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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 October 2016
One of the most ‘anonymous’ of all Catholic tracts published in the late sixteenth century is that entitled: The copie of a double letter sent by an Englishe gentleman from beyond the seas, to his frende in London, containing the true aduises of the cause, and maner of the death, of one Richard Atkins, executed by fire in Rome, the seconde of August 1581. It was issued without the name of the author and without any indication as to where or by whom it was printed. The printer has been identified from typographical evidence as Jean Foigny of Rheims, but up till now there has been no positive identification of the author. In this note I want to show that there is conclusive evidence for stating that the tract was written by Father Robert Persons, S.J., using material sent to him from Rome by his fellow-Jesuit Father William Good.
1 A&R 259: S.T.C. 888. See Webster, R., ‘The Copie of a double letter’, Downside Review, vol. 54 (1936), pp. 165–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2 S.T.C. 18272., ch. 8. See Webster, art. cit., pp. 165-8.
3 See A&R, p. 182.
4 Letters of William Allen and Richard Barret, 1572-1598, ed. P. Renold, C.R.S., vol. 58.
5 See Letters and Memorials of Father Robert Persons, S.J., ed. L. Hicks, C.R.S., vol. 39 (1942), pp. xl-xlii.
6 The copie of a double letter, pp. 10, 12, 17-19.
7 Ibid., p. 10.