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Father Constantine, O.F.M. Cap. 15? – 1616

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2016

Casaian Reel O.F.M. Cap.
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Extract

Father Constantine was a notable member of the Capuchin Province of Paris at the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth centuries. Known as Polydore Morgan before joining the Capuchins, he was brought up a Catholic and having completed his studies on the Continent was ordained a secular priest. His identity has never been established with certainty for there were at least two contemporaries with the same name, but it is probable that he was one of the Morgans of Llantarnam in Monmouthshire. According to J.B. Wainewright (1), he was the nephew of Thomas Morgan, the agent of Mary, Queen of Scots, If this opinion be true, then Fr. Constantine, after his ordination in Rome, visited the English College at Rheims, where he arrived on May 12th, 1562; he left the College on the 28th of the same month, presumably with the intention of going to England; he returned to Rheims on November 2nd, 1582, and left the College again on March 22nd, 1585 (2). Fr. Gilbert, O.F.M. Cap., however, states that Fr. Constantine was the cousin of the agent Thomas Morgan (3). This cousin was a prisoner in the Gatehouse on July 29th, 1580; he was released from prison on August 8th, 1582. Marcellin de Pise (1594–1656), the Capucnin annalist, on whose account of Fr. Constantine we rely for much of what follows, after stating that the friar was of good family and was ordained a secular prieat, goea on to say that immediately after his ordination the young priest aet out for England before he had aaid hia firat Maas. On hia arrival, he adds, he waa arreated and oaat into priaon and it was as a prisoner that he celebrated hia first Mass (4). This must have been an unusual, if not unique, occurance even in those unsettled times.

Type
Articles
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , 1953 , pp. 23 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1953

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References

Notes

(1) Notes and Queries, 1908, 10th. series, Vol.IX, p. 183.

(2) Khox, T.F.: The First and Second Diaries of the English College Pouay, and an Appendix of unpublished documents…. with a historical introduction by Thomas Francis Knox . London, 1878, pp.187, 192, 194.Google Scholar Cf. also pp. 29, 262. It is necessary, in this work, to distinguish Polydore from Roland Morgan, for in some references they seem identical. On august 5th, 1582, Dr. Allen wrote to the President of the English College in Rome, Fr.Agazzari: “Morganus ille presbyter, quem putabas Lutetiae subsistere, ism pridem suacepta a nobis facultate reconciliandi, profectus est in Angliam, nec diu apud avunoulum mansit.” Cited by J.B. Wainewright in Notes and Queries,. loc.cit.

(3) Fr.Gilbert. O.F.M. Cap.: “Father Constantine, O.S.F.C.”, in Franciscan. Annals. 1934, Vol.LIX, pp. 14–18, 48–51.

J.H. Pollen, S.J.: “Official Lists of Prisoners for Religion from 1562 to 1580. From originals in the Public Record Offioe and British Museum. Eaitea by J. H. Pollen, S.J.”, in Publications of the Catholic Record Society (cited here-after, C.R.S.), Vol. 1, London, 1905, p.62;Google Scholar C.R. S., Vol., II, pp.225, 228. Cf.p.219. and Vol.XXI, p. 94.

(4) Marcellinus de Pise Matisconensis, O.F.M. Cap.: Annalium, seu sacraum historiarum Qrdinis Minorum S.Franoisci, qui Capucini nuncupantur, Tomus III, Lugduni (Lyons), 1676, pp.188–192. This writer's account has been summarised by the editors of L. Wadding, O.F.M.: Annales Minorum seu trium Ordinum a S.Francisco institutorum , Tomus XXV, Ad Claras Aquas (Quaracchi), 1934, pp.206–207.Google Scholar

(5) The Rheims Annual Report, 1579–1560, in C.R.S., Vol.XI, p. 566.

(6) Maroellinus de Pise, loc.cit.; Fr. Gilbert, art.cit,, pp. 15–16. If the dates given by Fr. Gilbert, art.cit., p.18, for the Annalist (1594–1656), are correct, then Marcellin may have heard his account of Fr. Constantine from the saintly Honoré de Paris, a contemporary of both Fr.Constantine and the Annalist, and three times Provincial of the Paris Province, who visited the friary at Lyons when Marcellin was a novice. See Mazelin, F.: Histolre du Ven.serviteur de Dieu, le Pere Honore de Paris , Paris, 1882, p. 124;Google Scholar Melchior a Pobladura, Cap, O.F.M..: Hiatoria Generalis Ordinis Fratrum Minorum Capuccinorum , Pars prima 1525–1619, Romae, 1947, p.206.Google Scholar In a more recent publication, however, the date of the Annalist's birth is given as 1613, and if this date be correct then the meeting described by Mazelin could not have taken place. Cf. Bexicon Capuccinum, Romae, 1951, col. 1053.

(7) Yeo, M.: A Prince of Pastors, St. Charles Borromeo , London, 1943, P. 257.Google Scholar

(8) Marcellinus de Pise, loc. cit.

(9) Godefroy de Paris, O.F.M. Cap.: Les Frères Mineurs Capucins en France. Histoire de la Province de, Paris, t. I, fase. II, p.141. This writer states? “Renvoyé en Angleterre par Gregoire XIII, le Père Constantin, traqué de toutes parts, avait dû se réembarquer pour le continent et il avait fini par se rendre a Paris où il s'était agrègé à la Province naissante de Saint-Francois,” Cf.Emmanuel de Lanmodes, O.F.M. Cap.: Les Pères Gardiens des Capucins du Couvent de la rue Saint-Honaré, Paris, 1893, p. 6.

(10) Marcellinus de Pise, loc oit. As summarised by the Quaraochi editore the Annalist's account is: “(Gregorius XIII) eum (Constantinum) in Angliam ad haereticorum conversionem destinaverat. Verum cum eo tempore calviniana haeresis intestino bello totam armavarat Galliam, ideo in earn regiohem a pontifice mittitur ad pietatem fidemque erigendam. Urbem Parisiensem ingressus, in sectaries milites incidit, a quibus captus et exspoliatua, multia dirisque flagellis afficitur. Eadem die ab ipsis in odium religionis ter virgis caesus et dilaniatus fuit. Cuncta laetus patientia summa sustinult, martyrii tamen ape frustratus.”

(11) Godefroy de Paris, ibid., p. 68–71.

(12) Godefroy de Paris, ibid., p.141. Père Godefroy, the late learned Archivist of the Province of Paris does not mention the appointment of Fr. Constatine as Guardian of Etampes in 1590. Maurice d'Epernay, O.F.M. Cap., archivist of the same Province in the eighteenth century, does give such an appointment, in his “Annales des Reverends Pères Capucins de la Province de Paris” ––– Bibliothèque Mazarine, Ms. 2418, f. 388. Emmanuel de Lanmodez, op. cit. p.6, probably on the authority of the early archivist, also accredits such an appointment to Fr. Constantine. In the present article, Père Godefroy, who has sifted his sources well, has been followed. Writing of the records of Maurice d’Epernay in general and of the Mazarine manuscript in particular, he says: “D’ une manière generale la chronologie en est hésitante. Ces défauts toutefois se remarquent surtout dans les Annales (Bibl.Maz.) et dans l’Abrégé des Annales (Bibl.Nat.).” In fact, in general, the findings of Père Godefroy have been followed here. (Godefroy de Paris, O.F.M.Cap.: Les Frères Mineurs Capucins en France, t.II, Paris, 1950, p.7.)

(13) Godefroy de Paris, op.cit., t.I, fasc.II, p.153, 154. Cf.Ms. 101, p.97, in Provincial Archives of the Paris Province.

(14) Chapitres Provineeiaux des Capucins de Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, Ms.2419, f.4.

(15) Godefroy de Paris, op.cit., t.1, fase.II, p. 191.

(16) Ibid., pp. 179–180.

(17) Ibid., p. 197.

(18) Ibid., t.II, pp.33, 37–38. The English Capuohin, Francois l'Anglais, may have been Francis Fitzherbert, one of the Fitzherberts of Padley. A pedigree in the Public Record Office describes him as “a frier” and “a trator”. Francois l'Anglais certainly moved north after the incident at Amiens, and a spy’s report dated December, 1598, states: “In Germanye, Att Metz, fa.Fitzherbert a Capuchine.” (P.R.O. Domestic State Papers Elizabeth, Vol.CCLXIX, no.69.; Fr.Benedict, O.F.M.Cap.: “From Court to Cloister”, in Franciscan Annals, 1935, Vol.LIX, pp.383–366; Guilday, P.: The English Catholic Refugees on the Continent, 1558–1795 , London, 1914, p. 17.)Google Scholar

(19) Grodefroy de Paris, op.cit., t.II, p.35.

(20) Ibid., pp. 59–61.

(21) Marcellinus do Pise, loc.cit.

(22) Grodefroy de Paris, op. cit., t.II, pp.100, 156.

(23) Ibid., p. 173–174.

(24) P.R.O. Domestio State Papers Elizabeth, Vol.CCLXIX, no.69. The list is reproduced by P.Cuilday, op. cit. p. 14–18, cf. p. 17.

(25) P.R.O. Domestic State Papers Elizabeth, Addenda, Vol. XXXIV, no. 41.

(26) Marcellinus de Pise, loc oit.

(27) Vatican Archives, Nunziatura di Francia, t. 51, f.391 and f.392. The draft of the despatch is in the Vatican Library, Barb.Lat.5871 cf. f.315.

For a fuller account of the question of appointing bishops at this time, see the excellent edition, by J., L. Hicks S., of The Letters of Thomas Fltzherbert, 1608–1610, C.R.S. Vol. LXI, pp. 14–15.Google Scholar

(28) Maroellinus de Pise, loc.cit.