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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 October 2009
my deerest Syr I have yours of the 15 of [‘Ian:’ deleted] Febr: And am very sorie of that ill happe of our Protector, and shal for my owne parte be glad to see mr Chamberl albeit some that have hertofore knowne him well be but hardly conceited of him and I pray God he rather deceave their expectation than yours. I shold have bene glad to have had some of the Copies of my good la. life but I wold not have you seeme troblesome or importune to any for them. Here you shall receive Mr Kenion his letter who relateth I hope the affaires of England. He I hope will prove a fitt subiect for Our purpose, since his coming over mr warmington his booke for the oathe and mr Sheldon his booke for his Apostasie is published [.] This last I have seene but not read, they say it is most spiteful and that he is an other Bel. He insin [u]ateth that Rouse Atkinson and such like do against their conscience but he from his hart detesteth our religion and had thes 16 years suggestions against the masse, mr Copley and Collier accompany him in his revolt.
602 John Varder alias Robert Chamberlain and Jones, secular priest.
603 Varder, who had acted in a secretarial capacity for Birkhead, had been arrested by the renegade priest William Atkinson in May 1609 in Smithfield, Anstr. II, 326. Sent into exile, he came to Rome to assist the secular clergy's petitioning programme, AAW A X, no. 96. He was viewed with suspicion by Edward Bennett who warned More against him in December 1611, AAW A X, no. 166, as, earlier, had Anthony Champney, AAW A X, no. 98, and also Richard Smith who thought Varder had been a spy for Robert Persons, AAW A X, no. 162. Birkhead's recommendation, however, was enough to ensure that More accommodated him at Rome, though even Birkhead thought that More should use ‘his helpe in such thinges as cannot much harme us’, AAW A X, no. 99. Shortly after, in September 1611, Birkhead had to inform More that ‘a Iesuite hath told me of a ringe which he [Varder] tooke from a gentlewoman, she is like to incurre her husbandes displeasure for it’, and he must give satisfaction or risk scandal, AAW A X, no. 128 (p. 367). Even in February 1612 Birkhead had extracted only a provisional apology (and the ring was returned only in 1613), AAW A XI, no. 13, XII, no. 45. Smith informed More that Varder ‘is thought to be unsure to you and now laboreth for a pension for to settle him self’ in Rome, AAW A XI, no. 14 (p.39). By the end of February 1612 he was making his return to England via France, AAW A XI, no. 29, and he arrived in May. See also Letter 31. Birkhead regarded him as a liability, in fact, for his furious antipathy to SJ, AAW A XI, no. 83. (This, however, may account for Edward Bennett's more positive view of him by May 1612, AAW A XI, no. 69.)
604 Smith, , Vita Illustrissimae, ac Piissimae Dominae Magdalenat Montis-aculti.Google Scholar
605 Letter 22.
606 Warmington, , Moderate Defence.Google Scholar
607 Sheldon, , Motives.Google Scholar
608 i.e. the secular priest Thomas Bell, who renounced Catholicism in late 1592, Anstr. I, 29–30.
609 Paradoxically Preston (an exponent of quasi-gallican ideas about limiting the papal deposing power) is here credited with a papalist argument concerning the extent of the pope's ecclesiastical authority. See Allison, , ‘Richard Smith’, 149–50.Google Scholar
610 i.e. the suit for ordinary jurisdiction.
611 Thomas Worthington.
612 See Letter 22.
613 For the conference held at Douai in 1612 in order to establish some degree of consensus among the clergy about a papal grant of ordinary jurisdiction to a secular priest, see TD V, 30–2.
614 Sir John Digby. Samuel Calvert wrote from London on 26 February 1612 to William Trumbull for news ‘of a bruit of some discontentment or disaster happened to Digby in Spain’, Downshire MSS III, 249.Google Scholar
615 On 1 March 1612 (NS) Antonio Foscarini, the Venetian ambassador, reported that a false rumour had been circulating that Alonso de Velasco, the Spanish ambassador, had been imprisoned in the Tower, , CSPV 1610–13, 299.Google Scholar
616 James, I, His Maiesties Declaration concerning His Proceedings with the States Generall of the United Provinces of the Law Countreys, in the Cause of D. Conradus Vorstius (1612)Google Scholar. It was published in French and Latin as well as English.
617 Samuel Spifame, Seigneur des Bisseaux.
618 Cf. CSPV 1610–13, 335Google Scholar (Antonio Foscarini's report in April 1612 that Spifame was in ‘very slight favour’ at Court).
619 See CSPV 1610–13, 287, 324.Google Scholar
620 Du Perron, Cardinal Jacques Davy, Lettre de Monseigneur le Cardinal du Perron, Envoyée au Sieur Casaubon en Angleterre (Paris, 1612)Google Scholar. This edition superseded two earlier editions which had been published without the approval of the author, ARCR I, nos 1521–4. The secular clergy in Paris regarded Du Perron as a patron, AAW A XII, no. 39. It was said that Casaubon in Paris had alleged that Du Perron had expressed approval of James's polemical defence of the oath of allegiance with the exception of his ‘digression…touching Antichrist’, Salisbury MSS XXI, 288Google Scholar; cf. Patterson, , King James VI and I, 99Google Scholar. John Jackson had claimed, in a letter to More of 8 June 1611, that ‘the ambassador of Venice [Antonio Foscarini], who came lately from France, told Mr. Preston that divers cardinals, amongst others Monsieur Peron, and Monsieur Joyeux [Cardinal François de Joyeuse], and the pope's nuncio at Paris [Robert Ubaldini], said to him that the point of deposition was a thing indifferent, and that either opinion might be holden’, TD IV, pp. clxxiii–iv.
621 For the obstruction of the proposed English convent at Paris, see Lunn, , ‘English Cassinese’, 63–4Google Scholar. By mid-1612 the project was failing for want of finance, AAW A XI, no. 94. Also, Antoinette d'Orléans-Longueville, the sister of Catherine Gonzaga, the Duchess of Longueville, ‘under whose protectione they thought to live saythe that shee cannot help them unless they will be content to admitt as manie frenche as Inglishe that yt may not be sayd to be an house’ for the English alone, which Marie de Médicis ‘will not permitt’, though Champney said ‘some do think there ys some other reason’ (in other words Jesuit interference). He noted that Edmund (Augustine) Smith OSB was in Paris trying to rescue the venture, AAW A XI, no. 216 (p. 617). On 19 October 1612 (NS) Thomas Floyd notified William Trumbull from Paris that Geoffrey Pole had departed for Rome ‘leaving his sisters in great assurance, as he thought, to be nuns; but I think they will find a rub they were not aware of’, Downshire MSS III, 379Google Scholar. In December 1612 Beaulieu told Trumbull that Sir Thomas Edmondes in Paris had lobbied effectively to stifle the project, Downshire MSS III, 440Google Scholar. Robert Pett reported on 5 January 1613 (NS) that Champney had informed him that ‘Our English gentilwomen are returned agayne to Rhemes’ because Edmondes had ‘prevayled with Vilroy [Nicolas de Neufville, Seigneur de Villeroi]’ to ‘procuer ther remove from Paris unles they would have remayned with such conditions as they could not except of’, AAW A XII, no. 2 (p. 4). Anthony Champney said on 12 February 1613 (NS) that Elizabeth Dacres was considering returning to England, AAW A XII, no. 34, but she entered a Benedictine house at Douai in March 1613, and was clothed in April, Letter 42.
622 Thomas Heath.
623 Edward Bennett had written to More on 26 December 1611 that ‘heer is some speech of a composition’ to be offered by lay Catholics to the crown to be free of all penal statutes. The sum of £20,000 was being mentioned. Bennett, however, had told William Bishop that such a scheme was worthless unless liberty of conscience was granted as well and the priests were comprehended in it, AAW A X, no. 166 (p. 458). Birkhead made the same point in January 1612, AAW A XI, no. 1. Champney and Smith were talking about such a scheme in February 1612, AAW A XI, nos 19, 20 (Smith's mention that Thomas Heath had written ‘of some composition with Cath: for 30 or 40 thousand poundes yearly for remission of al penal statuts which inflict not death and that some principal persons labor in that matter with hope to effect it wherby they may live at more quiet and the Kinges rents so much increased’). On 29 February 1612 (NS) Champney reported to More that ‘for the compositione in poenall statutes whereof I writt in my other these two are of divers opiniones mr [Edward] Kenione beinge towld by one who ys nere the lord of northampton that there would be nothinge donn therein’ but Francis Foster had said that ‘Sr Hughe Biston [Beeston] speakinge to the 1 Treasurer [Robert Cecil] for on mr Geneson [William Jenison] who ys condemned in premunirie for the oathe entreatinge that he might compownde was willed to expect till the matter was heard or concluded for all which shortly would be some speeche of marienge our ladie Elizabethe to the kinge of Spayne’, AAW A XI, no. 29 (p. 75).
624 Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury. On 20 February 1612, Benjamin Norton was expecting William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke to succeed Salisbury as treasurer and Sir Henry Neville to become principal secretary, AAW A XI, no. 24. By 9 April Norton thought the new treasurer would be either Archbishop Abbot or Edward Somerset, Earl of Worcester, AAW A XI, no. 54.
625 See McClure, , 338.Google Scholar
626 John Knatchbull.
627 George Birkhead.
628 Not identified.
629 Not identified.
630 Anthony Maria Browne, second Viscount Montague.
631 Christopher Cresacre More.
632 Edward Vaux, fourth Baron Vaux, was imprisoned in the fleet for this refusal, McClure, 339. On 21 March 1612 Birkhead told More that Elizabeth Vaux was ‘condemned in the premunire, and yet she answered that she wold sweare her allegiance, albeit the kinge were excommunicated, my L Vaux answered that he wold take the oath, accordinge to the kinges interpretation, and yet nether of these modifications wold be accepted’, AAW A XI, no. 46 (p. 123). Edward Bennett on 11 April 1612 said that the earl of Montgomery had petitioned to be allowed to compound with Vaux (as he had with Vaux's mother), AAW A XI, no. 57. For Vaux's opposition to the oath, strengthened by the advice of Edward Weston, see Allison, , ‘Later Life’, 112–13.Google Scholar
633 i.e. the secular clergy.
634 Nicholas Fitzherbert.