The Condition of Catholics Under James I. Part 11

"The patient on hearing this said to me, 'Since this doctor is known to your Reverence, and is chosen by you, I give myself willingly into his hands.'

"By this doctor, then, he was cured beyond all expectation, and so completely restored to perfect health that there was not a more robust or stalwart man in a thousand. He was a most devoted friend to me, just as if he had been my twin-brother. And this name of brother we always used in writing to each other. How greatly he was attached me, may be seen from the following incident. Once when I had gone to a certain house to a.s.sist a soul in agony, he got to learn that I was in great danger there: upon this he at first expressed a terrible distress, and then immediately said to his wife that if I should be taken, he was resolved to watch the roads by which I should be carried prisoner to London, and take with him a sufficient number of friends and servants to rescue me by force from those who had me in custody; and if he should miss me on the road, he would accomplish my release one way or another, even though he should spend his whole fortune in the venture. Such, then, was his attachment to me at that time, and this he retained always in the same-nay, rather in an increased-degree to the end of his life; as he showed by the way he spoke of me when pleading for his life before the public court. At this time, however, as I said, he was restored to health; and he and his wife got together a little domestic church after the pattern of that in our own house, and built a chapel with a sacristy, furnishing it with costly and beautiful vestments, and obtained a Priest of the Society for their chaplain, who remained with them to Sir Everard's death.

"What was done by this family was done by others also. For many of the Catholic gentry coming to our house, and seeing the arrangements and manner of life, followed the example themselves, establishing a sort of congregation in each of their houses, providing handsome altar furniture, making convenient arrangements for the residence of Priests, and showing especial respect and reverence to them.

"Among those who came to this determination was a certain lady resident near Oxford, whose husband was indeed a Catholic, but overmuch devoted to worldly pursuits. She, however, gave herself to be directed by me as far as she could, having such a husband. I often visited them, and was always welcomed by both; and there I established one of our Fathers, Edward Walpole, whom I mentioned at an early part of this narrative as having left a large patrimony for the sake of following Christ our Lord, in the first year of my residence in England.

"There was another lady also who had a similar wish: she was a relative of my hostess, and she also resided in the county of Oxford. Her husband was a Knight of very large property, who hoped to be created a Baron, and still hopes for it. This lady came on a visit to our house, and wished to learn the way of meditating, which I taught her; but as her husband was a heretic, it was impossible for her to have a Priest in her house, as she greatly wished. She took, however, the resolution of supporting a Priest, who should come to her at convenient times. She resolved, also, to make a meditation every day, and to give one or two hours daily to spiritual reading, when she had no guests in the house. On her coming to me every six months, I found that she had never omitted her meditation, nor her daily examination of conscience, except on one occasion when her husband insisted on her staying with the guests. Yet she had a large and busy household to superintend, and a continual coming and going of guests.

"It happened on one occasion when I was in this lady's house, and was sitting with her after dinner, the servants having gone down to get their own dinner, that suddenly a guest was shown up who had just arrived. This was an Oxford Doctor of Divinity, a heretic of some note and a persecutor of Catholics; his name was Dr. Abbot.(121) He had just before this published a book against Father Southwell, who had been executed, and Father Gerard, who had escaped from the Tower, because these two had defended the doctrine of equivocation, which he chose to impugn. After this publication, the good man had been made Dean of Winchester, a post which brought him in a yearly income of eight thousand florins [800_l._].

This man then, as I said, was shown up, and entered the dining-room, dressed in a sort of silk soutane coming down to his knees, as is the manner of their chief ministers. We were in appearance sitting at cards, though when the servants had all left the room we had laid the cards down to attend to better things. Hearing, however, this gentleman announced, we resumed our game, so that he found us playing, with a good sum of money on the table.

"I may here mention, that when I played thus with Catholics, with the view of maintaining among a mixed company the character in which I appeared, I always agreed that each one should have his money back afterwards, but should say an _Ave Maria_ for each piece that was returned to him. It was on these terms that I frequently played with my brother Digby and other Catholics, where it appeared necessary, so that the by-standers thought we were playing for money, and were in hot earnest over it.

"So also this minister never conceived the slightest suspicion of me, but after the first courtesies began to talk at a pretty pace: for this is the only thing those chattering ministers can do, who possess no solid knowledge, but by the persuasive words of human wisdom lead souls astray, and subvert houses, teaching things that are not convenient. So he, after much frivolous talk, began to tell us the latest news from London; how a certain Puritan had thrown himself down from the steeple of a church, having left it in writing that he knew himself to be secure of his eternal salvation. About this writing, however, the learned Doctor said nothing, but I had heard the particulars myself from another quarter.

" 'Wretched man!' said I; 'what could induce him thus to destroy body and soul by one and the same act!'

" 'Sir,' said the Doctor, learnedly enough and magisterially, 'we must not judge any man.'

" 'True,' I replied; 'it is just possible that, as he was falling, he repented of his sin: _inter pontem et fontem_, as they say. But this is extremely improbable; since the last act of the man of which we have any means of judging was a mortal sin and deserving of d.a.m.nation.'

" 'But,' said the Doctor, 'we cannot know whether this was such a sin.'

" 'Nay,' I replied, 'this is not left to our judgment; it is G.o.d's own verdict, when He forbids us under pain of h.e.l.l to kill any one: a prohibition which applies especially to the killing of ourselves, for charity begins from oneself.'

"The good Doctor being here caught, said no more on this point, but turned the subject, and said, smiling, 'Gentlemen must not dispute on theological matters.'

" 'True,' said I, 'we do not make profession of knowing theology; but at least we ought to know the law of G.o.d, though our profession is to play at cards.'

"The lady with whom I was playing, hearing him speak to me in this way, could scarce keep her countenance, thinking within herself what he would have said if he had known who it was he was answering. The Doctor, however, did not stay much longer. Whether he departed sooner than he at first intended, I know not; but I know that we much preferred his room to his company."

XXIV.

"I must now return to London, and relate what happened after John Lilly was taken, and the gentleman imprisoned with whom I rented my London house. This house being now closed to me, I sought out another, but on a different plan. I did not now join in partnership with any one, because I was unwilling to be in the house of one known to be a Catholic. I managed that this new house should be hired by a nephew of Master Roger Lee, whom with his wife I had reconciled to the Catholic Church; and, as he was not known to be a Catholic, the house was entirely free from all suspicion. I had the use of this house for three years, and during that time it was not once searched; nor even before the Queen's death, though there were many general searches made, and the prisons were choked with Catholics, did they ever come to this house.

"I had a man to keep the house who was a schismatic, but otherwise an honest and upright person. When I was in residence, this man provided me with necessaries; and when I was away, he managed any business for me according to my written directions. In all appearance he was the servant of the gentleman who owned the house, and so he was esteemed and called by the neighbours; and since, as a schismatic, he frequented their churches, they entertained no suspicion of him, nor of the house.

"For myself, when I came to town, I always entered the house after dark, and in summer time scarce ever went out while I remained there. But my friends would come to visit me by ones and twos on different days, that no special attention might be drawn to the house from the number of visitors.

Nor did they ever bring any servants with them, though some were of very high rank, and usually went about with a large number of attendants. By these means I provided better for them and for myself, and was able to continue longer in this way of life...."

"When I was in London I did not allow every one to come to my house whose desire to converse with me I was willing to gratify; but I would sometimes, especially after dark in winter time, go myself to their houses. On one occasion I was asked by a certain lady to her house to hear the confession of a young n.o.bleman attached to the Court, who was a dear friend of her husband's. Her husband was also a Catholic and well known to me: though quite a young man, he had been one of the princ.i.p.al captains in the Irish war. And the young n.o.bleman just mentioned was a Baron, and son to an Irish Earl, and at this present writing he has himself succeeded to the earldom on his father's death.(122) This young Baron, then," Lord Dunkellin, "wished to make his confession to me. As I had not known him before, I put a few questions to him, according to my wont, beforehand. I asked him, therefore, if he was prepared at once. He answered that he was.

I then asked how often in the year he was accustomed to go to the Sacraments. 'Twice or thrice in the year,' he said.

" 'It would be better,' said I, 'to come more frequently, and then less preparation would be necessary. As it is, I should advise you to take a few days for the exact and diligent examination of your conscience, according to the method that I will show you; then you will come with greater fruit, and with greater satisfaction to yourself and to me. And for the future I would recommend a more frequent use of the holy Sacraments.' And I brought some reasons for my advice.

"He listened to me very patiently, and when I had finished he replied, 'I will do in future what you recommend, and I would willingly follow your counsel at present, if it were possible; it is, however, impossible to put off my present confession.'

" 'Why is it impossible?' I asked.

" 'Because,' he replied, 'to-morrow I shall be in circ.u.mstances of danger, and I desire to prepare myself by confession to-day.'

" 'What danger is this,' I asked again, 'to which you will be exposed?'

" 'There is a gentleman at Court,' he said, 'who has grievously insulted me, so that I was compelled in defence of my honour to challenge him to single combat, and we meet to-morrow at an appointed spot at some distance from town.'

" 'My lord,' I exclaimed, 'to approach the Sacrament in such a frame of mind is not to prepare yourself for danger, nor to cleanse your soul (though I doubt not it was with a good intention you proposed it), but rather to sully your soul more than ever, to affront G.o.d still further, and render Him still more your enemy. For to come to confession with a determination of taking vengeance is to put an obstacle to the grace of the Sacrament; and, moreover, this particular action on which you are resolved is not only a sin, but is visited with excommunication. I urge you, therefore, to give up this intention; you will be able to preserve your honour by some other way. Nay, the honour you think to preserve by this is not real honour, but merely the estimation of bad men founded on bad principles: men who exalt their own worldly ideas above the law and honour of G.o.d.'

" 'It is impossible to withdraw now,' he said, 'for the thing is known to many, and has been taken even to the Queen, who has expressly forbidden us to pursue the matter any further.'

" 'Well then,' said I, 'you have the best possible reason for laying aside the quarrel, namely, obedience to the Queen's behest. Moreover, you must remember that you are known for the intimate friend of the Earl of Ess.e.x, and that, if you overcome your adversary, the Queen (if it be only to spite the Earl) will certainly visit you with some heavy punishment for having disregarded her commands; but if you should kill him, unquestionably she will take your life. On the other hand, if you should be vanquished, what becomes of the honour you wish to defend, and if you should be slain in that state of soul in which you go to the fight, you go straight to eternal fire and everlasting shame, for while you are defending your body from your adversary's sword, you forget to parry the mortal thrust that the devil is aiming at your soul.'

"But spite of all I could say, the fear of the world, which is fatally powerful with men of this rank, prevailed, and his reply was, 'I implore you, Father, to pray for me, and to hear my confession if you possibly can.'

" 'Certainly I cannot hear you,' I said, 'for that honour which you worship is not necessary to you, in the sense in which it is to those who are obliged to take their part in a war. Besides, you are the challenger, and you took this unlawful course when it was possible for you to follow some other method of vindicating yourself, and so whatever necessity there is for pursuing the matter has been created by yourself. But this is what I will do; I will give you from my reliquary a particle of the Holy Cross, inclosed with an Agnus Dei, and you shall wear it upon you. Perhaps G.o.d may have mercy upon you for the sake of this, and afford you time for penance. Understand, however, I do not give it you in order to encourage you in your bad purpose, but that you may wear it with all reverence and respect, so that, should you come into danger (which certainly I do not desire), G.o.d may be moved to preserve your life, in the consideration of the good will you have of honouring His Cross.'

"He took my gift very thankfully and reverentially, and had it sewed inside his shirt over his heart, for it was arranged that they should fight in their shirts without cuira.s.s. It happened, G.o.d so allowing it, that his adversary made a lunge at his heart and pierced his shirt, but did not touch his skin. He on his side wounded and prostrated his enemy, then gave him his life and came off victorious. He then came to me in high spirits, and told me how he had been preserved by the power of the Holy Cross; then he thanked me very earnestly, and promised to be more on his guard in future. The Queen soon after took a fancy to this young n.o.bleman, and kept him close to her at Court for a time. But tiring soon of this sort of life, at his father's death he married the widow of the Earl of Ess.e.x. She was a heretic when he married her, but he soon made her a Catholic, and they both live now as Catholics in Ireland, as I hear.

"That Knight, moreover, who introduced this young Baron to me, followed my counsel at that time, and after devoting several days to a diligent examination of conscience, made a general confession of his whole life, with a view of reforming it for the future. A little later he was desirous of returning to the Irish wars, but as I was in doubt whether this was lawful in conscience, he promised me to resign his appointment and return to England, if the Priests there, to whom I referred him as living on the spot, and therefore having a closer knowledge of the circ.u.mstances, decided that it was unlawful. Soon after his arrival in Ireland, in a certain fight, while he was bravely mounting a wall and animating his men to follow, he was struck dead by a musket-ball. He had, however, before the fight, carefully written me a letter and sent it off, informing me that he had consulted the Priests in the country, and had received this answer, that it was lawful to fight against the Catholic party, because it was not clear to all why they had taken up arms.

"After his death a remarkable incident occurred, which I will relate. His wife, pious soul, who never had the least idea of her husband's death, about that time heard every night some one knocking at her chamber door, and that so loudly as to wake her. Her maids heard it too, but on opening the door there was no one to be seen. She therefore got a Priest to stay with her and her maids till the usual time of the knocking, and when the same noise and knocking at the door were heard, the Priest himself went to the door, but found no one. This knocking went on till such time as news of her husband's death reached her, as if it had been a warning from his Angel to pray for his soul...."

"Having held this house for three years, I let it to a Catholic friend, and took another house near the princ.i.p.al street in London, called the Strand. Since most of my friends lived in that street, they were thus able to visit me more easily, and I them. After my removal I discovered how entirely free from suspicion was the house which I had left, and in which I had dwelt for three years; for the servant who kept my house sent for a gardener with whom he had been acquainted in the other house (for the garden of the new house needed to be put in order), and the gardener remarked to him, 'Some Papists have come to live in your old house:' as though they who had previously dwelt there had been good Protestants.

"This new house was very suitable and convenient, and had private entrances on both sides, and I had contrived in it some most excellent hiding-places; and there I should long have remained, free from all peril or even suspicion, if some friends of mine, while I was absent from London, had not availed themselves of the house rather rashly. It remained, however, in the same state up to the time of the great and terrible disturbance of the Powder Plot, as I shall hereafter shortly mention.

"Meantime my friends brought me another who was heir to a barony, and is himself now a peer, and by G.o.d's grace I persuaded him to take on his shoulders the yoke of the law of Christ and of the Catholic faith, and made him a member of the Church. Another whom I had previously known in the world, and had seen to be wholly devoted to every kind of vanity, fell sick. He had abounded with riches and pleasures, and pa.s.sed his days in jollity, destined, however, to fall from thence in a moment, had not G.o.d patiently waited, and in a suitable time led him to penance. He then was lying sick of a grievous illness, but yet had not begun to think of death.

I heard that he was sick, and obtained an entry into his chamber at eleven o'clock at night, after the departure of his friends. He recognized me, and was pleased at my visit. I explained why I had come, and warned him to think seriously of the state of his soul, and, instead of a Judge, render G.o.d a Friend and most loving Father, however much he might have wasted all his substance. So then weakness of body opened the ears of his heart, and in an acceptable time G.o.d heard us, and in the day of salvation helped us; insomuch that he offered himself as at once ready to make his confession.

I, however, said I would return on the following night, and advised him meantime to procure that there should be read to him, by a friend whom I named, Father Lewis of Grenada's _Explanation of the Commandments_: that after each Commandment he should occupy some little time in reflection, and call to mind how, and how often, he had offended against that Commandment; that he should then make an act of sorrow regarding each, and so go on to the next. He promised that he would do so, and I promised that I would return on the following night. This I did, and heard his confession; I gave him all the a.s.sistance I could, for the time had been short, especially for a sick man, to prepare for such a confession, but he dared no longer defer it, although he still seemed tolerably strong. I advised him to use the utmost care in discharging all his debts, which were great, through the extravagant expenditure in which he had indulged; I also exhorted him to redeem his sins by alms. He did both by the will he made the following day, and bequeathed a large sum for pious uses, which, as I heard, was honestly paid.

"I also bade him prepare for the Holy Communion and Extreme Unction against the following night, and to have some pious book read to him meantime. He not only did what I advised, but exhorted all that came to visit him on the following day, to repent at once of their former life, and not defer their amendment as he had done: 'Do not,' he said, 'look for the mercy which I have found, for this is to be presumptuous and to irritate G.o.d; for I have deserved h.e.l.l a thousand times on this account.'

And much more to the same effect did he speak, with so much earnestness and freedom, that all marvelled at so sudden a change. They asked him to hide the cross which he had hanging from his neck (for I had lent him my own cross full of relics to kiss, and exercise acts of reverence and love); but he answered, 'Hide it! Nay, I would not hide it, even if the most bitter heretics were here. Too long have I refrained from profession of the Catholic faith, and now, if G.o.d gave me life, I would publicly profess myself a Catholic:' so that all marvelled and were much edified and moved at his words. He spoke thus to all the peers and great men that visited him. His conversion thus became publicly known, and many of the courtiers afterwards spoke of it. On the third night of my visiting him according to my promise, he again made his confession with great expressions of sorrow, and begged for the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, and when he received it, himself arranged for me more conveniently to reach the different parts of his body, just as though he had been a Catholic many years. Seeing him in such good disposition, I asked him whether he did not put all his trust in the merits of Christ and in the mercy of G.o.d. 'Surely!' said he; 'did I not do so, and did not that mercy give me salvation, I should have been condemned to the pit of h.e.l.l; in myself I find no ground of hope, but rather of trembling. But I feel great hope in the mercy and goodness of G.o.d, Who has so long waited for me, and now has called me when I deserved, aye, and thought of, anything but this!' Then he took my hand and said, 'Father, I cannot express how much I am indebted to you, for you were sent by G.o.d to give me this happiness.' I found, moreover, that he had no temptation against faith, but most firmly believed and confessed every point, and I saw most clearly that G.o.d had poured into his soul the habits of many virtues. Then I erected an altar in his chamber with the ornaments which I had brought, and I said Ma.s.s, while he a.s.sisted with great devotion and comfort. I afterwards gave him the Viatic.u.m, which he received with the utmost reverence. When I had finished everything, I gave him some advice that would be useful should he fall into his agony before my return, and I left him full of consolation.

Now, see the providence of G.o.d: but a few hours after my departure, as he was persevering in pet.i.tions for mercy, and in acts of thanksgiving for the mercy he had received, he rendered up his soul to G.o.d. But before his death, he asked the by-standers whether certain purple and red robes could be applied to the use of the altar, which he had received from the King when he was created a Knight of the Order of the Bath. The invest.i.ture of this order takes place only at the coronation of the King, and the Knights enjoy precedence before all other Knights except those of the most n.o.ble Order of the Garter, almost all of whom are Earls or other peers. He, however, was a Knight of the Bath, and he wished that the robes with which he had been invested at the coronation should be devoted to the use of the altar; for he said that he had derived great comfort from seeing my vestments, which were merely light and portable, but yet handsome, of red silk embroidered with silver lace. So after his death they gave me his suit of the peculiar robes of that order, and out of them I made sets of vestments of two colours, one of which the College of St. Omers still possesses. Thus is the pious desire of the deceased fulfilled, in whose conversion I could not fail to see G.o.d's great goodness and providence.

"About the same time I received into the Church a lady, the wife of a certain Knight, who is at the present day a very good and useful friend of our Fathers. Her husband was at this time a heretic, but his brother had been brought by me, through the Spiritual Exercises, to despise the world and follow the counsels of Christ. He introduced me to his sister, and after one or two interviews she embraced the Catholic faith, although she was well a.s.sured that she would incur great losses as soon as it should become known to her husband, as in truth it came to pa.s.s. For he first tried caresses, then threats, and left no means unemployed to shake her resolution, insomuch that for a long time she had nothing to expect or hope but to be separated from her husband, and stripped of all the goods of the world, that so in patience she might possess her soul. When her husband was on her account deprived of the public employment which he held, she bore it with great fort.i.tude, and remained ever constant and even in mind. At length, by her virtue and her patience, she rendered her husband a friend to Catholics, and afterwards himself a Catholic. He was reconciled by the ministry of Father Walpole, to whom I had recommended her on my leaving England.

"There were many other conversions, which I cannot mention separately, for I have already carried to too great length the narrative of these events, which are truly very insignificant if they are compared with the actions of others."

XXV.