The English Jesuit Mission and the French Match, 1579-1581

Abstract

As Provincial first in the Rhineland (1558) and later in Belgium (1564), then as German Assistant to Father General Francis Borgia (after July 28, 1565), and, finally as Father General (after April 23, 1573), Everard Mercurian supervised and directed English, Scottish, and Irish Jesuits on the continent and in their own countries. As Provincial, he aided Simon Belost's ministry with English exiles in Louvain and guided Thomas King's return to England in 1564. As Assistant and as General, he replied favorably to petitions for assistance from English exiles such as Laurence Vaux (or Sir Francis Englefield), 1 and Nicholas Sanders, 2 and helped obtain papal subsidies for the English College in Douai. 3 Perhaps because of such involvement William Allen, founder and rector of the English College at Douai, anticipated Mercurian's approval for a Jesuit mission to England when they met during Allen's Roman sojourn in the winter of 1575-76. Although the General's reply is not recorded, Allen [End Page 185] returned to Douai empty-handed. 4 Mercurian supported Jesuit ministries with exiles on the continent, but with the exception of King's journey to England primarily for reasons of health, he hesitated sending Jesuits on a permanent mission to Scotland, Ireland, or England because of perilous conditions. As Provincial, he disapproved of the mission of Dutch Jesuit Nicholas Floris (better known as de Gouda) to the court of Mary Stuart in 1562, and commiserated with David Wolfe's and William Good's cries of spiritual poverty and loneliness during their work in Ireland in 1563. As Assistant and as General, he fretted about the implications of Wolfe's increasing political involvement for the Society's Institute. 5 These precedents did not augur well for a mission to England.