Much light has recently been thrown upon that eddy in the current of religious thought which is sometimes called the Counter-Reformation, and which was so prominent during the middle and later years of the reign of Elizabeth. The work of Dr. Jessopp, at once learned and deeply interesting, gives, under the title of “One generation of a Norfolk House,” a quantity of general historic information, beyond the details concerning the Walpole family. It is to this work, and to the seven bulky volumes of Mr. Foley, which deal with the lives of the earlier English Jesuits, that I was mainly indebted for my first reference to many of the names which follow. The facts however are largely drawn from our College records or from unpublished MS. authority, and ought therefore to have a certain value of their own. What is attempted in the following pages is nothing but a “large scale map” of a very small portion of the province of general English History. They are intended to illustrate the Roman Catholic revival solely as this is displayed in a single College during a few years of Queen Elizabeth's reign.

In order to understand the significance of the details which follow, attention must be directed first to a few of the national landmarks of the age and reign. Queen Elizabeth came to the throne November 17th, 1558, and the Romish ritual almost immediately became illegal in England.