The lively interest which Englishmen took in the events and controversies which culminated in the assassination of Henry III of France in 1589, and the succession of Henry of Navarre to the throne, is mirrored in the stream of pamphlets issuing from the London printing-presses and relating to French affairs. At a rough count, at least a score of books and pamphlets relating to France still survive which appeared in London in that year 1589 alone. Several of these were translated from French by the busy publicist and publisher Edward Aggas. One undated translation which came from his pen was that of a celebrated treatise written under the initials E.D.L.I.C. (standing for Edmond de L'Allouette, Iuris-consulte) who is frequently identified with Pierre de Belloy. The French original which first appeared in 15893 is entitled: Apologie catholique contre les libelles … publiées par les Liguez … dépuis le decés de feu Monseigneur, frére unique du Roy.

From the time of its first appearance in 1582 until the present day there has been confusion as to the sources of Robert Persons’s Christian Directory. Gaspar Loarte and Luis de Granada have each been represented as the principal source used by Persons who has come to be regarded as little more than a translator or editor. In the case of Loarte, Persons himself was indirectly responsible for the confusion. A study of the Christian Directory and its contents, however, reveals that Persons did not borrow from Loarte at all and that if he borrowed from Granada it was only in a very minor way.

The papers of Sir John Bankes (1589-1644)1, which were deposited in the Bodleian Library in 1950, and have since been purchased by the Library, consist largely of documents written in Bankes’s own hand. They extend chronologically from 1626 through 1644, but are mostly concerned with events from 1634 to 1640 when Bankes served as Attorney General.