[Footnote 96:——Ben Jonson was “reconciled” to the Church of Rome either in 1593 or 1594. After, and probably on account of, the Plot he left the Church, whose “exacting claims” he had “on trust” accepted. Possibly it was under the influence of Jonson’s example that Mounteagle wrote the letter to the King, given in the Rev. John Gerard’s “_What was the Gunpowder Plot?_” p. 256. Mounteagle, however, died in the Church of Rome, and the Article in the “_National Dictionary of Biography_” says that he had a daughter a nun. Belike, she was a member of the Institute of “The English Virgins,” for the name “Parker” is mentioned in Chambers’ “_Life of Mary Ward_.”[A] There has been recently (1900) published a smaller “_Life of Mary Ward_,” by M. Mary Salome (Burns & Oates), with a Preface by Bishop Hedley, O.S.B., which should be read by those not desirous of possessing the more costly work by Mary Catharine Elizabeth Chambers, in 2 vols. (Burns & Oates), with a Preface by the late Henry James Coleridge, S.J. (brother to the late Lord Coleridge). May I express the hope that these two learned authoresses will cause the Ward Papers, at Nymphenburg, near Munich, in Germany (that are extant), to be carefully examined afresh to see if they contain anything about Thomas Warde, Mary’s uncle, and anything further about her connection, through the Throckmortons and Nevilles, the Lord Mounteagle? By so doing, they will cause to be obliged to them all serious students of the Gunpowder Plot, which is of perennial interest and value to human beings, whether governors or governed, by reason of the intellectual, moral, and political lessons that with the truest eloquence——the eloquence of Fact——it teaches mankind for all time.] [Footnote A: Whilst it is possible that the “Parker” mentioned in the “_Life of Mary Ward_” was one of Lord Mounteagle’s daughters, I find, from a statement in Foley’s “_Records_,” vol. v. (by a contemporary hand, I think), that “Lord Morley and Mounteagle,” as he is styled, had a daughter who was “crooked,” and who was an Augustinian nun. Her name was Sister Frances Parker. Her father is said to have given his consent to this daughter becoming a nun “after much ado.” Lady Morley and Mounteagle, a strict papist, brought up the children Roman Catholics.——See Foley’s “_Records_,” vol. v., p. 973.——The same writer is of opinion that Mounteagle was not a Roman Catholic. Evidently he was a very lax one, and between the Plot and the time of his death he probably conformed to the Establishment.] [Footnote 97:——Born Lord Thomas Howard, brother to Lord William Howard, of Naworth, near Carlisle.——For an interesting account of the Tudor Howards, see Burke’s “_Tudor Portraits_” (Hodges); also Lodge’s “_Portraits_,” and “_Memorials of the House of Howard_.”]