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LITERARY AND BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY,
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY
ENGLISH CATHOLICS.
A
LITERARY AND BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY
OF THE
ENGLISH CATHOLICS.
THE BREACH WITH ROME, IN 1534, TO THE PRESENT TIME.
"A whole compos'd of parts, and those the best, With every various character exprest."
DRYDEN, Epistle to Sir G. Kncller.
BY
JOSEPH GILLOW.
VOL. III. BURNS & GATES.
LONDON: GRANVILLE MANSIONS,
SOCIETY CO. 28 ORCHARD STREET, W. g BARCLAY STREET.
NEW YORK : CATHOLIC PUBLICATION
PREFACE.
IT will be observed that the notices in this volume are more exhaustive than those in the two previous ones, and that, with a view to give the work a value independent of any other Dictionary, considerable digression has been made in the way of genealogy, history, and statistics connected with the subject of Catholicity in England.
Much of the interval between the present and last volumes has been consumed in the transcription of MSS., mainly for future use. The formation of indices to these and other of my collections is a slow process. Any one with experience in this kind of work will know how tedious it is, and yet if a collector, however retentive his memory may be, intends to realize the value of his labours, full indices are indispensable.
Some time after the publication of the last volume I was generously presented by Mr. John W. Fowler, of Birmingham, with four small volumes of bibliographical notes. They consist mostly of collations of the works by English Catholics which he has met with during the last fifty years. I determined at once to make this valuable collection the basis of a manual to Catholic literature, alphabetically arranged under authors and
vi PREFACE.
titles, and already my endeavours have proved of immense service to my present undertaking.
My best thanks are also due to others for the loan of im portant MSS. The R. R. Mgr. Wrennall, D.D., and the Very Rev. J. Lennon, D.D., the late and present Presidents of Ushaw College, kindly allowed me to make use of the " Ushaw Collec tion," frequently referred to as the " Eyre Collection," 2 vols. folio, and likewise of Vincent Eyre's "MS. Cases, &c., on the Popery Laws," an immense folio of original documents and tracts extending to 1469 pages. The Very Rev. John Canon Hawksford, D.D, President of St. Wilfrid's College, Cotton, lent me Dr. Husenbeth's " Memoirs of Parkers," and, shortly after the present volume was put to press, the Rev. Austin Powell, of Birchley, placed in my hands a few original MSS. and some most valuable transcripts. The latter include the "West Derby Hundred Records," "Bishop Dicconson's Clergy List," the " Visitations " of Bishops Williams and Walton, and other documents chiefly relating to Lancashire. Moreover, I am indebted to the same gentleman for a copy of the " Valla- ciolid Diary," taken from one transcribed from the original at Valladolid College for the late R. R. Alex. Goss, D.D., Bishop of Liverpool, by the Very Rev. William Walmsley, V.F., of St. Helens. The value of such a record is so obvious that comment is unnecessary. In the preparation of the Howard notices I received much kindness from Mr. Philip J. C. Howard, of Corby and Foxcote, who liberally supplied me with books and MSS. Some of the latter I shall have occasion to make
PREFACE. vii
use of hereafter. Other obligations, for which I here express my gratitude, will be found duly acknowledged, I trust, in their proper places.
It was intended that the letter " K " should be completed in this volume, but owing to the increase in the length of the notices it has not been accomplished. The articles amount to three hundred and forty-one, besides one hundred and twenty subsidiary memoirs, and there are over twelve hundred biblio graphical notices.
J. G.
THE WOODLANDS, BOWDON, CHESHIRE, Christmas, 1887.
ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS.
P. i, GRANGER, MARIE, O.S.B., born 1591, foundress and first prioress of the French Benedictine Convent of Notre Dames des Anges at Montargis, was the daughter of John Granger, and his wife, Genevieve Gaudais. It is supposed that her father (or his family) had settled in France owing to the change of religion in England. He was an equerry, seigneur de la Maison Rouge, and one of the cent gentilhommes du roi.
About 1621 she entered the Benedictine Abbey of Montmartre, where she was professed at the age of thirty-two, and received the religious name of Marie de 1'Assomption. She soon conceived the idea of founding a convent, and with this object sought the assist ance of her brother, who was almoner to the king, prior of St. Jean de Houdan, and canon of the church of Notre Dame de Paris. He obtained the royal assent to the foundation, and also the consent of Parliament. Suitable premises in the Faubourg de Montargis were then ^purchased from the Peres Recollets, who desired to remove into the city, and offered their convent for the establishment of some religious of a reformed order. Finally, Monsieur Granger obtained the consent of Monseigneur Octave de Bellegarde, Archbishop of Sens, for the establishment of the convent in his diocese. On May 19, 1630, Mother Mary of the Assumption, with three professed nuns and several novices from Montmartre, arrived at Montargis, and alighted at the residence of M. de Fontaine, receveur de domaine, the most considerable house in the town, where they met with a grateful reception. In the meanwhile Mons. Granger prepared the convent for their reception, and on the Feast of the Holy Trinity, May 26, the reverend mother made her solemn entry. Entitled to have an abbess, but fearing to have a Court lady imposed upon them, the community elected to be governed by a prioress, in the person of Mother Granger. Later on, having a friend in Colbert, the Minister of Louis XIV., they were sustained in the attitude they had taken. The prioress' admirable government of the community was brought to an early close by her premature death, March 9, 1636, aged thirty-eight.
X ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS.
Her death was a great grief to the community, who lost a most holy mother, possessed of all the qualities requisite for an able superioress. She was interred in the middle of the choir of the con vent, before the high altar. A monument engraved with her effigy was erected to her memory by the Duchesse de Montbazon. This generous lady wished to have carried out a more pretentious design, representing the figure of Mother Granger on her knees, but her sister, and successor in the government of the community, preferred simplicity as more in consonance with the vow of poverty.
Anualcs du Monastcrc des Benedictines de Notre Dame des Anges de Montargis, MS., now at Princethorpe ; Almanack for the Diocese pf Birmingham, 1886, pp. 69, 70.
I. From the time of its foundation in 1630, till its expulsion from France in 1792, the community of Our Lady of Angels was held in high repute for its strict adhesion to the rule of the Order, and on several occasions sent forth members to reform monasteries which had fallen into relaxation. The catalogue of those professed includes the names of members of the elite of the French noblesse, De Montbazon, De Bretaigne, De Luynes, De Mirepoix, £c., and of many English families of distinction.
At the outbreak of the Revolution, the municipality and populace of Montargis were amongst the most lawless and violent of its adherents. The monastery was one of the first objects of their attack. The charters, documents, and money were taken possession of by the mayor and his officers, and everything of value carried off. When the National Assembly decreed the dissolution of religious communities and confiscation of their property, the mother prioress (De Mirepoix) with great difficulty procured passports, and conducted her community, numbering forty persons, to Dieppe. There they embarked on board the Prince of Wales, commanded by Captain Burton, intending ultimately to proceed to the Low Countries. Stress of weather obliged the captain to land his passengers at Shoreham, whence the refugees proceeded in carriages to Brighton. The arrival of the French community (Oct. 17, 1792) stirred the sympathy of the sojourners at that fashionable watering-place, and Mrs. Fitzherbert, who had a relative in the community, interested her husband, the Prince Regent, afterwards George IV., in behalf of the exiles. His Royal Highness accompanied her to visit the nuns, spoke to each sister with the greatest kindness and affability, and, addressing the prioress, invited her and her community to remain in England, promising them safety, and assuring them of his pro tection. He also liberally aided them in their pecuniary need.
ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. XI
Their condition at the time of their landing was one of absolute poverty. In the strong-box of the convent is treasured to this day the only money (fourpence) possessed by the community on the day they were blown by the storm to England. In consequence of their kind reception by the Prince of Wales, the nuns proceeded to London, where they remained for two years, supporting them selves by giving lessons in French, and by the sale of needle work ; and benefactors, Protestant as well as Catholic, were not wanting.
In 1794 the community settled at Bodney Hall, Norfolk, most generously lent them by Mr. Tasborough, nephew to one of the nuns, Anne (Mere de Ste. Felicite), daughter of Sir John Swinburne, of Capheaton, Bart. There they re-opened a school for young ladies, which soon gained high repute. In 1811 the community removed to Heath Hall, near Wakefield, in Yorkshire, and in 1821 to Orrell Mount, near Wigan, co. Lancaster, a spacious mansion with magnificent gardens, which they purchased. There were then from forty to forty-two nuns in the convent, adjoining which they erecttd a chapel. Dom Thos. Anselm Kenyon, O S.B.. was chaplain from 1827 to 1834. The premises at Orrell Mount, however, being found unsuitable for conventual observance, it was determined to sell the property and purchase land on which to erect a convent. In 1833 the foundation stone of the present priory of Our Lady of Angels was laid at Princethorpe,Warwickshire, where the community found a permanent home, in which they settled in June 1835, an<l now conduct a most flourishing school.
The list of prioresses is as follows :— Marie Granger, of Our Lady of the Assumption, 1630 to death, March 9, 1636; her sister, Genevieve Granger, of S. Benoit, March 17, 1636, to death, Oct. 5, 1673; Genevieve Nau, of the Assumption, Oct. 7, 1673, to death, April 9, 1710 ; Marie Antoinette de Beauvillier, of S. Benoit, May 5, 1710, to death, Nov. 29, 1749; Charlotte Mdlanie d'Albert de Luynes, of Ste. Therese, Dec. 2, 1749, to April 12, 1761 ; Marie Tdrese de Levy, of Ste. Gertrude, April 14, 1761, to death, May I, 1784; Gabrielle Elizabeth de Levy Mirepoix, of S. Benoit, May 3, 1784, (transferred the community to England in 1792), to death, at Bodney Hall, March 28, 1806; Louise Elizabeth Victoire de Levy Mirepoix, of Ste. Agnes, April 30, 1806, to death, at Orrell Mount, May 24, 1830; Athanaise le Vaillant du Chastelet, of S. Paul, May 28, 1830, to death, at Princethorpe, July 2, 1838 ; Agatha Josdphine le Vaillant du Chastelet, of Ste. Agnes, July 10, 1838, to death, May I, 1860 ; Fran9oise Xaveria McCarthy (Marie Ger.evieve), May 12, 1860, to death, Oct. 17, 1867; Anne Winstanley (Mnrie Athanaise), Oct. 29,
Xll ADDITIONS AND -CORRECTIONS.
1867, to June 9, 1873 5 Agnes Stonor (Marie Rosalie), June 24, 1873, to death, Sept. 6, 1887.
P. 17, GRAY, alias GRANT, R., confirmed by the Valladolid Diary.
P. 24, GREEN, HUGH.
2. PORTRAIT, in the possession of the Teresinn nuns of Lanherne, in Cornwall, formerly of Antwerp, inscribed " Ferdinando Brooks. Passus. 19. Aug. 1642."
P. 36, GREENE, THOS., is entered in the Valladolid Diary as of the diocese of Lincoln and M.A. of Oxford. He was received at Valladolid Oct. 24, 1590, and remained till Oct. 19, 1591, when he went to the English College at Seville, and there was ordained priest.
P. 47, GREENWOOD, TERESA. A Sister John Greenwood was a religious in the Bridgettine community, formerly of Sion House, between 1582 and 1594.
P. 49, GRENE, FRANICS, does not appear in the Valladolid Diary.
P. 54, GREY, JOHN. Bourchier (•' Hist. Eccles.," edit. 1583, f. 132) says that he had the stigmata of St. Francis, the mark of which he himself saw on one foot.
P. 58, GRIFFITH, MICHAEL, was admitted into the English College at Valla dolid, Nov. I, 1602. Although he took the second missionary oath, Dec. 29, 1603, he left the college to join the Society in Feb. 1607. The Diary says he became " Rector Collegii S. Rome," was well versed in Greek and Hebrew, and was a good canonist.
P. 63, GRIMES, ROGER, alias GREENWAY and CADWALLADOR, vide Vol. i. p. 369. From the Valladolid Diary it would appear that Grimes was his real name. After leaving Rheims he was received in the English College at Valladolid, Jan. 3, 1593, and was ordained priest there by the Bishop of Tamorensi. He left for the English mission in the beginning of Oct. 1593, and was martyred Aug. 27, 1610.
P. 1 57, HARTING, J. V., 2nd paragraph, line 8, after Messrs, insert Baxendale.
P. 161, HARVEY, J. M., alias RIVETT, must have opened his school in London shortly after his arrival from Rome, because John Orme is said to have attended the school for some time previous to his reception into the English College at Rome in Aug. 1732. Subsequently Mr. Harvey removed to the ancient mission at Ugthorpe, in York shire, and there continued his school. Bishop Dicconson mentions him as being there in 1741. Towards the close of 1745 he was
ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. Xlii
brought before three justices of the peace, charged with being a Popish priest and keeping a school for the education of children in the Popish religion. This he acknowledged, and as he refused to take the oaths, he was committed to York Castle. His name appears in the Duke of Newcastle's warrant of detainer '• for suspition of high treason." In the following March he was tried at the Lent assizes with Sir Wm. Anderson, a Valladolid priest, " for being Popish priests, and, little regarding the laws and statutes of this realm, and not fearing the pains and penalties therein contained after the 25th of March, 1700, to wit, the 8th of Sept. in the igth year of George II., did say Mass at Craythorne and Ugthorpe, and that office or function of a Popish priest did use and exercise in contempt of the said Lord the King and his laws." Several other priests were tried at the same assizes, and suffered long imprisonments. Sub scriptions were raised amongst the Catholics for their maintenance and to defray the costs of their defence, in which the charity of Mr. Tunstall, of Wycliff, and Mr. Cholmeley, of Bransby, was con spicuous. After his release from prison, Mr. Harvey withdrew to London. His school was probably broken up, though it may have been re-opened by his successor at Ugthorpe, the Rev. Edw. Ball, who remained there till 1757, and subsequently became a professor at St. Omer's College.
P. 226, HAYDOCK, ROBERT, O.S.B., of the Cottam Hall family, was admitted into the English College at Valladolid, Nov. i, 1602. He left to join the Benedictines in Oct. 1603, and was professed in the monas tery of St. Martin at Compostella. On the mission he used the alias of Benson. His great reputation as a theologian was probably acquired by works, though no titles have been recorded. Sec his biography in '• The Haydock Papers," by the present writer.
P. 261, HELME FAMILY. The Valladolid Diary says that Hugh Helme, alias Tapin, of Lancashire, was admitted into the College June 10, 1600, and took the oath on the following Dec. 28, but left to join the Benedictines in Sept. 1603. Weldon says he was professed at Montserrat under the religious name of Bede. He was first Pro vincial of York, 1620-25, and died in Durham, Jan. 24, 1629. Fr. Snow, in his "Benedictine Necrology," apparently confuses him with Thomas Tunstall, alias Helmes the martyr.
Thomas Helme, or Holme, of Lancashire, a relative of the above, was admitted into the English Coil; ge at Valladolid, March 27, 1595, but was transferred to the English College at Seville, where pre sumably he was ordained priest.
XIV ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS.
P. 313, HIPPISLEY, Sir JOHN COXE, Bart., statesman, 1765-1825, was re ceived into the Church on his death-bed ; vide Bishop Milner's letter to Rev. John Garbett, M.A., dated Wolverhampton, March 17, 1826, reprinted in Oliver's " Collectanea S.J.," edit. 1845, p. 171.
P. 320, HODGSON, R. The exact title of the work referred to is — " A Dis passionate Narrative of the Conduct of the English Clergy in receiving from the French King and his Parliament the Adminis tration of the College of St. Omer, late under the Direction of the English Jesuits. Collected from the Original Memorials and Letters. By a Layman." Lond. 1768, Svo., pp. 155, besides title and preface.
St. Omer's was originally founded by Fr. Persons in 1593 as a Jesuit College. In 1762 the French Parliament determined on the expulsion of Jesuits from France, and the English members of the Society were doomed with their French brethren. The College authorities, having information of this design, secretly transported the students and their valuable effects beyond the Parliament's reach, across the frontier of France to Bruges, in Aug. 1762. In order to save the College from total sequestration from the English Catholics, it was arranged that it should be handed over to the English secular clergy, with which the Jesuits at first expressed entire satisfaction. Accordingly, on Sept. 7, 1762, another arrct was addressed to Le Sieur Henri Tichbourne Blount, pretre du College Anglais de Douay, to take possession of the College de Saint Omer, in the absence of Thomas Talbot, the president-elect, to choose professors and to open the schools. On the 3oth of the same month the four Fathers, as related under Fr. R. Hoskins (p. 408), signed their " Protest." In the following month, after the Fathers had left the College, the Seculars took possession, and opened the schools in Feb. 1763-4. Shortly before the latter event, unbecom ing reflections were cast upon the Seculars for not refusing to accept the administration of the College, and charges were brought against the professors at Douay College and the Carthusians at Nieuport. The President of the former issued a circular letter, which was a complete answer to these calumnies, and the Prior of the Carthu sians proved that no member of his Order had taken part in the matter. The Jesuits then sent a memorial to Propaganda, relative to the affairs of the College, and much private correspondence ensued.
P. 421, HOWARD, C, 5th line from bottom, for Dr. read Mgr.
ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. XV
P. 428, HOWARD, H., line 16, for Ranzoni read Rangoni, and for Monticu- coili read Montecuculli.
P. 431, I Qth line, for part read port.
P. 432, No. i, after preface insert pp. xxi.
P. 470, HULL, F., No. i. He prepared a second volume (which seems not to have been published) of " The Flowers of the Lives of the Most Renowned Saincts of the three kingdoms, England, Scotland, and Ireland, written and collected out of the best authours and manu scripts of our nation, and distributed according to their Feasts in the Calendar, by the Rev. Father Hierome Porter, Priest and Monke of the Holy Order of Sainct Benedict, of the Congregation of England.1' Doway, 1632, 4to., with engr. title and plates.
BIOGRAPHICAL AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL
DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS.
Graham, John, schoolmaster, educated at the University of Paris, opened a school at 8, Clark's Buildings, Greenwich, in 1823, which he continued for many years. His daughter mar ried John Whiteside, of London, Esq., son of Henry Whiteside, of Lancaster and London, by Jane, daughter of James Corney, of Lancaster.
Gillozv, Cat/i. Schools in Eng., MS.
i. English Word-Book for the Use of Schools. By John Graham, schoolmaster. Lond., Nelson's School Series, 1856, 8vo. and i2mo.
Grant, Mr., schoolmaster, received his education at St. Omer's College. He assisted for several years in Catholic schools in and near London, and also in the north of England, after which, in 1820, he opened an academy for young gentle men at Acock's Green House, three miles from Birmingham. He continued it for some years.
allow, CatJi. Schools in Eng., MS.
Grant, John, Esq., of Norbrook, near Warwick, was unfor tunately drawn into the conspiracy known as the Gunpowder Plot, which unjustly subjected the Catholics of England to more than a century of persecution and odium.
Hume (" Hist. of Eng.," ed. 1795, vol. ii. p. 162) attributes this treason to the disappointment of the Catholics, who had expected indulgence on the accession of James I. No doubt this is true as regards the conspirators, but Lingard and other historians have clearly shown that the Catholics as a body had nothing to do with this plot. Indeed, on its becoming known to them, it
VOL. ill. B
2 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GBA.
was they who at once apprised the Government of the danger. It was only when the conspirators stood in need of further assistance that Grant was admitted into their confidence. This was done by Catesby at Oxford, in the month of January, 1604-5, on which occasion his brother-in-law, Robert Winter, likewise became privy to the scheme. Grant had married a sister of the Winters of Huddington, co. Worcester, and at the time of the plot had several brothers, whom the Government afterwards endeavoured to associate with the conspiracy. He resided at Norbrook, adjoining to Snitterfield, properties which his ancestors had possessed for many generations, besides the estate of Saltmarsh, in Worcestershire. Fr. John Gerard, who no doubt was personally acquainted with him, says that he was " as fierce as a lion, of a very undaunted courage as could be found in a country ; which mind of his he had often showed unto pursuivants and prowling companions, when they would come to his house to search and ransack the same, as they did to divers of his neighbours. But he paid them so well for their labour, not with crowns of gold, but with cracked crowns some times, and with dry blows instead of drink and other good cheer, that they durst not visit him any more, unless they brought great store of help with them. Truth is, his mettle and manner of proceeding was so well known unto them that it kept them very much in awe and himself in much quiet, which he did the rather use that he might with more safety keep a priest in his house, which he did with great fruit unto his neighbours and comfort to himself." Fr. Greenway describes him as a man of accomplished manners, but of a melancholy and taciturn disposition. Jardine, on the authority of Tanner, says that he had been implicated in the Essex insurrection, and fined for his share in that transaction.
It is not surprising, therefore, that Catesby and his associates should consider such a man a valuable auxiliary, especially as the mansion-house at Norbrook was conveniently situated for the purposes of the conspirators, being in the centre of their proposed rendezvous, and in the most populous part of War wickshire, between the towns of Warwick and Stratford-on- Avon. " It was walled and moated," says Mr. Jardine, " and well calculated, from its great extent, for the reception of horses and ammunition. At the present day little remains of it but its name ; some fragments of massive stone walls are,
GRA.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 3
however, still to be found, and the line of the moat may be distinctly traced ; an ancient hall of large dimensions is also apparent among the partitions and disfigurations of a modern farmer's kitchen. The identity of the house is fixed, not only by its name and local situation, but by a continuing tradition, that this was the residence of one of the Gunpowder con spirators ; and still more conclusively by the circumstance, that an old part of the building, which was taken down a few years ago, was known by the name of the Powder Room." Mr. Grant was therefore joined with Sir Everard Digby to raise an insur rection after the intended blowing up of the Parliament-house.
When the scheme failed, and the fugitives arrived at Nor- brook, Grant accompanied them in their flight to Holbeach House, on the borders of Staffordshire, the residence of Stephen Littleton. Here, while preparing to resist apprehension on Nov. 8, 1605, an accidental explosion of gunpowder nearly put an end to his troubles. His face was very much disfigured and his eyes almost burnt out. Within an hour the house was surrounded, and Mr. Grant was taken with others and sent prisoner to the Tower.
On Jan. 27, 1606, he was arraigned with six of the prisoners at Westminster for being a party to the plot to blow up the Parliament-house, and was accordingly condemned to death. Three days later he was executed in St. Paul's Churchyard, confessing the heinousness of his offence, but declaring that his conscience had belied him, otherwise his sole object had been the cause of religion. Casaubon's statement, in his " Epistle to Fronto Ducaeus," p. 91, as to the disposition of Mr. Grant on the day of his execution, and as to the light in which he is there made to look upon his crime, has been shown to be untruthful.
Morris, Condition of Catholics under James I.; Jardinc, Gun powder Plot ; Lingard, Hist, of Eng., ed. 1849, v°l- vn- P- 69 > Dodd, C/i. Hist., vol. ii. ; Tierney, Dodd, vol. v. pp. 45, 47.
I . For the publications referring to his execution, and further particulars of the Gunpowder Plot, see T. Bates, R. Catesby, E. Digby, G. Fawkes, J. Gerard, A. Rookwood, R. Winter, C. Wright, &c. To these may be added — " A True Account of the Gunpowder Plot ; extracted from Dr. Lind- gard's History of England and Dodd's Church History, including The Notes and Documents appended to the latter by the Eev. M. A. Tierney, F.R.S., F.S.A. With Notes and Prefatory Remarks, by Vindicator." Lond., Dolman, 1851, 8vo. pp. xii.-i27. Published to refute a series of letters,
B 2
4 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GRA.
or papers, in the Times, extending at intervals, from Nov. 7 to Dec. 25, 1850. They professed to give the history of the Gunpowder Plot, " but their real object was to vilify the Catholics as a body, to identify the religion, with the crime of the conspirators, and to make the whole Catholic com munity, past, present, and to come, answerable for the atrocious contrivances of a few ruthless and gloomy fanatics." The Editor of the Times, seeing the purpose to which the annual celebration of the fifth of November might be turned, employed this means to denounce and to oppose the restoration of the hierarchy.
On the Protestant side, Jardine's " Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot,'' Lond. 1857, 8vo. pp. xx.~35i, is undoubtedly the most exhaustive work on the subject from a lawyer's standpoint. Had he then been in possession of John Gerard's narrative, published by Fr. Morris, he would probably have modified many of his views.
Grant, John, citizen and councillor of London, son of Henry Grant, of Hampshire, and Mary his wife, was born at the sign of the Seven Stars, in Birchin Lane, in the parish of St. Michael, Cornhill, April 24, 1620, where he was baptized on the following ist of May. After receiving a fair education, he was apprenticed to a smallware haberdasher, a trade which Wood says he " mostly followed, though free of the Drapers' Company." Subsequently he passed through all the offices of the City until he entered the Common Council, where he re mained two years. He was also captain of the "Trained- band " for several years, and afterwards major for two or three more.
He had been brought up a rigid Puritan, and for several years exercised his dextrous and incomparable faculty in short hand in taking notes of sermons, which resulted in an inclina tion towards Socinianism. At length he became a Catholic, and his conversion necessitated the relinquishment of his business and the resignation of his public offices. Not satisfied with this, the enemies of his faith endeavoured to injure his reputa tion and to endanger his life.
On the authority of an old woman, the Countess of Claren don, and of Dr. Lloyd, a divine whose brain had been affected by the study of the Apocalypse, Burnet gravely tells a story which attributes to Mr. Grant the disastrous effects of the great fire of London. The bishop relates how Grant was a member of the board of the New River Company at Islington, and, on the Saturday preceding the fire, turned all the cocks and carried away the keys, so that when the fire broke out about two o'clock in the following morning, the water-pipes were found empty.
GRA.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 5
The fire happened on Sunday, Sept. 2, 1666, but, unfortu nately for the " historian of his own times," the books of the water company prove that Grant had no interest in the works before the 25th of that month.
Mr. Grant died April 18, 1674, aged 54, and was buried four days later in St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleet Street, under the pews in the nave. His funeral was attended by a con course of illustrious men, amongst whom his intimate friend, Sir William Petty, was conspicuous for his grief.
He was esteemed, not only for his great candour and rec titude, but also for his singular penetration and judgment. Combining study with natural ingenuity, his observations v/ere always valuable. He was a faithful friend and a great peace maker, being frequently called upon as an arbitrator. The wide respect in which he was held has been justly recorded by the Oxford historian.
By his wife, Mary, he seems to have had several children ; two of whom were buried in St. Michael's, Cornhill, in 1643 and 1662.
Wood, Athen, Oxon., ed. 1691, p. 269 ; Lingard, Hist, of Eng., ed. 1849, v°l- ix. p. 127; Burnet, Hist, of Jus Oivu Time, vol. i. p. 231 ; Dodd, Ck. Hist., vol. ii. p. 426 ; Reg. of St. Michael, CornJiill, Harl. Soc.
1. Natural and Political Observations upon the Bills of Mor tality. Lond. 1 66 1, 4to. ; id. 1662 ; Lond. 1663, 8vo. 3rd edit. ; Oxford, 1665, Svo. 4th edit ; Lond. 1676, 8vo. 6th edit. ; and again, edited by Thos. Birch, D.D., " Collection of the Yearly Bills of Mortality, with Grant's Observations. Sir W. Petty on the Growth of the City of London. Corbyn Morris on the Past Growth and Present State of the City of London." Lond. 1759, 4to.
In this work Wood says he was assisted by Sir William Petty, who had obtained the Professorship of Music at Gresham College through the interest of " his dear friend Capt. Joh. Graunt."
2. Observations on the Advance of Excise. MS. Wood says that he left a MS. " about religion."
Grant, Thomas, D.D., first Bishop of Southwark, was born in France, at Ligny-les- Aires, in the diocese of Arras, on the feast of S. Catharine, Nov. 25, 1816. He was the son of Bernard Grant, who enlisted in the 7ist Highlanders, after being driven from his home at Ackerson's Mill, near Newry, by -a band of incendiaries in one of the fanatical riots so common in
6 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GKA,
those days, and especially in those parts, between Catholics and Protestants. His father, whose mother, Rachel Maguire, was aunt to the celebrated theologian, Fr. Tom Maguire, enlisted at the age of eighteen, and, after about two years, married Ann Mac Gowan, of Glasgow, a native like himself of the north of Ireland. Sergeant Grant was present at Waterloo, and entered France with the allied armies. He was in many ways superior to the position he occupied in the service, and had long been promised a commission, which he eventually purchased. On his retirement as quartermaster, he received the honorary title of captain, and dying in May, 1856, was buried at The Willows, Kirkham, Lancashire.
At an early age Thomas Grant had the misfortune to lose his mother, who died in Canada, where her husband's regiment was stationed. Shortly afterwards it was quartered at Chester, and there the future bishop received his early education, under the care of his patron, Dr. Briggs, afterwards Bishop of Beverley. After three years Dr. Briggs sent him, in Jan. 1829, to St. Cuthbert's College, Ushaw, Durham, on one of the Lancashire district funds. In 1836, being then in his second year of philosophy, he was sent to the English College at Rome, where he was admitted on the ist of December, took the college oath, Nov. 21, 1837, received the tonsure four days later, and minor orders on the following day. There he was ordained sub-deacon by Dr. Brown, Bishop of Tloa, Nov. 14 ; deacon, in the church of the Nuns of the Visitation, Nov. 2 i ; and on Sunday, Nov. 28, 1841, he was ordained priest. Imme diately after his ordination, he was created D.D., and soon after wards was named secretary to Cardinal Acton.
Dr. Grant was a proficient in Latin, French, and Italian ; he was well versed in canon law, and through his connection with Cardinal Acton, one of the most accomplished canon lawyers of his day, was initiated into the system of Roman and ecclesiastical business. As soon as he became known to the great men of the day, he won their esteem and admiration. His humility alone stood in the way of honours, which were even pressed upon him by Cardinal Lambruschini, then secre tary of state. On April 13, 1844, he became pro-rector, and on Oct. 1 3 in the same year rector of the English College, in succession to Dr. Baggs. Soon afterwards he was appointed agent at Rome for the English bishops, who were then petition-
GBA.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 7
ing for the restoration of the hierarchy. The present venerable Bishop of Birmingham, Dr. Ullathorne, was foremost amongst those who negotiated this important matter, and he bears the following generous testimony to the aid which he received from Dr. Grant : — " He initiated me into the elements of canon law, and into the constitution and working of the Roman congregation. He aided me in negotiations, revised my papers, translated them, and shaped them ; and, having much influence at Propaganda, he used that influence in my service, as in the service of all the bishops. Nothing escaped his attention in England or at Rome that demanded the attention of the Vicars Apostolic, whether as individuals or as a body. A note from him always contained the pith of the matter, whilst by action he had already not unfrequently anticipated the difficulty. We have never had an agent in my time who comprehended the real functions of an agent as he did. He never, by silence or excessive action, got you into a difficulty, but he got you out of many. Above all, he never left you in the dark." When the story of the agitation for the restoration of the hierarchy is written, it will be seen how much of the success was due to the labours of Dr. Grant.
The joyful culmination which closed his negotiations for the hierarchy was the prelude of a great change in Dr. Grant's life. By Propaganda decree, dated June 16, 1851, he was appointed to the newly created See of Southwark. It was approved by Pius IX., June 22, expedited on the following day, and confirmed by brief, June 27, 1851. On the succeed ing July 6 he was consecrated in the chapel of the English College at Rome, by Cardinal Fransoni, Prefect of Propaganda.
After his consecration the bishop took his departure from Rome, on Sept. 2, to take possession of his See. On his arrival in England he found himself personally known to very few, except to such as had met him in Rome. It did not take long, however, to find out what manner of man the new bishop was, and the love and confidence of his flock soon followed the discovery. Even many of the bitterest opponents of the Church became, after a short intercourse, his personal friends, and he was received by statesmen whose doors re mained closed even against laymen identified with the obnoxious cause which was then agitating the bigotry of the country. If information was wanted at Downing Street on
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GKA.
any point where canonical law seemed to intrench upon the border-line of British law, the Bishop of Southwark was the one to whom application was made. His tact and conciliatory manners in dealing with public departments brought many difficult matters to a successful issue. To him, it may be said without exaggeration, the Catholic soldier owes nearly every religious advantage he enjoys. " All our really successful negotiations with the Government in his time," says Dr. Ulla- thorne, " for military chaplains and for navy chaplains, for miti gating oppressive laws, for Government prison chaplains, have been directly or indirectly owing to his tact and wisdom."
Dr. Grant revisited Rome several times; in Dec. 1854, on the occasion of the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception; in June, 1862, for the cause of the Japanese martyrs; in June, 1867, for their canonization; and in Dec. 1869, for the Vatican Council.
For some time before his final visit to Rome, the bishop was in a dying state. He was suffering from cancer in the stomach, a disease which made its first appearance in June, 1862, when he experienced intense internal pains, but was relieved by the skill of his physicians. In 1867 his sufferings became still more severe. As the time drew near for the opening of the Vatican Council, it was apparent that Bishop Grant either would be unable to travel to Rome, or that if he ventured on the journey it would be impossible for him to return. The Pope gave him an exemption from attendance, and the bishop at first abandoned the idea of being present at the Council. Some slight alleviation of his sufferings, how ever, induced him to make the attempt, and he left England for Rome on Nov. 14, 1869. His physician, Sir William Gull, at the same time, gave his opinion that he would not return alive. The bishop was consequently prepared for the worst, and desired that if he died at Rome his body should be brought to Norwood for interment.
When he arrived, he took up his residence in the English College, and seemed to have supported the fatigues of his journey in a wonderful manner. Every sympathy was shown to him in Rome. Pius IX. exempted him from taking part in the opening procession of the Council. He was appointed Latinist to the Council, and member of the Congregation for the Oriental-rite and the Apostolic Missions. He was to have
GRA.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 9
addressed the Council on Feb. 14, 1870, but on that day was seized with a paroxysm of pain in the council-hall, fell down, and had to be carried back to the English College. He was somewhat better the next morning, and said Mass. He received extreme unction, after which he rallied a little. On March 7, he was honoured with a visit in his sick chamber from Pius IX., and accompanied his Holiness to see the new church of St. Thomas of Canterbury, then in course of erection. He lingered for more than two months after this, until at last the cancer burst, on May 31, and the good Bishop of Southwark was relieved from all earthly anguish, June I, 1870, aged 53.
He was " one of the gentlest, humblest, purest, and kindest bishops," said the Weekly Register, " that ever adorned the episcopal order by boundless charity, unceasing zeal in good works, unaffected piety, spotless character, utter unselfishness, and every other virtue that ennobles human nature and sheds lustre upon the priesthood. Under that meek character and humble deportment there were concealed a fine intellect, a large mass of general information, and a highly cultivated scholar ship. He delighted in ministering comfort to the sad, the afflicted, and the destitute. His sympathy for the poor was inexhaustible, and it is well known that he more than once brought serious illness upon himself by divesting himself in the streets of his cloak or great-coat in bitter weather to clothe the naked, without inquiring where they worshipped." Pius IX., when he heard of his death, exclaimed, " Un altro santo in Paradiso."
"When he was proposed for the See of Southwark," wrote Bishop Ullathorne, " Mgr. Barnabo told Cardinal Wiseman that we should regret his removal from Rome ; that he had never misled them in any transaction ; and that his documents were so complete and accurate, that they depended on them, and it was never requisite to draw them up anew. His acute- ness, learning, readiness of resource, and knowledge of the forms of ecclesiastical business, made him invaluable to our joint counsels at home, whether in Synods, or in our yearly episcopal meetings ; and his obligingness, his untiring spirit of work, and the expedition and accuracy with which he struck off documents in Latin, Italian, or English, naturally brought the greater part of such work on his shoulders. In his gentle humility he completely effaced the consciousness that he was of especial use and importance to us."
10 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GRA.
A leading Protestant journal, in reviewing his biography by Miss Ramsay, pays him the following tribute : — " Bishop Grant was a man of many spiritual graces, whose purity, self-devotion,
and humility it will profit every one to contemplate
Without being in the least unpractical or wanting in shrewd ness, he was utterly unworldly. Forced to lead a secular life, he had the virtues of that life which is called par excellence religious. An utter forgetfulness of self, a thorough mastery of the flesh, a humility which shrank from nothing, a charity that was never wearied, these virtues characterized him."
Mgr. Virtue has added : " His life was one of constant occu pation, from which he allowed neither sickness nor fatigue to release him. In the work of his large diocese no difficulties appalled him. Although he looked to prayer for everything, great or small, his labours were unceasing."
Ramsay, Thomas Grant ; Brady, Episc. Success., vol. iii. ; Virtue, The Month, N.S., vol. ii. p. 24 ; Weekly Register, June 4, 1870 ; Tablet, vol. xliv., p. 139.
1. Theses ex Theologia TTniversa et Historia Ecclesiastica quas .... in Lyceo Pontiflcii Seminarii Roman! ad S. Apol- linaris propugnandas suscipit. Thomas Grant, Collegii An- glorum alumnus, Sexto Kal. Sept. Romae, 1844, 410. pp. 23.
2. Dr. Grant furnished the materials which enabled Mgr. Palma to write the historical preface to the apostolic decree by which the hierarchy in England was re-established, and it was he who translated into Italian, for the use of Propaganda, the numerous English documents and papers which were sent to the Holy See during the progress of the hierarchy negotiations. The knowledge which the bishop acquired on this subject during his researches was very great. Whilst declining the honours which Cardinal Lambruschini urged him to accept, Dr. Grant availed himself of the goodwill manifested to obtain permission to see such State papers as were of a strictly private character ; and this he did by way of alleviation of the scrupulosity of Car dinal Acton, whose feelings were in opposition to the expediency of restoring the English hierarchy at that period. On this subject, see Dr. Ullathorne's " Hist, of the Restoration of the Catholic Hierarchy in Eng.," Lond. 1871, 8vo. ; Cath. Opinion, vol. x. p. 164; and Miss Ramsay's Life of Dr. Grant, chapter v.
3. The Hidden Treasure ; or the value and excellence of Holy Mass; with a .... devout Method of hearing it with profit. By St. Leonard, of Port Maurice. Translated from the Italian, with an Introduction. Edinburgh, 1855, i8mo. ; (1857) i2mo.
4. Meditations of the Sisters of Mercy before Renewal of Vows. By the late R.R. Dr. Grant, Bishop of Southwark. Lond., IJurns & Gates, 1874, i6mo. Written for the benefit of a religious community>
GRA.J OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. I I
and reprinted from an unpublished edition of 1863. The thirteen Meditations, of which the work consists, are extremely simple, touching, and full of pious thought, and are eminently suited for those to whom they were addressed.
5. Pastorals. His first pastoral was an appeal for the Orphanage for Girls at Norwood, and for their brothers at the Orphanage of North Hyde. The bishop's most devoted efforts were directed to the care of the orphan, and, by his own request, his body'now rests near to those who were dearest to his heart. All his pastorals display that careful thought which was the dis tinguishing feature of his life.
6. Thomas Grant, First Bishop of Southwark. By Grace Ramsay. Lond. 1874, 8vo. pp. vi.-49i, illust. with two photo, portraits. This is a charmingly written life, by Miss Kathleen O'Meara, under the pseu donym of Grace Ramsay, and gives an admirable picture of the holy bishop. It contains much that will be valuable to the student of English ecclesi astical history, but its usefulness is impaired by the want of both table of contents and index.
7. " In Piam Memoriam,"an interesting biographical sketch of the bishop, published in The Month, New Series, vol. ii. pp. 24-30, by the R.R. John Virtue, Bishop of Portsmouth.
8. Portrait, oval, imp. fol, J. H. Lynch, litho., impr. by M. & N. Han- hart, from photo by Kilburn, pub. by Burns & Lambert, Aug. i, 1856. His bust appears on the memorial erected to his memory in St. George's Cathedral, Southwark.
Grant, William Augustine Ignatius, artist and theo logical controversialist, the two latter names being taken in confirmation, was born in 1838. Brought up amongst Scotch Presbyterians, his earlier religious career was clouded and unsettled. While quite a boy the isolation of the Presbyterian system led him to exchange it for Anglicanism, and in 1857, at the age of nineteen, his growing appreciation of the doctrine of the Communion of Saints, and of the position of our Blessed Lady in the Christian economy, brought him into the com munion of the Catholic Church. But at that time he does not seem to have realized the Church as anything more than a great and widespread communion in which his favourite doc trines were taught as a part of the Christian Church. To this period of his life belongs his little treatise, "The Communion of Saints in the Church of God," published in 1867, which Cardinal Newman, in a letter to the author, pronounced as being "very logical, persuasive, and calculated to do much good."
For eleven years he continued in Catholic communion, and then, in 1868, by some extraordinary hallucination, he quitted it for that of the peculiar body known as Irvingites. It is said
12 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GRA.
that some difficulty as to the dogma of papal infallibility, then being so much written about and so little understood by many, was at the root of this singular step. How he fared in this eccentric sect, he himself explains in his "Apostolic Lordship ; or, Five Years with the Irvingites ; and why I left them," pub lished in 1873.
His personal friend, Mr. Charles Walker, a once well-known High Church writer, says : " He returned to Anglicanism, and became the champion of the Ritualists, and of that section of the party which composed the so-called ' Order of Corporate Reunion.' This phase was, perhaps, the saddest ; for it shows him to us as an exile from the City of Peace — longing, indeed, to find himself once more treading her golden streets, but sitting helplessly down by the waters of Babylon, and expecting, as Mahomet did in the case of the mountain, that that golden city would come to him ! My remembrance of him as a Ritualist is that of one ever ready to wield his pen in defence of any shreds or patches of truths he could find amidst his surround ings, but spiritually dissatisfied and sighing for better things." Mr. Walker continues : " It will ever be one of my brightest recollections that, having received the light of Faith myself, I was permitted to be the instrument of bringing this tempest- tossed traveller into the ' haven where he would be.' " Mr. Grant was reconciled, in 1880, at St. Mary of the Angels, Bays- water, by his old confessor, the Rev. W. J. B. Richards, D.D.
On the day following the great snowstorm, in Jan. 1881, he was stricken with paralysis, and, with the exception of some valuable help which he gave to his friend Mr. WTalker, he wrote no more. Bitter as must have been the trial to so facile an artist to find that his hand had lost its cunning, he felt far more deeply his inability to wield his pen for God and for His Church ; and yet never a word of complaint escaped his lips. Towards the close of his long period of suffering, his failing eyesight debarred him even from prosecuting those theological studies which were the delight of his life, and at length he passed away, at his residence in Clifton, near Bristol, May 21, 1883, aged 44.
For many years Mr. Grant resided at Peckham, London, and devoted himself to landscape painting, in which he attained considerable proficiency, even Mr. Ruskin bestowing praise on his efforts. But his memory will be better known as one of
GRA.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 13
the ablest controversialists of his day. All his writings were persuasive and logical, and were grounded, so to speak, in his thorough knowledge of the Latin tongue, wherein he delighted to study the pure and lofty teachings of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. The writer of his memoir in the Catholic Times says : " Many priests were his most intimate friends ; and it is no disparagement of their high and sacred office to say that they frequently had recourse to his great learning for infor mation on points which had lapsed in their memory."
Speaking of his reconciliation, Mr. Walker says that it was no hasty, ill-considered, or grudging step ; " it was the deliberate action of one who had passed through many spiritual tribula tions, and had gained experience among them ; and it was a thorough, unreserved, and childlike submission to the Divine Teacher of nations."
Mr. Grant is survived by his wife, his first cousin, whom he married about 1868.
Catholic Times, June i and 15, 1883; Communications from CJiarlcs Walker, Esq.; Grant, Apostolic Lordship.
1. The Communion of Saints in the Church of God. By W. A. Grant. Lond., Richardson & Son (Derby pr.), 1867, I2mo.
In this little exposition, addressed in the first instance to Protestants, the author draws attention to that portion of the article of the Creed, " The Communion of Saints," which relates to the communion between members of the Church on earth and the saints of God in heaven. He explains the reasons of his own conversion, and then proceeds to develop that portion of the teaching of the Church commonly known as the Veneration and Invo cation of the B.V.M. and the Saints. There was a later Anglican book on the same subject published shortly before his reconciliation with the Church (see No. 6).
2. Apostolic Lordship and the Interior Life : A Narrative of Five Years' Communion with Catholic Apostolic Angels. By the Author of "The Communion of Saints in the Church of God." 1873, 8vo. pp. 1 20, Addendum I f., privately printed ; published under the title "Apostolic Lordship ; or, Five Years with the Irvingites ; and why I left them. By William Grant." Lond. 1874, Svo.j with original title retained.
This, Mr. Walker says, is "a sad record of a tempest-tossed soul, trying to be Catholic in the midst of a system essentially anti-Catholic ; of a soul which, having lost the rudder of the One Faith, is driven hither and thither in a hopeless search after truth ; and the search ended, as might be expected, in a mere substitution of one error for another."
On page 15, Mr. Grant writes, " I came to 'Apostolic Churches' from the Roman Catholic Communion, in which eleven years of my life had been, spent since I severed myself from the English Church. Familiar with the
14 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GRA.
writings of the Puritan Divines on the one hand, and with Anglo- Catholic Theology on the other — studious, too, of Antiquity and the Scholastic Doctors, I passed through Protestantism, Anglicanism, and Romanism, thanking God for the blessings I received, and the knowledge of Divine things spread abroad in the hearts, and given forth in the writings of the Saints of God. I found the ' Evangelists,' through whom those who come to ' Apostles ' are received, a somewhat queer people." He adds that his new friends had some idea that he was a " Jesuit in disguise."
3. The English Catholic : his Attitude towards the Churches of the East and West; and his Duties with regard to Modern Claimants to Truth. Advertised as in preparation in 1874, but which Mr. Walker thinks was never published.
4. The People's Mass Book : being the Order of the Admini stration of the Holy Eucharist .... with the .... Devotions, literally translated, of the ancient Liturgy of the Western Church . . . . By a Layman of the Church of England. (Lond. 1874), i6mo.
5. The Catholic Doctrine of the Christian Sacrifice. Published whilst a Protestant.
6. The Communion of Saints in the Church of God. Lond. (Palmer or Church Printing Co.), pub. whilst a Protestant, between 1876 and 1880, and afterwards reprinted and sold by the author at his private address, 13, Clifton Square, Peckham.
7. A Defence of the Order of Corporate Reunion. In a letter addressed to the Vicar of St. John's, Kensington.
Which contains a full list of his works.
8. An interesting correspondence in the Times, in Aug. 1877, between Mr. Grant and the Bishop of Rochester, showing unmistakably the great force and clearness of his objections to the bishop's use of the term "Protestant," in a sermon delivered at St. James' Church, Hatcham. It was reprinted in pamphlet form.
Gray, Alexia, O.S.B., was professed at the Abbey of the Immaculate Conception of the B.V.M., at Ghent, June 24, 1631. The monastery was a filiation of the English Benedic tine Dames at Brussels, and was founded in 1624. At the French Revolution the archives of the Ghent monastery were almost entirely lost, and owing to this fact there is nothing further recorded of Dame Alexia Gray.
In 1624, " Mrs. Ann Gray" is included in Gee's "Catalogue of the names of such young women as to this author's know ledge have been within two or three years last past transported to the nunneries beyond the seas." It is possible that she is identical with Dame Alexia.
Weldon, Chronological Notes ; Gee, Foot out of tJic Snare ; Oliver, Collections.
GBA.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 1$
i. The Rule of the Most Blessed Father Saint Benedict, Patriarke of all Munkes. Gant, John Doome [1632], sm. 8vo., ded. to the Hon. and R.R. Lady Eugenia Poulton, Abbesse of the English i\Ionastery of the Holy Order of S. Benedict in Gant, by Alexia Gray, 2 ff., The Breve of St. Gregory, Pope, for the confirmation of the Rule, The Bull of Zachary, Pope, successor to St. Gregory the Great, for the approbation of the Rule, I f., pp. 103. Dr. Oliver states that it was printed in 1632. Dom John Cuth. Fursdon, O.S.B., pub. "The Rule of St. Bennet, by C. F.," Douay, 1638, 4to. ; and in 1616, "The Rule of Seynt Benet, imprinted by Richarde Pynson," was pub. in folio.
Gray, Matthias, merchant, of Manchester, deserves notice as the founder of the " Manchester and Salford Catholic School Society," by means of which thousands of Catholic children not only were preserved in the faith of their fathers, but received the benefits of education, accompanied with the knowledge of solid piety.
The Catholics of Manchester, especially the poor and orphan children, suffered an irreparable loss in the death of Mr. Gray. To all the charitable societies he was not only a liberal subscriber, but to many a most zealous and indefati gable member. As a husband, father, son, brother, or friend, he was without a superior, and his memory is still held in vene ration.
He was prematurely carried off by scarlet or typhus fever, Aug. 1 8, 1835, aged 37, and was interred at St. Augustine's, Granby Row.
John Gray, who wrrote occasional pieces of poetry, was probably his brother. He was the author of " A Monody on the Death of the Rev. Henry Gillow ; " a poem, printed on a card, " To the Memory of Rupert Burrows Child," a young Catholic gentleman in Lloyd, Entwistle & Co.'s bank, who died July 12, 1831, aged 20 ; and many other short pieces.
Orthodox Journal, iii. 1834, p. 396, i. 1835, p. 176.
I. Mr. Gray had long observed and lamented that a large number of Catholic children were deprived of the means of Catholic education from the overcrowded state of the schools in the town, or from the great distance of these schools from their place of residence. To add to this misfortune, many of these children were enticed into other schools opened for the reception of all religious denominations, but in which Catholic children were sure to find their religion painted in the most odious colours. Snares were laid to lead poor children into them, and to estrange them from their faith by the coax ing, wheedling, and soothing manners of the managers of these schools. Gifts
16 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GRA.
of money and wearing apparel, with remission of school-fees, were often powerful inducements for needy parents to endanger their children's faith. To secure these tender minds from seduction, and to induce others to spend the Sunday in learning the principles of pure Christianity and the rudiments of education, instead of passing their time in idleness and dissipation, were the foremost objects of Mr. Gray's heart. He accordingly submitted a simple but efficacious plan to the clergy and others, for the establishment of branch Catholic schools at convenient distances from the large schools, thereby leaving no excuse for negligent parents to allow their children to remain in the schools of Dissenters, or spend their time in idleness and the neglect of their religious duties. The expense of opening and maintaining these schools was to be defrayed by a subscription of one penny per month, or one shilling per annum, from the members of the association, which was to be called the " Manchester and Salford Catholic School Society." The im portance and utility of the scheme was so clear and obvious, that it was at once approved, and numbers immediately enrolled themselves as members, while others volunteered their aid as teachers and collectors. The Rev. Henry Gillow, of St. Mary's, Mulberry Street, was elected president, the Rev. Dan. Hearne, treasurer, and Mr. Thos. Bamber, secretary. Public meetings were held monthly, at which from 300 to 900 persons were accustomed to attend. On July i, 1832, the first school was opened in Factory Lane, Salford, which was afterwards removed to a more central and commodious part of the town. Within a very short time five other schools were opened ; one in an old cotton mill in Grammar Street, near Islington ; another in Green Street, Hulme ; a third in Boardman Square ; a fourth at Barnes Green, Blackley ; and a fifth off Oxford Road, better known at that time by the name of Little Ireland, from its being the Irish quarter of Manchester. The last-named building had originally been raised by the Methodists with a view to proselytizing the poor Irish. Towards the close of the year, as stated by the Cath. Mag., vol. ii. p. 747, there were eleven Sunday-schools in Manchester, Salford, and the neighbourhood, in which upwards of 4000 Catholic children received instruction ; and yet there were more than 3000 unprovided for. Five hundred persons gave their gratuitous services in the education of these poor children. Attached to the schools were libraries and sick and burial societies. The library in Grammar Street was furnished within a very short period with 300 choice Catholic works. At the old school in Lloyd Street, adjoining the site of the present Man- chesterTown Hall and Albert Square, the library, which was established in Jan. 1817, consisted of a really valuable collection of books.
At the annual meeting of the society in the Lloyd Street school-room, Dec. u, 1834, the Rev. H. Gillow, the chairman, in proposing the toast, " Mr. Gray and the Catholic School Society," observed that the Society had provided 1300 children with education out of the small subscription of one shilling per annum from each individual member, and he declared that no other society could have been so useful an auxiliary to the Manchester Catholic School Board. He added, " The greatest beauty of this society is, that all its offices are gratuitously filled, and are efficiently discharged. Little Ireland, Canal Street, Sycamore Street, Bury Street, Salford, and
GRE.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. I/
other schools could be appealed to in proof of his assertion ; and with reference to the gentleman whose name he had connected with the society, he had known him many years previously to the establishment of the Catholic School Society, had seen him a firm friend to liberty, a friend to the poor, and a lover of education. He had known the difficulties he had to encounter in the establishment of the society ; but the greater his difficulties appeared, the more firm were his nerves to encounter them, and the more arduous his exertions to overcome them. His faculties, bodily, mental, and moral, had been employed to the furtherance of religious education and useful knowledge." In this year, 1834, we gather from the report of the Statistical Society on the Sunday-schools and scholars, in Manchester and Salford, that there were nine Catholic schools, with 4059 children on the books, in the former, and two schools, with 613 children on the books, in the latter town. On her Majesty's coronation-day, June 28, 1838, the Catholic clergy with 5000 of their day and Sunday-school scholars took part in the demonstration at Ardwick.
Gray, alias Grant, Robert, Father S.J., born in York shire in 1594, entered the English College at Valladolid, then administered by the Jesuits, in Sept 1615. Having completed his course of philosophy, he joined the Society in Belgium at the age of 24. In due time he was ordained priest, and taught humanities for several years at St. Omer's College, where he was Prefect of Studies in 1632, and Confessor in 1634, an office which he held for some years. In 1644 he was at Liege, and in the following year he went to Toulouse. In 1646 he was sent to teach rhetoric in the Imperial College, Madrid, and he was still living in the Spanish Province, S.J., in 1655.
Oliver, Collectanea S.J. ; Foley, Records S.f., vol. vii. pts. i and 2 ; De Backer, Bib. des Escriv. S.J.
i. Laudatio funebris Isabellas Clarse Eugeniae Hispaniarum Infantis, etc., Cum licentia. Compluti, apud Mariam Fernandez, Typographam Universitatis, 1655, 410. pp. 19, 2 ff., Epistle ded. signed Robert Grant, S.J.
Green, Mr., confessor of the faith, is stated in Fr. Chris topher Grene's MS. to have died in Salisbury gaol, about 1589.
In Foxe's list of Catholics imprisoned in various places in 1579 appears the name of Green, a widow, at Winton, whose husband had died in prison. In the same list, John Green, a layman, is noted as a prisoner at Hereford. William Green, armiger, was indicted for recusancy at the sessions
VOL. in. C
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holden for London and Middlesex, Feb. 15, 1604, and was thrown into prison. The name appears so often in such records that it renders identification almost impossible.
Morris, Troubles, Third Series; Ti&rney, DodcPs Ch, Hist., in. pp. 159, 1 60, 1 6 1, iv. p. xcii.
Green, Hugh, priest and martyr, known upon the mission by the name of Ferdinand Brooks, or, as he is called in Mr. Ireland's Diary, Ferdinand Brown, was born about 1584, his father being a citizen and goldsmith in the parish of St. Giles, London. Both parents were Protestants, and he was educated at St. Peter's College, Cambridge, where he took his degree of B.A. (De Marsys says M.A.), and was tutor to two young gentlemen of distinction, Mr. Solms and Mr. Richardson. Subsequently he travelled on the Continent, where the zeal with which religion was practised made such a strong im pression upon him, that he became a convert. He was re ceived into the English College at Douay in 1609, and on July 7 of the following year he took the college oath and was admitted an alumnus. He was confirmed at Cambray, Sept. 25, 1611, advanced to minor orders, and ordained sub-deacon at Arras, Dec. 17, deacon March 18, and priest, June 14, 1612.
Ten days after his ordination, on the feast of St. John Baptist, the young priest sang his first Mass. He left the college on the following 6th of August with the intention of joining the Order of Capuchins, but through ill-health, or some other impediment, he relinquished the idea and proceeded to the English mission. Here for nearly thirty years he exercised his functions in various places, but at the time of his appre hension was chaplain at Chideock Castle, in Dorsetshire, the seat of Lady Arundell.
When Charles I., in 1642, issued the proclamation com manding all priests to depart the realm within a stated time, Mr. Green resolved to withdraw to the Continent, as many others had done. Lady Arundell endeavoured to persuade him to remain at Chideock, pointing out that the time allowed by the proclamation had elapsed. Mr. Green, however, who had not seen the proclamation, was under the impression that two or three days remained, and he therefore determined to proceed to Lyme, the next seaport, not doubting but that he had sufficient time to have the benefit of the proclamation.
ORE.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 19
On his arrival at Lyme, he was roughly accosted by a custom-house officer, as he was boarding a vessel bound for France, who inquired his name and business. Mr. Green can didly told him he was a Catholic priest, and that as such he was leaving the kingdom in obedience to his Majesty's late proclamation. The officer answered that he was mistaken in his reckoning ; the day fixed in the proclamation for the departure of priests and Jesuits having already expired. The officer declared that as he had owned himself to be a priest, he must be taken before a justice of the peace. Accordingly a constable was called, and Mr. Green was carried before a justice, who committed him to Dorchester gaol, notwithstanding the prisoner's pleading that his good intentions of obeying the king's orders, and his voluntary acknowledgment of his sacred calling, should excuse a miscalculation of two or three days.
On Wednesday, Aug. 17, 164.2, after five months' imprison ment, the holy man was tried and sentenced to death by Judge Foster for being a priest. It appears from the narrative of his martyrdom by Le Sieur de Marsys, that one of the witnesses against him was, or professed himself to have been, a convert. This man testified that he had received the holy Eucharist from Mr. Green's hands, that he had assisted at his Mass, and that he was a priest. Several Protestants confirmed this perfidy. The martyr received the sentence with perfect resignation, dis played no animosity against his betrayers, but on the contrary was thankful for the great privilege of martyrdom which they had procured him, and, imitating the example of our Saviour, prayed God to pardon them. The following day was fixed for his execution ; indeed, the furze for the fire was carried up the hill, and a large concourse of people assembled in the streets and around the gates of the town eagerly awaiting the horrible spectacle. But the martyr's ardent desire was to die on the day our Saviour suffered, which a friend persuaded the sheriff to grant, though strenuously opposed by Millard, the head gaoler.
It was noted that after his sentence the holy priest never lay down to rest. He eat but little, scarce sufficient to sustain nature, and yet was cheerful and full of courage to the last. When the hurdle was brought to the prison, he came out, attired in surplice and cassock, and devoutly kissed it before he lay down upon it. The people who lined the roads during his
C 2
20 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GRE.
sad and painful passage were astonished at the holy joy which lit up the face of the martyr, who remained rapt in prayer until he arrived on the hill, where the hurdle was detained at some distance from the gibbet, awaiting the execution of three women who were condemned for some criminal offence. Two of these poor creatures had been converted by the martyr in prison, and they had sent him word the night before that they would die in the faith. The Puritan ministers and authorities were determined that they should not have the comfort of the martyr's ministrations at their death, though he made every effort to approach the scaffold. The two women seeing him from the gallows, confessed all their sins to him aloud, and called to him to give them absolution before saying adieu. The whole happened as if it had been arranged by Providence that he might have the joy and satisfaction of seeing the result of his recent conquest crowned before he entered paradise. God was also pleased to reward his charity, for a Father of the Society of Jesus was there, disguised and on horseback. The martyr perceiving him, removed his cap, and elevating his eyes and hands to heaven, received absolution from him.
The hurdle was then drawn up to the gibbet, where falling upon his knees he remained in prayer almost half an hour. He then embraced a little crucifix, which he gave with an Agnus Dei to a devout lady. His rosary he gave to a Catholic gentleman, and his handkerchief to the chief gaoler. To Mrs. Elizabeth Willoughby, a devout lady who devoted her time to looking after priests in prison, he handed his breviary, and afterwards threw to her from the gallows his band, spectacles, and priest's girdle. Then turning to the people, he blessed himself with the sign of the cross and addressed them with an earnest discourse, the substance of which has been given at considerable length by Mrs. Willoughby and the other lady. He pointed out that he died for his religion and priesthood, and that he was accused of nothing else. He was several times interrupted by the ministers, who wished to dispute with him, but he reminded them that he had been in prison five months, and in all that time not one of them had come to dispute with him. There he would not have refused any of them, but now he had only time to resign his soul into the hands of God. He then proceeded, but it was not long before Banker, a fanatical minister who had been a weaver, and afterwards became
•GRE.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 21
chaplain to Sir Thomas Trencher, cried out in a loud voice, " He blaspJiemcth, stop that mouth of the blasphemer, cast him off the ladder'' This caused such a commotion in the multitude, that the sheriff requested the martyr to cease speaking. After silence had been secured, he continued his discourse and said that he had prayed for the king, for the queen, and for the country, every day at Mass since he had been ordained. He forgave his persecutors, and all those who had a hand in his death, and begged forgiveness for himself if he had offended any one in any way. He then gave the hangman some silver, and desired Mrs. Willoughby to commend him heartily to all his fellow-prisoners and to all his friends, and to encourage them on his part. He next gave his blessing to six Catholics who humbly besought it on their knees, making the sign of the cross over their heads. An attorney, named Gilbert Loder, now advanced and asked him if he did not deserve death, and believe it just. He replied, " My death is unjust" and so pulling his cap over his face, with hands clasped on his breast, he awaited his happy passage in silent prayer. It was nearly half an hour before the ladder was turned, for no one would put a hand to it although the sheriff spoke to many. One bid him do it himself, but at length a country lout, with the help of the hangman, who sat astride the gallows, turned the ladder, upon which it was remarked that the martyr made the sign of the cross three times with his right hand as he hung in the air. The people instantly cried to the hangman to cut the cord, and the constable held up to him a knife stuck at the end of a long stick, which the Catholics around did their utmost to hinder. The shock which the martyr received in falling stunned him for a time, for the hangman had been told to put the knot of the rope behind his head, instead of under the ear as was usual. Barefoot, the man who was engaged to quarter him, was a timorous unskilful fellow, by trade a barber, whose mother, brothers, and sisters were devout Catholics. He was so long in dismembering him, that the martyr regained his perfect senses, and, sitting upright, took his butcher by the hand to show that he forgave him. Some of the inhuman bystanders, however, pulled him down by the rope round his neck, and the butcher, cutting open his stomach on both sides, turned the flap upon his breast, which the holy man feeling, put his left hand upon his bowels, and looking on his bloody hand, laid it down by his
22 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GEE.
side. He then lifted up his right hand, and crossing himself, repeated three times, "fesu, Jesu, Jcsu, mercy ! " " The which, although unworthy, I am a witness of," says Mrs. Willoughby, " for my hand was on his forehead ; and many Protestants heard him and took great notice of it ; for all the Catholics were pressed away by the unruly multitude, except myself, who never left him until his head was severed from his body. Whilst he was thus calling upon Jesus, the butcher did pull a piece of his liver out instead of his heart, and tumbling his guts out every way to see if his heart were not amongst them ; then with his knife he raked in the body of this blessed martyr, who even then called on Jesus ; and his forehead sweat, then it was cold, and presently again it burned : his eyes, nose, and mouth, run over with blood and water. His patience was admirable, and when his tongue could no longer pronounce that life-giving name Jesu, his lips moved, and his inward groans gave signs of those lamentable torments which for more than half an hour he suffered. Methought my heart was pulled out of my body to see him in such cruel pains, lifting up his eyes to heaven, and not yet dead : then I could no longer hold, but cried, Out •upon them that did so torment him : upon which a devout gen tlewoman understanding he did yet live, went to Cancola, the sheriff, who was her uncle's steward, and on har knees besought him to see justice done, and to put him out of his pain ; who at her request commanded to cut off his head ; then with a knife they did cut his throat, and with a cleaver chopped off his head ; and so this thrice blessed martyr died."
Mrs. Willoughby's graphic narrative of this horrible butchery, which is an illustration of the savageness often practised at the executions of priests, agrees substantially with that of De Marsys, who, if not present himself, had received it from an eye-witness. After the martyr's heart was found, it was put on a lance and shown to the people, and then it was flung in the fire on the side of the hill. The hill at this point was steep and uneven, and it seems that the force with which it was thrown from the point of the spear caused it to roll out of the fire for some distance, until it was picked up by a woman, who carried it away. The passions of the fanatical Puritans were now roused to the wildest pitch. They danced around the mangled remains of the holy martyr, more like devils than human beings, contending with one another for the nose, eyes,.
GEE.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 2$
and other parts of the body, on which to display some revolt ing mark of their hate. Their rage was still greater when they beheld the two Catholic ladies begging the body from the sheriff, who of himself was willing to grant their request. Their fury was consequently directed against these pious ladies, who would probably have been torn to pieces had they not quickly retired under the protection of the chief gaoler's wife. The fanatics were determined that the Papists should not have the quarters. The ladies, however, through the medium of a Protestant woman, later on in the day got the quarters wrapped in a shroud and buried near the gallows. From ten o'clock in the morning till four in the afternoon the mob lingered on the hill, and amused themselves with playing football with the martyr's head, ultimately burying it near the body, with sticks put in the apertures where the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth had been. They would have set it up on the gates of the town, but they dreaded a similar catastrophe to that which happened after the martyrdom of Fr. John Cornelius, S.J., in 1594, when a plague broke out and carried off most of the inhabitants.
De Marsys states that Dorchester was the hotbed of the Puritan faction, which detested a Protestant almost as much as a Catholic. This circumstance reflects additional lustre around the heroic conduct of the martyr, whose cruel death occurred in the 57th year of his age, on Friday, Aug. 19, 1642, the feast of his prototypes, SS. Timothy, Agapius, and Thecla.
De Marsys, De la Mort Gloricnse de Plusieurs Prestrcs, 1645, pp. 86-93 ; Challoner, Memoirs, ed. 1742, vol. ii. p. 2 I 5 seq. ; Dodd, Ch. Hist., vol. iii. p. 86 ; Douay Diaries ; Oliver, Col lections, p. 39.
I. The narrative of this martyrdom, written by Mrs. Elizabeth Willoughby and the lady who assisted her, was published in " Palmse Cleri Anglicani, sen Narrationes eorum quae in Anglia contingerunt circa Mortem quam pro Religione Catholica VII. Sacerdotes Angli fortiter oppetiere, a Jo. Chiflet, sacerdote." Bruxellse, 1645, i2mo. pp. 75. The seven martyrs are Ward, Reynolds, Lockwood, Catherick, Morgan, Green, and Duckett, all of whom suffered under the Parliament, 1641-4.
The rare work of De Marsys deserves some description, for besides the copy in his own library, the writer is only aware of those in the British Museum and at Stonyhurst. Le Sieur de Marsys was a gentleman attached to the French Embassy in London, and was an eye-witness of most of the events he describes. His narrative, written in a graphic and forcible style contains many facts not to be found elsewhere, and was unknown to Bishop
24 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GEE.
Challoner and all our martyrologists. The first portion of the work seems to have been printed in 1645, under the following title, " De La Mort Glorieuse de plusieurs prestres Anglois, seculiers et religieux, qui ont souffert le Marty re pour la deffense de la Foy, en Angleterre," s. 1., 1645, 4to., title I f., Avant-Propos, pp. 1-23, Le Martyre de plusieurs Prestres Anglois, pp. 24-177. The martyrs are 16 in number, and the work commences with Webster, alias Ward, July 26, 1641, pp. 24-38 ; seven priests, secular and religious, condemned Dec. 18, 1641, pp. 38-42; Barlow, Sept. 10, 1641, pp. 42-51 ; John Goodman, confessor, 1642, pp. 52-55 ; Thomas Green and A. Roe, Jan. 21, 1642, pp. 55-75 ; Edw. Morgan, April 26, 1642, pp. 75-79 ; Lock- wood and Catherick, 1642, pp. 79-86 ; H. Greene, Aug. 19, 1642, pp. 86-93 ; Bullaker, Oct. 12, 1642, pp. 94-100; Holland, Dec. 12, 1642, pp. 101-117; Heath, April 17, 1643, pp. 117-128; Fris. Bell, Dec. 21, 1643, pp. 128-140. The last two lives, he says, were written by an English Doctor of the Sorbonne and a Jesuit, and were sent to him after he left England. The first is that of John Duckett, Sept. 7, 1644, pp. 141-158; and the second that of Ralph Corby, S.J., same date, pp. 159-177.
In the following year the author prefaced this work with two books, and published the whole under the title — " Histoire de la Persecution presente des Catholiques en Angleterre, enrichie de plusieurs reflexions morales, politiques et Christiennes, tant sur ce qui concerne leur guerre civile, que la religion. Divisee en trois livres. Par le Sieur de Marsys," s. 1., 1646, 4to., with frontispiece, title, with " Explication de la figure," in verse, i f., " Ex plication de la figure," in prose, i f., dedication to the Queen of England, signed F. de Marsys, 5 ff . ; " Privilege du Roy," dated Paris, April 15, 1646, and " Approb. des Docteurs," dated Jan. n, 1646 (signed by Rousse, Curd de S. Rcch, and Hen. Holden), I f., both of which only refer to "La Mort Glorieuse;" Table to Book I., 4 ff.; Table to Book II., 4 ff.; Table du Martyrologe, 3 pp.; sonnet, signed F. D. L., i p. ; Livre Premier, being an .historical sketch of the penal legislation, pp. 124; Livre Seconde, being a treatise on the injustice of the English law, which condemns priests to death for their sacred calling, pp. 128. Both books have the running title, " De la persecution des Catholiques en Angleterre," and the second closes with " Fin." The third part, therefore, " De la Mort Glorieuse," seems to have been first issued as a separate publication.
De Marsys apparently left London with the Duke of Gueldres, who, as Count Egmont, resided in England from 1640 to 1645, and witnessed eleven martyrdoms in London. During this period the duke obtained possession of a great number of relics of the martyrs, of which he gave a certificate (printed in the Rambler, N.S., vol. viii. p. 119), dated at Paris, July 26, 1650.
Green, Robert, martyr, was a native of Ireland. His father was a Protestant, but his mother was a Catholic, and after her husband's death committed him to the care of her brother, who brought him up a staunch Catholic. Having married he settled in London, and eventually became a chapel- keeper, or cushion-keeper, in the queen's chapel at Somerset House.
GRE.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 25
In 1679 this inoffensive old man fell a victim to the political intrigue of the unscrupulous Earl of Shaftesbury. Brown, in his " Penal Laws," tells us that this unprincipled minister, "who, after having alternately been the active sup porter of the late King, the Parliament, and the Protector, soon after the Restoration became a leading member of the celebrated cabal, whose intentions certainly were the destruction of all civil liberty, and, as it has been strongly though perhaps somewhat erroneously suspected, of the re-establishment of the Catholic religion. When their measures, therefore, had driven the king to the choice of one or other of these extremities — either to govern without a parliament, or to yield to their re monstrances — this subtle courtier, perceiving that Charles had not sufficient firmness to persist in his designs, or to screen his advisers from the impeachments which were suspended over them, again changed his party, and became the factious leader of the discontented multitude."
Such was the man who, pandering to Protestant bigotry, did not scruple to avail himself of such tools as Dr. Titus Gates, Dugdale, Tonge, Bedloe. Dangerfield, Prance, and similar scoundrels. It was Bedloe who first came forward to obtain the proffered reward of £300 for the discovery of the murderers of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey. The perjury of Miles Prance was secured to support Bedloe's evidence. Lingard (" Hist, of Eng.," ed. 1849, vol. ix. p. 387, note) says that Prance, repent ing of his treachery, subsequently confessed that he had been instigated by one Boyce, who " had been several times with my Lord Shaftesbury and with Bedloe, and he told me that I should be certainly hanged if I agreed not with Bedloe's evidence."
The persons charged with the murder were Robert Green, the chapel-keeper, Law. Hill, servant to Dr. Godden, one of the chaplains, and Henry Berry, the porter at Somerset House, and they were brought to trial Feb. 10, 1678-9. Although the evidence trumped up against them was of the most flimsy description, and glared with inconsistencies between the depo sitions of the two informers, and the evidence of their own witnesses was very strong in their favour, Scroggs, the Lord Chief Justice, and his brother judges, felt it incumbent on them to satisfy the craving of the fanatical party, and accordingly the accused were found guilty and condemned to death.
26 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [QBE,
The particulars of the charge are not worth reciting. Shaftesbury ("Memoirs of Sir John Dalrymple," vol. i. p. 45} has himself characterized the whole of the Popish Plot in his answer to a certain lord who asked him what he intended to do with the plot, which was so full of nonsense as would scarce go down with tantum non idiots. " It is no matter," he re plied ; " the more nonsensical the better ; if we cannot bring them to swallow worse nonsense than that,' we shall never do any good with them."
Mr. Green, who was a very illiterate man, and could neither read nor write, observed in his defence, " I declare to all the world that I am as innocent of the thing charged upon me as the child in the mother's womb. I die innocent ; I do not care for death ; I go to my Saviour, and I desire all that hear me to pray for me. I never saw the man [Sir Edmondbury Godfrey] to my knowledge, alive or dead." To this solemn protestation of innocence the Chief Justice replied : " We know that you have either downright denials, or equivocating terms for everything : yet, in plain dealing, every one that heard your trial hath great satisfaction, and for my own particular, I have great satisfaction that you are every one of you guilty." The spirit of this judicial murderer is shown in one of the preceding trials, that of Fr. Wm. Ireland, S.J., on Jan. 24, when he said to the jury after passing sentence : " You have done, gentlemen, like very good subjects and very good Christians — that is to say, like very good Protestants ; and [alluding to an alleged reward for assassinating the king] much good may their thirty thousand masses do them."
The three prisoners were removed from Newgate, and suffered at Tyburn, Feb. 21, 1679, Mr. Green being described as very advanced in years.
Smith, Account of the Behaviour of the fourteen late Popish Malefactors, p. 9 ; Prance, Narrative, p. 9 seq. ; Challoner, Memoirs, ed. 1742, vol. ii. p. 381 seq. ; Madden, Hist, of the Penal Laws, p. 206 seq. ; Dodd, Ch. Hist., vol. iii. p. 275.
I. "An Account of the Behaviour of the fourteen late Popish Male factors, whilst in Newgate. And their discourses with the ordinary — viz., Mr. Staley, Mr. Coleman, Mr. Grove, Mr. Ireland, Mr. Pickering, Mr. Green, Mr. Hill, Mr. Berry, Mr. Whitbread, Mr. Harcourt, Mr. Fenwick, Mr. Gawen, Mr. Turner, and Mr. Langhorn. Also, a Confutation of their Appeals, Courage, and Cheerfulness, at Execution. By Samuel Smith, Ordinary of Newgate, and Minister of the Gospel.'' Lond. 1679, f°l-> title i f., pp. 38.
GEE.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 2/
" A True Narrative and Discovery of several very Remarkable Passages Relating to the Horrid Popish Plot : As they fell within the knowledge of Mr. Miles Prance, of Covent Garden, goldsmith — viz., I. His Depositions con cerning the Plot in General, and a Particular Design against the Life of His Sacred Majesty. II. The whole Proceedings touching the Murther of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, and the particular Circumstances thereof. III. A Conspiracy to Murther the Right Hon. the Earl of Shaftsbury. IV. The Traiterous Intrigues and Immoralities of divers Popish Priests." Lond. 1679, fol., Order of the Council to the printer, i f., title i f., Epistle Dedicatory to all Protestants, 2 ff., pp. 40.
"The Tryals of Robert Green, Henry Berry, and Lawrence Hill, for the Murder of Sr. Edmund-bury Godfrey, Knt., one of His Majesties Justices of the Peace for the County of Middlesex ; at the King's Bench Bar at West minster, before the Right Hon. Sir Wm. Scroggs, Knt., Lord Chief Justice of that Court, and the rest of His Majesties Judges there ; on Monday the loth of Feb. 1678-9. Where, upon full Evidence they were Convicted, and received Sentence accordingly, on Tuesday the next day following." Lond. 1679, fol., pp. 92, pub. by authority of the Lord Chief Justice.
" The Behaviour and Execution of Robert Green and L. Hill .... con demned .... for the .... Murther of Sir E. Godfrey ; . . . . who suffered at Tyburn .... Feb. 21, 1678-9. With an account of their lives." Lond. 1678-9, 410.
" De Processen van R. Green, H. Berry, en L. Hill, over de Mood van de Ridder, Edmund-Bury Godfrey .... den 10 Feb. 1678-9. Gedruckt na ne copy van London." (Amsterdam ?) 1679, 4to.
"Onnoselheyt van Hil en Grine twee Catholijeken, en Engelandt gehangen," 1679, 4to.
" Fernens Epistolische continuatis der .... Benachrichtigung wie es . . . . in Engelland gegen die Catholische vorgehet .... Worinn Auch .... geschen wird dass Hil und Grine .... unschuldig zum Todt verdambt .... Sind, etc.," printed in Philemeri Irenici Elisie Diarium Europoeum, etc. Th. xxxix., Frankfort-on-Main, 4to.
"Seconde lettre de Mons . . . . ou Fnctum pour Hil et Grine deux Catholiques pendus en Angleterre, etc." (1679 ?) 4to.
For the numerous tracts on the Oates Plot, see under W. Barrow, alias Harcourt, J. Caldwell, alias Fen wick, Earl of Castlemain, E. Coleman, J. Corker, J. Gawen, and others mentioned above.
Green, Thomas Louis, D.D., born at Stourbridge in 1799, was son of Francis Green, of Solihull Lodge, co. War wick, and Stourbridge, co. Worcester, who was fifth son of John Green, of Solihull, and Alice his wife. One of Dr. Green's uncles, Joseph Green, died at the Franciscan convent at Douay, Aug. 2, 1769, having been professed about three months previously. Another uncle, William, settled at Bristol, and was the grandfather of the present Mr. William Wheeler Green, of that city.
At an early age he was committed (with his brother Joseph)
28 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GRE.
to the care of Bishop Milner, who sent him to Sedgley Park School, whence he removed to Oscott College, Aug. 15, 1813. After his ordination, in Feb. 1825, he remained at Oscott as procurator till 1828, when he left the college for the mission of Norwich, in succession to the Rev. J. M'Donnell. It was here that he first displayed his controversial ability. In 1830 he removed to Tixall, in Staffordshire, the seat of Sir Clifford Constable, Bart, and shortly afterwards he commenced his memorable struggle for the rights of Catholic burial.
He returned to Oscott in 1846 as prefect of discipline, under the President, Dr. Wiseman, but after about two years, in 1848, he was appointed chaplain at St. Mary's Priory, Prince- thorpe, near Coventry. In 1858 he was stationed at Mawley, Cleobury Mortimer, Salop, and in the following year took charge of the mission at Madeley, Salop. In 1860 he went to Aldenham Park, near Bridgnorth, as chaplain to Lord Acton, and there he spent the remainder of his long and honourable missionary life, employing his leisure in literary pursuits.
On the recommendation of Dr. Brown, Bishop of Shrews bury, Pius IX. honoured him with the doctor's cap, in recog nition of the services he had rendered to religion by his vindica tion of Catholic doctrine. On Oct. 20, I 868, his bishop publicly conferred upon him, with great ceremony in the cathedral- church of Shrewsbury, the well-merited degree of D.D. Shortly before his death he retired to Salters Hall, Newport, Salop, where he died, Feb. 27, 1883, aged 84.
Cath. Miscel., 1829, pp. 566, 607 ; Catli. Mag., vol. v. p. 584 ; Orthodox Journal, vol. ii. 1833, p. 227, vol. xiii. pp. 161, 1 88 ; Tablet, vol. xxxii. p. 676 ; CatJi. Times, March 2 and 9, 1883 ; Cath. Directories ; The Oscotian, N.S., vol. iii. p. 48.
i. A Series of Discourses on the principal Controverted Points of Catholic Doctrine, lately delivered at the Catholic Chapel, St. John's Madder Market, Norwich. Norwich, 1830, 8vo.
The passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829 was followed by the establishment of societies throughout the kingdom for the promotion of the principles of the Reformation. Amongst other places a crusade was begun in the city of Norwich. At a meeting of one of these societies, known as the Irish Sunday School Society, held in July of that year, at which the Dean of Ardagh unfolded his usual roll of absurd anecdotes about the prodigies worked by the Bible in Ireland, a formal challenge was given to the Catholic clergy and laity to meet the Protestants for the purpose of a public discus sion on various controverted points of faith. Dr. Green, in consequence of this challenge, addressed a letter, penned with great prudence, in which he
GRE.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 29
declined the challenge, on account of the few chances there were, " from the violence of party feelings, the improper motives of the champions at such exhibitions, the undue excitement of the hearers, and the probable enkindling of angry feelings and virulence among the community at large," of any real good being produced by the proposed public disputation. However, lest this should be interpreted as the result of apprehension for the solidity of his cause, and the immutable basis of Catholic faith, he announced his intention to deliver a series of sermons in his own chapel on the principal controverted points, and to invite public attendance, by advertisement in the newspapers, whenever one of these sermons was to be delivered. The sermons created such interest that Dr. Green consented to publish them in threepenny numbers fortnightly. The first was entitled " A Sermon [on Prov. xvi. 25] on Private Judgment," Norwich, 1829, I2mo. pp. 23. The success of Dr. Green's dis courses, which were attended by many Protestants, induced the supporters of the Reformation to deliver a counter-series of sermons at one of their own churches. '; An Answer to the Rev. T. L. Green's Sermon on Private Judg ment," by " A Member of the Reformed Church," was published in the Norwich Chronicle, but in the attempt to refute Dr. Green, the writer practically explained away the chief doctrines of the Reformation, insomuch that his defence was publicly disclaimed by another Churchman. Dr. Green followed his first sermon by others — " On the Infallibility of Christ's Church, being the second, &c." Lond. (Norwich pr.), 1829, 8vo. pp. 26 ; " On Transubstantiation as proved from Scripture alone, being the third, £c." ibid. 1829, pp. 24 ; " On Transubstantiation, not opposed to Scripture, being the fourth, &c.," ibid. 1829, pp. 22 ; " On Transubstantiation proved from Scripture, being the fifth, &c.," ibid. 1829, pp. 24. Others were on "Purgatory," " Invocation of Saints and the Use of Holy Images," &c. They were republished in a col lective form in 1830, and again under the title of "Argumentative Discourses, with Additions," Lond. 1837, 8vo. 2nd edit.
2. A Correspondence between the Protestant Rector of Tixall, and the Catholic Chaplain of Sir Clifford Constable, Bart. ; with an Argumentative Appeal to the Lord Bishop of Lichfleld and Coventry, on the Marriages and Funerals of Catholics and Dis senters. With Notes, &c. Stafford (1834), 8vo. pp. 50.
This correspondence between Dr. Green and the Rev. Wm. Webb took place in the years 1832 and 1833. The parish of Tixall, with the exception of the glebe and parsonage, was the exclusive property of Sir Clifford Con stable, and by far the greater part of the inhabitants were Catholics. Mr. Webb's predecessor died in 1822. He was of a liberal and benevolent dis position, and for many years before his death did not enforce the performance at Catholic funerals of that part of the Protestant service which is celebrated in the church. On the occasion of the first Catholic funeral after this rector's death, Dr. Green courteously informed his successor of the practice hitherto observed, and requested a continuance of the same favour. The congrega tion likewise appealed to him on the subject, but all that could be gained from Mr. Webb was evasion, shuffling, and personality. Dr. Green then laid the correspondence before the rector's ecclesiastical superior, the Bp. of Lichfield and Coventry, with an appeal to his lordship, but the only satisfaction he received was an acknowledgment of the receipt of his communication. This
30 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GRE.
led to an agitation throughout the country to amend the law which per mitted such injustice. The perseverance and zeal with which Dr. Green pursued the cause merits for him the lasting gratitude of Catholics. On the occasion of a Catholic funeral, Sept. 25, 1839, tne corpse, as usual, was con veyed in the first instance to the Catholic chapel at Tixall, for the celebration of the Catholic service for the repose of the departed soul. It was then silently borne to the grave in the Protestant churchyard, accompanied by Dr. Green and the mourners. The doctor, attired in his ordinary dress, the usual Spanish or funeral cloak, and a college trencher cap, remained at the grave until the corpse was buried. He then retired with the relatives of the deceased to the public road, where he joined with them in reciting prayers for the repose of the departed soul. This was made the subject of a violent harangue at Derby by Archdeacon Hodson, on Oct. 29, 1839, wno said " that the Romish priest had dared to usurp the power of interring one of his flock in the parish churchyard, according to the rites of the Romish Church " — Staffordshire Gazette, Nov. 2, 1839. Webb had already, immediately after the funeral, resorted to threats, and the Catholics of the parish had met and pre sented him with a memorial. The matter was ultimately laid before the Home Secretary. Dr. Green then obtained the opinion of Dr. J. Addams, and, on the feast of St. Alphonsus deLigorio, 1841, sent it to the Marquis of Nor- manby, the Home Secretary, accompanied by the published correspondence with Mr. Webb, his circular " Letter in Reply," and the opinion of Dr. Addams, and notes by Dr. Green. These are printed in the Orthodox Journal^ vol. xiii. pp. 161 and 188. Lord Normanby, having taken the opinion of the law-officers of the Crown, replied on Aug. 25, 1841, to the effect that the churchyard of the parish was recognized by the common law as the place of burial for all persons dying within the parish, and that it was the duty of the parson, subject to certain exceptions not applicable to this case, to read the service appointed by the rubric over every corpse there buried.
3. A Letter addressed to the Rev. Clement Leigh, M.A., Rector of Newcastle-under-Line, in reply to a Sermon on Justification, &C., Lond. 1836, 8vo.
4. The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth. The Catholic Church Vindicated. In two Letters addressed to the Ven. Geo. Hodson, M.A., Protestant Vicar of Colwich, Arch deacon of Stafford, Canon Residentiary of Lichfield, &c. : in reply to his Pamphlet entitled " The Church of Rome's Traffic in Pardons." By the Rev. T. L. Green, Catholic Clergyman of Tixall. Lond. (Rugeley pr.) 1838-40, 2 vols. 8vo., sep. titles and pagin., the second having pp. 96.
The archdeacon's pamphlet was entitled "The Church of Rome's Traffic in Pardons, considered in three letters, addressed to the Rev. T. L. Green, Roman Catholic Priest, &c." Lond. 1838, 8vo., in reply to Dr. Green's vindication of his Church. In the opinion of Sir Charles Wolseley, " a more artful, arrogant, and unchristian effusion never came from the pen of a Churchman," and, by way of retort, the worthy baronet took up his pen to teach the clergy of the Church of England their duty on acts of liberality and Christian charity. His work was entitled, " Catholic Clergymen versus Pro testant Parsons. By Sir Charles Wolseley, Bart. Occasioned by the Letters
ORE.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 31
of Archdeacon HodSon, Vicar of Colwich, &c., to the Rev. T. L. Green, the Catholic Clergyman of the adjoining parish of Tixall." Lond. 1838, 8vo.
This was followed by " Remarks on some parts of the Rev. T. L. Green's letter to the Ven. Archdeacon Hodson," by the Rev. Joseph Mendham, M.A., of Sutton Coldneld, near Birmingham, a great opponent of the Church, in his "Venal Indulgences and Pardons of the Church of Rome Exemplified," Lond. 1839, I2mo.
5. The Secular Clergy Fund of the late Midland District, com monly called " Johnson's Fund." Lond. 1853, 8vo., privately printed.
The Rev. John Johnson, who died at Longbirch, June 16, 1739, was f°r many years the administrator of a fund for superannuated and disabled clergymen of the Midland District.
6. Borne, Purgatory, Indulgences, Idolatry, &c. A Letter addressed to the Rev. George Bellett, M.A., Incumbent of St. Leonard's Church, Bridgnorth, in Reply to his Lecture entitled " The City of Rome." Bridgnorth, 1863, i2mo. pp. 60.
In this he points out the great historical errors into which Mr. Bellett had fallen respecting St. Paul's imprisonment, and other important subjects, but in such kind and courteous terms that his opponent readily acknowledged the superiority of his scholarship.
7. Indulgences, Sacramental Absolutions, and Tax Tables of the Roman Chancery and Penitentiary Considered, in Reply to the charge of Venality. By the Rev. T. L. Green, D.D. Lond., Longmans, 1872, 8vo. pp. xx.-2c-7 ; Lond. 1880, 8vo. pp. 214.
The book consists of a series of letters, the greater part of which originally appeared in his pamphlets addressed to Archdeacon Hodson. The present work arose from a controversy carried on in the Midland Counties Express, a Wolverhampton weekly, in the years 1867-8. Mr. C. H. Collette, a London solicitor, and well known as an ultra-Protestant controversialist, challenged Dr. Green to discuss the subject of Indulgences. The result was a rather long and somewhat acrimonious newspaper controversy, out of which Mr. Collette did not come with flying colours. He, however, published a pamphlet on the same subject, in which he undertook to prove that " the present recognized teaching and practice of the Roman Church is a novel invention, unscriptural, delusive, dangerous, a pious frand, and a cheat." The real question at issue was not whether the Catholic doctrine as to in dulgences is true or false ; but, i. Whether they are directly a license to commit sin ; and, 2. Whether they may be sold. This Dr. Green conclusively proved is not the Catholic doctrine. His work is most valuable, as it con tains, in a compendious form, a complete history and explanation of Indul gences, Sacramental Absolutions, and the Taxes Cancellarice. The notes and authorities are accurately copied and placed under the text they are intended to verify and illustrate. The Dublin Re-view says that it exhibits in every line the most careful conscientiousness. " He puts forth most clearly and yet most concisely, the doctrine of Indulgences, and explains it so that children might understand it."
It was attacked by Dr. Littledale in his " Plain Reasons," and defended by Fr. H. J. D. Ryder in his masterly " Reply to Dr. Littledale's Plain Reasons,"
32 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GEE.
which led to a correspondence in The Tablet (see Dr. Green's letter, dated Jan. 3, 1882, vol. lix. p. 22).
8. Dr. Green was a correspondent to the Orthodox Journal, and other Catholic periodicals. He joined in the controversy on the " Catholic Oath," in the Catholic Magazine (vol. iv. 1833, p. 100), and in The True Tablet (vol. iii. 1842, pp. 341 and 469), on the "Sale of Advowsons and Dispensa tions."
Green, William, D.D., President of Douay College, vide Wm. Scott.
Greene, John Raymund, O.P., D.D., born in Oxfordshire in 165 5, was brought up in the royal household at London and Windsor, where at the age of seven he was much noticed by Cosmo de Medici, afterwards Grand Duke of Tuscany. As soon as he had arrived at a suitable age, he was sent by the dean and chapter of Windsor to Magdalen College, Oxford, to be educated for the Established Church. At this time Fr. Philip Thomas Howard, O.P., afterwards Cardinal of Norfolk, was chaplain and grand-almoner to Catharine of Braganza, consort of Charles II., and by him the young man was reconciled to the Church. This drew upon the Dominican the anger of the dean and chapter of Windsor, whose ill-feeling was intensified by the fact of Fr. Howard also having reconciled John Davis, one of their minor canons and chaplain of Magdalen College, Oxford. In consequence of this Fr. Howard had to retire to the Continent, and he was followed by Mr. Davis and Mr. Greene, who arrived at the English Dominican convent at Bornhem, near Antwerp, Oct. 3, 1674. There Mr. Greene took the habit of St. Dominic, and the religious name of Raymund, on Dec. 9, and was professed on Dec. 1 5 in the following year. He studied his philosophy at Bornhem, but removed to Naples for his theology, and was ordained priest in 1679.
Fr. Greene was gifted with great natural abilities, and was remarkable for his keenness of comprehension, so that he had no sooner completed his course of divinity than he was ap pointed to the chair of philosophy, and then to that of theology at Bornhem. In 1686 he accompanied the Provincial of the English Dominican Congregation to the general-chapter held at Rome, and before that assembly defended his thesis in uni versal divinity with such success that he was honoured by the General, Fr. Antonius Cloche, with the degree of prcescntatus.
QBE.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 33
In 1693 he relinquished his chair of divinity to become con fessor to the English convent of Dominicanesses at Brussels, but in the following year he was elected prior of Bornhem, an office which was renewed for another triennium in 1697. From Sept. 10, 1 69 5, to 1698, he was vicar for Belgium, and in 1700 he twice attempted to reach England, but both times was captured by hostile cruisers, and relanded in the Netherlands. On Oct. 28, 1705, he was elected sub-prior of Bornhem, and in the following year the general-chapter at Rome conferred on him the degree of S. Th. Mag. In Nov. 1707, he went to the college of his order at Louvain to teach philosophy and divi nity. According to Dr. Kirk, he was elected the third rector of the college, in 1712, and at the end of his triennium returned as confessor to the Sisters at Brussels. Fr. Palmer omits this, and says that he went to Brussels, Nov. 22, 1712.
On April 2, 1716, he was instituted provincial of the English Congregation, O.S.D., and once more returned to the Sisters for a short time in 1719. He then came on the English mission, and had the care of a congregation, but in 1722 he was recalled for the service of the Sisters. In 1726 he returned to England and became chaplain to Mrs. Knight, in Lincolnshire, probably the widow of William Knight, of Kingerby, Esq., where he remained until 1730, when he removed to London. Two years later, Oct. 1 1, 1732, he returned for the fourth time to the convent at Brussels. There he remained until he was seized with an attack of hemiplegia, in 1736, which deprived him of the use of one side. He retired to the college at Louvain, where he bore his sufferings with admirable patience and resig nation until his happy release, July 28, 1741, in the 86th year of his age.
Palmer, Obit. Notices, O.P. ; Kirk, Biog. Collects. MS., No. 20 ; Oliver, Collections, p. 457; Palmer, Life of Card. Howard, p. i 5 I seq.
i. An admirable and devout Method made use of by many great Servants of God, inculcated by the Ven. and Very Rev. Father John Weymor, of pious and happy memory, to the Rev. Fr. Raymond Greene and the rest of his Novices, in the yeare of grace 1674. Augmented with many copious reasons and motives to suggest matter unto the devotion of young beginners, and so disposed as to serve for a private spiritual! recollection of 30 days, allowing only a quarter of an houre at each time — viz., at morning, noon, and night for every meditation. MS. in the pos-
VOL. HI. D
34 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GRE.
session of the Dominicanesses at Carisbrook convent, who brought it with them from Brussels.
2. Processionale, O.S.D., MS., sm. 8vo., "written out for the use of the most truly Virtuous and very Religious Sister, Sr. Dominica Howard, of Norfolke. By her unworthy Brother and Servant, the most unworthy of all the children of St. Dominique, Bro. Raym. Greene." This beautifully written MS., finished in 1694, is now in the library of the Duke of Norfolk at Arundel Castle.
3. A Spirituall Exercise, MS., 1698, I2mo. in 2 pts., at Carisbrook convent.
Greene, Thomas, Carthusian, martyr, beatified by papal decree on the feast of St. Thomas of Canterbury, Dec. 29, 1886, was a professed monk and priest at the Charter house, London. He was one of those ten brethren who were cast into Newgate, May 29, 1537, and so foully murdered after every means had been ineffectually resorted to in order to induce them to subscribe the oath of royal supremacy, or in other words to acknowledge the lawfulness of the king's pro ceedings. So much blood had already flowed that it was judged impolitic to put them publicly to death, and therefore the king decided that these holy Carthusians should be secretly destroyed, for they had become the special object of his malice on account of their open disapproval of the lustful and tyrannical course on which he had embarked.
To effect this purpose the ten Carthusians were immured in Newgate with their hands tied behind them to the walls of their dungeon, so that they could neither render assistance to each other, nor even assist themselves. All communication with them was strictly prohibited, and they were left to perish by slow starvation and the insupportable stench of their dungeon. In this deplorable position they must have perished within a few days had their sufferings not come within the knowledge of the virtuous and intrepid Margaret Clement. This lady was the wife of a learned and pious physician, the friend of Sir Thomas More. By bribing the gaolers, she daily obtained entrance into the prison, disguised as a milk maid, with a pail upon her head, and she thus supported the famishing religious with the milk that she brought with her. She also cleaned, as far as she was able, their place of confine ment, and carried away the filth in her pail. This charitable office she continued for some days, until the king inquired if the monks were all dead. Being answered in the negative, he
ORE.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 35
expressed his surprise, and gave orders that their confinement should be rendered still more rigorous. After this the keeper, fearful for his own safety, refused to permit Mrs. Clement to enter the prison. By an additional bribe this heroic woman persuaded the gaoler to allow her to climb upon the roof of the dungeon in which the Carthusians were confined, and by making an aperture was enabled to prolong their existence for a few days by lowering with a rope a vessel containing nourish ment. But the fears of the gaoler again prevailed, and within sixteen days from their incarceration, Thomas Bedyll wrote a letter to Lord Cromwell, under date June 14, 1537, in which he informed Henry's infamous vicar-general that " there be de parted : Brother William Grenewode, Dan John Davye, Brother Robert Salt, Brother Walter Pierson, Dan Thomas Greene. There be even at the point of death : Brother Thomas Scryven, Brother Thomas Redyng. There be sick : Dan Thomas Johnson, Brother William Home. One is whole : Dan Bere." Of this ghastly list, which was no doubt read with grim satisfaction by the bloodthirsty monarch, but one survived the inhuman treatment which has been briefly narrated. Even he, Bro. William Home, after remaining for four years in durance, was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn, Nov. 4, 1541, According to Chauncy, Fr. Greene succumbed on June 10, 1537.
When Cromwell was- informed of the decease of these holy religious, he declared with an oath that he was sorry for their deaths, as he had intended to have treated them with still greater severity.
Havensius, Historica Relatio duodecim Marty rum, ed. 1753, p. 67 scq. ; Chauncy, Hist, aliquot nostri sceculi Martyrmn, J5S3; Cuddou, Brit. Martyrology, ed. 1836, p. 96 ; Morris, Troubles, First Scries ; Strypc, Ecclcs. Mem., vol. i. ed. 1721, p. 194 scq.
Greene, Thomas, O.S.B., alias Houghton, was probably of the family of Greene, of Bowers House, Nateby, co. Lancaster. He was professed in the Spanish Congregation O.S.B. at Valladolid, became licentiate of divinity, and profitably spent many years in teaching his brethren theology at St. Gregory's, Douay, and at St. Malo. He was then sent to the English mission, but there it is difficult to follow him, as several priests of the name were in England at the time. Even the date of
D 2
36 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GRE.
his coming to the mission is not known. In a document In the State Paper Office (Dom. Eliz., vol. clxxxv. No. 90, 1585 ?), being a list of Englishmen in receipt of pensions from the king of Spain, is the name of Greene, priest, credited with I 5 crowns a month. The date seems rather early, yet it may refer to Thomas Greene. Fr. Snow says that he was banished in 1606, but Challoner refers this to Thomas Greene the martyr, which is in agreement with the Douay Diary. Weldon does not say that Fr. Greene was ever banished, but speaks of his long imprisonments and many hardships endured for the truth he preached. Gee, in his " Foot out of the Snare," gives a list of priests resident in London about 1623, in which appears the name of " Fr. Greene, lodging over against Northampton stables."
During the great controversy respecting the lawfulness of the oath of allegiance imposed by James I. in 1606, Fr. Greene warmly seconded Fr. Preston, alias Roger Widdrington, O.S.B., in favour of Catholics taking it. The Holy See having decided against it, and censured many of the works published in its favour, Fr. Greene, shortly before his death, made a formal recantation of what he had written in defence of the oath, and ended his days in peace in 1624.
Dolan, Weldon 's Chron. Notes ; Snow, Bened. Necrology ; Gillow, Lane. Recusants, MS.
i. Appellatio ad Romanum pontificem per Tho. Greenseum et Tho. Prestonum. Augustas, 1622, 4to.
As Fr. Preston was the great champion for the oath of allegiance, this controversy will be treated more properly under his works. Fr. Greene no- doubt had written more on this subject, but whether published anonymously, or sent to Rome in MS., does not appear.
Greene, Thomas, priest and martyr, who assumed the name of Reynolds on the mission, was born, according to- Challoner, in the city of Oxford, but De Marsys states that he was a native of Warwickshire. The latter says that he belonged to a very honourable and presumably wealthy family, and that he resided at home until he was fourteen years of age. After studying at Oxford, he proceeded to the English College at Rheims. It seems probable that he was a member of the knightly family of Greene, of Great Milton, co. Oxford, and that his mother was of the ancient family of Reynolds, of Old Stratford, co. Warwick.
ORE.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 37
The Douay Diary states that Thomas Greene arrived at the college, then at Rheims, Jan. 10, 1588. On March 17, 15 90, he was ordained sub-deacon, and deacon on the following June 17. On Sept. 1 7, in the same year, he was sent with a colony of nine others to Spain, and, after being ordained priest at Seville, was sent to the English mission, where his labours were attended with remarkable success, many Protestants being converted to the faith. At length, however, he was thrown into prison, where he was kept for several years, until he was banished in 1606. But he returned almost immediately to his post, and was again apprehended and imprisoned about the year 1628. On this occasion he was tried and condemned to death for being a priest, but through the influence of the queen his sen tence was respited, though he was detained prisoner for the remaining fourteen years of his life. During a portion of this time, however, considerable indulgence was granted him. In 1635, upon giving bond of his appearance, he was per mitted to visit his friends. This was frequently repeated, until, in June, 1641, the clamours of the fanatical Puritan party rose to such a pitch that he was again committed to close con finement.
In Jan. 1642, the king was constrained by the factious party to issue his edict, commanding all priests under pain of death to leave the realm by the following April. Those who were confined in prison were promised release on condition that they left the country within a month. There were several who had spent more than thirty years in prison. But the departure of the king from London was followed by an outbreak of Puritan violence against Catholics. One Mayhew, an informer, appeared against Mr. Greene, who pleaded the king's promise of release and permission to withdraw from the country. The judge, before whom he was brought, replied that the king had been obliged to leave London, and that Mr. Greene's previous condemnation would now have to be carried out without any fresh trial, and he was removed from his prison at Westminster to that of Newgate.
On the morning of his execution, the holy martyr was per mitted to celebrate Mass in his cell, after which he was laid on a hurdle, side by side with Dom Bartholomew Roe, a Benedic tine. They were thus drawn from Newgate to Tyburn by four -horses. The way was very dirty, and the two martyrs were
38 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GRE.
almost covered with mud when they arrived at their destination. The roads were lined with people, both Catholics and Protes tants, who showed almost incredible commiseration for the holy martyrs. On their arrival at Tyburn, Mr. Greene, with the sheriff's permission, addressed the assembled multitude in an eloquent speech of half an hour's duration. He spoke with undaunted courage and extraordinary cheerfulness, at the same time displaying such meekness and humility as to draw tears from the eyes of many in the crowd. Having finished his discourse, he knelt down and prayed aloud for the king, queen, and royal family, and for the kingdom, that they might all have strength and prosperity. After this he remained rapt in private prayer, while Fr. Roe addressed the people. Both priests were then ordered to climb into the cart under the gallows, and the ropes having been adjusted the cart was drawn away, and the two priests were launched into eternity. They were permitted to hang in their clothes until life was ex tinct, when they were cut down, stripped, and quartered. Many of the bystanders dipped their handkerchiefs in the blood of the martyrs, and others gathered up the bloody straws or any other relic they could lay their hands on.
Mr. Greene was martyred on Friday, the feast of St. Agnes, Jan. 21, 1641, being about 80 years of age.
He was a man of very religious comportment, and through out his long career had been assiduous in the service of God. Though corpulent and hale in appearance, he was very infirm through his long labours and many sufferings. His temper was mild and courteous, and though naturally timorous in disposition, he displayed great courage and resolution when he came to die.
De Marsys, DC La Mart Gloriensc, p. 5 5 seq. ; Challoner t Memoirs, ed. 1/42, vol. ii. p. 187; Dodd, Ch. Hist., vol. iii.. p. 85 ; Douay Diaries.
I. Dr. Challoner cites as his authorities for Mr. Greene's biography — -Mr. Ireland's Douay Diary ; a Relation by Fr. Floyd, S.J., MS. ; Mr. Knares- borough's Collections, MS. ; and Chiflet's Palma Cleri Anglicani, Antwerp, 1645, p. 22. De Marsys, who was an eye-witness of most of the martyrdoms related in his book, gives many particulars which are not to be found in Challoner. He assisted the Duke of Gueldres in his collection of the relics of the martyrs of this period. In Mr. Simpson's article in the Rambler,. New Series, vol. viii. p. 114 seq., entitled "The Duke of Guldres on the English Martyrs," is a copy of the Duke's certificate concerning the relics-
QBE.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 39
which he had brought home with him to Paris. Mr. Greene is there called "Arnold Green," and his relics are enumerated as "a thumb, a piece of burnt liver, a towel dipped in his blood and his nightcap which was drawn over his eyes when he was hanged, a sponge, a piece of linen, and a towel dipped in their (his and Fr. Ro.e's) blood, and the apron and sleeves of the torturer."
Greene, Thomas, a gentleman held in great respect by the Catholics of Liverpool, was born there about the middle of last century.
His father, Francis Greene, had formerly been a lieutenant in the royal navy, but afterwards became a captain in the mer chant service. He was known as " Honest Captain Greene," and so noted for his judgment and integrity that his time on shore was generally occupied in arbitration. He is said to have been one of the first to bring mahogany into this country. In 1 745 he was on a visit to his relative, Mr. Eccleston, at Eccleston Hall. Both of them joined Prince Charles Edward, and, after his defeat at Preston, escaped with seven other Catholic gentle men during the night. They arrived at Eccleston Hall just in time to change their apparel and mingle with the labourers going to their work at half-past five in the morning, when the king's officers rode up and demanded if they had been with the "rebels." Mr. Eccleston replied with assumed surprise, "I am planting trees." The officers saw that he was, and that part of the avenue of beech-trees (recently destroyed by the smoke) was in process of planting. They were therefore satisfied, and departed without further question. Capt. Greene married his second cousin, Elizabeth, daughter of Cuthbert Clifton, gent., son of James Clifton, of Ward's House, Salwick (and his wife, Anne Brent, of the Worcestershire family of that name), younger brother of Sir Thomas Clifton, of Clifton and Lytham, Bart. By this marriage Capt. Greene had issue a son, Fr. Francis Greene, S.J., born in Liverpool in i 744, and died at Worcester, Jan. 23, 1776 (Crisp, "Cath. Registers of the City of Worcester," p. 72), aged 31 ; Thomas, the subject of this notice; Frances, wife of Thos. West, of Eccleston Place and Cropper's Hill, father of Fr. Fris. West, SJ. ; and Anne Maria, wife of Rich. Blundell, of Preston, gent.
It appears that Thomas Greene was educated by the English Jesuits at Bruges ; he was evidently a man of considerable culture, and could speak fluently seven languages. For a con siderable time he resided in Demerara, where he possessed plan-
4O BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GEE.
tations, but is said to have lost his means on the emancipation of the slaves. He then returned to England, and resided at his sister's house, Cropper's Hill, St. Helens, where he died in the beginning of April, 1837, at a very advanced age, and was buried at Windleshaw.
West family pedigrees, MS.; Gillow, Lane. Recusants, MS.; Thomas Greene's MS S.; Eyre, MSS.; Kirk, Biog. Collect., MSS.; Gillow, Tyldesley Diary ; Palmer, Obit. Notices, O.S.D.
i. Account of the Trial of six Roman Catholic gentlemen for High Treason, and their acquittal at Manchester, on May 1, 1696,
1834, MS. at Stonyhurst, partially printed in The Month, vol. xvii., N.S., p. 221, under the title of "The Trial of the Lancashire Gentlemen in 1694."
This interesting narrative differs in many respects from that given by Lord Macaulay in his " Hist, of Eng.," ch. xx., which was drawn from two accounts — one by Richard Kingston, the court scribe, in his " True History of the several designs and conspiracies against his Majesty's Person and Government, as they were carried on from 1688 till 1697," Lond. 1698, 8vo., and the other by a Jacobite, which has been published by the Chetham Soc., vol. xxviii., 1853, under the title of "The Jacobite Trials at Manchester in 1694. From an unpublished manuscript. Edited by William Beaumont, Esq." A third account, originally written in French, and afterwards translated into English, and printed in 1696, was the production of Dr. Jacques Abbadie, a friend of King William, by whom he was advanced to the deanery of Killaloe. It is entitled " The True History of the late Conspiracy against the King and the Nation, with a particular account of the Lancashire Plot, and all the other attempts and machinations of the disaffected party since his Majesty's accession to the throne (extracted out of the original informations of the wit nesses and other authentic papers)."
Mr. Greene wrote this account from papers left by his grandfather, John Greene, and from what he had heard his mother relate (between the years 1775 and 1784) of the story told by her father-in-law, the lawyer employed by the families of the accused gentlemen to conduct such defence as was then permitted to the opponents of the Government. He was also assisted by the memory of his elder sister, Mrs. West, who died Dec. 23, 1816, aged 67. In a document in the possession of the writer, Mr. Greene says that he wrote this account, with two others, by desire of his nephew, Fr. Francis West, S.J., of Preston, his brother, Wm. Ant. Aug. West, Esq., and the Fathers at Stonyhurst.
His grandfather, John Greene, at the time of the trial, was a young lawyer practising in Preston, who had served his apprenticeship at the same time and in the same office in Preston with Sir Thomas Bootle. His wife, Anne, was niece to Sir Thomas Clifton, Bart., one of the accused gentlemen, being the daughter of Thomas Westby, of Mowbreck, Esq., by Bridget, daughter of Trios. Clifton, of Clifton and Westby. The eight gentlemen tried at Man chester were Caryl Lord Molyneux, Sir William Gerard, Sir Rowland Stanley, Sir Thomas Clifton, Wm. Dicconson, Philip Langton, Barthol. Walmesley, and Wm. Blundell, Esquires. But besides these it was sought to implicate many other leading Catholics in the county, including the families of Scaris-
ORE.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 41
brick, Tyldesley, Standish, Townley, Threlfall, Ashton, Eccleston, Gradell, Hoghton, Trafiford, Worthington, Hesketh, Anderton, Gillibrand, Sherborne, Shuttleworth, Greene, &c.
The iniquity of the accusation has been fully exposed. Mr. Greene narrates how his grandfather conducted the case for the defendants and suc ceeded in obtaining their acquittal.
Some account of the author's family, which is entirely original, will not be out place. The Greenes were settled at Bowers House, Nateby, in the parish of Garstang, co. Lancaster, at an early period. A member of the family, Thomas de Greene, died vicar of Garstang in 1396. The present mansion of Bowers House was erected in place of an older building in the early part of the iyth century, as recorded by a stone bearing the date 1627, and the initials R. G. : G. G., which are those of Richard Greene and Grace his wife. It is an interesting specimen of the domestic architecture of the period, and is now the property of the family of the late Mr. Will. Bashall, of Leyland, who purchased it from the Wakefields, to whom it had been sold by the Greenes about the middle of last century. There was a chapel situated in the upper part of one of the gables. It was a small room with a polished clay floor, to which access was gained by a curious flight of winding stairs, and it was provided with a hiding-place for the security of the priest. Both Richard Greene and Grace his wife were staunch recusants, and their pay ment of the usual penalties is regularly recorded between the years 1613 and 1638. Richard Greene was probably a lawyer, and in 1617 was made executor, with Alex. Standish, to the will of Thomas Lord Gerard, of Gerard's, Bromley, lord of the manor of Garstang. His son, Richard Greene, married Dorothy, daughter of John Brockholes, of Claughton, Esq., and had three sons, Richard, John, and Thomas. In 1660 Bowers House was vested in Richard and John, in which year they were fined for their recusancy. The eldest son, Richard, had sons, Thomas and William, friends of the diarist, Thomas Tyldesley, in 1712-14, both of whom appear as recusants in 1679. Thomas, third son of Richard Greene and Dorothy Brockholes, married Margaret, daughter of Edward Ireland, of Lydiate Hall, Esq., and was apparently the father of Edward Green, alias Ireland, a priest, who held property at Fish- wick belonging to the mission in 1717. The history of the eldest son's descendants, who retained Bowers House, has not been ascertained. The second son, John Greene, was the father of his namesake, the Preston lawyer in 1694. The tetter's marriage has already been given. He had three sons, John, of whom hereafter, Thomas, who died young, and Francis, the Captain before referred to. The eldest son, John, is said in the " Synopsis Fund. Col. S.Thomse Lovanii" to have been born in Liverpool, about 1702. He was sent to the Dominican College at Bornhem, where he was professed July 22, 1721, and assumed the alias of Westby. He subsequently went to Paris and took his degree of B.D. at the Sorbonne. In 1731 he left Paris, and on June 9, 1736, he was elected the seventh rector of the Dominican College at Louvain, where he remained till 1743, when he came upon the mission as chaplain at Sunderland Hall, in Balderstone, near Blackburn, the seat of his second cousin, Dr. Alexander Osbaldeston, whose father and namesake married Catharine, one of the four daughters and coheiresses of John Westby, of Mowbreck, Esq., whose sister Anne was the wife of John Greene, grandfather of the Dominican. After the defeat of Prince Charles at
42 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GEE.
Preston, Fr. Greene fled into Yorkshire, but was seized at Halifax on suspicion of being a priest. On Oct. 10, 1745, he was brought before the court at the quarter sessions for the West Riding, held at Leeds, and re quired to take the oaths prescribed by the Act of 30 Car. II. On his refusal to make repeal and subscribe the oaths, he was committed prisoner to York Castle. After a long confinement he was released, and became chaplain at Wolfall Hall, about two miles from Prescot, Lancashire, where he died April 5, 1750, aged 48, and was buried at Huyton. After his death the mission at Wolfall was abandoned. Richard Wolfall, Esq., who died in 1718, was the last of the family resident there.
2. Account of the destroying of the Roman Catholic Chapel in 1746, and of the successive building of the present Chapel of Edmund Street, Liverpool. MS. 1833, at Stonyhurst.
It was the author's father, Capt. Greene, who provided a refuge at his house in Dale Street for the poor persecuted Catholics of Liverpool, after the destruction of their chapel in 1746. The principal matter of this MS. is embodied in an historical account of the Liverpool mission, written by the Rev. T. E. Gibson, in the Cath. Times, Nov. 9, 1883.
3. Historical and Biographical Memoirs of the Jesuits in Lan cashire. MS.
These memoirs were written for his nephew, Fr. Fris. West, S.J., and others, for the use of the Society, and should be at Stonyhurst. They supply information which will add to Bro. Foley's Collectanea. Fr. Hen. Aspinall, alias Brent, S.J., born in 1715, was the son of Mr. Aspinall, and his wife Anne, daughter of James Clifton, of Ward's House, Salwick, gent., and his wife, Anne Brent. His brother, Fr. Thomas Aspinall, alias Brent, S.J., was born in 1719, and they had a sister Anne, a nun. James Clifton and his wife Anne Brent had issue, besides that given by the present writer in a note to Bro. Foley's notice of Fr. James Clifton, S.J., a son, Cuthbert Clifton, of Ward's House, who married, March 25, 1695, Dorothy, daughter of Will. Winckley, of Banister Hall, gent. They had issue, Fr. James Clifton, S.J., born in 1698 ; Fr. Thomas Clifton, born in 1700 ; William Clifton, gent., who married a Brent, and had issue, a daughter Anne, wife of Col. Slaughter ; Eleanor, a nun ; Anne, a nun ; and Mary, wife of Mr. Brent, who had issue several daughters who died unmarried, and a son, Henry Brent, who married Ellen, daughter of the heir of the ancient Catholic family of Bryers, of Walton Hall, co. Lancaster, and had issue, Lawrence Brent, Esq., who died unmarried, Mary, married first to Mr. Totten, and afterwards to Mr. Plunket, and Frances, wife of Mr. Clark. The Brent estates were situated in Worcestershire and Warwickshire, and at one time the Greenes seem to have thought they had some claim as heirs. Mr. Greene says that Fr. Wm. Molyneux, S.J., 7th Viscount Molyneux, was born Dec. 4, 1685, admitted into the Society, Sept. 7, 1705, and was succeeded in the mission of Scholes by Fr. Thos. Weldon, S.J., in 1752. From the return of the high constable of West Derby Hundred, Oct. 16, 1716 (P.R.O., Forfeited Estates, 46 P.), it appears that Fr. John Busby, alias Brown, S.J., was then serving that mission. Mr. Greene's sister Frances, who married Thomas West, of Cropper's Hill and Eccleston Place, St. Helens, gent, had issue, James Underbill West, Eccleston Place, who married Mary, daughter of Mr. Gotham, of Hardshaw Hall, gent. ; Thomas.
GRE.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 43
West ; Fr. Francis West, S.J., born in 1782 ; Will. Anthony West, died in infancy ; Will. Ant. Aug. West, who married Anne, daughter of Thomas Boothman, of Ardvvick Place, Manchester, Esq,, and has issue a son, Clifton West, of Southport, Esq. ; and Winifred Maria, married first to Mr. Tuohy, of Liverpool (by whom she had Edw. Thos.), and secondly to Lawrence Gotham, of Hardshaw Hall, St. Helens, and Bannister Hey, Esq., by whom she had issue a son, Wm. Penketh Gotham, and three daughters. The ancient Catholic family of Cottam, for such was the orthography of the name until comparatively recent times, was seated at Bannister Hey, Claughton, for several centuries. It seems to have settled in South Lan cashire after the marriage with the heiress of the Penkeths. John Penketh Cottam, Esq,, says Baines, in his " Hist, of Lane.," printed in 1836, purchased the manor of Hardshaw, which was then held by his grand-nephew. Fr. Will. Gotham, S.J., was born there in 1791.
Greenleaf, Mr., was probably the alias of an old secular priest, serving the mission in the neighbourhood of the Fylde, Lancashire, in the beginning of last century.
Diligent research has failed to identify him.
Dean Gilloiv, Cat. of Ferny halgh Lib. MS.
i. Historicall and Controversial Entertainments. MS.
The Rev. Edw. Melling, priest at Fernyhalgh, has left a memorandum that he lent this MS. "of old Mr. Greenleaf's writing," on July I, 1731, to " Mr. John Elston, alias Phillips, at Mr. Aspinwal's near Leeds, in Yorkshire." The Rev. John Phillips was the son of Richard Phillips, of Ribbleton, near Preston, and Anne his wife, probably a daughter of the Elston family of the neighbouring township of Elston. Richard Phillips was fined for recusancy in 1679. His son John was admitted at the English College, Rome, by Fr. Postgate, Dec. 22, 1697, aged 19. He was ordained priest March 3, 1703, and left the college, April 25, 1704, calling at Douay College on his way to England, with his schoolfellow, the Rev. James Gerard, on Sept. 13. The latter was thrown into gaol at Liverpool, during the persecution which followed 1715, where he died shortly afterwards (Rev. Xfer. TootelPs "Account of Lady Well," MS.). Mr. Phillips seems to have been stationed near Leeds in 1731, and it was there probably that he died, Feb. 6, 1737, O.S. Mr. Greenleafs MS. was never restored to Fernyhalgh.
Greenway, Catherine Francis, O.S.F., was the first abbess of the cloister of English religious of the third order of St. Francis at Nieuport, in Flanders. The community was founded at Brussels, Aug. 9, 1621, through the instrumentality of FF. Genings and Davenport, O.S.F. The convent was dedi cated to St. Elizabeth, and in 1622 six ladies were professed, of whom Mother Elizabeth Wilcox was elected first Superior. In 1637 they removed to Nieuport, on account of the dearness of the necessities of life at Brussels.
44 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GEE.
At this time Catherine was the Abbess. She resigned her office three years before her death, which occurred in Feb. 1642, N.s.
She seems to have been a lady of superior education, and to have been regarded with great veneration by the sisters, whom she governed for many years. The community removed in 1662 to the ancient palace called Princenhoff, in the city of Bruges. The nuns were employed in the education of young ladies, and continued their peaceful and meritorious career till they were alarmed by the report of the near approach of the French revolutionists in June, 1794. On Aug. 7, in that year, they landed at Greenwich, and proceeded to London. In the same year they settled at the Abbey House at Winchester, but in 1808 removed to Taunton Lodge, Somersetshire, where they still remain in their convent of Our Lady of Dolours.
Oliver, Collections, p. 544; Petre, Notices of Eng. Colleges and Convents^ p. 90 ; Wadding, Script. Ord. Minor.
i. A short Relation of the Life, Virtues, and Miracles of S. Elizabeth, called the Peacemaker, Queen of Portugall, of the third Rule of S. Francis. Bruxelles, 1628, I2mo., A — F 2, in eights, portrait of the Saint on back of title, sculp, et excud. St. Van Schore, and on the last leaf, F 2, is a woodcut. It was " Translated out of Dutch ; by Sister Catherine Francis, Abbess of the English Monesterie of S.Francis third Rules in Bruxelles."
St. Elizabeth's convent appears to have met with considerable opposition at its establishment. " Nor was it without much difficulty," says Dodd {Tierney's Ed. vol. iv. p. 112), " that its inmates at length succeeded in placing it on a permanent foundation. In 1624 the community consisted of 25- members.
Greenway, George, priest, son of Charles Greenway, of Tiverton, co. Devon, was born July 25, 1779, and was baptized by Fr. John Swarbrick, alias Edisford or Edsforth, S.J., a member of the Fylde family, which was intermarried with the Edsforths of Myrescough.
After a preliminary education at Sedgley Park School, George Greenway was sent to St. Alban's College, Valladolid, to study for the Church, but he was ordained priest at St. Edmund's College, Herts, in Sept. 1803. For seventeen years (Dr. Oliver says), St. Mary's, Moorfields, London, had the advantage of his spirited exertions and eloquence, and he had the satisfaction of witnessing the opening of what was considered in those days a grand new church. On the occasion of the ceremony of laying
GBE.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 45
the foundation-stone, Aug. 5, 1817, Mr. Green way delivered a most eloquent sermon, calling on Catholics to complete the great work so well begun. His name was inscribed on the foundation-stone, with that of his superior in the mission, the Rev. Joseph Hunt, and his fellow-labourers, the Revv. John Devereux and John Law, as also that of the bishop, Dr. Poynter. Within three years the church was finished, at a cost of £26,000, and opened for Divine Service, April 22, 1820.
Mr. Greenway did not long survive this great event. To the intense regret of the congregation, he was called away in the prime of life, Oct. 19, 1821, aged 42.
He was buried in the vaults of the church, which was then the pro-cathedral, where a mural monument records that his virtues and exemplary conduct had endeared him to every one, and that by his death those who knew him were bereft of a most sincere friend.
Oliver, Collections, p. 315; Cath. Miscel., vol. ii. p. 486; Fleming, Hist, of St. Marys, Moorfields.
1. Sermon delivered on the occasion of the laying of the Foun dation-stone of S. Mary's, Moorfields. Lond. 1817, i2tno.
An interesting account of Moorfields will be found in " Perambulations through London," Letter IX., Cath. Miscellany, vol. ii., by W. Y. The Rev. W. M. Fleming has published " The History of St. Mary's, Moorfields, and its relation to the Catholic revival in London." Lond. 1881, I2mo. pp. 32.
2. " Elegiac Lines on the Death of the Rev. George Greenway, late chap lain of St. Mary's Chapel, Moorfields," Lond. 1821, I2mo.
Greenway, John, priest and schoolmaster, son of John Greenway, of Tiverton, co. Devon, was born in 1750, and, soon after his father's conversion, was sent to Sedgley Park School, in Staffordshire. Thence he proceeded to Douay College, and, after passing through several of the schools of humanity, was sent with a colony to the English College at Valladolid.
His father and two uncles, Stafford and Charles, were converts to the faith. Stafford Greenway was Master of the Free School at Tiverton, which he was obliged to resign on account of his conversion, in 1757, after having held that position for twelve years. He died in London, April 13, 1797, aged 70. His wife, Lucy, survived until Aug. 20, 1809, aged 70, and, with his sister, Mary, who died May 10, 1821, aged 72, lies near him in St. Pancras, London.
Mr. Greenway was ordained priest at Valladolid, afterwards
46 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GRE.
taught divinity, and was vice-president of the college under Mr. Shepherd. When he returned to England he was ap pointed to the newly established mission at Gloucester, where he gained the respect of both Catholics and Protestants, and especially that of Dean Tucker. Under Mr. Greenway's auspices everything prospered. He opened an academy for young gentlemen of family, which he continued for some time, and thus was enabled, without being burdensome to his friends or his congregation, to purchase some property, and erect a chapel on it, dedicated to St. Peter, about 1789.
Whilst dining at Mrs. Stanford's, he had an attack of apoplexy, of which he died eight days later, Nov. 29, 1800, aged 50, and was buried, Dec. 3, in his own chapel.
Mr. Greenway was a man of great talent, solid learning, and piety, but he laboured under the disadvantage of deafness.
Kirk, Biog. Collect., MS., No. 20 ; Oliver, Collections, p. 316 ; Cat/i. Mag., vol. iii. p. 32.
i. He left many MSS. on various subjects at his death, but none of them, appear to have found their way to the press.
Greenway, Oswald, S. J., vide Tesimond.
Greenwood, Gregory, O.S.B., was a member of the ancient family of this name seated at Brize Norton, in Oxford shire. He was probably a younger son of John Greenwood, of Brize Norton, Esq., by Elizabeth, daughter of Francis Fetti- place, of Swyncombe, co. Oxon., Esq., the representative of an ancient Catholic family. In 1716, Charles Greenwood, Esq., of Brize Norton, registered an extensive estate in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, and the North Riding of York, as a Catholic non-juror, though he made the singular declaration that he was not a papist, but professed to believe in the holy Catholic Church " as the same is expressed in the Apostles' Creed."
Gregory Greenwood was educated at St. Gregory's Monastery at Douay, where he was professed, Aug. I, 1688. He was ccllcmrius in 1698, and in 1702 he was sent on the mission in the Benedictine South Province, filling the old family chaplaincy at Brize Norton, which had existed for many generations. He was appointed definitor of the province in 1721 ; cathedral prior of Coventry in 1725 ; provincial of Canterbury in the same year, a position which he held until 1737 ; and definitor of the regimen from the last date until his death.
GRE.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 47
In 1721 he seems to have left Brize Norton to become chaplain to the Throckmortons at Coughton Court, Warwick shire, and there he remained until his death, Aug. 3, 1744.
Weldon, Chron. Notes ; Snow, Bcncd. Necrology ; Payne, Catk. Non-jurors ; D. Gilbert Dolan, Downside Review, vol. iv. No. 2, p. 155; Kirk, Biog. Collect., MS., No. 2 1 .
1. Several plain testimonies collected from the Sacred Scrip tures, and from the holy Fathers, proving and demonstrating the true and real presence of the body and blood of Christ, under the sacramental vails of bread and wine in the ever blessed Eucharist. By G. G. M., O.S.B. MS., pp. 182.
2. Catechistical Instructions, or a short method of catechising children ; divided into five parts. MS., dated Coughton, May 4, 1721.
3. Catechistical Discourses. MS., 15 vols.
4. Discourses and Instructions. MS., 18 vols.
5. A short account of the blessings of the Catholick Church, particularly of Holy Water, &c. MS., Svo. pp. 120.
6. Catechistical Instructions of Colbert, Bishop of Montpellier, now made English by G. G. M., O.S.B. MS., 4to. pp. 469, "finished in 1734."
7. A short and plain account of the other World, by Father Lucas Pinelli. Translated by D. Gregory Greenwood. MS., 3 vols.
All the above MSS. are preserved in the library of the Benedictine mission of Redditch, co. Warwick.
Greenwood, Teresa, of whom the writer has failed to trace anything except the reference by Mr. Burke to her work.
Burke, Hist. Portraits of the Tudor Dynasty, vol. iv.
i. Female Prisoners' sufferings for Conscience-sake during Elizabeth's reign. By Teresa Greenwood. "A black-letter little book long out of print," Mr. Burke remarks.
Greenwood, Thomas, D.D., martyr, took his degree of M.A. at Cambridge in 1511. Four years later he was elected fellow of St. John's College, and was a strenuous opponent of Hugh Latimer's preaching in the University. He was B.D. in 1528, and received his doctor's cap in 1532.
The " Catalogus Martyrum " says that Dr. Greenwood, who is sometimes called Greenway, resolutely refused to subscribe to the doctrine of the king's ecclesiastical supremacy. For this he was tried and condemned, and suffered during the course of 1535, but the month is unknown.
Thomas Ward, in describing the tyranny of Henry VIII., to which Protestantism owes its introduction into the country, says : —
48 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GEE.
" In short there were Two Cardinals condemn'd to death, And thirteen Abbots lost their breath ; Archdeacons, Canons, seavehty four ; Priests, Priors, Monks, five hundred more ; And fifty learned Doctors dy'd." ***** In all, King Henry sent to Heaven, About twelve hundred eighty seaven And more, if more had still deny'd His Power Supream, had surely dy'd."
Cooper, Athena Cantab., vol. i. ; Cuddon, Brit. Martyrology, p. 69 ; Ward, England's Reformation, ed. 1731, Canto I. p. 44.
Greenwood, "William, Carthusian, martyr, beatified by papal decree on the feast of St. Thomas of Canterbury, Dec. 29, 1886, was one of the ten monks of the Charterhouse so in humanly starved to death in Newgate by order of Henry VIII. He has been often confused with Thomas Greenwood, D.D.
On June 14, 1537, Thomas Bedyll, Archdeacon of Corn wall, wrote to Lord Cromwell enclosing a statement of the condition of the ten Carthusians, who had only been committed to Newgate on the 2Qth of the preceding month. In the list of the departed appears the name of Brother William Grene- wode. Chauncy states that this poor lay-brother succumbed to his terrible sufferings on the 6th of June, within the octave of his incarceration.
Havensius, Historica Relatio duodecim Martyrum Cartusia- norum, ed. 1753, p. 70 ; Morris, Troiibles, First Series ; Sanders, De Schismate Anglicano, ed. 1585, p. 78.
Grene, Christopher, Father S.J., son of George Grene, and his wife Jane Tempest, who had left England to reside in the diocese of Kilkenny, was born in 1629. He was brought up by his parents in Ireland until his thirteenth year, when he was sent to the English College, S.J., at Liege, where he remained five years. He then, ^L the age of eighteen, was admitted into the English College, Rome, Oct. 20, 1647. There he was ordained priest, Sept. 7, 1653, and was sent to the English mission, April 8, 1654. Four years later, Sept. 7, 1658, he entered the Society of Jesus.
It was probably about the time that Fr. Grene joined the Society that he returned to the Continent. Dr. Oliver states
GBE.j OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 49
that he was at Rome in 1666, when he renewed his inquiries amongst the oldest of the Oratorian Fathers at Chiesa Nuova and St. Girolamo, concerning St. Philip Neri and the scholars of the English College at Rome. Fr. Christopher became penitentiary at Loretto in 1682, which he changed for that of the Vatican in 1686. He relinquished the latter position in 1692, and was appointed confessor at the English College, Rome, where he died Nov. 1 1, 1697, aged 68.
Fr. Morris says that he was a great lover of the English martyrs, and that he has done more than any other man to save the records of their sufferings from perishing, and to transmit to futurity materials for the history of the times of persecution in England.
Oliver, Collectanea SJ. ; Morris, Troubles, Third Series ; Folcy, Records S.J., vols. iii., vi., and vii.
i. The following account of Fr. Grene's MS. collections is extracted from Fr. Morris' " Troubles," Third Series :
" Varia de persecutione in Anglia et martyribus," fol., marked A., collected by Father Cresswell, now broken up or lost.
" A number of papers, letters, &c., of the Persecution, &c./; fol., marked B., at present in the Archiepiscopal archives of Westminster.
A fol. vol. marked C., now at Stonyhurst, containing Fr. Gerard's Gun powder Plot, &c.
" Miscell. Transcripta ex variis autographis," 4to., marked D., of which the only portion known to exist is Fr. Gerard's autobiography now at Stony- burst.
A vol. marked E., now at St. Mary's College, Oscott, the most interesting portions of which form the first part of Fr. Morris' " Troubles," Third Series, under the title "An Ancient Editor's Note-Book."
A vol. marked F., now in the archives of the English College, Rome.
A vol. marked G., now unfortunately lost or broken up. A considerable portion of its contents was in Spanish. It contained the " Opus imperfectum de vita Campiani," by Fr. Persons, the original of which, perhaps the docu ment itself, is now in the Stonyhurst collection, Angl. A., vol. ii. n. 14. It also contained an article " De editione Concertationis Anglicana, opus imper fectum Personal
A vol. marked M., in three parts, containing the chief portion of Fr. Grene's transcripts, one part only being now at Stonyhurst.
A vol. marked N., in four parts, now bound in 2 vols., at Stonyhurst, containing Fr. Grene's earliest notes.
A vol. marked P., in four parts, in two large 4to. vols., now at Stonyhurst, containing Fr. Grene's transcripts from FF. Persons, Garnett, &c.
Grene, Francis, priest, brother to FF. Christopher and Martin Grene, S.J., was probably educated at Valladolid or VOL. in. E
50 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GRE.
Lisbon. In a MS., marked Rawlinson D 173, in the Bodleian library, entitled " The names of those Cl(ergy) that dyed after Mr. Holt's being Secretary (of the chapter)," is the following entry which may refer to the subject of this notice — " 1673, stilo novo, April the 1 7, dyed Mr. Francis Greene, in Holborne, a grave vertuous man."
Dr. Kirk notes that a Francis Greene was confessor for many years to the English Benedictine Dames at Ghent, who were always under the jurisdiction of the bishop in whose diocese they lived. When incapacitated from the performance of his religious duties by age and infirmities, he was assisted by the Rev. Richard Daniel, who succeeded him after his death to the chaplaincy. Dr. Kirk gives no dates, but this Francis Greene probably died in the early part of last century.
Oliver, Collectanea S.J., ed. 1845, p. 107 ; Kirk, Biog. Collect., MS., No. 20.
i. The Voice of Truth; or, the Highway leading to True Peace. (Ghent) 1676, i8mo. A translation from his brother Martin's "Vox Veritatis," MS.
Grene, Martin, Father S.J., son of George Grene, probably a member of one of the Yorkshire families of that name, and his wife Jane Tempest, was born in 1616, in Kilkenny, Ireland, whither his parents had retired, it is said, on account of persecution. There his elder brother Thomas was born, as well as his younger brother, Fr. Christopher Grene, S.J. After studying his rudiments in Ireland, he was sent to St. Omer's College, and became a member of the Society in 1637. In 1642 he was a professor at the College of Liege, and at different times served the offices of prefect of morals, minister, consultor, socius, and master of novices in the various colleges on the Continent belonging to English Province, SJ. In 1653 he came upon the English mission, and in the following year, Dec. 3, 1654, was solemnly professed of the four vows. At that time he was in the Oxfordshire district. After twelve years of missionary work he was recalled to Watten to take charge of the novices, and died rector there, Oct. 2, 1667, aged 51.
Dr. Oliver eulogizes his discreet zeal, unaffected piety, and varied talent and erudition.
Oliver, Collectanea S.J. : Foley, Records S.J., vols. iii. and vii. ; De Backer, Bib. Ecriv. SJ.
ORE.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 51
1. An Answer to the Provincial Letters published by the Jansenists under the name of Lewis Montalt, against the Doctrine of the Jesuits and School Divines ; made by some Fathers of the Society in France. There is set before the Answers in this edition " The History of Jansenism," and at the end " A Con clusion of Work," where the English Additionalls are shewed to deserve no answer ; also an Appendix shewing the same of a book called " A further discovery of Jesuitisme." Paris, 1659, 8vo.
The translation of Blaise Pascal's work was entitled " Les Provinciales : or, the Mysterie of Jesuitisme, discovered in certain Letters written upon occasion of the present differences at Sorbonne, between the Jansenists and the Molinists, from Jan. 1656, to March, 1657, N.S., displaying the corrupt Maxims and Politicks of that Society. Faithfully rendered into English," Lond. 1657, i8mo.; Lond. 1668, 8vo. John Evelyn also published a trans lation, Lond. 1664, 8vo. This was translated, apparently by an English divine, notwithstanding the censures and condemnation of Alex. VII., which, says the Jesuit translator of "The Discourses of Cleander and Eudoxe," in 1704, "his moral divinity found a way to render them of none effect ; and that was to change their name [The Provincial Letters] into that of the Mistery of Jesuitism. Upon the appearance of this book, it was thought advisable to apply the same antidote here, that had had pretty good effect abroad against the spreading poison ; and so the French Answer to Pascal approved of by the Archbishop of Mechlen, and grand vicar of Lie'ge, in 1657, was done into English ; together with an answer to the Additionals to Pascal's Letters. That was the work of Mr. Martin Green, and who read it must own it is judiciously, solidly, and unanswerably done. But then you must be told, that this his work was printed at Paris in 1659, a time when all things were in the greatest confusion here, occasioned by the different designs and conduct of Monk and the Rump. Hence it came to pass that very few copies of it could then be imported to ballance the influence of that said Mystery, or that of White's disciples in the new Art of Obedience and Government."
In 1651, Le P. Deschamps, jdsuite, published " La Politique secrete des Jansdnistes," which was translated into English by Fr. Thos. Fairfax, S.J., when the controversy about Jansenism was renewed in the beginning of last century, under the title " The Secret Policy of the Jansenists, and the Present State of the Sorbonne, with a Short History of Jansenism in Holland," 2nd edit. 1702 (Dodd and other authorities say 1703), 241110. For the contro versy thus commenced between the English Jesuits and seculars, see under T. Fairfax, T. Eyre, S.J., A. Giffard, R. Gumbledon, E. Hawarden, S. Jenks, J. Sergeant, R. Short, T. Southcot, F. Thwaites, H. Tootell, Whittcnhall, R. Witham, £c.
2. An Account of the Jesuites Life and Doctrine, by M. G. Lond. 1661, I2mo. pp. 149.
Fr. James Forbes, S.J., Superior of the Society in Scotland, in a letter addressed to the Father-General Paul Oliva, dated April 10, 1680, says, "When I presented to his Serene Highness, the Duke of York, a book for his casual reading, which many years ago had been written by a certain Father Grene, in English, and which treats admirably of our institute, life,
E 2
52 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GRE.
and doctrine, the prince and his wife were so taken with reading it, that they wished me, as I had only that copy, to have another published, asserting that he would take care that so excellent and important a book, especially for these times, should be reprinted."
3. Vox Veritatis, seu Via Regia ducens ad veram Pacem. MS. This treatise was translated into English by his brother, Francis Grene,
and printed at Ghent, 1676, 24mo.
4. The Church History of England, MS., commencing with the reign of Hen. VIII. The first volume of this work was ready for the press when death arrested the progress of his labours. Fr. Bartoli was indebted to Fr. Grene for much of the information regarding English affairs in his " Dell' Istoria della Compagnia di Giesu L'Inghilterra parte dell' Europa, descritta dal P. Daniello Bartoli, della medesima Compagnia," Roma, 1667, fol. pp. 620. Three of Fr. Grene's letters to his brother Christopher on this matter are preserved in the Stonyhurst MSS., " Anglia," vol. v. n. 67. They have been reprinted in Bro. Foley's " Records S J.," vol. iii. Dr. Oliver^ " Collectanea, S.JV'ed. 1845, p. 107, appends an important note from the pen. of a learned theologian upon Fr. Grene's advice as to the necessity of weighing and collating Acts of Parliament, especially regarding the subject of Anglican Ordinations.
Grene, Nicholas, priest, confessor of the faith, a Marian priest, was committed to the Ousebridge Kidcote, York, in 1566, where he lingered until his death, about 1571.
Morris, Troubles, Third Scries.
Greswold, Hobert, martyr, or, as the name is often spelt, Grissold, belonged to an ancient yeomanry family, seated at Rowington, in the parish of Henley, six miles from Kenilworth, co. Warwick, and descended from the Greswolds of Kenilworth and Solihull. In 1716, John Grissold, of Pinley, the adjoin ing hamlet to Rowington, yeoman, registered, as a Catholic, his property at Rowington. Another member of the family held property at Wootton-Wawen and Studley. Richard Gres wold, who was ordained priest at Rheims in 1586, and after serving the mission for many years was banished in 1606, was probably a member of the Solihull family. John Grissold, who was so ill-used in the Tower in the same year, and at one time was reported to have died under torture, very likely was a brother of the three old bachelors of Rowington, and perhaps father of the subject of this notice.
At this period there were three unmarried brothers of the name of Greswold residing together at Rowington, Robert, Henry, and Ambrose. They were staunch Catholics, and were of great service to the missionaries in that district. Unhappily, they were betrayed by a nephew, one Clement Greswold, who-
ORE.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 53
searched their house with a constable named Richard Smith, and apprehended a priest named John Sugar as he was leaving Rowington by the highway accompanied by a cousin of the betrayer, Robert Greswold, another nephew of the three old bachelors, and servant to Mr. Sheldon, of Broadway, Wor cestershire. " Cousin, if you will go your way you may," said Clement ; but Robert replied, " I will not, except I may have my friend with me." The two were consequently taken before Mr. Burgoyne, a Warwickshire justice, who committed them to Warwick gaol. There Greswold was offered a means of release, but his regard for Mr. Sugar and his zeal for martyrdom would not allow him to accept of it, and he remained in prison for a whole year.
The two prisoners were arraigned at the Warwick assizes, July 14, 1604. Judge Kingsmill asked Greswold if he would go to the Protestant church, and the following colloquy ensued : " I will not, my lord." " Then thou shalt be hanged," quoth the judge. " I beseech you, my lord, let me have justice, and let the country know wherefore I die." " Thou shalt have justice, I warrant thee," said the judge, " and the country shall know that thou diest for felony." " Wherein," asked Greswold, " have I committed felony ? " " Thou hast committed felony," the judge replied, " in being in the company, in assisting and relieving a seminary priest, that is a traitor." " I have not therein committed felony," the prisoner answered. One of the justices of the peace then said, " Grissold, Grissold;go to church, or else, God judge me, thou shalt be hanged." " Then God's will be done," the prisoner replied. After that the judge again asked him if he would go to church. " I have answered you, my lord, enough for that matter ; I will not." " Then thou shalt be hanged/' said the judge. " I crave no favour of you, my lord, in this action." " What ! " said his lordship in a great rage, " dost thou crave no favour at my hands ? " " No, my lord, I crave no favour at your hands in this action." There upon the judge condemned him to be hanged for accompanying, assisting, and relieving a seminary priest. Whilst pronouncing judgment, it is recorded, his voice faltered and his hands trembled. The following day he sent for the prisoner to his chamber, and offered him his life if he would promise to go to •church, which Greswold utterly refused to do.
The ancient manuscript quoted by Dr. Challoner, and sup-
54 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GRE.
posed to have been written by an eye-witness, describes at length the martyr's demeanour on the morning of his execution. He suffered at Warwick, with Mr. Sugar, July 16, 1604.
Challoner, Memoirs, ed. 1742, vol. ii. pp. 5, 8 seq. ; Harl. Soc., Visit, of Warwickshire ; Payne, Eng. Cath. Non-jurors ; Morris, Condition of Catholics, p. 18 1 ; Foley, Records S.f., vol. iv. P- 373 ) Douay Diaries.
Grey, John, O.S.F., martyr, is said by Bourchier and other authorities to have been a Scotchman, but Fr. Anthony Parkin son asserts that he was born of a noble English family.
In his youth John Grey relinquished a large fortune and the high position to which he was born in order to embrace evangelical poverty. He became a Franciscan in the convent at Greenwich, where he remained until its suppression by Henry VIII., Aug. n, 1534. Fr. Grey then found a refuge in Catholic Brabant, and eventually was elected a canon of Anderlecht, now a suburb of the capital of Belgium, where the beautiful church, dedicated to SS. Peter and Paul, still remains. When Queen Mary succeeded to the throne, and restored the Franciscans to their convent at Greenwich, John Grey resigned his canonry, and rejoined his brethren in their ancient monas tery, in the hope of spending his days, as Fr. Gonzaga says, in " peace and safety." This was not to be, however, for shortly afterwards the queen died, and her successor, Elizabeth, having firmly seated herself on the throne, expelled the friars and suppressed the monastery at Greenwich, June 12, 1559. Fr. Grey, with one or two others, retired to the convent of his order at Brussels, where he soon acquired a great reputation for sanctity among his brethren.
During the absence of Don John of Austria the Protestants took possession of Brussels, and the radical section of the party, known as les Gueux, were indulged in the most horrible excesses, and encouraged to put a stop by violence to the cele bration of Catholic worship. At length, on June 15, 1579, a furious mob was gathered together and led against the friary. Mrs. Hope, in her " Franciscan Martyrs," graphically describes the attack. " The porter, Br. James, happened to be an Englishman. As soon as he caught sight of the mob he had the presence of mind to shut and barricade the doors, so that they long resisted all attempts to break through them. He
GEE.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 55
then ran to the cells of the brethren and warned them of the imminent danger. Hastily collecting the altar plate and the few other articles of value which they possessed, they prepared to fly by a door at the back of the house before the mob should have time to surround it, and to carry with them F. Grey, who was very infirm. He was now seventy years of age, and was very reluctant to quit the holy house in which he had long
dwelt under the same roof with his Lord Fifty years
had passed since he had first been driven from his home in Greenwich, and during all that time the crown of martyrdom had been the object of his ceaseless aspiration. How, then, could he fly, now that it was unexpectedly within his reach ? He refused to go with his brethren. He pointed out to them the great risks that they ran in their flight, and exhorted them to remain with him instead of rushing upon the death which probably awaited them in the street. ' Let us stay in God's house,' he said. ' Where can we die so happily as in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, on the holy spot where we hope to be buried ? ' But all in vain. They would scarcely listen to him, and as time pressed, they hurried away. The English friar, Br. James, who also had long cherished the hope of martyrdom, alone stayed behind with F. Grey. The mob at last succeeded in breaking into the priory, and, finding it empty, they rushed to the church, where they beheld the two English friars on their knees before the altar of the Blessed Sacrament. They first attacked Br. James, and beat him till he lost consciousness, and they thought he was dead. They then fell upon F. Grey, beating him, and heaping on him the vilest abuse. He, not knowing what else to do, humbly begged their pardon, and besought them not to be so cruel to a poor old man. But the ruffians cried out, ' What ! shall we pardon thee, thou wretch of a friar ! ' One of them then drew his sword and struck him a mortal blow on the head ; whereupon he said sweetly, ' I forgive you the wounds that you inflict on me,' and expired."
"When the news of what had happened was known in the the city," Mrs. Hope continues, " crowds assembled, weeping and lamenting the death of such a saint ; and, as in the case of the martyrs of old, there was a pious contest to get hold ol anything that had been sprinkled with his blood. There hap pened then to be in the town a man who was dying of an
56 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GKI.
incurable disease. On hearing of the death of F. Grey, he begged to have something dipped in the blood of the martyr brought to him. When he beheld it he knelt down and kissed it with the greatest possible reverence ; and scarcely had he done so, when lo ! he was snatched from the brink of the grave and perfectly cured. The news of this miracle spread the fame of F. Grey's sanctity far and near."
Fr. Grey was deemed a martyr in defence of the Blessed Sacrament, and the veneration in which he was held by his fellow-citizens is recorded by numerous contemporaries.
Bourchier, Hist. Eccles., p. 127; Parkinson, Collect. Anglo- Minoritica, p. 254 ; Hope, Franciscan Martyrs, p. Si ; Ley dan, Hist. Passionis Novorum, p. 66 ; Strype, Annals of the Reform., ed. 1735, vol. i. p. 141.
I. Fr. Francis Gonzaga in his history " De Origine Seraphicce Religionis Franciscanas," p. 104, distinctly says that Fr. Grey was Scotch. In a list of benefactors to the Scottish Seminary ultimately established at Douay, Dr. Oliver, under his notice of Fr. Hippolitus Curie, " Collectanea S.J.," ed. 1845, p. 18, includes the name of the Rev. John Gricr, " de familia Lagne in Scotia canonicus ecclesia? S. Petri in Anderleb, in Flandria prope Bruxellas." The Doctor does not give his authority for the quotation, but it appears almost certain that "Grier" and "Anderleb" are errors for Grei and Anderlecht. Dr. Oliver's note was followed by the Rev. James Aug. Stothert, formerly a Catholic priest in Scotland, whose MS. collections have been edited by the Rev. J. F. S. Gordon, D.D., Minister of the Episcopalian Church of St. Andrews at Glasgow, under the title of " The Catholic Church in Scotland," ed. 1869, p. 539.
There is a manuscript account of Fr. Grey's martyrdom preserved in the Burgundian Library. The Martyrologies and the Bollandists assign his death to the 5th of June, yet all the more recent authorities place it on the I5th, and make the series of disturbances which culminated in his martyrdom com mence on the 6th. See two interesting letters on this subject in the Tablet, vol. Iv. pp. 214, 271.
Griffyn, or Griffyth, John, a Premonstratensian canon of the abbey of Hales-Owen, in Shropshire, was a native of Wales, and was educated in the college of St. Bernard in the north suburb of Oxford, Wood was unable to say what degree he took, as several of his name proceeded in canon law and divinity.
He was a very pious and learned man, and his eloquence in the pulpit had gained him a wide reputation. On this account the reformers in the reign of Edward VI. were most anxious to secure the weight which his name would add to their theories. Fr. Griffyn was little acquainted with the ways of the world,
GRI.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 57
and at first very nearly fell a victim to their subtilty, but as soon as he became aware that the so-called reformers were in reality introducing a new religion, he at once declared his faith in the one holy Catholic Church, and showed himself proof against any temptation, to the great joy of the staunch Catholics.
The date of his death has not been ascertained, but it is certain that he remained constant to the end, contenting him self on the small pension allowed him upon the dissolution of his monastery. He was living in 1550, and is thought to have witnessed the restoration of religion under Queen Mary.
Pitts, De Illust. Angl. Script., p. 739 ; Wood, Athcn. Oxon., ed. 1691, p. 64 ; Dodd, Ch. Hist., vol. i.
1. Conciones JEstivales, i2mo.
2. Conciones Hyemales, i2mo.
3. He is also said to have written other works.
Griffyn, or Griffyth, Maurice, last Catholic bishop of Rochester, a native of Wales, was educated by the Dominicans, or Black Friars, and for some time studied in the convent of his order in the south suburb of Oxford. He was admitted to the reading of the sentences in July, 1532, and took his degree of B.C.L. in the following February. On April 9, 1537, Maurice Griffyn, S.T.B., was admitted to St. Magnus the Martyr, near London Bridge. Later he succeeded Nicholas Metcalf as Arch deacon of Rochester.
When Queen Mary ascended the throne, he joined with others in a petition to Cardinal Pole, the papal legate, for absolution from the penalties he had incurred through his adhesion or submission to the schism of the two preceding reigns. In March, 1554, Cardinal Pole formally granted him absolution, confirmation, and dispensation, and on April i, in that year, he was consecrated Bishop of Rochester, by Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, assisted by the Bishops of London and Durham, in the church of St. Saviour, Southwark. On the I 8th of that month he received restitution of the temporalities of the See, and on the following July 6 his appointment was confirmed by the Pope in consistory, when the See was described as previously vacant, the Edwardian bishop, John Scorey, and other bishops during the schism, being ignored.
Bishop Griffyn died in his palace at Southwark, Nov. 20,
53 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY
1558, and was buried in the church of St. Magnus, near London Bridge.
Bliss, Wood's Athena Oxon., vol. ii. ; Brady, Epis, Succession,. vol. i. pp. 55, 69.
Griffith, Michael, Father S.J., alias Alford, born in London in 1587, entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Louvain, Feb. 29, 1607. He studied philosophy in the college of the English Jesuits at Seville, and theology at Louvain. As soon as he was ordained priest he was sent to Naples to attend the English who frequented that city. Thence he proceeded to Rome, and from 1615 to 1620 he was English penitentiary at St. Peter's. In 1620, he was appointed socius to the master of novices at Liege, and about August in the following year he became rector of the house of tertians at Ghent. In 1629, Fr. Griffith was sent to the English mission. On landing at Dover he was arrested on suspicion of his being Dr. Richard Smith, Bishop of Chalcedon, for whose apprehen sion the government had offered a reward of £200, by the proclamations of Dec. n, 1628, and March 24, 1629. What raised the suspicion of his being a priest was the discovery on his person of a copy of the " Imitation of Christ." A Protestant minister was called in for his opinion, who gravely pronounced that the title-page of the book was more objectionable than the text, for the author, Thomas a Kempis, was a regular canon, and canonists were proscribed by English statute, and that, therefore, the prisoner ought not to be hastily discharged. Fr. Griffith was consequently conveyed to London, for his captors now believed him to be Bishop Smith, but as his person in no respect corresponded with the bishop's description, he was restored to liberty, through the mediation of Queen Henrietta Maria.
Leicestershire was the chief scene of Fr. Griffith's missionary labours, and Dr. Oliver presumes that Holt was his residence. Bro. Foley says there is a tradition that he compiled some part of his works at Home-Lacey, the seat of the Scudamore family, which he thinks may be a mistake for Combe, in Herefordshire, where the Society had a residence. He assumes from the extent of the library at Combe, seized by Bishop Croft in 1679, which now forms a portion of the Hereford Cathedral library, that Fr. Griffith may have been there. In order to put the
GUI.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 59
finishing stroke to his " Annales Ecclesiastic!," he obtained leave to retire to the college at St. Omer in the spring of 1652, and a few months after his arrival he was attacked by a fever, from which he died, Aug. 1 1 of the same year, aged 65.
The learned Benedictine, Dom Serenus Cressy, in his preface to his " Church History," printed in 1 668, says that the venerable writer of the " Annales Ecclesiastici " certainly possessed in an eminent degree the two endowments which constitute an excel lent historian — learning and fidelity ; but his chief care was to adorn his soul with piety and virtue.
Oliver, Collectanea S.J. ; Cressy, Ch. Hist, of Brittany ; SoutJi- well, Ribadeneirrfs Bibl. Script. S.J., p. 6 1 o ; Foley, Records S.J., vols. ii. iv. p. 469, and vii. ; DC Backer, Bib. des Ecriv. S.J. ; Dodd, Ch. Hist., vol. iii.
1. The Admirable Life of St. Wenefride, 1635, i2mo., with a fron tispiece, translated from the abstract of the life compiled in 1140 by Robert, prior of Shrewsbury, in the " Legenda Nova Angliae," commonly called Cap- grave's "Lives of the Saints," Lond., Win. de Worde, 1516, fol., copied by Capgrave from the abstract in John of Tynmouth. Fr. John Falkner, SJ., also published a life in this year. Alban Butler, in his life of S. Wenefride, Nov. 3, "Lives of the Saints," ed. 1815, vol. xi. p. 68 seg., says that Fr. Griffith seems to have seen no other life than that in Capgrave. Both his and Fr. Falkner's translation have " frequent abridgments and some few additions from other authors, but not without some mistakes." Fr. Metcalf, S.J., published his Life of St. Wenefride, with some alterations and additional late miracles, Lond. 1712, 8vo., in which year Bishop Fleetwood wrote his dissertation or remarks against the life.
2. Britannia Illustrata; siveLucii, Helense, Constantini, primo- rum Regum et Augustorum Christianorum Patria et Fides. Cum appendice de tribus hodie controversis de Paschate Britannorum, de Clericorum nuptiis, et num olim Britannia coluerit Romanum Ecclesiam. Antverpiae, Chris. Jeghers, 1641, 4to., engraved title i f., dedica tion to Charles, Prince of Wales, 4 pp., index 4 pp., synopsis 14 pp., pp. 424. This extremely rare work contains much curious matter connected with British history.
3. Fides Regia Britannica ; sive Annales Ecclesiae Britannicse (sseculor. xii. primorum ad annum 1189), ubi potissimum Brit annorum Catholica, Romana, et Orthodoxa fides, per quinque prima ssecula : e Regum et Augustorum factis, et aliorum sanc torum rebus e virtute gestis, asseritur. Auctore R. P. Michaele Alfordo, alias Griffith, Anglo Soc. Jesu theologo. Leodii, Jo. Mathias Hovii, 1663, fol. 4 vols. The title varies in each of the volumes; I. pp. 642 ; II. pp. 693, Fides Regia Anglo- Saxonicaab anno 500 ad 800, at the end of which is an address to the reader, written when the author lay con cealed during the civil wars, and accounting for the unfinished state of the
60 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GUI.
work, the two last lines of which furnish the chronogram 1645 > HI- PP- 5&° and 156 pp. chronological index, Fides Regia Anglicana ab an. 800 ad 1066 ; IV., in two pts., pp. 328 and 336, Fides Regia Anglicana ab an. 1066 ad 1189.
Cressy, in his " Church History," enlarges on his many obligations to this work. Bishop Fleetwood pronounces it to be a very valuable treasury of English ecclesiastical history, and Dibdin says it is " a work of no very ordinary occurrence, and, at the same time, of very considerable utility, as treating fully of the Church history of this country from the earliest period to the reign of Hen. II." The author of the " Florus Anglo-Bavaricus " observes regarding this great work, that with the exception of Baronius and a few others, nothing of the sort was then extant.
4. Cressy states that Fr. Griffith had a tender devotion to his patron, St. Michael the archangel, and some years before his death devised a picture of the saint, which he got engraved at Antwerp, with a devout prayer of his own composition.
Fr. Hen. More, S.J., " Hist. Prov. Angl.," p. 393, has preserved a distich of Fr. Griffith's poem on the sacred wounds of our Lord.
Griffith, William, schoolmaster, confessor of the faith, is stated by Fr. Christopher Grene, S.J. (" Collectanea F., Oscott College "), to have been a prisoner for recusancy at the time of the uproar which followed the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, in 1587, when his keeper consigned him to a dungeon. After he had suffered great misery for a fortnight, he was brought out of the cell, but expired as soon as he came into the fresh air.
Morris, Troubles, Third Series.
Griffiths, Humphrey, martyr, in some catalogues called Humphrey ap Richard, or Prichard (as in Challoner), was a Welshman, a plain, honest, and well-meaning soul, and, as all authors agree, a great servant of God. For twelve years he had devoted his services to the afflicted Catholics of those evil days. He was the faithful servant of a pious Catholic widow, who kept the St. Catherine's Wheel in Oxford, at whose house priests found a shelter and were enabled to be seen with the least risk on account of the house being a public inn. At length the officers of the university broke into the house at midnight and apprehended two priests, named George Nicols and Richard Yaxley, Thomas Belson, a Catholic gentleman, who had come to visit Mr. Nicols, and Humphrey Griffiths. The next morning they were all carried before the vice-chan cellor, with whom were several doctors of the university. The following day the prisoners were again brought in irons before the same authority and his council and examined. They were
GUI.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 6 1
next, by order of the Privy Council, placed on rossinantes, or jades, and conveyed to London, with their hands tied behind them, the two priests, for greater disgrace, having their legs tied under their horses' bellies. After examination by Secretary Walsingham, and very cruel treatment in prison, they were led back to Oxford to be tried at the assizes, under the same strong" guard and in the same manner as they had come. In order that none of them should escape death, Sir Francis Knollys, one of the Privy Council, was appointed to be present at the trial to overawe the jury. The good widow, the hostess, was first brought in under the law of premunire, her goods forfeited, and herself condemned to perpetual imprisonment for harbouring the priests. The two priests were condemned to death, as in cases of high treason, and lastly Mr. Belson, with Griffiths, the servant, were convicted of having aided and assisted the priests, and on that account were sentenced to die as in cases of felony. They all received their sentences with holy resignation and cheerfulness, giving thanks to God for being permitted to die for His cause.
On the appointed day the four martyrs were drawn to the place of execution at Oxford. Griffiths was the last to suffer. He came to the gallows with a cheerful and smiling counte nance, and as soon as he had mounted the ladder turned to the people, and in a short speech declared himself a Catholic, and that it was for the confession of the Catholic faith that he was condemned to die, which he said he did willingly. A Protes tant minister, standing by, told him he was a poor ignorant fellow, and did not know what it was to be a Catholic. Griffiths replied that he very well knew what it was to be a Catholic, though he could not, perhaps, explain it in theological terms ; that he knew what he was to believe, and what he came there to die for ; and that he willingly died for so good a cause. With that he was thrown off the ladder, and was ushered into a better world, July 5, 1589.
Challoner, Memoirs, ed. 1741, vol. i. p. 241 seq. ; Folcy, Records S.J., vol. iii. ; Wilson, English Martyrologe, 1608.
Griffiths, Thomas, Bishop, was born in London, June 2, 1791. Under the influence of his father, who was a Protestant, he was in early youth educated in the doctrines of the estab lished religion, but the prayers and good example of his vir-
62 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GUI.
tuous mother, a fervent Catholic, soon gained him to the Church. His conversion greatly displeased his father, who threw many impediments in his way to prevent him from exercising his religion. The boy was in constant attendance at the altar in the chapel of St. George's-in-the-Fields, now the cathedral of Southwark, and it was he who served the first Mass that was celebrated there by his predecessor in the London vicariate, Bishop Bramston. It is said that his father would sometimes deprive him in the morning of his shoes and stockings in order to prevent him from going to serve Mass. But the young neophyte thought it but little pain or shame to go through the streets barefooted in such a cause.
His piety and amiable disposition soon attracted the attention of his spiritual director, who procured his admission, in Jan. 1805, into St. Edmund's College, Old Hall Green, near Ware. By dint of unwearied application he became a sound classical scholar, a good mathematician, and, what was more to the point, a profound theologian. In July, 1814, he was ordained priest, and for the next four years he was employed partly in the care of the congregation at and around Old Hall Green, and partly in the presidency of the small ecclesiastical seminary in the " Old Hall/' an ancient tenement in the rear of St. Ed mund's College. On Aug. I, 1818, he removed with the students from the Old Hall to the new college, and was appointed President in succession to Dr. Bew.
For more than fifteen years he governed St. Edmund's with remarkable prudence and vigilance. On the death of Bishop Gradwell he was appointed, in July, 1833, coadjutor, with the right of succession, to Bishop Bramston, V.A. of the London District. His brief was to the coadjutorship and See of Olena in partibus, and he was consecrated at St. Edmund's College by Bishop Bramston, assisted by Bishops Penswick and Walsh, Oct. 28, 1833, the feast of SS. Simon and Jude. Bishop Briggs was also present, and Bishop Baines preached the sermon.
On July 11, 1836, Bishop Bramston died, and Dr. Griffiths succeeded to the London vicariate. In the following year he reported that the Catholics in London numbered 146,068, and in the rural parts of his District 1 1,246, making a total of 157,314 Catholics for the entire vicariate. The population of London at this time was 1,500,000. In 1840 Gregory XVI.
GUI.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 63
increased the number of vicariates in England, Bishop Griffiths being appointed by letters apostolic, dated July 3, to the new London District.
The harassing work of his extensive charge at length under mined his constitution. He lost the sight of one eye twelve months before his death, and the vision of the other was fading daily. He died at his residence, 35, Golden Square, London, Aug. 12, 1847, ag£d 56, and was buried in the clergy vault at Moorfields.
Dr. Griffiths was a most assiduous, earnest, and conscientious worker. His whole soul and almost every minute of his time were given to the fulfilment of the duties laid upon him.
Rev. Edw. Price, Dolmaris Mag., vol. vi. p. 199 ; Cath. Direc tory, 1 847 ; Brady, Episc. Succession, vol. iii. ; Tablet, vol. viii. pp. 513 and 533.
1. The Funeral Discourse pronounced at St. Mary's Chapel, Moorfields, March 27, 1833, on the late B.R. Robert Gradwell, D.D., Bishop of Lidda, and coadjutor in the London District. Lond. 1833, I2mo.
2. Instructions and Regulations for the Fast of Lent in the year 1837. (Lond.) 1837, fol.
His Lenten pastorals were similarly published during the term of his vicariate ; many of them will be found in the Orthodox Journal, vi. p. 138 ; vii. p. 32 ; viii. pp. 92, ill ; x. p. 141 ; xi. p. 137, &c.
3. Portrait. " The R.R. Thomas Griffiths, D.D., Bishop of Olena, and Vicar-Apostolic of the London District," engr. by G. A. Peria from an original painting, Catholic Directory, 1848, 8vo.
Grimes, Matthew, S.J., vide Bazier.
Grimston, Ralph, martyr, a gentleman of ancient family, seated at Nidd Hall, in Yorkshire, was a great sufferer on account of his religion. On Nov. 18, 1593, he was twice examined by the president of the north, and on April 2, 1594, he was removed from the custody of Outlaw, the pursuivant at York, to the Castle. At the York Lent Assizes in that year he was indicted, with other Catholic gentlemen, by the Lord President, for harbouring and receiving seminaries. The jury had no other evidence than that of the President's own testi mony, who, to satisfy their consciences, said that Hardesty, the apostate, had confessed he had been at some of the prisoners' houses, and he, the Lord President, would take it upon his
64 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GBO.
honour that it was true. Some say he brought Hardesty before them to avouch the same.
Subsequently he seems to have obtained his release, but was again seized in company with Peter Snow, a priest from Rheims, on their journey to York about the feast of St. Philip and St. James, May I, 1598. They were both shortly after wards arraigned and condemned — Mr. Snow of treason, as a seminary priest, and Mr. Grimston of felony, as aiding and assisting him, and, as it was asserted, for lifting up his weapon to defend him at the time of his apprehension. They both suffered at York, June 15, 1598.
Clialloncr, Memoirs, ed. 1741, p. 360; Morris, Troubles, Third Series ; Foley, Records S.J., vol. iii.
Grove, John, martyr, was one of the victims of the infamous plots of Gates, Bedloe, Dugdale, and Prance. He was the nominal occupier of the Jesuits' apartments in Wilde House, situated in what is now called Wilde Street, the Spanish am bassador residing under the same roof. Bro. Foley is very probably correct in his conjecture that he was a lay-brother of the Society. He was apprehended by Gates, accompanied by a king's messenger and a company of soldiers, on Sept. 29, 1678, with Fr. Wm. Ireland, Fr. John Caldwell, alias Fenwick, Thomas Pickering, lay-brother, O.S.B., and Dr. Fogarthy, a physician.
After suffering much in prison, he was brought to trial at the Old Bailey, Dec. 17, 1678, on a charge of contriving and con spiring to murder the king. As in all the trials during the " Popish Plot " ferment, there was hardly an appearance of justice. The three prisoners were condemned to death, and, after two reprieves, Grove was drawn from Newgate to Tyburn, with Fr. Ireland, and there executed, Jan. 24, 1679.
Miles Prance in his "Discovery," printed in May, 1679, en~ deavoured to implicate a nephew of Mr. Grove, a Catholic of the same surname, who kept a school in Princes Street, Covent Garden.
Challoner, Memoirs, ed. 1742, vol. ii. p. 376 ; Foley, Records S.J., vol. v.; Prance, True Narrative and Discovery, p. 8; Tryal ; Dodd, C/i. Hist., vol. iii. p. 276.
i. "The Tryals of William Ireland, Thomas Pickering, and John Grove ; for Conspiring to Murder the King : Who upon Full Evidence were found
GUM.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 65
Guilty of High Treason at the Sessions-House in the Old-Baily, Dec. the I7th, 1678. And received Sentence accordingly." Lond. 1678, fol. pp. 84, printed by order of Scroggs, the Lord Chief Justice.
"A True Narrative and Discovery," by Miles Prance ; see under Robert Green.
"An Account of the Behaviour, &c.," by Sam. Smith, Ordinary of New gate (see under R. Green) ; in which an account is given of the Ordinary's visit to him.
"The Information of William Lewis, Gent. Delivered at the Bar of The House of Commons. The iSth of Nov. 1680. Together with His further Narrative relating thereto, In all which is contained A Confirmation of the Popish Plot, and the Justice of the Executions done upon Grove, Pickering, and the Jesuites for the Design of Killing His Most Sacred Majesty. And discovering further the Design of the Papists to set the Navy Royal on Fire in Harbour ; and to throw the guilt of the whole upon the Presbyterians. With their Contrivances to take away the Life of the Right Hon. Anthony Earl of Shaftsbury." Lond. 1680, fol. pp. 31.
"A Narrative and Impartial Discovery of the Horrid Popish Plot, carried on for the Burning and Destroying the Cities of London and Westminster, with their suburbs, &c. Setting forth the several Consults, Orders, and Resolutions of the Jesuites, &c., concerning the same. And divers Depositions and Informations, relating thereunto. Never before Printed. By Capt. William Bedloe, lately engaged in that Horrid Design, and one of the Popish Committee for carrying on such Fires." Lond. 1679, fol.
" The Further Information of Mr. Stephen Dugdale, Given to the Honour able House of Commons, Pursuant to an Order of the said House, on the 30th of Oct. 1680." Lond. 1680, fol. pp. 22.
" The Confession and Execution, &c." Lond. 1678-9, 4to., for which see under W. Ireland.
Amongst trie many publications in which Mr. Grove's name appears may be mentioned "The Tryall of Richard Langhorn, Esq." Lond. 1679, f°Lj see under R. Langhorn.
Gumbleton, or Gomeldon, Richard, was the son of
Thomas Gomeldon, of Summerfield Court, parish of Selling, in the county of Kent, Esq. His father is said to have been a jeweller in London ; he was afterwards sheriff of Kent, and died in 1703, leaving by Phalaties, his wife, two sons, William and Richard, and a daughter, Meliora. William married Elizabeth, daughter of John Crossley, and died without issue in 1709. Richard then succeeded to the estate, which he registered in 1717, as a Catholic, under the act of i George I., declaring that it was freehold, and of the annual value of ^693 IQS. \\d., subject to a rental of £600 to his sister-in-law, Mrs. Elizabeth Gomeldon.
Richard Gomeldon became a Catholic, and his sister also, but when, or under what circumstances, is not stated. It is said that he became a discalced Carmelite, but this is extremely
VOL. HI. F
66 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GUM.
doubtful. His life, certainly, seems to have been a disgrace to his profession, whatever that was, whether a religious or a lay man. Yet he seems to have had an outward zeal for religion, and was one of the loudest of those who raised their voices against Jansenism, when that charge was brought against the bishops and clergy of England in the beginning of the eighteenth century. In 1 7 I o he is described as having spent his patri mony, and hardly daring to show himself for fear of arrest for debt. Judging from the account given of him by the Rev. Andrew Giffard, he must have brought upon himself a derange ment of intellect. He died in 1718.
His sister, Meliora, married Thomas Poole, son of Sir James Poole, of Poole Hall, co. Chester, Bart, and after his death became the wife of Thomas Stanley, of Great Eccleston Hall and Garrett Hall, co. Lancaster, Esq. Her second husband was attainted and convicted of high treason for taking part in the rising of 1715, and his estates of Great Eccleston, Garrett and New Hall, in the parish of Leigh, and his residence in Preston, were forfeited and sold. Mrs. Stanley's Kentish estates which she brought to her husband were also forfeited to the Crown and vested in the commissioners of forfeited estates. Mr. Stanley afterwards inherited Culcheth Hall, co. Lancaster, where he died in July, 1 749, and his wife, Meliora, in the pre ceding month. Their daughter and eventual heiress, Meliora, married William Dicconson, Esq., son of Edward Dicconson, of Wrightington, co. Lancaster, Esq., by Mary, daughter of George Blount, Esq., and sister to Sir Edward Blount, Bart. The mar riage of Meliora to William Dicconson is the more noticeable, as it was to his great-uncle, Bishop Edward Dicconson, alias Eaton, that Andrew Giffard gave her uncle, Richard Gomeldon, such a poor character in 1710.
Eyre Collection, MSS., vol. i. pp. 307-8 and 340 ; Gilloiv, Lane. Recusants, MS.; Kirk, Biog. Collect., MS., No. 21 ; Payne, Eng. Cath. Non-jurors; Foley, Records S.J., vol. vi., Culcheth pedigree.
i. When the charge of Jansenism was brought against the bishops and clergy of England, according to Andrew Giffard, in his letter dated April 3, 1710, to Edw. Dicconson, alias Eaton, a professor at Douay, and afterwards V.A. of the Northern District, Richard Gomeldon, "a chief man employed to bring accusations against us, is a young debauchee, who has spent his patrimony vivendo luxuriose aim merctricibus, and now dares not shew his head for fear of arrests. He is a visionaire, who, according to his own words
GUN.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 6/
often sees Heaven open, but oftener converses with hell, for he saies the devil sits by his bedside many nights, and they talk and converse familiarly for several hours." It was he who drew up a paper of accusations against Mr. Christopher Pigott, " a most laborious priest who helps ye poore people in and about Suthwarck, and seldom returns home from his labors untill ten or eleven a clock at night."
He also wrote a paper entitled "Several of Dr. Short's Tenets," consisting of about twenty propositions, " affirming that he heard ye Doctor speak them all." In this he seems to have been guided more by his prejudices and ignorance than by the love of truth, for " he made no difficulty to declare that the Doctor's memory was in execration to him before he knew him," and did not dare, when solemnly called upon, to swear to the truth. Dr. Short went to the venerable Father James Maurus Corker, O.S.B., " and desired to communicate at his hands, and after communion upon ye sacrament which he had received, took oath that not one off all ye propositions was his." Mr. Giffard concludes, in his letter to Dr. Dicconson, dated June 30, 1710, "I have given you some part of Gomeldon's character before. I can add much now, and particularly he is reported to have a very notorious faculty in lie- ing, as being so very familiar with ye father of lies."
Gomeldon's papers were not printed, but were distributed in manuscript, both in town and country. An intercepted letter written to him by Fr. Charles Kennett, S.J., dated Jan. 6, 1710, is given by Mr. Giffard.
Gunston, John Chrysostom Gregory, D.D., alias Blunt, commonly known by the name of Dr. Sharp, son of John Gunston, of London, and his wife Mary Swinburne, was born Oct. 12, 1693, O.S. He was brought up a Protestant and educated in one of the universities, probably Cambridge, where one or two of his name took degrees. In 1715 he became a Catholic, and proceeded to the English College at Rome, where he was admitted by Fr. T. Eberson, S.J., the rector, by order of Cardinal Gualterio, the protector, Feb. 23, 1718. After confirmation, taking the oath, and receiving minor orders, he was ordained sub-deacon and deacon, in March, and priest April 8, 1719. He left the college May 9, 1720, for the English mission.
For some portion of his career he laboured in London, where he signalized himself in the pulpit, and attracted great attention. It is presumed that he is the Dr. Sharp described in 1734 as canon and professor of divinity of St. Martin's church in Liege, missionary and prothonotary apostolic. He is said to have died at London, June 24, 1736, aged 42.
Kirk, Biog. Collect., MSS., Nos. 21 and 34 ; Present State of Religion in Eng., in a letter to a Card., 1733, p. 20 ; Foley, Records S.J., vol. vi.
F 2
68 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GUN.
1. The Charter of the Kingdom of Christ, explained in 20O conclusions and corollaries, from the last words of our Blessed Lord to his Disciples ; being a preservative against the principles and practices of the Bishop of Bangor and his Disciples. To which are added the sentiments of the present Oriental Church hereupon .... with a postscript to Mr. F. de la Piilonniere. Lond. 1717, 8vo.
2. An Answer to a Sermon preached in London. 8vo.
3. A Catechism for the instruction of youth.
4. Devout and Instructive Reflections on the Lord's Prayer, with Penitent Sentiments for having recited it all. To which is added, A Devout Prayer in Time of Temptation. Translated from the French by J. Sharp, D.D. Revised and earnestly re commended to all true Lovers of Devotion. Lond., J. Marmaduke, 1748, I2mo., title i f., preface pp. iii-x, pp. 115, lines to Dr. Sharp on his conversion, in verse, I p.
This is evidently not the first edition ; it seems to have passed through several. W. Needham advertises in 1757 an edition by Fr. P. Baker, O.S.F., "Devout and Instructive Reflections on the Lord's Prayer, with Penitent Sentiments for having recited it all, &c. Translated from the French by J. Sharp (alias Blunt), D.D., revised and earnestly recommended to the Perusal of all true Lovers of Devotion by Mr. Ba — r, F.M." According to Marmaduke's advertisement, in 1786, it was translated from the French of F. Cheminais.
5. Lives of the Saints.
6. "John Sharp, D.D. , Canon and £colatre of St. Martin's Church, in Liege, Miss, and Proth. Apost, 1734," is the inscription under an engraving of an angel, holding a cross in his left hand and pointing with his right to a crown on the upper part of it, over all, the words, Tolle crucem^ si vis coronam.
Gunter, "William, priest and martyr, was born in the parish of Ragland, Monmouth, in the diocese of Llandaff. He arrived at the English College at Rheims, July 16, 1583, and on Sept. 23, following, received the tonsure. He was ordained sub- deacon, Sept. 1 8, 1586 ; deacon, Dec. 19, in the same year; and priest, March 14, 1587.
Four months after his ordination, July 23, he left the college for the English mission, where he was soon apprehended and committed to prison. An ancient manuscript in Fr. Chris topher Grene's collections says that on Aug. 26, 1588, he was " arraigned and condemned at Newgate, for that being de manded by the commissioners whether he had reconciled any since he came into England, he, resolute and willing to die, answered he had, which his examination at his arraignment for that he confessed it true, he had judgment without any jury ; and so a day after was carried to the place of execution, where
GWY.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 69
the sheriff telling him that the Queen had pardoned him that he should not be quartered : ' It is requisite,' said he, ' for I am not worthy to suffer so much as those martyrs that have gone before me/"
Two days after his condemnation he was executed at a new pair of gallows set up at the theatre, Aug. 28, 1588. He suffered, as did seven other martyrs on that day in various parts of London, with great constancy and joy.
Challoner, Memoirs, ed. 1741, p. 211 ; Morris, Troubles, Third Scries ; Dodd, Ch. Hist., vol. ii. p. 104 ; Exemplar Lite- rarum, Duaci, 1617, p. 53 J Wilson, Eng. Martyr., 1608 ; Douay Diaries.
Gwynne, David, confessor of the faith, died about 1590, in the Compter, London, through the infectious state of the prison, where he was confined for recusancy.
Morris, Troubles, Third Series.
Gwynne, or Gwin, Robert, priest, a Welshman of the diocese of Bangor, graduated B.A. at Oxford in 1568, but disgusted with the new religion, left the university, with another bachelor, named Thomas Crowther, and proceeded to the English College established by Cardinal Allen at Douay, where he was admitted in 1571. There he was ordained priest in 1575, having in the same year taken his degree of B.D. at the University of Douay. On the following Jan 16, he was sent to the mission in Wales, where his labours were attended with wonderful success.
At this period there were but two bishops in England, and both were in prison. One was an Irish archbishop, and the other was the saintly Dr. Thomas Watson, the last Catholic Bishop of Lincoln. On this account Gregory XIII. granted Mr. Gwynne a licence to bless portable altars, &c., by an instrument dated May 24, 1578.
The following memorandum in the Douay Diary, under date July 1 8, 1576? shows Mr. Gwynne's reputation soon after his first entry on the mission : " It has been signified to us that in Wales many most religious and devout women, who had been reconciled to the Catholic faith by the Rev. R. Gwin, a priest and bachelor in sacred theology, sent to England from hence by us, were so greatly inflamed with an admirable zeal for the Catholic piety and religion now become known to them, that
70 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [GWY.
when their heresiarch and pseudo-bishop came in person to rout out their priest from those parts, he was straightway put to flight by the terror he conceived from the threats of these most religious women."
He is described as a learned theologian and a most eloquent preacher. A document in the archives of the English College at Rome, printed in the Douay Diaries, says that " he rendered the greatest assistance, both by his labours and writings, to his most afflicted country." Wood says that he was living in 1591.
Bliss, Wood's A thence Oxon., vol. i. ; Douay Diaries ; Dodd, Ch. Hist., vol. ii. p. 1 04.
1. In 1591, he translated into Welsh "The Christian Directory, or Book of Resolution," by Fr. Robt. Persons, S.J., which Wood says was largely used and highly appreciated, and worked much good amongst the Welsh people.
2. Anton. Possivinus, "Apparat. Sac. de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis," Col. Agrip., 1608, torn. ii. p. 342, says that he wrote several religious works in the Welsh language, but he omits the titles.
Gwynneth, John, priest, doctor of music, son of David ap Llewellyn ap Ithel of Llyn, a Welshman of humble position, went to Oxford, where a generous clergyman, recognizing his great natural abilities, furnished him with means to pursue his studies. After studying music for twelve years, during which period he published a large number of masses, antiphons, symphonies, &c., he supplicated the university that he might proceed in the faculty of music, and, in 1531, the degree of doctor of music was conferred upon him.
About this period he seems to have turned his attention to the study of divinity, and most ably confuted the Lutherans and ' Zwinglians who now began to spread their new doctrines in England. Henry VIII. presented him with the provostship or rectory, sina cnra, of Clynogfawr, but he was refused admit tance by Dr. John Capon, Bishop of Bangor, subsequently Bishop of Salisbury, who had sided with the king in the ques tion of the divorce, and preached at St. Paul's Cross, when Dr. Bocking and others concerned in the matter of the Holy Maid of Kent were brought from the Tower to do penance. In 1540 Dr. Gwynneth brought his quare impcdit against the bishop, and was ultimately instituted in Oct. 1541. After this Gwynneth had a great dispute with Bishop Bulkley in the Star
GWY.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. /I
Chamber, in 1542 and 1543, in which latter year he again obtained judgment upon his quarc impedit.
He was next installed in the vicarage of Luton, in Bedford shire, then in the diocese of Lincoln, and enjoyed this benefice in 1557. He probably died before the close of Queen Mary's reign.
Bliss, Wood's AtJience Oxon., vol. i. ; Dodd, CJi. Hist. vol. i. ; Pitts, DC Illust. Angl. Script., p. 735.
1. My Love mournyth, &c., 1530, obi. 4to., commencing" In this boke ar conteynyd xx songes," words and music.
2. Wood says that when he supplicated for his degree in music in 1531, he had composed " all the Responses of the whole year in Division-Song, and had published many Masses in the said song." His admission was granted on condition that he should compose one Mass against the Act following. He then again supplicated, " that whereas he had spent 20 years in the Praxis and Theory of Musick, and had published three Masses of five parts, and five Masses of four, as also certain Symphona's, Antiphona's, and divers Songs for the use of the Church, he might be permitted to proceed in the Faculty of Musick, that is, be made Doctor of that Faculty." This was granted conditionally on his paying 20 pence to the university on the day of his admission.
3. The confutacyon of the fyrst parte of Frythes boke, with a disputacyon before, whether it be possyble for any heretike to know that hymselfe is one or not, And also another, whether it be wors to denye directely more or lesse of the fayth. (Printed by John Hertforde for Richard Stevenage : Saint Albans), 1536, i6mo., without pagination.
4. A Manifesto Detection of the notable falshed of that Part of Fry the' s boke which he termeth his Foundation, and bosteth it to be invincible. Lond. 1554, 8vo., 2nd edition.
5. A Playne Demonstration of J. Frithe's lacke of witte and learnynge in his understandynge of holie Scripture, and of the olde holy doctours, in the Blessed Sacrament of the Aulter, newly set foorthe. St. Albans, 1536, 410., B.L. ; Lond. 1557, 4to. ; written in the form of a dialogue.
Frith was imprisoned in the Tower for his heretical doctrines, and eventually executed. Sir Thomas More refuted Frith's attack on the Blessed Sacrament, which elicited " A Boke made by John Fryth, Prysoner in the Tower of London, answering unto M. More's Letter which he wrote agaynst the fyrst lytle Treatyse that John Fryth made concerning the Sacra ment of the Body and Bloude of Christ," Munster, 1533, i6mo. Frith's errors were also exposed by John Rastall and others.
6. A Declaration of the State wherein 'all Heretickes dooe leade their lives ; and also of their continuall indever and propre fruictes, which beginneth in the 38 Chapiter, and so to thende of the Woorke. Londini, 1554, 4to., B.L.
7. Declaration of the notable Victory given of God to Queen
72 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY [HAB.
Mary, shewed in the Church of Luton (in Bedfordshire), 22 July, in the first Year of her B,eign. Lond. (1554), Svo.
8. Both Pitts and Wood say he wrote other works, the titles- of which are not given.
Habington, or Abington, Edward, younger son ot John Habington, of Hindlip Castle, co. Worcester, Esq., was one of a band of unfortunate youths whose romantic sympathies with the unhappy position of the Queen of Scots brought them to the scaffold. Their object was to release the imprisoned queen, and their plans being known to Queen Elizabeth and Sir Francis Walsingham, the crafty secretary secretly encou raged them by means of spies and renegade priests, with a view to using their conspiracy as an excuse for the death of the innocent Mary. After months of intrigue, when Walsingham had sufficiently entrapped the youths in his nets, they were apprehended and brought to trial. The indictment charged them with a twofold conspiracy, a plot to murder the queen, and another to raise a rebellion within the realm in favour of Mary Stuart. Of the fourteen prisoners, six admitted their complicity more or less as to one or other of the counts ; a similar number were convicted as accomplices on the question able authority of passages extracted from the confessions of the others ; and two were condemned as accessories after the fact, because they had aided and abetted the conspirators after the proclamation.
Habington was charged with being one of those appointed to assassinate Elizabeth on the confessions of Babington and Tyrrell. The latter afterwards acknowledged in writing that he had falsely accused him. Savage, in his confession, abso lutely declined to support the charge. In his defence, Habing ton claimed that the evidence of a person under condemnation was inadmissible. He also cited an Act of the i$th Elizabeth, which required, in cases of high treason, that the witnesses should appear face to face. In both instances, however, he was overruled, and he was condemned to die. He suffered with six of his fellow-prisoners, Sept. 20, 1586.
" There was much in the fate of these young men," says Lingard, " to claim the sympathy of the reader. They were not of that class in which conspirators are generally found. Sprung from the best families in their respective counties, possessed of affluent fortunes, they had hitherto kept aloof
HAB.] OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 73
from political intrigue, and devoted their time to the pursuits and pleasures befitting their age and station. Probably had it not been for the perfidious emissaries of Morgan and Walsing- ham — of Morgan, who sought to revenge himself on Elizabeth, and of Walsingham, who cared not whose blood he shed pro vided he could shed that of Mary Stuart — none of them would have even thought of the offence for which they suffered. There were gradations in their guilt. Babington was an assassin ; he sought to promote the murderous project of Ballard and Savage, though no particular plan had been selected, no definite resolution adopted. Of the rest, Habing- ton, Salisbury, and Dunne refused to imbrue their hands in the blood of the English, but offered to co-operate for the libera tion of the Scottish queen ; the others condemned both pro jects ; their real offence consisted in their silence ; they scorned to betray the friends who confided in their honour."
Disraeli, in his notice of " Chidiock Titchbourne/' has drawn a pathetic picture of these youths — " worthy of ranking with the heroes, rather than with the traitors of England .... it is in the progress of the trial that the history and the feelings of these wondrous youths appear. In those times, when the government of the country felt itself unsettled, and mercy did not sit in the judgment-seat, even one of the judges could not refrain from being affected at the presence of so gallant a band as the prisoners at the bar. ' Oh, Ballard, Ballard ! ' the judge exclaimed, ' what hast thou done ? A sort [a company] of brave youths, otherwise endowed with good gifts, by thy in ducement hast thou brought to their utter destruction and confusion.' "
Dodd, Ch. Hist., vol. ii. p. 150 ; Lingard, Hist, of Eng., ed. 1849, vol. vi. p. 427 seq. ; Disraeli, Curiosities of Literature, ed. 1849, v°l- n'- ; Morris, Letter-Books of Sir A. Poulet ; Morris, Troubles, Second Scries.
I. " A Dutiful Invective against the most haynous Treasons of Ballard and Babington, with other their adherents, latelie executed. Together with the horrible Attempts and Actions of the Queen of Scottes ; and the