Autobiography of a Hunted Priest by John Gerard

Author:John Gerard [Gerard, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Spiritual & Religion
ISBN: 9781586174507
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Published: 2012-07-20T05:00:00+00:00

19. JOHN THE PRIEST

July 1599

This lady had many servants in her house when I came to live with her. A number were non-Catholics; others were Catholics of a sort, but all enjoyed too much liberty. Gradually I got rid of the abuses. By talking privately with them and by my sermons in public I brought them slowly, with the help of God’s grace, to better ways. Some I instructed and received into the Church, but there were a few I had to get dismissed, since there seemed no hope of their reform. Among them was the man who had formed the center of opposition to the previous chaplain, but there was another also who responded very slowly to correction.

This man happened to be up in London with us. It may have been only thoughtlessness or careless talk—possibly it was just impatience at the stricter discipline that now ruled—anyhow, he informed a treacherous friend of his that I had recently come to live at his lady’s house and had made a number of changes there; and he added that I was now in London, and mentioned the house where I was staying. (This was the half-house I had rented.) He said that he had gone there with his lady, and that, while I had been in town with her on business connected with her son, the master and mistress of my house had frequently been round to visit her.

My hostess had left London taking this servant with her. But he had done the damage. The Council got to hear that I was residing at this lady’s mansion, and that I was now in town in such and such a house. Straightway they instructed two Justices of the Peace to search the place.

I had no inkling of any danger, and had stayed in London on business, and was giving a retreat in the house to three gentlemen. One was Mr. Roger Lee, who is now bursar at the English school at Saint Omers. He was a gentleman of good family and a very fine character, and his charming manners made him a favorite with everyone, particularly with the gentry. He was always with them, hunting, hawking, and the rest. Everything he did, he did well, and he was a Catholic too; in fact he was such a good man that he was thinking of withdrawing from the world to follow Christ more closely When I was in the Clink, he came to visit me frequently, and it was easy to see that he was called to higher things than catching birds—that he was called in fact to be a catcher of men, not beasts. I had, therefore, fixed a date to give this good friend of mine a retreat, for I wanted him to discover by means of the Exercises the straight road that leads to life, with Him for guide who is Himself the Way and the Life.

After finishing my business in town, I had given out that I had returned to the country.

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