Facts Illustrative of the times of Elizabeth Queen Of England. Part 34.

Jesuits In Conflict: Or Historic Facts Illustrative of the labours of the English Mission and Province Of The Society Of Jesus. In the times of Queen Elizabeth and her successors. By a member Of The Society Of Jesus.

GEORGE GILBERT, S.J. PART VI.

"A certain English gentleman-pirate, lately returned with a booty of more than two millions, taken in the West Indies. The Spanish Ambassador reclaimed the spoil in the King's name, but the Queen gave the shuffling answer that the King of Spain had given harbour to the Pope's ships on their passage to Ireland. She asked, moreover, why the Pope, without being harmed, attacked her kingdom in this way. He answered that he rather wondered that the Pope did not attempt to do more against her who had treated him so abominably, not only in refusing him all his ecclesiastical rights, which from the most ancient times were allowed to the Holy See by the Kings of England, but also by libels, sermons, lewd pictures, and many other ways, by which his authority was defamed and brought into contempt. He said more to the same effect, and the Queen was silent then; but afterwards said to a nobleman that the Pope had written to her that he was prepared to approve the whole Protestant service, if she would restore him his title of Supreme Head of the Church. But in these parts there is often talk of these kinds of pretended letters.

"I keep myself safe here in London by frequent change of place. I never remain more than two days in one spot, because of the strict searches made for me. I am quite overwhelmed with business, to which I am obliged to devote the whole day, from early morning till midnight, after I have said Mass and Office, and preached, sometimes twice in the day. Therefore I hope for reinforcements, both from our Society and from the Pope's College.

"All Catholics here, lift up their hands and thank God and His Holiness for founding such a College at Rome, beyond all their hopes; and they beseech His Holiness, by the bowels of the mercy of our Saviour, to defend the College and to enlarge it for the needs of the present time. 1

"Two days ago a Priest called Clifton was led in chains through the streets, and he walked with so •cheerful a countenance that the people wondered. When he saw this he began to laugh heartily, at which the folks were still more struck, and asked him why he was the only one to laugh at his own sad case, for which everybody else pitied him. He answered, it was because he was the gainer in the business. In the beginning of this persecution there were some people in a certain county who were frightened, and promised to go to the Protestant -church, but their wives stood out against them, and threatened to leave them if they, for human respect, left off their obedience to God and the Church. Many like things have taken place amongst boys, who for this cause have separated- themselves from their parents."

In October, 1580, Father Campion and Father Parsons returned towards London, to meet and confer once more, and to compare the results of their labours.

Father Parsons and his faithful friend, George Gilbert, reached London in the same month some days before Father Campion, for whom he tried to find a convenient lodging, but the persecution was become so hot and the search after him so close that it was thought unsafe for Father Campion to come to town. He therefore stayed at William Griffith's house, near Uxbridge, and here the meeting was held. Father Parsons' tour had been through the counties of Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, and Derby. Father Campion had taken Berks, Oxford, and Northampton. In settling the plans for their next expedition it was resolved that Father Parsons should for the present remain in or near London, because he was not as yet so diligently sought for as Father Campion, whose protest or "brag" had kindled such a flame throughout the land, and was now in everybody's hands, furnishing almost the only topic at ordinary tables and public meetings. He had been asked for by the Norfolk and Lancashire Catholics, whom he had not reached on his first tour. Lancashire was fixed upon as the remotest from London and containing the greatest number of Catholics.

Whilst this conference was being held in Uxbridge, in October, 1580, a new proclamation, the third since the entrance of the Jesuits into England, was issued by the Council for their discovery and apprehension. This caused so great a difficulty in Father Campion's passage through the various counties towards the north, in consequence of the constables, pursuivants, searchers, and other catch-poles, that he was forced to stay more upon the way than he had purposed, and he took occasion of one of these enforced times of leisure to write to the Very Reverend Father General an account of his first tour. 2

Following out the object of this volume, and especially seeing the close connection between the real subject of the history and Father Campion, who was furnished by him with the sinews for this desperate warfare, equally with Father Parsons, it is impossible to omit the present opportunity of introducing this very beautiful letter of that sweet and most glorious martyr. In fact it would rather seem that Mr. Gilbert accompanied Father Campion part of the way at least on his journey towards the north, after the meeting at Uxbridge. Finding himself more than ever beset, he was obliged, as we have just noticed, to tarry a long while on the way. " In fact," says Mr. Simpson, "I lost sight of him till about Christmastide, when Gervase Pierrepoint [one of Gilbert's Association, and who had accompanied Father Campion on his first tour] took him to the house of his brother, Henry Pierrepoint of Holme Pierrepoint and Thoresby, Notts, the ancestor of the Earls of Kingston; there he remained till the Tuesday after Twelfth Day, when he and his guide went to Mr. Langford, where they spent the Thursday and Friday; thence to Lady Fuljambes of Walton, Derbyshire, and thence to Mr. Powdrells of West Hallam, Derby, a famous resort, even a century later, of Priests, where they were joined by George Gilbert." 3 How long he remained does not appear, but Pierrepoint soon after returned, and then Mr. Tempest led Father Campion into Yorkshire. Mr. Gilbert's appearance at Mr. Powdrells' may only have been as a visit to Father Campion on some important matters relative to the undertaking. We may add here, that amongst the immense labours of Father Campion on his protracted and perilous journey to Lancashire, he stayed about twelve days at the house of Mr. William Harrington, of Mount St. John, brother-in-law of his guide, Mr. Tempest, during which time he was occupied in writing his famous book, De Hceresi Desperata, which afterwards appeared as his Decern Rationes. One of his host's six sons, William, was so struck by the conduct of the blessed martyr, that three years afterwards he fled over seas to Rheims, from whence in due time he returned to England a Priest, and himself suffered martyrdom at Tyburn also, February 18, 1594, for the Catholic religion.

1 This was the English College, Rome, under the care of the Society of Jesus until 1773.

2 Simpson's Campion, pp. 181, 182. Mr. Simpson also gives a copy of Father Campion's letter, from which the one presently given is taken.

3 Simpson's Campion, p. 187.

Facts Illustrative of the times of Elizabeth Queen Of England. Part 8.

Jesuits In Conflict: Or Historic Facts Illustrative of the labours of the English Mission and Province Of The Society Of Jesus. In the times of Queen Elizabeth and her successors. By a member Of The Society Of Jesus.

THOMAS POUNDE, OF BELMONT, S.J. Part V.

" As often as the opportunity of a Priest allowed it, he would go to confession and Holy Communion on all Sundays and festivals, and frequently in the week, and he was the cause of others doing the same, very frequently complaining to his friends, that Catholics incurring so small a risk to their temporal interests (as it seemed to him), and standing in such great peril of their souls, should so seldom frequent those divine mysteries.

"The episcopal city of Winchester lay not far distant from his house. Happening to hear that many poor Catholic recusants (so the heretics call all those who refuse fellowship with them) lay concealed there, and that a certain aged Priest also dwelt in that city, but who seldom said Mass, and much more seldom communicated them, he quickly betook himself thither, examined into their state and mode of life, provided dinner for them after Mass and Holy Communion, and gave alms to the Priest, exhorting him to celebrate more frequently for the purpose of communicating the Catholics. A little after the returning markets, and at no small expense, he would buy a large stock of cheese, and distribute two or three of these to each of the poor people, stipulating that if they did not choose to respond with greater fervour to the divine privilege, and the grace bestowed upon them, they might regard this as done out of friendship.

" It afforded him wonderful joy and consolation of soul when at times he beheld twelve or sixteen young men of rank, whom he had collected together, hearing Mass, which he had secretly procured to be said in his private oratory, and going to Holy Communion with him.

" He was so assiduous in almsgiving, that besides the daily occasions of beneficence, which he prosecuted in a wonderful manner, he would esteem it a favour if any one gave him information of any Catholic labouring under distress; having always on his lips those words of St Paul, Maxime erga domesticos fidei —'Especially towards the household of faith.' Hence, reckoning as nothing what he was himself able to do, he would most earnestly beg of any of his more wealthy friends, alms for the suffering or incarcerated Catholics, with whom the prisons in London were crowded. I remember his once composing an entire treatise (addressed as a thank-offering to a certain Catholic), expressing his opinion that almsgiving is often beneficial to heretics themselves, because by softening their hearts, their ears are more open to the truth. This treatise he sent for perusal to his most Catholic relation, the Earl of Southampton, who without comparison was then the most illustrious and leading Catholic in England, and a great supporter of the Faithful.

" I must not omit an arrangement which he made, and although it could not be carried out, it was a strong proof of his love of, and great desire for, the Society. When he was recently apprehended, and was ignorant of what the judges would decide regarding him, he was so composed in mind as immediately to make his will, in which, besides the rest of his property, which he desired to be distributed amongst the poor imprisoned Catholics, he gave ^300 to that House or College of the Society in which I might then be, for thither he himself, should this ever be possible, hoped also to be received.

" He daily strove to reconcile enemies; to convert heretics to the true faith; schismatics to a sincere profession of the faith and Catholic practices, with such success, that within a few months (even after such imprisonment) nearly twenty of both sexes, of various ages and conditions in life, were converted by his labours from schismatical tepedity to Catholic piety, and to the bosom of the holy Roman Catholic Church.

"At this period, being now relieved from prison, in the renewed hope of being able in a short time to make his intended journey, he resolved to spend some days, together with the rest of his companions, in prayer and fasting, in order that he might more auspiciously enter upon so important a work, and with greater fervour. I heard him say that he had intended to spend two or three months in Flanders and France, and if he could there pick up young men of good promise, and of his own stamp, to take them with him to Rome, at his own expense, and offer them, with himself, to the Society. He entertained I know not what hopes of converting a certain heretic in London, deeming it a thing very grateful to God, and fitting to render his undertaking auspicious, if, in the meantime, pending the necessary arrangements for his journey, he might by the way effect this good work. He spent that night, therefore, as secretly as possible (so he thought) in the house of the Protestant, for the sake of exhorting and instructing him; but as his labour and pains seemed to be thrown away, with this idea he prepared to leave the house the following day, when, lo! he was unexpectedly apprehended by the pursuivants, taken before the pseudo-Bishop of London, and by him committed to prison.

"His courage of soul on this occasion was remarkable, for when he was cut off from so great a hope of his journey, and exposed to such manifest danger of life (many writings and pamphlets being found upon him by which the heretics would be able to convict him of high treason), yet was he nothing alarmed, nothing changed, but wished all to be referred ad majorem Dei gloriam, and to the honour of the Catholic Church, testifying that he, and all his, depended upon the Divine will and Providence. This tended to confirm him in the esteem and good opinion of many, who, as in the former times, never remembered to have observed in him any sign of trouble or dejection of heart, so now they found that these kinds of imperfections were equally remote from his breast.

"The Protestant in whose house he was seized, observing all these things, and struck with veneration at his constancy and piety, at the same time reflecting that all this had happened to him on his account, returning home was converted, and embraced the Catholic faith, and after a few months though with greater difficulty his wife, and not long after his daughters followed his example.

" It was no obscure mark of a sincere conscience in one seeking only the glory of God, that on the pseudo-bishop offering to liberate him if he would promise in his presence just to go once to the church, or to hear a sermon, he replied that, if he could not gain his liberty but by the offence of God and scandalizing his neighbour, he would prefer that his soul should be torn from his body rather than that his body should be released on such terms.

" After six months, at the intervention of the said Earl of Southampton, he was liberated from prison, with leave to go to any part within the kingdom he wished, bail being given to appear within twenty days whenever called upon, and not to meddle with matters of religion, or to quit the realm. He, however, as though he felt himself as secure as formerly from all dangers, went about with greater fervour than ever, strengthening the weak and confirming the strong. Wherefore, after sixteen months, he was summoned to Winchester by the bishop of that city, together with his highly respectable neighbour, George Cotton, Mr. Henry Udall, Mr. Henry Sheldon, and not a few others of his county, men of high family (this, however, I did not see myself, but received it from others who were present, and were very fervent in their commendation of him). And when before the bishop, and a great assembly of spectators, he rendered so brilliant a reason for his faith in the presence of them all, and so severely rebuked the bishop himself, that he was utterly unable, for very rage and confusion, to say a word in reply. The rest of them, no doubt, animated by his powerful eloquence and address, behaved most firmly; so that many who had flocked thither, amazed at the unusual spectacle of so many respectable men placed in such circumstances, left the court favourably inclined to Catholicism.

Facts Illustrative of the times of Elizabeth Queen Of England. Part 7.

Jesuits In Conflict: Or Historic Facts Illustrative of the labours of the English Mission and Province Of The Society Of Jesus. In the times of Queen Elizabeth and her successors. By a member Of The Society Of Jesus.

THOMAS POUNDE, OF BELMONT, S.J. Part IV.

'bishop' Horne

Now, when Horne found himself in a dilemma between the necessity of replying to what he was ignorant of, or of remaining silent and disgraced before so numerous a court, he ran away from the question ; and, as though led off by zeal and the obligation of sustaining the dignity of his position, he broke out into insults, and turned upon Pounde a volume of abuse of the worst kind that an angry man knows how to utter. Our confessor, on the contrary, was as composed in countenance as in soul; and, as though the storm was not meant for him, mildly begged of the bishop an answer in reply to his argument, adding to his own, the request of the rest, who took courage by his example. The Catholics made a stir in the court and applauded, while the heretics, not by whispers only, expressed astonishment at the bishop's malice. Horne became like one demented, and though he spoke, yet he understood not what he said, uttering his words incoherently and indistinctly, as one gurgling; and it rather seemed to be a number of spirits in him, than really himself, sending fourth sounds all at one and the same time out of one and the same mouth. The prisoners appeared before him no more, neither at that or any subsequent time; because the bishop, grown wise at his own cost, after retaining them for a couple of months to suffer in divers prisons, to avoid any further adventure with Pounde, handed him and the rest over to the arm of the secular judges, who, being doubtful as to the Queen's wishes regarding the Catholic laymen in general, remanded them to a prison in London. This prison was the Marshalsea, as appears by a list of prisoners there amongst the State Papers, Dom. Eliz., 1580, Vol. 140, No. 40. "Prisoners in the Marshalsea, Thomas Pound, Gent, sent in by a warrant from the Bisshop of Winchester for Papistry the xith of Marche, ano. 1576."

According to Father More, the following were then the most celebrated prisons in London, 1 viz., three at the three gates of the City—at the gate called Newgate; at that called Lud, from one Luddi, to whom some refer the origin of the City itself; and at the gate called of the house, Gate-house, Westminster, formerly the Western gate of the Monastery. On the other side the Thames there were five—the Bench, or the seat, of the King, King's-bench; that of the chief Magistrate's, called the Marshalsea, or the seat of the Mareshall; the Hall of Winchester, commonly called the Clink; the White Lion, and the Counter (house of reckoning, Nomisterion or Computorium). There were three others scattered through the City—the Fleet, so called from a running stream or ditch of water; another Nomisterion or Counter (in the Poultry), and St. Bridget's Fountain, in which debtors and vagrants were confined; lastly, at the eastern extremity of the City, a projecting fortress, called the Tower of London, which was used for, the confinement of delinquents of the higher class, traitors, assassins, and the greater offences. Here Pounde was confined three times, and spent altogether three years in it. He found it more like a sepulchre than a prison• he was immured in underground cells, frozen, damp, and stinking, very small, and without a single breathing-hole to admit a ray of light. To Newgate, for the most part, were committed robbers, murderers, witches, and the common sink of all the rogues of London. Our confessor found no prison so odious as this was.

Of what happened to him in the various prisons in which he accomplished his continued martyrdom of thirty years, he is stated by Father Bartoii to have left behind him some precious recollections in a daily journal of fifty chapters, which has been most probably lost.

We now proceed to notice how God was pleased to strengthen His servant as a preparation for his long martyrdom, redoubling his courage and consoling him by bestowing upon him the greatest favour he could desire upon earth, which was to be admitted into the Society of Jesus, and as far as he could do so in his various prisons, and ultimately at Belmont, his own native place, to live as a Religious, like ours in the Novitiate and Colleges. In 1575, Thomas deputed to Rome his friend Stephens to lay before our Very Reverend Father General his long standing desire, and his humble petition to be admitted amongst his sons. He prayed his Paternity "not to refuse this favour because far away and unknown, seeing that whilst God had called him to the Society, though known to him only by report, he had at the same time given him reasons for choosing it; that the Society would not refuse him, though it was unknown to him otherwise than by the account Stephens had given him; that should it ever happen to him that he should become his, and get his foot out of prison and out of England, his Paternity should see him kneeling at his feet; as to the rest, the last of all, though in the love of a son, he was, in the obedience of a subject, indeed amongst the first; and that, should it please God so to honour him as to permit him to die for the confession of the Catholic faith, a thing so imminent, it would be but just that he should in death, as in life, be totally his." With this good embassage, Stephens arrived in Rome: his loyalty to his dear friend, and his fidelity to him as his servant, leave us no room to doubt but that he duly laid the case before the Father General, though, for whatever cause, without success as regards Pounde's petition. He (Stephens) was more fortunate in conducting his own cause, which was the same as that of his patron, for he pleaded it so efficaciously as to obtain permission to be clothed a novice at S. Andrea's on the 20th of October of the same year, 1575.

Three years later, upon renewed and more cogent entreaties on the part of Pounde, Stephens presented in writing to the same Very Reverend Father General, so admirable and well attested an account of the life, the virtues, and other remarkable qualities of Pounde which rendered him a worthy candidate for admission into the Society, that within a few days his petition was granted, and in so extraordinary a case he was able to be dispensed from the ordinary laws of the Society. The following is a translation of a copy of the original in the Archives de l'Etat (Public Record Office), Brussels, varia S.J. (in the valuable collection of Rev. Father Richard Cardwell, Collectio Cardwelli, vol. L, p. 16, et seq., Stonyhurst Collection). This interesting document deserves to be given in full, although some apology must be made for a few occasional short repetitions of facts recorded, which have been introduced by the historians from whom this Life has been partly compiled, and which cannot well be erased without interfering with the thread of the narrative.

"I.H.S. sit nobis I.H.S.

"The Petition of Mr. Thomas Pounde to the Very Reverend Father General of the Society of Jesus, with a testimonial of his life and conversation.

"Rev. Father in Christ,—Your Paternity knows by name Mr. Thomas Pounde, an Englishman, distinguished by his relationship to the Earl of Southampton; who, when twelve years ago, being summoned by the Queen to Court, enjoyed great influence and favour with Her Majesty, and was detained there in promoting Court plays, games, and dances, and other such like worldly vanities.

"After a few years the divine mercy efficaciously operated in him, and, led by a singular spirit of penitence, withdrew from the Court and all its concerns, and, in the house of a certain relation of his, far away, where, at first indeed, in concealment for two years, he atoned for his past life in pious reading, in watchings, and prayers. But shortly after, without remitting anything of his penitential practices, but mixing somewhat more familiarly in society, in this manner of life showed such examples and proofs of the orthodox truth that he gained many souls, and sought by every means that mode of life, by following which he could the better and more efficaciously employ himself in the divine service and the good of his neighbour.

"In consequence of having read letters of ours from the Indies, and hearing the good fame of the Society, he resolved, after consulting with Father Henry Alvarez, an English Priest of the Society, and a former pupil of Rev. Father Tolet [afterwards Cardinal] who had then just arrived from Rome, to proceed there and enter the Society. He therefore converted into cash, for pious uses, all the property he was able, his mother being yet alive, intending to follow that course concerning his inheritance which the Superiors of the Society should ordain. And when he was, as it were, just upon the point of accomplishing his design, he was recognized by the heretics, upon a certain occasion, which we shall speak of in its proper place, apprehended and cast into prison, and thus deprived of all hope of liberty and of going to Rome.

" He begs of your Paternity that (since he has for so many years had it in heart and desire to enter the Society, and seeing that he cannot get out of prison) you will be satisfied with such* his desire and endeavour, and although absent and unknown, having regard to the longing after and zeal for souls that is in him, you will be pleased to admit him to the Society.

"I also, Thomas Stephens, your Paternity's unworthy son, humbly beg this favour for my said master, conjointly with whom for two years, more or less, in the world, I entertained this same intention, of both of us going to Rome and giving ourselves up to the Society. Being well acquainted with his life and conversation, I remark the following facts—When I first turned my thoughts to the Society, Divine Providence so ordained it that I should become acquainted with the said Mr. Thomas; and although out of doors I assumed the character of his servant (both because this better suited my means, as well, and chiefly, by way of a blind to the inquisitive Protestants), yet indoors I lived as his guest in common; excepting, however, the austerities which his more fervent desire of living to God, led him to exercise upon himself.

"In primis —as to what relates to his person and estate. He is the only son and heir of his father, a Catholic, but his mother being still alive, as yet enjoys the paternal mansion and estates which fell to him at his death. He is thirty-eight years of age, of a tall and handsome figure, a flowing beard, and a pleasing countenance. In the prison he dresses most handsomely, thinking thus to inspire Catholics with greater courage, and possibly conciliate authority. He has not yet made his philosophy, but is well up in his humanities, and wonderfully addicted to the study of the holy Fathers. He is eloquent in his native tongue, and equally fluent in speaking and writing, and exceedingly efficacious in the art of exhorting and persuasion. When living together, he requested me in frequent conversations to promote this his affair, to the best of my power, when, and as the occasion should offer; and he afterwards repeated the same in letters, which I hear he sent to my brother and others. For the greater part of the time I lived with him (I speak only to what I have myself witnessed) he used to impose severe austerities upon himself: the ground was his miserable bed; he spent in prayer, with great spiritual gust, one hour at midnight, followed by spiritual reading at daybreak. He would then resume his meditation for two, three, and four hours, spending the rest of the day in reading the holy Fathers, besides two or three hours in prayer in the evening; so that the heretics reported him mad, or a fool, or superstitious; his domestics, and some of his friends also, reported the same of him, calling it imprudent severity against himself, &c, all of which he constantly disregarded with a courageous heart, persevering in his mode of life, giving them example, and causing them to change their reproaches into admiration.

1  More, Hist. Prov. Angl., 1. ii., n. xix., p. 48.

Facts Illustrative of the times of Elizabeth Queen Of England. Part 6.

Jesuits In Conflict: Or Historic Facts Illustrative of the labours of the English Mission and Province Of The Society Of Jesus. In the times of Queen Elizabeth and her successors. By a member Of The Society Of Jesus.

THOMAS POUNDE, OF BELMONT, S.J. Part III.

Departing for London in order to arrange affairs and remove all hindrances to their embarking, out of compassion to his host, who was also a friend of his, he delayed some time there in order to convert him from heresy, and spent some nights in argument with him; but by this man's obstinacy everything was overturned. Pounde at length determined at daybreak the next morning to embark on the Thames for his proposed voyage. But man proposes, God disposes; and so in this instance it was not to be as our confessor had determined, but it pleased God to make an entirely opposite disposal, and to ordain that this very friend and host should be the means of reserving him for a dreadful imprisonment of thirty years!

On that very same evening Pounde was summoned by an officer of the pseudo-Bishop of London, Sandys, to render an account of the manner in which he observed the Queen's laws: no crime was charged against him, no accusation made, nor proof given of any violation of the law. Pounde followed his conductor to prison, with a countenance as calm, and a courage as great, as though embarking for Italy.

In reference to this wonderful equanimity in our glorious confessor, Father Bartoli observes upon the fact of his being thus completely cut off, within one night of its accomplishment, from the hope of offering himself as a member of the Society, for which he had waited four years. How fervent that desire was, Pounde himself, on a subsequent occasion, when he had already pined for two years in prison and had been tortured beyond ordinary custom, whereby his body was reduced to a wretched condition, sent to protest to our Very Reverend Father General that all his sufferings were as nothing in comparison with his interior grief to see himself deprived of the grace of being one of his sons, for which he had sighed for six years.

Pounde, nevertheless, foresaw that he would incur death should they seize upon his writings against the heretics and the Queen's authority in matters ecclesiastical, which he carried with him in his bag. The real cause of his imprisonment would seem to have been the exhortations he made to Catholics resolutely to refuse heretical communion, especially in the episcopal city of Winchester, whither he frequently made excursions, and with great zeal confirmed the recusants in their resolutions—to which cause may be added a suspicion of his intention to leave England for Catholic countries, in detecting whjch the episcopal treasury was greatly interested, as it would lead to the confiscation of Pounde's estate, to the enrichment of the said treasury.

His before-mentioned friend and host was so moved by the incredible constancy of soul of our prisoner, that, although no previous force of argument by Pounde could conquer him, yet now one special address alone, together with the clear exhibition of Catholic generosity presented by his friend, caused him, with his wife and whole family, to be reconciled to the Church. We may imagine how great was the consolation thus afforded to the sufferer !

In addition to the slight suspicions at first entertained against our confessor, new accusations and strong proofs were now produced In prison he sustained a long assault from the bland and courteous speeches of the pseudo-bishop, who offered to release him if he would, for the satisfaction of the public, really show himself once at church, and be present at a Protestant sermon. He with great prudence returned him word for word as a gentleman, candidly saying, "If I cannot recover my liberty otherwise than by offending God, I am firmly resolved that my soul shall be first torn from my body, than that my body shall go forth from prison on such terms."

The fruit of this noble reply was, that he remained in prison for six months. He was then liberated on bail, through the intervention of his relative the Earl of Southampton, who became his surety that he should not leave the country, nor interfere with affairs of religion, but confining himself to his house at Belmont, should peremptorily appear if, and when cited, within twenty days. 1 The condition of the recognizance was faithfully kept, except in one regard, which of all others the adversary could not brook, viz., to enlighten with the truths of faith those who were blinded by the errors of heresy, and to confirm the wavering Catholics, all of which he never ceased to do. He associated to himself as companions in his labours and merits, George Cotton, Henry Sudall, and some other gentlemen residing near Belmont Father More also mentions at this period, a case of exorcism of a certain merchant who lived in the hamlet of St Mark, who was possessed by an evil spirit, and had desired privately to be freed by the prayers of the Church, to whom Pounde hastened, fortified with relics of the Saints, and with whom he piously discoursed upon the power of the Church against evil spirits, and of the necessity of firmly retaining the right faith. This fact having got wind, and being reported to London, hastened on Pounde's final apprehension.

After he had been for sixteen months at liberty engaged in these pious works, Horne, the pseudo-Bishop of Winchester, under whose jurisdiction our confessor was, ordered him to be seized and sent to prison, together with the other Catholic gentlemen, his companions, who, no few in number, were men of known respectability and probity of life. He summoned them to appear before him, first sending with pretended and fraudulent piety to persuade them that by a too free speaking during their examination, they would do great injury to the common cause of the Roman religion, and in particular to themselves personally. Being deceived by this stratagem, they remained silent during his civilly-composed address of admonitions, instructions, insults, blasphemies, and boastings, and whatever else came to his tongue. Having thus glutted himself with speaking, he remanded them back to prison, bragging to all that he had, by force of his authority, and his sage reasonings, rendered them mute and ashamed of themselves, so that they had not the courage to breathe a word before him. The assembled court insolently and contumaciously called them "dumb Catholic dogs," attributing their silence to the weakness of their cause and their own ignorance. But the prisoners being already informed by the Catholics of the bishop's treachery, were eager to recover what had been done by the same game the next day. Being again brought up, the bishop had scarcely begun to speak, when Pounde, taking the word from his mouth, contradicted by the testimony of Vincent of Lerins, the false and maliciously delivered exposition alleged by Home, to the prejudice of the Roman Catholic faith, upholding Vincent as the champion of the Catholic cause and the great adversary of the heretics. There were present a multitude of spectators of all degrees, both Catholic and Protestant, as many as the large court could hold, drawn thither by the report of this solemn act, and curious to see so many personages of rank in the condition of criminals, thus exposed to disgrace by a man of lower than ordinary stamp, as the greater part of these pseudo-bishops were at that period.

1 The following is copied from the State Papers, Dom. Eliz., Vol cc, No. 59, P. R. O.—"7 December, 1585. Thomas Pownde and Ellen his mother, bounde in a 100 markes that the said Thomas Pounde shall remain at his mother's house in Kennyton in the countie of Surry." Father Henry More gives Thomas Pounde's mother's name as Anne. There may be some misnomer in the case, or Ellen may have been a second name. The above notice of bail can hardly be mistaken as applying to the subject of our history, although it does not appear on what occasion that privilege of bail was granted. One can scarcely gather from the general history that Mr. Pounde was ever out of prison after he so severely handled and gravelled my Lord Home of Winchester. However the case may be, the extract is given.

Facts Illustrative of the times of Elizabeth Queen Of England. Part 5.

Jesuits In Conflict: Or Historic Facts Illustrative of the labours of the English Mission and Province Of The Society Of Jesus. In the times of Queen Elizabeth and her successors. By a member Of The Society Of Jesus.

THOMAS POUNDE, OF BELMONT, S.J. Part II.

Retiring to his paternal mansion at Belmont, he there buried himself in solitude. Pondering upon the rewards of obsequious slavery to the world, he blamed himself as the most foolish of men, and felt how much more blessedly he would have acted had he consecrated to God, to the affairs of eternity, and to the salvation of his own soul, the things which, in contempt to God, to the disgrace of religion, and to the loss of his own soul, he had so profusely lavished before the eyes of the Queen; finally, from hence he conceived a great self-confusion and horror, and made a resolution of amendment so constant and fixed, that for the ensuing forty-four years (he was than aged thirty) he lived altogether as another man. Before all things, therefore, he procured to be reconciled to God and the Church, making restitution by the most fervent penance for his shameful denial of both before the eyes of the Court, by simulating the heresy of the Queen. He exchanged his paternal mansion for the private house of a Catholic citizen, in which for a little more than two years he practised the solitude of a hermit, giving himself to prayer and austerity of life, and self-examination, despising what others either thought or said of him, or of his adopted manner of life, suffering much from his friends, and from himself too, whilst he thus as it were acclimated himself both to solitude, charity, neglect of the necessaries of life, and to other severity and hard treatment He also bound himself by vow to perpetual chastity, and to embrace the Priesthood, after proving himself worthy of it by a seven years' trial in the exercise of pious works.

It was then also that he sought entrance into the Society of Jesus, being attracted to it chiefly on account of its abstaining from accepting dignities, its vows of obedience, its devotion to the Holy See, &c. He had also read letters from our Fathers in the Indies, with an account of their labours and sufferings there, and the numerous conversions of those barbarous idolators to the faith, whom God in His mercy had drawn to Himself The reading of these letters greatly increased his desire of entering the Society, and devoting himself wholly to it, as a son and servant.

This is the time to which we must refer those things which are related of him by our Father Thomas Stephens (of whom more hereafter) in his petition to Father General Mercurianus in 1578, for Pounde's admission into the Society, which is related further on. As we shall find recorded more fully in the petition of Father Stephens, he lived for two years, and a little more, in the severe mode of life there mentioned, more like a hermit, occupied with himself and the care of his soul. Sometimes, for several hours in the day, imparting his fervent spirit to his neighbour abroad, reserving the night for his prayers, and remitting nothing of his accustomed austerities. In helping Protestants he would make it a point to endeavour to withdraw them from their personal antipathy to himself, and their accustomed injustice towards Catholics, joining at the same time, with the grace of God, his own particular talent of speaking and power of persuasion; he thus raised many that were fallen and vacillating, and re-established them in the ancient faith.

Whilst Pounde was thus burning with zeal for serving souls, Father Henry Alvarez returning into England from Rome, related to him many things regarding the Institute of the Society, its ardent zeal in helping its neighbour, its strict rule of obedience, its devotion to the Holy See, its refusal of all dignities, &c, by all of which the mind of Thomas was so inflamed with the desire of embracing its mode of life, that had not his aged mother, who yet survived, been an obstacle, he would have given away his property to the poor (which otherwise would have been confiscated to the Treasury on his departure) and instantly have embarked for Rome, where was the Novitiate of the Society.

In the meantime God sent him, in the first instance, as an acquaintance, which grew afterwards into the closest friendship, a youth named Thomas Stephens, a native of the diocese of Salisbury. I do not know whether he also, like Pounde, was inflamed by a desire to enter the Society by reading our accounts from India, but we find him a little later sailing to the East, and there for forty years engaged in Apostolic and most meritorious labours in the neighbourhood of Goa, for the salvation of those blind idolators whom he enlightened by preaching the Gospel, so as to form one of the most numerous and pious Christian congregations that flourished in those parts of India. He was by birth of a respectable family well known to Pounde, who gave him an asylum in his house, treating him as his equal; but for the benefit of both they mutually agreed to appear abroad, Pounde in quality of master, Stephens in the habit and employ of a servant This they did as a blind to the Protestants, who watched with a thousand eyes the footsteps of those Catholics who were well dressed, and seemed to be in good circumstances, in order to oppress them, and enrich themselves with their substance.

Thus they lived together for nearly two years, when, impatient of further delay in accomplishing the desire of their hearts towards the Society, they resolved to leave their affairs to chance, and to break through all the hindrances that too much retarded them. Then collecting together what ready money they could raise * by the sale of such things as they had at hand, they held themselves in readiness to seize the first good opportunity of secretly leaving England, and with a select band of youths whom Pounde had gained to God and the Society. Nay, further, he had determined, should he get over to the neighbouring port, Calais, to more than double that number, and to that end, to spend two or three months in France and Flanders, in searching out the flower of the English youth that were there, and collecting what Providence should give him, to conduct them to Rome at his own expense, and there to offer himself and them to the General of the Society as his sons and subjects.

Facts Illustrative of the times of Elizabeth Queen Of England. Part 4.

Jesuits In Conflict: Or Historic Facts Illustrative of the labours of the English Mission and Province Of The Society Of Jesus. In the times of Queen Elizabeth and her successors. By a member Of The Society Of Jesus.

THOMAS POUNDE, OF BELMONT, S.J. Part I.

Among the companions who followed Father Parsons into the Society was Giles Gallop, who died soon after his admission, being allowed to take his simple vows in articulo mortis. Bombinus has made a mistake in name, in counting Brother Giles Gallop among those who were distinguished either by death for the faith, or by great labours undertaken for. Christ in England. This honour, on the contrary, is due to Thomas Pounde, who is sometimes found concealing himself under the assumed name of Gallop, Wallop, Duke, and Harrington. 1

Whilst Father Campion at Prague, and Father Parsons at Rome, are engaged, the one in the study of piety and divine wisdom, the other in the office of teaching, it will be opportune to revisit England for a little, and to behold, in the person of an invincible athlete of Christ, as well the obstinate fury of the heretics against the Catholics as their unshaken constancy in the faith; for nothing can be more striking than, on the one hand, the pertinacity of the former in harassing, and, on the other, the patient perseverance of the latter in enduring their vexations; and finally, a certain loftiness of mind in others, who, nothing alarmed by this species of virulence, offered themselves with magnanimous hearts to similar sufferings; how much more so if we show in the pertinacious hunting down of one man for thirty years that neither was heretical fury abated, nor Catholic constancy weakened. Thomas Pounde presents this spectacle to our eyes, in whom we encounter a man neither of chance nor of other times. 2

God, by a most special privilege, would prepare for the Society in England the very hospice wherein she should be born; and this was no other than the public prisons, and, singularly enough, those of the Tower of London and Castle of Wisbeach, the most renowned of all of them. And, to take possession in our name, there were confined in these prisons, for the Catholic faith, men of holy life, who, though none of them had as yet ever seen our habit, but learnt solely by report of our Institute, our life, and our works, demanded, and, as worthy, obtained admission to the Order in the same prisons. Thus we find the Society in England (a good prognostic, faithfully tested, of what was to follow) born in prison, growing amidst chains, exercised in various torments, and in a brief space made meet to appear in public upon the carts of justice beneath the gallows, where, hung by the neck, her sons preached with the voice and attested by their blood, before innumerable multitudes of auditors and spectators, the verity of the Catholic faith. And, to speak truly, there is no College of ours, however numerous, or however esteemed, whether in learning or in religious observance, or famous in any other regard, that has not just reason to feel a little envy that our seven English, with Campion himself, were all formed in the cells of the Tower of London, all in the best dispositions for that happy lot, to which the greater part of them arrived, viz., to die for the Catholic faith. 3

Thomas Pounde was born at Belmont, twelve miles from Winchester, on the 29th of May, 1539. His parents were William Pounde, Esq., and Anna Wriotesley, sister of Thomas, Earl of Southampton. His parents attest of him that he was just born when he lifted his right hand to his head, which was regarded as a future omen of the victorious combatant.

His early years, until his twenty-third, were spent in the usual study of Humanities at the College of our Lady of Winchester. From thence, going to London, he prepared himself for forensic glory and dignity by the study of the law. It is hard to say in which the gratuitous gifts of nature most abounded in him—whether mental or corporal. He appeared, indeed, more comely in each advancing stage of his life and strength, which was set off by the height of his stature and the excellent formation of his limbs, well set, nimble, and strong. He delighted in all gymnastic and corporal exercises, and displayed great agility. In more advanced life, when quite grey haired, he was a man of majestic and venerable aspect; all these graces made him no little favourite with men of high rank. He was richly furnished, too, with all the other gifts of mind becoming an accomplished cavalier—brave, of great courage, most courteous, of exceedingly polite manners, a munificent spender of money, a good orator, and of ready wit. Upon the occasion of a solemn reception of Queen Elizabeth at Winchester College, he addressed Her Majesty in a complimentary poem of his own composition, with great applause. In the art of Latin verse he attained a considerable degree of excellence.

Shortly after becoming master of his own life and expenditure, on the death of his father, eager to succeed at Court, he went into unpardonable excesses in lavishing his paternal estates on those vain delights and hopes, seeing that it pleased the Queen, and being unwilling to be outdone by others. No one will be surprised at this in Elizabeth's reign, seeing the luxury in which she herself indulged, drawing all in her train, and affording in her Court great scope for all those graces and delights of the arts, which belonged to Pounde in so eminent a degree.

He was so careless about his soul that, although a Catholic at heart, yet, in order to gain a footing at Court, he professed outwardly the Queen's religion. The sudden means employed by God, the good Father of all, to bring back to the right path so wretched a wanderer, was an admirable proof of His compassion, using, in order to win him to eternal salvation and to those great merits to which he arrived, the same means by which this silly youth so strenuously strove to bring himself to perdition.

Christmas Day, as was always customary at the Court until Epiphany, in the year 1569 4 was most remarkable for its festivities; the most magnificent plays, comedies, concerts, dances, and other games were given at the Court under the direction of Pounde himself. There were assembled here the flower of the nobility and of the youth of London, and no small space within the palace was occupied both by the spectators and performers; and the one thought and desire was to spend money there according to each one's power, and he who excelled in this was honoured by the Queen. Pounde was the lucky one of the number in the year 1569, being doubly acceptable to the Queen, both on account of his costly expenditure and gracefulness in dancing; so that what with his being so handsome a youth, and his skill in the art of dancing, surpassing all his equals in agility and grace, there was no one who would willingly be seen with him in the dance. He chose one of his most wonderful performances, which was to be the concluding one, and consisted in raising himself in the air as high as possible and standing upright on tiptoe, to spin himself round like a top, in as many turns and as swiftly as his agility and strength would allow, and especially without growing giddy and falling. He performed this exploit in such a manner, and so nimbly, that the whole theatre resounded with shouts of applause. By way of reward the Queen herself with her uncovered hand seized that of Pounde, and then snatching from the Earl of Leicester his costly cap, put it upon his head for fear lest he might catch cold, being heated and in a perspiration from his violent exertions. The triumphal laurels seemed now to crown him, when the Queen, after he had rested himself, invited him to repeat a second time the same dance. Spinning round on tiptoe more quickly than ever, he was seized with giddiness, and fell flat to the ground. The previous applause was changed into shouts of laughter and derision; but what wounded him most was that the Queen, instead of offering her hand to raise him up, as though in anger for thus spoiling the festivity, gave him a kick by the two sarcastic words, "Rise Sir Ox," 5 and then turning round, joined the rest in their laughter, to his great confusion. Stung by her words he rose indeed, but lifting himself up on one knee, with his face to the ground, he exclaimed to himself, solto voce [but loud enough to be overheard by others], that solemn sentence, Sic transit gloria mundi —" So passeth the glory of this world," and hurrying away, after a very short space leaving London, he deserted the Court and its fallacious hopes, having reaped the reward of its vanities—a wasted property and offended religion.

1 More, Hist. Prow. Angl., I. ii., n. xiv., p. 44. In the terrible times of the open persecution of Catholics, Priests were compelled constantly to change, not only their places of abode and dress, but their names also. Father Henry Garnet, the blessed martyr, had at least six or eight aliases.

2 More, Hist Prov. Angl., I. ii., n. xvi., pp. 44, 45.

3 Bartoli, Inghilterra, t. i, I. i., cap. xiv., p. 106. Edit. 1825. The seven English members were, Father Thomas Cottam, martyr; Father Thomas Mettam, died at Wisbeach; Thomas Pond; Father Edmund Campion, martyr; Alexander Briant, martyr; James Bosgrave, and John Hart. The two latter were condemned to death with Father Campion, but were reprieved and banished.

4 Bartoli states it 1569, and cites a letter of Pounde in support of the assertion, dated June 3, 1609. Father More makes it 1564. This is, perhaps, a misprint, because farther on Father More himself makes Pounde to be thirty years of age on his retiring from the Court to Belmont, 1569.

5 "Rise Sir Ox." Father More, Hist. Prow. Angl., uses the word "Bull." Father Tanner and Father Bartoli use "Ox." The expression has, no doubt, reference to the ceremony of creating a Knight for service to the State, in which case the Sovereign lays the sword of State on the back of the kneeling subject, saying, " Rise, Sir so and so." The Queen's object was to ridicule and humiliate Mr. Pounde, and, in order to do so, she parodies the form of conferring the knighthood. The term is also preferable, because the ox being a clumsy awkward animal, which the bull is not, is often used and applied to express awkwardness in a human subject, and the royal vixen, who was no fool, evidently meant to convey this idea in thus cruelly mortifying her quondam favourite.

Facts Illustrative of the times of Elizabeth Queen Of England. Part 3.

Jesuits In Conflict: Or Historic Facts Illustrative of the labours of the English Mission and Province Of The Society Of Jesus. In the times of Queen Elizabeth and her successors. By a member Of The Society Of Jesus.

I. Thomas Pounde, formerly of Belmont, Esquire, who though probably but little known to many of the present day, yet was one of the most, if not the most, glorious of the confessors of the faith in England of his time, pregnant as it was with noble champions of the Church. A notice of this remarkable man cannot fail to be historically useful, illustrating in itself, as it does on the one hand, the brutal ferocity and systematic persecution carried on with unrelenting rage by the professors of the reformed religion, of every social grade, against those who held the ancient Catholic faith of our forefathers, to which reference has been made; and on the other, of the terrible afflictions of every kind, in person and property, and the marvellous patience and long suffering of the oppressed Catholics.

To avoid confusion this history will be divided into two heads.

1. The personal history of the confessor, gathered from various sources, Father Bartoli, S.J., Istoria S.J. I'Inghilterra; Father Tanner, S.J., Apostolorum Imitatrix, and Father Henry More, S.J., Historia Provinciae Anglicanae &c. &c.

2. An account of his connection with Father Edmund Campion, the blessed martyr, and Father Robert Parsons, to whom, and to the Catholic cause generally, he rendered such great assistance. Also, a copy of his famous "Six reasons," with some interesting letters and papers of his, which have been procured from the State Papers in the Public Record Office, having found their way into that interesting depot from the Sheriff of Wilts, in which county they were seized.

The history of Thomas Pounde, undoubted as are the facts, reads more like a tale of fiction than one of real life. If we consider his wonderful conversion, his long and painful imprisonment of thirty years, shifted from dungeon to dungeon, becoming an inmate of no less than ten or eleven different prisons, the extreme severity exercised towards him, with the self-imposed addition of the severest corporal austerities, his undaunted courage in facing the adversary, his petitioning for and reception into the Society of Jesus in prison, in 1579, spending his whole Religious life there, until 1602-3, when, upon the accession of James L, being released, he was, by order of his Superiors, sent to his paternal mansion at Belmont, and died there in the very same room in which, seventy-six years before, he had first seen the light of day, the whole seems rather the production of man's invention than what it is—the sober record of undoubted facts. As to our confessor's degree in the Society of Jesus, having received a liberal education, partly at Winchester College, and partly in London, studying civil law there to prepare himself for the Bar, and being besides naturally a man of considerable talent,. good wit, and ready speech, we may presume that, under ordinary circumstances, his Superiors would have designed him for the degree of the Priesthood, but as his long and unbroken imprisonment rendered this quite impossible, either the Temporal Coadjutors must claim the honour of possessing this great athlete of Christ, or he must be regarded as a Scholastic awaiting an opportunity of being advanced to the Priesthood. We may imagine his making his vows of Religion to Father Weston, alias Edmonds, when confined in Wisbeach Castle with him. He may, too, have found occasional opportunities of making the accustomed renovation of vows to our Fathers of the Society or other Priests he may have met with in some of the various prisons, and he may also have made his solemn vows in like manner, though there is no record of the fact Nevertheless, he truly made a good noviceship!

II. George Gilbert, formerly of Suffolk, Esquire, the dear friend of Thomas Pounde, another noble sample of the same type; an English young gentleman who, having embraced the Catholic faith, in which he had not been brought up, devoted himself to works of charity, and who, more fortunate than his friend Thomas Pounde, after doing all he could for his religion at home, and suffering the confiscation of his ample estates and fortune, being hotly pursued by the pursuivants, retired abroad, and proceeding to Rome, gave himself up to the service of God and his neighbours, intending to enter the Society of Jesus, which he dearly loved and admired. It pleased God to accept this intention; for, being seized with mortal sickness, he was both admitted to the Society as a Novice, and allowed to make the vows of Religion in artiulo mortis. (a)

III. The Rev. Father Thomas Darbyshire, a learned and eminent Father of the Society of Jesus, and an exile for his faith, and who, under God, was the first means of the conversion of George Gilbert to the true faith. An Oxford man, and in the reign of Mary a high dignitary of the Catholic Church in England. He was nephew of Bonner, the famous Catholic Bishop and confessor, who died of his sufferings in prison under Elizabeth.

(a) Father Henry More, SJ., Hist. Prov. Angl S.J.; Father Bartoli, Istoria della Comp. di Gcsu Inghilterra; Father Tanner, Soc. Jesu Apost. Imitatrix; Life of Campion, by Robert Simpson, Esq., &c

Facts Illustrative of the times of Elizabeth Queen Of England. Part 2.

Jesuits In Conflict: Or Historic Facts Illustrative of the labours of the English Mission and Province Of The Society Of Jesus. In the times of Queen Elizabeth and her successors. By a member Of The Society Of Jesus.

Titus Oates

2. The second instance we shall quote is that of Oates' victims. It was in vain that the clearest alibi was proved in the case of Father Ireland by an overwhelming array of witnesses of the highest rank and respectability; and in the case of all the accused, every statement of importance sworn to by the wretched perjurer and his assistants, Bedloe, Dugdale, &c, were discredited; but the Lord Chief Justice Scroggs, and his confreres, either rejected or overruled all, and directed the jury to find the accused guilty. They were perfectly bloodthirsty. These infamous judicial proceedings gave rise to the following skit in Peveril of the Peak, very aptly quoted by the late Dr. Oliver in his short notice of Father Whitbread, one of the said victims, and who was at the time the Provincial or Superior of the English members of the Society of Jesus. 1

"Who has been hunted on the stern and unmitigable accusations, but has been at last brought to bay? Did high and noble birth, honoured age, and approved benevolence, save the unfortunate Lord Stafford? . . . Did subtlety and genius, and the exertions of a numerous sect, save Fenwick or Whitbread, or any of the accused Priests ? Were Groves, Pickering, or any of the other wretches who have suffered, safe in their obscurity ? There is no condition of life, no range of talent, no form of principle which affords protection against an accusation which levels conditions, confounds characters, renders men's virtues their sins, and rates them as dangerous in proportion as they have influence, though attained in the noblest manner and used for the best purposes. Call such a one an accessory to the plot, let him be mouthed in the evidence of Oates or Dugdale, and the blindest shall foresee the issue of the trial.

" 'Prophet of evil,' said Julian, ' my father has a shield invulnerable to protect him. He is innocent!'

"'Let him plead his innocence at the bar of Heaven,' said the voice; 'it will serve him little where Scroggs presides.'

"'Still, I fear not,' said Julian, counterfeiting more confidence than he really possessed; 'my father's cause will be pleaded before twelve Englishmen!'

"' Better before twelve wild beasts,' answered the invisible, 'than before Englishmen, influenced by party prejudice, passion, and the epidemic terror of an imaginary danger.'"

When men's minds were cooled down by the torrents of innocent and noble blood poured out on that lamentable occasion, the perjurer Oates himself had his day of reckoning. He was soon after indicted on several counts for wilful and corrupt perjury, and found guilty on all, and sentenced to a terrible punishment besides imprisonment for life. The court in passing sentence "lamented that he could not be punished with death in atonement for the innocent blood his perjuries had caused to be shed." In the time of William and Mary, however, this man was pardoned, and actually pensioned with a handsome salary! Most of his other fellow-perjurers met with miserable ends. These legal murderers of such men as Lord Stafford, Archbishop Plunkett, Mr. Langhorne, &c., were so flagrant and infamous, that the minds and better feelings of the nation were shocked. No more public executions for religion took place, though numbers were left to die of their sufferings in the dungeons of London and other cities: a more cruel execution by far, because more lingering. The persecuting spirit was then turned for a time rather against the property than the person of Catholics; as in our own day, since the partial repeal of the penal laws, it has changed to a more deadly, because a more insidious mode of attack, especially in regard to unfortunate workhouse children and prisoners.

If, as before observed, the infernal power stirred up this persecuting rage against the ancient religion of our forefathers; there was also, by way of antidote, poured down from above by a merciful Providence, upon the afflicted Catholics of either sex and of every grade, both priest and layman, monk and nun, young men and maidens, boys and girls, a marvellous spirit of constancy and courage, to enable them to meet the fearful storm. Martyrs went to execution, or rather butchery, and confessors to the prisons and torture, and suffered the loss of their goods and estates with a spirit of joy and determined constancy, which will not yield a jot to that of those who suffered in the first days of Christianity.

The object of the present volume is to draw forth from the shades of obscurity, in which they have been too long buried, three English members of the Society of Jesus, noble characters of the stamp just mentioned.

1 Oliver, Collectania S.J., p. 112.

Facts Illustrative of the times of Elizabeth Queen Of England. Part 1.

Jesuits In Conflict: Or Historic Facts Illustrative of the labours of the English Mission and Province Of The Society Of Jesus. In the times of Queen Elizabeth and her successors. By a member Of The Society Of Jesus.

Strange times were the three hundred years of open persecution against Catholics in England. A study of the history of that period, and a reference to the State Papers in the Public Record Offices, both at home and on the Continent, really lead the reader to the conclusion that all the powers of hell, united to the brute force of faithless man, combined to destroy and crush, root and branch out of the land, the ancient faith of our noble ancestors, by means of a series of savage enactments called "the penal laws" an analysis of which would appear simply fabulous to the more liberally minded of the present day.

No stronger proof of the divine origin of the persecuted religion of our forefathers is needed than its surviving that dreadful shock of centuries, and the marvellous or rather the supernatural constancy of its afflicted members. A thick black cloud had ascended up from the lower regions, not only deadening and darkening the hearts and understandings of men from the throne to the cottage, but inspiring them with feelings of the most savage cruelty, exceeding in brutality, if possible, the persecuting rage of the Pagan Emperors in the first three hundred years of the existence of the Church!

The hatred of the ancient faith poisoned the very fountains of justice itself; the judges of the land (thank God now of a very different stamp), as though their very lives, offices, and dignities were at stake when Catholics were arraigned, ceased to administer justice, and the poor frightened and degraded "twelve men" were always found willing tools at their beck. The laws of evidence, as may be seen by most of the trials of those times, were wholly set aside. The bare suspicion that a man was a Priest, or a member of the Society of Jesus, was sufficient for his capital conviction. What should we think of the present Prime Minister sending to our distinguished and high-minded Attorney-General the following instructions on the occasion of a great State trial for high treason, involving the lives of multitudes of men of high rank, virtue, and learning. It was in the case of the Gunpowder Plot. There was a strong feeling in the country that the King's (James I.) cruel treatment of, and his base ingratitude towards, his faithful Catholic subjects, to whom, both he and his martyred mother owed so much, and whose promises to Catholics he had shamefully broken, was the very cause of the Plot itself which no doubt it was, driving the Catholics to desperation. 1

Domestic, Fac. I, State Papers, Vol. xix., No. 94. P. R. Office. [Endorsed by Sir Edward Coke. "My Lord of Salisbury's directions touching P. treason"] i6o⅚

"These things I am commanded to refer unto your memory. . . .

" First, that you be sure to make it appear unto ye world yt there was an employment of some p'sons to Spaine for a practise of invasion, as soon as ye Q.'s breath was owt of her body.2

" The reason is this for wch ye K. doth urge it: he saith some men there are yt will give owt, and do, yt only dispaire of the K.'s courses in [with] ye Catholicks, and his severity, drawe all these to souch woorks of discontentment; where by you it will appear yt before his Maties face was seen, or yt he had don anything in government, the K. of Sp. was moved, though he refused it, saying he rather expected to have peace.

"Next you must in any case, when yow speake of the Ire [letter] wch was the first growd [ground] of discovery, absolutely disclaime yt any of these wrote it, thogh yow leave ye further judgment indefinite, who els it shold be.

"Lastly, and yt yow must not omitt, yow must deliver in commendation of my L. Monteagle, words to show how sincerely he delt, and how fortunately it proved yt he was ye instrument of so great a blessing as this was. To be short, Sr, yow can remember how well ye K. in his book dyd answere his lordship's part in. it, from wch sense yow are not to varry, but obiter (as you know best how), to give some eccleo [eclat] of yt particular action, in that day of publick triall of these men, because it is so lewdly given out, yt he was once of this Plott of Powder, and afterwards betraied all to me. This is but ex abundanti yt I do troble yow, but as they come to my hedd or knoledge, or yt I am directed, I am not scrupulous to send yow.

"Yow must remember to lay Owen as fowle in this as you may." 3 117.

What can be thought of trials based on such infamous instructions from an ungrateful and thankless tyrant, who had declared to one of his attendants "that since Protestants had so generally received and proclaimed him King, he had now no need of Papists"—through an obsequious First Lord of the Treasury—to a notoriously hard-hearted and cruel Attorney-General ? What chance, may be asked, had the unfortunate arraigned under such circumstances ? It is clear that, right or wrong, a conviction must be got, at any cost.

Well would it be if historians adverse to the Catholic faith were to look into these State Papers before writing their uncharitable volumes. Let the charges against Catholics, whether collectively as a body or individually, and the persons making them be fairly examined. And in a majority of cases it will be found that the very absurdity of the former, and the characters of the latter, will afford sufficient refutation. In many cases the accusers are miserable hungry spies, paupers, offering their "valuable services "to, or else in the first instance retained by the Ministers of the day.

To follow out this subject, and publish some of the trials of Catholics in those times, would fill many a volume, and a deeply interesting series it would be, but this is not the scope of the present volume. An inquirer has only to refer to " The History of the penal laws against Roman Catholics, &c, by Mr. Madden, 1847," to satisfy himself of the correctness of these assertions. As a further proof, in the time of Elizabeth, to which this volume relates, we need only refer the reader,to the following lives, in addition to which two other cases shall be shortly alluded to, viz., (1) that of the blessed martyr Father Arrowsmith, about half a century later, 1628; and (2), close upon our own times, the seven Jesuit martyrs and others, victims of the perjured Oates, &c. In which fearful assault against Catholics in general, but more especially against the members of the Society of Jesus in England, 1678-9, five of these innocent and learned Fathers were dragged from Newgate on hurdles through Holborn, Oxford Street, &c, to Tyburn, and there butchered at one and the same time, on the 30th June, 1678/9.

saint Edmund Arrowsmith SJ

1. In the case of Father Arrowsmith, what will be thought of the conduct of Mr. Justice Yelverton, who on the prisoner being summoned before him at the Lancaster Summer Assizes, August, 1628, thus addressed him in the presence of the jury—

"Sirrah, art thou a Priest?" An admission of the tact would of course have capitally convicted him on the spot. On the martyr humbly saying, "I would to God I were worthy," the learned judge repeated his former question. "I would I were," was the answer." "Are you then no Priest?" the prisoner was silent. His lordship addressing the jury, said, "You may plainly see he is a Priest: I warrant you, he would not, for all England, deny his Orders." After this interesting prelude, a certain parson Lee, called by one of the chroniclers of the event, "the limping old minister," who was sitting by the judge on the bench, whispered in his lordship's ear, and then began aloud to revile the accused, as a seducer of the people, and that if some order were not taken with him, he would make half Lancashire Papists. By way of answer, Father Arrowsmith asked leave to be allowed to defend his religion in a disputation with the minister. The judge coarsely refused. On the Father, in reply, offering not only to defend it by words, but that he was ready to seal it with his blood, the honourable judge answered in a savage and insulting manner, that " he should die, and see his own bowels burnt before his face." 4 The Father replied, "And you, my lord, must die too." After a long scene of this nature, the prisoner was sent back by his lordship to the castle, with an order that he should be put in some dark place, without light or company; and on the keeper saying that he had no such place, he was ordered to put him in the worst he had. It seems that the indictments were not prepared at the above time, for the judge himself, on the removal of Father Arrowsmith from the bar, framed two indictments ; one for being a Catholic, the other for being a member of the Society of Jesus. The first was supported only by an infamous woman and her wicked son; the second only by a boy of twelve years of age, son of the above-mentioned minister. The Father was of course found guilty, and received his dreadful sentence; upon which, falling upon his knees, and bowing his head very low, he exclaimed, Deo gratias —" God be thanked." He was remanded back to the castle, with the "widow's mite," as they then called it, that is, " a great paire of bolts on his legges."

Mr. Justice Whitlock, the other judge, was so disgusted that he declined to sign the death warrant To pass over the charge to the jury, and the further infamous and cruel conduct of his lordship towards his victim, pursuing him even after death, it shall only be added that this judge hastened the execution by a day, in order that it might take place before, he left Lancaster, that he " stood in a chamber window within the towne, with a pair of spectacles of a longe sight upon his nose, to behoulde the execution, which, when he had seene performed, he called for his dinner, which was aboute two o clock after middaye, upon the feaste of St. Augustin—that after dinner there were presented to him two fatt staggs, which, as he did behoulde, admyringe theire fattnesse, the martyr's head and quarters were brought into his sight, where he made uncivill and barbarous comparisons, betwixte the quarters of the one and the other; and that the next daie the judge departed out of the towne, and passinge by the place where the martyr's head was sett amongst other heades, he caused itt to be putt vpon a poule 8 foote, and higher than the rest." This learned judge met with a dreadful death, evidently (as was the general opinion) from the hand of God, on the 24th of January, 1629. He was sitting at supper January 23, 1629-30, when he felt a blow as if some one had struck him on the head; upon which he fell into a rage against the servant behind him, who protested that neither he nor any one else had struck him. A little after, he felt another, like the first, and then in great terror was carried to bed, crying out, "That dog Arrowsmith has killed me." He died the next morning. 5 So much for this specimen.


1 Upon this head see the very valuable and' interesting volume by Father Morris, The Condition of Catholics under James I.

2 This was at least straining at a point. Lingard says, Hist, of England, vol. vii, p. 9, that the Catholics almost unanimously supported the right of James I. Amongst the State Papers, Dom. Fac. I., Vol. i., No. 56, 1603, is a most affectionate and loyal address of the Catholics of England to the King on his accession, stating their cruel grievances, and protesting the most loyal obedience. Shortly before the death of Elizabeth the representative of an expiring faction, which has been called the Spanish party amongst the English Catholics, had arranged with the Ministers of Philip a plan for the invasion of England. The death of Elizabeth disconcerted the project. It is true that a few disconcerted individuals remained, two of whom, insignificant persons, were sent to Philip to discover the real dispositions of the Spanish Council soon after James came to England, but they signally failed. At all events, weak as it was, it afforded a point of which the Attorney-General was to make use to aid him in rendering the accused "as fowle in this as you may."

3 The subject of this dignified recommendation of the First Lord of the Treasury was, I presume, Nicholas Owen, alias Little John, a Jesuit Lay-brother, who died upon the rack in the Tower, where he was divers times hung up for seven hours together, but not a word could they force from his sealed and faithful lips; at length "they tormented him so long and so often, that his bowels gushed out together with his life." This dear and noble martyr was seized at Henlip Castle, with Father Garnet and Father Oldcorne (See Morris' Condition of Catholics)

4 The reader is perhaps aware that one part of the sentence of death was that the poor sufferers should be cut down alive, and disembowelled in that state.

5 See Dodd's Church History, vol. iii., p. 80. Edit. 1742 ; Tanner's Vita et Mors Jesuit, pro fide interfect; Bishop Challoner's Missionary Priests, vol. ii., p. 123.

The Life Of Fr John Gerard S.J. (A Hunted Priest) Part 29.

NOTE TO CHAPTER XXI.

The following inscriptions are still to be seen in the soffit of one of the windows of Father Gerard's cell, and as they are anterior in date to the time of his imprisonment his eye has often scanned them.

Father Gerard probably recognized all these his predecessors in captivity. We do not know who the F. Digby was, whose limping verse, in exquisitely cut letters, tells us that he held his captivity there after his former felicity to be the greatest possible grief that could befall him. The year that he has noted is that of the death of Edward the Sixth, of Lady Jane Grey's short reign, and of Mary's accession. Chetwode we do not know, nor Buxton; but John Fixer was one of a party of twelve priests who left Seville for England at the end of 1590, of which number three, John Cecil alias Snowden, James Young alias Dingley alias Christopher, and this John Fixer alias Wilson, are shown by Lord Burghley's letters in the Public Record Office to have become spies and traitors. " Godsa " is probably the beginning of the name of a Douay priest, named John Godsalfe, who was imprisoned.

John Colleton, or Collington, and Thomas Ford were the two priests who lay side by side with Father Campion in the hiding-place at Lyford, and were taken with him on the 17th of July, 1581. We do not know which cell it was in which Campion was confined, but we learn from Bayly that Thomas Ford, who was afterwards martyred, was imprisoned in the Broad Arrow Tower. The date of the 22nd of July, which Colleton has left on the wall of the Salt Tower, is the very day when they were handed over to the custody of the Lieutenant of the Tower. Colleton was therefore confined here in the first instance. He was afterwards transferred to the Beauchamp Tower, where his name appears again; probably after his acquittal at Father Campion's trial on the alibi proved by Mr. Lancaster, who witnessed " that he was with him in Grays Inn the very day that he was charged with plotting at Rheims." The Douay Diary gives his name as sent into banishment in January, 1585, one of the seventy-two priests who were transported at the same time. He soon returned to England, and lived till 1635. He was the first Dean of the Bishop of Chalcedon's Chapter.

Egremont Radcliffe, Bayly tells us, was the only son of Henry RadclirTe, second Earl of Essex, by his second wife, Anne, daughter of Sir Philip Calthorpe of Norwich, knight. His life was an unhappy one, and it was unhappily ended. Having been engaged in the rebellion of the North in 1569, he fled to Spain and Flanders, but pining for home he wrote earnest letters to ask Burghley's intercession with Elizabeth. His enemy, however, was his own half-brother, the Earl of Sussex, then Lord Chamberlain to the Queen. He crept nearer and nearer to England, as the dates of his letters show, first to Bruges, then to Calais; and at last, despite a warning that Elizabeth sent him, he landed without leave, and was at once sent to the Tower of London. He was at one time in the Beauchamp Tower, where, as in the Salt Tower, he has cut his name and his motto Pour parvenir. On being banished once more, he entered the service of Don John of Austria, but—it is said, by Walsingham's contrivance— he was executed for conspiring against Don John's life. Sanders has the worst opinion of him, calling him "an assassin, with daring enough for any deeds of the kind." He was executed by the Prince of Parma after Don John's death, and at his execution he is said to have confessed that he was sent over to murder Cardinal Allen.

These are all that remain of the inscriptions of prisoners in Father Gerard's cell. In Father Walpole's cell we find the following.

These are of less interest, as we do not know the names. Michael Moody alone is recognizable, for he was committed to the Tower on account of the fictitious plot of the younger Stafford, the Ambassador's brother, against Elizabeth's life, which was invented in order to hasten the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. On the left hand side of the room there was a shield bearing three crosses, and a long memorial in French, which was whitewashed over when Bayly wrote.

Besides these inscriptions there is a carving, and a very curious one, in the cell. It is a circle intersected by many lines, inclosed in a square divided into degrees, and at the side are the signs of the Zodiac arranged in seven columns. In the middle the word " afternoon " is still decipherable. The inscription on it is—

In another part of the room there is a globe carved by the same man. He was committed March 20, 1560, "accused by John Man, an astronomer, on a suspect of [being] a conjurer or sorcerer, and thereby to practise matter against Sir William St. Lowe [spelt also Sentlo] and my lady." So writes Sir Edward Warner, Lieutenant of the Tower, to the Lords of the Privy Council, dating his letter four days before poor Draper dated his inscription. The Lieutenant adds, " He is presently very sick. He seemeth to be a man of good wealth, and keepeth a tavern at Bristowe [Bristol], and is of his neighbours well reported."