Ethelred Luke Taunton

“ Here he was captured by a spy and taken to London, bearing on his hat a paper with the inscription, “Campion, the Seditious Jesuit.” Committed to the Tower, he was examined in the presence of Elizabeth, who asked him if he acknowledged her to be really queen of England, and on his replying straightly in the affirmative, she made him offers, not only of life but of wealth and dignities, on conditions which his conscience could not allow. He was kept a long time in prison, twice racked by order of the council, and every effort was made to shake his constancy. ”

“ The Benedictines were received with open arms by their co-religionists, and the secular clergy gave them a special welcome as allies in the struggle against the jesuits. So many desired to join their order that it was soon evident that steps must be taken to find a spot more accessible than Spain for a monastery in which English subjects could be trained. So in the spring of 1604 White set out again for Spain to attend the general chapter and lay before his superiors the plan. ”

“ He bought a vigna in the Borgo near the Vatican, and thereon erected a sumptuous palace after designs by Bramante; and it was here, in the summer of 1503, that he entertained the pope and Cesare Borgia at a banquet that went on till nightfall despite the unhealthy season of the year, when ague in its most malignant form was rife. Of the three, Cardinal Adrian was the first to fall ill, the pope succumbing a week after. The story of the poisoning of the pope is to be relegated to the realm of fiction. ”

“ When the Irish university was started, with Newman, appointed by Cullen, at its head, the scheme was wrecked by the personal opposition to the archbishop of Dublin. As time went on, his distrust of the national movement grew deeper; and in 1853 he sternly forbade his clergy to take part publicly in politics, and for this he was denounced by the Tablet newspaper. His own political opinion had best be told in his own words. “For thirty years I have studied the revolution on the continent, and for nearly thirty years I have watched the Nationalist movement in Ireland. ”

“ The royal abbey of Westminster having been restored to its primitive use, Feckenham was appointed abbot, and the old life began again within its hallowed walls on the 21st of November 1556. The abbey school was reopened and the shrine of St Edward restored. On the accession of Elizabeth Feckenham consistently opposed all the legislation for changes in religion, and, when the hour of trial came, he refused the oath of supremacy, rejecting also Elizabeth’s offer to remain with his monks at Westminster if he would conform to the new laws. ”

“ For a long time he had pondered over the confusion in which Spain was, which he attributed to the intimate relations allowed between Christians and infidels for the sake of commerce. He saw Jews, Saracens, heretics and apostates roaming through Spain unmolested; and in this lax toleration of religious differences he thought he saw the main obstacle to the political union of the Spains, which was the necessity of the hour. ”

“ In the meantime he began to attack the political action of the Vatican, and in his Il Moderno Dissidio tra la Chiesa e l’Italia (1878) he advocated an understanding between the church and state. This was followed by La Nuova Italia ed i Vecchi Zelanti (1881) , another attack on the Vatican policy; and by his Vaticano Regio (1883) , in which he accuses the Vatican of trafficking in holy things and declares that the taint of worldliness came from the false principles accepted by the Curia. His former work at Naples drew him also in the direction of Christian Socialism. ”

“ A man of deep learning and originality, proud and a victim to the odium theologicum, he could brook no rivalry. The only one who at that time could compare with him was the gentle Bartolomeo de Caranza, also a Dominican and afterwards archbishop of Toledo. At the university the schools were divided between the partisans of the two professors; but Cano pursued his rival with relentless virulence, and took part in the condemnation for heresy of his brother-friar. The new society of the Jesuits, as being the forerunners of Antichrist, also met with his violent opposition ”

“ White was made prefect over his companions. During a dangerous illness in the winter of 1598–9 he vowed to become a Benedictine monk if his life were spared. Already several English youths in Rome, dissatisfied with the attempts the jesuits were making to secure the mastery over the secular priests at home, had joined the Italian monks of Monte Cassino and other Benedictine monasteries with the hope of one day returning to England. White was the first to leave the seminary for the monastery of San Benito in Valladolid, April 1599. ”

“ There are certain instances in his life which, taken by themselves, show a hardness in treating individuals who would not obey; but as a rule, he tempered his authority to the capacity of those with whom he had to deal. When he had to choose between the welfare of the Society and the feelings of an individual it was clear to which side the balance would fall. ”

“ In the fierce disputes that arose between the Jesuit theologians and the Dominicans on the subject of grace, Aquaviva managed, under Clement VIII. and Paul V., to save his party from a condemnation that at one time seemed probable. ”

“ Vedast's in Arras, promised to build and endow a house for them. The monastery of St. Gregory was founded at Douai, where it remained flourishing until the French revolution, when the community passed over to England and finally settled at Downside, near Bath.
While thus engaged in a life and death struggle White was able to help the secular clergy. He obtained, from the munificent Caverel, Arras College in Paris as a house of study for the English clergy who were to devote themselves to writing. ”

“ The family name was Howman, but, according to the English custom, Feckenham, on monastic profession, changed it for the territorial name by which he is always known. Learning his letters first from the parish priest, he was sent at an early age to the claustral school at Evesham and thence, in his eighteenth year, to Gloucester Hall, Oxford, as a Benedictine student. After taking his degree in arts, he returned to the abbey, where he was professed ”

“ During the eighteen years that he was inquisitor-general it is said that he burnt 10,220 persons, condemned 6860 others to be burnt in effigy, and reconciled 97,321, thus making an average of some 6000 convictions a year. These figures are given by Llorente, who was secretary of the Holy Office from 1790 to 1792 and had access to the archives; but modern research reduces the list of those burnt by Torque- mada to 2000, in itself an awful holocaust to the principle of intolerance. The constant stream of petitions to Rome opened the eyes of the pope to the effects of Torquemada's severity. ”

“ Recognizing that the true aim of the scheme of church reform brought forward in parliament in 1529 was to put down the only moral force that could withstand the royal will, he energetically opposed the reformation of abuses, which doubtless under other circumstances he would have been the first to accept. ”

“ Thomas Worthington [q. v.] , had made a secret vow of obedience to the jesuit. Under Worthington the state of the college, both material and intellectual, had been reduced with the express purpose, so the logic of events proves, of lowering the standard of the secular clergy. ”

“ The constancy of Fisher, while driving Henry to a fury that knew no bounds, won the admiration of the whole Christian world, where he had been long known as one of the most learned and pious bishops of the time. Paul III., who had begun his pontificate with the intention of purifying the curia, was unaware of the grave danger in which Fisher lay; and in the hope of reconciling the king with the bishop, created him (20th of May 1535) cardinal priest of St Vitalis. ”

“ As Pole had escaped Henry's power the royal vengeance now fell on his mother, who was executed as a traitor on the 27th of May 1 541. When the news came to the cardinal he said to his secretary Beccatelli that he had received good tidings: “ Hitherto I have thought myself indebted to the divine goodness for having received my birth from one of the most noble and virtuous women in England, but henceforth my obligation will be much greater, as I understand I am now the son of a martyr. We have one patron more added to those we already have in heaven ” ”

“ The Book of the Spiritual Exercises has been one of the world-moving books. In its strict conception it is only an application of the Gospel precepts to the individual soul. Its object is to convince a man of sin, of justice and of judgment. The idea of the book is not original to Ignatius At Montserrato he had found in use a popular translation of the Exercitatorio de la vida spiritual (1500) , written in Latin by Abbot Garcias de Cisneros (d. 1510) , and divided into three ways or periods during which purity of soul, enlightenment and union are to be worked for ”

“ The dead even were not free from the Holy Office; but processes could be instituted against them and their remains subjected to punishment. But along with these cruel and unjust measures there must be put down to Torquemada's credit some advanced ideas as to prison life. The cells of the Inquisition were, as a rule, large, airy, clean and with good windows admitting the sun. They were, in those respects, far superior to the civil prisons of that day. The use of irons was in Torquemada's time not allowed in the Holy Office ”

“ A great friend of Erasmus, whom he invited to Cambridge, whilst earnestly working for a reformation of abuses, he had no sympathy with those who attacked doctrine; and he preached at Paul’s Cross (12th of May 1521) at the burning of Luther’s books. Although he was not the author of Henry’s book against Luther, he joined with his friend, Sir Thomas More, in writing a reply to the scurrilous rejoinder made by the reformer. He retained the esteem of the king until the divorce proceedings began in 1527; and then he set himself sternly in favour of the validity of the marriage. ”