drew attention to the advantages Douai offered for a foundation. Already D. John Roberts, as we learn from his examination before the bishop of London, on leaving Spain had spent some time at Paris and then at St. Omers, in the immediate neighbourhood of Douai; and it is only some important business of this kind, from what we know of the man's ardent character and zeal, that could have kept him from dom and state." Had James accepted the offer, how different would have been the religious history of England? When turned out of his deanery on account of his defending the benedictines in the attempt to drive them out of Douai, he retired to Rheims, where, as will be seen, he was able to continue his good offices. He was made rector of the university, and there perhaps found his vocation. He helped largely in founding the monastery at Dieuleward, and giving up all his honours in his fifty-third year, he took the habit of St. Benedict in the abbey of Rheims on July 11, 1608. In the following spring Dr. Gifford (now known as D. Gabriel of St. Mary) was sent to that house, where he had for his novice Master D. Nicholas Fitzjames, the first received at Douai. Here he was professed, July 11, 1609, and gave furniture and many books to the monastery. Under circumstances to be mentioned in the text, in 1611 he stayed at St. Malo on his way to Spain, and there founded another monastery for the Spanish monks at the request of the bishop, who was much struck by his religious behaviour. He was frequently called to Paris, and was famous as an eloquent preacher. The part he took in the affairs of the Union, and the high mark of esteem his brethren paid him, by electing him the first president, will be told in the text. He became bishop of Archidalia, and coadjutor to the cardinal, and in 1622 succeeded as archbishop of Rheims, and thus became duke and first peer of France and legate of the holy see. In the midst of his splendour as archbishop he retained all his customs as a simple monk. He wore the habit, kept the fasts, and rose at the usual hour. He was a model pastor, and of unbounded charity; he was instant in visiting his diocese and preaching and catechising in the villages, sometimes seven or eight times a day. He had seen St. Charles at work in Milan, and that was enough to give him an excellent idea of the pastoral office. The archbishop died in 1629, leaving a memory rich in virtue.

Very soon.

entering at once upon the mission field. after his arrival in England, early in 1603, he was apprehended as a priest and confined in prison; but with many other priests he was, on the accession of James I., released and banished the kingdom. He then left London, May 13, 1603, in company with Fr. Weston, S.J., of Wisbeach fame. While the latter went to St. Omers, the benedictine' on May 24 paid a passing visit to the secular college at Douai, and thence went to the abbey of Marchienne, with the intention of proceeding on to Antwerp and Brussels before returning to England. But evidently his visit to Douai and to Marchienne changed his plans, for, instead of returning at once to mission work, we find him posting off to Spain. Douai, he saw, was the spot for the foundation; and most likely the good monks of Marchienne had given him encouragement. And being a man of action, he lost no time in consulting the general of the Spanish congregation. This was in the early summer of 1603.

As far as we can trace his movements, he seems to have returned from Spain directly to England; at least in the autumn he was devotedly attending the sick during the plague which raged in London until late that year. The winter (1603-4) was spent in mission work; and he was probably making the

1 "Eodem die (Mai 24) transit per nos D. Joannes Roberts, ordinis Sancti Benedicti, ex Anglia relegatus. Hinc vero ad monasterium Marchianense, inde Antwerpian et Bruxellas perrecturus postea in Angliam reversurus" (Third Douai Diary MS.).

converts, and, in view of the new foundation, sending over to Spain the postulants Owen refers to in the passage above. Now also would he be maturing the plans for Douai. There is no record, at present, of any other visit of his to the continent during the winter.

1

But an occasion did arise a few months later of which he availed himself. In the spring of 1604 he set out for Spain, to attend the general chapter. This was very likely the result of his recent visit to the general. As he was embarking, he was arrested under suspicion and put into prison. But not for long. D. Roberts had powerful friends who frequently interested themselves on his behalf, and on more than one occasion obtained his liberty. So it was on this occasion; for by the first week in April he was journeying to Spain. He would certainly pass by Douai, for he stopped on his way at Paris, where he had an interview with the nuncio Bufalo. But what was decided at chapter we do not know, neither what his immediate movements But to this period may be attributed this

were.

portion of Owen's narrative :

"Being thus applauded and extolled by the Spaniards and his own countrymen, he procured divers letters from the general, provincials, and

1 This seems to imply that D. Roberts held some position of authority among the English monk-missioners. Owen speaks of him (p. 89) as having the title of "Provincial"; a title, however, as far as the name is concerned, of later date.

others the chiefest of the Spanish abbats of the Low Countries, for the maintenance of a congregation of English monks in the university of Douai; signifying unto them what they had done and still did for them in Spain, and what a meritorious deed it was to help their own spiritual brethren in so good a work as was the conversion of a whole kingdom from heresy to their holy mother, the church of Rome, and that the English monks (yea, all English catholics) would not be unthankful unto them or their successor for their charity.

"Father Roberts (having received these and many other letters to that purpose, together with a good viaticum to defray his charges) took his leave of Spain; and with all speed came (together with another English monk whose name was Father White, alias Augustine,1) into Flanders; where he solicited his business so well, that all the abbats in the Low Countries were content to contribute to such a good work. For some of them promised to give him corn and others money-whereupon he immediately hired a convenient house near St. James' Church in Douai, and accommodated a lower room for a chapel to say mass, and gathered ten or twelve other English monks unto him, whereof he was the prior."2

But Lewis Owen goes on too fast. The foundation at Douai meant men; and the mission could not at

1 "White" was the alias of D. Augustine Bradshaw.

2 Ibid. p. 90.

once spare them. Therefore D. Roberts returned to England and continued his work in London, and lived “in one master Knight's house in Holborn over against Chancery Lane." He may, of course, have returned by Douai and presented his letters to the abbats and have secured the "convenient house" at the same time. But it is certain that the foundation was not then made.

D. Augustine Bradshaw had come back from the chapter of 1604 as the general's vicar over the Spanish fathers on the English mission. He therefore had to have a word in the matter and to fix a date. Now there were other cares occupying him just then, and he was full of work which had fallen to him. Besides the ordinary mission work there was the duty of looking after an increasing number of subjects. Perhaps, also, he did not enter very heartily into the plan of the Douai house, which seems all along to have been due to the initiative of D. Roberts. Whatever the cause, the vicar took no immediate steps; and when soon after he relinquished active missionary work in England, it was for quite another purpose than that which D. Roberts had conceived. In the September of 1605 Lord Arundel of Wardour, who had been appointed colonel of the English regiment in the service of the archduke Albert, "brought Father Augustine Bradshaw out of England with him to be chaplain major of that regiment," a position which one of the 1 Ibid. p. 89.