Ethelred Luke Taunton

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”