The Jesuits, 1534-1921: A History of the Society of Jesus from Its Foundation to the Present TimeCampbell, Thomas J. (Thomas Joseph)
History
The Jesuits, 1534-1921: A History of the Society of Jesus from Its Foundation to the Present Time
Campbell, Thomas J. (Thomas Joseph)
Jesuits -- History
It will be of interest to students of literature to learn that one of
Shakespeare's most famous passages was borrowed from this "History,"
namely, the description of Cardinal Wolsey in Henry VIII. Whole passages
have been worked into the play. As Campion wrote it in 1569, when
Shakespeare was only four or five years old, its authorship is beyond
dispute. Conditions finally became so unpleasant in Dublin that he was
obliged to take to flight. He left Ireland disguised as a serving-man
and reached London, in time to witness the execution of Dr. Storey in
June, 1571. That completed the work of his conversion, and he went to
Douai, where after a recantation of his heresy, he resumed his course of
scholastic theology; a year later, he set out for Rome as a penniless
pilgrim, arriving there barefooted and in rags, much to the amazement of
one of his former Oxford admirers, who met him on the street.
He was received into the Society by Father Mercurian, and made his
novitiate at Prague in Bohemia, where he was ordained in 1578. He was
one of the first group of missionaries who left the Continent for
England under the guidance of Persons. In the party were Dr. Goldwell,
Bishop of Saint Asaph, thirteen secular priests, three Jesuits: Persons,
Campion and Ralph Emerson, a lay-brother, besides two young men not in
orders. Goldwell had been consecrated as early as 1555 and had
accompanied Cardinal Pole to England; he was England's sole
representative at the Council of Trent. He was now on his way again to
his native country, but he fell ill at Rheims and, according to the
"Dictionary of National Biography," was recalled by the Pope. "This,"
says Dr. Guilday (English Refugees, p. 125), "was a disappointment to
Persons. The presence of a bishop in England had been a condition of the
Jesuits' taking up the burden of converting lapsed Catholics, and
despite all the rebuffs the demand for a hierarchy met at Rome, the
Jesuits themselves continually renewed it." These words of the
distinguished historian who is the most recent witness in the matter of
the archipresbyterate are invaluable testimony on a sorely controverted
point.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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