FITZHERBERT, Thomas

by Thomas Fitzherbert

£3,750 · Offered by Sokol Books

Extremely rare first edition of this important controversial work by the English Jesuit Thomas Fitzherbert, printed at the Jesuit College at St. Omer. Fitzherbert was the heir of a distinguished recusant family, the grandson of the noted jurist Sir Anthony Fitzherbert and a zealous defender of English Catholicism. In 1572, aged 20, he was imprisoned for recusancy and on release became acquainted with Parsons and Campion. In 1588 on the death of his wife, he removed to Spain and was active in the affairs of Catholic exiles and at one point charged with conspiracy to poison Queen Elizabeth. He was in fact closely watched by Elizabeth s spies and his name recurs in the state papers of the period. In 1601 he was ordained priest, acted for twelve years as the agent in Rome of the English clergy and in 1613 joined the Society of Jesus. He was successively superior of the English mission at Brussels and rector of the English college at Rome, remaining en poste almost until his death in 1640, at the remarkable age of 88, an object of admiration and esteem, not only of Catholics, but even for those who differed from him in religion Gillow II p. 285. In 1613, the Jesuit, Thomas Fitzherbert published one of a series of works attacking Andrewe s response to Bellarmine. Just as the earlier debate between Cranmer and Gardiner hinged in part on their reading of Origen, here too the reading of an Eastern Church Father was contested in this case, John Chrysostom. Bellarmine had claimed that C

• Binding: Hardcover

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