John Gerard (2)

A strange little book this: one of the very early examples of an autobiography, written by an English Jesuit priest at the beginning of the seventeenth century. It's only about two hundred pages long, but it's packed full with the event of an extraordinary life, much of it spent in covert work as a Catholic missionary in England under the reign of Elizabeth I. It's one of the few, if not the only, complete first-hand accounts we possess of that world; an account which is made even more interesting by the fact that Gerard was involved, at least tangentially, in the infamous Gunpowder Plot. Fascinating primary source material, and really worth dipping in to if you have an interest in the religious and social history of the period… (mer)

Points of interest:
Fr Gerard taught people to go to communion weekly.
William Wiseman in his book emphasised value of Devotion.
Priests in the Pale said "it was lawful to fight against the Catholic Faction, [ie Hugh O'Neill] because no one had seemed at all clear why they had taken up arms."
Person's Spiritual Directory, published 1581, had largest sale of any English spiritual work in its day. 12 Protestant editions came out before 1600.
In all prisons it seemed easy to have visitors and presents and quite possible to escape. Prisoners communicated with each other quite freely. [Presumably Government could not afford reliable jailors.]

Extraordinarily well translated and quite gripping to read. Beyond praise.… (mer)