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priests before in Douay college. These were followed, in 1580, by three others, made priests before at Douay, and twenty-nine from Rhemes. In which same year the priests of the society of Jesus first entered upon the mission. Their two first missioners were those eminent divines, Edmund Campion and Robert Parsons.

The fruits that these missions produced in England were surprisingly great; for the generality of the missioners were men who were neither to be wearied with labours, nor frightened with dangers, and as the sequel shewed, were prepared to meet death in all its shapes. So that it is not to be wondered, that whereas, in the first ten years of the queen's reign, few had the courage to refuse to join in a schismatical communion, now, by the preaching of these missioners, thousands in all parts of the kingdom, and many of the first rank, were reconciled to God and his church, although their recusancy, as it was called, exposed them to heavy fines of 20/. a month, and other severe penalties; and the prisons throughout the whole nation were filled with their persons.

But the loss of liberty and goods not being thought a sufficient punishment for men whose conscience was their only crime, more severe laws were enacted, by which it was made high treason to be reconciled to the catholic church, or to persuade any one to that religion, or to be otherwise instrumental in the reconciling any one. High treason to procure, publish, or put in use any bull, writing, or instrument from the bishop of Rome. High treason for Roman Catholic priests to remain in this kingdom; and felony for any one to harbour, relieve, or assist them. By which laws, as these memoirs will abundantly demonstrate, great numbers, both of the clergy and laity, have been executed in most parts of this kingdom; though sometimes our adversaries have strove to hide their shame, by pretending I know not what plots and treasons of their own contrivance, and charging them upon catholics, whom they were resolved to make away with in hatred to their religion: as in the case of the pretended conspiracy of Rome and Rhemes, 1580, and that which is commonly called Oates's plot, in 1679. But truth has still prevailed, in spite of all their stratagems, insomuch that their own writers have been since forced to acknowledge, that these men were not guilty of the treasons charged upon them. So that as these really suffered in hatred of their religion, we have reason to rank them amongst the martyrs of religion.

In the mean time, notwithstanding all these laws, and the vigorous execution of them, the number of catholics still increased, and new colleges or seminaries were erected, to supply them with pastors, at Seville and Valladolid, in Spain, in 1589, and another college at St. Omer's, for the education of youth, in 1594. And in the beginning of the following century, the monks of the venerable order of St. Benedict entered also upon the mission, and were not long after followed by the friars of the holy order of St. Francis, &c., not to speak of the college instituted at Lisbon, in 1622.

Our memoirs of the sufferings of our English catholics, begin with the year 1577, the nineteenth of queen Elizabeth. Because from this year we may properly date the beginning of the great persecution, but little blood having been shed by her before, at least for matters purely

religious. And it is very remarkable, that this same year, a few months before the execution of the protomartyr of the seminaries, Mr. Cuthbert Maine, God Almighty seems to have warned the nation against this spirit of persecution, by a judgment (for I can call it nothing else) which can scarce be paralleled in all history; and as to the substance of the matter of fact, is attested by all kinds of records, and acknowledged by protestants as well as catholics.

This was in the case of the memorable trial of Roland Jenks, a catholic bookseller, in Oxford, who, for speaking some words against the queen's religion, was condemned, in the assizes held at Oxford, in July 1577, to have his ears nailed to the pillory, and to deliver himself by cutting them off with his own hands. Which sentence was no sooner passed, when immediately, upon the spot, a strange mortal distemper, the like of which, as to its symptoms, has never been heard of before or since, seized upon the judges, justices on the bench, sheriffs, jurymen, and hundreds of others that were present at the trial, and carried them off in a very short time. Let us hear Mr. Wood, the protestant historian of the university of Oxford, his account of this history, in his Historia and Antiquitates Universitatis Oxoniensis, l. 1. p. 294. words, translated from the Latin, are as follows:

His

'It was ordered, therefore, in the convocation held on the 1st of May, 1577, that the criminal, Roland Jenks, should immediately be apprehended; and being put into irons, should be sent up in order to be examined before the chancellor of the university, and the queen's council. In the mean time, all his goods are seized, and in his house are found bulls of popes, and libels reflecting upon her majesty. He was examined at London, in presence of the persons aforesaid, and then was sent back to Oxford, there to be kept in prison till the next assizes, which began on the 4th of July, in the Old Hall in the Castle Yard, and lasted for two days.

'He was brought to the bar and was arraigned for high crimes and misdemeanors; and, being found guilty, was condemned by a sentence in some manner capital: for he was to lose his ears. At which time (though my soul dreads almost to relate it) so sudden a plague invaded the men that were present (the great crowd of people, the violent heat of the summer, and the stench of the prisoners, all conspiring togegether; and, perhaps, also, a poisonous exhalation breaking suddenly, at the same time, out of the earth) that you might say, death itself sat on the bench; and by her definitive sentence, put an end to all the causes-for great numbers immediately dying upon the spot, others struck with death, hastened out of the court as fast as they could, to die within a very few hours. A mournful ditty was shortly after published on this subject by a young university man, which, for brevity sake I shall omit. But it may not be amiss to set down the names of the persons of greatest note, who were seized by that plague, and breathed out their souls. These were Sir Robert Bell, chief baron of the exchequer, and Nicholas Barham, serjeant at law, both great enemies of the popish religion; which, perhaps, the romanists will lay hold on as an argument for their cause; but I desire them to remember, not to search too narrowly into the secret judgments of God, when

we are at a loss to account even for those things which the Almighty has revealed in holy writ. To the above named must be added, Sir Robert Doyley, the high-sheriff of Oxford, Mr. Hart, his deputy, Sir William Babington, Messieurs Doyley, Wenman, Danvers, Fetty place, and Harcourt, justices of the peace; Kirley, Greenwood, Nash, and Foster, Gentlemen: to whom are to be joined, to say nothing of others, almost all the jurymen, who died within two days."

He adds, out of the register of Merton college, the following account of the symptoms of this strange disease.

"Some getting out of bed (agitated with I know not what fury, from their distemper and pain,) beat and drive from them their keepers with sticks; others run about the yards and streets like madmen; others jump head foremost into deep waters. The sick labour with a most violent pain, both of the head and stomach: they are taken with a phrenzy; are deprived of their understanding, memory, sight, hearing, and other senses. As the disease increases, they take nothing; they get no sleep; they suffer none to tend or keep them; they are always wonderfully strong and robust, even in death itself; no complexion or constitution is spared, but the choleric are more particularly attacked by this evil, of which the physicians can neither find the cause nor cure. The stronger the person is, the sooner he dies. Women are not seized by it, nor the poor, neither does any one catch it that takes care of the sick, or visits them. But as this disease was strangely violent, so it was but of a short continuance; for within a month it was over." So far the register.

The substance of this history may be found also in Sir Richard Baker's Chronicle, and in Fuller's Church History, book 9, page 109. To say nothing of the catholic writers, in whom I have found it, who are F. Parsons, Epist. de Persecutione Angl. published in 1581. Mr. Rishton, de Schismate Angl. 1. 3. Ribadaneira, in his appendix to Dr. Saunders's History, cap. 13. Yepez, bishop of Taraçona, in his Spanish history of the persecution, 1. 2. cap. 9., who relates also, cap. 11. some other examples of the like judgments upon the persecutors, &c. I find also the same history had reached Douay by the following month, where I find it recorded in the register, or diary of the college, August, 1577. Mr. Jenks survived his punishment many years, for I find by the same diary he was at Rhemes in 1587.

But neither this remarkable warning, nor any other ensuing judgments, hindered the unhappy politicians of those days from beginning and carrying on the intended tragedy, which afforded the nation so many scenes of blood, for the many remaining years of that long reign; and all for fear lest the Romans should come and take away their place and nation.

As to the priests and others, who suffered in these persecutions, of whom we are now going to speak, though we make no question of their religion having been their only crime, yet we have abstained from giving them the title of Saints or Martyrs, that we might not seem to run before the church of God, which has not as yet thought proper to declare them such; to whose wholesome and wise decrees we desire in all things to conform ourselves. And for the same reason we have been

very sparing in mentioning miracles, visions, or revelations, shown in favour of any of these champions of God's truth: for such things, by the decrees of the see apostolic, ought not to be published till they have been first duly examined, and approved by the ordinaries. On which account, we think it necessary to advertise our readers in this place, that what little is found of that nature in the following sheets, is not to be taken as having the weight of church authority, or any authentic declaration to support it; but only as historical facts, delivered by grave and credible vouchers.

As to the number of those that have suffered for religion in this reign, from 1577 to 1603, I find them to have been in all, priests, 124, laymen and women 63. The first was Mr. Cuthbert Maine, of whom we shall now speak.

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MEMOIRS, &c.

CUTHBERT MAINE, PRIEST.-1577.

He was the first missionary priest that suffered in England for religious matters, and the protomartyr of Douay college, and all the seminaries. I have a short account of his life and death in English, published in 1582: I have also a more ample account of him in a Latin manuscript of Douay college. I shall present the reader with an abstract of the former, in the very words of the author, who was an intimate friend of Mr. Maine; choosing rather to offend the ears with the old language of the writer, than, by new modelling the narration, to lessen its authority, or spoil its amiable simplicity. I shall here and there add some things out of the Latin manuscript, which, for distinction sake, I shall enclose within these marks" ".

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Cuthbert Maine was born in Barnstaple, " or rather in the parish of Yalston, three miles from Barnstaple," in Devonshire. He had an old schismatical priest to his uncle, that was well beneficed; who being very desirous to leave his benefice to this his nephew, brought him up at school, and when he was eighteen or nineteen years old, got him made minister: at which time (as Mr. Maine himself, with great sorrow and deep sighs, did often tell me) he knew neither what ministry nor religion meant. Being sent afterwards to Oxford, he heard his course of logic in Alborn-hall, and there proceeded bachelor of arts.

At that time St. John's college wanted some good fellow to play his part at the communion table; to play which part Mr. Maine was invited and hired. In which college and function he lived many years, being of so mild a nature, and of such sweet behaviour, that the protestants did greatly love him, and the catholics did greatly pity him; insomuch that some dealing with him, and advertising him of the evil state he stood in, he was easily persuaded that "the new" doctrine was heretical, and, withal, was brought to lament and deplore his own miserable state and condition. And so being in heart and mind a persuaded catholic, "he unhappily, nevertheless," continued yet in the same college for some years, and there proceeded master of arts.

Some of his familiar friends," particularly Mr. Gregory Martin and Mr. Edmund Campion," being already beyond the seas for their conscience, did often solicit him by letters to leave that function of the ministry, and invited him to come to Douay. One of these letters, by chance, fell into the hands of the bishop of London, who despatched a

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