any waterish 
 and extenuating meats, they would breed soon the scurvy to 
 a prisoner, or in any like life, as once in the Tower they 
 did to me. 
 
 “Your reverence will give me leave in secret to you to 
 show some experiences of so long a hermit’s life. I retired 
 myself from the life in Court to solitary life in the country, 
 near seven years before any committing of me to any prison ; 
 which being added to my thirty years’ imprisonment, with the 
 time since my enlargement, may resemble my life in that 
 respect somewhat hermit-like for forty years’ space. So long 
 have I found some experience, that next to humility of heart 
 and meekness of spirit, fervent love of God and holy Church, 
 with contempt of this world, there is nothing more dreadful 
 to the devil than fasting and prayer, adding also watching to 
 it, or else early rising (the disciplines of our holy patrons 
 now in heaven are scarce imitable, but the third part of that 
 in use makes him soon to flee). But to return to your 
 
College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 605 
 
 hermit’s forty years’ experience. So long he hath practised 
 the abstinence of one competent meal the day, taken at the 
 common dining hour, endeavouring always to a light supper, 
 which, if it be not of any flesh, but rather some pittance of 
 cheaper feeding, as every stomach shall best agree withal, not 
 only less burthening the stomach, but the less to burthen the 
 purse, whosesoever the charge shall be. These I dare com- 
 mend to be as quick a taking hook for fishers of men to 
 use now in England (where Catholics are pilled and preyed 
 on to the bare bones, and yet neither any succour sent them, 
 nor any zeal of God’s house showed for them), as quick a 
 taking hook, I say, for this miserable time as a right good 
 sermon ; with which blessed bait, through so many false 
 brothers as here now are risen, there is almost no safe fishing 
 for them. Only within some gentleman’s house of mean 
 estate, yea, or in meaner place, a prompt and plain preacher 
 might do great good, to the great comfort of many devout 
 souls. Of which talents I humbly beseech my reverend 
 superiors here to help me to one rather of our own Society 
 than of any other coat, tam propter vicinum bonwn quani propter 
 vestrum majorem honorem (to whom I would have the secret 
 of our estate as open as the sun), although our doors are 
 shut to none. For my N. [nephew] is that way, as all other 
 way very valorous and zealous, and his constancy well tried 
 from his infancy. If Samson were some way proud and weak,, 
 who may not have some infirmity, and yet by God to be 
 turned to his good? For the fruit which I have found in so 
 long abstinence iet quoniam validiora sunt exempla quam verba), 
 I have made a secret memorial of the hardest of it in these 
 nine verses following, that it may plainly appear to have had 
 no rigorousness in it in a life at such rest as mine hath here : 
 
 “Sat michi prandenti tres haustus, coena superq. 
 
 Prandenti libra sit cibi, sic nomine coense 
 Esto librae panis pars tertia, fructus abite ; 
 
 Forte tamen casei similis pars tertia grata. 
 
 Nec me laute magis quam fratres scimus egenos, 
 
 In votis mihi sit vel vivere, vel recreare. 
 
 Sit vinum infirmis ; mihi sit cervisia potus, 
 
 Nil mihi cum medico ; cibus medicina valenti. 
 
 Et memet pascens pasco simul esurientem. 
 
 “ My sight now is dim and weak to write any more than 
 of great necessity. Therefore the acknowledgment signified 
 to my Reverend Father Weston, from his long pupil in 
 
6o6 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 Wisbeach Castle and comforter, what I could in the Tower, 
 how much I am bound to honour him in my heart (and next 
 him to love my dear brother some time, but many happy 
 spent years since that, ten thousand miles hence ; I mean 
 my Father Thomas Stevens), which was my first messenger 
 for obtaining of my admittance into the Society, will be, as I 
 hope, not uncomfortable to them, nor yet to my loving Father 
 Ed. Co. of our College at Fremingham [Father Edward Coffin], 
 whose hand I knew to be the secretary of your reverence’s 
 letter, having sent to my Reverend Father General (the poor 
 mite of an affectionate child) and to yourself, dear sir, and 
 to Father Weston the like, as to my governor here, yea both 
 F. W., for each of you and them, a London knife, with damask 
 haft of the finest making, whereby to remember me, and the 
 [same] to my Father Ed. C., your secretary, in requital of 
 his book which he gave me at his last departure, with his 
 name in the end of it. These I did provide of purpose for 
 tokens to so many of your reverences, against my intended 
 voyage over two years past, belike in bo?iuvi omen of 
 my hearing at least from you in such manner as of late I 
 have. 
 
 “ Immediately after my release out of the Fleet, I sent a 
 great packet to Father Wh. als Ga. [Whalley als Garnet] by 
 Richard Fulwood, with many particulars in it not only of all 
 my last troubles, but of all the chiefest things which I had 
 put up to the King, part whereof was my reply to Crowley 
 within Father Campion his lifetime. I sent up from Starford 
 Castle by Justice Snag, both to the L. of London and to the 
 Council, to cause it to be rejoined to, for the credit of their 
 cause; as to his Majesty, I still continued the like demand, to 
 show that no obstinacy was in us, .if we might be convinced in 
 any error. If Father Wa. did never send any particulars of 
 that packet over to your sight, perchance your reverence would 
 be willing enough (considering what accidents have since fallen 
 out) to see some of them yourself, or else to my Governor 
 here to refer them. Humbly beseeching all your reve- 
 rences to remember me to God in your holy prayers. At 
 my house at Belmont. My verses for my farewell at this 
 mark is above mentioned I have also inclosed, if they be 
 worth seeing. 
 
 “ One of your most devoted children, although hitherto 
 least beneficial 
 
 “Tho. P.” 
 
College of the Holy Apostles . 607 
 
 The following verses were inclosed in the above letter, 
 written two years before — 
 
 “ Praestantissima hujus insignis insulas patriae meae dulcissimae commoda. 
 
 “ Anglia musarum mater liaec peperitq ; priori 
 Oxonium partu. Te (Cantabrigia) secundo. 
 
 Hasc tot sanctorum Regum mater atq. sepulcrum, 
 
 Hie tot martyrio Sancti supra astra levati : 
 
 Totq. Sacerdotum nunc Carnificina. Quid ergo ? 
 
 Non ausim celebrare meo tua commoda versu? 
 
 Audeo et audebo, cave tu (Lutherane) placebo. 
 
 Septima pars Regni Sacris celeberrima votis, 
 
 Quaeq. suam repetet quondam dos Sacra Marias 
 Templa, seges, naves, mulier, bos, lana, metalla, 
 
 Panni, cornipedes quovis bene principe digni. 
 
 Dant pluviam nubes, flores et flumina montes. 
 
 Melleq : lacte fluunt campi, dant aequora pisces, 
 
 Quid referam quales, quibus est genus omne natantum ? 
 
 Est mare pro muro (vos non ingrata colonae) 
 
 Estque salis ferri, stanni, est et copia plumbi 
 Et crocus in latis (merx quam ditissima) campis. 
 
 Instar et ignis habet lapides cognomine seacoal, 
 
 Hocq. faber sua ferra liquat ferrarius igne. 
 
 Hoc silvas umbrosae : vivaria deniq. multa, 
 
 Cervorum et damarum grex pinguedine clarus. 
 
 Tectaq. nobilibus Dominis O quam speciosa? 
 
 Planities, montes, fontes non igne caventes. 
 
 Non lupus in silvis (taceo quod mente revolvo). 
 
 Est potus quovis melior cervisia vino. 
 
 Dasmonis invidia cui inventum credo tobacco. 
 
 Delicias O nimium multae atq pecunia multa. 
 
 In bello cives fortes, in pace fideles. 
 
 Rustica gens (mirum dictu) quam militat audax, 
 
 Gens munita satis sine muris, sat sibi dives, 
 
 Ingenio pollens, quibus ars fere absq. labore est 
 Musica, et (heu) saltans nimium famosa juventus. 
 
 Lauta viatori, si quserat, coena, deinde 
 Et cubitum laetus, quoniam hospes ab hospite tutus. 
 
 O fortunatus nimium bona si sua novit 
 Angligena, admonitus vanasq. relinqueret aras. 
 
 Csetera non dicam, tibi Christus sed benedicat, 
 
 Tot mihi tarn char os ut in te sinat ille perire. 
 
 Nos patriam fugimus, Thomas cognomine Pondus ; 
 
 Omne solum forti patria est, valeatis amici. 
 
 Aitatis sum 68. 
 
 1607. 
 
 Thomas Pounde, as we have seen in his letter, mentions 
 his nephews to whom he had been a parent, and that one of 
 them was very valorous and zealous, and his constancy well 
 tried. He may very probably be the party named in a letter 
 
6o8 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 of Father Anthony Rivers, S.J., dated April 28, 1602, written 
 to Father Robert Parsons, addressed Signor Ridolfo Perino, 
 Venice. 29 In speaking of one Bomer, an apostate student of 
 Douay, who had turned Government informer, he says, 
 “ Bomer with his pursuivants, meeting with one Mr. Henry 
 Pounde, that had been a traveller, the day after the execution 
 [of Father Francis Page, S.J., and the Rev. Robert Watkinson 
 at Tyburn, April 20, 1602] would have staid him as a priest 
 and traitor; he inquired by what name they arrested him, 
 and what warrant they had, which they refusing to show, he 
 drew upon them in the streets, hurt the pursuivant in divers 
 places, and defended himself most valiantly against many 
 ’prentices that came with halberts to help the pursuivant, and 
 had not his sword broken, he would have beaten the whole 
 street before him. Having wounded and hurt many, and 
 being himself wounded and disarmed, he yielded, and was 
 carried before the chief justice, where he testified himself as no 
 priest, and was therefore wronged by their manner of proceedings 
 Notwithstanding, for that he was a Papist, and had been a 
 traveller, he was sent to Newgate. The pursuivant is like to 
 die ; the gentleman is much pitied, and highly commended for 
 his valour by all sorts.” 
 
 We do not trace what became of Mr. Henry Pounde, but 
 as he was acting in self-defence he was probably soon released. 
 
 Father Thomas Mettam or Metham , S.J, who died a martyr 
 for the Faith of Christ in Wisbeach prison, is the last we shall 
 notice, and must devote a few pages to that holy priest in con- 
 cluding this portion of the history of the College or District 
 of the Holy Apostles S.J. 30 
 
 Deeply venerated by all English Catholics was Father 
 Thomas Mettam. He was born in the year 1532, or there- 
 abouts, of a good family. Dodd 31 says, “That he was of a 
 considerable family in Yorkshire, a son probably of Sir Thomas 
 and Lady Mettam presently mentioned, educated at Douay 
 and Louvain, in one of which Universities he took degrees in 
 divinity, and became licentiate in that faculty. He was an 
 excellent scholar, and in great repute with Dr. Allen, who sent 
 
 29 Many of Father River’s letters are preserved in the Old Chapter 
 collection, London, and some few intercepted ones are in the P.R.O., 
 London. 
 
 30 See More, Hist. Prov. S.J. ; Tanum Vita ct Mors Jesuit: pro fide 
 inter f; Bartoli, Inghilterra ; Dodd, Church Hist ., &c. 
 
 31 Dodd, Church Hist. vol. ii. p. 109. 
 
College of the Holy Apostles . 
 
 609 
 
 him upon the English Mission from Douay, in the year 1574. 
 He laboured at that function with great success, and was a 
 hind of oracle among his brethren in Wisbeach Castle.” In 
 Father Bridgewater’s Concertatio Eccl. Cath. mention is made 
 of Sir Thomas Mettam, knight, “ a just man and fearing God, 
 who, with his lady, were for many years prisoners for the faith 
 of Christ.” Sir Thomas had formerly lived in great friendship 
 with the martyred Earl of Northumberland, then a captive 
 (1572) for the faith, and had an ardent desire to see the 
 noble confessor in his chains, that he might encourage himself 
 by his example, the more constantly to persevere in his holy 
 purpose. He gained his desire : he saw him, addressed him, 
 and bade him farewell, and returning to his prison, after a 
 few days rendered up his soul to God; ut sicut in vita sese 
 dilexerant ita nec in morte separarentur. 
 
 A Lady Mettam is also mentioned among other ladies as 
 confined in York prison by Lord Huntingdon, the President 
 of the North, “ a rank heretic,” in the narrative of the 
 Babthorpes of Babthorpe, in Father Morris’ Troubles of our 
 Catholic Forefathers , Series I. 
 
 Father Mettam was a man of varied and profound erudi- 
 tion, and for his skill in the classics, with Hebrew, history, &c., 
 he took the Doctor’s cap in Philosophy and Divinity. To 
 this was united solid and manifold virtue, leading him to the 
 love of God above all things, and to a due estimation of the 
 value of souls and a sense of his own nothingness ; all which 
 tended to increase the esteem of Catholics for him and to 
 conciliate the implacable hostility of Protestants. Escaping 
 from England, he duly prepared himself in the colleges abroad, 
 and having reckoned the cost of life and blood, devoted 
 himself to the salvation of his countrymen ; taking holy 
 orders, he returned speedily to England, where he arrived in 
 September, 1574. From his very entrance into the island, 
 chains were his welcome. His portion, indeed, was simply 
 imprisonment for seventeen years ; and in prison he died. 
 
 At first he was confined during four years in the Tower 
 of London, where the foulness and squalor of the place 
 brought him to death’s door. The cruel clemency of the 
 Privy Council, however, so far relieved him, as to change him 
 to another prison. He was there treated with a little less rigour^ 
 and not so closely confined, so that by the more liberal use 
 of necessary food, having somewhat recovered his strength of 
 body, his hopes revived of being spared to pursue the one 
 
 NN 
 
610 College of the Holy Apostles . 
 
 great desire of his heart, which his strict confinement in the 
 Tower had rendered impossible, of being admitted to the 
 Society of Jesus. He therefore wrote a letter to Father 
 Thomas Darbyshire, then living in Paris, and his most inti- 
 mate friend, urging and entreating him by every means in his 
 power to promote the affair for him. 32 This Father Darbyshire 
 did, and the result appears by the following letter of the Very 
 Reverend Father Mercurian, General of the Society: 
 
 “ 1 have received great consolation in our Lord from the 
 letter of your Reverence, written to our Father Darbyshire, 
 because of the holy and salutary desire which is expressed 
 in it. As this desire comes, we feel assured, from the motion 
 of the Holy Spirit, we should fear to be resisting the Giver 
 of all gifts and graces, were we not on our part to cooperate 
 with your Reverence’s wishes, and, as far as in us lies, antici- 
 pate your consolation. Therefore, according to the power 
 conferred upon us by Christ, though unworthy, in this Society, 
 we receive your Reverence into our fold, and unite you to 
 the body of the Society in every respect, and embrace you 
 in spirit as a true member of it, and make you a sharer in 
 all our labours, merits, and privileges. We hope, indeed, that 
 the Divine Goodness, Whose property it is to hear the desires 
 of the poor, will also be pleased at some future time to grant 
 that your Reverence, being delivered from these troubles, may 
 be curs, not in spirit and affection only, but in person and 
 in deed. But nevertheless, should it please His Divine 
 Majesty to decree otherwise, we pray God at least that we 
 may be hereafter united together in the eternal mansions of 
 heaven. 
 
 “ But in the meanwhile, so long as the Divine Will thus 
 disposes present events, you must nevertheless consider your- 
 self as a member of the Society, although in bonds and 
 wonderfully helpless in body. Rather, by how greater and 
 harder things you suffer for Christ’s sake, so much the more 
 may you deem yourself in the sight of God, Who sees the 
 heart, to be a disciple of Christ and a true son of the Society. 
 It remains for me, however, to admonish your Reverence to 
 keep your secret, and not rashly to disclose to any one the 
 faculty we now grant you, nor at all, unless you can do so 
 without danger, or some good end may call for it. We pray 
 our Lord Jesus Christ to prevent your Reverence largely with 
 32 See the' Life of Father Darbyshire, Historic Facts, First Series. 
 
College of the Holy Apostles. 611 
 
 His blessings, and to impart to you strength from above to 
 correspond worthily with so great a vocation, and that neither 
 persecution nor the sword, nor things present nor future, may 
 ever separate us from the charity which is in Christ Jesus, 
 Who is blessed above all for ever. Amen. 
 
 “Rome, 4th May, 1579.” 
 
 Father Mettam was not long allowed to enjoy this more 
 commodious prison; but with restoration to health he had 
 again to bear harder things, being frequently transferred from 
 one prison to another, always accompanied with fresh accession 
 of sufferings ; for having in some prisons succeeded in taming 
 his rough warders by his meekness, patience, and the example 
 of his innocent life, it often happened that, passing to a fresh 
 gaol, he would have to experience anew, from their studied 
 inhumanity towards priests, the ill-treatment of a strange gaoler, 
 uninfluenced as yet by his sanctity. But it happened that the 
 servant of God, from this selfsame variation of prisons, always 
 painful to the body, experienced all the greater consolation 
 of soul ; presenting him, as it did, with new occasions for the 
 exercise of his zeal among the malefactors. These were made 
 up of every description of offenders, with whom he found his 
 successive prisons filled. The insults, reproaches, and worst 
 of treatment they heaped upon him, both from heretical spite 
 and uncultured insolence, formed a great addition to his suffer- 
 ings. Yet eventually, these men, having ever before their 
 eyes the standing sermon of his devout life, and hearing him 
 reason so powerfully upon every point of eternal truths, con- 
 fessed themselves conquered, pronouncing him to be a holy 
 man and one that had greatly profited their souls. His • fre- 
 quent discussions upon points of religion with Protestant 
 ministers and preachers aided not a little to this ; these, 
 according to their custom, would boldly and contemptuously 
 present themselves to challenge him to dispute with them, but 
 would return with their heads down, silenced and abashed. 
 Father Weston, his fellow-prisoner, affirms these victories to 
 have been both frequent and distinguished, and such as made 
 the very name of Father Mettam terrible to the preachers. 
 
 Father Tanner observes upon the successful prison labours 
 of Father Mettam and other captive members of the Society, 
 that whilst those who were at large could scarcely effect any 
 work of note, owing to the fierceness of the persecution and 
 the sagacity of the pursuivants, they themselves, shut up in 
 NN 2 
 
6l2 
 
 College of the Holy Apostles. 
 
 their prisons, were making a constant succession of converts. 
 These, in turn, on regaining their liberty, would go forth as so 
 many domestic preachers of the holy Faith they had received. 
 
 It was, perhaps, on this account, and because of the great 
 concourse of Catholics that flocked to him for direction and 
 consolation, that the Privy Council deemed it more advisable 
 to remove him from London, and consequently added him to 
 the list of those who had been selected for confinement in 
 Wisbeach Castle, as to a school of severer suffering and the 
 exercise of greater patience. Father Bartoli says, “We have 
 before described this place, and the miserable condition of 
 life of the Confessors of Christ destined for it. We had, 
 a quasi college there of three ; few, indeed, in number, but 
 in virtue, each of them without a rival. These were Fathers 
 Mettam, Weston, and Thomas Pounde.” 
 
 About thirty-five priests and lay-Catholics inhabited this 
 wretched prison. These were either under sentence of death 
 or perpetual imprisonment. Amidst such miseries, truly buried 
 alive, some of them were kept in solitary cells, some had com- 
 panions of their dungeons, and all so closely confined that 
 they could never go out except at the same time to one 
 common table. Nor then, unless with Protestant witnesses 
 to dine with them, of whom the chief was Gray the gaoler, 
 a brutal man, and so determinately hostile to Catholics, that 
 he openly declared that, were it proposed to him that he 
 would never find grace and salvation, except amongst Catholics, 
 he would prefer to die and be lost eternally than to be saved 
 as a Papist. This unhappy man was taken off by a dreadful 
 end, which was over-ruled to the great spiritual benefit of his 
 daughter, who, immediately upon her father’s lamentable death, 
 renounced her heresy and became a Catholic. 
 
 The sufferers at Wisbeach were entirely excluded from 
 all intercourse with friends ; only Protestant ministers were 
 admitted to treat upon affairs of religion, and the bearers of 
 the alms of the faithful, upon which alone they depended for 
 existence. The place was closely guarded, within and without, 
 day and night. The hatred of the guards against the soldiers 
 of Christ, their revilings and insults, not unfrequently accom- 
 panied with pelting of stones, made up their constant con- 
 fessorship. They had, however, one consolation amidst all 
 these sufferings, the secret celebration of the Divine Mysteries, 
 means for which they contrived to retain in spite of the vigi- 
 lance of the guards who would now and then break in upon 
 
College of the Holy Apostles. 613 
 
 them, but were always baulked. Leave was given to those 
 who were sixty years of age to go about the prison more 
 freely and to visit each other’s cells. They made use of this 
 liberty, especially Fathers Mettam, Weston, and Thomas 
 Pounde, to practise religious discipline, doing everything by 
 the sound of a bell, such as the appointed time for morning 
 meditation, examination of conscience, spiritual reading, 
 study, &c. Each one also, according to his strength, added 
 corporal mortifications to the rigour of the prison. They had 
 at stated hours, lectures upon Holy Scripture, instructions in 
 Greek and Hebrew, explications of questions of faith and 
 morals, and exhortations on virtue and the perfection of their 
 state. This course of life being reported abroad throughout 
 England, Wisbeach Castle began to grow so noted a place in 
 the estimation, not only of Catholics, but of Protestants also, 
 that it came to be held rather as an academy of most learned 
 men and a school of every virtue, than a prison of malefactors. 
 
 It pleased God at length to take to Himself Father 
 Mettam, who was then not less than sixty years of age, with 
 scarcely any sickness or mental disease beyond the wear and 
 tear of a seventeen years’ imprisonment. On feeling the near 
 approach of death, with his mind raised to God, he prepared 
 for the reception of the last Sacraments, having received which, 
 he placidly rendered up his soul to God, surrounded by a 
 company of noble champions of the faith, his fellow-prisoners, 
 in the month of June, 1592. His prolonged though bloodless 
 martyrdom brought great glory to the holy cause for which 
 he died. Nor was he less honoured by obstinate hatred with 
 which the heretics regarded him ; in proof of which, ten years 
 after his incarceration, when seventy priests were, by virtue 
 of a commission from the Queen, taken from their various 
 dungeons in England, and sent into permanent exile [1585]. 
 Father Mettam was excluded from the benefit of this act of 
 royal clemency. Still kept a prisoner, he was reserved for a 
 lingering death, by a punishment all the more severe as it 
 was more prolonged. 33 
 
 33 Frequent mention is made of Fr. Metham in the life of Fr. William 
 Weston — Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers. Series II. 
 
■ 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 . 
 
jfouttl) Series* 
 
 Part II. 
 
 COLLEGE OF ST. HUGH; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE LINCOLNSHIRE DISTRICT, S.J. 
 
THE COLLEGE OF ST. HUGH, 
 
 Or the Lincolnshire District ( formerly the Residence of 
 St. Dominic). 
 
 This Residence was one of those established by Father Richard 
 Blount, the first Provincial, about 1633. It included the 
 county of Lincoln. In the year 1675, we read i* 1 the Annual 
 Letters, that by the authority of the Very Rev. Father General 
 Oliva, it passed into the title of a College, and was afterwards 
 generally known by the name of St. Hugh. 
 
 The following places appear to have been served or visited 
 by the Fathers of this Residence, though they would doubtless 
 make missionary excursions throughout the whole District. 
 Even as late as 1781, Father Richard Knight, for many years 
 missioner at Lincoln, in a corespondence with another Father, 
 speaks of his having ridden about five hundred and fifty miles 
 in five months; being then between sixty and seventy years 
 of age. 
 
 Blyborough (the Southcote 
 family) 
 
 Boston 
 
 Brigg 
 
 Driby 
 
 Dunstan (near Lincoln) 
 
 Irnham 
 
 Kerman 
 
 The average yearly number of Fathers attached to this 
 Residence, from its commencement until the year 1677, was 
 about eight The number of conversions, as far as they are 
 recorded, was about twenty per annum ; but this return must 
 have been very imperfect, in consequence of the difficulties 
 of the times. 
 
 Among the various Fathers serving in this District, the 
 following must be briefly noticed. 
 
 I. Father James Sharpe, who often passed by the assumed 
 name of Pollard. He was a native of Yorkshire, born of a 
 
 Kingerby Hall (the seat of the 
 Young family) 
 
 Lincoln 
 Little Paunton 
 Market Rasen 
 Reasby 
 
 Sixhills-Grange 
 
6i8 
 
 College of St. Hugh. 
 
 respectable family. He was a convert to the Catholic faith, 
 and entered the Society in 1607-8, aet. 31, being then already 
 in holy orders. At one time he was Professor of Sacred 
 Scripture and Hebrew at the English College S. J., Louvain. He 
 was promoted to the degree of a professed Father on the 12th 
 May, 1622, and died in the Residence of St. Dominic, nth of 
 November, 1630, set. 54. It does not appear how long he was 
 a missionary in St. Dominic’s Residence. Under the initials 
 of J. S. he published in quarto, the year he died, a work, 
 De Privato Spiritu Hcereticorum , divided into two parts. The 
 following interesting account of his sufferings for his religion, 
 at the hands of his own parents and relatives, is given in 
 Father Henry More’s History of the English Province S.J . , 
 lib. viii. n. 9. The events recorded would appear to have 
 occurred in Yorkshire. 
 
 After a short history of the combat and martyrdom of 
 Father Thomas Garnet, who suffered at Tyburn, 23rd June, 
 1608, Father More continues: “There, indeed, the martyr’s 
 laurel was gained by the effusion of blood. . . . Let us see 
 a combat of another kind, and in the useless efforts for the 
 conversion of his parents, let those learn a lesson who are 
 carried away by an over ardent zeal for bringing their relatives 
 to the Faith, and in how great danger they may be involved 
 if they suffer themselves to be led by their own judgment 
 rather than by that of their superiors. For although he came 
 off a victor, not of his parents, but of himself, nevertheless, 
 every one should not be too ready to offer himself for this, 
 lest being over self-confident, instead of relying upon God 
 alone, he be overwhelmed by the torrent of pleadings, tears, 
 and lamentations, and so sink and perish.” 
 
 About this time (1608) James Sharpe came to the novice- 
 ship, being already a priest. After completing his two years’ 
 probation, he returned into England and wrote the following 
 narrative to our Very Reverend Father General, Claudius 
 Aquaviva. 
 
 “Very Reverend Father in Christ, — 
 
 P. C. 
 
 “ Four months ago, I wrote your Paternity some 
 account of my life, and my endeavours to convert my parents ; 
 but as events turned out contrary to my expectations, I 
 thought it would not be ungrateful to your Paternity (after 
 consulting Superiors) if I recounted to you a few things regard- 
 
College of St. Hugh. 619 
 
 ing the termination of the affair. On my first arrival in 
 England, I frequently treated with my parents, both in person, 
 and, when absent, by letter, as to leaving their residence and 
 neighbourhood and moving elsewhere, where I should be 
 able to live more familiarly with them, and they would have 
 a better opportunity of profiting by the society of Catholics, 
 and thus find a more ready means of salvation ; they at length 
 acceded to my request, and pledged themselves to perform 
 every thing according to my wish ; so that nothing else seemed 
 wanting but to meet with a suitable house. This task I 
 joyfully and most readily undertook, having regard less to the 
 pleasantness of locality, than to the sweetness of gaining my 
 parents to our holy religion. But I fell myself into the snares I 
 had designed for their capture. My parents, indeed, changed their 
 residence of their own accord, but it was in order to circumvent 
 me, and betook themselves to a house belonging to a certain 
 doctor of divinity, a Protestant Archdeacon. In the interim 
 they gave notice, with no amicable intention, to my friends 
 that I should come to communicate with them at that place. 
 The Catholics were not up to the manoeuvre, and urged me 
 to satisfy them. I consented, and visited them on the eve 
 of the Ascension. We began to treat about the situation of 
 the intended house and the domestic arrangements. They 
 promised to accompany me to the place I had designed. 
 Whilst we were settling these matters, behold, the said Doctor 
 and his wife came themselves to live at this house. He had 
 solemnly promised me some time before, and had written in 
 a letter still extant, the following declaration : * May I never 
 see the face of God, if I do not allow you a safe ingress and 
 egress to and from my house.’ This he had frequently and 
 faithfully performed, treating me kindly at his house (for, 
 pitying his heresy, I hoped on this account to be of service 
 to him as well as to my parents). He had also asked for, 
 and obtained a licence under the public seal of the Archbishop 
 of York, that I should freely converse abroad with my parents. 
 He also led me to my father’s house, and reconciled me to 
 a Justice of the Peace who some time before had arrested me 
 as a priest. Everything seemed to go swimmingly, according 
 to my wish. But whilst on the day after Ascension Day, 
 I was preparing to take a journey with my father to seek 
 after a new house, a Justice of the Peace having been 
 summoned by my father and the Doctor, suddenly hastened 
 to the house and entered the room, inquired much about 
 
620 
 
 College of St. Htigh. 
 
 my state of life, and the places I had frequented. He charged 
 me with having said Mass in the house of a certain nobleman. 
 Quid multa ? He provoked me to disputation, and at length 
 committed me to the custody of my own parents, for they 
 showed him the licence that had been granted them by the 
 Archbishop of York. The Justice of the Peace, to carry on 
 the scheme, pretended to threaten my father; warning him 
 to keep me in safe custody, and bound him in a heavy 
 pecuniary penalty to that effect. Two domestic servants, by 
 way of constables, were appointed to guard me, lest I should 
 escape on returning home. Thus I was led, in strict custody, 
 to the house of my parents. Relatives and neighbours flocked 
 together, congratulating themselves on the prosperous issue 
 of the plan. My parents, rejoicing at the success of the 
 affair, and happy in their fraud, assailed me with new devices. 
 They desired me to be of good heart, promising me abundance 
 of money, better clothes, and all things needful. I was kept 
 there for some days that I might receive the visits of friends, 
 and this was done under the outward show of gladness, though 
 but to conceal the dart in the treacherous soul. The Feast 
 of Pentecost being at hand, I was seized with a vehement 
 desire to celebrate that day amongst the Catholics. I accord- 
 ingly applied my wits how to manage an escape. Whilst 
 I was considering this, I was invited to a neighbouring town, 
 where a public meeting was to be held. I consented, on condition 
 that I was not to come in contact with any preacher for disputation, 
 nor magistrate for examination. They accepted the terms, 
 and we started. But there was in that town a certain noted 
 minister, who although by profession a physician, skilful in 
 the law, and holding the authority of a magistrate, nevertheless 
 took upon himself the care of souls. They invited him to 
 meet me. He was crafty in disposition, bland in speech, and 
 fully acquainted with the conspiracy against me. Privately 
 summoned, he came in as it were ex improviso , saluted me 
 most politely, and entered into a long discourse on religion ; 
 after a slight skirmishing upon one or two points of controversy, 
 he invited me to his house, or rather ordered me there by virtue 
 of his authority ; on these terms, that if I should draw him over 
 to my side, or he should draw me to his, I should have my liberty, 
 but if not that I should depart in the same custody in which I 
 had come. My parents accepted the terms on my part, and 
 promised that I should be ready for the contest after the feast. 
 Things being thus arranged, I began to reflect upon the dubious 
 
College of St. Hugh. 
 
 621 
 
 and suspicious faith of the Doctor, and upon the treacherous 
 schemes of my parents, who not only were unwilling to 
 conform to me in matters of religion, but left no stone un- 
 turned to entice me to their sect. I therefore resolved to turn 
 my mind again to a flight. On a certain night, my parents 
 being gone to rest, and the servants lodging at a distance from 
 the door, I went out, shutting them all up, and locking the 
 door; and being ready booted, I hastened to saddle and 
 bridle the horse. The servants, who were locked up, discover- 
 ing it, raised an alarm ; leaped out of the window, pursued 
 me with naked feet, overtook me, and seized hold of the horse. 
 Frustrated in this hope, I took to my heels, thinking to reach 
 the house of a Catholic fifteen miles distant. But they, having 
 aroused the neighbours, guarded the roads, and pursued me 
 both on foot and horseback. Exhausted with running and 
 perspiration, nothing else was left to me but to give myself 
 up to the pursuers and return home. My parents having 
 gained this victory, most carefully examined everything, and 
 strengthened the windows with iron bars. My mother was 
 my keeper by day, and would not let me leave her side. 
 By night, my father lay down upon the same bed with me. 
 Being full of suspicions, they durst not trust me to the care 
 of others, lest perchance they should admit any relatives to 
 converse with me. Thus things went on for some days, when 
 I was led to the house of the said Doctor, where I remained 
 five days in the company of my parents. I held daily dis- 
 putations with him, chiefly upon the Canon of Scripture, and 
 every duty of civility was observed towards me. Gaining 
 nothing by soft speeches and arguments, he persuaded my 
 parents that a longer delay was necessary, when he did not 
 doubt that at length he should conquer, for he boasted that 
 he had brought over many priests and laymen captives to his 
 religion. 
 
 “I returned home again, when it happened most unfortu- 
 nately for me that the Catholics who were anxious to know my 
 situation sent a certain person in the garb of a beggar in order 
 to visit me and know how matters stood. But before we could 
 possibly converse, my parents caused the person to be arrested 
 and carried off prisoner to York gaol, where he is now detained. 
 Not content with entirely fencing off all approach to my friends, 
 they daily admitted Protestants, that if not conquered by reason- 
 ing they might at least allure me to their side, by wearing me 
 out with importunate debates. They offered me an ample 
 
622 
 
 College of St. Hugh. 
 
 inheritance, saying to me, 1 All these will I give you, if falling 
 down you will adore according to our faith — Hcec omnia tibi 
 dabo , si cadens adoraveris secundum Jidem no sir ami They pro- 
 posed marriage, offering me a wife with a large fortune, and 
 above all, the hope of possessing the property of the family. 
 My mother especially urged this upon me. These were com- 
 paratively light matters. In truth, I was more sorely assailed 
 by the continued entreaties of my parents, their tears, and eyes 
 apparently moist with weeping, their worn faces, and words 
 enough to melt a heart of stone. I am not inventing idle tales. 
 What was I to say, when compelled to see both my parents 
 upon their knees before me, with upraised hands, uttering in 
 the most pitiful manner these words : ‘ Have pity upon me, my 
 son, have pity; pity your father, pity your mother, pity the 
 womb that bore thee, and the breasts that nourished thee. 
 You received your life from us, and do you repay us by causing 
 our death ? Pity, at least, these grey hairs, pity our old age ; 
 do not bring down our grey hairs with sorrow to the grave. 
 Do not, like the serpent, gnaw in pieces your mother’s bowels ; 
 are you not moved by your mother’s wrinkled face, wet with 
 tears ; have you no pity for your father, no sense of religion 
 towards. God? Cursed be the hour in which you were begotten, 
 and the time in which we have nourished and brought you up. 
 Will a son thus desert his father — thus abandon his mother? 
 Ungrateful son, first take this knife (offering me one at the 
 same time), and cut our throats rather than be compelled to 
 witness your unhappy end.’ I do not exaggerate; they repeated 
 these things over and over again, a hundred times. There was 
 no hour of the day, no place, no meeting each other, but these 
 lamentations resounded in my ears. What, you ask, were my 
 feelings under these harrowing circumstances ? Indeed, I could 
 not but grieve, but I was accustomed to relieve myself by the 
 words of our Saviour, ‘ Qui diligit patrem et matron ,’ &c. — ‘ He 
 that loveth father and mother more than Me is not worthy of 
 Me.’ That noted saying of St. Jerome also occurred to me, 
 and was indeed represented to the life : ‘ Si mater sparso crine , 
 scissis vestibus ostendat ubera quibus te nutrietat , si pater in 
 limine jaceat ; per calcatum perge patrem , siccis ocidis ad Crucis 
 vexillum evola; solum pietatis genus est in hac re esse crudeleni — 
 
 1 Should your mother tear her hair, and show you the breasts 
 that nourished you ; should your father lay himself across the 
 threshold; tread upon your father, and with dry eyes flee to the 
 standard of the Cross ; in such case the only kind of com- 
 
College of St. Hugh. 
 
 623 
 
 passion is to be cruel.’ I refreshed my soul with this spiritual 
 consolation ; by this coat of mail I defended myself against all 
 temptations of flesh and blood. But whilst these things were 
 going on, the Archdeacon himself, of whom I have before 
 spoken, invited me to dinner. After many ordinary topics had 
 been canvassed, the conversation at length fell upon a recent 
 edict of the King, banishing all priests from England. Rejoiced 
 to hear this, I began to make known my priesthood, for my 
 parents had concealed that fact ; and I regarded the edict as a 
 benefit whereby to gain my liberty. I often treated with my 
 parents, and solicited friends to persuade them, that if I was 
 discovered to be a priest, their property would be in great 
 jeopardy. But no entreaties, no arguments could move them ; 
 the hope of sometime bringing me back to their religion pre- 
 vailed. I wished to appear before the magistrate openly as 
 a priest. But this was not allowed, and all facility was denied 
 me. It happened opportunely that the said doctor often in- 
 vited me by letter to discussions, and this by public authority. 
 I willingly appeared. Amongst other things, I requested to be 
 furnished with a copy of the said edict of banishment. As I 
 read it, being asked if I were a priest, I voluntarily admitted it, 
 desiring it as a benefit; but the matter did not succeed as I 
 had wished, for forthwith I was sent to York before the Royal 
 Commissioners, and detained for seven weeks, waiting the 
 decision of the chief President. During this interval, my 
 parents took precautions against my being sent to the common 
 gaol ; lest, by intercourse with the other priests there I should 
 become more courageous. They managed to have me con- 
 fined in private custody, in the house of a most incorrigible 
 Protestant, and one most hostile to Catholics, where nothing 
 met my ears but wranglings, blasphemies, and such like 
 abominations; and lest I should get any breathing time, my 
 parents themselves also came. My mother remained in the 
 same room with me from morning till evening, either to soften 
 me by her tears, or to intercept any letters that might be 
 written to me, and to hinder the access of any Catholics. She 
 sat down when I did, accompanied me in walking, and followed 
 me if I left the room. If I said my hours (for I always had 
 my breviary with me), with the door shut she would watch 
 me outside. If I had business with any one, she would be 
 present, and discuss everything. A certain Catholic wished to 
 meet me, and, to do it with less suspicion he came in company 
 of a Protestant minister. My mother invited him to dispute 
 
624 
 
 College of St. Hugh. 
 
 with me. He said, absurdly enough, he wondered that I, 
 forsaking the national religion, should have embraced one 
 unknown to himself and many others. The keeper of the 
 prison, standing by, indignantly said, 4 What, you say you are 
 ignorant of their Faith, when you undertake to impugn it? get 
 about your business ! ’ And, loading him with reproaches, 
 turned him out of the house. My mother denounced all 
 Catholics as seditious and treasonable persons. She inveighed 
 against those who supplied them [in prison] with anything, 
 whether clothes, money, or lodging. Especially against a 
 certain priest of venerable age, and very learned, who was 
 detained in the same prison ; declaring that he had perverted 
 her son. At length, she herself, anxious to conclude matters 
 with me, frequented sermons, and if anything was said against 
 Catholics she reported to me, and strove to persuade me. She 
 invited me to hear a sermon, promising to put me in a secret 
 place in the church, and that the sermon should not be upon 
 subjects offensive to my ears; she offered me wool to 
 stuff in my ears, would I but only just once be present. 
 Seeing me immovable, she again had recourse to her lamenta- 
 tions. ‘Will you then do nothing for me, my son? I have 
 been to your Church, and have heard Mass, and do not con- 
 sider my conscience wounded on that account. All our doctors 
 do this : are you more prudent than they ? I will stand for 
 you in the Day of Judgment, I will answer for you. Con- 
 science teaches us to venerate our parents ; you neglect them. 
 You multiply prayers as though you cannot be saved without 
 them. You worship images, whereas God alone is to be 
 worshipped. But if you will return home with me, I will 
 allow you all these things ; I will pray with you, I will fast 
 with you, and for your sake I will distribute whatever alms 
 you wish : will nothing of all this move you ? O unhappy 
 mother that I am/ &c. And with these and similar exclama- 
 tions she wearied me from morning till night. They preferred 
 my remaining in perpetual imprisonment to going into exile, 
 in order that they might enjoy the sight of me. They 
 treated this affair with the Royal Commissioners and judges, 
 
 . and also importuned for it by bribes. Consent was obtained, 
 provided only that I would attend at a sermon, or take 
 the oath of allegiance and supremacy lately framed. I con- 
 sented to attend a sermon on condition that I was allowed 
 immediately after in the . same place to preach aloud to the 
 people. This did not please them. In the meantime, the 
 
College of St. Hugh. 
 
 625 
 
 pseudo-ministers of the Gospel constantly visited me ; for my 
 parents never omitted to bring to me any one of them who 
 was remarkable for learning. The Lord gave me a mouth 
 and wisdom whereby to furnish a satisfactory answer to my 
 opponents, and to the expectation of the audience.” 
 
 Thus wrote Father Sharpe to our Very Reverend Father 
 General Claudius. He was then sent into banishment, and 
 returning into England after some years of labour in that 
 vineyard, he was solemnly professed on the 12th May, 1622, 
 as we have already mentioned. He did not long survive, dying 
 on the nth November, 1630. 
 
 II. Father John Blackfan was a native of Horsham, in 
 Sussex; born in the year 1560; promoted to the degree of a 
 professed Father in 1603, and died in this residence the 15th of 
 January, 1641, aged eighty-one. He was a Cambridge student, 
 and took the degree of M.A.; and was a man remarkable for his 
 integrity and candour of soul. At that time Catholicism in 
 England was deeply afflicted. At College he was seized with 
 a contagious disease, by which, together with reading the works 
 of St. Austin and other Catholic writers, his conscience was 
 aroused and his mind was led towards the Catholic faith. 
 However, he deferred his conversion, being held back by the 
 free course of life in which he indulged. He was at length 
 compelled, in quite a supernatural manner, to embrace the 
 Catholic faith, and brought over with him a young man who 
 was the head of an illustrious family. Father More 1 relates the 
 occasion of Father Blackfan’s breaking through his trammels. 
 He had a vision, or dream by night, in which he saw clearly 
 before him our Lord Christ sitting as Judge, before Whom he 
 was accused of many things, especially for delaying to follow 
 out the instructions and good motions he had received in his 
 said readings. The Judge condemned him to be tortured by 
 pains in the bowels, which he really felt, and this so severely 
 that he cried out that the commands of the Judge had been 
 exceeded, and he then made a promise never again to attend 
 the prayers of the schismatics. He not only stood to his 
 promise, but the better to please Christ the Judge he imposed 
 upon himself a severe fast of four days a week ; he spent his 
 nights in watching and prayer, and by day retired himself in 
 the times of recreation ; and in this course he persevered for 
 six months, before he could meet with any Catholic. At length 
 1 Hist. Prov. Angl. lib. viii. n. 26, p. 384. 
 
 00 
 
626 
 
 College of St. Hugh. 
 
 a respectable man one day met him, and asked him whether 
 he wished to hold familiar intercourse with a priest. “ Most 
 willing I would do so,” he said, “ but I fear none is to be 
 found, so many having been made away with in these years.” 
 “Fear not,” said he; “I will shortly teach you where you 
 may meet with one.” Returning after the interval of a few 
 days, “ Go,” said he, “ to such a wood, and the person you 
 desire will meet you.” He went accordingly to the wood, and 
 there met with an old priest of the time of Queen Mary, who, 
 after a short conversation, first of all absolved him from 
 excommunication, using the solemn rites of the Church, even 
 to the striking his bare shoulders with a twig of a tree during 
 the time of his reciting the Psalm Miserere. He then appointed 
 him to return to him at a certain time and place, to make his 
 general confession. He came accordingly, and after a long 
 examination by the priest, was reconciled to the Catholic 
 Church. He kept up his adopted practice of fasting until he 
 crossed over to the Continent. In the year 1587 there was 
 a great preparation made in England for opposing the intended 
 Spanish invasion, and this rendered all navigation most difficult. 
 God, however, was his leader, and was pleased to bring about 
 an opportunity of his crossing over to Dieppe. From thence 
 he went to the English College at Rheims ; from Rheims he 
 went to Valladolid ; and after his course of studies there, was 
 received into the Society of Jesus in 1593, being then aged 
 thirty-four. He met with much trouble on his way to Valla- 
 dolid. The English College of the Society had been then just 
 founded (1588-9) by the exertions of Father Robert Parsons. 
 Doctor Barrett, the then President of Rheims, being over- 
 stocked, sent to Father Parsons’ new establishment ten or 
 twelve promising youths. Amongst them were Father Blackfan, 
 then a sub-deacon, with Father Henry Floyd, S.J., then a 
 deacon, 2 and another youth named John Boswell. War was 
 then raging in France between the Leaguers and the King 
 of Navarre, and the roads were everywhere impeded by 
 the constant marching and countermarching of the soldiers of 
 both parties, nor were any of the other ways through France 
 more practicable. They were, therefore, constantly falling in 
 with the troops ; but, by the goodness of Cod, they escaped 
 safely. They had the greatest difficulty in persuading Du Plessis 
 Mornay (who wished to pass himself off as one of the chief 
 
 2 The life of this eminent Father is intended to be given in the History 
 of the College of St. ‘Ignatius — London District. 
 
College of St. Hugh. 
 
 627 
 
 pillars of the Calvinists) that they were Englishmen, Catholics, 
 and clerics, on their way to Spain for their studies. This was 
 soon after the Spanish invasion (1588), and the two nations 
 being then at enmity, Du Plessis Mornay insisted that they 
 were going upon another errand, to the injury of their own 
 Prince and country. He therefore declared them to be 
 traitors or spies, and was for sending them to Rochelle to be 
 shipped off for England (he had previously sent over certain 
 glorious champions, who afterwards suffered death for Christ). 
 However, by producing some influential letters of recommen- 
 dation which they had fortunately brought with them, and 
 which stated the cause of their journey to be the prosecution 
 of their studies, and at the intercession also of the wife of 
 Du Plessis Mornay, they were at length released from custody. 
 
 Sailing from Nantes to Bilboa, they had to encounter at 
 the Castle of Burgos no less a storm than the one they had 
 passed through in France. The day after their arrival in the 
 city, as they were returning from the cathedral to their inn, 
 they were arrested by the officers of the Inquisition, on whose 
 information is uncertain. It was published throughout the 
 whole city that they were Lutherans, and brothers of Admiral 
 Sir Francis Drake, who had been some time previously 
 sweeping the Spanish seas, and was then leading a fleet to 
 invade Portugal. They were thrust into the House of 
 Correction, and their effects and money seized. But the Court 
 of Inquisitors, finding nothing about them that could cause 
 the least suspicion, and having inspected the letter they had 
 brought from Dr. Barrett, and one they had received from a 
 certain Spanish Father, professor of theology, addressed to the 
 Rector of the College of the Society at Burgos, they were 
 furnished with proper accommodation for the night. The 
 next day, being summoned to the Court, and having fully 
 explained the cause of their journey, they were liberated with 
 many apologies. About the money, however, their common 
 stock, there was no slight difficulty. The keeper of the prison 
 obstinately denied that any had been taken away. Blackfan, 
 from whose bag it had been abstracted, maintained the contrary, 
 and described the coin as being seventeen gold Spanish pieces. 
 He had no witness — it was his simple assertion ; it prevailed, 
 however; the intention of these foreigners was now known 
 and clear. 
 
 The gaoler still persisting, the Court of Inquisition sent an 
 officer with orders to seize and sell his articles of silver goods, 
 
 00 2 
 
628 
 
 College of St. Hugh. 
 
 unless he instantly gave up the money. At last, out came the 
 very identical sum that Blackfan had described and sought for. 
 On the following day, as they were preparing to depart, the 
 Court of Inquisition ordered a certain person of authority to 
 conduct them to the market-place. Here he made known to 
 the surrounding crowd that no shade of suspicion rested upon 
 them ; that they were exiles for their faith, and had passed 
 hither on their way to pursue their studies, meditating a return 
 to their native land with noble and courageous hearts, superior 
 to all the cruelties of the heretics. Thereupon the people, who 
 had before been disposed to insult them, began to venerate 
 their constancy in the faith, their probity of life, and fortitude 
 in adversities. He then led them to the city gates, pointed 
 out the road to Valladolid, and, courteously saluting them, 
 bade them good-bye. 3 
 
 Being afterwards called to Rome, Blackfan did good service 
 there in forming the minds of the youth of the English College 
 both to virtue and a conciliatory tone towards the Institute of 
 the Society, which several eminent scholars at that time 
 embraced. Returning again to Spain, he was solemnly pro- 
 fessed of the four vows, 160J, and laboured in the College of 
 Valladolid with no less fruit than at Rome. He was confessor 
 to the celebrated Dona Louisa Aloysia de Carvajal, and was 
 the first to turn her attention to commiserate our unhappy 
 Island ; 4 and, although he did not come to the opinion that 
 she should pass over to England, on account of the various 
 troubles which she would have to encounter there, nevertheless, 
 by the advice of many doctors and holy men amongst the 
 Spaniards, she did cross over, and preferred Father Blackfan 
 to accompany her party, whom, in manners and language, it 
 was hard to distinguish from a Spaniard ; so much so, that he 
 more than once fell into danger amongst his countrymen, and 
 in the year 1610 was apprehended and committed to the 
 Gatehouse prison in Westminster. 5 Non est inter improbos 
 tuta a calumnia quantalibet sincerissima integritas. They en- 
 deavoured (by the instigation, it is alleged, of the pseudo- 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, Abbot), to asperse the character of 
 this most innocent man by charging him with the highest 
 
 3 More, Hist. Prov. Angl. lib. v. n. i, c. 2. 
 
 4 See the life of this noble lady, by Lady G. Fullerton, 1873. 
 
 5 This arrest was not, as Father More says, in 1610, but in 1612. 
 This appears by the two letters of the Archbishop of Canterbury to 
 James I., presently set out. 
 
College of St. Hugh. 
 
 629 
 
 crime. They suborned a person to swear that he had heard 
 Father Blackfan promise a certain goldsmith eighty thousand 
 gold crowns to find a man who would assassinate King James. 
 The diligence, however, of the Father exposed this wicked 
 fabrication. Fie wrote to Father Anthony Hoskins at Brussels, 
 who instantly went to the goldsmith, got him examined before 
 the magistrates ; and his evidence, denying the impudent lie, 
 being reduced to writing and duly signed, and the public seal 
 of the city affixed, was forthwith sent back to London and 
 given in evidence of the falsity of the charge, and the Arch- 
 bishop put to the greatest shame. 
 
 The following are copies from the originals in the Public 
 Record Office, of the Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury’s 
 letters to the King before referred to, informing his Majesty 
 of the arrest, &c., of Father Blackfan. 
 
 Dom. James I. 1612, vol. lxx. n. 33. [Archbishop of 
 Canterbury to the King.] 
 
 “ Most gracious Sovereign, — ... I am not forgetful of 
 the business touching the two Jesuits, and on Thursday last 
 I thought I had light upon Blount ; but on Friday morning 
 I found it otherwise for the man, but not for the matter. For 
 employing some persons of good discretion to attend secretly 
 the Ambassador’s house (who yet lieth in Barbican), they 
 discovered on Wednesday morning at four o’clock, one coming 
 out of that house in this manner : First the porter came out 
 into the street and viewed whether the coast was clear or no, 
 and then spying no man stirring, he steppeth in, and imme- 
 diately the other person cometh out, and goe'th towards the 
 fields. Those who attended observed this ; but because his 
 beard somewhat differed from the description sent to me, they 
 let him alone. But on the Thursday morning at five o’clock, 
 finding the same person to come out there again, and the 
 porter to do as he did the day before, they imagined that there 
 might be some little error in describing of his beard; but 
 resolving howsoever that he was worth the taking, followed 
 him into the fields, and from thence a mile or two as far as 
 Ratcliff, where he offering to take a boat, they laid hold upon 
 him. This forbearance to take him near the Ambassador 
 Innigaes’ house was by my special direction, which I gave 
 in charge partly because Innigaes should not know what was 
 become of him, and partly because the other for whom we 
 lay wait should not be scared by the taking of their fellow. 
 
630 
 
 College of St. Hugh. 
 
 And accordingly I have hitherto caused him to be kept safely 
 and secretly in a pursuivant’s house, for his arrest could not 
 be so well concealed if he had been sent to prison. In the 
 meantime, we give not over the pursuits of Blount and 
 Pelham. 6 By this which is before written your Majesty will 
 see apparently that the place of his lodging was in the 
 Ambassador’s house. And there for aught I know, may 
 the other two remain, but they shall do well to lie close. 
 
 “The party now taken is a principal Jesuit, who nameth 
 himself upon his examination Thorneton ; but in further 
 debating with him on Friday, he confessed unto me that 
 beyond the seas they call him Blackfan, but I know his true 
 name to be Blackman, and that he was born at Horsham 
 in Sussex. It is thirty years ago that he ran beyond the 
 seas, and hath lived much in Rome and Spain, being confes- 
 sarius to the English Colleges in those two places. I mean 
 Rome and Valladolid, for the space of eighteen years, in which 
 time by his subtle and fair carriage, he got much love and 
 reputation with the scholars, but was indeed special man of 
 trust with Parsons and Cresswell, the rectors of those two 
 Colleges. Since his coming into England, he maketh the 
 despatches between Jones, the Superior of the Jesuits, who 
 lyeth always near London, and Holtby, who was the Superior 
 next before Jones, and lieth commonly in Yorkshire. In a 
 word, he is a man full of action ; and if any in the land can 
 yield an account of any evil purpose, this is like to be the 
 man. 
 
 “ I directed my watchmen that whomsoever they light 
 upon they should forthwith search, to see what papers they 
 had about them. They did so to Blackfan, and found two 
 or three, whereof one was a part of a letter rent in the middle, 
 and written on the back side with another hand. There are 
 in it some things worth the observation; as that Pelham’s 
 name is three times used, and mention made of accounts, 
 as if he had the laying out of sums of money more than his 
 own. That there is the word Barbican, as if his business 
 lay that way. That Juan de la Cruz is named, as if his affairs 
 were with Spaniards. But in the letter itself a man may guess 
 at more. In the sixth line Sp. meaneth Spain. In the seventh 
 line I conceive it to be meant a hundred thousand crowns, 
 sent from the King of Spain to his Ambassador, which may 
 easily be conjectured by the piece of the word [sad or] torn 
 6 Vere Father Alexander Fairclough ( alias Pelham). 
 
College of St. High. 
 
 631 
 
 off from the end of the line, and sticking in the margin, by 
 reason of the sealing-wax. By Canterbury, Shrewsbury, Pe. 
 are intended myself and the Earls of Shrewsbury and 
 Pembroke. Your Majesty may see what I mean by the 
 copy sent herewithal, which is written in the same form 
 as the original is, which I keep here with me, lest per- 
 adventure it should be lost. And some use we may make 
 of it. 
 
 “ When Blackfan was caught and conveyed to safe 
 custody, he wrought with the messenger’s man that he would 
 convey a letter for him to the Spanish Ambassador’s porter, 
 part whereof was written in English and part in Spanish. I 
 send your Majesty now also a copy thereof, for I caused this 
 letter to be brought unto me. A man may gather thereby 
 that money may easily be had by a Jesuit in the Ambassador’s 
 house ; that they will use it to corrupt their keepers, and that 
 there is amity between Blackfan and the Secretary to the 
 Ambassador. In these terms things now stand with great 
 silence, my endeavours going on for the taking of Blount 
 and Pelham. 
 
 “ But in speaking with Blackfan I have not used one word 
 concerning the Spanish Ambassador, nor examined him at 
 all touching his being or lying in that house, partly because 
 I am not willing to strike upon that string till I have your 
 Majesty’s directions what to do, and partly because I aim 
 at some further matter (and the forbearance of a few days 
 will do no harm). For I learnt by a sleight that Henry, 
 the Ambassador’s porter, who is of counsel and great trust 
 with the J esuits, hath delivered secretly to his friend (by whom 
 it cometh unto me) that even now in London are Jones, the 
 present Superior, and Holtby, who was next before him. And 
 if this prove true, then is there some great assembly of the 
 Jesuits from divers parts, which must intend no good design 
 ment among them. We omit no diligence or vigilancy for the 
 discovery thereof. 
 
 [Other matters of no interest follow.] 
 
 “And so craving pardon for this my long letter, with 
 prayers to the Almighty ever more to bless your Majesty, I 
 rest most humbly, 
 
 “ Your Majesty’s most bounden 
 
 “Servant and Chaplain, 
 
 “G. Cant. 
 
 “From Croydon, August 10, 1612.” 
 
632 
 
 College of St. Hugh. 
 
 Same to same. Same vol. n. 52. 
 
 “Most gracious Sovereign, — ... I have caused Black- 
 fan the Jesuit secretly at ten of the clock at night to be 
 committed close prisoner to the Gatehouse, where he hath 
 the sight of no person but only one who bringeth him meat. 
 
 I have also caused the keeper to call him by a strange name, 
 that none may understand who it was that was sent unto him. 
 And besides my first examination of him, which was general, 
 and nothing touching the Ambassador’s house, I have said 
 nothing to him, because he is fast enough ; and I am in hope 
 to light upon some more of those at whom your Majesty 
 further aimeth, so that as yet I forbear to mention the main 
 purpose. 
 
 “ I heard your Majesty once speak of a Spanish priest 
 whom God had enlighted with the knowledge of His truth, 
 and that he had an intendment to come to England. There 
 was very lately such a one that came to London, and made 
 himself known to the Italian Minister and others, giving them 
 to understand that he had lain several years in the Inquisition 
 for his conscience ; but before I could speak with him Don 
 Pedro de Suniga by a train got him to his house in the 
 * Barbican, and there (as I am informed by the ministers of 
 the Dutch and Italian Churches in London, who complain 
 exceedingly thereof) he keepeth him as a prisoner. An act in 
 my judgment most insolent, and not to be endured, that he 
 should violently detain a poor soul who is now under the 
 protection of so great a king as your Majesty is. And if 
 Sir John Digby, now Ambassador of your Majesty, should 
 play such a part in Madrid with Cresswell the Jesuit, 
 or any of our English fugitives, besides the clamour which 
 would be spread thereupon throughout all Christendom, 
 the people of Madrid would violently take him out of 
 the Ambassador’s house. I doubt not but your Majesty 
 will proceed in a more calm course; but in my poor 
 opinion it were fit that with some speed he were required 
 at Suniga’s hands, least by poison or murder' he come to 
 his end. 
 
 “. . . Looking over some papers of last year, I meet 
 with an advertisement touching Blackfan the Jesuit above- 
 mentioned, and that is, that he is a man personally known 
 to the Archduke, and that the Archduke maketh a special 
 account and reckoning of him. 
 
 “So beseeching the Almighty evermore to bless your 
 
College of St. Hugh. 633 
 
 Majesty both in body and soul, and to confound all those who 
 intend any evil unto the Lord’s anointed. I rest, &c., 
 
 “G. Cant. 
 
 “At Croydon, August 17, 1612.” 
 
 By his letters, Abbot can find nothing against the Father, 
 and yet, to curry favour with the King, was eager to convict 
 
 him. 
 
 The following interesting passage connected with Father 
 Blackfan is taken from a long MS. report of events in England. 
 The date is 16 12. 7 “At the sessions held at the end of the 
 term, there was a priest arraigned and condemned upon a 
 question demanded of him by his keeper’s wife — whether, if 
 one should kill the King, he might absolve him ; the which he 
 answered that, if one should kill the King of France and be 
 truly penitent, he might. For which he was condemned and 
 executed, my lord of Canterbury having obtained the same of 
 the King, promising him that it would be very profitable to 
 their cause, for that the priest was both timorous and unlearned; 
 which, when the King heard to be otherwise, he raged exceed- 
 ingly, and said he would execute no more. 8 At whose death 
 a Protestant, beholding his undaunted courage and bold spirit, 
 full of life and comfort, concluded in himself that he only was 
 happy on account of his religion, and thereupon w~ent from the 
 gallows to the Gatehouse prison, and desired to speak with a 
 priest. They bringing him to Father Blackfan he resolved for 
 the best, and was reconciled within a few days, for which my 
 Lord of Canterbury clapt up close Mr. Blackfan, where he still 
 remaineth, and at the same sessions was indited.” 
 
 Having been detained in prison, where he suffered extreme 
 want of everything for thirteen months, he was sent into exile, 
 and succeeded Father Percy as Vice-prefect at Brussels. He 
 continued in that office for nearly three years, then returned 
 to Valladolid, and succeeded Father William Weston, upon 
 his death, as Rector of the College, in April, 1615. Having 
 accomplished his triennium, he went to Madrid, and became 
 Vice-prefect there. At length, returning into England he 
 laboured most usefully in that vineyard to a great age, in 
 this Residence. Being desirous of spending the short 
 
 7 Stonyhurst MS. Anglia , vol. iii. n. 119. 
 
 8 This priest was the glorious martyr for his faith, the Reverend John 
 Almond, who suffered at Tyburn gallows, 1612. 
 
634 
 
 College of St. Hugh. 
 
 remains of his feeble life at the Novitiate of Watten, he 
 obtained the Provincial’s leave to do so. Starting on his 
 journey, he had scarcely ridden four miles when he fell off 
 his horse, and was carried home again. There he recom- 
 mended the matter to God, and on awaking in the morning 
 these Spanish words were upon his tongue : Hermano , morad 
 alia . 9 He remained, therefore, in the same place he had occupied 
 for so many years, and died there, prope octogenarius , 13th 
 January, 1641. The summary of the deceased calls him eighty- 
 one years of age, and states, amongst other things, that he 
 was a model of religious virtue ; most severe towards himself, 
 afflicting his body, and, with St. Paul, bringing his rebellious 
 flesh into subjection, by means of severe abstinence, and 
 corporal inflictions even to the last. He was so great a lover 
 of humble employments that, although he had filled most 
 of the chief offices in the Province, he zealously laboured 
 for seven years in grounding one boy alone in the rudiments 
 of grammar, contenting himself with this reflection, that this 
 one object of his care might eventually become the means 
 of many entering the Society, and of a numerous progeny after 
 his death. 
 
 Father Blackfan is named (as Blackman) in Gee’s list of 
 priests and Jesuits in and near London, about 1623. 10 
 
 He is thus described in a paper in the P.R.O., Domestic , 
 James /., State Papers, vol. ii. n. 44. 1603. [Endorsed, 
 
 “ Particular description of Sir Griffin Markham, and many 
 other Jesuits.”] 
 
 “A particular of the names and several descriptions of 
 Sir Griffin Markham, and divers other Jesuits and Seminaries 
 which James, my servant, saw, and I took of him.” 
 
 [Among others.] “ Black, a Jesuit, a very tall and big man, 
 his head and beard black, cut with a pirkedevant; he hath long 
 mustatoes ; his feet go much outward, and his knees inward ; 
 of the College of Cologne, in France.” 
 
 9 i.e. Brother , remain here. The account adds, that thirty-six years 
 before. Father Blackfan had known a certain Brother Gei'manus at Madrid, 
 as though his name was associated with these Spanish words. But this 
 is probably a mere suggestion of Father More, who might have been 
 unacquainted with the language, and misled by similarity of sound, or 
 identity of derivation. Brother Germanus himself may, in those former 
 days, have played thus on the word ; and the two may have come together 
 into Father Blackfan ’s mind. 
 
 10 Foot out of the snare. 
 
College of St. Hugh. 
 
 635 
 
 III. Father Francis Berry, a native of Lincolnshire, 
 born 1598, entered the Society in 1622; took the vows 
 as a Spiritual Coadjutor, March, 1634. He had held the post 
 of Minister and Professor in some of the Colleges abroad; 
 and, in 1642, was Rector or Superior of this Residence and 
 District, and had then been on the mission ten years. He 
 wrote to the Very Reverend Father General Caraffa a letter, 
 dated 22nd May, 1646, of which the following is a transla- 
 tion. 11 
 
 Father Caraffa had just been elected General of the Society. 
 
 “ Our Veiy Reverend Father in Christ. 
 
 P.C. 
 
 “ While writing this my first ex-officio letter, I at 
 the same time transcribe the hearty affection with which I 
 congratulate our whole Society, though not your Paternity, 
 since I well know that a most weighty burden is laid upon 
 your shoulders, conducive rather to trouble than to joy. 
 
 “This one thing I pray our good and great God, that 
 He will be pleased ever to favour all your Paternity’s efforts 
 and labours. 
 
 “ As to what regards our affairs ; we have been for these 
 four years and more most grievously oppressed, no rest, no 
 settled abode. About the beginning of these disturbances 
 we numbered ten priests in this our District, and struggling 
 hard for a maintenance. The Catholics are nearly deprived 
 of their property, several are driven from their homes, and 
 yet they are constant and cheerful in their misfortunes and 
 trials ; from which a certain person amongst the Protestants 
 invents a calumny, saying that the Papists are thus joyful and 
 courageous in the rapine of their goods, because they are 
 nourished by a certain secret hope of some future help, 
 whereby they may defend and reinstate their party. This 
 one thing I assert, that I have never seen in such afflicting 
 circumstances so divine an aid to shine forth, and so great 
 a joy to spring up in the hearts of the faithful, deeming 
 themselves happy to suffer for their fidelity towards God and 
 their loyalty to the King. I do not recount all that is known 
 of the injuries sustained by the people caused by the war; 
 it would be too long to do so. I see now before me a most 
 splendid mansion, shamefully dismantled; a most noble lady 
 reduced to such distress, as not even to have a bed for herself, 
 11 The original is preserved in vol. v. MSS . Angl. Stonyhurst, n. 23. 
 
636 
 
 College of St. Hugh. 
 
 except a poor cottage one, which she had succeeded in 
 borrowing. Her lord and husband for the last four years 
 has been denied access to his house, been stript of his 
 abundant income, and has not ventured as yet to return 
 home. I have recently returned from a town that, after a 
 siege of six months, capitulated to the enemy [probably 
 Lincoln] ; and I lie concealed, as their troops are quartered 
 here, so that very few even of the Catholics are aware 
 of my return. I have lost all my sacred furniture; my 
 well-stored library has been plundered, torn up, or burnt; 
 and what I deem the greatest loss, a portion of a copy of our 
 Institute has perished; the rest I still hold, though almost 
 useless. Whilst we retained the royal garrison, we could more 
 freely perform the ministerial functions of our Society amongst 
 the Catholics. 
 
 “A few have fallen away from the Faith. More have been 
 proscribed. As an unbounded liberty of believing leads many 
 to atheism, so the dread of this licence reduces some to 
 orthodoxy. 
 
 “ As to our annual income, since our lot is almost the same 
 as that of the Catholics and Royalists, we have received 
 nothing for these three years. Although the alms of the pious 
 are few and small, yet we have contracted no debts. 
 
 “ I will detain your Paternity no longer, at whose feet I 
 humbly cast myself, begging for myself and my confreres your 
 holy benediction. 
 
 “ Your Paternity’s most humble servant and son in Christ, 
 
 “Francis Berry. 
 
 “ Dated this 22nd May, 1646. 
 
 “ From England, and the Residence of St. Dominic.” 
 
 “ Adm. Rdo. in Christo Patri Nostri, 
 
 “ P. VlNCENTIO CARAFFA, S.J., 
 
 “ Praepositi Generali.” 
 
 Father Berry survived the date of this letter without seeing 
 much relief afforded to his brethren, and died in this district 
 1st June, 1656. 
 
 IV. Father Thomas Leukner is mentioned in a catalogue 
 for 1642 as being a missioner in this district. He was a native 
 of West Dean, in Sussex ; bom in the year 1587. He entered 
 the Society, and was one of Father John Gerard’s first novices, 
 on the removal of the Novitiate to Liege in November, 1614. 
 
College of St. Hugh. 
 
 6 37 
 
 In a letter from Liege, dated 19th September, 1614, Father 
 Gerard says : “ There is Mr. Leukner, who growing of late 
 to a full resolution of entering the Society, and being so much 
 known in England, and in the Court as he is, so that he 
 could not be concealed in the English College at Rome, being 
 to go daily to and from the schools, and his father (as he 
 considers), being morally sure to lose his place (which is worth 
 unto him one thousand pounds a year, and his estate not 
 great besides it), he therefore thought it very needful to stay 
 his journey to Rome. Mr. Leukner is a man every way fit for 
 our employment ; he hath a very good will, both quick and 
 judicious, and an excellent good disposition, with a fine 
 behaviour and experience, and, which I most respect, he is, 
 and will be a solid, virtuous, and spiritual man. He hath 
 learning sufficient to begin logic, which, after his novitiate, 
 he may do privately in France. I beseech your reverence 
 to send order for his admittance.” Father Leukner died 
 (probably in this Residence) 1645, aged fifty-eight. 
 
 V. Father Adrian Talbot (whose real name was 
 Fortescue, was a son of Sir Francis Fortescue, Bart., of 
 Salden, Bucks), is said to have exercised his missionary 
 functions in this Residence for some time about the year 
 1638. He will be more fully noticed in the intended history 
 of the Residence of St. George. 
 
 VI. Father John Grose, alias Felton, was a native 
 of the County of Norfolk; born 1580. At the age of 
 twenty-three he was admitted an alumnus of the English 
 College Rome, on the 2nd of October, 1603, and took the 
 usual College oath on the 25th July following. After 
 receiving all the minor orders in Rome, he was crdained 
 priest 15th October, 1606; and at the age of thirty, in 1610, 
 he entered the Society of Jesus, and was promoted to the 
 degree of a professed Father on the 12th May, 1622. Under 
 the assumed name of Felton, for the purpose of more secure 
 concealment, Father Grose with great zeal, laboured in the 
 English mission for twenty-seven years. 12 Dr. Oliver says 
 for thirty years. His labours appear to have been chiefly 
 confined to this district. It is scarcely possible to name 
 any of the calamities and inconveniences of those persecuting 
 times, by which he was not tried, especially in the latter days, 
 
 12 See Tanner, Vita et mors Jesuit, fro fide interject. 
 
6 3 8 
 
 College of St. Hugh. 
 
 when the Parliament, rising in rebellion against the King, 
 proceeded to revenge, by open war, his lenity towards the 
 Catholics, and raged with such fury against the secular clergy 
 and Jesuits, that in no corner of the kingdom, by no art, nor 
 habit, could they be effectually screened from the pursuivants. 
 Yet Father John was prodigal of his life amongst these daily 
 deaths, provided only he might sell it at the price of 
 martyrdom : he did not cease from holding public assemblies 
 of the Catholics, and performing the functions of his ministry, 
 and never omitted (an act in which he was singular) to gather 
 the faithful together for the space of so many years, on 
 every Sunday and Holiday, either to preach to them or to 
 explain the Christian doctrine. In these indefatigable exer- 
 tions he was not only moved by the hope of bringing an 
 abundant harvest into the garner of the Church, but he deemed 
 them well repaid could be but pick up one single ear of wheat. 
 To lead back one precious soul to the sheepfold of Christ, 
 he was ready to pour out his life and blood, to spend both 
 body and soul. He acted on this spirit admirably on the 
 occasion in which he fell into the hands of the enemy and 
 went forward to his death, which was as follows — 
 
 Father John Hudd, who was charged with the crime of 
 being a priest, and whose conviction and execution for high 
 treason at the approaching assizes appeared certain, was 
 confined by the Parliamentarians in close custody in Lincoln 
 gaol. The extreme danger of his beloved companion, deprived 
 of the strength and solace of the holy Sacraments of the 
 Church, appeared hard to Father John, but how to remedy 
 it he could not devise. Far from being able to penetrate 
 into the prison, he could not enter the city. Resolved, never- 
 theless, though at the cost of his life, to break through every 
 obstacle, he dressed himself in the garb of a peasant on the 
 market day, and, mingling with the country people who were 
 carrying their produce to market, he entered with them in the 
 dusk of early morning without accident. He tried during 
 the whole of the day, by every contrivance, to penetrate the 
 prison, but in vain. Failing there of his purpose, he mingled 
 again with the peasants, as one who had sold his marketings 
 and was leaving the city, when he was stopped by the sentinels 
 at the gate. At that time they had liberty to detain at pleasure 
 any who they suspected of being priests ; these they would 
 keep in custody, and sorely treat them unless they redeemed 
 themselves by money. They arrested Father Grose and con- 
 
College of St. Hugh. 
 
 639 
 
 ducted him to the governor to be examined on suspicion of 
 being a priest, of which, however, he afforded no indication 
 or ground for suspicion. This arrest seemed to Father John 
 most opportune for obtaining his wish; he hoped that he 
 might be confined in the same prison with Father Hudd, to 
 whom he longed, at whatever cost, to afford the consolations 
 of religion. But the Governor destroyed this hope by ordering 
 him, to his great chagrin, to be detained in military custody, 
 and to be transferred to another prison. This order, however, 
 whilst it precluded him from all hope of reaching Father 
 Hudd, gave him the privilege of enduring for his Lord the 
 iron fetters and other calamities of that prison, and the insults 
 and injuries of wicked men, of which for some weeks he 
 had his daily portion, even to the extremest want of food, 
 clothing and bedding. In the meantime the royal army was 
 preparing to retake Lincoln from the Parliamentarians ; all 
 the military captives, together with Father J ohn, were carried 
 off in boats to the deserted Church of St. Botolph, and there 
 detained in custody . 13 
 
 The Father, who was now upwards of sixty-five years of 
 age, was confined here for three months in the depth of 
 winter, in a place open on all sides to the weather, and 
 wanting in every aid, in fire, comfort, and clothing to repel 
 the piercing cold of night. He was again removed to a 
 place more convenient indeed for the body, but a more 
 grievous affliction to his soul, as he was then compelled to 
 hear insults, blasphemies, and curses against God from wicked 
 men, which he felt more than all his sufferings. At length, 
 after an imprisonment there for seven months, whereas no 
 probable indication of his priesthood, nor evidence to capitally 
 convict him could be gathered, they began to throw out 
 hopes of his release, if he would redeem it with a sum of 
 money. This being at length raised by the liberality of the 
 faithful, he was discharged from the confinement of his prison, 
 but with health and constitution so broken by his long 
 sufferings, that in a short time he was released from the 
 prison of his body in peace. On being discharged from custody, 
 his host, into whose family he had been received, being ruined 
 by the evils of the civil war, and driven into exile, Father 
 Grose was compelled to betake himself to a house which had 
 been ruined and pillaged by the military. Here, before a 
 
 13 This would have been Boston, or St. Botolphs’-town, so called from 
 the saint of that name, who built the abbey there. 
 
640 
 
 College of Si. Hugh. 
 
 month had well passed, terminated that life which had 
 been dragged on wearily, tried by so many sufferings 
 in chains for Christ. After saying Mass on the 27 th day of 
 February, 1645, and whilst in the act of making his thanks- 
 giving, he fell upon the floor half dead, and a little after 
 placidly expired amidst ejaculations expressive of penitence 
 and singular love of God, aged sixty-five. 
 
 Father Grose is shortly noticed in the Florus Anglo- 
 Bavaricus , 14 where the author commends his zeal and remark- 
 able desire both to preserve and to propagate the Catholic 
 faith through the space of twenty-seven years. After mentioning 
 that he never omitted Sunday or festival, to gather the faithful 
 together for their religious duties and instruction, this writer 
 applies to him the words of the Apostle, Insta opportune , im- 
 portune. 
 
 The Annual Letters of the English Province S.J., for the 
 College of St. Dominic, also notice Father Grose and his 
 charitable efforts to reach Father Hudd in Lincoln gaol. 
 
 According to the State Paper in the Public Record Office 
 (copied in p. 404 ante), being a certificate from the officers 
 of the Port of Dover of priests and Jesuits sent there 
 for transportation, February, 1620, Father John Grose had 
 been a prisoner for the Faith previously to that day. His 
 name appears there with Fathers John Curry and Thomas 
 Everard. 
 
 VII. Father John Hudd was a native of Durham. 
 Born in 1571, he entered the Society late in life, 1622, 
 aged fifty-one. All that can be gathered about him is 
 taken from the history of Father John Grose, as above, 
 and from the Annual Letters of the Residence of St. Dominic, 
 for 1649. From 1640 to 1649, no annual reports are given, 
 for which the reason is assigned that, during that period 
 the number of priests who suffered for the Faith was less 
 than in some preceding years. It was probably found that 
 the extreme severity produced other than the desired result, 
 both in regard to the zeal and constancy of the clergy, 
 and the return of Protestants to the Church. Yet the hatred 
 to the Catholic religion borne by the popular party, which, 
 since 1645, had been advancing to sovereign power, was 
 increased in intensity. They constantly avowed their deter- 
 mination to root it out of the land. Letters sent by the 
 
 14 R 75- 
 
College of St. Hugh. 
 
 641 
 
 ordinary means of conveyance were in danger of being inter- 
 cepted, and thus exposing to danger both the writer and the 
 family that harboured him. Hence the letters and accounts 
 that were sent were both few, brief, and far between. 
 
 In 1649 th e Residence of St. Dominic had possessed 
 a house of their own for nearly twenty-nine years, in 
 which one or two of the Fathers generally resided. It was 
 a building of mean appearance, but on that account, and 
 from its situation, well suited to their purpose, and of great 
 advantage to the Catholics of the country, especially to 
 the poorer class, who resorted to it for their spiritual duties, 
 and were often liberally relieved there in their temporal wants. 
 But this refuge did not escape the hostile vigilance- of the 
 Parliamentarians. They broke into the house three several 
 times, and plundered whatever was worth taking.; but they 
 had almost despaired of finding what they were most in search 
 of — the Catholic priest. At length one of them, in making a 
 last search in an obscure room, observed a rope hanging loose. 
 Suspecting this might lead to some discovery, he called back 
 some of his comrades who were leaving the house, and they 
 pulled the rope. It opened a trap door, and thus exposed to 
 their view the object of their search. It was Father John 
 Hudd, who had concealed himself under the roof, with the 
 furniture of the altar, and in his hurry had omitted to draw up 
 the rope after him. A loud shout announced their success. The 
 venerable Father was of a delicate constitution, and seventy-four 
 years old or upwards, and was at first unable to stand on 
 account of the constraint he had suffered in his narrow hole. 
 They carried him out in his cassock, and put him on a horse 
 to convey him to the neighbouring town, bringing his servant 
 with him. As they approached the town, in order to draw on 
 their captive the insults of the rabble, they made the servant 
 put on the clerical cap, or biretta, and walk before the horse, 
 whilst they rang the bell used at the altar. The next day the 
 Father was conveyed in the same manner to Lincoln, and there 
 imprisoned. This would have occurred in the year 1644. 
 They set the servant at liberty, after stripping him of what was 
 worth taking. The venerable appearance of the Father, and 
 his patience and gentleness, moved the gaolers to compassion, 
 and they provided for him to the best of their power. But 
 what the good Father most desired was the spiritual assistance 
 of some one of his brethren, and the more so, as the Assizes 
 were drawing near at which he might probably be tried for his 
 
 pp 
 
642 
 
 College of St. Hugh . 
 
 life. It was at this time that Father John Grose made die 
 heroic attempt to get at Father Hudd in Lincoln prison, which 
 ultimately caused his own death, as we have seen. 
 
 Father Hudd was not, it would seem, brought to trial ; the 
 King’s forces soon afterwards retaking Lincoln, when he was 
 set at liberty. He remained bedridden for the rest of his life. 
 He joyfully resigned his soul to God in the year 1649, aged 
 seventy-eight, after overcoming some remarkable assaults of 
 our spiritual enemy. In religion twenty-seven years. 
 
 The same Annual Report thus continues, and introduces 
 us to another confessor and martyr in Lincoln gaol — 
 
 VIII. Father Thomas Forster, S.J. — The spiritual wants 
 of the Catholics of this district, caused by the loss of these 
 two good missioners, were relieved by the accession of Father 
 Thomas Forster. Being obliged to fly from the scene of his 
 mission in Yorkshire, he chanced to come into this district, 
 where, seeing that help was needed, and being more desirous 
 of labour than of rest, he resumed his missionary occupations. 
 In a mean garb he went about the country on foot, visiting 
 the poor afflicted Catholics, and extending his welcome services 
 to the few gentry who were able to remain in the country. 
 But he was not allowed to remain long at liberty. He was 
 arrested on the public road on suspicion, by a justice of the 
 peace, who happened to be passing, and committed to prison, 
 where he was treated with great severity. He was twice had 
 up before the magistrates for examination, and remanded to 
 prison, though nothing could be proved against him. From 
 his prison he found means to send a letter to his Superior, in 
 which he says : “I have not been worthy of the happiness 
 which I have longed for during forty years. Blessed be God, 
 Who has granted me at least this tribulation of imprisonment ; 
 and I humbly beg of Him to receive it as some part of the 
 satisfaction due for my many and great sins.” After two years’ 
 confinement he died of dropsy, brought on by sufferings and 
 privations. His Superior contrived to visit him on his death- 
 bed, and to administer to him the Sacraments, to the great 
 consolation of both. Thus, as in other instances, as some of 
 the Fathers were imprisoned, others took their places with 
 alacrity, and continued their labours, especially amongst the 
 poor. Father Forster died the 31st of March, 1648, in vincnlis 
 pro fide Christi. Owing to the loss of records, we cannot trace 
 
College of St. Hugh. 
 
 643 
 
 his age, or the date of his entrance into the Society of Jesus. 
 He was probably labouring in the Yorkshire mission from about 
 1608. 
 
 In the Public Record Office, Dom. James /., State Papers, 
 November, 1605, vol. xvi. n. 56, is the declaration of a 
 Government spy, Edward Brymstede, late factor at Lisbon, 
 stating his intercourse with Forster, an English Jesuit, who 
 tried to pervert him to Romanism, argued on the lawfulness of 
 King-killing, and prophesied speedy destruction to James I., 
 unless he tolerated Catholics. This may have been our Father 
 Thomas, then perhaps living at the Residence of the English 
 members S.J. at Lisbon. That he should have endeavoured 
 to convert the spy is very probable. Of the alleged argument 
 in favour of King-killing, our readers may judge from the 
 proofs of Catholic loyalty we have brought forward in other 
 portions of this history. 
 
 IX. Father Richard Ashby, whose real name was 
 Thimelby, was of the respectable and ancient family of that 
 name in Lincolnshire. He was born in the year 1614, and may 
 have been a son of Richard Thimelby, Esquire, of Irnham. 15 
 
 15 Father Morris, in Series I., The Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers , 
 in the article upon Father Tesimond, p. 156, thus mentions this family, 
 quoting from the Chronicle of St. Monied s Convent. “Mrs. Brooksby 
 had a daughter who married Richard Thimelby of Irnham, in the county 
 of Lincoln. Their daughters Winefride and Frances entered the Convent 
 at Louvain in 1634 and 1642. In 1668 Sister Winefride was elected Prioress 
 of St. Monica’s Convent, the third in that office. . . . This generation of 
 the Thimelby’s was doubly connected with the family of the Astons [of 
 Tixhall, Stafford]. . . . Sister Gertrude Thimelby, the widow of Sister 
 Winefride’s youngest brother, Henry Thimelby, and daughter of the first 
 Lord Aston, was professed at St. Monica’s the 29th of September, 1658. 
 
 . . . These are mentioned only on account of their relationship with 
 Eleanor Brooksby, ‘ Mrs. Ann Vaux’s sister,’ as the same Chronicle words 
 it, all very good and constant Catholics, who kept Father Garnet, the 
 worthy martyr, in their house, the chief of the Jesuits.” 
 
 Amongst the State Papers, P.R.O., Domestic James I., 1603, vol. vii. 
 n. 50, is “a list of the names of the Jesuits in England, with the chief 
 places of their abode,” and which is endorsed by Salisbury, “ A note of the 
 Jesuits that lurk in England.” Amongst others is found, 11 Mr. Johnson 
 with Mr. Richard Thimelby , in Lincolnshire .” 
 
 Father Bridgewater, S.J., in his Concertatio Eccl. Cath. in Anglia , De 
 Persecution Angl. p. 30, edition 1594, makes the following deeply inter- 
 esting mention of another member of this ancient and faithful family. 
 “ But the following, which happened at the same time [1581] and in the 
 same city [Lincoln], must not be omitted. A lady of noble birth, and 
 young, having first obtained permission, entered the prison to visit her 
 
 PP 2 
 
644 
 
 College of St. Hugh. 
 
 He joined the Society in 1632, and the Annual Letters describe 
 him as vir doctus et prudens et amove Instituti excellens. He 
 was solemnly professed of the four vows in 1646. After 
 teaching philosophy, and discharging several collegiate offices, 
 he was ordered to the English mission, where, as we shall 
 presently see from the Annual Letters, he laboured very 
 diligently, and chiefly in this Residence and district, his native 
 county, of which in 1655, as appears by the Catalogue of that 
 date, he was Rector. In 1666, on the death of Father William 
 Campion, he was appointed to the responsible office of Master 
 of Novices at Ghent, and in 1672 became Rector of St. Omers’ 
 College, where he died in 1680, aged sixty-six. 
 
 Father Thomas Jenison and others, who suffered much in 
 
 husband, who was incarcerated there for the cause of religion. Being 
 known to the gaoler, and thus caught in his net laid for her, he ordered 
 her also to be detained a prisoner. Mrs. Thimelby, either from the shock 
 caused by this inhumanity and perfidy, or else from the foul air of the 
 place, was seized with severe sickness, and brought into extreme danger of 
 life, and when she appeared hourly about to expire, Mr. Thimelby, over- 
 whelmed with grief, earnestly implored that she might be removed outside 
 the prison, and obtain the aid of matrons, but his request was refused. 
 O ferrea pectora. ” 
 
 Challoner mentions that Gabriel Thimelby, gentleman, died in prison. 
 
 Dodd, Chitrch Hist., vol. iii. , mentions several of the same family, 
 three of whom lost their lives fighting for the cause of Royalty, in defence 
 of King Charles against his rebel Parliament, viz., Charles Thimelby, a 
 captain at Worcester; Robert Thimelby, a captain at Newark; and 
 Nicholas Thimelby, a gentleman volunteer at Bristol. Edmund Thimelby, 
 of the Irnham family, became a secular priest, and died, Provost of the 
 Collegiate Church of St. Gury in Cambray, about 1690. (Dodd, ut supra). 
 
 A member of this family, Henry Thimelby, also under the same 
 assumed name of Ashby, was admitted convictor amongst the alumni of 
 the English College, Rome, aged nineteen, by Father Thomas Fitzherbert, 
 the rector, on the 18th of October, 1628. Having spent three years in 
 philosophy, he left for England on the 9th of October, 1631. Optivue 
 indolis et suavissimcc conversations. 
 
 Another, viz., Edward Thimelby, under the same assumed name of 
 Ashby, aged twenty, was admitted on the 30th of November, 1636, by 
 Father Fitzherbert, the Rector, as a convictor. He left the English 
 College on the 12th of November, 1639, and lived for a long while in 
 Rome. Natura suavis, in studiis satis profecit. 
 
 “Thimelby, or Thimbleby, was the name of an ancient knightly family, 
 seated at Pelham, in Lincolnshire, in the reign of Edward III. [See 
 Clifford’s History of Tixall, p. 223]. Towards the end of the fifteenth 
 century Richard Thimelby married the heiress of Sir Andrew Lutterell, 
 Knight, of Irnham, in the same county. This lady brought with her to 
 the family into which she married, besides a claim to the barony of 
 
College of St. Hugh. 645 
 
 the persecution raised by Oates’ Plot, are reserved for the 
 intended history of that eventful period. 
 
 The Annual Letters of the English Province relating to 
 this College or District are as usual in those trying times, 
 but scanty. The cause of this we have already stated in the 
 notice of Father John Hudd. 
 
 1637. The report is confined to a detached narrative 
 of a vision vouchsafed to a young lady of thirteen years 
 of age, the daughter of parents of high birth and great 
 virtue, but not wealthy. It is one of that class of narra- 
 tives of supernatural or miraculous occurrences, which rest 
 on no other authority than the apparent trustworthiness 
 
 Lutterell, the manor of Irnham, which continued in Catholic hands until 
 comparatively recent times. [Irnham was for many years served by 
 Fathers of the Society of Jesus. Father Thomas Clarke, deceased, was 
 the last missioner there (1844-45), when the estate passed into Protestant 
 hands. The present handsome chapel was built in 1823 . — Ed.] Their 
 son Richard Thimelby married a daughter of Mrs. Brookesby, daughter 
 of Lord Vaux, of Harrowden. [See Troubles , First Series, pp. 156, 369.] 
 This Eleanor Brooksby and her sister, Anne Vaux, were Father Henry 
 Garnet’s brave benefactresses. Two of Eleanor Brookesby ’s grand 
 daughters, Winefride and Frances Thimelby, joined the English Augus- 
 tinians, as we have before seen. Henry Thimelby, the younger brother 
 of these two, married Gertrude, daughter of Walter, the first Lord Aston, 
 of Forfar, and on her husband’s death she also entered the same con- 
 vent. Her niece, Catharine Aston, the daughter of her brother Herbert 
 Aston and of Catharine Thimelby his wife, entered St. Monica’s convent 
 at the same time. Elizabeth, another sister, married Richard Conquest, 
 of Houghton Conquest, Beds ; and on the death, sans issue, of her eldest 
 brother’s grand-daughter, Mary, the wife of Thomas Gifford, of Millington, 
 the property passed to the Conquests. Mary Conquest, heiress of the last 
 of that name (Benedict Conquest, who died in 1753), married Lord 
 Arundell of Wardour, and thus Irnham passed to the Cliffords through her 
 daughter Eleanor, wife of Lord Clifford of Ugbrooke. 
 
 “Winefride, Frances, Catharine, and Elizabeth Thimelby had two 
 brothers besides Henry, already mentioned. The eldest was Sir John 
 Thimelby, Knight, with whose son John the male line of the Thimelby ’s 
 expired. The other was the translator of Father Binet’s work, Purgatory 
 Surveyed, &c., Paris, 1625, viz., Richard Thimelby, alias Ashby. He 
 spent nearly fifty years in the labours of the Society, and held many 
 important offices. He taught philosophy at the English College, and 
 polemical or controversial theology, of which in those days there was a 
 professorship distinct from that of dogmatic theology. He laboured on the 
 English mission for sixteen years.” — [Extracted from additional note 
 to Father Anderdon’s edition of Purgatory Surveyed, &c. pp. xi., xii., xiii., 
 1874.] 
 
646 
 
 College of St. Hugh. 
 
 of the narrators, yet are not to be discredited for any 
 external improbability, since there are similar narratives 
 which are in the highest degree authentic. It is at least 
 one of great beauty and simplicity. The father of this 
 pious family, influenced by gratitude to our Saviour for 
 the institution of the Blessed Eucharist, resolved to form a 
 sanctuary in his house, in which the most Blessed Sacrament 
 might be constantly preserved. On the night of the birth 
 of Christ in the preceding year, the Sacred Host had been 
 deposited in the Tabernacle prepared for its reception. On 
 the 30th of the following January, the daughter passing near 
 the domestic chapel, went in, as was her custom, to pay a 
 short visit to the Divine Guest, whose abode it now was. 
 After a brief prayer, she attempted to rise and go away, 
 but found herself unable to move. Presently she ceased to 
 see any of the surrounding objects except the Tabernacle, 
 which now appeared suspended in the air, and surrounded 
 with a bright light which spread all around. As she gazed 
 on this spectacle, the door of the Tabernacle opened, and 
 disclosed to her view a form of an Infant of superhuman 
 beauty, exhibiting the five wounds of the crucified Redeemer. 
 From these wounds issued rays of light, which far exceeded 
 in brilliancy the light of the Tabernacle. A head female 
 domestic who happened to be present, observing the unusual 
 fixed attitude of her young mistress, went up to her and asked 
 her to go downstairs. The young lady answered that she 
 would not move while she saw her Saviour present before her. 
 The servant alarmed, went to fetch some restoratives. The 
 Divine Infant now grew suddenly sorrowful, and wept. The 
 young girl became agitated by fear, lest she had offended her 
 Saviour, but her fear was soon dispelled, for the vision resumed 
 its former appearance, and speaking, invited her to draw 
 nearer. She approached and prostrated herself before the 
 altar. Then the Divine Child, having blessed her with the 
 usual Catholic rites, told her that the cause of His sudden 
 sadness was a grievous transgression of a certain noble lady ; 
 and that He would have her to know that such transgressions 
 crucified Him as it were anew. He then told her that if her 
 parents had been wealthy, riches would have corrupted them, 
 as they had others ; but that now He esteemed them more 
 than others who possessed abundant wealth. Finally, He 
 gave the girl some directions for her own conduct, which 
 determined her to practise thenceforth a far higher per- 
 
College of St. Hugh. 
 
 647 
 
 fection. The domestic now returned with another matron, 
 and one of the young lady’s brothers. They led her out of 
 the chapel, while her reverted look was still fixed on the 
 vision. She soon resumed her ordinary state, yet frequently 
 expressing her gratitude for the glorious vision she had been 
 permitted to witness. She repeatedly related it in detail, and 
 without variation, to her mother and one of the Fathers who 
 resided as chaplain in the family. 
 
 The favour conferred on this pious family did not end 
 here. On the festival of the Purification of the Blessed 
 Virgin, three days later, one of the sons, a boy of ten years 
 of age, whilst the Blessed Sacrament was being administered, 
 saw a great brightness proceed from the Sacred Particle as 
 it was given to one of the family. The sight elicited from 
 him a cry of admiration, which he afterwards accounted for 
 by relating what he had seen. Other blessings followed : the 
 father of the family who was then absent, suddenly felt a 
 powerful impulse to virtue, for which he could not account. 
 He unexpectedly succeeded in a law suit against a powerful 
 opponent. The mother soon after was saved from imminent 
 danger of a fatal illness, besides other favours. The servants 
 experienced an unusual fervour in the practice of virtue. The 
 house itself, as if protected by the presence of the Divine 
 Guest, narrowly escaped a threatened conflagration. 
 
 1640-5. There is no report, probably for the reasons 
 stated above. 
 
 1649. The report, which is a full one, is embodied in the 
 memoirs we have given of Fathers John Grose, John Hudd, 
 and Thomas Forster. 
 
 1650- 1. Amongst other conversions to the Catholic faith 
 this year, one was that of a Protestant minister, who always 
 previously imagined that he had received a peculiar call and 
 grace from God to diffuse the doctrines of his religion. His 
 conversion was consequently a subject of great displeasure to 
 Protestants and a consolation to Catholics. 
 
 1651- 5. The reports are chiefly confined to details of the 
 zealous labour of Father Richard Thimelby, alias Ashby. He 
 was the Superior of the district. A certain noble lady, a 
 penitent of Father Richard, who had been seized with a 
 violent fever, appeared to be drawing near her end. Having 
 fallen into a sort of slumber, she thought some one took her 
 gently by the hand, and told her to ask that the Litany of 
 Loreto might be recited to her, and that she would then get 
 
648 
 
 College of St. Htigh. 
 
 better. No one was in the room at the time. As soon as 
 her attendant returned, she desired that the Litany might 
 be said. When it was finished she fell into a sound sleep. On 
 awaking she was found to be free from fever, and greatly 
 refreshed, to the astonishment of all present. Her sister, a 
 Protestant, and a lady of great talent and active mind, who 
 had been accustomed to ridicule the doctrine of the invocation 
 of saints, at once changed her opinion on this point, and 
 was afterwards instructed by Father Richard and received into 
 the Church. 
 
 In 1654, Father Thimelby was called up in the night to 
 a Protestant clergyman, who had been for some time convinced 
 of the truth of the Catholic faith, but had been withheld from 
 embracing it by temporal considerations, and was now alarmed 
 by a severe attack of fever. The night was very dark, and 
 the Father lost his way, but Providence at length guided him 
 to the house. He duly instructed the sick man, administered 
 the Sacraments of Penance and Extreme Unction, and saw 
 him die happily an hour after his arrival. 
 
 Three families in this district, nearly related, who had been 
 engaged for twenty years in scandalous hostility and ruinous 
 litigation with one another, were reconciled by the prudent and 
 zealous mediation of the same Father. They were not, all of 
 them at least, Catholics, since the conversion of one person 
 was expected to follow the happy reconciliation. 
 
 Very little else is reported until the times of Oates’ Plot, 
 and the Revolution of 1688, when the Chapel and Presbytery 
 at Lincoln were destroyed by a “No Popery” mob, and a 
 flourishing College of the Society there was broken up. 
 
 Brigg, one of the places named as served or visited by 
 the Fathers of this district, is mentioned in the following- 
 paper in the Public Record Office, in connection with Father 
 Henry Garnett the martyr {alias Darcy), who said Mass there 
 on one occasion, in 1604. 16 The confession of one JohnHealy, 
 a servant to Launcellot Carnaby of Hatton, Northumberland ; 
 who says {inter alia) : “ In Lincolnshire, he hath heard Masses 
 at Twigmore, Thornham, and Brigg, where one Mass was said 
 by one Darcy a Jesuit; at the other places by one Nicholas, 
 an old priest, whose surname he knows not. At the Mass 
 at Brigg, which was at Easter last was two years [1604], there 
 were present, besides himself, Mr. Constable, son to Sir Philip 
 16 State Papers, 1606, Domestic, James I., vol. xx. n. 45. 
 
College of St. Hugh. 649 
 
 Constable, and his wife, &c., and many others whom he knew 
 not.” 
 
 Mr. G. Young of Kingerby, in an interesting MS. account 
 of the Missions of Lincolnshire, 17 dated 1840, “prepared,” 
 to use his own words, “with much care and labour,” relates 
 the following case of two old French priests who escaped to 
 England at the first French Revolution. As we shall not have 
 occasion to revert to Brigg, we give it here. 
 
 “ From 1770, to the breaking out of the French Revolution 
 in 1789, the Reverend R. Newton {alias Fawcett) said Mass 
 at Brigg on the fourth Sunday of each month at the house 
 of a Mr. Bernard in Bigley Street, until a French emigrant 
 priest of the name of Fromantine came, which I think would 
 be about 1794. He died in Brigg about 1803. The Rev. 
 Mr. Saunderson succeeded, but was not long here. The 
 Rev. Peter Moulin, a French emigrant priest, came in March, 
 1815. Mr. Musgrave, of Brigg, gave land and built a house 
 for him and his brother Pere James T. Moulin; these two 
 good priests came I think from a Derbyshire mission here. 
 They themselves with their own hands built the chapel. 
 Pere J. T. Moulin died at Brigg in 1822. The other brother 
 continued until his death in 1836. Many anecdotes were 
 told me by the last named brother; one was that on the 
 breaking out of the French Revolution, he and his brother 
 escaped from prison by plying the gaoler well with drink at a 
 supper they invited him to (for being of a very respectable 
 family they had consideration shown them in their confine- 
 ment). When the gaoler and his attendants were asleep from 
 the effects of the drink, they let themselves out of the prison, 
 returning the keys by placing them under the door. His 
 brother suffered so much from gout that he was obliged to 
 carry him ; they generally concealed themselves in the woods 
 by day, travelling by starlight during the night. The first 
 day, they rested beneath the arches of a bridge among the 
 rushes and in the water, and heard their pursuers conversing 
 about them whilst crossing the bridge. After some days 
 they reached the sea-side, and were fortunate in passing safely 
 to England. Pere Thomas Moulin often told me that before 
 they were taken to prison they buried the family plate, and 
 although so many years had elapsed, he still so well remem- 
 bered the spot that he could go and place his foot upon it. 
 I frequently suggested his returning to take it up again as it 
 
 17 This MS. is preserved in the Archives of the English Province. 
 
College of St. Hugh. 
 
 650 
 
 might be useful to him in his old age, for his pecuniary 
 circumstances were by no means good ; but he always replied' 
 that the horrors of the French Revolution had given him such 
 a dread of his country that he never could be induced to 
 return again.” 
 
 Claxby, near Lincoln, was in the olden times served by 
 Father John Pansford. The following short eulogy of him 
 is taken from the summary of the dead of the Province, 1668. 
 He was a native of Hampshire; born about 1590; entered 
 the Society 1620. He was a very holy man, and on account 
 of his many and great virtues, beloved and venerated by all 
 his brethren. He was remarkable for his candour of soul, 
 an agreeable gravity of manners, and continued mortification 
 of his senses. He possessed a great esteem for religious 
 poverty, making much of the least thing, and with difficulty 
 allowed himself the use of the money which his Superior 
 deemed to be necessary for him. He was accustomed in 
 all things to regard only what would be most pleasing to 
 God and useful to his neighbour. To his extreme old age 
 he was a most active and meritorious missioner ; at the same 
 time thinking most humbly of himself. He would often 
 congratulate himself upon his being, as he said, unfit for 
 any office of superiority. He was once captured by the 
 Protestant priest-hunters, and endured with great courage 
 an imprisonment in a London gaol. He would without doubt 
 have been eventually crowned with martyrdom at Tyburn, 
 but for the urgent intercession of Queen Mary Medina of 
 France, which was so far successful that his capital sentence 
 was respited, and exchanged for banishment from his native 
 land. 
 
 In his conversations he possessed the happy art of prudently 
 introducing spiritual subjects, and of recalling that of others 
 to some subject of piety. He was a most strict economizer 
 of time, often complaining of its shortness, and that he could 
 never find sufficient leisure to devote to God and himself. 
 He spent the last six years of his life in preparation for 
 death, dividing his time between prayer and spiritual reading. 
 At length, worn out by age and infirmity, he died in great 
 repute for sanctity, as became a genuine son of St. Ignatius, 
 and worthy of the annals of our Society. He died the 
 9th of November, 1668, aged seventy-eight: Dr. Oliver says 
 eighty. 
 
College of St. Htigh. 
 
 651 
 
 Kingerby Hall, the seat of the ancient Catholic family of 
 Young, was connected with the English Province of the Society 
 of Jesus from the earliest times. Mr. G. Young, in his MS. 
 before referred to, says : “ The early history of this very ancient 
 mission is difficult to trace. There was a chapel in the old 
 hall, and, as many old persons tell me, there were hiding-places 
 which were used in the troublesome times. Many think it was 
 a very early mission of the Jesuits. The old hall was taken 
 down by my father, who built the present Kingerby House on 
 its site in 1803. The good old Catholic family of the Knights, 
 of Snasford, in this county, took a lease of the old hall in 
 1702. These good people doubtless had a priest residing there, 
 but the first that I am able to trace here was chaplain to 
 Mrs. Knight, mother of the Rev. Richard Knight, many years a 
 Jesuit missioner at Lincoln, and who died there suddenly in 
 1793.” In a letter of Mr. Thomas Arthur Young to the late 
 Rev. Randal Lythgoe, Provincial, dated 6th May, 1854, he 
 says: “In 1719 died John Young, of West Rasen, Papist, who 
 married a Vavasour, daughter of Dr. Vavasour, and brother of 
 the baronet. 18 In the Will Office, Lincoln, I found the will of 
 the said John Young, and to which is attached the signature of 
 the Rev. Father Andrew Norris, 19 so that these parts have 
 always been under the pastoral charge of the Jesuit Fathers. 
 
 18 And perhaps a sister of Father Walter Vavasour, S.J., who entered 
 the Society in 1681, and for many years was missioner at Preston, where he 
 died in 1740, aged 76. Father William Vavasour, probably of the same 
 family, entered the Society in 1666. Retiring from England at the per- 
 secutions of Oates’ Plot, he died at Nieuport, 23rd April, 1683. 
 
 No less than four of this ancient and staunch Catholic family, were 
 alumni of the English College, Rome, viz. : 
 
 1. James Vavasour , born 1561, admitted an alumnus at the age bf 
 twenty, 19th November, 1581, ordained priest 1586, and was then sent to 
 Rheims to complete his theology, and there died. 
 
 2. Thomas Vavasour , born 1558, admitted an alumnus 2nd November, 
 1581. In I587> he was sent to Apulia to collect alms for the support of the 
 English College, Rheims, and was murdered by his guide near Bari. 
 
 3. Henry Vavasour , under the assumed name of Manners, was admitted 
 a convictor among the alumni, 25th October, 1615. His age is not stated. 
 He left the College for England on account of bad health, 12th July, 1620, 
 leaving behind him an example of every virtue. 
 
 4. John Vavasour, born 1628, admitted also a convictor among the 
 alumni 15th November, 1649. He left the College for England in 1651. 
 
 19 Father Andrew Norris was missioner at Lincoln on the breaking out 
 of the Revolution of 1688, and the destruction of the chapel, &c., there, an 
 account of which will be given in the intended history of those times. 
 Father Norris was Superior of this District in 1701 — 1704. 
 
652 
 
 College of St. Hugh. 
 
 The death and burial of the father of the said John Young 
 is recorded in the West Rasen register as follows : “ Popish 
 recusant , affidavit made before the magistrate .” 
 
 Mr. Young considers that Kingerby was once “ the chief 
 station of the Society in the county, and perhaps in the 
 kingdom.” 
 
 Lincoln. — This ancient city was probably from the earliest 
 times connected with the Society of Jesus. It stands upon 
 the site of one of the towns or hill-forts of the ancient Britons, 
 and under the Romans was an important colony called Lindum. 
 In the reign of William the Conqueror it became a bishop’s 
 see, that of Dorchester, near Oxford, being then translated 
 hither. In 1125, Lincoln was greatly damaged by an earth- 
 quake. The cathedral was built by Remigius, Bishop of 
 Lincoln, and completed on his death in 1092, by his suc- 
 cessor, Robert Bloet. In Catholic times Lincoln had a goodly 
 array of religious houses, for an account of which see Dug- 
 dale’s Monasticon. Within its walls are buried the two 
 Saints Hugh, the one, the great bishop of that name, the 
 other, the child who was crucified by some Jews. Two 
 letters of the late Rev. Father James Laurenson, S.J., then 
 missioner here, to Dr. Oliver, relative to the “ little St. Hugh,” 
 contain the following passages. The first is dated the 14th 
 April, 1831 : “I have lately made the tour, at two or three 
 different times, of ‘ the pride and glory of Lincoln.’ The more 
 I see of it the more I find to admire. I think they do very 
 little to keep this noble fabric in repair, considering the 
 immense income. The east end is really a disgrace to them. 
 Here lies the great St. Hugh, but not a vestige of his once 
 magnificent shrine is now remaining. A plain marble slab marks 
 the spot where repose the ashes of this great and holy prelate. 
 
 “ In passing by the shrine of the little St. Hugh, 1 
 I was assured of a curious fact, and it is told by old 
 Marshall who shows you round, and is fully confirmed 
 by the Wilsons and others. Not many years since they had 
 occasion to repair the flags in the south aisle, where the 
 mutilated shrine of the blessed little martyr stood. His 
 remains were in a marble coffin, elevated above the pavement, 
 and were removed into the adjoining sacristy. Curiosity 
 prompted several to examine the contents. Among the rest 
 were old Marshall and Dr. Beattie, now practising in the town. 
 
 1 Martyred August 27, 1255. 
 
College of St. Hugh. 
 
 653 
 
 Upon removing the marble top they found a lead coffin within, 
 on opening which the body of the young saint was, to their 
 astonishment, discerned quite perfect, and undecayed. It was 
 replaced immediately, and the coffin as it now is, removed to 
 its former station ; not however, before the Doctor took his fee, 
 for he cut off one of the fingers, and still boasts of having this 
 precious relic in his possession, and a lock of his beautiful 
 auburn hair. The house where the dear little Saint was 
 martyred has been rebuilt, or much repaired, but is never 
 occupied. I pass it almost every day, and generally beseech 
 him, and the great and glorious bishop, to pray for their 
 benighted countrymen and citizens. But so wedded do they 
 seem to the things of this world, that were both saints to start 
 from their tombs, to preach and testify the truth to their fellow- 
 citizens, to me it seems none would verify more to the letter 
 than they, the prophetic saying of our Saviour, 4 They have 
 Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them/ Alas ! poor 
 Lincoln, religion, I assure you, is at very low ebb indeed 
 here. ...” 
 
 The second letter is dated 31st August, 1831. “Since last 
 I wrote to you I have seen Dr. Beattie, and he tells me that it 
 was in 1791 that the body of little St. Hugh was exposed. 
 He obtained a finger and a lock of the hair, which were plun- 
 dered from him subsequently, and which he told me he greatly 
 regretted. His account of the state of the body does not bear 
 out old Marshall, for he says it was quite in a skeleton state, 
 and that the skin which remained was quite dry and of a tan 
 colour. The child could not have been more than seven or 
 eight years old. He also adds, that the hands seem to have 
 been mutilated, as if something had been driven through them, 
 and the body is still, he says, in the same stone coffin, and 
 replaced in the same spot as formerly, above ground.” 
 
 Mr. Young, in his MS. says: “The Jesuits have never, 
 even during the most troublesome times, been without a 
 missioner at Lincoln. A college of theirs was established 
 here, even in the days of persecution ; as we find in ancient 
 works of several of the Order who were arrested or imprisoned 
 here.” 
 
 We shall have to return to Lincoln in our continuation of 
 the history of St. Dominic and St. Hugh, to give an account of 
 its flourishing little college on the accession of James II. and 
 of its destruction with the chapel, &c., by the rabble at the 
 Revolution of 1688. 
 

 
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 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 
 
 Abergavenny, Lord, grandson 
 of 317* 
 
 Agazzari, Fr. S.J. 162 note. 
 
 Ainsworth, alias Skevington 
 (priest) 14 1. 
 
 Alart (priest) 160. 
 
 Alabaster (priest) 138, 597. 
 
 Alford, Michael, Fr. S.J., life of 
 299, seq. 
 
 Robert, Fr. S.J. 416. 
 
 Allen, Card. 75 (his nieces 117) 
 1 41, 1 51 note, 205, 220, 
 221, 272, 588 note. 
 
 family of, pedigree 132. 
 
 Allot, Mr. 222. 
 
 Alman (priest) 243. 
 
 Almond (priest, martyr) 504. 
 
 Aloysius, St., College of ( alias 
 Lancashire District) Hist. 1, 
 seq. 
 
 Ammyas (priest) 14 1. 
 
 Andrew, Wm., Esq. and his son, 
 Introd. note p. xv. 
 
 Apostles, Holy, the Coll, of, 
 Hist. 393, seq. 
 
 Archer (priest) 597. 
 
 Arden, Robert, Fr. S.J. 306. 
 
 Arrowsmith, Edmund, Fr. S.J. 
 
 (martyr) life of 24 — 74 ; 
 arrested 34, 35; con- 
 duct in prison 37; trial 
 38, seq. ; cruelty of 
 judge 39, seq.; con- 
 demnation 42, 43 ; suf- 
 ferings in prison 43, 
 seq. ; execution 46, seq. ; 
 miracles and attesta- 
 tions 61 — 72. 
 
 Edmund, Dr. 27. 
 
 Peter 26, 27. 
 
 Robert 27. 
 
 Thurstan 26, 135 — 138. 
 
 Arundell, Charles, 220, 221. 
 
 Lord, of Wardour 645 
 note. 
 
 Thomas, Sir 241. 
 
 Ashby, Richard, Fr. S.J. {see 
 Thimelby.) 
 
 Ashley, Sir Anthony 262 note. 
 Askew (priest) 141. 
 
 Aspinall, Richd., schoolm. 136 — 
 138. 
 
 Aston, Catherine (nun) 645 note- 
 Hon. Herbert 645 note. 
 Lord 233, 643 note. 
 
 Mrs. Ann 137. 
 
 Atkinson, Mr. William 497. 
 Atwood, John (a boy) Introd. 
 note p. xv. 
 
 Babbington, Lady 432. 
 
 Baccar, Mr. 221. 
 
 Bagshaw, Dr. 239, 244, 247. 
 Bailey, Richard 251 (letter). 
 Baker (priest) tried and acquit- 
 ted 518. 
 
 Baldwin, Wm., Fr. S.J. 142, 550 
 note. 
 
 Bancroft (archpriest) 184, 277,. 
 340 note. 
 
 Barber, Rev. Francis 34 note, 
 46 note, 52 note. 
 
 Barkworth, Fr. O.S.B. 478. 
 Barlow, Ambrose, Fr. O.S.B. 54, 
 55 - 
 
 Alex., Esq. 137. 
 
 Dean of Chester 36, seq. 
 R. (priest) 55. 
 
 Barnes, John (priest) 132 note. 
 Barret, Dr. 135. 
 
 Barrow, condemned for pub- 
 books 223. 
 
 Bartleet, Richard, Fr. 95. 
 
 Bartlet (priest) Introd. notep. xiii - 
 
656 Alphabetical Index. 
 
 Barton, Richd., S.J. 232. 
 
 Thomas, S.J. 233. 
 
 Bassett, Charles 58 7, 589 note. 
 
 Philip 587 note. 
 
 Bassett (or Baggot) 224. 
 
 Robert, Sir 228. 
 
 William 272. 
 
 Bastard (or Bustard), Robert, 
 Fr. S.J. 482 note. 
 
 Bateman (priest) 141. 
 
 Bath, Mr. 291. 
 
 Bavaria, Duke of 287. 
 
 Beal, Barth. 228. 
 
 Beattie, Dr., of Lincoln, 652, 653. 
 Beaumont, Fr. Joseph 68 ; cured 
 by Fr. Arrowsmith 69. 
 Robert 419. 
 
 Bedingfield, Mr. Anthony 453. 
 Edward 232. 
 
 Henry ( alias Silisdon), F r. 
 
 S.J. 234, 290, 421. 
 
 John 95. 
 
 Thomas, Sir 453. 
 
 Beesley (priest) 14 1, 142. 
 
 Bell, James (priest, martyr) 135, 
 136, 138, 143. 
 
 Thomas (apostate priest) 
 345, 348, seq. 
 
 Bellamy, Mr. 170. 
 
 Bellarmine, Card., letter of 267 ; 
 his works convert Fr. Edward 
 Turner and his mother 309, 
 note. 
 
 Bennett, Sir John 291, 293. 
 Bentley, Mr. 587 note. 
 
 Edward 272. 
 
 Bentney, Wm., Fr. S.J. 316. 
 Bernard, Mr. 649. 
 
 Berry, Francis, Fr. S.J., letter of 
 635. 
 
 Bickley, Ralph, Fr. S.J. 95. 
 Birket (archpriest) 203, 204. 
 Bishop, Dr. Wm. 106 note, 132. 
 Blackburn (priest) 586 note. 
 Blackfan, alias Blackman, Fr. 
 
 S.J., life of 625, seq. 
 
 Blackwell, George (archpriest) 
 153 note, 275, 276, 285, 475, 
 502. 
 
 Blainscough hall 75 and note. 
 Bloomfield, John (a boy), Introd. 
 
 note p. xv. 
 
 Blount, Lady 68. 
 
 Richard, Fr. S.J. (Pro- 
 vincial) 1, 271, 394; 
 letter 396, 421, 629, 630. 
 
 Blundell, Francis, Fr. S.J. 69. 
 
 Fr. James 482 note. 
 
 Blyborough 617. 
 
 Bolsack, Dr. 336, 344. 
 
 Bosgrave, James 106, 132 notes, 
 165, 327 note. 
 
 Boston, 617. 
 
 Boswell, John 626. 
 
 Braddox, Essex 574, seq. 
 
 Bradley, Richd., Fr. S.J., life of, 
 dies in prison 178. 
 
 Bradshaw (? Barton), Robt., S.J. 
 482 note. 
 
 Brereton, Mrs. 137. 
 
 Brever ("priest) 141. 
 
 Brewster (priest) 576. 
 
 Briant, Alex., Fr. S.J. (martyr) 
 160, 161, 170. 
 
 Brigg (priest) 141. 
 
 (mission) 617. 
 
 648. 
 
 Bristow (or Briscoe), Stanislaus 
 ("priest) 1 61, 169. 
 
 Dr. 157, 172. 
 
 Britton, Dr. 141. 
 
 Brooksbye, Edward, Esq., and 
 Mrs. 315, 643 note. 
 
 Brown, Thomas ("priest) 130, 
 141. 
 
 Mr. Anthony 431. 
 
 Sir George 431. 
 
 William, S.J. (Montague) 
 life, with pedigree 428, 
 seq. ; miraculous ap- 
 pearance of, after death 
 
 441. 
 
 Bruce, Esq. 448. 
 
 Buck (priest) 141. 
 
 Dr. 464, 465. 
 
 Buckingham, Countess of, 264. 
 
 Burge, John, schoolm. 136, 138. 
 
 Butler (priest) 141. 
 
 Henry 230. 
 
 Rev. Philip 68. 
 
 Calvin 336, seq. 
 
 Campion, Fr. (martyr) 26 note, 
 28 note, 149 note, 151 note, 
 153, 154 note, 165—170, 201, 
 216, 237, 261 note, 289, 
 
 314, 324, 326, 327, 589 note, 
 
 595 - 
 
 Canterbury, Archbishops of 
 (Prot.) 101, 223, 276, 282, 283, 
 285, 291, 320, 333, 465 seq., 
 628 seq. (letters of). 
 
Alphabetical Index. 
 
 65 7 
 
 Cardenas de Dom (Fr. Ambas.) 
 
 house attacked 513, 530. 
 'Carey, George 306. 
 
 Gregory, Sir 163. 
 
 Michael, S.J. 307. 
 
 Mrs. 426. 
 
 Carnaby, Launcelot, Esq. 648. 
 Cartwright, Humphrey (schol.) 
 136, 138. 
 
 Carvajal, Doha Louisa de 236, 
 418, 502, 628. 
 
 Catholics, sufferings of 7, 8. 
 Catillo, Fr. S.J. 277. 
 
 Cattrell (priest) 141. 
 
 Cedder, William (priest) 132 
 note. 
 
 Chad St., College of, History of 
 193, seq. 
 
 Relics of at Swinnerton 
 231. 
 
 Chalcedon, Bishop of 203, 204, 
 217, 262, 299. 
 
 Challoner, Ellen 136, 138. 
 Chamberlain, Dr. 469. 
 
 Chapman Rook 576. 
 
 Charke, Mr. 324, 335, seq. 
 Charnock (priest) 503. 
 
 Cheney, Rev. Mr. 517, 518. 
 Cheseldine of Brandon 308 note. 
 Chester, Bishop of 30, 32, 33, 
 39—44, 77, 1 17— 132, 
 135, 137, 158 letter. 
 alias Barlow (priest) 586 
 note. 
 
 Cipher alphabet, 394, 395 note. 
 Clare, John, Fr. S.J. (see Warner, 
 Sir John). 
 
 Clark, John, Fr. S.J. 551 note. 
 
 Thomas, Fr. S.J. 645 note. 
 William, a lawyer, recu- 
 sant 575. 
 
 Clarkson (priest) 141. 
 Clerkenwell, Jesuit College at 
 seized 30 note, 419. 
 
 Clifford, Lord of Ugbrooks 645 
 note. 
 
 Clifton, alias Norris, Fr. 3, 9; 
 Introd. note p. xi. 
 Clifton, Cuthbert, Sir 9 
 note ; Introd. note p. xi. 
 Francis, Esq. Introd. 
 note p. xii. 
 
 John, Esq. Introd. note p. 
 xii. 
 
 Laurence, Esq. Introd. 
 note p. xii. 
 
 QQ 
 
 Clitherow (priest) 586 note. 
 Cloudesley 222. 
 
 Cobham, Lord 151, 152, 154. 
 Cocks, Mr. 587 note. 
 
 Coffin, Edward, Fr. S.J. 606. 
 Coke, Edward, Sir 25 1 note. 
 Colleton (priest) 132 note. 
 Collingwood, Fr. S.J. 233. 
 Compton, Lord 587 note. 
 Coniers, Father Thomas, S.J. 
 68, 69, 140. 
 
 Samuel (priest) 132 note. 
 Conquest, Benedict, Esq. 645 
 note. 
 
 Mary 645 note. 
 
 Richard, Esq. 645 note. 
 Constable, Mr. 648. 
 
 Sir Henry 272. 
 
 Sir Philip 648. 
 
 Conway, Bridget, cured by Fr. 
 
 Arrowsmith 69. 
 
 Cook (priest) 586 note. 
 
 Richard 226. 
 
 Cooper, Fr. 242. 
 
 (priest) Intr. note p. xiii. 
 Copley, Mr. 202. 
 
 William 221. 
 
 Corby, Ralph, Fr. (martyr) S.J. 
 548 note. 
 
 Cornforth, alias Bilton, Fr. S.J. 
 
 Introd. note p. xiii. 
 
 Cottam, Thomas, Fr. S.J. (mar- 
 tyr), Life of 145 — 177 ; early 
 life, 145 ; letter of, 146 ; ad- 
 mitted to Society 148, 149 ; 
 seized and escapes, 149 — 152; 
 surrenders himself 152 — 156 ; 
 tortured, &c., tried and con- 
 demned, 156 — 170; executed, 
 170 — 176. 
 
 Cotton, Francis, S.J. (Neville) 
 232. 
 
 Mr. 264. 
 
 Courtney, Thos., Fr. S.J. 199,213. 
 Coventry, Bishop of, Letter 159. 
 Cowell, Dr. 337, seq. 
 
 Cowley, Fr. 142. 
 
 Creitchton, Fr. S.J. 219. 
 
 Cressy Serenus, O.S.B. 304, 305. 
 Cresswell, Joseph, Fr. S.J. 226, 
 236, 241, 242, 630, 632. 
 
 Croft, Herbert, Bishop of Here- 
 ford (apostate) 300,301 
 note. 
 
 Sir Herbert (knight) 301 
 note. 
 
658 
 
 Alphabetical Index. 
 
 Cromwell, William n 7. 
 
 Culpage (priest) 136, 137. 
 
 Curry, John,Fr. S.J. 404, 43 1,640. 
 
 Curtis (priest) 141. 
 
 Curzon family 264. 
 
 Dade, Fr. O.P. 521, 522. 
 
 Darbyshire, Fr. S.J. 20onote,6io. 
 
 Darcy, Mr., Letter of 425 ; Introd. 
 note, p. xvi* 
 
 Dawson (priest) 141. 
 
 Edward, Fr. 482 note. 
 
 Dean, William (priest) 132 note. 
 
 Derby, Earl of 117 — 12 1, 12 7, 
 128, 135, 144. 
 
 James, 7th Earl of, con- 
 version of, execution, 
 &c. 9 seq. ; correction 
 and observation upon, 
 see Intr. note p. xi. seq. 
 
 Dewhurst, Mrs. Elizabeth 136, 
 138. 
 
 Digby, Sir Everard 197, 267. 
 
 Dippers, Sect of 564. 
 
 Dodd, Rev. Charles, death of, 
 and dying statement 58. 
 
 Dolbin, Dr., Dean of West- 
 minster 466, 467. 
 
 Dolman (priest) 432. 
 
 Dormer, Sir Robert 272, 431, 
 432 . 
 
 Douay College 141. 
 
 Dove, Sir Ralph, Introd. note, 
 p. xv. 
 
 Dowgell (priest) 141. 
 
 Downham, Dr. 348, seq. 
 
 Dracott, Mr. 587 note. 
 
 Driby 617. 
 
 Drury, Henry, Esq., of Lozell, 
 S.J. 587, 588, 590. 
 
 Duckett, George, Fr. S.J., Letter 
 of 437- 
 
 Dudley, Prebendary 231. 
 
 Dunstan 617. 
 
 East, Edward, Esq. 199. 
 
 Eccles, Henry, see Leech Hum- 
 phrey. 
 
 Eccleston, Dame 68. 
 
 Thomas, Fr. S.J. 582. 
 
 Edmund, Fr. O.S.B. 23. 
 
 Egmond, Count, Duke of Guel- 
 dres, Spanish Ambassador, 
 house attacked 514, 548 note; 
 collects relics of English mar- 
 tyrs. 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen 225, 236, seq.; 
 
 feigned plot to poison saddle. 
 Elliott, George (traitor) 586 note. 
 Ellis, William, S.J. (L.B.) 197. 
 Ely, Dr., alias Havard 150 — 
 
 154. 
 
 Bishop of 261 note, 291, 
 323. 
 
 Emerson, Mr. 577. 
 
 Ralph, S.J. (L.B.) 594. 
 Englefield, or Ingleby, Francis, 
 Mr. 205, 226. 
 
 English College, Rome 141. 
 
 Province, S.J., created 
 1623 ; its numbers 1. 
 Essex, Earl of 224, 225, 241 ; 
 Squire’s feigned plot against 
 236, seq. 
 
 Evans (priest) 14 1. 
 
 Everard, Henry, Esq. 399. 
 
 Thomas, Fr. S.J., Life of 
 399—409, 640. 
 
 Exeter (Cecil) Earl of 476, 479, 
 481, 494, 495, 497, 498, 501, 
 503 - 
 
 Faber, de Fabri, S.J. 148. 
 Fairclough, Alex. Fr. S.J. 95, 291. 
 Fairfax, Sir Thos. 560, 561. 
 Falconer, John, Fr. S.J. 95,303. 
 Falkland, Lady 408. 
 
 Faller (priest) 14 1. 
 
 Faunt, Ambrose 289. 
 
 Anthony 288. 
 
 Arthur L., Fr. S.J. notice 
 of 286, seq. 
 
 George 288. 
 
 William 286, 289. 
 
 Feria, Duke of 201 — 3, 206, 216, 
 227. 
 
 Field, Dr. Martin 171, 172. 
 Filby, Wm. (priest, martyr) 170. 
 Filcock, Fr. S.J., (martyr) 478. 
 Finch, John (martyr) 136, 138, 
 143, 144. 
 
 Finjean 587 note. 
 
 Fisher, Fr. S.J, 264. 
 
 Fitzherbert, Sir Anthony 198, 199 
 note. 
 
 Edward 217. 
 
 John 224, 229, 230, 587 
 note. 
 
 Nicholas 229, 230. 
 Richard 587 note. 
 
 Robert S.J. (Schol.) 230. 
 Thomas Sir 587 note. 
 
Alphabetical Index. 
 
 659 
 
 Thomas Fr. S.J. Life of 
 with pedigree, 198 seq. 
 Rector of Engl. Coll. 
 Rome 207 ; personal 
 narrative 207 — 13 ; his 
 writings 228, 229, 272 ; 
 Introduct. note p. xiv. 
 
 Fitzjames (priest) 141. 
 
 Flack, Fr. S.J. 142. 
 
 Fletcher, Mary, cured by Fr. 
 Arrowsmith 64 — 69. 
 
 Flint, Thomas, Fr., S.J. Life of 
 409 seq., 482 note. 
 
 Floyd, Henry, Fr. S.J. 235, 264, 
 626. 
 
 John, Fr. S.J. 185 note, 
 482 note. 
 
 Foljambes, Lady 587 note. 
 
 Forster, Anne (abbess) 456. 
 
 Christopher, Esq. 445. 
 
 Henry of Copdoke, S.J. 
 (lay-brother) 426 ; Life 
 of 444 — 56, with pedi- 
 gree ; his daughters 
 (nuns) 454 ; Introduct. 
 note, p. xvi. 
 
 Michael, Fr. S.J. 453, 455. 
 
 John, O.S.B. 453,454- 
 
 Joseph, Fr. S.J., writes 
 his father’s hist. 454, 
 455- 
 
 Thomas, Fr., S.J., dies 
 in Lincoln prison, 642, 
 
 643- 
 
 Fortescue, Adrian, Fr., S.J. 637. 
 
 Fossiter, Mr., Son of 317, seized 
 at school. 
 
 Foster, Francis, Fr. S.J., Provl. 
 23 2 , 233, 5° 6 seq. 
 
 Frank, John, traitor 576. 
 
 Freeman, merchant, conveyer of 
 priests, 142. 
 
 Fromantine (priest) 649. 
 
 Fulwood, Richard, S.J. (lay- 
 brother) 574, 576, 606. 
 
 Gages of H engrave Hall, 275 
 
 —7. 
 
 Col. Sir Henry, Bart., 
 510 seq., 520 seq. 
 
 Rev. Geo. 520 seq. 
 
 Thomas (apostate) 520 
 seq. 
 
 William, Fr. S.J. 520. 
 
 Gamadge, M.A. (priest) 141. 
 
 Garlick, Nicholas (martyr) 229. 
 
 Garnett, Anthony 432. 
 
 Henry, Fr. S.J. (martyr) 
 179, 251, 272, .315, 476, 
 480, 481, 503, 522, 525, 
 574, 576, 648. 
 
 Richard, Mr. 476 — 8. 
 Thomas, Fr. S.J. (martyr) 
 Life and martydom of 
 475—505- 
 
 George, Mrs. 5 87 note. 
 
 Gerard, John, Fr. S.J. 179, 217 
 218, 221, 266, 269, 400, 
 401, 418, 419, 439, 440, 
 480, 488, 574, 576, 5 77, 
 579, 58o, 590, 592, 636. 
 Margery 26. 
 
 Nicholas 26. 
 
 Sir Thomas, 26, 587 note. 
 Gifford, Gilbert 221. 
 
 Gilbert, Geo. S.J. 289. 
 
 Glasgow, Bishop of 221. 
 Glaslyer (priest) 586 note. 
 Goldwell, Geo. (priest) 587 note. 
 Gondomar, Count, (Sp.Ambass.) 
 95- 
 
 Goodman, Mr. 223. 
 
 Goodwin, Lady 587 note. 
 
 Sir John, son of 587 note. 
 Goss, Bp. Introd. note p. xi. 
 Gray (priest) 272, confession of 
 430 seq. 
 
 Green (priest) Intr. note p. xiii. 
 Green way, Anth. 7, Fr. (Tilney) 
 S. J., Life and narrative 41 1 seq. 
 Grey, Gilbert, Fr. S.J. (^Talbot). 
 Griffin (sen. and jun. priests) 141. 
 Grose, John (Felton) Fr. S.J. 
 (martyr in prison) 404, 637 
 seq. (life of) 642. 
 
 Gryvell, Mr. 589 note. 
 
 Gueldres, Duke of ( see Egmond, 
 Count). 
 
 Gurgune, John 577. 
 
 Gwyn (priest) 14 1. 
 
 Haddock, Dr. 141, 225. 
 Haddon House 589 note. 
 Halfcote, Stafford. 22. 
 
 Hall, Dr. Richard 135, 162 note. 
 Hammond, Dr. 163. 
 
 Hance (priest) 590. 
 
 Hankes, Christ, (priest) 136, 137. 
 Hanmer, Fr. S.J. 460. 
 
 Miss 459. 
 
 Mr. 324 seq. 
 
 Sir John 467. 
 
66 o 
 
 Alphabetical Index. 
 
 Hanmer, Sir Thomas 471, 473. 
 Harcourt, Robert 228. 
 
 Hare, Mr. Michael 483 note. 
 Harmon, Sir William 228. 
 Harris (priest) 141, 272, 432. 
 Harrison, Fr. 225. 
 
 Hart, John, Fr. S.J. 106 note, 
 132 note, 150, 151 note, 
 153 note, 326, 327 note. 
 William 33, 35, 53. 
 Hartley, Wm. 106 note, 132 note. 
 Hassell (priest) 141. 
 
 Hassold (priest) 141. 
 
 Hathersall, George 117. 
 
 Havard (see Ely, Dr.) 
 
 Mr., of Hurlston 117. 
 Hawarden’s cure by Fr. Arrow- 
 smith 61 — 64. 
 
 Hawkins, Fr. Henry 95. 
 
 Hay ter (priest) 586 note. 
 
 Healey, John, confession of 648. 
 Heburn (priest) 503. 
 
 Herst, Richard (martyr) 35, 36, 
 
 54 - 
 
 Heyton, Mr. Humphrey 589 note. 
 Hey wood, Jasper Fr. S.J. 106, 
 109, 1 3 1, 132, 327 note, 594. 
 Hickman (priest) 141. 
 
 Higgons, Theop. (apostate) 185. 
 Hodsheds, Mr. Henry 231. 
 Holder (bookseller) 589 note. 
 Holland, George (alias Holt, 
 Guy) 419. 
 
 Mr. Robert 136, 137. 
 Thomas, Fr. S.J. (martyr) 
 548 note. 
 
 Holt, Wm. Fr. S.J. 194, 222, 224, 
 2 5 I > 295, 349, 486. 
 
 Holtby, Rich. Fr. S.J. 222, 277, 
 490, 630, 631. 
 
 Hopkins, Mr. 220. 
 
 Hopton, Sir Owen, Lieut, of 
 Tower, 163, 164. 
 
 Hoskins, Anthony, Fr. S.J. 401. 
 Houghton, Thomas (priest) 136, 
 138. 
 
 Hudd, John Fr. S.J. 638, 640- 
 642 life, dies in Lincoln 
 prison. 
 
 Huddleston, Sir Edmund, 457. 
 Hudlston (priest) 114. 
 
 Hudson (priest) 586, 587 note. 
 Hughes (priest) 141. 
 
 Hull, Castle of, Catholics in 
 161, 162. 
 
 Hulme, Mr. Robert 137. 
 
 Hunt, Thos. Fr. S.J. Life of 
 294 seq. 
 
 Hugh, St. the great, of Lincoln 
 652. 
 
 St. the little, of Lincoln, 
 his coffin opened, &c. 652, 
 
 653- 
 
 Hutton, Dr. (Oxford) 183. 
 
 Richard (priest) 135, 136, 
 138, 143. 
 
 Hyde Park, origin of name, 543 
 note. 
 
 Hyneacre, Mr. 290. 
 
 Ignatius, St., College of 1 ; mi- 
 racles by use of blessed water 
 and pictures of 6 note, 17, 20 
 — 2. 
 
 Immaculate Conception, College 
 of, history 271, seq.; places 
 served, conversions, schools 
 seized upon, &c. 
 
 Ingatestone Hall 393, and see 
 Thorndon Hall. 
 
 Irnham 617. 
 
 Jackson, Dr. 141. 
 
 (priest) 587 note. 
 
 Richard (priest) 574. 
 
 Jarvis (priest) 141. 
 
 Jenison, Thos., Fr. S.J. 644. 
 
 Jenkins, Judge 561. 
 
 Jennings, Mrs., recusant 576. 
 
 Jerningham, Sir — , reconciled 
 to Church 571. 
 
 Jessopp, Dr. (Norwich) 261 note, 
 265, 269, 270. 
 
 Jewell, Mr. 370 — 2. 
 
 Johnson (priest) 141. 
 
 Rev. Mr., tortured in 
 Tower 160, 161, 165, 
 272. 
 
 Jones, Robert, Fr. S.J. 630, 631. 
 alias Buckley, O.S.F. 
 (martyr) 578. 
 
 Kellison, Dr. 29, 33. 
 
 Kerman 617. 
 
 Keynes, John, Fr. S.J Introd. 
 note, p. ix. 
 
 King (priest) 14 1. 
 
 Dr., V. C. Oxon. 183. 
 Adam (spy) 235. 
 
 Kingerby Hall 617, 649, 651. 
 
 Kirby, Rev. Luke (martyr) 160, 
 165, 170. 
 
A Iphabetical Index. 66 1 
 
 Knight, family of Snasford 651. 
 Richard, Fr. S.J. 651. 
 Mrs. 651. 
 
 Kyerton (priest) 14 1. 
 
 Lacey, Fr. Wm. 183. 
 Laithwaite, Thos., Fr. S.J. 482 
 note. 
 
 Lancashire District, S.J. ( vide 
 College of St. Aloysius.) 
 Langford, Mr. 272. 
 
 Lasnet, John, S.J. 266. 
 
 Latham, Edward, Fr. S.J. 522, 
 525 / 544 . 
 
 Thomas 419. 
 
 Laton, or Laughton, Gilbert 272. 
 Laud, Archbishop 317 note. 
 Lauren son, James, Fr. S.J., let- 
 ters of 652, 653. 
 
 Lea, Sir Thomas 272. 
 
 Leach, Humphrey, Fr. S.J., alias 
 Eccles, life of, conversion, ex- 
 pulsion from Oxford, &c. 18 1 
 — 9- 
 
 Lee, Rev. John (priest) 36. 
 
 alias Cooper (priest) 586 
 note. 
 
 Legge, Dr. 141. 
 
 Leicester, Earl of 265. 
 
 Leigh, Mr. John 137. 
 
 Lemos, Countess of 227. 
 
 Letoige, Capt. 307. 
 
 Leukner, Thos., Fr. S.J. 636, 637. 
 Levison, Mr. John 232. 
 
 Mr., school S.J. at his 
 house seized, vide also 
 Intr. note, p. xiv., xv. 
 Lincoln 617, 652. 
 
 Line, Mrs. Ann (martyr) 478. 
 Little Paunton 617. 
 
 Littleton, Mr. 587 note. 
 
 Locknell, John, Esq. 136, 137. 
 London, Richard, Bishop of, 
 letter 138, 139. 
 
 Longford, Mr. 587 note. 
 
 Loughe, Wm., Esq. 136, 137. 
 John 136. 
 
 Lovedus, Mr. 587 note. 
 
 Lovell, Troillus 228. 
 
 Lowe, John (priest) 138. 
 
 Lucas, Sir John 426. 
 
 Ludlam, Robert (martyr) 229. 
 Lumley, Mr. 311 note, 317. 
 Luther, 328, 329, 333, 334, seq. 
 Lutterell, Sir Andrew, 644 note. 
 Lythgoe, Rand., Fr. S.J. 651. 
 
 Mallett, (priest) 14 1. 
 
 Mann, John (Merton Coll.) 286. 
 Market Rasen 617. 
 
 Markham, Sir Griffin 634. 
 Marsh, Mrs. Catherine 136, 138. 
 Martin, Sir Roger 426. 
 
 Mason, Mr. 445 ; his daughters 
 448. 
 
 Massie, Esq. (of Hooton) 182. 
 Anne 137. 
 
 Masten Chaplain, Newgate 498. 
 Matthews, Sir Toby 276, 281. 
 
 Archbishop 350. 
 
 Maxfield, Humphrey, student 
 
 130, 131. 
 
 Mayler (priest) Intr. note, p. xiii. 
 Mercurian, Fr. Gen., letter of 
 610. 
 
 Metcalfe, Rev. Thomas 59, 61 
 note. 
 
 Mettam, Edward (priest) 153 
 note. 
 
 Lady 609. 
 
 Sir Thomas 609. 
 
 Thomas, Fr. S.J. (martyr 
 in prison) life of 608, 
 seq. 
 
 Milford, Mr. 587 note. 
 
 Modus vivendi hominum S.J., 
 1616 3, 
 
 Montague, Lord and Lady, 272, 
 587 note. 
 
 Dr. 333, 334, 336, 337, 
 339- 
 
 Henry, Attorney- General 
 491—6. 
 
 Lord, of Cowdray (pedi- 
 gree) 428 seq. 
 
 Moodie, Ann 137. 
 
 Moore, Edward 590 note. 
 
 Mr. 587 note, 589, 590. 
 Mora, Christovalde 242, 252. 
 More, Edward 419. 
 
 Henry, Fr. S.J. 303, 397 ; 
 letter to 410; life of 
 416 — 27 ; letters of 422, 
 seq. ; letters to 470, seq. 
 Sir Thomas 417. 
 
 Thomas, Fr. S.J. 417. 
 Morgan, Thomas 220, 221. 
 
 William, Fr. S.J. 301. 
 Mornay du Plessis 626. 
 
 Morphy, Cornelius, Fr. S.J. 24, 
 25- 
 
 Morren, or Murren, John (priest) 
 
 135, 136. 
 
662 
 
 Alphabetical Index . 
 
 Morris (priest) 141. 
 
 Morse, Henry, Fr. S.J. (martyr) 
 548 note. 
 
 Morton, Dr., Bishop of Durham 
 186 note, 276, 282, 283. 
 Morton (priest) 141. 
 Moulin, James T. (priest) 649. 
 
 Peter (priest) 649. 
 
 Mullen, John, Br. S.J. (narrative 
 of Bridget Conway’s cure by 
 Fr. Arrowsmith) 69. 
 
 Mumford, Jas., Fr. S.J., life of 
 
 457—9- 
 
 Munday, William 2 50 ; Squiers’ 
 plot 236 seq. 
 
 Musgrave, Mr. 649. 
 
 Napper, Mrs. 587 note. 
 
 Nelson 222. 
 
 Fr. S.J. 306. 
 
 Neville, Lady 307. 
 of Holt 315. 
 
 Nicolas (priest) 648. 
 Newman, Edward, Esq., Introd. 
 note, p. xv. 
 
 Newton, Rev. Richard, alias 
 Fawcett 649. 
 
 Norris, Andrew Fr. S.J. 651. 
 Cuthbert ( vide Clifton). 
 Richard (priest) 132 note, 
 (priest) 586 note. 
 Silvester, Fr. S.J. 482 
 note. 
 
 Northumberland, Earl of 609. 
 Nutter, Robert (priest) 106 note, 
 132 note. 
 
 Oldcorne, Fr. Edward (martyr) 
 222. 
 
 Orton, Mr. Henry 132 note, 165. 
 Oscliffe (priest) seized 144. 
 Owen, Hugh 220, 222, 224, 225, 
 227. 
 
 Nicholas, Br. S.J. (martyr) 
 
 574, 577- 
 
 Thomas, Fr. S.J. 199, 205, 
 
 419, 439, 440. 
 
 Ozither, Sir 426. 
 
 Paget, Charles 220, 221, 227. 
 Lord 220. 
 
 Palmer, Ferdinand, Fr. S.J. 3, 
 18, 19. 
 
 Sir Thomas, conversion 
 of 256 note. 
 
 Parkinson, Dr. 141. 
 
 Parkinson Mr. (priest) 141. 
 
 Parr, Edward 419 note. 
 
 (priest) Intr. note, p. xiii. 
 
 Parsons, Robert, Fr. S.J. 77, 
 107 note, hi; Wm. Worthing- 
 ton’s letter to 112; 133, 139, 
 141, 1 51 note, 153, 154 note, 
 158, 165, 166, 168, 170 note, 
 181, 201, 205, 216, 220, 221, 
 222, 225 — 7, 229, 272, 276, 
 289, 290, 319, 326, 333, 381, 
 478, 589 note, 626, 630, In- 
 trod. note, p. xiii. 
 
 Pascal, Mr. and Mrs. 587 
 note. 
 
 Pawlett, Lady 587 note. 
 
 Payne (priest) 586 note, 589 
 note. 
 
 Peake (priest) 141. 
 
 Peckham, Edmund 587 note. 
 
 George 587 note. 
 
 Pelham, Fr. S.J. 630. 
 
 Pembroke, Lady 587 note. 
 
 Penalty, Fr. S.J. 258. 
 
 Penkeville, John, statement of 
 to Cecil, 257. 
 
 Pennington, John 419 note. 
 
 Percival (priest) 141. 
 
 Percy, John Fr. S.J. 633. 
 
 Lady Mary 576. 
 
 Perkins, Sir Christ. 340 note, 
 
 34L 365- 
 
 Persal, John 256. 
 
 Persall (Peshall) Sir John, Intro, 
 note p. xv. 
 
 Petre, Belhouse (or Stanfield 
 Rivers), Fidlers, and 
 Cranham branches of, 
 with Pedigree 585. 
 
 Charles Fr. S.J. 586. 
 
 Francis (bishop) 68, 69. 
 
 John Esq. (S.J. lay-bro- 
 ther) 585. 
 
 John, Fr. S.J. 585. 
 
 Lady, sen. 425, 427, 587, 
 588 note. 
 
 Lady, the younger 587 
 note. 
 
 Lord Robert 416, 421, 
 Introd. note, p. xvi. 
 
 Lord Robert Edward 583. 
 
 Lord William (founds 
 Coll, of Holy Apostles) 
 his letters, &c. 398 ; his 
 death, &c. 42 1 ; Introd. 
 note, p. xvi. 
 
Alphabetical Index. 663 
 
 Lord William Francis 
 Henry 583. 
 
 Richard, Fr. S.J. 586. 
 
 1. Robert, Fr. S.J. 585. 
 
 2. Robert, Fr. S.J. 586. 
 
 3. Robert, Fr. S.J. 586, 
 Introd. note, p. xvi. 
 
 Sir Edw. Fr. S.J. 586. 
 
 Sir John 587, 588 note. 
 Sir William 587, 588 note. 
 The Lords 393— 395> 397, 
 seq. 416. 
 
 Thomas, Fr. S.J. 585. 
 Phelippes (decipherer) 221 seq. 
 Physter (priest) 586 note. 
 Pineda, Fr. S.J. 257. 
 
 Pitts, Arthur (priest) 132 note. 
 
 (priest) 14 1, 586 note. 
 Plowden, Edmund, Esq. 168. 
 Pole, Cardinal 289, 429. 
 
 German 290, 291. 
 Gervase, Fr. S.J., Life of 
 289 seq., exam. 292, 
 293 . 
 
 Henry (priest) 298. 
 
 John, Fr. S.J. 291, 316. 
 Popham, Lord Chief Justice 142, 
 168. 
 
 Potts, John (Oxon.) 286. 
 
 Mr. (priest) 141. 
 
 Robert (priest) 141. 
 Pounde, Mr. Henry 608. 
 
 Thomas, S.J. 145, 148 
 note, 152 note, 593 seq., 
 (addenda to his life) ; 
 letter of 601, 612, 613. 
 Poulton, Thomas, S.J. 419 note. 
 Powtrell, Mr. 587 note. 
 
 Poyntz, Wm. Step. Esq. 430. 
 Pugh (priest) 503. 
 
 Purchwell (priest) 141. 
 
 Purfrey, Michael 288. 
 
 Raighley, Lady 332. 
 
 Raines, Canon, Intr. note, p. xi. 
 seq. 
 
 Ravis, Dr. (bishop) 185 note, 
 483 seq., 496. 
 
 Reaper, Mr. 272. 
 
 Reasby, 617. 
 
 Recusants in Lancashire, Wales, 
 and England 34 note, 140. 
 Richardson, L. (priest, martyr) 
 170 seq. 
 
 Ridcall, Mr. 272. 
 
 Rigby, Mrs. 137. 
 
 Rigmarden, John (gaoler, Lan- 
 caster) 59, 60. 
 
 Rishton, Edw. (priest) 106 note, 
 132 note, 1 50, 1 53 note ; letter 
 from Tower 160, 165. 
 
 Roberts, Fr. 142. 
 
 Robinson, spy (see Sterrell). 
 Rogers, Gerard, Br. S.J., Life of 
 44i. 
 
 Mr. Thomas 371. 
 
 Mr. William 587 note, 
 (spy) Letter of 220. 
 
 Rolfe, Mr. 346 seq. 
 
 Rolles, Lord Chief Justice 520 
 seq. 
 
 Rolleston, 587, 589 notes. 
 Rookwood, Miss Eliz. 445. 
 
 Thomas ( see Garnett, 
 Thomas). 
 
 Roper, Thomas 589 note. 
 
 Ross, Bishop of 220. 
 
 Rouse, Anthony (apostate) 483, 
 496. 
 
 Rousham, Stephen (martyr) 601. 
 Rydgeley, Sir Robt. 574. 
 
 Sadler (priest) 141. 
 
 Salisbury, Earl of 228, 267, 277. 
 
 Countess of 429. 
 
 Sancroft, Dr. 466. 
 
 Sankey, Francis, Fr. S. J. 41 1, 569. 
 Mr. 1 16 — 18. 
 
 Mrs. 137. 
 
 Saunders, Dr. 157, 158, 172. 
 Saunderson, Rev. Mr. 649. 
 Sawyer, Thomas (see Garnett, 
 Thomas). 
 
 “Scavenger’s daughter” 159. 
 Scots, Mary Queen of 206, 216. 
 
 King of 223, 225, 243. 
 Scott (priest) 586 note. 
 
 Ralph (priest) 136, 137. 
 Scudamore (alias Wiseman) 576, 
 577- 
 
 Sedgwick, Mrs. Lucy 136, 138. 
 Seminaries abroad 140. 
 
 Seville English College 77 note, 
 141- 
 
 Sharp, James, Fr. S.J. life, 617 
 seq. 
 
 Shefford, Arthur 221. 
 
 Shelford House, 306. 
 
 Sheppard (alias Chapman, priest) 
 586 note. 
 
 Sherwin, Ralph (priest and 
 martyr) 160, 165, 170, 326. 
 
’664 
 
 Alphabetical Index. 
 
 Shert (priest) 586 note. 
 
 Shirley, Mr. 58 7 note. 
 Shrewsbury, Earl of 224, 229. 
 
 Countess of 224. 
 
 Silisdon, Henry S.J. ( see Beding- 
 field). 
 
 Skelton, Mrs. Frances 469. 
 Skeventon (priest) ^Ainsworth. 
 Skinner (priest) tortured 160. 
 Slack, Richard (priest) 132. 
 Sledd (traitor) 149 seq. 
 Smartford (priest) 141. 
 
 Smith, Mr. 587 note. 
 
 Nicholas, Fr. S.J. 291. 
 Smith, Wm. (priest) 132 
 note, 586 note. 
 
 Wm. (spy) Letter to Cecil 
 226. 
 
 Smythe (priest) 225. 
 
 Snowden, John (spy) 221. 
 Southwell, Rob. Fr. S.J. (martyr) 
 417, 566 miracles by. 
 Southworth, Sir John 136, 137. 
 (priest) martyr 47, 54, 59, 
 73 - 
 
 Spencer, John, Fr. S.J. Life of 
 194. 
 
 Spinkhill Mission 316. 
 
 Squire’s feigned plot 228 seq. 
 
 St. Dominic (see College of St. 
 Hugh). 
 
 St. Hugh, College of, Hist. &c. 
 617. 
 
 vSt. Main Hy. (see Sterrell). 
 
 St. Omer’s College 141. 
 
 St. Paul’s Cross 283. 
 
 St. Winefrid’s.Well, Pilgrimage 
 to 408. 
 
 Stafford, 196. 
 
 Sir Edward 272. 
 
 Standen, Sir Anthony (letter) 227. 
 Stanford, Wm. Esq. and John, 
 his son, Intr. note, p. xv. 
 Stanhope, Daniel 419 note. 
 Stanhopes, The 224. 
 
 Stanley Grange and School, S.J. 
 326. 
 
 Stanley, John 241, 242. 
 
 Sir Wm. 226, 248, 251. 
 Stanney, Thomas, Fr. S.J. 482 
 note. 
 
 Stephens (priest) 225. 
 Stephenson, Thos. Fr. S.J. 132, 
 note. 
 
 Sterrell (spy) 221, 222, 224. 
 Stevens, Thos. Fr. S.J. 595, 606. 
 
 Story, Dr. ( martyr) 1 70 note. 
 Strange, Fr. S.J. 232, 476. 
 Studyes, Sir Henry 426. 
 Supremacy, Oaths of 81. 
 Sutcliffe, Dr. 372. 
 
 Suttons (priests 3) 586 note. 
 Sweet (priest) 141. 
 
 John, Fr. S.J. 225. 
 Sweetnan, John, Fr. 95. 
 Swinbourne, Simon, Fr. S.J. 409. 
 Swinnerton 128. 
 
 T albot, Adrian, S. J.,see F ortescue 
 Gilbert (Earl Shrewsbury) 
 Fr. S.J. 582. 
 
 Mr. 587, 588 note. 
 Thomas, Fr. S.J. 418, 440, 
 482, 504, letter of. 
 Talman, see More, Fr. Henry. 
 Tancred, Charles, Fr. S.J. 242. 
 Tarleton, Mrs. 137. 
 
 Tempest, Dr. 141. 
 
 Mr. (priest) 141, 221. 
 Nicholas, Fr. S.J. 3. 
 
 Rev. Edmund 368 note. 
 Thimelly, Family of 643 note. 
 Richard, Fr. S.J., alias 
 Ashby 643. 
 
 Thirkell (priest) 586 note. 
 Thirlby, see Ely, Bishop of. 
 Thompson, Christopher (priest) 
 132 note, 586, 589 note. 
 Thorndike, Dr. 464. 
 
 Thorndon Hall, Royal visit to, 
 &c. 582. 
 
 Thornton, see Blackfan. 
 Throgmorton, Thomas 220, 230. 
 Thursby (priest) 141. 
 
 Tildesley, Ann (Lady Clifton) 9 
 note ; Introduce note, 
 p. xi. 
 
 Sir Thomas, Introd. note, 
 p. xi. 
 
 Tixall Hall 233. 
 
 Todd (priest) 586 note. 
 
 Topcliff (priest hunter) 130, 13 1 
 note, 172, 173, 224 ; extract 
 from letter of 271, 430 ; 
 Introd. note p. xiv. 
 
 Townley, John, Esq. 136, 137. 
 Trafford, Sir Edmund 135. 
 Travers, Fr. S.J. 460 — 463, 469, 
 470. 
 
 Mr. Mattw. 136, 137. 
 Tresham, Sir Thomas 223. 
 Trevan, Mr. 587 note. 
 
Alphabetical Index. 
 
 665 
 
 Treville, Mr. and Mrs. 587 note. 
 
 Trevor (priest) 141. 
 
 Triessemius, Wm. (publisher) 
 458. 
 
 Turner, Anthony, Fr. S.J. (mar- 
 tyr) 308 note. 
 
 Edward, Fr. S.J. (con- 
 fessor) 308 note. 
 
 Mrs. (their mother) 308 
 note. 
 
 John 232. 
 
 Tyburn gallows 170. 
 
 Tyrrell (priest) 141. 
 
 Anthony, S.J. 232. 
 
 Umpton (priest) 141. 
 
 Underhill, see Poulton, Thomas. 
 
 Upton (priest) 250. 
 
 Valladolid, English College 
 78 note, 141. 
 
 Vaux family 265. 
 
 Ann Hon. 315— 3 1 7, 643 
 note. 
 
 Lord 315, 316. 
 
 Vavasour, Dr. 651. 
 
 Henry 651 note. 
 
 James 651 note. 
 
 John 651 note. 
 
 Richard 232. 
 
 Thomas 651 note. 
 
 Verstegan, Mr. Richard 257. 
 
 Vincent, Judas 289. 
 
 Vivendimodus horn. S.J. (1616) 3. 
 
 Wade, Sir Wm. (Gov. of Tower) 
 277, 476, 488, 489, 496. 
 
 or Ward (priest) 586 note. 
 
 Wadham College 398 note. 
 
 Wadsworth, James 216. 
 
 Wallis, Francis, Fr. S.J. 95. 
 
 Walpole Family S.J. Pedigree 
 235 - 
 
 Calibut Wm., Esq. 235 
 note. 
 
 Christopher, Fr. S.J. 235 
 note, 269. 
 
 Edward, Fr. S.J., Life of 
 235 note, 258 — 265. 
 
 Henry, Fr. S.J. (martyr) 
 258, 259, 265, 269, 576, 
 59a 
 
 John, Esq. 258. 
 
 Michael, Fr. SJ. 262, 265, 
 266, 269 ; letters of 
 500 seq. 
 
 Richard, Fr. S.J. 225, 228, 
 Life of 235—258 ; 
 Squires’ sham plot to 
 poison Queen 236 seq. 
 
 William, Esq. 261 note. 
 
 Walsingham, Edward, Esq. 318. 
 
 Sir Francis 318. 
 
 Francis, Fr. S.J. 299,306, 
 Life of 318 — 389; Epist. 
 to James I. 320; me- 
 morial to 331 ; confer- 
 ences with Archbp. of 
 Canterbury and others 
 333 seq. ; ditto with Dr. 
 Downham 350 seq. ; 
 final conversion 373 
 seq. ; letter to his uncle, 
 379 ; enters English 
 College, Rome 381,382; 
 and returns to England; 
 writings of 383 seq.' 
 
 Humphrey, Alderman 
 323 ; letter to 379. 
 
 Ward, George, Fr. S.J. 303. 
 
 Warmington, Wm. (priest) 132 
 note, 503. 
 
 Warner, Dr. Edward 469 seq. 
 
 Francis, Esq. 459, 460, 
 468, 469, 471, 472 death 
 of. 
 
 Lady (Sister Clare of 
 Jesus) 459 seq. 
 
 Mr. Edmund 473. 
 
 Miss Elizabeth (nun) 459, 
 463, 469. 
 
 Sir John (bart.), (Fr. John 
 Clare, S.J.) Life of 459 
 — 474 . 
 
 Susan and Catherine, their 
 daughters 469, 472. 
 
 Waterworth, Wm., Fr. S.J. 301. • 
 
 Watham, schoolm. 587 note. 
 
 Watson, Dr., Catholic Bishop of 
 Lincoln 162. 
 
 Weedon, Edmund 419 note. 
 
 Westmoreland, Earl of 588 note. 
 
 Weston, Dr. Thomas 419 note. 
 
 alias Edmonds, Fr. S.J. 
 180, 593, 594, 597, 605, 
 606, 612, 613, 633. 
 
 Wharton, Lady 587 note. 
 
 White, Andrew, Fr. S.J., 482 
 
 Whitlock, Sir James (judge) 38, 
 
 46. 
 
 Whittall, Mr.. 587 note. 
 
 “Widow’s mite, the” 43 note. 
 
666 
 
 Alphabetical Index. 
 
 Wilkinson, Henry, Fr. S.J. 306, 
 309 - 
 
 Thomas 232. 
 
 Williamson, Thomas (priest) 
 
 I 35> 136, 138, 143- 
 
 Willis, Ralph 576. 
 
 Wilmar, Sir Wm. Introd. note, 
 p. xv. 
 
 Wilson (martyr, priest) 141. 
 
 William (priest) 136, 137. 
 
 Winchester, Marquis of 51 1, 515, 
 516, 524, 527. 
 
 Windsor, Lord 272. 
 
 Wisbeach Castle and Catholic 
 prisoners 162, 575, 592, 609, 
 612, 613. 
 
 Wiseman, Mr. 226. 
 
 Of Braddox, and family, 
 S.J., &c. 574, seq. 
 
 Wolverhampton 234. 
 
 Woodhouse, Mr. and Mrs. 250. 
 
 Woods, Thomas (priest) 136 — 
 138. 
 
 Wootton, Hon. Pickering, his 
 conversion and death 
 253—256. 
 
 Sir Henry 228, 253. 
 
 The Lord 253, 256. 
 
 Worcester, Bishop of 223. 
 
 Worsley, Mr. Ralph 136, 137. 
 
 Worthington family 75 (Pedi- 
 gree 133), 189, Introd. 
 note p. xiii. 
 
 Agnes 1 13, 134. 
 
 Conflict of four boys 
 Worthingtons (John, 
 Richard, Robert, Thos.) 
 1 16 — 132. 
 
 James 134. 
 
 John, Fr. S.J., Founder of 
 Lancashire district 2 ; 
 Life of 75 — 94; his nar- 
 rative 81 — 94; addenda 
 133, 134, 189. 
 
 Lawrence 75 ; Life of 95 
 — 103 ; letter of 96— 
 100, 134 note. 
 
 Peter 134. 
 
 Thomas, DD. S.J. 75 ; 
 Life of 104 — no, 1 16, 
 1 17, 130,131,132 notes, 
 134, 140, 203, 204. 
 William, Fr. S.J. , miracu- 
 lous cure of &c. in — 
 H5. 
 
 Wright, Dr. 135. 
 
 Mr. (priest) 141. 
 
 Thomas (priest) 278. 
 William, Fr. S.J. 272 ; 
 Life of 275 — 286, 581. 
 Wyndems (priest) 141. 
 
 Xavier, Francis. St., Coll, of 
 1 ; seizure of residence at 
 Combe 300. 
 
 Yates, Mr. 587 note. 
 
 alias Boulton (priest) 
 Introd. note p. xiii. 
 Yelverton, Sir Henry (judge) 35, 
 38—40, 42, 43, 46; death of 
 54- 
 
 York, William, Fr. S.J. 95. 
 Young, G., Esq. 649, 651, 652, 
 653. 
 
 John, Esq. 651. 
 
 Family of 651. 
 Thomas, A., Esq. 651. 
 Younge (priest) 14 1. 
 
 Francis, Fr. S.J., 95 ; 
 short life of 100, 10 1 ; 
 letter of 102, 103, 256 ; 
 Introd. note p. xiii. 
 Rev. Dr. 162. 
 
 Zueda, Countess de 417. 
 
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