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GIFT OF

JANE K.SATHE

ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK

HOUSE

Frontispiece

ONE GENERATION OF
A NORFOLK HOUSE

A CONTRIBUTION TO
ELIZABETHAN HISTORY

AUGUSTUS JESSOPP, D.D.

Formerly Head Master of King Edward the Sixth's School, Norwich

Hon. Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford ; Hon. Fellow of

St. John's College Cambridge ; Hon. Canon of Norwich

AUTHOR OF
"THE COMING OF THE FRIARS," ETC., ETC.

THIRD EDITION, REVISED

NEW YORK

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

1914

J^
'r

First Edition . 1878
Second Edition . 1879
Third Editim . . 1914

c •

^ C ♦ 9 4

• t • • • •

SI QUID

IN HOC LIBELLO

VEL PR^SENS VEL POSTERA ^TAS

CEDRO HAUD INDIGNUM

JUDICAVERIT

MEMORI^ VIRI HONORABILIS

FREDERICI WALPOLE,

NAUT^ MILITIS SENATORI8

AMICI NUNQUAM NON DESIDERATI

TRIBUTUM SIT

414560

PREFACE TO THE THIRD
EDITION

For a long time past it was the intention of the author
to bring out a new edition of this work, for which a desire
had been expressed both by personal friends and students
of Elizabethan history, but failing health at last made it
impossible for him to undertake the task of supervising its
passage through the press. In furtherance of his wishes this
edition has therefore been prepared from the memoranda
and notes made by him during the thirty odd years since
the original publication of the work, which have enabled the
present editor to revise the previous text by making such
alterations and additions as the author has indicated to be
proper and advisable.

Temple,

15th August, 1913.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND

EDITION

The reception accorded to the First Edition of this volume
was to me a great surprise: I was prepared for anything
but a literary success. Practical men assured me that
for a book whose very title seemed to promise that its
main interest would be local, and the prominent personages
in it, members of a single family, I could expect but a very
limited circulation. Prudence suggested that no more
copies should be printed than were subscribed for, and
the first issue was limited to one hundred and sixty.

I discovered too late my mistake, and can only express
my regret to my many friends and correspondents for
the disappointment it occasioned.

As the original Edition did not and could not cover
its expenses, and as I could not afford to publish another
at so costly a rate, I am glad that an enterprising Publisher
has been found willing to bring out the book in a cheaper
and more convenient form.

In this reissue some errors have been corrected and
some few omissions supplied. I shall be grateful for
suggestions or intelligent criticism, whether friendly or
hostile.

The School House, Norwich,
1st March, 1879.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST
EDITION

It is sixteen years since I heard for the first time of Henry
Walpole, the Jesuit Father, who was put to death at York
in 1595. Under his portrait, as it hung in the Library
at Kainthorpe Hall, the conversation would often turn
to that strange phase of the conflict with Eome which
was exhibited in the latter half of Queen Elizabeth's reign
— which for the most part historians have slurred over so
carelessly, and yet about which there is still so much to
learn.

It was in 1866 that the Hon. Frederick Walpole seriously
suggested to me that I should undertake the writing of
the Jesuit Father's hfe. I had by this time begun to see
clearly that it would be impossible to narrow the subject
to the limits of a single biography, unless the significance
of the incidents related and their bearing upon the history
of the time were first explained and clearly apprehended.

The further I proceeded in my inquiries the more evident
it became that my task would require me to elucidate the
merely personal narrative by dwelling on matters which
I had good reason to believe were but little known to us
of the Church of England ; and it was the more necessary
to do this, because no historian of any mark, except Dr.
Lingard, has yet dealt with that portion of Queen
Elizabeth's reign which was subsequent to the Armada,
and because even Mr. Froude curiously ignores much
that was going on during the last few years with which
his volumes are professedly concerned.

In 1873 I edited, with somewhat copious notes, a collection

• «

'^ . •..•::

ONE GENERATION OF

• i/i •,*»:• ol'ifneieeri .letters of Henry Walpole, the originals of
whic^ 'are now in the archives of Stonyhurst College. Some
will be disappointed that these letters are not given fully
in this volume. They were in the first instance printed
only for private circulation at Mr. Walpole 's sole expense,
and it was his wish that the collection should always
remain a "Book-rarity." On such a point his wishes are
to me law ; nevertheless, the substance of this collection
has been incorporated in the following pages, and it must
be confessed that the literary value of the letters them-
selves is but small.

In the notes appended to the several chapters I have
made my acknowledgment to those who have so readily
and so liberally assisted me in the course of my work.
Only they who have themselves had occasion to leave
the beaten track and to grope among manuscripts, consult
original sources, and hunt up for evidence and information
in holes and corners, know how generous and how chivalrous
scholars and men of learning are when they find that a
student is honestly unsparing of himself, and is not satisfied
with being a superficial compiler. To me the right hand
of fellowship has been held out in no grudging fashion
by men of European reputation who yet had never heard
my name till I applied to them for such help as only they
could afford. I have never applied in vain.

There is one, however, to whom I am under deeper
obligations than to all others — less for any direct and
special aid than for that sort of influence which the master
exercises over the scholar, the veteran over the tyro. This
book would have been more worthy of its subject if Mr.
Richard Simpson had lived to watch its progress through
the press. His enormous knowledge, his vigorous and
sagacious criticism, his wonderful memory and minute
acquaintance with the undercurrents and byeways, the
buried secrets and curious tangles of Elizabethan history,
were possessions which belonged to him pre-eminently,
and which he seemed to value chiefly as they qualified
him to assist others in the pursuit of historical truth.

A NORFOLK HOUSE

In the course of the same week death snatched him
from us and that other the nobly born but yet nobler-
hearted friend to whom this volume is inscribed.

One of the greatest difficulties which I have had to con-
tend with has been the extreme rarity of some of the books
which it has been necessary to consult, and the consequent
difficulty of procuring them at any cost, or even of obtain-
ing a sight of them at any library. Of all the works
mentioned in Dr. Oliver's Collections as written by Michael
Walpole, not one is to be found either in the British
Museum, the Bodleian, or the Cambridge Libraries. There
are probably not ten copies of More's History of the English
Province at this moment in England. As to Cresswell's
little Life of Henry Walpole, it is probably unique ; and
more than one of Parsons' minor works even a biblio-
maniac would count himself fortunate in obtaining twice
in a lifetime.

It was with a painful recollection of my own mistakes,
loss of time, bootless journeys, and provoking waste of
money, that I determined to append the short list of the
rarer books which I have had occasion to use and refer
to. A solitary student with limited resources, and cut off
from access to the larger libraries, except at intervals of
some months, works at very great disadvantage, and I
would gladly spare others some of the trouble I have gone
through in the long process of simply learning where to look
for information. The list is after all a meagre one, and
I have not named such works as any one can consult
almost anywhere ; but I must warn those who may feel
any inclination to go at all deeply into the history of the
period with which this volume deals, that they must make
up their minds to be book buyers, and not be frightened
at the prices they will have to pay. It was at the peril
of a man's life that he ventured three hundred years ago
to be in possession of some of the books which this list
contains, and if we want to possess them now we cannot
hope to get them below their market value.

A volume of little more than three hundred pages will

14 ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE

perhaps appear to some but a small result of nearly fifteen
years of research. How much easier it would have been
to double the bulk they know best who are best qualified
to act as my critics. To tell what somebody else has
told before is easy : my ambition has been to make some
small additions to our previous knowledge, or at least to
throw some little gleam of light upon what heretofore
was obscure, misrepresented, or misunderstood.

The School House, Norwich,
June 1878.

CONTENTS

PAGE
LIST OF SOME OF THE RARER BOOKS REFERRED TO IN

THE NOTES . . . . . .17

INTRODUCTORY . . . . . .27

NOTES . . . . . . ,38

CHAPTER I

THE WALPOLES OF HOUGHTON . . . .46

NOTES , . . . . . .55

CHAPTER II

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS . . . .63
NOTES . . . . . . .78

CHAPTER III

THE EXCOMMUNICATION AND ITS RESULTS . . 85

NOTES . . . . . . . 105

CHAPTER IV

THE JESUIT MISSION TO ENGLAND . . .113

NOTES ....... 130

CHAPTER V

THE KINSMEN ...... 140

NOTES ....... 150

i6 ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE

CHAPTER VI

PAGE
JOHN GERARD . . . . . .157

NOTES ....... 172

CHAPTER VII

THE MISSIO CASTRENSIS ..... 182

NOTES ....... 196

CHAPTER VIII

THE RETURN TO ENGLAND .... 201

NOTES ....... 220

CHAPTER IX

FATHER GERARD'S " MUCH GOOD" . . . 222

NOTES ....... 238

CHAPTER X

CAPTURE AND IMPRISONMENT .... 249

NOTES ....... 270

CHAPTER XI

THE TOWER AND THE RACK .... 272

NOTES ....... 290

CHAPTER XII

THE TRIAL AND THE SCAFFOLD .... 295

NOTES . . . .... 308

CHAPTER XIII

THE GATHERING OF THE FRAGMENTS . . .311

NOTES . . . . . . . 334

INDEX . . . . . . .343

A LIST OF SOME OF THE RARER
BOOKS REFERRED TO IN THE
NOTES

Abbot, Robert. — A Mirrour of Popish Subtilties ; Discovering sundry
wretched and miserable evasions and shifts, which a secret cavilling
Papist in the behalf of one Paul Spence, Priest, yet living and lately
prisoner in the castle of Worcester, hath gathered . . . Written by Rob.
Abbot, Minister of the Word of God in the city of Worcester ....
London, 1594, 4to.

[The author was brother of Archbishop Abbot, and became eventually
Bishop of Salisbury. Spence was one of those ordained Deacon in Queen
Mary's reign. He received Priest's Orders at Douai, and returned to
England as a Missioner ; but the fact of his having received his first
Orders here before the accession of Elizabeth seems to have served to
extenuate his subsequent indiscretions.]

Allen. — De Justitia Britannica sive Anglica, quae contra Christi
Martyres Continenter exercetur. Ingoldstadii, Ex officina Typographica
Davidis Sartorii, Anno 1584.

[See under Burleigh.]

Cardinal Allen's Defence of Sir William Stanley's Surrender of

Deventer. Edited by Thomas Heywood, Esq., F.S.A. Printed for the
Chetham Society, mdcccli.

A Brief e Discoverie of Doctor Allen's Seditious Drifts, con-

teined in a Pamphlet written by him, concerning the Yeelding vp of the
towne of Deuenter (in Ouerrissel) vnto the King of Spain, by Sir
William Stanley. (By G. D.) London, Imprinted by I. W. for Francis
Coldock, 1588, 4to.

Aquepontanus (Bridgewater) Joannes. — Concertatio Ecclesias CatholicEe
in Anglia adversus Calvino-papistas, et Puritanos sub Elizabetha Regina
quorundam hominum doctrina et sanctitate illustrium renovata . . .
Augtas : Trevirorum, 1588, 4to.

[Bridgewater was a Yorkshireman. He was elected Rector of Lincoln
College, Oxford, in 1563, being then Archdeacon of Rochester, and
holding other valuable preferment. He resigned it all and left England
in 1574. The " Concertatio " was first published in 1583. ". . . . one

2 I?

i8 ONE GENERATION OF

Job. Gibbon a Jesuit, and John Fenne, having taken a great deal of
pains in writing the lives and sufferings of several Popish martyrs, with
other matters relating to the Roman Catholic cause .... many things
therein being wanting or defective, one other, Bridgewater, took more
pains in enlarging and adding to it other matters, with an account
of 100 or more Popish martyrs . . ." — Wood, Aih. Oxon., Bliss, i.
626. The book is hard to meet with, and of great value for the
information it contains.]

Bagshaw, Chbistopher. — A True Relation of the Faction began at
Wisbeach by Father Edmonds, alias Weston, a Jesuit, 1595, and con-
tinued since by Father Walley, alias Garnet, the Provincial of the
Jesuits in England, and by Father Persons in Rome. 4to, 1601.

[Though I have not dwelt on the business of the Appellant Priests
in my volume, yet it is impossible to understand the relations of the
Catholic hierarchy in England towards the Jesuits, without obtaining
some acquaintance with the history of the remarkable dispute which
divided the Catholic body in England at the close of the sixteenth
century. Much light has been thrown upon this subject lately by the
publication of the letters of Father Rivers in Mr. Foley's Records of
the English Province, series i. Dr. Bagshaw was a personal enemy of
Father Parsons all his life.]

Bartoli. — Deir Istoria della Compagnia di Giesu. L'Inghilterra parte
dell' Europa descritta dal P. Daniello Bartoli della medesima Campagnia.
4to, Bologna, 1676.

[I have always referred to this edition : the original folio was published
at Rome in 1667. ]

Bell, Thomas. — The Anatomy of Popish Tyrannic : Wherein is con-
teyned a plaine Declaration and Christian Censure of all the principall
parts, of the Libels, Letters, Edictes, Pamphlets, and Bookes, lately
published by the Secular priests and English hispanized Jesuites, with
their Jesuited Arch-priest: both pleasant and profitable to all well
affected readers. London, 4to, 1603.

The Catholique Triumph, conteyning a Reply to the pretended

Answere of B. C. (a masked Jesuit), lately published against the Try all

of the New Religion At London, printed for the Companie of

Stationers, 4to, 1610.

[One of the coarsest books of its class, but invaluable as giving many
of the abominable stories which were current at the time.]

Beeington, Jos.— The History of the DecHne and Fall of the Roman
Catholic Religion in England, during a period of two hundred and forty
years, from the reign of Elizabeth to the present time; including the
memoirs of Gregorio Panzani .... by the Rev. Joseph Berington.
8vo, 1813.

A NORFOLK HOUSE 19

[The book was printed in 1793, but, I believe, was not published till
twenty years afterwards. The introduction, extending to 111 pages,
is concerned in great part with giving the history of the dissensions
between the Secular Priests and the Jesuits in England at the close of
the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century. The author, a
Catholic priest, was vehemently assailed by Charles Plowden, a Jesuit
father, and others, for the ground he took up in this introduction, and
is still denounced as "unorthodox." His book is never likely to be
republished, and is getting rarer every year.]

Bristow. — Richardi Bristol, Vigornensis, eximii sue tempore sacras
Theologias Doctoris et Professoris, Motiva. . . . Atrebati, 4to, 1608.

[There is a brief life of the author prefixed to this book, which was
prepared for the press by Dr. Worthington. Scattered up and down
through the volume are curious scraps of personal history which one
would hardly expect to find there.]

Cecil, Lord Burghley. — The Execution of Justice in England for
maintenance of publique and Christian peace, against certaine stirrers
of sedition . . . London, 4to, 1583.

[It has frequently been reprinted and translated ; it was answered by
Cardinal Allen in " A true, sincere, and modest defence of the English
Catholics, that suffer for their faith both at home and abroad, against a
slanderous libel entitled ' The Execution of Justice in England.' " 12mo,
1584.]

A Declaration of the favourable dealing of her Majesties Com-
missioners appointed for the examination of certaine Traitors, and of
Tortures unjustly reported to be done upon them for matters of religion.
1583, 4to.

Certamen Seraphigum Provinci/E Anglic pro sancta Dei ecelesia.

In quo breviter declaratur, quomodo Fratres Minores Angli calamo et
sanguine pro Fide Christi Sanctaque eius Ecelesia certarunt,

Opere et labore E. P. F. Angeli a S. Francisco Conventus Eecollect-
orum Anglorum Duaci Guardiani, Provincise suse Custodum Custodis,
ac. S. Theologiee Lectoris Primarij concinnatum. Duaci Typis Balta-
saris Belleri, sub circino aureo. Anno 1649.

[The copy now in my possession was sold some years ago at Sotheby's
for seventeen guineas !]

Challoner. — Memoirs of Missionary Priests as well Secular as
Regular ; and of other Catholics of both sexes, that have suffered Death
in England on Religious Accounts, from the year 1577 to 1684. Gathered
partly from the printed accounts of their lives and sufferings, published
by contemporary authors in divers languages, and partly from manu-
script relations. ... 2 vols. 8vo, 1741 and 1742.

[The author was titular Bishop of Debra, and his work is invaluable

20 ONE GENERATION OF

as a collection of authentic memorials of the unfortunate persons whose
sufferingslt details. A new edition in 4to, with some hideous engrav-
ings, has lately been published, with an introduction of some consider-
able merit by Mr. Law, late of the London Oratory. ]

Ceeswel, Joseph.— Histoire de la vie et ferme Constance du Pare
Henri Valpole, &c. . . .
[See p. 190, n. 5.]

De Backer.— Bibliotheque des Ecrivains de la Compagnie de Jesus, ou
Notices Bibliographiques, 1° de tons les ouvrages publics par les Membres
de la Compagnie de Jesus, depuis la Fondation de I'Ordre jusqu'a nos
jours; 2° des Apologies, des controverses religieuses, des critiques
lit^raires et scientifiques suscitees a leur sujet. Par les PP. Augustin
et Alois de Backer, de la meme Compagnie. Li^ge, 7 vols. 8vo, 1853-
1861.

[This is one of the most remarkable bibliographical works ever published,
and is essential for the student. The first edition cited above is some-
what awkward to refer to, as there are two indexes, one at the end of
the fourth and one at the end of the seventh volume. The new edition,
in 3 vols, folio, is a considerable improvement upon the first. The first
volume was sent out in 1869 ; the final sheets have only just been issued.
Unfortunately this important edition, which (after the death of the last
of the brothers de Backer) was completed by their learned associate
Charles Sommervogel, is limited to two hundred copies.]

Destombes. — La Persecution Religieuse en Angleterre sous le regne
d'Elizabeth. Par I'Abb^ C. J. Destombes, Superieur de I'lnstitution
Saint-Jean, a Douai. Paris, 8vo, 1863.

[A respectable compilation, on which the author must have bestowed
some pains and labour. It is of course written entirely from the Catholic
point of view.]

Memoire sur les S^minaires et Colleges Anglais, Fondes a la

fin du xvi^ siecle dans le Nord de la France, et sur les services qu'ils ont
rendus a la Religion Catholique en Angleterre ; par I'Abbe C. J.
Destombes, Directeur au petit S^minaire de Cambrai. Cambrai, 1852.

DoDD, Chaeles. — The Church History of England, from the year 1500
to the year 1688, chiefly with regard to Catholics ; being a complete
account of the divorce, supremacy, dissolution of monasteries, and first
attempts for reformation under Henry VIII. . . . together with the
various fortunes of the Catholic cause during the reigns of King James
I., Kings Charles I. and II., and King James II., particularly the lives of
the most eminent Catholics, Cardinals, Bishops, inferior Clergy, Regulars
and Laymen, who have distinguished themselves by their piety, learning,
or military abilities . . . Brussels, 1737, 3 vols, folio.

A NORFOLK HOUSE 21

[This is the original edition, and is very difficult to meet with.
A new edition was commenced by the Eev. M. A. Tierney, F.S.A., and
carried down to the end of James I. It extended to 5 vols. 8vo. At
this point the work ended abruptly, and since then Tierney's papers and
books have been dispersed, and will never be collected again. Even
** Tierney's Dodd," by which title I have quoted the book, is now
difficult to procure.]

EcLESHAL. — Kelacion de un Sacerdote Ingles, escrita a Flandres,
k un cavallero de su tierra, desterrado por ser Catolico : en la qual
le dacuenta de la veinda de su Magestad a Valladolid, y al Colegio de los
Ingleses, y lo que alii se hizo en su reeebimiento. Traduzida de Ingles
en Castellano, por Tomas Ecleshal, cavallero Ingles. 12mo, Madrid,
1592.

[The date of the licence for printing is 15 Oct., 1592.]

FiTZHERBERT. — Nicolai Fitzherberti De Antiquitate et Continuatione
Catholicse Religionis in Anglia, et de Alani Gardinalis Vita Libellus. Ad
Sanctissimum D. N. Paulum Quintum Pontificem Maximum. Romce,
Apud Guillelmum Facciotum, m.d.c.viii. sm. 8vo.

[The author appears to have been Cardinal Allen's secretary, and was
of the family of Fitzherbert of Padly. He was a conspicuous adversary
of the Jesuits, and " virulently opposed Father Parsons at Eome." — Dr.
Oliver.]

Gee. — The Foot out of the Snare : With a Detection of Sundry Late
Practices and Impostures of the Priests and Jesuits in England. Where-
unto is added a Catalogue of such Books as in the Author's knowledge
have been vented within two years last past in London by the Priests
and their Agents. As also a Catalogue of the Romish Priests and
Jesuits, together with the Popish Physicians now practising about
London. By John Gee, Master of Arts, of Exon. College in Oxford, 4to,
London (3rd edition), 1624.

[". . . Printed four times in the said year, 1624, because all the
copies, or most of them, were bought up by R. Catholics before they
were dispersed, for fear their lodgings, and so consequently themselves,
should be found out and discovered." — Wood, Ath. Ox. ii. 391,
Ed. Bliss.]

New Shreds of the Old Snare, containing the Apparitions

of two New Female Ghosts ; — The Copies of Divers Letters of late
intercourse concerning Romish Affairs ; — Special Indulgences purchased
at Rome, granted to Divers English Gentle-believing Catholicks for
their Ready Money ; — A Catalogue of English Nuns of the late Trans-
portation within these two or three years. By John Gee, Master of Arts
. , . London, 4to, 1624.

22 ONE GENERATION OF

Harpspield. — Dialogi sex contra summi Pontificatus, Monasticse
Vitss, Sanctorum, Sacrarum imaginum oppugnatores et Pseudo-
martyres: Ab Alano Copo Londinensi editi . . . Antverpise, 1573.

[The real author of this work was Nicholas Harpsfield. It is curious
for containing the account of the miracle of the Cross said to have been
found in a tree in Sir Thomas Stradling's park in 1559. The story
caused great excitement at the time. There is a plate at page 360
professing to give an accurate representation of this Cross, but it is rarely
that copies of the book are to be found which contain this plate.]

Hazaet, Corn. — Kerckelycke Historic van de Geheele Werelt, naeme-
lyk vande voorgaende ende Tegenwoordige Eeuwe, Beschreven door den
Eerw. P. Cornelius Hazart, Priester der Societeyt Jesu. 4 vols, folio,
Antwerp, 1667.

[Valuable only for the magnificent portraits it contains of Parsons,
Campion, and others, and for its brilliant engravings.]

JouvENCY. — Historiae Societatis Jesu pars quinta. Tomus posterior
ab anno Christi 1591 ad 1616. Auetore Josepho Juveneio Societatis
ejusdem Sacerdote, Eomae, 1710, folio.

[Jouvency was one of the literary giants of the Society. Professor of
Ehetoric at Paris, he edited Juvenal, Persius, Horace, Terence, the
Metamorphoses of Ovid, and many other works, which have still
a certain value. He was born in 1643, and died at Rome in 1719. His
thirteenth book is occupied with the history of the Jesuits in England,
Scotland, and Ireland, from 1591 to 1616. The most valuable portion
of this book is the Appendix, which gives some curious incidents in the
lives of some Jesuits who *'. . . post graves serumnas in Anglise toleratas,
pie placideque mortui, ab anno 1591 ad 1616."]

More, Henry. — Historia Missionis Anglicange Societatis Jesu, ab anno
salutis MDLXXx ad [m] dcxix, et Vice Provinciaa primum, tum Provincise ad
eiusdem sseculi annum xxxv. Collectore Henrico Moro, eiusdem
societatis sacerdote. Andomari : typis Thomee Gevbels, mdclx.

[Father Henry More was a great-grandson of Sir Thomas More, the
Chancellor. He was for some years chaplain to Lord Petre ; was
"Minister]" of the College at Valladolid in 1615; came to England
about 1620 ; became Provincial in 1635, and continued to reside in
England till 1649. Of all the works which treat of the history of
the labours of the Jesuits in England down to the year 1635, Father
More's is by far the most valuable, and unfortunately one of the
rarest.]

MuNoz. — Vida y Virtvdes de la Venerable Virgen Dona Luisa de
Carvajal y Mendo^a. Su Jornada a Inglaterra, y sucessos en aquel
Reyno. Van al fin Algvnas Poesias espirituales suyas, parto de su
devoeion, y ingenio. Al Rey Nuestro Senor por el Licenciado Luis
Muiioz. Con Privilegio, En Madrid, En la Imprenta Real, 1632.

A NORFOLK HOUSE 23

[The following is sometimes bound up with Munoz' Vida, as in
my copy.]

Copia de una Carta, Que el Padre Francisco de Peralta de la
Compania de Jesus, Kector del Collegio de los Ingleses, de Sevilla.
Escriuio al Padre Kodrigo de Cabredo, Provincial de la Nueua Espaiia.
En que se da quenta, De la dischosa muerte que tiiuo en Londres la
sancta sehora dona Luysa de Caruajal. Y algunas cosas de las muchas,
que por su medio Dios nuestro Senor ohrd En Inglaterra, en nueue anos
que estiiuo en aquel Reyno. Y de las honras Que se le hizieron, en
la yglesia de San Gregorio Magno, Apostol de Inglaterra : En el Collegio
Ingles de Seuilla, en 11 de Mayo, de 1614.

Nichols. — A Declaration of the Kecantation of John Nichols (for the
space almost of two yeeres the Pope's Scholar in the English Seminarie
or Colledge at Rome), which desireth to be reconciled and received as a
Member into the true Church of Christ in England. London, 1581.

[Parsons answered this book in his " Discoverie of J. Nichols,
Minister, misreported a Jesuite, lately recanted in the Tower of London
... by John Howlett." 8vo, Douai. Dudley Fenner answered
Parsons.

Oliver. — Collections towards illustrating the Biography of the Scotch,
English, and Irish Members, S. J. Exeter, 1838.

Parsons, Egbert. — Elizabethas Regina3 Anglias Edictum promulgatum
Londini 29 Novemb. Anni mdxci Andrece Philopatri ad idem Responsio.
8vo., pp. 361.

[Doubtful whether published at Paris or Rome.]

The Judgment of a Catholic Englishman living in banishment

for his religion, showing the Oath of Allegiance to be unlawful. St.
Omers, 4to, 1608.

A Conference about the next succession of the Crowne of

England, divided into two Partes. Published by R. Doleman. Imprinted
at N., with License, 1594, 12mo.

[The object of the book was to support the title of the Infanta against
that of James I. It was made High Treason to possess a copy of
this book. Copies with the folding genealogical table are very rare.]

Anon. [Attributed to Father Parsons.] De Persecutione

Anglicana Commentariolus, A Collegio Anglicano Romano, hoc anno
Domini 1582, in urbe editus, et iam denuo Ingoldstadii exeussus.
Additis Literis S. D. N. D. Gregorii Papas XIII. hortatoriis ad subveni-
endum Anglis, &c. Ex officina Weissenhorniana apud Wolffgangum
Ederum, Anno eodem.

[The Roman edition I have not seen, but I believe this one contains
all to be found therein, and the Papal Letters besides. Another edition
was published at Paris the same year, " Apud Thomam Brumennium."
This tract is comprehended in Bridgewater's Concertatio, Part I.]

24 ONE GENERATION OF

Ancni. [Parsons.] Historia del Glorioso Martirio di Sedici

Sacerdoti Martirizati in Inghilterra per la cofessione & difesa della fede
Catolica, I'anno 1581, 1582, & 1583. Con una prefatione che dichiara
la loro innocenza. Composta da quelli, che son essi praticauano mentre
erano vivi & si trouorno presenti al lor giuditio & morte ... In Milano

. . 1584.

[Another edition of this was published next year, "In Macerata,
Apresso Sebastiano Martellini," with considerable additions— e.^., the
account of William Hart is nearly twice as long, and the narrative
of George Hadock's execution is given for the first time.]

[Parsons.] A Brief e Apologie and Defence of the Catholike

Ecclesiastical Hierarchic, and Subordination in England, erected
these later yeares by our Holy Father Pope Clement the Eighth : and
impugned by certaine libels printed and published of late both in Latin
and English ; by some unquiet persons under the name of Priests of the
Seminaries. Written and set forthe for the true information and stay
of all good Catholikes, by Priestes united in due subordination to the
Right Reverend Archpriest, and other their Superiors. [1601.] Sine
loco aut anno, 12mo.

Possoz. — Vie du Pere Henri Walpole, mort pour la Foi en Angleterre
sous Elizabeth. Par le R. P. Alexis Possoz de la Compagnie de Jesus,
Casterman, Tournai, 1869.

Rainoldes. — The Somme of the Conference between John Rainoldes
and John Hart : touching the Head and Faith of the Church. * * *
London, 1609.

[John Hart has been the puzzle of friends and foes for three hundred
years : he was one of Campion's associates ; condemned to death
in 1581, and pardoned for some reason shortly after. This conference
was not published till twenty-eight years after it took place, and in
the meantime Hart had returned to his Jesuit friends, and been received
apparently without any suspicion. There is much about him in
Simpson's Campion.]

RiBADENEYRA. Historia Ecclesiastica del scisma del Reyno de Ingla-
terra Recogida de diversos y graues Autores, por el Padre Pedro di
Ribadeneyra, de la Compauia de Jesus. En Emberes, 1588.

Sanders, Nic. — Nicolai Sanderi de Origine ac Progressu Schismatis
Anglicani Libri tres . . . OlivsB, 1690.

[This edition contains a Diary kept in the Tower, from 1580 to 1585,
by Edmund Rishton the editor, which, though short and meagre,
contains some curious information.]

SiMPLON. — Edmund Campion : a biography by Richard Simpson.
Williams and Norgate, 8vo, 1867.

[Beyond comparison the most important contribution which has yet

A NORFOLK HOUSE 25

appeared to the knowledge of the history of the Jesuit Mission to England
in 1580.]

Slingsby. — The Lady Falkland : her Life, from a MS. in the Imperial
Archives at Lille. Also a memoir of Father Francis Slingsby, from MSS.
in the Koyal Library, Brussels. London, Dolman, 1861.

[This work was printed from a transcript of the original MS. made by
Mr. Richard Simpson.]

Smith, Richaed. — Vita piissimse ac Illustrissimas Dominse Mafjdalence
Montis-Aucti in Anglia Vice-ComitissiEe : Scripta per Richardum
Smitheum Lincolniensem, Saerse Theologias Doctorem, qui illi erat a
sacris confessionibus. Ad Edwardum Farnesium, S. R. E. Card.
Illustrissimum, et Angliae Protectorem. S. loc. et ann. 16mo.

[I have seen it stated that this curious and precious little book was
printed at Rome. Lady Montagu died in 1608. Her house was called
"Little Rome" ; it was the resort of priests during the whole of Queen
Elizabeth's reign, the peers' houses being still privileged. The account
given of the domestic arrangements and the religious life in this house is
most curious and almost unique.]

Stapleton, Thomas. — Apologia pro Rege Catholico Phillippo II.
Hispanise et C£et : Rege. Contra varias et falsas accusationis Elizabethse
Anglise Reginse. Per Edictum suum 18 Octobris Richemundige datum,
et 20 Novembris Londini promulgatum, publicatas et excusatas . . .
Authore Didymo Veridico Henfildano. Constantisa apud Theodorum
Samium. 12mo, 1592.

[The title, Henfildanus, refers to his being born at Henfield in Sussex.
This is the fiercest and most powerful attack upon Queen Elizabeth
which was ever written. Nothing that has ever appeared from the pens
of the Jesuits — and Stapleton was not a Jesuit — can be compared to it
in eloquence, earnestness, and force ; moreover, it is singularly free from
the vulgar scurrility which only too often characterises such attacks.
Stapleton was, perhaps, a greater less to the Church of England than he
was a gain to the Church of Rome, but the same may be said of many of
the exiles.]

Tanner. — Societas Jesu usque ad Sanguinis et vitas profusionem
militans . . . Sive Vita et mors eorum qui ex Societate Jesu in causa
Fidei et Virtutis propugnatse, violenta morte toto orbi sublati sunt,
Auctore R.P. Matthia Tannero, S.J. . . . Pragee, 1675, folio.

[The book is remarkable for the illustrations, many of them of great
merit, but ghastly enough to awaken horror rather than pleasure. Perfect
copies are very scarce, as it has been a practice to cut out the plates and
sell them as edifying pictures for the faithful. I have seldom had the
opportunity of consulting the original Latin edition, and have been com-
pelled to content myself with a German translation, published also at
Prague, in folio, 1683 : in this the plates are much worn. This work

26 ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE

must not be confounded with another work (also in folio) of the same
author, published in 1694, " Societas Jesu Apostolorum Imitatrix."
The plates alone, without note or comment, of this work were published
in 4to, under the title " Societas Jesu usque ad sudorem et mortem pro
salute proximi laborans," without date, by the University of Prague,
probably the same year as the original work. The copy in my possession
is the only one I have ever seen.]

Verstegan. — Theatrum Crudelitatum haereticorum nostri Temporis.
Antver-picB, 1587, 4to.

[Ant. k Wood gives a long and curious account of Verstegan : he was
for many years the chief instrument for carrying on communication
between the English exiles in Belgium and their friends at home. The
Fathers of the London Oratory intend, I believe, to publish a collection of
his letters at some future time. In this work, which is one of very
great rarity, there are eight plates of the sufferings of the Catholics
during Elizabeth's reign.]

Watson, William. — A Decacordon of Ten Quodlibeticall Questions
concerning Religion and State : Wherein the Authour framing himself a
Quilibet to every Quodlibet, decides an hundred crosse Interrogatorie
Doubts, about the generall Contentions betwixt the Seminarie Priests and
the Jesuits at this present. Newly imprinted 1602, 4to.

[The book contains a great deal of curious information, more or less
true. On Watson's plot against James I. (for it was his) see Gardiner's
History of England, 1603-1616, vol. i. p. 81. He was hung for High
Treason, December 1603. There is a long and curious letter of his in
Goodman's Court of King James, vol. ii. pp. 59-87.]

A Sparing Discovery of our English Jesuits, and of Father

Parsons' Proceedings under Pretence of Promoting the Catholic Faith in
England. 4to, 1601.

[No place. A very unsparing attack upon the Jesuits by one of the
Secular Priests, who were opposed to the influence of the Society.]

A Dialogue betwixt a Secular Priest and a Lay Gentleman,

Concerning some points objected by the Jesuiticall faction against such
Secular Priests as have showed their dislike of 31. Blackwell and the
Jesuits' proceedings. Printed at Rhemes, 1601, 4to.

Yepez. — Historia Particular de la Persecucion de Inglaterra, y de los
martirios mas insignes que en ella ha auido, desde el ano del Seuor,
1570. En la Qval se Descubren los efectos lastimosos de la heregia, y las
mudan^as que suele causar en las Republicas : con muchas cosas
curiosas, y no publicadas hasta aora, sacados de Autores graves.
Recogida Por el Padre Fray Diego de Yepes, de la Orden de S. Geronimo,
Confessor del Rey don Felipe IL de gloriosa memoria, Obispo de
Tara^ona. Dirigida Al rey don Felipe III. Nuestro Senor. En
Madrid, Por Luis Sanchez Aiio mdxcix. 4to.

ONE GENERATION OF A
NORFOLK HOUSE

INTRODUCTOEY

On the 17th of November, 1558, as the first grey dawn
was gaining upon the darkness of the night, Mary Tudor,
Queen of England, ceased to breathe. Two days later
Reginald Pole, Cardinal and Legate of the Holy See,
Archbishop of Canterbury, and the last Englishman who is
known to have been a candidate for the Papacy, died at his
palace at Lambeth : Sovereign and Primate receiving the
last rites of the Church according to the ritual of the See of
Rome. And thus — as Mr. Froude puts the matter — " the
reign of the Pope in England and the reign of terror closed
together."

" The reign of the Pope in England " certainly did close
then, and closed for ever. Whether ''the reign of terror "
ended is another question, the answer to which is not to be
given hastily. Among those best qualified to decide, some
put that question from them as one too much surrounded
with shameful associations to admit of being answered
pleasantly, and some reply to it with indignant and
passionate denial.

We are apt to say that in our days events follow one
another with unexampled rapidity. We affirm, not without
a touch of self-complacency, that " we live fast." Fifty
years have seen the passing of the Reform Bill, the
Emancipation of the Slaves, the Repeal of the Corn Laws,
the Disestablishment of the Irish Church, and the annulling
of a host of statutes that were a reproach upon our legis-
lation. But it may be doubted whether any twenty years

28 ONE GENERATION OF

since the Peace of Amiens — fruitful as they may have
been in measures exercising a profound influence upon our
daily lives and habits of thought — can be compared, in the
tremendous consequences they involved, with the twenty
years which closed with the death of Queen Mary.

By a single act of the Legislature — we may almost say
by a single sweep of the King's pen — at least a twentieth
part of the best land in England had been made to change
hands. ^ Upwards of six hundred religious houses in
England and Wales alone were given over to pillage ; ^ the
dwellers in precincts once held sacred, counting, it must be
remembered, by thousands, were turned adrift to live as
they could, scantily pensioned, and sometimes exposed to
actual penury and want. 3 Hundreds of men, gentlemen
by birth and education, 4 with the student's tastes and the
student's retiring habits, whose lives had been spent in
harmless, if unprofitable, seclusion — not seldom, too, spent
in acts of piety and devotion — found themselves cast out,
homeless and strange, to become suddenly the scorn and
derision of the fickle mob or the coarse and brutal fanatics
who were now let loose upon them.

The vulgar time-servers of the monasteries, the men
whose god was their belly, easily accommodated themselves
to the change ; they were soon absorbed in the multitude
with whom their sympathies lay, and, being of the earth
earthy, had lost but little, perhaps had gained something on
the whole. But it was precisely the best and most devout,
the purest and gentlest spirits, upon whom the full force of
the blow fell. The hypocrites could take care of them-
selves ; the religious and conscientious men were the real
sufferers. These, clinging still to their monastic dress (for
they held themselves still bound by their vows), were
assailed by jeers and insults wherever they appeared ;5 in
the streets they were hooted at and stoned, the ribald
clamour growing to such a height that at last a special
proclamation was issued to restrain the violence of the
disorderly. Meanwhile the vast estates so rudely con-
fiscated were tossed about almost at random. Upstarts,

A NORFOLK HOUSE 29

enriched by spoils that surpassed their wildest dreams,
played the part of gamblers : the chances of the cards had
brought them wealth, but not the power to use it wisely.
Sometimes a creature of the Court would get a grant of
lands which he had neither the means to cultivate nor
even the funds to pay for the expense of entering upon.
The market was glutted with estates that were to be had
for a song. But while the lawyers throve and made
colossal fortunes, the recklessness of the gambling-table
clung to the adventurers who seemed to be clutching their
gains. What came lightly went as lightly. Hungry Italians
or notorious profligates grasped manor after manor only to
let them slip : the booty seemed to the vultures about the
Court inexhaustible, yet it came to an end. ^

In 1536 the smaller monasteries were suppressed ; in
1539 the larger ones shared the same fate ; nine years
later followed the dissolution of the chantries, collegiate
churches, and hospitals, to the number of nearly three
thousand more ; ^ and two years later, as though this were
not enough, the churches were stripped of their vestments,
chalices, ornaments, and bells, and the very college libraries
plundered of the jewelled binding of their books, if any such
remained for the spoiler.

Henry VIII. died in January 1547, King Edward in
July 1553. The utter break-up of the ancient ecclesiastical
institutions of the kingdom had taken barely seventeen
years. The overwhelming character of the revolution is
even now diJQ&cult to realise, impossible adequately to
describe ; the shock which the moral sentiment of the
nation experienced has never yet been duly appreciated : its
effect upon the religious tone and habits of the people can
hardly be exaggerated. The ordinary restraints of religion
had been suddenly and violently torn away ; the clerical
police was disarmed ; the pulpits silent ; the universities
menaced, and warned that their time was coming next ;
learning and literature were smitten as with palsy ; thought-
ful men looked out upon the future with dismay, almost
with despair. ^ Such was the state of affairs in England

30 ONE GENERATION OF

when Queen Mary ascended the throne. Less than a
month before, she had been declared illegitimate and
incapable of succeeding to the crown by letters patent, the
draught of which her brother had prepared with his own
hand.* At the moment when Edw^ard breathed his last,
her life was believed to be in imminent peril; and no
sooner did the tidings of his decease reach her at Hunsdon,
in Herts, than she fled as fast as relays of horses could
carry her, and rode night and day without halt for a
hundred miles, to Kenninghall, twenty miles from Norwich,
a castle of the Howards.! Three weeks more and she is
riding into London as Queen ; her sister Elizabeth, escorted
by two thousand horse and a retinue of ladies, waiting to
receive her outside the gates. | Three days after Mass was
sung by Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, in the chapel of
the Tower ; and in another month, to the joy of three-
fourths of the people, the Catholic ritual was generally
restored throughout the land.

Kecklessly as the confiscated property of the monasteries
had been flung about, some still remained undistributed.
In the third year of her reign Mary determined to make
such restitution as; was still possible. In October 1555 a
Bill was laid before Parliament to authorise the surrender
of all the abbey lands remaining in the possession of the
Crown. All rectories, impropriations, and ecclesiastical
possessions were resigned, the total annual revenue,
amounting to not less than £60,000, being set apart for the

* Froude, v. p. 500 et seq. There are some important letters, etc., on
this chapter in our history among the Losely MSS. , which have not yet
been printed. See Hist. MSS. Commission, 7th Report, p. 609.

t Ibid. vi. 82 and 310.

J "... . queen Marie's grace came to London the 3 daye of August,
beinge broughte in with her nobles very honorably & strongly. The
nomber of velvet coats that did ride before hir, as well strangeres as otheres,
was 740, and the nomber of ladyes and gentlemen that followede was
180. The Earle of Arundell did ride next before hir bearinge the sworde
in his hande, and Sir Anthony Browne did beare up hir trayne. The
ladye Elizabethe did followe hir next, and after hir the Lord marques of
Exeter's wyfe.'' — The Chronicles of Queen Jane (Camden Society, 1850),
p. 14.

A NORFOLK HOUSE 31

augmentation of small livings, the maintenance of preachers,
and the providing exhibitions for poor scholars at
the two Universities .9 By the same Act the Statute of
Mortmain v^as suspended for twenty-one years, that all
who were so inclined might have the opportunity of making
some amends for the wholesale spoliation that had been
carried on. Nor was this all : a beginning was actually
made in the direction of restoring the monastic bodies.
Once again an abbot of Westminster ruled in the venerable
cloister over a score or so of Benedictine monks collected
under his crozier ; once again Dominican friars were settled
at Smithfield, and Observant friars at Greenwich; and
nuns of the order of St. Bridget were summoned to take
possession of their old home at Sion.^°

The legislation of the past few years had been so
violent and so sweeping that only the most passionate and
thoroughgoing reformers could keep pace with it. With
the accession of Mary a reaction set in the force of which
none could estimate. There can be no doubt that the bulk
of the nation witnessed the return of the old ritual with
unmixed thankfulness and joy." What course events
might have taken but for that miserable Spanish marriage
it is idle now to speculate upon ; it is certain that as yet
the doctrines of the Eeformers had made very little im-
pression indeed upon the religious convictions of the people
of England. Very soon a cry of discontent and bitter
hostility was raised. From over the sea, in the refuge at
Geneva, book after book came forth filled with furious
denunciations of the new Queen. John Knox, Goodman,
Becon, Ponet, Traheron, and many another whose name
has gone down into silence, shrieked at her in language
which for coarseness and scurrility stands unparalleled in
literature. She was a bastard ;* she was a woman, and so

* Even Ridley had not scrupled to proclaim this at Paul's Cross.
*'.... the nexte Sonday after .[July 1553] prechyd the Bysshoppe of
London, Nicholas Reddeele, and there callyd bothe the sayde ladys
[Mary and Elizabeth] bastarddes, that alle the pepull were sore
anoyd with his worddes, so uncherytabulle spokyne by hym in so opyne
ane awdiens." — Chronicle of the Grey Friars, p. 78.

32 ONE GENERATION OF

unfit to reign ; she was Jezebel ; she was Athahah ; she
was " this ungodUe serpent Marie, the chief instrument
of all this present miserie in England." Volume and
pamphlet and broadsheet came pouring forth in a never-
ceasing stream. Every resource of furious rhetoric was
exhausted, the polemics goading one another on to the
wildest frenzy of hatred and disappointed rage. ^^^ Safe in
their Swiss asylum, they had nothing to fear for themselves,
nothing to lose and everything to gain by fomenting dis-
content and sedition at home.

Irritated by the hornets' nest which she could not reach,
and perplexed in the maze of questions which she could not
solve ; her life one long dreary disappointment ; in her
childhood sickly and ailing ; in her girlhood a forlorn and
anxious recluse ; in her womanhood a neglected and forsaken
wife, the unhappy Queen sought for comfort, vainly, in
the dark and morose fanaticism of her French and Spanish
directors, and the stern persecution took its course which
slander and malice and vituperation had done much to
provoke, and which her own religious melancholy aggravated.

Over that deplorable chapter in Queen Mary's history the
most faithful apologists of the Church of Kome must needs
be content to cast a veil."^' And God forbid that any
Christian man should seek to excuse or palliate the
enormities of that terrible time, or should look back upon
them with any other feeling than horror. Neverthe-
less, this fact has been passed over quite too lightly by
Protestant writers — viz., that religious persecution was no
novelty on the one side or the other, that the Beformers'
hands were deeply stained in the blood of the Anabaptists,
and that a restless and malignant band of malcontents, from
their hiding-places beyond the seas, were from the very
first stirring heaven and earth to make the Queen's crown
a crown of thorns upon her brow. This uncompromising

* " The foulest blot on the character of this queen is her Ipng and
cruel persecution of the Keformers. The sufferings of the victims
naturally begot an antipathy to the woman by whose authority they
were inflicted." — Lingard, v. 259.

A NORFOLK HOUSE 33

faction, whose one and only bond of union was their com-
munity in hatred of their sovereign, stood to her precisely
in the same attitude as that adopted subsequently by the
Seminarists to her successor. They differed only in this,
that the Protestants had no discipline, no great unity of
principle, no grand unselfish aim. As a rule they were
eminently plebeian ; socially they belonged to a rank
several grades lower than that of the men who in the next
generation filled the Colleges of Rheims, Valladolid, and
Douay : '3 but in their restless activity in plotting and
slandering they were more than a match for their Romish
successors ; and whatever excuse may be found for the per-
secution of Elizabeth in the fierce attacks o£ Parsons and his
fellows, is fairly to be allowed for the atrocities of Mary's
reign in the abominable scurrilities of Becon and Knox.

Meanwhile, in these years which intervened between the
suppression of the monasteries and the accession of Mary,
the condition of affairs in the Church of England was
beyond measure deplorable. Parsonages were bestowed
upon grooms and menials, a share of the income being
reserved for the patron of the benefice ; the curates were
the scorn of their parishioners, and the "rude lobs of the
country " jeered at the illiterate " lack-Latins who slubbered
up their services, and could not read the humbles. "^4

In the country parishes the eye was greeted at every
turn by gaunt stone walls crumbling to ruin, sumptuous
buildings untenanted, shrines ihat were once the treasure-
houses of a district and the resort of thousands of pilgrims
who, in their journeyings, had circulated countless sums
of money among the inhabitants of the district,^5 stripped
bare and plundered to the very lead upon their roofs or
the brasses in their pavements. A chill horror had begun
to haunt the ruined cloisters, and shudderings of a super-
stitious fear, lest the curse should light upon such as
even slept upon the desecrated ground.'^ Men saw, or

. those that enjoyed them did not inhabit or build upon the
lands, but forsook them for many years, till [in] the time of Queen
Elizabeth a great plague happening, the poor people betook themselves

34 ONE GENERATION OF

fancied they saw, with perplexity and amazement that
the spoilers who had seized the bulk of the plunder were
none the richer for their booty.* The old resident county
families were not they whose broad acres were increased
by any share of the abbey lands ; t to them the spolia-
tion was almost an unmixed loss. The prior or abbot of
some neighbouring monastery might be wanting in that
fervent devotion which the monk was theoretically sup-
posed to exhibit, but he was at any rate socially the
country squire's equal, often a man of education and taste,
sometimes too a cadet of a '' knightly family," and even if
addicted to hunting and hawking (not to mention more
reprehensible and immoral pursuits), yet in the main a
genial companion whose society and hospitality made him
an accession in provincial circles, while his undeniable
open-handedness to the poor materially lightened the
burdens which would otherwise have pressed heavily upon
the landlord class. It was all very well for the great nobles
about the court to go on their way as if the dissolution
had never taken place — they saw little or nothing of the
actual working of the mighty change; but in remote dis-
tricts, in villages far away from the towns — villages to
which the abbey loas the town, the gentry were brought
face to face with the tremendous magnitude of the social
revolution that had been effected; and as, in their case,
there had been no change of religious conviction, the
discontent among them was sullen, deep-rooted, and all
but universal.

into the remainder of the houses, and finding many good rooms, began
to settle there, till at length they were put out by them to whom the
grants of the leases and lands were made,"— Spelman, p. 239, ed. 1853.

* Most striking is the parallel in the case of those who had gorged
the plunder levied by Nero upon the old landed gentry of Italy, when
Galba attempted to get back the larger portion of their booty. Tacitus
says: "... At illis vix decimae super portiones erant, isdem erga aliena
sumptibus quibus sua prodegerant, cum rapacissimo cuique ac perdi-
tissimo non agri aut fcenus sed sola instrumenta vitiorura raanerent." —
Tac. Hut. i. c. 20.

t This is abundantly clear by Spelman's lists, &c,

A NORFOLK HOUSE 35

In the dark chimney corner during the long dull winter
evenings, while the Christmas logs were sending up their
lazy smoke, as his children gathered round him and stared
at the fire, many an old squire, still but a little past his
prime, would tell of this or that prior or monk who
used to drop in in the old days and bring some relief to
the monotony of their isolated lives ; he would not seldom
mutter his curse upon the ribald recklessness of the
parvenus who had ousted their betters and made the
grand old places desolate. Sometimes, too, he would sigh
for a priest of the old school, into whose practised ear
he might pour out his soul and seek remission of sins that
pressed sorely upon his burdened conscience. How bitterly
he would mourn for "the good old times," and denounce
the wild havoc that had been wrought ! Generous lads
heard the laments and brooded over them : they got to
believe that their parents' lives had been saddened and
their own estates seriously damaged by that which they
had been taught from childhood to regard as sacrilege,
and the rising generation were in the mood to hope for
little in the future and to regret very much in the past.
About that past, already becoming well-nigh heroic, there
clung a certain romance and mystery which, to the
enthusiasm of youth, it seemed supremely desirable to
revive.

There was yet another reason why the country gentry
should feel soreness and irritation at the new order of
things. "When all has been said that can be said to the
discredit of the " Eegulars," it should never be forgotten
that the whole machinery of education had for centuries
been in their hands. ^^ That education may have been as
meagre and unsatisfactory as the exaggerations of Erasmus
and Reuchlin strove to exhibit it, but such as it was it
was the only education offered. The dissolution of the
monasteries meant the shutting up all the great schools
in the kingdom, and leaving fathers of families to create
their own supply under the pressure of the sudden demand.
The country gentry saw with dismay that the old seminaries

36 ONE GENERATION OF

had been swept away. It was no longer possible to send a
daughter to a neighbouring convent school or a son to the
nearest abbey. The country clergy were as ignorant as
the mechanics from whom, in a vast number of cases, they
had sprung; and though here and there some monk or
friar would be driven to earn his bread by taking service
in the layman's family as private tutor ^7 (and there were
many instances of this), yet the supply of these men fell
off every year, and in the after times the arrangement
exposed the household to serious pains and penalties if any
suspicion attached to the too conscientious retainer.

Mary's accession to the crown was to the '* Country
party " a promise of return to the better way. The abbey
lands were gone — gone irrecoverably (even the Pope and
his legate were compelled to confess so much), but new
endowments might be forthcoming, and in numberless
instances a comparatively small outlay would suffice to
restore the buildings that as yet had scarcely had time to
fall into decay. There seemed some probability, there cer-
tainly was a hope, that a revival would sooner or later
set in. x\t any rate the beaten side could not bring itself
to acquiesce in defeat, and the "logic of facts" was lost
upon it. As yet men had not learned to recognise in the
force of the mighty current which had swept away the
abbeys an outcome from that perennial source of discord,
the antagonism between town and country, — the one,
greedy for change which might bring incalculable profit;
the other, clinging to the past lest it should lose all that
was worth having.

Just when the country gentry began to be sanguine,
Mary died; and before a year had passed their dreams
of a restoration of the "old order" were rudely dispelled.
How the bitter disappointment told upon them ; how the
irritation of blighted hopes drove them to passionate out-
bursts of rage and abortive attempts at rebellion ; how
the new Queen, with that mighty oligarchy, her council,
tightened the curb, and plunged in the rowels, and laid
on the lash with a heavier hand the more restive and

A NORFOLK HOUSE 37

furious the team became that she was breaking to sub-
mission ; how the townsmen beat the countrymen, and
the traders the squirearchy, and the new men were too
strong for the old houses, — will be illustrated, I trust,
by the narrative in the following pages.

NOTES TO INTRODUCTOEY

1. Page 28. There are few questions more difficult to decide than the
amount of landed property in the hands of the monasteries at the time
of the dissolution. The estimates given by various writers differ as widely
as guesses usually do when they are made without sufficient knowledge
and suggested by violent prejudice. The estimate adopted in the text is
that of Hume, who certainly had no predilections in favour of the monks :
he came to the conclusion that the aggregate of all the ecclesiastical
property in the kingdom at the date of the suppression yielded one-tenth of
the national rental, and that this was about equally divided between the
" secular " clergy and the "regulars." The subject has been very ably
discussed by a writer in the Home and Foreign Review for January, 1864.
He shows conclusively (1) that so far from monastic bodies having
increased in wealth during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, they
had certainly declined ; (2) that the sequestration and suppression of
monasteries had been always going on to a far greater extent than
is commonly believed. No less than 146 Alien Priories were appro-
priated by Henry V. ; 29 of the lesser monasteries were granted
to Cardinal Wolsey alone, and more than half of the monastic foun-
dations which had at some time or other been endowed in Hampshire
had disappeared before 1536. In Scotland, where might was always
stronger than right, the monasteries appear to have been despoiled
according to the caprice of the reigning sovereign, and their estates
dealt with in a peculiarly arbitrary manner. — (See Historical MSS.
Commission, 5th Keport, pp. 647, 648.) As to the fiction in Sprot's
Chronicle, that William the Conqueror divided England into 60,000
knights' fees, and that the clergy held 28,000, and that there were then
45,000 churches in the country, it has been rightly described as " a
mythical estimate which ought never to have been accepted by his-
torians."

See the preface to Tanner's Notitia by Nasmith ; Taylor's Index
Monasticus, Introduction; Lingard, History of England, vi., note E. ;
Collier, Ecclesiastical History, B. 7, c. xv. p. 650. There is a very
suggestive table in Appendix A, p. 138, of Bishop Short's Church History,
giving the number of religious houses founded in each reign since the
Conquest.

2. Page 28. Take the following as one indication among a thousand
of the wholesale character of the spoliation: — "England had been
largely replenished with bell metal, since the dissolution of the monas-
teries ; and vast quantities of it were shipped off for gain. Nor was the
land yet (1547) emptied of it, for now it was thought fit to restrain
the carriage of it abroad ; especially having so near an enemy as
France, that might make use of it for guns against ourselves. Therefore,

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40 ONE GENERATION OF

July 27th, a proclamation was issued out, forbidding the exportation of
that and other provisions, lest the enemy might be supplied, and our own
country and army want." — Strype's MeDiorials, Edw. VI., B. I. c. vi.
845. For the spoils in the shape of jewels and plate, removed from
Walsingham, see Heylin's Hist. Reform, fo. 10.

3. Page 28. " But those that were appointed to pay these poor
men, were suspected to deal hardly with them by making delays, or
receiving bribes and deductions out of the pensions, or fees for writing
receipts ; as it appeared afterwards they did, which occasioned an Act
of Parliament in behalf of these pensioners." — Strype's Memorials , Edw.
VI., B. I. c. XV. fo. 118.

4. Page 28. "The ignorance of the Monks" has, until very lately,
been taken for granted by all popular writers ; and yet that, as a body,
they were less learned than the secular clergy appears on examination to
be almost infinitely improbable : the very contrary might be proved to
demonstration if it were worth while. During the last ten years of
Henry VIII. 's reign the king appointed to twenty- eight bishoprics in
England and Wales. In no less than seventeen cases were the vacancies
supplied by ecclesiastics who had been superiors or members of
monastic bodies. The list of these men {see previous page) is suggestive,
and, as far as I know, has not been given elsewhere.

Of these I have collected the following notices : —

Baklow. *' . . . When he was Bishop of St. David's, laboured for the
disposing of Aberguilly College to Brecknock, whereby provision being
made for learning and knowledge in the Scriptures, the Welsh rude-
ness might have been formed into English civility. ... he wrote
several books against Popery. . . ." — Strype's Memorials, Edward VI.,
B. II. c. xxvi. Concerning his learning and writings, see Wood, Ath.
Ox. i. 365; see too Heylin's Hist. Reform, p. 54.

Bird, "... Educated in theologicals in the house or college of the
Carmelites (he being one of that order) in the University of Oxon,
where making considerable proficiency in his studies ... he wrote and
published Lectures on St. Paul, &c., &c." — Wood, Ath. Ox. i. 288: see
too Strype's Granmer^ B. I. c. xvi. § 61.

BusHE was "well skilled in physic as well as divinity, and wrote
learned books." Wood says "he was numbered among the celebrated
poets of the university," and that he was "noted in his time for
his great learning in divinity and physic." — Ath. Ox. i. 269. [He
was deprived under Queen Mary.]

Chambers graduated both at Oxford and Cambridge. He has been
credited with the revision of the Book of Kevelations in the Bishops'
Bible, but there is some doubt whether truly or not. In either case the

A NORFOLK HOUSE 41

story proves the estimation in which he was held by his contemporaries.
— Cooper, Ath. Cant. i. 142.

HiLSEY " being much addicted from his childhood to learning and
religion, nothing was wanting in his sufficient parents to advance them."
— Ath. Ox. i. 113, where an account of him and his writings may be
found.

HoLBECH was '• a true favourer of the Gospel, and made much use of
in the reforming and settling of the Church."

King. " While he was young, being much addicted to religion and
learning, was made a Cistercian monk .... In Queen Mary's reign
.... he did not care to have anything to do with such that were then
called heretics, and therefore he is commended by posterity for his mild-
ness."— Ath. Ox. ii. 775.

KiTCHiN was the one single Bishop in the kingdom who consented to
take the oath of allegiance to Queen Elizabeth, and to assist at her
coronation.

Perhaps the most memorable instance of a monk becoming a
protestant martyr is that of Bishop Hooper. Who that reads Foxe's
account of him {Acts and Mon. vol. vi. p. 636 et seq.) would suspect
that Hooper was for some years a Cistercian monk at Gloucester ? —
Strype, u.s. ; Stow's Survey, 1633, p. 533.

5. Page 28. Tierney's Dodd, Pt. I. art. iv.

6. Page 29. Spelman, History and Fate of Sacrilege, ch. vi. The
chapter is entitled " The particulars of divers Monasteries in Norfolk,
whereby the late owners since the Dissolution, are extinct or decayed or
overthrown by misfortunes and grievous accidents." Sir Henry Spelman
began to write his book in the year 1612.

7. Page 29. Henry VHI. has sins enough to answer for ; but
if the pillage of " the Terror," as Mr, Green justly calls this period of our
history, had not been followed by the far more sweeping robberies of the
following reign, it is conceivable that no very great harm would
have been done, for sooner or later something lilce a dissolution of
the Monasteries was inevitable ; but the spoliation of the Hospitals was
an almost unmixed evil, and the wholesale destruction of the Colleges,
Chantries, and Free Chapels was vehemently opposed by Cranmer in the
House of Lords. The Hospitals, Chantries, and Free Chapels had
been given to the king by a statute passed in the 27th of Henry
VIH. c. 4, but this had never been put in force, possibly through
Cranmer's intercession. In the 1st of Edward VI. c. 14 they were
again condemned. By this act no fewer than 110 Hospitals, 90
Colleges, and 2,374 Free Chapels "were thus conferred upon the king
by name, but not intended to be kept together for his benefit only."

42 ONE GENERATION OF

— (Heylin.) The "Free Chapels" in many cases appear to have
approximated to what are now Nonconformist places of ivorship ; they
were "free" in the sense that they were exempt from Episcopal
Jurisdiction, and frequently had something like a special ritual.
(Tanner's Notitia, Preface ; Fuller's History of Abbeys ; Taylor's
Index Monasticus, Introduction; Heylin's Hist. Reform. Anno 1547.)
Perhaps the most outrageous and inexcusable robbery of all was the
stripping of the Guilds. It is astonishing that historians have
passed over this shameful measure with so little notice. (See on
this subject Stubbs, Const. Hist. vol. i. c. xi. p. 442 et seq.)
The plunder derived from the ecclesiastical corporations was so
prodigious that it has served to draw off men's attention from the
consequences which the abolition of the Guilds involved. In Taylor's
Index Monasticus there is a list of no fewer than 909 Guilds given over
to the spoilers i7i Norfolk alone. In the very valuable volume of
Ordinances of Early English Guilds, published by the " Early
English Text Society," there are 46 more or less complete Ordinances
of Norfolk Guilds that sent in returns to the King in Council in the
12th year of Richard II. The Guilds were for the most part Benefit
and Burial clubs supported by the subscriptions of the members, and
enriched from time to time by small bequests of their members. At
the meetings of the Guild of St. Christopher at Norwich, a very
beautiful prayer was used, which may be found at page 23 of the
volume referred to. These meetings were almost always of a convivial
character, and legacies are frequently left to furnish a dinner for the
brethren : thus William Walpole, of Great Shelford (in Cambridge-
shire), by his will, dated 20th March, 1500, leaves "To the prefects
of the Gylds in Great Shelford, viz. : — our Lady and Saint Anne to each
of them a Ewe. Item, to the prefect of the Gylde of all Halloweys in
Starston, a Bullock and two quarters Barley." — [Peterborough Register,
Probate Court, E. 6.]

8. Page 29. As I am not writing the history of the spoliations in
the reigns of Henry VIII. and his son, I am unwilling to give chapter
and verse for all the statements made in the text. My readers must
accept my assurance that there is abundance of authority ready at hand
to support any and every assertion put forward. I cannot, however,
resist the temptation to print the following Proclamation, which, as far
as I know, has never yet been referred or alluded to by historians of this
period. It will be news to some of my readers that the earliest Pigeon
Matches on record were shot of in St. PauVs Cathedral !

"A Proclamation for the reformation of quarrels and other like
abuses in the Church.

"The Kings Majy considering that Churches holy Cathedrals and
others which at the beginning were godly instituted for common prayer
for the word of God and the ministration of Sacraments be now of late

A NORFOLK HOUSE 43

time in many places and especially within the city of London irreverently
used and by divers insolent rash persons sundry ways much abused so far
forth that many quarrels riots, frays bloodsheddings have been made in
some of the said Churches besides shootings of hand guns to doves, and
the common bringing of horses and mules in and through the said
churches making the same which were properly appointed to God's
service and common prayer like a stable or common Inn, or rather a den
or sink of all unchristliness to the great dishonour of God, the fear of his
Majesty, [and] disquiet of all such as for the time be then assembled for
common prayer and hearing of God^s word (!)

*' Forasmuch as the insolency of great numbers using the said ill
demeanes doth daily more and more increase, His Highness by the
advice of the Lords and others of his privy council, straitly chargeth and
commandeth that no manner of person or persons of what state or
condition soever he or they be, do from henceforth presume to quarrel,
fray or fight, shoot any hand gun, bring any horse or mule into or
through any cathedral or other church or by any other ways or means
irreverently use the said Churches or any of them upon pain of his
highness' indignation and imprisonment of his or their bodies that so
shall offend against the effect of his present proclamation. . . .

"Edward VI."

Cotton MSS., Titus, B. II. 39.

In the Bishop's Registry at Norwich there is a fragment of a volume of
the Records of the Commission for the trial of causes ecclesiastical, from
which I extract the following curious parallel to the above : —

" ix° die Martii Anno Dfii 1597 coram Rever^o in Chro : patre ae diio :

Willielmo providentia Dei Domino Norvicens Epc6 Ammon de

BissoN comperuit who being charged to have let into the Palace

chapel (where the French people by the said Reverend father his licence
do resort to have divine service) a man having a piece [a gun], who there
did shute to kill pigeons not only to the profaning of the place of prayer,
but also to the endangering of the whole palace by fire and terrifying of
some within the same ; the said Ammon confessed that he had so done,
&c., &c "

9. Page 31. Tierney's Dodd, vol. iii. p. 114 ; Burnet's Reformation,
p. 587.

10. Page 31. Tierney's Dodd ; Heylin's Reformation, p. 236 et seq. ;
Aungier, History and Antiquities of Syon Monastery, p. 96 et seq.

From that curious and very rare book, the Certamen Seraphicum
ProvincicB Anglicc, 4to, Duaci. 1649, it appears clearly that on the re-
establishment of I the order not only were the old monks reinstated, but
great numbers of recruits took the vows. One of these persisted in
retaining the Franciscan habit till his death. He lived the life of a
hermit at Layland in Lancashire, protected by the Earl of Derby. He

44 ONE GENERATION OF

came at last to be regarded as a saint, and was supposed to work cures in
his retreat, not only upon men and women but cattle. He went by the
name of " Father John, the old beggar man," and to the end consistently
refused to touch money, though he lived on the contributions of the
neighbourhood. He died at Layland about 1590, and lies buried near
the north of the chancel porch. — Cert. Seraph, p. 13.

The new foundations of Queen Mary were at once confiscated by Queen
Elizabeth, in the first year of her reign: See Historical MSS.
Commission, 4th Report, App. p. 178 et seq.

11. Page 31. " Meantime the eagerness with which the country
generally availed itself of the permission to restore the Catholic ritual
proved beyond a doubt that, except in London and a few large towns, the
popular feeling was with the queen," — Froude, c. 30, vol. vi. p. 83. See
too Maitland's Essays on the Reformation, Essays viii. and ix.

12. Page 32. Goodman quoted by Maitland, Essays on the Reforma-
tion, p. 138.

PoNET was actually " engaged as a leader, if not as an original plotter
and instigator, in Sir Thomas Wyatt's insurrection," and narrowly
escaped being taken with Sir Thomas on the 7th February, 1554.
Maitland {u.s. p. 93) gives in his text the passage from Stow which
details the circumstances.

Goodman too was implicated in the same rebellion.

Traheron's foul language is like the ravings of a filthy madman. See
Maitland, p. 84. What must that passage be like which "is so gross
that it must be omitted ' ' ? One is tempted to think that nothing
could be worse than the previous paragraph.

All these men were deeply implicated in the treasonable plots of
Mary's reign.

IB. Page 33. Simpson's Campion, p. 46, and Allen's Apology for
Seminary Priests, there referred to.

14. Page 33. Slrype apud Tytler, England under the Reigns of Edward
VI. and Mary, vol. i. p. 322. See too Bacon's Preface to The News out of
Heaven, p. 5 (Parker Society). "Your wisdoms see what a sort of
unmeet men labour daily to run headlong into the ministry, pretending
a very hot zeal, but altogether without necessary knowledge. . . . The
smith giveth over his hammer and stithy ; the tailor his sheers and
metewand ; the shoemaker his malle and thread ; the carpenter his bill
and chip-axe . . . and so forth of like states and degrees ... so that
now not without a cause the honourable state of the most honourable
ministry, through these beastly belly-gods and lazy lubbers, is greatly
defamed, evil spoken of, contemned, despised, and utterly set at
nought. ..."

A NORFOLK HOUSE 45

15. Page 33. See Statutes of the Realm, 35 Henry VIII. e. 13.—

" The King's Imperial Majesty, most benignly calling to his gracious
remembrance that his town of Little Walsingham, otherwise called
New Walsingham, which heretofore, as well through the great and
continual trade of all manner of merchandise in times past then used
and practised, as also by and through the populous concourse and resort
of his people from all parts of this Realm in times past within the said
Town freqxientcd and continued, was grown and commen to be very
populous and wealthy and beautifully builded, is at this present by the
great decay and withdrawing of the said trades and merchandise there,
and by divers other sundry occasions of late happened, like to fall to utter
ruin and to he barren, desolate, and unpeopled. . . djc.''

16. Page 35. See the very valuable Preface to the Bdbee^s Book,
by Mr. Furnival, "Early English Text Society," 1868.

17. Page 36. I give the following instances, from a host that might
be adduced, because I suspect that the Thomas Woodhouse here named
was a cadet of the Kimberley family ; and because Kalph Crockett was
for some time engaged as a private tutor in Norfolk. The title " Sir "
(Sir Thomas Woodhouse) was the ordinary designation of a parish
priest.

"Sir Thos. Woodhouse was made priest in the time of Queen Mary, a
little before her death, and presented to a parsonage in Lincolnshire,
which he enjoyed not a whole year, by reason of the change of religion
which he could not be contented to follow ; wherefore, leaving his living,
he went into Wales, where for a while, in a gentleman's house, he taught
his sons, but could not continue there unless he would dissemble his
conscience. He left that place, and within a while was taken and sent
prisoner to the Fleet in London, &c. &c." — Stonyhurst MSS., Angl.,

A, vol. i.

•' Ralph Crockett examined, saith he was first brought up in Christ's
College in Cambridge, where he continued about three years , . . from
thence he went to Tibnam Longrowe in Norfolk, where he taught
children a year or more, &c. cfec." — P.R.O., Domestic MSS., Eliz.,
No. 214.

Crockett was hung at Chichester, in Sept. 1588 ; Woodhouse, at
Tyburn, 19 June, 1573. Add to these—

" George Lingam. . . . The said Lingam harboured and lodged at
one Mr. Wiltcot's, at Englefield . . . and under colour of teaching the
Virginals, goeth from Papist to Papist : is thought also to be a priest, so
made in Queen Mary's time, and like to be the man that was kept in the
top of the said Parkyns' house at a time when her majesty was but ill
served by her officers in a search there made." — Cotton MSS., Titus,

B. III. 63.

CHAPTEK I

THE WALPOLES OP HOUGHTON

The family of Walpole has been settled in the county
of Norfolk for at least six hundred years. Whether any
faith is to be placed in the tradition which tells of an
ancient charter bestowed upon some remote ancestor by
Edward ; whether there be Norman blood in their veins ; ^
whether the founder of the house were some adherent
of the Conqueror who, after the revolt of the Fenmen
in 1070, received a grant of lands for his services in that
dreary but fertile district through which the Ouse finds
its way sluggishly into the Wash, and where Hereward
the Englishman made his last gallant stand ; ^ — are
questions which must for ever remain unanswered. Cer-
tain it is that under the Plantagenets the ancestors of
this ancient Norfolk family were seated at Walpole St.
Peter's, where they had a manor and lands, which they
retained in their possession as late as the year 1797,
when an Act of Parliament compelled them to sell both
the one and the other, after the decision of the great
Houghton lawsuit.

They appear to have migrated from Marshland in the
reign of Henry II., 3 and to have taken up their residence
at Houghton, where Sir Henry de Walpole held one
knight's fee of the fee of Blaumister, and the fourth part
of a knight's fee of the Honour of Wermegay ; and in
the reign of King John either he or another Henry de
Walpole occurs as one of those who paid a fine of £100
for release from prison, on giving security for his allegiance
to the king in time to come. A Sir Henry de Walpole,

ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE 47

Kt., had a mansion at Ely in 1272.* Another of the name
figures as a supporter of Simon de Montfort in the barons'
war, and as taking a leading part in the rebellion; while
in the thirteenth century the Walpoles, then a " knightly
family," appear on more than one occasion to have held
ofi&ce in the royal Court. Throughout this century, too,
they are conspicuous as ecclesiastics.4 Edmund de Walpole
was Abbot of St. Edmund's Bury from 1247 to 1256,
at a time when, s thanks to the genius and administrative
ability of Abbot Sampson, St. Edmund's was one of the
most wealthy and important abbeys in England ; and
Eadulphus de Walpole was successively Bishop of Norwich
and Ely from 1288 to 1302, his tomb being conspicuous
in the cathedral of the latter see, standing before the
high altar of the church at the present day. In 1335
Simon de Walpole was Chancellor of the University of
Cambridge,^ about the same time that his kinsman, Sir
Henry de Walpole, was returned as one of the Knights
of the Shire to serve in the Parliament summoned to
meet at York in the 7th year of Edward III. All through
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the Subsidy Rolls,
which still exist in the Record Office, show the Walpoles to
have been residing at Houghton, and to have been men
of substance and influence in the Hundreds of Smethdon,
Freebridge, North Greenhow, and Brothercross ; their
manor of Houghton being handed down from father to
son, and their possessions gradually increasing as time
went on. Two members of the family 7 appear to have
attained to eminence as judges in the reigns of Edward III.
and Richard II., one of them being even Chancellor, if,
as seems highly probable, Mr. Rye's conjecture regarding
Adam de Houghton be founded on fact.

An offshoot of the Norfolk family became early estab-
lished in Lincolnshire ; and the Walpoles of Pinchbeck
were for centuries one of the leading families in the county :
another branch acquired lands in Suffolk, the Walpoles
of Brockley being seated there from the time of Edward I.
* Historical MSS. Commission, 6th Report, p. 290&.

48 ONE GENERATION OF

Thomas Walpole of = Joan Cobbe.
Houghton, died 1514.

Edwabd W. of =Lucy Eobsart. Henky W. of =Margaret Holtoft.

Houghton, died 1559. I Herpley, died 1554.

-^ John W. of =Catherine John W. of = Catherine Cheistopher W.

Houghton, Calibut. Herpley, Serjt.- Knyvet. of Docking

d. 1588. at-law, d. 1558. and Anmer.

I I

— Edward W. b. 1560. William W. b. 1543. Henry W. b. 1558

down to the end of the fifteenth century ; ^ and I meet
with three generations of them as owners of considerable
estates and a capital mansion called Walpole's Place in
Cambridgeshire, where they were evidently the chief land-
owners in Great Shelford and the contiguous parishes.9

On the 24th January, 1513-14,^° Thomas Walpole of
Houghton, Esq., was gathered to his fathers. He left
behind him two sons, and divided his estates between
them ; the manors descended to Edward, the elder son ;
the outlying lands were left to Henry, the second ; who,
though his Lincolnshire estates were larger than those
in Norfolk, appears to have resided at Herpley, where
he died in 1554.

It is with the grandsons of these two men that the
present work is chiefly concerned.

Edward, the elder son, had taken to wife Lucy, daughter
of Sir Terry Eobsart of Siderston, a parish contiguous
to Houghton, and with her appears to have obtained a
sufficient marriage portion. Sir Terry Eobsart had only
one other child, John, or, as he is usually called, Sir
John Eobsart," who twice served the office of High Sheriff
for his native county. Sir John Eobsart resided at
Stanfield Hall near Wymondham ; and when Dudley, Earl
of Warwick, was sent down to suppress the formidable
rebellion of Kett " the Norfolk Tanner," it seems that
the earl, with his son the Lord Eobert Dudley, passed
the night at Stanfield Hall, and there Lord Eobert,
probably for the first time, saw the beautiful Amy Eobsart,
whom he married on the 4th June of the following year,
the king being present at the ceremony, which was carried

A NORFOLK HOUSE 49

Thomas WAiiPOLK of <=» Joan Cobbe.
Houghton, died 1514. I

Edwabd W. of =Lucy EobBart. Henkt W. of =Margaret Holtoft.

Houghton, died 1559

Herpley, died 1564.

John W. of -Catherine John W. of = Catherine Chbistophbb W .

Houghton. Calibut. Herpley. Serjt.- Knyvet. of Docking

d 1588. at-law, d. 1558. and Anmer.

Edward W. b. 1560. William W. b. 1543. Henbt W. b. 1558.

out with great magnificence. Upon the newly married
pair the Manors of Siderston and Bircham, and other
property, were settled, with remainder, failing issue, to
the right heirs of Sir John ; in other words, if Amy
Eobsart should prove childless, the offspring of Edward
Walpole of Houghton would in right of their mother
inherit the Eobsart property.

Henry Walpole, the younger brother of this Edward,
had married a Lincolnshire heiress, ^^ one Margaret Holtoft
of Whaplode, and with her he came into large and
valuable estates. As an equivalent, his father had settled
upon him a considerable landed property in Herpley,
Rudham, and the adjoining parishes.

Edward Walpole of Houghton, though his wife had been
no portionless damsel, was by no means so rich a man
as his brother ; nevertheless by prudent management he
contrived to increase rather than diminish his resources,
and at his death, in 1559, he was able to make ample
provision for three sons — John, Richard, and Terry.

John, the eldest son, succeeded his father at Houghton
in the first year of Queen Elizabeth. He too had married
well. His wife was Catherine, eldest daughter of William
Calibut of Coxford, Esq., ^3 a man of wealth and substance,
whose ancestors had been for some generations large land-
owners in this part of Norfolk, but, as he had no son,
his inheritance would devolve at his death upon his
daughters. For some time it looked as if the Houghton
estate would pass away to the Herpley Squire, for
daughters only were at first the fruit of the marriage.

50 ONE GENERATION OF

It was not till the beginning of 1560 ^'> that a son appeared.
The child was named after his grandfather, Edward, and
in the following year another son was born, who was
called after his mother's surname, Calibut.

Not many months after the birth of the elder son Amy
Dudley died, and died childless ; and thus, when the year
1560 ends, we have John Walpole of Houghton tenant for
life of the Norfolk and Suffolk manors, owner in fee-simple
of an extensive property in the former county, and heir-at-
law to all the Eobsart estates at the death of Lord Eobert
Dudley, afterwards Earl of Leicester, a man of vigorous
constitution, and not yet thirty years of age. ^5

Meanwhile, as has been said, Henry Walpole of Herpley
had died six years before, leaving behind him three sons,
with two of whom only have we much concern. ^^ His
eldest son had died before his father, leaving, however,
issue who inherited the Lincolnshire estates. The second
son was John Walpole of Herpley, one of the most success-
ful barristers of his time. He was of Gray's Inn, and was
appointed Lent Eeader of that society in the third year
of Edward VI. In the first year of Queen Mary he was
returned M.P. for Lynn ; the next year he was raised to
the degree of Serjeant-at-law, and Dugdale has left us an
account of the magnificent feast which was given at the
Inner Temple on the occasion of his receiving the coif. '7
He was probably the Mr. Walpole appointed to examine
Throgmorton in 1556." It is evident that his practice was
extensive and his income correspondingly large, and as fast
as he made his money he proceeded to buy land in Norfolk,
and especially in his own part of the county. ^^ But while
he was adding manor to manor, and in the midst of a career
which must have led to the highest honours and emolu-
ments of his profession, he was cut off in the prime of life,
leaving behind him an only son, William, a boy of thirteen,
and four daughters, all unmarried and under age.

Christopher Walpole, the Serjeant's younger brother,
and third son of Henry Walpole of Herpley, had been

* Froude, vol. vi. p. 443.

A NORFOLK HOUSE 5*

Thomas WAiiPOLE of = Joan Cobbe.
Houghton, died 1514. I

Edward W. of = Lucy Robsart. Henby W. of = Margaret Holtoft.

Houghton, died 1559. I Herpley, died 1554.

I T~r . ^ I

John W. of«Catherine John W. of = Catherine Chktstopheb W .

Houghton, Calibut. Herpley, Serjt.- Knyvet. of Docking

d. 1588. at-law, d. 1558. and Anmer.

Edward W. b. 1560. William W. b. 1543. Henry W. b. 155F.

amply provided for by his father's will. At the end of
Queen Mary's reign he was settled at Docking Hall, a
house about five miles from Houghton. He had married
Margery, daughter of Eichard Beckham of Narford, and
with her appears to have obtained something like a fortune,
for prudent marriages seem always to have been the
characteristic of the race. A few months after his brother
the Serjeant's death Christopher's first child was born. ^9
The boy was baptized at Docking in October 1558, and
took the name of his grandfather, Henry. This is he who
is the central figure in the narrative of the following pages.

The Docking family was increased by a fresh child almost
every year, and at the close of 1570 it consisted of six sons
and three daughters, one son, John, having died in infancy
ten years before.

The household at Docking had become too large for the
house, and an opportunity having occurred for purchasing
the neighbouring estate of Anmer Hall, ""^ with a large tract
of land in Anmer and Dersingham, Christopher Walpole
removed his family to the new residence in 1575 ; his estate
lying immediately contiguous to his cousin's domain at
Houghton on the one side, and to his nephew's property at
Herpley on the other.

First and last the possessions of the three squires
stretched over a tract covering not much short of fifty
square miles. It was wild heath and scrub for the most
part, where huge flocks of sheep roamed at large ; except
where the "common fields" of arable land and the small
patches of meadow and pasture supplied with cereals and

52 ONE GENERATION OF

fodder the population of villages which were then perhaps
more thickly inhabited than now. The peasantry were
dismally ignorant, timid, and slavish; each man's village
was his world, and he shrank from looking beyond it. The
turf or the brushwood of the parish gave him fuel: the bees
gave him all the sweetness he ever tasted : the sheep-skin
served him for clothing, and its wool, which the women
spun, served for the squire's doublet and hose. The lord of
the manor allowed no corn to be ground save at his own
mill ; and he who was so fortunate as to own some diminu-
tive salt-pan was the rich man of the district. ^^ It is very
difficult for us to throw ourselves back in imagination to a
time when nothing was too insignificant to be made the
subject of a Special bequest. Not only do we meet with
instances of bed and bedding, brass pots, a single silver
spoon, a table, and the smallest household utensils left in
the wills of people of some substance and position ; but old
shoes, swarms of bees, half a bushel of rye, and as small a
sum as sixpence are common legacies even down to the end
of the sixteenth century. The "cottage" of the labourer,
a creature as much tied to the soil as his forefather the
" villein " (who had passed with the land as a chattel when
an estate changed owners), was nothing but a mud hovel
with a few sods for roof, and, as a dwelling, incomparably
less comfortable than the gipsy's tent is in our own days.
The manor-house, on the other hand, small though it were,
exhibited a certain barbaric prodigality. Foreigners were
amazed at the extent of English households, out of all
proportion to the accommodation provided for them. ^^ In
the latter half of Elizabeth's reign the fashion of building
large houses in the country parishes prevailed to a sur-
prising extent, and this, with other causes, hastened the
ruin of many an old county family which had held its
own for generations ; but at her accession the houses of the
landed gentry were very small and unpretending, and their
furniture almost incredibly scanty ; while for the agricul-
tural labouring classes, there were tens of thousands of
them who, as we understand the words, had never in their

A NORFOLK HOUSE 53

Thomas WAiiPOLK of = Joan Cobbe.
Houghton, died 1514.

Edwakd W. of=Lucy Robsart. Henby W. of =Margaret Holtoft.

Houghton, died 1559. I Herpley, died 1554.

John W. of = Catherine John W. of = Catherine Christopher W.

Houghton, Calibut. Herpley, Serjt.- Knyvet. of Docking

d. 15S8. at-law, d. 1558. and Anmer.

I I

Edward W. b. 1560 William W. b. 1543. Henry W. b. 1558.

lives slept in a bed. ^3 Eoads there were none. Fakenham,
the nearest town to Houghton, was nine miles off as the
crow flies, and Lynn was eleven or twelve. As men rode
across the level moors, now and then starting a bustard on
their way, ^4 or scaring some fox or curlew, there was little
to catch the eye save the church towers, which are here
planted somewhat thickly ; but Coxford Abbey, not yet in
ruins — indeed part of it actually at this time inhabited ^s—
and Flitcham Priory, a cell of Walsingham, frowned down
upon the passer-by, — the desolate ghosts of what had been
but twenty years before.

The great man of the family at this time was young
William Walpole, the Serjeant's son and heir, though his
Norfolk cousins could have known but little of him. When
his father was made Serjeant in 1554 ^^ he entered his son
at Gray's Inn, I presume in compliment to the Inn,
although the boy was only in his twelfth year. He had
been left to the guardianship of Thomas Thirlby, Bishop of
Ely, to whom, during the minority, the Manor of Felthams
in Great Massingham was left to defray the charges of his
ward's education ; and though on the accession of Queen
Elizabeth ^7 the wardship was bestowed upon his mother,
and subsequently, on her marriage with Thomas Scarlett,
the Serjeant's friend and one of his executors, was trans-
ferred to him and Eobert Coke, Esq., of Mileham, father of
Sir Edward Coke, afterwards Lord Chief Justice, yet the
provisions of the will were faithfully carried out, and Bishop
Thirlby became de facto guardian, and superintended the
lad's early education according to his father's desire.

54 ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE

Thus, in this district, lying between Fakenham and Ely,
there was no family at the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's
reign at all to be compared with this Walpole clan in the
extent of their possessions and the width of their local
influence and resources. For the young heir of Herpley
any future might be in store, and the family connections
had been extended with great prudence by the marriages
of the daughters with the leading gentry of the country
round — the Cobbes of Sandringham, the Eussels of Rud-
ham, and other substantial squires.

While young William Walpole was away in London, his
mother, with her second husband, kept up the establish-
ment at Herpley, and as the boys at Houghton and Anmer
grew, there must have been almost daily intercourse
between the several households. And now that question,
which had begun to be a very serious one for many a
country gentleman at this time, began to press upon such
men as Christopher and John Walpole — men with eight
sons between them, and doubtless not without ambition
which their prospects or their pride of parentage might
well be supposed to justify. If these growing boys were
to take their place in the world, and make their way
to distinction, — perhaps even follow in the steps of their
uncle the serjeant, and raise the family to all that shadowy
greatness which the traditions of the house were not likely
to diminish, — where and how was their education to be
carried on?

NOTES TO CHAPTER I

1. Page 46. The names of members of the family which occur in
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries indicate a Norman origin, e.g.,
Reginald de Walpole, Henry I. ; Jocelinede Wali^ole, Eichard I. Lemare
de Walpole and Beatrix his wife, about the time of King John, assign
lands to the prior of Lewes, the deed being executed first in St. Nicholas
Chapel, Lynn, and afterwards in the churchyard of Castleacre. — (Blome-
field, viii. 504.) We meet also during this period with the names
Egeline, Claeice, Alan, and Osbert Walpole. See Collins, and
especially Mr. Rye's Paper, " Notes on the Early Pedigree of Walpole
of Houghton," in the Norfolk Antiquarian Miscellany, part i. p. 267 et seq.

2. Page 46. Freeman's Norman Conquest, vol. iv. p. 463 et seq.

3. Page 46. Collins's Peerage, s.v. " Walpole Lord Walpole." It is
evident that Collins had access not only to charters and family docu-
ments which since his time have perished, or at least disappeared, but
that the registers of Houghton and many of the adjoining parishes were
placed at his disposal, and laid under contribution. I suspect that
these latter were never returned to the several churches to which they
belonged : there is an unusual absence of early parish registers within
a radius of five or six miles round Houghton. In every case where I
have had an opportunity of testing his work I have found Collins
scrupulously accurate, and my own researches have only served to
increase my confidence in him as an antiquary and genealogist of a
very high order. Of course the vast wealth of manuscript sources now
open to students at the Record Office and other depositories were not
accessible to inquirers in Collins's days, and I believe the Subsidy Rolls,
which are a rich mine for the genealogist, were not known or even dis-
covered till comparatively lately.

4. Page 47. Rye, u.s. , p. 279.

5. Page 47. See Chronica Jocelini de Brakelonda (Camden Society,
1840). This charming volume is the basis of Mr. Carlyle's Past and
Present.

6. Page 47. Le Neve's Fasti Eccles. Anglic, vol. iii. 598. William
Walpole was elected Prior of Ely some time before 10th August, 1397.

56 ONE GENERATION OF

He was in possession of that office 20th September, 1401 (at which time
the church was visited by Archbishop Arundel) , and resigned soon after.
— Kymer, Foedera, viii. p. 9, quoted in Bentham's History of Ely
Cathedral, 4to, Camb. 1771.

7. Page 47. Rye, u.s. They certainly were both Norfolk men, but
can scarcely have been father and son, as Mr. Foss {Judges, vol. iii.
p. 447, and iv. p. 59) suggests.

8. Page 48. Gage's History of Thingoe Hundred (4to, 1838), pp. 94
and 359; Gardner's History of Duimich (4to, 1754), p. 197.

9. Page 48. See Note 7, page 41.

10. Page 48. For the date, his Inquisition p.m. is the authority. —
Chancery Inq. (P.E.O.) 6° Henry VHI. Norfolk, No. 49.

11. Page 48. In his will he calls himself "John Eobsakt, Esquier."
In the inquisitions taken at Ipswich on the 13th November, and at
Diss in October 1554 he is described as a knight, as he is also in the
contracts entered into between himself and John Earl of Warwick, in
May 1550. He was twice High Sheriff for the counties of Norfolk and
Suffolk, in 1547 and 1551, and bore for arms. Vert, a lion rampant or,
vulned in the shoulder.

The terms of the marriage contract between him and the Earl of
Warwick are curious. The earl settles all that the reversion of his site,
circuit, and precinct of the late Priory of Coxford, and of all
that the manor of Coxford in the county of Norfolk, . . . and of
the rectories and churches of East Rudham, West Rudham, Browns-
THORPE, and Barmer ; and the moiety of the rectory of Barnham,
and also of the manors and farms of East Rudham, West Rudham,
Barmer, Tittleshall, Siderston, Thorpmarket, and Bradfield,
with all their rights ..." being parcell of the Possessions and
Revenues of Thomas, late Duke of Norfolk, of high treason attainted "

. . upon his son Robert Dudley and Amy, daughter of Sir John
RoBSART, and upon their issue, and in default of such issue, upon the
right heirs of Lord Robert. He further settles an immediate annuity of
£50 on Robert and Amy, to be paid out of his manor of Burton Lisle in
the county of Leicester ; such annuity to cease on the death or marriage
of "the lady Mary's grace, sister to y*^ King's Majesty." Besides this
the earl covenants to pay to Sir John Robsart " at the sealing of these
presents " the su7n of two hundred pounds.

Sir John on his part settles the manors of Sidestern and Newton
juxta Bircham in the county of Norfolk, and the manor of Great
Bircham in the said county, and the manor of Bulkham in the county
of Suffolk, " upon himself and his wife, the Lady Elizabth," for life,

^ A NORFOLK HOUSE 57

and after their death upon the Ejaid Robert and Amy and their issue ; in
default of issue the remainder to revert to the right heirs of Sir John,
who covenants moreover to pay an annuity of £20 a year to Robert and
Amy, and at his death to leave them a legacy of " three thousand sheep
to be left in a stock going on the premises in Norfolk and Suffolk
aforesaid." The earl signs and seals on the 25th May, 1550.

Great as the advantages appear to be on the face of these documents,
as conferred by the Earl of Warwick upon his son, they proved in the
issue very small indeed. The attainder upon Thomas, third Duke of
Norfolk, was reversed at the accession of Queen Mary, and his lands
were restored to him. The annuity of £50 ceased at the marriage of
Queen Mary, and Lord Robert and his wife must have been in great
measure dependent upon Sir John Robsart during the whole of Mary's
reign ; for it must be remembered that Warwick (then Duke of North-
umberland) perished on the scaffold on the 22nd August, 1553.

In addition to all that Lord Robert obtained with his wife in the
counties of Norfolk and Suffolk (and the Siderston property alone
amounted to more than four thousand acres, with thirty-six "mes-
suages " and fifteen " cottages ") there was another manor in Shropshire,
Oldbury, which Amy inherited, and the reversion of which John
Walpole of Houghton sold in 1566 to Arthur Robsart, an illegitimate
son of Sir John's, for £S50.— Close Rolls, 8 Elizabeth, No. 706. This
son was living at Oldbury Hall in 1595, and had then been married
for about thirty years to Margaret, relict of Anthony Cocket of Sibton
CO. Suffolk, Esquire. She is described as " nunc uxor Arthuri Robsarte,
gen., de Oulbery Hall alias Blakely Hall, in Com. Salopise." — MS. in the
Bishop^s Registry, Norwich.

The original of the marriage settlement is at Longleat, in the pos-
session of the Marquis of Bath, and appears to have been discovered
there some years ago by the Rev. J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. The grant of
the annuity of £20 by Sir John Robsart is at the Record Office [Miscell.
Augment, vol. vii. 112, Edward VI.), as are the p.m. inquisitions (1 and 2
Philip and Mary, co. Suff. 62, co. Norf. 63). The account of the
marriage of Lord Robert and Amy Robsart is to be found in the Diary
of King Edward VI. in the British Museum.— Co«o?i MSS., No. 110.

12. Page 49. Blomefield, and they who follow him, all assert that she
was a daughter of Gilbert Holtoft, second Baron of the Exchequer,
who died long before she was born. It is quite certain that she was
not descended from the judge at all. I have printed Gilbert Holtoft's
will, in the Original Papers, Norf. and Noriv. Archceol. Soc, vol. viii.
p. 179. He had not an acre of land at Whaplode. On the other hand,
in a Subsidy Roll of the reign of Henry VII. (?) now in the Record
Office, containing the names of persons in the county of Lincoln
holding lands or rents of the value of £40 a year, I find among the

58 ONE GENERATION OF

twenty-two names that of "Wills. Haltoft de Quaplode, Sen.," by
which it appears he had probably a son named William, who lived at
Whaplode at the close of the fifteenth century, from whose daughter,
Margaret, the Whaplode property came to the Walpoles. The similarity
in the form of the name Guilielnms, often written Gilelm and Gilbert,
will account for the mistake. At the death of John Walpole of
Whaplode, Esq., in 1590, without issue, the estates were sold according
to the instructions of his will, and the great bulk of his property was
left to his widow, who survived him forty years. By her will (P.C.C.
Scroope, f. 15), dated 20th October, 1629, she directed that a monument
to her first husband's memory should be erected in Prestwold Church,
CO. Leicester, which I believe still exists there. — Nichols, Hist. Leic.
iii. 359.

13. Page 49. Though the Calibuts had been settled in Norfolk
from a very early period, their name does not occur in the lists of gentry
of the county returned by the Commissioners to Henry VI. in 1433
(Fuller's Warthies, iii. 460). The family appear to have first risen to
wealth and importance through the success of one of its members at the
bar : Francis Calibut was a Governor of Lincoln's Inn in the 16th and
24th years of Henry VII. , and was Autumn Reader of that Society in
the 7th and 12th years of the same reign (Dugdale, Orig. Jur.). He
died on the 5th March, 9 Henry VIII., seised of the manor of Foxes
alias Sandars in Castle Acre, and about three thousand acres in Castle
Acre, West Lexham, East Lexham, and the adjoining parishes, with the
manor of West Lexham, the advowson of Little Dunham, and a great
deal else which is specified. His son John married Bridget, daughter
and heir of Sir John Boleyn, and died on the 20th February, 1553.
This John left behind him two sons, John Calibut of Castle Acre
[who died at Upton, in Northamptonshire, 23rd October, 1570, leaving
four daughters, who divided his inheritance] and William Calibut
of Coxford, Gent., father of Catherine Walpole, and other daughters.
I suspect this William was "learned in the law" : he certainly was a
man of wealth and consideration, and he lived for some time at Coxford
Abbey. By his will, dated 1st August, 1575, it appears he spent his last
days at Houghton, and he leaves 20s. to the "household servants"
there.

In the will of his daughter Catherine Walpole, dated 16th June,
5 James I., she leaves to her granddaughter Elizabeth Walpole, " my
chain of gold sometime William Calibut's my father's, deceased, by
estimation worth one hundred marks." William Calibut's own will,
to one who can "read between the lines," betrays an unfair and cruel
disposition of his property in favour of the Walpoles, and indicates that
he was a person of strong Puritan tendencies.

What Blomefield means by talking of an Edgar Calibut who was
Serjeant-at-law, I cannot understand. No such name appears in Dugdale.

A NORFOLK HOUSE 59

There was an Edward Calibut, with whom Roger Ascham kept up a
correspondence for many years. Some of Ascham's letters to him have
been printed, but there are several still unpublished in the possession of
Matthew Wilson, Esq. of Eshton Hall.

A Robert Calibut, of St. John's College, took his B.A. degree at
Cambridge in 1551, and Henry Calibut was parson of Cranwich, co.
Norfolk, from 1533 to 1560 ; he left some liberal legacies behind him,
but in his will he mentions no relatives of his own name. There were
Calibuts at Grimeston in 1594, and on the 24th November of that year
Edward the son of James Calibut was baptized there. As late as 1640
I find an Andrew Calibut, who marries Dorothy Curzon at St. Martin's
at Palace Norwich, on the 29th June. — Francis Calibut's p.m. inq.
Chancery, 9 Henry VIII., No. 125; John Calibut's the elder, u.s., 2 and
3 Philip and Mary, No. 52 ; John Calibut's the younger. Wards and
Liveries, 12 Elizabeth, vol. xii. No. 74 ; William Calibut's will, Reg.
Norvic. Ep. Cawston ; Catherine Walpole's will, w.s., Reg. Coker.

14. Page 50. Collins, who had seen the register, gives the date of his
baptism at Houghton 28th January, 1559-60.

15. Page 50. He was born 24th June, 1532 or 1538. — Adlard, p. 16.

16. Page 50. His 'will, dated 15th June, 1549, and proved at
Norwich 2nd May, 1554, is in the Registry at Norwich {Wilkins, fo. 255).
His eldest son was Thomas Walpole, who died before his father, leaving
behind him two sons, Henry and John. Henry died under age, as
appears by his mother's will, which was proved in P.C.C. , 26th January,
1579-80 {Arundel, fo. 3). She married twice after her first husband,
Thomas Walpole's death, first to Thomas Fleet of Whaplode, co. Line,
Gent., and second to — Horden of Camberwell, whom also she survived.
Her second son, John, inherited the Lincolnshire estates, and at his
death they were sold in obedience to his will, P.C.C, 13th October,
1590 {Driiry, fo. 62), of which we shall hear more hereafter. The great
bulk of the Lincolnshire property was left to Christopher Walpole to
enjoy till such time as his nephew Henry, or, in the event of his death,
till his nephew John should have arrived at the age of twenty-six years.
Christopher Walpole must have had the usufruct of the property
for at least twenty years. The fourth son, Francis, i.s., the third
alive at the death of Henry Walpole of Herpley, appears to have died
early.

17. Page 50. See Dugdale's Origines Juridicce, ch. xlviii. The
account is too long to give in extenso here, but will well repay perusal
by those who have access to the book. The sum total of the expenses
incurred by the incoming Serjeants amounted to the enormous sum of
^667 7s. 7d., which represents at least £5,000 at the present time. The

6o ONE GENERATION OF

feast was held in the Inner Temple Hall, on the 16th October, 1555.
In the "Bury Wills" (Camden Society, 1850) there is an inventory of
the goods of Margaret Bagster of Hunden, with the date 14th October,
1521, whereby it appears that even thus early Mr. Walpole was in
practice, and had already learnt the art of getting fees out of his clients.
Serjeant Walpole's coat of arms was to be seen in the large semicircular
window of Gray's Inn Hall in Dugdale's time ; and also in one of the
windows of the Refectory of Serjeants' Inn in 1599, but it had disappeared
from the latter place in 1660.— Dugdale.tt.s. (ed. 1671), pp. 302, 320, 321.

18. Fage 50. He had before his death immensely increased his
landed property. He is owner of manors in Wymbottsham, Great and
Little Massingham, Hillington, Congham, Depdale, and elsewhere, and
of lands and houses all over the county of Norfolk, but principally in
the north. His p.m. inquisition is a long document — Chancery, Norf.
5 and 6 Philip and Mary. His will is at Somerset House. — P.C.C.
Reg. Moody, fo. 6. His executors are Martin Hastings, Esq., Henry
Spelman, Gent., Robert Coke, Gent., Geffrey Cobbe, Christopher
Walpole, and Thomas Scarlett.

19. Page 51. The extracts from the parish register of Docking will
be found later on.

20. Page 51. Blomefield, viii. 395. By a curious chance the original
Sheriff's order for the surrender of a portion of the Anmer estate
(Blomefield, u.s. 334) came into my possession with a parcel of similar
documents some years ago. They were bought for me at a sale in
London.

21. Page 52. The Walpoles had some salt works at Walpole,
which appear to have been of some importance, as they are frequently
mentioned in the wills and inquisitions of members of the family, in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Strype, in his Memorials of Archbishop Parker (i, p. 408), writes as
follows : — '* This year (1565) was a project for salt works in Kent set on
foot by several persons of quality; one whereof was the Earl of Pembroke,
and amongst the rest the Secretary Cecil and the Queen herself. . . . He
[Abp. Parker] told Secretary Cecil that he doubted not but that they had
well considered the likelihood of the matter, wishing it good success,
better than he kneiv the like to take place about thirty years past in his
county, about Walsingham side. From whence came to Norwich by cart
great plenty. So that the price of the bushel fell from sixteenpence to six-
pence. But after experience, they ceased of their bringing, and fell to their
old salt again, three pecks whereof went further than a bushel of that white,
fair, fine salt.''

For an agreement between the Knights and Burgesses of Norfolk and

A NORFOLK HOUSE 6i

Thomas Walker as to white salt, 1586, see Historical MSS, Commission,
4th Keport, p. 224.

22. Pa(]c 52. See the very interesting collections published by
Mr. W. B. Rye, entitled England as seen by Foreigners, 4to, Lond. 1865,
pp. 70, 110, and especially the note on p. 196. In the Household Books
of the L'Estranges of Hunstanton I find, under the year 1519, an account
for Liveries of thirteen servants. In 1530 there is another account for
wages paid to sixteen servants.— ^rc/i(^oZor/ia, vol. xxv. pp. 424 and 493.
Hunstanton Hall appears by these Household Books to have been as
full of visitors for the greater part of the year as a large hotel. A regular
list of " Strangers" was kept, and their names appear duly recorded.
The house steward apologises for the largeness of his weekly bills in a
somewhat plaintive strain, but modern housekeepers would be glad
indeed if they could keep their expenses down to the sixteenth-century
figures. Take the following as an example. It is actually the largest
weekly bill at Hunstanton in the year 1533.

*' The xx''^ Weke. Straungers in the same weke.
" Mestrys Cobe & hyr syster, w^ other off the ciitreye, and so
the sm of thys weke besyde gyste & store . . xxviijs. ijd."

23. Page 53. The following from Harrison's Preface to Holinshed^s
Chronicle (1577) is quoted in a note (p. 103) in Miss Sneyd's transla-
tion of A Relation of the Island of England, published by the Camden
Society in 1847. " There are olde men yet dwelling in the village where
I remayne, who have noted some things to be marvellously altered in
Englande within their sound remembrance. One is the great amend-
ment of lodging : for, sayde they, our fathers and we ourselves have lyen
full ofte upon straw pallettes covered only with a sheete under coverlettes
made of dogsicain or hop harlots [I use their own terms] and a good
round logge under their heads insteade of a bolster. If it were so that
our fathers or the good man of the house had a materes or flockbed, and
thereto a sacke of chafe to rest hys heade upon, he thought himself e
to be as well lodged as the lord of the towne, so well were they con-
tented. Pillows were thought mete only for women in childbed. As
for servants, if they had any shete above them, it was well, for seldom
had they any under their bodies, to keepe them from the pricking straices,
that ranne oft thorow the canvas and razed their hardened hides." But
see Mr. Furnival's "Forewords" to the Babee's Book, E.E.T.S. 1868,
p. 64 et seq.

24. Page 53. The Great Bustard continued to haunt this part of
Norfolk till last century. Mr. H. Stevenson, an authority on all matters
of ornithology, assures me that "the last Great Bustard killed in Norfolk,
and the last of the local race, was a female, shot at Lexham in May 1838,
another having been killed at Dbrsingham in January of the same year.

62 ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE

The extinction of the bustard in Great Britain dates from 1838." See
Mr. Stevenson's Bird^ of Norfolk, vol. ii. pp. 1-42, for a complete and
interesting discussion of this subject.

25. Page 53, Blomefield, vii. 155.

26. Page 53. His name may be seen in the Lists of Admissions of
Gray's Inn, 1521-1677.— if arZeian HISS. No. 1912. Students entered at
the " Inns " much earlier in those days than now.

27. Page 53. Entries of Preferments and Sales of Wards, from
1 Mary to 1 Elizabeth, Com. Norff., Philip and Mary, 3 and 4— P.R.O.
This document sells the wardship to his mother. By the Lit. Pat.,
dated 30th October, 2 Elizabeth, Court of Wards, it is assigned to Rob.
CooKE, Esq., and Thos. Scarlett, Gent. An allowance, which was then
liberal, is made for his education.

CHAPTER II.

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS.

When Queen Elizabeth came to the throne there was only
one Grammar School in the county of Norfolk, that, viz.,
which her father had intended to found, and which her
brother actuafly did found, in the city of Norwich.^ When
the free chapels were " suppressed," the chapel of St. John
the Evangelist, in the precincts of the Cathedral Close,
with the houses and premises thereto belonging, were
granted to Sir Ed. Warner, Knight, and Eichard Catline,
Gent., who sold their rights to the Mayor and Commonalty
of the city of Norwich.^ Here the newly estabHshed
Grammar School was intended to be carried on, and
probably was carried on in a languid, careless manner.
The citizens appear to have been far more anxious to
make the most of their Hospital Charter in the way of
patronage and doles than to use any portion of its revenues
to secure to themselves a really efficient school, and, as
the natural consequence of this policy, one of the first
things we hear of is that when a Grammar School was set
up at Yarmouth, in 1551, the corporation of that town
found no difficulty in inducing " Mr. Hall, grammarian of
Norwich," to leave his post and to remove to a better-paid
mastership at the more attractive seaport.3 The school
would seem to have been closed for the next year or two ;
but in the third year of Queen Mary, "at an assembly
holden and kept within the Guildhall," ^ John Bukke, B.A.,
was appointed master of the Grammar School of the city,
and under him appears to have been an usher or sub-
master, one Henry Bird, who, whaftever became of his

64 ONE GENERATION OF

chief, continued to discharge his duties as master during
the whole of Mary's reign ; s but the school was evidently
starved by the city magnates, and the buildings were
allowed to fall into decay. With the accession of Matthew
Parker to the Primacy, a better day dawned. Mr. Walter
Haugh, or Haw^e, a member of Archbishop Parker's own
college, and a Master of Arts of eight years' standing, was
appointed to the head-mastership, and a subscription was
raised among the leading citizens and some of the county
gentry to put the place into complete repair.^ The school
soon became famous, and among its earliest scholars was
one who was destined to play an important part hereafter
in the politics of England, and to earn from posterity the
reputation of having been one of the ablest judges that ever
sat upon the bench, and perhaps the profoundest lawyer of
his time. Edward Coke, the future Chief-Justice of the
Common Pleas, was for seven years a boy at Norwich
School, and left it for Trinity College, Cambridge, in
September 1567.7 Nor was he the only boy at Norwich
at this time who afterwards attained to some celebrity :
Nicholas Faunt ^ was there, who is said to have brought
to England the first news of the St. Bartholomew massacre,
and who, as secretary to Sir Francis Walsingham, was
familiar with all the intrigues of Queen Elizabeth's court ;
and Eobert Naunton,9 author of the famous Fragmenta
Regalia^ a work which, as a wise and sagacious critique
upon the reign of Elizabeth, by one who knew personally
all the actors in the drama, stands alone in English
literature. Contemporary, too, with these, but a very
different notable, was the riotous and profligate Eobert
Greene, that audacious and prolific genius who even
presumed to regard Shakspere as a rival dramatist. ^°

Among others who sent their sons to Norwich School at
this time were Christopher Walpole of Docking and John
Walpole of Houghton. In the brief account which both
one and the other give to themselves when they entered the
Novitiate at Tournay many years after, each speaks of
himself as having been brought up in grammar and the

A NORFOLK HOUSE 65

liter (R Immaniorcs " in patria," " i.e., in his own county —
Edward says, for four years ; Henry, aliq^iamdiu, i.e., for
some considerable time. Henry Walpole probably entered
at the school in 1566 or 1567, for in those days boys were
sent to the grammar schools at seven years of age. His
first master was Mr. Hawe, who has been mentioned above,
who died in 1569, and was buried in Norwich Cathedral. '^
To him succeeded a scholar of some eminence in his day,
one Stephen Limbert, of Magdalen College, Cambridge.
Magdalen College at this time was presided over by Eoger
Kelke, a leading spirit among the Puritan faction, then very
strong at the university. ^3 Limbert had followed in the
master's steps, and was ready and eager to show himself
no half-hearted disciple. In the year 1565 a violent agita-
tion had been raised in the university against the wearing
of the surplice or any academical or ecclesiastical habit, and
the feeling against everything that approximated to Komish
fashions in garb or ritual had displayed itself in more than
one noisy and extravagant outbreak. This feeling Limbert
had brought with him from Cambridge to Norwich ; and as
he had probably witnessed the great surplice riot in the
university, so he was quite prepared to join in a similar
protest against vestments, or stained glass, or organ music
at Norwich, if the opportunity presented itself. In the
very year he came to Norwich there had been a violent
anti-ritual demonstration in the Cathedral, headed hy five
of the prebendaries "and others with them"; who, in the
absence of the dean, but apparently with something like
connivance on the bishop's part, thought proper to march
in a kind of procession into the choir, and, after committing
various unseemly outrages, ended by breaking down the
organ and doing their best to stop the continuance of the
choral service. The bishop would have been glad enough to
pass over the affair, disgraceful as it was, without notice,
but when the news of these proceedings came to the ears of
the Queen she was extremely indignant, and wrote a very
severe letter of censure upon the bishop for his negligence,
and ordered the offenders to appear before Archbishop

66 ONE GENERATION OF

Parker and give account of themselves for their evil
behaviour. No harm, however, seems to have come upon
any of the parties concerned, and it is to be presumed that
the organ was repaired, and that things went on pretty much
as before. ^4 But not many days after Henry Walpole left
Norwich School, previous to his entry at Cambridge, a
second riot occurred, and this time we read that " Innova-
tion was suddenly brought about into the Cathedral ... at
evening service ... by Limhcrt, Chapman, and Boberts, then
of this church. These, in the time of reading the lessons,
had inveighed against the manner of the singing them, and
termed it disordered, and wished it utterly thence to be
banished. And one of them starting up at that time, took
upon him to use another and a neio form of service, contrary
to that ordered by her Majesty and the book." By this
time one at least of the previous malcontents had learned
his lesson : Dr. Gardiner, though he had been at the head of
the former disturbance, had now succeeded to the deanery,
and was not without hopes of even greater preferment, for
Parkhurst was reported to be in declining health, the
bishopric might fall vacant any day, and the dean was too
shrewd a courtier not to have an eye to his own interest.
Accordingly he " stood up and confuted the reasons the
others had brought," and even committed one of the
offenders to prison ; but with characteristic astuteness he
managed to insinuate that some of the blame of these
mutinous irregularities rested upon the bishop, through
whose laxity mainly such things had come to pass.^s One
would have supposed that such indecent violence would
have been visited with severe censure and punishment.
But no ! the rioters were mildly reproved and warned
against any repetition of such a scandal ; and there the
matter seems to have ended, and the bishop, if he called the
offenders to account, seems to have troubled them no more.
Dr. John Parkhurst, who was at this time Bishop of
Norwich, had been a fellow of Merton and tutor of Bishop
Jewell. '* Better for poetry and oratory than divinity,"
says Wood. He had put forth in youth a volume of

A NORFOLK HOUSE 67

Latin verse which he republished in his later years, though
the critics said there were in those poems things that were
at least unseemly. In Queen Mary's time he joined the
exodus, and crossed the sea ; and he appears to have
suffered more privations than some others of the fugitives.
In Switzerland he was highly esteemed and held in honour
for his learning and piety. He had settled at Zurich, not
Geneva, and henceforth Zurich and its ecclesiastical con-
stitution were very dear to his heart. As firm and resolute
as any man in his opposition to Eomanism, Zuinglius,
and not John Calvin, was his master and pattern, and
his rule he would have been glad to carry out in his
own diocese. ^^

Dr. Gardiner's predecessor in the Deanery was John
Salisbury, a man of learning and some mark. He had
been a student at both universities, and a Benedictine
monk at Bury St. Edmunds. Here he incurred the
suspicion of heresy, and for some years was kept under
restraint in the abbey by order of Cardinal Wolsey.
Henry VIII. appointed him Prior of the monastery of St.
Faith at Horsham, near Norwich, and subsequently, in
1536, Suffragan Bishop of Thetford. In 1537 we find
him Archdeacon of Anglesey ; in 1538, a Canon of Norwich
Cathedral ; next year he was installed Dean. His deanery
he continued to hold, with the archdeaconry and other
rich preferments, till the accession of Queen Mary, when
he was deprived for being married.* At the accession of
Queen Elizabeth he was restored. About the year 1565
he preached a sermon in Norwich Cathedral which created
at the time a great sensation, and so much provoked the
gentry of the county that he was accused of favouring
the old religion, and was for a time suspended once more
from his deanery. He managed to defeat the machinations
of his enemies, and in 1571 received a dispensation from
Archbishop Parker to hold the bishopric of Sodor and
Man, the Deanery of Norwich, the Archdeaconry of

* His daughter Jane was christened at St. Michael's-at-plea, 21st
July, 1549.

68 ONE GENERATION OF

Anglesey, and the Eectories of Thorpe-super-Montem in
the Diocese of Lincoln, and of Diss in the Diocese of
Norwich, all which he seems to have retained till his
death/7

There were six canons or prebendaries belonging to the
Cathedral Chapter at this time. Of these, Edmund
Chapman was apparently the most pronounced as a zealous
Puritan of the advanced iconoclastic school. He appears
as one of the leaders of the riot in the Cathedral in
1570 and again in 1575, and his irrepressible tempera-
ment made him a somewhat troublesome personage to the
authorities. At last his erratic and defiant habits, and
his reluctance to submit to any discipline, could no longer
be borne, and he was deprived of his canonry for non-
conformity in 1576. Bishop Aylmer, when compelled to
proceed against him, was inclined to show him great
leniency, and suggested that he should be sent to some
remote part of the kingdom, where he might be kept from
doing much harm, and be, possibly, employed in doing
some good as a preacher against Popery. ^^

Thomas Fowle, another of the prebendaries, was im-
plicated in the same disturbances with Chapman. He
too was a vehement Puritan, and when, in 1572, a
commission was issued for proceeding against the popish
recusants in Norfolk, his name was put upon the com-
mission as that of a man who was not likely to spare
the recalcitrant gentry. ^9

Entirely of the same mind, and quite as conspicuous
as the other members of the chapter on the occasion of
the first riot, was Dr. John Walker, a somewhat famous
preacher among the Puritan clergy of the time. He too
got into trouble in the sequel for non-conformity, but
nevertheless was rewarded with substantial preferment,
and when the farce of a conference with Campion was
carried out in 1580 he was one of those who took a
leading part in the discussion.^^

The last of that band of zealots was George Gardiner,
a pluralist among pluralists even in those days. He had

A NORFOLK HOUSE 69

been a fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge, and it was
alleged that in Queen Mary's time he had been conspicuous
as a persecutor of the gospellers in Cambridge. Whether
it was so or not, he showed no sign of any Eomish
tendencies from the time he became a Minor Canon of
Norwich Cathedral in 1561, till his death as Dean in 1589.
He appears never to have lost an opportunity for advancing
himself and his own interest, and held at various times
no less than fourteen pieces of preferment : at his death
he was Dean, Chancellor, and Archdeacon of Norwich,
and Eector of Ashill, Blofield, and Forncett, besides holding
one or two other benefices scarcely less valuable.^'

Only two more of the Canons of Norwich remain to
be mentioned, Nicholas Wendon and Thomas Smith, who
held their stalls for ten years, but were deprived at last,
when it was found that iliey were both laymen ! ^^

Thus a schoolboy at Norwich in these times was of
necessity reared in a very heated atmosphere. If daily
and hourly tirades against the Pope and Babylon could
make a lad a sound Protestant, few schoolboys in England
could have been in a more favourable position for arriving
at such a frame of mind. Unfortunately there is in some
boys' nature a certain perversity of will which leads them
to revolt from influences forced upon them too obtrusively ;
and when a youth is subjected to a hard and repressive
discipline 23 — never cheered by a gleam of sympathy or
softened by a word of tenderness — a time is apt to come
when he turns out a stubborn rebel, and the reaction
from habitual submission sets in at last in a form which
his elders least desire to see, and are least prepared to
expect.

Moreover, though bishop, and dean, and chapter, and
schoolmaster were all of one mind, it must not be
supposed that there was no minority who — " popishly
inclined" — were sulkily and obstinately clinging to their
own opinions with a troublesome and uncompromising
tenacity. The Norfolk gentry were almost unanimous in
their dislike of Puritanism. The conflict with Rome in the

70 ONE GENERATION OF

latter half of the sixteenth century was a war of classes ;
it was almost precisely of the same character as the conflict
with the Crown became a century later. In both cases,
speaking generally, the " optimates " were on one side,
the " plebeians " on the other, and the smouldering jealousy
of class against class displayed itself at times in other
than religious bickerings. Very significant is the story
of that mad conspiracy of sundry of the gentlemen of the
county and others in the year 1570, which had for its
object the forcible expulsion of the strangers in Norwich
" from the city and the realm," and which ended in the
indictment of ten of these gentlemen for high treason,
three of whom were hung, drawn, and quartered, and
the rest kept in jail, with the forfeiture of their goods
and lands, for life. ^4 The gentry of England were at this
time almost a caste ; not a whit less arrogant, haughty,
and overbearing because they must have known that their
order had been fearfully broken in upon of late, and knew,
only too well, that they were poorer and weaker than
their sires.

It must be remembered, too, that though the towns
had preachers enough and to spare, and though the town
churches were served by a ministry some of whom were
men of eloquence, zeal, and power, whose earnestness
was patent and their piety sincere and glowing; yet in
the country villages, and among the agricultural population,
far out of the reach of the pulpit agitators, the tidings
that came at times of all this turmoil of religious excite-
ment only served to perplex and amaze. To the villager
it seemed as if chaos had come again. The townsmen
were going on too fast for the "lobs of the country."
How could these latter unlearn the lessons of their youth
so easily ? The quick-witted citizen looked down with
contemptuous pity at the slow-thinking rustic and the
heavy squire, and these returned the sneer with a sullen
scowl of their own. What had all these changes of the
last twenty years done for tJiem ? What were they likely
to do ? When King Edward died, the county clergy had

A NORFOLK HOUSE Jt

been turned out of their Norfolk livings by hundreds. ^s
"When Queen Mary died, the Marian priests forsook their
cures in shoals. What would be the next thing ? There
had been no peace since the old order had changed. How
pressing the need of new clergy was is plain from the
fact that the very week after Archbishop Parker's con-
secration he ordained twenty-two priests and deacons at
Lambeth, '^^ and two months afterwards no less than one
hundred and fifty-five at a single ordination. It was made
a matter of special provision that the newly ordained clergy
should be required to serve more than one cure.^7 A
new order was instituted, that of " Eeaders," who were
only allowed to read the service, but forbidden to preach
or even administer the sacrament of Baptism ; but these
men were a miserable makeshift, and upon trial the newly
ordained clergy, as a rule, were found deplorably wanting.
Very soon it became necessary to address to the bishops
a letter forbidding them to ordain any more mechanics, and
the Ecclesiastical Commissioners put forth certain Articles
to enforce at any rate the semblance of discipline, and,
among other things, " abstinence from mechanical sciences "
was enjoined " as well to ministers as to readers."

But not only was the religious destitution of the country
parishes patent and deplorable, but to earnest and thought-
ful men in the large towns things were not at all as
they should be. To a lad of any refinement of feeling
and reverence for the sacred associations of the past
there must have been something very shocking in all this
organ-breaking and glass-smashing. "Was it likely that
men whose zeal burst forth in these vulgar and passionate
outbreaks would be likely to command the respect and
esteem of the gentler and more affectionate among the
rising generation? They too had their fund of en-
thusiasm. How if that enthusiasm should find vent for
itself in quite other expressions than those in which the
passions of the mob were now exhausting themselves ?
How if these coarse excesses of the dominant faction
should defeat their own object and make many a young

72 ONE GENERATION OF

man begin to think that there might be worse things
even than " monkery " — that a sour " presbyter " was,
after all, but the "priest writ large," and that it was
quite possible to conceive a tyranny more galling and
odious even than that of the Pope of Rome?

Meanwhile there were other scenes which a schoolboy
must have witnessed in those days which were not
calculated to make him feel at ease. At Norwich itself,
religious fanaticism in every form was rampant. Upwards
of 4,000 Flemings had their own peculiar worship, their
sects, their " views," their broils, almost their faction-
fights ; crazy prophets rose up in the streets, claiming to
be inspired; "Anabaptists" propounded new theories of
the rights of property, and even were for introducing a
reformed code of morals. Whispers were heard of a real
new revelation, whose apostle or high priest none could
name, whose adherents called themselves by a strange title,
to be heard of by and by often enough when David George's
rhapsodies should have become translated into English
jargon, and when the " family of love " should have had
its martyrs and confessors who suffered they scarce knew
why.23

In the face of all this wild confusion, it is not to be
wondered at if there was a party in England who had no
love for the new learning, — a party, too, that, in the upper
ranks of English society, was rather increasing in weight,
influence, and numbers, though the " great middle class,"
the tradesmen and the "common people," were all on the
other side.

Looking at the matter from our present point of view,
we are too ready to regard the excommunication of
Elizabeth as nothing but a stupendous blunder. It was
a blunder because it failed ; but to the statesmen of that
day, to those who were not the least sagacious and far-
sighted of their generatiou, the issuing of the Bull seemed a
very bold and skilful move, which called for the utmost
determination, promptitude, and resolve to meet it. To
them it was nothing less than the menace of a new crusade,

A NORFOLK HOUSE 73

and a call to the territorial aristocracy of this country to
join in a holy league, not only for the restoration of the
faith but for the reconstitution of society. What the
enormous power of the sovereign had done in Spain, what
the noblesse with the Guises at their head seemed in a fair
way of doing in France, that the papal advisers believed
might be effected by the gentry of England. A counter
reformation which should end in stamping out heresy was
regarded as a consummation not only devoutly to be
wished but even likely to be achieved. How much the
Bartholomew massacre, following so close as it did upon
the promulgation of the Bull, contributed to strengthen
the hands of the English government, it would be difficult
to say. Certainly, when the penal laws were enacted, they
were directed against the gentry almost exclusively ; fines
and forfeiture of goods were terrible only for those who had
something to lose, and it soon became a point of honour
with the squirearchy to stand up for the old religion, and
to throw in their lot with the gentlemanly sufferers for
conscience' sake ; the " good old Tories " of this time clung
stubbornly to the past, and would not accept the logic of
facts ; but the gauntlet which the Pope threw down was
taken up with a grim satisfaction by the Queen and her
council, and from henceforth there was no hesitation and
no mercy.

Had there been no provocation ? Was there not a
cause ? Assuredly there was. Iti is not for a wise man
to defend the one side or the other, least of all to defend
the audacious and irritating aggressions which made the
conflict an absolute necessity and compromise impossible.
But now that that struggle may be said to be practically
at an end, — at any rate so far at an end that the political
ascendancy of the Papacy over this country at any future
time is simply inconceivable, — it may be well to remind
readers ignorant of the fact that there were two sides
in Queen Elizabeth's days, and that for young men of
enthusiastic temperament and chivalrous nature, for men
who instinctively chose the weaker side and threw in their

74 ONE GENERATION OF

lot with the persecuted rather than the persecutors, there
would be an absolute fascination in the creed that
seemed to them to be now remorselessly assailed, and a
vehement opposition arose to the statesmanship which
had perhaps been driven, and at any rate seemed pledged,
to a war of extermination.

• • • • •

At last the schooldays came to an end, and on the
15th of January, 1575, Henry Walpole matriculated at
Cambridge. He entered at St. Peter's College, at that time
presided over by Dr. Andrew Perne.

Dr. Perne was a Norfolk man, and his family were
possessed of some landed property at Pudding Norton, not
far from Houghton. He was notorious through life as a
trimmer, whose astute accommodation of himself to the
prevailing winds and currents of opinion had made his
name proverbial among the wits of the time.^9 In King
Henry's days he had been preferred to the rich living of
Walpole St. Peter, and to that of Pulham, in his native
county. As one of Edward VI. 's chaplains he was
appointed to preach the doctrines of the Eeformation
through the remote parts of the kingdom. He signed
without a murmur the Catholic Articles of Queen Mary in
1555, and the Thirty-nine Articles of Elizabeth in 1562 ;
in 1573 he preached at Norwich against the Puritaus, and
in 1580 he was engaged in a conference with Feckenham,
Abbot of Westminster, at Wisbech. Witty, genial, urbane,
and learned, he had a rare faculty of being able to carry
off his frequent tergiversations with a grace and courtesy
which any diplomatist might envy, and which actually
gained him a certain measure of confidence from both sides.
A latitudinarian who professed to see the good in everything,
he could tolerate Papist and Puritan alike. He could even
make some efforts to abate the violence of the persecutor's
zeal and to moderate the rancour of polemics. His college
appears to have been the natural place of resort for extreme
men, who might count on the protection of the master's
broad shield so long as his own interests and prospects were

A NORFOLK HOUSE 75

not compromised. He would certainly " leave his men
alone," and would not worry them by too prying scrutiny,
or harass them with too strict a discipline ; and the college
throve as the master prospered.s^

On the same day that Henry Walpole entered at Peter-
house, another young man of diametrically opposite
proclivities was admitted at the same college. Dudley
Fenner was the eldest son of a Kentish gentleman, and
heir to a large estate ; he was almost exactly of the same
age as his fellow-collegian, and the subsequent career of the
two men offers some remarkable parallels. Fenner was
from the outset a rigid and fervent Puritan ; Walpole, as
earnest and devoted a Catholic. Fenner was suspected of
being concerned in the Marprelate books ; Walpole certainly
had a hand in Parsons' writings. Neither proceeded to a
degree at the university, both being deterred by the tests
and engagements which every graduate was compelled to
submit to. Fenner appears to have exercised his ministry
at Cranbrook in Kent, in 1583, and to have been then
married.3i Both were driven into exile for conscience'
sake ; both were imprisoned ; both exercised their several
ministries in Belgium, the one as a Puritan preacher, the
other as a Jesuit priest ; both were for a time employed in
the same town of Antwerp, at no very long interval ; and
when Dudley Fenner lay upon his deathbed at Middleburg
in the winter of 1589, Henry Walpole was lying in prison
at Flushing, scarcely five miles off, in hourly peril of losing
his life too as an exile in a foreign land. How little could
either of these young men have guessed what was in store
for them as they attended the same lectures, dined in the
same hall, — both of them, too, for different reasons shirking
the same " chapels," and, doubtless, fiercely arguing w^ith
one another on the profoundest points of controversy, for
which they were both in the sequel to suffer so cruelly,
and to labour so long !

Among the Ordinances drawn up by Archbishop Parker
for Norwich School, special provision was made for the
teaching of Greek.32 It is almost incredible how few at

76 ONE GENERATION OF

Cambridge even professed a knowledge of the language or
literature of Hellas. Baker tells us that at this time no
more than two fellows of St. John's were " Grecians " ; and
it is pretty certain that almost as few knew anything about
it as now do of Sanscrit.33 But at Peterhouse Charles
Home, who was elected to a fellowship in Henry Walpole's
second year, was a distinguished Grecian, and doubtless
gave lectures in the college. There, too, was Eichard
Bainbrigg, the antiquary, already making collections, and
Degory Nichols, a divine, who scandalised people by his
gay attire — "too fine for scholars." The two Bacons were
fellow-commoners at Trinity — Anthony and Francis the
great ; while at Pembroke, across the street, so near that a
child might toss a biscuit from one college to the other,
Spenser, by this time an M.A., whom the undergraduates
would regard with some little awe, was writing his Shepherd's
Calendar, Kirke and Gabriel Harvey already reeognising in
him a poet for the ages.

A year after Henry Walpole entered at St. Peter's, his
cousin Edward matriculated at the same college, and along
with him came four more of their kindred or close neigh-
bours— Edward Yelverton of Eougham, one of the Cobbes
of Sandringham, Philip Paris of Pudding Norton, and
Barclay (otherwise Bernard) Gardiner of Coxford Abbey.
Of these young men now studying together at the same
college, three were to become eventually members of the
Society of Jesus, and another, Edward Yelverton, was
destined to suffer through all his life for his obstinate
adherence to the Romish cause. 34

This is not the place to dwell upon the subject of
Cambridge studies during the period we are engaged with,
the less so as neither Henry nor Edward Walpole proceeded
to any degree at the university. That both young men
were diligent students seems clear from the facility with
which they obtained admission to the Society of Jesus, and
we are expressly told that Henry Walpole was regarded
as a man of learning and promise when he first presented
himself at the College of Bheims.35 His name appears on

A NORFOLK HOUSE 77

the buttery books of Peterhouse for the last time on the
17th April, 1579. He had already been entered at Gray's
Inn the year before. 3^' His university residence had come
to an end, and it remained for him now to qualify himself
for a career at the bar. Whether Edward Walpole remained
behind at Cambridge, or had already left the university, we
cannot tell.

NOTES TO CHAPTER II.

1. Page 63. The Charter of Edward VI. was first printed in Burton's
Antiquitates Capellcc D. Johannis EvangelistcB hodie Scholce Regicc Norvi-
censis, which was pubHshed among Sir Thomas Browne's posthumous
works. The stipend of the head-master was at first £10 a year, with
a house free of all charges ; the stipend of the usher was £6 13s. 4d.,
with a house. The head-master's stipend was doubled in 1562, and
again doubled in 1610. It continued to be £40 a year till Mr. Lovering's
appointment in 1636, when the head-master received £50 a year and
a house, the usher £30 and no house. Burton's work was reprinted
with some additions in 1862 by the late John Longe, Esq., of Spixworth
Park.

2. Page 63. See Blomefield, iv. 59. Burton has printed the Award
upon the dispute between the Dean and Chapter and the Corporation,
which Blomefield refers to.

3. Page 63. Manship's History of Yarmouth, vol. i. p. 232. He
seems to be identical with the Walter Haugh mentioned below. He
stayed only two years at Yarmouth.

4. Page 63. The document is preserved among the Miscellaneous
Deeds and Documents, in the archives of the Corporation of Norwich.
Already the city magnates had begun to evade the conditions of their
Charter by dividing the schoolhouse between the head-master and his
usher, though they were bound to provide a house for each of them.
" . . . . And also we do give, grant, and confirm to the said John
Bukke for the exercising of the said office of Schoolmaster all that the
crypt of the late Chapel and house of St. John within the precincts of
the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinty of Norwich, and all those
houses, buildings, outer yards, and gardens whatsoever, being occupied
or used as part or parcel of the said soil of the said Chapel or Charnel
House. . . . Except and ahoays reserved within the foresaid charnel or
house a sufficient habitation and dwelling for such person as now is or
any time hereafter shall be Usher of the same school for the time being
to live and inhabit in.^^

5. Page 64. Strype prints from the Baker MSS. a highly interesting
paper, of which a copy is to be found in the Registry at Norwich.
" Articles to be inquired of in the Metropolitical Visitation of the most
reverend Father in God, Matthew, by the providence of God, Archbishop
of Canterbury ... in all and singular cathedral and collegiate churches
within his province of Canterbury." The replies for Norwich were sent
in by Mr. George Gardiner, then one of the prebendaries, and disclose

ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE 79

a deplorable state of affairs. In reply to the question, " Whether your
grammar school be well ordered ? &c." — a question which assumed that
every cathedral chapter was expected to maintain a grammar school —
Gardiner says, "... this respondent saith, that there is no grammar
school at all within their house, saving that, as he saith, they allow
XX marks by year to one Mr. Bird who teacheth a grammar school
in the city, and receiveth such scholars as they send him, of which
he knoweth not one, as he saith. And the whole order of the school
is left to Mr. Bird's discretion, which he thinketh to be well done,
as he saith ; and believeth that he bringeth up them that are under him
in the fear of God." — Strype, Parker, B. iii. No. 54. This paper belongs
to the spring of 1567. Five years after this Mr. Bird was associated
with Sir Nicholas Bacon, the Bishop of Norwich, Thomas Lord Went-
worth, and some of the most considerable people of the county, in
a commission for examining suspected Papists. When Dean Salisbury
died in 1573, " great suit was made " to get the deanery for Mr. Bird,
and we read that " the city of Norwich had written up for one Mr.
Bird, a very godly man, and well-learned." Mr. Gardiner, however,
obtained the preferment.

6. Page 64. See Blomefield, iv. 60. There is a fuller account of
the restoration in Burton's Ajitiquitates . Some of the stained glass
still remained in the windows on the north side as late as Blomefield's
time (1744). In the archives of the city in the Guildhall I came upon
a memorandum, dated 24th September, 1747, of some dispute between
the Corporation and Mr. Kedington, the head-master of the school
at that time, in which it is said, " Corporation have repaired the glass
in the windows, lohich are frequently broke by the scholars, and are
expensive.^'

7. Page 64. His father, Kobert Coke of Mileham, was one of Serjeant
Walpole's executors. — See n. 18, chap. i.

8. Page 64. He was probably a son of Robert Fonde or Faunt, who
was Vicar of Kimberley in 1569. He matriculated at Caius College,
Cambridge, in June 1572. There are several letters of his in Birch's
Elizabeth. — See Cooper's Athena Cant.

9. Page 64. Sir Robert Naunton set up a monument to his old school-
master (Limbert) at Norwich, with an inscription upon a brass plate
(which existed in Blomefield's time), when he was already advanced
in life. This was after he was knighted in 1615.

10. Page 64. There is a complete list of Greene's Works in Cooper's
Athence Cant., where, too, may be found the best account of him.

11. Page 65. The Album of the Tournai Noviciate is now in the
Royal Library at Brussels {MS. No. 1016). I have printed Henry

8o ONE GENERATION OF

Walpole's account of himself written with his own hand, *' Circa
Natalem Dni. A°. 1591," in the Walpole Letters, 4to, Norwich, 1873.
Edward's autobiography given in the same MS. will be found infra.

12. Page 65. The inscription upon his monument in the cathedral
is given by Blomefield, iv. 62. He entered at Corpus Christi College,
Cambridge, in 1552, having probably been elected to a scholarship from
some other college. He graduated B.A. in 1554. Master's History of
Corpus, by Lamb.

13. Page 65. See Cooper's AnnaU of Cambridge, vol. ii. p. 218 et seq.,
and Baker's History of St. John's College, edited by Prof. Mayor, vol.
i. p. 162. Baker's brief account of the condition of St. John's at this
time is long enough to convince us of the degradation of the college.
Prof. Mayor has collected the notices of the Surplice Feuds and other
disorders of the time in the exhaustive way which is characteristic
of all his work. — (Vol. ii. p. 586 et seq.)

Stephen Limbert was entered as a sizar at Magdalen College,
Cambridge, 12th November, 1561. On the death of Mr. Haugh he
succeeded to the head-mastership of Norwich. He married Katherine
Sutton of Frettenham on the 27th April, 1573 (P.R.), and by her had
a family of ten children, whose baptisms are recorded in the register
of St. Mary in the Marsh, Norwich, where also we find the entry
of his burial, 10th October, 1598. Cooper {Athena Cantab.), led astray
by a misprint in Blomefield, asserts that he was a master at Norwich
in 1555, which is certainly incorrect. In the MSS. of the University
Library at Cambridge there is a mysterious letter of his addressed
to Bishop Parkhurst, proving him to have been on intimate terms
with the Bishop ; but he appears never to have taken Orders, which
accounts for his not getting preferment. In Whitney's Emblems, 4to,
Leyden, 1580, there are some verses addressed to him by the author,
and some prefatory verses by Limbert. When Elizabeth came to
Norwich in 1578, Limbert was very graciously received by the Queen,
to whom he was deputed to make a Latin speech. It is printed in
Blomefield, and is a pedantic and pretentious harangue. Sir Robert
Na^unton's monument to Limbert has disappeared.

14. Page 66. Strype, Parker, ii. 36. This first riot took place about
the middle of September 1570. The letter of Queen Elizabeth to Bishop
Parkhurst on the subject is dated 25th September, 1570. — F.B,.0. Domestic,
Eliz., vol. Ixxiii. n. 68. For an official account of the state of affairs
at Norwich in 1562, see Eastern Counties Collectanea, p. 67.

15. Page 66. Strype's Annals, II. i. 485. The Limbert riot occurred
some time in January. Parkhurst died 2nd February, 1574-5. It is
evident that Bp. Freake lost very little time, after his appointment
to the See of Norwich, in attempting to reform his diocese, and that

A NORFOLK HOUSE 8i

he carried things with a high hand. Among Lord Calthorpe's MSS. (vol.
ex. fo. 133) there is a curious " Petition of certain aggrieved ministers "
at Norwich, who protest against slanders, defaming them as schismatics
and on their part denouncing Jesuits {five years before any Jesuit had
ever set foot in England), Anabaptists, Libertines, Family of Love,
&c. "... And if the Bishop proceed to urge them as he hath begun,
surely it will bring a wonderful ruin to this Church here in Norwich
and round about. There be already xv or xx godly exercises of preaching
or catechising put down in this city by the displacing of three preachers.
. . ." The document is dated 25th September, 1576. Freake was elected
Bishop of Norwich, 15th July, 1575. His election was not confirmed
till the 14th November, Bishop Freake had been an Augustinian monk
at Waltham Abbey, and was one of those who received a pension of
£5 a year.

16. Page 67. Wood, Athen. Oxon. ed. Bliss, vol. i. 412. Strype's
Annals, II. i. 425. Archbishop Parker evidently had but a mean opinion
of Parkhurst, and a tone of something like contempt is observable in his
letters to him. Bishop Parkhurst had incurred the suspicion " even
of the best sort for his remissness in ordering his clergy " as early as
1561. See a letter of Cecil in the Parker Correspondence, p. 149. —
(Parker Soc.)

17. Page 68. Wood's Athence Oxon. ii. 808 ; Cooper's Athena Cant.
i. 318; Strype, Parker, ii. 80.

18. Page 68. Cooper, Athence Cant. i. 382 ; Strype, Aylmer, p. 36.
He appears to have been deprived of his stall at Norwich in 1576, for
Launcelot Thexton succeeded in February 1576-7. — Le Neve, Fasti,
He became Lecturer at Dedham, where he died, aetat. 64, in 1602, and
where a monument exists to his memory.

19. Page 68. He was a Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge,
and appears to have obtained his stall at Norwich through Sir Nicholas
Bacon. He had hardly been installed before an attempt was made
to induce him to resign in favour of John Foxe the Martyrologist. This
he declined to do, and he held his canonry till 1581. Strype, Annals,
I. ii. 44 ; and Cooper's Atli. Cant. i. 452.

20. Page 68. He became eventually Prebendary of St. Paul's. There
is much about him in Strype's Parker. See, too. Cooper, Ath. Cant.
vol. ii. p. 37.

21. Page 69. Cooper's Atli. Cant. ii. 55. He obtained the Deanery
by the intercession of Robert Earl of Leicester. — Strype, Annals, II.
i. 448. Archbishop Parker tried to get the Deanery for his chaplain,
Mr. Still, but in vain. — Parker Correspondence, p. 451.

82 ONE GENERATION OF

22. Tage 69. Parker gives a deplorable account of the state of
the Norwich Chapter, and, indeed, of the whole of the diocese, in a
letter to Lady Bacon, dated 6th February, 1567-8. — Correspondence,
p. 311. Five years afterwards he again speaks with some bitterness
on the same subject: "the church is miserable," he says. In the
former letter Parker relates his interview with Smith, whom he advised
to resign his stall or take Orders. Smith declined to do either the one
or the other. Nicholas Wendon, besides being a canon of Norwich, was
actually Archdeacon of Suffolk and Eector of Witnesham. In 1576 he
became a professed Romanist, was ordained priest 23rd February, 1578
(Douay Diary, pp. 8, 26, 301, 360), and slipped away to the Continent,
where he probably ended his career. — Le Neve's Fasti; Cooper's Athencs
Cant. i. 384 ; Strype's Parker, iii. 159. In Theiner's Annals, iii. 608,
there is a letter from the Archbishop of Glasgow to the Cardinal of Como,
March 1584, recommending Wendon, who was about to go to Rome
to ask for the restoration of his pension which had been withdrawn
from him.

Among other laymen holding cathedral preferment were Thomas
Cromwell, Dean of Wells, and Sir John Chepe, Canon of Christ Church,
Oxford (Historical MSS. Commission, 10th Report, p. 729; and see
Swainson's Chichester, p. 116).

23. Page 69. How cruel and pitiless the treatment of schoolboys was
at this time is abundantly proved by such a weight of evidence as would
be wearisome to the reader even to refer to. Roger Ascham's Scole
master and Brindley's Grammar School may be regarded as protests
against the brutality of the sixteenth-century pedagogues.

24. Page 10. Blomefield's Norfolk, iii. 284; P.R.O., Domestic, Eliz.,
vol. Ixxi. Nos. 60, 61, 62, and vol. Ixxiii. No. 28 ; Eastern Counties
Collectanea, p. 208 ; Wright's Queen Elizabeth and her Times, i. p. 372.

25. Page 71. I have gone carefully through the Bishop's Register for
the Diocese of Norwich for the year ending 25th March, 1554, and I find
no fewer than two hundred and twenty-eight new incumbents presented
in the twelve months to benefices in the County of Norfolk alone. Only
twenty-six of these were occasioned by the death of the previous holders
of the livings. This subject requires a more thorough examination than
it has yet received. I conjecture that in many instances the monks dis-
possessed by Henry VIII. were presented to benefices by Queen Mary.

26. Page 71. Strype's Parker, i. 229. Strype {Aylmer, p. 21) says,
" Many of the old Incumbents (1577) and Curates were such as were
fitter to sport with the timbrel and pipe than to take in their hands the
book of the Lord." Grindal ordained nearly ninety persons in 1559. —
Strype's Grindal, p. 53. See, too, Annals, I. i. 233.

A NORFOLK HOUSE 83

27. Page 71. Strype, Annals, I. i. 265; Parker, i. 180, 194 ; ii. 80.

28. Page 72. Froude, Hist. England, x. p. 112 ; Blomefield, iii. 364 ;
Parker Correspondence, p. 247 ; Fuller, Church History, B. ix. s. ii. § 10.
See especially his account of the Familists, s. iii. § 36. " These Familists
(besides many monstrosities they maintained about their communion
with God) attenuated all Scriptures into allegories ; and, under pretence
to turn them into spirit, made them airy, empty, nothing. They
counterfeited revelations ; and those, not explicatory or applicatory of
Scripture (such may and must be allowed to God's servants in all ages),
but additional thereunto and of equal necessity and infallibility to be
believed therewith. In a word, as in the small-pox (pardon my plain
and homely, but true and proper, comparison), when at first they kindly
come forth, every one of them may severally and distinctly be discerned ;
but when once they run and matter, they break one into another, and
can no longer be dividedly discovered ; so though at first there was a real
difference betwixt Familists, Enthusiasts, Antinomians (not to add high-
flown Anabaptists), in their opinions, yet (process of time plucking up
the pales betwixt them) afterwards they did so interfere amongst them-
selves, that it is almost impossible to bank and bound their several
absurdities," Strype {Parker, ii. 69, and Annals, II. i. 487) gives a
good account of the Brownists and their eccentric founder. Fuller, u.s.
B, ix. sect. vi. § 3, says, "For my own part (whose nativity Providence
placed within a mile of this Brown's charge [i.e., benefice] ), I have when
a youth often beheld him." He proceeds to tell a story of his having
been carried to jail at Northampton, where he died, in a "cart with a
feather bed provided to carry him." His offence was an assault upon
a rate collector. — Cf., too, Annals, II. i. 483.

There is a long and curious account of the Brownists in Ephraim
Pagitt's Heresiography ; or, a Description and History of the Heretics
and Sectaries sprung up in these times. London, 1661. Hanbury gives
nearly twenty pages to Browne and his doctrines. Historical Memorials
relating to the Independents, vol. i. p. 19 et seq.

29. Page 74. ''Jack. What Doctor Pearne? Why, he is the
notablest turncoat in all this land, there is none comparable to him.
Why, every boy hath him in his mouth ; for it is made a proverb, both
of old and young, that if one have a coat or cloak that is turned they say
it is Pearned.^^ From " A Dialogue, wherein is plainly laide open, the
tyrannical dealing of the Lord Bishop against God's children," &c.
This is one of the Marprelate Tracts, and was originally published in
1589, and "Keprinted in the time of the Parliament," 1640.

30. Page 75. There is an exhaustive account of him in Cooper's

84 ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE

AthencB Cant. In 1573 there were sixty pensioners at St. Peter's. —
Cooper, Annals, ii. 315.

31. Page 75. See Bardsley's Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature,
p. 124.

32. Page 75. I discovered these " ordinances " in the archives of the
city of Norwich, and transcribed them in 1862. They are too long to
reprint here. The Greek authors appointed to be read are Lucian^s
Dialogues, Hesiod, Homer, and Euripides, and the head-master is
required to see that the boys of the sixth form " attain to some com-
petent knowledge of the Greek tongue."

33. Page 76. See Baker's History of St. John's, by Prof. Mayor, pp. 171
and 180, and the notes on the last passage, p. 598.

34. Page 76. I am indebted to the Kegistrar of the , University,
Rev. H. R. Luard, for permission to search the documents in his
custody, and to make the necessary extracts from them. I find that
in the January of 1579-80 the following, among others, were admitted
to the B.A. degree, and I give the names here because they will occur
again in the course of my narrative. Edward Yelverton (of Rougham,
CO. Norfolk) ; Robert Remington (whom Henry Walpole calls his tutor) ;
Miles Sands (who took part in the disputation at York, 1594) ; George
Stransham {alias Potter, who subsequently became a Catholic priest
and got into trouble) ; Arthur Daubeny (of Sharington, mentioned by
H. Walpole in his examination) ; Philip Paris (of Pudding Norton,
a Recusant) ; John Cobbe (of Sandringham).

Edward Walpole matriculated as of St. Peter's in May 1576.
Dudley Fenner was a Fellow Commoner of the college. Bartley [sic]
Gardiner matriculated as a pensioner in March, 1577-8.

35. Page 76. 1582, 7° die Julii. Ex Anglia ad nos venit D. Hen.
Walpoole, disertus gravis et plus. Douay Diary.

36. Page 77. I have to thank the Rev. J. Porter, now Master of
St. Peter's, for this information, taken from the Books of the College.
The entry of Henry Walpole at Gray's Inn is to be found in Harl. MSS.,
1912 (Lists of Admissions of Gray's Inn, 1521-1677).

CHAPTER III

THE EXCOMMUNICATION AND ITS RESULTS

*' We must now take, and that of truth, into observation, that until
the tenth of her reign, her times were calm and serene, though some-
times a little overcast, as the most glorious sunrisings are subject to
shadowings and droppings in : for the clouds of Spain and vapours
of the Holy League began then to disperse and threaten her serenity. . . .
For the name of Recusant began then, and first to be known to the
world ; and till then the Catholics were no more than church Papists,
but were commanded by the Pope's express letters to appear, and
forbear church going as they tended their Holy Father, and the Holy
Catholic church their mother." . . . — Naunton's Fragmenta Regalia.

Hitherto our attention has been mainly given to such
incidents as may be supposed to exercise a direct
influence upon the development of a thoughtful and
intelligent lad, born into the world with a certain bias
of his own, and some of that spirit of unrest and melan-
choly and discontent which leads a man to the conviction
that the times in which he lives are '' out of joint," and
urges him passionately to set them straight again. But
our characters are not formed only by the direct influences
which are brought to bear upon them, nor our opinions
adopted only from the things we see with our own eyes and
hear with our own ears. Eather is it the indirect influence
of events which are going on around us in that outer circle
with which we have no personal contact, that affects us most
profoundly in the period when boyhood is passing into man-
hood. And, therefore, if we would understand the error or
the heroism, the weakness or the nobleness, the fervour or
the infatuation of such a life as we are engaged in reviewing,
it is essential that we should endeavour to estimate the

86 ONE GENERATION OF

significance of those larger questions and those more
stirring events which were agitating the minds of men
during these eventful times.

• •••««•

The year 1569 is a memorable one in the history of
Queen Elizabeth's reign. Mary Stuart was a prisoner in
England, and on her as the next heir to the throne the
eyes of all politicians turned. Should any one of those
numberless chances occur to which we are all liable, —
and to which in times of great excitement and uneasiness
men are apt to believe that sovereigns must be peculiarly
liable, — the Queen of Scots, it was thought, would certainly
ascend the English throne, and as certainly attempt to
bring back the days of the Papal dominion, and the doctrine
and ritual of Eome.

In the northern counties of England, more than any-
where else, the great bulk of the population were averse
to the Protestant faith, and almost all the more powerful
families were vehemently and conscientiously in favour
of the mass as against the new doctrines which were
being slowly but steadily forced upon them. In the temper
of men's minds at this time it needed very little to stir
them up to deeds of violence, and it was almost inevitable
that sooner or later the long-suppressed but widely
fermenting discontent should prove altogether irrepres-
sible, and passion grown reckless should drive on angry
people to defy the terrors of the law. In November of
this year, 1569, the Northern Eebellion blazed forth under
the leadership of the Earls of Northumberland and West-
morland.^ By Christmas it had run its course, had
collapsed, and the vengeance had begun. Whoever likes
may read the account of that atrocious massacre, for it
deserves no better name, as it is set down in the pages
of Mr. Froude's work ; and he will scarcely think the
historian has been too severe upon his heroine when he
tells us that " retribution inflicted upon the northern
insurgents shows undoubtedly that anger and avarice had
for a time overclouded Elizabeth's character.''

A NORFOLK HOUSE 87

There can be no question that the Northern Kebellion
was a rehgious war. As an attempt to restore the old order
of things, or to put the CathoUc party in a better position,
the revolt of the northern earls was an utter failure ; but
its effects did not soon pass away. There was deep
discontent and horror : the " Mass Priests " were among
the sufferers, upon whom signal severity appears to have
been exercised, and the lower orders were remorselessly
butchered, but the gentry's lives loere spared that their
lands 7night be forfeited. A host of high-born paupers
were thus thrown upon the resources of their relatives
and friends : discontent smouldered, but it did not die.

While " the hanging business went on," and Sir George
Bowes was " stringing them leisurely upon the trees in
the towns and village greens," the Queen herself was
being tried in the Papal Court at Eome on certain
grave charges affecting her right to retain possession of
her kingdom and her crown. Twelve Englishmen, exiles
for their religion, were examined as witnesses, and their
depositions taken in due form. The court considered its
verdict, and finally decided that the Queen was guilty,
and had incurred the canonical penalties of heresy. On
the 25th February, 1570, the sentence was pronounced, and
the Bull of Pope Pius V., called " Begnans in Excclsis,"
was signed, and launched forth on its disastrous mission.
On the 15th May, when quiet people rose in the morning
to pursue their ordinary duties, lo ! nailed to the door of
the Bishop of London's Palace appeared a strange docu-
ment— it was the Papal Bull declaring the Queen of
England excommunicated, " deprived of all dominion,
dignity, and privilege whatsoever," and her subjects not
only absolved from all oath of allegiance, but forbidden
to render to her any homage or obedience ! ^

Only they who have little or no acquaintance with
the conflict of sentiment and opinion raging in England
during Elizabeth's reign will commit the error of suppos-
ing that the Excommunication was an event of trifling
importance. The truth is, it was the turning-point in

88 ONE GENERATION OF

the history of the Reformation. Hitherto it had been
possible for "good CathoHcs " to keep up some sort of
conformity, and to bow in the house of Rimmon, in the
hope of some turn in affairs ; now they were placed between
two fires. The Excommunication was nothing less than
a challenge thrown down by the Pope defying Protestant
Europe to a conflict a otitrance, which had for its object
the absolute subjection of the intellects and consciences of
mankind to the decrees of the Council of Trent (which had
closed its sittings seven years before) ; a conflict in which
all Europe should be forced to take one side or the other
without hesitation or reserve, on pain of forfeiting peace
in this world and salvation in the next ; a conflict in which,
while it lasted, all laws were to be abrogated, and even the
ordinary conditions of warfare ignored ; a conflict in which
mercy was to be forgotten till victory was sure and
neutrality to be reckoned criminal and dealt with as
treasonable.

War was declared, and the struggle began. The Papacy,
as has been said, hoped for the support of the great
territorial lords, and of all who had more sympathy with
the old order of things than with a present in which they
were compelled to acquiesce against their wills. How
little the Papal advisers knew of the temper of the people,
— how profoundly ignorant they were of the social and
intellectual revolution that had been going on in England, —
how utterly they misunderstood the spirit of the age and
misread the signs of the times, — the event sufficiently
proved. The landed interest had had its day ; the towns-
man's turn had come ; he was for progress. What was the
past to him ? He was ready to break with it root and
branch ; his cry was * Reform ' ; at any rate he was bent
upon change ; he was still loyal to the name and person
of the sovereign ; as for the nobles, his reverence for them
had been for some time very much on the wane. Times
had altered since the very name of Duke had inspired
some little awe. There was but a single duke in England
now, and yet Norwich cared as little for the Duke of

A NORFOLK HOUSE 89

Norfolk as Exeter did for the Earl of Devon. Henry
VIII. had shown the towns how little account need be
taken of a peer of the realm, and how loosely his head
clung to his shoulders. Even the spoliation of the monas-
teries had been a gain rather than a loss to the townsmen ;
trade and commerce could get on well enough without the
religious orders. Men were richer, more self-reliant, more
independent, and less inclined to submit to restraints,
moral or religious ; as for any other restraints, say social
and political ones, they did not yet see that these too must
go some day ; nevertheless that day was coming. Already,
through many wide districts in England, and nowhere more
than in the eastern counties, the town and country parties
were in sharp antagonism ; the one did not know its
strength, nor the other its weakness ; but the elements
of dissension were slowly and ceaselessly fermenting
through every grade of society. Kevolutions may be
sudden and spasmodic elsewhere; with us the nation is
not roused to frenzy in an hour. When Charles I. set up
his standard at Nottingham that crisis came which a
hundred years of discontent and exasperation, on the one
side, and wounded pride, disappointed ambition, and a
desperate clinging to shadows when the substance had
perished, on the other, had been leading up to ; and
the sword once drawn, the issue was not doubtful
long.

The first Act of Parliament passed in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth was one " to restore to the Crown the ancient
jurisdiction over the estate ecclesiastical and spii'itual, and
abolishing all foreign powers repugnant to the same." By
the nineteenth clause of this Act it had been enacted that
all ecclesiastical persons whatsoever, all civil servants of
the Crown, all magistrates, and all taking any degree in
the universities, should be required to swear allegiance to
the Queen in a form of oath which declared her to be
supreme " as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things or
causes as temporal." It is hardly too much to say that
on those two words "spiritual things" the differences

90 ONE GENERATION OF

between the Catholic party and the government in England
turned. Sir Thomas More had calmly laid his head upon
the block rather than bind himself by an oath less explicit
and precise, and at the accession of Elizabeth there were
not wanting many men of conscientious convictions who
would have boldly faced the scaffold rather than acknowledge
the claim of the spiritual supremacy of the sovereign.
Granted that this was taking offence at a word — yet, can
we forget that some of the most momentous struggles that
the world has ever known have been about a mere word
which has grown to be the war-cry of millions ? Be it as it
may, the oath in its new form became the cause of deep
and widespread offence. A very large proportion of the
English gentry refused to swear allegiance in the terms
prescribed, and by their refusal forfeited at once any office
or preferment they might happen to hold, and debarred
themselves for the future from all positions of emolument
and all distinctions conferring any social status. These
men were from this time known as the Becusants, or
refusers of the oath, and the stigma and inconvenience
attaching to the term began then first to be felt in its
odious force.

But the next Act of the same Parliament was one which
touched the Catholics in a different way. The re-establish-
ment of the mass in Queen Mary's reign had caused
immense joy throughout the land, and ever since the death
of King Edward no other form of administration of the
eucharist had been permitted in the churches : now it was
enacted that the Book of Common Prayer alone should be
used, and " to sing or say any common or open prayer, or
to minister amj sacravient otherwise . . . than is mentioned
in the said book ... in any cathedral or parish church or
chapel, or in any other place,'^ subjected the offender to
forfeiture of his goods, and on a repetition of his offence to
imprisonment for life. The mass was felt to be, and known
to be, the one great and precious mystery which every
devout Catholic clung to with unspeakable awe and fervour,
and to rob him of that one thing on which his religious life

A NORFOLK HOUSE 91

depended — that gone, it was imagined all else would go
with it.

But this was not all. It was bad enough for the Catholic
gentry to be condemned to political extinction ; worse that
they should be denied freedom of worship and the enjoy-
ment of what was to them the highest Christian privilege ;
but there was yet another clause in this Act which was even
more galling and hateful than the others. The fourteenth
clause enacted that any person not resorting to his parish
church on Sundays and holydays was to forfeit twelvepence
for every offence, the money to go to the poor of the parish ;
the churchwardens were bound to " present " offenders to
the Ordinary, but as these had little to gain and much to
lose by embroiling themselves with the Eecusant squires,
and where they did so the fine could be paid without any
great inconvenience, the Catholic gentry during the first
twelve years of the Queen's reign could afford to hold aloof
from the Church services without experiencing any great
pressure, or suffering from much except the sense of
vexation and annoyance. But when the Papal Bull was
launched, things began to assume a more threatening
aspect.

A few months after the excommunication had been
pronounced Parliament assembled. One of the first Acts
which it passed was one " against the bringing in or putting
in execution bulls, writings, or instruments, and other
superstitious things from the See of Kome." By this
statute it was enacted (i.) that *' if any person, after the 1st
day of July next coming, shall use or put in use in any
place within the realm any bull, writing, or instrument . . .
obtained or gotten . . . from the Bishop of Eome ....
he shall sujfcr pains of deaths and also lose and forfeit all
his lands, tenements, and hereditaments, goods and chattels,
as in cases of high treason." It may fairly be said that in
the circumstances, and considering the issues involved and
the dangers apprehended, the severity of this clause of the
Act was at least morally justifiable. But there was another
clause which affected the Catholics much more seriously.

92 ONE GENERATION OF

As a party they were now much divided upon the question
whether or not they would or could accept the Bull of
Excommunication; if they had been let alone, the probability
is that hatred of Spain and loyalty to England, feelings
which were steadily on the increase, would have sooner or
later done more than all these penal laws could effect ; but
the statute did not stop at pronouncing the severest
penalties upon those who should assist in promulgating the
Bull : it added that " if any person after the same 1st July
shall take upon him to absolve or reconcile any person . . .
or if any shall willingly receive and take any such absolution
or reconciliation,'^ he should be subject to exactly the same
penalties as in the former case. Furthermore, by the
seventh clause of the statute it was enacted that ''if any
person . . . shall bring into the realm any tokens, crosses,
pictures, beads, or such like vain superstitious things, from
the Bishop or See of Rome . . . and shall deliver the same
to any subject of the realm . . . then that person so doing
... as well as every other person as shall receive the same
. . . shall incur the penalties of the Statute of Praemunire.''
By virtue of this clause any Catholic priest admitted to
his orders on the other side of the Channel, and venturing
to exercise his functions in England, did so at the peril of
his life ; and whosoever dared to receive absolution at his
hands incurred the same penalty, with forfeiture of all his
worldly goods besides. As for the fine for not attending
church, it remained as before, but the day was coming
when the penalties imposed for this offence were to amount
to the confiscation of the property of all but the wealthiest
proprietors.

Rome had sown the wind, the whirlwind followed. On
the 2nd of June of the following year the Duke of Norfolk
was beheaded at the Tower — a flimsy dupe, whom more
cunning conspirators had put forward as the leader of the
Roman cause, and whose misfortune was that he had been
born to a station to which in those rough times he was
unequal. On the 22nd of August the Earl of Northumber-
land, whom the Scots had sold, suffered, at York, the tardy

A NORFOLK HOUSE 93

penalty of that Northern Eebelhon of which we have
already heard. Two days after his execution the un-
paralleled enormity of the St. Bartholomew massacre
occurred at Paris, and the tidings were not slow in crossing
the Channel. The indignation of every generous heart
blazed forth in flames of wrath, horror, and resentment ;
every heart, that is, in which the moral sense had not
become perverted by the insane infatuation which religious
fanaticism engenders. From that day the Catholics in
England began to have a hard time of it, though the worst
had not come yet. For the present it would seem that the
Queen's ministers proceeded with some moderation against
the Eomanising gentry, and I cannot find that any general
pressure was put upon the Eecusants ; nor does it appear
that the publication of the Papal Bull had had any great
eifect in adding to their number or confirming them in
their resolution. 3 Nevertheless there was no intention of
sparing those who, after time given for amendment, should
still persist in siding with the Pope against the Queen.
The Council, busied with the complications of Elizabeth's
foreign policy and the matrimonial farces which were for
ever being discussed, proposed, initiated, and dismissed,
were content to hang up the scourge that was ready at
hand, and could be used at any moment if it were wanted :
for the present it was not wanted, and while the burning
indignation which the Bartholomew horror had aroused
was still hot, there was little to fear from the smouldering
discontent and stubborn refusal " to keep their church " by
the country squires and some few perverse enthusiasts in
the smaller towns.

As though to deepen the impression which the Bartholo-
mew massacre had produced, scarce four years after its
occurrence came the horrible sack of Antwerp, and the
frightful atrocities of Spanish ruffians in Belgium. 4 There
was no need to exaggerate barbarities so revolting and
inhuman, but the pulpit and the ballad-mongers, and
subsequently the stage, severally turned them to account,
the Pope being credited with his full share of the blame.

94 ONE GENERATION OF

While these events were succeeding one another so rapidly,
and while the people at large were drawing their inferences
from them, the politicians could afford to wait and hold
their hands. But that the Romanising gentry were not
forgotten, and that a sharp eye was kept upon them, is
plain enough from the following curious episode.

In July 1578 the Queen started upon a *' Progress. "5
Her first intention was to receive the members of the
University of Cambridge at Audley End, to proceed to
Long Melford Hall in Suffolk, and to return by Cambridge,
and thence through Hunts, Beds, and Bucks to Windsor.
The plan was for some reason or other suddenly changed.
On the 4th of August she slept at Melford ; next morning
she rode on to Lawshall Hall, near Bury St. Edmunds,
and thence to Hawstead.^ On the 7th she was at Bury ;
and on Sunday, the 10th, she was entertained at a house
called Euston Hall, near Thetford, by a gentleman of the
name of Edward Rookwood, who had but lately come of age,
and was newly married.7 The house was of no great size,
and confessedly unfit for the entertainment of the royal
party. There were several far larger mansions in the
neighbourhood, and yet her Majesty was persuaded to
visit it, for reasons which will be apparent presently.
When the Queen took leave, Mr. Rookwood was admitted
in the usual course to kiss her Majesty's hand : no sooner
had he done so than the Lord Chamberlain bade him
stand aside, and in no measured terms charged him with
being a recusant, who was unfit to be in the presence,
much less touch the sacred person, of his sovereign. The
unlucky man, quite unprepared for so sudden and unex-
pected an attack, appears to have made no reply ; and
the scene ended by his being required to attend the Council
under surveillance. When he reached Norwich, he was
committed to the castle.

Four days after this incident the royal retinue crossed
over into Norfolk ; and on the 16th we find the Queen
dining with the " Lady Style " at Braconash, about six
miles from Norwich.^ Lady Style was the " Lady Eliza-

A NORFOLK HOUSE 95

beth Style " of the Braconash parish register, who was at
this time wife of Thomas Townshend, a man of large
possessions in the county of Norfolk. 9 He appears to
have kept considerable state at Braconash, and to have
lived on a scale of baronial hospitahty. But Mr. Towns-
hend was under suspicion. A cousin of his, who lived
a few miles off, was actually a recusant, and was repeatedly
fined for his offence ; and though Thomas Townshend had
himself conformed, his wife, "the Lady Style," had refused
to do so. This time the Queen's host was spared, not so
the guests. Nine of the neighbouring gentry, who pre-
sumably had come to show their respect for their sovereign,
but who hitherto had declined the oath from conscientious
scruples, were forthwith arrested, as Kookwood had been,
dragged to Norwich, and were either sent to jail or
bound over under a bond of £200 a piece to keep to their
lodgings in Norwich until further notice. ^° Nor was this
all : from Braconash the cortege pushed on to Norwich.
About a mile from the city it was met by a gentleman
of the name of Downes, lord of the manor of Erlham,
which was held under the crown by Petit Serjeantry or
service of a cross-bow and a pair of spurs. Mr. Downes
presented the Queen with a pair of gold spurs, and in
offering them addressed her in some English verses, which
have been preserved. But he too was a recusant, and
had not " kept his church." He was not more fortunate
than the others : he was bidden to stand aside, and followed
the Council into the city of Norwich, where he was com-
mitted to jail."

At Norwich the Queen lodged at the bishop's palace, and
spent her time, as far as the bad weather would allow,
in listening to absurd speeches and witnessing grotesque
pageants ; but on the 19th August {i.e., with the dog-days
just ended) she suddenly resolved to go a huntmg in the
park of Cossey, five miles from Norwich, which belonged to'
Mr. Henry Jernegan, ancestor of the present Lord Stafford.
Cossey was at this time occupied by Lady Jernegan, widow
of Sir Henry Jernegan, who had been one of the most

96 ONE GENERATION OF

active adherents of Queen Mary, and who had made him-
self very conspicuous in opposing the abominable attempt
to set aside Mary and Elizabeth as heirs to the crown at
the death of Edward VI. In return for his loyalty he
had received this very domain of Cossey at Queen Mary's
hands. It would have been a little too bad, even in
those times, for the widow of a man to whom Elizabeth
herself must have felt that she lay under deep obligations
to be in her old age molested and persecuted for her
religious convictions ; nor, indeed, was her son, who was
now living at Wingfield Castle, interfered with for the
present, though his time was coming; and so when, three
days after, the Council met and made order for the com-
mittal to jail of such of the Norfolk gentry as had not
kept their church, and upon whom the hand of power had
begun to press heavily, Mr. Jernegan's name was omitted,
though his kinsman Mr. Bedingfeld's name figures on
the list, and appears again and again hereafter.

These were the vexations which drove men mad, and
irritated them when they were beginning to acquiesce in
the inevitable. But the truth is, a detestable system had
now begun to spring up, under which no one with any
conscience or any religious scruples could hold himself
safe for an hour. An army of spies and common informers
were prowling about the length and breadth of the land,
living by their wits, and feeding partly upon the terrors
of others and partly upon the letter of the law as laid down
in the recent Acts — wretches who had everything to gain
by straining the penalties to the utmost, for they claimed
their share of the spoil. Armed with warrants from
weak magistrates, who themselves were afraid of sus-
picion, or, failing these, armed with an order from the
Privy Council, which was only too easily ,to be obtained,
they sallied forth on their mission of treachery. They
were nothing better than bandits protected by the law,
let loose upon that portion of the community which might
be harried and robbed with impunity. In some cases
the pursuivants, after arresting their victims and appro-

A NORFOLK HOUSE 97

priating their money, were content to let them alone, and
save themselves further trouble ; in others they kept them
till a ransom might come from friends ; in any case there
was always the fun of half-scuttling a big house and living
at free quarters during the search, and the chance of
securing a handsome bribe in consideration of being left
unmolested for the future.^^

Chief among these miscreants, of whom we hear so
much ten years after, was one Richard Topcliffe. He was
of an old Lincolnshire family, son and heir of Robert
Topcliffe of Somerly, by Margaret, daughter of Thomas
Lord Borough. He married Joan, daughter of Sir Edward
Willoughby of WoUarton, co. Notts. He was born, accord-
ing to his own account, some time in 1532, and early in
life seems to have attached himself to the Court. The
first notice I find of him is shortly after the collapse of
the Northern Rebellion, when he is a suitor for the lands
of old Richard Norton of Norton Conyers, co. York, who
had made himself so conspicuous in Durham Cathedral.
Three years after this he appears to have been regularly
in Burghley's pay, or at any rate employed by him, but in
what capacity does not transpire ; and he comes out first
in his character of scourge and persecutor of Catholics
during this same Norfolk Progress. '3

The cruelties of this monster during the next quarter of a
century would fill a volume, and the expedients he resorted
to to hunt down Recusants, Seminary Priests, and Jesuits
would be absolutely incredible were it not that the evidence
of even his own admission is too strong to be controverted.
In the case of poor Robert Southwell, it is certain that he
seduced the daughter of one of his victims, and used her
for playing upon her own father, in whose house Southwell
was apprehended. -4 In November, 1594, he sued an accom-
plice of his own, Thomas Fitzherbert, in the Court of
Chancery in a bond for £3,000. "■ For whereas Fitzherbert
entered into bonds to give £5,000 unto TopcUffe, if he loould
persecute his father and uncle to death, together tvith Mr.
Bassett, Fitzherbert pleaded that the conditions were not

98 ONE GENERATION OF

fulfilled, because they died naturally, and Bassett was in
prosperity. Bassett gave witness what treacherous devices
he had made to entrap him, and Coke, the Queen's
Attorney, gave testimony openly that he very well had
proved how effectually Topcliffe had sought to inform him
against them contrary to all equity and conscience." ^s
This was rather too disgraceful a business to be discussed
in open court, and " the matter was put over for secret
hearing," when it would seem that Topcliffe, standing
somewhat stiffly to his claim, lost his temper, and let
fall some expressions which were supposed to reflect upon
the Lord Keeper and some members of the Privy Council,
whereupon he was committed to the Marshalsea for con-
tempt, and kept there for some months. While he was
incarcerated, he addressed two letters to the Queen,
which have been preserved, and two more detestable
compositions it would be difficult to find. In one of them,
dated ''Good or Evil Friday, 1595," he says, '*...!
have helped more traitors [to Tyburn] than all the noble-
men and gentlemen of the court, your counsellors excepted.
And now by this disgrace I am in fair way and made apt
to adventure my life every night to murderers, for since
I was committed, wine in Westminster hath been given
for joy of that news. In all prisons rejoicings ; and it is
like that the fresh dead bones of Father Southwell at Tyburn
and FatJier Walpole at York, executed both since Shrovetide,
will dance for joy ! " '^

The scoundrel was out of prison again and at his old
tricks in October, the restless ferocity of the man never
allowing his persecuting mania to cease for an hour. The
last time I meet with him is in 1598, when one Jones,
a Franciscan, was executed with the usual cruelties on
the 12th July, having been hunted to his death by Top-
cliffe's means. ^7 What became of him at last it is not
worth while to inquire, though it is the fate of such
monsters of iniquity that their names can hardly go down
to oblivion. Even enormous crime insures a measure, if
not of fame, yet of infamy. ^^

A NORFOLK HOUSE 99

But besides and beyond the pressure exercised by those
two great levers for acting upon the Catholics, the oath
of allegiance and the compulsory attendance at church,
soon came another vexation. When, shortly after Eliza-
beth had come to the crown, the Eoman ritual was put
down, the bench of bishops displaced, and the oath of
allegiance in its obnoxious form was exacted of all who
held office in Church or State, the same result had
followed which followed when Mary began to reign : there
was a very serious exodus of the most learned and most
conscientious of the clergy and of the most distinguished
members of both universities. Of the deprived bishops,
with the exception of Scott, Bishop of Chester, and Gold-
well of St. Asaph, who slipped away across the Channel,
Pate, Bishop of Worcester, who was imprisoned from 1559
to 1561, and died at Louvain in 1565, and Watson, Bishop
of London, who was either in prison or custody till his
death in 1561, all were suffered to remain unmolested,
though under surveillance, and, as far as I know, absolutely
unprovided for. Ten deans of English cathedrals and
nearly fifty canons were deprived. Fifteen heads of
colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, driven out for the
most part into banishment ; a host of beneficed clergymen,
whose number it is impossible to ascertain ; and some of
the most learned scholars, professors, and fellows of
colleges at both universities, bravely gave up their emolu-
ments rather than act against their consciences by taking
an engagement which they were persuaded it was un-
lawful to be bound by.^9 In many cases these refugees
had taken with them across the seas the sons of the
discontented gentry, who accompanied them as their
pupils; and in not a few instances the reputation of an
exiled scholar attracted the children of parents who,
though conforming, yet felt a deep dislike for the new
regime, and an intense longing for a restoration of the
old faith, to which in their hearts they clung so fondly.
The exiles were not content with themselves being suf-
ferers ; they were perpetually acting the part of proselytisers.

joo ONE GENERATION OF

By every available opportunity letters of impassioned
remonstrance and earnest warning were addressed to
friends and relatives at home, calling upon those who
still clung to their fatherland to renounce it and join their
exiled brethren, describing in glowing terms the blessedness
and peace of such as had "left all for the kingdom of
heaven," and putting forward every conceivable argument
to bring over those who were hesitating to take the step
which they felt to be irrevocable.^''

Prodigious force and point were added to these appeals,
and a material guarantee was given of some hope of
maintenance for the exiles, by the foundation of Cardinal
Allen's splendid college at Douay, which they who enter
the town from the present railway station cannot fail to see,
the immense buildings still existing being used to-day as
a barrack for seven hundred men. Douay College was
founded in 1568. During the first two years its success
seemed a matter of uncertainty, but the reputation of the
scholars who repaired thither and constituted the tuitional
staff soon dispelled whatever doubt had existed, and the
influence which it was likely to exercise in supplying
England with priests strongly impregnated with ultramon-
tane sentiment, and animated by a genuine enthusiasm to
" labour in the English vineyard," or to win for themselves
the martyr's crown, began to be felt as a real danger which
must be met by uncompromising and remorseless severity.
The first victim was Cuthbert Mayne. He had been a
fellow of St. John's College, Oxford, at the time that
Campion was in residence there, and, yielding to the
solicitations of his friends, had fled across the seas, and
after going through a course of preparatory study at Douay
had returned to England. He took refuge with a gentle-
man in Cornwall, Francis Tregian by name, a man of
wealth and high birth, and continued with him for some
time, ostensibly as steward. The spies were soon upon his
track, and in the summer of 1577 he himself was appre-
hended, and, what was more to the purpose from the
informer's point of view, Mr. Tregian was a ruined man

A NORFOLK HOUSE toi

_^ — j.-.»._

and his estate forfeited. Cuthbert Mayn'e was' hung, drawn,
and quartered at Launceston on the 29th November, the
proto-martyr of the BngHsh College of Douay, as he has
since been reckoned and designated. But in that same
year no less than twenty-four priests were ordained at the
college, and the next spring two of these " Seminarists "
were executed at Tyburn ; John Nelson on the 3rd, and
Thomas Sherwood on the 7t-h of February.^^

By this time the English Government had begun to be
thoroughly alarmed. It was well known that the education
of the country was in a very unsatisfactory state ; that not
only was there a serious deficiency in the number of
candidates for Holy Orders, but the character and ability of
these candidates were very much below what was needed.
Elizabeth had been now twenty years upon the throne,
but things had not much improved among the rank
and file of the clergy. Cartwright again and again
charges Archbishop Whitgift with the undeniable fact
that ** there be admitted into the ministry of the
basest sort . . . such as suddenly are changed out
of a serving-man's coat into a minister's cloak, making
for the most part the ministry their last refuge. "^^
Some of the best of them were ignorant ranters, utterly
unfit to cope with the trained dialecticians who were being
reared so carefully beyond the seas ; and when the time for
disputation came, as it did so frequently, the fervent but
uneducated Gospeller proved to his own astonishment no
match at all for the gladiator of the seminaries, whose skill
and success in such encounters confirmed him in his belief
that the cause was good and the reasoning unanswerable
which appeared, so far, to be easily and triumphantly
defensible.23 If the clergy were ignorant and socially
unpresentable, and so had little to teach, the condition of
the schools was hardly more satisfactory. It is difficult to
understand how the rising generation during the early years
of Elizabeth's reign received any education at all. Up to
the time of the dissolution of the monasteries there were
not seventy schools in England unconnected with monastic

I02 ONE GENERATION OF

institutions. "How important a part these latter played in
the education of the country is evident from the necessity
which was acknowledged of making provision for the
training of youth out of the suppressed abbeys ; and in the
last twelve years of the reign of Henry VIII. no less than
thirty-eight grammar-schools were founded, partly out of
the abbey lands and partly by the munificence of private
benefactors. In Edward VI. 's short reign the number was
increased by fifty-one, of which twenty-seven claim the
King as their founder ; seventeen more were established in
the following reign ; and about eighty more were built and
endowed during the first thirty years of Queen Elizabeth. ^4
Thus the whole number of schools in England, even in
the latter half of the Queen's reign, scarcely reached two
hundred, and these, with the Universities and the Inns of
Court, represented the whole educational machinery of the
country ; for as for the private schoolmaster, he was a
person who in those days had scarcely any existence. No
man might exercise the vocation of schoolmaster at all
except he were duly licensed by the bishop of the diocese in
which he resided, and at any moment he was liable to be
called to account for his opinions, political and theological.
Meanwhile, considerable efforts were made from time to
time to raise the standard of education at the schools, and
extraordinary favour was shown to schoolmasters in various
ways. They were regarded as a privileged class, and their
social status appears to have been higher as a rule than
that of the beneficed clergy : they were exempted from the
payment of taxes of all kinds, and from many burdens
which pressed upon other members of the commonwealth,
and the favour shown to them on many occasions was con-
spicuous.^5 But there was no unanimity in the teaching of
English schools ; each one had his own tricks which he
called his system, and each was only too ready to rush into
print and publish some new primer or elementary book,
whereby he hoped to get for himself notice, reward, or fame.
The whole state of education in England was chaotic, and
to this must be added the fact that there was a great deal

A NORFOLK HOUSE 103

of coarse brutality in the discipline. Ascham's beautiful
Schole master lets us into a great deal, and shows the
interest that was taken in the subject of education among
the upper classes in Elizabeth's reign ; but it shows us too
that the good schoolmasters were few and the books bad,
and the commonest feeling among schoolboys was '* the
butcherlie fear in making Latines " which their pedagogues
inspired of malice prepense. On the other hand, prodigious
reforms had been wrought in education on the Continent.
In Saxony, Wiirtemberg — above all at Strasburg — normal
schools had been established w^hose reputation had spread
over Europe. Their "directors" were men not only of
profound learning but of immense earnestness and enthu-
siasm, who contrived to animate their scholars with a
thirst for knowledge and the higher culture which knew
no bounds. In England the pedagogues knew only one
way of getting their pupils to learn anything — viz., by an
unsparing use of the rod. In Germany this engine was
almost banished from the schools which flourished so
marvellously. There, too, the books were incomparably
superior to our own : we were as yet in the barbaric stage.^^
Nor, while the Protestant schools were gaining for them-
selves renown, were the Jesuits idle : it is in the domain
of education that the Society of Jesus has achieved its most
solid triumphs. Little inclined as Lord Bacon was to look
with favour upon the followers of Loyola, he yet has left
us a generous testimony to the excellence of their schools
and colleges. The organisation of these seminaries in the
sixteenth century was far in advance of anything known on
our side of the Channel. Their school-books were con-
fessedly far superior to our own, and their discipline was
vigilant and protective beyond anything that had ever been
known in England. ^7

Though Cardinal Allen's colleges were not meant to be
Jesuit colleges, and were as a rule under the government
and direction of secular clergy, yet they were, of course,
organised after the most approved Jesuit model, and it was
not long before they became deservedly celebrated for the

I04 ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE

quality of the instruction they imparted, and the high tone
which their scholars exhibited. They were '* gentlemanly "
places of education : a man could hardly send a son to
Douay or St. Omer if he were not a man of fortune.
Moreover, he certainly would not send him there if he were
satisfied with what he could find nearer home : every
English lad who crossed the sea to get his education
elsewhere was by the very fact of his leaving the kingdom
shown to be the son of a malcontent — of one who at best
was not content with the education patronised, fostered,
and sanctioned by the Queen's ministers, and who almost
certainly had strong leanings towards Eoman doctrine, and
favoured Rome's claims. For a while no notice was taken
of the new colleges. No great difficulty seems to have been
experienced by the gentry in getting licences for their
children to travel abroad, and one after another they
crossed over, usually in small companies, and often under
the care of a trusty tutor, who in many cases went in the
disguise of a merchant or trader engaged in commercial
undertakings. But when Douay College began to assume
more formidable proportions, and when from small
beginnings it grew into an institution which aimed at
supplying England with a regular succession of missionary
clergy, every one of whom was bound to do his utmost to
convert the "heretics" and to bring them back to the
bosom of the Catholic Church, then the existence of this
Douay College became a standing menace, and to ignore it
was no longer possible. The irritation of the government
was extreme ; the provocations offered by the Catholic
exiles and their supporters abroad never ceased; and just
when the Queen's ministers were most perplexed, the
tidings came that the Society of Jesus was to enter upon
a mission to England, and that Fathers Parsons and
Campion had set out from Rome.

NOTES TO CHAPTEK III

1. Page 86. Wright's Queen Elizabeth and her Times, i. 331.
Froucle's History of England, ix. c. 18.

2. Page 87. Lingard, vi. 110. The text of the Bull may be seen
in Tierney's Dodd, vol. iii. Appendix, and a translation of it in Fuller's
Church History, b. ix. cent. xvi. sect. ii. § 24.

3. Page 93. This is the impression left upon my mind after much
reading on the subject and much careful weighing of evidence, printed
and in manuscript. Tierney's note in Dodd, vol. iii. p. 12, does not satisfy
me or in any way shake the conviction I have arrived at. But see Fuller's
Church History, u.s. ; Berington's Memoirs of Panzani, Int. p. 15 ; and
especially Simpson's Life of Campion, p. 62.

4. Page 93. See Mr. Simpson's valuable reprint, " A Larum for
London, or the Siege of Antwerp," with its wonderfully learned Intro-
duction. It is surprising that this notable contribution to Shaksperian
literature should have attracted such little notice.

5. Page 94. See Nichols's Progresses and Public Processions of
Queen Elisabeth, vol. ii. pp. 108-225. The dates given in the text are
from the MS. Records of the Privy Council, to which I was allowed access
in 1875.

6. Page 94. Lawshall was the seat of Henky Druey, second son of
Sir William Druby of Hawstead ; his elder brother Robert had died
during his father's lifetime, leaving, by Audrey, daughter of Richard
Lord Rich, William Drury, his son and heir ; this William was living
at Hawstead when Queen Elizabeth was on her progress. The Drurys
were suspected, not without reason, of having no love for the " new
learning." It is clear that Sir William Drury, who died in 1557, was
a devout Catholic. In his will, besides other bequests which indicate his
leanings, he leaves a " vestiment with the Albe and all that belongeth to
it, for a priest to sing in." — (Cullum's Hawstead, p. 149.) His son
Henry had been returned as absent abroad, without a licence, in 1576,
and must have lately come back to Lawshall when the Queen visited his
house ; two of his daughters, Dorothy and Frances, were married
respectively to Robert Rookwood of Coldham Hall, co. Suffolk, and
James Hubbard of Hailes Hall, co. Norfolk, and are frequently presented
with their husbands as obstinate Recusants. John Drury of Godwick,
CO. Norfolk, another of the family, figures as a Recusant again and again
in the Holkam Charters, Nos. 920-940, Cullum is certainly wrong in
supposing that Sir William Drury the younger lived at Lawshall ; he

105

io6 ONE GENERATION OF

had just rebuilt Hawstead House. His uncle Heney is described as of
Lawshall in the list of Suffolk Kecusants as late as 1594. — Karl. MSS.
6998, No. 165.

7. Page 94. There were two families of the name of Rookwood in
Suffolk—

(1) Rookwood of Staningfield, to which family belonged Ambrose

Rookiooodf who was hung for complicity in the Gunpowder
Plot.

(2) Rookwood of Euston, whose representative, Edward Rookwood,

was Queen Elizabeth's host.

The two families bore different arms, but both were staunch and
devoted Catholics, and suffered severely during the whole of Elizabeth's
reign. When James I.'s accession brought no alleviation to the Catholics,
who had looked to him to relieve them from the pressure of the penal
laws, such men as Ambrose Rookwood grew desperate and were ready
for anything. Edward Rookwood of Euston was utterly beggared by the
exactions levied upon him, and I find him in the Fleet Prison for debt
in 1619 ; how long he continued there I know not, but he died in 1634,
a3t. 79. There is a very fair account of the Euston Rookwoods in Page's
Supplement to the Suffolk Traveller, p. 775, and a very minute account
of both families in Davy's 3ISS. in the British Museum.

The following is extracted from Topcliffe's letter giving an account of
this Royal Progress, 'and is too characteristic to be omitted here.
Topcliffe's spelling is so original that I cannot but reproduce it. " This
Rookewoode is a Papyste of kynde newly crept out of his layt warde-
shipp. Her Ma'y, by some meancs I know not, was lodged at his house,
Ewston, farre unmeet for her Highness, but fitter for the blacke garde ;
nevertheles (the gentilman brought into her Ma'y'^ presence by lyke
device) her excell* Ma*y gave to Rookewoode ordenary thanks for his badd
house, and her fayre hand to kysse ; after vf^^ it was brayved at : But
my Lo. Chamberlayn, noblye and gravely understandinge that Rooke-
woode was excommunicated for Papistrie, cawled him before him ;
demanded of him how he durst presume to attempt her reall presence,
he, unfytt to accompany any Chrystyan person ; forthewith sayd he was
fytter for a pay re of stocks ; comanded hym out of the Coort, and yet to
attende her Counsell's pleasure ; and at Norwycbe he was comytted.
And, to dissyffer the gent, to the full ; a peyce of plaite being missed
in the Coorte, and serched for in his hay house, in the hay rycke suche
an immaydge of o"" Lady was ther fownd, as for greatnes, for gayness,
and woorkemanshipp, I did never see a matche ; and, after a sort of
cuntree daunces ended, in her Ma^y'^ sighte the idoll was sett behinde the
people, who avoyeded : She rather seemed a beast, raysed uppon a
sudden from hell by conjewringe, than the picture for whome it had
bene so often and longe abused. Her Ma^y comanded it to the fyer, w*^^
in her sight by the cuntrie folks was quickly done, to her content, and

A NORFOLK HOUSE 107

unspeakable joy of every one bat some one or two who had sucked of the
idoll's poysoned mylke."

8. Page 94, She was the daughter of George Perient, Gent., of
Digswell, CO. Hertford, and widow of Sir Humphrey Style of Bekenham,
CO. Kent. Thomas Townshend, Esq., was son and heir of Sir Robert
TowNSHEND, Knt., Chief-Justice of Chester. Meegate Hall, where
Queen Elizabeth dined, is still a house of some pretension, and part of
the old oak avenue down which the Queen rode remains, though the
hand of time is upon the trees, and they are dying fast. Captain Lacon,
the present occupant of the house, tells me that there is still a tradition
of one of the rooms having been inhabited by a priest. There are some
indications of the house having been at one time larger than it is now,
but it was not necessary that a house in which the Queen dined should
be one of any great size. It must be borne in mind that on the occasion
of these "Progresses" the royal retinue were usually compelled to
encamp in the neighbourhood of a halting-place. These royal visits
were a dreadful infliction upon any but the very rich gentry: even so
considerable a person as Sir William More of Losely spared no pains to
get relieved from the costly and burdensome honour, and in the Losely
MSS.f Kemp, p. 265 et seq., are several letters on the subject.

Lady Style died in January 1580, but five years after her death I find
her name on a list of recusants " dead and not resident in Norff." There
was another Thomas Townshend living at Wearham, who with his wife,
Marian Townshend, was presented to the bishop as a recusant in June
1597, and frequently afterwards. They were living at Wearham in the
second year of James I. ; and his son [?] Thomas is returned as late as
20 Charles 1., when he paid £6 IBs. 4d. for recusancy. — {MSS. in the
Episcopal Registry at Norwich, and Hecusant Roll, penes me.) The
cousin referred to in the text was Edmund Townshend of Long Stratton.

9. Page 95. Blomefield's account of the Townshend family (vii.
132) is hopelessly confused and full of inaccuracies. He makes this
Thomas to be son of a Henry Townshend (ii. 84) ; he was really son and
heir of Sir Robert Townshend of Ludlow, co. Salop. There is a good
account of him, and a tolerably successful attempt to unravel Blome-
field's tangle, by an American gentleman, Mr. Charles Hervey Townshend
of New Haven, Connecticut, in the New England Historic Genealogical
Register for January 1875. Some light is thrown upon Mr. Townshend's
state and lordly way of life by the will of Richard Walpole {supra,
p. 49, 1. 19), who in his will, dated 20th March, 1568-9, leaves behind him
a considerable estate, and among other legacies bequeaths " to my good
master, Thomas Townshend, Esquire, in token of my poor heart and
duty, a piece of gold of thirty shillings, and another piece of gold of lyke
value to my good lady my mistress. Item, I give to master Roger
Townshend my master his son £10 to make him a little chain withal in

io8 ONE GENERATION OF

remembrance of me. . . . Item, To Thomas Baeker my fellow in house-
hold ten shillings." He leaves his brother, Terry Walpole, and
Thomas Townshend, Esq., his executors. It is clear that he and Thomas
Barker were gentlemen in ^vaiting to Mr. Townshend. In the sixteenth
century this position was looked upon as quite an honourable position
for the younger sons even of men of distinction.

Thomas Townshend of Eaynham, son and heir of Thomas Townshend
of Braconash, was admitted at the Inner Temple, 1595-6.

10. Page 95. This daye there appeared before their LL as warned
by the Sheriff e of Norff. by authority given to him by the said LL . . .

^iSic'] EOOKWOOD, KOBERT DOWNES, HuMFREY BeNINGFIELD DE QuIDENHAM,

gent, KoBERT DE Grey de Martin, Esq., John Downes de Boughton,
gent., John Drury de Goodwik', gent. And being sev'ally called one by
one, the Bishoppe of the Diocesse and S"" Christopher Heydon and S*^
Willam Butts Knights being pfit they were particularly charged that
contrary to all good Lawes and orders and against the dutie of good
subjects they refused to come to the Churche at the tymes of prayer
Sermons and other Devine s'vices. Ev'y one of them confessed y^ it
was true that they did absent themselves from the Churche as aforesaid.
And being demaunded by their LL whither they wold not be contented
to conforme themselves to order, and like good subjects to come to the
Church ev'y one of them likewise refused so to do, uppon w^'^ their
refusall they were commanded to stand apart. And after their LL had
thus passed throughe them all and had conferred w'^^ the B. to under-
stond howe many of them had ben formerly dealt withall to be induced
to conformitye and howe many not. There was called again . , .
BoocKwooD and for as much as it appeared that he had not only bene
conferred withal but for his continuance in y«^ case stood excommunicate,
he was ordered by their LL to be committed prison to the Goale of the
Countie of Norff. there to remayne w^'out conference saving of such as
shold be thought meet by the B. either for his better instructions or for
direction of his necessary businesses of his living and family. Next
there was called againe Rob't Downes, and for that it appeared that he
had also been formly dealt w"'all and stood obstinate, it was ordered that
he shold be committed pison' to the Goale of the Citty of Norwich to
remaine there in like sorte in all poynts as ... . Rockwood was
appoynted to remaine in the goale of the Countie. And where it appeared
that HuMFREY Beningfield, Rob't de Grey, John Downes, John Drury
had not bene aforetyme dealt with by the B. in that case they four being
called altogether before their LL were ordered that they shold ev'y of
them enter into bonds to her Ma^'^s use in 200" a peece, that they shold
not depart from their lodgings appoynted unto them in the Citty of
Norwich and that they shold once ev'y day as often as they shalbe sent
conferre w"^ the L. B. or such as he shall appoynt for their better
Instructions to bring them to conformitye.

A NORFOLK HOUSE 109

And like as their LL required the L. B. to use all good meanes that he
might by himself e and his learned Preachers to recov' them to good
order. So by their LL he was authorized that in case he shold find any
of them willing to give him assurance for his obedience and conformitye
in this case, that they were charged w'^ his L. shold give order for the
deliv'aunce of any such as shewed himselfe so conformable. And on the
other syde if they w^'^ were appoynted to remayne within the Cittye out
of the Goales do not before the feast of St. Michaell next coming yeld
themselves upon such instruction as shalbe given unto them to con-
formitie and be contented to deliv' assurance to the B. for the same, His
L. by this order shall have authoritie to committ them that shall stand
so obstinate to th'one goale or th'other at his discretion there to remaine
in such manfi as ... . Koockwood and Robert Downes are appoynted
to do : untill uppon their reformation he shall find cause of their
deliv'aunce, and he shall thereof advertise the LL of the Counsell to
receave order for further proceading against them.

The next daye following there were called before their LL for the cause
aforesaid Tho. Lovell of East Harling, Robf:rt Lovell de Becham-
WELL, and Ferdinando Paris de Norton Armig' Who standing uppon
like obstinacye were in like sort committed to remayne at their lodginge
in the Citty of Norw^^ as Bebingfield and the rest were, And the like
bonds taken of them as of the otheres and to be used in all poyntes as
th'other.

^The L. Treasurer .
The L. Chamberlaine
The E. of Warwicke
The presence ! The E. of Leycester
of i S-- Chr. Hatton

S*- Era. Knollys
S"" James Crofte
\M^ Seer. Wilson

(Endorsed.) An order taken by the LL touching the Recusants
in Norff. 22 August, 1578.

Cotton MSS. Titus, B. iii. No. 66.

11, Page 95. Nichols' Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, ii. p. 132. The
verses presented by Downes to Queen Elizabeth are given in the Norf.
and Nor%v. Arch. Orig. Papers, vol. iii. p. 214. It is not to be wondered
at that Nichols should have made the mistake he has made in the
Christian names of the Downes family ; trusting as he did to Blomefield,
he could hardly avoid being led astray, for here Blomefield exhibits inextric-
able confusion. Robert Downes was of Great Melton, Esq. By his wife
Dorothy he had a son Edward, who was baptized 6th April, 1574 (P.R.),
and a daughter Bridget, who with her mother is returned upon the
Recusant Rolls as owing money for recusancy in 1597, This Robert

at the making
of the said order.

no ONE GENERATION OF

appears to have had a brother John, who is presented for recusancy while
living at Babingley from 1592 till 1603. In his offer of compounding
for his fines in 1585, he describes himself as " a poor younger brother."
EoBERT DowNES, who Suffered such hard treatment in 1578, built Great
Melton Hall, in which the Rev. H. Evans Lombe now resides (Blome-
field, V. 21), and was a man of large property in the county. Blomefield
says that his son Edward married Catherine, relict of Sir Thos. Knyvett
of Buckenham Castle. Lady Knyvett is presented for recusancy in
1597, being then described as wife of Edward Downes, Esq., of Bucken-
ham, when she must have been a woman of forty at least. Melton Hall
must have been in Queen Elizabeth's time one of the noblest mansions
in the county, but its first owner was so impoverished by the remorseless
exactions levied upon him that he was compelled to sell the estate in
1609. It seems that the purchaser, Thos. Anguish, bought the house
with all its contents, for there was still to be seen a bedstead of Mr.
Downes's in the house in Blomefield 's time (Bl., v. 21). Mr. Downes was
in the city jail at Norwich in 1580, where he was incarcerated with
Michael Hare of Stow Bardolph, Roger Martin of Long Melford, co.
Suffolk, Humphrey Bedingfield of Quidenham, and Edward Sulyard,
Esqs. The five gentlemen "had a common chamber and table, where
they met and eat their meals together." Strype tells a very curious
story of Mr. Downes receiving a letter from a certain Solomon Eldred
at Rome, urging him to leave England and come to Italy, where he
would be received with distinction, &c. The gentlemen " could not but
laugh, and it became some matter of mirth to them." They appear to
have taken to romping, and at last Downes snatched the letter out of
Mr. Hare's hand and threw it in the fire. "This presently made a
noise, and the report came to the Bishop's ears." The affair ended by an
inquiry which resulted in some letters and statements signed by the
gentlemen being sent to the bishop, copies of which may be read in
Strype, AnnaU, II. ii. 343 and 676.

12. Fage 97. See the pitiful account in Morris's Condition of Catholics
under James I., pp. 35-9. See, too, Lingard, vi. 162; but instances
might be adduced by the score. The third volume of Tierney's Dodd
may be referred to as easily accessible, but by far the most complete
account of the suffering of the Catholics in Queen Elizabeth's reign, until
the appearance of Mr. Morris's Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers, was
to be found in Yepez , Historia Particular de la Persecusion de Inglaterra,
published at Madrid in 1596.

13. Page 97. See Froude, vol. ix. p. 515. The authority for the
statements in the text are to be found among the MSS. at the Record
Office, Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. Ixxv. n. 31, vol. xcii. n. 31.

14. Page 97. The affidavits and correspondence bearing upon this
dreadful business are to be seen in Harleian MSS. 6998, n. 19. A little

A NORFOLK HOUSE in

while after this Topoliffe compelled his servant, one Nicholas Jones, to
marry the girl, and when her father refused to settle a manor upon her
as a jointure he kept the wretched man in prison for upwards of ten
years, persecuting him with extreme barbarity. — Lamdowne MSS. Ixxiii.
art. 47. Tierney's Dodd, vol. iii. App. p. 197.

15. Page 98. Stonyhurst MSS. Angl. A. n. 83. It appears by Harleian
MSS. 6998, n. 50, that the bond was for £3,000.

16. Page 98. Harleian MSS. u.s. p. 185. The editor of the Harleian
Catalogue, who usually describes minutely the contents of every docu-
ment contained In the several volumes, dismisses this one with a notice
of six lines, though, as he tells us, " the book contains 251 leaves."

17. Page 98. Challoner's Missionary Priests, i. 361.

18. Page 98. Topcliffe's name became in his own days a byword.
See the following letter from Standen to Anthony Bacon, 2nd March,
1593-4. "... Yet thanks be to God his [Eobert, Earl of Essex]
carriage hath been such now, as her Majesty hath found the rareness
of his parts, and all with such mildness and affability, contrary to our
Topcliffian customs, as he hath won with words more than others would
ever do withracTcs.^' — Birch's Elizabeth, i. 160. In a letter to Verstegan
among the Bp. of Southwark's MSS. there is an account of the apprehen-
sion of Southwell. The writer says, ' ' Because the often exercise of the
rack in the Tower was so odious and so much spoken of of the people,
Topcliffe hath authority to torment priests in his own house in such sort
as he shall think good. ..." The date of this letter is 3rd August,
1592.

19. Page 99. There is a list of them given in Cardinal Allen's tract
De Justitia Britannica, but it is, of course, very incomplete.

20. Page 100. See Simpson's Campion, p. 45 et seq.

21. Page 101. Morris's Troubles, 1st series, p. 61 et seq. ; Challoner's
Miss. Priests; Lingard, vol. vi. 163. For the number of ordinations
my authority is the Douai Diary, lately published by the Fathers of the
Oratory. There is a careful account of the various colleges and semi-
naries which were founded for the English Catholics in Tierney's Dodd,
and a brief but sufficient one in the Hon. Edward Petre's Notices of the
English Colleges and Convents Established on the Continent. The book
was edited by the late Dr. Husenbeth. See, too, Lingard, vi. 162.

22. Page 101. See the remarkable discussion between Archbishop
Whitgift and Cartwright. Answer to Admonition, chap. i. div. ix. and
div. xi. ; Whitgift's Works, Parker Society ; and the important paper

112 ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE

quoted by Froude, xi. 323, n. Parsons {Responsio ad duo Edicta) treats
this subject in his usual caustic fashion and with his usual power. While
this note was passing through the press, Harrison's Description of
England was issued by the New Shakspere Society. His account at page 3
of the clergy of his time is 'in their favour, but I am inclined to think
that his own words at page 21 represent a truer state of the case.

23. Page 101. Simpson's Campion, pp. 163-4.

24. Page 102. Commissioners' Report upon the Endowed Schools,
Chronological Tables, p. 36 et seq. On the other hand, it is evident that
when any of the older schools in out-of-the-way districts were possessed
of landed estates, such estates were by no means safe from spoliation.
A flagrant case is that of Sedbergh School. — Baker's History of St. John^s,
by Professor Mayor, p. 371.

25. Page 102. See the curious instance of Brown the Separatist,
East Anglian, vol. i. p. 180 ; and on the whole subject, Strype, Annals,
in. i. 76. Conspicuous examples of the favour shown to schoolmasters
are Camden, Simon Hay ward, and Mulcaster. Many others might be
named.

26. Page 103. "Von Eaumer, Geschichte der Padagogik, Stuttgart, 1857.

27. Page 103. " The liberal education of youth passed almost entirely
into their hands, and was conducted by them with conspicuous ability.
They appear to have discovered the precise point to which intellectual
culture can be carried without risk of intellectual emancipation. Enmity
itself was compelled to own that, in the art of managing and forming
the tender mind, they had no equals." — Macaulay, History of England,
c. vi. There is a curious notice of their schools in Sir Edwin Sandys's
Travels, but I have not the book at hand. The passage in Bacon referred
to in the text is Advancement of Learning, B. I. c. iii. § 4.

CHAPTER IV.

THE JESUIT MISSION TO ENGLAND.

"Not only the number, but the severity of these laws, is very con-
siderable : How often do we meet with new-minted treasons, and
unaccountable felonies in them? Here is hanging, drawing, and
quartering ; here is bridewelling, banishing, and seUing of people to
slavery ; here is forfeiting of lands, goods, common right, and all the
natural privileges of free-born Englishmen ; people convicted in an
arbitrary way, without trial by their peers ; one man punished for the
act of another. The poor distressed widow and the helpless orphan not
escaping their fury. And for what all this? Not for any disloyalty,
conspiracy, or disturbing the public peace : not for injuring any of our
neighbours or fellow-subjects : for nothing criminal by any law, moral
or divine ; but only for worshipping our Almighty Creator, according
to our light, after the best manner we can (after a serious inquiry)
apprehend to be acceptable unto Him. Or for not joining in certain
rituals and ceremonies, which the imposers themselves confess to be
indifferent, and the dissenters conceive to be either sinful or unwarrant-
able."— Henry Care's Draconica [1688].

The Bull of Pope Paul III., Begimini militantis EcclesicB,
which confirmed the Society of Jesus, was published on the
27th September, 1540. So little did men anticipate the
importance and magnitude of the work that the new Order
was destined to do, and the wonderful part which it was to
play in the history of the world, that the new Society was
expressly limited at first to sixty members, and not till a
new Bull (Injiinctum nobis) was promulgated three years
later was this limit exceeded. The Society in the first
years of its activity numbered few Englishmen among its
fathers, and the only one who appears to have been admitted
during Loyola's lifetime was Thomas Lith, a Londoner, of

8 "3

114 ONE GENERATION OF

whom we know no more than that he was received, probably
as a Novice, in June 1555.^

St. Ignatius died in the following year, having survived
four of his original associates, and leaving behind him five
(and these by far the most learned) apostles of the new
Order. It was not till after Queen Mary's death had
driven across the Channel that army of scholars and
enthusiasts, upon whom the rigour of Elizabeth's enact-
ments pressed so hard, that the Jesuits' ranks were at all
recruited from England. During the first ten years of the
Catholic exodus I find between twenty and thirty names
admitted to the Society, though, with the exception of those
of Eliseus and Jasper Heywood, there is scarcely one which
is anything more than a name.^ Though it be indisputable
that the excommunication of the Queen, followed as it was
by the events alluded to in the previous chapter, produced
upon the townsfolk and the great middle class precisely the
contrary effect to that which was hoped and intended, yet
among the Academics of either university, and among the
more highly educated of the youth of England, the perplexity
was considerable. The young scholars of Oxford were still
trained in a great measure according to the old fashion.
Anglican theology had as yet no existence. Hooker had
not written a line. Andrewes was lecturing to crowded
audiences at Cambridge, but his fame was but beginning.
Jewel, the great anti-papal champion, had died in 1571,
leaving no one who was at all qualified to take his place ;
and though he had left a valuable legacy behind him in his
Apology^ yet that work was only an apology after all, and
from its negative character and the unimpassioned style of
its composition it could never convince any one, still less
" carry away " a reader.

Meanwhile the other side were exhibiting a dialectic
ability which has rarely been surpassed. Young men,
whose intellects were alert, excited, and eager, plunged into
the great questions of the day with a zest which was apt to
lead them on to side with the persecuted party. The fact
that the plebeian was given over to Calvin and Puritanism

A NORFOLK HOUSE 115

was reason enough to make the "gentleman" lean to
the Eomish cause. When he looked about for sources of
information on the great questions at issue, he preferred to
bury himself in the elaborate treatises of Laynez or
Salmeron, composed in the scholars' own language, or to
read what Bristowe or that great master of Latin, Stapleton,3
had to say in periods which did not jar against the fastidious
Ciceronian 's ear. He left to the " mob " the cumbrous
heaviness of Fulke and Cranmer. Then, as now, the
members of the common room were of the Pharisees' mind
— " this people that knoweth not the law are cursed." And
thus it came to pass that notwithstanding all the errors
and crimes of the Catholic party at home and abroad, not-
withstanding that every career was sternly barred to the
ambitious Academic who had any fond clinging to the old
learning, and was not prepared to throw himself heart and
soul into the party of progress and theological revolution,
there yet was a very numerous minority whose sympathies
were wholly with the Eoman divines, and who were
preparing themselves silently and unconsciously for great
sacrifices when they should be called on finally to make
their choice.

Such men were William Holt of Oriel, Henry Garnet and
John Pits of New College, and, among those elders whose
university position was established and their reputation
made, Gregory Martin and Edmund Campion of St. John's,
and Robert Parsons of Balliol. Any party that had won
over from its opponents such adherents as these in the
course of a year or two might be pardoned a little exultation
in its tone ; and however remarkable these converts were,
and however conspicuous for learning, culture, and ability,
they were but the representatives of a much larger band
of zealots, who were ready to follow wherever they led.
Prominent among them all, not so much for his learning
or eloquence as for a dauntless force of character, which
compelled submission to his will, was Robert Parsons,
fellow of Balliol. Of plebeian birth — calumny was loud in
asserting something more — he was early taken by the hand

ii6 ONE GENERATION OF

by his uncle, "a virtuous good priest," named James
Hayward, Vicar of Nether Stowey, and sent to Balliol, of
which college he became fellow, and eventually Bursar and
Dean. At Oxford he had won a high reputation as an able
and successful tutor, though in his own college there were
those who watched him with jealousy and suspicion. A
formidable disputant, unsparing in conflict and incapable of
tolerating contradiction, he was one of those who are born
to rule, who when they occupy any position but the highest
become arrogant and domineering by their excess of energy,
and who rarely fail to get themselves the implacable hatred
of their opponents. The life of Eobert Parsons has not yet
been written : his career and character demand a more
careful study than they have yet received, and the place
which he filled in the history of his time has been very
much under-estimated by historians ; but his is a career
perplexing to follow and a character difficult to estimate :
the salient points are his enormous capacity of work, his
rugged directness of style, the ferocious violence of his
rhetoric, and yet withal a certain vein of rollicking humour,
the expression of that amazing exuberance of vigour which
marks him as one of the Titans of his age. Side by side with
some coarseness in the grain and no little vulgarity in the
manner of the man, with a combativeness that repelled and
irritated but never convinced, there were associated some
very lofty and noble qualities. He was a courtier, whose
success was patent to all ; his ascendancy over Philip II.
was unbounded ; his influence at Eome was scarcely less
than at the Escurial ; the English Jesuits, for a time, he
seems to have held in the hollow of his hand ; we shall
mistake him much if we think of him as a mere man of the
world, animated by any mean and common ambition. If
there ever were a real enthusiast, absorbed by a genuine
fanaticism in a cause which he believed to be the cause
of God, Robert Parsons was one ; mere petty selfishness
appears to have been a vice he could not understand. Nor
was this all : he was a pietist of the most ecstatic school.
His Christian Directory was, for a century at least, one of

A NORFOLK HOUSE 117

the most popular and widely circulated religious manuals in
Europe, and was the book which made so deep an impres-
sion upon Kichard Baxter that he dated the beginning of
his religious life from the time when he first became
awakened by its fervid and soul-stirring appeal to the
conscience. In the next century, too, a very different man,
Edward Gibbon, confessed to his kinsman Lord Sheffield
that Parsons' Three Conversions had been the means of
converting him to become a Catholic. And yet, with all
his prodigious force and vehemence, and with all the
immense agencies which he had at his command. Parsons'
generalship was flagrantly bad. Restlessly aggressive, he
never seemed to be able to understand what conciliation
meant : he would have all or nothing ; he could never bide
his time ; he could never temporise ; he could never even
economise his resources. Knowing as he did that for a
Jesuit father to land in England during the latter years of
Queen Elizabeth's reign was to court almost certain death,
he yet hurled man after man against the hosts that were
waiting for them, with a recklessness almost horrible to
recall. We are tempted to regard him as a monomaniac,
mastered by an idea which had got such entire possession
of his whole nature that his judgment was not only per-
verted but even smitten with the blindness of insanity.
What was that idea? To me it seems Parsons' delusion
was that the English Jesuits were destined to reconvert
England, and to hand back to the Papacy a nation saved
from " heresy," humbled by remorse, and seeking reconcile-
ment once again on bended knees at the hands of the
Bishop of Rome. A delusion indeed ! but such a delusion
as no logic of facts could dispel. Facts, however strong,
were lost upon him, just because of the strength of that
delusion. But let no man attempt to understand Parsons'
enormous blunders, or his desperate ventures, or his
extravagant arrogance, on the hypothesis of his being a cool
politician, with far-sighted sagacity and astute diplomacy, —
these things were exactly what he was deficient in. Say
rather he was a passionate partisan, without a glimmer of

ii8 ONE GENERATION OF

sentiment, without romance, with few moments of tender-
ness or pity, and absolutely deficient in those qualities
which are the main constituents of the poetic temperament.
Such characters may be titanic, audacious, terrible, but
nations and men are not converted by them ; and in the
great conflict of opinions, in that " bridal dawn of thunder
peals," when the deepest convictions of mankind are to be
reached and swayed, the enthusiasm of mere obstinate
determination repels and scares, it is the enthusiasm of love
and self-sacrifice which prevails.^

A very different man was Edmund Campion of St.
John's. He too could boast but little of his birth. His
father, we are told, was a bookseller and citizen of London,
a man of no large means, though there is some reason
to believe he was connected by marriage with people who
moved in a higher social circle than his own. He had
given early promise of remarkable ability, was sent to
Oxford, and became in process of time fellow of St. John's
College. Here he gained for himself the character of
being the most brilliant scholar in the university — con-
spicuous for his extraordinary readiness in debate, and
for oratorical powers of a very high order. When Amy
Robsart's funeral was celebrated at St. Mary's in 1560,
Campion, though little more than twenty years of age,
was one of those chosen to pronounce a funeral oration
in her honour ; five years later he performed the same
task at the funeral of Sir Thomas White, the founder of
his college ; and when, in 1566, Queen Elizabeth paid her
visit to Oxford, Campion was one of those chosen to
"dispute" before the Queen, and acquitted himself so well
that he made a very favourable impression, and attracted
the special notice of her Majesty, who commended him to
the patronage of Leicester, while even Cecil admired and
applauded. He was Proctor in 1568, but by this time his
position at the university had become untenable. The
oath of allegiance was pressed upon him ; he took it, but
his conscience would not suffer him to be at ease. Scruples
crowded upon him till he could find no peace. Under

A NORFOLK HOUSE 119

the protection of Sir Henry Sidney, the Lord-Deputy, he
crossed over to Ireland ; but he was a marked man. The
pursuivants were soon let loose upon him. He managed
to elude their vigilance, and after one or two narrow
escapes he succeeded in crossing over to Calais, in the
summer of 1571. Making his way to Douay, he remained
for a year at the new college, and then set out for Eome.
Next year he offered himself to the Society of Jesus and
was at once accepted. For the next four years his sphere
of labour was in Bohemia.

It had been for some time a scheme of the Court party
in Bohemia to revive the waning glory of the University
of Prague, and by its instrumentality, through the Jesuits,
to recover for the Pope the ascendancy which had been
lost since the days of Huss and Jerome. The emperor,
Eudolph II., and his mother the dowager empress, sister
of Philip II. and mother of his fourth wife, was deeply
interested in the success of the plan, and spared no pains
to bring it about. Campion was appointed Professor of
Ehetoric, and became the leading spirit of the university.
He threw himself with ardour into his work, and won
for himself on all sides admiration, affection, and esteem.
The university prospered, and the fame of the English
Professor grew and travelled far. Young Englishmen
on their journeys turned from the beaten track to confer
with the exile, whose reputation had followed him from
Oxford to the distant land. Some came with minds dis-
turbed by doubts and questioning; some from mere
curiosity ; one, Sir Philip Sydney, the pearl of English
chivalry, to renew an old acquaintance, and to exchange
kind courtesies with his father's friend. But Bohemia
was, after all, a banishment, and Campion could not be
left to spend his life there, though in the sunshine of a
court. This was mere trifling: there was something greater
for him to do; let scholars and students teach the lads
in the lecture-room, the martyr's crown was meant for
other brows. In December 1579 Campion was summoned
to Rome.

I20 ONE GENERATION OF

In the summer of that year Dr. Allen had been disturbed
by tidings regarding the state of affairs in the English
College at Eome, which moved him to set out for that
city. In the College there had been serious quarrels,
and the scandal which these had aroused had been made
the most of by all who watched the doings of the refugees
with jealousy and suspicion. Dr. Allen came as a peace-
maker, and his mediation was effectual, at any rate for
a while ; but while engaged in this work, the thought
which had long been slumbering in his mind acquired
a distinctness and power which no longer allowed of its
remaining inoperative, and he arrived at last at the con-
viction that the time had come when an effort should
be made, and made upon a large scale, for recovering
the English people from their lapse into heresy and schism
and bringing them once again into communion with the
See of Eome.

Hitherto, as I have said, the Jesuits were unknown
in England. From the Continent accounts had come of
their immense success as educational reformers, as inde-
fatigable missionaries, as proselytisers whose persuasive
powers were said to be almost more than human. They
seemed to be labouring everywhere, and wherever they
came they prospered unaccountably. The amazing rapidity
of growth, and the more amazing influence exercised by
the Society, startled and perplexed men least inclined to
be scared by vague rumours ; and all over Europe the
Protestant reformers began to ask themselves with some
anxiety where this astonishing ascendancy of the new
Order was to end.

When Dr. Allen arrived in Rome in 1579, three of
St. Ignatius' original associates were still living — Simon
Rodriguez, who died at Lisbon in the August of this year ;
Alphonsus Salmeron, then about sixty-four years old ;
and Nicholas Bobadilla, ten years his senior ; the General
of the Order being Everard Mercurianus, who had been
elected on the 1st October, 1572. Campion had been
his first " Postulant," and he appears to have felt

A NORFOLK HOUSE 121

a special interest in English ! affairs. When Dr. Allen
began to urge the necessity of a mission to England, he
did not lack supporters nor cogent arguments. ' Had not
the priests of his own seminaries shown a noble example
of heroism and courageous self-sacrifice ? Could they not
already boast of their martyrs ? Had not Cuthbert Mayne
obtained for himself the crown that fadeth not away, and
were there not multitudes who were ready to follow his
steps ? What had the Jesuits done for England that could
compare with the labours of the Seminarists ? They had
written enough ; let them practise as they preached." But
wilier counsellors took a different view of the situation ;
they doubted whether the Jesuit training was exactly the
best to prepare men for the rough work w^hich the more
fanatical Seminary priests were doing, on the whole, so
successfully. They hesitated to send away men of high
culture and great gifts to run the gauntlet of spies and
informers, to slink into hiding-places and assume disguises,
to resort to every kind of cunning trick for baffling the
vigilance of coarse and brutal detectives. If the Seminarists
did not shrink from these things, it did not follow that
the Jesuits were called upon to emulate them. The
Church could not afford to squander such precious material
in times like these, and the experiment was too hazardous
to justify the cost of the venture. But the counsels of
Dr. Allen and his supporters prevailed, and before the
spring of 1580 Pope Gregory XIII. had been induced to
sanction the new crusade. It was decided that the Society
of Jesus should take its part in a mission to England.

This is not the place to enter minutely into the history
of the strange expedition which started from Eome on
the 18th April, 1580 ; and the less needful, as it has been
told once for all by Campion's English biographer.

The whole company numbered, it seems, fourteen, and
at its starting was led by Bishop Goldw^ell of St. Asaph,
Laurence Vaux, the Prior of Manchester, Dr. Morton,
Penitentiary of St. Peter's, and four old priests from the
English Hospital at Kome. These, however, never crossed

122 ONE GENERATION OF

the Channel. It was soon found that men far advanced
in life, though they might give a certain dignity and
importance to the expedition, were not fitted for the
labours and dangers which had to be encountered ; and the
real " missioners " were the Jesuit Fathers and the younger
priests from Cardinal Allen's colleges, who were associated
with them as fellow-workers.

From the first Father Parsons was the manager and
moving spirit of the little band. Of commanding stature
and big of bone, never losing his presence of mind, ready
of speech and perfectly fearless, always cheerful and
fertile in resource, he proved himself on every occasion an
able leader, whom others might trust without hesitation
and follow without misgiving, s Campion was the preacher
and pietist, whose place was in the pulpit or the professor's
chair. With the two Jesuit priests there went a Jesuit
lay brother, Ealph Emerson, afterwards apprehended with
Father Weston, ^ who suffered an imprisonment of twenty
years for his companionship. Their departure from Rome
was celebrated with no little enthusiasm, and, though
professedly secret, the mission was actually heralded by
rumour all over Europe, and their every movement was
watched by English spies. They marched on foot, only
the old and feeble using horses ; and on the whole journey
we hear that Campion rode but once. They passed through
Bologna, Milan, Turin ; crossed the Alps by the Mount
Cenis, and at Geneva first adopted disguises. But their
appearance was too remarkable to escape notice, and once
they were in some danger from a cry arising in the streets
that they were monks or priests. The temptation to beard
Beza in his study was too great, and thither Parsons went,
and Campion as his servant. The details of the interview
are exceedingly interesting — how he admitted them with
reluctance — how he came forth at last "in his long black
gown and round cap, with ruffs about his neck, and his fair
long beard, and saluted them courteously" — how they
tried to drag him into an argument which he declined to
continue, " for he was busy " — and how at last the old man

A NORFOLK HOUSE 123

with diflflculty got rid of bhem, and bowed them out by the
help of his wife. But the lust of controversy was strong
among them, and with a somewhat Quixotic zeal Parsons
and Campion sent poor Beza a challenge to a public
disputation which never came off, for the challenge was
never delivered.

The Httle band arrived at St. Omer's in the beginning of
June, and here they learnt that the Queen of England had
particular information of their movements, and had issued
proclamations especially directed against them and their
plans. This and other serious news made them hesitate
for awhile ; but Parsons was not to be turned back, and by
some dexterous diplomacy he managed to reassure the
rest, and to bear down the opposition that was being
made to any advance. Bishop Goldwell, who was verging
on eighty years of age, though animated with all the zeal
and a great deal of the energy of youth, found on arriving
at Eheims that it would be madness for him to continue
the journey. His health had suffered already from the
fatigues of the last two months, and after addressing a
letter to the Pope, and stating that, in view of his intended
journey to England being well known to the Government,
it would be difficult and dangerous for him to land, but yet
if the Pope ordered him he was still prepared to go, he
reUnquished the attempt, and in the beginning of August
returned to Eome. ^ At Rheims the company separated
into five smaller bands, each intending to enter England by
a different port. There, too, another Jesuit Father, Thomas
Cottam, joined them, so that there were three Jesuit Fathers
and one lay brother in all.

Arrived at Calais, Parsons as usual took the lead, and
on the 11th June he crossed over to Dover, disguised as
a soldier from the Low Countries, his ready audacity carry-
ing him almost unchallenged through the searchers who
were actually on the look out for him and his friends.
Campion did not cross till the 24th. He was disguised as
a merchant of jewels, and Emerson passed as his servant.
Less fortunate than Parsons, he was stopped, brought before

124 ONE GENERATION OF

the Mayor of Dover, and narrowly escaped being sent up
to the Lords of the Council; but the Mayor released him,
and he arrived safely at last at the house of the Catholic
Club in Chancery Lane, on the 26th June, 1580.

Then began such an outburst of Catholic fervour as
England had not known for many a day. The researches
of Mr. Simpson have disclosed to us the fact that, some
time before the arrival of Parsons and his coadjutors, a
large and carefully organised society had been formed,
with the special object of co-operating with the missionary
priests, and furnishing them the means of carrying on their
work. A number of young men of property, all of them
belonging to the upper classes, and some of them possessed
of great wealth, banded themselves together to devote their
time and substance to the Catholic cause, and to act as
guides, protectors, and supporters of the priests who were
coming to "reduce" England. We know the names of
some of these young men, but it is quite certain that
we know only a few ; it is evident that Catholic sym-
pathisers were very much more numerous than has been
generally believed. Wherever Campion went he found an
eager audience. Five days after his landing he preached in
a house in Smithfield, which had been hired by Lord Paget,
"gentlemen of worship and honour" standing at the doors
and guarding the approaches. The effect of the sermon
was very great, the audience breaking forth into tears and
expressions of strong emotion. Sanguine people began to
believe that their fondest dreams would be realised, and
they talked wildly and foolishly. The Queen's Council
were kept informed of all that was going on ; but so
powerful was the combination of the " Comforters," as they
were called, that though the spies and informers did their
work sedulously, it was necessary to proceed with caution,
and not precipitate a crisis. Campion continued to lurk
about London and the neighbourhood for some time ; his
movements were watched, but for the present it seemed
unadvisable to attempt his apprehension. At the end of
August he was persuaded to write his famous Challenge,

A NORFOLK HOUSE 125

It was entrusted to a Hampshire gentleman of large means,
Pound by name, who at one time had been a courtier, but,
being strongly impressed by his religious convictions, had
retired from the world, and given himself up to the
exercises of devotion. He had been thrown into prison
more than once for his recusancy, and apparently, whilst
in the Marshalsea in 1578, had applied to be admitted into
the Society of Jesus. But Pound was an impulsive person,
and very soon this paper of Campion's became as widely
circulated as a royal proclamation. Meanwhile Campion
had left London and was wandering about the country,
handed from house to house by the agency of the Catholic
Club, and carefully watched over lest the pursuivants
should come upon him unawares. The myrmidons of the
law were outwitted and baffled, the Lords of the Council
became irritated and angry; proclamation followed pro-
clamation, but months passed, and Parsons and Campion
were still at large. The Catholics set up a printing press,
and published one book after another. The Government
tried their utmost to lay their hands upon it, but in vain.
At last the rack was resorted to, and seven of those who
at various times had been apprehended during the Jesuits'
campaign were cruelly tortured in the last month of 1580.
But marvellously little was extorted from them. Even one
of the printers was apprehended, but the press was still
undiscovered. Campion continued his labours, preaching
and writing incessantly, Parsons remaining in London
under the protection of the Spanish ambassador, who
treated him as one of his own retinue. But Campion's
time came at last, and on Sunday, the 16th July, 1581, he
was taken at Lyford in Berkshire, just after he had
preached to a congregation of more than sixty persons,
of whom a large proportion were young Oxford students.
On the 22nd he was committed close prisoner to the
Tower : a week after he was placed upon the rack, to force
him if possible to criminate himself, and under the intoler-
able torture he appears to have given up the names of
some of those who had befriended him. The information

126 ONE GENERATION OF

was not sufficient or not satisfactory, and as soon as he
could bear it he was racked again. Then followed certain
" controversies," which were held in the chapel of the
Tower ; the Jesuit Father, worn with agony and all the
miserable adjuncts of his imprisonment, being called upon
to defend himself against all comers. To the wonder
of those who flocked to see him — for the controversies
were held in public — this Jesuit priest, spite of all he had
gone through, comported himself with dignity and courage,
and was quite able to hold his own. The tide of popular
feeling seemed likely to turn in his favour, for the people
hated the torture-chamber, and they always loved the
man who stands up boldly for himself against odds. The
patterers began to sing about the streets doggerels
which made Campion a hero, and the controversies were
abruptly stopped. For another month after this he was
kept close prisoner in his cell ; then another order came
that he was to be racked for the third time. When, three
weeks after this, he was put upon his trial, he had not
sufficiently recovered from the effects of his torture to
lift his hand at the bar. Of course he was condemned
to die. On the 1st December, 1581, he was executed at
Tyburn, little more than seventeen months after he had
landed at Dover. Whoever will may read in Mr. Simpson's
work the hideous details of that last tragic scene, — the
dreary rainy morning, the motley procession, the dragging
of the wretched victims — for there were three of them —
through the deep mire of the London streets, the hanging
and the cutting down, and the ghastly mutilation that
followed ; the plunging of the executioner's knife
into the quivering bodies, the flinging of the bleeding
members into the cauldron that stood by, so that the
blood was splashed into the faces of the crowd that pressed
round.

• •••••

Among those who stood nearest to the executioner were
many who had been deeply moved by Campion's preaching,
and had ministered to his wants in various ways ; for

A NORFOLK HOUSE 127

Campion was one of those who, animated by a real
enthusiasm themselves, are sure to kindle a fire in the
hearts of the young and ardent. A man's personal influence
depends but little upon the goodness of his cause. It was
over young men, above all, that Campion's career exercised
an irresistible fascination. His life appeared to them a
life of heroic self-sacrifice — his death, a glorious martyrdom.
When they stood beside his scaffold and witnessed all the
horrors of that barbarous butchery, they could not but be
deeply moved. It was a scene to make the most callous
shudder ; but in those who sympathised with the sufferers
it must have aroused a tumult of anger, grief, and
passionate revolt, under the force of which it was hard to
follow the dictates of prudence. Foremost among that
throng who pressed nearer and nearer to catch the martyr's
last words, or if possible to obtain some relic of him to keep
as a peculiar treasure, was young Henry Walpole, whom
we heard of last as having gone up to Gray's Inn in 1578,
shortly before Campion's arrival. Of his life in London
we know little or nothing, but we do know that Gray's Inn
was at this time a favourite haunt of all who were
" Catholicly " inclined — that he was a member of that
Society which has been referred to is highly probable — that
his leanings were all in favour of the mission is certain.
When the executioner had finished his bloody work and
flung Campion's quarters into the cauldron that was
simmering hard by, the blood spurted out upon Henry
Walpole, and bespattered his garment. The beating heart
of the young enthusiast throbbed with a new emotion ;
every impulse of indignation and horror stirred within him ;
and it seemed that there had come to him a call from
Heaven to take up the work which had been so cruelly cut
short, and to follow that path which Campion had trodden.
From that moment his course was determined on, and from
that day he resolved to devote himself to the cause for
which Edmund Campion had died.^

The crowd dispersed, and each man went to his home.
Henry Walpole returned to his chambers ; his excited

128 ONE GENERATION OF

feelings would not let him remain idle nor silent ; and
violently agitated as he was, he sought relief for his
emotion by pouring out his thoughts in verse. Not many
days after there was handed about in manuscript ** An
Epitaph of the Life and Death of the most famous Clerk
and virtuous Priest, Edmund Campion, a Eeverend Father
of the meek society of the blessed name of Jesus." It
is a poem of thirty stanzas, by no means lacking in
sweetness and delicacy of feeling, and, in the temper of
men's minds at the time of its composition, was calculated
to produce a profound sensation. 9 Copies could not be
multiplied fast enough for the demand, and at last it was
privately printed by one Vallenger, together with some
other poetical effusions on the same subject. Vallenger was
soon called to account for his audacity, he was censured
in the Star Chamber, and condemned to lose his ears and
pay a fine of £100 ; but he did not give up the author's
name, and bravely suffered alone.^°

But though Vallenger kept his secret with unusual
courage, it was not long before whispers went abroad that
the true author of the poem was Henry Walpole, who
forthwith became an object of suspicion : he had been
notoriously at Cambridge an associate with the Eomanist
malcontents ; he had taken no degree ; the oath of allegiance
he had declined to be bound by ; at Gray's Inn he had
already become famous by his uncompromising habit of
standing up for his own opinions, and had the character
of being a far better theologian than lawyer; at the
disputations between Campion and the English divines
in the Tower he had been a constant attendant ; he had
been present at his trial in Westminster Hall, and had stood
by his side at the execution;" he had taken no pains to
conceal his sentiments, and rather appears to have exhibited
something like a spirit of bravado. His biographers assert
that he had made himself obnoxious by " converting " more
than twenty young men who were his associates, and that
his activity as a proselytiser drew upon him at last the
notice of the Council; it is certain that his cousin, Edward

A NORFOLK HOUSE 129

Walpole of Houghton, was powerfully influenced by him,
and indu«ed to refuse the oath of allegiance, and certain
too, that this circumstance had something to do with
his finding it necessary to go away from London, where
a warrant was out against him; even the precincts of Gray's
Inn would soon become unsafe, and he rode off to his
Norfolk home to escape the pursuivants. But there was
a danger that by remaining in his native county he should
compromise his relations, and after some delays he managed
to get a passage on board a vessel sailing for France. ^^
Where he landed is unknown, but he passed through
Eouen, stayed some time in Paris, arrived at Eheims on
the 7th July, 1582, and enrolled himself among the students
of Theology. Here he remained for nine or ten months,
and then set out for Kome. He was received as a student
into the English College on the 28th April, 1583, and in the
October of that year was admitted to minor orders. In the
following January he left the English college and offered
himself to the Society of Jesus. On the 2nd February, 1584,
he was admitted among the Probationers. After little more
than a year his health broke down ; change of air and
climate was necessary, and he was sent to France and
completed his two years of probation at Verdun. The next
two years and a half he spent at Pont a Mousson, during
which time he was " Prefect of the Convictors." At last he
received a summons to proceed to Belgium, and by order of
the General of the Society he was ordained Priest at Paris
on the 17th December, 1588.^3 From this time till his death
we can follow his movements pretty closely ; but for the
present we must leave him, and turn our attention to
other scenes than those in which he personally took
part.

NOTES TO CHAPTER IV.

1. Page 114. Oliver^ s Collectiom, s.v.

2. Page 114. The brothers Eliseus (or Elisha) and Jasper Heywood
were the sons of John Heywood the epigrammatist, who, after enjoying
the patronage and favour of Sir Thomas More during the reign of
Henry VHI., was "much valued" by his daughter. Queen Mary,
and appears to have been admitted to her presence even during her last
illness. On the accession of Elizabeth he joined the "Catholic exodus,"
and died in banishment at MaHnes in 1565. Of his two sons, Eliseus,
the elder, was elected a fellow of All Souls in 1547, but quitting England
with his father he spent some years in travelling, and finally joined
the Society of Jesus in 1574. Jasper, the younger brother, was a far
more considerable personage. He too was fellow of All Souls, and
was still a fellow of the college in 1560, when he published a transla-
tion of the Thyestes of Seneca in small 8vo, which is now extremely
rare. In the following year he left England, and entered the Society
on the 21st May, 1562. He became eventually a prominent person
among the Jesuits in England, and for a while was even Superior,
having been sent over in 1581, shortly after Campion's death. He was
apprehended in 1583, and thrown into the Clink, and from thence sent
to the Tower, where he was kept till January 1584-5, when he was
banished. While in the Tower " he was permitted to receive visits from
his sister, who was able to bestow upon him some care and nursing."
This sister was Elizabeth, mother of John Donne, afterwards Dean of
St. PauVs, whom Ben Jonson calls " a noted Jesuit." Jasper Heywood
was celebrated for his proficiency in Hebrew and for his learning
generally. See Wood, Ath. Oxon, ; the Athenceum, No. 2508, p.
673 ; Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers, second series, pp. 34,
68, &c.

3. Page 115. Bellarmine was one of Stapleton's scholars when he
was professor of divinity at Louvain.

4. Page 118. For an account of Parsons see Wood's Ath. Oxon., by
Bliss ; Oliver's Collections ; De Backer, BibliotMque des Ecrivains
de la Compagnie de Jesus, iii. 564. For Campion, see the exhaustive
Life of him published by the late Mr. Eichard Simpson. Williams &
Norgate, 1867.

5. Page 122. Among the Yelverton MSS. in the possession of Lord
Calthorpe there is one which is of peculiar interest for the student
of the history of the Jesuit mission. It is in vol. xxxiii., and is entitled

130

ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE 131

"A generall discourse of the popes holines and preists with th"^*-' deuices
for y^ maintenance of ther religion." It is written in a very minute
hand and with great care, by one who evidently had gone to Rome
and spent several months there, with the object of making money
by giving valuable intelligence to the English government on his return.
It is probably the most complete and elaborate account of the persons
and habits of the English exiles in existence, and well deserves to be
printed. The names, addresses, antecedents, and description of no
less than 295 Englishmen are given who were living in banishment
in 1581. The spy describes minutely the appearance and habits of
all the members of the Mission, except Campion, whom, because he had
but very lately come to Eome, he appears never to have seen. His
account of Parsons is as follows : " Robarte Persones, preste and Jesuite
penitencer for the nacione, some tymes a studient of Phisicke, and at
the findinge of [obliterated] about 40 yeres of adge, talle and bige of
statur, full faced and smooth of countenance, his beard thicke of an
abrome \slc\ collore and cute shorte." The fellow arrived at Rome
5th July, 1579, and lodged at the house of Solomon Aldred [see above,
p. 110, n. 11], and thence removed to the English College, where he
was received with confidence, and treated with kindness and hospitality.
He stayed at Rome till the following year, and he tells us that "the
17th May 1580, Tuesday, I arrived at London in the morning, and after
noon came to the court, where by means of Mr. Frauch {8ic\ Myles
I came to the speach of Mr. Secretary Walsingham his ho^" There is
a glorious portrait of Parsons in the third volume of Hazart, Kerckelycke
Historie van de Geheele Wereldt. Fol. Antwerp, 1669. The book is
common enough without the portraits (which give it its value), but
very rare in its complete form. Dr. Bliss had never seen this portrait,
and I am indebted to Father Remy de Buck for procuring for me
the copy of Hazart in which it occurs. In the same volume is a
magnificently engraved portrait of Sir Thomas More and a scarcely
less brilliant one of Campion.

I take this opportunity of expressing my obligations to Lord Calthorpe
for his great kindness and hospitality when allowing me to have access
to his precious MSS. in January 1876.

6. Page 122. The apprehension of Emerson is one of the many
exciting incidents in Mr. Morris's Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers,
2nd series, p. 40.

7. Page 123. The particulars regarding Bishop Goldwell have come
to light only very recently. My authority is Mr. Maziere Brady's work.
The Episcopal Succession in England, Scotland, and Ireland, A.D. 1400
to 1875. 2 vols. Svo. Rome, 1876. Mr. Brady refers for a great deal
of his information to the Month for January and February 1876,

132 ONE GENERATION OF

8. Fage 127. From a MS. in the Burgundian Library at Brussels
(No. 4554) it appears that Henry Walpole himself gave the account
in the text of his presence at Campion's execution, and of its profound
effect upon him, to Father Ignatius Basselier, shortly after its occurrence.
Cresswell, whose Histoire de la Vie et ferme Constance du Pire Henry
Walpole was written eight months after he suffered at York, had not
apparently heard the story of Campion's blood spurting out upon him ;
but he and Yepez mention the fact of his being present at Campion's
death and at the conferences in Westminster Hall. Bartoli {DelV Istoria
della Campagnia di Giesu VInghilterra, 4to, 1676, p. 411) refers to the
story ; Morus does not {Hist. Prov. Angl., p. 202). For those who have
access to Holinshed^s Chronicle it will repay them to read his account
of Campion's execution. It is valuable as showing the very great
excitement that that event occasioned. As to the manner in which
the story is related in Holinshed, Hallam says, " The trials and deaths
of Campion and his associates are told in the Continuation of Holinshed
with a savageness and bigotry which I am very sure no scribe for the
Inquisition could have surpassed. . . . See particularly p. 448, for the
insulting manner in which this writer describes the pious fortitude of
these butchered ecclesiastics." — Constitutional History, vol. i. p. 146,
n. i. p. 3, tenth edition, post 8vo.

9. Page 128. The only contemporary copy of the poem which is
believed to be in existence is now in the Bodleian Library, from which
the following transcript has been made. I believe it has never yet been
printed in full, though Dr. Oliver mentions the fact of four "sonnets"
having been printed " in a book of about fifty pages, entituled ' A true
Report of the Martyrdome of Mr. Campian, written by a Catholic Priest,'
no place or year mentioned in the title." This appears to be the work
mentioned by Mr. Simpson in his Bibliographical Appendix to the Life
of Campion, p. 350, No. 7. I have never seen the book.

How much importance was attached to the following poem is plain, not
only from the fact of the government having made great, and apparently
successful, exertions to suppress it, and destroy all copies printed or in
manuscript, but from a curious collateral piece of evidence which I was
fortunate enough to stumble upon some years ago. On the 21st March,
1594, i.e., thirteen years after Campion's death, " John Bolt, yeoman,
late of Thornden, Essex," was brought up for examination before Sir
Edward Coke, then Solicitor- General. Among other things laid to his
charge, and for which he had to give account, he was made to confess
•' that certain leaves containing verses, beginning with ' Why do I use my
paper, pen, and ink, &c.,' are in his handwriting, wrote them in London
five years since from a paper given to him by Henry Souche, servant
to Mr. Morgan of Finsbury Fields, and has read them five or six times
since. . . ."—P. R. 0., Domestic, Eliz., vol. 248, n. 38.

Elliott, Sledd, and Munday were three professional spies and

A NORFOLK HOUSE 133

informers who were witnes&es at Campion's trial. On these worthies see
Simpson's Lt/e of Campion.

Norton was the "rack master," who was committed to prison for
a few days when an outcry was raised against him for his atrocious
cruelty. He was soon set at liberty, and lived to ply his odious vocation
upon many another sufferer in after years.

Lee was William Lee, foreman of the jury which tried Campion.

There is a good deal about Elderton and Munday in Warton's
History of English Poetry, edited by Hazlitt, 1871, vol. iv. p. 391.

Vita Edmundi Campiani, Ang. vers. Laud. Eot, 2, supra E. C.
(in Bibl. Bodl., Oxon.)

*h *i* *i*
Jhesus Maria.

A N Epitaphe of the lyfe and deathe of the most famouse clerke and
-^ vertuouse priest Edmfid Campian, and reverend father of the meeke
societie of the blessed name of Jesus.

"Whie do y vse my papire yncke and penne?
or call my witts to counseil what to sale?
such memories were made for mortall men,

I speake of saynts, whose names can not decay.
An angells trumpe were meeter far to sounde

their gloriouse deathes, yf such on earth were founde.

"pardon my wants, y ofTer nawght but wyll.

theire register remayneth safe above,
Campian exceades the cupasse of my skyll.

yet let me vse the measure of my love,
and geave me leave yn lowe and homelie verse,

this highe attempte in Ingland to rehearse.

" he came by vow. The cawse, to conquyre synne,

his armour, praier. the word his terdge and shielde,
his cufort heaven, his spoile our sowles to wyne.

the devyll his foe, the wicked worlde his fielde.
his triumphe ioy. his wage Eeternall blysse,
his capteine Christe, which ever durying ys.

*' from ease to payne, from honour to disgrace,

from love to hate, to daynger, beyng well,
from safe abrode, to feares yn euerie place.

contemnyng deathe, to save our sowles from hell,
our new apostle cumyng to restore

the feith, wich Austen planted here before.

134 ONE GENERATION OF

** hys native flowres were myxte with hearbe of grace.

his mylde behaveour tempered well wyth skyll.
A lowlye mynde possest a learned place.

A sugred speache, a rare and vertuouse wyll.
A saynt lyke ma was sett in earth belowe

the seede of trewth yn hearyng harts to sowe.

*' Wyth tounge and pene the trewth he tawght and wrote,
by force whereof they came to Christe apace,

But when it pleased God it was his lote,

he shuld be thrall, he leant hym so much grace,

his pacience there dyd worke so much nor more,
as had his heavenlie speaches done before.

" his fare was harde, yet mylde and sweate his cheare.

his prison close, yet free and loose his mynde.
his torture greate, yet scant or none his feare.

his offers large, yet no thyng culd him blynde.
6 constant ma, 6 mynde, 6 vertew straynge,

whome want, nor woe, nor feare, nor hope culd chaynge.

" from racke in towre they browght hym to dispute,
bokelesse, alone, to answere all that came,

yet Christe gave grace, he dyd them all confute
so sweately there yn glorie of his name,

that evyn the adverse part are forst to sale,
that Campians cawse dyd beare the bell awaie.

'• This foyle enragde the mynds of sii so farre,
they thowght it best to take hys lyfe awaye,
becawse they sawe he wuld theire matter marre,
and leave them schortly nawght at all to saie.
Traytour he was wyth manie a seely sleighte
yet was a ieurie packt, that cried gyltie streight.

" Religion there was treason to the quene,

Preachyng of penaunce warre agaynst the land,

priests were such dayngerouse men, as hath not bene,
praiers and beedes were fyght and force of hand.

Cases of coscience bane vnto the state.

So blynde ys errour, so false a wittnes hate.

" And yet behold theise lambes are drawen to dye,
treasons proclaymed, the quene ys putt yn feare,
Owt vpon Satan, phie malice, phie.

Speakest thow to them that dyd the gyltlesse heare '?
Can humble sowles departyng now to Christe,
protest vntrew? Avaunt foule fende, thou lyest.

A NORFOLK HOUSE 135

** My sovereigne Liege, beholde yo"^ subiects end.

Yo"" secrete fooes do mysinfoorme yc grace.
Who yn yo"" cawse theire holie lyfes wuld spende,

As traytours dye? a rare and monstruouse case,
the bloodie wolfe condemnes the harmelesse sheepe,

before the dogge, the while the sheepards sleape.

' Ingland loke vp. thie soyle ys steinde wyth bloode,
thow hast made martyrs manie of thine owne,

jf thow hadst grace, theire deathes wuld do thee good.
The seede wyll take, wich yn such blood ys sowne,

And Campians learnyng fertile so before,
thus watred too, must neades of force be more.

"Repent thee, Eliott, of thie Judas kysse,

I wysshe thie penaunce, not thie desperate end.

Let Norton thynke, wich now yn prison ys,
to whome was seid, he was not Csesars frend,

And let the Judge consyder well yn feare,

that Pilate wasshte his hands, and was not cleare.

"The wittnes false, Sledd, Munday, and the rest
Wich had yo"" slaunders noted yn yo' bokes,

Confesse yC fault beforehand, it were best,
lest God do fynde it writen, when he lookes

In dreadfull doome vpon the sowles of men,
It wyll be late, alas, to mende it then.

♦' Yow bloodie Jewrie, Lee, and all the leven,

take heede, yo"" verdite wich was geaven yn hast

do not exclude yo^ from the ioyes of heaven,
and cawse yo" rew itt, when the tyme ys past,

and euerie one whose malice cawsde hym sale
crucifye, let hym dreade the terrour of that day.

"fond Elderton call yn thie foolishe ryme,
thie scurrile balades are too bad to sell.

Let good men rest, and mend thie selfe yn tyme.
Confesse yn prose, thou hast not metred well.

Or yf thie folic ca not choose but fayne

Write alehowse ioies, blaspheme thou not yn vayne.

" Remember yo" that wulde oppresse the cawse,

The churche ys Christes, his honour ca not dye,

thowgh hell it selfe wreste her gryslye iawes,
and ioyne yn leage wyth schisme and hasresie,

thowgh crafte devise and cruell rage oppresse,
yet skyll wyll wryte, and martyrdome confesse.

136 ONE GENERATION OF

" yo" thowght perhapps, when learned Campian dyes,
his pene must cease, his sugred tounge be styll.
But yo" forgeatt how lowde his death it cries.

how far beyonde the sounde of tounge and guyll.
yo" dyd not know how rare and greate a good
it was to wryte hys pretiouse gyfts yn blood. ^

/'
" Ly vying he spake to them, wich prsesent weare,
his wrytyng toke the censure of the view.
Now fame reportes his learnyng far and neare,

And now his deathe confirmes his doctrine trew.
His vertues now are writen yn the skyes,
and often read wyth holie watred eyes.

"All Europe wonders at so rare a man,

Ingland ys filled wyth rumour of his end.

London must neades, for it was present than
When constantly .iij. saynts theire lyfes dyd spend,

the streates, the stones, the steapps, they hale them by,
proclayme the cawse, for wich theise martyrs dye.

"The towre sales, the trewth he dyd defende,

The barre beares wittnes of his gyltelesse mynde,

Tiburne doth tell, he made a pacient end.
In everie gate his martyrdome we fynde.

In vayne yo" wroghte, that wuld obscure his name,
for heaven and earthe wyll styll recorde the same.

"yo"^ sentence wronge pronounced of hym here,

Exemptes hym from the iudgement for to come.
6 happie he that ys not iudged there !

God graunte me too, to haue an earthlie doome.
yo"" wittnes false and lewdely taken yn,
doth cawse he ys not now accusde of synne.

" his prison now, the citie of the kynge,

his racke and torture ioies and heavenlie blysse,
for mes reproche wyth angells he doth synge

a sacred songe, wich euerlastyng ys.
for shame but schort, and losse of small renowne,
he purchast hath an ever duryng crowne.

"his quartered lymmes shall ioyne wyth ioye agayne,
and ryse a bodie bryghter then the sonne,
yo"^ bloodie malice tormeted hym yn vayne,

for euerie wrynche sii glorie hath hym woiie.
And euerie droppe of blood, wich he dyd spende,
hath reapte a ioye, wich never shall haue ende.

A NORFOLK HOUSE 137

"Can drerye death then daunt our feith, or payne?

Leste lyngrying lyfe we feare to loose our ease?
No. no. such death procureth lyfe agayne.

Tis onely god, we tremble to displease,
who kylles but onse, and euer synce we dye.

whose hole revenge torments eeternally.

"We ca not feare a mortall tormente. we.

theise martyrs bloods hath moistened all our harts,
whose parted quarters when we chawnce to see

we learne to plaie the constant Christian parts,
his head doth speake, and heavenlie precepts gyve,

how we y' looke, shuld frame our selfs to lyve.

"his yougthe instructes vs how to spend our dales.

his fleying bydds vs learne to baiiyshe synne.
his streight profession schewes the narrowgh waies,

wich they must walke that loke to enter yn.
his home returne by daynger and distresse,

emboldeth vs, our conscience to professe.

' ' his hurdle drawes vs wyth hym to the crosse.

his speaches there provokes vs for to dye.
his death doth sale, this lyfe ys but a losse.

his martryd blood from heaven to vs doth crye.
his fyrst and last, and all conspire yn this,

to schew the waye that leadeth vs to blysse.

" blessed be God, wich lent hym so much grace,
thanked be Christ, wich blest hys martyr so,
happie ys he, wich seeth his masters face,

Cursed all they, that thowght to worke hym woe,
bounden be we, to geave asternall praise,
to Jesus name, wich such a man dyd rayse.

10. Page 128. Henry Vallenger appears to have been a Norfolk man.
There were several members of the family settled at King's Lynn and
the neighbourhood in the sixteenth century, and it is probable that
Vallenger and Walpole were old friends.

11. Page 128. See above, note 8.

12. Page 129. Bartoli tells us that an order was issued for his appre-
hension by the Council ; and expressly mentions Robert, Earl of Leicester,
as having been incensed against him in consequence of his having
converted his cousin Edward Walpole. This is a highly probable story,
as Leicester can hardly have failed to take some interest in one who

138 ONE GENERATION OF

after his own death, would succeed to Amy Robsart's estates in Norfolk,
Bartoli goes on to say that Henry Walpole slipped away to Norfolk, and
was actually concealed in a hiding-place {in unfedel nascondiglio della
sua medesima casa) at Anmer Hall ; that he escaped with difficulty from
the pursuivants, and concealed himself in the woods by day and pursued
his journey by night ; that he managed to reach Newcastle, and thence
took ship for France. — Bartoli, u.s., p. 413.

13. Page 129. " 1582, 7 die [Julii] ex Anglia ad nos venit D. Hen.
Walpole disertus gravis et plus."

" 1583, 2° Martii, Roma missi sunt D. Henricus Walpoole, D. Tho.
Lovelace, &c. . . . quibuscum Verduno profecit D. Ric. Singleton," —
Douay Diary, printed by the Fathers of the Oratory, Brompton,

" MDLxxxiii. Henricus Walpolus, Anglus, Norfolgiensis, annorum 24,
aptus ad Theologiam, receptus fuit in hoc Anglorum Collegium inter
alumnos S™ D. N. Gregorii, a P, Alfonso Agazzario, Rectore, de expresso
mandato ill"'"' D. Cardinalis Boncompagni, Protectoris, sub die 28 Aprilis
1583.

" Mense Octobris ejusdem anni fuit cum illo dispensatum in [sic]
irregularitate propter heresim contracta ab 111'"° Cardinale S. Severinse,
et eodem mense accepit minores ordines a R'"° Asafensi [Bishop
Goldwell of St. Asaph].

" Discessit e Collegio antequam faceret juramentum in mense
Januarii 1584." — Ex Archivio Collegii Anglicani de Urbe, MS. No.
303, fo. 16 b.

What follows is written with his own hand in the Album of the
Tournay Noviciate, which is still preserved among the MSS. of the
Burgundian Library at Brussels.

"Ego Henricus Walpolus Nordvincensis Anglus, natus in Octobri
anno 1558, In Anglia dedi operam humanioribus litteris aliquandiu in
patria, deinde in Academia Cantabrigiensi annis tribus.

" Londini fere quadriennio legibus Anglicanis.

" Postea Rhemis theologias seholasticaa simul et positives per annum
unum, Romse similiter fere per annum ante ingressum Societatis ; post
ingressum vero duobus annis et medio theologiaa Scholasticas Mussiponti,
quo tempore fere toto Prefectum egi apud Conuictores.

"Admissus in Societatem Jesu Romse a R. P. N. Claudio Aquaviva
Generali Societatis Jesu 2 februarii A^ 1584, ibidem in domo probationis
fui tredecim mensibus, inde ob adversam valetudinem in Francia [m]
missus, fere per annum mansi in domo Probationis Virdunensi, ubi
etiam absolute probationis biennio uota Scholasticorum emisi, sacrum
celebrante R^o P. Benedicto Nigrio magistro Novitiorum.

" Mussiponto in Belgium missus R^ P. N. Generalis mandato,
Parisiis in transitu factus fui Sacerdos 17 decembris A° 1588, cum
antea a R^isso jjo Sutfraganeo Metensi promotus fuissem ad ordinem

A NORFOLK HOUSE 139

Subdiaconatus pridie Pascatis 26 Aprilis, et ad ordinem Diaconatus 21
Mali eiusdem anni.

" Bruxellis et in castris officia Societatis prestiti per tres annos ;
denique a R^° P. Oliverio Manaraso Societatis Jesu in Belgio Provinciali,
uocatus fui ad Domum Probationis Tornacensem, ubi inchoavi tertium
annum probationis 22 octobris A° 1591 et examinatus fui a P. Joanne
Bargio iuxta examen Scholasticorum, quistudiain Societate absoluerunt,
respondique firmum in mea deliberatione et uotis et promissione Deo
oblatis antequam ad studia me conferrem, me permanere, eique reddidi
rationem vitaa mees, inchoando ab eo tempore quo eam reddideram,
quando ad studia missus fui.

"Actum Tornaci in domo probationis Societatis Jesu. Circa
Natalem Diii° a 1591. Ita est Henricus Walpolus."

CHAPTEE V

THE KINSMEN

" A rampart of my fellows ; it would seem
Impossible for me to fail, so watched
By gentle friends who made my cause their ownj'

— Paracelsus.

With the execution of Campion the Jesuit mission for a
while collapsed. Of all that band of men who in the winter
of 1580 set forth with such high hopes to "reduce"
England to the old Faith, only one escaped either the
scaffold or the dungeon, and that one was Eobert Parsons.
Of the rest, such as were not hung were kept in jail for
a year or two, and then, to the number of twenty-one, were
shipped off to the coast of Normandy.^

Whatever effect Campion's preaching and death may
have produced upon the more earnest sympathisers with
his views, the immediate consequences of the mission were
eminently disastrous. The Excommunication had been
Rome's first challenge : it had been answered by the
legislation of 1570. The Jesuit invasion was the second : it
was replied to by the Act of the 23rd Elizabeth ; and it will
be worth while at this point briefly to trace the development
of that penal legislation which from this time began to be
put in force with dreadful severity, and which, whether
necessary or not, became during the remainder of the
Queen's reign a whip of scorpions for the unhappy votaries
of the see of Rome.

The Act of 1st Elizabeth was mainly concerned with

enforcing the use of the Book of Common Prayer, and

providing against the employment of any form of worship

140

ONE GENERATION OE A NOREOLK HOUSE 141

except such as that book prescribed. The penalties of that
Act were rather negative than positive, attendance at
church was compulsory, yet the fine for staying away,
although vexatious, could hardly be regarded as intolerable ;
to say mass in public or private was illegal, but the mass
was not mentioned specifically by name.

After the Bull of Excommunication was published, the
Act of the 13th Elizabeth treated the breach between
England and the Papacy as a fact that could no longer be
ignored, and the penalties of that Act were directed against
all communion or intercourse with the Church of Rome or
its emissaries, and the acceptance of absolution at the
hands of its priesthood was declared to be criminal and
treasonable. But when the Jesuit mission assumed the
character of an actual invasion, the new aggression gave
occasion for the passing of the famous "Act to retain the
Queen's Majesty's Subjects in their due obedience"; with
the rigorous enforcement of which that odious course of
cruelty and oppression began which has been called by
Continental historians ** the English persecution."

Hitherto the Catholic gentry had received some measure
of toleration, though regarded with disfavour and suspicion.
Henceforth they had to choose between conformity and
something like ruin or death. By the first clause of this
Act, to persuade anyone to embrace the " Romish religion,"
or to yield to such persuasion, was to incur the penalties of
high treason. By the fourth clause, " every person which
shall say or sing mass " shall forfeit the sum of two hundred
marks, and be imprisoned for a year; and " every person
which shall willingly 'lie,ar mass" is to forfeit one hundred
marks and suffer a like imprisonment. But the most
terrible clause was the fifth, which from this time became
the real instrument of oppression and robbery upon the
unhappy Recusants, and which, in lieu of the old fine for
non-attendance at church, provided " that every person
above the age of sixteen years, which shall not repair to
some church, chapel, or usual place of common prayer, but
forbear the same . . . shall forfeit to the Queen's Majesty,

142 ONE GENERATION OF

for every month . , . which he or she shall so forbear,
twenty pounds of laioful English ynoney ; and besides over
and above the said forfeitures, ... be bound with two
sufficient sureties, in the sum of two hundred pounds at
least, to their good behaviour."

Finally, lest the very severity of this clause should defeat
its object, and lest it should appear that only the Crown or
the great lords would benefit by the exactions to be levied
on the Recusants, it was enacted by the eleventh clause
that all moneys forfeited by this statute should be divided
into three parts : one part to go to the Queen, one-third
to tJie poor of the parish where the offence luas committed,
the remaining third to the informer. I have never met
with the faintest trace of evidence that the poor of the
parish in any one case benefited directly or indirectly by
the fines that were levied. Some portion undoubtedly did
find its way into the Exchequer, but they who got the lion's
share of the spoil were the pursuivants and informers.

From this time the persecution of the Catholics in
England began in earnest, and men with scruples of con-
science had to make up their minds either to sacrifice their
dearest convictions or to sufi'er for them.

When Henry Walpole made his choice, and without a
licence crossed the Channel, he left behind him in the
Norfolk home five brothers, the eldest of whom was in his
twenty-second year, the youngest a schoolboy of twelve.^
The second of these brothers, Richard Walpole, had been
baptized at Docking on the 8th of October, 1564. Just a
fortnight before his elder brother had left Cambridge, to
commence his studies at Gray's Inn, Richard Walpole had
matriculated at Cambridge, having been nominated to one
of the scholarships at St. Peter's College lately founded
by Edward, Lord North. 3 He continued to reside at the
university for the next three years, and evidently made
good use of his time ; but the influence of his brother was
strong upon him, and when Henry found it necessary to
make his escape from England, Richard soon followed him.
He left England in the summer of 1584, and reached

A NORFOLK HOUSE 143

Eheims on the 3rd of June. He stayed there until the
following spring, and presented himself at the English
College at Kome in April.4 But the influence of Henry
Walpole was not confined to the circle of his brothers. It
seems to have made itself felt even upon the remoter
branches of the Walpole family. We have seen in the
previous chapter how it was directly through his persuasion
that his cousin Edward Walpole of Houghton was prevailed
on to take up a decided line and openly to join the party
of the Kecusants. There was another cousin upon whom,
though his influence was apparently only indirect, yet it
was so potent and effectual as to prove in the sequel of
great importance to the future career of the whole family.

When Serjeant John Walpole of Harpley died, on the 1st
November, 1557, he left, as has been said, one son, William
Walpole, heir to his large possessions. s The boy, at the
time of the taking his father's inquisition on the 14th April,
1558, was declared to be of the age of thirteen years eight
months and six days, i.e., he was born on the 8th August,
1544. We have seen that he had already been entered at
Gray's Inn, and that by his father's will his education had
been entrusted to Thomas Thirlby, Bishop of Ely, to which
see he had been transferred from Norwich in July 1554.
By all accounts Thirlby is described to us as one of the
most accomplished and graceful scholars of his age. He
had been a fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and his rooms
were under those of Bilney, the fervent preacher who con-
verted Latimer, and who was burnt for heresy at the Lollard's
Pit, near Norwich, in August 1531. Whilst an undergradu-
ate, Thirlby' s frequent " playing upon his recorder for his
diversion " seems to have annoyed Bilney, who was " driven
to his prayers " by the music which disturbed his reading.
Archbishop Cranmer conceived an almost romantic
attachment for Thirlby, " so that some thought that if he
would have demanded any finger or other member of his, he
would have cut it off to have gratified him ; " and this
affection of the archbishop soon brought him preferment
and notice In 1538 he had been sent on an embassy to

144 ONE GENERATION OF

France, and from this time till the beginning of Queen
Elizabeth's reign he was constantly employed as
ambassador to foreign courts, and in that capacity was
at various times dispatched to Spain, Scotland, the Low
Countries, and Germany. He was concerned in the com-
pilation of the Book of Common Prayer, and was one of
the revisers of the translation of the Great Bible. He was
one of the executors of Queen Mary's will, and one of the
supervisors of Cardinal Pole's. When Mary died he was
absent from England, having been appointed to treat with
France for the restoration of Calais, and he returned from
that mission in April 1559, when Queen Elizabeth had
already been three months on the throne. When the new
Oath of Supremacy was tendered to him, he refused to
take it, and was immediately deprived of his bishopric, but
at first left unmolested. Courtier though he was, and a
man apparently by no means of a stubborn nature, yet the
form of the oath appeared to him so offensive that he felt
called upon to preach against it, although warned to desist.
For his contumacy he was excommunicated, and in June
1560 was committed to the Tower. After a while he was
removed to the custody of Archbishop Parker, with whom
he lived at Lambeth and Bekesbourne till his death, in 1570,
and, though under surveillance and nominally a prisoner,
was always treated with marked respect and consideration.^
When young William Walpole, on his father's death,
was handed over to Thirlby's guardianship, the bishop
adopted him as a member of his own household, and as
such he remained until the bishop's imprisonment, when
he was received into the family of Mr. Blackwell, a cousin
of Thirlby's, Town Clerk of the city of London, and a man
of great wealth and consideration. When the bishop was
sent to the Tower, and it seemed probable he would suffer
in substance as well as in person for his recusancy, he
disposed of his property, and sold or made over to this
Mr. Blackwell a large mansion which he had either pur-
chased or built in the parish of St. Andrew in the ward
of Castle Baynard, and it was here he lived while WiUiam

A NORFOLK HOUSE 145

Walpole made his home with him. 7 Three months after
he attained his majority Walpole married Mr. Blackwell's
youngest daughter at St. Andrew's church, and soon
afterwards appears to have settled at Fittleworth in
Sussex, though frequently visiting at the house of his
father-in-law.^

When Bishop Thirlby's health began to decline he begged
for permission to take up his residence at Mr. Blackwell's,
but he died at Lambeth before he could remove. 9 Mr.
Blackwell survived him only a few months, and in his will
left the bulk of his large fortune to his widow. ^° After his
death Mrs. Blackwell lived sometimes at the London
mansion and sometimes on her estate at North Chapel in
Sussex, where she had some large ironworks which her
son-in-law William Walpole managed for her. He himself
was largely concerned in the manufacture of iron in the
neighbourhood, and the Sussex ironmasters exhibited so
much activity that the attention of the Government was
drawn to them, and an Act of Parliament passed restricting
their power of cutting down the woods for fuel, and putting
other difficulties in their way. Walpole's ironworks must
have been upon a large scale, for he had attracted the
notice of the Council by casting cannon, which had been
exported to the Continent, and in February 1574 he was
compelled to give a bond in the sum of £2,000 to make no
more "cast pieces of ordnance without special licence, and
in case of such licence being granted " not to " sell them
to any stranger," unless the name of the buyer and the
number and description of the ordnance were expressed in
the said licence." This appears to have proved the ruin of
the trade for a time, for we hear no more of the Sussex iron-
works, and a year or two after this Mr. Walpole appears to
have left Fittleworth and removed to his native county.

When Parsons and Campion came over to England in
1580, Mrs. Blackwell was still living in London. She was
one of those who conformed, and attended her parish
church of St. Andrew; but it is scarcely to be wondered
at that she was looked upon with some suspicion. Her

146 ONE GENERATION OF

husband had died a Catholic ; she herself was the daughter
of Thoraas Campion, a citizen of London, who was related
to the Jesuit Father, and as a natural consequence was
more than once subjected to annoyance. In 1584 the
Lords of the Council issued an order that the Countess
of Northumberland should be received at Mrs. Blackwell's
house at her coming to town, and next year she was
presented as a recusant, though upon her protesting she
succeeded in excusing herself from paying the exaction
attempted to be levied upon her.^^ "Whether her house
was one of those many places in and about London to
which Campion resorted — whether there he met young
Henry Walpole or his cousin William — it is almost idle
to ask, and yet the probability of the Jesuit Father's re-
ceiving some recognition from his wealthy kinswoman is
so great that we are tempted to conjecture that it must
have been so.

It was probably in consequence of the interference of
the Government with the Sussex ironworks that William
Walpole, about the year 1580, left Fittleworth. He
had purchased another estate in Norfolk not far from
Dereham — the manor of St. Cleres in North Tuddenham,
with a large tract of land extending into three or four
of the adjoining parishes, ^s Here he lived as a country
gentleman, keeping up a large establishment ; and in
February 1582 he bought from Bishop Thirlby's nephew
Henry a house in Norwich. It had a frontage opposite
the Bishop's palace, with gardens abutting on the river,
and had formerly been the residence of one of the city
aldermen. ^4 There had been no offspring from his marriage,
an unhappy disagreement arose between him and his wife,
which ended at last in a separation, and when Mrs.
Blackwell made her will in May 1585 she expressly
orders that her son-in-law be called upon to repay all
sums of money that were due to her ; and she leaves an
annuity to her daughter, to be paid " during the time of
any breach between her and her husband, William
Walpole." ^5

A NORFOLK HOUSE I47

Just about this time Edward Walpole of Houghton came
to reside with his cousin at Tuddenham. His position at
home had become a painful one : his parents were by no
means inclined to side with the Catholic party, but on
the contrary were said to be Puritans, as most probably
his grandfather, Mr. Calibut, was. There is some reason
for thinking that Edward Walpole had adopted decided
views on the religious questions of the day some years
earlier than his Catholic biographers have stated ; at any
rate his name is never once mentioned in the wills of any
members of the family who died about this time, and the
omission is especially remarkable in his uncle Eichard's
will, inasmuch as some legacy is left to every one of his
other nephews and nieces. ^^ More tells us that his parents
were so irritated by his obstinate opposition to their views
and persistence in his own that at last his mother fairly
turned him out of doors ; that he took refuge with a relation
in the county ; that he changed his name to Poor or
Pauper, and attempted to slip away to the Continent as
Henry Walpole had done two or three years before. He
was stopped at the port he was intending to sail from
and sent up to the Council ; but he could have had little
difficulty in getting released while Leicester was at the
zenith of his power. Foiled in his attempt to leave
England, he returned to Norfolk, and William Walpole
offered him a home at St. Cleres.'7 Here he set himself
to bring about a reconciliation between the husband and
wife, who had been living for some time apart, and was
fortunate enough to succeed in his object.^^ Mrs. Walpole
returned to her husband, and appears to have regained
his confidence and affection, though they were not destined
to continue long united. Perhaps William Walpole's state
of health may have had something to do with his removal
from Sussex into his native air ; at any rate he had only
been at Tuddenham three or four years when he felt his
end was near, and a few days before he had completed
his forty-third year he made his will, and arranged for
the disposition of his property after his decease. If the

148 ONE GENERATION OF

last act of a man's life, and the only act which is irre-
vocable, may be accepted as a trustworthy index to his
character, William Walpole's will proves him to have been
a man of remarkable generosity, kindliness, and largeness
of heart. He had, as we have seen, no child, but he leaves
to his widow a splendid provision during her lifetime, with
no mean condition to hinder her marrying again ; his
mother, his sisters, his uncles, his cousins, every servant
in his large establishment, are all remembered and named,
and legacies are bequeathed to them with a princely
liberality. His real heir is his cousin Edward Walpole,
to whom he leaves, on the death of his wife, the great
bulk of his large property; and by the way in which he
more than once connects his cousin's name with that of
his wife, it is evident that in making this disposition of
his estates he does so in recognition of the service he
had rendered him in bringing to an end that unhappy
domestic difference that has been referred to. ^9

It is almost impossible to estimate the amount of a
country gentleman's income in the sixteenth century, and
almost as difficult to arrive at the acreage of an estate
with anything like accuracy ; but the lands and manors
bequeathed to Edward Walpole by his cousin's will repre-
sented a rental which would now amount to at least £7,000
a year ; and when he eventually abjured the realm, it was
said that he had sacrificed more than £800 a year, even after
he had sold his reversionary interest in the Tuddenham
property. Just six months after the death of William
Walpole, John Walpole of Houghton, Edward's father,
died.2° In his will he does not so much as name his
eldest son, but leaves every acre of land which he had
the power to bequeath to his second son, Calibut. The
entailed property at Houghton, Walpole, and Wey bread,
in Suffolk, descended to Edward as his heir, though subject
to a life interest reserved to his widow. In the following
September Eobert Earl of Leicester died, and all the
Robsart estates descended to the heir of Houghton ; but
as John Walpole in his will had left them to his son

A NORFOLK HOUSE 149

Calibut, Edward at once made them over to him, and
renounced the claim he might have put forth as heir-
at-law.2'

Thus at the close of the year 1588 the two brothers,
Edward and Calibut Walpole, were seised as tenants for
life or in fee simple of lands and tenements in no less
than nineteen parishes in the counties of Norfolk and
Suffolk, and were the lords of ten manors, extending over
several thousand acres. The fortunes of the house seemed
in the ascendant, and it needed only a little exercise of
ordinary prudence and a little worldly wisdom to assure
to the Walpoles a position among the wealthiest families
in the east of England ; but, on the other hand, it required
only a very little contumacy and a very little display of
religious fanaticism to bring upon them the full force of
the Government, which would not spare where there was
so much to fall a prey to the spoiler. Henry and Eichard
Walpole had already shown how lightly they held by any
worldly prospects that might be before them. They had
turned their backs upon their native country, and their
cousin Edward was more than half inclined to follow them
into exile.

NOTES TO CHAPTEK V.

1. Page 140. Rishton's Diary, which is the authority usually cited
for this statement, was first printed at the end of Sanders's De Origine
et Progressu Schismatis Anglicani, Kome, 1690. It is given in English in
Tierney's Dodd, vol. ii. p. 148. For additional particulars see Morris's
Troubles, second series, p. 70. Besides the twenty-one who were ban-
ished in January 1585, twenty-two more were sent from York, and
thirty-two from London, in September of the same year, making up a
total of seventy-two priests and three laymen. — Douay Diary, p. 12.

2. Page 142. The following entries are extracted from the Parish
Eegister of Docking : —

1561, y^ xviij daye of Maye, was Dorothy Walpole, ye daughter of

Christopher Walpole, christened.

1562, the vi'^ daye of June, was Galferye Walpole .... christened.
1564, the viij"^ daye of October, was Richard Walpole .... christened.

theviijt'^ of December, was Margarete Walpole .... christened.

1566, the xxv'^ of August, was Thomas Walpole, ye sonne of Mr.

Christopher Walpole and Margereye his wife, cristned.

1567, 1^' November, Alice Walpole ....

1568, 23^^ October, Christopher Walpole ....
1570, 1^' October, Michael Walpole ....

3. Page 142. He matriculated as a scholar of Peterhouse 1st April,
1579. — Matriculation Book in the Registry of the University of
Cambridge.

4. Page 143. The dates are given from the Douay Diary and from
the MS. Records in the English College at Rome.

5. Page 143. Machyn in his Diary [Camden Society, 1847) gives
the following account of Serjeant Walpole's funeral, p. 156.

[1577]. "The 3 day of November was buried in the parish of St.
Dunstan's in the West, Serjeant Wallpoll {sic), a Norfolk man, with a
pennon and a coat of arms borne with a herald of arms ; and there was
all the Judges and Serjeants of the coif, and men of the law, a two
hundred, with two white branches, twelve staff torches, and four great
tapers, and priests and clerks ; and the morrow, the mass of requiem."
[Spelling modernised.]

Serjeant Walpole married Jane, daughter of Edmund Knyvett, of
AsHWELLTHORP, Esq., Serjeant Porter to King Henry VHI., by Jane,
daughter and heir of Sir John Bourchier, Knt., who was summoned to
Parliament as Lord Berners. The Barony of Berners came to the
Knyvetts through this alliance.

150

ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE 151

Jane Walpole, the Serjeant'f; widow, survived him many years. She
married (2ndly) her husband's friend and executor, Thomas Scarlett
[See p. 60 ante n. 18] , and by him had a second family of four daughters.

6. Fage 144. Most of the details given are taken from Cooper's
Athence Cantab. See, too, Camden Society's Wills (1863), pp. 46 and
52 ; Original Papers, Norfolk Archcsological Society, v. p. 75.

7. Page 145. "1562-3. The — day of February was christened
at St. Andrew's in the Wardrobe, George Bacon, the son of Master
Bacon, Esquire, some time Serjeant of the Acatry by Queen Mary's days.
His godfathers were young Master George Blackwell and Master
Walpole. ..." [Mr. George Bacon had married one of the daughters
of Mr. Blackwell.] — Machyn, p. 300. See, too, the next page for the
notice of the churching of Mrs. Bacon :".... and after, she went
home to her father's house, Mr. Blackwell. ..."

8. Page 145. " 1565, 25° Nov., William Walpole and Mary Black-
well were married at St. Andrew's in the Wardrobe." — From the P. R.
communicated by Colonel Chester.

Among the Close Rolls in the P. R. 0. is one dated 11th May, 17°
Elizabeth, in which William Walpole, of Fittleworth, eo. Sussex, Esq.,
enters into recognisances to pay Richard Butterwick, of Bury, co.
Sussex, Gent., £350 on the 24th November next ensuing, " at and in the
mansion house of one Margaret Blackwell." Mr. Butterwick married
William Walpole's sister Catharine.

9. Page 145. Bishop Thirlby died in August 1570.

10. Page 145. Mr. Blackwell's will is at Somerset House. It is
dated 7th June, 1567, but was not proved till the 17th October, 1570. I
subjoin the notes I took of it. "... My soul to God and to the most
blessed and immaculate mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Lady St.
Mary the Virgin, and to all the Holy Company of Heaven ; ... to the
parson of the parish of St. Andrew in the ward of Castle Baynard, where
I am a parishioner ; ... to every poor godchild ; ... to my brother-
in-law Edward Warton, Gent. . . . Executrix shall give and bestow
forme xij black gowns with hoods, vj to the men, viz., my son Edward
Blackwell, my son Bacon, my son Draper, my son Walpole, and my
brother Campion, to be given if it shall please them to be at my funeral
as mourners; the other vj to the women hereunder named, viz., my
son Edward's wife, my daughter Bacon, my daughter Draper, my
daughter Walpole, my cousin Ursula Patrick, and my sister Campion. . . .
To the prisoners of either of the Compters in London ; ... to the
prisoners of Ludgate ; ... to the prisoners of Newgate. ... To the
poor people of Edgeware in the county of Middlesex, where I was born ;
... to the poor of Hendon, co. Middlesex. ... To the Right Rev,

152 ONE GENERATION OF

Father in God, and my most singular good Lord Thomas Thirlby,
late Bishop of Ely, for a poor remembrance of good heart and will
towards his lordship, a gold ring value five marks. ... To my cousin
Henry Thirlby, son of my cousin Thomas Thirlby {&%c\ , his lordship's
brother. ... To every of my sons, Thomas, William, George, and
EiCHARD, £100. ... To my daughter Margaret (unmarried) £100. . . .
To Margaret my wife . . . landed property, &c., in Hendon, co.
Middlesex ; the manor of ' Campions ' in Epping, Essex ; . . .
my mansion in the parish of St. Andrew in the ward of Castle
Baynard. . . . Kesidue to be divided ' according to the laudable custom
of the city of London.' Margaret Blackwell sole executrix, Thomas
Blackwell supervisor." — P. C. C, *' Lyon," f. 30.

11. Page 145. In the P. R. 0., Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. 95, No.
21, there is a list of persons who own iron forges and furnaces in the
county of Sussex, dated 15th February, 1573-4. Among those mentioned
are the following: "The late Earl of Northumberland one forge and
one furnace in Petworth great park, in the hands of Mrs. Blackwell.
Mrs. Blackwell a forge and a furnace in North Chappell."

In the same volume (No. 79), under the date of 22nd February, I find
" William Walpole having the occupying of a furnace and a forge in the
parish of Petworth in the county of Sussex, belonging to one Margaret
Blackwell of London city, wife to William Blackwell, Town Clerk of
the said city, by the grant of the said Margaret during pleasure, having
married one of her daughters."

The bond referred to in the text is dated Hampton Court, 22nd
February, 16° Eliz. "The condition that the above-named William
Walpole shall hereafter make no manner of cast pieces of Ordnance of
Iron without special licence, and in case of such licence being granted,
shall not sell them to any stranger unless the said stranger's name and
quality and the number and name of the said Ordnance to be sold shall
be expressed in the said licence." The bond is signed and sealed with
the Walpole arms, on which is a label with a crescent for the second
house.

The ironworks in Sussex were carried on for many years after this,
and on a large scale. By the Act of 23° Eliz. c. v., certain restrictions
are laid upon the cutting down of " woods growing within a certain
compass of London ... to be converted into coals for iron works."
Four years after another Act was passed, 27° Eliz. c. xix., entitled " An
Act for the preservation of timber in the wealds of the counties of
Sussex, Surrey, and Kent, and for the amendment of highways decayed
by carriages to and from iron mills there." Even as late as the middle
of the eighteenth century the manufacture of iron was carried on
extensively in this district, and the iron railings which surrounded St.
Paul's churchyard, and which have only been recently removed, were
made of Sussex iron. Mrs. Blackwell's father, Thomas Campion, may

A NORFOLK HOUSE

well be thesame a= '' Mr, Ci"-= - -' — : -'- -- -~ the Master
of the Bolls, the Dean o: V.^ r :; •:;.„.. .„ ^igTistlSTS-

Cf. Wrist's Elizabeth and R-. . ., v : 19.

12. Fage 146. P. P.. 0.. IhymeitU, Elizabeth, voL 184, No. 46. On
the iron manof ac:iire o: ihe Weald, see Beport of Prehistoric CoogreaB
held a* Ncr— ::> \^A'- : a paper bj W. Boyd Da— Vri. e^p^ial^, p. 187.

Mrs. E'.i;':^-=... £ p.i:.::on to the Lords of ;'::e C:-l:.. is da*ed ^th

13. P-:;: 14':. Tnr nrii-h::-;::' : : 2 --;.s -.rn^e.y -::•:-: s :Trv:r7 i^o,
and I h.\" r v/::' -:::^ in :'i ir.i.i': ::ir.: :' -.':^z -■ ...z.:': • !i:-r 'i.:irr
used M ir.. :i-:.- i ::!■; :i:u.:-i= -u:::. .= :^ "ir-rj r-ri.:;^: .'.7 .-....'.?

owner of the pr;ic.:7 ^:: ::::: Lc:i.. ;.:7 i.i::-!::r = . I:ii :^i :
hou5€ was iVhrAir^s :.6n or twelve Te^rs i^-:. ^.-i ".hen inhahite
farmer. The f: •.::::". i:.:: :::s and a ;:::::::: :' :ce -;.h= still rema:
the ground-pl^n Oi ;j:e rr.mEion is eL::.7 :.i:T.;^e I: ~i.e 2. b:
nogreatsize, ~i:b ?. :::-:.;.^e :f i:;:: Eevr-:7 'eri, :.-:. r:;r:::-
a doable mii: -:: ;i. E::h ei: = :E t- :-::.l'.-2 ieein i. -j z:im

appeiffs :i.i: .•.:£. i.i:£ ■■"■;„ z-.i ..-i':ii£ ..z -•'::i:i i-iiei_ii. — . ie:»:e
William Wi:p::r line :: i-siie ::ir:e.

14. Pa:-: U^. This appear; b" in indenture. ma.!e Ihe 14:i: Fe:r-:irT
in the 24:n ve^r ;: Elizabeth, irt^ee- Ez:y?,T Te:7.1zT ;' Eer-i:" ::.

TrDDE>-:E:AM in the c:t:'t7 ci N;r-::li:. E;:.. :i tie ::'::r: -:ar: . . .
Hekbt Tsebi-bt £-hE t: VTi-l-a:: vr^i.?:!,! ■• Ah that :ae MeEiuire ^:.,
... in Norwich, in the Parish :i St. Maxtin be::rr the Gates ;: the
Palace of :he Bishop :f N:r~i-h, as thev he :et~ee- the ::~.~:z .ane
on the wes: pan and the tenement stnethire P..;ziEr GE.2sy's. Citize-
and Alderman of Ncr~::h, a:t.t ';.te ?r.:~j.y.z C±nr;r. Getttlen an. ;r. the
east par;, and it ahtitteth ::'.::: tie hi^r's river t:-aris the ntrtc. a-i
upon :he kinr's hirh-a7 :;v,-^,.i£ -..-e south. X2., sc." — P. P.. 0., Ci;s.e
Rolls, 24- Eh2a:eth. pt. 13.

15. F^:c 146. Her ':Ti:: is iatel 14th Mav. I'^o. an: -as prr-re-f :n
the 4m Julv. lo>6. . . . T; S:r l5::-:j.i Ij.:::iz':. Enight. Ltri Chan-
cellor :f Er.riar.1 ar.i t: the L.kii EitZiiirH his '-I'e ntj esp-eoiai
stooq iwrai.i.'a-— av, a;iip,'-r.-.^rr. . . .t — _■ n r ^ r . _• r . . .. — ^^ — . . • r .

and being in the i.r.::sh 0: St. A.r.ire- ir. the vrara :t Castie ra7ia.i.
. . . wh::h sa:a n:.^ns::n —7 hastano Wiia.ii..ii Bla;z-iii h;a=:n: ot
my honoured Eather in G:.i 1^:::::^= Ihit.izt ia:e Eish;^ :: Ei7 , . .
[AxxE Bacos vo hc:i it ::r ihree vears. ana ti:-n ;: tr s:i^ .^n i the
proceed? 10 bir .:.v.ar.i i.^; ■ ..n zy: ..n.i. _r. :.-:nr. '••hii.i-Ni: hi-i.:a-a_j

154 ONE GENERATION OF

..." and for the help and succour which my will is she shall be to
her sister Maky Walpole another of my daughters, if occasion shall so
require, viz., to allow her yearly xxZi. during the time of any breach
between her and her husband William Walpole. ... To William
Blackwell all my debts and money whatsoever which my son-in-law
William Walpole doth owe unto me at this present, or which shall
hereafter grow to be due unto me from my said son William Walpole
. . .—P. C. C, "Windsor," f. 37. The property bequeathed in the
counties of Sussex, Hants, Surrey, Essex, and Middlesex is very large.
The will affords a curious and important confirmation of the story first
told by Dr. Henry More of the estrangement between William Walpole
and his wife.

16. Fage 147. The omission is the more remarkable, because
KiCHARD Walpole's will was proved in London on the 10th May, 1568,
when his nephew William could not have been more than ten years old.
— See c. iii. n. (9)

17. Fage 147. Yepez, writing in 1599 (and at a time when one or
other of the three brothers Richard, Christopher, or Michael Walpole
must have been in Spain, and pretty sure to be in communication with
him), says distinctly that Henry Walpole laboured for more than two
years to convert his co2isin : Edward Walpole certainly did not take any
degree at Cambridge, which in the natural course of things he could have
done in 1579. It looks as if his refusal to proceed to the B.A., which
necessitated the taking of the oath, had been the cause of the indignation
of his parents, who by all accounts acted in a violent and indiscreet
manner. More tells us that, after having been unsettled for a long time,
the reading of Fulke's answer to Cardinal Allen's book on Purgatory
produced a profound effect upon his mind. Dr. Fulke's Confutation of
the Popish Churches Doctrine touching Purgatory and Prayers for the
Dead was published in 1577, so that it was after this year. — Yepez, Hist.
Partic. de la Persec. de Inglaterra, p. 668. Historia 3Iis$ionis Anglican^
. . . Collectore Henrico Moro, folio, St. Omer, 1660, f. 202.

18. Page 147. See note 15. More mentions the circumstance without
naming the cousins whom he had succeeded in reconciling; and
until the discovery of Mrs. Blackwell's will nothing was known of the
affair.

19. Page 148. His will is in Register^ "Spencer," f. 80, P. C. C. . . .
I William Walpole, of North Tuddenham in the County of Norfolk,
Esquire, . . . my Manor of North Tuddenham alias St. Clere's, . . . and
all my lands, tenements, &c,, in North Tuddenham, Elsinq, Hockering,
and Mattishall, . . . and my Manor of Felthams in Great Massinq-
ham, . . . and all my lands and tenements ... in Great Massinoham

A NORFOLK HOUSE 155

and Little Massingham unto Mary my well-beloved wife for term of her
life . . . the remainder thereof unto my cousin Ejjward Walpole ; . . .
to William Bettice my servant, house and land in Great Massingham ;
... to Martin Diat my servant, messuage, lands, and tenement in
Little Massingham ; ... to my cousin John Walpole the son of my
uncle Thomas Walpole, deceased, my Manor of Calis alias Porters in
Houghton, . . . and all my lands, &c., &c., in Harpley, Houghton,
BiRCHAM, and Rudham, to him and his heirs, and in default of issue,
or if it shall happen the said John Walpole or any the heirs of his body
. . . to commit, do, or suffer any act . . . to discontinue . . . the foresaid
estate to the said John or any the heirs males of his body . . . whereby
the said estate in tail shall be discontinued . . . then I will the said manors,
d-c, shall remain to my said cousin Edward Walpole ; . . .to Katherine
my well-beloved mother, certain lands in Harpley and Denton . . .
remainder to Edward Walpole . . . Manor of Borough Hall in
HiLLiNGTON and lands, &c., in Hillington, Congham, and East Dereham,
and all lands and houses, &c., in Norwich, to be sold for purposes of will ;
... to my sisters Ursula Scarlett and Martha Scarlett, lands and
tenements in Brancaster ; ... to Mary Houghton my sister ; ... to Jane
Ryvett my sister ; ... to Bridgett Houghell my sister ; ... to Anne
Stead my sister ; . . . I ordain executors . . . Sir Thomas Knyvett, Knt.,
and Thomas Farmour, Esq. . . . Whereas William Yelverton, Esq.,
deceased . . . willed recompense to be made to me for certain lands
in Rougham, containing about xxv. acres, which in right appertained
to me . . . such recompense to go to Edward Walpole my cousin . . .
to "Anthony Browne, Esq., and Anne his wife, my two Spanish bowls
of silver parcel gilt, and one pair of andirons, and a back of a chimney
of castiron standing in the hall" {probably made at the Sussex iron-
works) ; ... to Edmund Call my late servant . . . ; to James Howes ;
... to the residue of my men servants ten shillings a piece ; . . .
to every of my women servants five shillings a piece, except to
Catherine Hule, to whom four marks; ... to William Michell, my
godson, and Mary his wife, eight acres in Little Massingham ; . . .
to the poor of North Tuddenham, Harpley, Great Massingham, and
Hillington ; ... to my uncle Edmund Knyvett. — Executed 8 October,
1587. . . . Witnesses, William Browne, Anthony Browne, Charles
Yelverton. — Here follows a "Testament" or Codicil: — I do clearly
forgive my servant Edward Parham all such sums of money and other
things as he have of mine in his hands ; ... to the children of my
brother Butterwick and of my late sister Catherine his wife ; — to
Agnes Michell my late nurse . . . ;— Residue to be divided into four
parts; — one part unto Mary my wife and my said cousin Edward
Walpole ; — the second part to my uncle Christopher Walpole and his
children ; — the third part to my brother-in-law Thomas Ryvett and Jane
his wife, my sister; — the fourth part to my cousin John Walpole of
Houghton, Esq., and to his children. All to submit to the advice of

156 ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE

Richard Howell, whose costs are to be assured him. To Thomas
ScABLETT, Gent, (his step-father). . . . Revokes appointment of Sir
Thomas Knyvett as executor and appoints in his room John Walpole,
Esq., of Houghton.

20. Vage 148. His will was proved at Norwich 13th April, 1588. —
Consistory, "Homes," f. 206.

21. Page 149. This appears from the case laid before Sir Matthew
Hale, that has been already referred to.

CHAPTEE VI

JOHN GERARD

" Surely, Sir,
There's in him stuff that puts him to these ends."

Hennj VIII.

A FEW weeks after the annihilation of the great Armada,
when the heart of England was stirred with exultant grati-
tude for the deliverance wrought and the victory gained —
when, too, with the rising tide of indignation against the
arrogance of Spain, there had coroe a wave of very angry
feeling and resentment against the Pope of Eome and all
who were disposed to listen to his claims — a young English-
man of gentle birth, rare tact, courage, and abihty, landed
by night on the coast of Norfolk, his desire and ambition
being to labour for the conversion of England, to administer
the sacrament to faithful Catholics spite of all the terrors of
the law, and to act as a missionary of what he believed to
be the truth, wherever the opportunity should be offered
him.

John Gerard was the son of Sir Thomas Gerard of Bryn,
in Lancashire, a gentleman of great wealth and consideration
in his native county ; boasting of a long line of ancestors,
and connected by blood or marriage with many of the most
powerful houses in the North of England ; his brother
Thomas was created a baronet on the first institution of the
order in 1611 by James I., and from him the present Lord
Gerard is lineally descended. For generations the Gerards
had been numbered among the knightly families, but in
Queen Elizabeth's time they were pronounced and uncom-
promising Recusants. Sir Thomas had suffered a long

imprisonment for conscience' sake, and his estate had been

157

158 ONE GENERATION OF

heavily burdened by the charges and fines levied upon him.
His son John's earliest recollections were associated with
his father either being thrown into jail or being released ;
and he himself had had the experience of more than a year's
imprisonment in the Marshalsea, whither he had been sent,
shortly after coming of age, for attempting to leave the
country without a licence from the Crown. ^

He was born in 1564, and brought up at home by a
private tutor, who resided in the house, and who appears
to have taught him very little. This deficiency in his early
training proved a serious hindrance to him in after life, and
the inconvenience of it he has himself deplored. But if he
never became a man of learning or a scholar, if the habits
of a student seem never to have been much to his taste, he
learned other accomplishments in his boyhood which in the
sequel served his purpose better than any scholarship could
have done. He learned to sit a horse and train a falcon,
knew all the tricks and terms and slang of the hunting field,
became an adept at field sports, and was familiar with the
pastimes and polite accomplishments of town and country
life. A year before Campion and Parsons had landed,
young Gerard was sent to Exeter College, Oxford, but
apparently, in consequence of the increased strictness in
forcing the oath and exacting conformity while the excite-
ment of the first Jesuit mission was at its height, he left
Oxford after a little more than a year's residence, and seems
to have passed the next year or two in idling or amusing
himself. While at Oxford he had been placed under the
tuition of a Mr. Leutner, or Lucknor, a devout and zealous
Catholic, one of the fellows of Exeter, and who subsequently
resigned his fellowship and retired to Belgium, where he
died. Gerard accompanied his old tutor to the Continent,
being desirous of gaining a mastery over the French
language, and of otherwise improving himself. He took
up his residence at Kheims, and for three years attended
the lectures at the English college, although he did not enter
himself as a regular student, and was left to pursue his own
method of study as he chose. The result was that he read

A NORFOLK HOUSE 159

a great deal, but in a desultory and random way ; his tastes
leading him to attend the divinity lectures, and to spend his
time upon the works of the mystical writers of the Middle
Ages. While leading this aimless and unsatisfactory life,
he formed a friendship with a young man whose name he
does not give, which proved a crisis in his career ; and under
this influence his religious convictions became profoundly
intensified. He was living with his new friend in lodgings
at Eheims, when, to use his own words, " about twenty
years of age I heard the call of God's infinite mercy and
loving kindness, inviting me from the crooked ways of the
world to the straight path, to the perfect following of Christ
in His holy Society." It is a significant fact, explain it as
we may, that in the latter half of the sixteenth century the
" call of God " for young Englishmen of culture and birth,
who were Catholics, meant almost invariably a call to enter
the Society of Jesus ; so completely had the new order
attracted to itself all the choice and lofty spirits among the
Catholics, and so wonderfully had the Fathers of the Society
impressed the minds of men with a belief in their sanctity,
self-abnegation, and the sincerity of their devotion to a great
cause.^

Shortly after this crisis in his life he was seized with a
dangerous illness while at Claremont College in Paris, and
on his recovery he put himself in communication with
Father Parsons, explaining to him his desire to join the
Society. Parsons, with characteristic astuteness, advised him
before t'aking the final step to return to England and settle
his affairs, as he had some property it was necessary to dis-
pose of. He took his advice and went, and having finished
his business he attempted to slip out of the country ; but
the vessel he sailed in was compelled to put back by stress
of weather, and he was arrested, sent up to London, and
thrown into prison. After an incarceration of more than a
year he managed to get free, and made the best of his way
to France, and thence to Eome. Cardinal i.\llen had the
sagacity to see how much there was in this young zealot,
and at once made choice of him as a valuable emissary to

i6o ONE GENERATION OF

use in England ; and although he was some months under
the canonical age, he obtained a dispensation from the Pope,
and procured his admission to priest's orders in the summer
of 1588. On the 15th of August in the same year he was
received as a novice into the Society, and a few weeks after-
w^ards was sent upon his mission to England.3

John Gerard was now twenty-four years of age. In
person he was tall, erect, and well-set; his complexion dark,
his eyes with a strange piercing look in them, a prominent
nose, full lips, and hair that hung in long curls ; '* his beard
cut close, saving little mustachios and a little tuft under his
flower lip." He was particular in his dress, and rather
affected gay clothing. At his ease in any society, he could
accommodate himself with consummate adroitness to what-
ever company he found himself in ; always courteous, he
yet knew when to assert himself with decision ; in speech
deliberate and not voluble, he had the gift of holding his
tongue when it was the time to be silent : when it was time
to speak he weighed his words and could use them well.
Such was this remarkable man, a man whose influence was
destined to make itself felt to an extraordinary extent in the
upper ranks of English society for the next seventeen years,
and who, though he was dogged and hunted by a legion of
spies, with a price set upon his head, yet died quietly in his
bed at last. Meantime, however, he passed through im-
minent perils and hairbreadth escapes ; he was apprehended
in 1594, and flung into the Tower ; here he was exposed to
the horrible agony of being hung up by the wrists to the
roof of his dungeon for hours, and when he fainted under
the cruel torture he was let down and restored to conscious-
ness only to be tortured again and again. The amazing
nerve and courage of the man did not fail him for a moment
in this fearful ordeal ; and although the strain was so fierce
that he lost the use of his hands for months, and the very
jailers were moved at the sight of his sufferings, not a word
could be wrung from him to implicate or compromise associ-
ate or friend. He escaped from the Tower in 1597, and at
once returned to what he believed to be his duty — comfort-

A NORFOLK HOUSE i6i

ing the persecuted, confessing the penitent, visiting the
desolate whose convictions were opposed to the dominant
creed, administering the sacraments, although to do so was,
ipso facto, to incur the penalty of death ; holding his life in
his hand, yet always cheerful, fearless, and unwearied; never
swerving from the path which seemed to him a path that
God had marked out for him ; if under a delusion and in
error, yet true to his convictions and consistent in his aims
— an example so far, and a reproach to most of us who
think our faith so much purer than his, while our lives can
bear so much less to be tried and weighed in the balance.^

When Gerard wrote the account of himself and his
mission to England, the events he recorded were so recent
that it was necessary to conceal the names of many of his
friends, who were still alive in England and liable to be
called to account at any moment for having befriended him
ten or fifteen years before ; but by careful study of his
narrative, and by the help of documents which have only
lately come to light, we are able to follow his movements
pretty closely, so far as his sojourn in Norfolk is concerned.
He landed, as has been said, in the end of October 1588,
at a point on the Norfolk coast between Happisburgh and
Bacton, and after passing the night with his companion.
Father Oldcorne, in a wood, where they were soaked with the
rain and half perished with the cold, the two separated at
dawn, Father Oldcorne keeping to the coast until he arrived
at Mundesley, where he joined a company of sailors who
were making their way to London, and, casting in his lot
with them, was allowed to pass unchallenged by the
searchers and officers who were everywhere on the look out
for Seminarists and Jesuits from abroad. Gerard turned
his back upon the sea, made for the nearest village, and
after dexterously getting all the information he could pick
up from labourers in the field and any one he met, he at last
boldly went to a village inn, probably at Sloley or Stalham,
where he passed the night, and ingratiated himself with the
innkeeper by buying a pony which the man wanted to sell.
Next morning he rode off on his new purchase, and while

i62 ONE GENERATION OF

passing through a village, probably Worstead, he was
stopped and told he must give an account of himself to the
constable and the beadle of the place. Here he was in
great danger of being taken before a magistrate ; but as this
would have involved some trouble to the officials, for there
evidently was no magistrate in the immediate neighbourhood,
and as he adopted a defiant and imperious manner, the
beadle let him go on his road, the man of birth and educa-
tion proving too much for the plebeian, who was only
accustomed to deal with members of his own class.

Gerard trotted away on his pony, well pleased to have
escaped his first peril. The place of his landing had been
singularly favourable for him. If he had left the ship
ten miles farther to the northward he would have been
compelled to pass through North Walsham or Aylsham
on his way to Norwich, and would have been almost
infallibly detained by the searchers at either of these towns ;
but as it was he had only inconsiderable villages to go
through, and had very little to fear until he should arrive
at the cathedral city. On the high road he caught up a
packman who was also journeying to Norwich, and the
two rode together for some miles. Gerard got from him
all the information he required, and taking the advice of
his new friend he avoided entering the city by St.
Augustine's Gates, and crossing the river at Hellesdon
he made a circuit of the walls, entered by the Brazen
Doors, close to the present Militia Barracks, and came to
an inn which the packman had told him of — one of the
many inns on the Market Hill " within a stone's throw
of the castle. "5 Here he put up, and while he was sitting
in the chimney corner his next piece of good fortune
happened to him. The Eecusants who had been com-
mitted to the castle ten years before were still incarcerated
there, subject to every kind of vexation and imposition,
and suffering severely in their estates by their long de-
tention. They were, however, occasionally allowed to go
out of the prison for a few days at a time, and it chanced
that when Gerard had arrived io Norwich one of them had

A NORFOLK HOUSE 163

just received his liberty for a brief interval to look after
some matters of private business.^ He came to the inn
where Gerard was staying, and attracted his attention
by naming a gentleman who had been a fellow-prisoner
with Gerard in the Marshalsea some years before. Gerard
inquired who he was, and found out that he was a stubborn
Eecusant who had been in prison for many years for
his religion. This was enough : it was not long before
he had told his new acquaintance that he was a Catholic
like himself, and anxious to make his way to London.
Could he help him ? Of course the man who himself had
been in jail for ten years could hardly assist another at
so critical a moment, but he would tell him of some one
who could, and would introduce him to one whose power
was greater and inclination no less sincere than his own.
That very day a gentleman was coming into Norwich,
as zealous an enthusiast as himself, and who, although
he had not yet suffered for his opinions, was prepared
to do so if the times should require the sacrifice.

Gerard has concealed the name of this friend, but there is
now no difficulty in identifying him as Edward Yelverton,
son of William Yelverton, Esquire, of Eougham, and as the
circumstances of his meeting Gerard and his subsequent
close connection with him produced important results, not
only to the fortunes of the Walpole family but to the
interests of the Catholic party in Norfolk for the next
twenty years, it may be advisable here to give some
account of so conspicuous a personage.

William Yelverton of Eougham was one of the richest
men in the county of Norfolk. He was twice married, and
by both wives had a large family.7 His children had
almost all married into the wealthiest and most influential
families in the Eastern Counties. From his second son,
Sir Christopher Yelverton, who was one of the Justices
of the King's Bench, the Viscounts Longueville and Earls
of Sussex are descended, from a daughter of which noble
house the present Lord Calthorpe traces his lineage. His
eldest son, Henry, had mamed a daughter of Sir William

i64 ONE GENERATION OF

Drury of Halstead, whose son was created a baronet in
1620. Another son, Charles, was knighted by Queen
Elizabeth, and one of his daughters, who had first married
Thomas Le Strange of Hunstanton, had allied herself two
years before Gerard's arrival with Philip Wodehouse, son
and heir of Sir Eoger Wodehouse of Kimberley, ancestor
of the present Earl.^ Edward Yelverton was the eldest
son of his father's second wife, Jane, daughter of Edmund
Cocket of Hempton, co. Suffolk, Esq., and had inherited at
his father's death, by virtue of a marriage settlement, a
considerable estate in Grimston and the adjoining parishes,
extending over between two and three thousand acres. Here
he lived according to the fashion of the time, keeping
open house, and having as inmates, besides his own family,
a younger brother, a sister who had lately been left a
widow, who acted as his housekeeper, and a brother-in-law
whose name I have as yet failed to discover.9 As has been
said, he had been at Cambridge with the two cousins
Edward and Henry Walpole, and was a little their senior,
being now about thirty years of age. He had lost his
first wife shortly after his marriage, and when his sister
Jane was left a widow by the death of Edward Lummer
of Mannington, co. Norfolk, in 1588, with a very scanty
provision and with her marriage portion squandered, he
had offered her a home, although she did not sympathise
in his enthusiasm for the Eoman doctrine and ritual. He
had taken his bachelor's degree at Cambridge, but never
proceeded further, and it is not improbable that his leaving
the university may have been due to the same influences
which led so many at this time to give up their hopes
of a university career and to content themselves with
the obscurity of a country gentleman's life.^°

When Gerard's first acquaintance in Norwich parted
from him, he went in search of Mr. Yelverton, and,
according to appointment, met him in the nave of the
cathedral." In the course of the interview Gerard frankly
confessed himself a priest of the Society of Jesus, and
explained his desire to present himself before his superior

A NORFOLK HOUSE 165

in London with the least possible delay. Mr. Yelverton,
instead of furthering this plan, insisted on taking him
to Grimston, mounting him on the horse which his servant
had been riding, and leaving the man to follow with
Gerard's pony. From Norwich to Grimston was too long
a ride for one day, and they put up for the night at one
of the country houses on the road, possibly Tuddenham,
where William Walpole's widow was now living, or Elsing
Hall, the seat of Mr., afterwards Sir Anthony, Brown. ^^
Next day they arrived at Mr. Yelverton's, and Gerard
was introduced as a friend who had come to spend some
time with him. Though the secret of his priesthood was
kept with the utmost jealousy, Gerard never concealed
the fact of his being a Catholic ; he was in about as
safe a neighbourhood as there was in England south of
the Humber ; the squires in this part of Norfolk had by
no means moved with the times, they were Catholics
almost to a man. People discussed the great questions
between the Churches of England and Eome freely and
openly, and scarcely a single one of the old county families
was without some prominent members who were already
or were soon about to be sufferers for their faith. The
Townshends of Kainham, the Cobbs of Sandringham, the
Bastards of Dunham, the Bozouns of Whissonsett, the
Kerviles of Wiggenhall, and many others of less note
and importance, all figure in the Eecusant Eolls, and all
were within a ten-miles ride of Grimston ; the county
swarmed with squires who, though they "kept their
church," yet had small love for the new order of things,
and would have welcomed a change to the old regime
with something more than equanimity.^3

When Gerard dropped down into the midst of this
neighbourhood of malcontent gentlemen, who were quite
inclined to attribute all the inconveniences they might
experience from the natural course of events or their own
extravagance to the effects of the persecution, which they
were not likely to under-estimate, it is not surprising that
his success as a proselytiser surpassed his most sanguine

i66 ONE GENERATION OF

expectations. He tells us that his new friend carried him
about with him " to nearly every gentleman's house in the
country," Yelverton having the sagacity to see that
Gerard was no ordinary man, and that he could take care
of himself with tact and discretion. Doubtless among the
inner circle of the faithful it was soon suspected that this
Mr. Thompson — for this was the name he went by — must
needs be something else than he professed to be. How if
this captivating young gentleman with the courtly manners
and charming address were — might they whisper it? — a
priest, or something worse ? To be sure he could hold his
own with the squire in the hunting field, or slip a hawk from
his wrist with the best of them ; take a hand at the card
table, or enjoy a seemly joke with a frolic glee that made
him welcome wherever he came ; but what did that flash of
the dark eyes mean when the ribald tongue broke out into
blasphemy and filthy language ? ^-^ At times how grave
he was and silent; with all this gaiety and vivacity, his
mind was clearly always running upon serious things.
Other men talked on matters of controversy as if such
themes were outside of themselves, he spoke with a solemn
earnestness that impressed his hearers most profoundly.

Nor was this all : in accounting, or attempting to account,
for the effect which a man produces upon others, we mistake
the matter much if we allow ourselves to believe that the
proselytiser's success is even mainly due to his skilful use
of cunningly constructed syllogisms and all the tricks of
logic. Converts are not made by arguments, and none
knew this better than the Jesuits themselves. Conviction
is the result of a very complex process, and he who leaves
out of account the personal element from his calculations
will never be able to understand the secret of many a
strong man's failure or weak man's triumphs. In these
matters it has again and again been proved that the main
factor must always be that subtle and indefinable something
which can only be classed under the head of personal
influence, and which some, in their despair of explaining
its potency, have designated as "mesmeric force." It is

A NORFOLK HOUSE 167

abundantly clear that Gerard possessed this strange power
of attraction and persuasion to a marvellous extent.
During the few years of his sojourn in Norfolk and Suffolk
the number of converts of both sexes which he made would
appear absolutely incredible, if the evidence were not so
conclusive, and the proofs had not come to us from so many
different quarters. At least ten young men of birth, and
belonging to the most considerable families in the two
counties, left England and joined the Society of Jesus
before the close of Elizabeth's reign, and in every instance
we can distinctly trace his influence ; and, indeed, in the
majority of cases they themselves attribute their conversion
to Gerard by name. He has indeed so much understated
the importance of his own work that it looks as if he had
scarcely been aware how great was the effect of his labours ;
and it is only very recently, after the lapse of three centuries,
that modern research has enabled us to form a truer
estimate of the extent of his influence.

Among the first who found their way to Grimston was
Edward Walpole, drawn back to Houghton by his father's
death, to look after his affairs. Between him and Edward
Yelverton there had long been a perfect understanding, and
Yelverton was not likely to keep the great secret from one
who was so sure not to betray it. Ever since Henry
Walpole had fled the country he had kept up a correspond-
ence with his relatives at home, and letters had passed by
every available opportunity. Of course he had been careful
not to let his cousin's enthusiasm cool, and the blundering
policy of the Government, which attempted to crush out all
fanaticism, whether in the Romanist or the Sectary, as
heinous crime, and which yet did not allow the criminal
the resource of running away from his persecutor, had in
the meantime continued as vexatious as ever. The rigour
had not abated, and the irritation had intensified.

So far Edward Walpole had been only a Non-conformist ;
at worst he had absented himself from church, and thereby
rendered himself, liable to the fine for recusancy, but he had
not been formally " reconciled " to the Church of Rome.

i68 ONE GENERATION OF

When he heard of Gerard he soon presented himself at
Grimston, which was only five miles from Houghton, and
with little delay embraced the opportunity of giving in his
adhesion to the Jesuit emissary.

At Anmer Hall, too, Henry Walpole's youngest brother,
Michael, was now living, with no very definite plans for
his future career, — restless, discontented, and ready for any
venture, — of ardent and enthusiastic temperament, — just at
that age and just in that mood in which a youth is readiest
to surrender himself to the sway and direction of a powerful
mind. There was no need for any conversion in his case.
Had not his brother, that hero of the house, stood by
Campion's side at the gallows ? had he not had already to
hide from the pursuivants, to run for his life ? and was he
not now an exile for the faith which the mob were howling
at? Was not that same brother himself a Jesuit Father,
from whom over the sea came letters of earnest pleading, ,
and the fervent words which told of inward peace and a
trust that knew no doubt nor any thought of wavering?
And lo ! here, on the other side of Grimston heath, in the
house of his brother's friend, it was whispered that a Jesuit
priest was staying as a guest. He had come none knew
whence, and they scarce knew how — the witchery of a
certain mystery and romance was round him. Perhaps
he might prove a second Campion ; perhaps he too was
ambitious of the martyr's crown. Certainly he was living
every hour of the day holding his life in his hand, and sure,
if detected, of being dragged away to horrible torture and
death. And yet he went in and out as gay and fearless
as the country squires with whom he mixed familiarly on
terms of equality, and as much at his ease as if there were
no penal law upon the statute book. It is easy to see for a
young man of chivalrous nature, with the love of adventure
strong in him, all this must have exercised an overpowering
fascination. And accordingly we find that young Michael
threw himself into Gerard's arms and attached himself to
him with entire devotion. From the first he became his
crusty companion and constant attendant, shared his perils

A NORFOLK HOUSE 169

acted as his messenger, served him as his esquire in his
journeys, clung to his side wherever he went, and proved a
most valuable coadjutor and friend. ^s

There were two other brothers of the Anmer family who,
as time went on, became subject to the Gerard influence.
Geoffrey Walpole, the second son, never seems to have been
troubled by any scruples of conscience. There is not the
slightest evidence that he had any sympathy with the
uneasiness and discontent which troubled the minds of
other members of the household. Whether he was more
phlegmatic or less romantic, more stable or less earnest, we
shall never know : it is, however, certain that he was the
only one of the six sons who never suffered for his religious
opinions.

Just a year before the arrival of Gerard in Norfolk,
Christopher, the fourth son, had entered at Gains College,
Cambridge. He was then nineteen, and therefore several
years older than the usual age at which at this time
freslimen went up to the university. He had passed the
previous two years under a scholar of some eminence,
Thomas Speght, master of Ely school, and one of the
earliest editors of Chaucer. Speght was a Peterhouse man,
and had been there under Dr. Perne, and was probably,
like him, a latitudinarian, with more taste for literature than
theology. ^^ It is probable that young Christopher Walpole
had not been originally intended for one of the learned
professions, and that it had been decided to send him to
Cambridge only after his brother Eichard had relinquished
his hopes of a university career ; but we are assured that
he made the best use of his time, and that he was a
diligent student. When he came home to Anmer for the
long vacation of 1589, he must have made Gerard's
acquaintance for the first time, and he was the next to
succumb to the fascination of the young Jesuit priest. He
never returned to ' Cambridge. More than half disposed to
throw in his lot with his two exiled brothers, he was ready
enough to yield to Father Gerard's persuasive powers. His
position at the university was henceforth no longer tenable.

I70 ONE GENERATION OF

He could not rest where he was. Oaths and declarations,
sermons in the university pulpit, which he was bound to
listen to, attendance at the college chapel, and compulsory
communion with heretics, — all these things were threatening
him. He could not conscientiously face them, and the time
had come when he believed that he must needs make his
choice — remain in England and conform, or leave it, and
enjoy that liberty of conscience which was not possible at
home.

There was still one other brother, Thomas Walpole, a
young man of twenty-two, who without any occupation,
and apparently without any taste for learning and study,
was at this time idling at home. He too, it seems, could
not make up his mind to conform, and be content with
things as they were. But what could he do? These
Walpoles clung together with a stubborn pride of family
that disdained to purchase advancement by bowing in the
house of Eimmon ; and when his brothers were already so
deeply compromised, Thomas Walpole would not be disloyal
to his kin. As for the polemical questions in dispute, he
would leave them to others to wrangle about, but his
brothers' cause should be his cause, and with them he
would stand or fall.

And thus round the hearth at Anmer, five miles or so
from Father Gerard's retreat, five young men, the eldest of
them six-and-twenty years of age, might be seen sitting
moodily in that winter of 1589, with no future before them,
and no career open, living under a ban. At any moment
some emissary from the Government might knock rudely
at the door, some pursuivant might come to call them to
account and press the oath upon them, some spy might
report that they no longer put in an appearance at that
parish church which was almost contiguous to their hall ;
every message from the outer world was full of threatening,
there was no field for their ambition, no outlet for their
enthusiasm, no scope for the exercise of such powers as
they were conscious of possessing. Of course they became
fanatics ; of course they became more and more possessed

A NORFOLK HOUSE 171

by one idea; of course the sense of wrong and injustice
mastered their reason and judgment ; the rites of a religion
which was proscribed seemed to them to be the only things
that were worth living for, and became in their eyes all the
dearer and more precious because every time that they took
part in them they were running a tremendous risk, and
braving the terrors of the persecuting laws.

In the midst of this condition of affairs, news came from
across the sea which burst upon the brothers with fresh
dismay — Henry Walpole had been arrested at Flushing, and
was now lying in a dungeon in imminent peril of his life.
His captors demanded a ransom. Who would come to his
side and bring the deliverance ?

NOTES ON CHAPTER VI

1. Page 158. The main authority for all statements regarding
Father John Gerard and his family is Mr. Morris's Condition of Catholics
under James I., with its able life of Gerard, derived chiefly from his own
autobiography, and illustrated by very copious extracts from MSS. in the
Kecord Office and elsewhere. Gerard was imprisoned in the Marshalsea
"from the beginning of one Lent" (1584) to the end of the following
(1585).

2. Page 159. On the new religious Orders founded in the sixteenth
century, see Eanke's History of the Popes, Book ii. sect. 4.

3. Page 160. Morris, p. 11. There are several descriptions of Gerard's
person, dress, &g. The following has been given by Mr. Morris,
but it will bear reprinting here, affording, as it does, so good an instance
of the wretch Topcliffe's peculiar style of composition and more peculiar
spelling.

• ' Jhon Gerrarde, y« Jhezew^ is about 30 years oulde Of a good stature
sumwhat highc then S"" Tho Layton & upright in his paysse and
countenance sum what stayring in his look or Eyes Currilde heire by
Nature & blakyshe & not apt to have much heire of his bearde. I
thincke his noase sum what wide and turninge Upp Blubarde Lipps
turninge outwards Especially the over Lipps most Uppwards toword the
Noase Kewryoos in speetche If he do now contynewe his custome. And
in his speetche he flourrethe and smyles much & a falteringe or Lispinge,
or dooblinge of his Tonge in his speeche."

Another description of him from the MSS. at Hatfield will be found in
the Appendix.

4. Page 161. Horrible as the details are, Gerard's account of his
torture in the Tower is so vivid and so powerful that I cannot refrain
from giving it here in his own words.

" Then we proceeded to the place appointed for the torture. We went
in a sort of solemn procession : the attendants preceding us with
lighted candles, because the place was underground and very dark,
especially about the entrance. It was a place of immense extent, and in
it were ranged divers sorts of racks and other instruments of torture.
Some of these they displayed before me, and told me that I should have
to taste them every one. Then again they asked me if I was willing to
satisfy them on the points on which they had questioned me. ' It is out
of my power to satisfy you,' I answered; and throwing myself on my
knees, I said a prayer or two.

" Then they led me to a great upright beam or pillar of wood, which
was one of the supports of this vast crypt. At the summit of this column

172

ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE 173

were fixed certain iron staples for supporting weights. Here they placed
on my wrists manacles of iron, and ordered me to mount upon two or three
wicker steps ; then raising my arms, they inserted an iron bar through
the rings of the manacles, and then through the staples in the pillar,
putting a pin through the bar so that it could not slip. My arms being
thus fixed above my head, they withdrew those wicker steps I spoke of,
one by one, from beneath my feet, so that I hung by my hands and
arms. The tips of my toes, however, still touched the ground ; so they
dug away the ground beneath, as they could not raise me higher, for
they had suspended me from the topmost staples in the pillar.

" Thus hanging by my wrists, I began to pray, while those gentlemen
standing round asked me again if I was willing to confess. I replied, ' I
neither can nor will.' But so terrible a pain began to oppress me, that
I was scarce able to speak the words. The worst pain was in my breast
and belly, my arms and hands. It seemed to me that all the blood in
my body rushed up my arms into my hands ; and I was under the
impression at the time that the blood actually burst forth from my
fingers and at the back of my hands. This was, however, a mistake ;
the sensation was caused by the swelling of the flesh over the iron that
bound it.

' • I felt now such intense pain (and the effect was probably heightened
by an inferior temptation), that it seemed to me impossible to continue
enduring it. It did not, however, go so far as to make me feel any
inclination or real disposition to give the information they wanted.
For as the eyes of our merciful Lord had seen my imperfection. He did
* not suffer me to be tempted above what I was able, but with the
temptation made also a way of escape.' Seeing me therefore in this
agony of pain and this interior distress, 'His infinite mercy sent me this
thought : ' The very furthest and utmost they can do is to take away thy
life ; and often hast thou desired to give thy life for God ; thou art in
God's hands, Who knoweth well what thou sufferest, and is all-powerful
to sustain thee.' With this thought our good God gave me also out of
His immense bounty the grace to resign myself, and offer myself utterly
to His good pleasure, together with some hope and desire of dying for
His sake. From that moment I felt no more trouble in my soul,
and even the bodily pain seemed to be more bearable than before,
although I doubt not that it really increased, from the continued strain
that was exercised on every part of my body.

" Hereupon the gentlemen, seeing that I gave them no further answer,
departed to the Lieutenant's house ; and there they waited, sending now
and then to know how things were going on in the crypt. There were
left with me three or four strong men to superintend my torture. My
gaoler also remained, I fully believe out of kindness to me, and kept
wiping away with a handkerchief the sweat that ran down from my
face the whole time, as indeed it did from my whole body. So far,
indeed, he did me a service ; but by his words he rather added to my

J 74 ONE GENERATION OF

distress, for he never stopped beseeching and entreating me to have pity
on myself, and tell these gentlemen what they wanted to know ; and
so many human reasons did he allege that I verily believe he was either
instigated directly by the devil under pretence of affection for me, or
had been left there purposely by the persecutors to influence me by
his show of sympathy. In any case, these shafts of the enemy
seemed to be spent before they reached me, for though annoying,
they did me no real hurt, nor did they seem to touch my soul, or
move it in the least. I said, therefore, to him, ' I pray you to say
no more on that point, for I am not minded to lose my soul for the
sake of my body, and you pain me by what you say.' Yet I could
not prevail with him to be silent. The others also who stood by
said : ' He will be a cripple all his life, if he lives through it, but he
will have to be tortured daily till he confesses.' But I kept praying
in a low voice, and continually uttered the holy names of Jesus and
Mary.

" I had hung in this way till after one of the clock, as I think, when I
fainted. How long I was in the faint I know not ; perhaps not long ;
for the men who stood by lifted me up, or replaced those wicker steps
under my feet, until I came to myself ; and immediately they heard me
praying, they let me down again. This they did over and over again
when the faint came on, eight or nine times before five of the clock.
Somewhat before five came Wade again, and drawing near said, * Will
you yet obey the commands of the Queen and the Council ? '

•• ' No,' said I, ' what you ask is unlawful, therefore I will never do it.'

" * At least, then,' said Wade, * say that you would like to speak to
Secretary Cecil.'

'• ' I have nothing to say to him,' I replied, * more than I have said
already; and if I were to ask to speak to him, scandal would be caused,
for people would imagine that I was yielding at length, and wished to
give information.'

" Upon this Wade suddenly turned his back in a rage, and departed,
saying in a loud and angry tone, ' Hang there, then, till you rot ! '

" So he went away, and I think all the Commissioners then left the
Tower ! for at five of the clock the great bell of the Tower sounds, as a
signal for all to leave who do not wish to be locked in all night. Soon
after this they took me down from my cross, and though neither foot
nor leg was injured, yet I could hardly stand."

5. Fage 162. Any reader of Gerard's narrative, with some local know-
ledge, will be able to follow him in his route to Norwich by the help of
my account in the text. Bacton is the farthest northern point at which
the landing could have taken place. Had the vessel put him ashore
at Mundesley, Sheringham, or Cromer, he would have almost neces-
sarily had to pass through North Walsham, or Aylsham, where he would
have been at once brought before a magistrate. On the other hand, had

A NORFOLK HOUSE I75

he landed at Bacton itself, he could scarcely have failed to mention
Bromholm Priory, which was then not quite in ruins. It is clear that
the place of landing must have been between Happisburgh and Bacton,
and that Father Oldcorne, " keeping to the coast," must have fallen in
with the sailors at or near Mundesley. The bridge over the river at
Hellesdon existed certainly as early as the middle of the fifteenth century,
and the fields outside Norwich at this time were all open. In the
broken folio MS. in the Archives of the Corporation of Norwich, about
the middle of the volume, there is a precept issued apparently in
9 Hen. V., ordering the repair of the bridge between Hellesdon and
Earlham. Gerard seems to have crossed the Dereham road, and to
have "made his circuit of the city," till he found himself on one of the
main London roads, and, avoiding the long street from St. Stephen's
gates, which would have exposed him to observation, to have crossed
what was then the common land outside the walls, and entered by the
" Brazen Doors."

Not many days before Gerard's arrival in Norfolk an order had been
sent down to the Sheriff of Norfolk (Sir John Peyton of Isleham, co.
Cambridge) *'. . . for that their L.L. understand that the Recusants
that are prisoners in the Common Jail within that county, do much
harm, and infect the county, by the liberty which they enjoy there, their
L.L. have thought good to have such of them whose names are con-
tained in the enclosed Schedule to be removed from thence to Wisbech,
and therefore did will and require him to cause them to be immediately
delivered to the charge of this bearer [ ] George, keeper of the

same house, and also to be assisting unto him in the safe conveyance of
them thereto." — Privy Council Records.

Then follow the names :— 1. Walter Norton. 2. George (a mistake
for Robert) Downes. 3. Robert Lovell. 4. Ferdinand Paris. 5.
Humphrey Bedingfeld. 6. Robert Graye.

It appears that a complaint had been sent up to the Council in August
against James Bradshaw, keeper of the Castle at Norwich, *' being com-
plained of to have given more liberty to such [as] are obstinate
Recusants than is fit," and in consequence a letter was sent down to
Freake, Bishop of Norwich, ordering him "to inform himself of the
behaviour of James Bradshaw . . . and of his disposition in religion,
and how he hath kept the same Recusants, and what liberty they have
had," &c.

Of the gentlemen named, Ferdinand Paris was of Pudding Norton,
CO. Norfolk ; he had large estates also in Cambridgeshire, but he seems
to have been at last ruined by the exactions levied upon him and his
family.

Robert Lovell was a younger brother of Sir Thomas Lovell of
Harling.

Humphrey Bedingfeld of Quidenham was a younger brother of Sir
ITexry Bedingfeld of Oxburgh. In another order in the Privy Council

176 ONE GENERATION OF

Book, dated 20th March, 1588-9, the Sheriff of the County is instructed
that, "Whereas Humphrey Bedingfeld, Gent., hath been long time a
prisoner for recusancy in Norwich Jail ; forasmuch as there is good
[hope] of his conformity in religion if he might have conference with
some such as are given \pic\ therein and for his health's sake. He was
required to take order that BEmNOFELD might be delivered to the custody
of Mb. Eowe, parson of Quidenham, to remain with him in his charge
for the purpose aforesaid until he shall have order for the contrary.
Causing good bonds to be taken of Bedingfeld that during the time
of his commitment as aforesaid, he depart not above two miles distant
from the house or dwelling-place of the said Kowe."

On Robert Downes, see notes 10 and 11 to Chapter III. : he was an
uncle of Francis Downes of Lavenham, who was ancestor of Lord
DowNES, in the Peerage of Ireland.

Robert Grate, of Merton, had married a sister of Mr. Lovell's. His
epitaph in Merton church is given in Blomefield, ii. 305. He was
ancestor of the present Lord Walsingham.

The order for the removal of these gentlemen to Wisbech was not
carried out till April 1590. A month before, a letter had been ordered
to be written to " Richard Archenstall, Esq., with a copy of the orders
sent down by their L.L. for the keeping of the Recusants."

•' 1. First the knights and principal gents are to be allowed two men
apiece for their necessary service, if they require it, and the others but
one man apiece.

"2. It is meet that they shall be placed in the Bishop's Palace in Ely,
in such rooms as by him to whom the charge is committed shall be
thought most meet and convenient for that purpose.

" 3. They are to be used with all courtesy, but not to suffer them to
have conference with any stranger but in his own presence, or some
such trusty person as he shall dispute.

" 4. For their bedding, hangings, and such like furniture, the parties
themselves to furnish the same, to whom the keeper shall give notice
thereof to the end they make provision accordingly.

"5. He shall make them acquainted with the diet that is set down in
the Fleet, whereof a note is set down herewithal, both for the allowance
and the number of the dishes, and if they shall desire any increase, then
are they to compound with him for the same.

"6, It is meant that they shall be permitted to converse together at
their meals and at such other times as by him to whom the charge
of them is committed shall be thought meet, so as they do forbear
formal speeches unfit for good subjects against the Queen's Majesty or
any States of the Realm having governance thereto. (?)

"7. So likewise they are to be permitted to walk together at such
times as by their keeper's discretion shall be thought meet, in such
places as are not open to the town of Ely.

*' 8. Order may be taken that some of the watchmen of the town of

A NORFOLK HOUSE I77

Ely be appointed to watch about the house, in such places as by the
keepers shall be thought most meet and needful, and so it is to be
referred to his own discretion to consider what number of men he shall
think sufificient to keep both for their better safeguard and surface.

*' 9. Every night they are to be shut up in their chamber at a con-
venient hour.

" Orders to the same effect to Mr. Fynes for Kecusants to be placed
under his charge at Banbury Castle or Broughton, Mr. Fynes his house,
&c. , &c."

Doubtless the same orders held good at Wisbech.

6. Pagt 163. In these same Records of the Privy Council I found
two instances of "leave of absence" being granted to the Recusant
gentry :—

1. " 7th January 1587-88. A warrant to the keeper of Norwich Jail
to take bonds of Walter Norton, Gent., remaining prisoner under his
custody, with two sufficient sureties in the sum of £1000 to Her
Majesty's use, with condition to return himself prisoner at the end
of one month following into his custody, and thereupon to set him
forthwith at liberty."

2. •* 19th June 1589. A letter to Sir Edward Clere, to take good
bonds of George Willoughby, of St. Mary Magdalen in Marshland,
Esq., to Her Majesty's use, for his forthcoming upon notice given him
at his house in Marshland, and for his good demeanour and well-
usage of himself during the time he shall be employed about the
repairing of the sea banks, drains, and draining of marshes ; there-
upon to give order for his liberty and releasement from the custody
of Robert Bozun, Esq., to whose keeping he was the last year com-
mitted for recusancy, that he might remain within the circuit of six-
teen miles about his said house in Marshland."

7. "Page 163. In the answers given by one of his grandchildren
Charles Yelverton, to the usual interrogatories presented to him on
his entering the English College at Rome, on the 14th December, 1601
— copies of which are now in the archives of the Rolls House — he says
that his grandfather had twenty children. Some of these may have
died young; I know of only fifteen, and there are only fifteen figured
upon his brass, still existing in Rougham church ; these are, however,
all represented as men and women. The scheme on page 178 gives them
at a glance.

8. Fagc 164. Thomas, eldest son of Hamon Lestrange of Hun-
stanton, Esq., died in the eighteenth year of his age, February 1st, in
the 23rd year of Elizabeth (1582), without any issue by Grisell his wife,
daughter of William Yelverton of Rougham.— Blomefield, x. 319.

In the muniment room at Hunstanton (A. 60) are deposited "Articles

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A NORFOLK HOUSE I79

of agreement made the 19th March, in the 25th year of Elizabeth, by the
arbitrament and good mediation of Henry Doyly, Thomas Farmor,
Nathaniel Bacon, and Charles Cornwallis, Esquires, as well by the full
and mutual consent of Sir Koger Woodhouse, Knight, for and on behalf
of Philip Woodhouse, Esq., his son and heir apparent, and Grisell his
wife, of the one part ; and John Peyton, Esq., for and on behalf of
Nicholas Lestrange, Esq., on the other part. ..." In accordance with
which arbitration made on the 15th August, 27 Elizabeth, the manors of
East Lexham, with West Lexham, Dunham, &c., were made over to
Grisell Woodhouse for her life (A. 61).

9. Page 164. The brother and sister present no difficulty. The
brother was almost certainly Charles Yelverton, who had been a
witness to William Walpole's will at Tuddenham a year before, and
who shortly afterwards obtained some office at Court, though what that
office was I have not yet discovered. The sister, Jane Lumner, had
been left very scantily provided for by her husband, who died very much
in debt, as appears by her petition to the Court of Chancery in 1597,
where she speaks of herself as " being very well descended, and having
also received a good portion in marriage." (See Original Papers of the
Norfolk and Norwich Archasological Society, vol. viii. pt. iv.)

She continued " an obstinate Recusant," as she is frequently described
to be upon the Lists of Presentments made to the Bishop of Norwich
annually. She had two daughters, who sympathised with their mother
and suffered with her. I find her name always included in the Recusant
Lists down to 1615. During the twenty years, more or less, when her
name appears on the rolls, she changed her residence three or four
times, and it looks as if she had become poorer and poorer under the
pressure of the exactions levied upon her. The licence for *' Edward [sic]
Lumner de Mannington " to marry " Jane Yelvebton de Rougham " is
dated 5th July, 1569.

10. Page 164. Edward Yelverton took his B.A. degree in 1579,
being then of Peterhouse, Cambridge (MS. Records in the Registry of
the University). During his undergraduate days his future brother-in-
law, Philip Woodhouse, Dudley Fenner, and Christopher Heydon,
were among the fellow commoners, and Edward Walpole, Henry
Walpole, Bartley (alias Bernard) Gardiner, and Philip Paris, pro-
bably a son of Ferdinando Paris of Pudding Norton, were among the
pensioners. See, too, n. (33), chap. ii.

That Edward Yelverton was twice married is asserted in the Visita-
tion of Norfolk, now in course of publication by the Norfolk and Norwich
Archaeological Society, p. 269. Who his first wife was I have been unable
to discover. His second wife was Nazareth, daughter of Edmund
Bedingfeld of Oxburgh. She is frequently described in the Present-
ments as *' An obstinate Recusant,^ ^

i8o ONE GENERATION OF

Blomefield haa confounded Edward Yelverton with his son Edward
Yelverton, M.D.

The Grimeston and Blackborough estates were settled by indenture,
dated 12th Jan., 10 EUzabeth, upon William Yelverton and Jane his
wife for life, and after their death on Edward Yelverton their eldest
son, in fee tail. — Chancery Inq. p.m., S. P. 0. The p.m. inquisition
on William Yelverton was held at Walsingham, 4th October, 30
Elizabeth.

11. Fage 164. Though no Eecusant would enter a church where
divine service could be carried on, the nave$ of our cathedrals were
regarded as no more within the 'precincts. The uses to which the
nave of St. Paul's was put may be seen in Dean Milman's work, and
elsewhere.

12. Page 165. By a Subsidy Roll (P. B. 0.) for the 35th Eliz. 1593,
m, I find that William Walpole's widow was still unmarried, and
living at Tuddenham. The chapel is still in existence at Elsing Hall.
The Brownes of Elsing were conscientious Catholics, but appear to
have taken the oath, and so were regarded by the stricter Komanists
as " schismatics." The following letter, dated Elsing, 29th April, 1876,
is from the rector of that parish, and deserves to be placed on record
here.

*• At Elsing Hall, between the grand hall and the withdrawing-room,
in the thick of the wall, is a well, evidently the well of a staircase leading
downwards. The curious part of this is that the opening was in the
side of the room ; it was therefore no cellar, but most probably a place
of concealment. The plastered wall of the well against the hall was
broken into during the repairs some twenty years ago, and then I saw it."

There can be no doubt that this was one of the many instances of a
place of concealment specially constructed as a hiding hole.

13. Page 165. Far the ablest sketch which has yet been written of
the condition of feeling among the upper classes on the questions at
issue between England and the Papacy is to be found in the seventh
chapter of Mr. Simpson's Life of Campion. It is all the more valuable
and suggestive because it comes from one who was himself a convert to
the Church of Kome, and who, in seceding from the Church of his
baptism, made some real sacrifices.

14. Page 166. "He [Father Southwell] frequently got me to instruct
him in the technical terms of sport, and used to complain of his bad
memory for such things, for on many occasions when he fell in with
Protestant gentlemen he found it necessary to speak of these matters,
which are the sole topics of their conversation save when they talk
obscenity, or break out into blasphemies and abuse of the Saints or the
Catholic Faith." — Morris, u.s. p. xxiv.

A NORFOLK HOUSE i8i

15. Page 169. [Edward Walpole of Houghton] " persuaded his
cousin Michael Walpole ... to accompany him. At this period of
my story [1589] the latter was my assistant, and used to go with me as
my confidential servant, to the houses of those gentlemen with whom it
was necessary for me to maintain such a position."— Gerard's Auto-
biography. See, too, Morris's Condition of Catholics, p. Ixv. ; and
Oliver's Collections, s.v. " Michael Walpole.^^

•

16. Page 169. " Christopherus Walpole, filius Christopheri Walpole,
generosi, ex oppido Anmyre oriundus in comitatu Norfolciee, litteris
grammaticis institutus in Schola communi Eliensi sub mago Speght,
per licenciam, adolescens annorum 19, admissus est in collegium firum
litterarum gratia pensionarius minor commeat' scolar. 25 Octobris 1587,
fidejuss. et pro eo magr. Christoph. Grimston, art. mag. et hujus collegii
socius." — Matriculation Book, Caius College, Cambridge.

There is a good account of Speght in Cooper's Athence Cantahrig.
Cooper, in his account of Christopher Walpole (w.s.), has confounded
him with his brother Richard.

CHAPTER VII

THE MISSIO CASTRENSIS

When Robert Earl of Leicester set sail from Harwich
on his disastrous expedition to the Low Countries, landing
at Flushing on the 10th December, 1585, the avowed
object of his going was to wrest the United Provinces
from the grasp of the Spaniards, and to free from Spanish
domination the much-enduring and much-struggling people
whose heroic determination and courage had long attracted
the amazement and admiration of Europe. But the Earl
of Leicester had over-estimated his own powers : his royal
mistress knew him better than he knew himself ; she had
her own misgivings of her favourite, and had taken a true
measure of his qualifications for the mission he was so
eager to discharge. What was he that he should aspire
to lead armies, and play the sovereign over a stubborn
people with a passion for freedom and a hatred of foreign
control? When the Queen yielded to the earl's importunity
she yielded with the worst possible grace, and left him
to support the honour of England and to pay the ragged
followers from his own very limited resources.^ At war
a novice, at diplomacy a child, Leicester had as his
antagonist in the field the most consummate captain of
the age and in ' statecraft the astute and high-minded
patriot, John of Barneveldt. His failure was predicted
from the first; but few could have anticipated the dis-
graceful rebuffs he received, or foreseen the contemptible
incapacity he exhibited, till humiliation after humiliation
discovered his utter shallowness, and made it evident that
in no circumstances could that handsome fop, the darling

l82

ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE 183

of the drawing-room, have proved himself worthy to
be a leader of armies. Character, principle, and mental
force %vere needed, not mere personal grace, prettiness,
and the languishing accomplishments of a perfect ladies'
man.

On his first arrival, Leicester was welcomed with
enthusiasm, and almost immediately elected Governor-
General of the United Provinces ; but his popularity was
short-lived; deficient in tact, temper, courtesy, and know-
ledge of men, his arrogance became every day more
offensive, and his lack of all soldierly qualities more
glaringly manifest. After eight months of absolute inaction,
he made the abortive attempt to intercept a convoy at
Zutphen ; in this attempt Sir Philip Sydney — Leicester's
nephew — lost his life while recklessly charging the enemy,
a mad and riotous proceeding such as could only have
occurred under a general who had no proper control
over his officers.^ In four months more Leicester was
back again in England, having effected nothing. Nay !
not quite nothing. He had won the fort which was
a formidable menace to Zutphen ; he had secured
Deventer, one of the most important cities of the United
Provinces.

Deventer had been wavering in its allegiance. There
was a very powerful Catholic faction there. The religious
sympathies of its leading inhabitants were strongly in
favour of the old religion, and the magistrates were almost
to a man not only deeply discontented with the English
domination, but in heart tending more and more towards
the Spanish side. On the 20th October, 1587, Sir William
Pelham, **the stout marshal," as Motley calls him, made
his entry into the city, summoned the magistrates into
his presence, and on the following day removed them
from their office, demanded the keys of the gates, im-
prisoned the old officials, and created new ones, staunch
Protestants all of them. Deventer was safe, and Zutphen's
fate sealed ; for though the fort was gone the town still
held out against the English besiegers. The next question

1 84 ONE GENERATION OF

to settle was, who should be the new governor of
Deventer ?

There were in Leicester's army a strange assemblage
of soldiers of fortune — men of reckless daring, absolutely
without principle ; adventurers who were free lances,
and ready to serve on either side for plunder or pay ;
fellows who were no more to be trusted than common
blacklegs or banditti. Such a creature was Rowland Yorke.
His career pointed him out as a man with the ferocious
courage of a wild beast when his blood was up, but who
seems to have had no single virtue except an] absence of
all fear of God or man. One less worthy of a post of
confidence it would have been impossible to pick out from
the whole force under Leicester's command ; and yet
to him was committed the duty of holding the fort of
Zutphen against the Spaniard, and of ensuring the capture
of the beleaguered town which that fort now commanded.
This was a bad enough blunder, but a worse blunder
followed.

There was another leading captain in the army, — Sir
William Stanley, — a restless and ambitious soldier, son
and heir of a stubborn Eecusant in Cheshire who had
long rendered himself conspicuous by his determined
opposition to the Protestant cause in his own neighbour-
hood, and had given the Earl of Huntingdon in the north
of England a great deal of trouble by his factious activity
in support of the Romanists and his vigilance in thwarting
every attempt to prejudice the cause to which he was
attached. Such as the father was such was the son.
First, and above all things, a religious zealot, whose
passionate hatred of everything in the shape of Protestant-
ism, and whose intense ** Vaticanism " blinded his judgment
and smote his conscience with a stupid palsy. He too
had served on both sides, for patriotism he had none.
The sentiment of loyalty to one's native country was,
in Queen Elizabeth's days, incomparably weaker than,
thank God, it has become among us since and the frenzy
of religious bigotry thrust into the background, if it did

A NORFOLK HOUSE 185

not quite overpower and extinguish, the sacred associations
of fatherland.3

It may seem to some a paradox, but it is nevertheless a
fact, the truth of which becomes more and more evident as
we study the history of Europe in the sixteenth century,
that patriotism, as we now understand the term, was a
sentiment but feebly apprehended under the last of the
Tudors — indeed, it was a sentiment that as yet had scarcely
any existence. In France men were not Frenchmen but
" Leaguers " or " Huguenots " in the sixteenth century, as
they had been " Armagnacs " or " Burgundians " in the
fifteenth. It was Michel de I'Hopital who first inspired
his countrymen with any enthusiasm for France as France :
the party of the " Politiques " were the earliest representa-
tives of French patriotism. In Germany the national senti-
ment was even fainter. The Eeformation had done a great
deal to divide men into rival factions quite irrespective of
their birthplace. The opposite feeling, where it existed,
was not so much national as feudal, and where allegiance
to the '' dominus " had faded it had tended to transfer itself
less to the temporal sovereign than to the shadowy power
that represented the idea of religion — the Church and its
head. It was not till after the tremendous catastrophe of
the Armada, when the restlessness of Spanish ambition had
familiarised men's minds with the prospect of an actual
invasion of their country, that they began to appreciate the
glory of being Englishmen, and recognised distinctly the
paramount claim upon their loyalty which England, as a
nationality, demanded of them, whatever their religious
convictions or whatever their creed.

Sir William Stanley had not risen to such a standing-
point as this. He had persuaded himself that a heretic
queen was no queen over him. Enough that she had been
pronounced excommunicate, and by the Pope deposed.
Others might split hairs, if they pleased, on the question
whether that excommunication were published with due
formalities ; for him, he accepted it as final, and with that
acceptance the foundation of his loyalty to the sovereign

1 86 ONE GENERATION OF

crumbled away. Henceforth he seemed to himself set free
from every engagement which could bind a man of honour.
Cut adrift from his anchorage upon the fundamental prin-
ciples of moral obligation, right and wrong were tossed
about in his mind in a hopeless imbroglio ; and so treachery
had come to be regarded in the light of a sacrifice, and the
huge proportions of some monstrous villainy, in the misty
chambers of his darkened brain, grew into an image of
heroism surrounded by a halo of lurid glory. No more con-
spicuous instance can be pointed to in this time of a man
thoroughly saturated with the detestable doctrine that the
end justifies the means.

And here it seems to me that we are brought face to face
with that bad side of the sixteenth-century polemics which
all the special pleading in the world can never avail to
excuse: the tendency, viz., to exalt the claims of a creed
above those of morality — a tendency to sever the one from
the other, even to the verge of antagonism — a tendency to
defend the interests of religion at the expense of her prin-
ciples, in common with all those who enclose the essence of
religion in the nutshell of a dogma. With upright and
earnest natures the devotional element for the most part
absorbed the factious and immoral perversions which reck-
less disputants were even then beginning to foist upon the
theology and ethics of the age ; but with men of narrow
intellect and low moral, cursed as they so often are with a
passion for intrigue, the interests were the essence, and all
else was form. Such men gave their lives to the one ; they
accommodated themselves on occasion to the other. Stanley
had come to regard the interests of the Church as the idol
which he was bound to propitiate by any and every means :
with a mind perplexed and confused by problems that
fascinated all the more because he had not the wit to solve
them ; a spurious pietism goading him on he knew not
whither ; wounded of late in his pride by certain untoward
slights that stung him sorely ; disappointed in his ambition,
too, for he had been passed over by less meritorious com-
manders ; and with visions of a more brilliant career — he

A NORFOLK HOUSE 187

was just the man, sooner or later, to make his name in-
famous to posterity by some act of flagrant and eccentric
villainy. When Leicester left him at Deventer with almost
irresponsible power, he felt that his opportunity had come,
atid he lost no time in availing himself of it.

Mr. Motley has described in his own vivid way the
incidents of the shameful treason in which Stanley and
Eowland Yorke were the chief actors. In his pages the
whole story may be read in its minutest details. Here it
is enough to say that, by a plan cunningly concerted between
the two traitors, the fort of Zutphen was delivered up by
Yorke, and Deventer surrendered by Stanley, to Tassis, the
commander of the Spanish force, on the selfsame day (29th
January, 1587). Sir William Stanley could sell himself ;
he could not sell the honour of his officers. As to the Irish
kernes who formed the rank and file, it was an easy matter
with them to change sides. They cared nothing for heretic
England and her excommunicate Queen : they cared very
much for their own religion, which they had some reason
for believing was to be mercilessly persecuted and pro-
scribed. They were almost savages, the terror even of their
own side ; wild marauders to whom war meant unlicensed
pillage ; uncouth of look, barbaric in speech, hardly at all
amenable to discipline, they rejoiced that they were rid of
all control from the English yoke, and exulted in being
soldiers now of the " Most Catholic King " ; but the
regiment became rapidly disorganised, it became neces-
sary to find new officers at any rate, and that without
delay.

There were in Belgium no small number of English
gentlemen who had taken refuge with the Spanish governor
from time to time, when their religious convictions or
political partisanship had rendered their stay in their own
country dangerous or impossible. The exodus at the begin-
ning of the Queen's reign has been mentioned before — it
was an exodus then of men of real learning, piety, and
accomplishments — men who had made great sacrifices, and
who desired only to live in undisturbed enjoyment of their

1 88 ONE GENERATION OF

religion; but when the rebelHon in the north collapsed, a
very different company crossed the Channel — this time no
zealots, but mere malcontents who had raised the standard
of revolt, and in many cases actually borne arms against
their sovereign ; adherents of the northern earls and of the
Duke of Norfolk ; men deeply implicated in plots and
treasons, and bitterly and personally hostile to the Govern-
ment at home. Making common cause with these, too,
there had come over many an ardent supporter of Mary
Stuart — some of them sincerely and loyally devoted to her
cause — some of them professional conspirators who took
up that cause as a party cry — but in either case equally
vehement in denouncing the wickedness of those who had
compassed her death upon the scaffold. All these were the
political exiles. There were others, again, who were merely
eager for any military employment, and cared not to which
side they lent their swords. War was the trade they chose,
and if they were Catholics they preferred the Spanish
service to that under any Protestant power. When Stanley's
captains threw up their commissions, the difficulty was got
over by accepting the services of the unemployed and
hungry volunteers idling about the purlieus of the Brussels
Court. It took less time than might have been expected
to supply the place of the English officers. It was perhaps
less easy to fill up the blanks which death and disease made
in the rank and file. There could be little or no hope of
any more Irish recruits ; the new soldiers must needs be of
very mixed nationality, some were Italians, some French,
some Flemings, some few Spaniards ; it mattered little
where they came from, for the Irish hemes spoke a tongue
which none could understand but themselves. There was
one thing, however, that was essential. In the Irish regi-
ment there could be no difference in religion allowable ; that
at any rate was a thing not to be endured ; for if the
strongest tie which bound these wild soldiers together was
a unanimity in their creed, it was needful that all due pre-
cautions should be used to keep up that fanaticism which
went far to make them fiery zealots in the shock of war.

A NORFOLK HOUSE 189

In those days army chaplains were absolutely unknown ;
men went forth to battle, or died after it,

" Unhousled, disappointed, unannealed,
No reckoning made, but sent to their account
With all their imperfections on their heads."

The priest had no place in the camp, and it was assumed
that he was better away.

In the autumn of 1586 the Prince of Parma had been
very powerfully impressed by a Jesuit Father, Thomas
Sailly, a native of Brussels, whose health had broken down
during his labours in Eussia, and who had been sent home
to recruit, bearing important dispatches and commendatory
letters from Stephen Battor, King of Poland. With this
introduction, he soon acquired a remarkable ascendancy
over the Viceroy, became his confessor, and after a while
induced him to establish what may be termed a Missionary
Staff of Jesuit Fathers, entrusted with the spiritual welfare
of the soldiery.4 Sailly and his little band of missioners
set themselves to their work with heroic energy — preaching
in the camp at every opportunity ; attending day and night
upon the sick and wounded in the hospitals ; on the battle-
field comforting and shriving the dying ; doing all those
offices of charity which have been undertaken so nobly
in our own time by those devoted philanthropists who
unconsciously, during the German campaign in France,
were splendid imitators of the Jesuit Fathers of three
hundred years ago. In the hottest fight these men were
to be seen carrying the wounded to the rear, and bending
over the dying to catch their last words of penitence
or prayer ; in the furious turmoil of some town stormed
and sacked, they were foremost in rescuing women and
children from the brutal lust and cruelty of frenzied
ruffians who had lost all self-control. More than one
or two fell victims, sometimes to disease, sometimes to
their excessive rashness in exposing themselves to fire,
sometimes to their unwearied exertions, which were more
than flesh and blood could bear ; but the admiration and

190 ONE GENERATION OF

profound respect which their unselfish labours earned for
them, and the novelty of the work they gave themselves to
do, and did so well, added enormously to the estimation in
which the Jesuits were held in Belgium then and long
afterwards.

The Missio Castrensis had been established about two
years, when Henry Walpole was sent to join it. His
readiness of speech and abundant culture, his captivating
manner and extraordinary facility as a linguist, his long
and careful training, and perhaps, too, his birth and
connection with some who were conspicuous in the army,
marked him out as an eminently fit man for work of
this kind. He himself, in his examinations, tells us that
his business was to hear confessions in French and English,
Spanish and Italian, of all which he was a master, and
we may be sure that he threw himself into his new duties
with no half-heartedness. But he had not long entered
upon this career before misfortune overtook him. Flushing
was one of the towns which, in 1589, was held by a
garrison chiefly of Englishmen. Its commander was Sir
Eobert Sydney, a brother of Sir Philip Sydney, and so
nephew of the Earl of Leicester, to which earldom he
was himself raised by James I. in 1618. In one of Henry
Walpole' s journeys to minister to the soldiery, or it may
be in some attempt to confer with friends in the town, —
for friends there he certainly had, — he was taken prisoner
and committed to close custody.s We are told that he
was confined in the common prison of the town in the
depth of winter, with nothing but his soutane to cover
himself with, nothing but filthy straw to lie on, and
associated with a herd of the vilest criminals incarcerated
in the loathsome jail for every sort of atrocity, — wretches
who were ready to strangle him for the sake of his scanty
garments, and who, if the story be true, actually had a
design of murdering him and making it appear that he had
committed suicide. But even in this pitiful condition he
did not lose heart or suffer his zeal to grow cold. There is
a touching incident which comes to our notice during this

A NORFOLK HOUSE 191

the first great trial of his earnestness, which shows that
his religious enthusiasm had not been extinguished or
diminished during his confinement. It appears that after
a time the rigour of Henry Walpole's imprisonment was
to some extent relaxed, and that he was granted some
sort of liberty on parole. The indulgence so accorded him
was turned to account, and at once he set himself to
exercise his ministry in the town. There was a poor
Flushing man named George Nachtegael, who had been
originally apprenticed to a tailor, and afterwards had
travelled to Madeira as a merchant's clerk. He had re-
turned to his native place after an absence of four years,
and was there when Henry Walpole was captured. What
brought the two together we are not told, but before long
the impression produced by the Jesuit Father upon the poor
mechanic was so profound that when the order of release
arrived Nachtegael resolved to pursue a religious life, and
to offer himself as a lay brother to the Society. He seems
to have followed Henry Walpole to Brussels, where he was
received as temporal coadjutor to Father Oliver Manareus,
in November 1592 ; and when, two years after, Edward
Walpole was passing his time of probation at Tournay,
Nachtegael was sent to the same house of novitiate, and
doubtless furnished him with many of those particulars
of his cousin's imprisonment which have been pre-
served.^

Among the English officers serving at Flushing was
one Captain Eussel, a Norfolk man. He was one of the
Eussels of West Eudham, a parish contiguous to Houghton,
and was a cousin of the Walpoles. It would have been
dangerous for any recognition to pass between the kinsmen
under the circumstances, but the soldier soon managed
to find means of alleviating the suffering of the priest,
to provide him with additional clothing, and, what was
of more importance, to communicate with his Norfolk
friends and give them intelligence of his perilous position.
The news had no sooner reached England than Michael
Walpole determined at once to cross the seas and go to

192 ONE GENERATION OF

his brother's side. His training under such a wary
diplomatist as John Gerard, and the practice he had already
had, fitted him admirably for a mission which required
caution, tact, and presence of mind ; and the young man
had already, it seems, determined to offer himself to the
Society, and to forsake his country at the earliest possible
opportunity. Slipping away accordingly, in December
1589, without a licence, he made his way to Flushing,
and before long managed to get access to his brother, and
to confer with him in his prison. Already it had been
intimated that a ransom would be accepted for his release,
and the money having been found, partly by his relatives
and partly by his Brussels friends, he was at length set
at liberty, in January 1590, having learned, as he himself
says, by his imprisonment, " to know better both God,
the world, and himself."

It is at this point that the important series of letters
contained in the archives of Stonyhurst College comes in.
They cover a period of fifteen months, and furnish us
with a very valuable picture of the deplorable state of
affairs among the English refugees in Belgium during the
two years after the Armada. They corroborate in the
minutest particulars the miserable account which Lewknor(?)
gave of them in 1591, and they show us the petty jealousies,
quarrels, intrigues, and poverty of the deluded pensioners
of the Spanish king, whose allowances were always coming
and always in arrear.7 They tell us of the gradual dwind-
ling away of the wretched Irish rabble — by courtesy called
a regiment — till it almost seemed likely to disband from
lack of commanders. They give us notices of the coming
and going of Jesuit priests and political agents and Spanish
generals. Now and then there are scraps of news from
home, and sometimes faint whispers of dark intrigues going
on, or of wars and rumours of wars that might be imminent.
But free and unrestrained as these letters are, and written
as they are in full confidence and affection by one Jesuit to
another (Cresswell), there is not from beginning to end one
single word or hint which indicates anything approaching.

A NORFOLK HOUSE 193

I will not say to treasonable designs, but even to an
acquaintance with the existence of such designs on
the writer's part. Setting aside such religious views as
we should of course expect to meet with, these letters
exhibit to us a man of intense enthusiasm, of lofty piety,
of fanaticism if you will, but one whose faith was the
very life of his life, and the mainspring of his every act
and thought and word. As literary compositions they are
of little value; as contributions to the history of the time
they possess an interest only for the professed student,
whose business is to pursue research below the surface
of perfunctory manuals ; but, as faithful representations
of the habits of thought and tone of feehng prevalent
among a whole class of able, devout, mistaken men, whose
lives were marred and whose minds were unbalanced by
the hideous tyranny under which they suffered, these
letters have a value of their own. The last of them is
dated from Brussels, the 17th October, 1591 ; the first
from the same place, 31st January, 1590. I am inclined
to regard this as the most useful, and at the same time
the happiest, period of Henry Walpole's life. He was
actively employed, after having been for several years in
a condition of tutelage. He was called upon to exercise
his priestly function, a prospect to which he must have
looked forward for years. He was set free from the
restraints of such tuition work as in the case of a man
of ambition and active intellect is apt to become irksome,
and he was once more brought into close intercourse with
his old connections and friends. I am not sure that there
is not some slight difference in tone between the earlier
and the later of these letters : in the later there is more
of the man of the world, more of human sympathy, and
more interest in the old associations from which he had
been for some time removed.

But if these two years were memorable years to Henry
Walpole himself, because of the active employments in
which he was engaged, they were more memorable as they
affected other members of his family. Michael Walpole,

194 ONE GENERATION OF

as has been seen, left England in December 1589, and

after remaining apparently for some months with his

brother, proceeded to Eome in the spring of the following

year, and entered at the English College there on the

12th May, accompanied by another Norfolk gentleman,

Thomas Goodrich.^ About the same time the youngest

brother, Thomas, also crossed over into Flanders, and

obtained a commission in the Spanish army. A few

months after this Edward Walpole of Houghton, too,

" abjured the realm," taking with him his cousin Bernard

Gardiner, the two men being received into the English

College on the 20th October, and before another year had

passed Christopher Walpole, accompanied by two other

Norfolk gentlemen, Thomas Lucie [query Lacy ?] and

Anthony Eouse, arrived at Eheims.9 Of all those six sons

of Christopher Walpole of Anmer, only one was left in

England to represent the family. Meanwhile with every

new arrival in Belgium came fresh tidings of the wonderful

religious excitement that prevailed among the upper

stratum of society in the Eastern Counties, and the news

of this one and that one whom he had known in his youth

having been induced to surrender home and country for

what he regarded as the good cause, evidently disturbed

Henry Walpole not a little. Oh ! if he too might be

once again at home, labouring in the mission field. The

yearning grew, till he became unsettled. The discipline

of all those years of self-denial and self-control could not

avail to keep him quite silent as to his wishes. ** Gerard

doeth much good ! '' he writes to his friend Cresswell.

"Was there any hope that he might be called to join him?

Hiri neart turned to England — to the old Norfolk home —

to the old hall under the shadow of the old church tower.

" Gerard doeth much good ! " Might not he do some work

too, and take again his father's blessing, and see his

mother's grey hairs, and the sisters that had passed from

childhood to womanhood during those years of his absence ?

Was there danger in the venture ? Gerard had braved it

and was still unharmed, and if the worst should come

A NORFOLK HOUSE 195

the risk was as nothing to the prize — the prize of the
martyr's crown. While thoughts Uke these were flitting
through his brain, suddenly, in the October of 1591, he
received a summons to present himself at the novitiate
at Tournai.

NOTES TO CHAPTER VII

1. Page 182. Motley's Rise of the Dutch Repiihlic is, and must always
remain, the chief authority on all matters connected with the history
of the Low Countries during the sixteenth century, and I must therefore
content myself with a general reference here to that most able and
exhaustive work. In Captain Devereux's Lives a7id Letters of the Devereux,
Earls of Essex, vol. i. ch. vii., there is a letter of Sir F. Knollys to
Eobert Earl of Essex, from which it appears that Leicester was not the
only man who embarrassed himself considerably by the immense outlay
incurred in his expedition. On the treatment of Leicester by Queen
Elizabeth, see Froude, vol. xii. c. 33.

2. Page 183, There is a very spirited account of the affair given by
Stowe in his Chronicle, which has been extracted by Mr. Wright, Queen
Elizabeth and her Times, vol. ii. p. 316.

3. Page 185. A careful history of the events leading up to the
surrender of Deventer, and a very satisfactory account of Sir William
Stanley's life and family history, is to be read in Mr. Heywood's Intro-
duction to Cardinal Allen'' s Defence of Sir William Stanley, edited for the
Chetham Society, 1851.

4. Page 189. See Imago Primi Sceculi Societatis Jesu, folio, Antwerp,
1640, p. 804 et seq.

5. Page 190. Father Cresswell (to whom almost all the letters of

Henry Walpole are addressed which have come down to us) thus tells

the story, •' . . . un iour allant k pied d'un College a aultre par

ordonnance de ses superieurs, il fut prins par les soldats de I'ennemy, &

emen^ captif en la ville de Flessinge en Zelade, qui est en la puissace des

rebelles, & h guarnison de soldats Anglois, lesquelz le retindrent plus d'un

an entier, le traictant fort mal : Et par ce qu'ilz ne le peurent tuer comme

ilz desiroient, pour estre la prison en la main & puissance du Magistrat

naturel du pays, ilz offrirent k aucuns larrons qui estoient captifz avec luy,

la vie & liberte pour de nuict le mettre a mort : dequoy le pere se doubta,

& pour eschapper de ceste mort il eut necessairement besoing de veiller

plusieurs mois presque toutes les nuictz, ce qui luy causa un perpetuel

tourment, comme luy mesmes depuis Pa rac6t6 II a aussi souffert extreme

froidure, pour navoir eu aultre vestemet qu'une seul vielle soutane : dont

ayant compassion certain Capitaine heretique nom^ Rusel qui I'avoit

cogneu en Angleterre, se despouilla d'un pourpoint de rase qu'il portoit,

& luy donna pour le revestir : En ceste maniere passa le serviteur de

Dieu sa captivity iusque a ce que nostre Seigneur y remedia par aultre

voye, qui fut en inspirant un sien frere qui estoit en Angleterre de venir

a Flessingue, ou changeant son propre no, il entra au service du mesme

X96

ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE 197

Capitaine qui tenoit son frere piisonnier, par ou il eut comraodite de le
veoir & traicter avec luy, mesmes le pourveoit de tout ce que luy estoit
necessaire. D'avantage il procura que les catholiques Anglois estans en
Flandres le racheptassent, comme ils feiret le renvoyans h. Bruxelles : &
fut si grand la devotion que eut ce ieune iouvenceau son frere, voyant la
vertu & patience du pere Henry, que au mesme instant il delibera de
quieter le monde, & d'aller a Kome pour entrer en religion, comme il feit
par effect."

I have been careful to quote this passage and to print it exactly as I
find it, because the little book from which I make the extract is one of
the very greatest rarity, and is certainly not to be met with twice in any
man's lifetime. In 1874 I heard of the existence of a copy of the book
which Father Possoz had seen and consulted at the Public Library of
Tournai ; thereupon I started off to get a sight of the precious volume.
On my arrival I found, to my extreme mortification, that Father Possoz
was dead, and GressioeWs book had disappeared. The librarians knew
nothing of the book, and had never heard of it ; it was not in the
catalogue, and they declared that Father Possoz must have been mis
taken. On the other hand, M. Casterman, the very intelligent bookseller
and publisher of Tournai, insisted that Father Possoz could never have
made the positive assertion he did Inous Vavons enfin trouv^ dans celle
(la bibliotheque) de Tournai] without being sure of his facts, especially
as he was known to be an extremely accurate person, and wrote and
published his own little Vie du Pere Hennj Walpole while at Tournai.
As there was, however, no chance of seeing the book at Tournai, after
staying there three days I gave up the search as hopeless. Some time
after this, by a curious accident, in looking over some MSS. that had
been entrusted to my care, I found a note which led me to believe there
was a copy at the Noviciate at Tronchiennes, and this copy, by the great
kindness of the Kector, now lies before me. The book is a little volume
in 12mo of 164 pages. From the dedicatory epistle, addressed " Aux
Peres et Freres de la Compagnie de Jesus, & aux Pensionnaires des
Seminaires Anglois en Espaigne," it appears that Father Cresswell
wrote the work at Madrid, and finished it on the 19th December, 1595,
i.e., just eight months after the execution of Henry Walpole, The
licence to print the Spanish original is dated at Madrid 15th February,
1596 ; the licence for the French translation, at Arras, 9th [Sept]
embro 1596. Though Oliver asserts that there was an English version
of the book published, I very much doubt the truth of the statement. A
work of which such men as P. P. Augustin de Backer and Victor de
Buck could declare, as they both did to me, that they had never met
with or heard of a copy, except on the authority of Oliver, may pretty
safely be classed among those which were intended to be printed, as we
know it was, but never saw the light.

In a letter of Verstegan's of the date of 1595, now at Stonyhurst {An(jl.
A. vol. ii. n. 13), the writer says : " I wrote long since into Spain the

198 ONE GENERATION OF

manner of Fa. Southwell his apprehension, and partly how he was
tortured by Topclif. It were good that his apprehension, together with
his arraignment and death, were printed for the present by itself in the
Spanish tongue. As also Father Walpole his history when it cometh,
and afterwards they may be put together in Latin with others the like,
and in the meantwie it ivould move much to he in the vulgar tongue.^^

The mistake of Father Cresswell in saying Henry Walpole was in
prison for upwards of a year, which all the biographers repeat, is
inexplicable. It certainly is a mistake, for he was ordained in May 1589,
by his own showing, and he was out of prison and at Brussels on the
15th January, 1590 (Eoman style). — Walpole Letters, p. 2,

There remains to point out another mistake into which Bar toll has
fallen, and which others have copied from him. He says that it was
Christopheb Walpole who effected his brother's deliverance. Neither
Cresswell nor Yepez (1599) gives the brother's name, and it certainly was
Michael and not Christopher who was the instrument for effecting his
liberation. Michael arrived at Kome on the 12th May, 1590 {Liber
Peregriiwrum). Christopher did not enter at the English College till
the 22nd February, 1592.

6. Page 191. The following is from the Album of the Tournai
Noviciate, MS. 1016 {Bibliotheque Royale de Belgique, f. 236). " Je
George Nachtegael natif de Vlissinghe, ne Pan 1563, envers le Pentecoste.
Mon Pere Pierre Nachtegael marronier, ma mere Jacquenine George,
tons deux trespasses. J'ay appris a coudre I'espace de deux ans. J'ay
servy depuis a un marchand aux Isles de Madere quatre ans. Je scay
lire et escrire. Estant recu a la Societe de Jesus a Bruxelles le 16
Novembre 1592, pour estre Coadjuteur temporel du K. P. Oliv. Man.
Prov. es Pays Bas, j'ay exercc mains offices de Coadjuteur a la maison
de la susditte Soc*'' en Bruxelles, jusqu'a ce qu'on m'a envoye a la maison
de Probation en Tournay a la quelle ie suis venu le 20« d'Apuril Pan
1594. Et pour ce que i'avoy fait la premiere Probation a Bruxelles en
entrant la Societe, et on m'avoit illic examine . . . le R. P. Jean
Bargius m'a examine generalement, et j'ay respondu que . . . le 22
d'Apuril, 1534. — George Nachtegael."

The following is extracted from a Brussels MS. 3166, pars ii. n. 20.
"... Hie [H. Walpole] fuit olim Castrensis Missionis fidissimus socius
et ad cohortes Anglicas a suo superiore destinatus inter quas, more
aliorum patrum, utilem semper navaverat operam. Ad stationem Aulas,
qu8e Brugis tunc temporis erat constituta, cum redire statuerat in itinere
a siccariis, quos Vreebuteros (!) voant, captus est, et ad Vlussingamun
Carcerem deductus. In quo nunquam zelum deposuit quem pro
animabus a Deo conceperat et ut erat arctissime ligatus corpore, linquam
tamen ita servavit liberam ut Sancta eloquentia custodem carceris
Catholicam redderet ac se [He] ex curiositate aut misericordia visitante

A NORFOLK HOUSE 199

in avita fide confirmaret. . . . Adolescenteni quoquc inter dum
eleemosynas ladferenteni ita solidix pietate instiuxit, ut non diu post
nomen daret Societati. Is erat Georgius Nachtegael olim hie pluribus
annis Saciista et nunc Bergis S. Winnoci sedem fixit. . . ."

7. Page 192, There is a doubt who was the author of the
remarkable tract printed in the Appendix to the Sadler Fapers, vol. ii.
p. 478, entitled llie Estate of the English Fugitives.

8. Page 194. He was probably from North Creake, co. Norfolk.
Thomas Goodrick, Gent., of North Creake, married Suzan, daughter of
KoGER BozouNE, of Wissingsett, Esq., early in the reign of James I.
(Blomefield, x. 34). In 1614 I find a Nicholas Goodrich, living in
the capacity of private tutor in the house of Lady Sulyard at Haugiilby,
returned as a " Popish Recusant." In 1615 I find on the Recusant
Roll, " Wyverston, John Goodrich, Sen., William Goodrich, Jun.,
and his wife Unica Goodrich, Spinster, daughter to W'" Goodrich"
[sic] .

9. Page 194. It appears that Edward Walpole of Houghton
had made preparations for leaving England as early as the summer of
1590, and was at Brussels about August of that year {Walpole Letters,
pp. 10 and 12). Writing thence on the 5th September, 1590, to
Cresswell, Henry Walpole says, " By the next convoy to Namur my
kinsman Edward Walpole cometh towards you, of whom I wrote before
and sent his letters to my brother Richard. I desire particular favour
in his behalf, either for the college or toward my Lord Cardinal if you
think meet. He hath hope of exhibition yearly out of England, and
hath left an £100 in Father Southwell's hands, whereof some part must
be for Mr. Gardiner who was released out of prison by my Lord Cardinal's
letters to the prince [Parma] who will needs come to Rome, and desireth
either to serve the Lord Cardinal or to study in the college. For the
first, by reason sovie have imagined amiss of him, and he hath been with
such as are suspect, I dare not commend him, although I have great
cause to think him trusty ; for the second, I remit [him] to your good
disposition and collegiate order and present estate there now ; hoping you
will have an eye if ought should be: but indeed, if the general good
made me not more 'suspicious, for my particular experience of him and
occasion to wish him well I desire all favour, and that he may be
bestowed some way. . . . Gardiner did once make the vow of our
Society, but for some impediment Father Oliverius, our provincial,
dispensed with him." {Walpole Letters, p. 15.) In the Liber
Peregrinorum of the English College at Rome occurs the following entry :
" 1590 Dominus Eduardus Walpolus et dominus Bernardus Gardnerus,
diocis Nordovicensis ambo, excepti sunt hospitio die 20 Octobris :
manserunt diebus 3."

200 ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE

In another letter, dated Brussels, 22nd August, 1591, Henry Walpole
says : "Our cousin John Walpole, in Holland [Lincolnshire], is departed,
leaving his wife all that I hear, excepting xx" a year to Thomas and
Christopher, who now by God's grace have left that and all other hopes
for His service. Christopher related these things unto me, a,nd is on his
way with Mr. Hubbard's brother-in-law [Anthony Rouse] and another
at Eheims."

This cousin is John Walpole, of Whaplode, co. Lincoln, Esq. His
will is in the P. C. C. (dated 1st July, 1590), His executors are to sell
all his lands in Norfolk and Lincoln within one year of his death . . .
" to Jane my wife all my lands which I bought since the making of my
great Book of Feoffment set before by this my last will devised during
her life . . . and after her death to my brother Robert Welby." To
said Robert Welby after decease of wife ... an annuity of 100 marks per
annum for ever out of lands in Whaplode and Holbeach late Harwells,
Haltofte, Knevetts, and Wythipols. "Item to Thomas and Christopher
Walpole sonnes of my uncle, after decease oj Jane my wife" each £10 a
year for life out of said lands . . . The lands I had by my mother's will
to go to Jane my wife for life ... To the churchwardens of Whaplode
£4 yearly for ever out of lands in Whaplode and Holbeach ' ' for the
finding of a learned preacher for the preaching of the Word of God to
His glorie so long as the inhabitants of Whaplode do give him yearly £20
over and besides. ^^ By a codicil, dated 7th October, 1590, he leaves
"... to my uncle Walpole [Christopher Walpole of Anmer] forty
shillings to buy a ring.'' His wife residuary legatee. This wife Jane
was daughter and heir of John Eobarts of Woolaston, co. Northants,
Esq., by Cassandra, daughter of William Apreece of Washingleys, co.
Hunts., Esq. She married (2) John Markham of Sedgebrook, co.
Lincoln, Esq. (High Sheriff in 1590). He died 9th February, 1593.
She married (3) Sir William Skipworth of Cotes, co. Leicester, who
died 3rd May, 1610 ; she survived her third husband twenty years. Her
will is in P. C. C, and was proved 2nd December, 1630. In it she leaves
" £20 for a tomb in Sleaford for John Walpole, Esq., my first husband."
Her own monument is at Prestwold. It would appear that Thomas
Walpole lived long enough to come in for the annuity, which in Queen
Elizabeth's time was, in Harrison's judgment, a sufficient maintenance
for a gentleman.

CHARTER VIII.

THE RETURN TO ENGLAND.

" Come back, come back, more eager than the breeze
The flying fancies sweep across the seas,
And lighter far than ocean's flying foam
The heart's fond message hurries to its home.
Come back, come back!"

Writing to Cresswell on the 17th October, 1591, Henry
Walpole had favoured his correspondent with a strange
piece of news. From " divers captains and gentlemen,
come from the Earl of Essex in France," who had been
'* reconciled to the Church" by his means, he had learnt —
vain and idle rumour — that there was " great hope and
inclination to the Catholic faith of late in England, in
court, camp, and country." And this three years after
the Armada.

Looking back as we now can do, "with larger, other
eyes," upon the state of feeling which prevailed in England
at this time, and upon the intense irritation and bitterness
against Spain and Rome which had grown up in all classes
as a consequence of the attempt at invasion, few things
strike us as more curious than the childish credulity of the
English exiles, who still deceived themselves into the belief
that they had a strong party of sympathisers and supporters
at home. It was not only that the age was uncritical, and
that sifting evidence was contrary to the habits of the time,
it was much more than this : the exiles were led astray by
their earnest longings to believe firmly what they wished
for ardently : they became the ready dupes of shallow gossip
that reached them from every point of the compass ; and

201

202 ONE GENERATION OF

though they found themselves taken in every day of the
week, nothing could teach them the commonest caution.
They were surrounded by a legion of spies receiving
Burleigh's pay at so much a quarter, and tliey hneio it ;
they were playing a game of hide-and-seek in which the
stake was their own lives ; their words were repeated as
soon as uttered; their letters were intercepted, and delivered
into the hands of the Lord Treasurer to be duly deposited
in process of time among the archives at Hatfield or the
Public Records, for future generations to read. Their
elaborate cyphers were sent to the regular experts who
read them at their leisure ; their lodgings were watched,
their persons accurately described, their every movement
known, their plans divulged almost as soon as formed ;
and yet these Jesuit Fathers and Seminary priests, whom
historians delight to represent as the wariest and wiliest
of conspirators, proved themselves as deficient in craft,
cunning, or sagacity, and as little a match for their perse-
cutors in the arts of chicane and espionage as the kingfisher
is said to be a match for the village ploughboy, when she
deposits her eggs year after year in the same hole, though
her nest be robbed as regularly as the summer comes
round.^

"Great hope for the Catholic faith in England" in the
year 1591 ! " I could wish myself there, if all were
answerable," he adds pathetically ; and he really believed
that there was a career before him, and that it required
only a little band of devoted missioners to stem the current
of heresy, and to lead back England into the right way
once more ! From across the sea Southwell and Gerard
seemed to beckon, and a voice from friends and kindred
to be calling, " Come over and help us ! "

Five days after he wrote this letter to Cresswell I find
him at Tournai, entering upon the third year of his pro-
bation.^

The original college of the Jesuits at Tournai is used at
the present day as the Athen^e, or Public School, of the
town ; it has remained unaltered in its main features since

A NORFOLK HOUSE 203

its first foundation. One enters by the selfsame porter's
lodge through which Henry Walpole passed ; the old
quadrangle is intact ; the old refectory, which could easily
have accommodated three hundred students, has been
divided into three ; the old oratory, which continued to
be used as an oratory till fifteen years ago, has been
converted into a dormitory, though there never have been
scholars to fill it ; a portion of the stately cloister still
stands ; the vaults in which many of the Jesuit Fathers
lie buried were only bricked up in 1870 ; the extensive
gardens and grounds, shorn of all their picturesqueness,
still grow vegetables for the household ; the old kitchen is
used to the present day. One passes into the chapel : the
venerable altar is as it was, but the glory of the stained-
glass windows, still faintly remembered by living men,
has departed, and the whole place is dreary, desolate, and
decaying. The good people of Tournai have broken with
the priesthood, and are bitter against them. They have
made immense exertions, and incurred very considerable
expense, in pushing their Athenee, and subsidising it very
heavily ; but though there be room in the building for at
least two hundred boarders — one hundred and Uucnty are
offered each a separate room about sixteen feet square — the
place languishes dismally, and the school is never half filled
with scholars.

How little does persecution and spoliation effect ! In this
very town of Tournai, at this very day, there stands the
modern Jesuit college in the more modern quarter. It has
become so much too small for the accommodation of the
numbers who apply for admission that in 1875 arrange-
ments had been made for the erection of extensive new
buildings, though in those already constructed there were
one hundred and fifty students, provided for on the most
liberal scale, and presided over by thirty Jesuit Fathers ;
whilst the charges for each of these students were more
than double of those paid at the secular school at the other
end of the town.

Henry Walpole had now been seven years a Jesuit ;

204 ONE GENERATION OF

nearly ten years had passed since he left his country and
his home. He was in the prime of his manhood ; some of
the buoyancy of youth had passed, some of its impulsiveness
been repressed, some of its romance, its sanguine hopes, its
passionate chivah-y, its inordinate confidence in a future
that was to do so much and triumph so surely ; but his
consuming enthusiasm had not cooled down one whit ; on
the contrary, it seems to have been as ardent and as intense
as ever. " Gerard doeth much good ! " That, doubtless,
was the thought which haunted him. Visions of Gerard
riding over Dersingham Heath and sitting in the well-
known chimney-corner of Sandringham Hall — warily pick-
ing his way to Houghton or Harpley in the gloom of
evening, and holding serious converse with anxious
inquirers in many a manor-house whose every closet the
sad exile knew so well — rose before his mind's eye, and
made him long for home. How could it be otherwise?
But the way seemed barred to him. The rigid discipline
of that wonderful Society, of which he was a devoted
member, demanded the sacrifice of his own inclinations,
and he made that sacrifice as a matter of course ; and so
he was kept month after month teaching boys, or at Tournai
going through the strict routine without a murmur, saying
his mass in the early morning in the college chapel, and in
the evening pouring out his soul to God in his chamber,
begging for — what ? For nothing worse, that I can find,
than the glory of being used in his Master's service and
gaining that Master's guerdon.

Surely the time has come when we can afford to be
generous, at least fair, to these men. Think of them as we
will, they had no mean personal motives ; they had every-
thing to lose, in most cases they had actually sacrificed every-
thing ; they had nothing to gain — nothing that worldly men
would value or desire. There is only one way of explaining
their vehement zeal, their reckless bravery, their dauntless
persistence in the cause to which they pledged themselves.
Give them the credit of earnestness, and allow that they
were sincere, and the history of the world can furnish us

A NORFOLK HOUSE 205

with countless parallels of the same heroic devotion in a
better or a worse cause : but assume them to have been
mere politicians and selfish schemers — false, cunning, and
hypocritical — and these Jesuit emissaries and missionary
priests, who endured so much and who fought their grim
fight so stubbornly, present us with a problem which the
experience of mankind will not help us to solve. We shall
never understand the religious conflict of the sixteenth
century, or indeed of any century, if we put ourselves below
the enthusiasm of the time.

For ten months Henry Walpole remained at Tournai :
on the 15th July, 1592, he was called to the college of
Bruges. 3 At this point it will be necessary to make a short
digression in order to understand the significance of much
that follows.

The English College at Douai was opened, as has already
been shown, in 1568. Ten years of remarkable success had
rewarded the efforts of those who had started it ; but after it
had sent forth fifty-two priests to pursue their vocation in
England, its work was rudely interfered with, and its progress
received a temporary check, when the course of events
necessitated the removal of the tuitional staff and of the
whole body of students to Eheims. Here the college went
on as before ; but once more, at the end of another ten
years, the clouds began to gather, and the community at
Eheims conceived some anxious fears for the future. The
political horizon was indeed sufficiently dark. The
" Invincible Armada " had collapsed, Montmorenci had
joined the Huguenots, the Duke of Guise was dead. Prince
Maurice was doing much more than holding his own, and
Henry III. had made truce with the King of Navarre. For
Spain — and Spain meant the cause of Catholicism in
Europe — the outlook was very gloomy and menacing. It
became evident that, as things stood, it would be impossible
to leave the dreaded Parma much longer in the Low
Countries, and if he were recalled and his sword employed
elsewhere, what might not happen in Belgium and the
north of France ?

2o6 ONE GENERATION OF

Accordingly, Father Parsons began to look about him for
an opportunity of providing some substitute for the College
at Rheims in case it should be compelled to dissolve, and it
was doubtless a part of his plan to supplant the Secular
College and to found in its place a Jesuit College, which
should be exclusively under the control of the Society. It
was only natural that Parsons should think of Spain as
the best place for setting up a new educational establish-
ment : his enormous influence with Philip II. and his court
would of itself have been enough to justify the plan, and
there may have been some pardonable ambition to emulate
Cardinal Allen in the foundation of colleges which might
rival the glory of those older institutions that had pros-
pered so vastly and produced such wonderful results. In
the spring of 1589 Parsons wrote to Allen suggesting that,
in view of the dangers that appeared imminent, an attempt
should be made to set up a college in Spain. 4 The matter
was debated at Rome, and without delay — not to say
without due inquiry and precaution — three young scholars,
Henry Floyd, a Cambridgeshire man, John Blackfan, and
John Boswell, set out with the intention of making a
settlement in Spain for training young men for the English
mission. They arrived at Corunna at the end of May,
and after many hardships made their way to ValladoUd,
which they reached almost penniless, and apparently without
introductions and without friends. Wandering about the
streets, they fell in with two young Englishmen who were
pursuing their studies in the town, and after hiring a humble
lodging they spent their time in attending the lectures
which were delivered free of charge in the public schools.
Their scanty hoard began to diminish wofully, till, waxing
desperate, they applied to a charitable nobleman, Don
Alfonso de Quinones, and laid their case before him ;
with characteristic munificence he relieved their immedi-
ate necessities, and supported them for three months out
of his own resources. Just at this point Father Parsons
arrived at Madrid, and received intelligence of the hard-
ships endured by the little band. He at once made it

A NORFOLK HOUSE 207

his business to extricate them from their difficulties, and,
by diligent canvassing among liis powerful supporters at
court, before a year had gone by he had purchased a
house for a college, altered and enlarged the buildings,
and obtained the grant of a permanent " pension " from
the Spanish court. By the end of October 1590 nearly
thirty students had emigrated from Eheims alone. By
the spring of 1591 there were upwards of seventy in-
mates, and the numbers were said to be still increasing.
The example set by Philip was followed with more or
less ostentation by his nobles ; and just when it looked as if
the college of Eheims would have to be dissolved, as the
result of the skilful intrigues and diplomacy of Elizabeth's
ministers and agents in France, a new nursery for restless
"Missioners" and "Seminarists" started into being, exactly
where they were least assailable. It was a master stroke of
policy on Parsons' part, and might well cause the English
Government uneasiness. Where was this everlasting plot-
ting to end ? How could this hydra be crushed ? By this
time Elizabeth began to be seriously alarmed for her per-
sonal safety. Brave woman she undoubtedly was — none of
her race were lacking in personal courage, but there was
ground for uneasiness, and her council did their utmost, not
only to increase the feeling of insecurity, but actually to
establish a panic of assassination at court. Was there not
a cause ? The Eegent Murray had been foully murdered
in broad daylight in Edinburgh streets ; Henry III. had
been stabbed to the heart by Jacques Clement ; Guise
had been slain at Blois ; WiUiam of Orange had fallen a
victim to another miscreant, though he had survived the
frightful wound which had almost dispatched him in 1582.
Furious fanatics talked of the Queen of England as the
fittest person to be destroyed by fair means or by foul, and
rumour, loud of tongue, never ceased asserting that the
adherents of Mary Stuart were as ready as ever to avenge
the death of the " martyred'' Scottish Queen. The Armada
had been scattered to the winds and swallowed up by the
ocean, but worse might be preparing, and angry men foiled

2o8 ONE GENERATION OF

are loud in threats of what they will do some day. And
now, as if by magic, here were fresh seminaries springing
up, with all their tremendous organisation for turning out
emissaries devoted to the cause of winning back England
to the Pope's dominion, and of spreading abroad doctrines
which Cecil and his compeers believed could only end in
hurling him from power and driving Elizabeth from the
throne. — " Something must be done ! " Something was
done accordingly. On the 29th November, 1591, the Queen
published her famous edict. s

The edict had scarcely been promulgated when Father
Parsons set himself to compose a reply. His answer was
written in Latin, in his usual vigorous and lucid style ; for
however rugged and vulgar his English may have been, his
Latin is always nervous and fluent, not without a certain
grace and elegance of manner ; the authorship was ascribed
to Andreas Philopater, Presbyter ac Theologies Bomanus ex
Anglia olim oriundus, and it was published some time in the
summer of 1592.^ Parsons' answer w^as skilfully conceived ;
it aimed at showing that the Queen herself was hardly
responsible for the cruelty and atrocity of the edict and of
the late sanguinary measures against the Seminarists and
Jesuits ; it charged the guilt and ferocity of all these
measures upon the lords of the council, and chiefly and
above all upon Cecil, their Coryphaeus ; upon him Parsons
poured forth all the vials of his wrath and scorn ; it is
surprising to see how intimately he was acquainted with
every weakness and every vulnerable point of his adversary.
Cecil's birth was comparatively obscure, at least he could
boast of no forefathers who had belonged to the English
gentry. Cecil knew it, and was sore at the thought; but, if
his grandfather was nobody, might not his remote ancestors
have been princes and nobles ? So he gave himself to
genealogy, and was for ever hunting for some pedigree
which might fit on to himself and his progenitors ; this
pedigree-making was one of the great man's foibles. In
the State Paper Office and at Hatfield there are whole
volumes full of these genealogical notes, and it appears that

A NORFOLK HOUSE 209

Cecil never could shake oif the fascination which such
researches exercised over his mind. 7

A few months after the publication of the edict, and
immediately upon the completion of the first draft of
the answer to it, a copy in manuscript was forwarded to
the Treasurer by one of his spies in Flanders. Cecil was
gratified by the promptitude of his agent, and addressed to
him a letter of thanks for his zeal, and at the same time
added some comments upon the reply. Parsons had laughed
at him for his lowly birth, retorting upon him a sneer
which the edict itself contained. Cecil in his letter had
betrayed his mortification, and, writing to the spy, entered
into particulars about his supposed ancestors, claiming
descent from "Welsh princes, and asserting that his family
had originally been settled at Sitsil in Wales. When the
Kesponsio was published, there before the eyes of amazed
Europe was Cecil's own letter, translated into Latin, with
all its ridiculous pretensions exposed. Parsons was vastly
pleased, and made himself infinitely merry ; he did not
spare his victim ; all the resources of sarcasm and irony
were used to sting the Treasurer, and Cecil, deeply
mortified, writhed under the lash. Doubtless all possible
means were used to keep the book out of England ; but
besides the interest which the Catholics had in giving it
a wide circulation, there were too many people in high
position, who had no great love to the Lord Treasurer,
to allow of such a bonne-bouche as this bitter and telling
attack to remain unknown, unread, and unsold. Vexed
and intensely mortified, Cecil was weak enough to betray
the pain of the sting ; and when Philopater's book could
no longer be suppressed, with fidgety ill-temper he printed
a sort of reply, trying to make the best of an attack w^hich
might more safely have been left alone. This little episode
would be unimportant but for one consideration : the
English translation of Philopater was executed by Henry
Walpole, and this copy, which the spy forwarded to
England, must have been made almost immediately after
Walpole had completed his version during his stay at

2IO ONE GENERATION OF

Tournai. When, after divers tortures in the Tower in
1594, Henry Walpole in his agony let out all the harm he
had to tell about himself, and as little as possible about
any others whom he could have injured, one of his con-
fessions was that he had translated Philopater's book. That
signed his death-warrant. Cecil never forgot, never forgave;
and the man who had once provoked his resentment,
and hit him hard where he felt most tenderly, might
escape for long, but if ever he should be hunted down
would certainly not be spared.

It was while Henry Walpole was at Bruges that this
translation was executed, and he may have been engaged
upon this very work when he received his order from
Claudius Aquaviva, General of the Society, to join Parsons
in Spain. This appears to have come to him late in
the autumn. Some delays occurred which hindered his
setting out immediately, but in the end of December we
find him at Seville.

The English Seminary at Seville had been formally
opened about a month before his arrival, but the chapel
had not as yet been consecrated, and he hurried from
Belgium to be present at the ceremony. A great deal of
importance was attached to this event, and the opening
of the chapel, which took place on the 29th December, 1592,
was celebrated with extraordinary pomp and magnificence,
of which an eyewitness has given some account.^

At the first High Mass there " were present the Cardinal
Archbishop of the city, who was received with a Latin
oration, the Assistant and Senators, great store of eccle-
siastical prelates and doctors, the superiors of the religious
orders and other men of authority, gravity, and nobility,
a great number. At the end of the mass, four scholars
took the oath of 'priesthood and retiirning into E'ligland,
according to the manner of the Seminaries.''

Henry Walpole took part in this ceremony, and the
day was rendered especially interesting to him by the
presence of his brother Eichard, who had recently arrived
in Spain from Italy, and whom he had not seen for

A NORFOLK HOUSE 211

years. The meeting must have been an affecting one for
the brothers in their then condition of mind; each was
prepared for any venture or any labour which his sense
of duty might urge him to undertake ; and Eichard had
already volunteered to start upon the English mission
to which he would undoubtedly have been sent, but that
just on the eve of his intended departure he was kept
back for other and very different employment.

The brothers appear to have remained together at Seville
for two months, after which Henry was dispatched to
Valladolid: there at last the long-desired summons came.
He himself has told us the brief story.9

" I was minister [at Valladolid] till Fa. Parsons coming
to Valladolid about June, anno 93, did find me not so
apt, as he said, for that office, and told me he was in
doubt whether to send me to hear confessions in Seville
or to Lisbon, where is a residence begun ; and suddenly he
told me he ivas resolved I should go mto England if I did not
refuse, having order thereto from the General and Provincial;
and so he and the Bector did determine."

Father Parsons had been in close communication with
Henry Walpole now for nearly a year. It is clear he
had been watching him carefully all the time and scrutinis-
ing him narrowly. Of Walpole's earnestness and devotion
there was no question ; of his zeal and courage he had
given ample proofs ; but whether his learning was extensive
and solid enough to be turned to account in the lecture-
room, or could be used in the controversial battles that
were always going on, was doubtful. What was to be done
with this enthusiast of brilliant and versatile talents rather
than of commanding intellectual power, who peradventure
had mistaken his vocation when he threw himself into
the ecclesiastical life, and forsook the career at the bar
in which he was qualified to make a mark, as his uncle had
done before him ?

Parsons must have known only too well what a dreamy
prospect he was offering this man of thirty-five years of age
when he proposed to him " hearing confessions at Seville

212 ONE GENERATION OF

or Lisbon," and bow o>ny career or venture would appear
preferable to one in whom the faintest stirrings of ambition
or the least traces of self-will survived. '' Suddenly " came
the question, " Would he go into England ? " " Yes ! "
Without a moment's doubt or hesitation. Yes ! Though
a thousand edicts threaten and a thousand deaths deter.
'' Gerrard doeth much good. Why not I ? "

So here was another Jesuit Father going to be hurled
against the ranks prepared to receive him. Ay ! but there
was something more. It must be remembered that just
at this moment it was more than ordinarily advisable,
it was almost necessary, that the Society of Jesus should
show some signal evidence of its activity, and of the
readiness of its members to take part in the English
mission. Douai and Eheims could boast of their army
of martyrs and confessors, of their recruits always ready
to enlist, of their volunteers eager to lead the forlorn hope
at an hour's warning. If this new seminary of Valladolid
was to emulate the renown of the French college, it
must have its baptism of blood and its martyrs with their
crown and palm. Parsons must have felt all this, and
none knew better than he the danger and the risk. One
is almost tempted to believe that the critical question
was wrung from him, as if he even at the eleventh hour
doubted his man, and as if for himself he would rather
have been spared that trial of the superior officer, who,
in the discharge of a duty laid upon him, sends his sub-
ordinate to what he knows is likely to end in death, even
though that death may prove honourable and glorious.

But the decision once arrived at there was no more
delay. Henry Walpole had made his choice, and at once
he stood forth as a representative man. He was no longer
a mere Jesuit Father, he was a Jesuit Father who was
about to enter upon the English mission, and as such
he became a very valuable instrument in Father Parsons'
hands. Liberal as had been the contributions and lavish
as the promises had been, the funds for the new seminaries
in Spain had come in, and were coming in, more slowly

A NO J^ FOLK I/O USE 213

than could be desired. The buildings, as usual, cost more
than had been estimated, and though the scholars were
many the resources for their maintenance ran short.
Moreover, it was by no means intended to drop the
French and Belgian seminaries, and yet they were in
sore distress, with creditors pressing and payments all
behindhand. Money was getting scarcer and scarcer.
The English vessels were scouring the seas, plundering
King Philip's homeward-bound ships, and^ the enormous
booty gained was so much taken from the Spanish treasury
and passing into the hands of English pirates. Philip II.
and his courtiers promised largely and did their best and
meant to keep their word, but pay-day came and pay was
wanting. Meanwhile so persuaded was every Spaniard,
and every man who looked to the Spanish king for support,
of the unbounded resources at his command, that the
thought never suggested itself that after all Philip was
almost bankrupt. If only a petitioner could gain access
to this omnipotent dispenser of gold, there could be no
limit to the resources at his command : the only difficulty
was how to get admission to the awful presence of the
potentate before whom common men might well veil their
faces. While Henry Walpole was at Valladolid a certain
priest named Thorne had come into Spain to beg for
contributions towards the establishment of a Jesuit college
at St. Omer. It does not appear that Thorne was a
Jesuit himself, or how or by whom he had been accredited,
but he was in Spain as a petitioner. Week passed after
week, but he found himself helpless ; he could get no
audience, and the courtiers appear to have taken no notice
of him or his petition. The St. Omer College scheme,
however, was one which Parsons had at heart, and though
he could allow Thorne to drop out of notice, he was not
likely to despair of St. Omer without an effort. What
an obscure priest might be powerless to achieve, that
might be easily effected by a Jesuit Father, who was
about to set sail for England, holding his life in his
ha/uds.

214 ONE GENERATION OF

Accordingly Henry Walpole was put forward as the
petitioner who should appeal with more emphasis for the
funds that were so grievously needed. He was furnished
with letters to the king and the most powerful nobles of
the court, and dispatched to the Escurial with all the
moral support he could desire. He was received with
marked distinction by the courtiers, assured that the
king had granted his request and had already sent letters
to St. Omer ordering the money to be paid, and finally
was told that he was to be admitted to the august presence
of his majesty, whom it would be politic to thank for past
favours before begging for their continuance in the future.
Don Juan Crestoval de Mora seems to have been specially
interested in the English mission, and Henry Walpole
thus tells the story of his interview with the great man :
" Don Juan did talk familiarly awhile with me, asking
me of F. Parsons and the seminar}'-, and how I would
get into England, and he said he heard say that there
was a new religion in England of such as refused to go
to church ; demanding whether they were like the
Catholics, and what hope there was of the conversion of
England. ..." He goes on to tell how, not many days
after, " by Ruis de Velasco's means I had audience of
the K. as daily many have, and told him that being sent
into England by my superior to labour to convert some
souls there ; and having received his Majesty's new letters
for St. Omer, I did humbly thank his Majesty for all his
liberalities to the poor students of our nation, who all,
therefore, would pray to God for him, and I hope many
other hereafter whom they should convert to the Catholic
faith : beseeching him to continue his alms and liberality
towards them there : 'Twas the effect of the speech I
did speak unto him, and he very low, being weak, so as
I could scarcely hear him, said only these words that I
could understand, Dios os Encamina . . . ; this done I
returned to Valladolid, and from thence to Bilbao."

He set out from the Escurial on the 3rd or 4th August,
1593, and reached Bilbao at the end of the month. At

A NORFOLK HOUSE 215

Portugaletta he found a vessel bound for Calais, and,
taking passage in it, embarked on the 3rd September ;
the voyage was a very tempestuous one, and occupied so
long a time that his friends made up their minds that
the ship had foundered at sea, so that when he arrived
at Douai on the 27th of the month he was greeted with
immense joy by the college authorities. ^°

After a short stay at Douai he returned as far as St.
Omer, and here he fell in with one Edward Lingen, whom
he had known previously as an officer in Sir W. Stanley's
regimeni, and who had been living by his wits for some
years, aiter being driven out of England by the penal
laws. Lingen was one of those many soldiers of fortune
who were at this time wandering over Europe and ready
to take service under any master, willing to embark in
any enterprise that offered pay or prize-money. In the
sixteenth century it was counted no disgrace or reproach
to a mm that he should place his sword at the disposal
of the King of France to-day and the King of Spain to-
morrow. The profession of arms had in those days a
cosmopoLtan character, and no one thought any the worse
of a "free lance " who in the course of his career changed
sides, provided that he was faithful to his engagements
during the campaign, and did not violate a trust committed
to him. To use his sword against his own country
was considered to some extent discreditable, but even
this admitted of an excuse, and was looked upon pretty
much in tie same light as for a barrister to defend a
prisoner chirged with a capital offence ; with this difference,
that the one course luas in those days possible, and the
other was not. Lingen was a soldier of fortune : for
some years he had been a buccaneer, as were Drake and
Hawkins aid many another dashing sailor from the Cinque
Ports : thej carried their prizes into Plymouth, he carried
his into Dunkirk, and therefore as a matter of course they,
when occasion served, preyed upon Flemings and Frenchmen
and Spaniards, he upon Flemings and Frenchmen and
Englishmen His success had been but moderate, and

2i6 ONE GENERATION OF

he had tired of the game. A yearning to get back to
England at all hazards had taken possession of him,
and when he learnt that Henry Walpole was pre-
paring for a homeward voyage he determined to join
him. With the usual want of reserve and caution which
characterised the proceedings of the missioners, the
" secret " of Henry Walpole's intentions soon became
generally known, and among others who heard of it was
his brother Thomas, who had also held a commission in
Stanley's regiment, but had become disgusted with a course
which brought neither credit nor pay. Henry Walpole
had still some business to carry on in Belgium, which
occupied him till the beginning of November ; then we find
him once more at St. Omer ready and eager for the start.
But once again his patience was put to trial. The plague
was raging in London and its environs. '• For all this
year," says Camden, " London was most grievously afflicted
with the pestilence, Saturn running through the utJermost
point of Cancer to the beginning of Leo, as in the yeir 1563,
insomuch as there died this year of the pestileice and
other diseases, within the city and the suburbs, 17,890
persons, besides William Kowe, Mayor, and three Aldermen."
The consequence was that " from Calais no Fraich ship
went by reason of the sickness," and when the brothers
with Lingen attempted to get a passage from Calais they
failed, and returned to St. Omer, waiting for some turn
in the tide of affairs."

During his stay there Henry Walpole was employed
in making some preliminary arrangements foi the new
Jesuit College, which was opened in the following year.
He kept up a correspondence with Parsons, Cresswell,
More, &c., during the month of November, and three of
his letters have been preserved, and were printed in
Cresswell' s short biography. Like every other letter of
the writer, they breathe a spirit of ecstatic fgrvour and
somewhat passionate devotion. They are full of prayers
for success in "winning souls " ; but through them all there
is a tone of despondency, and more than one indication

A NORFOLK HOUSE 217

that the writer had a presentiment of the fate that awaited
him, and which, though he foresaw, he was in no wise
anxious to escape. In truth, |One sees in this man just
that perverse and infatuate hankering after the honour of
" martyrdom " which Donne, fifteen years after, so earnestly
and grandly reproved in his great polemical work The
Pseudo Martyr. The missioners were excited, and goaded
on to look upon death at the stake as the most glorious
end of life that could be desired ; and to do them bare
justice, it must be confessed that when it came to surren-
dering their lives they showed no craven reluctance to
meet their doom. In the torture chamber they broke
down again and again : at the gallows not a single case
of cowardice has been recorded.

And so when week passed after week, and the prospect of
finding any opportunity of crossing the Channel in the usual
way seemed as far off as ever, and when too his business at
St. Omer came to an end and tidings arrived that the
English Government was more vigilant, strict, and uncom-
promising than ever — when too the opinion seemed gaining
ground that this was no time to be sending fresh Jesuit
emissaries to be arrested, imprisoned, and hung, with little
chance of their doing any useful work before they were
apprehended — Henry Walpole began to be seriously afraid
that if he delayed much longer a fresh order might come
from headquarters recalling him from the English mission
altogether. At Valladolid he had been one of at least three
priests who had been set apart for this work : others had
already been stopped by their superiors : if he delayed he
too might be sent for to hear confessions or perform some
other routine work in Belgium or Spain. The thought of
such a contingency became unbearable, and he determined
to run any risk rather than not get upon English soil once
more.

Just at this time there were lying in Dunkirk harbour
three "vessels of war," as they were vaguely called in the
language of the time ; in other words, three pirate craft
fitting out for sea ; for naval warfare was then carried on

2i8 ONE GENERATION OF

in the Channel almost exclusively by private adventurers,
who advanced money for the expenses and shared the risk
and the profits of success. A bold buccaneer was always
sure to find speculators willing to supply the necessary
funds, and there was no lack of reckless spirits eager to sail
under the flag of any dare-devil captain. There was little
or no regard to nationality, and in this particular case we
are not told whether the ships called themselves French or
Spanish : they were simply " vessels of war," which were
about to cruise along the east coast of England and make
what prizes they could pick up ; they were to sail in concert,
keeping in sight of one another, and to play what havoc they
could upon any luckless merchant ship that fell in their
way, it mattered very little whether she were French,
English, or Dane. Lingen heard of the little fleet, and
Henry Walpole determined to secure a passage. He made
his arrangements, and stipulating that he and his two
companions should be set ashore on the coast of Essex,
Suffolk, or Norfolk, he embarked, and the ships weighed
anchor about the 20th November, 1593. They were not the
only passengers. Another priest, who travelled under the
name of Ingram, and who appears to have been charged
with some political mission for Scotland, and had his own
plans to carry out, had already bargained for a passage ;
and a spy of Walsingham's too had secured a berth without
the knowledge of the others of the party. Ingram was a
nephew of Lingen's, and it was probably through him that
the information came of the intended cruise of the '* vessels
of war." They set sail in very boisterous weather, with
a head wind, at the worst season of the year, and had
a rough time of it. On the 3rd of December they were off
the English coast, and on that day they took a prize ; but
they had been carried farther northwards than Essex or
Suffolk or Norfolk, past the Wash and past the Humber,
and by the evening of the 4th they were off Flamborough
Head. Ingram was bound for Scotland, he would have
been quite content to go on. Henry Walpole had far over-
shot his mark. Anywhere on the coast of Norfolk or even

A NORFOLK HOUSE 219

Lincolnshire he would have found himself very soon among
friends, but to land in Yorkshire was to rush into the lion's
jaws. Nevertheless the weather showed no signs of mend-
ing ; it was impossible to say where next he might find
himself, and as the captain told him, to use his own words,
" that he could not touch the land where he would, and the
wind they said was not good . . . for very weariness of the
sea I desired them to set me on land anywhere, or else
carry me back, and so they put me on land." Unfortunately
he and his two companions were not the first to leave the
ships. The spy, who was a passenger on board another of
the vessels, managed to land before them, and slipped away
to carry information to York. The three companions were
set ashore at Bridlington, and the ships put out to sea
again. Henry Walpole was in England once more.'

NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII

1. Page 202. In the Eecord Office there is a collection of the ciphers
employed by the agents of the Government and their opponents during
the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It occupies three thick quarto volumes.

2. Page 202. The letter is dated Brussels, 17th October, 1591.
{Walpole Letters, p. 44.) For his summons to Tournai, ci. supra, p. 138.

3. Page 205. For this statement my authority is the MS. Life in the
Collectanea Anglo -Catholica, vol. i. £o. 149, in the Archives of the
Bishop of Southwark ; now under the custody of the Fathers of the
Oratory. I think this Life must be a translation from some very early
document, and I suspect that another translation is the Latin Life now
at Stonyhurst, which was discovered some years ago in the archives of
the city of Brussels. Both these Lives, if they are not the same, contain
some particulars not to be found in Yepez, Bartoli, or Father More.

4. Page 206. For a full account of the matter see Tierney's Dodd,
vol. ii. p. 176, and the Notes in the Appendix.

5. Page 208. The text of the edict is to be found in Strype, Annals,
iv. p. 78 et seq.

6. Page 208. See a letter in the Athencsum, No. 2602, Sept. 8, 1877.

7. Page 209. There is a very curious note given in the Quarterly
Revieio, No. 282, p. 22. " Cecil is labouring for peace. , . . He has
found a new pedigree by his Grandmother from the Walpoles. ..."
This passage occurs in a letter of the 21st July, 1599. Just two years
before this Edward Walpole of Houghton had been outlawed " for a
supposed treason done at Kome," and his estates forfeited to the crown.
It is evident that the attention of the Lord Treasurer had been drawn
to the Walpoles for some time past. There are several of Cecil's
genealogical and heraldic collections among the Lambeth MSS.

8. Page 210. Tierney's Dodd, vol. ii. App. ix. No. Ixii. A minute
account of the reception of Philip II. at the seminary at Valladolid is to
be met with in a scarce volume, entitled Relacion de un Sacerdote Ingles

. . de la venida de su Magestad a Valladolid, y al Colegio de los
Ingleses . . . Traduzida de Ingles en Gastellano, por Tomas Eclesal

230

ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE 221

cavallero Ingles. — (Madrid, 1592, 12mo.) Orations were delivered in ten
languages, Hebreiv, Welsh, Gaelic, and Flemish among the number.
Prize poems were composed, some of them of very respectable merit,
and an elaborate pageant was carried out of which a description is given.
The little book is, in fact, precisely like a modern newspaper report.

9. Page 211. P. R. 0., Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. 249, No. 12, where the
authority for all that is contained in the next two paragraphs is to
be found.

10. Page 215. Yepez, &c. The two MS. biographies mentioned
at n. 3 supra.

11. Page 216. Supra, n. 9.

12. Page 219. Cresswell's Life, p. 6 ; Yepez, p. 680, and the MS
Lives, n. 3 ; Walpole Letters, p. 47.

CHAPTEE IX.

FATHER Gerard's *' much good."

What was the " much good " that Father Gerard had done
in Norfolk, and that had produced so profound an impression
on Henry Walpole? The researches suggested by this
question have resulted in throwing so much light upon
the extent of Gerard's influence during the last fifteen
years of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and in revealing so many
curious facts bearing upon the social and religious history
of the time, that I believe my readers will be in a better
position to understand the real significance of what still
remains to be told if I turn away once more from the
apparently direct course of my narrative and give some
account of this notable Jesuit Father's sojourn in Norfolk.
When Gerard dropped down from the high road to
Norwich on that memorable afternoon in October 1588, and
determined to " make a circuit of the city " before entering
the gates, he was almost certainly within sight of Eobert
Southwell's birthplace at St. Faith's.^ Below him, on the
other side of Hellesdon bridge, stretched a tract of country
in which some of the most considerable of the Norfolk
landlords whose names were on the roll of Eecusants were
then living. To his right were the woods of Cossey, and
the hall which Sir Henry Jerningham had built at the
beginning of Elizabeth's reign, and where ten years before
the time we have now arrived at Sir Henry's widow had
entertained the Queen and her courtiers. Scarcely more
than two miles off might be seen the new chimneys of
Melton Hall, which Eobert Downes had very recently
erected. And another mile off', and nearer to Norwich,

222

ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE 223

stood Bowthorpe Hall, at the time occupied by Lady
Jerningham's son-in-law, Charles Waldegrave, Esq., who
rented the house from Mr. Yaxley, a member of one of
the great Suffolk families. Southwell's residence at St.
Faith's has now quite disappeared. The old hall at
Bowthorpe was replaced by a new house about the year
1660, when the property passed away from the Yaxley
family, but the hall at Melton still stands, and so does
the picturesque old hall at Cossey, though now reduced
to insignificance by the glorious modern mansion.^ Every
one of these county squires was a conscientious Catholic,
and every one of them was suffering for the sake of his
religion at the time that Gerard passed by on his way to
Norwich.

The Recusant gentry in Norfolk were not all treated with
equal severity : a great deal depended upon the power of
a man's friends in high quarters — not that the Recusants
ever escaped altogether from pains and penalties, but that
the laws were so outrageously tyrannical that they did not
bear being carried out with full rigour against any but a
minority, upon whom extreme measures might be tried
with safety — with this minority it was only a question of
time when they would find themselves stripped of their
lands and turned out into the world as beggars. Mr.
Downes of Melton was a notable instance of this. As early
as the year 1561 he had incurred the grave displeasure of
the Queen's ministers by being " present at the saying of a
mass — since masses were made illegal." The mass was
said at the house of Sir Edward Waldegrave at Borley
in Essex ; and there were present at it Sir Edward and
Lady Waldegrave and their children, Lady Petre, Lady
Jerningham, and others of the Catholic party. It was a
matter looked upon by the Government of the day with
some suspicion and alarm. Scarcely a year had elapsed
since the Act of the 1st Elizabeth had been passed, which
had made the use of any form of worship except such as
was prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer illegal,
whether in public or private ; but, as I have before said.

224 ONE GENERATION OF

the mass had not been named in the Act, and it may have
been that some were in doubt as to the legaUty of using
the old form of worship, and this meeting at Lady
Waldegrave's may have been a prearranged one in order to
try the lawfulness of saying mass in private. If this were
so, the plan was unwisely conceived, for though in point of
fact it was little more than a family meeting, it certainly
assumed very much the appearance of a political gathering. 3
Sir Edward Waldegrave had been one of Queen Mary's
privy councillors, and was Chancellor of the Duchy of
Lancaster ; Sir Henry Jerningham had been a member
of the Queen's household and a favourite of his royal
mistress ; ^ and Mr. Eobert Downes appears in some way
to have been connected with the Waldegraves, though in
exactly what relation he stood to them I have as yet
failed to discover. Little or no secret was made of the
matter, and it at once came to the ears of the council.
Forthwith such of the party as could be laid hold of were
arrested : Sir Edward and Lady Waldegrave, the members
of their household, their physician Dr. Fryer, and the priests
officiating, in all about a dozen, were sent to the Tower ;
others were apprehended and thrown into jail at Colchester,
among whom Eobert Downes's name is conspicuous.s This,
as far as I know, was the beginning of his chequered and
unhappy career. How long he was detained in jail on this
occasion does not appear. Sir Edward Waldegrave was
kept long enough in the Tower to die a prisoner there, and
Mr. Downes was not likely to have been released before his
patron.^ He was, however, probably at large again before
the summer of 1563, when by the death of his brother,
Francis Downes, Esq., of Sudbury, he succeeded as heir-at-
law to extensive estates in Suffolk, Norfolk, and elsewhere,
some time after which he appears to have taken up his
residence at Great Melton, where he occupied himself in
building the hall, and lived in a style befitting his large
means.7

For some unexplained reason Mr. Downes had made
himself especially obnoxious to the Queen or her ministers.

A NORFOLK HOUSE 225

The Downes were a very numerous clan at this time
in Norfolk, and a very wealthy one ; there was another
Eobert Downes at the other end of the county, who at
the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign had succeeded his
father as lord of the manor of Bodney, near Watton, and
had inherited with it a very valuable and extensive tract of
land, where he too kept great state and maintained a large
household.^ Other members of the family were living at
various houses in the county, and almost all were
conspicuous for their stubborn adherence to the old creed.
But though Eobert Downes of Bodney was left com-
paratively unmolested — i.e., he had to ** compound" for his
recusancy and pay a heavy annual contribution for the
privilege of not going to church — his cousin at Melton fared
very differently. It has been seen that on the occasion
of the Queen's visit to Norwich, in July 1578, Mr. Downes
was among those who were first arrested. From that time,
for at least twenty years, he seems to have been kept in
prison in the castle of Norwich, allowed at intervals, it is
true, to go home to his wife and children on giving heavy
bail for his reappearance, but liable to be summoned to
return to prison at any moment that his rents fell due and
the time of payment of the heavy exactions made upon him
came round, and never allowed to wander farther than five
miles from his own hall.9 Year by year he became more
heavily embarrassed; his Suffolk property seems to have
gone first, then the lands in Kent followed ; at last his life
interest in the larger part of his Melton estate was
surrendered to the Queen in 1602, the consideration for
such surrender being expressly mentioned, viz., that he
should retain his dwelling-house at Melton and some few
score of acres around it, and enjoy the undisturbed
possession of the manor of Paunton in Herefordshire,
"without yielding, paying, or rendering any annual or
yearly rent or rents ... for or by reason of his Eecusancy,
absence from Church or divine service, contrary to the laws
of this Eealm in that behalf made and provided." ^°
There is something very affecting in this man's history,

226 ONE GENERATION OF

and there must have been in his stubborn and immovable
character some real magnanimity and heroism to submit
without one moment's flinching to the wearing misery of
thirty years of persecution and incessant spoliation, although
by a single act of conformity he might have freed himself
from all this ruinous weight of oppression.

I have given Mr. Downes as an instance of those who felt
the full force of the penal laws : his case is an extreme one,
but the truth is that only those of the Eecusant gentry
escaped absolute ruin who managed to obtain some
protection from friends in high quarters. Not even then
were they altogether spared, and as surely as a man of any
substance or position showed any active sympathy with the
Koman creed or its missionaries, so surely did he feel the
weight of the penal laws : all the power and influence of the
Woodhouses of Kimberley could not save their kinsman
Francis Woodhouse from dying in poverty in 1605, though
at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign he had been one of
the most considerable squires in Norfolk, and in 1568 had
built the noble hall at Breccles, which still stands as one
of the most beautiful monuments of Elizabethan domestic
architecture which the county of Norfolk can produce."

So, too, it fared with Edward Yelverton : as long as
he "made no sign" he might escape molestation at the
expense of a fixed annual charge upon his estates, but all
his high connections could not keep him from ruin when
once he became suspected of connivance with the move-
ments and designs of proselytisers. He too found himself
being stripped of his estates acre by acre, till, as many
another of his Catholic associates did, he contrived to turn
his lands into money before the spoilers had robbed him of
all he possessed. ^2

Three years before Gerard took up his residence with
Mr. Edward Yelverton at Grimston, his half-brother, Mr.
Humphrey Yelverton of Bawsie, had died, leaving behind
him a widow with five young children, three sons and two
daughters, all sufficiently provided for. The widow seems
to have removed to Lynn at the death of her husband,

A NORFOLK HOUSE 227

though perhaps keeping up the house at Bawsie and
occasionally residing there. Bawsie is about four miles
from Grimston, and Humphrey Yelverton's eldest son
Charles must have been a frequent visitor at the house
of his uncle Edward at the time when Gerard was a
sojourner there.'3 He appears always to have been a
favourite with his uncle, spending months at a time with
him after the death of his mother in 1591. He entered at
Caius College in April 1590, being then scarcely fifteen
years old, soon became one of the suspect, and after taking
his first degree the early leaven began to work and give him
no peace. He had a handsome patrimony which would
well reward an informer who could prove him to be
"popishly inclined," and he appears to have shown some
imprudence in habitually associating with the more
conspicuous of the Catholic party. When the time came
for him to proceed to the M.A. degree and take the oath,
he left Cambridge, being then some months short of twenty
one, at which time he would come into his inheritance. He
had no sooner gone from the university than Eedman,
Bishop of Norwich, issued a warrant for his apprehension,
from which, however, he contrived to escape, and he seems
to have passed the next year or two in doubling from house
to house in the Eastern Counties like a hunted hare, till
at last he managed to get to Dover ; here he was arrested,
when actually on ship board, and thrown into prison for
six weeks. He contrived to escape by bribing his keepers,
and slipping across the Channel made his way to Eome,
and eventually was admitted a member of the Society of
Jesus, in October 1601.^4

Of his brother Edward we know but little : he too
entered at Cambridge, and was in residence there when
Charles Yelverton left the university. He appears never
to have taken a degree, but at the end of Elizabeth's reign
he is described as " a Catholic, and domiciled in the house-
hold of Lord Morley/' and so, by the privileges which the
retainers of the nobility still enjoyed, protected from
molestation on account of his creed.

228 ONE GENERATION OF

It is hardly conceivable that these two young men,
who were near relations of Mr. Yelverton and in constant
communication with him during the time that Father
Gerard was his guest, were not directly influenced by the
zealous " missioner," and the more so as Charles Yelverton
asserts positively that his father had died a Catholic, that
one of his maternal uncles was a student at Douai in 1601,
and that his maternal grandfather, Francis Bastard of
Dunham, was then, and had been for forty years past,
true to the old creed.

We are not, however, left to inference and conjecture
with regard to others of Gerard's converts. It will be
remembered that John Walpole, Esq., of Houghton, had
married one of the daughters of William Calibut of Coxford
Abbey, who at the close of his life took up his residence
at Houghton, where he died in 1577. Mr. Calibut had two
other daughters : one of them, Ele, had married Henry
Kussell of West Rudham — she is named by Mr. Calibut
in his will ; the third daughter, Anna, married first a
Cambridgeshire gentleman, Mr. Thomas Gardiner, and by
him had a family of four children, two sons and two
daughters. He must have died a year or two after the
birth of Barclay, or Bernard, his second son. The widow
married as her second husband Henry Cornwallis (brother
of Sir Thomas Cornwallis of Brome), who thereupon settled
at Coxford. A second family was the fruit of this marriage,
of whom Eichard Cornwallis was the eldest son. He was a
young man of great promise and ability ; he was sent to the
Grammar School at Norwich for his education, and in his
boyhood imbibed a great many of the Puritan notions of his
teacher Mr. Limbert.

From Norwich he went up to Cambridge, where he
entered at Caius College, and was soon elected to a scholar-
ship. In the list of those proceeding to the degree of B.A.
in 1593 his name appears second in order, and as a matter
of course he was elected to a fellowship, took his M.A.
degree, and continued to reside at the university for some
years longer. Meanwhile he must have been backwards

A NORFOLK HOUSE 229

and forwards between Cambridge and Norfolk, and in the
course of his visits home he came under Gerard's influence.
When, exactly, he lost his mother I have been unable
to discover. The blood of a rigid Puritan was in her
veins, and as she had lived so she died. But his father
succumbed to Gerard's persuasive powers and was " recon-
ciled," and shortly afterwards Richard Cornwallis followed
his example, and became a marked man at Cambridge.
Henceforth the university was no place for him. He was
a great deal too conspicuous a personage to be allowed
to live in quiet, and he made up his mind to cross over
to the Continent and to visit Rome. He succeeded in
getting safely to the other side of the Channel, but immedi-
ately on his landing at Flushing the governor arrested
him, and after keeping him in prison for six weeks sent him
back to England, where he was formally deprived of his
fellowship and detained in prison for some months. How
he got out does not appear, but after various detentions
and difficulties he managed again to slip across the sea,
and in process of time presented himself at the English
College at Rome in the autumn of 1598. ^s

I may seem to have rather anticipated the course of
events in giving the story of these young men ; yet it
must be remembered that conversions like these are not
wrought in a day, and before an undergraduate at the
university brought himself to make the immense sacrifices
which were implied and indeed inevitable when he became
a declared and avowed Catholic in Elizabeth's reign, his
mind must necessarily have gone through a long conflict
and great revulsions of feeling. It was a slow process ;
and who could exactly trace the beginning of that change
which ended in a step that brought with it the severance
of the strongest earthly ties and the surrender of a man's
dearest ambition ? Boys of twenty take a leap in the dark
recklessly, passionately ; growm men in their prime stand
at the brink and hesitate before making the great plunge ;
and though Charles Yelverton was hardly of age when
he threw up his prospects at Cambridge, Mr. Cornwallis

230 ONE GENERATION OF

was a man of thirty, with a distinguished position in the
university, a career before him, and powerful connections
to back him if he would but temporise and bide his time.
It can hardly be doubted that in his case Gerard had a
long task to perform.

It was otherwise with Mr. Cornwallis's half-brother
Bernard Gardiner and his cousin Edward Walpole of
Houghton. Between these two young men there existed
a strong attachment, and both were ready for the great
venture before Gerrard appeared upon the scene. Whether
Gardiner had any property in Norfolk I have been unable
to make out, but his mother must have been living with
her second husband at Coxford while Gerrard was in the
neighbourhood ; and his sister Katherine had married
Thomas Cromwell, Esq., brother of Henry Lord Cromwell,
on the 17th August, 1580, and was now living at North
Elmham, within a ride of Gerard's headquarters.^^ For
some reason Gardiner was regarded with suspicion by the
Catholic party. There may have been some indiscretion on
his part, or it may have been that the puritanism of his
mother and sister gave occasion to the misgivings that
undoubtedly were in existence : though he twice offered
himself to the Society of Jesus, he was on both occasions
rejected after trial. '7

Edward Walpole had quite made up his mind, and was
only on the watch for an opportunity to follow his cousin
Henry and make common cause with him. Gerard simply
tells us that Edward Walpole "began to visit him and
to frequent the sacraments," and " thus obtained that
vocation which he followed a year after, when he went
to Eome." Watson, in his Quodlibets, with that reckless-
ness of assertion which is so conspicuous in the statements
of informers, asserts that Gerard gave Edward Walpole the
spiritual exercises ; though had he done so he is not likely
to have omitted to mention it.^^ Once '' reconciled" there
was no choice left to Gardiner and Edward Walpole but
to leave England, which could not afford a safe home to
them if their convictions became generally known, and

A NORFOLK HOUSE 231

it only remained for them to sell such property as they
could turn into money and make provision for their future
maintenance abroad. Accordingly Edward Walpole lost no
time in disposing of his Tuddenham estate. His cousin's
widow was the tenant for life in possession of the property,
and at this time can hardly have been more than forty years
of age; she was living at Tuddenham in 35° Eliz. (1593), and
her name appears in the subsidy rolls for that year (-j^f)
as ** Mary Walpole, vid." The reversionary interest, under
all the circumstances, would be a bad purchase for most
men, and the sum paid would in all probability give no
return for thirty years. The value of money at the time
may, in my judgment, be roughly estimated at ten times
what it is at the present day, and yet Edward Walpole's
reversion fetched the large price of £500. The purchaser was
Edward Yelverton. The deed was executed and quittance
given on the 10th July, 1590, and in three weeks' time
from this the two cousins were in Belgium, applying to
Henry Walpole for letters of introduction to carry them
to Eome.^9

So far we have no dijBficulty in tracing the direct influence
of Gerard ; and if the limits of my work did not forbid
my passing over the borders of the county, as little
difliculty would be found in tracing his work in Suffolk,
Essex, and elsewhere. Nor was his influence limited to
the circle of a single family, or to the connections of those
who first harboured him.

Among those houses of the Norfolk gentry at which
he tells us he was a frequent visitor, was Bowthorpe Hall
one ? Was some of the relentless persecution which
Robert Downes endured to be attributed to information
furnished at headquarters that Father Gerard had been
concealed at Melton? How was it that at Sandringham
Hall we find " Mary Cobb, wife of WiUiam Cobbe,
Esq.," returned as an "obstinate Recusant" two or three
years after Gerard's arrival, though before then the
Cobbs appear all to have conformed? When Mr.
Bedingfield's house was searched in 1590, had some spy

232 ONE GENERATION OF

discovered that Mr. Yelverton and his " man " had been
there? ^° Was he a guest at Cossey when Mr. Jerningham's
two sons were taken from him and put under the care
of Mr. Mulcaster, to be " rehgiously brought up" at
Westminster (?) School and allowed but rarely to visit their
parents in the Norfolk home ? ^^ How soon did he become
a guest at Kimberley ? How often did he come and go ?
How long did he stay ? To all these questions something
like an answer may be given.

When Sir Henry Jerningham died, in September 1572,
he left the hall at Cossey to his widow for life. She
continued to reside there till her death, in December 1583.^^
It would seem that her son, Henry Jerningham, Esq., took
up his residence in the meanwhile at Wingfield Castle,
while her ladyship made a home at Cossey for her daughter
Jeronyma, who had married Charles Waldegrave, a son
of Sir Edward Waldegrave mentioned above, by whom she
had a numerous family.23 Shortly before Lady Jerningham's
death she had been reported as entertaining in her house
at Cossey a popish mass priest, one Mr. Pratt, who how-
ever must have died about the time that the intelligence
was furnished, for I find that he was buried at Cossey
on the 17th April, 1582.^4 It was apparently on the death
of Lady Jerningham that Mr. Waldegrave removed to
Bowthorpe. He had at the time a family of six children —
two sons and four daughters, who are all mentioned in
Lady Jerningham's will. From Edward, the eldest son,
the present Earl of Waldegrave is lineally descended;
Charles, the second son, was a child of three when his
father removed from Cossey, and a boy of eight when
Gerard passed in sight of the house on his way to Norwich.
Mr. Charles Waldegrave, though a Catholic by conviction,
had taken the oath at the beginning of the Queen's
reign, and was therefore classed by the Romanist party,
not indeed among the ** heretics" but among the
" schismatics." 25 But though by his keeping the strict
letter of the law, so far as the oath was concerned, he
had managed to protect himself from spoliation, yet his

A NORFOLK HOUSE 233

heart was with the old faith and the old ritual. As to
attendance at church, by this time a very simple device
had been invented by the Catholic squires, which has
hitherto escaped the notice of historians. If there were
no church to go to in the parish, the squire could not
be presented by the churchwardens as a Non-conformist.
It was easy to reduce the fabric to a ruinous condition
in any out-of-the-way village where the lord of the manor
was all but supreme, where he was resident and the parson
was not; accordingly, a systematic destruction of the
churches in Norfolk commenced and went on to an extent
that may well amaze us. Foremost among these was the
church at Bowthorpe.^^ It was inconvenient to have a
clergyman of the new school coming and using the new
Prayer Book and reporting absentees at the bishop's visita-
tion, therefore Mr. Yaxley, the lord of the manor, " con-
verted [the church] to a barne, and the steeple to a
dove house," and Mr. Waldegrave could no more be
returned as " not keeping his church." It could hardly
be expected, however, that the family would live like
heathens, and it was in houses of this kind that the
missioners found an eager welcome. Certain it is that
two sons of Charles Waldegrave — Charles, who was born
at Cossey in 1580, and John, who was born at Bowthorpe
about ten years later — became very early moved to make
the great venture, and both ended by abjuring the realm
and being "reconciled" to the Church of Rome. Charles
appears to have been received into the Society of Jesus.
John was ordained some time in 1615. Soon after he
returned to England, and was buried at Cossey, 3rd March,
1616-7.^7

But the most signal instance of Gerard's success as a
proselytiser is to be found in the conversion of Mr. Yelver-
ton's sister Grisel and her husband Sir Philip Wodehouse
of Kimberley. Sir Philip had succeeded his father as heir to
the Kimberley estate some months before Gerard's arrival.
He was one of the most considerable personages in the
county of Norfolk, and had been knighted for his services

234 ONE GENERATION OF

under Robert Earl of Essex in the Cadiz voyage. The
Kimberley Wodehouses had given in their adhesion to the
new order of things, had accepted the oath on the accession
of the Queen, and were in high favour with the Govern-
ment. A cousin of Sir PhiUp's, Francis Wodehouse of
Breccles Hall, was indeed a conspicuous Eecusant, and his
wife a very stubborn and consistent one, but the elder
branch of the family had never incurred the least suspicion :
the Wodehouses were soldiers and courtiers who went with
the times. But Lady Wodehouse had been for some time
the object of her brother Edward's special solicitude, and
before Gerard had arrived in England she had been already
influenced by the arguments which had been put forward.
Among other houses at which Gerard was received as a
guest, Kimberley was certainly one, and I must leave it to
himself to tell the story of his doings there.

" I must not omit mentioning an instance of the wonder-
ful efficacy of the Sacraments as shown in the case of the
married sister of my host. She had married a man of high
rank, and being favourably inclined to the Church, she had
been so well prepared by her brother, that it cost me but
little labour to make her a child of the Catholic Church.
After her conversion she endured much from her husband
when he found that she refused to join in heretical worship,
but her patience withstood and overcame all. It happened
on one occasion that she was so exhausted after a difficult
and dangerous labour, that her life was despaired of. A
clever physician was at once brought from Cambridge, who
on seeing her said that he could indeed give her medicine,
but that he could give no hopes of her recovery ; and having
prescribed some remedies, he left. I was at that time on a
visit to the house, having come, as was my wont, in com-
pany with her brother. The master of the house was glad
to see us, although he well knew we were Catholics, and
used in fact to dispute with me on religious subjects. I
had nearly convinced his understanding and judgment, but
the will was rooted to the earth, ' for he had great pos-
sessions.' But being anxious for his wife whom he dearly

A NORFOLK HOUSE 235

loved, he allowed his brother to persuade him, as there was
no longer any hope for her present life, to allow her all
freedom to prepare for the one to come. With his per-
mission then we promised to bring in an old Priest on the
following night : for those Priests who were ordained before
Elizabeth's reign were not exposed to such dangers and
penalties as the others. We therefore made use of his
ministry, in order that this lady might receive all the rites
of the Church. Having made her confession and been
anointed, she received the Holy Viaticum ; and behold in
half an hour's time she so far recovered as to be wholly out
of danger ; the disease and its cause had vanished, and she
had only to recover her strength. The husband, seeing his
wife thus snatched from the jaws of death, wished to know
the reason. We told him that it was one of the effects of
the holy sacrament of Extreme Unction, that it restored
bodily health when Divine Wisdom foresaw that it was
expedient for, the good of the soul. This was the cause of
his conversion ; for, admiring the power and efl&cacy of the
Sacraments of the true Church, he allowed himself to be
persuaded to seek in that Church the health of his own
soul. I being eager to strike the iron while it was hot,
began without delay to prepare him for confession ; but
not wishing just then that he should know me for a
Priest, I said that I would instruct him as I had been
instructed by Priests in my time. He prepared himself,
and awaited the Priest's arrival. His brother-in-law told
him that this must be at night time. So, having sent away
the servants who used to attend him to his chamber, he
went into the library, where I left him praying, telling him
that I would return directly with ithe Priest. I went down
stairs and put on my soutane, and returned so changed
in appearance, that he, never dreaming of any such thing,
was speechless with amazement. My friend and I showed
him that our conduct was necessary, not so much in order
to avoid danger, but in order to cheat the devil and to
snatch souls from his clutches. He well knew, I said,
that I could in no other way have conversed with him and

236 ONE GENERATION Ob

his equals, and without conversation it was impossible to
bring round those who were so ill-disposed. The same
considerations served to dispel all anxieties as to the
consequences of my sojourn under his roof. I appealed
to his own experience, and reminded him, that though I
had been in continual contact with him, he had not once
suspected my priestly character. He thus became a
Catholic ; and his lady, grateful to God for this twofold
blessing, perseveres still in the Faith, and has endured
much since that time from the hands of heretics." ^^

It will be noticed that Gerard in this account, though
he speaks of Lady Wodehouse as still "persevering in
the faith," leaves it to be inferred that her husband's
conversion had not been as complete as he had at first
assumed it to be. Eecent discoveries in the archives at
Eome, and elsewhere, have furnished us with some very
curious corroborations of Gerard's story. Gerard wrote his
recollections shortly after his return to the Continent, about
the year 1606. Good as his memory appears to have been,
he was writing of what had occurred fifteen or sixteen years
before ; and there is reason for believing that during the
last five or six years of his stay in England his connection
with Norfolk had been, if not wholly broken off, yet very
much less intimate than before. He knew that Sir Philip
Wodehouse had, as he would have expressed it, " fallen
back into heresy " ; he had not heard that Lady Wodehouse
had been prevailed on to do the same. But when Charles
Yelverton wrote his account of himself in the books of
the Eoman College in 1601, he had already a different
tale to tell. His aunt Jane Lumner was still a strict
Catholic, but he says the other sister of his father, " wife
of Sir Philip Wodehouse, knight ... on account of the
madness of her husband, which very frequently broke out
against her, has lately fallen from the Church." ^9 It is
plain, however, from another of those scraps of evidence
which, as belonging to the class of "undesigned coinci-
dences," are specially valuable, that for a time at any rate
Sir Philip must have had strong leanings in the direction of

A NORFOLK HOUSE 237

the Roman ritual, and that he did something more than
merely connive at the religious practices of his wife and
her relations. In the year 1608 one James Roper, a
Suffolk gentleman of good connections, who had spent
some years at Cambridge, writes his account of himself in
the same books of the Roman college to which I have
already had occasion to refer, and among other particulars
of his previous life tells us that after leaving the university
he had (apparently in the capacity of private tutor) " lived
with Sir Philip Wodehouse, Knt., in the county of Norfolk,
where," he adds, '' thanks be to God I became a Catholic . . .
by the exertions and conversations of Edward Yelverton,
Esq., and of Lady Woodhouse, mother of Sir Thomas
Woodhouse, Knt. . . . " ; this was about the year 1602.
These traces of Gerard's activity and extraordinary
success are but stray gleanings which have been gathered
in the course of a few years of research, and it must be
remembered that I have studiously resisted the temptation
of pursuing my inquiries over the borders of the county
of Norfolk, but I suspect it would require only a careful
scrutiny of letters and papers still existing to disclose
information even more startling. When Gerard tells us
that he reconciled in Norfolk " more than twenty fathers
and mothers of families," whose names "for prudence
sake " he had omitted, he evidently has not one whit
overstated his remarkable success, and evidently too this
was but the beginning of his labours. 3° But how prodigious
must have been the effect upon Henry Walpole's imagina-
tion and feelings, when letter after letter arrived from home
bringing with it always some new tidings of converts made
and waverers "reconciled," and all this, too, among his
own friends and kinsfolk and schoolfellows ! Was this
great stirring only the beginning of the harvest ? How
grand the ingathering would be when he who had been the
first to give up all for the kingdom of heaven's sake should
take up the work where Gerard left it, and carry it on !
High hopes, indeed, if such were his ! Destined to be
dispelled only too soon.

NOTES TO CHAPTEE IX.

1 Page 222. Richard Southwell, Esq., had been compelled to sell hia
property at St. Faith's in the very year that Father Gerard arrived in
England. He was heavily in debt, and in 1589 I find him in the Fleet
at the suit of Henry Doyle, Esq., and one of the Townsends, and
appealing to the Privy Council for relief. His affairs were evidently in a
hopeless state of embarrassment. He appears to have died in the Fleet
at last. — Bloomfield's Norfolk, x. 441 ; Records of the Privy Council, 6th
and 7th July, 1589.

2. Page 223. The old hall at Cossey bears upon it the date 1564. Sir
Henby Jernegan was buried at Cossey 30th September, 1572 (P. R.).
His will is in P. C. C. ; it was dated 15th August, 1572, and was proved
27th May, 1573. His widow survived him eleven years, and was buried
23rd December, 1583 (P. R.).

3. Page 224. See Froude, vol. vii. p. 339 ; Calender, P. R. 0., Domestic,
1547-80, pp. 173, 176, 179 ; Addenda, 1547-65, Nos. 7, 8, 9, &c.

4. Page 224. He was .Vice-Chamberlain to Queen Mary in 1556,
and made Master of the Horse in 1557 ; his name occurs frequently in the
Queen's Household Accounts. — See Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess
Mary, edited by Sir Fred. Madden, London, 8vo, 1831.

5. Page 224. Addenda, Domestic, P. R. 0., 1547-65, vol. xi. No. 8.

6. Page 224. Sir Edward Waldegrave died in the Tower 1st
September, 1561. His p.m. inquisition was taken at Brentwood 21st
January, 1562. His will, dated 13th September, 1559, was proved 13th
September, 1561.— P. C. C, " Loftes," 29.

7. Page 224. The will of Francis Downes, of Lincoln's Inn
Fields, Esq., is to be found in P. C. C, Reg. Stevenson, f . 3 ; it is dated
5th July, 1563, and was proved 3rd February, 1563-4, by Robert Downes,
testator's brother and executor. Among other legacies he leaves "to
the Lady Frances Waldegrave 20 of my best oaks in Goldingham Wood
in Bulmer, co. Essex and my crucifix of gold."

238

ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE 239

8. Page 225. Robert DowNi'^.r of Bodney succeeded his father, Jamer
DowNEs of Lanoford, Esq., 1st February, 1 Queen Mary (p.m. inq.
Chancery, 4 and 5 Philip and Mary, pt. 3, No. 17). His name appears
regularly upon the Recusant Rolls up to the time of his death, 9 Oct.
1594 (p.m. inq. Chancery, 37 Elizabeth, pt. 2, No. 67), after which his
widow and her children are as regularly among the "presented" at
the Bishop's Visitations.

9. Pa(]C 225. Take the following as a sample : —

" William Yaxley, ar.
HuMPHR. Bedingfield, ar.
Robert Downes, ar.
Robert Lovell, ar.
Robert Gray, ar.

To be kept in jail till they have paid the
whole sums of money whereof they have
been before convicted as also the sums
whereof they be convicted at these
Assizes upon the Statute from the viii'^^
of July to the last of March, viz., ix
months."

Sessions Book, among the Records of the Clerk of the Peace for the

County of Norfolk, 7th April, 26th Elizabeth.

In the Recusant Roll of the 34th Elizabeth, Robert Downes of Melton

appears as owing £1,690 16s. l^d. for his Recusancy ! In September

1598 he is returned as still in jail at Norwich, while his wife and

daughter are living at Melton.

10. Page 225. Patent Roll, 44th Elizabeth (13 Nov.), part x. The
poor man died on the 6th of February, 7 James I. (1610). — P. m. inq.
Court of Wards, bundle 60, No. 273.

11. Page 226. Francis Woodhouse of Breccles was son and heir of
John Woodhouse of Breccles by Anne, relict of William Sayve of
Mundford, Gent., and sister of Francis Spylman of Stow Bedon, Gent.
He was nephew of Sir Roger Woodhouse of Kimberley, Knt., whose
will was proved at Norwich 15th February, 1560-1. He married (1)
Margaret Repps of St. Stephen's, Norwich, and (2) Eleanor. . . . He
was buried at Cawston 24th March, 1604-5, leaving behind him a son
John, who was under age at his father's death. Francis Woodhouse
was for the last twenty years of his life at least a Recusant, and his
wife, with her son "John Woodhouse, gent.," are returned as
"obstinate Recusants" in 1615. He seems to have sold the Breccles
estate to Sir Robert Gardiner about 1599, and his wife appears to have
parted with the rest of the landed property shortly after her husband's
decease, for in 1607 she is described as " nuper de Caston."

12. Page 226. On Edward Yelverton, see pp. 138, 139, s^ipra. His
will is in the Registry at Norwich. The original will alone is now

240 ONE GENERATION OF

producible, the office copy which formerly was to be found in a volume
named Lawson having disappeared. It is dated 7th May, 1623, and was
proved at Norwich 2nd October of the same year, by the executors,
William and John Paston. He calls himself in this will ' ' Edwakd
Yelverton of Appleton in the county of Norfolk, Gent."

13. Page 227. The will of .Humphrey Yelverton "of King's Lynn
in the county of Norfolk, Gent.," is dated 16 May, 1585, and was
proved 8th November, 1585. In it he names his five children, Charles,
Edward, Humphrey, Martha, and Ann (P. C. C, Brudenell, 48). His
wife's will is dated 2nd March, 1589-90 (P. C. C. , Samherhe, 20). By this
it appears that only three out of the five children were then alive, viz.,
Charles, Edward, and Martha. She leaves the guardianship of her son
Charles to her brother Henry Bastard; of Edward to her brother
Edward Bastard ; of Martha to her uncle Eichard Bastard of Great
Dunham, Gent. Administration was granted to her brother Henry
Bastard 17th March, 1590-1.

14. Page 227. "Carolus Yelverton filius Humfredi Yelverton
generosi ex oppido Bausie in Com. Norff. oriundus puer annorum 15-
Adm. 26 April, 1590." {Caius Coll. Matriculation Book.) He appears
to have been a scholar of the college. He took the B.A. degree in 1593.
(MS. Cat. in the Registry, Cambridge.) He was admitted an alumnus
at the English College at Eome 15th October, 1601. See further,
concerning him and his family, Records of the English Province^ S.J.,
series I. pp. 142-6. Burns & Gates, 8vo, 1877.

15. Page 229. For the Gardiner descent see Original Papers of
the Norfolk and Norwich Archceological Society, Visitation of Norfolk,
p. 342. It will be noticed that Le Neve, in giving the name Barkley,
adds, "now called Bartholomeiv.^^ I have no doubt whatever that
this is a mistake for Bernard, It was a common practice at this
time among the Catholics to adopt a change of name. Blomefield,
always unfortunate in his genealogies, is more than usually inaccurate
in his account of the Coxford Calibuts. {History of Norfolk, vii. p. 155.)
Richard Cornwallis mentions his tivo half-brothers, sons of his mother,
one of whom he says " exercises the priestly functions in England."
This is Bernard Gardiner, who returned to England about the year
1599; the other is the Humphrey Gardiner of the Norfolk Visitation.

In the Bishop's Registry at Norwich evidence of the second marriage
is still to be seen,

"1567 [-8] 4 Februarii Licentia Matrimonialis inter Mrm. Henricum
CoRNWALLYS gen5s : et Annam Gardiner de Estrudham . . . cuicunque
Curatori."

Henry Cornwallis, the father, lived only a few months after his son
Richard had "abjured the realm." He made his will 4th January,

A NORFOLK HOUSE 241

1598-9. In it, after leaving his sen Eichard a legacy in money ''towards
his furnishing with hook& and apparel," he bequeaths him certain house-
hold effects, adding, "All which parcells my desire is shall remain still at
Brome until my said son Richard shall come thither for them.^^ He never
did come for them. In the course of his wanderings (after being
ordained priest '5th June, 1599) he took refuge with his cousin, Sir
Chakles Cornwallis, who was the English Ambassador at the Court of
Spain. Sir Charles icalls him " a younger son to my dearest uncle
Henry Cornwallis, ^deceased. ..." He adds, "He hath a long time
entertained the Eeligion that suits best with this country, although he
had a mother very earnestly affected to the contrary.'' This was in
September 1606. Two months after this. Sir Charles, writing to Lord
Salisbury, tells him that his cousin had lately died at the embassy
during his own absence. — Winwood's Memorials, vol. ii. pp. 260, 278.

The following is Richard Cornwallis's account of himself (Ex Archivis
Coll. Angl. Romce, Scrit. Scholar, No. 8, pt. i. vol. xxiv. Rolls MSS.) :—

Richardus Cornwallys, 30 Nov. 1598.

1° Resp. Nomen mihi Rich. Cornwaleys annum agens 30"'. Natus
apud Monasterium Coxfordiense in Norfolc. Transacta in paterna
domo estate puerili, Nordovicum concessi rudimentis Grammaticis in
Schola Publica imbuendus.

2° Resp. Pater mihi est Henricus Cornwaleys, Armiger, non multo
abhinc tempore, Dei benignitate, EcclesisB Catholicas restitutus. Mater
Anna Calibut oriunda ex antiqua satis familia, sed jam emortua ac
penitus extincta, qusB et ipsa non ita pridem supremum diem obiit.
Fratrem habeo natu minorem et sorores germanas binas, totidemque
fratres uterinos, quorum alter sacerdotali munere in Anglia fungitur. E
consanguineis eminet praecaeteris Thomas Cornwaleys, Miles et
Catholicus, GuLrELMUs Cornwaleys, Eques auratus . . . et Carolus ejus
frater non Catholici.

3° Resp. Cantabrigiee in Collegio Gunville et Caii decern plus minus
annos moratus. . . .

5 Resp. Ab infantia hasretica pravitate institutus . . . donee Pater
misericordiarum . . . tribus abhinc annis in gremium sponsse suae me
suscipere dignatus est, usus prcecipue opera ministeriis dicti fratris Sacer-
dotis et Patris Gerardi ex Soc. Jesu. Ecclesiaa Catholicaa reconciliatus
et Romam cogitans cum Flussinghas appulissem Gubernator reginaa, me
deprehensum per sex septimanas in custodia detinuit ; demum remissum
in Angliam, et Sodalitio ut vocant (quod in Collegio obtinueram) exutum,
iterum per sex alias septimanas carceri tradiderunt. . . .

16. Page 230. *• 1580, Thomas Cromwell, Esq""*. , and M" Katharine
Gardyner were married ye xvii^^ daye of August." (P. R., North
Elmham.) Five children of this marriage are registered among the
baptized at North Elmham, the last, Lyonell, 8th January, 1591-2.

242 ONE GENERATION OF

17. Tage 230. On his first attempt, see supra, c. vii. n. 9, p. 199-
Seven years after this he tried again ; for in Father Greene's Collect.,
p. 206 {Stonyhurst MSS.), I find, among the names of those admitted
"in domo probat'^ S. Andree ab anno 1590, usque ad 1600," "1597,
P. Bernardinus [aetat] 34, Ex. Coll. Angl. , Dimissus ex Novitiatu,
1598."

18. Page 230. Watson's Quodlibets, p. 91 ; Gerard's Autobio-
graphy, U.S.

19. Page 230. P. R. O., Close Rolls, 32° Eliz., pt. 26. Edward
Yelvebton did not come into the Tuddenham estate till 1614, when
I find him living there and returned as a Popish Recusant among the
presentations at the Bishop's Visitation {Ep. Beg. Norioic).

In a case drawn up for the opinion of Sir Matthew Hale in 1653 (penes
me) 1 find it stated that Mary, widow of Edward Walpole of Tudden-
ham, married a certain John Beadle, but I have been quite baffled in
my attempt to find anything about him, or when or where he or his
wife died.

Bernard Gardiner and Edward Walpole arrived in Belgium in
August 1590. {Walpole Letters, p. 11.)

20. Page 232. For the search at Bedingfield's house and the
anonymous letter which led to it, see Cal. State Papers, Domestic, Eliz.,
1581, 1590, p. 648, No. 76.

In " A trewe Certificat of Popishe recusants within ye Dyoces of
Norwich . . . detected by inquisition, made ye first of December
1595 ..." I find the following entry showing that Father Gerard
was at this time in Norfolk, "... Woolverton. Edward Yelverton*
Gent., kepith a small howse, Robt. Thompson his man."

Thompson loas the name which Gerard assumed and generally icent
by while in Norfolk.

21. Page 232. In a letter among the archives at Hatfield, from
a spy named John Byrde, dated 27th August, 1601, and addressed to
Cecil, the writer, who bargains for £100 to betray Father Gerard,
says among other things "... which said Gerard's abidings are
. . . sometimes (as it is said) at St. John's with Mr. Jerningham."

The following is from the MSS. at Cossey : —
To our Lovenge Friende Henrye Jerninghame, Esq.

After our hearty commendations, &c.

Whereas upon humble Suit made unto us bye you. That your two
Sons remaineng with Mr. Molcastor, might during the time of the
Infection bee sent to remain with you for one Season. We accordingly
have directed That uppon your sending for them, Mr. Molcastor shall
send them unto you, to remain and be kept with you untill All hallowstide
next. For as much as you now again doe desire (all though God bee

A NORFOLK HOUSE 243

thanked the Sickness doth decrease in the City) that your said
Children may for some longer space of time remaine in the Country with
you, till the] Infection be more slacked in the City. We are contented
to yield to your request, so as your said Sons may bee delivered again to
Mr. Molcastor's charge bye Twelve tide next, to remain with him for
their Education as before, the which requiring you to see accordingly
performed, we bid you farewell.
From the Court at Whitehall the 26 of October 1593.

Your Loving Friends,

Howard.
Wee doe look that in the mean time your Children bee brought up
& instructed bye a Schoolmaster known to be well affected to Religion
that may give accompt for theer Education, &c.

Hunsdon. Jo. Fortescue.

Wm. Cobham. T. Buckhurst.

R. Cecil. J. Wolley.

The Mr. Molcastor here mentioned is Richard Mulcaster, writer of
Positions loherein those Primitive Circumstances he examined which are
necessary for the Training np of Children, either for Skill in their Booke,
or Health within their Bodie. 4to, 1581. [Very scarce.]

22. Page 232. Sir Henry's will was proved in P. C. C, 17th
September, 1577. He was buried at Cosseyi30th September, 1572 (P.R,).
I cannot account for the interval that elapsed between his death and
the proving his will. Lady Jerningham was buried at Cossey (P. R.)
23rd December, 1583. Her will, interesting in many ways, is especially
so for the mention of her Fool. This is the latest instance that I have
met with of a Fool being kept as a regular member of the household.

"In dei nomine Amen. The Twentith day of Auguste," 24th Eliz.,
" I Fraunces Jernegan of Cossey in the Countie of Norff., widdowe," —
to be buried " where the body of my late husband Henry Jernegan, Knighte
[whose soule god pdon] is buried or shall hereafter be transposed ; " — £40,
amongst other charitable bequests, to be distributed " among the poore
prisonners in London by my Exor withe the advise and consente of
my Sonne Charles Waldegrave, Esquire, [and John Derehm, my Survey-
ors ; — s<i Exor also (if the same be not donne by mee in my Liefe tyme
to cause some decent Toombe to be made or ells some convenient stone
of marble to be laid on the grave of my Layde Kingston his Grandmother,
whoe lyeth buried in the parishe Churche of Layton in the Countie of
Essex ; " * * * to the next heir of William Sterer sometyme possessor
of the scite of my Manno"^ of Feales in Fressingfeilde, £20 ; — 100 marks
to M"^ Derehm for the aunsweringe of the Debtes of S"^ Anthony Kingston ;
— to my Daughter Waldegrave my Pomander of golde ynamyled," (frc,
&c., for life, rem"^ to Fraunces W, her dau"" ; — " Alsoe I give unto her
[s'^ dau"^ W.] my graye nagge, and to her husband a horse, either the
graye or the baye, w<^^ my Sonne Jernegan shall thinke best ; also to

244 ONE GENERATION OF

Edward Waldegrave his sonne, to Charles W. his seconde Sonne, to
Fraunces W. his daughter, to Magdalen and Dorothie^W., and to Christian
W. , . . . — to Henry Jarnegan my Grandchilde, and to Thomas J. his
brother, to William J., to George J., to Edward J. and to Anne J.,
to My Lady Pawlet, to Mrs Anne Bogas, to my sister Sturley, and to
my sister Anne," a King each; — to Mr. Justice Windham, " to S'' Henry
Benefeilde, to my cossen M"^ Edward Audley, to my cossens M"^ Edward
Suliard and M"^ Thomas S., to my Lady Lovell, to my Ladye Petre, to
Mi^s Briddiman, to my cozen Andrewes, and to M''^ Hobard of Hallis
Hall ; " — to my servaunt John Dereham, gentleman, an Annuity of £20 ;
— to Anne Kucwood my gentlewoman, an Annuity of 4 marks ; — to
servt^ John Powle, Willm. Addamson, and Symon Harrys and Mathewe
Harryett, an annuity of 40s. each; — to serv* John Freeman; — "Also
1 doe give unto Joane, foole, four poundes in monney and twenty
shillings a yeare as longe as &lie liveth. . . . Also from the tyme that
John Harvye shall not be kepte and maintayned in my Sonnes howse
I doe gyve to the poore foole a yearly Rent towards hu maintenance of
fower markes by yeare:" — to Thomas Freeman, "40s. by yeare until
my Sonne male and shall place him in a Beadmanshippe at Saincte
Olaves ; " — William Addamson " to enjoy the Bayliewicke of Dages in
Rannington"; Residue of Goods, cfec, after pay' of debts and funeral
expenses to son Harry J. he sole Ex°^ Overseers, S"^ Thomas Cornwallis,
Knighte, Charles Waldegrave, Esquire, and John Derehm, Gentleman; —
to one M"" Russell, sonne unto W^ Jane Russell, that was one of the
Gentlewomen of Queene Marye's Privye Chamber, £10 "which I
borrowed of his Mother;" — to Nicholas Phillippes my serv' £4 and
a horse; — to my Cozen Anne Bogas;— to M"" Marshall; — "to Thomas
Harman, the boye w<='' wayteth on mee," 20s. a year for life.
No witnesses given. Proved 15th Feb. 1583.

23. Fagc 232. It was a common practice among the gentry in the
sixteenth century for a young man to bring his bride to his father's
house, and to spend the first year or two of his married life with his
parents. The separate establishment was not set up until the increase
of the family or other circumstances rendered the change necessary.
Among the muniments at Rougham Hall there is an indenture, dated
12th October, 1 and 2 Philip and Mary (1554), which sets forth that
' ' In consideration of a Marriage between Henry, son and heir of
William Yelverton of Rougham, Esq., and Bridget, daughter of Sir
William Drury, Knt." . . . Sir William Drury covenants to make
certain payments and to give his daughter ''double apparel and the
wedding dinner." William Yelverton covenants to settle certain manors
and lands and " to give two years^ board with two servants, and at the end,
for two years more, one other maid and a woman, and to pay for his son
double apparel." Among the Earl of Kimberley's muniments there is a

A NORFOLK HOUSE 245

marriage contract of this date drawn up in almost precisely similar
terms.

24. Page 232. In P. R. 0., Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. 157, No. 88,
is a paper giving "Information of the' names and places of residence
of certain Recusants. . . ." Among them I find under Norfolk, "At
Cossey, the Lady Jerningham, Mb. Charles Waldegrave and his wife,
. , . and Mr, Pratte a priest. , . . Mr. Robert Downes and his wife,
who doth dwell but a mile off from Cossey [viz., at Melton Hall] the
Lady Jerningham her house." Under Suffolk I find " . . . At Winkfelde
Castle, Mr. Henry Jarningham." This paper is ascribed to the year
1581 or 1582. In the P. R. of Cossey I find, "1582, Sepultu fuit Richard
Pratt, 17° die Aprilis." As this is the only instance of the occurrence of
the name of Pratt in the Register, the inference is obvious.

25. Page 232. Charles Waldegrave, son and heir of Sir Edward
Waldegrave of Borley, Knight, was, at his father's death on the 1st
September, 1561, aged ten years forty weeks and three days, i.e., he was
born on the 22nd November, 1550. Bypatent dated 8 Feb. 1563, Robert
Nowell (brother of Dean Nowell) was appointed his guardian. Nowell
died in 1569, and by his will left to his "good Mr. and freinde Mr.
Secretorie Cicill the wardeahi'p'pe of younge Mr. Walgrave, with all
my righte and intereste in the same, payeng such monnye to the quenes
ma^*' as I shoulde ..." Immediately after he came of age, viz., on the
25th November, 1571, he obtained a licence from Parkhurst, Bishop of
Norwich, to marry " Hieronim Jernegan . . . anywhere within the
diocese of Norwich. " Where the marriage was celebrated I have not
found. It is clear that he was living with Lady Jerningham, his wife's
mother, at Cossey in 1581, and apparently continued to live there until
her death in December 1583. His second son, Charles, in his answers
to the interrogatories put to him on his admission at the English
College at Rome, says that he himself was born at Cossey in 1581. On
the other hand, his younger brother, John Waldegrave, says that /;? was
born at Bowthorpe in 1592. When he became possessed of Stanninghall
I have not been able to discover, but I think it must have been shortly
after the birth of John Waldegrave in 1592 ; for about this time the
affairs of Francis Woodhouse of Stanninghall (nephew of Francis
Woodhouse, Esq., of Breccles Hall) had got into a desperate condition,
and he must have been compelled to sell this estate. On the 14th
October, 41Eliz. (1599), Mr. Waldegrave settled certain manors and lands
upon himself and his wife Jeronyma for life, and after their death on
his son and heir Edward Waldegrave, and his wife Eleanor ; remainder
to their son and heir Henry Waldegrave : remainder to his o%on second
son Charles W. ; remainder to his third son John ; remainder to his
brother Nicholas. He died at Stanninghall on the 10th January, 7
Charles I (1632), having survived his wife just five years. She was

246 ONE GENERATION OF

buried at Cossey, 4th February, 1626-7.— Chancery p.m. Inq. Suff.,
4 Eliz,, No. 130 ; the Townely-Nowell MS., edited by Mr. Grosart, pp.
xxxvi. and xlix. ; Marriage Licences in the Keg. Cur. Episcop. Norw. ;
Answers to Interrogatories at the Engl. Coll., Rome (JRoZZs iH/S/S.) ; see
other authorities, supra, note 11.

26. Page 233. See East Anglian, vol. i. pp. 340, 370 ; ii. pp. 75, 89.
Very noticeable is the startling return for the Deaneries of Hyngham and
HuMBLEYARD in 1602. In the contiguous parishes of Earlham, Bow-
THORPE, CossEY, Easton, and RuNHALL the churches are in ruins, and
in all these places the influence of the Recusant gentry was paramount.
This subject requires to be investigated more minutely than would
be possible in these notes.

27. Page 233. Bolls 3ISS., u.s. ; Records of the English Province,
S.J., series I. ; see note 23. — Cossey P. R.

28. Page 236, Father Gerard^s Autobiography, p. xxvii.

29. Page23Q. Records of the English Province, S.J. , sevies I. p. 142.

30. Page 237. The following is from Watson's Quodlibets. I give
the extract in extenso, as the book is a very scarce one, and few of
my readers can have the opportunity of referring to it : —

" Another surmised holy father of their society (in whose mouth a
man would think butter could not melt) . . . poor man I pity his
simplicity in that, being otherwise of a good nature, he is much blinded
and corrupted in his life and manners by being a Jesuit . . . but
I will only enlarge myself with a few golden threads from Fa. Gerard's
web . . . First he was the man that caused Henry Drurie to enter
into this exercise and thereby got him to sell the manor of Lozell
in Suffolk, and other lands to the value of 3500 pounds and got all
the money himself ; the said Drurie having chosen to be a lay brother.
Afterwards he sent him to Antwerp to have his Noviciate by the
Provincial there, by name Oliverius Manerius (for at that time Fa.
Garnet had not his full authority to admit any) where after twelve
or fourteen days he died, not without suspicion of some indirect dealing.
Fa. Holt the Jesuit ascribed it unto the alteration of his diet, saying
that he might have lived well enough if he had remained at home
and not have come thither.

" Two others had the exercise given them at that time by Fa. Gerard,
viz.. Master Anthony Rouse, of whom he got about 1000 pounds, and
Master Thomas Everard, of whom he bad many good books and
other things.

'•Also he gave the exercise to Edward Walpole, whom he caused
to sell the manor of Tuddenham, and had of him about 1000 marks.

*'He dealt so in like manner with Master James Linacre, his fellow

A NORFOLK HOUSE 247

prisoner in the Clink, from whom he drew there 400 pounds. And
afterwards got a promise of him of all his lands; but was prevented
thereof by the said Linacre's death.

" Furthermore, under pretence of the said exercise, he cousined Sir
Edmund Huddleston's son and heir by sundry sleights of above 1000
pounds; and so he dealt with Master Thomas Wiseman, and by giving
him the exercise he got his land, and sent him to Antwerp, where he
died.

*'He also gave the exercise to the eldest son of Master Walter
Hastings. And he hath drawn Master William Wiseman into the said
exercise so oft as he hath left him very bare to live.

"He hath so wrought with Master Nicholas King, lately of Gray's
Inn, as he hath gotten most of his living and sent him to Rome.

"Master Roger Lee of Buckinghamshire hath been in this exercise
likewise, and is also by him sent to Rome.

•' In like manner he dealeth with such Gentlewomen as he thinketh
fit for his turn and draweth them to his exercise : as the Lady Lovell,
Mistress Heywood, and Mistress Wiseman, now prisoner [1602], of
whom he got so much as now she feeleth the want of it.

"By drawing Mistress Fortescue, the widow of Master Edmund
Fortescue, into his exercise, he got of her a farm worth 50 pounds
a year and paid her no rent.

"Another di'ift he hath by his exercise of cousinage; which is to
persuade such gentlewomen as have large portions to their marriage
to give the same to him and to his company, and to become
nuns.

" So he prevailed with two of M. William Wiseman's daughters of
Broddocke ; with Elizabeth Sherly born in Leicestershire ; with Dorothy
Ruckwood, M. Richard Ruckwood's daughter of Suffolk, who had a
great portion given her by the Lady Elizabeth Drury her grandmother ;
with Mistress Tremane, Master Tremaine's daughter of Cornwall, she
having a large portioa ; with Mistress Mary Tremaine of Dorsetshire,
of whom he had 200 pounds ; with Mistress Anne Arundell, of whom he
got a great portion ; vith the Lady Mary Percy who is now a nun
at Bruxels. . . . But ttis lis enough for this time of their practices
by fame and report." — Watson's Quodlihets, p. 91.

The following description of Gerard's person is extracted from the
archives at Hatfield : —

"Jerrard's discovery ma> the better be by observing this description
of him and his habit. To hi of stature tall, high shouldered, especially
when his cope is on his back, black haired, and of complexion swarth,
hank nosed, high templed, and for the most part attired costly and
defencibly, in buff leather, garnished with gold or silver lace, sattin
doublet, and velvet hose of all colours, with cloaks correspondent,
and rapiers and daggers gilt cr silvered."

248 ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE

Blaekwell describes him thus : —

"About 50 years of age, his head brownish, his beard more black,
cut after the fashion of a spade, of stature indifferent, and somewhat
thick, decently attired in black silk rush hose and doublet, with a
silk russet or black cloak, of good length, laced, with a rapier and
dagger sanguined or sometimes gilt."

It is quite clear that this Blaekwell did not know Gerard personally,
but had obtained his information at second hand. He could not other-
wise have described him as "of stature indifferent, and somewhat
thick." Gerard beyond all doubt was above the ordinary stature, and
in some circles went by the name of " Long John."

CHAPTER X

CAPTURE AND IMPRISONMENT

In no part of England had the suppression of the monas-
teries caused such deep discontent, and nowhere had the
doctrines of the Reformers been regarded with such bitter
aversion, as in Yorkshire. By far the most formidable
outbreak which occurred in the kingdom during the six-
teenth century was the great rebellion of 1536, which for
a time seriously threatened the crown of Henry VIII., and
numbered among its leaders many persons of wealth and
influence in the Northern Counties. The insurrection of
the Cornishmen in 1549, and that of Kett in Norfolk, grew
to formidable dimensions, mainly through the want of any
organized police in the districts in which they originated,
the supineness of those in authority, and the panic which
the very suddenness of the risings occasioned. The
Cornish rebellion was indeed a religious riot, the poor
rustics being excited to frenzy by finding themselves
debarred from the use of that ritual and those ceremonies
which they regarded as infinitely precious and dear. The
Norfolk revolt was a purely agrarian movement, a peasant
war on a small scale ; but though in one case Exeter was
menaced, and in the other Norwich was besieged, the
insurgent rabble was scattered to the winds almost at the
first appearance of a disciplined force, and when the fighting
began it was not so much a conflict as a massacre. Nor,
indeed, was the rebellion of the northern earls much more
important ; the malcontents from the first had no chance
and little hope of success, the leaders had nothing but their

great names to fall back upon, there was not a man among

249

250 ONE GENERATION Oh

them of any conspicuous ability or any reputation in peace
or war, and at no time could the Government have had any
cause for alarm or grave uneasiness. The power of the
nobility had gone for ever long before Queen Elizabeth had
been ten years upon the throne. But the Pilgrimage of
Grace at one time threatened to develop into an actual
revolution, and when the armies of Aske and the Duke of
Norfolk faced each other at Doncaster in October 1536, the
fate of the kingdom was trembling in the balance. When
the king's side came out of that struggle victorious, and
affairs took the turn they did, one of the results was the
institution of a permanent commission for the better admin-
istration of the Northern Counties, — a court whose functions,
purporting at first to be mainly judicial, became in process
of time in large part inquisitorial ; and its records, if they
should ever be recovered, would present us with one of the
bloodiest chapters in the history of England. This was
the famous *' Council of the North," a name of terror during
the later years of the sixteenth century to all who favoured
the Eomish cause or who had any leaning towards the
Papal hierarchy or the Papal authority.^

At the suppression of the monasteries St. Mary's Abbey
in York had been kept in the king's hands ; it was reserved
as a royal palace, which might prove useful upon occasion
if the disturbances on the Scottish frontier should make it
advisable for the sovereign to show himself in the northern
parts of the kingdom. It was an imposing and stately
building, in which a prince might hold his court and main-
tain a large retinue, and soon after Aske's rebellion collapsed
it was made the official residence of the President of the
Council. Henry Earl of Huntingdon was appointed to
this office in the autumn of 1572 ; for years he had served
his mistress faithfully, had deserved her confidence and
gained it. He was a man who had always sided with the
party of progress in religion, had consistently favoured the
Puritans, and as consistently set himself to oppose the
Romanists. From the hour when he was installed in his
office as President the Yorkshire gentry whose loyalty

A NORFOLK HOUSE 251

in religion was at all questionable began to have a very
bad time of it. In Sir Thomas Gargrave, who was Vice-
President of the Council, Lord Huntingdon found a coad-
jutor as zealous as himself, a relentless persecutor, and one
who, unlike his chief, managed to enrich himself at the
expense of his victims. The Earl had scarcely entered
upon his office before Gargrave sent up to Burleigh a list
of all the principal gentry in Yorkshire, with marks against
their several names indicating which were " Protestants,"
" the worste sorte," " meane or less evyll," and " doubtfull
or newtor." It is a suggestive document, and shows how,
even at this date, the country gentry in the North were
deeply tinged with disaffection, and how much irritation
and discontent was smouldering. From the first the Earl of
Huntingdon set himself to keep down the malcontents and
to maintain a vigilant supervision over them and their
concerns ; while Sandys, the coarse and miserly Archbishop
of York, co-operated with him to the best of his ability, he
too having a keen eye to the spoil that might be looked for
from the plundered Eecusants. Up to Lord Huntingdon's
arrival in Yorkshire the Catholic gentry had not had much
to complain of — the laws were rarely put into force, and the
penalties for non-attendance at church were rarely exacted ;
but there were too many hungry and unscrupulous hangers
on among the retainers of the Lord President, and too
much to be made out of those who having manors and houses
and lands were known to be men of conscientious convic-
tions, to allow of these latter remaining long unmolested.
Very soon a system of espionage grew up, and a regular
band of informers was taken into the Lord President's pay.
Sir Thomas Gargrave's first list had, it seems, failed in
its object of stirring up the Government to exercise more
severity ; but in 1577 Archbishop Sandys himself forwarded
another and more elaborate paper to the Lords of the Privy
Council, and the campaign against the Eecusants began in
earnest. The Archbishop's paper purports to be a list of
" The names, surnames, additions, and dwelling-places of
such within the diocese of York as have been detected to

252 ONE GENERATION OF

the L. Archbishop of York and other Her Maj. Commis-
sioners in these parts for their disobedience in refusing the
Church and pubUc prayers, &c., and do not conform them-
selves, with a note of their abilities, &c. ; " the annual
income of all whose names occur is set down minutely, that
the fine imposed might be adjusted to the several capacities
of the proscribed, and in some cases a note giving further
information is added. It was not long before the Recusants
began to feel that a new regime had begun. As yet no
blood was shed, but the pursuivants were let loose, and
the searches at the houses of the suspected gentry
began to be carried on with a harshness which up to this
time had never been heard of, and the spies vied with one
another in their hateful work. Before a single Jesuit
had set foot in England, before a score of Cardinal
Allen's Seminarists had been sent across the seas, we find
Huntingdon writing to Walsingham with a grim boast that
on the information of " one of my spialles " he had ridden
twenty miles to make a raid upon the houses of certain of
the gentry who were reported to be harbourers of such
priests as came to say mass and give absolution. Year by
year the iron heel of the Lord President pressed more and
more heavily. Unhappy gentlemen left their homes and
kept in hiding, were sought for, informed against, and
hunted down ; the terrible fine of £20 a month exacted
without mercy, and those who were unable to pay thrown
into York Castle and kept at their own charges. But when
Campion had been apprehended, racked, and butchered,
and it was felt that the Jesuit Mission had produced an
important effect, and might lead to important and dangerous
results if things were allowed to go on in their course
undisturbed, the Lord President thought that the time
had come for making an example of some one in a
sterner way than he had as yet thought it prudent to
pursue.^

William Lacey was a Yorkshire gentleman of Great
Houghton in the West Riding, of respectable family and
moderate means, whose name appears on Archbishop

A NORFOLK HOUSE 253

Sandys' list of Eecusants as then in prison at Hull for
refusing to come to church. He managed to escape from
jail and to slip away to France ; there he entered at the
English College at Eheims, where, and at Pont k Mousson,
he pursued his divinity studies for some time, and going
thence to Home obtained from the Pope a dispen-
sation (for he had married a widow and was therefore
irregularis ex defectu, ratione higamim), was ordained priest,
and returned to England in that capacity about 1580.
With the strange imprudence which characterized the
Seminarists at all times, he had no sooner got back to
his old neighbourhood than he set himself to exercise
his functions among the prisoners in York Castle, though
he might have known by this time that the spies were
on the alert and keeping careful watch around. On the
22nd July, 1582, as he was coming out of the castle, he
was arrested, taken before the Archbishop, examined, and
thrown into a dungeon, where he was debarred from all
converse with his friends, and on the 11th of August was
put up on his trial with another Seminarist whose history
was almost exactly like his own ; both were found guilty
as a matter of course, and equally of course were
condemned to death, and on the 22nd they were hung
as traitors, special care being taken to prevent their
addressing the multitude who had assembled at the
place of execution. This was the first blood shed by the
Lord President, but it was by no means the last. On the
28th November of this same year another lately ordained
priest, James Thompson, was delivered over to the hang-
man at the same spot where Lacey and Kirkman had
suffered. Next year there were two more victims ; in 1585
two more, one priest and one layman ; in 1586, one
gentleman was hung, drawn, and quartered for being
" reconciled," and another for having harboured a priest.
But the most memorable incident of this year was the
atrocious and almost unexampled barbarity of the 20th
March. 3

Margaret Clitherow was the daughter of Thomas Middleton,

254 ONE GENERATION OF

a wealthy citizen of York, and sheriff of that city in 1565.
On her father's death her mother had taken as her
second husband one Henry Maye, who was Lord Maj^or
of York this very year, 1586, when his stepdaughter
was brought before the council for trial. Margaret was
married to John Clitherow in 1571, and had borne him
several children, of whom the eldest son had been sent
abroad to be educated a year before her last troubles came
upon her. As early as 1576 she had been presented as
a Recusant and thrown into prison, and I find her in York
Castle in the October of the following year. How long
she remained there does not appear, but it is evident that
some years after this she had made herself notorious by
her ascetic life and the uncompromising way in which
she had befriended any priest who needed shelter and help.
Her husband appears to have been a very thriving trades-
man, warm-hearted, open-handed, and easy-going, devotedly
attached to his wife in his own rough way, but quite devoid
of any religious sentiment or convictions. On the 10th of
March, 1586, the Council called Clitherow before them, and
apparently the same day ordered a search to be made at
his house ; the officers arrested everybody upon the
premises, and compelled a boy of ten or twelve years of
age to give them such information as he was able to
communicate. On this evidence Margaret Clitherow was
put upon her trial for the crime of concealing priests.
When called upon to plead at the bar, she obstinately
refused, and as no arguments or threats could make her
change her resolution, she was condemned to the "peine forte
et dure, and actually crushed to death in accordance with
the hideous sentence. -^

And so the horrible work went on. In 1587 three
priests, in 1588 two, in 1589 two more, suffered in this city
of York alone for the crime of saying mass or giving
absolution, or simply setting foot on English soil. Scarcely
a year passed by without these dreadful massacres, the
details of which are more revolting and shameful than
those who have not given their attention to the subject,

A NORFOLK HOUSE 255

or read the accounts written down at the time, could be
readily brought to believe. For ten years the butchery
had been kept up remorselessly. The victims, as a rule,
were not hung by the neck till they were dead, but cut
down while they were alive and conscious, then thrown
upon their backs, the executioner's knife was plunged into
their bowels, and the entrails and heart tossed into a
cauldron of water which stood hard by. In more than one
instance the victim in his agony and despair struggled with
the hangman, but it was only for a moment. In some
cases the crowd shouted out to the sheriff to " let him
hang." Sometimes a condemned man begged as a special
grace that he " might not be bo welled ere he were dead."
The rabble looked on terror-struck, but such scenes could
not but brutalize them. The appetite for blood is a strange
passion, and once yielded to is prone to exercise a horrible
fascination on some minds.

But nothing is more sure than that these ghastly
tragedies did not help the cause they were meant to serve,
or weaken the hands of those who were on the side of the
sufferers. Sympathy for the ''martyrs" never languished ;
the Council of the North, with the blind and ferocious
infatuation which always characterizes persecutors, never
allowed pity to grow cold. Men and women, with any
spark of chivalry or generous emotion left, could not but
feel some remorse and commiseration for the men whose
crimes they could not be made to understand, while they
saw them suffer for their faith with the courage and
constancy of heroes.

It was in this northern province that Henry Walpole
found himself cast, with his two companions, on that dark
and rainy December night of 1593. The roar of the angry
billows sounded hoarsely in the distance ; inland were the
watchers, and no friendly roof to give them shelter.
Ignorant of the neighbourhood, and without plans, they
committed the unaccountable blunder of keeping all
together instead of separating, as was the almost invariable
course with the emissaries at their first landing. They

256 ONE GENERATION OF

passed the night wandering among the woods or hiding in
some outhouse, and early in the morning they found their
way to Kilham, a place about nine miles from where they
had been put ashore, and took refuge in the village inn.s

Before noon the tidings had spread far and wide that
three strangers, travel- stained and soaked with rain, had
appeared in the neighbourhood, no one knew whence, and
had taken up their quarters at the roadside alehouse. The
constables, at this time more than ordinarily vigilant, were
soon upon the track. Three months before Lord Hunting-
don had laid his hands upon a Seminary priest of some
note — one John 'Boast — whom he had been endeavouring
for years to get into his power. On his succeeding at last,
he had received from the Lords of the Privy Council a
special letter of thanks in acknowledgment of the important
service rendered.^ Gratified by this recognition, the Earl
had replied to the Council assuring them of his una-
bated desire to deserve the approbation of his Eoyal
Mistress, and in accordance with his professions the coast
had been watched with increased strictness. Every
stranger and wayfarer was subjected to search and cross-
examination, and the chances of escape for any Seminary
priest adrift in Yorkshire had been reduced to a minimum.
Before the sun set on that first day after landing on English
soil the three returned exiles had been arrested and straight-
way committed to the castle at York. 7

According to a document very recently discovered at
Eome, Henry Walpole and his companions were appre-
hended on the 7th of December. No time was lost before
subjecting them all to a severe scrutiny, and by the 22nd of
the month the Privy Council had not only received from
Lord Huntingdon a report of the capture, but had drawn up
and forwarded instructions in reply.

The apprehension had come so suddenly that there had
been no time for making any concerted plan. In prison
the three men were allowed no communication, they all
gave their true names, and no attempt was made at disguise
or concealment of the purpose of their mission. Henry

A NORFOLK HOUSE 257

Walpole at once confessed himself a Jesuit Father, and his
brother and Lingen allowed that they had served in Sir
William Stanley's regiment in Flanders. But when it came
to their being questioned on matters which affected the
safety or even the life of others, Henry Walpole and Lingen
were obstinately silent, and persuasion, entreaty, and
menace were powerless to extort from them a word. It was
otherwise with Thomas Walpole. He was not of the stuff
that martyrs are made of, and as for his religious convictions
they cannot have been deeply rooted at this time, whatever
they became in the years that followed. He had, to be
sure, fought on the Spanish side against the revolted
Flemings, but it was as a soldier of fortune that he had
joined the wars ; his faith had little to do with the matter.
If to have served under Stanley was treason, it was a sort
of treason that might easily be condoned, and *' young
Thomas," as Topcliffe calls him, was not disposed to put
his life in jeopardy by keeping back information which it
was no matter of conscience with him to withhold. Lord
Huntingdon saw that the younger man might be worked
upon by a little dexterous diplomacy, and he spared no pains
to extort from him all he knew. Thomas Walpole made
but little difficulty ; perhaps he saw that there was no
chance for him or his brother except in making an open
confession, and having once begun to be communicative he
told all he knew : he accompanied the officers to the sea-
shore and dug up the packet of letters which his brother
had, on their first landing, hidden in the sand under a
stone ; and when a short time after another returned priest
was arrested, Thomas identified him as one whom he had
seen at Antwerp and Brussels years before, and thus
became the means of his being sent to the Tower for further
and severer handling.^

Meanwhile the Earl resorted to other means for working
upon the elder brother, who was by this time felt to be a
representative man. It would be a great point gained if his
convictions could be shaken, or, better, if in open con-
troversy he might be put to the worse by some practised

258 ONE GENERATION OF

theologians qualified to stand forward as champions for the
Protestant faith. There were by this time at York a
whole bevy of Eomish priests who had been arrested and
were in confinement ; all had been hard pressed to recant
and give information of their former associates, and under
promise of their lives being spared they had, in several
cases, yielded to the temptation, and having once broken
with their old friends, all chance of regaining the confidence
of the Eomish party being gone, they threw themselves
into the arms of their new supporters with the bitterness
which usually characterises perverts. Of these men the
most conspicuous were Anthony Major, Thomas Bell, and a
Mr. Hardesty; they were all "Seminary priests," and all
had been betrayed by one of their fellow- Seminarists,
George Dingley, about a year before.9 At the time of
their arrest they were wandering about Yorkshire exercising
their functions as priests, and Bell and Major were settled
somewhere in the neighbourhood of York. Hardesty had
passed through Brussels on his way to Rome at the end of
1590, and had there received some assistance from Henry
Walpole ; but after his departure news came that he was
under grave suspicion, and that even then he " had pub-
lished articles scarce sound showing himself a cynic and
schismatic," ^° but he had managed to clear himself of such
charges as had been brought against him, and had contrived
to get sent to England as an accredited " missioner." All
three men on finding themselves in peril appear to have
at once turned round, and Bell became afterwards a con-
spicuous personage and as furious and violent a declaimer
against the Papacy as the strongest Puritan could desire to
find. Father Parsons, in one of his most caustic books, pours
out against him all the vials of his scorn and indignation,
and '' The dolefuU knell of Thomas Bell " is among the
most telling and pungent of Parsons' compositions. The
three ''converted" Seminarists might be presumed to
know the weak points of the controversy between the
Churches of England and Rome : they all professed to have
been themselves convinced of the errors of their ways ; they

A NORFOLK HOUSE 259

had all been brought to see the falsity of theh^ belief,
and it was but fair that they should now be used to bring
another back to the true path ; accordingly they were
summoned to take part in a set controversy with the lately
captured Jesuit, who professed his readiness to defend the
truth from the Eomish point of view, and if he were
vanquished in argument to recant his errors as they had
done. But the converted Seminarists were not left to
carry on the battle unaided; the Earl's chaplain, Dr. Favour,
" a very mild divine," as Topcliffe calls him, who had lately
been appointed Vicar of Halifax, and a man of learning and
piety, was also invited to take part in the disputation, and
along with these were associated some of the leading clergy
of York — Dr. Bennet, one of the Prebendaries of the
Cathedral, and Mr. Eemington, Archdeacon of the East
Riding. Archdeacon Remington was a Cam,bridge man,
and while a fellow of Peterhouse had been Henry Walpole's
tutor ; he seems to have taken little part in the argument,
and, indeed, was present but once, when we are told that
" he said they came to make a friendly conference . . .
that he had been my tutor at Cambridge and wished me
well.""

It is difficult to make out whether the conferences which
these clergymen carried on with their Jesuit opponent were
public or private ; the notes which Henry Walpole drew up
afterwards, and which he forwarded to the Lord Hunting-
don, are now in the Record Office, and were printed in
the Irish Ecclesiastical Record in 1873, but they leave it
uncertain whether any formal debate was held in presence
of a general audience, while it is pretty certain that some
part of the dispute was carried on in Walpole's own
chamber. An appearance of fairness and some kindly
consideration for the prisoner was kept up throughout, and
he was even allowed access to books, which were supplied
to him freely. We are forcibly reminded of Campion's
famous disputation in Westminster Hall twelve j^ears
before, and it may well be that to Henry Walpole himself
that memorable scene recurred, and perhaps, the hope

26o ONE GENERATION OF

suggested itself, that, though the master's fate might be
awaiting the scholar, yet before the end he too might win
over some disciple who in his turn should take up the
mantle that was now upon his own shoulders. Be that as
it may, this controversy ended as such controversies usually
do, each side perfectly [satisfied with itself, neither in the
least shaken or influenced by the conflict of words. On the
whole the Jesuit seems to have been the better disputant,
and in proportion as he had shown himself superior in
dialectic skill, in that proportion was he sure to bring upon
himself increased animosity from his opponents. It soon
became evident that this man was not of the Bell and
Hardesty stamp — one who had his price, and that a very
low price, easily set down at its money value ; but that
though he were never so misguided, obstinate, or vain, he
was certainly in earnest, and that if these endless con-
troversies did nothing else they were having the dangerous
efl'ect of gaining for the Jesuit Father a character for learning,
piety, and devoted zeal. So the controversies were stopped,
and Henry Walpole thereupon assumed an aggressive atti-
tude ; he actually had the audacity to employ his time in
jail in composing a tract with the title Beware of False
ProphetSj which was directed against those very ministers
who had so lately taken part in the disputation that had
been going on. This was too much for the Lord President,
and as any further delay in dealing with such a case would
be only loss of time, the Earl appointed a jail delivery for
the 24th January, 1594, when the Walpoles and Lingen were
to be put upon their trial.

But here a difficulty was suggested by "the learned of
the council." The statute which made it high treason for
a Jesuit Father to land in England was plain enough,
and Henry Walpole might have been tried for his life at
first, as he was at last, solely upon this indictment. But
in the case of Lingen and Thomas Walpole it was by no
means so certain that the law could touch them. They
had borne arms under the Queen's enemies, to be sure,
and Lingen had been a pirate, but these off'ences had

A NORFOLK HOUSE 261

been "committed beyond the seas," and it was very
questionable how far they could be reached by any laws
that then existed. Hereupon the Earl wrote off in haste
to the Lord Keeper Puckering, explaining the nature of the
technical objection that had been raised, and suggesting
that a special commission should be issued, "the example
whereof " (he adds) " will do good in these parts. "^^
Astonishing though it be, it is nevertheless almost certain
that no such commission was ever issued, because there was
no laio to deal with the case of the two laymen. Piracy and
robbery on the high seas were such venal offences that the
law took little or no cognisance of them, and for serving
in the armies of France or Spain, even against the Crown
of England, it appears that no man could be called to
account on English soil. The Government had too much
to do with hunting up priests and putting the screw on
Eecusants at home to trouble itself with the doings of men
who were living by their wits on the other side of the
Channel. In the case of a needy adventurer, driven by
his necessities to acts of violence, it was no man's interest
to hang him, and no man's gain to strip him of his all.
Cruel and bloody as the laws were, there were loopholes by
which the worst criminals could escape now and then.
"Benefit of clergy" still had a meaning; and if a man
had friends in high places he could cheat the gallows
even at the eleventh hour. It was only the poor wretch
who had a conscience, and who dared not go against that
conscience, who had no hope of pity or respite. During
the three years ending with this year, 1594, I find no
fewer than sixty-one pardons recorded for murder, burglary,
highway robbery, and other felonies ; but pardon to priests
or their harbourers there are none : to such criminals no
mercy might be shown. ^3

And so Lingen and Thomas Walpole found themselves
scarcely amenable to the law for any offence against its
enactments ; but inasmuch as all three defendants were
apprehended together, the technical objection which had
been urged in favour of the two laymen was allowed

262 ONE GENERATION OF

indirectly, and to some small extent affected the priest with
whom they had been so intimately associated. No special
commission was sent down to York, " the example whereof
might do good in these parts." But a special commissioner
was sent down by the Lords of the Privy Council, one
whose practised hand would be sure to deal skilfully with
such a matter as this, and to him the case of the Jesuit
Father was committed accordingly. Towards the end of
January the dreaded Eichard Topclilfe appears on the
scene. Immediately on his arrival Lingen was examined,
and a report of his answers sent up to the Privy Council
on the 21st January. He obstinately refused to disclose
anything, and what he did say declined to asseverate on
oath. Thomas Walpole had little or nothing more to tell ;
he had already told all ; how much that was may appear
from Topcliffe's own letter, in which he exultingly praises
the young man for his candour, and adds to the Lord
Keeper, " By this your Lordship may show unto her Sacred
Majesty how God blessed her Highness with the uttering
of that which I see will turn to her high service for
discovering of disloyal men and women both about London,
in sundry counties in England, and deeply in Ireland ; "
and then, after giving a list of some trinkets and tokens
with which Henry Walpole had been entrusted to hand to
the friends of the exiles if he should be fortunate enough
to meet with them on his mission, Topcliffe significantly
adds, "Much more lieth hid in these two lewd persons,
the Jesuit and Lingen, which wit of man giveth occasion
to be suspected that labour of man without further authority
and conference than his Lordship hath here can never he
digged out. ... So the Jesuit and Lingen must be dealt
with in some sharp sort above, and more will burst out
than yet, or otherwise, can be known, yet see I more in
this service than ever I did in any before to her Majesty's
benefit both of state and purse." "-^ Yes, for be it re-
membered that this same Henry Walpole was his father's
eldest son and heir, and it might be that the old man at
Anmer Hall could be got at and accused, for such things

A NORFOLK HOUSE 263

had been before and might be again, and it might be too
that rumours were rife that old Christopher's health was
failing, and then whose would the inheritance be?

It seems that Topcliffe's stay at York was short. In
a letter of Lord Huntingdon's, dated 12th February, he
is spoken of as having gone some time ; ^s but while the
result of his visit was as yet unknown, Henry Walpole
found means of communicating with his friends outside,
and, through the connivance probably of his jailer or other
functionaries in the castle, he managed to keep up a corres-
pondence, considerable portions of which have been pre-
served.

The original of the following letter was still in existence
when Bishop Challoner published his Missionary Priests in
1741 ; but at the French Revolution it disappeared along
with thousands of other records of this bloody time : —

"Your Reverence's Letters give me great Comfort; but
if I could but see you, tho' it were but for one Hour,
it would be of greater Service to me, than I can possibly
express. I hope that what is wanting, my sweet Lord
JesiLs will supply by other Means, whose heavenly Comfort
and Assistance has always hitherto stood by me in my
greatest Necessities, and, I am persuaded, will continue so
to CO, since his Love for us is everlasting.

"If I would write down all Things that have here passed
with our Adversaries, it would be endless, and the Work of
a long time. In my Examination I gave in in Writing a
long Account of my Life beyond the Seas, of the Places
where I lived, and of my Actions and Designs ; which, I
assured them, had no other Butt than the only Glory of
Goi, and the Increase of the holy Catholic Faith. With
which View I told them, I returned into England, with
a very great Desire of the Conversion, not only of the
People, but most of all, of the Queen herself, and of the
whole English Nobility ; which I plainly assured them,
I should ever use my best Endeavours to bring about,
with the Grace of God.

'' To their Queries concerning others, I refused to answer.

264 ONE GENERATION OF

And when Topliffe threatened that he would make me
answer when he had me in Bridewell, or in the Tower,
I told him, That our Lord God, I hoped, would never ^permit
me, for Fear of any Torments whatsoever, to do anything
against his divine Majesty, or against my own Conscience, or
to the Prejudice of Jtcstice, and the Innocence of others.

" I have had various Conferences and Disputations with
many of the Heretics. And whereas I believed I should
have been tried at the last Assizes in this City [^York]
I sent in Writing to the Lord President, all those Con-
ferences and Disputations ; who had ordered me Pen, Ink,
and Paper for that Purpose. To which I joined a large
Discourse, or Treatise ; in which I exhorted all to beware of
false Prophets, and to give Ear to the Voice of the holy
Church, the Spouse of the King, the House, the Vineyard,
and the City of Christ. One of the Ministers complain'd
of me much to the President, for being so bold as to
put down such Things in Writing : But he could not refute
what was written : And, indeed, they seem to me to be
much confounded. Blessed be Jestis, Qui dat os insipienti,
cui non possunt resistere sapientes. I want very much to
have a Book or two for a few Hours ; but if I cannot have
them, Jesus, our God and Lord, is at Hand; and he is
the eternal Wisdom. Your Reverence will be pleased to
pray to him, that he may always stand by me, and that
all Things may turn out to his Glory. ^

*' I am much astonished that so vile a creature as I
am should be so near, as they tell me, to the Crown of
Martyrdom : But this I know for certain, that the Blood
of my most blessed Saviour and Redeemer, and his most
sweet Love, is able to make me worthy of it. Omnia possum
in eo qui me confortat. Your Reverence, most loviag
Father, is engag'd in the Midst of the Battle. I sit here
an idle Spectator of the Field; yet King David has
appointed an equal Portion for us both ; and Love, Charity,
and Union, which unites us together in Jesus Christ our
Lord, makes us mutually Partakers of one another's
Merits : And what can be more closely united than we

A NORFOLK HOUSE 265

two, who, as your Reverence sees, Simul segregati sumus in
hoc minister mm.

" The President inquired of me who was the Superior

of our Society in this Kingdom ? whether it was this, or the

other, or who it was ? Topliffe answered. He knew who

it was, and named him. I beg your Reverence would

communicate this Letter to all our Friends : I desire to

give myself to every one of them; and more particularly

to all our most dear Fathers and Brothers of the Society

of Christ my Jesus, in whose Prayers, Labours, and

Sacrifices, as I have a Share, so have I a great Confidence.

About Midlent I hope my Lot will be decided, either for

Life or Death ; for then the Assizes will be held here again.

In the meanwhile I have Leisure to prepare myself, and

expect, with good Courage, whatever his divine Majesty

shall be pleased to appoint for me. I beg your Reverence

to join your holy Prayers with my poor ones, that I may

walk worthy of that high and holy Name and Profession

to which I am called; which I trust in the Mercy of our

Lord he will grant me, not regarding so much my many

Imperfections, as the fervent Labours, Prayers, and holy

Sacrifices of so many Fathers, and my Brothers his

Servants, who are employed over all the World in his

Service : And I hope, thro' the Merits of my most sweet

Saviour and Lord, that I shall be always ready, whether

living or dying, to glorify him, which will be for my eternal

Happiness. And if my Unworthiness and Demerits shall

keep me at present at a Distance from the Crown, I will

strive to deserve it by a greater Solicitude and Diligence

for the future. And if, in his Mercy, our Lord shall grant

me now to wash my Garments in the Blood of the Lamb,

I hope to follow him for ever cloth'd in White.

" I can never end when I get any Time to write to your
Reverence, which I have been seldom able to do ; and
whether, as long as I live, I shall ever have another Oppor.
tunity I know not. I confess'd in my Examinations, That I
had labour' d for the Encrease of the Tioo Seminaries in Spain,
and for that of St. Omer's ; a7id that I had returned hearty

266 ONE GENERATION OF

Thanks to his Catholic Majesty for his great Favours to
the Seminary of St. Omer's : / also confess'd, that all my
Actions had always in Vieio the Good of others, and no
one's Harm ; tJie ijrocuring Peace among all, and the i?ro-
pagati7ig our holy Catholic Faith, and the Kingdom of
Christ, to the utmost of my Power. This was the Sum
of my general Confession, which I gave in Writing, sign'd
by my own Hand, to the President and to Topliffe. They
ask'd me, what I would do if the Pope should wage War
against England. I answered, That the Circumstances
of that Time loould give me more Light : and that I should
then have Becourse to our Lord God for Counsel, and
would think seriously 07i it before I would any luays inter-
meddle with Things of War. Hcec d hujusmodi, de quihus
postea. May Jestis be always with your Reverence.
Or emus pro invicem."

If the reader finds in this letter some things which
may appear to him distasteful, and some which give him
but a mean idea of the intellect or the good sense of
the writer, I would beg him to remember that I am in
no ways concerned with proving that this Jesuit Father
was a man at all in advance of his age, but exactly the con-
trary. What we do want is to put ourselves in a position
to estimate rightly the actual state of feeling and habits
of thought of the men who set themselves to " reduce "
England in the sixteenth century ; and if we can afford
to smile, as we well may, at their Quixotic venture, at
the astonishing ignorance which they displayed at the
forces aiTayed against them, and at their lack of the
most essential agencies for effecting their purpose, we can
also afford to give them some little credit for the enthusiasm
which animated them, and to regard with abhorrence the
ruffians whose trade was to hunt down such victims as
these, and whose boast it was to torture and slay them.

While Topcliffe was away in London, and the fate of
Henry Walpole was still uncertain, his friends outside
determined to make an effort to effect his release. How
this was to have been carried out it is now impossible to

A NORFOLK HOUSE 267

say ; but money could do a great deal in those days among
jailers and guards, and the discipline of the prisons was
incredibly lax. The management of the whole plot was
to be left, of course, to the confederates outside, but it
was necessary that the prisoner himself should concur in
the arrangements and be willing to make the attempt, which
would be attended with considerable danger and hazard.

By far the most influential man amongst the Catholics
of the north at this time was Eichard Holtby. He was a
Yorkshireman, born at Brayton in the West Biding, and
had entered the Society of Jesus in 1583. He seems to
have been sent into Yorkshire shortly after Campion's
execution, and had been diligently and very warily at work
in his own neighbourhood ever since : though frequently
mentioned, and more than once informed against, he
seemed to bear a charmed life, and, as far as appears, he
was never once apprehended. Of no other English Jesuit
can it be said that he exercised his vocation in England for
upwards of fifty years, and that too with extraordinary
effect and ceaseless activity, without once being thrown
into jail or once falling into the hands of the pursuivants,
and quietly died in his bed in extreme old age. Holtby
must have had some very powerful friends in Yorkshire,
to escape molestation so long. He lived to be the Superior
of the English Jesuits after the execution of Garnet, and
he took an active part in the matter of the oath of alle-
giance when the Archpriest Blackwell gave an example
of submission to the powers that be in 1608.^^ At the time
we are now concerned with, Holtby seems to have been
in and out of York Castle continually, and, though denied
personal intercourse with Henry Walpole, he managed
to keep up with him a frequent correspondence, and
acquired a great ascendancy over him ; the gentler and
more romantic disposition of the younger man yielding
itself to the direction of a nature more masculine and
vigorous than his own. When, on Topcliffe's departure,
Henry Walpole's friends laid their plans for a rescue, and
it only remained for the prisoner to throw himself into the

268 ONE GENERATION OF

plot, he hesitated. Scruples of conscience suggested them-
selves, and that too eager longing for martyrdom, which
has been noticed before, came in to confuse his judgment
and to make him exaggerate the risks and to dwell upon
the consequences that might result from either success or
failure. Perplexed and doubtful, he refused to take the
responsibihty of the venture till he had consulted Holtby ;
and he resolved to draw up a '' case of conscience," submit
the matter to him, and abide by his decision, whatever it
might be. Holtby, a man of strong sense and great
practical ability, was in point of fact far better able to
pronounce upon the feasibility of the proposed plan of
escape than Henry Walpole or his friends. He knew the
risks which would have to be run and the serious conse-
quences which would ensue in the event of failure ; perhaps
he judged that Walpole had not the nerve or the cunning
to carry him through, and with characteristic shrewdness
he decidedly gave it as his opinion that the attempt in this
case should not be made. ^7 The freedom of one Jesuit
Father might be purchased too dearly by the blood of
others, and how many others it was impossible to say.

When Henry Walpole received this answer he accepted
it as the voice of God. He wrote back a letter, which,
though it has only reached us in a Latin or Spanish transla-
tion, reads like the rhapsody of some excited devotee who
has worked himself up to believe that death at the hang-
man's hands is the most glorious euthanasia. Surrendering
himself to the one idea of martyrdom, he had become
possessed by it, and henceforth his actions were out of
the range of criticism : there was nothing for it but to
let matters take their course.

And yet there was one chance of escape, one hope of
deliverance. Thomas Walpole had thrown himself upon
the mercy of the Lord President : might not his brother
be induced to do the same? By this time the younger
brother had been allowed his liberty, though still apparently
kept under surveillance, and urged by his strong affection,
while at the same time he was unable to sympathise with
the fanaticism of his more fervent and enthusiastic brother.

A NORFOLK HOUSE 269

at the suggestion of Lord Huntingdon he made one last
effort to save him. He addressed a long letter to Henry
Walpole, which was forwarded to him by the Earl, in which
he informed him of all that he had himself disclosed, and
pressed upon him the absolute necessity of similar out-
spokenness, if he would save himself from the rack and the
gallows. From the young soldier's point of view all attempt
at concealment was now suicidal — there was nothing to hide.
It was mere madness to attempt to withhold the names
of his friends, or to keep back information which had been
given already without reserve ; and he was implored to
hide nothing which in point of fact was no longer hidden :
stubborn silence could only turn to his own ruin.^^

It was all in vain. For the younger brother to give such
information as he was master of was one thing — after all,
there was but little that he had to tell; it was a very different
thing for the elder to act the traitor's part, and betray
the friends and kindred with whom for years he had been
keeping up a correspondence. The latest news about the
seminaries and their scholars, — the particulars about his
own labours abroad, — the incidents of his journeys or the
details of his interview with the King of Spain, — these were
matters that Lord Huntingdon or the Government were
welcome to know ; but to surrender the names of those
at home who had compromised themselves by befriending
him would bring beggary upon many a household,
and, God helping him, where the lives and fortunes of
others were at stake he would be silent as the grave.
Unmoved by threats or entreaties, arguments or expostula-
tions, he was prepared to suffer the worst that could befall
him ; and blinded by that which men call their conscience,
but which is often the name for something far less deserv-
ing of our respect, and with the emotional side of his
nature stimulated to the point of monomania, he prepared
to meet his doom with the same determination that an
Indian devotee prepares to throw himself before the
car of Juggernaut. The torture chamber and the dungeons
of the Tower were the scene of the next act in this
miserable drama.

NOTES TO CHAPTEK X

1. Page 250. Mr. Froude's account of the Pilgrimage of Grace is
perhaps the most brilliant production of his skilful pen. History of
England, vol. ii. chaps, xiii. and xiv. KeWs Rebellion in Norfolk, by
the Kev. F. W. Russell, Longmans, 1859, is a respectable compilation,
the result of some little research. For the Cornish Rebellion, see
Froude, vol. v. ch. 26.

2. Page 252. My authorities for the statements in this paragraph
are to be found in Mr. Cartwright's Chapters on the History of Yorkshire,
Wakefield, 1872 ; Bell's Huntingdon Peerage Case, London, dto, 1820 ;
Harl. MSS. 6992, art. 26, p. 50; Morris's Troubles of our Catholic
Forefathers, series iii. passim; Challoner's Missionary Priests, vol. i. ;
Fuller's Church History, b. vi. s. vi. § 7 ; Calendar of State Papers,
Domestic, Add. 1580-1625, pp. 11-13. On the subject of persecution in
the north, cf . Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, lib. iii. § 9, etc.

3. Page 253. Challoner's Priests, vol. i. pp. 110, 113. Morris, u.s.

4. Page 254. The story of Margaret Clitherow has been investigated
with very great labour and research by Mr. Morris, in whose book
{Troubles, u.s. s. iii.) all the horrible details may be found. The
particulars are given from the still existing Records of the City of York.

5. Page 256. Yepez, Hist. Partic. p. 680; P. R. 0., Domestic, Eliza-
beth, vol. 249, n. 12, § 15.

6. Page 256. Harl. MSS. 6996, art. 19. Lord Huntingdon's letter is
dated 2 October, 1593.

7. Page 256. Challoner gives the date 4th December, 1593, but this is
clearly wrong. Topcliffe in his letter to Puckering says it was "about
a fortnight before Christmas."

8. Page 257. Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. 247, art. 21. Harl BISS.
6996, art. 40, p. 78.

9. Page 258. Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. 242, arts. 121, 122, 125.

10. Page 258. Walpole Letters, p. 19.

270

ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE 271

11. Fage 259. The conferences were printed in the Irhli Ecclesias-
tical Record for June 1873.

12. Page 261. Harl. MSS. 6996, art. 28.

13. Page 261. Cal. P. R. 0., Domestic, Elizabeth, 1591-4.

14. Page 262. Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. 247, art. 21.

15. Page 263. Harl. MSS. 6996, art. 35.

16. Page 267. There is a very full account of Holtby in Morris's
Troubles, series iii. He frequently went under the name of Duckett.
Some interesting notices of him are to be found in The Life of Mrs.
Dorothy Lawson of St. Antonyms, London, Dolman, 1855.

17. Page 268. Yepez, Hist. Particular, p. 685 et seq. I must
remind my readers that Bp. Yepez published his work less than four
years after Henry Walpole^s execution. It is astonishing how accurate
his information was. In the minutest particulars I have again and
again found him corroborated by the evidence lately brought to light
from the contemporary documents in the Kecord Office and elsewhere.

18. Page 269. Harl. 3ISS. 6996, art. 37, page 72.

CHAPTER XI

THE TOWER AND THE RACK

While Henry Walpole was going through his preliminary-
ordeal in York Castle, disputing with crafty trimmers and
sour Puritans on matters of theology one day and writing
flimsy tracts another, but always entangling himself more
and more hopelessly in the meshes of the net that had
closed around him, a very curious drama was being acted
in London which exercised an important influence upon his
fate.

Robert Earl of Essex had for some time past been recog-
nised as the chief favourite of the Queen. He was now in
his twenty-sixth year, with a handsome person, abilities of
a high order, and many qualifications for ensuring him
success as a courtier. Lavish with his money, fond of dis-
play, a firm and zealous friend, chivalrous, romantic, and
brave to the point of recklessness, he attracted to himself
the admiration and regard of generous enthusiasts, while
sagacious and wily sycophants knew how to turn to good
account the enormous arrogance and immeasurable self-
confidence which in the end brought him to the scaffold.
At his father's death in 1576 the young earl was in his
eighth year, and at that father's special request he was
committed to the guardianship of Lord Burghley, of whose
house he continued for some time an inmate, having as his
constant playmate young Robert Cecil, then a lad of some
twelve or thirteen.^ In 1584 he made his first appearance
at court, and at once became the darling of the Queen.
But his royal mistress's caresses, showered upon him in

season and out of season, not without some scandal, could

272

ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE 273

not content him long, and he was hardly eighteen when he
became a suitor for the Mastership of the Horse, which he
obtained, not so much by reason of any fitness for the post
which the Queen had observed in him, but rather by his
ceaseless and petulant importunity. Passionately eager to
win some renown in war, he vainly applied for military
command, and on this being refused him he slipped away
from court when the Portugal expedition sailed in 1589,
and, putting out to sea from Falmouth about the same time
as the fleet weighed anchor at Plymouth, he fell in with it
at last off the coast of Portugal, and w^hen the attack upon
Peniche was made Essex was the first to land, leaping into
the surf and wading breast high under the fire of the
enemy's guns. At Lisbon he loudly challenged any of the
garrison to come forth and " break a lance " with him; at
Cascaes he "sent a cartel" offering himself against any
Spaniard of equal quality ; on the 4th of June he was
summoned to return to England by a peremptory and
indignant letter from the Queen. No sooner had he got
back to court than he picked a quarrel with Sir Charles
Blount, for no other reason than because Sir Charles was
rising in favour at court, and in the encounter that ensued
he was disarmed and wounded in the thigh. In 1591 he
obtained at last the desire of his heart, and was sent with
an auxiliary force to assist Henry IV. in Normandy.
When in obedience to orders he was preparing once more
for his return from an expedition which had brought little
honour and no profit, he again sent a challenge to Villars,
the Governor of Kouen, couched in terms not a whit less
ridiculous than the Knight of La Mancha might have used.-
Thus far his career had been other than successful, and
he began to suspect that for him the road to fame was not
to be carved out by the sword. A new direction was given
to his ambition when, at the death of his father-in-law, the
Secretary Walsingham, it became clear that Lord Burghley
and his son Sir Eobert Cecil were at the council table
almost supreme. Death had played havoc among the great
men who had lived through the danger of the ' ' Invincible

274 ONE GENERATION OF

Armada." Leicester had survived it but a few weeks,
Walsingham died in April 1590, in November of the same
year George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, died, and a year
after Sir Christopher Hatton. Lord Shrewsbury was Earl
Marshal, Hatton was Chancellor of the University of
Oxford ; Essex with passionate eagerness claimed both
posts of honour. He gained neither the one nor the other.
Lord Buckhurst succeeded to the chancellorship, the other
office was kept vacant for years. Essex was stung to the
quick, his pride was wounded, and he thought that the
Cecils were alone to blame for his failure. How had they
foiled him ? How but by intrigue ? Henceforth he would
turn their own weapons against them and try to outwit
them in policy.

The Secretary Walsingham had for years had a little
army of spies in his pay — wretches of blasted character and
broken fortunes, fellows who were adepts at inventing plots
or worming out secrets, their trade eavesdropping, their
daily bread gained by scenting out ''murders, stratagems,
and crimes " ; where true intelligence was not to be gained,
false rumours and slanders of the blackest hue served their
turn as well. Sometimes they were hot in the chase of a
cracked-brained Familist ; sometimes they were dogging
the steps of decrepit old "Queen Mary's priests"; some-
times they were busy in forging letters from people in high
station ; but always sleepless, suspicious, unscrupulous —
men of infinite resources in the base expedients of the
informer's trade. 3 Walsingham's death had been a sad
blow to this miserable gang, and the execution of Mary
Stuart had even before his death lessened the demand for
their services. When Essex determined to play his new
role there was a stir among the band of " intelligencers,"
as they called themselves, who were on the look out for an
employer. Essex with his usual rashness took man after
man into his pay, and set himself to outdo his rivals by
attempting to get such secret information from abroad as
should anticipate that supplied to his rivals. He spared no
expense ; lavish as ever, he imagined it was only a question

A NORFOLK HOUSE 275

of money, and that, provided he paid liberally, he might
dispense with the necessity of all caution and of the sagacity
in discriminating between the true and the false, which only
long practice and years of training in diplomacy can supply.
Again he found himself foiled : the cool judgment and long
discipline of Lord Burghley and his son were more than a
match for him. Lord Burghley's health began to fail, but
his son had not served his apprenticeship in vain ; Sir
Eobert Cecil held his ground against Essex, and proved the
abler man. Irritated beyond endurance, and in a mood to
believe anything that might establish his character for
acuteness, Essex was in that excited state when a man's
judgment is least to be trusted, and when the burning desire
to make some discovery leads him to see all things through
a false medium. At last the hour came when he was sure
that he had possessed himself of a real secret, and that he
had found out a real plot.

There was a certain Eoderigo Lopez, a Portuguese, who
for some years had practised as a medical man in London,
and had attained to such eminence in his profession that he
had been sworn physician to the Queen. He had already
amassed a considerable fortune, and no breath of suspicion
had hitherto lighted upon him.4 In November 1593 certain
of Essex's gang of intelligencers cast their eyes upon this
Lopez, and denounced him to the Earl as one engaged in
an attempt to assassinate his royal mistress. Manuel
Andrada, a miscreant " discovered to have practised the
death of Don Antonio," and whose life Lopez had himself
saved; Manuel Lewis Tinoco, "one that had twice betrayed
the King Don Antonio his master;" Ferera de Gama,
'* sometimes a man of great livelihood and wealth in Portu-
gal, which he did forego in adhering to Don Antonio, . . .
but some years since secretly won to the service of the King
of Spain " — these were the witnesses upon whom Essex's
spies relied. In January 1594 Lopez was arrested and
examined by Essex and the Cecils, and his house searched.
Lord Burghley and his son reported decidedly in Lopez's
favour ; Elizabeth laughed at the whole story, and with

276 ONE GENERATION OF

some scorn called Essex " a rash and temerarious youth."
Essex was furious. He shut himself up in his chamber,
and refused to come forth ; swore that some " atonement "
should be made for the wrong done him, and insisted that
another inquiry should be instituted, and that the Lord
High Admiral should be associated with him and the Cecils
in the next examination. s He gained his point. The three
witnesses deserved hanging as much as any men in Europe,
yet they vehemently denied at the outset that they were in
any way cognisant of any plot, and knew nothing of Lopez's
guilt; but then the "manacles were shown" to Tinoco,
and with a shudder of fear he was ready for any confession
that might be put into his mouth. The rest followed.
Lopez shrieked forth in an agony of terror his protestations
of innocence till his vehemence provoked the laughter of
the court of inquiry.^ Ferera and Andrada strove only to
save themselves, and Lopez, in the vain hope of his life
being spared, made foolish admissions, and in his despera-
tion and horror became more and more entangled. His
doom was sealed, and Essex had his way; the four men
were kept in prison for three long months, in the hope of
some further discoveries ; when these failed three of them
were sent to the scaffold without remorse. Of course
Lopez's property was confiscated, but Ferera was spared to
accompany Essex into Spain some years after, and in a
memorial which he addressed to his patron in 1597
" desired his lordship to remember the words which he had
said to him in the Tower of London, upon the confession
of Lopez." 7

As I have said, this business of Eoderigo Lopez could not
but exercise an important influence upon Henry Walpole's
fate ; he had but lately returned from Spain, he had been
admitted to the presence of Philip IL, he had enjoyed
familiar intercourse with all the nobles of the Spanish court,
whose names had been brought forward and made dexterous
use of in the accounts of the conspiracy ; if this Jesuit Father,
clearly a man of mark, could not throw some light upon this
business, who could? If the "plot" was genuine, it could

A NORFOLK HOUSE 277

hardly have been kept so very secret, when the emissaries
were broken-down adventurers and common informers with
no characters to lose. A confession was extorted from the
wretched Lopez on the 25th February. On that very day
Henry Walpole started on his journey to London, he was
placed under the custody of Topcliffe, and at this point his
real sufferings began. Topcliffe's coarse brutality showed
itself from the first; the journey to London appears to have
been made with all possible haste, probably with the inten-
tion of producing Walpole as a witness upon the trial of
Lopez, which took place upon the 28th. All along the road
Topcliffe gave out that he had got under his charge a
notable Jesuit, who was privy to the plot to assassinate the
Queen ; and no insult or outrage was omitted which might
aggravate his sufferings. Lopez's trial was over before they
reached London, and Walpole was at once committed to
the Tower.s

There were in the Tower at this time fifteen or sixteen
notable prisoners, of whom five at least had been already
condemned to death. Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, had
been put upon his trial just five years before, his crime
being that he had attempted to abjure the realm, in the
hope of obtaining liberty of conscience elsewhere. This
was enough to serve as the ground for arraigning him upon
a charge of high treason ; and in those days to be charged
with such a crime was to be condemned. The earl was,
however, never executed ; for six years he was kept in close
confinement, his health gradually failing, and he died in his
prison on the 19th October, 1595. Dr. Lopez, too, was
lying there under sentence of death, and with him the man
who had been induced to accuse him ; and '' John Annias,
an Irishman, who came over under pretence of killing
{sic) Antonio Perez ; " and James Fitzgerald, son of the
unfortunate Earl of Desmond; and Peter Wentworth
" committed from the Parliament," his offence being that
he hadipresumed to speak in the House of Commons on
the subject of the succession to the crown. 9

But the prisoner whom of all others Henry Walpole

278 ONE GENERATION OF

would most have wished to hold converse with at such
a time, if it had been permitted him, was Eobert Southwell ;
he too, the son of a substantial Norfolk squire, who in
1578 had entered the Society of Jesus, had returned to
England in 1586, and since then had spent five years in the
house of the Countess of Arundel. Southwell had been in
the Tower for about two years, after being barbarously
tortured in Topcliffe's house in Westminster, and was now
lying in daily expectation of being tried ; — for his torture
and his long imprisonment had been before any such trial. ^°
"Whether he and Walpole ever met we cannot tell, but the
probability is that both men were kept in too close custody
to allow of their exchanging many words, though there is
some presumption that they did contrive to communicate
with each other, and that this communication had its
influence upon the confessions which were in the end
extorted.

Henry Walpole remained for nearly two months in
solitary confinement; the "close prisoners" were permitted
to hold no intercourse with the outer world ; they were
subject to be treated with infinite brutality by their jailers ;
allowed nothing but mouldy straw to lie on ; liable to
be robbed of anything that was upon their persons that was
worth taking, and furnished with scarcely sufficient to keep
life in their bodies." Two months of such treatment were
usually long enough to break even a brave man's spirit,
and to weaken whatever resolution and courage he might
have been able to summon to his aid in better times. With
a constitution shaken, and with an emaciated frame, the
man who could hold out against the terrors of the torture
chamber or the physical agony of the rack, the scavenger's
daughter, or the gauntlets, would be a man of very extra-
ordinary power indeed, both of body and mind.

At last, on the 14th of April, the notorious Eichard
Young, a creature whose life was spent in hunting up priests
and torturing them, and who disputed the palm of cruelty
with Topclifi'e, wrote to the Lord Keeper Puckering
suggesting that an order should be given him to examine

A NORFOLK HOUSE 279

certain prisoners in the Tower who had " long lain in
oblivion, and by delay and lingering matters of great
importance are hurt and hid."^^' In Southwell's case
Topcliffe had got himself into trouble by torturing his
victim to the extent of getting talked about. Young
had the cunning to provide against any chance of incur-
ring blame ; and in this same letter he begs that Mr.
Beale and Sir Thomas Wilkes, clerks of the Privy Council,
might be associated with him in the work, together with
some counsel at law. The suggestion was not immediately
acted on, but on the 27th of the month Henry Walpole was
subjected to his first examination, not before Richard
Young, but before Serjeant Drewe, Sir Edward Coke, the
Attorney- General, and Richard Topcliffe.'3 The inquisitors,
as they might well be called, appear to have conducted
their examination in a very methodical manner. They had
before them the previous admissions which Henry Walpole
had made at York, the information furnished by Thomas
Walpole, and the confessions of one of the many vagabond
informers. This man was an Irishman named Hugh Cahill :
he had fallen in with the Walpoles at Calais, and being
in bad health and great poverty had applied to the brothers
for assistance and thrown himself upon their compassion.
Of course he had pretended to be a Catholic who was
suffering for his religion, and of course he had been relieved :
equally of course he had made the best of his way across
the Channel, and presented himself at Burghley House
with such information as he had to give, supplementing it
with such additions and embellishments as he could invent.
The fellow could not write his name, but he was ready
to add his mark to any document which Topcliffe might
think proper to lay before him. There was another scoun-
drel of the same type, a confederate of Cahill's, who was
also ready with his contribution of information. He too
had fallen in with the Walpoles and been assisted by
them, and he too was anxious to make his account out of
his previous acquaintance with a prisoner against whom
it was desirable to collect some damaging evidence. '-^

28o ONE GENERATION OF

The inquiries addressed to the prisoner in the Tower
on this 27th of April were evidently based upon the
admissions and confessions gathered from all these sources.
Henry Walpole, in reply to the interrogatories, admitted
that he was a Jesuit, that he had met Cahill at Calais, and
lodged at the same inn, the Plume Blanche ; that he had
gone to Spain and had an interview with Philip II. at the
Escurial, had talked with this one and that one, noble and
gentle, lay and cleric; that he had landed in Yorkshire
furnished with letters, the greater part of which he had
destroyed — some he had hidden under a stone, as has been
already told ; and that his only object in returning to
England was to preach the doctrines of the proscribed
faith and win souls to the Catholic cause. So far so good.
Here was abundance of information, if only the Govern-
ment could make any use of it. Unfortunately there was
not a single item that was not perfectly well known already ;
and though the " examinate " had told them a great deal
about a number of conspicuous personages, these were all
far out of harm's way and safe in Spain or Belgium or
France. But Walpole had been at the new seminary of
Valladolid, and had received certain "labels" to serve as
a pass for some Englishman at Dunkirk. He had said,
too, that at Valladolid there were some forty young
Englishmen pursuing their studies : these were the sons of
men of substance and position at home. Who were these
forty young students ? Who was this Englishman at
Dunkirk? If he answered these questions, the prisoner
would have been bringing others into jeopardy. Pressed
to name these, he flatly refused : they could get no more
from him.

A formal report of the examination was drawn up — the
whole business must have taken some hours — and Henry
Walpole and the three commissioners appended their names
to the document, and the first examination came to an end.
The prisoner was taken back to his cell ; he occupied him-
self in drawing pictures of saints and angels upon the walls
and ceiling, and in carving his name on the stone, where it

A NORFOLK HOUSE 281

remains to the present hour. It is piteous to contrast the
bold firm cutting of the first with the ragged and unshapely
look of the last letters, as if the hands had gradually lost
their power or he who guided them had gradually lost his
control.

On the 3rd of May Henry Walpole was again brought
up for examination. This time only two commissioners
were present, Topcliffe and Serjeant Drewe. The questions
addressed to him were aimed almost exclusively at extort-
ing such names as it was in his power to disclose. What
were the contents of the letters destroyed ? He would not
tell. What were the names of two gentlemen mentioned in
a certain letter to which allusion had been made? ** He
knoweth but refuseth to disclose." He had been directed
to a house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, " but he utterly denieth
to disclose the name of the owner of the said house, or of
the gent, to whom he was directed . . . refuseth for con-
science' sake (as he sayeth) to reveal the same." At this
point the first dreadful pressure seems to have been used.
The questions were repeated, and Topcliffe had his victim
almost to himself. The ghastly instruments of torture were
ready at hand — the rack and the manacles — those dreadful
manacles that would stretch every sinew and wrench the arms
from their sockets. Let him speak, this stubborn Jesuit,
who knew so much ! — speak, or hang till life should be only
horrible torment. Was the gentleman's name in Lincoln's
Inn Field's, French ? Was it a white house ? He would
not answer. Hang him up again ! " Being asked again
of the gentleman which was of acquaintance with this
examinate, as with the said Edward Walpole, he refuseth
to disclose his name." Again and again the questions were
pressed. Was Braddox in Essex one of the houses set
down in his directions ? Was Spiller one of his names ?
Was Mrs. White ? And so on. Where he could answer
that such names were not in his list he said so ; where he
could not, he was obstinately silent or stubbornly refused
to tell. The probability is that this examination only came
to an end by the prisoner fainting under the torture, or the

282 ONE GENERATION OF

examiners becoming convinced that nothing more was to
be got out of him tliat time. But they could afford to wait.
It was only a question of time. Topcliffe's long experience
had already made him acquainted with the terrible physio-
logical fact that pain rarely kills, and he had no scruples
about trying its power of crushing a man's spirit and
breaking his heart. It is probable that the prisoner was too
much exhausted by the effects of his sufferings on the last
occasion of his examination to allow of any further torture
being applied to him, until some time were given to recover
from the frightful strain which his system had endured.
At any rate a fortnight elapsed before he was subjected to
another ordeal. But on the 18th of May Serjeant Drewe
and Topcliffe were once more at the Tower, and Henry
Walpole was again brought before them. They began at
the point where they had left off — " What those two men
were to whom he was directed to use their aid in Ireland ? "
The answer was as before, " he refuseth to utter their
names." Topcliffe hereupon seems to have produced some
of the papers which Thomas Walpole had given up, and
upon these papers the examination proceeded. The
names of certain gentlemen in Norfolk, Essex, and Suffolk
were asked for, and still refused. His Spanish journey was
reverted to. On this point he was ready to tell them all
he knew, but when again they pressed him to betray the
places of residence of certain persons whose names Topcliffe
mentioned, and which had been found upon the papers
produced, it was as before : they might hang him up by the
manacles, but he would not yield. The pair of worthies
left their victim, having gained little or nothing. So far
he had been able to bear the agony bravely. Another
respite was allowed him, but it was plain that flesh and
blood could not bear these horrible examinations much
longer. This man had been and was ready to sacrifice all
hopes of an earthly career, and all that most men value
most highly. Honour and fame and wealth had long ceased
to have any attraction for him : no bribe that this world
could present would have tempted him for a moment; but

A NORFOLK HOUSE 283

the horrors of that dark dungeon, the presence of those
ghastly instruments of torture, the immeasurable agony of
wrenched joints and strained sinews, the spasm succeeding
spasm, and the swoon from which he was awakened only to
be racked again, the certainty that he was in the power
of men in whom there was no more pity than in the stone
walls that re-echoed his groans, — all this proved too
strong for human resolve, and he gave way. It was, as
I have said, only a question of time : each repetition of the
torture must needs have weakened the power of resistance.
The wonder in such a case is, not that he broke down at
last, but that he endured so long.

His next examination was on the 4th June. This time
he was not left to the tender mercies of Topcliffe and Drewe
alone, nor does it appear that any torture was applied.
His two former examiners were present, but they were
held in check by the presence of Sir Edward Coke, the
Attorney-General, " Justice Yung," Robert Beale, the Clerk
to the Privy Council, Sir Henry Killigrew, and Sir Michael
Blount, the Lieutenant of the Tower, seven in all. The
report to which their names are appended is very short. ^5
All that Henry Walpole is represented as confessing is
that he had received directions at Valladolid in July 1593,
from Claudius Aquaviva, to proceed to England and to put
himself under the orders of his superior, Father Garnet ;
that he had intended to arrive in London, and had actually
landed in England in December last. This document was
doubtless intended to serve as evidence upon the trial, and
it appears that Sir Edward Coke had already made some
preparation for the prosecution which it was intended at
this time to proceed with.^^

On the 10th of June Coke addressed a note to the Lord
Keeper Puckering, giving an abstract of the depositions
which had been laid before him touching the cases of Henry
Walpole and half a dozen other prisoners. Of course the
document is a mere case for the plaintiff, in which all that
makes in Walpole's favour is kept back and all that makes
against him is made the most of ; but Coke plainly shows

284 ONE GENERATION OF

that so far there was no case at all against him, except
on the ground of his having come back to England after
receiving Orders from the Church of Eome beyond sea.
In fact, the attempt to fasten any other charge upon him
had quite broken down. But he was now in Topcliffe's
hands. On the 13th the commissioners were at the Tower
once more, — Drewe, Young, and Topcliffe of course. Miles
Sandes, Clerk of the Crown of the King's Bench, and this
time not Sir Edward Coke, but his rival Francis Bacon.
Topcliffe, we may be sure, had not spared his victim, and
when the examiners appeared Topcliffe triumphantly
handed in a confession which Henry Walpole had written
with his own hand ; and yet it is a confession which does
him some little honour. He tells of Captain Jaques, Sir
William Stanley's second in command, having on one
occasion sounded him upon the subject of the lawfulness
of assassinating the Queen; "to whom," says he, "I
answered that for all the good in the world I would not
counsel any such attempt." He tells of a conversation
with Parsons on the same subject, when Parsons had
replied "that Catholics, and chiefly we religious men,
ought to suffer violence, but offer none, chiefly to princes ;
and he added that other means were by persuasion and
prayer, and that though it were not presently, yet no doubt
the seminaries would at length reduce England to the
faith." And then he adds, " For mine own part I protest
before God, as I have often, that I abhor to think thereof,
and never did nor would not move any man thereunto for
all the good in the world, Jesus is my witness ! "

After this he goes on to give a minute account of his life
during the last few years, of his journey to Spain, of his
return to Flanders, of his interviews with a number of
people whom he names, of his commission to go to Eng-
land and put himself under the direction of Garnet, the
Superior of the Jesuits, and meanwhile to do his best in
bringing over " fitting youths to the seminaries." From
this he passes on to tell all he knew of Stanley and his
doings. He had not seen him for some years, but he tells

A NORFOLK HOUSE 285

how Stanley had written to him " to deal with some priest
that might get access to my Lord Strange, now Earl of
Derby, to induce him to the Catholic religion . . . and he
added that Mr. John Gerard he thought were a fit man
thereunto." More intelligence follows ; it is mere gossip of
what he had heard in this place and that place, and he
expresses his belief that there is nothing to fear from the
Spaniards now. And this was all that he had to tell of
conspiracies or treasons abroad. When this confession was
handed in, it was accompanied by a running commentary
in the margin, which may still be read, in Topcliflfe's hand.
The object is plainly to prejudice the minds of the
examiners against Walpole, and to suggest that there
was still something kept back. So there was. Henry
Walpole even yet had not betrayed his friends, nor had
he yet disclosed even a single name or a single fact which
was not perfectly well known to the Government. But he
was not to be allowed to stop at this point. He had told
all he knew of things beyond the sea. What did he know
of things at home ? What of Garnet ? What of the Earl
of Arundel? What of those to whom he had brought
letters ? Who were those scholars at Seville and Valla-
dolid ? Of Garnet he had still nothing to tell ; in fact, his
apprehension immediately on his arrival had put it out of
his power to disclose anything. *' I have heard he hath
been at Mr. Wiseman's at Braddocks." ''Of the Earl of
Arundel I do not remember anything of moment." "J
was told that there was one Barnes, &c.," and so on.
Pressed for more precise answers on the more important
intelligence he could give, he told of Verstegan as the
channel of communication between the refugees and their
friends in England; ^7 of Dr. Giffard wishing him to see
his mother and ask for relief; of some of Parsons' writ-
ings, and of the chests of books still '' lying at St. Omers,
which were printed when the Armada was to have come
over," six years before ;but of anyone in Norfolk who had
befriended him ; of Edward Yelverton or the score of others
in Norfolk whom he must have had it in his power to

286 ONE GENERATION OF

betray, not one single luord. For himself, his agony and
despair wrung from him this last affecting appeal : "I
desire leave, if you please, to wait upon the most Honour-
able Her Majesty's Council, and that this act be con-
cealed till it shall please them to dispose of me howsoever
to their honours shall seem most to the good of the realm
and service of her Majesty, whom I do beseech upon my
knees to take pity upon a miserable prisoner and offender ;
yet now resolve to employ all my forces to her Majesty's
service, and to conform myself ever as it shall please her
Majesty to appoint me." Mercy ! As though such men as
Topcliffe and Young and Drew understood what the word
meant, or had one little spot in their natures where com-
passion could find a momentary resting-place.

Next day Henry Walpole was examined again, by the
same examiners as before. The information given this
time consists of a very valuable and particular account
of the seminaries in Spain, and the names of all the
scholars and priests residing in them at the time. There
are between forty and fifty names. After this he appears
to have received instructions to write to the Council what-
ever other information he had to furnish. Some time
appears to have elapsed before this letter to the Council
was extracted from him, and it was probably not till the
beginning of July that it was handed in. Alas ! it is a
painful document ; painful, i.e., to those who would wish to
find a man who had endured so much exhibit more heroism
than in this case can be claimed for him. But who of us
can estimate the power which immeasurable bodily pain
must exercise upon a highly sensitive and nervous tempera-
ment? Who shall say what could not be wrung from
himself, if all the mechanical appliances of ingenious
cruelty were paraded before his eyes in ghastly array — his
imagination worked upon at one time, his enfeebled frame
exposed to intense torment at another, and the recollection
of the torture of yesterday craftily made use of to fore-
shadow the horrors that were prepared for the morrow ?
Who can imagine the sum of misery, shame, remorse,

A NORFOLK HOUSE 287

despair, and self-reproach which those gricQ solitudes could
tell of in the cases of men who could bear their agonies
no longer, who broke down and betrayed their dearest
friends, and when the respite came from the torturer's
manacles or his rack were left to reflect upon the conse-
quences which their weakness might have brought on
others; left to gnash their teeth, and gnaw their hearts,
and weep tears of blood, for treachery which none more
than they themselves blushed at, and sorrowed for, and
abhorred ?

It would, however, be an injustice to Henry Walpole to
allow my readers to suppose that, even at the very worst,
he betrayed any who were not already heavily compromised.
A careful reading of this elaborate confession shows plainly
enough that he compromises no one at home whose life
or liberty could have been put in peril by his revelations.
If he told of the hundred pounds sent over to Edward
Walpole through Father Southwell, he knew that South-
well was at that moment a prisoner in the Tower. If he
mentioned the four Eookwoods of Coldham Hall, who were
at Douay, he was only speaking of what was a matter of
common parlance. If he says that he had heard of Gerard
having been harboured by "one of the Woodhouses in
Norfolk," he leaves it quite uncertain whether it was
Francis Woodhouse of Breccles, who had been a notorious
Eecusant for years, or Philip Wodehouse of Kimberley,
who was in a position to take care of himself. The
priests whose names he mentions had been all denounced
long before. The Wisemans' house at Braddocks had been
lately searched, and its inmates thrown into prison. For
the information that Holtby " lieth about York," it was as
well known as that Lord Huntingdon was to be found in
the same neighbourhood ; but he does not reveal the name
by which Holtby was hwion among the Catholics. " I think
all be known," he says, "which I knew to be Catholics
fourteen years ago ; " and if he adds the names of " Mr.
Hubbard and one Mr. Walgrave, in Suffolk or Essex,"
this was but to tell what needed no telling, for there were

288 ONE GENERATION OF

at least three or four Hubbards, and as many Waldegraves,
who at this moment were among the suspect. About
friends and kinsfolk in Norfolk, and all those among whom
he had a year ago learnt that John Gerard had been doing
"much good," he tells absolutely nothing.^^

But the most remarkable part of this paper addressed
to the Lords of the Council is that in which he professes
to have been brought to see the errors of his ways and
states his readiness to recant and conform. The language
he uses is not creditable to him, and there are expressions
for which I can offer or find no excuse. When he says,
** I never allowed of the ambition of the popes or any their
unjust usurpation over princes and their kingdoms," it is
difficult to see how he can have been sincere. When he
further declares his readiness "to go to the church . . .
and there preach only such doctrine as my conscience
doth tell me, and the Spirit of God, to be manifestly
deduced out of the Word of God; " when again he says,
" having conferred with divers learned Protestants of the
clergy at York I did find much less difference than I
thought," it is hard to get rid of the suspicion that his
misery and terror has told upon him, and dragged him
down to overact the craven's part. It is true he does
introduce in the midst of all this a saving clause which
reads like an attempt to shelter himself behind a quibble,
though here again he can hardly have believed that any
recantation would be accepted as sufficient in which he
declared that whatever he was prepared to say or do,
should be '^ xoithoxit prejudice of the Catholic faith, lohich
I ever profess." After all, we must read this document
" between the lines," and even so there is much that must
to the end remain unexplained.

One thing, however, is certain, viz., that all these con-
fessions and revelations did not save Henry Walpole from
far worse torture than he had been subject to before he
made them. On the contrary, the really dreadful ordeal
was still to come. In July 1594 he was able to write. It
seems that in the next few months Topcliffe was allowed

A NORFOLK HOUSE 289

to deal with him as he pleased. What he endured in that
terrible time, what he revealed, and what he was pressed
to invent, and what they tried to make him say or do or
promise, will never be known. The curtain drops upon all
those horrible scenes which make us shudder as we faintly
endeavour to recall them to our minds. We do know that
there came a time when he lost the use of his hands
altogether ; and when he somewhat recovered from the
effects of his torturing, his writing had become a tremulous
and almost illegible scrawl.'9 For nine long months he
lay in the Tower, and no further word or whisper concern-
ing him has survived to our time. The grey old walls
have many a sad story to tell of those who languished
there broken down and desperate, but no sadder one than
that of this man, who aspired to be a hero and who failed.

NOTES TO CHAPTEE XI.

1. Page 272. Devereux's Lives of the Devereux, Earls of Essex ,
vol. i. p. 144. Sir Robert Cecil's birth year is usually given as 1563,
but there is some uncertainty about it. In a letter to James I. (Camden
Society) Sir Robert speaks of "the mutual affection in our tender
years " which had existed between him and Essex.

2. Page 273. Devereux, i. 172 et seq. For his challenging Sir Walter
Raleigh see Edwards's Life of Raleigh, vol. i. p. 120. Norreys and Drake
sailed from Plymouth on the 14th April ; Essex, in the Sioiftsure, joined
them on the 13th May, 1589. Devereux, i. 194, 201, 204, 214. Compare
Naunton's Fragmenta Regalia ; Lingard's Elizabeth, chap. viii. ;
Wright's Elizabeth and Her Times, vol. ii. p. 400.

3. Page 274. Here is one example among a hundred. "... We
have examined a priest whose name is Gregory Gunnes, alias Stone,
being found out here by one Evan Arden, servant unto Mr. Treasurer of
the Household, who finding him by his speeches to be but a lewd fellow,
trained him to walk into a lane and causing two honest men to be behind
a pale where they might hear their conference," &g. &c. — P. R. 0.,
Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. 179, No. 7, 8th June, 1585. This Gunnes was a
Norfolk man, and I find him indicted in the Guildhall at Norwich
in 1596.

4. Page 275. As to his Judaism, see Spedding's Bacon (Life and
Letters), i. 278. The paper in Murdin says nothing about it; Camden
asserts it, as of course does Cecil. He had been taken prisoner in Don
Pedro's business in 1558. He can hardly have been long sworn in
physician to the Queen, otherwise it would be difficult to believe that
Anthony Bacon could write of him as he does in Birch, i. 93 ; yet
Francis Bacon says he had been physician " several years." See, how-
ever, the Abstract of the Evidence laid before the Jury on the trial
of Lopez. — Cal. P. R. 0., Domestic, Elizabeth, 1591-4, p. 445 et seq.

5. Page 276. See the graphic account of Essex's violence given by
Standish in Birch, vol. i. p. 149.

6. Page 276. Camden's Elizabeth, B. iv. f. 59.

7. Page 276. He adds " that he had ruined his father and mother
and himself by ivhat he had done with regard to Lopez, and the service
which he had performed to the Queen,^^ — Birch, ii. 268.

8. Page 277. Morus, Historia Prov. Angl. Soc. Jesu, lib. v. § 39,
p. 212.

290

ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE 291

9. Tage 277. The " hi^t of Pmonera in the Tower, under the custody
of Sir Mich. Blount, Lieutenant," may be seen in the Cal. Domestic,
Elizabeth, 1591-4, p. 484. For Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, see the
very curious Life of him published from the original MS. by the Duke
OF Norfolk in 1857. Why any omissions should have been made in
printing this very interesting biography it is difficult to understand.
Hallam, Const. History, vol. i. c. v. p. 255, gives a good account of
Wentworth's tioo offensive speeches. His first committal had taken
place in February 1576 ; " he was by the Queen's special favour restored
again to his liberty and place in the House on Monday, the 12th day
of March ensuing." D'Ewes has given a full report of his examina-
tion, etc. — Joiwnal of the Houses of Parliament, temp. Eliz.,-p. 241 et seq.
On the second occasion of his outspokenness, seventeen years after, *' so
highly was her Majesty offended that they must needs commit them
[Wentworth and Sir Henry Bromley] .... Whereupon Mr. Peter
Wentworth was sent Prisoner to the Tower. . . ." This was " Sunday,
and the 25th February," 1592-3.— D'Ewes, u.s., p. 470.

10. Page 278. The authority for Southwell's Life and Sufferings is
Mr. Foley's Record of the English Province, S.J., series i. pp. 301-86.

11. Page 278. The following extracts from " Questions to be proposed
to the Council, touching the sums to be paid to the Lord Lieutenant
by prisoners in the Tower, for diet, fees, and other charges," are
suggestive : " . . . Now the L. has not the goods or bedding of prisoners
... is he to have them? . . . Shall it be taken at entrance or departure
of prisoners? . . . The Porter may claim upper garment . . .shall
it be only upper garment ? . . , Item, whereas the Lieut, is bound
to send meat to every close prisoner, he hath invented a new
exaction to cause the said prisoners to pay him 5s. a week /or the man
that bringeth them meat, which was never seen before, for a man cannot
pay for meat unless he have it, a7id a close prisoner cannot go for it nor
send his man for it.'' — P. E. 0., Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. xvii. No. 46.
These questions are dated "June (?) 1561." It is very certain that matters
did not get better after this time.

12. Page 279. P. R. 0., Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. xvii.. No. 68.

13. Page 279. u.s., No. 78. As Mr. Jardine's tract is now rare and
seldom met with, I think it well to extract from it the following order
of the Privy Council, which will speak for itself.

" 25th Oct. 1591.

"A Letter to Doctor Fletcher, Richard Topclyffe, Richard
Branthwayte, and Richard Yonge, Esquers.

" Whereas one Eustace Wayte, a Semynarye Prist, was of late taken,
and there was also one Brian Lassey, a dispenser and distribiture of
letters to papysts and other evyll affected subjects, apprehended in like

292 ONE GENERATION OF

sorte ; Theise shall be therefore to will and require you to take the
examynacions and confessions of both the said persons, and verie
straightly to examyn them uppon soche articles as you, Eichakd Top-
CLYFFE, shall administer unto them ; and if they shall not declare their
knowledges, and answer directly to all soche matters as you shall think
meet and necessary to he propounded unto them, then shall you by vertue
hereof, for the better boulting forthe of the truthe, cause them to he put
to the manacles and soche other tortures as are used in Bridewell, to
th'end they may be compelled to utter soche things as shall concern
Her Majestic and the Estate : And their Examynations so taken by you,
we pray you to send the same to us." — From the Council Book in
A Reading on the Use of Torture in the Criminal Laio of England, hy
David Jardine, 1837, Appendix No. 34, p. 92.

Brian Lasey (spelt Lassey in the Council Book) was brother to
EiCHARD Lasey of Brockdish, go. Norfolk. He had been hetrayed hy
his hr other eight years before this horrible torturing, but had apparently
managed to escape apprehension. In Richard Lacey's confession,
extorted probably under great pressure, he gives some valuable informa-
tion regarding the Catholic gentry in Norfolk and Suffolk at this time.
I hope to print this curious document, with illustrative notes, in the
Original Papers of the Norfolk and Nonvich Archceological Society at
no distant date. The original is to be found in vol. 169, No. 19,
Domestic, Elizaheth, P. R. 0. It is dated 13th March, 1584.

14. Page 279. u.s., vol. 247, No. 78, No. 91.

15. Page 28S. tt.s., vol. 249, No. 4. I have not thought it necessary to
give the references to each of these examinations. The Calendar, Domestic,
Elizabeth, 1591-4, may easily be referred to, but I quote, and have
before me, verbatim transcripts from the original documents themselves.

16. Page 283. Sir Edward Coke had just been appointed Attorney-
General. For the rivalry between Coke and Bacon at this time, see
Spedding.

17. Page 285. It was perfectly well known to the Government that
Verstegan was the principal channel of communication between the
refugees and their friends at home. As to Braddocks and the Wisemans,
Walpole very probably had heard all about them, the search at their
house (Braddocks in Essex) and the break up of their establishment,
from his fellow-prisoner Southwell. See Foley's Records, u.s.

18. Page 288. On Sir Philip Wodehouse, see previous chapter.
The following is from the Day Book of the " Commissioners for
Ecclesiastical Causes within the Diocese of Norwich," now in the
Bishop's Registry: "23rd March 1597 . . . I?i aula infra Pallacium
Episcopale Norvicense . . . before William, Bishop of Norwich. . .
Edm. Sucklinge, S.T.P., Robert West, S.T.P., JohnMaplisdon, Archd."

A NORFOLK HOUSE 293

of Suffolk. . . . Nicholas Wilkinson, Gent., appeared in custody. . . .
And being further examined what Conventicles in Matters of Keligion
he had frequented, he saith that he did not frequent any such unlawful
assemblies, neither that he had been at any Popish Recusant's house,
saving only at Breccles at the house of Mr. Francis Woodhouse, Esq.
(whose wife is a Recusant), since his coming from London, and hath
made his abode there in that house by the space of three weeks last past
before this his Examination. And being secondly required whether he
would receive the Holy Communion or not, he answered he was not fully
persuaded in his Conscience touching the doctrine of that Sacrament,
&c., cfec."

19. Prtr/e 289. "... I can well believe that he (Henry Walpole) was
racked that number of times, for he lost through it the proper use of his
fingers. This 1 can vouch for from the following circumstance. He
was carried back to York, to be executed in the place where he was taken
on his first landing in England, and while in prison there he had a
discussion with some ministers, which he wrote out with his own hand.
A part of this writing was given to me, together with some meditations
on the Passion of Christ, which he had written in prison. . . . These
writings, however, I could scarcely read at all, not because they were
written hastily, but because the hand of the writer could not form the
letters. It seemed more like the first attempts of a child than the hand-
writing of a scholar and a gentleman such as he ?yas." — Gerard's Autobio-
graphy prefixed to The Condition of Catholics under James I., p. xci.

Note A.
HENRY WALPOLE'S CELL IN THE TOWEE.

The following account is extracted from a paper in the Month for
December 1874, by Mr. Morris, entitled " The Tower of London."

' ' Father Gerard's account of his escape from the Tower is not likely to
be forgotten by any one who has read it. It makes an impression on the
imagination second only to his narrative of the torture he endured. It
will be interesting therefore to try to identify the cell occupied by him,
and the place where he effected his escape by crossing the moat on a
rope. He has mentioned a sufficient number of circumstances to make
this identification possible, and as far at least as the cells are concerned
which were honoured by the imprisonment of Father Henry Walpole
and himself, they are happily in excellent condition, and but little
changed.

"Sir Richard Barkly, the Lieutenant, conducted him, when he was
brought to the Tower of London from the Clink prison, ' to a large high

294 ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE

tower of three storeys, with a separate lock-up place in each, one of a
number of different towers contained within the whole inclosure. He
left me for the night in the lowest part.' The warder, after throwing
some straw on the ground, ' fastened the door of my prison, and secured
the upper door both with a great bolt and iron bars. The next day I
examined the place, for there was some light though dim, and I found
the name of Father Henry Walpole, of blessed memory, cut with a knife
on the wall, and not far from there I found his oratory, which was a
space where there had been a narrow window, now blocked up with
stones. There he had written on either side with chalk the names of the
different choirs of angels, and on the top, above the cherubim and
seraphim, the name of the Mother of God, and over that the name of
Jesus, and over that again, in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, the name of
God.'

" The place thus described was the Salt Tower, an ancient tower, the
origin of the name of which is unknown, and which seems at one time
to have shared with the White Tower the honour of being called after
' Julyus Sesar.' The tower has received a new external face of stone,
but the interior is as nearly in its ancient state as is compatible with its
present use as a dwelling-house. A door has been opened from the
bottom of the tower, which did not exist in Father Gerard's time, when
the entrance to it was from the ballium wall or inner line of fortification,
of which the Salt Tower formed the south-east angle. Father Gerard
took no account of what is now called the cellar, and the interior face of
the stones of its walls shows no sign of ever having been scored by a
prisoner's knife. Besides this there are three ancient storeys. What we
should now call the first floor is the cell to which Father Gerard
descended from the door by which he entered, and in which he found
Father Walpole's ' oratory.' The room is ' sufficient large and commo-
dious for a prisoner,' being a pentagon about sixteen feet across. It is
no longer dimly lighted, for a modern two-light Gothic window has taken
the place of one of the ancient loopholes, through which the cell received
of old such light and air as it had. There were five of these little
openings in the enormously thick walls of the circular tower, and as
Father Gerard says that at least one of these was blocked up with stones,
the place may well have been dim.

" There are many inscriptions remaining on the walls of the cell,
interesting enough in their way ; but there was one in particular, that
has not been noticed in any of the books written on the Tower, the sight
of which made one's heart leap into one's mouth. There were the
words, thickly coated with whitewash, that testified that in this cell
Henry Walpole had been imprisoned. The name of the martyr is to be
seen where Father Gerard saw it, by the window, though of course the
holy words that he had written close by in chalk have long ago been
effaced. A very fine old fireplace faces you as you enter the cell, .and the
window once thus sanctified is the next to it on your left."

CHAPTER XII.

THE TRIAL AND THE SCAFFOLD.

There is a curious story to be found in Henry Walpole's
earliest biography (published, it must be remembered,
within a year of his death) which professes to account for
the sudden decision of the Council to bring their prisoner to
trial. We are told that in January 1595 a Jesuit Father,
whose name does not appear, had been commissioned to
take charge of six young Englishmen, who had been
spending some time at the seminary of St. Omer, and to
transfer them to the new seminary at Valladolid. The
vessel in which they set sail was captured by an English
cruiser in the Channel, and the whole party was thrown
into prison. The boys were the sons of men of birth and
position in England, who had sent their children across the
sea to be educated — contrary to the statute which had
made such a course illegal — and of course they belonged to
the class of malcontents who were either Popish Recusants
or at least averse to the dominant creed. The capture of
so many young people at once created, says Cresswell,
some excitement. They were first brought before the
Council, and then sent to Archbishop Whitgift, to be kept
under surveillance and to be taught the error of their ways.
They are said to have behaved with something like con-
tumacy, but they were compelled to afford information on
the condition of the French and Spanish seminaries ; and
the intelligence gathered from them sufficed to increase the
irritation and annoyance of the Government, who learnt
that the activity of the English Jesuits on the Continent
was just as great as ever, and their success as remarkable
as ever in inducing young Englishmen to leave their homes

295

296 ONE GENERATION OF

and to seek education in the colleges beyond the sea.
These lads had not been long under the Archbishop's charge
before their conductor disappeared, and then for the first
time, to the mortification of the authorities, it leaked out
that this NayUs 7nerchant, as he was supposed to be, was
himself a Jesuit Father, and that he had managed to escape
the clutches of the law. This was provoking enough, but
when, very shortly after, all the six youths gave their
jailers the slip, and succeeded in getting safely to the other
side of the Channel, it was only natural that the Govern-
ment should rush to the conclusion that such a remarkable
escape, on such a large scale too, must have been the result
of some widespread plot, of which many must be cognisant,
and the ramifications of which might extend very much
further than yet appeared. We are told that Topcliffe was
called in to advise what should be done, and that he
reminded the Lords of the Council that there were two
notable Jesuits still pining in the Tower — Southwell, who
had been lying there nearly three years, and Walpole, who
had been in confinement fifteen months. Topcliffe sug-
gested that these two should be brought to trial without
delay, and proceeded with according to the utmost rigour of
the law.^

The truth of this story is that on the 25th January, 1595,
one of the Fathers of the Society, named William Baldwin,
started from St. Omer for Spain, as Cresswell tells us,
having six scholars under his charge. The vessel in which
they sailed was captured by an English ship and brought
home as a prize ; Father Baldwin, who was committed to
the custody of Lord Nottingham, the Lord High Admiral,
being taken for a Neapolitan merchant, was subsequently
sent to Bridewell and there detained as a prisoner of war.
The boys were put under the custody of Aylmer, Bishop of
London, and first one and then another were let out on
bail, their friends, it is to be presumed, giving security for
their reappearance when called on. One and all slipped
away and again crossed the Channel. Father Baldwin,
after being kept some months in confinement, was

A NORFOLK HOUSE 297

exchanged against one Hawkins, an Englishman, who had
been a prisoner in Spain. Not till they had all got away
safely was it discovered that an active Jesuit emissary had
succeeded in outwitting the Government ; and it is quite
conceivable that under the irritation that was aroused the
Lords of the Council resolved upon making an example of
such Jesuit Fathers as were then in prison, and that thus
the trial of Southwell and Walpole was precipitated.

It is, however, hardly worth while to attempt to account
for Henry Walpole's trial taking place when it did, nor
would it be worth our while to do so at all, but that an
impression had got abroad, and a report been circulated,
that the Queen had been so shocked at the execution of
. Campion that she had vowed never again to put a Jesuit
Father to death. Certain it is that, though several Jesuits
had been captured, none had been executed for more than
thirteen years : the unhappy Seminary priests had been
butchered by scores, but of the Jesuits who had been
hunted down none had suffered on the scaffold since the
day when Campion and Briant had been hung at Tyburn.
Whatever may have been the occasion or the motive, the
fact alone is what we are now concerned with. In the
spring of 1595 it was determined that Henry Walpole should
be sent to York for trial.

The judges who held the Lent Assizes at York were
Francis Beaumont and Matthew Ewens. Beaumont had
been appointed a Justice of the Common Pleas about two
years. He was the father of the dramatic poet, and he had
himself been a fellow commoner of Peterhouse a few years
before Henry Walpole had matriculated at the college.
Ewens had been raised to the bench of the Exchequer only
a few months, and this was probably his first criminal cause.
Associated with these was the Earl of Huntingdon, as a
matter of course, and William Hillyard, who had been
reader at the Temple some years before, had represented
York in the Parliament of 1586, and was now Recorder of
the city.2

Unhappily the Assize Rolls of this period can no longer

298 ONE GENERATION OF

be found, and the only details of the trial that have reached
us have come down to us in a fragmentary form. But we
learn that the prosecution was entrusted to Serjeant Saville,
ancestor of the present Earl of Mexborough,3 and the jury
was impanelled on Thursday, the 13th of April, 1595. The
indictment appears to have contained three counts: —

1st. That the prisoner had abjured the realm without
a licence.

2nd. That he had received Holy Orders beyond the
seas.

3rd. That he had returned to England to exercise his
priestly functions, he being a Jesuit Father and
a priest of the Eoman Church.
The prisoner pleaded " Not guilty," and Serjeant Saville
proceeded to open the case for the prosecution. The speech
which he delivered seemed to have been a long and
elaborate one. He did not spare the Jesuits, we may be
sure : he did not spare the prisoner. It was bad enough
that he was a priest ; it was worse that he had entered the
Society ; but that he should have returned to his country
to pervert and corrupt men's minds was worst of all; and
this of itself, according to the provisions of the statute,
constituted him guilty of the crime of high treason, and
deserving of a traitor's death. When the prosecutor had
finished, Henry Walpole's own confessions, extracted under
torture, or such of them as were pertinent to the occasion,
were read by the clerk of the court ; and upon the evidence
thus adduced the jury were called upon to pronounce their
verdict. At this point Henry Walpole begged to be heard
in his own defence. It must be borne in mind that no one
charged with a capital offence in any English court was
allowed, under any circumstances, to employ counsel to
defend him for more than two centuries after the time
we are now speaking of, and the chances of obtaining an
acquittal were almost infinitely small ; on this occasion it
was even moved by the Becorder Hillyard that the prisoner
should not be heard. The court, he said, had before it the
confessions which had been put in as evidence, and required

A NORFOLK HOUSE 299

to hear no more. The prisoner earnestly and humbly
appealed against the cruel objection, and Beaumont over-
ruled it and allowed him to proceed. Then he is reported
to have commenced his reply.^

"I find, my Lords, I am accused of Two or Three
Things.

" 1st. That I am a Priest, ordained by the Authority of
the See of Borne.

'^2ndly. That I am a Jesuit^ or one of the Society of
Jesus.

" Srdlij. That I returned to my Country to exercise the
ordinary Acts of these Two Callings ; which are no other
than to gain Souls to God.

" I will shew that none of these Three Things can be
Treason : Not the being a Priest, which is a Dignity and
Office instituted by our Lord Jes7cs Christ, and given by
Him to His Apostles, who were Priests ; as were also the
holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church, who converted and
instructed the World : And the first Teachers, who brought
over the English Nation to the Light of the Gospel, were
also Priests ; so that were it not for Priests, we should
all be Heathens ; consequently to be a Priest can be no
Treason.

" Judge Beamont here spoke ; Indeed, said he, the merely
being a Priest, or Jesuit, is no treason; hut what makes
you a Traitor, is your returning into the Kingdom against
the Laws. If to be a Priest, said Father Wal'pole, is no
Treason, the executing the Office, or doing the Functions of
a Priest, can be no Treason. But if a Priest, said the Judge,
should conspire against the Person of his Prince, icould not
this he Treason ? Yes, said Father Waljpole ; but then
neither his being a Priest, nor the following the Duties of his
Calling, would make him a Traitor ; but the committing of a
Crime contrary to the Duty of a Priest ; which is far from
being my Case.

" Yo^L have been, said Beamont, with the King of Spain,
and you have treated and conversed loith Parsons and
Holt, and other Bebels and Traitors to the Kingdom; and

300 ONE GENERATION OF

you have returned hither contrary to the Laws; and therefore
you cannot deny your bei?ig a Traitor. Father Walpole
replied, To speak or treat with any Person whatsoever, out
of the Kingdom, can make me no Traitor, as long as no
proof can be brought, that the Subject about which we
treated was Treason ; neither can the returning to my
native Country be look'd upon as a Treason, since the
Cause of my Eeturn was not to do any Evil, either to
the Queen or to the Kingdom.

" Our Laws appoint, said Beamont, that a Priest who
returns from beyond the Seas, and does not present himself
before a Justice, within Three Days, to make the usual
Submission to the Queen's Majesty, in Matters of Beligion,
shall be deem'd a Traitor. Then I am out of the Case,
said Father Walpole, who was apprehended before I had
been one whole Day on English Ground.

" Here Beamont being put to a Nonplus, Judge Elvin
ask'd him, If he was ready to make that Submission to the
Queen, in Matters of Beligion, which the Laws of the King-
dom required, viz., To acknowledge her Supremacy, and
abjure the Pope ? Father Walpole answered, he did not
know what laws they have made in England whilst he
was abroad, nor what Submission these Laws required ;
but this he very well knew, that no Law could oblige any
one, that is not agreeable to the Law of God ; and that
the Submission that is to be pay'd to earthly Princes,
must always be subordinate to that Submission which
we owe to the great King of Heaven and Earth. Then
he added. You, my Lords, sit here at present in Judgment
as Men, and judge as such, being subject to Error and
Passion ; but knoio for certain, that there is a sovereign
Judge, who luill judge righteously ; tvhom, in all Thiiigs,
we miLst obey in the first place ; and then our laioful Princes,
in S2ich Things as are lawful, and no farther.

" Here the Lord President spoke. We deal very favour-
ably with you, Mr. Walpole, said he, lohen, iwtioithstanding
all these Treasons and Conspiracies zuith the Persons afore-
said, loe offer you the Benefit of the Laiv if you will mit

A NORFOLK HOUSE 301

make the Submission order'd by the Laio ; tvhich, if you
luill not accept of, it is proper you should be punish' d accord-
ing to the Law. Father Walpole replied, There is nothing,
my Lord, in which I would not most willingly submit
mj^self, provided it be not against God : But may His
divine Majesty never suffer me to consent to the least
Thing, by which He may be dishonour'd, nor you to desire
it of me. As to the Queen, I every Day pray for her
to our Lord God, that He would bless her with His Holy
Spirit, and give her His Grace to do her Duty in all Things
in this World, to the End that she may enjoy eternal Glory
in the World to come : And God is my Witness, that to
all here present, and particularly to my Accusers, and
such as desire my Death, I wish as to myself the Salvation
of their Souls, and that, to this End, they may live in the
true Catholic Faith, the only Way to eternal Happiness."

It was not for nothing that Henry Walpole had gone
through his legal training at Gray's Inn, if he could acquit
himself so well on this supreme occasion. But it need
hardly be said that it was all in vain. He had been
brought into court, not to obtain a trial, but to hear his
sentence, and this was soon to follow. The judge summed
up the evidence, and ordered the jury to find the prisoner
guilty. They did as they were told, and the prisoner was
removed to his cell to await the sentence, which for the
present was deferred.

There was another priest, a Gloucestershire man, named
Alexander Rawlings, whom it had been determined to make
an example of at the same time, who had now to be tried.
He had been educated at the English College at Rheims,
and had been exercising his priestly functions in Yorkshire
for some years before the pursuivants caught him. He
had been arrested on Christmas Eve, and had apparently
been in York Castle ever since. He had never been
connected with the Jesuits, and was a seminary priest
of whom very little is known. s It was too late on the
Thursday to proceed with this man's trial, and when it

302 ONE GENERATION OF

came on it occupied the whole of the next day. While
it was going on, and while Henry Walpole was hourly
expecting to hear his doom, he found means to write to his
father and some other friends. In his letter to his father,
which unhappily has not been preserved, he made one
last request, viz., that £80 should be distributed among the
officials of the castle in which he had been immured. It
is only reasonable to assume that the jailers were made
acquainted with the contents of the letter, and took good
care that it should be delivered, together with any others
that their prisoner might choose to send. One of these
other letters has reached us in a Latin translation, and
may be seen in extenso in Henry More's History, but as
the volume is one of excessive rarity I think it well to
give a portion of it here. It was addressed to Father
Holtby, of whom we have heard before.

" I am to be executed to-morrow. It appears to me,
therefore, needful that I should commend myself to your
prayers and those of our fathers and brethren. For the
rest, I doubt not that the Holy Spirit has already suggested
to you, as to all truly Catholic hearts, with whom I glory
in being in communion, to pray to our God, Creator,
Eedeemer, and Sanctifier, that He may be my helper in
this last conflict that I have to sustain, for the glory of
His name and the edification of His holy Church. That
He may vouchsafe to strengthen the inner man against all
the suggestions of this fleshly body that we gat from the
old Adam ! This earthly prison-house which keeps in
the soul is about to fall off, but God with His mighty
hand will raise it up again, glorified and immortal, to place
it in its home of eternal felicity, and to make it conformable
to the body of our Lord Jesus Christ." Then, after briefly
referring to the main points of his defence, he prays for
the forgiveness of those who had compassed his death, &c.,
and brings his letter to a close as follows : " I tell you
nothing of all that passed during my year's detention in
the Tower of London. I hold my peace, too, on many
other details. You will know them in heaven, when we

A NORFOLK HOUSE 3^3

shall see each other again. Let this letter, written in haste,
but with cordial affection, suffice. It is time for me to
lay my pen aside to employ myself only in prayer to the
great God, for whom I am fighting the good fight, with
whom I hope to be face to face on the morrow."

But the closing scene was not to come so soon : the trial
of Eawlings was protracted till late on Friday evening, and
the judges resolved not to call up the prisoners to receive
sentence till next day. This was Saturday the 15th, and as
the ordinary practice was to allow one night to intervene
between the sentence and its execution, and even in those
days the susceptibilities of some people would have been
shocked if two men had been hung upon the Sunday
morning, they were granted another day to live, and the
hanging was fixed for the Monday morning, the 17th April,
1595. Not even during those two days which preceded the
execution, however, was Henry Walpole allowed to remain
unmolested. Once again he was subjected to an ordeal
which to our mind appears, under the circumstances,
eminently shocking and indecent, but which to our fore-
fathers seemed only a proper and commendable proceeding.
Once again the prison was turned into a debating place,
and a crowd of polemics presented themselves to dispute on
points of controversial divinity with this man who had but
a few hours to spend on earth. It is painful to hear of
clergymen of learning and character taking part in such
an unseemly wrangling, and of a scholar and gentleman like
Sir Edwin Sandys putting himself forward and entering the
lists ; ^ but these encounters suited the temper of the age,
which, after all, was a cruel and coarse one ; and people
were attracted in crowds to watch the way in which a
criminal met his fate, much in the same spirit that they
assembled to look on at a bull-fight or a bear-baiting.

The fatal morning came at last, and with it came the end.
The story of that dreadful day has reached us from the pen
of one who, if he were not present, could not have been far
away ; for the letter which follows, and which is still pre-
served among the archives at Stonyhurst, is, I believe, in

304 ONE GENERATION OF

Holtby's handwriting. I give it as I find it, neither adding
to nor withholding a word : it needs no comment.

" I thought it my dutie bothe to him of whom I have to
write & to yourself, to send you worde of that v^^ I have
understood of F. Warp. \sic\ by a gentleman whoe was his
schoolefellowe and familiar friend in Cambridge and lately
felowe prisoner with him in Yorke, who havinge conference
with him there hath tould me what himself was there an
eye witnesse of. First for his usage in the Tower he would
not tell him an [y] further but that he was diverse tymes
(my frende thinks 6 or 7) uppon a torture I thinke by his
description somewhat like that of F. South"^ by which
means bothe his thums were lamed, so that he had not the
use of them ; he was not uppon the racke. He was verie
austere unto himselfe after his cominge out of the Tower :
in all his jorney he neither ley in bed nor came upon any,
but laye uppon the flore. In the castle he had a litle matt
of a yard longe uppon which he used in the night to kneele,
and untill deade sleepe came uppon him he did not sleepe.
And he that ley in his chamber w*^ him did affirme that he
never wakened but he heard the f either praye or sighe,
and some tyms when the comon prisoners in the gaile did
sweare and blaspheme, he should heere him softly to saye
Conjuro te Sathan, audio hlasphemiam. Thus saithe my
frend he laye uppon the stones (belike his chamber beinge
pavd or done with bricke) unlesse he leined uppon his elboe.
But beside his praiers much parte of the night he spent in
making verses wherof I send you a copie so far as he went
untill his deathe. My frend whoe tellethe me this hath his
owne copie in Yorkshire which is so ill writt (by the defect
of his thums) that he had verie much adoe to reade it
thoughe I thinke acquainted with his hand.

*' The daye tyme was for the most parte spent in disputa-
tion with diverse ministers that came unto him. At on,
which was the cheefe, my frend was present. The disputers
were on Higgens,7 a minister, and I thinke a graduate in
their kind of divinitie, and on Sands, sone to the old man

A NORFOLK HOUSE 305

of Yorke, deceased, and he the better witt and a fine
philosopher, and able to saye more than any there, it is
thought, but he is a man of feine livinge and noe minister.
The questions were betweene them of Justification, and of
the continuance of faith in Peeter's chaire. In the first
Higgens was in the begininge verie earnest ; but as his
reasons grewe weaker soe his words, insomuch that after-
wards he deferred much unto the F% and kept of some other
ministers when they would interrupt him or be hastie with
him, shewinge both with words and with countenance that
the man was to be used with reverence. The particulars
my frend doth not remember. Sands desired rather to
prove his part perpetua or at lone than otherwise ; trustinge
to his witt and fine discourse, he made a speeche of an
bower and a quarter longe, seekinge to prove that the faithe
first might decaye by scriptures, then that it had decayed
as well by councills, which he alledged, as by other authori-
ties. When he had done, F. Warp, collected all his speeche,
recitinge the suihe thereof, and all his arguments so playnly,
so truely, and with so good a methode, that both the dis-
puters and others gave him great thanks, and seemed to
saye they had not heard the like. Then he answered the
particulers with greate facilitie, and as my frend saithe he
shewed a greate memories, leinge down unto them the
stories of those councells, and declaring how they were never
confirmed, &c. Sands would sometyms interrupt him, but
still he was satisfied, and drewe neerer and neerer by
grauntinge many particulers. Insomuch that in the ende
he sayd publicly there was litle difference betweene their
opinions, usinge the Greeke wurd, that there diff. was but
in Microtrion, I thinke he sayd. On minister standinge by
my frend havinge seene the F'. stand so still when the
other was speakinge so longe together, and afterwards
seeinge him speake so fully to the matter and so amply,
he sayd softly to himself. This is a close felowe, sayd he,
affirminge it with an othe. Finally all the companie did
shewe greate satisfaction both in his modestie, wisedom,
and learninge, and desired him then with greater instancie

3o6 ONE GENERATION OF

that he would yeeld but in the least point, or doe somethinge
to save his life, which they sayd they greately pittied.

" At the tyme of his execution, first they brought out
Mr. Alexander, and the people would have had him lye on
the right side, but he refused, seinge that was provided for
a better man. There went diverse of the cheefe to F. Warp,
to intreate him that they might save him, and stayed him
2 howers all (?), the other lyinge uppon the hurdle. On
tyme they asked him what he sayd of the Queene and
whether he would praie for her. As I take it this was there
question, and he answered he tooke her for his Queene, and
honoured her, and would praie for her ; with which answer
they, being desirous to save him, rane to the President, but
it pleased God that he propounded an other question,
willinge them to aske him what yf the Pope should ex-
comunicate her, &c., and forbid men to praie for her (I doe
not well remember this question, but I will inquier better
of it), whether then he would doe as before ; he answered
he might not nor would not. Then they caried him awaye.
Mr. Alexander was first put to deathe, whoe beinge taken
up went first to F. Warp, to aske |his benediction. They
had beene leid contrarie ways uppon the hurdle, and F.
Warp, head next unto the horses. Mr. Alex', goinge up the
ladder kissed it, and the people bad him kiss the rope alsoe.
He say'd he would with all his hart, and so did when he
came unto it. When he was dead they shewed him to
F. Warp., still using persuasions. When he was up the
ladder they still cried uppon him to yeeld in the least point,
but to sey he would confer, and he should be saved. He
answered, you knowe I have conferred. They kept him
longe with such questions, and satisfied all in fewe words,
and prayed muche. At lengthe some (?) asked him what
he thought of the Queen's supremacie, he answeared she
doth chalenge it, but I maye not graunt it. His last praier
was Pr nf, and he was begininge Ave Maria when they
turned him over the ladder. They let him hange untill he
were dead. There were verie many of the best thier present,
and the highe Sherife went with him to his deathe, which

A NORFOLK HOUSE 3o7

was never seene in the contrey before. I am promised a
peece of his ha . . . which was taken out of the fier whole
when the people were gone." ^

Thus suffered upon the scaffold Henry Walpole, in his
thirty-sixth year. If he did not deserve a better fate, he
could scarcely have met with a worse. His creed was not
my creed ; his career may well require excuse ; his life may
seem to some one long mistake ; his character was not
without defects ; there was even in his intense enthusiasm
a certain element of effeminacy ; he had not that rugged
vigour and coarseness of fibre which has enabled some men
to bear pain and be silent even unto death, but when there
remained for him nothing but to die, he died bravely. Thank
God the fires of Smithfield will never be lighted again, nor
the hangman's bloody knife again be plunged into the
bowels of unhappy priests at York ; but, alas ! the spirit
of intolerance is not dead, and it is against that
spirit, and not only against the ghastly exhibitions
of its malignity, that we have to protest and be on our
guard. Falsehood has had its martyrs as well as truth,
and persecution has not been idle in the east or the west :
the Saviour told us He came not to send peace but a sword.
Even now, with all our boasted advance, we find it hard to
extend our charity towards those whose powers of persua-
sion we have learnt to fear. Even now there is rather a
tendency to excuse the atrocities of a bygone age than to
condemn them. But let who will plead for the persecutor
such palliation as may be found : for me, I do not envy
that man or woman who can think of Henry Walpole's
sufferings without pity, or of his cruel death without shame.

NOTES TO CHAPTER XII

1. Page 296. I have called this a curious story, because, though
Cresswell makes a great deal of it in his little book, neither Yepez nor
Bartoli mentions it at all, nor, if I remember rightly, does Father Henry
More. Father Baldwin's apprehension is detailed by Juvencius {Hist.
Soc. Jes.,lih. xiii. pars v. p. 143), who says that his captors, deceived
by Baldwin's stature and military bearing, believed him to be an Italian
soldier of fortune. He for his part pretended to know no English,
and kept up the character of a foreigner till he was released. Cresswell
assures us that the boys were examined before the Lord High Admiral
and Archbishop Whitgift, and that they were interrogated, among
others, by M. de la Fontaine, preacher of the French Church in
London, and Adrian Sara via, who, he says, was at that time a member
of Whitgift's household. [He did not receive his stall at Canterbury
till nearly a year after this.] In both cases he spells the names
incorrectly, and evidently did not know who the men were whom he
writes about. He adds that he had actually received his account from
two of the boys who had escaped, and whom he had talked with at
Valladolid. In Mr. Foley's Records of the English Province, vol. iii.
p. 503, are the names of these boys and an account of Father Baldwin.
It appears that at the time of his capture he went by the assumed
name of Octavius Fuscinelli. Father Baldwin became eventually a
very conspicuous character, and Mr. Foley gives a long account of
him. — On M. De La Fontaine, see Strype, Ann. iv. 549 et seq. ; and
on Sara VIA, Ann. I. ii. 223, and Heylin, History of the Presbyterians,
lib. ix. § 11.

2. Page 297. Francis Beaumont — he was never knighted — was
made one of the Justices of the Common Pleas 25th January, 159|.
Matthew Ewens was made a Baron of the Exchequer 1st February,
159|. William Hillyard of Winestead, co. York, was Reader to the
Temple in 1581, and M.P. for York 1586. He was a member of the
Committee for considering whether Mary Queen of Scots should be
brought to trial and he appears then to have been Recorder of York. —
Cooper's Athence Cant. ; Foss's Judges ; Dugdale's Origines ; The Temple
Records^ by W. H. Cooke, Q.C. ; Sir Simonds D'Ewes' Journals of Pari.,
Eliz., p. 294. The reader will notice that Challoner, following bis MS.,

308

ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE 309

speaks of Ewens as Elvin. There was no such judge at this time,
and there is no doubt of Judge Ewens being concerned in Henry
Walpole's trial.

3. Page 298. Sir John Saville was of a very ancient Yorkshire
family. He was made Serjeant 29th November, 1592, and Baron of
the Exchequer 1st July, 1598. His estates in Yorkshire are still in the
possession of the family. His brother Henry Saville was the editor of
Chrysostom, one of the translators of the Gospels for King James's Bible,
and the founder of the Savillian Professorship of Mathematics at Oxford.
— Foss's Judges ; Wood's Ath. Oxon. ; Cartwright's Chapters on Yorkshire
Hist., p. 202. Sir George Saville, one of the members for Yorkshire,
moved the repeal of the Popish disabilities in 1778.

4. Page 299. Challoner's Missionary Priests, vol. i. p. 347. Cresswell
gives a r^sum^ of Sir John Saville's speech, which is translated by Yepez.
The report of the trial in the text is from Challoner, who appears to
have had before him the original document from which Yepez made
his Spanish version. Bartoli makes no mention of the trial.

5. Page 301. He made his appearance at Rheims 23rd December,
1587, and gave his\ alias as Francis Ferriman. He was ordained priest
18th March, 1590, and left for England 9th April of the same year. —
First and Second Diaries of the English College, Douay, D. Nutt, 1878.

6. Page 303. Sir Edwin Sandys was second son of the Archbishop
of York. Though a layman, he was a Prebendary of York from 1582
to 1G02, as his brother, Sir Miles Sandys, was from 1585 to 1601.
He was a pupil of Richard Hooker at Corpus Christi College, Oxford ;
knighted by James I. in 1603 ; treasurer of the Virginian Company 1619.
He was thrown into the Tower with Selden in June 1621, but released
next month. In 1625 he, together with Pym, drew up a petition to
Charles I. to enforce the laws against Popish Recusants. His work
Europe Speculum was at one time a book much read. — Wood's Ath.
Oxon. ; Le Neve's Fasti ; Gardiner's Prince Charles and the Spanish
Marriage, vol. ii. 26, 29 ; and England under the Duke of Buckingham
and Charles I., vol. i. 196. There is much about him in Gardiner's
History of England, 1603-1616, and in Birch's Court and Times of
James I.

7. Page 304. George Higgin, Prebendary of Eton in the collegiate
church of Southwell from 1588 to 1624, — Le Neve's Fasti ; Records S.J.,
Collectanea, part ii. p. 1014.

8. Page 307. The word which the binder of this letter {Stonyhurst
MSS., Father Greene's Anglia, A, No. 82) has " cropt " is certainly
hand. The hand was rescued from the fire and sent over to Edward

3IO ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE

Walpole at Tournai. He appears to have distributed the fingers among
friends, retaining the thumb himself and prizing it as a relic. Father
James Zelander, who had been intimately associated with Henry
Walpole in the Missio Castrensis, begged hard for the thumb to be
deposited among other relies in the Church of the Jesuits at Brussels ;
but Edward Walpole could by no means be prevailed upon to part with
it, until great pressure was put upon him by Father Willlim Holt, who
appears on his deathbed to have sent to Edward Walpole earnestly
begging him to surrender the precious relic to the Church. This must
have been some time in 1599 or 1600. Shortly after this Father
Baldwin (see note 1) presented to the same church the halter with which
Henry Walpole was hung ; and on the 7th February, 1604, Zelander
drew up a formal account of the presentation ; which document is now
in the Royal Library at Brussels (MS. 3166, pt. ii. c. 41, § 9). The two
relics remained in the treasury of the Church of the Jesuits at Brussels
till Uie French Revolution, when they disappeared.

I'l

CHAPTEK XIII.

THE GATHERING OF THE FRAGMENTS.

" Perhaps only those who have endeavoured to throw into a continuous
narrative the vast mass of details involved in any one line of historical
study, are conscious how easy it is to fall into error." — Todhunter,
Whewell, vol. i. p. 103.

The dreadful news of Henry Walpole's shameful death was
not long in travelling from York to Norfolk. Old Christopher
Walpole and his wife may perhaps have hoped against hope
even to the last, but it was a gloomy outlook for them now:
of their six sons only two remained to them — for the three
who had become Jesuits and been ordained abroad were
as dead to their parents, and could never again venture
to set foot in England except at the risk of their lives.
Geoffrey Walpole was now the eldest of the family, and
was still at his father's side ; so was Thomas, who had been
released from prison after having told all he knew at York
and subsequently again in London. For Geoffrey, I cannot
divest myself of the impression that he laboured under some
mental or physical infirmity, and thus was saved from the
notoriety to which his brothers attained. It is evident that
he was a cypher in the family. He was not sent to
Cambridge as the others were, nor indeed does he appear
ever to have gone far from his paternal home. There is
nothing to show that he had any religious scruples about
conforming or taking the oath of allegiance. He married
on the 21st February, 1608, Dorothy Beckham of Der-
singham, and though I find him assessed upon his lands
at Dersingham in 1601, and apparently cultivating those
lands still in 1610, no testamentary disposition of his

311

312 ONE GENERATION OF

property or any administration after his decease has
survived to our time.^

When Thomas Walpole returned to Norfolk after his
imprisonment, he appears to have quietly settled down as
a country gentleman, and taken the management of the
Anmer estate ; he was wanted at home, for his father had
been grievously hit in his pride. The old man's heart was
broken and his occupation gone ; just a year after the
tragedy of York he made his will, and then he turned his
face to the wall. On the 19th July, 1596, less than fifteen
months after his son Henry was executed, he died at
Anmer. The Norfolk property was divided between
Geoffrey and Thomas ; Thomas was to have Anmer, keep
up the house, and afford a home to his mother during
her life ; Geoffrey was to take the outlying lands of Dersing-
ham, lands which are now part of the Norfolk estate of
His Majesty the King.^

At this point it will be advisable to trace the career of
the other three brothers, who at their father's death were
virtually outlaws, and had become exiles from their country
for conscience' sake. They all attained to some eminence
in the Jesuit body; that " staff corps," as it has been
called, of the Church of Eome, every member of which is
a picked man, and by the necessity of the case possessed
of exceptional intellect, culture, or fervour. It will not
escape the notice of those who believe in hereditary genius
that in this "Generation of a Norfolk House " there was
no lack of that remarkable power of brain, that subtlety and
taste for intrigue, that somewhat perverse and reckless
tenacity of purpose, and that vigour and force of character,
which have been distinctive of the Walpole family in past
times, and may very likely thrust some members of it to
the front again, to play a leading part in our annals.

Of Eichard Walpole, the third son of Christopher, we
heard last when he met his brother Henry at the opening
of the College of Seville, in the winter of 1592. He had at
that time volunteered for the English mission, and was

A NORFOLK HOUSE 313

actually under orders to start upon the voyage when an
opportunity should offer. He had never been connected
with any of Cardinal Allen's colleges, and, strictly, did not
fall under the designation of a seminary priest ; but he
had received priest's orders at Eome on the 3rd December,
1589, and so in the eye of the law had been guilty of
high treason. Three years before his ordination he had
thoughts of offering himself to the Jesuits, but he either
changed his mind then, or if he did offer he was for some
reason rejected. When Father Parsons arrived in Spain
in 1592, and then, apparently, made the acquaintance of the
young priest for the first time, he saw at a glance that here
was too valuable a man to send away on the errand which
could be discharged by far inferior emissaries : for Eichard
Walpole was the most learned and perhaps the ablest and
most accomplished of the brothers ; and now that the
old generation of scholars who had fled from England at
the accession of Elizabeth was beginning to drop off, it was
of supreme importance that their places should be supplied,
if possible, by men like Richard Walpole, who had some
experience of an English university training, and were
qualified to keep up the spirit and tone which the first
ounders of Rheims and Douay had infused into those
seminaries, and which there was some reason to fear might
die with them. 3

Parsons soon acquired a commanding influence over
Richard Walpole's mind ; the mission to England was
given up, and once more his thoughts were directed to
entering the Society of Jesus. This time there was no
difficulty, whatever there may have been before, and in
February 1593 he was admitted into the Society, probably
by Parsons himself, at Seville.^

For the next four years he was employed in various
offices at the Spanish colleges, and it was while he was
Prefect of Studies at Valladolid that he became the hero
of one of the most extravagant stories which was ever
circulated, even in an age so credulous and uncritical
as the sixteenth century. "A strange story," says Mr,

314 ONE GENERATION OF

Spedding, " and in some part hard to believe, but . . .
as a fact in the history of criminal proceedings, it is still
a curiosity worth preserving." s

Edward Squier was the type of a class that is never
likely to become extinct as long as there is any room for the
chevalier d'industrie. With just enough of cleverness to
"pick up learning's crumbs," and so receive an education
which had given him a distaste for the habits and senti-
ments of his kindred and associates, and aroused in him
a hankering to rise in the social scale, he had received no
moral benefit from his schooling, and was wholly without
conscience or principle. He had been living for some years
by his wits, occasionally employed as a scrivener or
accountant, disliking the occupation, and finding it hard
to make two ends meet. When Sir Francis Drake was
making preparations for his last disastrous voyage, Squier
determined to join the expedition, and shipped on board
a vessel called the Francis, which became separated from
the rest of the fleet — for Squier's ill-luck was never
relieved by a single gleam of success in his strange career
— and was captured with all hands by Don Pedro Tello,
one of the Spanish admirals. The crew were carried to
Seville and treated as prisoners of war. Squier appears to
have been liberated on parole, and, always on the look
out for a chance of turning an honest or dishonest penny,
he bethought him that he might improve the present
opportunity. He soon began to amaze the Spaniards by
going about and challenging them to dispute on matters
of religion, and put himself forward as a champion for the
Church of England as against the creed of the Church
of Eome. To do this at Seville in our own days would be,
to say the least, somewhat hazardous ; to do it in the
Spain of Philip II. was to court imprisonment at least, and
to run some danger of being torn to pieces by a fanatical
mob. But Squier had no intention of being torn to pieces ;
he had every intention of being thrown into prison, and thus
get for himself the credit of having suffered for truth's sake
when his ransom or order of release, on an exchange of

A NORFOLK HOUSE 3^5

prisoners, should arrive from home. As a matter of course
he was soon arrested by the Inquisition, and on his case
being inquired into he was sentenced to be confined two
years in a monastery of the Carmehtes. He had not been
long at the monastery before he changed his tone, and gave
out that he was a converted character ; there were still
some points in dispute on which his mind was unsettled
and distressed, and he was humbly desirous of having
his last doubts resolved by some man of learning, some
eminent and gifted Jesuit Father, — say such an one as
Father Walpole of the English College.

By this time Richard Walpole had become a personage
who was attracting a great deal of notice in Spain : he was
regarded as a man of profound learning, and one likely to
leave his mark behind him ; his brother Henry had recently
been hung, and was claimed as the first martyr of the
College of Seville. Cresswell's little book had produced a
very deep impression, and had especially excited the
enthusiasm of a Spanish lady of rank, who was connected
with the noblest families of the country, one Dona Luisa
de Carvajal, who had a large fortune entirely at her own
disposal. She had long been animated by an ardent desire
to help forward the English mission, and when Cresswell's
biography of Henry Walpole was published she became
consumed by a passionate longing to cross over to England,
brave the penal laws, defy the Government and all its
cruel enactments, and herself take part in the glorious
work of bringing back benighted Englishmen to the
Catholic faith once more.^ Just when Squier landed at
Seville, Dofia Luisa had put herself under Richard Walpole
as her spiritual adviser, and was preparing to make over
to him her whole fortune to bestow in pious uses, having
determined to divest herself of all that bound her to this
world and to live henceforth in voluntary poverty. Squier
must have heard what every one was talking about, and
he thought he saw a chance of retrieving his broken
fortunes. Accordingly, he persuaded his Carmelite custo-
dians to carry a message to Richard Walpole begging

3i6 ONE GENERATION OF

him to come and hold a conference at the monastery.
Walpole assures us in his narrative that he did not obey
the summons without some reluctance. He expected
nothing but a weary dispute on controversial divinity, and
to enter the lists on such subjects with a broken-down
scrivener, who might be a crack-brained fanatic or a
designing knave, offered very little attraction. But ac-
customed to obey when duty called, he went at last, and
to his surprise found on his arrival at the monastery that
Squier had altogether changed his ground, and that he
was now begging only to be "reconciled to the Church."
Walpole's suspicions were aroused — for the trick of getting
thrown into prison and then running home with " valuable
information " had been tried before, and not without
success — and those suspicions were not allayed when he
found Squier betraying an ever-increasing impatience under
his captivity, and losing no opportunity of asking that he
might be furnished with introductions to the Catholic
gentry and seminary priests in England, with whom he
said he intended to put himself in communication when
he should succeed in obtaining his liberty. Eichard Wal-
pole was too wary to trust the fellow with such dangerous
information as he asked for, and it is evident that he
gave him no names and no letters : if he had done so
it is quite certain that Squier's confessions would have
betrayed them. Suddenly, after being among the Carmel-
ites for about a year, Squier managed to escape, leaving
behind him a letter to Walpole which the Inquisitors
took possession of, furnishing Walpole with a copy only.
Squier made the best of his way to England, having gained
nothing by his crafty scheme. Just at the time that he got
back (July, 1597), the expedition on what is known as the
Island Voyage was about to set sail, and having nothing
better to do he joined it, and got a berth on board the Earl
of Essex's ship, in what capacity does not appear. Once
more he was unfortunate : the voyage was a failure, and
brought no profit or prize-money to any of those engaged
in it. The fleet returned in the middle of October, and

A NORFOLK HOUSE 317

he found himself again at his wits' end for employment.
How he managed to exist during the next six months we
are not told, nor would it interest us much to know all
the ups and downs of such a life of scoundrelism ; but
on the 4th May, 1598, Chamberlain, writing to Dudley
Carleton, says, " Here be certain apprehended for a con-
spiracy against the Queen's person and my Lord of Essex
. . . much buzzing hath been about it, but either the
matter is not ripe or there is somewhat else in it, for
it is kept very secret." Mr. Spedding has assumed that
this passage refers to Squier, and though, at a time when
buzzings of this kind were the common subject of talk
at every tavern and ordinary, it would be rash to assert
that the allusion must be to this business, yet the prob-
ability is that it does refer to it. 7

We hear no more of Squier during the next four or five
months, but on the 23rd September, 1598, a man named
John Stanley was examined before Sir John Peyton,
Lieutenant of the Tower, Francis Bacon, and William
Waad, Clerk of the Privy Council, and gave an incoherent
account of how he and another worthy, named Munday,
had contrived to get released from imprisonment at Seville
on pretence of their intending the taking of Flushing from
the English and handing it over to the king of Spain.
Richard Walpole, they said, had come to them " to per-
suade them to become Catholics, but not to do any service
agaiyist the Queen or the realm."^

About a month after this, viz., on the 18th October,
Stanley was again examined, and though on the previous
occasion he had not mentioned Squier's name, and, from all
that appears, had never heard of him, now first we read,
** Wal2:)ole told me that Rolls and Squier were employed
about Her Majesty's person, and had received money for
the same." The man had evidently been tampered with,
but clumsily tampered with, since his last examination,
for though he had got the name of Squier right enough,
he bungled about the poisoning, and instead of accusing
Richard Walpole of that, he says that it was Father

3i8 ONE GENERATION OF

Cresswell who told him "to go to Munday and receive
of him a perfume which should be cast in the way of
Her Majesty, to cut off her life." Next day Squier himself
was examined for the first time. Squier had got up his
amazing story with some little skill, though in the end
he woefully outwitted himself. In his examination in the
Tower before Bacon, Coke, Sir John Peyton, Fleming,
and Waad —

" He confesseth that at that time that Walpole persuaded
this examinant to attempt and be employed against Her
Majesty's person, this examinant did take upon him to
have some skill in perfuming, and thereupon Walpole asked
whether he could compound poisons, and this examinant
said no, but said he had skill in perfumes, and said that he
had read in Tartalia of a ball, the smoke whereof would
make a man in a trance and soon to die, to whom Walpole
said that should be done with difficulty, but to apply poison
to a certain place is the convenientest way. . . .

" Being demanded what directions he had from Walpole
concerning his employment: saith that he had certain
directions from Walpole in his own handwriting, which
as he saith he threw into the water the same day he
came from Seville. And the letter directed to Bagshaw
he threw into the sea after he came past Plymouth. And
saith that certain poisonous drugs whereof opium was one
were to be compounded and beaten together and steeped
in white mercury water, and put in an earthen pot, and set
it a month in the sun, by Walpole's said directions.

" This examinant demanded of Walpole how he should
apply the poison, and he said it should be put in a double
bladder, and the bladders to be pricked full of holes in
the upper part, and carried in the palm of his hand upon
a thick glove for safeguard of his hand; and then to turn
the holes downward, and to press it hard upon the pommel
of her Highness' saddle ; and said that it would lie and
tarry long where it was laid, and that it would not be
checked by the air. . . .

" He further confesseth that he bought two drams of

A NORFOLK HOUSE 319

opium and five drams of mercury water, at an apothecary's
shop in Paternoster Bow, towards the further end, near
Dr. Smith's house : one of the residue at an apothecary's
in Bucklersbury, at the Plough, and the other two at an
apothecary's shop in Newgate Market, beyond the Three
Tuns on the left hand. All which he bought in an evening
in July was twelvemonth ; and saith that he carried them
about six or seven days ; and confesseth that he com-
pounded them, and put them in an earthen pot, and set
it in a window of his house at Greenwich, where it might
take the sun ; and saith that he applied part of it to a whelp
of one Edwardes of Greenwich, and never saw the whelp
after, and thinks it died thereof."

Five days later Squier had more particulars and fuller
details to give, and by this time Eichard Walpole is not
only credited with a plot to assassinate the Queen, but
he is further said to have suggested an attempt upon the
life of the Earl of Essex ; and though his success while
experimentalising upon the Earl had not been more en-
couraging than in the case of " Mr. Edwardes' whelp,"
yet he had, he says, persisted in his designs notwith-
standing.

" He sayeth that the other three drugs or ingredients,
whereof he did compound these poisons, were all such as
might be beaten to powder; one of which was yellowish,
and the other of a brownish colour, and were called by
the Latin or Greek names. And sayeth that all three cost
eightpence, as he remembereth. And sayeth that all being
compounded together, the confection was of a duskish
colour, having some sort of yellow in it ; and the whole
composition was not above the bigness of a bean. . . .

" He confesseth that at the persuasion of Walpole, the
Jesuit, he undertook to poison the Earl of Essex, when he
should be with him at sea, to the end to defeat the voyage,
and that he carried the confection of the poison with him
to sea in the Earl's ship, in a little earthen pot of a red
colour, glazed within, with a narrow mouth, which he
stopped with cork and parchment, made it close with

320 ONE GENERATION OF

a pack thread, and carried it in his portmanteau, and did
apply it to the pommel of the Earl's chair, where he did use
to sit and lay his hand, which chair stood under the spare
deck, where the Earl used to dine and sup. And this he
did in an evening a little before supper-time, when the Earl
was at sea between Fayal and St. Michael, and saith that
the confection was so clammy as it would stick to the
pommel of the chair, and that he rubbed it on with
parchment. And soon after the Earl sat in the chair all
supper-time, and that the arms of the chair were of wood.

" And now at last confesseth that the Monday seven-night,
after his coming home from Spain, and had obtained leave
to go with the Earl to sea, understanding that Her Majesty's
horses were in preparing for Her Majesty to ride abroad,
as her horse stood ready saddled in the stable-yard, this
examinant came to the horse, and in the hearing of divers
thereabout said, ' God save the Queen,' and therewith laid
his hand upon the pommel of the saddle, and out of a
bladder which he had made full of holes with a big pin, he
impoisoned the pommel of the saddle, being covered with
velvet, by brushing the poison on it through the holes of
the bladder, with his hand, and soon after Her Majesty
rode abroad that afternoon."

It was the invariable characteristic of these "plots " that
somebody should be put to death, and so, as Eichard
Walpole could not be got at, Squier himself was made the
victim. Whatever the luckless creature meddled with
seemed always to turn to his harm, and as his life could
do no good to any one, they hung him. At the gallows he
solemnly repudiated his previous confessions, and did his
best to atone for his malignant and stupid slander ; but
there were too many people interested in keeping up a belief
in the story — people who would have been stultified if it
had not been believed — to allow of its being treated as a
hoax, and a great deal of pains was taken to give it cred-
ence and importance. Bacon actually wrote a pamphlet in
which he drew up an account of the case with all the
ingenuity of a practised advocate. Coke, ten years after.

A NORFOLK HOUSE 321

in his speech at Garnet's trial, made use of the story to
point one of his many invectives hurled at the prisoner,
against whom he was labouring to get a verdict ; and in an
"Order for Prayer and Thanksgiving ... for the safety
and preservation of Her Majesty and this realm," set forth
by authority, and printed in 1599, the " Admonition to the
Eeader " contains an account of the plot in its coarsest form.
Even in our own times Mr. Spedding more than half believed
the tale ; and in popular histories the attempt to poison
Queen EUzabeth's saddle is still repeated, and boys and girls
are taught to regard it as true. To me it seems only a
monstrous fiction, which the more closely it is looked into
the more entirely incredible does it appear.9

Eichard Walpole remained at Seville for two or three
years after the " Squier's plot " had been exposed. I find
him next at Eome, employed as secretary to Father Parsons,
and his name is attached to an abstract of certain letters
lately received from England, dated the 19th June, 1602.
In 1605 he was in Spain once more, and causing great
annoyance to Sir Charles Cornwallis, the English ambassa-
dor, by his zeal in proselytising. Sir Charles speaks of him
as " a countryman of mine (i.e., of the same county), one
Walpole, a hot-headed fellow, as full of practice as he is of
learning, yet therein they say he hath attained much perfec-
tion." About a month after this he made some stir by
converting the son and heir of Lord Wotton to become a
CathoHc ; and in December of the same year Sir Charles
Cornwallis writes home a report of a long interview he had
had with him on the question of granting toleration to the
Catholics at home. At this time he was Vice-Prefect of the
English Mission at Valladolid, and while acting in this
capacity a disagreement seems to have arisen between
him and his old friend Cresswell. The students at the
college complained of Eichard Walpole in high quarters,
and the dispute was still going on when he died at
Valladolid, it is said suddenly, in his forty-third year.
The exact date of his death has not been recorded, but it
took place at the end of the year 1607.'°

322 ONE GENERATION OF

His brother Christopher, of whom we know less than any
of the others, also died at Valladolid about a year before
him. Though the last to leave England, he entered the
Society before either Eichard or Michael, having been
admitted at Kome on 27th September, 1592."

Thus at the death of Eichard Walpole only one of the
Jesuit brothers survived ; this was Michael, John Gerard's
convert. Though he had not the advantage of such train-
ing as an English university could afford — and his father
must have had enough experience of that, after three of
his sons had tried it and left Cambridge without a degree
— yet Michael Walpole was not the least conspicuous
among the brothers. When Dona Luisa de Carvajal took
up her abode in England, Michael was her confessor, and
appears to have had unbounded influence over her. He
found time, too, for engaging in the controversies of his
time ; exhibited some literary activity, and occupied a
prominent position among the English Jesuits during the
whole of the reign of James I. We have seen that he
obtained his brother Henry's release from prison at Flush-
ing, and that after this he went to the English College at
Eome, in May 1590. On the 8th September, 1593, he
entered the Society of Jesus : where he passed his noviciate
we are not told. We hear no more of him for ten years,
but he must have been sent into England either at the
close of Queen Elizabeth's reign or shortly after the
accession of James I., for when John Gerard slipped away
to the Continent after the excitement raised by the Gun-
powder Plot he left Michael behind him, and there he
seems to have been in May 1606. On 30th August, 1607,
Dona Luisa mentions him as then at her side, and in 1609
he published at London his translation of Boethius. By
this time he seems to have acquired great influence in
England, and when James I. put forth his apology for the
new oath of allegiance Michael Walpole published an
Admonition to the English Catholics, of course dissuading
them from taking the oath. The book was printed at
St. Omer, and does not seem to have attracted much

A NORFOLK HOUSE 323

attention, but the author drew upon himself the watchful
eye of Archbishop Abbot by his close connection with
Dona Luisa, and probably too by his own exertions in
proselytising : some time in the spring of 1610 he was
caught by the pursuivants and thrown into prison. The
Spanish ambassador, Don Pedro de Zuniga, a great friend
of Doiia Luisa, succeeded in obtaining his release with some
diflQculty, and then only on condition that he should at
once leave the country, which he did accordingly.^^ He
retired to Belgium, and employed himself at first in
writing an answer to A Treatise concerning Antichrist,
which had been published some years before by Dr. George
Downham, one of James I.'s chaplains and a prebendary
of St. Paurs.^3 Both books have long since been for-
gotten. In September 1612 we find him at Douay,
employed in arbitrating in some dispute between the
Jesuit Fathers and the authorities of the English College
there. In the autumn of 1613 Don Diego de Sarmiento,
the famous Gondomar, came to England as Spanish am-
bassador, and Michael Walpole appears to have returned
to England in his train. Gondomar had not been many
weeks in London when Archbishop Abbot, whose irritation
at Dona Luisa' s fanatical behaviour seems to have gone
on constantly increasing, issued a warrant for her appre-
hension. On the 8th October, 1613, the recorder and sheriff
of the city of London, with a large band of constables,
broke into Doiia Luisa's house in the Barbican, and
arrested every one they found. Michael Walpole had
gone there early in the morning, to hear the confessions of
the devotees who kept up a conventual life in the poorly
furnished and scantily supplied dwelling, and he fell into
the hands of the constables for the second time. The
assault upon the Spanish lady's house created a great
excitement, and the news was immediately carried to the
ears of M. de Boischot, the archduke's ambassador, who
was another staunch friend of the Catholics, and who
hurried to the assistance of Doila Luisa. She addressed
herself to him in Spanish, and told him that at all costs

324 ONE GENERATION OF

the Jesuit Father must be set free, or his life would be
in danger ; and with ready tact the ambassador turned
round to Father Walpole, and, treating him as one of his
servants, rebuked him strongly for being in the house
contrary to his express orders, and bade him at once go
home and never come there again. The officials, disarmed
by the ambassador's manner, set their prisoner at liberty,
and he made the best of his way to a place of safety.
When Dona Luisa died, in January 1614, Michael Walpole
was again with her, and he accompanied her body on its
removal to Spain in August 1615. I think he never
returned to his native land. Dr. Oliver says he held the
same office as his brother Eichard in the college at Valla-
dolid, but I have not found any authority for the state-
ment. About a year after his leaving England he published
a translation of Eibadaneyra's Jjije of St. Ignatius Loyola^
which is said to have gone through several editions. The
last I find of him is a letter of his addressed to Gondomar,
who was then in England, in which he intercedes for a
certain Jane Mills, who had been one of Dona Luisa' s
companions in London, and asks for the continuance of an
old pension of a real and a half a clay, which had been
formerly awarded to her by the king of Spain. This letter
is dated from Seville, 12th August, 1624. Michael Walpole
must have died soon after this.^4 Hitherto it has been
maintained that his death occurred in 1620, but this is
clearly wrong; and if, as is asserted, the eldest of the
brothers, Geoffrey, was buried in 1622, 's and Michael died
shortly after the date of his letter to Gondomar, only one
of the six sons of Christopher Walpole of Anmer, Top-
cliffe's " young Thomas," survived to see Charles I. on the
throne.

Of Thomas Walpole I have little to tell, but that little
is not without interest and significance. He continued to
live at Anmer for many years : he married, and seems to
have had one son at least : his wife's name was Thomasine.
She too was a strict and zealous Catholic. In June
1609 she was presented to the Bishop of Norwich as a

A NORFOLK HOUSE 325

Popish Eecusant, being described as wife of Thomas
Walpole, Gent., he at this time being a conformist. I find
this state of things going on in July 1610, and again in
August 1612. In 1613 Thomas Walpole's name appears
in the Subsidy Eolls, in which he is assessed on his goods
at Anmei\ and on them alone, from which we may almost
assume it as certain that he had made over his land to
trustees.

It was just at this time that his brother Michael was
in England once more, and under the protection of
Gondomar. The presentments for 1614 are missing, but
in the lists of Norfolk Eecusants for 1615 I find for the
first time Thomas Walpole, Gent., of Anmer, together with
his loife Thomasine ; and after this for thirty years 1 can
trace him no more. But some years ago, by a curious
chance, the high sheriff's list of Eecusants for the year
1645 came into my hands, and conspicuous among the
names upon the roll I find the tenants of Thomas Walpole,
Gent., returned as paying a composition for sums due for
his recusancy. He must have been at this time nearly
eighty years old, and shortly afterwards the Anmer estate
passed to the Pells : from them it went to the Coldhams, by
one of whom it is now held.^^

We catch one more glimpse of this Anmer family. On
the 11th October, 1617, Christopher Warner, ^^ alias vero
nomine Walpohts Norfolciensis,"' aged nineteen, entered as
an alumnus at the English College at Eome, and after
pursuing his studies there for some years he was admitted
to priest's orders in May 1622. He was sent in 1624 as a
missioner to England, and, apparently while there, was
admitted to the Society of Jesus in 1625. We are told
that he subsequently served as a Jesuit priest in Devon-
shire; that after this again he was sent to Belgium, and
became Eector of the Jesuit College at Ghent ; but possibly
at the Eestoration he returned to his native country once
more, and died there on the 1st of December, 1664. While
in England he passed by the name of Warner only,
i.e., retaining the Christian name of his grandfather,

'?26 ONE GENERATION OF

he assumed for his surname his grandmother's maiden
name.^7

I have chronicled all I have to tell of this " one genera-
tion " of the Anmer family ; I have a few words to add
about Edward Walpole, the heir of Houghton. We have
seen that Edward Walpole left England soon after his
father's death. He crossed over to Belgium with Bernard
Gardiner, and there met his cousin Henry Walpole, and,
receiving letters of introduction from him, hastened on
to Eome, which he reached on the 20th October, 1590.^^
Father Henry More tells us that he had a licence to travel
from the Lords of the Council, and he had evidently suffi-
cient money at his disposal to make him quite free from
any anxiety on the score of his means of livelihood.
Watson was probably right in saying that the proceeds of
his Tuddenham estate had been handed over to John
Gerard for pious uses, but it is clear that he had disposed
of other property ; and besides what he must have taken
with him, he had arranged for £100 to be sent after | him
through the agency of Eobert Southwell.^9 Nor was this
all : it has been shown that when John Walpole of
Houghton died, in April 1588, he left his interest in the
Eobsart property to his second son, Calibut. But Edward
Walpole, the heir, however little he might wish to press
his claim, could not be despoiled legally of his right to a
third part of the Newton and Syderston manors; in the
autumn of 1588 he sold this interest to his brother Calibut,
and he appears to have accepted as an equivalent an
annuity or rent-charge of forty marks a year, which in
those days was considered a liberal annual allowance for
a gentleman of no extravagant tastes.=^°

Thus placed beyond the reach of the " eternal want of
pence," he would not trespass more than three days upon
the hospitality of the English College, and on the 23rd of
October he entered himself as a convictor, i.e., he was
pretty much on the same footing as a Gentleman Com-
moner at Cambridge or Oxford in the days when such
students were subjected to very little restraint, and might

A NORFOLK HOUSE 327

pursue their studies according to their own tastes. At
this time neither Edward Walpole nor Bernard Gardiner
seems to have had any definite plans. Gardiner appears
to have thought of the mihtary profession.^^^ We are
assured that Walpole shrank with some repugnance from
the thought of taking orders, but his cousin's friends, the
Jesuits, soon acquired influence over him, and he began
to attend their lectures. It ended as we should have
expected. We are told that his resolution to take orders
was made at last when on one occasion, in company with
Father Eichard Smith, afterwards Bishop of Chalcedon, he
escaped shipwreck after being exposed to great danger,
and on the 5th February, 1592, he took the decisive step
of entering himself as a regular alumnus of the English
College, and thereupon pledged himself by an oath to take
holy orders, and to exercise his functions as a priest in
England whenever called upon to do so by the authorities.
That same Lent he received minor Orders, and on Ascen-
sion Day 1592 he was admitted to the priesthood.^^ But
these things were not done in a corner : he was too
conspicuous a personage to escape the vigilance of the
spies, who were always on the watch for men worth
plundering, and news of his ordination soon reached
England. His long residence at Eome must have been a
matter of notoriety, and his leave of absence was drawing
to a close. If he did not return when that licence came
to an end, by the statute his estates would be forfeited ;
and in those days, when a man's estates loere forfeited
to the Crown, the rule was that some favoured courtier
obtained a grant of them and made his market out of the
spoils. It was a vile system ; but ever since the suppres-
sion of the monasteries, and the enormous confiscations
which had then ensued, people had become accustomed
to see lands change their ow^ners frequently and suddenly,
and grants of forfeited lands and manors were a cheap way
of rewarding needy placemen.

Edward Walpole believed that his ordination was a
secret, and that he had some hope of being able to save

328 ONE GENERATION OF

his estates, if only he should return before his licence had
expired. Some time in the spring of 1593 he seems to
have gone back to England, and to have sought out his
brother Calibut in London. Calibut had about a year
before married Elizabeth, daughter of Edmund Bacon of
Hesset in Suffolk, and had now too much at stake to allow
of his entangling himself in his brother's concerns. Never-
theless, he received him at first with cordiality; but on
becoming aware that he was now actually a seminary
priest, to harbour whom was treason, he entreated his
brother not to compromise him ; and Edward Walpole, when
he learnt that his ordination was known and that his life
was in real danger, and probably not having made due
preparation for any such contingency, hastily recrossed
the Channel, and, leaving his business unfinished, he once
more sought out his cousin Henry, who was at this time
in Belgium, and consulted him upon the course he should
pursue.23 The result was that he offered himself to the
Society of Jesus, was admitted by the Provincial, Oliver
Manaraeus, and entered the Noviciate at Tournai on the
4th July, 1593, just a year after Henry Walpole had him-
self completed his time there. Here he remained for
three years, passing his examinations in the ordinary way,
though he has left it on record that there were some of
his duties which he found it difficult to discharge, from
his imperfect command of the French language. He con-
tinued at Tournai till the 8th of July, 1595, when he was
sent to the college at Louvain.^^ But he was a marked
man. He had brought himself under the penalties of the
penal laws, and there were those who were not likely to
forget him. The blow came at last. In Trinity term, 1595,
he was indicted in the Court of Queen's Bench, "/or a
supposed treason done at Borne on the 1st April, 1593 ; "
and on the 29th May he was outlawed at Norwich. ^s
Hereupon a special commission was issued for the holding
of inquisitions concerning the possessions of the outlaw :
they were held at Bury St. Edmunds and East Dereham
in the autumn of the same year; and, as a matter of course,

A NORFOLK HOUSE 329

the whole of the settled estates which he had inherited
from his ancestors at Houghton, Walpole, Weybread, and
elsewhere, as well as those which his cousin William had
left him by his will, were at once forfeited to the Crown.^^
The family would have been wellnigh beggared, and we
should never have heard of the great Sir Robert as the
son of a wealthy Norfolk squire, but for one circumstance :
Edward Walpole's interest in these lands and manors was
a reversionary interest, and there were two tenants for life
in actual possession — his mother at Houghton, and his
cousin William's widow still living at Tuddenham. Either
of these ladies might live many years, and in the meantime
circumstances might arise to bring about the reversal of
the attainder ; the grant of the lands might after all prove
valueless, and whoever obtained that grant would be
prudent if he turned it into money as soon as he could
get a price.

Two years passed before the Queen gave away the
estates. It was not till the 3rd August, 1597, that they
were actually bestowed upon two persons of whom we
know little or nothing — James Hussey and John Goodman,
Esqrs. — the grant being made in consideration of the
services of Sir Anthony Ashley, Clerk of the Privy Council.^/
It is to be presumed that Calibut Walpole, the next heir
to the estates, had due notice given to him of what was
coming ; for on the 27th of the next month he bought
back the estates of the grantees, paying what was, in fact,
a fine of £1,600, a sum which in those days would be
equivalent to a charge upon any estate in Norfolk of at
least £20,000.^2 As far as Edward Walpole was himself
concerned, the attainder and the outlawry left him where
it found him ; he had already broken with all that bound
him to the old home : at the time of his being outlawed
he was at Louvain ; how long he remained there does
not appear, but at the end of 1598 he was once more in
England, and was at last regularly commissioned as a
Jesuit Father. On his first arrival we hear of him as
going down to Norfolk once more in company with Bernard

330 ONE GENERATION OF

Gardiner; but the pursuivants were on his track — there
was a ver}?- dihgent search of the houses of the Catholic
gentry in Suffolk and Norfolk. Edward Yelverton among
others was thrown into prison, and the two cousins were
in very great peril. They eluded their pursuers, however,
and Bernard Gardiner from this time disappears from our
notice. Edward Walpole seems never to have left England
again. At the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign he was living
with " old Mr. Cotton, of Swanborow in Sussex," who
may have been perhaps a friend and neighbour of William
Walpole at the time that he was settled at Frittleworth.29

At the accession of James I. some little less rigour began
to be shown to the Catholics, and amongst other instances
of the king's leniency was his grant of a pardon to Edward
Walpole, dated 4th April, 1605, which it is presumed that
Calibut obtained through the interest of friends at court. 3°
A year or two after this he was stationed somewhere near
Oxford, and passing under the name of B,ic]i^ as he had
some years before passed by the name of 'PoorJ>^ His
mother died in 1612, and by virtue of his pardon he might
if he had pleased have entered upon the Houghton
estate ; but instead of doing so he executed a deed of gift
in which he renounced all claim to his paternal estates,
and transferred them absolutely and unconditionally to his
brother. 32 In 1623 his name appears as one of the "Jesuits
in and about London," and again in 1627 we catch a
glimpse of him as still there. In London, too, he died,
on the 3rd November, 1637, in his seventy-eighth year.33
For thirty-nine years he worked as a Catholic priest in
England, liable to be arrested at any moment, to be thrown
into jail, and butchered in the barbarous way then in
vogue ; but he never was taken, and the later years of his
life he must have passed in comparative quiet and security.
I have seen it stated somewhere that he had a great gift
as a preacher, and no one seeing his magnificent hand-
writing in the album of the Tournai Noviciate — where it
strikes the eye among that of hundreds of others who
have with their own hands recorded their brief and often

A NORFOLK HOUSE 33 1

touching autobiographies — could believe that he was an
ordinary man. His only brother Calibut survived him less
than nine years, and was buried at Houghton in May 1646,
just thirty years before his lineal descendant, the great
Sir Kobert Walpole, there first saw the light. The heavy
fine and the expense inseparable from obtaining the pardon
must have seriously taxed Calibut Walpole's resources,
though he married an heiress ; and the estates must have
been encumbered when he entered into possession. Of
the next generation we know litttle or nothing, and it
was not till the days of Sir Edward Walpole, Sir Kobert's
grandfather, that the fortunes of the house began to rise
again.34

My task is done and my story told. I am not so sanguine
as to hope that my readers will take as lively an interest
in the results of my researches as I have myself taken in
pursuing them. As my work has proceeded, the England
of Queen Elizabeth's days has become to me an altogether
different land from the England I had formerly imagined it
to be : the conflict with Eome has gradually unfolded itself
as a problem which must remain unintelligible to the merely
political historian : the homes and habits of life and thought
of men and women of the gentry class have revealed
themselves in quite unexpected forms and colours ; and
light has gleamed from many a dark corner, whence it was
least hoped that any ray could shine. Who that sets forth
upon a voyage of discovery ever knows whither he may be
carried ? A man sooner or later puts into port again, and
shows the world his gains, and the world peradventure
counts them little worth ; but for him, he has visited strange
lands and sailed into unknown waters, and in his enlarged
experience and the memories of the long quest he finds his
best reward.

To some perhaps the chief interest of this family chronicle
will lie in the fact that the great minister whose name is a
part of England's history became in the sequel the head of

332 ONE GENERATION OF

this house with "one generation " of which we have been
concerned ; but so to read the story is to miss its true point
and lesson. Of course it is interesting to reflect that in Sir
Eobert's boyhood and early manhood the memories and
traditions of the persecuting days were still fresh, and
matters of common parlance ; and that there must have
been men still alive at Houghton who had talked with the
outlawed Jesuit Father, after he had voluntarily resigned his
inheritance, and with his brother, who had saved the estates
from forfeiture ; but the real value of the story lies rather in
this, tha,t it is one which, mutatis mutandis, might be told
of fifty families in England, which were rich and prosperous
in the first half of the sixteenth century, and were simply
reduced to beggary for conscience' sake before James I. came
to the throne.

This Norfolk House, whatever it may have been two
centuries before, was certainly not one of the great govern-
ing families in the sixteenth century, though it seemed on
the point of rising to the very first rank. Had Serjeant
Walpole lived only a year or two longer, he would have
been raised to the Bench in the ordinary course ; as it was,
to his son any career was open. When that son died
childless, and his large possessions were added to those
which Edward Walpole, as the heir of Houghton, might one
day have enjoyed, a brilliant future seemed to be opening.
It is clear that in this generation there was an abundance
of energy, ambition, and intellectual power ; but wealth and
talent and birth and splendid opportunities were sacrificed
to that which we call conscientious conviction, and with the
ball at their feet these Walpoles resigned the game. So did
others whose prospects were scarcely less promising than
theirs, — others whose names have gone down to silence ;
others from whom no Prime Minister sprang ; who were
not saved from ruin by any fortunate conjunction of circum-
stances, and whose cup of bitterness was drained to the
dregs.

"But they were contumacious, they were perverse, they
were wrongheaded, they would not bend to the times, they

A NORFOLK HOUSE 333

did not understand the spirit of the age." Be it so ! And
they counted the cost, and they did not shrink from the
penalty and the pain. Living or dying, they did not play
the craven. "But their creed was other than ours."
Granted again ! So was Henry Barrow's and John
Greenwood's, and many another's — men whose carcasses
the hangman outraged, and whose disciples claim them
now as glorious martyrs for the truth. These men were
of the same stuff that Latimer and Eowland Taylor were
made of; they were animated by the same enthusiasm,
supported by the same intense earnestness, hurried along
by the same fiery zeal, as free from vulgar worldliness, and
as sincere. Surely, surely they deserve at least a portion
of the same honour ! Let us not grudge it them : it is all
the atonement we can make for the cruel wrongs of an age
when toleration was looked upon as a crime, and pity for
the erring was a sentiment unknown.

NOTES TO CHAPTER XIII.

1. Page 312. Chancery Fine Rolls, 44° Elizabeth, Mich, term ; Lay
Subsidy Rolls, 1° James I., P. E. 0. In the P. R., St. Stephen's, Norwich,
is the entry of his marriage : " 1608, 21° Febry. Mr. Jeffry Walpole of
Dussingham in Norf. and M^" Dorothy Beckham of the same Towne
were maryed '^ licenciam."

2. Page 312. Christopher Walpole's inq. p.m. was held at Fakenham
1st September, 38° Elizabeth (1596). It sets forth that on the 9th March,
1596, he had made over to Thomas Walpole his son three messuages
and about 500 acres of land, exclusive of two fold-courses in Anmer and
Dersingham, reserving his own life interest and " unum conclave et
cubiculum parcellam premissorum predictor um in Anmer predicta, ad
usum cuiusdam Margerie ad tunc uxoris eius pro termino vitse eiusdem
Margerie." His will was made 8th May, 1596: in it (according to the
inquisition, for the will itself has disappeared) he leaves to Geoffrey a
messuage and about 300 acres, together with a fold-course called
Eastling Course, in Dersingham. According to this document it appears
that the Anmer property made over to Thomas was more than double
the value of that in Dersingham bequeathed to Geoffrey. What the
acreage or value of the fold-courses was it is now quite impossible to
determine, as the number of sheep running upon them is not specified.
— Chancery Inq. p. m., 38 Elizabeth, Part I. No. 51.

3. Page 313. ^' Richardus Walpolus, Anglus, Norfolciensis diocesis,
annorum 22, aptus ad logicam, receptus fuit in hoc Anglorum Collegium
inter Alumnos S'"' D. N. Sixti Papse V., a P. Alfonso Agazario, Societatis
Jesu, hujus coUegii rectore, de expresso manda to 111™ D"' Cardinalis S.
Sixti, hujus CoUegii Protectoris, sub die 25th Aprilis 1585." [He took
the College oath, 2nd February, 1586]. . . . *' Factus est subdiaconus26.
Novemb: Diaconus 30. Novemb : Sacerdos 3. Decemb : 1589. Missus
est in Hispaniam, ut inde trajiceret in Angliam." — Ex Archivis CoUegii
Anglorum in Urbe, MS. No. 303, fol. 23.

His desire to enter the Society of Jesus is referred to by his brother
Henry in a letter which bears internal evidence of having been written
in the summer of 1585, i.e., at the time when Richard Walpole was at
the English College. — Walpole Letters, xix. n. 3.

4. Page 313. Fa. Greeners Collectanea, Stonyhurst 3ISS., Angl. A. ^
II. No. 15.

334

ONE GENERATION OF A NORFOLK HOUSE 335

5. Page 314. Spedding's hifc and Letters of Francu Bacon, vol. ii.
p. 109. For the narrative given in the text I have not only consulted
the ordinary authorities, but I have taken some pains to sift all the
evidence which recent research had laid open to us. For the benefit
of those who choose to test my accuracy, I have at the end of this note
subjoined some few references which may be readily turned up by such
as have access to any public library. One document, however, though very
few living men can have ever seen or are likely to see it, was procured
for me by the late Hon. Frederick Walpole several years ago. It is a
copy of Richard Walpole^s own letter to Father Garnet in reply appar-
ently to a quest that he should draw up a vindication of himself from the
charges made against him. The original is preserved in the archives of
the College at Valladolid, and is a long and verbose document. After
some hesitation I decided that it was not worth printing, though
authorised to print it by a letter from Mr. John Guest, whom I assume to
have been Rector of the College at Valladolid at the time the transcript
was made. No one reading Richard Walpole's own account of the affair
could doubt that the story which he gives is the true one, even if it were
not corroborated as strongly as it is by the cumulative evidence which
supports it.

Mr. Spedding is mistaken in supposing that the Authentic Memoirs of
that exquisitely villai7ious Jesuit, Father Richard Walpole, published in
1733, was printed from the original edition which appeared in 1599.
Through the kindness of my friend Mr. G. Napier, of Alderley Edge, I
have had the opportunity of minutely collating the two editions, and I
feel no hesitation in pronouncing that they were printed from two
different manuscripts. There is nothing to show, but quite the contrary,
that the printer or editor of the 1733 book had ever seen or heard of any
earlier printed copy. Unfortunately my edition of Carleton's Thankful
Remembrance (second edition, 1625) does not contain this tract. Mr.
Spedding will be glad to learn that Father Henry More expressly refers
to the tract, which he has reprinted in his edition of Bacon^s Letters as
^'Baconus in litteris ad amicumPatavii.^^ — Cal. P.R.O., 'Domestic, Eliza-
beth, 1595-7, pp. 209, 255 ; ibid. 1598-1601. See Index ; Foley's Records,
series ii.-iv. ; Spedding's Life and Letters of Bacon, vol. ii. book ii. ch. v. ;
Henry More's Hist.Prov. Anglicc, lib. v. §§ 34, 35; Camden's Elizabeth,
book iv. p. 132, in Kennett's Complete History of England, fol. vol.
ii.; Ellis's Letters, vol. iii. p. 189, second series; Lingard's Elizabeth,

App. B.B.B.

6. Page 315. The Life of Dona Luisa de Carvajal was written
by Michael Walpole not long after her death, and the original MS.
is still preserved in the Convent of the Encarna^ion at Madrid; "it is
composed of a series of separate sheets, about two hundred leaves in all,"
and was examined by Dr. Juan Riafio in November 1874, permission

336 ONE GENERATION OF

having been obtained to inspect it from the Vicario Capitular of Santiago
de Galicia, not without considerable difficulty. Large extracts were
subsequently made for me and copies taken of letters and contemporary
documents, by Dr. Riaiio, transcripts of which are in my possession.
This biography and the manuscript collections which accompany it were
used by the Licenciate Luis Munoz, and very closely followed in drawing
up his Vida, y Virtudes de la Venerable Virgen Doiia Luisa de Carvaial y
Mendoga . . . which was dedicated to Philip IV. and published at
Madrid, in 4to, in 1632. The book is one of very great rarity, and it
was only after searching for it for years that I was fortunate enough to
procure a copy through the kind offices of Don Pascuale de Gatangos.
From Muiioz' work Lady Georgiana Fullerton compiled her Life of
Luisa de Carvajal, which was published by Burns and Gates in 1873.
Of course this latter is one of that class of devotional biographies which
are distasteful to some people, but the main facts of the biography are
capable of proof. In Southey's Letters written during a Journey in Spain
(third edition), published in two volumes, 1808, there is (vol. i. pp. 259-
302) an abstract of Munoz' work, and a long account of Dona Luisa
characterised by Southey's usual robust good sense ; it is a chapter very
well worth reading.

7. Page 317. Spedding, u.s., vol. ii. p. 109.

8. Page 317. The examinations are printed in extenso by Foley,
Records, u.s.

9. Page 321. Liturgies and Occasional Forms of Prayer set forth in the
reign of Queen Elizabeth (Parker Society, 1847), p. 679.

10. Page 321. The "abstract of certain letters" mentioned in
the text is to be seen in Father Greene's Collect., Angl. A., vol. iii. No.
19, Stonyhurst 3ISS. For the authority for Eichard Walpole's pro-
selytising, &c., in Spain, see Winwood's Memorials, vol. ii. pp. 136, 151,
178, &c. For his death, Oliver's Collections. From Father Greene's
Collect., Angl. N. ii., it appears that he translated into Latin Parsons'
Memorial for the Reformation of England. The Latin version has never
been printed. In a list of Letters of Parsons in Greene's Angl., P. ii,,
Stonyhurst MSS. , one bearing the date of October 15th, 1607, is addressed
to Father Cresswell, and treats *' Of the great dissension betwixt him
and F. Ric. Walpole, that hath caused extreme damage to the seminaries
and great disorder in the seminary, which F. Cresswell seemeth to have
bin cause or occasion [sic} never ending these difficulties with F. Parsons
and other fathers . . • the disorders were cause that many schollars
went to the Benedictines."

11. Page 322. MS. No. 303, f . 39, 247 ; Ex. Archivis Coll. Anglic, in
urbe. He was admitted into the college 22nd February, 1592.

A NORFOLK HOUSE 337

12. Page 323. For his entering the Society the authority is the MS.
last quoted ; for his being in England in 1606 see Morris, Condition of
Catholics under James I., p. Ixv. For the other statements in this
paragraph I must ask my readers to take my word for the fact that they
are made on the authority of transcripts from MSS. in the Bihl. Nacional
and the Bihlioteca de la Academia de la Historia at Madrid ; from
Archives at Simancas, and the autograph Life of Dona Luisa in the
Convent of the Encarnapion. These transcripts (now in my possession)
were made by Dk. Riano, whose name is a sufficient guarantee for their
fidelity. I cannot thank that accomplished scholar enough for the
masterly way in which the work was done which he so kindly under-
took. See, too, Records of S.J. , Collectanea, part ii. pp. 1005, 1051.

13. Page 323. He was a Cambridge man and fellow of Christ's
College. In 1594 he held a stall at Chester ; in 1598 he was made a
Prebendary of St. Paul's. He was promoted to the See of Derry 6th
December, 1616. — Le Neve's Fasti and Cotton's Fasti Eccl. Hib. iii.
317. His Treatise concerning Antichrist was published in 4to, 1604.
For Michael Walpole's Answer to it, see Oliver's Collect.

14. Page 324. There is a letter of Abbot's on the subject of the reli-
gious services at the Spanish ambassador's house in the P. R. 0. An
abstract is given in the Cal. Dora. 1611-8, p. 140. Munoz, p. 174,
tells the story of the assault on Dona Luisa's house. See, too. Lady
Georgiana Fullerton's Life of Doha Luisa. For the other details men-
tioned in the text I must again refer to MSS. penes me. Michael
Walpole's letter to Gondomar is in the library of Don Pascuale de
Gayangos.

15. Page 324. Vidtation of Norfolk, vol. i. p. 373, published by the
Norfolk ami Norwich Archceological Society.

16. Page 325. The Subsidy Rolls are in the Record Office. They
were formerly kept in the Tower and Exchequer. The Presentments of
Recusants to the bishop were made annually, and sometimes oftener,
by the churchwardens. In the Ep. Registry at Norwich there is a very
imperfect collection of them bound up into a ragged volume. Two of
these lists were printed in the East Aiiglian. I have been through them
all : for genealogical purposes they are of some value.

17. Page 326. For the larger part of this paragraph I am indebted
to Mr. Foley : see, too, Oliver's Collect. This Christopher Walpole's
name appears on a list of Novices, 1625, printed in Foley, Records,
series i. p. 132.

18. Page 326. Walpole's Letters, p. 13,

19. Page 326. ib., Letter VI. n. 2.

338

ONE GENERATION OF

20. IP age 326. Harrison says that a gentleman could in his young
days live on £10 a year, and many instances might be adduced of an
annuity of this amount being left to younger sons by men of large
means. For a case in point see ch. vii. n. 9.

21. Tacje 327. " I am glad to hear of Bernard Gardiner's oath. God
send him constancy and health, if not Rhemes ; for I would be sorry
he should, from so happy an estate, return to be a soldier to his own dis-
comfort.^^— WalpoWs Letters, p. 29.

22. Page 327. Father Henry More mentions his reluctance to take
Holy Orders, and his narrow escape from shipwreck. — Hist. Prov. Angl.^
lib. V. § 33. It is plain, too, from the Letters of H. Walpole, that he
did not leave England with any intention of entering the priesthood. —
iv. 4, V. 5, vi. 3.

23. Page 328. " Vulgato itaque reditu cum susque deque quererentur
plurimorum apud Norfolcienses et Suffolcienses cedes ut unum hunc
reperirent, aliquanta collects pecunia rursus trajecit . . . ." Calibut
Walpole married in 1591. — More's Hist. Prov. lib. Angl., v. § 32 ; Collins's
Peerage by Sir Egerton Brydges, v. 648.

24. Page 328. The following is a copy of Edward Walpole's account
of himself, written with his own hand in the Album of the Noviciate
of Tournai. This MS. is now in the Royal Library at Brussels, in
admirable preservation (MS. No. 1016, p. 210). I went carefully through
it in 1874.

Ego Edouardus Walpolus
Examinatus fui a P.
Joanne Bargio juxta
Examen Novitiorum
18 Decembris, 1593.
Rursus 23 Junii, 1594, et
16 Decetnhris, 1594, et
rursus 16 Junii 1595.
Exiyerimenta hcec feci
Exercitia Spiritualia.
Secundum et tertium
comvmtata fuerunt
in officia humilia, quce
exercui juvando prcefectum
Refectorii, hebdomadis decern,
et postea adhuc quatuor,
Quartum ex professo obivi
in dojno Probationis serviendo
coquo hebdomadibus quatuor.

Ego Edouardus Walpolus Norfol-
ciensis in Anglia natus circiter annum
1562. Patre Joanne Walpolo viro
nobili vita functo, matre Catherina
Callibutta adhuc superstite. Studui
Grammaticse et humanioribus litteris
in patria circiter 4:°^^ annos et in Acad-
emia Cantabrigiensi totidem, RomsB in
Seholis Soc^'s Theologige Scholasticae
duobus annis, majori ex parte langu-
ens, medio anno casubus conscientiae.
Ibidem promotus fui ad tonsuram et
4°'' minores ordines quinque diversis
diebus in quadragesima anno 1592 : ad
Subdiaconatum Sabbato Sancta : ad
Diaconatum feria secunda Paschatis
eodem anno, in Basilica S' Joannis
Lateranensis a Suffraganeo Summi
Pontificis : ad Sacerdotium in Festo

A NORFOLK HOUSE

339

Quintum et Sextum, oh iyno-
rantiam lingucc Gallicce^
ohire non potui, idcirco eorum
loco comitatus sum aliquoties
emptorem ad forum, et id
genus alia ojicia humilitatis
ohivi.

Ego Edouardus Walpolus
cum venia R. P. Georgii
Durcei [?] Provincialis
emid vota privata juxta
consuetam <S'oc''" formulam
Sacrum celebrante P.
Joanne Bargio in sacello
Domus Probationis Tornacensis
Soc^^ Jesu ipso die Nativitatis
Christi Anno 1594.

Missus est ad
Collegium Lovaniense
8 Julii 1595

Ascensionis Domini in Ecclesia Col-
legii Anglicani a Reverendissimo Duo
Odoeno Epo Cassanensi. Admissus fui
ad Soc'c'" Jesu a R^^ Patre Oliverio
Manareo Proeposito Provinciali in
Belgio, ex commendatione R'^' P. N.
Generalis Claudii Aquavivse. Veni Ad
domum Probationis Tornacensem 4
Julii anno 1593, et examinatus fui a
P. Joanne Bargio juxta examen gene-
rale ejusdem Soc^'^ Diplomate Apos-
tolica instituti. Duas constitutiones
ejusdem conformatorias Gregorii 13 et
Gregorii 14, et regulas ejusdem Soc''s
perlegi. Habeo propositum vivendi et
moriendi in Soc^^ Jesu, et omnia, tarn
qusB in examine, quam quae in supra-
dictis, proposita sunt, observare de-
sidero ac propono, nominatim quod ad
obedientiam et promptitudinem animi,
ad serviendum Deo, ubique et in
qua vis re, item quae ad indifferentiam
ad quemvis gradum Sock's et ad red-
dendam rationem Conseientise mani-
festationemque meorum defectuum
pertinet. Contentus sum, ut res quse-
cunque quae in me notatee et observatae
fuerint, per quemvis, qui extra con-
fessionem eas acceperit, superioribus
manifestenter. Paratus quoque sum
ad correctionem aliorum juvare, alios-
que manifestare secundum voluntatem
et preescripta superioris ad majorem
Dei gloriam ; necnon ad omnia officia
Societatis, qu^ a superiore injunge-
rentur mihi indifferentem me offero.
Promitto autem me relicturum omnia
bona post elapsum ab ingressu meo
annum, quandocunque id a superiore
meo injungetur. In quorum fide heee
mea manu scripsi et subsignavi.

Actum Tornaci in Domo Probationis
Societatis Jesu 15 Julii, Anno 1593.
Ita est
Edouakdus Walpolus.

340 ONE GENERATION OF

25. "Page 328. Controlment Roll, 38° Eliz., P. R. 0.

26. Page 329. Special Commissioners, Suffolk, 37° Eliz., concerning
the possessions of Edw. Walpole, late of Houghton near Harpley, P. R. 0.
This inquisition was held at Bury St. Edmunds. For the inquisition
held at Dereham, see Special Commissioners, Norfolk, 37° Eliz., No.
1611.

27. Page 329. Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. cclxiv. n. 70.

28. Page 329. The main facts of this business are given in the case
drawn up for the opinion of Sir Matthew Hale, which I have before
referred to. When it is said that a fine of £1,600 would be " equivalent
to a charge upon any estate in Norfolk of £20,000," the reader must be
warned that I do not mean to dogmatise upon that extremely difficult
question of the comparative value of money in the sixteenth century and
in the nineteenth, but simply to express my very strong conviction that
a charge of £1,600 upon a given acreage in 1598 would be at least as
heavy as a charge of £20,000 upon the same acreage in our own days.
This is not the time nor the place to discuss a question which involves
so many considerations.

29. Page 330. Foley's Records, ser. ii.-iv. p. 265, and ser. i. p. 146 ;
Morris's Troubles, ser. i. p. 192.

30. Page 330. On the attitude of James I. towards the Catholic
gentry at the beginning of his reign, see Gardiner's History of England
from the Accession of James I. to the Disgrace of Coke, vol. i. p. 109 et
seq. My authority for the granting of the pardon is Davey, Add. 3ISS.
Brit. Mus. 19, 092 [Hoxne Hundred). Davey gives the date of the pardon,
4th April, 2° James I.

31. Page 330. More, Hist. Prov. Angl., says he assumed the name of
"Pauper "when he first attempted to leave England about 1588 ; for
his assuming the name of "Rich " see Foley, i. 646, quoting Gee's Foot
out of the Snare.

32. Page 330. His mother, Catherine Walpole's, will is dated 16th
June, 5° James I., and was proved 11th January, 1612, Cur. Ep. Norvic.
Coker, f. 269. The legacies are numerous and, for the time, unusually
large. The original surrender of all claim on the estates by Edward to
Calibut Walpole {penes me) is dated 2nd May, 1613, i.e., iust a year
after their mother's death.

33. Page 330. Foley's Records, series ii. p. 264.

A NORFOLK HOUSE 341

34. Page 331. On Sib Edward Walpole, see Collins, v, 651. His
only son Egbert, father of Sir Robert Walpole, first Earl of Orford,
was a very different man from the rough boor and sot whom Coxe,
strangely, represents him to have been. Dean Prideaux, who had very
few good words to say of any one, speaks of him as a likely person to
succeed the Duke of Norfolk as Lord Lieutenant of the County, "and
beside him," he adds, •' there is not a man of any parts or interest in all
that party. To pitch on him I reckon will be a certain expedient to
remove all manner of divisions out of this country." — Letters of Hum-
phrey Prideaux to John Ellis Camden Society), p. 195.

INDEX

Abbot, Archbishop, 323, 337
Addamson, William, 244
Agazario, Alfonso, 138, 334
Aldred, Solomon, 110, 131
Alexander, Mr., 306
AUen, Cardinal, 100, 120, 121, 159,

206, 2-52, 313
Andrada, Manuel, 275, 276
Andrewes, Launcelot, Bishop, 114
Anguish, Thos., 110
Annias, John, 277
Antonio, Don, 275
Apreece, Cassandra, 200

William, 200

Aquaviva, Claudius, 138, 210, 283,

339
Archenstall, Eichard, 176
Arden, Evan, 290
Arundell, Earl, 30, 277, 285, 291

Countess, 278

Archbishop, 56

Mrs., 247

Ascham, Eoger, 59, 82, 101
Ashley, Sir A., 329
Audley, Mr. E., 244
Aylmer, Bishop, 68, 296

Bacon, Anne, 153

Anthony, 76, 111, 290

Edmund, 328

Elizabeth, 328

Francis, 76, 103, 284, 290,

292, 317, 318, 320

— George, 151
-- Lady, 82

Bacon, Mrs., 151

Nathaniel, 179

Nicholas, 79, 81

Bagshaw, 818

Bagster, Margaret, 60

Bainbrigg, Eichard, 76

Baker, 76

Baldwin, William, 296, 308, 310

Bargius, 139, 338

Barker, Thomas, 108

Barkley, Sir E., 293

Barlow, William, 39, 40

Barnes, 285

Bameveldt, John of, 182

Barrow, Henry, 333

Bartoli, 132, 137, 220

Basselier, Father, 132

Bassett, 97, 98

Bastard of Dunham, 165, 228

Edward, 240

Elizabeth, 178

Francis, 178

Henry, 240

Eichard, 240

Battor, Stephen, 189
Baxter, Eichard, 117
Beadle, John, 242
Beale, Mr., 279, 283
Beaumont, 296, 299, 300, 308
Beckham, Dorothy, 311, 334

Margery, 51

Eichard, 51

Beeon, 31, 33
Bedingfield, Edmund, 178
Sir Henry, 175, 244

343

344

INDEX

Bedingfield, Humphrey, 96, 108,
110, 175, 176, 231, 239, 242

Nazareth, 178, 179

Bell, Thomas, 258

Bellarmine, 130

Bennet, Dr. , 259

Bernard, P., 242

Berners, Lord, 150

Bettice, William, 155

Beza, 122, 123

Bilney, 143

Bird, Hemy, 63, 79

John, 39, 40, 242

Bisson, Ammon de, 43

Blackfan, John, 206

BlaekweU, Mr., 144, 145, 151

Mrs., 145, 146, 151, 152, 153,

154

Bacon, 151

Campion, 151, 248

Draper, 151

Edward, 151

George, 151

Margaret, 152

Mary, 151

Eichard, 152

Thomas, 152

— - Walpole, 151

William, 152, 153, 154

Arehpriest, 267

Blount, Sir Charles, 273

Sir Michael, 283, 291

Boast, John, 256

Bobadilla, Nicholas, 120

Bogas, Mrs., 244

Boischot, de, 323

Boleyn, Bridget, 58

Sir John, 58

Bolt, John, 132

Borough, Lord Thomas, 97

Margaret, 97

Boswell, John, 206

Bourchier, 150

Bowes, Sir G., 87

Bozoun of Whissonsett, 165

Robert, 177

Bozoun, Roger, 199

Bradshaw, 175

Branthwaite, Richard, 291

Briant, 296

Briddiman, 244

Brindley, 82

Bristowe, 115

Bromley, Lady Elizabeth, 153

Sir Henry, 291

Sir Thomas, 153

Brown, the Separatist, 112
Browne, Anne, 155

Sir Anthony, 30, 155, 165, 180

Sir Thomas, 78

William, 155

Buckhurst, Lord, 243, 274

Bukke, John, 63

Burghley, William, Lord, 96, 272,

273, V. Cecil
Bushe, Paul, 39, 40
Butterweck, Catherine, 151, 155

Richard, 151, 155

Butts, Sir William, 108

Cahill, Hugh, 279, 280
Calibut, Andrew, 59, 147

Anna, 228, 241

Catherine, 48, 49, 58, 338

Edgar, 58

Edward, 59

Ele, 228

Francis, 58

Henry, 59

James, 59

John, 58

Robert, 59

William, 49, 58, 228

Call, Edmund, 155

Calthorpe, Lord, 81, 131, 163

Camden, 112

Campion, Edmund, 68, 102, 115,

118-30, 132, 140, 145, 146,

158, 252, 296

Thomas, 146, 152

Carleton, Dudley, 317, 335
Cartwright, 101, 111

INDEX

345

Carvajal, Luisa de, 315, 322, 335
Catesby, Mary, 178

Thomas, 178

Catline, Richard, 63, 153
Cecil, Sir Robert, 243, 272, 275,
290

William, 60, 174, 202, 208,

209, 219, 242-4, 272, 273, 291
Chamberlain, 317
Chambers, John, 39, 40
Chapman, 66, 68
Chepe, Sir John, 82
Clement, Jacques, 207
Clere, Sir Edward, 177
Clitherow, John, 254

Margaret, 253, 270

Cobb, Mary, 231
Cobbe, Joan, 48, 61

of Sandringham, 54, 76, 84,

165, 231

Geoffrey, 60

William, 231

Cobham, William, 243
Cocket, Anthony, 57

Edmund, 164, 178

Jane, 164, 178

Margaret, 57

Coke, Sir Edward, 53, 64, 98, 132,

279, 283, 284, 292, 318, 320

Robert, 53, 60, 62, 79

Coldhams of Anmer, 325
Como, Cardinal of, 82
Cornwallis, Charles, 179, 225, 240,

241, 321

Henry, 228, 240

Richard, 228, 229, 240

Thomas, 228, 244

William, 241

Cottam, Thomas, 123

Cotton, Mr., 330

Cranmer, 41, 115, 143

Cresswell, Joseph, S.J., 132, 192,

194, 196, 199, 202, 216, 295,

808, 336
Crestoval de Moro, 214
Crockett, Ralph, 45

Croft, Sir James, 109
Cromwell, Henry, Lord, 230

Thomas, 230, 241

Dean of Wells, 82

Curzon, Dorothy, 59

Daubeny, Arthur, 84
Derby, Earl, 43, 285
Dereham, John, 243, 244
Desmond, Earl of, 277
Devon, Earl of, 89
Diat, Martin, 155
Dingley, George, 258
Donne, Elizabeth, 130

John, 130, 217

Downes, Bridget, 109

Dorothy, 109

Edward, 109, 110

Francis, 109, 176, 224, 238

James, 239

John, 108, 110

Lord, 176

Mr., 95, 109

Robert, 108, 109, 175, 176,

223, 224, 225, 231, 238, 239,

245
Downham, Dr. G., 323
Doyle, Henry, 238
Doyly, Henry, 179
Drake, Sir F., 290, 314
Drewe, Serjeant, 279, 281, 284-7
Drury, Bridget, 179, 244

Dorothy, 105

Frances, 105

Henry, 105, 246

John, 105, 108

Lady, 247

Robert, 105, 108

Sir William, 105, 164, 244

Ducket, Owen, 178
Dudley, Amy, 48, 56
— - Lord Robert, 48, 56
Dugdale, 50

Edwardes, 319

Elderton, William, 133, 135

346

INDEX

Eldred, Solomon, 110

Elizabeth, Queen, j^amni.

Elliott, 132, 135

Elwin, Judge, 300, 309

Emerson, Ealph, 122, 123, 131

Erasmus, 35

Essex, Robert Devereux, Earl of,

111, 196, 201, 272-6, 290,

316, 319
Everard, Thomas, 246
Ewens, Matthew, 296, 300, 308
Exeter's wife, Marquis of, 30

Farmer, Anne, 178

Henry, 178^

Thomas, 155, 178, 179

Faunt, Nicholas, 64

Robert, 79

Favour, Dr., 259
Feckenham, Abbot, 74
Fenner, Dudley, 75, 84, 172
Ferriman, Francis, 309
Fincham, Thomas, 178
Fittleworth, 145
Fitzgerald, James, 277
Fitzherbert, Thomas, 97, 98
Fleet, Thomas, 59
Fleming, 318
Fletcher, Dr., 291
Floyd, H., 206
Fontaine, de la, 295
Fortescue, Edmund, 247

John, 243

• Mistress, 247

Fowle, Thomas, 68
Fox, John, 81
Freake, Bishop, 80, 81, 175
Freeman, John, 244

Thomas, 244

Fryer, Dr., 224
Fulke, 115

Fuscinelli, Octavius, 308
Fynes, Mr., 177

Gama, Ferrara de, 275, 276
Gardiner, Anna, 240

Gardiner,Bernard,of Coxf ord Abbey,
76, 79, 84, 179, 194, 199, 228,
230, 240, 242, 327, 330, 338

Bishop, 30

George, Dr., 66, 67, 68, 78, 79

Humphrey, 240

Katherine, 230, 241

Lyonell, 242

Sir Robert, 239

Thomas, 228

Gargrave, Sir Thomas, 251

Garnet, Henry, 115, 283, 284, 285,
321, 335

Gayangos, Don Pascuale de, 337

George, David, 72

Gerard, John, 157-75, 192, 194,
223, 228, 230, 234, 243, 246-
50, 285, 294, 322, 326

Lord, 157

Sir Thomas, 157

Gibbon, 117

Gifford, Dr., 285

Glasgow, Archbishop of, 82

Goldwell, Bishop, 39, 99, 121, 123,
131, 138

Gondomar, 323, 324, 337

Goodman, 31, 44

John, 329

Goodrich, John, 199

Nicholas, 199

Thomas, 194, 199

William, 199

Unica, 199

Graye, Robert, 175, 176, 239

Green, Father, 336

Greene, Robert, 64, 80, 153

Greenwood, John, 333

Gregory XIII, Pope, 121

Grey, Robert de, 108

Grimston, Christopher, 181

Grindal, Bishop, 82

Guise, Duke of, 205, 207

Gunnes, Gregory, 290

Hale, Sir M., 156, 242, 340
Hall, Mr., 63

INDEX

347

Hardesty, Mr., 258
Hare, Michael, 110
Harman, Thomas, 244
Harryett, Matthew, 244
Harrys, Symon, 244
Harvey, Gabriel, 76

John, 244

Hastings, Martin, 60
Hatton, Sir Christopher, 109, 274
Haugh, or Hawe, 64, 65, 78, 80
Hawkins, 296

John, 178

Hay ward, James, 116

Simon, 112

Heigham, John, 178
Hereward, the Englishman, 46
Heydon, Sir Christopher, 108, 179
Heywood, Eliseus, 114, 130

Elizabeth, 130

Jasper, 114, 130

John, 130

Mrs., 247

Higgens, George, 304, 305, 309
Hillyard, William, 297, 298, 308
Hilsey, John, 39, 41
Hobard, Mrs., 244
Hobbard, see Hubbard
Holbeeh, Henry, 39, 41
Holgate, Kobert, 39
Holt, William, 115, 246, 299, 310
Holtby, Richard, 267, 268, 270,

287, 302, 304
Holtoft, Gilbert, 57

Margaret, 48, 49, 58

William, 58

Hooker, Eichard, 114, 309
Hooper, Bishop, 41
Hopital, Michel de 1', 185
Hopton, Bishop, 39
Horden, 59
Home, Charles, 76
Houghell, Bridget, 155
Houghton, Adam de, 47

Mary, 155

Howard, Sir Philip, sec Arundell,

Earl

Howards, the, 30, 243

Howell, Richard, 156

Howes, James, 155

Hubbard, James, 105, 200, 287

Huddleston, Edmund, 247

Hule, Catherine, 155

Hunsdon, 243

Huntingdon, Henry, Earl of, 250-2,

256-9, 269, 270, 287, 297
Huss, 119
Hussey, James, 329

Ingram, 218

Jacques, Captain, 284
Jerningham, or Jernegan, Anne,

244

Edward, 244

George, 244

Sir Henry, 95, 222, 224, 232,

238, 243

Henry, 242, 244

Jeronyma, 232, 245

Lady, 95, 223, 243

Mr., 232, 242

Thomas, 244

William, 244

Jerome, 119

Jewell, Bishop, 66, 114

Joan, Queen Mary's fool, 243, 244

Jones, Nicholas, 111

Kelke, Roger, 65
Kerviles of Wiggenhall, 165
Killigrew, Sir H., 283
King, Nicholas, 247
Robert, 39, 41

Kingston, Sir Anthony, 243

Lady, 243

Kirke, 76

Kirkman, 253

Kitchin, Anthony, 39, 41

Knollys, Sir F., 109, 196

Knox, John, 31, 33

Knyrett, Catherine, 48, 110

Edmund, 150, 155

348

INDEX

Knyvett, Jane, 150

Sir Thomas, 110, 155

Lacey, William, 252, 253
Lassey, Brian, 291, 292

Richard, 292

Latimer, 143
Laynez, 115

Lay ton, Sir Thomas, 172
Lee, William, 133, 135

Roger, 247

Leicester, Robert Dudley, Earl of,

50, 81, 109, 118, 137, 148,

150, 182-4, 190, 196, 274
Le Strange, Grisell, 177

Hamon, 177

Nicholas, 179

Thomas, 164, 177, 178

of Hunstanton, 61

Leutner or Lucknor, 158, 192
Limbert, Stephen, 65, 66, 79,

80
Linacre, James, 246
Lingam, George, 45
Lingen, Edward, 214, 217, 256,

260, 262
Lith, Thomas, 113
Longueville, Viscount, 163
Lopez, Roderigo, 275-7, 390
Lovell, Lady, 244, 247

Robert, 109, 175, 239

Thomas, 109, 175

Lovering, Mr., 78

Loyola, 103, 114

Lucie, Thomas, 194

Lumner, Edward, 164, 178, 179

Jane, 164, 178, 179, 236

Major, Anthony, 258

Manareus, Oliver, 139, 191, 246,

328, 339
Maplisdon, John, 292
Markham, John, 200
Marshall, Mr., 244
Martin, Gregory, 115
Roger, 108, 110

Mary, Queen, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, ei

Stuart, 86, 188, 207, 308

Maurice, Prince, 205
Maye, Henry, 254
Mayne, Cuthbert, 100, 101, 120
Mercurianus, Everard, 120
Michell, William, 155
Middleton, Thomas, 253
Mills, Jane, 324
Montford, Simon de, 47
Montmorenci, 205
More, Henry, Dr., 154, 308, 326,
335, 338

Sir Thomas, 90, 130, 131

Sir William, 107

Morgan, Mr., 132

Morley, Edward Parker, Lord, 227

Morton, Dr., 121

Morus, 132

Mulcaster, Mr., 112, 232, 242, 243

Munday, 132, 135, 318

Mufioz, Luis, 336, 337

Murray, Regent, 207

Myles, Mr. F., 131

Nachtegael, George, 191, 198, 199

Naunton, Robert, 64, 79, 80

Nelson, John, 101

Newport, Grace, 178

Nichols, Degory, 76

Nigrius, 138

Norfolk, Thomas Howard, 4th Duke

of, 56, 57, 89, 92, 188, 341
Norreys, 290

North, Edward, Lord, 142
Northumberland, Henry Percy, 9th

Earl of, 86, 92, 152

Countess of, 146

Norton, Richard, 97, 133, 135

Walter, 175, 177

Norwich, William, Bishop of, 292
Nottingham, Charles Howard,

Lord, 296
Nowell, Dean, 245
Robert, 245

INDEX

349

Odoenus, Bishop, 339
Oldcorne, Father, 161, 175
Oliverius, Father, 199

Paget, Thomas, 3rd Lord, 124

Parham, Edward, 155

Paris, Ferdinand, 109, 175, 179

Philip, 76, 84, 179

Parker, Archbishop, 60, 64, 66, 67,

75, 78, 81, 82, 144
Parkhurst, Dr. John, Bishop of

Norwich, 66, 67, 80, 81
Parky ns, 45

Parma, Prince of, 189, 199, 205
Parsons, Robt., 75, 104, 112, 115-

8, 122-6, 130, 140, 145, 158,

159, 206, 208-12, 216, 258,

284, 313, 321, 336
Paston, John, 240

William, 240

Patrick, Ursula, 151

Pawlet, Lady, 244

Pelham, SirW., 183

Pells of Anmer, 325

Pembroke, Earl of, 60

Percy, Lady Mary, 247

Perez, Antonio, 277

Perient, George, 107

Perne, Dr., 74, 83, 167

Petre, Lady, 223, 244

Peyton, Sir John, 175, 179, 317

Philip II., King of Spain, 116, 206

Philippes, Nicholas, 244

Philopater, Andreas, 208, 209

Pits, John, 115

Pius v., Pope, 87

Pole, Reginald, 27, 144

Ponet, 31, 44

Possoz, Father, 197

Pound, Thomas, 125

Powle, John, 244

Pratt, Mr., 232, 245

Prideaux, Dean, 341

Puckering, Lord Keeper, 261, 270,

278, 283
Pym, 309

Quinones, Alfonso de, 206

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 290
Rawlings, Alexander, 301-6
Rede, Thomas, 178
Redington, Mr., 79
Redman, Bishop, 227
Remington, Robert, 84, 259
Repps, Margaret, 239
Reuchlin, 35
Rich, Audrey, 105

Lord, 105

Richards, Ursula, 178

Ridley, Bishop, 31

Robarts, Jane, 200

Roberts, John, 66, 200

Robsart, Amy, 48, 49, 56, 57, 118,

138. See Dudley

Arthur, 57

Elizabeth, 56

John, 48, 56, 57

Lucy, 48

Sir Terry, 48

Rodriguez, Simon, 120

Rolls, 317

Rookwood, or Rucwood, Annie

244

Ambrose, 106

of Coldhara, 287

Dorothy, 247

. Edward, 94, 106, 108, 109

of Euston, 106

Richard, 247

Robert, 105

of Stanningfield, 106

Roper, James, 237

Rouse, Anthony, 194, 200, 246

Rowe, Mr., 176

William, 216

Rudolph II., 119
Rugg, William, 39
Russell, Mr., 244

Captain, 191, 196

Henry, 228

Jane, 244

of Rudham, 54

350

INDEX

Ryvett, Jane, 155

Sir Thomas, 155, 156

Sailly, Thomas, 189
Salcot, John, 39
Salisbury, Dean, 67, 79
Salmeron, Alphonsus, 115
Sampson, Abbot, 47
Sandys, Archbishop, 251, 309

Sir Edwin, 112, 303, 305, 309

Miles, 84, 284, 309

Saravia, Adrian, 308
Saville, Serjeant, 298, 309

Sir George, 309

Henry, 309

Sayve, William, 239
Scarlett, Martha, 155

Thomas, 53, 60, 62, 156

Ursula, 155

Scott, Bishop, 99
Selden, John, 309
Sheffield, Lord, 117
Sherley, EHzabeth, 247
Sherwood, Thomas, 101
Shrewsbury, Earl of, 274
Sidney, Sir H., 119
Singleton, Richard, 138
Skipwith, Sir WiUiam, 200
Sledd, 132, 135
Smith, Richard, Father, 327

Thomas, 69, 82, 319

Souche, Henry, 132

Southwell, Richard, 238

Robert, 97, 111, 181, 198, 199,

223, 278, 287, 292, 326
Speght, 169, 181
Spelman, Sir H., 41, 60
Spylman, Francis, 239
Squier, Edward, 314-20
Standen, 111
Stanley, John, 317
Sir William, 184-8, 196, 215,

257, 284
Stapleton, 115, 130
Stead, Anne, 155
Sterer, William, 243

Still, Mr., 81
Strange, Lord, 285
Stransham, or Potter, George, 84
Stubbs, Dionise, 178

Richard, 178

Style, Lady Elizabeth, 94, 107

Sir Humphrey, 107

Sucklinge, Edmund, 292
Suliard, Edward, 110, 244

Lady, 199

Thomas, 244

Sutton, Katherine, 80
Sydney, Sir Philip, 119, 183
Sir Robert, 190

Tassis, 187

Taylor, Rowland, 333

Tello, Don Pedro, 314

Thexton, Launcelot, 81

Thirlby, Henry, 146, 152, 153

Thomas, Bishop of Ely, 53,

143, 145, 146, 152, 153
Thompson, James, 253
Mr. Robert (Gerard), 166,

242
Thorne, 210
Throgmorton, 50
Tinoco, Manuel Lewis, 275, 276
Topcliffe, Richard, 97, 98, 106, 111,

172, 198, 259, 262, 264, 270,

277, 278, 279, 281-5, 291,

296

Robert, 97

Townshend, Marian, 107

Sir Robert, 107

Thomas, 95, 107, 108

of Rainham, 165

Traheron, 31, 44
Tregian, Francis, 100
Tremaine, Mr., 247

Mistress, 247

Mary, 247

Vallenger, 128, 137
Vaux, Laurence, 121
Velasco, Ruis de, 214

INDEX

351

Verstegan, 111, 197, 285, 292
Villars, 273

Waad, William, 317, 318

Wade, 174

Wakeham, John, 39

Waldegrave, Charles, 223, 232, 233,
243, 245, 287

Charles (son), 232, 243, 244

Christian, 244

Dorothy, 244

Edward, 232, 244, 245

Sir Edward, 223, 224, 238

Frances, 243

Henry, 245

John, 233, 245

Lady, 223, 224, 238, 245

Magdalen, 243

Nicholas, 245

Walker, Dr. John, 68

Thomas, 61

Walpole, Alan, 55

Alice, 150

Beatrix, 55

of Broekley, 47

Calibut, 50, 148, 149, 326,

328, 329, 338, 340

Catherine, 58, 151, 153, 340

Christopher, 48, 50, 51, 59,

60, 64, 150, 154, 155, 169,
181, 194, 198, 200, 311

Christopher (son), 181, 322,

334, 337

Clarice, 55

Dorothy, 150

Edmund, 47

Edward, 48, 49, 65, 76, 77,

84, 129, 137, 143, 145, 147,
148, 154, 155, 164, 167, 179,
180, 193, 199, 220, 230, 242,
249, 287, 310, 326-30, 338,
340

Egeline, 55

Elizabeth, 58

Francis, 59

Galferye, 150

Walpole, Geoffrey, 169, 311, 313,

324, 334

Henry of Herpley, 48, 49-59

Sir Henry de, 46, 47

Henry, S.J., paasim

Jane, 151, 155, 200

Joceline, 55

John, 48, 49, 50, 57, 143, 148,

155, 156, 228, 326, 338

Lemare, 55

Margaret, 150

Margery e, 150

Mary, 154, 155, 231, 242

Michael, 150, 154, 168, 169,

180, 191, 193, 198,321,322,

324, 337

Osbert, 55

of Pinchbeck, 47

Radulphus, 47

Eeginald, 55

Richard, 49, 107, 142, 149,

150, 154, 169, 210, 312-6,

321, 334, 335, 336

Robert, 341

Sir Robert, 329, 331, 341

Serjeant, 60, 79, 143, 150, 332

Simon, 47, 55

Terry, 49, 108

Thomas, 48, 51, 59, 150,

155
Thomas (son), 170, 194, 200,

215, 257, 269, 272, 311, 312,

324, 325, 334

Thomasine, 324, 325

William, 42

William of Herpley, 48, 50,

53, 143, 145, 146, 148, 151,

152, 153, 154, 329

WilHam, Prior of Ely, 55

Walsingham, Sir F., 64, 131, 273,

274

Lord, 176

Warner, Christopher, 325

Edward, 63

Warton, Edward, 151
Robert, 39

352

INDEX

Warwick, John Dudley, Earl of,

48, 56, 57, 109
Watson, 99, 246, 326
Wayte, Eustace, 291
Welby, Kobert, 200
Wendon, Nicholas, 69, 82
Wentworth, Peter, 277, 291

Thomas, Lord, 79

West, Robert, 292
Westmorland, Earl of, 86
Weston, Father, 122
White, Sir Thomas, 118
Whitgift, Archbishop, 101, 111,

295, 308
Wilkes, Sir Thomas, 279
Wilkinson, Michael, 293
Willoughby, Sir Edward, 97

George, 177

Joan, 97

Wilson, Mr. Secretary, 109
Wiltcot, Mr., 45
Windham, Mr. Justice, 244
Wiseman, Mr. T., 247 285, 287,

292

Mrs., 247

. WiUiam, 247

Wodehouse, Francis, of Breecles,

226, 234, 239, 245, 287, 293
Grisell, Lady, 179, 234, 236,

237

John, 239

Philip, of Kimberley, 164, 178,

179,233,236, 237, 287,'^ 292
Sir Eoger, 164, 179, 239 '

Wodehouse, Sir Thomas, 45
Wolley, J., 243
Wolsey, Cardinal, 38, 67
Wotton, Lord, 321
Wyatt, Sir Thomas, 44

Yaxley, 223, 233, 239

Yelverton, Anne, 178, 239

Charles, 155, 164, 177, 179,

227, 228, 229, 236

Sir Charles, 164

Sir Christopher, 163

Edward, of Rougham, 76, 84,

163-7, 178, 199, 226, 231,

237, 239, 241, -242, 285,

330

Ferdinand, 178

Frances, 178

Grisell, 178, 233

Henry, 163, 178

Humphrey, 178, 226, 239

Jane, 164, 178, 179, 180

Launcelot, 178

Martha, 118, 239

William, 155, 163, 177, 178,

179, 180
Winifred, 178

Yepez, Bishop, 198, 220, 271
Yorke, Rowland, 183, 187
Young, Richard, 278, 283, 284,
286, 291

Zelander, 310
Zuniga, Pedro de, 823

UNWIN BROTHERS .LIMITED THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON.

ITNIYEESITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBEARY,

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