CHAPTER V.

WHEN the English College at Rome was founded, in 1579, a Welshman, Maurice Clennock, was appointed president. His partiality to his countrymen excited factions which led to "mischief and almost murder," and maddened the students to that pitch that they were ready to forswear Allen and forsake "whom and what else soever," rather than continue under the Welsh rector.9 The tumults were not entirely calmed by the appointment of two Jesuits for the moral and literary superintendence of the scholars, for this only angered the Welsh faction against the society, which they accused of having stirred up these tumults underhand, in order that the fathers might gain possession of the college; not that they wished to send the English students to the mission, but rather to keep them at Rome and make them Jesuits. This party thought the fathers had "no skill nor experience" of the state of England, or of the nature of Englishmen, and that their "trade of syllogising" was quite alien from the intellectual habits of this country. Allen wrote from Paris, May 12, 1579, that he feared, if these broils continued, "our nation would be forsaken both of the Jesuits and ourselves, and all superiors else;" and wished to God that he might go for a month to Rome, and either make up these extreme alienations of mind, or else end his life.

H

Allen accordingly went to Rome, and found that the best way of reconciling the factions was for the Jesuits to take part in the English mission. The cause was debated between him and Mercurianus, the general of the society, his four assistants, Claudius Acquaviva, the Roman Provincial, afterwards General, and Father Parsons. The arguments for the mission were founded upon several considerations,-the piety, the necessity, and the importance of the work; the desire of the English Catholics; the notable encouragement and help it would be to the seminary priests if they had Jesuits, not only to assist them abroad in their studies, but at home in their conflicts; the increasing intensity of the war, which now required more men; the comfort it would be to the English Catholics to see religious men begin to return thither again after so long an exile, and especially such religious as could not pretend to recover any of the alienated property of the orders; the propriety of the Jesuits engaging in the mission, since the object of their foundation was to oppose the heresies of the day. It was urged also that Englishmen were more neighbours than Indians, and had greater claims for spiritual help; for it was more obligatory to preserve than to gain; and a token that the Jesuits were called to accept the mission was to be found in the fact that there were more Englishmen in the society than in all the other orders together. Moreover, the Jesuits had been the professors and the directors of the seminary priests, and had exhorted them to undertake their perilous enterprise. It was not seemly for those who were sending men at the risk of their lives to bear the burden of the day and the heat, themselves to stand aloof. And how could the fathers expect to be acceptable to the English nation after the restoration of religion, if they refused to bear their share of the toil

and the danger of restoring it? Lastly, as the Order of St. Benedict at first converted England, the society of Jesus might fairly hope for the glory of reconverting it.

In reply to these arguments, it was urged that so grave a matter must not be too hastily settled; that it was a hard thing to send men to so dangerous a place as England, where the adversaries, though Christians in name, were more hostile, more eager, more vigilant, and much more cruel than the infidels of the Indies were then, or than the heathen Saxons formerly were when St. Augustine went over; that the superiors, who would have no difficulty in persuading the English Jesuits to face the risk of martyrdom, had great difficulty in deciding whether the loss of such men did not far outweigh the hope of gain by their labours. Again, the English Government would at once publish a proclamation declaring that the Jesuits had not come over for religious, but only for political purposes, and would thus make the missionaries odious, and their actions doubtful. It would require more wisdom than could be expected in the mass of men to unravel the web and detect the fallacy. The charge would either be believed, or men would remain in suspense till the event was seen. Again, the method of life which priests were obliged to practise in England was totally incompatible with the constitutions of the society. Whilst the external danger was a recommendation, the spiritual perils must give them pause. They would be obliged to go about in disguise, and hide their priesthood and their religious profession under the garb and swagger of soldiers; they must live apart from one another, and consort with men of doubtful character; they would be sent back to the world to escape from which they had sacrificed themselves. They would be overwhelmed with business, and there would be no facilities, as in India, for renewing their

relaxing fervour by frequent retreats. They would have no rest, no silence; they would be in everlasting hurlyburly. And then they would be accused of treason, and hunted about as traitors. And on occasion of disputes with the other priests, there were no bishops in England to exercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction; and it seemed difficult to believe that so many priests and religious could live together in one realm without jars and discords.

It was long before any decision was made. Allen went to the Pope, who removed the last difficulty by sending Dr. Goldwell, who had been Bishop of St. Asaph in Mary's reign, to be the ordinary of all England." The other objections were overruled, chiefly through the arguments of Claudius Acquaviva, who asked to be sent on the mission, and of Oliverius Manareus, the assistant from Germany, who, as a Belgian, knew the state of England through the English exiles who swarmed in his country. It was determined that the society should take part in the English mission, and a paper of instructions was drawn up for the guidance of those who should be first sent.98 The missionaries were reminded of the virtue and piety, and of the prudence, required for dwelling safely in a nation of shrewd, experienced, and unscrupulous enemies: to preserve the first, they were to keep the rules of the society as far as circumstances would allow; for the second, they were to study with whom, when, how, and about what things they were to speak, and to be especially careful never to commit themselves, either amid the temptations of good fellowship, or by hasty and immoderate zeal and heat. Their dress, though secular, was to be grave, and the habit of the society was only to be worn when they were quite safe, and then only for sacred functions. If they could not live together, they were at least to visit one another frequently. With

regard to their intercourse with strangers, they were to associate with men of the higher ranks, and rather with reconciled Catholics than with those who were still in schism. They were to have no personal dealings with heretics, but were to employ laymen to manage all the preliminaries of conversion, to which they were themselves only to put the finishing stroke. They were not to be over-ready to engage in controversy, and then were to abstain from all sarcasm, preferring solid answers to sharp repartees, and always putting first the very best and strongest arguments. They were to avoid familiar conversation with women and boys, to take especial care never to deserve the reputation of chatter-boxes, or of alms or legacy hunters; "they must so behave that all may see that the only gain they covet is that of souls." They must not carry about any thing forbidden by the penal laws, or any thing that might compromise them, as letters; except for the strongest reasons, they must never let it be publicly known that they were Jesuits, or even priests. "They must not mix themselves up with affairs of state, nor write to Rome about political matters, nor speak, nor allow others to speak in their presence, against the queen,-except perhaps in the company of those whose fidelity has been long and steadfast, and even then not without strong reasons."

It would have been too much to expect that the English Jesuits should have no political opinion at all, or that what they had should be favourable to Queen Elizabeth. But short of proscribing all political action whatever, the instructions given to the first Jesuits certainly shut up such action within the narrowest possible limits; they were to do nothing, and only to speak out their opinions in the most select company. The only political action that was to be allowed them was one for which the