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Franciscan Books In English, 1559–16401

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2016

A.F. Allison
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Extract

Very little attention has been given to the bibliography of the English Franciscans in penal times though their literary output was considerable in relation to their numbers. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that, as far as the English Province is concerned, Franciscan bibliography begins and ends with Luke Wadding in the seventeenth century. The elementary processes of collecting and sifting evidence have not been carried out, since Wadding’s time, and in the few later works of reference which mention individual Franciscan writings there is a great deal of confusion. I shall try, in the present study, to record what evidence there is concerning English books by members of the order between 1559 and 1640 and I shall add some notes on other books which have Franciscan associations. A number of English versions of Franciscan works in other languages were made during this period by Englishmen who were not themselves Franciscans. Some of them present bibliographical prob1ems which I cannot profess to answer, but it seems desirable that whatever evidence exists concerning them should he published.

Type
Articles
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , 1956 , pp. 16 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1955

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References

1. I use the word “Franciscan” to cover members of all three orders of St. Francis, including Capuchins. There is no special significance about the year 1640. A halt has to be called somewhere and I have simply conformed to the limit set in the Bibliographical Society's Short Title Catalogue.This study should be regarded as the first, tentative stage of a chronological survey (not necessarily to be completed by me) of published Franciscan writings in English.

2. For the reorganization of the Province, see Guilday, The English Catholic Refugees on the Continent, chapter 8.

3. See Section C, commentary on no.7.

4. Section B, no.7.

5. Section B, no.9.

6. Section B, no. 8.

7. For the history and records of the Convent of St. Elizabeth, see CRS. xxiv. The convent is now at Goodings, near Newbury.

8. Section B, no.21.

9. Section B, no.23.

10. Section B, no.25.

11. It is perhaps worth mentioning here that Dr. Oliver refers to a translation by Fr. Bell which I have not been able to trace: “In 1624 he published at Brussels ‘A brief Instruction how we ought to hear Mass,’ a translation from the Spanish of Andrea Soto, and dedicated to Anne, countess of Argyle.” (Collections, 1857, p.543.) It seems probable, from the way in which Oliver describes the book, that he saw a copy himself.

12. The publication of his father's will. Section B, no.31.

13. Section B, no. 29.

14. Section B, no.32.

15. See “The Book of the Dead” of the English Franciscan nuns, CRS. xxiv, pp. 178–9.

16. Section B, nos.9,23,24. Heigham lived at Douai from 1603 to 1613 and at S. Omer from 1613 until his death, c.1631. After his move to S. Omer he continued to publish a few books at Douai. See Biographical Studies, vol.2, no.3, pp. 208, 215.Google Scholar I am preparing a study of Heigh am for publication in a future number.

17. The passage from the Chapter Acts, preserved in the Franciscan archives at East Bergholt, has been kindly communicated to me by Fr. Howard Docherty, O.F.M.: “Erigatur praelum pro commoditate impressionis Librorum contra Sectarios nostros observatis aliis observandis, et ejusdem Praeses et Corrector instituitur P.F, Bonaventura de S. Thoma.” (Resolution of the Chapter held in London on the Sunday within the Octave of St. Francis 1632.) For the identification of Fr. Bonaventure of St. Thomas, see CRS.xxiv, pp.52, 19, 20, 268. There appears to be no further reference to the affair in subsequent Chapter acts.

18. Lepreux, Gallia Typographica, tom.1, pp.22–4.

19. STC. 6385.

20. Not in STC. Copy in Gillow Library (in possession of Catholic Record Society).

21. For the four English books, see Section B, nos. 35-38. A copy of one of the two Latin books, Sacrarium Priuilegiorum etc., is in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. The other Latin book, Quaestionum Theologicarum Resolutio, is recorded by Wadding, but I have not found a copy. Wadding gives the imprint and date as “Duaci apud Martinum Boggard 1637” — but either the date is wrong or the imprint should read “apud viduam Martini Boggard.”

22. Section B, no.40.

23. CRS. xxiv, p.22.

24. Francis Slings by, writing from Dublin on 10 May 1636, to an unidentified correspondent, possibly Fr. Richard Blount S.J., the English Provincial, speaks of a book which Fr. John Gerard at Rome has asked him to have printed at S. Omer, He says that the £30 which Fr. Gerard has given him will not now meet the cost of printing:

“Ye booke is yet kept there in safety, & cannot goe forward during these warres betweene france, & flanders. wch hath made both paper & workman & all things at double rate, and soe ye booke must rest vntill God send better times.” (Brussels. Bibliothèque Royale, Cabinet des Manuscrits, Cat. no, 4024, f. 24).

25. From the “Aduertisement to the Reader” in Fr. John Floyd's The Church Conquerant ouer Humane Wit, printed at the College press in 1638, we learn something of the havoc caused by the war:

“This Treatise, Good Reader, was to the last word and syllable thereof, finished, reuiewed, and ready for the Print longe since, euen of April of this yeere 1638, so that it might haue been printed, and published … but for the tempests and stormes of warre, which infested vltra-marine Countries neere vnto England, and were no where more boisterous then ouer that place, where this Treatise should haue been pressed into the light. For this thundering noise of Mars frighted workemen, and droue them away into other calmer coastes, and afterward brought sharpe and longe sicknesse, both on the Printer and Authour …”

26. See Section C, commentary on no.42.

27. The particulars of Wadding's career given here are taken from Father Luke Wadding and St. Isidore's College, Rome: biographical and historical notes and documents. By Gregory Cleary, O.F.M., Rome, 1925.

28. The two most noteworthy are:- Antonio, Joannes a S., Bibliotheca Universe Franciscana, Madrid, 1732–3, 3 vol.;Google Scholar and Joannes Sbaralea, Supplementum et Castigatio ad Scriptores Trium Ordinum S. Francisci a Waddingo aliisve descriptos, published with the edition of Wadding's Scriptores Ordinis Minorum printed at Rome in 1806.

29. Prison certificates, 1577-1580. CRS. xxii. p. 131.

30. Prison certificates, June 1582 - March 1583. CRS. ii. p.223.

31. S.P. Dom. Eliz. CCXXV. no.17.

32. S.P. Dom. Eliz. CLIV. no.75.

33. For Heigham, see note 16.

34. Catholic Encyclopaedia, vol.6, p.327. (article “Fytche.”)

35. Anthony Maria Browne, 2nd Viscount, 1573-1629.

36. A description of the coat of arms of the Viscounts Montague is given in Mrs. Charles Roundell's Cowdray: the history of a great English House, 1884, p.24.

37. I cannot identify the owner of the signature.

38. I think the dedicatory epistle is in Viscount Montague's own hand but I have not had the opportunity of making a physical comparison with documents known to have been written by him.

39. British Museum. Lansdowne MSS., vol.153, f.68.

40. Third Douai Diary, entry for 18 October 1609 (CRS.x, p. 100). The Diary says he accompanied a certain “D. Beum …m” who came to the College for this purpose. I cannot identify “D. Beum…m.” The whole incident is obscure. Only a month or two before this, Edward Kinsman, a layman, had published at Douai the first volume of a translation, by himself and his brother John, of the lives of the saints by the Spanish Jesuit, Villegas. Kinsman's book was printed by Pierre Auroi at some time between 25 July, the date of approbation, and 6 September, when John Kinsman, who had taken copies of the book into England, was questioned about it by Sir Julius Caesar. (Lansdowne MSS., vol.153, ff.75–6).

41. Knox: Douay Diaries I & II, pp.135, 26.

42. Ibid. p.18.

43. Ibid. p.33.

44. CRS. xxx. p.15.

45. Gillow, Bibliographical Dictionary of the English Catholics, vol. 5, p.80.

46. Trappes-Lomax, T.B., “The Englefields of Berkshire” (Biographical Studies, vo.1, no.2 p.135)Google Scholar.

47. Scriptores, 1650, Appendix.

48. Stonyhurst MSS. Collectanea M, f.186. Quoted in Pollen, Acts of English Martyrs, 1891, p.216.

48a. See Newdigate, article in The Library, ser.3, vol.10, 1919, pp. 180-2, 241-2.

49. Fr. Pollen is mistaken in saying that John Wilson was a “priest at St. Omers” when he printed the 1603 edition. Wilson was certainly a layman and probably in England at that period. He entered the English College, Rome, to train for the priesthood in November 1603. In 1605 he was ordained and sent on the mission to England (Liber Ruber of the English College, CRS. xxxvii, p.133). For some time after this he was actively engaged in printing Catholic Books secretly in England, as we learn from the reports of a spy, William Udall (Lansdowne MSS. vol.153, passim). He went to S. Omer evidently in 1608 (C.A. Newdigate, “Notes on the Seventeenth Century Printing Press of the English College at Saint Omers,” in The Library, ser.3, vol.10, 1919, pp.179-92). I am preparing a study of Wilson for a future number of Biographical Studies.

50. The 28mm initial S on sig. A4r belongs to a set of initials used by the College press.

51. Scriptores, 1650, Appendix.

52. Thaddeus, Franciscans in England, 1898, p.34.

53. Rogers, D., “Henry Jaye” (Biographical Studies, vol.1, no.2), pp.87, 96.Google Scholar

54. Dodd, Church History, vol.2, p.421.

55. Foley, Records S.J., vol.6, p. 171.

56. Gillow, Bibliographical Dictionary of the English Catholics, vol.1, p.306.

57. Thaddeus, op.cit. p. 105.

58. Scriptores, 1650, Appendix.

58a. Thaddeus (op.cit. p.329.), says that Stanney was made Commissary for England in 1601, but it is clear from Stanney's own words in this passage that he did not become Commissary until after the Toledo Chapter of 1606.

59. CRS.xxiv, p.262.

60. Thaddeus, p.29.

61. CRS. xiv, p.167. E. Klaus, in a doctoral thesis printed at Münster in 1938, Christopher Davenport… Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der religiösen Wirren in England unter den Stuarts, goes one better than Gillow and calls Cape a Franciscan: “Davenport kann nicht alsder eigentliche Verfasser angesehen werden … es ist vielmehr die Arbeit des Franziskaners William Cape, wie aus der Approbation von Joseph Blase, dem Bischof von St. Omer, im Buche ersichtlich ist” (p.20),

62. The Chronicle of the English Augustinian Canonesses … at St. Monica's in Louvain. ed. Hamilton. 1904. vol.1, p.200.Google Scholar

63. CRS. xxiv, pp.15,39,189,268.

64. CRS.xxiv, p.268.

65. CRS.xiv, p.50.

66. Acts of the Privy Council. New ser. vol.35 (1616–17), pp.264, 287.Google Scholar

67. S.P.Dom. Ch.I, LXVIII, no.8.

68. S.P.Dom. Ch.I, CCXLV, no.51. A certain William Cape, a Catholic, was examined at Dover in December 1638 (S.P.Dom, Ch.I, CCCCIV, no.40), but it is evident from the account he gave of himself that he was not the William Cape who served Viscount Montague. He came from Garstang, Lanes, and he was servant to a Mr. Matthews of Woodford, Dorset. He was induced by the authorities to take the Oath of Allegiance (S.P. Dom. Ch.I, CCCCIV, no.71).

69. Scriptores, 1650, Appendix.

70. CRS. x, p.132, etc.; CRS. xxiv, p.267; Thaddeus, p.287.

71. I am indebted for this information to Dr. D.M. Rogers who has examined the volume at Killiney.

72. Paleotti's Italian life, written a few years after St. Catharine's death, was translated into Latin in the 16th century by Flaminio, J.A. (Acta Sanctorum, March, vol.2, pp.35-44)Google Scholar. A French version, made from the Latin, by N, de Soulfour, was printed at Paris in 1597 (Copy at Woodchester Priory).

73. Scriptores, 1650, Appendix.

74. CRS. xiv, p.52.

75. CRS. xiv, p.38.

76. Gillow, vol.2, p.345.

77. Thaddeus, p.297.

78. Gillow, vol.5, p.444.

79. CRS, xiv, p.l67.

80. CRS. xxxvii, p. 194.

81. I am indebted to the Mother Abbess, St. Clare's Abbey, Darlington, for this information from the unpublished Chronicle of the Rouen convent.

82. It is described in Jules, Houdoy's Les Imprimeurs Lillois, 1879, p.249.Google Scholar

83. Houdoy, p.85.

84. Lille was at this period part of the Spanish Netherlands. The privilege conferred sole right to print and sell the book within the territories over which the government at Brussels had jurisdiction.

85. Brussels. Archives du Royaume. Conseil Privé Espagnol. The privileges are among the unnumbered papers in cartons 1279 and 1280.

86. Houdoy, pp.85-90.

87. Alegambe, Bibliotheca Scriptorum Societatis Iesu, 1643, p.45.

88. 1586 ed. in Bibliotheque Nationale; 1601 ed. recorded by Brunet.

89. Scriptores, 1650, p.309.

90. cf., Brendan Jennings, Michael O Cleirigh … and his Associates, 1936, pp.37, 38.Google Scholar

91. Scriptores, 1650, Appendix.

92. Sayle 6256.

93. Copy in Cambridge University Library. Recorded in Burrell's Index. I am indebted to Dr. D.M. Rogers for this information.

94. Certamen Seraphicum, p. 186.

95. Scriptores, 1650, Appendix.

96. Certamen Seraphicum, pp.190-1.

97. For the date of Colman's entering the order, see Thaddeus: Father Walter Colman, O.F.M (C.T.S. Pamphlet, 1906, p.4) As Thaddeus points out, Angelus Mason, in his Certamen Seraphicum, says that Colman joined the community at Douai when Fr. Davenport was Preses, and he seems to use the term Preses purposely instead of Guardian (Certamen Seraphicum, p.185). Bonaventure Jackson was Guardian at Douai in 1624 but he left in the same year to go on the English mission and Davenport was appointed to succeed him, apparently with the title of Preses until 1626 when he was made Guardian. We can add further particulars of Colman's early career from sources unused by Thaddeus. A full year had to elapse between a postulant's entering the order and his making his solemn profession. In Colman's obituary in the “Necrology of the English Province of Friars Minor,” we are told that, when he died in prison in 1645, he was in the nineteenth year of his profession (CRS. xxiv. p.260); this would seem to fix the date of his profession as 1627 or late 1626. He came to England in November 1627 and was captured immediately on arrival. Sir John Hippisley reported the fact from Dover Castle to Secretary Conway on 6 November (S.P.Dom.Ch.I, LXXXIV, no.33). Thaddeus is mistaken in thinking that he was not ordained and sent on the mission until 1633 or 1634 (op.cit.p.5). The Chapter acts record that he was approved for preaching and hearing confessions in 1634, but this is no indication of the date of his ordination; he was almost certainly ordained before he set out for England in 1627.

98. See note 97 above.

99. Arber, , Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers, 1875-94, vol.4, p.254.Google Scholar

100. STC. 7031.

101. Arber, vol.4, p.261.

102. Certamen Seraphicum, p. 187.

103. Scriptores, 1650, Appendix.

104. Trappes-Lomax, cf. T.B., “The Englefields of Berkshire” (Biographical Studies, vol.1. no.2, pp.131–48).Google Scholar

105. Scriptores, 1650, Appendix.

106. Servais, Dirks, Histoire Litteraire et Bibliographique des Freres Mineurs … en Belgique et dans les Pays Bos, (1885), p.177.Google Scholar

107. Henry, Howard, Indication of Memorials … of the Howard Family, 1834, pp.70 Google Scholar et seq.

108. My authority is a note on “Chaplains to the Fairfax Family” in an unpublished study of that family by Fr. Hugh Aveling O.S.B. Fr. Aveling's article will appear in a future number of Biographical Studies.

109. Presented to Ushaw in 1949 by Rev. W. Vincent Smith, then parish priest at Tow Law, Co. Durham.

110. Noted in pencil on the title-slip at the British Museum.

111. Scriptores, 1650, Appendix.

112. Franciscans in England, p.278.

113. CRS. xxiv, pp.271-2.

114. Howard, Indication of Memorials, etc., pp. 70 et seq.

115. The author of Indication of Memorials … of the Howard Family says that he became a monk of the Order of Saint Benedict; but this is certainly an error. Neither Birt (Obit Book of the English Benedictines, 1913) nor the Documents relating to the English Benedictines (CRS. xxxiii) contain any mention of a Robert Howard at this period.

116. Ornsby, Selections from the Household Books of the Lord William Howard of Naworth Castle, 1878, p.363.