President Wi-hte Library. Cornell University. Date Due BX3716 T2™" ""'"'■*'*'' '-""■^'^ "'®*Sii}iiiiniiiiitei.i^l!SH,'** '" England 1580- olin 3 1924 029 413 592 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029413592 THE JESUITS IN ENGLAND ROBERT PARSONS, S.J. 1546- 1 610 THE HISTORY OF THE JESUITS IN ENGLAND 1580-1773 BY ETHELRED L. TAUNTON AUTHOR OF "~^ "THE ENGLISH BLACK MONKS OF ST. BENEDICT" ETC. WITH TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON 1901 T PREFACE In this book I deal with the subject of the Jesuits only so far as they belong to English History. With their purely domestic aifairs I have but little to do,; and only touch upon them in so far as they may be necessary for understanding the formation and ideals of men who set out to accomplish a definite work. It therefore enters into the scope of this work to attempt to discover the end they aimed at, and the means they employed to advance it. The subject of the English Jesuits demands study. It is necessary for a full understanding of certain episodes in English History ; and the bearing on the general subject of what may at first seem to be despicable ecclesiastical squabbles, that is to say the struggles between the Jesuits and the Clergy, is seen to be profoundly important when the principle beneath the dispute is laid bare. Besides the question of the mutual relations of the principles of Authority and Personality which must affect the well-being of any State, the Clergy were sufferers for Patriotism. The Jesuits, as a body, stood for the Catholic Reaction, from first to last, a political expedient. The Clergy, on the other hand, contented them- selves with the cause of Religion. It is strange that hitherto the subject of the English Jesuits has been practically left untouched. More's Latin History has never been translated ; but perhaps his indiscreet admis- sions may account for the neglect. Foley's eight volumes of Records cannot be taken as a history of the body to which he belonged. They are only a collection or, rather, selection viii PREFACE of documents. Foley's value consists almost as much in his omissions as in his admissions. And I am bound to remark that I have found him, at a critical point, quietly leaving out, without any signs of omission, an essential part of a document which was adverse to his case. His volumes of Records cannot, I regret to have to say it openly, be taken as trustworthy, unless corroborated by more scrupulous writers. Still stranger is it that no adequate Life of Robert Parsons has been attempted either by his Society or anyone else. And yet he played no small part in the history of his times. During his lifetime, and for a short period after it, the Jesuits came into contact with the making of English history. In the eyes of the world Parsons was their^ one great man ; and now, with the exception of Henry Garnett and Edward Petre, there is hardly the name of another English Jesuit known to the ordinary reader. And I do not think this general estimate is wrong. The personality of Robert Parsons overshadows the whole book ; for, as a matter of fact, he is the History of the English Jesuits ; and his successors, men of but little originality of their own, were content, when they had the chance, to put into practice what his fertile brain had conceived as desirable. I venture to think I have found the key to his character. Puritanism certainly at one time influenced him ; and his after-life shows how strong in him was this bias. Now, Puritanism, which I take it is not so much a religious as a mental attitude, gives a consistency to his life and to the efforts of those who set themselves to carry out his policy. I may add I did not approach the subject with this theory in my mind ; and it was not until I had the facts of the case before me that I realised the importance of the Puritan episodes in Parsons' life at Oxford. There is, however, another side to the story of the English Jesuits, and it is one I have been careful to point out. PREFACE ix While Parsons and his followers only succeeded in achieving a brilliant failure, they were acute enough to snatch the credit of Campion, Southwell, Thomas Garnett and others, who did the better and more fitting work. These, it seems to me, are the true heroes of the Society in England. Their lives and aspirations were pure and Christlike. They were men devoted to what they considered the work of the Gospel ; and with the earnest cry of their life's blood pleaded for the rights of conscience. I am prepared to hear regrets that I have introduced what some may call " contentious matter." This is unavoid- able, and must, in the interests of truth, be approached with fearless steps. The fact of the case is, that the history of the English Jesuits is, in the main, one long contention. And if to-day are still felt the effects of disputes which began in the sixteenth century, it surely makes for peace to know the cause. I have felt considerably at times an inclination to get relief from the task I accepted ; and it has been only the serious nature of the principles at stake that has enabled me to carry it on to completion. It is very often the case that principles are best studied when they are seen at work on a small stage; for then the real methods and ways appear, and the attention of the observer is not distracted by a multiplicity of details which may or may not have a vital connection with the agencies at work. And because the stage to which I invite the reader's attention is small, I must ask that this book be taken as a whole, and so judged ; for each detail is only seen in its true light when considered in its relation to the complete story. This much I will say for myself. I have tried to follow one of Robert Parsons' own sayings : " A man is to be judged, not by words, but by deeds, which have the truest weight of affection or disaffection." Hence I have not always been able to accept the estimates of Jesuit writers such as More or Foley, Constable or Plowden, to say nothing of Jouvency, Tanner, X PREFACE and Bartoli. With strict impartiality I have weighed what they had to say, but often found that they have not taken into consideration the forcible logic of facts. Domestic affection and a certain timidity in judging their superiors are, perhaps, in themselves admirable qualities in the Society ; but they are not such in historians. Indeed, one of these writers nafvely remarks that, "a too keen feeling of that natural partiality which attaches individuals to their own Society . . . always compensates by a thousand advantages the transitory diminution of good which it sometimes occasions." In view of such writers one is reminded of the saying that while few bodies of men have met with such opposition and hatred as the Jesuits, few have suffered more from the adulation of friends. It has been my endeavour to steer clear of these ex- tremes. We profess to want Truth; and Truth is not served by party spirit. Hence I neither suppress anything nor explain anything away; but, as far as possible, I have thought it well to allow the actors to tell their story in their own words. In order to be unhampered with obligations, I have preferred to work, almost entirely, from authorities, manuscript or printed, which are within easy reach of the public. In these days when archives are opened to all, an abundance of light is poured in on historical matters, and an author can proceed with a firm and sure hand in unravelling the Records of the Past. E. L. T. London, October 17, 1900. CONTENTS PAGE Preface . . . . . . . ' . vii CHAPTER I The Origin of the Society ..... i-ig CHAPTER II Robert Parsons ....... 14-25 CHAPTER III Parsons joins the Society ..... 26-46 CHAPTER IV The Jesuit Mission ...... 47-85 CHAPTER V Plots and Schemes ...... 86-129 CHAPTER VI At Work in Spain .... . 130-154 CHAPTER VII Broils in England, Rome, and Flanders . . 155-198 CHAPTER VIII Parsons "in curiA" .... • . 199-243 CHAPTER IX Subjugating the Clergy ... . 244-273 CHAPTER X The Gunpowder Plot ... . . 274-331 CHAPTER XI Breaking the Barriers . . . . . . 332-350 xi xii CONTENTS CHAPTER XII PACE The Oath . • 351-365 CHAPTER XIII I A Life's Tragedy . • 366-396 CHAPTER XIV The Turning of the Tide . 397-432 433-461 462-474 475-496 497-513 CHAPTER XV The Golden Day CHAPTER XVI Failure Appendix Index LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGB Robert Parsons . . Frontispiece St. Ignatius of Loyola Edmund Campion . Claude Aquaviva . Societatis Functiones . 27 83 131 153 Regnorum et Provinciarum per Societatem conversio . 233 Henry Garnett 274 HiNDLip House . ... 306 A True Narrative of the Horrid Hellish Popish Plot . . . . 440 Edward Petre . . ^gj The College at St. Omer . . . 472 THE ENGLISH JESUITS CHAPTER I THE ORIGIN OF THE SOCIETY In 1378 Christendom met with a blow which shook it to the very foundations. Weakened already by the seventy years' captivity of Avignon, where the chief Pastor was looked upon, practically, as the tool of France, when Gregory xi. broke his gilded chain and set his face towards the Eternal City, the Papacy had, as the world might judge, a desperate future before it. The election of his successor, Urban vi., was, within a few months, opposed by some of the cardinals who had given him their votes. An antipope was set up ; and thus began the Great Schism which, lasting for thirty-nine years, did much to make the Reformation possible. And in this way. As Pope after Pope was met by an antipope, Christian Europe was distracted by rival claims. While Germany, England, and Italy held to the Roman line, France, Naples, Savoy, Castile, Aragon, Navarre, Scotland, and Lorraine recognised the opponents who sat at Avignon. Evils were inevitable ; and became apparent in two great forms. The principle of Authority, which had hitherto bound men to the Pope as the centre of Unity, became weakened. Nay, it was even now set upon a wrong basis. No longer were the divine Promises made the ground of the claim to obedience ; but both parties relied on the recognition of the States, and counted themselves specially fortunate if supported by any of the great institutions of learning. The second form the evil took was that Morality was set I 2 THE ENGLISH JESUITS at naught in the high places, and the practice of the Gospel was in danger of being forgotten by its teachers. The Libido dominandi against which St. Bernard had warned Pope Eugenius, seems to have at last overpowered every other consideration. The Kingdom of this world was set up above the Kingdom of heaven. For years discontent had existed among the flock. The rapacity of the Papal Curia, and the exactions made in all countries for the benefit of foreigners, had caused bitter com- plaints. Temporal pretensions were claimed as spiritual rights ; and men found it hard to draw the line which ought to be clear and distinct between the two. Loud cries went up from a distracted Christendom. Many were the attempts to bring about a reunion. Saints sighed, and the Church mourned her unworthy pastors. It was seen by all good men that there was needed a Reformation that would touch not only the members but also the head ; for the whole body was diseased. The wiser thinkers of the day, while keeping inviolate the spiritual prerogatives of the Vicar of Christ, saw clearly that his true position was endangered by the abuses he had allowed to surround him. It did not require much foresight to know if these were allowed to continue, the result would be that the office itself could be attacked. Men will not go on for ever distinguishing between the office and the person. This is always an effort ; and if for too long a period patience be strained to the snapping-point, it must at last give way. The desperate disease called for a desperate remedy. A Council without a head was convoked by the cardinals of either party in 1 409 at Pisa, wherein it was decreed : that the shameless misconduct and excesses of both claimants were notorious, and that as scandal was imminent and delay might be dangerous, immediate action should be taken against them. In due course both claimants were declared perjured and cut off from the Church,^ and another Pope (Alexander V.) was elected. The only result of this measure was that now three Popes, instead of two, held the field. The whole theory of government was upset, and men began to mistake the very nature of the Church. The body was put before the head ; whereas the two are inseparable. From its very nature the 'Cf, I^ptA NEAPO^T.V GENERALIS . CLAUDE AyUAVIVA, S.J. LllLNEUAL OF THE SOCIETY, I581 — 1615 J-'roi/t ait fiixyti-'-'i'ix i'y Wierx AT WORK m SPAIN 131 raid on the Jesuit house, and secured all their papers. A regular schism now broke out. At a congregation of the province; Fr. Denis Vasquez demanded that the Spanish Jesuits should be governed, as were the Dominicans^ by a Commissary, independent of the General. Aquaviva attempted to move out of Spain some of the infected fathers ; but th6 Inquisition forbade any Jesuits of the Peninsula to leave the King's dominions, even to go to Rome, without their leave. This last made Sixtus v. very angry. "What!" exclaimed he, "do they dare mock us in this way, and arrogate themselves the right to prevent appeals ; to our Apostolic Chair ? Men we have ordered to send in to us the acts of the case of Marcenius, and who have dared' to disobey us ! " He at once sent a strict order to Cardinal Quivoga, the Grand Inquisitor of Spain, to give up at once all papers belonging to the Society, and to forward the process against the Jesuits, adding with his own hand: "If you don't instantly obey, I, the Pope, will depose you of your office of Grand Inquisitor, and will take off your cardinal's hat." Sixtus V. meant business. He was glad,, too, of this opportunity of having the Constitution of the Society brought officially before - his notice, so that he might make certain radical changes he was already contem- plating as necessary for the welfare of the Church. At the same time Philip was formulating a policy of his own. He hald lately appointediManriquez, bishop of Carthagena, as royal visitor over all the religious houses in his kingdorh. His intention was to establish a certain harmony in the various constitutions, and to have something to say in their methods of government. The Jesuits, even those in rebellion, saw the danger to their independence. They united to ward off the blow. They appealed to the Pope and to the King. Sixtus counselled certain modifications ; the King demanded other changes in the Constitution for which the Spanish fathers were clamouring. Aquaviva did not consider it his duty to accept either the Pope's counsels or the King's wishes, which he formed the hope, as we know, of rendering Rome more decidedly than it ever yet was the metropolis of Christendom. Aquaviva assured him that the object really laboured for in Spain was no other than increased independence of Rome " (ibid. ii. p. 85). 132 THE ENGLISH JESUITS thought destructive of the very essence of the Society. He began a series of masterly negotiations with Pope and King. But as Philip was personally adverse to the General, Parsons was sent to Spain to use his address, and detach the King from the position he had taken up. He succeeded on the point of the visitor ; and the King allowed Aquaviva to nominate one visitor, while he appointed another for his houses in Spain.^ But it was not until after the death of Clement Vlll. (1605) that the Spanish disturbances quieted down. The business concluded, why did not Parsons return to Rome? It appears that the tension which certainly now existed between Allen and the Jesuits, had something to do with his remaining in Spain. In A Reply to Fr. Parsons' Libel, by W. C, one of the most temperate of all the books written against him, this reason is openly given. " Into which the worthy Cardinal Allen, looking more narrowly, saw right well, and therefore detected such proceedings in his latter days as you may plainly see in Mr. Charles Paget's answer for himself, in the end of Dr. Ely's books against the Apology. Where also you may perceive how far he was from going with Fr. Parsons or favouring his proceedings, whom he held for a man of a violent and headstrong spirit, and much complained thereof. And if it had so pleased God that he had lived, Fr. Parsons would have found that he had disliked his courses, and ' In 1592, at the request of the King, who voiced the claims of Spanish faction, the Pope, during the absence of Aquaviva from Rome, on a mission to the Dukes of Parma and Mantua, gave orders that a General Congregation should be summoned. Aquaviva had always opposed the meeting of this, the supreme, authority. The General felt the same repugnance to a General Congregation as the Popes had to a Council. By securing the election of deputies, the General, according to a memorial addressed to Clement viii., was able to domineer with supreme authority, swaying everything to his will, fearing no one and browbeating all, pulling down the great and most deserving men of the Society, almost killing them, and thus sacrificing the public good to private favour. But he had to compromise. " What had been refused to the King was now commanded by the Pope. By the plentitude of his apostolic power he determined and ordained that the assistants and rectors should be changed every three years, and at the expiration of every sixth year a General Congregation should be assembled " (Ranke, p. 87). This, however, did not secure obedience. Nearly fifteen years of domestic commotions passed before the next (VI.) congregation assembled (1608). AT WORK m SPAIN 133 would have curbed him for them. But he lived not, and some say his death was not without suspicion. It is certain that whilst he lived Fr. Parsons kept himself aloof in Spain, but after his death he hastened him, as soon as he could conveniently, to Rome." ^ This seems to be a sufficient reason. Parsons dare not openly oppose Allen, who was now, more than ever, the superior of English ecclesiastical affairs. Instead of removing Allen from the head as he had hoped, the destruction of the Armada had resulted in keeping him at Rome in a more powerful position. Another attempt, however, was made soon after, through Philip, to remove him from Rome by appointing him Archbishop of Malines. But this came to nothing; and the Cardinal was left quietly to die in Rome. So as Parsons was in Spain, he began a work which he thought would strengthen his position in the near future. What was the measure of Parsons' success up to the present moment? He had succeeded in getting the English college into the hands of the English Jesuits ; Allen was re- moved from the seminary, and as Dr. Barrett, who " walked in union with and fidelity to the Society," was now the President, it was most likely, in the course of things, that that seminary also would fall into their hands. But the possibility of its re- taining its independence had to be provided for; and Parsons determined to take advantage of his stay in Spain to start other colleges for training secular priests under the Society. It is good, says the prophet, for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Parsons agreed with the prophet. Besides the immense advantage and influence such colleges would give the English Jesuits, they would be useful in another way. The one hope of regaining England was, in Parsons' eyes, not the patient toil and blood of missionaries, but the armed interven- tion of Spain. The zealous young men who offered them- selves to the seminaries as soldiers of Christ, found that they were also required to be soldiers of Philip. The policy of thus bringing up young men in Spain itself, where they would have the glories of that great country before their eyes, and would live in an atmosphere thoroughly Spanish, and be accustomed 134 THE ENGLISH JESUITS to live on Spanish generosity ^ would in itself tend to habituate them to the idea of Spanish dependence.^ Nor did Parsons intend to influence only these young men. His plan was, as will be seen, that students from other colleges should also spend some time in Spain before they went back to England, so that they, too, might be " hispaniolated." When an idea once got hold of his mind, he bent his energies to carry it out in all its details. His work in Spain will always be a lasting monument of his untiring energy, and at the same time of his misdirected zeal. 'Others saw through this palpable device. Cardinal d'Ossat writes: "The object of these institutions is to instil into the minds of the missionaries, the Spanish political creed ; and for that, rather than the Catholic faith, were they, if necessary, to suffer martyrdom." If a Catholic prelate held these views, is it wonderful that Elizabeth and her Council shared in them and acted accordingly ? * A letter from one of the young students shows the glamour which the Court exercised upon their impressionable minds. Henry Bell writes the following letter to Fr. William Holt :— "Madrid, \j,th March 1596. " Right Reverend Father, — At my arrival in Spain I write unto you of our perilous journey, and how Almighty God wonderfully brought us safe to land ; now it remaineth that I recount such occurrences as have happened since that time. Upon St. Thomas of Canterbury's day we came to Valladolid, where Fr. Parsons received us with great contentment to us all. There I staid by his appointment till Sexagesima, and after with five other priests was sent to Madrid. Father Cresswell showed great affection to us all and to me in particular ; as in truth I never feared. On Ash Wednesday, his Majesty lying three leagues from Madrid, Father Cresswell sent to know his Majesty's pleasure when we should come to him. His Majesty appointed us to be at the Court Friday following, by nine of the clock, and so we were. But Father Cresswell brought me to Don Juan de Idiaquez and John Christobal de Mora, to whom I did that which the Father had before appointed. By this time one of us was sent for to say Mass before the Prince and Infanta in the King's chapel, which ended, the King made haste to hear Mass sooner than ordinary, in regard of us. Shortly after, we were brought by John Christobal de Mora to the presence chamber, where we found the King sitting in great majesty, but so mildly, with the Prince standing at his left hand, all his noblemen and cavaliers, to no small number, attending at the lower end of the presence chamber. Between the King and noblemen Father Cresswell entered in and brought us with him, and all kneeling at the first, but presently his Majesty made sign with his hand we should rise up. Father Cresswell drew near to the King, and, after some private speeches for the space of three Paternosters while, he called me from the rest of our company, to speak unto his Majesty, who gave great attention and smilingly endured with silence, the time of my speech, which ended, his Majesty spoke to me again as being glad to see us and willing to assist us in anything, with many great good words to that effect, desiring to be commended to all the Catholics of Ehgland, and that they pray for him and the Prince, assuring them he was mindful of them and would do them good. This done, Father Cresswell had more private speech with his Majesty, and so we AT WORK IN SPAIN 135 When he arrived in Spain he hastened to Valladolid where the King then was. After getting his consent to the question of the proposed visitor, Parsons laid before him the scheme for the seminary, appealing, without doubt, both to his religious and political senses. The King, however, was sore about the Armada, and had no wish to spend more money. The times were peculiarly unpropitious. But Parsons managed the King so skilfully that at last he gave consent. The negotiations must have taken some time; for in the autumn of 1589 they only seem to be at an end. The Venetian Ambassador writes to the Doge and Senate (14th October 1 589) : " The necessary preparations for erecting a college of English Jesuits at Valladolid are being made. The King raised many difficulties before giving his consent, but finally permission was granted, provided that no one should be received into the college with- out having first produced a certificate of the place whence he came, his profession, and his catholic manner of life." ^ The consent, however, seems to have been given earlier in the year ; for, at the beginning of May, three students were sent from Rheims to begin the new foundation. But there were other difficulties, which More mentions. There was already a small Irish college in Valladolid, and the superiors did not see with departed. The noblemen were almost at strife who should have us to dinner, and had it not been Lent we should surely have dined that day. After dinner, his Majesty being to remove some two leagues, sent us word to come to him at his taking of coach, but commanded we should not wet ourselves, for it rained a little. We had not expected half a quarter of an hour, but his Majesty came down with the Prince and the Infanta, whose hands we kissed with such an applause of the noble- men and courtiers, as you would wonder. In fine, all the noblemen, noblewomen, and courtiers there did greatly congratulate us, and showed such love and affection as more could not be desired. Don Juan de Idiaquez, Don Christobal de Mora, the Count of Fonsalida, Count of Chinchon, and many other noblemen embraced us. At Madrid, for five or six days, Father Cresswell carried us up and down to visit noble- men and women, they sending their coaches for us and giving us great entertainment. Some of his Majesty's Council and other grandees made great protestation that his Majesty's intent and their desire was only to set in England a King Catholic and to have it their friend ; to conquer or possess our country they had no such meaning, nor the King ; and surely their countenances and affection to us and our country per- suaded us no less. Here is gathering of soldiers every day for an Armada ... I am already, God be thanked, received into the Society at Madrid by Father Visitor, that was Assistant in my time at Rome, and now I am to-day to go towards the place of my probation," etc. (Foley, vi. pp. 170, 171). 1 C. S. P. (Venetian), No. 885. 136 THE ENGLISH JESUITS favour the beginnings of an English establishment. The Irish raised objections, claiming that the English should either join them or go elsewhere. On appeal to the King, the matter was submitted to the Benedictine abbat of Valladolid, who decided that the English should remain in the town ; but left the question of union to settle itself.^ The Irish eventually gave way, and made a foundation at Salamanca. Parsons set to work to collect funds for building a college. Don Alfonso de Quinones, the Duchess of Feria (Jane Dormer), Sir Francis Englefield, with many of the Spanish nobility, were the first benefactors. Parsons drew up rules for the students, gave them an academical dress, and before the end of September saw the foundation in full working order. It was placed under a Spanish rector ; for the native Jesuits were naturally determined to keep all establishments under their own direction. But such an arrangement was a fertile source of dissension in the near future. In the course of the next year twenty more students from Rheims — one of whom was John Parsons, probably the nephew of the great man — and some from Rome, came to form the new seminary. They attended the free lectures given twice a day at the Jesuit college in the town. The King, at Parsons' persuasions, fixed an allowance of sixteen hundred crowns, and other benefactors raised it to an annual income of four thousand crowns. But, from the beginning. Parsons had great difficulties with this foundation. It was by no means a success in any way. The royal grant was found to be an empty one, and it was with the greatest difficulty that he was able to get the money from another source. Then another great disappointment, the original chief benefactor, Don Alfonso de Quinones, seems to have lost his enthusiasm for the new college, though he kept up his usual grants; for when he died (May 1592) he left all his money elsewhere, and said that the King would look after the institution. Debt had been incurred on account of the new buildings, and there was no money to meet it. In 1592 Parsons betook himself to Madrid ; but met with ill success. Benefactors would not come forward. He presented the King with a book he had written (probably the account of the ' Historia, p. 158. AT WORK IN SPAIN 137 martyrs), and asked him as a reward to give him licence to impart a quantity of English cloth, in order to sell for the benefit of the college. The petition was granted, and so well did Parsons play the trader that he gained four thousand crowns, which was enough to free the college entirely from debt.^ What Parsons' idea was can be gathered from a letter written (7th November 1 5 90) from Valladolid to the President at Rheims : " These priests (John Cecil, Fixer, Younger, Blunt, Dudley, Lockwood, Rooke, and Galloway) have well behaved themselves here, and well reposed themselves, and done them- selves much good many ways by this year's staying here, etc. . . . Three or four of them shall go by the port of Viscay and Galicia ; and the rest with me to Andalusia ; and in the way shall see the King and his Council ; and have occasion to make speeches to divers great personages, chapters, and the like, which will much notify and justify our cause that was utterly unknown heretofore ; and if they did send me another such mission of priests from Rome that would stay here and repose themselves for some months, and live in discipline as these have done, I would take them and help them from hence, and add to the viaticum they bring from Rome, if it be not sufficient to pass them over from hence, as we have done to these. . . . Wherefore when the subjects be good and able men, and capable of discipline, I will offer the Rector of Rome that if he will send three or four a year this way . . . that I will receive them here and cherish them . . . and so we shall hold them in the spirit of their vocation, and put them safely in England, and by their experience of this country make them more able men to serve, and together edify this people." ^ How well in time the students learnt their lesson of loyalty to Spain is shown by a speech made to the King when he paid them a visit ^ in 1592, in which they spoke of "not our, ' Annates Collegii Anglontm Vallesoletani (printed for private circulation, 1899). See below. ^ Hatfield Manuscripts, vol. iv. p. 69 {Hist. MSS. Com. ). ' This royal visit was most encouraging. The author of the Litterm Annuce for ■595 tl>'^s muses on the results : " Haec nos urgere debent ad ea faranda praesidia huviilitatis, charitaiis, aliarum virtutum quibus respondere possimus opinioni quam de nobis homines conceperunt " (p. 156). Having basked in the smiles of Royalty, the Jesuits felt they and theirs must live up to their position. 138 THE ENGLISH JESUITS but your England." The speech was written by Parsons, and afterwards published by him in various languages to spur on the King to undertake another expedition.^ The words of the above letter " our cause that was utterly unknown heretofore" require some explanation. Parsons had now spent nearly two years in Spain, and had come to realise the Spanish feeling towards Englishmen, a feeling which was both disdainful and distrustful. How could it be other- wise with a nation, all their faults besides, that was a type of chivalry? Treachery such as Sir William Stanley's, and Parsons' own, would naturally make the Spanish, while profit- ing by it, distrustful of the plotters.- This, joined to the con- stitutional ignorance of English affairs, which seems inherent in the Latin races even to this day, is quite sufficient to account for what must have been to Parsons a distressing and unwel- come revelation. Although he complained bitterly, he did not lose heart. While he had the King's ear, and went on encourag- ing him, by hope against hope, to undertake the conquest of England, he continued to found colleges, one at Seville in 1592, where three years later he secured permanent buildings.* One was also started at Madrid. He also obtained a footing in the Residence of the English Clergy at St. Lucar, founded in 1 5 1 7 as a house of English merchants. The fraternity, in 1 5 9 1 , agreed to make over the buildings and endowment to the English Clergy in perpetuity. At Valladolid, in 1591, almost all the students fell ill. Eleven died, and Parsons himself was stricken ; but as soon as he was able he went into Andalusia to beg and to arrange for the said college at Seville. Whilst there he had several opportunities of showing kindness to some unfortunate Englishmen,* who were confined ^ T. G. Law's Archpriest Controversy, ii. pp. 90-95. * John Fixer, one of the students and an intelligencer, writing to Walsingham (21st and 22nd May 1591), says Stanley is little esteemed by the Spaniards, who quote Coesar's saying, " Love the treason but hate the traitor." They are angry with him for pointing out defects in their military plans. The King is very unfaithfully served by his officers, and consults with Parsons and the Jesuits. S. P. O. Dom. Eliz. vol. 238, Nos. 162, 163. ^ " In Seville also dwells Fr. Parsons, the Jesuit, who buildeth a college there, as hath with him many English students " (Hatfield MSS. vol. v. p. 504 ; Examination of John Gough of Dublin, 21st December 1595). * Examination of Constantine Eckelles (27th March 1597). "While there AT WORE IN SPAIN 139 in the galleys as prisoners of war. Parsons visited and con- soled them, and succeeded in reconciling some of them to the Church. Soon after his first arrival he thus gained ninety- three galley slaves. This was on 3rd March. There was a difficulty to know what to do with them ; to send them back to England, or to induce them to serve the King. He opens his mind on this matter in the following important letter to Idiaquez, the King's secretary : — " Seville, 2 1 st April 1591. " Besides what I wrote some days ago about the conversion of the English in the galleys, I" am writing a few lines to His Majesty about the signs which there are that their conversion has been very genuine, and this for the reasons which your Lordship already knows, and which I will tell you on my return ; and although I am well aware that His Majesty will show you the letter itself, still I have wished to send you a copy of it for greater security. As to the substance of the affair I have nothing to add to your Lordship, unless it be to tell you plainly, with that confidence I commonly make bold to use to you, that I have been amazed at the lukewarmness with which the willing submission of the English, which they have offered with so much love, and such great danger and loss to themselves, has been received. " It will be a very good thing for them, as far as their temporal interests are concerned, to send them back to their own country when their expected ransom arrives ; and as to their spiritual welfare I trust in God that wherever they go the greater part of them will always remain firm in the faith ; which is the only thing which affects me. But whether it be better for His Majesty's service is a point which ought to be considered. Certainly I, for my part, feel sure that if our enemies had a like opportunity of doing honour to themselves (Seville), Frs. Parsons and Thomas Walpole, the latter of whom is the head of the English college there, came daily to persuade them to alter their religion ; and in the end prevailed so far with the Cardinal of Seville that twelve or thirteen were released and brought to the college, where they used all means they could to reconcile them to the Church, whereupon they all reformed and received the Sacrament (save Captain Crosse, who went off to the Inquisition)." (S. P. O. Dom. Eliz. vol. 262, No. 86.) 140 THE ENGLISH JESUITS and damaging us by means of our own people, they would not let it slip in the way, but would use it with the greatest diligence and ostentation. " Most certain it is, that to think it possible to get the upper hand in England without having a party within the realm is a great illusion, and to think to have this party without /ormin£- it and keeping it together is no less an illusion ; nor is there anything so « opposed to the accomplishment of this as the distrust with which, up to the present time, the English, even those who are Catholic, have been treated on all occasions; and I would relate these to your Lordship, one by one, if what took place at the time of the Armada, when it was manifested before all the world, did not suffice for all ; since on that occasion, though His Majesty had more need than ever to avail himself of his party, no account was made of it, nor was any confidence placed in any living person of the nation, either within or without the realm, though there were many who would have given assistance, and who had before then offered their lives to serve His Majesty. " This was deeply felt by all the good men of the nation, as it seemed to them that their most faithful affection for His Majesty did not deserve to meet with a distrust so notorious to the whole world. It also gave them much pain to hear that some of His Majesty's principal ministers were in the habit of saying (and this I know to be the truth) that they did not understand that there were any Catholics in England, and that if any should say he was a Catholic, they would be very cautious in believing him, and if any should wish to be converted they would not receive them without caution, etc. " From this, your Lordship sees what would have happened to the poor Catholics if victory had been on our side; and this must necessarily have happened to them, not only because the ministers knew and loved them so little, but likewise, and chiefly from the mistrust in which they held all the good men of the nation who would have enlightened them about the rest. And since God, as I take it, would not let His servants be thus outraged by our own people, after they had suffered what they had from the heretics. He let the expedition meet with the fate we have seen ; and I have no hope of anything better until AT WORK IN SPAIN 141 means are used more proportioned to the holy end of the sincere reformation of that kingdom, which is the object aimed at, than those which were employed on that occasion, although there is no doubt of His Majesty's good intention. " I write this to your Lordship on the occasion of the distrust which has been manifested about receiving into His Majesty's service the English who have been converted in the galleys ; and I do not say it to prevent the question being very carefully considered from the point of view of security; on the contrary, I desire this above all things ; but at the same time I maintain that no credence should be given to those who, in order to appear prudent and careful, seek to raise doubts and suspicions about all strangers ; for this is not always prudence or piety, but is often an infirmity and springs from ourselves, and is the cause of great evils, especially of enmities ; for where there is suspicion and distrust there is neither love nor fidelity; nor is there anything in the world so calculated to make men desperate as to be treated with distrust in return for good will, and the more universal and national the treatment is, so much the worse. " As I have begun to speak on this subject, I will mention also this in particular. During the thirty years Elizabeth has reigned in England, there have come to serve His Majesty, in Flanders and elsewhere, a great number of English Catholics, who might have done great things and inflicted great injury on the Queen, and many of them were men of quality, who lost what they possessed as a consequence of joining this side, and others remained in England on the watch to join them, if it should turn out well with them, but they have never met with confidence in anything of importance, so they have all in fact come to nothing; and this has been the case not only with individuals, but with companies and regiments of soldiers also, and all through the little love for them, and care on the part of the ministers to treat them well and maintain them ; although, indeed, those who are of the party of our Morgan and Paget have sought to ascribe it to a higher source, namely, the distrust which His Majesty has, and all this nation entertain towards even the Catholics of England, an opinion which has indeed been refuted by the Cardinal and others, as your Lordship 142 THE ENGLISH JESUITS is partly aware, and which has been a very fountain of discord. " I have written more on this head than I had thought to do, but not more than the importance of this affair of the con- verted English deserves ; in regard to which, as it is a new case, and one which has never happened before, and is very notorious on all sides, great attention will be paid to what His Majesty will do in the matter ; and if little account be made of them, your Lordship need not fear that others will follow their example, or that those who are in England will expect to be better treated when the Spaniards arrive there ; and I take it that this alone will cause more distrust and despair to our friends there than anything else which has happened up to the present time. May God guard all for the best ! " There is no need to write more on this subject in general, nor to weary your Lordship any more with additional papers, since those we have written are more than enough. Your Lordship said to me in the Escurial that it would be either this year or never; and since we are already in the former, and I see such a small amount of preparation, it makes me think that perhaps God wills the latter. ' Fiat voluntas ejus sicut in coelo ita et in terra.' " ^ One of the priests who was sent to Valladolid from Rome, and whose conduct Parsons praises in his letter to Dr. Barrett, was John Cecil. He was one of those taken to start the college at Seville. He lost no time in putting himself into communication with Burghley, and under the name of John Snowden, began a series of informations which throw light upon Parsons' political intrigues at this period. In the infor- mations of Snowden (26th May) we find that even he, a seminary priest (and one, too, who always kept to his religion and was zealous for his order), saw the political danger that the seminaries had become in the hands of the men who were trying to use them for their own political purposes. He goes so far as to suggest the possibility of dissolving, or at least diminishing, their number ; " for many Catholics at home and abroad dislike the violent proceedings of the Cardinal and ' Records of the English Catholics, ii. p. 329. AT WORK m SPAIN 143 Parsons in bringing in foreign forces and potentates against their own country. . . . The King of Spain's grounds for invasion were false, few, and feeble ; the chief is the hope that no sooner shall he land an army in England than swarms of people of all degrees will leap up to assist him ; for Parsons has published in a book that there are three thousand or four thousand professed Catholics in England who are wonderfully affectionate to the Spaniards." ^ He also states that " no one Catholic authority, be he ever so learned and beloved, can counterpoise the Cardinal and Parsons among Catholics abroad ; so that the Catholics in England must form a corporation to gain authority, and then dissolve the seminaries, and discharge the Cardinal from the management of English affairs."^ This is far easier than to succeed by blood or cruelty. And as regards putting priests to death, it is a mistake : " Parsons gapes after some such windfall to give credit to his seminaries." * He then gives a list of those abroad who dislike the course of Parsons, but dare not declare themselves, because they see no remedy nor relief.* On his way to England, Cecil was taken prisoner by the Queen's ship Hope. He informs Burghley that " the com- mission that Parsons gave me at my departure from the port with the Adelantado,^ was, first, that I should assure all Catholics publicly that the Spaniards meant no conquest, but reformation of religion ; that I should in the Adelantado's name (if in the war he be General as he doth greatly desire it, ^ S. p. O. Dom. Eliz. vol. 238, No. 180. About this book, which was dedicated to the Infanta, Snowden says: " Fr. Parsons' drift in his book of the new martyrs in' England and the seminary of Valladolid, is to persuade the people that the King has the heart of more than a third part of the realm ; and that they are ready to assist him and have no hope but in Spain " {ibid. vol. 239, No. 78). The book also contains the statements that thirty thousand Catholics were in prison, when, according to Snowden, there were not two hundred, and that three-fifths of the people were Catholics, when the contrary is the truth {ibid. No, 87 ). This book, Relacion de Algunos Martyrios (Madrid, 1590), is a Spanish version of Parsons' earlier work on the same subject, published in various languages in 1581. There is added an Informacion of fourteen pages on the Seminary of Valladolid. ' It may be asked whether at this period the seminaries did not do more harm than good to the cause they sought professedly to sustain. » Ibid. No. 168. ' Ibid. No. 181. ' Don Martin de Padilla, Conde de Agatha, Admiral of Castille and General of the galleys. 144 THE ENGLISH JESUITS and Parsons and the rest labour privately to procure it) assure the Catholics that all the King's intentions and the wishes of war were only for their own sake ; that I should send a list of all such as were resolute to help the Spaniards, and privily, between Parsons and me, he willed me, howsoever I found them opposed, that I should make the Spaniards believe that the number of their favourites was great, and their hands and heart ready when they should see an army on foot, to stand with them ; and in truth this is the only bait that the Cardinal and Parsons feed the King withal — that the Catholics in England are his, and that they depend all upon the direction of them which are capital enemies, not only of the present state, but of the Catholics themselves in England ; in respect of their practices abroad, poor men suffer hard at home." ^ The statements in this information are borne out by facts. They cannot be doubted. The deception as to the state of England can only be excused on some theory of equivocation or culpable ignorance. With Parsons' acknowledgment that a party had to be formed and kept together, it is impossible to accept this latter alternative. Another of these priests, James Younger, also gives information (27th August 1592): " Spaniards returned from England speak much of per- secution there progressing, pitying those who venture their lives by returning there. On this Fr. Parsons wrote a little book dedicated to the King's daughter in behalf of the college ; for its better maintenance he sent a mission of six priests to England, and on their journey to St. Lucar caused them by the way to stir up noblemen and collegiate and cathedral churches to give alms for the foundation of the new Valladolid college ; I made a short speech to the Cardinal of Toledo, signifying the great good that might come to the Catholic Church if his Grace would favour Englishmen who began to show the fruit of the alms, etc., by sending six priests in one year ^ into the vineyard of England. He promised to maintain ten students yearly, and to write to noblemen to do the same ; many more made like promises. At Seville their journey was 1 S. P. O. Dom. Eliz. vol. 238, No. 160. " All these, however, had been brought up at other colleges. AT WORK IN SPAIN 145 stayed for six months upon the hope of a new college being erected there by the Cardinal and citizens. . . . Yet after the death of the Queen of Scots, both Allen and Parsons sought to stir up the Spanish King, who never could be persuaded to attempt anything against England in his lifetime, objecting that he should travail for others . . . Stayed at Seville six months expecting a college to be erected there, and had daily access to Fr. Parsons, who always said an army would shortly be sent to England, and that the King had sworn to be revenged of England, although he spent all he had — even to the socket of his candlestick. Fr. Parsons wrote to Sir William Stanley, then absent, to go to Italy to see Rome, and thence to Flanders, that, by favour of Idiaquez, the King had yielded for the first attempt against England ; but not till 1593, because of hindrances in France; that he hoped by that time to have brought in Brittany, and have thence i6 great ships, and 10,000 men and more commodity to come to the Irish Kerns, his old acquaintance." ^ And in another (14th September), he goes on: "Yet to my knowledge and as far as my poor judgment can reach, the only man who this realm need fear is Parsons, who, both by his travail and credit, which he hath gained exceeding great with the Spaniard, ceaseth not to solicit the King and his counsellors by all means possible; he only is the man that both maintaineth the Cardinal and Stanley in that account which they have, whose writings are so common in Spain, that there is not one man here executed for his religion who there is not known, and sermons preached openly in praise of the party, with bitter inveighing against the cruelty of the present government. If this man were displaced I think the forwardness of the Spaniard would cool by itself; and for other foreigners no great doubt in my conceit need be had, etc."^ We must now consider the question whether Parsons did or did not share in the plots made at the time against Eliza- beth's life. Did he who, without the slightest doubt, was aiming at her throne, stop short at countenancing any attempt upon her person ? It is unhappily, as we have seen, the case that Churchmen of the very highest rank were not only ^ Ibid. vol. 242, No. 121. ^ Ibid. vol. 243, No. 12. 10 146 THE ENGLISH JESUITS cognisant but approved of such attempts ; and that, when the plots were made pubHc, the Pope himself did not protest. Mariana, a Spanish Jesuit, openly taught regicide.^ If rebellion can be justified, then assassination as a natural result will appear to most people to be also justified ; for rebellion is war, and slaying in war is held to be without blame. It would take but little casuistry to prove that such an assassination was only an act of war. Parsons is deliberately charged, on the voluntary confession of Gilbert Laton, of practising with Sir Francis Englefield and Idiaquez for the Queen's destruction. Laton says that in June 1596 he left England for Dieppe, and on 8th October set out for Spain with some priests. They were taken and conveyed to Corunna to the Marquise of Seralva, who committed them to prison ; and on 4th May (1591) they were sent to the galleys at Ferrol. Set at liberty, 6th January 1592, they came to Valladolid, where they found Fr. Parsons, who had assisted in obtaining their enlargement. " They being in the English college, he propounded a proposition whether they did not think it lawful and meritorious to take away the life of an heretical and usurping princess? He proved it with many arguments, and persuaded Laton and a companion, Roscester, to undertake to kill Her Majesty, and they took the Sacrament to perform the same ... At Easter 1592, Laton had private conference with Idiaquez, who declared that Laton's enterprise was not for the particular good of one nation only, but all Christendom ; and to encourage him offered to make him a knight of Jerusalem . , . Parsons declared before Latwise (Rogers) what Laton should perform, and advised him to lose no time but to take the first occasion that should offer itself, and showed how it might be performed ; Her Majesty being 1 Mariana in his work De Rege et Regis institutione discusses (ed. 1605) the question, An tyrannum opprimere fas sit ; and calls the murder of Henry III. by Jacques Clement ' ' insignem animi confidentiam, facinus memorabile " (p. 53) ; and adds, "Caeso Rege ingens sibi nomen fecit. ... Sic Clemens ille periit, viginti quatuor natus annos, simplici juvenis ingenio, neque robusto corpore, sed major vis vires et animum confirmabat" (p. 54). There can be little doubt but that such theologians would have excused any murderous attack on Elizabeth. Bellarmine {Opera omnia (ed. 1619), vol. ii. p. 555, De Laicis, lib. iii. cap. xxi.) says: "Posse Hereticos ab Ecclesia damnatos, temporalibus poenis et etiam morte mulctari " ; but cautiously adds, a few pages on, if the Catholic party are the stronger (pp. 561, 562). AT WORK m SPAIN 147 in her progress, with a wire made into jeinos or with a poignard." ^ There is probably a modicum of truth in this. That Idiaquez made such a proposal is likely ; that Parsons, perhaps theoretically, would hold the lawfulness, and have been glad of the result, is also likely. But that he would have thus put himself into the power of a comparative stranger is, to our own knowledge of the man, wholly incredible. The question raised — perhaps by Mariana's ideas — was very likely discussed openly in the Seminary ; but Parsons, who very seldom mixed with the students, was in the habit of passing off such subjects with a laugh.^ That such topics were, once at least, seriously considered at Valladolid we know from the confession of Father Henry Walpole (13th June 1594); in which we learn also how Parsons expressed himself on that occasion : " Father Parsons, I remember, told me and others in favour with him at Valladolid, that he had received news out of Flanders that some in England did confess their purpose to have killed the Queen's Majesty. And I did ask him apart what he did think of Parry's attempt; he said that Catholics, chiefly we religious men, ought to suffer violence, but offer none, chiefly to princes ; and he added that their means were by persuasion and prayer, and that though it was not presently, yet no doubt the seminaries ^ would at length reduce England to the faith." * But considering that on his own side, Parsons, " that most religious man," as he calls himself, did not confine himself to persuasion and prayer, and that he was not likely to disclose his aims to a man like Henry Walpole, the utmost one feels able to say in answer to the question — Did Parsons directly share in the plots against Elizabeth's person ? is " Not ' S. P. O. Dom. Eliz. vol. 244, No. 55. " " Touching any speeches, either of Fr. Parsons or any other touching Her Majesty or the conquering of the reahn, I never heard them use any, but that Fr. Parsons used sometimes to jest in the time of recreation which he very seldom kept" (Thomas Pallyson to Mr. Wood (March 1596), Hatfield MSS. vol. vi.). ' Sir Francis Englefield, Parsons' friend, virriting (8th September 1596) to the King, refers thus to the intended influence of the seminaries: "Even the seminaries, powerful as they are in preparing men's minds for a change, must fail to complete their object without the aid of the temporal power" (Tiemey, vol. iii. p. xlix). ^ S. P. O. Dom. Eliz. vol. 249, No, I2. 148 THE ENGLISH JESUITS proven." But that he was the centre of all the plots against her Crown is incontestable. Elizabeth saw plainly the influence of Parsons in these frequent attacks which menaced her throne. In a Proclama- tion, dated October 1 5 9 1 , entitled, " A Declaration of great troubles pretended against the realm by a number of seminary priests and Jesuits sent and very secretly dispersed into the same to work great treason under a false pretence of religion, with a provision very necessary for the remedy thereof," ^ the penal laws were increased ; and the attempts of the King of Spain are attributed to " the special information of a school- man arrogating to himself the name of the King Catholic's confessor." Parsons could not stand this. He answered the Proclamation by a book, the well-known Elizabethae Angliae reginae haeresim Calvinianavt propugnantis saevissimum in CatJtolicos sui regni Edictum . . . by D. Andreas Philopatrum (1592), in which he discusses and refutes it paragraph by paragraph. There are two passages which are of interest to us at present. About himself he says : " Concerning Parsons she indeed asserts (it is more ridiculous than unpleasant) that he assume to himself that he is the confessor of the King Catholic. But who will think this conviction either true or probable who knows the man, the post, or the place ? For as far as I judge, Parsons neither lives in court, nor if he lived there, is a man fit in any way for the weight of such a heavy burthen ; for besides many other things necessary for this post, a great knowledge and experience of Spanish affairs is needed, and intimate acquaintance with the language is required. Why, therefore, does the Proclamation pour forth such absurd, stupid, and improbable statements ? " ^ He adds, a little later on, he would rather be Elizabeth's confessor than the King's.* But the book is more valuable for the distinct assertion Parsons makes about the papal power in matters temporal, an opinion which was to be in the next reign the cause of much suffering. It will be noticed that he calls it a doctrine of faith ; which it certainly was not. " The universal school of Catholic theologians and canonists hold (and it is certain and of faith) that any Christian prince who manifestly swerves ' Strypes, Annals, iv. p. 78. " P. 361. ' P. 374. AT WORK IN SPAIN 149 from the Catholic religion, and wishes to call others from it, falls at once from all power and dignity, both by divine and human right, and before any sentence be passed against him by the supreme pastor and judge ; and his subjects are free from the obligation of any oath of allegiance which they had taken to him as a legitimate prince; they may and should (if they have power) expel from his sovereignty over Christians such a man as an apostate, a heretic, a deserter of Christ the Lord, and an enemy hostile to the state itself, lest he infect others, and withdraw them from the faith by his example and commandment. Now this, the certain, defined, and undoubted opinion of the most learned, is clearly conformable and in agreement with the apostolic doctrine." And he proceeds to quote St. Paul, I Cor. vii., concerning the faithful wife who is bound to the unbelieving husband. It will be well to note this assertion of Parsons when it was a matter of justifying his rebellion against Elizabeth. But he had no such scruple when it came to the question of obtaining the favour of James I. Neither did all the Jesuits in England share his views, as can be seen from the " Suppli- cation" of Father Robert Southwell in 1595, wherein he styles the Queen " most mighty, most merciful, most feared and best beloved Princess . . . the only and sheet anchor of our just hope " ; and assures her that " the sacred name of our most noble Queen " is such that " next to God's word " it is to " be honoured among the most impregnable testimonies of the truth." ^ In June 1593 Parsons went to Madrid to secure his work of the seminaries. Walpole tells us that " he writes infinite letters weekly to those he depends upon for their maintenance ; he has great favour with the King, and all the Court, and throughout Spain, as also in Italy and Flanders."^ But Parsons, by this time, saw there was but little chance of an expedition starting now, or, while Elizabeth was alive, of its success if it did start. He was devoting himself to preparing a grand effort to secure a Catholic succession. Now at last, entirely rejecting the Scotch King, he fixed his hopes on the ' Archpriest Controversy, ii. p. 97. ^ A Supplication to Her Majesty, p. 52. 150 THE ENGLISH JESUITS Infanta.i The memorial on the Succession he had presented to the King a few years before was enlarged into a book, A Conference on the Succession, in which he lays down propositions, some of which were startling by their novelty in those days ; that the people have the right to elect their governor,* who is in turn responsible to his people for good government, and if he fails can be rejected by them. Another proposition bearing on the case is, that the religion of the claimant to the throne is of more importance to the people than hi& right.^ After an exhaustive study of the pretensions of the various claimants to the English Crown, he rejects them all except the Infanta, and puts her forward as one who unites the best right to the fact of being a Catholic. The book is a direct appeal to the people, who in their own time answered in their own way. Its principles found the legitimate result in the execution of Charles i. It is another indication of the Puritan cast of mind which forms so important an element in Parsons' character.* The Book of the Succession made a great sensation 'From Fr. Henry Wal pole's confession: "Those who wish for violence desire the Spaniards. They think when the Queen is dead there will be a division in the Catholic religion. Fr. Parsons wishes the Catholics to keep themselves quiet, and take no part until some one is declared ; and then to offer their services to him with request of use of their religion . . . Thinks the invasion of the Spaniards would pre- judice both the commonwealth and the Catholic religion ; would defend the realm and conform to the laws as a true Englishman and subject of Her Majesty" (S. P. O. Dom. Eliz. vol. 249, No. 44). ^ Ranke (op. cit. p. 92) remarks that the Jesuit doctrine of the sovereignty of the people and the opinions they held as to regicide were the causes of their ruin in France ; while their tenets respecting free will and their theological quarrel with the Dominicans had produced the injury they suffered in Spain. ' Parsons' attitude can be partly gathered from a letter he wrote firom Madrid (8th September IS9S) to Standen : " But howsoever these matters of title go, which God only must determine, my conclusion shall be to your whole letter, that among such variety and perplexity of pretenders as now aim for that Crown, it is enough for a Catholic sober man to have any prince, admitted by the body of his realm, and allowed by the authority of God's Catholic Church, and that will defend the religion of his old noble ancestors ; and without this nothing is sufficient, nor should any reason in this world move us to yield him ' favour or obedience, though he were our father, son, or brother " {Records of the English Catholics, vol. ii. pp. 283, 284). * The substance of the first part of this book was reprinted by the Puritans with parliamentary licence as " Several Speeches delivered at a Conference concerning the Power of Parliament to proceed against their King for Misgovernment." It appears again as "The Broken Succession of the Crown of England," when Cromwell was AT WORK IN SPAIN 151 in England. An Act of Parliament made it treason to have a copy. By Parsons' friends it was received as a masterpiece of convincing logic. He caused it to be read in the refectory at the seminaries, to imbue the students with its ideas; and this was greatly resented. Among Parsons' opponents on the Continent the book was received with much indignation.^ This book on the Succession was published in 1 5 94. It is worth remarking that it was brought out, notwithstanding a formal and stringent order issued the previous year by the very highest authority in the Society. There had been growing among the professed fathers a feeling of distrust at the political dealings of some of their members. Scandals were arising and schisms breaking out. In the fifth General Congregation, which sat from November 1593 to January 15 94) it was decreed : In order as far as possible to keep from all appeai'ances of evil and from disputes, even such as arise from false suspicions, by the present decree it is gravely prescribed to all of ours, in virtue of holy obedience and under penalty of inability for any office and dignity or superiority, and of loss of both active and passive voice, that no one should under any pretext mix himself up in the public and worldly affairs of princes, such as are said to be pertaining to affairs of state ; neither let any, at the request or requirement of any, dare or presume to undertake the management of political affairs of this kind. It is seriously commended to superiors that they do not allow ours to be mixed up in any way in such matters, and if they see some to be inclined that way they should remove them from the locality as soon as possible, if there be occasion of danger of their being involved in such complica- tions.^ Had such legislation as this decree and others of the same Congregation been loyally carried out, the good name aiming at power. And once more, in 1681, when the Bill for excluding James 11. was before Parliament. ' The amiable F. Jouvency, S.J., in his Historia Societatis Jesu, would not believe that the book was Parsons' : " Minime omnium quidem certe Personio conveniebat qui tam lubricum et invidiosum tractare argumentum homo sapiens et consideratus noluisset ; nee attigere ausus esset vetitum nostris legibiis in Congregatione Generali quinta confirmata" (p. 138). We, however, are in a position to know Parsons better than did Jouvency. Institutum Soc. Jes. (ed. I7S7), vol. i. pp. 555 and 565. 152 THE ENGLISH JESUITS of the Society would not have been endangered by the disobediences of a few. This Congregation had been forced upon Aquaviva by the Spanish Jesuits, who found in the new Pope, Clement viri. (1590-1605), and the renowned Jesuit F. Toledo (made Cardinal in 1593), men more or less favourable to the limitations sought to be imposed upon the authority of the General. But having, with the help of the French, German, and Italian representatives, triumphed over the Spanish fathers, Aquaviva appears to have used his dispensing power, and while allowing Parsons to continue his course as political agitator, was thus able to show the practical superiority of the General over the legislative Congregation. Upon Allen's death a vigorous attempt was made to procure Parsons' elevation to the cardinalate; and petitions from his friends went up to the Holy See to forward his cause. And how did Parsons take this attempt to " empurpurate " him ? Bound by his vow not to seek directly or indirectly after ecclesiastical honours, he kept it faithfully. If the vision of the scarlet hat was tempting. Parsons knew it meant a betrayal of the Society^ which must keep a firm hand upon all Jesuits. He had no desire to be served in the same way as Allen. His promotion would mean his removal; and removal, just at that time, when the mastery of the Clergy was falling into his hands. It would also be the overthrow of all his plans. There probably was an internal struggle. Once a Cardinal, he would be more out of reach of the stings of his opponents, which must have been, even to a man of iron will, most distressing. And what could he not do, were he Pope? A letter received from the Provincial in Flanders (24th November 1594) pointed out to him how such an appointment would interfere with his work, and urgently implored him to act generously in the matter. It took some little time for him to make up his mind to act on the advice. He was taken ill. It was not till 20th February 1595 that he sent on the letter to Aquaviva, and expresses how much he is in agreement with the views of the Provincial : " I feel within me no appetite or inclination, neither have I the '■ Toledo was sometimes called an "apostate," because he took the side of the students in Rome against their superiors. o t u 5 9 '^ AT WORK IN SPAIN 153 strength to fulfil the duties." ^ This is probably perfectly true. In Parsons' character there was no self-seeking. He was absorbed in the one passion of his life, the advancement of his Society. There was no room for any other ambition. By I oth May he had fully made up his mind not to accept the dignity, and writes a very clear and explicit letter to Sir Francis Englefield on the subject.^ Later on (i8th May 1597) he could write about an attempt his friends were then making : " I do not agree with the Memorial that, things being as they are, the general remedy is to press for an- English Cardinal. ... It seems at present that the English nation has no man sufficient for this dignity, according to the judg- ment and taste of all ; and thus there appears to be less defect and inconvenience in having none than an unfit one." * Parsons, during this period, began to put into order and add to certain notes he had begun seventeen or eighteen years ago, upon the reformation of England which was to take place when a Catholic King should succeed Elizabeth. Ill health had for some time been pressing upon him, and he feared he might not live to see the " golden day." It was well to have, therefore, all his plans drawn out in black and white. The gist of this Memorial for the Reformation of England is, that first and foremost all the abbey lands secured by Henry Vlil. were to be restored, according to the decree of Paul IV., which seems to revoke the declaration of his predecessor, that the holders might retain possession. These lands, etc., however, were not to be restored to the original owners,* but to a Council of " principal bishops and prelates and others most fit for the purpose," which should have full control over all ecclesiastical funds, and dispose of them as was considered best for the restoration of the Church. "It were not convenient to return these lands and livings again to the said orders of religion that had them before . . . (but rather to) good ' More, p. 231. " Ibid. pp. 232-234. ' Records of the English Catholics, vol. i. p. 394. •* This attitude to the question of monastic property does not seem to have been peculiar to Parsons. Twenty years after his death the matter arose in parts of Germany. Ranke says {op. cit. p. 278): "It would be difficult to describe the commotion that ensued among the Clergy on perceiving that the Jesuits proposed to constitute themselves possessors of the recovered monastic property. The Society of 154 THE ENGLISH JESUITS colleges, universities, seminaries, schools for increasing our Clergy, as also divers houses of other orders that do deal more in preaching and helping of souls, etc." ^ In other words, as the Jesuits were to have the glory of re-converting England, they should take possession of the property which belonged to the former apostles of the country. This Council of reformation was to be concerned, not only in ecclesiastical matters, but in matters purely secular. It was to be, in fact, the Inquisition, though not in name, as that " may be somewhat odious and offending at the beginning." ^ The whole book is a curious picture of what England would have been had Parsons had his way. The history of Poland would have had its counterpart in this country.' How this " Memorial " worked ninety years after in the reign of James II. will be seen later on. While thus day-dreaming Parsons was suddenly aroused by an attack upon the position he had laboured so carefully to secure. And this time the danger came, not from the English Government, but from English Clergy and laity, who would not have that man to rule over them. Jesus was reported to have declared that there were now no Benedictines remaining, that all had departed from the rule of their founder, and were no more capable of resuming their lost possession. [The Nuncio says : ' It is perfectly true that the Jesuit Fathers have sought and do seek by favour of the Emperor which could not be well greater, not only to obtain a preference over all the other orders, but even to exclude all others wherever they have any interest, either political or ecclesiastical '] . . . An edict published in Rome, July 1629, allowed that a portion of the recovered property might go to founding schools, seminaries, and colleges, as well as to the Jesuits, who had been the chief promoters of the restoration." ' Pp- SS-S7- ° Pp. 70, 71. Among the State Papers (S. P. O. Dom. Eliz. vol. 261, No. 91) are some extracts in Latin from the " Memorial " signed by Parsons, with a note to the effect, " that most of the English nobles possess property of religious orders and need a dispensation for its retention, which is granted by Jesuits only, and therefore they prevail, and secular priests are not admitted into their houses." ^ For an interesting and clear account of a part of Jesuit history about which liltle is known, see The Jesuits in Poland, by A. F. Pollard (1892). CHAPTER VII BROILS IN ENGLAND, ROME, AND FLANDERS Le|lVING Parsons for a while doing Pliilip's work, we must go jack to England and view the labours of the Jesuits as Misioners. Jasper Heywood and William Holt arrived in the summer of 1 5 8 1 . They laboured at first in Staffordshire, whre, it is said, they converted within three months over twc hundred persons/ When Parsons fled out of England, He wood became Superior of the English Mission ; while Holt wai sent to James vi. in Scotland.^ Heywood quickly took upci himself to direct the Clergy, and for this purpose sun noned a meeting in Norfolk. One of the subjects he had at ifeart was the question whether the old traditional days of fastng and other practices were to be observed ; or whether themstoms learnt at Rome were to prevail. The reader will remlmber that Parsons, on arrival in England, had been met witHthe same question ; for the seminary priests, educated abrold, had tried to introduce the new customs. It had been decictd at the Synod held in Southwark that the status quo was tl be preserved. The Marian Clergy, besides clinging to the ou English traditions, felt that now, more than ever, it was necessary to preserve the earnest and fervent spirit of their/ teople and not give way to relaxations at a moment whej, in all sides, the Church's precepts were being despised. Thij, Mwever, did not suit Heywood. Himself an invalid, he cotp neither fast nor abstain. So he determined to introduce i. P. 6, Dom. EHz. vol. 155, No. 96. iVhile in Scotland he was arrested at Leith early in 1583. The English Govern- mei insisting upon him being delivered into their hands, the French Ambassador opf ied this; and by the August 1584 he was set at liberty and banished. He went to :ime in 1586, and on 24th October became Rector of the English college, and twaears after was sent to Brussels as Parsons' agent at that Court. 166 156 THE ENGLISH JESUITS the mitigation. At the meeting in Norfolk, " Master Dolem4n ^ being present required of Fr. Heywood to see his commissipn ; who being unable to show him any, he, the said Ma^er Doleman, did inhibit him to proceed any further." ^ Jut Heywood was not to be put down. What was one of the old Clergy to the Superior of the Mission ? He passed decrees which abolished the old Friday fast, certain vigils, the Lenten fast and the Rogation - days. He desired that the old Liturgical " uses " should be given up in favour of the Roman ; and concluded with the words : " Lastly, if any man, in any of all these points, have any doubts of conscience, let lim know that they be all set down by authority of them that nay dispense in all customs or laws to the contrary, etc." * Catholics began to murmur ; and the state which Heywaod kept up caused much scandal. " His port and carriage was more baronlike than priestlike. . . . Was he not wont to ride up and down the country in his coach ? Had he not both servants and priests attendants that did hang on his sleeves in great numbers? . . . Was not his pomp sucl as the places where he came seemed petty courts by his presince, his train and followers ?" * By his laxity he gave freat scandal even to Protestants. Foley relates the following : — " He happened to le in London staying at the house of a gentleman to which h( was in the habit of resorting. His host was a schismatic, tbugh not far removed from the Catholic faith, and benevolent o the priests for the sake of his Catholic wife. Fr. Heywood,on acount of his severe suffering from the gout, was himself necesarily dispensed from fasting. It happened to be the time of the rogation-days, and the table was prepared with both Unds of food, there being at the time several other priests and Qtholics visiting at the house. Some, with Fr. Heywood and the gentle- man of the house, used meat, it being no fasting-day accadiig to the Roman rite. This brought on a discussion regarding the diversity of practice. Fr. Heywood, himself an eminent teo- ' One of the Marian priests. " A Sparing Discoverie of our English Jesuits, p. 48. * Records of the English Catholics, vol. i, p. 354. ■* A Reply to Fr. Parsons' Libel, p. 14. BROILS IN ENGLAND 157 logian, adduced many theologians on his side; and by the difference of opinion and practice thus evidenced, he so mortally offended his host, that from being a friend of Fr. Heywood, he became his enemy. Going out therefore into the market-place, he purchased a copy of a recent Government proclamation, ordering all priests and Jesuits to leave the realm within a given day, under extreme penalties, and likewise denouncing all who harboured them. Returning to the house, he asked Fr. Heywood if that paper personally affected him ? ' Certainly it does,' replied the father, ' but I am safe under your roof.' ' Indeed ! ' he answered ; ' but I have never promised you this security : neither is your style of living or mode of thinking so agreeable to me that I would wish to lose my head and my fortune for your sake. Therefore, from this time, consider yourself as my prisoner.' He was about to leave for the purpose of denouncing Fr. Heywood to the Privy Council, but the earnest entreaties and tears of his wife, backed by a gift of money, prevailed to stop him. He turned, however, the father out of doors. ' So much need is there to take heed as to where, and under whose eyes, you use the liberty allowed you,' adds Father More." ^ These complaints reaching Parsons, and at the same time messengers being sent by some Catholics to Allen, praying for the recall of Heywood, the General ordered him to leave England. He was summoned by Parsons to repair to Paris to give an account of himself ; but on the way, falling into the hands of the Government, he was committed to the Clink, 9th December 1583. For seventeen months he was imprisoned ; and at last [21st January 1585] was put on board a vessel and landed on the coast of Normandy, with the threat of death if he returned. And so Jasper Heywood passes from our view. He was succeeded as Superior by William Weston ^ [September i 5 84]. During the short time this father was at liberty he became famous as the leader in a series of exorcisms which created a stir in the country, and which brought in a number of converts. He is the reputed author of The Book of Miracles, a work now lost, but extracts of which are preserved ' Foley, i. pp. 395, 396. ^ Known under the aliases of Edmunds and Hunt. 158 THE ENGLISH JESUITS in a rare book called " A Declaration of egregious Popish im- postures, to withdraw the hearts of Her Majesty's subjects from their allegiance, and from the truth of Christian Religion pro- fessed in England, under the pretence of casting out devils. Practised by Edmunds alias Weston, a Jesuit, and divers Romish priests his wicked associates. Whereunto are annexed the copies of the Confessions and examinations of the parties them- selves, which were pretended to be possessed and dispossessed, taken upon oath before Her Majesty s Commissioners for causes ecclesiastical" [1603]. The author of this book, which is a choice specimen of invective, was Dr. Harsnett, chaplain to the Bishop of London, and afterwards Archbishop of York. He published his book by order of the Privy Council. Shortly before Weston came to England there was one of those strange outbreaks which have not been unfrequent in France. Besides a series at Laon in 1 5 66, there had been some manifestations at Soissons in 1582, and while the excite- ment was at its height, fifteen of the seminarists from Rheims were in that city for ordinations. When the manifestations began in England, Weston superintended them, and was assisted by twelve priests, seminarists all of them, among whom were the names of Dryland, Cornelius Sherwood, Dibdale, Ballard,^ Thules,^ and Anthony Tyrell.^ The exorcisms took place in public in the houses of noblemen and other well-known men, such as at Lord Vaux's at Hackney, the Earl of Lincoln's in Cannon Row, Mr. Gardiner's house at Fulmer, Mr. Hughes' at Uxbridge, and at Sir George Peckham's at Denham in Bucks. The sufferers were Marwood, servant to Anthony Babington, Trayford, Sarah and Friswood Williams, and Anne Smith, servants to Edmund Peckham, son of Sir George, and one Robert Magnie, a connection of Peckham's. These unfortunates were taken about the country, and exorcisms were performed in various places. The modus operandi was peculiar. The patient was set in a chair and made to swallow a " holy potion " com- posed of sack, salad oil, drugs and rue (about a pint) ; the * Executed for the Babington Plot [8th October 1586]. ' Afterwards one of the anti- Weston party at Wisbeach. ' He spent his time apparently between the two camps. Parsons wrote his life ; so that, among other reasons, posterity " may truly know what passed with us in these our days of new reformation." BROILS IN ENGLAND 159 head was then held over a dish of burning sulphur, asafoetida, galbanum, St. John's wort and rue. Half-stifled and intoxi- cated, the exorcisms began. In Weston's own account of an exorcism of Marwood, he says that he placed his hand on the demoniac's head, who at once fell into a fury, and made all to ring with crying, swearing, and blaspheming. " Take away that dreadful hand in the name of all the devils in hell," was the agonising cry. But the father would not quit his hold. He pursued the devil down his back, his reins, his close parts, his thighs, his legs, usque adtalos, and down to his ankle-bones ; then fetching him back along the same route, finally grasped him round the neck. " Deus immortalis ! what a passion was he then cast. Not the tongufes of i ooo men (I imagine) can express it." ^ Relics when applied were known and described ; especial reverence was shown, of course, to those of Campion ; nails, lumps of lead, knives came from their bodies ; and under the exorcisms the truth of the Catholic Faith was asserted. The names of the devils said to possess the sufferers were : Frateretto, Fliberdigibet, Hoberdicat, Cocobatto, Pudding of Thame, Hobberdidance, Lusty Dick, Kellico, Hob, Cornercap, Puff and Purr (" two fat devils"), Kellicorum, Wilkin, Lusty Jolly Jenkins, Bonjour, Pourdieu, Motubizant, Captain Pippin, Captain Fillpot, Hilco, Hiaclito, Smolkin, Lusty Huffcap, Modo, and Malin.^ When these disappeared it is said that Hobber- didance went off in a whirlwind, Fillpot as a puff of smoke, Lusty Dick as an intolerable stench, while Smolkin escaped from Trayford's ear as a mouse. The report of these doings, while giving great confidence to the friends of the Jesuits,^ alarmed the older Clergy, who were greatly grieved at the introduction of these " foreign devices " ' Harsnett, p. 76. ^ Shakespeare borrowed from Harsnett the names of the devils in King Lear, and also some of the circumstances of the possessions. See Act iii. scene iv. ; Act iv. scene i. ' " Array, Parsons' ape, a runnagate priest and notable Polypragmon here in our state, meets with Ma. Tyrell, newly come from beyond the seas, and vaunts with a big look that Fa. Weston had shown such a sovering authority over hell, as the devils themselves should confess their kingdom was near to an end. And the same Array was so full fraught with hope and confidence in the Spanish and Guisan attempts then in hand, his first conge was in Master Tyrell's ear, at their entering into Paul's, bidding him be of good cheer for that all things now went very well forward " (Harsnett, p. 7). 160 THE ENGLISH JESUITS by their younger brethren, saying that " however they naight be admired for the moment they would in the end mar all and utterly discredit both themselves and their calling." ^ These manifestations went on for about eighteen months, and from the October 1585 to June 1586 were of almost daily occurrence. The imprisonment of Ballard and Weston, however, effectually put an end to them. What are we to think of these manifestations? While admitting the possibility of possession (serious scientists are now allowing that one intelligence can act upon another), experience points out that the proper attitude in such cases is at least a suspension of assent. The morbid craving for notoriety, the childish satisfaction of duping others are well- known states ; these together with the phenomena of nervous (hysteria, hystero-epilepsy) diseases will make anyone, nowaday, pause before assenting to the introduction of the supernatural into individual cases. Besides, as has been wittily said : " Historians have never made sufficient allowances for the deliberate lying of witnesses incapable of deception." At an early date in the proceedings Tyrell says he had misgivings as to the reality of the cases. He communicated his doubts to two other exorcists, one of whom exhorted him to a " goodly credulity," and the other insisted " that they were of such importance as would farther the Catholic cause more than all the books that had been written of late years about the controversies of Religion with the Protestants." ^ In the sworn confessions of the possessed (Marwood and Trayford had disappeared) open avowal was made that they had vied with one another in the extravagances of their tricks and pretences. As to the knowledge of the relics, one says : " She and the rest did know all these relics, having the sight of them almost every day, and hearing the priests tell of whom they were. So that as soon as this examinate saw any of them, she could name them very readily, and say. This is such a piece of Fr. Campion, etc." That Weston was a wilful deceiver cannot be for a moment ' "Devil-hunting in Elizabethan England," by T. G. Law, Nineteenth Century Magazine, March 1894. * Harsnett, p. 251, BROILS IN ENGLAND 161 entertained. But he seems to have had even more than his full share of " goodly credulity " ; and, being somewhat hysterical, was easily made a dupe of by others.^ In the July of 1586 the number of Jesuits in England was increased by the arrival of two famous men : Henry Garnett and Robert Southwell, men of the types of Parsons and Campion respectively. Of Henry Garnett, whose name will frequently appear in these pages, we may quote Foley (on More), who eulogises him in these terms : " He so combined the arduous duties of a laborious missioner and an admirable superior as to secure the veneration of his brothers in religion, the love of extems and the esteem of all, being possessed of the keenest intelligence, a sharp and solid judgment, an extensive knowledge of affairs, readiness in counsel, and, what is rarely found com- bined with these gifts, simplicity, candour, and a most confiding heart. To these he added a wonderful moderation and gentle- ness, approaching to exemption from all feelings of perturba- tion ; his manner was easy, his countenance pleasant and modest. He was besides a man of brilliant genius and learn- ing, well versed in the arts and sciences, and a famous linguist." ^ Foley is nothing if not eulogistic. Whether the reader will altogether agree with this estimate of Garnett's character will depend mainly upon the view he takes as the history of the man unfolds itself. We get an interesting glimpse of the times in the missionary life of these two fathers. Garnett and Southwell frequented the house of one Bold or Bolt in Berkshire, where, according to Weston's autobiography, " there was a chapel, an organ likewise, and other musical instru- ments, and, moreover, singers of both sexes belonging to the family, the master of the house being singularly experienced in the art. There during the course of those days we celebrated, as it were, a long octave of some magnificent festival." At Bold's house the Jesuits met the famous Dr. Byrd, the musician, who, for the sake of his religion, had sacri- ' Recent events in France have shown how easily duped pious persons are with any account of supernatural dealings. The infamous hoax practised by Leo Taxil with his DiaMe au dix-neuviime Siick and Diana Vaughan is -o. case very much to the purpose. ' Records of the English Frovince of the Society of Jesus, vol. iv. p. 39. 162 THE ENGLISH JESUITS ficed his position in Elizabeth's Chapel Royal. It was very likely that this prince of English musicians wrote his three most exquisite masses for the use of this musical family. Strange, even in the days when saying mass was high treason, that Catholics managed to celebrate in secret the rites of their religion with something of the old splendour. These two Jesuits were followed in i 5 8 8 by John Gerard and Edward Oldcorne. Meanwhile Garnett had succeeded Weston as Superior. There were now five in England, but one of them (Weston) was in prison. Gerard was a remarkably active man, and did much for the increase of the Society. While Garnett remained more or less hidden, so as to direct the movements of his men, Gerard, who seems to have acted as a kind of vice - superior, went up and down the country, hearing confessions, reconciling converts, and giving the " Spiritual Exercises." He was also a great collector of money for the Society, and was remarkably successful. In his autobiography we get such entries as these : " I also received many general confessions ; among others that of a widow lady of high rank,^ who for the rest of her days applied herself to good works and gave me an annual sum of 1 000 florins for the Society ; another widow ^ gave 700." * "I also gave a retreat to two fine young men who were brothers, who both came to the resolution of entering the Society. . . . Before his departure {the elder) among other alms-deeds he gave to the Society from 11,000 to 12,000 florins." " My host [Henry Drury] bestowed nearly one half of his goods upon the Society." Such success was sure to excite jealousy, and it was put down to the influence obtained by giving the " Exercises." Upon this point the late Fr. John Morris, S.J., remarks : " Fr. Gerard would not have denied the power of the " Exercises " to induce the resolution to ' make friends of the mammon of iniquity ' ; but this, as all who have followed the " Exercises of St. Ignatius " know by experience, is only because the eternal truths assert themselves with unparalleled force in the meditations of the " Exercises." On the subject of alms-giving ' Probably Lady Lovel. 2 Mrs. Fortescue. 3 The Life of Fr. John Gerard(\%%i\ pp. 63 ; 70-72. BROILS m ENGLAND 163 St. Ignatius proposes three rules, and they are characteristically- sober : ' Do as you would advise a stranger to do for the greater glory of God ; observe the form and measure of your alms that you would wish you had observed when you come to die ; take that Rule which at the Day of Judgment you would wish you had taken.' " ^ We may remark had Fr. Gerard shown a higher spirit of disinterestedness and refused to accept for the Society what was offered under the influence or stimulation of the " Exercises," it would have been better in every way. His life reads almost like a romance. Carrying his life in his hand, he was able by various disguises, by ready wit and presence of mind, to escape the pursuivants over and over again. Garnett was obliged to keep two or three houses always ready where his subjects might find him for advice, the manifestation of Conscience, the retreats and renewal of vows prescribed by the Rule. At one of these meetings, the Jesuits were nearly taken. Gerard thus recounts the circumstances : " On one occasion ^ we were all met together in the Superior's house, while he yet resided in the country, and were employed in the renovation of spirit. We had had several conferences, and the Superior had given each of us some advice in private, when the question was started, what should we do if the priest-hunters came suddenly upon us, seeing that there were so many of us and there was nothing like hiding-places enough for us all. We numbered then, I think, nine or ten of ours, besides other priests, our friends, and some Catholics who would also have had to seek concealment. The blessed Father Garnett answered : ' True, we ought not all to meet together, now that our number is daily increasing ; however, as we are here assembled for the greater glory of God, I will be answerable for all till the renovation is over, but beyond that I will not promise.' Accordingly on the very day of the renovation, though he had been quite unconcerned before, he earnestly warned every one to look to himself and not to tarry beyond necessity, adding : ' I do not guarantee your safety any longer.' Some hearing this mounted their horses after dinner and rode off. Five of ours and two secular priests stayed behind. 1 Ibid. pp. 6s, 66. " l8th October 1591 ; Ibid. p. 108. 164 THE ENGLISH JESUITS Next morning about five o'clock, when Fr. Southwell was beginnhig mass and the others and myself were at meditation, I heard a bustle at the house door, and directly after cries and oaths poured forth against the servant for refusing admittance. The fact was that four priest - hunters or pursuivants, as they are called, with drawn swords, were trying to break down the doors and force an entrance. The faithful servant withstood them, otherwise we should have been all made prisoners.^ But by this time Fr. Southwell had heard the uproar, and guessing what it meant, had at once taken off his vestments and stripped the altar, while we strove to seek out everything belonging to us, so that there might be nothing found to betray the presence of a priest. We did not even wish to leave boots and swords lying about, which would serve to show there had been many guests, though none of them appeared. Hence many of us were anxious about our beds, which were still warm and only covered, according to custom, previous to being made. Some therefore went and turned their beds so that the colder part might deceive anybody who put his hand in to feel. Thus, while the enemy was shouting and bawling outside and our servants were keeping the door ; saying that the mistress of the house, a widow, had not yet got up, but that she was coming directly and would give them an answer ; we profited by the delay to store away ourselves and all our baggage in a cleverly contrived hiding-place. At last these four leopards were let in. They raged about the house, looking everywhere and prying into the darkest corners with candles. They took four hours over the business, but failed in their search, and only brought out the forbearance of the Catholics in suffering and their own spite and obstinacy in seeking. At last they took themselves off, after getting paid, forsooth, for their trouble." 2 In 1594 Gerard was seized and confined in the Counter, " a very evil prison and without comfort," says Garnett. Here, he says, " I was lodged in a garret where there was nothing ' The Jesuits who escaped were Garnett, Gerard, Oldcome, Southwell, and Stanney. ' The scene of this adventure was probably at Lord Vaux's, Harrowden. BROILS IN ENGLAND 165 but a bed, and no room to stand upright, except just where the bed was. There was one window always 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 stench (certainly no small one) that came from the privy close to my door, that was used by all the prisoners in that part of the house. I was often kept awake, or waked up, by the bad smell." 1 He was taken from the Counter to the Clink, a prison adjoining the Bishop of Winchester's palace in Southwark. Here the " mammon of iniquity " served him. By bribes he was able to secure a large amount of liberty within the prison, and, through the connivance of his keeper, fitted up one room as a chapel where he used to gather together the Catholic prisoners and administer the consolations of religion. He even gave the " Exercises " to many. As it was now an open fact that he was a Jesuit, Gerard no longer tried to disguise it, but wore openly his religious habit both in the prison and in the streets of London when being taken to and fro for examinations. On one of these occasions, when at the Guildhall, he tells of a conversation which shows what reliance can be put upon some of the protestations of allegiance. " They asked me whether I acknowledged the Queen as the true Governor and Queen of England. I answered : ' I do acknowledge her as such.' ' What,' said Topcliffe, ' in spite of Pius v.'s excommunication ? ' I answered : ' I acknowledge her as our Queen, notwithstanding I know there is such excommunication.' He adds naively : ' The fact was I knew that the operation of that excommunication had been sus- pended for all England by a declaration of the pontiff till such time as its execution became possible.' " ^ Imprisonment did not hinder Gerard's activity ; he even cleverly turned it to advantage. " As my abode was fixed and easy to find, the greater part of the priests that were sent from the seminaries abroad had instructions to apply to me ^Idid. p. 187. ^ /did. p. 22s. 166 THE ENGLISH JESUITS that through me they might be introduced to their Superior,^ and might receive other assistance at my hands. Not having always places prepared nor houses of Catholics to which I could send them, I rented a house and garden in a suitable spot and furnished it, as far as was wanted, by the help of my friends. Thither I used to send those who brought letters of recommendation from our fathers and who I was assured led a holy life and seemed well fitted for the Mission. I maintained them there till I had supplied them, through the aid of certain friends, with clothes and necessaries, sometimes even with a residence or with a horse to go to their friends and kinsmen in the country. I covered all the expenses of this house with the alms that were bestowed upon me. I did not receive alms from many persons, still less from all that came to see me ; indeed, both out of prison and in prison I often refused such offers." ^ On 14th April 1597 he underwent torture in the Tower; and gives us the following graphic account of what took place. One must admire his constancy under such barbarous treat- ment. Having refused to reply to certain questions, he was delivered over to the executioners : — " Then we proceeded to the place appointed for torture. We went in a sort of solemn procession, the attendants pre- ceding us with lighted candles, because the place was underground and very dark, especially about the entrance. It was a place of immense extent, and in it were ranged divers sorts of racks and other instruments of torture. Some of these they displayed before me, and told me I should have to taste them every one. Then again they asked me if I was willing to satisfy them on the points on which they had questioned me. ' It is out of my power to satisfy you,' I answered ; and throwing myself on my knees, I said a prayer or two. " Then they led me to a great upright beam or pillar of wood which was one of the supports of this vast crypt. At the summit of this column were fixed certain iron staples for ' At this date the secular priests had no Superior at all. Garnett acted as " Superior of the Mission," but with no authority from the Holy See. " Ibid. p. 203. BROILS IN ENGLAND 167 supporting weights. Here they placed on my wrists gauntlets of iron, and ordered me to mount upon two or three wicker steps, then raising my arms they inserted an iron bar through the rings of the gauntlets, and then through the staples to the pillar, putting a pin through the bar so that it could not slip. My arms being thus fixed above my head, they with- drew these wicker steps I spoke of, one by one, from beneath my feet, so that I hung by my hands and arms. The tips of my toes, however, still touched the ground, so they dug away the ground beneath ; for they could not raise me higher, as they had suspended me from the topmost staples in the pillar. " Thus hanging by my wrists I began to pray, while those gentlemen standing round asked me again if I was willing to confess. I replied, ' I neither can nor will ' ; but so terrible a pain began to oppress me that I was scarce able to speak the words. The worst pain was in my breast and belly, my arms and hands. It seemed to me that all the blood in my body rushed up my arms into my hands ; and I was under the impression at the time that the blood actually burst forth from my fingers at the back of my hands. This was, however, a mistake; the sensation was caused by the swelling of the flesh over the iron that bound it. I felt now such intense pain (and the effect was probably heightened by an interior temptation) that it seemed to me impossible to continue enduring it. It did not, however, go so far as to make me feel any inclination or real disposition to give the information they wanted. . . . " Hereupon those gentlemen, seeing that I gave them no further answer, departed to the Lieutenant's house, and there they waited, sending now and then to know how things were going on in the crypt. There were left with me three or four strong men to superintend my torture. My gaoler also remained, I fully believe out of kindness to me, and kept wiping away with a handkerchief the sweat that ran down from my face the whole time, as indeed it did from my whole body. . . . " I had hung in that way till after one of the clock, as I think, when I fainted. How long I was in that faint I know not — perhaps not long ; for the men who stood by lifted me up 168 THE ENGLISH JESUITS or replaced those wicker steps under my feet, until I came to myself; and immediately they heard me praying they let me down again. This they did over and over again when the faint came on, eight or nine times before five of the clock." ^ By the help of some faithful lay-brothers Gerard managed to escape from the Tower in 1597. Two of them, accom- panied by one of his former keepers, stole one night in a boat to the Tower, and fastening a rope to the trunk of a tree, on the other side of the moat, afforded him a means of escape. Gerard resumed his old life in the country, and visited London from time to time, where he kept part of a house for the purpose of giving the " Exercises " to persons of rank. He remained in England unmolested, in spite of the frequent searches. Robert Southwell calls for a word of notice. If less romantic than Gerard's life, Southwell's appeals to the higher feelings as a brave man who sealed his convictions with his blood. During his short course he lived mostly with the Countess of Arundel. Unlike Heywood and others, " he did not adopt the extravagant disguises which many priests of that day thought it necessary to affect, attiring themselves as gallants with feathers in their caps and hawks on their fists, with slashed satin doublets and velvet cloaks, mounted on good horses with lackeys running by their side. On the contrary, he was wont to be apparelled in ' black rashe ' with clothes ' more fit than fine,' as he sings of himself — a man not very remarkable, of moderate stature, with auburn hair and beard." ^ His life was a very solitary one, varied only with secret visits to the neighbouring Catholics and journeys to London. But besides his devotional duties he found relaxation in composing those beautiful verses which give his name an honoured place among English poets. For six years he laboured on quietly, until in 1592 he was betrayed by a daughter of his host, Richard Bellamy of Uxenden Hall. Anne had been instructed by him if she were asked. Was Robert Southwell at her father's house? to swear no: with the reservation to herself that he was not there so that she was bound to tell them. This was defended at his trial on ' Ibid. pp. 240-243. ' Foley, i. p. 332. BROILS IN ENGLAND 169 the ground " that no man is bound to answer every man that asketh him unless he were a competent judge." ^ Whether the Jesuits considered Elizabeth's judges competent rebus sic stantibus is perhaps open to question. Anne Bellamy did not, however, learn her lesson thoroughly. Being taken on 26th January 1592, she was committed to the Gatehouse as an obstinate recusant. Here she fell under the power of the infamous Topcliffe, who is said to have seduced her.^ She consented to betray Southwell the next . time she learnt he was at her father's. On 5th July 1592 he was captured and taken by Topcliffe to his own house in Westminster, where, as it appears with the Council's permis- sion, he was tortured ten times to make him confess some supposed treachery. The poor man was hung from a wall by his hands with a sharp circle of iron round each wrist pressing on the artery, his legs bent backwards and his heels tied to his thighs. On one occasion he was left for seven hours. During all this agony his patience was perfect, and his only exclamations were such pious words as, Deus tibi se ; tu te Deo. For four days was he left in the hands of the inhuman Topcliffe, when he was removed to the Gatehouse. Here among the poorest and vilest of prisoners a month passed in semi-starvation and filth. When his father was allowed to see him, he was found to be so covered with dirt, swarming with vermin, and reduced to the last extremity that, shocked beyond measure at the shameful spectacle, he pre- sented a petition to the Queen begging " that if his son had committed anything for which by the laws he had deserved death he might suffer death ; if not, as he was a gentleman, he hoped Her Majesty would be pleased to order that he should be treated as a gentleman, and not be confined any longer in that filthy hole." * The Queen gave orders for his removal to the Tower, where for nearly three years he re- ^ We shall consider the subject of Equivocation later on. ' " At the end of July 1592, Topcliffe took her off to Greenwich, and there had her married to Nicholas Jones, servant to himself and to Pickering, the keeper of the Gatehouse. After this Anne was taken to Topcliffe's house in Lincolnshire, and was there delivered of a child about Christmas " (Mr. R. Simpson in the Rambler, vol. i. pp. 108, 109. See also Harleian MS., 6998, fol. 21). ' Challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests (ed. 1741), vol. i. p. 325. 170 THE ENGLISH JESUITS mained at his father's charge. At the end of this time Southwell wrote to Cecil humbly entreating that he might be brought to trial ; and the answer was, that if he was in so much haste to be hanged he should quickly be satisfied. On 1 8th February 1595 he was removed to Newgate, and two days after was arraigned at Westminster before Sir John Popham and others, on the charge of high treason, according to the 27th of Elizabeth, " whereby all subjects born within this land which since the feast-day of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, in the first year of Her Majesty's reign, were, or at any time after should be, made priests by authority derived from the See of Rome, and which, then being in the realm, did not within forty days after depart out of the land, or which, after the said forty days, should at any time come into, be, or remain within the same, were by that Act made traitors, and to suffer as in the case of high treason." ^ Southwell, it is clear by the words of the Act itself, was condemned for the mere crime of Catholic priesthood. On the morning aSter the trial (2 1 st February), he suffered at Tyburn in his thirty-fourth year. It is remarkable that many of those Jesuits who followed Campion in his life and virtues were sharers in his crown,^ while the followers of Parsons, as a rule, escaped. The loyal suffered in place of the politicians, who took care to reap the credit of the heroism of their victims. While these were suffering, the political wing was not neglecting to forward Parsons' scheme of securing the control of the Clergy in England. From the very beginning, as we have seen, this was assumed as a matter of- course. Parsons sent them hither and thither, Heywood gave laws, and Gerard looked after the temporal interest of those who were recom- mended by the Jesuit Superiors of the seminaries. But it was not to be supposed that such officiousness could exist for long without remonstrance. While Allen lived, indeed, there could be no open attack upon the liberty of the Clergy ; but the ground could be carefully prepared. We have now to turn to a page of history which is the ' Quoted by Foley, vol. i. p. 365. ^ At this period other Jesuits were executed for their priesthood only : John Cornelius (4th July 1594) and Henry Walpole (7th April 1595). BROILS m ENGLAND 171 saddest among the records of English Catholics. But it will not be without profit, if, before we enter upon disputes which at first sight may seem to be squabbles, too contemptible for notice, we make clear to the reader what were the principles at stake. Parsons and his religious brethren may be fairly credited with simply carrying out in English ecclesiastical matters the same principle the Society was aiming at in the whole world. As we have remarked, the Counter-Reformation took the form of a general tightening up of every bond to Rome. Liberty to Latins means Licence. It never enters into their mind that the best remedy for the abuse of Liberty, is more Liberty, which brings more responsibility. But the idea of the Society was to reduce, by obedience, the individual to nothing. Thus liberty is especially antagonistic to Jesuit ideas. The policy of concentration then in full force in Rome was one eminently in keeping with the Latin ideas of the Society ; and the English Jesuits were only acting according to them when they tried to train Catholics at large in the same way as their own novices. The principle of Authority was emphasised, as long as that authority was Jesuit, or at least under their direction ; but this was done at the cost of personality, episcopacy, and nationality. And in the course of this history we shall find this policy carried out consistently. Men took up the position of leaders, and claimed in the name of religion the right of so doing. They forgot, however, to make themselves capable for the post. Overawed by their religious claims, the laity submitted to the yoke, and it was only when it was too late that they realised that they had been le^d by blind men. That means were used which could only plead in justification the end held in view, is a point upon which History gives no uncertain answer. In excuse we can only suggest that exaggerated view of life which men must have when they confine themselves to the contemplation of a half-truth. For a truth, regarded too much in one light, is only a half-truth, which leads one to accept fancies in place of facts. On the other side, while fully and generously recognising in its true light the principle for which the Jesuits were con- tending, in so far as it was consistent with the teaching of the Gospel, the Clergy and the bulk of the laity did not lose sight 172 THE ENGLISH JESUITS of that other principle of Personality which is equally im- portant or perhaps more so, being the basis upon which Authority itself is built. The supremacy of Conscience was what these were in reality fighting for; that is to say, for the truth that man is not a mere part of a system. He is a person, and stands or falls in his own personality. The Clergy recognised seriously that Authority, to be of any practical use, must be based, not on brute-force or unreasoning submission, but on Conscience. Thus they stood between two forces, one on either side, the Government and the Jesuit ; each claiming what could not be surrendered. Hence, from this point of view, the disputes which arose between the Jesuits with their follow- ing and the bulk of the English Catholics gain a new signifi- cance, and are of interest as being of grave and far-reaching effects, which exert an influence to-day. The whole point is in a nutshell. Did the Jesuits aim at subjugating the Clergy and, through them, the laity ? Dispute about this detail or that, we have, at this date, abundant evidence that this was a settled and systematised line of policy. It naturally resulted from their standpoint, which was summed up by one of their friends — Sega — in this fashion : the Society was essential to the existence of religion in Eng- land ; its members were necessary to counsel, strengthen, and protect the laity ; to support, correct, and restrain the Clergy ; the Jesuits were the salt of the earth and the sun of the heaven of the English Church.^ With such ideas acted upon, it was inevitable that a conilict would ensue. That there was any desire to subjugate the Clergy, is in- directly denied by Jesuit writers. But facts are stronger than words ; even if we qualify the denials with the reservation that no unlawful supremacy was aimed at ; and facts taken in their general tendency, not as isolated incidents, make up history, and give us a clear view of the drift of polities. When beside these we have the very explicit statement of a notable Jesuit that Parsons did exercise supremacy over the greater body of the Clergy, there is no resisting the conclusion that there was a desire to subjugate them. Fr. William Holt wrote a paper in ■ S. p. O. (Roman Transcrifts) (&\SMensaa) from Bibl. Vat. MS. Ottoboni 2, 473, fol. 185 et seq. BROILS m ENGLAND 173 1596 (the draft of which is preserved in the Westminster Archives) on How the Catholic Religion was maintained in England during thirty-eight years of Persecution, and how it may still be preserved there} After speaking of Allen's work at Douai, he refers to Parsons' position in the following terms : " On the other hand, Parsons was commissioned by his General to superintend the same mission, so far as the fathers of the Society were concerned in it, together with such priests as might be sent from the Spanish seminaries, which, as we have said, owe their foundation to his endeavour. Thus the important work of the English mission is under the guidance and control of these two illustrious men ; not as though there were two, but as one alone, etc." As Allen, " Our Moses," as Holt calls him, died some two years before this paper was written, it is pretty clearly avowed that Parsons had now taken up the control altogether, especially as there were, on Holt's evidence, only forty or fifty Marian priests left in England, the rest being seminary priests who were educated directly or indirectly under Jesuit influence. What brought conviction home to the minds of English Catholics that their liberty was in peril was the dispute known in contemporary literature as the " Wisbeach Stirs." We have a very full account of it by one of the persons there. Dr. Christopher Bagshawe, who wrote : A True Relation of the Factions begun at Wisbeach by Fr. Edmunds alias Weston, a Jesuite, 159S, and continued since by Fr. Whalley alias Garnet, the Provincial of the Jesuits in England, and by Fr. Parsons in Rome with their adherents. Against us the secular priests, their brethren and fellow-prisoners, that disliked of novelties and thought it dishonourable to the ancient ecclesiastical discipline of the Catholic Church that secular priests should be governed by Jesuits. From this and the abundant literature on the topic we will briefly draw out the nature of the dispute. But un- fortunately in Weston's autobiography, just at the point where he was going to give his account of the Wisbeach scandals, the manuscript is mutilated. As the autobiography has always been in Jesuit custody, it is perhaps not difficult to assign a reason for the mutilation. ' Records of the English Catholics, vol. i. p. 379. 174 THE ENGLISH JESUITS Wisbeach Castle, an old building partly dismantled, was chosen, among other castles, as a prison for Catholics. It stood in the dreary Fenland district, shrouded in mists that crept up from the sea. It was surrounded by pools of stagnant waters that gave a desolate look to all the country round. Thither in 1580 the gentle Fecknam, last Abbat of West- minster, together with Watson, Bishop of Lincoln, and other of the Marian Clergy were removed and " lived in great unity and brotherly kindness ; every man intermeddling only with his own affairs and private meditation." When the company grew larger the same peaceful spirit prevailed. "If at any time some little indiscretion happened in any, a word (especially of his ghostly father) was more than sufficient to reform it : or if upon such like an occasion Bishop Watson was moved to reprove this or that, his answer was. What ? are we not fellow-prisoners ? Are we not at the commandment of another ? Shall I add affliction to one that is afflicted ? Are we men who profess ourselves to be an example to others in suffering for our conscience, and shall we not be thought thus able without controllers to govern ourselves ? Be con- tent. I will not take upon myself to reprove my fellow- prisoners." ^ The spirit of Fecknam, a man of conscience and peace, still reigned in the prison.^ When the Babington conspiracy was discovered and the Armada was threatening, about thirty prisoners from else- where were sent to Wisbeach. " In which number was Master Edmonds alias Weston, a Jesuite : a man who, after Hay- wood's departure out of England, was sent hither by Parsons from Paris to be his substitute or provincial." ^ To quote a recent account : Fr. Weston " was not content with letting things be as he found them. It seemed to him that it would be highly advantageous if the prisoners were reduced to the regularity of life to which he had been accustomed.* His first step was to get his confessor [Mr. Dryland, afterwards a Jesuit], a secular priest, elected superior over the prisoners. This plan ' A True Relation, pp. 2, 3. ' Fecknam died October 1584. » Ibid. p. 4. * Bagshawe says, "by the space of a week, but Fr. Weston (having in him the relics of his^late provincialitie) began to cast about how he might advance himself above his brethren " (p. 4). BROILS IN ENGLAND 175 was negatived. Other proposals of a like nature were brought forward ; but they, too, were invariably rejected. This went on for seven years until Allen's death, when Weston, having arranged the plan with his adherents, suddenly withdrew from the common table. His absence being remarked, he was ques- tioned as to the reason, and promptly declared, that unless his companions submitted to a regular mode of life his conscience would not allow him to join their society. He had a follow- ing of eighteen priests and one Jesuit lay - brother." ^ The object of the separation was, in Weston's own words, " to shame the other party." The project had evidently been well prepared ; and it is more than probable that Weston was not acting solely on his own initiative. Parsons had been kept informed on every- thing that was going on at Wisbeach, and he was the director of all. In answer to a letter from him, complaining that Garnett was not explicit enough in his information, the latter replied (6th September i 5 94) : " The like I say of my cousin William's company, where I understand in general by him that things go worse and worse, with no order, but confusion and danger of great scandal. If you think it be not too late to seek to remedy such things, you may take order ; but in this I can say no more than I have written already." ^ It was in February 1595 that the dispute broke out. Between the previous September and that date. Parsons had ample time to acquaint himself with the exact state of affairs, and take the necessary steps. Had the priests at Wisbeach submitted, it would have been a great step on the way towards realising his project. The eighteen priests who followed Weston chose him theii superior, and wrote to Garnett to confirm the election (7th February 1595), saying that Weston had accepted the charge, subject to Garnett's consent. This was of course readily given ; ^ but under conditions that the appearance of superiority was to be avoided. Jouvency states that Weston drew up a plan of life, and added therewith certain laws for ' Author's English Black Month of St. Benedict, vol. i. p. 247. ^ Foley, vol. iv. p. 45. * Gamett consulted with Southwell and Baldwin upon the matter. 176 THE ENGLISH JESUITS the benefit of his following.^ In reporting the affair to the General (i2th July 1595), Garnett says he agreed to the petition, which was so fitting, especially as the scope of " our mission " is to help not only the laity but also the Clergy, and that if he refused to give them Weston they would have no one to rule them. Parsons in the Briefe Apologie ^ writes to make out that Weston " had wholly refused, and could not be persuaded" to accept the superiority ; but, perhaps in a moment of abstraction, he endorses the letter of 7th February 1595, which had been sent to him, as " pro confirmanda electione P. Edmundi." Weston's faction, in defence of their separation, charged their fellow - priests, prisoners like themselves for conscience' sake, with drunkenness, fornication, gambling with the alms of the faithful, and general riotous living. Following a favourite device, general charges were made, and when pressed to particularise, the calumniators sheltered themselves under the plea of charity. Weston himself did so too. " And yet will the Jesuits go about (as Fr. Weston did then unto me) to defend that no wrong was done unto any, withal no man was named in particular.* This faction being the more numerous tried to master the others, and seized upon the common property. They also managed to get control over the alms that were sent for the support of the prisoners. An open schism now broke out, and lasted for months. The scandal got abroad, and the suffering Catholics found their spiritual guides at open warfare one with the other. Naturally the laity followed suit, and two parties were formed : those who through thick and thin favoured the Jesuits ; and those who opposed them just as violently. Nor was the scandal confined to Catholics. The pulpits of the Established Church resounded with mockery at the way these Christians loved one another. Two of the older Clergy, Mush and Dudley, hastened from the north to get Garnett to restrain his men from keeping up the broil. But at first he met them stiffly, with the assertion "that he saw no reason why the priests in England should not as well be governed by the Jesuits here as they were and 1 p. 29. = p. 73. ' A Reply to Fr. Parsons' Libel, p. 7. BROILS IN ENGLAND 177 had been in the colleges beyond the seas." ^ But he seems to have become frightened at the results of Weston's endeavour, and at last agreed to interfere. After many attempts at arbitration, a peace was patched up ; and on 6th November 1597, after a nine months' schism, the two parties met again at the common table. As the best defence of Christopher Bagshawe, whose book gives the fullest account, it will be enough to quote from Garnett's letter to him under the date (8th October 159S): " Allow them to live according to their wish ; for no vow or law forbids it. Meanwhile do you live as you wish ; that is as becomes learned and pious priests, as you have hitherto done ; for it is not fair that you should be bound by new rules without your freest consent." ^ But the effects of these " broils " were felt in Rome and in Flanders ; and the quarrel between Jesuit and anti-Jesuit was carried to an excess of violence on either side. The students of the English college were again in rebellion. The English rector after Parsons — Joseph Creswell — had been removed by Allen's authority on account of his " indiscrete and tyrannical behaviour " ; and Italian rectors had been again appointed. The system of spying^ led to most disgraceful charges. Fr. Harewood, the minister, charged some of the students with an unmentionable crime, and took such public steps in consequence that the students were in an uproar, loudly denouncing him to the Pope as fit for the galleys.* The old complaints were renewed, that the college intended for the advantage of the Clergy was being turned into a nursery for the Jesuits, who beguiled with marks of favour such of the students as were affected towards the Society. Clamouring petitions went into the Pope from all sides for ' Ibid. The authorship of this book has been disputed ; but from the fact that the writer had personal communication with Weston, he was probably William Clargenett or Clarionet [at Rheims, 1585], who was one of the Wisbeach prisoners. ^ Tierney, iii. p. cxiii. ^ Angeli Custodes were appointed, who sounded privately their companions on their sentiments ; and by speaking against the Jesuits, drew them out to express their opinions. * See Dr. Ely's Certaine Briefe Notes, p. 77. Ely is a witness whose impartiality cannot be questioned. 12 178 THE ENGLISH JESUITS the removal of the Jesuits altogether from the college, and also from the English mission. An attempt at introducing the Book of the Succession for reading during meals was flatly opposed.^ The English students at Rome were loyal, and would have none of Parsons' Spanish intrigues. The Pope ordered a visitation ; and Cardinal Sega, who only saw as he was told to see, drew up a report, which is a model of partiality and fulsome praise.^ Cardinal Toledo, himself a Jesuit, had been appointed vice- protector of the college during the absence of Cardinal Cajetan in Poland. But, as Jouvency says, leaving the way pointed out by Sega and approved of by the Pope, he brought the whole affair into the gravest difficulty. He did not dismiss any of the ring- leaders.^ He even thought there might be a good deal to be said on their side. One of the worst was appointed confessor, and not only had leave to send or receive letters unopened but to communicate this privilege to whom he would. Toledo went even further. He removed Father Fioravante from the rectorship, and petitioned the Pope to take away the seminary from the Society and make him the head.* Cardinal Toledo died soon after. The General himself seems at that moment to be inclined to give up the charge of the seminary. Barrett, the President of Douai, had been summoned to Rome to help in allaying these disputes, and writes from that place (loth April 1 596) an important letter to Parsons, in which, after telling what he thought was the cause of the disturbances and the means he had suggested for quelling them, he goes ' William Clark says : " Concerning his proposing the Book of Titles to be read in the refectory in Rome in place of a spiritual Lecture used to be read at such times, there be divers yet that will depose the same against him ; and Mr. Lawberry, now a reverend priest, was the man should have read the same, but rejected it " (Foulis, The History of Popish Treasons and Usurpations (ed. r68l), p. 503). ° S. P. O. (Roman Transcripts), ut supra. Mgr. Moro " was visitor with Sega, who, finding him inclined to equity and no whit partial to the Jesuits, he shaked him off, taking the whole matter into his own hands " (A Retily to Fr. Parsons' Libel, byW. C.,p. 83). ' But in 1598 (3rd August) John Sicklemore, one of the mutineers, was gained over and wrote to Bagshawe, " For God's sake, let us follow Father Gamett his counsel in this, which is wholly to conceal these enormous and beastly offences. He is wholly bent to it, that is the mind of our assigned superior, Mr. Blackwell, of his coadjutors, and our dearest friends " (Arckpriest Controversy, i. p. 50). * Jouvency, p. 220. BROILS IN ENGLAND 179 on to say : that what is really at the bottom of these troubles is the mismanagement of the seminary by the Jesuits then employed. It is remarkable that Parsons in his Brief e Apologie (p. 54), where he professes to print this letter,^ in order to save at all hazards the repute of the Society, suppresses the important part touching the mismanagement. The passage is as follows : — " Well, father, there must needs be a rector that is skilful in the affairs of England, and such an one as can and will give correspondence to the colleges and your friends abroad ; and besides he must be a man of gravity, of countenance, and of authority; and such as deal for matters of England and for the colleges in Flanders must concert with your friends at Douai ; otherwise it is not in me to help, nor in all your friends there. O, but these be generalities. Well, I find here and there many particularities that must be amended, whereof I mean to confer with father General whom I find most willing to hear me ; and you will concert, I hope. This rector ^ will never be able to rule in this place. Many things I can tell you of that must be amended concerning this college in the manner of government, and concerning better correspondence with the college of Douai, or else you will never have peace. Trust those that be your true friends, although they write not always to your mind ; and beware of those that speak fair, and make all well, and condemn all but themselves." * Agazzari gives a lively picture of the state of affairs in a letter to Parsons of 27th August 1596, in which he reports: that the students are violently affected against the Spanish, and openly show their hostility. They speak frequently and cuttingly against the Book of the Succession and its author, that is to say Father Parsons as they think, and can hardly bear to hear his name mentioned. They rejoice over the Spanish reverses as at Cadiz, and regret the successes as at Calais. He cannot say whether they hate the Jesuits o^ account of the Spanish, or the Spanish on account of the Jesuits, or ' P. SS Stq. 'Jerome Fioravante, appointed 27th May 1594, was succeeded by Agazzari, 17th May 1596. * Tierney, vol. iii. pp. Ixxiv-v. 180 THE ENGLISH JESUITS rather in the interests of Scotland and France hate them both, or for some worse reason.^ The report of the Prelate Malvasia, in 1596, to Cardinal Aldobrandini, the Pope's nephew, speaks very clearly of the causes of the disturbances : " Touching these Jesuits, it would be an excellent thing if both in Scotland and also in England they would abstain from interfering in State matters and the affairs of princes, but would attend solely to gaining souls and the advancement of religion. Applying themselves thus to one thing only, they would perhaps labour with greater fruit, and would dispel the suspicion which prevails in these countries that, under the veil of piety and devotion, they are concealing various worldly ideas ; they would find themselves held in greater esteem, and receive the veneration which is their due. And in connection with this, it is impossible to ignore that there exists in England, between the Jesuits and the alumni of the colleges abroad, an antagonism very dangerous to the interests of that kingdom and of Scotland also. For the Jesuits hold it as an axiom established among them, and confirmed by the authority of Father Parsons, that only by force of arms can the Catholic religion be restored to its former state, inasmuch as the pro- perty and revenues of the Church, divided as they are among heretics, and having already passed through many hands, can be recovered by no other means. And to bring about this result, they believe that the only arms available are those of Spain ; and, whether coming from home or elsewhere, they enter these countries with this idea firmly impressed upon them by their superiors. The alumni, on the other hand, are naturally attached to their country, opposed to the idea of a revolution, and the evils consequent on the introduction of foreign sovereigns and the law of Spain," ^ etc. etc. etc. In Flanders the an ti- Jesuit movement was perhaps more violent than elsewhere. Already there was great discontent among the English exiles in Flanders at the harsh, tyrannical behaviour of Fr. William Holt, Parsons' deputy. Through his hands passed the pensions allowed by Philip, and these were used to secure political adherence to the Jesuit policy. One of • Ibid. p. Ixxv. ' Bellesheim's History of the Catholic Church of Scotland, iii. pp. 469, 470. BROILS IN ENGLAND 181 the chief opponents of Holt and Parsons was William Giffard, appointed Dean of Lille in i 5 9 5 . In the May of that year he writes from the Nuncio's house at Brussels to Throgmorton, that Parsons, and his faction, Stanley, Holt, etc., " be instruments of all this mischief, and deal so factiously to the ruin of our nation," and that " Parsons seeks the simple monarchy of England per /as et nefas."^ When the Book on the Succession came out, Giffard saw the value of the saying, " Oh, that mine enemy would write a book." He tells Throgmorton (igth June 1595) what he has done. "... I have told all to the Nuncio, and have made him to prepare the mind of the Pope and the Rector of the Jesuits by letters heretofore, and as soon as may be I will go to Louvain. I will give the Nuncio the sum of all. He assured me that as long as the Pope lives that Parsons should never rise, and bid me ware the wench to take heed, and the Bishop of Cassano to take heed of the humour of the King of Spain. . . . The Nuncio promised to send this sweet book in compendio to the Rector of the Jesuits and the Pope for a token which she shall wear at her neck. I have made an abstract of Parsons' book, and given it to the Nuncio, who is mad at Parsons, and bid me write to the Bishop of Cassano, and assure him that Parsons had ruined himself, and that the Pope would detest his sluttish behaviour, and that he never could have done anything more disgustable to the Pope." 2 When the book was found to have created so much feeling. Parsons was not sorry that he had published it under the name of " Doleman." When taxed with its authorship, he used to seek to evade acknowledging it, and made suggestions that Allen and Sir Francis Englefield were the authors. Allen, having been concerned in the former memorial on the subject, could, with a little arrangement of the truth, be said to have had some share substantially in the new book. Giffard reports that the Nuncio said '' Parsons would never rise as long as the Pope lived." This was in reference to the attempt that was being made by Parsons' friends in Flanders, Italy, and Spain ^ to get him the cardinal's hat ^ S. p. O. Dom. Eliz. vol. 252, No. 8. « Ibid. vol. 252, No. 66. ' In a letter (anonymous) from Madrid, dated November 10/20, 1585 (159S ?), now 182 THE ENGLISH JESUITS vacant by Allen's death (1594). They were working very zealously for it in opposition to the claims of Stapleton and the Bishop of Cassano, who were the chief nominees of the other party. The Jesuit party in Flanders were partic- ularly active, and petitions were sent round for signatures drawn up by Dr. Worthington (of whom more anon), which describe Parsons as " the Lantern of the Country." ^ A wild burst of indignation now broke out against Holt and his satellite, Hugh Owen. Parsons at first defended Holt as necessary in Flanders for the promotion of the design on England. But in view of the attitude taken towards Holt by the Spanish authorities in Flanders, Parsons thought it would be better to have him transferred to Spain. In a letter to the General, dated Seville, 12th May 1595, Parsons says of Holt : " For although he is by nature a stiff man {de condicion secca), yet he is homo probatae virtutis, and has a good head ; moreover, he has this quality, most important in our present work, that his ways of thought and speech fall in with those of others." ^ But as to Owen, he was quite willing to throw him overboard.* Meanwhile the anti-Jesuit party sent in petitions to Rome, praying not only for the removal of Holt, but of all Jesuits from England, and from the control of the seminaries. How this was met appears from a letter written by James Younger (at Douai) to Dr. Giffard (12th November 1596):— " We hear by Dr. Worthington that certain who term themselves chief and principal of our nation have written to the Pope that they are tyrannised by our English Jesuit here in France with like tyranny they have complained to be used by the Jesuits in England against our seminary priests. ... To give a counter-buff to these men's proceedings, who have thus at Hatfield, the writer tells his "good cousin": "Here is of late come to the Court, Fr. Parsons greatly in favour of His Majesty. We are persuaded he shall be made cardinal and legate for England ; though they say Dr. GriflSn stands for it, and is much favoured of His Holiness. Wherefore I pray you give us advertisements what you hear, for we are all here affected to Fr. Parsons" (Hatfield MSS. vol. iv.). ' S. P. O. Dom. Eliz. (Addenda), vol. 34, No. 40. ' "Archives, S.J.," quoted in Month, No. 424, p. 351. ^ Tierney, vol. iii. p. Ixxxvii. BROILS IN ENGLAND 183 reported against the priests, Dr. Worthington has taken in hand this worthy journey, as to travel up and down, from place to place, to get every man's hand who will not be counted a miso-Jesuit, to subscribe to a bill drawn by him and his therein, to clear Fr. Holt from all crimes, as likewise the Jesuits in England. We all here would gladly have shunned to intermeddle in this matter, wherein we know nothing what just accusations may be laid against Fr. Holt or others in England, whose dealings are altogether unknown to the most here. Yet we are importuned, yea, and violently persuaded, by one who 'will not easily relent from his own preconceived opinion (...), we must all forsooth needs subscribe to a letter drawn in testimony of the father's innocency, against whom, in truth, we know nothing ; and this much we would willingly testify. But this is not reckoned sufficient ; we must also say that we disallow and disprove and count slanderous all that the other parties object against the Jesuits. To this we oppose, that in conscience we cannot, seeing we know not the causes by which the others are moved to write to the Pope : we offer to write to the President a blank wherein he may testify in all our names that which in conscience he thinketh may be said. This is not yet enough ; but we must write to Father Alphonso {Agazzari) in case the President be absent ; and Father Alphonso must have our names to use when necessity shall require."^ Dr. Worthington, who was devoted to Father Parsons, and who had already made a temporary vow of obedience to him, was zealous on the other side. Attestations in favour of Father Holt and the Jesuits were signed through his means by eighteen priests, ninety-nine lay folk, including soldiers and women. The name of Guy Fawkes, of Gunpowder fame, figures in the list.^ There was trouble also arising from another quarter. Father Creighton was furious with Parsons for throwing over James VI. as heir to the English Crown. A correspondence be- tween the two ensued. From a letter written by Parsons from Seville (loth May 1596) we can see how the question rested : ' Tiemey, vol. iii. pp. xc. xci. ^ Ibid. vol. iii. p. Ixxv. 184 THE ENGLISH JESUITS "As regards the other business of the royal succession, about which your Reverence writes, I hardly know what to say, or whether I ought to say anything about it, especially as I could wish that we were more engaged with a heavenly than an earthly kingdom ; but since the evil of the times, and the extreme calamity of our country cause us to labour in order to secure its salvation, which depends upon the restoration of the Catholic religion, we are not able to do so without also con- sidering the question of a Catholic successor. I will therefore take this opportunity of telling your Reverence what I think. " From the year i 580 when, by our superior's orders, I^first went to England, I began to study the welfare of the King of Scotland in every possible way, and at once sent at my own expense a certain priest, William Watts, into Scotland. I afterwards sent in Father Holt. And as the affairs went on well, I wrote to our General to send into Scotland some of the Scotch members of the Society, and when it was determined that your Reverence should make a trial, you will easily recollect how willingly I assisted you at Rouen, and gave you my only companion to accompany you into Scotland, and upon your return I spared neither counsel nor help. I under- took with great peril of my life a hard and difficult journey into Spain, and on to Lisbon, and then one as difficult into Flanders, and a third to Rome itself. And all this, for the sake, after God, of the King of Scotland and his mother ; for whom, although I was not able to accomplish their wishes, I obtained from the King of Spain on two occasions the sum of twenty-four thousand crowns, and from Pope Gregory Xlll. four thousand. I am unaware when anyone else has done the like good offices. I am obliged to mention these, in order to oppose those who make me out to be an adversary of the King of Scotland. And no one can be a better witness on my behalf than your Reverence, who knows all this, and can recall it. " But when upon the death of the Queen {Mary) we found that your King persevered in his heresy, I confess that both Allen, not yet made cardinal, and I, showed ourselves to be slow to promote the interests of an heretical King ; but what your Reverence said at Rome in the year 1586 I think, and BROILS m ENGLAND 185 has often been repeated, nothing could be decided until we had some firm proof of the King's mind, which your Reverence promised to procure us, as you were then about, with others, to set off for Scotland. We willingly waited your return, and after some years all hope was lost to us of the King's reduc- tion ; to every assertion you affirmed, both elsewhere and very often in Spain (which other pious and prudent men of our nation will confirm), that there was no use in hoping for the King's conversion to the Catholic faith, which subsequent events have fully proved. And so, I allow that thence- forward Cardinal Allen and myself thought of something else than the King of Scotland, and that our one sole thought was, who was the fittest to be forwarded among all claimants for the purpose of restoring and establishing the Catholic religion and worship in our country ; and since, we saw when considering and weighing the degrees of pretence, and the variety of claimants as to the hereditary right, without considering the matter of religion, as you also saw from the book recently brought out on this matter, what was lawful for good men to do, or what was their duty on the point of religion, that is, whether they ought or could with safe conscience follow in a doubtful claim a pretender who was an heretic, or at least suspected as such, while there is plenty of Catholic pretenders. Everyone of pious mind will see this. " I have already said to you, and it is indeed most true, that I exceedingly wish that we had nothing to do with the affairs of earthly kingdoms ; but since our sins have caused that in the upheaval of our country, political affairs and religion should be so intermixed and perplexed that the restoration of one cannot be treated of without the other, nor can the Catholic religion be restored without a Catholic Prince, and since so much has been already done, not only in great labour, but also in shedding of blood, we cannot but be solicitous of the latter from which all depends. And so what I have often said in your presence (and what I remember our beloved Allen to have done also) I now once more repeat : the one thing and first of all that I look for in our future ruler is that he be a true Catholic ; let him be of what nation, race, or language he will ; 186 THE ENGLISH JESUITS and if he be not this or be doubtful, I will regard neither his country nor his person, nor any kind of hereditary claim which I cannot admit against the cause of God, although otherwise most valid. How weak the claim of the King of Scotland is, and how other claims are just as good, can be seen by what I have said in the book lately published ; and I think you remember it well. Indeed, I greatly wonder that you are so changed as to write that you were not of those who were ready to exclude the King of Scotland, for no one showed him- self more ready or riper for the matter, or more efficaciously persuaded us and others with almost infinite arguments. And so we should be fools and miserable men, after such trouble undertaken for sustaining the Catholic religion, so many dangers escaped, and so many martyrdoms, if we were to commit once more all our and God's affairs, and the happiness of our country into the hands of an heretical, or at least doubtful, King. This is my judgment, this is my feeling, and before God and His angels I only seek the divine glory in all this business, and I care nought who enjoys the kingdoms of this world, provided we seek and procure for others the heavenly kingdom. Receive this calmly, and with your accustomed friendliness, and com- municate it as you think well to our and your friends, and commend me to the divine mercy in your holy sacrifices.^ — Your Reverence's Servant in Xt. "Seville, loth May 1596." To this Creighton replies (20th August 1596): "I allow that all you say about our King and nation is true. Concerning the Book of the Succession I have but little to say. When I wrote that it was precocem, this is to be understood of its publication, which seems to me and many others to be at a time prejudicial to many of those whom it pleases you to recall. What benefit has arisen from the publication I don't know ; but I do know what mischief has arisen. There is a French proverb : ' You can't catch a hare by beating a drum,' etc." ^ Parsons defends his book in a letter from Madrid (2nd November 1596): "As regards what you so fully say against ' Records of the English Catholics, vol. ii. pp. 381-383. » Ibid. p. 384. BROILS IN ENGLAND 187 the Book of Succession, I do not wish to discuss the matter by letters, for I see from what different points of view we look at the matter. If we were together it might be more easy to arrive at one and the same opinion. You think the publication of the book was untimely, and quote the French saying that the hare is not to be taken by beating a drum. To which I reply, that the book was carefully read before publication by the most prudent of our countrymen who could be found in Spain, Italy, and Belgium, and perhaps also in England, and it did not seem untimely to them, but well matured, and very necessary for the times, and its publication most opportune, and they thought that nothing hitherto written was so useful for promoting the Catholic cause. Concerning the drum, if you choose to say the publication is a drum, I would say that this drum is not intended to catch a hare, but to frighten off the wolf who tries to get in under cover of night. Since by law the heretics have forbidden, under high treason, any one to discuss the question of succession, it is clear that the heretics wish while the question of rights is obscured, to take advantage of this ignorance and foist on us an heretical successor. This plan must be discovered by the beating of this drum. Christian and Catholic princes will be stirred up by this drum, to see what are their own rights, and what is to be done for the Christian Commonwealth ; and chiefly the Pope who, besides the universal power given to him by God for defending religion, has a particular right of majesty, and supreme dominion in England, which he will be able to lawfully use in settling this great difficulty, if he can understand the claims and actions of each pretender. Lastly, by this drum the English Catholics will be awakened to consider what they must do when the necessity arises of taking one side or the other, and not have recourse to arms before taking counsel on so grave a matter. So if this book is to be called a drum, it would not seem to be either absurd or badly sounding, inasmuch as it has so many advantages for the public good. And although you say you don't know of any good it has done, and are certain of many evils thence arising, I, on the other hand, bring forward these good reasons and can produce most reliable witnesses from England, who can affirm that this book has done good 188 THE ENGLISH JESUITS beyond any other written, as time itself will more fully show. I know nothing about the mischief you speak of, for what is said about the increase of persecution, we know, on the contrary, that after its publication. Catholics of England have been much more mildly treated. About Scotland I can say nothing more than what you write, that two fathers of the Society have been set at liberty by the King, and that others have been kindly treated ; and the fact is eloquent that before the publication of the book the King of Scotland put Lord Fentry to death for the Catholic religion, but after its appearance no one, as far as I know, has suffered. Neither is there, indeed, any reason why the King of Scotland should be more cruel to his Catholic subjects on account of this book, etc. " I confess I desire that a man of known faith and constancy should possess the kingdom, and, as far as I can, I will oppose all heretics or those suspected of heresy. We have suffered enough already by that mistake by which English Catholics, when Queen Mary was dead, preferred Elizabeth for the sole reason th^t she was English (though of doubtful faith) to Mary, the Catholic Queen of France, who was a Scotchwoman, whom, afterwards, however, with danger of their own lives, they wish to have in place of the Englishwoman. And so, lest we should fall again into the same mistake, and, according to the Gospel, our latter state be worse than the former, I judge that in so great a matter we should not trust to any triflings {lenociniis) or any dubious hope, but look in the first place to the chief and principal thing. Provided he be truly Catholic and a prince of proved faith, what part of the world he comes from matters but little, provided he is capable of obtaining, guarding, and keeping possession of the kingdom, and that the Pope (whose interest is the greatest of all) approves of the choice. His judgment in a doubtful matter should be our chief rule as to what is the best, for us and for the Christian Commonwealth, to the greater glory of God ; towards which end I think that book about which we have spoken has brought no small light. I have nothing more to write on this matter." - His policy being thus attacked in Rome, in Flanders, and in England, it was no time for Parsons to be in Spain. There » Ibid. pp. 384-386. BROILS IN ENGLAND 189 he had accomplished his work, and the time had come for the consolidation of his whole plan. Allen was dead nearly three years, and his name had not the same power it had. All things called Parsons to Rome. The hour was propitious and events had proved he must strike now or never. At the end of the year 1596, he set out on his journey. It must have been in the summer of that year that he made up his mind to go to Rome, for in the last letter Sir Francis Engle- field wrote (8 th September) on his deathbed to Philip, he says : " With regard to the journey of Father Parsons to Rome, although on the one hand I see the good likely to result from it, yet, on the other, knowing the hatred and aversion with which he is regarded by the Scottish and French factions (who in consequence of his reply to the Queen's Edict of the book written on the Succession, and discovering the hitherto unknown pretensions of Portugal and Castile to the English Crown, and of other things which the said father has written and done, and daily continues to do, on that side of the question, consider him as the leader of the party attached to your Majesty's interests), knowing this, I say, it always has appeared, as it still appears to me, that his journey will involve him in the greatest danger, unless he goes strongly supported by your Majesty, with an express order to the ambassador at Rome to prevent his detention there, through any contrivance of the opposite party ; to provide for his safety during his residence in Italy ; and to have assistance at hand in case of any emergency ; and even with all these precautions I fear for the consequences. " The project which Parsons told me he had discussed with your Majesty's ministers, a few 'months since at Toledo, of a special conference on the affairs of England, to be held in Flanders, under the presidency of the cardinal, archduke, and to be joined by some confidential persons of the English nation, is of so much importance that, until it is effected, and until the nation shall possess some head ^ securely attached to your Majesty's interests, I shall look for no favourable issue to the affairs of England, deranged as they constantly will be by the arts of the factions." ^ ^ Englefield was a great advocate of Parsons' cardinalate. ^ Tiemey, vol. iii, pp. 1. li. 190 THE ENGLISH JESUITS Parsons, however, during his stay in Spain, had not been confining himself solely to the affairs of the seminary. He was urging the King to undertake another Armada. If Philip fell in with the suggestion. Parsons took care that the Jesuit interest should be duly consulted. He drew out a memo- randum headed " Principal Points to facilitate the English Enterprise," and sent it to Martin de Idiquez. In this he first urges the King to vow to restore " in a moderate way " the ecclesiastical property wrested from the Church by Henry VIII. The most godly men of the country with whom he had discussed the matter agreed, he said, that in that way alone would God be appeased and bless the undertaking. Parsons knew very well that the main difficulty was that English Catholics would not have anything to do with the Spaniards, and that they saw through Philip's pretences. But Parsons evidently had hopes that they might yet be cajoled. The " fervent Catholics " he mentions are, of course, those of his way of thinking. He says : " In order to diminish the suspicion which our opponents arouse as to the intentions of His Majesty, namely, that he wishes to seize the country for himself, they write to me from England that it is very advisable that a declaration should at once be made by His Majesty on this point, because, although the fervent Catholics, looking to religion alone, will be willing to submit themselves absolutely to His Majesty, a much larger and more powerful majority do not wish the Crown of England to be joined to that of Spain. In order to please these and disarm the other Christian princes who fear the same thing, it would greatly facilitate the enterprise if His Majesty were to allow his views to be known on this point in the way he considers most convenient. One very good way would be for a little tract to be written by some reputable Englishman, who might set forth that for the general welfare it would be advantageous that all should agree to accept the Infanta of Spain. The tract might assume, as a generally accepted fact, that His Majesty does not and never has claimed the Crown for himself." This suggestion Parsons knew was absolutely untrue ; for he had written his Book of the Succession in order to forward the Spanish claim. After proposing that " the English exiles in Flanders should BROILS IN ENGLAND 191 make constant raids, summer and winter," on the English coast, and that such a course would make them very desperate, " as they would know that if they were caught there would be no pardon for them," the Jesuit suggests that those who had Scotch leanings should be removed from any place where they could do harm. And adds significantly that " His Majesty should treat with some amount of confidence his adherents and friends. This would encourage others." The excommunication of the Queen should be renewed by the Pope, and the paper Allen had drawn up in 1588 should be reprinted. Dr. Stapleton should be made a Cardinal, or he should be Bishop of Durham or Ely, and " energetic, respected, and influential Englishmen," as Drs. Worthington and Pierce, should be joined with him as Bishops of Carlisle and Chester. But if the fleet went by way of Ireland, " it might be better to give the title of Archbishop of Dublin to another grave English priest who lives at Rome, and is a relative of Cardinal Allen "... and " a firm adherent of His Majesty." This was Richard Haddock or Haydock, whose name we shall meet with again. The lengthy document thus concludes : " Finally, the great point which ought to be con- sidered first is to obtain very good information from England of everything that is being done or said by the enemy. . . . An attempt may now be made to amend matters, as Father Henry Garnett, Provincial of the Jesuits, writes that trust- worthy men may be obtained in London who will get their information at the fountain-head in the Council, and they themselves will provide correspondents in the principal ports who will keep advising as to the warlike preparations." The distinct assertion of Father Garnett's participation in treason- able practices should be noted.^ In view of this expedition, which Parsons hoped would start from Lisbon, he sent thither a Jesuit with six seminarists from Valladolid : " They are all experienced men, and I have sent them by different routes under colour of their going to their various missions from Lisbon. The Jesuit father is the only one of them that knows the real design, and he is extremely discreet and of noble English family. I have given him such ' S. S. p. (Simancas), vol. iv. pp. 628-633. 192 THE ENGLISH JESUITS instructions as will enable him to direct the rest in case the opportunity occurs of their going in the Armada." ^ But Philip II. was old. He no longer was beguiled. Although the Jesuits kept continually urging him and his successor to undertake the reduction of England, nothing more was done. But at the period we have now reached, Parsons still was not without hope. Before leaving Valladolid, he summoned together all the seminarists, and told them " that His Majesty was resolutely determined this spring to turn all the forces of this war for the recovery of the realm of England from heresy, and (he. Parsons) wished them to assist him in that enterprise with their (prayers ?), and wished them to be ready to go and obey as himself. Father Charles Tancred, the Jesuit, and Dr. Stillington. Moreover, he told them that the King's pleasure was that the Spaniards after the conquest should not be commanders and rulers in England, for that it was resolved that the Cardinal Albert of Austria should marry the Infanta of Spain, and with her enjoy the Crown of England, without altering the ancient customs and prerogatives thereof, all the priests that were ready in the three colleges there (almost thirty) are by commandment stayed to come over with the Armada."^ He took good care before reaching Rome to be fortified with strong letters of recommendation from the King, from his friend Jane Dormer, Duchess of Feria, and from the Benedictine Abbat of Valladolid. The latter gives (20th September 1596) the following warm commendation of Parsons' behaviour : " Since Robert Parsons by order of his superiors is about to set out to the feet of your Holiness, it has been thought well if I, Holy Father, should write this letter, in which your Holiness may learn from me as an eye-witness of his behaviour whilst dwelling among us in this city of Valladolid, over which church I have, for many years, presided as abbat, and now rule until it is erected by your Holiness into an Episcopal See. Parsons has been a notable example of every virtue and religious life during his stay here, and it was he who secured a foundation by his Catholic Majesty, Philip, of the first English college in this city where English youths ' Ibid. p. 634 (and September 1596). » S. P. O. Doni. Eliz. vol. 262, No. 50. BROILS IN ENGLAND 193 are brought up and trained with the greatest care and diligence. Parsons has also set up similar colleges in other cities of Spain, in which I hear the same godly behaviour exists. . . . All these good works are to be attributed to the merits of this same Parsons."^ In Sir Francis Englefield's letter we hear the rumour of an intended conference to be held in Flanders on the affairs of England. Parsons was probably proceeding there when, at the end of the year, he met at Barcelona the Duke of Feria and Stephen de Yuarra, the royal ministers, on their way back from Flanders. A conference was held, and as concerns the dispute between the English exiles and Fr. Holt, Parsons advised that the heads of the opposition should be removed to another part of the Spanish dominions. Englefield had already proposed such a measure to the King. The ministers agreed ; and the Duke of Feria wrote to the King a letter on the subject. As an example of the Jesuit's masterful way of treating opponents, we print the following extracts from the letter, which has been given in its entirety by Canon Tierney.^ It is again the voice of the Supplanter: — " The evil is increasing in a manner that will admit of no delay in the application of a remedy, and the only remedy that has ever occurred to me is to remove the principal agitators from Flanders, all of whom are supported by your Majesty's bounty. ... I have received positive information that His Holiness informed Dr. Barrett, the President of Douai College, that the same parties {who had written against Holt, Owen, and his followers) had written to solicit the removal from Flanders of Father Holt, a member of the Society of Jesus, and the most efficient of your Majesty's servants in that country. The object in all this is evidently to further the interests of the Scottish King. . . . Hence it will be well to remove the heads of the party, particularly Charles Paget, William Tresham, and Ralph Ligon, and having discharged whatever arrears of pension may be due to them, to send them with some allowance into Sicily. In any nearer spot they will possess the means, as in Italy your Majesty knows too many possess the inclination, to work mischief; and we can > S. P. O. {Roman Transcripts) (Bliss), vol. Ix. No. 6. ' Vol. iii. p. liii. 13 194 THE ENGLISH JESUITS scarcely expect that they will fail to employ them . . , (As to the others who are married in Flanders), unless they should again offend, it would only excite compassion in their regard to leave them entirely destitute. Still, it will be well to reprimand them for their misconduct and to inform them at the same time that should they again incur your Majesty's displeasure they will be deprived of their allowance, and at once be removed from your Majesty's dominions. ... It is a matter of no less importance that your Majesty should command the General of the Society of Jesus to avail himself of some favourable opportunity for removing Father Creighton, a member of that Society, who is not only an avowed advocate of the King of the Scots, but who has also frequently spoken to nie, with the most passionate feeling, on the subject of that monarch's affairs. As a man, in fact, of vehement tempera- ment — religious, however.-in his principles, and esteemed by many for his exemplary demeanour — his influence is capable of producing the most injurious consequences in Flanders; and his place, therefore, would be advantageously supplied by Father Gordon, a Scotchman, and uncle to the Earl of Huntley, a quiet and dispassionate person, divested of his prepossession in favour of his own sovereign, and agreeing with those of the English who are proceeding in the right road. " In Lisle, there is a Doctor Giffard, the dean of that place, a man of good abilities, but of ambitious views, possessing, I am told, but little discretion and yet the confidential adviser of the Nuncio Malvasia. At Rome, he is not in bad estimation. His character, in fact, stands higher than that of any other individual belonging to his party, and to increase his importance by accomplishing his purposes he will never hesitate to effect any mischief." The object of the reference to Giffard, Dean of Lisle, was to prepare the King for an attack which was to be made on this person who had obtained his favour and was now the most weighty and influential of all the English opposed to the Jesuit domination. A few days after, while still at Barcelona, Parsons, having now made up his mind to support Father Holt altogether, wrote the following letter to the Provincial, Oliver Manareus, BROILS IN ENGLAND 195 who, for the sake of peace, was desirous of getting rid of the father : — " I oth January 1597. " I have received your short letter, dated Brussels, 3rd October, and have seen yours written at length to Fr. Creswell, both of which are upon the same subject, the disputes among our people there {Flanders), and advising that the remedy which seems best to you is that we should yield for a while to the importunity of the time and men, and that Fr. Holt should be removed. I have so high a regard for your judg- ment and known affection towards us, that if nothing else lead me to the same conclusion I should be contented to follow your opinion. But for the last two years and more, other reasons have obtained, and made me of late write on the matter to our reverend father — (1) that by such a plan we should be consulting Father Holt's own peace and quiet, and desire, for he has often and earnestly asked to be taken away ; (2) then we really need him here in Spain, and he is greatly desired by the rectors of both seminaries; (3) that Father Creswell knows something about Spanish affairs and speaks the language and has that suavity of manner which you desiderate in Fr. Holt, and so perhaps, as you say, he may be for some time more pleasing and acceptable to certain folk.^ ' Parsons to Aquaviva [Valladolid, isth July 1593]: "He, Creswell, speaks Spanish well and knows the ways of this court, where he is esteemed by the highest. If he went to Flanders he would carry with him letters of earnest recommendation from the King and other principal persons, which would be of great service to the common good. Add to this that besides being a very safe and religious-minded man, he shows a special talent for negotiation, more so perhaps than for treating with young men in colleges. This we already begin to realise experimentally, and we do not forget the experiences of Rome. ..." And writing again from Seville [i2th May 1595], Parsons adds : " In this point Father Creswell has so far given little satisfaction to the rectors here. They think his ways of thought and speech are peculiar {sus dicta-mines son particolares") and non secundum usum Communem. For this reason, and because he has displayed such resolution in pushing his ideas, the fathers here doubt whether they will be able to get on with him, if I were not here. For the rest, they own that he is a very good religious, well-spoken and clear-headed, as in truth he is " (Archives, S. J. , quoted in Month, No. 424, pp. 350, 35 1 ). In the Spanish State Papers there are many remarkable papers concerning this said Creswell. In one to the King [12th September 1596], he says : " I find myself, by His divine grace, so free from personal or national bias in the matter, that if I heard that the entire destruction of England was for the greater glory of God and the welfare of Christianity, I should be glad of its being done " (S. S. P. (Simancas), vol. iv. p. 636), 196 THE ENGLISH JESUITS Although I do not expect any such result with those who are trying to get Fr. Holt removed, for the experience of many years on most certain grounds has taught me that it is not the removal of this or that father that is desired but the removal of the Society itself. But of which more later on. " At Rome, the unruly demanded the removal of Father Edmund Herod {Harewood), an Englishman and confessor to the college, and if that were done all would be peaceful, they said ; but when he was removed, matters got worse, and they rose up against the Society.^ Now, I have for some time treated of the removal of Fr. Holt, both with the General and with the father himself, and as soon as I get to Rome will do so again, and I now write this while I am on the way and remember to have told you from letters the cause of my journey, namely, the will of the General and the business of these Spanish seminaries, which will suffer unless I can arrange matters with the Pope, I hope, God willing, to settle things in a short time and return to Spain, and only go on the condition, unless obedience arranges otherwise. "These things being so and intending to treat of the whole matter with the General, still I can't deny but that grave difficulties have presented themselves to me in carrying out the matter, especially just now. I lay them before your reverence. The first is the Duke of Feria, and Stephen de Yuarra, royal ministers, who have lately arrived here (Barcelona) from Belgium, have told me that in the instructions concerning the state of Belgium, which by order of the King they have left to His Highness the Cardinal Archduke, they have among other matters stated that the Society is exceedingly useful for the royal interests, and therefore it is expedient that by every means it should be encouraged ; then upon English affairs, which at the present juncture it is most important for the King's interest that they should be well managed, the opinion of Father Holt is to be taken before everyone else, on account of his experience, trustiness, and prudence in action, and no attention is to be paid to those who are jealous of him, and try to get him removed from Flanders. They have told ' He changed his opinion when he got to Rome. See the following letter of 5th May. BROILS IN ENGLAND 197 this the King, both by letter and word of mouth. This you will see makes the question of changing Fr. Holt more difficult. " The second difficulty is also a recent one. From the conversation which Dr. Barrett, the Rector of Douai seminary, had with the Pope, it is understood that those very men who have treated with you and others of our fathers for the removal of Fr. Holt on the score of peace have written to His Holiness, not only against Fr. Holt, but also against all the fathers of the Society who are in England, asserting that they domineer over the rest of the Clergy and rule them as tyrants (which they also assert by name of Fr. Holt), and for this cause ought all to be removed ; and by their example and persuasion some of the Roman students have been stirred up to rebellion, and have by memorials asked for the same thing, and have with wicked lies made the same assertion, whereas the fathers only aim at the advantage of all and of these ungrateful men among all others, and besides I can say of Fr. Holt that he has often by letter to the Spanish Court pleaded the cause of those men who now are his chief opponents. " As regards Fr. Holt's manner of acting (while the question of his removal is in the hands of the General), if it is harsher than seems fitting to you or too much open to cause hatred or jealousy, as you say, I am sure that at a word Fr. Holt, for the regard he has for you, will readily change his behaviour. I am writing to him on the same matter, namely, that he should console all alike, and win all, taking care to avoid all appearances of dislike in his manner of acting. I ask you to let me know at Rome what you now think of the whole matter, that we may more maturely deter- mine what is to the greater glory of God," etc.^ By the middle of March, Parsons had got so far as Genoa on his way to Rome. In a letter of 15th March 1597, he gives to Fr. Holt the following as some of the reasons of his journey, but only refers to his case under the head of " the other controversies of our nation in other places " : — ' Tierney, vol. iii. pp. Ixxxiv-Ixxxvi. 198 THE ENGLISH JESUITS " The principal causes of my journey to Rome are : ^ first, to establish with His Holiness and with the General such points as are necessary for the seminaries in Spain, Flanders, and Italy, and the English mission of the fathers of the company, and any other business useful for that end, such as faculties, government privileges, and temporal supports." And he asks Holt to send him as soon as possible his suggestions, for he hopes that his stay in Italy will be very short. " Another cause of my journey is to appease the tumults at the English College, and the other controversies of our nation in other places, and to explain to His Holiness and other powerful princes the real causes of the discord. And then the affair of the English Succession, and to get His Holiness to adopt a fixed policy.'' He states that he is neither for nor against the Kings of Spain or Scotland.* Having arranged all his plans, and made sure of his means. Parsons arrived in Rome at the end of March or the first days of April, and took up his abode in the Casa Professa. ' Jouvency says that it was the General, Aquaviva, who summoned Parsons to Rome (p. 220). * Upon this Tiemey remarks : " This is not strictly true. That he was not commissioned to advocate the personal claims of the Spanish monarch, may be correct ; but he was the accredited agent of Spain expressly to support the pretensions of the Infanta is evident . . . From what follows it is clear that his plan was, in the first instance, to propose the matter generally to the Pope, to allow him to reflect on it 'per un pezzo ' . . . and then in case of doubt or difference to urge his own opinion in favour of the Infanta and the Cardinal Famese. As an additional proof of his agency for the daughter of the King of Spain, I may add that in the followii^ July he wrote to Don Juan d'Idiaquez, mentioning an audience which he had with the Pope, and informing him that the latter appeared as warm in the cause of the Infanta as could be desired " (vol. iii. p. Iviii). "And lately that the Pope should arrange with the King of Spain and others for the succession, and in case of doubt Parsons was to suggest the Infanta married to the Cardinal" {Tiemey, vol. iii. pp. Ivii-lix). CHAPTER VIII PARSONS "IN CURiA" Arrived in Rome some time before 12 th April, ParSoris set himself to face the difficulty at the English college. When on the spot, he could not help seeing that there were grdve faults on the side of his religious brothers. Cardinal Toledo, S.J., as we have said, had strongly taken the part of the students. But as his name figures in the little list Parsons kept of those whom Providence had removed out of the way, it is probable that his action was not looked upon with favour.^ Many of the scholars, even those of the party clamouring for the restoration of the college to the Clergy, visited him at the Casa Professa, and put their case before him. Their one object was " how to end these stirs and to put an end to that which was an occasion of so great scandal."^ Like' the prudent man he was. Parsons showed invincible patience,' and listened to all the complaints made. The partisan reports of Sega in his late visitation did not at that moment weigh- with him, although afterwards he held practically many of the views contained in that remarkable document. But just now he was face to face with a situation which, in part, had resulted from an opposition to his own views, namely, that Englishmen were better ruled by their countrymen than by foreigners. He was fresh from the same difficulty in Spain. He was quick enough to see the great advantage it would be to the larger end for which he was working, if he could now appear in the graceful 1 This list is entitled, " An observation of certain apparent judgments of Almighty God against such as have been seditious in the English cause for these nine or ten years past." It is to be found, says Tierney, in the Stonyhurst MSB. (AHg. A. II. 44), and would be interesting if reproduced in its integrity. " Bennet (one of the students) to Dr. Hugh Griifin, i6th May IS97, endorsed by Parsons. See TVVmej/, vol. iii. p. Ixxx. * 199 200 THE ENGLISH JESUITS r61e of peacemaker, and, where possible, take the side of the seminarists. He offered to confer with the students and to examine the whole matter, promising them redress and all charitable treat- ment. For a whole week he listened to what the youths had to say, and from the letter of one of them, to be quoted below, we gather the style of argument he used. It was based on the scriptural injunction : " Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with him ; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison." ^ If opponents who could not be gained were to be relentlessly crushed. Parsons was quite ready to cover with benefits those who submitted. Meanwhile he had interviews with the Cardinal Protector of the college, and also with the Pope,^ who, it is said, charged him with being the author of the Book of Succession. Parsons unhesitatingly denied the accusation. He was ordered to attempt the pacification of the students, and for this pur- pose Clement Vlll. told him to take up his residence in the English college. Here he was able to see more of both sides of the question, and to continue his interviews with the students. Calling them together, says one of them, Edward Bennet, he " told us we had God's cause in hand, laid before us the detriments that our countrymen suffered abroad because of our troubles, the inconveniences within the college that we found, and, in fine, the harm that the cause of England was like to suffer if that these factions and dissensions did continue. Such and the like discourses being had, we all agreed to deal with Father Parsons and see whether he was able to give that satisfaction which as yet we had not found. Whereupon we had certain conferences with him, debated and disputed all our matter from the beginning, proposed our difficulties and our reasons, which he heard with patience ; he, of the other side, the occasions which he thought to have been always the ' Matt. V. 25. ' Clement viii. was no friend to the Society, and it required all Aquaviva's unrivalled skill as a diplomatist to keep the peace. But it was not for some years that the serious difficulties began. PARSONS "IN CURiA" 201 hindrance of peace, the mediums to get peace again, and gotten, to preserve it : for you must understand that our inten- tion was to make a solid peace and to find out the occasions of perturbing thereof, and, being found, to root them out. Much ado there was, you must think, in ripping up so many old festered sores ; and you must think that he, that with reason should think to please a multitude, must have a good cause and a great deal of patience : but truly it pleased God so to help them all, in this good purpose of theirs, that in all the time of their conference there fell out nothing, of any part, that might give disgust. Father Parsons, for his part, yielded to the scholars, to all things that they themselves had reason for, with such satisfaction of them, that surely I, which have known the very marrow of this action, would never have believed it, if I had not been an agent in it ; and he, of the other side, I daresay stood much comforted ; so that we made a most sweet, loving, and friendly peace, not only within the college, but also without : and I do hope it will continue, for the scholars be very quiet in mind. And to tell you, as my old friend, I did never think Father Parsons could ever have gotten that love of the scholars as he hath gotten : so that now we have ended all our troubles, the scholars confidently go to confession to the fathers. The Pope's Holiness is wonder- fully pleased with it, as he was displeased with our troubles. Cardinal Borgesius, on Ascension day, was with us in the college, and did congratulate with us, and exhorted us to go on in that we had begun : so that hereafter, vce illi that gives occasion of dissension. Cardinal Cajetan is expected. Father General is in Naples, but wonderfully satisfied with this good composition ; so that I would wish you with your vantage to make your peace, for the Jesuits have carried it away ; for the Pope hath determined to give all unto their hands, and hath already given it. Hereafter there is no place left for the complaints of the Low Countries, especially seeing we have here united ourselves, whose disagreements before were the occasion that many men were heard, which now shall not. You know what you have best to do ; but if you mean to do any good for our country you must unite with the Jesuits ; for the common cause hereafter is like to lie altogether with them. 202 THE ENGLISH JESUITS I have been much exhorted by the Protector to join with Father Parsons, which I have done : and if you do the like, truly I think you will be able to do more good in the common cause. Necessitas non habet legem" ^ This letter, written under the magnetic personality of Father Parsons, who in all this matter shows to the full his unrivalled powers, passed through his hands ; for the letter from which Tierney copied is endorsed by Parsons. Did Parsons let it pass as a note of triumph in his success, and an intimation he had secured at last the supremacy in English affairs? It seems like it, with its undertone of Vcs victis; especially when we consider the stirs still going on in England and in Flanders. It is interesting to note in passing that, when the youthful correspondent returned to England, he saw matters in their true proportions, and speedily joined the body of the Clergy, and in the near future was a chosen representa- tive in their struggle at Rome for liberty. This letter also indicates the line of argument Parsons used to gain the young men. There was the cogency of visible facts. He urged the Jesuits were the ecclesiastical masters of England. The late refusal of the Mission to the Benedictines (many of the students had joined the Italian monks to escape the domination of the Society), would go far to prove this. The effects of the dis- sensions at Rome were exaggerated ; and he seems to have suggested to the students that they were the sole cause of the other disputes in Flanders and elsewhere. The egotistical vanity of youth was stirred up ; and, doubtless, the heroism of a self-sacrifice, which would bring peace to their fellow- countrymen, was set before them. Parsons, as we see, succeeded for the time in arranging a peace, and won golden opinions all round. True, it was a cheap victory over enthusiastic young men. But to Parsons it meant a great deal towards securing his position in Rome ; for the Pope had been much concerned in the frequent disturbances, and was beginning to insist upon the withdrawal of the Jesuits, a course in which the General was only prevented by Parsons from agreeing to. The settlement was not the triumph of diplomatic skill alone. There was ' Bennet to Dr. Hugh Griffin (May i6, 1597), Tierney, vol. iii. p. Ixxxi. PARSONS "IN CURIA" 203 also a sense of the ill-treatment these young men had met with. Under the warmth of his better feelings, Parsons opens his soul in the following letter, written Sth May 1597 to Fr. Holt :— " My Reverend Good Father, — This letter shall be to you, I hope in God, of great comfort to understand thereby of the happy end which His divine goodness hath given at length to these troubles and disagreements here in Rome ; which in truth I found to be greater and more deeply rooted than ever I could imagine (though I had heard much), so are we more bound to Almighty God for the remedy which I believe verily to be found and from the root ; as you would also think if you saw that which I do see, and so do many more besides me, that had far less hope of the redress than ever I had. " The means have been, next to God's holy grace, certain large conferences that we have had alone (I mean all the aggrieved part with me together) ; wherein we have passed over the whole story of these troubles, and the causes of grief, discontentment, contention,' suspicion, emulation, or exas- peration, that have been given or taken on both sides : and as, on the one side, I have been contented to hear the scholars, and to yield them reason where I thought they had it on their side, so on the other have they also been content to hear me, when I thought my reason was better than theirs ; as also' to distinguish where I had presumed that with some reasons there might go accompanied also some passion, suspicion, ' or sinister interpretation ; and so finally, God be thanked, we are come to a full end and conclusion, and all inconveniences that before had either happened or were so presumed, be fully remedied on both parties. The scholars on their side have fully satisfied me, and I have procured to remove all impediments on behalf of the Society, and so shall do for the time to come ; so as I heartily hope that never the like shall happen again, and that Almighty God will perform in this thing also for the good of our country, that merciful point which in all other like temptations He is wont to do, as the apostle saith, ' Faciei etiam cum tentatione proventum ' ; and 204 THE ENGLISH JESUITS that the union of the college will be better and greater and more solid hereafter than even it hath been hitherto from the beginning. And assure yourself, my good father, that in un- twisting of this clue, and unfolding matters past, I have found errors on both sides — saltern in modo agendi — which you know may stand with the best intentions in the world. And who will marvel at this, seeing the one were strangers to the other, and the other had to deal with strangers ? Each part did as much as they knew, and could do no more. Suspicions, aversions, and exasperations were daily multiplied, et arbiter pacis was not amongst them. And, to conclude, methinketh that I do see that, if many of the things that have passed here should have happened in the quietest college that we have either in Spain or Flanders, they might have put the peace out of joint (supposing our English disposition), and the suspicions that such things might bring with them, per- haps more than the things themselves. Well, I can say no more in this than St. Peter in the Acts of the Apostles saith of the sufferings of Christ : God hath appointed that so it should be ' implevit autem sic.' Even so God hath determined that we should pass this cross ; and so He fulfilled it by divers men's errors. And as, by His infinite providence. He brought out so much good to all the world, of the former case, so hope I that He will draw no small good also to our country invtime of this. Wherefore there remaineth nothing now but to give thanks to Almighty God for this singular mercy of His : and that you signify the same there to all those of our nation as also to any others that have heard of these troubles; for that this union here is not made only within the house but with all in like manner abroad, both of our nation and others, and mainly with the fathers of our Society everywhere ; and the success hath so contented His Holiness and all the cardinals, as you would wonder. And this day being the Ascension of our Saviour, the Cardinal Vice- protector, Borgesius, has been here to the college himself, and signified his exceeding great contentment of this event. And the same joy, I doubt not, but that Cardinal Cajetano, the protector, who is expected very shortly, will receive also at his coming : so as now we must assist, all of us, to appease all PARSONS "IN CURiA" 205 rumours that have grown abroad of these stirs in every place, as also to heal such griefs and aversions as thereof have ensued ; and in particular to restore and conserve the good name (as much as in us lieth) of any that may have been touched by former reports ; and so doing I trust in Almighty God that every day we shall take much comfort one 6f another, and that you shall have coniirmation from me while I stay here of the progress of this good union, and that I shall leave the college also at my departure as it may endure. And this is all I have to say at this time. The Lord Jesus be with you ever : to whom do you commend me, as also to our friends and countrymen with you, to whom I pray you communicate the effect of this letter. From Rome this 5 th of May 1597. — Yours ever in Christ our Saviour, " Robert Parsons." ^ Upon this letter Tierney judiciously remarks : " Here is a letter penned immediately after the accomplishment of a great work, and flowing from the fulness and the sincerity of the writer's heart. How different from the passionate in- vectives, the defamatory statements, and the distorted nar- ratives contained in the Briefe Apologie, The Story of the Domestical Difficulties, and the various letters and memorials, which he afterwards composed on the same subject ! But there the spirit of party was at work justifying its own acts, reviling its opponents, and 'condemning,' as Dr. Barrett expresses it, ' all but itself.' Here the veil is withdrawn, and we behold the man as he is. We have him acknowledging the errors of both sides, seeking to heal the divisions of the past, and inculcat- ing with a holy and a beautiful solicitude, the duty of protect- ing every name of a former adversary from reproach. As an historical testimony, effectually subversive of all the other statements of Parsons on the subject to which it refers, the letter is highly important, but as an evidence of what nature really is, when unwarped by the prejudices and the passions of party, it assumes even an additional degree of interest." ^ Another document concerned with the pacification of the ' Tierney, vol. iii. pp. Ixxviii-lxxx, ' Ibid. Note. 206 THE ENGLISH JESUITS English College is a letter to the General, signed by Bennet and five others, dated 17th May 1597. This letter was corrected and interlined in the draft by Parsons himself. In it, after praising Parsons for his prudence, charity, mildness, dexterity, and success, Aquaviva is asked to allow Parsons to remain in the college, and to have full authority to settle all their affairs according to his prudence. Writing upon this episode after a few years. Parsons makes a characteristic statement, which Tierney criticises as follows : — -" With a view to set forth the importance of his own services in the pacification of the Roman College, he prints, among other documents, a portion of a letter addressed to him by the General of the Society only a few days before matters were arranged with the students. In it Aquaviva looks forward to a speedy termination of all difficulties ; tells Parsons that in appeasing the tumults, and reforming the disorders of the college, he will have all the merit of a second founder; and then concludes, so Parsons at least assures us, with the following invitation to Naples : ' This Lord Viceroy desireth much to see you here shortly ; and I have committed the matter to your own consideration for the time, what will be most convenient ' (Brief e Apologia, p. 5 8). To avoid the possi- bility of doubt or a mistake, a marginal note is affixed to this passage, and we are there distinctly informed that the Viceroy alluded to is ' the Comte Olyvares.' Now the original of the letter here cited, which is in Spanish, is at this moment before me : and will the reader believe that it not only does not contain the passage in question, but that it makes not the most distant allusion to anything of the kind : that neither the Viceroy nor any other person whatsoever is mentioned ; and that what is here represented as the great anxiety of a great man to see him is in reality nothing more than the expression of a hope on the part of the writer, that he (Parsons) will continue to employ his piety and prudence in the affair with which he is entrusted, and in such manner as shall be most conducive to the great object in view ? ... As almost all the worst charges against the {Clergy) rest originally on the autho- rity of Parsons, it is necessary to point out these things." ^ ' Tierney, vol. iii. p. cxlvii. Note. PARSONS "IN CURIA" 207 Parsons, whatever he allowed the students to think, knew well that the dissensions in Rome were only a symptom of a far deeper evil. The affairs of Holt, as will be remembered, had been one of the causes taking him to Rome. The Pro- vincial of Flanders, Manareus, was of decided opinion that those who complained against Holt had cause for so doing. So no sooner was Parsons arrived in Rome than he sent off a letter in Latin (i2th April), in which he exposes the real state of the question from his own point of view. The reader will not fail to notice the calm confident tone of absolute conviction in the position Parsons adopts. "... I see you have very seriously undertaken the defences of those English who oppose Fr. Holt. Some things you say about the matter I quite agree with, such as these men must not in any way be alienated or exasperated by injuries, revilings, contempt, or show of partiality. I also add that if Hugh Owen has done anything against them, it is fair not only that he should cease, but should also make satisfac- tion. I say the same of Fr. Holt, of myself, or of any other of ours who should offend in the least against mildness and religious charity. But, on the other side, it is also fair that the case of Hugh Owen as a layman, if he has done any harm, should be separated from the case of ours, and that not every- thing which Hugh may do or say should be imputed to ours, that is, to men of the Society, although he is our friend and well-wisher. Nor is it fair that Fr. Holt should be asked to give up his friendship because others are angry with him because of an old-standing jealousy. He has done us no harm, but rather on the contrary, and all the governors of Belgium have trusted him, and, as far as I know, nothing can be proved against his fidelity. " You, many times and throughout your letters, call these men ' noble ' who are opposed to Fr. Holt, and the other side you always designate as ' Owen and his followers,' as if the former alone were of noble birth and the latter of mean origin. This is very invidious, and is badly taken by many of our friends who have been up to now most friendly to our Society, and who say that they have observed this in your daily con- versation. They think from this that you wish them to be 208 THE ENGLISH JESUITS accounted as mean men, whereas they contend that they — with the exception of the Earl of Westmorland, who has said that he had no quarrel with Fr. Holt, but only with Owen — are more noble by far than the others, or at least their equals. . . . " The Duke of Feria was formerly of the same opinion as your reverence, but having looked into the matter thoroughly, ha5 changed his opinion, as he told me lately at Barcelona. " And although you may reply to this argument concern- ing the conspiracy of the English against the Society, in your letters you seem to think but little of it, I nevertheless appeal to your sense of prudence and fairness, if it is not more probable that you are deceived in this matter, since you have been only mixed up with them these four months, and have believed them rather than us, men of various nations, stations, and places, who for fifteen years have seen and fathomed {trutinavimus) their actions. If this does not satisfy you, tell me and I will bring forth such evident proofs to show that they have often spoken unworthy things of our Society, have turned some principal men aWay from the Society, have caused books to be written against us, and signed memorials and suchlike to our harm. All this I will prove on most convincing evidence, but God knows I don't write all this to turn you away from your offices of kindness and humanity towards those whom I would myself willingly serve if I were there (and so I beseech that the affair may be conducted cautiously, prudently, and without giving offence) ; but I am led to write thus, lest led away by kindliness and desire of peace (a difficult thing to be arranged with such as they) you should fall into a contrary inconvenience (such as I have seen elsewhere), that is to say, offend our old friends, and not to secure (to the Society at least) the friendship of these new men. It would be a very unworthy thing that ours should be fighting among themselves in opinions and affections, and that these rebellious students, who are inspired thence, should daily split up the whole Society by their disputes, and should boast (as they have begun to do) that some of our own members in Belgium favour them, and that their scheme has caused a schism even among the Jesuits. This makes the PARSONS "IN CURIA" 209 cure all the more difficult, and infinitely increases the evil. And they have begun to spread about these things on account of the new friendship made by your reverence and other fathers with our old enemies, though this is very far from your intention, which I am sure is very good. I have spoken openly of this to you to prevent,' if possible, things going on too far. " Concerning Fr. Holt, the General had already come to a conclusion before I was called here. For many reasons he does not see fit to change him at present, afterwards it will be done more easily," etc.^ There was also that troublesome affair of the Cardinalate to be settled one way or the other. When Parsons arrived in Rome, he was visited by certain cardinals of the Spanish party. This gave credit to the reports of his advancement, which his friends had carefully spread in the city. So sure were they of the hat for the head of Parsons that when, shortly after his arrival, being unwell, he wrote to his brother George to send him some scarlet flannel for his private use, it was given out at once that the Jesuit had been nominated cardinal, and his brother ordered merchants in Rome to take to the English College several bales of scarlet material fit for hangings and robes. This mistake caused much annoy- ance to Parsons, who had to send back the scarlet cloths. More tells us that he went to the Pope, and, telling him the reports that were about the city, besought him with tears not to make him a cardinal. The Holy Father very coldly assured him he had never had the slightest intention of doing so, and that he was not to distress himself about any such rumours, adding, moreover, that the King of Spain had not made any such recommendation in Parsons' favour. So passed this business. One can admire his fidelity to his vow, and at the same time wonder at his simplicity in approaching the Pope on the subject. To this period we must assign a paper Parsons drew up for giving episcopal Superiors to the Clergy in England, and presented it to the Holy Father. In spite of several attempts to keep up the Succession, the old hierarchy had ' Tierney, vol. iii. pp, Ixxxvi-lxxxix. 14 210 THE ENGLISH JESUITS been allowed to die out in England ; and, owing to the political quarrels between Pope and Queen, the stricken and sorely tried flock, by an extraordinary neglect, had been left without pastors. For thirty-seven years English Catholics had been deprived of bishops ; and in 1580 Parsons himself had seen in England how dire was the need.^ The recent stirs in Wisbeach had brought the necessity more forcibly to the front ; and now projects were on foot in England for renewing the petition for bishops. Envoys to Rome for this purpose were spoken of as coming. There was a problem, then, to be faced in the matter. A bishop with ordinary jurisdiction is the master in his diocese, according to the common law of the Church; he would therefore be independent of the Society, which had so nearly, by this time, secured the practical domination in England. And yet Parsons could see the Clergy needed one of themselves to keep them in union and due order. The laity, too, were in want of the strengthening effects of the" sacrament of confirmation. The difficulties were clear. But how to get out of them ? How to obtain a bishop who would not interfere with the monopoly, ecclesiastical and political, Parsons was, at so much toil, on the eve of securing ? He solved the problem in this way. Shortly after his arrival in Rome, he drew up a petition to the Pope in the name of the Catholics of England,^ His recent success in the pacification of the college had given him a great weight with the Curid; and he stepped into the position of an accepted but unauthorised inter- mediary. His present scheme, as shown in this petition, was as follows : — Having already secured from some of his Spanish friends the promise of pecuniary aid, he suggested that two bishops be appointed — not as ordinaries with English titles, but as bishops in partibus. One was to live in England, and the other — an archbishop — to live in Belgium. He, in England, besides the special duties of a bishop, such as ordain- ing and confirming, etc., was " to give counsel in difficult and grave affairs " ; " to send authorised and true information to ' See p. 68 ante. Parsons did not object to a bishop as a sacramental agent ; but as a ruler, i.e. with ordinary jurisdiction. '^ In the Briefe Apologie, p. 102, he expressly claims this plan, however, as his own. PARSONS "IN CURiA" 211 the Pope, the Cardinal Protector, and to other princes upon English affairs " ; to place and remove priests as he sees fit, or "the greater glory of God demands." This, Parsons says, will greatly relieve the Jesuits from the burden and odium, " for they, as far as possible, up to the present have looked after the priests in this matter not ex officio, but only out of charity," an important admission, by the way, that the Jesuits were governing the Clergy of England. A body of seven or eight assistants, called Archpriests or Archdeacons, were to be ap- pointed as a permanent council — four of these to be nominated by the Pope, and the rest by the bishop, " who will best know who are most fitted for this office." One may ask, if the bishop could know this for one-half of the assistants, why not for the whole ? The object of reserving the nomination of four to the Pope was certainly to give Parsons the opportunity of appointing his friends. The archbishop in Belgium was to exercise that external jurisdiction of punishment which could not be exercised in England ; he was to oversee and control all informations sent to Rome ; to give or withhold faculties for priests going on the mission, so as to prevent any one from going into England without his leave ; he was to keep union among the Catholics living in Belgium ; and was to have a similar body of assistants. According to Parsons' hierarchical experiment, both bishops were to have jurisdiction over the whole of England, and were to be consecrated in secret, and the whole business got over before the government knew any- thing about it, so that freedom of egress and ingress should be secured. But he suddenly changed this plan, owing to important news from England. Checkmated in every attempt to obtain an ordinary, and realising the dangers arising from the disputes at Wisbeach, the older members of the Clergy of England had proposed to form themselves into an Association or Fraternity to regulate the affairs of their body, and be some hindrance to future disputes. It was a pacific measure, and had no opposi- tion to the legitimate privileges of the Jesuits or any other helpers in the mission. Mush and Colleton — two of the oldest and wisest of the Clergy, who had gained the confidence of the rest by their labours, prudence, and self-sacrifice — were the 212 THE ENGLISH JESUITS projectors. In their plan the Clergy were divided into two independent branches — a northern and a southern division — each with its own officers, chosen freely by the members, and each following the same constitution. The chief duties of the Association were to administer the alms which the laity — in spite of the ruinous system of fines — so generously contributed to the support of their Clergy ; ^ and to settle any disputes that might arise,^ A copy of the Rules, with the title in the hand- writing of Garnett, was sent to Parsons, who made a translation of them. So he was fully aware of the real drift of the Association. As he could plainly see, there was absolutely no attempt made at setting up any ruling power independently of Rome ; for the original draft states that the Rules were to be submitted to the Apostolic See for confirmation.* But the very idea of the Clergy combining for their own advantage, and ruling themselves independently of the Jesuits, could not be tolerated for a moment.* Besides, it would be the destruction of the political projects which Parsons thought he had so well planned for securing a Spanish succession when Elizabeth died. A superior they wanted — well, they should have one. But he should be one who should not only "walk in union with and fidelity to the Society," but should be wholly directed by them. Putting aside, then, his late project, the Presbyterian ideal, which seems to sort well with the Puritan cast of thought, commended itself to him. He represented to the Pope that the English Clergy, for the sake of union, were desirous of having ' It will be remembered that the Jesuits had secured the handling of almost all the alms. ' Colleton's y«j/ Dtfence of the Slandered Priestes, pp. 123-125. ' Dr. Ely's Certaine Briefe Notes, p. 107. * In a letter of M. J. (John Mush) to Dr. Bagshawe- (8th June or July 1597), the writer refers to the opposition against the proposed Association ; and, speaking of " the fine dealings of the Jesuits which bend themselves thus mightily against our Associa- tion," says : "The Jesuits fearing the credit of our confraternity to countervail with theirs will never endure any union of priests, it becometh us to look to it, for unless we seek redress at his hands that can command them, the secular Clergy shall have small credit or estimation with the people or concord among themselves. . . . They are men with whom I think it is most hard to have friendship. Unless one flatter and feed their humours in everything — which I never purpose to do — chiefly (I perceive) they are bent against me. But God grant me His holy grace, and I regard not the worst they can do" {The Archpriest Controversy., vol. i. p. 3). PARSONS "IN CURIA" 213 a Superior from their own body. The Pope is reported to have asked if that were the fact, for he would not do anything against the wish of his faithful priests in England, and " willed information to be procured out of England of the fittest men for government." ^ This point was already provided for by Parsons. Garnett had sent to Rome, Father Baldwin, together with a secular priest, Standish by name, who was thoroughly devoted to his interests. These, with other Englishmen, resident in Rome, assured the Pope that such an appointment was the unanimous desire of the Clergy. Letters from Spain and Flanders came also to Rome backing up the application, and assuring the Pontiff that there had never been any dissension between the Clergy and the Jesuits, and that the adverse reports were so far from the truth, that the Jesuits were in all places most notable examples of singular humility, gentleness, patience, piety, and charity. George Blackwell was particularly insistent, and wrote (14th September 1597) to Cardinal Cajetan that if the Clergy had such a Superior, peace would be restored, " and that they would more dili- gently obey for the future those excellent fathers who are set over them and who deserve so well both of them and all Englishmen " ^ At an audience, " His Holiness asked Mr. Standish . . . whether the desire to have a Superior as he then informed him was by the consent of all the priests in England or no ? who answered it was." * Availing himself for the moment of the doctrine of Equivocation, Standish, who had absolutely no such commission, misled the Pope entirely; and afterwards, when accused by his brethren, pleaded that he did but presume on their interpretative desire, " reserving (as since he hath confessed) this to himself: 'as I presuppose or presume.'"* Thus misinformed, the Pope committed the business to the Cardinal Protector of the English college — Cajetan — a staunch friend of Parsons. Between the two, a plan was arranged which should meet the views of one at least of the interested ' Briefe Apologie, p. 99. ^ Sergeant's The History and Transactions of the English Chapter (ed. 1853), pp. II, 13 (note). ' Certaine Briefe Notes, p. 133. * A Sparing Discoverie of our English Jesuits, p. 11, 214 THE ENGLISH JESUITS parties. As to the desires of the Clergy in this most important matter, Parsons says : " They being so small a part as they were of the whole body, it was not necessary in particular for His Holiness or Protector to require the same." ^ After events showed how imprudently Parsons had estimated both the number and importance of those he thus contemptuously pushed aside.^ Going back to a former plan, it was decided by Parsons to institute an Archpriest over the Clergy in England.* The man was to hand. George Blackwell, a former student of the English College at Rome, was of a sufficiently pliable nature, and was, as Parsons says, " well united in love and judgment with the Jesuits." * To him the Protector wrote on 7th March 1598, and appointed him Archpriest over the Clergy, " to direct, admonish, reprehend, even to chastise when necessary, and this by restriction of their faculties, obtained no matter where from, or even by revocation if so needed." ^ Cajetan appointed by name six assistants (one of whom was Standish), and authorises the Archpriest to choose six others.** The expressed intention of such an appointment is, says ' Briefe Apologie, p. 107. ' It appeared afterwards that only some fifty-seven out of three hundred of the Clergy sympathised with the Jesuits. ' More, the historian, sometimes makes indiscreet admissions. Speaking of the institution of the Archpriest, and of Parsons' connection^with the business, he says : "There is no doubt that Parsons' judgment was asked in the matter" (Historia, p. 147),; and then defends it. "What does it indeed matter how or upon whose information the Pontiff acts ? Jethro, a gentile man it was who gave Moses the advice of appointing the elders " (p. 148). The Pope termed it " Parsons' subordination " (Archpriest Controversy, ii. p. 194). Cardinal Borghese told Mush and Champney (30th June 1602) "that he would witness that the Archpriest was made wholly at Fr. Parsons' instance" (ibid. p. 16). And Colleton bears witness that Signor Acrisio stated that the Pope told him " that the new superiority was not instituted by His Holiness' command" (A Just Defence of the Slandered Priestes, p. 34). Considering Clement vili.'s feeling towards the Society, this seems most likely to be the case. * Briefe Apologie, p. 8. ' See the letter in full, Tiemey, vol. iii. pp. cxix-cxxiii. ^ In an information (S. P. O. Dom. Eliz. (Addenda), vol. 34, No. 42), given by an intelligencer, there is an account of the appointment of the Archpriest. "The other six (assistants) Blackwell to appoint at his pleasure, and such especially as may have the opportunity to reside about London. And these are bound and charged by the authority given them to write to the Pope and to the Protector every six months of all the affairs in England, and oftener as occasion requires ; but there is scarce any week but they write to Parsons. Their letters passeth by divers conveyances, and with such cautions, as for my life I could never come to the intercepting of any of them. PARSONS "IN CURiA" 215 the Cardinal, among other objects, to assure " peace and union of minds and concord between brothers and priests, namely, also with the fathers of the Society of Jesus who labour with you in the same vineyard. . . . Since they have not, nor pretend to have any jurisdiction or power over the secular Clergy, nor interfere with them in any way,^ it is clearly the craft of the enemy and deceit of the devil for the overthrow of all the work in England, that any Catholic should excite or practise emulation against them ; since, on the other hand, they ought to be rather held in all love and reverence as they, with the greater alacrity overwhelm priests and the rest, as heretofore, with good offices, benefits, and paternal charity, so that all being united, the most holy work may be furthered." This disclaimer of any intention of the Jesuits to rule ecclesiastical affairs in England is clearly Parsons'. He pro- tests too much. The more clearly to prove what was one of the real objects in view, the Protector sent with this public letter separate instructions to Blackwell, ordering him upon all subjects of importance concerning his office to consult with the Superior of the Jesuits in England. The private instruc- tions were : " Although the Superior of the said fathers is not among the consulters of the Archpriest, yet since it is of the greatest importance, and is the earnest desire and command of His Holiness that there should be complete union of mind and agreement between the fathers of the Society and the secular Clergy, and as the said Superior, on account of his experience of English affairs and the authority he has among Catholics, may greatly assist all consultations of the Clergy, the Archpriest will, be careful in matters of greater moment to ask his judgment and counsel so that everything may be directed in an orderly manner with greater light and peace to the glory of God." This upset all the good that might have albeit I have used therein no small vigilance." Any doubt as to the possibility of keeping up a regular and frequent correspondence in those days of penal laws, is at once set aside by a perusal of the letters which exist so abundantly in manuscript and print. There were regular ports established which brought letters every week to Parsons. . " Thomas Paynes, a haberdasher over against the Counter, in the Poultry," was a receiving house for Parsons' correspondence. See his letter, S. P. O. Dom. Eliz. vol. 241, No. 411. ' Nee ullam illis molestiam exhibere. 216 THE ENGLISH JESUITS come from an office such as that of the Archpriest, and was the cause of much future dissension. This letter, making a new office in the Church, was not the exercise of the supreme power of the Pope. It was the action of the Cardinal Protector of the English college. Cajetan says he is " following the kind and provident will of His Holiness." Later on, when the exigencies of the moment demanded an argument, Parsons does not hesitate to quote Cajetan as saying he acted in the institution " by the special command of the Pope."^ Upon which Dr. Ely remarks : " Although he repeat this very often and urge it greatly, yet is it a very fiction without any good ground or probability."^ A few years later (31st May 1602), Robert Parkinson, Allen's confessor — a grave priest and reader at Rheims — gives his opinion in these terms : " If God spare me health and life ... I will write to Father Parsons concerning many complaints that I have heard of his hard dealings with our youths at Rome, and likewise of the new erection of the Archpriest in England. It was thought of long before Father Parsons began it ; and by Gregory the 1 3 th suppressed and forbidden as a jurisdiction which could not be practised in England. I suppose Father Parsons did it with good inten- tions, etc. But by experience and contradiction he should have foreseen the mischief that was likely to follow, and sought means how to prevent it rather than by force and authority to force it out." * But we must not anticipate. Another point concerning English ecclesiastical affairs Parsons at this time arranged to his satisfaction. University degrees were held in high esteem in England ; and some of the students from the seminaries had, after leaving, obtained degrees in foreign universities. It was a continual source of annoyance to the Clergy that students were not presented for degrees while at the seminaries. " They (the Jesuits) never sent any from that college (Rome) into England with any degree of schools at their back, two only excepted, who were specially favoured and loved of Fr. Alphonso (Agazzari), ' Apologie, p. 102. ' Op. cit. p. 4, ' Introduction to Certaine Briefs Notes (no pagination), PARSONS "IN CUKiA" 217 were made doctors in Rome before their mission, yet neither of them went into England, but were both stayed at Rheims." ' This was a part of what seems, by the logic of events, to have been Parsons' fixed plan. His schemes must, we contend, be judged not by words but by actions, which, according to his own dictum, " have the truest weight of affection or disaffection." Knowledge and the higher studies were seen to be an inconvenience in the hands of the Clergy. They were to be only hewers of wood and drawers of water ; or, putting it into more modern form, the men for whom Hay's Sincere Christian and the Catechismus ad parochos are the books.^ Their intel- lectual status was to be quietly lowered, while, on the other hand, all knowledge, with its accompanying power, was to be kept in the hands of those whom, as we have seen, Sega styles advisers of the people, guides of the Clergy, salt of the earth, and sun of the heavens of the English Church. At this present moment Parsons, taking advantage of some having "by licence of juvenile presumption and temerity" procured degrees from minor universities, perhaps without sufficient examination, contented himself with obtaining a breve which forbade any seminarist to take degrees without the permission of the superiors of his college. There is the real point of the order; requiring a fit course of study previous to taking a degree is only a specious condition. Had one found the cause of higher education of the Clergy zealously pursued by the Jesuits, this breve would have been praiseworthy, and Parsons credited with a useful measure. But the logic of events prove, as we said, the real significance of a document which caused afterwards so much dispute. Though dated 19th September 1597, it was not printed till three years after. Another step gained in this same direction was the influence Parsons now got over Dr. Worthington, one of the professors and afterwards to be rector of Allen's seminary. Worthington, as we have said, bound himself by vow, made in the hands of the Jesuit rector of Louvain, to fulfil whatsoever it might seem ^ Ely, p. 85. The two were Dr. Barrett, who succeeded Allen as President, and Dr. Stillington, whose presence at Douai was disastrous to the welfare of that college. " Purcell's Life of Cardinal Manning, vol. ii. p. 763, 218 THE ENGLISH JESUITS good to Parsons to enjoin. He wrote (loth January 1597) to him acquainting him with what he had done ; and protested that should the Jesuit refuse to accept the vow, he would still " endeavour to follow your inclination, so far as I can learn it, in all mine action of importance. ... It is to me no new yoke; for I was at your commandment ever since (1579) . . • I request . . . that you will assign me some by whom I shall be directed here, or in any other place distant from you and in your absence. In the meantime I suppose you will have me to take and follow Father Holt's direction as your own, etc." * This vow of obedience was subsequently made use of by Parsons who, when Dr. Barrett died, rewarded the confidence by appointing Worthington president of the seminary.^ By this means he at last attained the full control over all the seminaries in which the English Clergy were educated ; and, through Dr. Worthington, was able to lower the standard of learning in Allen's famous college. While these delicate affairs were being managed by Parsons — affairs that would require the whole attention of any ordinary man — he did not lose sight of the other object that had brought him to Rome. He was working at his political plans as though with undivided attention ; and was engaged in encountering the obstacles they were meeting with in Flanders. Charles Paget and Dr. Giffard were occupying much of his attention. On 30th June 1597, Parsons writes a long letter to Don Juan d'Idiaquez, the King of Spain's Secretary, upon " The faction of Charles Paget and Thomas Morgan, the source of much past and present injury to the cause of His Majesty in England." The paper, even at the risk of some slight repeti- tion, deserves reproduction in these pages. It was intended to back up the former communications of Englefield and the Duke of Feria on the same subject. ' See the whole letter in Tierney, vol. v. pp. iv-vi. ' This custom of receiving vows of obedience may be illustrated by a pass^e in a letter of Garnett to Anne Vaux (Foley's Records, vol. iv. p. 109) : "If you like to stay here, then I exempt you till a Superior be appointed whom you may acquaint, but tell him that you made your vow of yourself, and then told me, and that I limited certain conditions, as that you are not bound under sin except you be commanded in ■virtute obedientiae ; we may accept no vows. But men may make them as they list, and we after give directions accordingly." PARSONS "IN CURIA" 219 " The circumstance of some of His Majesty's servants having mistaken or disregarded the factious proceedings of these two men, has already been the occasion of no slight injury both to the cause of the Catholics and to the interests of His Majesty in England ; and that still greater injury is likely to result from a want of attention to their designs in future will be readily understood from the following facts. " The origin of their estrangement may be traced to the year 1582, when at a meeting at Paris attended by the Nuncio, the Spanish ambassador, John Baptist de Taxis, the Duke of Guise, the Archbishop of Glasgow as ambassador from the Queen of Scots, and others, it was determined that the con- version of England should rest solely on the support of the King of Spain,^ and, in pursuance of this resolution, the Fathers Parsons and Creighton were ordered to proceed, the former to Lisbon, the latter to Rome, in order to obtain certain assist- ance for Scotland. From this meeting Paget and Morgan, who were residing in France as the agents of the Scottish Queen, were excluded. Irritated at the affront, they applied to two of the Queen's secretaries with whom they corresponded, Nan, a Frenchman, and Curie, a native of Scotland, who both resided with her in England, who possessed her cypher and held considerable sway in her councils ; and they so far influenced the views of these men that the four in conjunction speedily contrived to alienate the mind of the unhappy Queen, and destroy her confidence in the scheme thus set on foot for the employment of Spain. In proof of this we have the still living testimony of Father Henry Samerie, a French Jesuit, who now resides in Flanders, and who, at the period in question, living with the Queen in England in character of her physician, was privy to all that passed. The fact was also attested by the Duke of Guise in his lifetime, who said, with much con- cern, to several persons, and particularly to his confessor. Father Claude Mathew Loranes of the Society of Jesus, to Father Parsons and some others, that through the instrument- ality of Paget and Morgan, who had represented him as the ' It was rather, as has been seen, that the King of Spain should be aslced to sup- port the young Scotch King in hopes of his future conversion, and in furtherance of his mother's claim. 220 THE ENGLISH JESUITS sworn creature of Spain and of the Jesuits, he himself in a certain transaction had been wholly deprived of the Queen's confidence. " In addition to this it is a known fact that these men more than once endeavoured to persuade the Duke of Guise to undertake the task of liberating the Scottish Queen and placing her on the throne of England and Scotland, to the exclusion of the Spaniards ; and that upon the Duke's refusing to comply with this request, and resolving in 1583 once more to solicit the assistance of the King of Spain, Charles Paget, unable to prevent the accomplishment of this determination, offered to go to England and induce the Earl of Northumber- land to join the Duke. On his arrival, however, his whole endeavour was to dissuade the Earl from the project, as the Duke himself afterwards mentioned to several. In fact, Paget, when on the point of embarking for England, had himself secretly informed William Watts, an English priest, of his intention to adopt this course ; and not only Father Samerie, but also several others inform us, that both he and Morgan so influenced the Scottish Queen herself by their letters, that she wrote to the Earl, forbidding him in any way to join either the Duke of Guise or the Spaniards in the proposed enter- prise. Such was the conduct of Paget and Morgan even after their reconciliation in Paris with the Duke of Guise, Dr. Allen, and Father Parsons, who, for the sake of peace and union, and in order to prevent further intrigues, had admitted them to a participation in all their secrets. That they never afterwards proved faithful to their new alliance will appear from the following facts : " After this first act of treason, in the case of the Earl of Northumberland, an act which led ultimately to the destruction of that nobleman, they were daily engaged in opposing by every possible means, but especially through the instrumentality of the Scottish Queen herself, whom they had now gained over, whatsoever was sought to be accomplished by the opposite party, for the benefit of that princess and for the common cause, through the intervention of Spain. In justification of their conduct they complained, as they still complain, that Allen, Parsons, Englefield, and others of that party refused to PARSONS "IN CURiA" 221 communicate with them on the concerns of the Queen of Scots, in which, as her servants, they were more particularly concerned; and to remove this ground of dissention, Allen and Parsons, in the year 1584, came once more to Paris, intending to renew their friendship with the parties, and at the same time to acquaint them again with the situation of affairs. It was at the moment that the baron Paget, brother of Charles, had arrived from England. By his influence it was hoped that both Charles and Morgan might be gained over ; the reverse, however, occurred ; for the baron was converted to their party. " Another instance of their treasonable conduct was that at the very time they were treating with the Duke of Guise, Allen and Parsons, to procure a supply of troops from Spain, of the speedy arrival of which there was every probability, they secretly sent to England a certain spy named William Parry, who had been many years employed by the Queen of England in Italy and elsewhere. This man, as we learn from his published confessions, immediately disclosed to the Queen whatever had passed ; and moveover told her that he was commissioned, when the proper time should arrive, to murder her, to place the Scottish Queen on the throne, and thus to prevent the Spanish invasion which was promoted by the Jesuits. The Queen, though at the time she expressed her gratitude and bestowed rewards on him, subsequently ordered him to be executed. Such was the end of Dr. Parry. " Afterwards these two men were for some time engaged in rendering the name of a Spanish invasion hateful in the eyes of all, by applying it to every species of succour or support which was proffered through the medium of Spain. Allen, Parsons, Englefield,- all who approved the Spanish plan or advocated that mode of relief, they designated as confederates of the Spaniards, anxious for the conquest and the ruin of the country. Thus they continued to attract odium to their adversaries and at the same time to swell the number of their own party. But that which tended most effectually to increase their adherents was a declaration which they published that the Queen of Scots herself was equally opposed to the invasion and to its abettors; and that she 222 THE ENGLISH JESUITS would avail herself of any species of relief, in preference to the intervention of Spanish troops, as proposed by the Jesuits. To this effect in reality the Queen herself wrote to the Duke of Guise in 1585, directing him to keep a watchful eye on the proceedings of the Jesuits as connected with any plan of Spanish interposition ; and taking an opportunity at the same time to reprehend the Duke and the Archbishop of Glasgow for having omitted to supply a certain sum of money on the petition of Morgan and Paget to a certain young gentleman in England, who, in consideration of the reward, had promised them, so they persuaded Her Majesty, to murder the Queen of England. The fact was that the Duke and the Archbishop understood that the party in question {his name is here omitted because he is still living) 1 was a worthless fellow and would do nothing as it eventually turned out; and on this account refused to provide the money. Yet for this it was that Paget and Morgan induced the Queen to reprehend them? " Although to some these differences among the English may appear of little moment as affecting but few individuals in comparison with the whole Catholic body, yet experience proves that they are productive of the most injurious and of course the most important consequences. They keep, in fact, a considerable part of the nation in a divided and distracted state ; while numbers of young Englishmen, leaving their country with the best intentions, but falling into the hands of these seditious parties, receive impressions of which they can never afterwards divest themselves, until not only they, but others with them, are involved in ruin ; becoming eventualfy enemies, spies, apostates, heretics, falling from one misfortune to another,^ and thus exhibiting a daily evidence of the effects ' In the margin of the MS. the initials J. G. are written. ' Not one word of reprobation escapes Parsons upon this plot. Mary was evidently engaged in it, and the complicity of both the Dulce and Archbishop is beyond a doubt. * It is only well to remember that these hard names were very freely used by Parsons of all who opposed him. And often men are driven by desperaticHi into an attitude of defiance of legitimate authority by the extravagant assertions and claims of those who make themselves exponents of this authority, and claim for their inter- pretation of the acts of authority an equal weight with the authority itself. PARSONS "IN CURIA" 223 of these associations. Hence it especially behoves His Majesty and his ministers to l<:eep a watchful eye on this band of rest- less and impracticable spirits before their numbers and their power increase. If this be neglected, inconveniences will arise, which will not easily admit of a remedy ; and the reduction of England will become more difficult in consequence of the dissensions which these men are producing among the Catholics. Indeed, the little attention hitherto directed to this party has been the source of no small injury both to the welfare of England and to the interests of His Majesty ; and the longer the application of the remedy is delayed the greater will be the mischief that will necessarily ensue. Were one or two of the leaders to be removed from Flanders or publicly deprived of their pensions as factious members of the community, the rest of the party might take warning and others might be deterred from joining them ; but if this, or some similar demonstration, be not made on the part of His Majesty and his ministers, I see no prospect of a termination to this business. May our Lord obtain what is most expedient. 30th June iS97''^ On 20th December of that same year Parsons tried what could be done by a personal appeal to Paget, and wrote the following letter: — " All Englishmen know that these aversions and disagree- ments of yours are no new things, but of many years . . . For you will remember yourself that about fourteen years ago, when you and I dealt together first in the city of Rouen in France, you showed yourself no less disgusted than now, when yet neither Father Holt nor Mr. Owen were near you or gave you any molestation, but that then all your complaint was against priests in general and against Mr. Doctor Allen (after Cardinal) in particular and by name, about whom you and I had long disputes why he or other priests or religious men should meddle in public matters of our country, and not you gentlemen, meaning yourself and Mr. Morgan, for that other gentlemen of worship then present in France, as Mr. Charles Arundell, Mr. William Tresham, Mr. Thomas Fitzherbert, Mr. Fulgiam, Mr. James Hill, Mr. Hopkings, Mr. Tinstead, and ' Endorsed by Parsons. Concerning the partiality of Paget and Morgan among the English nation, 1597. Tierney, vol. iii. pp. lix-lxvii. 224 THE ENGLISH JESUITS others complained not of that point, but took part rather against you in that very quarrel which you endeavoured to raise between gentlemen and priests, repeating often (as I well remember) why priests did not meddle with their breviaries only, and the like. And I answering you that if the priests besides their breviaries, or with their breviaries, or by their credit in Catholic princes' courts, where breviary men were esteemed, could help and assist and serve you gentlemen also towards the reduction of our country, why should you not be content to use their labours to your and the public commodity without emulation? Upon this you cannot but remember also how careful Mr. Dr. Allen and I did endeavour at that time to yield satisfaction both to my Lord Paget, your brother, then newly come over, and to yourself, and to Mr. Morgan, making a journey of purpose for that cause to Paris, and lying in your own house and imparting all our affairs and secrets with you, and how you broke from us again by your secret sending of Dr. Parry into England without our knowledge, though we were present; which Parry revealed all (as the world knoweth) and more unto the Queen (though as I pre- sume not by your wills or commission in this point) ; and yet how after this we made a new composition and atonement again with you in the same city of Paris, where it was con- cluded that you should go to England and I to Rome, and that this league was broken again by you and not by us as upon the defeat of all the designments by that your journey, and especially upon the revelation and oath of Mr. Watts, the priest, who both affirmed to the Duke of Guise, to Father Claude Mathew, his confessor, Dr. Allen, and to myself, that you had told him in secret at the sea's side when you were to embark, that you meant in England to overthrow all our endeavours, and so the effect showed ; and yet you knew that, notwithstanding all this, our desires of peace and union were so great that in the year '86,^ a little before our going to Rome together, Mr. Dr. Allen and I made a third accord with you and Mr. Morgan, and desired the continuance of the same, as among others Mr. Ligons, which was the last man which brought us in our way from the Spa, can partly testify '1585? PARSONS "IN CURIA" 225 with what minds we departed in this behalf, whom we desired to do his best also to the same effect with you in Flanders after our departure. But we being in Rome you cannot forget how you and your friends continued your treaties with Solomon Aldred that came in and out of England to Paris from the Council, and professed himself opposite to our pro- ceedings. The sending also into England of Ballard and Savage without our privities or even writing one syllable thereof unto us, though the one were a priest thereby subject to Dr. Allen. Afterwards in like manner your dealings with Gilbert Giffard and Grattley, other two priests, were kept secret from us, as also their treaties in England with the enemy, their writing of two infamous books against Dr. Allen, Jesuits, and Spaniards, whereof ensued the general and par- ticular hurts that all men knew; those matters (I say) and others like passed in Paris among you and your secret friends alone without any knowledge of ours or rather any participa- tion (I daresay) of any of those noble and gentlemen that now you name participant of your affairs and disagreements against us. And after this again the seditious proceedings of Mr. Morgan, as appeareth by his letters to the Bishop of Dunblane,^ in the year 1 589, and of the Prior Arnold ^ in Spain against our Lord Cardinal, as is evident by the Prior's own letters to the said Morgan in the same year; whereof you could not be ignorant or at leastwise cannot be so presumed in reason, your intrinsical conjunction with them being such as it was, which dealing my Lord Cardinal in his letters to yourself yet extant in the year 1591 affirmeth plainly to be traitors to the public cause. . . ."^ 'William Chisholm resigned his See and became a Carthusian in 1586; then became Prior of the Certosa in Rome, and died 1 593. ^ Prior of the English Carthusians in Flanders. ' From Stonyhurst MS. See Records of the English Catholics, vol. ii. pp. 391-4. Paget, writing loth June 1598, says : " I was never a favourite of theirs because I have ever misliked the courses of Father Parsons and Holt, and have not only told them plainly thereof but advertised the Cardinals and the Pope the same, which has made them proceed with great fury against me and some others. Let the Queen be assured that the Jesuits cannot abide to hear of peace, and especially between her and the King of Spain, as it will be the break up of all the plots and practices for England of which I hope to discover some before long and to diminish their credit in all parts. " S. P. O. Dom. Eliz. (Addenda), vol. 33, No. 97. IS 226 THE ENGLISH JESUITS Paget was an enemy of one sort. Dr. William Giffard was an opponent of another calibre. Gentle, pious, learned, and charitable, he was, on the Continent, the one in whom all who were aggrieved at the state of affairs confided. He was respected by the Nuncio, and in favour of the Archduke com- manding the Low Countries. He held the office of Dean of St. Peter's Church at Lille.^ His case had to be met in quite another way than Charles Paget's, and a pitiful story it is to tell. Suffice it here to say, use was made in Rome of a man named Fisher, whom Parsons himself calls " one of the most exorbitant disorderly fellows in the Roman stirs." ^ Fisher, it appears, had drawn up and dispersed in England a memorial to the Pope, which he had written against the Jesuit, in the name of the Clergy of England. This memorial was ascribed by the Jesuits to Dr. Giffard ; ^ and they drew up and circulated in MS. the heads of the accusations with references to letters written by Giffard to his friends.* They were now able to appear to advantage as the aggrieved party; and a defence written by Garnett was sent, March 1598, "to all the priests to whom these letters shall come." Whether this circular was meant to reach all of the Clergy may be doubted. Garnett says that the injury done to the Society by this memorial is little compared with what will result to the Clergy; and he goes on to suggest an opportune remedy (" if it so seems to ^ In a paper of information concerning English Catholics on the Continent (S. P. O. Dom. Eliz. (Addenda), vol. 34, No. 42), the informant speaks thus of Dr. Giffard :^ " Mr. Dr. Giffard, dean thereof (Lille), and I protest I take him for an honest man and a well-wisher to his country, for that no Englishman what condition soever he be of but (he) doth relieve him and give him money in his purse, and procureth him a pass to depart quietly through the country, and therefore and for other occasions the Jesuits cannot endure him, but continual hatred is amongst them for their unlawful proceedings." 2 Briefe Apologie, p. 93. ' " I would fain know of this honest father if Master Dr. GiflFard were accessory hereto, how chanced it then that Master Blackwell, our Archpriest, publicly before witnesses cleared him, affirming that he was not author thereof" (A Reply, p. 19). * There is extant no complete copy of the memorial, as far as I can find. Abstracts were drawn up in manuscript, and circulated by the Jesuits. Dr. Bagshawe in his True Relation prints one of these entitled "An Abstract of the Memorial sent by certain Englishmen out of the Low Countries to the Pope's Holiness, Clement vill,, against the Jesuits labouring in the English Vineyard, September 1597." I do not see any reason to doubt the genuineness of the letters quoted. Dr. Giffard knew how to hit hard. PARSONS "IN CURIA" 227 your prudence "), namely, that ten or twenty or more from each province should subscribe to a document in their favour which should be sent to the Protector ; and he thus meets a likely difficulty some might experience in signing such a document. " But although to some of you we are not familiarly known, so that perchance all would not wish to say that everything (in the memorial) was false, there are three ways in which such an answer may be made. Some can say that they knew all to be false, others that they have nothing to accuse us of, others can with a safe conscience at least affirm they never thought of such a memorial, neither had they any part nor did they approve thereof. ... If my purgation be not suspected among you, I call God and His angels to witness that there is not a particle of truth in what we are accused of. . . . This (document) I wish by you, and especially so by you, to be set forth, that the laity should know nothing about it (unless your prudence suggests otherwise), or that copies be kept of these calumnies." ^ We shall see later what value is to be ascribed to the disclaimers of Garnett. One of the three copies in the Petyt MSS. is described as Articuli patris Personii contra D. Giffordum decanuni Insulensem. The truth seems to be this : Parsons was too willingly deceived by Fisher. Dr. Ely refers to the matter in these terms : " Fisher, this miserable fellow, coming to Rome after the stirs in the college were happily finished, he was caught by the back in Rome by those against whom he had written and dispersed the oft-named memorial written in Dr. Griffith's his house in Cambray, and so put into the hands of the officer of His Holiness. The miserable fellow being apprehended, and fearing the galleys or the gallows, to save his life and limbs was ready to swear and forswear, and to write and speak placentia, that is to say, such things as he knew would best please the offended persons and by which he might obtain for himself pardon and liberty." ^ On the testimony of such a witness (of whom Parsons could not help writing, " Albeit we will not affirm all to be true which he said, yet many things are such as could not be well feigned and are confirmed other- wise, and the speaking voluntarily upon his oath must be ' Archpriest Controversy, i. p. 19. ^ Certaine Briefe Notes, p. 156. 228 THE ENGLISH JESUITS presumed to have had some care also of his conscience "),* the attack was made upon Dr. Giffard. Parsons, although using such an instrument, knew very well that Giffard had set him- self up as a rock in the way. His opposition was open, and he did not try to disguise it. That Giffard was willing to work with Parsons as far as his conscience would allow, is clear from the following corre- spondence. But he would not allow himself to be mixed up with any treasonable practices under guise of religion. This determination was the real cause of the quarrel, and it is no wonder that Giffard felt and expressed himself warmly on the subject. Writing to Parsons from Brussels (20th March 1597), he says: "... And truly as in my last to you two years since so in this, I do lament with all my heart the division and dissension which is betwixt those of our nation, and as I would endeavour by all means to bring them to union and concord, knowing the woeful and lamentable effects which this schism and dis- cord hath bred both here and in other parts, so my conscience doth not accuse me that I have given any occasion thereof, whatever the good knight^ of blessed memory by wrong information had conceived of me, which I doubt not but if ever we had met I could easily have taken out of his mind. Truth it is I never was of the humour to rail either against some noblemen and gentlemen in these parts, or to charge the scholars of Rome with horrible and enormous crimes of heresy, whoredom, sodomy, enmity to His Catholic Majesty and such like, and in all places and companies to cry out and exclaim against them as men worthy (of) expulsion, galleys, prisons, degradation and the like, being not able to prove any such thing against them ; and therefore I judged it more secure in conscience to suspend my judgment and bridle my tongue until I saw His Holiness' censure and sentence, than with the vulgar and unbridled tongues to lavish rashly against them whatever was suggested by every private man ; and this, perhaps, may be some motive why some men have conceived of me as an abettor and favourer of those Roman broils ; but I trust a man of your virtue and wisdom will not ' Briefs Apologie, p. 95. '' Sir Francis Englefield. PARSONS "IN CURll" 229 make that an argument of any my inordinate affection in those troubles. . . . For joining with you in one and the same course to serve and help our country, I am as desirous as he that is most, and if that course consist in priestly functions of teach- ing, preaching, sacrificing and the like, I am, as you know, not now to begin that course, having to God's honour and the profit of many spent all my younger years therein. But if it consists in anything else, when I shall know your authority of Pope or prince to commence any such course, I will to the uttermost of my power join with you ; yea, if it should pro- ceed from your private judgment and zeal of souls, when you shall vouchsafe to make me partaker of it, I will assist you with all I can, nothing doubting but that your course will be founded in reason and religion ; and if in the mean season in word or affection I differ perhaps from your course, blame me not, but yourself that never vouchsafed to make me privy to it neither more or less." ^ In another letter written from Lille (13th December 1597), Giffard, after speaking in warm terms of Parsons' good work for the seminaries, and assuring him of his co-operation, goes on to say : " But if you require conjunction with you in other matters which your wisdom and experience perhaps find fit for the reformation of our afHicted country, I will desire you that I may rather be a looker-on than to farre to engage myself in such weighty matters wherein I am wholly ignorant, and which may, by the inconstant course of this world, as well ruin as advance the authors and actors, etc." ^ This spirit did not suit Parsons. He would not listen to reason, but took for granted all the calumnies reported of Giffard. The following letter betrays his strange state of mind. It could not be admitted to an outsider that he or one of " ours " could be in the wrong. He says : " And now, sir, I see but two ways for you to choose ; the one to set yourself to prove these things that you have avouched of our fathers, if you can ; or else to give some satisfaction to them, laying the fault upon mistaking information or the like. But the best ' Records of the English Catholics, vol. i. pp. 395, 396. " Ibid. p. 397. 230 THE ENGLISH JESUITS satisfaction of all would be to leave off this course of contra- diction, and to attend to peace and union in our nation for the time to come; for that our divisions are odious to God and man ; and none can abide now to hear of them or of any that will foster them." ^ But as this exhortation did not move Giffard from the position he had taken up, accusation was made against him before the Nuncio of Flanders, who thoroughly examined into all the charges, and declared the accused innocent. This failing, Parsons wrote to Baldwin to make an end with the doctor, and in any case to procure peace with him. " Father Baldwin, a man of the right stamp, dealt with the Nuncio for a general pacification and reunion on all sides ; whereunto the doctor at the Nuncio his entreaty yielded. And first, by order taken in that behalf, the said Baldwin, in the name of Fr. Parsons and all that Society, asked his forgiveness; and the doctor for his part in civility performed as much ; with this addition, if he had offended any of them. Which being done the Nuncio commanded them both to be secret of what had passed in favour indeed of the Jesuits, which commandment the doctor obeyed ; but Fr. Baldwin omitting what he had done in the name of the rest instantly gave it forth after a glorious sort, that the doctor had asked Fr. Parsons' and the Jesuits' forgiveness. And thereby to disgrace him anew and make their former injuries done unto him more probable, they caused the same to be openly promulgated out of the pulpit in the college at Rheims. So shameless (you see) they are, as the very pulpits are profaned by them ; when it standeth them in hand to maintain their reputation per fas aut nefas they care not how." ^ ' Remarks on a book entitled "Memoirs of Gregorio Panzani," by Rev. Charles Plowden, p. 109, note. " A Sparing Discoverie, pp. 30, 31. The story is corroborated by Dr. Ely. In a letter written by the Nuncio to Parsons (26th September 1598) it appears that Giffard was the only one to apologise. In view of the very explicit statement in the text, and corroborated as it is by Dr. Ely, we must bear in mind that the Nuncio was a particular friend of Giffard, and very likely in writing to Parsons only said what was necessary to soothe the angry feelings of the Jesuit. Diplomatists do not always tell the whole truth. I must express my gratitude to the Librarian of the National Library of Naples for his kindness in transcribing for me the text of the letter to Parsons, which exists among the manuscripts of that Library, PARSONS "IN CURiA" 231 This attack against Giffard failing, Parsons had to hold his hand for a more favourable opportunity, which did present itself some years after. But he had achieved his position. His hand was on all English affairs, and he was in a fair way to crush all opposition. Fisher, the author of the memorial, was exiled by Parsons into Spain, to be out of the way of inconvenient questioners. One last step was attained. For the second time he became Rector of the English college at Rome (November 1598), and held the post till his death. Before concluding this chapter, it may be interesting to see the attitude of the English laity, whose right, Parsons and Holt, more hispanico, were altogether ignoring, whilst exploiting them for the advancement of their own ends. The following letter to Burghley puts the matter into a very clear light. The writer is anonymous, but the date is 24th August 1597:— " From my infancy I have been a Catholic, but never an enemy of my country, and, albeit I had some dealings with the Queen of Scotland, for which I was called in question, yet never intended to prejudice the Queen's Majesty's most royal person. Notwithstanding my return from Milan, and forsaking the King of Spain's service, I was not suffered to enjoy the liberty of my conscience privately, nor the benefit of the law in causes of justice. I was utterly ruined ; and considering the sentence against me in the Star Chamber about Sir Thomas Stanhope's weirs,^ and the troubles both my wife and I were presently to fall into by reason of recusancy, being bound to appear before the Archbishop of York, I was forced again to abandon the realm, but, I thank God, I have never yet entered into any conspiracy against Her Majesty or my country. Arriving at Flanders, I sought to the King of Spain and his governors in the Low Countries for maintenance, but found that one Parsons, an English Jesuit, had gotten that interest in the King and his Council in Spain, and another English Jesuit, Holt, had gotten by Parsons' means such credit in the Court of Flanders, as that none of our nation could obtain anything in either place but by their ' From a paper in the Record Office concerning this case, it is possible that the writer of this letter may be either George Blount or George Holt. 232 THE ENGLISH JESUITS means. They will favour none but such as will follow their faction,^ whereunto I could not yield, though I desire the conversion of our country to the Catholic Faith. Having made trial of Holt divers ways, I found him to be a most wicked, monstrous man, and the course they run, to tend to the ruin of our country, overthrow of the monarchy, destruction of the nobility, and to bring England into perpetual bondage to the Spaniards. They neither respect religion, their native soil, nor anything else except their own most ambitious humour, hoping to attain to special authority and government under the King of Spain. Wherefore, though I had entertain- ment offered me, I came away from Brussels and retired me to Liege, out of the King of Spain's dominions. For the rest I would venture my life in defence of Her Majesty and my country, against -any stranger who should invade the realm. " Without liberty of conscience I will never return ; but if I might have some maintenance out of my country I will live in any Catholic place out of the King of Spain's dominions, and do Her Majesty from time to time any service I can. If Her Majesty would have a gracious respect to the Earl of Westmoreland, whereby he might have some honourable means from her to maintain him, I could persuade him to retire from the King of Spain, which would greatly import Her Majesty's service. England, I know, standeth in most dangerous terms to be a spoil to all the world, and to be brought into perpetual bondage, and that, I fear, your lordships and the rest of the Council will see when it is too late. Would to God, therefore. Her Majesty would grant toleration of religion, whereby men's minds would be appeased and join all in one for the defence of our country. We see what safety it hath been to France, how peaceable the kingdom of Polonia is where no man's conscience is forced, how the Germans live, being contrary in religion, without giving offence one to another. Why might not we do the like in England, seeing ' Anthony Rolston to the Earl of Essex and Sir Robert Cecil : ' ' You may think the worst of me because I have depended of Fathers Parsons and Creswell. But, as matters go in Spain, it is impossible for any Englishman to remain in any part of Spain that will not depend of them. And God knows, without their favour, it had gone hard with me." ffistorical MSS. Commission, Hatfield MSS., Part VII. p. 188. ^ 5 > - o -s u ^ o ? e! a o I S « > I o > PARSONS "IN CURiA" 233 every man must answer for his own soul at the Latter Day, and that religion is the gift of God and cannot be beaten into a man's head with a hammer? Well may men's bodies be forced but not their minds, and where force is used, love is lost, and the prince and state endangered. . . . Liege, 24th August 1597." ^ Parsons was now at the zenith of his career. Not a cardinal himself, he was able to move some of the Sacred College, and even the Pope himself, as so many chess-men upon the board of his schemes. But his influence with the latter was more indirect. Working under cover. Parsons obtained most of his triumphs through the Spanish ambassador, and thus gave an importance to his projects which they would not have had of themselves. Given a free hand by his General, for a few months he reigned supreme. Surely to himself Predestina- tion was justified : for did not the Elect now possess the land ? This conviction seems to have extended itself also to the Englishmen who gathered round him in Rome, and who were devoted to the man who was successful. We have spoken of Parsons' warm heart for his friends, and of the affection he inspired them with ; we now can see how he was able to fill them also with implicit confidence. Working steadily, with a single object in view (for all his plans, political and ecclesi- astical, can be reduced to one — the supremacy of his Society in England), he had proved, to his friends, his power of mind, his mastery of detail, his fertile resource, his devotion to his Society, and his influence with the great. It was no wonder he dazzled them, and that they, without questioning the means by which he achieved such great results, fell entirely under the spell of his potent personality. To them Robert Parsons was the one hope of regenerating England. His methods were the right ones. He was the New Apostle, and he was to do the work the old Apostles of England had done. But in a way vastly superior. Father Henry Tichborne, Parsons' right hand in Rome, explains the situation in the following letter to Fr. Thomas Darbyshire, a Jesuit in Paris.* There was a talk of a measure ^Ibid., pp. 363, 364. ' The Jesuits, true to their Spanish policy, were bitter opponents of Henri IV., and they saw the rapprochement of Rome and France with alarm. " A Jesuit in Spain " 234 THE ENGLISH JESUITS for gaining toleration for Catholics ; Henri iv. had suggested a project of universal religious peace. This did not meet with Parsons' approval. The letter also affords us a glimpse of the repute Parsons had attained to, and his manner of conducting himself under the greatness he had achieved : — "Rome, 2nd February 1598. " The reasons that moveth us in these parts to have hopes more than ordinary of the conversion of our country are very pregnant. First, the high degree of credit our principal pillars and agents have both in R(ome) and S(pain). The R(everend) F(ather) P(arsons) with the Pope himself (is) so accepted that he will not suffer him to use any other compliments of kneel- ing or other ways in his presence that is usual for cardinals. His nephew hath assigned to him his day of audience and sendeth his coach for him daily. " He hath composed these desperate controversies between the fathers and scholars, and let out the corrupt blood with that dexterity as hath got him the fame of an expert physician ; and hath triumphed so over the crew of mal- contents that whereas before his coming to R(ome) the young youths were so averted from the S(panish) that they could not abide their sight and would not move their hats to the ambassador, he brought them to digest the one and respect the other. And to confirm me rather in this opinion, I find (says Ranke, ii. p. 26) " preached publicly on the deplorable condition of the Church. ' It was not only the republic of Venice that favoured heretics ; but — hush, hush,' he said, placing his fingers on his lips, ' but even the Pope himself.' These words resounded throughout Italy. On the 22nd of March 1590 the Spanish ambassador appeared in the papal apartments to make a formal protest in the name of his sovereign against the proceedings of the Pope. There was an opinion, as these things show us, more orthodox, more Catholic than that of the Pope himself. The Spanish ambassador now appeared in the palace to give this opinion effect and expression before the very face of the Pontiff. It was an extraordinary incident ; the ambassador knelt on one knee and entreated His Holiness for permission to execute the commission of his lord. The Pope requested him to rise, saying it would be heresy to pursue the course he was contemplating against the Vicar of Christ. The ambassador would not suffer himself to be disconcerted. ' His Holiness,' he began, ' ought to proclaim without distinction the excommunication of all adherents of the King of Navarre. His Holiness should declare that Navarre was incapable of ascending the French throne under every circumstance and for all time. If this were not done, the Catholic King would abandon his allegiance to His Holiness, for the majesty of Spain could not permit the cause of Christ to be brought to ruin.' " PARSONS "IN CURiA" 235 that, with great difficulty and the clamorous reluctations of our whole order, he hath avoided the red cap. Father C(resswell) in S(pain) and Fr. H(olt) in Flanders have, with the princes they deal with, no less credit than he here." After speaking of the success of the seminaries, the writer goes on to say : " These evident testimonies of missions and commissions and pretensions of our Council at home {are) sent continuously to Fr. P(arsons) by express messengers, that all that seek to contradict or oppose him are either discarded or discredited, and all they can say or project to the contrary held for inventions and entertainment. . . . " The only thing that is feared will be the interruption of this our settled hopes or (the) diminution of our credit is a report which hath been here very hot (?) of liberty of conscience at home, which is supposed to proceed from some deeper brain than our ordinary wits are wont to yield." Fr. Tichborne then proceeds to give his correspondent the arguments for and against this liberty of conscience. These latter are of the greatest interests as being the key to most of the moves in the political game played by Parsons and his immediate disciples. We may also note that in the confidence of a private letter the writer betrays an acknowledgment that the Jesuit success in England, so boasted of and extolled at headquarters, was not really as solid as it was made to appear. " It is objected on the one part and much feared (by) ours that this is the only means to discover the defeat and nakedness of our cause, and to show that that which we are fain to daub with such glorious colours is but a mere chimera and bare shadow ; that there is no such number of men affected to our party as we would enforce, etc." And to the objections of those of the Society who were in favour of the proposed toleration : " Reply was made by ours that this means was so dangerous that what rigours of laws could not compass in so many years, this liberty and levity will effectuate in to - days, to wit : the disfurnishing of the seminaries, the disanimating of men to come and others to return, the expulsion of the Society, a confusion as in Germany, extinction of zeal and fervour, a disanimation of princes from the hot pursuit of the enterprise. Our rejection will leave us 236 THE ENGLISH JESUITS hopeless and will fall out with us as with the sheep that made peace with the wolves on condition they should remove the dogs. So that, the circumstances and conditions necessarily implying the removal of the Company (which by their rule may admit no like conditions, and are our dogs), we shall be left as a prey to the wolves, that will besides drive our greatest patron to stoop to a peace which will be the utter ruin of an edifice, this many years in building. . . . This discourse of liberty is but an invention of idle heads, and neither for to be allowed or accepted if it might be procured, nor in itself possible to be procured for the former reason. . . . And here, by the way, I must advise you that Sir T. Tresh(am) as a friend of the state is holden among us for an atheist, and all other of his humour, either so or worse." ^ The drift of this remarkable letter, which conveys the mind of Parsons (Tichborne was one of his secretaries), was to provide Darbyshire with a line of argument when dealing with those who were in favour of the proposed toleration. Elizabeth was old ; and although she obstinately refused to appoint a successor, the mind of England was turning to James VI. of Scotland, who about this time was also approached by the majority of English Catholics with the promise of their support if he would promise them, at least, toleration. The King did undoubtedly give such a promise ; and it is due to this that he was able so quietly to reach the throne. But this action of the Catholics of England was dead against all that Parsons had planned. They were daring to act by them- selves. Such independence must be stopped at once, and they must be shown that liberty of conscience, and the peaceful right to practise their religion could only be bought at a price too great, namely, the expulsion of the Jesuits, the sheep-dogs. Parsons, it will be remembered, had been for years the opponent of James, and he was still hoping to counteract the movement against Spain. It will not be without interest to examine here the organisation he instituted to secure intelligence from all parts. While admiring his manner of conducting business, the reader ' S. p. O. Dom. Eliz. vol. 262, No. 28. This instructive letter never reached its destination, but fell into the hands of the Government. PARSONS "IN CURiA" 237 cannot help wondering where all the money came from to pay these express messengers who weekly traversed the Continent in long and expensive journeys to bear despatches to the Jesuit. Continual complaints are made in contemporary documents, that money contributed for the seminaries was diverted by Parsons to other uses ; and that alms collected in England for the support of the Clergy and for poor prisoners were sent out of the country to keep Parsons and his agents. As regards the former accusation there is not, as will be seen, the least shadow of doubt as to its accuracy.^ From a long paper preserved in the Record Office^ we get particulars of the arrangements Parsons made for keeping himself posted in news. Although from the internal evidence the paper was written a few years after the date we have now arrived at, we insert it here as illustrating the point we are discussing. So sure was he of ultimate success that certain localities had been already fixed up as colleges and residences for the Society in England. With that grim humour he often displays. Parsons fixed upon Burghley's own house in the Strand as the residence of the Jesuit Superior. Cambridge and Oxford, Norwich, Coventry, Chester, and Bristol, with a dozen other places, were already allotted as Jesuit settlements. But these were day-dreams for a future which never arrived. At the moment he stretched his arms over the Continent. The intelligencer says : " Parsons maintaineth a man (whose name I cannot set down) sometimes and most commonly in Spain, sometimes in Italy, Flanders or France as he findeth occasion ; he is ' " That the Jesuits under colour of godly uses do collect money of many Catholics that be the Queen's Majesty's subjects, and bestow it not on the poor of the English, according to the intention of the givers, but keep the same for their own private uses, for the printing of seditious books and aiding of such as will second them in their ambitions humours, who desire to bring the State of England to be only governed by them as well for spiritual and temporal affairs, to the overthrow of all the nobility and ancient laws and customs and privileges of England. That the General of the Jesuits hath given absolute authority to Father Parsons to send into England and to revoke such of his Society as he shall think good ; and therefore it is likely he will maintain them in such courses and practices as he himself hath begiin and set on foot for making of kings and changing of the State of England according to his fancy." S. P. O. Dom. Eliz. vol. 267, No. 67. ' S. P. 0. Dom. Eliz. (Addenda), vol. 34, No. 40. 238 THE ENGLISH JESUITS gentlemanlike, with his man and couple of horses at all times only to execute the business and affairs of the said Parsons ; speaks many languages, and findeth him for his turns. This I do not speak of my own mouth but after the report of others, as Mr. Griffin . . . and most men know it to be true that are either in favour with Parsons or other his interest and veriest friends; and so by that means told others, and so it at last comes out. " Wherefore are English Jesuits placed in all places of great resort and in all great cities ? And there must be but one, because they may give intelligences of all things and write to their superior, who is Parsons. As Talbot ^ at Loreto, because divers Englishmen came there before they came to Rome ; and there he learneth all the news he can of them. Some by speaking them fair, others by his liberality . . . and then instructeth them to be for Fr. Parsons and detacheth them from the priests; for the fathers are religious, the others are not, and sets them against their lessons, and so urgeth. Whereupon he writes presently here to Rome, signalling that there come such an one to Rome either for their friends or else not worth anything; and so the poor man is known in Rome before he comes there. If he have any letters the said Talbot will send them, before if he be so foolish as to deliver them. Then besides, comes there continual the news of all places ; yea (of) princes themselves. Then he certifieth the behaviour of the prince, then his carriage and conversation ; for the new copies must be had of all letters of state or of any substance, and so directed to Reverend Father Parsons, the ' Lantern of our country,' as Dr. Worthington's certificate makes mention. . . . " At Venice, young Father Adams, of young years, but well trained unto his habit and vow, will give notice of all things there. Wherefore is he placed there because the like place is not to be found in Italy for givings of intelligences ; for there is news of all places of the world, and who knows it before the Jesuits — few or none at all . . . (of the English resorting thither). And of their proceedings he doth doubt- ' " The right hand of Parsons, to be employed in all matters as he thinketh good and findeth him capable." S. P. O. Dom. Eliz. (Addenda), vol. 34, No. 42. PARSONS "IN CURIA" 239 lessly diligently hearken and send in of all in general and particulars to Father Parsons, whereby there is nothing un- known to him. " Who giveth him news at Milan, I cannot tell, unless it be one Dr. Y. H. Fosnet that is there ; for that he is rather an enemy to Englishmen than a friend, and will hardly speak with an Englishman. I know Mr. Griffin and he be now great friends. ... At Bologna I know not who doth give him intelligence ; but some one or other there is who gives him intelligence of all news that there befalls ; and no English- man passes that way without his privity. I can learn of no Englishman there, but only a friend who hath lived there very long and Doctor Thornton at the Placentia, Abbat. Allen (but his name is Heskett) at Perugia, who is all in all with Fr. Parsons. " At Bruxelles, Baldwin, ^ who doth mainly work for Parsons and for the King of Spain, and is the superintendent (superdamo) of all Englishmen in Flanders, whom he pleases to set on his footcloth very bravely; and who is he that dares gainsay him in any of his proceedings, or dare contra- dict his letters or commands ? Continual letters pass between him and Parsons, the one for the affairs of Rome, the other for Flanders ; and their opinion in all matters and causes, and what they think most fit to be done there, both who are the greater traitors and villains to England. ■ " Coniers at Douai,^ who was some time minister ^ of the English college, now governs the college at Douai, and is penitenciarius or confessarius of the college, although he be resident with the Jesuits at Douai. He is there placed ^ In another paper of information we have the following : "Baldwin is a nimble- headed stifier to sift all men that either are there or come thither, whether they be for the King of Spain and the Jesuits or no, and appointing them what treatment he pleases. . . . Parsons hath set his brother George Parsons to rouse the English youth in that college (St. Omers), and to give him continual advertisement of their inclination and disposition." S. P. O. Dom. Eliz. (Addenda), vol. 34, No. 42. * " At Douai, Coniers the Jesuit, because of his policy, was sent to Douai to secure his opinion of all comers, and so acquaint Parsons of all proceedings in the Flanders, and to see the college was governed in order. At Ghent, one Clarke, a canon, but altogether Jesuitised. At Bruxelles, a priest confessor to twenty-six English nuns, whereof the Lady Berkely is prioress ; his name is Chambers" {Ibid.). ^ I.e. procurator. 240 THE ENGLISH JESUITS to none other purpose but only to look out the behaviour of the residents of our nation there ; for that divers strangers come there out of England and go most to their confessions ; and thereby {Coniers) knoweth how he may be employed. If he have money then he must go to the college and be admitted there ; if poor and they can find sufficient excuses to shake him off, as divers be desirous to go for Rome, then writes he by the next post, which will be there before the Englishmen to cause them to give a lodging, and by that time that he comes there they know his errand, and is soon answered; thus is he there employed. " At Dunkerque, Fr. Hungerford, to reconcile English persons that are there taken, and persuade them to serve the King of Spain, promising them large rewards and great preferments, and, as I do verily imagine, unto him be all the letters that are come from England first brought. The rest of the priests in Flanders harp all on the same string, and emulate the Jesuits for all their factions and treasons ; as Worthington, Harris, Webbe, Darbyshire, Wright, and Storey. . . . "There is one John Love in London, son unto Love the steward of Douai. He teacheth a French school about St. Paul's in London — whether he giveth any intelligence into Flanders or not, I know not. Whereby he may be the better known, he is very lame and goeth halting and {is) a great height. . . . " Dr. Davis at Paris,^ it is said, hath his maintainance from the Jesuits of Flanders to advertise them of the proceed- ^ "Dr. Davis is an old man, grey-headed, a very great friend of the Jesuits. He hath correspondence with them by his daily letters. It is said that he hath mainten- ance of them, and certifies them of all news that happens in these parts ; writes to Parsons and to the residents in Flanders, as I have been told by divers ; and is had in great jealousie among the rest of the Englishmen in. Paris" (S. P. O. Dom. Eliz. (Addenda), vol. 34, No. 41). " In France there are not so many for him (Parsons) as in the other countries, since the Jesuits were banished. Since when he hath been fain to sever himself of others ; as at Calais he hath divers secret friends and whose names we cannot learn, for there they handle the matter so closely that they have one with a barque, a stipendiary, who in the night passeth out all the Jesuits, priests and traitors, and sets them on shore far from any town ; and in the morning they repair to some Catholic houses in Kent, or else disguised like seamen or others travel up towards London in that manner, but if they be out of suspicion it must needs be that they have many friends at Calais that they can carry the matter so closely " fjbid. ) PARSONS "IN CURll" 241 ings of the English nation there, and which is against their plots, and also of the King of France his intentions towards war and such like. They busy their hands in all matters because they may not. . . . " What laymen Parsons hath in England to gain him intelligence I know not, but am sure that nothing there publicly or private but that he hath present notice and intelligence. By whom but by the Jesuits that are his friends, who are very abundant and can convey on their letters at their pleasure ; first either to Burdoux (Bruxelles ?) to Baldwin, or else to Dr. Worthington at Douai, or Coniers the Jesuit, and so by the post to Rome which will arrive in twelve or fourteen days." From this paper it will be seen that Parsons cannot plead the excuse that he did not know the state of aiTairs in England. It is only on the ground of a fixed confidence in himself that we can understand how, with such a master-mind, he could blind himself to the real meaning of events and not see how baseless were his dreams. Puritanism tends to blind one to everyday life ; and^it did so with Parsons. We can apply to him what Mr. Justin McCarthy, in his History of the Four Georges, says about Carteret : " It was the intoxication of too confident and too self- conscious genius. Carteret was drunk with high spirits and with the conviction that he could manage foreign affairs as nobody else could manage them. No doubt, he knew far more about continental affairs than any of his English con- temporaries ; but he made the false mistake which other brilliant Foreign Secretaries have made in the foreign policy — he took too little account of the English people and of prosaic public opinion at home. In happy intoxication of this kind he reeled and revelled along his political career, like a man delighting in a wild ride after an exciting midnight orgy. He did not note the coming of the cold grey dawn and of the day when his going-on would become the wonder of respectable and commonplace observers." ^ All roads lead to Rome, and along them hurry Parsons' messengers. It was generally on the Wednesday in each ^ Vol. ii. pp. 321, 322. 16 242 THE ENGLISH JESUITS week that they arrived at the English college, and brought despatches from England, France, Spain, Flanders, Naples, and other places. As soon as he receives them, Parsons retires to the privacy of his own chamber and steadily sets to work to master their contents and meditate his replies. He has several private secretaries; for it would be impossible for one man to cope with such a corre- spondence. Fathers Walpole and Stephen Smith, together with a layman, John Wilson, are of the number. They are in readiness, and at noon on Thursdays receive the great man's orders. He dictates letter after letter, sometimes adding a few words in his own strongly marked handwriting as each is brought to him. The secretaries are kept hard at work, for Parsons is untiring, and time presses. On goes the writing continuously until midnight of the Saturday, when the cor- respondence is finished, and "John Wilson his man carries them to the post to be conveyed according to their several directions. But if they can meet any letters of any English- man whatsoever, they will break them open, and it is no fault. But if any will presume to intercept any of the fathers' letters, it is mortal sin for them ; for they (the fathers) are worthiest more than any other religious whatsoever." ^ We have seen, according to a brother-Jesuit's letter, that Parsons rode in the Cardinal-nephew's carriage whenever he went to have audience. But he also had a coach and horses with two men at his sole command, which was placed at his disposal by Dr. Haddock. It is a matter of conjecture how the latter was able to supply the Jesuit with this luxury or necessary; for Haddock was known to be poor. According to the intelligencer. Haddock was only the apparent friend. The cost came out of funds of the English college, which " formerly was well able to maintain seventy scholars, {but) now is not able to maintain fifty, although the living or revenue is rather increased than decreased ; only excepted that Parsons, in despite and revenge of the scholars, sold away a great vineyard, the goodest in all Rome both for wines, walks, fruits, houses, water, and other necessaries whatsoever, and a thousand crowns under the value as would have been given » S. P. O. Dom. Eliz. (Addenda), vol. 34, No. 40. PARSONS "IN CURiA" 243 for the same." ^ To estimate the truth in the above assertion, it will be sufficient to know that Parsons was now the Prefect of the Mission, and in the written rules he is expressly authorised by the General of the Jesuits (who as a matter of fact had no power over the funds of the Clergy) to dispose of the funds of the seminaries according to his own judgment. ' S. P. O. Dom. Eliz. (Addenda), vol. 34, No. 42. CHAPTER IX SUBJUGATING THE CLERGY We must now go back to England and see how the Archpriest was received. The letter of Cardinal Cajetan reached George Blackwell on 9th May 1598. It came like a bolt from the blue, and caused the utmost consternation among the Clergy. It seems that they only knew of its contents by degrees ; for on 27th May we find Mush writing to Mgr. Morro in Rome petitioning for the appointment of bishops, the removal of the Jesuits from the English college, the prohibition of all books (such as Parsons') treating of State affairs, and asking for liberty for the Clergy to establish regulations for their own government.^ When the Clergy saw the document appointing Blackwell, the elder members pointed out that such an un- heard of office was not instituted by the Pope, but on the responsibility of Cajetan, who was not their superior. They therefore refused to submit to the authority of the Archpriest ; and based their refusal upon the illegality of the act in which they saw clearly the hand of Parsons. But they did not refuse to yield obedience to Blackwell,^ pending an appeal to the Holy See which was now instituted.* Upon the first sign of opposition, the Jesuits in England, by Parsons' orders,* bestirred themselves to obtain letters of thanks for ' Archpriest Controversy, i. pp. 63, 64. ^ Colleton's y«j^ Defence, p. 270. ' Colleton says in \is,Just Defence : " It was propounded unto us by Mr. Black- well with apparent falsities and with orders directly tending to tyranijie, namely, that we should not discuss the Protector's authority, nor the institutions of our superiors, nor make any secret meetings for advising one the other, when as the con- dition of our state embarreth us to meet publicly, nor to write Utters to any beyond the seas without his privity " (see Preface). * ' ' This kind of epistoling is the direction of Father Parsons, as one told me and from the knowledge of his own eye, seeing the letter wherein he wrote the said direction " (John Maister to . . . (9th December 1598), Archpriest Controversy, p. 83). SUBJUGATING THE CLERGY 245 the " most sweet form of government " instituted.^ In spite of all their endeavours, out of four hundred priests, only fifty- seven — not including Blackwell and his assistants — could be found to sign the letters. So says Parsons ; ^ and Garnett adds, that twenty-four others commissioned any others of the subscribing priests to insert their names.* The dissenters, who embraced not only the majority, but also the most reverend of the Clergy, are styled by Garnett " a few turbulent youths." * The Appellant Controversy, which now began to rage, and for years tore in pieces the suffering and distracted English Catholics, caused Parsons much anxiety. Two of the priests, Robert Charnock and William Bishop, were selected to con- duct the appeal on behalf of their brethren. It appears that letters were sent to England containing warnings that no appeal would be allowed ; and that any messengers who came to Rome would be imprisoned. When the notice of appeal was given to Blackwell, Bishop tells us, " he pleaded mightily that no appellation could be made duly from the authority he is invested in, which he affirmed was absolute, not depending any whit at all upon the liking or gainsaying of priests here. Again, that he had received certain advertisement that whoso- ever should be employed or adventure to go and complain our griefs should be fined and imprisoned, order already given ' Parsons to Garnett (Naples, 12th and 13th July 1598) : "I have seen what you write and also what many other grave priests do write (for it pleased the Protector's grace [to] impart with me these letters) about the good acceptance of the subordina- tion appointed by His Holiness' order and Protector's letter among the Clergy there." He again speaks of His Holiness as having " declared that the Jesuits neither had nor ever desired authority or jurisdiction over priests in England " ; and says the Pope was highly pleased with the letter of gratitude, and "also for they showed their great and holy union with those of the Society" {Archpriest Controversy, i. pp. 22, 23). Parsons, it will be remarked, was not at Rome when he wrote these letters. He was at Naples with Array for sake of the baths. In this same letter, which was evidently written to be shown, he mentions that Baronius "often told me that our youths bragged so much of martyrdom but they were Refractarii (that was his word), and had no part of martyrs' spirits which was in humility and obedience ; His Holiness was grieved and vex^ as it is a very lamentable thing to see him and hear him speak of the matter ; and he told your said friend {Parsons) oftentimes that he never was so much vexed with any nation in the world, etc." {Ibid. p. 29). ^ Briefe Apologie, p. 105. ' Plowden, Remarks on Panzani, p. 336. * Ibid. p. 332. 246 THE ENGLISH JESUITS to that end. He affirmed the Society had many things to charge me with, but refused to utter any in particular which must enforce me to write presently to Mr. Whalley (Garnett), letting him understand so much and entreat notice what they are." i Robert Charnock writes to Bagshawe, Parsons' old Oxford opponent, and now one of the leaders of the Appeal (9th August 1598), "Perchance the prisons are not yet made ready for us which are threatened us if we go to appeal." And he goes on to say : " We suspect with the instruction which we have here, and what we shall have elsewhere, we shall go sufficiently armed to defend ourselves against such as shall oppose themselves ; we make account that all the devils in hell will do the uttermost of their power against us ; but we assure ourselves that there is a God, and as I hope some honest men, who hearing the reasonableness of our demands will listen somewhat unto us, and give us so much help as in their own consciences will stand with the honour of God and the good of our country, further than which we mean not to meddle, etc." ^ Murmurs of schism were raised by the Archpriest's friends. Garnett, who was an apt scholar of Parsons, describes ( 1 1 th November 1598) the view he and his friends took of the situa- tion. " And what have we done that all should not affect us ? Yea, by God's great goodness so it is (as we think) that if any affect us not, the fault is in them and not in us. So that if they would have themselves or others that do not affect us, though otherwise seeming never so virtuous, to be chosen heads, let them first affect us (so far as in virtue they ought) that they may be worthy of government . . . So, on the other side, must I need acknowledge that it is, and by God's grace will I always procure that it shall always continue : that these two things are so annexed one to the other, that whosoever is opposite against our Rd. Archpresbyter must of force be consequently opposite against us. And therein will v^egloriari in Domino if any be thought opposite to us who are opposite unto him." * 1 Arckpriest Controversy, i. pp. 67, 68. ' Ibid. p. 66. ' Garnett to W. Clarke, Archpriest Controversy, i. p. 81. SUBJUGATING THE CLERGY 247 Meanwhile Charnock and Bishop, with such means as they could get together in the short time at their disposal, made their way, slowly and painfully, to Rome. Trusting too much in the justice of their cause, they felt, with the innate feeling which exists in English Catholics, that they had only to open their griefs, and at once find relief. It must be, however, remembered that if Rome possesses to a marked degree the imperial instinct of government, and has justice for her attribute, she moves very slowly. The government of the Church is vested in human hands which are moved by hearts opened to all manner of human motives ; and therefore clever, unscrupulous men may, for a time, obtain an influence and a control which stand in the way of injured innocence. Providence, if we may be allowed to peer into Its designs, as manifested to us by the course of events, sometimes allows this, in order to ensure more completely the ultimate punishment of those who set up self-interest in place of Truth and Justice. Some such thoughts as these are necessary to bear in mind when we approach the sad and shameful story of the appeal to Rome. The two priests arrived in Rome, iith December 1598,^ and, says Bishop (in a letter to Parsons written to refute the false reports the latter had circulated after the affair was con- cluded) : . . . " not willing to acquaint that Court any further with the imperfections of our country than must needs, and desiring rather in fair and friendly sort to compose matters than to contend with our brethren, we went the same day into the college to open unto you our good meaning and purpose, requesting you to join with us about the contriving of some such loving, reasonable, and indifferent order as all honest parties might be contented, and so drawn unto one sweet and sure bond of peace and concord. The same our intention we declared shortly after unto both the Cardinals, Protectors.^ ' In the Pilgrim Book of the English college (Foley, vi. p. 569) the two priests are entered as arriving loth November and staying five days. This is clearly a mistake. ^ "... So soon as they heard of his arrival in Rome and could come to him, which was upon the 21st of December, they brake the matter unto him, requesting him that he would listen to the just petitions of many well deserving of the Catholic Church, which, if he should do, they would not trouble His Holiness with the matter ; and he willed them to bring in writing what they had to say, promising them that he would consider thereon " (The Copies oj Certain Discourses, p. 8l). 248 THE ENGLISH JESUITS Cajetan, who was ere we came thither greatly incensed against us (God pardon his soul), and Burghesio, whom we found more calm and desirous that all our disputes might be well and quietly ended ; you, Father, also seemed at the first not unwilling to hearken unto that our proposition for peace ; hoping then, belike, to win us to whatsoever order you should devise and frame; but finding in few days' conference that we were resolute not to condescend to anything that was not equal and good generously for one as well as for another, you sent us word (much before our diys of hospitality were accomplished)^ to depart the college presently and to provide for ourselves where we could ; which we did, keeping from you the knowledge of our lodging ; because then we began to misdoubt some foul play, calling to mind how rudely you had handled the scholars and priests also before ; and seeing that in the city we were then feared even of your friends as a shrewd, bustling bear. It fell out evil for us, that His Holi- ness as then was not there, who returned out of his journey from Ferrara but three days before Christmas, so that for the press of great personages who went to welcome him home, and the festival days following, we could have no fit audience till after Christmas." ^ Having been unsuccessful in winning over the envoys. Parsons saw them with alarm, free to go about the city, and speak their minds upon the object of their appeal. The one thing necessary was to keep them from access to the Pope, who, if he had a hint of the real state of affairs in England, would be then bound to institute an independent inquiry. Everything depended upon keeping things in statu quo. Elizabeth might die any day, and then would come the moment to put a Catholic successor on the throne. For this end Parsons felt it was not a time to hesitate about the means he employed. Learning, through the indiscretion of one of the friends of the envoys, where they lodged, he put into force that plan of imprisonment already threatened any ' The deputies, on arrival in Rome, went to the English college, which was bound, as representing the old English Hospice, to provide hospitality to Englishmen needing it. All had a right to three or eight days' entertainment. ^ The Copies of Certain Discourses, p. 169. SUBJUGATING THE CLERGY 249 who should come on appeal to Rome. Through his influence with Cajetan he obtained an order for their apprehension ; and, in Bishop's narrative, "came upon St. Thomas (29th December), our patron's day (to make your celebration of those feasts), to visit us as a good friend and to advertise us that you had heard that it was His Holiness' pleasure that we should be restrained, but for the love you bare us, you were come before in haste (for you came puffing and blowing upstairs) ; what ? to advise us belike to look to ourselves and to begone betime lest we should be taken ; nothing so ; but much more like to give us a Judas kiss, for you had the commissary with his ministers at your tail and came (for aught I can guess) to lead them to the place, and to appoint them out the persons whom they should takefand lead warily, not into prison, for there we were like to meet with ordinary officers, equal to all, but unto the college, that being shut up from all help we might be wholly at their devotions. I know. Father, that you came thither pretending to intreate for us that we were not sent unto prison : but that was but for a colour, for that you might have done as well absent as present, the com- missary being wholly yours, set on, lead and lodged by you." ^ It was a bold stroke. The envoys who were come to appeal against the doings of Parsons were arrested by him to prevent their access to the Pope; and, to make security surer, were imprisoned under the roof and in the custody of theii- enemy. Parsons as a gaoler does not appear in an amiable light. Bishop reminds him how they were treated : " In the college we were locked up apart in two little close chambers, much more like the worst than the best in the house, with poor scholar's fare, and in smoky-coloured gowns such as the servants wear; far otherwise, Father, than you brag of: for the most part kept without fire, being very cold, and for twenty days not suffered to go out not so much as to hear Mass upon New Year's Day or the Epiphany." Their luggage ^ was overhauled, and Parsons makes merry ' Ibid. p. 170. ' Charnock says: "All our writings were abstracted forcibly from us the first night of our incarceration " (Archpriest Controversy, i. p. 143). 250 THE ENGLISH JESUITS over the contents. He holds up to ridicule, as being unworthy of priests,^ the silken dresses and swords which they had brought as disguises on the journey. Strange, that in the exigencies of controversy he forgot the " suit of buff slashed with gold and the hat trimmed with feathers," in which he made his appearance in England in 1580. Bishop says the envoys were put to an examination first of all by " one Signor Acarisius, a trusty friend of yours, Father Parsons, an humble servant of Cardinal Cajetan, our potent adversary. The examinations were : ' What is your name ? how old? where remained you in England? how and which way came you over ? what money brought you over with you ? ' etc., and much more like impertinent stuff to fill up the papers, that when we came to th# matter itself they might be brief: taking barely what we came about, without the reasons and per- suasions of it : yea, objecting against it and perverting it all they could.^ And because Signor Acarisius seemed not some- how sharp enough. Father Parsons himself would be an ex- aminer also. When I heard that Cardinal Cajetan should be our judge, I excepted against him as being our principal party ; but I could not be heard. I called also for a proctor to assist us with his counsel. It was denied. No remedy, for there was nobody to be spoken to withal, but Fr. Parsons and whom he appointed. We had not so much liberty as one of us to confer with another. All our instructions were taken from us also, and neither pen nor any book allowed us wherewith we might help ourselves in that our common cause." The result of such treatment was a foregone conclusion. Bishop saw this, and would not plead. A little before Shrove- tide — that is to say on 17th February 1599 — the two cardinals, Cajetan and Borghese, came to the college and heard the examinations. Parsons assisted thereat, having Fr. Tichborne as his secretary. Charnock " used some words so much to the liking of the two cardinals, that had it not 1 A Brief e Apologie, p. 193. ' Charnock states that he oftentimes during his examination protested against the answers which were set down as being his replies to the interrogations, and refused to speak any more if his answers were thus cooked " (Archpriest Controversy, i. p. 145). SUBJUGATING THE CLERGY 251 been for company's sake he had been set at liberty the same day (as both Bishop and he were told by the Jesuits after- wards), for as they pretended the cardinals did not take well Fr. Bishop his answer, that he had nothing to say when he was licensed after his examination was read, and therefore commanded him to close prison, and Mr. Charnock also for company ; and they thought that they did not Mr. Charnock any injury by making him a close prisoner again because Mr. Bishop his silence displeased them once and his earnestness at another time." ^ On this occasion, instead of going into the reasons which occasioned the appeal to Rome, the ground was adroitly shifted by Parsons, and the envoys put on their trial. They were accused of ambition, and of a design to procure mitres for themselves. The Archpriest was represented by the secular priests Array and Haddock, who acted as proctors, and received their instructions from Parsons. They put in a memorandum of accusations against the envoys. Bishop " was very earnest to have the proctors put to their oaths that no falsehood was contained in the libel." ^ Cajetan, however, ruled that it was for the envoys to prove the accusation false. Bishop then demanded that a copy of the accusation or libel should be delivered to them, in order to meet fairly each point. " But when the proctors saw the resolution of the two priests, they humbly desired, with knee on the ground, that no such copy should be delivered, but that all things should be shut up in peace." ^ This was a common procedure used by Parsons and his friends. They did not scruple to make vague, general accusations, and then, when pressed on the point, shuffled and protested the interests of peace and charity as an excuse against investigation. The records of the Wisbeach scandals are full of such proceedings. The result of the investigation was that the cardinals could not help seeing somewhat of the truths of the case. They called the envoys nearer to them, and "declared they had found no cause against them, only this : that they thought in their conscience that these two priests had inadvisedly taken this journey, because thereby they had scandalised many in ' The Copies of Certain Discourses, p. 95. ^ Ibid. p. 97. Ibid. 252 THE ENGLISH JESUITS England ; to which the priests made answer that if they had given any scandal, they were sorry and ready to give satis- faction."^ Without going into the cause of the appeal, the envoys were remanded to prison for two months more, to await the decision of the cardinals. Bishop writing to his friends (20th February i S99) says in excuse for the Pope : " Whereupon His Holiness, who was so much troubled by the former tumults, that he may not abide to hear of any such others, condescended unto their petitions, that also informed him that if we were let alone he should never want some such as should always hereafter trouble and molest the court and city with English strife and contentions. , . . {Concerning) our last point of the college. It is by common re- port so quieted and all things ranged unto so good an order that Father Parsons thereby hath not a little increased his credit with His Holiness and in the whole court, so that there was no dealing in that matter." ^ Bishop had learnt to be wary ; but a great deal can be read between the lines in this letter, which was written under Parsons' eyes. Charnock, too, had to write and, teste Fr. Owen, had to make certain additions to his letter at Parsons' orders.* This was given on 2 1 st April. Bishop and Charnock were dismissed from confinement, and ordered to leave Rome within ten days. They were forbidden to return to England, Scotland, or Ireland. They were mean- while put into the custody of Haddock and Array, who were charged to keep them out of mischief while they remained in Rome. The interval had been well used by Parsons. As the appeal was against the Archpriest's appointment, he procured from the Pope on 6th April 1599 a Breve, which confirmed and pronounced valid the appointment of Blackwell as Arch- priest. Having secured this, he was willing to let the envoys depart. It will be interesting to compare this account of the treatment of Bishop and Charnock (taken from their own narratives, which was forced upon them by the false reports spread abroad), with Parsons' own account given in the book he wrote ' Ibid. p. 98. ^ Archpriest Contrmersy, i. pp. 123, 124. ' Ibid. p. 79. SUBJUGATING THE CLERGY 253 anonymously under the title " A Manifestation of the great folly and bad spirit of certayne in England calling themselves secular priests who set forth dayly most infamous and con- tumacious libels against worthy men of their own religion, and divers of them, their lawful superiors, of which libels sundry are here examined and refuted. By priests living in obedience (1602)." 1 He says, quoting certain charges: " For how were they excluded from doing their message who were heard for three months' span together both by word and writing ? How can they be said to have been cast into prison, and cruelly handled that were retired only unto two good chambers of the college, and as tenderly cared for and treated as the best in the house? With what probability can they say that justice was violated, and all the laws both of God and man broken, by this their restraint, seeing it was an ordinary thing daily, and upon less occasions than this, to far better and greater men than they ? With what shame can they avouch that neither His Holiness nor any competent judge under him heard their cause, seeing two principal cardinals and His Holiness's fiscal both heard, examined, and determined the same after three months' hearing, conferring all with the Pope himself, as appeareth by the public records ? " ^ The whole point of the matter, namely, that the envoys were not allowed to fulfil the purpose of their embassy, is evaded in this book, which Parsons pretends to be written " by priests living in obedience." ^ ' Fr. Rivers writing to Parsons (26th July 1602) says of this book that Bancroft says it ' ' tasteth too much of Fr. Parsons' style, namely, to quip and pay home, but all under colour of consideration of charity^' (Foley, i. p. 44). 2 op. cit. p. S3. 'In the Brief e Apologie, Parsons thus refers again to the matter: "But their ambassadors coming hither and showing no desire of peace and union at all, or to accept of any good condition to live in obedience under the Archpriest, but endeavour- ing rather by all means possible sinistrously to infame divers principal persons about the affairs of England, and thereby to set further discord so far forth as in them lay, His Holiness, for unavoidably greater sedition, commanded after more than a fortnight they had been at Rome, and neither by the earnest persuasion of the two cardinals, Cajetan and Burghesius and Fr. Parsons or others, could be persuaded to be quiet, and that divers letters out of England, Flanders, and other places came to His Holiness daily from the principal men of the English nation, requesting some restraint might be put to their seditious attempts ; for these causes, I say His Holiness took order that they should be retired to the English college in Rome " (p. 8). It was a common practice of Parsons to ascribe to the personal initiative of the 254 THE ENGLISH JESUITS The verdict of posterity is thus foretold by Dr. Ely in his Certayne Briefe Notes. He justly claims to be " an unpas- sionate secular priest, friend to both parties, but more friend to the truth." His words are of weight. " Cloak and disguise it so well as you can now, the posterity hereafter will wonder to hear or read that two Catholic priests, coming as appellants to Rome out of an heretical country, in which they maintained constantly with danger of their lives the honour and preserva- tion of that see, and one of them ^ had suffered some years' imprisonment with banishment afterwards for the articles of St. Peter his successor's supremacy over all other princes and prelates, that these priests (I say) should, before they were heard what they had to say, be cast into prison, yea, and imprisoned in the house and under the custody of their adversaries, never was there heard of such injustice since good St. Peter sat in the Chair." « When the news reached England, and the Pope's Breve confirming Blackwell arrived, the Clergy instantly submitted. Parsons (9th April) wrote what he terms " very courteous and pious letters " * to two of them. And Blackwell and Garnett also bear the same testimony. The latter says : " I hope all will be well, nay, all is well already. Mr. Colleton and Mr. Mush submitted themselves to the Archpriest the 1 9th of May, and promised to do what lay in them to bring in others." * The same testimony Parsons himself duly acknowledges in a letter, 1 7th July, to Mush. After this, the reader may be surprised to learn that Parsons asserts over and over again in the Apologie that the priests " never thought to submit themselves and obey." The news of the imprisonment of the envoys had reached England, and gave the promise of victory to the Archpriest. Pontiff what he had himself procured from the officiality. There is no evidence to show that the Pope in any point intei-vened or had taken personal cognisance of the merits of the case. Worthington among others of the party had written to Parsons about the envoys : " If these captains of new broils do find favour, they will stir up great storms in England, but if they be kept down with sharpness all will be quiet " (p. 10). ' I.e. Bishop. " Op. cit. p. 107. ' A Briefe Apologie, p. 8. * Letters of 26th May and 3rd June. A Briefe Apologie, p. 145. SUBJUGATING THE CLERGY 255 He now made his great mistake. Not content with the success, he tried to extort from the leaders of the appellants their signatures to a confession that they had been guilty of schism in thus appealing to the supreme authority. This extravagant demand broke at once the promise of peace. The Clergy most justly refused to incriminate themselves by a confession obviously false. The Archpriest persisted, and began to treat them as schismatics. His friends backed him up with all their power. One of the Jesuits in England, Father Lister,^ wrote a treatise, which was authorised by Garnett and Blackwell, accusing of schism those who questioned the legality of the Archpriest's office. It was a bitter and reckless pamphlet, characterised by a lamentable ignorance of both fact and law, and rendering impossible any compromise between the contending parties. In view of this treatise it is impossible to look upon some of the Jesuits as peacemakers, but rather as pourers of oil upon a smouldering fire. " Their best friends," says Dr. Ely, " hang down their heads for shame " when Lister's book was mentioned.^ Parsons sent word by Tichborne or Walford that the refusers of the appointed authority were schismatics, and that they should be refused absolution until they recanted.* Father Jones, another Jesuit, " raised another paradox more strange and absurd than that of Father Lister's," to the effect that those who maintained that the appellants were not schismatics, they themselves ipso facto incurred the censures of the Church.* Backed up by his friends, ' Of this Lister, who was now made use of to vilify the appellants, Garaett in 1597 wrote to the General : "I am distressed in soul, doubtfiil and undecided what to do with him, whose malady arises not so much from weakness of brain as from levity and unsettlement of mind" (Tiemey, iii. p. cxxxiv., note). Two years after, the Jesuit superior could follow Lister's lead and bring himself to write (Sth March 1599) in these terms to one of the most venerable of all the Clergy, John' Colleton : "If those you have begot in Christ shall receive sacraments from your hands, they receive poison instead of medicine. They commit grievous sin if they ask you to celebrate or help you at Mass" {Secret Policy of the English Jesuits, p. 152). ^ Op. cit. p. 275. ' Tierney, iii. p. cxxxvi. * Colleton, ibid. p. '41. Fr. Richard Holtby also entered into the fray. He wrote, 30th June i6oi, an open letter to a lady in which he asks : " Who are the Jesuits, or what have they done to give men any just occasion or ground to think of them so per- versely ? " He upholds the charge of schism " upon probable and sufficient grounds in my opinion, and in the opinion of others more learned than I " {Archpriest Controversy, i. pp. 184-9). This letter was the immediate cause of Colleton's _/««i Defence, 256 THE ENGLISH JESUITS Blackwell sent a threatening and overbearing letter to Colleton (March 1 5 99) : " You have uttered too much bitterness against your betters, whom in regard of their calling you ought to reverence, of their learning to esteem, of their virtue to imitate, of their benefits to love, of their care for the profit of our country to favour, of their writings and admonitions not to revile, but to thank in a most humble and dutiful manner." ^ A letter written by Garnett to Parsons, 21st July 1599, reveals, in the latter part, the animus and pretensions of superiority over the Clergy eiifected in reality, though openly disavowed. It will also be seen that the project of forbidding the envoys to return had already been discussed, and had met with the full approval of the writer : — " My very loving Sir,^ — My last unto you was of the 7th July, and before that I got another the last of June, and before that I wrote 1 3th June, in answer of two of yours, that is of the 8th and 22nd May, which were the last I received. " Our malcontents, although they have submitted themselves, yet do divers of them prattle against us very bitterly. Some are offended that we take upon us to relieve and place pr(iest)s at their first coming ; other, that we do not relieve all ; other, that it is against our profession of poverty to carry the common purse ; all which offices we could willingly resign, but they that find fault are neither of credit nor willingness to relieve and place new comers ; and if they carried the purse, they might carry it up and down empty for anything I know, or else hide it in some hole. " They mightily inveigh against a book of Fr. Parsons, read in the seminaries in Spain, which they call Mr. Parsons' ' Commonwealth,' wherein they say it is enacted that pr(iest)s shall be put to their pensions when England shall be con- verted, a thing, as they say, intolerable. Also they bring forth two letters of Fr. Parsons, wherein they say he contradicteth himself concerning the course he took. ' The Archpriest Controversy, i. p. 85. ' Garnett to Maseo Tusinga at Venice, 21st July 1599. The dates in the first paragraph show the frequency of the correspondence, a point which has been contested by certain critics. SUBJUGATING THE CLERGY 257 " I am not set resolute what course to take. Whether with patience to bear or to cause their punishment; yet in the meanwhile I have sent word to some of ours to admonish them in friendly sort, and we shall see after how to proceed. " It is very expedient not to let the two ambassadors return, and to let them know that this is the cause, because their co-partners show stomach against us still ; and it may be feared lest so will they. At the least, these fellows here will temper their feelings the more if they see their friends to be punished for their excesses."^ " These fellows," however, were driven to desperation. They determined upon a new appeal to Rome. But this time they were going to profit by the experience of the two envoys. These latter had been poor, and had no friends among the rich and influential in Rome. Besides, in their simple-mindedness, they had put their heads into the lion's jaw. This second appeal was to be conducted in a very different manner. To make sure of their theological stand- point, the appellants sent their case to the University of Paris, and received a decree, 3rd May 1600, which pronounced them free from all schismatical taint. This decision roused the Archpriest, Blackwell, to extreme measures. In a formal document of 29th May, he enjoined all ecclesiastical persons under pain of suspension, and all laymen under interdict, " neither directly nor indirectly, (to) maintain or defend in word or in writing the censure of the University of Paris, whether it be truly given or forged, whether upon true information or other- wise " ; 2 and in a letter he communicated to Garnett the fact that " Colleton by my censure is defeated of all his triumphs." ^ But because Colleton and Mush continued to defend themselves from the charge of schism, the " Customer," as the Jesuits called Blackwell, by a formal decree of 1 7th October 1 600, suspended them from all ecclesiastical office. This misguided attempt on the part of the Jesuits and Archpriest forced on the new appeal to Rome, and formal notice signed by thirty-three priests was delivered to Blackwell on 17th November 1600. ^ S. P. O. Don. Eliz, vol, 271, No. 105. ^ Tierney, vol. iii. p. cxxxi. ' Ibid. p. cxxxii. 17 258 THE ENGLISH JESUITS We now come to a curious episode in the story : the in- tervention of the English Queen. Foley in his Records of the English Province follows the usual story, and says that Elizabeth was the first mover in these dissensions, and that they were stirred up on purpose to divide the Catholics. This certainly was not the case. The Queen had nothing to do with the broils at Wisbeach, which were only the breaking out of a long smouldering discontent. Neither had she had anything to do with the appeal of Bishop and Charnock to Rome ; and though, without doubt, well aware of what was going on, she did not interfere until actually approached by one of the two contending parties. That she was ready to take any advantage of the disputes, if any fell in her way, is of course probable. But with the full light that is nowadays poured upon the Past, it is difficult to see what advantage she could expect. The Catholics were already divided, and her interference was not necessary to secure that end. Moreover, the very fact of her interference gave a valuable weapon to the Jesuits, who were not slow to urge against their opponents in Rome that they were consorting not only with heretics, but even with an excommunicated Queen. There is no need to give a sinister turn to everything the great English Queen did. The simple truth is that she knew she could safely support the Clergy, who at least had no sympathy with Parsons' political design, however much they might have opposed her spiritual supremacy. Bancroft, then Bishop of London, was commissioned to study the whole question ; and with his licence the Clergy were able to publish their books in England. Through his means, most likely, Bluet,^ one of the old priests, and then a prisoner at Framlingham, got leave of absence for ten days, to visit some Catholics in London, and consult about the appeal. His arrival in town was reported, and Bancroft sent for him. " I informed him that being the alms distributor to the imprisoned, I had come for ten days with the keeper's ' In his declaration to Cardinals Borghese and Aragpni we have a fiill account of the events of this second appeal in the second volume of the Archpriest Controversy (Petyt MSS.). This supplements what is already known from other contemporary records. SUBJUGATING THE CLERGY 259 leave for necessary matters. He went and told the Queen, and ordered me to be kept in London in free custody from the beginning of Lent to the end of July. The Archpriest would not admit me to his presence, forbade me to celebrate Mass, and all Catholics to aid me, so I received all this time not a farthing, though I knew during the past three years ;£ 1 2,000 have been given by noble Catholics in aid of the imprisoned. This was done that I and my brethren might renounce our appeal, lest these affairs should come to His Holiness' ears." At the end of June (1601) Bluet was introduced to some members of the Privy Council, and by their means obtained access to the Queen. A strange sight in truth. A priest, whose very existence in England was contrary to the law, kneels before Elizabeth, and implores her aid in forwarding an appeal to the Apostolic See against Parsons, the Jesuits in England, and their functionary the Archpriest. The result was that four of the prisoners were discharged and allowed to go about England collecting alms for the expenses of the appeal ; and as soon as they had made their preparations, they received passports and, for form's sake, were in the September banished the country. They were Bluet, Bagshawe, Champney, and Bamby. The appellants had meanwhile sent their complaints to Rome, and on 17th August 160 1 the Pope sent to the Archpriest a Breve in which, while he reconfirms his appoint- ment, condemns Lister's book, and exhorts Blackwell to be less irritating in his behaviour. The Breve reached London just as the four envoys were on the point of starting to Rome ; but the Archpriest kept it secret, and did not publish it for some five months. What was the reason of this extraordinary proceeding ? In this Breve the Pope had ordered that no more books should be printed on the late controversy. This order was, of course, thoroughly well known to Parsons. But Black- well was instructed to keep the Breve back until Parsons should have time to print his Brief e Apologie for the Hierarchy insti- tuted by the Pope, which he was then writing under the false authorship on the title-page of " the priests united in due subordination to the Archpriest," So we are distinctly told 260 THE ENGLISH JESUITS by Colleton in his Just Defence} and by Dr. Ely in his Bri Notes? The Apologie, a violent and scurrilous attack on tl Clergy, and calculated to destroy the credit of the envoys particular, appeared at the New Year with Blackwell's pe mission ; and the Breve prohibiting any such publicatioi was published on the 26th of January. This open piece 1 chicanery led Colleton to reply with his Just Defence, ar Parsons, whose conscience could not stand such a violation 1 the Pope's published order, denounced the writer and tl book to the Pope.^ The envoys passed over into France, where they obtaine letters of recommendation from the French King to h ambassador in Rome. Leaving Bagshawe behind to watc over their interests at home and abroad, they were joined b Cecil, who travelled at his own expense. They arrived i Rome on i6th February 1602, and at once put themselvf under the protection of Philippe de Bethune, the Frenc ambassador. He and Cardinal d'Ossat proved staunch allie and secured them the favour and protection of influentii personages. In the diary kept by Mush,* we have a fu account of all the difficulties the envoys had to combat, an a curious light is thrown upon Parsons' shifts and expedients, The Jesuit had prepared himself for the combat, but wj reported to be " so troubled at their coming that he will spea to none of his friends."^ All manner of injurious report both of their cause and persons, were spread about the cit; and everything was done to hinder their success. Of cours this time they kept clear of Parsons, and promptly refuse his offers of hospitality. Meeting him at the palace whi! waiting for an audience, the Jesuit " marvelled greatly wh (they) were so strange as not to come to the college, nor t converse familiarly with him and others on his side."® Tl: French ambassador, who had ordered them to keep clear ( Parsons, promised to obtain them an audience of the Pop who was willing to receive them. As soon as this was knowi ' Preface, i and 2. ' Preface, p. 4. ' Stonyhurst MSS., Ang. A, iii. 21. See Tiemey, vol. iii. p. civ. * The Archpriest Controversy, ii. pp. 1-28. ' S. P. O. Dom. Eliz. (Addenda), vol. 283, No. 53. ' The Archpriest Controversy, ii. p. 5. SUBJUGATING THE CLERGY 261 Parsons got the Spanish ambassador to oppose this in the name of his master. For some little time the question was tossed about shuttlecock-wise, but at last it was decided in their favour. On sth March, Clement Vlll. received them graciously, and listened to all they had to say.^ He then remitted the matter for due inquiry. In the State Paper Office we find the following account of an audience granted to the envoys : — " All the four priests being before the Pope when they had their second audience, and Parsons being before to certify what he could against them ; and to make their cause more odious signified how they came over by the Council's warrant, which no Catholic might do, and that they used them for instruments to serve their devices ; whereupon the Pope took it very humorously against them, and said in these words : 'Multa mala audivi de vobis' ; whereupon they were all shamed, and Mr. Mush began to weep. He was not able to speak, but old Bluet took courage and said : ' Si rei fueramus alicujus culpae hue non veneramus ; sed speramus quod Veritas nostrae causae faciei nostrum querelam esse allaccionem' Whereupon the Pope was well appeased, and that day had sentence that they were not schismatics and some other things. " Had it not been for the Spanish ambassador. Parsons had been expulsed the college, and all his villainies made apparent unto the world. But the Pope and the King of Spain are too far in amity and league, that the Pope will not do any- thing which the King should in anywise dislike more than to offend him. But upon the last and final one of all matters then in question, the priests' chiefest demand was to remove the Archpriest, which the Pope would not do, in respect he had appointed him in that place, and therefore not to stand with His Holiness' credit to remove him that was authorised by virtue of his Breve. The priests with that not contented, frowned and thought themselves greatly wronged, for it was their chiefest article which they required, and the residue might the rather have been borne withal. Then the Pope said : ' What will you have me do ? Shall I lose the King of ' They had gone on the day appointed, but, owing to business, audience had been postponed. 262 THE ENGLISH JESUITS Spain, who is of the one side, the King of France and the Clergy of England, who is of the other side? What will you have me do ? I think this is fittest and meetest to be done ; and the effect of the Breve you do well know as my (first letter) doth signify.' " i In a letter written by Mush to Edward Bennet (3 ist March 1 602), he says : " We are safe under the protection of the King of France; otherwise we had been fast at the first. Parsons is badly disposed, and strongly backed by his Society and the Spanish ; yet I hope we put him to his trumps. He hath defamed us with the Pope, cardinals, and all the town ; but his credit weareth out apace, and he becometh to be thought a very Machiavelian, and not worthy of credit in any- thing he raileth against us. Yet none list to displace him. We have no dealings with him, nor can he entreat us to come to the college, which grieveth him much. Thomas Hesketh, Haddock, Baines, Thomas Fitzherbert, and one Sweet are his mercenarii to deal against us and spread calumnies. He and they charge us with heretical propositions contained in certain English books, set out since we came, they say by Mr. Watson.^ . . . They hear that Father Parsons writeth many lies abroad ; but trust nothing unless you hear it from us. . . . Indeed, Parsons' credit decayeth, and ours increaseth ; the most he doth is by lying and deceit, and he beginneth to be spied on all hands. The great controversy between the Jesuits and Dominicans is hotly in hand now here.* . . . The cardinals will 'scarcely believe us when we tell them the last Breve not to have been published in the beginning of January last." * It was Parsons' hand that drew up the memorials presented against the appellants in the name of the Archpriest by his agents. One (April 1602) has for its main purpose to vilify his opponents, whom he charges with ambition,* sedition, and in • S. p. O. Dom. Eliz. (Addenda), vol. 34, No. 40. ' Watson's extravagances were set down by Parsons to the credit of all tlie appellants. ' The controversy de Auxiliis. ■" Tierney, vol. iii. pp. clvii-clix. ' The charge of ambition is based on the proposed Association, which these men approved of, and of which Parsons, who knew the rules, says they wished to make themselves heads. This is manifestly untrue, for according to the rules the Associa- SUBJUGATING THE CLERGY 263 some, dissolute life. This latter, he says, is the cause why they reject the authority of the Archpriest. Again, he charges them with being in league, openly at last, with the English Government. And later on another memorial appeared from his busy pen, entitled " An account of the morals of some of the principal appellants." ^ There was a pitiful attempt to thwart the justice of the cause by vilifying the characters of his opponents. Tierney gives the following r^sum^ of this painful document, which he made from the original in Parsons' own handwriting : — " After a pathetic declaration of the unwilling- ness with which he enters on so painful a topic, the writer proceeds to state the reasons that have induced him to sacrifice his feelings to the public good ; calls God to witness that he has no enmity to gratify, no intention to injure the unfortunate subjects of his address; and then at once passes to the immediate object in view, the lives and characters of his principal opponents. The parties here noticed are Cecil, Bagshawe, Bluet, Watson, Clark, Colleton, Charnock, Calverly, Potter, Mush, and Champney. Among these, however, the first place in infamy is assigned to the present deputies of the appellants. Cecil is a swindler, a forger, a spy, the friend of heretics and persecutors, and the betrayer of his own brethren. Bagshawe is a server of sedition, an expelled and degraded student of the Roman college, a man of suspected faith and unchaste living, the author of the opposition to Blackwell, and the corresponding agent at the present moment between the appellants and the English Government. Bluet's qualifications are of a different order. A drunkard and a brawler, he has at one time hurled a priest downstairs, and at another fallen intoxicated into the Thames ; in one instance tion was to be governed by a superior and assistants, who were to be elected every year by the members. Sedition was also charged against them, some of the appellants having been years ago among the " turbulent " at the English college. ' A writer in the Month, No. 423, p. 247, says of this memorial ; " It was a communication made in confidence to the proper authorities, and did not tend to keep the quarrel open. Presumably Parsons was only forwarding, at the request of others, the best information he could obtain from distant England. He wrote in good faith, it is true, but not in good taste or with his usual good judgment." It would seem that the writer considers it lawful of Parsons to calumniate others " in confidence to the proper authorities," and that it is only a matter of "good taste." 264 THE ENGLISH JESUITS he has been prevented from murdering a fellow-prisoner onl; by the interference of his companions, and in another ha attempted, but in vain, to administer the sacraments whil reeling and staggering from the effects from a drunken debaucl Champney and Mush, though treated with less violence tha: their companions, do not entirely escape. Both, says th writer, have been candidates for admission into the Societ) and both have been rejected on account of their impracticabl tempers. Hence the enmity of each to the fathers, and henc Mush, in particular, yielding to the suggestions of an impetuou and resentful disposition, has been led to join with the heretic against his brethren, and to assist in writing their books, whic have at once defamed the Society, and scandalised ever orthodox society. Such is a brief outline of the principj parts of this extraordinary document."^ For nearly eight months they had to bear this persecution but justice was slowly making its way. As early as 4th Apr 1602 it was formally decided that the preposterous charge c schism, made against men, on the very ground of thai appealing to the Holy See, could not be maintained. Th French ambassador proved a true friend, and was sue cessfully counteracting the intrigues of the Spanish an; bassador who was always at Parsons' elbow. In Jun{ Elizabeth wrote to Philippe de Bethune to thank him for hi efforts. Parsons could not help seeing that the persistent way i which the envoys kept away from all intercourse with him wa doing considerable harm to his credit. Some of the cardinal had tried to induce them to make friends with the Jesuit ; oni who did not at that time even know that Parsons was aliv when he learnt the news, wanted to give a grand dinner ( reconciliation.^ But they would not move from their positioi Taking advantage of the coming festival of Pentecost, Parsor addressed the following letter to " my old friend, Mr. Mush " :- " For this is the vigil of the Holy Ghost which came i to-morrow upon the first professors of our Christian religio; giving them that true divine spirit whereby only men may 1: saved ; and for that no spirit is so opposite and repugnant 1 ' Tiemey, vol. iii. p. clvii., note. ' Mush's Diary, p. 17. SUBJUGATING THE CLERGY 265 this, by the testimony of Christ and His apostles themselves, as the spirit of disunion, contention, envy and emulation, anger and enmity, as St. Paul, you know, in particular setteth down to the Galatians (at the very cogitation whereof I confess unto you truly and sincerely in the sight of Almighty God that my heart trembleth whensoever I consider the danger) ; and forasmuch as you and your company having been now full three months, I think, in this city, have fled, as it were, our company and conversation that are of the same religion and communion with you, and have been your old friends and brethren in times past, and have invited you divers ways since your coming to the city to more friendly and charitable meeting and dealing together than you hitherto have showed yourself willing to embrace; for all these, and some other considerations which here in particular you will perceive, I have thought good at this time (though in most men's opinions / be the man of all other most injured by you and your brethren in their books and speeches) to break this long silence, by occasion of this high and holy feast putting us in mind what spirit we must put on and follow if we mean to arrive at eternal salvation, and what spirit we must fly to avoid perdition, according to the plain denunciation of the Apostle : Si quis spiritum Christi non habet, hie non est ejus. And whether this be the spirit of Christ to contend in this sort, to emulate, to envy, to fly company of another, and to raise more scandals in our new planted English Catholic Church, that lieth so grievously under the hand of the persecutor, yea, and to join with the persecutor himself to help out our passionate pretences against our own brethren, — this, I say, is easy to consider all them that are out of passion for the present, and will be at the Day of Judgment to all the world, but especially to the doers themselves. Alas ! Mr. Mush, is it possible that priests, illuminated once with God's grace and brought up for many years in the exercise of meditation of spirit and spiritual courses, should come now by passion into such darkness as not to see or discern these so damnable things, which every common and ordinary and Catholic man, understanding the cause, doth condemn and cry shame to our whole nation for the same? " Your best friends, both here and elsewhere, as far as I 266 THE ENGLISH JESUITS could ever understand, do not otherwise go about to defend ( excuse you or your fact, but by saying that all men have the passion when they are exasperated, and consequently that yc ought not to have been so much irked in England as you wert which grant it were so, and that you were provoked indee somewhat more by sharp words and farts, upon occasioi given by you, than other men would have wished (in whic point, notwithstanding, other men defend themselves,^ and yc cannot in conscience deny to have known and seen my desh to the contrary, by my often letters both to you and others fc sweetness and moderation) — but grant, I say, that the excus of your friends were true, and that you had some occasion 1 enter into passion and breach as you did, it doth not delive you from the guilt of such scandals and damages as, by yoi perseverance in that passion, have ensued since, and daily d increase both at home and abroad. Neither doth it take awa your obligation to lay down that passion, especially now, aft( so long time, and to come to some moderate and reasonab] atonement with your brethren, by staying matters at hom and by discussing your controversies friendly and charitabl here, as Christ commandeth all men so to do, but especiall such as offer at His holy altar daily ; and you cannot bi remember the dreadful threat of His Apostle against thei that receive there His Body unworthily ; which you know t be in the highest degree in him that is in hatred, enmit] contention, or emulation with his brethren. " Wherefore I do most heartily beseech you, Mr. Musi and the rest of your fellow-priests there with you, even for th love of our Saviour Jesus Christ, giver of all good spirits, an for reverence of the Holy Ghost, whose happy and blesse coming is celebrated to-morrow, that you consider well wit yourselves what spirit leadeth you and yours in this contentioi ' Writing privately to Garnett a few months later, and touching on this poin Parsons could candidly say : "So many sharp letters have been showed here, as mac our best friends say there was too much fervour, which encountering with no less hei on the other, and brought out this flame, and all alighted upon 446 (Parsons). Wei now, I trust the matter is well past ; and he prayeth you to let him repose awhile for at least a year or two, for so he hath need " (Stonyhurst MSS., Ang. A, iii. 24 It is worth while comparing this avowal with the domineering tone of the lette which tries to conceal or deny the errors of his party. SUBJUGATING THE CLERGY 267 whither it tendeth, what lamentable effects it hath wrought already and doth work daily in England, by the breach there made among Catholic people, what scandals have fallen out and do fall out continually beyond your expectation or wills I am sure ; this being the nature and condition of divisions and contentions once begun, to break out further and to fouler effects than the authors at the beginning did imagine ; whereof, notwithstanding, they remain culpable both before God and man, if they seek not to stay them in time ; and you must remember that it will be but a small excuse to posterity for so great mischiefs to say that you were put in anger or rage by others ; and much less defence and excuse can it be with God at His tribunal, whose just dread ought to possess us all. Neither must you think or say, as men are wont to do that love not peace, that this is written for any other end ; but only to put you in mind of this present holy feast and of all our duties therein, to look to the spirit whereby we are guided and to take the course which Christian Catholic priests ought to do. For, as for other matters, touching the controversy in hand about your Superior in England, you may easily guess, by that you have seen already, how it is likely to go in the end, and how little cause we have, that stand with the Archpriest, to seek other atonement than by judgment and sentence of His Holiness and judges appointed ; neither do we desire or can accept other; but yet, for that Christian charitable behaviour, in the mean space, doth nothing prejudicate this final and judicial determination in my opinion, I was induced to write you this, for the present. God's Holy Spirit inspire you to take and use it to His glory and your own good : to whose holy benediction I commend you and yours and myself to all your prayers. "From the English College, this Whitsuneve, 2Sth May i6o2."i Putting this letter, written at a moment when the Puritan element in Parsons' character was largely to the front, besides certain well-ascertained facts which were occurring at the same time, we are obliged to view the edifying terms as not entirely free from ulterior motives. And this in spite of Parsons' ' Tierney, vol. iii. pp. clxii-clxv. 268 THE ENGLISH JESUITS nervous disclaimer. So certain was he of the impossibilitj his position being wrong, that he evidently thought that practices against the appellants and those they represen had escaped observation ; and so convinced was he of his c cleverness and ability, that he was led to treat his oppone as mere children, or men who could not see what was cleai all the world. If we allow, under the spiritual influence the feast, his sentiments, though perverted, were genu what are we to think of the man who within a few days co draw up the accusations against the characters of his oppone and fifteen days later was declaring that the very men addresses in his letter "had instigated the late execution: England, and in terms that can scarcely be misunderstc entreating the Pope's permission to deal with them in si manner as to make them feel the enormity of their crime, : be thankful for any future indulgence " ? ^ What also is to be said of the man who could write thus Mr. Mush and, at the same time, in that extraordinarily bi1 book, TAe Manifestation of the Folly, sneer at him as hav been " a poor rude serving man," received and educated by Jesuits out of charity, and known afterwards as " Doc Dodipol Mush"? Truly, as the learned Canon Tien remarks, that Parsons " should have been able to pen sue! letter as the present carries with it something so painful c at the same time so humbling to our nature, that the m gladly and almost instinctively turns from its contemplatior We may perhaps find the key to this letter (which a of course rejected) in this. Parsons, while he knew he 1 succeeded in keeping the Archpriest in office, was also aw that there was still being discussed the question of reprimai ing him and forbidding him to communicate with the Supei of the Jesuits. There is but little doubt that Parsons fores that the appellants were likely to be successful on these poii It was therefore important to conciliate their minds and possible, to prevent them from proceeding. But in a letter written by his order the following day two Jesuits, Jackson and Hunt, on their departure for ' Tiemey, quoting from Stonyhurst MSS., Ang. A iii. 17. " Vol. iii. p. clxiii., note. SUBJUGATING THE CLERGY 269 English Mission, he warns them to be careful in their dealings with the Clergy. He says : " When you shall be arrived in England it behoveth our fathers very much, as also the Arch- priest, that they be very circumspect and careful of offence or aversion to any, but by charity and patient labour to get and keep the good affection of all. . . . And this is not only his opinion but the will of His Holiness and of Father General who . . . observes also and much mislikes the manner of proceeding used by the Archpriest and his friends, and wishes he had shown more mildness and rather a sense of feeling of compassion than of so much choler and indignation ; for although they were well persuaded of his good mind, and attribute all to his great zeal,^ yet they hold it had been much better to have dissembled many things and referred them hither to be censured here .... and to come to our fathers ; some writings and sayings also of theirs in this affair have been misliked by His Holiness and Father General ; and especially the ' Treatise of Schism ' in regard of the vehement exaggerations uttered in more sharp terms than they think was beseeming for a religious person to set down . . . His hope is therefore that hereafter they will be more wary, and seek to remedy errors past by the most convenient means they can . , . yet they cannot but think (the circumstances of both time and place considered) both the Archpriest and our fathers might and should have pro- ceeded otherwise, and therefore cannot be wholly excused, etc." ^ It is not our purpose to follow Parsons at length in all the details of his proceedings in the matter. We have brought forward enough for our purpose to show the way in which he carried on the struggle. Granting the standpoint he took throughout, his course was natural and consistent with himself; but judging by the ordinary laws of truth and honesty, putting aside those of wisdom and Christian charity, we are unable to allow his standpoint, and therefore must declare him to be blameworthy. A letter from the spy Tracy, at Venice, to Cecil (3rd May 1602) gives the impression obtaining at that time. "In 'As a matter of fact, the Pope attributed the Archpriest's behaviour partly to his ignor- ance and partly to the mischievous advice of others. See Breve of 5th October 1602, * Tierney, vol. ii. pp. clxviii^lxxi. 270 THE ENGLISH JESUITS the contest between the secular priests and Jesuits, the priests, having overpassed the greatest difficulty, will prevail — Parsons, after the day of hearing was appointed, got a delay of fifteen days, and then five more ; and then sent to the Pope his twenty days' work, which was six sheets filled with such matter ^ as to incense the Pope and make Cardinal Borghese, one of the commissioners and his chiefest friend, say, he had a dia- bolic spirit. When these things are ended other things hard to answer will be brought against him."^ The cause of Parsons' absence from Rome at this juncture seems to have been two visits to Civita Vecchia, to meet the Duke of Feria, and the vice-Queen of Naples, a former penitent of his, and who was now returning to Spain after the death of her husband.* At last about October the business was finished, although from a letter of Paget to Cecil (iSth September 1602) the de- cision of the Commissioners was known to Parsons, who had already written the news to Owen and others.* A last attempt on Parsons' part to get the Pope to insist upon a public reconciliation failed. Had he succeeded, it would have seriously damaged the credit of the envoys at home. They had gained something; although on other points they had been foiled. A Breve dated Sth October 1602, con- demned the conduct of Blackwell, and forbade him, for the sake of peace, to consult the Superior of the Jesuits, or even the General, on the concerns of his office ; the appellants were declared free from all taint of schism ; and the Archpriest was advised to fill the first three vacancies in the number of his assistants with persons chosen from the appellants. Parsons had seen that, in spite of all his endeavours, the prohibitory claim was to be inserted in the Breve. He tried to have it stated in the document that the Jesuits had petitioned to be relieved of the duty of advising the Arch- priest.^ But failing in this, he could only look to the near future, when the prohibition might either be removed or ' This was probably the memorial against the morals of the envoys. ' S. P. O. Dom. Eliz. vol. 284, No. 2. > Ibid. No. 25. * Ibid. vol. 285, No. 6. ° The deputies went on 9th August to Borghese, who told them that " Father Parsons was also displeased with the order more than we." Fitzherbert " laboured that Parsons might be agent to Rome for our Church and Fr. Whalley (Garnett) SUBJUGATING THE CLERGY 271 become a dead letter. He wrote to Garnett in the August : "As for the clause 450, 39, etc. etc., it must stand for the present ; otherwise there could be no peace ; after, when inconveniences are proved, they may be represented by means of 266, who with help of 25 5 may procure sufficient remedy." ^ And how was the affair meanwhile received in England ? The Government was kept informed by two sources of the progress of the appeal. Bagshawe in Paris was the main informant of Bancroft ; but Cecil, through Phelippes, had his reports from the Jesuit side. There are a whole series of these from Rome in the State Paper Office ; and while giving full accounts very favourable to the side of the Archpriest and Jesuits, the writer is anonymous. But time reveals all things. Parsons, who was charging against the envoys their dealings with the heretical government, was the real author of these reports to Cecil. A rough copy of the report of 25 th May 1602 2 in the handwriting of Robert Parsons is preserved, so says Foley,* in the Stonyhurst Archives. In the correspondence between Fr. Rivers, the Socius to Garnett, and Parsons, given by Foley,* we can catch a glimpse of the feeling among the party in England as the cause went on. " Their associates here make report of their very honourable entertainment by the French ambassador and others, and how Mark [Parsons] would not be seen for many days after, pretending that he was busied in some serious exercise ; with that and like untruths they seek to put heart into their confederates, as though all were like to pass current for them " (30th March 1602).^ Again : " I was right glad as well to understand of your good health ; as also to hear how the appellants proceeded in their business, of which subject you gave full relation ; for moderator In all controversies in England, that the Archpriest might ask his counsel in government" (The Archpriest Controversy, ii. pp. 19-22). ' The Archpriest Controversy, ii. p. 25. Mush adds : " We hear that Parsons and his bragged that the Pope had kept us so many months, and now in the end had granted us nothing to the purpose. That, poor men, we durst not return into England, for we should be little welcomed to the Q. and Council, seeing we could not procure them peace, as they expected we should. And we failing, she [should be fain to seek it at their hands that could bring it to pass, meaning his and his Jesuits " ijbid. p. 26). ' S. P. O. Dom. Eliz. vol. 284, No. 25. ' Records, i. p. xiii. */iid. vol. i. "P. S- 272 THE ENGLISH JESUITS which I heartily thank you, and it will be for good purpose for the satisfying of others who were before made believe by their associates that they had found very favourable audience, with many assurances of very good success in their designs ; all of which we now perceive how assonant they are to former courses, hitherunto prosecuted by ignominious slanderers and most untrue reports" (7th April 1602).^ " The appellants' associates here exult exceedingly, and give out confidently that the [? Pope] hath defined them to have incurred no schism nor committed any sin, and that he hath [? rejected] all the accusations tendered by Fr. Parsons and the procurators against them as frivolous and untrue, and will have no more speech thereof" (20th May 1602).^ " I had now from your factor Nicholas [Smith] a letter . . , wherein he insinuateth that Clement is indulgent. I pray God it be not ne quid nimis. The associates to the appellants exult ultra modum, and friends are much dejected to hear as yet of no better success ; but sic ut quimus quando ut volumus non licet. I have seen their proposition for bishops, archpriests, assistants, syndics, et quid non ? Spectatum. admissi risum teneatis amici ! We hope the event will be more consonant to their deserts" (2nd June 1602).^ And lastly : " The friends, on the contrary, are much dejected, and will be more so if the tide turn not the sooner " (30th June 1602).* Gamett, the Superior in England, did not like the result of the appeal. He had very extensive faculties, which were a source of considerable influence, as before Blackwell's appoint- ment he had been able to subdelegate them to such of the Clergy as he chose. But he was not allowed now to do this, as all faculties for the Clergy were to be given only by the Archpriest. In a letter to Parsons (June 1598) Garnett had already lamented this; "for," says he, "by this also have I lost the chiefest means I had to win the favour of good honest priests." Among the Clergy there was very little satisfaction. They felt themselves, so far, beaten. But English perseverance was to gain the day in the end. The contest was to last many years, and generation after generation was to carry it on. The "P. 26. "P. 36- 'Pp. 36.37. "P. 4. SUBJUGATING THE CLERGY 273 general opinion at this moment is caught by Bancroft, who writes to Cecil (28th December 1602) : " The success of affairs from Rome is not acceptable to the appellants, so that there is likely to be another appeal from a Pope who is chaplain to the King of Spain to a Pope the true vicar of Christ." ^ ' S. P. O. Dom. Eliz. vol. 286, No. 17. CHAPTER X THE GUNPOWDER PLOT We have now to consider some of the events concerned with the accession to the English Crown of James VI, of Scotland, and with the action of English Jesuits therein. I shall endeavour in this chapter, as far as possible, to disentangle the story from the extraordinary state of confusion which makes the documentary evidence of this period so perplexing. I have had to find my way through a labyrinth of downright falsehoods and deliberate contradictions on all sides. But I tliink I am able, at last, to treat the subject on lines which do not admit of any attempt at confusing a plain issue. As far back as 24th September 1 599, James had written to the Pope (Clement Vlil.) to defend himself against the attacks and calumnies of " ill-willers who, by commemorating our in- juries done to Catholics, procure envy to us and favour to them- selves " ; and, in order to have a defender in the Curid, he asked that the Scottish Bishop of Vazion should be made Cardinal. The letter is signed " Your Holiness's most dutiful son, J. R." ^ The practical reply of the Pope, who was then under Spanish influence, was to send two Breves to the English Catholics and to the Clergy. They are dated Sth July 1600. The laity are ordered to join no party, nor to give their sup- port to any claimant who is manifestly alien from the Catholic faith, or has fallen under suspicion of heresy. " For," says the Pope, " there can be no fellowship between light and dark- ness, nor peace between Catholics and heretics ; whilst these adhere to their impiety and errors, they can have no part with you. . . . We, in fitting time and place, will aid you with God in every way as far as we can." ^ 1 Rushworth, Historical Collections, i. p. 162, * Tiemey, iv. pp. cvi-cviii. 274 EMKNPJCVS GARlsrETVS HENRY GARNETT, SJ. 1555— 1606 EXECUTlLn IN ST. I'AUl/s CHURCHVAKD, MAY 3KD i'TODi. an old Flemish engraving THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 275 These Breves were transmitted by Parsons ^ to Henry Garnett, the Jesuit Superior in England, who kept them in his possession until such time as they could be published with effect. But he did not keep them private. They were shown to Catesby and Winter, both belonging to his party, and after- wards ringleaders in the Powder Plot. A week after the issue of these Breves, another dated 1 2th July was sent to the Nuncio in Flanders, to whom the Pope says: "Your fraternity can see the state in which English affairs are, and that it is very likely there will soon be a great change by the death of her who, by the secret judgment of God, has so long afflicted that noble kingdom." The Nuncio is then informed that the Pope is preparing means thereunto : the English Catholics have been ordered to unite and refuse their support to anyone who is not of their faith ; so, as soon as the Nuncio hears that "the miserable woman" is; dead, he has to write to the laity, ordering them, in the Pope's name, to stand steady and to work for a Catholic King who will " give to Us and to Our Successors true obedience." ^ The reader will see at once that these Breves are directed against James, and suggest a Spanish succession. And if he suspects that Parsons in this, the supreme hour of his policy, had a hand therein, he will not be wrong. For besides trans- mitting these Breves to Garnett, Parsons also sent instructions to the Nuncio (20th July 1600) to the effect that the gist of the Breves should be at once sent to the Clergy, and to the Superior of the Jesuits,^ who in turn would keep him informed of the progress of events. Taking advantage of this com- munication. Parsons was not going to lose so favourable an opportunity of securing the Nuncio's aid in subjugating the Clergy to his Society. He therefore impresses on him the ' Parsons had written in 1600 to the Pope that there was a good hope of toleration in England if His Holiness would instruct his Nuncios in France ^nd Flanders earnestly to solicit it, for the French King is said to have made overtures in this direction. The Queen is reported to be not disinclined to grant it, and some of her Council to favour it. Stonyhurst MS. quoted in The Month, The date of this document is not given, but I expect it will be found to have a connection with the appellants then in Rome. ^ Ibid. iii. p. Ixx. ' But the Breves themselves had already been sent privately to Garnett. 276 THE ENGLISH JESUITS necessity of seeing that union and concord, " the one thing necessary for this time and matter," should be preserved among priests " who are leaders of others." The authority of the Archpriest must be upheld for this end ; and any who venture upon disturbing this union must be punished.^ And at the same time Parsons was keeping his hand on the King of Spain, hoping still to induce him to strike when the moment came. The following Report of the Council of State to Philip III. (nth July 1600) is based on letters received from Rome containing information and advice from Parsons : — " The Queen of England will not live long, and the English Catholics beg your Majesty to declare yourself in the matter of the succession. . . . Your Majesty's decision may be con- veyed in confidence to the Archpriest and General of the Jesuits in England, so that it may be published at the proper time. . . . " It is agreed that the first thing is to exclude utterly from the succession the Kings of Scotland and France. It is needless to trouble your Majesty with the reasons for this, as they are obvious. . . . " The answer to be given to Father Parsons may also be left to the Duke \pf Sessa, Ambassador in Rome]. We here are of opinion that Parsons may be told, as was before resolved, that your Majesty would nominate a Catholic sovereign, and had decided on the person, and the Duke might add, as if on his own motion, that he suspected it would be the Infanta. ... As in a matter of this sort, right is the least important element in the claim, although it is necessary, in order to justify the employment of force, the Council is of opinion that financial points should at once be considered, and that a decision should be promptly adopted, whilst the forces of Flanders and the Fleet should be made ready, so that on the very day the Queen dies a movement be made from both sides simultaneously, in favour of the object aimed at." ^ On and September the Council informed Creswell that the King replied to the report that the affair of the succession was so grave as to need very patient consideration. The ' Hid. p. Ixxi. ' Cal. S. S. P. (Simancas), vol. iv. p. 665. THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 277 truth was, Spain was quite unable at that time to exert her- self in any cause. While leaving no means untried to secure the success of the great plan for which he had worked so long, Parsons, how- ever bold a front he may have shown to his friends, was not without a certain sense of approaching failure. He began a double game, and sought to ingratiate himself with James. Six months before he sent to the Nuncio the above instructions, he had already written (24th January 1 600) a long letter to the Earl of Angus, which was calculated to create a good impression upon James. It was full of assurances of friend- ship towards the King.^ The dangerous experiment of hunt- ing with the hounds and running with the hare failed. It would not be beyond probability were we to suppose that the coming King saw through Parsons' device, and that his rejection of the offer led to the pro-Spanish Breves which came out in the following July. As Rome then always responded to the Jesuit wishes, and used her authority at their call, is it to be supposed that the Jesuits in England would altogether refrain from attempting to prevent James from succeeding, and that the great oppor- tunity would be allowed to slip away without an effort being made? It would not be reasonable to suppose this. As a mere matter of fact, English Jesuits did not refrain, but took part in some of the plots which now began to thicken. Shortly after Christmas 1601 Catesby, Tresham, and Thomas Winter, all future conspirators in the Powder Plot, met Garnett (and Greenway most probably) at a house called "White Webbs" on the borders of Enfield Chase.^ This house, kept by Anne Vaux,^ was used by Garnett as a residence and a place of meeting for his subjects. The three laymen proposed to the Jesuit Superior that efforts should be ' See the letter in Plowden's Remarks on Panzani, p. 353, " S. P. O. Dom. Jac. I. vol. xix. No. 35. The old house known as White Webbs no longer exists. Some foundations still to be seen near the old public-house. The King and Tinker, are probably those of the outhouses belonging to the house. The present building, known as White Webbs, dates from last century, and is built on an adjacent site. The royal park and residence of Theobald's is close by 5 and within a few miles are the Government gunpowder works at W^lthatii, ? liid. 278 THE ENGLISH JESUITS made to induce the King of Spain to attempt another invasion of England.^ Garnett confesses at his trial that he " misliked it." ^ Nevertheless, after several other meetings, it was agreed that Winter and Fr. Greenway should go to Spain about the business, and that Garnett " to give more credit " should write to Fr. Creswell, who was influential at the Spanish Court. Garnett did write ; but he says the only object of his letter was to get the King to send money for the poor Catholics. This is at best but an ambiguous expression ; for we must bear in mind that it was Garnett's fixed policy only to admit what he knew the Government had already evidence of; and we must also remember Parsons' assertion that Garnett was mixed up in the political intrigues of the day. In the face of the fact that the envoys, one of them, too, a Jesuit and subject to Garnett, did come to an arrangement with Philip, it is difficult to see how the letter of credit could have been in reality so inoffensive as Garnett pleads. In effect, by helping these laymen, Garnett was only acting in the spirit of the two Breves he had at that moment in his possession. Philip agreed to pay 100,000 crowns to secure a party among the English ; and an army was promised to be landed either on the coasts of Kent or Essex, or at Milford Haven. Having thus satisfactorily completed their business. Winter returned to Garnett to tell him of all that was done. The Jesuit Superior, however, says that he " misliked " it, and that Rome would not approve. Be this as it may, there is no evidence that he did anything to prevent the plot; on the contrary, he confesses he unlawfully concealed it. It may be ^ Tresham, after much prevarication, confessed {13th November) "that Greenviray and Garnett, as well as Lord Monteagle and Catesby, were acquainted with the fact and the purpose of that mission " (S. P. O. Dom. Jac. i. vol. xvi. No. 63). But a few days before his death he dictated a declaration, to the effect that he had made this avowal only "to avoid ill-usage," and went on to say " upon his salvation " that he knew nothing of Garnett's privity to the mission of Winter to Spain ; and adds that he had not "seen Garnett for sixteen years before, nor never had letter nor message from him." This is an absolutely false statement. Garnett (and other witnesses) allows that Tresham had been with him continually until within a few days of the Plot. Can it be wondered that Coke should write (24th March 1606) to Salis- bury upon this declaration, and say : " This is the fruit of equivocation (the book whereof was found in Tresham 's desk)— to affirm manifest falsehoods upon his salva- tion, in ipso articulo mortis" (Ibid. vol. xix. No. "ji). ' State Trials, ii. p. 240, THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 279 said that, had Garnett really desired to keep clear of all such plots, he had authority enough over his subjects to enforce their abstinence from intrigue. But we must remember, if he expected his men to be as sticks in his hand, he on his side was also expected to show the like docility to Parsons and his other superiors ; and we have every evidence that, as a good Jesuit, he entered fully and willingly into all the projects of those above him. James, in Scotland, must have had some inkling of what was going on. In his correspondence with Cecil in 1602, he refers to the Jesuits as being " like venomed wasps and fire- brands of sedition," and " far more intolerable than the other sort that seem to profess loyalty." ^ To thwart their attempts, he promised toleration, and writes : " As for the Catholics, I will neither persecute any that will be quiet and give but an outward obedience to the law, neither will I spare to advance any of them that will by good service worthily deserve it." ^ James also opened further communication with the Pope, who now proposed to set up James against all other claimants, and supply him with the necessary funds if he would give up his eldest son to be educated in the Catholic faith. The plan failed. It was probably while these negotiations were pending that Parsons thought it necessary to trim his sails afresh. The old fear of a toleration at the expense of the Jesuits was again uppermost in his mind. It will be difficult to reconcile some of his statements with the truth as the reader now knows it. He writes (7th December 1 602) to Fr. Possevino to the effect " that the progress of the faith in England is such, and the converts so numerous and distinguished, as to have induced the enemy to foment discord within the Catholic body ; that, moreover, one weapon has been found especially efficacious, namely, to spread abroad the idea that the Fathers of the Society, the leading Catholics, and most especially Parsons himself, are devotees of Spain, and that all which is done, nominally for the conversion of England, is done in fact in the interests of the Spaniards. But this is a manifest calumny, absolutely without foundation. The King of Spain has no ' Correspondence of King James vi. with Sir Robert Cecil, p. 36. 2 Ibid. p. 75. 280 THE ENGLISH JESUITS claims to the English Crown, nor have the English Catholics the smallest notion of giving it him. They are indeed desirous to have a Catholic King, and one who would be acceptable to the other sovereigns of Christendom : if the King of Scots would become a Catholic he would be the very man. But although as Catholics the Fathers of the Society cannot but share in this desire, they take no steps on behalf of any claimant whatsoever, and limit themselves to prayers for the good issue of the matter in general. As for himself, he calls God to witness that he would give his life to see the King of Scots a Catholic and succeeding to the throne of England." In a letter written at the same period, to Spain, he speaks of the solidarity of Jesuits and Spaniards as a slander propagated by the appellants.^ The reader by this time has probably become accus- tomed to Parsons' turn of mind, and, while able to sift the true from the false, will recognise how, by suppressing truth when inconvenient, an entirely false impression is produced. When Elizabeth died after no long illness (24th March 1603) and James succeeded quietly,^ Garnett burnt the two Breves of 5 th July 1600; and wrote to Parsons (i6th April 1603) in the following terms: — "My very loving Sir, — Since my last to you of the 1 6th of March * there hath happened a great alteration by the death of the Queen. Great fears were: but all are turned into greatest security ; and a golden time we have of freedom abroad. Yet prisoners are kept very rudely by their keepers ; belike, because there is, as yet, no authority to release them. The King's coming is uncertain. Yesternight came letters from him ; but were not to be opened until this day. Great hope is of toleration ; and so general a consent of Catholics in ' From Stonyhurst Archives, quoted in The Month, June 1896, p. 179. ^ The news arrived in Rome on 19th April, and in a letter from Rome, dated 2ist April, the writer tells us how it was received : " Here Parsons and his are struck dead with the news, not of her death, but that the same day King James was pro- claimed King of England" {Archpriest Controversy, ii. p. 241). ' There is probably a letter of an earlier date, giving the news of the accession. It, however, is not at present obtainable. THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 281 his proclaiming ^ as it seemeth God will work much. All sorts of religions live in hope and suspense; yet Catholics have great cause to hope for great respect, in that the nobility, all almost labour for it and have good promise thereof from His Majesty : so that if no foreign competitor hinder, the Catholics think themselves well, and would be loath any Catholic princes or His Holiness should stir against the peaceful possession of the kingdom. " If a Nuncio were addressed from His Holiness to have some conference with the King, I think it would be to good effect, and I suppose he would admit him. The Council and himself will be very willing to [kave] peace with Spain, which no doubt will be to great good. I hope in time we shall have, not only Mr. Mush's ' port ' and ' pace,' but Flush also to make up a good rhyme.^ Only there are some threats against Jesuits as unwilling to [acknowledg-e] His Majesty's title, ready to promote the Spaniard, meddling in matters of state, and authors, especially of the Book of Succession. But the principal Catholics, upon so long experience, have another manner of conceit, and labour to work as good a conceit also in the King and the lords as of themselves. Jesuits also besides their procuring to talk with His Majesty in Scotland (which I know not yet whether it was effected or no ; and it seemed he had a year ago some hard conceit), they have also written a, common letter, to be showed, as written to a gentleman of account, wherein they yield reasons why they are to be trusted and esteemed as well as others. You shall see it when it is gone and know the effect . , . etc." * Thus did Parsons learn that the common sense of the English Catholics had brushed away the webs of the intrigues he had for so long a time pursued in favour of a Spanish ' One has to read between the lines in much of the correspondence. Knowing that their letters might fall into the hands of their enemies, the Jesuits were very careful what they said and how they said it. The purport of this letter is to tell Parsons that the Catholics had finally accepted James, and to warn him not to expect any more help from them, then, at the time of the Armada. ^ I have not been able to make out what this refers to. Mush, it will be re- membered, was one of the four appellants. ^ Tiemey, iv. p. Ixiv. 282 THE ENGLISH JESUITS succession. In spite of the above letter, there seems to have been still a hope lurking in Garnett's heart that a foreign competitor might interfere. Wright, sent off to Spain with the intelligence of James' accession, and with fresh letters from Garnett to Creswell, tried to urge for a renewal of terms. In the June there came from Brussels another messenger, Guy Fawkes, with letters from Fr. Baldwin. But Philip would do nothing. The letter " to a gentleman of account," showing why the Jesuits were to be trusted and esteemed as others, is still preserved at Stonyhurst. Tierney sums up this remarkable document as follows : * — " The reasons assigned in it, on behalf of the Jesuits are : (i) that Parsons in a letter to the Earl of Angus had sought 'to clear himself of the Book of Succession] that he had ' signified his inclination to His Majesty before any whatsoever, if he would maintain Catholic religion,' and that he had spoken so affectionately of the King's mother, that three gentlemen had been imprisoned by Elizabeth, merely for having read the paper in private ; (2) that during the last two years the Jesuits had frequently ' sought means to declare their duty to His Majesty if they could have compassed it'; (3) that since the death of Philip in 1598 all thoughts of a Spanish succession had been abandoned and the efforts of the Jesuits had been exerted ^principally for His Majesty ' ; (4) that with this view they had constantly promoted a peace with Spain ; (5) that the Pope was not likely to resort to any harsh measures with the King; and to inquire, therefore, as to the course which they would adopt in case he ' should excommunicate ' him, was ' like to be dishonourable to His Majesty, and to give offence to a most mild pastor without cause ' ; (6) that the reports of a Jesuit's having attempted the life of the King of France was improbable ; (7) that ' the Jesuits had never held it lawful to kill any prince, but such as by violence had un- justly usurped a kingdom ';2 (8) that some Jesuits had assisted His Majesty's mother, during her life, that others were now writing her history, that Parsons had rendered essential ' Vol. iv. p. Ixv. note. ^ The Book of Succession teaches, however, another doctrine. THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 283 services to the King himself, in his childhood, and that of the members of the Society generally, it might truly be said : ' take away zeal of Catholic religion, which is in Jesuits as in other virtuous priests,' and 'there is greatest security of all fidelity and loyalty in them ' ; (9) finally, that during the life of the King's ' glorious mother,' the Jesuits had prayed daily ' for the Queen of Scotland,' and that ' eveiywhere the like affection was always manifested towards His Majesty.' What an alteration would this be, and grief of his best well- wishers, if their annals should publish His Majesty abroad as alienated from those which hoped never to deserve it ! " How are we to reconcile most of these statements with well- known facts ? Parsons in answer to Garnett's letter announcing the quiet accession of James, writes one (now in the Record Office) ^ evidently meant to fall into the hands of the Government. He reports how things are taken in Rome, " to wit, with great contentment of all sorts of men upon hope that our new King will in time suffer himself to be rightly informed in religion, which only point, you know, is the thing that hath held men in suspense these many years who otherwise have loved His Majesty with all their affections ... in the mean space we do have the best offices we can for His Majesty's service, and shall so continue by God's grace, and already I have appointed both in this and all other seminaries that continually prayers be made with divers fastings and other devotions for the good and prosperous success of His Majesty's affairs. And whereas the last week I received a certain book of His Majesty's entitled BaaCKiKov hapov (which is indeed a princely gift and a princely work . . . ), the reading of this book hath so exceedingly comforted me, as I have imparted also the same comfort to other principal men of this place, and namely, yesterday to His Holiness, who I assure you could scarce hold [his] tears for comfort to hear certain passages in favour of virtue and hatred to vice which I related to him out of that ^ Tierney refers to this letter as being addressed to Gamett. The original in the S. P. O. is addressed To the right worshipful my very good friend Mr. N. T. Like the Jesuit paper mentioned above by Garnett, it is most likely to be taken " as written to a gentleman of account." 284 THE ENGLISH JESUITS book ... I do hear divers ways of sundry attempts in hand and to be taken in hand to hold me in disgrace with His Majesty . . . wherefore I shall desire you heartily to promise that some man not ungrateful to His Majesty do deal with him for me as soon as may be." He then recounts his services to the King; and tries "most sincerely" to put forward Allen, Sir Francis Englefield, " and some others," as the chief authors of the Book of Succession, leaving the impression that he was not the author. He concludes by asking that the King " will not believe calumnious reports against me without trying first the truth, and, this being once obtained, if it shall please His Majesty to give me leave any further to write to him. I shall do as you from time to time shall advise me of His High- ness's pleasure," etc.^ Even the touching picture of the Pope weeping for comfort did not win the heart of the royal author, skilfully though the flattery was applied. Before the coronation of the King there came out what is known as the " Bye " Plot, in which was concerned poor, foolish William Watson, one of the Clergy who had opposed the Jesuits in the matter of the Archpriest. He, by his scurrilous writings, did his cause more harm than good. Fr. Gerard ^ and Fr. Darcy knew of this plot in April 1603, '^"d were asked to join in it. But, as it would interfere with the one their party were then concerned in, Gerard informed Garnett and urged him to" get the Archpriest to forbid Catholics to take any part in it. In June, just when the plot was ripe, Gerard told a friend at Court to warn the King. But he was too late. Garnett and Blackwell had already given information to the Government. Poor William Watson was betrayed by the man who, two years after, would not betray his friend Catesby; and the virulent opponent of the Jesuits expiated his treason on the scaffold. To put this matter of Watson's fate in its true light, we must remember that almost at the very time Garnett informed against Watson, the Jesuits were participating in Wright's and Fawkes' attempt to induce Philip to invade England. 1 S. P. O. Dom. Jac. I. vol. i. No. 84. ^ Fr. Gerard in his MS. account of the Gunpowder Plot {(quoted by Tiemey, iy, p. li.) is the authority for this, THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 285 We now come to the consideration of the Gunpowder treason. But before directly entering upon the matter, so far as the Jesuits were concerned, it will be necessary to point out what really lead up to this treason. We have seen the failure of the attempt of June 1603 to interest Spain. James, since the discovery of the several plots which greeted his arrival, had tried to get the Pope not only to promise not to excommunicate him, but also to threaten with ecclesiastical censure all who should oppose him. But this Clement would not do. He fenced with the question. He was willing to make all manner of concessions in other ways. " The Pope's Nuncio," writes Parry from Paris to Cecil (20th August 1603), "sent me a message, the effect of which was that he had received authority and a mandate from Rome to call out of the King our master's dominions the factious and turbu- lent priests and Jesuits . . . offering for the first trial of his sincere meaning that if there remained any in his dominions, priest or Jesuit, or other busy Catholic, whom he had intelligence of for a practice in the State which could not be found out, upon advertisement of the names he would find means that by ecclesiastical censures they should be delivered unto his justice."^ Dr. Giffard was sent over to England by the Nuncio (August 1603) to assure the King personally of this. But the proposal met with considerable resistance from those who surrounded James. Cecil, answering Parry, says of the business, " for mine own part it is so tender as I could have wished I had little dealt in it." It would be about this time that Garnett had introduced his scheme of procuring, " if money may be gotten, the friendship of some special councillors,"^ and contemporary evidence* goes to show that Cecil had been approached upon the subject. He could hardly have been now willing to forward the Pope's policy and cause the banishment of the Jesuits, who proposed to be his paymaster. The Pope, however, from fear .of arousing the jealousy of 1 S. P. O. France. '' Contributions towards a Life of Father Henry Garnett, by Fr. Gerard, p. 6o, ^ Garnett writing to Parsons : " Mr. Ant. Copley . . . answered that the Jesuits had corrupted Sir Robert Cecil, and to cross them in their proceedings my friends and myself had devised this plot" {ibid.). Another plan of Gamett's in the autumn of 1604 was to suggest that Rome should find the money to buy toleration. 286 THE ENGLISH JESUITS Spain and France, would not give the guarantees James demanded. The King's irritation was nursed by Cecil,- and advantage was taken of the great increase in the number of recusants to point out, as Dr, S. R. Gardiner says, " that if the Roman Catholics of England increased in future years as rapidly as they had increased in the first year of the reign, it would not be long before a Pope would be found ready to launch against James the excommunication which had been launched against Elizabeth, and that his throne would be shaken, together with that natural independence which that throne supplied." ^ " Watson's King," as the Jesuits called him, had said when once on his throne : " Na, na, gud fayth, wee's not neede the papist now '' ; ^ but there was evidently still some lingering desire to keep faith with them. Pushed on by his Council, he attempted a compromise. The laity were to be left alone; but the priests must be banished. A proclamation to this effect was issued on 22nd February 1604, and this resulted immediately in the Gunpowder Plot. In the March two friends of Garnett'sj namely, Catesby and Winter, met and originated the treason. They confided in Fawkes, Percy, and John Wright ; and early in the following May the five conspirators met in a house behind St. Clement's Church in the Strand, and there took an oath of secrecy and fidelity. They then went into an adjoining room, where a priest was waiting to say Mass, and confirmed their oath by receiving communion together. It is generally held, on the confession of Fawkes, that the priest was Fr. Gerard. He, however, denies the fact ; and the late Fr. Morris argues that Fawkes mistook another priest for the Jesuit* Be this as it may, there is no direct evidence, whatever the probabilities ' What Gunpowder Plot was, p. 159. " S. P. O. Dom. Jac. I. vol. ii. No. 51. ' Life of Fr. Gerard, p. 437. But Thomas Winter and Fawkes both declare that it was Gerard. He, Morris, argues that Fawkes was a stranger, and as he had been abroad did not know Gerard, and says that there is no evidence that Winter had any intercourse with Gerard. If Father Morris had found that there was evidence that Winter, who was a visitor at White Webbs, had no intercourse with Gerard, he would have gained his point. As it' is, he only raises objections which tend to a conitising of the evidence. THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 287 may be, for supposing the Jesuit had any knowledge of what was taking place in the adjoining chamber. Indeed, Fawkes, if he is to be believed, distinctly says (9th November 1605) the contrary : " But he saith that Gerard was not acquainted with their purpose." ^ The conspirators, wishing to add to their oath a participation of the most solemn ordinance of their religion, would naturally have chosen a time and a place where they could assist at Mass in the house of a common friend. We do not intend to go into the details of the plot, excepting so far as they concern the Jesuits. Of late several books have appeared upon the subject. The Very Reverend John Gerard, the present Provincial of the, Jesuits, in his brilliant essay Wkat was the Gunpowder Plotf^ set himself the task of raising doubts about certain details in the accepted story. While avoiding altogether the question of Garnett's complicity, he sums up his work by stating boldly " that the true history of the Gunpowder Plot is now known to no man, and that the history commonly received is certainly untrue." * Two points he establishes, which hitherto have been generally accepted by most historians, namely, that the Government knew something of the plot before the famous letter to Lord Mont- eagle,* and that they used to the best advantage whatever information they afterwards gathered. Dr. Gardiner has had no trouble, in his masterly book, What Gunpowder Plot was, in demolishing Father Gerard's attempt to throw doubt on the plot itself. His two chapters, " The Government and the Catholics " and " The Government and the Priests," are a magnificent piece of historical work, which must be studied by all who approach the subject. Catholics were still hoping against hope that the treaty with Spain would procure them toleration. Garnett evidently feared an outbreak if they found themselves disappointed. Writing on 29th August 1 604, he says that these " Catholics ^ S. p. O. Dom. Jac. I. vol. xvi. No. 38, Declaration of Guy Fawkes. * This book seems to have been written with the purpose of clearing Fr. Garnett from any participation in the plot. ' P. 234- * The authorship ^of this letter is almost as mysterious as that of "Junius." From a remark of Garnett, given below, it would not seem improbable that the letter came from a Jesuit. 288 THE ENGLISH JESUITS will no more be quiet. What shall we do? Jesuits can- not hinder it. Let {the) Pope forbid all Catholics to stir." Was this the remark of a man who was only an acute observer of the tendency of the times, or does it show that he wrote from knowledge of what was likely to be going on below the surface ? The Pope had indeed forbidden the priests to take part in any disturbance. One of the conspirators, Sir Everard Digby, throws some light upon Gamett's possible attitude towards any suspicions or knowledge he may have had. Writing from the Tower, he tells his wife : " Before I knew anything of the plot, I did ask Mr. Farmer ^ what the meaning of the Pope's Breve was : he told me that they were not (meaning priests) to undertake or procure stirs ; but yet they would not hinder any, neither was it the Pope's mind they should, that should be undertaken for the Catholic good. I did never utter this much, nor would to you ; and this answer with Mr. Catesbj^s proceedings with him and me, gave me absolute belief that the matter in general was approved, though every particular was not known."* This being Gamett's mind, it is not at all improbable he may have had more than a bare suspicion of what was going on among his friends. At any rate, he knew them as the party in favour of force. Meanwhile he had cause for alarm : and the action the Jesuits took caused a coolness between them and the rest of the Catholics. Gamett's scheme for buying a toleration had failed. Now another was on foot which might be successful at the cost of the Society. Dom Augustine White {alias Bradshaw), a Benedictine monk, writes that he had been approached by " all the chief Catholics of England to deal with the ambassador ... of Spain, D. Juan de Tassis, about the buying of a toleration for three- score thousand pounds. When he had brought it to such a point that by them {Jesuits) it was thought certain, they went about to discredit me with the ambassador, and the ' Gamett's aliases were Fanner, Marchant, Whalley, Darcey, Meaze, Phillips, Humphrey, Roberts, Fulgeham, Allen. ^ Barlow's The Gunpowder Treason, Digby Papers, No. 9. THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 289 ambassador with the Catholics, which, when they could not do, they must needs persuade them that Fr. Parsons was the only fit man to manage the business." ^ There seems to have been murmurs among the Catholics of both parties that the Jesuits were consulting the interests of "ours" before the common good. Early in May 1605 Garnett knew that some action was contemplated. Writing to Parsons, 8th May 1605, he says: " All are desperate here, divers Catholics are offended with Jesuits; they say that Jesuits do impugn and hinder all forcible enterprises. I dare not inform myself of their affairs because of the prohibition of Father General for meddling in such affairs.^ And so I cannot give you [an] exact account : this I know by mere chance." ^ And yet within a month we find him with Catesby, and without " informing himself of their affairs," he got sufficient information. But Catesby, finding Garnett standing somewhat aloof from old friends, determined to get from him a pronouncement which would reassure some of his fellow-conspirators who began to doubt. The Jesuits were famous for solving cases of conscience ; so one was proposed to Garnett. Going on 9th June 1605 to Garnett's lodging in Thames Street, " at the house of one Bennett, a costermonger, hard by Queenhithe," * Catesby put the question : whether it was lawful to kill innocent persons together with the guilty? The case was supposed to be that of a siege. Garnett solved the case by saying it was lawful. Whereupon Catesby made solemn protestation, so says Garnett, "that he would never be known to have asked me any such question so long as he lived."* The seventeenth century Gerard says : " With which Mr. Catesby, seeming fully satis- fied, made off presently into other talk ; the father at that time little imagining whereat he aimed ; though afterwards, when the matter was known, he told some friends what had passed between Mr. Catesby and him about this matter, and ' Letter of White's in the Westminster Archives. ' We have seen, in the case of Parsons, how formal orders of the very highest authority were given with one hand and dispensed with the other. ' Gerard's Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot (ed. 1872), p. 75. * S. P. O. Dom. Jac. i. vol. xix. No. 40. " Hatfield MS. Garnett's Declaration, gth March 1606. See The English Historical Review, 1889, p. 511. 19 290 THE ENGLISH JESUITS that he little suspected that he would so have applied the general doctrine of divines to the practices of a private and so perilous a case without expressing all the particulars. Now, Mr. Catesby having found as much as he thought needful for his purpose, related the same unto the rest of the conspirators ; and all were animated in their proceedings without any further scruple, for a long time ; but applied all, by their own divinity, unto their own case."^ It is, however, impossible to avoid censuring Garnett gravely for such a reply to Catesby. Knowing by experience he was engaged in plots, the Jesuit had no right to dismiss that knowledge from the present case. Ordinary prudence demanded, under all the circum- stances, that he should have refused to give a merely theoretical answer to an imaginary case. If we give Garnett the benefit of the doubt, he affords on this occasion a proof of the correct- ness of the opinion of his General, who hesitated to send him on the mission as " a sheep among wolves." It appears, however, that Garnett, on reflecting, did have some misgivings. " After this I began to muse with myself what this should mean, and fearing lest he should intend the death of some great persons, and, by seeking to draw them together, enwrap not only innocents but friends and necessary persons for the Commonwealth,^ I thought I would take fit occasion to admonish him that upon my speech he should not run headlong to so great a mischief; which I did after at the house in Essex when he came with my Lord Monteagle and Francis Tresham. For walking in the gallery with him alone, my lord standing afar off, I told him that upon that question lately asked I had mused much with myself, and wished him to look what he did, if he intended anything, that he must first look to the lawfulness of the act itself, and then he must not have so little regard for innocents that he spared not friends and necessary persons for a Commonwealth, and told him what charge we had of all quietness and to procure the like in others ; of this point we had more conference ^ at our next ' Tierney (translating Gerard's Narrative), vol. iv. p. 46, note. ' These words suggest the origin of the letter to Lord Monteagle. ' " Soon after this Mr. Catesby came again, as he was seldom long from us ; for the great affection he bore the gentlewoman with whom I lived and unto me, etc." (Gatnett's Dedaratim, p. jia). THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 291 meeting, as I will say hereafter. ' O, saith he, let me alone for that, for do you not see how I seek to enter into new familiarity with this lord ' ? which made me imagine that he intended something amongst the nobility."^ Evidently Garnett did understand Catesby's case to mean that he " intended " something. This must have confirmed the knowledge he evidently had in May " by mere chance." To protect himself in case of any mishap, he thought it well to write to his superiors upon the general subject, and take the oppor- tunity of sounding his friends in Essex, "the more to confirm the Pope in that course which verily he desired."^ So he asked them if they thought the Catholics " were able to make their part good by arms against the King." Lord Monteagle replied : " If ever they were, they are able now ; and then added the reason. The King (saith he) is so odious to all sorts." But pressing for a categorical reply, they answered in the negative. " Why then, saith I, you see how some do wrong the Jesuits, saying that they hinder Catholics from helping themselves ; and how it importeth us all to be quiet, and so we must and will be." ^ It is said that Garnett wrote to his General to give him warning. I have not been able to find any evidence for this statement. He evidently thought that he and his subjects would be able to repress an outbreak which now could only end in disaster for themselves. But the Pope had heard some mischief was brewing; and he ordered Aquaviva to write the following letter to Garnett, which is dated 25 th June 1605: " We have heard, although clearly and very secretly, what I am persuaded your reverence knows, that the Catholics are planning something for liberty ; but as such an attempt, especially at this time, will bring not only many and grave inconveniences to religion, but will call into question the whole body of Catholics, our Holy Father orders me to write to your Reverence* in his name that you should use all your influence with these noblemen and gentlemen, especially with the Arch- priest, that nothing of the sort should be discussed or carried i/^«(f. p. 511. ^ Ibid. 'Ibid. * It may be noted that the General does not refer to any previous order of his own ; nor does Garnett in his reply. It would seem that Gamett's reference to such an order in the letter to Parsons of 8th May may have been only a device in case the letter fell into the Government's hands. A letter was also sent to Blackwell, 292 THE ENGLISH JESUITS out on account of the above-mentioned causes, especially because of the orders of His Holiness, who not only does not in any way approve of such plans being proposed by Catholics, but asserts that the result will be to hinder the greater good which in clemency and kindness His Holiness already has in mind and strives to effect. And as it is certain that His Holiness never is nor will be wanting in planning as I have said, and seeking such means as with peace and more quiet times may succeed, therefore, as your Reverence well understands the seriousness and necessity of the matter, you must strive your utmost that all such thoughts should be set aside. For to the above reasons, which are very great and weighty, this other, which is not to be despised and is also for the welfare of the Catholics : viz. if it should happen, which God avert, there will be no small injury to our Society, for it will be difficult for anyone to believe that it was done without the consent of ours."^ This letter was shown to Catesby in the July, and Gamett "admonished him of the Pope's pleasure. I doubted he had some device in his head ; whatsoever it was, being against the Pope's will, it would not prosper. He said that what he meant to do, if the Pope knew, he would not hinder, for the general good of our country. But I being earnest with him, and inculcating the Pope's prohibition, who, amongst other reasons of his prohibition, did add this: quia expresse hoc Papa non vult et prohibet, he told me he was not bound to take know- ledge by me of the Pope's will. I said indeed my own credit was but little, but our General, whose letter I had read unto him, was a man everywhere respected for his wisdom and virtue. So I desired him that before he attempted anything he would acquaint the Pope. He said he would not for all the world make his particular project known to him, for fear of discovery. I wished him, at the last, to inform him how things stood here by some lay-gentlemen. ... I myself propounded Sir Edward Baynham, who was already determined to go into Flanders ; but that I would not be the author of his going further than Flanders, for that the Pope would not take well that we should busy ourselves in sending messengers. Sir ' Dom, Jac. I. vol. xiv. No. 41. THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 293 Edward came to me. I desired him to go to the Nuncio in Flanders and inform him how things went, but not in my name." ^ Garnett was now evidently alarmed. His reply to his General is dated 24th July 1 605. He says: " We have received your letters, and accept them with all the reverence due to His Holiness, and your Paternity. For my part four times up to the present I have hindered disturbances. Nor is there any doubt that we can prevent all public taking up of arms, as it is certain that many Catholics would never attempt anything of this sort without our consent, except under the pressure of a great necessity. But two things make us very anxious. The first is lest any in some one province should fly to arms, and that the very necessity should compel others to like courses. For there are not a few who will not be kept back by a mere prohibition of His Holiness. There are some who dared to ask, when Pope Clement was alive, whether the Pope could prohibit their de- fending their lives. They further say that no priest shall know their secrets ; and of us by name even some friends complain that we put an obstacle in the way of their plans. Now to soften these in some way, and at least to gain time, that by delay some fitting remedy may be applied, we have advised them that by common consent they should send some one to the Holy Father, which they have done, and I have sent him into Flanders to the Nuncio that he may commend him to His Holiness, and I have sent by him letters explaining their opinions and the reasons on both sides. These letters are written at some length as they will be carried very safely. And this for the first danger. The other is somewhat worse, for the danger is lest secretly some treason or violence be shown to the King, and so all Catholics may be compelled to take arms. Wherefore in my judgment two things are necessary : first, that His Holiness should prescribe what in any case is to be done; and then, that he should forbid any force of arms to the Catholics, under censure and by Breve publicly promulgated, an occasion for which can be taken from the disturbance lately raised in Wales, which has at length come to nothing. It remains that as all things are daily * Garnett's Declaration, pp. 512, 513. 294 THE ENGLISH JESUITS becoming worse, we should beseech His Holiness so to give a necessary remedy for these great dangers, and we ask his blessing and that of your Paternity."^ At the very time Garnett was writing (24th July) he had received details of the plot, though in a manner, it is con- tended, he thought he could not use. In his examination (i2th March 1606) he confesses that "a little before St. James-tide at Fremland in Essex near Sir Ken. Sulyardes," ^ Fr. Greenway revealed to him the details of the plot. As St. James' Feast falls on the 25 th of July, Garnett knew of the plot before that date. It is said that Greenway obtained his knowledge of the plot by means of the confessional. Indeed, he asserts this " on his salvation " ; and Lingard accepts the statement.' But Garnett, as far as he is a reliable witness, does not bear out Greenwa/s assertion. The whole evidence goes to prove the contrary. On both occasions when Catesby spoke of the matter to Garnett, the latter says : " he offered to tell me of his plot ; the first time he said he had not leave, but would get leave ; the second he had gotten leave, but I refused to know, con- sidering the prohibition I had, etc." * There is here a clear case that Catesby was willing to inform Garnett ; but there is no question of any sacramental secret. Of course it is probable that the communication would have been made under the same pledge of secrecy that bound the other con- ' Gerard's Narrative, p. 77, note. ' Dom. Jac. I. vol. xix. No. 40. ' " Catesby, whatever he might pretend to his associates, still felt occasional misgivings of conscience, and on that account resolved to open the whole matter in confession to Greenway. That Jesuit, if we may believe his solemn asseveration, condemned the design in most pointed terms. But Catesby was not to be con- vinced : to every objection he solicited Greenway to procure the opinion of his Provincial under the secrecy of confession. With this view the Jesuit applied to Garnett, and received in return a severe reprimand. He had done wrong to entertain any mention of so dangerous a project ; he had done worse in imparting it to his superior. Nothing now remained but to divert the conspirator from his sanguinary purpose. Let him therefore employ every argument, every expedient in his power ; but at the same time let him be careful to keep the present conversation secret from every living man, even from Catesby himself" {History, vol. vii. pp. 60, 61). The judicious reader from the facts to be set forth in the text will be forced to the conclusion that Lingard trusted too confidently to Greenway's assertions " on his salvation," * Declaration, p. 513. THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 295 spirators ; and if this was sufificient in Garnett's case, it would also suffice in Greenway, who was an old friend in treason with Catesby. Moreover, in the words in which Garnett describes the way in which Greenway made his confidence, there is no hint given that the knowledge had come to the latter in the confessional.^ Within a few days after Catesby had made his offer, Green- way came to Garnett. " And walking with me," says Garnett, " in my chamber {he) seemed much perplexed ; he said he had a thing in his mind which he would fain tell me ; ^ but that he was bound to silence,^ and it was about some device of Mr. Catesby. I said that in truth I had an inkling of some matter intended by him, and that he was desirous to acquaint me, but that I refused to hear him in respect of the prohibition we had from Rome, and of the danger of the matter at home ; and so we walked long together, as it were, in a balance, whether he would tell me or I give him the hearing. At last I told him that if he heard the matter out of confession he might tell it me with a safe conscience, because Mr. Catesby had offered to tell me himself, and so it might be presumed that it should not be an injury to him or breach of promise. As for myself, I desired to know, so that he would never be known to Mr. Catesby or others that he had told me, and hereof afterwards I gave him also a special charge. He said that in regard of his promise of secrecy, he not being master of other ' But at the time when Greenway asserted "on his salvation" that he had heard about the plot in the confessional, there was a truth. For although Catesby had not told him in the confessional, Bates, a servant to Catesby, had given him the informa- tion under those circumstances. Hence Greenway's assertion must be taken with the mental reservation: "Bates, I mean, not Catesby." Greenway indeed denies that Bates ever spoke to him on the subject, but, as Bates was then dead and could not prove the fact, it does not seem improbable that Greenway followed the avowed policy of his superior, and was ready to deny an adverse truth until it could be proved against him. The position of Greenway when he made this statement was a pre- carious one. Had he not purged himself by oath, there were to be feared prisons at Rome or galleys elsewhere. ' Gerard in his narrative says : Greenway came for a double purpose— (t) to make his own confession ; (2) to consult his superior sub sigillo as to what should be done in regard of the plot lately disclosed in confession to himself. But as far as we have evi- dence at first hand, we are in a position to hold — ( i ) that Greenway knew of the plot outside of confession ; (2) that he did not come to make his confession ; (3) neither did he come to consult but to inform Garnett, who in his turn "desired to know." ' Evidently by the Conspirators' oath. 296 THE ENGLISH JESUITS men's secrets, he would not tell it me but by way of confession, for to have my direction ; ^ but because it were too tedious to relate so long a discourse in confession kneeling, if I would take it as in confession walking, and afterwards take his con- fession kneeling, either then or at any other time, he would tell me ; and so discovered unto me all the matter as it is publicly known abroad , . . Thus the matter being opened unto me, I was amazed, and said it was a most horrible thing, never heard of the like ... I could in no way like of it, and charged him to hinder it if he could, for he knew well enough what strict prohibition we had. He said that in truth he had disclaimed it ; and protested that he did not approve it, and that he would do what lay in him to dissuade it. How he performed it after I have not heard,* but by the report of Bates, his confession, which may chance to be of small account, both for the desire he might have of his life, and of the breach of the secret of confession, for the penitent in matter of weight is bound to secrecy as well as the confessor. ... So we parted, yet with the compact that if ever I should be called in ques- tion for being accessory unto such a horrible action, either by the Pope or by my superiors beyond the sea, or by the state here, I would have liberty to utter all that passed in this conference, which he gave me."^ What was the necessity for Greenway to tell Garnett anything about the matter ? It is difficult to see. It Wcis not, as a matter of fact, for the purpose of asking advice ; for " he knew well enough what strict prohibition we had." He also knew his duty in the matter. It seems in reality only to have been done for the purpose of communicating information to his superior, or for self-excusing. The secret was not told as a part of sacramental confession, which is concerned with the accusation of one's own sins, " but (says Garnett) by way of * These words are worth noting. Greenway was tellii^ other men's secrets to Gamelt, and put him under a sacramental seal concerning them. He told them, Garnett says, for the sake of direction. This revelation was before Greenway's sacramental confession, which does not seem to have been made on that day. It is necessary to bear in mind that the two revelations were distinct acts. ' And yet, as will be seen, Garnett confesses that as oflen as they met he spoke of the matter. » Hid. pp. 513-5. THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 297 confession, which may be done in conference of private points, or need of study, or want of time, though it be a good while after. Being asked how often they conferred of this? He saith, so often as they met he would ask, being careful of the matter, but new questions he did ask him none."'- It is difficult then to see how the question of a sacramental seal comes into the matter at all.^ Indeed, Garnett is not con- sistent with himself on this plea of sacramental secrecy. He varies his story according to circumstances. Before his trial he asserts that Greenway told him the secret in confession. After the trial, when he thought Greenway was in custody, he said " that he cannot certainly affirm that Greenway intended to relate the matter to him under the seal of confession ; and it might be that such was not his intention, though he always supposed it was." * When he was pressed in his examination on 2Sth April "whether he took Greenway's discovery to be in confession or no ? " he replied, " That it was not a con- fession, but by way of confession." He also declared (4th April) that " as often as they met " he spoke of the matter to Green- way ; * and excuses himself by saying " that all these latter con- ferences had relation to the first, and consequently to confession."* Greenway's communication was of the same nature as that of a client with his lawyer — a natural secret and no more. It was not in any way a confession of personal sins concerning which the seal exists. As regards the obligation of preserving this particular secret, it may be well to add here what a Jesuit writer, whose works seem to have been known to one at least of the conspirators,* has to say on the subject. Writing in 1593 ' Examination, 25th April 1606, Dom. Jac. I. vol. xx. No. 44. ' Gerard, who, when uncorroborated with other evidence, is generally untrust- worthy in his story of the Gunpowder Plot (he had not the means of knowing the facts), says : " One of them disclosed the matter in confession to one of our fathers, which was already ripe for execution, who refused to hear him any further unless he was allowed to inform his superior " (Autobiography, ed. 1886, p. 256). There is no evidence to support this statement, and Garnett's declaration shows it to be quite imaginary. ' Garnett's letter to the King (6th April), Abbot's Antilogia, p. 140. * He asked him ' ' who was to be chosen Protector when the King and Houses of Parliament were destroyed ? " Dom. Jac. I. vol. xx. No. 44. ^Antilogia, p. 140. ° Sir Everard Digby writes : " I saw the principal point of the case judged in a Latin book of M. D." Barlow, The Gunpowder Treason, p. 249. 298 THE ENGLISH JESUITS Father Martin Del Rio strangely enough takes the very case of a Gunpowder Plot : " For instance, a criminal confesses that he or some other person has placed gunpowder or other such-like under a certain house, and that unless it be removed the house will be burnt, the sovereign killed, and as many as go in or out of the city destroyed or brought into great danger. In such a case almost all doctors, with few exceptions, assert [that the confessor may reveal it] if he take due care that neither directly nor indirectly he draws into suspicion of the sin the one confessing."^ But he adds that the contrary opinion is the safer. Bellarmine also says : " If the person confessing be concealed, it is lawful for a priest to break the seal of confession in order to avert a great calamity." ^ But he excuses Garnett by saying it was not lawful for him to declare a treasonable secret to an heretical King, who had no reverence for the sacrament of confession, and who could have constrained him by torture to declare the person who had confessed the criminal design. Upon this Bishop Andrews * in his reply caustically remarks : " Therefore it follows from this argument that it is lawful and justifiable to blow up such a King with gunpowder " ; and (he might have added) that fear of punishment is a sufficient excuse for disobeying the moral law. Poor Garnett, in the position he now found himself, deserves, at least, our pity. He had wanted to find out the ins and outs of the business without being known. The result of this itching to know what was going on made him miserable. ''Now I," says he, "remained in the greatest perplexity that ever I was in in my life, and could not sleep at nights, so that when I saw him [Greenway] next, I telling him so much, he said he was sorry he had ever told me."* On this occasion the bewildered man said : " Good Lord, if this matter go forward, the Pope will send me to the galleys, for he will assuredly think I was privy to it." ' Del Rio, Disguisitionum Magicarum, iii. p. 157. The edition before me bears on the title-page the date 1600, but the date of the dedication of this volume is 1616. The author refers in this passage to the case of Garnett, "who seems to have held" the so-called safer opinion. ' Apologia pro Responsione (ed. 1610), p. 244. ^ Responsio ad Bell. Apol. (ed. 1610), p. 316. * Gamett's Declaration, p. 515. THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 299 One result of Greenway's disclosure was to make Garnett withdraw in measure from Catesby's company. It was too risky. " Neither," says he, " did I enter further with him then, as I wrote, but rather cast off all occasion (after I knew of his project) of any discoursings with him of it, thereby to save myself harmless both with the state here and with my superiors at Rome.^ But there was no open rupture; for "about Bartholomew-tide {2\th August) he spoke with Catesby at Moorfields, and not of that matter." ^ Knowing then that it was intended to blow up Parliament on 3rd October, he considered it evidently safer to withdraw for a while from London. On 29th August he left town for a pilgrimage to St. Winifrid's well, " for his health, to shake off the business about London," * and to do what good he could at friends' houses by the way, both going and coming, until a fit house could be provided for him,* where he might settle for the winter. But before he started on the pilgrimage he wrote (4th September 1605) to Parsons to this effect: "As far as I can now see, the minds of the Catholics are quieted, and they are determined to bear with patience the troubles of persecution for the time to come ; not indeed without hope that either the King himself or at least his son will grant some relief to their oppressions. In the meantime the number of Catholics is much increased; and I hope that my present journey, which, God willing, I mean to commence to-morrow, will not be without good effect upon the Catholic cause." * This letter is fatal to Garnett. Already he knew everything about the plot: he was about to make a journey in the company of several of the conspirators, and yet within a few weeks of the assembling of Parliament he wilfully deceived his superiors. Parsons, and the Pope himself, as to the disposition of the Catholics in England. Whatever he might have done at a former date to induce the Pope to interfere is discounted by the fact that on the eve of the explosion he wrote to Rome a letter which gives the idea that all such interference was unnecessary. This letter would make one believe that Garnett had now thrown himself heart * Garnett's Further Declaration, p. 517. ' S. P. O. Dom. Jac. I. vol. xix. No. 40. ' Declaration, p. 515. * His London houses were discovered. ■■ EudEemon-Joannes's Apologia, p. 256. 300 THE ENGLISH JESUITS and soul into the plot, and was afraid of any adverse sentiment from Rome. The pilgrimage consisted of about thirty persons, and took some two weeks. It started from Gothurst in Buckingham- shire, the seat of Sir Everard Digby.^ The last part of the journey the ladies of the party went barefooted. Arrived at Holywell, one whole night was spent in devotional exercises. On their^way back they called at Harrowden, where they found Catesby. A few days after. Sir Everard invited Garnett, Anne Vaux, and Catesby to his house at Gothurst, fifteen miles off; and it was on the journey thither that Catesby inveigled his host into the plot. The authorities in Rome were evidently not satisfied with Garnett's reply of 24th July ; for he received letters from Parsons at the end of September ordering him " to advertise him what plots the Catholics of England had then in hand." ^ Garnett did not know what to do. Parliament had been again prorogued until Sth November, and his awful secret was still burning in his brain. To go nearer London ? That might seem a proof of innocence. Or should he go further away? A letter written 4th October to Parsons reveals his distress of mind. " We are to go within a few days nearer London ; yet are we unprovided of a house, nor can find any convenient for any long time. But we must fain to borrow some private house for a time, and live more privately until this great storm may be blown over." This letter, however, was not sent till the 2 1st, on which date there is a postscript.* By that time Garnett had changed his mind ; and instead of going nearer London, on 29th October he travelled with Lady Digby, Anne Vaux and her sister, Mrs. Brooksby, to Coughton. These movements are natural to a man in the unhappy ■■ Rookwood, one of the conspirators, was of the party ; and the pilgrims rested, going and coming, at the houses of two others mixed up in the plots, i.e. J. Grant and R. Winter. " This will go to show that in Rome at that date Garnett was understood by Parsons to be in a position to give him all necessary information about any plots. ' Titrney, vol. iv. p. ciii. This letter is sometimes brought forward to prove that Garnett did not then (4th) know of the particulars of the plot, which are said to have been revealed to him about 21st October. But as we now know Garnett learnt all particulars before 25th July. Greenway, Lingard, Tierney have accepted this date ; and Fr. Morris, S. J. , seems to have fallen into the common error. THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 301 state Garnett was in. To brave it out or to hide ? Whatever he did would tell against him. He was being caught in nets of his own weaving. He was at Coughton for the feast of All Saints (2nd Novfember), and preached. He was charged later on that he then offered prayers publicly for some good success in the Catholic cause and quoted in his sermon the words : " Gentem repelle perfidam Fidelium de finibus ; Ut Christo laudes debitas P ersolvamus alacriter." His choice of quotation was singularly unhappy. It could have been impossible for a man like Garnett not to have seen the application to the secret that was weighing him down. But, on the other hand, it was natural ; for the quotation was taken from the hymn at Vespers for that day, and had been specially indulgenced by Gregory XIII. at the request of Allen, It would not be the first time, however, that a preacher has one application in his mind and his hearers another. When the plot failed, the chief conspirators fled. Catesby with others made their way to Coughton, and his exclamation when Greenway appeared — " Here at least is a gentleman that would live and die with them " — seems to prove that his reception by Garnett was not favourable, but the reverse. Still, Greenway was allowed to ride off with his fellow-conspirators. He made his way to Hinlip, and told them, so says Fr, Oldcorne, of the failure of the plot; and, angry at their refusal to join, hurried off to rouse up the Catholics in Lancashire.^ This failing, he eventually made his way in disguise to London, where one day, while standing at a street corner reading the proclamation for his arrest, he noticed one of the bystanders comparing his person with the description given. As Greenway moved away, the man came up and said, " You are known. I arrest you in the King's name ; you must come with me to the Council." Greenway assured him he was mistaken, but went off quietly with him until they came to an unfrequented street, where, being a powerful man, he suddenly ' S. P. O. Dom. Jac. i. vol. xix. No. i6. 302 THE ENGLISH JESUITS sprang upon his captor and, after a violent struggle, managed to escape. He left London at once, and, passing through Essex, succeeded in reaching the Continent. Gerard remained in hiding in London during the whole of Lent, and then also found safety abroad. But Garnett stayed at Coughton until 4th December, when he and Anne Vaux went to Hinlip Castle, the seat of Thomas Abington,^ ten miles out of Worcester, where Fr. Oldcorne had been living for twelve years. As soon as the Government discovered the existence of a plot, they concluded that the Jesuits were its originators. It was known by past history that Jesuits had been mixed up in plots, and that the men already captured were friends of Garnett's and other Jesuits. It was therefore not beyond the bounds of probability that they might be found implicated. So as soon as the Council learnt from the confessions of some of their prisoners the names of three Jesuits who were in some way mixed up in the plot, a proclamation was issued for their arrest. The Proclamation (15th January 1606) preserves for us the personal traits of the Jesuits, whom the Government declared had " all three peculiarly been practisers " in the plot. " John Gerard alias Brooke : of stature tall and according thereunto well set : his complexion swart or blackish : his cheeks sticking out and somewhat hollow underneath the cheeks : the hair of his head long, if it be not cut off: his beard cut close, saving little mustachoes, and a little tuft under his lower lip : about forty years old. " Henry Garnett alias Walley alias Darcy alias Farmer : of a middling stature, full-faced, fat of body, of complexion fair : his forehead high on each side with a little thin hair coming down upon the midst of the fore part of his head : the hair of his head and beard grizzled ; of age between fifty and three score : his beard on his cheeks cut close, on his chin but thin and somewhat short : his gait upright and comely for a fat man. " Oswald Tesmond alias Greenway : of mean stature, some- what gross : his hair black ; his beard bushy and brown, something long: a broad forehead, and about forty years of age." ' The name7appeais in various forms : Abbingdon, Hadington, and Adington, THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 303 From his hiding-place at Coughton Garnett wrote the following letter to the Privy Council (30th November 1605) : — " My very Honourable and Good Lords, — After twenty years almost complete in this employment (of a missionary), by the appointment of God and my superiors ; being newly charged, as I understand, with the late most horrible attempt, as if I had been accessory thereunto, and in particular had to such intent given the most holy sacra- ment to six of the confederates at the very undertaking so bloody an enterprise, I humbly crave your honours' patience, if for the honour of God and the Catholic cause and particu- larly of the Order of which I am a member, and have in this kingdom some special charge, I say somewhat with all possible brevity, for my just purgation, though as I hope, this my disgrace ariseth rather of calumnious reports than of any material accusation. If, therefore, it may please His Majesty and your honours to afford the credit of an honest man, hitherto by God's grace unstained, unto a Catholic religious priest, tied by vow of obedience to his General and to the Pope, even in this particular case ; one also who hopeth for everlasting salvation and dreadeth the most strict and severe judgment of Almighty God. By these titles, bonds, hopes and fears, I protest that howsoever in spiritual matters and acts of charity which I have to afford to all sorts, some of this unfortunate company may chance to have had my help and assistance, yet in this enterprise, as unfit for me to deal in as it was bloody in itself, they never made me privy, much less asked my consent to their purposes. To this testimony of God which is .the greatest that can possibly be found or imagined, I add a most excellent witness on earth, which is the Pope himself, who' very well knoweth, and I doubt not will testify if need be, that I procured an express prohibition of all unquietness (under occasion of Watson's plot and other fears) which were here divulged by the most reverend Archpriest, and I thereupon certified His Holiness and assured him of all quietness of Catholics in general, in respect that no public tumult could be intended but some of us might know it, and so by all possible means hinder it. But because in so afflicted 304 THE ENGLISH JESUITS a number it were to be feared that some private persons, forgetting all Christian patience and longanimity, as experi- ence of other countries besides our own hath taught us, might break out into fury, I wished a prohibition under censures of all violence towards His Majesty or his officers, reputing it as a great stay to all Catholics from such outrages, if such things (as might be hidden from us or other quiet persons, especially reverend priests, and therefore not possible to be hindered by any industry of our own) were avoided by terror of dying in the most horrible state of excommunication, to their utter perdition of body and soul, of whatever conspirators. And this, my motion, I doubt not but will take good effect hereafter by occasion of this late conspiracy. That it was not done before it is like the only cause hath been either want of time or hope of regard of all Catholics to the bare commandment of so eminent a person in all Christianity. " And I will here, for the next testimony of my clearness and innocence, in the third place, allege so many witnesses as there are Catholics that I have conversed withal. They will, I am assured, all testify how carefully I have inculcated this commandment of His Holiness upon every occasion of speech ; whereof I will infer that it is in no way probable, in never so prejudiced a judgment, that the author of this conspiracy durst acquaint me or any of mine with their purposes, knowing both this contrary commandment and the special account which above all other virtues we make of holy obedience; and I may very well say with St. Paul : Si enim qucB destruxi, iterum hcec adifico, prcevaricatorem. me constituo. " The fourth argument of my innocence shall not be so much a testimony as a challenge. Let the .rack tortures, let the confessions of the conspirators, yea, let all our greatest adversaries utter what they can for my accusation, and yet I know my innocency in anything spoken or done ever since the first entrance of His Majesty's reign can never be blemished ; and if at any point there may be the least doubt, I humbly beseech your honours to suspend your censures till I, knowing the exceptions against me, may with mine unfeigned integrity freely clear myself, to the satisfaction of all men of honour and wisdom. THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 305 " These former arguments being of that nature and power as may convince even the most wilful spirits either of too much malice or ignorance in their uncharitable surmises against us, yet let me, I beseech you, add some few more which are so probable that, in a moral matter as this is, they make a moral kind of certainty. It is not unknown what kind of affection and love we and all our Society have ever borne to His Majesty's royal person, parents and issue, and for mine own particular, how I behaved myself at his first entrance into this realm, and in the furtherance of peace with princes abroad, in which two points it may be better privately spoken than committed to paper, how well I have deserved in the conspiracy of Watson (my name and others being falsely used for to move divers confederates). By my special diligence, divers were delivered out of the trap. In Wales, though the matter was not such as was feared, yet I suppose my admonitions were not unfruitful. In this most horrible furriace, prepared for the best of the realm, besides the King's own person, the Queen and the two princes, there would have been included divers lords and ladies and others of special account, so highly honoured and affected by me, that I w^ould rather have for everyone severally lost my life a thousand times than to have permitted their hazard. And, finally, that I may say nothing of the disgrace of our whole Society with foreign princes, if we had been faulty, these bloody matters or any other matters of war or State are so repugnant to priestly or religious profession, that we ought all to remember upon what occasion our Saviour said to His disciples : Nescitis cujus spiritus estis, and if we neglect this there want not censures of Holy Church and of our Society to testify, bridle and restrain us from the transgression of our duties in such degree. And as for six of them receiving at my hands, etc., I think I never saw six of them together in my life ; and in such conspiracies never anything was heard of to be done publicly with kissing of the sacraments, or vowing, or such like, as ridiculously some imagine ; so that in case any of them used any help in sacra- ments, I notwithstanding do truly say, in a like case with Achimelech : Non scivi servus tuus qukquid super hoc negotium, nee modicum^ nee grande. 306 THE ENGLISH JESUITS " This, my very good lords, amongst many things which I could allege for my innocency, I have briefly, but with all sincerity of unfeigned love to His Majesty, set down these few ; and with the same sincerity and purity of mind I humbly offer to him all fidelity and loyalty, both for myself and all others who are under my charge, assuring him and also your lordships that we will in prayers, examples, actions, exhorta- tions, and whatsoever labours he will impose upon us, seek with all our endeavour to preserve and increase the temporal and everlasting felicity of him and his royal Queen and issue. And thus I humbly take my leave, desiring Almighty God to bring us once more together, when we may incessantly praise the King of kings and live together for everlasting ages." Whether this very characteristic letter ever reached the Council we know not. But while the bulk of the letter was strictly true, there were certain equivocal statements the true meaning of which the reader can supply from our narrative. It is a matter of conjecture what would have become of Garnett's protestations of loyalty to James had the Pope^ pronounced the same sentence as in the case of Elizabeth. Perhaps he would have been considered as no longer a lawful sovereign, and rebellion therefore could not then be aught else but legitimate warfare. Humphrey Littleton, a neighbouring Catholic gentleman, being then in trouble for having sheltered some of the con- spirators, sent word to the Council that he had been recently at Hindlip (Mr. Abington's), where he heard Oldcorne preach. There he thought it most likely that Garnett would be found. To take up Gerard's Narrative : " Upon this information ' The French ambassador, De la Boderie, however, was charged to express to James the Pope's abhorrence of the Gunpowder Plot : "The Pope abhors and condemns more severely than others the authors and accomplices of the said conspiracy, and if any Jesuits are convicted thereof they merit to be chastised like the rest. His Holiness only desired that a difference should be made between the innocent and the guilty, and that the former should not suflFer for the violent crimes of the latter " (Ambasscuks de M. de la Boderie, vol. i. p. 25). The papal representative in England, the Archpriest Blackwell, on 7th November and again on the 28th, issued a declaration of horror at the attempted crime ; and protested : " For my own part (which is a duty common to us all) if any notice had been given to me, I should have been most forward, by all possible means, to have stayed and suppressed the same " ( Tiemey, vol. iv. p. cidi). THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 307 was presently dispatched into the country to Sir Henry Bromley, a Knight, who was the nearest justice of account to Mr. Abington's house, and who was best experienced in search- ing of that house, which he had often performed before upon less likelihood of success than he now carried with him by means of this discovery and the extraordinary powers given him.i He came therefore to the house on a Sunday morning [ I gth January'] very early, accompanied with above a hundred men, armed with guns and all kinds of weapons, more fit for an army than an orderly search. And beginning to beat at the gate with great importunity to be instantly let in, the Catholics within the house soon perceiving their intentions, made all the haste possible to hide both the priests and the Church stuff and books, and all such f rsons and things as belonged to the priests or might give cause of suspicion. In the meantime, sending to the gates, as the custom is, to know the cause of their coming, and to keep them in talk with messages to and fro, from the master and mistress of the house, all to gain time, whilst they within were hiding all things in the most safe places they had. " But Sir Henry Bromley, impatient of this delay, caused the gates with great violence to be broken down, which yet he could not perform in so short a time (by reason they were very strong and answerable to the greatness of the house) before they within had made all safe which they would hide from this violent invasion. The Knight being entered by force, sent presently some principal persons with men enough to assist each of them into all the several parts of the house, as well as to take possession of the same, as to seize any persons that were suspicious, and' to be sure that nothing should then be hidden after his entry. Himself showed to the mistress of the house (Mr. Abington himself being from home) his large com- mission to search, and the proclamation against those whom he would search. She yielded to this authority, and gave him full power to do his will. He began after the accustomed manner, to go through all the rooms of the house which were ^ The Government seems to have taken extraordinary pains to secure Gainett. Levinus Munck, secretary to Cecil, sent Sir Henry Bromley special directions how to conduct the search. See Dom. Jac. I. vol. xviii. No. 29. 308 THE ENGLISH JESUITS many and very large; he had with him Argus' eyes, many watchful and subtle companions, that would spy out the least advantage or cause of suspicion ; and yet they searched and sounded every corner in that great house till they were all weary, and found no likelihood of discovering that they came for, though they continued the daily search, and that with double diligence, all the whole week following. But upon Saturday, two laymen that did usually attend upon the two priests, and were hid in a place by themselves, being almost starved to death, came out of their own accord.^ For they had placed the priests in another hiding-place, where there was some provision of victuals laid up for their sustenance a few days ; but themselves were forced to go into a place upon the sudden, which, though it Wcis safe from finding, yet had no provision at all to eat ; and it is said they had but one apple between them in all those six or seven days. Whereupon they thought it best to come out ; and yet not that so much to save themselves from death by famine, as for that they perceived the resolution of the searchers to be of staying in the house until they had either found or famished those whom they knew to be within. Therefore those two virtuous men, being in hope that upon their taking the searchers would be satisfied and depart (as either thinking them to be priests, or that if there had been any more to be found they would also have been forced to come out), this hope made them resolve to offer themselves to their enemies' hands, to save the lives of those whom they loved better than themselves. And their coming out was in such manner as could endanger nothing but them- selves ; one of the two especially, whose name was Nicholas Owen, abounding in discretion, which was the man that attended on Father Gamett."^ " They therefore, perceiving that some of the searchers did continually by turns watch and^ walk up and down the room where they were hidden, which was a long gallery four-square going round the house, watched their time when the searchers * This is not correct. It was on Thursday, 23rd January. ' Nicholas Owen, a Jesuit lay-brother, was the chief contriver of the secret hiding- places which were made in the house where priests generally resided. Some of them remain to this day. The other was George Chambers, also a lay-brother. THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 309 were furthest off, and came out so secretly and quietly and shut the place again so finely, that they were not heard or perceived when or where they came out, and so they walked in the gallery towards the door which they thought belike to have found open. But the searchers being turned back in their walk, and perceiving two strange men to be there, whom they had not seen before, presently ran unto them and asked what they were. They answered they were men that were in the house, and would be content to depart if it pleased them. The others asked if they were priests ; they answered they were Catholics, and that further they would not answer, being no doubt desirous to be taken for priests, the better to satisfy the insatiable mind of these bloodsuckers. Then being asked where they had been all the while, they answered they had hid themselves, being Catholics, to avoid taking. And being urged to tell or show the place where, they absolutely refused. " But the searchers, knowing well that it must needs be in the gallery, began afresh to search more violently than ever, and to break down the wainscot with which it was lined, and the walls also in a number of places. And so they continued with all violence for five or six days after, and leaving no place untried, it pleased God to end the misery in which they kept those two good fathers by their so long and so straight inclosure, and to deliver them into their hands by permitting the searchers at last to light upon the very place itself . . . The searchers therefore, having found and entered the secret place, they took the two fathers out of their close and painful prison, and seized upon such Church stuff and books as were also laid up in the same place, which made the room more straight and uneasy for them than otherwise it would have been." ^ Father Oldcorne was recognised at once ; but as to the other prisoners they were obliged to bring various persons to see whether he was Garnett himself. He was at last recog- nised by a priest, Anthony Sherlock. The arrest was effected ' A contemporary MS. states that " marmalade and other sweetmeats were found there lying by them : but that they had been chiefly supported by broths and warm drinks conveyed by a reed through a little hole that backed another chimney in a gentlewoman's chamber," 310 THE ENGLISH JESUITS on or before 30th January, on which day news was sent to the Council. Meanwhile, Sir Henry Bromley took his prisoners to his own house, so as to have them carefully tended, and their strength restored before the long journey to London. From a letter written 2nd March 1 606 to his friend, Anne Vaux, " or any of our first, keep all discreetly secret," ^ Garnett adds a few graphic particulars of his capture. They had been in the hole seven days and seven nights and some odd hours.^ Their legs were so cramped that they became swollen. " When we came forth we appeared like two ghosts, yet I was the strongest, though my weakness lasted longest. The fellow that found us ran away for fear, thinking we would have shot a pistol at him ; but there came needless company to assist him, and we bade them be quiet and we would come forth. So they helped us out very charitably, and we could not go, but desired to be led to a house of office." By his testimony Sir Henry Bromley treated his prisoners well, taking them in his own coach to his house, where they " dined and supped with him and his every day." The ladies of the household were also very kind and attentive, and were with them so continuously that Sir Henry was afraid they would be perverted. " All the way up to London I was passing well used at the King's charge, and that by express order from Lord Salisbury. I had always the best horse in the company." Sir Henry, who accompanied his charges, writes from " Wickham this 5 th of February i6ot late," and tells Salisbury he is obliged to come slowly, " for Mr. Garnett is but a weak and wearisome traveller, [but) to-morrow in the evening I trust to bring them up to London." The prisoners were confined in the Gatehouse. Garnett had his first interview with the Council at White- hall on the 1 4th, and was examined during three hours. There seems to have been on this occasion no reference made to the actual plot. But the subject of Equivocation came up. Garnett was known to hold the doctrine, and had had something to do with a treatise upon the subject. As we shall have to deal with this matter later on we pass it by for the moment.* The ' S. P. O. Dora. Jac. I. vol. xix. No. ii. " This must be a mistake. ' But we must here remark in Gamett's defence, that under the prevailing custom of forcing prisoners to bear witness against themselves under terrible torture. THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 311 power of the Pope to excommunicate the King was asked about ; and Garnett allowed it in general, but seems to fence as regards the particular case of James. After this examination he was sent to the Tower, where he had " a very fine chamber." " I am allowed," he writes, " every meal a good draught of excellent claret wine ; and I am liberal with myself and neighbours for good respects, to allow also of my own purse some sack." Sir William Wade, the keeper, was, continues Garnett, " very kind in usage and familiarity, but most violent and impotent in speeches when he entereth into matters of religion. He saith all the Jesuits Orders shall be dissolved upon this, as the Templars ; I said private faults do not prejudice the whole. But the Jesuits shall now \be sent] all out of England. I said that if it pleased the King to grant free liberty to other papists I would presently send away all Jesuits. My Lord Chief Justice said it was more than I could do. I said I would try. Indeed, I fear me some particular thing may be done this Parliament against Jesuits. My advice is that they hire themselves private lodgings and help their friends abroad, and I say they are dismissed for a time by their Superior. This think best till Father General's will be known." Some more examinations ensued : but the Council failed in getting the evidence they wanted. Popham and Coke, the Lord Chief Justice and the Attorney-General, offered, says Gerard, "if they might have full scope to deal with him as they thought good they would undertake to prove him guilty of the Plot of Powder." After several examinations they gave out that he had confessed all.^ This was false ; but it was a Government device meant to secure the passing of an Act condemning certain Jesuits for treason in this matter. When Equivocation became an almost necessary weapon of defence. If force cannot be met with force, and if might uses its power to crush right, methods will surely be found by the weak to escape the tyranny. Hence if Garnett be considered blameworthy for his use of Equivocation, much more so were the tyrannical Government, who, without the sanction of the English law, were accustomed to torture with the purpose of making a prisoner incriminate himself. ' Anne Vaux says she was sorry to hear that Father Garnett was privy to the plot, as he made many protestations to the contrary. S. P. O. Dom. Jac. I. vol. xix. No. 35. 312 THE ENGLISH JESUITS Parliament demanded the proofs, Gerard says, Coke had none to give save " conjectures, imaginations, and inferences of his own." The ruse did not succeed. " Yea, a nobleman coming from the Parliament at that time said to his friend that these lawyers were so accustomed to lie that they could say truth in no place." Foiled in this, Popham and Coke used stratagems which were more successful. They got, by means of the keeper, a "fellow so cunning in this art of cozenage," an avowal sufficient for their purposes. The keeper pretended to be a friend to Gamett, and undertook to deliver letters to his friends. These letters are now in the Record Office. Garnett, to avoid suspicion, writes the important part in orange juice, a device easily to be found out by any ordinary intelligence. These letters were kept, and forgeries (forgery was then a high art and in great requisition with the admirers of •' state-craft ") were sent to the correspondents, who duly replied. There were in these letters certain expressions such as : " he was so clear of the Powder that the same could not be proved against him." This was not quite enough, but it encouraged his hunters to try another means of entrapping him. " To this end they placed Fr. Oldcorne in a chamber near to Fr. Garnett; and one time this sly companion and cunning or rather cozening keeper, making show of great love to Fr. Gamett, told him there was a thing wherein he knew the Father would take great comfort and which he would be willing to grant (as desiring to do him any service), but that he durst never as yet tell him of it, lest it should be espied by others, and then he was undone. And this was, forsooth, that he might at some convenient times come to speak with Fr, Oldcorne, and that he would willingly grant them both this favour, so that Fr. Gamett would promise never to dis- close it, and give the like charge unto Fr. Oldcorne. This being promised, the fellow showed Fr. Garnett the way unto the wall of Fr. Oldcome's chamber, wherein there was a cleft by which they might well speak together, and hear one the other, if they did speak of any loudness. This was accepted by both the Fathers as a great courtesy ; as indeed it is no small comfort in such a place to men of their quality, if this honey had not been stuffed with too much gall. But this THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 313 dogged fellow dogged them so closely as they could never meet but he would be of the council, though unseen by them ; for the place was purposely so contrived as that the sound of their words must needs be carried to another place not far off where this keeper would stand and some other with him,^ to have a double witness in their double dealing. Whereupon it happened not long after that these two Fathers, thinking them- selves secure in this point, took some fit time (as they thought) to have each other's help in the Sacrament of Confession. And after they had ended their spiritual business, they began to confer of each other's estate, demanding what had been asked and what answered in the times of their examinations. Amongst other things Fr. Oldcorne demanding of Fr. Garnett whether Mr. Winter's going into Spain and his negotiations there were not laid to his charge, to this the Father answered : ' He could answer that well enough, for after that time he had the King's general pardon at the time of his coming to the Crown, that other business with Spain being in the reign of Queen EUzabeth.'^ Then Fr. Oldcorne also demanded whether he was not pressed with this matter of the Powder Treason, as being a likely thing they would urge that above all other matters against him. Fr. Garnett answered that ' so they did ; but that they could prove no such matter against him, and that no man living could touch him in that matter, but one.' This, lo, was the word that afterwards bred him so much trouble, and others of his friends so much grief, until by his public answers he had cleared their doubts, and by his death put the matter out of doubt, that he was not to be charged with any crime in the matter of that treason." But the news was carried at once to the Council, and a day was appointed for further examination by Salisbury, Suffolk, Northampton, and others. " When he was brought before the Lords, he was in a very strange plight, so thirsty as not able to spit or speak ; beer was called for, and he drank two glasses before them ; withal he was so drowsy as not able to hold up ' Lockerson, private secretary to Cecil, and Fassett, a magistrate attached to the Tower, were the eavesdroppers. ' This avowal of treason is quietly omitted by Foley, who, although professing tp quote Gerard, gives no signs of omission. {^Records, vol. iv. p. 93.) 314 THE ENGLISH JESUITS his head ; he complaining that he had not slept in five nights before." It was said he had been kept from sleep, and drugged ; but as " Fr. Garnett being asked the question in public, did not take knowledge of any extraordinary hard usage in these kinds, I {Gerard) for my part do rather think it was done, but in such manner eis himself could not perceive, by mixing his meat or drink with such confections as might work both those effects to distemper his body and hinder his sleep, and yet the father not know when or how it was procured." Being thus so heavy in his head and not fit to be examined he was allowed to sleep for an hour (this does away with Gerard's surmise that he had been drugged), and then was straightly examined upon the plot. But denying that there was anyone who could accuse him therein, he was taken to the torture room. Whether he was actually tortured or not does not quite appear, except by mere hearsay. However, in sight of the rack, he was told that he had been overheard telling Oldcorne that there was one man who could accuse him. Seeing then that he was convicted out of his own mouth, he acknowledged " the matter justly, that being the time wherein he might lawfully do it, and before he could not : the knowledge that he had, being a secret committed to him in confession, which the penitent did only license him to utter to save himself from torture, but not in any other case." He was taken back to the Lords, who questioned him eagerly. Garnett testified that it was from Greenway that he got the details. Whether one can follow Gerard in his exoneration of Garnett for thus giving away Green- way, is perhaps doubtful. It will be noticed that Garnett only admits what he knew there was no good in denying. His know- ledge of Catesby's projects had not yet been urged against him.^ The news soon got abroad, and it was the common talk that the Jesuits were the chief authors and contrivers of the plot. The news was given to the various ambassadors, that they might communicate it to their respective Courts. How the poor Catholics of England were troubled at the report, which of course got exaggerated as it spread, can easily be imagined. The case was sent for trial ; and the day appointed was 1 It was on I2th March that, under examination, he'confessed that Catesby had acquainted him in general with a project he had in hand. THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 315 Friday, 28th March. Early in the morning, before nine o'clock, he was brought in a coach, with blinds drawn, to the Guildhall, where the Royal Commissioners together with the Lord Mayor were awaiting him. The King watched the trial from a secret place. Popham presided and Coke prosecuted. From a manuscript in the British Museum ^ as well as from the State Trials^ we get details of the trial. The charge made against him was " that on the month of June last past in the parish of St. Michael's in the ward of Queenhithe, London, he had conspired with Robert Catesby (lately slain in open rebellion against His Majesty) the death of our Sovereign Lord the King and his son, a prince of great expectation, etc." Here it is clear that the charge upon which Garnett was indicted did not include the knowledge he received from Greenway in the confessional. James, to his honour, refused to allow it to be used against the prisoner in the indictment, although the matter came up at the trial. It is not necessary for us to go into all the details of the trial. We have already the facts before us. After the speech of the Attorney-General, who made a strong point in the fact that Garnett might have commanded Greenway to have desisted, but did not, and allowed him when the plot was discovered to go into the country to stir up rebellion, qui non prohibet quod prohibere potest consentire videtur, Garnett made his reply, and touched on four principal charges: the doctrine of Equivocation and the deposing of kings ; the behaviour of the recusants ; the Jesuits as plotters in the matter of Collyn, Yorke, Williams, and Squires, an unlikely thing, as these men were Protestants. And as regards himself, he protested that he was clear from approving of this or any other treasonable attempts. Adding : " Albeit I must confess I did understand in general by Mr. Catesby long since that he would have attempted something for the good of Catholics, which I dissuaded him from so effectually that I had thought he would utterly desist from such treasonable pretences, and this I revealed not, because that as a religious priest I thought to suppress it between him and me, which course our Saviour prescribeth, warning us that if our brother offend in anything we should admonish him 1 Add. MS. 21203, Pt^t. ciii. F. » Vol. ii. pp. 218-258. 316 THE ENGLISH JESUITS between ourselves . . . Now, my Lords, because I am per- suaded that upon this admonition he would give over his former design, I deemed myself in conscience discharged from making any further discovery or overture of that practice, howbeit that in your common law I think it insufficient, in regard it deemeth it inconvenient to leave the safety of the Commonwealth depending on the discretion and peculiar provision of some private man, etc." ^ After a long trial, lasting till night-fall, the jury brought in a verdict of Guilty. The point really before the jury was whether Garnett was guilty of misprision of treason by concealing ; or of high treason by approval, assistance, and en- couragement. They brought in the verdict of high treason. About the truth of the first charge there could be no doubt ; and as to the other, Mr. Jardine says : " It is impossible to point out a single ascertained fact either declared by him in his ex- amination by the Commissioners or to the jury on his trial, or revealed by him afterwards, or urged by his apologists since his death, which is inconsistent with his criminal implication in the plot. On the other hand, all the established and undisputed facts of the transaction are consistent with his being a willing, consenting, and approving confederate, and many of them are wholly unaccounted for by any other supposition." ^ Those who are not inclined to accept the verdict of Mr. Jardine must at least allow that Garnett was singularly unfortunate in all his actions, and that he did not take the ordinary means of preventing the plot. He knew by a general knowledge that Catesby was engaged in some treason ; he also knew (putting aside altogether what Greenway told him in secrecy) that one of his own subjects was acquainted with details. If, instead of allowing him to continue his intercourse with the conspirators, Garnett had exercised his authority and sent him at once out of the country, something might have been said for the plea that he did not encourage the plot. He did nothing, however, of the kind. But quite apart from * Among other reasons he urges: "And lastly, in that I knew them {such practices) contrary to our obedience which we make most account of, which expressly forbid us to meddle in such causes." But as Parsons had acted in the teeth of the same prohibition, it is not to be wondered at that Garnett imitated him. ^ r. 321. THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 317 Greenway's communication, Garnett had sufficient knowledge, and it was his obvious duty, both as a Catholic and as an Englishman, to have informed the Government. The sentence of the jury, from the mere facts of the case, was therefore perfectly justified, on the grounds that he who can prevent and does not prevent an action is supposed to approve of it. History has confirmed their verdict. After the trial he was taken back to the Tower, where he remained in close custody till his execution. Every effort seems to have been used to make him recant ; for the general opinion appears to have been very properly expressed by Coke in his speech in the Guildhall, when he said that Garnett was " a man, grave, discreet, wise, learned, and of excellent ornament both of nature and art, and one that, if he will, may do His Majesty as much good service as any subject I know of in England." Soon after his condemnation Garnett wrote to Anne Vaux (3rd April), and in the course of his letter he says about the knowledge he received from Catesby : "... it may be Catholics also think strange we should be acquainted with such things ; but who can hinder but he must know things sometimes which he would not. I never allowed it ; I sought to hinder it more than men can imagine, as the Pope will tell. It was not my part (as I thought) to disclose it. I have written this day a detestation of that action for the King to see. And I acknowledge myself not to die a victorious martyr, but as a penitent thief, as I hope I shall do. And so will I say at the execution, whatsoever others have said or held before." ^ In his declaration (4th April) to the King^ Garnett makes the following important avowal : " Also I acknowledge that I was bound to reveal all knowledge that I had of this or any other treason out of the Sacrament of Confession. And whereas, partly upon hope of prevention, partly for that I would not betray my friend, I did not reveal the general knowledge of Mr. Catesby's intention which I had by him. I do acknow- ledge myself highly guilty and to have offended God, the King's Majesty and estate, and humbly ask of all forgiveness, etc." This is a clear admission of guilt, legal and moral. ' Dom. Jac. r. vol. xx. No. 11. ' Ibid. No, iz. 318 THE ENGLISH JESUITS The following letter is most important ; it was written to Greenway on the day after the above declaration : " I wrote yesterday a letter to the King, in which I avowed, as I do now, that I always condemned that intention of the Powder Plot ; and I admitted that I might have revealed the general knowledge I had of it from Catesby out of confession, and should have done so if I had not relied upon the Pope's interference to prevent their design, and had not been unwilling to betray my friend ; and in this I confessed I had sinned both against God and the King, and prayed for pardon from both." ^ He also wrote in the same strain to his brethren the Jesuits in England. The letter to Greenway was intercepted. When examined before the Commissioners (2Sth April), Gamett affirmed, "upon his priesthood, that he did never write any letter or letters, nor send any message to Greenway since he was at Coughton ; and this he protested to be spoken without equivo- cation." ^ But when, a few days afterwards (28th April), he was confronted with his letter, and asked how he could justify such a falsehood, he replied : " That he had done nothing but that he might lawfully do, and that it was evil done of the Lords to ask that question of him, and to urge him upon his priesthood, when they had his letters which he had written, for he never would have denied them if he had seen them ; but supposing the Lords had not his letters, he did deny in such sort as he did the writings of any letter, which he might lawfully do." * Had Garnett followed the example of Him of whose Society he claimed to be, and kept silence, it would have been better for his good name and fame. As it is, we are forced to conclude that no reliance can be put upon any word he says, unless it be supported by other evidence. During this period of detention Garnett was closely questioned on the subject of Truth. There seems to have been some kind of desire on the part of the King not to proceed to extremities ; but Garnett's avowals on the subject of Equivoca- tion practically settled his fate; for it was found obviously impossible to believe a word he said. Lingard, the Catholic historian, says : " To these and similar avowals I ascribe his ' Abbott's Antilogia, p. 147. » S. P.O. Dom. Jac. I. vol. xx. No. 44. ' Hid. Nd. 48. THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 319 execution. By seeking shelter under Equivocation he had deprived himself of the protection which the truth might have afforded him ; nor could he in such circumstances reasonably complain if the King refused credit to his asseverations of innocence, and permitted the law to take its course." ^ Garnett's state of mind is one that deserves commiseration. As he said, he was in medio illusorum. An advantage was taken of the report that great scandal had been taken by Catholics at his trial, and he was told that five hundred of them had turned Protestants ; " which," he writes to Anne Vaux (^3rd April), " if it should be true I must needs think that many other Catholics are scandalised at me also. I desire all to judge me in charity, for I thank God most humbly in all speeches and actions I have had a desire to do nothing against the glory of God. . . . Let anybody consider if they had been twenty-three times examined before the wisest of the realm, besides particular conferences with Master Lieutenant, what they could have done upon so many evidences, for the conspirators thought themselves sure and used my name freely, though I protest none of them ever told me of anything." ^ We can well understand Garnett's passionate exclamation to the Earl of Salisbury, " My lord, I would to God I had never known of the Powder Treason."* A few days before his execution several Anglican divines visited him in the Tower. Among them were Dr. James Montague, Dean of the Chapel Royal and afterwards Bishop of Winchester ; Dr. Neill, Dean of Westminster ; and Dr. Overall, Dean of St. Paul's. One of the visitors asked Garnett, " Whether he was concerned that the Church of Rome after his death would declare him a martyr ; and whether, as a matter of opinion and doctrine, he thought the Church would be right in doing so, and that he should in that case really become a true martyr ? Upon this Garnett exclaimed with a deep sigh, 'I a martyr? Oh what a martyr should I be ! God forbid ! If, indeed, I were really about to suffer death for the sake of the Catholic religion, and if I had never known of this project except by means of sacramental confession, I might perhaps be accounted > History of England, vii. p. 8i. ° S, P. O. Dom. Jac. i. vol. xx. No, ii, ' State Trials, ii. p. 256. 320 THE ENGLISH JESUITS worthy of the honour of martyrdom, and might deservedly be glorified in the opinion of the Church ; as it is, I acknowledge myself I have sinned in this respect, and deny not the justice of the sentence passed on me.' ' Would to God,' he added, ' that I could recall that which has been done ! Would to God that anything had happened rather than that this stain of treason should attach to my name ! I know that my offence is most grievous, though I have confidence in Christ to pardon me on my hearty penitence ; but I would give the whole world, if I possessed it, to be able to die without the weight of this sin upon my soul.' " ^ The date originally fixed for his execution was 1st May. He begged that he might not be made a " May-game " ; so the Council changed the date to Saturday, the 3rd of May. When the day came, as Gamett was being led out from his cell, he said to one of the cooks who bade him good-bye : " Farewell, good friend, Tom ; this day I will save thee a labour to provide my dinner." And, going a little farther towards the hurdle, there met them also the Lieutenant's wife to take her leave, who said : " God be with you and comfort you, good Mr. Gamett; I will pray for you"; to whom with a joyful countenance he gave thanks, saying : " I thank you, good madam, and for your prayers, you may keep them at this time ; and if it pleaseth God to give me perseverance, I will not forget you in my prayers." ^ He had in that supreme hour regained all his strength of mind, and faced death with calm- ness. The hurdle awaited him, and thereon he was laid, " as the order is, having a black cloak somewhat long upon his other clothes and a hat on his head." Dragged by three horses, he was carried out to his doom. During the last journey " he held his hands together, lifted up somewhat to- wards heaven, and kept his eyes shut for the most part, as a man in deep contemplation." So says Gerard. The scaffold had been erected at the west end of St Paul's Churchyard, hard by the bishop's house. The neighbourhood ' Quoted in Jaidine, p. 251. Casaubon is the authority, and he gives as his source the three deans. There is nothing in this letter out of keeping with Gamett's ad- mission to Anne Vaux that he was dying as a penitent tliief, not as a glorious martyr. See also Antilogia, p. 148. THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 321 was thronged with a crowd anxious to see how the Jesuit Superior comported himself. Windows filled with people, and standing-places sold for large sums, showed how excited were the people. Arrived at the scaffold, the deans of St. Paul's and Westminster met him, and the former, with hat in hand, said : " Mr. Garnett, I am sent unto you from His Majesty to will you that now being in the last hour of your mortal life, you will perform the duty of a true subject, to whom you are obliged by the laws of God and nature; and therefore to disclose such treasons as you know intended towards His Majesty's danger and the Commonwealth." To which Garnett answered, " Mr, Dean, it may please you to tell His Majesty that I have been arraigned, and what could be laid to my charge I have there answered and said as much as I could, so that in this place I have no more to say." To their religious exhortations he would not listen. When asked by the Recorder to acknowledge he was justly condemned, in spite of his declaration to the King to that effect, he is reported to have answered, " He had not committed any treason or offence against His Majesty, nor even guilty of the Powder Treason in the least degree . . . neither could they condemn him for any- thing but for not opening the secret of confession in which only he had knowledge of the treason." So says Gerard, who was not present ; but such language in face of Garnett's own avowal, his letter to Anne Vaux, and the very terms of the indictment itself, forces one to conclude that Gerard is here, as elsewhere, no very trustworthy recorder of events, his main object being to prove Garnett absolutely innocent and a martyr. We would fain believe that Garnett preserved to the last the dispositions in which he acknowledged himself " highly guilty," and dying, not " as a victorious martyr, but as a penitent thief." These were the better dispositions in which to approach the all-knowing Judge. One of his last words was to defend the honour of his friend, Anne' Vaux, as " a perfect pure virgin, if (as ?) any other in England or otherwise " ; this was in answer to a ribald inquiry from one of the crowd. Then making his last prayer, and stripping to his shirt, he said he ever meant to die a true and perfect Catholic. With pious ejaculations on his lips, and crossing his arms over his breast he gave the 322 THE ENGLISH JESUITS signal to the hangman, and was cast off the ladder. Without a struggle, he hanged till he was dead ; nor would the people, who were much moved by his gentle behaviour, allow the executioner to cut him down until he was quite dead. The rest of the sentence was carried out. Drawn and quartered, his head was set up on London Bridge. So died Henry Garnett in his fifty-first year and the eighteenth as Superior of the Jesuits in England. Connected with his death is the so-called prodigy of the famous Straw. The best and most reliable account is the following document, which is preserved in the archives of the old English Chapter : " The Confession of Hugh Griffin of St. Clements's without Temple Bar, tailor, taken by the Lord Archbishop of Canter- bury, the 27th of November 1606. He saith that the same day that Garnett was executed, one John Wilks, a silkman, being come out of his prenticeship two years since, and living now amongst his friends in Yorkshire, brought to this examinate's house a straw, with an ear upon it, which he said was one of the straws whereupon Garnett was laid when he was executed : that the straw and ear were bloody : and this examinate and his wife desired to have the straw : that he promised they should have it at his going into the country : that they advised with the said Wilks to have the straw put into a crystal for the better preserving of it: that within three or four days or a week (as he remembereth) the straw was set in crystal accord- ing to the former resolution : that about nine weeks since, and not before, he, this examinate, looking earnestly through the crystal upon the said straw, with his wife and one Thomas (who once served, as he thinketh, the Lady Beeston, wife to Sir Hugh Beeston), they all together at once discovered a thing like a face upon the ear of the said straw : that this examinate did first say to the other two (as he thinketh), ' Do you not discern a thing upon the ear like a face ? ' And they answered that they did : that thereupon he then (as he thinketh) opened the crystal, and then upon their earnest looking upon it, they imagined they saw a face : that this examinate thereupon said to the rest, ' This may chance to proceed from our fancies ' and therefore desired them to make no words of it until it THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 323 were better decided : that he kept it in his house about a fort- night, and in the meanwhile looked upon it forty times (as he thinketh), and sometimes half an hour or an hour together, until he saw the visage so perfectly, as he is sure he could not be deceived : that the face is so perfectly apparent, being once found, namely, the forehead, the eyes, the cheek, the nose, the mouth, the beard and the neck, as he supposeth no man living is able to draw the like thing upon the like subject : that the said Wilks, when he left the straw in the crystal with this examinate did not (as he thinketh) ever imagine that there was any face upon it : that he doth not remember that any but himself and his wife did see the said face during the said fortnight, or that himself did acquaint any with it : that per- adventure his wife might tell somebody of it, but whom he knoweth not . . . that if any affirm that there is any light or beams about the said face, he affirmeth that which is not true : that for aught this examinate knoweth, the said face is no more like Garnett's face than any other man's hath a beard : that he imagineth the face being so little, no man is able to say it is like Garnett : that this examinate did never see Mr. Garnett but when he was brought to the Tower, etc." This is the first-hand report of the famous straw. Griffin at first thought there was " a thing upon the ear like a face." Then after a close examination for two weeks, " sometimes half an hour or an hour together," he sees the face perfectly. As the straw itself has disappeared, we must content ourselves with the picture given in Foley's Records} A close examina- tion gives us the following result. There are two faces, one upon the other ; only the lower one shows anything that might be taken for a forked beard. The upper face is strikingly distinct ; but, with the very best intention in the world, we can discern absolutely no likeness to Fr. Garnett, supposing that the portrait at the beginning of the volume is a correct likeness. It appears from the examination of Griffin that he gave the crystal to Wilks, who inserted the straw and had it framed. What might have passed during this time while it was back again in Wilks' possession, we do not know. " He 324 THE ENGLISH JESUITS had gone beyond the seas " ; and we have no means of exam- ining him. Nor is there any examination of Griffin's wife, as to whose powers of keeping a secret "this examinate" won't commit himself. The story lost nothing in repeti- tion, and the marvel became greater. Fr. Blount writing (8th November 1 606), says it was " so lively representing Mr. Garnett, as not only in my eyes, but in the eyes of others which knew him, it doth lively represent him " ; and in another letter (March 1 607) : " It cannot be a thing natural or artificial. The sprinkling of blood hath made so plain a face, so well proportioned, so lively shadowed, as no art in such a manner is able to counterfeit the like.'' There seems to be no reference to the double face as represented in the picture. Of its sub- sequent history little is known. Taken at first to Spain, to Andera, it found its way to the English Jesuits' college at Li^ge, but appears to have been lost shortly after the suppres- sion of the Society. Fr. Oldcorne preceded Garnett to his fate. He remained at Worcester, where he was tried on the following counts : that he had harboured Garnett, a denounced traitor; he had written to Fr. Jones in Herefordshire to aid in hiding two of the conspirators, Robert Winter and Stephen Littleton ; and he had approved of the plot as a good action, although it failed in its effect. As to the third count, Oldcorne confessed (i2th March 1606)* that he had said to Humphry Littleton (who began to think he had done wrong, inasmuch as the plot had failed) " that an act is not to be condemned or justified upon the good or bad event that followeth it, but upon the end or object and the means that is used for effecting the same. . . . And then I applied it to this fact of Mr. Catesby's : it is not to be approved or condemned by the event, but by the proper object or end and means which was to be used in it ; and because I know nothing of these I will neither approve it or condemn it, but leave it to God and their own consciences, and in this wary way I spoke to him, because I doubted he came to entrap." Oldcorne was executed on 7th April, with Ralph Ashley and Mr. Abington. It is somewhat satisfactory to learn that ' Dom. Jac. I. vol. xix. No. 35. THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 325 Humphry Littleton, who had betrayed them, was executed at the same time. Of Brother Nicholas Owen we learn that he died on the rack in the Tower ; and it was given out that he had com- mitted suicide. But of this there seems no reliable evidence. We can now compare Garnett's character with that given him by Foley on More.^ It does not seem to have been remarkable for prudence or candour. Simplicity, in one sense, it certainly had. As regards candour we are obliged to take up the oft-disputed subject of Equivocation, which is so bound up with his name.2 As he held certain views on the subject, his enemies, and perhaps not without reason, complained that no value was to be attached to any statement he made. An examination of his replies and declarations will convince the reader that the statements were those of a man who was fencing for his life, and who, until an accusation was proved beyond contention, would deny any charge. His weapon was Equivocation. Whether the whole case of Garnett's prosecution does not throw a light upon a certain question of to-day, which seeks to break the silence the English law so wisely imposes upon the accused, is a matter worth consideration. There were in those days certain theologians who held views on the subject of truth which were highly dangerous to common morality. Lessius, for instance, was one of the Jesuit theologians who held them, and his opinions were eventually condemned by the Pope. As regards Garnett, the ^ See p. l6l, ante. * Shakespear, who often refers in his plays to current events, seems to allude in Macbeth (Act II. Scene ii. ) to what was the cause cllebre of the day : " Here's a knocking, indeed ! If a man were porter of hell-gate he should have old turning the key. \^Knocking.'\ Knock, knock, knock ! Who's there, in the name of Beelzebub? Here's c farmer that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty. . . . 'Faith, here's an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either side : who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven, etc." Garnett's alias of Farmer was well known ; and his teaching on Equivocation was town-talk. Such a bit of topical " gag " would have been thoroughly well understood by an audience of the year 1606. The speech of the porter seems also to settle the disputed date of the play, which is generally put between 1606 and 1610. In the former year Garnett's trial would have been on everyone's lips ; at a later date the allusion would have lost its piquancy. There is also evidence to show that the poet, if he had leanings towards Catholicism, was not friendly to the Jesuit party. 326 THE ENGLISH JESUITS verdict of historians has been unanimous in condemning him. " He avowed principles as inconsistent with all good government as they were contrary to sound morality," says Mr. Jardine.^ Dr. Gardiner, always so fair-minded, does not hesitate to say : " The Jesuitical doctrine on the subject of truth and falsehood which he openly professed was enough to ruin any man."* Lingard's opinion we have already given. While reminding the reader that the state of the law in those days made Equivocation an almost necessary result of torture, there is perhaps no need to point out that this doctrine, even if debatable in speculative schools of theology, is full of danger when brought to practice. We see a case in illustration in Parsons, who, sheltering himself under the doctrine, does not hesitate under stress of controversy to suppress what he knew was true, and thus suggest what he knew was false. For together with Equivocation goes Mental Reservation. It must be, however, remembered that the doctrine of Equivocation was no invention of Garnett's. Some of the theologians of the Society had indeed been great advocates of the theory, and they were only carrying out principles that other theologians had advanced. As far back as April 1597 Garnett seems to have committed himself to the doctrine ; for then, so he tells Parsons, he had the idea of publishing a work on the subject to explain a point " much wondered at by Catholics and heretics." According to him, such a doctrine was a novelty to the Catholics of England, who " wondered " at it. Fr. Southwell, as we have seen, openly maintained in 1595 the lawfulness of what he called "Equivocation." It is possible to say that he went perhaps further than Garnett, and it was to do away with the surprise his conduct gave that the Superior proposed to write his work. What, then, in plain simple English is this doctrine ? First, it is laid down by the theologians who write on the subject that a lie is a sin ; secondly, " a person under examination may, in certain contingencies, righteously dissemble or deny his knowledge, but only when he is explicitly conscious of a good and sufficient reason absolving him from the obligation of giving right information." Or, to put it in the more forcible ' Criminal Trials, vol. ii. p. 315. ^ History of England^ vol. i. p. 280. THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 327 language of a writer in The Month : ^ "It was neither more nor less than . . . ' downright lying,' inasmuch as it consisted in a flat denial of what was in fact the truth; but with this essential proviso : that a man must never tell a falsehood ' knowing it to be such,' that is to say, must never admit what he feels to be a violation of the moral law. He may never contradict in words what he knows to be the actual truth, unless he has manifest assurance that he is right in doing so, and that accordingly, in speaking as he does, he tells no lie." We give the above as the defence made to-day by one of Garnett's successors. The ordinary reader, who is not trained in the subtleties of the schools, may ask : If we apply this same reasoning to all the commandments, e.g. " Thou shalt not commit adultery," what becomes of the Moral Law ? Instead of writing the proposed book, Garnett corrected a treatise on the subject supposed to have been written by Francis Tresham ; and altered the title from A Treatise of Equivocation to A Treatise against Lying and Fraudulent Dissimulation? This book became the object of much inquiry during his examinations. In his trial Garnett says : "We teach not that Equivocation may be used promiscuously, and that at our own pleasure in matters of contract, in matters of testimony or before a competent judge, or to the prejudice of any third person, in which case we judge it to be altogether unlawful. But only we think it lawful when they are no way prejudicial to others, for our own, our brother's good, or when we are pressed to questions that are harmful to ourselves or others to answer, or urged upon examination to answer to one whom we do not hold to be a competent judge or would force us to open matters not liable to his court." Holding, as the Jesuits did, the " high " doctrines on the Pope's rights over princes, we think that there may be a great deal in the phrase " a competent judge." If James' right to rule did not come from the Pope, might not the competency of his judges be questioned ? A distinction is easily drawn between de jure and de facto when it is to one's advantage. ' The Month, July 1898. This seems to be wider than the conventional "not guilty," which ceases to be Equivocation from the very fact of its conventionality. ^ It was printed in 1851 by Mr. Jardine. 328 THE ENGLISH JESUITS In a paper written the day after his trial upon this same subject, Garnett says : " Neither is Equivocation at all to be justified but in case of necessary defence from injustice or wrong or of the obtaining some good of great importance when there is no danger of harm to others. . . ." And he makes the following admission : " For this is a general rule — that in cases of true and manifest treason a man is bound voluntarily to utter the very truth and in no way to equivocate, if he knew it not by way of confession, in which case also he is bound to seek all lawful ways to discover salvo sigillo"^ In applying this last admission to Garnett's knowledge of the plot, we can understand his avowal that his sentence was just ; for he had certainly not voluntarily uttered the very truth of what he knew in general was " true and manifest treason." This being Garnett's theory, it remains to be seen how he put it into practice. There are three instances to the point. He denied having been at certain houses ; he denied having held conversations with Oldcorne ; he denied having written a certain letter to Greenway. He protested on his salvation and priesthood that what he said was true. But when it was proved that he was at these particular houses, that he had been overheard conversing with Oldcorne, who under torture acknow- ledged it, and that his letter to Greenway was in the hands of the Government, he could only say in self-defence : " That he might lawfully deny it in such sort as he did till they were able to prove it . . . for no man is bound to charge himself till he is convicted." After these cases, who is to blame those who felt they could not put reliance upon any word he said ? ^ ^ Dom. Jac. I. vol. xix. No. 95. ^ As to the general matter of Equivocation, the bulk of English readers will agree with Newman who, after saying, ' ' Casuistry is a noble science, but it is one to which I am led neither by my abilities nor by my turn of mind," goes on to the point . . . " Thirdly, as to playing upon words, or Equivocation, I suppose it is from the English habit, but without meaning any disrespect to a great saint (Alphonso de Liguori), or wishing to set myself up, or taking my conscience for more than it is worth, I can only say as a fact, that I admit it as little as the rest of my countrymen : and that without any reference to the right or wrong of the matter, of this I am sure, that if there is one thing more than another which prejudices Englishmen against the Catholic Church, it is the doctrine of great authorities on the subject. For myself, I can fancy myself thinking it was allowable in extreme cases for me to lie, but never to equivocate. Luther said, ' Pecca fortiter.' I anathematise his formal sentiment ; THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 329 Charges have been made against Garnett upon the subject of sobriety and of his relation with Anne Vaux. It seems that reports adverse to him had gone to Rome. Griffith Floyd says under examination that he was sent by Parsons into England after the Powder Treason to know whether Garnett was privy to it otherwise than in confession ; whether he was as delicate in diet and as familiar with Mrs. Anne Vaux as reported.^ This Anne Vaux and her sister, Mrs. Brookesby, were daughters of William, third Lord Vaux of Harrowden. Both were friends and penitents of Garnett's, and were seconders in all things, their purse being always at his disposal. Anne especially seems to have been on terms of great intimacy with the Jesuits, and signs herself " Yours and not my own." She was under vow of obedience to Garnett, who wrote to her from the Tower a letter in secret ink, which was deciphered : " Concerning the disposing of yourself, I give you leave to go over to them ; ^ the vow of obedience ceaseth, being made to the superiors of this mission. You may upon deliberation make it to some there. "If you like to stay here, then I exempt you till a superior be appointed whom you may acquaint, but tell him that you made your vow of yourself and then told me, and that I limited certain conditions, as that you are not bound under sin except you be commanded in virtute obedienticB; we may accept no vows. But men may make them as they list, and we after give directions accordingly." * Their connection was a purely religious one. That she valued and loved Garnett as a spiritual father (and he seems to have been a very lovable man to his own people), that she had unbounded confidence in his judgment and was devoted to his service, may well be without the slightest approach to but there is a truth in it when spoken of material acts " (Apologia pro vita sua (ed. 1890), p. 360). ' Dom. Jac. I. vol. Ixxxi. No. 70. Floyd was a Jesuit from 1593 till 1612, when he left the Society, as he says, "because they attended more to politics than religion " {Ibid. No. 59). ^ Anne Vaux wanted to go to Belgium, but she remained in England and opened her house as a school under the Jesuits. ' Dom. Jac. I. vol. xx. No. 11. 330 THE ENGLISH JESUITS immorality. Garnett's ideal was too high and too noble for us to entertain the calumnies which came from the lowest of his enemies. But, on the other hand, it says little for his discretion, considering the times and circumstances, to have allowed any women, however pious they were, to be on such familiar terms with him and his fellow- Jesuits. That intense love of being directed, even in minute things, which too often characterises " the devout female sex," is fraught with danger to both director and directed, because it tends to destroy that equilibrium of responsibility which is so necessary for a healthy spiritual tone. To sum up the question of the Jesuits and the Gunpowder Plot. That they were the instigators of it, there is no evi- dence : but that they had been mixed up before in treasonable practices with some of these very conspirators, is certain. That dangerous answers were given to questions, put purposely in general, is also evident. That it was the Jesuits, alone of the missionary body, who were in anyway connected with the plot, is also admitted : that they were so is to be attributed to a certain itching to have a hand in what was going on and to " direct " affairs. That they had the reputation of dabbling in politics and suffered in consequence, is apparent to every one. That Garnett was tried upon the general knowledge he had from Catesby, and upon this alone was condemned, is clear to the reader: therefore, in no sense of the word is he a martyr for his religion nor a martyr for the seal of confession.^ This last conclusion seems to be that of the authorities at Rome in 1886. When considering the claims for beatification of certain sufferers for conscience' sake, the case of Henry Garnett and others concerned with the Plot was put aside, or at any rate delayed for further evidence. This decision of Rome seems to be in accordance with the general verdict of history. In concluding this subject, the reader may ask. What was ' Foley, without attending to the decree of Urban vin., calls him a " martyr," and says : " He is justly regarded as a martyr to the sacredness of the seal of the Sacra- ment of Confession " (vol. vii. p. 288). Passing by the inaccuracy of speaking of " the Sacrament of Confession," Foley, though he prints the account of the trial as given in the British Museum Additional MS., failed to see that Garnett was neither indicted nor condemned upon any knowledge he had from the confessional. THE GUNPOWDER PLOT 331 the attitute of Parsons ? We can only say there seems to be an absence of documentary evidence about a period which is peculiarly interesting. Garnett, we hear, burnt the letters he received, and one may conclude that his successor followed that example. As far as I know, the only available means we have of judging the opinions of Parsons on this matter are a few references to the Gunpowder Plot in his book, " The Judgment of a Catholic Englishman concerning a late book entitled Triplici nodo triplex cuneus (1608)." After quoting King James' words of reprobation of the enormity, he adds : " All of which epithets for the due detestation of so rash and heinous an attempt. Catholics no less than Protestants do willingly admit." ^ He refers to the conspiracy as " this woeful attempt of these unfortunate gentlemen,"^ and as " that headlong action of these few Catholic gentlemen." * Nothing is known of any attempt on the part of Parsons to exculpate the Jesuits or to defend Garnett ; although one would think the need were imperative.* The silence is significant. 1 P. 6. 2 Ibid. ' P. 7. * Sir Charles Cornwallis says that Creswell was proposing to write a book, dedicated to the King of Spain, in which he would prove that the plot was really the work of the Council. Winwood's Memorials, vol. ii. p. 277. CHAPTER XI BREAKING THE BARRIERS Parsons had now practically secured the monopoly of Eng- land as a mission of the Society. But in so doing he brought about his own downfall. His behaviour to Bishop and Chamock and to the four envoys became known ; and his credit was falling rapidly with the Pope, who had at this moment a serious quarrel with the Society in Spain.^ He had to meet opposition which came from a quarter which proved too strong for him. We have referred to the dissatisfied state of the seminaries. " One result of these domestic disturbances was to turn the minds of many to other places where they might both continue their studies, and when on the mission to be able to keep clear of either of the contending parties. Their thoughts naturally turned to that great order which had converted Eng- land, and which was so bound up with the glories of their Church. The Benedictines were men of peace too, and had an old tradi- tion at their back ; and, though ready to adapt themselves to new circumstances, were not lovers of novelty. Besides, there was nothing in the life of a monk to prevent him from taking up mission work in face of sufficient cause and when duly called upon ; for had not they been the great missionaries of Europe ?"* The story has been recently told at length. Here it will ' Clement vni. had reason to be discontented with the Society. In 1601 some Jesuit theologians at Alcali maintained the proposition : Dicere hunc Papam turn esse Papam non est contra fidem. When Clement heard of this in the March 1602 he became greatly excited, and wrote off at once to the Nuncio, saying " that words fail him to say sufficient of this business." The inculpated Jesuits, "Spaniards, God knows of what low breed " (as Clement calls them), were imprisoned in the Inquisi- tion. They found a champion in Fr. Creswell the Jesuit, who went to the Nuncio and begged him to defend them, for they were all saints and the only bulwark of the Church ! ^ Author's The English Black Monks oj St. Benedict, vol. ii. pp. 2, 3. BREAKING THE BARRIERS 333 suffice to touch only upon such points as bear upon our subject. Beginning in 1587, the exodus from the seminaries to the monasteries went on, first in Italy, where students joined houses of the Cassinese Congregation, and then, some ten years after, in Spain. Cardinal Allen seeing at last the effects of Parsons' schemes, " looked with an en- couraging eye upon the new movement, and most heartily espoused the cause." ^ The English in the Cassinese Congregation had, by 1 5 94, become so numerous that the General Chapter of that year petitioned the Holy See to grant them leave to work in their native country. This was an attempt to break down the wall Parsons had managed to set round the English mission. The old Marian priests had died out, and the ranks were filled by clergy trained in seminaries under the Jesuits, and depending upon them for their faculties. At the present moment no one could enter England as a priest or exercise his duties independently of the Society. But Parsons knew well that Benedictine missionaries in England would be altogether independent ; so he set himself steadily to oppose, by all means in his power, what he considered as an encroachment on the part of those he styled, at a later date, " the adversaries of his order." He succeeded for the moment in getting the petition of the Cassinese Chapter rejected. In 1 60 1 , a petition came from England imploring the aid of Benedictines as mission- aries ; and the Spanish ambassador, who, as usual, had backed up Parsons in his former opposition, now received instructions from home to support the petition which the English monks in Spain were also (1601) sending to Rom^. The Italians renewed theirs. Parsons fought on desperately against the petitions. But by this time he was losing his credit with the Pope. " The repeated applications and continual objections coming always from the same interested quarter . . . revealed to the Pope the true nature of the opposition." ^ The petition was granted, 20th March 1602, and confirmed on Sth December of that same year, after a last attempt to get its withdrawal. Henceforth the wall was broken down, and Benedictines re- entered upon their ancestral patrimony. 1 Ibid. See his letter, p. 6. = Ibid. p. 21. 334 THE ENGLISH JESUITS It was in Spain that the movement towards the Benedic- tine Order met with the greatest opposition from the Jesuits in charge of Parsons' seminaries. The story is useful as showing the distinct line of policy adopted by the English Jesuits. We receive here a great deal of curious information from the Annates Collegii Anglorum Vallesoletani} written by Fr. Blackfan, S.J., some time about 1618, when he was rector. He was an eyewitness and partaker in what he describes. We are fortunately able to fill up the lacunce in his personal narrative from other unimpeachable and personal sources. Fr. Blackfan shall begin the story. The curtain opens on the year 1 5 gg, at which date he was the minister or procurator of the college. " At the beginning of the year there died of fever in the college, Fr. John Gervase, a student and a priest, who was a man of rare virtue and an example to all. A few days before his death, he called to him the father minister indicating that he had something to say to him which might tend to the common good. When the father had sat down by him he began : ' Your reverence, for the love of God watch over the students, for I see that some of them are excited by all kinds of ideas, and that they are praising up the Benedictine Order because they see them riding on their mules through the streets with their servants before them, with so much pomp and authority. And only last night when the infirmarian through forgetfulness had left the light burning by me, there came in, in the middle of the night, a figure clad in the habit of St. Benedict, though whether it was a man or a demon clothed in human form I know not This figure had his face covered by his hood, and after making a profound reverence before me, he suddenly disappeared, leaving me trembling with all my hair on end with fright. And now I am perplexed as to what it could have been or what evil it portended to the whole college.' The minister took all this to be a dream of a delirious brain and soothed him, telling him to be at peace, for if God deigned to grant a vocation to any of the students he should take it as a favour, and ' God forbid that this ' The MS. of these Annales belongs to the college at Ushaw. The English Jesuits have printed them for private circulation (1899). BREAKING THE BARRIERS 335 should be looked on as an unlucky omen, to be averted by some effort.' The priest died peacefully ten days later, leaving us great hopes that he had attained to the harbour of eternal peace." We must here for a while take leave of Blackfan, and follow up the story of the first student, Mark Barkworth, who joined the Benedictines from the Valladolid seminary. Blackfan, curiously enough, does not mention the incident, though he took a prominent part therein. W. C, in A Reply unto a Certain Libel lately set forth by Father Parsons [i 60^], is the authority. " The first (example) shall be of Mark Bark- worth, now, I trust, in heaven. This Mark Barkworth, being a priest in the college of Valladolid, was by the Jesuits suspected to be a furtherer and concurrer with certain youths that entered into the order of St. Benedict. Whereof Father Parsons having intelligence did write to the Rector of that college, that he should be dismissed presently, showing in his letters some anger that he stayed so long. Whereupon the minister of the college 1 came unto him one morning [being sick of a fever and not well recovered], and bade him rise and make himself ready to walk with him, saying that it would be wholesome for him to walk and shake off his fever, and not yield thereto. When they were departed out of the English college, he led him into the college of the Jesuits, and, leaving him in a paved room, he took occasion to depart from him upon some affairs, to speak with one of his fellow- Jesuits in that house. And coming back again unto him, he brought the Rector of the Jesuit college with him : who entered into an invective and bitter discourse against him, and the conclusion was as followeth : He commanded him to put off his scholar's robe, to put on a suit of rags (which they offered him), to depart the college and city, and shift for himself; saying that Ke was not worthy to stay longer there, neither should, and that for a viaticum to help himself in his travel he should not have so much as a Spanish real, which is but sixpence English. Mark Barkworth, perceiving their intentions, told them that he would not depart with such disgrace, having not offended ; in that, if he had concurred with the foresaid youths for their 1 Blackfan. 336 THE ENGLISH JESUITS entrance into religion, yet was it not such a fault as could deserve such expulsion : their wills not being in his power to rule or command. The Rector, seeing he would not despoil himself and put on those rags to depart, called in certain of lay brethren, strong fellows, to deal with him by violence, and to enforce him to change his habit. Whereof two coming unto him, catched him by the legs, and, pulling them from under him upon a sudden, threw him backward flat upon the pavement, with such violence [being sick and weak with a fever] that he was much bruised therewith, and in a great maze ; presently, upon his fall, the rest of the lay brethren apprehended, some a leg, some an arm, and so drew him into another room, paved in like manner, as in those hot countries all rooms for the most part are. He being, as I say, thus amazed and perceiving them to pull and hale him, fearing belike that they would murder him, used these words but in the Spanish tongue : What, will you kill me f will you kill me ? Let me first confess me. " When they had thus dragged him into the other room with struggling and striving, he got upon his feet. No sooner was he up and recollected, but one of them gave him such a blow with his fist upon the face, that he felled him down backward again. With this blow he was so bruised in his face, that when he was cold, afterwards he was not able to utter his words, that one though near him might well understand him, what he spake. Whilst this was in hand, and the Rector of the Jesuit college and the minister of the English college, Fr. Blackfan, spectators of his cruel and inhuman tragedy, in came a Spanish Jesuit of a noble house in Spain, and finding them in this sort, abusing so outrageously this priest, he reproved them for it, and told them it would be a greater shame unto them if the world should be witness thereof. Hereupon they left off, and having better bethought themselves of this fact so outrageously committed, they entreated him to keep silence thereof, and not to make the other scholars acquainted here- with, and they would kindly entreat him hereafter ; he should have large faculties, a good viaticum when he went to England, and all the friendship they could show him else. Hereunto he seeming to yield, they privily conveyed him back to the English BREAKING THE BARRIERS 337 college, and brought him to a sequestered chamber, where he lay until his recovery. But some of the scholars, that there were in the college [as there were not then above nine or ten, the rest being sent away to another place for fear of the plague, at that time in the city], seeing him come in all bruised, began to suspect some ill measure. So that, not- withstanding their secret conveying him into a sequestered chamber, they found him out and resorted unto him ; which one of the Jesuits perceiving, spake unto them saying : Take heed, come not near him, for all verily think he hath the plague. This speech they gave out, to fear the scholars from resorting unto him, that they might not see into what plight they had brought him. But for all they could do, they could not hinder them, but that they would and did see him. The physicians being sent for unto him, and feeling of his pulse, not knowing what had happened said, that he had suffered great violence ; by which you may guess how strangely he was handled in this combat. I know there be divers that will think this history strange and incredible ; but if it chance that Master Charles Paget do but set down the actions of Fr. Holt, especially concerning Master Godfrey Fouljeam [the very cause of whose death he was], you shall see more strange matters than this. As for the proof of this history of Mark Barkworth, myself have heard it related of three or four several parties witness thereof; and such as desired more certainly herein, I refer them unto those that were then in the college of Valladolid, and saw him in this extremity, and heard him afterwards deliver the whole course of their proceedings with him in the Jesuit college as here is set down. Of which number some are priests who have, upon their faith and fidelity, delivered the story thus unto me [as after his own mouth], and their own eyes being witness to part of it." ^ After thus filling up the narrative of Blackfan, we can let him go on with his story for a while. " Well, a few days later one of the students ^ came to the minister saying that he had a great desire to serve under the standard of St. Benedict. The minister received him quietly, ' A Reply to Fr. Parsons^ Libel, pp. 69, 70. ' This was John White or Bradshaw, afterwards known as Fr. Augustine. 22 338 THE ENGLISH JESUITS and sent him to the confessor in order that he might examine the matter thoroughly, and see whether the vocation were from God or not. As he approved of it, the minister, who was then doing the duty of the absent rector, took him himself to the Royal Monastery of San Benito, and handed him over to the prior and other superiors with as much show of affection as possible. Not long after there came another singing the same tune, and like the other he was transferred to the order." What Blackfan passes over in two lines we are able to give in detail. This other student who sang " the same tune " was John Roberts.^ Lewis Owen, in The Running Register ; recording a True Relation of the States of the English Colleges, Seminaries, and Cloisters in all Foreign Parts, Together with a brief and compendious Discourse of the Lies, Practices, Cozen- ages, Impostures, and Deceits of all our English Monks, Friars, Jesuits, and Seminary Priests in general [1626], tells us the story of Roberts, who, it appears, was a relative of the writer. " When the student went off from the seminary, the Jesuits (knowing full well Roberts to be a turbulent spirit, and one that was like to cross them in their affairs here in England) repaired with all speed to the Lord Abbat of that abbey, and with open mouths exclaimed against Roberts, saying that he was a very deboyshed fellow ; a common mover and breeder of debates in their college, a notorious drunkard, a profane blasphemer and swearer, and withal one whom they suspected to be no good Catholic, but rather a spy or an intelligencer sent hither out of England, and that they had given him sundry private corrections for many heinous crimes and offences not fit to be nominated. But, in the end, when they perceived there was no hope of amendment in him, but rather that he grew daily to be worse and worse, they expulsed him out of their college, and gave him a sufficient viaticum to bring him to his country or some other part: protesting withal they did not speak this for any malice that they bare him, but because the Lord Abbat and the rest of those religious monks should not think hardly of them or any other English Catholics by reason of his lewd behaviour." 1 This was the Father Roberts who founded St. Gregory's Monastery at Douai, and suffered for his conscience, loth December 1610. BREAKING THE BARRIERS 339 The Abbat, of course, told this to Roberts, who, in defence, denied the charge in toto, and to prove it offered to go back to the college, where he knew he would be received. Said the Abbat : "It stands not with his {the Jesuit Superior's] reputation to entertain such a lewd fellow as he reports you to be ; and if he will this, you shall stay there some few days, and then come hither to me, and I will entertain you and as many students as shall come away with you." The trial was made successfully. Roberts was received back in the college with open arms, " and was in as great favour and grace with the Jesuits as formerly he had been." The Abbat in due time took him back, " demurring not a little at the unnatural and unchristian-like dealing of the English Jesuits towards their own countryman." ^ Blackfan takes up his parable once more : " About two months later when all the students were spending a holiday in the gardens belonging to the college by the riverside, when they had to return at night-time, it was found that four of their number were missing. These were anxiously sought for that night along the river bank and in all the neighbourhood, but they were not to be found. Next morning the father vice- Rector and the other fathers went out to the different monasteries to look for them ; but all in vain, for not a trace of them could be found anywhere. Next day, however, it was discovered that they had gone off to a certain farm in the suburbs which belonged to the Benedictines, and that they were there awaiting the pleasure of the Abbat, who had invited them to take the habit in his monastery." He then accuses the Benedictines of being " emulous of our glory and desiring also to put their sickle into this harvest" (the English Mission). And for this purpose they, according to him, enticed away the students. " These, seeing that they were so run after, began to be somewhat puffed up and to neglect the discipline of the house, or rather to despise it altogether. They began to get lax in their zeal for study and prayer, and to hold private meetings among themselves, and when they were rebuked for any fault they would give themselves insolent airs and answer the superiors back. The fathers of the Society were astonished ' See author's The English Black Monks of St. Benedict, vol. ii. pp. 11-15. 340 THE ENGLISH JESUITS at this new state of things ; and those who were charged with the discipline in the college redoubled their vigilance and care, trying in some cases to win them over with gentle words, and persuade them to come back to a better mind, and correcting others by imposing small penances on them to leam them self-restraint ; but all in vain, for they had themselves resolved on what they would do. " It happened then one day, when all was ripe for the tumult, that one of them who was a priest and was then bedellus of his class, whose office it was to ring the bell as the signal for going to lecture, deliberately neglected his duty, and when he was rebuked, answered, ' We don't want a lecture to-day.' This reply was naturally disapproved of, and he was told to do penance in the refectory at supper-time. But this he refused to do, and so the next day the penance was made a little heavier. However, as he absolutely and proudly refused to submit to it, and was altogether refractory, a discussion took place as to what had better be done with him. It was unanimously agreed that he should be separated from the rest and shut up in his own room, and there be brought by salutary meditations to recognise and acknowledge his fault, that he might make a more satisfactory repentance. A servant was sent to move his bed and other belongings into the place determined on, but when he found this out, he barricaded himself in his room and opposed the servant's entrance by vigorously brandishing a broom. The minister ran up to try and overawe him by his authority, but had to retire vanquished ; whereupon a certain father of robust temper, who had always loved a conflict and a triumph, at once rushed on the scene, and turning his back towards the adversary so that he might receive his blows on the safer place, threw himself on him, and got him upon his back upon the bed on which he had been standing. While he struggled with him to wrest the stick from his hands, the student called out so as to be heard all over the house, ' Help ! students, help ! they are offering violence to a priest ! ' At this cry all the birds of a feather flocked to the spot armed like soldiers, with sticks which they had designedly taken from the brooms, running hither and thither with noise and tumult just as if they BREAKING THE BARRIERS 341 had taken the town by storm and were flying on the spoil. They attacked the Rector and other fathers they met with terrible imprecations, and shouted that they were going off at once to the Nuncio. The Rector, lest the scandal should leak out, ordered the doors to be locked and hid the keys ; but towards evening he allowed the students to go where they would. He sent, however, a spy [explorator] after them to watch their movements. They made at once for the Benedictine monastery, and there the Abbat, having heard their story, bade them return in peace to the seminary while he did what he could at the Nuncio's,^ whither he went without delay. That same evening the Rector, Peter Rues, and Creswell the vice- Rector also went to the Nuncio, but they found him already prepossessed by the Abbat. He would hardly listen to them. The Rector ventured upon saying ' that His Holiness had not acted discreetly in permitting rebellious spirits of this sort to meddle in the affairs of the English Mission.' ' And so, forsooth ! ' exclaimed his illustrious Lordship, ' he would fain dictate to His Holiness what he ought to do in the government of the Church ! ' and at once he cries out, ' Bring fetters here that he may be chained and kept in strict custody till it be settled what shall be done with him ! ' And when the Rector in consternation at this sentence threw himself upon his knees and humbly prayed for pardon for his fault if he had com- mitted one, and Father Creswell joined in making many supplications, at last the Nuncio commanded, as though making a great concession, that he should be removed from the city as quickly as possible, and that another rector should be appointed in his place, which was done not so long after." Twelve students were at once received into the Benedictine Order, and within a few months they were joined by thirteen more. One of the twelve was the well-known Dom Leander Jones, the friend of Laud. That there was serious mismanage- ment cannot be doubted. During Creswell's time the number at Valladolid ran down from seventy-two to forty. Parsons, from Rome, watched events with dismay, and wrote to check Creswell (i2th September 1604): "I have found by long experience absolutely the best way to quiet and hold peaceable * The Nuncio was Gemnasco, who had had the trouble with the Jesuits at Alcala. 342 THE ENGLISH JESUITS our youths is to let them alone and be sparing in dealing with them, for the more solicitous and watchful we seem towards them (which they call jealousy) the worse they are." So bad, indeed, did things become that in 1607 the General had to send a special visitor. Creswell was soon removed. Being a favourite at the Spanish Court, he ultimately succeeded Parsons as Prefect of the Mission. A few words on the after history of the seminaries in the Peninsula. The Valladolid seminary was of little practical good to the English Catholics. The number of priests that it furnished to the Mission was very small ; and no incon- siderable number of the students became Jesuits. The weak point in the administration was to be found in the mutual jealousies which existed between the Spanish Jesuits in whose province the seminary was, and the English Jesuits, who rightly enough thought they were the more capable of dealing with their fellow-countrymen. From the beginning, and during all the disturbances we have dwelt on, the rectors were foreigners. Then illness from plague and from the insanitary condition of the house attacked the wretched students over and over again ; poverty pursued them, for the recent events had alienated their benefactors. There was even a dearth of bread. Discipline fell, and studies were neglected. When in 1608 Parsons heard of the state he sent for Blackfan, who was then in Rome as Confessor to the English college, and told him to go to Spain and save the seminary, which was at its last extremity. Blackfan tells us that when he arrived he found most of the students ill in bed, and the others pale, thin, squalid, and looking more like ghosts than men. By bringing youths from St Omer, which was a fruitful nursery for the seminary, the numbers were restored. But it is noteworthy that in 1 610, while Blackfan was again minister, a similar disturbance broke out ; but this time, according to our annalist, it was the Dominicans who " wanted to put their sickle into this harvest." Some more youths whom he describes as light-minded and no lovers of discipline left the seminary and joined the friars, and told the Dominician prior that there were others who dared not disclose their desire of following them lest they should be badly treated by the Jesuits. So off went a " grave " friar to BREAKING THE BARRIERS 343 the seminary, and threatened the Jesuits with all the pains and penalties of excommunication if they dared to interfere with the vocations. The Rector protested he had done nothing of the sort. But as six others promptly left, and as Fr. Blackfan was sent away to England, it is possible that " someone had blundered" again. It was not until 1614 that Philip III., hearing the college was in such a bad state, determined that for the future Englishmen only should preside over the institution. He wrote to Aquaviva to this effect, and in spite of much opposition from the Spanish Jesuits, succeeded in gaining his point. Fr. William Weston of Wisbeach and devil-hunting fame was appointed rector. There is little else to report. Blackfan returned in 161 6 as rector, and there is extant at Simancas a correspondence between him and Creswell concerning the latter's administration. There was but little love lost between the two. The whole correspond- ence is interesting and should see the light. The other seminaries are too insignificant to call for any further mention. But we may, before dismissing Blackfan, refer to his attempt to get hold of a new foundation that was being made at Lisbon. Don Pedro de Coutinho (1621—22), a noble Portuguese, was about to found another seminary; but it was to be, according to his express words, committed solely to the Clergy as administrators. In a letter to Cardinal Farnese he says that the Jesuits both at Madrid and Lisbon oppose the design of founding the seminary unless it be given over into their hands. They used threats, especially the Englishman, Father Francis Forcer, that they would secure it in spite of the founder's desires; therefore he writes to the Cardinal that it should be known in Rome that "he in no way desires the fathers of the Society to rule the college," and that if they are admitted under any pretext he will withdraw his gift.^ John Bennett, the agent for the Clergy in Rome, writes four months afterwards (31st July 1622) that in Rome the Jesuits were still intriguing to get the seminary, and had "persuaded a great man to inform the Congregation that the founder had changed his mind and granted them the government."* But, better informed, the ' Tierney, vol. iv. pp. cclviii-cclx. ^ Ibid. p. cclxi. 344 THE ENGLISH JESUITS cardinals ordered that the General of the Jesuits should be commanded to restrain his brethren. But this did not satisfy the Jesuits, who " wrought the Inquisitor General to help them to possess the college of Lisbon." ^ The disgraceful proceeding was brought before the Pope, who " spake like a good pastor and upright judge," and issued a decree eternally excluding the Jesuits by name from the seminary. While this was going on, a similar attempt at grsisping was proceeding at Madrid, where the Clergy had a small residence. Bennett reports (i8th December 1622): "This the Jesuits would take into their possession and give us a casafrofessa of theirs out of the town. They were busy valuing and measuring, and expected only answer from their General here to enter possession. ... I put our information hereof before His Holiness, and supplicated that such unlawful merchandising with other men's goods, without their consent, was not permitted. I have also a prohibition for this, and the General warned he attempt no such thing." ^ These accounts are useful eis showing the tendency of the Jesuit policy. In a defence of the Valladolid seminary, and, in fact, a general defence, a recent writer in The Month? after saying that " the exigency of the case before us requires that we should recognise faults in the Jesuits in their conduct towards others, and faults not of human frailty only," * takes his stand as follows : " The burthen of the adverse charges is that the Jesuits aimed at attaining powers which no combina- tion of circumstances could justify them in assuming, that they endeavoured to depress or set aside duly constituted authorities in order to have free scope for their usurped jurisdiction, and also that they made use of all means, even those that were unfair and dishonourable, in order to attain the ends they had in view. Such allegations cannot possibly be substantiated. The talk of their unscrupulousness and their depressing rivals has no foundation in anything that really existed in fact, and the assertion that they coveted powers which could never be justly theirs is also quite false as it stands. It bears, however, a certain similarity to the moderate indictment which can, I ' Ibid. p. cclxv. » Ibid. • No. 423 (September 1899). ♦ P. 242. BREAKING THE BARRIERS 345 think, be fairly urged against the fathers. There is a love of power which is holy and a readiness to take the lead which is commendable, and the Jesuits, while taking the lead in reform- ing abuses and advancing knowledge, can, so far, only deserve our praise. Their error was that they were sometimes im- perious or imprudent in their use of the power they had honourably acquired, or that they continued to maintain domi- nant positions, which an emergency had quite justified their assuming, when that justifying emergency was passing away." ^ Writing for a particular class of readers. The Month adopts an optimistic tone, which, however, an intimate knowledge of the story as a whole does not allow us to admit. But we must say that, by its valuable admissions, it now compares favourably with that adopted by the earlier Jesuit apologists, who would not allow the least possibility of " ours " not being in all things perfect. Parsons saw his house of cards tumbling down. But this wonderful man (for whatever judgment one may pass upon him and his designs, no one can refrain from admiring his entire devotion to the one end of his life, and his unwearied activity in carrying out what he conjectured was to that purpose), this wonderful man, I say, never during all these toils and turmoils lost heart. In a letter to a friend (25th July 1 601), he says : " I hope their malignity shall never break my sleep." ^ He found time during this period, not only to publish the Brief Apologie, a Latin version of the same book, the Manifestation of the Folly, works of the controversy of the moment, but also to bring out a new edition with con- siderable addition of Sander's work, De Schismate Anglicana, to which he joined a most valuable supplement, the Journal of Edward Rishton, for five years a prisoner in the Tower. A controversial work entitled A Temperate Ward-word of the Turbulent and Seditious Watch-word of Sir Francis Hastings, Knight, appeared in 1 599 ; and two years after An Apologetical Epistle : directed to the Right Honourable Lords and others of Her Majesty's Privy Council. The next year was marked with The Warn-word to Sir Francis Hastings^ Wast-word. ' P. 243. 2 Oliver's Collections, p. 162. 346 THE ENGLISH JESUITS Whereunto is adjoined a briefe rejection of an insolent , . , Minister marked with the letter 0. E} From Garnett's corre- spondence we see about this time there was a talk of a Latin translation of his Book of Resolutions, a book of which, by the way, Parsons praises anonymously : " Only one book among them, namely, that of the Christian Directory or Resolution, is known to have gained more souls to God than all these men joined together can ever hope to do, etc." ^ His political schemes, too, had come to naught, even when he added the r61e of match-maker to his other occupations. After giving up the Infanta as successor to the English Crown, he wanted to marry Arabella Stuart to Cardinal Farnese, who was a descendant of John of Gaunt. The spectacle of that " grave and reverend man," Father Parsons, thus disposing of the English Crown, tickled the sense of the ridiculous in Rome. A paper was found one morning on the statue of Pasquino which informed Maforio : " If there be any man that will buy the kingdom of England, let him repair to a merchant in a black square cap in the city, and he shall have a very good pennyworth thereof." The Jesuit had failed. Clement VIII., never very friendly to the Society, had found that he had been misled, and the quiet succession of James caused the Pope to look with an eye of displeasure upon the man who had led him into so many false positions. Summoning Aquaviva to his presence, he announced he had received so many complaints about Fr. Parsons that he was determined to banish him from the court and city of Rome. It was probably by the address or the warning of the General that Parsons was able to evade the actual sentence of exile. On the score of health he left Rome and went to Naples, where he remained until some months after the death of Clement Vlll. (March 1605). The exact cause, as well as the precise date, of this disgrace is difficult to discover; but it is known that it was at the instance of the French ambassador that he was banished. It also appears that Parsons was sent away when Clement was hoping to negotiate with James. The Nuncio Del Bufalo writes to this 1 Matthew Sutcliffe, Dean of Exeter. " A Briefe Apologie, p. 188. BREAKING THE BARRIERS 347 effect to Cardinal Aldobrandini (23rd February 1604).^ But Parsons himself does not seem to have quite known which particular one of his intrigues had been the last straw to break the Pontiff's patience. In a letter from Garnett to Parsons (4th and 21st October 1605) reference is made to a story that "Father Parsons procured Mr. Thomas Fitzherbert to be Pope's secretary (and) extracteth first an oath that Mr. Fitzherbert should discover all the secrets ; which oath prevailing against all the other second oaths taken to the Pope himself, divers secrets were known, which Clement knew must needs be discovered by his secretary Fitzherbert, who either by torture or fear of the same, disclosed his former oath to Father Parsons, who thereupon fled to Naples." Garnett describes this story as a '• jest." ^ There is probably this amount of truth in it, namely, that Parsons was known to have an incurable itching to meddle in all affairs ; and it is by no means improbable that he directed Fitzherbert, who was induced to consult him. In May 1605 Parsons asks his General for permission to return ; and in a letter to a friend he says : " Two points only now I stand upon, as you shall see by my letter to Father General, — the first that I may have license to return presently if I wax worse; but if I grow better, and that Father General will have me stay abroad, that you get out of him upon what grounds, that is, who are the causes, to wit, Spain, France, the Pope, etc.; how long it is meant, what I may answer to them that do urge me in that point: whether he will not be content that I use some diligence to remove these obstacles; and the like."^ Two things seem clear from the above — Father Parsons was really ill at the present time; and Aquaviva acquiesced in the necessity of the exile. It is during this period that some of the following works of Father Parsons were probably written : A Treatise of the Three Conversions of England, containing an Examination of the Calendar or Catalogue of Protestants Saints . . . devised by Fox, by N. D. Preface dated November 1603. This work 1 Barhevini MSS. xxxi. vol. 75. ' Tierney, vol. iv. p. cv. ' Ibid. p. cv. note. 348 THE ENGLISH JESUITS appeared in two divisions. Then follows A Review of Ten Public Disputations or Conferences held . . . under King Edward and Queen Mary, by N. D., 1604; and A Revelation of the Trial made before the King of France upon the year 1600 between the Bishop of Evereux and the Lord Plessis Momay, by N. D., 1 604. Clement VIII. was succeeded by Leo XI. (ist April 1605), who also was not friendly to the Society; and during his short reign (only twenty-seven days) Parsons remained in exile. But on the election of Paul V. (Camillo Borghese), the former vice-protector of the English college (i6th May 1605), he obtained leave to return, and found in the new Pontiff an old friend, who allowed the Jesuit to regain some of his influence in the Curia. Before closing this chapter it will be well to carry on the subject with which it began. Some little time before the Plot, the English Benedictine monks of the Spanish Congregation obtained in the town of Douai a house, and formed therein a community, which in the course of centuries has found a home at St. Gregory's Abbey, Downside, Bath. This founda- tion in the immediate neighbourhood of the English college, which was now presided over by his vowed ally, alarmed Par- sons, who saw in it the destruction of all his plans regarding that college. He set Worthington, the president, and Fathers Coniers and Baldwin to prevent the monks from settling in Douai. They attacked the Benedictines in Brussels at the archducal court, and when the cause was moved to Madrid, Creswell undertook the case. In Rome itself Parsons led on the opposition. He drew up a memorial, which contains as many false charges against the Benedictines as it does clauses. One of his letters to Worthington at this period has been preserved: " Right Rev. Sir, — I have received {yours) of the 29th of October, in answer whereof I hoped I should have been able to have satisfied you of some resolution concerning your chief suit between your neighbours and your college ; but hitherto nothing being as yet determined, I must refer you to the next, for we think certainly the matter will be ended now out of BREAKING THE BARRIERS 349 hand. The letters you sent by the last are received and are well liked. If the others you mention in these come in time {added in the margin, now they be come in very good time) they will be to good purpose, if not Almighty God will supply with the rest, for we have had letters enough to show the truth, and we doubt not but Almighty God will work by them that which shall be to His greater glory ; although not perhaps in such sorts as seems best to us. " Concerning F. Gibbons ; ^ I am very glad to see him willing to spend his labours in reading that lesson of \divinityY\ you mention in the college. And as I am desirous to please you either in that or any other sort, so if his superiors there be contented, I shall be glad you may enjoy his labours, which I know his learning and experience will make very profitable to your scholars, etc." ^ But even with a more than friendly Pope, he was not the power he had been. In spite of high-handed methods (Giffard removed from his deanery as a friend to the Benedictines,^ the Nuncio in Flanders cashiered, and Lord Arundel's troop disbanded for having a Benedictine as chaplain-general), he failed. The Benedictines settled at Douai after all, waxed strong, and opened other houses, and were able to assist the Clergy in their struggle for liberty. From Parsons' standpoint, he was perfectly justified in his opposition to the Benedictines. They were the one element in England which at that moment could successfully hinder his projects. Feeling that his methods were the only ones for regaining England, he felt himself bound to oppose the introduction of other orders and other methods. The Benedictines were particularly dangerous to his projects, for they had the glamour of tradition round 1 Gibbons was the confessor. He evidently was proposed by Worthington as a professor. ' Catholic Miscellany, vol. ii. p. 206. '^ " It is very ill taken here that the Archduke hath banished Giffard from his deanery, which Mr. Paget reporteth with very great spleen towards the Archduke, pretending the only reason thereof to be Baldwin and Owen, two arch-traitors, and for no other cause saving that he was much affected to the Queen of Scots, mother of His Majesty that now is. The truth in his absence is much lamented, as of a special intelligencer for these parts which themselves here now are not ashamed to confess." Richard Blount to Parsons (14th July 1606), Foley, vol. i. p. 63. 350 THE ENGLISH JESUITS about them, and their methods savoured not of the new ways.^ His actions were logical and consistent if we grant his premises. But unless we can adopt them we shall fail to recognise in him one who can safely be chosen as a hero. 1 The Jesuits' dislike of the Benedictine Order is strange, considering all that their Founder owed to the monks both at Montserrat and Monte Cassino. CHAPTER XII THE OATH One result of the Powder Treason was to give James and his Government an excuse to renew, with more rigour, the persecution of the unfortunate English Catholics. An Oath of Allegiance was framed and passed by both Houses, and in it there was inserted by Archbishop Bancroft, at the suggestion of Christopher Perkins, an ex-Jesuit, a special clause denying those temporal prerogatives of the Holy See which the Society advocated. The words of this Oath, which caused much misery and discussion, are as follows : — " I, A. B., do truly and sincerely acknowledge, profess, testify, and declare in my conscience before God and the world, that our sovereign lord King James is lawful and rightful King of this realm and all other His Majesty's dominions and countries ; and that the Pope, neither of himself, nor by any authority of the Church or See of Rome, or by any other means with any other, hath any power or authority to depose the King or to dispose of any of His Majesty's kingdoms or dominions, or to authorise any foreign princes to invade or annoy him or his countries ; or to discharge any of his subjects of their allegiance and obedience to His Majesty ; or to give licence or leave to any of them to bear arms, raise tumults, or to offer any violence or hurt to His Majesty's royal person, state or government, or to any of His Majesty's subjects within His Majesty's dominion. " Also I swear from my heart, that, notwithstanding any declaration or sentence of excommunication or deprivation made or granted or to be made or granted by the Pope or his successors, or by any authority derived or pretended to be derived from him or his See, against the said King, his heirs 352 THE ENGLISH JESUITS or successors, or any absolution of the said subjects from their obedience, I will bear faith and true allegiance to His Majesty, his heirs and successors, and him and them I will defend to the uttermost of my power against all conspiracies and attempts whatsoever which shall be made against him or their persons, their crown and dignity, by reason or colour of any such sentence or declaration or otherwise, and will do my best endeavour to disclose and make known unto His Majesty, his heirs and successors, all treasons and traitorous conspiracies, which I shall know or hear of to be against him or any of them. And I do further swear that I do front my heart abhor, detest, and abjure as impious and heretical this damnable doctrine and position — that princes, which may be excommunicated or deprived by the Pope, may be deposed or murdered by their subjects or any other whatsoever. And I do believe and in my conscience am resolved that neither the Pope nor any other person whatsoever hath power to absolve me of this oath or any part thereof, which I acknowledge by good and lawful authority to be lawfully ministered unto me ; and do renounce all pardons and dispensations to the contrary. " And these things I do plainly and sincerely acknowledge and swear, according to these express words by me spoken, and according to the plain and common sense and under- standing of the same words; without any equivocation or mental evasion or secret reservation whatsoever. And I do make this recognition and acknowledgment heartily, willingly, and truly, upon the true faith of a Christian. — So help me God." An examination of this oath with the circumstances of the case will enable us to understand the action of various parties. James had been trying in vain to get the Pope to promise he would not excommunicate him, and it may be noticed that in this form of oath the spiritual power of the Pope is noways denied ; only the temporal claims.^ But these temporal claims were the real point at issue. They were, so ' Foley, however, says : "In this oath they were made to swear — (i) 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 " (ii. p. 47S)- It is difficult to imagine that Foley ever read the actual text or expected his readers would. THE OATH 353 some held, included in the general commission of super- intendence which was given to the Vicar of Christ. Hence to reject them was to reject the ordinance of God, and to question the Pope's absolute right to dispose of kingdoms for the benefit of religion was rather to broach a heresy than to hazard an opinion. Says the Jesuit controversialist Bellarmine : " Most certain it is that, in whatsoever words the Oath is conceived by the adversaries of the faith in that kingdom, it tends to this end, that the authority of the Head of the Church, in England, may be transferred from the successor of St. Peter to the successor of King Henry Vlll.^ It is worth while noticing that the Jesuits at that date upheld the rights of the people as against kings, but ignored them when it came to the Pope's right of disposing of countries. While for the sake of peace the King of France was urging that gentleness should be shown to the King, the Jesuits in Flanders had been urging on the Pope to severe action; during the sitting of that Parliament which passed the Bill imposing the Oath two Jesuits from Brussels arrived in Rome to stir up the Pope.^ He had lately sent a secret messenger to the King, and the mission had failed. He also had written to the King, but his letters met with no reply. So after this rebuff, Paul v., the Borghese, was in no humour to resist the im- portunities of the Jesuits. Besides this we must take into account that there was within the Church, especially in the northern nations, a growth of a new spirit which caused alarm and has to be reckoned with in estimating the political struggle between the spiritual and temporal powers. An acute observer remarks : " There are two kinds of movements and apparent growth always going on in the Church ; one is the fermentation 1 Bellarmine, De Rom. Pont. lib. v. c. i. ' Tierney, vol. iv. p. clxx. " We know as a matter of fact," de Villerory writes (28th June 1606) to De la Boderie, "that the Jesuits who are with the Archduke of Flanders have lately held a meeting and resolved to complain strongly to the Pope of the treatment Catholics receive in the kingdoms of the said King [James), and they pretend to prove that the indulgence and patience with which His Holiness treats him increase the boldness of the authors of such counsels, make the lot of Catholics worse, and will end in their entire destruction. They have sent for this purpose an express messenger to the Pope, one of the chief men of their company, whose exertions will without doubt have effect and will cause an outburst of something extraordinary " (De la Boderie, Ambassade en Angleterre, tome i. pp. 150-200). 23 354 THE ENGLISH JESUITS of a moribund school, — for a religious school never cries more loudly than in its agony, never flings more strongly than in its death-throes ; the other is the secret undergrowth, the silent advance of thought, discomforting and ousting the old opinions, which in their unsteadiness cry so loudly for protection, and employ the relics of their force at the dictation of their terror ; for the artificial faith in a dying doctrine becomes fanatical, because passion is subject to reason." ^ So loosely was the form of Oath worded that there were expressions at which a timid conscience might well hesitate. For instance : the Oath itself was ambiguous and denied the power of anyone to dispense with it ; even the lawgiver himself could not release from this Oath, which is absurd. But the intention of that lawgiver, however, is very plain. James in the Premonition to his ApoLogie says that he was careful " that nothing should be contained in this Oath except the profession of natural allegiance and civil and temporal obedience, with a promise to resist to all contrary and uncivil violence." When the draft was submitted to him, he struck out a clause repudiat- ing the Pope's spiritual right of excommunication. When the Oath was first published it was received by the Catholics in various ways. While some admitted it as it stood,* others would only take it with qualifications. The Jesuits at the beginning set their faces so consistently against it that the dispute which ensued was called the " Jesuit Controversy." Blackwell, who first opposed the Oath, changed his mind ; and at a meeting held in June 1 606 announced that it might be taken safely.* The Jesuits sent the matter ' Simpson's Campion, p. 489. ' V^xsom'\n\i& Judgment of a Catholic Englishman i^os. 30, 3l)writes: "As for that multitude of priests and laics which, he {the King) saith, ' have freely taken the Oath ' ... to deny simply and absolutely that the Pope, as supreme pastor of the Catholic Church, hath any authority left him by Christ, either directly or indirectly, with cause or without cause, in never so great a necessity, or for never so great and public an utility of the Christian religion to proceed against any prince whatsoever temporally for his restraint or amendment, or to permit other princes to do the same, this I suppose was never their meaning that took the Oath ; for that they should thereby contradict the general consent of all Catholic divines, and confess that God's providence for the conservation and preservation of His Church and kingdom upon earth, had been defectuous." ' His argument was, that in present circumstances, for the Pope to depose the King would be for destruction and not for edification; and as the Pope has no power THE OATH 355 to Rome, where already even before the Oath was passed in Parliament Parsons was at work to secure its condemnation. He drew up a memorial to Cardinal Bellarmine (i8th May 1 606), in which he declares that the " pernicious Oath " is taken from the doctrine of the appellant priests, thirteen of whom, just before Elizabeth's death, had signed a protestation of allegiance which gave to God the things that were God's, and to Csesar what belonged to him. There was at this moment going on in Rome another of those weary appeals from the Clergy for bishops ; and it was too favourable an opportunity for damaging their cause to let it pass. Parsons suggested that Cecil and Champney, the agents, should be made