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Father Thomas Wright: A Test case for toleration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2016

Theodore A. Stroud
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Extract

The struggle of the English Catholics during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James I to achieve toleration has already proved itself a challenging feature of Renaissance culture. It is surprising, therefore, that few of the personalities in this conflict have been studied in detail, especially the Catholic leaders who facilitated rather than resisted the submission of the Catholic population to the government. Perhaps a study of these men, who were subject to correction by the forces at either extreme, would lend to our comprehension of the period a degree of objectivity not to be found among the deluge of partisan accounts. At least their careers can complement, as biography always does history, the existing surveys (1), giving them continuity and human significance.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 1 , Issue 3 , 1951 , pp. 189 - 219
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1951

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References

Notes

1) e.g. Jordan, W. K., The development of Religious Toleration in England (New York, 1932–39);Google Scholar Meyer, A. O., England und die Katholische Kirche unter Elizabeth (Rome, 1911).Google Scholar

2) Charles Dodd, pseud., The Church History of England from the Beginnings to 1688 (Brussels 1737-42)11, 384, notes that we have “two accounts of him, which cannot easily be reconcilea.” D.N.B. suffers from the same confusion; in fact it goes further and carefully distinguishes the author of The Passions of the Mind in Generall (1601) who is actually our subject, from the Catholic divine.

3) Black, J.B., The Reign of Elizabeth 1558–1603 (Oxford, 1936), p.373;Google Scholar Edwara, Nares, Memoirs of … William Cecil, Lord Burghley (London, 1831), III, 454.Google Scholar

4) Henry Foley, S.J., The Recoras of the English Province of the Society of Jesus (London, 1877–83 VII, 1446;Google Scholar Knox, T. F., ed., Records of English Catholics under the Penal Law (London, 1878), I, 124.Google Scholar

5) Reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Salisbury MSS., IV, 216–17; John, Strype, Annals of the Reformation (Oxford, 1820-40), Part Three, IV, 305.Google Scholar

6) Knox, I, 124.

7) Publications of the Catholic Record Society, II, 1331 IX, 17; XXXVTI, 9, 11.

Foley, VI, 132, 134–351 Knox, I, 143.

8) Knox, II, 97–160,

9) Leo Hicks, S.J., “The English College, Rome, and the Vocations to the Society of Jesus, March 1579 – July 1595”, Archivum Historicum Societatis Jesu , III (1934), 7.Google Scholar

10) Knox, T. F., edo, Letters of Allen (London, 1885), p. 451.Google Scholar

11) Since joining the Order meant that he must interrupt his studies in order to serve a two-year probationary novitiate, he felt that the interruption would be less serious at this point, when he had just completed his two years in philosophy, and had yet to begin his four-year training in theology, than at any other time.

11a) C.R.S., IX, 23; XXXVII, 7, 11; Foley, VII, 1560.

12) Foley, II, 267; Meyer, p. 420.

13) Foley, VII, 1460.

14) C.R.S., XIV, 21; Foley, VII, 1460; John Morris, S. J., The Troubles of Our Catholic Ancestors , 3rd. ser. (London, 1871), I, 287.Google Scholar

15) H. M. C., Salisbury MSS, VI, 421–22: Pitzeus, p. 812.

16) Information fumishea me by Leo Hicks, S. J., basea on “documents in the Jesuit archives.”

17) Information furnished me by Leo Hicks, S. J.

18) Ibid.

19) Joannes, Pitzeus, Relationum Historicarum (Parisiis, 1619), p. 812.Google Scholar

20) Information furnished me by Leo Hicks, S. J.

21) Strype, Part Three, II, 83. A reference to the trial of Lopez establishes the earliest date as the spring of 1594.

22) Nares, III, 454, argues that it could not have been our Wright because he was a Jesuit.

23) E.g., Thomas, Law, The Archoriest Controversy (London 1896), I, 135-36.Google Scholar

24) Strype, Part Three, II, 585–86.

25) Ibid., pp. 589–91.

26) Ibia., pp. 592–93.

27) Peter, Guilday, The English Catholic Refugees on the Continent, 1558–1795 (New York, 1914), P. 94;Google Scholar Pollen, J. H., “Politics of the English Catholics auring the Reign of Queen Elizabeth,” Month , XCIX (1902), 583.Google Scholar

28) Charles, Butler, Historical Memoirs respecting the English, Irish, and Scottish Catholics from the Reformation (London, 1822), 11, 8.Google Scholar

29) Nares, III, 454; Black, p. 373.

30) Thomas, Birch, Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth (London, 1754), II, 129.Google Scholar

31) Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1598–1601 (London, 1860), p. 568.

32) Ibid., 1595–97, p. 145; Guilday, p. 93; Jordan, I, 406–7.

33) H. M. C., Salisbury MSS., VI, 431–32.

34) Birch, I, 252.

35) C. S. P. Dom., 1595–97, pp. 59 and 156.

36) Birch, I, 183–84.

37) H. M. C., Salisbury MSS., VI, 283–84.

38) Birch, I, 308–9.

39) C. S. P. Dom., 1598–1601, pp. 216–17.

40) Strype, Part Three, II, 305–6.

41) Seven years later this visit was still being referred to as a serious blow to Anglican efforts in the area (H. M. C., Salisbury MSS, XII, 177.)

42) Birch, I, 309. For further details about Wright’s reputation for loyalty, Stroua, cf. T. A., “Ben Jonson ana Father Thomas Wright,” ELH, XIV (1947), 277–79.Google Scholar

43) For his offer to intercede for Wright, cf. H. M. C. Salisbury MSS., VIII, 449.

44) Birch, I, 307; II, 151.

45) Ibid., 1, 359–60.

46) Birch, II, 70–2.

47) H. M. C., Salisbury MSS., VIII, 394.

48) Birch, II, 71–2.

49) Ibid., pp. 179–80; Cf. p. 187 for an illustration.

50) John Pollen, S. J., “William Alabaster, a Newly Piscoverea Catholic Poet of the Elizabethan Age,” Month, CII (1904), 427.Google Scholar During the few weeks while the poet concealed his defection, he and Wright are said to have collaborated on a “tragedy against the Church of England,” but no record of it exists (H. M. C., Salisbury MSS., VII, 394.)

51) C. S. P., Dom., 1598–1601, p. 10; John, Gerard, “Contributions toward a Life of Father Henry Garnet, S. J.,” Month, XCI (1898), 366.Google Scholar

52) According to Hicks, p. 23 fn., the Society refused to re-admit Wright because he was implicated in the rebellion of Essex. Since it had to make the decision, however, long before that revolt took place, the report may mean that he was too persistent in calling the Earl to the Jesuits’ attention at the time he was being considered.

53) Gerard, p. 366; Pitzeus, p. 813.

54) H. M. C., Salisbury MSS., VIII, 395. This work has recently become significant as a source book for Elizabethan psychology.

55) Ibid., p. 449.

56) C. S. P., Dom., 1598–1601, pp. 455–56; the information furnished by Father Hicks also includes a parallel quotation from Bibl. Vat. Lat. 6227 f. 113.

57) Ibid., pp. 568-69.

58) C. S. P., Dom., 1598–1601, p. 456; Gerard (p. 463) describes the execution of two other priests who escaped that spring.

59) Pitzeus, p. 813; Pollard and Redgrave, Short Title Catalogue, item 2318, pseudonym H.T. (For recapture under the alias Thorpe cf. H. M. C., Salisbury MSS., X, 256.)

60) C. S. P. Dom., 1598–1601, pp. 442, 455–56.

61) C. S. P. Dom., 1598–1601, pp. 568–69.

62) Stopes, C. C., The Life of Henry, Third Earl of Southampton Shakespeare's Patron (Cambridge, 1922), p. 216.Google Scholar

63) This label was given to a number of outspoken secular priests who proclaimed their loyalty to the English throne and fulminated against the Jesuits for openly counseling rebellion (See Wright's letter to Garnet in 1596 for similar charges.) The secular priests argued, with some reason, that the suffering of the English laity was largely due to this traitorous faction, but in doing so they unwillingly assisted the government in its campaign to split the English Catholics. Puring the years 1597–1603, Richard Bancroft, Bishop of London, skillfully fostered this friction between the various elements of the Catholic clergy (William, Barlow, The Summe and Substance of the Conference at Hampton Court (London, 1604), P. 50)Google Scholar. When in 1598 the Pope appointed an Archpriest friendly to the Jesuits (and thus objectionable to the secular priests), Bancroft was able to capitalize on their discontent in order to bring about a sharp break between the two factions. To the more outspoken among the seculars he granted the privileges of publication, of merely nominal imprisonment, and even of convenient exile when the group decided to appeal to the Holy See (the action which inspired their name).

64) William, Watson, A Decacordon of Ten Quodlibeticall Questions concerning Religion and State (London, 1602), pp. 44–45.Google Scholar

65) H. M. C. Salisbury MSS., XII, 405–6.

66) Ibid., p. 406; Foley, I, 46.

67) Law, II, 245. The correct date is established by Usher, I, 181.

68) Jordan, II, 56.

69. Knox, p. 18.

70) C. R. S., X, 51.

71) H. M. C., Salisbury MSS., XV, 216–17.

72) Stafford, H. G.. James VI of Scotland, (New York, 1940), pp. 238, 284–85.Google Scholar Like Essex, the new king had fostered hopes everywhere, without regard for consistency.

73) Usher, I, 303.

74) Tierney, M. A., ed., Dodd's Church History of England (London, 1846), IX, xxxlii;Google Scholar Brewer, J. S., ed., Goodman’s The Court and Times of James, II, 83.Google Scholar

75) Tierney, IV, xxxiv.

76) Salisbury, H. M. C. MSS., XV, 216–17.Google Scholar

77) Usher, II, 99.

78) Foley, IV, 284, 372.

79) Usher, II, 176.

80) Tierney, IV, cxxxviii-cxxxix: certain priests “daily degenerate into false prophets or wolves, quorum Coripheus est ille Thomas Carpentarius, vel Wright, de quo jam alias saepe….”; Foley, VII, 1018–19; IV, 204, 372–73.

81) Foley, IV, 284.

82) Tierney, IV, cxxxix fn.

83) Foley, IV, 372.

84) Ibid, VII, 1018–19.

85) Jordan, II, 59, 85–6.

86) Foley, VII, 1018–19.

87) Our last trustworthy information is that in 1612, he was serving as priest for the English Catholic refugees gathered at Antwerp (Pitzeuz, p. 813).

88) Tierney, IV, 137–38, cclxxxiii.